For University of Wisconsin-Madison Alumni and Friends

Fight or Flight Fred Gardaphé ’76 faced two choices: drift into a life of crime or flee to Madison.

FALL 2011 The Improv Prof He approaches music and life with an open mind. Bacon. Yum! Behind the scenes with people in white coats. Making Lemonade This grad did just that when his life turned sour. A Dream of Genes? The human genome: turning knowledge into treatment. The power of many gives power to many.

Join the great people who make Great People possible. uwgreatpeople.org

GP ad Fall 11ad-4_lg.indd 1 8/8/11 4:59 PM FALL 2011 contents VOLUME 112, NUMBER 3

Features

22 Tracking the Ties That Bind By Alfred Lubrano His UW education led Fred Gardaphé ’76 away from the rough neighborhood that took the lives of his father, grandfather, and godfather — but his old hometown still exerts a pull on his psyche.

28 Genotopia By John Allen Louise Benge and her siblings suffered a pain that her doctors couldn’t explain — until she met William Gahl MD’76, PhD’81 of the National Human Genome Research Institute. 22 34 Prison Breaks By Jenny Price ’96 Those who knew this UW grad a decade ago wouldn’t have 28 predicted who (or where) he is today.

36 Life Lessons By Gwen Evans ’79 Richard Davis encourages his music students to improvise — both in performance and in life. An accomplished bass player, he encourages free-flowing discourse about jazz, history, and racial injustice.

42 Six Degrees of [Curing] Bacon By Jenny Price ’96 Whether making bratwurst for the backyard grill or bacon for the breakfast table, participants in this UW training program become master meat crafters.

Departments 5 Inside Story 36 8 Letters 10 Scene 12 News & Notes 18 Q & A 19 Classroom Cover 20 Sports Planes from nearby O’Hare Airport provide a 44 Traditions fitting metaphor for Fred Gardaphé’s flight from 46 Gifts in Action a tough upbringing in blue-collar Melrose Park, Illinois — as well as his regular trips home. 47 Badger Connections Photo by Jeff Miller 66 Flashback

FALL 2011 3 Where others saw the night, we chose the stars.

The first real measurement of starlight took place at Wisconsin in the 1930s. This discovery is still helping us understand the Earth’s place in the universe – and beyond.

Since 1848, people at the University of Wisconsin have fearlessly dreamed the ideas that transform the world. It’s not a question of if – only when and how – we will next move the world forward.

Keep on, Wisconsin. Keep on.

www.wisc.edu

4 ON WISCONSIN insidestory BRYCE RICHTER

Richard Davis likes On Wisconsin to reminisce about his life and FALL 2011 career in music. That’s lucky for his students Publisher and for Gwen Evans, a University Wisconsin Alumni Association Communications writer who 650 North Lake Street, Madison, WI 53706 Voice: (608) 262-2551 • Toll-free: researched the legendary (888) WIS-ALUM • Fax: (608) 265-8771 bassist and UW-Madison music E-mail: [email protected] Website: onwisconsin.uwalumni.com professor for the story on

Co-Editors page 36. Niki Denison, Wisconsin Alumni Association Sitting at Davis’s kitchen Cindy Foss, University Communications table, Evans learned that he is Senior Editor a great storyteller, but not your John Allen, Wisconsin Alumni Association typical academic. He played Senior Writer alongside another famous Davis Jenny Price ’96, University Communications — Miles — and likes to say that Art Director he earned his doctorate from Improvisation is an invaluable skill in music and Earl J. Madden MFA’82, in life, Professor Richard Davis believes. University Communications the University of Sarah Vaughan. Production Editor Before accepting a teaching Eileen Fitzgerald ’79, position at the UW in the 1970s, his response to a friend who advised him to ask University Communications for tenure was, “What’s that?” Editorial Associates Paula Apfelbach ’83 and Ben Wischnewski ’05, When it comes to telling stories, Davis draws from a wealth of history. During Wisconsin Alumni Association one conversation with Evans, he veered from making jokes about percussionists, Editorial Intern to talking about the boxer Jack Johnson, to sharing thoughts about the Titanic, Lydia Statz x’12 and back again. Design, Layout, and Production Evans also discovered that Davis is an artist whose generous spirit equals his Barry Carlsen MFA’83; Toni Good ’76, MA’89; talent, and he’s eager to share experiences and knowledge with his students. After Kent Hamele ’78, University Communications three decades in the classroom, Davis is still making an impact. He takes joy in Campus Advisers Paula Bonner MS’78, President and CEO, watching the light bulb go on, and he notices when students need help. and Mary DeNiro, Vice President of Marketing And as Evans observed during his Black Music Ensemble course, he teaches and Communications, Wisconsin Alumni Association • Amy E. Toburen ’80, Director, what might be one of the most important (and often the hardest) skills to learn, University Communications • Lynne Johnson, both as musicians and as people: how to improvise. Some of his students struggle Senior Director of External Relations, with improvisation because they began playing instruments by reading sheet University of Wisconsin Foundation music and following it precisely to the note. Davis shows them how to free them- Advertising Representative Madison Magazine: (608) 270-3600 selves up, reminding them that just because something is scary doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Alumni Name, Address, Phone, and E-Mail Changes • Death Notices In the end, Davis’s philosophy made a lasting impression on Evans. “He Madison area: (608) 262-9648 approaches every person with an open mind and open heart,” she says. “We can Toll-free: (888) 947-2586 E-mail: alumnichanges@uwal umni.com all take a page from that.” Jenny Price ’96 Quarterly production of On Wisconsin Magazine is supported by a UW Foundation grant. © 2011 Wisconsin Alumni Association

Printed on recycled paper. Please remember to recycle this magazine.

FALL 2011 5 AD: full-page Bank of America

FROM HISTORY’S TRIALS TO HUMAN TRIUMPHS What will inspire you today? Explore more than 20,000 works of art. Gain fresh insights into the human experience. Go to chazen.wisc.edu to plan your visit.

EXPANSION GRAND OPENING OCTOBER 22–23, 2011

6 ON WISCONSIN warf.org

FALL 2011 7 letters

For University of Wisconsin-Madison Alumni and Friends

[Karl] Link’s Warfarin is keeping me safe Flashback Seems Like Yesterday from blood clotting, and [Conrad] Elvehjem’s The Flashback (“Tears and Gas”) in the niacin helps control my cholesterol. These are Summer 2011 On Wisconsin really caught two of the foremost medications that have my eye. Even though most of the heads are Capturing kept me alive and well for many years. I tout turned or obscured, I immediately recognized Conflict Photographer Lynsey these health-control efforts to all my friends, two former roommates and a former girlfriend ARBITRARY WORLD BY SUZANNE CAPORAEL, COURTESY OF TANDEM PRESS, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON Addario ’95 portrays the human toll and hidden beauty of troubled regions. and never fail to cite them as the university’s and her sister in the picture. I haven’t seen any Enrich Your Worldview contributions. of them for almost forty years, but it seems This summer, join UW alumni and friends in Madison for a unique July 26–29, 2011 learning opportunity — the 2011 International Convocation. Russell Shank MBA’52 like yesterday, and the photo brought back Madison • Discuss current issues in global higher education, emerging economies and global health with high-profile speakers and guests Los Angeles, California • Connect with international alumni, faculty and students and make global lots of fond memories and scenes from my business and public-sector contacts

• Enjoy festive receptions, exclusive campus tours and the best of Madison years in Madison (1968–1972) for this alumnus in summer — the Farmers’ Market, Union Terrace and Babcock ice cream! [The list in “Oh, My Stars!”] of nine Wisconsin of “a certain age,” as John Allen refers to us. Register today at uwalumni.com/international alumni who changed the world should have Some sad times, but all good memories! SUMMER 2011 been increased to ten. You forgot Harry Fred Marshall ’72 Steenbock. Steenbock not only discovered Houston, Texas A Hemingway Heroine the process for irradiating milk and increasing I turned the pages, slowly, of David McKay its Vitamin D content, which eliminated rickets, Best Issue Ever? Wilson’s reportage of photojournalist Lynsey he donated his royalties to the university, Just wanted to say — what a great magazine. Addario ’95 [“The Eye of the Storm,” Summer which formed the Wisconsin Alumni Research This issue [Summer 2011] was among the 2011 On Wisconsin]. With words and images Foundation. If that wasn’t world changing, I best ever — maybe the best. seeping, searing into me, I felt transported. No can’t imagine what would be. On, Wisconsin! Frank Rojas ’74 longer was I reading a modern-day accounting Walker Johnson ’58 Seattle, Washington of an exceptional alumna, but a manuscript, Chicago, Illinois long lost and never imagined and strikingly illustrated — a chronicle of the valorous life As I read the Summer issue of On Wisconsin, From the Web and life’s work of a Hemingway heroine. I was very happy to see the article including What a great person to feature in this article Ms. Addario’s extraordinarily emotive Arthur Altmeyer in the list of most influential [“Seeing Potential, Summer 2011”]. I’m so photography, in combination with her personal alums. Although he received many honors in his glad that Tim Cordes became a physician — story, make this issue, in my view, indelible. life, I am sure he would have been very proud he’s got all the makings of an outstanding one. Thank you for bringing attention to these trou- (quietly so) to have been included in this list of I just shared this article with a friend who bled regions and their tormented people with outstanding alumni, because of his lifelong love is blind, is a student at MATC, and hopes to such timeless, sensitive artistry and respect. and association with Wisconsin and the UW. attend UW-Madison, majoring in social work. Robert Andropolis ’84 You ended the piece on Arthur by He was very interested in hearing about Tim Montgomery, Illinois

Moved to Tears I always thought that Donna Moss [from the TV show West Wing] What an achievement. ... I had tears in my was the quintessential Badger: she is very smart, can talk about eyes as I read the article about Tim Cordes [“Seeing Potential,” Summer 2011]. What a anything under the sun, and [can] research anything, too. personal achievement, and what an achieve- ment for the university and its medical school. describing the irony of the elimination of Cordes, [who] is a model for all of us. Thanks Robert Goldberger ’53, MD’56 his position by the Eisenhower administra- for highlighting his remarkable life! Mequon, Wisconsin tion twenty-seven days before he would have Bill Breisch MS’69 been eligible for full retirement benefits. Here’s Rooting for the Stars a short follow-up: after a public outcry at his I recall seeing Tim in the hallways of UW John Allen’s article “Oh, My Stars!” [Summer undignified “retirement,” Arthur was offered Hospital and thinking, “Wow, what an incred- 2011] naming a few of the many “greats” of a ceremonial position for a month that would ible opportunity we have at our institution: the University of Wisconsin made me home- have allowed him full retirement benefits. Of opportunity to view a dynamic, dedicated sick. Those mentioned were not only stars course, he refused to take a job where he individual; opportunity to think beyond in the university, but were also leaders in would take the taxpayers’ money for doing conventional ways of teaching; and oppor- American society. Their contributions were nothing. If only there were more like Arthur tunity to reach patients in ways we never of the highest order, and are enduring. I’m Altmeyer. imagined.” This is not only a story of the eighty-five years old and getting along quite Richard Aylward ’60 power of the human spirit, but of how we can well because of their work. Glendale, Arizona match human talents and perseverance to the

8 ON WISCONSIN many complex needs of society. Thank you, with Manitowoc, Wisconsin (which was laugh- Please Update Your Address Tim, and all who have supported you in your able, since it was badly misrepresented), and UW-Madison wants to stay in touch with you. quest to make a difference. the country of Denmark. The character did To update your contact information, which Sarah Kruger ’75, ’78, MS’00, Clinical graduate from the UW at the end of the movie. is maintained by the UW Foundation, please Professor, School of Nursing, UW-Madison Sarah visit www.uwfoundation.wisc.edu/survey. To log in, use the ID number above your name on [Regarding “Badgers on the Big (and Small) [Another fictional Badger was] Rachel Bilson’s the magazine label. This information is shared Screen,” News & Notes, Summer 2011]: There character [Kim] in The Last Kiss, which also selectively with other campus units and the was a recent Chronicle of Higher Education takes place in Madison and at the UW. Wisconsin Alumni Association to ensure that article about fictional characters’ alma maters, Emma alumni information is consistent and accurate. and the implications about those characters I’ve had the good fortune of practicing Thank you! based on assumptions about their colleges. yoga for the last eight years with Pat Porter I always thought that Donna Moss [from [mentioned in “A Table for Five,” Sifting & the TV show West Wing] was the quintessen- Winnowing, Summer 2011] and a group of On Wisconsin Magazine welcomes letters tial Badger: she is very smart, can talk about men and women her equal in laughter, wit, related to magazine content, but reserves anything under the sun, and [can] research and kindness. the right to edit them for length or clarity. You anything, too. She is well rounded and not I particularly love [the author’s] line, “We may send your comments via e-mail to onwis- afraid to take risks. It made perfect sense that brought our whole selves to the table during [email protected]; mail them to On she had attended the UW. those years, and we still do.” Something Wisconsin, 650 North Lake Street, Madison, Abigail about being a woman in grad school impels WI 53706; or fax them to (608) 265-8771. We you to create a support group to keep all the regret that we don’t have space to publish all [Your list of fictional Badgers could also have balls in the air. My [grad school] friendships the letters we receive, but we always appre- included premed student Paige Morgan], Julia have lasted twenty-five years and continue to ciate hearing from you. Stiles’s character from the movie The Prince sustain me through life’s challenges. and Me. The movie is set at the UW, along Barbara Johns ’64

The New York Times and Chicago Tribune agree...

“The Dahlmann Campus Inn offers a touch of boutique refinement in the heart of the campus, with rich wood furniture and floral tapestries.” —The New York Times, July 5, 2009

“A quiet respite from a busy college town... The elegant touches begin in the lobby, with marble, mahogany and original artwork...” —Chicago Tribune, October 25, 2009

A Modern Day Classic

601 Langdon Street on the UW Campus www.thecampusinn.com (800) 589-6285 (608) 257-4391

FALL 2011 9 scene Follow the Yellow Brick Road Evening falls on two of the newest additions to campus: the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery (WID), just left of center, and the new Union South, lower right corner. WID houses 106,000 square feet of research space — and three restaurants. Learn more about one of them, Rennie’s Dairy Bar, in Traditions (page 44). Photo by Jeff Miller news ¬es

Tuition on the Rise With state funding falling, regents raise tuition 5.5 percent.

In an effort to deal with cuts to the UW-Madison’s price by more than JEFF MILLER UW System’s 2011–13 budget, $500 per semester. the board of regents decided to Since 2001, the cost of tuition raise tuition at UW-Madison and and fees has more than doubled other System universities. At a for in-state undergrads and risen July meeting, the regents voted by nearly $9,000 for out-of-state. eleven to four to hike tuition at the In June, the Wisconsin State various campuses by an average Legislature passed a biennial of 5.5 percent. budget that reduced taxpayer For full-time, undergraduate, support for the UW System by in-state students, UW-Madison’s $250 million over two years. tuition will increase from $7,933 UW-Madison will absorb about to $8,592 per year. This $659 rise $94 million of that cut, or $47 includes the 5.5 percent increase million a year. The tuition hike will in base tuition, plus an increase cover less than a third of the cut. of $250 in UW-Madison’s tuition “This is … about balancing differential — from $500 to $750 the quality of education with the — due to the Madison Initiative price students have to pay for that for Undergraduates. education,” said System President Out-of-state undergrads will Kevin Reilly in a press release. “In see a year’s tuition increase from the end, it’s a question about the Students are facing increased tuition following a July vote of the $23,183 to $24,342. value proposition we offer to our UW System board of regents. System campuses are also working These figures do not include students and their families.” through a cut in state funding; UW-Madison will receive $94 million mandatory fees, which raise John Allen less than expected in the state’s 2011–13 budget.

quick takes

Who has clout? Badgers do — remains the same as in recent announced she will step down out finalists from Oklahoma State at least according to Newsweek. years, the number of applicants in 2012. and the University of Maryland to The magazine’s website ranked has ballooned. Some 28,949 take a $10,000 prize. the top twenty-five American students applied for admis- The new Human Ecology schools for future power brokers, sion, and more than 14,600 were building will have a new name. It After a startling recovery and UW-Madison made the list at accepted, with the expectation will be called Nancy Nicholas Hall helped by the UW Veterinary number 25. that about 5,900 will enroll. after Nancy Johnson Nicholas ’55, Care Small Animal Hospital, a and it will open in 2012. dog named Braveheart has found It may seem harder than François Ortalo-Magné, a new home with a Madison ever to get into the UW, as the chair of the UW’s Real Estate The astronauts of the future family. Discovered in a Dumpster university’s acceptance rate for and Urban Land Economics may have Badgers to thank for in Kentucky and suffering from incoming freshmen dropped Department, has been named their cozy space quarters. A team mange, Braveheart was near to 50.5 percent, the lowest dean of the Wisconsin School of of undergrads created the winning death when sent to the care since the UW began tracking Business, succeeding Michael entry in the NASA eXploration of UW veterinarians in March. that statistic in 1989. The fall Knetter, who now serves as pres- Habitat Innovation Challenge, a He became an online celebrity, in acceptance rates appears to ident and chief executive officer yearlong contest to design and attracting attention and donations be the result of higher numbers of the UW Foundation. Robin create a prototype of a living space from as far away as Australia. In of applicants. Although the Douthitt, dean of the School for space explorers. The UW team August he even appeared at the target freshman class size of Human Ecology since 2001, created the Badger X-Loft, beating Wisconsin State Fair.

12 ON WISCONSIN Leadership Transition David Ward named UW-Madison’s interim chancellor after Biddy Martin moves on.

It has been fifty years since BRYCE RICHTER David Ward MS’62, PhD’63 first set foot on the UW-Madison campus. As a teaching assistant on a Fulbright scholarship from England, he planned to stay for a year, but, he says, “a whole variety of accidents” led to a UW career that spanned four decades. “I felt that every year was a refreshing, new encounter, which says a great deal about UW-Madison,” Ward recently told On Wisconsin. “I was never bored. I was always challenged.” That was never more the case than when Ward was appointed interim chancellor in July, following the depar- ture of Biddy Martin PhD’85 to become president of Amherst College in Massachusetts. UW System President Kevin Reilly During a July news conference, David Ward (right) was announced as interim chancellor by UW System says he chose Ward because he President Kevin Reilly (left). Ward “knows UW-Madison from the ground up,” Reilly said. “knows UW-Madison from the the great expectations of these for public employee unions, The final state budget did ground up,” and can serve as a research universities with the contributed to opposition to include some provisions that strong advocate for the campus, resources that are available,” his UW plan. “If I had my way,” Martin says are an important step bring people together, and reach he says. “I think that my experi- she said in an interview with toward granting all UW System out to his fellow UW System ence in Washington will help me the newspaper, “some of the institutions critical flexibility to chancellors. phrase this more broadly than just political issues that emerged manage their finances, and Ward Being at the helm is familiar a Wisconsin dilemma.” once Governor Walker became agrees the changes that emerged territory to Ward, who served For more than a year, Martin governor — and that really took from the bruising budget battle as chancellor for seven years made the case for the New up people’s attention and time — present an opportunity. before leaving Madison in 2000 Badger Partnership, a plan would not have happened right “I would like to take advan- to become president of the for administrative flexibilities in the midst of our discussions tage of the new flexibilities that American Council on Education that would allow the univer- of what would be good for the have been made available to us (ACE), a Washington, D.C.- sity to better manage its limited university.” in the recent state budget bill based national group focused on resources. Wisconsin Governor During her tenure as chan- and try to be positive in facing encouraging all sectors of higher Scott Walker proposed creating cellor, Martin was arguably the a challenging future, rather than education to “speak with one a public authority to achieve UW’s greatest ambassador for looking backwards at what might voice” on key issues. Ward, who those goals, effectively splitting the humanities. She launched the have been,” he says. Ward also retired from ACE in 2007, believes UW-Madison from the rest of the Go Big Read common-reading acknowledges that part of his role that his experience in that role UW System, but that proposal project, which sparked campus as interim chancellor is to bring will help him lead the university garnered little legislative support. and community discussions. A about some balance after the as it absorbs $47 million in state Martin told the Milwaukee visit by Michael Pollan, author of political tumult of the last several budget cuts this year. Journal Sentinel that controversy the book selected for the proj- months. “There is a national chal- surrounding other budget issues, ect’s first year, drew more than six UW System officials expect lenge, not just a Wisconsin including Walker’s proposal to thousand people from campus to have a new chancellor in place challenge, of how to balance limit collective-bargaining rights and the community. by next summer. A search-and-

FALL 2011 13 news ¬es JEFF MILLER (3) screen committee including UW-Madison faculty, staff, and students, and community repre- sentatives will conduct a national search and recommend finalists to Reilly and a special committee of the board of regents. In the meantime, Ward wants to identify key campus initiatives that are under way and ensure they do not lose momentum. They include the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, a proposal Martin championed to increase need-based financial aid using a combination of private money and a tuition increase. The initiative also allowed the univer- sity to hire more faculty in areas hit in recent years by budget cuts and to clear bottlenecks in certain high-demand courses. Ward says he also intends to continue efforts to elevate the UW’s profile internation- ally, particularly in China, where UW-Madison has forged rela- tionships with universities, cult times for all public research corporations, and prospective universities — we can’t gloss over students. it,” he says. “But I do think there A native of Manchester, is a very positive debate going on England, Ward earned bachelor’s that can reconfigure our relation- and master’s degrees from the ships with state government and University of Leeds. Prior to being higher education systems in such appointed chancellor at the UW, a way that we will come out of he served as the campus’s chair this turmoil okay.” of the geography department, Jenny Price ’96 associate dean of the Graduate School, and vice chancellor for academic affairs, a position that Top: Biddy Martin chats with in 1991 was paired with being students in 2008. In a farewell message, Martin said her inter- provost, chief deputy to the actions with students were “a chancellor. deep pleasure that I will re- “I’m actually quite excited member for the rest of my life.” [about being interim chancellor],” Center: Calling upon the inter- he says, “because I’m redis- activity of social media, Martin covering and reengaging with (left) participates in a live web that forty-year experience, and chat about the state budget with other top university admin- I feel very privileged that people istrators in February 2011. thought I might be able to help out for a year.” Bottom: The Go Big Read book selection is handed out to But Ward emphasizes that students at the Chancellor’s the coming months and years Convocation at the Kohl Center won’t be easy. “These are diffi- in September 2010.

14 ON WISCONSIN Astro-Dermatology Technique used by astronomers could help assess skin cancer.

As a young graduate student skin blots that may become hyperspectral imager, a device imaging technology can also help with a passion for surfing, Andy cancerous. The system now that samples the spectrum of light assess moles for their potential to Sheinis soaked up a lot of most commonly used to eval- to tease information about the become cancerous. If so, it could California sun. But because of uate worrisome moles is the size and composition of celestial present a quick, noninvasive, his youthful pursuit, Sheinis, now human eye and the brain, Sheinis objects millions or billions of light inexpensive means to identify a UW professor of astronomy, is explains. Clinicians use the years from Earth. worrisome moles and to accu- at high risk for melanoma, skin “ABCDE rule” — asymmetry, Working with Kevin Eliceiri rately map their extent. cancer that can turn deadly if border irregularity, color, diam- ’96, MS’98 of molecular biology “The idea is to take this not detected and treated in its eter, and evolving — to assess and biomedical engineering, device from astronomy and apply earliest stages. the cancerous potential of moles. Jack Longley ’75, MD’79 in it to melanoma,” says Eliceiri. “I’m one of those people “They don’t take pictures of dermatology, and Sharon Weber “This is very new stuff. We don’t who has to be checked every six [moles] most of the time, which MD’93, professor of surgery, know if it’s going to work, but months,” he says. “About half I found kind of surprising,” he he’s conducting a study to deter- that’s why we want to try it.” the time I go in, they have to cut says. “The success of this tech- mine whether hyperspectral Terry Devitt ’78, MA’85 something off.” nique depends strongly on the A decade ago, during a visit training and experience of the to the dermatologist, it struck dermatologist.” STUDENT WATCH Sheinis that the same techniques At about the time Sheinis astronomers use to parse star- began regular screening for The college years can be a stressful time of life. Then light could be used to assess melanoma, he was building a add the weak economy and the uncertain job market, and you get a recipe for student mental-health issues. According to “The American Freshman” report for Buried Treasure Fall 2010, published by the Higher Education Research This sculpture could prove the old adage that a picture is worth a Institute at UCLA, just over half (51.9 percent) of col- thousand words. In 2009, UW archaeologist John Hodgson was lege freshmen reported that their emotional health was working in Chiapas, located in southern Mexico along the Pacific Coast, when the piece was discovered nearby. He narrowed “above average,” dropping from 63.6 percent in 1985, the the object’s age to within one hundred and fifty years by using first year the question was asked in the annual survey. distinctive pottery from the same undisturbed soil layers, even- Danielle Oakley, director of counseling and consul- tually putting it at approximately three tation services for the UW’s University Health Services thousand years old. Hodgson, who is JOHN HODGSON pursuing his PhD in anthropology, (UHS), believes that much of the blame for this trend can continues to work in the region, be placed on the economy. which contains the earliest known “There are a lot of students who are worried because site in ancient North America with formal pyramids built around parents are losing their jobs and they’re looking for jobs plazas. We may never know the themselves on campus,” she says. “Now, those positions identity of the figure (shown in the that used to be [filled] by college students are being photo), but a face on the head- dress appears to be a corn god, taken by the person who has years of experience.” and the zigzag designs carved But Oakley and UHS are making a concerted effort into the three-foot-tall tablet to help stressed-out college students. could represent lightning, moun- “One of the really important things we’ve done is tain ranges, or other features of the natural world. The sculp- change the way that students get access [to counsel- ture was made in a time that ing],” she says. “Before, you had to call and make an preceded written language, but, appointment. Now, when you’re feeling bad and you Hodgson says, “symbols are very efficient at communicating want to access our services, you just drop in.” complicated ideas.” J.P. Sam Oleson ’11

FALL 2011 15 news ¬es

UW BAND AT 125

Uniformly the Best UW-MADISON ARCHIVES, IMAGE #SO5934

The first known photo of the University of Wisconsin Band depicts a The band didn’t pretty stern-looking bunch. That’s not surprising, considering that it start playing for football was 1886, and up to that point, the group had been performing solely games until 1894, when as a military band for drills with members of the university’s battalion. its twenty-six members They looked ready to go into battle themselves. would ride around the city in an open streetcar,

UW MARCHING BAND trying to persuade fans to come to the games. Over the years, the band continued to grow in size. And its look evolved into the uniforms it wears today, with a logo that looks like a mashup of a pitchfork and a smiley face. As the band marks its 125th anniversary this year, On Wisconsin takes a look back at what band members wore while bringing joy to Badger fans and audiences everywhere. Jenny Price ’96

Left: The band’s earliest look mirrored the military. Above: On its 50th birthday in 1935, the band received the Paul Bunyan drum from an Elks Lodge in Appleton, and it served as a trademark into the 1950s. UW MARCHING BAND UW MARCHING BAND

Above: Later, the band adopted the plain, dark blue uniform of the Musicians Union with a high, stiff collar. Right: In 1953, the band traded in used ROTC uniforms (worn at left in the photo) for its first-ever brand-new ones (worn at right), purchased with surplus Rose Bowl funds.

16 ON WISCONSIN JEFF MILLER UW MARCHING BAND UW MARCHING BAND JEFF MILLER

Above right: In 1972, the band purchased new uniforms that had a contemporary look with some military touches. Top: A new emphasis on showmanship, intense physical conditioning, and a demanding marching stride began under the leadership of Mike Leckrone, who arrived at the university in 1969 and became director of bands in 1975. Center: The band logo on the front of the uniform changed from black to white in 1984. The band has kept this look since then. Left: Celebrating a victory, band members turn their hats around when the Badgers have won, a Big Ten custom that dates back to early in the twentieth century.

FALL 2011 17 q&a JEFF MILLER

Jon Levine Work flows from “the best of reasons,” says new director of primate research center.

Administering a big research center at the forefront of biomedical science is challenge enough. Running one with 1,500 monkeys is the test of a lifetime. But that is exactly the matchup for Jon Levine, the Northwestern University neuroscientist recruited to UW-Madison in late 2010 to run the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center (WNPRC). For Levine, leading one of the nation’s eight national primate centers is an opportunity to promote the kind of science that led to human embryonic stem cells and remains our best hope for beating diseases such as Parkinson’s and AIDS. At the same time, the center is a magnet for controversy, as the use of monkeys in biomedical research is contentious.

Q: Many people hear about the Primate Center only when there is an issue — or a perceived issue. If there is one thing people should know about the center, what would that be? A: That researchers and staff are passionate about their work, and that they are wonderful, caring people committed to advancing the cause of human and animal health. The average person knows very well the suffering a family member or friend may endure in disease or injury; unfortunately, few are aware of the importance of biomedical research with non-human primates in developing therapies and strategies for preventing these conditions. I want everyone to know why we do what of the genetic mechanisms underlying human disease. However, there we do — because we are deeply committed to bringing about a future are many aspects of human physiology and disease that can only be in which HIV can be prevented, the ravages of Parkinson’s disease can faithfully reproduced in non-human primates. We are undertaking new be stalled or reversed, and infertility, complications of pregnancy, and approaches to manipulate gene expression in non-human primates. We metabolic diseases such as diabetes can be successfully treated. hope to target genes involved in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, and develop- Q: What do you tell someone — a child, for example — who mental disorders such as autism. asks you about the use of monkeys for biomedical research? A: That we are the good guys. We play by the strictest of rules, Q: What will be the greatest challenge for the Wisconsin intended to ensure the humane and careful utilization of a precious National Primate Research Center over the next decade? resource. And we have the best of reasons for the work we do. I do A: The major challenge for federally funded research institutions is not hesitate to give children an explanation in terms they can appre- to sustain funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and ciate. For example, many kids know someone who has been diagnosed other sources, especially through times of austerity, flat budgets, and with some form of leukemia. We are developing methods to take blood increasing costs. I’m confident, however, that the talented researchers cells from cancer patients and reprogram them into “induced pluripo- and staff at the WNPRC will keep us positioned to renew our base tent stem cells” — make them younger versions of themselves, before grant funding from the NIH. I am also certain that researchers who use they became cancerous. Those induced cells can lead us to an under- non-human primates on campus will continue to successfully compete standing of how blood cells become cancer cells and how we might for individual research funding. Nevertheless, given the special costs better treat leukemia. of research with monkeys, and the preciousness of the resource, we will be looking at new sources of support. Over the longer term, the Q: What do you think we can look forward to in the way of center’s biggest challenge will be to replace and/or renovate portions of scientific advances from the center in the next few years? our infrastructure. My vision for a new WNPRC building complex may A: I could fill pages with advances I hope will be realized. I’ll mention have to wait until the economy recovers over the next few years — but one that I think could enable progress in many others: transgenesis. it is a goal that I hope we can realize. The ability to induce, block, or alter the expression of specific genes in the mouse is now routine and has made it the standard for most studies Interview conducted, condensed, and edited by Terry Devitt ’78, MA’85

18 ON WISCONSIN classroom

Books and Beyond A newly formed course explores how libraries and museums can preserve tribal culture.

For the Red Cliff Band of Lake BRYCE RICHTER Superior Chippewa, the idea for a tribal library is driven by a vision of creating strong cultural ties from generation to generation. Such a facility could serve as a cultural center, provide archival storage, and house space where elderly tribe members could interact with school-aged children in an Ojibwe language immersion program, says Dee Gokee-Rindal, administrator for the tribe’s education division. “That’s the way that our ancestors have shared indig- enous knowledge throughout the centuries — the interaction During a class session held at the Ho-Chunk’s Wisconsin Dells Youth & Learning Center in Baraboo, of younger folks and the elders Janice Rice (left, in blue) and her students show the center’s teachers an online cataloging system. together,” she says. Work on the facility is Ho-Chunk Nation and an asso- they are intertwined in native tions out there when it comes to progressing with the help of ciate lecturer in the library school communities, says Jessica library services, and I think we students from UW-Madison’s who co-teaches the course. While Miesner MAx’12. have a responsibility to include School of Library and Information some, such as the Oneida Nation, “It’s impossible to talk about Wisconsin tribes in what we do.” Studies who are enrolled in LIS Lac Courte Oreilles, and Forest one without the other two,” she Involving UW students in such 640: Tribal Libraries, Archives, County Potawatomi, have state- says. “Often there’s funding for activities inspires tribes to find and Museums, a course of-the-art, multiple-use facilities, one but not others, and every- ways to organize and create space suggested by graduate students others don’t have libraries of any thing is housed in one place.” for history, language, and culture in three years ago. Classes are kind or no longer support them. A key component of the their communities, Rice says. Last aimed at supporting Wisconsin’s “Indigenous knowledge course is the opportunity for spring, Gray and fellow students Native American nations while takes many forms,” says Omar service learning. The students developed fundraising materials also giving hands-on experience Poler ’07, MA’10, who helped who enroll in the course are to help the Red Cliff tribe with the to future librarians. Public libraries to organize the first class while universally drawn by the library project that members hope often don’t reach into native a graduate student. Poler is chance to get real-world library to complete in the next few years. communities, nor do the tribes a member of the Mole Lake experience. Kramer and her group worked with have the same revenue streams Sokaogon Chippewa commu- Some of the students also staff at the Ho-Chunk’s Wisconsin to support their own facilities. nity and was Rice’s co-teacher in assist with Culture Keeper, a Dells Youth & Learning Center “The assumption is that spring 2011. “Tribal libraries are series of conferences that provide to build an online catalog of a things can be funded by casinos, interpreting their story themselves a way for tribal librarians, archi- fifteen hundred-volume collection but the libraries are very aware and sometimes incorporating vists, and museum curators to to promote reading. In time, the that you can’t count on some- language and culture in ways that come together and share ideas. library will feature subject headings thing like that,” says Hannah make them very different from a “As library school students, on shelves in both Ho-Chunk and Gray ’07, MA’11. “There are regular public library.” we are in a unique position to English. a lot of different things that need Although the course is provide help, skills, and resources “The students’ youthful to be funded when there’s not housed in the library school, it that can be hard to come by energy and their untapped a tax base.” also serves as a class in Native for many tribal libraries,” says potential helps Native American Libraries, archives, and American history, language, art, Kelly Kramer MAx’12, a communities to see that there are museums for Wisconsin’s culture, anthropology, law, and member of the Oneida Nation. people who are excited about tribes vary widely, says Janice education. It touches on libraries, “Native Americans are one of tribal libraries,” Rice says. Rice, MA’75, a member of the archives, and museums because the most underserved popula- Stacy Forster

FALL 2011 19 sports

TEAM PLAYER Alex Rigsby It’s never easy replacing a legend, but that’s exactly what UW sophomore Alex Rigsby x’14 is trying to do. After the graduation of Jessie Vetter ’09, who won ninety-one games and posted thirty-nine shutouts during her four-year career — both NCAA records — goaltender was a serious question mark for the UW women’s hockey team. Last year, Rigsby showed there was absolutely nothing to worry about when she stepped in goal for the Badgers and helped Wisconsin win its fourth national title in six years, posting a 27-1-1 record in her freshman season. Growing up just a short drive from Madison in Delafield, Wisconsin, Rigsby watched Vetter shut down opponents for four years and knew that she had some big skates to fill when she decided to come to the UW. Like most great players, though, Rigsby viewed that as an opportunity, not a hindrance, for her career. “It was definitely a big shadow that I stepped into,” Rigsby says. “But, coming in, I wasn’t afraid of that shadow, and I’ve been thinking about it as more of a challenge than anything.” Rigsby may have had a competitive advantage coming into college in that she played with the boys in high school, leading to an easier adjust- ment once she joined the Badgers. In fact, she was so good in high school that the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League drafted her in 2009, making Rigsby the first female player ever drafted by the league. Despite all she accomplished in high school, her ultimate goal as a team-first colle- giate player was to win an NCAA tournament. “Winning a national championship is one of the biggest goals of the team and dreams of the girls on the team,” Rigsby says. With that national title already under her belt, Rigsby appears on the path to not only step out of Vetter’s shadow, but to create a sizable one herself by the time she graduates. Sam Oleson ’11

“Coming in, I wasn’t afraid of Jessie Vetter’s shadow, and I’ve been JEFF MILLER thinking about it as more of a challenge than anything.”

20 ON WISCONSIN © KIRK SPEER, THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Bat Man David Kretschmann is working to make baseball bats break safely. David Kretschmann ’84, “Traditionally, bats were MS’87 likes to see wood crack. made out of white ash,” says “I break things for a living,” Kretschmann. “But then Barry he says. Kretschmann is an engi- Bonds started using a maple bat, neer with the Forest Products and he hit [a record] seventy- Lab, a U.S. Department of three home runs in one season. Agriculture facility located on the Then the use of maple bats took UW campus. As such, he’s inter- off. Today, about 60 percent of ested in seeing how much stress bats are made of maple, where in lumber can take and remain in 1990, that figure was only about one piece. 3 percent, if that much.” It was this work that brought The problem lies in what him to the attention of Major woodworkers call “slope of The crack of the bat: a hitter shatters his bat in a minor league League Baseball. In 2008, the grain.” A baseball bat (or any game. The flying shard of wood can be dangerous to other players sport was suffering an epidemic piece of lumber) is strongest and fans. David Kretschmann and his colleagues have helped Major of shattered bats — that is, bats when cut with its length parallel League Baseball reduce the number of shattered bats by half. that break into multiple pieces, to the grain of the wood. If the often sending sharp splin- slope of grain differs from the Kretschmann and his game in 2008, the number fell to ters flying toward players and center line of the bat by as little colleagues came up with a simple .65 shattered bats per game by fans. That year saw an average as 3 degrees, that bat will be 20 solution for that problem. Before the end of the 2009 season, and of one shattered bat per game, percent more likely to shatter. a piece of wood is carved into a to .55 by the end of 2010. In the and baseball executives grew Maple isn’t necessarily bat, inspectors now paint a spot first half of 2011, it reached .45. concerned enough to ask for help a weaker wood than ash, of ink onto it. The wood draws “This is not to say from Kretschmann and several Kretschmann explains. Rather, up the ink, showing the direc- we’ve solved the problem,” other scientists. The group it has a less well-defined grain. tion of its face grain. “It took a Kretschmann says. “It’s tricky examined all the bats that had Because ash has a clearly defined while [for manufacturers] to get to get everyone to accept our shattered in the last three months face grain, it’s easy for manufac- used to doing this efficiently,” recommendations. But the of the season, and found that the turers to make strong bats. But Kretschmann says, “but we saw numbers are down well over half. problem lay largely in the wood maple’s poorly defined face grain an immediate drop [in the number From my point of view, that’s itself: more and more bats were makes it harder to judge how to of shattered bats].” something.” made of maple. cut the wood properly. From an average of one per John Allen

BADGER SPORTS TICKER The Badger football team pulled off a head coach for the men’s and women’s The men’s basketball team will a major coup when it landed quarterback teams at the University of Washington. head to the Windy City in November. Russell Wilson away from North Carolina The Badgers will play in the Chicago State. A three-time all-ACC honoree, UW rowers have been making a Invitational Challenge, an eight-team Wilson also played minor league baseball splash in global races. Tim Aghai x’12 and tournament. for the Asheville Tourists, a Class A affiliate Anthony Altimari ’11 won gold while repre- UW-Madison athletic director of the Colorado Rockies. senting the United States at the World Barry Alvarez received a raise in July. Rowing Under 23 Championships in The former football coach signed a The Badger men’s and women’s Amsterdam in July. Then the U.S. National new five-year contract in which he will swim teams have a new head coach. Rowing Team featured three Badgers at earn $1 million a year, with half coming Whitney Hite will lead the squads starting the world championships in Slovenia: Grant from UW Athletics and half coming this season. He was previously an assis- James ’09, Ross James ’10, and Ryan Fox from the UW Foundation. tant coach at the University of Arizona and ’10. That event occurred after press time.

FALL 2011 21 Tracking The Ties That Bind Fred Gardaphé ’76 knew that if he didn’t get out of the Mafia-dominated neighborhood where he grew up, he could wind up dead. UW-Madison provided a way out.

By Alfred Lubrano The topic of social class doesn’t come up often in social conversation or in the halls of academia. That’s why journalist and first-generation college graduate Alfred Lubrano decided to address the issue in his book Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams, which looks at upward mobility through vignettes of individuals who have grown up in working-class families and moved on to white-collar jobs. The author focuses on how many of these “strad- dlers,” as he calls them, confront social mores of a middle-class world that is dramatically different from the one in which they grew up — and how, even after making the transition, they can’t seem to shake a lingering sense of isolation and of not fitting into either world. The following excerpt tells the story of one such straddler, Fred Gardaphé ’76.

Melrose Park, Illinois, is near enough to O’Hare Airport that a person can read the logos of planes roaring not far overhead. It can get to you after a while, knowing that those people above you are going places, and you’re stuck in this. The landscape on the main thoroughfares is eye-unfriendly, with barely a tree to offer a break from the character-free, suburban/industrial tangles: a Ford plant, a Sherwin-Williams plant, a Denny’s, a strip mall — it’s as though someone forgot to write a zoning code, allowing fast-food restaurants, factories, and big-box retailers to nest one next to the other in disjointed disarray. Acres of stained, gray parking lots thwart rain from penetrating soil, and rivers of oil-ruined water flow toward Lake Michigan in toxic torrents. Surviving on jet exhaust and industrial stink, Armageddon-ready weeds grow unchallenged and unmowed in the cracks of buckled concrete islands that separate endless flows of truck traffic. Pedes- trians are scarce. Nothing is of human scale; it’s a place for machines and buildings, hard and impenetrable. How tough it must be to live here.

22 ON WISCONSIN JEFF MILLER

FALL 2011 23 Fred Gardaphé did, and it almost Can a white-collar person do that Sable. They’ve become plumbers and killed him. His godfather, his grand- — return to his blue-collar beginnings restaurant suppliers, and they all make father, and his father were slain here and live a new kind of life? For some more money than Fred, without educa- in Melrose, the place some people call straddlers, the middle class gets to be tion. Fred’s son once asked him why, “Mafia-town.” They were connected in a burden, its rituals and requirements with his PhD, he has the crummiest car ways to the Outfit, which is how they forever foreign. There’s an ease to slip- among friends who never went beyond refer to the Mob in Chicago. It was a ping back to old ways. Another reason high school. gypsy who saved him: “The third Fred Fred comes is to find out more about Right now, he drives the gas- in the family slurper will die,” she through foretold, if Melrose Park, he didn’t get once all Italian, out. Actually, now largely, it was a gypsy, if not mostly, a Dominican Mexican. priest, and the “When I University of come back, I Wisconsin that expect things saved Fred. But not to have that’s getting changed. At ahead of the least there story. are the same These [jerk] drivers. days, Fred is a But you see Distinguished the changes Professor of Fred Gardaphé, right, poses in a 1963 photo with his mother and father at a family celebration. and have to Italian American ask yourself, Studies at Queens College at the City his father’s unsolved murder more than ‘Who [messed] this up?’ I expect people University of New York. That shouldn’t thirty years ago. People must know what to still care about the things I’ve stopped have happened. Guys like him finish happened, Fred believes. But no one ever caring about.” As we drive, sweet songs high school, maybe, then scratch out a says. “I need for things to make sense. like “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice” working-class life never more than a few Because they don’t.” He’s come this time pour out of the oldies station Fred miles from the hospitals in which they with his daughter, to help her see who he programmed onto the car radio after his were born. But Fred had things chasing was once. daughter left to hang out with friends. him: fear is a great rocket fuel. “It was One thing is for sure: professor or The audio syrup is the wrong flavor for like being in Plato’s cave,” Fred says, not, he still looks like a neighborhood what Fred’s telling me. “I come from a “then walking out.” guy. Stocky and thick, Fred has a goatee long line of violent things. My godfather He returns every summer to see his and receding gray hair he keeps close- was killed robbing a golf course.” The mom and his friends, buddies who didn’t cropped. He wears black shorts and a statement hits you sideways, with its odd go to college but remain close. Lately, blue, sleeveless T-shirt to show off arms juxtaposition of disparate words that the reunions have become even more he used to throw around in boyhood rarely work the same sentence. It’s awful important. Fred’s actually been contem- fights. He sort of reminds you of Billy and absurd. Do things like that happen? plating moving back to the area. “It’s to Joel in a distant way. Tonight, he’ll meet Somebody shot the man as he ran off be near what is known, and it’s also being his boys for drinks at a sports bar, then with duffer money, then his buddies known,” he says. “To not have to intro- maybe go to dinner. They’ll bust his scooped him off the lovely grass, drove duce myself to new people all the time.” chops about his ride, a 1993 Mercury him to the hospital, and threw him out

24 ON WISCONSIN on the lawn, where he died before ER Fred tells me that Chucky has his facts pawnshop. By then, Fred was working doctors could stop the bleeding. wrong. Shadow wasn’t supposed to go to there more regularly, but he had stayed Life was so awful that Fred could Dora’s for lunch. Fred was supposed to home that day. Suddenly, he heard easily have become a gangster — so bring his father some food at the pawn- gunshots pop over the phone. He and many of the adults in his life were. This shop that Monday afternoon. But he his mother jumped in their car and sped was, Fred says, “mythic Mafia land,” didn’t want to because he knew Shadow to the shop, only to see his grandfather with nefarious traditions tracing back would make him work. So Fred sent his lying on the floor, bleeding to death. to Al Capone, whose turf this once was. younger brother with the lunch; Shadow Fred grabbed his grandfather’s gun, “There are people who still consider took the food and sent the boy home. saw a guy limping away, and raised it Melrose Park the place where the “I always felt guilty about that. to fire. But before he did, a cop came Mafia in America up from behind comes from.” The and yelled, “Drop Gardaphé family “It’s one reason I keep coming back home, to keep it.” The shooter was into laundering replaying it in my mind. It was the most primal scene was caught and stolen money and sentenced to fencing stolen in my life and the reason I left this place. When I twenty-five years goods, he said. for the murder. It Their pawnshop come back, I look at the people and wonder if they was robbery, pure was the perfect remember. It’s not for new leads, really. But to see if and simple. But front. “They were Fred’s grandfather distributors of the his murder has an impact on others’ lives as well.” wouldn’t have stuff that fell off died if he hadn’t the backs of trucks, resisted. The only essentially.” Maybe the killer would have seen me reason he had, Fred claims, is that he Fred passes Dora’s Pizza and has working there and not gone in.” Some- was a racist and couldn’t bear the idea of to stop. He used to deliver for Chucky, body stabbed Shadow to death. Fred being robbed by a black man. the owner, and now the two catch up, as believes it would have been someone Mired in hatred and ignorance, Fred eats a sausage sandwich and drinks his father knew; nobody else could have steeped in death, Fred was growing up an RC standing at the counter. Today the gotten close enough for a knife assault. hard. Desperate for Fred to have a man news is not good. Turns out everybody And it wasn’t robbery because nothing around, his mother asked a neighbor to Fred used to know is either dead or on was taken. “It’s one reason I keep coming take an interest. As it happened, he was dialysis. “Whaddya gonna do?” Chucky back home, to keep replaying it in my related to the Genovese crime family in asks, and the two men contemplate the mind. It was the most primal scene in my New York. He, in turn, was murdered. question, so very blue collar in its dual life and the reason I left this place. When Things were not going well for the implications that everything is out of I come back, I look at the people and males in Fred’s life. your control, but you’ve got to learn wonder if they remember. It’s not for One day, Fred’s grandmother saw a to live with it. “Whaddya gonna do?” new leads, really. But to see if his murder fortune-teller, who foretold his demise practically qualifies as a working-class has an impact on others’ lives as well.” unless he sold the pawnshop, which had philosophy of life. After the slaying, people started fallen to him. The family believed, and There’s a break in the conversa- telling their kids not to hang around Fred liquidated the place when he was tion, then Chucky looks at Fred and with Fred. He became adept at spotting sixteen, selling, he said, to the Jewish says, “God, Fred, I remember the day the FBI surveillance cars on the block, Mafia in town. By then, he was attending Shadow didn’t come in for lunch.” That and once put a potato in a fed’s tailpipe. an expensive Dominican prep school, for shuts Fred down, and a pall hangs over Bad times seemed to follow him. When which his grandfather had paid. On the the men. Shadow was Fred’s father. he was fifteen, Fred was on the phone streets, he was brawling, getting into fights They say their good-byes and in the car, with his grandfather, who was at the with black kids, and proving he was a man.

FALL 2011 25 JEFF MILLER to organized crime. But no one at home owns up to it. Whaddya gonna do? One of his college teachers, a white guy, called all the neighborhood guys in the class “racists.” He explained how he’d fallen in love with a black woman. He had his students read Richard Wright and other black authors. He showed his ignorant white charges how they’d been getting it wrong their whole lives. “The bad thing about realizing you’re a racist is that it means everyone who ever taught you anything or told you anything you believed was a racist, too. It’s such an unraveling of all the things that you protected yourself with.” Enlightened and now totally out of step with the neighborhood, Fred trans- ferred to the University of Wisconsin — “where all the good radicals go.” Language was the big difference. Suddenly, he was in rooms with people whose English was superior to his.

On a recent visit home to Melrose Park, Gardaphé pauses by an honorary street sign that Making things tougher, women were says Fred Gardaphé Way, named after his late father. befuddling, too. “I went up to girls and said, ‘What are you chicks doing tonight?’ In the classroom, he was studying philos- question. “That was the bomb that blew and they’d say, ‘Why do you cocks ophy and Latin, being shown another way everything up,” he says. “They taught wanna know?’ My working-class notions to grow up. Fred would do his homework me I had to get out of this place. It was about women were they were to be on the sly, sneaking books to the park or getting hard to remain in the world in protected. I opened a car door for a girl rec centers. “Around that time, I started which I was born while being nurtured in Madison and she was insulted. I kind realizing that I was trapped in Melrose. out of it by school. The question of got dragged into feminism kicking and But you didn’t want people to know that became, when do you leave?” screaming. You don’t know how deeply you were escaping.” The process was going Motivated to go, but without direc- working-class you are until you’re in slowly. Fred got into drugs — speed and tion, Fred went to a junior college to these situations.” acid, mostly. “It was my way of getting out escape the draft. When the government Scholarship lit a fire in his head and of where I was mentally, because I couldn’t did finally send a notice, it was a 4-F Fred straightened out. Now he’s a full do it physically.” deferment, in essence a judgment that professor, but he still worries about the Still, the Dominicans were having Fred had failed his physical exam and clock at work. Is he keeping enough office their effect. He was reading Cicero could not become a soldier. Good news, hours? he wonders. He has a sense the and Plato. In an irony not uncommon right? Well, like a lot of things in Fred’s boss is looking over his shoulder somehow. in quality Catholic educations, Fred life, there was a mystery to that as well. “But,” he keeps having to remind himself, was being taught to question authority Fred had never taken an army physical. “I have tenure. I can’t be fired.” — how, in essence, not to be a good To this day, Fred believes his family Saturday night and time to meet Catholic boy who hangs around and had any potential draft notice quashed the fellas. Fred drives to a sports bar in does only the family’s bidding without through their long-standing connections nearby Elmhurst, where he hooks up

26 ON WISCONSIN Reflections of a UW Straddler studies, where I soon found a home in the Mark Twain course of Al Feltskog, the linguistic courses of Charles Read, Jerome Coming to the University of Wisconsin back in 1973 was an Taylor’s pre-Chaucer class, and the writing-for-teachers course escape from a Little Italy that I felt was choking my creativity of Nancy Gimmestad — where I was first able to establish the and pushing me toward mindless conformity with traditions I validity of my personal story and find my voice as a writer. didn’t understand. I had graduated from a well-respected prep The key to all my classes was that I was able to take the school and completed two years of junior college, yet I wasn’t streets into the classroom, and apply what I was learning prepared for a big university in my home state of Illinois. I felt so back to those very streets. I did a study of railroad dialect for disconnected to what was happening in the lecture classes that a linguistics class, and wrote about my neighborhood in my I dropped out. English classes. I learned to integrate the lessons of the ivory- If it were not for the Vietnam War, I don’t think I would have tower Madison campus and blue-collar Melrose Park. That has returned to school so quickly. I had graduated from high school become the theme of my life and my life’s work over the years. in 1970, eligible for the second year of the national draft. I I took courses in education such as Radical School Reform, needed a 2-S [student] deferment and so found my way quickly and through my volunteer work at radio station WORT, I was to a local junior college, one we used to call a high school with able to host alternative music shows and to review books that ashtrays. Its unofficial motto was “Better than fightin.’ ” came out of my classroom studies. Those great experiences My prep school training made it easy for me to work full- prepared me for my early jobs in education, first at traditional and part-time jobs without interruption in my social life — rock and later at alternative high schools in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin; concerts, festivals, and the other recreational activities of my Mason City, Iowa; and Chicago. generation. I breezed through the classes, doing little to further My days in Madison seem short in comparison to the life I’ve my knowledge, save for an English class run by a radical lived since, but that sense of community — in cooperatives, film teacher who helped us form an underground newspaper as part societies, campus bars, the Italian neighborhood around Park of our assigned work. He said that the school for me could be Street, and in my education classes — gave a working-class kid no other than UW-Madison. a sense of belonging. It gave me the chance to work my way My best friend had an uncle who worked at the Depart- into the middle class and to never be afraid to bring my life to ment of Public Instruction in Madison, and we went up there for my learning, or to use that learning to improve my life and the a weekend to check the place out. One look at the Terrace that lives of those around me. early spring day was enough for me. People as serious about fun I eventually returned to Chicago for a teaching job and am and learning were hard to come by back home. We made the now a Distinguished Professor of Italian American Studies at move the following year. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study, but Queens College-CUNY. I’ve published eight books on Italian- settled on majoring in English and minoring in communication American culture and have spent a lifetime studying those very arts. Each class was an adventure, as was life in the city. traditions that I thought I had escaped when I left for Madison. I studied film with David Bordwell and television with Donald Fred Gardaphé LeDuc PhD’70, and my English classes took me deep into literary

with the old crowd — Anthony, Patsy, weight and struggling with the Atkins Back in the day, there were girls, and George. They hug like working- diet, is national sales manager for a furtive tries at oral sex, and fights. These class guys do — a quick embrace, hard restaurant-equipment company. George guys were in a lot of fights. backslaps, then release. Gotta do it the Greek, unique among the group “The blacks pulled Fred out of the car fast, before anyone thinks you’re gay. because he still has his hair, is an insur- one night, then they beat the [crap] out of Insults soon follow — jabs about weight, ance investigator. All three are fifty years all of us,” Anthony says. baldness, and creeping old age. That old. Fred is the only one of the four to “I had no business being there in that done, the boys are ready to settle in for have graduated from college. neighborhood,” says Fred, the reformed chicken wings and beers. Balding and in They start with the old stories. Like racist. great shape, blue-eyed Anthony works a vocal group from the 1950s, the guys construction. Patsy, who’s a little over- know all the words. Continued on page 60

FALL 2011 27 28 ON WISCONSIN Does genomics hold the secrets for the future of medicine? Eric Green believes it does — and that Bill Gahl is showing the way.

By John Allen Eric Green ’81 has a vision in medical literature as “Family 1, Patient of minerals causes her arteries to calcify of the future of medicine, VI.1,” which is how she’s described in and harden. This restricts blood flow, and the February 3, 2011 issue of The New though her body has tried to adapt by and it looks a lot like William Gahl England Journal of Medicine. Benge does growing networks of tiny, collateral vessels, MD’76, PhD’81 and Louise Benge. not know Green, but if his vision for the the blood that pumps to the cells in her Green is the director of the National future of medical science is accurate, she legs and feet is still insufficient. Human Genome Research Institute will be among the first beneficiaries. “My arteries are all calcified from (NHGRI), an arm of the National Insti- For thirty years, Benge has suffered the aorta on down,” Benge says. “It starts tutes of Health (NIH). This is more than excruciating pain, and were it not for alphabet soup — it’s the governmental in the aorta and goes all down the lower Gahl, she still wouldn’t know why. organization that spent years sequencing extremities. [Doctors] can’t do surgery the human genome. His vision is ambi- [to relieve the problem], because of the tious, but he doesn’t think it’s some A native of Brodhead, Kentucky, severity of it.” utopia, and it’s not science fiction. “I Benge was in her early twenties when Without knowing why Benge’s body want to be careful not to overpromise,” she first started feeling the effects of an was attacking her, her physicians could he says. “But I think in ten years, fifteen ailment no one was able to define. When only rely on trial and error to search for years, we’ll look back on some of our she walks for any distance at all — as little relief. They put her on painkillers. They current medical treatments as being as a city block, perhaps, or a single flight prescribed exercise to try to encourage barbaric.” Green took charge of NHGRI of stairs — her legs become as hard as increased blood flow. They even tried in December 2009. stone, and nearly as unresponsive. But putting her on sodium thiosulfate, a medi- Gahl is the clinical director for they aren’t deadened and numb. They cation used by patients in kidney failure. It NHGRI, making him responsible for radiate searing pain. can relieve the calcifying effects of dialysis, the institute’s patient-based genomic For the first decade after this began, though it can also cause violent nausea. It research that goes on in NIH’s 234-bed Benge tried to ignore the hurt until it did not help Benge. Nothing did. hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. Gahl has went away. Eventually, she asked doctors “I was kind of at the end of my rope,” also led — since its founding in 2008 — — her primary-care physician and a host she says. NIH’s Undiagnosed Diseases Program, of specialists — for relief. They studied Eventually, her doctor, Karen Saylor, a team of health professionals and her, x-rayed her, and injected her with heard about Gahl and the Undiagnosed researchers devoted to finding the causes dye to trace the flow of her blood. And Diseases Program. Gahl was looking for of some of the most mysterious cases in though they could see the visual evidence patients at the end of their rope. modern medicine. It’s in this role that he of her pain, they couldn’t determine what “The typical patient isn’t a good met Benge. was causing it, let alone how to cure it. candidate for us,” Gahl says. “If we’re not Benge is not a doctor, nor a scientist Benge, they discerned, is the victim your last resort, then coming here may be of any kind. She’s a patient — best known of her own circulatory system. A buildup premature.”

FALL 2011 29 Normally, it’s not rare for patients The presence of the symptoms in to get involved in an NIH-supported all five Proctor siblings but not in their study. The institutes’ online list of clinical parents indicated that the cause of the research projects, clinicaltrials.gov, names MAGGIE BARTLETT illness might be rooted in their genes — 916 current studies; of those, 138 are and that gave Gahl an idea for how to supported by NHGRI. But most of that find the genetic culprit. research is what NIH calls extramural — In May 2009, his team asked Benge essentially, NIH’s role is to help fund the and Allen to come to Bethesda. studies through grants to labs at other institutions, such as the UW’s Genome To Green, Gahl isn’t just a doctor, Center of Wisconsin. and Benge isn’t just a patient. Together, Gahl explains that only about 10 they’re also elements in the effort to percent of NIH research is intramural, foster genomic medicine. carried out in NIH government labs. And “What Bill is doing with the Undiag- even among those studies, the Undiag- nosed Diseases Program is exactly what nosed Diseases Program is special. Of the one has in mind as an incubator, taking roughly 5,200 inquiries Gahl received Eric Green has been part of the human the latest genomic technologies and in the program’s first three years, he genome project “from day one” and now applying them to figure out how best to accepted only 400. The program has to be hopes to turn knowledge into treatments. diagnose diseases,” Green says. “[It shows] exclusive because of the amount of effort how to use genomics to do biomedical expended on each case. Patients spend Benge is the oldest of five children research and clinical research, and a week or more at the NIH hospital, born to Clara and Bobby Proctor. Her increasingly to change clinical practice.” meeting with specialists from virtually siblings, in order of birth, are Derrell Genetics is the study of DNA and its every field. Proctor, Doug Proctor, Paula Allen, and “It’s almost like, you name it,” Gahl Elizabeth Dodd, and all of them have the role in heredity; genomics, however, is the says. “We have ... neurologists and pedi- same calcified arteries — but their parents study of a complete set of chromosomes atric geneticists, but we consult with do not. Benge was the first to develop — of all of a person’s genes — consid- internists, pediatricians, dermatologists, the symptoms of the mysterious disease, ering how those genes interact with rheumatologists, cardiologists, pulmon- which was as strange to the Proctors as it each other and with the environment. ologists, and psychiatrists, physiometrists, was to their physicians. Between 1990 and 2003, the human rehabilitation medicine folks, pain and “We used to kind of tease Louise for genome project was one of the highest palliative care, people who are experts in [occasionally] using a wheelchair,” says profile efforts in biology, with the goal of bone disease, endocrinologists, gynecolo- Allen. “Then, when I started feeling the mapping the entire human genetic code: gists — any specialty, just about.” same pain, I thought, well, I better have it the roughly 20,000 genes spelled out in Gahl was intrigued by the Benge checked into.” some 3 billion nucleotides that constitute case. Not only had she been through One by one, the Proctor siblings all the reference set of human chromosomes. many different doctors, but the various began showing signs of arterial calcifi- The effort cost some $3 billion, and elements of her disease were what he was cation — sometimes first in the hands, laboratories in the United States, United looking for: “a new, unique, or remarkable manifesting like a form of severe arthritis, Kingdom, Germany, France, China, physical finding or constellation of such but always, eventually, in the legs and feet. Japan, and elsewhere took part. findings, and maybe a clue that we can go Allen says she can only walk for “ten Working with strands of DNA from after, an abnormal laboratory result.” to fifteen minutes at a slow speed, right a variety of people (but most of it from The clue in Benge’s case was that it now. My ankles and feet all hurt now. It’s an anonymous donor from Buffalo, New wasn’t entirely unique. She could readily not just my calves and legs. My feet hurt York), teams of scientists began scanning, produce four other people with the same all the time. And they stay red. My feet, chromosome by chromosome, nucleo- symptoms, and, importantly, two without. my legs, everything. I just ache.” tide by nucleotide — guanine, adenine,

30 ON WISCONSIN thymine, and cytosine — over and over, elucidating the chemical map of what it means to be human.

Green has been involved in the JEANNINE MJOSETH human genome project “literally from day one,” he says, working in labs, first at Washington University in St. Louis and then at NIH, sequencing and mapping, with a focus on chromosome 7. It was a massive effort, “biology’s equivalent to the moon shot,” Green says. But its aim was pure science, not directly connected to curing disease or helping patients. “During the genome project,” he says, “we had a laser sharp, single goal: sequence the human genome. None of it was clinically oriented. It was just completely focused on a basic science endeavor.” And that, Green believes, now has to change. Louise Benge (on table) undergoes an arterial exam to evaluate circulation while NIH staffers Annette Stine, Kevin Smith, and Catherine Groden observe. Benge and her siblings If sequencing the genome was biol- went through a wide variety of tests while at the NIH facility in Bethesda, Maryland. ogy’s moon shot, the discipline had its Neil Armstrong moment in 2003, when Gahl’s Undiagnosed Diseases PET scans and CT scans, ultrasounds. the complete sequence was published. In Program is one attempt to create those Just all kinds.” the eight years since, genomics has seen a clinical applications and inject a spirit of Those tests revealed the extent of surge in technology that enables scientists practical discovery into genomics. the damage that the illness had wrought. to sequence DNA with increasing speed “A lot of people at NIH wanted to This was most visible in the large arteries and decreasing cost. But Green notes that go back to the era of the 1950s and ’60s in the Proctor siblings’ legs. In a healthy NHGRI’s work can’t end with the publi- when new diseases were being diag- person, the femoral and popliteal arteries cation of the reference human genome nosed,” Gahl says. “So we thought it was sequence. In his first year as director of an opportune time to start the program. If sequencing the genome was So I hired a couple of people, and it was NHGRI — and thus, at least administra- biology’s moon shot, the discipline tively, America’s top genomicist — he led announced, and it was so popular with the the organization to develop a new stra- press that NIH gave more money to it, had its Neil Armstrong moment tegic plan. The institute must, he believes, and it just kind of grew from there.” in 2003, when the complete find ways to apply genomics to solving When Benge and Allen — and later sequence was published. the practical, clinical problems that Dodd and Derrell and Doug Proctor — real patients face. That plan, published went to Bethesda to meet with Gahl and in Nature in February 2011, proposes his team, they found themselves subjects run like a highway down past the knee, turning knowledge of the human genome of a broad battery of examinations. carrying large amounts of blood to the into actionable medicine, diagnoses of “We did every test imaginable,” says lower leg and foot. Radiographs for diseases, and ultimately treatments. Benge. “Needles and testing and x-rays Benge showed hers to be constricted “The bottom line,” he says, “is that and CAT scans and blood work and and blocked — instead of the smooth ... the future of genomics [is in] clinical more blood work and more blood work. flow of a highway, she had the crowded applications.” and crawling traffic of rush hour in a

FALL 2011 31 metropolis. Studies in cells indicated that federal government’s definition is found the Proctors had low levels of an enzyme in the Orphan Drug Act of 1983, which called CD73, and so Gahl’s team referred classifies a disease as rare if it affects fewer to the condition as ACDC, or Arterial than 200,000 Americans, or roughly one in Calcification due to a Deficiency of CD73. every 1,500. The Proctor siblings’ partic- But the scans, blood work, and x-rays ular form of arterial calcification affects only showed the effect of the disease. only nine people on earth that we know of At the same time that Gahl’s team was — or one in every 752,803,967 people. running laboratory analyses on Benge and But Green believes that while the Allen, they were also looking for its origin Proctors’ disease may be very rare, the in their genealogy. method of diagnosis might soon be The Proctors’ parents were third The femeropoplitial artery in Louise Benge’s nothing out of the ordinary — that the leg (left) is heavily calcified (compare with a cousins. Though neither they nor any of healthy artery at right). way Gahl worked to the root of the the siblings’ ancestors showed any signs Proctor siblings’ problem also points of the disease, the team theorized that medicine toward new ways to handle likely candidates of those ninety-two and they might have been passing it along common medical situations. As an study them.” nonetheless. What if several of them example, he says, consider warfarin, the The culprit, they found, was a gene blood thinner developed at UW-Madison called NT5E, which lives on chromo- by Karl Paul Link ’22, MS’23, PhD’25 in The Proctor siblings’ some 6 and governs production of the 1940s and used to prevent strokes. particular form of arterial CD73 enzyme. It had what Gahl calls “Warfarin is a great drug,” Green says, a “nonsense mutation,” or defect. The calcification affects only nine “but people respond to it in wonky kinds discovery of that mutation — and of a of ways. It’s hard to get the dosage just people on earth that we similar mutation in four other patients right, because if you give people too much, know of — or one in every (three sisters in northern Italy and a they bleed out, and if you don’t give them woman in California) who showed the 752,803,967 people. enough, they clot. Getting that therapeutic same symptoms — led to publication window — you do it by trial and error. in the New England Journal of Medicine had been carriers of an ACDC muta- Very blunt and prone to problems.” and to the first announcement that the tion, a recessive gene that didn’t appear Recent genetic studies, he explains, Undiagnosed Diseases Program had until Carla and Bobby Proctor married have revealed the genetic variants that discovered a new disease. and brought two copies of that recessive influence how a person metabolizes mutation together? warfarin. Researchers are now conducting “It was actually a pretty easy case, “You ask the question, ‘Can you clinical trials to determine if using this in a way,” Gahl says. Since the siblings’ use new genomic technologies to better genetic information about a patient parents were third cousins, “they share figure out the cause of rare diseases?’ Bill improves a physician’s ability to find that one–one hundred twenty-eighth of their Gahl is answering that in spades,” Green therapeutic window and avoid the errors. genome sequence. Which means that says. “He’s launched this incredibly well- “We’ll see what the trials say,” Green slightly less than 1 percent of the entire received program, which takes in patients notes, “but it is possible that they’ll genome is going to be homozygous. So from around the world, and for which demonstrate the effectiveness [of genetic we looked for a region in which all five the medical system has failed to deliver testing]. If that happens, then it will individuals were homozygous and the a diagnosis. ... It’s a very clear demon- become the standard of care — that parents were heterozygous. And there stration that you can use these genomic before you give somebody warfarin, you was only one region, and that region techniques to figure out what is broken in quickly give them a DNA test and figure contained ninety-two genes. We were patients with very rare genetic diseases.” out what kind of dosing you should use.” able to pick out which were the most The Proctor siblings’ disease is, by In Green’s vision, genome sequencing any definition of the term, very rare. The would become as standard to medicine

32 ON WISCONSIN as physicals and blood tests. Children JEANNINE MJOSETH might have their genomes sequenced at birth, the resulting information then helping physicians to understand what kinds of illnesses they might be subject to, and which kinds of medicines might be most effective, and which potentially dangerous. Doctors might learn which individuals were at risk for what kinds of cancers, and how those cancers are best treated. “Maybe ten years, maybe fifteen years from now, we wouldn’t do genetic tests on patients in real time,” he says. “Rather, maybe the patient would already have had his or her genome sequenced, and that information would be part of the elec- tronic medical record.” But ten or fifteen years is a long time to wait for Louise Benge and her siblings. For them, the promise of the future is less Bill Gahl (right) heads the NHGRI’s Undiagnosed Diseases Program, which seeks out the causes of mysterious ailments. Here, he’s shown with (from right) Louise Benge, Paula important than the pain of the present. Allen, and Manfred Boehm, a researcher at the Center for Molecular Medicine. genes won’t produce the enzyme that to walk for as long as they can stand, then Though Green has high hopes would keep their arteries from calcifying rest, then start walking again. for genomics to change the practice of — Gahl and his team have worked up “It was wonderful to finally find out medicine, he also knows that there’s much an experimental treatment that would what was causing our problems,” Benge work to be done to translate genomic obviate the need for the missing enzyme. says. “And they think they found some knowledge into cures. But the path to relief isn’t simple, and medication that can help us, but they “What Bill Gahl’s doing is as much the standards of science, and of medical have to get it approved. If they can get a research endeavor as anything else,” he regulation, don’t make Gahl’s job any that done, get us started on the rounds of says. “Just because you can diagnose a easier. medicine and stuff, it would be even more disease doesn’t mean you can treat it.” “In general, the Food and Drug wonderful, if it helps us.” ■ And Gahl is acutely aware of this Administration applies the same standards distinction — and that treatment is not in for rare diseases as for common diseases,” John Allen is senior editor of On Wisconsin Magazine. his charter. It is, rather, a personal desire. Gahl says. “If you have a one-off disease “We don’t have a goal of treating ... you still have to do pre-clinical animal toxicity studies. And nobody’s going to do patients,” he says. “We just want to do it UW Bragging Rights when we see the patients, and they have that,” he says — no one’s going to spend ViaSpan, also known as the UW Solution, is no alternative.” the time and energy to develop a drug with a fluid used to store organs awaiting trans- And so after the Undiagnosed a market of only nine people in the world. plant. Developed in 1987 by Folkert Belzer Diseases Program found the cause of the So since their journey to NIH, the and James Southard at the UW’s School of Proctor siblings’ disease, its members also Proctors have been on essentially the Medicine and Public Health, it remains the gold began working on a regimen to bring same treatment plan they had before: standard for organ preservation today. the Proctors relief. Having determined exercise to increase blood flow. Each day, Wisconsin Alumni Association: the base of their problem — that their Benge and her siblings hit their treadmills celebrating alumni for 150 years.

FALL 2011 33 JEFF MILLER

When Luke Matthews looked out on the students in his anthropology class, JD Stier stood out. He radiated intel- ligence and asked interesting questions. He was also obvi- ously high. “And then one day, he just disap- peared,” says Matthews ’95. It was 1998, and Stier ’04 was taking classes at Madison Area Technical College as he awaited sentencing for possessing and dealing marijuana. Stier was, he explains, “thinking foolishly that if I was back in school, doing all the right stuff, that somehow they wouldn’t send me to prison.” It didn’t work. Soon after Stier’s disappearance, Matthews’s wife came home and asked, “Do you know a guy named JD?” As a psychiatrist who conducted intake interviews with state prison inmates, she had talked with Stier that day. Armed with an address and prisoner number, Matthews wrote Stier a letter. It was the After hitting rock bottom, JD Stier crawled back up and became a voice of experience. start of correspondence that continued throughout Stier’s two years behind bars and nurtured the longest of long-shot dreams: getting a UW-Madison degree. Prison capped off Stier’s roller- coaster adolescence, which saw him Prison Breaks twice sentenced to juvenile detention. He was president of his freshman class at His life was a downward spiral Madison’s Memorial High School when until JD Stier ’04 and a persistent he was arrested the first time; he and two friends took joy rides in stolen cars teacher saw a way out. and committed a string of burglaries. They were filled with anger, his fueled by discord at home resulting from his mother’s failing health and the break- By Jenny Price ’96 down of his parents’ marriage.

34 ON WISCONSIN “No one in prison thinks they’re going to work at the White House someday.”

Still, Stier managed to graduate month sentence, Stier was released. He many people from getting a job inter- from high school in 1996 with good returned to MATC for two semesters view — much less a job — it was that grades before failing his first semester at and, after earning straight As, transferred very life story that led Obama drug czar UW-Oshkosh. He was selling marijuana to UW-Madison in 2002. Gil Kerlikowske to name him national rather than showing up for class and “There was no question that he was outreach coordinator for the White exams. “I turned eighteen, and the court driven. He thought he had a chance to House Office of National Drug Control let go, and my parents let go, and I was transform himself, and he took that very Policy. Just a few years earlier, the office back into some stuff even bigger and seriously,” says Russ Shafer-Landau, a had funded the task force that had deeper,” he says. UW philosophy professor who taught arrested Stier. By summer, he had returned to Stier’s introductory ethics class. “It As he helped plan Kerlikowske’s Madison and was dealing out of a down- seemed clear to me he didn’t want to visits to events and organizations around town penthouse apartment and spending waste any time. ... He was constantly the country, Stier says he also relished his nights partying. That lifestyle ended reflecting on his past experience and, I the chance to be “that one voice in the when a drug task force executed a search think, used that as a baseline from which room [that can] articulate how these warrant and found a duffle bag stuffed he would measure his progress.” policies actually trickle down and affect with marijuana and $10,000 in cash. While on campus, Stier marveled direct services.” Being sentenced to prison had an at the social activism demonstrated by Most recently, he accepted a job offer upside, though, putting an end to a life those around him. “They raise money; to be campaign manager for Raise Hope of running, hiding, and lying. Stier was they travel; they march in the streets; for the Congo, a project of the Center sober and stable. they work on campaigns — that was for American Progress, which is building Meanwhile, Matthews bought a stack my life at the UW and has been my life a grassroots movement to advocate for of postcards and sent one to Stier each since,” he says. Congolese women and girls. week, with a simple message such as, He solidified his friendship with Ten years ago, Stier recalls, his “Get better, not bitter.” He suggested Behrman and with Kou Solomon ’06, a highest ambition was getting out of books to read, reminded Stier that he “lost boy” from Sudan (see On Wisconsin, prison, going to college, and finding a would not be locked up forever, and Summer 2008), who had also transferred job that was an honest living. Yet, last urged him to focus on getting a degree. from MATC. “My own prison experi- year, he escorted his mother through the Although Matthews considered it a ence, which seemed so dramatic to me, West Wing, showed her the Oval Office, small act, it loomed large in Stier’s paled in comparison to what Kou’s life and stopped by the Rose Garden. life. He began taking courses through had been like,” Stier says. “No one in prison,” he says, “thinks UW Extension and got hooked on The three best friends traveled to they’re going to work at the White philosophy, sometimes reading every Kenya when Solomon reunited with his House someday.” ■ assignment three or four times until it family for the first time. started to make sense. Stier also worked with teens at Jenny Price ’96 is senior writer for On Wisconsin Magazine. “I’d been living like a rock star for a Connections Counseling, an outpatient couple years, doing everything to beat alcohol-and-drug treatment center, my brain,” he says. “I didn’t know how to using his “street cred” to “speak some UW Bragging Rights pronounce the philosophers’ names, I’m no-nonsense,” as he wished someone had JD Stier is one of nearly two dozen alumni who sitting in a prison cell with no one to talk done with him. have been called upon to serve in the Obama to, but I got what they were saying.” In summer 2008, he seized an administration. Others include Gregory Jaczko PhD’99, chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Michael Behrman ’04, a friend who opportunity he had never imagined: Commission, and Alyssa Mastromonaco ’98 first met Stier in an MATC class, says working as a field organizer for Barack (see Summer 2010 On Wisconsin), who is now Matthews empowered Stier to take his Obama’s presidential campaign. Four deputy chief of staff for operations. life in a different direction. After serving months after the election, Stier got a Wisconsin Alumni Association: twenty-five months of his forty-two- phone call. While his history would keep celebrating alumni for 150 years.

FALL 2011 35 Life Lessons When Richard Davis teaches, his words are like the notes he plays, flowing effortlessly from topic to topic, as he explains music and so much more.

By Gwen Evans ’79 Photos by Bryce Richter

t’s exam day in Professor Richard Davis’s class, Music 311: Black Music (1920–Present): The Saxophone. His students are cramming last- minute looks at their notes, giggling over an Professor Richard Davis, Iinside joke from the previous night’s study group. The now in his fourth decade on the UW faculty, room hushes as Davis removes the binder clip from teaches his students that the why of a piece the stack of exams and passes them around. A cassette of music — its historical context — is every bit tape is popped into the player, and they are off. as important as its individual notes. Sudden smiles brighten the dreary, windowless

room in the Mosse Humanities Building — the students nod and grin because they recognize the first selection they are to identify: Coleman Hawkins, tenor saxophone, “Body and Soul.”

36 ON WISCONSIN Davis chats as they write, giving hints and starts, questions, and observations music. He puts the music into historical to answers when they are stumped. He are part of the flow. His classes are and human perspective, describing the hams it up to some lovey-dovey lyrics musical conversations, not lectures. reality and consequences of racism. being played, swaying and chair dancing That his teaching style might feel About this, too, he speaks with firsthand without inhibition. He plays air bass. Did improvised is no surprise. He is, after knowledge. He shares his life lessons someone say tension? Not here. all, a world-famous jazz bassist who has about growing up in a racially divided Even on exam days, Davis’s classes played with many of the greats. When Chicago to teach about racial injustice, have a laid-back, improvisational feel. he lectures on jazz history, he seldom boundaries, black pride, and culture, Rather than lecture from a script, he needs notes; he speaks with the voice of and how these elements were respon- opens his lesson binder and then ignores experience. sible for the birth of a new style of it. He starts talking and then veers off But for Davis, it’s not just about the American music. into unexpected directions, with new music and being able to identify the Davis’ students learn that Charlie ideas, tempos, and moods, ultimately artists and their styles. He wants his Parker’s “Now’s the Time” is more than returning to his beginning idea. Stops students to learn the why behind the a seminal composition in jazz history. It

FALL 2011 37 is an emblem of black empowerment and always wanted to teach young people. the damage that racial conditioning has pride, and it has a call to action hidden I thought maybe it was time.” done to us all. He approaches his students within the title. His talent, reputation, and versatility with knowledge, as well as compassion “Charlie Parker was our Beethoven, got him the offer. Letters of recommen- and an open heart. Brahms, Mozart. It was our music. dation from Stravinsky and Bernstein “I love teaching,” Davis says. “One Parker didn’t just change the saxophone. closed the deal. minute they don’t know anything — and He changed how we look at music,” says then they do. I believe you should share Davis. “Jazz has a classical period, too, what you have.” and it began before white people starting That is not to say he is a pushover. playing it.” Far from it. He doesn’t tolerate nonsense from students who are not prepared. Those who have made him really Answering the Call unhappy are invited to attend his “Five In 1977, Davis was at the top of his a.m. Social Club.” An early riser, Davis musical game, with spots on the stages has students call him at home at that time of New York’s best-known clubs and to talk about what they are doing. orchestra halls. The Downbeat Inter- “No one has ever not called me. I national Critics Poll named him best haven’t used it lately. I guess the word is bassist eight years in a row (1967–1974). out that I am strict. You have to be, or His reputation was such that he was they’ll run all over you,” he says. usually the first to be called when a Davis’s tough love is freely given, like producer, conductor, or composer it or not. He is wholeheartedly committed needed a bass player. to his students, considers them part of the He recorded with a who’s who from family, and willingly does whatever he can pop, jazz, and classical realms: Sarah to help them, especially when they need Vaughan, Eric Dolphy, Frank Sinatra, it most. He notices an outgoing student Barbra Streisand, Miles Davis, George who has gone unusually quiet. He prods Szell, Leopold Stokowski, Igor Stravinsky, her until she spills. Abusive boyfriend. Pierre Boulez, Gunther Schuller, Leonard Davis takes her to people who can help. Bernstein, Quincy Jones, Van Morrison, Another student is working too many Laura Nyro, and Bruce Springsteen. (And hours, and his grades show it. Money that’s just for starters.) problems. Davis makes some calls. “I put Why, then, would Davis give up his life myself out there for them. I try to be as a successful performing musician for the available and approachable. I tell them, unglamorous (and often frustrating) world ‘Anyone messes with you, come see me. I of academia? His answer reveals volumes have your back. No one messes with you about the man and his motivations. but me,’ ” he says, breaking into a chortle. Davis does that a lot. “I got a call offering me a job at the And for the past thirty-four years, university in Madison because they didn’t Davis has been teaching young people have a bass teacher on campus. I said, music and much more. He has helped typical cademic ‘Where’s Madison?’ I asked around if student bass players become better, A A anyone had heard of the place because thinking musicians (and many are now “There are no typical classes [with this school kept calling me,” Davis laughs. also music educators). He has taught Davis]. You never know what is going “Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about the many more students about the intercon- to happen,” says Ben Ferris x’13, a importance of teaching others, and I had nectedness of jazz and black music, and music education major who plays in the

38 ON WISCONSIN INSET: JEFF MILLER NORMAN LENBURG

Above, Davis spends one-on-one time in 2011 coaching Ben Ferris, a music education major, just as he did with a student in 1993 (inset). Davis has recorded numerous albums (opposite page) and played with musical greats including Barbra Streisand and Bruce Springsteen. symphony, chamber, and jazz orchestras. “I love teaching. and emphasized notes aren’t quite right He is part of Davis’s black music class, to Davis’s ear. “Try it again,” Davis a member of the Davis-led Black Music One minute they don’t urges. “Get it down, and you’ll fall in Ensemble, and a bass student with Davis. know anything — and love with yourself all over again. You Ferris is well acquainted with Davis’s then they do. I believe are pulling something down out of the teaching rhythms and, as someone universe.” learning how to teach music, he’s getting you should share Ferris is aware of the depth of the a good background in what works. what you have.” instruction Davis offers and is taking full “Professor Davis has the ideal perfor- advantage of their time together. “If you mance-based music classes,” he says. on that passage and you’ve got it. Don’t just do what you need to do to get by, you “We work with each other and share bounce the bow. Take long strokes from won’t get the full benefit of his knowledge ideas together.” the middle of the bow. Show me how and experience. If he sees you’ve put in During Ferris’s private lesson, Davis you are fingering that,” he says. the work, he adds to it,” says Ferris. “All gives feedback, instructions, and encour- He sings a passage he wants Ferris his students are his priority, and he’s never agement. “A little more nourishment to try playing a different way. The slurs not had time for me.”

FALL 2011 39 INSET: NORMAN LENBURG INSET:

Nurturing budding musicians has been a steady theme throughout Davis’s career, whether doing so in his 1977 UW classroom (inset) or working with young bassists in 2011 (above) during a weekend of workshops and recitals made possible by a foundation he established in 1993.

Some of his best students, Davis Young Bassists Under Davis’s watch and nurturing, recalls, couldn’t play much of anything at these young musicians will become the first. “Attitude and desire are the impor- Davis also honors Dyett’s values leaders others will one day follow. Some tant things. They pick it up in no time. by nurturing players ages three to former conference attendees — now I’m never wrong,” he says. eighteen through the Richard Davis faculty members at other universities — Davis says he models his teaching Foundation for Young Bassists, Inc. return each year to help. style and commitment to students on Each year since 1993, students from Ferris has already begun his Dyett Walter Dyett, his high school music the Midwest and beyond have come to legacy: at the 2011 conference, he teacher. Dyett saw something in Davis, Madison to work with bass clinicians, helped lead a boot camp for high school and he nurtured and encouraged the performers, and teachers, many of students considering a career in music. shy teenager who loved music to attend whom are Davis’s colleagues or former He knows exactly how those young Chicago’s VanderCook College of Music. students. musicians feel, having played for Davis He invited his students to his house on The weekend of workshops, at the conference as an eighth grader. Saturdays. Dinah Washington, Nat King classes, and recitals provides intensive “It scared me to death,” Ferris says. “I Cole, and others also benefited from the training and the chance to perform for had to play solos, and I wasn’t used to Dyett approach. and network with other bass players. it — but it was good for me.”

40 ON WISCONSIN Racial Healing pass on to my children what little I now can change because I am working on it. know, so they do not have to wait forty- I have a lot of strength and I speak my The impact of racial injustice is a six years to finally learn the meaning of mind. I’ll talk about it as long as there’s common topic in Davis’s music history racism,” he says. an audience.” and performance classes. He considers Perhaps that perseverance comes racism a disease that is internalized, from being a musician. You don’t rise institutionalized, and infectious — but to the top of your musical field without not invincible. Ever the teacher, Davis years of practice. And sometimes confronts it wherever he finds it, having unlearning a bad behavior or technique seen too often what it can do. He chal- picked up along the way can take years lenges narrow-mindedness by calling to correct — something that Davis has it out and asking uncomfortable ques- observed over and over in his music tions that make people squirm. His goal students, and in life. is to heal humanity of the disease and A list of awards, honors, and recog- build “the oneness of humankind,” he nition that Davis keeps for his work says. That’s a tall order, but Davis won’t as an educator, musician, and advocate accept anything less. includes an unexpected entry: the day On campus, he has worked with the in 2000 when he received his first race- Retention Action Project, a program motivated hate mail from a student. It’s that looks at the campus’ slow progress on the list of accolades, he says, because in enrolling, keeping, and graduating to him it meant that he was in good students of color; and Students for the company — he was among others who Oneness of Humankind, an organization have been attacked for speaking out and that evolved from a First-Year Interest trying to make the world more just and Group led by Davis and colleagues “I teach character. humane for all. Sabine Moedersheim and Lydia Zepeda. That’s the most “I teach character,” he says. “That’s He’s been a diversity liaison, a house the most important thing for me — fellow, and a board member for Path- important thing for me follow-through and hard work. The ways to Excellence; he served on the — follow-through and world is not waiting on you, and there’s Campus Climate Committee; and he was tons of talent out there. co-adviser for a campus group named hard work. The world is “Good teachers teach you how to PREA (Promoting Racial and Ethnic not waiting on you, do what you do, and then better. If you Awareness.) and there’s tons of haven’t become better than me, I haven’t Davis also started an awareness and taught you too well.” ■ education program for teachers called talent out there.” ELAT (Everybody Listens and Talks) and Gwen Evans ’79 is a senior university relations specialist for University Communications. the Madison chapter of the Institute for “If you don’t change attitudes, what the Healing of Racism. Both organiza- are you going to tell your children? You tions work to combat racial conditioning have to make people feel accountable,” through readings, talking, videos, guest says Davis. UW Bragging Rights Among Badgers who have made music history speakers, and self-reflection. Changing attitudes can be discour- is Jerry Bock ’49, Tony Award- and Pulitzer Dale Burke, a now-retired UW police aging work, but Davis prefers to focus Prize-winning Broadway composer. His works captain, says his eyes were opened when on what can be done, rather than dwell include Fiorello!, Mr. Wonderful, and, most he participated in the institute’s program. on what hasn’t been accomplished. famously, Fiddler on the Roof. “I only hope that I can somehow change “That’s wasted energy,” he says. “I’m an Wisconsin Alumni Association: who I am in my remaining lifetime, and action guy, and I have faith that things celebrating alumni for 150 years.

FALL 2011 41 JEFF MILLER (2)

A pork belly is tied in a roll during a demonstration of how smoke flavoring can replicate the dry-curing process to make bacon.

Craig Huth grew up working in the family meat-processing busi- ness, Richland Locker. But as he made plans to take over when his parents retire, he knew he still had a few skills to learn — including the art of making sausage. This is Wisconsin, after all. Six Degrees “If the sausage man goes on vacation for a week, I’m the one who’s going to do it,” says Huth, who worked for General Motors for ten years before returning home to Richland Center, Wisconsin, of [Curing ] where his great uncle started the meat-processing company in 1939. Huth was just the type of student UW-Madison meat scientists had in mind last year when they launched a meat-science-and-safety Bacon training program designed to help a new generation of leaders earn the title “master meat crafter.” The concept comes from Germany, where they know a thing or This new program teaches two about sausage. A German wurstmacher is required to undergo the of intense training and an apprenticeship before being permitted to own art and science a shop. In Wisconsin, the inaugural class of nineteen students travels working with meat. to the UW about six times in two years for two- to three-day training sessions that combine classroom instruction with hands-on activities in the laboratory and demonstrations of new technology. That brings us to meat-curing school. More important: bacon. By Jenny Price ’96 Students in long white coats and hairnets gather around as Jeff Sindelar, a UW meat scientist in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and the program’s director, demonstrates how to turn the fresh pork bellies stacked nearby in white plastic bins into bacon with different flavor profiles. The laboratory feel is fitting, as it turns out there’s some science involved. Sindelar gets an assist from Doug Ney ’95, a self-described “meat- head” who works for Red Arrow USA, a company that makes several varieties of smoke flavoring, also called “liquid smoke,” such as apple, hickory, maple, and mesquite. The class observes how to add flavor using an injector machine, a method that replicates the results of older and much slower practices of dry curing. The pork belly moves

42 ON WISCONSIN along a conveyor belt beneath a row of pumping needles connected to hoses that deliver water and a foamy mixture containing the liquid smoke. While the smoky smell is almost overpowering, there’s no smoke anywhere. Sindelar admits that there is a bit of trial and error involved in determining how much liquid to inject. “You’re always working on averages,” he says. The students will get to taste for themselves how it turns out at a meal capping off the two-day meat-curing lessons. Bacon before long: Doug Ney (right), with help from Amanda King, a research assistant, The meat-processing industry is big shows how his company dredges pork bellies to create different flavor profiles. business in Wisconsin, contributing more than $12 billion a year to the economy. meat plants and take on an apprentice deer-hunting season. “Hopefully, it’s a That’s one reason the state Department to share what they have learned, helping good draw to bring them here, because of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer the students retain their own skills in the Richland Center’s not a big destination Protection provided grant money to process of teaching. on the map,” he says. support the program, which aims to “If they teach other people what they So far, Huth has valued the chance to help business owners such as Huth to know, there’s a much higher likelihood network with others who are taking over a understand the art and science of meat that those people are going to stay in the family business. And he’s learned key lessons processing, develop new products, find meat industry … maybe open their own about food safety and complex federal regu- new markets, and master food safety. businesses — and hopefully, increase the lations, at times helping him stay as current “These folks are taxed with a work- Wisconsin meat industry in the future,” as the inspectors who visit his plant. load — not only from just making good Sindelar says. “I see [these students] as the next products and finding a customer base to Wisconsin’s meat-processing industry generation,” Sindelar says. “They have the sell those products to — but they also boasts some big names: Oscar Mayer, for hands-on training from just working every have a lot of regulation they have to one. But a large majority of the state’s day in the business, but they’re getting the comply [with], and that’s a big challenge,” 450 meat plants are small, family opera- scientific training to make them successful Sindelar says. “It’s extremely complex.” tions such as Richland Locker, which to keep that business going.” ■ The students, who pay $3,000 for does everything from slaughtering and Jenny Price ’96 is senior writer for On tuition, are a mix of industry veterans — butchering cows, deer, pigs, and sheep, to Wisconsin Magazine. including the president of the Wisconsin making sausage and bacon. Association of Meat Processors — and “You name it, we make it,” Huth says. those newer to the business. Some, On one visit, about ten employees work including Huth, have bachelor’s degrees, steadily at massive, stainless steel tables UW Bragging Rights but many don’t. to break down a side of beef, then cut E.J. (Ernest Joseph) Briskey ’52, PhD’58, a “Everyone is overwhelmed at some and package it, something they do two former UW meat science professor, is known point in time,” Sindelar says. “That’s dozen times a week. In the next room, the as “The Father of Pork Quality” because he okay. We want that to happen, because sausage man uses a small machine to fill figured out how to transform what was often a watery, unappetizing product into the pale, casings with meat. if they’re overwhelmed, that means that soft version of “the other white meat” that we they’re challenged.” Huth hopes putting a “master meat know today. He was also a pioneer in bringing In addition to homework assignments crafter” sticker on his products will be a biochemical emphasis to meat science. and quizzes, the students must conduct a good marketing tool, especially to Wisconsin Alumni Association: a research project based in their own reach customers who visit the area for celebrating alumni for 150 years.

FALL 2011 43 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY/IMAGE ID 34400

BRYCE RICHTER 45 FALL 2011 FALL

The store and bothmemories its name evoke strong and sweet. A once-upon-a-time tradition is coming back to life on Universityon back life coming to is Avenue.

Jenny Price ’96 , which is on display just outside the new soda

ON WISCONSIN On Wisconsin about it at [email protected],

44 What’s your favorite UW tradition? What’s Tell still just a fond memory — or if it’s and we’ll find out if it’s part of campus life today.

Rennie’s: Then and Now Rennie’s: of and a steady stream was a cigar counter Back then, there or lunch at the a hot breakfast and students grabbing professors grill between classes. (see inset photo) was University Avenue — on Rennebohm Drug Store shorthand for — vintage Madison But by the time Rennie’s than twenty-five years. had been closed for more demolished in 2008, it and both strong and its name evoke memories the store For many, Danish is legendary.) sweet. (The famous grilled biggest a modern built to house some of UW-Madison’s structure in its place, stands the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, Now, an airy floor of this monument to innovation, thinkers. On the ground stools are There Dairy Bar opened this summer. and modern Rennie’s just as it was in the old days. And at a long, white, marble counter, this time once again floats, malts, and sundaes on the menu, are there Hall Dairy Plant. the Babcock from ice cream made with organic it came from. name, or where borrowed is a know that Rennie’s These days many customers don’t than more on the spot in 1925. He owned opened his first drug store governor, Oscar Rennebohm, who served one term as Wisconsin’s in 1980. Walgreens selling the business to two dozen in Madison before as to Walgreens referred In the years that followed, many natives still tried, but failed, to save the orig- preservationists Some local Rennie’s. city landmark. a historic inal Rennebohm building by getting it declared buildings. Most of the materials that made up and six other Rennie’s razing facility, The university moved ahead with the new research including or reused, recycled were the 1300 block of University Avenue an ornate stone R of fond memories. fountain, a physical reminder slate poised to become aspaces on this evolving campus do: a blank newly minted gathering just as many stands ready, Inside, Rennie’s tradition for generations to come. Root beer float, anyone? traditions gifts in action

Pulling Together for Great People A couple’s family endowment helps to grow scholarships for students in need.

Like most young couples, Will significantly in future MARIBETH ROMSLO/RED RIBBON STUDIO Hsu ’00 and his spouse, Jenny, years as endowment were thinking ahead when they funds are made planned their August 2010 available. wedding. But unlike most young Both Will and couples, they used wedding gifts Jenny Hsu have to help fund a need-based schol- graduate-school arship endowment — despite debt: Will for earning facing their own student loans. an MBA from the “Will had proposed that we Harvard Business use some of the money for our School; Jenny for Great People Scholarship,” says a master’s degree Jenny Hsu, a nurse practitioner in in nursing from the Twin Cities. “In Asian culture, a the University of lot of people just give cash in lieu Minnesota. of a [wedding] gift. We thought it “I have a job; would be a good idea to put some Will has a good job,” of that forth for a scholarship.” says Jenny. “Even Will, who earned degrees in though we have finance, Chinese language and loans of our own, literature, and East Asian Studies we are doing well at UW-Madison, is a senior enough that we are finance manager at General Mills able to pay for those in Minneapolis. He heard about loans. We wanted the Great People Scholarship to give people who Strong Wisconsin ties: Will Hsu, who grew up in Wausau, and Jenny Hsu, a native while helping the Wisconsin don’t have the same of Onalaska, are making sure they stay connected to the UW in tangible ways. School of Business with fund- opportunities we had raising programs and alumni going into college “Without [the university], I UW and how it gives people the events. and grad school the chance to get wouldn’t be where I am today,” he tools to lead successful lives.” “With our gifts, a General an education.” says. “I believe so strongly in the Chris DuPré Mills Foundation match, and the Will says the connections he UW Foundation match, we were formed on campus were strong able to get the right size gift to do and lasting. “I learned a lot, and a family endowment,” he says. “It not just from a business stand- Just a Click Away made sense for us.” point,” he says. “Because I did a Here’s a challenge that’s easy to undertake: follow UW-Madison The Great People Scholar- couple of majors in the College on Twitter and like its Facebook page. ship Campaign, which has gener- of Letters & Science as well, it For those who do either or both by October 3, Will Hsu ’00, ated more than $25 million so gave me a broader perspective, a his spouse, Jenny, and his parents, Paul and Sharon Hsu, will far for student aid, is the highest wider view of the world, a better give to the Great People Scholarship. priority on campus. The schol- understanding.” “We’re trying to make sure people stay connected,” says arships are part of aid packages A highly motivated under- Will, a frequent blogger who makes good use of Twitter. “In the put together by the Office of graduate, he was a house fellow last few years, Jenny and I have watched Facebook and Twitter Student Financial Aid, and they in Cole Hall; a peer learning and some of these other types of social media take off. ... Our often include student and family partner at the Bradley Learning challenge could motivate people to get more involved with the contributions, loans, and work- Community; and a coordinator university.” study employment. with the Student Orientation, Visit buckychallenge.wisc.edu to learn more and to take part About five hundred students Advising, and Registration in the challenge. received these scholarships this program. He also worked for C.D. fall, and that number will rise Visitor & Information Programs.

46 ON WISCONSIN Badger connections JEFF MILLER

48 Alumni Association Running Low News Former Badger track star Suzy Favor Hamilton ’91 runs beneath the arms of children in UW-Madison’s 50 Class Notes Precollege OPTIONS program, Movin’ Minds, held on campus in July. Hamilton helped lead the program, which was open to students from sixth through ninth 57 Calendar grades. The aim was to promote healthy bodies and healthy minds through a combination of exercise and 58 Bookshelf academic coursework.

59 Sifting & Winnowing

FALL 2011 47 alumni association news

Bright Lights in the Badger City Red Tie Gala to celebrate alumni, increase scholarships.

Before the face paint and Center on Friday, October 14, Badger gear come out for the from 7 to 11 p.m., the gala is Homecoming football game, the Madison’s premier Homecoming Wisconsin Alumni Association eve event. It will include hundreds invites alumni to sport altogether of alumni and friends of all UW different — but just as spirited Red Tie Gala eras, along with honorary hosts — attire at a once-in-a-lifetime UW athletic director Barry campus event: the Red Tie Gala. Alvarez and his spouse, Cindy, The capstone event of WAA’s and UW interim chancellor David 150th anniversary, the Red Tie Ward MS’62, PhD’63 and his Gala is an evening for all UW spouse, Judith ’64. alumni and friends to dress their Attendees will arrive to best and feel their finest. This a luminous red-carpet scene historic moment celebrates 150 and dance to a live Big Band years of UW alumni and tradi- ensemble; dine on gourmet appe- tions while driving toward a goal tizers, local beers, and wines; of raising $150,000 for the Great and mingle with classmates People Scholarship fund, helping their Badger best while helping an event truly unique to this and alumni, special guests, and ensure the UW experience a great cause,” says Martha campus that I know will leave all Badger celebrities. continues for future generations. Vukelich-Austin ’81, co-chair in attendance with a lifelong UW Space is limited at this “This will be an amazingly of WAA’s Red Tie Gala alumni memory.” event. See uwalumni.com/gala spirited and meaningful moment advisory committee. “This is a Held at the Wisconsin to register. for alumni to get decked out in moment not to be missed and Institutes for Discovery Town Ben Wischnewski ’05

Helping the UW Gain More Flexibility

Since WAA’s founding in 1861, the campus proposal by estab- was truly impressive.” personnel management. advocacy has been core to its lishing UW-Madison as a public But alumni did not universally The legislative accomplish- mission and its dedication to authority. The WAA board of support WAA’s position in favor of ments, particularly gaining the engaging alumni in support of the directors endorsed the model, the New Badger Partnership. ability for UW-Madison to develop University of Wisconsin. In 2011, and WAA, in its advocacy role, “We have a diverse and and implement its own personnel this mission drove WAA’s efforts sent out communications to highly engaged alumni popula- policy, will have a significant to engage alumni in support of educate alumni and generate tion, and some alumni strongly impact. But the most mean- a proposal to create a new busi- legislative support. disagreed with WAA’s role in this ingful outcome of the advocacy ness model for their alma mater. “We know that our postcards, debate,” says Paula Bonner, campaign may be the focus on the Then-Chancellor Biddy advertisements, emails, and WAA’s president and CEO. “But future of public higher education in Martin PhD’85 proposed the website brought information about we take our role as advocates Wisconsin. The conversation will New Badger Partnership in the proposal to many alumni,” for the university very seriously. continue, as a study of the funding fall 2010. The initiative sought explains Tim Higgins ’77, chair And we understand that taking and structure of the UW System management flexibilities in areas of the Alumni for Wisconsin volun- positions at times can be contro- will begin this fall. regulated by state government, teer advocacy network. “But versial. We made every effort to “We will be fully engaged in including personnel management, we were also able to explore be respectful and allow every contributing to this conversation,” capital projects and bonding, new approaches to engaging in graduate to have a voice.” Bonner says. “Alumni have been tuition revenue, and purchasing. conversation, including a tele- Ultimately, the 2011–13 actively involved in the process all In January 2011, Wisconsin town hall, where almost 20,000 state budget did not include the along, and we very much appre- Governor Scott Walker intro- alumni participated in a live new structure for UW-Madison, ciate all of our graduates and their duced budget language that discussion with Chancellor Martin. but all UW System institutions dedication and commitment to would have addressed some The response and involvement of were granted new flexibilities, the university.” of the challenges identified in our alumni in this advocacy effort particularly in the area of Mike Fahey ’89

48 ON WISCONSIN Celebrating Mad Grads Everywhere WAA unveils two gifts at campus birthday party.

Hundreds of alumni, faculty, staff, and students ANDY MANIS (3) gathered in June on the lakefront near the Memorial Union Terrace for WAA’s 150th birthday bash and the first taste of Mad Grad Medley, its commemorative ice cream made specially by the Babcock Hall Dairy. WAA put out a call to Badgers everywhere to create the special treat. Alumni submitted more than 500 flavor ideas, which were narrowed down to five and and voted on by nearly 3,000 alumni. A blend of vanilla ice cream, Door County cherries, and chocolate was the winning recipe. “It was fantastic to celebrate our birthday with a new flavor, created by and for Badgers,” says Paula Bonner MS’78, WAA’s president and CEO. “Mad Grad Medley is one of many ways alumni can celebrate WAA’s century and a half of service, no matter where they are.” Right: WAA donated new street signs for campus Partygoers also enjoyed a Civil War era- to mark the association’s 150th anniversary. Above: Robert Bell ’64, JD’67, who submitted the winning themed band to mark WAA’s founding year flavor combination for Mad Grad Medley ice cream, before the association presented the univer- enjoys the birthday party with Paula Bonner, Bucky sity with new street signs, a lasting legacy for Badger, and former Chancellor Biddy Martin. future generations. The signs are white with black lettering and borders and feature the “These distinctive signs showcase the forever call home,” says Bonner. Find more on university crest, replacing the traditional green campus as a place to learn and discover, and WAA’s anniversary at uwalumni.com/150. street signs. as the place that alumni and students will Staff

Florin Steps into Top Spot

Although Dave Florin ’92 is Alumni Club (now the WAA: to serve.” forward-thinking decisions about entering his eighth year of service Cleveland Chapter), and Florin Much of Florin’s work with UW-Madison, because the direc- with WAA’s national board of served on the Wisconsin Alumni the board has involved helping tion this university goes is likely to directors, his involvement began Student Board as an under- to develop and refine the WAA be the direction our state goes. It is long before that. His father was graduate. Now president of brand. As chair, he will help drive simply that important.” president of the Northeast Ohio the Madison-based marketing the organization’s strategic initia- WAA also welcomes four new communications firm Hiebing, tives and focus on ensuring that board members: Neena Buck Florin has been named 2011–12 the university maintains its level ’79, Cambridge, Massachusetts; chair of the WAA board and will of prestige statewide and globally, Norman Doll ’77, president serve a one-year term. which he notes will be challenging emeritus, Pieper Electric, Inc., “What I love about this — but vital — in today’s tough Mequon, Wisconsin; Steve role is the closer you get to the economic environment. Lescohier ’71, MA’75, senior University of Wisconsin, the “There simply aren’t any vice president, J.P. Morgan more amazing things you see entities in the state that have the Securities, LLC, Arlington Heights, are happening on campus every type of potential or impact on our Illinois; and Karen Monfre ’86, day,” says Florin. “But you also future that UW-Madison has,” he partner, business valuation/merger begin to see how complex some says. “We are at a critical point in and acquistion services for Wipfli of the issues are, and that’s a time as a university and a state. LLP, Green Bay, Wisconsin. fascinating dynamic within which We need to continue to make B.W.

FALL 2011 49 classnotes

early years PhD’64, professor emeritus at When the State Bar of News? Do Tell ... Michigan Technological University Wisconsin’s senior lawyer division We need not imagine what child- in Houghton. A pioneer in the area bestowed its lifetime achievement We’d appreciate receiving the hood was like for someone who’s of diesel emissions, he’s devoted honor, the 2011 Loeb Award, on (brief, if you please) details of your one hundred and one years old his career to furthering power- Allan Koritzinsky ’63, JD’66 latest accomplishments, transi- — we can read about it in When train technology, reducing fuel this summer, he was asked tions, acts of bravery, and other Horses Pulled the Plow: Life of a consumption and emissions, and about his secrets to success. major life happenings by email Wisconsin Farm Boy, 1910–1929 educating young engineers. “Collegiality is a big one,” he said. to [email protected]; by (University of Wisconsin Press). “Recognize that the lawyer on the mail to Class Notes, Wisconsin Author Olaf Larson ’32, MS’33, other side of the transaction or Alumni Association, 650 North PhD’41 came of age in a time 60s litigation is your friend in terms of Lake Street, Madison, WI 53706- of agricultural revolution that getting the case resolved.” Now 1476; or by fax to (608) 265-8771. would change rural life forever. One of NASA’s highest honors for retired from Foley & Lardner’s We receive many more submis- This is his recollection of that life, non-governmental employees is Madison office, Koritzinsky main- sions than we can print, but we and his collection of wry tales in the hands of Gerald Kulcinski tains a family-law mediation and love to hear from you anyway. about the people he knew and ’61, MS’62, PhD’66, Grainger consultation practice. Please email death notices the values they held. Larson, professor of nuclear engineering The next time you see a and all address, name, tele- of Mount Dora, Florida, is a and associate dean for research in Fox Head logo on a vehicle or phone, and email updates to professor emeritus of rural soci- the UW’s College of Engineering. clothing, you’ll know this added [email protected]; ology at Cornell University. The award — the Exceptional tidbit: the founders are the mail them to Alumni Changes, Public Service Medal — recog- spouse team of Josie and Geoff Wisconsin Alumni Association, nizes Kulcinski’s leadership on the Fox MS’64, PhD’67. Today a 650 North Lake Street, Madison, 40s–50s NASA Advisory Council from 2005 company that produces apparel WI 53706-1476; fax them to (608) 262-3332; or call them in In March, the Florida “Public service is a part of our to (608) 262-9648 or toll free to Political Science Association job at the university.” (888) 947-2586. honored University of Miami Professor Emeritus Bernard — Gerald Kulcinski ’61, MS’62, PhD’66 Most obituary listings of WAA Schechterman ’48 of Boynton members and friends appear in Beach, Florida, for his roles as until 2009, but his contributions and accessories for motocross the Badger Insider, WAA’s trian- the founder, longtime editor, and date back to 1986, when he helped racing, Fox Head began in the nual publication for its members. editor emeritus of its journal, the NASA to found the Wisconsin couple’s San Jose, California, x-planation: An x preceding a Political Chronicle. Center for Space Automation and kitchen in 1974 as a manufacturer degree year indicates that the Israel’s top science Robotics at UW-Madison. “Public of high-performance parts for the individual did not complete, award, the 2010 Israel Prize service is a part of our job at the motorcycles themselves. or has not yet completed, that in Agriculture, has gone to an university,” says Kulcinski. Working Ranch magazine’s degree at UW-Madison. expert in plant biotechnology: We’ve always known that April/May issue chronicled twelve Jonathan Gressel MS’59, Aldo Leopold was a star, but days in the life of the Sigel Sunset PhD’63. He’s a professor emer- now he has his own movie Ranch in Cadott, Wisconsin; its itus of the Weizmann Institute of to prove it. Susan Flader owner, Rusty (Robert) Gilles Science in Rehovot, Israel, where ’63, a professor emerita at ’64 (ag short course); and its he’s worked to understand mech- the University of Missouri in American Lowline Angus cattle ® The Wisconsin Alumni Association anisms to control weeds and to Columbia (and the author of operation. (WAA) encourages diversity, inclusivity, nondiscrimination, and overcome herbicide resistance. several books on Leopold), has Media researcher and participation by all alumni, students, Gressel is also a co-founder helped to create the first feature- historian Bonnie Rowan ’64, and friends of the UW in its activities. and the chief scientific officer at length documentary chronicling MA’68 was a 2009 Emmy TransAlgae, Limited, a company the life and legacy of the eminent nominee in the News and that develops genetically engi- environmentalist to whom she Documentary/Outstanding neered algae for use as biofuel was introduced through his Sand Individual Achievement in a Craft: and animal feed. County Almanac fifty years ago Research category for her work The third annual SAE as a UW undergrad. Flader spoke on The Rape of Europa, a docu- Franz F. Pischinger Powertrain at an April screening of the film, mentary about the thefts and Innovation Award has gone to called Green Fire: Aldo Leopold destruction of cultural treasures John Johnson ’59, MS’60, and a Land Ethic for Our Time. in Europe during World War II.

50 ON WISCONSIN World, a multimedia, foreign- Bruce Kania ’75: Floating a Sustainable Idea language teaching series that’s co-authored by Joan Rosen No man is an island. However, one man’s name is Saslow ’66, MA’68. The becoming synonymous with them. Bruce Kania Chappaqua, New York-based ’75 came up with the idea for Floating Island educator, editor, and public International after seeing firsthand how our wetlands speaker notes that her prod- and waterways are being destroyed. ucts are unusual because they In 2000, his dog, Rufus, jumped into a pond and integrate cultural fluency with came out coated in a reddish goop. The water was language curricula. teeming with nitrogen and phosphorus, runoff from Here’s an honor you don’t nearby farms and ranches — the same kind of runoff hear about every day: Carl that pollutes waterways around the world. Rheins ’67 received the Republic Concerned for the future of the environment, of Lithuania’s medal of honor — Kania remembered the floating peat bogs that its Millennium Star — at the start surrounded him as a fishing guide growing up in of the UN General Assembly in northern Wisconsin. New York this fall for “fostering These floating wetlands are among nature’s most Bruce Kania ’75 installs an aerator under a floating island at the Shepherd [Montana] ... friendly relations between productive ecosystems. So Kania brought together Research Center. Lithuanians and Jews.” Rheins, of a team of engineers, scientists, and plant specialists, White Plains, New York, is execu- and set out to “biomimic” the wetlands — duplicating nature’s processes in a sustainable and efficient way. tive director emeritus of the YIVO What they came up with was a matrix made of post-consumer materials (recycled plastic bottles) that Institute for Jewish Research. they used to create islands capable of supporting the weight of plants and soil. In fact, the recycled fibers The UW boasts strong repre- within the matrix proved to be excellent material for growing biofilm, while still allowing water to pass through sentation on a new, forty-person it — the key features of a wetland. This allowed unwanted nutrients to be “eaten” by bacteria forming on commission that the American the island and in the plant roots. These man-made islands also offer another positive outcome by keeping Academy of Arts & Sciences millions of plastic bottles out of landfills. created in response to a bipar- “We opened our doors in 2005, and today we’ve got four thousand islands in the water,” says Kania. tisan request from Congress These islands — designed to clean polluted water, spur the growth of fish, provide species habitats, and to encourage research in the sequester carbon — have been launched in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, humanities and social sciences. Korea, and Europe. And their largest island to date spans 39,800 square feet. John Rowe ’67, JD’70, the According to Kania, four or five other companies produce floating wetlands, but his is the only one that chair and CEO of the Chicago- biomimics naturally occurring floating islands. “[Ours] have other unique characteristics that differentiate based electric utility Exelon them from anybody else’s, in that they can actually grow terrestrial plants and can support many tens of and president of the Wisconsin thousands of tons of negative buoyancy,” he says. (Negative buoyancy is everything above the water line.) Alumni Research Foundation Floating Island International doesn’t manufacture the islands; they develop prototypes and license them board of trustees, will serve as to businesses that are better positioned to take the islands into the marketplace. “I run a think tank oriented co-chair. Other members include around the concept of floating wetlands and their impact on water-quality enhancement,” says Kania. former UW-Madison Chancellors That sharing of ideas is what initially drew him to UW-Madison. “It’s almost like an urban think tank,” Carolyn “Biddy” Martin he says. “Madison is in a very environmentally rich, verdant location ... where the woodlands meet the PhD’85 and Donna Shalala, as prairie, and folks [such as] Aldo Leopold and others have such a legacy of working around environmental well as UW sociology Professor issues. It can’t help but permeate you when you’re there.” Emeritus Robert Hauser. Brian Klatt Paul Rux ’67, MA’77, PhD’94 had a long moment in the spotlight when the January/ She runs Bonnie G. Rowan Film from the American Association that he’s a volunteer staffer at February issue of MyBusiness, the Research in Washington, D.C. for the Advancement of Science. the Omaha [Nebraska] Catholic journal of the National Federation Congratulations to Joel Oppenheim is the senior asso- Worker, where he’s laying the of Independent Business (NFIB), Oppenheim ’65: his leader- ciate dean for biomedical science legal and financial foundations featured a full-page photo of ship and efforts to increase the and a professor of microbiology for a Catholic Worker House in him at the start of its lead story numbers of underrepresented at NYU’s School of Medicine. Phnom Penh, Cambodia. on advice for home-based busi- individuals in the PhD biomed- Robert Quentin Bick ’66, Pearson Longman has nesses. An active leader in the ical workforce have earned him MS’73, an associate of the published the second edition of NFIB, he’s also an “imagineer” the 2010 Lifetime Mentor Award Order of Julian of Norwich, writes Top Notch: English for Today’s who consults on business and

FALL 2011 51 classnotes

educational planning and projects through Paul Rux Associates in Ronald Silverman ’69: Dentist to a Dictator Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. This spring, (Albert) Lorris Ron Silverman ’69 stared into the jaws of Betz ’69, PhD’75, MD’75 death five years ago when he found himself delayed his previously announced fitting a crown molding for the mouth of retirement to answer the Saddam Hussein. Serving in Iraq as a two- University of Utah’s call to act star general with a professional background — for the second time — as its in dentistry, Silverman got the call to fix a interim president. His most recent broken tooth belonging to Hussein after the U of U posts were senior VP for Iraqi dictator was arrested by U.S. troops. health sciences, executive dean “We did it at night: one chair, me, my assis- of the School of Medicine, CEO tant, a translator, and Saddam,” Silverman of the University of Utah Health recalls. “He didn’t know my rank because System, and faculty appointments I wasn’t wearing my uniform — just a in several departments. He lives dentist’s smock.” in Salt Lake City. “MyHussein efforts proved to to getbe a talkativemy wife to address me as “Sittin’ on the dock of the patient,‘Sir Jay’ fluent have in English; failed Silverman miserably. knows Well, there’s bay ...” kind of comes to mind a little Arabic. The main topic of conversa- Ron Silverman ’69, right, and his son Matthew Silverman ’04, JD’10 served in Iraq at the same time. when you read about photogra- tion duringalways Hussein’s Mom.” three visits? — Jay History Sorensen ’84 pher Wendy Krueger Lueder — Silverman’s major at UW-Madison. “My big thing was Roman history, so Saddam and I talked about the ’69 and the pictures of nearly Roman invasion of the Middle East. We also discussed the Crusades and why he thought Christians were so five hundred megayachts that bad or whatever,” he says. she’s taken without ever leaving Hussein scheduled one more visit, Silverman says, but “he didn’t make his last appointment. They her sixteenth-floor condo in Fort hanged Saddam Hussein before he had the chance to get his tooth cleaning.” Lauderdale, Florida. There, her The dentist-chair chats with Iraq’s infamous ruler capped a journey that began four decades earlier, 180-degree view of the entrance when Silverman joined the UW’s ROTC program. He steered clear of antiwar protests, but remembers to Port Everglades — a byway for the prevalence of tear gas on campus during those turbulent times. After graduating, he earned a DDS at those big boats — has allowed Temple University, served three years of active stateside duty in the army, and then enrolled in the army her to build a photography busi- reserves. ness called Captured Glimpse. While rising through the military ranks, Silverman also ran a dental practice. A few years ago, shortly The state of Mississippi before he planned to retire from the service, he received an unexpected promotion. “Two-star general,” he has honored K.C. (Kenneth says. “You don’t turn that down.” Chauncey) Morrison MA’69, In 2006, he took charge of medical care for Iraq’s civilian and military populations. During his tour of PhD’77 with its 2011 Black duty, he relays calmly, “I had my house rocketed, and I was targeted for assassination. They caught the guy History Month Educator of the who was going after me. He had a picture of me in his pocket.” Year Award. He’s a professor Supervising three thousand soldiers at more than thirty hospitals, Silverman achieved a 90 percent and head of the department patient-survival rate. Some didn’t make it. “Our helicopter got rocketed, and one of my pilots was killed,” he of political science and public says. “He was eviscerated. He was a kid. My son served in Iraq at the same time. This pilot probably didn’t administration, as well as a senior look like my kid, but at the time, if you closed your eyes, you’d think it was him. That was the most traumatic associate in the African-American thing I experienced.” studies program at Mississippi Completing his tour of Iraq, Silverman retired from the army and now splits his time between Annandale, State University. Virginia, and Palm Beach, Florida. Describing re-entry into civilian life, he says, “It was tough. After carrying a gun with me for eighteen months, I had certain reflexes. We went to see the Broadway musical Wicked in 70s New York. As we were walking home, I saw something unexpected and suddenly grabbed like I had the gun in my pocket. My wife looks at me and says, ‘You’re not carrying a gun anymore.’ ” Brady Deaton MS’70, PhD’72 Hugh Hart was President Obama’s choice in April to serve as chair of the Board for International Food ized, Deaton continues to serve MS’79 knows how to pack a lot UW’s Department of Botany, and and Agricultural Development, as chancellor of the University of of information into a small-but- UW botany greenhouse director which advises the U.S. Agency Missouri in Columbia. appealing space, and the journal Mo Fayyaz MS’73, PhD’77 for International Development. Kandis (Candace) Science has lauded her for doing together took first place for infor- Until the appointment is final- Edwards Jaeger Elliot ’70, so. Elliot, a senior artist in the mational graphics in Science’s

52 ON WISCONSIN 2010 International Science was the founding director of the University in Brookings. utor to HBO’s Big Love and the Ronald Silverman ’69: Dentist to a Dictator & Engineering Visualization center and led it for twenty-two After thirty-one years creator of many pilots. With child- Challenge with their Introduction years, retiring in 2010. Charles is with Miller Brewing Company, hood years spent in Madison and to Fungi poster. “It’s twenty-five the executive director of human Richard (Kaldunski) Kallan Milwaukee, the Sprechers now pounds of mushrooms on a five- resources for Madison Area ’77 of Muskego, Wisconsin, has live in Studio City, California. pound poster,” says Elliot. Technical College and served retired from his post as a quality- The American Institute of Newsmax.com’s March as president of the Wisconsin service engineer. Daughter Jamie Architects (AIA) has selected headline perhaps made David Alumni Association’s national Kallan ’09, also of Muskego, David Zach ’79 to serve as its Keene JD’71’s recent transition board in 2003–04. writes that “he always looks back public director for a two-year sound a little aggressive when it Professional Dimensions, on his time at the UW fondly; term. In this capacity, he’ll offer proclaimed, “David Keene Takes an organization that promotes is one of the most supportive insights on the broader role of over the NRA.” Nonetheless, women’s professional and and enthusiastic alumni I know; design, how architects’ work the Alexandria, Virginia-based personal growth, has given one and now ... will have more time affects the economy, and the former chair of the American of its 2011 Sacagawea Awards to for Badger football games and impact of future trends on AIA Conservative Union (ACU) is Nancy Santelle Sennett ’73. summer evenings on the Terrace.” members. Zach is a Milwaukee- now president of the National An attorney for thirty-two years Alison Circle MS’78 has based futurist and public speaker. Rifle Association, a columnist in Foley & Lardner’s Milwaukee been named one of Library for the Hill, and of counsel to office, she was lauded for her Journal’s fifty Movers and 80s the lobbying and advisory firm exceptional community service Shakers nationwide for 2011, yet the Carmen Group. He’ll also and esteemed career as a liti- she’s not a librarian. Rather, she’s Robert Dammon MBA’80, continue to advise the ACU, gator. The Milwaukee Business the visionary marketing director of PhD’84 is stepping into the and will serve as vice chair of Journal has also named Sennett the Columbus [Ohio] Metropolitan dean’s office at Carnegie Mellon’s its Conservative Political Action a 2011 Woman of Influence, while Library, and she’s brought her Tepper School of Business in Conference (CPAC) next year. the Wisconsin Law Journal has experience in global branding fully Pittsburgh. On the Tepper faculty Steven Koch ’72, MS’74 dubbed her a 2011 Woman in the to bear on it. Perhaps not coin- since 1984, he was previously is the new director of the National Law. Sennett was president of the cidentally, the organization was its associate dean of educa- Oceanic and Atmospheric Wisconsin Alumni Association’s named Library Journal’s library of tion and a professor of financial Administration’s (NOAA) National national board in 2000–01 and the year in 2010. economics. Severe Storms Laboratory in received one of its Distinguished “Celebrating the spirit of Bruce Giebink ’80, Norman, Oklahoma, where its Alumni Awards in 2003. adventure in ordinary people” MS’83, PhD’88 of Lino Lakes, location at the heart of “Tornado Rona Fried ’76 of has a nice ring to it, and it’s the Minnesota, is also known as Dr. Alley” makes tornado research its Huntington, New York, is a vision that Terri (Terese) Evert Bruce, the Bug Guy. But why? forte. Koch was most recently the combination of environmen- Dennison Karsten MA’78 of His love of nature and insects led director of the Global Systems talist and entrepreneur. She’s Winona, Minnesota, has for her him to become an entomologist, Division at NOAA’s Earth System the founder and president of new company, Wagonbridge and after giving a presentation Research Laboratory in Boulder, the green-business website Publishing. She’s also written its on bugs to his son’s first-grade Colorado. SustainableBusiness.com, a first product, From Brick to Bread: class, Giebink realized that he Marla Brenner ’73, a respected voice in the field of Building a Backyard Oven. had a winning idea. He’s devel- painter and instructor at Madison green investing as the publisher The Sprecher sisters — Jill oped his presentations into the Area Technical College, is of the online Progressive Investor ’79 and Karen ’87 — have made Bug Zone, a full-time business showing her work in the juried, newsletter, a regular columnist for another movie: The Convincer is a in which he shows off his collec- international Birds in Art exhibit Solar Today, and a stock selector Wisconsin-set, who’s-scamming- tion of unusual insects to all at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art for the NASDAQ OMX Green whom comedy that premiered kinds of community groups — Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin, Economy Index. at the Sundance Film Festival in and even serves up some edible starting in September. Her Pause With every growing season, January and stars Greg Kinnear, specimens. exhibit also graced the University Sharon Pendzick Clay ’77 Alan Arkin, and Lea Thompson. John LaMotte, Jr. MS’80 of Wisconsin Hospital this spring. breaks ground to begin new The siblings’ screenwriting part- has been a busy guy. He’s a Candace Stone ’73 and studies of how weeds inter- nership produced their first co-founder and principal of Charles ’77 McDowell are fere with crop growth. Now she’s Sundance movie in 1997 — the the Chicago urban-design and the inaugural recipients of “broken ground” to become the office comedy Clockwatchers — community-development firm a UW Multicultural Student first woman president-elect of the and then their 2001 melodrama the Lakota Group with business Center accolade named in their American Society of Agronomy. Thirteen Conversations About partner Scott Freres ’86 ... but honor: the McDowell Alumni Clay is a fellow of the society and One Thing. Jill, who directed their he was also married recently (with Achievement Award. Candace a professor at South Dakota State latest film, was a regular contrib- many Badgers in attendance) and

FALL 2011 53 classnotes

published a book of poetry, Night for all product categories at the over the past year. third consecutive year that he’s Water Reflections (AuthorHouse), chain’s 3,700-plus retail locations The international education- been included. Swenson is a in time for the nuptials. in the U.S. MacNaughton has services provider Apollo Global Wayzata, Minnesota-based senior The National Sportscasters also worked for Kraft Foods, H.E. has a new president in Timothy VP of investments and private and Sportswriters Association Butt Grocery, Albertson’s, and Daniels ’85 of Owings Mills, wealth adviser at Merrill Lynch has named Tom Mulhern ’80 Supervalu. Maryland. He was most recently Global Wealth Management. Wisconsin’s 2010 Sportswriter The new president-elect the chair and CEO of the Wall Peter Dorhout PhD’89 is of the Year for his work as the of the American Society for Street Institute. a man on the move. With Wisconsin State Journal’s beat Environmental History (ASEH) is The American Society of Colorado State University (CSU) reporter for the Badger football Gregg Mitman MA’84, PhD’88, Highway Engineers thinks so in Fort Collins since 1991, he was program. He also won the award the interim director of the UW’s highly of John Derr ’87 that most recently its vice provost in 2005. Nelson Institute for Environmental he’s become its 2011 Member for graduate studies and assis- Taking the reins as the new Studies, as well as a professor of the Year. Derr is a vice presi- tant vice president for research. president of ESSRX this spring of history of science, medical dent, west-region transportation This past spring, he took a was Howard Drazner ’83, history, and science and tech- director, and national highway temporary position as provost most recently a senior VP at PDI nology studies. Mitman was practice manager in the Phoenix of CSU-Pueblo, and beginning and president of its Pharmakon in January, Dorhout will be the Division. Based in Parsippany, “It’s refreshing to share good news in an new dean of the College of Arts New Jersey, ESSRX is an audio- and Sciences at Kansas State visual and satellite production economy that has been riddled with more than University in Manhattan. company that offers broadcasts its share of not-so-good news.” Recently named the number and webcasts to the financial three CEO in technology by services and pharmaceutical — Ryan Erickson ’93 Fortune and the Best Biotech industries. CEO for 2010 by TheStreet. Adventuresome eaters, also the founding director of office of Gannett Fleming, a com, urologist Mitchell Gold step right up: Andrea Hughes the Nelson Institute’s Center for global infrastructure firm. ’89 has set his sight on curing ’83 is showing Madtown visi- Culture, History, and Environment. Mount St. Mary’s College cancer after losing his mother tors its tasty side with the launch UW Professors William Cronon in Los Angeles has welcomed to breast cancer when he was of Madison Food Explorers: a ’76 and Nancy Langston are its twelfth president: she’s Ann five years old. Right now, he’s walking-food-tour company that also past ASEH presidents. McElaney-Johnson PhD’88, working toward that goal as the blends the city’s history and Congratulations to Matt most recently the vice president president and CEO of Dendreon architecture with ample samplings Bernstein PhD’85 of Rochester, for academic and student affairs Corporation. His Seattle-based of traditional Wisconsin fare along Minnesota.The Mayo Clinic at Salem College in Winston- biotech company received FDA the way. professor of radiologic physics Salem, North Carolina. approval last year for the world’s As the new board chair has been named editor-in-chief of Here’s one of those nice- first autologous cellular immu- for Goodwill Industries of the journal Magnetic Resonance work-if-you-can-get-it positions notherapy: called Provenge, the Southeastern Wisconsin, in Medicine. — and Daniel Rauchle prostate-cancer “therapeutic Vincent Lyles ’84, JD’87 of Here’s news from the world MBA’88, JD’88 has got it. He’s vaccine” stimulates the body’s Milwaukee oversees the largest of academia: Gregory Clemons the new head of investment own immune system to attack Goodwill organization in North ’85, MA’87 is a professor and management for U.S. Bank’s tumors. America (who knew?), and has chair of the Department of Ultra High Net Worth Group, Sister Marlene Weisenbeck just the financial acumen to do Modern Foreign Languages at based in San Francisco. (Ultra- PhD’89 of La Crosse, Wisconsin, it: in his capacity as president of Mars Hill [North Carolina] College, high net worth, in case you’re is a new appointee to the M&I Community Development as well as the faculty adviser for curious, is defined here as more President’s Advisory Council on Corporation, Lyles has grown its the school’s GLBTQ students. than $25 million in investable Faith-Based and Neighborhood investment portfolio from $53 Erin Passehl ’03 is a new assets.) Previously, Rauchle was Partnerships, a panel that million to roughly $130 million in assistant professor and digital the founder and president of President Obama established in the past five years. collections and metadata librarian Wells Fargo Alternative Asset 2009. Weisenbeck is a member Class of 1984: Who among at Western Oregon University Management, among other — and president from 2002 until you wields enormous power at in Monmouth, and Ted Gries posts. 2010 — of the Franciscan Sisters Wal-Mart? You’re right if you PhD’10 has joined the Beloit Michael Swenson ’88 has of Perpetual Adoration, as well said Duncan MacNaughton [Wisconsin] College chemistry made the Barron’s 2011 list of as an officer and past president ’84 of Rogers, Arkansas — the department full time after serving America’s Top 1,000 Advisors: of the Leadership Conference of new chief merchandising officer as a visiting assistant professor State by State — and this is the Women Religious.

54 ON WISCONSIN 90s ’91 writes that “six of our seven news in an economy that has Engineering Expo, a student-run members are alumni ... who been riddled with more than its event that showcases engi- Five ’90s grads have earned work in diverse areas that exem- share of not-so-good news.” neering to the public. The trio’s awards from their respective plify the Wisconsin Idea.” Along When Laura Richman topic was their careers at NASA’s higher-ed institutions for their with Spies — a freelance musi- (Steele) DVM’93 was a veter- facility near Houston, where superb teaching and scholar- cian, university instructor, and inary pathology resident at the Karina Shook Eversley ’96 ship. Associate professor of Madison Public Library staffer — Smithsonian National Zoological is a flight controller and space- French Sharon Johnson MA’90, the group includes Greg Smith Park in 1995, she worked with walk instructor; Nikki (Nichole) PhD’96 has received one of ’76, a retired administrator for the an elephant that died of a myste- Mattson Williams ’00 coordi- Virginia Tech’s 2011 William E. state’s Department of Workforce rious virus — an event that nates NASA groups to ensure Wine Awards. The UW’s School Development; Kia Karlen ’92, compelled her to understand the that hardware is certified and of Education has honored James education director of the Madison virus, publish on the subject, and flight ready; and Angie Franzke Middleton MS’90, PhD’92 with Children’s Museum; Geoffrey develop tests that are now widely Lenius ’06 is a project manager its 2011 Distinguished Alumni Brady ’95, a freelance musician used to confirm the presence of for various flight-hardware proj- Achievement Award. He’s an and composer; Matt Appleby elephant endotheliotropic herpes- ects for the International Space Arizona State University professor MA’00, a staff member of the virus. From there she made a Station and shuttle missions. of engineering education and the UW’s Mills Music Library; Melissa leap to industry, and today she’s Best wishes to Shannon director of the school’s Center Reiser MA’07 (and PhD in prog- the VP for research and develop- Mangiameli ’96, MA’00 as she for Research on Education ress), a freelance musician and ment for translational sciences becomes the new senior design/ in Science, Mathematics, university instructor who was at MedImmune in Gaithersburg, construction manager for Lincoln Engineering, and Technology. recently a Fulbright scholar in Maryland. Property Company’s Chicago Paul Pickhardt ’91, an assis- Senegal; and founding member Ronny Bell ’94 is a web office. Prior to this life chapter, tant professor of biology, is the Daithi Wolfe. The group has entrepreneur in Seattle — a city she writes that she’s also “lived choice of Lakeland College in released four CDs since 1995, won that knows a thing or two about and worked in Italy, rock-climbed Sheboygan, Wisconsin, for this numerous awards, and shared its such ventures. He’s the CEO of in Panama, hiked the Inca Trail, year’s Underkofler Excellence in blend of traditional and contempo- Ideal Network, a firm that’s trying built a school in Uganda, bungee- Undergraduate Teaching Award. rary klezmer internationally. to find its foothold in the group- jumped in New Zealand, surfed At the University of Minnesota- Samantha Langbaum buying industry dominated by in Nicaragua, ridden camels in Morris, associate professor Beinhacker MA’92 is the Groupon and Living Social. Ideal Egypt, and danced in Brazil — of education Michelle Page new managing director of the Network offers a twist, though: it among other adventures!” MS’96, PhD’01 has earned a New York City office of Arabella gives 25 percent of the proceeds It sounds as though 2011 Horace T. Morse Award. Advisors, a national philan- generated by its online deals to Chicagoan Robyn Miller And finally, the University of thropy-services firm that helps a local nonprofit of the member’s Brecker ’97 lives a most fulfilling Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Alumni philanthropists to maximize their choosing. Bell plans to expand life. She’s director of content for Association has bestowed a UNO impact. With extensive expe- into cities nationwide. Oprah Winfrey’s Oprah.com, as Alumni Outstanding Teaching rience in the field, Beinhacker What parents may not have well as a co-founder of SMRT, Award on Brian McKevitt has also helped to lead the Skoll taught their daughters about a company that offers parenting MS’99, PhD’01. He’s an assis- World Forum at Oxford University, financial realities was the focus resources and children’s clothing. tant professor of psychology. one of the largest-ever global of an April campus lecture by Its mission is to “help parents Kudos to Ariel Kalil gatherings of social entrepreneurs Stephanie Laskow Berenbaum and caregivers live consciously, ’91, who’s using a $200,000 and philanthropists. ’95 of Los Angeles and Brandi simply, and be fully present each MacArthur Foundation grant to The staff at Holt-Smith Savitt ’95 of Brooklyn, New York. moment with their child.” study the impact of childhood- Advisors, a Madison-based As co-founders and co-editors- Linda Chaudron MS’99 housing instability on long-term investment-management in-chief of the online magazine is the new senior associate dean health and education outcomes. boutique, couldn’t have been Fabulous & Frugal, they regularly for diversity at the University of She’s a professor at the University more pleased this spring when appear on TV with their philos- Rochester [New York] School of of Chicago’s Harris School of its mid-cap growth strategy was ophy of “living well and spending Medicine and Dentistry. She’s Public Policy Studies and the named one of the Top Guns of the wisely.” Their goal is to inspire been an associate professor of director of its Center for Human Decade by Informa Investment women to examine their lifestyles psychiatry and the psychiatry Potential and Public Policy. Solutions, an independent, and learn how to make good department’s associate chair If you like klezmer music, national money-manager data- financial choices. for clinical services, plus she’s you can’t help but love Madison’s base. Chief investment officer Three other Badger alumnae held secondary appointments Yid Vicious Klezmer Ensemble. Ryan Erickson ’93 reflected, returned to campus in April to in pediatrics and obstetrics and Band member David Spies “It’s refreshing to share good deliver the keynote at the 2011 gynecology.

FALL 2011 55 classnotes

A 2011 Pew Fellowship ments, they’re providing access international organizations, he’s a also authored three books about in Marine Conservation has to education and health care professor in, and deputy director Badger football. gone to Timothy Essington to thousands of orphaned and of, the department of business Former Badger volley- PhD’99, an associate professor vulnerable children. statistics and econometrics at ball standout Lizzy (Elizabeth) at the University of Washington’s Peking [China] University. Fitzgerald Stemke ’04 is now School of Aquatic and Fishery 2000s One of the National Science a Bulldog — or rather, she leads Sciences in Seattle. He’ll use Foundation’s prestigious Faculty them as the new head volley- the three-year, $150,000 award Bronze Age China: Style and Early Career Development Awards ball coach for the University of to compare the economic value Material (Cambridge Scholars (called CAREER) has gone to Jeff Georgia Bulldogs. Even so, her of fisheries that target small, Publishing) contains a chapter (Xuegang) Ban MS’03, PhD’05. loyalty — and that of her spouse, schooling ocean fish and squid by Mara Duckens ’00 of He’s an assistant professor in former Badger football punter and to the ecological and economic Milwaukee. Her contribution, the department of civil and envi- NFL player Kevin Stemke ’01 tradeoffs of removing these prey “The Fu of the Shang Dynasty: ronmental engineering, as well — may drift occasionally from species from the food web. Women, Wives, and Warriors,” as a member of the Center for Athens, Georgia, to Madison. Brian Hoffer ’99 is examines the lives of the Shang Infrastructure, Transportation, and This summer, 650 new the marketing specialist for Dynasty’s female soldiers. the Environment, at Rensselaer teachers arrived in Chicago for a Milwaukee’s recreation depart- Duckens is also a frequent Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New five-week training institute before embarking on their two-year “I’ve lived and worked in Italy, rock-climbed in Panama, hiked the Teach for America commit- ments in urban and rural schools. Inca Trail, built a school in Uganda, bungee-jumped in New Zealand, The training includes work with surfed in Nicaragua, ridden camels in Egypt, and danced in Brazil — summer-school students in twelve area sites, each of which is led among other adventures!” — Shannon Mangiameli ’96, MA’00 by a director — and half of those dozen directors were Badgers and ment, but he’s also been writing lecturer at academic symposia. York. Ban’s plans for the five-year, former corps members: Kristine songs since he was seven — The new press secretary for $400,000 award include studying MacDonald ’05, Renee and he seems like one of those U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) how devices such as GPS and Racette ’05, Stephanie Taylor genuinely nice guys. Therefore, is Christine Mangi ’00, fresh cell phones can help to opti- ’05, Andrew Schmitz ’06, in March, when Hoffer achieved from her role as communications mize traffic systems and reduce Anita Boor ’07, and Amanda his longtime dream of releasing director in the Senate Republican roadway congestion. Skrzypchak ’07. Seven other a genuinely nice CD of his own Conference Vice Chair’s Office. Felicitations to former Badger Badgers served as staff members. pop/rock music, it was cause Mangi has also served as press and NFL quarterback Brooks The new 2011 corps will be 5,500 for fanfare. He sifted through secretary for the U.S. Small Bollinger ’03 as he becomes the strong in thirty-three states and his 2,500-plus (!) songs, chose Business Administration. new head football coach at Hill- the District of Columbia. his favorites, and brought in Kate O’Phelan Pletcher Murray School in Maplewood, Washington, D.C.’s Inter- Milwaukeean David Vartanian ’01 has bought into what seems Minnesota, a private institution American Development Bank is ’80 to engineer and produce Into like a gem of an idea: she’s the for grades seven through twelve. the largest source of develop- the Boulevard, on which Hoffer new co-owner of Mom Corps Bollinger was named Big Ten ment financing for Latin America sings and plays guitar and piano. Los Angeles, a franchise office Rookie of the Year in 1999 and and the Caribbean — and Alyson “I’m writing to tell you of a staffing and search firm that rang in 2000 with a Rose Bowl win Williams ’05, MA’10 is the refer- about two of the most incred- matches professionals — often for the Badgers over Stanford. ence librarian of its Felipe Herrara ible Wisconsin alumni I have ever working mothers who are not The 2011 Arch Ward Award, Library. Her service-learning expe- met,” began a letter from Jacob easily found through traditional given by the College Sports riences and dual master’s degrees Lief, president and founder of employment channels — with Information Directors of America in Latin American, Caribbean, and the Ubuntu Education Fund. He companies that value flexible (CoSIDA), has gone to Justin Iberian studies, as well as library was lauding Jordan Levy ’99 talent pools. Pletcher is also the Doherty MA’03, the assistant and information studies, make her and Jana Zindell ’99, spouses founder of Madison’s St. Patrick’s director of athletics for external ideally suited to her work. based in Port Elizabeth, South Day parade. relations at UW-Madison. As a Suchita Shah ’08 is one of Africa, who’ve been instru- The Journal of the American member of CoSIDA’s board for only twenty-four medical students mental to the fund’s work for the Statistical Association has a new eight years and the organiza- nationwide to earn a 2011 last nine years. As the managing associate editor in Hansheng tion’s president in 2009–10, he’s American Medical Association directors of Ubuntu’s programs Wang PhD’01. In addition to been instrumental in helping it Foundation Leadership Award, and external relations depart- serving as a researcher in several to evolve and grow. Doherty has which helps recipients to develop

56 ON WISCONSIN skills as future leaders in orga- for herself early on. She’s been nized medicine and community covering the revolutions in Egypt, Calendar affairs. Shah is earning her degree Bahrain, and Libya, and her work at Columbia University while has appeared in outlets including Light the night red at WAA’s 150th anniversary! serving as an active leader on that NPR, Al Jazeera English, and the Red Tie Gala campus and with WAA’s alumni Huffington Post. And somehow Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery Town Center chapter in New York City. She she finds the time to mentor Friday, October 14, 2011, 7–11 p.m. plans a career at the intersection UW journalism students as Step into the limelight in spirited elegance at Madison’s premier of medical practice and policy. well. Thanks to Day’s friend Homecoming eve event. All WAA members, UW alumni, and Jinelle Zaugg-Siergiej ’08, Jesus Ayala, Jr. ’10 of New friends are invited to dress their best and feel their finest cele- a member of the silver-medal- Orleans for telling us about Day. brating alumni and benefiting UW-Madison’s Great People winning 2010 U.S. Olympic obituary Scholarship in campus’s most dynamic new event space. women’s ice-hockey team, has Lawrence Eagleburger ’52, Register today at uwalumni.com/gala announced her retirement from MS’57 — a skilled diplomatic USA Hockey, the U.S. women’s troubleshooter, senior foreign- September national program. The all-time policy adviser, top aide to 22–25 Wisconsin Science Festival leading Badger women’s scorer Henry Kissinger, ambassador in UW-Madison welcomes people of all ages to this inaugural festival upon graduation, she’s had much Belgrade, and U.S. secretary of to discover the wonders of science and art through interactive success with Team USA over the state whose wit was legendary exhibits, lectures, and demonstrations with leading researchers past five years, and is now the — died in June in Charlottesville, and creative thinkers at sites on campus and in Madison. head coach of the Arrowhead Virginia. In recent years, he led • wisconsinsciencefest.org Union High School girls’ hockey the International Commission on team in Hartland, Wisconsin. Holocaust Era Insurance Claims October The AIDS Foundation of and served on the Iraq Study 14–15 UW Homecoming: Bucky Badger’s 100 Chicago has appointed Keith Group. President Obama said Greatest Hits Green MSW’09 to the newly of him, “Lawrence Eagleburger Celebrate 100 years of Homecoming on campus at Friday’s golf created post of director of devoted his life to the security of outing, parade, and Red Tie Gala. Then plan to attend WAA’s Sat- federal affairs. He was a founding our nation and to strengthening urday pregame event before watching Wisconsin battle Indiana. member of the Chicago Black our ties with allies and partners.” • uwalumni.com/homecoming Gay Men’s Caucus and the Monkeys typing into infinity have 22–23 Chazen Museum of Art Grand Opening former project director of Project From the soaring, 4,200-square-foot lobby, to the inviting conversa- replaced Paula Wagner Apfelbach PrEPare. He’s also a spoken-word tion and contemplation spaces, to the intimate movie theater, the ’83 as Class Notes compilers. artist, magazine columnist, and Chazen Museum of Art expansion truly offers something for every- adjunct instructor in Northeastern one. Enjoy community group performances, guided tours, a scaven- Illinois University’s social-work ger hunt, and more at its fall grand opening. • chazen.wisc.edu program who’s won many awards UW Bragging Rights 27 An Evening with Sonia Nazario for his activism. Students, faculty, alumni, and community members are invited to Just as UW alumni hold myriad Amanda Hoffstrom ’09 this public lecture in Union South’s Varsity Hall with Sonia Nazario, patents, a recent report from has flown up — so to speak — author of the 2011–12 Go Big Read selection, Enrique’s Journey. the Intellectual Property Owners to a new position as associate • gobigread.wisc.edu Association lauded their alma online editor for Sky, the on-board mater as well: of the fourteen magazine of Delta Air Lines. November universities it listed among the Headquartered at the office of its 4–5 Parents’ Weekend top three hundred entities to publisher, MSP Communications Parents and their UW students can attend special Friday classes, receive patents from the U.S. in Minneapolis, she maintains the meet campus officials, and cheer for the Badgers at Camp Randall Patent and Trademark Office web and social-media presence during this popular fall event. • uwalumni.com/parentsweekend in 2010, UW-Madison ranked of Sky and its digital counterpart, Concert Series: Pro Arte Quartet fourth — behind the University 19 Embark. Celebrate the Pro Arte Quartet’s centennial. UW-Madison’s faculty of California system, MIT, and string quartet welcomes the Paul Schoenfield Piano Quintet to the Stanford — with 136. Innovation, Humanities Building’s Mills Hall for its November performance, one 10s innovation, innovation ... of several free events scheduled throughout the year. Freelance journalist Anna Wisconsin Alumni • uniontheater.wisc.edu Therese Day ’10 is one of those Association: celebrating For more information on these events, call (888) WIS-ALUM people who’s making a name alumni for 150 years. or visit uwalumni.com.

FALL 2011 57 bookshelf

possibilities, and perils environmental orga- that they sparked in nization Planetwalk, Blood Work: A Tale as well as a National of Medicine and Geographic education Murder in the Scien- fellow who’s written tific Revolution (W.W. The Ragged Edge Norton & Company). of Silence: Finding She’s an associate Peace in a Noisy professor at Vanderbilt World (National Geo- University in Nashville, graphic Books). Francis Tennessee. was an On Wisconsin feature subject in the Fall 2008 issue. ■ Corporate internal communicator Mike ■ On the Other Guy’s Dime: A Profes- Klein ’87 checked in from Copenhagen, ■ Reading Lisa Abend MA’92’s The Sor- sional’s Guide to Traveling without Denmark, where he’s working with Maersk cerer’s Apprentices: A Season in the Paying (Tasora Books) is G. (Gary) Michael Oil, to share that he’s written From Lincoln Kitchen at Ferran Adrià’s elBulli (Free Schneider MS’68, PhD’74’s how-to guide for to LinkedIn: The 55-Minute Guide to Press) might cause you to add chef to your list living and working overseas without giving up Social Communication (Verb Publishing). of intense professions. your life back home. Now retired from teaching The book channels Abraham Lincoln to meld She takes readers inside computer science at Macalester College in St. political theory with an understanding of social the heretofore mysteri- Paul, Minnesota, Schneider is a visiting profes- media and organizational ous elBulli near Roses, sor at Columbia University in New York. communication. Spain — regarded by many as the world’s ■ He who is (very) old ■ Lori Huggett finest restaurant — to is new again — at least Reamer ’88 uses meet its genius chef, in the hands of George fashion theory to help Ferran Adrià, and stand Rudebusch MA’80, readers find their “food alongside his thirty-five PhD’82. His second practice” in The Food stagiaires (apprentices). book, written in an That Fits: A Guide Abend is TIME magazine’s Madrid-based eloquent, yet acces- to Mastering Your Spain correspondent. sible style, is Socrates Food Style (Book- (Wiley-Blackwell), about Locker.com). Reamer is ■ Other People We Married (FiveChapters “a thinker who has the director of nutrition, as well as a lecturer Books) is the new collection of short stories much to tell us about and nutrition counselor, at the famed Canyon by Brooklyn, New York, author Emma Straub the good human life.” The author is a philoso- Ranch Resort in Lenox, MFA’08, who’s earning comparisons to writer phy professor and department chair at North- Massachusetts. and UW Professor Lorrie Moore. Straub, ern Arizona University in Flagstaff. who also co-heads a design and print com- ■ An estimated 5 million pany called M+E, is the daughter of esteemed ■ In Charles Burnett: Interviews people in the U.S. suf- author Peter Straub ’65. (University Press of Mississippi), editor fer from post-traumatic Robert Kapsis ’65 contends that the stress disorder, and David ■ The two-volume Encyclopedia of Ameri- groundbreaking African-American filmmaker Emerson ’91 wants to can Indian Removal (Greenwood Press) Charles Burnett is one of our nation’s greatest help. The director of yoga comprises essays on individuals, events, directors, yet his well-told tales of the black services at the Trauma tribes, treaties, and more. Its co-editor is experience in America are a tough sell in the Center in Brookline, Mas- James Parins MA’70, PhD’72, a profes- mass marketplace. Kapsis, a professor of sachusetts, he’s co-authored Overcoming sor of English at the University of Arkansas at sociology and film studies at Queens College Trauma through Yoga: Reclaiming Your Little Rock and the associate director of the and the Graduate Center of the City University Body (North Atlantic Books). Sequoyah National Research Center. of New York, collaborated with New York’s ■ John Francis III PhD’91 of Cape May, ■ The first collection of poetry from Daniel Museum of Modern Art this spring to produce New Jersey, chose to remain silent for seven- Ames ’89 of Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, a Burnett retrospective. teen years, gave up all motorized transporta- is Feasting at the Table of the Damned ■ Holly Tucker MA’91, PhD’96 tells of the tion for twenty-two years, and wordlessly (Aquarius Press). His works of modern free first blood-transfusion experiments conducted walked across America to raise environmental verse incorporate “dark humor, spare lan- in Europe between 1665 and 1668 (when consciousness and promote world peace. guage, and a keen eye” to explore how we they were banned) and the debates, rivalries, He’s the founder and director of the nonprofit choose to live with the choices we make.

58 ON WISCONSIN sifting &winnowing BARRY ROAL CARLSEN Of Polyester Pants and Friendship By Anne Lamoreaux McGill ’82

When I first came to the university in 1978, I had never lived away from home or in a big city. Everything was new to me. My friend Cheryl and I were going to be room- mates. We’d known each other since kindergarten and had grown up together — through Brownies, band practices, high school, and more. I’ll never forget the day we left for college. Our parents saw us off at the Greyhound bus depot in Ashland, Wisconsin, at around ten o’clock on a Sunday morning, but we didn’t pull into Madison until eight hours later. When we boarded the bus, Cheryl and I had three or four suitcases each, my electric typewriter, my nine-inch black-and-white TV, four carry-on bags, and the big purses that we all carried in those days. It was late August, and to us, having grown up on the shores of Lake Superior, it was fall. Cheryl and I both wanted to look nice for our first day of college, and I will never forget our outfits. I was wearing off- white polyester pants, an argyle sweater, and my suede baseball jacket. Cheryl was in dark blue pants (that I would later borrow eat, where to buy books, or even where to shower. So far, our college from her) and a sweater. experience was more like an episode of Survivor. We endured the bus trip by talking nonstop. We had been to We noticed a note on our door telling us to see the “house fellow.” Madison only once to see the campus, and frankly, I was terrified. Cheryl and I were in no mood to see a house fellow, a house gal, a When we stepped off the bus, I knew we were in trouble. We house princess, a house king, or even the pope. But we didn’t want were scared and exhausted, and it was 80 degrees. Here we were: to get into any trouble, so we found Scott, who told us what had been two eighteen-year-old girls with multiple pieces of luggage and other covered at the house meeting — which we had missed. He seemed possessions, and we were sweating right through our polyester pants. really nice, but we simply couldn’t listen to any new information. Scott It was like being dressed in giant, fitted Hefty bags. Did I mention I was was wearing shorts, no shirt, and was barefoot, while we were melting also wearing my Frye boots? Oh, yes. And nothing says uncomfort- into two big, smelly, synthetic-wearing puddles. able like knee-high boots with socks in hot weather. Our faces were a We remembered that we had to call home. I went first. I told my sweaty mess. Our clothes were holding in every bit of heat and mois- mom that she needed to pack up all of my shorts, T-shirts, and sandals, ture. Thank goodness Final Net never stops holding your hair. It was and put them in the mail — express mail, if it wasn’t too expensive. the only thing that was working for us. Mom kept saying she was proud of me, but I just kept saying, “Please We managed to commandeer a taxi outside the bus depot. After mail all my summer clothes.” we loaded up, the driver informed us that we had to wait for more That night, Cheryl and I made a list of what we needed to do the passengers to fill up the taxi. So we sat there — sweaty, anxious, and next day. We knew we were going to be okay — after all, we were from clinging to our stuff. Finally, two more students got in, and we were off a place where the T-shirts said, “Ashland isn’t the end of the earth, but to campus, experiencing what we came to call “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.” you can see it from here.” Miraculously, we arrived at Ogg East, dragged our stuff to the front During the next few months, Cheryl and I helped each other get desk, and retrieved our keys from a not-so-nice woman who admon- over homesickness, live through exams, and survive at a Big Ten univer- ished us for being late. The Witch of the Desk, we eventually learned, sity. Being in college was hard and scary, but it was also full of laughter would also control the meal tickets that let us eat and the laundry and dances and football games, the Statue of Liberty in the lake, and tickets that let us wash our clothes. We found our room and sat down ice cream from Babcock Hall. on our beds. We were pretty sure that we had made a huge mistake. They were the best years of my life. What were we doing here? We didn’t know anyone, much less where to Anne Lamoreaux McGill ’82 lives in Lodi, Wisconsin.

FALL 2011 59 The Ties That Bind down the Melrose Park fort while Fred “I never felt you thought you Continued from page 27 went off to college. were above and beyond us. You always “You know, it’s funny, because Fred remained yourself.” “We had state troopers called out,” never talked about going to college,” “And you got rid of that stupid George says. “There were race riots. I tell Patsy says. “He felt maybe the rest of us earring,” Anthony adds. my kids it made me a person.” didn’t understand his need to go. I really “I meet Harvard and Yale people who “We all looked out for each other,” don’t remember any conversation about couldn’t hold a candle to you guys,” Fred Anthony explains. it. Me, I wanted to go to college, but my gushes. “And we’ll do it till we die,” George father said he needed me in the [restau- “Really, there’s been no change in declares. rant-supply] business. It was depressing. you,” Patsy says. George has to go, and the others decide to hit an Italian restaurant in a neighboring town. As O’Hare planes roar “Fred, even with your education, you remained overhead, Fred reflects. “Back in those Fred,” Patsy says. “I never felt you thought you days, we would have died for one another. Once reason I come back each summer were above and beyond us.” is I want my kids to spend time with my friends. They’ll say things about me that give my kids insight into me.” The I not only wanted to go to college, I “And you don’t insist we call you reminiscing reminds him of the crazy wanted to travel, which I can do now. But ‘doctor,’ ” Anthony adds. years of violent deaths. “Therapy made it took me thirty years.” “That’s the thing I’d never call you,” me realize how strange my life was back “You were always a good son to your Patsy concludes. here,” Fred says. “My life after education, father,” Fred tells Patsy. “If my father had The evening ends that way. In the from age thirty on, was boring. Good lived, I would have stayed. But there was parking lot, the guys share more hugs thing, because it’s going to take me the nothing for me here. Where was I gonna and spine-splintering backslaps. Fred is rest of my life to mitigate everything that go? But why did I go to Madison? It was pleased with this trip home. He’s happy happened before thirty.” totally non-Melrose up there.” that he didn’t learn anything new about The men find a spot they promise has “But it gave you an education of how his friends. That means he still under- good tomato sauce. On the sound system, it was in the world,” Patsy says. stands them, still knows who they are. Frank Sinatra, with his mellow voice, tells Anthony chimes in that he actually “You know, I live in two worlds. I have the world he did things his way. The wait- moved to Madison to be with Fred. to come back from the one at the univer- ress brings three Crown Royals for the For eight months, he painted Wisconsin sity to make sure this one’s still here. I’m guys. Fred, the white-collar one, orders houses by day, then partied with Fred so glad to know that it is.” ■ and his new college friends at night. veal, and his two working-class friends Reprinted from Limbo by Alfred Lubrano. Copy- protest. That’s a switch. He never had the desire to actually right © 2004 by Alfred Lubrano. Reproduced “Fred, they leave ’em in little pens,” matriculate, although he once made with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Anthony says. money by showing up at an ACT test “It’s bad, Fred,” Patsy adds. and taking it for a less-smart pal. “I UW Bragging Rights “Hey, I like veal.” got him a scholarship,” Anthony says The men talk about their wives, past proudly. “I actually got a better grade In 2007, Chynna Haas ’10 founded the Working Class Student Union at UW-Madison and present. “We didn’t marry Italians,” for him than I did for myself, when I to advocate for students from blue-collar back- Fred observes, “because they’re too much took the test.” grounds. As far as current members are aware, like our mothers.” Maybe it’s the Crown Royals, but the it was the first such university student group in “Marrying, we all broke the blood- boys turn sentimental. the country. line,” Anthony allows. “Fred, even with your education, you Wisconsin Alumni Association: I ask Patsy what it was like to hold remained Fred,” Patsy says. celebrating alumni for 150 years.

60 ON WISCONSIN

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# Standard check order fees apply. ✼ Web access is needed to use Mobile Banking. Check with your wireless carrier for fees that may apply. Mobile Banking is available to Online Banking enrollees only. All terms applicable to Online Banking apply to Mobile Banking. Must have Transfers and Bill Pay set up previously in Online Banking to use these functions in Mobile Banking. Not available with accounts in Washington and Idaho. † Alerts received as text messages on your mobile access device may incur a charge from your mobile access services provider. Alerts are not available for accounts located in Washington or Idaho. N For information about the rates, fees and other costs and bene ts associated with the use of this Rewards card, or to apply, go to the website listed above, visit a Bank of America banking center or write to P.O. Box 15020, Wilmington, DE 19850. This credit card program is issued and administered by FIA Card Services, N.A. Visa is a registered trademark of Visa International Service Association, and is used by the issuer pursuant to license from Visa U.S.A., Inc. MasterCard is a registered trademark of MasterCard International Incorporated, and is used by the issuer pursuant to license. Bank of America and the Bank of America logo are registered trademarks of Bank of America Corporation. M The $0 Liability Guarantee covers fraudulent purchases and payments made by others using your Bank of America credit and debit cards. To be covered, report purchases made by others promptly, and don’t share personal or account information with anyone. Access to funds next business day in most cases, pending resolution of claim. Consult customer and account agreements for full details. By opening and/or using these products from Bank of America, you’ll be providing valuable nancial support to the Wisconsin Alumni Association. A specialty account setup fee may apply to Wisconsin Alumni Association deposit accounts opened in banking centers and over the phone in some states. Other accounts and services, and the fees that apply to them, vary from state to state. Please review the information for your state in the Personal Schedule of Fees (at www.bankofamerica.com/feesataglance or at your local banking center) and in the Online Banking Service Agreement at www.bankofamerica.com/serviceagreement. Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC. ©2011 Bank of America Corporation AR2174S2 1.6.2011 AD-06-11-0203

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The Weight (and Volume) of Education

When you enroll at the UW, you’d better be prepared to learn a lot — the Registrar, a freshman who enrolled in 2009 (the most recent year and to develop your upper body strength. Those were the apparent posted) will shell out an average of $1,040 annually on books and sup- messages from this 1961 photo, showing a freshman surrounded by plies, or $4,160 between matriculation and graduation. four years’ worth of textbooks and supplies. Since 2008, the UW has asked instructors to list textbook informa- Much has changed at UW-Madison in the half-century since tion for their courses online. At registrar.wisc.edu/textbook_information_ this picture was taken — few record albums are assigned today, for students.htm, you can discover just how many volumes various classes instance, and contemporary undergrads can generally cut back on the require. Some of the longest textbook lists posted belong to courses purchase of typewriter ribbon. in literature in a foreign language, such as Nineteenth-Century German But students should still expect to spend lots of money and Literature (fourteen titles) and German Literature and Culture (fifteen). need lots of space for textbooks. According to the UW’s Office of John Allen

66 ON WISCONSIN In 2010, the first 69 Great People Scholars received need-based scholar- ships to pursue their educations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2011, nearly 500 qualified students received Great People Scholarships. Thanks to the collaborative generosity of all the alumni and friends whose gifts support the Great People Schol- arship Campaign, in just one year, the number of Great People Scholars has in- creased by nearly 600 percent. Great People is a great investment in our students. Today, they are becoming the leaders and decision-makers, teachers and healers, en- trepreneurs and engineers, artists and The power of many gives power to many. scientists, parents, neighbors and loyal Badgers we will count on tomorrow. The power to shape the future is in your hands. Join the great people who make Great People possible. uwgreatpeople.org

GP ad Fall 11ad-4_lg.indd 2 8/8/11 4:59 PM UW Foundation Address Correction Department 1848 University Ave. Madison, WI 53726-4090

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Bright Lights. Badger City. Light the night red at the Wisconsin Alumni Association’s 150th anniversary RED TIE GALA Dress your best and feel your finest at the premier Homecoming eve event — an alumni celebration raising up to $150,000 for the Great People Scholarship. Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery Town Center Friday, October 14, 2011 • 7:00 p.m.–11:00 p.m. $150 per person Black tie optional (red tie encouraged!) Space is limited — register today! uwalumni.com/gala

WISCONSIN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 150 YEARS

ILLUSTRATION: ON, WISCONSIN! MURAL, RED GYM