No 6, 2014 I $5
Billy Mills Olympic triumph fuels long battle for native people
I L.A. ARTIST KIEL JOHNSON
I KU EXAMINES PROGRAMS FOR PREVENTING, INVESTIGATING SEXUAL ASSAULT
Contents | November 2014
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36 18
18 28 36 The Man With Wings on A Time for Change Artist for the People His Feet e University community Kiel Johnson cra s a unique Fi y years ago Billy Mills searches for lasting improve- blend of mixed-media art realized his dream when he ments a er allegations from a that’s as restless, energetic and won Olympic gold; he’s spent 2013 sexual assault case cause wholly original as the L.A. the decades since trying to anger across campus. artist himself. help his Lakota people realize theirs. By Jennifer Jackson Sanner and By Steven Biller Chris Lazzarino By Steven Hill
Cover photograph by Associated Press
Established in 1902 as e Graduate Magazine Volume 112, No. 6, 2014 ISSUE 6, 2014 | 1 © 2014 by Kansas Alumni magazine Lift the Chorus read it cover to cover, as I did management. e wrapper on today. ough I graduated 21 Kansas Alumni is lightweight, years ago, there always seems easily lost through winds and Kansas City, Missouri, Central to be a reference to something mismanagement. Taking my Library. I experienced on the Hill, or a copy from its wrapper o en We were scheduled to friend I had lost touch with is results in smaller pieces that discuss Laura Moriarty’s e featured in Class Notes. can be lost, though I take care Chaperone. Our wonderful Kudos to your sta for giving to put them in my recycle bin. facilitator, Jill Schmidt, always us another reason to boast that Recycling capabilities also vary shares related items, so when I we bleed crimson and blue! greatly, and there is truly a very found issue No. 5 in my Sarah Shear O’Sullivan, c’93 slight chance that this bag mailbox, I was glad to see Oakland, California actually gets recycled in the Chris Lazzarino’s story about greater Los Angeles area where the KU Common Book [“A I Kansas I live, even though it goes to novel KU journey,” Rock Chalk Alumni for its overview of the recycle center. Showcase the face Review], which I shared with campus developments and I ask the sta of your great the group. Other members distinguished graduates and magazine to look into eliminat- W were excited to nd out about faculty. ing the plastic mailing wrapper and passion Elsa Rhae has for the Common Book project. As a graduate in chemical on Kansas Alumni. Multiple her newfound hobby [“Face to e University nurtured my engineering, I learned from Dr. magazines sent without such Face,” issue No. 5], it was great love of reading and learning, Donald Green and Dr. Clark material arrive via the U.S. to see her alma mater support and I continue those activities Bricker. A er graduation, I Postal Service to my mailbox her alongside all the people with enthusiasm. worked in industry, supporting in quite acceptable condition. around the world she has Linda Kerby, n’71, c’87 increased use of appropriate ank you from a chemical reached. When I see her work I Leawood materials to improve the engineer who believes strongly am so amazed by her talent, delivery and preservation of in our industrial capability and even though she has been products manufactured and need for jobs and pro tability, talented her whole life with To bag or not to shipped all over the world. For but who would also very much anything she picks up. bag? decades I helped serve the like to see our planet and its Great article showcasing her petroleum and chemical inhabitants stay healthy and talent and abilities! T for the plastic industries, and was proud to free from plastic pollution. Maggie Daniels cover to protect the magazines be associated with them. William Francis, e’73 Los Angeles of alumni, like me, who live a More recently I have seen a Director & President Emeritus substantial distance from major pollution problem Algalita Marine Research and Education, Lawrence. I really appreciate caused by improperly managed Feathered friend Long Beach, California receiving a magazine that does plastic waste. In 2011 it was T “F F ” not appear to have already named by the United Nations article [issue No. 5] and been read multiple times (or to Environmental Programme as Editor’s Note: After increased especially the entire John have landed in the hands of a one of the two most signi cant complaints from readers about Gould Ornithological Collec- newly hatched Jayhawk!). environmentally damaging torn magazines, we reluctantly tion are fantastic. I am having a Special thanks to Debbi emerging problems worldwide. decided to package all issues in plastic to protect them from wonderful time going through Johanning for addressing my At rst I was skeptical, but I damage. Traditionally we have the online collection. I hope all multiple complaints about this got involved with a non-pro t mailed issue No. 6 in plastic to other readers are having the matter and for sending organization, Algalita Marine include the calendar and annual same great time with this replacement issues. She has Research and Education. report. Our printer, Allen Press of website. truly gone “Far Above” to make Algalita focuses on ocean Lawrence, uses bags made of Ben Shaw, b’63 me a happy and satis ed pollution by plastic: marine life low-density, grade-four recyclable Seattle member. is entangled, ingests, and is plastic. In 2013 the company Like many others in the susceptible to invasive species recycled 3.5 tons of plastic. Book club bonus Association, I am a proud caused by plastic pollution. Jayhawk, and I love this Although much plastic is Your opinion counts: Please magazine! I am so excited recyclable, I see far too much T email us a note at kualumni@ our monthly book club, when it arrives, and if possible, plastic intended for recycling kualumni.org to tell us what you Women Who Dare, at the I sit down immediately and lost through poor waste think of your alumni magazine.
2 | KANSAS ALUMNI STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION (Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685)
1. Publication Title KANSAS ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2. Publication No. 0745-3345 3. Filling Date September 22, 2014 4. Issue Frequency Bimonthly (Jan., Mar., May, July, Sept., Nov.) 5. No. Issues Published Annually 6 6. Annual Subscription Price $55 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known O ce of Publication The Kansas University Alumni Association, 1266 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-3169 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business O ce of Publisher 72 The Kansas University Alumni Association, 1266 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-3169 ©JOSEPH R. TOMELLERI 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor Publisher Kevin J. Corbett The Kansas University Alumni Association, 1266 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-3169 2 Lift the Chorus Editor Letters from our readers Jennifer Jackson Sanner The Kansas University Alumni Association, 1266 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-3169 10. Owner 5 First Word The Kansas University Alumni Association, 1266 Oread Avenue, e editor’s turn Lawrence, KS 66045-3169 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities. 6 On the Boulevard ❑✔ If none, check box. None KU & Alumni Association events 12. Tax Status. The Purpose, function, and nonprofi t status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes: ❑✔ Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months ❑ Has Changed During Preceding 12 Months 8 Jayhawk Walk 13. Publication Title KANSAS ALUMNI MAGAZINE Barbecue rebrand, Royal pooch, derailed record 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below September 2014 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation and more Average Actual No. No. Copies Copies of Each Issue Single During Issue Pub. 10 Hilltopics Preceding Nearest to News and notes: Marvin Hall addition opens; 12 Months Filing Date a. Total Number of Copies Snyder Book Contest winner takes national prize. (Net Press Run) 34,200 34,250 b. Paid Circulation (1) Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS 14 Sports Form 3541 32,765 33,333 Self steers a young but talented hoops squad; (2) Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Bowen takes the football helm. Form 3541 0 0 (3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales Through Dealers & Carriers, Street Vendors 42 Association News Counter Sales, & Other Paid Chapter volunteers win Wintermote honors; Distribution Outside USPS 0 0 (4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes Roundup and Homecoming head fall celebrations. of Mail Through the USPS 0 0 c. Total Paid Distribution 32,765 33,333 d. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution 50 Class Notes (1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541 0 0 Pro les of a veterans advocate, a native leader, (2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Included on PS Form 3541 0 0 a quilt artist and more (3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Clases Through the USPS 50 50 (4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail 250 250 68 In Memory e. Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution 300 300 Deaths in the KU family f. Total Distribution 33,065 33,633 g. Copies not Distributed 1,135 617 h. Total 34,200 34,250 72 Rock Chalk Review i. Percent Paid 98 97 Alumni create public library art; Kansas Fishes a 16. Publication of Statement of Ownership will be printed in the November 2014 issue of this publication. keeper from University Press of Kansas. 17. Signature and Title of Editor, Publisher, Business Manager, or Owner I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this 76 Glorious to View form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions (including fi nes and imprisonment and/or civil sanctions Scene on campus (including civil penalties).
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 3
by Jennifer Jackson Sanner First Word
Following a complaint arising from a reported October 2013
DAN STOREY DAN sexual assault, KU is one of more than 80 universities under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Oce for Civil Rights. Under Title IX, the 1972 federal law that mandates equal opportunities in education, universities must investigate reports of sexual assault to ensure that victims are not deprived of equal access to education because of fear or intimidation. Our feature story explains KU’s current policies and procedures and how the roles of the University and law enforce- ment di er. e story also describes the ongoing work of a campus task force, appointed by f Billy Mills had rested on his laurels, the 50th anniverary of his Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, to improve KU’s response and, Istunning Olympic victory might have gone unnoticed. But in ideally, bolster prevention programs. roughout this academic the years since he won the 1964 gold medal in the 10,000 meters, year, University leaders, students, faculty and sta will continue Mills, d’62, has continued his powerful, purposeful stride, working intense conversations and study, and task force co-chairs Alesha to improve the lives of his fellow Native Americans. Doan and Angela Murphy welcome messages from alumni. For our cover story, Associate Editor Steve Hill spent three days ey urge graduates to send their ideas or comments through with Mills, an Oglala Lakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reserva- the task force website, sataskforce.ku.edu, or by email to tion in South Dakota, his childhood home. Conversations with [email protected]. Mills; his wife, Patricia Harris Mills, ’62; the people of Pine Ridge; “Alumni are a valuable resource,” says Murphy, a doctoral a KU teammate and others reveal how Mills learned to stoke his student in English. “While they are no longer on campus, the inner strength and ultimately prevail over tragedy, hardship and spirit of their tradition is still here, and there is an intrinsic tie. ... prejudice. Long a er his athletic feats, the three-time KU All- e problem of sexual assault has been going on for a really long American and Olympic gold medalist remains a champion, time. Now we have a national conversation, and it directly a ects teaching younger generations to trust their own strength and where they came from. ... Now it’s personal.” chase their own dreams. Doan, chair of the department of women, gender and sexuality As Mills travels the nation, he speaks frankly about the harsh studies and associate professor of political science, says the conditions he faced, and he urges other Native Americans to talk vigilance of alumni can help maintain attention on critical openly about the bigotry, health concerns and economic woes that policies and procedures even a er the media spotlight on sexual still persist. He gently coaxes young people to tell others about assault begins to fade. “As long as people keep it alive and keep their challenges—the greater the details, the more compassion letting KU know that this continues to be important, we will see ows and healing begins. By facing the pain, he says, the commu- progress,” she says. “ at’s an incredible resource and an incred- nity can begin to take steps to prevent future su ering. ible contribution that alumni can make. We value our alumni.We e same philosophy holds true at the University, where this fall listen to them, and we engage them. ey are also part of the the issue of sexual violence took center stage a er a Sept. 2 story heart and soul of KU.” in the online Hungton Post singled out KU among the universi- If we confront the pain together, we can help prevent future ties nationwide struggling to investigate reports of sexual assault. su ering.
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 5 On the Boulevard SUSAN YOUNGER (6) YOUNGER SUSAN
Homecoming weekend might have ended with a thud—a 23-0 loss to Texas, followed by the firing of third-year football coach Charlie Weis—but it certainly started in festive style: the Sept. 26 parade through downtown Lawrence, with merry marshal Rob Riggle, c’93, (smiling for the obligatory camera-phone pics, opposite page) leading the fun.
Exhibitions Lied Center events 11 Collegium Musicum, Murphy Hall events Bales Organ Recital Hall “Conversation XIX: Phases: Multinational Works, 1900 NOVEMBER 12 Canadian Brass, NOVEMBER A Holiday Concert to Now,” Spencer Museum 20-21 University Dance 19 Undergraduate Honor of Art, through September Company, fall concerts 19 Ashley Davis, “Celtic Recital 2015 Songs for a Winter’s Eve” 24 KU Symphony Orchestra 21 KU Saxophone Quartets “Cabinet of Curiosities,” 25 23 Oboe Day concert in conjunction with KU KU Choirs: Chamber Common Book e Center Singers and Men’s Glee, University Theatre DECEMBER of Everything, Spencer Bales Organ Recital Hall Museum of Art, through NOVEMBER 8 Tuba/Euphonium Consort DECEMBER spring 2015 14-16, 21-23 “ e Big 9 Rock Chalk Singers 2 KU University Band Meal,” by Dan LeFranc, “World War I & e End of 10 KU Trombone Choir Empires,” Spencer Museum & Symphonic Band directed by Peter Zazzali, 13 of Art, through spring 2015 3 Mickayla Chapman and Stage Two! Community Music School “Forms of ought,” Katie McKeirnan, clarinet, DECEMBER Spencer Museum of Art, Student Recital Series through 2016 7 90th-annual Holiday 6-11 “ e Last Cyclist,” by Karel Svenk, directed by “ is Land,” Spencer Vespers Concert Rachel Blackburn and Gina Museum of Art, 9 Bales Chorale, Sandi-Diaz, Inge Memorial through 2016 Bales Organ Recital Hall eatre
To see more photos of KU’s Homecoming, visit www.kualumni.org/events/homecoming
6 | KANSAS ALUMNI Performances Ivan Vejvoda, senior vice 18 San Antonio and San 3 An Evening with Naismith: president, e German Francisco: KU-Kentucky Artifacts of a KU Legend, DECEMBER Marshall Fund of the United Champions Classic watch featuring coach Ted Owens, States, Dole Institute parties Atchison 1 KU Jazz Ensemble I with 4 Deborah Brown, vocals, “ e Great American 18 KU-Kentucky watch 4 An Evening with Nai- Kau man Center for the Wheat Harvest” screening party, Student Alumni smith: Artifacts of a KU Performing Arts, Kansas City and Q&A, lmmaker Association, Adams Alumni Legend, featuring coach Ted Conrad Weaver, Dole Center Owens, Leavenworth 6 Vespers-on-the-Road, Institute Johnson County Community 19 Houston: Networking 6 Kansas City: Vespers-on- 11-12 College Post-election confer- breakfast the-Road, Johnson County ence, Dole Institute Community College 10 Men’s Glee, Edwards 19 Wichita: e Science of Campus Beer and Biodiversity 7 Evolution of the Jayhawk, Richmond, Virginia 13 KU/MU Jazz Border Academic calendar 20 Denver: Networking Showdown, American Jazz breakfast 8 Evolution of the Jayhawk, Museum, Kansas City NOVEMBER 20 Kansas City: Rock & New York City 26-30 anksgiving break Brews membership happy 9 Evolution of the Jayhawk, hour Washington, D.C. Lectures DECEMBER 21 Denver: KU Night with 10 KU-Georgetown pregame the Nuggets party, Washington, D.C. NOVEMBER 12 Stop day 21 Portland: KU Night with 11 Kansas City: Engineering 19 “No Labels: Stop Fighting, 15-19 Finals week the Trailblazers reception Start Fixing,” political strategist Mark McKinnon, JANUARY 21 Philadelphia: KU Night 15 Student Alumni Associa- Dole Institute 20 First day of classes with the Sixers tion nals dinner, Adams Alumni Center 23 “On His Own Terms: A 21 Campus TGIF, Adams Life of Nelson Rockefeller,” Alumni Center 15-19 Student Alumni biographer Richard Norton Alumni events 27 Orlando Classic Pregame Association, Quiet Study Smith, Dole Institute party Space, Adams Alumni NOVEMBER Center DECEMBER 18 Champions Classic DECEMBER 17 Lawrence: Luncheon with coach Bonnie Henrickson 2 “East European Democracy pregame party, Indianapolis 2 Denver: Networking & Russian Re-emergence,” breakfast 19 Campus TGIF, Adams Alumni Center 22 KU-Temple pregame party, Philadelphia 2 Denver: Networking breakfast
JANUARY 7 KU-Baylor pregame party, Waco
Events listed here are highlights from the Association’s busy calendar. For complete listings of all events, watch for emails about programs in your area, visit kualumni.org or call 800-584-2957
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 7 Jayhawk Walk CHARLIE PODREBARAC New boulevard booth answers KU Info’s call
C M , director of KU Info, for years had his eye on renovating the beat-down old bus stop that for decades had squatted unused and unloved along- side the four-way stop on Jayhawk Boulevard. In 2009, Marsh, j’92, nally convinced campus planners to allow KU Info to have a go at refurbishing the structure, a gi of the Class of 1950, so KU Info could nally have a sta ed desk in the Kansas City name for years, as have heart of campus. Yet despite his team’s best e orts, the Same old Joe signs inside the three KC Metro loca- booth was not a very good t. “ e old tions. The change is being made, says irst things first: The barbecue, the structure was not approachable,” Marsh Fdelectable, prize-winning, smoked- the restaurant’s website, to “reflect the recalls. “It just wasn’t inviting. We had in-oak slabs of heaven that have made reality of our identity—we are a Kansas students walk up and ask, ‘What are you Oklahoma Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que City company. We have been for more doing in there? Is this installation art or renowned nationwide, isn’t changing. than seventeen years.” something?’” What is changing is the name. This Joe’s has long been destination dining No such confused inquiries are expected fall the barbecue artist formerly known for barbecue fans and Travel Channel at the sparkling new KU Info booth, which as Oklahoma Joe’s ocially becomes shows dedicated to local fare. Anthony Marsh calls “a contemporary version of a Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que. Bourdain named it “One of Thirteen classic campus structure, now hosting a contemporary version of a classic campus The transition has been under way Places to Eat Before You Die.” “It’s the service.” for quite a while at the meat-and-sauce best barbecue in Kansas City,” Bourdain e second phase of the boulevard’s says, “which makes it the best barbecue empire launched in the early 1990s reconstruction nally spelled the end for in the world.” by Je, j’84, and Joy Stehney. Retail the shaky shelter, but because the original bottles of sauce have carried the Joe’s Nu said. Pass the sauce. was a class gi and had for the past ve
Retired University Architect (3) STOREY DAN Warren Corman, e’50, representing his graduating class, cut the ceremonial ribbon held by KU Info student employees Elizabeth Romme and Bill Walberg as director Curtis Marsh cheered.
8 | KANSAS ALUMNI years been occupied by KU Info, funds were found to build a replacement, across STEVE PUPPE STEVE the sidewalk from busy tra c at the intersection, enhancing both safety and approachability. What had once been a telephone-only service (864-3506; thankfully, some things remain unchanged) now o ers walk-up desks in the Kansas Union, Anschutz Library and at the Jayhawk Boulevard location. And because KU Info no longer needs a dedicated room lled with encyclopedias, almanacs, calendars, timetables and Rolodexes of index cards with answers to frequently asked questions (which can be viewed at kuinfo.ku.edu), Anderson student sta ers at any of the three stations now can manage the entire service, the morning not at night, focus on proper Research. Making the Guinness Book of including telephone calls (which still nutrition rather than ca eine intake—and World Records would be an even greater account for 40 percent of all KU Info try again in spring. kick. queries), walk-ups (another 40 percent), “ e Not So Late Show” gig followed a “No disrespect to the Journal of Sex emails and text messages. job hosting KJHK radio’s “Kansas In Heat” Research, but this is way bigger,” Anderson Marsh encourages visiting alumni to call-in program, which came a er his says. “I grew up idolizing that book. It stop by the new booth and say hello. publication in e Journal of Sex would be a huge deal.” If you’re game, you might consider renewing a favorite pastime: Stump KU Info, anyone? Kansas City Royals and Oakland They call it puppy love Athletics. The Royals did, indeed, win, in an Record shot ttractive, smiling young woman, instant-classic extra-innings game that A PD in communica- Awearing a Royals cap, stands up in earned Kansas City’s long-humbled tion studies researching how couples in the Kauman Stadium crowd and holds baseball franchise its first postseason romantic relationships communicate their aloft a sign with a picture of an adorable run in 29 years, so the world wants to sexual fantasies, Mike Anderson gured corgi wearing the Royals’ iconic crown, know: Did Castan get her pup? making the Guinness Book of World all of which pretty much guarantees the Onofrio, who in early summer prom- Records by staying awake 66 hours to host TBS TV cameras would find her. ised Castan a puppy if she watched a TV show might be a cinch. But the words on the sign,“If we win, Royals’ games on TV with him and “People asked me, ‘What prepares you he’s buying me a puppy!”—with an could name 10 players by the end of the for this?’” says Anderson, g’06, PhD’12, arrow pointed to the man seated next season—and the Royals won a playo host of “ e Not So Late Show” on to her—launched Katie Castan, ’12, and game—made good. While planning a Lawrence Channel 6. “Six years of grad boyfriend Joe Onofrio, b’07, visit to adopt a pup from KC Pet Project, school. You’re sleep deprived to instant stardom during and you’re forced to read Onofrio and Castan got word of a local 100 pages of Derrida. If the wild Wild Card Game family that was looking for a home for you can do that and keep Sept. 30 between the their 4-year-old corgi, Lucy. your wits, you’ve got Lucy, now “Lucy Rally,” found her for- something going.” ever home with adoring owners, and in But Anderson’s summer bid to the process became a citywide mascot of set a record for the longest Royals mania and perhaps helped shift a marathon TV show got a harsh ballpark video-board tradition: wakeup call when he crashed PEARSON LEROY LARRY Out with the smooches; bring on the nearly 40 hours in. He plans to pooches! learn from his mistakes—start in
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 9 Hilltopics
The Forum, the new structure on the south side of Marvin Hall completed by students this fall,
CHARLES D. LINN (2) CHARLES D. expands the building’s classroom space and showcases the innovative design and construction techniques that Studio 804 has become known for.
“We did everything, from drilling piers for the foundation to roo ng to wiring, in temperatures from 10 degrees to over 100,” Versteeg says. “Once you realize the extent of our involvement in the design and construction, it is easy to see that the experience this class has given us is invaluable.” Visitors coming into Marvin from Jayhawk Boulevard get their rst glimpse of the new commons through a plaster Open Forum arch that framed an elevator removed decades ago. Gaunt calls the new space Student-built addition to Marvin Hall gives architects “the school’s living room.” much-needed room to learn From there they enter the 121-seat lecture hall and breakout space, built over rchitecture students may know the students enrolled in the architecture the spot where radio station KANU’s A shortcuts across campus better than program’s Studio 804 would construct it broadcast tower once stood. any other group. at’s because Marvin themselves. e north side of the auditorium is Hall has no auditorium, and for the past “It took a decade for the pieces to come Marvin’s exterior limestone wall, which is 100 years students have raced to get to together,” Gaunt says. still exposed. e space’s east, south and their lecture classes on time. But they did. In October students and west sides each form a “ventilated wall.” But architects tend to be optimists, and faculty began using the structure Gaunt Composed of two thick layers of insulated they like to dream large. And 10 years ago dubbed e Forum. Even the most glass separated by 3 1/2 feet, the walls have architect and School of Architecture, challenging part of his dream came true: It cedar louvers that turn automatically to Design & Planning Dean John Gaunt was designed and constructed by 18 block the sun and admit fresh air to committed a vision to paper. He drew up Studio 804 students under the direction of maintain the temperature while using an addition to Marvin that would contain Dan Rockhill, J.L. Constant Distinguished little energy. that badly needed place for lectures as well Professor of Architecture. He has led the “ e ventilated wall is extremely as a student commons. program for 20 years. innovative,” Rockhill says. “ ere are few “I wanted us to have something that “ is building was by far the most examples in the U.S. is permits the would transform the culture of the school, complex that we have ever done,” Rockhill building to be operated comfortably and bring students, faculty and the public says. “And the e ort the students put into without air conditioning or lighting together, to share ideas, to communicate the project was awe-inspiring. Building throughout the year.” and learn from each other—a place of e Forum has been a life-transforming Studio 804 is an innovative program in interaction,” he says. experience for all of them.” that graduate students work on a project He frequently shared his drawings with Architecture student David Versteeg, for a full academic year, designing a others, along with an audacious idea: that ’15, touted the bene ts of the experience. structure for which a site has already been
10 | KANSAS ALUMNI selected. Usually in October construction Milestones, money begins and continues until the project is National titles complete in the spring or early summer. and other matters Starting with very small projects, 804 Grad student’s book collection has built a portfolio that would make any takes campus and US prizes architecture or construction rm proud.
Students also built the Center for Design atya Soll’s love of theatre and books PUPPE STEVE Research and the Hill Engineering K goes way back, further back than she Research and Development Center on can even recall. KU’s West Campus. Along the way Studio “My parents started taking us to plays 804 has captured national attention, when I was very, very young,” says Soll, winning multiple design awards for its ’15. “I can’t remember a time before design-and-build projects. Robert Ivy, Shakespeare, we were introduced so early.” CEO of the American Institute of Archi- Her mother spoke French, her father n Honorary degrees will be awarded to tects, said recently, “Many schools of German and ancient Hebrew, and both civil rights attorney Jack Greenberg, architecture now o er public interest taught for a time until one became a nursing research leader Ada Sue design and hands-on building, but few can librarian. Hinshaw, n’61, and best-selling mystery boast a curriculum as professionally “I come from a book family,” Soll says, novelist Sara Paretsky, c’67, during 2015 accomplished as Studio 804 at the Univer- noting that birthday and Christmas o en Commencement. Greenberg will receive sity of Kansas.” meant a bookstore visit to pick out their a doctor of laws for the practice of law to “I truly believe that e Forum will own presents. “Languages and books and end discrimination and promote social become a destination for people from all theatre have always been a passion for me, justice, Hinshaw a doctor of science for over the U.S. and beyond,” says Gaunt, and I’m lucky it turned into a career path.” outstanding contributions to nursing who will step down in May a er 20 years is fall the St. Louis doctoral student in science, and Paretsky a doctor of letters as dean. “It is not only a testament to the Spanish won the National Collegiate Book for outstanding contributions to the dedication and ingenuity of KU’s students, Collecting Contest for a collection of mystery writing field and American but a real tribute to the faith that the Spanish-language plays that she gathered literature. University and the Board of Regents have while on a teaching and research trip to in our students. ey granted us special South America. n A $1.8 million grant from the National permission to do this project.” Organized by the Antiquarian Institutes of Health will allow research- “ is building opens doors to new Booksellers’ Association of America, the ers at KU Medical Center and Children’s possibilities for the students, for the contest includes a $2,500 prize for Soll Mercy Hospital to develop a program to school, for research,” Versteeg says. “What and a $1,000 award for KU Libraries. help families of children with type 1 these are, we don’t know yet, but I have a She entered a er winning KU’s Snyder diabetes maintain the kids’ treatment feeling that many interesting things will Book Collecting Contest, in the regimen. Led by Susana Patton, associ- come because of it.” graduate division, this spring. Soll ate professor of pediatrics, the project —Charles Linn, former deputy editor at received her prize during an October will develop methods to aid families in Architecture Record magazine, is director of ceremony at the Library of Congress in keeping up with daily tasks (such as communications for the School of Washington, D.C. monitoring blood sugar and taking Architecture, Design and Planning. “Dictatorship, Memory and Innovation: insulin) that are medically eective but Contemporary eatre of the Southern dicult to maintain. Cone” comprises 50 plays from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Many of the works n Chancellors Club Awards for teaching were local productions not readily and research went to James Orr and available in the United States. Some are Russell Swerdlow. Orr, professor of hard to nd even in South America. molecular biosciences, won the 2014 Teaching in KU’s Study Abroad program Chancellors Club Career Teaching in Buenos Aries, Argentina, for six weeks, Award. Swerdlow, director of the Soll gave herself an additional six weeks Alzheimer’s Disease Center and the for travel in Chile and Uruguay to gather Neurodegenerative Disease Program at material for her dissertation, which KU Medical Center, won the 2014 focuses on the theatre of the region. Chancellors Club Research Award. “ eatre is such a live medium,” she ? says. “If you want to understand what’s
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 11 Hilltopics
haven’t been able to talk about,” Soll says, “so it was really perfect for me and my
STEVE PUPPE STEVE research that it worked out that way.” PhD student Katya Soll In an age when Internet search engines gathered much of her and online auction sites have transformed prizewinning collection collecting into a massive data trawl, Soll is traveling South America, happy to report that there’s still a role for where she taught for KU’s serendipity: her collecting focused on Study Abroad program. “I bookstores and cultural centers attached to definitely allowed extra the local theatres where she saw more than room in my suitcases,” 60 plays during her 12-week trip. Soll says, “because I “One of my favorite bookstores had an knew I’d be bringing back entire shelf dedicated to Uruguayan lots of books.” theatre, which is incredibly rare,” Soll says. “ ere was a cafe in the bookstore, and I’d take half the shelf and sit down and look going on in the country and the theatrical ward, as memory and as a tool for through them. It’s a really good way to nd community, you have to go there and justice and healing. new plays, and a lot of the plays I bought experience it.” Her trip to Chile coincided with the were by authors I’d never heard of before I Soll’s collection—and her doctoral 40th anniversary of the coup that brought went.” research—focuses on how theatre in the Augusto Pinochet to power during the “ e problem with eBay,” Soll says, “is Southern Cone countries responds to 1970s and ’80s. you have to already know what you’re dictatorship and repression, both “A lot of theatres had decided to put on looking for.” during the traumatic period and a er- plays that deal with things people still —Steven Hill
VISITOR
MODEL ARTIST miniature dioramas that she
photographs in her Brooklyn, PUPPE STEVE Photographer and 2014 New York, apartment. Major Guggenheim fellow Lori Nix corporate and museum collec- discussed her creative process tions hold her work, including during a Co ee in the the Smithsonian Museum of Commons event. American Art and KU’s Spencer Museum of Art. She recently WHEN: October 24 published her first book, The City, and in July a Nix photo- WHERE: The Commons in graph appeared on the cover of Spooner Hall Time magazine.
SPONSORS: The Hallmark ANECDOTE: The Norton Nix Corporate Foundation, KU native says Kansas weather “Accidentally Kansas” memo- family has always dealt with department of design and The has been a big influence on rably depicts natural disasters tragedy is humor. The first thing Commons her aesthetic, which is “inter- like tornadoes and blizzards in you do is crack a joke to lighten ested in depicting danger and a lighthearted tone. the load, so it comes natural. BACKGROUND: Nix disaster” but “tempered with Humor is like sugar: It gets constructs her subject matter, a touch of humor.” Her series QUOTES: “The way my people to look a little longer.”
12 | KANSAS ALUMNI Dole, which provides us wonderful Milestones, money opportunity to reach out to students in Kansas and beyond and encourage them and other matters to engage in the process of studying history—onsite or online.” e Robert J. Dole Archive and Special n A $600,000 grant from the National Collections at the Dole Institute of Politics Institute on Disability and Rehabilita- contains complete records of Dole’s tion Research will fund an eort by 36-year congressional career as well as his KU’s Research and Training Center on COURTESY KENNETH SPENCER RESEARCH LIBRARY KENNETH SPENCER RESEARCH COURTESY post-political career. It is one of the Independent Living to help community nation’s largest collections of the papers college students with disabilities and artifacts of a politician. request Americans with Disabilities Act accommodations from their schools. CAMPUS Glen White, g’88, PhD’92, and Jean Ann Summers, c’83, PhD’88, will lead Proposed 500-student dorm the Access to Success Project, which Bob Dole, 1944 heads capital improvement plan focuses on students with sensory, physical and learning disabilities who RESEARCH A to renovate are first-time enrollees at four Kansas existing campus buildings and construct community colleges. Dole Institute readies archives new ones was approved this fall by the for National History Day legislative committee that has oversight of n The freshman class grew for the all such projects on property owned by third consecutive year, with 4,084 N featuring a trove the state. freshmen enrolled this fall, a 2.1 percent of primary and secondary historical e projects—targeted for Fiscal increase from last year. The class is also documents from the Robert J. Dole 2016—include $19 million in deferred the most diverse in KU history: 23.6 Institute of Politics’ expansive archives are maintenance and a proposal to build a percent are minority students, and now available to elementary and second- new $52 million residence hall and nearly 2,500 are international students, ary students participating in National dining center. also a record. Overall enrollment grew History Day 2015. To be built near 19th Street and to 27,983. National History Day is an academic Naismith Drive, the hall would be joined program that allows students to choose to Oliver Hall by a new dining center. n KJHK 90.7 FM, the student-run radio historical topics related to a theme and Oliver’s existing dining center will be station, won top honors for Best Special conduct extensive research through remodeled to serve as an academic Broadcast for the comedy radio play libraries, archives, museums, oral history services area for both halls. “USS Carpathia Holiday Special,” which interviews and historic sites. Students use e building is needed to accommodate was part of a weekly comedy series their research to put together papers, enrollment growth and to diversify developed by former KJHK news exhibits, websites, performances or options for on-campus housing, says director Scott Ross, g’14. The award documentaries that are entered in local, Diana Robertson, director of student was presented by College Broadcasters, state and national competitions. housing, who cited three straight years of Inc., as part of the National Collegiate e new modules, which include increases in the freshman class and an Media Production Awards. biographical materials related to former increase in overall enrollment. “When we Senators Dole, ’45, and Nancy Kassebaum, also consider this year’s record class of n Replant Mount Oread added nine c’54, and former president George H.W. international students and KU’s plans to new trees to the lawn between Marvin Bush, augments existing modules on civil continue growing international enroll- and Lindley halls during a Trick or Trees rights, the Americans with Disabilities ment, it is evident a new housing facility is fall planting event in October. Bartlett Act, Social Security, school lunches, the needed,” Robertson says. Pear trees were added the site, which Vietnam War and World War II. e Joint Committee on State Building includes a small grove of pear trees that “ e Dole Archives eagerly supports and Construction endorsed the capital were part of the class gift of the Class teaching and learning for the K-12 plan, which would be funded by a mix of of 1949. Replant Mount Oread raises community,” says senior archivist Audrey private giving and revenue bonds. e money and involves the campus Coleman, c’01, g’05. “ is year’s History Kansas Board of Regents also approved community in planting eorts to Day theme, Leadership and Legacy, has the new residence hall, which is projected replace the more than 70 trees lost clear connections to the career of Sen. to be completed by July 2017. every year on campus.
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 13 Sports by Chris Lazzarino STEVE PUPPE (4) STEVE
Oubre
Alexander
Great unknowns lineup. Freshman Devonte’ Graham, from North Carolina via Brewster Academy in Self says freshmen ‘really good,’ New Hampshire, who signed shortly a er the departure last spring of junior point awaits results for final grades guard Naadir arpe, will get plenty of time at one of the small-guard positions. e recruited every last one of them. Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk—henceforth and HHe’s seen their high school game herea er, “Svi”—a 6-8 sharpshooter from Mykhailiuk lm, he knows their boyhood coaches, Cherkasy, Ukraine, who is just 17, has Self parents, siblings. (Well, except for that kid and fans alike wondering if he might prove from Ukraine, maybe.) He’s monitored to be that next mysterious, ice-veined their progress in preseason conditioning, scorer who gives Americans lessons in he’s been there for every second of every how to play their own game. Hunter practice, he’s pored over progress and Mickelson, a junior transfer from Arkan- potential with his assistants. And yet, truth sas who had to sit out last year, is a 6-10 be told, coach Bill Self doesn’t really know shot blocker who has already dazzled with a whole lot more about much of this year’s a few smooth moves, including a jump men’s basketball team than you do. hook from the lane that bounced in o the Not for a cold, hard certainty, anyway. glass in the rst exhibition game. With freshman starters Andrew Wiggins What to make of all this? Who knows. and Joel Embiid taken rst and third in We don’t. Self doesn’t. Keep in mind that last summer’s NBA dra and just two Embiid, who blossomed into the No. 3 Graham starters returning from a team that won overall NBA dra pick, didn’t even start KU’s 10th-consecutive Big 12 title yet until the ninth game, and even then only e unexpected departure of sopho- bowed out in its second NCAA Tourna- earned the opportunity because of Tarik more shooting guard Conner Frankamp, ment game, Self has a few locks penciled Black’s relentless foul troubles. who le the program just days before the in for this year’s starting lineup: junior “I guess you can say you always think Nov. 3 exhibition opener against Wash- forward Perry Ellis and sophomore guards about it,” Self said at the outset of pre- burn, le Self with six guards scrambling Wayne Selden Jr. and Frank Mason III. season practice when asked whether he’d for playing time at both the point and in No doubt McDonald’s All-American started pondering a starting lineup. “What scoring slots around the perimeter. While recruits Cli Alexander, a 6-foot-8, I think will be best for our team won’t be the loss of Frankamp cost Self a seasoned 240-pound power forward from Chicago, who we start with to start the season, shooter, the 12th-year coach hopes that and silky-smooth New Orleans shooting because guys have to learn and get having Frankamp’s game minutes sud- guard Kelly Oubre Jr. will get a lot of comfortable. A lot depends on how quick denly up for grabs—anywhere between 10 minutes and likely crack the starting the young kids pick stu up.” and 23 a game, in Self’s estimation—might
14 | KANSAS ALUMNI give the remaining group incentive to step up their play. “I do think ... it’s the deepest team that we’ve had. “We don’t know about our team,” Self says. “We don’t know how Kelly is going to I just don’t think we’re top-heavy with the so-called come along. Devonte’. How Svi is going to nationally acclaimed players as we’ve had in the come along. ings like that. ere’s a lot of unknowns on the perimeter.” past.” —men’s basketball coach Bill Self While depth and young talent are good, {} Self also yearns for clarity, or “separation.” at’s when starters make themselves knows he can count on junior forward group that “could run practice the rst two known with their play in practice and Self Jamari Traylor; and he sees potential in or three weeks and we’d be better o . But feels con dent about the best combination newcomer Graham. this team is a ways away from that.” of starters and reserves. “He’s a great leader,” Self says of “I do think, at least that I can remember, “ ere hasn’t been that yet,” Self says of Graham, a 6-2 guard with a winning smile it’s the deepest team that we’ve had,” Self separation at the guard rotation. and easy personality. “He’s probably as says. “I just don’t think we’re top-heavy Another stacked nonconference popular as any student is on campus. I with the so-called nationally acclaimed schedule—last year’s was probably the mean, everybody knows him. Everybody players as we’ve had in the past. toughest in the country, and perhaps the likes him. He’s got potential to be a great “ is freshman class could be really, most challenging of Self’s tenure at leader, and he’s really a good basketball really good. I mean, really good. is class Kansas—means the young players will player. He’ll de nitely ght for starting may take some time, but I do think that it’s need to mature quickly: As of Kansas minutes, there’s no question about that, going to be a really good class.” Alumni press time, the Nov. 18 Kentucky and I mean from day one.” game in Indianapolis awaited, as do a Dec. More immediate concerns for Self 5 home game against Florida, a Dec. 10 include his hopes that team defense game at Georgetown, and matchups with improves—“I thought last year’s defensive Ice-bucket challenge Temple and UNLV before opening Big 12 team was so ”—and, with a lack of depth Hard season lightened by play Jan. 7 at Baylor. inside, that Alexander, Big 12 co-new- Self has given up trying to coax the comer of the year, can avoid foul trouble. celebration over Bowen’s first win ever-quiet Ellis, the team’s leading return- “I’m worried about Cli ,” Self says with ing scorer and rebounder and a consensus his sly grin, “because I think there’s a s he stood on the sidelines watching pick for the preseason All-Big 12 team, chance that he could Afans storm the Memorial Stadium into becoming more of a vocal leader, and surpass Je Graves in eld a er KU’s 34-14 victory Nov. 8 over will instead let the team’s best player do his the quickest ve Iowa State, Athletics Director Sheahon talking with performance. fouls in the history Zenger cradled a football destined to “I don’t think we’re going to change of KU basketball. become the most precious memento in Perry on who he is. I like who he is, and I Or Tarik. Tarik Clint Bowen’s long, dedicated career with think in the past I’ve done a poor job with averaged more some of the guys, getting them outside fouls than rebounds their comfort zone so much that they and points until forgot about playing,” Self says. “I’m not Christmas, and Cli has looking to have Perry be the vocal guy, that same potential to (2) JEFF JACOBSEN [the player who at] game point is telling do that. But when he everybody what to do. I want Perry to go gets it, he’s going to be score. at’s who he is. He’s a scorer.” really good.” at leaves an interesting mix of In an age of early talented young “alpha dogs,” in Self’s departures—a good estimation, to sort out who leads the pack. problem to have, because ough only a sophomore, Selden has it means Self continues declared his eagerness: “ is is my second to develop blue-chip year now and guys are looking to me for talent—si ing through decisions; guys are looking to me for unknowns is the new leadership and I think I’m doing a good norm. Self wistfully job lling that role.” Self also sees strong recalled his 2008 NCAA Ben Heeney (31) and Jimmay Mundine help Clint Bowen celebrate leadership emerging from Mason; he title team, a veteran victory No. 1.
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 15 Sports
Kansas football. Once inside the locker Bowen, d’96, a former player and longtime de ecting attention toward players, other room, Zenger, PhD’96, ipped the ball to KU assistant and current defensive coaches and even administrators. But if All-Big 12 linebacker Ben Heeney, who coordinator, took over as interim head Bowen felt awkward promoting his job knew exactly what to do with it. coach, and the ISU triumph was not just prospects, others had no such qualms. Holding the ball alo amid a pulsating KU’s rst Big 12 win of the season, but the “When we look at coach Bowen, we see scrum of jubilant Jahawks, the senior rst of Bowen’s career as the top Jayhawk. KU all over him,” said senior receiver Tony captain announced, “Game ball ...” It earned him the traditional trappings, Pierson. “Everybody plays their hardest for “Coach Bowen!” shouted sophomore including an ice-bucket bath on the that man.” linebacker Courtney Arnick. sidelines and the keepsake game ball, “He is a Kansas guy. He loves the A long, di cult season, including the along with well-wishes from his many fans University,” said junior quarterback ring of third-year coach Charlie Weis and admirers who fervently hope Bowen Michael Cummings, “I would love following the 23-0 Homecoming shutout lands the job permanently a er the season. nothing more than for him to be the guy by Texas, nally had its happy moment: “It was a true program win,” Bowen said, full time.” Coaching legends JEFF JACOBSEN ll four KU men’s basketball coaches since 1964—Ted Owens, Larry Brown, ARoy Williams and Bill Self—were on hand Oct. 27 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Allen Field House. With ticket proceeds benefitting charities designated by each coach, a sold-out audience of 7,500 soaked up touching memories and charming anecdotes shared by the coaching legends. “If you love basketball, if you love and respect the history of the game, every road leads back to Lawrence, Kansas,” said ESPN commentator and master of ceremonies Jay Bilas, a former Duke standout who shared stories of his recruitment by Owens. “This magnificent building cannot be captured in words. This building has a soul. It’s a cathedral of college basketball.”
and ranked No. 18 in the weekly awards announced Oct. a transfer from Colorado State, UPDATES country, and were awaiting their 20 following a road victory at was named Big 12 Newcomer of NCAA Tournament fate as West Virginia and a sweep of the Year. ... More than 60 men’s Kansas Alumni went to press. ... TCU. ... Junior Yupaporn golf alumni returned for former Senior forward Chelsea “Mook” Kawinpakorn shot 68 coach Ross Randall’s Oct. 5 Gardner, a preseason All-Big in the final round to take second induction in the Kansas Golf JEFF JACOBSEN 12 First Team selection, scored place at the Palmetto Hall of Fame. Randall coached 23 points with 10 rebounds in Intercollegiate Oct. 28 at men’s golf for 28 years, and women’s basketball’s 73-52 Kiawah Island, South Carolina. retired in 2009 after two years exhibition victory Nov. 2 It was her third round in the as director of golf operations. against Fort Hays State. ... 60s this season, and her “Ross has been everything to Salazar After a 3-0 sweep Nov. 5 third-consecutive runner-up me,” said PGA touring pro Gary Junior midfielder Liana against Baylor, KU volleyball led finish. ... Led by three individual- Woodland, c’07. ... With softball Salazar, the Big 12’s second- the Big 12 with 13.79 kills per race victories from junior in new digs at Rock Chalk Park, leading scorer with 11 regular- set. Freshman setter Ainise Chelsie Miller, swimming and its old field is now being used season goals, was a unanimous Havili was second in the diving beat TCU and North for the baseball team to pick for soccer’s All-Big 12 First conference in assist average Dakota in a double dual Nov. 1 practice on a grass infield. Team. She was joined on the (11.21 per game). Havili in Robinson Natatorium. ... Modifications to the softball elite conference squad by (rookie), sophomore middle Junior Jacob Morgan placed diamond were part of senior defender Caroline Van blocker Tayler Soucie (o¢ense) fifth at the Big 12 cross-country $250,000 in recent upgrades Slambrouck and junior forward and sophomore defensive championships Nov. 1 at Rim for Hoglund Ballpark, including Ashley Williams. The Jayhawks specialist/libero Cassie Wait Rock Farm, leading KU men to a new turf pitcher’s mounds for finished the regular reason 15-5 (defense) swept the Big 12 fifth-place team finish. Morgan, the bullpen and batting cage.
16 | KANSAS ALUMNI Sports Photographs by Steve Puppe
The usual assortment of skits, scrimmages and all-around good fun highlighted the 30th-annual Late Night in the Phog Oct. 10 in Allen Field House—and then the hard work began. KU’s women’s team has home nonconference games with Alabama, Temple, Georgetown and Cal; after a Nov. 18 game against Kentucky in Indianapolis, the men face Florida Dec. 5 at home before traveling to Georgetown Dec. 10 and Temple Dec. 22. JEFF JACOBSEN
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 17 The Man With Wings on His Feet
Fifty years after chasing his dream to Olympic gold, Billy Mills helps Indian youth find their own road to fulfillment
By Steven Hill Photograph by William Ing
18 | KANSAS ALUMNI The Man With Wings on His Feet
Fifty years after chasing his dream to Olympic gold, Billy Mills helps Indian youth find their own road to fulfillment
26-year-old Marine Corps lieutenant and three-time All-American climbed aboard a shuttle bus in the Olympic Village in Tokyo, Japan. He was a relative unknown at the games, a dark-horse distance runner whom most track-and- eld pundits gave zero chance of winning the Aday’s event, the 10,000-meter run. So when he sat down beside a young athlete from Poland, it was no surprise that she’d never heard of him. “She asked me what event I was in, and I told her,” he recalls. “And then she asks, ‘Who do you think will win?’” Fi y years later he can laugh—a deep, generous laugh that says, can you believe it?—but at the time the question unnerved him. “You don’t ask people that,” he says, grinning. As he sat in silence, the young woman pressed on, thrilled by the potential drama of the 6.2-mile race. Would it be Australian Ron Clarke, the world record holder, she wondered breathlessly, or Russian Pyotr Bolotnikov, the defending champion? “Now she’s giving me a choice,” he says, “a choice that doesn’t include me!” So he smiled his easy smile and said, very quietly, “I’m going to win.” Oh. “And who are you?” “Billy Mills.”
By Steven Hill Photograph by William Ing
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 19 unning on cinders beneath the School woke the students to share the joy. an eagle-feather headdress and his Indian R National Stadium lights later that Billy Mills, an Oglala Lakota who grew up name, Tamakoca Tekihila (Loves His rain-darkened a ernoon of Oct. 14, 1964, on the reservation, had won Olympic gold. Country). the young Marine came from third place Bryan Brewer, now president of the “We have more than 3,000 veterans on to blow past Clarke and Mohamed Oglala tribe, was then a high school junior the reservation, and we’ve all counted Gammoudi of Tunisia in the nal 30 and president of the student council. e coup,” says Brewer, a Vietnam vet, using meters; Dick Bank, color commentator on principal took him out of class the next the Plains Indian term for earning prestige the CBS race telecast, cut o play-by-play day and together they drove to Rushville, by demonstrating courage and cunning in man Bud Palmer, who seemed oblivious to Nebraska, to send a congratulatory battle. “But Billy Mills counted coup on the unfolding spectacle, and screamed telegram. “What made it special,” Brewer the world.” “Look at Mills! Look at Mills!” e runner recalls, “was that he’s one of our own. Billy felt the tape break across his chest and is our superstar.” i y years a er he became the rst thrust both hands high before dropping at November, Mills, d’62, received a FAmerican ever to win the Olympic them to cover his face, stunned that he’d hero’s welcome on his return to Kansas: 10,000 meters, Mills is still the only just pulled o what many still consider ousands cheered him at the KU- American with a gold medal in the one of the greatest Olympic upsets ever. Nebraska game in Memorial Stadium, distance race, the longest track and eld When a race ocial grabbed him and where he ran for Jayhawk track teams that event. at his feat stands untouched a er asked, “Who are you?” Mills felt a moment won back-to-back NCAA titles. Haskell half a century only adds to its mystique: of panic, fearing he’d miscounted. “Do I Institute, where he reigned as the Kansas e anniversary year has been a whirlwind still have a lap to go?” he asked. high school mile champion, also honored of commemorations, with powwows and “No, no,” came the response. “Finished. him. Co eyville, hometown of his wife, races across the country honoring Mills’ Olympic champion.” Patricia Harris Mills, ’62, put on a ticker run for the ages. In January, the NCAA Back on the Pine Ridge Indian Reserva- tape parade and banquet for its adopted awarded him its highest honor, the tion in South Dakota, the news arrived in son. But nowhere did pride in his unlikely eodore Roosevelt Award, and in 2013 the middle of the night. A solitary victory mean more or last longer than on Barack Obama bestowed on Mills the policeman on patrol red up lights and the hardscrabble South Dakota reservation Presidential Citizens Medal, the United siren and drove through the sleeping where he grew up. Tribal elders sang his States’ second-highest civilian honor. In streets; nuns at the Red Cloud Indian deeds and made him a warrior, giving him September, he skipped a Tokyo celebration for ’64 Olympians to travel from his home in Fair Oaks, California, back to the Pine Ridge, where his tribe honored him with a hometown powwow. e trip coincided with the 25th-annual Running Strong bus tour, which brings to the Pine Ridge and other West River reservations supporters of the nonpro t charitable foundation Mills helped create. Every year he comes to thank donors for supporting the water wells, organic gardens, school backpack programs, kidney dialysis centers and other initiatives Running Strong for American Indian Youth has undertaken for native people—and to remind them of the distance yet to cover. “I felt that moment was a gi ,” Mills says
COURTESY RUNNING STRONG FOR AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH WWW.INDIANYOUTH.ORG AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH FOR STRONG RUNNING COURTESY of his Olympic victory, “and in Lakota culture, if you have been given a gi , you are asked to give back.” e traditional “giveaway” calls for a powwow—a Mills shares his story with Native American children in his Running Strong travels, urging celebration of tribal culture that features them to avoid “the poverty of dreams” that helps fuel Indian Country suicide rates that are sacred songs, drum circles and traditional the highest in the nation. “At every critical turn in my life there was someone there with a dances in colorful regalia—and a year of word of encouragement,” Mills says. “So many little moments; so many people.” gi -giving to those who helped along the way. But Mills felt he’d been helped by
20 | KANSAS ALUMNI coaches, trainers and athletes worldwide, and he wanted a way to honor the Lakota culture that empowered his Olympic “My dad told me I had broken wings. Find your dream, he dream while broadening the reach of his giveaway beyond the reservation. He said, and some day you can have wings of an eagle.” agonized over it so long that Pat told him he was making it too complex. “You always talk about the people who inspired you,” she said. “Why not take the inspiration they gave you and pass it on to a younger generation?” “ is is really gross,” he warns the dozen at idea eventually led to the 1983 or so sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders movie “Running Brave,” starring Robby gathered around him. It’s a de move born Benson as Mills. One of the people the of many meetings with kids who don’t movie inspired was Gene Krizek, founder always know the friendly man with the of Christian Relief Services. Krizek needed bright smile and dancing copper-green help fundraising. Mills was looking to eyes is a hero. ey lean in. expand his giveaway to support Native “It wasn’t hard growing up on Pine American causes. Together they founded Ridge, but we had some major challenges,” Running Strong for American Indian Mills says. His home was dilapidated, he Youth. As the nonpro t organization’s tells them, but clean. “I didn’t have a spokesperson and guiding light, Mills mattress. I wanted a mattress to sleep on. since 1986 has helped raised $30 million So I went to the dump, found a mattress, for projects bene ting native people on the drug it home. I put a blanket on the Pine Ridge and across the country. mattress and went to bed—woke up One bene ciary is Loneman School with 87 bedbug bites. at was my rst (Isna Wica Owayawa, in the language of world record.” the Lakota), where Mills has come today e story doesn’t elicit any gasps from to talk with students. e principal, this audience. When Mills’ Olympic WILLIAM ING Charles Cuny, introduces him to a group triumph riveted national media attention of academically gi ed kids in the school’s on the Pine Ridge in 1964, unemployment despite gains in education: About 70 book- and light- lled library. approached 50 percent and average family percent of residents have attained a high “From my perspective as an Oglala income hovered around $1,200 to $1,500 school diploma and 12 percent have Lakota man raised on this reservation, one annually, less than half the national bachelor’s degrees. of my biggest memories of Billy Mills is poverty level. In 1960, the Kansas City Star e Lakota also face daunting health ‘Running Brave,’” Cuny tells them. “ at reported a er Mills’ victory, only ve of problems. Obesity, diabetes and heart movie really inspired my generation.” 235 homes in Pine Ridge village, the disease are epidemic on the Pine Ridge. Cuny, who holds three master’s degrees, reservation’s administrative center and the Amputation rates from diabetes are four recalls his grandmother’s stories of hearing place where Mills spent most of his times greater for Native Americans than the race on the radio and how much the childhood, had inside plumbing. A quarter the general U.S. population, and death victory meant to the Lakota people. e of reservation residents got their water rates run three times higher. Alcoholism is principal was once in their place, he from creeks and rivers, and a third of rampant; suicide is a plague among youth reminds students, listening as Mills visited families were on welfare. At the time, and adults alike. is summer Mills his school on the reservation to share an more than half of South Dakota’s Native returned to the reservation to attend the inspirational message of hard work, American children didn’t nish funeral of his nephew, David, a former perseverance and pride in Lakota culture. elementary school. FBI investigator who killed himself. Mills’ Olympic-record time of 28:24.4 Today, unemployment is 80 percent and Life expectancy for men here is 48, for was nine seconds o the world record, set per capita income $6,286; Shannon women 52. by Ron Clarke the previous December, County (one of three counties the Many of the issues these kids face are and a stunning 45 seconds better than his 3,600-square-mile reservation sits in) is the same Mills faced, and he addresses personal best. He would set a world record the second-poorest in the United States. them openly as the carefree sounds of in 1965, clocking 27:12 in the 6-mile run. Forty-nine percent of residents live below younger Loneman students lter in from But he notched his rst world record, he the poverty line; 13 percent of homes still the playground. His message is simple: No tells the kids, growing up on Pine Ridge. lack complete plumbing facilities. is matter how broken you feel, despite all the
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 21 WILLIAM ING
“When I was growing up the Sun Dance and the sweat lodge were outlawed, and much of our dancing and prayer had to go underground. That kept the culture, the tradition, the spirituality alive. We no longer have to dance in secret.” —Billy Mills
22 | KANSAS ALUMNI problems you encounter, you can still achieve great things by drawing on the cultural traditions of the Lakota. WILLIAM ING He o ers his own life as proof. “When I was 8 my mom died,” Mills tells them. “My dad told me I had broken wings. He said I had to look beyond the hurt, look beyond the hate, the jealousy and self pity, because all of these emotions destroy you. He said look beyond those emotions, way down deep where the dreams lie. Because it’s the pursuit of a dream that heals broken wings. Find that dream, and some day you can have wings of an eagle.” Inspirational speakers are not highly esteemed in our cynical, post-ironic age. But these kids don’t live in that world. ey live in a world where kindergartners are sent home with backpacks full of food on Friday, so they—and their families— can eat for the weekend. eir home is Mills and his wife, Pat (opposite page with Lakota tribal president Bryan Brewer), were rolling prairie that o ers breathtakingly guests of honor at the Billy Mills Honoring Powwow on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation beautiful vistas, but where winter comes in September. Members of the Lakota and many other Plains Indian tribes turned out in early and stays late and many of the traditional dance regalia to salute—and meet—the man Brewer calls “our superstar.” ramshackle ranch houses and rusting mobile homes lack proper insulation and heat. e 2.1-million-acre reservation is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island see something that’s so outstanding it’s most of the 170 students are descendants combined, but with only 80,000 acres unbelievable. en they get the idea it’s of Chief Big Foot’s band of Lakotas who suitable for agriculture and the nearest city believable for them.” were killed in 1890 by U.S. Army troops at of any size more than 100 miles away, His sister, Katsi Cook, serves on the the Wounded Knee Massacre, the nal economic opportunities are scarce and Running Strong board. She recounts confrontation in the war against the Great getting fresh food can be a Herculean task. eating lunch with Mills when a native Plains Indians. Takini has only enough Bimonthly food boxes distributed by woman came over to thank him for a talk money for a four-day week, and it’s one of Running Strong could serve three to four he’d given at her school years before. “She the schools where food is sent home with times as many people as they now reach— said, ‘You changed my whole life as a kids. Tour members were happy to see a “Numbers,” says local Running Strong sta teenager in high school, and I went on to youth center thriving in the small, isolated member Ken Lone Elk, “that will slam you get my education.’ community, but heartbroken to learn what up against a wall.” “Clearly he’d had a huge impact on her. happens when kids go o -res. For these kids, a huge challenge is Everywhere I go where Billy is at work “ eir coach says the basketball team believing they can rise above these with the knowledge and wisdom that he’s goes to tournaments,” Cook says, “and troubles and succeed when they see so accumulated over the years, the struggles their competition calls them prairie many around them who can’t. that he’s engaged, you hear that again and niggers.” It took some coaxing from “So many youth problems stem from again from our native youth—how his Mills—we need to hear the words—to get lack of support, encouragement and story has empowered them.” her to utter the shocking epithet. “We are modeling,” says Tom Cook, a Mohawk e “story” is more than just the big building them up in our community,” she tribal member from New York who came nish in Tokyo. says, “and then they get out into the world to the Pine Ridge on a visit three decades “It isn’t just that inspirational moment,” and they are called names that in polite ago and stayed. “From age 8 to young Katsi Cook says, “it’s the full picture of society would never be used.” adolescence, they need identity and what he’s done with his life since then.” Mills reveals he’s had that same o ensive purpose, things they cannot nd in Earlier in the week, the tour stopped at epithet hurled at him, has been spit at themselves.” is is where Mills’ example Takini School, on the Cheyenne River more than once. ese incidents happened has immense in uence, Cook says. “ ey Reservation. Takini means “survivor,” and not way back in the bad old days, but more
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 23 recently: blowback from his stand against Billy growing angrier and angrier as table Back on the res, they called him apple: the use of Native American mascots by a er table of white customers got their “Red on the outside, white on the inside,” college and pro sports teams. He’s among food while he and his father sat ignored. Mills explains. “ ey said, ‘You’re trying to the chorus of people calling for an end to When Mills was 12, Sidney Mills died. become white by going o to college.’” But the use of the term “redskin” by Washing- Billy was orphaned, but not alone. in Lawrence he was all Indian. “We could ton’s NFL team. “What I remember is the tremendous be on three streets,” Mills says of his time Words and deeds and an understanding amount of love I grew up in,” Mills says. at Haskell, “Massachusetts and one street that their struggles were his struggles His sister Margie quit school in eighth on either side of Mass. e few times I ran mean Mills’ story strikes a chord among grade and went to work to support her from Haskell to KU, there’d be a call to native people that’s similar to the way siblings. His brother Sid, 23 and fresh out Haskell, someone complaining I was out of Martin Luther King’s message resonated of the Navy, vowed the family would not my territory.” with African-Americans during the civil be separated. “ ey were heroes to me,” he e boundaries were clear at Haskell. rights struggle, according to Cook. says. “We stayed together, but we all had to KU was more confounding. “I felt more “It takes traveling the world and do our part.” For Mills that meant sweep- culture shock than in any of the more than knowing what it feels like to have been ing up at a local grocery store, hitchhiking 100 countries I’ve been to since,” Mills humiliated and shamed and being able to to Valentine, Nebraska, for a three-week says. “It was like entering a maze.” overcome that,” she says. “He’s doing summer job building grain elevators, He was daunted by the prosperity he exactly what he was put on this earth sleeping in a junked Hudson Hornet saw around him. Classmates were driving to do.” because no one would rent a hotel room nice cars; he’d slept in a junked car for to a Pine Ridge Indian. three weeks. Lacking money for a suit “Billy, when you won I cried, not because At 13 he went to Haskell Institute for required for track road trips, he bought a of what you achieved, because I’ve been high school, where he set state records, wash-and-wear knocko and was humili- there; I cried because I know where you had breaking the indoor mile mark set by ated when a teammate teased him. He was to begin.” Glenn Cunningham, d’34, and the prevented from pledging a fraternity, —Cli Cushman, d’61 2-mile cross country record. KU’s hall of which prompted his teammate Bob Covey, fame track coach Bill Easton o ered d’62, to resign as rush captain. rowing up on the Pine Ridge in the a scholarship. Freshman year, Covey took Mills home G1940s and ’50s, Mills at times found himself rejected by both whites and Lakotas. His parents, Grace and Sidney Mills, were both Native American, but Mills is o cially classied 7/16ths Lakota. Maybe it was this mixed-race status, which the Lakota call “iyeska,” or the fact that, even by high school, he was a scrawny kid. (His high school coach, Tony Co n, said that when he rst set eyes on the 5-2, 100 pound Mills at a Haskell track tryout, “He looked more like a baton than a runner.”) A er his father su ered a series of strokes that forced him to give up a job with the Bureau of Indian A airs, he and Billy would each grab a wheelbarrow and visit the tiny business district in Pine Ridge, where Sidney worked odd jobs in exchange for coal to heat the family home. Kids taunted Billy as he pushed his half-loaded barrow beside his father. “My dad said, ‘Just be quiet, don’t say anything, the greatest strength you have is silence. Take that period of silence to prepare a Prepared for departure: Mills attended his first international meet, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, his powerful response.”’ He repeated the junior year, a trip earned by his strong showing at the U.S. AAU championships. It was at the advice when they went into a restaurant in AAU meet that he contemplated suicide before recommitting himself to his Olympic dream. Hot Springs and sat for nearly an hour,
24 | KANSAS ALUMNI COURTESY SPENCER RESEARCH LIBRARY (2) LIBRARY SPENCER RESEARCH COURTESY
Mills finished fifth at the NCAA cross-country championships in East Lansing, Michigan, in November 1958, his first year as an All-American. He was later asked to step out of the photograph, the first of three times that happened in his collegiate career.
for anksgiving. “Later he said, ‘You brought on by a steep drop in blood sugar. “I want to be very clear about that.” Racial know, that’s the rst time I’d been invited O the track, Mills got no help from issues were dividing the country; the civil to a white man’s house,”’ Covey recalls. “At Easton addressing the social issues that rights movement was just beginning to the time I didn’t realize the shock he was troubled him. “He would say, ‘I’m a coach, gain traction. But even there, Mills felt a experiencing as a freshman.” Mills this is track, get those issues out of your man apart. Neither white nor black, he describes himself at the time as fragile. mind.’” One day a renowned athlete couldn’t see how he t into the equation. “He really was,” says Covey. “Here was a addressed the team. In the room were a He felt more isolated at KU, more uncer- young man who was really struggling with couple of young kids—one a nephew of tain of his identity, than ever before. the experience of going to college when he sprinter Charlie Tidwell, ’61. “A little black What nally broke him, though, was a wasn’t expected to go to college.” kid and a little white kid playing together,” photo op. “White society was telling me I had to Mills recalls, “and the great athlete who is ree times Mills made All-America in give up half my being because it was speaking to us stops and tells the white cross country. All three times, he says, Indian,” Mills says. “In so many ways they child to get away from the black child during a group photograph with the other were telling me that I didn’t belong, that because he’s dirty. Easton’s there. We have All-Americans, he was asked to step out of they didn’t want me to belong.” two black athletes on the team. I look at the shot—singled out because he didn’t t He also clashed with his coach. On the him, and I say, ‘Why are you letting that someone’s image of an All-American. e track Easton’s old-school approach didn’t happen?’” last time it happened, his junior year at the bring out Mills’ best, leading him to feel he By then the athlete had resumed his U.S. AAU championships, he’d had underachieved at KU, despite running on address, and Mills says Easton told him it enough. two national championship teams and would be disrespectful to interrupt. “I felt broken,” he says simply. “I know winning two Big Eight individual titles. “Coach says, ‘He’s talking, you can learn what it’s like to be broken.” Mills would later learn there was a from him.’ And I said, ‘I just did.’” Mills talks of the many hardships and physical reason for why he sometimes Mills is a loyal Jayhawk. He has set up indignities he’s encountered without a hint faded down the stretch: A er college he KU student scholarships and clearly of “poor me” in his tone. More o en, when was diagnosed as hypoglycemic and cherishes his connection to his alma he tells of being turned away from a hotel borderline diabetic. Late-race crashes were mater. “It was America, not KU,” he says. or stopped and frisked by police for no
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 25 better reason than the color of his skin, thought in my mind: Don’t. Don’t. My mother died. Olympians are chosen by the there is bemusement—can you believe such dad’s voice.” gods, it said. He gured if he was chosen things happen?—in the broad smile, the Find your dream, his dad had told him. by gods, he’d get to see his mother again. head shake, the shoulder shrug. It’s the pursuit of a dream that heals a e dream grew even a er he shared it But recounting how he walked back to broken soul. with friends and they beat him up—they his hotel room, opened a window and “So I got o the chair, and for the rst tried to take my dream away from me. It climbed onto a chair, he has to pause a time I wrote down my dream: Make the gained strength at Haskell as he eclipsed moment and gather himself. Olympic team in three events and gold the high school record set by former “I’m ready to jump,” he says. “I didn’t medal, 10,000 meters.” Olympian Cunningham and at KU when hear it through my ears, but inside of me I e dream had begun when he read a he roomed with Cli Cushman, just back felt an energy and the energy formed a book about the Olympics shortly a er his from the 1960 games in Rome. A er Cushman le for class, Mills would go into the closet they shared and nd Cushman’s Olympic uniform hanging there. “I would stroke the sleeve. I’d say, ‘ is belongs to the greatest athlete I know.’” And he would
ASSOCIATED PRESS ASSOCIATED dream his own dream of Olympic glory. Mills never saw himself as an underdog. He knew the training times he’d been running, knew what he was capable of: He arrived in Japan having run a 6-mile time that, converted to 10,000 meters, would rank him No. 8 in the world. He’d nished second in the Olympic trials to high school phenom Gerry Lindgren, coasting at the nish because he knew his spot on the team was secured. A er the race, Lindgren said, “Billy, I had no moves le ; if you had moved I couldn’t have covered y ou .” I can’t let that happen in Tokyo, Mills told himself. At the start of the nal lap in National Stadium, he surged ahead of Ron Clarke and the Australian lengthened his stride to match him. Mohamed Gammoudi lurked close behind. e three leaders were lapping slower runners in lane 1, and Clarke, cut o by a straggler, shoved Mills to create room to run. As Mills staggered and swung wide into lane 3, Gammoudi surged between both to seize the lead. “I’m worried. I don’t know if I can catch them,” Mills recalls. “One hundred twenty meters to go. Now, I’ve gotta go now.” Down the stretch Gammoudi and Clarke lap more stragglers, and one of the slower runners dri s wide, right in front of Mills, who’s now a distant third. “I’m Mills had just regained his balance after a shove from Olympic favorite Ron Clarke in the momentarily panicked,” he says. But the final lap when Tunisian Mohamed Gammoudi (right) passed them both to take the lead. runner dri s out to lane 5, leaving 4 open, Less than a minute later, Mills came from a distant third to blow by Clarke and Gammoudi and Mills makes his move, igniting that and become the first American to win the 10,000 meters. tremendous kick with impossibly long, powerful strides. As he goes by the runner, he sees on his singlet the image of an eagle.
26 | KANSAS ALUMNI “I’m back to my dad,” Mills says. “Do these things, son, and someday you’ll have wings of an eagle. irty meters to go and Mills never saw himself as an underdog. He knew I know I may never be this close again— and I never was—I’ve got to do it now.” the training times he’d been running, knew what he A er he felt the tape break across his was capable of. chest, Mills sought out the runner he’d passed. When he found him, there was no eagle on his chest. He kept the vision to himself, telling reporters only, “I felt like I had wings on my feet.” reject the dominant society and be held in Con, who ignited Mills’ interest in the e newsmen—not a single one of high esteem,” he says. “You were a warrior. wider world by telling him to read about whom had asked him a question leading Now our warriors are those who engage.” himself in the sports pages, yes, but also to up to the race—were clamoring to nd out So it’s good to see a packed house when follow front-page events. Cli Cushman, more about the American runner. e the Billy Mills Honoring Powwow kicks o who wrote a letter that inspired Mills and headlines that topped their stories would with a grand entry just as the sun dips who served as an everyday example of the frame the myth: “US unknown does the below a line of rolling hills across from the dedication greatness requires. Even impossible at Tokyo.” “Rough road to Prairie Wind Casino. Hundreds of dancers Easton, with whom Mills eventually made Olympic title for Indian Boy.” “Sweet pour through the front door in a raucous his peace and with whom he shared a Sioux!” whirl of color and chant, drumbeat and special moment in Tokyo a er his race. A sportswriter asked Clarke if he’d been jingle. Before the night ends, cash prizes (“I like to say he mellowed and I matured,” worried about Mills before the race. will be handed out to dancers in categories Mills says with a smile.) “Worry about him?” Clarke replied. “I ranging from Tiny Tots to Golden Age. Now he wants to create a few “little never even heard of him.” e dancing is no longer underground on moments” of his own. At the powwow, he the Pine Ridge; it’s the biggest show in welcomes all comers with a warm smile, t 76, Mills travels 200 days a year, town on a Friday night, and Mills is the but for the children there’s a kiss on the Adelivering speeches and posing for calm eye in the center of the whirling, top of their heads, a whispered bit of photographs, constantly reliving the race neon-bright storm. He’ll pose for photos wisdom in their ears. that li ed his name into the roster of great and sign autographs and greet friends old “If I can continue the rest of my life on Olympic moments. e wings are still on and new far into the wee hours. my journey in this world providing some his feet, but now they earn frequent yer Two girls at Loneman School had of those little moments,” he says, “then platinum, not Olympic gold. remained silent during Mills’ talk the day I’m blessed.” Once the yearlong victory lap that is before. ey greet him now with kisses Iyeska, generally accepted as a blanket 2014 winds down, he’ll still meet with and hugs, bestowing upon him the Lakota insult for “half-breed,” also has other kids, still look into their eyes to nd the honori c that signi es respect for a meanings. As Alfred Walking Bull pointed dream, because that’s where he can detect distinguished elder: “Grandpa, it was so out in a 2009 piece in the Lakota Country it—not in their words but in their eyes. He great to meet you,” they say. “I hope to Times, “ e etymology of the word reveals remembers how it was to be a fragile kid meet you again, Grandpa. I’m going to far more than most realize.” Iyeska can questioning how you t into the world, remember what you shared.” also mean translator. “It’s a compound afraid to speak up. He sees that fragility in “ ey are going to remember it,” Mills word for ‘iyemiciska,’” Walking Bull writes, the young people he meets, sees them says later. “And at some point in time they “which means ‘they will talk for me.’” withdrawing just as his friends withdrew, will take it.” In Lakota culture, braves did not brag of and it troubles him. Mills believes the He knows how much an encouraging their courage on the battle eld. Rather, it battles of the future will be waged not by word can mean to a kid growing up fell to others—usually elders—to sing their withdrawing from white culture to protect isolated and uncertain on a remote Indian deeds and establish their status as great old ways, as his father’s generation did reservation. warriors. when they attended church on Sundays “At every critical turn in my life there By bringing the shameful plight of the and snuck o to the prairie at midweek to was someone there with a word of Lakota and other native people to the practice in secret the sacred dances that encouragement, a conviction that I could attention of the wider world, Mills testi es had been forbidden. e next generation’s do something great,” he says. “So many not only to their need but also to their struggles will be met by challenging the little moments; so many people at the right great resilience in preserving a culture dominant culture, he believes—in Ameri- time of my life.” that was targeted for annihilation. ey ca’s courtrooms and sports arenas and His father, whose time with him was are his people, and Billy Mills sings their political elections. “In my time you could brief but powerful. Haskell coach Tony deeds.
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 27 28 | KANSAS ALUMNI ISSUE 6, 2014 | 29 A Time for Change Charges that the University failed to adequately protect victims of sexual assault prompt campus conversations about a painful subject, explanations of the confusing resolution processes, and a task force dedicated to delivering suggestions for how KU can do better
lesha Doan states her feelings the allegations of an anonymous student protest led to landmark changes on plainly. “Nothing good ever who faulted KU o cials, as well as the campus: an a rmative action o ce, child comes from pretending Lawrence police and the district attorney, care through the Hilltop Child Develop- something doesn’t exist and for mishandling investigations a er she ment Center, health care improvements— havingA an issue be silent,” she says. reported that she had been sexually and the women’s studies department that “Nothing good ever comes from that— assaulted in October 2013. Doan now chairs. whether it’s in a relationship, or whether In her letter, which appeared Sept. 8 in As the leader of a department born from it’s a more systemic issue.” the Kansan, Doan urged the KU commu- student activism, Doan says she felt a true Doan practiced what she preaches nity to lead a national conversation, “to obligation and responsibility to speak on when, in September, she wrote a letter to boldly lead and nd innovative solutions behalf of current students who were the University Daily Kansan, calling for a to the universal problem of sexual protesting KU policies (some of whom “radical conversation” in the University violence.” took the name “September Siblings” to community about the painful subject of e University’s history, she wrote, “has honor their forebears) with a demonstra- sexual assault and KU’s policies and been punctuated by moments of taking tion on the Strong Hall lawn, letters to the procedures for investigating reports of huge strides for social justice by disman- editor, streams of posts to social media sexual assault. tling the barriers that have excluded platforms, angry commentaries tagged to As chair of the department of women, minorities and women.” She harked back online news reports from both local and gender and sexuality studies and an to Feb. 4, 1972, when a group of KU national media outlets, and face-to-face associate professor of political science, women adopted the name “February conversations suddenly dominated by the Doan was one of many who publicly Sisters” and occupied a building, demand- painful topic of a university’s proper shared their opinions in the wake of an ing more equal opportunities for female response to charges of sexual assault. alarming story Sept. 2 in the online faculty, sta and students. Doan reminded “I believed it was the right thing to do,” Hu ngton Post. e article highlighted Kansan readers that the February Sisters’ Doan says of her decision to take a stand
by Jennifer Jackson Sanner and Chris Lazzarino Photographs by Steve Puppe
28 | KANSAS ALUMNI ISSUE 6, 2014 | 29 with her letter to the Kansan. “In my personal life, I have volunteered for rape crisis centers in some capacity for the majority of my adult life. So it’s an issue that’s really important to me.” Response to her letter, Doan says, was “overwhelming in a positive way. ere was an outpouring of ‘ ank you for doing this.’ is is such an important issue, and there’s never been a conversation about this. I was receiving emails from faculty and sta . I received emails from students and alumni.” ree days a er Doan’s letter, Chancel- lor Bernadette Gray-Little announced the formation of a sexual assault task force and named Doan co-chair, along with graduate student Angela Murphy. In an email to the entire University announcing the task force, Gray-Little directed Provost Je rey Vitter to ensure that mandatory sexual- assault training, already required of all faculty, sta and students, carry sanctions for non-completion. She also invited the community to a Sept. 18 forum during the University’s long-scheduled Sexual Assault Angela Murphy (l) and Alesha Doan, who lead the chancellor’s task force, say the issue of sexual Awareness Week “to continue our conver- violence has dominated conversation inside and outside classrooms. “Clearly these can sation on how we work together as a sometimes be tense conversations because we’re talking about a student’s right to trauma-free community to address this national and conflict-free education,” Murphy says. But tense talk can be productive, she adds. “When we problem.” start building on each other’s ideas, that’s when we come up with the most creative and “During the past week,” Gray-Little meaningful solutions as an institution.” wrote, “we have engaged as a community in an ongoing dialogue about sexual assault and how we can address this di cult issue together. Some of you have advocate for student victims of crime; June 1972, only three months a er the shared heartbreaking stories of your own • examine current prevention practices. February Sisters’ protest, that guides sexual assault, while others have made e task force is working toward a goal KU—and universities across the nation— recommendations about actions we can of delivering recommendations for in responding to reports of sexual assault. take to improve our prevention and improvements in all four areas in April. According to the Chronicle of Higher response e orts. Education, the expansion of Title IX’s “Our university has a responsibility to reach regarding gender equity has create an environment where every y choosing Doan and Murphy to lead occurred gradually, largely as a result of member of our community feels safe. And Bthe campus task force, the chancellor court cases. Title IX is perhaps best known as chancellor, that responsibility is acknowledged two women who not only for mandating equal opportunities in ultimately mine.” had spoken publicly amid the confusing athletics, but the law actually calls for e chancellor outlined four duties for and contentious days of early September equal access to all aspects of education. As the task force: but who also work in roles related to the the Chronicle outlined in an October • solicit feedback from campus members issue of sexual assault. Doan chairs the special report on sexual assault, U.S. who have participated in sexual assault women’s studies department, and Murphy colleges and universities have been under and harassment investigations and directs graduate student programs for growing pressure to consider complaints resolutions; Student Senate. She also serves on a of sexual assault or harassment as poten- • evaluate the Code of Student Rights campus committee, the Title IX tial barriers to equal educational access. In and Responsibilities; Roundtable. 2011, the U.S. Department of Education’s • determine how best to support and It is Title IX, the federal law enacted in O ce for Civil Rights sent a letter to
30 | KANSAS ALUMNI campuses, explaining that institutions that “Our university has a responsibility to create an mishandled sexual assault or harassment complaints could be found in violation of environment where every member of our community Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimi- feels safe. And as chancellor, that responsibility nation at educational institutions that receive federal money. is ultimately mine.” —Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little In May 2014, the O ce for Civil Rights announced that it was investigating more than 50 colleges for possible violations of allegations of criminal activity. student has been assaulted or harassed on Title IX in their handling of complaints of Clarifying these separate but o en campus or by a fellow student or faculty sexual violence or harassment. at simultaneous roles was a large part of the member, McQueeny noted, her (or his) number has since grown to more than 80, discussion during the Sept. 18 forum in access to education at KU is compromised. including three universities in Kansas: KU, e Commons of Spooner Hall. In McQueeny and Oliver explained Kansas State and Washburn. addition to the chancellor and provost, the repeatedly that, while they o en run campus forum included panelists Tam- parallel with each other, the University’s mara Durham, EdD’09, vice provost for investigations and the O ce of Public n the Sept. 2 Hu ngton Post story, student a airs; Jane McQueeny, executive Safety’s criminal cases are vastly di erent. Ithe unidentied student reported that director of KU’s O ce of Institutional While KU and Lawrence police compile she had led a complaint with the O ce Opportunity and Access; Nathan omas, evidence to be delivered to the Douglas for Civil Rights regarding KU’s investiga- recently hired vice provost for diversity County district attorney’s o ce for tion of her case. She also shared some and equity; and KU Chief of Police Ralph possible criminal prosecutions, the details of her initial complaint to the KU Oliver. University’s IOA o ce conducts its O ce of Institutional Opportunity and A er an opening statement from investigations without the authority to Access (IOA), which leads all sexual Gray-Little, Vitter led the forum, which compel cooperation by witnesses or the assault investigations. She reported being began with McQueeny’s explanation of the accused, without a mandate for cross assaulted in a residence hall a er a night of University’s role in investigating allega- examination, and ultimately with a lesser drinking at a fraternity party. According to tions of sexual assault and ultimately burden of proof—the preponderance of the Hu ngton Post, her report was largely handing down punishments. Under Title evidence standard, rather than the ignored by Lawrence police and the local IX, KU and other universities must “make criminal system’s beyond a reasonable district attorney, who declined to press sure that all students have access to doubt. charges, and by the University, which in educational benets and programs.” If a “We’re looking at, has a hostile environ- December 2013 punished the male student ment been created by behavior under the with “probation, counseling, a ban from University’s sexual harassement policy?” university housing and a mandatory McQueeny said. “Ralph, in the criminal reection paper ‘regarding alcohol, process, is looking at criminal statutes.” incapacity and sexual activity.’” A number of questions were put to the e University cannot comment on the panel regarding the University’s use of the details of this case—or any other that catch-all terms such as “non-consensual involves sanctions, explains the chancellor. sex” and “sexual assault,” rather than “We do not provide any details about what “rape.” As one student stated, if she were happened unless the victim gives written robbed while walking across campus, she permission to do so,” Gray-Little says. “So would not be a victim of “non-consensual when a case is reviewed and a decision is giving.” made, the people involved can go out and Again, McQueeny emphasized the say whatever they want to, to the press or distinction between her o ce’s investiga- friends, about their role or our role, and tions, which focus only on Title IX we might say, ‘Well, that’s not fully protections, and the criminal justice accurate,’ but that’s as much as we will say system, which has the authority to about it.” ultimately judge whether a sexual assault University leaders can, however, rises to the level of rape. While University share details about the important investigators do include descriptions in distinctions between KU’s duty to investi- their reports of “the physicality involved,” gate potential violations of Title IX and McQueeny said, “we can’t say that we law enforcement’s role to investigate Chancellor Gray-Little would adjudicate rape.” Protections for
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 31 both the accused and the complainant that investigations and punishments. are part of the criminal investigative “ at is one of the things that the task process are not included in the University’s force will look at,” she said. “How can we civil investigations: “We’re not adjudicat- make the process more transparent so that ing crimes.” we don’t have something happen, and at’s when Gray-Little con ded that you’re surprised and you think something she, too, had to be educated about unusual is going on, when it’s really just distinctions between University and police part of the ordinary process?” investigations and punishments. One student suggested that the Univer- “ e University is in kind of a middle sity get more aggressive with awareness, position in this entire process. It is not the education and prevention messaging for role of a university to nd that a criminal sexual assault, as it has with its successful o ense has taken place,” the chancellor “Jayhawk Buddy System” campaign, which told the audience. “ is was brought home encourages students to travel in groups, to me very much last week when I was told and return together at the end of the the purpose of the University in this evening, when venturing out to Lawrence process is to assure equal access to nightlife. Tim Caboni, vice chancellor for education. So that is what guides what we public a airs, who oversees the Univer- do and don’t do. ... We don’t have a formal sity’s social media outlets, replied, “I think legal process here, and that is not what we that’s a terri c idea.” are supposed to have. at makes our role During the forum, several audience in this, I think, confusing and hard to members referred to widely held notions communicate sometimes.” that KU punishes plagiarism more harshly No doubt adding to the confusion is that than sexual harassment and sexual although punishment recommendations violence. Vitter sought to dispel those are included when McQueeny signs o on notions: In the past two academic years, a and forwards nal case reports, Durham’s combined total of 309 reported cases of O ce of Student A airs is not bound to academic misconduct resulted in six follow those recommendations. suspensions or expulsions; 12 cases of “We review the ndings and recommen- sexual violence were reported in 2013, dations that are sent to us from Jane’s resulting in six expulsions. o ce, from IOA, and then we take “ at,” Vitter noted, “is a fairly high disciplinary action based on what’s percentage.” allowed by the code,” Durham said. “ e As the room’s restless energy began to reason those two are ebb and the sometimes separate [investigations contentious forum wound and sanctioning authority] down, Gray-Little is to ensure due process, emphasized values and for both the complainant views shared by all. She and the respondent.” told the audience that Again, Gray-Little sexual violence on projected empathy with campus and within the audience members who KU community cannot be expressed frustration and “swept under the rug,” confusion. and that administrators “I understand the must “improve our question you are asking,” response to sexual she said, “because I asked Vitter a s s au lt .” the same question just a “But to me that’s about few days ago, about the separateness.” e the second- or third-best thing to do,” the chancellor said she thought it “made chancellor said, “because that means the sense,” to assure due process, yet she assault has taken place. I’m interested in conceded that added complexity adds to creating a kind of setting in which we confusion about KU’s sexual assault prevent it.”
32 | KANSAS ALUMNI Tammara Durham (l), who has been at KU for more than 15 years, and Jane McQueeny, hired in 2012 from the U.S. Oce for Civil Rights, direct the investigation and punishment of campus assault allegations. “It isn’t an easy job,” McQueeny says, “but I feel very passionate about trying to change some of the culture on this campus.” Says Durham, “Once I started my path into higher education, it became a part of me.”
be concerned for their children’s safety in the wake of relentless waves of unsettling news accounts that sexual assault reports are “being taken absolutely with serious- ness and conviction to do something to improve the situation.” She also conceded that she’s not sure whether the fact that the assaults are happening between acquain- tances would make parents “feel better or worse. But it is not these terrible people coming to the University and assaulting folks who don’t know them. at’s not the ore than three weeks a er the future from arising. If and when those situation.” MSpooner Hall event, Vitter re ected things do happen, though, we have to deal Vitter in October approved the hiring on the controversy that was still dominat- with them in a way that’s fair for the of Sarah Jane Russell, c’76, g’80, who for ing campus conversation. He again students and ultimately supports equal 26 years directed the GaDuGi SafeCenter, renewed the emphasis on KU’s limited role and safe access to education.” a longtime community resource for in investigating and punishing harassment Earlier that same a ernoon, Gray-Little victims of sexual violence. and sexual violence. noted that part of the challenge KU faces Working in the Emily Taylor Center “Our mission as the University is to in addressing sexual assault is that the for Women & Gender Equity, Russell provide a safe, equal learning environment great majority of reported incidents will be “an advocate for people going for students,” Vitter said. “When there are involve acquaintances, dates, friends and through this process,” Vitter said, “so incidents, we want to make sure rst and even people who have been in long they can be supported as they are talking foremost that the innocent parties relationships. “It’s not the stranger to various individuals and know what involved can continue to have a full unknown to them,” she said. “So in terms their options are.” learning experience.” of safety, doing things like having the Kathy Rose-Mockry, d’78, g’85, director Violations of the Student Code of Rights police around or having better lighting, of the Emily Taylor center, said Russell, and Responsibilities, “which would be a that’s not the issue. It has to do with the who began work Oct. 27, “has all the much milder form of harassment,” might persons and circumstances in which they elements that are going to help us be result in the oender being moved to a are socializing.” successful. She has knowledge of the dierent class “so they don’t run into each Gray-Little assured parents who might community. Her years of expertise in other”; in severe cases, the victim’s continued access to education might require the oender “be kicked out of the “The University is in kind of a middle position University.” “ at’s not a criminal prosecution,” in this entire process. It is not the role of a university Vitter said. “ e burden of proof is less to find that a criminal oense has taken place.” and we are not making criminal judg- ments of people. ... Our concern is to make —Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little sure that we prevent such situations in the
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 33 Colin Thomas, Morgan Said and the KU Greek Task Force are developing prevention programs for fraternity and sorority chapters. Thomas envisions fraternity discussions that “focus on how sexual assault impacts the victims and their families, and also what it means to be a man and what men’s roles on campus and in society are. … Having that conversation is going to go a long way.”
omas, along with Maggie Young, Olathe senior, Panhellenic Association president and a member of Chi Omega; and Kevin Simpson, Mission Hills senior, Interfrater- nity Council president and a member of Phi Delta eta. “I said, ‘We’ve got to do something, we’ve got to act quickly and we have to be smart.’ Aer conversations, we realized that our peers are much more apt to respond to a movement than they are to a mandate. So we craed the video.” e Greek task force published the working directly with people who have On Sunday, Sept. 28, unaware of what video Oct. 2 on YouTube and shared it on dealt with these issues will help us go reportedly had occurred that weekend, 25 social media. Within 24 hours, the video forward.” fraternity and sorority members formally had logged more than 1,000 views; by Russell arrived on campus as the joined the public discussion condemning early November, it had garnered nearly University was dealing with additional sexual assault. ey lmed a video to 4,800. e group is developing educational reports of sexual assault. KU announced announce the formation of the KU Greek programs for Greek chapters to share with Oct. 1 that the Kappa Sigma fraternity had Task Force. their members. omas describes a been placed on interim suspension for e 99-second video features freshmen, “values-based program” that will empha- what Gray-Little termed “disturbing and sophomores, juniors and seniors from size many of the qualities stressed in the serious allegations of sexual assault” at a many of the fraternities and sororities that video: respect, responsibility, integrity and party the previous weekend. e news was surround campus. Staring straight into the followed one week later by the announce- camera, they implore their fellow Greek ment that KU police had arrested two members to take a stand against sexual 21-year-old men, one of whom is a assault. Invoking words central to the Task force resources student, on suspicion of rape in Hashinger Greek tradition—respect, honor, character, Hall. e Douglas County district attor- leadership—they pledge to educate their ney’s o ce announced Oct. 10 that the members about sexual assault prevention. The chancellor’s Sexual Assault Task two had been charged with rape. e e project emerged from conversations Force invites participation, ideas and alleged incidents, involving two victims between Morgan Said, a Kansas City, personal stories. incapable of giving consent, according to Missouri, senior and a member of Pi Beta More information about the group’s news reports, occurred on the same Phi, and Colin omas, Baldwin City specific charges and goals can be morning as the Kappa Sigma incident, but senior and a member of Beta eta Pi. found at sataskforce.ku.edu; the site police said the incidents were not related. “When the whole sexual assault also includes a form for anonymous As Kansas Alumni went to press, no dialogue began, we very immediately comments. arrests had been made in the Kappa Sigma noticed that the Greek voice was quiet, Emails may be sent to taskforce@ incident and the interim suspension and the Greeks were the ones being most ku.edu. remained in e ect as the KU and police talked about in the press,” recalls Said, who investigations continued. is student body president. She contacted
34 | KANSAS ALUMNI the roles of fraternity men and sorority women in representing their chapters, the University and their national organizations. Sexual assault reporting, Said a rms the importance of students’ counseling, medical, educational initiative in the process. “We feel this needs to be a student-to-student, peer-to- and prevention resources peer, friend-to-friend conversation if we’re going to gain any momentum,” she says. “KU administrators have been great. ey have provided themselves as resources Counseling and Psychological Services KU Public Safety O ce when we need them, and they’ve promised Watkins Memorial Health Center Emergency: 911 to back o when we don’t. 785-864-2277 Non-emergency: 785-864-5900 “I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d like to caps.ku.edu Crime Stoppers: 785-864-8888 see the experts train us, and us train our publicsafety.ku.edu peers. So it’s not another guest speaker Emily Taylor Center for Women & coming in, but ‘one of my friends is Gender Equity SafeBus speaking tonight about this.’ I hope that Kansas Union, Room 400 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., Thursday, Friday and resonates.” 785-864-3552 Saturday nights, except during class emilytaylorcenter.ku.edu breaks and holidays ngela Murphy, who co-chairs the Kathy Rose-Mockry, director For routes and schedules: safebus.ku. Achancellor’s sexual assault task force Sarah Jane Russell, Campus Assis- edu/safebus~map with Alesha Doan, praises the advocacy of tance, Resource and Education Said, omas and other Greek leaders. (CARE) Coordinator SafeRide “ ere’s now, more than ever, a climate 10:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., seven nights where the people who would have been GaDuGi SafeCenter Inc. a week, except during class breaks silent before due to social conditioning in Provides 24-hour support for Douglas and holidays that environment are starting to be fed up County victims of sexual violence, 785-864-SAFE (7233) with the reputation they are earning due to regardless of gender a small percentage of their population,” 2518 Ridge Court, Suite 202 Watkins Health Services Murphy says. “And I think that’s a major 785-843-8985 Watkins Memorial Health Center step forward.” gadugisafecenter.org 785-864-9500 Murphy says that, as the KU community studenthealth.ku.edu examines the Student Code of Rights and Institutional Opportunity and Access Responsibilities, fraternities and sororities (IOA) Willow Domestic Violence Center also can assess their own codes of conduct. ioa.ku.edu Shelter and services for women and “Maybe they can make themselves the 785-864-6414 children gold or platinum standard for how they Jane McQueeny, executive director 24-hour crisis hotline: 785-843-3333 engage with these issues,” she says, “and set willowdvcenter.org a new standard for not only their chapters Jayhawk Buddy System but maybe even as part of a national buddy.ku.edu conversation.” As chair of women’s studies, Doan compares the current heightened aware- ness of sexual assault to another moment in U.S. history she has studied in her harassment, and there was an exponential forward to report sexual assault on college research: the 1991 Senate Judiciary increase in the complaints led,” Doan campuses, Doan explains, because they Committee con rmation hearings for recalls. “It was astounding, and it’s not now understand what happened to them Supreme Court nominee Clarence because this was a new issue and all of a was not OK. By ending the silence, they omas, who was accused by Anita Hill, a sudden women were being harassed. It can seek help and help others—and former colleague, of sexual harassment. was that women had su ered in silence ultimately hasten the cultural change “Regardless of the outcome of that and had no idea that what was happening necessary to stop sexual violence. particular situation, ... there was a national in the workplace was not OK.” “Breaking the silence,” Doan says, “is conversation that happened in sexual Similarly, more students are coming incredibly important.”
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 35 by Steven Biller Artist for the People
36 | KANSAS ALUMNI n the back corner of his what’s here in the studio to the outdoors. Istudio—a second- oor Who knows what I will see out there. It warehouse space on the eastern edge of will change my work.” Los Angeles—artist Kiel Johnson tries to Meanwhile, with boundless energy, a make sense of the electrical system on the quick smile and all the DIY spirit he can Celebrated vintage Airstream trailer he’s restoring. muster, Johnson, f’98, shi s back and for the Once the juice ows, he’ll be a step closer forth between the Airstream and the front Artist People to nishing his Mobile Mission Lab, a of his studio, where he has lined up his California sculptor studio on wheels for his dream project: new series of large-scale drawings for a Kiel Johnson’s relentless “Five years, 50 states, one trailer—making nal look before a truck comes to trans- art with America, infecting the country port them to Mark Moore Gallery in quest for observation and with creativity,” he says. “I’ll take a little of Culver City, one of L.A.’s most popular interpretation hits the open road ISSUE 6, 2014 | 37 Photographs of artwork courtesy Kiel Johnson / Hyperbole Studio KYLE FITZPATRICK, LOS ANGELES, I’M YOURS ANGELES, I’M LOS FITZPATRICK, KYLE
Johnson contemporary art districts, for “Wallday- cameras and musical instruments all then I push it more. [All of the drawings] allday,” his third exhibition with the dealer constructed in precision detail with are getting worked. A er a while, a couple in ve years. cardboard, chipboard, plastic tubing and won’t make the team and they have to go e drawings reect his relentless drive foam. In fact, these drawings might be home.” and meticulous frenzy. Minimal in color, the most abstract work Johnson has Hyperbole Studios, the name he gave his each action-packed graphite and water- ever made. studio, is his man cave with all the basic color picture delivers exacting, almost comforts: kitchenette, so leather couch, cartoonish structures and systems inspired good tunes. He rents the corner space by his surroundings—in this case, the ohnson, 39, attributes his handiness to across from the Airstream to an artist who circuitous electrical wiring of the Air- Jthe Olathe environment where he grew works with felt. “I love the hum and stream and the dizzying ight paths of the up. “I’ve been telling people since I was 8 energy in my studio,” he says. “I like that bees he keeps in his custom-built hive. that I was going to be a cartoonist or do people come by and work on stu . A er a “I like to ride that line between the claymation,” he says, recalling the child- few days alone in here, you kind of go mechanical and the natural,” says Johnson, hood bedroom he customized by cutting crazy.” who also references the face of an electric up the carpet, building a bed, and painting Remnants of his curriculum vitae dot razor and the honeycomb pattern he a porthole on the wall. “I had an awesome the studio. ere’s a T-square ruler with a noticed on a oor mat in his studio. “I like family that supported me in what I wanted T-shirt wrapped around it that he has had observing the hive activity, watching the to do.” His father, Keith, b’72, founded the since he studied at KU (where he repre- bees buzz around and paying attention to Johnson’s County Gazette newspaper, and sented the fourth generation of his family). their ight path.” He marvels at the bees’ his mother, Ann Moody Johnson, ’82, was ere’s also a clamp marked “KU Sculp- sophisticated society. At rst they appear a cra er. ture.” Johnson says he might have taken it erratic, but eventually the repetition and Johnson earned his bachelor’s degree in from a classroom. rhythm of their activity make sense. sculpture and drawing at KU and his “ ere’s the ight school and all of the master’s in drawing and painting at ight patterns, and there are the workers California State University, Long Beach. carrying body parts out from the hive. It’s “I feel fortunate to do what I do,” he amazing to watch them.” says. “I have sacri ced relationships, In the drawings, the hexagonal struc- cash and nice living spaces. is tures become the nucleus of activity, as takes intense focus, like being a busy as L.A. during rush hour. e action professional athlete. You have to moves in thoughtfully engineered direc- practice and work out. I have to tions and seems to never end. get wound up. It’s endurance. is work veers dramatically from the Sometimes I have to tell myself, ‘I sculpture that earned Johnson critical can do this!’ I draw and draw until acclaim—a life-sized printing press, I feel there’s nothing le in me, and
38 | KANSAS ALUMNI Opposite page, far left: “Liquid Lunch,” 2014, graphite and watercolor on paper mounted to panel, 42 x 58 inches
Left: “Colonize,” 2014, graphite and watercolor on paper mounted to panel, 42 x 58 inches
Below: “Publish or Perish,” 2009, pine ply, aluminum, inkjet on paper, 96 x 42 x 92 inches
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 39 Since college, Johnson has received the work in cardboard was no longer a Until his current exhibition of drawings, prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation challenge. “I got to a place where I could Johnson was best known for his meticulously grant and other awards, exhibited widely build anything, so I feel like it was a detailed cardboard and chipboard 3D pieces, in California museums and art centers, chapter,” he says. “I’ve made the last year including cityscapes (above and opening and completed commercial work for and a half about drawing every day. spread), cameras and musical instruments. Disney Channel, History Channel and Two-dimensional is where I want to be other familiar brands. right now. Private and corporate collectors—Steve “ ese drawings are seismograms. I Martin, Todd Oldham, Creative Artist have a lot of co ee on one day, then use Agency and Sprint World Headquarters the eraser, use the pencil. ere are a lot Sandwich, Mass.; Venice, Italy; Dubai, among them—own Johnson’s work, and of what-ifs. No good idea is going to come United Arab Emirates; and Christchurch, dealer Catlin Moore, director of Mark unless you’re working on a bad idea. You New Zealand. Moore Gallery, was eager to install just have to start working.” “Christchurch had a series of earth- “Walldayallday,” a title the artist took from He repeats that point o en to students quakes, and there were collapsed buildings his own social media hash tag. Whenever in the advanced drawing class he teaches and houses around the downtown area,” Johnson posted #walldayallday, his family, at Cal State Long Beach. “I like turning says Johnson, who invited the community friends and followers knew he was in his people on to creativity,” he says. “It’s like a to help construct the pieces. “It was element. disease. I teach them to take experiences— magical to bring this project. We built the “Kiel is an attractive personality for us,” the drive to school, the pattern on a downtown city center. It was cathartic for Moore says. “ e ideas never stop with boyfriend’s shirt—and make it into a many of them. People were crying.” him. With Kiel, one door opens 50 others. drawing, a diary entry for the day. Visual Johnson was in Christchurch when he He takes inspiration from his surround- is a language, too. I get them to develop a ings and manages to relate everything to visual vocabulary and to conjure up his personal world. He’s very optimistic images from their experience.” and that shines through the way he runs Johnson spreads “the gospel of his studio practice.” Kiel” as o en as he can, including as a “The ideas never With the new drawings, Moore says, TEDActive speaker and facilitator in Johnson has “an opportunity to surprise 2011 and ’12. When he learned the stop with him. With Kiel, people, to show his roots. He’s most theme, “City 2.0,” he responded one door opens 50 others. known for his 3D work, but the core of his with an 8x8-foot cityscape con- work is his drawing. is will be exciting structed completely with He takes inspiration from his for his audience. People get caught up in cardboard. surroundings and manages to relate the whimsical nature of it—and the He showed one incarnation of intense detail.” the city at TEDActive in nearby everything to his personal world.” Johnson concedes that the sculptural Palm Springs and created others in —Catlin Moore, director, Mark Moore Gallery 40 | KANSAS ALUMNI camping, being self-su cient. I look forward to seeing America and becoming a man of the city in di erent neighborhoods.” With his drawings for “Walldayallday” complete, Johnson is focused on the Airstream. He reports his progress through social media: “Juice is owin’. #landyacht” —Biller is a freelance art writer in Palm Springs and Los Angeles. is is his rst article for Kansas Alumni.
Interact with Kiel Johnson
Artist homepage Links to media coverage, videos and galleries: www.kieljohnson.com
Vimeo HyperboleTV shows in the studio, at TEDActive and more: vimeo.com/channels/hyperboletv
Instagram A steady flow of images from Hyperbole Studios: instagram.com/kieljohnson
Twitter Updates on Johnson’s events and exhibitions: twitter.com/kieljohnson
Facebook The artist’s latest thoughts, pictures, news and shared posts: facebook.com/KielErikJohnson
Mark Moore Gallery The Los Angeles gallery that represents Johnson’s artwork: markmooregallery.com developed the idea for his dream project: When he returned to L.A., he found his “Five years, 50 states, one trailer.” He Airstream online. “I drove it from Maine Davidson Contemporary had access to a Toyota vehicle, with solar in four days,” he says, proud that he has The New York gallery that represents power and other amenities, that’s since installed shocks, brakes, plumbing, Johnson’s artwork: unavailable in the United States. He toured insulation and oors. He’s nishing the davidsoncontemporary.com New Zealand and saw a glacier and a electrical system before he begins to add —S.B. rain forest. the studio and basic comforts. “I like
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 41 Association volunteer opportunities, educational programs, museum tours, watch parties and Presidents Club receptions. He is an environmental and real estate attorney at Snell & Wilmer. Graybill, a Life Member of the Associa- tion, serves as the Oklahoma City leader.
CHRIS LAZZARINO She has recruited board members, maintains the network’s Facebook page, and has increased and diversi ed chapter events by organizing wine tastings, watch parties, educational programs and networking receptions. She serves as sta attorney to the Hon. Kenneth L. Buettner on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals. While living in Houston, Kallail, an annual member of the Association, organized alumni tailgates, watch parties, and other events while maintaining the local Jayhawks’ Facebook page and serving as a liaison between the Houston Network and e Moran Norris Foundation. He currently serves as a steering committee member in Dallas, where he has organized Network champs volunteer network of Jayhawks through many KU watch parties and other events. the years and leading the e ort to raise He is an account supervisor for e Alumni receive Wintermote funds and plan construction of the Adams Marketing Arm’s central region. honors as local leaders Alumni Center, which opened in 1983. Moran, an annual member and Presi- e award, named in his honor, annually dents Club member of the Association, is our enthusiastic Association leaders recognizes alumni who have exhibited the current president of the Houston Fare the 2014 winners of the Dick outstanding leadership of their local Network, a member of the Engineering Wintermote Volunteer of the Year Award. Jayhawk networks. Dean’s Club. In addition to organizing ey are Chris Colyer, b’04, l’09, Phoenix; Colyer, a Phoenix native and annual watch parties, he has helped develop other Bevan Graybill, c’08, Oklahoma City; Nick member of the Association, has partici- activities, including a museum tour, wine Kallail, d’04, l’07, Dallas; and Phil Moran, pated in the local KU network for several tasting and presentations by guest speak- e’80, Houston. years and now leads the group. He ers. e Houston Jayhawks also support Dick Wintermote, c’51, served as assembled a six-person board and has the Moran Norris Foundation. Moran is executive director of the Association from doubled activities by o ering diverse a partner with Portfolio Advisory 1963 to 1983, helping to build a strong programs such as networking events, Council.
Colyer Graybill Kallail Moran
42 | KANSAS ALUMNI A NOTE FROM KEVIN
Decade of transformation bodes well for Association and KU ROMBECK TERRY
n fall 2004, I joined the KU Alumni Obviously, I am biased but by almost IAssociation as only the ninth presi- every measurable metric, the KU Alumni dent of the Association since its found- Association continues to lead the way in ing in 1883. Over these past 10 years the award-winning communications, alumni Association has grown far-reaching programs and events worldwide, and in alumni networks, expanded academic charitable support by alumni and friends. and student programs, and dramatically Growth in these areas is no uke. increased critical communications to Ten years ago, we developed a plan to alumni and friends. Growth in these build the most powerful network of KU facilities for the schools of pharmacy and areas and many more has been vital to graduates possible. Members’ support of engineering. KU’s goals associated with remaining the Presidents Club, a giving program we We cannot predict the opportunities one of the premier research universities initiated eight years ago, has fueled our and challenges of the next decade, but we in the country. ability to develop new programs for do know that donors and members will e University will, for the foreseeable Jayhawk legacy students, partnerships with continue to play an increasingly important future, need a closer and stronger academic units across campus, and a role for KU. We greatly appreciate your partnership with its alumni and friends stronger legislative advocacy e ort. e vital support. You are helping deliver to bring talented students to campus and Jayhawks for Higher Education have immediate impact for all of KU. ank provide funds for scholarships, faculty helped in uence legislators to invest in you. Rock Chalk! support, and state-of-the-art buildings cancer research in Lawrence and at KU —Kevin Corbett, c’88 and programs for research and teaching. Medical Center, and construct new KU Alumni Association president
Lasting legacy Howard, of Austin, Texas, was the president of Student Union Activities Ellsworth winners’ influence during his years on the Hill, and he helped will benefit future Jayhawks guide the KU Memorial Unions as a board member and donor of the Rock Chalk U family members gathered Sept. 19 Stone at the base of the Traditions Tower, Kat the Adams Alumni Center to which highlights the west side of the honor Margaret Lewis Shirk, c’39, and Jay Kansas Union. Howard, b’79, this year’s recipients of the He also chaired the Alumni Associa- Fred Ellsworth Medallion for extraordi- tion’s board and worked with campus nary dedication to their alma mater as leaders to strengthen student recruitment longtime volunteers. Both have continued and create the Jayhawk Generations the tradition established by Fred Ells- Scholarship for out-of-state students from worth, c’22, who led the Alumni Associa- KU families. He remains involved as a tion for 39 years. KU Endowment trustee and steering e evening featured video tributes to committee member for the Far Above both alumni, chronicling their KU campaign. involvement over a combined seven decades. Shirk has assisted the Alumni Association, KU Endowment and Kansas Athletics in numerous ways through the Shirk (above right) reminisced with fellow years. She and her late husband, David, Jayhawks during the Ellsworth celebration, and c’39, also welcomed generations of Howard (below left) reunited with Alumni students to events in their barn on the Association national board members, including family farm north of Lawrence. Paul Carttar, c’76, of Lawrence.
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 43 Association Treasured tradition Wichita Roundup continues with pirate-themed flair
16-foot ship’s mast and sail, Acannons and a scurvy mate known as Captain Jack greeted guests Oct. 25 at the Jayhawk Roundup hosted by the Wichita Network. Nearly 400 alumni and friends gathered to celebrate the 12th-annual event at the stables owned by David, b’75, e’75, and Janet Lusk Mur n, d’75. Glenn, ’79, and Camille Bribiesca Nyberg, c’96, g’98, served as chairs, leading a team of more than 40 volunteers who made the event a success. Camille Lynn Loveland, assistant director of Wichita also is chair of the Association’s board. programs, Captain Jack and Camille Nyberg, Auction chairs Pete, d’06, and Courtney chair of the event. Grimwood Krsnich, j’05, led the live and silent auction e orts, which raised funds to help support more than 30 annual Wichita Network events in Sedgwick County. Chris Jeter, d’68, g’79, decorations chair, and Jim Burgess, c’73, set designer, led a team of volunteers who, along with Association sta , created the memorable ambience. As guests dined on barbecue provided by Security 1st Title, Association president Kevin Corbett, c’88; Chancellor Berna- dette Gray-Little; and Lynn Loveland, ’76, the Association’s assistant director of Wichita programs, thanked alumni for their loyalty in making the Roundup a tradition and, more important, supporting KU’s expanded presence in Wichita through a thriving network of Jayhawks. To see more photos of the event, visit kualumni.org/jayhawkroundup.
Dave and Janet Murfin have hosted the Jayhawk Roundup at their stables in Wichita for 12 years.
44 | KANSAS ALUMNI Life Members
e Association thanks these Jayhawks, who began their Life memberships Sept. 1 through Oct. 31. For information, visit kualumni.org or call 800-584-2957.
Bradley J. Atkinson Barbara A. Lundin & Katherine E. Benson Lawrence P. Daniels Randall J. Benson Kimberly Fellers Marney Michael S. & Samantha Mark S. Mayberry Bowman Dennis E. Mayer Ann M. Brill Robert Brent Morrison Charles L. & Denise Toomay Jason M. Nicolay Brooks Lori M. & Monte K. Nicolay M. Lavon Brosseau Christopher W. & Mary Lonny Bruce Meisinger O’Brien Christopher W. Carter Robert C. Paden Jr. Kristen Coler Challacombe & Craig S. Parrish Jared Teft Challacombe Judy Ernstman Patterson Brian D. & Sarah Moore Heather M. Piernick Cordill Joshua T. Quier Gina L. Danison Nancy Kauman Ragey Michelle Mahaey Desrosiers Marcie M. Rohleder Martha A. Dodson Hayley N. Rumback David E. & Libby Domann Ila J. & Vernon W. Russell Stephen W. Doyel Lynette C. Schultz Alexandra J. Drake June E. Sexton Antonio J. Duarte William J. Shea Ashlee Mills Duy Charles E. Sloan Jane Gary Duncan Rick D. Smith Ronald J. Dutton Cathy S. & Daniel L. Daniel & Martha Camargo Stueckemann Eichlo Matthew R. & Shelly E. Maurice C. Fanty Stumpe Brian J. Frick Mary C. & Arvid Sward John D. & Margaret Maloney Bradley B. Thorson Hale Michael J. & Kristen Gable Robert W. Harbour III Tierney Scott D. & Mary E. Hamilton David C. & Elizabeth Tyler D. Herbold Huddleston Toland Janette D. Hess David P. Trevino Stephen & Susan E. Hicks Blake E. & Nicole Copple Susan M. Hull Vande Garde Mary L. Ibarra Michael A. Virgo Veterans Day Courtney A. & Peter J. Krsnich Michael J. Vrabac he Alumni Association and the Veterans Alumni Network Jacob W. Letourneau Richard F. Wade Thosted 200 alumni and students Nov. 9 for the Veterans John R. Lieurance Kathryn M. Walsh Day Run. Participants included students Stefan Schmidt (top), Cory A. Lindenman Brad J. Werner Andrew Gunneson (middle left) and Maggie Nickl. The Jason S. Lohmeyer & Corryn Mitchell J. Wisniewski III University’s ROTC programs posted honor guards at campus L. Flahaven war memorials. Stephen M. & Deborah Sperry Ludwig
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 45
Class Notes by Karen Goodell Marilyn Buller Bittenbender, d’70, 70 has been appointed to the Kansas Commission on Disability Concerns. She’s a senior vice president and principal at Bernice Alexander West, c’47, and of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He and Grubb & Ellis/ e Winbury Group in 47 her husband, Ollie, celebrated their Marilee Booth Fisher, d’57, live in Austin. Lawrence, where she and her husband, 64th anniversary in September. ey make Kelvin Heck, b’73, make their home. their home in Oakland, California. David Edgell Sr., b’61, received the Kenneth Johnson, g’70, wrote More 61 2014 Board on Human Sciences University of Kansas Basketball Legends. James Taylor, e’52, a retired rear Lifetime Achievement Award from the He owns Johnson Insurance Services in 52 admiral in the U.S. Navy, lives in Association of Public and Land-Grant Des Moines, Iowa, where he and his wife, Seattle with his wife, Rosa. Universities. He’s a professor at East Colleen, make their home. Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife, Patricia Forgey, d’72, g’74, serves on 53 Sarah. 72 the board of the Friendship Center. MARRIED She lives in Goleta, California, and owns Ray Lawrence, b’53, to Loo Kristina Robert Barr, a’62, is project director Path Forward, an organizational develop- Einarsson, Aug. 9 in Houston. ey divide 62 for Page ink. He and Nancy ment consulting rm. their time between homes in Houston and Scott Barr, d’66, live in Potomac, Stephany Brown Hughes, g’72, PhD’03, Palmdale, California. Maryland. wrote Mother as Emotional Coach: 8 Fred, c’62, and Marcia Ediger Perry, Principles of Raising a Well-Adjusted Child. William Fisher, g’58, PhD’62, a c’64, celebrated their 50th anniversary in She lives in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. 58 geologist at the University of Texas, March. ey are retired in Broken Arrow, Rita Haugh Oates, j’72, d’73, is president received an Alumni Distinguished Oklahoma. of Oates Associates in Coral Gables, Achievement Award from the KU College Minnie Kloehr Wilson, d’62, lives in Florida, where she and her husband, Capitola, California, with her husband, William, make their home. Dan, assoc. Kirk Underwood, c’72, l’75, retired as a School Codes Letters that follow names federal administrative law judge and owns indicate the school from which alumni earned Sharon Blasdel Jordan, h’67, is a an arbitration practice in Bethesda, degrees. Numbers show their class years. 67 clinical laboratory scientist at Maryland. He and his wife, Deborah, live a School of Architecture, Mitchell County Hospital in Beloit. She in Kensington. Design and Planning and her husband, Carl, ’66, live in Glen b School of Business Elder. Roy Beckemeyer, PhD’74, wrote c College of Liberal Arts 74 Music I Once Could Dance To, a and Sciences Lyndal Bullock, EdD’68, is a book of poetry published by Coal City d School of Education 68 professor of educational psychology Review Press. He and his wife, Pat, make e School of Engineering at the University of North Texas in their home in Wichita. f School of Fine Arts Denton. Dennis Fowler, m’74, has been promoted g Master’s Degree to executive vice president of clinical and h School of Health Professions Jeanette Cool, f’69, g’73, serves on regulatory a airs at Titan Medical in j School of Journalism l School of Law 69 the board of the San Francisco Toronto, Canada. m School of Medicine chapter of the American Guild of Sharon Lee, c’74, m’82, received an n School of Nursing Organists. Alumni Distinguished Achievement p School of Pharmacy Joseph Smiddy, m’69, a retired pulmon- Award from the KU College of Liberal PharmD School of Pharmacy ologist, has planned ve trips next year to Arts and Sciences. She’s founding physi- s School of Social Welfare Central America, where he’ll work as a cian and director of Family Health Care in u School of Music medical volunteer. Joe lives in Church Hill, Kansas City, where she and her husband, DE Doctor of Engineering Tennessee, and has long volunteered his Robert Jevons, c’71, m’87, live. DMA Doctor of Musical Arts medical services in East Tennessee and DPT Doctor of Physical Therapy Southwest Virginia. Gregory Buehne, c’75, l’78, is a EdD Doctor of Education Louise Bednar Terrill, c’69, m’73, is an consultant and corporate counsel for PhD Doctor of Philosophy 75 (no letter) Former student assistant professor of clinical family Farm Credit Council Services in Green- assoc Associate member of the medicine and medical director at Settegast wood Village, Colorado. He and his wife, Alumni Association Community Health Center in Houston. Constance Cowley, l’79, live in Parker.
50 | KANSAS ALUMNI
Class Notes
Larry Peterson, EdD’75, is a retired dia communications at Francis Parker Steve Leben, j’78, l’82, received the 2014 professor of art and art history at the School in San Diego. He and his wife, William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial University of Nebraska in Kearney, where Chris, live in La Mesa. Excellence from the National Center for he and Sharon Huback Peterson, assoc., State Courts. He’s a judge of the Kansas make their home. Ralph Heasley, PhD’77, is vice Court of Appeals in Topeka, and he lives 77 president of platform development in Fairway with his wife, Ann Warner, c’78, MARRIED at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals in m’83. Sharon Thyfault, d’75, g’79, to Kenneth Hazelwood, Missouri. He and Debra Jo Ellen Johnson Parker, g’78, le the Witzell Jr., June 16 in Wichita, where they Scales Heasley, c’04, live in St. Louis. presidency of Sweet Briar College in live. James Sloss, a’77, is assistant vice August to become president of the president of design and planning at Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. Joel Colbert, g’76, EdD’77, directs Macerich. He and Barbara Buckley Sloss, Stephen Scheve, j’78, l’81, belongs to the 76 the Institute for Excellence at b’77, live in Paci c Palisades, California. Fellowship in Litigation Counsel of Chapman University in Orange, Daniel Steeples, b’77, g’77, is a principal Arizona. He and his wife, Janice, live in California. at Steeples Analytics in Kansas City. Houston. Edgar Heap of Birds, f’76, received an J. Ann Selzer, c’78, serves as a trustee of Alumni Distinguished Achievement Steven Briman, e’78, has been Simpson College. She lives in Des Moines, Award from the KU College of Liberal 78 inducted into the Topeka Business Iowa, where she’s president of Selzer and Arts and Sciences. He is an artist whose Hall of Fame. He’s retired executive vice Company. work has been exhibited in museums president and chief nancial o cer at around the world. Edgar lives in Okla- Bartlett & West. Janet Sommer Campbell, d’79, homa City. 79 retired in September as general Deborah Sperry Ludwig, d’76, is dean of manager of Kansas Public Radio and Forsyth Library at Fort Hays State Univer- director of the Kansas Audio-Reader sity. She and her husband, Stephen, d’76, Network. She and her husband, Richard, live in Hays. b’87, live in Eudora. Kenneth Stone, j’76, manages multime- Franklin Friedman, b’79, is CEO of
52 | KANSAS ALUMNI Deloite LLP. He and his wife, Sondra, live a Kansas state representative. Barbara and David Meyer, c’80, received a rabbinic in Leawood. her husband, Rene, m’84, live in Shawnee leadership award from Combined Jewish Larry Hallenbeck, e’79, works in Mission. Philanthropies of Boston. He is in his 23rd reservoir management with Kinder Mark Buchanan, j’80, l’84, practices law year as senior rabbi at Temple Emanu-El Morgan in Houston. He lives in Pearland. in Kansas City, where he and Carol in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Kevin Kerschen, e’79, is an associate vice Schutte Buchanan, l’84, make their home. James Mifsud, l’80, is deputy general president at Black & Veatch in Cary, North Jerey Chanay, c’80, l’84, is Kansas counsel for Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Carolina, where he and his wife, Linda, deputy chief attorney general in Topeka, Florida. make their home. where he lives with Kristin Anderson Reginald Robinson, c’80, l’87, has been Chanay, j’85, g’89. named director of the KU School of Public Barbara Goolsbee Bollier, c’80, David McGuire, j’80, is executive A airs and Administration. He and Jane 80 m’84, was appointed to the Kansas director of business development at Trinity McGarey Robinson, g’10, live in Lawrence. State High School Sports and Activities Industries in Dallas, where he and his wife, Steven Sloan, c’80, practices law with Association. She’s an anesthesiologist and Kiley, make their home. ompson & Knight in Dallas. He was
PROFILE by Chris Lazzarino
Blackhawks broadcaster sure you can do it?’ I BLACKHAWKS CHICAGO finds sweet home in NHL said, ‘I’ve never been more certain of ohn Wiedeman was an 8-year-old boy anything in my life.’” Jromping around in suburban Johnson Wiedeman County—not exactly a hockey hotbed— completed his KU the day he happened to notice a Chicago degree in 1989, Blackhawks game playing on a friend’s moved to Chicago black-and-white basement TV. and landed a radio Now in his ninth season as the Black- internship at WLUP- hawks’ radio play-by-play broadcaster and AM 1000. By June author of one of the iconic moments in 1992, a er three years John Wiedeman is “the best radio play-by-play guy in the game. You Chicago sports broadcasting history— of hustling postgame can’t help but get excited when you listen to him,” says former “Lord Stanley’s new address is sweet home clips for a small Blackhawks communications executive Jim de Maria. Chicago!”, as the Blackhawks won their suburban station rst Stanley Cup in 49 years—Wiedeman while supporting was hooked by that chance encounter with himself as a comedy-club bartender, Wiedeman called Islanders’ games for a sport that took hold of his life. Wiedeman made a demo tape and drove ve seasons, until the Blackhawks’ radio He played where he could while to the NHL dra in Montreal; there he play-by-play job came open. growing up in Kansas City; a brief try at learned of an opening with a new minor- “I wanted to be a Blackhawks broad- college hockey in upstate New York league club in Muskegon, Michigan. caster all my life,” he says. showed Wiedeman he’d have to nd A er stints in Muskegon and Worcester, Wiedeman, 2014 Illinois Sportscaster of another way into the game, so he came to Massachusetts, Wiedeman joined the the Year, says his famous 2010 Stanley Cup KU, played for KU’s club team in the Philadelphia Flyers, but it was not a good call originated in pregame preparations, 1970s, and as hockey surged following the t and he le a er one season for the when he considered invoking Carl 1980 Winter Olympics, he helped organize Cincinnati Cyclones of the International Sandburg’s “City of the Big Shoulders” a traveling team with top KC players. Hockey League. e IHL folded in 2001 before opting for a Blues Brothers refer- When a cable TV producer looking to and Wiedeman thought his hockey run ence: “Sweet Home Chicago.” ll programming sought rights to show was done. While settling his breakfast tab “I thought to myself, that’s the one I’m the club’s games, he also asked whether the the morning a er interviewing with his going to go with. at’s the one I’m most team could supply a broadcaster. ancee’s Indiana college, his cellphone familiar with and that’s the one the fans “ at was my moment. at was it,” rang: e New York Islanders were would be most familiar with. recalls Wiedeman, c’89. “He said, ‘Are you o ering him their play-by-play job. “And the words stuck.”
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 53 Looking for a unique holiday gift idea? The KU Alumni Association has membership packages for all ages! Recent Grad Half-Price Life Membership* For 2009-2014 graduates • $500 single/$750 joint A 12-month installment plan is available. There’s no better way to stay connected to the Hill and fellow Jayhawks. Recent Grad Annual Membership* For 2009-2014 graduates • $25/$30 joint Take advantage of great networking opportunities through events and activities that put you in touch Give a with fellow Jayhawks. gift membership Future Jayhawks Annual Membership and receive a For ages 0-18 • $15 per child for members, $20 per child for non-members ceramic KU holiday Your Jayhawk-in-training will receive a special birthday card from Baby Jay and a gift from the Alumni Association with each annual renewal. Start a true blue tradition today! ornament! KU Student Alumni Association Membership (First in a series of seven) For current KU students • $25 for one year/$75 for four year It’s never too early for your student to build personal and professional networks. Other Gift Ideas To purchase a gift membership, visit Annual Membership • $55 single/$65 joint www.kualumni.org/gift Jayhawk Society • $100 single/$150 joint or call Premium level of annual membership and serves as your “Path to Life” membership Life Membership • $1,000 single/$1,500 joint 800-584-2957 Strengthen your alma mater and receive communications about happenings on the Hill. A 12-month installment plan is available for a Life Membership.
*Recent grad rates are available for the first five years after completion of the most recent KU degree. To review all membership levels and benefits, please visit www.kualumni.org/join ISSUE 4, 2011 | 1 recognized in The Best Lawyers in America Thomas Cook, b’85, g’87, l’89, is vice Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she and 2015 and in Texas Super Lawyers 2014. 85 president and general counsel at Air her husband, Randall, e’89, live. Mark Steiner, c’80, was recognized as a Evac Lifeteam. He and his wife, Lisa, live Terrence Zerr, e’86, g’97, is vice presi- Texas Super Lawyer in the October issue in O’Fallon, Missouri. dent of operations at the Missouri Lime of Texas Monthly magazine. He is a Michael Gilliland, e’85, serves on the Company. He and Christine Braley Zerr, partner with Jackson Walker in Austin. board of directors of Gogo, an aero-com- e’87, g’91, live in Wildwood, Missouri. munications service provider. He and Terry Leatherman, j’81, is CEO of Shannon Henry Gilliland, b’84, live in Julie Abels, j’87, works as a market 81 Housing and Credit Counseling in Dallas. 87 consultant for Cox Automotive in Lawrence, where he and Sharon Coeen Stephanie Hearn, j’85, directs advance- Atlanta. Leatherman, j’81, make their home. ment for Gamma Phi Beta in Englewood, Paul Barter, e’87, is senior vice president Diane Schroeder Mendenhall, d’81, is Colorado. She and her husband, Ed of Environmental Systems Design in associate athletic director for development Wassom, live in Superior. Chicago. He and Shereen Khani Barter, and ticket operations at the University of Grady Phelan, f’85, was a grand-prize c’92, live in Bu alo Grove, Illinois. Nebraska in Lincoln. winner in the Wells Fargo Works Project James Berglund II, b’87, l’92, practices Looking for a unique contest. He’s founder of Giant Project Inc. law with ompson & Knight in Dallas. Richard Brunetti, ’82, directs the and developer of ProXR, an ergonomically He was recognized in e Best Lawyers in 82 Kansas Department of Health and designed baseball bat. Grady and his wife, America 2015 and as a Texas Super Lawyer holiday gift idea? Environment’s Bureau of Air. He also Jill, live in St. Louis. in the October issue of Texas Monthly. serves on the Kansas Central Interstate Diana Davis, j’87, was inducted into the The KU Alumni Association has membership packages for all ages! Low-Level Radioactive Waste Commis- Steven Limback, g’86, joined Barge Silver Circle at the 38th Mid-America sion. Richard lives in Topeka. 86 Waggoner Sumner and Canon as a Emmy Gala in September. She’s a news Recent Grad Half-Price Life Membership* David Dibble, c’82, is chief technology hydrologist in Knoxville, Tennessee. anchor at KAIT-TV in Jonesboro, Arkan- o cer at Cablevision Systems Corpora- Phyllis Savage Lynn, c’86, l’89, practices sas, where she and her husband, Mitch For 2009-2014 graduates • $500 single/$750 joint tion. He and Camille Coman Dibble, law with Ho man Kelley Lopez in Wright, make their home. A 12-month installment plan is available. There’s no better way to stay connected to the Hill b’86, live in Belvedere Tiburon, California. and fellow Jayhawks. Gail Hoover, b’82, g’84, is a professor of accounting at Purdue University in West Recent Grad Annual Membership* Lafayette, Indiana. She is a recipient of the For 2009-2014 graduates • $25/$30 joint 2014 AAA Oustanding Service Award. Take advantage of great networking opportunities through events and activities that put you in touch Give a Darren Karst, b’82, is executive vice with fellow Jayhawks. president and chief nancial o cer of Rite gift membership Aid. He and Teresa Consentino Karst, Future Jayhawks Annual Membership and receive a b’81, g’82, live in Lake Forest, Illinois. For ages 0-18 • $15 per child for members, $20 per child for non-members ceramic KU holiday Your Jayhawk-in-training will receive a special birthday card from Baby Jay and a gift from the Alumni Jan Fink Call, c’83, l’87, is legal Association with each annual renewal. Start a true blue tradition today! ornament! 83 counsel for Firmenich in Princeton, New Jersey. KU Student Alumni Association Membership (First in a series of seven) Debra Shipman Carter, b’83, manages For current KU students • $25 for one year/$75 for four year nance for the KU Campus Administra- tion and Operations Shared Service It’s never too early for your student to build personal and professional networks. Center. She and her husband, Gary, g’83, Other Gift Ideas To purchase a live in Lawrence. gift membership, visit Bradley Poss, c’83, m’87, is associate Annual Membership • $55 single/$65 joint dean of graduate medical education at the www.kualumni.org/gift University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where Jayhawk Society • $100 single/$150 joint or call he and Constance Ide Poss, h’84, live. Premium level of annual membership and serves as your “Path to Life” membership Life Membership • $1,000 single/$1,500 joint 800-584-2957 John Martin, j’84, is a managing Strengthen your alma mater and receive communications about happenings on the Hill. 84 member of the JMA Group. He and A 12-month installment plan is available for a Life Membership. Ann Suellentrop Martin, ’74, make their home in Overland Park.
*Recent grad rates are available for the first five years after completion of the most recent KU degree. To review all membership levels and benefits, please visit www.kualumni.org/join ISSUE 4, 2011 | 1 ISSUE 6, 2014 | 55 Class Notes
Gregory Kaul, j’87, is vice president and as a senior account executive at Anthem Paul Essmyer, ’89, works as vice general manager at Hello! Texas in Dallas, Publishing in Leawood, where she 89 president of sales and marketing at where he and his wife, Shannon, live. and her husband, Curtis, h’92, make Ulterius Technologies in Wichita, where Thomas Miller, a’87, works as a project their home. he and Elyse Ungashiek Essmyer, d’89, architect at Slaggie Architects in Kansas Anne Bloomfield Fischer, c’88, l’92, a live. City. His home is in Overland Park. U.S. Navy captain, serves as an admiralty William Feliciano, c’89, teaches math in Michael Reid, ’87, directs public a airs counsel. She and her husband, Je rey, live Long Beach, California. for KU Memorial Unions. He lives in in Alexandria, Virginia. Michael Galiga, l’89, is regional vice Lawrence. Carol Kindred Rivas, c’88, is an execu- president of Access Financial Group in Jay Selanders, l’87, has been named tive virology customer representative at Bethany, Oklahoma. He and Dana managing partner of Kutak Rock in Merck & Company. She and her husband, McGlamery Galiga, f’90, live in Edmond. Kansas City. Michael, c’88, live in Oakland, New Jersey. Laura Kirk, c’89, an independent Patrick Sturgeon, j’87, is news director Peggy Helsel Santoro, ’88, is senior lmmaker, screenwriter and actress, is an at Niles Media in Kansas City. content editor of the Reno Gazette-Journal adjunct lecturer in KU’s department of in Reno, Nevada. lm, media studies and theatre. She and Bryan Becker, m’88, has been Carolyn Szafran, s’88, serves on the her husband, Paul Fellers, live in 88 named associate dean for clinical Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Lawrence. a airs and vice president for physician Board. She’s a eld coordinator and David Woody, f’89, is creative director network development and clinical lecturer at Washburn University in for DreamWorks in Glendale, California. integration at the University of Chicago Topeka, where she lives. Medicine. He and his wife, Yolanda, live in Darrin Clouse, c’90, practices Hinsdale, Illinois. 90 vascular and endovascular surgery Allyson Ackermann Ellis, j’88, works at Massachusetts General Hospital in
56 | KANSAS ALUMNI Boston. He and Krista Hixson Clouse, j’89, Eve Heller Marsh, j’91, is a senior He and Heather Switzer Wagner, e’96, live c’89, live in Bedford. 91 marketing specialist at Terracon. She in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Terry Gatlin, p’90, manages the Dillons lives in Olathe. pharmacy in Pratt, where he and his wife, Michelle, make their home. David Burkhead, c’92, l’95, has a law 93 Katherine Blomgren, a’93, c’93, Donna Westho Rodriguez, h’90, is 92 practice in Overland Park, where he directs nance and global real estate and a sta physical therapist at Overland lives. development for Apple. She lives in San Park Regional Medical Center. Rodney Eisenhauer, e’92, l’96, is vice Francisco. She and her husband, Ernesto, assoc., president and general counsel for Perfor- live in Lenexa. mance Contracting Group in Lenexa. He Thomas Delay, l’94, is chief Matthew Williams, j’90, is North and his wife, Jodi, live in Shawnee. 94 operating o cer at Healthspottr in American CEO of Yooz Inc. He and Kevin Wagner, e’92, g’95, has become San Francisco. He and his wife, Beth, live Patricia Landry Williams, b’90, live in corporate development o cer and senior in Kent eld. Southlake, Texas. vice president of business at Prime Image. Tracy Gaulding, b’94, works as a change
PROFILE by Chris Lazzarino STEVE PUPPE STEVE
Haskell looks within for 1991 to establish the motivational president school’s social work program. She went on enida Chenault’s rst try at college to develop a bachelor’s- Vended abruptly when, in 1975, she le level American Indian what was then Haskell Indian Junior Studies program and in College to be closer to her Topeka family 2005 was named vice a er a brother’s death. She pursued president of academic vocational training at the urging of a a airs. She was named former Haskell mentor, and endured the president in January, painful nancial struggles all too common nally halting the for single, working mothers. school’s recent leader- Now president of Haskell Indian ship turmoils. At Venida Chenault’s September installation as president, Chancellor Nations University—the school’s rst Haskell next spring Bernadette Gray-Little said, “I believe that big things are in store for former student to rise to its top leadership faces a 10-year accredi- Haskell under her leadership.” post—she works in a spacious o ce, her tation review, and she framed KU doctoral degree prominently recently delivered a displayed near the conference table where strategic plan to Haskell’s Board of sizes that Haskell’s needs are part of the she plans strategies for helping current Regents. Faced with funding shortages and national obligations undertaken in treaties students embrace the same educational cutbacks, Chenault is renewing private and trusts that included guarantees of dreams that changed her life. fundraising to generate money for educational opportunities for future When given the right motivation, building repairs and construction. generations of Indian children. Chenault knows rsthand, they can be But nothing is as urgent as education, “Tribes sacri ced millions of acres, surprised by revelations of their abilities. and Chenault estimates challenges must be millions of dollars of resources that were “It’s been like that for me all the way addressed long before students arrive at below ground, water rights, you name it, through,” says Chenault, s’86, s’90, PhD’05. the southeast Lawrence university. and I think we do have a continued “When I graduated with my bachelor’s. “It goes back to community, all the way responsibility to ful ll our commitments When I graduated with my master’s. My back,” she says. “Do we have the kind of to the First People of these lands. doctorate. is position. You kind of have preschool programs that are introducing “We know, as a nation, the value of those ‘who would have thunk?’ moments. little kids to concepts that we are going to education. And if we want to continue I’m always nding myself amazed at what build on throughout their career?” being the leader among leaders, that’s I’ve been able to accomplish.” Chenault, a member of the Prairie Band going to require an investment through Chenault joined the Haskell faculty in Potawatomi and Kickapoo tribes, empha- education. For everybody.”
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 57 Class Notes Travel the World with the Flying Jayhawks 2015 Travel
Polynesian Paradise Kentucky Derby The Great Journey Yangtze River and China JANUARY 14-25 APRIL 30 – MAY 3 through Europe SEPTEMBER 9-23 JULY 7-17 Mystical Andes & Isles & Empires of the Ancient Greece & Turkey Majestic Fjords Adriatic Passage of Lewis and Clark SEPTEMBER 28-OCTOBER 6 FEBRUARY 2-23 MAY 2 -11 Expedition AUGUST 1-9 Machu Picchu, Cusco & Discover Down Under Swiss Alps & Italian Lakes the Sacred Valley FEBRUARY 10-28 MAY 8-17 Nordic Pathways OCTOBER 18-23 AUGUST 1-14 Ancient Cities & Colonial National Parks and Lodges New York – Theatre Tour control business analyst for Kiewit in Academy Band in Annapolis, Maryland, with Johnston Fiss Inurance in Shawnee Splendors of Sri Lanka of the Old West Coastal Maine & New NOVEMBER 25-29 Omaha, Nebraska, where she lives. where he and Kate Neely Williams, ’97, Mission. She and her husband, Ryan FEBRUARY 25-MARCH 11 MAY 23 – JUNE 1 Brunswick William Koehler, g’94, is president and make their home. Sprott, b’95, g’96, live in Mission. He’s a AUGUST 26-SEPTEMBER 2 Holiday Markets CEO at FCI Advisors in Kansas City. He managing partner at Great Range Capital. The Masters Pearls of the Mediterranean DECEMBER 6-17 and Beverly Langel Koehler, g’93, make Sarah Deer, c’96, l’99, was named a APRIL 8-11 JUNE 15-23 Discover Southeast Alaska their home in Leawood. 2014 McArthur Fellow by the John Barbara Beckett Dodson, d’97, g’00, 96 AUGUST 28-SEPTEMBER 4 Dates may be subject to change. D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Founda- 97 is associate director of clinical Island Life Cuba Botswana Safari BORN TO: tion. e fellowship comes with a no- services at Applied Learning Processes in APRIL 19-27 JUNE 24-JULY 7 David Stearns, c’94, and Jennifer, son, strings-attached stipend of $625,000. Kansas City, where she and her husband, Jonah Christopher, July 7 in Olathe, where Sarah and her husband, Neal Axton, l’98, James, make their home. he joins a brother, Jacob, who’s nearly 3. live in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she’s a Lisa Dooley, g’97, is a physical therapist professor at William Mitchell College of for the Spring Hill School District. She Christopher Costello, b’95, co- Law. An advocate for improving the lives in Olathe. 95 founded blooom, an online invest- function of Native American tribal courts, Canyon Knop, c’97, is a deputy test ment company. He and Jennifer McDon- she was instrumental in the passage of the director for the U.S. Air Force in Fort ald Costello, c’98, live in Olathe. Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 and the Walton Beach, Florida. Susan Mosier, m’95, directs the division reauthorization of the Violence Against of health-care nance at the Kansas Women Act in 2013, both of which gave Jennifer Kaul Garcia, d’98, directs Department of Health and Environment more authority to tribal courts. 98 youth engagement at the Oasis in Topeka. She and her husband, David Molly Maxwell, j’96, is a sales executive Center in Nashville, Tennessee. She and Brown, live in Lawrence. her husband, Omer Meho, live in Brad Williams, c’95, g’97, is a discovery Madison. sta attorney at Troutman Sanders in Christopher Howard, d’98, l’01, g’01, Atlanta. directs Division 1 football enforcement for Jarod Williams, f’95, g’03, serves as a the NCAA in Indianapolis. senior chief petty o cer in the U.S. Naval Amanda Glenn Schnepf, c’98, and her
58 | KANSAS ALUMNI Travel the World with the Flying Jayhawks 2015 Travel
Polynesian Paradise Kentucky Derby The Great Journey Yangtze River and China JANUARY 14-25 APRIL 30 – MAY 3 through Europe SEPTEMBER 9-23 JULY 7-17 Mystical Andes & Isles & Empires of the Ancient Greece & Turkey Majestic Fjords Adriatic Passage of Lewis and Clark SEPTEMBER 28-OCTOBER 6 FEBRUARY 2-23 MAY 2 -11 Expedition AUGUST 1-9 Machu Picchu, Cusco & Discover Down Under Swiss Alps & Italian Lakes the Sacred Valley FEBRUARY 10-28 MAY 8-17 Nordic Pathways OCTOBER 18-23 AUGUST 1-14 Ancient Cities & Colonial National Parks and Lodges New York – Theatre Tour Splendors of Sri Lanka of the Old West Coastal Maine & New NOVEMBER 25-29 FEBRUARY 25-MARCH 11 MAY 23 – JUNE 1 Brunswick AUGUST 26-SEPTEMBER 2 Holiday Markets The Masters Pearls of the Mediterranean DECEMBER 6-17 APRIL 8-11 JUNE 15-23 Discover Southeast Alaska AUGUST 28-SEPTEMBER 4 Dates may be subject to change. Island Life Cuba Botswana Safari APRIL 19-27 JUNE 24-JULY 7 husband, Kelly, live in Scottsdale, Arizona, City, where he joins a sister, Parker, 5. medicine at Hays Medical Center in Hays, with their daughters, Larsen, 8, and Amy Hester Minor, c’99, works as where she and her husband, Vaughn, b’00, Blake, 1. 99 an environmental scientist for make their home. Byron Smith, g’98, is city manager of Southwest Research. She and her husband, Melody Ard Spurney, j’00, coordinates Hermiston, Oregon. Phillip, live in San Antonio. the Newton Convention and Visitor’s Christopher Warren, c’98, works as a Center in Newton, where she and her historian and project manager for South- Lindsey Gaston, c’00, is a senior husband, Blake, j’93, make their home. eastern Archaeological Research in 00 lecturer at Liverpool John Moores Spring eld, Virginia. He and his wife, University in Liverpool, England. MARRIED Jennifer, live in Centreville. Thomas Nienke, c’00, is an orthopedic Erin Hummert, e’00, m’04, to Garrett spine surgeon at Mid-America Orthope- Young, July 5 in Chevy Chase, Maryland. BORN TO: dics in Wichita. He and Jennifer Novak Erin is a physician and associate professor Lung, b’99, and Courtney Cotter Huang, Nienke, c’98, live in Andover. at Bethel Teaching Hospital in Addis j’00, son, Archie Parks, June 8 in New York Anne Porter O’Dea, c’00, m’04, practices Ababa, Ethiopia, and Garrett is program
PROFILE by Carol Crupper STEVE PUPPE STEVE
Wounded warrior starts saw it as a new beginning,” he says. anew helping other vets He studied various social movements throughout im Hornik, s’10, was on combat patrol history, noting that many Tin Iraq on Nov. 11, 2004, when a advances, especially in sniper’s bullet ripped through his le eye medical arenas, occurred and exited his right eye, leaving him through veterans’ organiza- blinded. Today, the retired U.S. Army tions. “I knew I needed to be captain sees the world that wounded a part of these movements in veterans face quite clearly and has made it order to create lasting change his mission to champion their cause. in my own life and the lives of A dedicated student and family man, so many others,” he says. Tim Hornik feels his advocacy on behalf of other wounded Hornik keeps a busy schedule of advocacy. A er earning his master’s, veterans contributes to his own recovery. “It introduces me to As vice president of the Blinded Veterans he thought his best chance for new ways of thinking and bettering myself,” he says. Association, Heartland Regional Group, a ful lling life would be to he travels frequently on behalf of vets. In retire from the Army and his blog, “Blind Not Alone,” he reports on pursue a PhD in therapeutic ability to draw on his personal experience medical news, encourages pursuit of sciences, which he’s doing now with the to inspire others,” Canda says. higher education, helps vets navigate new help of a KU Wounded Warrior Scholar- As a PhD student, Hornik faces and technology and shares his stories. ship. His goal is to devote himself to conquers challenges of his own in gaining A er earning his Army commission in full-time advocacy for visually impaired access to materials, nding ways to read 2002, the Chicago native deployed to Iraq vets. spreadsheets and arranging transportation in 2004. Two months later he was shot. “I enjoy advocacy,” he says, “everything to his classes in Kansas City. Disabled vets A er recovery, he returned to active duty, from simple things like talking to a need reliable public transit, specialized where one of his jobs was evaluating neighbor about blindness to contacting computer technology, greater public emerging technologies. our elected o cials about issues.” awareness. What’s more, they need to A Wounded Warrior Scholarship from And he’s good at it, says Edward Canda, reclaim their self-worth, Hornik says. “If the Army changed the trajectory of professor of social welfare. He watched you can re-identify yourself as something Hornik’s life. Always drawn to helping Hornik grow into an e ective advocate on other than military, you will be able to people, he thought social work would state and national stages: sharing technol- move forward again.” make him happy. In the School of Social ogy skills, helping people identify barriers —Crupper, d’67, is a Lawrence Welfare he found a t. “My wife and I and solutions. “Tim shows a remarkable freelance writer.
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 61 62 | KANSAS ALUMNI manager for CHAI’s Health Financing March 14 in Wichita, where they live. MARRIED program. Dulcinea is vice president of treatment Andrew Belot, c’05, g’13, and Lisa service at Preferred Family Healthcare, Burgess, ’06, May 24 in Scottsdale, Roger Dietz, c’01, g’06, m’09, and Dallas is a partner in the law rm of Virginia. He’s the business manager at 01 practices medicine at Hays Medical McDonald, Tinker, Skaer, Quinn and Hinge Marketing, and she directs media Center in Hays. Herrington. relations for the U.S. Chamber of Com- Tansy Brooks Hayward, c’01, g’03, is merce. ey live in Arlington. assistant city manager for services in Ryan Peschka, c’03, g’08, is chief Tacoma, Washington, where she and her 03 nancial o cer at First Bank BORN TO: husband, Chris, make their home. Kansas. He and Amber Wilson Peschka, Allan Hemmy, c’05, and Jessica, assoc., Amanda Kaschube, j’01, works as digital b’02, live in Ellsworth. son, Logan Phog, May 13 in Ventura, sports editor at the Chicago Tribune. Sarah Morrison Rapelye, c’03, b’03, l’06, California. Allan is an exploration Robert Mogolov, c’01, works as general is contract manager for the Cerner geologist at BNK Petroleum in Camarillo, manager of Cramer Products in Gardner. Corporation in Kansas City. and Jessica is a private chef in Malibu. He lives in Olathe. Brian Muellner, a’01, is a project BORN TO: Jayme Aschemeyer, c’06, is an architect at HGA Architects and Engineers Christina Schnose, c’03, m’07, and Luis 06 endocrinology fellow at Wayne in Rochester, Minnesota. Salazar, m’07, son, Guillermo, July 24 in State University in Detroit, Michigan. Tamara Signer Niles, l’01, is city Lawrence, where he joins a brother, Diego, attorney of Arkansas City and legal 5. Christina is a cardiologist at Lawrence BORN TO: counsel for USD 470. Memorial Hospital, and Luis is a primary Matthew, ’06, and Karen Woltersdorf, Christopher Stoppel, b’01, g’02, is care sports medicine physician at p’14, son, Keir Van, July 20 in Lawrence, executive associate for the vice provost of OrthoKansas. where they live. Matthew manages administration and nance at KU. He and Parkway Wine and Spirits. his wife, Meghan, live in Lawrence. Melissa Suchy Herrman, m’04, Melissa Thomson, j’01, manages 04 practices family medicine at the Lindsay Barnett, j’07, manages business development for TREKK Design Cotton O’Neil Clinic in Topeka, where she 07 marketing at Westwood College in Group in Kansas City. and her husband, Tate, make their home. Denver. Joshua Keepes, c’04, l’07, directs Mendy Borough, b’07, works as a Vicente Avila III, e’02, manages regulatory a airs for the American personal banker at CrossFirst Bank in 02 division operations for Westar Gastroenterological Association in Overland Park. She lives in Lenexa. Energy in Emporia. Bethesda, Maryland. His home is in John Mahoney, b’07, g’08, manages Jamel Cruze-Bell, g’02, PhD’04, directs Chevy Chase. accounting at NBH Bank in Kansas City, diversity initiatives and strategy at Eureka Patrick McCarty, f’04, g’14, is director where he and Amanda Cooper Mahoney, College in Eureka, Illinois. of bands at Bellevue East High School in b’06, make their home. She’s assistant Peter Innes, m’02, is a surgeon at Bellevue, Nebraska. controller at Jack Cooper Transport. Payson Surgery Associates in Payson, Brittany Meagher, c’07, works as a Arizona. Joel Bannister, l’05, is an associate geologist at Marathon Oil Corporation. Miguel L’Heureux, c’02, l’05, directs the 05 with McGuireWoods in Dallas. She lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. presidential personnel o ce at the White Michael Barnicle, c’05, works as an Cathryn Monroe, d’07, commutes from House in Washington, D.C., where he associate at Duane Morris in Chicago. De Soto to Lawrence, where she’s a teacher lives. Nathan Dormer, e’05, PhD’11, directs with USD 497. Christopher Moore, b’02, is chief formulation sciences at Orbis Biosciences Mason Tyler, f’07, performed on his nancial o cer for Innsbrook in Wright in Kansas City. He lives in Mission. trumpet with the Kansas City Symphony City, Missouri. He and his wife, Christy, Jacquelyn Jensen, e’05, is midstream at the Kau man Center for the Performing live in Dardenne Prairie. S&D controls advisor for ExxonMobil. She Arts last summer. He and Jessica Wester- Nicole Nies, l’02, is a principal at lives in Fairfax, Virginia. man Tyler, h’06, g’08, live in Lawrence. Ho man Crews Nies Waggener & Foster Corinne Hale Reid, d’05, g’07, is athletic in Greenwood Village, Colorado. She lives director for the Neosho R-5 school district. BORN TO: in Denver. She and her husband, Nicholas, c’15, make Karlo, c’07, and Paola Galaviz Ponce, their home in Joplin, Missouri. p’97, son, Noah, May 9 in Wichita. BORN TO: Renee Watson, c’05, has been named Dulcinea King Rakestraw, s’02, and dean of students at the University of Mark Buckman, c’08, g’14, a Dallas, c’03, l’06, daughter, Emerson, Pikeville in Pikeville, Kentucky. 08 special-education teacher at
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 63 Class Notes
Pinckney Elementary School, received the Tyler Schwenk, c’09, g’14, works as a MARRIED Lawrence School District’s Horizon research geophysicist at XRI Geophysics in Chelsea Montgomery, c’10, m’14, and Award, which recognizes exemplary Vicksburg, Mississippi. Thomas Powell, ’11, April 26 in Overland novice teachers. Mark lives in Lawrence. Park. She’s a pediatrics resident at Chil- Tyler Cook, j’08, is product manager at Wesley Gapp, g’10, PhD’14, is a dren’s Mercy Hospital, and he’s a represen- Cramer Products. He lives in Lawrence. 10 geologist with Chevron. He lives in tative at Basic Financial Solutions. ey Zachary Lerner, l’08, is principal Houston. live in Fairway. attorney at Lerner Venture Law in Alyx Schmidt Hubler, g’10, b’10, works Albuquerque, New Mexico. as assistant controller at Tradebot Systems Meredith Caldwell, c’11, manages Kathryn Ault VanderVelde, c’08, is a in Shawnee. 11 sales for Magic Moments in Dallas, pediatrics resident at Phoenix Children’s Alexander, j’10, and Corinn Rotter where she makes her home. Hospital. She and her husband, Joel, m’14, Reinhard, c’11, celebrated their rst Sara Exon, c’11, works as a contract live in Phoenix. anniversary in August. ey live in administrator at Koch Ag & Energy Stamford, Connecticut. Solutions in Wichita. BORN TO: Amelia Gaston Scheuer, d’10, and Jonathan Hermes, j’11, c’12, is chief Sean, c’08, and Jessica Sands McIntosh, Michael, b’10, celebrated their rst operating o cer and general manager at ’08, son, Mason Quinn, Aug. 27 in anniversary in July. ey live in Olathe, Tikwid in Denver. Lawrence. Sean owns Vetlaunch in Lenexa. and Amelia, teaches h grade at Wheat- Wesley Kimmell, c’11, is an associate ridge Middle School in Gardner. with the Wichita law rm of Foulston Julie Feldt, c’09, is a zooniverse Sie in. 09 educator at the Adler Planetarium Erin England Manuel, c’11, works as a in Chicago, where she makes her home. web-content specialist for Washburn Sharon Ramos, c’09, l’13, is an associate University’s Information Technology attorney with Tressler & Associates in Services in Topeka. She lives in Lawrence. Lebanon, Tennessee. She makes her home Abigail Rimel, e’11, is a strategic in Nashville. planning engineer for Sterling Energy in
64 | KANSAS ALUMNI Sterling, Colorado. She lives in Aurora. and Kendra coordinates group sales MARRIED Stefany Grod Williams, g’11, has been and special events for the Kansas City Kortney Friess, h’12, g’14, to Christo- named president and CEO of Goodwill Royals. pher Traylor, July 12 in Wichita. She’s an Industries of Western Missouri. She lives occupational therapist at Pawnee Valley in Kansas City with her husband, Keith. Sean Foley, l’12, practices law Community Hospital in Larned, and he’s a 12 with Lathrop & Gage in lineman with Midwest Energy. ey live MARRIED Kansas City. in Great Bend. Sarah Grewing, c’11, g’14, to Kevin Ernest Shepard, c’12, g’14, is assistant Richards, July 19 in Topeka, where they director of community standards and Steven McCaskill, g’13, is a talent make their home. She’s a school psycholo- student conduct at the University of 13 acquisition lead at American Eagle gist, and he’s a senior payroll production Washington. He lives in Seattle. Out tters in Ottawa. He and his wife, analyst at BNSF Railway. Aaron Speier, c’12, works as a merchan- Taran, live in Lawrence. Kendra Zink, c’11, to Ryan Leiker, Sept. diser for Bartlett Grain Company in Ashley Shogren, p’13, p’14, is a 13. ey live in Blue Springs, Missouri, Kansas City. He lives in Overland Park. pharmacist at El Dorado TrueCare
PROFILE by Steven Hill STEVE PUPPE STEVE
says Spencer curator Stitches in time paint story Susan Earle. “It’s brilliant of family’s, nation’s life how they are a text to be read, a whole life.” s a girl growing up in Kingman, “We really enjoyed the AVirgina Jean Cox Mitchell loved to go holidays—Christmas, to the church basement, where rows of Easter, Fourth of July— quilting frames stood draped in sheets: and I always hated for e Sunday-stilled work of ladies who them to be over,” made and sold quilts to bene t the church. Mitchell recalls. “So I “I’d peek under to see what the quilts started making a quilt for looked like,” she recalls. Twice-yearly trips each one.” Mitchell made many of her quilts, which feature a complex mix of to Wichita, where big applique quilts hung In the weeks before a text and imagery, for use in family celebrations. “I just tried to make on walls at Innes Department Store, also holiday and for a short them as nice as I could.” fascinated. “I always liked quilts as a child.” time a er, she’d work on So when she married and started a a quilt then put away the family, a er earning her design degree, un nished piece until Mitchell, f’53, began quilting to make next year, moving to the next holiday “China Trade With Miss Liberty, U.S.A.” something nice for the home. Rather than project. was stitched in 1986 for the Statue of follow published patterns, she designed Most quilts took multiple years to nish, Liberty centenary, “Of ee I Sing” for the her own quilts to celebrate holidays, family and many commemorate family moments: 1976 U.S. bicentennial. e quilts were her history and national milestones. Her rst “Bill Willie’s Factotum Whirligig,” a way of participating in the communal quilts, made for her son’s bed, were birthday gi to her husband, longtime enthusiasm for those events. “It seemed stitched from scraps of family clothes. curator at Spencer Research Library, is like our whole nation was a little happier In 2013, Mitchell and her husband, Bill, dense with visual images and text that then,” she says. “It was an exciting time.” c’59, donated nearly 20 quilts and tops evoke his family history and favorite Mitchell is happy to have her quilts at along with dozens of Kansas quilt blocks activities. It took four years—and required the Spencer, even though she says, “I don’t to the Spencer Museum of Art, which one revision. really think of myself as an artist.” showcased the 60-year-in-the-making “Two little gures on it are grandsons,” “I never wanted to be anything but a collection of vibrant handwork in the she says. “ en a granddaughter came housewife, and that’s what I’ve been able to exhibition “Personal Geometry.” along, and I had to put her on there. It just be. I wanted to be a good mother and “ ey are so carefully cra ed and kind of grew with the family.” grandmother and enjoy my cooking, my constructed from a design perspective,” Others celebrate national moments: gardening and my quiltmaking.”
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 65 Class Notes
Lawrence, where he lives. Lawrence Flanagan, b’14, is an invest- GREAT GIFT IDEA! GREAT GIFT IDEA! GREAT GIFT IDEA! ment banking analyst at UBS. He lives in New York City. Kendra Green, g’14, is a category It’s almost this easy. leadership analyst for Nestle USA in Glendale, California. She lives in ! Pasadena. Von Hansen, ’14, is an adjunct professor of percussion at Friends University in Wichita. Mason Jones, e’14, works as a process engineer for Chevron Phillips Chemical Company. His home is in Chester eld. Missouri. Lily Li, b’14, coordinates imports for OEC Group in Kansas City. Michael Mapp, g’14, directs bands at Washburn University in Topeka. He lives Jayhawk License Plate purchases and renewals in Lawrence. are now easier with one payment to your county James McKinney, e’14, works as an treasurer. A $50 annual tax-deductible contribution to the KU Alumni Association is still part of the cost, engineer at Honda Research & Develop- but now you can pay it along with your normal state ment Americas. He lives in Dublin, Ohio. tag fees and vehicle taxes. By mail, online or in Carlos Munoz, c’14, teaches at Cunning- person, it’s as easy as Rock Chalk! ham Elementary School in Houston. For more information, please visit kualumni.org Jamie Neibling, g’14, works as a teacher or call 800-584-2957. and a learning coach for the North Kansas City Public Schools. She makes her home in Kansas City. Ehren Schmiedeler, e’14, is a structural Pharmacy. Her home is in Wichita. designer at Hatchett Design Remodel in engineer for Kiewit in Lenexa. He lives in Darcy Yunker, b’13, works as an HRIS Newport News, Virginia, Mission. and compensation analyst at Friends Julia Chasen, c’14, j’14, works as an Christopher Shelton, l’14, works as an University in Wichita. account executive for JNA Advertising. associate attorney for Roderick H. Polston She lives in Olathe. in Norman, Oklahoma. He lives in MARRIED Dan Chen, PhD’14, is an assistant Perkins. Heather Goertz, p’13, p’14, to Chase professor of political science and Asian Carl Spaeth, g’14, directs jazz studies Galle, Aug. 9 in Pratt, where they live. She’s studies at Elizabethtown College in and is a saxophone instructor at South a pharmacist at Dillon’s Pharmacy, and he Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, where he Dakota State University in Brookings. works for Hutton Construction. lives. Amber Thoennes, u’14, was the bass Kirsten Clevenger, l’14, practices law trombonist of the 2014 Disney All-Ameri- Levi Allison, u’14, teaches music at with Dunn & Davison in Kansas City. She can College Band in Anaheim, California, 14 the American International School lives in Shawnee. last summer. of Kuwait. Johnathan Daniels, ’14, directs instru- Sara Volweider, s’14, teaches English Ethan Bartley, u’14, performed on mental music for the Concordia R-2 with Connexus, a language institute in his trumpet with the Kansas City Sym- School District in Concordia, Missouri. South Korea. phony at the Kau man Center for the Cassandra Dickerson, l’14, directs Andrea Wilson, u’14, teaches music at Performing Arts last summer. He lives student-athlete development for Kansas Independence Academy in Independence, in Lawrence. Athletics. She lives in Lawrence. Missouri. Tarik Black, ’14, signed a two-year Luke Dull, g’14, is a professor of instru- contract to play basketball with the mental music at Highland Community MARRIED Houston Rockets. His home is in Mem- College in Highland. Jacquelyn Pulsfus, c’14, and Spencer phis, Tennessee. Paul Epp, g’14, works as managing Merryfield, ’14, Aug. 20 in Shawnee. ey Eileen Byrne, a’14, works as an interior director of Foster Care Technologies in make their home in Lawrence.
66 | KANSAS ALUMNI Special thanks to these sponsors and volunteers who helped make the Thank you! Jayhawk Roundup a success: Jayhawk Benefactor • $5,000 University Friends • $1,000 Bob and Linda Nugent Kansas Athletics KU Endowment Association Sam Ritchie—Triplett, Wolf Scott & Carol Ritchie KU School of Business and Garretson, LLC Security 1st Title KU School of Medicine—Wichita Frank and Laura Suellentrop KU School of Pharmacy Jayhawk Patron • $2,500 Jayhawk Roundup Chairs Hinkle Law Firm LLC Roundup Host • $400 Glenn and Camille Nyberg Scott and Michele Banks, Banks Crimson & Blue • $1,500 Resources Venue Sponsors Jerry and Lucy Burtnett Bob and Martha Buford Janet & Dave Murfin Jim and Ruthie Gillespie Randall Elam and Valerie Phillips Je and Corey Johnson Emprise Bank Sponsorship Committee Arthur and Carol Lonborg Foulston Siefkin LLP Je Kennedy Joe and Sarah Nold Larry and Dana Fugate Glenn and Camille Nyberg Jim and Reneé Phillips Edward & Helen Healy Sue Watson Richard D. Smith IMA Financial Group, Inc. Kurt and Sue Watson INTRUST Bank Food Jayhawk Landmen Security 1st Title True Blue • $125 Martin Pringle Law Firm Trues MV Purchasing, LLC Anna Ritchie, Martin Pringle Law Firm Scott and Carole Ochs Bob Benson and Noreen Carrocci Auction Chairs Josh and Ashley Cook Bobby Patton Courtney & Pete Krsnich Peterson, Peterson & Goss CrossFirst Bank UMB Bank Dondlinger Construction Decorations Taylor Gill Waste Connections Chris Jeter, chair Beau Hudson Jim Burgess, set design Paul and Debra Kelsey Legacy Bank In Memory He also was professor emeritus of geology at the University of South Dakota, where he chaired the earth resources department. Surviving are a daughter; two sons, one of Sallie Bachelor Armstrong, c’39, survived by two sons, Fred Jr., b’72, whom is Scott, g’76; two grandchildren; 30s 95, May 15 in Carmel, California. and omas, ’76; two daughters, one of and two great-grandchildren. A daughter, a son and three granddaughters whom is Mary Bosilevac Beeman, ’72; Walt Meyers, e’48, 92, Dec. 13 in Rio survive. four grandchildren; and four Rancho, New Mexico. He worked for more Virginia Edmiston Berney, c’38, 98, Sept. great-grandchildren. than 40 years at the Los Alamos National 17 in Atchison. She was a retired social Dorothy Koepke Clarke, n’48, 86, March Laboratory, where he specialized in the worker and had worked for the Kansas 13 in Round Rock, Texas. A memorial has application of technology toward conven- Department of Social and Rehabilitation been established with KU Endowment. tional military weapons. He is survived by Services for 15 years. Surviving are three She is survived by her husband, Gene, e’53, three daughters, one of whom is Mary daughters, two of whom are Kate Berney g’56; a daughter; a son; a brother; and four Meyers Perkins, ’66; two sons; nine Werring, s’83, and Virginia Berney grandchildren. grandchildren; and 12 O’Malley, ’81; a son; 10 grandchildren; and Dalton Eash, e’48, 91, Feb. 16 in Seattle, great-grandchildren. nine great-grandchildren. where he was retired from a 35-year career William Mundy, c’43, m’45, 92, Sept. 26 Retha Poos Lallier, c’39, 97, Sept. 25 in with Boeing. He is survived by a son, a in Shawnee, where he was a retired Lenexa, where she was a retired elementary daughter and a grandson. physician. He is survived by his wife, Carol school teacher. She is survived by two Mary Catherine Shatzell Eash, ’48, 87, Fittell Mundy, n’67; a daughter, Karen, daughters, Beth Lallier Lucas, d’70, and Kay Nov. 17, 2013, in Seattle, where she was a c’79; and a son, Kevin, ’82. Lallier Grant, c’73; ve grandchildren; and retired interior designer. She is survived by Phillip Russell, c’42, m’44, 92, Sept. 19 12 great-grandchildren. a son; a daughter; a sister, Sue Shatzell in Wichita, where he was retired from a Phyllis Foust Wales, b’39, 96, July 24 in Farmer, c’62; and a grandson. long career practicing medicine at Wichita Klamath Falls, Oregon, where she was Jack Forbes, b’47, 90, Sept. 17 in Prairie Clinic. Among survivors are a son; three active in civic a airs. She is survived by a Village, where he was a real-estate daughters; a stepdaughter; a stepson, daughter, a granddaughter and a appraiser. He was active in professional William Woolley, l’86, g’86; ve grandchil- great-grandson. and community a airs. Surviving are a dren; and a great-grandchild. son, Hugh, b’77, g’79; a daughter, Jaymie Charlotte Frichot Wood, c’43, 92, May John Anderson Jr., c’43, l’44, Forbes Bonavia, j’80; and a granddaughter. 24 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she was 40s 97, Sept. 15 in Olathe. He served Ralph Grier b’48, 89, Jan. 1 in Mount retired from teaching biology at Edison as 36th governor of Kansas, from 1961 to Hope. He is survived by two sons, three High School. ree daughters, ve 1965, and also had served in the Kansas daughters, a brother, a sister, nine grand- grandchildren and three great-grandchil- Senate and as Kansas attorney general. In children and seven great-grandchildren. dren survive. 1996, the Johnson County Bar Association Harry Jennison, c’44, m’47, 90, March gave him the Justinian Award, its highest 24 in Palo Alto, California, where he John Bannigan, j’51, 89, July 10 in honor. He is survived by two sons, practiced pediatrics for many years. He 50sArlington, Virginia. He was a John III, c’70, and David, e’74, g’04; a also had been a clinical professor of specialist in international development daughter, Kerry Anderson Russell, d’73; pediatrics at Stanford University and was and health policy and spent 25 years with six grandchildren; and six executive director of the American e Asia Foundation. In 1964, the king of great-grandchildren. Academy of Pediatrics. Surviving are his Laos decorated him as Chevalier of the Alamada Bollier Barrett, c’47, 92, Nov. wife, Sally, four daughters and eight Order of the Million Elephants and White 17, 2013, in Van Nuys, California.She was grandchildren. Parasol. He is survived by his wife, Rose, a retired medical editor at the UCLA Jules Barbara “Bobbee” Hahn Johnson, d’44, daughter and two grandchildren. Stein Eye Institute and was active in the 91, Sept. 18 in Mission. She lived in St. Kernie Binyon, c’52, m’56, 90, Sept. 23 League of Women Voters and the American John for most of her life and is survived by in Wichita, where he was a retired family Medical Writers Association. Two daugh- her husband, Harry, d’43; two daughters, medicine physician. He is survived by a ters and three grandchildren survive. Marcia Johnson Suiter, ’67, and Nancy son, Tom, ’79; a daughter, Sandra Binyon Fred Bosilevac, c’41, m’43, 97, Aug. 22 in Johnson Batchelder, c’74; two sons, one of Finchum, ’85; four grandchildren; and a Mission Woods, where he was a retired whom is Todd, c’75; nine grandchildren; great-grandson. ophthalmologist. He played basketball and and eight great-grandchildren. Jack Collins, ’55, 84, Sept. 20 in Bel- football for KU and studied with Dr. James Duncan McGregor, c’43, 93, Sept. 14 in leville, where he moved from Lawrence in Naismith, the inventor of basketball and Vermillion, where he was the South 2004. He had been an agent for Mitchell KU’s rst men’s basketball coach. He is Dakota state geologist from 1963 to 1981. Realty and for Hedges Realty and had
68 | KANSAS ALUMNI served as treasurer of the Lawrence Realty is survived by two daughters, Katherine, in Overland Park, where he was retired Association. Surviving are two sons, Jack c’81, j’81, and Rebecca Means Schneide- from a career at United Telecom and Jr., f’82, g’89, and Steven, f’83. wind, j’89; and a grandson. Sprint. Two sisters survive. Warren Edmonds Jr., c’50, 90, July 8 in Ralph Moore, a’52, 89, July 6 in Lee’s Jo Ann Rutherford Ely, g’69, 88, Sept. 14 Excelsior Springs, Missouri. He was a Summit, Missouri, where he was retired in Andover, where she retired from retired eld research supervisor for from careers with Keene, Simpson and teaching English at Topeka High School. Nor-Am Chemical. Survivng are two sons, Murphy and Black & Veatch. He is She is survived by two daughters, a son, a a daughter, nine grandchildren and nine survived by a son, a daughter, a brother sister, eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. and two grandchildren. great-grandchildren. Keith Gish, d’56, 82, April 24 in Vallejo, Otto Payton, c’56, 84, Sept. 4 in Jennifer Nilsson Erck, d’68, g’70, 67, California, where he was retired. He had Richmond, where he had chaired the June 10 in Mulberry Grove, Illinois. She is been an audiologist in Fairbanks, Alaska, department of physical therapy at Virginia survived by her husband, Wayne, d’68, for many years. Surviving are his wife, Commonwealth University. In 2004, the g’70; two daughters; a son; and nine Phyllis McConkey Gish, d’57; two sons; Otto D. Payton Professorship of Physical grandchildren. two daughters; six grandchildren; and erapy was created at VCU by one of his Everett Johnson, e’62, PhD’69, 78, July three great-grandchildren. former students. A daughter and two 22 in Tucson, Arizona. He was chair of the Ray Griswold, e’54, 83, July 8 in granddaughters survive. electrical and computer engineering Wichita, where he was a retired project Fred Rollins Jr., c’50, g’52, 86, May 31 department at Wichita State University engineer with Cessna. He is survived by in Overland Park, where he was a research and had served two terms in the Kansas his wife, Eldena Brownlee Griswold, f’53; physicist and engineer at Midwest House of Representatives. He is survived a son, Michael, e’79, g’80; two daughters; Research Institute and Black & Veatch. He by his wife, Marsha Meyers Johnson, ’61; two brothers, Carl Jr., ’49, and Clark, b’50; is survived by his wife, Mary Frances, two a son, Will, e’87; a daughter; and two and three grandchildren. daughters and ve grandchildren. grandchildren. Donna Clark Halliday, n’52, 85, Sept. 26 Pete Rush, b’55, 79, Feb. 6 in Dallas, Randle Johnson, c’68 m’72, 67, May 9 in Los Altos, California, where she was a where he was former vice president of in Hutchinson, where he was a gastroen- retired nurse. She is survived by four sons, sales at McQueary Henry Bowles Troy. terologist and liver specialist at Hutchin- one of whom is John, ’80; a daughter; four Surviving are his wife, Donna, two sons, a son Medical Center. He is survived by his grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter. daughter, a brother, eight grandchildren wife, Patsy, a daughter and two Robert Heady, b’50, 93, June 11 in and a great-granddaughter. grandchildren. Peculiar, Missouri, where he was a retired John Kartsonis, e’69, 82, April 19 in accountant and investment banker. A son James Bauer, b’61, 74, Dec. 31 in Kansas City, where he had owned Kartso- and a brother survive. 60sIndependence, where he was nis Enterprises. He is survived by his wife, Dick Hughes, b’54, 83, Sept. 14 in retired from a 30-year career with the U.S. Sultana Zografos Kartsonis, ’87; two sons; Sabetha, where he was the fourth- Department of Defense in charge of two daughters; a granddaughter; and a generation owner of Hughes Clothing. security investigations. He is survived by great-granddaughter. He is survived by his wife, Patricia Roney his wife, Margaret Nor eet Bauer, ’63; two Philip Kimball, c’63, 73, Sept. 20 in Hughes, d’54; a son, Michael, d’79; a sons, one of whom is Clinton, b’95; a Lawrence, where he was a storyteller and daughter; and three grandchildren. daughter; and six grandsons. poet. He is survived by his wife, Jennifer Irving Johnson, Phd’53, 89, July 10 in Helen Ann Whalen Coleman, n’66, 72, Brown, assoc.; two daughters; and two Sanibel, Florida. He was retired vice June 29 in Lawrence, where she was brothers, one of whom is Alan, c’61. president of research at Eli Lilly & retired from USD 497 as a paraprofes- Max Klamm, d’63, g’71, 74, June 13 in Company and collaborated with Jonas Salk sional for children with special needs. She Kansas City, where he coordinated on the production of the rst batch of is survived by a daughter; a son, Steven, foreign-language instruction for the polio vaccine for clinical trials. He ’92; two sisters; and four grandchildren. Kansas City Kansas Board of Education. endowed the Irving S. Johnson Distin- Montague Davis, b’65, l’68, 71, Dec. 27 Surviving are his wife, Janice Rappard guished Professorship in Molecular in Tucson, Arizona, where he practiced Klamm, c’62; a daughter, Cindy Klamm Biology at KU, and he received the law for nearly 40 years. He is survived by Everhart, h’89; three sons, two of whom Distinguished Service Citation from the his wife, Diane Murphy Davis, ’68; two are David, ’95, and Brian, d’96, d’98; and Alumni Association in 2006. Surviving are daughters; and ve grandchildren. 11 grandchildren. his wife, Alwyn, two daughters, two sons Carl Dell Jr., g’61, 86, Sept. 17 in Topeka, Melville Linscott Jr., c’65, 70, April 22 and eight grandchildren. where he was retired from a career in in Salt Lake City, where he was a professor William Means, b’54, 84, Sept. 21 in St. personnel with the State of Kansas. A of surgery and director of the emergency- Joseph, Missouri, where he had a nearly sister survives. medicine department at the University of 40-year career as a salesman for IBM. He Donald Dragosh, d’69, g’75, 68, April 29 Utah. Surviving are his wife, Nora; two
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 69 In Memory sons; a daughter; a brother, Lester, ’69; a Western, d’70; and four grandchildren. teacher, musician and arts supporter. Two sister; and seven grandchildren. daughters survive. William McGrath, c’68, 68, April 20 in Meryl Aronin, g’71, 71, May 2 in Danny Hewes, g’71, 66, Aug. 7 in Kansas City, where he was a retired 70sStamford, Connecticut, where he Cimarron, where he was a retired nance nancial planner and former Peace Corps was a retired speech-language pathologist. manager at Boeing. He is survived by his volunteer. He is survived by his wife, He is survived by his wife, Judith, two sons wife, Lynn, a daughter, two sons, his Patricia; two sons, one of whom is Edward, and two grandchildren. stepfather, three brothers and a sister. e’04; two daughters, one of whom is Katie Charles Blankenship Jr., c’78, 62, Aug. 4 Catherine Klee Ledbetter, c’75, 62, June McGrath Machanda, m’01; two brothers; in Cincinnati, where he was director of 26 in Houston. She had been a medical and nine grandchildren. institutional sales at Saint Anthony technologist at Park Plaza Hospital. Her Bernadette Remus Menhusen, PhD’63, Messenger Press. Surviving are his wife, husband, James, c’76; a daughter; a son; a 86, Sept. 28 in Wichita. She had been an Elizabeth Smith Blankenship, d’80; two brother; and three sisters survive. associate professor of botany at Emporia daughters; a son; six sisters, one of whom Gus Lind Jr., b’72, e’72, g’78, 65, Sept. 8 State University and an adjunct professor is Sallie Blankenship Wetschensky, c’88; in Shawnee. He had been senior project at Friends University and Butler County and two grandchildren. engineer for the city of Lenexa. Surviving Community College. Several nieces, James Buescher, b’70, 68, Jan. 1 in are his wife, Trudy Hutton Lind, ’73; three nephews and cousins survive. Manhattan Beach, California, where he sons; three sisters, Mary, ’74, Margaret Janet Steck Nuzman, g’67, 82, Aug. 27 was a partner and chief operating o cer of Lind Rose, f’75, d’77, g’83, and Eleanor, in Silver Lake. She was an assistant PromoShop, a promotional-products c’86; a brother, Jack, c’78; and two professor of physical education at Wash- agency. He is survived by hs wife, Bobbi, granddaughters. burn University, where she taught for and a sister. Ronald Loneski, d’70, 77, Aug. 1 in more than 30 years. She is survived by her Susan Calbeck, j’76, 60, July 30 in Lawrence. He taught at Lincoln Prep High husband, Carl, g’66; a brother; and a sister. Wichita, where she worked in corporate School and was named San Diego Coach William O’Connor, PhD’67, 74, Feb. 7 in communications for Boeing and Spirit of the Year in 1991. While at KU, he played Lexington, Kentucky. He was a psycholo- AeroSystems. She is survived by a brother, basketball and was part of the 1957 NCAA gist and researcher in Kansas City for John, c’72, m’75. Championship game against North many years and had been a senior research Richard Carrillo, c’71, 69, Sept. 21 in La Carolina. He is survived by his wife, Jackie, associate for the Greater Kansas City Junta, Colorado, where he owned Cuartel- assoc.; two daughters; three stepdaughters; Mental Health Foundation. Surviving are ejo HP Associates. He was recognized as eight grandchildren; nine stepgrandchil- his wife, Sharon, three sons, a daughter, a one of the foremost regional scholars on dren; and three great-grandchildren. brother and eight grandchildren. the history of Southeastern Colorado and Rick Marshall, h’78, h’79, 56, April 4 in Allan Rahe, e’67, 70, April 23 in the Santa Fe Trail. Earlier this year, he Paola, where he was an emergency-room Shawnee Mission, where he was a retired received the Stephen Hart Award for nurse. He is survived by his wife, Lisa engineer at Bendix and Honeywell. He is Archaeology from History Colorado. Marie Valburg, c’83, n’85; his mother and survived by his wife, Shirley; two daugh- He is survived by three sons, a brother stepfather; his stepmother; and a sister. ters, one of whom is Lisa Rahe Walsh, wand three sisters. Gary Parks, c’71, m’74, 64, Sept. 3 in g’93, g’99; a son; a sister; and six Martha Webb Carithers, g’78, PhD’82, Pueblo, Colorado, where he was active in grandchildren. 87, May 29 in Topeka, where she was a local a airs. He is survived by his wife, David Sachen, g’68, 72, May 16 in retired revenue analyst in the Kansas Pamela Pierce Parks, m’74; two daughters; Kansas City, where he taught German and Department of Revenue. She is survived a son, Eric, ’96; his parents; a brother; and math at Southwest and Oak Park high by two sons, Warren, c’78, g’82, and three grandchildren. schools and at Maple Woods Community Matthew, c’88; and two grandchildren. Peter Stepp, c’74, 63, May 8 in Lee’s College. A nephew and several cousins John Corzine, c’75, 64, June 21 in St. Summit, Missouri, where he had a career survive. Joseph, Missouri. He was an anesthesiolo- in the insurance industry. He is survived William Simes, g’64, 89, June 28 in gist in Kansas City for many years and also by his wife, Pamela, a stepson, two Spring, Texas, where he was retired. He served in the U.S. Health Service. Surviv- brothers, a sister and three grandchildren. worked for Bendix in Kansas City for ing are his wife, Diana Hugi Corzine, ’73; a Marian Weber Thompson, g’71, 87, many years. Surviving are his wife, Elaine; son; and a sister. Sept. 8 in Kansas City. She lived in a daughter, Suzette Simes Wheeler, ’81; Henry Edwards, p’73, m’76, 63, Feb. 21 Highland and had taught school for nearly and ve grandchildren. in Van Buren, Arkansas, where he 40 years. She is survived by four sons, a Penne Payne Weerts, d’64, 72, June 20 practiced medicine. He is survived by his sister, seven grandchildren and a in Burlington, North Carolina. She is wife, Jeanette. great-granddaughter. survived by her husband, Gary, c’67; a son; Marsha Johnson Enterline, g’77, 63, July Wallace Underhill, l’70, 70, June 3 in a daughter; a brother; a sister, Paula Payne 27 in Dayton, Ohio, where she was a Wichita, where he practiced law for many
70 | KANSAS ALUMNI years. He is survived by his wife, Diane, Leawood, where she was a manager for Smith, c’00, g’06, PhD’07; his mother; a two daughters, a stepdaughter, a stepson, Verizon Communications. She is survived brother; and his grandmother. two brothers, a sister, six grandchildren, by her parents and a sister, Kristen, c’90. four stepgrandchildren and two Sally Sheets, g’81, 68, April 20 in THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY great-grandchildren. Manitou Springs, Colorado. She had been Mary Rieser Davidson, g’74, PhD’81, a teacher, social worker and professor at 88, May 26 in Lawrence, where she taught Joel Coey, b’80, 57, May 31 in Wichita State University and is survived by English at KU. She was active in politics 80sPrairie Village, where he founded a sister. and social a airs. Surviving are four sons, Sign Graphics & Design. Among survivors Gregory Williams, c’80, 57, June 3 in three of whom are Tom, g’84, James, ’81, are his partner, Lori Hoodenpyle; two Atlanta, where he had a career in sales and Robert, ’83; and six grandchildren. sons; two brothers, Je rey, c’78, and Kevin, with XOLL Medical Corporation. He is Floyd Horowitz, 84, Aug. 9 in New York ’78; three stepsisters; and a granddaughter. survived by his wife, Vicki Malone City, where he was retired professor of Duane Cook, c’82, 63, Aug. 1 in Kansas Williams, g’91; three sons; his mother; a English at Hunter College. He also taught City, where he was retired partner of Heart sister; and two brothers. English at KU from 1961 until 1991 and of America Stamp and Coin Company. He Leonard Wesley Jr., EdD’80, 79, July 20 served a ve-year term as chair of KU’s is survived by his wife, Mary Ellen, a in Wichita, where he was retired assistant computer science department. He is daughter and his mother. superintendent of USD 259. He is survived survived by his wife, Frances Degen Olive Elizabeth “Betse” Westho by his wife, Betty; two sons, one of whom Horowitz, assoc.; two sons, Benjamin, ’79, Derrington, n’81, 66, June 18 in Camden- is Leonard III, ’90; a brother; a sister; and and Jason, ’87; and three grandchildren. ton, Missouri, where she was a retired three grandchildren. Ann Hyde, c’60, 83, June 19 in Law- family nurse practitioner. She is survived Carolyn Raymond Wyss, g’87, 79, Sept. rence, where she was retired manuscripts by her husband, Kenneth, c’67, m’71; her 29 in Wichita, where she was a retired librarian in the Spencer Research Library’s mother; and a brother. teacher. Surviving are a daughter, two department of special collections. A Robert Fly, g’82, 81, April 23 in Fort sons, ve grandchildren and two memorial has been established with KU Scott. He had been a Baptist minister for great-grandchildren. Endowment. 55 years. Surviving are his wife, Elsie; two Chu-tsing Li, 94, Sept. 16 in Milwaukee. sons, one of whom is David, ’82; a brother; Jill Ann Frechette Carlson, g’92, He was the Judith Harris Murphy Distin- ve grandchildren; and eight 90s52, July 26 in Manhattan. She guished Professor of Art History at KU great-grandchildren. taught nursing classes at Fort Hays State and research curator at the Nelson-Atkins Cynthia Meyer Futrelle, c’87, 54, June 28 University and was a pediatric nurse Museum in Kansas City. A memorial has in Overland Park, where she was a former practitioner at Geary Community Hospital been established with KU Endowment. He daycare provider. Surviving are a daughter, Pediatrics Clinic. Surviving are her is survived by a son, B U.K. Li, m’74; a Alycia, c’10; her mother; and a sister, husband, Eric, m’88; two sons, one of daughter, Amy Li Lee, ’84; ve grandchil- Rhonda Meyer Pollard, c’81. whom is Jacob, ’17; three daughters; her dren; and two grandchildren. Karen Miller Godfrey, d’80, g’88, 54, mother; and two sisters. Edward Stuart Small, 74, Aug. 22 in July 22 in Wakarusa, where she was a Bobbie Hall, m’95, 58, Dec. 28 in Lawrence, where he was a professor teacher, coach and president of the Kansas Campbellsville, Kentucky, where she was a emeritus of lm at KU. A memorial has National Education Association. Surviving pediatrician. She is survived by her been established with KU Endowment. He are her husband, Richard, g’89; her husband, Donald, her parents, a brother is survived by a son, Edward, c’03; and a mother; a brother, Dick Miller, j’83; and a and her grandmother. daughter, Jessica, c’96. sister. Deanna Martin, g’90, 51, June 26 in Michael Hill, g’87, 69, May 5 in Kansas Gunter, Texas. Surviving are two daughters ASSOCIATES City, where he was a teacher, substance and her mother, Patricia Sloop, s’81. Thomas Martin, 68, Sept. 23 in prevention specialist, treatment director Lisa Ninci-Denny, n’95, 55, May 28 in Leawood. He had been an adjunct and researcher. He is survived by his wife, Merriam. She had been a nurse at the KU professor of business at Rockhurst College Gina, ve daughters, a son, four brothers, Medical Center in Kansas City. Surviving in Kansas City and is survived by his wife, a sister and 12 grandchildren. are her husband, John; her parents; two Katherine Beasley Martin, g’77; a daugh- Patricia Jones, s’82, 64, Sept. 24 in sisters, Teresa Ninci Gibson, ’85, and Gina ter; and a son. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she was Ninci, ’98; and a brother. John “Jack” Starkey, 91, Aug. 21 in director of the local chapter of the Lyme Lawrence, where he was retired from a Disease Association. She is survived by her Nathaniel Smith, g’10, 38, July 1 33-year career in advertising with the husband, omas, a daughter, her mother, 10sin Lawrence, where he was a Lawrence Jounal-World. He is survived by a brother and three sisters. doctoral student in behavioral analysis. a daughter, Melinda Starkey Maturo, d’79; Kimberley Klein, d’82, 55, June 17 in He is survived by his wife, Jennifer Simon and three grandchildren.
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 71 Rock Chalk Review
Suspended beneath a central skylight, the glass sculpture designed and created by John Shreve (l) and Dierk Van Keppel brightens the newly STEVE PUPPE (2) STEVE remodeled Lawrence Public Library. Smaller ceiling-mounted pieces (right) that mimic patterns in nature showcase Van Keppel’s artistry.
number of smaller pieces placed in the ceiling and elsewhere are designed to take visitors on “a journey of glass” similar to the journey books take their readers on. Van Keppel’s glass designs and his techniques are most evident in these smaller pieces, with the patterns in glass mimicking patterns and chaos in nature, such as soil erosion, astronomical formations and weather systems. “I am particularly interested in created visual Light fantastic together and securing them in an alumi- imagery that connects our primitive self num frame designed to mimic the shape to the awesomeness of our universe,” Public art project takes library of the cell body. e patterns of color in Van Keppel says. visitors on ‘journey of glass’ the glass go from less to more dense, e $14 million library renovation, creating the impression of duplication. completed in July, added 20,000 square “ e piece has a lot of movement,” feet and completely refurbished the “ ibbon of Light,” the large, helix- Shreve says. “It is very orthogonal and Vermont Street building, which was Rshaped glass sculpture that hangs very organic.” originally built in 1972. e Lawrence above the staircase of the newly expanded In addition to “Ribbon of Light,” a Percent for Art program, which earmarks Lawrence Public Library, represents the biological language that ties all humans together: DNA. Created by glass artist Dierk Van Keppel, c’86, and his design partner, John Shreve, g’12, as part of the city’s Percent for Art Program, the abstract piece is meant to honor the many roles a library lls in tying together a community: cultural hub; sanctuary of free thinking; repository of great works, important documents and other essential information. “We wanted to play with the scale of a microscopic piece of the genetic code,” Shreve says, “information that is in all our bodies.” Van Keppel blew hundreds of pieces of glass in his Rock Cottage Glassworks studio in Merriam before fusing them
72 | KANSAS ALUMNI up to 2 percent of construction costs for public buildings to pay for art, provided Prize fi nd STEVE PUPPE STEVE $75,000 to commission the public art portion of the renovation. Novel earns Latino Book Award Van Keppel and Shreve sought to create plus praise from parents, kids pieces that were fully integrated into the building, which architects designed to ngela Cervantes always knew she had provide abundant natural light. Aa novel to write, but she was waiting “ ere is art that is plopped down a er to discover the right story, the right the fact,” says Shreve, “and there is art character who spoke to her. which makes it di cult to see where the She found it one day when she spotted a architecture stops and the art begins.” girl walking a cat on a leash. During the design stage, Van Keppel “I’d never seen anyone walk a cat before and Shreve were intrigued with the idea of and it just got me thinking about her story illuminated manuscripts and the way text and the cat’s story and how they found and art were fused each other,” says Cervantes, c’94. “It together by medieval started with that simple image, a sweet girl scribes. ey saw their and her sweet little cat.” glass designs illumi- e experience recalled memories of nating both the library YOUNGER SUSAN her own childhood, when family pets Cervantes and the works held helped her and her siblings weather her within. parents divorce. It inspired Gaby, Lost and connected to Gaby. ey want to know if Grace Peterson, Found, a debut novel that tells the story of she’s all right. Even if they can’t relate to chairman of the Gaby Ramirez Howard, a sixth-grade girl [the political issues], they understand Lawrence Cultural whose volunteer work nding homes for divorce, separation, a parent not having Arts Commission, stray pets at a local animal shelter enough time to spend with them and what which selected the art contrasts starkly with her unraveling that can feel like.” for the library home life: Her mother has been recently Cervantes just signed a contract with expansion project, deported to Honduras, leaving Gaby to Scholastic to publish her second novel, says the nished piece live with a father who never has enough and she’s still receiving letters from enlivens the library. time to spend with her. children and parents telling her how much “Light comes through e book for middle-school readers, the rst book meant to them. Receiving a the glass to cast color which Kirkus Reviews called “a timely, Latino Book Award—the largest awards onto the walls and touching and nuanced portrayal of program in the United States celebrating really lls the space,” real-life challenges experienced by the achievements in Latino culture and Peterson says. children in mixed-status families,” literature—is an extension of that positive While both Shreve recently won the 2014 International reaction, Cervantes says. and Van Keppel came Latino Book Award for Best Chapter Book “As if the letter weren’t enough, then you to the project with a in ction. get this award saying your book is great deal of experi- A founder of Kansas City’s Latino important and they value it,” she says. “It’s ence in their chosen careers—Van Keppel Writers Collective, Cervantes published a really nice.” with his work creating and manipulating short story in Chicken Soup for the Latino —Steven Hill glass, and Shreve with his background in Soul and recorded work for the spoken cultural centers and integrating art and word CD “Raza Spoken Here.” She says the narrative—Van Keppel admits that the issue of immigration appealed to her as a Gaby, Lost and nature of this project and its accompany- way to create a character and story that ing story is unlike anything he has ever kids could relate to, not to make a political Found created before. He is pleased with the statement. by Angela results. “Children don’t want to be lectured; they Cervantes “It is gratifying to think that the pieces want a good story,” says Cervantes, who we conceived and created will be here long has visited many schools since the book $16.99, Scholastic a er we are gone,” he says. came out in 2013. “ e kids want to talk Books —Margie Carr, d’84, g’89, PhD’03, is a about immigration and deportation, but Lawrence freelance writer they’re interested because they have
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 73 Rock Chalk Review Safety ’Net STEVE PUPPE STEVE
Pentagon grant boosts KU’s Perry Alexander’s computer security research research center in Nichols Hall on West e’s one year into a four-year, $2.7 Campus “looks at all million Department of Defense grant H aspects of information, to enhance security and user con dence in cloud computing, so it might be expected from soup to nuts. From to hear Perry Alexander rattle o the its beginning to its end typical scary scenarios of online vulner- and everything that abilities that threaten personal and happens in between.” commercial Internet tra c. Not so. Just the opposite, in fact. “I still buy things using my credit card on Amazon and don’t even think twice an unfamiliar city; while glancing at the security research at ITTC. about it,” says Alexander, c’86, e’86, g’88, phone for directions, the user will also “KU is at the heart of a lot of what’s PhD’93, distinguished professor of instinctively look down the next street to going on in the computer security world,” electrical engineering and computer keep an eye out for potential dangers. Alexander says. “We don’t want people science and director of KU’s Information “ at’s what we try to do. How do we always worrying about the environments and Telecommunication Technology nd out whether the place that my that their stu runs in. Yes, people are not Center (ITTC). “ is is not about sound- so ware is going is safe for it to execute?” aware of the potential dangers, but we’d ing an alarm.” And, while he trumpets improvements like to keep it that way by giving them a Alexander and his co-investigators— that have increased security of modern safe online world. associate professors Prasad Kulkarni and computing, Alexander also notes that, “ e cloud is here and it’s going to stay. Andy Gill, plus ve graduate students and while cars are safer than ever, the improve- Maybe we’ll gure out something else later, two research professors—are in the early ments are useless if drivers and passengers but for the time being it’s here and will be stages of developing open-source so ware don’t use seatbelts. here for a long time.” and computing techniques that they call “Frightening people is a foolish thing to —Chris Lazzarino ArmoredSo ware. do. Frightened people make bad choices,” When operational, ArmoredSo ware Alexander says. “ e network is probably will allow computers run by its clients, safer than it was, say, 10 or 20 years ago, including the U.S. military and any users but at the same time, you still have to It’s a keeper on Linux and similar public-domain- practice good behaviors on the network to based operating systems, to gauge the make it as safe as it could possibly be.” Kansas Fishes presents stunning reliability and trustworthiness of so ware It’s been estimated that more than half insights into underwater wonders and systems that their data will encounter of U.S. businesses are turning from while streaming to and from cloud-com- expensive hardware in favor of cloud ansas Fishes is rightly described by its puting sites. computing realms hosted by others. Kpublisher, University Press of Kansas, Alexander likens ArmoredSo ware’s Likewise, the Department of Defense, with as “a guide and a rst-rate reference for the utility to using a smartphone’s GPS dispersed users around the globe, is angler, scientist, and amateur naturalist application while navigating the streets of relying on secure transactions to conduct alike.” But, just as Gray’s Anatomy (the its sensitive information exchanges. book, not the television show) made its If Alexander and his colleagues deliver way onto the bookshelves of bibliophiles Kansas Fishes a good system on time and on budget, it is who will never attempt surgery, Kansas by Kansas Fishes hoped that they can attract more presti- Fishes is that rare, breathtaking book that Committee gious Pentagon grants to help boost online llustrations by Joseph R. Tomelleri $39.95, University Spotted Gar Press of Kansas
ILLUSTRATIONS ©JOSEPH R. TOMELLERI
74 | KANSAS ALUMNI deserves a timeless embrace far beyond its ence was that the books Dold now wrote target audience. Gumshoe reboot in his spare time at night were no longer e delights contained within its 496 written under deadline demands. pages are immediately apparent. Its 184 A famous private eye gets “I felt relaxed,” Dold says. “I didn’t feel full-color drawings by preeminent North a new lease on life in e-books pressed to meet a commercial schedule or American shes illustrator Joseph R. write a book a year to make the money I Tomelleri, 184 full-color maps, and itch Roberts is back, baby. needed to get from paycheck to paycheck.” comprehensive pro les of all 144 Kansas M e 1950s-era Wichita private eye He wrote two new crime novels with a sh species and 27 others in nearby states created by Gaylord Dold in 10 sterling new protagonist, Jack Kilgore, and then that might soon be found in Kansas hardboiled detective novels between 1987 branched out, penning a dystopian waterways are the heart of the book. and 2001 has been out of print for years. science- ction thriller, e Swarming Equally valuable are expert essays and e series garnered Stage; a young adult novel, e Moon diagrams on sh anatomy, physiology and critical acclaim and When Water Freezes; and a childhood identi cation; a chapter dedicated to a loyal following memoir, Jack’s Boy: An Alcoholic Kansas streams and native species conser- (especially among Childhood. vation; a history of ichthyology in Kansas; Kansas lovers of “I could never have envisioned myself and a biography of the KU naturalist to noir), but sales writing a childhood memoir, out of whom the book is dedicated, the late never took o Professor Frank Cross, director of Kansas enough to persuade Biological Survey from 1967 to 1973 and Dold’s big New
author of the widely used Handbook of York publishers, CRAIG HACKER Fishes of Kansas, rst published in 1967. Ballantine Books Kansas Fishes was a massive undertak- and St. Martin’s Press, to keep the ing by faculty and researchers at all six titles on their active backlists. Kansas Board of Regents universities, But now the entire series— collectively known as the Kansas Fishes along with three new Dold crime Committee, who in turn recruited nearly novels—is available from e-book 50 biologists from across the United States company Premier Digital Publish- and Canada, many of whom were taught ing. e deal is part of a move by by or worked alongside Cross and volun- the Wichita writer to embrace a teered their contributions. At KU, Senior publishing model that he couldn’t Scientist Don Huggins, PhD’90, coordi- have foreseen when he began nated writing and editing tasks for Kansas writing full time in the 1980s. Dold Biological Survey, based on KU’s West “I had a busy 25-year career Campus. where I tried to make my way in the New completely uncommercial motives” under “It’s a gorgeous and fascinating book for York publishing world, and did fairly well,” the old publishing model, Dold says. “But I anyone who has even the slightest interest Dold says. “And then I came to a point 10 felt like writing it, and this has freed me up in the natural world,” says Kansas Biologi- years ago where I needed to look a er to write what I want to write.” cal Survey director Ed Martinko, PhD’76, myself, to get back into a so-called real job. e Kilgore novels (Same Old Sun, Same and he’s right. At a modestly priced $39.95, I wanted a paycheck and I wanted to Old Moon and e Nickel Jolt) and the Kansas Fishes is a keepsake certain to utilize my writing skills to make really complete Mitch Roberts series (from Hot delight any and all who seek solace in good money.” Summer to Samedi’s Knapsack) are Kansas’ wide-open spaces. It is a trophy For 10 years Dold, c’69, g’76, worked as published by Premier; the young adult book that, once caught, will not be a grant writer for the Derby public schools, book and the memoir are available from released. but he never stopped writing ction. Amazon Kindle. More information on all —Chris Lazzarino Grant writing turned out to be a of Dold’s books can be found at high-pressure, deadline-oriented job much gaylorddold.com. Spotted Bass like ction-writing had been. e di er- —Steven Hill
Topeka Shiner Central Stoneroller
ISSUE 6, 2014 | 75 Glorious to View Photograph by Dan Storey
Frisbee-toting students find the lawn at Stau er-Flint a fine place for a fall fling during Mount Oread’s balmy autumn days.
76 | KANSAS ALUMNI
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