DISPATCHES

Teaching the Teachers A new program seeks to expand access to in-demand languages.

Like the 1957 launch cational system, and of Sputnik, the Soviet JEFF MILLER teaching across dif- space satellite that ferent cultures. UW- sparked renewed Madison faculty will emphasis on math and lead the courses, and science, the terrorist participants will experi- attacks of September ence class simulations, 11, 2001, have become complete videotape a wake-up call for analyses, and post and American educators. share their ideas with Responding to a need other students on discus- for greater understand- sion boards. Any fluent ing of world cultures, speaker of a less com- schools are ramping up monly taught language curricula in languages will be eligible to enroll. such as Arabic. Magnan says native “It’s really an speakers represent a key awakening of the defi- resource in helping meet cit in our culture,” says the booming demand for Antonia Schleicher, instruction in languages $363,500 a UW professor of Afri- such as Arabic, and the Money raised to benefit the can languages and lit- goal of the program is new UW Children’s Hospital erature and executive to help them succeed in by auctioning off forty-four director of the National passing along those skills decorated cows, which were Council of Less Com- to American students. prominently installed around monly Taught Lan- “A lot of these Madison as part of the guages (NCLCTL). “You [instructors] just came CowParade Wisconsin need language ... to from these countries,” exhibit during 2006. be able to understand she says. “They don’t the thinking of people. know how the American Language is the win- educational system works. dow to any culture.” It’s very important to But in many cases, help these new teachers the problem now isn’t understand the situation demand — it’s keep- in which they’re working ing up with it. Even at and what these American UW-Madison, home to students are like.” an extensive variety of But the real payoff language programs, may be in increasing the departments have at times strug- To deal with this dilemma, number of opportunities Ameri- gled to find instructors able to Magnan and Schleicher are join- cans have to learn languages that teach Arabic and other languages ing forces in an effort to train are becoming increasingly impor- that aren’t widely taught in the more people to teach these less tant to the country’s economic and United States. This past fall, the commonly taught languages. political future, she says. university had to cancel an Ara- The Language Institute and the “I think sometimes people bic course for lack of a qualified NCLCTL plan to launch an online just don’t realize the possible teacher. training program designed impacts of certain languages “There may be the need, to help native speakers of before they get more familiar there may be the desire to do a languages such as Arabic learn with them,” says Magnan. “The language, but if we can’t get a how to be effective teachers. more remote it is, in a sense, the good teacher, [we’re] not going Expected to be offered by more important it is, because to deliver a good course,” says 2009, the training program will many Americans don’t speak it, Sally Sieloff Magnan, direc- include four courses, covering and therefore, we have more tor of UW-Madison’s Language the fundamentals of language misunderstanding.” Institute. instruction, the American edu — Elli Thompson x’08

10 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES

Cheney, Feingold Agree on Value of UW Poli Sci

Despite different views on many KIM KULISH/GETTY IMAGES Other notable UW alumni, issues, some leading politicians including Roberta Draper ’55, from both ends of the political producer of congressional news spectrum have agreed on at at NBC, and Ron Bonjean ’93, least one thing: a UW-Madison press secretary to former U.S. political science degree is instru- House Speaker Dennis Hastert, mental in their lives and public CHIP SOMODEVILLA/CORBIS offered similar perspectives in service careers. Cheney Feingold the newsletter, which is posted Several well-known political at www.polisci.wisc.edu/. science graduates, including Vice all but a dissertation while “The education we offer President Dick Cheney PhDx’68, studying for his doctorate at is valued by both liberals and a Republican, and Democratic UW-Madison in the 1960s. conservatives, both Republicans U.S. Senator Russ Feingold Feingold, who has served and Democrats,” says Graham ’75, contributed brief essays for Wisconsin in the Senate since Wilson, professor of political the department’s alumni news- 1993, wrote that excellent fac- science and department chair. letter, focusing on what their ulty have given the department “These essays demonstrate UW-Madison education means its strong reputation. how students over the years to them. “The debates and conversa- have used their political science “I can draw a straight line tions I had in class more than educations as a springboard to from my decision to study at the thirty years ago still come back public service, and how their University of Wisconsin to the to me, and they still help guide knowledge has transformed career in public service that I’ve my decisions as the Senate delib- public policy and public dialogue found so deeply rewarding,” erates both domestic issues and in very meaningful ways.” “What kept me going was the wrote Cheney, who completed foreign policy,” he wrote. — Dennis Chaptman ’80 ‘You can do it’ that was whis- pered and implanted by my mother so deeply that it turned into ‘I can do it’ — a whisper that Q and A this one cheese, and echoed deeply within myself.” Mark Johnson we looked at it, and MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART A senior scientist at UW-Madison’s Center for something was not — Florence Chenoweth MA’70, Dairy Research, Mark Johnson spends much of right. We put it in our PhD’86, the United Nations Food his time researching ways to create better-quality mouths and almost and Agriculture Organization’s Wisconsin cheese. For many years, he has served immediately we both representative to the U.N. General as a judge at both the U.S. and the world cham- just spat it out. Assembly, speaking at the UW’s pionship cheese contests. 2006 commencement ceremonies, Q: What about the at which she received an honorary Q: Have you always liked cheese? best experience? degree. She returns to campus this A: When I was a little kid, we had a cheese fac- A: I was judging fla- semester as a Distinguished Inter- tory in town, and the owners were good friends vored cream cheeses, national Visitor. of ours. They would have cheese fondues or and there was one [that] just melted in your serve a lot of cheese when we’d go over to their mouth. I didn’t realize I was doing this, but I kept house, and I hated the smell. I didn’t want to coming back and re-sampling it. Somebody came eat that stuff! I never really tasted it until I came over, and he was watching me do this, and he said, here. I started becoming more adventuresome. “Why don’t you just take a tub of it home?”

Q: What goes into the cheese-judging Q: Do you ever get sick from trying so many process? cheeses in one day? A: The first thing we do is look at appearance — and A: You never eat it. You’re putting it in your then we cut it open. You smell it and see if you can mouth and then spitting it out. The first time I pick up any flavors that are atypical. But most of ever judged, I actually ate it. By the end of the [the judging] comes from when you put it in your day, I was so stuffed. Now I realize you have to mouth. What we look for is what the body and spit it out or you can’t get through the day. texture of the cheese is — how firm it is, whether it kind of melts in your mouth — and then the tasting. Q: Where do you think the best cheese is from? A: I gotta say our cheese makers [in Wisconsin] Q: What is the worst experience you’ve had — I’ve never tasted any better. I’ve judged their judging cheese? cheeses, and I know I like them. I prefer Wisconsin A: [A judging partner and I] both took a wedge of cheeses. There’s nothing that I like that I can’t get here.

SPRING 2007 11 DISPATCHES

Housing for Kindred Spirits The Ewing Marion Kauffman A new private residence follows a trend toward faith-based living. Foundation has named UW- Madison one of nine “Kauffman Campuses,” granting the university $5 million to help train students in the principles and practices of entrepreneurship and spur greater research commercializa- tion statewide. The plan calls for a number of new student education initiatives, including the development of a residential

learning community focused SPENCER WALTS on entrepreneurship and the establishment of new courses in the field. The initiative will also work closely with the future Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery It’s not always easy for students growth in alternative housing, open to students of all faiths. by establishing internships for to make college a home away the Pres House, a Christian “It’s sort of a movement undergraduate and graduate from home. To assist with that organization on campus, will to make universities smaller by students interested in research transition — and to enhance a open a seven-story hall in fall getting students to live together commercialization and technol- student’s campus experience — 2007. Just off Library Mall, the around themes,” Elsdon says. ogy transfer, creating a seed many universities have created residence will become the first “The idea here is to create a grant program for translational alternatives to the typical resi- on campus devoted to a religious spiritual learning community research, fostering community dence-hall lifestyle, allowing theme. that encourages and helps to and business outreach activities, students to live in communities Planning for the hall began explore faith questions.” and developing an entrepreneurial united by curricular themes five years ago, when the orga- The hall will house 280 law clinic. or interests. At UW-Madison, nization sensed a trend toward students in fifty-one suite-style students can choose to live in themed living and an increase units. Each unit will include a UW students voted “yes” in a University Housing learning in spiritual interest among kitchen, living room, bathroom, fall election to renovate and communities that center on students, says Mark Elsdon, and a balcony. Pres House will upgrade Wisconsin Union topics such as women in science co-pastor and executive direc- have restrictions on alcohol facilities. The initiative aims to or a foreign language. tor of Pres House. Although the similar to those in effect in improve many aspects of the Now, private residences are hall will be run by the Christian university residence halls. Memorial Union, including joining the trend. Seizing on the organization, its doors will be — Elli Thompson x’08 developing accessibility and bringing fire and safety condi- tions up to code. The passage Bearing Down director of planning and land- DAVID CAPPAERT also approves constructing a on a Beetle scape architecture. new, environmentally sustainable Based on their location and south-campus union. Students UW-Madison officials are tak- poor health status, about 160 will pay an additional $48 per ing a proactive approach to of the approximately 550 ash semester for two years starting an aggressive, wood-boring trees on the developed campus in fall 2007 and thereafter $98 insect by gradually removing have been removed so far. The per semester for no more than and replacing many campus ash remaining trees will be desig- thirty years to help fund the trees. Although the emerald nated as “detection trees” and tree pruners and volunteers project. ash borer, which is native to monitored closely until fall, have begun scouting for the China and eastern Asia, has when they will be removed; ash borer. Habitat International presented yet to be found in Wisconsin, selected for preservation and “In order to be success- the UW chapter of Habitat it has been detected in several chemically treated to protect ful, we have to be watchful for Humanity with the orga- Midwestern states. them from the pest; removed and proactive,” says Brown. nization’s inaugural Campus “We hope to gradually for construction activity; or “Although the removal of ash Chapter of the Year award. UW remove many of the ash trees handled in partnership with the trees will change the campus Habitat received the honor for on the developed parts of city of Madison. landscape, we hope the diverse its service during the 2005–06 campus and replace them with Information will be posted new plantings will provide an academic year. more diverse varieties of trees around campus and at the equally attractive setting for before the beetle is found entrances to Frautschi Point many years to come.” here,” says Gary Brown, and Picnic Point, and campus — Dennis Chaptman ’80

12 ON WISCONSIN ARTS & CULTURE

Hot Pictures Science and art combine to illustrate the effects of global warming. JAMIE YOUNG

Above: The artists, scientists, and teachers who created the Paradise Lost? project pose in Wisconsin’s north woods. Left: artist Helen Klebesadel paints an image of lost winter.

An old joke holds that, though prominent, complex issue of at the exhibition. A watercolor everyone talks about the the state’s changing weather. made by Madison-area art- weather, nobody ever does “This is a mission-oriented ist Helen Klebesadel ’86, anything about it. But looking project,” explains forest ecol- MFA’89 is just one example. at the prospect of climate ogy professor David Mlade- She painted an image of ice change in Wisconsin’s north noff ’73, MS’79, PhD’85, who breaking up on a frozen lake. “This painting is about the WOLFGANG HOFFMANN woods, a group of artists, scientists, shared his scientific expertise and educators is hoping to change with the group. “Our goal is loss of winter,” says Klebesadel. the punch line. Together, they to communicate the effects of “In the ice, I embedded things developed an ambitious art climate change through art.” that we are going to lose as a con- exhibition that delves into this The exhibition, titled Paradise sequence of the climate warming Lost? Climate Change in the North up. I researched what species are Woods, features an eclectic array likely to move north, so we’ll likely of art commissioned specifically lose them here in Wisconsin.” She Small Arms, Big Wounds for the project, up-to-date infor- included spruce trees, lake trout, mation about the expected effects whitefish, moose, and the Karner When wars erupt, history often records MICHAELKIENITZ.COM of climate change in the Lake blue butterfly, whose eggs are the winners and losers — the political protected by snow. Superior region, and ideas for leaders and soldiers whose efforts shape The underlying goal of the curbing greenhouse gas emissions. events and policies. But for photographer exhibition, funded by the Ira It will tour in Wisconsin and Michi- Michael Kienitz ’74, the real story of and Ineva Baldwin Wisconsin gan during the next year, and conflict is shown in those whose lives are Idea Endowment and the Wis- it includes a sizable paludarium shaped by events. consin Arts Board, goes beyond — a living, indoor bog. “I’m fascinated with how children educating its visitors, says project It all started in spring 2006, cope with political situations dictated by director Dolly Ledin MS’88 of when the exhibition team con- adults,” he says. “Their lives come with a the Center for Biology Education. vened for a three-day retreat to lot of turmoil, and that makes them both “We hope to inspire public exchange scientific information young and elderly at the same time.” involvement and offer individuals and artistic ideas. There, Mlade- A former staff photographer for the options to reduce greenhouse noff shared his research findings UW’s news service, Kienitz spent twenty- In Pakistan, Kienitz found gas emissions,” says Ledin. eight years traveling around the globe, a child dressed as a min- that suggest that, due to rising The exhibition debuted in seeking out hot spots to photograph for iature field marshal. temperatures during the next Rhinelander in February, and in news magazines. During that time, he century, many native Wisconsin 2007 it will make tour stops in took haunting photos of the children of war and civil unrest. Those tree species will likely migrate Ironwood and Calumet, Michigan, pictures will be on display at the UW’s Chazen Museum of Art this northward — into the traditionally and in Ashland, Manitowish fall in an exhibit titled Small Arms: Children of Conflict. colder climes of Canada — to stay Waters, and Wausau, Wisconsin, Even while preparing the exhibit, Kienitz continues to expand it. in their climatic comfort zones. before concluding in Madison in Currently, he’s working to find the children he photographed decades Educational materials based 2008. For a full itinerary, see the ago so that he can take their pictures again and continue to tell their on research by Mladenoff and exhibition’s Web site at www.wisc. stories. “I’m anxious to see how their lives turned out,” he says. other university experts will edu/cbe/K12/paradiselost.html. — John Allen supplement the artwork featured — Nicole Miller MA’06

16 ON WISCONSIN RESEARCH

When the Eyes Have It UW profs find that exercise counters age-related vision loss.

Physical activity was also linked FREDRIK S./ STOCK.XCHNG to lower blood pressure, a lower rate of obesity, and lower white blood cell counts — all factors known to be associated with the condition. “Of course, being physically active is very important in prevent- ing cardiovascular disease,” Ron Klein says, “so it’s a no-brainer to recommend physical activity.” The Beaver Dam study is extraordinary because of its size and scale. Nearly one-third of the town’s population participated in the project, which was funded A fifteen-year study with residents of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, points by the National Eye Institute. to another benefit of regular physical activity. Beyond AMD, the long-term eval- uations are helping researchers If you’re looking for an excuse trials, it doesn’t prove a cause- understand the factors that to renew your gym membership, and-effect relationship between contribute to age-related eye try this one on for size — a healthy exercise and AMD. But the cor- conditions such as cataracts and lifestyle could protect your eyesight relation is striking. The Kleins glaucoma. There are no known in old age. found that participants who cures for these conditions, which Ron and Barbara Klein, a exercised at least three times affect millions of people in the husband-and-wife ophthalmology per week were 70 percent less United States each year. research team at the UW’s School likely to develop wet AMD. — Erin Hueffner ’00 of Medicine and Public Health, have found that people who exercise regularly aren’t as likely Jogging the Memory JEFF MILLER to develop the “wet” form of age- related macular degeneration While everyone knows the proverbial fly prefers (AMD), a debilitating condition honey to vinegar, Jerry Yin PhD’86 wants to in which leaky blood vessels in know how it remembers which smell it favors. the eye eventually cause severe Yin, a UW-Madison genetics and psychiatry vision loss. Although wet AMD professor, uses fly olfactory memory to study the is linked to cardiovascular health, genetics of learning and memory. He trains fruit the Kleins were the first to investi- flies to associate a specific odor with a mild but gate the long-term role of exercise unpleasant electric shock, then tests them later to in the onset of the disease. see how well they remember to avoid that odor. They did so by enlisting After a few hours of training, typical flies retain nearly five thousand residents the connection for about ten days. of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, to To unravel the memory mechanisms at work participate in a fifteen-year in the flies, Yin and his colleagues have identified medical study. Every five years some of the proteins in the neural circuits that are beginning in 1987, local doctors responsible for creating and retaining memories. measured patients’ height and By blocking or turning on specific genes, Yin can program forgetful flies or give them a memory weight, took photos of their In Jerry Yin’s lab, an anesthetized fruit fly is examined retinas, conducted blood tests, boost. under a microscope for visible characteristics, such as and issued a health questionnaire. Why should we care about amnesiac insects? eye color, that mark insects genetically engineered to “The physicians, town leaders, Many of the proteins involved in flies are likely also have weakened or enhanced memory circuits. optometrists, and ophthalmologists important for learning and memory in humans, were all very supportive,” says Yin says. For example, he is currently studying impairment. He expects ongoing research may Ron Klein. proteins similar to the one whose absence causes reveal similar mechanisms underlying problems as Because the Beaver Dam human fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder char- diverse as autism and addiction. study didn’t involve clinical acterized by learning disabilities and cognitive — Jill Sakai PhD’06

SPRING 2007 13 RESEARCH

Seeds of a Growing Partnership Researchers cultivate corn and cooperation with Oneida farmers.

On a fall day last year, huge from UW-Madison’s Baldwin some of the corn to Madison. braids of corncobs hung from Wisconsin Idea Endowment to To foster stronger relation- the beams of a barn in central help remedy the situation. “If ships and accomplish the edu- Wisconsin. Each ear shone it didn’t benefit [the Oneida], cational aspect of their project, bright white, with only an there was no benefit for me to the researchers focused some of occasional streak of color — a do it,” he says. their efforts on a children’s gar- striking portrait not only of a The project has been both den at the reservation’s Turtle fruitful harvest, but also of a encouraging and challenging. School, where the school cur- growing collaboration. Tracy and research assistant ricula emphasize Oneida history White corn, a crop with Samuel Pratsch ’99, MS’06 and culture. Teachers at the deep cultural meaning to mem- say they encountered cultural school helped organize activi- bers of the Oneida nation, and agricultural realities that ties that encouraged commu- is making a comeback in compelled them to work in nity participation throughout Wisconsin, thanks in more community-oriented and the growing season. part to a partnership inclusive ways. Skenandore says Pratsch’s between UW-Madison Tracy’s training in agron- dedication to the children’s gar- and Tsyunhehkwa, an omy, for instance, led him to den helped build trust among organic farm located expect that high field produc- members of the community. on the Oneida reserva- tivity with low labor would be “Samuel took it to the next tion near Green Bay. desirable. But, he says, he found level,” he says. Launched two years ago that “the cultural aspects are Such personal involvement by agronomy professor far more important.” may be helping the white corn Bill Tracy, the project Tradition dictates that project succeed, but it remains aimed to improve yield white corn be planted together somewhat controversial in SPENCER WALTS and selection techniques with squash and beans in a academia, which often prefers while incorporating Oneida labor-intensive process. The its researchers to be detached knowledge and customs. corn grows on small mounds, from the outcomes of their Along with beans and the beans trail up the corn subjects. Pratsch says some fac- squash, corn is considered one stalks, and the squash grow ulty advised him not to engage of the “Three Sisters” in Oneida around the mounds to discour- in this kind of participatory tradition. The crops play a role age animals from eating the research, especially since he was in the Oneida creation story and vegetables. considering using this project were staples for much of their “All of our corn is picked by as a foundation for his doctoral history. As the Oneida were hand,” says Ted Skenandore, a dissertation. displaced from their lands, how- Tsyunhehkwa farmer. After the 2006 growing ever, many of them gave up The Baldwin project suc- season ended, the researchers farming. ceeded in improving machinery decided not to apply for further Now, revenue from casinos and proposing new planting funding. However, they are is allowing Wisconsin Oneida to schemes, such as planting corn maintaining their connection buy back land and expand their in a checkerboard pattern with Tsyunhehkwa and Turtle farms. At the Tsyunhehkwa and rotating crops to prevent School. Pratsch says he plans to farm, staff have been working weeds. Tracy also invested continue to visit the school and to reintroduce crops such as some of the project’s funds in build on the successes of the white corn — which is richer in determining nutritional data on garden project. protein than commercial sweet white corn, which he says was Pratsch says he “struggled corn — as well as traditional an important goal of Tsyunheh- a long time” with being an medicines to address health kwa staff. “activist scholar.” Ultimately, problems such as diabetes. But Tracy also says he found however, he believes it may be While assisting people with he needed to assure people that the answer to a question that such problems lies at the heart the Oneida community would universities have been asking of the Wisconsin Idea, Tracy says still own the corn. “It’s Tsyun- more and more: how can we communities such as the Oneida hehkwa’s responsibility to pro- work better with the communi- often aren’t equally served by tect the corn,” he says, noting ties around us? university resources. In 2004, that some were uncomfortable — Katherine Friedrich ’00, he applied for a two-year grant when he proposed bringing MS’06

14 ON WISCONSIN RESEARCH

Anatomy of a Conversation In 2004, as the details of UW sociologist gives doctor-patient dialogue a thorough check-up. the televised presidential candidate debates were Stethoscope in hand, a con- initial patient presentation to Each chapter of the book being ironed out, Republicans cerned physician asks a sick subsequent follow-up visits. takes a quantitative look at argued against allowing split- patient, “How are you feeling?” Collectively, the authors a different aspect of the dia- screen images. It turns out It’s a familiar scene to any- posit that while it’s crucial for logue, including how patients they needn’t have worried. one who’s ever had a physical, physicians to have a solid sci- present their own ideas about A study by UW-Madison and one that happens in health entific background, an impec- an illness for the doctor to researchers has found that care settings every day. But cable bedside manner can mean confirm or deny, how doctors President George W. Bush according to UW sociology pro- just as much to their patients’ deliver good and bad news, — not Democratic challenger fessor Douglas Maynard, this health. and how patients respond to John Kerry — reaped the most seemingly innocent question Maynard, co-editor of the treatment recommendations. benefits of the coverage. can have a poisonous effect on anthology, says that effective A number of medical Both camps agreed to ban a patient’s trust if asked at the communication is closely related schools are already starting split-screen views, but some wrong time. to patient satisfaction, faster to use the study’s findings in networks used them anyway. Maynard worked with a healing time, and adherence to their curricula, and several now The broadcast images “hurt team of conversation analysts medical recommendations. require students to pass an Kerry quite a bit and didn’t to study the complicated “It is one thing to under- exam that evaluates communi- hurt Bush at all,” says jour- interactions that take place stand biology, anatomy, cation skills. nalism professor Dietram between doctors and patients. chemistry, or the body and its Residency programs are Scheufele, who conducted Eighteen researchers from the processes in general,” says May- also beginning to see the value the study with journalism United States, Finland, and the nard. “It is another matter to of recruiting doctors with com- assistant professor Dominique United Kingdom contributed to be able to communicate medi- munication training, because Brossard and doctoral student the project, and their collected cal knowledge to patients.” studies have shown that Eunkyung Kim. The study asked findings have been published Researchers worked with medical encounters are shorter seven hundred university students in a new anthology titled Com- detailed audio and video when patients understand their to evaluate a five-minute munication in Medical Care: recordings of office visits and diagnosis. “From a physician’s debate clip in single-screen Interaction Between Primary after-hours phone calls to col- point of view,” says Maynard, and split-screen formats. Their Care Physicians and Patients. lect conversation data. They “effective communication can response was based primarily It was the first comprehensive were looking not only for what be a way of gaining a patient’s on what they already thought research to pick apart the was said, but also for what was trust.” about the two candidates. Those entire primary care medical unsaid — silences, intonation, — Erin Hueffner ’00 who liked Bush liked him more interview, spanning from the and volume of voice, for example. after watching split-screen cov- erage; Kerry voters still didn’t like Bush, yet didn’t increase their support for Kerry. COOL TOOL JEFF MILLER Living Fossil UW civil and environmental The newest addition to UW-Madison’s botany green- engineers have tested an inno- houses is hardly new. It’s a plant so ancient it once vative way to keep mollusks co-existed with dinosaurs. and barnacles from taking Known as the Wollemi pine, the plant was pre- up residence on boat hulls. The sumed extinct until a bushwalker named David Noble researchers shot tiny electric discovered it in an Australian national park in 1994. As jolts through the undersides of part of a worldwide effort to conserve and propagate boats, cutting the marine life the tree species — one of the oldest and rarest on earth by 50 percent and offering a — botany greenhouse director Mo Fayyaz MS’73, promising way to combat the PhD’77 recently purchased a foot-tall Wollemi pine problem for boaters and shippers. seedling, one of a limited number of the plants that

recently became available in the United States. K. KISER Fayyaz says the ancient conifer will be used to teach students about topics such as plant diversity, evolution, and geography. The discovery of this “living fossil,” he says, also underscores the importance of con- serving the world’s natural areas, which can still hold One of the world’s oldest tree species is unexpected treasures. now at home in Birge Hall. — Madeline Fisher PhD’98

SPRING 2007 15 ARTS & CULTURE

Musician and author Ben Sidran ’67 Hit Maker has just completed a massive new Tony Simotes teaches theatre students to embrace violence. project, Talking Jazz. In a twenty- four CD set, Sidran has collected It’s likely that no one on the music and interviews with such UW faculty has had the oppor- JEFF MILLER jazz greats as Miles Davis, Dizzy tunity to kill quite as many Gillespie, and Herbie Hancock. people as Tony Simotes. But The New York Times has described to be fair, none has been killed the collection as “addictive.” as many times, either. For more information, see Simotes, an associate professor www.talkingjazz.com. in the Department of Theatre and Drama and director of University Those who saw Paramount Pictures’ Theatre, is a professional fight new version of Charlotte’s Web, director, meaning that, when released in December, had the it comes to violence, mayhem, chance to see the work of Kathryn and murder, he’s the master. Rathke ’84, MFA’90. The film’s He’s been on both the giving stars may be Julia Roberts, Robert and receiving end of many a Redford, and Oprah Winfrey, mortal blow, and his goal is whose voices give life to the to help revive the lost art of animals of Zuckerman Farm, dramatic violence. but Rathke’s illustrations are “There’s much more to stage featured over the opening and fighting than just playing with closing credits. swords and daggers,” he says. In January, the UW Press pub- “I think of it more as physical lished an anthology of the oral lines of dialogue. It can be a traditions, literature, and histori- slap. It can be intimidation. It’s Heads up! Tony Simotes brandishes a dagger during a rehearsal for a cally significant documents of about building tension and fear performance of Arabian Nights. Graduate student Clare Arena Haden the state’s first peoples called — stage fighting should serve plays Scheherazade. Wisconsin Indian Literature. to focus the dialogue so that Edited by Kathleen Tigerman, the audience can understand Nights, which includes several playing] warriors, victims, or the book aims to present an the intensity of the story that’s physical confrontations. villains.” accurate chronological portrait being played out on stage.” But Simotes’ academic But though stage violence of each native nation, includ- Though he earned his MFA in interest in stage violence runs may pose psychic — and physical ing the Ho-Chunk, Menominee, drama from New York University deeper than teaching young actors — risks to actors, Simotes Ojibwe, and Potawatami, as well in 1976, Simotes brings far more how to fight convincingly. He also believes that it’s a vital part of as the three groups transplanted than academic experience to wants to learn from his students what drama can achieve. By from the New York area: the the UW. A Shakespearean actor about the effects of make-believe presenting humanity with all Oneida, the Brothertown, and by training, he is a founding violence on young actors. of its flaws, he argues, theatre the Stockbridge-Munsee branch member of the Massachusetts- “I think there’s a cost to helps people see how society of the Mohican. based Shakespeare and Company, the actor when we do this can be improved. “People sometimes ask me and he has appeared on and work,” he says. On stage, The Division of Continuing off Broadway and in stage actors may be playing out a why we need to see violence Studies, University Theatre, and companies around the country. fiction, but they’re asked to on stage,” he says. “They feel the Madison Repertory Theater He trained as a fight director make that fiction psychologi- that the audience and actors are looking for the next great under B.H. Barry, one of the cally realistic. Simotes suspects would be more comfortable playwright — and they’re hold- founders of the Society of British that these actions have an without it right there in the ing an open call to find him or Fight Directors and a pioneer of effect on the mental and open. But I feel that theatre has her. Through the Wisconsin modern stage-fighting technique. emotional state of perform- an essential role to play in who Wrights New Play Project, Now in his fourth year on ers. “Actors are often asked we are as human beings. It can a contest to find new autho- the UW faculty, Simotes brings to do some very ugly things help us better understand who rial talent, a panel of experts, a skill in arranging stage vio- — to murder or rape,” he says. we are — and violence is part including Emmy-winning actor lence that has been put to use “When we repeatedly do these of that. On stage, when we see Bradley Whitford, is currently this season in such University things, part of us as humans violence, we can understand judging scripts. They will select Theatre productions as The doesn’t understand that the its consequences. And we need three for public readings in Rover, a Restoration comedy of stage world isn’t real. I want to see all that so we can try to June, and one will be produced love and revenge that includes to study what happens to effect change.” by the Rep at the Madison New broadsword duels, and Arabian the actors, whether [they’re — John Allen Play Festival in November.

SPRING 2007 17 CLASSROOM

Ultimate Survivor A geology class looks for life in all the wrong places. JEFF MILLER (2)

Katie Rossmeissl x’07 photographs a test tube containing a sample of Lake Tyrrell sediment. She and her classmates sought to learn how any life could survive in the lake’s water, which is eight times as salty as ocean water.

When Thomas Hobbes wrote But they have figured out the an archaea out of salt — and that life is “solitary, poor, mechanisms they need to survive he was seeking a way to marry nasty, brutish, and short,” he in that environment.” his expertise in microbial life was talking about man, not, Something can be learned with the earthier aspects of the say, a colony of single-celled from the stubborn refusal of geology curriculum. A colleague organisms known as archaea. archaea to succumb to their suggested a course focused But it turns out the existence of surroundings — and if you take on extremophiles (the scientific archaea can be pretty nasty, too. Roden’s Geology 117 course, term for organisms that live in Consider the microbial you’ll learn it. Titled Life in harsh conditions) because they archaea that reside in Lake Earth’s Extreme Environments, reside at the intersection of Tyrrell, a salt-choked body of the course surveys some of the the two fields: understanding water surrounded by the Australian most bizarre and unlikely life them requires an exploration of outback. Bathed in water with forms that exist in some of geological environments as well eight times the salinity of sea- the harshest conditions on the as the biological mechanisms water, with no organic material planet. Each lecture highlights extremophiles develop to deal to eat — save for the occasional an organism living where it with them. broken twigs and particles of shouldn’t — in places too hot, The topic is also a perfect sheep excrement carried in by too cold, too salty, too acidic, fit for UW-Madison, which has a winds — the archaea of Lake or too barren to be considered storied history of studying life’s Tyrell manage to get by just hospitable. outliers. In the 1960s, former UW swimmingly. In fact, they thrive. Roden created the course bacteriology professor Thomas “It’s really an amazing in 2005, when he joined the Brock startled the scientific example of adaptation,” says geology faculty after a decade world by finding communities geology professor Eric Roden, of teaching at the University of bacteria living in the hot who collected samples from the of Alabama. A microbiologist springs of Yellowstone National lake during a research trip two by training, he was something Park, where it was assumed the years ago. “By all rights, these of a fish out of water in his water’s near-boiling temperature guys shouldn’t be living there. new department — or maybe would kill off all life. Brock’s

18 ON WISCONSIN CLASSROOM

discovery sent researchers trigger a reaction that causes “I never really thought scurrying off to all kinds of the microbes within to multi- about how extensive microbes places where they’d never ply, forming visible patches in a really are,” says Sredl. “They’re Law professors Marc Galanter thought to look for living glass tube. Often students are everywhere. They’re even in and Stewart Macaulay are prov- things. And they’ve found surprised by how many things a trash can. You don’t really ing to be big guns in their pro- plenty — previously unknown live in such surroundings. think about how these things fession. Their work is featured organisms that survive in the are living all around you.” in The Canon of American driest parts of the desert, the And while there’s a definite Legal Thought, a new book deepest reaches of the ocean, ick factor in that realization, from Princeton University Press and even at the bottom of there’s also a message about that highlights the twenty most abandoned mine shafts, where the amazing adaptability of important works of legal writ- bacteria live in pools of acid life. “When you’re talking ing since 1890. Galanter’s 1974 and eat metal for lunch. about microbial life, this is how essay titled “Why the ‘Haves’ But scientists aren’t alone you observe evolution,” says Come Out Ahead: Speculations in their curiosity about life on Roden. “As opposed to grow- on the Limits of Legal Change” the edge. With its reality-show ing wings or developing funky and Macaulay’s 1963 article focus on the extreme — and colors, microbes evolve by “Non-Contractual Relations in because it counts toward core- changing their metabolism and Business: A Preliminary Study” curriculum requirements — their cellular structure to allow are included among works by Roden’s course draws students them to survive in the myriad Oliver Wendell Holmes and John from all over campus, many of environmental conditions on our Dewey. Grad Kimberlé Crenshaw whom have little formal footing planet.” LLM’85 also earns inclusion, as a in biology or geology. Just nine In other words, if survival co-author of the article “Critical of the thirty-five students who is the ultimate game of life, Race Theory: The Key Writings took the course last semester then at least in Roden’s class, That Formed the Movement.” were science majors. the archaea that thrive in Lake “I was definitely attracted by Tyrrell are the big winners. Computer games have come a the title,” says Carolyn Sredl x’09, They have learned that though long way since Pong helped a Mixing chemical samples in generation of children enjoy a chemical engineering major Petri dishes, students hope to life can be nasty and brutish, it the challenge of tennis without who took the two-credit course learn more about Lake Tyrrell’s need not always be short. in the fall. “I needed a few more extremophiles. — Michael Penn MA’97 the unpleasantness of exer- credits, and it sounded a lot more cise. Today’s games, according interesting than a gym class.” to education science profes- sor David Williamson Shaffer, Roden says it’s been a CLASS NOTE can help kids build successful challenge building a syllabus Sweating in the PRC that lives up to that promise. futures. Drawing on a decade Kinesiology 508: Physical Education and Sports in China With no money for lab sections of research into technology and or teaching assistants, he relies What can you learn from getting beaten up by a thirteen-year-old game science, he argues in his mainly on lectures and demonstra- girl? Plenty, say the enrollees of this traveling seminar. Offered for new book, How Computer tions to acquaint students with a the first time in summer 2006, the course centered on a two-week Games Help Children Learn, select handful of extremophiles. trip to China, where students received an insider’s look at sports that games teach modern sur- Three times during the semes- culture in the country of tai chi, Yao Ming, and the 2008 Olympic vival skills, helping players learn ter, he opens his own research Games. Led by Professor Li Li Ji, a native of Shanghai and chair to think like engineers, urban lab so that students can conduct of the kinesiology department, students learned ancient Chinese planners, lawyers, and other basic experiments that bring them sword fighting, visited two universities that teach sports medicine, innovative professionals. face-to-cell with the microbial life and — most surprisingly — squared off against prospective members that surrounds them. of the Chinese national judo team. David Beebe ’87, MS’90, PhD’94 “That’s the most valuable With its deep traditions and emerging presence on the international won a big honor in a little field. thing we do,” says Roden. “I can sports scene, China is one of the most intriguing places to study physical In November, the biomedi- stand up there and talk about activity, says Ji. “Chinese people use physical exercise as a means cal engineering professor was these things all day, but it’s really to treat disease and to promote fitness, but it’s also a reason to awarded the first-ever Pioneers far more valuable for them to get together socially.” The course will be offered again this summer, of Miniaturization Prize from get into the lab and see it for and Ji says he hopes it becomes a touchstone for expanding cultural Corning, Inc., and Britain’s Royal themselves.” exchanges between UW-Madison and China. Society of Chemistry. Beebe Early in the semester, for According to Ji, the class was received warmly at every stop — holds more than twenty patents example, students are assigned except perhaps the judo mat, where the teenage trainees tumbled or patents pending and has co- to collect a jar of muck — any- each of the visitors within seconds. “That was kind of embarrassing,” founded three biotechnology thing from sediment from Lake admits graduate student Brent Johnson. “But those girls were companies. Mendota to a neighborhood good — really good.” mud puddle. In the lab, they — M.P.

SPRING 2007 19 FINGER FuLICKINnny’ Much of modern American “funny” can trace its roots to Kentucky Fried Theater, a zany group of friends who provided comic relief in the midst of the UW’s tumultuous antiwar years.

20 ON WISCONSIN From left are Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Dick Chudnow, and David Zucker. While their peers were demonstrating and agitating for social change, the four had a different focus. “We avoided politics — we just wanted to make people laugh,” Chudnow says.

BY RICH MARKEY X’71 that railed against the Ohio National Abrahams x’66, and Dick Chudnow ’67. Guard for firing on protesting students There are two memorable times in The year was 1970, and at Kent State and that implored the my life that I’ve laughed so hard that I graduates to help stop society’s immoral had trouble catching my breath. Both the embattled UW campus repression of African-Americans. The times were in a packed audience at Ken- was reeling from tear gas only note of humor came when he fum- tucky Fried Theater. It was the funniest bled badly over a sentence and quipped, show I had ever seen, and looking back, and the chaos of nonstop taking a deep breath, “It’s been a tough it still is. antiwar demonstrations. year!” The audience roared. The marvel, of course, is that when Even in that emotionally charged Zucker may have been caught up one thinks of campus life in the early atmosphere, those who knew David in the prevailing somber political envi- seventies, comedy isn’t what usually Zucker’s irrepressible sense of humor ronment, but a few short months later, comes to mind: it’s the antiwar protests, expected a funny and entertaining com- he capitulated to his comedic muse. In the sit-ins and tear gas, Black Power, mencement speech from their senior 1971, he formed the legendary comedy and the bombing of the Army Math class president. What they actually troupe Kentucky Fried Theater, along Research Center. I remember being heard, however, were solemn remarks with his brother Jerry Zucker ’72, Jim inundated, almost assaulted, with

SPRING 2007 21 pamphlets from the scores of activists often played concerts for the frat houses or study,” says Abrahams. who lined the sidewalks and stairs out- on Langdon Street, remembered laughing The turning point for what would side the Union and along Library Mall. so hard when he first saw the films at a become Kentucky Fried Theater State Street often looked like a war private screening that his jaw got numb. occurred one summer evening when zone, and the boarded-up store windows That summer of post-graduation David drove to Chicago to visit a were covered with antiwar graffiti. discontent, David occasionally ran into girlfriend. They saw an underground Like a flower blooming in winter, his old friend Jim Abrahams, who was comedy show called “Void Where Pro- KFT somehow managed to overcome notorious for the humorous pranks hibited by Law.” David remembers, this inhospitable environment and that he and his roommate, Dick “We sat on a gigantic waterbed in this flourish. The show not only thrived, it loft and watched about seventy minutes quickly became a local institution, even- of awfully primitive, grossly scatological tually moved to Hollywood, and ulti- Kentucky Fried Theater’s video sketches, and it was like nothing mately became a powerful influence on I had ever seen before. I laughed until I modern American comedy. If this seems films, including such had tears running down my cheeks.” like hyperbole, it isn’t. memorable movies as Air- That’s when his fateful epiphany Kentucky Fried Theater’s films, struck. Instead of returning home to including such memorable movies as plane!, Ghost, The Naked Milwaukee, David drove straight to his Airplane!, Ghost, The Naked Gun series, brother’s apartment in Madison and told Ruthless People, Top Secret, and Hot Shots!, Gun series, Ruthless Jerry what he had just seen and what it have earned well over a billion dollars meant: “We can do that!” at the box office. But considering the People, Top Secret, and Allen Estrin, who teaches screen- lofty heights of show business success writing at the prestigious American Film that KFT was to reach, its beginnings Hot Shots!, have earned Institute, quips that if David had experi- were humble. well over a billion dollars enced a flat tire that night on the way to Chicago, the course of American comedy at the box office. But con- would have been very different. David and Jerry started assem- david zucker’s first sidering the lofty heights of bling a short list of the funniest people summer after graduating from the UW they knew. Their first call was to their was marked by a distinct lack of direc- show business success prankster friend Abrahams, who in turn tion. Without professional prospects, enlisted Chudnow. The foursome met he unhappily settled for a job gluing that KFT was to reach, its to discuss their comedic ideas, deciding together furniture. To entertain himself, beginnings were humble. that they would form a partnership, and whenever a fly would pass his booth, each put up $200. From the outset, they he’d spray it against the wall with glue had an almost mystical belief that they and then label it like a museum exhibit, were destined for greatness, so much so with the date and time of extinction. His Chudnow, used to pull in Memorial that they had a photo taken just as they fly collection quickly became a factory- Library. For example, in the spirit of agreed to their partnership to preserve wide attraction. street theater, Abrahams would wrap his the historic event for posterity. At twenty-two, however, with a foot in bandages to resemble a cast, and From the very start, they were a degree in radio, film, and television, glu- hobble into a study room with an arm- team of all-stars. They shared a MAD ing insects was not the career David had ful of books. When Abrahams arrived, magazine/rock ’n’ roll/TV-generation expected. His father tried to think of a Chudnow got up to leave, and as he synchronized sense of humor that gave way to raise his son’s spirits. David had passed Abrahams, he kicked the cane them comedic power. Like the Beatles, made some humorous and inventive stu- out from under him and down he went there was strength in their unity — they dent films starring his brother. One of — splat! Books everywhere. Chudnow were a team that was greater than the them, The Best Things in Life Are Free, was would grab the cane and whack Abra- sum of its parts. about a “high”-spirited student on cam- hams with it a few times and then run. They experimented with video pus who desperately needed to urinate Sometimes people applauded the equipment that David and Jerry’s father but couldn’t find anyplace to do so until street theater, and at other times, they had borrowed on their behalf, and cor- he finally climbed the Lincoln statue on thought it was real and got angry. Once, ralled friends to brainstorm and impro- Bascom Hill. a couple of outraged students chased vise. David and Jerry’s mother did a TV Fred Bliffert x’70, whose popular after Chudnow all the way out into the ad parody about the “miracle thimble” R&B band, Freddy and the Freeloaders, street. “It was either do [stuff] like that that featured Mrs. Zucker demonstrat-

22 ON WISCONSIN From the outset, Abrahams (left), Jerry Zucker, Chudnow, and David Zucker believed that their idea was destined for greatness — so much so that they had someone take this photo at the moment when they agreed to their partnership, in order to preserve the event for posterity. ing how the sewing implement was used in its earliest days of business, citing city zoning regula- and then showing it to the camera — in the KFT enterprise floundered for direc- tions. It was a gut-wrenching setback for effect giving the audience the “bird.” tion. The partners considered delivering Kentucky Fried Theater, but it was only Their initial inclination was to create their comedy directly to people who the first of many obstacles. stage sketches that mirrored the social would order it by phone, just like fast Moving beyond the disappointment, and political targets then in vogue, such food, and that led them to the name they the partners took stock. KFT was home- as military service, President Nixon, rec- ultimately chose: Kernel Sanders Ken- less, but they did have a show. Perhaps reational drug use, and the generational tucky Fried Theater. they could transport the equipment, sets, divide. “We avoided politics — we just But they ultimately settled on doing chairs, and props to a temporary stage, wanted to make people laugh,” Chud- a show, and set out to find a home for they thought. They got lucky. The newly now says. it. They eventually settled for a large opened Union South offered to provide Jerry Zucker also avoided political second-floor room above the Daisy Cafe the necessary space, and a deal was confrontations. One day a block party at 619 West Washington Avenue. struck to put on ninety-minute perfor- right in front of his rented house on The foursome divided up respon- mances over four consecutive weekends Mifflin Street turned into a showdown sibilities, and in February 1971 they in May 1971. They would have to labo- with police. His roommate, Andy Straus started renovations, building a stage, riously set up the equipment and then ’72, went outside and got tangled up in wiring for lights and sound, painting, strike it after every show, but getting the the ensuing violence. The conflagration carpeting, and constructing a control act off the ground would be worth the was broadcast live on network TV, and room. When they weren’t building, extra toil. Andy’s parents saw the broadcast and they were writing sketches. They were They advertised and put up posters, realized where it was occurring. Wor- exhausted and exhilarated but ready to and opening night attracted a good-sized ried, they called and asked to speak to open when disaster struck. Three days audience. The show started off smoothly their son. Jerry told them, “Andy can’t before the opening of their premiere enough, but there was an unexpected come to the phone right now. He’s out- show, a building inspector who had been complication. David had invited a friend side rioting.” feuding with their landlord put them out who had a loud, infectious laugh to come

SPRING 2007 23 see their premiere performance, theo- LSD and was experiencing an acid trip. amount of material they had. On top of rizing that it couldn’t hurt to have one He was watching a broken clock on the that, some of the projection equipment really good laugher in the audience to wall and he thought time had ceased, failed, so they had to skip some video help things along. According to Chud- and that was what triggered his hysteria. segments. About twenty-five minutes now, from the first sketch, the guy was It seemed as if time really had through their ninety-minute show, they laughing hysterically — but never at stopped. The four had never actually ran out of material. the right times. He would scream with rehearsed the whole show together, Flummoxed, they declared an inter- laughter, with tears running down his and with each passing sketch, it became mission, buying a few minutes to decide face, but it turned out that he had taken clear that they had badly misjudged the what to do about their fiasco. A fevered

What’s So Funny about Wisconsin?

Tucked somewhere in Jeff Cesario’s collection of college on the back page I had a parody of Joe Dommershau- keepsakes is a thirty-two-year-old copy of the Daily Car- sen’s bowling column, called ‘Joe Nebersplitzem.’” dinal. He considers it Exhibit A in his argument that the Cesario, who has appeared on Late Night with David strange bedfellows of the Dairy State are at the root of Letterman, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Wisconsin humor. Jay Leno, and on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, thinks On page one, in gazillion-point type is the word Wisconsin — and Madison in particular — is fertile “Victory” announcing the end of the Vietnam War. ground for comedy because “bizarro juxtapositions In the same issue is a parody of the Wisconsin State grow like wild alfalfa.” Journal’s sports section. It’s the state that spawned Robert LaFollette 1879 “Parody, satire, and irony have shared an apartment and Joe McCarthy, a place where Calvinists coexist with on State Street for about ninety years,” says Cesario, a pot smokers, where radical politics and great college 1975 journalism graduate who went on to become a football both thrive, and where an excellent academic nationally known stand-up comic. “On the cover is per- university shares the mantle of being an excellent party haps the most important story of our generation, and school, Cesario notes. MICHAELKIENITZ.COM

The Pail and Shovel Party’s stunt of littering Bascom Hill with pink flamingoes is one of the iconic moments in UW history. Along with the feat of bringing the Statue of Liberty to Lake Mendota, it has come to symbolize life on campus in the carefree late ‘70s.

24 ON WISCONSIN debate broke out backstage about just at that experience born of desperation how to produce a tightly organized per- how much cash they should refund to as the inspiration that led to his co- formance. But they did get one break. the audience. Meanwhile, Chudnow founding the ComedySportz clubs, George Hesselberg ’73, a reviewer from went out and improvised an audience which engage the audience in improv the Badger Herald, had been in the audi- participation performance using theater games in support of two competing ence and gave them a great write-up: “I games he had learned studying improv. teams of professional actors. wandered into the opening performance The audience loved it and never sus- KFT’s first appearance in public last Saturday evening without the slight- pected how truly improvised it was. In had been a debacle, their show was est idea what to expect. The show is later years, Chudnow would look back homeless, and they clearly didn’t know almost impossible to review because I

“Madison is the Matthew McConaughey of cities Zone, The Fairly OddParents, and Danny Phantom. — focused at certain things, but willing to strip naked Joan Cusack ’84: She debuted in the film My and play bongos at any time,” he says. “People will see Bodyguard and occasionally appeared in feature films and read anything and be pretty magnanimous about while a UW-Madison student in the 1980s, building a it, so you can try things and see if they fly.” reputation for playing comedy support roles. She’s also And, the way Cesario sees it, meteorology may play appeared in Chicken Little, Raising Helen, Runaway a role in our comic tradition as well. Bride, and many other films. “Cabin fever is the meteorological equivalent of Jane Kaczmarek ’79: TV Guide called the UW- the warning on rear-view mirrors: ‘Winters are much Madison grad “a female Homer Simpson.” Her por- longer than they appear,’ “ he says. “What else is there trayal of Lois, the no-nonsense mom in the Fox sitcom to do in an ice fishing shed on April 11 except crack a Malcolm in the Middle, earned her six consecutive joke?” Emmy nominations for lead actress in a comedy series. So much for Exhibit A. Here’s some more evidence A Milwaukee native, Kaczmarek was also a series for Wisconsin’s role in poking fun at the world: regular in Equal Justice, Hometown, Big Wave Dave, The Onion: The outrageous newspaper parody was and Paper Chase: The Second Year, and she has also born in Madison in 1988, when UW-Madison juniors appeared in films and on Broadway. Tim Keck ’90 and Chris Johnson ’90 borrowed $8,000 The Pail and Shovel Party: The late 1970s were from Keck’s mother for their venture in satire and set marked on campus by the rise of this eccentric and up shop with a couple of friends. The following year, irreverent movement, which took over student govern- they sold it to Onion colleagues Scott Dikkers x’87 and ment, promising to convert the UW budget to pennies, Peter Haise ’90. spread the coins on Library Mall, and allow students The weekly paper and its Web site have since to scoop them up with pails and shovels. A creation of become a national phenomenon, featuring headlines Leon Varjian and Jim Mallon ’79, the party also prom- such as “Four Generations of Americans Demand Sit- ised to fill Camp Randall Stadium with water for mock com Reparations” and “Voice of God Revealed to be naval battles and change the name of the UW to the Cheney on Intercom.” University of New Jersey so graduates could claim they Ben Karlin ’93: The machinations of his comic graduated from a prestigious East Coast school. And, brain were a driving force behind the popularity of Jon let’s not forget the campuswide toga parties, 1,008 Stewart’s The Daily Show. He joined the show in 1996 pink flamingos adorning Bascom Hill, and the Statue as head writer, became executive producer in 2002, of Liberty appearing to be up to her eyeballs in Lake and just recently left the show. Karlin cut his teeth as Mendota. editor of the Onion. Ben Granby ’99: His was the mind behind the 1997 Steve Marmel ’88: A nationally known stand-up erection of a fifteen-foot-tall golden phallus outside of comic, a few years ago Marmel turned his attention to Bascom Hall. Granby was the exalted cyclops of a group animation. He’s currently the co-executive producer called the Ten-Fat-Tigers, known for its anti-establish- of the Disney/Jetix cartoon Yin Yang Yo! Marmel has ment pranks inspired by the Pail and Shovelers. also written for Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, Chalk- — Dennis Chaptman ’80

SPRING 2007 25 still don’t know what to expect if I go full-sized images on the side walls and leaving the audience wondering where to the next performance. All I can say on a front screen,” she recalls. “The cast these guys came up with this stuff. is that it was the funniest evening I’ve members seemed to be throwing Fris- The biggest laughs came in a video spent in a long time.” bees back and forth.” The illusion was segment that featured a TV newsman who Looking back, David says, “Of all astonishingly real. was able to see back through the TV tube the thousand odd reviews we have ever One sketch, “A Night at the Feelies,” as an amorous couple engaged in some received, his was the most important, subjected the audience to interactive R-rated lovemaking in front of their televi- and best remembered.” caresses from ushers who were act- sion. The anchorman waved over a few Hesselberg, who later wrote a long- ing out an imaginary movie’s ludicrous of his crew, and they leered through the lived column for the Wisconsin State Jour- romantic scenes. When the actors two-way TV at the increasingly heated nal, never knew that his glowing review embraced in a moment of passion, the makeout session until the couple noticed raised the spirits of the four KFT guys at ushers ran their hands through the them watching and abruptly stopped. The that nadir and inspired them onward. patrons’ hair, and when that passion clash of realities between the peeping toms I asked Hesselberg what he remem- suddenly turned into a heated lover’s on TV and the lustful couple on stage was bered about KFT. “Of course they were spat, the ushers slapped the patrons a showstopper. very funny,” he recalled, “but what I was silly. It was impossible to watch that Some of the best-received bits were the most impressed with is how serious sketch and not identify with the hapless just outrageously silly behavior, such they were about being funny. The ‘seri- victims — and to look over your own as “The Fried Egg.” The stage lights ousness’ was everywhere at that time, shoulder, in between belly laughs, to see came up on Jerry on his knees, his body the antiwar feelings and all. There was if there was a “Feelies” usher preparing tucked into the shape of an egg. Accom- a big hole in the humor blanket — and to engage you. panied by amplified sound effects, he here are these guys being very serious cracked himself on the head, fell flat on about being funny. Their arrival on cam- the stage, then undulated like an egg pus — their timing — was perfect.” From the very start, they being fried to the sound of sizzling. As were a team of all-stars. the frying sounds reached their cre- scendo, Jerry’s gyrations also climaxed, with the group’s They shared a MAD and with unexpected grace he flipped first show under its belt, fate intervened: himself over to cook on his other side. KFT’s theater dilemma was solved by magazine/rock-n’-roll/TV- In a recent interview in the Milwaukee the most unlikely of benefactors, the city Journal-Sentinel, Jake (Thomas) Leinen- inspector who had closed them down generation synchronized kugel x’75 fondly recalled seeing the at the Daisy Cafe. He called and told KFT show as a freshman in 1971 and them about a bookstore on the corner sense of humor that gave revealed that he still performs his ver- of Regent and Randall Streets called them comedic power. sion of the fried-egg routine to entertain Shakespeare & Company, a building special visitors to his family’s brewery in with a spacious storeroom that just Like the Beatles, there Chippewa Falls. about fit their needs. Once again, the Through laborious trial-and-error guys rolled up their sleeves, and the was strength in their unity in front of demanding audiences, KFT renovations began. Industriously they perfected these sketches and began formu- rewired, repainted, fabricated a stage, — they were a team lating the practical rules of comedy that and constructed a control room. On would shape their future movies. They July 23, 1971, they were ready to give that was greater than the learned how to use what they called “com- it another shot. A better-written and sum of its parts. edy judo,” the art of using the audience’s rehearsed rendition of Vegetables opened expectations to trick them. They found with added cast members Lisa Davis, that building a joke on top of another joke Chris Keene ’72, MFA’77, and Bill The show included some memorable usually doesn’t work — that jokes need West ’72. video segments, such as that of a real to be rooted in reality. For instance, in My sister, Barbara Markey Born- country western band that had been The Naked Gun films, you never see Leslie stein ’74, a school psychologist at Nicolet edited and dubbed so they appeared Nielsen hamming it up for the camera, High School in Milwaukee, remembers to be playing an acid rock version of which would be a distraction from what is that even as the audience entered the “Ina-Gadda-Da-Vida.” The editing was really funny — his dialogue. brand-new theater, they knew they were amateurish and the sound was poorly Perhaps most important to their in for something unique and imagina- dubbed, but the incongruity of the future success, they developed a rapid- tive. “Film projectors projected these visuals and the music was innovative, fire, “three-jokes-a-minute” comedic

26 ON WISCONSIN pace. “When we were on stage in the on a Zucker project. It was like working tion with anarchy at the heart of many Kentucky Fried Theater, we hated to be with one of your gods. Of course, now we student artists in Madison at that time, up there for very long without hearing don’t even return their calls,” he quips. such as Kentucky Fried Theater and the audience laugh,” says David. “None Stuart Gordon’s production of Peter Pan of us had any desire to tramp around on When Al Franken was at the Broom Street Theater.” Balio adds that stage to the sound of silence. The that KFT “embodied that irreverent atti- audience was there to laugh, and if they interviewed to be a writer tude that mocked all things traditional of weren’t, well, it was just embarrassing! the popular culture of the 1950s and early If a joke or a line didn’t work or was on Saturday Night Live, 1960s. It’s a style that still reverberates superfluous, out it went, immediately. and influences comedy today.” That’s where we learned editing and Lorne Michaels asked if That Madison-grown, grassroots pace. Everything had to be a joke or a approach to comedy was quickly set-up to a joke — a kind of comic ruth- Franken had ever seen absorbed by other elements in popular less efficiency.” Kentucky Fried Theater. culture. In Live from New York — The Abrahams adds, however, that they Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, learned an even more important rule: Franken remembers, author Tom Shales says that SNL pro- “There are no rules!” ducer Lorne Michaels and Chevy Chase After their opening week, the press “Lorne went on about how had been combing comedy clubs all over reviews came pouring in: the Daily Cardi- the country looking for ideas when they nal wrote, “For theater goers who thirst the ‘Fried’ guys assaulted saw KFT in Los Angeles, and on the for innovative, imaginative comedy, this way out, Michaels declared, “That’s the zany bunch may provide the highlight of the audience with show we should do.” Shales says that the summer.” The Badger Herald arts edi- non-stop jokes that left Michaels took Dick Ebersol, head of tor said, “I am straining my vocabulary NBC’s late-night programming, to see to try to think of the words to describe you gasping for air.” KFT to show him what he was talking Kentucky Fried Theater. About all I about. On the way out, Ebersol said, can come up with is this: it is great. It is “That’s the hardest I’ve ever laughed.” funny. It is refreshingly unique. It is the Peter Farrelly, director and writer When Al Franken was interviewed to best show in town, don’t miss it.” Tickets of Dumb and Dumber and There’s Some- be a writer on Saturday Night Live, Lorne sold out the rest of the year. thing about Mary, was a self-described Michaels asked if Franken had ever “superfan” of the KFT comedy style, and seen Kentucky Fried Theater. Franken later broke into show business writing remembers, “Lorne went on about how after a year of SRO a 1987 Zucker Brothers TV pilot, “Our the ‘Fried’ guys assaulted the audience shows, the four turned their thoughts Planet Tonight.” He told me, “The Marx with non-stop jokes that left you gasping to opportunities in New York or Hol- Brothers, Jerry Lewis, and the Zuckers for air.” lywood. Dick settled the matter: “I don’t were my favorites. Almost every comedy Ironically, thirty years later, Jerry know what you guys want to do, but I’m we’ve made owes something to their Zucker was invited back to campus to going to Hollywood.” At the end of the style and their approach.” deliver the 2003 commencement address. school year, they packed the chairs, sets, And according to Wikipedia, Seth Unlike his brother’s solemn speech of props, and costumes into a rented truck MacFarlane’s popular animated series, many years ago, Jerry’s talk was funny and headed west. They drove past Camp Family Guy, owes much of its comedic and optimistic — and was punctuated Randall Stadium as Jerry’s graduation approach, including “slapstick gags, by bursts of laughter. He advised the ceremony commenced without him — deadpan one-liners, non sequiturs, new graduates not to be afraid of failure, and went on to have a major influence flashbacks, absurdity, and pop culture explaining that a big part of success is on popular culture. parody” to the KFT movies, particularly allowing yourself to make mistakes. Testimonials from many of America’s The Naked Gun, to which the show has It’s a lesson that a once-struggling leading comedy pros speak to their effect paid open homage. comedy troupe born on a troubled cam- on television and film. “I used to sit at For some, it is not at all surprising pus has proved over and over. home with my friends in high school and that KFT took root in the turbulent early watch Kentucky Fried Movie and Airplane! seventies. Tino Balio, UW professor Rich Markey x’71 has written and produced TV and vomit from laughing,” says Matt emeritus of communication arts and an comedies with the Zucker Brothers, programs for Stone, co-creator of television’s South Park. expert on entertainment and popular cul- PBS and the History Channel, and reality comedies for Showtime, HBO, and UPN. He has a master’s “When Trey (Parker) and I came to ture, says, “There was a rebellion against degree in cinema/TV and is currently writing a book L.A., one of our first gigs was working cultural conventions and an experimenta- about the evolution of American comedy.

SPRING 2007 27    

On a frigid day in January 2000, Mitch Tyler’s world began to tumble. After catch- 



  ing a cold from his eighteen-month-old 

   son, Tyler had developed an ear infection so severe he’d temporarily lost his sense of bal- 
 

  ance. Now, as the bus he rode to work slid 
 
  sideways on a patch of ice, he once again   felt like he was falling. Objects spun in his vision as if inside a kaleidoscope, and he       could no longer distinguish up from down.    
 “You can’t tell where your body is lying in space,” Tyler says. “It’s terrifying.” Yet with that dizzying moment also came good for- By Madeline Fisher PhD’98 tune, for when Mitch Tyler’s world began to Photos by Jeff Miller tumble, it also began to come together. At the time, Tyler, a UW biomedical engineer, was also working for a small UW-Madison spin-off business called Wicab, founded by Paul Bach-y-Rita, a professor of orthopedics and rehabilitation medicine. Based on Bach- y-Rita’s revolutionary idea that one sense could stand in place of another, Wicab

(pronounced “wee-cob”) was developing SPRING 2007 29 technology that might allow blind people change was incomplete. He soon left to the brain by stimulating the tactile, or to see by feeling sensations on their UC-Davis and vaulted into a clinical touch-sensitive, nerves of the skin, such tongues. As he made his way to Wicab’s residency in rehabilitation medicine. as those on the abdomen or fingertip. In tiny rented space on the UW-Madison The move mystified his colleagues, the late 1990s, he made another intuitive campus, still reeling from his bus trip, but to Bach-y-Rita, the choice was clear. leap: why not use the tongue? After all, Tyler was suddenly seized by another He believed rehab medicine would be he reasoned, the tongue is much more possibility. A few moments later, he more open to his ideas than the world of sensitive to touch than any of the other stopped by Bach-y-Rita’s office. traditional neuroscience — and for that, body parts he’d tried. The saliva in the “I said, ‘Paul, I have this crazy he was prepared to gamble. “I guess I’ve mouth would also make it much easier to idea,’ ” Tyler recalls. Bach-y-Rita, who always been willing to take a chance and transmit electrical impulses. had a penchant for wild notions, smiled do things that were not within the usual Armed with this idea and the sophis- and asked, “What?” limits,” he said in an interview shortly ticated electronics that had become “What if the tongue display could rep- before his death. available, Bach-y-Rita and an engineer/ resent something as simple as balance?” Inspired by his father’s experience, scientist named Kurt Kaczmarek devised Tyler asked. “And Paul said, ‘You know, I Bach-y-Rita began investigating the con- a crude “tongue display,” a mat made up think you’ve got something there.’ ” cept of a “plastic” brain, the then-revolu- of 144 electrodes that sat on a person’s As someone who had made a career tionary idea that the brain can reorganize tongue. When hooked to a camera, the of pushing scientific boundaries, Bach- its functions in response to learning or mat converted images into patterns of y-Rita had a knack for seeing into the experience, even at an advanced age and electrical stimulation, allowing someone future. His intuition, in this case, was after major damage. This radical notion to “see” objects by sensing the patterns right on. Today a treatment for balance soon led to Bach-y-Rita’s first studies of on his or her tongue. Wearing the tongue disorders is the most immediate and prac- sensory substitution. He hypothesized display, blind people were able to per- tical manifestation of Wicab’s unusual that, if deprived of one sense, the brain ceive objects such as a flickering candle technology and the company’s first prod- could learn how to use other senses to or a rolling ball. uct: the BrainPort balance device. compensate for — or even replace — the The tongue display’s potential was What Bach-y-Rita didn’t anticipate, lost sense. A blind person’s brain, for enough to convince the Wisconsin however, was the winding and uncer- example, could learn how to interpret Alumni Research Foundation, the uni- tain path from Tyler’s inspiration to the nerve impulses as visual information even versity’s patenting and licensing orga- product’s commercialization. Or that the when they came through a completely nization, to apply for a patent in early company’s growth would require him to different sense, such as touch. 1998. But WARF thought the chances put aside his deepest drive as a scientist: When he arrived at UW-Madison in of licensing the far-out technology to an to continue exploring. 1983, Bach-y-Rita began experimenting established firm were remote. Officials He also couldn’t know that this would in earnest with ways to send visual cues there presented Bach-y-Rita with the be one of the final journeys of his career. When Bach-y-Rita was diagnosed with cancer in 2004, he resolved that Wicab WORKING WITH THE ‘PLASTIC’ BRAIN

would transform from a research-focused BARRY CARLSEN enterprise into what he called a “real The first devices developed in Paul business.” And before he died in Novem- Bach-y-Rita’s lab addressed vision sub- ber 2006, he saw it through. stitution, working with the premise that the brain can learn to use one sense to replace another. A camera worn on the • person’s head captured If launching a business is a leap of faith, an image and sent it Paul Bach-y-Rita was well trained for the to a processor, which exercise, having spent most of his career translated the image diving off cliffs into unknown waters. into a pattern of elec- tronic impulses. The Trained as a physician and neuroscientist, impulses were felt via Bach-y-Rita was a full professor of visual an array of electrodes sciences and physiology at the University that sat on the tongue, of California-Davis when his father suf- allowing the image sig- fered a major stroke in the mid-1960s. nals to travel to the areas of the brain that process After witnessing his father’s remarkable image information. recovery, he concluded that his knowl- edge of the brain and how it undergoes

30 ON WISCONSIN ANDY MANIS (2) possibility of commercializing protocol for the tongue,” he says. Lunches it himself. at a small conference table often blossomed Intrigued, Bach-y-Rita invited into two-hour scientific discussions. And his other main collaborator, Mitch then there was Bach-y-Rita, constantly Tyler, to lunch. By meal’s end, stirring the pot with his wild ideas. they had agreed, almost casually, “It was, as is the case with a lot of to launch a company. In honor small start-ups, a one-big-happy-family of his wife, Esther, Bach-y-Rita kind of scenario,” Kaczmarek says. “It named it Wicab, her family name, was really a glorious time.” which means “lover of honey” in In the summer of 2000, Wicab hired Mayan. Yuri Danilov, a neurophysiologist with vast knowledge of the nervous system, • who helped the team envision all kinds Whether to launch a company is a ques- of applications for its nascent technol- tion university scientists ponder fre- ogy. The scientists began mapping a “star quently these days, as more and more of chart” of all the possible uses. Nearest them choose to protect their discoveries and most obvious were “first order” through patents. Faculty inventions are stars, such as a system to augment hear- often too far ahead of existing markets to ing, vision substitution for the blind, be of interest to established companies, and an assistive device to help people and so, for many professors, starting with damage to the vestibular system, a a business may be their best chance of region of the inner ear critical to balance. seeing their idea manifest in the world. From these core applications, the group Many states, including Wisconsin, also traced logical paths to scores of more hope to entice professors into launching distant possibilities, such as treatments businesses as a means to create high-tech for Parkinson’s disease or for children jobs and boost local economies. with sensory-motor integration disorders. To assist faculty members in taking the Eventually, the star chart held more than plunge, WARF waives the licensing fee it 170 applications scribbled on several normally charges companies to use its intel- taped-together pages. lectual property commercially and takes Among all the stars, the scientists equity in university spin-offs instead. Since believed two shone the brightest: vision 1994, the foundation has helped forty such and, thanks to Mitch Tyler’s timely illness, businesses get under way, more than balance. In the lab, they built and tested 85 percent of which are still operating. prototypes for each application. To make The team working with Paul Bach-y-Rita, But even with help, running a com- shown above right, first tested the balance the balance device, Tyler purchased a pany is an extremely time-consuming device with Cheryl Schiltz, whose body lost green plastic hard hat and attached a min- its natural balance following an illness. The iature accelerometer, which relayed infor- endeavor. Why would a professor with an treatment allowed her — for the first time in already demanding slate of administrative, three years — to resume a normal life. mation through a computer to the tongue teaching, and research obligations want display’s electrodes. Someone wearing the to take it on? More often than not, it isn’t helmet and standing upright would feel a strictly about money, says business profes- In its infancy, Wicab was fueled buzz at the center of his or her tongue. But sor Anne Miner, who has both studied almost solely by that optimistic spirit. if the individual swayed, the accelerometer and acted as an informal adviser to faculty Housed on campus and funded through sensed the deviation and sent an error entrepreneurs. Some professors use a busi- grants, the company bore a strong like- signal, causing the sensation to move left, ness start-up as an applied arm of their ness to the research program from which right, backward, or forward, depending campus research programs. Others, at it emerged. Ideas flew around the room, on the direction of the tilt. The person’s the top of their careers academically, are recalls Kaczmarek, and although the task was to move in space until the signal simply looking for a new challenge. researchers were careful to distinguish became centered again. Then there are those who hope to do their company and university activities, “ It’s like having someone place a fin- a social good. Miner believes Bach-y-Rita they reveled in the exchange. ger on top of your head to indicate you’re fell into this last group. “My sense is that “One minute I might be working on my upright,” says Tyler. “If you tip your head, he really wanted to help the world NIH grant and the next minute I might be you feel the finger slide off to one side, and a lot,” she says. talking with Mitch about a better stimulus you naturally move your head back to com-

SPRING 2007 31 pensate. It’s a very simple concept. You’re Schiltz was skeptical when Bach-y- Then one day a visiting colleague just correcting for a deviation in your posi- Rita explained how Wicab’s device might asked what would happen if they went tion relative to a marker.” help restore her world. “My first reaction beyond five minutes. “That’s when we It’s easy to imagine this involves con- was, ‘I’m going to put something on my got the breakthrough,” says Tyler. After centrating on the signal’s location and tongue and I’m going to get my balance using the device for twenty minutes, figuring out how to shift in response. But back? Okay ...’ ” she remembers. “Well, Schiltz opened her eyes and tilted her after a training period of just a couple of what have I got to lose?” head. “I looked at Mitch and I said, minutes, the body reacts to the stimulus Leaning on a cane, she walked into ‘Something’s different,’ ” she recalls. without conscious thought. “Once the Wicab’s office in fall 2001 to begin tests Something was. Schiltz kept her concept is in place that the stimulation with Tyler and Danilov. With the green balance for an hour that day. When she on the tongue means something about helmet on her head and the tongue display realized what was happening, she hugged your orientation in space, the beauty of it in her mouth, Schiltz sat and then stood, Danilov and Tyler and burst into tears. “I is that it is very intuitive,” says Tyler. “It eyes closed, for trials of one hundred, two literally ran around like a crazy lady,” she very quickly goes from being a conscious hundred, and three hundred seconds. says. “I felt like I was healed.” process to being subconscious.” And for the first time in years, she did not Subsequent trials with Schiltz and When the prototype was finished, sway. With the electrical pulses on her other patients proved twenty minutes Bach-y-Rita went looking for a test sub- tongue substituting for the signal the brain to be the ideal “training” time. People ject. From a doctor friend, he learned of normally gets from the inner ear, Schiltz enrolled now in Wicab’s formal clinical a patient named Cheryl Schiltz, who in kept her balance. It was an amazing result trials train with the BrainPort device late 1997 had suffered permanent dam- — yet not the most amazing one. for twenty minutes in the morning and age to her vestibular system due to a rare After one of the trials, Danilov afternoon. If the device works as Wicab reaction to an antibiotic. For three years, removed the device from Schiltz’s mouth believes it will, they should be able to Schiltz had been living in a world seem- to see if she could remain still without it. maintain their balance for the rest of ingly made of Jell-O. Her body’s natural “Don’t ask me why,” he says, “because it the day. balance destroyed, she wobbled with was completely out of protocol.” Schiltz The results “blew the doors off all of every step, and everything in view jiggled indeed kept her balance for a short time, our expectations,” says Tyler. “We never and tilted. She wasn’t able to continue prompting Danilov and Tyler to launch a in our wildest dreams imagined we’d working, and even simple tasks such as new set of investigations. Experimenting have this carryover effect that would be baking cookies became an ordeal. Worst with different time periods, they found so sustaining.” of all was the sense of isolation. Schiltz was able to retain her balance Moreover, Schiltz has found that “You feel like you don’t know where for about one-third of the time she wore after years of training with BrainPort, you are in space,” says Schiltz. “There’s the helmet. After one hundred seconds, retention can stretch not simply over not a sense of belonging in your area, in she held steady for thirty seconds before hours, but over weeks and months. She your environment. It’s like you’re sepa- beginning to shake. After five minutes, has gone for up to four months, in fact, rated somehow.” the effect lasted nearly two minutes. without using the device at all.

EVOLUTION OF AN IDEA

While exploring the concept that the brain can learn to use one sense to replace another, Paul Bach-y-Rita first tested the idea that stimulating the nerves of the skin could send visual cues to the brain. In time, he and his team switched from the finger to the tongue and, as they began to consider commercializa- tion, from vision to balance problems. With each stage of their prototype devices — coupled with the decision Working with the concept that to form a spin-off company The first prototype tactile stimulating tactile nerves in the — came more sophistication display with mechanical stimu- By circa 1995, the device finger could send visual cues to the and marketability. lators (inset) was developed evolved into an electrotac- brain, the team developed a more for Bach-y-Rita’s lab circa 1986. tile array for the finger. sophisticated prototype circa 1999.

32 ON WISCONSIN One day, Schiltz handed Danilov her you realize that in order to really push pivotal role in guiding the early-stage cane. “I said, ‘You take it. I don’t want this thing forward, you need to bring in medical device company, and its spin-off, it anymore,’” she recalls with a hearty people who understand how the business Bone Care International, both of which laugh. Today it hangs on the wall of world operates, how to organize the busi- were bought by larger firms. Seeking a Danilov’s office. ness in a way that’s ultimately going to be new opportunity, he took a suggestion profitable. We as scientists and engineers from WARF managing director Carl • — we didn’t have the skill set to do that.” Gulbrandsen and attended a couple of At Tyler’s request, Bach-y-Rita began Wicab company meetings. Quickly he Despite the progress of its scientific searching for professional management. perceived what the star-gazing scientists studies, by spring 2003 Wicab was still A couple of interim CEOs came and could not: if Wicab focused exclusively far from being a commercial enterprise went. And then, troubled by a persistent on the balance device, it could bring a that could deliver a product to market. cough, Bach-y-Rita went to the hospital product to market in the very near term. The company continued to live in Bach- in early 2004. He also realized the market was y-Rita’s seventeen-by-seventeen-foot “I went into the emergency room substantial. Although exactly how many campus lab, where an imaginary line thinking I had bronchitis and came out people suffer from chronic balance dis- separated his university research from with a diagnosis of stage IV lung cancer,” orders is unknown, Wicab estimates that his business venture. The scientists were he said. “That was ... that was shocking.” one million Americans could benefit from similarly divided. As Wicab’s CEO, At the time, Bach-y-Rita was given BrainPort — and many more internation- Bach-y-Rita still carried his full load of only a few months to live. The prognosis ally. Moreover, the lack of therapies for professorial duties. Kaczmarek acted as a sent the dynamic scientist into a frenzy patients with severe balance problems consultant to the company while also con- of sorts, says his wife, Esther. “His first means Wicab isn’t confronting the same ducting his own research. And Tyler val- reaction was, ‘I have too many things I head-to-head competition faced by most iantly tried to keep a hand in the science, still want to do,’” she says. “And Wicab fledgling medical device companies. even as he was pulled deeper and deeper was one of the big enterprises.” To Beckman, the numbers all added into daily business imperatives such as “I decided that one of the things I up to one thing — a chance to make a dif- payroll, insurance, and taxes. wanted to do with the months left to me ference. “That was very, very intriguing The company’s attention also was was to make Wicab into a real business,” to me,” he says, “because it meant that, if split between its balance and vision appli- said Bach-y-Rita, “for the science, but successful, the company would provide a cations. Wicab had received a pair of also for my family.” benefit to people who had nowhere else small-business grants totaling $1.7 million To help him do that, Bach-y-Rita to turn.” to bring each of the technologies closer turned to Bob Beckman, a veteran In December 2004, Beckman joined to commercialization, and Tyler was both businessman with a history of making Wicab as CEO, while Bach-y-Rita became thrilled and daunted by the work ahead. early-stage companies successful. As vice the company’s chairman of the board. “I had done a good job, but it was all- president of finance at Madison’s Lunar Sweeping changes took place immediately. consuming,” he says. “At a certain point, Corporation, Beckman had played a Continued on page 57

In fall 2001, as the researchers The final steps were a In 1999, the researchers built began focusing on balance, they major leap: to a small box a “tongue display unit” with a used a helmet fitted with elec- that hung around the neck stimulation system (inset) that tronic tilt sensors that worked (above) and BrainPort, the would sit on the tongue. with the tongue display system. to-market device.

SPRING 2007 33 JEFF MILLER Balancing Act spends much of his time Continued from page 33 searching for clinical collabo- rators willing to try BrainPort The group’s free-flowing, with their patients. More than hours-long discussions became one hundred people have now succinct business meetings. used it, including those suf- Beckman began to pursue ven- fering from conditions such as ture capital from outside inves- Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, tors. He also started bringing in and stroke. Danilov says he an entirely new team with expe- has yet to hear of a patient rience in product development, who hasn’t experienced some FDA regulations, and clinical change — whether dramatic trials. With their roles at Wicab or slight — after training with dwindling, Kaczmarek and BrainPort. Tyler eventually returned to the One monumental question university and to basic research, remains. “There’s still a great their first love. With its balance device, BrainPort, now on the market, Wicab is resum- mystery as to how it’s achieving ing research on vision substitution. Scientists are developing new pro- The star chart made its exit, totypes that could help the brain work its magic by translating touch its change in the brain,” says too. “Bob told me, ‘You have a into sight. Tyler. “Clearly it’s augmenting lot of good ideas, each of which brain function in these people’s could be a product,’ ” said Bach-y-Rita, Twenty minutes later, Bach-y-Rita nervous systems — the sensory-motor “ ‘but we have to concentrate on one.’ ” had recovered his balance in just the integration process. But we don’t quite Beckman determined that the com- same manner as she had years earlier. know why or how.” pany would suspend work on the vision Witnessing it, Schiltz began to sob. Given his expertise with the ner- technology, which at first was tough news “What he had done for me, now I vous system, Danilov seems particularly for Bach-y-Rita to take. Since the earliest was doing for him,” she says. “How much overwhelmed by the enormity of the days of his research, vision substitution more full circle can you get?” questions. If he had a thousand scientists had always interested him the most. at his disposal, he claims, he could put Yet personal circumstance would • them immediately to work on two thou- soon lead him to see things differently. sand BrainPort-related projects. “Scien- During summer 2005, Bach-y-Rita began The commercial version of Wicab’s tifically,” he says, “it’s like the Klondike having difficulty standing up, and he suf- BrainPort balance device is now as mod- or Alaska.” fered a couple of falls. At first, the family ern and pleasing to the eye as the compa- “The future is just phenomenal thought his aggressive cancer therapy ny’s new home in Middleton, Wisconsin. — what else can we discover with this?” had simply weakened him, Esther says. Gone is the green helmet; the acceler- says Tyler. “Paul has given us a great gift, But then another possibility dawned on ometer it carried has moved inside the a great vision. And now we get to run them. Since one of his cancer drugs was mouthpiece. Gone, too, are the computer with it. That’s his legacy.” known to damage the inner ear, perhaps and bulky metal box to which early pro- But no one felt the weight of the his vestibular system had been harmed. A totypes had to be connected. With a min- implications more than Bach-y-Rita. training session with the balance device iaturized circuit board about one-third its After his pioneering studies of brain plas- was soon arranged. original size, BrainPort has shrunk to the ticity and sensory substitution, he waited “It just seemed obvious to all of us, size of a video cartridge and hangs com- thirty years for technology to catch up including Paul, that this was something fortably around the neck. to his vision. Even more time would pass he should try,” says Tyler. With sales of the balance device before his “crazy ideas” gained accep- Schiltz, who had moved from being under way, research has resumed on tance in mainstream medical science. Wicab’s head test subject to its first vision substitution. Just as her predeces- With BrainPort now opening up a wealth clinical coordinator, was there to help sors did in earlier years, an energetic of additional possibilities, Bach-y-Rita Bach-y-Rita during an early session. As young scientist named Aimee Arnoldus- would have loved nothing more than to he stood with the device in his mouth, the sen brings blind subjects into Wicab’s chase them all himself. man Schiltz considers her hero wobbled offices, her work supported by a grant obtained by Bach-y-Rita. so much that she hovered behind him, Madeline Fisher PhD’98 has made a leap of her hands out, to catch him should he fall. Studies of the balance device also own — from bench scientist to science writer. She Eventually she felt comfortable enough continue. Having stayed with Wicab now reports on UW-Madison research for University Communications. to sit behind Bach-y-Rita in a chair. through the transition, today Danilov

34 ON WISCONSIN 34 ON WISCONSIN PALANI MOHAN/GETTY IMAGES

The modern-day slave trade is one of the world’s largest

criminal industries, trafficking as many as 800,000 peo-

ple across international borders each year. But the trade

is shrouded in confusion, and the struggle to halt it

begins with the struggle to understand it. By John Allen

Jessica Sewall Ebbeler ’03 had been in Africa less than a month before she had her first opportunity to buy a human being. She was staying at the YMCA in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, and like many YMCAs, it offered a temporary home in an area that was both inexpensive and crime-ridden. Still, Ebbeler felt safe enough in the neighborhood, even though, with her blond hair, fair skin, and Midwestern accent, she was obviously not a local. Most people in Lagos, she maintains, are very friendly. “I was walking down the street one morning,” she says, “and I saw a man with a little baby, and I told him I thought she was beautiful. He was standing a few yards off, but he called out hello and came over. He told me that the baby’s mother was dead and that he couldn’t take care of her on his own. And then he asked me if I would take her — for a price.”

SPRING 2007 35 This was a problem. Not so much Bush has declared it “a form of modern- passed the Victims of Trafficking and because buying a child is illegal — day slavery” and says that “future gen- Violence Protection Act in 2000, and Ebbeler had few qualms with violating erations will not excuse those who turn the same year, the UN adopted the the letter of the law, when the moment a blind eye to it.” Palermo Protocols, which include an agreement to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons. Yet the According to a 2006 report from the U.S. State Department, State Department’s numbers are no between 600,000 and 800,000 people are taken across interna- lower than the ones Congress cited seven years ago, indicating that these tional borders against their will each year, and “these numbers changes have had little effect. do not include the millions of victims around the world who are Still, Ebbeler and many like her are determined to do what they can to fight trafficked within their own national borders.” Some 80 percent of trafficking. The individuals introduced those victims are female; as many as half of them are children. here aren’t trying to solve the whole problem. Rather, each is trying to elimi- nate a different element of uncertainty called for it. She’d bribed her fi rst police According to a 2006 report from in the hope of creating a world where offi cer on day three in Nigeria, after the the U.S. State Department, between babies aren’t sold on street corners. machine-gun-toting cop had threatened 600,000 and 800,000 people are taken to impound the car that she and two across international borders against colleagues were driving. The law wasn’t their will each year, and “these numbers the problem — her mission was. She’d do not include the millions of victims gone to Africa specifi cally to fi ght traf- around the world who are trafficked  fi cking in humanity, not to take part within their own national borders.” in it. But faced with an actual person Some 80 percent of those victims are 
 
 offering to sell another, she froze. female; as many as half of them are



 “I bolted,” she says. With a polite children. In all, the State Department No, thank you, she turned and walked estimates that there are somewhere For Jessica Sewall Ebbeler, the great- away as quickly as she could. It was between 4 million and 27 million people est challenge of trafficking lies in help- not, she reflects now, her most shining in the world who are currently enslaved. ing its victims find a path to recovery. moment — though she’s far from cer- But no one really knows for certain. “They’ve lost their connections to fam- tain of what a better course would have Not only are traffickers considered ily, education, community, and liveli- been. criminals, but quite often, so are their hood,” she says. “It’s almost impossible “Maybe I should have accepted the victims. They may be seen as undocu- for them to reintegrate to society.” baby,” she says. “I could have taken mented migrant laborers or illegal aliens But when she went to Africa in the her to some service so that she wouldn’t or one of the many euphemisms that summer of 2006, she wasn’t aiming to have been with a guy who was trying to often veil prostitution: mail-order brides reintegrate anyone. Instead, her offi- pawn her off on strangers. On the other from Russia, massagy girls in Japan, cial goals were quite modest. With her hand, I don’t even know if his story was jinateras in Cuba. With both perpetra- UW degree in international relations true — or if the baby was even his. I tors and victims suspicious of authority, and political science, and as a gradu- guess I kind of freaked out. I’m a little the crime is almost impossible to gauge ate student at Georgetown University’s ashamed of that.” in any way. Public Policy Institute, she took a job Uncertainty seems to be the watch- But though accurate numbers are with a Washington-based human-rights word when it comes to the crime of hard to come by, there’s a growing organization called the Advocacy Proj- human trafficking — defined by the perception, both in the United States ect. That organization gave her the United Nations as the taking, transfer- and abroad, that human trafficking is assignment of serving as a combina- ring, or receiving of people by force on the rise, due perhaps to an increas- tion intern, adviser, and advocate for or fraud for purposes of exploitation, ingly globalized economy, or rising WOCON, the Women’s Consortium whether sexual, financial, or in some sophistication in organized crime, or of Nigeria, which tries to educate and other manner. The only thing people the crumbling structure of poor states rehabilitate the victims of trafficking. agree about is that it’s terrible. Congress — or perhaps all three. In recent years, “My job was to help with their public calls it “an evil requiring concerted and various organizations have made efforts relations,” she says. “I was supposed to vigorous action.” President George to crack down on trafficking. Congress prepare press releases, set up outreach

36 ON WISCONSIN programs, and create a Web site to help boats would carry them across the to them.” them get their message out.” Strait of Gibraltar to Spain. There, if But such rehabilitation is vital if Ebbeler’s work for the Advocacy they were spotted by police or customs victims are to be kept from falling into Project ran into problems almost imme- or immigration officials, they might be the hands of traffickers again. This was diately. With only three employees to arrested, or their boats might be driven made clear to Ebbeler by a twenty- organize its efforts in more than twenty back to Africa. three-year-old woman who didn’t want countries, the Advocacy Project has If traffickers successfully evaded her help at all. extremely limited resources, annd so or bribed officials, they could then Arrested on her first attempt to Ebbeler’s pre-trip preparations were easily move their human cargo across get to Europe, she was determined to “pretty short and sweet, as far as train- Europe’s open borders. The victims sell herself to traffickers again. When ing goes,” she says. Ebbeler spoke with had been found not Ebbeler asked her what she hoped to As English is Nigeria’s official lan- just in Spain but also in Italy, Germany, do, the woman indicated that her only guage, she’d learned none of the local and Denmark. plan was to return to prostitution. tongues — of which there are more than Some might be placed under the “I’m a woman,” she told Ebbeler. five hundred. Nor was she prepared for control of a family or a farm or — most “What do you expect?” the difficulties of setting up a Web site often — a pimp. And then the victims in a country where Internet service is were lost to the world, knowing that spotty at best, and where there are only any attempt to appeal to public author- about 5 million Internet users, less than ity would likely end in their arrest and     4 percent of the population. deportation. But the Advocacy Project did give “One woman I spoke with was held 
  her contacts with WOCON and with in Turin [Italy] for ten years,” Ebbeler    the National Agency for the Prohibition says. “When she arrived, she was basi- of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), the cally given a short miniskirt and a bra “A major obstacle [in combating human governmental group that operates Nige- and told to go out on the street and bring trafficking] is in finding a way to quan- ria’s six shelters for trafficking victims. in at least $100 a day. If she didn’t bring tify it,” says Laura Antuono MA’06. Ebbeler began talking with victims, that money back, she would be beaten “There’s no universal standard record. who, she says, were more open with her and her family back in Nigeria was To even estimate, you’ve got to sift than they were with NAPTIP’s employ- threatened — her mother actually died of through the different reporting systems ees. “The counselors didn’t do much a heart attack after one of these attacks.” of different governments and non- actual counseling,” she says. “It was Told that she would make more governmental organizations.” more like babysitting. They just let the money if she worked without condoms, For Antuono, this uncertainty poses girls watch TV. One [counselor] actu- the woman eventually contracted HIV, a danger — a threat that trafficking ally told me that [the victims’] problem and when she was deported back to won’t be taken seriously. She’s spent was that they were overconfident and Nigeria in 2004, her family would have much of her short professional life needed to be tamed.” nothing to do with her. researching trafficking, and for her, the first step in the fight is coming up with “One woman I spoke with was held in Turin [Italy] for ten years. accurate numbers. Credibility is in short supply when When she arrived, she was basically given a short miniskirt and it comes to measuring the modern slave a bra and told to go out on the street and bring in at least $100 trade. “Due to its clandestine nature,” reports the UN’s Global Programme a day. If she didn’t bring that money back, she would be beaten Against Trafficking in Human Beings, and her family back in Nigeria was threatened — her mother “accurate statistics on the magnitude of the human trafficking problem at any actually died of a heart attack after one of these attacks.” level are elusive and unreliable.” The State Department’s estimates on the total number of victims — from As she listened, she began to collect “It’s very challenging to do reha- as low as 4 million to as high as 27 mil- trafficking narratives. She heard the bilitation with victims,” says Ebbeler. lion — illustrate how difficult it is to stories of how victims were transported “They’ve suffered a great deal, and find reliable statistics. With a range so to Europe — driven north across the they’re afraid of the consequences of broad, how can one believe the numbers Sahara desert to Morocco, where small talking to people about what’s happened at all?

SPRING 2007 37 Credibility, Antuono knows, is a aimless. There were no discernible pat- oversight — that if prostitution is well- key to making people understand the terns — victims were coming from just regulated to keep it free from criminal importance of the trafficking problem. about everywhere and being sent every- influence, then trafficking can be fought A former employee of the UN’s Office where.” separately. But even in places where prostitution is legal and regulated, such as the Netherlands, traffickers do a “Castro’s government had held up prostitution as a symbol booming business supplying sex work- of the corruption of capitalism, but I was surprised at how ers. Our government’s position is that prostitution and trafficking are inher- widespread it was. Cuba has a thriving sex tourism ently linked, and I identify with that.” industry, and some of the women I worked with were In such a vision, no anti-trafficking program can be effective if it condones highly qualified professionals, and yet they were engaging in prostitution. But others feel there’s prostitution to supplement their income.” room to see nuances. “In theory it’s quite simple,” says Araceli Alonso, a lecturer in the wom- for Project Services, she saw her first That lack of clarity has undermined en’s studies department. “Prostitution is victims of human trafficking while the ability of people like Antuono to work, and sexual trafficking is slavery. researching labor rights in Serbia in the raise public attention about traffick- The former implies consent, freedom of aftermath of the Kosovo conflict. ing. Now a political analyst in another choice. The latter doesn’t.” While driving down the street in a branch of government, she continues to Properly defining the problem, town south of Belgrade, Antuono and a agitate for action. Alonso believes, is the first step in co-worker spotted a woman on a street “People wonder why I make such solving it — and she’s hoping to teach corner. Antuono, who had never seen a a big deal about trafficking when there UW students to carefully consider that prostitute, wondered aloud if that was are other problems to face,” Antuono definition. She created a course in sex what she was. Her colleague told her says. “My co-workers talk about terror- trafficking in the summer of 2006, and no, not a “normal prostitute,” Antuono ism, war, and drug trafficking, and they it has been renewed for the summer of says — she was a slave. “I said I’d never don’t give a high priority to human traf- 2007. heard of anything so horrible. My co- ficking. They think I’m a bit obsessed. Alonso’s interest in trafficking, and worker just kind of rolled her eyes as And I guess they’re right.” in the distinction between free and though I’d had my head in the clouds enslaved prostitution, began during not to see this.” research she conducted in Cuba. An When she returned to the United anthropologist by training, Alonso went States, Antuono was determined to do 
   there to study how women’s roles and something to fight the slave trade. She conditions had changed during the five entered the La Follette School of Pub- 
 
decades of Fidel Castro’s rule. One of lic Affairs, working toward a degree 
  the most striking things she noticed was in international public affairs. In 2005, how common prostitution was, even she secured an internship at the State Accurate numbers are so difficult to though it was nominally illegal. Department office that is tasked with come by in part because it can be hard “Castro’s government had held up producing annual Trafficking in Persons to define exactly when a person is a vic- prostitution as a symbol of the corrup- Reports; that year’s report came out tim and when one isn’t. Sexual exploi- tion of capitalism, but I was surprised shortly before Antuono began her work, tation — such as Laura Antuono saw at how widespread it was,” she says. and she was on staff while numbers in Serbia and Jessica Sewall Ebbeler “Cuba has a thriving sex tourism were being compiled for the 2006 report, heard about in Nigeria — is a particu- industry, and some of the women I which came out last summer. Her expe- larly difficult field. Are prostitutes, for worked with were highly qualified riences there provided material for an instance, free-acting sex workers, or are professionals, and yet they were article she’s preparing on the methods of they trafficking victims? engaging in prostitution to supplement gathering statistics on trafficking. For Antuono, trained at the State their income.” “I started trying to chart it at one Department, the answer is straightfor- In some ways, her experience point, making ticks on a big map of ward. “There are those who say that in Cuba helped form her view that the world for each origin country and women have a right to work in pros- prostitution, “when it doesn’t involve destination country, but eventually I titution,” she says. “They see the key or imply force or slavery,” ought not gave up,” says Antuono. “It seemed problem as one of proper government to be defined as trafficking, and she

38 ON WISCONSIN attempted to impress that distinction on “Some of the women know what a multilingual hotline for victims, pro- her students. they’re getting into,” Fujiwara says. viding counseling in Japanese, Korean, However, Alonso’s experience in “But others think they’re coming to be Thai, Chinese, Tagalog, and English; it’s Cuba also served to open her eyes to the singers. They often end up forced into provided training for police and social difficulties of the issue. While the dis- prostitution.” service workers to help them recognize tinction between prostitution as a freely For her, the most important way and aid victims of trafficking; and it’s chosen profession and sexual slavery to fight human trafficking is to build launched a public awareness campaign may be clear in a classroom setting, in public awareness of the practice and its to encourage Japanese citizens to see the real world, it’s far more cloudy. victims so that her countrymen will see the harm that trafficking does. “A woman may become a prostitute and hear its effects. And yet, she says, it’s been difficult by her own free will, then over time find A native of Tokyo, Fujiwara grew to make progress in altering perceptions. herself bound by debts or by violence up in a culture that, she says, feels an Some 90 percent of the calls the hotline into a state of slavery,” she says. “The equal obsession and social distaste receives are from women involved in the whole issue is very complex.” for sex, a combination that feeds the sex industry, which sets her organization nation’s thriving trade in human flesh. in opposition to the Japanese reticence “Sexual issues and gender issues are to discuss sexual matters. As her orga- taboo here,” Fujiwara says. “No one nization is a nonprofit and depends on 
 talks about them, but sex is a huge part charitable donations for its ability to of the entertainment industry. Yet when provide service to victims, it’s had a hard   I was growing up, I didn’t even notice it time meeting its potential. So far, she    — I couldn’t see it clearly until after I’d estimates that the hotlines have taken left.” about two hundred calls. Nowhere is the confusion over defini- At the age of seventeen, Fujiwara “It’s been very difficult,” she says. tions more profound than in Japan, came to the United States for an edu- “Most of our supporters have been from where the adult entertainment industry cation at the UW, where she earned a foreign countries. It’s a sensitive issue, is vast, including not only pornography, sex shops, and nominally illegal prosti- tution, but also “hostesses” — women By some estimates, as many as a quarter of the women in employed in bars to pour drinks, make Japan between the ages of twenty and twenty-four have worked conversation, and occasionally date customers. Such dates may or may or currently work in the adult-entertainment industry. not include sex in one form or another It’s a spectacular — and not entirely credible — number. — and the choice doesn’t always belong to the hostess. But official documentation makes it clear that Japan is a According to the International Labour Offi ce, Japan’s adult-entertain- destination for adult-entertainment workers. ment industry accounts for as much as 10 trillion yen ($84 billion) a year. degree in international studies. On her and sometimes it takes a foreigner to see “By some estimates, as many as occasional returns, she would notice the a Japanese problem.” a quarter of the women in Japan prevalence of sex shops and brothels Despite the difficulty, Fujiwara feels between the ages of twenty and — businesses she had seen many times that it’s important to keep fighting. “A twenty-four have worked or currently but never recognized for what they lot of women my age say they can’t stop work in the adult-entertainment indus- were. “As a woman,” she says, “it was [sex trafficking], because in Japan, we try,” says Shihoko Fujiwara ’03, direc- shocking to me, and I felt ashamed that have a huge demand for sex,” she says, tor of the Japanese Campaign Against I hadn’t seen it.” and she notes that her country has few Traffi cking. It’s a spectacular — and That sense of shame is part of what restrictions on its sex industry. not entirely credible — number. But drove her to seek a job with the Polaris “Exploiting women and children offi cial documentation makes it clear Project, a Washington-based organi- through the sex industry is a low-risk, that Japan is a destination for adult- zation devoted to combating human high-profit way of making business,” entertainment workers. As recently as trafficking. In 2004, she returned to says Fujiwara. “But I don’t want my 2004, more than 82,000 women from Tokyo to launch Polaris’s first over- children to grow up seeing violence and the Philippines alone were granted seas initiative, the Japanese Campaign sex workers everywhere.” “entertainer visas,” which enabled Against Trafficking. Under Fujiwara’s them to work in Japan as hostesses. leadership, the campaign has launched John Allen is senior editor of On Wisconsin Magazine.

SPRING 2007 39 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, WHI-41338

40 ON WISCONSIN Dear Mrs. Hazard For more than three decades beginning in the 1930s, Wisconsin women welcomed a teacher, counselor, and friend into their farm kitchens each morning – via a warm voice on the radio.

BY ERIKA JANIK MA’04, MA’06

ife on a Wisconsin farm in the waist dresses — yes, even on the radio. early 1930s began before sunrise. Chosen to host the program in 1933, LBy dawn, a rural woman had Hazard would become one of the Home- tended to animals and other outside farm makers’ Program’s guiding forces and its chores before going inside to begin her most recognizable voice for thirty-two household tasks. Few farms had running years. A cross between today’s Martha water, so she pumped water from the cis- Stewart and Oprah Winfrey, Hazard tern to fill the reservoir of the great black served as both a knowledgeable educator range for the day’s meals. She prepared on modern homemaking and a trusted rolls for their leisurely rise toward din- friend who helped to form a community ner and scooped up piles of work clothes among thousands of lonely, isolated Wis- for the wash bin. Dropping a handful of consin farm women. cinnamon sticks into a pot of simmering Until the mid-twentieth century, apples on their way toward becoming homemaking was a respected — and, applesauce, she reached above the icebox frankly, expected — full-time occupa- and turned the knob on her radio just in tion for women. The diligent homemaker time to hear a cheerful greeting: “Good studied cooking, cleaning, and child care morning, homemakers!” to attain, according to Hazard’s autobiog- Six mornings a week, starting raphy, For Love of Mike, a “more beautiful promptly at ten o’clock, Aline Hazard and worthwhile Wisconsin homelife.” greeted women across the state on WHA Census records show that in the Radio’s Homemakers’ Program. Hazard, an 1930s, most Wisconsin women lived on authoritative home economist at the Uni- farms, and while certainly not working versity of Wisconsin, and her colleagues for pay, almost all women worked both instructed the unprepared Wisconsin inside and outside the home. While her homemaker on how to pickle, prepare husband and sons worked in the fields, frozen food, select a washing machine, she cooked, cleaned, and mended cloth- and countless other household tasks. All ing. She also preserved meat, baked the while, she sported perfectly coifed bread, churned butter, tended the gar- hair, fashionable hats, and starched shirt- den, canned fruits and vegetables, raised

All ears: Aline Hazard, left, brought the UW directly into Wisconsin homes by serving as the beloved host of WHA Radio’s Homemakers’ Program for more than three decades. She often broadcast her stories from the field. During this interview circa 1957, a woman at a deer farm in Cornell, Wisconsin, described the earrings she made from acorns and pine cones and sold at the farm’s gift shop.

SPRING 2007 41 Wisconsin product!), or the way to turn WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, WHI-23498 “quick as a flash canned beets” into a “meal to remember.” Even the dowdy pot roast, a Midwestern farmhouse staple, could become the center of attention with the right salad, vegetables, and relish accompaniment. Besides recipes, Hazard introduced listeners to new kitchen conveniences — and in 1940, one of those was frozen food. That dinner could be made using hard-frozen blocks, yet taste good, was a startling idea. Hazard’s show taught listeners how to use such products by couching the “lesson” within dramatic episodes that imitated the newly invented radio soap opera. “Over at Our House” starred Janet, a young housewife, and her husband, Vic, who were saved time Learning for listeners: Aline Hazard, visiting a sorghum mill in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in and again by the homemaking knowl- this undated photo, liked doing firsthand reporting for her radio show’s devoted audience of Wisconsin farm women. edge of Vic’s sister, Helen. The episode “Fast Frozen Foods are New,” included chickens, and, sometimes, even worked Relying on the talents of women in in Hazard’s personal papers at the Wis- in the fields herself. All tasks were per- the departments of home economics and consin Historical Society, found Helen formed largely without electrical appli- agricultural journalism, Andrew Hop- enjoying dinner at Vic and Janet’s house. ances, gas, or running water. kins, chair of agricultural journalism, VIC: “By the way, Jan, these buttered The full-time homemaker was an created the Homemakers’ Program, seeing peas are awfully good.” icon, an ideal that women could strive early on the potential of radio to reach JANET: “Thank you, I’m glad you like to reach, even if not perfectly attain. rural women who spent the majority of them. They’re some of those fast fro- Although program guides in the Wis- their daytime hours isolated from other zen peas. It’s the first time I’ve ever consin Historical Society archives show adults. The women of the Homemakers’ tried them.” that the Homemakers’ Program covered Program were trained in the latest techno- VIC: “Taste just about like fresh peas such topics as the correct composition of logical approaches to home and family, from the garden to me.” a casserole and the many uses of cottage helping to bridge the gap between the JANET: (laughing) “Only I didn’t have cheese in summer salads, Hazard’s phi- university and the farm. to spend hours shelling them like I do losophy of homemaking went far deeper: The program was not the only show when we have peas that come from she believed that proper technique and on the radio dial geared toward women. the garden.” modern technology — such as wash- Yet the others focused on specific skills HELEN: “No, you certainly don’t have all ing machines and frozen food — would — parenting on the Parents Magazine of the that bother with frozen foods. You vastly improve the lives of rural women. Air, sewing on Let’s Make a Dress, cooking put the vegetables right into the boil- The Homemakers’ Program had been on the The Mystery Chef, and household ing water when they’re still frozen, created in 1929 by WHA Radio and the efficiency on The Wife Saver. Only WHA’s don’t you?” UW College of Agriculture to spread this Homemakers’ Program — like the home- JANET: “Um hm. That’s what the direc- very message. Until then, WHA Radio makers themselves — tried to do it all. tions on the package said. I used just had periodically broadcast farm programs Under Hazard’s direction, the pro- enough boiling water to barely cover with domestic themes such as “Taking gram featured interviews and roundtables the vegetables. What’s the idea of put- the Drudgery out of House Cleaning.” with UW specialists and community lead- ting ice cold food into boiling water?” Reaching residents in all corners of ers who cheerfully provided advice, all VIC: “Sure sounds kind of funny.” Wisconsin was a central concern of the punctuated with music. HELEN: “Oh, there’s a reason for that ... extension service in the 1920s, accord- Because food preparation was a daily You see, as long as the food is frozen, ing to UW historian Rima Apple MA’74, activity for women, the program’s content it stays about the same as it was just PhD’81, and the UW College of Agri- centered on recipes and cooking tips. before the freezing, but as soon as it culture had come to depend upon radio Listeners tuned in to learn the secret to starts to thaw ... that’s a different story.” broadcasts to spread useful information. “glamorizing” carrots (try honey, a good Helen went on to explain the

42 ON WISCONSIN Only WHA’s Homemakers’ Program — like the homemakers themselves — tried to do it all. many benefits and uses of frozen foods on in Wisconsin homes: “Is it safe to eat Today, the educational underpinnings to the budget-minded, busy homemaker. rabbits that have spotted livers?” And “I of the Homemakers’ Program live on in Recognizing that few Wisconsin farm- have taken all the tubes out of the TV and WHA’s Conversations with Larry Meiller. “My women would have freezers to prepare cleaned them. There is no picture to fol- mission is to make people’s lives easier by or keep frozen foods, Alice Hantke ’31, low, so now I don’t know how to put them sharing information that’s useful and enter- MS’38, the show’s writer and closing back. If I make the wrong combinations, taining,” says Meiller ’67, MS’68, PhD’77, commentator, suggested that food could will it be apt to hurt the sound?” who views his show as a direct descendant be stored in communal cold storage Hazard’s speaking voice also capti- of Hazard’s. “We are a local medium that lockers until needed — perhaps not the vated listeners as they went about their serves the needs and interests of Wisconsin handiest place for food meant to be a con- daily tasks. “Your quiet, well-modulated people and no one else. venience for busy homemakers. voice floating out over my refrigerator in “I’m no different from my listeners,” Other episodes included lessons on the busy morning will inevitably catch my he adds. “We are all looking for solutions cleaning in “Making the House ‘Spic and attention, and serious listening begins,” and help from knowledgeable people, Span’ ” and “Scouring Makes Kitchen wrote Rose Link ’73 of Madison. Wrote and I think that creates a bond between Utensils Shine”; on health in “Making another woman in Janesville, Wiscon- listeners and the host.” Ordinary Colds Uncommon”; and on sin: “Thank you so much, Mrs. Hazard, The bond with Hazard was undeniably clothing in “Fashionable Shoes That Fit” you can say everything so nice and strong. In a culture that rarely acknowl- and “Dress Styles Borrow from History.” warm-heartedly, [it’s] no wonder people edged women’s work as essential or the Mail from Hazard’s avid listeners respond to you right away. I think you home as an important societal space, she poured into the studio. By 1962, she was must be one of the most beloved person- offered homemakers a sense of worth. receiving more than ten thousand letters alities on the radio.” “A woman confronting the world each year. They came from all over Wis- The program remained one of the has no greater resource than those she consin, as well as from Michigan, Iowa, most popular shows on WHA Radio finds within herself,” Hazard once wrote. Illinois, and Minnesota. The show even throughout the middle decades of the “What modern woman has to recapture received mail from states as far away as twentieth century. Hazard, who left the is the wisdom that just being a woman is Georgia, and from international fans in airwaves in June 1965, had added new her central task and her greatest honor. It Canada and Africa. Most listeners, many features to the program over the years is a task that challenges her whole char- of whose letters were kept among Hazard’s since joining it in 1933, but its underly- acter, intelligence, and imagination.” personal papers, requested recipes and ing purpose remained steadfast — to cooking tips. Others praised Hazard and bring women the latest domestic science Freelance writer Erika Janik MA’04, MA’06 has a the show for its impact on their daily lives. from experts at the UW. passion for Wisconsin history. For listeners, Hazard became a trusted friend they could rely upon for advice. Once a farm girl herself, Hazard brought a sympa- thetic voice to the plight of farm women struggling to make ends meet. The intimacy of radio created a sense of physical unity among listeners and made Hazard seem as close as the house next door. Listeners wrote to her for advice on anything and every- thing: “How long does a germ live?” ... “What color should I paint my house?” ... “May one brush teeth with salt instead of toothpaste, or does it scratch the enamel?” Some questions must have made Hazard wonder what was going

SPRING 2007 43 SPORTS

The Letter of the Law With millions on the line, the UW plays hardball on trademarks.

Bucky Badger enjoys torment- UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS ing opposing mascots on the TEAM PLAYER court of play, but what about Katrina in a court of law? That’s what Rundhaug some are saying about the uni- versity’s efforts to stop other Five things you should know schools from using its trade- about UW distance runner marked logos for their own Katrina Rundhaug x’08: sports teams. • A native of Dodgeville, UW’s enforcement efforts Wisconsin, Rundhaug initially drew ire in Waukee, Iowa — chose to run at the University where the high school’s purple of Minnesota, but, she says, uniforms bore a “Motion W” “wearing a Minnesota jersey similar to the one trademarked just didn’t feel right. Being by UW-Madison — and pro- from Wisconsin, I wanted to pelled the story into the run for the Badgers.” She national media. That prompted transferred to the UW her alumni around the country to sophomore year. rat out other high school teams that are using the logo in states • After nearly sitting out including New Jersey, Ohio, this season as a redshirt, she is Texas, and West Virginia. helping the UW hit a record But the controversy is not pace. In the fall, she finished the classic David versus Goliath twenty-third at the NCAA match-up it’s been made out to cross-country championships, be. UW officials say it’s a mat- leading Wisconsin to fourth ter of picking smaller battles to place, the team’s highest fin- protect a valuable trademark ish since 1999. and avoid losing rights to it altogether. • Competing on three Badger A host of former trade- teams — cross country, and marks — kerosene, aspirin, yo- indoor and outdoor track and yo, and zipper, to name a few Picking their battles: UW officials say that going after entities that are field — requires year-round — fell into the public domain using the trademarked Motion W protects it from falling into the public training. During cross-country because the owners didn’t do domain — and costing nearly $2 million in lost royalties. season, she runs eighty to a good job of protecting them ninety miles a week. from use by others. The Motion an intellectual property attor- vision coverage of the NCAA • Rundhaug finds room to run W could meet the same fate if ney with Dewitt, Ross & Stevens Basketball Tournament in 1982 at the UW Arboretum, where, the university doesn’t protect it in Madison who also teaches after announcer Brent Mus- she says, there are as a trademark, says Cindy Van UW law students about trade- burger referred to the Final “no distractions, Matre ’83, the UW’s director marks and copyright. Four games as “March Mad- really. of trademark licensing. “If you don’t enforce ness” on the air. The Illinois It’s all soft “It could be considered your marks — even in ques- organization did nothing to ground, and to become a generic mark so tions like this, where there are challenge the network’s use of you don’t that any third party could arguments on both sides as to the catchphrase for a decade, notice how use the logo any way they whether the marks are truly and a federal appeals court long you’re wanted,” she says. infringed — if you don’t try to ultimately ruled in 1996 that running.” Other would-be users of enforce your mark and stomp CBS and the association jointly the logo, Van Matre adds, that out, you could lose rights owned the trademark. • Her best “could turn around and say to it,” Fieschko says. “Basically, the university is event is the ‘Well, you let all these high Take the phrase “March a bit afraid of a similar situa- 10K, but ulti- schools use it, and you didn’t Madness,” which was first tion here,” Fieschko says. mately, she’s looking to go seem to care.’ “ adopted by the Illinois High If the UW doesn’t police farther. She hopes to compete There’s precedent for School Basketball Association how high schools are using the in next year’s Olympic Trials that concern, explains Craig in the 1940s. It took hold as a logo, he says, those teams could as a marathoner. Fieschko ’89, MS’91, JD’94, marketing tool for CBS’s tele- legally tie their own identity to

46 ON WISCONSIN SPORTS

it, including selling merchandise school bands, according to the have fought it and people who such as clothing or class rings UW Marching Band’s Web site. stepped up and said it’s no dif- Some in the college basketball that bear the Motion W. Waukee school officials ferent than pirating software world were scratching their “If the horse bolts the sta- thought their choice of the and pirating music.” heads and wondering, “Where ble, it’s hard to bring it back,” purple W, which bears striking Meanwhile, the university did these guys come from?” But he says. similarity in font and design is allowing Waukee to phase any Kohl Center denizen could UW ranks fifteenth for mer- to UW’s logo, would be just as out use of the logo to avoid tell you that the Badger men’s chandise royalties among the innocuous. The school adopted any financial burden, and the hoops team has made a long more than two hundred colleges the logo after dropping an school district has asked the and steady climb to national and universities represented by image of an Indian warrior to Collegiate Licensing Company prominence, capped by an envi- the Collegiate Licensing Com- be sensitive to Native Ameri- to review its proposed new able 2006-07 season. The path pany, which helps schools handle cans. “The irony is we were try- W before moving ahead with to March Madness has been legal issues connected to trade- ing to do the right thing,” says ordering new uniforms or other strewn with accolades for coach mark infringement. Waukee Superintendent David equipment. Bo Ryan’s Badgers, who spent Wisconsin generated nearly Wilkerson. The community, he Wilkerson says the ordeal, the season jostling for poll rank- $2 million in royalties from its says, was dismayed that using without a doubt, has alerted ings with perennial powers such trademark licensing program a letter of the alphabet — not more schools and the public to as UCLA and North Carolina. in 2005–06, the highest total in Bucky Badger himself — was protected trademarks. The numerical benchmarks were the program’s history. under dispute. “You’re not just free to all there: national player of the More than four hundred “I kept telling people this grab them willy-nilly as you see year candidate Alando Tucker companies pay for licenses to is a learning experience for fit,” he says. surpassed 2,000 career points; for sell items featuring Wisconsin everybody,” he says. “We have — Jenny Price ’96 the fifth time in six seasons, the logos — provided university people who think we should Badgers won at least ten Big Ten officials don’t find them to be games; and, as of mid-February, in bad taste. That means die- Wisconsin had been ranked in hard fans can buy everything the top ten for thirteen weeks, from dog collars to windshield IN SEASON something that had happened ice scrapers to rubber duckies Softball for just six weeks previously in to toilet seats with Wisconsin school history. logos. Officials did reject a With five seniors and four juniors on the sixteen-woman roster, proposal to use the Motion the UW softball Badgers can rely on experience to improve upon Senior offensive tackle Joe W on casket liners, something last year’s 22-22 mark. But they can also turn to youth: freshman Thomas received the Outland other schools have approved. infielder Katie Soderberg is coming off an experience with the Trophy in December, becoming Before Bucky Badger was Canadian Junior National Team, which placed fourth at last year’s the first UW player to earn the licensed in 1988, Van Matre Pan American championships. honor as college football’s top says, the mascot could be found interior lineman. He also was Circle the dates: March on everything from condoms SPORTS INFORMATION (2) named to the first-team offense to obscene T-shirts, which have 27, Badgers play their first on AP’s All-American Team, joining popped up on eBay. home game of the season eight fellow Big Ten players on Licensing royalties are against Loyola College at the team roster. The Badgers divided equally between the Goodman Diamond; May finished the season with a 12-1 Athletic Department and the 10, Big Ten Tournament. record and captured a 17-14 win Bucky Grants scholarship pro- over Arkansas in the Capital One gram, which provides financial Keep an eye on: Senior Bowl on January 1. The Badgers’ assistance to low-income stu- Eden Brock, who pitched twelve wins — the most in a season dents, many of whom are the a no-hitter against UW- — came under the direction of first in their families to attend Parkside to win the UW- first-year head coach Bret Bielema. college. Since 1994, the pro- Green Bay Fall Invitational gram has provided $6.5 million in October. The women’s cross country to 2,800 students. team finished fourth at the When it comes to “On, Think about this: Only NCAA championship race in Wisconsin,” the university’s two Wisconsin pitchers Terre Haute, Indiana, capturing fight song, it’s a distinctly dif- have thrown a no-hitter its first NCAA trophy since 1999. ferent situation. Rumors once during the regular spring Meanwhile, at the same venue, abounded on campus that Paul season: Ashley Fauser the men’s cross country Badgers McCartney or Michael Jackson ’99, in 1999, and Andrea came up just short in their owned the rights to the song, Kirchberg ’03, who threw attempt to defend last season’s but it has been in the public two no-hitters, including Eden Brock’s thirty starts in the 2006 NCAA championship, finishing domain since 1984. It is per- a perfect game during the season put her in a second-place tie second to Colorado. formed by thousands of high 2001 season. in the Big Ten.

SPRING 2007 47 PHILANTHROPY

Polishing a Gem Throughout the years, this couple has loved campus natural areas.

Friday, October 13, 1972, was a sunny sixty-five degrees — per-

fect for a stroll to Picnic Point BOB RASHID (2) and a wedding. Thirty friends and family of Terry Kelly ’71 and Mary Waller Kelly ’76 walked through the iron gate in the stone fence and up the leaf-strewn path to the old apple orchard. As a flutist played, guests watched Terry and Mary exchange their vows in what Philanthropic investment Terry calls a typical “hippie in UW-Madison promises to wedding.” The group then gathered at Porta Bella, where provide a tremendous return as the the wedding feast — costing university applies its resources to a staggering $4.95 per person — featured, according to Mary, bring greater understanding of our “really bad pink champagne.” Thirty-four years later, world and to find answers to society’s Picnic Point and the entire Lake- most critical problems. For more shore Nature Preserve remain important to the Kellys. “When information about the University we were students, we would of Wisconsin Foundation, pack a picnic lunch and sit in the apple orchard,” says Terry. call (608) 263-4545. “Generations of students like us met there, dreamed there, fell in love there. I suppose we thought it was always there and Through a family foundation, Terry and Mary Kelly, here walking at always would be the same.” Picnic Point, are funding outreach efforts to teach others about pre- The future that the Kellys serving campus natural areas. “Generations of students like us met began to shape on their wed- there, dreamed there, fell in love there. I suppose we thought it was ding day came to include three always there and always would be the same,” says Terry. accomplished sons and several successful businesses. Terry, a for- appreciation for the natural Explaining that two other mer Madison TV weathercaster, areas around Madison. major threats to the Lakeshore is chair and CEO of Weather “I used to think that benign Nature Preserve are storm water Central, Inc., and president and neglect, when it came to natu- runoff into University Bay and founder of Rhythm & Booms, ral spaces, was a good thing, “ encroaching urban develop- Madison’s famous Fourth of July Mary says. “Now I realize that ment, Terry says, “We need to event. The Kellys also are found- there needs to be a balance in work to resolve these issues to ing investors in progressive talk nature.” make [the preserve] the maxi- radio’s Air America. “It’s astonishing to look at mum jewel it can be.” Both the couple’s friendship some of the photos over time,” Like others actively involved with William Cronon ’76, pro- Terry says. “This area is like a with the preserve, the Kellys fessor of history, environmental beautiful old house that needs want to help safeguard these studies, and geography, and both preservation and loving areas so that future generations chair of the Lakeshore Nature renewal, including manag- can explore, discover, and create Preserve Committee, and their ing the vegetation so you can memories of their own. own commitment to the envi- see both [the point’s] natural Through their Kelly Fam- ronment, have deepened their beauty and the views from it.” ily Foundation, the Kellys are

58 ON WISCONSIN PHILANTHROPY

making a lead gift to endow slide presentation at our home, we all hope to be environmen- grants designated for under- he spent a good portion of the tally sensitive adults, but there graduate outreach efforts that following day exploring the is a need for cooperative pro- will teach people of all ages Lakeshore area along with gramming for students to help about the history, importance, several friends,” recalls Mary. them become aware of, and and preservation needs of this The Kellys take environmen- sensitive to, our environment,” natural area. tal education seriously. Terry Terry says. Terry and Mary have wit- helped to create — and serves Leopold himself expressed nessed in their own family how as chair of — the Aldo Leopold a wish that the Kellys are work- education can raise awareness Nature Center, the primary ing to fulfill: “When we see and interest in places like Picnic source for outreach environ- land as a community to which Point. “After our youngest son, mental education in southern we belong, we may begin to along with the rest of our fam- Wisconsin. “We have all these use it with love and respect.” ily, viewed Professor Cronon’s natural gems in Wisconsin, and — Merry Anderson

Lessons for a Lifetime Gift honors alumna’s remarkable teaching career.

How do we learn generosity? influence,” she says with a marching band and hearkens Laura Linden ’28, MA’29 giggle. back to her own exuberant thinks example is the most Linden continues to influ- youth. She proudly explains a memorable teacher. As a high ence young people. Several basketball injury that resulted school educator herself for years ago, seventh-graders in her crooked finger. forty-nine years, she knows a at Winnequah Middle School When choosing to make bit about delivering lessons in Monona, Wisconsin, inter- a gift, Linden relies on three that last a lifetime. Just shy of viewed a group of senior major influences: memories of her one hundredth birthday, citizens and wrote biogra- her happy student years, the Linden is still teaching phies, which they made into importance of making educa- by example. books. The three teenage girls tion accessible, and programs in Perhaps her dearest pupil assigned to Linden titled their the greatest need of support. is her niece, Nancy Johnson hand-illustrated publication, Born during Theodore Nicholas ’55. Nancy and her “The Joy of Giving.” Clearly Roosevelt’s presidency, Linden’s spouse, Ab Nicholas’52, they picked out the recurring life story unfolded against MBA’55, are devoted support- theme in her life. the backdrop of the dramatic ers of UW-Madison. Recently, “Laura has a passion for change that marked the twen- Nancy honored her aunt with giving. ... Her list of organiza- tieth century. As a teacher of a gift to the School of Human tions she donates to is like the languages, she gave thousands Ecology’s 100 Women cam- never-ending sky,” they wrote. of students a means to com- paign. Linden is one of the The list may not be quite municate with and understand first exceptional women for- that expansive, but it is exten- other cultures. She traveled the A gift to the 100 Women mally recognized in this ongo- sive. Linden’s gifts to UW- world, often by herself, and campaign is honoring Laura Linden, who, in a career that ing campaign as embodying Madison have aided a range had a few hair-raising adven- spanned five decades, taught the school’s mission of improv- of causes, from scholarships tures. She’s enjoyed the love her students by example. ing the quality of human life. to building projects, and from and companionship of family The gift is helping to build medical and health programs and friends. And she’s set an an expanded facility for the to the Arboretum and environ- example of generosity that will school and its students. mental initiatives. last many lifetimes. To be effective, a teacher “There is always a personal “We will never forget you,” must connect with students. reason for each gift,” she says. her young biographers wrote. Linden had the knack. She For example, the poster of the “You have inspired us all to be proudly shows visitors a birth- UW women’s basketball team the best people we can be.” day card she received from on the door of her room signals Another lesson delivered; someone she taught sixty years her enthusiastic support for new lives enriched. ago. “I must have had some Badger athletics and the — Merry Anderson

SPRING 2007 59 WAA NEWS

Kitchen Cabinet Dinners On Wisconsin bridges the generational divide.

The Dinners On Wisconsin pro- former Democratic Governor of thirty-two campaigns. “But gram is supposed to be simple Tony Earl and Jay Heck, head there are worse things than los- — a networking event to bring of the Wisconsin chapter of the ing,” added Earl, “like not play- students together with alumni nonpartisan advocacy group ing the game at all.” Earl won who are working in their field Common Cause. The idea was races for the legislature and of interest, so that the students that old pols would enlighten governor, but lost re-election can learn what the professional the students and encourage as governor and a primary race world is really like. But some- them to see politics as an hon- for U.S. Senate. times, the education can flow orable profession. The discussion stretched both ways. The students dining chez across decades, from Kraus About two dozen Din- Kraus in November already had talking about voting against ners On Wisconsin were held a good deal of political experi- Joe McCarthy at the 1954 state last November. Alumni pro- ence. Adam Schmidt x’08, of convention, to the students vide food, hospitality, and Campus Young Republicans, educating the oldsters on the experience; students bring served as a White House intern. role of Facebook in giving stu- enthusiasm and questions. The Lisbeth Zeggane x’08 worked dents an online way to support program, designed by the Wis- in the Washington, D.C., and candidates. consin Alumni Student Board Madison offices of U.S. Sena- “There’s a Facebook group (WASB), began in 2004. Accord- tor Russ Feingold ’75. Matt called ‘Barack Obama: Fun to ing to Aaron McCann x’07, Dulak x’08 spent the summer say and even more fun to sup- director of the group’s Alumni driving Lieutenant Governor port,’ ” Walker said. Connections Committee, it’s Barbara Lawton MA’91 to At the same time, the stu- helped more than five hundred campaign events. Rounding out dents said they are suspicious students dine with alumni dur- the group were Nicole Gulatz of political blogs, as most are ing the last three years. But it’s x’08, Nick Osiecki x’08, and too partisan to provide reli- the intergenerational conver- Heather Walker x’08. able information. The students sation that makes the events While they come from dif- get their political news from particularly delightful, as the ferent places on the political subscriptions to the Financial participants in one dinner, held spectrum, all share the same Times, the New York Times, days after the November elec- keen interest in government and the Washington Post. tion, discovered. — and they were happy to Osiecki, who is looking at a The setting was the historic share their thoughts on the career in television journalism, Spaight Street home of long- 2008 presidential election with favors MSNBC and CNN. time Republican operative Bill the gang of seasoned politicos. Some political talk didn’t Kraus ’49. His co-hosts were They offered a quick assess- translate between generations. ment of the field of candidates: Earl noted the narrow defeats Hillary — no. of Senators Conrad Burns of

BOB RASHID Condi — yes. Montana and George Allen of Barack — maybe. Virginia. Tommy Thompson ’63, “It’s interesting that the JD’66 — who? last Republicans standing were Mitt Romney, Evan Bayh, Burns and Allen,” he said, Bill Richardson, and John expecting laughter, but getting Edwards also got potential polite stares. “You know,” he thumbs up from the students. prompted. “Like George Burns Earl told them he’s known and Gracie Allen.” Barack Obama for years, as But his explanation only both are on the Joyce Founda- received more stares. tion board. Although Obama is Dinners On Wisconsin are now a member of the U.S. Sen- held twice annually, in April Fred Plotkin ’78 (right) talks music with alumni during Opera Up ate, Earl recalled that Obama’s and November. McCann says Close, a Wisconsin Alumni Lifelong Learning event held at Madison’s first run for Congress ended that WASB is looking for more Overture Center in January. Plotkin, a frequent commentator for National Public Radio and for the Metropolitan Opera International with “him getting his clock alumni to host. Those who are Radio Broadcasts, is the author of Opera 101. The event marked his cleaned. He lost two to one.” interested should contact him first return to Madison since graduating, and 132 alumni and friends “You’re going to lose,” said at [email protected]. of the UW attended his lecture. Kraus, by his count a veteran — Susan Lampert Smith ’82

48 ON WISCONSIN WAA NEWS

From Russia with Love New online course opens the UW’s doors to the public.

History will soon repeat itself, UW–MADISON ARCHIVES thanks to Wisconsin Alumni Lifelong Learning. A professor who last taught in the 1980s will lecture to students once more — not from behind a podium, but over the Internet, through a new online Russian history course geared for the general public. During the late 1950s, Michael Petrovich was a mul- timedia pioneer. The Russian history professor experimented with slide shows and recorded classes for broadcast on public television. These early endeav- ors in electronic teaching were tucked away for safekeeping in the UW archives, and Petrovich passed away in 1989. Half a century later, when the history department began digitizing the tapes, chair David McDon- In the 1950s, Michael Petrovich was a pioneer in multimedia teaching. In lectures such as this one, he ald realized that Petrovich’s drew upon the technology of the era, including slides and audio. lectures could be a powerful outreach tool. So he worked participants can share ideas on all over campus, and a lot with the Center for Russia, with each other. The Petrovich of groundbreaking work that East Europe, and Central Asia lectures offer a glimpse of how people in the state don’t hear (CREECA), the Division of Con- Americans thought about Rus- about.” sia during the Cold War, and A partnership between the tinuing Studies, and the Wis- Nominate 2008’s consin Alumni Association to clips from current UW profes- Wisconsin Alumni Association create an online course featur- sors explore today’s viewpoints. and the Division of Continu- Distinguished ing the Petrovich footage. “You don’t have to come ing Studies, the UW’s Osher Alumni “Big state public univer- to campus to learn from great Lifelong Learning Institute is Do you know a UW-Madison sities have an obligation to professors,” says Sarah Schutt, a membership organization grad who exemplifies the best discuss what we know with director of the UW’s Osher Life- that primarily serves Madison of the university? To nominate the citizens of our state,” says long Learning Institute. “People residents over the age of fifty. someone for a Distinguished McDonald, “and to try and can take this course on their It provides a variety of stimu- Alumni Award or Distinguished enrich their lives.” own time, in their own homes.” lating learning opportunities Young Alumni Award, which The lectures are available at Many of the Petrovich led by UW faculty members on recognizes graduates under the CREECA’s Web site, imp.lss.wisc. lectures were digitized from campus and across Wisconsin. age of forty, visit uwalumni. edu/~creeca, but the six-week their original reel-to-reel film After the launch of the Russian com/awards. The Wisconsin noncredit course, which began format, and just in the nick of history course, Schutt plans Alumni Association will accept in February and runs through time. After spending decades to offer more online topics, nominations for the 2008 March, helps add structure. It in the archives, some of the including fiction-writing and awards until October 15, 2007. explores the development of recordings are in danger of Wisconsin landscapes. A full the Communist movement in being lost to the damaging course schedule can be found Russia from 1883 to the present effects of time. This project at www.uwalumni.com/uwolli. through Petrovich’s lectures, may have helped to save a “These online courses open interviews with current UW priceless piece of UW history. the UW’s doors to everyone,” professors, and newspaper sto- “I hope people under- says Schutt. “Learning doesn’t ries from the 1950s. There are stand a tradition that Mike just stop once you’re done with two online lectures per week, really established here,” says school. It’s something you can recommended reading materi- McDonald. “There’s top-notch enjoy for a lifetime.” als, and a message board so research and teaching going — Erin Hueffner ’00

SPRING 2007 49 ALUMNI NEWS

Compiled by Paula Wagner founder, CFO, and chief engi- professional society. The honor Apfelbach ’83 neer of Wright Water Engi- recognizes Younkin’s nearly Is There Anything neers in Denver, he lectured fifty-year role as an innovator You’d Like to Tell Us? on the state’s flood-recovery in designing and producing 40s–50s effort, while Mike Nelson ’81 industrial control systems. Please share with us your recent hosted the ceremony. Wright He’s also a speaker, consultant, You couldn’t miss Roy Mersky notes that Nelson — of Den- author, and professional engi- achievements, transitions, and ’48, LLB’52, MS’53 (http:// ver’s ABC TV affiliate, KMGH neer at Bull’s Eye Research in other significant life happenings. tarlton.law.utexas.edu/mersky) — is the area’s “most popular Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. on the cover of UT Law maga- meteorologist.” Nan Vinson Rebholz You may e-mail the zine’s Winter 2006 issue — he Former U.S. secretary of ’58 of Portage, Wisconsin, is (brief, please) details to was the cover! Since 1965, this state Lawrence Eagleburger a branch on a family tree that author, professor, and law ’52, MS’57 was a member of now includes five generations [email protected]; librarian has led the Jamail the Iraq Study Group (ISG) and of Badgers. She’s the grand- mail them to Alumni News, Center for Legal Research at shared his duties with former daughter of Freda Stolte ’03 the University of Texas School Virginia Senator Charles Robb and George ’03 Vinson; the Wisconsin Alumni Association, of Law in Austin, and this ’61. The ISG’s charge was to daughter of Edward Vinson summer received the American assess the war in Iraq and pro- ’28; the mother of Robin Reb- 650 North Lake Street, Association of Law Librar- pose strategies for its future. holz Kvalo ’81, MS’98; and Madison, WI 53706-1476; or ies’ Marian Gould Gallagher Eagleburger, of Charlottesville, the grandmother of Matthew Distinguished Service Award. Virginia, is also chair of the Kvalo, who’s soon to be a UW fax them to (608) 265-8771. This fall, the UW’s School of International Commission on freshman. Other family connec- While space limitations Library and Information Stud- Holocaust Era Insurance Claims. tions include Russell Rebholz ies Alumni Association unani- Underwater photography ’32, MS’43, who was inducted prevent us from publishing mously selected Mersky has been a passion for Wilton into the UW’s Athletic Hall of every item we receive, as the recipient of one of Nelson ’54 for the past nine- Fame in 2000; Michael Kvalo its Centennial Celebration teen years, and recently he ’80; and David Vinson ’59, we do love hearing from you. Alumnus of the Year Awards. exhibited about one hundred MS’61, PhD’76, who served as From Max Andrae ’49 of his images at the Leesburg the UW’s director of admissions Please e-mail death notices of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, Center for the Arts in his home from 1977 until 1991. When and all address, name, came this message: “I wonder community of Leesburg, Florida. this family says, “Go, Badgers!” how [many] are privileged It’s book number sixteen they really mean it. telephone, and e-mail updates to to claim the following: UW … for author Jerald Hage ’55, World War II … UW. It was like an emeritus professor of sociol- [email protected]; beginning to learn, then three ogy who directs the Center for 60s mail them to Alumni Changes, years in the service and grow- Innovation at the University ing up fast, then privileged to of Maryland in College Park. C.J. (Constantin) “Gus” Wisconsin Alumni Association, try to be young again on the His new work is Innovation, Gianakaris PhD’61 of Portage, 650 North Lake Street, beautiful UW campus. Thanks, Science, and Institutional Michigan, brought us up-to- UW — we made it.” Andrae Change: A Handbook of date: he’s authored eight books Madison, WI 53706-1476; adds that he spent thirty-six Research (Oxford Press). during his career and retired in fax them to (608) 262-3332; or years with Consolidated Papers. If you loved reading 2004 as a professor of English This fall, Madisonian Beowulf at some point in your and theater at Western Michi- call them in to (608) 262-9648 Le Roy Dalton ’51, LLB’53 education, you can now revisit gan University in Kalamazoo. or toll free to (888) 947-2586. was inducted into the Court Grendel and friends through a In September, he received an of Honor of the Exchange Club, new audiobook version that’s award from the Arts Council Most obituary listings of a national civic organization been translated and narrated of Greater Kalamazoo for his devoted to “unity for service.” by Dick Ringler MA’56, a UW reviews of classical music and WAA members and friends He’s the vice president of the professor emeritus of English theatrical productions over Exchange Club of West Towne/ and Scandinavian Studies. the past quarter-century, and appear in the Badger Insider, Middleton and has served as Beowulf: The Complete Story: continues as chief reviewer for WAA’s publication for its assistant attorney general for A Drama (University of Wiscon- the Kalamazoo Gazette. the state of Wisconsin. sin Press) is a dramatization of Andrew Horvath MD’64 members, which is published Kenneth Wright ’51, Ringler’s version of the com- has been sworn in for a second thrice annually and inserted into MS’57 writes that the “thirti- plete, thousand-year-old text. term as a governor of the Col- eth anniversary [ceremony] Congratulations to George lege of American Pathologists. On Wisconsin Magazine. of the disastrous Big Thompson Younkin MS’57 for receiv- He’s also the chief of pathol- Flood brought two UW gradu- ing the 2006 Richard Harold ogy at Presbyterian Hospital in ates together in Berthoud, Kaufmann Award from IEEE, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Colorado, on July 31.” As the the world’s largest technical as well as the president of

50 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

Pathology Associates of Albuquerque, and a clinical Love Letters to New Orleans professor of pathology and On August 29, 2005, Chris Rose ’82 became a war correspondent. CHARLIE VARLEY medicine at the University of In the days before Hurricane Katrina, he was an entertainment New Mexico. columnist for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, covering the A new inductee into the local celebrity culture, music scene, and movie business. He never UW-Stevens Point Athletic set out to be the voice of the city, but when Katrina’s floodwaters Hall of Fame is local resident deluged the Big Easy with a black tide of panic and despair, he did Nancy McGowan Page ’65 the only thing he could do — write. — a pioneer in developing the In a desperate attempt to deal with the horror of it all, Rose school’s women’s sports pro- began publishing columns about the personal toll that Katrina had gram who led the field hockey, wrought on the people of New Orleans. softball, and tennis teams to “Objective journalism was kind of thrown out the window at eleven conference titles during the point where you realized that everything you’ve got — your her thirty-one-year career. job, your culture, your family — is all being threatened, not only Page also served as the UW-SP by nature, but also by the decisions that man will make in the associate director of athletics aftermath,” says Rose. “It seemed like we had to make a case to from 1984 until 1997. America that we are worthy of being saved.” The Brock International In the wake of Katrina, the Times-Picayune Web site, www.nola. Prize in Education recognizes com, became a lifeline for the millions of people who had either innovative and effective ideas been displaced or had loved ones affected by the disaster. Although many on the news staff were in the field of education, but forced to flee the city, the paper never stopped publishing, putting out online editions for the first few holding a seat on its jury is also days. In April 2006, Rose received a Pulitzer Prize as part of a team that was honored for its public a national honor. Nicholas service and distinguished reporting of breaking news. “I’ve got my little crystal on my desk,” he says. Burckel MA’67, PhD’71, Rose wrote his columns on a deeply personal and emotional level, and they touched a nerve with the dean of libraries and an those who were starving to know something — anything — about what was really happening in New associate professor of history Orleans. In the first year after Katrina, Rose’s readers asked him to gather his columns into a book, at Milwaukee’s Marquette and the result, 1 Dead in Attic (CR Books), was released early last year. University, was one of nine Rose’s work chronicles the suffering, stamina, and pride of the Crescent City, going beyond jurors chosen to select the 2007 the usual facts and figures of traditional news stories. He writes about the elderly “cat lady” who gath- Brock Laureate, who receives a ered discarded roof tiles and made them into works of art … the volunteers who came in legions to $40,000 cash award. clean houses, paint schools, and rebuild churches … the dirty brown bathtub ring around the city that Daniel Roth ’67 of Santa marked where the fetid water stood … and the simple kindness of strangers. Monica, California, says that “Not much of what I write about is really extraordinary circumstances,” he says. “It’s just people he’s gone full circle — from trying to live, trying to get by, trying to piece together what they’ve got left to save their dignity and winning the campuswide their culture.” UW creative writing contest A second book, which details the life of New Orleans in the second year post-Katrina, was in 1965 to publishing Ordinary published in January. A portion of the proceeds from both books benefits the Tipitina’s Foundation, Life in Three Acts (iUniverse, which works to bring the city’s musicians back home, and ARTDOCS, an organization that provides www.ordinarylifeinthreeacts. health services to Big Easy artists who are without insurance. com), a book of poetry. Profits The city is mending, but the road to recovery has been long and slow. “Some people are still gut- from the book will go to Doc- ting their homes,” says Rose. “Some people are still waiting for insurance settlements. The triumph of tors Without Borders (www. New Orleans has been the triumph of the human spirit.” doctorswithoutborders.org). — Erin Hueffner ’00 Monsignor Paul Swain MA’67, JD’74 was named bishop of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, this fall. His previous position was vicar general Glückwünsche — congratu- 70s affairs for twenty-three years. — the top administrator — of lations! — to Vera Niebuhr The New York-based the Diocese of Madison, and he MA’68 on receiving one Susan Hyland ’70, MS’73, Daniel Kennedy Communica- was also pastor of three down- of nine Certificate of Merit PhD’78 became a Friend of tions Services — headed by town Madison parishes. Prior to Awards for 2006 from the Veterinary Medicine — with Daniel Kennedy ’70 — is entering the priesthood, Swain American Association of upper-case letters — in October working with the Center for served as policy director and Teachers of German and the when the Wisconsin Veterinary International Private Enterprise legal counsel to former Wiscon- Goethe-Institut New York. Medical Association honored (www.cipeafghanistan.org) to sin Governor Lee Dreyfus ’49, She’s taught German at the her for her support of the build awareness of the new MA’52, PhD’58, and was an University of Mary Washington profession. She’s been the UW Afghanistan-based Women’s/ air force intelligence officer in in Fredericksburg, Virginia, School of Veterinary Medicine’s Human Rights Certification Vietnam during the war. since 1977. associate dean of academic Program. The firm will create

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brand-name recognition in the Wausau, Wisconsin, and UWC- has earned its W.E. Wine not-for-profit sector. DiChris- U.S. marketplace for Afghan Marathon County, where he Award for Excellence in Teach- topher also has a private orga- carpets that are made under taught from 1966 until 2001. ing; and Madison Area Tech- nizational-consulting practice “carefully defined, certified, Lorence is now an emeritus nical College lead marketing and says, “I owe my passionate and independently monitored professor of history there. instructor Turina Bakken ’88, advocacy to the UW and those working conditions.” Kennedy Badgers in the education MS’96 has received one of two wonderful years of the 1960s!” recently completed a fact- field have shared news of their Distinguished Teacher Awards. When the U.S. State finding trip to Afghanistan. 2006 accolades: Judith More Sincere apologies to Mary Department established the Screening America: United de Luce MA’71, PhD’74, Ann DiChristopher ’71 for Avian Influenza Action Group States History through Film a professor and the chair of running very old news in our to coordinate the nation’s since 1900 (Pearson Longman) classics at Miami University in Winter 2006 issue. In June, response to the threat of a bird is a new book by James Oxford, Ohio, has been named she became commissioner flu pandemic, John Lange ’71, Lorence PhD’70. Having its Alumni Association Effective of the City of Albany [New JD’75 was named its special retired as eminent scholar of Educator; Thomas Gardner York] Department of Youth & representative on avian and history at Gainesville [Georgia] PhD’82, a professor of English Workforce Services after nearly pandemic influenza. Lange, of State College, he’s returned to at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, thirty-five years in the state’s Vienna, Virginia, has served as U.S. ambassador to Botswana and in many other diplomatic Coping with Ambiguous Loss roles. He received the State Department’s Distinguished Friends and relatives of thousands of people working in the Honor Award for his leadership World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, initially faced a of the American embassy in Dar horrifying question: were their loved ones alive or dead? There es Salaam, Tanzania, following was simply no way to know, but how could they cope with the a 1998 terrorist bombing there. dreadful uncertainty? Chicagoan JoAnn Becker This is where Pauline Grossenbacher Boss ’56, MS’71, ’72 is the program manager of PhD’75 entered the swirl of powerful emotions — anxiety, the Certification Commission ANNMARIE BOSS SHEFFELS powerlessness, depression, guilt — to help people deal with what for Healthcare Information she calls ambiguous loss. A concept she developed while in grad Technology. Its mission is to school at UW-Madison, ambiguous loss refers to a situation in “accelerate the adoption of which a person is psychologically present but physically absent health-information technology (such as in the immediate aftermath of 9/11), or physically present by creating an efficient, cred- but psychologically absent (such as with dementia). It’s a world ible, and sustainable product- of suspension that can leave people uncertain about how to certification program.” behave: should they mourn, even though the loved one may not be The president-elect of — or is not — dead? the board of the State Bar Boss is a University of Minnesota emerita professor of of Wisconsin’s Non-Resident family social studies and the author of Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief (Harvard Lawyers Division is Donna University Press) and Loss, Trauma, and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss (W.W. Norton Jones ’72, JD’79. The Atlanta & Company). Immediately after the Twin Towers fell, she went to Manhattan and worked with col- resident also serves on the leagues from Minnesota to train counseling professionals in how to deal with this phenomenon. Georgia board of the National “This kind of loss … was a new idea post-9/11,” says Boss, “and the unique guidelines for thera- Alliance on Mental Illness. peutic work when closure was impossible were welcomed — and still are.” In 2003, she also worked After working in fourteen with the International Committee of the Red Cross to train therapists to assist those whose loved ones countries over thirty-plus years, were missing following the Balkan war in Kosovo. Bob Otjen ’72, MS’75 has But a person doesn’t have to endure dramatic world events to experience ambiguous loss. Coping gone Down Under. He and his with a loved one suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or terminal cancer can trigger it, as can knowing spouse, Darcy Stiles Otjen that a loved one is in harm’s way, such as being deployed for military duty in Iraq. ’75, have moved to Brisbane, Healing and coping, Boss says, require learning how to get beyond the pervasive cultural training Australia, courtesy of his that exhorts us to control situations and find solutions, because in such cases, there’s no way to assert appointment as director of oil control. The culprit is the ambiguity, she emphasizes, but people often blame themselves needlessly and gas pipeline facilities for for not creating a solution. the Asia Pacific region with URS The concept of ambiguous loss, Boss notes, “is a new lens with which to view problems that you Asia Pacific, an engineering can’t solve, losses that have no closure. Instead of searching for closure, it allows people hope because design services firm. they realize that they can live with the ambiguity, learn to temper their need for control, and find All right, Class of 1973, meaning in [such] situations. This involves living with two opposing ideas,” she says. “The person is who was president of your gone, and part of them is still here.” class? If you said W. (William) — Harvey Black Grant Callow II ’73, JD’77, you’re correct … and you’ll be interested to hear that the

52 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

Anchorage, Alaska, attorney she teaches nurses how to write at Mälardalen University in has been designated the Hon- and publish. Sorrell has also Eskilstuna, Sweden. Fink is Bookmark orary Danish Consul of Alaska written a play about the chal- the program manager at SASE: by the queen of Denmark, and lenges of Alzheimer’s disease. The Write Place and the exhibit the Anchorage Bar Associa- Some people feel that coordinator and proofreader at tion has recognized him as its they’re spiritual, but not reli- Rain Taxi, both in Minneapolis. Outstanding Attorney. Many gious, and this is the subject of She’s currently in Mongolia, thanks to his father, retired a new work edited by Stephen translating Mongolian poetry Wisconsin Supreme Court Honeygosky MA’76, PhD’88 into English. Justice William Callow ’43, called Religion & Spirituality: Do members of Congress LLB’48, for sending this news. Bridging the Gap (Twenty-Third lie while debating legislation? Two Badgers began careers Publications). Honeygosky is Gary Mucciaroni MA’79, at the University of Pittsburgh a priest and Benedictine monk, PhD’87 might say instead that as young professors, and now as well as a chaplain, the associ- they use a lot of half-truths, Can the normally worrisome they’ve met at the top rungs of ate director of campus ministry, exaggerations, and inaccurate combination of kids and that university’s career ladder. and an English instructor at statements — a discovery he TV ever be a good thing? Mark Nordenberg JD’73 has Seton Hill University in Greens- made while researching a book With some education and been Pitt’s chancellor for the burg, Pennsylvania. he’s co-authored, Deliberative effort on the part of parents, last eleven years, and Alberta First Dave Anderson ’77 Choices: Debating Public Policy Frederick Zimmerman Sbragia MA’72, PhD’74 is the chronicled the UW’s storied in Congress (University of MS’91, PhD’94 believes director of its European Union football past. Now he’s done Chicago Press). Mucciaroni that it’s certainly possible to Center of Excellence. In June, the same for Wisconsin’s hoops heads the political science use television as a positive Nordenberg named Sbragia the history in University of Wiscon- department at Philadelphia’s influence on children. He’s first recipient of the endowed sin Basketball: Images of Sports Temple University. an associate professor at the chair that bears his name. (Arcadia Publishing), including Andy Rensink ’79 is University of Washington in Dance education at the rich stories, an array of stats stepping up at Tapemark Seattle, and a co-director of UW was just the beginning and facts, and more than one in West St. Paul, Minnesota its Child Health Institute. for Nelson Neal MS’74 — he hundred vintage images. When — he’s been promoted to In the new book that went on to teach university- he’s not writing, Anderson is a president and chief operating Zimmerman has co-authored, level dance for twenty-six years. marketing executive who lives officer from VP of operations. The Elephant in the Living Neal is now president of the in Lincoln, New Hampshire. Tapemark specializes in print- Room: Make Television Work board of Fuzíon Dance Artists Anyone who’s spent ing, die cutting, and packaging for Your Kids (Rodale Books), (www.FuzionDance.com) in much time in Wisconsin has complex products. he gives significant — and Sarasota, Florida — the city’s probably heard of folk sing- alarming — statistics about first professional contempo- ers Lou and Peter Berryman. the viewing habits of Ameri- rary-dance company. Well, there’s another relative 80s can children, and details the Like Nelson Neal (above), making a name for herself in effects of TV on kids’ emo- Patricia Carter Deveau Ithaca, New York: Susannah Christopher Gallagher ’80 tional, mental, and physical MA’75 credits her UW experi- Berryman ’77 teaches theater has a serious side — he’s an development. ences with giving her a great arts at Ithaca College and is an MD and an associate professor Then Zimmerman shows start — and leading her to acclaimed drama director. in SUNY-Stony Brook’s depart- how the medium can be used work as a historical interpre- After sixteen years of ment of anesthesiology — but instead as an effective tool tive specialist and the chief of teaching at the University of he also has quite a bent for — not a crutch — for enter- interpretive programs for the Houston, Richard Matland comedy. This fall he managed tainment, education, and Parks and Historic Sites Division ’77, MA’79, MS’79 has moved to blend a little humor into his socialization, and shares tips of the Georgia Department of north to fill the Helen Houlahan otherwise serious book and and strategies that help to Natural Resources. Now Deveau Rigali Chair in political science DVD called Simulation in Anes- put the positive power of the operates an inn at the historic at Chicago’s Loyola University. thesia (Saunders), and then tube back in parents’ hands. Strachan Carriage House (www. He’s worked extensively with did the same with Anesthesia One reviewer noted stsimonscarriagehouse.com) on entities worldwide on issues Unplugged: A Step-by-Step that “in an easy, conversa- St. Simons Island, Georgia. of constitutional design and Guide to Techniques and tional manner, packed with When the Gannett Health- electoral-system development. Procedures (McGraw-Hill Pro- solid information and good care Group chose its 2006 Fulbright scholarships for fessional). Gallagher recently advice, [the co-authors] help national Nurse of the Year 2006–07 have gone to Judith moved to Stony Brook from us understand the urgent awardees, Jeanne Merkle Moldenhauer MFA’77 and Miami, where he did stand-up need to take control of TV’s Sorrell MS’75 rose to the top Lisa Fink ’99. Moldenhauer, comedy at the Improv there. impact on our children in the teaching category. Hailed an associate professor at Wayne Viewing the post-Katrina and ourselves — and they as an “amazing mentor,” she’s a State University in Detroit, is period as a chance to rebuild provide us with the tools professor at George Mason Uni- doing research and teaching Louisiana’s support infrastruc- to do it.” versity in Fairfax, Virginia, where typography and graphic design ture for young families, the

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international Parents as Teach- ability to detect avian flu senses a sleeping or inatten- Bookmark ers organization has named through the most modern tive driver, and the other for Deborah Wicker Jones diagnostic procedure available, an alarm that beeps when the MBA’80 of Baton Rouge as called Real-Time Polymerase vehicle moves backward. its new Louisiana state leader. Chain Reaction. The USDA Ted Hirschfeld ’87 is a In this role, she plans to col- sponsored Krueger’s work. certified athletic trainer for laborate with other groups The first novel by Judy Hinsdale [Illinois] Orthopaedic to increase learning aptitude, Merrill Larsen ’82 — titled Associates, a physician-extender school readiness, and parental All the Numbers (Random for Sports Medicine Orthopae- involvement. House) and set in Madison — dic Physicians, the head athletic “Home and un-retired,” was featured on Wisconsin Pub- trainer at Hinsdale Central High began a note from Emmons lic Radio’s Chapter A Day this School, and a new member of Patzer MBA’80. He’s the fall. The story follows a mother the Illinois Athletic Trainers Around Alumni News HQ, new head of marketing and mourning the loss of a child in Association’s board. we often joke about including consumer experience for the a jet-ski accident. Larsen (www. Linda Li-Bleuel someone who’s made the uni- Milwaukee-based HumanaOne, judymerrilllarsen.com) lives MMusic’87 was an artist-in- versity a little less than proud the individual health insurance in Kirkwood, Missouri, where residence at Shaanxi Normal — in short, a “bad Badger.” division of Humana. In 2004, she taught high school English University in Xian, China, for And finally we’ve found our Patzer retired as a global direc- before launching her full-time two weeks this fall. An associ- man: the late Sidney Kor- tor with Bristol Myers Squibb, writing career this summer. ate professor of piano at shak x’29, lawyer extraordi- and then became a consultant Mike Powers MA’84 is Clemson [South Carolina] naire — to the Mafia. and the VP of marketing and the CEO and administrator of University, she also maintains He’s the subject of sales for the Americas with the Fairbanks [Alaska] Memo- an active solo and chamber- Supermob: How Sidney Korshak the Australia-based Insight rial Hospital/Denali Center, the music career and has per- and His Criminal Associates Marketing Systems. recipient of an American Hospi- formed in Europe, Japan, and Became America’s Hidden Power September 26 was an excit- tal Association Carolyn Boone throughout the United States. Brokers (Bloomsbury USA), ing day for Marcia Nestingen Lewis Living the Vision Award. The first president and by investigative journalist ’81 and William ’83 Rock, Jr. The accolade honors hospitals CEO of the Kansas Bioscience and Mob expert Gus Russo. That’s when the president of that go beyond traditional care Authority in Olathe is Thomas Korshak attended the UW Rotary International presented to raise the overall level of Thornton ’87. Most recently in 1925–27 and was its intra- the Takoma Park, Maryland, their communities’ health. the president of the Illinois mural boxing champion (go couple with Rotary’s highest “After teaching, raising Technology Development Alli- figure) in 1927. Transferring honor for service, the Paul four kids, and becoming a ance, he’ll oversee an organiza- to Chicago’s DePaul Univer- Harris Award Medal, during a life coach,” writes Patty Lins- tion that’s expected to spend sity, he earned a law degree; ceremony in Washington, D.C. meier Jackson ’85, “this mar- more than $580 million to made the acquaintance of Valarie King-Bailey ’82 keting tool came to me, [and] create new biotech businesses mobsters Al Capone and had a memorable 2006. She’s another UW grad and I have and jobs in the next decade. Tony Accardo, who viewed the CEO of Chicago’s OnShore a patent pending on it.” Their Few among us could claim him almost as a son; and Technology Group, which the creation is the Laptop Billboard — truthfully, anyway — to be earned the name “The Fixer.” U.S. Women’s Chamber of (www.LaptopBillboard.com) an officer of the Royal Norwe- Then Korshak moved Commerce recently certified — a customizable, removable, gian Order of Merit, but Ingrid to Beverly Hills, where he as an international women’s lycra cover that hugs the back Urberg MA’87, PhD’96 can. became a “contradictory business enterprise. She’s also of a laptop computer. Jackson She’s been an associate profes- combination of sphinx-like one of twenty winners in the lives in Sussex, Wisconsin. sor of Scandinavian Studies mysteriousness and high- Make Mine a $Million business Landscape architect at the University of Alberta’s profile socializing with the contest — part of the Count Elizabeth Churchill ’86 is Augustana campus in Cam- world’s most famous celebri- Me In for Women’s Economic now in charge of incorporating rose, Alberta, since 1994, and ties” — pulling the strings of Independence initiative — who environmentally sound prac- received the honor this fall for industry, labor, politics, real will receive a year’s worth of tices into the sustainable-design her diligence in promoting Nor- estate, and entertainment, “mentoring, money, marketing, and land-planning work of the wegian language and culture. yet remaining invisible to the business services, and technol- Denver-based Design Workshop Saint Xavier University in general public. ogy assistance.” and its other six offices in six Chicago has a new dean of its And that’s how, from the David Krueger ’82 is a states. She was previously the College of Arts and Sciences: 1940s until his death in 1996, microbiologist at the Wisconsin manager of sustainable design Kathleen Alaimo PhD’88. Korshak became the man the Veterinary Diagnostic Labora- for Marshall Erdman & Associ- She’s been on the faculty FBI called the most powerful tory in Madison and an expert ates in Madison. since 1992. lawyer in the world, “behind on animal-disease diagnoses. Two patents have recently Coulda Been a Book some of the shadiest deals of He made two trips to Vietnam gone to Christopher Ferrone — a “comedic road movie with the twentieth century.” last year to teach local authori- ’86 of Glenview, Illinois: one dramatic underpinnings” by ties how to improve their for a monitoring device that Madison screenwriter John

54 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

Besmer ’88 — was show- firm handles home-improve- of marriage — and the dangers cased in September at the ment bidding, contractor of getting what you wish for.” Tunes Independent Feature Project’s evaluations and relations, and Fox’s work has appeared in Annual Market in New York, a project management. Utne, Seventeen, Glamour, and week-long event that connects Scott Wepfer ’89 is truly Salon, and she’s appearing in filmmakers with financing, pro- an industry leader. He’s the Chicago, Madison, and Milwau- duction partners, and distribu- founder and chief pharmacist kee on a book tour this spring. tion outlets. Besmer produces of the Compounding Shoppe Dean Olson ’91, MS’93 his projects at P Star Pictures in Homewood, Alabama — was on the UW’s 1990 NCAA (www.PStarPictures.com), a film the state’s first compound- national-champion crew, We loved the title of a new company that he founded with ing-only pharmacy — and the and he’s a physician and the CD by Bruce Bendinger colleagues at Madison’s Planet first fellow of the International director of the Valley View ’66: Can’t Sing. Don’t Care. Propaganda, where he’s a Academy of Compounding Urgent Care Clinic in Plymouth, Songs from the Hip (Southport principal and creative director. Pharmacists. And now Wepfer’s Wisconsin. But now Olson and Records). He calls these The Radio-Television pharmacy has become the his spouse have also gone in a tunes, written between 1977 News Directors Association first in the nation to earn new direction: they’ve founded and 1983, “lounge music, of has honored Vermont Public safety accreditation from American Treasure Hunts a sort — like a martini with Radio reporter Nina Keck the Pharmacy Compounding (www.americantreasurehunts. an ironic twist” that makes (Coombs) ’88 with a 2006 Accreditation Board. com), which orchestrates multi- a “great gift for people you national Edward R. Murrow day, online “treasure hunts.” don’t like much.” Award for investigative report- The nation’s oldest (at But Bendinger can sing ing, and two 2006 regional 90s 103 years) and largest public — and he’s famous, too! Murrow Awards in the feature forum — the Commonwealth More than one Google hit and continuing-news-coverage Madisonian Mary Davis Club of California — has a new will tell you that he’s a “cre- categories. She lives in North Michaud ’90 was a Henry Luce editorial director in John Zip- ative ad genius” who started Chittenden, Vermont. Scholar in 1991–92 and wrote perer ’91 of San Francisco. his career near the top. Flashpoints in the War on to tell us about the program The nonprofit, nonpartisan Within a week of gradu- Terrorism (Routledge) is a new (www.hluce.org), which aims to organization hosts more than ation, he was working for work co-edited by Jeffrey foster understanding of Asian five hundred speeches and ad agency giant J. Walter Stevenson Murer ’88, an culture among future U.S. panel discussions each year, Thompson in Chicago. In assistant professor of political leaders by providing year-long and Zipperer gets the word out 1970, he moved to another science at Swarthmore [Pennsyl- placements. Michaud says it’s a through its monthly magazine, legendary agency, Leo vania] College. He’s also been combination of “intensive lan- program guide, and Web site. Burnett, and at age twenty- named a national fellow of the guage study, work experience, Gaga Goods: the name seven became its youngest- American Psychoanalytic Asso- invaluable connections, cultural alone makes you want some. ever VP/creative director. ciation and presented a special immersion, and pay!” They’re the brainchild of owner Adding AdDay’s accolade as session on ethnic conflict and “Translating the science of and “chief smile spreader” one of the nation’s top one terrorism at the group’s annual good nutrition into the art of Kathryn Barton Adler ’92, hundred ad execs, he joined meeting in January. delectable meals” is the tagline whose Madison-based firm a third luminary, Foote, Cone An illustration titled Exten- of Gluten Free Kitchen Therapy (www.gagagoods.com) offers & Belding, in 1979 as senior sive Venous Clot Dissolution has (www.glutenfreekitchenther- her own line of clothing and VP/group creative director. earned recognition from the apy.us) — a new service from gifts, plus other fun toys and Bendinger’s also written Association of Medical Illustra- Linda Graff Bush Simon ’90 books for wee ones up to age the advertising copywriting tors for Carl Clingman ’89, a that makes house calls to teach six. Not surprisingly, Adler’s classic The Copy Workshop Mayo Clinic medical illustrator. clients how to cook gluten free. been profiled as a “mompre- Workbook, and Studs Terkel The perhaps-even-bigger Simon, a registered dietitian neur” in several publications. included interviews with him news is that his depiction of and certified personal chef in New York-based theater in three of his books. off-pump coronary-artery Janesville, Wisconsin, assesses producer, consultant, and He now heads up Bruce bypass surgery was nominated clients’ challenges, knowledge, dramaturge Chad Gracia ’92 Bendinger Creative Com- for an Emmy in the animated- and pantries, and teaches them has combined his concept and munications and The Copy graphic category. Clingman how to read labels, adapt reci- playwriting with the work of Workshop, which publishes lives in St. Charles, Minnesota. pes, and choose ingredients. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet advertising textbooks “by the Joan Tenhagen Craig ’89 Finally, she offers cooking Yusef Komunyakaa to create a bushel,” and teaches at Chi- knows how difficult it can be classes to pull it all together. “dynamic take on the world’s cago’s DePaul University. for homeowners to manage Still Life with Husband oldest story,” called Gilgamesh: The UW School of Journal- the myriad details involved in (Alfred A. Knopf) is the A Verse Play (Wesleyan Univer- ism & Mass Communication a repair or remodeling project “hilarious debut novel” by sity Press). gave him a Distinguished — which is why she’s founded Milwaukeean Lauren Fox ’91 When a CBS Evening News Service Award in 1994. Home Improvement Supervisors about “one woman’s fantasy crew came to the UW from its in Monona, Wisconsin. Craig’s of escape from the doldrums Dallas bureau in November to

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research religion on college one of 2006’s thirty-five best not only earned his PhD in The Greater Madison campuses, the correspondent young innovators under the astronomy from the University chapter of the Association of was Kelly Cobiella — known age of thirty-five. Raab is the of Texas-Austin in August, but Fundraising Professionals has during her student days as founder and CEO of the had a job lined up as well — at named Rachael Weiker ’06 its Andrea Kelly Martin Wilets Cambridge, Massachusetts- the NASA Goddard Space Flight Outstanding Young Philanthro- ’93, a third-generation Badger. based biotech firm Agrivida. Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. pist. Currently an AmeriCorps John Klima ’94 of Branch- Brad Rudolph ’97 has Kurt Steinke MS’02, volunteer coordinator assistant burg, New Jersey, is at work won an Emmy! He’s a news PhD’06 came out on top at Habitat for Humanity of on a most unusual project for producer at KUSA-TV, NBC’s when the Musser International Dane County, she was honored Bantam Books: he’s editing affiliate in Denver, and his Turfgrass Foundation chose the for her work as the 2006 chair Logorrhea, an anthology of sto- team took the prize for the recipient of its 2006 Award of the Souper Bowl, the largest ries based on spelling-bee-win- best morning newscast. of Excellence and the accom- fund-raising event sponsored ning words. Klima is also the While Zoe Timms ’97 was panying $20,000 cash prize. by the UW-Madison campus editor of a fiction and poetry a UW study-abroad student in He’s an assistant professor of chapter of Habitat for Human- zine called Electric Velocipede Hyderabad, India, in 1996, she turfgrass ecology at Texas A&M ity (www.uwhabitat.org). (www.electricvelocipede.com), became interested in nonprof- University in College Station. as well as the head of Spilt Milk its and education. In 2002, she For such a recent grad, Press, which publishes Electric pursued both as the monitor of Ryan Schweitzer ’03 has done obituary Velocipede and chapbooks. the UW-Madurai (India) study- a lot of good — which the The American Association abroad program and as the co- Minneapolis-based Hawkinson E. (Edmund) David Cronon, for the Advancement of Science founder and executive director Foundation has honored with Jr. MA’49, PhD’53, a former has welcomed Michael Strigel of the Sudar Foundation (www. a 2006 scholarship. Schweitzer dean of the UW College of MS’94 as a fellow, and he’s sudarfoundation.org), which recently completed coursework Letters and Science, died in also the new executive director helps underprivileged women in environmental engineering December in Madison. Spe- of a Madison-based land-con- to succeed in higher education through Michigan Techno- cializing in twentieth-century servation organization, Gather- and careers. Timms splits logical University’s Peace Corps American history, he taught ing Waters Conservancy. Strigel her time between India and Master’s Program and is now at Yale and the University was most recently the execu- Ashburnham, Massachusetts. a Peace Corps volunteer in the of Nebraska before return- tive director of the Wisconsin The marquee that adorns Dominican Republic. His UW ing to UW-Madison in 1962. Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Madison’s historic Orpheum years included AIDS outreach He remained here until his Letters. We thank his “proud Theatre got some help in efforts in Chile and Argentina, 1994 retirement, serving as a mother-in-law,” Libby (Eliza- December from Kris Warren and later work in Peru with professor, chair of the history beth) Barnard Farmer ’65 of ’97, who worked there as a Engineers Without Borders. department, director of the Madison, for letting us know. student. He’s now the director If you read TIME maga- Humanities Research Institute, The Gilder Lehrman Insti- of TV development at Wonder- zine’s September 4 cover story, and dean of L&S from 1974 tute of American History has land Sound and Vision in L.A., “How the Stars Were Born,” until 1988. Cronon is credited awarded a research fellow- so to raise funds to refurbish you know about the collabora- with developing and strength- ship to Lisa Surwillo ’94, the marquee, he arranged a tion between Daniel Stark ening many programs, includ- an assistant professor in the Midwest-premiere advance ’03 and Richard Ellis, Stark’s ing Afro-American studies, Department of Spanish and screening of We Are Marshall, Cal Tech astrophysics professor, women’s studies, anthropology, Portuguese at Stanford [Califor- which Wonderland produced. as they study the earliest stars computer science, and Slavic nia] University. She’ll conduct Warren’s also the new co-presi- in the universe. Stark is in his languages. He was the senior research at the New York Public dent of the Junior Hollywood fourth year of a Cal Tech PhD author of the University History Library on “Tio Tom’s Cabins: Radio & Television Society. program and was a Goldwater Project throughout the 1990s Spain in the Black Atlantic.” Have you ever considered Fellow at the UW. Many thanks and co-authored two volumes If you read the October conducting an oral-history to Bennett Stark PhD’82 of on UW history, among other issue of Network Computing interview of your family? Atlanta for letting us know. books. UW Provost Patrick magazine, you may have seen Perhaps a new work by Nash- In September, Kather- Farrell said that Cronon made an article by Michael Biddick ville, Tennessee, archivist Linda ine Gormley ’05 completed “tremendous contributions” ’95 titled “Autonomic Comput- Barnickel MA’99 would help. a year of volunteering and to the university in a college ing: Vision vs. Reality.” He’s the It’s called Oral History for the teaching with Common Hope that encompasses nearly half vice president of solutions for Family Historian: A Basic Guide (www.commonhope.org) in of the student body. Cronon’s Windward Consulting Group, a (http://omega.dickinson.edu/ Guatemala. She concludes that son William Cronon ’76 is a systems-integration firm head- organizations/oha). people who live in poverty are professor of history, geogra- quartered in Herndon, Virginia. no different from anyone else phy, and environmental studies R. Michael Raab ’96 is — “the difference is in the way at the UW. doing his part to wean the 2000s the developed world thinks world off of petroleum, and about those living in poverty.” Compiled by Paula Wagner Apfelbach MIT’s Technology Review was Hearty congratulations to Gormley has now returned to ’83, who is not a doctor, but plays one so impressed that it named him Nicholas Sterling ’00, who Minnetonka, Minnesota. on TV.

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