Going Wild for the New Bell Museum

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION SUMMER 2018

GOING WILD FOR THE NEW BELL MUSEUM

Plus U police, serving donuts and advocacy The man who knows ticks All the U presidents' spouses Book reviews MN Alumni Summer 2018.pdf 1 4/13/18 8:20 AM

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We accept major insurance plans; Medicaid and private pay. Call us and ask about the possibilities! 866-935-3515 • Metro 952-935-3515 SERVING PEOPLE STATEWIDE www.accracare.org Made possible by members of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association since 1901 | Volume 117, Number 4 Summer 2018 10 4 Editor's Note 5 From the Desk of Eric Kaler 8 About Campus Police serve pastries, a tour of University Grove, and the economic impact of the U 13 Discoveries Male birth control moves ahead By Susan Maas Plus: Opioids, buffer zones, and transgender health care 16 The Bell Comes Alive Nature rules at the new Bell Museum By John Rosengren 24 Designed with Nature in Mind A tour with Bell architect David Dimond By Lynette Lamb 26 Dancing with the Stars Wowed by the Bell’s planetarium By Deane Morrison 29 Among the Bugs Dave Neitzel knows ticks and mosquitoes By Elizabeth Foy Larsen 31 A Predator’s Return The wolves of Cedar Creek reserve By Emily Sohn 29 34 History: First Mates A look at the U presidents’ spouses, back to 1869 By Ann Pflaum and Jay Weiner

On the Cover 40 Off the Shelf This great horned owl, Daydreaming, angels, and a new mystery photographed with By Lynette Lamb Ramona, is a centerpiece of the Bell Museum’s 42 Alumni Stories famed Touch & See Lab. Jack Dangermond saves some coast, Jane Harstad lifts Most of the taxidermied American Indian education, two alumnae launch the animals at the Bell were Coven, and Michelle Larson oversees medical cannabis obtained many decades ago, before people could 48 Stay Connected watch wolves and bears 34 Success stories from the Maroon and Gold in the wild 24/7 on Animal Network, winners of the Morse-Alumni Planet. The animals were Award, and UMAA survey results placed in natural-looking settings—dioramas—in 52 Heart of the Matter order to engender familiarity, understanding, A gift grows community By Randall Wehler and, yes, sympathy. Photo by Sara Rubinstein 10: Jayme Halbritter • 29: Mark Luinenburg • 34: courtesy Karen Kaler • 34: Karen courtesy Luinenburg • 29: Mark Halbritter 10: Jayme IA® McNamara Alumni Center ALUMNI University of Minnesota ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chair Sandra Ulsaker Wiese, ‘81 200 Oak Street S.E., Suite 100 • Minneapolis, MN 55455 Chair-elect Douglas Huebsch, ‘85 Past Chair Dan McDonald, ’82, ‘85 Secretary Scott Wallace, ’80 Treasurer Laura Moret, ’76, ‘81 President and CEO Lisa Lewis “Having our wedding at Jim Abrahamson, ’81 Eric Brotten, ’03 McNamara was such a dream!” Rachel Cardwell Patrick Duncanson, ’83 Natasha Freimark, ‘95 Alumni Association Catherine French, ’79 Chad Haldeman, ‘08 Life Members receive Mark Jessen, ’85 Matt Kramer, ’84 $100-$300 off their Maureen Kostial, ‘71 wedding package. Peter Martin, ‘00 Akira Nakamura, ’92 Peyton N. Owens, III Call today for a tour Trish Palermo or visit our website to Roshini Rajkumar, ‘97 Clinton Schaff, ‘00 check available dates, Kathy Schmidlkofer, ‘97 Ann Sheldon, ’88, ’04 view photos, and Tony Wagner, ’96, ’06 sample floorplans. Myah Walker, ’10 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA : GOVERNANCE 2019 le in President Eric Kaler, ’82 ilab 18 Board of Regents va ay David McMillan, ’83, ’87, chair A y, M 15 Now rda 1 & Kendall Powell, vice chair tu ne Thomas Anderson, ’80 Sa Ju ay, Richard Beeson, ’76 urd Sat Linda Cohen, ’85, ’86 Michael Hsu, ’88 Dean Johnson . •. ir .. • .i Peggy Lucas, ’64, ’78 Abdul Omari, ’08, ’10 I,'• Darrin Rosha, ’90, ’91, ’93, ’96 . --r4tr1 . . .., ' Randy Simonson, ‘81 A.··~ ' _.· - ·,~~·-.. ~.. - :i.-~- ' ._ • l Steven Sviggum '. . .:' To join or renew, change your address, or get information about membership, go to UMNAlumni.org or contact us at: McNamara Alumni Center “The University of Minnesota has been such an integral 200 Oak St. SE, Suite 200

part of our lives and our relationship that it felt like such Photos by Grace V. Photography Minneapolis, MN 55455-2040 800-862-5867 a natural fit to get married at McNamara. We couldn’t t 612-624-2323 have been happier with how the day turned out.” [email protected] — RACHEL & ALEX SCHWEGMAN, U OF M ALUMNI The University of Minnesota Alumni Association is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, national origin, 612-624-9831 www.mac-events.org handicap, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation. [D] Park Dental

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45 convenient Twin Cities, greater Minnesota and western Wisconsin locations. Visit us online to Early morning and evening appointments. find your dentist Preferred provider for most insurance companies. and schedule an Locally owned by dentists who care.* appointment today. *116 of our 132 dentists are University of Minnesota alumni. parkdental.com Trusted dentist for the A EDITOR'S NOTE

The Perspective Machine WHEN I WAS A KID, I visited the downtown Minneapolis planetarium, which was inside the old central library. I was EDITORIAL & ADVERTISING living in South Dakota, so I’d seen stars aplenty. But having President and CEO the constellations explained to me was a revelation. This was Lisa Lewis space, the final frontier. And I was boldly going where no man Editor had gone before. Sitting under that dome as dots of light Jennifer Vogel shifted overhead helped me see beyond my own kid problems. Senior Editor Beyond my town. Beyond my planet, even. Elizabeth Foy Larsen The new Bell Museum’s planetarium is one of the most Copy Editor advanced in the country. It’s huge. It’s high definition. And its seats are really, really Susan Maas comfortable. But one thing it has in common with even the lowliest of its predeces- Contributing Writers Lynette Lamb sors—by comparison, the Minneapolis planetarium of my youth may as well have Susan Maas been shooting light through an old tennis ball with a flashlight—is the ability to make Deane Morrison one feel insignificant. Or, if you prefer, part of something much larger and grander Ann Pflaum than our everyday lives. Mason Riddle There is a reason seemingly unanswerable questions are referred to as “cosmic”: John Rosengren Emily Sohn Where do we come from? Is there life out there? Was there a beginning of time? Randall Wehler Does the universe have an edge beyond which there is nothing? Jay Weiner I’m not the kind of person who spends a lot of time wondering if our universe exists Art Director within a speck of dust on the tutu of a ballerina. In fact, I have spent my life working in Kristi Anderson the decidedly un-cosmic and down-to-earth field of journalism. I have concerned myself Two Spruce Design with human problems and issues and even, once or twice, dubious fashion trends. Senior Director of Marketing But I’ve always appreciated the perspective that comes from thinking about what lies Lisa Huber beyond planet Earth, which from space appears eerily serene and independent of us. Advertising When I started as an undergraduate at the U in the late 1980s, one of the first Send inquiries to courses I took was “descriptive astronomy,” which was listed in the course catalog [email protected] or call 612-626-1417 thusly: “The sun, moon, planets, stars, and material between the stars; the galaxy and universe to which the sun belongs. Nonmathematical.” The absence of mathematics Minnesota Alumni ISSN 2473-5086 (print ) is published four times yearly was critical, of course. I remember that the professor, who bounded down the center by the University of Minnesota Alumni aisle to start each class, was always disheveled, with crazy hair, an untucked shirt, and Association, 200 Oak St. SE Suite 200, deeply wrinkled pants. Nobody saddled him with mundane rules dictating dress. Minneapolis MN 55455-2040 in SEPT., DEC., MAR., and JUN. Business, editorial, Sartorial matters were small potatoes in his world. accounting, and circulation offices: We discussed questions surrounding the origin of our universe, such as: How can 200 Oak St. SE Suite 200, Minneapolis MN 55455-2040. Call (612) 624-2323 to something come from nothing? Can religion and science live together if we make subscribe. Copyright ©2017 University God the orchestrator of the big bang? But the best moment came when the profes- of Minnesota Alumni Association sor let us listen to a pulsar, or neutron star, as its beams of radiation crossed the Earth Periodicals postage paid at St. Paul, Minnesota, and additional mailing offices. and were picked up by a radio telescope. I’m sure by today’s standards, this is the POSTMASTER: Send address corrections equivalent of getting excited about Pong. But then, it was akin to eavesdropping on a to: Minnesota Alumni, McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak St. SE, Suite distant, interstellar conversation. 200, Minneapolis, MN 55455-2040. I can hardly wait to visit the Bell’s planetarium—officially called the Whitney and Elizabeth MacMillan Planetarium—once it’s up and running in July, and again ponder life’s grand questions. I’ll wear my shirt untucked, of course, and my pants will be appallingly wrinkled. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Jennifer Vogel (B.A. ’92) can be reached at [email protected]. Send letters and comments to [email protected] Sher Stoneman

4 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 FROM THE DESK OF ERIC KALER

A Few of My Favorite Numbers I’M A CHEMICAL ENGINEER and, But a number is only as good as what it represents. Which so, a numbers guy. Here are a few leads to the number 32 and a fellow from Wadena, Min- numbers that represent the trajec- nesota, named Robby Grendahl. Robby was 15 years old— tory we’re on as a university and the 32 years ago—when, while playing hockey, he suddenly principles we stand for. couldn’t catch his breath. He became light-headed and Let me start with a nice round he and his parents soon learned that he was suffering number: 8. It reveals just how good we full-blown heart failure. He was rushed to our University of are these days. And you don’t have to Minnesota hospital and became the youngest patient ever take it from me, but from the respected to receive a heart transplant there. Center for Measuring University Performance (CMUP), which Now, at 47 years old, Grendahl is the longest-surviving crunches numbers and measures the across-the-board excel- male heart transplant patient in the nation. Because of that lence of the nation’s universities. These are not the U.S. News & transplant, he was able to marry his high school sweetheart. World Report rankings, which often are gamed by colleges. He’s got two kids and takes just two pills a day, a lot fewer The people at CMUP examine, among other things, than most of us old alums! every public university’s federal research dollars, incoming Which leads to another number I like: 26. This is all about ACT scores, faculty named to their national academies, access and opportunity. About 26 percent of our students endowments, and philanthropic giving. In total, they look at on the Twin Cities campus are first-generation college nine categories to paint a full picture of an institution, and students, just like I was in my family. Our role as a gateway to then determine which public universities rank in the top 25 success and opportunity is why I’m so committed to public in all nine categories. higher education. We must continue to be a driver of social And guess what? Only 8 in the entire nation rank so high mobility in our state and nation even as there are troubling in all the categories. Ohio State, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Illinois, educational and economic gaps in our society. Education is Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. the path to a better life. Oh . . . and us! Excellence, discovery, health care, saving and changing Yes, we’re one of the 8 best public research universities in lives, offering opportunity: These are more than numbers the nation. And, by the way, we’re also the 8th most active and they add up to who and what we are at the University public research university in the nation. We spend about $900 of Minnesota. million a year on discoveries, from pharmaceuticals to plastics Follow me on Twitter @PrezKaler. Or, feel free to write to to medical devices to water quality to educational software. [email protected].

Healing the planet begins in Minnesota , ,,: •• A gift in your will drives research into 1). some of the planet’s biggest challenges: , ,..', .·, (,1 ..,,, \' water availability, agriculture and food, energy efficiency, and climate change. •~~-' •1, ; I .tI Learn more at driven.umn.edu/ -...... # --· .,. ·' ~ . • I,. waystogive or call Planned Giving at 612-624-3333. ' • • • • • , , ' ' ' 1 • .. ' . ~ 'I!. ~ J •" .. + ;· ,I AI ' . \~ .... I f . ' ' J • .. ,. ' • 0 JIil UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA I . ' "' • • . ,, f / . ; • I _,. .-a.. FOUNDATION Driven. The University of Minnesota Campaign SPONSORED CONTENT

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Carol Fuller, a 1969 U graduate, recently The U relationship started with spirited retired and moved to Abiitan Mill City in conversations between Dr. Amelious Whyte, [above: Dr. Sonja Kuftinec with student Mike Thurston] Downtown Minneapolis. She says it’s like the College of Liberal Arts Public Engagement When Amelious put out his call for faculty being in college again. So much to do. So Director, and Abiitan Programming Director volunteers, Dr. Sonja Kuftinec and Dr. Peggy much to learn. So much fun to be had. Tommaso Cammarano, who have since built a Nelson were among the first to respond. “I wake up and wonder what I’m going to do virtual bridge between the university and the Sonja, Professor of Theatre, and her student today,” Carol says. “And there’s always something.” senior living community. Michael Thurston, use “TimeSlips” storytelling and creative expression to help memory care Abiitan has robust lifelong learning programming Tommaso reached out to Amelious after an residents engage. It’s a technique developed tapping many resources, including the expertise introduction by Dr. Phyllis Moen, the McKnight by MacArthur Fellow Dr. Anne Basting (U of University of Minnesota faculty and students, Presidential Chair Professor of Sociology and Ph.D. 1995) that emphasizes imagination who share a wealth of knowledge with the a 1978 Ph.D. graduate of the U. Phyllis’s over memory. “When we imagine new highly motivated residents. acquaintance with Abiitan was a deeply personal worlds, we come alive together,” Sonja says. Carol, whose career was in teaching, now loves one. Her husband, Dr. Dick Shore, was living “We can make a world together that creates the freedom she has to learn. “I like that Abiitan there because he needed memory care. community and laughter.” has young poets and musicians from the U coming “I can’t speak highly enough of Abiitan and Peggy is the Executive Director of the U’s in,” she says. “I want to be around young people.” its energy, enthusiasm and vision,” says Phyllis, Center for Applied & Translational Sensory Abiitan, the first senior living community in the whose work focuses on helping the Baby Boom Science and a Professor and former Chair of core of downtown Minneapolis, is designed generation find satisfying post-career lives. the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing specifically for the new wave of retiring Baby “I’m very fond of Abiitan and its values and Sciences. She has visited Abiitan to talk with Boomers who want an active urban lifestyle goals. Abiitan pushes the boundaries up residents about sensory issues, such as now – and the confidence that they can age several notches.” hearing and vision loss. in place with access to any services they may Her husband recently passed away, but Phyllis need as they get older. Tommaso plans to remains connected to the many friends she continue developing made at Abiitan. Plus, she continues to have rich connections with a professional interest in Abiitan as the the U, bringing two founding director of the U’s Advanced special places together Careers Initiative (UMAC) “for Boomers to foster learning and [above: Dr. Phyllis Moen – transitioning from career jobs into meaningful McKnight Presidential Chair personal development. Professor of Sociology] engagement.” The work she does on “encore careers” has a welcoming audience at 11 Abiitan, where many of the residents are ABiiTAN 612-378-0020 highly accomplished professionals who want 11 MILL CITY www.abiitan.org [above: Carol Fuller – Resident of Abiitan Mill City] to stay engaged and continue to contribute. Owned and Operated by: J(ECU MEN® SPONSORED CONTENT LETTERS .I What a pleasure to read about “The Warrior,” Fionnuala Ní Aoláin! John Bernard (Ph.D. ’70), South Portland, Maine

Readers respond to our Spring the degree of prejudice and racism at the University of Minnesota in the first half of 2018 issue on human rights. the 20th century. What a remarkable issue! Thank you for Please note Mark Soderstrom’s Ph.D. spreading the word about human rights initia- dissertation from 2004, “Weeds in Linnaeus’s tives and informing us all of the racist history at Garden: Science and Segregation, Eugenics, my beloved U of M. and the Rhetoric of Racism at the University WHAT DO I am proud of the people working through the of Minnesota and the Big Ten, 1900-45.” YOU THINK? U to bring some equity to a disordered world. Neal Ross Holtan (Ph.D. ’11) Send letters and comments to Mary Kemen (M.D. ’84) Golden Valley, Minnesota [email protected] Cedar Rapids, Iowa Editor’s response: Absolutely, this information Regarding the story “What’s in a Name?,” I has come to light before, as in the 2002 Minneso- feel it should be noted that the subjects of the ta feature article by Tim Brady, “The Way Spaces article may not have been the first to study Were Allocated,” which quotes Soderstrom.

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Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 7 ABOUT CAMPUS

Styling Terry Brown, of Minnesota- based Museum Professionals Inc., arranges this lynx’s ruff just so for the new Bell Museum’s opening day. Photo by Sara Rubinstein

8 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 9 ABOUT CAMPUS

Street Sweets

t was the last Tuesday in March, but At Cops N’ Coffee, campus the right balance of warm and approach- judging from the number of down police serve donuts with able while also being respectful of the parkas spotted shuffling across the reason for the event. “With 80,000 Washington Avenue pedestrian a side of information. people and two hospitals, the U is a city bridge,I it might as well have been the By Elizabeth Foy Larsen in itself. We are better as a campus when middle of December. Thankfully, the we can respond to these needs.” morning wind’s bite was softened by The U has just launched an initiative the hot coffee and fresh donuts from UMPD and its partners. Held on the U’s to address sexual misconduct on all of Grandma’s Bakery, which were being East and West Banks, as well as the St. its campuses. Through training and an offered by the University of Minnesota Paul campus, the gatherings are informal extensive public health awareness cam- Police Department and the Aurora opportunities to remind the greater U paign, the President’s Initiative to Prevent Center for Advocacy and Education. community of the resources available to Sexual Misconduct aims to change Students snapped up donuts of all help should the need arise. While the fall campus culture for the better. A 2016 varieties on their way to class, from 2017 events focused on transportation study commissioned by the U.S. Bureau tables also displaying flyers on sexual issues—including bike and skateboard of Justice Statistics found that an average assault and buttons bearing messages safety—the spring gathering was devoted of 10 percent of women were assaulted like, “Don’t Be a Stranger to Consent.” to combatting sexual misconduct. during a single academic year across the A half dozen police officer stood nearby, “It’s about making sure students, nine campuses examined by researchers. looking friendly and ready to chat. faculty, and staff know that the UMPD is Cops N’ Coffee is a soft sell. In the Welcome to Cops N’ Coffee, a semian- part of a bigger group supporting them,” event’s first 45 minutes, not a single nual three-day event sponsored by the says Police Chief Matt Clark, who struck person initiated a conversation with Jayme Halbritter Jayme

10 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 3.0/Runner1928 Carrie Hatler CC BY-SA Carrie Hatler

HIDDEN U University Grove TUCKED BEHIND a stand of trees next to and character. Each of the 103 homes the new Bell Museum, the land for the in the Grove was, per the community’s relatively unknown University Grove rules, designed by an architect. neighborhood was originally set aside And what architects: The first house, in the 1920s by University of Minnesota a 1929 English Tudor on Folwell Avenue, Vice President William Middlebrook. was designed by William Ingemann, After touring a community built for who was also the architect of Stillwa- the employees of Stanford University, ter’s Lowell Inn. But while there’s no Middlebrook persuaded the U that shortage of mint-condition Tudors, such a neighborhood would be a great colonials, and Prairie-style ramblers, recruiting tool for faculty and adminis- it’s the bounty of mid-century modern trators. His vision turned out to be so homes that serves as the neighbor- compelling that plans for a football field hood’s calling card. From Bauhaus originally slated for the location—just to International Style, the Grove is across the St. Paul border in Falcon a showcase of Minnesota modern Heights—were switched to make way architects including Ralph Rapson (the for the development. U’s longtime dean of architecture who the police officers on hand. Several Central to Middlebrook’s vision was designed the original Guthrie Theater filled their cups and rushed off, citing that the land in University Grove would and Riverside Plaza) and Winston appointments or the need to get be owned by the U; residents would and Elizabeth Close, who lived in the to class. And Clark admitted good- own their homes and lease the land for neighborhood and designed 14 homes naturedly that the donuts—not the a nominal fee. This unique ownership there. Today, U employees still have advocacy—were the reason students structure, which is still in place today, priority when homes go on the market. were streaming out of Blegen Hall and helped control development and costs So if an astrophysicist asks to borrow toward the bridge and tables. (When as well as maintain architectural integrity your lawnmower, you know why. the UMPD once offered healthy snacks, they had almost no takers; plus, Adapted from Elizabeth Foy Larsen’s 111 Places in the Twin Cities That You Must Not Miss donuts show a cheeky sense of humor.) The Aurora Center’s Legal Advocacy Coordinator Bronte Stewart-New, who was on-site to answer questions, says the events are important awareness-raisers for the We’re always going to be good entire U community. “It’s important to show we aren’t scary people,” she teammates “ and be good to each other. says. “Someone may be more likely Minnesota Lynx guard and legend Lindsay Whalen, speaking to seek help if they know we aren’t about her new role as head coach of the Gopher women’s faceless employees.” basketball team, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press ”

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 11 THE LEDGER Indispensable U: Minnesota’s economic generator A February report detailing the Embracing the Bump economic impacts of the University of The U’s Tourism Center helps communities flaunt their assets. Minnesota—all five campuses—over fiscal year 2017 yielded some eye- CYNTHIA MESSER’S first job was at a snack members define themselves. After dub- popping findings. bar, and she has worked in the hospitality bing the region “MNbump,” locals have and tourism field ever since. seen a significant increase in the number ~o@$8.6 billion[fil0[L[L0@~ Now this Los Angeles transplant of tourists enjoying the area’s bicycle Combined economic impact annually directs the University of Minnesota’s trails, 26-mile-long Big Stone Lake, and for the state of Minnesota Tourism Center, which helps cities and other recreation offerings. The initiative towns across the state—regardless of also spawned a website (mnbump.com), §~$454 million~0[L[L0@~ size or location—develop their tourism which provides tourism information and Amount invested by the U in industries by using what Messer calls has become an important community research in 2017, which translated into an economic impact of over “community-engaged” research. “We go development tool for the area. into communities and listen and tap the Big Stone County is among the ~Uo~~lJ[]J]Jf@~$1.2 billion local wisdom,” she says. dozens of Minnesota communities that Case in point: Messer recently helped Messer—a 25-year veteran of the Tour- 77,664~@x01] pump up the number of visitors to ism Center, located in Coffey Hall on Number of jobs the University supports Clinton, Graceville, and Beardsley (total the St. Paul campus—and her colleagues throughout Minnesota, making the population: 1,200) in Big Stone County. have helped in the past few years. Tour- U the state’s 5th largest employer If you’re asking where the heck that is, ism is a $15 billion industry in Minnesota, you’re not alone. Indeed, identifying she points out, and employs more than a 61@~ the area’s location was one of the chief quarter million people across the state’s Percentage of U graduates who challenges in drawing tourists to this 87 counties. “We help communities see remain in the state to work after completing their degrees proudly rural region. what they can do with our research,” As it happens, these three towns clus- she says. “And when we hear a story like ~~Izl@o22~U[L[L0@~- ter in the wedge of western Minnesota MNBump it makes us feel great that $470.2 million that juts into South Dakota, a distinction we’ve made a difference.” State and local government revenue attributable to the U’s presence that Messer says helped community —Lynette Lamb §TI~o~$13.83 T_ .. The amount generated in Minnesota’s economy for every state dollar invested in the U §TI~c/41$131.4 million~0[L[L0@~ The annual community impact generated by U faculty, staff, and students through donations and volunteer time to local nonprofits o- I:>- Based on the report Economic Impact of University of Minnesota FY17, prepared by Pennsylvania-based ·-- Q consulting firm Tripp Umbach. - -- The U helped communities in Big Stone County, in western Minnesota, draw more visitors.

12 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 DISCOVERIES

Shameem Syeda and Gunda Georg are developing a promising, nonhormonal option.

shown “a number of drawbacks,” Georg says. Is the Time Right for Her team started working on nonhormonal approaches 15 years ago, after the National Insti- tutes of Health put out a call for proposals. “They Male Birth Control? saw that it’s maybe not a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket,” she says, pun intended. plant-based compound that turns “We don’t touch testosterone.” A team of U sperm into slowpokes may be the key Syeda and Georg’s most advanced project researchers to male birth control that’s effective revolves around a toxic substance produced by is pursuing and reversible with minimal side effects, African plants that’s historically been used for Athree University of Minnesota researchers believe. poison arrows. Unaltered, the extract, ouabain, is an ingenious Gunda Georg, professor of medicinal chemistry known to disrupt heart function by interfering with approach. and director of the U’s Institute for Therapeutics the proteins that transport sodium and potassium By Susan Maas Discovery and Development, and Shameem ions through cell membranes. But it also thwarts a Syeda, principal scientist at the ITDD, may have transporter protein found in mature sperm cells. an edge on other researchers developing oral Together with colleague Jon Hawkinson, contraceptives for men: Their compound is research professor of medicinal chemistry and nonhormonal, so it shouldn’t cause the weight ITDD associate program director, Syeda and Georg gain, libido changes, and potential cardiovascular devised a ouabain derivative that doesn’t affect risks associated with hormonal pills. the heart. “We took ouabain as a starting point and For decades, different versions of a male created a molecule, using chemical modifications, hormonal birth control pill have come and gone that’s a very selective, potent molecule,” Syeda

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 13 ‘Sluggish’ sperm reduced side effects, but any adverse consequences have been In other words, fast-swimming sperm are rendered listless and deal-killers for male contraceptives in the past. That, despite the ineffectual. “With this approach, sperm are turning sluggish,” fact that for decades, women have put up with the downsides of Georg says. And based on what they’ve seen in rat models, the oral contraceptives. change doesn’t impact sperm produced later. “We’ve seen some evidence that it would be reversible; it works only on the mature Sharing contraceptive responsibility sperm,” Syeda adds. “Once treatment is stopped, it doesn’t In part, women have been more willing than men to tolerate oral show any effect on the new sperm.” contraceptive risks because pregnancy and childbirth also carry Georg doesn’t anticipate long-term effects. “It’s not affecting potential health impacts. But, with better male contraceptives on sperm development, it’s not interfering with cell division or any the horizon and changing cultural norms in many countries, the era processes related to DNA,” she says. “It just affects motility as of male birth control may finally be arriving. “People are changing, far as we know.” they’re more accepting,” Syeda says. “In India, for instance, older A recent clinical finding in China affirms the U team’s line of generations maintain that contraception is [only] for women, not inquiry. It turns out ouabain is naturally produced in small amounts men. But when we look at the younger generation, they are not in humans—and “men who have elevated endogenous ouabain are thinking that way. They want to share the responsibility.” infertile compared to men who have normal levels,” Georg says. Georg agrees, and believes consumer demand will drive The team’s next step is to conduct rat “mating trials” that interest from pharmaceutical companies, which thus far have they hope will be funded by the NIH. “Then we need to shown less-than-enthusiastic support for male oral contracep- establish that fertility comes back, and that the rats’ [post- tive research. “I think there’s going to be dialogue about it; contraceptive] offspring are healthy—and that there are no I’m quite convinced that this will be accepted,” Georg says. potential toxicities,” Georg says. “If we’re lucky, we could be “Obviously not by everybody, because not everyone accepts doing a clinical trial in five years.” contraception in general. Shortly after the U study was published in the March 8Jour - “We’ve gotten many emails from men saying ‘when you start nal of Medicinal Chemistry, another male contraceptive made the clinical trial, I’m ready.’ And as more men take it up, the headlines as University of Washington and UCLA researchers interest will grow. We want to expand opportunities for people moved forward on a hormonal birth control pill, called to decide whether and when they want to start families.” dimethandrolone undecanoate, that temporarily suppresses testosterone and two other hormones required for fertility. That Susan Maas is a Minneapolis-based writer and editor. She is also Min- iteration of hormonal birth control seems to show significantly nesota Alumni’s longtime copy editor.

Shelling Out for Seemore U students create a 3D printed exoshell for an injured green sea turtle. About a decade ago, a sea the U’s Veterinary Hospital, a turtle—now named See- team of mostly undergradu- more—was hit by a boat in ate students began working Florida, damaging her shell on a solution. They designed and trapping air beneath it. a shell prosthesis—called an The injury made it hard for exoshell—and, using equip- her to dive. After spending ment from the U’s Institute time in a turtle hospital in for Engineering in Medicine Florida, Seemore came 3D Printing Core, printed a to the Sea Life Minnesota prototype. They fitted the Aquarium in 2011. Caregivers 3D prototype exoshell on there attach weights to her Seemore in early 2018 and shell to help her dive. But, hope to have a permanent the solution is far from ideal. model this summer. (H/T to

So, after a 2017 CT scan at Deane Morrison.) O’Leary Patrick

14 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 DISCOVERIES

No Gain: Study casts ation of opioids—which have stream flows are high. (Other ing the restrooms you use and been heavily marketed as the conservation practices are whether or not you should serve doubt on opioid most effective pain relief avail- effective during lower flow con- in the military. Meanwhile, there’s effectiveness able—as a first-line treatment. ditions but get overwhelmed by an issue that doesn’t get as much The study was published higher water levels.) public attention that may be criti- As the opioid crisis generates in March in the Journal of the It’s an important finding, cal when it comes to your daily daily headlines and takes center American Medical Association. given that the protected status life: access to health care. stage in public policy debates, The U’s School of Public University of Minnesota and Min- Health confronted that chal- neapolis VA Health Care System lenge head on by contributing researchers have discovered to a national study that shows something truly surprising about transgender and GNC individu- these highly addictive—and als experience reduced access sometimes fatal—prescription to care, which could have drugs: When it comes to treating negative consequences for certain back, knee, and hip pain, their long-term health. Led by they’re no more effective than U Assistant Professor Carrie nonopioid alternatives such as Henning-Smith and Vanderbilt acetaminophen. University Assistant Professor This research began when Gilbert Gonzales (Ph.D. ’15), Erin Krebs, M.D., an associate researchers compiled data professor of medicine at the from the 2014-2015 Behavioral U and the trial’s lead author, Risk Factor Surveillance Sys- was a medical fellow in North tem, a survey of U.S. residents Carolina. She noticed her of rivers and streams is uncer- that looks at health-related patients with chronic back pain Buffer Zones: tain under the Clean Water Act risk behaviors, chronic health and arthritic hips and knees How wetlands and court rulings expected this conditions, and the use of weren’t experiencing relief from year could determine whether preventive services. commonly prescribed opioids, protect our rivers or not they will be safeguarded The study found that not including morphine and oxy- It’s not news that nitrate in the future. “Our work shows only are transgender men codone, even when they took runoff from fertilizers has had a that wetland restoration could and women more likely to be the drugs for years. But when troubling impact on our rivers be one of the most effective uninsured than people who are Krebs looked for studies about and streams, from worsening methods for comprehensive cisgender—meaning people the long-term effectiveness of the quality of drinking water improvement of water quality who identify with the sex they opioids, she was surprised to to creating the Gulf of Mexico in the face of climate change were assigned at birth—trans- find there were none. “dead zone” at the mouth of and growing global demand gender men are less likely to So, together with colleagues the Mississippi River. But while for food,” said study coauthor have a physician they rely on for in Minnesota and Indiana, Krebs the ramifications of nitrate con- Jacques Finlay, a professor in U’s routine care. As a result, trans- undertook a 12-month random- centrations have been studied College of Biological Sciences. gender and GNC individuals ized trial involving 240 patients extensively, there has been This research was published are more likely to have missed a in VA primary care clinics. Half comparatively little research on in January in Nature Geoscience. physical in the past year. the group was treated with how to mitigate the damage. This study was published in opioids, the other half with That’s set to change now that December in the The Milbank nonopioid pain relievers such researchers from the College Unequal Protection: Quarterly. (H/T to U science as acetaminophen and topical of Science and Engineering’s and news writer Charlie Plain.) lidocaine. The results showed St. Anthony Falls Laboratory Transgender that not only did the group and the College of Biological Americans and receiving the nonopioids experi- Sciences have determined health care ence more improvement in pain that wetlands can be up to five WHAT DO YOU THINK? intensity, they also had fewer times more efficient at reducing If you are transgender or a Send letters and comments to side effects. nitrates in water than the best person who is gender noncon- [email protected] Medical experts hope those land-based nitrogen mitigation forming (GNC), you’ve grown

iStock conclusions lead to a reevalu- strategies, especially when accustomed to the public debat-

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 15 THE BELL COMES ALIVE

This polar bear has been in the Bell’s collection for decades, but has never been on display. Until now.

16 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 Nature gives up its secrets at the U’s epic new Bell Museum and Planetarium

By John Rosengren • Photos by Sara Rubinstein

The Bell Museum has molted. It has left its oil on canvass adhered to the curved walls. Florence cramped, dilapidated quarters on the University of Jaques added secret details to her husband’s work Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus for a sustainable like the small critter hidden on the ground in the tall design of local granite, steel, white pine, and glass grass among the sandhill cranes that one can uncover set among a pond and grassy fields on the St. Paul by zooming in on a touchscreen. Once the paintings campus. Established in 1872 as the state’s natural his- were in place, taxidermists Walter Breckenridge and tory museum, the Bell has evolved from a collection John Jarosz constructed the scenes with such care of Minnesota still lifes into a dynamic, interactive that it is difficult to distinguish where the floor ends journey that explores our place in space and time. and the wall begins. When doors open in July, you can try to seduce The wolf diorama tells how the museum got its for- a sandhill crane with a mating dance. You can walk mer home on Church Street and University Avenue. around a freshly constructed, life-size woolly mam- James Ford Bell, General Mills founder and faithful moth from prehistoric Minnesota. And the second conservationist, wanted to promote the nobility of floor rotunda invites you, among suspended planets, wolves at a time when they were despised as vermin, to ponder questions inked on the walls such as “Are but the museum’s location at the time (just east of we really made of stars?” Coffman Union) didn’t have the space to accom- Thirty percent bigger than its former home, the modate a wolf diorama. So, Bell donated half the $79 million building, wrapped around a 120-seat funds for a new building. The diorama, completed in planetarium, features an expanded Touch & See Lab, 1942, depicts three wolves hunting on Shovel Point is topped by an observation deck and green roof, in Tettegouche State Park. Jaques painted a deer includes a new gallery to highlight faculty research, among the birch trees and Breckenridge and Jarosz and has space to display temporary exhibits and made plaster casts of the rocks at the site to recre- items from the Bell’s expansive collection of 1.2 mil- ate them. Bounty hunters contributed the wolves. lion specimens. The world-famous dioramas remain The hunting scene casts the wolves as seen in the the backbone of the museum. Each one tells a story wild, in their natural setting, rather than in artificial on its surface—and more underneath. poses, a portrayal that set the tone for future diora- Francis Lee Jaques, a renowned wildlife artist who mas. It made the once undesirable wolves desirable. spent part of his youth on a farm in Aitkin, Minnesota, “These wolves were not understood at the time, and worked as an artist at the American Museum but now they’re being used to teach people about of Natural History in New York City, returned the value of wolves in North America,” says Andria to Minnesota in the 1940s to paint the diorama Waclawski, Bell Museum communications manager. backgrounds. He traveled to the settings for each The moose diorama tells the story of Breckenridge’s scene, where he made sketches and painted color ingenuity. After blocking out the scene, Breck—as keys (color film was not reliable at the time), then he was known—set out in 1944 with several other returned to create amazingly realistic scenes with museum staff members and Pat Patterson of the

SummerSummer 20182018 MMINNESOTAINNESOTA ALUMNIALUMNI 1717 Terry Chase, of Missouri-based Chase Studio, maps specimins before they are removed from the wolf diorama and moved to the new museum. Right: The gray wolves in their new home, cleaned and refreshed, still standing before a Francis Lee Jaques landscape. Courtesy Bell Museum Bell Courtesy Courtesy Bell Museum Bell Courtesy

18 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on a hunt south of the Canadian border. Patterson shot a moose that Breck thought would be too small but since they had a hunting permit for only one, he had to make do. They nailed together two logs as a stretcher to drag the moose with a tractor back to camp, where Breck photographed the carcass from various angles and made plaster molds of the eye and nose before he skinned it. He removed the legs and head as well as the flesh. Back at the museum, Breck, who had practiced taxidermy since he was a teenager, reconstructed the musculature of the moose with papier-maché over a makeshift skeleton using the measurements he had taken in the field. “The skin, which had been tanned without disturbing the hair, was preserved and cemented on the statue of the animal,” he wrote in his notes. He also fitted it with glass eyes made from the molds he had taken. But there was a problem. At six feet, the animal Breck had initially thought was too small was actually too tall for the diorama. Since the setting was to be the muddy shore of Gun- flint Lake, he cut off three of the moose’s feet and sank the legs “deep into the mud with one leg lifted to show the character of the foot with its split hoof.”

Jeff McNamara of Virginia-based Design and Production Incorporated installs a Rejuvenating the dioramas touchscreen that provides information about Moving to the new Bell required equal ingenuity. To extract the tundra swans and their surroundings in the dioramaswhich measure about 24 feet wide by 10 feet this restored diorama. Visitors can access a deep and weigh around 5,000 pounds—from their old home, “bring it to life” video, field guide information, workers had to cut the wall paintings into pieces, punch an and a “search it” function (inset, left).

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 19 Before and after. As part opening into the side of the building, cart them of the restoration process, out on steel dollies, transport them by flatbed experts removed decades across the river, lower them by crane through a of dust and smoke damage wall left open in the new construction, carefully from the animals. They also touched up feathers reassemble the paintings, then meticulously paint and this elk’s tongue. over the cutlines so they are not discernible. The flora and fauna were moved with similar care. Many of the models had not been cleaned since their installation in the ’40s and ’50s. Sediment from a nearby coal-burning power plant, smoke from visitors’ cigarettes, and natural dust had seeped into the unsealed display cases. Every- thing was gently dusted before the move, and the wall paintings were swaddled in shrink-wrap that These vintage botanical lightly adhered to the paintings and peeled off a models are made of wood Museum Bell Courtesy layer of dust when removed. and papier-maché. Museum workers spent months painstakingly cleaning and reconstructing the scenes in their new home. Each of the hundreds of leaves in the wood duck diorama, for instance, was gently washed by hand and glued in place on the ground. The red plumage, which had faded on a rose- breasted grosbeak, was touched up with a special dry pigment. An elk’s tongue was repainted pink. Drawing from clues in the scenes and notes from the artists’ journals, restoration experts made adjustments as they reconstructed the dioramas to enhance their verisimilitude. They scattered molted feathers among the snow geese, lowered plants behind the elk, rippled the water dammed by beavers, and moistened the mud tromped by the moose. Now set behind nearly invisible double-paned glass with LED lighting in climate- controlled cases, the scenes provide even more realistic snapshots from around the state.

Technology drives insights In the new museum, old specimens remain fresh in what they have to teach us, thanks to DNA analysis. “These older specimens allow us to travel back in time,” says George Weiblen, the Bell’s science director and a U professor of plant and microbial biology. “They are a point of reference that show how we’ve changed and where we’re headed.” An interactive gallery in the permanent exhibit space showcases the discoveries being made by U researchers around the planet and from within the existing collection. Plaques and sketches explain a new bacteria a University team found living far underground in the Soudan mine on the

20 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 The Bell Museum’s full-scale woolly mammoth and Castoroides, or giant beaver, are biological replicas fabricated at Blue Rhino Studio in Eagan, Minnesota. They are part of a walk-through diorama depicting animals that roamed this region during the last ice age. On the far right, we see a clay model from an early stage of the design process.

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 21 The Bell’s famed Touch & See Lab was the first of its kind in the country. By allowing visitors to interact with bones, feathers, and fur, a 1960s public education coordinator named Richard Barthelemy brought learning out from behind the glass.

22 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 Iron Range and several species of fig tree Weiblen gathered in New Guinea. Weiblen named one of the new figsFicus rubrivestimenta, or “fig of the red cloth,” because indigenous people use its dye to decorate grass skirts. No scientist had previously identified the tree as a unique species. Insects led him to another new strain of fig tree when he observed them showing preference for one over another while pollinating. “They could tell them apart but botanists couldn’t,” he says. Once he examined the figs’ DNA, he found microscopic differences among specimens that had already been collected but not yet identified as unique. “We often find new species among old specimens,” Weiblen says. “We are able to use DNA preserved in specimens to see how they are related and divergent.” That’s how Sharon Jansa, U associate professor of ecology, evolution, and behavior, discovered a new species of mammal. She explains on a kiosk video how genetic sequencing on a mouse that once lived in the trees of the Philippines allowed her to identify its lineage. Her specialty is mapping evolutionary history, the way genes are transferred among populations. “A certain excitement happens in front of the computer screen,” Jansa says. “The Bell is critical to understanding biodiversity as part of the bigger network of natural history museums and their collections throughout the world.” The specimens in the dioramas and elsewhere The polar bear waits to move into its new home in the Bell’s global “diversity wall,” in the Bell’s vast collection, gathered before along with other specimens from the museum’s vast collection of fungi, fish, and mammals. The etched glass in the foreground is a depiction of the tree of life. most visitors were born, continue to be useful in new ways. For instance, the wood duck diorama, completed in 1952, depicts flowers and plants beginning to bloom in late April. Now, those same flowers and plants bloom a month earlier, provid- IF YOU GO... ing valuable documentation of climate change. Bell Museum grand opening, Ultimately, the museum challenges us in the July 13-15 way we see and live in our world today at a time 2088 Larpenteur Avenue West, St. Paul when the rapid pace of daily life can distract us from looking closely at our natural surroundings. 612-626-9660 “Hopefully this inspires you the next time you’re bellmuseum.umn.edu outside—camping or even in your backyard—to UMAA members receive a appreciate how much life is around you,” Waclawski discount on Bell membership. says. “We’re empowering people to see more.” Museum Bell Courtesy The grounds of the museum form a “living John Rosengren is an award-winning journalist based in laboratory” with a pond, pollinator garden, and Minneapolis and an adjunct instructor at the Hubbard other sustainable landscaping. An enormous School of Journalism and Mass Communication. sundial adorns the parking lot.

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 23 DESIGNED WITH NATURE IN MIND Alumnus and lead Bell Museum architect David Dimond takes us on an insider’s tour. By Lynette Lamb

David Dimond has designed prominent buildings all over the world, including a convention center in South Korea and the U.S. embassy in Chile, but rarely has he been so excited about a project as he is about the new Bell Museum on the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus. Dimond (B.Arch. ’89), the son of an architect, is the design principal at the Minneapolis office of Perkins+Will. He is also a hometown boy, the youngest of eight children, who grew up in St. Paul’s Crocus Hill neighborhood. Despite coming of age surrounded by blueprints, Dimond didn’t immediately gravitate to the U’s architecture school. When he graduated from high school in the 1970s, his father’s business had hit a rough patch, making tuition money impossible to come by. Instead, Dimond worked on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Plant, and later as a flight attendant. He was in his early 20s before he began studying architecture. By then he was married, and by the time he completed his degree, Dimond and his wife, Gail, had three children (the youngest graduated from the U in 2016 with her own M.Arch.). On a recent tour of the new Bell with Dimond, it was obvious that even after 30 years of practice, his enthusiasm for architecture remains undiminished. He pointed out some of the many unique and noteworthy features he and his 14 Perkins+Will colleagues carefully worked into the 90,000 square foot museum. Building images courtesty Perkins+Will Building Francis Lee Jaques’s famous The building’s exterior is partially To give the museum a “gateway to dioramas influenced the covered in Minnesota eastern white the University” street presence, it building’s exterior design, pine, thermally modified or “cooked” was built as close as possible to the says Dimond. “We wanted to eliminate most moisture (thus corner of Larpenteur and Cleveland the building to be a series of allowing it to last decades without Avenues. At night, the museum will beautiful ‘story’ boxes that further treatment). And the exterior glow from within. A stunning, enor- would captivate audiences on steel, made from Minnesota iron mous Minnesota ice age scene, the outside just as Jaques’s ore, will naturally weather to create complete with woolly mammoth, will dioramas do on the inside.” a permanent, protective patina. be visible from the street. 24 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 \ / / r /

The building is designed to have an open, airy feel. Two entrances allow for multiple groups of visitors to enter with ease. (Bell staff expect up to 50,000 schoolchildren per year.) And large windows encourage patrons to experience what Dimond calls “a monumental connection to the outdoors.” These windows led to discussions with the curatorial staff, he says. “They were understandably worried about fading the exhibits.” The solution? The architects “carefully oriented the glass,” chose glass that blocks most UV light, and installed daylight sensors on window shades. All window glass is bird-safe, silk screened with ceramic lines that are invisible to humans from a distance. Nature is woven into the design, inside and out. The lobby’s terrazzo-like polished concrete floor features a blue and green depiction of a flowing river. And, in the courtyard outside, there stands a trio of large stone cylinders, granite plugs pulled from the ground in Northern Minnesota during a long-ago mining operation. Sara Rubinstein Sara

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 25 DANCING WITH THE STARS

The Bell Museum’s new planetarium brings the universe home. By Deane Morrison

Stretched out in a tilt-back seat, a space traveler shoots up into the void. In seconds, Earth recedes to a blue dot, the solar system shrinks to a bubble, and a faint blur grows and resolves into a star circled by Located on the St. Paul campus, the new seven tiny exoplanets. The year: 2018. 120-seat planetarium employs space-age Once the realm of science fiction, virtual tools for sending visitors anywhere in the journeys through the stars—or along any universe. Using laser light from two high- other path traced by science—will become resolution digital projectors, it casts images Sally Brummel. “We can [display] the classic reality in July, when the Whitney and onto a screen that mimics the natural dome night sky, any time or from any place. We’re Elizabeth MacMillan Planetarium opens of the sky. The screen comprises 226 alu- not limited to viewing space from Earth. We at the University of Minnesota’s new Bell minum panels, seamlessly riveted together just enter the coordinates and time, and we Museum. The unveiling restores and and attached to a suspended frame. The get there right away. enhances an experience lost to the region structure weighs over 12,000 pounds. “Anything you can show on a computer, when the planetarium at the former Min- “We’re the first in the world to have this you can show in the planetarium,” she adds.

neapolis Central Library closed in 2002. kind of screen,” says planetarium manager “But a computer can’t immerse you in a Anderson Kristi by • Photo illustration Rubinstein Sara

26 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 U physics and astrophysics student Kaitlin Ehret, who works at the Bell as an education assistant, takes in the Veil Nebula at the new planetarium.

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 27 “TOGETHER WITH OUR AUDIENCES, WE WILL BE ABLE TO EXPLORE

THOSE ‘BIG QUESTIONS’ WE ALL The planetarium’s programming extends to a new ASK FROM TIME TO TIME. permanent museum exhibit, “Life in the Universe.” It will ” cover, among other topics, “how Earth formed and what the requirements are for a planet to be able to host life,” says U astrophysics professor Lawrence Rudnick, who helped design the installation. With input from a cross section of U scientists, the planetarium is poised to help students and the public see Earth in new ways. Brummel is working on stories about Minnesota water, using technology that can project up-to-date images of state and global water patterns on the planetarium screen. “We can see rivers and lakes and overlay data that show, for example, what’s happening in different lakes,” she explains. Adds Rudnick: “In its new digital form, the planetarium allows us to share U of M research—the discoveries the public is paying for—with the public.” If the planetarium has a main goal, it’s to generate for visitors the sense of adventure and delight scientists feel whenever nature reveals a secret. “Our mission means meeting audiences where they are and opening their eyes to the world researchers see when they investigate the cosmos, or when they study how a raindrop makes its way from a Minnesota field through the ground- water system into the Mississippi Here we see the River and, ultimately, the Gulf of Bell’s new permanent scene the way the planetarium can.” Utilizing 360-degree Mexico,” says George Weiblen, Bell Museum science exhibit, “Life in the views, the planetarium’s first show will be an original pro- director and curator of plants. “We can also flow along Universe,” while still duction, written by celebrated Minnesota author Shawn with blood through the human circulatory system, or fly in progress. Otto, about the state’s place in the cosmos. with migrating birds and butterflies, all of which can be Visitors eager to see actual stars and planets can do visualized on a digital dome.” so from the planetarium’s outdoor observation deck, Bell Executive Director Denise Young says she is located on the museum’s roof. It will be outfitted with excited to be part of returning a public planetarium to telescope mounts, with observing possible both at night Minnesota, especially given its extraordinary versatil- and, thanks to solar filters, during the day. While the ity. “Together with our audiences in the planetarium, planetarium will focus on exotic objects like the Trappist-1 we will be able to explore those ‘big questions’ we stellar system—the aforementioned star orbited by seven all ask from time to time,” she says. “We’ll be able to dwarf exoplanets—the telescopes will reveal more acces- wonder together.” A\ sible jewels like lunar craters, several moons of Jupiter, and the Orion Nebula, a gigantic sweep of bright gas and U writer and editor Deane Morrison writes the Minnesota Star- dust where stars are forming at a breakneck pace. watch newsletter for the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics.

28 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 AMONG THE BUGS Alumnus David “It’s like a butterfly,” says David Neitzel, as he As illnesses linked to “vectors,” such as ticks and helps me adjust the focus on the microscope in his mosquitos, appear in and spread across the state, Neitzel’s job with windowside cubicle at the Minnesota Department Neitzel is on the scene, gathering information and the state health of Health in St. Paul. telling the public how to avoid falling prey. When department Neitzel (B.S. ’84, M.S. ’90) is an epidemiologist the tick-triggered red meat allergy known as “alpha- and the state’s go-to bug guy. He supervises the gal”—normally found farther south and linked to will make your health department’s Vectorborne Disease Unit, the lone star tick—surfaced in Minnesota recently, skin crawl. and he sees nuance and beauty in insects that most Neitzel explained that lone star ticks are still rare in By Elizabeth Foy Larsen people would prefer to simply swat and kill. Today, the state, but moving north. he’s talking about the scales on the wings of Aedes He’s scouted local car tire dealers to discover Asian triseriatus, better known as the eastern tree hole tiger mosquitoes, which were accidentally imported mosquito, a noted carrier of La Crosse encephalitis. into the United States through shipments of tires Any resemblance between this delicate gray from South Korea and are possible carriers of the arthropod and nature’s showiest pollinator is lost Zika virus. In 2002, he was part of a team that identi- on me. But Neitzel’s genuine affection for these fied West Nile virus for the first time in Minnesota, an creatures keeps me looking. The tree hole mosquito, event that became an immersion experience in talk- he explains, is similar in appearance to the Japanese ing to the press. And, in 2016, he and a team identified rock pool mosquito, except that its body is more Borrelia mayonii, a novel species of bacteria that silvery and it doesn’t have bands of white on its legs. causes an especially virulent form of Lyme disease in The way Neitzel tells it, these markers are as distinct the upper Midwest. “One of the constants in our field as the plumage on a bird or leaves on a tree. is that the world’s a small place and people are mov- For more than three decades, Neitzel has been ing around all the time and will assist the movement on the front lines of identifying, monitoring, and of other animals and pathogens,” he says. preventing vectorborne diseases in Minnesota. Neitzel’s accomplishments are impressive, but he Mark Luinenburg Mark

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 29 wears them lightly. “He’s an easygoing, lighthearted guy,” says, with complete sincerity. “I think knowledge is power says Daniel Ziemann, one of Neitzel’s student workers, when it comes to vectorborne diseases. I know exactly who recently received his master’s from the University when and where I’m at risk when I’m in the field.” of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. “He has good In fact, Neitzel looks forward to the 10 percent of his stories about being out in the field for years and years” job that’s spent outdoors monitoring ticks and mosquitos and revels in sharing them. (the rest of the year he and his team are analyzing and As a child growing up in what was then known as Leba- reporting data). Each spring, just as the final snow non Township—now called Apple Valley—Neitzel displayed melts, Neitzel heads out into the woods to perform tick an interest in natural science from an early age. “My mom surveys. Dressed in a pair of white coveralls with duct likes to tell me that she knew I’d be a biologist from birth,” tape wrapped around his ankles, he drags a white canvas he says. “They actually have a home movie of me crawling cloth behind him. And then he counts: blacklegged in our front yard in a diaper. I picked up a snake and it was ticks (better known as deer ticks), wood ticks, and any biting me but I was too busy looking at it to care.” other species that might cling to the drag cloth. Neitzel’s Neitzel spent his childhood largely outdoors, forging a research has shown that, contrary to popular belief, strong connection to nature. “I spent a lot of time watch- blacklegged ticks, which carry myriad diseases including ing the change of seasons and how that affects all sorts Lyme disease, prefer the humid conditions of the forest of different things,” he says. When he started at the U in floor to open, grassy patches. 1980, Neitzel explored that interest more deeply, major- Neitzel and his team bring the ticks back to the ing in wildlife management. Unfortunately, at the time Department of Health, where they identify them and test for six different disease agents. By this means and others, WHEN IT they track the appearance and spread of vectorborne “KNOWLEDGE IS POWER diseases in order to assess risk levels for people across COMES TO VECTORBORNE DISEASES. I Minnesota. (Neitzel calls Camp Ripley, a National Guard training site in Little Falls, a “tick wonderland.”) Over the KNOW EXACTLY WHEN AND WHERE I’M course of his career, he’s seen enormous shifts, including AT RISK WHEN I’M IN THE FIELD. the rise of Lyme disease and West Nile virus. ” At the department’s monitoring station in Itasca State Park, for example, Neitzel says that as recently as the Neitzel earned his degree, he says the primary employers mid-1990s, there were very few blacklegged ticks. Today, for graduates with his experience were the Minnesota his team consistently finds them. Neitzel says this change Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and could be due to a variety of factors, including a string of Wildlife Service, both of which had hiring freezes. warmer winters, an increase in the population of whitetail Not having a ready-made path turned out to be an deer (which ticks like to feed and breed on), and a opportunity, however, as the lack of employment options change in logging practices that has resulted in younger made Neitzel wonder about other biology-related fields forests with more brush. where he could have an impact. He remembered a class Neitzel recounts this development with the kind of he took at the U on wildlife diseases. “Learning about detail and enthusiasm you’d associate with a statistics- diseases and how they affect wildlife and how disease obsessed baseball fan. But, his students say, he’s a natural agents can jump from wildlife to people was always very storyteller. Which, it turns out, is a good thing, consider- interesting to me,” he says. ing the public’s growing awareness of the dangers of In 1987, Neitzel enrolled in the U’s Environmental vectorborne diseases. “Whenever my wife and I go to Health graduate program, which offered a focus in various social occasions she actually gets a little irritated public health biology. While at school, he started an with me because people will ask her, what do you do? internship at the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District She’ll say, ‘I’m an accountant,’” he says. “And then they’ll in St. Paul, one of the largest mosquito control agencies ask me what I do and then it stimulates a conversation.” in the world. He created and launched the district’s Those unconventional ice breakers are just another vectorborne disease surveillance and control program, way Neitzel leans into the same bugs most of us are which still operates today. eager to avoid. “I think people understand that the more It would be easy to assume that his extensive knowl- they know, the better they can protect themselves.” .M. edge of disease-carrying bugs puts Neitzel on guard every time he leaves the house. “Just the opposite,” he Elizabeth Foy Larsen is Minnesota Alumni’s senior editor.

30 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 U scientists were thrilled when they spotted wolf pups at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve. But with the wolves came promises and perils. By Emily Sohn A PREDATOR’S RETURN The first time University of Minnesota ecologist Forest Isbell saw the wolves, it was a crisp and sunny Monday morning in May 2015, and he was sitting in the passenger seat of a pickup truck. At the wheel was Jim Krueger, the building and grounds supervisor at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve—a 5,600-acre wildlife oasis located 35 miles north of Minneapolis and one of the U’s primary natural laboratories for long-term ecological research. The previous weekend, Krueger had spotted half a dozen wolf pups in a grassy field in the middle of the reserve. When Isbell heard about the sighting, the ecologist asked Krueger to drop everything and take him there. Neither expected to see the wolves out in the open. But after driving on a dirt road most of the way around the field, Krueger stopped the truck. Beneath a pine tree about 15 feet away were eight adorable wolf pups, tumbling over each other. Isbell, whose research has long focused on plants and soil, was so enamored of their playfulness that he says he felt like a kid again. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Isbell, a soft-spoken native of northern Iowa, whose two young children fight over the family’s one wolf stuffed animal. This was the first time in at least 100 years that a wolf den had been spotted so close to the Twin Cities; it was little more than a half hour’s drive from the metro. Trail cameras captured images of wolves discovered at the U’s Cedar New territories Creek reserve, near the Twin Cities. Right away, Isbell began to dream about the research possibilities. The arrival of the wolves in Cedar Creek would offer an opportunity to study basic yet poorly understood questions around what happens to a landscape when top predators return. “I’ll be honest,” says Isbell, who now leads a team of five researchers studying the wolves of Cedar Creek, “the wheels started turning immediately in my mind.” Next, he started to wonder—and worry—about the people living near Cedar Creek in the adjacent city of East Bethel. As wolves have been expanding into new territories around the world, they have been causing trouble for humans. In the months after the den was discovered, the new arrivals were suspected of killing two dogs and a calf. People complained, and federal trappers euthanized most of the wolves, including the Cedar Creek breeding pair and some of their year-old pups. At least one wolf still visits the reserve on a regular basis. Now, as Minnesota’s protected wolf population continues to grow and expand, Cedar Creek researchers are waiting for more wolves to arrive. In the meantime, they are also exploring ways to keep the peace, including educational efforts to help Photos courtesy Jacob Miller Jacob courtesy Photos

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 31 neighbors protect their animals from wolves. If they can lived near Lake Mille Lacs, about 65 miles north of Cedar pull it off, the achievement will attract international atten- Creek, with lone wolves occasionally wandering toward tion. “We expect the wolves will continue to come back,” the Twin Cities. The 2015 den was a sign that wolves were Isbell says. “If they don’t cause trouble, we may be able to comfortable enough to settle close to the metro. learn to coexist with wolves in this part of the state.” Luck is only part of the reason that wolves wandered The Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve into such a well established outdoor laboratory, says doubles as an environmental enclave and a field station, Nancy Gibson, cofounder of the International Wolf cramming all of Minnesota’s major ecosystems into nine Center in Ely. Young wolves typically strike out in search square miles of grasslands, oak savannas, bogs, and of new territories, and Cedar Creek offers a protected more. There is one big lake, a few smaller ones, a creek, landscape full of deer and other prey. Her hope is that and a few trails that offer access to the public. But most the return of wolves to the area will help restore an of the reserve’s pines, cedars, and maples remain off elusive balance between predators and prey, potentially limits to all except gophers, eagles, bears, deer, otters, controlling problems ranging from Lyme disease to deer- and fishers—and the scientists involved in the longest- caused crop damage. “You have to remember, these running ecological study in the world. animals evolved together,” Gibson says. “When you have Since the 1940s, University of Minnesota research- an ecosystem that doesn’t have a predator around, it ers have mined Cedar Creek for data, measuring might be fine for humans. But it isn’t fine for the habitat.” everything from rainfall and rodent density to sapling Nobody expects Minnesota to return to what it growth and rabbit numbers. It’s an unrivaled wealth of was before the wolves disappeared from the region a information. “We have more data of what’s going on century ago. But Cedar Creek researchers are eager to in the last few decades in Cedar Creek than literally see what will happen next. Isbell has set up a grid of more anywhere else on Earth,” Isbell says, adding that the than 100 thermal, motion-sensing trail cameras. Fences reserve was the site of the very first biodiversity study have been erected so the team can compare landscapes in the world. That kind of long-term information offers with and without predators or prey. And, accompanied a unique opportunity to look beyond year-to-year by U of M wolf expert David Mech, Palmer plans to lug variability and instead connect dots between trends, buckets of wolf urine and scat into the reserve to see adds ecologist Meredith Palmer, a U of M postdoctoral how prey react to signs of a predator they may not have researcher who has worked in Tanzania, South Africa, encountered in decades. and other countries with the U’s lion researcher Craig Based on her work in Africa, Palmer is prepared for the Packer. “Cedar Creek is bursting at the gills with data,” unexpected. When lions were reintroduced to reserves she says. “It’s a data set people dream about.” after a long absence, she says, the “landscape of fear” At least until 2015, eight decades’ worth of data from had been disrupted, and some prey populations didn’t Cedar Creek had been collected in the absence of seem to know how to protect themselves. Nobody is wolves. Members of the dog family, wolves were once certain whether Cedar Creek’s deer and other potential widespread across the continental United States, includ- wolf prey will act similarly unfazed, or if they will alter ing in Minnesota. But hunting, habitat destruction, and a their movements, in turn affecting the plants they eat and federal poisoning program pummeled their populations the entire ecosystem. throughout the early 20th century. By the 1950s, Min- Equally uncertain is how attitudes will evolve within nesota’s wolf numbers had declined to fewer than 750. adjacent communities, says Isbell. On a cold April Most lived in the northeast corner of the state. afternoon in his office on the St. Paul campus, he scrolled through images of Cedar Creek’s inaugural wolf pack, Landscape of fear captured by trail cameras in May 2016. For him, it was a sad Gray wolves were listed as endangered under the day when trappers came and took the wolves away. Now, Endangered Species Preservation Act in 1967. After his team is partnering with the International Wolf Center a brief delisting, they regained threatened status in to communicate with neighbors and increase the possibil- Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan in 2014. Those ity for interspecies acceptance. “Most Minnesotans like protections allowed them to rebound. By 2017, according wolves, but most don’t like to live close to wolves,” Isbell to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, says. “Whether we can coexist has yet to be seen.” Minnesota was home to more than 2,800 wolves. And as Emily Sohn is a freelance journalist in Minneapolis whose stories their populations have grown, they have moved farther have appeared in the Washington Post, Nature, bioGraphic, and south and west. Since the 1990s, packs of wolves have other publications.

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he University o Minnesota is an eual opportunity educator and employer Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 33 Back to 1869, these women served as the University of Minnesota presidents’ indispensable partners.

By Ann Pflaum and Jay Weiner First With an introduction by Karen Kaler Mates

HE ROLE OF University of Minnesota president’s during a renovation—she and President Keller spouse began as a largely social one. But, moving washed dishes in a bathtub. I am awed by how through time, University “first ladies”—yes, so she handles life with grace. far they have all been women—championed Judy Yudof is a great example of a modern presi- causes, drove fundraising efforts, and served as dential partner. She ran an important international important ambassadors. organization—the United Synagogue of Conserva- I count myself lucky to have gotten to know tive Judaism—while in the role. She oversaw an partners of five of the previous 15 presidents. All Eastcliff remodeling project, and those embellish- five lived at Eastcliff, the official residence, where ments continue to enhance the residence. Eric and I also live. All are inspirational role models Susan Hagstrum gave me much wonderful for me, remarkable women whom I greatly admire. advice and generously introduced me to some Tracy Moos is such a delightful, intelligent woman of my closest friends. She chaired the spouses/ that I increased my involvement in the University of partners executive council of the Association of Minnesota Women’s Club partly to see more of her. Public and Land-Grant Universities. I later became She carried out the duties of spouse while raising chair of that council. five children. I can’t imagine raising five children While I never met Patricia Hasselmo, she (we have two sons), much less while in this role. inspires me, too. She did wonderful work increas- Among Diane Skomars Magrath’s many ing fundraising through Friends of Eastcliff. I have undertakings was a national survey of the role of appreciated, and sought to continue, her efforts. university president’s spouse. Diane shared her files It was while searching for information about and mentored me as I joined with researchers to Patricia’s work that I noticed the University had update and expand her survey, which can be found no documentation of presidential partners. These here: conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/183467. spouses have served the University well, so I She also put together a notebook of Eastcliff infor- am delighted that Ann Pflaum, the U’s historian, mation and history; I plan to follow up with a book. undertook this research. Bonita Sindelir is a joy to know. While working as a lawyer and raising a young child, she endured the challenge of living at Eastcliff

34 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 While living in Connecticut, where matters as well. In 1912, she presented he taught at Yale, the couple had three four lectures on Guatemala through children. The family moved when he the newly established University took the job of University of Minnesota Extension program. Two years later, she president in 1884. Northrop reported presented a play she wrote, A Cowboy that his wife “spoke warmly of their in a Kurhaus, at the Shubert Theatre in new surroundings” and the couple built Minneapolis as a fund-raiser for female a house on 10th Avenue Southeast, a students. She died in 1953. 15-minute walk from campus, where they both lived until their deaths. Elizabeth Northrop was an active mem- SARAH FOLWELL: 1869-1884 ber of the First Congregational Church. Sarah Heywood was born in Buffalo, New As parents, they met hardship, outliving all York, in 1838. Her uncle was president of of their children. She died in 1922. Hobart College, located in Geneva, New York, where she met her husband, William Watts Folwell. He graduated from the college in 1857. Heywood and Folwell were married in 1863 while he took a 10-day leave from the engineering corps of the Union Army during the Civil War. They would have NINA BURTON: 1917-1920 three children. At the time Folwell became Nina Moses was born in 1875 in Faribault, the first president of the University of Minnesota. She and Marion Burton were Minnesota, in 1869, it had nine faculty classmates at Carleton College and mar- members and 14 students. ried shortly after their graduation in 1900. In 1883, as the Minneapolis Institute of They had three children. Arts and its school were being established, LOUISE VINCENT: 1911-1917 Nina Burton was concerned about the it was discovered that the school was short Louise Palmer was born in 1864 in Wilkes- well-being of female students. When of students. Sarah Folwell recruited the Barre, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Ellen her husband became president in 1917, spouses of three community leaders, all Mary Webster and Henry Wilbur Palmer, she spoke to the University Women’s noted to have “painting experience,” to who served as Pennsylvania’s attorney Self Government Association and a help fill the class. She died in 1921. general and a U.S. congressman. A gradu- historian noted: ate of Wellesley College, Louise Palmer “She laughingly remarked that being the married George Edgar Vincent in 1890 president’s wife was merely an accident and they had three children. of fate for which she deserved no credit Among Louise Vincent’s interests or blame. She said she surely belonged to were dance and physical fitness. James Minnesota because she was a Minnesota Gray, in his history of the University of girl, and had lived in nearly every small Minnesota, noted that Louise Vincent cre- town as a child, for her father was a home ated a ballroom on the third floor of the missionary. She urged all the girls to come presidential residence, the first provided to her any time, either for advice or merely by the University: as a friendly call.” “[H]ere undergraduates were turned In 1920, Marion Burton left to become free of official restraint to dance to the president of the University of Michigan, music of the piano player. At other times of where Nina Burton’s work continued. She ELIZABETH NORTHROP: 1884-1911 the day, the dance floor became a basket- helped establish a women’s faculty club in Anna Elizabeth Warren was born in ball court onto which, stately, sometimes Ann Arbor. She died in 1966. Stamford, Connecticut, in 1835. In 1862, reluctant, faculty wives were driven by Mrs. she and Cyrus Northrop married after a Vincent’s resolute devotion to exercise.” six-year courtship. She was engaged in other University

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 35 When Guy Ford joined the University faculty in 1913, Grace Ford became secretary to the board of the Faculty Women’s Club and, upon the outbreak of World War I, she represented the club in the Women’s Peace Party. That signaled her deep interest in global issues. She was the prime mover of the Women’s Club’s International Affairs MARY COFFMAN: 1920-1938 Section, focusing on topics such as the FREDA MORRILL: 1945-1960 Mary Emma Farrell was born in Paoli, Chinese-Indian border dispute, the roles Freda Rhodes and James Morrill both Indiana, in 1877. Her father was a circuit of United Nations agencies, and the Carib- grew up in Marion, Ohio. They married court judge. In 1899, Farrell married Lotus bean. Grace Ford also served as northwest in 1915, two years after Morrill graduated D. Coffman, Paoli’s high school principal. section director of the American Associa- from Ohio State University. They had As Coffman’s career advanced, the couple tion of University Women. She died in 1974. three children. moved from Indiana to Illinois to New York. The family moved from Ohio to They had two children. Wyoming, where James Morrill served as When Lotus Coffman became dean president of the University of Wyoming, of the University’s School of Education and finally to Minnesota where, in 1945, he in 1915, Mary Coffman began her long became the University’s eighth president. association with the Faculty Women’s Club Freda Morrill is said to have particularly and became known for her dedication to enjoyed working with a University archi- student welfare. tect and designer in 1946 to remodel the In 1920, when Lotus Coffman became the interior of the official residence on Fifth University’s fifth president, Mary Coffman Street Southeast. She died in 1977. said, “With a daughter already in college and a son about to enter there this fall, how can I help but be interested, heart and soul, in all that pertains to the students?” In 1945, the Women’s Club created the JENNIE COFFEY: 1941-1945 Mary Farrell Coffman Scholarship. She Jennie Lardner was born in 1880 in died in 1957. Newton County, Indiana. She was a cousin of journalist and short story writer Ring Lardner. She married Walter Coffey, of Hartsville, Indiana, in 1907, and they had two sons. The family was recruited to the Uni- versity of Minnesota in 1921, when Walter Coffey became dean of the Department of MARIAN WILSON: 1960-1967 Agriculture and director of the Experiment Marian Wilson and O. Meredith Wilson Station. Twenty years later, he became the met at Brigham Young University in 1937 University’s seventh president. when she was a student and he a history In 1943, during World War II, Jennie professor and debate team coach. They Coffey hosted the annual meeting of the married in 1938 and had six children. Faculty Women’s Club at the official resi- O. Meredith Wilson became the GRACE FORD: 1938-1941 dence of the University president—then University’s president in 1960. Soon after Grace Ellis came from a farm family in on Fifth Street Southeast—where they their arrival in Minnesota, Marian Wilson Kenosha, Wisconsin. She and Guy Stanton discussed a bandage-making effort for received a call from John Cowles, Jr., son Ford were graduates of the University of the Red Cross. She died in 1963. of the publisher of the Minneapolis Star Wisconsin-Madison. They married in 1907 Tribune. Cowles described a plan to per- and had two children. suade Irish stage director Tyrone Guthrie

36 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 to establish a theater in Minnesota, hoping in 1967 and a master’s degree from the Marian Wilson would host a lunch for Sir University of Wisconsin–Superior in 1971. Tyrone and Lady Guthrie. She immediately She was the first president’s spouse to accepted and helped facilitate this signifi- graduate from the University and the cant addition to the region. second president’s spouse (after Nina The Wilsons were the first presidential SANDRA MAGRATH: 1974-1977 Burton) to be born in Minnesota. couple to live in Eastcliff, which was Sandra Hughes and C. Peter Magrath In 1978, Skomars and University presi- donated to the University by the Edward graduated from the University of New dent C. Peter Magrath were the first and Brooks family. Marian Wilson died in 2011. Hampshire in 1955 and married the same only presidential couple to be married year. They had one child. Around this at Eastcliff. At the time, Skomars was time, while Peter Magrath served as an director of the Student Activities Center artillery officer at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, on the Twin Cities campus. Together, they Sandra Magrath worked as a decoder raised a daughter. of documents for the National Security In recognition of the substantial work- Agency. After that, when Peter served on load of the spouse of a president, Magrath the faculty of Brown University, she was a transferred $25,000 of his salary to her. proofreader for the American Mathemat- Diane Skomars Magrath and University ics Society and a copy editor at Brown professor Roger Harrold conducted a University Press. survey of the spouses of presidents. The When Peter Magrath became University survey led to a book, coedited by Skom- president in 1974, Sandra Magrath analyzed ars Magrath and Joan E. Clodius, called the role of the president’s spouse thusly: The President’s Spouse: Volunteer or TRACY MOOS: 1967-1974 “A great deal of this job is public Volunteered, with essays from spouses, Margaret “Tracy” Gager was born in 1923, relations work. I enjoy people, but I’m male and female. Skomars Magrath lives grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended not going to be a slave to their unspoken in Duluth, having retired from UMD as Goucher College in Towson, Maryland. expectations . . . I feel a wife should have director of development. She met Malcolm Moos, a Johns Hopkins a choice on how her life goes. Some University professor, while on a blind women would prefer to be left out of their double date with someone else. They were husband’s public work and pursue their married in 1945 and had five children. home and children. I think neither should The University was the scene of many be censured by the public for her lifestyle.” student demonstrations during Malcolm In 1977, Sandra and Peter Magrath Moos’s presidency. Tracy Moos recalled separated after 22 years of marriage. She the atmosphere in 1967: died in 2013. “Students for a Democratic Society threatened to blow us up. Every day they would call and say, ‘Thirteen days, twelve days, and ten days,’ like a countdown. So the police stayed [at Eastcliff] night and day, which was wonderful for me because I BONITA SINDELIR: 1985-1988 had babysitters built in.” Bonita Sindelir was born in 1946 in War- Tracy Moos established the Community road, Minnesota, and graduated valedic- Concern Section of the Faculty Women’s torian of nearby Baudette High School in Club, describing it as a “way of exploring the 1964. That fall, she attended the University whole state and the whole city and where the and studied English, drama, and speech university connected itself.” Those connec- communication. She worked part time at tions extended globally as she accompanied the University Hospitals and the Boynton her husband on trips to Morocco, related to DIANE SKOMARS MAGRATH: 1978-1984 Health Service to help cover tuition and forestry, and Tunisia, related to agriculture. A native of Duluth, Diane Skomars earned living expenses. She currently lives in St. Paul. a bachelor’s degree in communications After graduating in 1968, she taught from the University of Minnesota Duluth English and directed drama in a suburban

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 37 junior high, then studied in Mexico. In Harvard. They had three children. During 1970, she returned to the University and Nils Hasselmo’s many years at the Uni- became assistant to Graduate School versity of Minnesota—serving as faculty Dean May Brodbeck. That’s where she member, dean, vice president, and, met Associate Dean Kenneth Keller. ultimately, president—Patricia Hasselmo Sindelir went on to earn her law degree was active in, among other organizations, from the University in 1978 and joined the the Ebenezer Society, the Golden Valley U’s Office of General Counsel. School Board, and the Metropolitan In 1981, Sindelir and Keller were mar- Council. She died in 2000. ried. They had one son. In 1985, Keller became the University’s 12th president. To manage the roles of lawyer, spouse, SUSAN HAGSTRUM: 2002-2011 and mother, Sindelir reduced her work to Susan Hagstrum was born in 1948 to Hugh half time and used office vacation days Vincent Hagstrum and Barbara Shirley to attend University events. Sindelir and Hansen. Her father and his three brothers Keller currently split their time between were University of Minnesota graduates, Minnesota and Italy. and so devoted was the family to the U that her father’s middle name, Vincent, was a tribute to former U president George Edgar Vincent. After graduating from Henry Sibley High School in Mendota Heights, Hag- JUDY YUDOF: 1997-2002 strum majored in speech pathology at Judith “Judy” Gomel was born in 1945 in Northwestern University. In pursuit of her Philadelphia and graduated from Temple Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, she University with a mathematics degree. met Robert Bruininks, a faculty member After graduation, she married Mark Yudof in the College of Education. They married and took a job as a computer programmer in 1985. Two years later, she earned her while her husband attended the University Ph.D. with an emphasis on language of Pennsylvania law school. acquisition by special needs children. PATRICIA HASSELMO: 1988-1997 From 1971 through 1997, Mark Yudof was From 1987 to 2002, she held positions Patricia Tillberg was born in 1930 in a faculty member and senior administrator in schools in Mounds View, Buffalo, and Moline, Illinois. Her mother played the at the University of Texas. Their two chil- Chaska, Minnesota. organ in Lutheran churches and her dren were born during those Texas years. In 2002, Bruininks became the Univer- father was a clergyman. Mark Yudof became the 14th president sity’s 15th president and Hagstrum focused She earned a bachelor’s degree in of the University of Minnesota in 1997. her community involvement on four philosophy at Augustana College in Rock Judy Yudof served on the boards of areas: children, the arts and humanities, Island, Illinois, where she met her future the Weisman Art Museum, the Tweed education, and health. They currently live husband, Nils Hasselmo, a former Swed- Museum in Duluth, the Goldstein Gallery in Minneapolis. ish exchange student who was teaching on the St. Paul campus, Theatre Live, and a language course. After graduation, the Chairman’s Council of Twin Cities she went on to earn a master’s degree in Public Television. higher education from Syracuse Univer- In 2002, she became the first woman to sity. For a time, she served as associate be elected international president of the dean of students at Gustavus Adolphus United Synagogue of Conservative Juda- College in St. Peter, Minnesota. ism. In 2006, she was named to the U.S. Tillberg and Hasselmo married in Holocaust Memorial Council. The Yudofs 1958 and settled in Cambridge, Mas- live in Jupiter, Florida. sachusetts, as Nils earned a Ph.D. at

38 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 The first store by

KAREN KALER: 2011– Present Karen Fults was born in 1956 in Nash- ALUMNI ville, Tennessee. She earned a B.F.A. at FOR the University of Tennessee in 1977 and continued there for graduate school. YO In the summer of 1979, she was working in a UT residence hall when Eric Kaler, a graduate student doing summer research, checked in. They married that December and made their first home near the University of Minnesota campus, where he completed a Ph.D. in :-'\.' chemical engineering. She worked in the Twin Cities as a graphic designer and continued in that field as his career took them to Seattle; Newark, Delaware; and Stony Brook, New York. They raised two sons. In 2011, Eric Kaler became the University’s 16th president. Karen Kaler has followed in the footsteps of her predecessors by being active in the University of Minnesota Women’s Club, volunteering in the community, and serving as an ambassador for the University. Recently, she published a Enjoy the outdoors children’s book about Eastcliff called this summer with items Rusty Goes Swimming. She volunteers from our alumni makers. at the U of M Masonic Children’s Shop year-round at Hospital and is an avid supporter of MNAlumniMarket.com the Aurora Center for Advocacy and Education. Brought to you by

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA A note of thanks: This project would not have been possible without the research ALUMNI ASSOCIATION assistance of Mary Ford and University Archives staffers, as well as the photo exper- 10% of the sales from the market will be donated to the Alumni tise of Wally Swanson, Patrick O’Leary, and Association and will go toward resources, services, and events alumni Chris Cooper. Thanks also to Nat Wilson of have indicated are most important to them. If you are a U of M alumni the Carleton College Archives and Susan business owner interested in selling your items on this store let us know Maas, an excellent editor. MNAlumniMarket.com/maker

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 39 OFF THE SHELF An Ode to Daydreaming, the History of Angels, and a Detective’s New Case

It’s Minnesota Alumni’s quarterly books roundup. By Lynette Lamb

n this era in which no one admits to having what Hampl calls “the imagination as the crucible a spare moment and everyone brags about of freedom,” once writing, “[i]t is an absolute how busy they are, it’s surprising to come perfection and virtually divine to know how to II across a book like the new one by Patricia enjoy our being rightfully.” Hampl. The Art of the Wasted Day (Viking) is a Hampl devotes many pages to Montaigne, paean to the joys of silence, solitude, and most of struck by his insistence on the necessity of all, uninterrupted times of ease. “wasted time” spent imagining and dreaming. “It Hampl, the author of eight books is our rightful business,” Hampl paraphrases him, of poetry and prose and a longtime “to think, to muse, to wonder—to describe—using creative writing professor at the Uni- this image-beset faculty of mind for the job.” versity of Minnesota, has hardly led a She travels to the French philosopher’s life of leisure. Nevertheless, she starts chateau near Bordeaux to visit his writing room of th this book by looking back at her own and his tower, and to gaze at the same blooming discovery of daydreaming, which she chestnut trees he did when he wrote that one a ed Day describes as “this inner glide, articula- must be “capable of being in uncertainties, tion of the wordless, plotless truth of Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching Patrici n mpl existence . . . this effortless flight of the after fact and reason.” mind.” Only Hampl could so beautifully But, how is that accomplished? Hampl articulate something as ephemeral yet answers, as Montaigne did: “By acquiescing to universal as daydreaming. the leisure that is apparently so elusive, but is the A good Catholic girl from St. key to ‘the life of the mind.’” Paul, she is horrified to realize that the church It’s an unwieldy task, exploring the notions of considers daydreaming a kind of covetous- daydreaming and imagination, and it’s difficult ness, an occasion for sin. And as a pre-Vatican to cultivate that flight of the mind. Hampl is at II Catholic, she recognizes too that anything so her best when she wrestles with the age-old sweet must also be sinful. conflict between getting stuff done and staying Yet, despite years of to-do lists, accomplish- still enough to think. As in several of her previous ments, and literary output, Hampl remains drawn books, especially The Florist’s Daughter and A to those characters from history who have lived Romantic Education, her memories from child- lives of “honorable leisure,” no longer “awash in hood are especially good at bringing the narra- the brackish flotsam of effort.” tive to life: daydreaming under the beechnut tree; She proceeds to travel the world exploring the way playing the piano made her thoughts the homes and lives of the famously indolent: the soar; the reverential state she entered while rid- Victorian “Ladies of Llangollen,” who spent half a ing her bicycle through the streets of St. Paul. century retired in the Welsh countryside; Gregor Sometimes, as Hampl makes her way through Mendel, father of genetics but also a gentle this elusive topic, she wanders off—literally and monk and gardener, who “passed his days within figuratively—on side journeys and tangents, the liturgy of Hours;” and Michel de Montaigne, many seemingly irrelevant to the subject at hand. the writer/philosopher who famously defended There are lengthy descriptions of French inns,

40 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 Welsh tea shops, and long lunches with Czech oral history is compiled from a daunting series friends. Is it wrong to be bugged by digressions of 225 interviews with directors, cast members, in a work about the pleasures of wasting time? producers, and others involved with the play and ALLEN Woven through the book is a tantalizingly its later HBO adaptation. ESKENS lovely, if scant, mini-memoir of her marriage to Terrence Williams, who died in 2016. Williams, 17 Also extolling the magic of the arts is Mary THE years Hampl’s senior, had long urged her to slow Sharratt’s Ecstasy (Houghton Mifflin), a fictional- DEEP down, do less, and enjoy the moment. ized reimagining of the life of Austrian composer DARK She ends her book musing about whether Alma Schindler. Married to composer Gustav OESCEHDl G a certain dove is called morning or mourning, Mahler, architect Walter Gropius, and novelist asking Williams dreamily, “Which is it darling? Franz Werfel, Schindler struggled to accomplish Can’t remember or never knew. But I have the her own work in a culture and time when women time now, don’t I?” were not encouraged to do so. Given the many well-known artists who surrounded Schindler— she was friendly with iconic painter Gustav Klimt, And… the roundup among others—Sharratt’s (B.A. ’88) vivid novel --. E makes for a great, gossipy, historical read. R USADE Likely to be popular among younger readers is :' O A Sally Franson’s (M.F.A. ’13) first novel,A Lady’s Closer to home, The Deep Dark Descending FOA~OTT.j N Guide to Selling Out (Dial/Random House), (Seventh Street Books) is a mystery set squarely s oues ' ... described in publicity materials as Mad Men in our own home state. Allen Eskens’s (B.A. ’89) I meets The Devil Wears Prada in the age of fourth volume, following his acclaimed The Life 'I._ I Instagram. It follows the story of Casey Pend- We Bury, alternates between Minneapolis and ergast, a would-be writer turned ad hack who “Up North.” Homicide detective Max Rupert, ~-~1,·,u, .. ·,U,:..•.d ,--~-"l..rt persuades respected authors to shill for various who has discovered that his wife’s death was no businesses, some of them downright nasty. accident, is bent on finding the killer and exact- It ends with Casey, having had an epiphany, ing revenge. You’ll shiver for more reasons than leaving advertising behind for the world of one as you flip between a remote frozen lake and podcasting, but by then you may not like this landmarks like Hennepin County Medical Center protagonist. and Lake of the Isles.

Equally awash in pop culture but written in a Still in Minnesota and still dark—but, sadly, nonfic- more serious—almost reverential—tone is The tion—is The Crusade for Forgotten Souls: Reform- Lynette Lamb (M.A. ’84) World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels ing Minnesota’s Mental Institutions, 1946–54 by is a longtime Twin Cities in America (Bloomsbury). In this, on the 25th anni- Susan Bartlett Foote (University of Minnesota editor and writer and a regular book reviewer for versary of its Broadway premiere, Tony Kushner’s Press). Foote, a retired U professor of public the Star Tribune. play Angels in America earns its definitive history, health, tells the story of a group of Minnesota written by director/writer Isaac Butler (M.F.A. citizens who set about reforming the deplorable ’13) and Dan Kois, a writer/editor for Slate. This conditions in the state’s mental institutions.

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 41 ALUMNI STORIES

The Green Giant Alumnus Jack Dangermond has helped preserve a remarkable piece of Pacific coastline. By Mason Riddle

hen Jack Dangermond like the snowy plover, the red-legged Laura’s gift has been inspirational (M.Arch. ’68) left frog, and the monarch butterfly. and hugely impactful in the world his hometown of That the preserve was named after of conservation,” says Michael Bell, Redlands, California, the typically understated and private oceans programs director at the toW begin graduate studies at the Dangermonds speaks volumes. Nature Conservancy and director University of Minnesota’s School of Cofounders of Redlands-based of the Jack and Laura Dangermond Architecture, he had no idea that 50 Esri, or the Environmental Systems Preserve. The gift from these com- years later, he and his wife, Laura, would Research Institute, a pioneering mitted conservationists has ignited be integral to protecting an eight-mile GIS mapping and spatial analysis a larger conversation, he says, about stretch of pristine Pacific coast habitat. software company, they hope the gift “how high-wealth donors can catalyze Yet, thanks to the largest gift will spur others to action. big meaningful advancements in the the Nature Conservancy has ever “We do not think of ourselves protection of our natural world. received, of $165 million, that’s exactly as philanthropists,” says Jack “This 25,000-acre property is what happened. The Virginia-based Dangermond. “We run a billion-dollar truly the last coastal wilderness of nonprofit was able to purchase, and business and we both work day and southern California, a last-of-its-kind permanently preserve, the roughly night. We are fortunate to have refuge for many marine mammals, 38-square-mile piece of land west accumulated personal wealth and shore birds, plants, and other of Santa Barbara, California. With we spent it on this gift. Although animals,” adds Bell. “This is a globally a jagged coastline giving way to awkward to go public by putting our significant piece of nature—a place centuries-old oak woodlands, the names on the preserve, the idea was that conservationists felt must be expanse is traveled by mountain it would be something that other protected. But the truth was, we had lions, bobcats, and bears, and serves people of means would copy.” no idea how we’d pull that off. That is

as habitat for endangered species The strategy is working. “Jack and until Jack and Laura called.” Conservancy Nature The

42 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 I felt really good coming in but I just couldn’t“ get my shots off like the last fight. He never hurt me, but it is what it is.

Caleb Truax (B.A. ’06) after losing his super middleweight world title in April to James DeGale, according” to ESPN.

Dangermond a fellowship and teach- for my work, and it reinforced my ing associate position. interest in planning and conserva- “Roger signed the letter, ‘Warm tion,” Dangermond says. “At regards,’” recalls Dangermond, Minnesota I combined the fields of “which changed my life. I was ready architecture, landscape architecture, to go to the University and urban design into one degree. of California, Berkeley, This appealed to me.” where I had been He went on to study at Harvard accepted. I can’t tell you University, earning a master’s in why, but this was differ- landscape architecture in 1969. But ent. Laura and I went to he remains connected to the U’s Minnesota.” College of Design and its Minnesota Martin was Danger- Design Center—he’s working with mond’s primary mentor. center Director Tom Fisher on a “We did all kinds of worldwide effort called the Geode- innovative and creative sign Collaborative. things, discussing a lot, “We [at Esri] build tools that help not just reading books,” people understand the world and says Dangermond, who, make rational decisions about it,” among other projects, Dangermond says. “GIS can help created an “open-space solve environmental issues. That plan” for land along the is Esri’s role.” The company, which Jack and Laura Dangermond hope their gift will spur others to take action to help the environment. Mississippi River. “Roger boasts a global client roster, donates was an amazing intellect software, training, and support to Dangermond credits the U in landscape planning. He changed thousands of non-governmental with laying the foundation for his my thinking of landscape architecture organizations and nonprofits. conservation efforts and green as a profession—from landscaping Dangermond doesn’t want space planning ideas. After earning to ‘landscape,’ meaning geography.” people to think, because of his gift, a B.S. in environmental science and Dangermond also singles out John “that only wealthy people can help landscape architecture at Cal Poly Borchert, a geographer and associate preserve the environment. That’s Pomona, he responded in writing dean at the U, who urged him toward not the point. Everybody, regard- to a poster advertising the U’s new “geographical thinking as a founda- less of wealth or capabilities, will Urban Design program in the School tion for planning and design. have to do something. We need a of Architecture. He soon received “Minnesota definitely influenced revolution to occur where everyone a handwritten letter from Roger me to have a rich and motivated is participating in conservation and Martin, a landscape architect and profession, to be passionate about green space planning all over the

Courtesy Esri Courtesy head of the program, who offered geographical thinking as a platform world, as fast as possible.”

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 43 ALUMNI STORIES

t the Coven, the witch’s brew comes out of a coffee machine in the ultramodern kitchen that anchors this new co-working space for women and nonbinary people in Minneapolis’s North Loop neighborhood. The multi-level office is awash in natural light, which pours in through enormous Awindows, and features exposed brick walls, a multitude of comfy sofas, fresh flowers, a Pure secluded “parent and prayer” room, and art—including an electric-pink mural of power- ful women such as Jane Fonda, Serena Williams, and Oprah. The space, which opened in March, is the brainchild of Alex West Steinman (B.A. ’11), Magic Bethany Iverson (M.A. ’09), Liz Giel (B.A. ’08), and Erinn Farrell. All are veterans of the advertising world, hence the imagination-grabbing—some might even say “bewitch- Four women, including ing”—theme of the space. three alumnae, launch the Steinman grew up in Maple Grove and earned a journalism degree at the University of Minnesota, where she also was an ambassador for the College of Liberal Arts. “I was Coven, a female-focused really connected at the U,” she says. “I love people. I love helping them on their journey.” co-working space. Messaging was something she always enjoyed. But, at the ad agency where she worked after graduation, she was told to develop a stronger voice. Then, she was told that her voice was too strong. Then she decided it was time to go. Of herself and her business partners, she says, “the more we were finding our voices, the less we felt that industry was for us.” So, the four created the Coven, a space by and for women, raising more than $300,000 on a crowdfunding site. For every five memberships they sell, they give one away to a person with low income or from a marginalized background. Members—there are hundreds already—gain access to all kinds of classes and seminars, along with a “member pantry” stocked by the Wedge co-op and a shower and dressing room. “Social enterprise is at our heart,” says Iverson, who grew up in Milwaukee and came to Minnesota to attend the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She went on to earn her master’s degree at the U in rhetoric and scientific and The powerhouse women of the Coven: Liz Giel, Erinn technical communication. “People join because they want to belong to a community. Farrell, Alex West Steinman, We have three to four events a week.” Those might include a creative workshop, an and Bethany Iverson. attorney talking about tax laws, a makers’ market, or a civil conversation on an issue of the day. It’s not just “six ways to negotiate your salary,” Iverson says, but “six ways to negotiate your salary when you are a person of color.” “We like being a container for the magic that happens when women are together,” says Steinman. “Whatever dreams you are trying to chase, we want to help you.” For more information, check out thecovenmpls.com. —Jennifer Vogel Sarah White/PollenMidwest.org Sarah

44 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 Like most kids, Harstad began developing an interest in her heritage when she was a teenager. And she says that her time as an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota was a continuation of that exploration—she spent 14 years finishing her undergraduate degree in elementary education, in part, she says, because her studies overlapped with having four children and it took her five tries to pass college algebra. “I had a good idea of who I was, but I wasn’t politi- cally active before I got to the U,” says Harstad, who credits the American Indian Student Association and the relationships she developed through that organization with igniting her interest in advocacy. “My time there cemented for me that there was work to be done with the American Indian community and there were ways to do it and avenues to get you where you needed to go. I realized that if I saw a problem, I could do something about it.” (Her sister, Maryanna Harstad, B.S. ’86, founded the U’s American Indian Alumni network in March 2017.) After graduating from the U, Jane Harstad worked as a teacher in the American Indian Magnet School and Longfellow Humanities Magnet School, both in St. Paul. She loved teaching, but wanted to be able to do more for her American Indian students, who, she says, “are at the top of all the bad statistics and the bottom of all the good statistics.” So in 2004, she packed up her kids and moved to State College, Pennsylvania to study educational leadership and administration at Penn State. She The Connector finished her master’s in under a year. “It was the right time for me to want to learn,” she says, refer- As director of rowing up in a family of seven adopted ring to the long path to her B.A. She went on to earn children of different races and ethnici- her Ph.D., also from Penn State. Minnesota’s ties, Jane Harstad was not only fluent At the Department of Education, Harstad travels Office of Indian in the lexicon of diversity but also the throughout Minnesota to support school districts and Gcultural traditions of her Polish American mother parent committees as they strive to meet the needs Education, alumna and her Norwegian American father. In other words, of their American Indian students. By hitting the road, Jane Harstad this kid from Northeast Minneapolis knew her way she not only gets a firsthand view of what works but crisscrosses the around lefse and meatballs. can easily share that knowledge. She also puts forward state looking Today, sitting in her office at the Minnesota legislation to benefit American Indian students. Department of Education, Harstad (M.S. ’95) is It’s a demanding job, but one that’s never far from for solutions. wearing a patterned beaded necklace and ear- what drew Harstad to education in the first place. “I rings—reference to the fact that she’s a member of love seeing the kids the most,” she says of her visits the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. As to schools. director of the state’s Office of Indian Education, And of her role in their education? “I facilitate Harstad serves as liaison between the state govern- conversations and get people to the right answer,” ment, Minnesota’s 11 tribal nations, and the American she says. “I’m not the answer. I just help get to the Indian communities in the Twin Cities. Her goal is to answer.” improve outcomes for American Indian students. —Elizabeth Foy Larsen Scott Streble

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 45 ALUMNI STORIES

Don’t Call Her Pot Czar Alumna Michelle Larson runs a tight ship at In addition to her tenure with the Department of Minnesota’s Office of Medical Cannabis. Health, Larson worked as an environmental health specialist and on an emergency pharmaceuticals program after the 2001 anthrax scare. She holds a Ph.D. s a former member of Minnesota’s Air (’16) in organizational leadership, a master’s (’07) in National Guard, Michelle Larson seems public affairs, and multiple public health certificates an unlikely candidate to lead the state’s from the University of Minnesota. A native of Wis- first Office of Medical Cannabis. consin, she also has a bachelor’s in health promotion ABut dig a little deeper and it’s clear she is well from the University of Wisconsin-Superior. equipped for what can be a complex, controversial Larson doesn’t rattle easily. Nor does she lack com- job. For starters, she was already a 10-year veteran passion. “My goal is that our office responds to every single person who contacts us,” she says. “These are very sick people with severe chronic conditions. They It’s an easy way to show your support all deserve to be treated with respect.” Larson’s first task as cannabis director was to designate two manufacturers—Leafline Labs and Min- University of Minnesota Alumni Association Cash Rewards nesota Medical Solutions—and eight distribution sites throughout the state. 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ALUMN careers NEWS EVENTS

THE ALUMNI in marketing, from the Carlson interview together, we met up ASSOCIATION School in 2007—and Michael again and conducted a resume ADVANCES CAREERS Messner, a student in the Col- review. He is also planning lege of Education and Human to attend several industry Alumni and students Development majoring in busi- association meetings with me in connect via the Maroon ness and marketing education. the near future to continue to and Gold Network. “One of the best parts of the expand his network and develop network is that it’s focused on the his business acumen.” In March, the Alumni Associa- University of Minnesota commu- Messner says he has “made tion launched the Maroon and nity,” says Mendenhall (pictured more than just a connection, as Gold Network, an online career right). “This common background ed to meet professionals who Randall has continued to meet and networking platform where provides an excellent starting shared common experiences and and mentor me past our initial alumni can offer career-related point for individuals looking to worked through similar problems meeting. I have gained invalu- advice to current students and network and is especially helpful as students,” he says. able advice on how to set myself fellow U graduates. Already, the for current students, as they can “Michael reached out to me apart in a competitive field and network has drawn more than confidently reach out to profes- for the initial meeting, which is how to continue developing my 1,500 participants. sionals who share the University always a great sign for a student, network. I will continue to lean They include Randall Menden- experience.” and I’ve really enjoyed getting on him for advice.” For more hall—who earned a bachelor of Messner agrees. “I chose to to know him,” says Mendenhall. information, visit: UMNAlumni. science in business, with a major use this network because I want- “After our first informational org/maroonandgold

THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION SUPPORTS GREAT TEACHING These faculty members are extra special. Each spring, the Alumni Association partners with the Senate Educational Policy Committee and the office of the Executive Vice President and Provost to honor faculty members who have gone above and beyond to bolster undergraduate education. Winners of the Horace T. Morse-University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Con- tributions to Undergraduate Education are inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Teachers and carry the designation throughout their careers at the U. They also share a $50,000 award from the Alumni Association, to be used to further their college research. This year’s honorees are, from left: David Fox, David Matthes, Jonathan Gewirtz, Sheryl Breen, Tracy Otten, Keith A. Mayes, Geoffrey G. Bell, and Mitra Emad.

48 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION LISTENS TO YOU A survey of thousands of alumni will inform a new strategic plan. careers The Alumni Association recently conducted a survey that was completed by 8,800 alumni, asking what connects them to the U and what kinds of opportunities, services, and information are most meaningful to them. We’re grateful for the insights generously provided by the alumni who participated in the survey. We are also developing a new five-year strategic plan that will be voted on by our board of directors in June. Details of the plan will appear in the Fall issue of Minnesota Alumni.

More alumni career services are desired, particularly UMAA members are 61% from recent graduates more likely to of alumni respondents promote the U said they will continue to regularly or all the time financially contribute to the U or plan to give in the future support

Alumni feel the U did a good job of preparing them for further graduate education and their current work status Alumni 90% Alumni would welcome of U of M alumni more information said it was a good to the University as a whole, from their major, school or or great decision their major / degree AND college and invitations to alumni events UPDATE their college YOUR INFO update.umn.edu STAY CONNECTED IA .UMNAlumni.org ~ /MinnesotaAlumni Im . UMAA a @UMNAlumni opinion of the U is Alumni are /UMNAlumni 78% significantly comfortable ~ have a good or excellent shaped by the value / CONNECTIONS with the frequency of /UMNAlumni @ experience as alumni respect for degree and communications from the U C /UMNAlumni accomplishments of #UMNAlumni faculty and students # #UMNProud

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 49 Stay connected.

THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION MAKES CONNECTIONS Milwaukee Shanghai Christopher Jason Mandl Arnold Guo Stoletenberg We’d like to offer a special thanks to our alumni network leaders. The University of Chicago Sylvester Tan Band Alumni Network Minnesota has over 60 alumni networks, led by amazing alumni who are dedicated Sam Tan Beihua (Jackie) Tang Adam Connolly to fostering community and creating beneficial professional and social networks. Detroit Guichao (Robbie) Tian Molly Kuchan Learn more at: UMNAlumni.org/networks John Rohlf Keng Zhou Kelly Nellis Nashville, Tennessee Shanghai Big 10 Kirsten Rasmussen Tiffany Haojun Caoxu Raoul Shah MINNESOTA Bill Manwarren Bay Area Alison Leathers Marilyn Mattson Shenzhen, China Black Alumni NETWORKS Cindy Manwarren Vik Gowreesunker Paula Middlebrooks Jan Meyer Branden Chen Network West Central Lakes Sherry Mattila Tom Hammer South Florida Richard Olson April Huang Charlene Bogonko (Alexandria) Paul Portz Andy Kuehnel Kirsten Charlson Arnie Rehmann Shawn Wu Shaoxi Ernest Comer Marty Schultz Michelle Potter-Bacon Nick Miller Joe Shaw Sarasota, Florida Linda Wang Adora Land Amy Sunderland Gary Reierson Brian Milovich Myrna Shaw Katherine Walstrom Victor Zeng Emilia Ndely St. Cloud Nancy Schmidt Shelby Rhodes Wesley Swanson Southwest Florida Lisa Zhu Damola Ogundipe Hannah Mikels Rochester Lolly Schiffman Albuquerque, Jean Albrightson Singapore Will Zehourou Kelsey Thaves Lynette Beck Steve Sun New Mexico Jon Albrightson Anthony Adelmann Greek Alumni Paul Thompson Ardell Brede Los Angeles Chu Jong Sharon Beckstrom Serene Zhao Network Glacial Ridge Jim Clausen Clint Schaff Janice Strand Marcia Carthaus Pat Born (Willmar) Taiwan Jim Gilkinson San Diego Denver Carol Frommelt Peter Dahl Leon Carlson Ming-Guo Her Dave Groteluschen Scott Johnston Tonya Fode Roger Frommelt Sandy Ducharme Pauline Carlson Dick Hedger Mark Fox Lynn Groth Japan Brigid Ryan Ling Earl Knutson Las Vegas Yasuo Fukuda Mike Quinn Edith Johnson Vanessa Shewmaker Robert Groth Amy Royse Sam Nelson Milt Tostrud Mary Hertogs Harumi Iwanami Austin/San Antonio Leslie Schroder Beth Wepplo Dick Westerlund Phoenix Raleigh Kaminsky Mayumi Kaneko Casey Conner Chris Hodge Lynn Swon Aaron Welch Randy Kaminsky Ichiro Katsuki NATIONAL Mickey Latz Carole Wendt Houston Andrea Koch Akihiko Muramatsu CORPORATE NETWORKS NETWORKS Rachel Yates West Valley Chapter Paul Eaton Travis Koch Akira Nakamura Puget Sound, 3M St. Croix Valley Larry Anderson North Texas Rodger Lundblad Sumito Soichi Washington Lisa France Andrew Haak Sandra Erickson Neal Nelson Dick Miller Mayuko Takenami Nathan Deno Peter Reinhardt Donabelle Hansen Dorothy Everett Ness Kansas City, Missouri Ruth Ann Miller Mina Takeshita Jayson Hicks Charles Johnson Ethan Trepp Judy Taplin Bobby Baumann Atlanta Kenichi Yamaguchi Portland, Oregon Joyce Kloncz Best Buy Dakota County Madison, Wisconsin Veena Wulfekuhle Korea Amanda Davies Michael Lynch Jason Bruce Michael Hudson Tom Kazmerzak Jaehoon Kim George Mattson Charlotte, Alan Cheng Sandra Krebsbach North Carolina Yong Lin Moon Natalie Fogal John Gutreuter Malaysia Lynn Swiggum Tom Lavaty Hui Chi Fong Alissa Weideman Sofia Abdul Hamid Philadelphia Chris Woodbury Get your official Agam Sheth Shasha Nurul Helmi Enthel Tan Deloitte Washington, DC Yee Teng Tee Brett Herges UNIVERSITY OF Susan Heltemes Izzati Zainal General Mills Greater New York, Brazil Abby Huebsch New Jersey, Con- Stephanie Tomczyk MINNESOTA necticut Fabio Riedel Almeida license plate today! Amanda Rodriguez Eliane Buzzetto Land O’Lakes Tim Zhang Vitor Milagres Kersten Dolgner With an annual France Hannah Rosenwinkel INTERNATIONAL Medtronic contribution of $25 for NETWORKS Alan Slavik Grant Ecker the special plate, you’re Beijing U.K. Matthew Chimento supporting student Yufeng Guo Shenoa Simpson Ann Sheldon scholarships at the Helen Lee Kazakhstan Fran Liu Eldar Babayev Target University of Minnesota. Heidi Hite Liangwei Ma Iceland Erin Merchant Wanling Qu Elín Broddadóttir Shiao Sun Kristinn Garðarsson UnitedHealth Group Che Wang Haukur Haraldsson Paruj Acharya Snow Wang Jonina Kardal Chris Borden Yinan Wang Tryggvi B. Thayer Eric Brotten Hannah Hennen Qixin Ye Melbourne, Australia Emily Hennig Guangzhou Amanda Krause James Lam Svetlana Sandberg Woody Wu AFFINITY Buffie Shannon NETWORKS Whitney Swanson Hong Kong YMCA Alumni Nancy (Nam Hei) Chan U.S. Bank Learn more at Network Angela Li Chuck Fitzer UMNAlumni.org/plates Jenny Collins Simon Ka Wo Wong Stephen Heinen Sara Letourneau Spencer Leuning Melissa Mason

50 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 MEMBER ADVANTAGES A SPECIAL WELCOME Thank you for being a member! Don’t forget to to our newest Life Members!* make the most of your member advantages. Here are just a few: As a Life Member, you join more than 19,000 loyal and enthusiastic alumni supporting the U’s important work. Dues are invested in a fund that provides a stable support for PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT key Alumni Association initiatives. u Take part in a quarterly roster of noncredit Kathy Ahlers Brittni Faddoul Theodore Kvasnik Kristen Rasmussen courses (save 10% on continuing education). Ronnie Ambriz Caroline Fairbanks Byron Laher Annette Reichkitzer u Invest in yourself with a course in the Carlson Amanda Anderson Seija Farber Joyce Laher Patricia Ricci Executive Education program (save 10%). Charles Anderson Gary Fischler Joshua Larson Elcyon Rocha Lima James Anderson George Foehringer Erick Laurila Maria Rocha Lima EXPLORE CAMPUS Ross Anderson Jeffrey Frommelt Florian Ledermann Nathan Romportl Helen Bailly Joseph Fruland Albert Lee Freeman Rosenblum u Visit the Weisman Art Museum, Bell Michael Bailly Norman Gabrick Thomas Libby Shirley Rosenblum Museum, and Minnesota Landscape Stanley Baker Lorraine Gartner Chung-En Lin Luann Rosenthal- Arboretum (discounted membership rates). Jennifer Baldwin Maria-Alexandra James Lindell Erickson Kaysie Banton Georgopoulos Dawn Llorca Paul Rothweiler u See the finest Northrop Dance, U of Jillian Barleen Jack Gibson Kristi Lynn Shannon Rusk M Theatre Arts, and School of Music Tanya Baxter Niki Gjere Julie Ma Judith Russell performances (member ticket rates). 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Martin Cole Rebecca Johnson Jay Nesbit Michael Tenney Thomas Coplin Roland Johnson Staci Nesbit Alissa Thielman SPECIAL SAVINGS SECTION Judy Corwin Warren Johnson Harry Newby Bruce Toman Renee Cristiani Mary Josephson James Nord Mark Trumm u Chocolat Celéste offers 20% off online Timothy Curtis Warren Josephson Jack Odell Inna Turchman purchases with your UMAA member code. Brian Dahlin Molly Jungbauer Brian Otte C. Vaurio u 20% savings on U of M Bookstores Katherine Dahlin David Jungkunz James Page Patricia Vaurio Gayle Damrow Julie Jungkunz Bruce Pankonin Richard Vignes apparel and gifts in store and online. Neil Damrow Mary Karlsson Bharat Parekh Mary Viking Kueck u Academic pricing on select Apple® Robert Davidson Margaret Keith Karin Parekh Martha Vogel products at the U of M Bookstores. Bonnie Davis Janet Kellogg Amy Parrish Mary Warren Eric Ding Paul Kellogg John Parrish William Weber u 10% discount at Goldy’s Locker Mikayla Doane Caroline Kelly Milton Patka Barbara Wiegand Room locations in the Twin Cities. John Eisinger Tonu Kiesel Joanne Patterson Pamela Willingham Holt u Carolyn Eklin Peter Kluzak Rebecca Pickler Nanette Wittenberg Show your member card for alumni hotel Duane Eklin Bill Knopke Christina Plaut Kenneth Wolfgram rates at Graduate Minneapolis on campus. Claudia Elsham Phillip Koski David Plaut Elizabeth Wolner William Elsham Jacelyn Krekelberg Mary Pohl Martin Zanna For details, visit: Charles Engh Timothy Krekelberg Carol Rachac Todd Zastrow UMNAlumni.org/advantages Paul Erickson Kathleen Krueger David Rachac Todd Erickson John Kueck James Radtke *Reflects January Carolyn Essig Elaine Kvasnik Marcia Raley 11-April 13, 2018 Join this list of Life Members by upgrading your membership today! UMNAlumni.org/join | 800-862-5867

Summer 2018 MINNESOTA ALUMNI 51 HEART OF THE MATTER

Blooming in Ernie’s Garden

By Randall Wehler rowing up, I helped my Tears in my eyes, I called a block father with planting and meeting. The turnout was much harvesting on our farm higher than expected, and I remember so much that, by the everyone walking around talking about timeG I went off to college, I felt like Ernie as a caring man, someone who I didn’t want much to do with the inspired gratitude and was loving and botanical world. hardworking. We drew up plans for But attitudes can, and do, change. the next year so that all of the families When my wife and I were in our late on the block could carve out a small 20s, we moved into a house in an plot of their own in Ernie’s garden. The urban neighborhood in west central idea was exciting, and for me it was the Minnesota. The neighbors seemed nudge I needed to start planting again. genuinely friendly, but we only got Of the 14 houses on our block, all to know a handful of families well but two families participated in the in those first few years. At the time, garden venture. All of us said we only about a third of the houses had didn’t want to let Ernie down, that backyard gardens. And I had not yet we wanted to pay it forward after gotten around to resurrecting the his years of generosity. We shared once-thriving garden our predecessor and traded produce. What we didn’t planted, though it crossed my mind initially understand was that we were every now and then. also planting a stronger community; One August, we heard that “Uncle” even our small talk took on new mean- Ernie had entered a nursing home. ing. We trusted each other more, An elderly widower who lived down and were grateful for each other. the block, his backyard garden was Eventually, nearby neighbors noticed probably four times larger than his our gardening efforts and the seeds of small house. We liked Ernie. He cared cooperation began sprouting beyond for his plants diligently, and happily our immediate block. shared the vegetables he grew. We Ernie passed away about two and thought he would be back, but after a half years after he offered us his a couple of weeks, his son delivered a gardens, which we are still tending. Randall Wehler (B.A. ’70) is a letter to the block. We think he would be proud of how lifelong Minnesota resident Ernie wrote: “The doctors say I his now-communal gardens reflect who enjoys writing essays, can’t go home. They’ve given me a who he was as a person. He wasn’t just verses, and short stories. year or two to live. I loved my garden a master gardener, he was a master at Illustration by Miguel Gallardo and all the people it fed. My lawyer bringing people together.

drew up a statement offering it to my neighbors on our block to use free as you see fit, indefinitely. Feed your- selves and may you be charitable. May you all grow together.”

52 MINNESOTA ALUMNI Summer 2018 Together, we help Minnesota grow.

Brian Thalmann: Dad, conservationist, businessman, farmer and University of Minnesota graduate.

Agriculture is the foundation of our state. For more than 150 years, Minnesota corn farmers and the University of Minnesota have helped build and strengthen that foundation in our rural communities and beyond. See how at mncorn.org. CA_230753_AD UofM Alumni Mag_Final_v2.indd 1