Onwisconsin Spring 2019

FOR UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–MADISON ALUMNI AND FRIENDS SPRING 2019

We Need to Talk Sharing opinions in a polarized world Page 22 Vision Just a light workout? The Natatorium was lit during UW Recreational Sports’ glow-in-the- dark fitness last fall. Classes included spin, yoga, and Zumba, which, evidently, is what this is. Photo by Bryce Richter On Wisconsin 3 Guest Rooms • Events • Dining • Catering Conference Packages • Weddings

SMITTY’S STUDY PUB | ON THE 8TH FLOOR OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: 4:30 pm – 11:00 pm

*Subject to restrictions. Please call for more information. Contents Volume 120, Number 1

An astonishing array of stuff orbits above us. See page 38. SPENCER WALTS DEPARTMENTS

2 Vision 7 Communications 9 First Person Warrington Colescott

OnCampus

11 News 13 Bygone What’s On? 14 Calculation Terrace Chairs 17 Conversation Keeping Score 18 Exhibition Wisconsin Vinyl 20 C ontender Gabbie Taschwer

OnAlumni FEATURES 49 News 22 Room for Debate 50 Tradition Union Weddings Sharing what’s on your mind — and welcoming the view- 51 Class Notes points of others on contentious issues — is a campus hall- COURTESY OF ALLEE WILLIS 60 Diversions mark that could inform the wider world. By Louisa Kamps 61 Honor Roll John Curtis 66 Destinati on UW Arboretum 28 The Golden Age of TV Is Now No matter how viewers are binge-watching television these days, they might as well call it Badger-watching, given the multifaceted ways that UW alumni are contributing to our favorite shows. By Kate Kail Dixon ’01, MA’07, Addie Morfoot ’02, and Jenny Price ’96 38 Lost in Space It’s getting mighty crowded in space as debris from satellites, labs, and other things shot into Earth’s orbit degrade over See page 44. time and threaten to fall back to where they came from. By Terry Devitt ’78, MA’85 42 A Good Sport Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Gay ’92 makes no apologies for being a rabid Badger fan — even in a newsroom populated with Michigan alumni. By Taylor Laabs ’14 WISCO INDUSTRIES 44 Free to Be Allee Cover Allee Willis ’69 is more than just the composer of hit songs Can we talk? such as “September” and the Friends theme: she also collects Illustration by Tim All about that chair. kitsch, throws legendary parties, and supports her home- Bradford/Illustra- See page 14. town of Detroit. By Wendy Hathaway ’04 tionweb.

On Wisconsin 5 MORE: STATE STREETS THAT ARE ALSO GREAT STREETS

Although not every street in our state may evoke the same feelings one may have for our capital’s most famed thoroughfare, quite a number of Wisconsin’s byways are just as exciting places to be. Thanks to a booming economy, abundant career opportunities and low cost of living, no matter what the name of the street you choose, there’s never been a better time to make your address in Wisconsin. Wisconsin. It’s more you.

THINK MAKE HAPPEN IN WISCONSIN® InWisconsin.com/Alumni 6 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019

7608-12_UW-Madison-StateStreet_vF.indd 1 12/6/18 12:33 PM Communications STRIKE JOHN WOLF The Dark Side of a wonderful teacher. I never Football played an instrument and never Chris Borland single-handedly marched a step, but my first gave us beleaguered 49ers fans elective as a freshman was Intro- hope, and then he left, ending duction to Big Bands. In the first our party [“Walking Away from class, Mike introduced us to his Football,” Winter 2018 On Wis- favorite drummer, Gene Krupa, consin]. While many were upset, and I was hooked on college! others (myself included) silently Thanks, Mike. applauded his decision, recog- John Koenigs ’78 Fifty years ago, black students at nizing him as one of the smartest McKinney, Texas UW–Madison, propelled by long- and bravest men in football. standing grievances and fresh Paul Darbo ’72 In Praise of Pet Food flash points, called for a cam- Fair Oaks, California Thank you for the piece on Marie puswide student strike until ad- Moody [“Raw Talent,” Winter ministrators agreed to a series of I’m writing in response to Pres- 2018]. I have fed my pups a lot demands. Thousands boycotted ton Schmitt’s article on Chris of Stella & Chewy’s and often classes, took over lecture halls, Borland’s departure from the wondered who started it, how it and blocked building entrances. NFL. I am sincerely interested in ended up in Oak Creek, how one In an unprecedented response, the university’s response to the starts a pet food company, etc. the governor sent the Wisconsin question of the ethics of continu- This answered all that and was National Guard to campus. A new ing a Big Ten football program in very interesting to read — it was website captures the tumultu- the face of the emerging scien- sort of serendipitous. ous weeks on campus in Febru- tific evidence regarding CTE. Mary Jo Koranda An institution that heralds itself Sun Prairie, Wisconsin ary 1969 through a timeline of as a champion of progressivism events and an oral history with must answer the question: are Alternatives to Hunting activists of that time. See news. we going to continue to value “The Hunt for Answers” [Winter wisc.edu/black-student-strike. revenue and tradition over the 2018], which proposes hunting long-term well-being of our stu- as a solution to expanding deer 10 YEARS ON dents? As an alumna, I would be populations, neglects to mention DISTRICT PUBLIC AFFAIRS CHRIS GARDNER, USACE NEW YORK ashamed to support a university that many wildlife management that continues to do so. agencies are currently advancing Mallory Willkom DVM’09 humane and nonlethal meth- Milwaukee ods of control as an alternative to hunting, which is obviously Master Motivator Mike ineffective. These alternatives Thanks for the wonderful article should have been explored in the

on Mike Leckrone [“Stop at the article. Top,” Winter 2018]. Mike was a Indeed, the article’s roman- master motivator, marketer, and tic promotion of bowhunting as The UW is connected to its fair mentor — a leader whose per- a solution is not only silly, but share of miracles. For one, the sonality was assimilated by the morally offensive; bowhunt- “Miracle on Ice” (see page 15). people he led. He set high stan- ing is a notoriously cruel and And we have Jeff Skiles ’84 to dards and never compromised. inhumane practice. Moreover, thank for his role in the “Miracle His dedication and love for his reference to Marti Kheel ’74’s on the Hudson.” On January 15, work inspired everyone who incisive critique of Aldo Leo- 2009, disaster struck US Airways marched for him. I am privileged pold’s romanticization of hunting Flight 1549 in the form of geese, to have been among the first he should be included in any bal- which flew into the plane’s en- taught to “stop at the top” in his anced view of the issue. backyard in August 1969. I am Finally, it must be said that gines. Skiles, the copilot, helped humbled and grateful to call Mike the main cause of environmental guide the failing plane onto the my friend. degradation and loss of biodi- Hudson River. Everyone survived. Richard James ’72 versity is corporate develop- “It’s not like I had any oh-my- Waukesha, Wisconsin ment — an outgrowth of human God-this-is-the-end moment. overpopulation — not deer. I just thought: river. Okay, we Good article … great man. [Mike Josephine Donovan MA’67, can do the river,” Skiles told On Leckrone’s] influence went way PhD’71 Wisconsin in 2009. Read more: beyond the field; he was also Urbana, Illinois go.wisc.edu/hudson.

On Wisconsin 7 Discover Madison’s premier retirement living today. University perks. 608-283-2046 retirement.org/Madison At your feet.

At Capitol Lakes, vibrant, university town living is right outside your door.

Capitol Lakes is a Paciﬁ c Retirement Services community and an equal URP-Exact-On-WI-Sept2018-PRESS.pdf 1 9/13/18 4:13 PM housing opportunity.

New Headquarters for Exact Sciences

CMY

GET EVOLVED: alwaysINNOVATING universityresearchpark.org/evolution

8 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 First Person

Spring 2019

CO-EDITORS CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART Niki Denison, Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA) Jenny Price ’96, University Communications CONSULTING EDITOR Cindy Foss, University Communications PUBLISHER Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association 1848 University Avenue Madison, WI 53726-4090 608-263-4545 Email: [email protected] Web: onwisconsin.uwalumni.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER John Allen, WFAA WRITER Preston Schmitt ’14, University Marketing CLASS NOTES/DIVERSIONS EDITOR Stephanie Awe ’15, WFAA ART DIRECTOR Nancy Rinehart, University Marketing “If death and eternal judgment can be comedy,” Warrington Colescott’s DESIGNER Warrington Colescott once said, “then noth- Sunday Service Danielle Lawry, University Marketing ing is beyond the comic imagination.” The (2001) was PRODUCTION EDITOR included in the Eileen Fitzgerald ’79, University Marketing pioneering printmaker and longtime UW Wisconsin Sesquicentenni- PHOTOGRAPHERS art professor, who died in September 2018 Jeff Miller and Bryce Richter, University al Portfolio. Communications at age 97, proved that statement true many DESIGN, LAYOUT, AND PRODUCTION times over. His satirical etchings earned national acclaim Toni Good ’76, MA’89; Kent Hamele ’78; Kate Price ’09, University Marketing; for their biting wit — ranging from critiques of society and Chelsea Schlecht ’13, WFAA politics to the purely playful and absurd. Themes of warfare EDITORIAL INTERN permeated his works, a reflection of his upbringing as a son Nina Bertelsen x’19 of a World War I soldier and his own army service in World ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Madison Magazine: 608-270-3600 War II. While his irreverence often reigned — “If you attack, ADDRESS CHANGES AND do it with skill,” he advised — his narrative works could be DEATH NOTICES 888-947-2586 deeply human and hopeful. “The terrain that really grips Email: [email protected] me,” he said, “is that black zone between tragedy and high Quarterly production of On Wisconsin is supported by financial gifts from alumni comedy, where, with a little push one way or the other, you and friends. To make a gift to UW–Madison, please visit supportuw.org. can transmute screams into laughter and where the rules

The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association are no rules.” (WFAA) is open to all alumni, students, and friends of the university. WFAA encourages diversity, inclusivity, and PRESTON SCHMITT ’14 participation by all of these groups in its activities and does not discriminate on any basis.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this magazine. Please read it first.

On Wisconsin 9 WHEN CIVIL ENGINEERING AND CIVIL SERVICE WORK TOGETHER, WE ARE BOUNDLESS.

WISC.EDU | #ONWISCONSIN 10 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019

WISC_141-40d_Currents_MECH_v2.indd 1 1/24/18 1:43 PM OnCampusNews from UW–Madison

SPEAK GENTLY, Long-Term MOUSE SPOUSE California mice are relatively Investments solitary animals, but put two in a room, and they’ll talk each UW, state budget proposals are in play. other’s ears off. The species will coo, chirp, and bark — and their chatter may speak volumes

FLAD ARCHITECTS about relationships. The quality of their conversations after infidelity can help predict which couples are most successful. “These mice are not gre- garious. They’re loners,” says Expansion of the UW researcher Josh Pultorak School of Veter- PhD’17. “They’re highly territorial inary Medicine, the only veterinary and aggressive — both sexes.” school in Wis- While notorious for their consin, will allow ferocity, California mice are The only certainty is uncertainty with a divided government, and so it it to serve more also known for their monog- goes for UW–Madison’s 2019–21 biennial budget request. farmers and pet amy. Once they’ve bonded with Last August, the UW Board of Regents approved an operating budget owners across the a partner, they don’t normally request of $107.5 million in new state funding for the UW System to state. The current mate with another. Pultorak hospital was built support high-demand academic programs, with much of the funding and his collaborators paired up to accommodate tied to performance metrics. 12,000 patients 55 male and 55 female mice, The regents also approved a $1.9 billion capital budget recommenda- a year; in 2016, it recording their vocalizations. As tion (spanning the next two budgets) for the maintenance, renovation, served 26,500. the pairs bonded, their commu- or replacement of campus buildings, including a $90 million addition nication became more affiliative. to the current UW–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, which Then the researchers moved opened in 1983. some of the males to live with “With continued investment from the state, UW–Madison will new females, and some of the remain a world-class university in education, health, and research that females to live with new males. changes lives and powers Wisconsin’s economy,” Chancellor Rebecca After a week, the unfaithful Blank said at the time. mice were reunited. The ones Newly sworn-in Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers ’73, MS’76, that communicated more kindly PhD’86, formerly the state schools superintendent, is expected to tended to successfully produce release his budget proposal in February or March. (It was not available offspring. at press time.) The negotiation process between Evers, a Democrat, “That’s a big deal,” says Pul- and the Republican-led legislature could continue through the summer. torak. “Arguably, it’s the whole The budget bill must be passed by the state assembly and senate before point of forming pair bonds in the returning to the governor to be signed into law. first place.” During his campaign, Evers signaled stronger financial support for CHRIS BARNCARD the UW System, including funding to fully offset the ongoing in-state tuition freeze that was enacted under former Governor Scott Walker in 2013. The system received a $36 million increase in the current budget, following a substantial $250 million cut in 2015. To help generate revenue, UW–Madison has increased tuition for out-of-state students and professional degree programs over the past four years. “We talked about how what’s best for our kids is what’s best for our state,” Evers said in his inauguration address. “And that means we need TENRA/ISTOCK to fully fund our public schools at every level … from all-day pre-K to our university and technical college systems.” PRESTON SCHMITT ’14

On Wisconsin 11 OnCampus On “Queue” UW ATHLETICS/DAVID STLUKA

BADGER GENIUSES MACARTHURFOUNDATION (2) JOHN D. AND CATHERINE T.

Sandefur

Former Badger women’s basketball point guard Shawna Nicols regularly plays this Nicols ’05 — known today as DJ Shawna — is now the selection of songs at games: official disc jockey for the Wisconsin Badgers. She dee-  “Jump Around,” House of Pain Parks jays at sporting events, including football and men’s and  “I Want It That Way,” Two Badger alumnae — women’s basketball games, and tunes into her skills from Backstreet Boys Rebecca Sandefur ’91 the court to read both the players and the crowd. Nicols  “I Wanna Dance with Some- and Lisa Parks MA’93, aims to add to Game Day traditions and create a positive body (Who Loves Me),” PhD’98 — are among experience for everyone — no matter the final score. Play- Whitney Houston the most recent recipi- ing to a stadium full of people is, she says, “very surreal. I  “WIN,” Jay Rock ents of “genius grants” remember the first day we did sound check at Camp Ran-  “thank u, next,” Ariana from the John D. and dall. … I can’t imagine what it feels like to be Beyoncé, but Grande Catherine T. MacAr- that was maybe a small sliver of it.” thur Foundation. The grants recognize people who show “exceptional Beer Gone Wild creativity in their work When it comes to beer, UW geneticist Chris Todd Hittinger and the prospect for still PhD’07 goes a little wild — at least with his yeast. more in the future.” San- Hittinger studies microbes, and in 2011, he and an interna- defur, a University of Illi- tional team discovered a yeast species called Saccharomyces nois sociologist and legal eubayanus, which is the wild ancestor of what brewers use to scholar, is promoting a make lagers. Ales — an older form of beer — ferment at relatively new, evidence-based high temperatures using a yeast called Saccharomyces cerevi- approach to increasing siae. In the 15th century, brewers in central Europe began looking access to civil justice for ways to work in colder temperatures, and they inadvertently for low-income com- crossbred S. cerevisiae with S. eubayanus to invent lagers. munities. Parks, an MIT After isolating wild S. eubayanus with his students in 2014, Hit- professor, is an expert tinger worked with brewers such as Heineken and the Wisconsin on the cultural effects of Brewing Company to create beers using the yeast’s original form. space-age technologies, They take longer to ferment, he says, and have a distinctive flavor. especially satellites. “They aren’t able to convert sugars as fully as industrial yeasts, so the wild version is sweeter, more cloying,” he says. “It has a spic- ier flavor, like smoke or cloves. And it has a lower alcohol content.”

EVILWATA/ISTOCK JOHN ALLEN

12 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 Bygone What’s On? UW ARCHIVES S11742

Ah, the warm glare of a television were then transmitted over In February 1955, But between 1994 and 1996, set — more than matched by the closed circuit. televisions were residence halls installed cable in glares on the faces of students as In 1955, University Housing new amenities in individual rooms, and the allure they impatiently wait to be enter- installed the first residence- the UW’s dor- of the TV lounge began to fade. tained. hall TVs (pictured here), though mitories. Here, Today, many students simply students await a TV-watching has evolved on clearly, the initial TV lounges chance to watch a stream programming onto their campus, much as it has for people were not the comfortable dens show in one of the own digital devices. around the country. The first that more recent students remem- men’s halls. According to Brendon Dybdahl communal sets arrived at the ber. For much of the second half ’98, MBA’04 at University Hous- UW in fall 1953, when they were of the 20th century, TV lounges ing, staff members are surprised installed in lounges at Memorial were gathering spots where stu- to find that today’s TV lounges Union. dents forged common experience — which still exist, all equipped The same year, the UW around watching shows together: with flat-screen, high-definition launched the University Televi- M*A*S*H or Dallas or Days of Our televisions — have become rather sion Laboratory, where students Lives. Even as TV sets became sedate. “The spaces we thought had the opportunity to learn more available, individual rooms would be louder and more social about the medium by produc- lacked cable hookups, so the with TV viewing have turned out ing and appearing on programs lounges retained popularity as the to be mostly used for quiet study,” called Campus Newsreel and place to escape the limitations of he says. Education on Parade, which rabbit ears. JOHN ALLEN

On Wisconsin 13 Calculation Terrace Chairs PHOTOS BY JEFF MILLER; ILLUSTRATION BY DANIELLE LAWRY

Have a Seat When gray snow and frigid winter members to join the fun of open- The colors of the members of the always-entertain- days begin to fade, spring reintro- ing the Terrace and populating it sunburst chairs ing Badger Band and a very happy duces some of our favorite things with the green, yellow, and orange were chosen to Bucky Badger. to campus: sunshine, picnics chairs. celebrate the The sunburst season has offi- on Bascom Hill, and the iconic Sometime in early April seasons and cially begun. evoke Wisconsin Memorial Union Terrace chairs. (depending on the weather, but farming tradi- “Terrace season means it’s The sunburst design — per- it’s often a little chilly), Union tions: John Deere time to start building connec- haps Madison’s most recognizable staff puts out a call for Terrace green, and Allis- tions, having a good time, running symbol — sparks fond memories lovers to prepare for the chairs’ Chalmers orange into past friends, and enjoying of times spent hanging out with return. Volunteers line up an hour and yellow. some sun,” says Iffat Bhuiyan friends and gazing at Lake Men- in advance, waiting for facilities ’18, last year’s Wisconsin Union dota’s many moods. staff to unload trucks and line student president. Following the Union’s years of the chairs up along the side of the The final touch to the day? renovation, staff and student lead- building. Free Babcock Dairy ice cream and ers decided to start a new tradi- With a signal given via mega- the first of many relaxing times on tion. Since 2016, they’ve invited phone, volunteers carry the chairs the Terrace. eager students and community down to the Terrace, passing by NINA BERTELSEN X’19

14 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 OnCampus ROBERTMANDEL/ISTOCK

NUMBER

HIGH10 HONORS The No. 10 jersey of Mark John- son ’94 is finally where it belongs: hanging from the Kohl Center rafters. The UW women’s hockey coach and leading goal scorer in the history of the men’s program had his jersey retired in a Febru- ASK AN EXPERT ary ceremony, becoming the first hockey player to earn such honors. Johnson gained international What’s the Tiff about Tariffs? fame in 1980 for his starring role “I am a Tariff Man,” President Donald Trump famously tweeted in December. on the “Miracle on Ice” U.S. Olym- That persona is a sharp break from presidents of the past, says Menzie Chinn, pics team and recently became a UW professor of public affairs and economics. Trump and other protectionists the all-time winningest coach in aim to shield domestic industries from foreign competition by putting taxes — NCAA Division I women’s hockey. known as tariffs — on imports. His jersey now hangs above the Last spring, the administration imposed steep tariffs on imported aluminum rink that bears the name of his and steel, hoping to bolster U.S. industries and employment. An unintended con- late father, Hockey Hall of Fame sequence, Chinn notes, is that American companies relying on these materials coach Bob Johnson. “As I’ve told — notably within the construction industry — now face higher costs. The tariffs people for many years, hockey also spurred retaliation on American exports. “I think it’s a misunderstanding in has been good to my family,” Trump’s mind of what trade protection does,” he says. Overall, Chinn and many trade experts predict a net negative effect on U.S. employment. Johnson says.

What worries Chinn most is how the tariffs were implemented. The admin- JEFF MILLER istration invoked rarely used trade laws administered by the executive branch, leading to short- and long-term uncertainty. In uncertain times, companies delay expansion and lenders give fewer loans, potentially slowing the economy. In an increasingly global and technological marketplace, products often are made up of many different parts that are shipped from all over the world. Adding even a small tariff on pieces that cross borders multiple times can create a much larger disruption than in the past. Ultimately, Chinn believes we will come to find that restricting trade is costly. NINA BERTELSEN X’19

news feed

UW history professor John A team of UW engineer- A new campus initiative, the ; BRYCE RICHTER RICHTER BRYCE ; Sharpless, known for his ing students is taking Culture Keepers/Elders-in-Res- conservative faculty voice a shot at the Base 11 idence Program, is seeking to and sense of humor, retired Space Challenge, a improve the experience of Amer- in December after 43 years national contest with a ican Indian and Alaskan Native STATE JOURNAL STATE of teaching. Sharpless, who $1 million prize for the students by hosting Native elders twice ran for political office, first student-led team to on campus for extended visits. left lasting words with his design, build, and launch Activist Ada Deer ’57 visited cam- students: “Get off your a liquid-propelled rocket pus in November as the inaugural

AMBER ARNOLD/ AMBER butts and make it better.” into outer space by 2021. participant.

On Wisconsin 15 OnCampus MICHAEL P. KING HOLD THE ANTIBIOTICS A team of researchers reports that mice recov- ering from heart attacks are more likely to die if treated with antibiotics, a common intervention in hospitals. Hospital patients are often dosed with broad- spectrum antibiotics, which can COOL COWS On hot days, the cows at Rosy-Lane Holsteins in Watertown, Wisconsin, be indiscriminate are given cool showers while they’re being milked. It’s a strategy for promoting cow comfort and eliminate not that Jennifer Van Os (above) has learned by visiting milk producers around the state since joining the Department of Dairy Science as an assistant professor last spring. “It’s very nice only bad microbes, to work with a farm where the things we’re looking at were their idea,” she says. “It’s not but also the ones some zany idea that we came up with in the university and now we’re trying to get people to we depend on adopt it.” to stay healthy. COURTSIDE Scientists in Tai- In a rare lawsuit between universities, a federal district court ordered the wan and at UW– Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) to pay $31.6 million Madison treated to Washington University in St. Louis for violating a royalties contract. The dispute dates back to the 1990s, when both institutions contributed mice with antibi- to research that produced a drug to treat kidney disease. The judge ruled otics and found that WARF’s long-standing patent and licensing agreements did that they had a not properly compensate Washington University for its research contributions and that WARF concealed important information about reduced immune the agreements. The decision came on the heels of another big loss for response after a the research foundation: Apple Inc. convinced a federal appeals court to dismiss $506 million in damages previously awarded to WARF for a patent heart attack. infringement on a computing technology used in iPhones and other products. TERRY DEVITT news feed

Former UW Chancellor UW–Madison has announced The President’s Oak lives on.

Donna Shalala was sworn an enhanced recruitment Thanks to the foresight of JEFF MILLER; BRYCE RICHTER in as a member of the U.S. program to help diversify Michael Yanny ’79, who took a House of Representatives faculty. The Target of Opportu- small branch from it in 2013, a in January after winning nity Program (TOP) will provide graft from the tree was planted Florida’s 27th congressio- increased financial support near Washburn Observatory in nal district seat. Shalala, and resources to departments a ceremony last October. The 78, became the sec- looking to recruit people from ailing 300-year-old tree, by ond-oldest freshman U.S. backgrounds underrepre- far the oldest on campus, was representative in history. sented in their academic areas. felled in 2015.

16 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 Conversation Keeping Score

At a Badger men’s basketball What does scorekeeping You’re also the team’s game, you’ll find Otto Puls ’55 entail? equipment manager and on the court — but not shooting I keep track of fouls, players referee at practices. What hoops. Instead, he’ll be wearing playing, [and] how many points is it like for you to work with stripes on the sidelines, tally- they score, and I don’t have any- the players? ing points as the team’s official thing to do with how often they I treat [the players] the same scorekeeper — a post he’s held shoot, or whether they have an way I do [my own kids]. They for 55 years. Puls, a retired error, or anything else. That’s all appreciate me more after they pharmacist and lieutenant col- the stat people. At halftime, and leave. They see me every day onel in the United States Army, then at the end of the game, all of here at practice. Sometimes played baseball for the UW and the people in the stats crew bring they get mad at me, but when had a brief minor-league stint a sheet over to me, and I have they leave they really appreci- with the Baltimore Orioles. to okay that sheet. … It becomes ate what I’ve done and what I’m He has officiated basketball more complicated than it used trying to do. When I call a foul, and Big Ten football, includ- to be — all you did was the it isn’t because I [want] to — it’s ing two Rose Bowls, and he’s scoreboard, you wrote it down, because of the fact that you did a member of several Halls of and you were God. That was it. something wrong. That’s what Fame, including the Wisconsin Nobody else was going to argue they think is nice about it — they Football Coaches Association with you. really thought that I was honest and the Wisconsin Basketball with them. Coaches Association. How did officiating at the How did you get started Rose Bowl compare to with scorekeeping? scorekeeping at a Final John Erickson, the ex-coach, Four tournament? came to me one day and said, The Final Four was more fun. “You know, I need [an] offi- There was less pressure on me. cial scorer, I need a timer, My family had said the same, and I need somebody too, that you don’t go to the Final to put the score up on Four very often, and boy, when the board.” That was you go, you better enjoy it, and when we were at the boy, those two years (2014 and [UW] Field House, 2015) were just heaven. and that’s all there was. ... It was just What’s kept you going three [of us] to through it all? begin with. The love of sports. I’m a sports nut.

You must be! I do not remember the last time I missed a [Badger men’s basketball] home game. … And I’ll bet you, if they look in the archives, I don’t even know who I replaced back in ’64. I don’t think there’s anybody in the administration that has been here that long, so they can’t help me. And I’m not here for stats, you know. In fact, I think [that’s] pretty neat, if you’re going to write that down.

Interview conducted, edited, and condensed by Stephanie Awe ’15 Photo by Jeff Miller

On Wisconsin 17 Exhibition Wisconsin Vinyl TOM CAW TOM

For 12 consecutive years, retail sales of vinyl records New York Record- active physical experience is something you can’t have increased in the United States. ing Laboratories replicate online.” This growth, as documented in Nielsen Music’s (NYRL) — a The library’s record collection is robust: it 2017 U.S. year-end report, is especially apparent subsidiary of the includes about 50,000 individual titles (plus another during Record Store Day (RSD), an event celebrated Wisconsin Chair 30,000-some duplicates) that are 33 1/3 and 45 rpm Company of by independent record stores each April to promote Port Washing- (revolutions per minute), as well as some 100,000 78 vinyl sales. ton, Wisconsin rpm records. “[Our] attendance for RSD has grown every — was created A subset of these items, part of the library’s year,” says Dave Zero, owner of MadCity Music on to promote the Wisconsin Music Archives, represents the state’s Madison’s east side, which has participated in the chair company’s music. Among this collection are 78s from Para- event since it started in 2008. He keeps tabs by phonographs. mount Records, one of four record labels produced tracking the store’s increasing RSD sales numbers. Pictured above between 1917 and 1933 by the New York Recording On campus, staff members at Mills Music are two of NYRL’s Laboratories. Library have noticed students’ growing interest in Paramount Re- Well known for its blues and jazz series, Para- cords, which were vinyl in recent years. Tom Caw, the music public made of shellac mount Records’ discography contains music with services librarian, says staff and librarians across instead of vinyl. connections to UW–Madison. Recordings include the country have reported an increase in people those dating back to the 1920s from the Wisconsin U requesting, listening to, or checking out long-play- Skyrockets — directed by Jesse Cohen ’24 — and ing vinyl. from the Haresfoot Recording Orchestra, part of the “I think part of the allure for the vinyl listening UW’s Haresfoot Club that existed from the late 1800s experience is that it’s a physical interaction with a to the mid-1960s. The archives’ collection preserves device, and I think people are used to having access a unique compilation of Wisconsin-centric music. online to streaming media,” Caw says. “The inter- STEPHANIE AWE ’15

18 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 OnCampus JEFF MILLER @ODIETHEFLUFFYCORGI

Legal Advocates A restraining order is often a first line of defense for domestic-violence victims seeking protection from an abusive partner. But the process for obtaining one under traumatic conditions can be overwhelming — especially for victims who can’t afford the costs of a lawyer. The UW Law School (at right, above) has stepped in to address this gap in legal services, with plans to open the VOCA Restraining Order Clinic with federal funds ON, WOOFSCONSIN! secured by the state justice department from the 1984 Victims of Crime Act. The Who let the dogs out? It must’ve clinic partners with domestic-abuse agencies in the Madison area and southern been Bucky. This past fall, Wisconsin that will refer women who need help. pooches were spotted on social Law students must make a semester-long commitment, during which they will media sporting their Badger complete two or three cases with supervision and mentoring from licensed attorneys. red and were featured on the And the experience will broaden their understanding of the physical, psychological, UW–Madison News web page, and economic challenges victims face, says Marsha Mansfield ’77, JD’84, a family coupled with the hashtag law clinical professor and the director of the school’s Economic Justice Institute. #OnWoofsconsin. These pups, That insight is a critical part of doing domestic-violence work. “Working with such as Odie (above), epitomize victims of sexual assault and domestic violence requires a deep empathy and under- the Wisconsin spirit (and look standing of trauma,” Mansfield says. mighty cute doing so). U-Ruff- TAMMY KEMPFERT Ruff!

news feed

NFL star and former Badger The Kohl Center unveiled its new The Wisconsin School of Business J. J. Watt x’12 will return to Legends Walk in October with has hired Vallabh Sambamurthy to Camp Randall to deliver the honorary floor plaques in the serve as its next dean. Sambamur- charge to UW graduates at concourse. The inaugural class: thy is a professor and associate the 2019 spring commence- former U.S. Senator Herb Kohl ’56, dean at Michigan State Univer- ment ceremony. Watt rose to the arena’s lead benefactor; former sity, where he oversees the MBA prominence off the field for men’s basketball coach Dick Ben- program. Former dean Anne Massey his efforts to raise more than nett; former women’s basketball resigned in December 2017 following $40 million for Hurricane coach Jane Albright; and former a controversial proposal to drop the

UW ATHLETICS/DAVID STLUKA; MICHIGAN MICHIGAN STLUKA; ATHLETICS/DAVID UW UNIVERSITY STATE Harvey victims last year. men’s hockey coach Jeff Sauer. UW’s full-time MBA program.

On Wisconsin 19 Contender Gabbie Taschwer

Gabbie Taschwer ’18 doesn’t “It’s just a lot of crashing until Lakes are a Madison. Her mother, Lori, works quite walk on water, but she’s you figure it out. It’s a high-risk familiar backdrop on campus for a surplus equip- almost that good. sport, but high reward, too.” in Taschwer’s life. ment program, SWAP. At the Show Ski World Luiting praises Taschwer as She first learned Gabbie started skiing as a to water ski as a Championships in Septem- among the best water-skiers paid performer with the Tommy three-year-old, ber 2018, she and her U.S. in the country. She does it all: going on to make Bartlett Show in the Wisconsin teammates became the first swivel skiing, barefoot skiing, history in world Dells when she was a high school female water-skiing trio ever to pyramid formations, jumps, and competition. freshman. She continued to ski perform a triple helicopter spin tricks. “I’ve watched her since there through college and also in competition. she was a little girl,” he says. competed nationally with the The trick involves sailing “She doesn’t see being a woman volunteer Mad-City Ski Team. off a ski jump, spinning 360 [as] a barrier, and that’s awe- As a member of the UW’s Water degrees in the air, and sticking some. She essentially does all Ski and Wakeboard team, she the landing in unison. It had of the traditional girl acts in the placed third overall for women never been attempted — let show and many of what tradi- skiers at the 2018 collegiate alone accomplished — by three tionally have been guy acts.” conference tournament. women during any tournament “She is truly fearless,” adds Although competing in world- in the world, according to Gerry Julie Patterson PhD’18, one of class competitions as a student Luiting, a U.S. team coach and Taschwer’s teaching assistants was often tricky, Taschwer a chair for the International at the UW who later became a graduated in December with a Waterski and Wakeboard friend. “She has motivated girls degree in kinesiology after three Federation. “The crowd gave across the world to break down and a half years. She wanted them a huge standing ovation, all boundaries in the sport of to finish school as quickly as and that doesn’t happen at the water skiing.” possible to maximize her years world championships unless it’s Taschwer’s connections to of professional skiing in peak pretty amazing,” he says. “It’s the UW and the sport run deep. condition. To stay on track, she analogous to a standing ovation She grew up in nearby McFar- took summer courses and stud- at the Olympics.” land, learning to ski on Lake ied between performances on There is no shortcut to Waubesa at age three with her the docks of the Tommy Bartlett learning the helicopter spin or parents, both former profes- Show. any other trick, Taschwer says. sional water skiers. Her father, Jeff Taschwer ’84, is now a pharmacist at the Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in

20 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 For her final kinesiology practicum, Taschwer combined her schoolwork with her passion and volunteered with Colsac Skiers, Inc., a water ski school on Lake Wisconsin for children and adults with disabilities, including veterans injured during military service. “It was so wonderful to give others an experience that means so much to me,” she says. In March, she will start as a full-time water skier for the highly acclaimed Holiday Park Ski Team in Germany, following in the wake of her parents, who skied with the team decades ago. Taschwer rarely gets nervous as a performer these days — with the slight exception of that triple helicopter spin. “I tried to tell myself it was just another ski show, but I had a few butter- flies,” she says. “It was pretty cool to make history.” DOUG ERICKSON PHOTO BY BRYCE RICHTER

On Wisconsin 21 In a polarized world, UW–Madison fosters tough conversations.

On a warm autumn afternoon when I needed it badly, I got a shot of hope for the future of conversation. Pulling up a chair at the Memorial Union Terrace and eavesdropping there under the old oak trees, I heard brilliant debate by research scientists about the best way to get a stubborn gene to express. At another table, there was virtuosic smack talk accompanying a game of cribbage. These lovely (loud!) sounds are ear candy after the deafening silence of being among too many people staring at their phones. They confirmed for me that the great collegiate tradition of chewing the fat with friends lives on. But I still worried about our collective capacity to have deep conversations about tough topics with people who aren’t already our friends or colleagues and who we suspect see the world from a different perspective. Research shows that, for the first time in more than two decades, members of both political parties have strongly unfavorable opinions of their opponents. And our society is highly subdivided in other ways, so that

22 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 BY LOUISA KAMPS

In a polarized world, UW–Madison fosters tough conversations.

people often end up congre- gating almost exclusively — in real life and through online communities — with others who share the same racial, religious, and demographic profiles. Luckily, though, many at UW–Madison are actively seeking, encouraging, and developing the ability to discuss difficult topics fruitfully. Students are seeking out opportunities to talk through some of the biggest matters on their minds, and they (like many faculty members) are eager to argue respectfully and learn more about what they don’t understand. And those of us eager to reclaim conversation — the face-to-face kind — as a means for sifting through the complexity of contemporary life and building bridges can learn a lot from listening to what people on campus are doing. TIM BRADFORD/ILLUSTRATIONWEB

On Wisconsin 23 FIRESIDE CHATS THE ART OF ARGUMENT Later last fall, I joined the student-run Afternoon UW mathematics professor Jordan Ellenberg is a Conversation Series, a regular all-comers-welcome fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and meetup held beside the flickering hearth of the professional-grade curator of talk — one of those Prairie Fire coffee shop inside Union South. I found classic social network figures who’s as comfort- about a dozen undergrads and graduate students lis- able discussing baseball and James Baldwin as he tening intently as the day’s invited guest, Sumudu is breaking down the intricacies of multivariable Atapattu, director of the UW Law School’s Research equations. Over tea at a café near campus last Centers and a specialist in international environ- spring, Ellenberg says that, for him, a key benefit of mental law, spoke in soft, serious tones about the working at “this gigantic, multifarious institution” impacts climate change is already having on daily is having many opportunities to chat and mind-meld life in places vulnerable to rising sea levels, including with researchers working in far-flung disciplines, parts of Alaska. who often shed surprising new light on his work, Though the legal and human rights implications and he on theirs. But he also enjoys the “intellectual of climate change Atapattu detailed were sobering, exfoliation” he receives as a result of speaking with the students present seemed undaunted, going on to other faculty members who aren’t afraid to challenge pepper her with thoughtful questions about how they conventional wisdom and “push you to expand and might help push for change. One young woman won- enlarge” how you view an issue. dered if she could combine her interests in law, sci- One such stimulating loofah figure Ellenberg ence, and economics in a career. Absolutely, Atapattu always likes being “a little conversationally scraped says. If we’re going to meet the challenges of climate by” is Harry Brighouse. The UW philosophy profes- change, “all of those disciplines need to learn how to sor has argued on his popular blog and at various communicate with each other.” campus gatherings on teaching methodologies that Last year the group also discussed the status of the standard, top-down instructional model many the young immigrants known as DREAMers and American college classrooms follow does students international women’s health. After the conversa- a disservice. Research shows that college students tion, one of the group’s organizers told me that the (and adults generally) can pay attention to a single aim of these intimate talks on serious topics is to give speaker for only about 20 minutes. So Brighouse students a chance to interact with professors with- makes a deliberate point of beginning classes with out “the usual intimidating student–teacher power a short lecture, but then largely ceding the floor to dynamics.” his students.

24 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 To keep the conversation on track — or to redi- rect when one or more students begin to dominate a group discussion — Brighouse continues to dole out questions carefully. And he has his students — most of whom are accustomed to socializing mainly with their dorm and apartment mates — introduce themselves to each other over and over. It’s a strategy inspired by his own experience as an undergraduate at King’s College London, where he not only took all of his classes with the same group of people, but lived and ate meals with them, too, sparring over philosophy and history all the while. And his chief aim, he explains, is to help students burn through shyness to become friends and strong intellectual debate partners for each other. “Some of my students come to college reeee- ally reluctant to argue. But even they will eventually say, ‘What are we going to argue about next?’ They’re really hungry for this,” Brighouse says.

DESCRIBE YOUR PATH In his cozy office decorated with vintage school maps and a stellar collection of LEGO Star Wars ships, Greg Downey, associate dean for the social sciences in the College of Letters & Science, keeps a small conference table. Students know they can sit down and discuss their aspirations and future plans, bouncing ideas around until they land on ones that feel, if not perfect, then good enough for now. And it’s here — as well as in the college’s popular Taking Initiative professional planning course, which Downey leads, and its new SuccessWorks career center — where Downey and his colleagues are invested in helping students get hands-on experience and find the right words to describe their evolving skills and interests to prospective employers. Companies consistently report that they consider strong verbal and written communication skills essential for hiring, and there’s evidence from social psychology showing that creating an overarching narrative (aka storyline) for your life helps people gain healthy perspective and move ahead fruitfully. Downey has each of his students develop a “two-minute career story” and practice students are accomplished and goal-oriented,” delivering it with classmates. Some struggle with Downey says. “If you set them a task, they will the assignment. Maybe they’ve heard that speak- work through it.” But he and other campus advisers ing about your accomplishments amounts to brag- have also realized — partly in light of the fact that ging, or they’re still not entirely sure what they the number of college students seeking treatment want to do with their lives, Downey explains. But for anxiety and depression has shot up in recent once they hear other students sharing similar sto- years — “that we need to be continually active in ries and realize that it’s okay to be still exploring encouraging our students to talk with us, and talk options and just say this plainly, they usually get with each other,” he says. more comfortable. Beyond managing coursework, many students But there are other reasons why he thinks it’s today face “family pressures, peer pressures, [and] important for him, and faculty and staff at colleges pressures from jobs. Technology pervades their everywhere, to be available to speak with students lives, and while sometimes it helps them cope, about whatever’s weighing on their minds. “UW sometimes it ratchets those pressures up.”

On Wisconsin 25 GROUP DYNAMICS may act a certain way or hold a certain view. More and more, students and faculty are seeking out To help students who typically have never met and welcoming conversations where they can feel before they start talking, Quintana and other dia- not only free, but encouraged to unfurl — working logue facilitators give participants different cues, through difficult thoughts together with others in such as asking them to describe pivotal childhood an unhurried way, saying things they’ve never said experiences or their own negative or positive expe- (or thought) before, opening up new doors of under- riences of diversity. A running rule is that no one standing to combat distrust. can interrupt whoever is speaking for at least 90 Last fall, the UW released its Campus Climate seconds. Facilitators also work to sustain a respect- Survey, which found that, while most students find ful balance by reminding participants that every per- the campus to be a safe, welcoming, and respectful son’s perspective and personal experience are valid. place, students of color and from other historically They also point out that mixed-company con- disadvantaged groups consistently rated the climate versations on race, in particular, have a tendency less favorably overall than students from majority to become “one-sided white confessionals,” wherein groups did. And since then, the work of various UW white students wax on describing their guilt over discussion programs created to foster greater equal- certain societal privileges they’ve enjoyed, at the ity, inclusion, and understanding across differences expense (in terms of comfort) of black students in has taken on new urgency. the group. But just naming the potential dynamic up One such program, run by the UW School of front and noting that it can place additional burdens Education’s Department of Counseling Psychology, is on black students is a surprisingly effective way of Diversity Dialogues. When it started almost 15 years keeping it at bay, Quintana says. ago, the big, burning divide that students wanted to After they’ve participated in the program, discuss was the difference between students from many students tell him that learning how to trade the Midwest and the coasts. But now that issues of notes on class, race, sexuality, and other topics in racial discrimination, gender nonconformity, and a calm, non-adversarial setting (unlike so many of economic disparity have shot to the forefront of the combative finger-pointing sessions we see on national news, students from different racial, ethnic, TV today) made them feel more flexible and open gender, and class backgrounds are eager to meet and — and eager to keep speaking with people who talk about how these dimensions have shaped their aren’t obviously like them. Getting new “windows experiences and perceptions. into the depths of people’s experience is reward- UW professor of counseling psychology Steve ing,” Quintana says. Once they’ve realized that Quintana, who directs Diversity Dialogues, says everyone has an interesting story to tell, students that one of its primary objectives is to help stu- often say they’re more likely to break the ice with dents recognize that all people (not just those who strangers in everyday settings. are obviously similar to them) are “living rich, interesting, and complex lives.” The theory behind COMFORTABLE deepening social understanding is that it makes WITH UNCOMFORTABLE it easier for people to understand and appreciate UW professor Christy Clark-Pujara often spends (if not always love) the first few sessions of her classes on African why others American history and the history of

26 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 slavery speaking with students about why it’s FIRST, LISTEN important for them to be able to discuss race UW political science professor Kathy together, even though it’s a subject many of them Cramer ’94 spent several months between have been told to avoid. And she explains that “it’s 2007 and 2012 zigzagging around rural okay to feel uncomfortable in this class, and even a good thing, because that’s where you learn and Wisconsin, visiting more than two dozen grow.” Clark-Pujara knows most of her students small communities. On her driving tour, have so far been taught only the scantest rendi- she stopped at gas stations, restaurants, tion of black American history: “First there was houses of worship, and other places locals slavery. That was bad, but some people were nice. Then there was Martin Luther King and the Civil gathered to natter and “invited myself into Rights movement, and now everything’s fine.” But their conversations,” as she told a group of then she begins fleshing out that time line with sto- alumni last spring. A Grafton native, Cramer ries that fly in the face of certain well-oiled myths, also noted with a laugh that her strong including the myth that slaves did little to resist Wisconsin accent — “which I’ve been told their circumstances. “When you look at the primary documents, the I have”— might have helped her make history of slavery becomes a history of great resis- inroads. In the small-town coffee klatches, tance — not only physical, but moral, emotional, Cramer heard men and women voicing and cultural resistance,” Clark-Pujara says. She also hurt and “generally this sense of feeling disproves the folkloric belief that Wisconsin was as though they’re not [being heard]” by always free of slavery. French-Canadian trappers brought slaves with them when they settled here politicians or receiving their “fair share of in the early 1700s. When Southerners — including respect from people in cities like Madison, Henry Dodge, two-time governor of the Territory of who they perceive as looking at them as — Wisconsin — arrived in the early 1800s to mine for and I put this in their quotation marks — lead in the southwestern part of what later became ‘country bumpkins.’ ” the state, they had slaves with them, too. At some point during the semester, students of Cramer’s research on public opinion different races overflow with “indignation” over and the breakdown of social bonds and never having been given an inkling of this richer, trust across the state became the basis of more complicated history. Clark-Pujara is there for her 2016 book, The Politics of Resentment. all of it, ready to help them talk through and process It has been heralded as both presaging “the terribly uncomfortable” fact that the “economic ascent of the United States rests on the backs of and retrospectively explaining the right- enslaved black people.” Empathy is a major theme ward-tipping political dynamics seen in in the class, she adds. Wisconsin in recent years and across the As we neared the end of our own conversation, U.S. since the 2016 election. Clark-Pujara pulled out two thank-you notes she But “one of the great experiences of had just received from students who’d taken her Introduction to African American History course. this project” for her personally, she says, Each described a different way in which the class “was understanding the value of allowing and Clark-Pujara’s teaching had changed not only myself to listen without the intent of trying their minds but their lives. The notes were beau- to come back with some great response. In tiful. And they reminded me why talk, at the UW and everywhere, is so vital to staying alive and this moment politically, that act of listen- engaged: our world is never going to be perfect, ing to others is really unpalatable for many and individuals and systems will inevitably let us people, but it’s probably more necessary down. But we should by no means withdraw and than ever.” And, Cramer adds, while the give up. UW has always had “a strong tradition of By debating and grappling with new ideas together with others, in real time — riding tides of communicating knowledge outward toward confrontation without getting too rattled, watch- the public,” she’s proud of doing her part to ing one another’s faces light up and fall and light uphold the school’s equally important role up again — we get to take another look at what we of “putting an ear to the ground to learn think, and make it better. from the people of this state and else- But we can’t get there through silence. • Louisa Kamps is a freelance writer based in Madison. where, so we can be better scholars and a more fully public institution.”

On Wisconsin 27 ABC/TONY RIVETTI ABC/TONY Black-ish, an ABC sitcom starring Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, has earned critical acclaim for both entertaining viewers and educating them on issues of race, class, and culture.

28 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 THE GOLDEN AGE OF TV IS NOW Badgers who work behind the scenes to create and produce must-see content reflect on how they got their start, what it’s like to work in the business, and what they’re binge-watching.

BY KATE KAIL DIXON ’01, MA’07, ADDIE MORFOOT ’02, AND JENNY PRICE ’96

In the age of peak TV, more is more. We can watch our favorite shows anywhere, anytime, and on any number of devices. And that’s a boon for the people full of ideas who are always aiming to give us new material, from YouTube videos to prestige dramas. “There are all these incredible writers to tell their stories and so many more places to tell them,” says Jenny Fritz ’95, comedy development executive for ABC Studios and part of the teams behind shows including Black-ish, American Housewife, and Speechless. UW–Madison alumni are plentiful among the creative forces at broadcast networks, cable channels, and streaming services. We caught up with some of them to find out more about the past, present, and future of TV.

On Wisconsin 29 JOSH SAPAN ’75 College lesson that still resonates? I was a political science major, and what I learned President and CEO, AMC Networks Inc. (AMC, from that was that I did not want to be a lawyer and SundanceTV, IFC, WeTV, and BBC America) I did not want to be a politician. My dad [Bill Geist] Known for: Killing Eve, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, was working for CBS Sunday Morning when I was and The Walking Dead in college. I knew that he had a really fun career and that he loved what he did. He met interesting Appointment TV when you were a student? people. I always took my communications classes Laugh-In really seriously because, in the back of my mind, I knew that [television] was somewhere that I might College lesson that still resonates? end up, and now here we are. Running the New Utrecht Film Society, where we showed American classics and foreign films; acting First job in TV? in the Broom Street Theater; and writing for a liter- I spent summer 2001 and a holiday month intern- ary publication called El Quixote, edited by the late ing at Late Night with Conan O’Brien in Manhattan. Morris Edelstein. There were a lot of McDonald’s and Starbucks runs, but I would also sneak into the writers’ room and First job in TV? listen to them work. I looked at those writers and Working a teleprompter machine on a soap opera. could not believe that the fun that they were having was a real career. What are you binge-watching right now? Killing Eve on BBC America. Go-to device to watch shows? My television. I still watch plenty of DVR, and my Go-to device to watch shows? kids, husband, and I watch a lot of Netflix. In order of priority: TV, iPad, phone. Currently binge-watching? What do audiences want most? The last thing I binged was Netflix’sWild Wild Storytelling with great narrative qualities. Country. My husband teases me and says, “Oh, are you going to watch another dark documentary Most important element of a good show? tonight?” People really love true crime right now, Characters and story that capture what is essential and I also do, but when there’s just no relief from about human beings. it, I have to walk away. So I like something that’s entertaining and has great characters. I loved Big Little Lies. LIBBY GEIST ’02 What do ESPN audiences want? Vice president and executive producer, ESPN I think in order to attract people initially, you need Films and Original Content a big name or a big topic that will really reel people Known for: ESPN Films 30 for 30 (including O.J.: in — and then you show them that it’s really high Made in America) quality or that there are contextual layers to the story. I love that element of surprise. People think Appointment TV when you were a student? they know a story, and then we can completely tell I remember in the early years watching Jackass, it in a different way or give details that audiences which really shows how sophisticated my taste was never knew about. back then. Later in college I watched The Sopranos and Friends. I remember thinking that I had to get What will TV look like in 10 years? to a friend’s house by 8 p.m. or whatever time it was I think the unscripted bubble will burst. There’s so I could see those shows. so much content out there that it’s really hard for anything to break through anymore. Eventually the “Let’s just do a ton of stuff and hope something sticks” model won’t be sustainable. So on the unscripted side of things, hopefully it will be fewer but bigger, which is certainly the direction we’re going in at ESPN. That, I believe, will ultimately be a more sustainable model.

30 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 ADAM HOROWITZ ’94 JUSTINE NAGAN ’00 and EDWARD KITSIS ’93 Executive director, American Documentary; executive producer, POV and America Writing partners and showrunners ReFramed Known for: Once Upon a Time (ABC) Known for: Bing Liu’s Minding the Gap

Appointment TV when you were a student? College lesson that still resonates? Kitsis: For me, Northern Exposure, Beverly Hills My filmmaking production class, which J. J. Murphy 90210, and Seinfeld taught, is one. We were still shooting and editing on Horowitz: L.A. Law and Star Trek: The Next 16 millimeter, which I learned a lot from. The thing Generation that I still think about from that class is the importance of critique and having an environment where College lesson that still resonates? people can hear constructive criticism and make Horowitz: David Bordwell’s class that we took their films better. together [Communication Arts 354: Film Genres]. He opened us up to so many different kinds of film. First job in TV? Kitsis: That basis in film history really gave us a con- I did every media internship possible. I worked text for everything we’ve done since. for the Badger Herald. I interned for Michael Feldman [’70]’s public radio show, Whad’Ya Know? First job in TV? I did morning camera for the ABC News affiliate, Kitsis: I was an assistant to movie producer Joel but only lasted about three months. Getting up at Silver, who produced Lethal Weapon and The 3:30 in the morning and moving one of the giant Matrix. And Adam was — studio cameras around was a trip. Eventually I got Horowitz: A post-production assistant. I helped the the internship at Wisconsin Public Television, which people who edited the film on a television series taught me how to produce. called Tales from the Crypt. Go-to device to watch shows? Go-to device to watch shows? I use a Roku at home. Kitsis: If we’re traveling or on location, iPad is definitely a go-to. But I think we’re so old-fashioned Currently binge-watching? in how we watch TV. Maybe through Apple TV or HBO’s Insecure, PBS’s Victoria, and, with my kids, an app, but we definitely both still like to sit on the MasterChef Junior. couch and stare up at the TV. Horowitz: On location, iPad. At home, Apple TV — How do you select projects? on the TV on the wall, just like has been done for 90 We try to really program films that immerse the years. Except for the Apple TV part. audience in a story and bring them in through characters who move you and pique your interest. We try Currently binge-watching? not to tell people how to feel about things. Horowitz: Right now, we’re in preproduction on our show Amazing Stories, for Apple and Steven Why are documentary series so popular? Spielberg. When we’re in this kind of intensity, I am I think it’s because of what’s happening with scripted mostly watching sports. But the last show I binged, series. It’s been this monumental evolution in con- my wife and I just finished Billions. tent storytelling. So I think it’s a natural evolution Kitsis: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Killing Eve. I both creatively and financially for docs to go into couldn’t get enough of both of them. multipart series.

Best part about being a showrunner? Your approach to storytelling? Kitsis: The greatest thing is getting to wake up POV is 31 years old this year. For many years of every day and ask the question, “Wouldn’t it be cool POV’ s existence, the broadcast was the highlight of if … ?” To have an idea and then bring it to life … being a film’s release and now it’s a highlight. We are really a showrunner really allows us to guide that process. focused on broadcast, streaming, and community engagement. What inspires your work in fantasy, horror, and science fiction? Why are we seeing so many reboots? Horowitz: The commonality is character-based Part of me wonders if it’s because it has been a crazy storytelling. With inter-genre storytelling, in our couple of years, and our country is so divided and experience, it really only works if you are telling fragmented — people want what’s safe, known, and grounded, human-emotional stories. comfortable.

On Wisconsin 31 NETFLIX

With an atypical storyline, Net- AMY ZVI ’98 Go-to device to watch shows? flix’sAtypical At home, usually a smart TV. When I’m traveling, explores the life Executive producer and manager, I’ll watch on my iPad. of a teenager Thruline Entertainment on the autism Known for: I Love You, America, with Currently binge-watching? spectrum. The Sarah Silverman Season two of Ozark — loved season one. I love The show’s producer, Mary Rohlich ’03 Handmaid’s Tale, The Americans, Game of Thrones. (above fore- Appointment TV when you were a Killing Eve is next. I’m a huge Big Brother fan. ground, with the student? show’s team as In our sorority house, we always watched Friends How did you react to being nominated for a scene is being on Thursday nights. One of my roommates had the an Emmy? filmed) says her entire My So-Called Life on VHS. I fell in love with It’s a really exhilarating feeling, especially when job is making others’ vision that show. it’s a show you’ve poured your soul into. I cried, come to life. and I called Sarah [Silverman] first, and told her, College lesson that still resonates? and screamed. At this time in history, both tele- One of my favorite [classes] was Scandinavian vision-wise and political-wise, I think it’s a really Literature: The Stories of Hans Christian Andersen. important show, and I’m so proud of it. These are children’s stories that had very strong political undertones. I guess we do see that in television now. MARY ROHLICH ’03

First job in TV? Independent producer I got my start at Bragman Nyman Cafarelli, a PR Known for: Netflix’s Atypical firm. I was an assistant for two publicists, and I straddled the talent side and the television side. I Appointment TV when you were a student? ended up becoming vice president, and I stayed there 24. I lived in Orchard Court with five other room- for 11 years. mates, and other friends within the courtyard. We would always order Pokey Stix. I would make every- body be totally quiet and turn off the lights and not talk because you couldn’t pause the TV back then.

32 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 College lesson that still resonates? Currently binge-watching? I took a film production class — you had to shoot The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Big fan of that show. everything and edit it, and wear many hats. I was I binge-watch some of my own YouTube originals not someone who thought of myself as a director or — Cobra Kai and a new series called Origin. Older a writer. I ended up making documentaries. My fears shows, too, like The Leftovers. I ended up watching about not being able to do something led to what I all three seasons with my wife in a weekend. really love doing and finding my path as a producer out here. What are YouTube’s advantages in the market? First job in TV? When a show idea comes in, we can get a quick I was a temp receptionist at MGM [Studios]. That sense of how much the topic or the talent resonates led to an assistant position in development at MGM. on YouTube. But more important than the data is understanding whether the idea itself feels like it’s Go-to device to watch shows? something that’s original and can break through an For my personal time, I still watch on TV. We use environment where there’s thousands of original various forms of streaming: Amazon Fire, Apple TV. shows a year.

Currently binge-watching? Season two of Ozark. A Netflix show calledTerrace CAROL KOLB ’95 House. It’s a Japanese reality show that has a small cult following out here. Just recently, The Marvelous Writer and producer Mrs. Maisel — I was a little behind on that. Known for: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Community

Universal lesson of producing? Appointment TV when you were a student? Working with the writers and directors and doing We would watch Mr. Show, the sketch show. Before everything you can to help make their vision come to that, in high school, Late Night with David Letterman life in a way that is safe and responsible — creating a was my favorite show ever. good environment for them to be able to do their job. College lesson that still resonates? I just loved going to college. I extended it out; I kept BEN RELLES ’97 changing my major. I had an English degree, and I liked creative-writing classes. I got a Latin minor Head of unscripted programming, YouTube for absolutely no reason. I loved digging hard into Originals a subject.

Appointment TV when you were a student? First job in TV? A lot of comedy. Thursday night lineup of Seinfeld and I was a freelance writer with The Onion, which was Friends. Staying up to watch Mr. Show at 12 a.m. on in Madison at that time. I worked there for over 10 HBO. I remember thinking, “Simpsons is funny.” And years. I was editor-in-chief, then I went over to the Beavis and Butt-Head. video department, and we had a TV show.

College lesson that still resonates? Go-to device to watch shows? In a journalism class, the creators of The Onion came Apple TV, always. I watch Netflix and Hulu. I buy in and gave us an hour of their time. They had so much shows because I don’t have cable. I also get subscrip- passion for creating comedy that pushed the boundar- tions, like HBO. ies. They were so fearless in their comedy. Currently binge-watching? First job in TV? Ozark. For some reason, we’re on a Love Boat kick. I In 2007, I made a video about Barack Obama called “I love BoJack Horseman — that’s my favorite comedy. Got a Crush on Obama.” At the time, I was working Baskets — it’s so weird and so funny. at a marketing agency. That video got over 50 million views in the first couple of weeks, so I quit my job to What is it like being a part of shows with start making YouTube videos full time. devoted followings? These aren’t the shows that win Emmys, but I don’t Go-to device to watch shows? care about that as much as I care about people really I am watching a lot of television on my phone and a caring about the show. I think it does provide some lot of YouTube on my TV. I have gotten in the habit of energy because you know that people love it. saving my YouTube videos in “watch later” playlists, and then watching them on TV when I get home.

On Wisconsin 33 KELLY KAHL ’89 JENNIFER CARRERAS ’04

President, CBS Entertainment Vice president of comedy development, ABC Known for: Single Parents Appointment TV when you were a student? We would head out to bars on Thursday nights, but Appointment TV when you were a student? it had to wait until L.A. Law was over. Friends was still on the air. That was the show that we would watch religiously, as a group, all together, College lesson that still resonates? always. The introduction to the history of broadcast law and the early days of the broadcasting industry. The College lesson that still resonates? industry is changing before our eyes, and knowing I took a class [on poet Emily Dickinson] that stood what these laws are, and what they mean, can really out to me in terms of storytelling. It wasn’t new help somebody navigate and understand what’s going media, and it wasn’t television or film — I was an on today. English major. But that sense of discovering character and getting to know the details of beautiful First job in TV? storytelling stuck with me. I was an intern at Lorimar Television. At that time, they made shows like Dallas, Knots Landing, Full First job in TV? House, and Family Matters. Between my junior and senior year in college, I interned at Michael Douglas’s production company, Go-to device to watch shows? Further Films. My first paying job when I came out Everything. I still think there’s nothing better than to Los Angeles was as the receptionist at a literary watching on a big TV, but I’ll watch on my computer, agency. my iPad, and sometimes on my iPhone. It depends, really, where you are and what the circumstances Go-to device to watch shows? are. There is a big part of me that still loves to come home and just put on the television. I watch big-screen TV Currently binge-watching? as much as possible. I’m watching a lot of CBS shows, Young Sheldon being one of my personal favorites. Also, a show on Currently binge-watching? YouTube called Cobra Kai, a reboot of The Karate Honestly, oddly, a lot of cable dramas. We watched Kid that is also really, really good. Killing Eve. We just finishedThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which I thought was excellent. What will TV look like in 10 years? I think we’re reaching the point where there are so What stands out in a successful pitch for a many shows that curation is going to be important. new show? Nobody can really watch all these shows. We’re It has to have compelling characters. Funny is really probably going to plateau in terms of the number of helpful. I know that sounds like the obvious, but you shows — at some point, the economics get a little do — you want a laugh, and for ABC specifically, it weird. The networks are still going to be around and really needs to have some heart. The combination of will still command the lion’s share of the audience, comedy and heart is really important for us. That’s because they’re going to do shows with big appeal. the television I like to watch, and I think that’s what But there will certainly be pockets of personal we’ve had success doing. shows. How do you know whether a show is Why is CBS doing reboots (such as Hawaii successful? Five-0 and Magnum P.I.)? Ratings are still a discussion, but not nearly as CBS has a very rich history of shows, many of which important as they were before. Part of it is what the people consider all-time TV classics. There’s mate- ratings are, but also viewer engagement across social rial to be mined there, and there are shows that media. There are a lot of different ways to look at people kind of look fondly back at. With maybe 500 things, to see how the audience is responding. scripted shows coming out in any given year, anything you can do to get people to sit up and notice, or have some recognition of a show, is important. We feel like there are new stories to tell and contemporary themes that we can add to an older, beloved show.

34 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 BBC AMERICA BBC

JENNY FRITZ ’95 Go-to device to watch shows? Killing Eve, a I sometimes watch cuts on my iPad and my phone, thriller on BBC Comedy development executive, ABC Studios because that’s part of my job, and there’s an imme- America starring Jodie Comer diacy. But in terms of enjoying a show as a viewer, and Sandra Oh, Appointment TV when you were a student? for me, it’s still television and in my home. earned multiple My senior year, the O. J. Simpson trial began. awards nomina- Television capitalized on this gruesome, sordid Currently binge-watching? tions, the nod for story — every channel was showing it. We watched Ozark. I don’t watch more than two episodes at a a second season, Friends, we watched Seinfeld. And I would be remiss time. I like to contemplate things, specifically if it’s and status as a popular pick for if I didn’t mention ER. drama or thriller. I watch a lot of the ABC lineup. binge-watching. Off network, it’s a tie between Amazon and Netflix, College lesson that still resonates? with HBO thrown in for whenever they actually do Professor Julie D’Acci [MA’71, PhD’88] — she talked bring back Game of Thrones. a lot about character. That has always been my North Star. You start with good characters, you define them What do you love about your work? sharply, you give them unique characteristics, and I’m in television to tell great stories. The best of tele- people will want to invest in whatever it is they are vision should reflect what’s going on in our world, experiencing. socially, culturally, even sometimes politically. To see yourself, or your neighbor, or your family First job in TV? reflected on television is very, very comforting and I was a summer intern at Creative Artists Agency. important right now. I pushed a cart and delivered mail, I listened a lot, and I asked a lot of questions that you can get away with asking when you’re in high school.

On Wisconsin 35 MARK BANKER ’95 LISA HELLER ’90

Head writer, DreamWorks Animation Executive vice president of HBO Known for: Netflix’s The Epic Tales of Captain documentary and family programming Underpants Known for: The Jinx (2015 Emmy for best documentary or nonfiction series), The Appointment TV when you were a student? Sentence (2018) I remember living in a seven-bedroom house with seven or eight guys. As a group, we never missed College lesson that still resonates? Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. I took a TV production class that I remember viv- idly. For the whole semester we had to write, pro- College lesson that still resonates? duce, direct, and star in a mashup episode of a show, [Professor] Tim Allen, Integrated Liberal Studies. In and we did The Wonder Years. I remember it being the first class, I walked in, and he had Horton Hears a shockingly hard to get a 10-minute piece of fake Who? on four screens. He gave an hour-long lecture Wonder Years done. It was an amazing window into on the biological impact of Horton Hears a Who?. what it takes to make TV. I would also say that I took my first women’s studies class in Madison. Once I First job in TV? took that class, I found that I never looked at the While I was at Wisconsin, I started working for The world the same way again. Onion as an ad rep. Then Scott Dikkers [x’87], one of the owners, pulled me aside and said, “I hear you tell- First job in TV? ing jokes around here. You should be writing for us.” I worked at Wisconsin Public Television. I was a grunt. I tried a little bit of everything. I did the Go-to device to watch shows? teleprompter and ran it backwards once, during a TV should be watched on a TV, in my opinion. I have live [show]. I powdered Dave Iverson’s nose. The job a 65-inch, so it’s hard to beat that. really made me realize what I was not good at.

Currently binge-watching? Currently binge-watching? Ozark is one of my favorites. Better Call Saul. We Recently I watched five episodes of Succession in just started Maniac. Just finished the first season of succession until four in the morning. The other thing Fargo — little late to the party. Forever on Amazon my family is binge-watching is Veep, because my kid — my wife was the flight attendant at the end of just discovered it. My son also just discovered The the pilot. The Handmaid’s Tale made me subscribe Office. So we’ve gone through every single season to Hulu. of that show. The other thing I really like is Better Things. It’s a working moms’ kind of show. What’s changed about developing animation for TV? Go-to device to watch shows? Streaming has become such a significant venue. The binging on the older shows is done on a good DreamWorks Animation made over a billion-dollar old-fashioned television. Succession and Better deal with Netflix to provide 12 or more series. If you Things I watch up close and personal via either a look back five years ago, Netflix wasn’t really even computer or an iPad on my belly. much of a factor. You had Cartoon Network, Disney, and Nickelodeon all slugging it out. Why are documentary series so popular? I guess truth is having a moment, right? You just can’t How does streaming influence your writing? write some of this stuff. It’s as dramatic, as exciting, One of the mandates we had was to make our show as engaging and compelling as fiction. Real people mildly serialized. What happens on Netflix is you’re are amazing. watching, it ends, and then five seconds later, a new show will start. They want to create a seamless What do you look for in a documentary? viewing experience from episode to episode. We do It’s not a science. Curating excellence is not some- try to write to reward people that are watching epi- thing that you can learn in the class. It’s something sodes back-to-back. you feel. If I’m doing my job right, the films on our slate make you feel something and move you.

What will TV look like in 10 years? Oh, I have no idea, but I can’t wait to see. Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.

36 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 VIVIAN ZINK/NBC

NETWORKS TO NETFLIX Derek Johnson’s office in Vilas Hall is home to a collection of TV Guide mag- azines, passed down over the years among communication arts faculty. For the students who take his class on the television industry, they may as well be in a museum. The UW associate professor, who recently edited a book on the sea changes in TV (From Networks to Netflix: A Guide to Changing Channels), is constantly revising his course to keep pace. “ I remember having to program VCRs,” says Johnson. “But if I don’t start with Netflix, it’s increasingly difficult for the average undergraduate, who’s 18 to 22 years old, to get their bearings.” Johnson works backward from there, explaining the older models of the industry upon which Netflix and other streaming media outlets are based, down to an explanation of how over- the-air broadcasting works. “It’s not a way that they’re currently thinking about television,” he says. The connection between younger viewers and TV’s past is a research interest for Johnson, whose next book will examine a trend he’s witnessed in his own home: parents sharing old episodes of ’80s and ’90s programming with their children. “I share Star Trek with my daughters. My wife shares Full House. Many viewers have nostalgia for old shows, and it’s a feeling that they want to share,” he says. “There’s a strong trend in the industry of relying upon and enlisting an older generation to be part of that almost Brooklyn Nine- Nine writer and evangelical push to say to new viewers, producer Carol ‘Hey, check this out,’ ” Johnson con- Kolb ’95 cut her tinues. “We assume that these older comedy teeth as a freelance shows that are now on Netflix appeal writer for The to the people who were watching when Onion. Canceled they were first airing. But the sense I’m by Fox after five seasons, the getting is that the undergraduates are show was quick- all watching Friends.” ly picked up by NBC for a sixth JENNY PRICE ’96 and began airing in January.

On Wisconsin 37 38 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 SPENCER WALTS

FROM TOOLBOXES TO HUMAN ASHES, THE CATALOG OF COSMIC JUNK KEEPS GROWING.

BY TERRY DEVITT ’78, MA’85

n September 1962, a 20-pound hunk of a Soviet spacecraft, still hot, landed in the middle of a Manitowoc street, rocketing Wisconsin into the space age. It wasn’t so much a sign of things to come on Earth, but it was a Iglimpse of what was to come in space: it was going to get crowded up there. Just 60 years ago, the environment around our planet was pristine. But now there is an eclectic constellation of stuff. The list includes wrenches, toolboxes, and cameras left behind by astronauts, along with abandoned and broken satellites, spent rocket parts, and the cremated remains of celebrities and rich people (including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry). At least 23,000 other objects larger than a baseball, not to mention the millions of bits of debris too small to track, are speeding like shrapnel through space. Also in orbit, of course, are plenty of working satellites. And their numbers continue to grow at an astonishing pace as the world’s spacefaring nations take advantage of new rocket technologies, miniaturization, and plummeting costs to seed space with more and more satellites. “Satellites are in the background of just about everything we do in our daily lives. Modern-day America is tied to satellites. They are infrastructure,” explains space debris expert Lisa Ruth Rand, a science historian who was an A. W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow in UW–Madison’s Center for the Humanities from 2016 to 2018. Within the next few years, the number of satellites in orbit may climb by as many as 20,000. This year alone, scores of small satellites have been lifted into Earth’s orbit, and the deployment of thousands more is already in the works. One ambitious proposal from the aerospace company SpaceX calls for placing as many as 12,000 small satellites in low-Earth orbit to create internet service networks. Sometimes, the orbits of the things we launch into space — such as the bus-sized vacated Chinese space lab that came blazing back to Earth in April 2018 — degrade, and those objects streak through the atmosphere, often disintegrating and burning up. Cosmic debris also crashes into oceans and, occasionally, terra firma. But as the space around Earth gets more congested, the risk of debris crashing into spacecraft or working satellites (used for weather, navigation, communications, science, and defense) becomes significantly greater. In June, the Trump administration announced a space policy directive intended to prevent more collisions in the increasingly crowded orbits around the planet.

On Wisconsin 39 COURTESY OF THE RAHR-WEST ART MUSEUM

The first documented space wreck occurred in 2009, when a collision over Siberia between a defunct Russian military satellite and a commercial communications satellite created some 2,300 pieces of junk large enough to track by radar. The event inspired Rand, who once harbored aspirations to be an astronaut and grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, with a ringside seat for rocket and Space Shuttle launches from America’s “Space Coast.” She began to examine our legacy of space junk as an environmental issue, work she continued during her UW fellowship, cosponsored by the Department of History and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. She is now hip deep in writing a book on the history of galactic garbage. The saga is riveting: a tale of rocketing technological sophistication, Cold War clashes, cultural iconography, geopolitical maneuvering, and environmental hubris. Take, for example, Project West Ford. Initiated by the U.S. Air Force and MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory in the early 1960s, the aim was to fill space with millions of needlelike dipoles — magne- tized wires — that could serve as emergency reflec- tors or antennae for radio signals in the event of a nuclear attack. The Air Force launched a test version and successfully used it to transmit cross-country signals, but the full-fledged project never followed. A few clumps of the project’s copper dipoles remain in their polar orbit 2,250 miles above Earth. “Beginning with Sputnik, there’s been a pretty In 1962, two Another UW contribution to the clutter around high awareness of the dangers of polluting space Manitowoc Earth is the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory–2 among scientific, government, and lay communities,” police officers (OAO–2), the first successful space telescope. notes Rand, who holds research appointments at the found a piece of Launched in December 1968, OAO–2 carried Sputnik 4 that Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and landed in the Wisconsin-built telescopes that opened a new astro- the RAND Corporation. (RAND stands for Research middle of a city nomical vista by providing access to light waves and Development. No relation to the historian.) street. such as ultraviolet, which are blocked or absorbed by the atmosphere. This led to a raft of discoveries, he first encounter with space junk for many including the identification of hydrogen halos around was the world’s first baby step into space. comets. Contact with OAO–2 was lost in January T Those who were alive when the first Sputnik 1973, ending the mission and relegating it to the cat- was slung into orbit in 1957 remember dark nights in alog of lifeless objects that circle our planet. the backyard waiting for the “satellite” to pass over- “[OAO–2 is] listed on various websites and apps head. What we were in fact seeing, says Rand, was 50 that keep track of satellites, but I’ve never succeeded the second stage of the rocket that carried Sputnik years ago, the UW in seeing it fly over,” says Jim Lattis MA’87, PhD’89, aloft. For the backyard observer, the satellite was was a force be- a UW historian of astronomy and director of the uni- too small to see. hind the launch versity’s astronomy outreach outpost, Space Place. Since then, the space around our planet has of the Orbiting “It isn’t particularly bright.” accumulated a cloud of orbiting debris. One early Astronomical The observatory and its launch of space astron- Observatory–2 American satellite, Explorer 7, launched in 1959, (OAO–2), the first omy was an early milestone in the scientific com- carried the flat-plate radiometer, the world’s first successful space munity’s abiding interest in the environment space-based climate experiment. Devised by UW telescope. Read immediately above our planet. For astronomers, weather-satellite pioneer Verner Suomi and engi- more: news.wisc. programs such as Project West Ford were a threat, neering professor Robert Parent ’39, MS’49, the edu/reaching-for- seeding space with objects that would reflect light radiometer was used to establish the critical role of the-stars/. and radio waves, wreaking havoc with astronomical clouds on climate and showed that Earth absorbed observations. more of the sun’s energy than previously thought. Vigorous lobbying to impose some international The experiment aboard the 70-pound satellite paved regulation of Earth’s orbit was the prelude to the the way for all future studies of weather and climate first space treaties. The effort spurred one annoyed from space. Six decades later, it’s still in orbit. diplomat to scrawl a hand-written note on a State

40 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 Department resolution, discovered by Rand during spaceflight technology didn’t necessarily match the her research, describing astronomers as “a noisy and nation’s boasts. parochial group.” The only other confirmed example of space junk But sooner or later, depending on altitude, every- found on American soil is also the only documented thing comes back to Earth. Many objects spend only case of space debris striking a human. In January a short time in space, a few years to mere days. 1997, Lottie Williams was hit by a bit of fabric debris Objects in very high geostationary (matching Earth’s from an American Delta II booster rocket while rotation) orbits — 22,000 miles and above — would walking in a Tulsa, Oklahoma, park. “Lottie was be there for thousands of years, except that interna- lucky,” according to one 2014 account: she was hit tional convention requires that maneuverable satel- by the smallest piece of wreckage from the disinte- lites in those high orbits be brought down when their grated rocket. A 66-pound titanium pressure tank missions are complete. Although various schemes 4,600 was recovered in Texas. have been proposed to clean up space — nets, har- satellites in For Rand, a visit to Rahr-West — where museum poons, robotic arms, space tugs — “we often allow Earth’s orbit curator Adam Lovell places a thin file of letters, outer space to clean up our mess for us. Earth orbit, (2,000 are reports, and yellowed newspapers on a conference like the ocean and the atmosphere, is a waste sink,” operational) room table for her perusal — is another opportunity Rand says. to research her story of space debris. The museum, Certain orbits, especially geostationary and polar 500,000 for its part, takes full advantage of its proxim- orbits for large maneuverable satellites, are a pre- pieces of debris ity to Sputnik 4’s ground zero. Each year in early cious and finite resource. There are “good orbits” to tracked as they September, the museum hosts Sputnikfest, a quirky be in, notes UW meteorological satellite guru Steve orbit Earth celebration featuring a Ms. Space Debris pageant (a Ackerman. For example, key weather satellites are contest open to any “human life-form,” in which lined up in less-cluttered orbits, keeping them safely 17,500 Rand has twice placed as runner-up). away from other working satellites to ensure they mph The crash of Sputnik 4 into one of Manitowoc’s can avoid collisions and do their jobs. The speed at busiest streets decades ago is a convenient touch- which debris stone for Rand, who came to the UW in 2016 after ight outside Manitowoc’s Rahr-West Art travels completing her doctorate in history and sociology of Museum, in the middle of one of the Wisconsin science at the University of Pennsylvania. The debris city’s busiest thoroughfares, is a brass ring set $4,995 that falls from space, she has learned, is almost R The price Celestis flush in the pavement. Placed by the International Memorial Space- never recovered, instead burning up or falling in Association of Machinists in 1963, the plate-sized flights charges to the oceans that cover most of our planet. Exceptions ring marks the spot where, in the early morning launch remains include the U.S. space station Skylab, which re-en- hours of September 5, 1962, two city patrol offi- into Earth’s orbit. tered the atmosphere in 1979, pocking the Australian cers making their rounds discovered a piece of Previous custom- Outback with at least 22 tons of wreckage in 500 steel embedded three inches deep in the pavement ers include: pieces — some the size of a loveseat. of North Eighth Street. It was from an unmanned Gene Rodden- And then there’s the example of Kosmos 954, Soviet spacecraft — dubbed Sputnik 4 in the West berry, Star Trek a nuclear-powered Soviet reconnaissance satellite — rumored to be carrying a prototype spacesuit as creator launched in 1977. A malfunction prevented the sat- a test for crewed flights. Its flight went awry due Gerard K. O’Neill, ellite from safely shedding its uranium-powered to a bug in the guidance system, and instead of a space physicist reactor core, and when it re-entered the atmosphere planned, controlled glide to Earth, the ship was Timothy Leary, in 1978, it scattered radioactive debris over 48,000 boosted to a higher orbit. The seven-ton spacecraft psychologist and square miles of Northwest Canada. eventually re-entered the atmosphere, where most writer The incident prompted an exhaustive interna- of it vaporized — except for a few bits that landed James “Scotty” tional air and land sweep to find and scoop up large in Wisconsin. Doohan, actor pieces of radioactive debris — one reportedly so hot Although Rahr-West is dedicated to fine art, the L. Gordon “Gordo” that a few hours of exposure would have been fatal. museum has a small display of artifacts — a cast Cooper Jr., astro- International incidents created by stuff that replica of the spacecraft fragment, pictures, and naut falls randomly from the sky date almost to the newspaper clippings — to memorialize Manitowoc’s beginning of the Space Age. In 1960, Rand notes, a unique place in the history of the space race. failed rocket launch from Cape Canaveral resulted “Being able to recover part of a spaceship was a in debris raining down on newly Communist Cuba. rare thing,” Rand says. “It is one of the few pieces of A piece of debris supposedly struck and killed a space debris — outside of the space shuttle Columbia cow, inspiring the first student-led anti-American accident — that has been recovered on American demonstration there. The United States reportedly soil.” paid $2 million in compensation for the beaned The remains of Sputnik 4 became a Cold War bovine. It was a gift, too, for headline writers: the prop as the United States sought to return the debris “Herd Shot Around the World.” • to the Soviets on the floor of the United Nations, demonstrating for all the world that early Russian Terry Devitt is UW–Madison’s director of research communications.

On Wisconsin 41 MELISSA HOM FOR GRUB STREET

Jason Gay and his son, Jesse, take a break at a favorite bakery in their hometown of Brooklyn, New 42 On WisconsinYork. SPRING 2019 A Good Sport For columnist Jason Gay ’92, Wisconsin is never far from his thoughts.

BY TAYLOR LAABS ’14

Even though his words show Where was your favorite Are there any interoffice On his website, up in black and white, it’s clear place to write on campus? tensions between Badgers jason-gay.com, through his columns that Wall In my room, at 4:30 a.m., with a and Wolverines in the Wall Gay shares his Street Journal sports writer Jason morning deadline approaching. Street Journal newsroom? personal list of Gay ’92 bleeds cardinal red. You I had a big, square Mac with a Well, to them, there’s no rivalry. little victories: may have caught one of his typi- disk drive. I sound like I am 97 They believe they are better than 1. Putting on cally hilarious columns this past years old. me. pants before October titled “Wisconsin Must 2 p.m. on a Beat Michigan to Save the World,” You’re an avid cycler and Give me your guess on which Saturday which reiterates his faith in the often write about it. Did Badger team will be next to 2. Agreeing on football Badgers and disses their Madison’s prominent biking win a national title. where to go for opponents. community influence that I think we are going to win every brunch Gay was involved in theater at title for the next 10 years. Barry passion? 3. Surviving your UW–Madison, and his passion for I bought a Trek Antelope moun- told me to say this. family vacation the dramatic is evident in his cov- tain bike — white with radioac- erage, whether he’s writing about tive green — at Yellow Jersey on On to something more seri- 4. Making it the Badgers, the Olympics, or the through the State Street. I loved that bike with ous: with the current polar- office holiday Tour de France. He authored the all my heart, even when someone izing influence of politics party best-selling book Little Victories stole the rear wheel outside class. and social media, do you feel in 2015 and the following year was I am still trying to find that wheel. like your role and respon- 5. When they play “I Will Survive” named Sports Columnist of the sibility as a journalist has at weddings Year by the Society of Professional Your column tends to be a changed? Journalists. Through it all, he torchbearer for Badger ath- There are plenty of people out 6. Soup still finds time to revere Barry letics on a national stage. there being terrible to each other. Alvarez and despise the Michigan When you were a student, I just want to make you snort milk Wolverines — two themes that UW football and men’s bas- out of your nose at breakfast. consistently appear in his writing. ketball were in poor shape. How exciting has it been to What advice would you give How did your experience at cover the Badgers’ contin- to young writers and report- the UW prepare you for a ued rise? ers looking to break into the career in writing? It feels like I am getting away with increasingly volatile media Oh, gosh. I wish I had some great something. I’m grateful to all the market? story. Truth is, I wasn’t such a Badger fans out there who read Stay away from people who went great student at Madison. I did it and share it with their friends. to Michigan. enjoy the beer! My career is an I’m also grateful to the millions accident. The Journal should fire of [readers] who despise the Interview has been edited and me, honestly. University of Michigan. condensed.

On Wisconsin 43 If you’ve heard the theme song from Friends or the hits “Septem- ber” or “Neutron Dance,” you’re familiar with the work of Allee Willis. “I’m someone,” she says, “who could write a melody to a spoon falling on the table.” (Songfacts.com)

44 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 MAGDALENA WOSINSKA/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX

Songwriter Allee Willis ’69 Willis Allee Songwriter work defines whatever as makes her happiest. BY WENDY HATHAWAY ’04 HATHAWAY WENDY BY FREE TO BE BE FREE TO Allee Alumna last year, and socialized with fellow hen the UW Marching Band Carroll Hall residents. asked her to conduct the 2010 “I started off a sorority girl … and ended up Homecoming halftime show, Allee marching and demonstrating,” Willis says. “I knew Willis ’69 — the musical master- I was going to a great school at a time of revolution. Wmind behind the lasting hit song “September” — con- I got the best of all worlds.” fesses she had no idea what she was doing. Although she preferred record shops to live Though she loves music, she’s had no formal shows, Willis was tuned in to Madison’s music scene training. And it wasn’t until she walked through the and knew of the influential artists on campus just a tunnel and onto the field at Camp Randall Stadium, few years before her, including Boz Scaggs x’66, Ben sporting her signature sunglasses and inimitable Sidran ’67, and Steve Miller x’67. fashion style, that she realized things had changed 604 For a music fan from Motown, the next step was songs/titles are — dramatically — since she attended games with registered under obvious: New York City. Within a month of begin- her sorority sisters in the late ’60s. Willis’s name in ning work as a secretary at Columbia Records and its “I’m thinking there will be 12,000 people, which the BMI database. Epic label, she landed a promotion to the advertising is still pretty overwhelming,” she laughs. “There department and a chance to work with artists she were 80,000 fans!” idolized — Barbra Streisand, Laura Nyro, and Janis But with the same can-do, devil-may-care spirit 60 Joplin (who passed away shortly after Willis began that’s marked her professional success and survival million working there). It was “an incredibly exciting job to for five decades, Willis embraced the moment. copies of her hits have landed directly out of school,” she says. “It was an absolute blast! I have no idea how to have been sold. After a few years, Willis turned her attention read sheet music, so I started flailing my arms,” she from writing liner notes to writing songs, a major says. “And it turned out pretty amazing.” leap of faith for someone with a deep devotion to Willis is a two-time Grammy award winner (for music — and absolutely no experience. the music and lyrics to Broadway’s The Color Purple 1992 “I jumped in,” she says of her first — and only — saw the debut of and the Beverly Hills Cop motion picture soundtrack) willisville, which album, 1974’s Childstar. “I had never, ever performed who scored a spot in the Songwriters Hall of Fame became the first before. I had been in one school play, and I literally in 2018. She’s been nominated for a Tony (The Color social network played a tree. No lines, no nothing.” Purple) and an Emmy (the Friends theme song); in cyberspace — Although she didn’t plan on a career in music sold more than 60 million records; collaborated years before Face- when she was growing up, Willis says it’s easy now with everyone from Bob Dylan to James Brown book, MySpace, to see how her Detroit childhood helped shape her and Cyndi Lauper; and also pursued her passions in and Twitter. journey. Her informal musical education consisted painting, sculpture, multimedia design, furniture of sitting on the front lawn of Berry Gordy’s Motown making, set design, digital video, and social-network- Records, soaking up the sounds that would become ing technology. groundbreaking hits as they seeped through the “I change careers a lot,” she says. walls. Quirky and candid, Willis has a keen sense about Some of Columbia’s other releases overshad- the creative projects that will make her happy — and owed Childstar, notably Billy Joel’s Piano Man and the courage to say no and move on to something new Bruce Springsteen’s first two albums. Willis calls it if they won’t. Just recently, she wrapped a string of a blessing in disguise. It took only four live shows for one-woman shows and was busy collaborating with her to realize performing held no joy for her. In fact, pioneering musician Beatie Wolfe and preparing to she describes her first show, playing for a crowd of host another of her legendary parties. 10,000, as “horrifying.” The record label dropped “My parties are performances. They take her a few months later. months of planning, gathering, building, and work- Hoping to cheer her up, a friend dragged Willis ing on how music fits in,” she explains. “I absolutely to a recording session — “the last place you want to love what I do.” be when you lose your own deal,” she says — and unknowingly reignited her career. The singer was Party, Protest, Participate Bonnie Raitt, a rare fan of Childstar, who sent Willis Willis’s first step on her winding career path was home to write her a song. “Got You on My Mind” in advertising, writing copy for record labels after appeared on Raitt’s 1974 album Streetlights, and graduating from the UW. The School of Journalism’s Willis hit the road as a backup singer. academic reputation and the university’s active Success didn’t come overnight, however. For social life made Wisconsin a clear choice for the nearly four years, Willis checked hats at a comedy Detroit native and pop-culture junkie. club and hung posters for a cabaret. Her social Studying, parties, protests — Willis partic- circle included singers Barry Manilow, Melissa ipated in everything she could during her four Manchester, and Bette Midler, whose career was years in Madison. She joined Sigma Delta Tau, the first to take off. There were days when her only whose national office named her its Outstanding meal came from the backstage green room at Midler’s

46 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 COURTESY OF ALLEE WILLIS

shows. Willis spear- Once Willis broke through with one of the coolest “You’re young. You’re excited. You all believe headed a tribute groups on the planet, the calls kept coming. She was you’re gonna be stars, and you don’t even consider the to Detroit called writing more than 100 songs a year at one point. “I possibility it won’t happen,” she says. At the begin- “The D,” which was a machine,” she says. But she quickly grew bored recorded more ning of 1978, Willis was living on food stamps. By than 5,000 and knew that she couldn’t keep it up indefinitely. the end of the year, she had sold 10 million records. people at 70 Years of artistic torment followed. “Writing a singalongs song is very much dependent on who I am working September to Remember across the city. with,” Willis explains. “If it’s someone I love, who’s Her big break occurred when a mutual friend intro- “I will do any- talented, I can have a great time. But a lot of the time, duced Willis to her all-time favorite singer, Earth, thing for they need help writing and basically you’re a babysit- Detroit,” she Wind & Fire founder Maurice White, who called on says of her ter. I spent a lot of my career doing that. It’s why I got her to help the band flesh out the lyrics to a new song. hometown. on so many records, but it made me absolutely hate “September” reached number one in the Billboard songwriting.” R&B singles chart, and the band asked her to Willis also tired of seeing her male peers pro- cowrite music and lyrics for their next album. I moted to producer roles, while many women with Am went double platinum and included “Boogie equal success, or more, were denied the same Wonderland,” a hit Willis loves because of its unique opportunities. arrangement and complex lyrics. “That was just an “Women have never had a big voice in music,” incredible gift,” she says. she says. “More power started to come with

On Wisconsin 47 Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, but before that, you had to fight for every inch.” ALLEE ON HER HITS In the 1980s, Willis tried to rally her fellow songwriters to unionize, but there wasn’t enough inter- “A lot of times, you’re not the best judge of your est from other writers, male or female, in going up own stuff. Songs you think are brilliant never get against decades of tradition. cut. Songs you think are crap someone does magic “I just wanted to express my creativity. The easi- with. They’re all my babies.” est way to do that was to just start doing things other than music,” she says. ☛ “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire (1978) Early Adopter “My favorite of all … and it literally gets bigger Willis continued to write, but chose her collabora- every single year, recently exploding again on tors more carefully. the Billboard Hip Hop charts, knocking Eminem In 1991, she became fascinated by technology and out of the number one position. I see the effect the boundless possibilities of the budding internet. She spoke at the first Digital World conference in it has on people. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a 1992, along with the founders of AOL and Intel. In wedding where it isn’t played, a bar mitzvah, a 1997, she addressed Congress on the topic of artists’ graduation party. It brings so much joy to every- rights in cyberspace. And she spent years developing one, and that’s an unbelievable experience.” willisville — an early social network populated with When Taylor Swift covered the iconic song last fanciful fictional characters who acted as guides into year, Willis gave a characteristic review during cyberspace and interacted with humans — more than a decade before the invention of Facebook her own live performance a few weeks later: “It or Twitter. (She says of today’s social media plat- was as lethargic as a drunk turtle dozing under forms: “They’re a necessary evil. There are incred- a sunflower after ingesting a bottle of Valium, ible things that have come out of them, and hideous and I thought it had all the build of a one-story things.”) motel, but, I mean, the girl didn’t kill anybody.” Also an early adopter of eBay, Willis discovered Willis later walked back her critique. some of her now-favorite kitsch collectibles on the online auction website. Vintage clocks, collectible lunchboxes, and decorative ceramics fill her historic ☛ “Neutron Dance” by the Pointer Sisters (1983) pale pink home in Los Angeles (known as Willis Willis won a Grammy Award for Best Score Wonderland, after her hit “Boogie Wonderland”) and Soundtrack for Visual Media for this song, populate her Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch website, included on the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack. ostensibly one of the largest collections of kitsch in the world. “As I watched it through the decades, and Last year, Willis wrapped one of her most ambi- then finally started to perform it, it’s absolutely tious projects, a tribute to her much-loved and often the most fun thing. I’ve come to appreciate it.” maligned hometown of Detroit. Willis and collabo- rator Andrae Alexander wrote “The D” and recorded ☛ “What Have I Done to Deserve This” by Pet Shop more than 5,000 people at 70 singalongs across the Boys, featuring Dusty Springfield (1987) city. Aside from $15,000 raised in an online crowd- funded campaign, Willis financed the entire six-year “This is the most typical song of mine. It has five project. separate musical sections that most songwrit- “I will do anything for Detroit,” she says. ers would have split into five separate songs. I The feeling is mutual. Her hometown honored her wrote that with Pet Shop Boys and constantly with a Distinguished Achievement Award in 2018. pushed that this needs to remain together as a “To be acknowledged by the Detroit Music Awards, which is a major thing in Detroit, was as thrilling whole. … It took almost three years convincing as the [Songwriters] Hall of Fame,” she says. “This them. If anyone knows my writing, you can tell I whole year has been completely unexpected and wrote that one a mile away.” amazing.” Willis is an enterprising entertainer seeking out ☛ “I’ll Be There for You” by The Rembrandts (1994) what makes her, and the world, happy — and having (Also the theme song to the hit TV show Friends) a blast doing it. “I didn’t even like the song. But it has such a “I’m always excited. That’s the key. You gotta remain curious,” she says. “And if it’s not working place in pop culture, it makes me very happy for you … get off your ass and do something else.” that I wrote that.” • Wendy Hathaway ’04 is a writer living in the Madison area.

48 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 OnAlumniAlumni News at Home and Abroad

From left, Renee Tuzee ’88; WAA Chief Alumni Officer Sarah Schutt; Virginia Porter ’58, MM’60; and Lea Davis enjoyed dinner at the Orange County Founders’ Day. COURTESY OF WAA: ORANGE COUNTY CHAPTER COUNTY ORANGE WAA: OF COURTESY

DIVERSITY DISPATCH Badger Vibes, the newest e-newsletter from the Wisconsin Alumni Association, celebrates 74Founders’ Day the diverse UW experience by celebrations in sharing stories of alumni, stu- 2018 dents, and faculty of color. Check out past issues at uwalumni. com/news-stories/badger-vibes, The Scoop on Founders’ Days and email diversity@uwalumni. If you’ve ever wanted to time-travel back to college to com to subscribe. 15International enjoy a great class and rapport with fellow Badgers, you Founders’ Days can: simply attend your local Founders’ Day.

The UW has been celebrating Founders’ Days since 1924, sending fac- 4,328 ulty and alumni speakers to chapters around the world to commemo- Attendees RECORD CLASS GIFT rate the institution’s first class in 1849. The Class of 1968, which cele- Chris Davis ’79, president of the WAA: Orange County chapter, $14,272 brated its 50th reunion on says his group has found that tasting events are popular with alumni, Raised for local campus in October, set the whether “beer or wine or chocolate or cheese.” Last year, the chapter chapter scholar- record for the highest amount invited food-science professor Scott Rankin to speak about cheese. ships ever donated as a class gift: “When you’re far away from Wisconsin,” Davis says, “that’s the guy you $837,000. Donors John ’55 want.” Rankin provided a selection of artisan cheeses from Wisconsin, and Tashia ’55 Morgridge have and alumni had a chance to sample them during the happy hour and agreed to double the amount after Rankin’s talk. to support UW scholarships Attendees also heard from WAA Chief Alumni OfficerSarah through their matching program. Schutt, participated in a silent auction to raise money for scholarships, and applauded Matt Gunderson ’85 when he received the chapter’s Badger of the Year award. “Go to Founders’ Day,” urges Davis. “It’s one of the best opportunities to meet a wide group of Badgers.” Some of the speakers for the 2019 Founders’ Day events include comedian Charlie Berens ’09 (Los Angeles); science-fiction writer Kevin Anderson ’83 (Pikes Peak, Colorado); and Gina Bryan ’99, MS’02, DNP’12, a clinical professor in the School of Nursing who will speak about opioid addiction (Brown County, Wisconsin). Chancellor Rebecca Blank will travel to Beijing and Shanghai in May to headline events in China. Other international Founders’ Days are scheduled for Mexico, Singapore, India, Denmark, Pakistan, and eighteen other countries. See uwalumni.com/foundersday to learn about your local event.

On Wisconsin 49 Tradition Union Weddings JEFF MILLER

The Wisconsin Union has hosted WHAT’S YOUR weddings are so popular that the dressing as Disney characters. hundreds of weddings during the FAVORITE UW UW has two full-time wedding The Union was the first venue past 90 years. TRADITION? planners and an intern who coor- Jenelle considered after she and Just hours after she said, “I Tell On Wisconsin dinate the days’ many facets. Erick got engaged. Because she do,” during her March 2018 cer- at onwisconsin@ Hopeful couples enter a lottery served as Paulin’s intern while uwalumni.com, emony, Jenelle Selig Olson ’15 and we’ll find out 18 months in advance. When their she was earning her engineering and her new husband and college if it’s just a fond names are pulled, they can pick degree, Jenelle knew how much sweetheart, Erick Olson ’12, memory or still from available dates and venues care Union staff put into planning were twirling around the dance part of campus — Tripp Commons, Great Hall, and executing a wedding day. floor of Great Hall in Memorial life today. or Varsity Hall at Union South. “The staff knows the true Union. Little did she know her During the academic year, school meaning of having a wedding husband had planned for a special events take priority, but the Union there, and what it means to me guest to stop by their reception: can host up to nine weddings in and my family, and it was just a Buckingham U. Badger. a single summer weekend, notes huge weight off my shoulders,” “Bucky was definitely a high- Hattie Paulin, the Union’s wed- Jenelle says. light,” Jenelle says. “Not knowing ding director. Of course, there are always he’s coming, and then [you] turn Leading up to the event, Paulin last-minute glitches that no one around and some Bucky is there sends checklists, arranges tast- anticipates, Paulin says. But with dancing with you — that’s just ings, and sometimes plays ther- a game plan and some professional awesome. Also, you can’t beat the apist to stressed-out couples and guidance, couples are able to enjoy Terrace.” family members. The Union only a day dedicated to their love story. The Union’s first wedding, requires that couples pay a small “The couple can sit back and between Fang Chu and Tsao event fee and use its catering ser- look and say, ‘Wow, this is awe- Shih Wang ’27, MA’28, vices. Everything else can be cus- some,’ ” she says. “ ‘This is exactly PhD’29 in May 1929, was likely tomized, from the chef preparing what we wanted it to be.’ ” a smaller affair. Nowadays, Union family recipes to the waitstaff NINA BERTELSEN X’19

50 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 OnAlumni Class Notes

50s Lifetime HR Executive of the MA’61, PhD’64 the State Jeanne Berry ’55 and Year by the International Asso- Poet 2018–20, making her the Michael ’56 Schmitz of ciation of Top Professionals for 11th in the state’s history. The Thiensville, Wisconsin, his leadership and commitment honor included the New York recently presented a gift of to the industry. He also was State Walt Whitman Citation $500,000 to the Charles E. awarded the Albert Nelson of Merit for Poets. A Jewish Kubly Foundation — dedicated Lifetime Achievement Award BOOK NEWS? National Book Award recipient to raising awareness of depres- by Marquis Who’s Who for his See page 60. and two-time National Book sion, supporting suicide preven- contributions to his profession. Award finalist, Ostriker also is tion, and promoting improved Stephen Isaacson ’59 of a professor emerita of English access to mental health services Highland Park, Illinois, was CLASS NOTES at Rutgers University, the dis- SUBMISSIONS — to establish the Joey Schmitz a member of the UW bowling uwalumni.com/ tinguished poet-in-residence at and Charlie Kubly Endowment team that won the National go/alumninotes Drew University, and chancel- Fund. The fund honors the Intercollegiate Bowling Cham- lor of the Academy of Amer- memories of the Schmitzes’ son, pionship in 1957. He also is Class Notes, ican Poets. She has authored Joey, and their friends’ son, an inductee in the United Wisconsin numerous poetry collections Foundation Charlie, who lost their lives States Table Tennis Hall of and Alumni that address themes of family, by suicide. Fame, along with Malcolm Association, personal growth, Jewish iden- A member the UW’s first Anderson ’60 of Bradford, 1848 University tity, and social justice. group of female cheerleaders, Massachusetts. Isaacson was Avenue, Madison, Longtime boys’ tennis Virginia Kehl Mackesey ’56 a two-time U.S. Intercollegiate WI 53726-4090 coach at Neenah (Wisconsin) of Dunwoody, Georgia, was Table Tennis Champion in the High School Thomas Ber- recognized at a Badger football 1950s. Anderson, having taken ven MS’67 was honored at a game last September. “I wanted more than 60,000 photos of DEATH NOTICES dedication ceremony last fall AND NAME, so badly to be young again and table-tennis players throughout ADDRESS, after retiring in the summer. to be a part of it. Have them his tenure, served for more than TELEPHONE, The school’s tennis courts were lift me up, and do all that stuff. 20 years as chair of the photog- AND EMAIL named after him, recognizing What we did was very mild by raphy committee for the United UPDATES the 48 years he spent as the comparison,” Mackesey told States Table Tennis Association alumnichanges@ team’s head coach. During Madison’s NBC15. Mackesey (now USA Table Tennis) and uwalumni.com his tenure, the team won 41 studied dance while at the UW, was on USTTA’s executive com- Alumni Changes conference championships and and her family’s Madison-area mittee for 10 years. Thanks, Mr. Wisconsin five Wisconsin Interscholas- business, the Kehl School of Isaacson, for writing in! Foundation tic Athletic Association state Dance, began in 1880 and con- and Alumni championships. tinues toe-tapping today. 60s Association, You may know Dale Chi- Due to reasons surrounding Recently appointed to the 1848 University huly MS’67 for his renowned his health, boards of directors of the Avenue, Madison, glassblowing work, but he’s also Don Bauder ’59, WI 53726-4090 MS’61 of Salida, Colorado, has Northland Tutoring Center and noted for collecting every- retired from his “love/addic- the Lake Minnesuing Associ- 608-308-5420 thing from accordions and old tion”: writing and reporting. ation in Wisconsin is Donald or 800-443-6162 cameras to vintage Christmas The author and reporter served Maypole MS’61. Maypole tree ornaments. This array as editor of the Daily Cardi- retired from the University of also includes automobiles, nal while at the UW, a stint Minnesota–Duluth in 2000 as and Chihuly recently donated that eventually bloomed into a professor emeritus, and then three of his personal cars to the career filled with investigative taught for six years at uni- LeMay-America’s Car Museum business reporting. He worked versities in Latvia, Lithuania, in Tacoma, Washington. The for Businessweek magazine, Ukraine, Czech Republic, and cars included a 1972 Citroën the San Diego Union (later Portugal. He is a three-time DS 21 Super 5 Pallais, a 1958 Union-Tribune), and the San Fulbright Award winner and a Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner, Diego Reader. “Working for the retired lieutenant colonel who and a 1967 Volkswagen Type 2 Reader was the highlight of my served as a jet fighter pilot in double-door camper. career,” he wrote in his retire- the Air National Guard, USAF, Famed musician Ben ment announcement last fall. and NATO. While an undergrad- Sidran ’67 recently donated his Bruce Ellig ’59, MBA’60, uate at Idaho State University, personal archives — nearly 100 who resides in New York and he was a smokejumper in the boxes of materials — to UW– is the former worldwide head United States Forest Service. Madison Libraries, including of human resources at global In August, New York Gov- items such as correspondence, pharmaceutical company Pfizer, ernor Andrew Cuomo named music manuscripts, and uned- was selected in 2018 as the Top Alicia Suskin Ostriker ited radio interviews. “All my

On Wisconsin 51 OnAlumni Class Notes memories — of discovering jazz, at Lawrence University, and Linda Klein ’78 is serving studying history, raising a fam- served as executive director of as president of the American ily, writing books — everything the Wisconsin Wildlife Federa- Society of Hand Therapists. of importance to me, really, tion for 15 years. (Broadly speaking, hand thera- happened in Wisconsin,” said The War at Home, a 1979 pists are occupational or physi- Sidran to UW–Madison Librar- documentary codirected by cal therapists who are proficient ies in May. “I am happy and two-time Oscar nominee in treatment of the upper limb, proud to have my work live on at Glenn Silber ’72 of Santa Fe, and they may achieve advanced the University of Wisconsin.” He New Mexico, recently under- certification as certified hand also recently sold his collection went a 4K restoration and therapists.) Klein has been of about 2,500 compact discs to was screened at the New York supervisor of hand therapy at a Madison music retailer. Film Festival in October. The Hand Surgery Ltd. in Milwau- In 2018, Rick (Richard) film, which sheds light on the kee since 1991. She also has Lathrop ’68 of Portland, anti–Vietnam War movement in provided continuing education Oregon, celebrated 25 years of Madison, was also rereleased in courses and has written five involvement in Global Service select theaters across the nation book chapters on topics per- Corps, an organization provid- last fall. taining to the field. ing volunteer service-learn- The National Energy and Barb Cadwell ’79 and ing opportunities in multiple Utility Affordability Coalition David ’79, MA’87 Perkins developing countries. Lathrop is awarded Edward Gingold of Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, founder and executive director PhD’73 — who has been a staff delivered their last community- of the organization. attorney at the Federal Energy supported agriculture (CSA) Regulatory Commission in share this past winter. The cou- 70s Washington, DC, for about 40 ple, owners of Vermont Valley Jon Tuttle ’71 and his wife, years — its Lifetime Service Community Farm, served the Becky (Rosanne) Marrese Award. The award, presented greater Madison area for 24 Tuttle ’77, have retired from this past June, is given to an years. They started the farm Jon’s longtime family business, individual who brings dedication with 50 members and have now Tuttle’s Hometown Pharmacy, and positive change to the field. fed more than 25,000 Dane in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. County residents. Barb will be The drugstore had been owned “Everything of importance to me, retiring from her agricultural by Jon’s family for nearly 90 work, while David will continue years, running through three really, happened in Wisconsin.” farming the land at Vermont generations. A new owner Ben Sidran ’67 Valley. He also will continue expects to retain the Tuttle’s the farm’s organic seed-potato name for the business. RenewAire, an energy- business with their son, Jesse We give a Badger round of recovery ventilator manufac- Perkins ’05. applause to Jill Geisler ’72, turer based in Madison, has Andrew Rensink ’79 has the Bill Plante Chair of Lead- promoted Chuck Gates ’75 joined New York City–based ership and Media Integrity at from president to CEO. Gates ChemioCare USA as its chief Loyola University Chicago, cofounded the company more manufacturing officer. The who has been honored with the than 30 years ago. biotech company focuses on President’s Recognition award Jim Janik ’78, MS’82 reducing chemotherapy-induced from the American Society of has retired from his position as side effects through transder- News Editors. The accolade rec- CEO and president of Milwau- mal patch technology. Rensink ognizes Geisler’s leadership and kee-based Douglas Dynamics, brings more than 30 years of efforts to support journalists a manufacturer of commercial experience — 13 of them in from underrepresented commu- vehicle attachments and equip- transdermal development and nities and to promote a strong ment. Janik was named CEO manufacturing. and independent press. in 2000 and chair in 2014, and Mount St. Joseph University Congratulations, George he will now hold the executive in Cincinnati announced last Meyer JD’72, who was chair role. Since joining the July that H. James Williams inducted into the Wisconsin company in 1992, Janik has MBA’79 agreed to a five-year Conservation Hall of Fame in seen it grow from 250 to some extension to his contract as 2018. Meyer worked for the 1,700 employees, with sales president of the university. Wisconsin Department of Nat- increasing from about Since Williams became presi- ural Resources for more than $34 million in 1992 to nearly dent in 2016, the university has 30 years, taught environmental $500 million in 2018. seen enrollment growth, the studies courses for two years Certified hand therapist launch of a new physician assis-

52 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 Recognition Nancy Baym tant program, and increased KELLY DAVIDSON STUDIO graduation and retention rates. He created a strategic vision called Transformation 2025 to help enhance student experiences and outcomes. 80s This past July, Daniel Piette ’80 was named CEO of Bluware Corp., a technology development company based in Hous- ton. He previously served on the board of directors of Petroleum Geo-Services, a Norway-headquartered business with a presence in 25 countries. Piette also is a member of the Cam- paign Steering Committee for the UW’s College of Engineer- FROM SUPERFAN TO ACADEMIC ing and serves on the board of As a student, Nancy Baym ’86 followed her favorite bands around the visitors of the UW’s Geological country, exploring the relationship between musicians and fans first- Engineering Program. hand — long before she knew it could become a career. She became John Schmitt ’80 of friends with R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe, and during a spring break Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, who trip to Nashville, she and her roommate gave Alex Chilton (a member of appeared in the Winter 2012 the ’70s power-pop band Big Star) and his bass player a ride to Mem- issue of On Wisconsin, con- phis. “While we were awestruck at this legendary musician,” she says, tinues to volunteer for Living “we realized how human he was. And that relationship always stayed Water International (LWI), an with me.” organization that aims to bring During Baym’s doctoral program at the University of Illinois at Urba- clean water to communities in na-Champaign, she focused on analyzing audience subcultures. She need. He now represents the later worked as a communications professor at Wayne State University state of Wisconsin for LWI and and the University of Kansas before becoming a principal researcher at was recently part of an effort to Microsoft Research New England. drill a well in Honduras (while Baym channels both her interest in communication and her passion sporting his Badger baseball for music into her new book, Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, cap). He also is helping plan and the Intimate Work of Connection. She interviewed bands and artists LWI’s trip from the Madison such as UB40, the Cure, Billy Bragg, and Nacho Vegas. She chose musi- area to El Salvador this fall. cians “to illustrate the wider phenomenon where social media has made Patrick Halter ’81, people feel the need to be maintaining quasi-intimate relationships with MBA’83 has been promoted customers or those they might do business with in the future.” from COO to CEO for Principal It’s no longer just a one-way street where fans buy albums and Global Investors, an investment engage with musicians only at meet-and-greets or concerts, she says. management firm based in Des Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have torn down that barrier to create a Moines, Iowa, that oversees new kind of artist–audience relationship. about $430 billion in assets One conclusion from the book: “You don’t have to think of audiences in more than 80 countries. He as potential friends to think of them as coparticipants in creating new joined the firm in 1984 in com- social and moral orders through your interactions.” mercial real estate and has held Baym has mined this field before, in her 2015 book, Personal Connec- a variety of leadership positions tions in the Digital Age. It applies more than 20 years of her research on within the business. how social media and internet culture have influenced our relationships Having served at North with one another. “It’s a more nuanced conversation on how we respond Central College in Naperville, to new technologies and what happens to language and identity when Illinois, for more than 25 years, we increasingly talk with each other online,” she says. Heidi Matthews ’81, a pro- As for her next project, she will only say it’s focused on Microsoft fessor emerita of kinesiology Office’s paper-clip mascot Clippy, a chatty digital assistant that was as well as the inaugural and discontinued in 2007 and “has found an afterlife as a meme on craft former dean of the School of sites such as Etsy.” Education and Health Sciences, DAVID SILVERBERG

On Wisconsin 53 Recognition Chris Burt NICOLO SERTORIO has been recognized with the Harold and Eva White First Cit- izen of the College Award. The award honors those who exem- plify the best of the college. Last year, Matthews also received the Great Lakes Athletic Train- ers Association Outstanding Educator Award, and North Central College held a dedication of the Heidi M. Matthews Athletic Training Facility. Dick (Richard) Palmer- sheim Jr. ’81, MBA’84 has been appointed president and CEO of Perlick Corporation, a Milwaukee-based manufacturer of commercial bar and beverage systems, residential WEATHER GEEK undercounter refrigeration, and Chris Burt ’83 was drawn to the UW in 1973 by its world-renowned brewery fittings. Palmersheim meteorology department. Although he’d been studiously recording the brings to this role more than 35 weather since age six, at UW–Madison, his scholastic dreams stalled years of experience in executive against the rigors of meteorological math. So he left school for a brief management and has held roles stint in farming and then toured Asia. Smitten by Thailand, he reenrolled at companies such as Caterpil- at the UW in 1979 to earn a degree in international relations. After grad- lar and S. C. Johnson & Son. uation, he entered the travel guide business in Bangkok just as Thailand Dick (Richard) Cates became a popular tourist destination. PhD’83 has retired from his Burt jumped into the U.S. market with the Compass American guide- post as director of the Wis- book series and sold that venture to Random House in 1992. He moved consin School for Beginning to the Bay Area and remained as publisher until 2001, when he recon- Dairy and Livestock Farmers, nected to his weather enthusiasms. Burt created an extreme weather which is part of the UW’s guide, working from a photocopied 1971 compendium of record-break- Center for Integrated Agricul- ing weather compiled by one of his mentors. He updated the data and tural Systems. He has taught packaged it as Extreme Weather: A Guide and Record Book. nearly 600 students through the First enchanted by epic snowfalls, Burt’s passion now includes the school since 1995. Cates will outer limits of all climatic events. He survived Bangkok’s biggest rain remain active in the community event — 16 inches in 10 hours. “My house went underwater,” he recalls. through organizations such as “I remember sitting in my bedroom, and the house was literally shaking the Southwest Wisconsin Com- from the intensity of the rainfall.” munity Action Program. He also But that’s nothing: “I’d love to have been in Unionville, Maryland, drives an ambulance for the when that one and a quarter inches of rain fell in 60 seconds,” Burt says Spring Green (Wisconsin) Fire of a record-holding 1956 storm. “I just can’t imagine what that would be Department and Emergency like. That’s just ridiculous.” Medical Services. The book helped launch him from meteorological dropout to a Thomas Drolsum x’83 of blogger at Weather Underground, a popular website for weather junkies. Jefferson, Wisconsin, has taken One of his blog posts even led to the World Meteorological Organization part in an important piece of (WMO) overturning a 90-year-old statistic of the hottest temperature history: his name appears on a ever measured on Earth (136°F at El Azizia, Libya, in September 1922). memory card inside the Parker Burt’s investigation found critical flaws in how the heat was mea- Solar Probe, a NASA mission sured, prompting the WMO to conduct its own investigation and confirm that has traveled through the his findings. The record fell by default to the 134°F observed in Death sun’s outer atmosphere. Last Valley, California, on July 10, 1913. The upset led to national media March, NASA invited the public coverage and landed Burt an ad hoc membership on the WMO’s World to send in their names — now Weather and Climate Extremes Committee. Drolsum’s joins more than 1.1 “The increase of extreme weather events is definitely not our imag- million names aboard the probe. ination,” Burt warns. “The heat waves are definitely as extreme as they Launched this past August, the have ever been in history and more frequent all over the world.” probe is on a multiyear mission ERIK NESS to study the sun, and it is the

54 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 OnAlumni Class Notes closest that any spacecraft has identity, and artistic expression. national board of directors for gotten to the star’s surface. Seventy-nine: Timothy Big Brothers Big Sisters. Margaret Halpin Gillham ’87’s unofficial Dohnalek MS’84, PhD’88 winning percentage during his 90s has joined Valensa International college fencing career. In 2018, When Jonathan Dobbs x’90, — a manufacturer of nature- the former fencing team captain an EMT volunteer and a retired based product formulations with was named to the UW Athletic owner of a medical-products headquarters in Eustis, Flor- Hall of Fame — the first of his company, found out on a visit ida — as chief scientific officer sport to be so honored. Among to McCarthy, Alaska, that the and as senior vice president his accolades, Gillham captured small community had lost its of research and innovation, the Big Ten Championship three only ambulance to vandalism, bringing about 30 years of times in epee (one of three dis- he stepped in to help. Dobbs expertise in leading nutritional ciplines in fencing). Thank you, purchased an ambulance in innovations for Fortune 500 Neil Payne ’61, for sharing northern Wisconsin, and he brands. Among other positions, this news with us. and a friend drove and ferried Dohnalek previously served in Stepping into the positions the vehicle to McCarthy. “I head roles at PepsiCo and Pfizer. of president and chief commer- think it’s hopefully going to She is named on six U.S. patents cial officer at Enstor Gas, based reenergize our community,” and has coauthored 18 research in Houston, is Masoud Kas- McCarthy resident Tamara papers related to nutrition. raian ’88, MS’90, PhD’93, Harper told the Anchorage Daniel Katz ’84, MA’86 MBA’98. Enstor owns and Daily News last May. has been appointed as the new operates underground natural Yan Wang MBA’91, arts and sciences dean at Alfred gas storage facilities on the Gulf PhD’93 is now CEO of Cyto- (New York) State College. Katz, X-PLANATION Coast and in southwest regions vance Biologics, a biopharma- who was previously the chief An x preceding of the country. Before joining ceutical contract manufacturer academic officer for two col- a degree year Enstor, Kasraian was chief based in Oklahoma City, Okla- leges, has aimed to focus on the indicates that commercial officer at Leaf River homa, and president of sister needs of first-generation college the person did Energy Center. company Scientific Protein students. “I am especially happy not — or has not Laboratories. Wang has been a yet — completed Duane Knudson PhD’88 about working with diverse, that degree at of San Marcos, Texas, earned member of the company’s board curious, and ambitious students UW–Madison. the American Kinesiology Asso- of directors since 2015 and from all over New York State — ciation’s 2018 Jerry R. brings more than 20 years of even my hometown of Brook- Thomas Distinguished Lead- experience in the pharmaceuti- lyn! — and beyond,” he said of ership Award and will receive cal industry to the position. his new post. the Society of Health and Serving in the new role Architecture and engineer- Physical Educators’ 2019 of chief diversity officer at ing firm Mead & Hunt, American Scholar Award in Constellation Brands, a pro- headquartered in Middleton, OBITUARIES April. Knudson also serves as ducer of brands such as Corona Wisconsin, has selected Brief death president-elect of the Interna- Extra and Svedka Vodka, is Andrew Platz ’84 as its notices for tional Society of Biomechanics Kris (Kaneenat) Pitakskul new CEO. He also continues to Wisconsin Alumni in Sports. She also maintains ® Carey ’92. be president — a position he Association The University of Alabama– her position as a senior vice (WAA) members has held since 2011. Platz joined and friends Birmingham has promoted president at the Victor, New the company in 1985 as a appear in Badger Patricia Drentea ’89 to a full York–based company. Carey is a project engineer. Insider, WAA’s professor position in sociology. member of the company’s Wom- In her recently published magazine for its Meanwhile, her husband, Paul en’s Leadership Development memoir, The Shape of a Hun- members. You Tybor ’88, has celebrated Program, is a past fellow of the dred Hips, Patricia Cumbie may also submit more than 20 years at the pro- national organization Leader- ’87 of Minneapolis describes full-length obit- fessional services firm Ernst & ship Council on Legal Diversity, belly dancing’s role in her uaries (with one Young, where he is an IT asset and was a recipient of the Legal recovery from sexual assault. photo each) for manager. Champion Award from the Illi- online posting at “Belly dance is how I gained uwalumni.com/ William Graham III ’89 nois Diversity Council. confidence and compassion go/alumninotes. has been named CEO of Bel Sassy Cow Creamery in for my lost sense of self,” she Brands USA, a company based in Columbus, Wisconsin, which says. Cumbie notes that the Chicago with brands such as The is owned by brothers and book addresses several con- Laughing Cow and Mini Babybel. third-generation farmers temporary concerns, includ- He was most recently president James ’93 and Rob ’96 Baer- ing campus sexual assault, of Materne North America and wolf, celebrated a decade of working-class families, female has spent three years on the operation in 2018. The creamery

On Wisconsin 55 OnAlumni Class Notes sits between the brothers’ two Campus Award for Excellence on Better Call Saul, the pre- farms — land that was pur- in Undergraduate Teaching, quel to Breaking Bad. Among chased by their grandfather in which honors her innovative other roles, Obma was Gregor, 1946 — and sells milk and ice approach to teaching and her a Czechoslovakian warlock cream products in both Wiscon- contributions to education on The Vampire Diaries, and sin and northern Illinois. beyond the classroom. She Dobroslav Charmain, a Croa- Kathleen Demet ’94 has also was recognized with the tian patient on The Resident. been named partner and chief Dean’s Award for Excellence in He also was recognized in 2018 marketing officer for Chicago- Undergraduate Teaching for the as Outstanding Featured Actor based independent investment College of Liberal Arts and Sci- by the Stage Scene LA Awards and advisory firm RMB Capital, ences, and she was the keynote for his portrayal of a British which has about $9.3 billion speaker for the college’s spring character, Christopher Wren, in assets under management. 2018 honors ceremony. in The Mousetrap at Crown Demet, who joined the RMB Pinnacle Climate Technolo- City Theatre in Los Angeles. team in 2010, has been engaged gies in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, “Foreign characters are a good with the business since 2005 has welcomed Ryan Damask way for me to combine joy and and has worked for the firm’s ’98 as its new CFO. Pinnacle work,” Obma says. brand strategy and communica- designs and manufactures Ashoka, a nonprofit with tions partner. heating, cooling, and ventila- global headquarters in Arling- Jennifer Thelen Cresson tion products through several ton, Virginia, that supports ’96 of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, brands. Prior to joining the leading social entrepreneurs, is a founding partner of Sun- company, Damask was the CFO named Rachel Armstrong seed Research LLC, a market- at Archway Marketing, Inc., and ’03 to its 2018 class of fellows research firm that has been rec- Subsidiaries. from the United States. The ognized on the 2018 Inc. 5000 lifetime, nonresidential fellow- list, which annually ranks the “Suddenly, the whale just swam off. ship celebrates social entre- 5,000 fastest-growing privately … It was like magic.” preneurs for their innovative held companies. Sunseed was solutions. Armstrong is founder Lesanna Lahner MPH’11, DVM’11 ranked at 4,613. and executive director of Farm Diane Laatsch Erdman Commons, a nonprofit based in ’96, DPM’97 of Hartland, Luther College professor Duluth, Minnesota, that spe- Wisconsin, was named the 2018 Jodi Enos-Berlage PhD’98 cializes in sustainable farm law. Wisconsin Pharmacist of the is involved in a water-quality A few years ago, Paul Year by the Pharmacy Society research project that received a Andersen ’04, MAcc’05 of of Wisconsin. Erdman, who grant from the Iowa Center for Minneapolis started a pickleball works for the faith-based health Health Effects of Environmen- company, Amazin’ Aces. (Pick- care organization Ascension, tal Contaminants. The proj- leball is a paddle sport that is a was nominated by her col- ect investigates water-borne mix of tennis, badminton, and leagues and peers. disease-causing agents, and the Ping-Pong. Pickles aren’t part This past October, Michelle grant will allow researchers to of the game, but the company Seifert Dorsey ’97, MD’01, quantify levels of harmful bac- asserts that, although there are the chief of radiology at the teria and viruses in both ground differing accounts, it is believed Phoenix VA Health Care Sys- and surface water in Winnesh- the game was named after the tem, relocated to Washington, iek County, Iowa. creator’s dog, Pickles.) “I was DC, where she is spending 12 For his 65th birthday, Steve working a corporate desk job months after earning a White Rankin ’98 went big: riding and left to follow my dream of House Leadership Fellowship. his bicycle from Seattle to starting my own business, and The White House Leadership Boston with an international it’s been a really wonderful Development Program har- group. During the recent jour- ride,” Andersen says. nesses the top talent across ney, he racked up more than Dan Ruch ’04 is CEO and government employees to sup- 4,300 miles. founder of Rocketrip, an enter- port the implementation of key prise travel company based in priorities and address critical 00s New York City that rewards challenges. Fourth-generation Badger Hans employees for being cost- Renée Trilling ’97, an Obma ’02 has been putting his conscious while traveling for associate professor of English UW language studies to work in business. The company, founded at the University of Illinois at recent character roles on cable in 2013, has been received cov- Urbana-Champaign, has been and network television shows. erage in the New York Times. awarded the university’s He is German-speaking Adrian That’s a lot of Badgers!

56 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 Recognition Alannah McCready PRISCILLA PRIEBE Elizabeth Berglund Hall MA’98, PhD’03; Mark Hall MA’98, PhD’04; Anne Theobald MA’05, PhD’11; and James Pfrehm PhD’07 are coauthors of an intermedi- ate French textbook. Elizabeth is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia; Mark teaches French at the Collegiate School in Richmond, Virginia; Theobald is an assistant professor at Hillsdale (Michigan) Col- lege; and Pfrehm is an associate professor at Ithaca (New York) College. Michael Stauder MD’07 has been named associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Texas MD COUNTRY PLAYMAKER Anderson Cancer Center in Long before she led the UW women’s hockey team to two NCAA Division I Houston. He also is a member championships, goalie Alannah McCready ’10 was a member of several of the Morgan Welch Inflamma- boys’ youth hockey teams in Blaine, Minnesota. tory Breast Cancer Research “When I was growing up, there were no girls’ teams for me to play on,” Program and Clinic, along with says McCready. Her persistence to follow her passion and play anyway several national and interna- — a virtue that would serve her well off the ice, too — eventually led to a tional radiation therapy–related full athletic scholarship with the Badgers. societies and organizations. After graduating, McCready got a job doing PR for a sports man- Neil Berg ’09 joined a agement company in New York. She loved it, but her interest in music panel at the UCLA Hammer — something she’s pursued since she was young — felt like her true Museum this past fall to discuss calling. At the UW, she spent her few spare moments writing songs. the impact of climate change on Her uncle Willie Wisely, a recording artist in Los Angeles, recom- the Los Angeles water supply. mended her to Nashville music producer Dan Hodges, who in turn Berg is the associate director of reached out to her with an opportunity to record some tunes. science at the UCLA Center for “I was looking for validation that I was going to make the right deci- Climate Science. sion,” McCready says. “I knew that if I didn’t take that opportunity when it came available to me, that I might not ever do it. So I wanted to jump 10s in, full force ahead, and see if I could make it happen.” Virginia Tech’s College of Natu- She decided to move to Atlanta to pursue music full time. Sev- ral Resources and Environment eral years and two albums (including last year’s Ricochet Heart) later, has welcomed David Carter McCready is touring and making good on that goal. ’10, who is now an assistant “I’ve gotten messages from people [about] how the songs have professor of silviculture in impacted them,” she says. “That’s what we do it for.” Many of these the Department of Forest songs, such as “Enemies with Benefits,” draw from her own romantic Resources and Environmen- history. That’s especially true for her 2015 debut album, Love Hangover. tal Conservation. He also is a “In college I had some tough relationships,” she says. “So the first codirector of the Forest Produc- album really pulls from those relationships.” tivity Cooperative, an inter- McCready gained something else from her college days: the self- national partnership among discipline she learned from playing hockey. several universities in the “When you’re an athlete, you have to be very self-motivated and very United States, Brazil, and Chile disciplined with your everyday schedule,” she says. “[This] really helped that is committed to creating in transitioning to be a musician, because being an independent musi- innovative solutions to improve cian is all self-driven. If you don’t do it yourself and motivate yourself, it’s productivity through sustain- not going to happen. No one’s going to do it for you.” able forestry practices. JOSHUA M. MILLER Amy (Amelia) Evans PhD’10 has recently taken on a post as associate professor at Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate

On Wisconsin 57 Recognition Nicolaas Mink BETHANY GOODRICH School of Addiction Studies in Center City, Minnesota. The school specializes in addiction counseling to improve recovery from alcohol and drug abuse. Sara Jerving ’10 has joined the staff ofInvestigative Post, a nonprofit news outlet based in Buffalo, New York, where she primarily covers environmental issues. She has reported from more than a dozen countries; has been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times; and previously worked as part of a team at HBO’s Vice News Tonight whose work was nominated FISH STORY for an Emmy in 2018. She also Nic Mink ’02, PhD’10 is mad as halibut, and he’s not going to take it any- was a finalist for the Livingston more. Mink likes fish. But he very much prefers his fish to begood fish. Awards for Young Journalists The world has too much bad-tasting seafood, he argues, and it doesn’t that same year. have to be that way. The Seattle Aquarium’s “Seafood is a $20 billion industry,” he says, “and yet out of every 10 first full-time veterinarian, pieces of fish you buy at the grocery store, how many are bad? How many Lesanna Lahner MPH’11, are just okay? Maybe 5 out of every 10? Why do we put up with this?” DVM’11, founded the nonprofit To address this deficiency, Mink founded Sitka Salmon Shares, a Sealife Response, Rehabil- community-supported fishery (CSF) that delivers seafood straight from itation, and Research (SR3) the Alaskan boats to subscribers around the country. in 2016 — with a new facility Though he describes himself as a fishmonger, Mink didn’t study expected to open this spring. mongery at the UW, nor did he study aquaculture or economics. He She has cared for numerous earned his bachelor’s and doctorate in history — in particular, environ- sea creatures, and she and mental history — and in his academic life, he teaches part time at Knox SR3 staff have focused on the College in Illinois. But between grad school and teaching, he moved to endangered orca population Sitka, Alaska, to live out the Wisconsin Idea. and sea star wasting disease. In “I wanted to take my intellectual endeavors out to do good,” he says. 2017, Lahner also helped save a “That really resonated with me. I wanted to see environmental studies gray whale calf stranded on the in real life. The humanist in me wanted to learn about food and food beach. “We pulled and pulled systems and food justice.” and pulled,” she told Carleton One of the things he learned was that fisheries tend to commoditize College Voice in 2018. “Sud- their products: that fishermen usually sell to just a few large corpora- denly, the whale just swam off. tions that value quantity over quality. Mink wanted to bring a different … It was like magic.” model — one that valued quality, connected fishermen to consumers A 2018 Rona Jaffe Founda- more directly, and ultimately gave diners a better meal. He wanted, in tion Writer’s Award recipient other words, to bring to seafood the same ethos that underlies commu- is Lydia Conklin MFA’12, nity-supported agriculture (CSA). who also is a 2018–19 Creative In a CSA, consumers buy shares in a local farm, which then supplies and Performing Arts Fulbright food directly to them. After returning to the Midwest, Mink founded Scholar in Poland. The writ- Sitka Salmon Shares, which, similarly, sells memberships to consumers er’s award, which includes a around the nation. Fishers in Sitka, who have an ownership stake in the stipend, is given annually to business, deliver high-quality fish — not just salmon, but also cod, crab, six female writers who demon- halibut, and more. The company flash-freezes the fish and ships it to strate excellence and promise in subscribers. the early stages of their careers. “It’s an artisanal product,” Mink says, and, at typically $18 or $20 Conklin has been working on per pound, the price reflects it. “But it’s worth it. We have fish that are Rainbow Rainbow, a collection substantially different than what you’d find even at a Whole Foods. We of short stories; Cat Monkey see this as an everyday luxury item.” Horse, a novel; and a graphic JOHN ALLEN novel based on her comic series,

58 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 Contribution Fly High Fund COURTESY OF WHEELS UP Lesbian Cattle Dogs. Poet and former First Wave student Danez Smith ’12 of Saint Paul has received the For- ward Prize for Best Collection for Don’t Call Us Dead. At age 29, Smith is the youngest recipient of this prize, was listed on Forbes’s 2019 30 Under 30 list, and was a 2017 National Book Award finalist. Smith’s third collection, Homie, is expected to be published in 2020. Andrew Pikturna ’13 is one of three recipients of the Stanford Graduate School of Business’s 2018–19 Stanford USA MBA Fellowship. The school will provide assistance with tuition and fees to each A HIGH FIVE TO WHEELS UP recipient over a two-year span. Entrepreneur Kenny Dichter ’90, whose company, Wheels Up, is forging The fellows must then return a growing niche in the private aviation world, has a favorite weekend to the Midwest within two destination: Dane County Regional Airport in Madison. years of graduation, obtaining In fall 2018, Dichter hopped aboard one of his company’s aircraft a professional role that contrib- from Westchester County Airport to attend to a slew of Badger home utes to the region’s economic games. development. Pikturna aims to “It’s less than three hours, door-to-door, from my home to State return to Wisconsin to launch Street in Madison,” he says. “I saw three wins this year.” his own technology venture. Dichter, who met his wife, Shoshana Kamis Dichter ’92, on cam- We give a Badger high five pus, has maintained a close connection with the university since his to Joonsung Oh ’17, who graduation. In the early 2000s, he reached out to young alumni to raise was chosen by the Knowles $1.5 million to renovate the university football offices. This year, he Teacher Initiative as a member partnered with the Office of Admissions and Recruitment to fund the of its 2018 Cohort of Teaching Fly High Fund, which will support digital outreach to students of color to Fellows. The five-year fellow- encourage them to apply. ship supports early-career “Wheels Up believes in colleges and universities, and the alumni high school math and science connection,” Dichter says. “Having a more diverse student body is a good teachers by providing grants for way to create new perspectives and new ideas on campus.” expenses associated with class- Wheels Up is Dichter’s latest venture. The membership-based com- room materials, professional pany has a fleet of close to 100 aircraft, and almost 5,000 members who development, and leadership pay $17,500 their first year, and $8,500 a year after that, for access to activities, among other benefits. private flights. It’s a business model that provides the benefits of owning Oh began teaching at South San a private aircraft without the capital costs. Unlike its competitors, Francisco High School in 2018. Wheels Up requires no commitment to a minimum number of hours in Pao Vue ’03, PhD’18 is the sky. one of the first Hmong Ameri- “We’re more Netflix than NetJets,” says Dichter, mentioning another cans to earn a doctoral degree American company. “The subscription model has resonated with the in his field, geography. “I think private flying set.” it does bring a sense of pride Wheels Up also partners with ESPN’s College GameDay, which and joy to not only my family includes a segment featuring celebrities and cast making winner predic- but my lineage and my relations: the celebs are filmed arriving on Wheels Up planes each Saturday. tives,” Vue told the UW– Dichter has always worked for himself, dating back to his Madison Madison Graduate School. He days when he had a retail shop on State Street called Bucky’s. Since hopes to continue his focus on graduating, he has created several companies, built market share, and conservation within his field. then sold them. He founded Wheels Up in 2013, three years after he sold his first aviation company, Marquis Jet, to Berkshire Hathaway. His ear- Meanwhile, Class Notes/Diversions lier companies included Tequila Avión, which was featured on the HBO editor Stephanie Awe ’15 will make it to show Entourage, and a sports marketing firm. the gym … tomorrow. DAVID MCKAY WILSON

On Wisconsin 59 Diversions

Submit your book news at uwalumni.com/go/bookshelf, and read more about works by Badger alumni and faculty at goodreads.com/wisalumni.

UW professor emeritus KateLynn Hibbard Jerry Apps ’55, MA’88’s Simples is MS’57, PhD’67 a collection based on reflects on growing up research into the his- in rural Wisconsin in tory of women’s experi- Simple Things: Lessons ences on the American from the Family Farm. prairie during the 19th The book, which is the and 20th centuries. fourth in a Wisconsin Using free verse and Historical Society Press poetic form, the collec- collection of memoirs by tion examines the lives Apps, takes a close look of settlers and indig- at the author’s child- enous women in the hood and shares life les- Great Plains. Hibbard sons that are applicable resides in Saint Paul. to all readers. Author Andrea Bahe In Border Country: Debbink ’05 and illus- The Northwoods Canoe trator Emily Kilsdonk Journals of Howard Balsley ’01, both of Greene, 1906–1916, Madison, have created AMERICA TO ME Martha Greene the children’s book Jessica Stovall ’07 (left), who Phillips ’64, MS’72 Spark: A Guide to Ignite started work toward her doc- of Portage, Wisconsin, the Creativity Inside torate at Stanford University shares the journals You. The guidebook, last fall, previously spent of her late father, published by American DONALD STOVALL DONALD more than a decade teaching Howard Greene Girl, provides fill-in- at Oak Park and River Forest 1915, on his journeys the-blank, do-it-your- High School in the Chicago through the forests self opportunities for area — the setting of the of Wisconsin, Minne- readers to explore documentary series America sota, and Michigan. their interests, make to Me, which premiered on the Greene Phillips spent mistakes, and have fun subscription streaming ser- years researching her while learning what it vice Starz this past August. Justine Nagan ’00 (see father’s adventures. means to be creative. page 31) was an executive producer of the series. America to Me was created by Academy Award– Joseph McBride New York Times best- nominated filmmaker Steve James. Filmed over x’69, a professor at selling coauthor for the course of the 2015–16 school year, the series San Francisco State Sprint: How to Solve looks into the lives of the school’s students, teach- University, appears Big Problems and Test ers, and administrators as they work through racial in Orson Welles’s last New Ideas in Just Five and educational inequalities. feature film, The Other Days, John Zeratsky Stovall, a UW Chancellor’s Scholarship gradu- Side of the Wind. The ’05 of Green Cove ate and a Fulbright Distinguished Teacher Award motion picture, about a Springs, Florida, has recipient, starred as a subject in the documentary. director who struggles rejoined coauthor Jake In an interview with UW–Madison last summer, to finish a new project Knapp to write Make she said the series provides an example of what is in his final days, was Time: How to Focus on going on in schools across America. shown at the New What Matters Every When asked what steps society can take to York Film Festival and Day. The book strives help close the racial achievement gap in the U.S., premiered on Netflix to help readers allot Stovall pointed out the importance of talking about last fall. The movie was time in their lives for race and how race has impacted lived experiences in storage for years fol- the things they care and outcomes. “We need to have some really lowing Welles’s death about, offering a “cus- honest conversations about what’s going on in the in 1985, and McBride tomizable menu of bite- classroom, which is why I wanted to be part of the was a consultant for the size tips” that adjusts to documentary,” she said. film upon its revival. individual lifestyles.

60 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 Honor Roll The Original Restoration Ecologist UW ARCHIVES S04992 Bring up conservation in Wis- consin and you’ll often hear the name John Curtis MS1935, PhD1937 along with such inno- vators as Aldo Leopold. A professor of botany, Curtis was a pioneer of restoration ecology before the term existed. In his relatively short career, the name- sake of Curtis Prairie at the UW Arboretum dramatically changed how we study plants respective to their surroundings, and he inspired the protection and restoration of hundreds of Wisconsin’s natural areas. While growing up in south- eastern Wisconsin, Curtis was fascinated by the precise conditions orchids needed to thrive, and his doctoral work at the UW focused on the flower’s phys- iology. After graduating in 1937, he began working at the university and remained on the faculty throughout his career, taking leave during World War II to serve as civilian research director in Haiti, searching for alternate sources of latex when fighting in the Pacific rendered rubber plants inaccessible. While in the Caribbean, Curtis noticed that introduced species had destroyed many unique native species; once home, he was inspired to learn what’s needed to protect the balance of Wisconsin’s natural plant communities. Curtis and his colleagues and graduate students spent years conducting massive field studies at sites where Wisconsin’s prai- ries once thrived. Their findings, and the revelation that natural John Curtis, to develop theories about an inno- examine how communities of communities had indeed drasti- shown here in vative technique to restore prai- plants cooperate. cally changed since pioneers had his lab in 1951, ries — prescribed fire — which When Curtis died in 1961, at settled the state, informed his introduced is now widely used in ecological age 47, the Friends of the Arbore- 1959 book, The Vegetation of Wis- the concept of management. tum at the group’s inaugural meet- burning prairie consin: An Ordination of Plant as a means of Curtis was inspired by the ing dedicated the 60-acre prairie Communities, sometimes called restoration. The vision that fellow conserva- that now bears his name. Curtis the “bible of Wisconsin plant Arb conducted its tionist Aldo Leopold had for the Prairie is the oldest restored ecology.” Many of those carefully first burn in the UW Arboretum: to reconstruct prairie in the world and is home curated field data are still used 1940s. a sample of what Dane County to hundreds of plant species. The today by the Plant Ecology Lab looked like before agriculture site supports research on every- and researchers worldwide to became widespread in the 1840s. thing from climate change to pol- assess ecological change. He proposed using some of that linating insects. Those studies also led Curtis new space as an outdoor lab to WENDY HATHAWAY ’04

On Wisconsin 61 ALUMNI PARK WISCONSIN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

DESTINATION: ALUMNI PARK

Photo: Joe Leute

Experience artful exhibits, alumni stories, and more. Add the new landmark on the lake to your UW itinerary. UW–Madison, between Memorial Union and the Red Gym ALUMNIPARK.COM Enjoy the Nature of Great Retirement

OAKWOOD’S TWO CAMPUSES are distinct thriving communities in beautiful natural surroundings. Oakwood also has best-in-class life enrichment programming to support vibrant social activities, opportunities to learn and grow and be a part of a close-knit community.

5565 Tancho Drive, Madison 6205 Mineral Point Road, Madison 608-230-4000 608-230-4266

www.oakwoodvillage.net

FLAMINGLE WITH WAA

Here at the Wisconsin Alumni Associat ion® (WAA), we believe in helping alumni stay tapped into the inspir ed gooﬁness of UW–Madison. That’s why we created the Flamingle — a weekly e-newsletter just for UW alumni.

EACH FRI DAY MORNI NG, YO U’LL GET:

A curated list of The latest A UW-themed A photo of the week the week’s top installment of our interactive quiz, that will make you say, UW stories Ask Abe column poll, or trivia test “Dang, I miss Madison!”

Not getting your weekly Flamingle? Email us at ﬂami [email protected] to subscribe.

On Wisconsin 63 COMPOSITE PHOTO. CHAIR IMAGE, JEFF MILLER; STATUE, FERDINAND STÖHR/UNSPLASH

Madison is closer than you think.

Find professional Badgers wherever you are — or wherever you want to be. Activate your network now at badgerbridge.com. 64 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 Photo composite: University Communications; UW Archives: S05122, S06352. allwaysforward.org/annual-campaign Here’s to the more than 40,000 alumni alumni 40,000 than more Here’s the to UW in 2018. Your generous support is is support Your generous 2018. in UW vital to today’s students, tomorrow’s tomorrow’s today’s to students, vital and friends who contributed to the the to contributed who friends and Wisconsin Experience. Thank you. you. Thank Experience. Wisconsin research breakthroughs, and the research breakthroughs,

Destination The UW Arboretum CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: JEFF MILLER (3); BRYCE RICHTER

An outdoor marvel, the UW Arboretum, located about four miles south of the main campus, hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors per year. Springtime blooms provide the perfect photo Summer at the UW Arboretum op: Arb staff Fall colors make autumn a popu- Winter’s frosty weather may attracts traffic of many kinds: members issue lar time at the Arboretum. Plus, deter some visitors, but the season bicyclists, runners, and learn- photo permits, the nature facility’s tour of Mad- attracts cross-country skiers and ers. Participants in a 2017 bum- and 51 were used ison’s Lost City, held each year snowshoers. The Arboretum also blebee monitoring workshop for one-time in late October or early Novem- hosts a New Year’s Eve night walk (above) photograph the buzzing sessions in May ber, typically draws about 100 — one of its highest-attended bees for surveying. 2018 alone. attendees. events each year.

66 On Wisconsin SPRING 2019 No Hidden Fees. No Mysterious Charges. No Secret Handshakes.

(Actually, we’re flexible on the handshakes.)

At UW Credit Union, we believe that building a future starts with building trust. That’s why we offer all the financial services of most banks, with advice that increases your financial literacy. So you can feel confident about every decision you make. Whether it’s time for you to open a no-fee checking account, or time for you to find the right lender for a place to call home, we help you at every stage of life by always putting you first. Visit uwcu.org to learn more.

Here For Every You. | uwcu.org

Federally Insured Insuredby NCUA by NCUA UW Foundation Address Correction Department 1848 University Avenue Madison, WI 53726-4090

Change Service Requested

Give back. Wear red. Stay connected.

Come together, Badger nation. Unite in your passion. And share in a total UW experience.

Get involved every way you can on April 9. dayofthebadger.org | #DayoftheBadger

THIS IS WHAT BADGERS DO.