No. 2, 2014 I $5 The Seekers Undergraduate researchers set out on life-altering quests I W ARRIOR A RT I ST I O PERA STAR Contents | March 2014 20 26 30 20 26 30 COVER STORY The Good Fight Strength of Character Inquiring Minds An Iraq war veteran struggling Mezzo-soprano Phyllis with post-traumatic stress Pancella shares with students Undergraduate Research nds his footing with the help her secrets for success: passion Awards free students to of a KU Wounded Warrior and preparation. experience scholarship’s joy of Scholarship. victory— and agony of defeat. By Jennifer Jackson Sanner By Chris Lazzarino By Chris Lazzarino Cover image of Holly Laerty by Kelsey Kimberlin Established in 1902 as e Graduate Magazine Volume 112, No. 2, 2014 ISSUE 2, 2014 | 1 Lift the Chorus Near missus her undergraduate and master’s degrees at KU, and for Your many years was a professor opinion counts Editor’s Note: An online and administrator at KU. Please email us a note invitation for alumni to share their at [email protected] KU love stories for Valentine’s She also had been warned about the Green Hall steps. She to tell us what you think of Day attracted this letter from a your alumni magazine. longtime Kansas Alumni reader was a resident of Douthart and stalwart Jayhawk. Scholarship Hall during the Vietnam anti-war disturbances at KU. A number of we law less I nd this bias in Kansas M I did students volunteered to stay in Alumni oensive. not meet my sweethearts the old law library one night Surely that boy and girl at KU. and alert the police and re pictured cheering on the team Road trip! I was a law student at KU departments if anyone tried to spend many hours practicing from 1968 to 1971. My rst burn the building down. An and performing, sacricing I to a Jayhawk wife, Amy Dennis Pierron, alarm went o at Spooner Hall, their own study and social time and we have a daughter who is n’81, passed away in 2000. I which was close by. We to add to the electrifying a freshman at KU. could have met her in 1968 decided to run down and see energy in Allen Field House. I read with interest the item when she was a freshman what was happening. We ran Parents and friends back home about the Airstream trailer at KU. around Spooner and discov- would appreciate seeing their mobile lab for the School of However, any chance of ered it was a false alarm. names in the cutline. Architecture, Design and meeting her was short-stopped Diana and her fellow My Photojournalism II Planning [“Wheel-world during her time Douthartians were in instructor, Wally Emerson, j’76, research,” Jayhawk Walk, issue at KU because of lockdown but could see chastised me for a cutline No. 1]. (1) our dierence Spooner from the hall. mistake of omission and I We live in Kettering, Ohio, in age, (2) the ey saw us running never forgot it. (I took a photo one hour from Jackson Center, fact that she was around like crazy guys of sorority girls with their home of the Airstream warned about the and wondered what we beloved cook and identied the manufacturing plant and law students who sat were doing. When we met girls by rst and last name but museum. on the front steps of Old many years later she and I the cook by rst name only.) I am sure that aer the Green Hall (I do not refer to it discovered that she probably I enjoy looking at every issue students nish renovating the as Lippincott) and occasionally saw me that night, but nothing of your beautiful magazine and trailer, the museum would made inappropriate comments came of it. At least not then. reading about happenings on appreciate hearing about the about the young ladies who Joe Pierron, l’71 the Hill. project and seeing photos, or passed by, and (3) she was Lawrence Ann Lowry Sundeen, c’84, j’84 even getting a visit if it can far more interested in her Mission Hills travel the 10 hours to Ohio. thoughts about Mandy Editor’s Note: KU Spirit Squad I am also an engineer and a Patinkin, ’74, (a student at Spirit appreciated coaches prefer that cheer and yell STEMM (Science, Technology, KU at that time) than she leaders remain anonymous in Engineering, Math and would have been in me had A photos. (In fact, the ocial roster Medicine) Coordinator at an she even known me. remains nameless while the for the squad lists students by urban Dayton, Ohio, high I met her on a blind date six athletes are identied in an first name only.) According to school, so the whole concept of years later, we compared our otherwise stellar sports photo coach Corey Stone, f’97, “We’re the mobile lab for outreach KU histories and discovered montage on page 19 of issue a bit careful, especially with the eorts especially interests me. our near miss. She later earned No. 1. girls, in terms of stalking. It’s Good luck to the ARC 409 a nursing degree from KU and While I understand the huge loosening up a little bit, but I students working on this all three of our kids got degrees monetary impact athletics have still feel it’s better to err on the unique project! from KU. on the University’s bottom line, safe side on this.” Meg Draeger My present wife, Dr. Diana and thus the spotlight on Kettering, Ohio Carlin Pierron, d’72, g’74, got basketball superstars, nonethe- 2 | KANSAS ALUMNI March 2014 68 2 Lift the Chorus Letters from our readers Publisher Kevin J. Corbett, c’88 Editor Jennifer Jackson Sanner, j’81 5 Creative Director Susan Younger, f’91 First Word e editor’s turn Associate Editors Chris Lazzarino, j’86 Steven Hill 6 Editorial Assistant Karen Goodell On the Boulevard KU & Alumni Association events Photographers Steve Puppe, j’98 Dan Storey 8 Graphic Designer Valerie Spicher, j’94 Jayhawk Walk A big-band border showdown, a special delivery Communications Coordinator Leah Kohlman, c’11 at KU Hospital and Aaron Rodgers in the ’house. Advertising Sales Representative 10 Hilltopics David Johnston, j’94, g’06 News and notes: First Foundation Professors Editorial and Advertising Oce hired; workgroup reviews social media policy. KU Alumni Association 1266 Oread Avenue Lawrence, KS 66045-3169 16 Sports 785-864-4760 Men begin quest for fourth NCAA title; hurdler 800-584-2957 Michael Stigler eyes outdoor championship. www.kualumni.org [email protected] 34 Decade of Dominance KANSAS ALUMNI MAGAZINE (ISSN 0745-3345) is published by the A tribute to KU’s 10 consecutive Big 12 titles KU Alumni Association six times a year in January, March, May, July, September and November. $55 annual subscription includes member- ship in the Alumni Association. Oce of Publication: 1266 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-3169. Periodicals postage paid at 36 Association News Lawrence, KS. Evenings with Naismith highlight Association’s partnership with academic units. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Kansas Alumni Magazine, 1266 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-3169 © 2014 by Kansas Alumni Magazine. Non-member issue price: $7 40 Class Notes Proles of a snack food entrepreneur, a teahouse knitter, a rock star manager and more Letters to the Editor: 60 In Memory Kansas Alumni welcomes letters to the editor. Our address Deaths in the KU family is Kansas Alumni magazine, 1266 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-3169. Email responses may be sent to the 64 Rock Chalk Review Alumni Association, [email protected]. Statehouse copper becomes Kansas keepsakes; Letters appearing in the magazine may be Henry Fitch recalled in Tracks and Shadows. edited for space and clarity. For letters published, we’ll send a free gift of KU Campus Playing Cards, a $5 value. 68 Glorious to View Scene on campus ISSUE 2, 2014 | 3 by Jennifer Jackson Sanner First Word ith a friendly caution—“I might have to dash out to deliver July 1. e broader question of base aid per pupil remains Wa baby”—Shelly Steeples Gruenbacher, c’95, m’99, and her unresolved, because the Supreme Court sent that portion of the husband, Doug, m’99, pause briey during a busy aernoon to court case back to the district court for further deliberation. talk about their careers as primary-care doctors in Quinter, a Gov. Sam Brownback, l’82, did not include funding for the Gove County town of about 920, three hours west of Salina. Health Education Initiative in his January budget proposal, but he Shelly, who grew up 80 miles from Quinter in Stockton, and recommended $70,000 for the Kansas Bridging Program, which Doug, a native of Andale, outside Wichita, met as KU medical forgives the medical-school loans of primary-care physicians who students and married during their third year. Both nished their practice in rural Kansas. training at the School of Medicine’s Wichita campus and com- e physician shortage in Kansas is clearly a long-term pleted rural rotations in Gove County Medical Center in Quinter, challenge. KU has taken steps to address the crisis by opening the where Shelly says they fell in love with the community and School of Medicine’s Salina campus and expanding the Wichita created close bonds with the three family-practice physicans, all program from two years to four. Chancellor Bernadette Gray- KU medical school graduates, who were their mentors. e Little has declared KU’s ongoing commitment to health educa- couple chose to settle in Quinter in 2002.