MAGAZINE FALL 2013 Taking education beyond the gates. PARNTERSHIP WITH BOOKER T. WASHINGTON CENTER OFFERS NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN ERIE’S CENTER CITY Inside this issue: GOGGLE GLASS ON CAMPUS STUDENTS STUDY ADDICTIONS ESTATE GIFTED TO MNE HOMECOMING/FAMILY WEEKEND 2013 Penal Cross Belonged to Sister Maria O’Connor, RSM from the president. I became a grandfather not long ago. That ’s the kind of milestone that prompts one to think about the future. I don’ t imagine I’ll be president of Mercyhurst when Paxton is ready for college, but I’ m confdent there will still be a strong, healthy, vibrant Mercyhurst University here on the hill that he can be proud to attend. I want him to be able to see Mercyhurst as i see it – as a community of learners, of people dedicated to the growth and transmission of knowledge and culture; as a place where goodness and Mercy still matter; as a place of beauty and warm hospitality. No university can aford to be complacent in these days of economic uncertainty and shrinking numbers of high school graduates. But Mercyhurst has never been complacent; Mercyhurst has been open to new ideas since its earliest days. After all this is what Celtic Cross Carpe Diem means, right? Indeed, I often describe Mercyhurst as “an institution on the move,” and the Donated by Heidi Hosey, Ph.D. stories in this issue explore just a few of the reasons. Four years ago we headed two miles north of our gates to launch a new campus in center- city Erie, Saint Bridgid’s Cross a partnership with the Booker T. Washington Center that ’s making college possible for more students Donated by Sister Patricia Whalen, RSM every year. Longtime benefactor Bob Miller generously donated his property to expand our North East campus. The sustainable farming operation also moved to North East over the summer, opening up exciting new opportunities for our culinary students. Our faculty are known for the strong relationships they develop with their students, but they ’re scholars as well. You’ll read here about one who’ s among the frst in the nation to use Google Glass, and another who’ s working with his students to investigate the mechanisms of addiction. We earned our highest ranking yet from U.S. News & World Report, refecting our growing reputation Mercy Cross for academic excellence. And we’ re honored to be part of two partnerships that will bring exciting new Created and donated resources to our campus and our students. Mercyhurst is now home to the Thomas J. and Michele Ridge by Thomas Hubert Collection, an archive of historic material documenting their service to our region, the state and the nation. Through the generosity of former Trustee John Boyle, his sister Mary and their family, Mercyhurst will also house the Helen Boyle Memorial Archives, named to honor former trustee and board ofcer Helen Boyle of Oil City. The Archives will honor Helen’ s friend, Joan Chittister, OSB, one of our most prominent graduates as well as one of the most infuential religious leaders today. As we move forward, we always recall with gratitude the strong foundation laid for us by the Sisters of Mercy. We honored their legacy this fall by installing Mercy and Celtic crosses in the classrooms of Old Main, the building the Sisters constructed in 1926. The crosses (pictured at left) remind us daily how blessed we are to be the benefciaries of their vision and hard work. Mercy Rosary Cross God bless you, and God bless Mercyhurst. Created and donated by Daniel Barricklow Thomas J. Gamble, Ph.D. President, Mercyhurst University 1 The Ofce of Marketing and Public Relations publishes Mercyhurst Magazine twice a year. Editor in Susan Hurley Corbran ’73 [email protected] this issue: (814) 824-2090 Contributing Writers 1 FROM THE PRESIDENT Abby Badach Meghan Corbin ‘08 3 REACHING FOR THE STARS Sr. Mary Matthew Baltus Susan Corbran ’73 Allison Seib 5 HONORING DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI Design/Photography 7 EXPLORING ADDICTIONS Laboratory fosters student research Jennifer Cassano [email protected] (814) 824-3022 9 ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS Vice President for 11 GROWING GARDENS AND COLLEGES The Miller Estate External Afairs Monsignor David Rubino, Ph.D. 13 ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS [email protected] (814) 824-3034 15 SPORTING THE COLORS Alumnus spreads Laker pride Assistant Vice President for Advancement 16 HOMECOMING/FAMILY WEEKEND 2013 Ryan Palm ’07 [email protected] 17 BREAKING BARRIERS Mercyhurst at the Booker T. Washington Center (800) 845-8568 (814) 824-3320 19 PEERING INTO THE FUTURE MU prof gets Google Glass Director, Alumni Relations 21 WRAPPING UP THE SPRING SPORTS SEASON Tamara Walters [email protected] 23 ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME (814) 824-3350 25 MAKING HEADLINES What’s happening at Mercyhurst Class Notes Editor Debra Tarasovitch [email protected] 29 ALUMNI NOTES (814) 824-2392 On the cover: We’d love to hear from you. Students Jaci Davis, Vivian McCullum and Natasha Stewart are pictured in front Send your story ideas, of Mercyhurst’s newest campus at the Booker T. Washington Center. See page 17 suggestions and comments to to learn how the initiative is making higher education an option for a very diverse [email protected]. group of students who might otherwise never have attempted college. Send changes of address to: Mercyhurst Magazine Mercyhurst University 501 E. 38th St. mercyhurst.edu/magazineView this issue online! Erie, PA 16546 2 Reaching for the stars. SR. MARY MATTHEW BALTUS HAS BEEN REACHING FOR THE STARS ALL HER LIFE. AND, DURING MORE THAN 40 YEARS ON THE MERCYHURST FACULTY, SHE’S HELPED GENERATIONS OF STUDENTS DISCOVER THE BEAUTY AND MYSTERY SHE SEES IN THE SKIES. Story by Sue Corbran Sister Mary Matthew Baltus, RSM, helped design the observatory when Zurn Hall opened in 1968. It was named in her honor in 1993. 3 She absorbed her fascination with the skies from older brother George, frst her partner in helping neighborhood kids craft LAUNCHING AN airplanes out of balsa wood and rubber bands, and later her ASTRONOMY PROGRAM instructor as she learned to fy the real thing – a biplane george Sr. Mary Matthew recalls the early years of the astronomy program. had refurbished. Nancie Baltus was 15 when she took her frst When the Russians jump-started the Space Age by launching Sputnik fying lesson. in 1957, the Erie Daily Times asked Sr. Mary Charles Weschler to help stage a photo. She set up the college’ s small refractor telescope atop During World War II, she followed her brother ’s lead again. Preston Hall and gathered a few students to pose with it. George, an aircraft designer with Curtiss-Wright, told her the government was training women to replace male engineers The publicity stunt prompted a scathing note from Dr. John Ruiz, who were heading of to war. He convinced Nancie to interrupt an astronomer from Ossining, N.Y., pointing out the girls could not her chemistry studies at Mercyhurst to pursue an associate follow a satellite using that equipment. But it also led to a long-term degree in aeronautical engineering at Cornell University. relationship between Mercyhurst and Ruiz, who donated a better telescope and came to Erie to install it. He eventually moved to Erie, she also kept up her fying lessons, though. When the airport in lectured at Mercyhurst often, and continued to donate equipment. Ithaca was closed, she hopped on a bicycle and pedaled to the nearest airfeld – 26 miles away – to continue fying. In 1967, when the college built Zurn Hall to house the arts and sciences, Dr. Ruiz worked with Sr. Mary Matthew to design the With her degree in hand, Nancie went to work at Curtiss-Wright, observatory. “In order to be vibration free, the pier for the telescope helping to prepare engineering drawings for the C-46 cargo had to be anchored in solid earth rock,” she explains. “When the planes and P-40 pursuit planes manufactured at its bufalo basement level of Zurn was poured, a pier extended 30 feet below plant. As her experience grew, she also found herself crawling the foor and extended above the fourth foor.” Sr. Mary Matthew inside planes on the assembly line to identify and solve tapped her engineering background to supervise installation of the problems. Though she came within a few hours of completing observatory and its 16-foot rotating dome and Ruiz helped select a the required practice time, she never did get a pilot ’s license. 10-inch refector telescope with clock drive and solar flters. EDITOR’S NOTE: At a recent fundraiser for Mercyhurst Prep, Sr. When the 26-year- old observatory was renovated in 1993, Mary Matthew bid on a fight in a fully restored 1943 open- Mercyhurst took the opportunity to rename it the Baltus cockpit biplane. When the price quickly rose beyond her budget, Observatory in Sr. Mary Matthew ’s honor. a Mercyhurst University trustee who’d like to remain anonymous stepped in to match the winning bid and secured a fight for her. SR. MATTHEW’S MANY ROLES This fall she’ll enjoy a 30-minute ride over Presque Isle with pilot The observatory may be Sr. Mary Matthew ’s most tangible legacy, Scott Allen in a plane much like the one in which she learned to fy. but it ’s only one facet of her contributions to Mercyhurst. Besides her long teaching career, Sr. Matthew ’s roles ranged from dean of students to interim academic dean, from frst president of the Instead, in 1944, Nancie changed course dramatically, joining college senate to advisor of Mercyhurst Student Government, from the Sisters of Mercy who had so impressed her during the year founder of the earth science department to chair of the science and and a half she studied at Mercyhurst.