THE MAGAZINE OF OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY Spring 2018 ARTAPPRECIATION 8 Ross on campus 16 Managing 20 NCAA champs 22 Groundbreaking and online billions 30 years later surgery career Nate Axelrod ’18 was awarded the Jostens Trophy as the nation’s most outstanding NCAA Division III men’s basketball player on March 15 (pictured, with Coach Mike DeWitt), the first OWU player to receive the honor. The trophy recognizes a student-athlete who excels on the court, in the classroom, and in the community. Axelrod, a point guard, was also named North Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Year for the third year in a row, making him the first men’s basketball player in conference history to be so honored. To read more about Axelrod, visit owu.edu. 8 16 22 Features 8 Ross is boss With new efforts to draw in students and faculty, and digitization of the nearly 3,000 piece collection online, the Richard M. Ross Art Museum is sharing its art-for-all sensibility with campus and the community. 10 MoMA, Whitney, OWU Photographer JoAnn Verburg ’72 brings her art back to OWU for a solo show at the Ross. 16 Mr. Money Jeff Erdmann ’85 is rated the top money manager in the country by Forbes. A look at the man who manages billions (yes, with a “b”). 22 Noteworthy surgeon The medical career of Dr. Larry Hill ’57 went from battlefield saves in Vietnam into history when he separated conjoined twins in 1986 at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Departments 02 LEADER’S LETTER 2o BISHOP BATTLES 28 REGIONAL CAMPAIGN KICKOFFS 04 FROM THE JAYWALK 2o GIFTS AND GRATITUDE 29 CALENDAR 06 CLASS ACTS 24 ALUMNI PROFILES 30 CLASS NOTES 07 OWU TIMESCAPES 26 FACULTY NOTES 48 THE FINAL WORD ON THE COVER: Photo illustration by Walker Design 2 | OWU Leader’s Letter ART IS VITAL TO DEMOCRACY AND LIFE hen I reflect on my student also was important to me, as was serving is a medical student at Georgetown. For W experience on the campus of a as president of the choir for two of those them, as for me, music is an avocation. small liberal arts college, I think about years. Many of my closest college friends Melissa and I regularly attend my major in history, the impact of faculty were choir mates. We rehearsed three productions in Chappelear Drama in a variety of disciplines, three years times a week, learned a wide range of Center. Most recently we enjoyed a as a resident assistant, participation choral music, toured twice a year, and riveting performance of Royal Gambit, a in student government, and a three- traveled to Europe for a month, my first play centered on the wives of Henry VIII time to travel abroad. (and, of course, the king himself). Cast I think often of my choir experience members included theatre majors with when I contemplate the ideal college promising future careers on and near the experience today. Robust participation stage, and students majoring in other in co-curricular programs is an important disciplines who value the opportunity to educational complement to the academic participate in the theatre. Vocation, and experience. Participation in the arts avocation. can both enrich the college experience One of the highlights for me each and provide preparation for important year is the senior art show, a juried vocational and avocational experiences exhibit of work created by our senior that enrich all of life. fine arts students and shown at the Ross At Ohio Wesleyan, I see the benefit Art Museum. Each year the opening of student participation in the arts, fills the museum as fellow students, both through the experiences of those faculty, family members, and people who major in the arts and those for from the community marvel at the whom the arts provide co-curricular creative ingenuity of OWU students. I opportunities. Our music ensembles, regularly am overwhelmed by the range theatre productions, and student art and quality of work presented by our exhibits all provide a glimpse into the students. work our students accomplish in the arts. Nothing is more important to a I experienced this firsthand a few years healthy and vibrant democracy than ago when Professor Jason Hiester invited a commitment to and appreciation of me to sing with the OWU Choral Arts artistic creativity. The arts, whether Society for a semester. My section leader experienced from on the stage or from was a music major who now teaches a seat in the auditorium, at work in the music in California. Music is her vocation. studio or by viewing in the gallery, enrich In the baritone section, I took my place individual human life and strengthen the between a student who now teaches fabric of our society. The arts provide high school history and another who now a venue for the expression of human President Rock Jones talks to Andy Cumston ’16, a fine arts major with a concentration in sculpture who exhibited his work in the senior art show in the Ross Art Museum in April 2016. THE ARTS PROVIDE AN OUTLET FOR CREATIVE EXPRESSION (Photo by: Spenser Hickey ’15) THAT TESTS THE LIMITS OF HUMAN UNDERSTANDING, week volunteer experience in a Navajo THAT STRETCHES THE BOUNDARIES OF HUMAN community, where I met a fellow student, EXPERIENCE, AND THAT CONFRONTS THE REALITIES now my wife, Melissa Lollar. Though I was not a music major, the opportunity OF THOSE PARTS OF OUR SHARED JOURNEY THAT ARE to sing in a college choir for four years INHUMANE AND UNJUST. Leader’s Letter THE MAGAZINE OF OHIO ART IS VITAL TO DEMOCRACY AND LIFE WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY emotions in all of their forms – raw, University and to engage all disciplines sublime, brutal, beautiful, evocative, and on campus with the museum. In this serene. The arts provide an outlet for issue of the magazine, we share the creative expression that tests the limits story of those efforts. As you read about SPRING 2018 | Volume 95 Issue N0. 1 of human understanding, that stretches the Ross, I invite you to think about the the boundaries of human experience, impact of the arts on your life, about the www.owu.edu/alumni Ohio Wesleyan Alumni Online Community and that confronts the realities of those place of the arts in the curricular and co- parts of our shared journey that are curricular experiences of our students, Vice President for University Advancement inhumane and unjust. Engagement with and about the many ways in which our Colleen Garland the arts is fundamental to the experience society is enriched by artistic creativity. Chief Communications Officer of being fully human. Thus, engagement I invite you to contemplate your own Will Kopp with the arts is fundamental to the values vocation, or avocation, with the arts. Editor of a liberal arts education. Vocation, and Molly Vogel avocation. [email protected] Recently, the Ross Art Museum Director of Alumni Relations advisory board adopted a strategic plan Katie Webster Rock Jones designed to more fully align the museum President, Ohio Wesleyan University Class Notes Editor with the strategic objectives of the Twitter: @owu_rockjones Amanda Zechiel-Keiber ’09 [email protected] Editorial Assistant Anna L. Davies ’19 Copy Editor Andrew Sterling Designer Walker Design & Marketing Contributing Photographers Sara Blake, James DeCamp, Mark Schmitter ’12, Paul Vernon, Reilly Wright ’20 Contributing Writers Anna L. Davies ’19, Cole Hatcher, Molly Vogel Editorial Board Dale Brugh, Mike Plantholt, Eugene Rutigliano, Nancy Bihl Rutkowski, Doug Zipp Office of University Communications (740) 368-3335 Alumni Relations Office Ohio Wesleyan University’s Department of Theatre and Dance presented Royal Gambit, by (740) 368-3325 [email protected] Hermann Gressieker in February. Daniel Haygood ’18, as King Henry VIII, is surrounded by his six wives, portrayed by Rose Jonesco ’20 (clockwise from lower left), Doris Ottman ’18, Website: www.owu.edu Anna McReynolds ’21, Emma Antal ’20, Kacie Iuvara ’18, and Nyjah Cephas ’21. OWU Magazine: owu.edu/magazine (Photo by Josh W. Martin ’20) The Ohio Wesleyan Magazine ISSN 0030-1221 Share Email us at OWU Magazine Letters may your [email protected], Office of Communications be edited for Printed on recycled paper opinions. tweet to @OhioWesleyan 61 S. Sandusky St. length and or send us a letter: Delaware, OH 43015 clarity. Corrections: The names of Kevin Paskvan, director of financial aid, and Thomson Hall were misspelled in the Winter 2018 issue. We regret the errors. 4 | OWU From the JAYwalk From the JAYwalk OWU named a best ‘bang for your buck’ The Princeton Review has named Ohio Wesleyan University one of “The 200 Schools That Give You the Best Bang for Your Tuition Buck” in the new book Colleges That Pay You Back: 2018 Edition (Penguin Random House/ Princeton Review Books), based on an analysis of more than 40 factors at hundreds of U.S. colleges and universities. Robert Franek, the Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief and book’s lead author, said the schools selected: “stand out for their outstanding academics and their affordability via generous financial aid to students with need and/or comparatively low sticker prices. Students at these colleges also have access to extraordinary career services from their freshman year on, plus a A flamboyance of flamingos lifetime of valuable alumni support.” Members of the Senior Class Council surprised campus with a According to Ohio Wesleyan’s listing in the book, OWU “strives colorful display in front of the Mowry Alumni Center on Feb. 26, to prepare (its) students with the necessary experience to be putting up one flamingo for every senior class gift made to that point.