The man behind Pat Dye Field pg 24
SPORTS
AU scientists hone their street smarts pg 38 RESEARCH
How your alma mater got its colors pg 42 TRADITION
FALL 2010
Teaching Them to Fish One man’s plan to save Haiti
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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g
Hope for Haiti? One in four Haitian children under age 5 suffers from chronic malnutrition, and only about half the country’s kids are enrolled in elementary school. Even before a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated the island nation in January, Haiti was routinely considered the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Auburn fisheries graduate Valentin Abe ’91, named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2010, is taking a stand against poverty in Haiti by training families to farm tilapia. Cover story on Page 28. Photograph by Jeff Etheridge
a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine
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F A L L
2 0 1 0
From the Editor
Need a lift?
Betsy Robertson
BETSY ROBERTSON
Suzanne Johnson
EDITOR
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Editor, Auburn Magazine
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
The other morning I rushed into the alumni center (late for a meeting), slammed the “up” arrow adjacent to the elevator on the ground floor and marveled at my good fortune as the shiny metal doors slid open at once. Ding! Just after I stepped on board, a student who works in the building rushed in to share the ride. “Three?” I asked hopefully. Two, she replied. I felt my shoulder muscles tense. Seriously? This 20-year-old couldn’t have walked up one flight of stairs to prevent my inconvenience? Checking my watch, I fumed during the seconds it took the elevator to climb one floor and make its first stop before delivering me to my workaday worries. As she left the elevator the young woman stopped, turned, looked directly into my eyes and, quite sincerely, wished me a good day. Me? I spent hours regretting that I’d been too impatient at the moment even to consider why she might have been grateful for a relatively quick elevator ride versus facing a flight of stairs. Had she been up all night studying for final exams? Was she suffering an unseen ailment? I wish I had the moment back again to offer her a smile. I learned a lesson in patience that day, and, although you still won’t find me queuing up behind more than two cars at a fast-food drive-through, I hope my new perspective has helped me become a kind-
er, gentler person. I’ll keep trying, anyway. I have a terrific example in my new friend Valentin Abe ’91. A former Fulbright scholar who earned two graduate degrees from Auburn, Abe traveled to Haiti more than a decade ago on a short-term grant to build a fish hatchery. Months later, the project complete, no one wanted to run it. Meanwhile, Abe had an idea: What would happen if he stayed in the country and tried to build a combination community collective and entrepreneurial enterprise that would help put food on families’ tables and send kids to school? Abe approached government officials and other potential funding sources with his plan to no avail. So he withdrew his own savings and began a fisheries project now known as Caribbean Harvest. Abe is convinced that, with patience and perseverance, he can help eradicate poverty among a people who have known only lack. Abe’s perspective on the work is admirable: “I felt this project was my purpose,” he says in our cover story (Page 28). “It is always better to try, even if you fail, than to do nothing.” Each day, he faces the severest of conditions with a capacity for caring and lack of ego that remind me to stop and smell the roses—and perhaps even offer one to a stranger on an elevator.
AUBURN MAGAZINE (ISSN 1077– 8640) is published quarterly; 4X per year; spring, summer, fall, winter, for dues-paying members of the Auburn Alumni Association. Periodicals-class postage paid in Auburn and additional mailing offices. Editorial offices are located in the Auburn Alumni Center, 317 South College St., Auburn University, AL 36849-5149. Phone (334) 844–1164. Fax (334) 844–1477. E–mail: aubmag@auburn.edu. Contents ©2010 by the Auburn Alumni Association, all rights reserved.
LETTERS Auburn Magazine welcomes readers’ comments, but reserves the right to edit letters or to refuse publication of letters judged libelous or distasteful. Space availability may prevent publication of all letters in the magazine, in which case, letters not printed will be available on the alumni association Web site at the address listed below. No writer is eligible for publication more often than once every two issues. No anonymous letters will be accepted. Auburn Magazine is available in alternative formats for persons with disabilities. For information, call (334) 844–1143. Auburn Magazine is a benefit of membership in the Auburn Alumni Association and is not available by individual subscription. To request a membership application, call the association at (334) 844–2586.
ADVERTISING INFORMATION Contact Betsy Robertson at (334) 844–1164. POSTMASTER Send address changes to 317 South College St., Auburn, AL 36849–5149.
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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g
Shannon Bryant-Hankes ’84 ART DIRECTOR
Stacy Wood WEBMASTER
Jeff Hall UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHER
Jeff Etheridge EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS
Grace Henderson ’10, Andrew Sims ’10 DESIGN ASSISTANT
Cassie Caraway ’11
PRESIDENT, AUBURN UNIVERSITY
Jay Gogue ’69 VICE PRESIDENT FOR ALUMNI AFFAIRS AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AUBURN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
Deborah L. Shaw ’84 PRESIDENT, AUBURN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
Nancy Young Fortner ’71
AUBURN MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD CHAIR
Neal Reynolds ’77 AUBURN MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD
betsyrobertson@auburn.edu
Maria Baugh ’87, John Carvalho ’78, Susan Dendy ’79, Ed Dickinson ’70, Christian Flathman ’97, Tom Ford ’67, Kay Fuston ’84, Julie Keith ’90, Mary Lou Foy ’66, Eric Ludgood ’78, Cindy McDaniel ’80, Carol Pappas ’77,
Joyce Reynolds Ringer ’59, Allen Vaughan ’75
a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine
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Re waRd youRself and futuRe aubuRn students
Did you know your everyday purchases can help fund Auburn scholarships? The Spirit of Auburn credit card featuring the WorldPoints® program contributes to Auburn’s scholarship fund while building rewards for you, too. By using this card for all your everyday purchases, you share the Auburn spirit by benefiting students who most deserve academic scholarships – at no additional cost to you – and you ultimately help shape the future of Auburn. Even more reason to enjoy redeeming all the points you earn for cash rewards, travel, or merchandise. One good turn deserves another.
To apply for the card, simply call 1.800.932.2775 and mention priority code UABFHU. Or to apply online, visit www.auburn.edu/spiritcard.
The Spirit of Auburn credit card is made possible by the Auburn Spirit Foundation for Scholarships (ASFS), which is affiliated with Auburn University. This advertisement was paid for by the ASFS. For information about the rates, fees, other costs, and benefits associated with the use of this card or to apply, call the number above or visit www.auburn.edu/spiritcard and refer to the disclosures accompanying the online credit card application. This credit card program is issued and administered by FIA Card Services, N.A. Bank of America and the Bank of America logo are registered trademarks of Bank of America Corporation. MasterCard is a registered trademark of MasterCard International Incorporated, and is used by the issuer pursuant to license. Platinum Plus and WorldPoints are registered trademarks of FIA Card Services, N.A. ARZ5N1I3 05/12/2010 © 2010 Bank of America Corporation.
Will Northcutt Auburn Spirit Foundation Scholarship Recipient Auburn Sophomore 2009 Vestavia Hills High School Graduate Birmingham, Alabama
Welcome to the Auburn Family, Will. Will Northcutt is following family tradition by attending Auburn, as did his grandfather, mother, two aunts, and sister. In fact, he didn’t even consider other universities. Having grown up as an Auburn fan and wanting to attend a well-respected engineering school, his decision was an easy one. Will is studying civil engineering and hopes to help build roads, buildings, and other infrastructure after he graduates. Based on his academic achievements at Vestavia Hills, Will was awarded an Auburn Spirit Foundation Scholarship to help him continue his educational journey. In addition to excelling academically in high school, the standout baseball player also participated in many activities including Key Club and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. “It’s an honor to receive the Auburn Spirit Foundation Scholarship which is a direct result of my hard work and dedication to achieving success in academics,” Will noted. Thank you for supporting Auburn scholarships – and students like Will – through your use of the Spirit of Auburn credit card. Your efforts are instrumental in welcoming new students to the Auburn Family.
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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g
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On the cover Can tilapia farming reverse Haiti’s history of poverty? Some believe Jesus used it to feed the masses. Photograph by Jeff Etheridge.
Fall 2010 F R O N T 4 From the Editor
A story of patience and perseverance. 8 The First Word
Readers share memories of Drake Infirmary. Plus: Auburn’s oldest living alumna.
Baseball finishes 43-21
24 Tiger Walk
Paul Conner ’57 roots for the Auburn Tigers football team, but he’s also interested in what’s under their feet. Plus: A first look at AU’s soon-to-be-built indoor practice facility.
10 College Street
In campus news: Trustees green-light dorm renovations and a new classroom building. Also: don’t miss our Comer critters story. Jersey cows on campus?
B A C K 47 Alumni Center
We give you a Golden Eagles review and an Alumni Hospitality Tent preview. Plus: Chris Smith keeps things green at Hills & Dales. Art students sketch favorite objets d’art at Toomer’s Corner
Tilapia is a mild-flavored fish that can be grown and harvested quickly and abundantly, offering the chance for Haitians to not only supplement their own diets but also the incomes of families whose earnings often amount to less than $750 a year.
16 Research
F E A T U R E S
Gulf oil spill spells both tragedy and opportunity for AU researchers.
28
18 Roundup
What’s happening in your college? Check it out. 20 Concourse
CASSIE CARAWAY
He’s pickin’ and grinnin’: Auburn’s Hunter Morgan runs a town’s community garden.
Valentin Abe traveled to Haiti hoping to start a fish farm. Now, 13 years later, he believes his tilapia hatchery could help drive the troubled Caribbean nation out of poverty. Abe recently was named one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People.” by candice dyer photographs by jeff etheridge
38
Coach Barbee on “Tiger Trek”
49 Class Notes 58 In Memoriam
Road Hard
64 The Last Word
Put the pedal to the metal with the truckers of Auburn’s National Center for Asphalt Technology as they cross nine states on two miles of track. Their work is key to scientists’ search for better blacktop. by andrew sims photographs by jeff etheridge
42
Study abroad is Auburn’s watchword
The Fish Farmer’s Story
Auburn religious studies professor Richard Penaskovic writes about leaving the priesthood.
Made in the Shade
We’ve all screamed it: “Fight on, you orange and blue.” But when is orange really “Auburn orange,” and how blue is “big blue”? We offer a bit of color clarification. by suzanne johnson photographs by jeff etheridge
Penaskovic’s critical decision
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L E T T E R S
T O
T H E
E D I T O R
The First Word THE TOPIC Wow! When we asked readers of our
Summer 2010 issue to share their memories of the old Drake Infirmary on campus, we never expected such a flood of letters and e-mails—including a copy of a 1949 infirmary invoice. Auburn Magazine wants to hear from you on any topic related to your alma mater. Send e-mail to aubmag@auburn.edu, or write us at Auburn Magazine, 317 South College St., Auburn, AL 36849-5149. In the beginning
In the summer of 1939 our family moved from Montgomery to Auburn. My father, Dr. Jeptha W. Dennis, had just been hired as the first full-time director of student health. When he arrived there was a small clinic located in the basement of the original Broun Hall that served as his office and infirmary. Drake Infirmary was still under construction. When Drake Infirmary opened it was the only hospital located in the city of Auburn, and it was used by other physicians who also served local patients. Dr. Dennis served as Alabama Polytechnic Institute’s director of student health until he entered the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942. He was discharged in 1945 and returned as API’s only physician until he entered private practice in 1948. —William Lee Dennis ’78, Decatur Oldest living Drake baby?
I may now be the oldest living Drake baby. I was born in the infirmary on May 26, 1941. Those of us who were born there were the children of instructors, primarily recent Auburn graduates who were ROTC instructors. I know of four, maybe five, children born in 1941 who entered Auburn University in 1959-60. The fact that we were Drake babies was always a great conversation opener. I am sure there must have been even more Drake babies who did not attend Auburn, although I can’t imagine choosing another college after entering the world on Auburn’s campus. —Julie Panell Breeden ’63, Helena Cheap delivery
In the spring of 1949 I was a graduate student at Auburn. On April 6 of that year, my wife, Frances, checked into Drake Infirmary expecting the birth of our first child. Marilyn Rebecca Moultrie was born in the early morning of the following day. Although this was big news for us, there was nothing unusual about the event. Today, however, I believe the enclosed bill-for-services from the Drake infirmary is newsworthy: Seven days for Frances at $9 per day cost us $63. The delivery room was $12, and the nursery room for Marilyn was a whopping $1 per day for another $6. Miscellaneous charges
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amounted to $14.10 for a grand total of $95.10. Times have changed. —Fred Moultrie ’48, Salisbury, Md. All in the family
My family is from Tuskegee, but there was no local hospital there in the 1940s. Babies not delivered at home were usually birthed at a Montgomery hospital or at Drake Infirmary. The family physician, Dr. Gautier C. Yancey, delivered my sister, Martha Jane Parker, at Drake Infirmary on Feb. 17, 1943, and he delivered me at Drake on July 29, 1946. Our father, S. Charles Parker, graduated from Auburn in 1934. My husband, John Woodham ’66 from Hartford, and I met in the old union building on my first day as an Auburn student, and between the two of us there are 18 Auburn graduates in our close family. Whenever anyone asks me where I am from, I always tell them Tuskegee … and Auburn! —Lyn Parker Woodham ’69, Fayetteville, Ga. Accidental birth
I was born in John Hodges Drake Infirmary in 1947. My family was living in Tuskegee, and there was no hospital there at the time. My parents were trying to get to the hospital in Opelika, and the family physician from Tuskegee was following them in his car. They got as far as Auburn, and I guess my mother couldn’t hold on any longer, so they went to the infirmary, where I was delivered. My auto tag is “BORNAU.” —George H. Jones Jr. ’70, Wetumpka Runs in the family
My grandfather came to Auburn from Florence to get his pharmacy license. He had six sons, and five of them made it to Auburn. My father came to Auburn on the GI Bill after World War II with a war bride from Scotland in tow. My older brother was born in Glasgow; they had me a couple of years later. Old “Doc” Thomas delivered me at Drake Infirmary in 1947. Dad got a degree in aeronautical administration and went on to work in the computation lab with NASA in Huntsville. I returned to Auburn in ’66 and met my wife there. My college career started off with a couple of bumps and was interrupted by the Vietnam War, but I too made it back, thanks to the GI Bill. My daughter went to Auburn; she met her husband there, too. I have two grandsons who wear orange and blue—they should be generation five. Me? I ended up better than I deserved: a retired lieutenant colonel and college professor. I now live near the “holy land,” just 100 yards outside the Auburn city limits. —Larry Stafford ’74, Opelika
Get well soon
My mother, Caroline Elizabeth Drake DuBose ’28, was the niece of John Hodges Drake, the doctor for whom Drake Infirmary was named. It seems he always carried a pocketful of all-purpose pills, the ingredients of which were very mysterious. When Dr. Drake felt these pills were needed, he would bring a few out of his pocket, blow the lint off and distribute them. Years later when his office was dismantled, many of Dr. Drake’s pills were found in a porch wall where wise students disposed of them through a crack while departing. Sugar pills aside, my parents spoke highly about the confidence everyone had in Dr. Drake. His manner also endeared him to the entire town. I actually was in the infirmary overnight with food poisoning while a student. The Pi Kappa Alpha house had served tainted turkey at a Sunday date dinner. Half the house and all of their dates were lined up at the infirmary the next morning. We took a great deal of ribbing from the other houses. —Frank DuBose Jr. ’62, Tustin, Calif. Opposing view
I was very disturbed to read the article “Getting Noticed” (Summer 2010). The article’s focus was a new student organization “aimed at fostering communication between Auburn students and the town’s community of immigrants.” It seems that the actual goal of this organization is to reach out to illegal immigrants. While I understand the desire of immigrants to want better lives, that does not negate the fact that they have violated our national laws by entering our country illegally. Does not the Auburn Creed state that “I believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all?” Providing assistance to individuals who are in the process of acting illegally seems contradictory to traditional Auburn principles. —Adam Anderson ’03, Moseley, Va. Oldest living alumna
I thoroughly enjoyed the article in the (Summer 2010) issue about Auburn’s oldest living alumnus. William Holley is quite a wonderful and remarkable man, but I want to tell you about my great-aunt, a lady I believe is the oldest living Auburn alumna. She is Mayme Miller Horn, who was born on Dec. 21, 1906, a few months before Mr. Holley. She also graduated in the class of 1929. Aunt Mayme taught for many years in the Columbiana school system and always played the organ at the Methodist church there. She is a firm believer in honesty and integrity, and has always lived up to the Auburn Creed. —Lee Poulsen Jones ’67, Gainesville, Fla.
AN AUBURN
TRADITION recent Work by Scherer & ouporov August 28 – November 27, 2010
Situated on the charming campus of Auburn University, just a short walk from quaint, historic downtown Auburn.
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a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine
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C A M P U S
N E W S
COLLEGE STREET Q and A WILL THE OIL IN THE GULF HAVE ANY EFFECT ON THE WATER’S TEMPERATURE?
New students soldier on Brett Mixon doesn’t have much in common with the average college student coming into Auburn University directly from high school. A little more than a year ago, the 25-year-old Auburn resident was a U.S. Marine infantryman patrolling the streets in and around Fallujah, Iraq, searching for improvised explosive devices. Now he’s an Auburn undergraduate and a member of a rapidly growing population of students. University administrators across the nation expect to see more military veterans on their campuses, thanks to a revised and more generous GI Bill that went into effect in 2009 as well as an influx of men and women returning from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 250 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans enrolled in Auburn last spring. Administrators expect up to 300 this fall. As a result, officials have formed a lockstep program at the university that allows about two dozen student veterans to take classes together—including English composition, world history, music appreciation and principles of microeconomics—beginning this fall. “No matter our age, how long we served, or even prior education before our military careers, we all could use a little kick-start to get back into the swing of things in college,” says Ben Manzano, a
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social-science education major from Birmingham who served nearly five years with the 11th Marine Regiment in Iraq’s Al-Anbar Province. “The hardest part of the transition from military to college life is just becoming accustomed to being completely in control of your own life again.” Manzano and Mixon took a pilot course—“Success Strategies for Veterans”—taught at Auburn last year. Administrators hope Auburn’s new learning community for former soldiers will help fine-tune student-veterans’ critical thinking and study skills while enabling them to build teamwork. Although the majority of the veterans are good students, a few deal with the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder or have difficulty concentrating on lecturers because military training conditioned them to be on constant emergency alert, officials say. “It’s very promising to see that Auburn is carrying on her tradition of being veteran-friendly,” says Mixon, a business finance major from Clarkesville, Ga. “I strongly believe that veterans are great students, because the discipline that is learned in the military helps them in the classroom. “They may struggle at first, as I did, but they’ll be determined to learn and won’t let their troubles stand in the way of their mission, which is graduation.”
Impact on temperature depends on a number of factors, and to some degree the answer is unknown. All things being equal, a calm surface with a dark coating of oil is likely to have higher temperatures at the surface at that location, but this is not likely to have a short-term impact on temperatures below or in other areas of the Gulf. Wind speed and direction, Gulf currents and precipitation are some of the factors that influence the relationship between oil at the surface and water temperature. Over time, will residual oil molecules on the surface or at depth have a longer-term impact on temperature, increasing the Gulf’s capacity to store heat? I don’t think anyone knows the answer to that question.
Mike Kensler
Outreach program coordinator, Auburn University Water Resources Center
HACKERS BEWARE Auburn engineering faculty Chwan-Hwa Wu and Dave Irwin may soon make it easier to stop and catch the cyber-criminals who specialize in launching viruses that overwhelm credit card computer systems and turn your experience in the checkout line into an expensive nightmare of rejected cards and declined charges. “The bad guys are stepping it up,” explains Wu. “Cybercriminal syndicates are becoming more professional and sophisticated. The same is true for state-sponsored hackers and terrorist groups.” The pair’s solution enhances network architecture and its methods and processes designed to defend information infrastructure. It also provides real-time forensics and can be used with existing infrastructure and protective mechanisms, including commonly used systems such as Microsoft Active Directory. Its design is scalable and can accommodate small and large networks.
Home away from home Auburn University is exploring the possibility of establishing a campus in the city of Danyang, China, northwest of Shanghai. University officials hope to first establish an engineering campus in the country, with long-range plans to begin offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in other disciplines. Should the project gel, Auburn would be the first American university with a China campus.
C A M P U S
N E W S
Flashback 100 years ago
75 years ago
50 years ago
25 years ago
10 years ago
Fall 1910
Fall 1935
Fall 1960
Fall 1985
Fall 2000
The Auburn community was shaken when Charles Allen Cary, founder of the College of Veterinary Medicine and one of the most well-known farmers in Alabama, fell from the third-story roof of his house on College Street. He broke his leg in two places and injured his left eye. Cary served as the founding dean of veterinary science from 1907 until his death in 1935.
Amid controversy, Alabama’s first Cooperative Extension Service director, Luther N. Duncan, was named Alabama Polytechnic Institute’s president, a position he held for more than a decade. Duncan’s presidency was opposed by board members who felt his extension management was too closely tied to the Farm Bureau. Ultimately, however, Duncan’s conservative fiscal style won out.
The opening of a smallchannel catfish hatchery in Greensboro propelled Alabama’s catfish industry, helping build a new economy for the western part of the state. Auburn fisheries scientists began examining catfish health and production as early as 1933, when a team led by H.S. Swingle initiated a research program on the construction and management of Alabama farm ponds for food production.
Most sports fans will remember the year Vincent “Bo” Jackson rushed for 1,786 yards during the 1985 football season, producing the second-best singleseason performance in Southeast Conference history (behind Herschel Walker’s 1,891 yards for Georgia in 1981). For his performance, Jackson was awarded the Heisman Trophy, edging out Iowa quarterback Chuck Long.
Fall semester got off to an earlier start than usual on Aug. 22. After years of preparation and planning, Auburn University finally switched to a semester-based academic calendar rather than a quarter-based system. The quarter system had been in place since the early 1940s, when it was adopted to accommodate male students leaving for military service during World War II.
Above: In 1922, the number of female students at Alabama Polytechnic Institute doubled, leading to the chartering of the institution’s first sorority, Kappa Delta, whose seven members were installed at the President’s House. A chapter of Chi Omega sorority was founded at API shortly afterward.
a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine
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C O L L E G E
S T R E E T
No typing in the car The Auburn City Council is considering banning texting while driving. Council member Brent Beard ’93 brought up the idea, which is aimed particularly at ensuring the safety of local university and high school students. “It’s pretty dangerous to do when you’re driving, and it’s especially dangerous to others who are driving,” he told the Opelika-Auburn News. It is currently illegal in 30 states to text while driving, including in Georgia and Tennessee.
JEF F ET H ERIDG E
2011 STATE AID FLAT
12
After two straight years of
system’s state appro-
drops in state appro-
priation declined from
priations and continu-
$336.6 million in 2007-
ing uncertainty for next
08 to $241.2 million this
year due to the national
year and is projected to
economic recession,
recover only slightly, to
Auburn University faces
$242.8 million, in the
virtually level funding
coming year. Two years
with little likelihood of
ago, state appropriations
significant new funds for
accounted for 45 percent
the 2010-11 fiscal year,
of the main campus
which starts Oct. 1.
operating budget; this
Still, budget planners and
year, that number is down
members of the Auburn
to 32 percent, with tuition
board of trustees say
increases and internal
they’re hopeful funds can
budget cuts making up
be found for one-time
most of the difference.
salary supplements
for faculty and staff in
ing tuition at the main
order to prevent a third
campus for 2010-11,
consecutive year without
but tuition restructuring
a pay increase.
is expected to increase
overall tuition revenue
Under guidelines
Auburn is not rais-
drafted by the univer-
by 8 percent. To encour-
sity’s Budget Advisory
age undergraduates to
Committee and approved
graduate in four years,
by trustees in June, the
the restructuring provides
administration will pre-
financial incentives for
pare for $242.8 million
students who take larger
in state appropriations
class loads and disincen-
for the Auburn University
tives for those taking
system in the coming
smaller ones.
fiscal year. That amount
is up less than 1 percent
sity is taking a cautious
from the current budget
approach to budgeting
year’s state appropriation
but sticking with its long-
but is in sharp contrast
range financial plan.
with the recent, proration-
led trend, which saw a
Gogue says conservative
22.3 percent decline
budget practices in the
in 2008-09 and an ad-
past have enabled Auburn
ditional 7.7 percent for
to avoid the severe
2009-10.
constraints facing many
other universities around
Auburn executive vice
Large says the univer-
Auburn president Jay
president Don Large ’75,
the nation during the re-
the university’s chief
cession. Although the uni-
financial officer, says the
versity has been unable
university has taken a
to grant pay increases
large financial hit from
during the recession, he
the recession and a quick
noted that Auburn had
recovery in state appro-
avoided the temptation
priations does not appear
to over-expand in good
likely. The university
economic times.
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Building blocks A nip here, a tuck there—a university campus is always evolving as colleges and schools outgrow their buildings and developing research labs need new homes. The Auburn University board of trustees addressed facilities needs for the next decade at its June meeting. A number of projects were approved, including a new wellness-and-sustainability center for students, an indoor football-practice facility and renovations to the Hill residence halls and Carolyn Draughon Village. The trustees also authorized a new central classroom facility and the replacement of Haley Center and several other academic buildings by 2020. The new buildings would replace Funchess, Parker, Allison and Spidle halls, all of which were constructed in the early 1960s, and Upchurch Hall, which dates from 1929. Construction will begin next summer on the $72 million, 240,000-squarefoot wellness-and-sustainability center approved by a vote of students last year. Students agreed to pay up to $200 more per semester to finance the building, which will take from 18 months to two years to complete. The wellness center will be built in front of Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.
The coliseum will be demolished when a new home is found for the kinesiology department, which occupies 56,000 square feet in the building. The board expedited construction of the indoor football-practice facility, which will break ground at the end of this year’s football season. The 92,000-square-foot, $16.5 million building will contain a fulllength football field and be constructed parallel to Samford Avenue in the practice area. The facility will be financed with athletics department funds, initially through a bond issue, but athletics director Jay Jacobs said he expects the debt to be retired early through private gifts. The renovations to the Hill residence halls are the next step in a long-range plan to continue upgrading student housing on campus. Carolyn Draughon Village, which is slated for eventual demolition, will be renovated to remain in service for at least another decade to house students while the Hill residences are being overhauled two or three buildings at a time. Those buildings and Terrell Dining Hall, which will also undergo renovation, were built in the 1960s and given an exterior postmodern architectural makeover in the 1980s.
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Going global JAY GOGUE ’69
President, Auburn University The strategic plan Auburn put into place in 2008 continues to produce results that strengthen our university and the publics we serve in our city, state, nation and, increasingly, at the global level. Of the six priorities that form the backbone of the plan, the first is to elevate undergraduate education, and one of the many facets of this goal is providing international experience. It’s estimated that one in five jobs in the U.S. is tied to international trade, and reports show that international skills are a key competency required by an increasing number of employers. At Auburn, we want every student to have the opportunity to embrace global engagement. For those unable to travel abroad, it is important to bring leaders here to complement our growing base of international studies and students. In 2009 and 2010, the heads of more than 17 international consulates in the U.S. and other dignitaries have visited Auburn to meet with our
students and faculty. These special guests have come from all over the world, from Albania to Germany and from Kuwait to South Korea. Most have addressed student audiences or spoken to classes in areas of special interest, such as Honors College courses in international political economy. Lutz Goergens, Germany’s consul general for the southeastern U.S., participated in classes on contemporary German literature. Others spent time with students and faculty at events organized in their honor. This “at home” initiative is ensuring that all students have the opportunity to understand other cultures and the skills they will need for success in an interdependent world. Meanwhile, other goals of the strategic plan have helped grow study and service abroad to nearly 1,000 of our students and led to 100 percent of our colleges and schools now offering study abroad programs. In the past year, we have also developed new partnerships or strengthened existing ones with institutions in China, Egypt, India and Vietnam, to name a few. These partnerships facilitate study tours, educational exchanges and collaborative research, and help our students gain crosscultural competencies. Overall, it is our hope that the strategic plan continues to improve lives through solutions and knowledge and opportunities created, including in the international arena. The latest on plan accomplishments and the action items we’ll focus on for 2010-11 can be found at www.auburn.edu/strategicplan. War Eagle!
jgogue@auburn.edu
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NORTHERN EXPOSURE Auburn University made an inroad in north Alabama this summer with the opening of a new research center that will match scientists in defense, aerospace, manufacturing, life sciences, biotechnology and information technology with government and business interests to advance national security and space exploration. “We’re excited to plant the Auburn University flag in Huntsville,” said Auburn president Jay Gogue. “The connection between Auburn and Huntsville has always been strong. The new center brings us even closer together and puts Auburn researchers in a better position to team with north Alabama leaders to strengthen the nation’s defense and space missions, and help spur economic growth in the state.” Rodney Robertson, director of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s technical center since 2005, leads the Auburn Research Center, which opened July 1. Gogue selected Robertson because of his track record in securing federal research-and-development funds and managing complex projects, he said. Robertson earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Auburn in 1980 and subsequently received master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Auburn researchers are seeking to tap into the more than $5.8 billion in funds that flow each year into the 52 government offices at Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal. Officials plan to pursue research opportunities with the Space and Missile Defense Command, Missile Defense Agency, Missile and Space Intelligence Center, NASA and other federal agencies, said John Mason, Auburn vice president for research. “Products and services integrated across several technologies are a growing requirement in the aerospace and defense community,” Mason said. “We will leverage the wide range of expertise and resources across campus to demonstrate that Auburn is a reliable partner in meeting those objectives.”
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Meet the Prof Kathryn Holland Braund Professor of history, College of Liberal Arts BACKSTORY In class and out, Braund spreads the
word about the life and travels of American naturalist William Bartram. Her most recent book, Fields of Vision: Essays on the Travels of William Bartram (University of Alabama Press, 2010), chronicles topics ranging from Bartram’s diet to sites he visited during his journeys across the South during the last half of the 18th century. “I used William Bartram’s Travels as a source for my first book, Deerskins and Duffels, a study of the 18th-century Creek deerskin trade. And that led to my second book, William Bartram on the Southeastern Indians.” Braun is president of the Bartram Trail Conference Inc., a national organization that promotes the development of hiking trails along the route of Bartram’s explorations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
PLEASE RELEASE ME: A tiny screech owl puts on a show at the Louise Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve. Local residents gathered to watch staff of Auburn’s Southeastern Raptor Center in July as they released several rehabilitated red-tailed hawks back into the wild. The owl is one of the center’s permanent inhabitants.
BARTRAM’S TASTE The third chapter of Fields of Vision is an essay by Braund that details Bartram’s diet and the effects of imported plants and animals on the Southern landscape as well as Indian agriculture and cuisine. Venison, occasionally “stewed in bear’s oil,” was a food staple, along with wild turkey, hominy, trout, rice, honey and, in Florida, oranges. BRAUND’S TASTE Braun loves traditional Southern
AN ‘A’ FOR EDUCATION Auburn University’s College of Education recently received a perfect report card from the Alabama State Department of Education. The college earned an overall “A” grade on the department’s Teacher Preparation Program Performance Profile. Grades are based on a number of variables, including education students’ performances on professional tests such as the Basic Skills Assessment, Praxis II and Professional Education Personnel Evaluation. Surveys of recent graduates and of the administrators who employ them also factor into the performance profile. The College of Education finds itself at the head of the class among the 27 teacher-preparation universities and colleges surveyed by the state, having earned
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an A in every category of the performance profile. Quality indicators include preteaching experiences in elementary and secondary schools (the hours prospective teachers spent in classrooms before their internship or student-teaching experiences), partnerships with Alabama elementary and secondary schools, the results of the Alabama Prospective Teacher Testing Program (the pass rates for the Basic Skills Test and Praxis II content-knowledge test) and on-the-job performance (how new teachers and their employers rate teacher preparation programs). To view the summary and the report cards of teacher-preparation universities and colleges, see the Alabama education department website at www.alsde.edu.
cooking and credits her grandmother for developing her palate. “She made the good stuff—all from her garden—fresh peas and butterbeans, cream corn and corn on the cob, fresh tomatoes, homemade pickles, fried okra, dumplings, fried chicken, and little hand-shaped pieces of fried corn bread, then chocolate cake,” she says. “Thinking back, I don’t know how in the world I managed to eat all that in one sitting.”
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A good investment Auburn University gives students the best value in Alabama for their educational dollar, according to rankings by Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. The rankings looked at the income earned by college graduates above the typical wage of high school graduates in comparison to how much their degrees cost. The 30-year return-on-investment at Auburn is $513,100, an annual net ROI of 11.5 percent.
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Comer’s critters A century ago this year, Auburn dedicated the brand-new Braxton Bragg Comer Hall, which quickly became the architectural cornerstone of the university’s agriculture program. Among the tall tales about critters who’ve graced the building and its grounds over the years: Benevolent beasts. The heads and spiraling horns of rams are prominently featured on the stone capitals that sit atop a series of columns on Comer Hall’s eastern, western and northern exteriors. The rams’ heads were described by a local architect as bestowing “kindness and benevolent blessings on the observer and campus below,” says retired Auburn architecture professor Nicholas Davis. Pigeon parties. For many years, Col-
lege of Agriculture administrators have struggled to prevent pigeons from roosting at Comer Hall. The battle is currently at a stalemate, with spike strips over the north entrance deterring birds from landing above the front doors. Ladies on the lawn: The famous photograph of cows grazing on Comer’s front lawn never fails to amuse, but less familiar is a 1924 shot (shown left) featuring Jersey bovine, a small, fawn-colored breed valued for its high-protein, high-fat milk. Auburn dairy professor W.H. Eaton described the Jersey cows as “ladies” and believed they should be treated with appropriate delicacy. Naturally, that was before reality TV introduced us Southerners to “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.”
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Research
Spill stalls shellfish studies WAKE-UP CALL ON KIDS’ SLEEP
16
Kids who don’t get
lower-income families
enough sleep are more
had higher levels of
prone to emotional
aggression, delinquency,
problems, and children’s
depression, anxiety and
lack of sleep tends to
low self-esteem. On
be prevalent among
the other hand, when
poor families, an Auburn
the children got more
research study shows.
sleep their behavior was
similar to those from
Mona El-Sheikh,
Alumni Professor of
higher-income families.
human development
and family studies in
children’s sleep to their
the College of Human
development is receiving
Sciences, and her fellow
increased attention,”
scientists looked at
El-Sheikh says. “Our
how disruptions in the
findings can inform in-
amount, quality and
tervention programs as
schedule of sleep affect
well as parent-education
children’s adjustment.
programs. Programs
They examined more
that are tailored to
than 140 children in
families’ resources and
third to fifth grades, of
challenges are likely to
whom three-quarters
be more effective.”
were white and almost
a quarter were black.
ports evidence linking
Parental income and
sleep to day-to-day func-
education varied.
tioning and highlights
the role of sleep in a
The study gath-
“The significance of
The research sup-
ered information from
wide range of behavioral
parents’ and children’s
problems. The study,
reports as well as mo-
funded in part by the
tion sensors worn by
National Science Foun-
the children at night.
dation, was published
Researchers found
in the May/June issue
that children who slept
of the journal Child
poorly and came from
Development.
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Drive through the bayou, and seafood delivery trucks are parked and not delivering. Oyster shuckers aren’t shucking, and packers aren’t packing. That’s the bleak picture painted by Bill Walton of the Auburn University Shellfish Lab, located on Dauphin Island, a barrier island at the mouth of Mobile Bay. By early July, tar balls were washing ashore and the scent of oil hung heavy in the air. The forecast called for more oil to come ashore in the next few days. The Deepwater Horizon leak that has gushed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf since April has affected AU scientists, giving them more to research. “A lot of people are looking at oyster mortality, how seafood will be contaminated, what dies. Those are immediate questions,” says Walton, who works mainly with oyster, crab and shrimp fisheries. The shellfish lab hatchery currently has 10 to 15 million oyster larvae growing in giant tanks with ocean water pumped in from the Gulf. They feed on phytoplankton and are raised until they are a quarter to three-quarters of an inch in size before they are taken out of the tanks.
“When we started smelling oil, we decided to shut down the pumps,” Walton says. “Now we’re re-circulating water in the tanks.” The spill also has impacted Auburn’s Marine Fish Lab at the Gulf Coast Research and Extension Center in Fairhope. “We believe our fisheries studies are the most appropriate of any research effort or group in the entire northern Gulf for addressing the possible effects of this recent oil spill,” says director LaDon Swann, who also oversees the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium. “We have the personnel, training, vessels and equipment for extensive faunal surveys from coastal waters to the deeper waters at the location of the present oil spill.” “Auburn University was here along the coast working with fisheries before the oil spill, and we will be afterwards,” adds Walton. “Now some of the things we’ll be looking at are, ‘How do you recover?’ and ‘How do we get people back to work?’”—Jacque Kochak/Adapted and reprinted with permission from The Auburn Villager.
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Straight talk on oil spill Nine Auburn professors have started a blog to provide expert analysis and opinion on the ecological, economic, energy, environmental and public-health implications of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Faculty contributors represent a range of relevant expertise, including estuaries, fisheries, food safety, mechanical engineering and wetlands. Read on at www.auburn.edu/research/oilspillblog.
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SHAKE IT UP Earthquakes get a bad rap, deservedly so when they cause death and destruction. But studying them can tell us a lot about how the Earth was formed—and perhaps one day lead scientists to predict when tremors might occur.
Of the half-million detectable earthquakes in
the world each year, only about one out of five can actually be felt and even fewer—about 100 quakes annually—cause damage, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Now a team of students and professors from
Auburn University and the University of Alabama are working together to collect scientific data about quakes statewide and farther afield. Students Stanton Ingram, from the University of Alabama, and James Taylor, from Auburn University, along with
Sealed with a hiss
their professors, geologists Andrew Goodliffe of
If you’re hiking in south Alabama this fall, watch out for snakes—especially big ones. Thanks to Auburn researchers, the eastern indigo snake is trolling the woods near Andalusia once more. The eastern indigo, the largest snake in the U.S. and a threatened species, is again thriving in Alabama. Auburn scientists, along with conservation workers from both Alabama and Georgia, released 17 juvenile eastern indigo snakes into the Conecuh National Forest in June. Eight were let into 2.5-acre natural enclosures, while the remaining nine were sent slithering into the forest. Eastern indigos, which sport a skin of glossy bluish-black with lighter coloring around the chin, throat and sides of the face, can grow to more than eight feet. Although native to Alabama, there have been no verified sightings since the 1960s. “The presence of the eastern indigo snake indicates a healthy and balanced environment,” explains Auburn professor and herpetologist Craig Guyer. “Returning the eastern indigo snake to the south Alabama landscape not only restores a piece of the natural history of the state, but also helps to control the population of venomous snakes like copperheads.”
Earth’s interior, makes use of a collection of seis-
Copperheads used to be a rarity in south Alabama, Guyer says. No more. The pit vipers, which are responsible for the largest number of snake bites in the U.S., are now the most commonly occurring snake in the region. The snake project began three years ago when students in Guyer’s lab collected pregnant female eastern indigos from Georgia and brought them back to Auburn to lay eggs. Afterward, the female snakes were returned to their homes while the eggs were incubated and hatched. Auburn researchers and their colleagues at Zoo Atlanta shared the responsibility of raising the fledgling eastern indigos until they were mature enough to be implanted with radio-frequency tagging devices and radio transmitters. The largest of the released snakes was found eating a 3-foot copperhead within the first day of tracking. Auburn scientists now have more eggs incubating in anticipation of another release next year. The project is supported by a number of organizations, including the Alabama Department of Conservation, Project Orianne, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service.
Alabama and Lorraine Wolf of Auburn, have joined other scientists across the country in a National Science Foundation-sponsored project known as Earthscope.
Earthscope, a scientific initiative to study the
mographs that will record earthquake waves from all over the globe. Aptly termed USArray, the seismographs will help geoscientists study the characteristics of the deep Earth, much like a doctor uses medical imaging to study the inside of the body.
Since 2003, 400 USArray seismic stations have
been slowly marching toward Alabama from their starting point on the West Coast. Ingram, who hails from Birmingham, and Taylor, a Cincinnati resident, were selected to join 10 students to help find locations for seismic stations in Alabama and the Midwest over the summer. The stations, scheduled to arrive in Alabama next year, will not only record local earthquakes but can also sense earthquakes from afar.
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Roundup worked at Iowa State University from 1994 until 2005, advancing to the rank of professor, and joined the Mississippi State faculty in 2005. Batchelor succeeds Richard Guthrie ’62, who retired after 25 years at Auburn. COLLEGE OF
Agriculture William Batchelor, former head of agricultural and biological engineering at Mississippi State University, took the reins as dean of Auburn’s College of Agriculture on July 15. He also assumed the directorship of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station. Batchelor led the development of the Sustainable Energy Research Center at Mississippi State, where he helped garner $26 million in federal grants. He also served as director of the university’s Energy Institute, which boasts about 200 researchers. In 2009 he was named a Fellow of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers for his contributions to information and electrical technologies, and biological engineering. Batchelor earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural engineering at the University of Georgia in 1986 and 1987, respectively, and a doctoral degree in agricultural engineering at the University of Florida in 1993. He
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Architecture, Design and Construction Administrators are looking to hire a new dean for the College of Architecture, Design and Construction. Auburn provost Mary Ellen Mazey has appointed a search committee to work with an executive search firm in identifying and interviewing candidates. Architecture dean Dan Bennett, who has served in the position for 10 years, plans to retire at the end of fall semester. He came to Auburn from the University of Arkansas, where he also served as dean for a decade. “The decision to retire has been difficult, because I have truly loved working for Auburn and for the College of Architecture, Design and Construction,” Bennett said. “However, after almost 20 years in the position of dean, both here and at the University of Arkansas, I am ready to slow down just a bit.” Richard Brinker, dean of Auburn’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, is
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chair of the 10-member architecture-dean search committee. COLLEGE OF
Business Seventeen students from eight states make up the inaugural class of Auburn’s new executive master of real estate development program. The students, practicing professionals hailing from Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, work in the landdevelopment business or related fields such as mortgage lending or construction. Using a mixed-residency and distance-education design similar to that of an executive MBA program, the MRED plan allows students to earn a degree while living and working anywhere in the country. The curriculum blends issues of “green” building, energy and natural
resource efficiency, and sustainable development into every course, and is offered jointly by the College of Business and the College of Architecture, Design and Construction. COLLEGE OF
Education Researchers in the newly opened Auburn University Center for Disability Research and Service are using Apple iPads to help autistic children communicate better with others. Staffers Scott Renner and Margaret Flores ’94 are working with Birmingham-based PUSH Product Design to tailor the portable devices to meet the needs of children with limited verbal abilities. The pair tested the devices among 10 children this summer. The kids, some of whom possessed vocabularies of less than a dozen words, used iPads to
communicate through touch-activated voice recordings and interact with others through video storytelling. Apple iPads have the potential to be used as a tool to help autistic children with language and behavioral development, say Renner, the center’s coordinator of assistive technology, and Flores, who coordinates autism- and developmental-disabilities initiatives. “It’s our hope that we can tailor these to what the kids need,” Flores adds. The Center for Disability Research and Service focuses on developing initiatives in autism and developmental disabilities, assistive technology, program evaluation, and employment and community support. SAMUEL GINN COLLEGE OF
Engineering Auburn chemical engineers have developed a
series of patent-pending technologies designed to turn waste streams from pulp and paper mills into alternative fuel. Professors Harry Cullinan, Gopal Krishnagopalan and Y.Y. Lee, plus senior research fellow SungHoon Yoon and several graduate students, are working on extracting fermentable elements of waste streams for possible conversion into ethanol. … The Alabama Commission on Higher Education has approved a new doctoral degree program in the Department of Polymer and Fiber Engineering. The graduate program is the first of its kind in the state, offering courses and research opportunities in biopolymers, nanomaterials, polymer physics and smart fibers. The department will begin accepting students for the doctoral program this fall. SCHOOL OF
Forestry and Wildlife Sciences Wildlife ecology assistant professor Todd Steury has started a program that uses trained dogs to help scientists find and track endangered species such as the black bear, eastern spotted skunk and Alabama long-tailed weasel. “EcoDogs: Detection Dogs for Ecological Research” teaches dogs
Sketch artists Auburn University’s Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art is hosting an exhibition of drawings featuring 42 works by European painters, sculptors and draftsmen through Nov. 6. “Old Master Drawings from the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art” focuses on the study of the human form, portraiture, architectural rendering and compositional design, and includes works spanning the 16th through 18th centuries. For details, see www.jcsm.auburn.edu.
to sniff out the scat of certain extinct animals so researchers can study population decline and other issues. “Alabama is home to 117 endangered species, which is third in the United States behind Hawaii and California, and numerous other species are at risk,” Steury says. “But little is known about these species, including where they are located, the habitats they occupy and how many individuals of a species exist.” The School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences and the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Animal Health Performance Program are collaborating on the project. COLLEGE OF
Human Sciences Human development and family studies professor Alexander Vazsonyi has been named a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the second-largest university in the Czech Republic. Fulbright Distinguished Chairs are the most prestigious appointment awarded by the U.S. Department of State; of about 800 Fulbright grants offered annually, 40 are for Fulbright Distinguished Chairs, and only 13 are designated for the social sciences. Vazsonyi, an Auburn faculty member since 1996, has established
an international reputation for research and teaching on adolescent development and behavior. His studies of youth across cultures, across ethnic and racial groups, and across economic groups have highlighted similarities among teens around the globe. He will work at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, this fall, where he’ll collect data on Czech and Roma youth. … Two human-sciences faculty members have received endowed professorships. Mona El-Sheikh assumed the title of Leonard Peterson & Co. Inc. Professor of Human Development and Family Studies in August, while Lenda Jo Connell ’90 became the inaugural Under Armour Inc. Professor of Apparel Merchandising, Design and Production.
used to provide books for area preschoolers. The Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley and the Central Alabama Community Foundation approved the grant, which will buy books for preschoolers in Chambers and Macon counties through class partner Jean Dean Reading is Fundamental of Opelika. Students enrolled in Auburn’s learning communities take classes together and study specific areas of interest. SCHOOL OF
Nursing The School of Nursing’s Blue Jean Ball
HARRISON SCHOOL OF
Pharmacy
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Liberal Arts Freshmen enrolled in the “Liberal Arts and the Public Good” learning community spent spring semester discussing and learning firsthand how reading enriches the human experience, then found out they’d earned more than a grade. For their final project, the students wrote a grant application for $2,000 to be
to Our Boots,” is scheduled for Oct. 1 and will include live music, grilled Conecuh sausage, a Flora-Bama tent, a silent auction and a show by the Southeastern Raptor Center. Horse-drawn wagons will carry “cowboys and cowgirls” from the lodge to tour Dye’s home and visit his famous Quail Hollow Gardens, featuring more than 60 varieties of Japanese maples. Proceeds will be used for program and faculty support, scholarships for nursing students, and endowments to help future nursing students at both Auburn and Auburn Montgomery. For event tickets, contact Stacey Seawell ’99 at (334) 844-7390 or seawasj@auburn.edu, or see www.auburn. edu/nursing and click on “Blue Jean Ball.”
turns 10 this year, and returns to its Westernthemed roots and its original location, Pat Dye’s Crooked Oaks Hunting Lodge near Notasulga. The ball, dubbed “Back
Four pharmacy students—Garrett Aikens, Brittney Shippee, Lauren Sofy and Denise Sutter—make up one of the three finalist teams in the National Community Pharmacists Association’s annual business plan competition for would-be pharmacists. They’ll compete against teams from Drake and Washington State universities for the top spot when they present
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their innovative business and patient-care model at the October NCPA annual meeting in Philadelphia. Auburn students put together a detailed plan to purchase an existing pharmacy practice and start new patient-care activities, including an HIV service, with the assistance of pharmacists Jared Johnson ’01, Kelly Hester ’94 and Jan Kavookjian ’85. Several past participants have gone on to successfully implement their plans after graduating. COLLEGE OF
Sciences and Mathematics Auburn associate dean Marie Wooten, Scharnagel Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was promoted to dean of the College of Sciences and Mathematics effective Aug. 1. Wooten, an Auburn faculty member since 1987, has served as the college’s associate dean for research since 2000. Under her leadership, the college’s external funding has doubled within the last 10 years. Wooten helped found Auburn’s Institute for Women in Sciences and Engineering and is a member of the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE program, which is designed to increase the number of women in science, technology, engineering
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and mathematics fields. Wooten was recently awarded a four-year, $1.3 million grant by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and her research program has received funding on a continuous basis from the National Institutes of Health since 1985. COLLEGE OF
Veterinary Medicine Science continues to point to many adverse effects linked to the ubiquitous polycarbonate compound bisphenol A despite the fact that industry officials maintain it is safe at current levels. Many hard plastic bottles and canned-food liners contain BPA, as do some dental sealants. But one Auburn researcher argues that exposure to environmental levels of BPA in the womb and in early life may cause long-lasting harm to testicular function. “We are seeing changes in the testis function of rats at exposure to levels of BPA that are lower than what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has deemed safe exposure for humans,” associate professor Benson Akingbemi told scientists at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in June. “This is concerning, because large segments of the population are exposed to this chemical.”
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CONCOURSE
Common good Interview Emily Duke Senior, elementary education THE 4-1-1 Madison native Emily Duke was one of
two Auburn students selected to attend the Warren Fellowship for Future Teachers, a weeklong program at Holocaust Museum Houston. She serves as a student ambassador in the College of Education. LESSONS LEARNED Holocaust survivor Naomi
Warren and her family established the fellowship to raise awareness about hatred, prejudice and apathy in the world. Those selected learn how to teach the history of the Holocaust and other genocides. “Naomi is an amazing woman who strongly believes in the power of educating others as a means of investing in the future,” Duke says. “After hearing Naomi’s personal account of her experiences in Auschwitz, Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen, and spending time with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, I feel that I have not only been honored with receiving this fellowship, but that I have been extended into the Warren family.” DRIVING FORCE “My initial motivation behind
applying for the Warren Fellowship was to gain professional development before entering the classroom. I’ve had an interest in World War II and the Holocaust since reading Number the Stars (the 1990 Newberry Medal-winning novel by Lois Lowry) in the fourth grade and continued reading historical fiction with these settings through high school.” FROM PAPER TO PRACTICE “As a teacher, I will be a
role model to my students, so it is even more important that I be an upstander and do what is right. Naomi Warren has given a large task to the fellows by giving us the privilege to carry out her message: ‘Each person is equal.’”
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Gadsden native Hunter Morgan never slept late this summer. Instead, he woke up each morning around 5:30 and got ready for a day outside. As the sun began to peek from the horizon, he’d open the door to his refurbished barn apartment and head toward the fields. He had four-and-a-half acres to tend. As the first-ever intern at Comet Grove, a community garden in the Talladega County town of Oak Grove, Morgan spent the a.m. hours picking peas and yellow squash, zucchini, peppers and tomatoes, corn and eggplant. After lunch, he’d move indoors to help recruit volunteers. The junior public-administration major might have been a new face in the community of Oak Grove, but the people there welcomed him with open arms. “They wanted me to become part of the community and not an outsider, and I feel like that happened,” he says. “It was neat to see how they opened themselves up to an outsider.” The internship, coordinated by the David Mathews Center for Civic Life and the Community and Civic Engagement Initiative in Auburn’s College of Liberal Arts, was attractive because of its rural nature and relation to food democracy and food security. “Growing up on Lookout Mountain above Noccalula Falls fostered my love for rural communities,” Morgan says. “Put me in a small town in rural Alabama, and I am in heaven. I love getting off the beaten path to meet people.” Morgan worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the town’s residents and even hosted weekly garden meetings in his room over the summer. He says he hopes all of this will help prepare him for his next project—planting community gardens at boys and girls clubs in Auburn and Opelika. “One of the reasons I was so excited to be in Oak Grove was to take what I learned back to Auburn and use it there,” he adds.—Grace Henderson
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Let the game begin Computer-and-software-engineering major Brian Agalsoff was awarded $10,000 by Muse Games for a computer game he developed called Dream Trip. The game won Muse’s Indie Development Challenge, which invited contestants to enter simple game prototypes. The company liked the way Agalsoff combined familiar concepts in inventive ways.
ACTING SICK
Hooked on gadgets Robert French stands at the front of his Auburn University classroom facing students whose faces are hidden behind computer screens. They listen attentively to his lecture, cell phones tucked away in bags or pockets, or so he thinks. When French makes a loop around the room, he finds at least one or two laptops buzzing with life and several cell phones ablaze. It appears some of his students have their minds on other things. Indeed, researchers at the University of Maryland released a study this spring suggesting that college students aren’t just unwilling to put down their gadgets—they’re functionally unable to do so. Asked to “unplug” for 24 hours, a group of 200 students at the university’s College Park campus described experiencing withdrawal symptoms akin to those an addict feels upon giving up alcohol or drugs. “Every teacher faces the challenge of distraction,” says French, a public relations instructor in the College of Liberal Arts. “We make rules in class, but some people just can’t resist.” With news, information and banter only a click away, college students are “socializing” constantly—and French hopes to remind them that Facebook is more than a tool for gossiping with friends and posting pithy status updates. “Students use social media for personal uses so often that making the shift
to using social media in a business sense is a big step,” he says. “It challenges a lot of their preconceived notions about social networking.” Students who participated in the Maryland study wrote at length about losing many of their personal connections while offline. “Going without media meant, in their world, going without their friends and family,” says project director Susan D. Moeller, director of Maryland’s International Center for Media and the Public Agenda. Still, French says, students should beware that what they post online today could return to bite them tomorrow. “You must think about what you’re writing and what you’re doing on Facebook,” he warns young adults. “You can wind up posting or saying something that can come back to haunt you in the future. The vast majority of human resources managers are doing background checks through social networks. Students aren’t aware that there are backdoors to social media sites like Facebook.” It’s also easy to become over-absorbed in one’s virtual reality, French adds. Some of his students send and receive as many as 100 text messages a day. “Students don’t recognize the amount of time it takes away from their lives,” French says. “They all live with their cell phones. It’s second nature to them.”
A troupe of amateur
computer monitor in
actors is helping Auburn
another room. The actors
University pharmacy
have a checklist to fill
students learn how to
out based on whether the
develop manners as
student asks the correct
well as professional
questions, educates the
skills in dispensing
patient about medication
prescription drugs and
and exhibits a proper
medical advice.
attitude and appearance.
Faculty may participate
The Harrison School
of Pharmacy’s Objective
in grading as well.
Structured Clinical
Examinations, given at
to and enjoy every part—
the end of spring and
from the preparation
fall semesters, put each
and script reading to the
student in a room with
evaluations at the end of
an actor playing the
each student encounter,”
role of an ailing patient.
says Mary Franklin, a
Students must then edu-
part-time crafts instructor
cate the patient on his
who will soon begin her
or her meds and answer
fourth year pretending to
questions. The “patient”
be a patient. “The stu-
might be suffering
dents seem to get more
from cancer, HIV infec-
competent and confident
tion or gastrointestinal
every year as they go
problems, among other
through the scenarios and
illnesses, says Sharon
interview us. All aspects
McDonough, director
of patient care are ad-
of the school’s Office
dressed to help them be
of Teaching, Learning
more ready to dispense
and Assessment.
not only medicine, but
information and instruc-
“Many of the actors
“I really look forward
are retired persons
tions for care.”
from the community,”
McDonough explains.
have three minutes to
“They are given a print-
read a brief case sum-
out ahead of time detail-
mary and seven minutes
ing the case information,
to interact with an
such as medical history,
actor-patient.
family history and a list
of current medications.
have made me much
They also participate in
calmer during stressful,
training sessions with
challenging community
faculty who have written
and clinical situations
the cases, providing
as well as much more
ample practice for them
effective at talking
to play their roles.”
with patients, which is
a critical part of what
Each case incorpo-
Individual students
“I feel the OSCEs
rates two actors who
we do and can be just
alternate between
as challenging,” says
being the patient and
fourth-year pharmacy
observing the interview
student Garrett Aik-
through a closed-circuit
ens.—Charles Martin
a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine
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CASSIE CARAWAY
C O N C O U R S E
Syllabus COURSE NAME ETNM 4020 “Economic
Entomology”` INSTRUCTOR David W. Held, assistant professor
of entomology, College of Agriculture THE SCOOP The course introduces students to
the study of bugs and how they relate to human existence. Students learn what an insect is; the differences between various types of insects and arthropods; how insects can affect commodity crops; and pest control strategies. “I tell them that, even if they never step foot in a healthrelated or agricultural profession, this is stuff they are going to have to know,” says Held. WHO TAKES IT The course is required for
horticulture, agronomy and soil-science majors, particularly those interested in row-crop production and turfgrass management, as well as pre-veterinary and animal-science students.
WE ARE THE WORLD Auburn administrators are hoping to help more and more students expand their horizons beyond U.S. borders— and spring-break beach trips to Mexico and the Caribbean don’t count. Only 14 percent of Auburn students currently spend time studying abroad during their undergraduate years. That’s why university officials have mounted a new effort to make it easier and more affordable to enroll in and travel for classes and community service in locations ranging from Australia to Tanzania.
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“A college degree doesn’t cut it anymore,” says Auburn Abroad coordinator Diedre Van Zandt. “Studying abroad sets students apart. It gives them a new perspective of the world we live in and helps them appreciate the world. When students get back from study abroad, they are so much more independent.” It appears more students are catching on. Nearly 500 students studied abroad this summer, and interest in Auburn’s 60 learning programs that take place in foreign lands is increasing. “Even if you’re only
Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g
gone one or two weeks, you still have a better look inside another culture,” Van Zandt says. “Any international experience you gain will change your outlook on studying abroad and being abroad.” Auburn boasts a new online application for those wanting to explore study abroad, while the university’s student affairs division is promoting its budding Global Service Initiative, which offers students a shorter, cheaper “service abroad” opportunity. Students who might not be able to afford
an entire semester of foreign study may still travel by agreeing to perform service projects of one or two weeks in certain areas during semester breaks. Student affairs vice president Ainsley Carry says he hopes to raise money for an endowment to help pay part of participants’ expenses. “We want to double or triple the number participating in international opportunities,” Carry says, adding that at least five service projects will be offered in the U.S. as well. —Grace Henderson
VOCABULARY WORD “Thorax. It’s the bucket
of chicken on a bug—where the legs and wings are found. Most of the students never miss that question on a test after I give them that way to remember it.” SUGGESTED READING Entomology and Pest
Management (Prentice Hall, 2008) is the required text, but Held suggests Whitney Cranshaw’s Garden Insects of North America (Princeton University Press, 2004) for backyard gardeners.
S P O R T S
AU BU RN U NIVERS IT Y PH OTOG RAPH IC S ERVI CES
TIGER WALK
Carpeting the house that Dye built
Former Auburn head football coach Pat Dye drafted Paul Conner ’57 (far left) from the engineering faculty to design a football field for the Tigers that would drain properly and take full advantage of the science of sod.
How Paul Conner ’57 laid the groundwork for Pat Dye Field “There is already a LOT of standing water on the field. This will be a test for this field to see how it holds up.” —Reporter Andy Bitter, blogging from the Jordan-Hare Stadium press box on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009, following an unprecedented pregame downpour Paul Conner ’57 wasn’t at the West Virginia game. The 80-year-old doesn’t go anymore. It’s hard to walk. And when he did go, all he could think about were
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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g
things like the sewer line and the water pressure in the upper decks. His daughter Nancy Teel ’77 went, but she didn’t stay. Looking up at the lightning and down on the lake, Nancy actually didn’t think the game was going to happen. She got a signal on her cell phone, called the folks and asked her mom, Dixie, what The Weather Channel was saying. The Weather Channel was saying bad things. She asked her mom to ask Possy (Paul
Conner’s nickname with the kids and grandkids) how many inches of rain that field could drain. Possy was sitting there in the recliner with the remote and listening through a hearing aid to the thunder and the puddles growing outside and getting kind of worried. Because it probably wouldn’t be a problem—but dang ESPN cut over to the LSU game during the delay, and when they’d check back with Auburn they
Hoops tickets on sale Men’s and women’s basketball season tickets are on sale now. All seat selections in the new Auburn Arena will be based on the Tigers Unlimited basketball ticket priority system. Less than 300 premium seats remained at press time. To purchase, call (334) 844-9839.
wouldn’t hold a shot on the field long enough for him to be sure. Two inches an hour. That was the answer. Pat Dye Field at Jordan-Hare Stadium could drain two inches of rain an hour. At least, that’s how much Conner designed it to drain. That was in 1984. Actually, first it was 1983. Paul Conner was in his 19th year in the engineering department, and Pat Dye was gearing up for his third and arguably best season as Auburn’s head football coach. Maybe Dye knew it was going to be a national championship kind of year, and he wanted things to look good for television. Maybe it was because he knew how special Bo Jackson was, and he wanted him to have something special to run on. Or it could have been that Pat Dye was just sick of playing on Jordan-Hare’s mangy field. And sick of practicing on that mangy field, because the practice fields were even mangier. Not to mention how perfectly, undrainably, horribly level they were. “We measured them,” Conner says, sticking out his hands. “Three fields, side by side, totally level within an inch.” Level is good, right? Conner stares, unbelieving. “You could have dumped 10,000 gallons of water on them and it wouldn’t go anywhere,” Conner says. “People just do not understand water.” Not that Dye really understood water or drainage all that much, either, because it took until the ’84 season for Possy to convince Coach that what was going to keep his fields beautiful was a tear-it-up-again drainage system. But what Dye did understand was that Paul Conner gave a damn.
Back in the day Conner graduated from Auburn with degrees in math and industrial arts in 1957. It was a good year to graduate. He remembers that year’s Iron Bowl, keeping warm by wrapping paper sacks around his feet and watching in sheer joy as the guys he sat next to in class destroyed ’Bama and sealed the national championship. Those days? Auburn was winning everything. In 1981, that was not the case.
“It’s hard to imagine when Coach Dye came here how bad of shape everything was,” Conner says. “People wouldn’t work. They wouldn’t do anything. They wouldn’t care. But I knew Coach Dye cared.” That, more than anything, is why Dye and Conner hit it off. And after they got acquainted in the course of the wide-open honeymoon before a coach’s first season, Dye called Conner (not an agriculture man, you understand, but an engineering professor) into a meeting with a bunch of the good ol’ boys, pointed his finger at him, and said, “I want you to do it.” “The fields?” “The fields.” Nice grass. Pretty shrubbery. Lots of it. The whole thing. That was in May. Texas and the television cameras were coming in September for the first game of the season. Sept. 17. He still remembers the date. He had four months. Conner leans back. “I don’t know how we did it.” He leans forward. Yes, he does. Paul Conner knows exactly how he did it. He’s got a whole carousel of photographs he took of how he did it—pristine slides, glazed in that glorious ’80s patina, of guys in tractors razing the level dirt, probably churning up old Mellow Yellow bottles and chin straps. He’s got newspaper clippings about how he did it. Conner was a sharp-as-a tack engineer—he designed the back braces that his ragtag crew of borrowed nephews and borrowed golf-course maintenance guys and university employees had to wear in order to be able to stand up at the end of the day after all that trenching and packing. He built some of the specialized equipment with which they tilled and sprigged and poured 1,300 tons of sand. He designed the irrigation system with the mounted water cannons special-ordered from Washington state. Conner also used some of his own equipment, his own truck. He called in favors for earth moving and sand grading. He paid for his own record-setting radiophone bill, and says that the next year he even paid for all 17,000 feet of pipe he installed underneath the field to keep the thing dry.
T I G E R
W A L K
And, after four months, the Longhorns showed up and handed the Tigers their only loss of the season. But they did so on the Sistine Chapel turned upside down, on grass as green as ever God could have intended, so green you couldn’t see a speck of brown ground under it. When Conner got through with the thing, a drop of rain had, at most, six inches in any direction before it got sucked into a ditch. He also got a promotion, to a job created just for him—“assistant to the athletic director/ facilities.” The concession stands, the women’s bathrooms, the glorious field. Maintain the facilities. Develop the facilities. He resigned from the engineering department and maintained and developed the hell out of them until retiring in 1992. You almost get jealous thinking of the sense of ownership in the program he must have. The man literally laid the groundwork for the modern era of Auburn football, carpeting the house that Dye built with exotic blends of Bermuda and rye grass and a rare affinity for work, hard work.
The payoff Jordan-Hare has experienced a lot of torrential downpours in Auburn since 1984, but nothing like last year’s gullywasher. Twenty-five years, and it had never been tested like that. Conner sat there with the remote in his hands, waiting. Lee County sagged. Creeks swelled. Nancy was on her way home. He was either going to see those 100 yards taut and supple as ever, or he was going to see divots and gashes and floating hash marks. Possy waited. He waited. And finally, 63 minutes and 3.75 inches of rain later, “Welcome back to Auburn, Alabama.” ESPN showed clips of the students shouting and snuggling under ponchos and the blankets of rain. Then they showed the field, live, and started raving. Conner leaned back in the recliner and smiled. The limit isn’t two inches an hour. It’s 3.75 inches an hour and counting. —Jeremy Henderson/The War Eagle Reader at www.wareaglereader.com.
a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine
25
T I G E R
W A L K
Armchair quarterbacks CBS sports will broadcast this year’s Iron Bowl beginning at 1:30 p.m. CST Nov. 26 as the Tigers take on the Tide in Tuscaloosa. This is the second year of CBS’ 15-year agreement with the Southeastern Conference to be the exclusive national network broadcaster of SEC home football games, including the SEC championship game.
Sports roundup Football
Baseball
Six Auburn football play-
After finishing the 2010
ers were named to the
season with a 43-21
2010 All-Southeastern
overall record (20-10
Conference Media Days
SEC), Auburn ended
Football Team chosen by
an exciting postseason
sports reporters. Senior
in June by falling 13-7
linebacker Josh Bynes
to Clemson in front of
and senior offensive
a sold-out Plainsman
tackle Lee Ziemba made
Park. The Tigers finished
the first team, while ju-
their season with an SEC
nior wide receiver Darvin
West Division Champion-
Adams, senior kicker
ship and the chance to
Wes Byrum, senior de-
host an NCAA Regional
fensive back Zac Ether-
at home for the first
idge and senior running
time since 2003.
back Mario Fannin were
After the season ended,
picked for the second
Auburn athletes were
team. In preseason
drafted in rounds two
polling, the media also
through 30 of the 2010
chose the Tigers to fin-
Major League Base-
ish in third place in the
ball First-Year Player
Western Division behind
Draft. Trent Mummey
Alabama and Arkansas.
(Baltimore) and Hunter
This year’s Auburn
Morris (Milwaukee) went
football opener on Sept.
in the fourth round, Cole
4 against Arkansas State
Nelson (Detroit) in the
kicks off at 6 p.m. CDT
10th and Grant Dayton
at Jordan-Hare Stadium
(Florida) in the 11th.
and will be televised by
Austin Hubbard, Ryan
Fox Sports South.
Jenkins, Brian Fletcher, Kevin Patterson and
Golf
Bradley Hendrix were
Senior Cydney Clanton
also drafted.
became the first Auburn
26
golfer to ever win the
Softball
North & South Women’s
The Auburn softball
Amateur title July 24 as
team finished its 2010
she posted a 3 and 1
season with a 31-26
victory over Lisa McClos-
overall record and
key in the 36-hole cham-
an 11-17 record in
pionship match. The
SEC play. The Tigers
Concord, N.C., native
advanced to the SEC
claimed the prestigious
Tournament for the
amateur honor after
11th time in program
finishing runner-up a
history and earned
year ago. With the North
their seventh trip to the
& South as a warmup,
NCAA Tournament. The
Clanton was headed
team hit 44 home runs
to Charlotte, N.C., at
this season, marking
press time for the U.S.
the fourth-best single-
Women’s Amateur, to be
season total in team
held Aug. 9-15.
history.
Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g
Cool digs for dog days Auburn’s late summer heat is not for the faint of heart: Strap on a few pounds of padding and encase your head in a heavy helmet, sprint for an hour and then square off against a 250-pound teammate who’s just as miserable as you are. It’s a sure-fire recipe for serious misery. It’s also what Tigers football players tackle each year as they prepare for the season kickoff. Other student-athletes face the fickle fates of Mother Nature year-round in order to practice for baseball, softball, soccer and track. Beginning next year, though, practice for Auburn athletes will never again be called on account of weather. The Auburn board of trustees in June approved plans for a multipurpose indoor practice facility for football and other
sports. The $16 million building, which will offer 92,000 square feet of practice space, is scheduled to be complete by fall 2011. Athletics director Jay Jacobs calls the facility “another brick in the foundation we are building for Auburn football and other sports that will train there.” The building, which Jacobs says will be financed through private donations, will be located adjacent to the current football practice fields behind the Auburn Athletic Complex and will connect with the Charlotte G. Lowder StudentAthlete Development Center and the James T. Tatum Jr. Strength and Conditioning Center. Athletics officials plan to continue using the existing John H. Watson Field House as well.
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All information is believed to be accurate but is not warranted.
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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g
Among the world’s poorest people, Auburn alumnus Valentin Abe ’91 leads a battle for economic survival. His weapon of choice? A single fish.
b y
c a n d i c e
d y e r
The Fish
Farmer’s Story At first, he assumed the telephone message was a prank. A voice crisply informed Valentin Abe that he’d been named one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” of 2010—an eclectic, global Who’s Who that includes Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, Lady Gaga and Barack Obama. “This Time editor identified her last name as ‘Jones,’ so the whole thing sounded very suspicious from the beginning, like one of my friends playing a joke,” Abe says, shaking his head. “I just laughed and went about my business.” For about $1,000, a That business—fish farming in the Haitian family can most remote and destitute corners of purchase a cage, 2,400 Haiti—had caught the eye of former baby tilapia and a four-month supply of president Bill Clinton, who is the U.N. fish food. Valentin Abe special envoy to the Caribbean nation. ’91 and his staff teach In nominating Abe, he wrote to the magwould-be entrepreneurs how to raise the fish to azine: “This year I have been especially marketable size in Lake influenced by people I’ve met in Haiti Azuei, the country’s largest lake. who have performed amazing things in
the wake of the earthquake and even before, after the four hurricanes. One person in particular is a man from the Ivory Coast named Valentin Abe, 47, who, after graduating from Auburn University, went to Haiti to raise fish and to put more Haitians to work and increase their incomes.” Of course, food and employment are no joke in the “poorest country in the Western hemisphere,” as Haiti has been defined by rote in news copy for decades, its suffering compounded in January by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that killed an estimated 230,000 people and displaced 1.2 million others. So this spring, after years of laboring among daub-and-wattle shanties, Abe suddenly found himself in a radically different environment at Time’s annual Lincoln Center gala in New York, poised to promenade between Demi Moore and Taylor Swift down a redcarpet gauntlet of retina-searing flashbulbs and glitz. “We were so overwhelmed, and my wife was a little freaked out,” he says. “So we asked an organizer if we could just enter quietly through a back door.”
P H OTO G R A P H S B Y J E F F E T H E R I D G E
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T H E
F I S H
F A R M E R ’ S
S T O R Y
Instead, during the keynote address, Clinton pointedly hailed the Auburn alumnus as the very “reason for this event” and urged him to say a few impromptu words. Abe, whose ego is inversely proportioned to his accolades, deflected the spotlight toward his adopted country and the spirit of its people. Outlining his micro-enterprise of tilapia hatcheries, he summed up sustainability, in every sense of the word, with elegant, beenthere authority: “You cannot write a grant on human dignity.” Around the room, world leaders and celebrities erupted in applause. Then Abe noticed a reaction that was even more unnerving: His flinty, no-nonsense wife, Ruth Josefina, was weeping. “That’s when it all really hit me,” he says with a laugh. In the eyes of the world, Abe and his tilapia-breeding project, known as Caribbean Harvest, finally were recognized, to use the Biblical phrase, as fishers of men.
S
unday school metaphors abound in Abe’s work. According to food lore and fossils from the period, the ancient Sea of Galilee teemed with tilapia, which reputedly provided the two slivers of protein Jesus divided to feed multitudes in the “loaves and fishes” story. Also, when tax time rolled around, he ordered his disciple Peter to catch a fish, believed to be tilapia, which— ka-ching!—opened its mouth to present a shekel, according to the book of Matthew. Egyptians, too, revered the exceptionally fertile species as a symbol of rebirth, and, not surprisingly, its simple outline is strikingly similar to the glyph-code for Christianity found on bumper stickers today. In Haiti, tilapia is no less miraculous and providential.
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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g
“It is an amazing fish,” Abe says, Centuries of political holding aloft a wiggling specimen at his unrest, deforestation and natural disasters primary hatchery in Croix-des-Bouquets, have contributed to a small exurb north of Port-au-Prince. “It Haiti’s distinction as of the world’s is known as ‘Jesus’ fish.’ Its morphology one poorest nations. Most has not really changed in 2,000 years.” citizens live on less Backlit by tropical sunshine, its than $730 annually. peachy, iridescent scales seem to radiate a halo—until Abe dispels such fanciful notions. “They are very mean,” he notes, hastily tossing the fish back into a tank. But tilapia bear coins when grown and gathered in bulk instead of piecemeal, which is exactly what Caribbean Harvest aims to do: Turn impoverished anglers into entrepreneurs by selling their increased yields to grocery stores, restaurants and other vendors for profit. A percentage of the revenue gets channeled into a collective fund that improves access for all to schools, food, medical care and sturdier housing. The old saying comes to mind: “Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach him to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.” Abe takes the injunction further by showing Haitians how to parlay their catch into community infrastructure, improving life for everyone in the village. The tilapia breed in 36 immaculate stainless-steel tanks. Once they reach the fingerling stage, adolescent fish are relocated to cages floating in nearby lakes for four more months of growth. Each 4-cubic-meter pen holds about 2,400 fish, which the lakeside families feed three times a day. Normally, a Haitian fisherman does well to eke out $400 to $600 a year. Using Caribbean Harvest’s production methods, a fish farmer can earn $600 from a single harvest of just one cage, potentially tripling his income to at least $2,000 a year. “Before, we had nothing—nothing,” says Jesulhomme Raphael, a 47-year-old father of six and leader of Madan Belize, one of seven villages targeted by Caribbean Harvest’s program at Lake Azuei, Haiti’s largest inland body of water. “Now we have money for food, clean water, health care, education for our children. It has made life better for all of us. It has meant everything to us—everything.” Abe’s organization regularly hauls potable water to Madan Belize; pays the local school to provide lunch, which, for some kids, is their only meal each day; and recently recruited a social worker to offer counseling on matters such as teen pregnancy. “Our No. 1 priority is education, followed by nutrition and health care,” Abe says, holding the hands of the children who scamper to greet him in the village. “Next is housing. We try to take care of the elderly while providing work and reasons to keep young people here.” In a dynamic mirroring the relationship between Mexico and the U.S., young Haitians cross the border into “the D.R.,” or Dominican Republic, to work menial jobs at the risk of deportation.
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T H E
F I S H
F A R M E R ’ S
S T O R Y
Opposite and right: A world authority on tilapia production and former Fulbright scholar, Abe couldn’t attract government or corporate funding for his Haiti fisheries enterprise at first—so he invested his own savings in the project. Abe says he’s driven by his love of the Haitian people, who suffer the third-highest hunger rate in the world, trailing only Somalia and Afghanistan.
“I worked in the sugarcane fields in the D.R., where they did not respect my rights and I had to stay in hiding,” says Eliphete Exavier, a 30-year-old with arms made sinewy from swinging a machete. “Now that I have something to do here— I have one cage so far—my life will improve, and I can feed my family without leaving. And here, everything I have belongs to me, not someone else.” Farmers who excel eventually earn another cage. “I am big on rewards,” Abe says. “This is not a handout; they are invested in what they produce.” On the rutted dirt road leading to the hatchery, women carry water coolers and baskets of bananas balanced gracefully on their heads, and an elderly farmer lumbers along astride a sway-backed ox laden with just-hacked stalks of sugarcane. Abe nods in his direction and says, “he is going to make clairin,” referring to the Haitian version of moonshine. “That’s not a sight you see much in the United States, but just because this is an impoverished area does not mean that we can’t have the best state-of-the-art technology.” He points to the photovoltaic systems and whirring wind turbines that power his generators. “We are off the grid, so ‘green’ is our only option. Here you can see oxen and solar panels yards away from each other.” Abe may be modest, but his ambitions are not. If he has his way, within a few years, you will be able to order Caribbean Harvest tilapia at the nearest Red Lobster. “These are reachable goals,” he asserts. “We have the potential to produce two million pounds of fish to feed 500,000 people. It is about more than raising just one village out of poverty; we are talking about exports, about creating an industry, an economic engine.” Any undertaking in this fractured and despoiled landscape requires a rare kind of faith: dry-eyed and unsentimental but also practically oblivious to the naysayers, the daunting odds, the sense of futility that pervades what burned-out diplomats and peacekeepers have labeled a “failed state.” It also helps that Abe, which rhymes roughly with “agape,” has the charisma of a career politician and a smile fit for a toothpaste commercial. “Val’s personality has opened many doors for him, because he was always able to make new friends easily and was well-liked by everyone that knew him,” recalls one of his mentors, Ron Phelps, an associate professor of fisheries and allied aquacultures at Auburn University. “He can work well independently because he is so self-motivated, but he is also very good at recruiting others when labor is needed.”
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be grew up the youngest of eight children, fishing on the banks of Ebrié lagoon in a southern neighborhood of Abidjan, the former capital of Ivory Coast. His father was a mechanic, and his mother sold fish at the local market. “I come from a poor family from one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods,” he says, “but education was very important to my parents. When I was in first and second grades, we had to sit on the floor since there were no chairs and tables. We had to be careful
not to dirty our uniforms since most of us had only one, and you could only wash it at the end of the week.” Abe, always studious, ranked in the top 10 percent of his country’s graduates. Despite family pressure to become a doctor like his older brother, he dreamed of community service as an agronomist, so he studied animal husbandry, specializing in the artificial insemination of cattle. Awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship, he had his pick of universities at a time when his government was seeking a fisheries specialist. Some professors were nudging him toward the University of California at Berkeley to research ichthyologic genetics, but he had other plans. “Every time you open a textbook on fisheries and aquaculture, you will find an Auburn professor quoted and cited—they all are legends,” Abe says of the program that revolutionized the American diet with farm-raised fish. “Lab work is great, but I’m an outdoors guy. When I arrived at Auburn and saw Dr. Ron Phelps standing in water up to his waist in a pond, I knew immediately that I had found my right place in the world.” Yes, Abe, a Fulbright scholar and urbane “citizen of the world,” who speaks five languages and counsels ex-presidents on nation-building strategies, is also very much a good-ole-boy who likes to eat barbecue, drink beer and get his hands dirty on the job. He used to live it up at the Magnolia Arms apartment complex in Auburn, where he contracted the South’s regional zeal for college football. “Once a Tiger, always a Tiger!” he boasts, adding, “And once you run a hatchery at Auburn, you can run one anywhere in the world.” Abe earned master’s and doctoral degrees at Auburn in 1991 and 1995, respectively, then kept busy with teaching, consulting and postdoctoral studies at the university’s International Center for Aquaculture and Aquatic Environments. He was part of the team that helped red snapper spawn in captivity for the first time. “Within the department, our trust in Val was so strong that we proposed him to represent the university in two overseas projects,” Phelps says. “He was always able to keep things organized and on schedule.”
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Abe’s interests grew international in scope as he worked on short-term projects in Africa and Asia. When an opportunity arose to launch a fish farm in Haiti, his mentors tapped him to lead it. His contract, funded by Rotary International, was supposed to last for six months, but Abe encountered the kind of obstacles that alter best-laid plans all over the world. “Construction took much longer than six months, and we could not find anybody to run the farm after its completion,” he says. “And to make the matter worse, I met this very attractive lawyer—the person who would later become my wife—three months after I got to Haiti.” He also fell in love with the place. Asked to stay for two more years to train his replacement, Abe complied. “And that turned into 13 years and counting, with no plans to leave anytime soon,” he says, slicing into a mango. “Haiti is a mixture of the wonderful and the absurd. Yes, there is need, so much need. But, oh, the people! They are so warmhearted, so amazing.” Abe has a knack—part entrepreneurial, part humanitarian—for spotting opportunities where others see privation. He was stunned to learn that fish are not a dietary staple in an island nation endowed with several large lakes and many ponds, where people chew sugarcane throughout the day to stop their empty bellies from rumbling. Haiti’s inland waters, like the woefully deforested land that surrounds them, had been over-fished. He rattles off the numbers with frustration: “Did you know that the average Haitian eats only seven pounds of fish per year? That the country imports 12,000 tons of fish, more than 60 percent of it canned or processed? But next door in Jamaica, each person consumes 70 pounds a year. And all of these natural water systems, including a 22,000-acre lake, are just sitting here in Haiti, untouched, in a country with more than 70 percent unemployment.” The upshot? “I realized the market for fish is huge in Haiti—huge! Fish farming would not only provide nutrition, but also employ the poorest of the poor,” he says, explaining the topsy-turvy real estate dynamics in a country where lakefront property is the least valued and the least developed. As a result, its inhabitants are the most deprived. “One of our villages is accessible only by boat. The children there have never even seen a car or a light bulb, never mind setting foot in a school.” So Abe, who cannot abide wasted potential, devised a plan for large-scale aquaculture, drawing on methods Auburn researchers had pioneered in Asia. He settled on tilapia because it is remarkably fertile and hardy enough for fresh or salt water; Haiti’s brackish lakes tend to be high in salinity. It was also more familiar to the local diet than catfish. “I took my plan to the government,” he recalls. “They said, ‘That’s a nice idea,’ but put it on a shelf and did nothing. I took it to private organizations, which did the same thing. The country was so unstable that no investor wanted to get involved, and no bank would dare issue a loan. I thought, ‘OK, I believe in it. I am convinced this is right for Haiti.’” So he withdrew his savings to buy As a French colony in three tanks and fish to stock them. the early 18th century, “I would get here at 7 a.m. and be finHaiti became one of ished with my work by 7:15 a.m.,” he says. the wealthiest in the Caribbean. African “Then I would go sit under the mango tree slaves were imported and read. I did not mind starting small; I to serve the forestrylooked for a large enough plot of land, beand sugar-related industries. cause I believed we would expand.”
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The early years of Caribbean Harvest’s existence were crippled by political violence, like everything else in Haiti. The country’s president, Jean-Paul Aristide, was ousted in a bloody rebellion in 2004. “The streets of Port-au-Prince were literally a war zone, with people getting shot every day,” he says. “Things did not settle down enough for us to really get going at the hatchery until around 2006.” During this time, a worried Ruth Josefina, who was born in the Dominican Republic but grew up in Haiti, pleaded with him to move. He always had easier, more comfortable options around the world, including the offer of a position within the Ivory Coast’s Ministry of Agriculture. “She wanted me to take an academic position and collect a weekly paycheck—a simpler life,” he says. “And she was not wrong in that. Of course I want my family to be safe and secure. But I also felt a commitment to Haiti. One of the reasons so many projects fail here is that most people are unwilling to sacrifice for long-term goals. They come here for a few months, just long enough to have their photos snapped by the newspapers, and then leave. I felt this project was my purpose and, well, sometimes life is just not simple.” Abe shrugs and sighs. “I figure I was born poor; I came into the world naked. If I lost this money, I would simply work that much harder and make it all over again. It is always better to try, even if you fail, than to do nothing.” Eventually he and his wife reached a compromise. She and the couple’s three daughters live across the border in the Dominican Republic, near the beach. Abe divides his time between there and a breezy apartment, which he jokingly calls “the king’s castle,” on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. And he forged ahead, despite the country’s ceaselessly strained and ramshackle resources—the too-narrow roads of the highway system are considered some of the worst-designed
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and most perilous in the world, with the concept of “lanes” abstract at best—and entrenched political corruption. He answers most questions about the current regime with an uncharacteristically tight-lipped, sphinx-like smile. Another reason so many projects fail, he explains, is that the idealists and romantics who always have been drawn to Haiti usually do not understand its complicated national character. “It takes at least two or three years for an outsider to figure out the culture and mentality here,” he says. “You have to look way back and study its entire history.”
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aiti, a word that loosely translates as “high mountains,” was once a French colony of slaves. Africans who spoke the same languages were deliberately kept separated to prevent revolt, so islanders created their own tongue, unique to them, of lilting French laced with African phonetics and grammar: Haitian Creole. (Abe grew up speaking French in Ivory Coast, so he adapted quickly.) It became the first independent nation in Latin America and the first black-led republic in the world when, after years of rebellion, it achieved independence in 1804. The country’s hard-won distinctions were followed by centuries of misrule and tribulations—the brutal Duvalier dictatorships; death squads of Tonton Macoutes in their trademark black sunglasses; hurricane after battering hurricane. The U.S. Marines occupied and ran Haiti from 1915 to 1934, and more recently helped restore order after former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s removal. Then came this year’s earthquake. Abe was visiting relatives in Ivory Coast at the time. It destroyed many of the cafes and businesses around Port-au-Prince, where he normally conducts business when he is in town. Fortunately, the quake did little damage to the hatcheries and fishing villages, and left only a hairline fracture in the wall of his apartment, but several of Abe’s friends and neighbors perished, along with many of Caribbean Harvest’s vendors and clients. The city is still strewn with rubble, navigated gingerly by survivors, many of them amputees, who are packed into squalid tent cities and lean-tos on the medians of highways. Haitians have fatalistic sayings for these vicissitudes: “Je le passe”—whatever happens, happens. And “mountains beyond mountains,” meaning that as soon as one surmounts an obstacle, another looms. “You see, Haiti is a country that has always been exploited or occupied or hit by one natural disaster after another,” Abe says. “So even well-meaning outsiders with good ideas think they can start a project and boss Haitians around, but the Haitians will not respond well to that. After all they have been through, they are understandably very cautious in their trust. But once you prove to them that you are acting on their behalf, not your own personal agenda, and you gain their trust? Oh, man! “Dignity is very important to them, and to me. If you respect their dignity, they will treat you like a king.” Abe is recruiting from the local university’s agronomy program, offering internships and scholarships to groom as many young Haitians as possible for fish farming and community devel-
opment. His first hatchery in Croix-desBouquets now boasts 11 employees with a water-analysis lab under construction, and he is completing work on two other sites. Within the next five years, Abe plans to double the number of tanks, generate 3,000 new jobs, furnish each lakeside village with a solar-powered freezer for storage and replace half of Haiti’s imported fish with Caribbean Harvest’s tilapia. Clinton recently acquired a higher profile as co-chair of the Haiti Recovery Commission, effectively making him the country’s financial CEO. He heard about Caribbean Harvest through the humanitarian-relief grapevine and requested a tour of Abe’s facilities last year. “He was extremely knowledgeable about fisheries and really knew his way around the tanks,” Abe says, “to the point where he was answering questions instead of me. I had no idea he was nominating me for Time. That came as a complete surprise, but it has been the best P.R. I’ve had so far.” Ruth Josefina had anxiously called her husband’s assistants to check up on his wardrobe—best suit and dress shoes!—for Clinton’s hatchery tour. “This award has great significance for me and for our daughters,” says the attorney, who recently focused her practice on the rights of Haitians in the Dominican Republic. “They are so proud of their father. They were always proud of him, but the recognition had the effect of a bomb. They all want to be like their father. Several years ago, a lot of people
By the end of the 18th century, Haiti’s nearly half million slaves had revolted against the country’s French colonists. After a prolonged struggle, Haiti became the first black republic to declare independence in 1804.
said he was a dreamer, but because of his hard work and dedication, he has succeeded.” Since the banquet, Clinton has called Abe to check in and stays in frequent contact through his aides. And Abe himself has joined the Clinton Global Initiative, a consortium of more than 125 current and former heads of state, Nobel Peace Prize laureates, top business executives, foundation heads, and philanthropists. Caribbean Harvest also enjoys support from Operation Blessing, The Social Enterprise Fund and, most recently, Partners in Health, the health care enterprise started by Paul Farmer and famously chronicled in biographer Tracy Kidder’s bestseller Mountains Beyond Mountains. “Haiti’s complex problems require holistic solutions that generate jobs, improve the social and economic conditions of the poor, and do not harm the environment,” says Farmer, a Harvard physician. “This is exactly what Val has created at Caribbean Harvest: his business model creates good, sustainable jobs, provides critical training and education, and produces fish to help combat malnutrition and protein deficiencies.” Before he goes to bed each night, Abe, who seems blessedly angst-proof, conducts a rigorous mental inventory. “I analyze what went well and what went wrong on that day,” he says. “If something went wrong, I try to fix it. You can always fix it; you do not have to be defeated by it. That is why Haiti was never a ‘hopeless’ place to me. Its problems can be fixed. If I leave anything to this country, I hope other people will follow me and feel inspired to fight hard for their ideas, even if everyone else thinks they are crazy.”
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Auburn University’s asphalt scientists hit the pavement each day with the aid of a five-man convoy rolling on a two-mile test track southeast of Opelika. Ain’t she a beautiful sight? b y a n d r e w s i m s
Road Hard Hours are steady and rest stops a non-issue for Auburn University trucker Blake Lockhart, who works with scientists to test various types of asphalt for durability. The loads he and four others haul around the National Center for Asphalt Technology’s Opelika test track weigh twice the legal limit, all the better to decipher how blacktop reacts under difficult conditions.
Hunched behind the wheel of his big rig, Blake Lockhart sports a red shirt emblazoned with the initials “USA” spelled out in stars and stripes (what else?), blue jeans dingy from the day’s work (of course) and a camouflage Harley Davidson cap (naturally). We’re encapsulated in a two-seater cab hitched to four flatbed trailers, each loaded with stacks of solid-steel plates, weighing 80 tons—the equivalent of a half-dozen full-sized school buses. Lockhart eyes my notebook and ballpoint pen with bemusement, pegging me instantly as just another college student green with naivety and dreams of a future Time byline. He cranks up and prepares to hit the road. Lockhart is a trucker, plain and simple. At 52, he’s been driving eighteen-wheelers most of his life. My own trucking experience is limited to the last 10 minutes, and it shows. I grip the door in panic as we begin to round a curve at 45 mph while Lockhart points to some wreckage off to the right. “Accident,” he notes. I laugh nervously; surely he’s joking. He isn’t. Thus begins an afternoon tour of nine states’ highways— all of which are sampled on a 1.8-mile oval track that serves as a laboratory for the National Center for Asphalt Technology at Auburn University, the country’s only research center dedicated to real-world study of the care and feeding of the iconic American roadway.
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here’s a lot of blacktop in our world— more than 2 million miles of roadways crisscross the U.S., enough to stretch around the Earth 80 times. Nearly all of it has been laid in the last century, connecting harvesters to processing plants, warehouses to Walmarts, and us to our jobs, families and vacations. Not long after Henry Ford fathered the mass production of cars, Americans began inventing road trips to go with them. But the road less traveled is getting harder to find these days: U.S. highways are overused and underfunded, crumbling beneath our need to get from here to there. Policymakers are now at a fork in the road—which is how I ended up racing around NCAT’s test track a few miles from the Auburn campus, talking asphalt and holding on for dear life. Created in 1986 through a partnership between Auburn and industry advocates, NCAT’s goal is to help asphalt producers and paving contractors build roads that are durable, environmentally friendly, quiet, safe and economical. The center works alongside state highway agencies, the Federal Highway Administration and others to develop and evaluate new products, design technologies and construction methods. Nestled in a wooded area off U.S. 280 near Opelika, the NCAT test track is divided into 200-foot sections made
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up of various compositions of asphalt actually asphalt concrete, which is a mixture of liqfrom several states, plus certain zones uid or semi-solid asphalt, paved with other road mixes, including a petroleum byproduct, a naturally occurring asphalt from the binding different rock and mineral aggregates. Caribbean islands of Trinidad and ToRoads paved with asphalt bago. Lockhart and his colleagues drive concrete shift with the around the track in three-hour shifts, weight of our vehicles. testing the amount of damage caused by loads of different weights and helping researchers figure out how various types of paving materials withstand wear and tear. Researchers simulate up to two decades of roadway damage over just two years, after which track manager Buzz Powell and his crew tear down the road, rebuild it and start again. The center’s work isn’t particularly glamorous or sexy, at least at street level, where Lockhart and other test-track workers drive in circles all day. But it’s the science beneath the surface that excites NCAT executive director Randy West. Imagine what happens, for instance, when a baker kneads dough. With every push of hands the dough spreads, thinning here, thickening there, its mass subtly shifting and redistributing. Over time and with regular use, blacktop reacts similarly. The life span of an asphalt road, in fact, is only about 10 years, which is why NCAT scientists study the durability and environmental impact of materials, among other research. As government officials postpone road maintenance due to dwindling tax receipts
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e’ve all smelled its tarry odor as we creep past construction crews, bulldozers and road rollers on our interstates, but what the heck is asphalt, anyway? Asphalt itself is a tar-like substance refined from crude oil that acts as a glue, binding sand, gravel, crushed stone or slag to form asphalt concrete. Hot-mix asphalt concrete, commonly used to pave roadways and airfields, is produced by heating and melting asphalt, then mixing it with tiny rocks. It’s quick and relatively easy to make, but the process incurs high energy costs. Lockhart, who manages the crew of truckers, is something of an Aristotle of asphalt. Without our roads and the work NCAT is doing to improve them, we might starve, he says. Nearly everything we own has found its way into our possession via the roadways: Eighty percent of the $128 billion worth of commodities delivered annually from locations in Alabama is transported by trucks along the state’s highways, and an additional 7 percent is moved by mail or courier routes. Traveling on fine Mississippi asphalt around lap four, I peer into the truck’s side-view mirror and nearly experience cardiac arrest at the sight of the heavy trailers as they bounce in an alarming, wavelike motion behind us. “Don’t do that,” Lockhart advises. “You don’t want to look back there.” He’s right. I don’t. Instead I glance out the small window at the bottom of the cab’s door and get a direct view of the flying roadway. White lines inch their way horizontally every 20 feet or so, while in-
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side the cab I white-knuckle the door handle. Some of the white lines have warped into unnerving shapes. “The road moves with us,” Lockhart explains. “Every time we run these big trucks across this road, loaded down with all this weight, we push it a little bit at a time.” Remember the bread dough analogy? NCAT carefully picks its drivers from a pool of applicants attracted by the daytime “on-road schedule” and steady pay. Like Lockhart, most of the other test-track drivers are lifelong truckers or heavy-machinery operators. They know their way around the road, and each brings his highway habits to the job, creating a living lab for scientists. The “real-world element” the drivers bring to bear is vital for producing valid research results, Lockhart says. “Anybody can apply a bunch of weight and run it across a stretch of road, but that’s only gonna tell you what’s there in the lab, not how it works out there on the road,” he adds, noting that NCAT is the only facility of its kind that emphasizes such applied testing. Lockhart must be used to me now, because he’s getting almost chatty. “I have always worked around big trucks. It’s just what I love to do,” he says. In a surprisingly nimble maneuver, he veers around a crater-like pothole. We’re now on Oklahoma asphalt, and Lockhart says this particular section of track was actually designed to fail; it was created using the state’s own subgrade asphalt mix so scientists can assess where the road’s stability begins to break down. “The liability for failures is huge out on the open roadway,” says Powell. “Instead, we offer states a way to test it here and minimize their potential risk.” Much of NCAT’s work involves assessing various asphalt mixes, but West also envisions future studies focused on sustainability and energy conservation. Only 10 to 20 percent of used road material currently is recycled into new pavement, he says. West would like to see that proportion approach 50 percent. In one NCAT study on behalf of client Shell Oil Co., researchers are looking for a way to use the copious amount of sulfur being removed from gasoline by applying it to the process of making asphalt. Scientists also have been experimenting with “warm-mix” asphalt, developed in Europe, which boasts the advantage of significantly lower energy costs. And perhaps most important, NCAT scientists want to figure out how to help businesses and government officials reduce the cost of building roads; otherwise, the nation’s highway system could reach a dead end. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials sent a warning flare in its most recent annual report, which estimated America’s highways and bridges are in need of nearly $166 billion a year in repairs. The federal government has budgeted $40 billion for the job. In Alabama, the budget line covering infrastructure and highways has decreased by 82 percent in recent years, while the number of miles driven by motorists continues to escalate. Driving on poor highways costs Alabamians about $590 million a year in vehicle repairs and operating costs— about $162 per driver. “The whole initiative is to find a way to improve our roads,” Powell says. “Everybody wins when we can make roads last longer.”
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Auburn’s dueling school colors might occasionally raise fans’ hackles, but at least we didn’t get stuck with that crazy green-and-electric-yellow combo sported by the Oregon Ducks. b y s u z a n n e j o h n s o n
Made in the Shade Each year vendors seek licensing approval to make and sell orangeand-blue merchandise bearing Auburn’s brand. As a result, fans can outfit themselves, their children, their pets, and their homes and cars with everything from to putter covers to dog collars. What hasn’t made the cut? AU contact lenses and tooth tattoos, among other oddities.
Football game day in Auburn, and more than 80,000 faithful are gathered in Jordan-Hare Stadium, most lifting their voices in a chorus of praise for each successful block, hard tackle and first down. The Tigers score, the crowds roar and the marching band lifts instruments in a rousing, warp-speed rendition of the fight song. “Fight on, you orange and blue. Go! Go! Go!” In the state of Alabama, the paired presence of orange and blue means Auburn University is in da house. Er, make that orange and navy blue. Or is it burnt orange and navy blue? Or is it mainly navy blue plus a chaser of burnt orange with white accents? And where did that traffic-cone orange come from, anyway? Exactly what are Auburn’s true colors, and who decides? When it comes to the history of the school’s colors, Auburn fans typically don’t have a choice between fact and fiction. Instead, they have theories. Some seem a tad far-fetched. In the 2000 Auburn-LSU football program, former athletic director David Housel presented a hypothesis we’ll call the “O.R. Blue theory.” According to Housel’s conjecture, a former minister of the United Methodist Church of
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Montgomery claimed Auburn’s color scheme derived from a preCivil War feud among Alabama Methodists over the potential location of a new higher-education institution eventually known as East Alabama Male College. One side wanted the new school built in Auburn, the other in Greensboro. A pastor named O.R. Blue supposedly mediated an agreement between the factions that resulted in the establishment of the college in Auburn, and administrators chose orange and blue—derived from the preacher’s name—as a nod to his divine intercession. Nope, says Dale Coleman, an associate professor of animal sciences at Auburn. He prefers the more logical “Miss Allie theory,” which is a variation on the traditional and most widely held legend that Auburn’s first football coach, the illustrious George Petrie, simply copied the orange and blue of his own alma mater, the University of Virginia, which had in turn appropriated the colors from the Grosvenor Rowing Club in Chester, England. Here’s how the deal likely went down, according to Coleman, who began researching the origins of Auburn traditions to help freshman-orientation counselors and recruiters explain the university’s rich history to incoming students and their families. While pursuing the origin of the school colors, Coleman uncovered the story of an unassuming woman who worked in Auburn’s accounting department with her father. Marie Allen Glenn, known as “Miss Allie,” eventually became the third treasurer of what was then known as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama, following a family tradition. “Miss Allie was the granddaughter and daughter of Auburn’s first and second treasurers, and, at the death of her father, she became Auburn’s third treasurer, a position she held for some 40 years,” Coleman reports. “When she retired, there were nearly 100 years that the only signature on an Auburn check was a Glenn.” Auburn’s Glenn Avenue is named for the family. In the winter of 1891, as the college made plans for its first
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football game against the University of Georgia, Miss Allie may have knitted a bit of history. She brought her latest project—a navy sweater with an orange ‘A’ on the chest in honor of Petrie’s alma mater—to an administrative meeting and whipped it out when the coach posed the question as to what colors the football team should wear in its upcoming showdown against the Bulldogs. Georgia had already announced it intended for its players to wear red and black. The Agriculture and Mechanical College needed colors too. By way of evidence, Coleman points to a May 1930 commencement-address transcript. At the time, Birmingham coaland-iron baron Charles F. DeBardeleben, who was president of the Auburn Alumni Association, thanked faculty and staff who had “given their entire lives to this institution.” One of those was Miss Allie. “It was (Miss Allie), if I remember correctly, who selected the orange and blue as the colors for Auburn,” DeBardeleben said during his speech. “And also it was she who knitted the first orange ‘A’ on a blue sweater for the football team, which was the envy of every student at Auburn and an inspiration to our football team.” According to Coleman, DeBardeleben had been a freshman at Auburn in 1891, and his older brother Henry had played football for AU the same year. It might be the closest university historians will ever get to a definitive answer to the question of how the school colors were adopted.
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f navy is nifty, orange is onerous: Just ask alumni. Auburn Magazine recently queried friends of the Auburn Alumni Association’s Facebook page about which shade they prefer: navy or orange? In our straw poll, 84 percent of respondents chose big blue. “Orange is not a redhead’s best color,” wrote Michele Brown Horton ’89 of LaGrange, Ga. Added Linda Kronfeld Baughan ’64 of Herndon, Va.: “Where did this orange idea come from? We are not Florida or Tennessee.” Many schools in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision paint themselves blue, but only 13 of more than 130 programs count orange as one of their colors. Narrowing the field further, a lucky seven schools fly flags of orange and blue paired: Auburn, the University of Florida, Boise State University, the University of Illinois, Syracuse University, the University of Texas at El Paso and, of course, Virginia. Illinois’ Fighting Illini are Auburn’s closest cousins on the color wheel—their football uniforms sport a navy-and-white configuration with orange as an accent color—but it’s Southeastern Conference rivals Florida (orange and royal blue) and Tennessee (orange and white) that most concern Auburn purists. No self-respecting Tiger wants to be mistaken for a Gator or, perhaps even worse, a Volunteer. The word “orange” applies to a variety of shades that fall between red and yellow on the color wheel, and the pigment was first identified by name in Great Britain during the 16th century. Before that, the tint was known as geoluhread—Old English for “yellow-red.” “Fight on, you geoluhread and blue” doesn’t have much cachet. These days, orange is frequently cited as one of a mere hand-
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ful of words in the English language that has no true rhyme. Porridge and door-hinge don’t count. In most fans’ hearts, Auburn orange is “burnt” orange, but to Susan Smith, the university’s director of trademark management and licensing, Auburn orange is technically known as Pantone No. 172, so designated by the color-reproduction system widely used by printers and manufacturers to produce logos, banners and other collegiate merchandise. Smith’s Samford Hall office is crammed full of failed experiments in color matching, and most of the colossal failures are orange. Clothing and other textiles can be particularly tricky. “There are usually three shades of orange thread manufacturers can use,” Smith says: a yellowish orange, which reads as the color of the Tennessee Vols; a dark orange that muddies to brown, often seen in Texas Longhorn country; and the “true” orange used by both Auburn and Florida. The two football powerhouses each have a corner on Pantone No. 172. It’s Smith’s job to ensure any merchandise boasting the university name or interlocking AU logo is manufactured using the proper colors, namely Pantone No. 172 and No. 289 (navy). She pulls a fluffy fleece blanket from a pile and spreads it out on her office floor between an AU-logoed fire pit and a similarly adorned artificial Christmas tree. The blanket’s navy background forms a dramatic backdrop for the Auburn logo, which appears in a sickly pastel peach. That’s why these blankets are in her office instead of on store shelves. “This just isn’t an acceptable shade of orange,” Smith asserts. “Getting the color right can be a really big problem with so many products where the quality control isn’t what we’d like. “I tell our vendors it doesn’t matter what color of ink they use in their products as long as the finished product comes out looking like 172.” As Auburn’s chief product cop, Smith has the last word on official merchandise ranging from AU underwear to logoed caskets. Sales of licensed collegiate products are big business for Auburn, responsible for bringing in about $2 million in scholarship funds annually. Smith takes her job seriously: On home football game days, she patrols the area around JordanHare Stadium accompanied by real law enforcement, ready to confiscate non-licensed products from unauthorized vendors. Consider yourself warned.
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o if orange isn’t a fan favorite, reeks of Gator and is hard to produce accurately on clothing, why the heck are we seeing more of it in recent years? Blame Tommy Tuberville. Auburn’s beloved former head football coach kicked off the orange movement. “When Coach Tuberville came (in 1999), two weeks before the first home game he got the word out for everybody to wear orange. None of the merchants had orange shirts in stock, and they couldn’t meet the demand,” Smith says. It often takes companies up to a full year to bring massive orders of collegiate shirts to market, particularly if a major vendor such as Under Armour is involved. When Tuberville advocated for orange again the following season, merchants were prepared. The coach had two reasons for desiring a stadium ablaze with orange: to build community
among fans and to look good on the small screen. The color, it seems, presents a nice, bright “in your face” attitude for television viewers at home. “Navy’s a great color, but when we have the ‘navy nightmare’ games and everyone’s wearing navy, some people think it looks black on TV,” Smith notes. More recently, Auburn’s Student Government Association has adopted orange as a key element of its marketing campaign for scholarships and community service. The group’s annual “All Auburn All Orange” promotion, co-sponsored by the athletics department and licensing office, asks participants to buy a special shirt to wear to the first and last home football games. This year’s “All Auburn All Orange” games are scheduled for Sept. 4 (vs. Arkansas State) and Nov. 13 (vs. Georgia). (Auburn’s game against Clemson University on Sept. 18 is designated a “True Blue” game.) Proceeds from shirt sales benefit student scholarships and support the SGA’s “Big Event,” which sends Auburn students into Lee County neighborhoods each spring to do volunteer projects. It is, after all, the reason schools adopt official colors to begin with: as a rallying point for fans, a means of bringing people together and a way for alumni to support their alma mater—all through navy blue and 172. No fiction, just fact.
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Make Auburn Stronger! When you purchase a limited-edition gift tin, a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Auburn Alumni Association scholarship endowment.
Only 2,500 limited-edition tins available!
Coming this October... Limited-Edition Priester’s Gift Tins! They make great Christmas gifts!
Beginning Oct. 1, order your gift tin to support our students: www.aualum.org/shop
War Eagle! Your alumni association is composed of more than 45,000 Auburn graduates and other supporters of Auburn University. Last year, more than 600,000 visitors visited our website, and 15,000 people participated in local alumni club activities. We distributed more than 230 scholarships and served more than 9,000 hotdogs at our hospitality tent before home football games. Nearly 200 alumni and friends chose to vacation with us in 2009, and we sold nearly 540 Toomer’s Corner bricks. There’s something here for everyone! Join today!
w w w. a u a l u m . o r g / j o i n
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A L U M N I
ALUMNI CENTER
Calendar
Celebrating milestones
Aug. 26
NANCY YOUNG FORTNER ’71 President, Auburn Alumni Association
On May 5, your Auburn Alumni Association board of directors announced the naming of the J. Pat Galloway Atrium in our Auburn Alumni Center. Pat Galloway passed away on May 3 after an extended illness. The significant donation the family is giving to the association will be directed toward student scholarships. Not only does their gift benefit future Auburn students, it also honors the generosity of a former national president of the Auburn Alumni Association and his lovely wife of 60 years, Margie. Auburn University has been blessed by the many contributions of Pat Galloway. In addition to serving as our association’s 20th president from 1992-94, he also served on the Auburn University Foundation board, Pat Galloway the College of Business Advisory Council and the Athletics Advisory Council. Due to the Galloways’ significant involvement and contributions, he became a member of the 1856 Society, George Petrie Society, Shareholders’ Club, All-American Society, Founders’ Circle and the 1072 Society. Pat was a former executive vice president of Sears before he chose to retire and spend time with his family. He and Margie have lived a life built on the ideals of the Auburn Creed, and we are forever changed for the better due to their belief in and love of Auburn. The Auburn Alumni Association and athletics department have collaborated to bring “Tiger Trek” to 11 sites across the Southeast beginning in April and ending in July. Head football coach Gene Chizik, Aubie and your alumni association have attended Tiger Trek alumni club meetings ranging in size from 500 to 1,200 alumni and friends of Auburn. Funds from the
tour benefit student scholarships. The excitement and enthusiasm I have seen at Tiger Trek has created a “buzz” among the Auburn faithful for our upcoming football season. Late spring and summer mark club season for the 98 Auburn alumni clubs around the nation connecting alumni of all ages. Get involved with your local Auburn club and network with other alumni and friends in your community. This will be my last column as your alumni association president. When I took office during Homecoming 2008 I began by saying, “I am honored and humbled to serve as your president.” This statement rings true for me today as I near the end of my two-year term at Homecoming 2010. I have enjoyed meeting, listening and interacting with alumni to hear your voices—from recent graduates to Golden Eagles. A board priority has been the continued cooperation and collaboration in relationship-building between our association stakeholders— alumni, administration, trustees, AU Foundation and athletics—with the goal of doing what is best for Auburn regardless of our individual or group perspectives. In November, Bobby Poundstone ’95, a third-generation Auburn alumnus from Montgomery, will assume the office of association president. Bobby is a capable consensus-builder who relates well with alumni of all ages. He will do an outstanding job as president. Auburn alumni have a deep love and passion for our university. It is hard to explain from inside the Auburn family to those on the outside and difficult for those outside the Auburn family to understand. It is a part of what makes us Auburn. May the Auburn family always be united in the intangible spirit that binds us all.
N E W S
EMERALD COAST AUBURN CLUB
Annual meeting at Anglers Beachside Bar and Grill in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., featuring Mark Murphy, editor of Inside the Auburn Tigers. Info: www.emeraldcoastauburnclub.com. Aug. 28 KENTUCKIANA AUBURN CLUB
Annual cookout and potluck at Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky. Info: www. auburnclubs.org. Sept. 4 ALUMNI HOSPITALITY TENT
Auburn vs. Arkansas State tailgate hosted by the Auburn Alumni Association. 3-5:30 p.m. on the Wallace Center Lawn. Info: (334) 844-2960 or www. aualum. org/events/tent.html. Sept. 4-11 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: COSTA RICA YOUNG ALUMNI TOUR
Join other recent graduates for an “Eco-Explorer” adventure. From $1,628. Info: (334) 844-1113 or www. aualum.org/travel. Sept. 8-16 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: AMALFI COAST
Delight in the scenic grandeur of Italy’s Mediterranean coastline, including the villages of Ravello, Positano, Sorrento and more. From $2,795. Info: (334) 8441113 or www.aualum.org/travel. Sept. 9 AWAY-GAME TRAVEL
Auburn vs. Mississippi State in Starkville. Package includes round-trip bus transportation from Auburn and/or Montgomery. From $135 per person. Info: (334) 844-1144 or www.aualum.org/travel.
War Eagle! Sept. 13-21 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: AMALFI COAST
nancyfortner@auburnalum.org
So popular, we’re offering it twice. From $2,795. Info: (334) 844-1113 or www.aualum.org/travel.
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Sept. 17-25 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: IRELAND
Discover the Emerald Isle. From $2,849. Info: (334) 844-1113 or www.aualum.org/travel. Sept. 18
Word of mouth DEBBIE SHAW ’84
Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Executive Director, Auburn Alumni Association
ALUMNI HOSPITALITY TENT
Auburn vs. Clemson tailgate hosted by the Auburn Alumni Association. 3-5:30 p.m. on the Wallace Center Lawn. Info: (334) 844-2960 or www. aualum. org/events/tent.html. Sept. 18-26 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: DUBAI
Witness the Persian Gulf’s remarkable mix of desert beaches and glitzy high-rises. From $4,099. Info: (334) 844-1113 or www.aualum.org/travel. Sept. 25 ALUMNI HOSPITALITY TENT
Auburn vs. South Carolina tailgate hosted by the Auburn Alumni Association. Starts three hours before kickoff on the Wallace Center Lawn. Info: (334) 8442960 or www. aualum.org/events/tent.html. Sept. 25-Oct. 3 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: BURGUNDY AND PROVENCE
Cruise France’s famed wine regions. From $4,195. Info: (334) 844-1113 or www.aualum.org/travel. Sept. 26-Oct. 4 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: TUSCANY
Stay in medieval Siena and discover Italy’s fabled region. From $3,195. Info: (334) 844-1113 or www. aualum.org/travel. Oct. 2 ALUMNI HOSPITALITY TENT
Auburn vs. Louisiana-Monroe tailgate hosted by the Auburn Alumni Association. Starts three hours before kickoff on the Wallace Center Lawn. Info: (334) 8442960 or www. aualum.org/events/tent.html. Oct. 2-27 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: AROUND THE WORLD
An epic journey: Tokyo, Beijing, Bangkok, Dubai, Cairo, Petra, Jordan, Jerusalem and the Rhine Valley. From $29,995. Info: (334) 844-1113 or www.aualum. org/travel. Oct. 9 AWAY-GAME TRAVEL
Auburn vs. Kentucky in Lexington. Package includes chartered flight from Montgomery, a tailgate party and more. From $595 per person. Info: (334) 844-1144 or www.aualum.org/travel.
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Involvement in Auburn’s alumni clubs around the nation, which now number 98, remains one of the best ways for graduates and fans to maintain their connection to our university. Spring and summer are the times of year most clubs hold their annual meetings and host campus speakers. “Tiger Trek,” our series of 11 meetings this year featuring Tigers head football coach Gene Chizik, was a great success among clubs located in or near Cullman, Huntsville, Montgomery, Mobile, Tampa, Fla., Atlanta, northeastern Alabama, Ft. Walton, Fla., Destin, Fla., Columbus, Ga., Phenix City, Birmingham and Florence. We’re grateful our head coach puts a priority on meeting Auburn’s alumni and friends, and supports the clubs’ goal to raise scholarship dollars for incoming students from their hometowns. We have many other coaches, faculty, staff and administrators who also attend club meetings held in various states, and we appreciate their contributions as well. I would be remiss if I did not mention the oil spill that has profoundly affected the coastal regions of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama. This area and its people, many of whom are Auburn alumni and friends, will be forever changed. The negative impact on the region in terms of jobs, environment, health, food, wildlife and quality of life will continue for years to come. I am proud that Auburn University, which is a sea-, space- and land-grant institution, stepped up to the plate immediately to offer faculty research and expertise to help. From fish ecology to oil cleanup to assessing environmental issues, Auburn has been extremely involved in coordinating its strengths and people to assist in the recovery efforts.
Auburn will remain committed to helping its neighbors. Often alumni will ask what they can do for Auburn. Naturally, I have great answers to that question. One thing we all can do is promote our alma mater among the young people of our communities. Recruiting outstanding students to AU is a gift you can give no matter where you live or what your income level. You can do that in many ways— wearing Auburn-logoed clothes, talking about AU to students and referring them to the university’s website, and signing up as a local student-recruiting volunteer at www.aualum.org/alumni/fans. We call it the FANS program (Finding Auburn’s New Students). I spent 20 years in the student affairs division at Auburn prior to joining the Office of Alumni Affairs. A former student leader, Mike Zucker ’88 of Alamo Heights, Texas, contacted me this past year to tell me he had been trying to persuade the son of a San Antonio colleague to apply to Auburn. Chris Piszczatoski had no connection to AU, but a campus visit sealed the deal, and I met the entire family recently as they attended Camp War Eagle. They left town excited and laden with Auburn T-shirts, banners and stickers to show off in San Antonio. Thus the recruiting cycle continues. Rest assured the efforts you are making in your hometown to promote Auburn quite often pay big dividends—outstanding Auburn students graduate and become successful alumni. That success can be measured in many ways, but I’ll take part of that to mean they will continue to support and promote Auburn forever, just like Mike Zucker. War Eagle!
debbieshaw@auburn.edu
A L U M N I
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Class Notes GOT NEWS? Auburn Magazine 317 S. College Street Auburn University, AL 36849-5149, or aubmag@auburn.edu Life Member Annual Member
’20–’59 Alvah Leo Rowe Jr. ’50 and wife Jane Ashford Rowe ’50 of
Decatur celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with a cruise through the Panama Canal.
tions to animal welfare, his profession and his community. A specialist in animal dentistry, he established and maintained the first American Animal Hospital Association-certified private practice in Baton Rouge, La.; helped establish the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine; and worked as assistant dean of outreach at Auburn’s College of Veterinary Medicine from 1992 until he retired in 2008.
Jean Lindsey Mussleman ’54 of Florence
published Potluck, Postscripts & Potpourri, a collection of Southern recipes accompanied by family stories. She is president and chief executive officer of ElderCare Services.
Jere L. Beasley Sr. ’59, a Montgomery
attorney, was chosen for inclusion on the 2010 Super Lawyers list and selected as one of Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Lawyers in America.” MARRIED
Ruby Parker Puckett ’54 of Gainesville,
Fla., received the 2010 Robert Pacifico Award for dedication, support and leadership from Foodservice Consultants Society International. A former FCS president, she has written 12 books; has received the American Dietetic Association’s highest honor, the Copher Award; and was named an Auburn University College of Human Sciences Alumna of the Year.
Auburn received the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine’s 2010 Wilford S. Bailey Distinguished Alumni Award for his contribu-
of Birmingham received the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine’s 2010 Wilford S. Bailey Distinguished Alumni Award for his contributions to animal welfare, his profession and his community. Lindsey created the Department of Comparative Medicine and the Division of Animal Resources at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Richard Guthrie ’62 was awarded the
Excellence in Leadership Award from the Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors. He recently retired as dean of Auburn University’s College of Agriculture and director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station.
Gerald Stephens ’52
to Alice Rickerson on Nov. 21. They live in Hoover.
’60–’69 Bob Henson ’60 and
wife Phyllis of Hoover were recognized by the international Travelers’ Century Club for their work in and travels to 260 different countries. They plan to visit five more countries next year for their work in the cell phone systems industry. Geri McGriff Davis
Gary B. Beard ’59 of
J. Russell Lindsey ’61
’61 of Columbus, Ga.,
was one of two dozen artists from around the U.S. invited to participate in the Plein Air Art Show at Callaway Gardens in April.
James R. Thomas ’64
retired with emeritus status from his position as a mechanical engineering professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. Glenda Ree Watkins ’64 and husband James
P. Jimmerson II of LaFayette are the parents of two children, Jonathan Porter Jimmerson, born May 30, 2008, and adopted in August 2009, and Gianna Ree Jimmerson, born Dec. 8 and adopted in April.
S. Bailey Distinguished Alumni Award for his contributions to animal welfare, his profession and his community. Godfrey is co-director of St. Petersburg Animal Emergency Clinic and owner of Pinellas Animal Hospital and Seminole Boulevard Animal Hospital. He is a 2001 recipient of the Florida Veterinary Medical Association’s Distinguished Service Award and was named by the organization as Veterinarian of the Year in 1990.
Oct. 16 ALUMNI HOSPITALITY TENT
Auburn vs. Arkansas tailgate hosted by the Auburn Alumni Association. Starts three hours before kickoff on the Wallace Center Lawn. Info: (334) 844-2960 or www. aualum.org/events/tent.html.
Clela Reed ’68 of Ath-
ens, Ga., was accepted into the Peace Corps. She began training in May and plans to teach secondary-school English in Romania.
Oct. 23
MARRIED
Oct. 24-Nov. 1
Wayne Corless ’62
to Yolanda Rodriguez on March 20. They live in Auburn and Colima, Mexico.
’70–’79 Joseph L. Cowan ’70
was named president and chief executive officer of Chantilly, Va.-based Online Resources Corp., an online financialservices provider.
ALUMNI HOSPITALITY TENT
Auburn vs. LSU tailgate hosted by the Auburn Alumni Association. Starts three hours before kickoff on the Wallace Center Lawn. Info: (334) 844-2960 or www. aualum.org/events/tent.html.
WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: CLASSICAL MEDITERRANEAN
Sail from Venice to Nice aboard the M.S. Le Boreal. From $3,895. Info: (334) 844-1113 or www.aualum. org/travel. Oct. 29-30 AWAY-GAME TRAVEL
Auburn vs. Ole Miss in Oxford. Package includes accommodations for two nights at Harrah’s Tunica Terrace Hotel and round-trip transportation from hotel to stadium. From $485 per person. Info: (334) 844-1144 or www.aualum.org/travel. Nov. 6
Davis Woodruff ’72,
an engineer and management consultant, is president of Management Methods Inc. in Decatur. Kenneth M. Autrey
Ernest C. Godfrey Jr. ’68
’73 was chosen as
of Largo, Fla., received the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine’s 2010 Wilford
the 2009-10 J. Lorin Mason Distinguished Professor at Francis Marion University in
HOMECOMING
Auburn vs. University of Tennessee Chattanooga. Events include: MAIN (Minority Alumni Involvement Now) Event (www.aualum.org/main/ or (334) 844-1113); Alumni Hospitality Tent (www. aualum.org/events/tent.html or (334) 844-2960); Auburn Alumni Association annual meeting at 9 a.m. in the Auburn Alumni Center; and a War Eagle Travelers webinar covering European Christmas markets and South Pacific tours at 10 a.m. in the Auburn Alumni Center (tanjamatthews@ auburn.edu or (334) 844-1113).
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Class Notes in association with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is president of the Mobile-based Bay Benefits Group. Jeff Poole ’82 of Bel Air, Md., was named president and chief executive officer of Medical Mutual of Maryland. He previously was the company’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.
BARBECUE ON THE GROUNDS: About 50 Auburn alumni, plus their families and friends, beat the heat at Atlanta’s Grant Park during the Auburn Alumni Association’s Minority Alumni Involvement Now (MAIN) summer picnic in June. A similar event was held in Birmingham in August.
Florence, S.C. He is a member of the university’s English faculty. Don E. Moseley ’73
received the Silver Circle Award from the Midwest chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in May. The award honors individuals who have devoted 25 years or more to the television industry and who have made significant contributions to Chicago broadcasting. Moseley is a producer for Chicagobased journalist Carol Marin. Kathryn Cordell Thornton ’74, associate
dean for graduate programs and engineering at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, was named to the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.
50
David W. Andrews ’77,
founding dean of the Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology, has been named dean of Johns Hopkins University School of Education in Baltimore, Md. Doug Marks ’77 has
practiced small-animal medicine and surgery in Turlock, Calif., for more than 30 years. He is a partner in Monte Vista Small Animal Hospital and also serves as a veterinarian for the Stanislaus Wildlife Care Center and California State University, Stanislaus. Marks served as a trail veterinarian for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska in 2008 and 2010. Emily Philpot McAnally ’78 was promoted
to senior director of product development for Houston-based
Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g
Syntex Management Systems Inc. MARRIED
Ronald Lawson ’83 of Allen, Texas, was promoted to vice president of industry relations for The Republic Group, a Dallas-based coalition of insurance companies and related businesses. Rhoda Green Manning
Cathy A. Cowart ’79
’83 of Jacksonville, Fla.,
to J. Christopher MeGahee ’78 on June 6. They live in Birmingham.
was named chair of the math department at Bartram Trail High School in St. Johns County, Fla. She has taught math there since the school opened in August 2000.
’80–’89 S. Patrick Baggette II ’80 of Independence,
Mo., was promoted to chief financial officer and general counsel of Vinsolutions software company. Thomas Lally ’81
is deputy chief of the Northeast Asia Division at U.S. Pacific Command Joint Intelligence Operations Center in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Mike Loncono ’82 of
Mobile has earned the Certified Employee Benefits Specialist designation from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
Carl E. “Sam” Mundy III ’83 of Fairfax, Va.,
was named a brigadier general in the U.S. Marine Corps and serves as director, Strategic Initiatives Group, at Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C. He is the son of Gen. Carl E. Mundy Jr. ’57, who served as commandant of the Marine Corps prior to retirement. The pair is among only six father-son officers of similar rank in the history of the Corps.
Sherrill I. Daily Jr. ’84 was named vice
president of portfolio analysis for ManTech International Corp. in Fairfax, Va. Gerrit Hoogenboom ’84, professor of agro-
meteorology and crop modeling at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash., was named director of the university’s Agricultural Weather Network. Rhon E. Jones ’86, an attorney with Montgomery-based Beasley Allen Law Firm, was chosen for inclusion on the 2010 Super Lawyers list. J. Cole Portis ’86, an attorney with Montgomery-based Beasley Allen Law Firm, was selected for inclusion on the 2010 Super Lawyers list. Hamilton “Ham” Poynor ’87, a Birming-
ham underwriter and estate planner, joined Reliance Financial Group investment advisory firm as partner and executive vice president. He leads the company’s private-client services division. Timothy J. Hudgins ’88
was appointed vice president of Charlotte, N.C.-based Grandbridge Real Estate Capital. He formerly served as deputy chief underwriter for seniors housing finance at Greystone Servicing Corp. Inc.
BORN A son, John-Hall Coinage, to Patrick Holman ’83 and wife Grania Gothard Holman ’92 on March 19. He joins siblings Seth-Patrick, Trinity Grania, Ireland Donaghy and Andrew Gothard.
’90–’99 Benjamin E. Baker Jr. ’90, an attorney with
Montgomery-based Beasley Allen Law Firm, was chosen for inclusion on the 2010 Super Lawyers list. Floyd Holliman ’90
is an accountant with the firm of Warren, Averett, Kimbrough & Marino in Birmingham. He joined the company in 2007. David Brandon Mize ’90
works as a continuousimprovement manager for U.S. Pipe in Bessemer. Ronald A. Bottoms ’91
is serving a one-year deployment as chief of combat/current operations with the U.S. Air Force at Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan. He is permanently assigned to the 62nd Airlift Squadron as a pilot scheduler and instructor at Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas. Fletcher Lindberg ’91 is
a business manager for AOC resin manufacturer in Collierville, Tenn. Christopher J. Couch ’94 is a commander
in the U.S. Navy. He is designated as an
A L U M N I
CARRYING THE BALL Auburn’s rugby football club recently reunited for a banquet celebrating its 1999 Southeastern Conference championship. The game is said to have originated in early 19th-century England.
enlisted surface warfare specialist and aviation warfare specialist. Jason Gerding ’94 of
Vinemont was named president of TSE Brakes Inc. He formerly served as president of Leland Brake & Wheel Parts. Peter Kanakis ’95 is enrolled in Birmingham School of Law and plans to graduate in December. He married Rhonda Jolene Sanderson in June.
Brian Beattie ’98, a Seattle public defender, wrote Off Locusts and Wild Honey (CreateSpace, 2010). Justin Gilder ’98
is director of tax for ProAssurance Corp. in Birmingham. He and wife Harmony have a son, Harrison. Mark VanHooser ’98
is an assistant professor of mathematics at Troy University.
Perry ’95 was promoted
to deputy director of athletics at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Monica Kaye Jett ’96
’99, a Fort Myers,
Fla., real estate attorney, was chosen for inclusion on the 2010 Florida Super Lawyers “Rising Star” list. Casey Dunn ’99, head
of Mulga is a socialwork administrator with Children’s Rehabilitation Service. She married Phillip Edward Grammer in July.
baseball coach at Samford University, will be inducted into the inaugural class of the City of Vestavia Hills Sports Hall of Fame in September.
Jay Waggoner ’97 of
David Jordan ’99, who
Roswell, Ga., a former minor league baseball player, will be inducted into the inaugural class of the City of Vestavia Hills Sports Hall of Fame in September.
played football for three years with the New York Giants and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, will be inducted into the inaugural class of the City of Vestavia Hills Sports Hall of Fame in September.
Allen C. Winsor ’97, a
Tallahassee, Fla., attorney with the firm of Gray-Robinson, was chosen for inclusion on the 2010 Super Lawyers list.
’99 to Delbert James
Sable Jr. on April 10. They live in St. Pete Beach, Fla. BORN A son, Jake David, to Raymond Newsom ’96
and wife Dana of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on Jan. 19. He joins sister Mia, 2. A daughter, Lillian Kathryn, to Fredrick Glen Williams ’93 and Kristy Abrams Williams
7. She joins brother Hudson Loyd. A daughter, Emily Caroline, to Michele Marie Leahy ’93 of Madison on Nov. 16. She joins brothers Evan and Ryan. A son, Connor Alexander, to Chris Cochran ’95 of Columbiana on Feb. 15. A daughter, Abby Caroline, to Cary R. Cloud ’97 and wife Cathy May of Atlanta on May 9. Twins, Anne James and William Doss IV, to Susan Stephens Shelnutt ’98 and husband Wil-
liam of Alpharetta, Ga., on June 10.
MARRIED Dave Eshleman ’94 to
Terri Miller on March 20. The couple lives in Smyrna, Tenn., with their children, Zak, Shelbi and Bailey.
Erin E. Argo ’98 is an as-
sistant U.S. attorney for the eastern district of New York. She is based in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Amanda Ellen McCain
’97 of Auburn on Aug. Amanda Keener Barritt
Roderick Durand
C E N T E R
Melissa Bruno ’97 to
Thomas Waugh on April 11. They live in Hoover.
A son, Thomas Bryant, to Meredith Franks Bateman ’99 and
husband Needham of Atlanta on Feb. 20. A daughter, Ella Claire, to Kimberly Ann Hull Cummins ’99 of Lubbock, Texas, on Sept. 25.
SNAPSHOT
Grow where you’re planted Chris Smith ’91 runs his hands over some plants in the vegetable garden at Hills and Dales Estate in LaGrange, Ga., then abruptly stops: Something feels out of place. With his left hand, he instantly flips over a giant green leaf, and, with the right, seizes a black bug and flings it on the ground. Stomp. Squash. “Lubber grasshopper,” he grouses, straightening his Auburn ball cap. “They’ll take over the whole world.” Smith graduated with a degree in landscape design, but he’s got his hands in another pot now. As grounds-maintenance supervisor at Hills and Dales, Smith spends a lot of his time caring for more than 35 sprawling acres of lawn and gardens. Textile manufacturer Fuller E. Callaway built the Italianate mansion in 1916, but the gardens have been rooting since the 1830s, when early residents of the property planted hundreds of boxwoods and ornamental flowers. Now it’s Smith’s turn to tend them. Under his watchful eye, the smallest nuisances—from Japanese beetles to crabgrass—can’t flourish. Loose doorknobs? He fixes those too. At Auburn, he managed the horticulture department’s Paterson Greenhouses for four years and met wife Kerry Parker ’95. He joined Hills and Dales in 2000. After a decade of planting and watering, trimming and pruning, pulling weeds and plucking bugs, one might say Smith is an expert in the plant world. But he’d disagree. “I don’t know all my stuff,” he says, shaking his head. “I’m still learning.”—Grace Henderson
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Class Notes
AU in Lone Star state Auburn University’s 5,800 alumni living in the state of Texas may now show their spirit by purchasing a vanity license plate sporting the familiar interlocking AU logo along with the “War Eagle!” battle cry. The tag, sponsored by the GREATER HOUSTON AUBURN CLUB,
went on sale in June. Mike Harris ’67 bought the first plate. The cost of the Texas collegiate plate ranges from $55 to $195 a year in addition to regular license fees; a portion of the proceeds benefits scholarships for Texas students attending Auburn. To order, see www.greaterhoustonauburnclub.com. In other club news:
Melissa Faye Dupuy to Michael Thomas Elson ’99 on Sept. 25. They
live in Birmingham. Gabe Harris to
Julie Mummert on June 13, 2009. They live in Hoover. Ashley Elizabeth Rickard
to Christopher Scott Arnold on May 15. They live in Birmingham. BORN A son, Owen Michael, to Marcus Richard Chatterton ’00 and Anna King Chatterton ’01 of Hoover on Jan. 11. He joins brother Ian, 2. A son, William Luke, to Justin King ’00 and Heather Snell King ’00
• Auburn’s NASHVILLE YOUNG ALUMNI group, along with alumni from several other Southeastern Conference universities, held a happy hour benefiting flood victims in the area, raising nearly $600 for the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.
of Belle Chasse, La., on March 31. He joins brother Logan and sister Elizabeth.
• The ATLANTA AUBURN CLUB has launched its Operation War Eagle project to collect pencils, crayons, coloring books, notebooks and candy to send to U.S. troops in northern Iraq for distribution to local children. The club also hopes to sponsor an Iraqi children’s soccer league by providing sports equipment. To participate, contact Kathleen Saal at communications@atlantaauburnclub.org.
’01
• Tigers offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Gus Malzahn spoke to more than 250 people at the CHARLOTTE AUBURN CLUB meeting in June. The club sponsored a drawing to raise $1,500 toward its club scholarship. A son, Brice DeLavan, to Seth Montgomery Hall ’99 and Amy DeLavan Hall ’98 of Sharpsburg, Ga., on March 30. A son, Joel Jameson, to Joel Dubina Seawell ’99 and Stacey Jameson Seawell ’99 of Auburn on Dec. 29.
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’00 Rebecca Anne Hiller
is a certified public accountant and financial analyst for Protective Life Corp. in Birmingham. She married Robert Dunseath Moore III on Aug. 7. Robin A. Pittman works
for Design Galleria
Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g
Kitchen & Bath Studio in Atlanta. She recently placed third in the SubZero Inc. and Wolf Appliance Inc. International Kitchen Design Contest. MARRIED Scott Madison Athey
to Kristi Fargason on March 20. They live in Marietta, Ga.
ficer and vice president for Southern Company’s Gulf Power subsidiary.
Curtis Eatman III is
a LEED-accredited engineer, principal and stockholder with the firm of LBYD Inc. in Birmingham. Christopher Stephen Harris works for BBVA
Compass bank in Birmingham. He married Susan Elizabeth Dobbins on June 26. Theodore J. McCullough
is a senior vice president for Southern Company and was elected senior production officer and senior vice president by the Alabama Power board of directors. He previously served as senior production of-
Jim Watson of Austell, Ga., is division manager of the Douglas County (Ga.) Transportation Center.
BORN A son, Chase Russell, to Amy Ayers Bough and husband Casey of Wilmington, N.C., on Oct. 4. A son, Gunner Banks, to Zachary Keith Gibbs and Jennifer Webster Gibbs ’02 of Weaver on Oct. 2.
A daughter, Eva Paige, to Garet Holloway and wife Abby of Auburn on Jan. 23. She joins brothers David Douglas, 6, and Andrew Charles, 4. Garet owns All Around Computers and serves as president of Mousequick.com. A son, Hampton Brown, to Byron Welch and Kay Norman Welch ’01 on May 1, 2009. He joins brothers Braxton Turner and William Brewer.
’03 Michael Schumacher
A son, Ross Hilton, to Joseph H. McSwain and wife Michelle of Birmingham on April 19.
’02 Chad Alan Gibbs of Birmingham has written and plans to publish a book about Southeastern Conference sports fans and their Christian beliefs. Richard W. Kroon is a
videographer and senior project manager for Technicolor’s digitalcontent delivery division in Burbank, Calif. He recently wrote and published an encyclopedic dictionary of media and entertainment terminology and is now working on a dictionary of 3D terms and concepts. BORN A son, Alexander Scott, to Alex Carothers and Susan Scott Carothers ’05 of Montgomery on April 14.
owns and operates a custom residential construction business, Schumacher Homes, in Auburn. He and wife Megan Cosby Schumacher welcomed a daughter, Cosby Elizabeth, on Jan. 13. MARRIED Benjamin Bernard Burnett to Cara Bates on
June 19. They live in Vestavia. Blair Coker to Alan Bradley Olson Jr. ’05
on May 15. They live in Montgomery. Sean Patrick Wallace to
Maria Nicole Pakulak on Oct. 10. They live in Ft. Myers, Fla. BORN A son, Everett Glenn, to Charlie G. Baxley and Courtney L. Baxley ’04
of Birmingham on Jan. 14. He joins brother Harrison, 2.
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A D V E R T I S I N G
S E C T I O N
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A L U M N I
C E N T E R
Class Notes A son, Jake Allen, to Jared Anthony Whigham
A daughter, Ana Joys, to Greg Jones and
and wife Joanna Hiemstra Whigham ’05 of Opp on June 6.
Amanda Danzey Jones
’04
’05
Stephen Fleming Jef-
Bonnie Fairbanks, a
fers is a U.S. Air Force
graduate student in biological sciences at Virginia Tech, was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to pursue the study of tuberculosis in mongoose populations in Botswana.
serviceman assigned to Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan for a one-year deployment as a supply-officer mentor. He is part of the Combined Air Power Transition Force advisory team responsible for training more than 400 Afghanistan National Army Air Corps personnel how to properly maintain and operate their fleet of helicopters, cargo planes and airlift aircraft. MARRIED Casey Moran Carpenter
to Ross Matthew O’Keefe on May 15. They live in New Orleans. Leah Suzanne Killough to Davis Prince
on March 20. They live in Birmingham. Jaime Lynn Strickland to Taylor Kirkland Lightfoot on July 10.
They live in Atlanta.
siology residency with the Ochsner Health System in New Orleans.
’05 of Warner Robins,
Ga., on March 23.
Matthew Stewart McLean graduated from
the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile. He will complete a preliminary year of internal medicine with the University of South Alabama Health System before beginning a neurology residency. Adams Worthington Moore graduated from
the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile. He will begin a transitional year with Baptist Health System in Birmingham before beginning a radiology residency with the University of South Alabama Health System.
Jeremy Thompson is a licensed architect with Earl Swensson Associates in Nashville, Tenn.
BORN A son, Edwin Leon IV, to Edwin Leon Perry III and Courtney LeAnne Stephens Perry ’04 of Mobile on May 7.
’06
Benjamin Scott Jones
graduated from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine. He has accepted an internalmedicine residency with the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System. Daniel Luckett is a captain in the U.S. Army. He received the Gen. Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award on May 6 in Washington, D.C.
Haley Hallman Ballard
graduated from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile. She has accepted an internal-medicine residency with the University of South Alabama Health System. Adam Harris Black
is a nurse at Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston. He and Ashley Boone DeLaitsch were married June 6.
Kristen W. Wright joined
the law firm of Garland, Samuel & Loeb in Atlanta to practice criminal defense. MARRIED Brittney Elise Chandler
to Bryan Hudson on Oct. 10. They live in Ringgold, Ga. Kenneth Duncan Howard
to Elizabeth Floy Braswell on June 26. They live in Montgomery.
Lindsay Donohue
was named Outstanding New Educator of the Year for Hamilton County in Chattanooga, Tenn. She teaches social studies at Orchard Knob Middle School.
Holly Lorraine McMahan
to Clifford Wayne Robinson on Oct. 2. They live in Salem. Olivia Shea Newman to Jeffrey Albert Shelley ’07 on Feb. 27. They
BORN A daughter, Karsyn Sydnee, to McKenzie Messenger Cooper
and husband Cameron of Phenix City on Oct. 25.
Adam Montgomery Nor-
Tracy Ann Elleard of
rell works for Interstate
Lexington, Va., was appointed director of communications and programs for Omicron Delta Kappa national leadership honor society. She formerly worked as a membership-recruitment consultant with Alpha Omicron Pi sorority.
Electrical Supply in Montgomery. He and Erin Leigh Butler ’08
were married on June 19. Kelsey Tedin Steensland
A son, Sawyer Marshall, to Keith Marshall Jackson and Tiffany Baker Jackson of Owasso, Okla., on Feb. 10.
graduated from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile. She has accepted an anesthe-
live in Birmingham. Ronald T. Spriggs Jr. to
Kayla Marie Anderson on Aug. 1, 2009. They live in Spokane, Wash. BORN A daughter, Janie Ann, to Seth Clark and Tiffany Stephens Clark
of Daviston on Oct. 30.
SNAPSHOT
He’s got game By day, Brandon Bodie ’09 was a “happiness ambassador” at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, greeting the event’s 2.3 million spectators as they entered a pavilion sponsored by Coca-Cola. By night, he pumped up the crowd during the 45-minute “After Dark Parade” in the city’s downtown. Now, he’s hoping to make a career out of promoting the Games—which isn’t much of a stretch for the skinny, polite kid from Mobile who spent many of his student days at Auburn dressed as a tiger and entertaining fans at Jordan-Hare Stadium. What is unusual is Bodie’s single-minded quest to work for the Olympic Movement. At 15, he was a torchbearer in the Salt Lake Torch Relay and attended the Winter Olympics with his family. As an Auburn marketing major and former “friend of Aubie,” Bodie secured an internship with the U.S. Olympic Committee with the help of Mobile events marketer William Younce ’95 and USA Swimming Foundation fundraiser Chris LaBianco ’93. During his internship, Bodie happened upon a Craigslist ad for staff positions at the Coca-Cola Pavilion in Vancouver. An e-mail and a Skype interview later, Bodie got the job, which entailed everything from cheerleading to hauling furniture. After the Games in February, he began working for the Vancouver Organizing Committee, the non-profit organization in charge of both the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Once his Canadian work permit expires, Bodie hopes he can find a way to stay connected to the Games. “I truly was living my dream,” he says. —Grace Henderson
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Class Notes ’07
Welch and Christie J.
Mary Coleman Bostick
McCormack of Birming-
of Selma works for Eli Lilly and Co. pharmaceuticals. She and John Philip Dobbins were married June 19.
ham on April 5.
Jay Patrick Cowart is
SNAPSHOT
The road to the aisle Sometimes, sang the late John Denver, country roads take you home. Other times, they lead away and back again. Take Cornelia Powell ’70, whose path led from rural Washington County to New York City and a job with Vogue magazine, then back South, where she has evolved as a sage on brides and weddings. Born and reared on a farm in tiny Carson, Ala., Powell knew she wouldn’t follow a traditional path. In the 1960s, most Southern women enrolled in college with limited career expectations. Powell just trusted her instincts. After a successful career in fashion magazine publishing, Powell’s road led to an unexpected second career: as a wedding folklorist who chronicles the meaning behind the nuptial ceremony. Her latest book, The Bride’s Ritual Guide: Look Inside to Find Yourself, came out in November. She also produces an online magazine, Weddings of Grace (www.weddingsofgrace.com). At Auburn, Powell majored in fashion merchandising and aimed for a job in New York. After graduating, she landed at Vogue, eventually becoming associate editor, and along the way developed an interest in the history and cultural trends associated with brides and weddings. In the 1970s, she left Vogue and eventually opened a fashion-forward bridal store in Atlanta. Now single, Powell married once and learned from it. “It was as if my spirit guides said, ‘this girl needs some firsthand experience in this wedding planning and what it takes to prepare for marriage (or not), so she’ll be able to share with women that rite of passage.’” Powell hopes her words touch a tender spot in the reader and listener, prompting a moment of inner reflection. “What I hope to be teaching is the difference in thinking from your noisy mind and thinking from your wise heart,” she says. “My interest is not in weddings themselves. Some are boring; some are beautiful. It’s not even that I think everyone should get married. My focus is helping the bride and others to recognize and respect this rite of passage in life. (The wedding) is a humanstory moment.” That said, does Powell think her own life has been changed by helping others down the aisle? She has only one fitting answer: “I do.”—Andrew Sims
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employed with TriMont Real Estate Advisors in Atlanta. He and Frances Leslie Mathis plan to marry Aug. 21. Laura Allison Lucas is
a child-life specialist with Children’s Health System of Birmingham. She and Paul Benjamin Leaver, who is a certified public accountant with Sellers, Richardson, Holman & West of Birmingham, were married July 10. MARRIED Dixon Lanier Davenport
to Michelle Rose Samoray on Jan. 30. They live in Atlanta.
’08 Maggie Johnson Saye
teaches at Dean Road Elementary School in Auburn. She and Wesley Layton Beason were married June 5. Jessica Lynn Seagraves
is a store manager at Painted Pink clothing boutique in Montgomery. She and fiancé Whatley, who works
Karen Jones Sullivan
for Kowa Pharmaceuticals America Inc. in Montgomery, plan to marry Oct. 9.
joined Red Square Agency of Mobile as a production assistant. MARRIED
Kevin Lawrence Taylor
is an electrical engineer with American Cast Iron Pipe Co. He and Holleigh Lauryn Patterson plan to marry Aug. 21. MARRIED Emily Eddleman to
mond to Barbara Claire
Moses on April 10. They live in Birmingham.
James Saunders on April 24. They live in Birmingham.
Catherine Davis Hopkins
William Hanes to
to Matthew Bryant Scott on June 19. They live in Chicago.
Elisabeth Nesbitt on April 24. They live in Birmingham.
Charles William McEwen
Anna Elizabeth
to Jennifer Michelle Justice on May 29. They live in Birmingham.
McLeane to David
Ledbetter on Aug. 1, 2009. They live in Birmingham. BORN A son, Sam McCormack, to Whitman L.
Kiara Pesante was one of 17 students selected for a 2010 Google Policy Fellowship for graduate and law students interested in Internet and technology policy. She is a graduate student at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Edward Christopher
Justin Michael Drum-
Zac Mitchell to Leah
who is employed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Ft. Benning, Ga., were married July 10.
Patrick Shelley ’09 on
June 27. They live in Auburn.
’09 Virginia Hunter Collins works for
the Jefferson County School System in Birmingham. She and Andrew David Conerly,
Justin Aldred to Chelsea Marie Baker on March 13. They live in Birmingham. Joseph Robert Bryant
to Kelli Jean Howell on Aug. 14. They live in Guntersville. Lindsey Rebekah Buchanan and Michael Wayne Whisonant Jr. ’07
on July 10. They live in Alabaster. Jena Leigh McCraney
to Scott McEwen on Dec. 26. They live in Pittsburgh. Katelin Nicole Tyra to Clayton Maxwell Evans ’10 on July 24. They
live in Auburn.
’10 Rachel Elise Hines
is employed with CVS pharmacy in Montgomery.
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U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Aaron Allmon II
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GAME DAY 2010 Want to know where and when you can set up your RV for football tailgating at Auburn this fall? Check out the university’s game-day website at www.auburn. edu/gameday.
In Memoriam James McMurtrie Backes ’33 of Mobile
died March 7. He commanded a battalion in North Africa and Italy during World War II and worked as a marine gas chemist for 30 years.
1981 as extension home agent for Tuscaloosa County. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Colonists, the National Society of Colonial Dames and the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Samuel H. Gibbons ’37 of Athens died
March 22. A U.S. Army veteran of World War II, he served as a marketing manager for ConAgra Foods Inc. and manager of the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration in Shelbyville, Tenn., for 36 years. He also operated Murray Farm in Athens. Robert W. Powell ’39
of Fairhope died June 20. He helped develop nuclear reactors at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island in Upton, N.Y., including the lab’s graphite research reactor, the world’s first nuclear reactor built for the peaceful use of atomic energy. He worked as head of the Brookhaven Reactor Division and was a fellow of the American Nuclear Society. Jack Barnes ’41 of
King, N.C., died June 16. He retired in 1981 as a tobacco agent in Stokes County. He also served as secretary of the King Lions Club for 34 years.
George Arthur Austin ’42 of Gainesville, Ga.,
died May 29. A veteran of World War II, he landed on Utah Beach on D-Day with the 4th Army Division, was wounded in Luxembourg and was awarded a Purple Heart. During his 27-year military career, he was assigned to the Philippines, Guatemala, Libya, North Africa and Okinawa. He retired from the U.S. Army in 1968 as a colonel and served as Gainesville’s director of public works for 17 years. Lawrence J. McMillan
Elizabeth Wheeler
Beach, Fla., died April 6. She was an assistant home demonstration agent for Calhoun County and retired in
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James Goree John-
Springs, Ga., died June 2. He attended Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army while stationed at Fort Belvoir, Va., where he later earned the rank of captain. He served in the Army Reserves until 1953 and retired from American Standard Co.’s industrial division as Southeast district manager.
March 19. A U.S. Army veteran of World War II, he received a Purple Heart.
C. Royce McMeans ’43
of Cullman died June 7. A captain in the U.S. Army field artillery, he also owned Cities Service Oil Co. in Cullman for 37 years. Walton H. Bartee Jr.
June 9. A U.S. Navy veteran, he formerly owned Bartee Lumber Co. and Walt Bartee Coins. Marion W. Wakefield
’42 of Birmingham died
’44 of Atlanta died
May 24. A piano teacher, she also worked as secretary to the president of American National Bank in Gadsden and later was employed with Alabama Power in Birmingham.
March 13. He was a salesman for Peerless Pumps Corp. for 32 years. Upon retirement, he formed Wake Pump & Equipment Co. and earned many awards of excellence for his work in the fire protection industry.
Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g
William D. Totherow ’47 of Anniston died
May 19. He served in the U.S. Air Force in northern Africa and Italy and was a member of First United Methodist Church of Weaver for 57 years. Emalyn Jones Allen ’48 of Winston-Salem,
died April 12. A U.S. Army veteran, he was a store manager for Sears, Roebuck & Co.
of Sanford, N.C., died April 11. She worked with the American Red Cross at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., during World War II
Relfe Steward Pruett ’47 of Eufaula died
’44 of Huntsville died
Carolyn Vance Oglesby
Birmingham Duplicate Bridge Club, achieving Bronze Life Master.
son Jr. ’43 of Sandy
’42 of Asheville, N.C.,
Erma C. Proctor ’42 Stewart ’41 of West Palm
and retired as a teacher with Broward County (Fla.) Public Schools.
Charles Lee Ray ’46 of Hoover died March 30. He was an engineer for Rust International Inc. and was a member of
N.C., died April 15. She spent many years as a docent for the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Old Salem. She also volunteered with Forsyth Medical Center and Meals on Wheels.
Wallace Lum Houston
gomery ’49 of Eatonton,
17. A U.S. Army veteran of World War II, he was a member of First United Methodist Church of Fairfax.
Ga., died Nov. 24. A World War II veteran, he received a Bronze Star and subsequently served 30 years in the U.S. Air Force as a meteorologist. After retiring from the military, he worked as an environmental engineer with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and as a consultant with Courtney Consultants Inc. He was a member of the Boy Scouts of America Atlanta Area Council’s executive board and served as an adult volunteer for the Boy Scouts for more than 50 years.
Seth H. Mitchell ’48 of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas, died May 7. He served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. Virgie Speck Barnes ’49 of Clinton, Miss.,
died March 9. A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, he retired from the U.S. Postal Service. Warren S. Craven ’49
of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., died March 28. A U.S. Navy veteran, he was an assistant city engineer in Fort Lauderdale and later co-founded Davis & Craven Inc. engineering consulting and surveying company. George G. Jackson
Henry C. Allen ’48 of
Winston-Salem, N.C., died June 12. He retired in 1987 as president of Integon Corp. property and casualty company and had served as president of the Old Hickory Council for the Boy Scouts, the Urban League of WinstonSalem and the Red Cross of Forsyth County. Charles Kenneth Brown ’48 of Indialantic,
Fla., died May 18. He was a retired electrical engineer with Aerospace Corp. and volunteered with the Holmes Regional Medical Center Auxiliary.
William Calhoun Mont-
’48 of Valley died Feb.
Jr. ’49 of Union Springs
died May 30. He was a former president of the Auburn Pharmacy Alumni Association.
Norman A. Nicolson ’49 of Mobile died April
22. A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II and a licensed professional engineer, he worked for Waterman Steamship Corp. and Ideal Basic Industries, and served as chairman of the boards of Mobile Public Library and the Julius T. Wright School for Girls. Robert C. Ogletree
Wesley W. Meeks ’49
of Jasper died Feb. 19. A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II and the Korean War, he served as general manager of North Alabama Lumber Co. and president and chief executive officer of Ala-Miss Inc. Meeks was a full colonel in the Alabama National Guard and retired as assistant superintendent of the Walker County board of education.
’49 of Destin, Fla., died
June 4. A retired U.S. Air Force colonel, he earned a Silver Star, Purple Heart and Air Medal. William H. Payne ’49 of Fairhope died
March 16. A college pole vaulter, U.S. Navy aviator and World War II veteran, he was named Alabama Volunteer of the Year; was a member of the Fairhope Single Tax Corp. and the Fairhope Yacht Club;
A L U M N I
James Thomason Alves ’50 of Guntersville
died Jan. 23. A U.S. Army veteran, he was an Episcopal priest for 35 years. After retiring, he served the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama as an interim and supply priest, and priest in charge, in various churches. Thomas Glenn Counts ’50 of Decatur died
March 19. He was an engineer and served as plant manager and later corporate vice president for Wolverine Tube Inc. Counts was a recipient of the Silver Beaver Award for Boy Scouts of America, was a past president and Paul Harris Fellow of the Decatur Rotary Club, and served as district chairman of the Tennessee Valley Council. He held two U.S. patents and was a Decatur City Council member and council president.
during World War II and was a librarian for many years. Ernest D. Stuart ’50 of Greenwood, S.C., died June 9. A U.S. Navy veteran, he was a partner in Cleveland Park Animal Hospital for more than 30 years and loved to spend time on his farm.
Columbus, Ga., died Feb. 18. A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, he worked for Kirven’s department store and King’s Interiors, and later served as proprietor of May’s Interiors. Freda Duke Stahl ’50
of Cullman died June 2. She served in the Women’s Army Corps
Lamar Beach ’52 of Wilmington, N.C., died May 29. He founded Sanford Nautilus and was involved in several real estate development projects in the Carolinas. David K. Hemeter III ’52 of Hattiesburg,
Miss., died Jan. 1. He was a U.S. Army veteran and an architect.
Dorothy Sides Vick ’50 of Dothan died
April 21. She taught at Rehobeth High School and later Dothan High School, where she retired after 40 years. She also volunteered with Meals on Wheels.
Betty Sellers Mays ’52
of Florence died June 5. A retired teacher, she was a member of the League of Women Voters of Florence, the Forest Hills Garden Club and the Tennessee Valley Authority Women’s Club.
Leonard Randolph Waesche ’50 of Thur-
William D. Lazenby ’53
mont, Md., died May 22. A U.S. Coast Guard veteran, he was a civil engineer, surveyor and general contractor.
of Opelika died June 14. He worked at Grady Hospital in Atlanta for five years; served in the U.S. Army for two years; and was instrumental in expanding the medical community of eastern Alabama. He served on the Opelika City Council and was a former president of the Alabama Medical Association.
Ben Franklin Enfinger ’51 of Roswell, Ga., died
May 28. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, was a longtime Sears executive and later worked in real estate.
Thomas A. Neely Sr. Robert K. Jefferies ’51 of Douglasville,
James B. May ’50 of
ERIC TRETTER
served on the Fairhope Industrial Board; and consulted with Fairhope High School for the establishment of a preengineering curriculum.
C E N T E R
Ga., died March 4. He worked with NASA and retired from Oceaneering International Inc.
’53 of Huntsville died
May 7. He worked for Thiokol in Huntsville and was a member of the Kiwanis Club. Francis Lanier Shuler
Ira Daves McClurkin Jr. ’51 of Pike Road
died April 1. He was a partner in the farming and cattle business with his father and two sons. He also served on the board of Dixie Electric Cooperative.
’53 of St. George, S.C.,
died Feb. 17. He began practicing veterinary medicine in St. George, S.C., in 1953 and was selected as South Carolina Veterinarian of the Year in 1992.
SNAPSHOT
Sweet tweets U.S. Navy Lt. Tony Eliasen’s job as an instructor at Kings Bay submarine base on the southern tip of the Georgia coast contradicts his Auburn degree in environmental science: He trains sailors to detonate nuclear weapons capable of enormous destruction. So in his free time the nuclear engineer returns to his first love. “There’s a lot of things we can do environmentally,” he says. “It’s more than just driving a hybrid.” For the past three years, Eliasen ’02 has volunteered to help research and protect birds on base. His work has earned him the nickname “the birdman of Kings Bay.” Eliasen asked the base’s natural resources manager to allow him to work with birds on base after he and wife Alicia discovered a chimney swift in their home. Before reporting to work each day and during lunch breaks, he checks nests in purplemartin boxes, which contain enough chambers for 16 nests. He played purple-martin songs on a CD player to attract the birds to the 20 boxes. He’s also renovated old birdhouses for bluebirds and helped erect 52 new boxes for them, and is working to improve habitats for chimney swifts and loggerhead shrikes. One advantage to creating more living spaces for the birds may be a reduction of biting insects on base. A chimney swift eats as many as 3,000 mosquitoes a day, Eliasen says. “I’ve learned a ton about environmental science,” he adds. “I’ll stay involved with birds no matter where I go (in the Navy). It’s been a lot of fun.”—Gordon Jackson/Adapted and reprinted with permission from The Florida Times-Union.
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In Memoriam
Hassle-free tailgating Looking for a tailgating experience that doesn’t involve lugging coolers, stereo speakers and pop-up canopies to hard-tosecure spots near Jordan-Hare Stadium? Leave the hassle behind and join the Auburn Alumni Association on the Wallace Center lawn for food, music and fun prior to the Tigers’ home football games this fall. Located mere steps away from the stadium’s west entrance gate, the Alumni Hospitality Tent features a live band, a big-screen TV for monitoring other Southeastern Conference games, visits from AU mascot Aubie and the birds of the Southeastern Raptor Center, giveaways, and more. Admission is free for association members and children under 3; members may bring one guest for $5. Children ages 4-12 pay $5. Admission is $10 for all other guests. Publix at Hamilton Square will provide beverages. Chickfil-A will offer sandwiches and an opportunity to meet the Chick-fil-A cow at the Nov. 13 Auburn vs. University of Georgia game. FlipFlopFoto staffers plan to take candid photos, and Priester’s Pecans will offer a sneak peek at the company’s new limited-edition Auburn tin. For more information, plus times and dates, see website www.aualum.org/tent or call (334) 844-2960.
Lloyd Leftwich Stone Jr. ’53 of Branchville
died April 1. He served in the early years of the Cold War as an intercept controller and worked for Stockham Valves & Fittings for 36 years in Texas, California, and Birmingham. He also served as mayor of Branchville. Valerie Buckley Brown ’54 of Pensacola died
June 2. She was a member of Trinity Presbyterian Church and loved to play tennis. Calvin A. Winter ’54
of Tallahassee, Fla., died March 28. A U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War, he retired as executive director of the Northwest Florida Water Management District. He also owned and operated two barbecue restaurants and catering services as well as an Angus cattle farm. Winter volunteered with 4-H and Future Farmers of America for more than 45 years. Mary Louise Collins ’55 of Homewood died
THE WAY THEY ARE: Members of Auburn University’s class of 1960 returned to campus for this year’s Golden Eagles Reunion in April. Nearly 200 alumni and guests participated in the three-day event, which included campus tours and a dance featuring the Auburn Knights Orchestra. Officials also recognized Auburn graduates from class years 1940, 1945, 1950 and 1955.
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May 17. She worked as a medical technologist at Baptist Medical Center in Montclair for 25 years and volunteered at the American Cancer Society’s Joe Lee Griffin Hope Lodge, the Birmingham Public Libraries and the Birmingham Museum of Art.
city school board and Alabama A&M University board of trustees, he was a manager and scientific/technical advisor at NASA. Farish directed the Manned Flight Awareness Program; coordinated the Redstone graduate steering committee; was a former assistant professor and researcher at Auburn University; and served as a district Boy Scouts commissioner.
’55 of Huntsville died
June 10. A former member of the Huntsville
Mary E. Johnson ’56
of Fairhope died April 23. She worked as a dietician for Lloyd Noland Hospital in Birmingham. Milan Burwell Morrow
John Munford Jackson ’55 of Eufaula died
March 18. A U.S. Army and National Guard veteran, he received two Purple Hearts. A surgeon and general practitioner, he worked with Lakeview Community Hospital to staff rural clinics in Louisville and Clayton. He was also a Paul Harris Fellow of the Eufaula Rotary Club.
’56 of Athens died Feb.
23. A U.S. Air Force veteran, he retired as a civil engineer with U.S. Army Missile Command. James Byrd Powell ’56 of Laurel, Fla., died
March 27. He was a head coach, athletic director and history teacher at Venice High School. John Miller Brabson
John Donnell Anthony ’56 of Birmingham died
May 19. A Sunday school superintendent at Bluff Park Methodist Church for 35 years, he also worked for Energen Corp., Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp. and American Cast Iron Pipe Co.
’57 of Redondo Beach,
Calif., died April 20. He was an inspector with the California Department of Agriculture and a retired agricultural biologist for Los Angeles County. Charles A. McGlamery ’57 of Florence died Dec.
Carl Fredrick Dye ’56
of Andalusia died May 17. He worked as an engineer and a manager for the Tennessee Valley Authority before retiring in 1993.
31. A U.S. Army and National Guard veteran, he retired in 1982 as an industrial engineer with Ford Motor Co. Joseph M. Anderson ’58 of Gardendale died
James W. Ellis ’56 Preston Terry Farish
designing electrical work at schools, athletic facilities, shopping complexes and other buildings. He was also a council member for the Boy Scouts and served on the founding board of Huntsville’s Southeast YMCA.
of Huntsville died Feb. 22. He was president of O&S Enterprises Inc. engineering consultants,
March 9. He worked for SONAT Inc. for 30 years, and was a longtime Baptist deacon and Sunday school teacher.
A L U M N I
Henry A. Clapp Jr. ’58
of Birmingham died Feb. 22. A U.S. Army veteran, he was a member of the Masonic Center Point Lodge.
athletic director and dean of students until 2001. He received the Highland Park Independent School District’s Distinguished Service Award in 2008.
James Ira Hardy Jr. ’58
Forrest Lamar Baker
of Huntsville died March 13. He was a retired U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employee.
’60 of St. Charles, Mo.,
Jane Allison Nolen ’58
of Clanton died April 5. She was an active volunteer for the First United Methodist Church and the Girl Scouts.
died June 1. A U.S. Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, he was a member of the Reserves until 1983 and worked for LTV Aerospace, McDonnell Douglas and the U.S. Army over the course of his career. Ferdinand Forrest
Jeanne M. Priester ’58
Corte Sr. ’60 of Loxley
of Opelika died April 12. She worked for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and was a national program leader in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s home economics and nutrition division. She was also the hostess of Alabama Public Television’s “Katie’s Place.”
died Feb. 19. He was a lifelong farmer and was named Father of the Year in 1999 by the Alabama Cattlemen’s Women’s Association.
Eugene R. Smith III ’58
Margaret Stringer Lam-
of Destin, Fla., died May 25. An award-winning designer and city planner, Smith served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was a past president of the student chapter of the Auburn University American Institute of Architects and the Tampa Bay Auburn Club.
bert ’61 of Prattville died
Robert Howard Snowden III ’58 of Dallas
died Feb. 21. A longtime coach and athletic director in Dallas, he retired in 1996 and served at Providence Christian School of Texas as
C E N T E R
John Antone Kern ’61
of Virginia Beach, Va., died March 13. He was a sales engineer with Honeywell.
June 9. She worked for Lambert Construction Co. and later opened HomeTouch Builders. In 1989 she was named Builder of the Year by the Greater Montgomery Home Builders Association, and in 1990 she was named Woman of the Year by the Montgomery chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction. Fidelis Adams Simmons ’61 of Phenix
City died February 3. A retired Phenix City schoolteacher, she was a
SNAPSHOT
Ode to a Ferrari fanatic In 1958, Gerald Roush ’68, a teenage auto enthusiast in Birmingham, picked up a copy of Sports Cars Illustrated, the magazine that would later become Car and Driver. On the cover was Phil Hill, the winner that year of the Le Mans 24-hour road race, and an Italian sports car, the Ferrari 4.9 Superfast. In that moment, an obsession was born. Roush, who died in Atlanta on May 21, became a Ferrari historian, a collector of Ferrari memorabilia and photography, an amasser of a Ferrari library, and, most importantly, the keeper of perhaps the most complete and detailed database of Ferrari information in the world. The cause of death was a heart attack, said son Chris Roush ’87. His father had had a stroke in March, he said, on his way to a car-collectors event in Florida. Ferrari, which built its first car in 1947, was still a small company when Gerald Roush picked up the magazine 11 years later—a boutique shop for speed freaks that had produced only about 2,000 vehicles, including both racers and street cars. Indeed, the company’s founder, Enzo Ferrari, was primarily interested in racing, and the company created passenger vehicles largely to finance the design and construction of race cars. Inevitably, because the cars were so stylish and rare, demand for them increased, and in 1969 Enzo Ferrari sold 50 percent of his company to Fiat. (Fiat later assumed controlling interest.) The company now produces about 6,000 cars a year.
Still, Ferraris remain elite, and the vintage models especially fuel an international collectors market. Roush, a former history professor who left academia to immerse himself in auto arcana, spent much of his life aswim in this circumscribed pool of automobiles. In 2008, the number of Ferraris ever built was estimated at 130,000, and Roush’s database held the factory specifications, ownership lineages and repair histories of just about all of them. He was an invaluable resource for Ferrari dealers, collectors and first-time buyers, especially with regard to the early models. If you were thinking of spending, say, $600,000 on a 1964 250 GT Lusso, you might want to know if that metallic blue is the original paint, or whether the car once belonged to Marlon Brando, as the current owner claims. Gerald Roush was the guy who could tell you. “The man was an institution, a legend, an icon,” said Al DiLauro, president of the Ferrari Club of America. Roush earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from Auburn University, and while in college he began attending Ferrari road races and vintage car shows. In addition to son Chris, who lives in Chapel Hill, N.C., Roush is survived by wife Carol Jane Whitley Roush of Lilburn, Ga.; sister Elouise Chapman of Fairhope; daughter Catherine Tarallo of Suwanee, Ga.; and three grandchildren.—Bruce Weber/The New York Times. Reprinted with permission.
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The New Shirts are Here! www.aualum.org/shop
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Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g
All-USA Jordan Anderson ’10 made the second team in USA Today’s All-USA College Academic Team competition. Anderson, who was named a Rhodes Scholar last fall, is headed to Oxford University to study global health science. USA Today recognized former Auburn University Student Government Association president Lauren Hayes ’09 last year.
glee club sponsor, basketball coach and member of the Retired Teachers Association of Alabama. She also volunteered for Mobile Meals and Phenix City Health Care nursing home. George Kenneth Gross ’63 of Fairhope died
April 27. An Auburn football player and SEC heavyweight wrestling champion, he played defensive tackle with the San Diego Chargers until 1968. Dorothy Brooks Dunlap ’64 of Brookeville,
Md., died June 7. Active in theater throughout her life, she directed performances at Auburn University, the U.S. Naval Academy and the Children’s Theater of Annapolis. She was also an active member of the American Association of University Women, the American Educational Theater Association and the Annapolis Fine Arts Festival Association. William A. Womack Jr.
fish Inc.; was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce as a member of the National Fish and Seafood Promotional Council; and received the Mississippi governor’s Bronze Glove Award for contributing to the state’s economy. He was also a member of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and Phi Kappa Phi honor society.
Clinton Foster Wright ’70 of Jacksonville,
Fla., died April 24. A veteran of the U.S. Army Reserves, he worked for Sun Oil Co. and later opened Ft. Caroline Animal Clinic. He was also instrumental in opening the Jacksonville Veterinary Emergency Clinic. Joseph C. Farrington
Samuel Ira Hinote ’65
of Montrose died March 6. He worked in the farm-raised catfish industry with ConAgra Foods Inc. and Delta Pride Cat-
and worked as a city planner in Texarkana, Texas, prior to serving as vice president of Timber Harvesters Inc.
Robert Preston Houston ’67 of Coosada died
May 2. He was an officer in the U.S. Air Force and retired as executive vice president and comptroller for Regions Bank, where he worked for 28 years. Robert Clark Becker ’68 of Prattville died Feb.
20. A U.S. Army veteran of World War II and a U.S. Air Force veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, he retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel. He was a certified management accountant and professor of business and accounting at Auburn University.
died March 13. He was a Baptist minister for more than 40 years. In the 1970s, he served as chief flight instructor for Auburn University’s professional flight management program and was an adjunct professor in the College of Education. He also was involved with the Americus, Ga.based Fuller Center for Housing.
Cornelius Leary Bell Jr. ’76 of Auburn died
May 27. He was the director of faculty engagement and program development for Auburn University’s outreach office.
Allen Tevis Tinkham
Daniel Lee Bankston ’79 of Lawton, Okla.,
died Feb. 20. A retired U.S. Army colonel, he worked for Tec-Masters Inc. and was a civil service employee at Fires Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate at Fort Sill, where he was deputy director of the Concept Development Division.
of Carrollton died May 28. He enjoyed hunting and fishing, reading, playing with his grandchildren and spending time with his family and friends.
Dothan died June 4. She was a registered nurse. Mary Coleman Mapp
died March 28. She was a computer programmer with Corporate Services Inc. in Baton Rouge. Kevin L. Jang ’10 of Auburn died July 4. He enjoyed playing soccer, traveling with family, socializing with friends and following Auburn University football.
Faculty and Friends Priscilla Pfeiffer Bruce of Dallas died
June 5. She was a former Auburn alumni club officer. William Lynn Deaton of
Sean Michael NewTerry Leon Taylor ’73
Sonja Folds Capps ’04 of
’06 of Gonzales, La.,
Jr. ’73 of Bartow, Ga.,
’64 of Ashford died May
21. He was a farmer and past board member of the Hospital Authority of Houston County and Ashford Academy. He was also a member of the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association and Houston County Cattlemen’s Association.
A L U M N I
berry ’91 of Panama
City Beach, Fla., died May 14. He held various positions as an engineer supporting expeditionary warfare for the U.S. Navy. He was also a past president of his local Auburn alumni club.
Thompson R. Chase
Sevierville, Tenn., died June 13. He served as a professor and associate dean in Auburn University’s College of Education from 1977 until 1992. He retired as dean of education and human resources at West Virginia University in 2004.
’68 of Houston died
’75 of Sarasota, Fla.,
Daphne Meeks Stephen-
April 15. He worked for the U.S. Civil Service Commission.
died May 5. A U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War, he was an Army reservist for 25 years and worked as a helicopter pilot for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
son ’94 of Montgomery
Leonard E. Ensminger
died June 1. She was an account executive with Bluewater Broadcasting Inc.
of Auburn died June 5. He chaired Auburn’s Department of Agronomy and Soils from 1966 until his retirement in 1978 and was active with the university’s Agricultural Alumni Association.
Wilson R. Wood Jr. ’69
of San Francisco died Nov. 3. An engineer and world traveler, he was retired from Pacific Gas and Electronic Co. in San Francisco, where he and his wife had lived for 31 years.
Ronald Wood Rainer ’75 of Auburn, Fla.,
died March 29. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, he earned a Purple Heart
Kevin Bell ’00 of Auburn
died April 17. He worked as a substitute teacher, volunteered at the Lee County Youth Development Center and wrote an autobiography about living with the illness Freiderich’s ataxia.
Glenn Ray Howze of Cha-
pel Hill, N.C., died May 24. A former Fulbright scholar, he taught in the Department of Agricul-
C E N T E R
tural Economics and Rural Sociology for 18 years and had worked on several economic development projects in Mali, Burkino Faso, Niger and Somalia. Evert W. Johnson of
Auburn died March 11. He joined Auburn’s forestry and wildlife sciences faculty in 1956 and retired as a professor in 1985. William L. Pharis Jr. of Auburn died Feb. 24. He served as executive director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals and was a professor of elementary administration at Auburn. Robert A. Voitle of
Auburn died May 21. A former dean of Auburn University’s College of Agriculture, he was a key developer of several programs within the college, including its internship program and the Agricultural Alumni Association. He was also instrumental in the construction of Auburn’s first computer science lab in 1982. In 1999, he accepted a position as associate dean of the college and continued teaching poultry science until his retirement in March. Mary Florence Woody of
Decatur, Ga., died April 28. She was the founding dean of nursing at Auburn University.
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A L U M N I
C E N T E R
The Last Word
Twin desires BY RICHARD PENASKOVIC Editor’s note: Identical twins Richard and Robert “Bob” Penaskovic, raised “cradle Catholics” in Bayonne, N.J., during the 1940s and ’50s, both found their calling as Franciscan priests, left the priesthood during the socially turbulent 1960s and married former nuns. The siblings detail their spiritual journey in a new memoir. My life might have turned out differently if I had been sent to Rome for my theological education rather than to the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and the University of Wuerzburg, Germany. If I had spent nine years in the hothouse atmosphere of the Eternal City I might have become rigid in my theology and unable to leave the priesthood later on in life. Josef Jungmann, one of the architects of the Constitution on the Liturgy adopted by the Second Vatican Council in 1963 (the aim of which was to allow more active participation by lay church members in the rituals of Mass), taught liturgical studies at Innsbruck, as did Karl Rahner, who taught dogmatic theology. As the time for ordination drew near, I started to get cold feet. I really loved my studies and felt called by a divine Caller to be an academic. However, uncertainty came over me as I contemplated ordination to the priesthood. Little did I know at the time, but similar thoughts raced through Bob’s mind. He felt called to study psychotherapy more than work as an ordained priest for the rest of his life. I felt called to the intellectual life either as a professor or as a researcher in theology. In the end I consented to be ordained. After ordination, I pursued the Ph.D. degree in theology at the University of Munich, a large institution with over 34,000 students in 1968. On the weekend I worked as a civilian chaplain for the U.S. Army, Europe, in Murnau, Garmisch, the recreational area for U.S. forces in Germany, and Oberammergau, site of the famous passion play put on every decade. I said Mass for the troops, heard confessions and learned to do counseling by the seat of my pants. My doubts took the form of questions, which I recorded in my diary at that time. “I’ve seen Christ work through me in the confessional and in preaching,” I wrote in my journal entry on Dec. 12, 1969. I believed that “God will see me through.” I taught graduate theology in the fall of 1970 at the major seminary of the Conventual Fransciscans in Rensselaer, N.Y., St. Anthony on Hudson. During this time my doubts about my vocation to religious life and to the priesthood intensified. I perceived a yawning chasm between my intellectual formation and that of my conferees in the Franciscan Order. How thrilled I was to return to (the University of Munich) to continue writing my dissertation … However in Munich I continued to struggle with loneliness.
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From the end of 1971 I lay on my deathbed as regards my membership in the Franciscan Order. In December I mustered up enough nerve to make a transatlantic call to Nancy Hare and tell her that I loved her. I had not known her that well, having met her briefly on four occasions. Nancy, a Sister of Mercy, was taking a shower when I called. Although completely flabbergasted, she did not brush me off because I hardly knew her. Instead, she answered in her own diplomatic way: “Rich, we’ll talk about it when you return from Europe.” I took her answer as a “yes.” Although tempted to fly home and see her in person, my twin, Bob, dissuaded me from this and told me to finish my doctorate first. I took his shrewd advice and received the doctoral degree, magna cum laude. God had indeed come through for me. I then flew back to New York. I informed my superiors in the Franciscan Order about my decision to leave. One of them suggested that it would be sinful. They provided psychological counseling in hopes that I might change my mind. A tug of war took place in the narrow confines of my heart. After all, I had gone off to the Franciscans when but 15 years old. I had spent 17 years a Franciscan and loved them. I felt as strong a call to leave religious life as I had received in entering the Order. In the 30 years since I made the decision to leave, I have never looked back, never for once doubting the wisdom of my decision. I did not leave simply to get married. Other factors loomed large. All kinds of turmoil raged within the Catholic Church at the time, all as a result of Vatican II. My own theological views had become much more liberal ever since I entered the Canisianum (a Jesuit seminary in Austria) in 1963. When I returned to the States in 1973, my Franciscan conferees were still living theologically in the pre-Vatican II days. They doubted my orthodoxy. I also had this dilemma: As a priest, the laity had the expectation that I would tell them the church’s views on the morality of contraception, homosexuality and divorce. I did not always agree with the church on these issues. I felt compelled to leave the active ministry in order to be true to myself. I still think of myself as a priest, but one on special assignment. I feel less conspicuous now without the Roman collar. I feel liberated, able to act as a force for good in the world. Excerpted from Bobby Brown and Richie Blue: A Spiritual Memoir (Hamilton Books, 2010) by Richard Penaskovic and Robert Penaskovic. Richard Penaskovic is a professor of religious studies at Auburn University; Robert has a private psychotherapy practice in Mineola, N.Y.
full vision
success
As part of our 21st Century vision, Auburn is investing in our students’ futures. Each year 20 undergraduates participate in research with faculty as part of one-year competitive research fellowships in their major. Students partner with a faculty member on projects and contribute to academic papers. Biomedical sciences major Jessica Williams was one of those awarded a 2009-2010 fellowship. Working one-to-one with her faculty mentor, Ya-Xiong Tao, Jessica studied a hormone receptor associated with inherited obesity to complement Dr. Tao’s study of obesity. “The undergraduate research program provides the opportunity for students to develop a relationship with a faculty mentor that is both personal and professional. Mentors serve as a constant source of information and encouragement as students are stretched and challenged by the research process. This experience greatly expands students’ self-confidence and vision of what they are capable of accomplishing in the future,” says Leanne Lamke, director. This type of faculty support is one reason Auburn ranked in the top third of universities participating in the National Survey of Student Engagement for having a supportive campus environment. Jessica has a success FULL vision for her future: “If we can determine which defects cause people with these mutations to be obese, the next step will be to develop ways to correct these defects, which will ultimately help people suffering from this form of inherited obesity.” “Next year, I will be heading to medical school at Emory University. I plan to participate in research there as well, preferably in an HIV-related study.” You’ve made your Auburn Family proud, Jessica.
www.auburn.edu
Good luck and War Eagle!
“I believe in Auburn and love it.”
Auburn Alumni Center 317 South College Street Auburn, AL 36849-5149
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