Flying cameras | Words in war | Sowing harmony Spring 2014 A daughter’s dedication to her father For alumni and friends of the University of Alaska Fairbanks EDITOR’S NOTE Birthdays. Children love them, but as we get older some of us wish to deny their existence. For a university, the older it gets the more we wish to celebrate. UAF is coming up on its 100th — yes, 100th — birthday in 2017. There are milestones to acknowledge along the way, such as the 100th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone in 2015. An institution’s centennial is almost always a drawn-out a air intended to generate lots of excitement and nostalgia. UAF’s will be no di erent. To start things rolling, we are going to include in Aurora more history, more alumni interviews, more archival photos, and more trivia and tidbits about our university’s journey to 100. Some of our alumni and friends are coming to the party bearing gifts — Professor Terrence Cole, ’76, ’78, is updating his book, The Cornerstone on College Hill, with the UA Press. Regent Jo Heckman is planning a book about our collective memories of Wood Center. She would love to include yours. Visit www.uaf.edu/woodcenterbook/ to share. There will be more we’ll tell you about soon. We hope you enjoy reading about UAF’s history over the next few years as much as we’ll enjoy digging through the archives to fi nd those treasures to share with you. Celebrate UAF’s centennial with us! Kim Davis, managing editor “Margaret Thomas (now Mrs. O. J. Murie), second year graduate, and fi rst girl to have the honor of an Alaska degree.” When the anonymous writer of this caption described the diploma-bearing Mardy Murie in , the “girl” was just embarking on the adventures and environmental activism for which she would receive national awards and an honorary degree from UAF. The new life sciences facility on the Fairbanks campus was named the Margaret Murie Building in to commemorate her life and work. UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS AURORA ADVISORY BOARD AURORA MAGAZINE Produced by Marketing and Communications. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily refl ect o cial positions of the CHANCELLOR Joan Braddock, ’, ’, ’ MANAGING EDITOR University of Alaska Fairbanks. Brian Rogers Mike Campbell, ’, ’ Kim Davis Send comments or letters to the editor to [email protected] VICE CHANCELLOR FOR Amber Darland Jordan, ’ CREATIVE DIRECTOR or to PO Box , Fairbanks, AK , or call --. We UNIVERSITY AND STUDENT David Marusek Darcy Harrod, ’ reserve the right to edit for grammar and length. Visit us on the web at ADVANCEMENT Paul Reichardt www.uaf.edu/aurora/. Mike Sfraga, ’, ’ Lorna Shaw, ’, ’ EDITORS Sam Bishop The University of Alaska Fairbanks is accredited by the Northwest DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Peggy Shumaker Tori Tragis, ’, ’ Commission on Colleges and Universities. UAF is an a rmative action/ AND COMMUNICATIONS equal opportunity employer and educational institution. Michelle Renfrew, ’ DESIGNERS Darcy Harrod, ’ UAF photos by Todd Paris unless otherwise noted. Class notes photos provided by alumni unless otherwise noted. / Venus Sung, ’ Andrea Swingley PHOTO MANAGER Todd Paris, ’ WEB DESIGNERS Jenn Baker, ’ Charles E. Bunnell Collection, --, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Sherrie Roberts, ’ Volume 6 No. 2 Published twice a year for alumni and friends of the aurora University of Alaska Fairbanks Running down a dream Iraq and back again: A Fobbit’s By Maureen Sullivan tale By Frank Soos Many students take a break Literary success is elusive. Soldier- from school. Kelly Carr took scribe David Abrams, ’04, thought time o to run halfway across a major magazine piece was his breakthrough. en a book deal fell Alaska to raise research funds in apart. en came Iraq. honor of her father, diagnosed In plane sight with terminal cancer. By Amanda Bohman Unmanned aircra are changing the way we count wildlife, monitor volcanoes, map roads and see the world. Sound a ects Story and photos by Todd Paris A virtuoso musician with one goal: Show at-risk kids the beauty in every breath they take. Then again: Ed Ruckstuhl, ’ Interview with Ed Ruckstuhl, ’63. “My rst challenge was learning how to walk [on snow] wearing leather shoes. e solution: row the leather shoes 10 away.” Departments Briefl y On the shelf 18 Full Frame Social connections Class notes/In memoriam Nanook Nook spring 2014 | www.uaf.edu/aurora/ 1 BRIEFLY New-found Follow “Arctic Odyssey: Voyages of the R/V Sikuliaq,” coming to the UA Museum of the North in May 2014. http://arcticodyssey.wordpress.com old insect A strange insect collected The researchers named the by graduate student Jill species Caurinus tlagu for the Stockbridge during her thesis Tlingit tribes that have lived research on Prince of Wales on the northern half of Prince Island is a newly discov- Dinos on the Yukon ered species of snow scorpionfl y. Derek Sikes, UA Museum of the North curator of insects, Photo by Jill Stockbridge. said it belongs to an enigmatic group that might help scientists 2 mm understand the evolu- tionary origin of fl eas. of Wales Island for thou- Stockbridge got stuck sands of years. “The word when she tried to identify the tlagu means ancient, which tiny, fl ea-like insects she’d we thought was appropriate found. She turned to her since this creature has been thesis advisor, Sikes, who was around since the Jurassic,” equally ba ed. He posted a Stockbridge said. Fossil evi- dence indicates the scorpionfl y belongs to a group that dates Hind footprint of an ornithopod. The exact back more than 145 species of this type of herbivorous dinosaur has million years. not yet been determined. The 2-millimeter- long animals Photo by Joey Slowick. are members of the insect order Mecoptera, which includes the scorpi- onfl ies, hangingfl ies Jill Stockbridge and Derek Sikes, on Prince of Wales Island. and snow scorpion- fl ies. Although their digital photo on Facebook to mouthparts look like those see if any of his entomologist of a predator, they feed friends could o er an opin- on a leafy liverwort found ion. Most of the suggestions in coastal forests rather were wrong, but one scientist, than sucking blood like Michael Ivie, recognized that fl eas. However, they hop the specimen belonged to like fl eas, are the size and the genus Caurinus, of which color of fl eas, and even only one species was previ- have the same shape when The four units of the Sustainable Village are the newest ously known. viewed from the side. addition to student housing options on the Fairbanks campus. The homes use state-of-the-art energy-saving materials and utilities, and provide data for possible future uses through Alaska. 2 aurora | spring 2014 Follow “Arctic Odyssey: Voyages of the R/V Sikuliaq,” coming to the UA Museum of the North in May 2014. http://arcticodyssey.wordpress.com If you’re ever on the Yukon, kind of discovery you would Druckenmiller said, “evi- keep an eye out for dino- have expected in the Lower dence of an extinct saurs, or at least what they 48 a hundred years ago.” ecosystem we never knew left behind: footprints. A lot The specimens date to existed.” of them. about 90–100 million years The museum is working Researchers from ago, the middle of the Creta- with villages and Native Extra the UA Museum ceous Period, making them corporations along the Yukon of the North found about 35 million years older River to share information helpings a major new site than those from other well- about the discovery with for dinosaur fossils known sites around Alaska. local communities and to Some students are hungry in Alaska along the The footprints are natural coordinate future exploration. for more than knowledge. Yukon River last casts, formed when They’re hungry for food. summer. About 2,000 sand fi lled in the foot- Social work major Juan Cruz pounds of dinosaur print after the dinosaur read a national news story footprints were added stepped in mud. about students not getting to the museum’s col- “These are not negative the proper nutrition because Photo by Roger Topp. Photo by Pat Druckenmiller. lection, according to impressions,” Druck- they were paying bills for earth sciences curator enmiller said. “Rather school or other things. He Pat Druckenmiller. they stick out from the started asking questions at “There aren’t many rock and sometimes student-centered o ces places left in the look like blobs with toes.” at UAF. “Everybody had Katherine Anderson, Meg world where paleon- Those blobs were left O’Connor and Julie Rousseau the same reaction,” he said. tologists can just go by dinosaurs big and small, wrap aluminum foil around “They all know somebody out and fi nd thousands of meat-eaters and plant-eaters. tracks for safe transport to the who needs food.” dinosaur footprints,” Druck- “We found a great diver- museum while Druckenmiller The Fairbanks Community enmiller said. “This is the sity of dinosaur types,” makes fi eld notes about the Food Bank told him the same fossils. thing, that many clients there are UAF students. “I thought, why not open Green houses get good grades a pantry right here at the university, so they don’t have to go that far for food.” The The Sustainable Village, UAF’s newest energy-e ciency standards uses about pantry, tucked away by the student housing complex, lived up 660 gallons a year. Even the biggest pool tables in Wood Center, to its name in its fi rst year. The four energy user at the village used only 463 is open two days a week.