No 4, 2017 n $5 Chancellor Douglas Girod KU Med’s popular leader named University’s 18th chancellor n NEW ASTRONAUT n CHEESE WHIZ n A LONG WALK Contents | Issue 4, 2017 30 18 32 22 18 30 32 COVER STORY Fly High Sweet Dreams Are Made Back to School Bright Outlook Meet KU’s newest star voyager, of Cheese e Commencement walk is As a leading cancer surgeon, NASA astronaut-in-training How did cheesemonger Sara the last leg in a long journey Doug Girod learned that Loral O’Hara. Knickerbocker ace her for graduates. For one woman, putting the patient rst is good industry’s toughest test? With it was a trip decades in the medicine. Focusing foremost By Chris Lazzarino serious study and a healthy making. on the student experience as appetite for fun. chancellor, he believes, will By Cyd Silvius Alloway also bring good things to the By Steven Hill University. By Chris Lazzarino Cover photograph by Steve Puppe 22 Established in 1902 as e Graduate Magazine Volume 115, No. 4, 2017 ISSUE 4, 2017 | 1 Lift the Chorus further reection I thought A the article him too busy to bother. on Franklin Murphy in the In 1960 Dr. Murphy le to current issue of Kansas mentioned that he was become chancellor of the Alumni, I realize that we KU attending a meeting on the University of California-Los students in the 1950s did not Lawrence campus and invited Angeles, and I had no further fully appreciate the man at the me to go along for a tour. contact with him, until he helm of the University. I was invited to his luncheon returned for the dedication of Of course, I received my meeting, which Chancellor the hall named in his honor. I aerial photo of the KU campus Murphy was chairing. I don’t attended the event and stepped (diplomas came aer turning recall all those to whom I was up to congratulate him. in the cap and gown) from his introduced in addition to Dr. Knowing that about 9,000 hand, but my best memory of Murphy, but I do remember students attended KU during him is from the senior break- meeting Alumni Association his tenure, I did not expect him fast at the Kansas Union director Fred Ellsworth, c’1922, to remember me. However I Ballroom. and Joyce Hall, one of the was quite surprised when, aer Not being smokers, my Thank you, BGL founders of Hallmark. I still I introduced myself, he said roommate and I were having remember the lunch entrée “You’re from Washington, trouble lighting the traditional T on your (chipped beef), which seemed Kansas.” at he remembered corncob pipes as directed. Dr. recent issue exemplies an odd choice for such an such a detail was testimony to Murphy leaned over from the courage, dignity and grace auspicious meeting. his great abilities as a leader head table and coached us to under pressure. I did enter KU as a freshman not only at KU, but at UCLA, success. We appreciated the I was fortunate enough to in fall 1957, and over the next e Times-Mirror Co., and the personal attention from him. meet and converse with several years I occasionally many boards on which he Carol Ann Houston Chancellor Gray-Little several considered stopping in to served over his career. Schneider, j’58, times, and I was always Strong Hall to reintroduce Merlin L. Stigge, b’61 Holiday Island, Arkansas charmed. My only regret is that myself to Dr. Murphy, but on Las Cruces, New Mexico I never had the opportunity to take a class from her. ank you, Madam, for all Teaford connect, Teaford supplied the magic that you have done for the All’s well that ends well word Musser wanted to hear to confirm the ring’s University of Kansas. ownership—Arby’s—and soon his treasured KU You will be missed. leveland pharmacist John Musser on May 17 memento had returned from its wayward journey. Linda Kerby, n’70, c’87 Cwas halfway to Cincinnati, where he planned “I never take the ring o because I have a big Overland Park to help his daughter move into her new home, knuckle,” says Teaford, retired from more than 30 when he pulled o Interstate 71 for lunch at years as an ocer in the U.S. Navy. “But ice Arby’s. On a sink in the men’s room, he spied a cream had gotten on my hands, so I took it o to Personal touch ring: University of Kansas, Class of 1952, inscribed wash. I left it on the sink and forgot about it.” with the initials “SJT.” To show his gratitude for his ring’s return, T F W article in Musser found the Alumni Association online Teaford sent Musser a $50 gift card, which issue No. 3 regarding the book and, heeding his grandmother’s advice to Musser used for an anniversary dinner with his on former Chancellor Franklin “always start at the top,” he emailed President wife. D. Murphy [e Making of a Heath Peterson, d’04, g’09, seeking help to find “All’s well that ends well,” Teaford says. “And I Leader: Franklin D. Murphy, the owner. couldn’t be happier.” e Kansas Years by Nancy “The joy ‘SJT’ will have should be great,” Musser Neither could we, Sid, especially as we Kellogg Harper] brought back wrote of his quest, adding, “The joy I will have will welcome a kind and thoughtful honorary Jayhawk my own memories of him. In be great,” and, “It’s the right thing to do.” to the flock. summer 1956, I was a junior at Peterson turned to Stefanie Shackelford, vice “When I saw it was from the class of 1952, I Washington High School in president of alumni records, who found Sidney J. realized that whoever owned that ring had worn it Washington, considering Teaford, b’51, of Springfield, Virginia, in the alumni for 65 years,” Musser says. “I pictured how that college alternatives. Our family database. He appeared to be the likely owner, man must have felt when he realized it was gone, attorney, Farel Lobaugh, l’1920, despite the ring’s Class of 1952 inscription. so I wanted to do what I could to get it returned.” was an active KU alumnus and After the Association helped Musser and The right thing to do, indeed. wanted me to consider KU. He —Chris Lazzarino 2 | KANSAS ALUMNI Base: We would like to pursue your source for a quality walnut base. The base should be approximately 4.5w, x 1.25 h, x 2. July 2017 8 Publisher Heath Peterson, d’04, g’09 Editor Jennifer Jackson Sanner, j’81 2 Lift the Chorus Creative Director Susan Younger, f’91 Letters from our readers Associate Editors Chris Lazzarino, j’86 Steven Hill 5 First Word Photographers Steve Puppe, j’98 e editor’s turn Dan Storey Graphic Designer Valerie Spicher, j’94 6 On the Boulevard Sta Writer Heather Biele KU & Alumni Association events Advertising Sales Representative 8 Jayhawk Walk Teri Harris A concrete canoe, a retruck trainer, a phishy email and more Editorial and Advertising Oce KU Alumni Association 1266 Oread Avenue 10 Hilltopics Lawrence, KS 66045-3169 News and notes: Historian records international 785-864-4760 student experience; new deans take the helm. 800-584-2957 www.kualumni.org [email protected] 16 Sports Four Jayhawks win track and eld bronze at KANSAS ALUMNI MAGAZINE (ISSN 0745-3345) is published by the KU Alumni Association six times a year in January, March, May, July, NCAAs; football sets sights on fall resurgence. September and November. $55 annual subscription includes member- ship in the Alumni Association. O¡ce of Publication: 1266 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-3169. Periodicals postage paid at 36 Association News Lawrence, KS. Ellsworth winners recognized; board welcomes POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Kansas Alumni Magazine, 1266 new members. Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-3169 © 2017 by Kansas Alumni Magazine. Non-member issue price: $7 42 Class Notes Proles of a fourth-generation doctor, a St. Louis sportswriter, a TV marketer and more Letters to the Editor: 60 In Memory Kansas Alumni welcomes letters to the editor. Our Deaths in the KU family address is Kansas Alumni magazine, 1266 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-3169. Email responses may be sent to 64 Rock Chalk Review the Alumni Association, [email protected]. New work from pianist Steven Spooner and novel- Letters appearing in the magazine may be edited for space ist James Gunn; boot camp for humanities majors. and clarity. For letters published, we’ll send a free gift of KU Campus Playing Cards, a $5 value. 68 Glorious to View Scene on campus ISSUE 4, 2017 | 3 by Jennifer Jackson Sanner First Word UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES COURTESY SCOTT SEYFARTH SCOTT COURTESY Scott Seyfarth (center above), organized the “Bathrobes and Baseball Caps” graduation procession (left) in December 1983, with the help of Jim and Diane Mielke. This year, the three reunited when Seyfarth greeted the Class of 2017 as the Association’s national chair. s Scott Seyfarth, the Alumni Association’s 2016-’17 national the faculty, and he and Robinson wore academic gowns, adding a A chair, welcomed the Class of 2017 to the KU alumni family touch of class and credibility to the ragtag march. May 14, he couldn’t help but exult in his own unlikely journey Years later, Seyfarth was delighted to learn that as KU’s from Commencement desperado to dignitary. national alumni leader, he would continue the tradition of His rst walk down the Hill was far from regal.