For University of Wisconsin-Madison Alumni and Friends

Photo by Jeff Miller/University Communications

2015 Events An unprecedented alumni experience It’s time to let the world know about the UW. With breakthrough March 5 | Naples research, breakout Badger personalities, and stories of celebration and inspiration, that’s exactly what this series of events does. June 11 | Milwaukee Visit uwalumni.com/ideas — where pride and purpose unite. September 24 | New York Building Memories

October 15 | Madison Thanks to national planning committee co-chairs On Wisconsin traces the demise of Mary Sue Shannon and Mark Tauscher. Spring 2015 Union South and other bygone places. THANKS FOR SHARING! To the more than 37,000 alumni who gave to UW-Madison last year, thank you for coming together. You share pride in knowing that you made a difference by enriching the Wisconsin Experience. For that, we share our gratitude.

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SPRING 2015 3 Keep Wisconsin Growing University Communications

Keep UW-Madison Strong The progress made at the University of Wisconsin goes beyond the campus. It helps make Wisconsin a better place to live, work and play.

Budget ad.indd 1 1/22/15 9:58 AM SPRING 2015 contents VOLUME 116, NUMBER 1

Features

22 Old School By Jenny Price ’96 Remember when Chadbourne Hall housed only women? Attending a class in the old Law Building? Your room at the old Ogg Hall? Grabbing a table at the old Union South? Take this walk down memory lane and revisit campus buildings that have come and gone.

30 Staying Power By Vikki Ortiz Healy ’97 A standout journalism student while on campus, these days Phil Rosenthal ’85 covers the very industry that provides his paycheck — and he urges skeptics not to write off newspapers just yet.

34 The Warlord’s Biographer By Sandra Knisely ’09, MA’13 In a recent book, Brian Williams PhD’99 sets the record straight on Afghanistani general and now vice president Abdul Dostum, who, 22 along with his cavalry of two thousand Uzbek horsemen, helped the United States defeat the Taliban in a key battle in late 2001.

40 The Chemistry of Truthfulness By Erika Janik MA’04, MA’06 UW Professor William Bleckwenn 1917, who first used sodium amytal to treat people with schizophrenia, had little idea that his pioneering work would lead to what is popularly known as truth serum.

44 Desludging Dakar By Denise Thornton ’82, MA’08 Using her understanding of human decision-making, UW professor Laura Schechter is improving sanitation in Senegal — and in the process, she’s changing the way that social scientists and economists think. 34

Departments 7 Inside Story 8 Posts 10 Scene 12 News & Notes 18 Collection 19 Classroom 44 20 Sports 48 Traditions Cover 51 Badger Connections An upward view of the old Union South, one of 66 Flashback the buildings that no longer dots the campus landscape. Courtesy of UW-Madison Archives.

SPRING 2015 5 Bryce Richter/University of Wisconsin–Madison

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601 University Ave. Madison, WI 53715 facebook.com/flunocenter Bryce Richter/University of Wisconsin–Madison insidestory BRYCE RICHTER How can you not care about the past? On Wisconsin It’s a question that Erika SPRING 2015 Janik MA’04, MA’06 has been asking since her child- Publisher Wisconsin Alumni Association hood in Seattle, where she 650 North Lake Street, Madison, WI 53706 was raised by parents who Big Ten Reason #1 to stay at Fluno: Steps away from Kohl Center action Voice: (608) 262-2551 • Toll-free: loved history and guided by (888) WIS-ALUM • Fax: (608) 265-8771 Email: [email protected] teachers who nurtured her Website: onwisconsin.uwalumni.com eager curiosity about those Co-Editors who lived before her. Niki Denison, Wisconsin Alumni Association “I learned from a young Cindy Foss, University Communications age that history is more than Senior Editor a bunch of dates,” Janik John Allen, Wisconsin Alumni Association says. “It’s stories about Senior Writer fascinating people.” Erika Janik in her second home: the Wisconsin Historical Society, where she unearths the stories from our past. Jenny Price ’96, University Communications Janik has told some of Art Director those stories in this magazine, most recently through the tale of 1920s scientist William Barry Carlsen MFA’83, University Marketing Bleckwenn, beginning on page 40. With UW master’s degrees in history and journalism Production Editor in hand, when she’s not at her job as a producer for Wisconsin Public Radio, she’s Eileen Fitzgerald ’79, University Marketing pursuing her passion: scouring documents, letters, and other artifacts of earlier days. Senior Photographer “I love reading the words of people from the past,” she says. “How did they see the Jeff Miller, University Communications world around them? These people are a lot like you — they just lived one hundred and Modern accommodations Onsite pub with scenic views Class Notes/Bookshelf Editor fifty years ago.” Paula Apfelbach ’83, Wisconsin Alumni Well, maybe not exactly like you. Janik finds particular pleasure in unearthing the Association odd and quirky when she’s digging around in a library’s archives. “Quirky stories are Editorial Intern: Stephanie Awe x’15 the avenue into the rest of history,” she says, admitting that her motive is to lure you Design, Layout, and Production in, to show you that learning about the past can be fun, exciting, and a powerful tool Toni Good ’76, MA’89; Kent Hamele ’78; and for understanding ourselves. And besides, the stories that aren’t in textbooks are the Nancy Rinehart, University Marketing best, she says, calling them “secret knowledge.” Campus Advisers Janik credits close-to-home libraries as treasure troves for researching her books, Paula Bonner MS’78, President, Wisconsin including her latest, Marketplace of the Marvelous: The Strange Origins of Modern UW-Madison Alumni receive 10% off lodging Alumni Association • Vince Sweeney, Vice Chancellor for University Relations, and Medicine (Beacon Press), and her next-up exploration into real and fictional female John Lucas, Executive Director, University detectives. She has spent countless hours at the Wisconsin Historical Society, bent Your Home in the Heart of Campus Communications • Mary DeNiro MBA’11, Chief Engagement Officer, and Jim Kennedy, Chief under the warm, comforting light of a reading lamp. Marketing Officer, Wisconsin Foundation & As she walks up the building’s “worn marble stairs,” she says, “I love thinking Alumni Association about everyone who has walked there before me.” Advertising Representatives Cindy Foss Madison Magazine: (608) 270-3600 Co-Editor Alumni Name, Address, Phone, and Email Changes • Death Notices The Fluno Center is a premier, full-service, award-winning lodging and Madison area: (608) 262-9648 Toll-free: (888) 947-2586 conference facility ideally located near every place you want to visit in Madison. Email: [email protected] Quarterly production of On Wisconsin is supported by financial gifts from alumni Make your reservation today and friends. To make a gift to UW-Madison, 1-877-773-5866 | fluno.com/alumni please visit supportuw.org. Printed on recycled paper. Please remember Lodging is available to UW-Madison Alumni and their sponsored guests, in addition to course registrants of the Center for Professional and Executive Development. to recycle SFI-00603 this magazine. This magazine was printed by Arandell Corporation, a SPRING 2015 7 601 University Ave. Madison, WI 53715 facebook.com/flunocenter Wisconsin Green Tier participant. posts

The High Cost of College the public education equation; serving to simply reproduce it. artificial intelligence as soon as “The Price is Right” [Winter 2014 corporations that directly profit See wihopelab.com. possible. We are much more than On Wisconsin] stated that earlier from the Wisconsin Idea and stu- Sara Goldrick-Rab that, and much better than that. students could work summers dents’ education, creative ideas, Madison Susan Fiore ’81, MA’89 and cover the entire cost of their and labor do not in turn reinvest Verona, Wisconsin school. I attended the university in public education. There is no The 1960s, Revisited in the mid-fifties and was able to doubt my education and career The Bob Dylan photo in “It Was I use my humanities degree on a do just that. I was fortunate to get researching a cure for diabetes a Very Good Year” [Winter 2014] daily basis. I was a dual major in a job in a local canning factory would not have been possible reminded me that about three history and Spanish, and now, as during the summers. These earn- without the investment by the years earlier, the folksinger was in a nonprofit attorney advocating ings, along with an occasional gig state’s taxpayers. Let’s therefore Madison for about a week. On his for low-income immigrants, I put as a bartender, covered the entire hold our elected officials respon- way from his Minnesota home to those majors to use every day. cost for my time at the university. sible to make sure that all who New York City, he hung out at a The Spanish major has obvious Unless you have a summer job as profit from an educated citizenry coffeehouse on State Street. applications, but the history major a mutual fund manager, the days reinvest in future generations. Frankly, he was terrible, still I value so much, because it allows of being able to work summers Kirstie Danielson ’96, PhD’07 learning his craft, and played for me to place all the current events and pay for college are long gone. Chicago tips, which he seldom received. relating to immigration in context. Dayle Winnie ’58 Flusher students who pitied him Kate Woomer-Deters ’02 San Antonio, Texas “The Price Is Right” states that it would have a coffee and donut Raleigh, North Carolina is a “myth” that students cannot sent over to him. I couldn’t The series on college tuition afford to attend UW-Madison. believe it when I saw his first More Thoughts on Democracy in the Winter 2014 issue never The facts are the following: album in a record store a few It is very disappointing to read a asked why the cost of college A student with no expected years later. His return to play at letter from a UW grad who tries to tuition has increased so much for family contribution is left to bor- the Union Theater must have define the United States as either students and their families. With row or come up with $13,794 per been personally satisfying. a democracy or a republic [“Can Wisconsin’s consistently declin- year to attend Madison. That’s Chuck Kleinhans ’64 This Democracy Be Saved?” ing investment in public higher after all grants and scholarships Eugene, Oregon Fall 2014]. In reality, the nation education, the state is failing in are applied. After doing work- is a democratic republic, mean- its moral responsibility to support study and agreeing to borrow Hurray for the Humanities ing representatives are chosen affordable education and oppor- $7,500 or more per year (for a [In regard to “Humanities for the directly by the populace. tunities for its citizens to prosper, total debt of at least $30,000 Real World,” Winter 2014]: I have Geoffrey Wodell ’71 abdicating the responsibility to for the degree — likely more), two degrees from UW-Madison: Wheat Ridge, Colorado overly burdened middle-class that student still must contribute an undergraduate degree in the families. almost $4,000 a year. This means humanities and a master’s in Thank you for “Can This Democ- Why has the state’s invest- that people from the poorest fam- business. I learned how to oper- racy Be Saved?” My spouse, ment declined? The state has ilies must borrow to the max and ate a business by managing one, Cooper Rosin ’10, and I are not held its corporate partners work in order to afford Madison. not in class. I was able to do so spending the year at a remote responsible for their part of Is that “affordable,” and does it because I knew how to analyze research station inside Gabon’s meet with alumni expectations? situations from multiple perspec- Ivindo National Park in the Congo Low-income students already tives, understand human nature, Basin. We look forward to con- Please email magazine-related live quite frugally at Madison, as and think creatively. necting with the world through comments to onwisconsin@ the Working Class Student Union My son has two degrees from the issues of On Wisconsin that uwalumni.com; mail a letter to On members demonstrate. They are UW-Madison also: an undergrad my mother-in-law, Anne Rosin Wisconsin, 650 North Lake Street, already using food stamps, shop- degree in philosophy and a JD. MS’87, MD’93, mails us. Cooper Madison, WI 53706; or fax us at ping at secondhand stores, forgo- He is a highly respected attorney and I submitted our absentee 608-265-2771. We reserve the ing books and other supplies, and because he has excellent critical ballots for November’s election, right to edit letters for length and/ missing class due to work. Even thinking skills and understands and it was validating to read Pro- or clarity. We also welcome your tweets and comments: so, we have students facing food how to deal with thorny situations fessor Barry Burden’s affirmation and housing insecurity. and difficult people. that absentee votes are always Facebook At the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, We must stop viewing higher counted, whether the election Facebook.com/ we’re striving to help colleges and education as workforce develop- is a runaway victory or closely OnWisconsinMagazine universities find the real “right” ment. That focus turns human contested. Twitter price to ensure that higher educa- beings into a commodity that Rachel Nordberg Rosin ’07 @OnWisMag tion levels inequality, rather than will be replaced by robotics and Makokou, Gabon

8 ON WISCONSIN instagram #uwmadison biking4baseball iluvtima tweets

@JJWatt Welcome home Coach Chryst! A great coach & a great man. #OnWisconsin

@UWMulticultural Proud of our #badgers. 1,000 protesters at #UWMadison tonight to protest racial inequality @UWMadison @UW_AASAS

@laurencarlini Thanks for all the support of Badger Vball this year. I love this team more than anything and couldn’t be more proud. #Fifteenstrong jlwierzba lavarjovan @lizziegolms I still have to fight back tears every time I hear Varsity. Happy, proud tears of course. Does that ever go away, @UWMadison?

@rita_hurd I gain a little @UWMadison pride every time warfarin is mentioned in class

@IanMalmstadt Donald Downs is killing this conclusion to his last First Amendment lecture. @UWMadison

@mnsusiek So proud to be able to say the @UWMadison has student masonliang louislv athletes and not just athletic students. Student and educa- tion is the priority.

@ZBohannon Jokes aside, I’m hearing a lot of #Badgers, who are damn proud of @UWMadison holding firm on academic standards for athletes #OnWisconsin

@ders808 OK, I’ll coach. #Badgers

@CoryFoxen @UWMadison My TA just played the Star Wars theme on the flute as a treat for finishing our presentations and idk what to do

SPRING 2015 9 scene The Heart of Campus? This much-loved table is in Der Rathskeller at the Memorial Union, January 8, 2015. Photo by Jeff Miller

10 ON WISCONSIN news ¬es

Faculty Attraction A record-breaking gift builds a legacy of chairs and professorships.

John Morgridge ’55 and Tashia Morgridge ongoing resident undergraduate tuition freeze, Their latest donation will match gifts ’55 made Badger history last fall when they but it can use the money to build a legacy from any other donors who endow a gave $100 million — the largest single contri- of top faculty. The income from the gift will professorship, chair, or distinguished chair. bution from individual donors in the school’s provide $4.5 million per year to fund endowed Ultimately, this could double the thirty-four history — to help the UW recruit and keep top faculty chairs and professorships, key tools fully endowed chairs and one hundred and faculty. in attracting and hanging on to researchers two fully endowed professorships currently But Chancellor Rebecca Blank wants on campus. The endowments give chaired to make one thing crystal clear as Governor professors money to launch new research, Scott Walker and Wisconsin legislators The Morgridges hope buy equipment, or hire undergraduate or determine the university’s share of the next their latest act of graduate research assistants, giving those two-year state budget (as of press time, students the chance to learn from world-class Walker had proposed a $300 million cut to the generosity will have a scholars and researchers. UW System budget): “We do not have ripple effect, inspiring John Morgridge has lamented how $100 million to spend.” public investment in UW-Madison and other Blank delivered that message in her blog, others to give. public research and teaching institutions has as well as in person to the Faculty Senate, decreased over time, telling the Milwaukee following an announcement of the gift that and teachers who are — or are on their way to Journal Sentinel that the decline was a was spelled out on the Camp Randall score- becoming — stars in their fields. motivating factor in the gift. “We felt it was board during the football game against Originally from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, incumbent upon those that benefited from Nebraska last November. “Gifts like this are the Morgridges are responsible for the next [state universities] to help maintain the quality enormously useful,” she wrote, “but they in two largest gifts in UW history, including $100 of these institutions,” he said. no way lessen the importance of maintaining million to establish the Morgridge Institute “I think it’s pretty well established that a strong financial base of support from the for Research and $32 million to renovate and great schools are predicated on great faculty,” state, from tuition, and from research dollars.” expand the School of Education building. And he added. “That is not a Wisconsin market; In fact, the UW can’t use the Morgridges’ they hope their latest act of generosity will that is a worldwide market.” gift to fill gaps left by budget cuts and an have a ripple effect, inspiring others to give. Jenny Price ’96

quick takes

Katie Couric will be the 2015 spring cheesehead and Bucky T-shirt for commencement speaker. The former a special video to announce her Today show host and former anchor of the upcoming UW gig. You can view CBS Evening News and New York Times the video on YouTube. best-selling author good-naturedly donned a A campus food pantry was approved by the Associated Students of Madison as part of its 2016 budget. The volun- teer-based resource will serve students who struggle to afford food. Campus bid farewell to its oldest tree The website ratemyprofessors.com when the 300-year-old President’s Oak — so ranked UW-Madison first in a 2013–14 named for its location near the former UW survey based on student ratings of profes- president’s house (now the La Follette School sors. Criteria included the instructors’ of Public Affairs) — was felled in January. The clarity and helpfulness. hollow burr oak was deemed a hazard.

12 ON WISCONSIN JEFF MILLER; BELOW (LEFT TO RIGHT): CBS, BRYCE RICHTER, JEFF MILLER, UW SCHOOL OF MUSIC

John and Tashia Morgridge joined University of Wisconsin Foundation president and CEO Mike Knetter (center) in November at Camp Randall for the announcement of a $100 million gift designated to allow the university to attract and keep top faculty.

The UW–Madison Oral History Program The university will launch (OHP) is searching for past interviewees to a new master’s degree in collect missing release forms. If you have energy conservation this fall been the subject of an OHP interview or — the Resource and Energy know someone who has, please contact Demand Analysis program — Troy Reeves at [email protected]. that will become the first in the world to train students to eval- uate energy efficiency and other conservation initiatives.

The School of Music’s new music performance center will be named in honor of Pamela and George ’80 Hamel, who provided the $15 million lead gift to construct the new facility.

SPRING 2015 13 news ¬es NARAYAN MAHON

Safe Haven Thai alum finds asylum at the UW. When Yukti Mukdawijitra MA’00, PhD’07 made his first trip to UW-Madison, it was to complete his education. His second was to find safety. A native of Thailand, the professor of Vietnamese studies secured a spot as a guest professor at the UW when he fled political persecution in his homeland. Thailand has been wracked by political crises since a military coup overthrew the Southeast Asian nation’s democratically elected govern- ment in 2006. Protests led to violence and crackdowns, and in May 2014, a new military government imposed martial law. The regime pursues strict censorship, using a broad interpretation of Section 112 of the nation’s criminal code. That section is a law of lèse-majesté, allowing prosecution of anyone accused of insulting Thailand’s royal family. Mukdawijitra became politically active after finishing his doctorate and returning to Thailand. “I wrote a newspaper column,” he says. “It was about anthropology and rituals, but also about politics and social criticism.” According to Mukdawijitra, the military government broadened its use of Section 112 to include not only direct insults to the king and queen, but also any statements — not only published statements, but private communications, and even text messages — that were critical of the government. “A person was accused that he sent texts insulting the king and the queen,” he says. “There were four messages. He was charged with four violations of Section 112, and given a sentence of twenty years.” Yukti Mukdawijitra first came to the UW as a doctoral student. He returned last year seeking political asylum and is currently a Mukdawijitra and his colleagues led a campaign to reform the visiting professor in anthropology. lèse-majesté law. After the recent coup, he came to feel that his activi- ties and column put him in jeopardy, and he sought escape in exile. He Mukdawijitra land a spot at the UW, where he currently teaches fled to Vietnam, where he had done research, and while he was there, anthropology. Though his appointment runs out this May, there’s no American friends told him about the Institute of International Education sign of change in Thailand, where censorship and repression continue. (IIE). Best known for administering the Fulbright Scholars Program, IIE “It’s very complicated to extend my stay in the United States,” supports international academic exchange. It offers a Scholar Rescue Mukdawijitra says. “And if I can’t, then I’ll go back and work in Thailand, Fund, which enables politically persecuted academics to receive to the extent that I’m able to.” one-year teaching appointments at American universities. IIE helped John Allen

Paul Who? We at On Wisconsin would like to introduce you 2002: Tight-ends coach under head coach Barry JEFF MILLER to new football coach Paul Chryst ’88, who was Alvarez; though 2–6 in Big Ten play (eighth place), appointed to his job in December. We’d like to, the Badgers went 8–6 overall and won the Alamo but it’s probable that you already know him, given Bowl that he’s been part of the Madison scene for half a 2005: Co-offensive coordinator; in Alvarez’s last century. Here are highlights of his association with season as head coach, the Badgers went 10–3 and the city and university. won the Citrus Bowl 1965: Born in Madison 2006–11: Offensive coordinator; under head coach 1986–88: Quarterback for the Badgers under Bret Bielema, Chryst built the UW into an offensive coach Don Morton; the team’s highest finish in force that went to Rose Bowls in 2010 and 2011 the Big Ten came in 1988, when the 1-10 Badgers 2015–?: Head coach finished in ninth place

14 ON WISCONSIN One Diaper at a Time An unexpected process may lead to an earlier diagnosis for sick babies.

Katie Brenner woke up in her hospital room L’ORÉAL USA FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE PROGRAM feeling nothing short of desperation. She remembered giving birth to a tiny daughter, but the doctors and nurses had whisked the infant away for care hours earlier. She hadn’t seen little Ruthie since. “I want to meet my daughter,” the normally polite Brenner demanded of the hospital staff. Today her little girl is a healthy six-year-old, but Brenner knows the story ends differently for too many families. Babies born prematurely are more susceptible to infection and illness than those born full term. But even before their illness is obvious — before symptoms such as fever or vomiting appear — the preemies might be past saving. “They are so fragile that by the time they appear sick, their condition can dete- riorate quickly,” says Brenner, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Doug Weibel, a UW biochemistry professor. Diagnosing such tiny infants can also be risky: a blood test may be all but impossible, as drawing as little as one-tenth of a teaspoon Researcher Katie Brenner is pursuing what could be an easier and faster method for of blood from a premature baby may necessi- detecting infection and illness in premature babies: analyzing the contents of their diapers. tate a transfusion. But something all humans do — including the tiniest — is urinate. the American Association for the Advancement money to cover the cost of continuing educa- “We want to know if chemicals in the urine of Science, which last fall selected her as one tion for the nurses who help her process the of preterm babies can tell us if they’re getting of five female scientists to receive the For samples, allowing them to be “more engaged sick,” Brenner says. “If we can tell early on, we Women in Science Fellowship. in the research process.” can get them help.” Brenner plans to set aside some of the Kelly April Tyrrell MS’11 Her study is the first to fully characterize urine from both healthy and sick preemies at every gestational age and birth weight. But to identify what is normal, Brenner has to deter- mine what is not. She collects and analyzes urine-soaked diapers from premature babies in A Game of Spoons collaboration with De-Ann Pillers, head of the neonatal intensive care unit at Meriter Hospital When Josie Russo x’18 enrolled as a and a UW professor of pediatrics, and Greg freshman, her aunt Tracy Lovitsch Sheridan Barrett-Wilt, director of mass spectrometry at ’94 sensed an opportunity to right a terrible the UW Biotechnology Center. The diapers are wrong. Lovitsch Sheridan and her husband, first frozen, and then Brenner extracts the urine Stephen ’94, mailed Russo a care package from them. (She laughs when she mentions that included this item: spoons illicitly removed she uses a blender to do so.) from the Chadbourne dining hall, with a note It costs $200 to run just one of the urine asking Russo to return them to their rightful tests, which can identify everything from the owner. As of December, Russo hadn’t yet byproducts of food metabolism to drugs and surrendered the spoons. She lives in Witte, bacterial fingerprints. Brenner’s work had been largely unfunded, as she initially had to collect and a trip to Chad would require a rugged enough evidence to show that her approach hike of nearly three-tenths of a mile. “Right worked. She can now run even more tests with now, they’re in a pen holder on my desk,” she admits. “I laugh whenever I look at them.”

$60,000 in new funding from L’Oreal USA and @JOSIECRUSSO

SPRING 2015 15 news ¬es

Anteaters to Zebra Fish A UW service makes sure rare and wonderful species are in good hands. BRYCE RICHTER (3)

UW Veterinary Care staff and specialists serve a growing number of exotic-pet owners. Melanie Conklin relies on the clinic for the care of her animal menagerie, including this chinchilla, called Chinicula (left and top right), and a hedgehog, named Hogmanay (bottom right).

When Hogmanay the hedgehog encounters marsupials, primates, invertebrates, and more. their education about exotic animals begins in an unfamiliar situation, he usually curls himself The UW Veterinary Care Special Species the classroom. Mans and Kurt Sladky ’81, into a spiny little ball. But during a recent visit Service — part of the only Midwestern veter- MS’88, DVM’93, clinical associate professor to UW Veterinary Care, the teaching hospital inary medical hospital with board-certified of zoological medicine, teach a course that at the UW School of Veterinary Medicine, he’s zoological medicine specialists on duty year includes live lab sessions on how to handle all curiosity, exploring the exam room with a round — has seen more than its fair share of and examine animals students will likely flickering nose and dark, darting eyes. these creatures. Although the majority of the encounter if they go into practice. The two Hogmanay is at the clinic to have a few caseload is more predictable, in recent years also train several zoological medicine resi- skin lesions evaluated. For moral support, his staff members have cared for a baby lizard dents and work in the lab to devise ways to owner, Melanie Conklin MA’93, has a few weighing less than a gram, a lumbering one- manage pain in zoo, wildlife, and exotic pet of his rodent pals in tow, including a puffy hundred-pound African spurred tortoise, and species. white chinchilla who lifts his forelimbs when even rarer patients, such as ring-tailed lemurs, Conklin’s experience with the clinic began he wants to be held, and a fidgety brown degu a red panda, and an elusive harpy eagle. five years ago when one of her hedgehogs with a penchant for turning straw bedding and Just like their dog and cat counterparts, went into hibernation, a condition that can drinking water into cage sludge. exotic animals need annual wellness exams, be fatal for domesticated versions of the little Conklin is part of a growing group of says Christoph Mans, clinical assistant mammals. During a late-night phone call, she exotic-pet owners, and her small menag- professor of zoological medicine. And the recalls, “They told me the steps for waking up erie represents only part of the species mix. clinic supports specialists in areas ranging a hedgehog properly. … They even called the According to the 2012 U.S. Pet Ownership from dentistry to radiology when the animals next day to make sure everything was okay.” and Demographics Sourcebook, 20 percent need specialized care. As for Hogmanay’s recent visit? Mans of American households own pets other than The benefits of this expertise extend determines that his lesions are not cause for cats or dogs, including birds, fish, and exotic from the clinic to the curriculum. Veterinary serious concern, and prescribes a medication or specialty animals, a category that encom- medical students complete a two-week rota- to help clear up the hedgehog’s skin. passes reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, tion with the service in their fourth year, but Nik Hawkins ’01, MS’05

16 ON WISCONSIN one quote “My suspicion is the administration is so reluctant to create the impression that it is engaging in the kind of military activity that it has forsworn in that region. … It has determined the best public relations strategy is to give it no name whatsoever.”

UW military history professor John Hall, in U.S. News & World Report, on why mili- tary action against ISIS has remained anonymous, rather than earning a formal name like previous missions, such as Operation Iraqi Freedom

Francis Halzen doesn’t see himself as a superhero. But Smithsonian magazine created a tribute in that spirit when it named him the winner of its American Ingenuity Award. It gave him a secret identity — Neutrino Man — and a comic-book-inspired write-up to honor his decades-long effort to build a giant neutrino telescope under the Antarctic ice. In 2014, the telescope known as Ice Cube yielded the first evidence of cosmic neutrinos — nearly massless high-energy particles thought to come from cosmic sources such as supernovae, black holes, and the violent cores of galaxies. The work opened a new field of astronomy, as the magazine noted, “potentially offering clues to the greatest remaining mysteries.”

© 2014 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM SMITHSONIAN ENTERPRISES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN ANY MEDIUM IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. SHANE L. JOHNSON ILLUSTRATION.

SPRING 2015 17 collection

Liking Lichen SHUTTERSTOCK.COM The Wisconsin State Herbarium has added 60,000 samples to its collection.

Neatly filed away in drawers in the bowels of Birge Hall, tucked into carefully folded slips of paper, you’ll find bits of rare organisms from around the globe. At home within the Wisconsin State Herbarium, they are part of one of the world’s largest lichen collections — a collection that, in 2014, grew 60,000 samples larger. A herbarium is a group of preserved plant specimens, and Wisconsin’s dates back to the UW’s founding. At the second meeting ISTOCK.COM of the board of regents — in January 1849, a month before the first class gathered — that august group recommended that the university host a “cabinet of natural history.” Today, that “cabinet” holds more than 1.2 million speci- mens of plants, fungi, and lichens, making it the eleventh-largest herbarium in the Americas. The Wisconsin State Herbarium’s lichen collection is particularly strong, with more than 180,000 specimens. Lichens are unusual in that they are composite organisms — they develop through a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and algae or bacteria. Each sample includes not only the dried lichen, but also its substrate — the material it was growing on. A scientist who studies lichens is called, not surprisingly, a lichenologist, and in the mid- twentieth century, the UW faculty included the man who wrote the book on lichenology: John Thomson MA’37, PhD’39. (Technically, he wrote the books, plural: Lichens of Wisconsin: American Arctic Lichens, volumes 1 and 2, and tition — Harvard, the New York Botanical Lichens are an important part of the so on.) He made the herbarium home to a vast Gardens. But we had a lot to offer, including world’s ecosystem. They grow slowly but regularly, so they can be used to date variety of lichens from around the state and that we could keep his collection together, major geological and climactic events. across the far north. and it would round out what we already had.” Lichens are also important to the diet of a In 2014, herbarium director Ken The herbarium’s materials are shared variety of animals such as reindeer (top). Cameron added 60,000 more specimens with researchers around the world. They can The photo above shows lichens found in the eastern Black Sea region of Turkey. when he purchased the collection of German then study how the fungi, algae, bacteria, and lichenologist Klaus Kalb. substrate interact to create a composite. The “Kalb’s collection includes mostly spec- UW’s lichens are also available for viewing imens from the Old World tropics,” Cameron digitally, at lichenportal.org. says. “We had to outbid some big compe- John Allen

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Design Studies 501 Global Artisans and Pragmatic Design BRYCE RICHTER (3) The cultures of multiple homelands were stitched together in a School of Human Ecology class during fall semester, as UW students worked with artisans from Ecuador, Kenya, and Mexico to modify their products for the American consumer. The course, part of a project funded by the Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment, focuses on identifying viable markets in the United States and growing a sustain- able income for the artisans and their families. Students were paired with small co-ops — mostly women working from their homes — in each of the three countries. The class split into two groups, with one concentrating on fabrics and the other on jewelry. At the start of the semester, the groups made small adjustments to existing products. “It’s kind of working in between design and quality control,” says Kateryna Gudziak ’14, who graduated after fall semester. By the end of the semester, students used their problem-solving skills to tackle larger projects, such as creating products that use each country’s traditional fabrics. The class teamed up with consumer science students to sell the final products at the Robin’s Nest Café in the school of Human Ecology, and the group hopes to add online sales. While new students will work on designs with the same artisans this fall, Carolyn Kallenborn ’97, Students explored ways to tailor the artisans’ brace- MFA’00, an associate professor lets, such as shorter lengths, to accommodate the U.S. of design studies who teaches the market. “[Some artisans] think Americans are huge,” says former UW student Kateryna Gudziak (top, at left). course, wants to see the artisans Fernanda De La Torre x’15 (above) eventually outgrow the class. “I think snaps an image of earrings to Toward the end of the semester, the class started that would be a wonderful success determine necessary adjustments. receiving finished products, such as these lace brace- Technology played a key role in lets (above) from an artisan group in Presa de Barajas, story if they didn’t need us anymore,” the class. Students sent recorded Jalisco, Mexico. The artisans had initially used lace to she says. demonstrations to artisans and make doilies, but the students suggested that they try Stephanie Awe x’15 communicated with them over Skype. making jewelry with lace and beadwork instead.

SPRING 2015 19 sports WISCONSIN ATHLETICS (4) Fine Four The Many Faces of Will the farewell tour for the Badgers’ BO RYAN

seniors lead to Indianapolis? JEFF MILLER (5)

When the clock runs out on the basketball court this season, the four seniors leading the UW men’s team will have played a role in Frank Kaminsky some of its biggest games and solidified a winning tradition far beyond the wildest dreams of most Badger fans. Is one more Final Four in store for this quartet? Duje Dukan Duje Dukan Height: 6'10'' Position: Forward Hometown: Deerfield, Illinois Fun fact: Born in Split, Croatia; his father played professional basketball in Europe and worked as an international scout for the Chicago Bulls, where he discovered Tony Kukoc. Best UW memory: “Other than the Final Four, I’d say just being around friends on a daily basis and being part of a family.” Traevon Jackson Height: 6'3'' Josh Gasser Position: Guard Hometown: Westerville, Ohio Fun fact: His father, Jim, played college basketball at Ohio State, was the fourth overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft, and played in the league for fourteen seasons. Best UW memory: “Coming home from the Final Four and seeing the city of Madison welcoming us back. On the bus ride to the Kohl Center, seeing the whole town electric — that was pretty cool.” Josh Gasser Height: 6'4'' Position: Guard Hometown: Port Washington, Wisconsin Fun fact: Returned to the floor last year after a torn left ACL cost him the entire 2012–13 season, cementing his repu- tation as one of the toughest and most well-rounded players in the country and earning the “All-Glue” Team Best UW memory? “Being around label from Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis. friends on a daily basis and being Jackson on Gasser: “Josh is pretty plain and boring.” part of a family.” Bo Ryan became Frank Kaminsky Wisconsin’s Height: 7'0'' winningest coach Position: Forward in Big Ten play Hometown: Lisle, Illinois in January with his 159th win, Fun fact: Grabbed attention for something other than his basket- surpassing Walter ball skills in a viral video featuring the Taylor Swift song “Shake It Traevon Jackson “Doc” Meanwell, Off.” Dukan sums it up: “Frank is an interesting dancer.” who coached the Badgers from 1911 Gasser on Kaminsky: “Frank is the biggest kid ever, and he gets to 1934. really mad when he loses in video games.”

20 ON WISCONSIN SPRING 2015 21 ALL IMAGES FROM UW-MADISON ARCHIVES, S14463

Old School These places — some long gone — made an indelible mark on the university’s history.

By Jenny Price ’96

UW-Madison’s original campus plan called for just five buildings. The university built three of them in the 1850s — Bascom Hall, North Hall, and South Hall — and it’s been forming and re-forming its bricks-and-mortar identity ever since. As a student in the 1960s, Jim Feldman x’72 confesses that he “completely overlooked the astonishing beauty and diversity of the University as a physical object.” He rectified that in 1997 when he published an important reference for this story, The Buildings of the University of Wisconsin, the first comprehensive account of the structures — many still standing — on the Madison campus. Before writing his compila- tion, Feldman received an electrical engineering degree at Cal State-Fullerton and, in time, went on to earn a certificate in technical communications from the UW College of Engineering. Alumni and visitors to campus marvel at what seems like a perpetual state of construction and reconstruction, but a look back at our history confirms that universal flux is part of the DNA of the UW. Buildings constitute the foundation of our university’s story of change, growth, and innovation. We’re featuring here just some of the places that are no longer part of the campus landscape. Badgers can take heart, though: while some buildings may not last, the experiences we had in them — and the memories they evoke — stay with us long after they are gone.

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Old Administration Building ▶ Built: 1855 Demolished: 1965 The UW bought this private home, known as the Porter House, for $20,000 in 1905. The university built an addi- tion to the house and used it for student registration, fees, payroll, and financial aid until the A.W. Peterson building opened in 1962. The university tore down the old administration building to make room for construction of the George L. Mosse Humanities Building. S02949 ▼ Old Chadbourne Hall The hall’s name officially changed to Chadbourne in 1901. Edward A. Birge, Built: 1878 then acting UW president, later wrote Demolished: 1957 that it was only fair that Chadbourne’s stubbornness on the issue “should be Originally called Ladies Hall, the punished by attaching his name to a dormitory was later named for former building which turned out [to be] one UW President Paul Chadbourne, who of the main supports of coeducation.” opposed coeducation for women. Chad- The current Chadbourne Hall, built on bourne won funding for the building the same site with entrances trimmed with the goal of setting up a separate with stone from the old building, went women’s college, a plan that never came coed in 1995. to fruition before he left office in 1870. S12073 ▲ Solar Observatory Built: 1878 Demolished: 1949 (fire) Washburn Observatory director James Watson built this smaller observatory by hand in an effort to locate a planet (dubbed Vulcan) that he believed was located between Mercury and the sun. Watson died from pneumonia before work was completed, and the search for the planet was abandoned after his successor determined that the observa- tory was not well suited for detecting planets. The building, located on Observatory Hill near the Washburn Observatory, was later used as housing for observatory assistants and storage.

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▼ Old Science Hall Built: 1875 Demolished: 1884 (fire) With laboratories crowded into the basement of Bascom Hall — and their pungent smells wafting to the floors above — the university needed more room. The original Science Hall was just the second instructional building on campus. It housed the departments of chemistry, engineering, geology, and physics, and it included laboratories, lecture halls, offices, and museum space. In 1884, a fire gutted the building, and the current Science Hall was built in its place in 1887. S09089

▲ Old Law Building Built: 1891 Demolished: 1963 The first UW Law School class — all twelve students — was enrolled in 1868. Before the construction of the Victorian brownstone law building, law students spent two decades meeting in various places, including the unfinished state capitol and space above a saloon. In 1939, the university began construction on a series of additions to the law building, the first to make room for the rapidly growing law library. The ongoing expansion efforts that followed ended with tearing down the old building. In 1996, the school completed a S12070 construction and renovation project, enclosing an outside courtyard between two older parts of the Law School building. The building’s four-story glass atrium is now home to a gargoyle saved from the roof of the original law school.

◀ Chemical Engineering Built: 1885 Demolished: 1968 This sandstone-and-brick building on the shore of Lake Mendota was the first on campus dedicated solely to chemistry. Some members of the board of regents thought it would not be at capacity for decades, but Chamberlin Hall opened in 1905 to accommodate the overflowing department. After that, the building housed the chemical engineering department and parts of the medical school until it was torn down to make room for construction of Helen C. White Hall.

24 ON WISCONSIN S07723 1172M ▲ Toboggan Run Old Boat House (See page 22.) Built: 1880s Removed: 1938 Built: 1892 Demolished: Between 1963 and 1968 Ski Jump ▶ A small group of students with Built: 1919 competitive rowing experience was Removed: 1956 the driving force behind estab- In the 1880s, students first built a toboggan lishing a boat club on campus. run that hurled riders down Observatory The club sold memberships to Hill and onto frozen Lake Mendota (and students to help fund construction across the Lakeshore Path) at sixty miles of the boat house on university per hour. A concrete run replaced it in the land north of Memorial Union. mid-1930s, and it remained until Elizabeth The building had space for storing Waters Hall was built directly in its path. small boats and racing shells, and In the slide’s early days, Hoofers helped social gatherings were held on the maintain it — and rented toboggans. second floor. The university took Nearby at Muir Knoll, students built a ski over the property in 1908, after jump with financial help from the UW the lease expired, and remodeled athletic department. It also extended down it in 1916. As the athletic depart- onto the lake. The deteriorated wooden ment used the building more over jump was removed for safety in 1931, time, students and the public had but Hoofers successfully campaigned to less access. It was eventually torn replace it with a steel jump that opened in down to clear space for construc- 1933. Meets that the organization hosted tion of the Alumni House, home raised enough money to support events to the current Wisconsin Alumni throughout the rest of the year. The city Association. bought the jump in 1956 and moved it to Hoyt Park on Madison’s west side.

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▲ Old YMCA Wisconsin High School ▲ Built: 1905 Built: 1913 Demolished: 1956 Demolished: 1993 The YMCA stood on the site of the current Memorial Union The UW opened this practice school for teachers in 1914, parking lot, which is now the future home of Alumni Park. The serving students from grades seven to twelve. Tuition was $8 building had a cafeteria and space for student activities, and per quarter when the school opened at the corner of University it served as the de facto student union until Memorial Union Avenue and Henry Mall, and there were 250 students enrolled opened in 1928. The Y also had living quarters on its upper in 1915. The school closed in 1962 and the building became floors, housing as many as 135 men during the 1940s. After a home to the School of Journalism and the Library School. Ten new YMCA was built near campus in 1953, the UW Founda- years later, the School of Social Work and parts of the Women’s tion bought the building and gave it to the university with one Physical Education Department moved into the building. It was condition: nothing that blocked the view of Lake Mendota later demolished to make room for the Genetics-Biotechnology could be built on that spot. Center Building.

Athletic Annex ▶ S02375 Built: 1911 Demolished: 1956 The UW’s supervising architect, Arthur Peabody, didn’t have many kind words about this building, which he said was designed to be “sufficiently mediocre to harmonize with [the Red Gym].” While it may not have been an architectural wonder, the annex on the east side of the Red Gym provided much-needed space for track, baseball, and other events. The building was demolished after the Camp Randall Memorial Sports Center, known as the Shell, opened in 1954. The lakefront site is now home to the Pyle Center, a distance-education and conference center.

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▲ Old Library School ▲ Home Management House Built: 1922 Built: 1940 Demolished: 1971 Demolished: 2010 The old Library School started out as the Phi Kappa Psi frater- For decades, women who studied home economics at the nity house, which was built in 1922 adjacent to the University UW were required to spend two weeks living in this “prac- Club. The fraternity ran into trouble with recruiting, finances, tice cottage” to test their skills running a household. The and discipline — at one point, its members’ cumulative grade UW purchased the first home used for that purpose in 1911, point average dropped below the required 1.0 on the three- located on the site of the future Wisconsin State Laboratory point system. The organization continued to decline, and it of Hygiene. The program moved into the new two-story brick moved out of the house; the university purchased it in 1938. colonial home in 1940, built on the site of the old solar observa- The Library School occupied the building until 1965, when it tory (see page 23). In the mid-1960s, the department changed became office space until it was demolished to clear the way for its name from Home Economics to Family Resources and construction of the George L. Mosse Humanities Building. Consumer Science, and the house was converted into office and research space. In 2009, the School of Human Ecology put the house up for sale. The asking price: one dollar for anyone S12104 willing to move it off campus. No one took the deal, but pieces of the dismantled house live on in the new Nancy Nicholas Hall as conference tables, coat hooks, and other design features.

◀ Quonset Huts Built: 1946 Demolished: 2004 Thanks to the wave of veterans returning from World War II, the UW’s enrollment nearly doubled from 1945 to 1946, which meant the campus suddenly did not have enough classrooms or office space. One of the solutions was construction of fifteen Quonset huts, most of them on Library Mall. The huts housed classrooms and labs and provided space for reserve books and reading rooms. The downside: they were cold, poorly lit, and ugly. The university sold the huts in 1953, save one, which survived behind the School of Education on Bascom Hill before being demolished in 2004.

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▲ Temporary Buildings ▲ Old Ogg Hall Built 1947 Built: 1965 Demolished: 2011 Demolished: 2007 The Quonset huts (see page 27) weren’t enough to accommo- The 1960s brought construction of a new set of residence halls date the UW’s growing student body, so the university moved on the southeast end of campus: Sellery in 1963, Witte in 1964, twenty-six temporary buildings to campus in 1947. The struc- and Ogg in 1965. Ogg was a two-tower, thirteen-story resi- tures were surplus from Fort McCoy and other military bases, dence hall on West Dayton Street that at first housed only male where they were used during World War II. It was a good deal: students, but eventually became coed. It was named for Fred- the buildings were free. “Ugly, cheap, and unloved, they helped eric Ogg, a beloved author, teacher, and researcher who served the university survive a great crisis,” according to The Buildings on the UW political science faculty for thirty-four years. The of the University of Wisconsin. The university installed most of building was demolished to clear the way for more green space the temporary buildings near the engineering and agriculture along the East Campus Mall, but the new Ogg Hall built less campuses, replacing them with permanent structures in the than one block away carries on the tribute to the late professor. 1950s. The last of them, located on the College of Engineering campus, was not demolished until 2011. S03007

University Health Services ▶ Built: 1952 Demolished: 2011 The building, located on Old University Avenue, started out as the state psychiatric hospital, but as patients dwindled to zero, the medical school began informally using parts of the facility. The Student Health Center and services for pediatric patients were officially permitted to operate there in 1967, and the building was turned over to the UW in 1970. University Health Services was based there until 2011, when it moved to its new space on the East Campus Mall. The building was then demol- ished to make way for the Wisconsin Energy Institute.

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A.W. Peterson Building ▶ Built: 1962 Demolished: 2007 When the Peterson Building’s doors opened, administrative offices that were once spread across campus — the bursar, registrar, and financial aid — were finally under one roof. A.W. Peterson was a longtime campus administrator who oversaw a host of functions on campus, including residence halls, buildings and grounds, and campus police. After World War II, Peterson led the university’s effort to establish Badger Village, a housing community for expansion to the Chazen Museum of Art that now stands on the married student veterans and their families located at the site of Peterson site. The Office of the Registrar, Bursar’s Office, and a former army ammunition plant in Baraboo. But the Peterson the Office of Student Financial Aid moved to the redeveloped Building was not part of the university’s long-term vision for University Square, along with a new Student Activities Center an arts district on the east side of campus, anchored by an and University Health Services. S08729 S05017

▲ Old Union South Built: 1968 ▲ Old Gordon Commons Demolished: 2009 Built: 1965 Of all the buildings now gone from the UW campus, it appears Demolished: 2013 there is not much love for the old Union South. The UW built the satellite union to meet the needs of a booming student Gordon Commons, which served as the main dining hall for population, especially on the south and west ends of campus. the southeast residence halls, was named for the late Edgar When the new Union South opened in 2011, the Wisconsin “Pop” Gordon, a professor of music who taught songs to chil- State Journal called it a “south campus sensation” and described dren over the radio via his WHA program, Journeys in Music the old concrete structure as “the younger sibling who could Land. An elevated pedestrian bridge over Lake Street connected never live up to an older one; the old south campus union lived Witte Hall to the building, which operated as a traditional, in the shadow of the beloved, historic Memorial Union along single-line cafeteria serving three meals a day. The new Gordon Lake Mendota.” A recent Yelp review of the new Union South Dining & Event Center, which opened in 2013, includes event was more blunt, calling the old place “a dump.” n space, multiple dining options, and a convenience store. Where the home of Pop’s Club once stood, there is now outdoor On Wisconsin’s senior writer Jenny Price ’96 fondly remembers see- dining space and a lush green lawn. ing the movie Pulp Fiction at the old Union South. Stephanie Awe x’15 contributed to this story.

SPRING 2015 29 Staying

By Vikki Ortiz Healy ’97 Photos by Jeff Miller Power This Chicago Tribune columnist covers his very own industry, and he maintains that reports of the demise of newspapers don’t tell the whole story.

30 ON WISCONSIN hil Rosenthal ’85 is holding in worrying about his employer’s future. an endangered artifact. Its He may have gone into journalism size and shape have evolved partly because of a belief in its mission over time, yet its benefit to to inform and improve lives. But today society, he argues, remains he has a house in Chicago, a wife who Pthe same — even after TV and radio also works, and two children in grade threatened to steal away audiences and school. Rosenthal’s love for journalism advertisers. Even after the Internet also has to pay the bills. actually did. Complicating matters is the fact that The artifact Rosenthal holds is media news and the happenings at the a newspaper. He picks it up off his Chicago Tribune — a historic and major desk in a cramped back office at the corporation in the Windy City — are Chicago Tribune, and admires a front part of his beat. So Rosenthal must regu- page that still demonstrates all the larly write about the state of the industry journalistic ideals he was drawn to as in which he works and the company that a UW-Madison freshman in the early provides his paychecks. The duty, which 1980s, a time when he regularly pestered he describes as “walking a tightrope,” an editor at the Capital Times, hoping to forces him to confront his bosses about land an assignment. their business decisions and reveal to the Rosenthal eventually convinced public flaws in the very industry he hopes editors at the former afternoon daily they’ll continue to support. to give him bylines. He made lasting “I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I’m impressions on professors at the jour- aware of the impact of every single word nalism school, then landed high-profile when I write about the Tribune — prob- jobs at the Los Angeles Daily News and ably more than when I write about other the Chicago Sun-Times. But after more companies,” Rosenthal wrote in a June than thirty years in the newspaper busi- 2006 column published just before the ness — covering grizzly crime scenes as Tribune Company was sold in a contro- a news reporter, scribbling in a notebook versial transaction with ramifications that at UCLA and LA Rams games, and, with would play out for years afterward. He a TV column, helping nudge Jay Leno to echoed the sentiment last summer, weeks do something Leno had long resisted — after his front-page byline helped to Rosenthal finds himself in the midst of explain a high-stakes move that broke the his biggest career challenge yet. company into two entities: one primarily The Internet has grabbed hold for broadcast endeavors, the other for of today’s news consumers, who, as print publications. Don’t write off newspapers, Phil evidenced in dramatically declining Interestingly, though, Rosenthal Rosenthal says, urging skeptics to recognize the adaptability they've advertising revenue and newspaper says the front-row seat to the industry’s demonstrated over the decades. subscription numbers, are decidedly less fall has made him feel better, not worse, interested in the smudge of newsprint on about the future of newspapers. And at a their fingers. In turn, newspapers across time when journalism schools, including the country have been forced to close, the UW’s, are retooling their programs slash staff, eliminate local movie reviews to take the emphasis off of newspaper- and other staples, and, in some cases, specific writing, he remains one of the abandon the print product altogether in school’s most supportive alums. favor of online publications. Although he says that the format of It’s a quandary Rosenthal deals newspapers needed to change, his faith in with both personally and profession- their future is based in their history. ally. Now a business columnist at the “They’re still referred to as papers, Chicago Tribune, he joins his colleagues despite their increasingly digital

SPRING 2015 31 orientation, in the same way people must figure out how to generate the might say they dial phones. But on revenue needed to produce it. paper, pixel, video stream, or whatever “Everyone knew platform they play, these are organiza- that Phil was • tions that over the decades have survived When Rosenthal first took an interest all manner of challenges from within destined to become in journalism, newspapers were still the and without. ... Those who would write obvious place to begin. Born on the south off newspapers as history may wish to a big-timer. side of Chicago, he and his family moved consider the adaptability and where- When he was hired to the North Shore suburb of Lake Bluff withal it’s taken for them to get this where, as a senior in high school, he far,” he wrote in his column about the by the LA Daily decided that working as a barback and Tribune Company’s split last August. News, it was hardly prep cook at a local pizza pub wasn’t Through multiple platforms, exactly positioning him for the future. newspaper content today enjoys larger a surprise.” After calling around to various local audiences than ever, but industry leaders media outlets, he walked into the News

Rosenthal admits to “walking a tightrope” when he's writing a column that covers the media business — which includes the company that provides his paycheck. He's had the cow art that decorates his office since his college days.

32 ON WISCONSIN Sun office in suburban Waukegan, where the sports editor agreed to let him cover local high school sports. That experience — and mentoring — gave him the confi- dence to visit the Capital Times offices a year later, where the sports editor at the time, Rob Zaleski, tried to nicely explain that he didn’t have any stories for the college kid to write. “He would come around at least once a week after that. I kept telling him, ‘Sorry, nice to see you, but I don’t have anything for you,’ ” Zaleski recalls. “He was a gentleman, and yet, he was persistent. You couldn’t help but be Both chandeliers and words of inspiration grace the lobby of the Tribune building in downtown Chicago. impressed.” When one of Zaleski’s regular a complete story, he simply picked up the D.C., to shadow Sonny Bono in his early stringers got sick, Rosenthal got his phone and called city workers in Maine to days as a freshman U.S. representa- break. He turned in a story about an gather them himself, Baughman recalls. tive. He flew to a remote South Pacific Oregon High School football game that “What I remember about Phil was isle to observe contestants roughing it was so well reported and cleanly written that he didn’t need to be in the class — on Survivor. For another assignment, that Zaleski thought a veteran sports he was that good,” says Baughman. he went shopping with international writer had taken the assignment. From Rosenthal also impressed editors supermodel Vendela Kirsebom, and she that point on, Zaleski regularly called and professors with his ability to write helped him pick out a pair of red-and- on him for other stories, and Rosenthal, objectively, even critically, about subjects white swim trunks — after he’d modeled nicknamed Rosie, became a well-liked — such as UW athletics — to which several pairs for her and a photographer. and ever-present personality at the office, other reporters were more inclined to And after Jay Leno remarked for the even though he was only officially paid to give allowances. umpteenth time that he regretted never work part time, Zaleski says. That early skill came in handy publicly thanking Johnny Carson for Rosenthal also impressed profes- decades later. handing off the Tonight Show, Rosenthal sors at the UW, where the journalism “Everyone knew that Phil was wrote a column suggesting the perfect program was both popular and pres- destined to become a big-timer,” says occasion to do so would be on Carson’s tigious. In the early 1980s, the school Zaleski. “When he was hired by the LA seventieth birthday. Leno called Rosen- enrolled five hundred students who Daily News, it was hardly a surprise.” thal to argue otherwise, but ultimately, chose from one of five tracks: print, With his journalism degree in hand, that’s exactly what Leno did. broadcast, public relations, adver- Rosenthal moved to Los Angeles in 1985, “It was a great job, a wonderful job,” tising, and research. James Baughman, joined the paper to cover college sports Rosenthal says. a longtime journalism professor who and the Rams, and wrote a TV sports By 1996, though, the LA Daily News taught Rosenthal in a newswriting column. When an opening as the paper’s restructured itself to focus more predomi- class, remembers being amused by the TV critic became available in 1989, he nantly on the San Fernando Valley and fearlessness and gumption the young landed the position, which evolved into surrounding communities. Rosenthal reporter demonstrated. a more general four-days-a-week, pop- figured it might be a good time to seek In one case, Baughman created a culture feature column a few years later. new opportunities. When an old friend class exercise using details from actual The job lent itself to celebrity offered him a position in the sports news events in Maine. When Rosenthal encounters and enterprising reporting department of the Chicago Sun-Times, couldn’t surmise the facts he needed to tell experiences. He traveled to Washington, Continued on Page 50

SPRING 2015 33 Rosenthal happily returned to the unfavorable standing to investors on Wall spring class was expected to be at or near Midwest. He wrote a sports column Street, Baughman says. a historic high. For last fall semester, two for the paper until 1998, covering the By the time Rosenthal was recruited hundred and ninety applicants had vied Olympics, Michael Jordan’s last three to write a media column for the business for one hundred and twenty spots, and championships with the Chicago Bulls, section of the Tribune in 2005, the news- the school’s total enrollment was nearly and other notable stories. In July 1998, he paper industry was deep in crisis. “Who double that from a decade ago, according became the paper’s TV critic, a position knows where we’re headed, but we’re to academic adviser Robert Schwoch. that appealed to him because of its seem- headed there fast. The current is strong,” ingly limitless possibilities. he wrote in his inaugural column in April • “I viewed it as an opportunity to of that year. Rosenthal regularly returns to Madison write about everything,” he says. “Being Since then, Rosenthal has chronicled for guest lectures, has served on the a TV critic was like being a TV viewer two separate sales of the Chicago Tribune journalism school’s board of visitors, and — only louder.” that have brought in colorful casts of new co-operates a Facebook page, Friends of leadership, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Badger Journalism, with another J-school • the company’s division into two entities alum, Ben Deutsch ’85, who is now vice In the larger media context, however, — not to mention the struggles of other president for corporate communications things were changing rapidly. major newspaper companies across the at the Coca-Cola Company. Newspaper publishers, journalism nation. Those who know him say he’s the Regardless of the dramatic changes scholars, and other experts had been right person for the delicate job. he’s seen, Rosenthal remains optimistic cautiously monitoring the arrival of the “He just has an amazing integrity. about the future of journalism — and Internet, not quite sure whether the He’s always going to do the right thing,” newspapers specifically. He believes technology would catch on with the says Bill Adee, executive vice president of that the newspaper industry will make it public. Even if it did resonate, many digital development and operations for through by forcing itself to offer unique, assumed it could happily coexist with the Chicago Tribune who has worked with expert, and informative perspectives that newspapers, the way TV and radio had Rosenthal at three other papers. “In those readers can’t find elsewhere. He asks previously, says Baughman, who also cases of covering yourself and covering himself whether he’s doing so with every serves as chair of the advisory board for your industry, you’re faced with a lot of column he writes, and he’s embraced the university’s Center for the History choices. In those places, Phil’s always social media opportunities to interact with of Print and Digital Culture. made good ones.” people he might not reach otherwise. But by the early 2000s, Baughman At the end of the day, he’s not so says, as the diffusion of laptop computers • worried about the aging artifact on his and mobile devices, and the spread of Recognizing the evolution of the desk. True, it has been around for a long WiFi, only made the Internet more industry, directors at the UW’s jour- time. But, he argues, perhaps that in itself appealing, scholars began to realize that nalism school revamped its curriculum is a reason to believe in its future. the newspaper industry was being threat- in 2000 to put less emphasis on writing “One of the reasons I’m hopeful ened by something entirely different. for specific forms of media and increase about the newspaper business,” he says, In the first of several missteps in training for reporting in general. “is that we produce something every day. dealing with the crisis, newspaper compa- Today, the school’s nearly six hundred We create. We solve problems every day. nies merged and consolidated debt students must complete a rigorous, six- We are always adjusting. Most industries under the assumption that there would credit course that introduces them to a don’t have that.” n be continued double-digit profits. Then “platform agnostic” set of newswriting came the decline in revenue. Internet skills that are applicable to careers in Vikki Ortiz Healy ’97 is a metro reporter and health and family columnist for the Chicago sites such as Craigslist stole away once- both a multimedia reporting track and Tribune. unwavering profits from classified ads. PR and advertising, Baughman says. The 2009 recession led to a dramatic Despite the struggles within the news- drop in newspaper advertising and an paper industry, the school’s incoming

50 ON WISCONSIN AP PHOTO/DAVID GUTTENFELDER AP PHOTO/DAVID

During a presidential run in 2004, Abdul Rashid Dostum, the subject of a book by Brian WIlliams PhD’99, climbed on top of a horse and waved at throngs of supporters at a campaign rally in a Kabul stadium in Afghanistan. The Warlord’s Biographer Brian Glyn Williams travels to the world’s most dangerous regions to learn more about our surprising allies in the War on Terror.

By Sandra Knisely ’09, MA’13

34 ON WISCONSIN ike many Americans, Brian Glyn stepped into what he recalls as an university programs in the country Williams PhD’99 spent last “apocalyptic ghost zone.” dedicated to Central Asian studies. summer and fall closely tracking a Williams watched with horror as It was also the only place where L contentious, historic election that human remains were removed from the Williams knew he could focus on would shape a nation’s future. But unlike wreckage of the skyscrapers. He was Afghanistan. His adviser, Kemal Karpat, a most Americans, the race he watched shaken by the idea that Americans had renowned Turkish specialist and emeritus wasn’t one of the U.S. midterms. become victims of a terror group closely professor now based in Istanbul, encour- Williams’s attention was focused on allied with the Taliban, and he knew at aged his interests. “I had a tremendous Afghanistan’s presidential election, where, that moment that his life was about to education there,” says Williams of his after two votes and several months of change. As the country tried to make time at the UW. “The chance to study audits, Ashraf Ghani secured the country’s sense of what had just happened, he was an obscure part of the world was a career first democratic transfer of power. But it tapped as an expert source for national builder for me. It made me who I am.” wasn’t Ghani whom Williams cared most about — it was Ghani’s vice president, Williams heard about an Uzbek warlord named Abdul Rashid Dostum. When the final results were announced, Williams sent Dostum, who had snuck back into Afghanistan Dostum his personal congratulations. after years in exile to help lead a new, tenuous Dostum isn’t just any rising politician in just any developing country. Born in a coalition against the Taliban. rural village, he climbed first to regional and then to national prominence in the media interviews, and he gave several Williams realized early in his doctoral place where the United States has fought public talks to packed halls at UMass. program that he wasn’t cut out for a its longest war. His story is a rags-to- “I was someone who could infuse knowl- career in “a dusty archive.” Instead, he guns-to-riches tale complete with ethnic edge at a time of urgency,” he says. was drawn to the idea of studying history battles, geopolitical intrigue, covert oper- The class roster for his course on as it unfolded to explain — and perhaps ations, and even a mythical death ray. central Asian history swelled well past to help shape — current events. In 1997, It’s also the story of Williams’s career. one hundred. he moved to a region of Uzbekistan just Williams had, essentially, spent a life- north of the Afghanistan border for his Apocalyptic ghost zone time studying the places and cultures he dissertation fieldwork. While there, he was now asked to explain. During a child- witnessed the rise of an unknown group Williams’s first day in front of a classroom hood spent living in Wales and Florida, of zealots called The Students, or, in at the University of Massachusetts- he developed an interest in stories about Pashto, the Taliban, which was rapidly Dartmouth went about as he expected. the horse-mounted Afghan warriors who attracting new members and allies, The brand-new professor of Islamic faced off against the invading Soviets including a faction of the al-Qaeda army. history surveyed the handful of students during the Cold War. At the time, Williams headed to the border to get who had signed up for his course on Williams romanticized the Afghan muja- closer to the action and began hearing central Asian history from the time of hideen forces. “The rebels in the ‘land stories about an ethnically Uzbek (Turkic- Genghis Khan to the present. that time forgot’ were standing up to Mongol) warlord named Dostum, who “Have you ever heard of a Muslim these Communists to protect their faith, had snuck back into Afghanistan after theocracy called the Taliban?” he asked. their land, and [their] families,” he says. years in exile to help lead a new, tenuous Only one student raised a hand. The date That interest motivated Williams coalition against the Taliban. Though was September 5, 2001. to study Russian as an undergraduate at Williams eventually turned his attention When the World Trade Center Stetson University in Florida and then to back to his dissertation, he developed a towers fell less than a week later, pursue master’s degrees in Russian history deep fascination with Dostum. “It was my Williams was invited to visit Ground and Central Asian studies at Indiana dream to meet him,” Williams says, but Zero by a friend who worked nearby. University, where the CIA regularly at the time, travel into Afghanistan was “He called me up and said, ‘[Al-Qaeda recruited for operatives before the Gulf impossible. has] made the news. Come see their War. Williams opted for academia and Instead, Williams traveled north handiwork,’ ” Williams says. He rushed pursuit of a doctorate instead and headed to the University of London, where he to Manhattan, put on a mask, and to Wisconsin, home to one of the few began teaching in 1999. While there, he

SPRING 2015 35 was invited by Scotland Yard to become Some two thousand Beche — the U.S. battle that led to the an adviser on the conflict in Chechnya overthrow of the Taliban and was won, and to provide early insights about the Uzbek horsemen in large part, by horse-mounted Uzbek Taliban. Then came a whirlwind of charged into nine cavalry wearing turbans and robes. projects, including fieldwork in Kosovo thousand Taliban fighters In October 2001, teams from the CIA during the aftermath of that country’s and U.S. Special Forces coordinated with ethnic war and a trip to Macedonia to and heavy tank fire. Dostum’s guerrilla army to launch an meet with rebel insurgents — a move attack against the Taliban, who refused to that promptly got Williams arrested by an interview with Dostum. Flying from hand over their Al-Qaeda guest, Osama the Macedonian Army. Thanks to his Boston to Kabul can take more than bin Laden. Though U.S. military officers dual British and American citizenship, a day, sometimes two, but getting to anticipated the guerrillas would need he was released after only a few hours, the capital city was the easiest part of until spring to prepare an attack, Dostum but Williams says the experience was a Williams’s odyssey. “Afghanistan is the was ready to move almost immediately. turning point. only country where you can experience On November 5, some two thousand “That night, as we sat in the pub, it the Middle Ages,” he says. Sheep roamed Uzbek horsemen charged into nine thou- sort of empowered me,” he says. “You can the city’s streets. sand Taliban fighters and heavy tank fire. do field research in potentially dangerous Western reporters have described As they did so, the Green Berets called in situations and get away with it.” Dostum as an “an ogre” and “a monster coordinates for U.S. planes to drop laser- who burns people alive.” These depic- guided bombs from above. Why should I trust you? tions made him wary of talking with During the Bai Beche attack, Dostum foreigners and especially of talking to spread a rumor that he was in possession In 2003, Williams managed to secure a Americans, who he believed had turned of a death ray. Each time a plane dropped grant to travel to Afghanistan to attempt their backs on him in the aftermath of Bai a bomb, Dostum was informed by radio. COURTESY OF ABDUL DOSTUM

Brian Williams “right” visits with General Dostum at his headquarters in the northern plains of Afghanistan.

36 ON WISCONSIN COURTESY OF ABDUL DOSTUM

Dostum (crouching and wearing American camouflage, above) announces to his men that the United States will be sending an elite team to join them in their battle against their common foe, the Taliban. The map at left shows the route Williams took to

UNIVERSITY MARKETING visit Dostum.

publicly from the warlord. Dostum felt he had been used. Despite Dostum’s aversion to Amer- ican visitors, Williams was determined to meet him, and the two had mutual friends. Turkey had granted asylum to Dostum after the Taliban briefly conquered Dostum’s northern territory in 1997, so when the Turkish embassy sent word that it could vouch for Williams, the warlord agreed to receive him. In 2003, a convoy of more than one hundred bodyguards — all wielding AK-47s — was arranged to transport Williams from Kabul to Dostum’s compound in the northern desert. He would point at the target just before Williams has tracked down multiple They drove north through the Hindu it exploded and broadcast to the Taliban military reports that acknowledge Kush Mountains to a location near Mazar- that he was allied with Azrail, the Angel of Dostum’s role in the success of the Bai e-Sharif, a shrine well known for its Death. The Taliban soldiers surrendered Beche offensive. However, after Dostum’s beautiful, blue-domed mosque, which local in droves. “That scene inspired me to troops left hundreds, and possibly thou- residents believe contains special powers of write a book,” Williams says. “The cavalry sands, of Taliban prisoners to die in metal protection. A crowd of elders was waiting attack broke the spine of the Taliban army truck containers that December, U.S. to greet Williams when he arrived in the in the north.” government officials distanced themselves middle of the night, and he was directed to

SPRING 2015 37 COURTESY OF BRIAN WILLIAMS

Williams and his wife, Feyza, meet with Dostum at his compound in Sheberghan during Williams’s second visit to northern Afghanistan in 2005. On his first visit two years earlier, Williams had been accompanied by a convoy of more than 100 bodyguards — all wielding AK-47s — who transported him from Kabul to the general’s compound in the northern desert.

Dostum, who sat watching Williams from involvement in jihad. Some were fanatics; CIA intelligence agents who lost track of a throne-like armchair. some were farmers who had joined the him during the 1990s. Williams stood through “some of Taliban for the promise of $700. “One When the Soviet Union collapsed and the longest seconds of my life,” he says, guy lost his two brothers, and he wanted Russia withdrew funding for its allies in before Dostum spoke: “I’m sure you have me to call his baba [father] and tell him,” Afghanistan, Dostum aligned himself with many questions for me, because you’ve Williams says. “Another guy was a mullah, former mujahideen leaders from various come all the way from America. But I and he told me he’d kill me if he wasn’t in ethnic groups and overthrew Mohammad have a question for you, my friend. Why this prison. He spat at me.” Najibullah, the Communist president who should I trust you?” Williams realized that most of the had begun disarming his former friends Williams replied in Turkish: “Well, prisoners he spoke with had no idea their — a move the mujahideen interpreted as a Pasha [general],” he said, “I’m here to tell al-Qaeda allies had attacked the United sign of impending subjugation. Dostum’s your story. Let me live with you as the States. “A lot of them were skeptical. new alliance broke down quickly after first outsider to write the Dostum epic.” There was this real sense that America the presidential coup, however, when he Flattery and the promise to set his was the bad guy, that we had invaded was snubbed for a position in the new reputational record straight appealed and didn’t belong there,” he says. “They government. A few years later, Dostum to Dostum. He invited Williams to sit thought we were like the Russians.” tried partnering with a particularly brutal down, eat a Turkish biscuit, turn on his warlord, an attempt that resulted in a failed camcorder, and start asking questions. For coup and a series of sieges that killed more the next couple of months, Williams lived Black, white, gray than twenty-five thousand people in Kabul at the compound and spent hours with At first glance, Dostum may seem an during the mid-1990s. Dostum, his family, his men, and even his unlikely ally for the U.S. military. After At the same time, the Taliban’s prisoners. all, the Afghan Communist Army spent ideology was spreading across Afghani- At the time of Williams’s visit, Dostum the 1970s and ’80s battling against muja- stan. Eventually, warring ethnic leaders in was holding an estimated five thousand hideen fundamentalist groups supported the north realized they faced a common captured Taliban soldiers in a medieval by the CIA. enemy: the Taliban. The extremist fortress. Williams was guided through At the beginning of his career, Dostum group had severely restricted the rights giant metal doors into the prison’s central viewed the Communists he fought for as of women in its territories and imposed corridor, where thousands of men looked advocates for equality and proponents of a harsh religious requirements on men, down from their cells at the blond, blue- secular society free from Islamic law. For too. When the Taliban publicly tortured eyed American. He interviewed several years, he’s identified himself as a moderate and killed Najibullah, it became clear to prisoners, who held a range of opinions secularist rather than as a Communist, but Afghanistan’s most powerful figures that about Americans and about their own Williams says that nuance was lost on the something had to be done.

38 ON WISCONSIN From his base in Mazar-e-Sharif, in possession of both arms, and thought Williams, came along — over Williams’s Dostum ruled a northern territory that of the Americans as his saving grace. objections. “I said, ‘It’s too dangerous,’ was one of the few remaining sanctuaries Williams’s work provides the first and she said, ‘Well, if it’s too dangerous, where women could attend a university significant alternative to popular Western then why are you going?’ I backtracked and move freely in public without male depictions of Dostum as a tribal killer and said, ‘No, it’s not so dangerous,’ and escorts or burqas. But one of Dostum’s who couldn’t possibly have contrib- that was it,” he says. Uzbek countrymen betrayed him and uted meaningfully to the strategic plan She and Dostum were fast friends. accepted a $200,000 bribe to turn his behind Bai Beche. “Americans see the Over the next few years, the “Dostum personal army on Dostum’s forces. world in black and white. But the world epic” was interrupted by various proj- ects. In 2007, the U.S. government Dostum ruled a northern territory that was one asked Williams to conduct a study that of the few remaining sanctuaries where tracked Taliban suicide bombings across southeastern Afghanistan. A year later, he women could attend a university and move freely served as an expert witness at the Guan- in public without male escorts or burqas. tanamo Bay trial of Osama bin Laden’s personal driver. Eventually, after tracking The Taliban then overran Mazar-e-Sharif, is very gray. It’s complex,” Williams down CIA agents and a few of the Green and Dostum fled into exile in 1997. says, explaining that his main goal was Berets to corroborate Dostum’s account Right after 9/11, the CIA knew little to present a fuller picture of Dostum’s of Bai Beche, Williams kept his word and about Dostum’s complex web of alli- involvement in the War on Terror. “This finished the book. ances and the motivations behind them. book took me a decade. Journalists don’t Initially, publishers rejected it out of According to Williams’s research, the have that kind of extended deadline. I can a perception that Americans were tired of dossier on Dostum that the U.S. Army probe much, much deeper as a profes- the War on Terror. But that perception used during preparations for Bai Beche sional scholar and educate journalists, changed when bin Laden was killed in was riddled with errors. It described him teach them what they missed in their rush 2011, and The Last Warlord: The Life and as a frail man in his eighties who was for the headlines.” Legend of Dostum, the Afghan Warrior Who missing an arm and harbored a hatred After the 2003 visit, Williams Led US Special Forces to Topple the Taliban for Americans. None of this was true; in returned to Dostum’s compound twice Regime came out in 2013. “More than 2001, Dostum was forty-seven years old, more. The second time, his wife, Feyza one hundred Uzbeks living in America came to Manhattan for the book signing,” Williams says. “They were thrilled.” Beyond telling the full story behind Dostum’s involvement in the overthrow of the Taliban, Williams hopes that The Last Warlord might serve as something more: a model for conducting historical COURTESY OF ABDUL DOSTUM research that has political applications in the present. “As scholars, we owe it to ourselves to be in the field. We should be traveling to these areas, even if it’s dangerous, and bring back these stories,” he says. “With the War on Terror, there are so many myths, so many misunderstandings. We can make blunders on a massive scale, so it’s important to make decisions based on history.” n Sandra Knisely ’09, MA’13 is the news content In a scene that could have taken place hundreds of years ago, Dostum’s horsemen gather strategist for University Communications. Her in the mountains for a war council in 2001. passport stamps do not include Afghanistan.

SPRING 2015 39 STUART BRADFORD STUART

The Chemistry of Truthfulness n Quentin Tarantino’s 2004 film Kill The use of a chemical to induce people BY ERIKA JANIK MA’04, MA’06 Bill (Volume 2), Bill (played by David to tell the truth was first tested in the 1920s I Carradine) seeks answers from The Bride by UW psychiatrist William Bleckwenn. His (Uma Thurman). experiments with narcoanalysis — or psycho- “I’m going to ask you some questions, therapy conducted under the influence of and I want you to tell me the truth,” says Bill. drugs — laid the foundation for the modern “However, therein lies a dilemma, because field of psychopharmacology and sparked when it comes to the subject of me, I believe international interest in the power of a syringe you are truly and utterly incapable of telling to expose hidden secrets. His work also put the truth … [and] I am truly and utterly inca- forth a radical idea. Where before, inventions pable of believing anything you say.” such as the lie detector allowed for the scien- “How do you suppose we solve this tific measurement of volunteered information, dilemma?” asks The Bride. a truth serum suggested that science could “Well, it just so happens I have a solution,” actually produce honesty. Bill replies, shooting her with a truth serum- filled dart he calls his “greatest invention.” orn in New York City on July 23, We’re all familiar with truth serum. In 1895, William Jefferson Bleckwenn popular culture, it’s how we get information Bcame to the University of Wisconsin from prisoners and people otherwise unwilling in 1913 as an undergraduate. He excelled in to spill the beans. In True Lies, truth serum leads track and field, particularly the hammer throw. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character to reveal Graduating in 1917, he enrolled at Columbia Our fascination with truth serum owes its beginnings to UW psychiatrist William Bleckwenn.

his escape plans to terrorists. It makes Whoopi University for his MD because the UW did Goldberg say exactly what she’s thinking to not yet have a four-year medical school. After everyone she meets in Jumpin’ Jack Flash. The residencies in psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital truth serum in the Harry Potter series, Verita- in New York City and the UW’s Wisconsin serum, is so powerful that the Ministry of Magic Psychiatric Institute, he became an instructor strictly controls its use. Three drops of the at the institute in 1922. colorless, odorless potion are enough to make At the time, Madison was a center for anyone spill his or her innermost secrets. the study of altered states of mind. In the late People tell lies big and small all of the time. 1920s, UW researchers carried out some of the But humans are remarkably bad at detecting first laboratory studies of hypnotism and inves- deception — despite numerous theories on tigated cures for neurosyphilis. Charged with the behavioral tics of liars, from fidgeting leading clinical trials of various drugs, Bleck- to sweating to avoiding eye contact. So the wenn began experimenting with short-acting popular and scientific appeal of a truth serum synthesized barbiturates, particularly sodium is not hard to understand. amytal (amobarbital sodium), to treat patients

40 ON WISCONSIN SPRING 2015 41 with schizophrenia. Those suffering drew the attention of psychiatrists and hallucinations” and sang and yelled, from rare and particularly debilitating neurologists. day and night. Given sodium amytal, forms of the disease, catatonia and Bleckwenn induced a deep state of the student realized “he was having a mutism, were often unable to move or unconsciousness in his catatonic patients terrible time and hoped to recover so as speak. Others exhibited just the oppo- — deep enough to remove the strange to enter school at the beginning of the site behavior: excessive motion, pacing, movements and repetitive actions, and next semester,” Bleckwenn wrote. During turning in circles, or flailing arms and to add the waxy flexibility that allowed his lucid interval, the student discussed legs. Looking for a sedative that delivered patients to be bent into shapes like a current events, school, his illness, and rest, Bleckwenn was the first to use intra- human Gumby. As they woke up after his future plans. He lapsed back into a venous barbiturates in clinical practice. many hours of sleep and recovered from catatonic state as the drug left his system, First synthesized by chemist Adolf the effects of the drug, he found that but daily injections lengthened his lucid von Baeyer in 1864, barbiturates are a many of his patients emerged from their periods — so much so that Bleckwenn class of drugs derived from barbituric catatonic states. They walked and talked. eventually reported that the student was acid that act as depressants on the central They ate and drank unassisted. They working for a florist, “perfectly adjusted nervous system. Barbiturates such as could read and write. at present.” sodium amytal trigger the brain’s main Bleckwenn asked them questions Bleckwenn made a dramatic film inhibitory system, which depends on about their paranoid delusions and from his experiments in 1936, titled binding between the neurotransmitter received answers that he had been unable Effects of Sodium Amytal Narcosis on Cata- GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) and to coax out of them before. Most of his tonia, that featured footage of patients the GABA receptors on the surface of patients were long-term sufferers of before and after treatment. One man neurons. When these receptors are acti- catatonia. Some had been on feeding sits with his head down, his chin resting vated, function slows in parts of the brain. tubes for years and did not respond to against his chest. Four hours later, the Alcohol, the oldest known drug to loosen the catharsis or talk therapy developed same man is shown sitting up, writing, tongues, has a similar inhibitory effect by Freud. The effects during the period drinking, buttering bread, and even on parts of the brain, giving rise to the Bleckwenn called the “lucid interval” smiling shyly at the camera. The film phrase in vino veritas. were usually temporary, but remarkable. allowed audiences to experience Bleck- Barbiturates found widespread “With ‘Sodium Amytal’ we are now wenn’s therapeutic work more succintly than a visit to the Wisconsin By the mid-1930s, Bleckwenn’s work, along with that Psychiatric Institute ever could. For Bleckwenn, sodium of his colleague William Lorenz, had become standard amytal seemed to open a window into the behavior, skills, and reading on the psychological effects of drugs on personality of his patients before the onset of illness. “The memo- psychiatric patients, and sodium amytal had become ries expressed under its influence are relived and embodied in commonly referred to as “truth serum.” the subject,” he explained. With sodium amytal, patients express clinical use as sedatives and anticon- able to pierce the mystery of this obscure “a greater willingness to eat and take vulsants, and they became particularly mental state and bring them out to a fluids … They are more active, more talk- popular for combatting insomnia in the normal mental level for from four to ative, have less constrained and awkward 1940s and 1950s. They can be extremely eighteen hours a day,” wrote Bleckwenn attitudes.” By the mid-1930s, Bleckwenn’s addictive and sometimes lethal, however in the Wisconsin Medical Journal. “We are work, along with that of his colleague — Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, and using psychotherapy and other methods William Lorenz, had become standard Jimi Hendrix all died from barbiturate during the lucid intervals to produce reading on the psychological effects of overdoses. Before Bleckwenn, sodium recoveries and have had excellent results.” drugs on psychiatric patients, and sodium amytal had only limited medical appli- Bleckwenn treated one twenty-year- amytal had become commonly referred cations as a surgical anesthetic. But its old UW student who had suddenly to as “truth serum.” potential for psychic transformation in become confused and stopped talking The idea sparked the imagination of people suffering from nervous disorders and eating. He developed “active journalists, writers, and dramatists. Police

42 ON WISCONSIN UW-MADISON ARCHIVES, S134

Bleckwenn began experimenting with synthesized barbiturates, particularly sodium amytal, to treat patients with and medical researchers seized on the schizophrenia. Those suffering from idea of a technique that could reveal a reality independent of the fantasy life of catatonia and mutism were often the individual, a chemical means to tap unable to move or speak. As they into the history locked in the brain. And woke up after many hours of sleep. military leaders used the drugs to inter- rogate enemy soldiers during World ... Bleckwenn asked them questions War II. During the Korean War, U.S. about their paranoid delusions and POWs were subjected to a variety of drug received answers that he had been therapies, including sodium amytal, as part of brainwashing efforts. unable to coax out of them before. The substance quickly found its way into the courtroom. In 1931, Bleck- wenn injected suspected murderer release through telling their stories that extremely suggestible and are more likely John Whalen with sodium amytal in would allow them to recover from the to say what the questioner wants to hear connection with the murder of a man in trauma of war and resume normal func- rather than the truth. A CIA review of Monticello, Wisconsin. Whalen’s testi- tioning. The drugs could also be used to the validity of information gleaned from mony while under the drug led to his hunt out fakers trying to shirk their mili- sodium amytal interviews in the 1950s release from custody. Bleckwenn, often tary duty by claiming mental and physical revealed that many participants recalled aided by his colleague Lorenz, adminis- dysfunctions. false memories. In 1963, Congress ruled tered the drug on several more suspected Medical units were given dosages of that the use of sodium amytal in ques- men over succeeding months and years. sodium amytal and a related drug, sodium tioning POWs was torture. Truth serum’s Lorenz admitted that the test had pentothal, to treat soldiers. At one British standing has been far more consistent in limited applicability and was not infallible hospital, psychiatrists William Sargant the popular imagination. outside of psychiatric psychoanalysis. “Up and Eliot Slater reportedly gave their After World War II, Bleckwenn to present, we would conclude that the patients and staff sodium amytal cock- continued to consult on psychiatric care method is satisfactory and successful in tails to calm fears during the harrowing for the military, working with the secre- the case of innocent people charged with months of the Blitz in 1940. tary of war, the surgeon general, and the crime,” declared Lorenz in a 1932 article. The practice continues today. In Veterans Administration to expand the “In the case of guilty persons, we have March 2013, the judge in the Aurora, teaching and use of psychiatry. He also not always been successful in obtaining Colorado, movie-theater shooting ruled resumed his research on narcoanalysis a confession.” Courts generally agreed that a truth serum could be used on and explored various treatments for with Lorenz’s skepticism, despite admit- defendant James Holmes should he plead chronic pain. ting barbiturate interviews as evidence in not guilty on the grounds of insanity. Bleckwenn, the father of truth serum, some cases. Doubts about the veracity of truth died of an aortic aneurysm in 1965. During the 1940s, sodium amytal was serums have existed from the very begin- Bleckwenn’s groundbreaking work also used on soldiers suffering from shell ning: controversy led to rejection and with sodium amytal set the stage for shock — what we now call post-traumatic then resurgence time and again. A central nearly a century of popular and scientific stress disorder. Bleckwenn was himself issue is the degree of reliability of the interest in truth serums. We still don’t very concerned about the psychological memories of the patients and the capri- have an effective way to extract the truth effects of war. Serving in the Pacific as cious observations of these memories by that works in every instance and on every a neurologist and psychiatrist, he had witnesses. Films such as the one made by person. The persistence of myths and witnessed the horrors of combat first- Bleckwenn offered one way to validate theories about lie detecting attest to hand. “Acute emotional breaks occur evidence and to communicate experi- our as-yet-unrequited desire to expose under combat conditions and are the ences difficult to put into words. hidden truths. n direct result of fatigue, exhaustion, and Even so, while these drugs did make the strain in combat,” he wrote. Early people more willing to talk, later studies Erika Janik MA’04, MA’06 is a historian, author, publisher, and radio producer. treatment was key, he counseled. Under found that they were no more likely Her most recent book is Marketplace of sodium amytal, Bleckwenn believed to tell the truth. Individuals under the the Marvelous: The Strange Origins of sufferers would experience the emotional influence of barbiturates tend to be Modern Medicine (Beacon Press).

SPRING 2015 43 AHMADOU KANDJI MADELYN BAGBY

Far left: During a field visit, Professor Laura Schechter (right) and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) project coordinator Ahmadou Kandji review a satellite image of the neighborhood they’re visiting in the Senegalese capital of Dakar. Left: During a sanitation baseline survey to determine what desludging systems residents are currently using, survey-team members get directions to the next respondent’s house from a woman (right) whom they just finished interviewing.

dedicated to researching better ways to help the world’s poor. The project goal is getting as many families as possible to choose mechanized desludging, which will help to reduce early childhood mortality in Dakar and other developing communities. “Getting people to convince their neighbors to use mechanical desludging would be huge,” says Lipscomb. “We Desludging are really lucky that Laura has agreed to work with us on this. … She is one of the Pioneering behavioral economist principal researchers working on social Dakar networks in developing countries.” Laura Schechter is turning to group Quick to give credit to others, dynamics, altruism, and cell phones Schechter says that fellow Badger and IPA staffer Sarah Nehrling ’06 has served to improve sanitation in areas as project supervisor for the desludging initiative in Dakar and “is absolutely without access to modern plumbing. amazing at juggling all the many moving parts of this project.” Schechter, who did her under- By Denise Thornton ’82, MA’08 or children living in the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal, With no underground infrastructure convince people to choose the sanitary graduate and graduate work at Berkeley, playing an innocent game of tag in the street often entails to whisk waste away, a family with a pit option, not just for themselves, but out says that she was drawn to the UW by its something distinctly unpleasant — dodging puddles of raw toilet that has filled to the brim has two of respect for their neighbors? In the long history in international development F sewage. In this crowded city perched on the western tip choices: paying someone to climb down context of a developing country where projects through its Department of Agri- of the African coastline, millions of people have no access to the inside the pit and empty the contents, there is no unemployment insurance or cultural and Applied Economics. modern sanitation systems that most Americans take for granted. bucket by bucket, somewhere within easy Medicaid, it’s especially important to “The kind of work Laura is doing Dakar’s youngest residents are particularly vulnerable, as contami- carrying distance; or hiring a sanitation understand how interpersonal aspects is representative of real cutting-edge nated water can lead to diarrhea, the second-most common cause truck to remove the sludge and transport affect economic decisions.” research,” says Ian Coxhead, the depart- of infant death worldwide. it to one of the city’s treatment facilities. Schechter is collaborating with ment’s chair. “A more traditional aid Laura Schechter aims to change that. “We are looking at how we can Molly Lipscomb at the University of project would be operated from the top A UW-Madison associate professor of agricultural and applied harness reciprocity and altruism to get Virginia and Jean-François Houde at down, telling people, ‘We are going to economics and a rising star in the field of behavioral economics, individuals to choose more sanitary tech- the Wharton School at the University of change the way you do things, and here’s Schechter is crafting meticulous mathematical models that explore niques,” says Schechter. “For example, Pennsylvania on this multidimensional how it’s going to work.’ Instead, this economic decision-making through the lens of human trust, if you choose the usual, unsanitary way study, which is funded by the Bill and method helps people think it through reciprocity, and altruism. Her work is transforming the way that of desludging, you are dumping on the Melinda Gates Foundation with grant in terms of their own interests.” neighborhoods in the underserved outskirts of Dakar dispose of streets where kids play, and it’s bad for management by Innovations for Poverty Coxhead notes that the developing their sewage. the whole neighborhood. How can we Action (IPA), an American nonprofit world is littered with traditional projects

44 ON WISCONSIN SPRING 2015 45 SARAH NEHRLING

“When your neighbors know you’ve been given a really good price to use the trucks, that should create social pressure for you to use the sanitary method.” where someone comes along and digs a well, but because they haven’t really integrated it into the way people behave, the well is neglected and ultimately aban- The IPA cartography team prepares for a sanitation survey in Dakar. They head into doned. Game over. neighborhoods with GPS devices, satellite images, and electronic questionnaires in order to identify, map, and describe the houses that will be surveyed. Schechter’s work is helping to build project accountability into an experi- in the Peace Corps in Paraguay, where — say $10. The truster can choose how mental design, which ultimately will she developed questions she brought with much money he or she wants to send demonstrate how well the project has met her to her graduate research. to the second player, called the trustee. its goals. “Not only do you attempt to “During my time in the Peace Corps, Whatever amount the truster sends change something [with this approach], it seemed like there were a lot of develop- gets tripled. If the truster sends $5, the but you make sure you can learn from ment projects that were not successful trustee gets $15. Then the trustee can it,” Coxhead says. “The takeaway can be because people didn’t behave in the way choose to keep all of the $15, return it, useful somewhere else.” traditional economic modeling would or return any portion of it. Schechter is putting her pioneering predict,” Schechter says. For instance, “How much the truster sends is often techniques to use this year during a she mentions an effort to encourage a used as a measure of trustingness,” says sabbatical at Yale University, where she cooperative so that communities could Schechter. “How much the trustee returns is working with Christopher Udry, a benefit from strength in numbers. A measures trustworthiness. We tweaked this professor in the Yale economics depart- farmers’ committee in the village where game to understand interpersonal rela- ment and its Economic Growth Center she worked was given money to buy a tionships within villages. In some versions and Council on African Studies. chain saw to be kept at one member’s of the game, the donors are revealed Udry says that Schechter has gained house and shared by all, but the tool was afterwards. Then how much you give is a insights “from really thoughtful combina- of little use to the community after the measure of your fear of sanctions and your tions of economic theory, statistics, and blade was removed and sold. “It is easier hope for rewards in your village.” her on-the-ground, deep institutional to promote development within groups, Taking the game a step further in knowledge. It’s been a goal for a long but you need to understand how people Dakar, Schechter’s research involves time, but it is still rare to achieve the work in groups,” she says. selecting a random group of residents combination of advanced statistics skills As Schechter entered graduate who are offered discounts for pump-truck — with the patience to invest in under- school, she began to explore math- desludging. In some cases, neighbors are standing people in their context — that ematical models that could explain what informed that the trial subjects have been Laura puts together,” he says, adding that she had seen in Paraguay. “I wondered offered a discount; in other cases, they are she has published a series of papers that if there were ways I could measure not. She then monitors the desludging have changed the way that social scien- trust or the lack of trust,” she says. choices made by each of the two groups tists and economists think. “Her work She initially pursued experiments with offered the discount. really shapes our understanding of how college students, using something called “When your neighbors know you’ve the world works.” the Trust Game, which involves two been given a really good price to use the Schechter’s one-two punch of real- players who don’t know who they are trucks, that should create social pressure world understanding and advanced playing with. The first player, the truster, for you to use the more sanitary method,” analytical skills grew out of her work is given a specific amount of money Schechter says. “This is one of the ways

46 ON WISCONSIN SARAH NEHRLING

and having all their money in the house is problematic. It’s hard to say no to impulse purchases when money is within such easy reach. Surprisingly, though, “Cell phones are everywhere,” Schechter says. “The households we work with in Dakar tend to be large — with an average of ten people — and in almost every case, one member of the household has a cell phone,” she says. “In fact, cell phone use has become a major part of our project. In our program, participants can accumulate savings in a mobile-money account and use it to make payments for desludging services.” Schechter and her fellow researchers are still analyzing data from the peer- pressure study, but lowering the price of truck desludging is showing immediate results in improved sanitation. “We opened a beta-testing call-in facility covering a small area of Dakar and then expanded to a slightly larger area,” she says. “Now we are in the process of spreading out so anyone in the entire city will be eligible. It’s amazing to think that we started one call-in center that An IPA worker puts a subscription sticker on a house in Pikine, Dakar, which signals to the homeowner’s neighbors that he has signed up for a mechanical desludging program. may revolutionize a system in a city of millions of people.” we are testing how a neighbor’s opinion Hospital wants a desludging. How much “The process may spread all across affects your economic decisions — and will you bid for this job?” The truckers Senegal in the next few years,” says this is how I originally got involved — have an hour to bid, during which they Lipscomb. “The Ministry of Sanitation but the project has turned into so much can compete back and forth. The price is is really excited about this. I think a lot of more.” pushed down, and at the end of the hour, countries are starting to see how well it’s Usually, anyone who wants to have a the lowest bid wins the job. The standard working in Senegal and thinking about latrine emptied by truck must travel some price has already dropped from 27,500 establishing their own programs. We are distance to a garage where desludgers West African francs to about 24,500 — still collecting data and looking at the congregate and negotiate the price on a decrease of about six dollars. impacts, but it’s definitely working, and the spot. The bargaining advantage is Brainstorming the logistics of the it’s exciting.” heavily weighted against the client in the call-in center led to a second break- It’s no wonder that Schechter finds intimidating atmosphere of one customer through. The center needed a way to her work gratifying. “Experimenting with versus many truckers who are all deter- collect money from households and pay ways to employ social pressure to get mined to keep their price high. the desludgers, but sending people out people to adopt a cleaner waste-treatment Schechter and her colleagues have to collect paper money was a logistical technology is my first foray into research created a call-in center so that all a nightmare. That’s when the idea of using that can immediately make people’s lives customer has to do is call and request a mobile phones for money transfer came better,” says Schechter. “It’s both exciting truck. At the center, a dispatcher then into play. and a little overwhelming.” n sends out a bid to as many as fourteen People in developing countries don’t Freelance writer Denise Thornton is based in desludgers. They receive a text message, have many options for saving money Wisconsin’s Driftless Area, where she blogs at such as, “Someone near the French besides keeping cash in their homes, digginginthedriftless.com.

SPRING 2015 47 traditions

Bascom Hill serves as a blank canvas for those who want to get the word out for a group or a cause — or to quietly reflect. BRYCE RICHTER (3), JEFF MILLER (LOWER RIGHT) Displays on Bascom Hill The Pail and Shovel Party was onto something: if you want to get your message across, take it to Bascom Hill. Granted, not every display creates the same lasting impres- sion as the flock of a thousand plastic flamingos that student leaders deposited on the hill in 1979. But each school year, dozens of organizations across campus — ranging from the MadHatters a cappella group to the suicide-prevention group Ask.Listen.Save. — fill the lawn with signs and banners to publicize events, recruit members, and raise awareness for their causes. “We don’t have a quad [per se], but we have Bascom Hill,” says Ali Witte x’15, co-director of Camp Kesem, a camp for children whose parents have cancer. Witte uses signs to recruit counselors. Even in our high-tech era, the low-tech items peppering the hill catch the attention of students glued to their smartphones as they walk to and from classes. The space is even more eye- catching now that the lower part of the hill got a facelift last fall, with the north and south sides of the sidewalk merging into a new staircase that descends onto State Street Mall. The signs that line the sidewalk — often delivering Burma Shave-style messages that build on each other — change as often as each day. Any registered student organization or university unit can reserve the lower third of the lawn for a day, from sunup to sundown, through the Wisconsin Union. One of the hill’s most memorable displays is the annual commemoration of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which involves the planting of nearly three thousand small American flags — one for each of the victims who lost their lives that day. Last fall, three student organizations — the College Republicans, College Democrats, and Veterans, Educators, and Traditional Students (VETS), a group that provides support for campus veterans — ventured out in the predawn hours to put the flags in the ground, wanting passersby to reflect on the significance of the anniversary as they travel up and down the hill, going about their days. Stacy Forster

What’s your favorite UW tradition? Tell On Wisconsin about it at [email protected], and we’ll find out if it’s just a fond memory — or if it’s still part of campus life today.

48 ON WISCONSIN SPRING 2015 49 Staying Power The 2009 recession led to a dramatic Despite the struggles within the news- Continued from page 33 drop in newspaper advertising and an paper industry, the school’s incoming Rosenthal happily returned to the unfavorable standing to investors on Wall spring class was expected to be at or near Midwest. He wrote a sports column Street, Baughman says. a historic high. For last fall semester, two for the paper until 1998, covering the By the time Rosenthal was recruited hundred and ninety applicants had vied Olympics, Michael Jordan’s last three to write a media column for the business for one hundred and twenty spots, and championships with the Chicago Bulls, section of the Tribune in 2005, the news- the school’s total enrollment was nearly and other notable stories. In July 1998, he paper industry was deep in crisis. “Who double that from a decade ago, according became the paper’s TV critic, a position knows where we’re headed, but we’re to academic adviser Robert Schwoch. that appealed to him because of its seem- headed there fast. The current is strong,” ingly limitless possibilities. he wrote in his inaugural column in April • “I viewed it as an opportunity to of that year. Rosenthal regularly returns to Madison write about everything,” he says. “Being Since then, Rosenthal has chronicled for guest lectures, has served on the a TV critic was like being a TV viewer two separate sales of the Chicago Tribune journalism school’s board of visitors, and — only louder.” that have brought in colorful casts of new co-operates a Facebook page, Friends of leadership, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Badger Journalism, with another J-school • the company’s division into two entities alum, Ben Deutsch ’85, who is now vice In the larger media context, however, — not to mention the struggles of other president for corporate communications things were changing rapidly. major newspaper companies across the at the Coca-Cola Company. Newspaper publishers, journalism nation. Those who know him say he’s the Regardless of the dramatic changes scholars, and other experts had been right person for the delicate job. he’s seen, Rosenthal remains optimistic cautiously monitoring the arrival of the “He just has an amazing integrity. about the future of journalism — and Internet, not quite sure whether the He’s always going to do the right thing,” newspapers specifically. He believes technology would catch on with the says Bill Adee, executive vice president of that the newspaper industry will make it public. Even if it did resonate, many digital development and operations for through by forcing itself to offer unique, assumed it could happily coexist with the Chicago Tribune who has worked with expert, and informative perspectives that newspapers, the way TV and radio had Rosenthal at three other papers. “In those readers can’t find elsewhere. He asks previously, says Baughman, who also cases of covering yourself and covering himself whether he’s doing so with every serves as chair of the advisory board for your industry, you’re faced with a lot of column he writes, and he’s embraced the university’s Center for the History choices. In those places, Phil’s always social media opportunities to interact with of Print and Digital Culture. made good ones.” people he might not reach otherwise. But by the early 2000s, Baughman At the end of the day, he’s not so says, as the diffusion of laptop computers • worried about the aging artifact on his and mobile devices, and the spread of Recognizing the evolution of the desk. True, it has been around for a long WiFi, only made the Internet more industry, directors at the UW’s jour- time. But, he argues, perhaps that in itself appealing, scholars began to realize that nalism school revamped its curriculum is a reason to believe in its future. the newspaper industry was being threat- in 2000 to put less emphasis on writing “One of the reasons I’m hopeful ened by something entirely different. for specific forms of media and increase about the newspaper business,” he says, In the first of several missteps in training for reporting in general. “is that we produce something every day. dealing with the crisis, newspaper compa- Today, the school’s nearly six hundred We create. We solve problems every day. nies merged and consolidated debt students must complete a rigorous, six- We are always adjusting. Most industries under the assumption that there would credit course that introduces them to a don’t have that.” n be continued double-digit profits. Then “platform agnostic” set of newswriting came the decline in revenue. Internet skills that are applicable to careers in Vikki Ortiz Healy ’97 is a metro reporter and health and family columnist for the Chicago sites such as Craigslist stole away once- both a multimedia reporting track and Tribune. unwavering profits from classified ads. PR and advertising, Baughman says.

50 ON WISCONSIN Badger connections ROBERT VOETS/CBS ROBERT

52 Alumni Association News Sweet Victory For the second time, Badgers have won The Amazing Race. Food science graduate students Amy De Jong ’12, PhDx’17 (center) 54 Class Notes and Maya Warren PhDx’15 (right) came from behind to win the $1 million prize on the CBS reality show. (Host Phil Keoghan is on 61 Bookshelf the left.) Competing as the “Sweet Scientists,” the pair followed in the footsteps of Dave and Rachel ’03 Brown, who won in 2012. “UW-Madison is a special place,” says Warren. “It gets ridicu- lously cold here, but people still tough it out and have a good time and make the most of every situation. And that’s [what] we were able to do on the race — just have a good time in spite of the obstacles that came our way.”

SPRING 2015 51 alumni association news HENRY HARGREAVES

Young Alumni Who Mean Business Meet the 2015 Forward under 40 honorees.

The Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) is Carey earned her degree in journalism and honoring nine entrepreneurs and leaders who mass communication and is a former editor-in- are making standout contributions in their chief of the Daily Cardinal. communities with the Forward under 40 award. Now in their ninth year, the Forward under Omai Garner ’01, who earned his UW degree 40 awards recognize UW-Madison alumni in genetics and bacteriology, is a faculty under the age of forty who are making a member at the University of California-Los significant impact on the world by upholding Angeles School of Medicine and is in charge of the Wisconsin Idea, the principle that the infectious-disease testing at UCLA’s hospital, university leverages its knowledge to improve where he helps manage a team of seventy lab the world beyond its borders. All of this year’s scientists who process more than one million winners have shown a knack for incorporating laboratory tests a year. A former Chancellor’s community service into their businesses or Scholar, he is co-founder and chair of the careers, whatever those may be. Social Justice Learning Institute in Inglewood, Gabriel Stulman started several critically California, and co-chair of the Chancellor’s acclaimed restaurants in New York City. The 2015 award recipients are: Scholars and Powers-Knapp Alumni Community in Los Angeles. The Ohio State University. He is the youngest- Heidi Allstop ’10, who earned her degree ever president of the National Economic in psychology, is managing director of MeToo Jonny Hunter ’05, MPA’11 founded Association, director of undergraduate studies, and chief executive officer and founder of the Underground Food collective while and adviser to the Undergraduate Economics Spill, Inc., an online forum where students can a student. It now includes Underground Society. He also earned the OSU Alumni anonymously share difficulties and receive Butcher; Forequarter Restaurant, nominated Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2014. He peer responses. Allstop worked with mentors for best new restaurant by the James Beard has advised senior White House officials and to grow Spill, Inc. into an empathy power- Foundation; Underground Meats, winner serves on an American Economic Association house that encompasses young people from of three Good Food awards and recog- committee that advocates nearly 250 campuses in twenty-four coun- nized for its sustainability; and Underground for minorities in the profession. tries. Spill recently became part of MeToo, a Catering. The company works with more than social network where users of all ages anony- one hundred small Wisconsin farms. Hunter Gabriel Stulman ’03 is a restaurateur mously connect around earned a bachelor’s degree in English and a and entrepreneur in New York who discov- life experiences. master’s from the La Follette School of Public ered his passion while working in restaurants Affairs. at the UW, where he earned his degree in Jason (Jay) Blasi ’00 is one of the youngest history and political science. While initially contributing golf architects ever to design Joe Kirgues JD’08 and Troy Vosseller coined “Little Wisco” because of the many a U.S. Open course. His work with Robert ’06, MBA’09, JD’10 are co-founders of Wisconsinites on staff, Stulman’s family of Trent Jones II at Chambers Bay near Tacoma, gener8tor, a startup accelerator program, six restaurants is now called Happy Cooking Washington, reclaimed a former sand and that, to date, has launched more than thirty Hospitality. Stulman was included in a 40 gravel mine on the shores of Puget Sound companies. Prior to founding gener8tor, Under 40 list by Crain’s New York Business and earned national rankings as the number Vosseller’s ventures included launching and was named Restaurateur of the Year by two most eco-friendly course and the number apparel company Sconnie Nation. Kirgues Esquire magazine in 2012. one municipal course. Blasi’s work, drawing was an associate at Quarles & Brady and on his degree in landscape architecture, also later at 94labs, an angel-investment and For more information, visit uwalumni.com/ includes ties to the UW’s University Ridge golf seed incubator located in Milwaukee and awards. course and SentryWorld in Stevens Point. Madison. They contribute their expertise to Kate Kail Dixon ’01, MA’07 the Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic of the UW Jill Carey ’08 taught on the south side of Law School, where they earned their JDs. Chicago as part of Teach for America for more Vosseller also earned UW-Madidegrees in than two years. In 2013, she co-founded history/history of science, economics, and Smarty Pants Yoga, a girl-power and literacy- political science, as well as an MBA in entre- enrichment program for elementary school preneurial management. girls that teaches emotional, social, and phys- ical health. The organization has reached more Trevon Logan ’99, a former Chancellor’s than one thousand girls in the Chicago area, Scholar who earned his degree in econ-omics, and the partners plan to take it nationwide. is now an associate professor of economics at

52 ON WISCONSIN Advocating for Your University Alumni voices have played a role for more than 150 years.

When the university’s first graduates launched In this changing landscape, volun- managing director of alumni advocacy, the the Wisconsin Alumni Association in 1861, teer advocates know that it is essential to Alumni for Wisconsin network of volunteers is advocating for state support of the UW stay informed about the UW’s top priorities active all year. Alumni for Wisconsin encour- was their founding mission. That mission through connections with faculty and campus ages Badgers to be ambassadors for the UW continues today as the association educates leaders, university websites, publications among friends and influencers. (See uwalumni. alumni about federal and state policies and (including this magazine), and new sources, com/support/advocate.) “When alumni trans- how they affect the university’s funding. such as the chancellor’s blog, Blank’s Slate late that passion to elected officials through During Wisconsin’s 2015–17 biennial (chancellor.wisc.edu/blog/). grassroots advocacy, they help support a state budget process, many alumni advo- While alumni voices can make the differ- stronger UW-Madison for generations to cates are making their voices heard in support ence at crucial times during the budget come,” he says. of UW-Madison as they engage in dialogue process, notes Mike Fahey ’89, WAA Staff about the budget, which is expected to be PETE CHRISTIANSON passed by the legislature and signed by the governor in July. “The nearly 400,000 living alumni all over the world have a broad set of backgrounds, interests, and occupations, and they repre- sent the full spectrum of political views,” says Paula Bonner MS’78, WAA presi- dent. “What they all share is passion for their UW education, and they value the role higher education plays in making our economy stronger, our world healthier, and our lives more fulfilling and enriched.” As many classes of students have become alumni over the years, the budget picture has changed. In the last biennium, revenues from state government totaled $497 million of the $2.9 billion budget for the An Outback Bowl To Remember twenty-six campuses and statewide exten- From left are Mike Artus, Kelli Trumble ’79, Emily Artus, Cindy Artus, and Ben sion of the University of Wisconsin System. Borcher. Emily Artus, who has Apert Syndrome, went to high school with Badger Over time, the amount of total dollars from the tight end Sam Arneson x’15, and the two became friends. Arneson sent her tickets to the Outback Bowl, and Emily’s hometown of Merrill, Wisconsin, raised money for state has increased. But, as a percent of the her to travel to Tampa with her family. One highlight was a game-ball raffle during total budget, state support has significantly the Badger HUDDLE®. Trumble, a member of WAA’s President’s Advisory Council, declined — from 43 percent of total revenue won the raffle and later offered Emily the special football as a memento of her trip. in 1973 to just 17 percent today.

WAA is planning gala events around the nation to help the UW Registration for the fifteenth Grandparents’ University opens Foundation kick off its new comprehensive campaign. The next event, on March 24 for WAA members and on April 7 for non-members. Don’t Wisconsin Ideas: Let the World Know, will be held in Milwaukee on miss out on this popular annual event that allows grandkids and grand- June 11. Program highlights include remarks from Chancellor Rebecca parents to enjoy special classes together on campus. See uwalumni. Blank, inspirational alumni stories, innovations from UW faculty, a com/gpu to get on the mailing list. strolling supper, interactive stations, and more. Visit uwalumni.com/ ideas for details. WAA is sponsoring more than 50 Founders’ Days this season.The events, which commemorate the first class held at the UW on February Wanted: your ideas for the next edition of The Red Shirt.™ 5, 1849, are held in cities across the country and feature university Please email your spirited designs and phrases to theredshirt@ or alumni speakers. Hot tickets: the New Jersey event on May 6 will uwalumni.com. Everyone who submits an idea will be entered into a feature Leon Varjian of Pail and Shovel Party fame, and the New York random drawing to win The Red Shirt, Eighth Edition when it launches event on May 7 will include Scott Dikkers x’87, speaking on “institu- this August. tional goofiness.” See uwalumni.com/founders-days/ for details.

SPRING 2015 53 classnotes

early years for the National Museum of Art; sioner was in fine company with a fine-arts consultant to inves- many other luminary inductees, News? What news? You mean Akbar Brinsmade ’39 of tors, museums, and the White including Good Morning America you haven’t told us? Biloxi, Mississippi, has no doubt House; and a founder and VP of co-anchor Robin Roberts and We’d delight in receiving the witnessed a good many things economic programs at the Center the TV programs Family Feud and (brief, please) details of your during his ninety-seven years on for Economic Initiatives. Mad Men. latest achievements, transitions, this planet, and he’s also done a changes of mind or hair color, lot of thinking about the planet 40s–50s 60s and other major moments by and its finite resources to support email to classnotes@uwalumni. life. He’s compiled some of his Irving Ginsburg Gaines ’43, The International Galileo Galilei com; by mail or flying squirrel to conclusions in a booklet called LLB’47 was the subject of “New Prize is conferred at the University Class Notes, Wisconsin Alumni The Center of Intelligent Life in Clients at 90,” the leading cover of Pisa [Italy] upon a scholar who Association, 650 North Lake the Universe and an Early Warning article in the Wisconsin Law is not Italian, but who has made Street, Madison, WI 53706-1476; of a Threat to Humanity of Its Journal’s July issue. It noted that distinguished contributions to or by fax to 608-265-8771. The Own Extinction. Gaines, of Gaines Law Offices in Italian scholarship over the course finite printed page means that we Fred Kummerow ’39, Milwaukee, is determined to be of a lifetime. The latest recipient cannot publish all of the submis- MS’41, PhD’44 joined the the oldest and longest-practicing — the 2014 Premio Internazionale sions that we receive, but please University of Illinois (UI) faculty in attorney in the Badger State. Galilei — is Paul Grendler keep them coming anyway. 1950 and, at one hundred years Can you imagine more than MA’61, PhD’64, a University old, is still an active professor sixty years of active involvement of Toronto professor emeritus of Death notices and all name, emeritus in comparative biosci- with the Boy Scouts, including history who resides in Chapel Hill, address, telephone, and email ences at UI’s Burnsides Lab membership in the UW’s Alpha North Carolina. (The late eminent updates should be sent by email in Urbana. He was the first Phi Omega scouting fraternity? historian and UW professor to alumnichanges@uwalumni. biochemist to pinpoint the heart Roland Liebenow ’44, MD’48 George Mosse supervised com; by mail to Alumni Changes, risks of trans fats in processed of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, doesn’t Grendler’s doctoral dissertation, Wisconsin Alumni Association, foods — and challenged long- have to imagine: he’s lived it. so he was off to a great start.) 650 North Lake Street, Madison, held theories about the role Liebenow’s myriad contributions The Institute of Electrical WI 53706-1476; by fax to of dietary cholesterol — but earned him the Silver Beaver and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 608-262-3332; or by phone to more recently has focused Award in 1987, and in May, his is the world’s largest profes- 608-262-9648 or toll free to on Parkinson’s disease and thirty-seven years as a char- sional association dedicated to 888-947-2586 (WIS-ALUM). Alzheimer’s. Robert Espeseth tered organization representative “advancing technological inno- ’52, MS’56 of Savoy, Illinois, brought additional distinction vation and excellence for the The Badger Insider, the who shared Kummerow’s update, from the Boy Scouts and the benefit of humanity.” The new Wisconsin Alumni Association’s has news of his own: he’s the American Legion. president of its U.S. arm is Gary (WAA) thrice-a-year magazine National Association of County In 1962, Gene Lynn ’54 Blank PhD’63, who’s also the for its members, is home to the Park and Recreation Officials’ founded the firm that has grown president of the Engineering great majority of obituary listings 2014 Volunteer of the Year, lauded to become the Gig Harbor, Update Institute in Plato Center, of WAA members and friends. If for his forty-plus years of service Washington-based Careage — a Illinois. Blank created IEEE- you’re already a member, thank to the Champaign County [Illinois] medical developer and contractor USA’s first employment network, you so much! If you’re not, please Forest Preserve District. for acute-care hospitals, nursing IEEE’s consultant database, and consider coming aboard at February marked the 102nd homes, and medical offices many of its consultant networks uwalumni.com/membership. birthday of James Silberman — and today he works with worldwide. ’39, MA’40 of Alexandria, Careage’s leadership team to help We send felicitations to two x-planation: An x preceding a Virginia: the gent who conceived keep the firm strong. He’s also Badgers at Virginia Tech (VT) in degree year indicates that the and ran the technical assis- been the majority stockholder in Blacksburg: Eugene Brown ’63 individual did not complete, tance program for the original two banks; co-founded Sahalee has been conferred the title of or has not yet completed, that Marshall Plan, which brought Golf Course, the site of the 1998 professor emeritus, and Samuel degree at UW-Madison. more than twenty-four thousand PGA Tournament; developed Hicks MBA’69, PhD’76 is a European leaders to the U.S. to Rock Creek Golf Course; owned new associate professor emer- learn modern industrial and busi- the San Francisco Giants’ spring- itus. With VT since 1969, Brown ness practices. He also played training headquarters; and served has conducted research in fluid The Wisconsin Alumni significant roles with the Bureau as a longtime Seattle University mechanics and heat transfer, Association® encourages of Labor Statistics, U.S. Agency regent and trustee. taught more than thirty mechan- diversity, inclusivity, nondiscrim- for International Development, In October, Broadcasting & ical engineering courses, and was ination, and participation by all International Executive Service Cable magazine’s Hall of Fame instrumental in establishing the alumni, students, and friends of Corps, Overseas Private saw the induction of Bud Selig university’s graduate program in UW-Madison in its activities. Investment Corporation, and ’56, who also earned its Lifetime nuclear engineering. Hicks, with World Bank. In retirement, Achievement Award. The former VT since 1979, has specialized Silberman has been a curator Major League Baseball commis- in accounting and taxes and was

54 ON WISCONSIN This may be a first for Class Philip Tedeschi ’84, MS’87: Animal Alliances Notes: we announce the 2014 induction of Peter Harken ’64 TERESA BERGEN Every day is Take Your Dog to Work into the National Sailing Hall of Day for Philip Tedeschi ’84, Fame. Born in Indonesia, he MS’87. And you couldn’t find a and his brother, Olaf — also an better-tempered, sweeter-eyed dog inductee — lived in Australia, than Samara, Tedeschi’s black lab — New Zealand, and the Philippines which is only to be expected from the before pursuing engineering poster dog of a cutting-edge, animal- degrees in the U.S. on swim- assisted therapy program. ming scholarships. Peter forever Tedeschi is the executive director modernized a vital piece of sail- of the Institute for Human-Animal boat rigging, and the brothers built Connection (IHAC) at the University small “one-designs” through their of Denver, which he co-founded in company Vanguard Sailboats, 2005. Housed within the university’s which they sold in 1985. School of Social Work, the institute Their Pewaukee, Wisconsin- offers an animal-assisted social-work headquartered Harken Yacht certificate to students in the master’s Equipment, which they founded degree program, and distance in the late 1960s, has continued learners can earn an animals-and- Philip Tedeschi and his lab, Samara, have a close bond. to innovate in the performance- human-health certificate. sailing hardware industry. It all started at the UW. As a student in the veterinary program, Tedeschi moonlighted teaching Charles Hawker MS’65’s horseback riding to adults with schizophrenia. The positive changes he saw in the riders left him fasci- distinguished career has earned nated with human-animal interactions. His advisers suggested that he leave the vet school to design him the Outstanding Lifetime his own major. Citing Aldo Leopold as a major influence, Tedeschi says he drew from psychology, Achievement Award in Clinical educational psychology, social work, occupational therapy, physical and recreational therapies, and Chemistry and Laboratory companion-animal and equine sciences to create his independent major. He stayed on at the UW and Medicine from the American completed his master’s in social work in 1987. Association for Clinical Chemistry. While several veterinary schools have related programs, IHAC’s approach of looking at animal- Hawker developed one of the first human interactions through the lens of social science is very new, says Tedeschi, and the response has radioimmunoassays for parathy- been overwhelming. Hundreds of the program’s graduates have specialized in animal-assisted therapy, roid hormone in 1971, holds three and distance learners have represented every continent except Antarctica. patents, is an adjunct professor “Animals are now in human health-care environments across the whole human lifespan,” Tedeschi of pathology at the University of says. IHAC alumni use animal interventions to help many populations, including survivors of school Utah, and serves as the scien- shootings, children in forensic interviews, self-destructive people in prisons, children with autism, and tific director for automation and seniors with depression. “[Our graduates] have opened clinics everywhere from Singapore to Latin special projects at Salt Lake America,” he adds. City’s ARUP Laboratories. He’s IHAC is also interested in companion animals and their role in providing an “everyday form of also served as president of the mental health” for millions of people. “That really is a major part of the way people cope with everyday National Academy of Clinical stressors,” he says. “They’re some of the most important relationships we have.” Biochemistry, the Association The institute has formed many national and international alliances. Tedeschi was recently at Walter of Clinical Scientists, and the Reed National Military Medical Center to set up internships with the Warrior Canine Connection project, Clinical Ligand Assay Society. which uses dogs to help service members with PTSD. Last year, the institute hosted its first international Mark Hoover ’65 and conference on the role of animals in trauma recovery. Tedeschi has advocated for biodiversity protection Kathleen Allegar Hoover ’81, and animal welfare at the UN. He’s taken many students to East Africa, where he encourages them to MS’92 have focused their phil- examine the correlations among ivory poaching, deep poverty, and terrorism. anthropic worldview on income “I’ve been [at the institute] nearly twenty years,” Tedeschi says, “and this year will be the most equality, race relations, and exciting yet.” community-based mental-health Teresa Bergen treatment as an alternative to jail for people with mental illnesses by founding the Hoover Family the longtime program chair of the Despite a juvenile-delinquent degree in social work, served in Foundation. The Middleton, Virginia Accounting and Auditing record and poor performance the military, and had a successful Wisconsin, couple has also Conference. in high school due to being illit- career as a probation officer. The established businesses — Snow Lawrence Maslowski ’63 erate, the UW admitted him. With Waukesha, Wisconsin, resident Leopard Trading, My Home Is shared with us how an undiag- the help of his roommate and a concludes, “I feel I owe some- My Castle, and L&M Property nosed learning disability figured caring professor, Maslowski grad- thing to the university, and I’m Management — to create revenue prominently in his life story. uated, went on to earn a master’s fifty years late in thanking them.” to fund their new foundation.

SPRING 2015 55 classnotes

Alan Spector ’67 is one ical engineers — has awarded McDaniel Moore PhD’72 while rollerblading! Moore shares of three educators at Purdue him honorary membership. After with one of its annual Alumni his love of peace, adventure, University Calumet in Hammond, eight years as dean of the College Achievement Awards. She’s nature, social justice, and fun Indiana, to earn a 2013–14 of Engineering and Information had a distinguished career as a through many recordings of his Outstanding Faculty Award. During Technology at the University of faculty member, researcher, and own songs, as well as the Moore his thirty-seven years on the Maryland, Baltimore County, administrator at Cornell, Penn Adventure Music videos that he’s faculty, the professor of sociology DeVries has returned to his post State, Michigan State, and North recorded during his extensive has earned a reputation for being as a professor of mechanical engi- Carolina State, from which she world travels. He’s also hosted one of the institution’s consum- neering and serves as ASME’s retired as dean of its College of the edgy Louisville Late Night TV mate scholars, so his particular secretary and treasurer. “For me it Education in 2009. Moore, of talk show in Louisville, Kentucky, honor — the Outstanding Scholar all began with a great education, Swansboro, North Carolina, is for many years. Award — is most apt. great faculty, and wonderful, life- acclaimed for her work promoting Sasaki Associates prin- The Colorado State University long friends made during my time intercultural competence, insti- cipal and urban planner Fred (CSU) Alumni Association’s in Madison,” he says. tutional change, and women’s Merrill ’77 is a new fellow of the Distinguished Extension Award Lorrie (S. Loraine) Boos leadership in higher education. American Institute of Certified has gone to Lee Sommers Hull-Smithers MA’71 certainly For twenty-six years, Rob Planners, and his Boston-based, MS’69, PhD’71. He became has some claims to fame: as the Reuteman ’72 was an editor international urban-design firm head of CSU’s Department of earned the American Planning Soil and Crop Sciences in 1985, “I feel I owe something to the university, Association’s Firm of the Year was appointed director of its and I’m fifty years late in thanking them.” honor in 2012. Agricultural Experiment Station in Get this: Peter Botham ’79 1996, has twice served as interim — Lawrence Maslowski ’63 has quality-inspected every bottle dean, and retired in Fort Collins of wine that’s ever gone through in 2013. He’s also led the Soil senior faculty member at the at Denver’s Rocky Mountain the Botham Vineyards winery. “In Science Society of America and school founded by method-acting News — before it fell victim to twenty-five years,” says his wife, the American Society of Agronomy icon Lee Strasberg, she was the the Great Recession in 2009. A Sarah, “that’s a lot of bottles.” The as president, the Agronomic only one whom he chose to teach past president of the Society of Barneveld, Wisconsin, winery has Science Foundation as chair, and his course Understanding the American Business Editors and earned in excess of three hundred the 18th World Congress of Soil Method. She’s also taught at the Writers, today he teaches busi- national and international medals Science as co-chair. American Film Institute and Ripon ness journalism and news writing since Peter founded it in 1989, College; conducted acting and at Colorado State University in and he also guides tours, pours 70s directing seminars worldwide; Fort Collins. Reuteman says he samples, and hosts events. In co-produced DVDs on method- “owes it all to his years as a Daily addition, the Bothams launched For “fundamental contribu- acting techniques; and written Cardinal reporter.” Acala Farms in 2012 to craft and tions toward understanding the Strasberg’s Method as Taught by The University of South sell flavor-infused cooking oils. climatic effects of stratospheric Lorrie Hull: A Practical Guide for Florida (USF) in Tampa has named Lisa Frank ’79, MFA’11 aerosols from volcanoes and Actors, Teachers and Directors. Russell Kirby ’74, MS’77, of Madison is now among the other potential sources, and the She offers classes and coaching PhD’81, MS’91 a Distinguished many artists from all walks of role of soil moisture in climate,” at the Hull Actors Studio in Santa University Professor. Also the creative endeavor who, since Alan Robock ’70 now holds Monica, California. Marrell Endowed Chair in USF’s 1907, have held residencies at the American Meteorological The Northfield, Minnesota, Department of Community and the storied MacDowell Colony in Society’s 2015 Charney Award. art scene has been part of nearby Family Health, he’s an expert on Peterborough, New Hampshire. He’s a Distinguished Professor in resident Stephanie Henriksen developmental-disabilities epide- “It was a magical place,” she the Department of Environmental MA’72’s life since her undergrad miology and prevention, as well recalls. Frank melds close-range Sciences at Rutgers University years at St. Olaf College and then as risk factors for pregnancy, nature photos into complex and in New Brunswick, New Jersey, as an artist-in-residence there and he recently contributed often large-scale digital tableaux. where he “continues his research, beginning in 1979. In honor of her to two key studies related to Her career, too, is a mosaic of teaching, and attendance at Bob strong support and contributions, autism spectrum disorder. Kirby scenic design and painting, Dylan concerts (forty-six so far),” this fall the Northfield Arts Guild has also served as president of textile and decorative arts, digital as well as his efforts to “inform held a retrospective exhibit that the Association of Teachers of illustration, 3D virtual-reality envi- the world about the continuing included several pieces of her UW Maternal and Child Health. ronments, and work as director of dangers of nuclear winter.” graduate work. Henriksen’s long- Longtime friend of On the UW’s Design Gallery. Lauding the notable contri- time love of farming is evident Wisconsin Patrick Moore butions by Warren DeVries ’71, in her art, which she’s used as a MD’74 held a release party in 80s MS’72, PhD’75 to engineering social activism tool to support the September for his CD Skaterock. education and research, public state’s family farmers. What made it unusual? He intro- The artwork of children’s book service, and professional soci- The Mortar Board national duced the world to his original illustrator Renée Graef ’80 is eties, ASME — the international honor society for college seniors “skaterock” pop-concert genre beautiful and bountiful: she’s professional society for mechan- has paid tribute to Kathryn by singing and playing his guitar created images for more than

56 ON WISCONSIN seventy books, including the of trauma and injustice. Today, as Specialty Stores in store manage- sive tumor growth — a finding that American Girl collection’s principal of Chicago’s Romanucci ment and international buying, could lead to better treatments. Kirsten series and many of the & Blandin, he concentrates on and with Liz Claiborne as a sales Joan Jorgensen ’88, DVM’93, My First Little House books for wrongful-death and personal- executive and international brand an associate professor in the HarperCollins. She recently held injury cases. The American manager. She’s also a trustee for UW’s Department of Comparative an exhibition at the Kenosha Association for Justice has also the Geltzer Family Foundation. Biosciences, worked on the study, [Wisconsin] Public Museum, elected him chair of its Police Thomas Gilligan, Jr. ’86 which appeared in Endocrinology’s earned two awards from the Misconduct Litigation Group and has been an adjunct professor at February 2014 issue. Society of Illustrators, and vice chair of its Traumatic Brain the University of St. Thomas Law At Northland College in embarked on a project for the Injury Litigation Group. School and a shareholder at the Ashland, Wisconsin, associate Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The Duluth [Minnesota] law firm of Murnane Brandt for professor of art Jason Terry ’88 Graef’s studio and bookstore are Seaway Port Authority has many years. Now he’s ascended is the new Hulings Distinguished open to the public in Cedarburg, welcomed Deborah DeLuca to the bench as a district court Chair in the Humanities. He also Wisconsin. Thanks to Bruce ’83, MS’90 aboard as its new judge in Minnesota’s Second specializes in low-toxic print- Malm ’72 of L.A. for sharing this. government and environmental Judicial District. Gilligan, of Arden making techniques. Big Red congratulations affairs director. Her experiences Hills, also earned a President’s to Marsha Howick Lindsay 90s MA’80! The founder and CEO “For me it all began with a great education, of Madison advertising agency Jayshree Chander MD’90 of Lindsay, Stone & Briggs (LSB) is great faculty, and wonderful, lifelong friends Berkeley, California, describes her the first woman to be inducted made during my time in Madison.” new nonprofit, Beyond Holistic, into the Wisconsin Advertising as a “nontraditional, physician- Hall of Fame. (It’s about time, — Warren DeVries ’71, MS’72, PhD’75 led, interdisciplinary, integrative, right?) She was lauded for her intercultural practice” that seeks thirty-six years of leadership as a founding board member of Award in 2013 for his outstanding to prevent injuries and illness by in both the Badger State and Minnesota Brownfields and as assistance to the Minnesota State engaging individuals as “agents national advertising communities, principal of her own consulting Bar Association. of personal and communal health including founding Brandworks firm, DeLuca Strategies, have Erik Blechinger ’87 is the through arts, action, humor, infor- University — now in its twenty- prepared her to lead: according new deputy district engineer for mation, and inspiration, with fifth year and hailed as the “TED to the port authority’s executive programs and project manage- special attention to people in their of marketing conferences.” And, director, it is rare to “find one indi- ment for the U.S. Army Corps of habit-forming years.” She also her honor follows another: Ad Age vidual skilled at navigating the Engineers’ Savannah [Georgia] writes a blog, Nei Jing Now!, and has named LSB its Small Agency equally complex environmental District. He oversees a $1 billion hosts events. of the Year Midwest 2014. and political landscapes.” program that comprises harbors, If you’ve been in Madison The Teaching Company’s From nearly five hundred dams, wetlands, streams, reser- sometime during the last several Great Courses and the applicants, five triumphed in voirs, emergency management, decades, you’ve probably read Smithsonian Institution have earning a 2014 Lillian Orlowsky military installations, toxic-waste the Isthmus, which boasts Judith teamed up to produce a new, and William Freed Foundation cleanup, and real estate activi- Davidoff MA’90 as its new “visually splendorous” video Grant — with cash awards totaling ties. A longtime corps employee, editor. She’s stepping up from course called A Visual Guide to $35,000 — from the Provincetown Blechinger has also completed her post as news editor of the the Universe by David Meyer [Massachusetts] Art Association two tours of duty supporting weekly newspaper and has also ’80. He’s a professor of physics and Museum. Local P-town Operation Iraqi Freedom. served as its features editor and and astronomy at Northwestern painter Daniel Bodner ’85 (Elizabeth) Brook as a Capital Times reporter and University, as well as the director was among them. His art, which Marfyak Courchaine ’87 of news editor. Davidoff has earned of its Dearborn Observatory depicts urban landscapes that Catawissa, Pennsylvania, runs numerous honors, including being and co-director of its Center are often distorted or abstracted the nonprofit Carrizo Project to named a 2012 woman of achieve- for Interdisciplinary Exploration by light, will appear in a fall 2015 empower women in rural moun- ment in journalism and mass and Research in Astrophysics, exhibition at the museum. tain villages of Honduras. She’s communications by Wisconsin all in Evanston, Illinois. Meyer Leslee Voss Geltzer ’86 recently welcomed three addi- Women in Government. has earned Northwestern’s of Skillman, New Jersey, is new tional pro bono staffers who work Not wishing to be outdone highest teaching award — the to the board of the Rescue with marketing, fundraising, and by the Florida Gators’ origination McCormick Professorship of Mission of Trenton [New Jersey], community outreach in both of Gatorade, the UW now has a Teaching Excellence — among but for the past six years, she’s Honduras and the U.S. product line called BadgerMax, many others. been using her retail expertise to Researchers in the UW’s which includes the exclusive After his high school best consult on the mission’s entrepre- School of Veterinary Medicine sports drink for UW Athletics (in friend suffered a fatal brain injury neurial retail activities and mentor have identified a molecular five varieties), a protein recovery while playing football, attorney the enrollees in its sales-training mechanism that enables pros- beverage (enhanced with protein Antonio Romanucci ’82 job-development program. tate-cancer cells to produce sourced from Wisconsin dairy devoted himself to helping victims Geltzer has worked with Macy’s hormones that promote aggres- and formulated by the UW’s

SPRING 2015 57 classnotes

Center for Dairy Research), and high-pH premium spring water Kim Kelleher ’93: Media Mogul from Wisconsin’s Northwoods. The entrepreneurs behind the As a UW student in 1989, Kim Anderson Kelleher OF KIM KELLEHER COURTESY BadgerMax products are former ’93 couldn’t have known just how much the world — rower Andrew Berns ’91, and specifically, the World Wide Web, created that same MS’93, EMBA’09 and Brandon year — was about to change. Or that she — a history Duck EMBA’09, who were major when research meant shuffling through sweetly classmates in the UW’s executive musty stacks at the Wisconsin Historical Society Library MBA program. before pecking out papers in the Memorial Library “Happy to be home” is how computer lab — would one day helm Wired, the revered Carrie Carroll ’91 sums up her digital and print media powerhouse that reaches 47 return to Madison after twenty million people annually. years in Seattle. She’s the new “I was one of those freshmen who actually didn’t deputy director of the Robert know what they wanted to do, so once I found an Wood Johnson Foundation incredible professor, I was absolutely hooked,” says (RWJF) Culture of Health Prize: Kelleher of the Russian and Irish history professors an annual, national competition (David MacDonald and Jim Donnelly, respec- that recognizes communities at tively) who made an indelible impression. “They taught the forefront of building healthful through stories and storytelling, and it’s funny, because environments for their citizens. it led into the career that I’ve had in a way I wouldn’t The prize also advances the work have anticipated. Because I feel like now I’m in a career of the County Health Rankings & where storytelling is a big part of my profession — Roadmaps program, a collabo- storytelling of brands, storytelling of partnerships — and Kim Kelleher’s latest move has landed her at ration of the RWJF and the UW’s it really started with my love of storytelling in history.” Wired magazine, where she is VP-publisher. Population Health Institute. Kelleher was named VP-publisher of Wired maga- The 2014 Bailey Nurse zine in September 2014, when parent company Condé Nast’s president Bob Sauerberg called her a “proven Practitioner Award for the state business leader” and a “true pioneer in this industry.” He’s referring to Kelleher’s striking trajectory since the of Kentucky has gone to nurse Sister Bay, Wisconsin, native’s UW days, when she leaped straight into the New York City workforce after practitioner Alyce Goodman- earning her bachelor’s degree. Her more than two-decade career in “storytelling” has included stints as Abraham ’92 of the Pelvic VP-publisher of Self magazine, the first female publisher of Sports Illustrated, and global publisher of TIME Pain Regional Specialty Center magazine. She’s served as president of Say Media (the umbrella site for xoJane, ReadWrite, and a dozen at Louisville’s Jewish Hospital or so other sites) and was named Ad Age Publisher of the Year in 2011. But it’s the move to Wired that has Medical Center East. It praises Kelleher feeling especially excited, particularly on a personal level. her outstanding clinical compe- “I’ve always loved Wired. I’m a longtime reader of the magazine, a longtime visitor to the site. I really tence, service to the profession, appreciate the curiosity that Wired readers have of what could be lurking around the corner, what is coming leadership, and community up next,” says Kelleher. “Curiosity is either a personality trait that you have or you don’t, and I’ve always had involvement. She’s also the it, since I was a little kid.” Louisville director of the Kentucky That childhood spent in a tiny Door County town — in a house without cable TV and the closest movie Coalition of Nurse Practitioners. theater forty-five minutes away (not to mention dial-up Internet and the limited reach of AOL keywords in Ramsay Adams ’93 and her college years) — couldn’t possibly have prepared Kelleher for a high-speed, high-profile digital media Dana Ball ’95 are rightfully career. But it imbued her with the Midwestern family values that she draws on today, not only as a wife and proud of Catskill Brewery, the mother of two children under the age of ten, but as a woman in leadership. new craft-production brewery “I think that leadership is often tied to intuition and decisiveness and kindness, and those are values in Livingston Manor, New York, that I hold dear,” says Kelleher. “I feel incredibly grateful for the teams of people that I’ve worked with over that they co-founded this past the years.” summer. Adams, who’s also the Maggie Ginsberg-Schutz founder and executive director of the environmental advocacy orga- nization Catskill Mountainkeeper, young alumnus, Ned Gustafson leadership consultant; became its was a weeklong deployment to says that they believe it to be ’93 of Edina, Minnesota, received director of expansion; and, upon Boulder, Colorado, in September the “greenest brewery in the the Fraering Award for Alumni pursuing other career ambitions 2013 to assist with a massive U.S. and perhaps the world.” Service at its convention in July. in Minnesota, has served as a flood. As the round-the-clock Following their inaugural offer- Gustafson was initiated into devoted volunteer and adviser. resident veterinarian at the evac- ings of Floodwatch IPA and Ball the Beta Gamma Chapter at Laura McLain Madsen ’93, uees’ home base, she cared for Lightning, they hope to eventually UW-Madison in 1989 and served DVM’97’s first official mission evacuated animals and search- incorporate local ingredients. as its president. He then joined with the Federal Emergency and-rescue dogs. “The UW For his exemplary service to Delta Tau Delta’s national staff Management Agency’s Urban School of Veterinary Medicine Delta Tau Delta Fraternity as a in Fishers, Indiana, as a chapter Search and Rescue Taskforce trained us to deal with all

58 ON WISCONSIN species,” she says, “and … population by 2025. Eduardo which he’ll focus on improving the with area nonprofits to address I saw all kinds of pets being Chvaicer MBA’96 is watching protective capabilities of military challenges and advance oppor- evacuated.” McLain Madsen is these trends and thinking ahead. garments and electronics, among tunities. Haug works with host also a veterinarian at Holladay In 2010, he began expanding other products. company Clark Hill and blogs at Veterinary Hospital in Salt Lake the nation’s in-home senior-care Here’s news from some challengedetroit.org. City and blogs about preparing capabilities by opening a pilot 2000s legal eagles. Attorney “After serving on the National animals for disasters. office of Right at Home in São Sarah Fowles MA’01, JD’08, Security Council as a director for Congrats to Andrea Paulo — the first U.S.-based with the Milwaukee office of counterterrorism from 2011 to Pasqualucci MSW’93 of home-care franchise organization Quarles & Brady, and Melissa 2013,” writes Brett Holmgren Green Bay: she’s the Wisconsin with a presence in Brazil, whose Turczyn ’04, JD’07, of Michael ’03, “I returned to the White Department of Public Instruction’s caregivers have provided ninety Best & Friedrich’s Madison House in June, this time with an 2014–15 Wisconsin Special thousand hours of service. Right office, have been named 2014 office in the West Wing as the Services Teacher of the Year. at Home has plans to add up to Up and Coming Lawyers by the senior policy adviser to the assis- Described as a “tireless advocate thirty more franchise units in the Wisconsin Law Journal. Whitfield tant to the president for homeland for students” and someone with a nation during the next five years. & Eddy in Des Moines, Iowa, has security and counterterrorism.” “passion for working with people Who’s a big deal in the world welcomed Danya Hooker ’05 His work comprises issues in need,” Pasqualucci has devel- of public relations? New Yorker as an associate attorney. Rory ranging from the Ebola outbreak oped numerous programs and Foster MS’06, an associate to cybersecurity breaches to partnerships in the Ashwaubenon in Quarles & Brady’s Madison defeating ISIS. “Never a dull School District to help students “Never a dull moment.” office, has joined the board of moment,” Holmgren concludes. who are without homes or from — Brett Holmgren ’03 the local nonprofit BadgerBOTS, Mazel tov! Congratulations low-income families. which educates students in are in order for Jordan With rich experience and a Rob (Arthur) Imig, Jr. ’99 the STEM subjects and hosts Ottenstein ’05 of Fort Worth, deep commitment to career and certainly is, following his selection robotics clubs and camps. Texas; Joshua Herman ’09 technical education, Richard as a Heavy Hitter in PRWeek’s Kathryn Katz ’06, an attorney of Glendale, Wisconsin; and Ammon ’95 seems to be a 40 Under 40 awards for 2014. with Honigman Miller Schwartz Monica Meyer Kleinman ’09 natural choice as the new dean As the senior vice president of and Cohn’s Bloomfield Hills, of Marlton, New Jersey: all three of business, management, and global PR and communications Michigan, office, has received were ordained as rabbis in May general studies at Southwest for Kiehl’s Since 1851, a division her second award for pro bono by the Hebrew Union College- Tech in Fennimore, Wisconsin. His of L’Oreal, his task is to generate service to clients of the Legal Jewish Institute of Religion in previous posts include associate awareness of the 164-year-old Aid and Defender Association. Cincinnati. dean at Milwaukee Area Technical skin- and hair-care company and And Melissa Cabrera ’08 has Genex Cooperative, head- College, several positions at to lead its philanthropic programs joined Lowey Dannenberg Cohen quartered in Shawano, Wisconsin, Frederick Community College and in the areas of HIV/AIDS, the envi- & Hart as an associate in White specializes in animal genetics Hagerstown Community College, ronment, and children’s causes. Plains, New York; while Jessica and reproductive products and and service in the U.S. Army and Ringgenberg ’09 is a new services for the livestock and Wisconsin Army National Guard. 2000s associate at Arthur, Chapman, milk industries. Its new dairy Who from the early-’90s Kettering, Smetak & Pikala in its procurement specialist, working UW Marching Band remembers The expertise of Kartik Minneapolis office. with Holstein and Jersey sires, Norge? John (J. Lawrence) Chandran PhD’01 has been in Among the producers of the is Daniel Bauer ’06 of Lake “Norge” Hanson ’95 has high demand of late as a leading Center Theatre Group’s staging Mills. Genex has also promoted definitely done well since those Ebola researcher and the principal of the new comedy Buyer & Joe Binversie ’09 of Neenah to crazy days, earning a Governor’s investigator of the Chandran Lab Cellar in Los Angeles this summer value-added program manager. Iowa Environmental Excellence in the Department of Microbiology — featuring actor Michael Urie — He develops and manages Award — among the state’s and Immunology at the Albert was Doug Nevin ’02. He’s the programs that help customers premier environmental honors Einstein College of Medicine in founder of the Nevin Law Group, to make informed decisions — for his personal and profes- Bronx, New York. a business and entertainment firm about sire selection and herd sional activism as a social studies Eric DeGolier ’01 is making in New York City. management. teacher at Linn-Mar High School the world safer. During the last How is Seth Haug ’03 Matthew Smith PhD’06, in Marion. Since 2011, Hanson two years as design manager helping to spur revitalization a Northwestern University assis- has marshaled well over eight at the United Kingdom-based in the Motor City? He’s one tant professor of psychiatry and hundred students to participate D3O, he’s been instrumental in of thirty-three fellows — out behavioral sciences, has devel- in nearly forty environmental designing the firm’s materials of nine hundred applicants — oped a virtual-reality job-interview service events. into some groundbreaking new who’s participating in Challenge training program for people with Thirty percent of Brazil’s 195 safety products, including better Detroit: a yearlong, social-impact severe mental illness and for million citizens will have passed gloves for oil-rig workers and project focused on attracting young adults with autism spec- sixty years old by 2050, and more protective football helmets. and retaining talent in the city. trum disorder. Today, CNN, and the nation is expected to have Now he’s been promoted to head The fellows work at top regional the Wall Street Journal have all the world’s sixth-largest elderly of innovation at D3O — a role in companies and collaborate covered his fascinating work.

SPRING 2015 59 classnotes

The Big Payback — a If you happen upon a copy of Android is in the works) to pay ’14, a research assistant and jazz/funk/rock/R&B orchestra champion rower Jack Carlson’s for stadium and arena parking law school student at Montréal’s comprising Mad grads with such book, Rowing Blazers (Vendome — rather like a highway EZ McGill University, for this news. serious combined music cred that Press) — a photographic tribute Pass — that increases parking He points out that “recent [UW] we can’t pack in all the details to the boldly colored, striped, efficiency for venues and conve- grads and grads of a few years here — celebrated its five-year piped, trimmed, badged, and nience for fans. Its launch took back randomly happen upon anniversary with an October gig highly iconic blazers worn by place in January in a lot near the each other all over the world.” in Madison, at the same venue oarspeople around the world — First Niagara Center for a Buffalo And we’re very grateful for that. where it played its first. The know that the cover model is Sabres hockey game. Crane says, group is known for challenging former UW crew member Kenny “I’m sure that this all would not be obituary and ambitious compositions McMahon ’08 of Dallas. possible without the experience I that incorporate rare musical Learning and performing at had at the UW and key individuals The UW-Madison campus elements, and among its Madison Madison’s Atlas Improv brought whom I met while I was there.” community lost both a key Area Music Awards (MAMA) is Bryan Morris ’08 together with Milwaukeean Derek member and a keen documenter the 2012 Jazz Song of the Year. Stacey Kulow and made them Kawleski ’10 is the proud of its history with the death of Jamie Kember MMusic’07, Mad City’s “comedic power founder of a tech start-up that Art Hove, Jr. ’56, MA’67 in the band’s trombone player and couple” while they’ve pursued released its first mobile game, December in Madison. Hove’s front person, says, “We owe a widow, Norma, says, “He was lot of our success to the UW and “I’ve been painting ten hours a day for forty- totally dedicated to the univer- the School of Music,” so they’re five years. It became almost my first language.” sity from a very early age,” providing a “big payback” indeed. visiting campus during his child- The fall show also included — Lon Michels MFA’07 hood summers and applying for Charley Wagner ’99, who trav- admission when he was just a eled from his home in Switzerland improv, standup comedy, acting, PhotoKlash, in late August, and sophomore in high school. Hove to play trumpet; saxophonist and touring the Midwest — even in its early days, the game served as editor of the Wisconsin David Buss ’08; pianist Peter together, whenever possible. was earning high praise. He Alumnus, this magazine’s prede- Baggenstoss ’09; guitarist Kyle This fall, they moved to New York writes, “It’s like Cards Against cessor; assisted UW President Rightley MMusic’09; lead singer City, but, says Morris, “It’s so Humanity/Apples to Apples, Fred Harrington beginning in Leah Isabel Tirado x’09; Jeff hard to leave Madison — partic- except you submit photos from 1967; directed the UW’s Office Weiss ’10, the 2012 MAMA Bass ularly Atlas and the supportive your phone. It’s absolutely hilar- of Public Information from 1970 Player of the Year; plus some local standup community.” They ious when you get a good group until 1989; taught UW courses former band members, including departed in style, though: Kulow of friends in a game!” in business, journalism, and art; Brad Carman ’04 on sax. opened and Morris headlined at If you’re in Vista, California, and assisted UW chancellors, An optic-nerve infection Madison’s Comedy Club on State be sure to behold a public sculp- vice presidents, and provosts as eleven years ago caused artist during Halloween weekend. ture there by Arnold Martin a trusted colleague until his 1996 Lon Michels MFA’07 to go blind Madisonian Mark Fraire MA’10, MFA’11: his Presbyornis retirement. He also published The in just fifteen minutes. Treatments EMBA’09 has been enmeshed in Zeppelinus (Archimedes’ Goose) University of Wisconsin: A Pictorial and surgeries eventually returned the theatrical arts at every level: blends a zeppelin’s frame with History and The First Fifteen his sight and transformed his life as a producer, writer, actor, comic, the oversized legs of an extinct Years: University Research Park, and art: “I was given the gift to playwright, manager, and director. goose species. And then, if you 1984–1999; and co-authored look within,” he says. Michels He also created the Community move on to Pasadena, look Progressive Printmakers: earned his MFA and became Education Department and for Martin’s A Monument to Wisconsin Artists and the Print bolder in his painting, using TEENworks training program Curiosity: a toylike, slot-construc- Renaissance with Professor multiple, intricate patterns and for the Milwaukee Repertory tion sculpture of the Curiosity Warrington Colescott. Hove intense colors. “I’ve been painting Theater and has served as the rover on Mars that’s part of the jogged with friends from the Nat ten hours a day for forty-five grants officer for the Wisconsin city’s rotating-public-art program. to Picnic Point every weekday years. It became almost my first Arts Board and as the grants and Martin lives in Orange, California. for more than forty years, and language,” he says about his more fund-development director for In her dream job in Montréal, runners still touch “Art’s plaque” than 1,800 works. Michels lives in the Madison Metropolitan School Ally Jagodzinski ’14 has made — a 1996 gift from his jogging Palm Springs, California, where District. Fraire is now the director an unusual Badger connection. group — at Picnic Point. Even in he has an eponymous gallery; and of the Dane County Cultural She works at Station 16, a street- retirement, he came to campus in Wisconsin, where he was the Affairs Commission. art gallery that just happens daily to volunteer and make library keynote speaker at a fall gala for to represent the work of gilf!, visits. WAA honored Hove with a Combat Blindness International, 2010s a 2005 Badger alumna who’s 1992 Distinguished Alumni Award. a Madison-based nonprofit that a conceptual artist living and provides cataract surgeries for StadiumPark is the brainchild of working in Brooklyn, New York — Class Notes/Bookshelf editor people living in poverty. We thank Jeremy Crane ’10 of Rochester, and Jagodzinski has produced a Paula Wagner Apfelbach ’83 Rollie Cox ’71, MS’73 of Palm New York. His start-up company blog about gilf! on behalf of the reminds you that this material Springs for sharing this story. offers an iPhone app (one for the gallery. Merci to Jake Heyka will be on the test.

60 ON WISCONSIN bookshelf

has also become famous for writing haiku UW in the 1940s as a boxer.” And now Rita about his train commutes (traincommutehaiku. has made another mark with Take A Peak com) from his Glendale, Wisconsin, home (CreateSpace): a collection of her poetry writ- to his position in the communications depart- ten as a teenager living in inner-city Milwaukee ment at MillerCoors in Milwaukee. and as a young adult in corporate America that addresses friendships, betrayal, faith, ■■ If you love humorist and “polite discrimination,” and how these issues entertainer Steve Martin, are processed in young minds. Her work had read on. Robert Kapsis been stored in boxes for years until she redis- ’65, a professor of sociol- covered it and created her book to help guide ogy and film studies at her sons through their teen years. Queens College and the ■■ Five years ago, a tree limb weighing nearly Graduate Center of the City ■■ Thousands of studies one thousand pounds struck Heidi Siefkas University of New York, has confirm that stressful life ’99 and broke her neck. During her multi- edited a book of interviews events, ongoing strains, month recovery, she learned that her husband with Martin that honors his eminence as one and even daily hassles was leading a double life, and her employer of the nation’s most accomplished and varied negatively affect our physical forced her to resign. The reflection period, artists and emphasizes his writing talent: and emotional well-being. dramatic perspective shift, and life changes Conversations with Steve Martin (Uni- Rutgers University sociol- that followed her loss of independence, mar- versity Press of Mississippi). Kapsis is also ogy professor Deborah riage, and career produced a mantra called collaborating with the Museum of the Moving Carr MS’94, PhD’97 “Looking up!” and a hopeful, humorous mem- Image and the Academy of Motion Picture cuts through this sea of research and theories oir called When All Balls Drop: The Upside Arts and Sciences to develop a full-scale in Worried Sick: How Stress Hurts Us and of Losing Everything (Wheatmark). These retrospective of Martin that will begin circa How to Bounce Back (Rutgers University days, Siefkas describes herself as an author 2015–16 to laud his standup comedy, films, Press), helping readers to gauge their own and adventurer based in Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii. and creative outpourings as a playwright, stress levels, understand their sources of She’s writing a sequel, embracing her wander- essayist, novelist, memoirist, songwriter, com- strength and vulnerability, develop health- lust, documenting her travels, and reveling in poser, musician, and art critic and collector. ful coping strategies, and address individual her restored health, heart, values, and “deeper stressors in the context of society’s larger ■■ How can you set your understanding of what it means to have it all.” problems. Carr is also on the faculty of the business apart from — and Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and ■■ With warmth, poignancy, above — the competition? Aging Research at Rutgers. and sometimes startling If you ask Brian Fielkow intimacy, Malisa Garlieb ’86, he’ll tell you that a ■■ In Blue Jeans in High ’98 explores issues at the thriving endeavor depends Places: The Coming heart of modern relationships on a healthy corporate Makeover of American — desire, identity, allegiance, culture, which in turn drives Politics (Little Creek Press), betrayal, image, and reality exceptional customer experi- Madison author Mike — in her debut poetry collec- ences. In Driving to Perfection: Achiev- McCabe ’82 contends that tion, Handing Out Apples ing Business Excellence by Creating a both major political parties in Eden (SunRidge Poetry). She’s taught in Vibrant Culture (Two Harbors Publishing), he are failing the nation, and Waldorf schools for fifteen years, weaving offers brief chapters, easy-to-skim lists, and conditions are ripening for an story, movement, and the arts into her practical, hands-on advice to explore how a extensive renovation of America’s academic lessons, and she currently presents business, no matter its size, can achieve excel- political landscape. His work foreshadows a broad curriculum to elementary-schoolers lence without spending a lot of money. Fielkow where that renaissance will likely begin, who at the Lake Champlain Waldorf School in is the owner and president of the Houston- will do it, and how — and in an unapologeti- Shelburne, Vermont. Garlieb’s poems have based Jetco Delivery, which provides trucking cally optimistic way amid a time of pessimism. appeared in many journals and anthologies. and freight services along the Gulf Coast. “If history is any guide,” he writes, “the inno- vators who will help us think our way out of ■■ Peeve, My Parents’ ■■ “Thirty years ago,” writes our current trap will come from unexpected Pet (Mirror Publishing) is Chicagoan Rita Vernon locations.” As the former executive director the first children’s book Bautista ’87, “I was of the nonpartisan watchdog group the from Tom Ryan ’96: Homecoming queen at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, McCabe a delightful story based UW. Many said I was the is a frequent public speaker and among the on a conversation with first African American in that nation’s best political money trackers. his confused six-year-old role. … I had also heard that son. In the book, a little boy is determined there had been a woman of Book lovers will be rewarded with color who was Homecom- to hunt down Peeve, the mischievous mys- more news about works by Badger tery pet who leaves a trail of destruction and ing queen in the ’60s. Nevertheless, my uncle authors at onwisconsin.uwalumni.com. whom his parents talk about so often. Ryan Calvin Vernon ’54 made black history at the

SPRING 2015 61 Life at Oakwood Village University Woods offers an array of opportunities for cultural pursuits. In our Center for Arts and Education, you’ll enjoy plays, speakers and musical performances–including recitals and concerts given by accomplished performers. You’ll also find opportunities to discover and share your own talents through writers’ groups, art classes and more.

Call today to schedule a personal appointment and discover what’s waiting for you at Oakwood Village: 608-230-4266. Or visit us online at oakwoodvillage.net.

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62 ON WISCONSIN The Back Nine Neighborhood, the first neighborhood in The Community of Bishops Bay, features home sites with breathtaking views of the State Capitol and the Bishops Bay Golf Course, and is adjacent to a 50 acre woodland park and 2,000 acres of open space in neighboring Conservancies. Middleton, Wisconsin Parade of Homes Site June 13-28, 2015 www.BishopsBayCommunity.com 608-831-5500

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SPRING 2015 65 OnWisc_7.375x4.375_Jan.indd 1 2/6/15 3:21 PM flashback UW-MADISON ARCHIVES, S03082510

India Link A self-described student, India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was “We know the meaning of Gandhi’s noble work, the resolved way pleased to end his three-and-a-half week U.S. tour with a talk before of peace,” he said. “We, too, are a heterogeneous people, with different a scholarly audience at the UW on November 4, 1949. And the univer- mother tongues, religions, and cultures. Like you, we, too, are learning sity was equally pleased, welcoming the leader of India’s struggle for to dwell together in peace.” independence with a full diplomatic affair. At a time when conflict among nations can be blood soaked (see A ceremony at the Union Theater fêted Nehru. (That’s him on the “The Warlord’s Biographer” on page 34), and resolving it requires innova- balcony, in the upper left corner of this picture.) Accompanied by his tion in many forms, the UW’s Rikhil Bhavnani is among those revisiting daughter, India’s future prime minister Indira Gandhi, he celebrated Gandhi’s legacy. The assistant professor of political science, along with the example of political nonviolence inspired by Mahatma Mohandas research colleague Saumitra Jha at Stanford University, is finding that Gandhi. countries may still have much to learn from what they call “Gandhi’s Gift.” Fifty Indian students led the first-ever campus performance of In 1949, Nehru’s message — “Means are always as important India’s national anthem, and WHA and radio networks broadcast the as the ends” — came through a wide-ranging address. “[With] all the program across Wisconsin and Michigan. world its neighbor, no country can be indifferent to what happens at the UW President E. B. Fred declared Nehru’s visit memorable for other end of the world,” he said. “[Pure] indifference and isolation are its scholarship and exchange with a nation where “the true aristo- completely past and over. … We realize that in India. There is no way crat is a man of learning.” In official state greetings, Governor Oscar left except world cooperation.” Rennebohm found similarities between Wisconsin and India. Kate Kail Dixon ’01, MA’07

66 ON WISCONSIN THANKS FOR SHARING! To the more than 37,000 alumni who gave to UW-Madison last year, thank you for coming together. You share pride We are pioneers in knowing that you made a difference by enriching the Wisconsin Experience. For that, we share our gratitude. Seeking a cure for cancer sharethewonderful.org We are 2,300 strong—united on the frontline of We are where hope meets victory, where compassion cancer research and treatment. We’re exploring meets science. We are the University of Wisconsin the biological frontier; seeking a cure for cancer; Carbone Cancer Center. stepping into areas where few others have ventured. We do this with your help. Your gift, whatever its size, We are inventing drugs, engineering novel makes a difference in cancer research. You sustain technologies and creating new treatment protocols. our investments in medicine and our patients. You We measure our success one day at a time, one help us transform lives. patient at a time, and often, one cell at a time. To make a gift visit: uwhealth.org/cancerdonation

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2015 Events An unprecedented alumni experience It’s time to let the world know about the UW. With breakthrough March 5 | Naples research, breakout Badger personalities, and stories of celebration and inspiration, that’s exactly what this series of events does. June 11 | Milwaukee Visit uwalumni.com/ideas — where pride and purpose unite. September 24 | New York

October 15 | Madison Thanks to national planning committee co-chairs Mary Sue Shannon and Mark Tauscher.