Ryan Mason (BA GDS ‘09) and business partner Cathryn Sprague are leading an Edmonton revolution in small-plot urban farming. (See page 20) CIRCLE FALL 2014 UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA AUGUSTANA CAMPUS ALUMNI MAGAZINE CIRCLE AUGUSTANA CAMPUS ALUMNI MAGAZINE PROJECT COORDINATION, EDITING & DESIGN Trina Harrison - Alumni & Special Events Coordinator CONTENTS [email protected] Excitement Continues to Build 2 Christopher Thrall – Communications Specialist Alumni Profiles 4 [email protected] CONTRIBUTORS Teaching & Research 8 Bev Betkowski, Myranda Bolstad, Pam Chamberlain, New Athletics Awards Program 10 Stewart Prest, Christopher Thrall Augustana Vikings 12 PRINTING McCallum Printing Group Inc. Life at Augustana 13 Publications mail agreement no: 400100904 Milestones & Retirements 16 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE ITEMS TO Alumni Office, Augustana Campus Alumni Events 18 University of Alberta 4901 46 Ave Alumni in the News 20 Camrose, AB T4V 2R3 Augustana in the Community 22 Toll free: 1 800 661 8714 (US & Canada only) Telephone: 780 679 1105 Class Notes 24 For information and inquiries, please contact: In Memoriam 29 Alumni & Special Events Coordinator 780 679 1105 or [email protected] CIRCLE is the University of Alberta’s Augustana Faculty Alumni magazine. The views expressed in this magazine are those of the authors and do not FIND US ON FACEBOOK AND WIN! necessarily represent the views of the University of Alberta’s Augustana Faculty. You can find the most current information on Augustana events and Contents copyright 2014 by the University of Alberta’s announcements on our website or on the Augustana Facebook pages! Augustana Faculty. Content may not be reprinted or U of A Augustana Augustana Alumni reproduced without permission from the University of Alberta’s Augustana Faculty. SIGN UP FOR E-CIRCLE ARE YOU A TEACHER? Our electronic newsletter, the e-Circle, is a “greener” way for U of A Augustana to We are reaching out to alumni of Camrose keep you connected to your campus and Lutheran College, Augustana University your fellow alumni. The e-Circle includes College, and the University of Alberta’s updates on events, stories, reunions and Augustana Campus who have embraced the announcements. teaching profession across Alberta, Canada The e-Circle will not replace the annual and the world! printed magazine, but will instead serve as a monthly supplement about U of A Please contact us so we can celebrate your Augustana. calling and inspire a new generation of Augustana students who want to change the To sign up for the e-Circle, please email [email protected]. world, one young mind at a time. MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN The current byword across the University of Alberta is change. We will soon be transitioning to a new President, to a new budget model, and to new expectations for Faculties. Here at Augustana, we have been preoccupied with many additional changes, some very visible, some more hidden. Among the more obvious and visible changes are our infrastructure improvements. The Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre, which we opened with a gala celebration on November 1, is already having a transformative impact on Augustana and the Camrose community. It is also drawing attention from across North America for its unique sustainability features. Old Main (Founders’ Hall) has a new exterior, and renovations are beginning on a new, more open and more efficient design for the building’s interior. Finally, plans are in place for renovations on the lower level of the Forum to create an Augustana is also diversifying. Challenged by the Provost Aboriginal student commons and flexible, multi-purpose of the U of A, we have recognized a need to become more spaces for the entire Augustana community. entrepreneurial, thereby generating additional revenue for investment in our core business—undergraduate Off campus, Augustana is completing construction of education. Toward that end, we have created two new the Miquelon Lake Research Station, a facility that will positions, one to focus on community-based programming support student and faculty research in fields as diverse (from camps for youth to executive education) and one to as environmental studies, rural sustainability, and tourism focus on new international programming (for example, studies. faculty development programs for instructors from Chinese or other overseas universities). Change is also being driven by enrolment growth. Augustana’s enrolment is up 6% this year, continuing a Amidst all the change, I’m pleased to report that much several-year trend and reaching our highest number of remains the same. Events during the fall such as Score!, students since merger. Clearly, the public is becoming the Respecting the Land Conference, and the opening more aware of the “Augustana Advantage”—the term we address by Distinguished Alumnus Dr. Lalit Chawla for our use to describe the unique opportunity students have here annual theme (Illusion) demonstrate the amazing spirit to earn a degree from a top-five Canadian and top-one- and energy of the Augustana community. I hope you will hundred world university while joining and participating have an opportunity to join us during the coming year and in a welcoming, close-knit campus community that is participate in some of our amazing programs. Thank you focussed on mentoring students and preparing them for for your ongoing support and interest. lives as engaged citizens and future leaders. Warm regards, Dean Allen Berger CIRCLE • 1 EXCITEMENT CONTINUES TO BUILD AT AUGUSTANA here has been a frenzy of construction and renovation on the The Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre is part of TUniversity of Alberta’s Augustana Campus in the past few years. the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta, but it serves Since we broke ground for the new Library in 2007 – and replaced a dual purpose, supporting the educational programs for the Ole’s Crossing with a land bridge to the senior residences – the university and functioning as a community facility for Camrose and face of Augustana has changed dramatically. the surrounding region. The Library is finished, and we have been using the Forum for FOUNDERS’ HALL/”OLD MAIN” several years. We have a new Facilities & Operations building and a paved parking lot in front of the Faith & Life Centre. We’re not done ld Main is being yet: excitement continues to build at Augustana! Oequipped to One major project was just completed, another is visible from Quad serve Augustana every day. A third is about to begin, and a fourth is on the horizon. Campus for the next hundred years! This THE JEANNE & PETER LOUGHEED signature building PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE was constructed in 1912 and has t the November 1 Opening provided space for ANight Gala of the new residences, dining, classrooms, studios, offices, and maintenance Performing Arts Centre in over its many iterations. Camrose, the facility was The current renovation is the most extensive. We have peeled back named for some of Alberta’s the exterior walls to check on their condition, added insulation and strongest supporters of the replaced the wooden siding with weather-resistant materials. We arts. are adding an elevator, energy efficient windows and doors, plus a “Jeanne and Peter were often modern heating and cooling system. referred to as a team, and their Inside, we are redesigning the floor plan to support student legacy shaped a progressive attitude in support of cultural initiatives, services, faculty, administration, and undergraduate research. The which will continue to resonate in this state-of-the art building for first floor has been informally dubbed the Campus Living Room. generations to come,” said Camrose Mayor Norm Mayer. Along with the Prospective Students’ Office, the Living Room will Jeanne (Rogers) Lougheed was born in Forestburg and grew up in be a welcoming space for all visitors to campus. It will contain Camrose, where her father practiced medicine. Her love for dance, displays for awards and memorabilia from our century of history. music and song defined her early years. She met future Premier The second floor will include the Learning~Advising~Beyond Peter Lougheed, with whom she shared and inspired a lifelong offices, a place for integrated, holistic advising services including love for the arts, at the University of Alberta. They would become career counseling. The third and fourth floors will combine faculty patrons and advocates of the arts, attending the symphony, ballet, offices and student research spaces. The lower Garden Level will and theatre throughout their public and private lives together. house the Alumni and Development Offices, and feature a large You can find out more about the decision to name the facility after conference room which will open out to an outdoor programming Jeanne and Peter on the Augustana website. We also invite you space on the southwest corner of the building. to read about the cutting-edge design and sustainability features Funding for the renovation project has been provided by Alberta of the new facility or check out the upcoming productions at Infrastructure and the University of Alberta. We hope to add camroselive.ca. 2 • CIRCLE a pedway between Founders’ Hall and the second floor of the CLASSROOM BUILDING AND SCIENCE Forum, and are seeking philanthropic gifts to realize the additional EXTENSION $375,000 necessary. We expect to open our doors in the new building in September of 2015. o prepare students for a constantly changing, interconnected, “Tand global society and for a world of work in which they will CREATION OF AN ABORIGINAL STUDENT likely need to reinvent themselves, reinvent their jobs, and change COMMONS careers multiple times over a lifetime, Augustana needs modern, state-of-the art teaching and learning environments,” Augustana he lower level of the Dean Allen Berger explained at the Alumni Brunch in October. “So TForum is receiving the transformation of the campus will and must continue.” a substantial redesign.