Celebrating a Century at the University of Alaska Fairbanks 1917-2017 Etnilcmeoaieisevl 0N.1Fl 07 University of Alaska Fairbanks Fall 2017 Vol

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Celebrating a century at the University of Alaska Fairbanks 1917-2017 etnilcmeoaieiseVl 0N.1Fl 07 University of Alaska Fairbanks Fall 2017 Vol. 10 No. 1 Centennial commemorative issue Old Main, the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines’ ﬁ rst building, sits on Troth Yeddha’ in this 1925 photograph taken by famed aviator Noel Wien.

UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD AURORA ADVISORY BOARD AURORA MAGAZINE FAIRBANKS Gail Dabaluz ’ Andy Angaiak Managing editor Libby Eddy ’ Joan Braddock ’, ’, ’ Chancellor Barbara Fujimoto ’ Amber Darland Jordan ’ Kim Davis Daniel M. White Shannon Johnson-Nanalook ’ David Marusek Editors Director of University Relations Forrest Kuiper ’ , ’, ’ Charlene Ostbloom ’ Sam Bishop Michelle Renfrew ’ Rachel Lauesen ’ Paul Reichardt Tori Tragis ’ , ’ Mary Beth Loewen ’, ’ Lorna Shaw ’ , ’ Shannon McCarthy ’ Peggy Shumaker Designers Brenda Riley ’ Peter Van Flein ’ Kari Halverson Peter Van Flein ’ Venus Sung ’, ’ Amanda Wall ’, ’ Photographers Cindy Wright ’ JR Ancheta ’ Todd Paris ’ (retired) Zayn Roohi

Production specialist Andrea Swingley

Web designer Sherrie Roberts ’

Produced by UAF University Relations, / . Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reﬂ ect o cial positions of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Photos by UAF photographers unless otherwise noted. Send comments or letters to the editor to [email protected] or to P.O. Box , Fairbanks, AK , or call --. We reserve the right to edit for grammar and length. Visit us on the web at www.uaf.edu/aurora/.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. UAF is an a rmative action/equal opportunity employer and educational institution.

UAF does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, age, sex, physical or mental disability, status as a protected veteran, marital status, changes in marital status, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, parenthood, sexual orientation, gender identity, political a liation or belief, genetic information, or other legally protected status. The University’s commitment to nondiscrimination, including against sex discrimination, applies to students, employees, and applicants for admission and employment. Contact information, applicable laws, and complaint procedures are included on UA’s statement of nondiscrimination available at www.alaska.edu/titleIXcompliance/nondiscrimination/. From the chancellor

Reaching 100 years old, even for a college, is a major accomplishment. I’m proud to have been associated with UAF for more than one- h of those years, and I’m looking forward to many more as chancellor.

I hope this commemorative edition of Aurora magazine will stir fond memories and make you proud that UAF is part of your life’s journey.

Daniel M. White An image of “UAF100,” painted with a cellphone by UAF chief photographer JR Ancheta, is captured by a 30-second exposure under the aurora at the Poker Flat Research Range in February 2017. The figure at bottom right is a researcher awaiting a rocket launch at the range. Contents 1 4 14 From the chancellor A mine for learning Alumni across the decades: 1920s -1940s 26 36 48 From the ground up Alumni across the decades: From a cabin to a 1950s -1970s rocket range 56 72 80 Alumni across the The care and feeding of a Campus myths and decades: 1980s -2010s territory legends 90 96 97 Celebration! In memoriam Citations and resources A mine for learning

BY SAM BISHOP

5-foot square tunnel runs for Smith served as president of the student hundreds of feet under the Miners Society during his time at the A Fairbanks campus. is is not a college, so he not only took mining courses utilidor, one of those passages for pipes in the adit but also used it to initiate new and wires into which mischievous students society members. occasionally sneak. “We had the new students go through the It’s older, deeper. tunnel, which required them to stoop, since And students built this tunnel, for the adit was only about 5 feet from oor to students. No sneaking was necessary to roof,” he recalled in January, shortly a er gain entry — just a little training and, turning 100. [See pro le on page 22.] sometimes, a paddle swat on the backside. “Members of the society had paddles that The University of Alaska Fairbanks they would whack the students’ butts with began in 1917 with a more speci c title as they walked crouching along the tunnel,” — the Alaska Agricultural College and Smith said. “ ey would straighten up and School of Mines. The tunnel, started hit their head on the roof. at taught them shortly a er the college opened for classes the value of the miner’s helmet.” in 1922, helped make real the second half at was just one lesson learned in the of its name. tunnel, where students went for their It was a mine, or at least a rough model required course in practical mining of one. techniques. For decades, the tunnel, called an “adit,” Patrick O’Neill ’41, ’53, ’76 (Hon.) helped give a dose of practical training to learned how to throw dirt. at skill got students learning from books and lectures him noticed and promoted a few years later, in the buildings on the surface of College he said. Hill. e adit has long since been plugged, “One of the things I learned was, instead but the emphasis on practical learning that of taking a shovel full of dirt and turning it represented lives on at the university’s around, was to throw it over your shoulder,” modern mining school. O’Neill said in an interview in January The tunnel entered the hillside near 2017. (He turned 102 in August.) today’s heat and power plant. A er each round of drilling and blast- “It went in on the level, so I expect it must ing at the tunnel end, students shoveled the have been about 100 feet deep when it got loose rock and dirt, called muck, into small under the university buildings,” said Ray cars on a set of railroad-like tracks. ey’d Smith ’43 in an interview earlier this year. then push the cars out the tunnel by hand “ ere was a fairly good-size room right at and dump them, O’Neill said. It was hard the end.” work but an expected part of the practical

Rasmuson Libraryarchives (for complete citation, seepage 97) mining course. Earl Beistline, far left, demonstrates features of the campus mining ore mill in this undated photograph. The mill was one of several components in a model operation created early in the university’s history to educate students in practical aspects of mining. Beistline was dean of the mining programs for decades. www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 5 centennial 2017 A mine for learning

BY SAM BISHOP

During his college years, O’Neill o en in practical mining. e rst year, they dug worked for the Fairbanks Exploration Co.’s 156 feet of tunnel, Patty reported. dredging operation in Fox, just north of Patty and Bunnell also put together a Fairbanks. One night, a tunnel that carried collection of more than 2,000 mineral water to a dredge caved in, and O’Neill was specimens that was “one of the most called out to help. complete in Western America,” accord- “I was on the face shoveling and throw- We had the“ new students ing to an article in the February 1924 ing it over my shoulder and working fast,” go through the tunnel, Collegian. “ ese are not sealed away in O’Neill said. “One of the big bosses at the museum cases but are available for close F.E. Co. came out … and he asked the fore- which required them to examination and detailed study … to serve man, ‘Who’s that kid up on the face doing stoop, since the adit was the needs of the engineering students and the shoveling?’” the men who come in from the ‘hills’ each e “big boss” was Jim Crawford, the only about 5 feet from winter to take the short course for miners F.E. Co.’s Fairbanks manager, and he and prospectors.” o ered O’Neill a promotion. oor to roof.” Students began digging the adit imme-

Rasmuson Library archives (for complete citation, see page 97) “He said, ‘Next spring, come to see me diately a er the college opened in 1922, and I’ll get you into the engineering work,’ Noyes reported. which I’d been trying to do,” O’Neill said. location to create a high-quality model “ ey secured timbers for the mine by “I’d spent ve years on the pick and shovel.” mine, and he recruited students vigorously. wading through deep snow to cut spruce “He was determined to get something trees from the flats,” she wrote. “The Overcoming the obstacles going. He was very resourceful and nished model of a mine consisted of a creative,” said Leslie Noyes, who inter- timbered adit with air and water lines, a Both O’Neill and Smith, who started as viewed more than 300 people from the late blacksmith shop and compressor house.” Students in the nearly destitute students, went on to distin- 1980s through 2000 while writing “Rock Digging ore from a hill is only the start university’s mining guished careers. A er working his way up Poker to Pay Dirt: e History of Alaska’s of the mining process, though. To simu- program labor in the model mine operation, to dredge superintendent at the F.E. Co. School of Mines and its Successors.” late a real operation, the school obtained which the university and earning a master’s in 1953, O’Neill took Noyes, who now lives in Golden, a small mill with two stamps to crush the established early in a job running a mine in South America Colorado, noted that Ernest Patty ’53 ore. Another mill did a similar job using its history to give and became an executive in several inter- (Hon.), the School of Mines’ rst geology steel balls in a cylinder. e operation also students practical experience. At top, a national mining companies. Smith, a er a professor, outlined his thinking in an had a classi er to recycle ore that didn’t get student in the training stint as a faculty member at UA, went on to article for the March 1928 edition of the crushed well on the rst try. A otation cell adit, the university’s the presidency of Michigan Technological campus newspaper, the Farthest-North allowed the ore to be treated with chemi- mine under campus, guides a drill into the University from 1965 to 1979. Collegian. cals to separate the gold. rock to make a hole for ey credit their success not only to their “ ere are too many graduates from our If there was gold, that is. e ground an explosive charge. training in Fairbanks but also to nan- mining schools who lack the con dence to under the Fairbanks campus didn’t seem cial assistance and encouragement from go into a mine, set up a machine, drill and to hold any obvious worthwhile minerals. At bottom, students Charles Bunnell, the university president blast a round, and put in a set of timbers,” So the model mine also tested ore from dump a rail-mounted from 1921 to 1949. Bunnell and his faculty Patty wrote. So he required School of miners around the area and turned over cart after mucking out the results of a overcame the adversities of a remote Mines students to take at least one course the results. winter blast in the adit. Rasmuson Library archives (for complete citation, see page 97)

Notable moments from 1906 1915 U.S. government establishes March: U.S. Congress approves July 4: James UAF’S FIRST agricultural experiment station land grant for Alaska Agricultural Wickersham next to Tanana Mines Railroad College and School of Mines at dedicates CENTURY track five miles from Fairbanks experiment station site cornerstone www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 7 centennial 2017

1917 1918 1921 May 3: Territorial Gov. Board of trustees Construction begins Charles E. Bunnell John Strong signs law appointed on first building chosen first president creating AACSM www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 8 centennial 2017

Smith recalled also stuffing Mining Society initiates into some kind of a rotat- ing barrel separator during rites. “It was a tough go for the new students, but e ective,” he said wryly.

Looking for work

By the late 1930s, the mining school had become the dominant academic enterprise within the university. In 1941, just before World War II deci- mated enrollment, the university graduated its largest class to date, Noyes noted. Of the 35 graduates, 15 came from the School of Mines. Of the 307 students enrolled in the 1940-1941 academic year, 88 were in mining. In addition, about 500 students took short courses in communities around the state, Noyes reported. People entered the eld because they could see it o ered a chance of employment, said Paul Metz ’75, a UAF professor of geological engineering in the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering, the descendant of the School of Mines. A er studying at Michigan Tech while 97) page see citation, complete (for archives Library Rasmuson Ray Smith was president, Metz came to Alaska in 1968, earned his master’s in 1975 and has worked at UAF since. “During the Great Depression, there were no jobs anywhere else,” Metz said. “ at’s how Ray Smith and his partner came here in the late 1930s, looking for work.”

School of Mines Dean Earl Beistline, left, and UA President Ernest Patty inspect a working model of a gold dredge, No. 2 ½ Nyac. William Race ’42 gave the model to the university in 1958, 20 years after it was built for the New York Alaska Gold Dredging Corp. The company operated full-size dredges at Nyac in Southwest Alaska. Such dredges were an important source of employment for students and graduates of the university’s mining programs.

1922 Main Building completed Sept. 13: AACSM Sept. 18: First day of classes Men’s basketball team dedicated Registration $2; no tuition forms with seven players www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 9 centennial 2017

Smith recalled also stuffing Mining Society initiates into some kind of a rotat- ing barrel separator during rites. “It was a tough go for the new students, but e ective,” he said wryly.

Looking for work

1923 Student association forms First book accessioned President Woodrow Farthest-North Collegian’s in library: “Alaska — Its Wilson donates first volume published Meaning to the World” autographed 10-volume “History of the American People” www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 10 centennial 2017

Students also found ready summer Ernie Wol ’41 worked at various Alaska employment at the F.E. Co. dredges or mining enterprises before earning a other mines in the state. doctorate in Colorado. He returned to lead “ e biggest source of training of all, the university’s Mineral Industry Research hands-down, were the dredges,” said Tom Laboratory from 1969 to 1983. Bundtzen ’73, ’81, president of Pacific Rim Geological Consulting in Fairbanks. Extracurricular blasting Bundtzen earned a bachelor’s in general geology and then a master’s in economic After World War II, Alaska’s dredges geology. [Bundtzen’s brother, Bob, is declined, and all but one shut down by pro led on pages 44-45.] 1965. Nevertheless, the School of Mines Bundtzen, as president of the Alaska continued to enroll a record number of Mining Hall of Fame, has spent many students, and the model mine continued to hours researching and writing biographies operate. Photographs from the 1958 year- of inductees. He found that the F.E. Co., a book document students drilling, blasting subsidiary of the U.S. Smelting, Re ning and mucking out the mine. I’m glad my boys can and Mining Co., employed numerous However, it closed shortly a erward “ At top, Garth students both during their college years when administrators grew worried about handle powder, but there’s a Anderson joins mining students who were and a erward. the blasting and drilling, Noyes reported. A time and place for it.” restarting work at the “Many of their engineers, who would few incidents in the mid-1950s made such Silver Fox Mine in 2014. later become dredge superintendents and worries more than theoretical. Anderson’s father, dredge masters, came out of the university,” e night before a hockey match with Tury, staked the claims after World War II he said. civil engineering students, the mining and donated them In need of experienced faculty, the students drilled into the rink, planted to UAF in 1977. The university also drew upon former students some dynamite and blew holes in the ice. mine is located o the Elliott Highway near who had supported their educations and at was easily corrected with some water its intersection with careers through mining. that refroze, but another incident was less Old Murphy Dome Earl Beistline ’39, ’47, ’69 (Hon.), who benign. Road. Students are in charge of the mine, served as dean of the mining school from Shortly a er Ernest Patty returned to which gives them 1949 to 1982, as a student had worked the university as president in 1953, mining real-life experience summers for the F.E. Co. driving cold-wa- students with access to the dynamite set with the challenges ter points to thaw the ground before o an outdoor charge to liven up a student in running a safe, e cient operation. dredging. dance. e explosion blew out windows in “USSRM hired most of us and kept us Nerland Hall and the Chapman Building.

At bottom, mining interested in our studies,” Doug Colp ’40 Because Chapman at that time housed and geological told Noyes. In 1965, Beistline hired Colp, the federally chartered Geophysical engineering Professor by then an internationally recognized Institute, the FBI investigated. e perpe- Gang Chen leads dredging and placer mining expert. Colp trators were caught and ned. a Rock Mechanics lab at the Silver Fox taught for the next decade. Mine in April 2017.

1923 Official school colors First annual freshmen East wing added to Main Building, John Sexton Shanly chosen: azure and gold bonfire symbolizes passing occupied by School of Mines is AACSM’s first of torch of knowledge graduate, earning a (known today as Starvation bachelor’s degree Gulch) in agriculture www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 11 centennial 2017

1924 1925 First graduate student, Thelma Women’s basketball team Margaret (Thomas) Murie First all-men’s Bruce, enrolls to study how forms with six players is AACSM’s second graduate, dormitory opens to increase yield of Alaska earning a bachelor’s degree in blueberries through cultivation business administration www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 12 centennial 2017

courses moved for a time to Beistline’s Blue sector,” he said. Students Glen Bird claims near Ester. Beistline gave the e exploration led to two major gold Morgan, left, and claims to the university in 1960. mines — Fort Knox and Pogo. Several Ernest Holt, center, Charles “Chilkoot” Ward ’86, UAF’s other potential large mines are under study. listen as Teresa Lantz, assistant professor of current director of utilities, said no visible e resurgence of mining has helped process technology, trace remains of the university tunnel’s rejuvenate the mining program at UAF. demonstrates how mouth today. e power plant operators Kinross, which operates Fort Knox, and to use a bubbler to monitor water levels do have one artifact from the adit — an Sumitomo, which operates Pogo, have in a tank in July 2017. ore car they use as a ower pot. donated more than $2 million each to Morgan and Holt were a mining endowment at the College of participating in the UAF Community and We are open enrollment; Industry ups and downs a ect school Engineering and Mines. “ Technical College’s we are not selective, yet e university reacquired a model oper- mining mill operator Interest in the mining school waned ation in 1977 when longtime Fairbanks training program at a you see our little program along with the industry’s fortunes during miner Tury Anderson donated his Silver facility leased from the Fairbanks Pipeline up there with the best the 1960s, Metz and Bundtzen said. e Fox Mine, just o the Elliott Highway Training Center o program underwent several reorganiza- north of Fox. UAF faculty can now use it Van Horn Road. universities in the world.” tions and name changes. to teach mine surveying, rock mechanics “ ere was a 20-year period when there and exploration geophysics. As in the old wasn’t a whole lot going on, and that iron- days, students do the work. Modern mills use highly computer- program but then will be available free to mine design competition for students held ically was the period of time when I was “ ere is a faculty member in charge, but ized systems, but instruction in their use anyone. during the Society of Mining, Metallurgy going to school,” said Bundtzen, who the students run it,” said Rajive Ganguli, is generally weak, Ganguli said. So UAF The Department of Mining and and Exploration’s conference in Denver, arrived in 1968 as a biology major. professor of mining engineering and the recently developed a “dynamic mill simu- Geological Engineering also tries to Colorado. In the mid-1970s, Metz helped Wol , current director of the Mineral Industry lator” for students to use. On a computer keep its faculty grounded in the industry, “We are open enrollment; we are not the MIRL director, teach mine surveying, Research Laboratory. screen, students can change the RPM of a Ganguli said. selective,” Ganguli said, “yet you see which requires a tunnel. Two years a er UAF received the Silver rock-crushing drum, adjust a belt’s speed “We usually do not hire faculty unless our little program up there with the best “We were bemoaning the fact that the Fox Mine, the statewide university system or add more water, all in a virtual mill. they have practical mining experience,” universities in the world.” little adit was gone,” Metz said. “We actu- also created the Mining and Petroleum ey’ll see instantly how their actions he said. “We don’t want armchair mining at status began in a tunnel that now ally did the work in the utilidors, which Training Service in Southcentral Alaska a ect the entire system. engineers.” lies empty some 100 feet under Charles was terrible because it was so bloody hot to provide short, nonacademic training “It’s very similar to what an operator The approach seems to be working, Bunnell’s statue in Cornerstone Plaza on in there even in the late spring, and the courses. In 2015, the service purchased would see,” Ganguli said. Ganguli said. Senior capstone projects the Fairbanks campus. same in the fall.” the Delta Mine Training Center, located Researchers at MIRL worked with have done quite well recently in inter- e history is closer to the surface than Interior Alaska’s mining industry began 30 miles southeast of Delta Junction. instructors at UAF’s Community and national competitions, he said. Mining it appears. Alumni installed Bunnell’s to recover in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Management of the training programs Technical College to create the simulator, Global magazine ranked UAF in the top statue in 1988. Among the organizers of Metz said. Gold prices rose dramati- recently moved under the UAF Cooperative using a grant from the U.S. Department of 10 U.S. colleges for mining in February the e ort was Patrick O’Neill — the man cally. Metz and others at the university Extension Service umbrella. Labor. e simulator rst will be used in 2015. In February 2017, a UAF mining who learned how to handle a shovel in the received multiple federal and state grants CTC’s two-month mill operator training engineering team won rst place in the tunnel below.

1925 West wing added to the President Bunnell First hockey team established; Jamie Cameron Main Building; top floor applies for post office, two McCombe brothers is AACSM’s third holds first gym requesting address of introduce the sport to graduate, earning College, Alaska Fairbanks a degree in home economics www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 13 centennial 2017

“I’m glad my boys can handle powder, to do detailed mineral assessments across but there’s a time and place for it,” Patty Interior Alaska. reportedly said a erward. “ at database provided a huge, huge A er the adit closed, practical mining impetus for exploration by the private courses moved for a time to Beistline’s Blue sector,” he said. Students Glen Bird claims near Ester. Beistline gave the e exploration led to two major gold Morgan, left, and claims to the university in 1960. mines — Fort Knox and Pogo. Several Ernest Holt, center, Charles “Chilkoot” Ward ’86, UAF’s other potential large mines are under study. listen as Teresa Lantz, assistant professor of current director of utilities, said no visible e resurgence of mining has helped process technology, trace remains of the university tunnel’s rejuvenate the mining program at UAF. demonstrates how mouth today. e power plant operators Kinross, which operates Fort Knox, and to use a bubbler to monitor water levels do have one artifact from the adit — an Sumitomo, which operates Pogo, have in a tank in July 2017. ore car they use as a ower pot. donated more than $2 million each to Morgan and Holt were a mining endowment at the College of participating in the UAF Community and We are open enrollment; Industry ups and downs a ect school Engineering and Mines. “ Technical College’s we are not selective, yet e university reacquired a model oper- mining mill operator Interest in the mining school waned ation in 1977 when longtime Fairbanks training program at a you see our little program along with the industry’s fortunes during miner Tury Anderson donated his Silver facility leased from the Fairbanks Pipeline up there with the best the 1960s, Metz and Bundtzen said. e Fox Mine, just o the Elliott Highway Training Center o program underwent several reorganiza- north of Fox. UAF faculty can now use it Van Horn Road. universities in the world.” tions and name changes. to teach mine surveying, rock mechanics “ ere was a 20-year period when there and exploration geophysics. As in the old wasn’t a whole lot going on, and that iron- days, students do the work. Modern mills use highly computer- program but then will be available free to mine design competition for students held ically was the period of time when I was “ ere is a faculty member in charge, but ized systems, but instruction in their use anyone. during the Society of Mining, Metallurgy going to school,” said Bundtzen, who the students run it,” said Rajive Ganguli, is generally weak, Ganguli said. So UAF The Department of Mining and and Exploration’s conference in Denver, arrived in 1968 as a biology major. professor of mining engineering and the recently developed a “dynamic mill simu- Geological Engineering also tries to Colorado. In the mid-1970s, Metz helped Wol , current director of the Mineral Industry lator” for students to use. On a computer keep its faculty grounded in the industry, “We are open enrollment; we are not the MIRL director, teach mine surveying, Research Laboratory. screen, students can change the RPM of a Ganguli said. selective,” Ganguli said, “yet you see which requires a tunnel. Two years a er UAF received the Silver rock-crushing drum, adjust a belt’s speed “We usually do not hire faculty unless our little program up there with the best “We were bemoaning the fact that the Fox Mine, the statewide university system or add more water, all in a virtual mill. they have practical mining experience,” universities in the world.” little adit was gone,” Metz said. “We actu- also created the Mining and Petroleum ey’ll see instantly how their actions he said. “We don’t want armchair mining at status began in a tunnel that now ally did the work in the utilidors, which Training Service in Southcentral Alaska a ect the entire system. engineers.” lies empty some 100 feet under Charles was terrible because it was so bloody hot to provide short, nonacademic training “It’s very similar to what an operator The approach seems to be working, Bunnell’s statue in Cornerstone Plaza on in there even in the late spring, and the courses. In 2015, the service purchased would see,” Ganguli said. Ganguli said. Senior capstone projects the Fairbanks campus. same in the fall.” the Delta Mine Training Center, located Researchers at MIRL worked with have done quite well recently in inter- e history is closer to the surface than Interior Alaska’s mining industry began 30 miles southeast of Delta Junction. instructors at UAF’s Community and national competitions, he said. Mining it appears. Alumni installed Bunnell’s to recover in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Management of the training programs Technical College to create the simulator, Global magazine ranked UAF in the top statue in 1988. Among the organizers of Metz said. Gold prices rose dramati- recently moved under the UAF Cooperative using a grant from the U.S. Department of 10 U.S. colleges for mining in February the e ort was Patrick O’Neill — the man cally. Metz and others at the university Extension Service umbrella. Labor. e simulator rst will be used in 2015. In February 2017, a UAF mining who learned how to handle a shovel in the received multiple federal and state grants CTC’s two-month mill operator training engineering team won rst place in the tunnel below.

1926 1927 U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey Otto Geist, at President Bunnell’s Main Dorm built for establishes a cooperative research request, launches first archaeological women; holds college station (where Duckering is later built) expedition to St. Lawrence Island to dining room to study Alaska livestock and caribou begin the college’s museum collection www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 14 centennial 2017 Alumni across the decades 1920s-1940s John Sexton Shanly ’23

In 1922, as today, a university degree required roughly four Jessie Bloom, in writings Cole found at the UAF Rasmuson years of study. Yet the Alaska Agricultural College and School Library’s Alaska and Polar Regions Collections and Archives, of Mines, which opened for classes that year, produced its first said Bunnell overruled the professor. graduate — Jack Shanly — the following spring. Whatever his academic challenges, Shanly was well liked. Shanly pulled off this feat with help not only from the trans- Fellow students elected him class president. Despite Prohibition, fer of his earlier college credits but also, by some accounts, from he brewed homemade beer at his homestead cabin, according to the fervent advocacy of AACSM’s President Charles Bunnell. firsthand observations from a faculty member — the future UA Bunnell first met Shanly as the future graduate filed for a President Ernest Patty ’53 (Hon.). homestead at Fairbanks’ federal land office in summer 1922. After graduation, Shanly worked as principal of the Nenana “As they conversed, Bunnell saw in Shanly his first graduat- High School briefly, then left Alaska. ing class — and to have a graduate to mark the end of the first Shanly lost title to his homestead cabins in 1926. Independent year’s operation was highly desirable,” wrote William Cashen in Lumber took them because the construction supplies bill “Farthest North College President,” his biography of Bunnell. remained unpaid, according to a biographical paper written by Shanly had studied several years at Cornell University in New a New York teacher, Thomas Patton, and cited by Cole. York before volunteering to drive ambulances in France during Though he never lived in Alaska again, Shanly visited regu- World War I, according to Cashen. When the U.S. entered the larly. He married twice and had three daughters. war in April 1917, Shanly returned to the U.S. and began flight In 1937, Shanly sold his homestead to Bunnell, who subdi- school in Florida. The war ended before he saw combat. vided it. The land underlies much of College, the community So he headed west, working as a logger in Oregon and as a southeast of campus. laborer on an Alaska Railroad construction crew. He then spent Shanly produced educational movies for a time and eventu- two years mining coal in Healy. ally became a federal Food and Drug Administration inspector. Graduating Shanly from AACSM in 1923 required some In 1956, he launched a second career in Buffalo, New York, as pushing and pulling. an international travel tour operator. He died in 1971 at age 77 “The faculty did everything they could to offer the courses when a car struck him near his home in Cuba Lake, New York, necessary for completion of his degree requirements in one where he had retired. year,” Cashen wrote. “It was nip and tuck in chemistry, but Shanly’s eldest daughter, Patricia, attended UA in the late Shanly finally edged safely over the line.” 1940s and married Brad Phillips ’50, who became a well-known Chemistry wasn’t the only obstacle. The other was Shanly’s tour boat operator and state senator from Anchorage. She died primary professor, according to a 2005 article by Fairbanks in an automobile crash in the 1960s. Daily News-Miner columnist Dermot Cole ’79. In 2004, Shanly’s once-controversial diploma was discovered Jessie Bloom, wife of AACSM Trustee Robert Bloom, recalled among items Phillips had in storage in Anchorage. It’s now in that the agriculture professor believed Shanly was “not fit to the Rasmuson Library’s archives, with a copy hanging in the graduate,” Cole reported. UAF chancellor’s office. — Sam Bishop

1927 1929 1930 First graduating class larger Professor Ernest Patty Rockefeller Foundation Congress awards the than one; two women and creates a course in real-life grants $10,000 to the Biological Survey five men receive degrees mining to give his students college to study the aurora $40,000 to ship 34 practical experience young muskoxen from Greenland to the college UAF Alumni Office structure and now first Gymnasium is built, the first permanent concrete floor of Signers’ Hall transfers control of the Station to the college Federal government government Federal Agricultural Experiment centennial 2017 15 www.uaf.edu/aurora/ train servicetrain ceases College bus service between Fairbanks and campus begins; 1931 physics Professor Veryl Fuller, observationstation, set up by opens for research The college’s first auroral www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 16 centennial 2017 Rasmuson Library archives (for complete citation, see page 97) Genevieve Parker Metcalfe, second from left, stands with teammates from a women’s basketball team early in the school’s history.

1933 1934 First yearbook is published, Stone artifacts discovered Ground is broken for Northwest Association called Denali, indigenous name on campus; they match tools the Carl Ben Eielson of Secondary Schools, of Alaska’s tallest mountain from Asia, bolstering the idea Memorial Building Colleges and Universities that the first Alaskans arrived accredits the college as a via a land bridge four-year institution www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 17 centennial 2017 Genevieve Parker Metcalfe ’28

Genevieve Parker Metcalfe grew up among miners, so in a by being dunked in a tub of ice-cold water (to simulate losing different era it might not have been surprising that she became their raft in the waters of Lake Bennett) and drank raw oysters a mining engineer herself. But she earned that degree from the and eggs from an assay crucible,” Noyes wrote. Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines in 1929, and Nevertheless, Metcalfe went on to write a 64-page thesis, for a time she was celebrated as the sole female mining engineer “The Evolution of Placer Mining Methods in Alaska,” that far working in the nation. exceeded the minimum requirements for her degree. For the Metcalfe’s parents, Fred and Genevieve Parker, married in study, Metcalfe interviewed Gilmore and some of the other Fairbanks in 1905, just a few years after it arose as a mining early miners she met while growing up. supply camp. When his daughter was 7 years old, Fred Parker “Even now, 75 years later, her thesis is considered an import- left his sawmill business in town and the family moved to a ant reference on Alaskan placer-mining history,” according mining claim on Fairbanks Creek. to Metcalfe’s biography at the Alaska Mining Hall of Fame “Lacking peers, my great interest was the mine,” Metcalfe website. “Her contribution to the understanding of early placer wrote later. “I ran errands all over the place, mining technologies and to the history of taking small tools and messages to outlying “I remember one of the Fairbanks mining district will always areas. Midafternoons, I shouldered a yoke to the lawyers telling be considered primary references for those take around hot coffee or iced tea plus cake, subjects.” pie or cookies — to the delight of the men me, ‘Now be sensible. Like many AACSM graduates, Metcalfe working a hard 12-hour shift.” went to work at the Fairbanks Exploration She grew up visiting with some of the men Take a good domestic Co. after graduating. In 1930, she left for a job who first discovered gold in the area, includ- science course.’” with its parent company, the U.S. Smelting, ing Felix Pedro’s partner Tom Gilmore, for Refining and Manufacturing Co., in Boston. whom Gilmore Dome is named. The world-class Fort Knox “Being a woman mining engineer, Genevieve became a Mine today harvests gold from a vast pit on the dome’s north- celebrity of the day,” her Hall of Fame biography noted. The ern flank a few miles west of Fairbanks Creek. Engineering and Mining Journal featured an article on The Parker family moved back to town in 1921. Metcalfe Metcalfe with a photo of her driving a nine-dog team. She even attended high school and then enrolled at AACSM in 1924, just met President Herbert Hoover that year. Metcalfe, writing two years after the institution opened for classes. She edited to Noyes, said she was welcomed into Boston’s professional the Farthest-North Collegian school newspaper, ran sled dogs and academic engineering community. She said some male competitively and played on the women’s basketball team. colleagues lamented that their wives, who had studied alongside After earning a science degree in 1928, Metcalfe asked them, couldn’t get recognized as engineers. Professor Ernest Patty ’53 (Hon.) if she could earn a mining “Of course it was easier to recognize that sort of thing in engineering degree. Patty and other professors encouraged her, Alaska — particularly early Alaska — than in other places,” but the question was debated by the university’s trustees, some Metcalfe told Noyes. “It was just assumed in Alaska that a of whom doubted that mining companies would employ her. woman could do most anything because the women worked as “I remember one of the lawyers telling me, ‘Now be sensible. hard as their husbands.” Take a good domestic science course,’” she told Leslie Noyes, Metcalfe resigned to raise a family after marrying John author of a 2001 history of the mining school, “Rock Poker to Metcalfe, a fellow engineer at USSRM, in 1934. They had a Pay Dirt.” daughter and a son. Following John’s company career, the Metcalfe declined the advice but still faced obstacles. The family moved to Salt Lake City, Fairbanks, Nome and then, in Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported that “the boys of the 1942, Massachusetts again, where they remained. John died in Mining Society,” a popular fraternity-like club, declined her full 1970, and Genevieve followed in 1995. membership. — Sam Bishop The problem might have been the secret initiation ritual. “Stripped down to their skivvies, initiates relived the Trail of ’98

1935 1938 AACSM is renamed the Flora Jane Harper Petri, an Rockefeller Foundation Hess Hall for women, the University of Alaska; a Board Athabascan, becomes the grants $17,000 to the first permanent concrete of Regents replaces the first Alaska Native graduate university to write a history dorm, opens Board of Trustees (See profile on pages 18-19.) of Alaska, deemed the Alaska History Research Project www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 18 centennial 2017

Flora Jane Harper ’35

Flora Jane Harper was the granddaughter of one of the most Harper taught at the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Chilocco successful pre-Gold Rush traders in the Yukon River country, boarding school in Oklahoma and its Alaska schools in but her famous ancestor bestowed her with little advantage in Wrangell, Sitka and Eklutna. She married Walter “Pete” Petri in life. She grew up poor, part of a large family that fled deadly Wrangell in 1941. They had a daughter in 1943, and the family disease outbreaks while struggling in a society where their moved to Anchorage in 1949. mostly Athabascan heritage often was a liability. Jan Harper-Haines ’65, the daughter, wrote about her percep- Harper overcame these obstacles and more to become the tions, as a child, of her mother’s quiet struggle to maintain her first Alaska Native person to graduate from the University of self-esteem in the decades that followed. Alaska. She did so in 1935, decades before racial discrimination “From the time she was a child Mom had sought respect, a fell into disfavor in the nation’s social and legal systems. desire that propelled her to graduate from the University of Harper’s famous grandfather was Arthur Alaska,” Harper-Haines wrote in 2012 on the Harper, an Irish trader who arrived in Fort blog “Growing Up Anchorage.” Yukon in 1874. He married Seentahna, a 14-year- Most troubling were the slurs that “smeared old Athabascan girl from the Koyukuk River all Natives, even my mother, who didn’t drink,” region. Before separating almost 20 years later, Harper-Haines wrote. “‘People don’t see me,’ they had eight children, including Sam, Flora she’d say, resigned as she shelved books in the Jane’s father. Loussac Library where she worked. ‘They see a The couple’s youngest son, Walter Harper, drunken Indian on Fourth Avenue.’” became the first man to stand atop Denali in The desire for respect made Harper uncom- 1913, a member of the Episcopal Archdeacon fortable with her husband’s occasional, strongly Hudson Stuck’s successful climbing team. worded letters to the editor and prompted her to Flora Jane was born in Rampart in 1910 to “damn well make sure we looked presentable.” Sam and Louise Harper. The family moved “She felt it was her responsibility to help 1935 Denali yearbook to Nenana seeking protection from the 1918 improve the image of Native people. She knew Spanish flu epidemic. others were watching. She was right,” Harper-Haines wrote. In Nenana, Sam worked for the railroad, but supporting a After retirement, the couple moved to Sequim, Washington. six-member family wasn’t easy. When Flora Jane was 10, her Pete died in 1990, and Flora Jane died in 1992. In 1994, the father sent her and three siblings to Chemawa, a boarding University of Alaska Fairbanks named the Harper Building on school for Native Americans in Oregon. Geist Road after her. The building houses UAF’s Interior Alaska “It’s either that or starve,” he reportedly said. Campus. Flora Jane wasn’t able to return to Alaska for nine years. After Athabascan elder Poldine Carlo, of Fairbanks, recalled being graduating from high school in Portland, she contracted tuber- taught by Harper when she was in high school and how it made culosis and spent almost a year in a hospital. her feel at the time. Once back in Alaska, Harper enrolled at the Alaska “[She] was the first Native person to graduate from the univer- Agricultural College and School of Mines. She graduated with a sity, and she was my home ec teacher in Eklutna,” Carlo said at home economics degree in 1935, the year the school became the a 2015 event at Troth Yeddha’ Park on the Fairbanks campus. “I University of Alaska. was so proud of her.” — Sam Bishop

1939 1940 1943 ROTC established (required Enrollment reaches UA begins charging tuition, 1943-1945 U.S. Army takes by the Morrill Act) over 300 students as funds are needed to over two-thirds of campus; build more dorm space Hess Hall becomes military hospital Interior Alaska Campus of the University of Associated Students Alaska is created increases to 300 students After WWII, enrollment centennial 2017 19 www.uaf.edu/aurora/ authorizes a Geophysical President Truman Institute to conduct at UA Arctic and polar research 1946

sharply due to WWII; there is talk of closing

Enrollment declines declines Enrollment 1944 UAF University Relations 1946 ASUA publishes The Polar Star, Polar The publishes ASUA the first campus newspaper newspaper campus first the completely under student control 20 www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 1947 UA funds from Territorial Legislature are are Legislature Territorial from UA funds frozen; Bunnell keeps school open through through open school keeps Bunnell frozen; help from Alaskans and his own money own his and Alaskans from help centennial 2017 centennial First summer summer First session is held www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 21 centennial 2017

Earl Beistline ’39, ’69 (Hon.)

Earl Beistline, one of UAF’s most respected and longest-tenured Beistline married Dorothy teachers, might never have entered the profession had it not Hering of Fairbanks, and they been for the sensational exit of his predecessor. eventually had four children: A “veritable drama of love, law and politics” opened a teach- Ralph, Bill, Kathy and Linda. ing job for Beistline, according to Leslie Noyes, author of “Rock (Dorothy later owned and ran Poker to Pay Dirt: The History of Alaska’s School of Mines and Daisy A Day flower shop, and its Successors.” an endowment in her memory Beistline’s predecessor married the school’s nurse in January helps maintain the Georgeson 1946, and displeased administrators asked her to resign. If she Botanical Garden.) was forced out, her new husband said, he would quit, too. The University administrators dispute went all the way to the Legislature, but the couple lost steadily promoted Beistline, first and left the university. to dean of the School of Mines in 1938 Denali yearbook Suddenly, midsemester, the school needed an instructor to 1949, then to dean of faculty in complete classes. The dean called Beistline, an alumnus who 1960. He became provost in 1970 and later served as academic had recently returned to Fairbanks after serving in World vice president for the statewide system. War II. Beistline helped create the Mineral Industry Research “Thus began his 36-year career as an educator with the univer- Laboratory in 1965. Despite his influence, in the early 1970s he sity. He loved to teach,” his family reported in Beistline’s 2012 lost a contentious bid to retain the geology department in the obituary. mining program. A former student once described Beistline as possessing a While a strong advocate for his own views, Beistline “hurry-up but happy, no-nonsense style.” That style, conveyed always remained a gentleman. He convinced UA President by his ever-present smile and energetic pace, made Beistline a William Wood ’89 (Hon.) to allow a Vietnam War protest on popular leader not only at the university but also in Alaska’s campus, then attended it even though he disagreed with the mining industry for decades. demonstrators. Beistline was born in Juneau in 1916, the son of a miner who After retiring from the university in 1982, Beistline consulted spent several years in the Fairbanks area before going to work for the industry and operated a placer mine on Eagle Creek for the Alaska Juneau Gold Mining Co. in Juneau. During the with Doug Colp. Great Depression, Beistline saw how mining buffered the terri- In 1986, Beistline helped form the Alaska Minerals tory against the economic ravages elsewhere, and he became a Commission to advise the state on mining policy. As chair, he lifelong advocate for the industry. lobbied legislators on issues important to the industry in Alaska. In college, Beistline played hockey, managed the basketball With Wood, Beistline helped create the Alaska Mining Hall team and was elected student body president. During summers, of Fame in 1997 and was inducted a decade later. In 2006, he he drove cold-water points to thaw ground for the Fairbanks became one of the few Alaskans accepted into the National Exploration Co. dredges. Mining Hall of Fame. Beistline served in the Aleutian Islands during World War When Beistline died in 2012, a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner II. After returning to the university as an instructor, he earned editorial said he had “left a legacy of service to Alaska that has his professional engineer degree with a thesis on an innovative been matched by few people in our state.” sampling technique he developed for a company dredging a — Sam Bishop Salcha River tributary.

1949 Voters elect entire new Legislature, which Terris Moore becomes UA’s second Geophysical rewrites Alaska’s tax code, instituting president; President Bunnell is Institute opens the territory’s first income tax to cover named president emeritus essential services such as the university www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 22 centennial 2017

Ray Smith ’43

Ray Smith never expected to attend college. In his small Maine years later would join the university faculty and run its Mineral hometown, those who did so were viewed as “kind of peculiar.” Industry Research Laboratory. So in August 1939, when he and his friend Lloyd Atwood hiked After graduating in 1943, Smith served in the Army during the railroad tracks from Fairbanks to the University of Alaska, World War II and married Beatrice Bennet in Maryland. They it was to find a job, not an education. The pair of 22-year-olds eventually had two sons. After the war, they returned to Alaska, were out of money and hungry, having just arrived from the where Smith began teaching at the School of Mines. East Coast. One highlight, he recalled, was preparing students for a final Reaching campus in late afternoon, Smith and Atwood found exam. “My method of teaching was to teach my students to a man digging a ditch on the northwest corner of the Main think ‘why,’” Smith said. Building. The man said he didn’t think there were any jobs In contrast, a fellow professor pushed memorization. around; he was just happy to have one himself. “At the conclusion of the final exam, my But he added that they could get a meal at a students were far superior,” Smith said. “I was nearby house. proud of them.” After a brief debate won by their growl- After three years, Smith left to earn a doctor- ing stomachs, the pair knocked on the door, ate. In 1959, Michigan Technological University Smith told Leslie Noyes, author “Rock Poker hired him to teach, and in 1965 he became its to Pay Dirt,” a history of UAF’s mining school president. published in 2001. In that role, he employed the personal touch he A woman invited them in and said “President saw Bunnell model decades earlier. Bunnell” would join them shortly. Paul Metz ’75, now a UAF professor, was a “A moment later, out pops this rotund guy all geological engineering student at Michigan dressed up in a suit, and it was our ditch digger, Tech when Smith became its president. Metz

President Charles Bunnell!” Smith said. 1941 Denali yearbook left a message inviting Smith to dinner at an old Over dinner, Bunnell asked the pair to enroll. boarding house where Metz and about 20 other Smith and Atwood said they had no jobs, money or place to stay. students lived. Bunnell offered them an old cabin near campus in exchange for To Metz’s surprise, Smith accepted. “So he came over and repairs and noted that tuition was free. There was no refusing chatted and stayed til late at night” telling stories of Alaska, the man. Metz recalled. “He changed my life in the couple of hours I first met him,” Ten years later, Metz was studying under Ernie Wolff for his Smith said last year, shortly before turning 100. “He remains a master’s at UAF. On a trip to Michigan, Metz visited Smith hero in my book of memories. I went from a broken upstart to a again, this time at Wolff’s insistence. “We sat all night long university president with his boost.” chatting about the university,” Metz recalled. But that’s getting ahead of the story. First, Smith and Atwood Smith served as Michigan Tech’s president until 1979, over- had to survive the winter. They built an outhouse and root seeing a great expansion. cellar, cut firewood and chinked the leaky cabin. They snared Smith’s first wife, Beatrice, died in 1998. He married Rachel hares, picked berries and shot grouse, ducks and caribou. They Malcolm three years later. They live in Green Valley, a retire- recruited another roommate — Ernie Wolff ’41— who some ment community in southern Arizona. — Sam Bishop

1949 1952 1953 Arthur Nagozruk Jr. is the Farthest-North Collegian Salvatore De Leonardis and Ernest Patty, one of the first Inupiaq to graduate publication ends in order to John Hakala earn the first original faculty members remove competition for news and graduate degrees, master’s in 1922, becomes the advertising between it and the degrees in wildlife management third president student newspaper, The Polar Star Arturo Gabaldon geophysics in philosophy and earns firstUA Ph.D., Masahisa Sugirura on Fairbankson campus Convention convenes convenes Convention Alaska Constitutional 1955 centennial 2017 23 www.uaf.edu/aurora/ established Anchorage in and Ketchikan and First community colleges

projects across campus major construction construction major

President Patty begins 1954 www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 24 centennial 2017

1956 1957 1958 Delegates sign the President Emeritus Students create Tradition Stone University Fire constitution for the Charles Bunnell to commemorate the “death of Department forms with proposed state of Alaska dies at age 78 drinking” after President Patty student volunteers in the gymnasium, now bans alcohol the previous year Signers’ Hall www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 25 centennial 2017

Jane MacKinnon ’47

Jane MacKinnon remembers precisely how many students stud- with anthropology Professor Ivar Skarland. USO tours would ied at the University of Alaska when she started school in the occasionally pass through as well, including one headlined by mid-1940s. That’s because she knew all 33 of them. Bob Hope. The Fairbanks campus, depleted by student enlistments Those years left a lasting impression, both personally and during World War II, was a tightknit community for those who professionally. remained. Every student lived in a single dormitory, along with In Fairbanks, Jane met her future husband, J.S. “Skip” some of the teachers. They were joined on campus by visiting MacKinnon Jr., who was also attending college. Jane and Skip soldiers, since Hess Hall served as an Army hospital during moved to his hometown of Juneau, where she used her business the war. degree to work in the office at Alaska Laundry “There was a closeness,” said MacKinnon, who and Dry Cleaners. The business has been oper- graduated in 1947 with a degree in business ated by the MacKinnon family in Juneau since administration. “There weren’t many of us on the late 1800s. campus, but we were all good friends. You were “I got a good education, and I’ve used it all my acquainted with everybody, even the professors.” life,” she said. “It was a wonderful time.” The campus was small enough that some MacKinnon maintained her university ties by classes consisted of a student meeting individ- serving as a board member of the UAF Alumni ually with a professor. Some of their names Association in the 1990s. Jane and Skip were — Bunnell, Duckering, Schaible and Skarland followed at UAF by their son, E. Neil MacKinnon, among them — are on the sides of campus who earned a mining engineering degree. A buildings today. great-grandson, Mason Smith, plans to attend

But MacKinnon, 93, said the cozy atmosphere 1938 Denali yearbook UAF in the fall. suited her well. She’d graduated from Nome Neil described the feel on campus as “different High School, where her father owned a flying service, and but the same” between his mother’s era in the 1940s and his enjoyed small-town life there after her family moved from graduation in 1972. But by the time Jane returned to Fairbanks Seattle. After spending the year after high school in Anchorage, during her Alumni Association years, she said the transforma- MacKinnon felt the urge to attend school, and she wanted to tion was remarkable. remain in Alaska. In a half-century, the sleepy campus where everyone knew “I decided I had to do something with myself,” she said. each other had grown into a hub for education and research. MacKinnon said the cost of college was $125 per semester, “I think it’s wonderful. It’s really improved,” she said. “The including room and board. For entertainment the small group buildings and the whole atmosphere of the place have just would hold dances or ski to a nearby farm to have dinner changed so much.” — Jeff Richardson

1959 1960 Vice President Richard June 30: Congress passes Jan. 3: Alaska becomes Alaska Legislature Nixon visits UA to boost the the Alaska Statehood Act the 49th state establishes the Institute Republican Party in the soon- of Marine Science to-be-born state of Alaska From the ground up Agricultural college researches food for the Far North

BY JEFF RICHARDSON

hen it was established in the college prominently featured the word 1917, the foundation of the “agriculture” in its name. WAlaska Agricultural College e university’s agricultural roots were and School of Mines was made clear by born about a decade before the university its name. e new school in Fairbanks was established. e site where UAF is would train students to harvest the state’s today was the location of the Fairbanks resources, whether they were grown from agricultural experiment station, which the earth or pulled out of it. was started in 1906 to nd crops that could Yet the school that would become the grow in the Interior. University of Alaska Fairbanks has always It wasn’t easy. Eight years a er the station had a complicated relationship with agri- opened, Superintendent J.W. Neal reported culture. Federal agriculture science that the chaotic weather in the Tanana funding was responsible for keeping the Valley was still a constant frustration. college a oat during its lean early years, “From observations reported there seem and UAF research still contributes to to have been no two seasons alike within Northern farming today. But from the start, a reasonable period of years,” he wrote. the college’s students have largely pursued “Indeed, the variance is so great that one other subjects — only ve students grad- seldom fails to encounter some unexpected

Rasmuson Library archives (forcomplete citation, see page97) uated with ag degrees during the 14 years fault in the weather.” Several men gather to measure the height of grain growing at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm in the early 1900s. The university’s Fairbanks campus sits on land originally designated by the federal government as an agricultural experiment station. www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 27 centennial 2017

From the ground up Agricultural college researches food for the Far North

BY JEFF RICHARDSON

But there were reasons, both practical history, those e orts ranged from lasting and nancial, why agriculture was empha- successes to comical failures. sized in such a challenging location. An early project of the respected bota- Agriculture in the Interior tended to nist C.C. Georgeson, who oversaw Alaska’s follow mining in Alaska’s early days, since Agricultural Experiment Stations, was to those miners had to be fed. Early agricul- cross Tibetan yaks with Galloway cattle tural e orts were needed to help support e yaks did“ not take well from Scotland. e result was an experi- the stream of gold seekers and homestead- to being milked. mental breed called galloyaks that could ers who were moving into the territory. endure cold Alaska winters, according to “Prior to refrigeration you had no choice You could do it, but it was “ e Cornerstone on College Hill,” by UAF but to grow a lot of it here,” said Carol Professor Terrence Cole ’76, ’78. Lewis ’76, who retired in 2012 as dean not very simple.” But the era of yaks and their cross-bred of the School of Natural Resources and cousins was short-lived. Galloyaks couldn’t Agricultural Sciences and director of the reproduce, and yaks weren’t enamored Agricultural and Forestry Experiment with becoming farm animals.

Rasmuson Library archives (for complete citation, see page 97) Station a er a nearly four-decade career. brome, oats, barley and wheat. Vegetable “ e yaks did not take well to being “ at’s what you needed to do back then.” crops included legumes, peas and potatoes, milked,” Lewis said. “You could do it, but A university that emphasized agriculture along with livestock such as ducks, geese, it was not very simple.” also brought badly needed funds to a young rabbits, sheep, goats and cattle. According to legend, the era of the school that was perpetually broke. James But even as the money owed, learning galloyak came to a sudden end in 1932 Wickersham ’35 (Hon.), Alaska’s delegate how to be an Alaska farmer at the state’s when one of the animals broke into to Congress, claimed that he accidentally university was never a popular option. the garden of the university’s president, discovered the federal Morrill Acts and Lewis isn’t sure what courses were even Charles Bunnell. e subsequent winter of gured they’d be a good vehicle for seed- o ered in the early days, because records galloyak-themed menus revealed another At top, a galloyak ing the Alaska Agricultural College and about students who studied agriculture drawback of the animals — the tough meat roams a Fairbanks School of Mines. e federal acts, which during that era are scarce. was almost inedible. Experiment Farm ﬁ eld sometime were designed to promote agriculture, “Not many people took those classes,” she In the years that followed, other livestock before 1932. The included a gi of land and $50,000 per year. said. “It was a hands-on place, and people e orts were similarly challenging. experimental animals, Annual federal ag funds were the only who worked on a farm at that time weren’t A 4-H leader and cooperative exten- a cross between money the university could really count going to go to college.” sion agent tried to raise chickens in the Galloway cattle and Tibetan yaks, couldn’t on in its early decades, according to UAF southwest Alaska village of Aniak, only reproduce and so that historian Neil Davis ’55, ’61. In his book A history of experimentation to discover that their feet would freeze to year made a one-time “ e College Hill Chronicles,” Davis wrote the ground during bouts of nasty weather. appearance on the school cafeteria menu. that the funding was “absolutely crucial to Although the college had few ag students, Efforts to conduct hog and dairy cow opening the doors of the new school on the campus was an innovative environ- research ourished during the years when At bottom, the ﬁ rst College Hill, and to keeping them open ment where researchers maintained a technology in Alaska was equivalent to reindeer bull calf of during the early years.” willingness to try untested new agriculture that in more temperate states, but were the year stands beside Farm workers lived in a dormitory on the techniques. roughout the university’s halted over time once that work could his mom in April 2013 at the Fairbanks new campus, and grew various types of hay, be done more cheaply in the Lower 48. Experiment Farm.

1960 1961 William R. Wood UA receives one of its first Old Main demolished after the Michael Krauss teaches becomes the university’s computers, an IBM 1620, Bunnell Building is completed the first Alaska Native fourth president considered a state-of-the- next to its former location language class, Yupik art computing machine www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 29 centennial 2017

1962 Women’s rifle established; Alaska voters approve bond to Alaska community colleges Oct. 1: KUAC FM radio the team sweeps the national begin construction of an Arctic are brought into the university station signs on the air championship six times Research Center on the campus’ system by an act of the within the next seven years West Ridge to focus America’s Legislature research in the North www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 30 centennial 2017

UA research has continued in Alaska- 1953 to 1987, the Agricultural Experiment based livestock feeds, including sh meal Station enjoyed a period of innovation that and barley additives. would have made the horticulturist proud. e most successful livestock project at More than 40 strains of Alaska crops were UAF kept its aim closer to home. Reindeer developed, from Alasclear potatoes to Weal research, which has been conducted in barley. Alaska since the 1920s, was shifted to Pat Holloway, a retired UAF horticul- UAF oversight in 1983. e program has ture professor, said UAF’s Don Dinkel provided Alaska herders with education revolutionized Alaska gardening in the about breeding and o ered guidelines for 1960s by guring out that plastic mulches slaughtering and butchering. were e ective at warming soils. e profes- The UAF program also underscores sor’s unorthodox technique has become the do-it-yourself nature of agricultural a standard remedy for growing in cold research in Alaska — no other school in garden beds. North America conducts reindeer research. “He did all of the research to gure out if “We’re it, which is cool but it’s also frus- that would be useful, and it’s everywhere trating,” said Gregory Finstad ’81, ’08, now — he was way ahead of his time,” who manages the program. “In the beef Holloway said. “ at’s part of the exper- industry there are dozens of universities iment station.” doing a diversity of research. We have to Perhaps the most in uential bit of ag do everything.” research was sparked by a tidbit that Other early crop innovations that Holloway overheard at a greenhouse emerged from the university have helped conference in 1999. A flower grower At top, Pat Holloway, shape farming in the state. mentioned that peonies, a beloved deco- who ﬁ rst promoted peony production in Georgeson became well-known for rative ower, bloomed at a di erent time Alaska while a UAF giving free seeds to Alaska pioneers, with of year in Alaska than anywhere else in horticulture professor, the condition that they write him back and the world. enjoys a bloom of the tell him how their plants fared. e e ort That detail made Holloway wonder Leslie Peck variety in early July 2017 allowed him to compile a basic record whether the state could ll a small void at the Georgeson of how plant varieties grew throughout in the world peony market, which led Botanical Garden. Alaska. ose records led to the broad Sen. Ted Stevens to include $13,000 in distribution of many staples of Alaska an earmark to pay for peony plants and At bottom, people gardens, most notably the Sitka-hybrid roots at UAF. Two years later, a vendor in gather at the strawberry, which is grown throughout the London cold-called Holloway at her o ce. Georgeson Botanical Garden for a musical state today. at tradition continues today He was ready to place an order for distribu- performance in June at UAF’s Georgeson Botanical Garden and tion — 100,000 stems a week. At the time 2017. UAF Summer numerous seed societies established across UAF, with a modest 20-by-60-foot plot, Sessions arranges Alaska. was the only peony grower in the state. the Music in the Garden series of e quest for hardy crops didn’t end with “I was just dumbfounded,” she said. “I concerts on Thursday Georgeson. During a busy period from thought, ‘What in the world is going on?’” evenings in summer.

1962 1963 1964 Project Chariot, a plan to create a Alaska Legislature UAF athletic coaches and Sports teams, formerly harbor in Northwest Alaska using creates the Institute of student skiers, including known as the Polar Bears, hydrogen bombs, is shelved after Arctic Biology Nat Goodhue ’65 and Gail become the Nanooks UA scientists and others raise Bakken ’65, organize the alarms about radiation fallout first Equinox Marathon www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 31 centennial 2017

1965 1966 University Fire Department Vera Alexander earns a ASUA becomes official Faculty tenure becomes firehouse is built doctorate in marine science, part of university hierarchy, established policy becoming the first woman giving students more say in to receive a Ph.D. from the university decisions university. www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 32 centennial 2017

at validation has led to a peony boom underlying goal remains the same today in Alaska during the past decade. It’s as it was a century ago. One of the primary spurred more than 100 farmers to plant arguments for supporting agricultural the owers, which can sell for as much as research in Alaska is due to a bleak reality: $5 a stem. A peony growers association Residents of the state need to do a better has bloomed around the young industry, job of feeding themselves. which has been called Alaska’s next big In the early 20th century, small farms export crop. and dairies supplied a sparse population “We could close the loop on peony of settlers, but not without the help of food seasons and make it a year-round ower,” shipments from the Lower 48. Alaskans are Holloway said. “ at’s something everyone even worse o today, said Alaska Farm We could close the loop on in the world wants.” Bureau President Bryce Wrigley. e state “ imports more than 95 percent of its food, peony seasons and make it Early agricultural roots which he said sets up its residents for a year-round ower.” immediate shortages if that ow is ever ose victories and challenges emerged crimped. from a university that has often been Wrigley believes developing crops conflicted about its agricultural roots. that are well-suited for Alaska is a key to Holloway said there has always been a reversing that trend, and that UA has been tension between academics and agricul- a leader in that e ort. Northern varieties ture, even among those who established need to be able to mature during a short the college. growing season, and ideally produce good Wickersham loved the potential of a yields during that time. land-grant institution, selecting a loca- He cites the UAF-developed Sunshine tion next to the modern-day Fairbanks barley variety, a hull-less grain with sti Experiment Farm because he knew the stalks that can withstand a harsh winter. nearby elds would be conveyed as part He has about 150 acres of Sunshine barley of the school’s mission. But Bunnell faced planted at his Delta Junction farm, which criticism for how he carried out that role. he has used to make our since 2011. Congress replaced Bunnell as director of Wrigley said it’s important that the state the experiment station in 1947, upset that continue to fund ag research for the North, federal funding seemed to be going more even in an era of tight budgets. toward University of Alaska operations “ ere’s nobody else who’s doing that than farm research under his watch. e right now,” Wrigley said. “It’s something station remained part of the university and we need to maintain our food security has continued under UAF to this day. up here. But in many respects, through changes Finstad said that reality is one of the in Alaska and its university system, the best arguments for continued reindeer Mingchu Zhang, professor of agronomy and soil sciences with UAF’s School of Natural Resources and Extension, samples mature wheat in 2011. The wheat is being studied as a potential Alaska crop.

1966 1967 1969 Moore Hall becomes first Fairbanks campus serves as Rural Student Services is The Geophysical co-ed residence hall evacuation site and emergency reorganized to help provide Institute’s Poker Flat shelter for more than 7,000 people from rural areas Research Range, 30 residents after the Chena River of Alaska access to higher miles north of Fairbanks, floods town in August education launches its first rocket www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 33 centennial 2017

1970 UA enrollment hits 3,645 Federal government names Elmer E. Rasmuson KUAC FM becomes the students, an increase UA a Sea Grant institution Library and the Fine Arts first member station of of nearly 400 percent Complex open National Public Radio in since 1960 Alaska www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 34 centennial 2017

research, since it bolsters a product that is well-suited to Alaska. He believes many Alaskans aren’t focused enough on where their food is from, but said those priorities could change quickly. “I think it’s going to take a severe catastrophe to scare the crap out of everyone,” he said. Even amid that reality, Lewis said she can’t help but see the university’s in uence in gardens and farmers markets throughout the state. Hoop houses that cover rural vegetable beds are a remnant of outreach and education from a half-century ago. e locally grown potatoes, strawberries and cabbages that feed Alaskans now are o en a product of years of research at a university farm. “UAF should be proud of that work,” she said. “It should blow its own horn about that.” Holloway believes the legacy of agriculture around the Fairbanks campus runs even deeper. ose elds of grain and vegetables set apart the one-time mining town from other Alaska communities that boomed and quickly disappeared. “I think that’s one reason why Fairbanks didn’t fade away like other gold rush towns,” she said. “Agriculture brought stability to this area and gave people a reason to be here.” Fall colors brighten the hillside surrounding the Fairbanks Experiment Farm on Sept. 17, 2014. The farm was founded on this site in 1906 as one of several federal agricultural experiment stations in Alaska. It later became part of the university.

1970 1971 University researchers spend Center for Cross-Cultural KUAC TV begins Mandatory restricted next three years on several Studies opens broadcasting, bringing public hours end for women studies related to construction television to the Interior living in residence halls of a trans-Alaska oil pipeline www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 35 centennial 2017

1972 Alaska Legislature Ernest Gruening Building Kuskokwim Community Prohibition ends on establishes the Alaska and William Ransom Wood College in Bethel opens campus Native Language Center Center open www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 36 centennial 2017 1950s-1970s Neil Davis ’55, ’61

T. Neil Davis rebuilt aircraft engines at age 16, conjured a rocket In 1942, Davis’ parents moved to Alaska when his father got range from scrap at 36 and wrote erudite yet amusing books on work with the military. Davis and his younger brother followed wildly diverse topics until his death at 84 last year. two years later after their parents homesteaded southeast of An incident in his book “Rockets Over Alaska” might best Fairbanks. illustrate the UAF professor’s unconventional genius. Far from town, Davis took correspondence courses for school. At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in the early 1960s, “Somehow school was not right — the only course I finished was Davis planned to send sensors into the upper atmosphere using one on gasoline engines,” he said. rockets launched from a ship. Before the sensors went on the In 1947, Wien Airlines hired him as an intern mechanic. rockets, NASA’s test facility had to spin them to make sure Within a year, at age 16, he was rebuilding the big radial they’d survive the launch. But a more prestigious engines in DC-3 aircraft. satellite project knocked Davis’ sensors off the He finished high school in Iowa. There, he met test schedule just before the ship was to sail. his future wife, Rosemarie. From 1953 to 1962, Instead of giving up, Davis and his crew hung they had three children: Patricia, Douglas and a sensor from a tree with two ropes, walked Deborah. it in circles until it was wound up tight and Davis earned his bachelor’s in geophysics then released it, letting the sensor spin rapidly. from UA in 1955, a master’s from the California The testing facility picked up the signals and Institute of Technology in 1957 and a doctorate confirmed the sensor had spun fast enough to from UA in 1961. meet the launch criteria. The sensors and their Davis took an early retirement from UAF in rockets got on the ship. 1981. As grant money for scientific work tight- So did Davis, and he spent the next month ened, he had begun to find the job frustrating. sailing the southern seas and launching his 1955 Denali yearbook The state’s enticing retirement rules at the time devices into the ionosphere. tipped his decision. That work and other projects provided the technical expertise “I still feel guilty about doing that,” he said in November. “I and contacts that helped him establish the Poker Flat Research figured I still owed it to the Alaska public to do what I can.” Range just north of Fairbanks a few years later. What he could do was write. He’d found the talent when he The U.S. military was looking for a northern range in 1968 started a weekly newspaper column about Alaska science because Denmark had nixed several experiments in Greenland in 1976. after a U.S. B-52 carrying nuclear bombs crashed there. So Davis became an author, completing a dozen books. He The military contracted with UAF’s Geophysical Institute, explained permafrost in one and the aurora borealis in another. even though it had no rocket range. So Davis, by then the insti- He chronicled the University of Alaska’s early decades. He tute’s assistant director, and about half the institute’s staff built told the story of his experience with the health care system as one in a hurry, and the first rocket launched in March 1969. daughter Patricia died of cancer. Davis developed that ability to make do early on, as his The books never made money, he said. parents moved across a Depression-strangled America looking They were his gift to Alaska, a generous return on that early for work. retirement. “It was very difficult,” he said in late November 2016 while — Sam Bishop sitting at the home he and his family built on Miller Hill Road, just west of campus. “We were pretty poor, actually.” Editor’s note: Neil Davis died at his home Dec. 10, 2016, just 10 days after he was interviewed and photographed for this article.

1973 President Wood retires, UA Foundation is established THEATA, a magazine of Nanooks win first and Robert W. Hiatt nonfiction articles by Alaska intercollegiate basketball succeeds him Native students, is published championship, the NAIA Division I title www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 37 centennial 2017

1974 Tanana Valley Community First annual Festival of Native Fairbanks Symphony “The Native Peoples and College opens in downtown Arts celebrates Alaska’s Orchestra takes up Languages of Alaska” map is Fairbanks diverse cultural traditions permanent residence in the published, showing regions Charles W. Davis Concert Hall where 20 Alaska Native languages are spoken www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 38 centennial 2017

1975 University reorganizes as a Northwest Community Bristol Bay Community Professor Eb Rice publishes statewide office overseeing three College opens in Nome College opens in Dillingham “Building in the North,” a main campuses — in Fairbanks, guide to cold-weather Anchorage and Juneau — and a construction in Alaska community college division www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 39 centennial 2017

Ann Tremarello ’57

Ann Tremarello arrived at the University of Alaska with a Tremarello decided she wanted to work closer to their simple goal: Put in her time and go somewhere else. on-campus apartment. Her family was planning to move in 1953 from Virginia to The registrar, Laura Jones, offered Tremarello a job, where Elmendorf Air Force Base, near Anchorage, where her father she was one of three “worker bees” who did it all — churning was being stationed. He wanted his daughter, who had just out transcripts, graduated from high school, to stick close to home. recording grades “He felt I was too young to live that far away,” she said. “He and processing said, ‘There’s a college up there somewhere. Go there for a year.’” scholarships. Tremarello’s plan to make a quick exit from Alaska failed, but She would there isn’t a hint of regret in her voice. She not only graduated also do dictation from the University of Alaska, she also played a crucial role for Jones, who in welcoming new students to Fairbanks in the decades that answered all followed. queries person- She retired in 2002 after a long career as the registrar. During ally and sent her tenure at UAF, Tremarello watched as the campus grew new students from a remote outpost to a modern university. a list of college When Tremarello enrolled at UA, that journey seemed supplies. Years unlikely. later, Tremarello She stepped onto a tiny campus with 400 students — just learned she had one-fifth the size of her Virginia high school. Since it didn’t been telling Ann Maxwell with her future husband, Joe offer her preferred degree of interior design, she took shorthand students to bring Tremarello, in the 1957 Denali yearbook. and typing, figuring she’d eventually “get a job and go some- their goulashes where else.” to campus, using the spelling for the Hungarian comfort food But after a year, she told her father that she’d try another. rather than the wet-weather footwear. When she met her future husband, Joe Tremarello ’56, ’68, as “I was horrified when I found out, but the university survived a sophomore, suddenly Fairbanks seemed like a good place in spite of me,” she said with a laugh. to stay. Tremarello remained in the office for the rest of her long “After that, all thoughts of leaving left my mind,” she said. career, ultimately seeing her once-tiny campus grow to 9,000 Tremarello said the campus was “rough by today’s standards,” students. By the time she retired, Tremarello had overseen the with few buildings and limited class offerings, but the colorful, evolution from a manual filing system to the computer age, close atmosphere drew her in. An eclectic blend of students with a few other record-keeping overhauls in between. and instructors knew each other and would often socialize. The Her best memories, however, were about helping students school’s president, Ernest Patty ’53 (Hon.), even policed the make the sometimes-difficult transition to college. By the time punch bowl during dances to keep students from spiking it she left UAF, Tremarello had the moniker of a favorite aunt — with booze. Ann T. Those ties continued after she graduated in 1957 with a “I loved working with students — that was probably the best business administration degree. After briefly working for an part of my job,” she said. “It was the way I felt we could help.” accounting firm in downtown Fairbanks, the newly married — Jeff Richardson

1976 1977 Howard A. Cutler For the first time, UAF UA has a financial crisis, with In September, regents hire becomes first UAF enrollment figures show an estimated $10 million Neil Humphrey as seventh chancellor more females (53 percent) shortfall; President Hiatt is president of UA; he resigns than males (47 percent) forced to resign after four months due to the university’s severe financial ills www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 40 centennial 2017

Linda Gordon ’65

Song inspired Linda Dahl Gordon to enroll at the university in Linda Gordon’s future husband, George Gordon ’62, was also Fairbanks. “I almost went to the University of Washington,” she a member of the team. They were one of three couples who went said. “But when I was in high school I heard the Choir of the from teammates to spouses. North perform. I thought, ‘I want to be a part of that.’” “We never would have met otherwise,” she recalled. “He was “If I hadn’t been at school that day, everything would have three years older, studying electrical engineering, didn’t take been different.” the same classes.” Instead, in 1960 the young woman from Anchorage headed George Gordon got his degree in 1962, Linda Gordon gradu- north after graduation to sing under the direc- ated with a degree in education in 1965, and they tion of Ron Berg. Her instincts had been right: became successful business owners and develop- The renowned university choir won the Pacific ers in Fairbanks. Shortly before George Gordon’s Northwest title her freshman year. death in 2014, the pair endowed a scholarship for Gordon stopped singing when Berg left the the Nanook rifle team, a little twist of fate since university the next year, but she had already she had once declined a rifle scholarship offered found something else to take its place. to her. “In gym you had to sign up for two classes,” She remembers during her college years “being she said. “I signed up for rifle and skiing. Rifle broke all the time, but all of us were in the happened before the snow fell, so I never did same boat.” learn to ski.” “Dean [Edward] Voldseth gave me a scholar- That’s because even though Gordon had never ship, but I turned it down because I didn’t think I shot before, she ended up winning the first indi- 1963 Denali yearbook was poor enough,” she said. vidual women’s title in the country. She helped UAF was smaller then (and less bureaucratic, make the Nanooks the first team to win the national champion- she noted) but still rich in opportunities. ship, and helped them win again the next two years. She is clear, “My fondest memories are the opportunities given to me by though, that the team’s driving force was its coach, Master Sgt. the university,” she said. “Being secretary of the student body, E.F. Horton, for whom the shooting range in the Patty Center is beating the choir at the University of Washington, the rifle now named. team — I couldn’t have done that at Washington.” At the time, the rifle team was part of ROTC, and many on “I was lucky to have such great people. It makes you who you the team were novices, but the master sergeant-cum-coach had are today, puts you in a good situation when you get out of the right mix of discipline and motivation. college. You don’t give up.” “Sgt. Horton was just the best,” she said. “If you wanted to — Tori Tragis shoot at 11 at night, he’d open up the range for you.”

1977 1978 1979 First issue of Permafrost, an In February, regents appoint Chukchi Campus established Regents appoint Jay English Department journal Foster Diebold, the board’s in Kotzebue, 26 miles north Barton as UA’s ninth of student fiction, poetry and executive secretary, as of the Arctic Circle president photography, is printed interim president www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 41 centennial 2017

1980 Journalism Department University of Alaska Museum Alaska Native Studies Fairbanks Summer Arts begins publishing of the North opens to the degree offered Festival created The Northern Sun public, moving from Signers’ newspaper Hall to the Otto Geist Building 1980 Darcy Harrod ’04 Institute of Marine Science Science Marine of Institute Science Foundation Research Vessel Alpha Vessel Helix Research out of Seward for the National National the for Seward of out begins operating 133-footbegins

1981 Patrick O’Rourke O’Rourke Patrick succeeds Howard Cutler Cutler Howard succeeds as UAFas chancellor www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 42 centennial 2017 centennial First publication of The Sun Sun The of publication First Sun and The Polar Star Polar The and Sun born paper student Star, the in merger of The Northern Northern The of merger in first time first Enrollment tops 5,000 5,000 tops Enrollment students for the the for students www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 43 centennial 2017

Alan Straub ’66

When Alan Straub arrived in Alaska soon after statehood, he said. “There were guys a lot smarter than me, but I was a was a freshly married young man with a new job as an auto hands-on kind of guy.” mechanic. That quality helped steer Straub toward a varied engineering Straub and his wife, Linda, had bought a station wagon and career. He worked on teams that built bridges in Interior Alaska, left their California hometown in search of adventure. But as jails on the East Coast, and steel bridges and structures along they drove through Fairbanks, Straub realized he didn’t have the West Coast. In much of a plan for his new life in the remote outpost. 1980 he became an “I didn’t really have a clue what I was going to do,” he said owner of Christie with a chuckle. Constructors, The answer came when they passed the University of Alaska. joining two A lifelong tinkerer, Straub figured he could make good use of former co-work- his time in the North by studying engineering. ers as partners in It was a good decision. Decades after his 1966 graduation the Richmond, from UA, Straub’s imprint is on bridges and buildings across California, the U.S. His projects include Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, the company. He even tanker docks in Valdez and the Auburn Bridge in California, dabbled in auto which towers 731 feet above the American River. racing, setting a “Engineering just felt right to me,” he said. class record with Straub had always been happy to build things. When he was his Porsche GT3 12 years old, he put together a ’37 Chevy engine on his family at a local road farm in Northern California. He’d eventually become a jour- race track. neyman mechanic in a local car shop, a job he enjoyed despite Straub, 77, Straub changes a tire near Circle Hot Springs in 1966, a task he recommends everyone the feeling that it wouldn’t provide much of a future. remarried after learn to do before it’s needed. He was only partly right. It led to the offer to fix cars in connecting with a Alaska, where his career in engineering took shape and he high school classmate in the 1990s. He and his wife, Rosemary, found new outlets for his urge to build. spend much of their retirement hauling a fifth-wheel RV The most visible example came during Straub’s senior year, touring the U.S. They’ve made it to all 50 capitals and to 13 when he planned the construction of a massive three-legged presidential libraries since 2010, and the RV has been to every ice arch in the middle of campus. The structure, which he state except Arkansas and Hawaii. and fellow engineering student Mark Fryer ’66, ’67 built by A particularly memorable visit was to Alaska, when the packing snow into forms and soaking it with water, was 40 couple stopped at the campus where Alan studied as a young feet across, 15 feet high, and powerful enough that someone man. The friendly reception they received in Fairbanks made could use a swing suspended from the center of it. Straub said an impression on Rosemary, mirroring the feeling Straub expe- they recruited Miss Alaska, Carla Sullivan, to give the first rienced more than a half-century earlier. demonstration. “She picked up the warmth from the people there, and that’s That kind of effort caught the attention of faculty, who named always the feeling I got from the University of Alaska,” he said. Straub the top engineering student during his senior year. “I’ve got a great love for that place.” “I about fell out of my chair — it just flabbergasted me,” he — Jeff Richardson

1983 UAF signs agreements with Rural Alaska Honors Institute Honors Program begins KUAC TV has the largest schools in Japan, Denmark, created to improve access to per-capita audience Canada, the People’s Republic successful college careers of during prime time among of China and the Soviet Union primarily rural, Alaska Native all public television high school students stations nationwide www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 44 centennial 2017

Robert Bundtzen ’71

Spend any time talking with Robert Bundtzen and you’ll hear of the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and the word “home” a lot. “Home” means Alaska. Sometimes Idaho) Medical Education Program for medical students from it refers specifically to Fairbanks, or it could be Anderson or the Northwest. He met his wife, who was training in pathology, maybe Anchorage, but there’s never any doubt that home is during a fellowship in Madison, Wisconsin. After their educa- Alaska, for him and for his three siblings, for most of their lives. tion was done, it was inevitable: “We came back home.” Bob Bundtzen’s brother, Tom ’73, ’81, is a Fairbanks-based This time home meant Anchorage, where Bundtzen has a geologist [see “A Mine for Learning” on page 4]. Sister Cheryl private practice as an infectious disease consultant. Bundtzen-Bradley ’87 is an accountant in North Pole. A “Physicians call me when they have a more difficult case that second sister, Susan McCloughry, was a nurse in they feel they want more information,” he said. Fairbanks until her death in 2000. “Sometimes it’s diagnosis, sometimes treatment. Bob Bundtzen was born in North Dakota and Pneumonia, HIV, AIDS, immunocompromised first moved to Alaska when he was 11, in 1960, patients, stuff like that.” where he attended University Park Elementary He also works with Anchorage-area hospitals in Fairbanks. He spent the next three years in a on infection control issues and measures. one-room school in Anderson while his father Though he now spends his days in a hospi- worked as an electrical engineer at the Ballistic tal setting, those early years in Anderson (“in Missile Early Warning System station in Clear, the middle of the taiga”) taught him about the which was being built at the time. outdoors. “Art Anderson sold some of his land and people “We did lots of trapping during the winter, moved up there and lived in trailer houses,” hunting, fishing,” he said. “I did run dogs but Bundtzen said. “That’s what we lived in — a 1969 Denali yearbook really didn’t know that much. Just used three trailer house. dogs to pull our gear when we’d go trapping. “We had a one-room school. Twelve students, four of them But it did kind of make me want to do more in regards to dog Bundtzens.” mushing.” The family moved Outside when his mother was diagnosed And how. Bundtzen has run the Iditarod 15 times. with cancer, but after she died, they returned to Fairbanks. “I scratched twice at Shaktoolik,” he said. “I had leaders that “I had already been accepted to the University of Colorado, were mentally tired, but I’ve finished every other time.” but I wanted to stay home,” Bundtzen said. “I asked [UAF] if it Bundtzen’s dog team, currently at 27 dogs, lives in his front was still possible to enroll. They said sure, so I said goodbye to yard, part of several acres in the Stuckagain Heights neighbor- the University of Colorado. I wanted to stay in Alaska.” hood in Anchorage. He runs them on the Chugiak dog trails “I had some great teachers, especially Dr. [Gerard] Swartz,” about 30 miles away or trucks them wherever the snow is good. Bundtzen recalled. “He taught some great courses in biology Buntzen most recently helped a fellow Anchorage physician and parasitology. And there was lots of skiing, lots of going out train for the 2017 race, but he hasn’t completely ruled out into the wilderness, although I will say we worked pretty hard another trip of his own to Nome. as premed students. We had to keep up the grades so we could His schedule will be getting a little more crowded, though get into medical school. Early on I decided I wanted to be a — his two young grandchildren have moved from Hawaii to physician, and I worked towards that.” Anchorage, where their father, an IT professional, now works. Bundtzen got his bachelor of science degree in 1971, then It’s a family tradition, where all paths lead back home to Alaska. went to the University of Washington as part of the first cohort — Tori Tragis

1984 Signers’ Hall, former gymnasium Donald O’Dowd becomes A 60-unit residence, the Student and museum, remodeled as 10th UA president Apartment Complex, opens, relieving main administration building a campus housing shortage by accommodating 240 single students www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 45 centennial 2017

Congress passes Arctic Research Policy KSUA FM hits the air Sept. 6, President Ronald Reagan visits Act; Geophysical Institute Director Juan playing the Steely Dan hit “FM” UAF on a rest stop during his return Roederer becomes chair of the Arctic trip from China to the U.S.; he Research Commission, created by the act meets Pope John Paul at Fairbanks International Airport www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 46 centennial 2017

1985 1987 Alaska Legislature creates the Duckering Building and UA system restructures as a Sydney Chapman Chair; Syun Rasmuson Library expand result of budget cuts; community Akasofu named the first recipient colleges become responsibility of the four-year institutions www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 47 centennial 2017

Terese Kaptur ’76, ’86

Like the gold miner in the Robert Service poem, Terese Kaptur have had that opportunity or been able to play principal posi- came to Alaska for a good reason: to get rich. But although she tion at the University of Michigan, and that’s still true today.” didn’t get rich, she fell under the same spell as the miner, even Kaptur also began writing grants for herself and other after she went back home to Michigan. students. It was a skill she would later employ as director of “I couldn’t get Alaska out of my system,” Kaptur remembered. several nonprofit arts associations throughout the country, “I thought about it all the time.” including the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. She uses that Kaptur first went to Alaska in summer 1970. Her boyfriend venue to fulfill her deepest belief: that in addition to bringing had fought wildfires there the previous year and said it was joy and inspiration, music can heal. a financial bonanza. Kaptur wanted a shot at it, and even One such healing program is with renowned harmonica though 1970 was a dud for conflagrations, she player Mike Stevens. In cooperation with the returned for another stint in 1971. That was a “The faculty there Fairbanks festival, he has traveled to various better year fire-wise, which was good because Alaska villages several times to work with Kaptur needed the money: She had enrolled at inspired us and young people to encourage musicianship as UAF for the fall semester. believed in us to an alternative to other, destructive life choices Kaptur had always been good at music and they might make. [See related story in the math. But it wasn’t until she auditioned for achieve our potential spring 2014 Aurora.] Professor Jean-Paul Billaud that she truly and reach beyond it. Kaptur practices what she preaches. After focused on music, which has been the sustain- she was diagnosed with cancer in the late ing force in her life ever since. They were ambitious 1990s, she underwent a number of operations. Earning a music degree in piano and Her reaction to anesthesia was debilitating — composition was demanding. for us. … They worse, she said, than the surgery itself. After “It was basically a double major,” she said. raised the bar really much research, she found a way to effectively She also worked as the department’s music anesthetize herself through music based on librarian. high for us.” her own, highly personalized compositions. The library was a room filled with sheets of It was, no doubt, an outcome of her college music scattered all over, scores and genres intermingled with education that she could never have anticipated in 1971. one another. But the outlines of that approach were there even then. “It took two semesters to sort that out,” she said. “But I learned “The biggest gift from being part of the UAF community was a lot about that library!” the sense of nurturing,” Kaptur said. The Music Department was small, something that was part “The faculty there inspired us and believed in us to achieve of her attraction to UAF and that stood in contrast to the large, our potential and reach beyond it. They were ambitious for competitive University of Michigan, which she also considered. us. … They raised the bar really high for us.” “[UAF is] more intimate,” she said. “The compositions I wrote — Tori Tragis — my classmates played them, faculty played them. I’d never

1988 UAF restructures with branch John Butrovich Building opens to Faculty Senate forms Interior-Aleutians campuses in Bethel, Nome, house statewide administration Campus established, Kotzebue and Dillingham, with home base in along with multiple rural Fairbanks education centers n old cabin out tted with a camera e year Fuller established the auroral Back in Japan, after starting college and a radio became UAF’s rst research station, Syun-Ichi Akasofu ’61 in 1949, Akasofu got a job at a magnetic Aauroral research station in 1930. was born more than 3,000 miles away in observatory, partially to fund his moun- Professor Veryl Fuller’s work in the dark Saku, a city west of Tokyo in central Japan. taineering excursions. He maintained the wilderness outside that cabin, located o Akasofu’s introduction to the aurora was instrument that records changes in Earth’s From a cabin to the Richardson Highway several miles through one of his mother’s favorite songs, magnetic eld. He noticed the instrument southeast of Fairbanks, set the tone for called “A Wanderer’s Song,” which includes constantly changing. auroral research into the 21st century. a line about the aurora. “I asked the manager of the observatory Government o cials interested in the “She used to sing it like a lullaby,” Akasofu what was causing those changes. He said, aurora’s disruption of radio communica- recalled. it must be aurora in Siberia or Alaska,’” a rocket range tions arranged a $10,000 grant to Fuller Fuller died in 1935, leaving his work to Akasofu said. “ at was the second time so he could determine the height of the be nished by Professor Ervin Bramhall. that I heard about the aurora.” ionosphere. at’s the region of the Earth’s In 1937, their findings were published e experience sparked Akasofu’s inter- BY ELLE FOURNIER atmosphere where certain long-range radio in “Auroral Research at the University of est. While a college student in Japan, he waves propagate — and where the aurora Alaska.” attended a geophysics conference. “I must appears. e years following were a di cult time have asked some question to the lecturer. At the cabin and a second location on for research at UAF, as many faculty and He said, ‘Have you read the Chapman- campus, Fuller and his students used their students le to serve in World War II. Ferraro paper?’” radios to coordinate the simultaneous However, in 1946, an act of Congress estab- e lecturer was referring to a paper capture of night sky pictures. ey then lished the Geophysical Institute, still the written by Sydney Chapman ’58 (Hon.), used the di erence in the images to trian- home of UAF’s auroral research. an Oxford University professor, gulate the aurora’s height. mathematician and geophysicist who soon

A test rocket launches from the UAF Geophysical Institute’s Poker Flat Research Range, about 35 miles northeast of Fairbanks, in February 2017. n old cabin out tted with a camera e year Fuller established the auroral Back in Japan, after starting college and a radio became UAF’s rst research station, Syun-Ichi Akasofu ’61 in 1949, Akasofu got a job at a magnetic Aauroral research station in 1930. was born more than 3,000 miles away in observatory, partially to fund his moun- Professor Veryl Fuller’s work in the dark Saku, a city west of Tokyo in central Japan. taineering excursions. He maintained the wilderness outside that cabin, located o Akasofu’s introduction to the aurora was instrument that records changes in Earth’s From a cabin to the Richardson Highway several miles through one of his mother’s favorite songs, magnetic eld. He noticed the instrument southeast of Fairbanks, set the tone for called “A Wanderer’s Song,” which includes constantly changing. auroral research into the 21st century. a line about the aurora. “I asked the manager of the observatory Government o cials interested in the “She used to sing it like a lullaby,” Akasofu what was causing those changes. He said, aurora’s disruption of radio communica- recalled. it must be aurora in Siberia or Alaska,’” a rocket range tions arranged a $10,000 grant to Fuller Fuller died in 1935, leaving his work to Akasofu said. “ at was the second time so he could determine the height of the be nished by Professor Ervin Bramhall. that I heard about the aurora.” ionosphere. at’s the region of the Earth’s In 1937, their findings were published e experience sparked Akasofu’s inter- BY ELLE FOURNIER atmosphere where certain long-range radio in “Auroral Research at the University of est. While a college student in Japan, he waves propagate — and where the aurora Alaska.” attended a geophysics conference. “I must appears. e years following were a di cult time have asked some question to the lecturer. At the cabin and a second location on for research at UAF, as many faculty and He said, ‘Have you read the Chapman- campus, Fuller and his students used their students le to serve in World War II. Ferraro paper?’” radios to coordinate the simultaneous However, in 1946, an act of Congress estab- e lecturer was referring to a paper capture of night sky pictures. ey then lished the Geophysical Institute, still the written by Sydney Chapman ’58 (Hon.), used the di erence in the images to trian- home of UAF’s auroral research. an Oxford University professor, gulate the aurora’s height. mathematician and geophysicist who soon

A test rocket launches from the UAF Geophysical Institute’s Poker Flat Research Range, about 35 miles northeast of Fairbanks, in February 2017. www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 50 centennial 2017

became instrumental in the Geophysical a few breaks for mountain climbing, Institute’s success. At a time when Alaska including an ascent of Mount Silvertip.) was not yet a state and the Fairbanks popu- A er graduating, Akasofu continued his lation was just over 5,000, as a visiting research at the GI and focused on a new professor Chapman would bring much- technology — the “all-sky” camera. needed star power to the University of With these cameras, researchers could Alaska. “take a picture of the whole sky at many, Akasofu sought out Chapman’s paper but many locations,” Akasofu said. “It was the found it so dense that he “decided perhaps rst time in history that we could study the aurora was too di cult to study,” he the aurora over the entire polar region at recalled. the same time, almost like looking down Nevertheless, Akasofu set out to under- by satellite.” stand the article and resolved to write to Using the data, Akasofu began studying I got a letter“ from then- Chapman with some questions. explosive auroral activity, a phenomenon president of the university, “I learned that [Chapman] was an Oxford he would describe in his 1964 paper, “ e professor, the top guy in geophysics. I hesi- Development of the Auroral Substorm.” It William Wood, giving me tated to write to him,” Akasofu said. “So I became the foundation for future research. le it. I didn’t really know what I was doing, Soon a er the publication of this pivotal tenure. I did not know what and I was climbing mountains, mostly.” paper, Akasofu was promoted to professor it meant.” Akasofu learned that Chapman, a er at the university. recently retiring from Oxford, had begun “I got a letter from then-president of to spend three months at the Geophysical the university, William Wood, giving me Institute every year. Eventually Akasofu tenure. I did not know what it meant,” said worked up the nerve to write Chapman Akasofu. “Perhaps a couple months a er, I with about 10 questions. got a phone call from the president, saying “I never expected he would respond, ‘I gave you tenure. Why didn’t you respond?’ being a top guy in the eld,” Akasofu said. I said, ‘I didn’t know what it was.’” “But, surprisingly, I got a reply. Some of the e years a er Akasofu became a profes- questions he could not answer.” sor were marked by growth at UAF. To host In his reply, Chapman suggested that rockets designed to penetrate and study the Akasofu come to Alaska to study under him. aurora, it built Poker Flat Research Range, “ e GI sent me money for the airfare, so the rst and only university-owned rocket I had no choice,” Akasofu said, laughing. range in the world. e rst launch came in 1969 a er a rushed initial construction Cameras and rockets led by Neil Davis ’55, ’61, the Geophysical

Institute’s assistant director. [See a pro le Chuck Deehr Working closely with Chapman, Akasofu of Davis on page 36.] e facility was nished his Ph.D. in 1961. (He also took completed in 1972. In 1959, Syun Akasofu stands by an antenna near where the International Arctic Research Center sits today. The antenna was the only structure on West Ridge at the time.

1988 Synthetic Aperture Radar antenna installed National Polar Ice Coring office Project Jukebox created in on top of the Geophysical Institute to moves to Fairbanks campus Rasmuson Library’s Oral receive, process and archive data from History Program Earth-orbiting environmental satellites www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 51 centennial 2017

1989 UA Scientific Diving Program Scientists aboard R/V Groundbreaking held for new Faculty approve new begins; it expands in 2000 to Alpha Helix are among first natural sciences facility, later core curriculum include student courses investigators of the Exxon named Reichardt Building Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 52 centennial 2017

UAF graduate student Jason Ahrns photographed these sprites, or red lightning, with his personal D7000 Nikon camera in 2013 using a $120 35mm f/1.8 lens. He captured the color images while helping photograph sprites from a National Center for Atmospheric Research aircraft that carried $100,000 worth of equipment able to shoot black and white images at 10,000

Geophysical Institute Institute Geophysical frames per second.

At top, Syun-Ichi Akasofu speaks with Swedish physicist In 1986, Akasofu became director of the processes. Researchers are bene ting from “It’s about time I should let the young Hannes Alfvén at UAF Geophysical Institute, a job that required technology that has caught up with theory, people do it,” he said. “I shouldn’t say too in 1974. Alfvén, who him to focus more broadly on geophysics. said Hampton, now a GI assistant professor. much of what they should do.” won the 1970 Nobel “ e thing that’s really changed is that Akasofu did share one idea — use Prize in Physics, was an aurora expert The digital revolution we’ve got an embarrassment of riches auroras on other planets as a clue to extra- who had engaged in in digital technology now. So, I can buy terrestrial life. a long debate with e next year, Don Hampton ’90, ’96 began a fairly cheap camera that is even better “One way to look for Earth-like life is to Akasofu’s mentor, Sydney Chapman. his graduate work on the aurora, a er than we had back then, and it’s all digital,” look at the auroral light. Earth’s aurora, Akasofu invited having been drawn to UAF by Alaska’s Hampton said. “ at’s really opened up the the most intense light comes from oxygen Alfvén to visit the wilderness. possibilities in doing auroral research.” atoms,” he said. “ at oxygen is supplied Geophysical Institute. “What we had been doing back in the Digital images are cheaper and faster to by plants. So if we could detect oxygen light 1980s and 1990s was trying to understand obtain, so far more can be analyzed, he in the extraterrestrial planet, I think there At bottom, Chuck the details of what was causing the light explained. is a very good chance that Earth-like life Deehr looks at his all-sky scanning that we observed,” said Hampton. Akasofu le his position as GI director exists there.” photometer on the By the time Hampton returned to UAF in 1999 to found the International Arctic Today, UAF’s unique location in the roof of the Ester Dome to take a position as a research faculty Research Center, which focuses on climate auroral zone draws a new generation of auroral observatory in about 1965. The member in 2006, many of those details change. He retired in 2007, though he space physicists. photometer measured were understood and new technology had continues to give talks and publish. “I always wanted to see the aurora, the intensity of greatly propelled auroral research. ough Akasofu, now 86, declined to say where because I had never seen it, even though I emissions from with more sophisticated technology than he thinks aurora research should go am from Siberia,” said Victoriya Forsythe, sodium, lithium and atomic oxygen in Fuller’s days, cameras still provide from here. a Ph.D. student in space physics who

in the night sky. Groom Harry a wealth of data for studying auroral

1989 1991 Jerome Komisar becomes Former President Jimmy Among U.S. universities, UAF Joan Wadlow becomes 11th UA president Carter and his wife, receives the most National first woman to be UAF Rosalynn, visit UAF Science Foundation funding chancellor per researcher www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 53 centennial 2017

Geophysical Institute Institute Geophysical frames per second.

NASA gives UAF Space First synthetic aperture Blue and gold UAF license Nonresident tuition fees Grant status, making it radar data-gathering satellite plates become available waived for students whose one of very few combined launches from Poker Flat from the Alaska Department parents are UAF graduates Land, Sea and Space Grant of Motor Vehicles institutions in the U.S. www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 54 centennial 2017

atmosphere], even during a moderate solar storm. at’s a lot of power,” said Hampton. “So one thing we are interested in is when we get a large aurora, a major storm, how is that going to a ect our communications?” A storm like 1859’s Carrington event, during which auroras could be seen even in equatorial regions, could have an I feel like part of an immense impact today. “ “If something like [the Carrington event] international network.” happened nowadays that would signi - cantly destroy our normal life,” Forsythe said. “Researchers Homeier and Wei recently calculated that … the U.S. would have a couple trillion dollars in damage. Knowing when it will happen, lots of things can be done to mitigate it.” Victoriya Forsythe, a doctoral student Auroral research at UAF has become in space physics, uses radars in multifaceted. In 2015, the GI acquired the Antarctica to study the aurora. High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program facility, a vast antenna array near focuses on radar aurora, a type not visible Alaska and Norway while working with Gakona used for ionospheric research. to the human eye. aurora-capturing cameras. Forsythe Scientists also study the aurora using Graduate students researching the employs radars in Antarctica, part of a radars, rockets and networks of all-sky aurora today have found their experiences research e ort involving nine countries. cameras. at UAF challenging but rewarding, just as “I feel like part of an international e eld has come a long way, not only in Akasofu did 60 years ago. network,” Forsythe said. the types of research but also in the types “When you rst started working in your of researchers, Forsythe said. eld, and you go to conferences, you have Studying energy’s impact “Our field is very much alive, very no idea what anyone is talking about. You dynamic; we have a much larger diversity just grin,” said Jason Ahrns, a space phys- Many current auroral researchers focus on in our eld,” Forsythe said. “Gender-wise, ics Ph.D. student. “ en [as you continue the energy that creates the aurora. With I think it’s much better.” your studies] you feel like you become a the world’s increasing reliance on satel- While researchers have made enormous specialist. Suddenly you get into a conver- lites and other technology, mitigating the strides since Fuller rst set out to that sation, and you actually know more than e ects of that energy has become increas- isolated cabin, Forsythe said, many aspects the other person.” ingly important. of the aurora remain unexplained. Opportunities extend beyond Fairbanks; “Tens of gigawatts of power are “ e eld still has lots of grand chal- Ahrns has traveled to remote parts of being dumped [into the Earth’s upper lenges,” she said. A lidar beam, consisting of a laser and radar, shoots 50 miles into the stratosphere to help monitor conditions before a rocket launch at UAF’s Poker Flat Research Range about 30 miles north of Fairbanks in January 2015.

1991 1992 Department of Engineering UAF’s computer sciences UA Foundation donates UAF celebrates its celebrates its 50th program is accredited, the $100,000 to business students 75th anniversary continuous year of first in Alaska for investing in stock market accreditation www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 55 centennial 2017

First-ever UAF student- School of Career and UAF ranks third among 70 Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, designed and -built rocket Continuing Education four-year colleges in the the first Greek social launches from Poker Flat changes its name to Pacific Northwest in attracting fraternity in the state of Tanana Valley Campus National Merit Scholars Alaska, establishes its Alpha chapter on campus 1993 Jason Shafto, Full Moon Photography A record 6,200 students students 6,200 A record community is asked to open open to asked is community homes to students in fall ever; enrollment spring largest represent the Fairbanks campus’ campus’ Fairbanks the represent Rural Student Services offers offers Services Student Rural two-year program in mental mental in program two-year of Native culture and tradition and culture Native of withincounseling the context health and substance abuse abuse substance and health www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 56 centennial 2017 centennial Denali, one of the the of one Denali, Supercomputing Center Supercomputing supercomputers, goes world’s largest-memory online at the Arctic Region Region Arctic atthe online Using a UAF-designed drill drill aUAF-designed Using the Greenland ice cap to a to cap ice Greenland the depth of 3,035.7 meters 3,035.7 of depth bit, UAF scientists set a set UAF scientists bit, record by coring through through by coring record www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 57 centennial 2017 1980s-2010s Dolly Garza ’80

Like many new college students, Dolly Garza arrived in By the time she graduated in 1980, Fairbanks was a Fairbanks in fall 1975 with only the faintest outline of a second home. career plan. “When I got there, I cried because there was no ocean,” she Garza didn’t head to college with a major or even a sense of said. “When I left I cried because I was going to miss it.” what she wanted to study. The Ketchikan High School graduate After receiving her bachelor’s degree in fisheries science at enrolled at UAF mainly because of a family connection — her UAF, Garza attended the University of Washington for gradu- uncle, Dennis Demmert, was head of the ate school. Toward the end of her studies, Alaska Native studies program. she saw a bulletin board ad for a Marine Garza spent her first year taking Advisory Program agent in Kotzebue economics classes before deciding that and landed the job. After a few years, she the home economics program was more took the same job at a new MAP office in to her liking. But that degree program Sitka, eventually wrapping up her career was eliminated the next year, leaving her in her hometown of Ketchikan. Along looking for a Plan C. the way, she took a sabbatical to acquire “I was in a quandary of what do with a doctorate in marine policy from the my life,” she said. University of Delaware. Garza, who grew up in a Haida family, Her work largely focused on helping found the answer in a familiar place. local fishermen and rural residents Many of her relatives were fishermen, understand the vast array of laws and and with their encouragement she regulations impacting their lives. enrolled in the UAF fisheries biology Garza also became a noted author program. Fong Quentin and expert on coastal food sources. Her Dolly Garza picks Alaria seaweed It’s a decision that shaped her next four during a trip to Kodiak in 2005. book “Common Edible Seaweeds of the decades, which included three fisheries Gulf of Alaska” has been a resource on degrees and a long career as a Marine Advisory Program agent the subject since it was published by Alaska Sea Grant in 2005. with Alaska Sea Grant. Garza retired in 2006 as a profes- She continues to teach seaweed workshops, offering education sor emeritus of fisheries. It’s quite a legacy for someone who about the abundant but underutilized food source in Southeast entered the profession with a decidedly laid-back view of her Alaska and British Columbia. career goals. “It is a passion,” she said. “It’s such a beautiful, healthy food, “I had the dream of sitting in one of those towers, counting and we just ignore it.” sockeye as they go by in the rivers,” she said with a laugh. Today Garza lives in British Columbia on the island of Haida Garza said Demmert helped her aim a bit higher, and that Gwaii, where her husband, Russ Jones, is leading an effort to Rural Student Services in particular helped ease her transition implement an islandwide coastal plan. She focuses much of her to college. She laughingly recalled her freshman papers “looked time on weaving and sewing Haida regalia. like they were bleeding to death” after going through a red-ink — Jeff Richardson edit from a patient English professor who helped her polish her writing skills.

1994 UAF’s Ted DeLaca is named Northern Momentum, UAF’s Jack Keating becomes provost UA Board of Regents senior scientist on the first first private fundraising in Chancellor Wadlow’s mandates a statewide nonmilitary scientific mission campaign, raises $15 million, restructuring, which eliminates assessment to streamline on a Navy nuclear submarine surpassing its $10 million goal three of four vice chancellor jobs the university and adjust under the Arctic ice pack in place when she began in 1991 to declining state revenues www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 58 centennial 2017

Charles Stevenson ’85, ’88, ’89, ’95

Charles Stevenson remembers waking up because someone was Fairbanks. His mom worked as a cook in trans-Alaska pipeline “moving my face.” It was the professor in his economics class. construction camps, at Fort Wainwright and finally at Clear Air While taking an exam, Stevenson’s head had dropped to the Force Station. desk, and it didn’t stir until the class period was done. After graduating from Monroe High School in 1979, he “Professor [Bill] Workman was trying to pull the exam from started at UAF in accounting with a 12-credit load. Finding under my face,” Stevenson recalled. “I was out cold, drooling.” himself bored, he got a security job on campus. Stevenson was a very busy man during his five years at UAF While Stevenson was on duty one day, he said, justice in the early 1980s. He worked several jobs. He took a full load Professor Gary Copus asked him if he wanted to take classes of classes. He played intramural sports and served as a student and get paid for it. senator. He DJ’d dances. Sleep wasn’t on his agenda until it “I said, ‘What are you talking about?’” Stevenson recalled. “He forced its way there. said, ‘We have an intern program for justice majors.’” His pace hasn’t slowed much since. So Stevenson switched majors and got an internship at the After a career in which Stevenson rose to superintendent of Fairbanks Correctional Center. He started June 1, 1980, became the state jail in Fairbanks, he moved to Anchorage to become a full-time employee a year later and didn’t leave until he retired vice commander of the Alaska Air National Guard’s 176th with 20 years of service. Wing. That led to a move to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., After graduating in 1985 with his justice degree, Stevenson which brought him his latest assignment: deputy commander of earned two more at UAF in physical education by 1989. Joint Task Force Guantanamo. Inspired by the training, he arranged basketball tournaments Yes, that between city league and jail teams. Prisoners got their trophies Guantanamo, the and videos when they left jail. Stevenson recently saw an U.S. Navy base ex-inmate in Anchorage who thanked him for the effort, saying, in Cuba where “Those were good times.” detainees from the In 1994, Stevenson married his wife, the former Kristine war on terror are Pomeroy ’94, who also grew up in Fairbanks. They have three held. Stevenson, children. now an Air Force Stevenson kept studying. He got a bachelor’s in business at brigadier general, UAF in 1995 and, after retiring from the jail in 2001, earned was sent there a degree from Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. But in late 2016 to when the state needed a new jail superintendent, he applied, got be second in the job and returned to the facility on Wilbur Street. In 2004, command. he had the dubious privilege of being in charge the night some- Stevenson, in a one tried to break into the jail with a front-end loader. phone interview Meanwhile, Stevenson had been working his way up in the

Mike Belrose, courtesy of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in December 2016, Alaska National Guard’s 168th Air Refueling Wing at Eielson Charles Stevenson, left, takes to the floor in the Hess Rec Center during a dance he helped said he couldn’t Air Force Base. So, after leaving the jail superintendent job DJ as “Grandmaster Dr. C” in 1984. talk about the in 2012, he took the 176th Wing vice commander position detainee opera- in Anchorage. Three years later, he and his family were off to tions. But he acknowledged that he had never envisioned such a Washington, D.C. place in his career path. “The Lord was good and opened doors, or I pushed through “Who would think an Alaska guy would be involved in some- them,” Stevenson said of his still-evolving path. thing like this?” he said. — Sam Bishop Stevenson arrived in Alaska with his mother just before entering third grade in Anchorage. By sixth grade, they were in

1994 1995 Student Recreation Center UAF names a building on Natural Sciences Facility Howard Cutler, UAF’s opens next to the Patty Geist Road in honor of Flora opens in September, the first chancellor, dies Center, funded by student- Jane Harper Petri, who in first new classroom building Nov. 17 at his home in approved activity fees 1935 became UAF’s first on the Fairbanks campus in Fairbanks Alaska Native graduate almost 25 years Pentagon and the State of Alaska sign agreement to build the International Arctic Research Center at UAF Japan, the United States repatriates first human remains to Alaska Natives on St. Lawrence Island UA MuseumUA of the North 1997 centennial 2017 59 www.uaf.edu/aurora/ residence hall funded the by Arctic later named for the late Rep. Eileen Panigeo MacLean, an alumna an MacLean, Panigeo Slope Regional Corp. opens; it’s A 25-person rural student 1996 designated co-ed Wickersham Hall is Wickersham is Hall www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 60 centennial 2017

Karen Gaborik ’91

As the school district superintendent in Fairbanks, of course Gaborik comes from a long line of educators, including a grand- Karen Gaborik believes in education, taking the scholarly mother who was the first female dean at the Oregon Institute of approach, all of that. You’d expect studiousness in someone Technology. Gaborik’s mother went to Alaska to teach, first in who was the student commencement speaker. She’s certainly Anchorage, then in Fairbanks. Her father, a Vietnam vet, made no academic slouch: bachelor’s in speech communication from his way to Fairbanks courtesy of the military. (The pair met at UAF, teaching certificate and master’s degree in special educa- the Malemute Saloon, in nearby Ester.) tion from the University of Alaska Anchorage, topped off with a After Gaborik earned her communication degree at UAF, her Ph.D. in education administration from Argosy University. father encouraged her to get her teaching certificate as a backup. But in her senior year when she was asked in spring 1991 to She wasn’t sure she would like it, but those first classes in the speak on behalf of her graduating class? Teach for Alaska program at UAA convinced her “I was floored,” Gaborik said, smiling wryly. otherwise. “Because my first two years — I had a lot of fun.” “I have great Gaborik grew up in Salcha, a small community All that fun had put her well into the center of memories of near Fairbanks. She graduated from Eielson High campus life. School, where she would later return to teach. UAF “I think I was selected as speaker because I was so dorm life. I’m was, she said, a natural choice. She was an avid engaged in the student community,” she said. so glad I lived cross-country skier, and she hoped to continue that Gaborik’s first home was Lathrop Hall. She later as a Nanook. became a resident assistant in Wickersham. on campus.” But then she took a rifle class with coach Randy “It wasn’t my first choice, but I loved it,” she said. Pitney on a whim, and her focus shifted. “I have great memories of dorm life. I’m so glad I lived on “I redshirted the first year, but I made a good run after that,” campus.” she said. “Made All-American.” Being an RA led her to the student ambassador program, Gaborik spent many long hours practicing with the rifle through which she visited area high schools to promote UAF. team, an activity that required a mix of camaraderie and In that role she was able to practice public speaking, which was independence. part of her major. “It’s a reflective, disciplined sport,” she said. “It appealed to my “Marsha Stratton’s public speaking class really inspired me,” introspective side.” she said. “I took as many classes as I could from the speech Ultimately, though, friends and professors loom largest in department. Public speaking — performance — was something Gaborik’s mind. I enjoyed.” “Most of my memories are around people,” she said. “When I Public speaking is a regular part of her job as school district think of UAF I think of them.” superintendent, and education is something of a birthright. — Tori Tragis

1997 1998 UAF scientists use Alaska Mark Hamilton becomes IBM donates a new Synchronous internet Satellite Facility’s blue 12th UA president AS/400 computer to UAF’s tutoring, developed through antenna atop Elvey Building computer science program UAF’s writing center, makes to create first detailed radar tutoring easier and more map of Antarctica accessible to rural students www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 61 centennial 2017

1999 High-speed internet On Dec. 11, a boiler tube in the heat MAPCO Alaska and IBM Chancellor Wadlow retires; lines installed in all and power plant breaks. Employees donate $335,000 in computer Marshall Lind, former campus dorms restarted the plant after 10 hours hardware and software, University of Alaska Southeast at minus 22. Officials had been an the largest-ever computer chancellor, becomes fourth hour from evacuating campus donation in UAF history UAF chancellor 1999 Ruben Perez Student Complex Apartment Student Complex Apartment after the first chancellor UAF first the after renamed the Howard Cutler Cutler Howard the renamed Akasofu Building in Building 2007 Akasofu Syun-Ichi the named is August; International Arctic Research Research Arctic International Center building opens in in opens building Center www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 62 centennial 2017 centennial 2000 Alaska Native Language Language Native Alaska Eliza Jones and Jim Kari Jim and Jones Eliza Jetté, by Jules Dictionary Koyukon Athabascan Center publishes the 2001 UArctic, an international international an UArctic, of part UAF becomes and indigenous peoples universities, researchers network of Northern Northern of network www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 63 centennial 2017

Sven Haakanson ’92

Sven Haakanson is like a lot of UAF students, to a point. He’s how the Soviets and Communists were this and that, and I got from Alaska — Old Harbor, on Kodiak Island — and he there and saw the people were just trying to live and survive, enrolled because it was affordable, although he expected to have like us.” to work his way through college. It also gave him a lot of alone time. Despite having spent his last year and a half of high school in “There was a group of us that started off in September, and by Anchorage, Haakanson worried that life in a small village had December there were two of us left, and in January I was left by left him unprepared for university. myself for the last six months.” “I didn’t know if I’d be able to graduate,” he said. That total immersion helped him undertake his dissertation Rural Student Services was his safety net. Going from a place research on the Nenets people of Siberia. After graduating from where he knew everyone to a place where he didn’t know the UAF in 1992 with a degree in English and that teaching certif- person sitting next to him was a challenge, icate, he was offered a scholarship to do he said. “Dr. Black was amazing. his Ph.D. at Harvard. He went on to direct “They helped me adjust. I was the first in the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, and he my family to go to undergraduate school I was sitting there, on won a MacArthur Fellow “genius grant” in and graduate.” the other side of the 2007. He now teaches anthropology at the The original plan was to get an English University of Washington and is a curator at degree and a teaching certificate, then teach world, listening to her the Burke Museum. in the winter and fish in the summer. But talk and learning about Haakanson maintains his strong ties to he took some classes in anthropology and Alaska. He serves on the board of directors caught the notice of his professors, who my own people,” he for Koniag Inc., consults for the Rasmuson arranged for Haakanson to fly to Denmark said, referring to his Foundation and attends the annual Alaska for a conference where UAF anthropol- Federation of Natives conference, among ogy Professor Lydia Black was to deliver a Alutiiq ancestry, “and other things. He is very clear about his early lecture. That changed everything. wondering why I hadn’t inspirations. “Dr. Black was amazing. I was sitting there, “I got to know Lydia Black and Perry on the other side of the world, listening to learned all that at home.” Gilmore and David Smith,” he said, recall- her talk and learning about my own people,” ing his anthropology and education he said, referring to his Alutiiq ancestry, “and wondering why I teachers. “UAF — you have so many wonderful professors. I hadn’t learned all that at home.” struggled with not having good writing, but they challenged He tried to carry two majors once he got back to UAF, but me to go beyond my comfort zone. That was the kind of thing I combined with getting a teaching certificate, it was too much. loved about UAF.” The certificate alone was a full-time job, one he undertook in He paused, getting ready for another story from his student Magadan, Russia, which, in 1991, was just beginning to open up years. to Westerners. “I applied for my passport [to go to Denmark],” he said. “It “That experience in itself was very formative for the things I’ve was coming in on a Friday and I was supposed to leave that done since,” Haakanson said. “It allowed me to learn Russian, Saturday. The campus post office closed at 5, but they stayed speak it fluently, and have an experience very few Americans open another hour so I could get there. That’s the kind of thing have the opportunity to do. Up until then we propagandized that shows how wonderful UAF and people in Fairbanks were.” — Tori Tragis

William Wood, the university’s fourth Professor Pat Holloway plants Professor Brian O’Donoghue’s president, dies at the age of 94; peonies at Georgeson Botanical journalism students begin memorial services held on campus Garden, jumpstarting efforts to sell reviewing the case of four men the Alaska flowers in midsummer convicted of killing a Fairbanks (See story on page 26.) teen; the men go free in 2015 www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 64 centennial 2017

Reija Shnoro ’06

Reija Shnoro knows it’s a cliche, but the story is true: When Shnoro met her husband in Fairbanks, an American archae- she was a child growing up in Finland, she saw a documentary ologist who moved north to work as a consultant. They recently about Alaska, and she knew that’s where she had to be. bought a home (plus “eight chickens that came with the house”). “It showed the wilderness, the animals,” she recalled. “I think Even after many years in Alaska, Shnoro still impresses her it was called ‘This Is Alaska Wild!’ I still remember sitting on friends and family in Finland with her adopted home. the floor, too close to the TV, and I thought — ‘Alaska? OK, I’m “Just the fact I live in Alaska is a big deal,” she said, chuckling. totally going there one day.’” “People [in Finland] are afraid of all the animals — you know, It wasn’t that life in the rural North was exotic to Shnoro. moose running around everywhere.” The small village she grew up in, Mieslahti, sits some 350 miles When Shnoro isn’t facing down rampaging ungulates, she northeast of Helsinki in central Finland, at helps international students navigate the paper- about the same latitude as Delta Junction, “People [in Finland] work and immigration compliance to study at Alaska, but with a third of its population. UAF. She works with degree-seeking students, Still, there was that pull. So when she decided are afraid of all from when they first apply for a visa to helping to study abroad during law school at the the animals — you them secure paperwork for postgraduate practi- University of Lapland, she looked at Norway, cum training. England and Alaska, and knew where she know, moose “I want to see an increase in international would go. students coming this way, and also UAF That was in 1999. She stayed a full year, went running around students using the study-away program in home to finish her classes, then came back to everywhere.” foreign countries to get that experience,” she UAF in 2002. Returning to Finland, she worked said. “It’s good for a university to have students in the legal field for two years before once again enrolling at from other countries and cultures. It brings a lot to a university.” UAF in 2004, this time to pursue a master’s degree in Northern It’s a position she is especially well-qualified for, given her studies. training as a lawyer and her own experience as an international “I knew I wanted another degree,” she said. “My choice was student. either Finland or Alaska. Northern studies seemed like what I “I’ve been in their shoes, so I know,” she said. “If a student wanted to study.” needs to talk, I can tell them my experience. They know it’s While the sub-Arctic wasn’t a complete surprise to Shnoro, not only them — the feelings, concerns, excitement, but feel- one aspect of Interior living did catch her off guard. ing worried at the same time. Other people have done it, too. “I was surprised it is really way colder,” she said. “It gets cold They’re not alone.” in Finland, but Fairbanks is definitely colder.” — Tori Tragis

2002 The School of Fisheries and Ocean UAF’s College Bowl team wins regional Ann Tremarello retires after 47 Sciences and the Russian Academy of championship game of academic years, becoming the longest- Sciences establish a marine science knowledge and recall, sponsored serving employee ever at UAF laboratory in Vladivostok, Russia by Associations of College Unions (See profile on page 38.) International www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 65 centennial 2017

2003 2004 The men’s basketball team wins the Fall enrollment numbers are up for Steve Jones becomes fifth UAF Top of the World Classic, becoming the fourth year in a row, 18 percent chancellor the first NCAA Division II team to from the fall of 1998 win a tournament with Division I teams (See story on page 81.) www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 66 centennial 2017

2004 2005 Matt Emmons ’03 wins Fifty-five delegates gather at UAF Nanook rifle team Expanded UA Museum gold medal in the prone as the Conference of Alaskans to wins sixth straight of the North opens; the shooting event at the make recommendations about NCAA championship addition doubles museum’s Summer Olympics the state budget and the Alaska size to 83,000 square feet Permanent Fund www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 67 centennial 2017

Eric Hill ’08

Eric Hill found himself out of sync with his fellow students That was inefficient. Working with hydrometallurgy Professor when he began taking classes full time at UAF in 2006. It wasn’t Steve Lin, Hill created a way to transfer gold from small carbon just his age, which was twice that of many fellow undergradu- pieces to large ones that then could be screened. ates. It was his work schedule. “We did the research, did the lab work and ended up creat- “In so many years of mining work, you’re getting up at 3 or 4 ing a patent on the process,” Hill said. Fort Knox adopted the in the morning so you can get on the job by 5 or so,” Hill said. method for a time, and a technical paper about the process won “So I’d roll onto campus for classes, and it’s 6:30 or 7. You go the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration’s Arthur to the library or anyplace on campus and it’s dead for the next Taggart Award in 2003. two hours.” Hill grew up in northern Nevada, where his family farms Hill, who today is general manager of the huge Fort Knox alfalfa. The mining industry boomed just as he graduated from gold mine, started mining in 1988, right after high high school. school. He moved to Fairbanks in 1997 to work at “We did the “There were 14 active mines within the county I Fort Knox, which had begun producing gold the lived in,” he recalled, so he hired on with one. previous year. The mine, about 15 miles north of research, did At that time, it was clear he would need an Fairbanks, poured its seven-millionth ounce in the lab work academic degree to get ahead. August 2016. “I started community college classes after work, Throughout his years in the business, Hill took and ended up a couple classes at a time,” he said. classes on the side, working toward an engineer- creating a patent The industry eventually became less focused on ing degree. promoting people with academic degrees, he said, “Finally I was like, I’ve got to put this all together on the process.” so he advanced well even without one. before I lose focus,” he said. “But by that time, I’m so committed and so far So he hit the books full time for four semesters and earned down that road,” he said, “it was important to keep growing.” his mining engineering degree in 2008. Hill, who is engaged, has three children from an earlier He knew such learning could come in handy. A few years marriage. The two youngest attend UAF, and his fiancee also earlier, a UAF class had inspired him to invent a solution to a has a mathematics degree from the school. longstanding problem at Fort Knox. Hill said he appreciates UAF’s approach to students like him Fort Knox uses carbon to collect gold molecules from a solu- who work and have families. tion. In the early 2000s, the mine could screen most but not all “They were very accommodating … if you couldn’t make it to of that carbon from its final product. class,” he said. “I thought that was a testament to the staff up “There’s a bit of that carbon that gets so small that you can’t there.” capture it on screens, and we end up packaging that material up — Sam Bishop and having to ship it somewhere,” Hill said.

2006 Legislature approves transfer Constitution Hall is added to Nanook rifle team The university connects to of 250,000 acres of state National Register of Historic recaptures NCAA Internet2, giving it a high- land to UA; the Alaska Places, 50 years after championship after losing speed link to hundreds of Supreme Court nullifies the delegates drafted the Alaska it for the first time in other schools and institutions action four years later Constitution there seven years in 2005 across the state and nation www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 68 centennial 2017

Pearl Brower ’04, ’10, ’16

“I loved UAF,” said Pearl Kiyawn Nageak Brower. “I loved the expanded. I realized how amazing and wonderful all our programs I was in and the opportunities I was provided. Lots Alaska Native cultures are.” of various people supported and mentored me. It’s definitely Rural Student Services gave Brower a second home and brought me to where I am today.” people who remain her friends today. She and some in her Today Brower lives in Utqiaġvik, the new, official name of group created the Native Student Organization in the late 2000s, Barrow. She is the president of Iḷisaġvik College, a position complete with a governing board and a slate of activities. she’s held for five years. (She’s worked there 10 years altogether.) “It was a nice group of peers. That was what was most mean- Centered around Iñupiaq culture, Iḷisaġvik is a two-year tribal ingful to me.” college that focuses on academic, vocational and technical Brower is enthusiastic in her memories of UAF but remem- education. bers challenges as well. Alaska Native people Brower grew up between the North “Once I got to UAF, weren’t always well-represented in classes Slope and a rural community in northern at UAF, so their perspective wasn’t heard. California, where she attended a community my interest in Alaska Likewise, she said most institutional programs college for two years. But she was ready to Native culture did not always meet the needs of Alaska move back to Alaska. Then two of her best Native and rural students. Now in charge of friends told her about the school they were really expanded. I her own school, she focuses on the specific going to in Fairbanks. realized how amazing needs of the largely Native population at “My friends convinced me UAF was where I Iḷisaġvik. needed to be,” she said. and wonderful all In the last few years, Brower has earned her Brower had been studying anthropology, our Alaska Native master’s and doctorate from UAF, all long-dis- but she was also inspired by Professor Phyllis tance and all while working full-time. She also Fast, who pushed her to pursue a second cultures are.” has a husband and a young daughter. degree, in Alaska Native studies. Brower was named to the Alaska Journal “She was amazing,” Brower said. “She really nurtured and of Commerce’s Top 40 Under 40 list in 2015, an honor she did encouraged me in all the right ways.” not mention in an interview. What she did bring up was being Brower’s academic interests were rooted in her Iñupiaq heri- named the undergraduate Alaska Native Studies Student of tage as well as her fascination with other cultures. the Year. “I value what everybody’s culture brings to the world,” she “That was incredibly meaningful, having that kind of recog- said. “And I was wanting to be able to communicate truthfully nition,” she said. “It made me realize that Alaska Native studies what my culture was and who I was as an Iñupiaq woman. was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.” Once I got to UAF, my interest in Alaska Native culture really — Tori Tragis

2006 Alan Tonne, Fairbanks Geophysical Institute buys Arctic Region UAF administration raises Experiment Farm Insitu A-20, a 40-pound Supercomputing Center wins admission standards and says manager, plants barley in unmanned aircraft with a a nearly $100 million, five-year it will divert less-prepared a big “100” shape to mark 10-foot wingspan; it can fly contract with the Department applicants into a pre-major the farm’s centennial more than 20 hours at a time of Defense, its second program starting in 2008 www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 69 centennial 2017

2007 Biological Research and New walking and snowshoeing International Polar Year kicks UAF is ranked fifth Diagnostic Facility opens, trails are approved for North off in March, sparking more among small institutions providing more space for Campus forests; previously, than 200 Arctic and Antarctic in a national study of animal care, necropsies, only cross-country skiing was science projects, a quarter of productivity among surgeries and diagnoses allowed in winter them involving UAF researchers faculty researchers 2007 Demetri Giannitsios years before a crowd of 1,000 1,000 of a crowd before years NCAA championship in championship nine NCAA eighth wins team rifle Nanook people at the Patty Center Patty atthe people John Walsh, of the International International the of Walsh, John Arctic Research Center, is a lead alead is Center, Research Arctic Fourth Assessment Report Panel on Climate Change’s Change’s Climate on Panel author on the Intergovernmental Intergovernmental the on author www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 70 centennial 2017 centennial Foundation gives UAF gives Foundation UAF sells R/V UAF sells the National Science Science National the $2.5 million to start work work start to million $2.5 on a new ship ; Alpha Helix Student Recreation Recreation Student Center installs indoor indoor installs Center climbing wall www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 71 centennial 2017

Colton Parayko ’16

While navigating the most pressure-filled environment of his “Colton’s workload and willingness to improve in all facets career, Colton Parayko found an escape in an uncommon place. of his life was something that stood out to me while he was Parayko, a defenseman for the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, was a student-athlete at UAF,” Ferguson said. “There was never capping an outstanding rookie season with a deep run in the a practice, game, training session or day that passed where Stanley Cup Playoffs. But between games, he filled his time by Colton was not pushing himself to be a better version of taking online courses from UAF. himself.” The former Nanooks hockey player Earning a UAF degree capped an left Fairbanks after three years to begin unconventional journey for the native of his professional career in 2015, when he St. Albert, Alberta. was just seven classes shy of a business Parayko was drafted by the Blues in administration degree. Instead of leaving 2012, but decided as a teenager to pursue those lingering requirements for another a college scholarship, unlike many time, Parayko took distance-ed courses Canadian hockey players who develop and kept studying during his first year in their games in the top junior leagues. the NHL. Parayko was offered a spot with the “It was a good opportunity for me to Nanooks and invited to visit Fairbanks, get away from hockey and do something where he clicked with Ferguson and UAF. else,” he said. “When you’re in a new job, Fairbanks was cold, but just a bit more especially one like this, it can be a little than his hometown, and it was fairly overwhelming. It gave me something else small, which was also part of its appeal. to think about.” “I really liked it,” he said. “The people Juggling hockey and studies didn’t on campus were really friendly. They

seem to hurt Parayko, who earned a McCarthy Paul kind of opened their arms to you.” spot on the NHL all-rookie team. He’d Colton Parayko skates at the Carlson Center Parayko said he enjoyed both his stud- grown used to that routine during his in December 2014 during his third and ies at UAF and his role with the Nanooks, time at UAF, which made a three-course final season with the Alaska Nanooks. which included three winning seasons, schedule during the playoffs seem quite many lasting friendships and strong reasonable. community support. But when the Blues offered a contract after “We took five while we were at school, so it wasn’t so bad,” his junior year, he made the difficult decision to turn pro with a he said. year of college eligibility remaining. Parayko was rewarded with a diploma after wrapping up his But even after making an NHL roster, Parayko said there final two courses in summer 2016. wasn’t any doubt he’d continue to pursue his studies at UAF. Nanooks hockey coach Dallas Ferguson ’00, recently hired as The accomplished Nanook is already preparing for the next the Calgary Hitmen’s head coach, isn’t surprised by Parayko’s chapter of an impressive story. dedication. He said his former player displayed a formidable “Hockey’s only going to last so long,” he said. “Hopefully I can work ethic during his time in Fairbanks. do something with my degree when I’m done.” — Jeff Richardson

2008 Nanook rifle team claims 10th Brian Rogers named interim Dallas Ferguson ’00, assistant Matt Emmons ’03, wins NCAA rifle championship, chancellor after Steve Jones coach and former Nanook silver medal in the beating Army by six points resigns; Rogers is a former UA defenseman, named eighth head 50-meter prone shooting regent, system vice president coach in the hockey program’s event at the Summer and state representative 28-year history at the NCAA level Olympics in Beijing The care and feeding of a territory

BY DEBBIE CARTER

The care and feeding of a territory

BY DEBBIE CARTER

ithin days of the Cooperative noted that the Extension service had an Extension Service’s beginnings unusual opportunity to “point out meth- Win Alaska, two pioneering ods in farming and housekeeping adapted agents set o on an ambitious eld trip to Alaska and to ameliorate some of the to bring practical skills to residents of the hardships of pioneering.” territory. A three-month trip followed in Extension became a department of the September, when Fohn-Hansen returned Alaska Agricultural College and School of alone to the same communities, plus Mines on July 1, 1930. Five days later, home Petersburg and Skagway. economist Lydia Fohn-Hansen ’59 (Hon.) Congress created the Cooperative and George Gasser ’55 (Hon.), the assis- Extension Service in 1914 to provide useful tant director of agriculture, le on the and practical information in the areas of rst Alaska Extension eld trip. Traveling agriculture, home economics and rural by train, plane and boat, they visited energy. e goal was to spread research- Matanuska, Eklutna, Anchorage, Seward, based information from land-grant colleges Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, Wrangell and such as the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Cordova. Although Extension began in 1914 in Cooperative Extension Service During the seven-week trip, Fohn- most areas of the United States, Congress Hansen organized 4-H youth and home did not extend provisions of the authorizing ec clubs, and she and Gasser surveyed legislation, the Smith-Lever Act, to Alaska Alaskans about the types of information until 1930. Extension had a modest start they needed. A erward, Fohn-Hansen in the territory, with an unpaid director Lydia-Fohn Hansen, right, prepares to board a single-engine aircraft as she heads to rural Alaska to teach. 2008 Cooperative Extension Service 4-H Club members in Southeast Alaska promote gardening during World War II. The Cooperative Extension Extension Cooperative The War II. World during gardening promote Alaska Southeast in members Club 4-H Service helped support “victory gardens” and “victory canners” during World War II. War II. World during canners” “victory and gardens” “victory support helped Service Arctic Ocean is leaking, with with leaking, is Ocean Arctic UAF scientists find evidence evidence find UAF scientists that carbon pool beneath beneath pool carbon that change huge implications for climate 2009 New Year’s fireworks to Year’sNew fireworks statehood are delayed until until delayed are statehood anniversary of Alaska of Alaska anniversary commemorate the 50th 50th the commemorate mid-January by ice fog and cold and fog by ice mid-January www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 74 centennial 2017 centennial Arctic Region Supercomputing Arctic Pingo; the new machine almost almost machine new the Pingo; newest its up fires Center supercomputer, a Cray XT5 dubbed XT5 aCray dubbed supercomputer, quadruples the center’s capacity Brian Rogers becomes becomes Rogers Brian UAF’s chancellor sixth as interim as ayear spending after were built and land was cleared. was land and were built homes their while tents canvas in lived families Many Anchorage. of north just Valley, Matanuska the in on farms families to resettle experiment of aNew Deal part Colony was ment-sponsored Matanuska Wisconsin. and Michigan egovern- Minnesota, in areas farming depressed from arrived newly families it 200 helped 1935, of in age when came Extension Alaska Colony The Matanuska Alaska.” in living for better make would that programs to people get involved in trying about and all was Service Extension what to explain trying communities, into 1974. in getting viewer “It pioneering, was of inter- it,” toldminute an Fohn-Hansen 1935. by homemakers 1,000 topped Circulation advice. practical with to Alaskans letter she sent out budget, anews- travel limited of a Because foods. Alaska cooking and gloves knitting patterns, making berries, using about nutrition, bulletins She wrote rugs. and gloves sew, make and vegetables, cook how to can, Alaskans ing and sh show- territory, the traveled energetically Gasser. and Fohn-Hansen agents, part-time two the and (AACSM Bunnell) President Charles the sole Extension home economist. She home economist. sole Extension the “It was exciting work and I enjoyed every I enjoyedwork and every “It exciting was For as served Fohn-Hansen ve years, her husband with alone she was time rst 10 later. born “It years the a daughter was Barbara said place, new loved the omas, at 21. age She to Alaska before she came 8-month-old daughter. May an 1935 with in arrived and Wisconsin in farms on small clubs for4-H youths. for work. looking uno for employment women agency cial said. she like,” was no of Alaska idea had what desk “absentee planning.” called Fohn-Hansen colonists.) the with working to continue directorship the resigned (He later came. also Sheely Ross Director home. new Extension to their adapt nists November late colo- to help the until stayed She moved August. atent into in then and 1935 July in Station Experiment Matanuska Bill and Viola Lentz, who had grown up grown who had Viola Lentz, and Bill women clubs for and the demonstration home organized also She expeditions. She berry-picking led spin. weave and how to sew, can, demonstrated cook, and Palmer around scattered camps for handicra an women and made s the amarket living, on Alaska for bulletins center adistribution as her tent served Viola Lentz had been living with in-laws in-laws with living been had Viola Lentz were she helped colonists the Among 10 to the tent traveled Fohn-Hansen said a1935 Fohn-Hansen In report, “ at a sitting Washington epeople in of what alot of help needed ey because up shop set at the Fohn-Hansen Cooperative Extension Service 4-H Club members in Southeast Alaska promote gardening during World War II. The Cooperative Extension Extension Cooperative The War II. World during gardening promote Alaska Southeast in members Club 4-H Service helped support “victory gardens” and “victory canners” during World War II. War II. World during canners” “victory and gardens” “victory support helped Service Agricultural Sciences releases a releases Sciences Agricultural School of Natural Resources and and Resources Natural of School northern environments for barley early-maturing hull-less, www.uaf.edu/aurora/ were built and land was cleared. was land and were built homes their while tents canvas in lived families Many Anchorage. of north just Valley, Matanuska the in on farms families to resettle experiment of aNew Deal part Colony was ment-sponsored Matanuska Wisconsin. and Michigan egovern- Minnesota, in areas farming depressed from arrived newly families it 200 helped 1935, of in age when came Extension Alaska Colony The Matanuska Alaska.” in living for better make would that programs to people get involved in trying about and all was Service Extension what to explain trying communities, into 1974. in getting viewer “It pioneering, was of inter- it,” toldminute an Fohn-Hansen 1935. by homemakers 1,000 topped Circulation advice. practical with to Alaskans letter she sent out budget, anews- travel limited of a Because foods. Alaska cooking and gloves knitting patterns, making berries, using about nutrition, bulletins She wrote rugs. and gloves sew, make and vegetables, cook how to can, Alaskans ing and sh show- territory, the traveled energetically Gasser. and Fohn-Hansen agents, part-time two the and (AACSM Bunnell) President Charles the sole Extension home economist. She home economist. sole Extension the “It was exciting work and I enjoyed every I enjoyedwork and every “It exciting was For as served Fohn-Hansen ve years, Journalism students and a professor aprofessor and students Journalism Infantry Division in Iraq (See story in in story (See Iraq in Division Infantry Stryker Brigade Combat Team Combat 25th Brigade Stryker spring 2010 Aurora magazine.)spring 2010 embed with Fort Wainwright’s 1st 1st Wainwright’s Fort with embed 75 centennial 2017 centennial she said. she like,” was no of Alaska idea had what desk “absentee planning.” called Fohn-Hansen colonists.) the with working to continue directorship the resigned (He later came. also Sheely Ross Director home. new Extension to their adapt nists November late colo- to help the until stayed She moved August. atent into in then and 1935 July in Station Experiment Matanuska her husband with alone she was time rst 10 later. born “It years the a daughter was Barbara said place, new loved the omas, at 21. age She to Alaska before she came 8-month-old daughter. May an 1935 with in arrived and Wisconsin in farms on small clubs for4-H youths. for work. looking uno for employment women agency cial Bill and Viola Lentz, who had grown up grown who had Viola Lentz, and Bill women clubs for and the demonstration home organized also She expeditions. She berry-picking led spin. weave and how to sew, can, demonstrated cook, and Palmer around scattered camps for handicra an women and made s the amarket living, on Alaska for bulletins center adistribution as her tent served “ at a sitting Washington epeople in of what alot of help needed ey because up shop set at the Fohn-Hansen Viola Lentz had been living with in-laws in-laws with living been had Viola Lentz were she helped colonists the Among 10 to the tent traveled Fohn-Hansen said a1935 Fohn-Hansen In report, 2006 enrollment 2006 Engineering and Mines hits 700 in 700 hits Mines and Engineering of College the in Enrollment fall 2008 and more than double the the double than more and 2008 fall the fall, a 17 percent increase from from increase percent a17 fall, the 2010 Air Force general and former former and general Force Air Patrick J. Gamble, a retired aretired Gamble, J. Patrick UA President Hamilton retires; retires; Hamilton UA President becomes 13th UA president president of the Alaska Railroad, Railroad, Alaska the of president Thomas holdsThomas a family Today, Thomas Today, Thomas Thomas stands stands Thomas At bottom, Barbara Barbara bottom, At unidentiﬁ an top, At ed continues to take take to continues each side of her, came came her, of side each Palmer the outside during a hide-tanning second from right. Her Her right. from second similar classes. sometime around 1980. as participants in the the in participants as Cooperative Extension Service publication Service Matanuska Colony. To Colony. Matanuska parents, Viola and and Viola parents, herself, featuring photo Bill Lentz, standing to to standing Lentz, Bill Hall Mess Extension Extension Service. Service. Extension workshop oworkshop ered a reads woman took classes o classes took ered Lentz Viola North, the 1935 May in Alaska to learn about living in in living about learn building. In the inset, inset, the In building. by the Cooperative Cooperative the by

Delores Hutchinson Tanana Valley Campus and Technicaland College becomes UAF Community www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 76 Department contract worth worth contract Department UAF wins a Defense aDefense UAF wins unmanned aircraft systems aircraft unmanned test to million $47 to up centennial 2017 centennial 2011 Regents extend university’s transgender staff students, and faculty and nondiscrimination nondiscrimination protections to gay and gay to and protections in the early days, days, early the in Although said. omas women, for group especially the support important an provided It also desks. school and stage gymnasium for the nishing curtains sewing as such needs, community eggs. farming. went later ey dairy into and livestock sold vegetables, produced and eggs. preserve and game, wild and bles . d vegeta- can how berries, to use including i a alot, her mother quent taught agents s s a m o that canned they summer,”of salmon rst “ station. experiment of cans ousands workshops at the all-day in participated club that a homemakers’ joined Viola Lentz Wasilla. in lives baby,” the and said who today omas, The homemaker club helped with with club helped homemaker The Lentzes the colonists, of the many Like subse- and Fohn-Hansen said omas October. atent until in stayed efamily people to have agarden.” for most enough rural it’s and country, still valley,” the in ant “It’s said. omas farm Fairbanks. in of Alaska University at the 1940s the in began Fohn-Hansen that of homemakers gathering annual the Education. out of econference grew Community and Family for Association Alaska the clubs comprise whose makers, conference of home- annual an during agents other from and Palmer in omist home econ- district the from classes takes 1993. in She to Alaska returned husband her 80s. in was she club until the in active mom remained 1970, sold around her was farm family the “ import- very is Service eExtension her aclub she and when joined omas tion, food preservation, small-business small-business preservation, food tion, educa- health and nutrition include Subjects to Alaskans. information tical prac- research-based, to provide same: the remains but mission its more challenges, many residents face helped has Extension Junction. Delta and Sitka o Homer, in Soldotna, ces Nome, Bethel, other it developed years, the Over eld villages. to remote, rural brought classes a how to farm veterans and war er the World during gardens” War taught II, “victory grow Alaskans helped Extension Fairbanks. Juneau and Anchorage, in additional 10 years, eld o opened ces eld o next 1936. the In in Palmer in ce its opened regional Extension full-time rst colonists, of work its with aresult As o Field state the serve ces Since its humble beginnings, Alaska Alaska humble beginnings, its Since Ainsley Smith, left, and and left, Smith, Ainsley Valley State Fair’s Fair’s State Valley event organized by the the by organized event during a 4-H Club Club a4-H during Cooperative Extension grounds in June 2017. Service at the Tanana the at Service Fourteen-year-old Fourteen-year-old work with horses her sister McKenna, 11, McKenna, 11, sister her Today, Thomas Today, Thomas holdsThomas a family Thomas stands stands Thomas At bottom, Barbara Barbara bottom, At unidentiﬁ an top, At ed continues to take take to continues outside the Palmer Palmer the outside each side of her, came came her, of side each during a hide-tanning similar classes. second from right. Her Her right. from second sometime around 1980. Cooperative Extension as participants in the the in participants as Service publication Service Matanuska Colony. To Colony. Matanuska parents, Viola and and Viola parents, herself, featuring photo Extension Mess Hall Hall Mess Extension Extension Service. Service. Extension to standing Lentz, Bill workshop oworkshop ered a reads woman to Alaska in May 1935 1935 May in Alaska to took classes o classes took ered Lentz Viola North, the learn about living in in living about learn building. In the inset, inset, the In building. by the Cooperative Cooperative the by

Delores Hutchinson in the early days, days, early the in Although said. omas women, for group especially the support important an provided It also desks. school and stage gymnasium for the nishing curtains sewing as such needs, community eggs. farming. went later ey dairy into and livestock sold vegetables, produced and eggs. preserve and game, wild and bles . d vegeta- can how berries, to use including i a alot, her mother quent taught agents s s a m o that canned they summer,”of salmon rst “ station. experiment of cans ousands workshops at the all-day in participated club that a homemakers’ joined Viola Lentz Wasilla. in lives baby,” the and said who today omas, Hundreds of socks are flushed down down flushed are socks of Hundreds toilets at Fine Arts Complex by Complex Arts atFine toilets and causing at least $15,000 in damage in $15,000 atleast causing and unknown vandal, clogging sewer system system sewer clogging vandal, unknown The homemaker club helped with with club helped homemaker The Lentzes the colonists, of the many Like subse- and Fohn-Hansen said omas October. atent until in stayed efamily www.uaf.edu/aurora/ people to have agarden.” for most enough rural it’s and country, still valley,” the in ant “It’s said. omas farm Fairbanks. in of Alaska University at the 1940s the in began Fohn-Hansen that of homemakers gathering annual the Education. out of econference grew Community and Family for Association Alaska the clubs comprise whose makers, conference of home- annual an during agents other from and Palmer in omist home econ- district the from classes takes 1993. in She to Alaska returned husband her 80s. in was she club until the in active mom remained 1970, sold around her was farm family the “ import- very is Service eExtension her aclub she and when joined omas A new rock and ice climbing climbing ice and rock A new Student Recreation Center Recreation Student tower goes up just west of of west just up goes tower 77 centennial 2017 centennial tion, food preservation, small-business small-business preservation, food tion, educa- health and nutrition include Subjects to Alaskans. information tical prac- research-based, to provide same: the remains but mission its more challenges, many residents face helped has Extension Junction. Delta and Sitka o Homer, in Soldotna, ces Nome, Bethel, other it developed years, the Over eld villages. to remote, rural brought classes a how to farm veterans and war er the World during gardens” War taught II, “victory grow Alaskans helped Extension Fairbanks. Juneau and Anchorage, in additional 10 years, eld o opened ces eld o next 1936. the In in Palmer in ce its opened regional Extension full-time rst colonists, of work its with aresult As o Field state the serve ces Since its humble beginnings, Alaska Alaska humble beginnings, its Since Geophysical Institute since Geophysical Space scientist Bob McCoy McCoy Bob scientist Space its founding in 1946, replacing foundingits in 1946, becomes fifth director of director fifth becomes retiring Robert Smith retiring Robert Ainsley Smith, left, and and left, Smith, Ainsley Valley State Fair’s Fair’s State Valley event organized by the the by organized event during a 4-H Club Club a4-H during Cooperative Extension grounds in June 2017. Service at the Tanana the at Service Fourteen-year-old Fourteen-year-old work with horses her sister McKenna, 11, McKenna, 11, sister her www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 78 centennial 2017

Marshal James and Monique Love, owners of Frostbite Foods, dish up food for Isabella Steward during the restaurant’s Faulkner said Extension connects people are free and available online, remain in styles and schedules, some clients also ﬁ rst Pig Out event through networks and brings together demand and cover everything from rais- prefer distance-delivered classes. July 15. James and expertise at workshops and conferences. ing chickens and checking for radon to Extension will also continue to o er the Love opened the Despite budget challenges due to gardening, cooking and preserving foods. face-to-face and hands-on courses it has Fairbanks restaurant, located near the decreased state funding, Extension Schlutt said Extension will rely more on been known for since Lydia Fohn-Hansen’s Gavora Mall, after Director Fred Schlutt said he expects the distance-delivery classes o ered online or trip around the territory in 1930. taking Cooperative service to remain an important resource. through the university’s videoconference “ at’s our foundation,” said Schlutt. Extension Service courses and consulting Hundreds of publications, most of which network. Because of di erent learning with an Extension technician. Their family-friendly Pig Out event o ered smoked pork, beef brisket, baked beans, potato salad and coleslaw, along with games, prizes and an eating contest.

development, gardening and agricul- state’s cottage food regulations so they Ester, and they met several other farmers The school had opened its doors three Agriculture’s highest honor, the Superior ture, and youth education and leadership could sell commercially. through the program. years earlier. Charles Bunnell, its presi- Service Award, in 1957. Two years later, programs through 4-H and FFA (formerly “She walked us through all of it,” “We got a good background,” said dent, happened to visit Iowa State on a she became the fi rst woman to receive an Future Farmers of America). Twenty-six said Love. Faulkner. “It really expanded our farm recruiting trip, so Jacobson sat down with honorary doctorate of humanities from agents provide programs around the state. Operating as Frostbite Farms, they vision.” him for an interview. the University of Alaska. sold homemade chips, gourmet salsa and The couple already had a few high “It was a hot, muggy June day,” she During her nearly 30 years with Alaska Powering local foods sh tacos from a food truck. is past tunnels — a type of greenhouse made recalled in an interview decades later. “Dr. Extension, the infl uential agent wrote December, they opened a restaurant called from large hoops — and a communi- Bunnell just sat and wiped his brow. We hundreds of publications and 4-H proj- Marshal James and Monique Love enrolled Frostbite Foods. ty-supported agriculture operation — a looked at each other for a few moments ect books. As Extension’s sole home in monthly food preservation classes Sitting at a table in their new restau- small farm serving people who subscribe after the interview. I made up my mind; I economist, she toured the state carry- in 2012 and learned how to can from rant, Love said Extension has helped them for its products. Faulkner said the training wanted to go to Alaska. It would be a jaunt ing teaching supplies, clothing, bulletins, Fairbanks district agent Roxie Dinstel. succeed. “I don’t think we would be doing inspired them to become full-time farm- into the unknown. I was hired.” pressure canners, can sealers, patterns, “I had never canned in my life,” this without it,” she said. ers. ey bought a larger farm ve miles Both women came as an adventure. garden seeds, needles, yarn and often a said Love. Donna Rae Faulkner and Don out the East End Road in 2014. ey now Jacobson married miner Hans Fohn- loom. She also reached out to Alaskans ey sold vegetable starter plants and McNamara, who operate Oceanside have eight high tunnels in which they raise Hansen two years later. In 1930, she left by newsletter and radio programs and produce at the Tanana Valley Farmers Farms in Homer, took Extension’s Alaska 10 varieties of seed potatoes, as well as Cooperative Extension Service the college home economics department initiated the fi rst Extension television Market. ey added chips and salsa a er Growers School courses online in 2013. vegetables and fruits using organic meth- Lydia Jacobson and her friend Martha and became one of the Cooperative programs in 1955. Love made salsa with an overabundance of Experts talked about raising chickens, bees ods. ey distribute vegetables through a Park were teaching home economics at Extension Service’s fi rst two agents in After retiring in 1959, Fohn-Hansen tomatoes and peppers — and it sold well. and vegetables, planting seeds, managing CSA and farm stand, and also sell chickens Iowa State University in 1925 when they Alaska. She would stay in the state for stayed active in the Fairbanks commu- ey worked with food research techni- risk and farming in rural areas. A practi- and turkeys. saw a recruiting notice for two home nearly 50 years. nity until 1975, when she moved cian Kate Idzorek on understanding the cum followed at Calypso Farms near economists at the Alaska Agricultural Fohn-Hansen became the first to Washington. She died in Lacey, College and School of Mines. Alaskan to earn the U.S. Department of Washington, on Nov. 6, 1986, at age 95.

2011 2012 More than half of UAF students The Sun Star student newspaper UAF student team takes first take at least one online course for creates online, searchable place in zero-emissions category first time in fall semester; only three database of UA employee salaries of 2012 Society of Automobile percent of classes were offered Engineers Clean Snowmobile online a decade earlier Challenge www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 79 centennial 2017

Regents dub the campus ridge Legislators appropriate Matt Emmons ’03 wins UAF purchases a hangar on “Troth Yeddha’,” the Athabascan $46 million for a new bronze in the three- the Fairbanks airport’s east name meaning “wild potato hill”; engineering building at UAF, half position rifle competition ramp to house the Community the U.S. geographic names board the funding needed to build the at the Summer Olympics and Technical College’s follows suit in February 2013 design approved by UA regents in London aviation maintenance program Campus myths and legends A toast to the Tradition Stone

Ernest Patty ’53 (Hon.), one of the univer- Student protests culminated in a vigil at documenting the stone’s recent sightings. sity’s original six faculty members, had a Constitution Hall on March 22, 1957. They The Sun Star said the Gay Straight Alliance reputation as a crusader against unrefined dug a hole, threw in several hundred beer had the stone in 2013 and the Sigma Phi behavior among students. He cemented bottles and planted a 400-pound headstone Epsilon fraternity in 2015. that reputation in 1956 by banning alcohol, with a welded plate declaring “Here lies In fall 2016, the stone did not appear at even though he said he acted not to promote tradition.” Starvation Gulch festivities, where it often good manners but to keep campus safe. Patty said the protests amused him. But was spotted in past years. So, in February Patty revealed his taste for propriety early when the student body president carried a 2017, the UAF Student Activities Office in the school’s history. Confronted with his whiskey bottle into a dorm, “the gauntlet created a flier and Facebook post asking mining students’ rough habits, he arranged had been cast at my feet,” he said. who had it. with home economics Professor Lola He called a student meeting, reviewed One Facebook commenter replied that Tilly ’63 (Hon.) to hold weekly teas for them. the incidents that led to the ban and said tradition required secrecy to keep the stone Although Patty later resigned his faculty he would resign if the school lost too many “out of the hands of the university.” position in 1935 to develop a successful students because of his policy. But “I’m not Lisa Latronica, student activities coordi- mining company, the UA Board of Regents going to debate it with you,” he said. As he nator, said the SAO wanted to encourage hired him back as president in 1953. walked out, he wrote, “The students were the occasional display of the stone to keep At the Miner’s Ball two years later, recent all applauding and cheering.” its memory alive. School of Mines graduate Don Stein ’54 Patty served three more years, and the “We just want all the students to be able bought enough alcohol to heavily spike ban continued under his successor, William to enjoy it,” she said. the punch, according to Leslie Noyes’ 2001 Wood ’89 (Hon.), until 1972, the year before However, she acknowledged, exposing book, “Rock Poker to Pay Dirt.” Chaperones Wood retired. (The Pub opened in Wood the stone’s location would increase the risk ignored the enhancement, as they had in Center in 1975.) of yet another theft. Such is tradition. previous years. The punch was smooth and Since the March 1957 protest, the — Sam Bishop strong. Students became quite intoxicated. Tradition Stone has passed through “Dr. Patty got a little peeved,” Stein said. numerous hands, sometimes transferred

“Not too long afterward, he put out a notice via good-natured thievery. At some point, 97) page see citation, complete (for Library Rasmuson from photo Original banning alcohol on campus.” the stone broke into several pieces. In 1992, But Patty said a more serious incident campus police confiscated the pieces during catalyzed the ban. After a wild party in a an unrelated investigation. men’s dorm, a freshman threatened to jump “Anxious to get rid of the stone, the from a third-floor window, Patty reported university looked the other way in early in his 1969 autobiography “North Country 1993 when it was stolen once again,” wrote Challenge.” UAF history Professor Terrence Cole ’76, “I had had enough,” he wrote. The ’78 in his 1994 book, “The Cornerstone on Nov. 30 edition of the student newspaper, College Hill.” The Polar Star, gave his ban a huge, single- Megan Otts ’08, a UAF journalism word headline: “Prohibition!” student, published an article in the Nov. 4, 2007, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

2012 2013 Students move into new Research Vessel Sikuliaq, designed Federal Express School of Natural Resources and Sustainable Village, which for Arctic science work, launches; donates used 727-200 Agricultural Sciences merges with offers living space in units the School of Fisheries and Ocean for UAF’s aviation Cooperative Extension Service designed to save energy and Sciences operates it for the maintenance program to become the School of Natural provide performance data National Science Foundation Resources and Extension www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 81 centennial 2017

Tip of the Top of the World

For a few days in November 2002, the electric. The underdogs were going after Nanook men’s basketball team played out the top dogs. a fairytale Cinderella story before increas- Weber State had been undefeated in their ingly exhilarated crowds during the BP Top conference the year before, while UAF had of the World Classic tournament. The team mostly lost. But now, somehow, UAF had was about as underdog as it could be, having pulled together a rhythm that seemed hard won just four games the previous season. to ignore. Now it was up against seven Division I The game started out inauspiciously. The teams. No Division II team had ever beaten News-Miner Daily Fairbanks the from photo Original Nanooks didn’t take the lead until 11:21 a tournament field of DI opponents before. in the first half. But after a steal by Chris An early-round loss was inevitable. Smith resulted in a bucket for Brad Oleson, Until it wasn’t. the UAF team started a fire its opponent The Nanooks beat the first team handily, couldn’t put out. Oleson, eventual tour- 78-55. nament MVP, scored 17 points that night, “We were playing Wisconsin-Green Bay. with four other Nanooks scoring in the They didn’t take us seriously,” Al Sokaitis, double figures. Together, they pulled off a the Nanooks coach at the time, recalled. historic upset, beating Weber State 77-65 “The website on their local news said we’re and becoming the only Division II school [Wisconsin] playing a DII school, and Carlson Center, the Nanooks were holding to win a Division I tournament. they’d make the most of that.” their own. “It was a perfect storm in terms of players,” Instead, the Nanooks made the most of The Top of the World Classic began in Sokaitis said. “We had different personal- Green Bay. Sokaitis knew he had a good 1996 and quickly became an important ities, from Texas, California, Alaska, and team, but he had trepidations about their annual event for many sports enthusiasts in they were able to blend those differences so next opponent. the Interior. It attracted alumni and other well. Quickness, speed, great basketball IQ, “Nebraska’s just huge. Their front line fans from throughout the state and even both scoring and defending.” is 6-11, 6-11, 6-10,” Sokaitis said. “I spent Outside. “When that game ended, everybody was most of time telling my players, ‘Oh, they’re “It was a UAF and a city of Fairbanks up. Fans were up, players were up,” Sokaitis not that big.’ thing,” Sokaitis said. “I don’t know if I’ve said. “I watched the crowd go crazy. It was “But I’m thinking to myself, ‘Damn, ever in my life been a part of something just surreal to appreciate how far they’d they’re big.’” where so many gave so much to make not come from the year before.” During the UAF-Nebraska game, tension just the event but the team successful.” — Tori Tragis among Nanook fans began shifting to antic- So when the Nanooks beat Nebraska ipation. Instead of being blown out of the 64-61, the mood in the town became

Margaret Murie Building for UAF and Colorado State University sign Federal Aviation Administration biological sciences opens; it’s agreement to form veterinary degree chooses UAF’s Alaska Center named for the university’s second program at Fairbanks campus for Unmanned Aircraft Systems graduate (1924), who became a Integration to run one of six national famous wilderness advocate test sites for unmanned aircraft www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 82 centennial 2017

Mammoth-tusk cache remains hidden

A cache of mammoth tusks lies buried The Muries convinced Geist to visit The paleontologist and Geist teamed up to somewhere on the Fairbanks campus, but university President Charles Bunnell and go collecting. the location has been lost to fading memo- show him some artifacts he had collected. “This was the beginning of the famil- ries and the march of generations. At that meeting, Bunnell encouraged Geist iar ‘bone wagon’ that rattled around the Tens of thousands of years ago, such tusks to do more collecting. Fairbanks area for years thereafter,” wrote and their mammoth bearers were regularly In 1927, Bunnell backed the first of Geist’s Neil Davis ’55, ’61 in “The College Hill buried under Interior Alaska’s windblown many university-sponsored expeditions. Chronicles,” his history of the college’s early glacial loess. Geist returned with tons of material of both days. “It provided summer employment to But the mammoth tusks on campus were human and animal origin. His collection many students, often under the supervision hidden for an entirely different reason — to methods later fell into disfavor because of Otto Geist.” protect them from thieves. they ignored indigenous people’s interests. The bone wagon soon overwhelmed the The tusks were acquired by Otto At the time, though, Geist was honored by storage capacity of not only the college but Geist ’57 (Hon.) from gold miners in the some communities for his work in preserv- also museums elsewhere. Fairbanks area. ing the material. “Load after interesting load of old bones Geist was a prominent figure in the early In 1928, Geist found a new source of came onto the campus,” Davis reported. history of the university. He emigrated in material. The Fairbanks Exploration Co. “Piles of them grew around the buildings, 1910 from Germany, where he had been began washing millions of tons of muck and Geist even built a fence out of some trained as a machinist. In America, he down the creeks around Fairbanks as part of them at his off-campus home, as did at worked as a farmer, mechanic, soldier and of its industrial-scale gold dredging. The least one member of the faculty.” trucker before heading to Alaska. effort uncovered vast numbers of buried With so many artifacts just lying around, While working on a Yukon River stern- bones from Pleistocene animals, including Fairbanks residents began to pack them wheeler in 1924, Geist met naturalist Olaus mammoths. off, Davis said. Murie and his wife, Mardy ’24, ’76 (Hon.), The head of the F.E. Co. contacted the So Geist and his student crew dug a hole who had that spring become the Alaska American Museum of Natural History, and buried about 30 of the tusks. As the Agricultural College and School of Mine’s which sent a paleontologist to investigate. years went by, the pit’s location was lost. second graduate. “Those tusks are still there,” said Leo Rhode ’40, former student and regent, in a 1981 interview with Davis. Rhode helped Geist bury the treasure. “We should have put iron in with them so they could be found with a metal detector,” he said. Davis, who completed his book in 1992, added an asterisked note to his account of the burial: “The present-day worth of the tusks, if they are in first-rate condition, probably exceeds one-half million dollars on the retail market.” — Sam Bishop

2013 2014 Professor Donald “Skip” Walker Sea Ice Prediction Network Assistant Professor Tom Alaska Airlines paints two observes pronounced greening established, bringing Marsik at Bristol Bay Campus Q400 turboprop aircraft with trend in Alaska’s Arctic after researchers together to creates the world’s most airtight colors and logos of University studying years of satellite data improve sea ice forecasts residential building, according of Alaska campuses in to World Record Academy Fairbanks and Anchorage www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 83 centennial 2017

Plane crash sparked speculation Original photo from Rasmuson Library (for complete citation, see page 97) page see citation, complete (for Library Rasmuson from photo Original On July 12, 1944, a young soldier died when His name initially was his small plane hit the Eielson Building, but withheld pending notifica- his full story remains a mystery. tion of kin, the paper said. A group of soldiers from the medical His identity was never staff at the temporary hospital in Hess reported in later editions. Hall were playing volleyball next to the King did not report the Eielson Building when the plane swooped name in 1956 either. The over them. young man was a soldier, “A minute later the players again heard the he noted. roar of an engine,” according to a Fairbanks “This [1944] was a war Daily News-Miner article written years year. Many of the activities later by journalism student William King. conducted at the univer- “Shouts of annoyance suddenly changed sity were of a confidential to cries of terror when the onlookers real- military nature,” King ized that the plane was not going to be able wrote. “Perhaps because to clear the heavy cables strung between of the delicacy of the situ- secondhand accounts from people who had the poles. ation, or because higher authority ordered known her years before. “Frozen in panic, the men watched the a silence which since then has never been The relationship, the apparent split and plane’s landing gear catch on the tightly broken, the complete story never reached the subsequent crash left unanswered ques- strung wire, tipping the nose toward the public.” tions among people who knew the details, the ground and sending the whole craft King did describe an odd coincidence: King wrote. hurtling just a few feet over their heads The pilot’s ex-girlfriend was a student who “Some look upon the accident as just that — into the base of the building. The plane worked in the Eielson Building. She lived — an accident due to careless flying,” King telescoped into itself, and it took workmen on campus and planned to return to school said. “The more romantically inclined see it hours to remove the pilot’s body from the that fall, he said. as the final gesture of a lovesick young man wreckage.” “Although the girl was reticent about her killing himself at the feet of the girl who The News-Miner published King’s connection with the dead flyer, she did say spurned him. And then there are those who, account on April 23, 1956, almost a dozen that she had ended their acquaintance- with the authority of hearsay and imagi- years after the incident. It was the most ship, against his will, earlier in the year at nation, maintain that the young man had complete account yet, although King’s Anchorage,” King wrote. She changed her more than suicide in mind when he pointed sources go entirely unnamed. plans and left Fairbanks as the summer the nose of the plane toward the building in In the days following the crash, the News- ended that year, he said. which his lost love worked. … How would Miner reported only that the young man King did not identify the alleged ex-girl- you have it?” was a student pilot and had taken off in friend. It’s not clear from his article whether — Sam Bishop Anchorage. he personally interviewed her or relied on

Arctic Region Supercomputing Center Legislators approve financing for The world’s best young absorbed by Geophysical Institute; UAF’s new heat and power plant; the pianists compete in the Alaska staff continue to operate two $245 million cost to be covered by International Piano e-Competition supercomputers in Butrovich Building loans, bonds and a $74.5 million state at UAF; a Yamaha Disklavier piano appropriation shares the performances globally www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 84 centennial 2017

The president who wouldn’t leave

Charles Bunnell, the university’s first pres- office was not a good arrangement,” wrote Moore’s successor, Ernest Patty ’53 ident, stayed in his home on campus after William Cashen ’37, a UAF math professor (Hon.), reported no similar conflicts with retiring, and he kept an office in the Eielson emeritus and university marshal, in his Bunnell. That’s not surprising, given that Building until his death seven years later. 1972 biography, “Farthest North College Bunnell had endorsed Patty’s hiring and His vocal presence likely contributed to President.” “Yet to have placed Dr. Bunnell Patty had been one of the original faculty the short tenure of his successor, but no in a more remote spot or in another build- members Bunnell brought to Alaska in 1922 one had the heart or political support to ing would have created ill will.” when the Alaska Agricultural College and evict him. Some wonder if his presence That ill will arose nonetheless. School of Mines opened for classes. Patty might still linger. At the May 1950 meeting, the regents nevertheless acknowledged, years later, the Bunnell retired on July 1, 1949, after 28 voted to cut off Bunnell’s salary. The board impossible situation Moore had faced. years as president. He was suffering badly didn’t intend to leave Bunnell penniless, “It was a difficult job to fill Dr. Bunnell’s from diabetes. His wife had gone Outside according to Neil Davis ’55, ’61, a student shoes, particularly since the close-knit with their daughter almost 20 years earlier, who later became a geophysics professor. Alaska community resented [Moore] as and they had not returned. Davis, in his 1992 book, “The College Hill an outsider. He had taken on a heartbreak- The board hired Terris Moore ’67 (Hon.), Chronicles,” reported that regents just ing assignment,” Patty wrote in his 1969 a 40-year-old financial consultant from the wanted Bunnell to move his residence and autobiography, “North Country Challenge.” East Coast, to replace Bunnell. Moore had office off campus. Few people understood Bunnell’s health failed in September 1956. a doctorate in business from Harvard, flew that, though. He moved to California to join his daughter his own airplane and had climbed Denali Facing public wrath, the board offered and died there on Nov. 1. and other Alaska peaks. Bunnell a deal: $7,500 a year if he stayed on Bunnell’s steadfast devotion to the The board named Bunnell “president campus, $10,000 if he left. “Bunnell refused campus has caused some to wonder whether emeritus.” He moved from the president’s the higher offer, and so the board caved in,” he might still haunt the place. office, the Eielson Building’s Room 208, Davis reported. At his old home, for example? It serves across the hall to Room 207. “Moore fully comprehended how devastat- today as a day care center and a lab school “The location of the president emeritus’ ing the current situation was to the univer- for childhood development students. The office directly across from the president’s sity,” Davis wrote. “The campus could not house, built in 1922, is the oldest structure help but remain on campus still in use. divided into two Tina Christopher, who lived there when camps as long as it was part of faculty housing in the early Bunnell wielded 1970s, told an interviewer in 2006 that his influence.” her daughter once went sleepwalking By late 1950, outside in the winter but returned safely. Davis said, Moore She wondered if Bunnell might have had had resolved to a hand in that. leave in 1953, a “I’d like to think he sent her back home,” schedule to which Christopher said. “I was always comfortable he adhered. there, so if the ghost was there, he was a good, kind, gentle one who protected us.” — Sam Bishop

Original photo from Rasmuson Library archives (for complete citation, see page 97)

2014 2015 Dine 49, a new dining facility, A concrete “strong floor” is University of Alaska Press Interior-Aleutians Campus opens in an addition to Wood placed in the new engineering publishes Edna MacLean’s renamed Interior Alaska Center; UAF will pay off the building; the floor will allow Iñupiaq to English Dictionary, Campus; Bristol Bay Campus $28 million, privately financed researchers to strength-test a comprehensive guide to takes over in Aleutians area project in ensuing years large construction components the Iñupiaq language www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 85 centennial 2017

The hammer and sickle prank

Political forces, a prank and a bit of sabotage offense and ripped down the flag. Sitting Initially, no media coverage of the converged to turn the University of Alaska’s nearby was Richard Haley, a disgruntled commencement mentioned the flag inci- 1951 commencement into national news. Canadian student who was being kicked dent or the cut cable. The prank occurred when two students out for failing grades. “That could have been the end of the story attempted to replace the U.S. flag with “Then somehow Cunningham got caught were it not for Gov. Gruening,” Davis wrote. a Soviet flag during the ceremony. up in the bantering discussion, which now Gruening suspected the Fairbanks Daily Newspapers across the nation published turned toward seeking a means to use the News-Miner, which had not yet endorsed articles about the unsuccessful switch. fake Red flag in a way that would create a statehood, was behind the cut wire. “He The attention was unsurprising, given good joke,” Davis wrote. Both students were evidently contacted the News-Miner with the politics both inside and outside Alaska a warning that the paper better put out at the time. some coverage,” Davis said. In the wake of World War II, fear of the Fifteen days after commencement, the communist Soviet Union and its expan- News-Miner published an article about the sion consumed the nation. The House flag incident based on a news release from Un-American Activities Committee’s UA President Terris Moore ’67 (Hon.). Wire efforts to expose Communist Party services picked up the story and newspa- members in Hollywood had become a pers around the nation published it. high-profile matter. After a week of media inquiries and In Alaska, statehood was the burn- commentaries, Moore clarified his views ing issue. So Territorial Gov. Ernest in a second news release. He considered the Gruening ’55 (Hon.) brought California incident a student “prank,” he said. Also, Gov. Earl Warren, a nationally known Moore said, there was no evidence that figure and Alaska statehood supporter, the students had cut the wire to KFAR’s to the 1951 commencement to receive an transmitter. honorary degree. annoyed at how much money the adminis- Moore’s news release didn’t stop Just as the ceremony began, someone tration had spent on spiffing up the campus the outrage. Bob Bartlett ’60 (Hon.), cut a cable running from campus to the for commencement. Alaska’s delegate to Congress, asked the KFAR radio transmission tower on Farmers The next day while the ceremony took Un-American Activities Committee to Loop. So no one heard the planned radio place in the gymnasium, now Signers’ Hall, investigate. The chairman declined, citing broadcast of Warren’s speech. Cunningham and Haley managed to drop the committee’s busy schedule pursuing Neil Davis ’55, ’61, who was a new student the U.S. colors from the campus flagpole. Hollywood traitors. on campus that year, described the details However, the administration had been Both Cunningham and Haley were in “The College Hill Chronicles,” his 1994 tipped off and asked two ROTC students expelled, Davis said, but no one ever found history of the university’s early years. to watch out for trouble. out who cut the cable. It began when someone posted a crude They prevented Cunningham and Haley — Sam Bishop Soviet flag over an Alaska map in the from raising the Soviet flag. The pranksters Main Dorm lobby. George Cunningham, ran off. an ex-Marine and successful student, took

R/V Sikuliaq arrives in UAF adopts gender-inclusive Lee Salisbury, who created Work on engineering building home port of Seward housing rule for Bartlett Hall theater program in the 1950s and stops in August, due to lack of in March beginning in 2016; any two students helped launch KUAC FM, dies in funding from Legislature; only of any gender who want to share a March at 87; he directed nearly exterior complete room are allowed to do so 100 plays during his career www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 86 centennial 2017

Safe harbor in the ’67 flood

history professor, in his book level. If that happened, it would shut down “Cornerstone on College Hill.” all electrical power, heating and water.” “Evacuees camped anywhere The men immediately made plans to build with room enough to throw a a dike around the coal, the fuel that fed the sleeping bag, in dormitories, all-important boilers. A contractor loaned hallways, laboratories, offices, a bulldozer. The Army responded with elec- classrooms, and closets.” tric pumps and sandbags, which were filled The university’s scaled-back and stacked by some 50 volunteers from summer catering crew suddenly the campus’ newly expanded population. needed to provide thousands Kaiser said the water nearly flooded the of meals per day for the unex- pumps but subsided with just 6 inches to pected guests, some of whom spare. “Except for the volunteers filling and stepped in to help the belea- stacking sandbags, not many people found guered staff. The public relations out how close to real disaster we came.” department started a bulletin, The situation was dire throughout the The High Water News, which immediate area. The fall semester hadn’t became The (Lower) High Water started yet, so most university students Original photo from Rasmuson Library archives (for complete citation, see page 97) News and The (Even Lower) and many faculty weren’t on campus, or High Water News. only in a limited way. Some students were Heavy rains fell over Interior Alaska in Before the water receded, it nearly working or vacationing outside Fairbanks summer 1967, and when the Chena River flooded the campus’ power plant. Ernest and couldn’t get back into town. Professor breached its banks on Aug. 15, it inun- Kaiser, who attended classes and worked at Rudy Krejci was in Fairbanks at the time, dated much of the city. From its perch on UAF in the 1960s, recalled what happened but his home on Ballaine Road, just north of a hill above the rising waters, the univer- in the fall 2014 issue of Aurora. campus and above the flood waters, became sity, at the behest of President William “I found the power plant superintendent, its own kind of crisis center. Wood ’89 (Hon.), became a haven for thou- Jerry England,” Kaiser wrote. “We checked “We had about 25 people who escaped sands of Fairbanksans forced out of their the [water] level and thought it was a bit from downtown and moved into our house,” homes. high but not a danger to anything yet. We said Krejci, now a professor emeritus. “I was More than 7,000 people sought refuge checked it a cup of coffee later and found at the university, too, but I paid more atten- at the university. it had risen almost 6 inches; at that rate of tion to the refugees in my house. Going to “In less than a day the university campus rise, it would soon be spilling into the rail town for food for 25 people — you run out grew to the size of Alaska’s fourth-largest coal grate at the plant and flood the lower of food for 25 people very fast.” city,” wrote Terrence Cole ’76, ’78, a UAF — Tori Tragis

2015 UAF eliminates several degree President Gamble orders 167 Community and Technical July 6: UAF rededicates the offerings, including philosophy, administrators to take 10 days College establishes its first cornerstone created 100 years as budgets decline; UAF will of unpaid leave for fiscal year wildland firefighting crew earlier; it also celebrates plans “teach out” existing students in 2016, saying he expects the as part of its wildland fire for Troth Yeddha’ Park and a those majors move to save $600,000 science program future indigenous studies center www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 87 centennial 2017

Concrete mysteries

It’s hard to say which inaccuracy about the was born in New York City in 1887. He got The building certainly looks like a Gruening Building is the most persistent. It a medical degree from Harvard in 1912 fortress. It was built in what’s called the might be the mispronunciation of its name. but never practiced medicine, and instead Brutalist style, all sharp angles and gray Or it might be the legend that the building became a journalist. He also became a concrete. But if those narrow windows look was designed to withstand an assault from Democrat, and, eventually, an opponent like prime sniper positions, as some people marauding students intent on upending of the Vietnam War. say, wouldn’t it be better if they could actu- The System. This is where the second persistent myth ally open? Let’s start with the name itself: It’s about the Gruening Building comes into Rogers said he heard a different expla- “greening.” Yes, the letters “ue” make most play. The building was dedicated in 1972 nation for the windows — that they were English speakers think of “blue” and “glue,” during a period of unrest and civil disobe- a last-minute change to the architectural but stop. This time, “ue” gets the “ee” treat- dience on many U.S. campuses. design, which had originally allowed for ment — like, well, “treatment,” or “creek.” It’s not uncommon to hear that its design, no windows at all. After all, it’s always dark Brian Rogers, chancellor emeritus of with its tall narrow windows and towering in Fairbanks, so why would anyone need UAF, was very clear on this matter in a 2013 height (it remains the tallest building on the windows? documentary made by journalism No one has found evidence Associate Professor Rob Prince that the architects intended for and his students. the Gruening Building to convert (Rogers has his own history from classroom to citadel. It was with UAF. He attended UAF in the more likely a reflection of the 1970s and served on the University times that became a plausible of Alaska Board of Regents in the explanation for later generations 1990s and 2000s before being of students and employees to tell UAF’s chancellor 2009-2015.) new arrivals. Concerning his qualifications Given the numbers of students to recommend a pronunciation, who pass through its doors — Rogers phrased it modestly in the it’s virtually impossible to get documentary: “I know a little bit a degree in Fairbanks without about the family.” In fact, Rogers taking at least one class there — worked in the 1970s as a legis- there’s a lot of hand-me-down Rasmuson Library archives (for complete citation, see page 97) lative aide to Clark Gruening, legend going on. Baffled by the the grandson of the man for whom the Fairbanks campus), would give university building’s name and design, people talk to Gruening Building was named. personnel a safe place from which to repel each other, telling each other stories about A strong supporter of statehood, Ernest attacking students. their shared history, even if that history Gruening ’55 (Hon.) was the territorial Yet Gruening himself was hardly a propo- tends a little toward fable. governor from 1939-1953, and Alaskans nent of force, and allegedly said quietly after — Tori Tragis sent him to the U.S. Senate from 1959-1969. the building’s dedication, “Don’t they know Gruening packed a lot into one life. He I’m a dove?”

UAF in July announces plans to cut UAF takes over the U.S. Air Force’s Chancellor Brian Rogers retires at $20 million from its budget as a result High-frequency Active Auroral Research the end of August; Mike Powers, of reduced state funding; the cuts will Program antenna array in Gakona; the former CEO of Fairbanks Memorial eliminate more than 150 positions array is used to study the ionosphere Hospital and a UA regent, becomes interim chancellor www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 88 centennial 2017

Chaos at the top

Some called it “The Year of Four Emperors.” lines, areas of authority, etc.,” according to At the same time, the university intro- The reference wasn’t to ancient Rome but Kathleen Stewart’s 1984 master’s thesis on duced a new payroll system. rather to the university in 1977. Four presi- the situation. “There was an ‘urgent need “Payroll, which affects everybody, was a dents or acting presidents led the institution for a master plan.’” disaster,” Stewart reported in her thesis. “In within a single 12-month period. In late 1974, UA President Robert Hiatt the first two-week pay period of July [1976], The turmoil reflected the conflict among announced such a plan. The campuses in 800 checks had to be issued by hand. By the regents, administrators, faculty, staff and Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau would following payday, the system had improved students as the university tried to figure be led by individual chancellors. Hiatt to the point where approximately 358 were out what it should be and how to get there. would retain overall authority as statewide manually written.” From the 1950s through the 1970s, the president. Howard Cutler became the first Then, in January 1977, Alaskans learned Fairbanks-based university had branched chancellor of the “University of Alaska, that the university had overspent its budget out into community colleges and four-year Fairbanks” in 1975. But the new plan didn’t by millions of dollars. That started a cascade programs elsewhere in the state. Oversight solve the university’s problems. of presidential firings and hirings. of these various programs bounced from The Anchorage Community College “Revelation of deficits (whether ‘real’ or one Fairbanks administrator to another. teachers went on strike in mid-1975. In the product of bad accounting software An accreditation team reviewed the 1976, Sen. Chancy Croft, D-Anchorage, implementation) forced the resignation of university in October 1974 and “found introduced a bill to break the community President Hiatt in February,” wrote Will ‘confusion’ and ‘uncertainty’ on reporting colleges away from the university entirely. Jacobs, a University of Alaska Anchorage

This unattributed sketch was published in Kathleen Stewart’s 1984 master’s thesis on UA’s structure.

2015 2016 President Gamble retires in UAF students design and build All tobacco products Chancellor Powers’ one-year term September; Jim Johnsen, a a tiny satellite that rides into and nicotine vaporizers as interim expires in May; Dana former UA administrator, space aboard a rocket launched are banned on UAF Thomas, a retired UAF faculty becomes the 14th UA president from Vandenberg Air Force campuses as of Jan. 1 member and UA administrator, Base in California in October takes over as interim chancellor www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 89 centennial 2017

professor emeritus of history, in his 2014 In the meantime, in late 1977, the UA earlier search, but that candidate turned book, “Becoming UAA, 1954-2014.” Board of Regents formally approved the them down. So regents appointed Foster Regents hired Juneau’s Chancellor full reorganization begun by Hiatt three Diebold, the board’s executive secretary, as Charles Ferguson as interim president. In years earlier. The basic blueprint was similar interim president — the university’s fourth September 1977, Neil Humphrey became to today’s, with three main campuses in chief executive in less than a year. president. He lasted four months. Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau. However, Diebold served for 16 months until Jay “Humphrey later admitted that the UA’s the community colleges and Cooperative Barton ’84 (Hon.) became president in 1979. financial affairs were in such a mess that Extension Service were placed in a separate Barton finally froze the revolving door — he he feared criminal indictments might soon division under state administration until stayed five years. be brought against top university offi- a 1987 reorganization returned them to — Sam Bishop cials,” reported history Professor Terrence the campuses. Cole ’76, ’78 in “The Cornerstone on College President Humphrey left in early 1978. Hill.” Regents tried to hire a finalist from an

An escalating controversy ended in stairs

Drop down two stair flights in a hallway off the northeast corner and about 160 courses. To propose an escalator during such lean of the Regents’ Great Hall and you arrive at a dead end. A set of times appeared out of touch to many. locked double doors blocks the corridor. Others defended the idea, though. Theater- and concert-goers Instinct would tell you, correctly, that the corridor once contin- from the community tended to be elderly, they noted, and an ued beyond this point. escalator would greatly ease their access to the venues. During the 1970s and 1980s, a regular stream of pedestrians Wadlow withdrew the escalator proposal in December 1992. used the passageway because it was the most direct route from the “The campus and Fairbanks communities have spoken,” Wadlow Great Hall to the Ballaine parking lot. The tunnel passed under said in a prepared statement. “The time is not right.” Tanana Loop and popped out of the hillside about 40 feet above The escalator was never built, and the tunnel never reopened. the lot. From there, a set of covered wooden stairs completed the The stairs eventually were removed. connection to the parking area. To maintain access to the Ballaine and Taku lots, the university By the mid-1980s, though, the wooden timbers that supported instead installed a sidewalk and handrail along Taku Drive in 2002. the tunnel had begun to deteriorate, so the university closed the The steep slope, often icy, was dubbed “Bobsled Hill.” So, in 2015, tunnel. The stairway, which also was suffering, was extended to the university replaced the sidewalk and rail with an elevated the top of the hill, where people would then cross Tanana Loop staircase of metal grates along Taku Drive. to reach the Fine Arts Complex. Today, only a few shrubby willows mark the old tunnel’s The pedestrians were not pleased. So Chancellor Joan Wadlow mouth on the hillside above the Ballaine parking lot. and university planners proposed to upgrade the route with a new The situation still could change someday, though. The university’s tunnel — and an escalator. 2010 Campus Master Plan lists construction of a parking garage The proposal, with its price tag of almost $3 million, drew howls on the Ballaine lot as a “long-term priority.” An artist’s rendering of derision. The idea was floated at a time when the university’s shows a five-story garage with an enclosed, elevated walkway from budget, like that of most state agencies, was suffering from the its roof to the Fine Arts Complex. extended slump in oil prices that began in 1986. The Legislature — Sam Bishop was pondering cuts that were likely to eliminate almost 50 positions

2017 The School of Fisheries and Dec. 31: UAF kicks off its 100th UAF celebrates its centennial President Johnsen Ocean Sciences, established anniversary with a New Year’s with a variety of events and names Daniel M. White in 1987, restructures itself Eve fireworks show set to activities, including this as UAF’s seventh full and becomes the College of music on KUAC FM commemorative edition of chancellor, with a July 1 Fisheries and Ocean Sciences Aurora magazine start date Celebration! Memories and birthday wishes from UAF’s alumni and friends

Tav Ammu ’07 “It was so cold the exchange program to Hawaii and Australia were a must.” www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 91 centennial 2017

Guy Gallaway ’62 “I have fond memories of U of A, the only University of Alaska. My memories include some rabble rousing when some of us on the first floor of Macintosh Hall published the underground newsletter Charger to oppose changes and restric- tions introduced by William R. Wood. In one year there were three different student protest papers in addition to the annual Engineering Day paper. I have memories of cold classrooms in Old Main; you could see your breath, including a 7:30 a.m. math class, with those old windows that would not close. We all kept our coats and gloves on and the instructor wore gloves to write on the blackboard. White chalk does not stick to cold blackboards. I remember a second-floor class room in Old Main with blackboards on three of the walls. Math professor Jack Distad would use all three walls during lectures, starting at the top and writing in a spiral around the room. I remember the big dance in Old Main before it was demolished. We students demolished some interior walls on the first floor so we could have that party. I remember being in the first computer class offered, which did not have access to any computer, and studying the IBM 650, drum memory computer. The next semester we got the IBM 1620, which had a whopping 20K of memory. In 1962 Dennis Ruff and I were the first graduate students in computers. … Because of the small amount of memory, you could not have much data stored. … We invented and developed a pointer capa- bility for Fortran and Fortran II that had to be manually inserted into an object program using punched cards. My most fond memories are meeting my college sweetheart, Carol Hall, marrying her in 1961, living in married student housing and graduating together in 1962. After 56 years of marriage, it doesn’t seem that long ago.” www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 92 centennial 2017

Robin (Wickham) Near ’90 “Some great professors (Sarkis Atamian, Gerry Berman, Cliff Brennan, Bill Schneider, Jill Bakker, Valerie Montoya and others) … making good friends, riding the University supplied bus to and from Yak Estates … Once the front door froze shut during a -50 degree cold spell and it was final exams week. Our neighbor heard me ramming the front door to break the ice seal and rescued me so I could get to class! I remember taking my two sons to Wood Center for the best deal ever on bowling nights. Lots of good memories of UAF and Fairbanks.” www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 93 centennial 2017

Judy Stelson ’60 “My husband, Jim Stelson (graduated in 1960, B.Ed.), is the one in the middle on the cover of the fall 2016 Aurora magazine! We lived on campus 1958- 1960 in married student housing, and had wonderful experiences while there. Upon graduation, Jim became an Alaska State Trooper, then taught on base at Ft. Richardson in Anchorage. He received his M.Ed. at the University of Washington in Seattle, taught history and coached football and wrestling at East High School in Bremerton, WA—then on to Virginia, where he was an Education Specialist for the U.S. Army at Ft. Eustis, VA and KKMC, Saudi Arabia. What experiences we have had! Much traveling through the years, and we are now retired and living in Bremerton, WA. We have four beautiful daughters, one born in Fairbanks, one born in Anchorage, then two born in Bremerton. Two live locally, and two live in Amish country, Lancaster, Penn. Thank you for our years at UAF!” www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 94 centennial 2017

Maggie Demers ’03 “My first week in Alaska was spent with a great group of UAF students on Wilderness Welcome — a truly life-changing event that kicked off our first year at the university. It was a wonderful experience to study at UAF. UAF prepared me for the workforce in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Starting that first day of Wilderness Welcome, continuing through my studies, and to this day, UAF has been a central point in my life and is a place where I made some of my best, lifelong friends, including Solveig Pedersen and Stephanie (Baldwin) Nailling. Steph and I were on a plane together from Seattle to Fairbanks in ’99 to attend Wilderness Welcome; she was literally the first person I met in Fairbanks and we went to UAF through graduation. Hard to believe we are approaching a 20th anniversary! Solveig and I met soon after and she is truly someone who makes the world, and my world, a better place. To this day these ladies are two of my closest friends.” www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 95 centennial 2017

Agricultural field photo (top right) by Tom Douglas, 100 in people (middle left) by ACUASI www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 96 centennial 2017

In Memoriam

Irvin W. Ailes ’73, Oct. 29, 2016, Flora Marie Davis ’99, March 4, 2017, Michael P. Kirton ’74, Aug. 5, 2016, Chincoteague Island, Virginia Huntsville, Alabama Dawsonville, Georgia Pamela D. Anthony, former student T. Neil Davis ’55, ’61 and professor Jerry Lee Kisabeth ’70, May 4, 2017, services employee, Jan. 17, 2017, emeritus, Dec. 10, 2016, Fairbanks, Alaska Edmond, Oklahoma Douglasville, Georgia (see pro le, page 36) Robert “Bill” W. Kranich ’63, May 22, 2017, Marissa Atoruk ’14, March 12, 2017, Wasilla, Norma V. Dornack ’59, March 30, 2017, Anchorage, Alaska Alaska Onalaska, Wisconsin Matthew T. Kurzawa ’60, June 24, 2017, William F. Attwood ’56, Dec. 26, 2016, Kenneth E. Dunshie ’73, Aug. 25, 2016, Panama City, Florida Houston, Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Rita T. Lane ’56, Nov. 24, 2016, Chugiak, Kenneth F. Austin ’99, Dec. 20, 2016, Gary L. Eddy ’72, Sept. 20, 2016, Juneau, Alaska Maricopa, Arizona Alaska Eugene R. Leavens ’58, June 25, 2017, Rosanne “Ro” Bailey, former Lowell J. Ellis ’71, Aug. 26, 2016, Haines, Anchorage, Alaska administrator and retired Geophysical Alaska Donald C. Leistikow, matriculate, Dec. 13, Institute employee , Nov. 2, 2016, Fairbanks, Marilyn Sue Enoka ’84, March 12, 2017, 2016, Fairbanks, Alaska Alaska North Pole, Alaska Victor H. Lemay ’91, Oct. 20, 2016, Boise, Julianne E. Baltar ’15 , Aug. 14, 2016, Ethel E. Ephamka ’98, Nov. 24, 2016, Idaho Dillingham, Alaska Anchorage, Alaska Claudia Jane Lively ’00 and former John F. Bartlett ’89 , Nov. 28, 2016, Lottie C. Fleeks, matriculate, Aug. 27, 2016, adjunct faculty member, Oct. 7, 2016, Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Roy P. Basler ’61, ’65 , Nov. 17, 2016, Menlo Yvonne M. Franklin, former HR employee, John J. Lounsbury, matriculate, Oct. 24, Park, California July 23, 2016, Fairbanks, Alaska 2016, Fairbanks, Alaska Donna Marie Baum ’80, ’92 , Oct. 2, 2016, Peter E. Galli ’51, Nov. 17, 2016, Gilbert, Kenneth C. Lowney ’61, ’73, July 7, 2016, Fairbanks, Alaska Arizona Anchorage, Alaska John W. “Jack” Bernet, professor emeritus , Frances L. Gleason ’69, Oct. 30, 2016, Garold Dean Malcolm, matriculate, Dec. 27, April 23, 2017, Fairbanks, Alaska Anchorage, Alaska 2016, Auburn, Washington Anne E. Birkholz ’71 , Dec. 31, 2016, Joe Glover ’79, April 15, 2017, North Pole, Richard H. Marlin ’79 and former Fairbanks, Alaska Alaska Geophysical Institute employee, Sept. 5, Allen D. Brandt ’04 2016, Fairbanks, Alaska , Oct. 28, 2016, North Sally V. Harris, matriculate, Oct. 20, 2016, Pole, Alaska Portland, Oregon Phillip M. McCollum ’75, ’79, Aug. 11, 2016, Marylou C. Brewer ’65 (Hon.) Lillian, Alabama , May 21, 2017, Peter J. Heppe ’87, Oct. 3, 2016, Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska Alaska Deborah A. McCorkle, matriculate, Nov. 5, Derick Wade Burleson, associate 2016, Fairbanks, Alaska Jane E. Hixon ’82, Nov. 25, 2016, Cypress, professor of English , Dec. 28, 2016, Texas Robyn B. McFetridge ’58, Jan. 14, 2017, Fairbanks, Alaska Edward L. Hoch ’88, ’91 and former GI North Pole, Alaska Margaret Cantwell ’70 , June 16, 2017, employee, Aug. 16, 2016, Juneau, Alaska Charles B. McNeil ’59, April 20, 2017, Marlboro, Massachusetts Polson, Montana Bjarne Holm ’73, Oct. 9, 2016, Anchorage, Dawn Elissa Carpenter ’13 , July 11, 2016, Alaska Nelder Medrud ’54, April 18, 2017, Boulder, Fairbanks, Alaska Colorado Joseph L. Hosch ’69, Jan. 6, 2017, Salem, Adela M. Cayous ’68 , Sept. 23, 2016, Vista, Oregon Randall Wade Miller ’96, Nov. 29, 2016, California North Bend, Washington Raymond “Lee” Hurley ’69, June 20, 2017, Jerah Chadwick ’88 and professor Juneau, Alaska Jimmy Nelson Moore ’70, July 14, 2016, emeritus, June 7, 2016, San Antonio, Texas Erica Keiko Iseri ’97, ’00 and international Temecula, California Jean Chechowski ’69 , April 1, 2017, programs employee, Sept. 4, 2016, William Mrak ’84, July 19, 2016, Palmer, Anchorage, Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Alaska Cora Cook, matriculate , Jan. 24, 2017, Mary Ann Johnson ’74, March 21, 2017, Rose Anne Murphy ’94, Aug. 21, 2016, Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Raheny, Ireland Edward M. Cox ’47 , Dec. 1, 2016, Fairbanks, Ruth M. Jones ’63, Jan. 23, 2016, St. Peter Nelson ’73, Sept. 26, 2016, Alaska Petersburg, Florida Foxborough, Massachusetts Roy Darwin Crank ’71 , Jan. 27, 2017, Michael P. Kelly ’66 and former UA regent, Anthony W. Nelson ’79, ’81, Feb. 11, 2017, Tehachapi, California Dec. 7, 2016, Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Jeri K. Croucher ’97 , Oct. 17, 2016, Stephen S. Kerner ’76, June 11, 2017, Delores K. Nerland ’57, Oct. 16, 2016, Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Chandler, Arizona Frank E. Nyman ’66, Jan. 30, 2017, Grace Berg Schaible ’49, ’91 (Hon.) and Guy L. Tarnstrom ’71, Feb. 28, 2017, Anchorage, Alaska former UA regent, June 10, 2017, Fairbanks, Chelmsford, Massachusetts Alaska Barbara C. O’Dell ’87, April 29, 2017, Bernice Betsy Tetpon ’83, ’87, ’98, Nov. 11, Fairbanks, Alaska Kristen Jean Schulz ’98, July 11, 2016, 2016, Anchorage, Alaska Seattle, Washington Douglas J. O’Neill ’77, Feb. 1, 2017, Yancey Thompson ’81, ’07, Nov. 27, 2016, Fairbanks, Alaska Robert Eugene Short ’65, March 29, 2017, Anchorage, Alaska Eustis, Florida Takeshi Ohtake, professor emeritus, Joel William Titus ’05, Sept. 2, 2016, Jan. 15, 2017, Denver, Colorado Ronald O. Skoog ’56, Sept. 20, 2016, Fairbanks, Alaska Vacaville, California Ethel Payton, matriculate, Jan 1. 2017, Norman C. Toso ’69, Dec. 5, 2016, Janesville, Kansas City, Missouri James R. Slusser ’94, Nov. 4, 2016, Fort Wisconsin Collins, Colorado Margaret Mary Peek ’55, ’57, March 20, Charles W. Tryck ’41, ’66, April 13, 2017, 2017, Boise, Idaho Earline Smith ’70, Feb. 1, 2017, Juneau, Anchorage, Alaska Deanna A. Pete, Kuskokwim Campus sta Alaska Carol Ruth Watson-Byayuk ’01 and former member, Oct. 24, 2016, Bethel, Alaska Pamela K. Sowell, retired sta member, Bristol Bay Campus employee, Feb. 3, 2017, April 6, 2017, LaGrange, Kentucky Togiak, Alaska Cynthia M. Pilot ’13, Sept. 23, 2016, Koyukuk, Alaska Robert A. Stark ’59, July 30, 2016, Miltona, Wilford F. Weeks, professor emeritus, Feb. Jim Rearden ’05 (Hon.) and former Minnesota 10, 2017, Portland, Oregon professor and department head of wildlife, Heidi M. Stark ’90, ’92, and former Human Barbara J. Weiss ’83, Aug. 19, 2016, Lacey, Feb. 18, 2017, Homer, Alaska Resources sta member, Oct. 21, 2016, Washington Fairbanks, Alaska William R. Rodenberg ’65, June 20, 2017, George C. West, professor emeritus, Aug. Murrieta, California Sherry M. Stephens ’71, Oct. 27, 2016, last 31, 2016, Green Valley, Arizona residence unknown Wilda J. Rodman Laughlin ’87, Nov. 1, 2016, D. Michael Wheat ’73, Oct. 30, 2016, Juneau, Alaska Carolyn Stevens ’71, Dec. 10, 2016, Fairbanks, Alaska Anchorage, Alaska Doris J. Saario ’55, ’63, Feb. 23, 2017, Port Justin “Scooter” Yurong, Community and Townshend, Washington Alicia Ann Stump ’61, June 19, 2017, Technical College faculty member, July 22, Westlake Village, California 2017, Fairbanks, Alaska John Ward Schae er ’04, Aug. 25, 2016, Kotzebue, Alaska John E. Swanson ’70, July 15, 2016, Anchorage, Alaska

Citations for historical photos More historical resources

Page 4, University of Alaska, General File/Vertical Page 26, Albert Johnson Photograph Collection, Books File—University of Alaska—Individuals, Accession 1905-1917, Accession number UAF-1989-166-445-neg number UAF-1958-1026-2500, Archives, Alaska glass, Archives, Alaska and Polar Regions Collections, “The College Hill Chronicles,” by T. Neil and Polar Regions Collections, Rasmuson Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks Davis, University of Alaska Press Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks Page 28 (top), Agricultural Experiment Station “The Cornerstone on College Hill,” by Terrence Page 6 (top), Earl Beistline Collection, Accession Albums, Accession number unknown, Archives, Cole, University of Alaska Press number 1985-093-616, Archives, Alaska Alaska and Polar Regions Collections, Rasmuson and Polar Regions Collections, Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks “Farthest North College President,” by William Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks Cashen, University of Alaska Foundation Page 83, University of Alaska, General File/ Page 6 (bottom), Earl Beistline Collection, Vertical File—University of Alaska—Buildings, “Rock Poker to Pay Dirt: The History of Alaska’s Accession number 1985-093-623, Archives, Accession number UAF-1958-1026-1992, Archives, School of Mines and its Successors,” by Leslie M. Alaska and Polar Regions Collections, Rasmuson Alaska and Polar Regions Collections, Rasmuson Noyes, University of Alaska Foundation Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks Films Pages 8-9, Earl Beistline Collection, Accession Page 84, Charles E. Bunnell Collection, number 1985-093-228, Archives, Alaska Accession number unknown, Archives, Alaska “Look North” (1962), Alaska Film and Polar Regions Collections, Rasmuson and Polar Regions Collections, Rasmuson Archives, call number AAF-84 Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks “Frontiers of Learning” (1957), Alaska Page 16, University of Alaska, General File/Vertical Page 86, University Relations Collection, Accession Film Archives, call number AAF-39 File—University of Alaska—General, Accession number UAF-1996-0144-01157, Archives, Alaska number UAF-1958-1026-898, Archives, Alaska and Polar Regions Collections, Rasmuson and Polar Regions Collections, Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks Page 87, University Relations Collection, Accession number unknown, Archives, Alaska and Polar Regions Collections, Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks University of Alaska Fairbanks PO Box 757505 Fairbanks, AK 99775-7505 Duplicate mailings? Update your address or change your subscription options at www.uaf.edu/aurora/subscriptions/. etnilcmeoaieiseVl 0N.1Fl 07 University of Alaska Fairbanks Fall 2017 Vol. 10 No. 1 Centennial commemorative issue

Members of Nanook Nation wear their blues and golds during the 2017 Golden Days Grande Parade in downtown Fairbanks on July 22. Judges awarded UAF’s ﬂ oat, which celebrated the university’s centennial, as the best noncommercial entry.

Thank you for celebrating with us! To help students succeed, generous alumni and friends

TM have given nearly $9 million via the Centennial Scholarships and Fellowships Initiative launched by UAF more than two years ago. (That’s $3.8 million above the typical giving rate to scholarships in that time frame!) To contribute to UAF’s next 100 years, visit www.uaf.edu/centennial/.