UNO Magazine Summer 2014

SUMMER 2014

THE DIFFERENT WAYS WE GET TO WHERE WE’RE GOING

TWO LOCATIONS - OFF 180TH & DODGE

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BAXTERAUTO.COM

SUMMER 2014

VOL. 5, NO. 2 WWW.UNOALUMNI.ORG/UNOMAG

MANAGING EDITOR Anthony Flott ASSOCIATE EDITORS Jennifer Arnold Charley Reed ART DIRECTION Heidi Mihelich Emspace Group COVER ILLUSTRATION Tom Nick Cocotos CONTRIBUTORS Dave Ahlers, Jeff Beiermann, Mike Bell, Noelle Lynn Blood, John Burger, Rick Davis, John Dechant, Colleen Kenney Fleischer, Eric Francis, Austin Gaule, Matt Houston, Susan Houston Klaus, Sarah Kole, Greg Kozol, Stephanie Montgomery, Nate Pohlen, Alyson Roach, Bonnie Ryan, Carrielle Sedersten, Terry Stickels.

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Association

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Letter from the Chancellor

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Letters to the Editor

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Letters from the Editor

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12 Philanthropy Matters

17 Get to Know The Colleges High on Grass

Athletics Sea Legs

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Travel Tips

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ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS TO 80,000 UNO GRADUATES! TO LEARN MORE, CONTACT GARY DOMET AT 402-995-1918 OR GMD6@COX.NET.

UNO Magazine is published three times a year by the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the UNO Alumni Association and the NU Foundation. Direct editorial inquiries to Managing Editor: UNO Alumni Association, 6705 Dodge St., Omaha, NE 68182-0010. Phone: 402-554-2444; tollfree, UNO-MAV-ALUM, FAX 402-554-3787.

Email: aflott@unoalumni.org Send all changes of address to attention of Records or visit www.unoalumni.org/records Views expressed within this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the UNO Alumni Association or the NU Foundation.

Flying Fortress

Fear in the Air

Flying into History

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Keeping UP on Track Century Club Donor Roll

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CLASS 52 NOTES

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Sights & Sounds

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For Fun

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FROM THE CHANCELLOR

Dear Alumni and Friends: IN FEBRUARY, THE UNIVERSITY of Nebraska at Omaha lost a great alum and a good friend — Jim Young.

Jim has served as president, chairman and chief executive officer of Union Pacific Railroad. While he no doubt would have played a significant role in this edition of UNO Magazine dealing with “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” I want to dedicate this particular space to remembering him.

Moreover, I want to share with our readers the selfless generosity that was so much a part of Jim and his wife, Shirley’s, friendship with UNO. A native Omahan, Jim graduated from UNO in 1978 and remained loyal to his alma mater and his community throughout his life. He was a member and past chairman of the board for the Association of American Railroads, Joslyn Art Museum, and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce and served various other organizations, including Creighton University and UNMC. He was a member of the executive committee of the University of Nebraska Foundation’s ongoing Campaign for Nebraska and was chair of the UNO Campaign. In 2009, he and Shirley were named hosts of the UNO Centennial celebration and Shirley also chaired the UNO Women’s Walk in 2011.

It is to his credit that during his tenure as UNO Campaign chair, UNO’s average annual gifts grew from $9.3 million per year to $27.5 million. His extraordinary volunteer efforts were recognized by the NU Foundation in 2012 with its top volunteer award, the Perry W. Branch Award for Volunteer Service. The UNO Alumni Association in 2005 also honored Jim with its highest honor, the Citation for Alumni Achievement.

Jim was the kind of person who touched lives wherever he went, and so it was no surprise when he and Shirley announced their intention to create a special fund to assist low-income students attending UNO — the Jim and Shirley Young Scholarship Program. Jim believed UNO students “represent what is great about America, where hard work and education allow individuals to improve the quality of life for themselves and their families.” Jim and Shirley’s commitment is helping more than 12 students each year attain higher education goals previously beyond their reach.

I am proud to say Jim was my friend. His infectious optimism and enthusiasm to meet challenges head-on and leave situations improved were, and continue to be, an inspiration to me and to others on a daily basis.

UNO is a better place and Omaha is a stronger community for Jim Young’s concern, vision, and efforts. That, I believe, is his legacy and how he will be remembered now and always.

Until next time, Chancellor John E. Christensen

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TO THE EDITOR CLEVER CLOCK I found your Letter from the Editor fascinating and illuminating. But I am writing because I think some credit should be given for whoever thought of changing the numbers on the scoreboard in the gym at the 100th Anniversary celebration pictured on page 9.

John Vogt Masengarb, ‘73 West Saint Paul, Minn.

On Spring 2014 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR UNO Magazine wants to know what its readers are thinking. Write us about the magazine or university. Letters must include writer’s first and last names, address and phone number and may be edited for taste, accuracy, clarity and length. Submit a letter at www.unoalumni.org/unomag-led or write to the address on page 3.

HAD ME AT HELLO What an outstanding issue ... from layout to editorial content to feature stories! To borrow the flavor of a line from one of my favorite films, “You had me at the issue’s cover.” I’ve been reading your magazine for quite a while, now. This issue is an example of journalism at its finest. Kudos to you and your team!

Larry Miller Chief Deputy, Omaha Register of Deeds BETTER THAN FOLDING LAUNDRY After bringing the kids home from swim practice late this evening, I intended to fold laundry.

Thankfully, I gave into temptation and instead read the (entire) issue of UNO Magazine. As always, you have outdone yourself — both in terms of the overall issue and in terms of your opening letter.

I’m so glad you decided to share your family history with us — what a STORY! Lynn K. Harland CBA Associate Dean & Professor of Management UNO

EDITOR’S NOTE: The scoreboard showed a score of 19 to 13 with 20:13 left on the clock. Credit goes to Director of Alumni Programming Elizabeth Kraemer.

CHANGE IS GOOD I’m very impressed by the content and quality of UNO Magazine’s issue, Spring 2014. In particular, I am so proud to know that the UNO student body honored Native Americans by changing our name from Indians to Mavericks in 1971. I commend UNO for that and am proud to be part of this heritage.

Thank you for this relevant issue.

Tisa M. Anders, ‘83, ‘89 Lakewood, Colo.

BETTER THAN BEFORE The comments about “Are race relations better in America today than when MLK delivered his speech?” are comical. No one mentioned that Americans elected and re-elected a black man for our president. Maybe History 101 needs to update the current affairs lesson and point out the amazing advances made in this country.

Tom Murray, ‘85 Weatherby Lake, Mo. FEATURE TRIFECTA Three great articles — Marlin Briscoe, Ouampi and Genocide — all terrific reads for very different reasons. I always enjoy getting the magazine and look forward to the articles, as well as keeping up with people I knew when I was a student and an employee. I don’t remember, however, an issue with three articles back-to-back-to-back like this one.

Terry Forman, ‘79 Omaha BEAUTIFUL WANDA Wanda … would have liked the theme of the magazine, “About Face: Changes in how we look. Changes in how we think.” Beautiful Wanda — you were such a force and we sure do miss you!!”

FINALLY This is the first time I have actually read UNO Magazine cover-to-cover. In the past, I have complained to anyone who would listen about the absence of diversity in this magazine. I walked the campus for six years for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees … it has always been multicultural. Yet the cover of the magazine and UNO ads seem to always trumpet white faces.

This spring’s cover prompted me to pick up the magazine and look inside. I was amazed at the stories on race, as well as our cultural differences and similarities. If you never produce another magazine you’ve hit the ball out of the park with this issue. Thank you for your personal story and for addressing these issues in a mature and engaging manner. Finally!

Stephanie Cook Clark, Goodrich Scholar, ‘07, ‘09 La Vista, Neb.

On Fall 2013: “Armed Forces” ON THE FRONTLINES SERVING VETS I served as a VA benefits counselor on the UNO campus from 1974 to 1977. From 1977 to 1979 I worked in the same position as a UNO employee while pursuing my engineering degree. The history of serving veterans and active duty members during that time needs to mention that UNO had the largest veteran and active duty population in the US using the GI Bill with more than 3,000 participants per semester. We staffed an office of UNO employees and VA work study students who served. We also assisted veterans with disability claims to the VA. We were the first campus to submit a computer-based veteran enrollment to the VA, which saved hundreds of hours of submitting manual enrollment forms. Our office originated a deferred tuition payment process where the veteran or AD member received additional time to pay for their tuition until their VA checks were issued. We also assisted in finding campusoriented work study and VA Loan Guarantee programs. This was a full-service office for our veterans and AD personnel.

William Galbraith, ‘79 Edmond, Okla.

Jill Rizzo, graphic designer wife of 1998 grad Brian Wetjen, Omaha EDITOR’S NOTE: Wanda Ewing, professor in UNO Department of Art and Art History, passed away Dec. 8. Her work was featured in our last issue.

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FROM THE EDITOR The first car I ever drove to UNO was a 1978 AMC Gremlin.

Now, that’s not easy to type those words.

Introduced in 1970, the Gremlin was based on the equally miserable AMC Hornet — only shorter and, somehow, even uglier. It’s a bit like saying the bologna sandwich was based on the braunschweiger sandwich — there’s less meat, but it’s still nasty.

My family bought the Gremlin new when we had five kids and safety precautions were only meant for people who couldn’t withstand car accidents.

The youngest sat on my mother’s lap, held with the non-smoking hand so smoke wouldn’t get in her face. The next three monsters rode in the “back seat,” which really didn’t exist if the folks in the front seat reclined their seats back even a smidgen past 90 degrees.

I was the oldest and got the hatchback to myself. It required a bit of contortionism to make it work, but the view was magnificent out the large window that every now and then would flip open when we’d hit a bump.

This was the sweet ride I took to UNO in the fall of 1985. And I did my very best to kill it.

Driving down 72nd street one night in the rain I ran a red light and got T-boned by a blazer. It smashed the passenger door so that it couldn’t open. I wasn’t wearing a seat belt and the impact slammed me into the driver’s door, also rendering it inoperable.

For the next week I had to climb in and out through the driverside window á la “Dukes of Hazzard” — until I figured out the driver’s door was just locked.

A few months later, during a snowstorm, a car rear-ended me.

The hatch flew up, again, only this time shattering when it came down. Plastic taped to the sides became my new rear window.

Fortunately, I was able to buy my second-ever car soon thereafter, a 1972 Oldsmobile Delta 88 that had room for five or six Gremlins —in the back seat alone. The Gremlin was passed down to my brother.

Slowly but surely, my rides got better. But that didn’t just happen. I earned a degree, then a job.

That meant money.

That meant no more Gremlin.

Thanks, UNO.

Anthony Flott Managing Editor

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Installed

Jordan Koch, president/regent, and Adam Mackenzie, vice president

Association Appoints New Board Members, Executive Committee at Annual Meeting THE UNO ALUMNI ASSOCIATION conducted its 102nd annual meeting May 20, confirming a new executive committee and electing new members to serve on its board of directors.

THE UNO ALUMNI ASSOCIATION’S longstanding support of the university’s student government leadership continued in April during installation of the student body president/regent and vice president. Association President Lee Denker presented certificates to Jordan Koch, president/regent, and Adam Mackenzie, vice president, recognizing scholarship support the association will provide to each.

Koch and Mackenize ran unopposed in the March 11 election. Both serve one-year terms.

Since 1983, in celebration of the university's 75th anniversary, the association has provided a Student Regent Leadership Award scholarship (now $2,400) to the president. In 1997 the association began issuing a scholarship ($1,200) to the student vice president. Combined, these scholarships have totaled more than $60,000.

The meeting was held at UNO’s new Community Engagement Center.

David Craft (pictured) will direct the Alumni Association as 2014-15 chairman of the board. Craft is senior investment strategist and vice president at Wells Fargo Private Bank in Omaha. He earned a BA from UNO in 1990 and an MBA in 1992. He will be the 91st graduate to chair the board.

Also at the meeting, four new board members were elected to serve three-year terms. They include: Randy Stevenson (1982), Baird Holm; Brian Allison (2005), Children’s Home Healthcare; Tamara Williams (2003, 2009), Millard Public Schools; and Monique Farmer (2003), ConAgra Foods.

Shonna Dorsey (2003, 2010), Interface: The Web School, and Dr. Tina Scott Mordhorst (1989), UNMC Physicians, were elected to second three-year terms.

A complete 2014-15 board roster is provided at www.unoalumni.org/board Director Appreciation Awards were issued to outgoing board members Lou Anne Rinn (1977), Union Pacific Railroad; Jill Goldstein (1991), Kutak Rock; and Deb Anderson (2000), Project Harmony.

Garrett Anderson, outgoing past chairman, was presented a miniature Maverick Monument in appreciation of his service to the board. Anderson joined the alumni board in 2008 and was chairman in 2012-13. Owner of Anderson Print Group, he earned an MBA from UNO in 1996.

Need Photo

UNO Alumni AFTROTC Chapter honors graduating cadets SEVEN SENIORS IN THE U.S. Air Force ROTC program left UNO with a parting gift, courtesy of the UNO Alumni AFROTC Chapter.

The chapter on May 9 presented graduating cadets with their gold second lieutenant bars and the epaulet rank worn on the shoulder of their uniforms. The seniors also took their oath from a military officer during the event, held in the Thompson Alumni Center. Afterward, family members pinned the bars on the newly commissioned officers.

This is the sixth class of graduating cadets the chapter has provided with commissioning sets.

In April, the alumni chapter and two members also presented three scholarships.

That includes a $500 scholarship presented to Cadet Kyle Schuhmacher in recognition of academic standing and performance in aerospace classes. Two other scholarships were presented by chapter members Syntha Essex and Marcel Kahn.

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Young Alumni Academy

APRIL 10 WAS GRADUATION day for 2013-14 members of the UNO Young Alumni Academy, an award-winning leadership development program designed for alumni 35 and younger that facilitates networking and professional growth.

The group attended eight sessions held at locations on and off campus, including a behind-the-scenes tour of the CenturyLink Center and time flying in the cockpit of UNO’s Flight Simulator. UNO leaders also addressed members on topics such as athletics management, student focus and community engagement.

The capstone session included a tour of UNO’s 168-foot-tall Henningson Memorial Campanile followed by a ceremony at the Thompson Center.

Sending seniors off

IN STYLE

The UNO Alumni Association celebrated commencement with more than 500 graduating students during the 2014 Senior Send-Off May 8 and 9.

More than 130 young alumni have taken part in the program, which enters its fifth year in September.

Seniors were given free UNO Alumni Cards and UNO Alumni pins and had their pictures taken in the UNO Alumni photo booth. Photos were posted on the Association’s Facebook page and emailed to each participant. Maverick Productions also provided a free picture frame magnet to each senior who stopped by the alumni booth.

Applications for the 2014-15 UNO Young Alumni Academy are being accepted at http://unoalumni.org/unoyoungalumni.

Direct questions to Elizabeth Kraemer at ekraemer@unoalumni.org or 402-554-4802.

Waving the Flag for UNO Show the O campaign travels the world UNO GRADUATES CONTINUE TO Show the O around the world — and even to the bottom of the sea.

Instituted to celebrate the UNO Alumni Association’s 100th anniversary, Show the O emphasizes the spread and stature of the worldwide UNO alumni network — now numbering 100,000 graduates.

Launched in January 2013, the campaign provides alumni, students and friends with “O” flags to display in photographs where they live or travel. Photographs are displayed on an interactive world map at http://showtheo.com. Maverick nation has taken the flag to more than 50 countries and to all but a handful of states.

Indonesia

Former Mav Tim Rock Showed the O from behind his camera, getting a stunning underwater image of pals Simon Pridmore and Sofie Hostyn at the Bluewater Mangrooves dive site in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Rock, pictured in the boat, lives in Guam and is a contract photographer for Getty Images Lonely Planet Collection, for which he's written and photographed more than a dozen diving guides for destinations all over the world.

Where can YOU Show the O? Request a flag at showtheo.com — we'll send one for free and pay for its way home.

Guam

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Maverick Monument to Take its Place THE MAVERICK MONUMENT WILL be unleashed on the UNO campus Sunday, Aug. 24, as part of the New Student Convocation and All-Campus BBQ. The monument, an 8-foot-high, 1,500-pound bronze bull statue, was commissioned last year to celebrate the UNO Alumni Association’s 100th Anniversary. Based on a fighting bull, the powerful, muscular Maverick Monument symbolizes the determination, pride and success of UNO

students and alumni and the opportunities before them.

2 p.m. That will be followed by an official dedication of the Maverick Monument.

The monument will be installed amid a new plaza in front of the Sapp Fieldhouse and HPER Building. It is expected to become a generational and offering interactive photo opportunities for students, alumni, visitors and media.

Nationally renowned artist Jocelyn Russell, who created the monument, will be at the unleashing, as will other campus dignitaries and monument donors. All alumni are invited to the free event and the BBQ to follow.

Students new to UNO will gather for a convocation inside the HPER building at

For more event details, visit http://unoalumni.org/mavmonument

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Class of 2011 Again Proves Up to the Challenge Once again, the Class of 2011 showed itself to be “best in class” during the 2014 Durango Challenge.

And they did it $20.14 at a time, using the power of many to make a big impact.

Beginning in April, the UNO Alumni Association sought gifts of $20.14 from the last five graduating classes in honor of the Class of 2014.

As victors, the Class of 2011 welcomed this year’s graduates with gifts of UNO Alumni pins. Also, “Class of 2011” will be etched on a marker on the Maverick Monument.

The Class of 2011 also won last year’s challenge.

Gifts support UNO Alumni programming, communications, student scholarships, the Thompson Alumni Center and outreach efforts that make the alumni network’s reach greater and impact stronger.

Citation Award Presented to Astronomer/Physicist THE UNO ALUMNI ASSOCIATION bestowed its Citation for Alumni Achievement award upon Dr. Penny Sackett Friday, May 9, as part of the university’s May Commencement weekend ceremonies. Sackett is an internationally acclaimed physicist, astronomer and former Chief Scientist for Australia. In 2005, she was part of a global network of astronomers to discover the first known Earth-sized planet orbiting a normal star other than the Sun. The citation was inaugurated in 1949 and is the association’s highest honor. It encompasses career achievement, community service, involvement in business and professional associations, and fidelity to UNO. A 1978 UNO graduate, Sackett is the 164th citation recipient.

“Penny has made a name for herself not just on three continents, but in the cosmos, too,” said Association President Lee Denker. “Her star shines brightly, and we’re proud to count her among our alumni network.”

As Chief Scientist for Australia from 2008 to 2011, Sackett provided independent advice to the Australian government on matters of science and innovation. She maintains an adjunct professorship at Australian National University (ANU) and is an independent strategic advisor and facilitator serving corporate, government and not-for-profit sectors in Australia and abroad.

Celebrate 100 years of dreams coming true.

Since 1913, UNO alumni have come together to help today’s students pursue their goals and achieve their dreams. As we enter our next 100 years, join us in continuing that mission with a gift to the UNO Annual Fund today. Your gift will support alumni programs, events that support scholarships, the Thompson Alumni Center, and

communications like this magazine. Together with UNO’s worldwide alumni network, we can make our reach greater and our impact stronger.

You are an important part of our 100-year history.

Be a part of our future through the UNO Annual Fund.

unoalumni.org/give

Her career has included posts at the University of Pittsburgh, the National Science Foundation, the University of Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Studies, the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and the Australian National University School of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

She is a world expert on dark matter, the mysterious substance scientists believe accounts for a quarter of the mass in the universe. She also is a champion of sustainability, climate change and food security. In October she will serve on a committee at the 4th Nobel Laureate Symposium, “Changing Climate, Changing Cities,” in Hong Kong.

Sackett lives in New South Wales and holds dual citizenship in Australia and the United States.

See her full bio and more about the award at unoalumni.org/citation

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Alumni Night of Honor to Debut Oct. 9 THE UNO ALUMNI ASSOCIATION in October will introduce the Alumni Night of Honor, a NEW all-university homecoming celebration that highlights achievement by members of the UNO alumni network.

UNO Alumni Teaching Award Honors Nine Faculty THE UNO ALUMNI ASSOCIATION celebrated the 18th year of its Alumni Outstanding Teaching Awards program when it presented the honor to nine faculty members during the UNO Faculty Honors Convocation in April.

Association President Lee Denker presented the awards, established in 1997 to honor distinguished teaching in the classroom. Peer committees in each college chose recipients, each of whom received a $1,000 award. Denker presented recipients with commemorative plaques during the convocation reception in the Thompson Alumni Center.

With the 2014 awards, the association has issued $158,000 through the program. For recipient biographies, visit unoalumni.org/aota2014

Recipients, listed in order of their appearance in photo: TROY ROMERO Goodrich Scholarship Program, College of Public Affairs & Community Service ROBIN GANDHI School of Interdisciplinary Informatics, College of Information Science & Technology

The event will be held Oct. 9 at the Thompson Alumni Center. It will celebrate 2014 UNO Athletics Hall of Fame inductees, Alumni Achievement Award winners, and other distinguished alumni who have earned special recognition for service or professional accomplishments.

More details will be available in the coming weeks at unoalumni.org/nightofhonor.

Direct questions to Elizabeth Kraemer at ekraemer@unoalumni.org or 402-554-4802.

34TH SCHOLARSHIP SWING SET FOR SEPT. 8

CLAUDIA GARCÍA Foreign Languages, College of Arts & Sciences KAY KEISER Educational Leadership, College of Education GWYNETH CLIVER Foreign Languages, College of Arts & Sciences LAURA ILCISIN Accounting, College of Business Administration NICHOLAS NEWMAN Art and Art History, College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media JOHN MCCARTY Biology, College of Arts & Sciences LIM NGUYEN Computer & Electronics Engineering, UNL College of Engineering, Omaha campus

PARTNERSHIPS Insurance

Are you in need of home, life, auto, health or life insurance? The UNO Alumni Association offers graduates insurance for these and other needs at discounted rates. See all the coverage available at www.unoalumni.org/insurance.

Travel

The UNO Alumni Association is pleased to announce discounted travel opportunities for alumni through a partnership with travel provider Go Next! Join fellow graduates on our first cruise offered for 2015 — Polynesian Paradise, Oceania Cruises, March 15-25, 2015 For more information, visit www.unoalumni.org/travel. To receive a brochure, call the association toll-free at UNO-MAV-ALUM (866-628-2586).

THE UNO ALUMNI ASSOCIATION is seeking sponsors and prizes for the 34th annual UNO Chancellor’s Scholarship Swing — its largest annual fundraiser. Last year’s Swing netted $35,000, bringing the total to nearly $800,000 since the Association began hosting the event in 1995. Almost 100 golfers and 50 sponsors participated in 2013.

The 2014 Swing will be held Monday, Sept. 8, at Tiburon Golf Club.

More information about the event is available at http://unoalumni.org/swing. To participate, contact Elizabeth Kraemer at 402-554-4802 or ekramer@unoalumni.org.

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PHILANTHROPY MATTERS Left: Jason Vanis, Scott Vlasek and Jay Vidlak.

Below: Members of the Flying Mavs with the Loening Tropy.

From Classmates to Partners UNO graduates form strong bond between Aviation Institute, Jet Linx Aviation THEY SAY COLLEGE IS where you meet your lifetime friends. For Scott Vlasek, Jason Vanis and Jay Vidlak, those words couldn’t be truer.

Scholarship Program. It’s clear the company recognizes the irreplaceable opportunity of a local university offering a degree in aviation.

Not only did they gain friends for life in each other, but they also laid the foundation for a tremendous partnership between the UNO Aviation Institute (UNOAI) and Jet Linx Aviation without even knowing it.

“It’s important to be able to provide the internships and support for these students,” says Jason Vanis, vice president of flight operations at Jet Linx Aviation. “They are the future of our industry.”

Given their last names and professions, call it the V formation.

Internships at Jet Linx provide hands-on experience in areas of fractional ownership, charter and aircraft management. Students also gain experience and knowledge about the differences between a corporatestyle business and an airline.

“The partnership started with numerous alumni coming to work for Jet Linx,” says Jay Vidlak, vice president of base development at Jet Linx Aviation. “Jason and I both went through the program and graduated with Scott. As we came to Jet Linx, we wanted to repay UNO for the opportunities it gave us.”

Since its founding in 1999, Jet Linx has hired a number of UNO graduates. At one time, 90 percent of the Jet Linx flight department and fleet utilization team were UNO alumni. Jet Linx currently employs 16 UNO alumni between its corporate headquarters and Omaha base location.

During the last 10 years, Jet Linx also has become an important partner of the Aviation Institute. Jet Linx offers internships, sponsors the UNO Flying Mavs flight team and hosts the Jet Linx Aviation Institute Golf Classic, which raises funds for the institute’s Student

“We allow students to see as much or as little as they want,” says Vanis, a 1998 UNO graduate. “Any of the departments are available to them, even if it’s not aviation-related. We want them to walk away from our internship knowing that the aviation industry has outstanding career opportunities in all areas of the field.”

Founded in 1990, UNO’s Aviation Institute prepares students for careers in two specializations: Air Transport Administration and Professional Flight. The program, which debuted a new flight simulator in 2013, has 130 students and nearly 600 alumni.

With the help of private support from Jet Linx Aviation, it’s become one of the most recognized aviation

programs in the nation. In 2012 it received the Loening Trophy, presented annually to the most outstanding all-around collegiate aviation program in the nation.

UNOAI will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2015.

“Winning the Loening Trophy was one of the most significant accomplishments of the Aviation Institute,” says Scott Vlasek, director of UNOAI. “Being tied to such a significant award that has such rich history and validating UNO as one of the most outstanding collegiate aviation programs in the country is incredible.”

Jamie Walker, president of Jet Linx Aviation, concurs.

“UNOAI has been and continues to be the foundation for aviation in Omaha and the surrounding Midwest,” Walker says. “We are proud to be a supporter and help foster the development of future leaders in aviation.”

Vidlak, also a 1998 grad, says UNOAI has made significant strides the last decade by adapting to advances, raising funds and bringing new products to the program. Vanis agrees.

“Hands down, the UNO Aviation Institute is one of the best in the country,” he says. “The leadership offers passion and dedication. Even though Scott is the director, he is so involved with the program that the students know who he is. I believe that’s why they have continued success in the program.”

Vanis and Vidlak credit their careers to the education they received at UNO. “Going to UNO allowed me to move back to Omaha and work with Jet Linx because of the connections I made in the aviation industry while I was still in school,” Vanis says.

Adds Vidlak: “I always thought I would be living somewhere other than Nebraska for the rest of my life.

I was fortunate enough to land a job with Jet Linx, and if I had known that when I graduated, I would have never done anything else.

“It’s great to be a part of an organization that is involved with my alma mater.”

— Carrielle Sedersten, University of Nebraska Foundation

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PHILANTHROPY MATTERS

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT OMAHA Amount Raised Toward $150 Million Campaign Goal

2005

$195,303,835

607

89%

new funds have been established during the campaign to support UNO.

UNO CAMPAIGN PRIORITIES • Building the educated workforce of tomorrow.

• Engaging our community.

of UNO campaign gifts are from Nebraska households/organizations.

• Enriching campus and community life.

11,593 60% 80% individuals have made donations to UNO during the campaign.

2014

of UNO donors have donated for the first time during the campaign.

of UNO students apply for financial assistance.

The Campaign for Nebraska is a four-campus fundraising campaign benefiting the University of Nebraska.

campaignfornebraska.org/uno All statistics as of April 30, 2014. The Campaign for Nebraska began in July 2005 and will conclude December 2014.

New CBA program prepares future business leaders

A component of the honors program will emphasize mentorship opportunities, bringing together UNO students with business leaders. Picture above, UNO College of Business Administration students and the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett.

Building upon an innovative curriculum and talented faculty, UNO’s College of Business Administration will launch a new honors program fall 2015. A cohort of gifted young business leaders will graduate annually well prepared to make a significant positive impact in the Omaha business community.

Central to the program’s success is securing private support for the program’s endowment. These gifts will fund student scholarships, a strong mentorship and internship component, and a study abroad experience.

Leadership gifts by Omahans Ruth and Dennis Duffy, a retired Union Pacific executive, and the Mammel Foundation have enabled the college to begin building the program.

For more information contact the University of Nebraska Foundation’s Sue Kutschkau at 402-502-4109 or at skutschkau@nufoundation.org.

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CARING & SHARING Union Pacific continues to give back to UNO and its community, one reason more than 750 graduates work for the Fortune 200 company

YOU FEEL IT RIGHT away when you start working at Union Pacific, she says — a culture of caring for others and for the community.

You feel it, she says, when you step on the elevator and there stands an executive, acting like just another part of the team.

You feel it and you realize that this culture is making you a better person, too.

“I feel very proud to work for a company that isn’t only focused on their bottom line,” UNO graduate Trisha Ponce says. “They care about their communities, and they are making positive impacts. That has really helped to shape my loyalty to Union Pacific and, in turn, my work ethic.”

Ponce is 25. She graduated from UNO with an accounting degree in 2011 and now works as a business manager for Union Pacific’s Mexico sales team. A former intern, she works at the company’s headquarters in downtown Omaha. Her job takes her to Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City.

The first time she felt the company’s generosity was when she received a Union Pacific scholarship as an undergraduate. It helped her achieve her dream of being the first in her family to graduate from college.

“My mom was very proud,” she says. “She has always encouraged me to pursue my education, and receiving the scholarship also reflects on her hard work bringing me up as a single mother.”

Ponce says Union Pacific executives get involved in the community and encourage employees to do so, too. She recently joined two local nonprofit boards: the Heartland Latino Leadership Conference and ALPFA Nebraska, a Latino association for business professionals and students.

She feels good knowing how much Union Pacific has given over the years to students like her at UNO, and how it much it has given to UNO in other ways. Among them: • Union Pacific created the Union Pacific Community Chair in Computer Science Education at UNO last fall. The first recipient of the endowed chair is Dr. Brian Dorn, who left the University of Hartford to take it. He will use it to promote and enhance computing education locally, regionally and nationally. Dorn, a Nebraska native, was especially thrilled to have the Union Pacific name associated with the chair. “It’s where my grandfather spent his entire career,” he says.

• Union Pacific is one of three main donors to the new Community Engagement Center, which officially opened on campus in April. The CEC, located south of Criss Library, is the front door to campus and will be the university’s signature venue for community outreach. The center supports university-community partnerships and helps meet growing demands for community meeting and planning space. Its atrium bears the Union Pacific name.

• Union Pacific is one of the major donors to the new UNO/Community Arena, being built south of the Pacific campus.

• Union Pacific’s former CEO Jim Young, also a UNO graduate, was UNO’s campaign chair for the University of Nebraska Foundation’s current fund-raising initiative, the Campaign for Nebraska, now in its final year. Young died earlier this year after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

Ponce remembers the first time, as a new employee, she met Young in person. She was nervous.

“He was a very down-to-earth guy, grew up in South O, attended UNO and became CEO of a Fortune 200 company,” she says. “He was the type of person to inspire trust in others right away.”

Ponce is one of about 750 UNO graduates who work at Union Pacific. Current president and CEO Jack Koraleski, who replaced Young, also graduated from UNO. “This world-class university, which happens to be right here in our hometown, equipped us with the skills we needed to compete in the global marketplace and end up leading one of America's greatest companies," Koraleski says.

Ponce’s dream is to continue to grow with Union Pacific. When My mom was very proud. She she started, she was has always encouraged me. surprised to have so many people tell her that they’d been working for Union Pacific for 30 years or more.

It’s obviously a great company, she says, and that’s why people stay.

“I appreciate what Union Pacific did for me as a student as well as the support I continue to receive as an employee,” she says. “Every dollar invested in scholarships for students is an investment in our country’s future. There is so much talent out there, we can’t allow it to be held back simply because of a financial challenge.

Private companies like Union Pacific donate money because they want to help. This helps create a stronger workforce.

“It’s a win-win for everyone — the company, the schools, the students and the community.”

— By Colleen Kenney Fleischer, University of Nebraska Foundation

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Toasting a Friend Remembering the life of UNO graduate and advocate Jim Young

Six years ago, Jim Young stood before an audience of hundreds of people, raised a glass of champagne and toasted his alma mater.

“It is an honor and a privilege to call myself a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha,” said Young, whose toast closed the university’s 2008 Centennial Gala celebrating UNO’s 100-year anniversary.

Earlier this year, numerous toasts near and far were made for Young, who passed away Feb. 15 after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 61. He is survived by his wife, Shirley, three children and two grandchildren.

Young had served as president, chairman and chief executive officer of Union Pacific, where he began his career in 1978. That was the same year he graduated from UNO with a business degree. In 2005 the UNO Alumni Association presented him with its highest honor, the Citation for Alumni Achievement.

Young was a longtime friend and champion of his alma mater, serving as a University of Nebraska Foundation Trustee and chair for the foundation’s current fundraising initiative, the Campaign for Nebraska. The campaign, in its final year, has raised more than $230 million, exceeding its goal of $150 million.

Jim and Shirley Young, who also served as hosts of the UNO Centennial in 2008, were steadfast supporters of UNO. Among their many gifts, they established the Jim and Shirley Young Scholarship to assist low-income students in 2011.

UNO students, Young stated during his remarks at the UNO Centennial Gala, “represent what is great about America; where hard work and education allow individuals to improve the quality of life for themselves and their families.”

Young knew what he spoke of firsthand. A native Omahan, he was the oldest of six children and lived in Omaha all his life. He attended UNO after graduating from Omaha South High School. While attending UNO he married and worked at Northwestern Bell.

Jack Koraleski, current Union Pacific president and CEO, called Young an “icon” at Union Pacific and counted him as a “great friend” as well as colleague.

“Jim Young and I were raised in South Omaha, had similar, middle-class childhoods and spent our careers working for Union Pacific,” said Koraleski, who received two degrees from UNO. “We had many similarities, but one that stands out is where we chose to receive our business education: UNO.” Young began his career with Union Pacific in an entry-level finance position and would hold a variety of professional, managerial and senior management positions. He was named president and chairman in January 2004 and CEO in January 2006.

Many people commenting on his passing cited his outstanding leadership.

“We recently celebrated the life of Jim Young at Union Pacific and everyone can tell you that he really cared about the people, about the employees of Union Pacific,” says Trisha Ponce, a 2011 UNO graduate and a business manager for the company’s Mexico sales team.

“He helped create the culture that we have here today, where you’re not just an employee, but a person.”

Young was extensively involved in the railroad industry and Omaha community. He was a member and past chairman of the board for the Association of American Railroads, Joslyn Art Museum and Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of the boards of Creighton University and the Nebraska Medical Center and also served Girls, Inc., United Way of the Midlands, Boys Town and the Nebraska Council on Economic Education.

He and Shirley in 2012 were honorary chairs of the Ambassador of Hope Gala that benefits the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center at UNMC.

In 2012 the University of Nebraska Foundation honored Young with its top volunteer award, the Perry W. Branch Award for Volunteer Service.

“Jim played a critical role in leading UNO toward unprecedented success in the Campaign for Nebraska,” said Brian Hastings, president and CEO of the University of Nebraska Foundation. “His hard work, leadership, integrity and love of the University of Nebraska and the Omaha community inspired and influenced countless individuals.

“His investment in others will be a lasting legacy for an extraordinary man.”

The Young family requests memorial gifts be directed to the Jim Young Pancreatic Cancer Research Memorial Fund at the University of Nebraska Foundation. For more information contact the foundation’s Tom Thompson at 402-502-4116 or tthompson@nufoundation.org.

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Driving a Legacy Tal Anderson established a history of giving that his family continues today EVEN WHILE A STUDENT at Omaha University in the late 1950s, Tal Anderson was getting a lift from cars.

to a great school and future business leaders of Omaha. We believe we are investing in that story and repeating it over and over again.”

Anderson was a two-sport standout for OU then. In 1958, he was among the leading free throw shooters in small college basketball and a leading scorer for the team. On the diamond he was a catcher and part of one of the university’s finest baseball teams ever. The 1959 OU squad went 15-0 and won the Central Intercollegiate Conference regular season title, then finished second in the NAIA national championship.

His father started that by establishing the Tal Anderson Business Scholarship, a scholarship for UNO baseball and basketball athletes in the College of Business Administration. He also was a member of the UNO Alumni Association Board of Directors, the UNO Chancellor's Committee and the College of Business Advisory Board.

That said, money was tight as Anderson attended school on a partial scholarship. To make ends meet during his sophomore year, Anderson got a job pumping gas at a Benson Texaco station owned

by Johnny Baxter Chrysler Plymouth. Soon thereafter, Anderson sold his first car for Baxter, a 1950 Chevy, to a college friend for $250.

Anderson enjoyed selling cars part time for Baxter so much he left school to do so full time. Shortly thereafter Anderson bought stock in Baxter’s dealership after winning and then selling a new car he had won in a sales contest in the Kansas City area. Eventually, the small-town boy from Stanton, Iowa, a small, farming town just 64 miles southeast of Omaha, built an automotive empire.

The partnership between Anderson and Baxter flourished, and by the time Baxter was ready to retire, Anderson had completed his business degree at UNO and owned 49 percent of the company.

Anderson bought the other 51 percent of the company, creating the foundation of what today is Performance Automotive Group.

Anderson, who died in August 2009 after battling leukemia for more than a year, never forgot his UNO roots, creating, with his wife, Mary Joy, a legacy of giving that continues today.

“What our family sees in UNO is how the American dream still exists,” says Mickey Anderson, Tal’s son and today president of the automotive group. “We saw it in our father’s story growing up in a small town. Because of UNO, he had the opportunity to be exposed

The scholarship, Mickey Anderson says, “Allows Omaha to retain their very best and brightest students. Because of its very broad offerings, UNO gives a great educational opportunity to a wide array of students.”

For Zac Robinson, a former UNO basketball player and Anderson scholarship recipient, the opportunity to connect with the family of a previous UNO basketball player was a special honor.

“It was a great experience to meet the Anderson family and have a relationship with them as they continue to support the program.”

Robinson says. “UNO is a tight-knit community where former teammates and athletes stay around Omaha because the support system from UNO and the athletic department is incredible.”

Says Anderson: “The Anderson family will always invest in UNO.” “Our father made us aware of what it means to the community, especially the students,” says Mickey, who in 2012 was co-chair with his sister, Angie Quinn, of UNO Athletics’ The One Fund, which supports more than 250 UNO student-athletes. “We know what UNO can do for its students, and our involvement goes even beyond our father’s love for the school. We certainly see what a tremendous asset it is to the community. We will continue to invest in the story of our father because the way we see it, UNO is one of Omaha’s greatest hidden gems.”

— Carrielle Sedersten, University of Nebraska Foundation For more information about supporting your alma mater contact Lori Byrne at the University of Nebraska Foundation, 402-502-4920 or lbyrne@nufoundation.org.

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GET TO KNOW he answered WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CAR — AND WHY? It is actually a truck; I just love the looks of the Ford F150 SVT Raptor.

we asked

SCOTT VLASEK Director, UNO Aviation Institute

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB? Mulhall’s Nursery from 1987 to 1992. I started as an Irrigation Specialist, or “water boy,” as I liked to call it. I was then a yard hand, was on a landscape crew for a couple of years, and my last year I was a supervisor of summer help.

I got to drive a number of types of tractors and trucks. I actually learned to drive a stick at 15 in the yard.

WHAT WAS THE BEST ADVICE YOU EVER RECEIVED? Be happy in what you do for a career. You spend too much time at work so make sure you enjoy it.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE WEEKEND HANGOUT? With family and friends. Either in the neighborhood or at a Mavs game.

WHAT IS YOUR SECRET TO HAPPINESS? To live life to the fullest and to have a positive impact on my family and friends.

we asked

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CAR — AND WHY?

My favorite car is a train compartment, because I most prefer to travel by train.

answered Gwyneth Cliver Professor, German

My favorite car is the type of car I own, a Toyota Corolla, because it is reliable. I know that I can always count on it to get me to the places I need to go, especially for my many impromptu road trips!

answered Jordan Koch 2014-15 UNO Student President Text by Austin Gaule, UNO Alumni Association.

A 2014 Toyota Highlander because my parents just got one, and it’s just got so many fun gadgets, and it’s the perfect size. Not too big and not too small!

answered Sami Spenner Track Heptathlete

My favorite car is my 1960 Plymouth — my dad restored it for me. He did all the work on it.

answered Brian Haaland Former Mav Hockey Player, Penske Racing pit crew coach Photo: Courtesy Team Penske

My favorite car I’ve owned was a 1972 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia convertible.

I bought this car new when I got out of the Army. It was fun to drive both every day to school and work, and at weekend rallies. It was my poor man’s Porsche.

answered James Ecker UNO Parking Manager

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Ticket to Ride

An App Takes Flight THE PLANES IN NEBRASKA’S Strategic Air and Space Museum are fun to look at — but it’s even more fun to take them apart.

Virtually, at least.

That’s possible thanks in part to UNO students and faculty who helped build a mobile app for the museum via Project MATTERS — Mobile Applications Transforming Teaching, Engagement and Research for Students.

WITH THE INCREASING PRICE of gasoline, UNO’s Student Government (SG-UNO) offers a sustainable form of alternative transportation for its fellow Mavericks.

In 2011, SG-UNO formed a partnership with Omaha Metro Transit called MavRide, enabling currently enrolled UNO students to ride the bus for free an unlimited number of trips per semester.

SG-UNO funds the program and distributes passes on a first-come, first-served basis.

Students can get a pass in the SG-UNO office by presenting their MavCard.

“MavRide is a great service for our students and has turned out to be an excellent way to reduce parking demand on campus,” says Angela Eikenberry, associate professor of public administration and UNO’s Sustainability Committee chair. “The cost to commute by car for one year is estimated to be $6,800 — a cost greatly reduced or eliminated with MavRide. Students also save time from having to look for a parking space.”

SG-UNO now offers up to 800 passes in the fall and spring semesters and 200 during the summer.

Demand is strong. Since the program’s inception more than 4,300 passes have been provided to UNO students. Through March, those passes have been used on more than 150,000 trips.

—Stephanie Montgomery, University Communications

To use the app, visitors find and scan QR codes next to planes on display. That allows them to collect virtual parts that can be reassembled into a plane that may or may not fly depending on how the parts are affected by the four forces of flight: thrust, drag, lift and weight.

“Right now, if you walk through the museum, especially for young people, they just see a lot of old planes,” says Neal Grandgenett, professor of STEM education at UNO. “They don’t understand the engineering and the science behind what makes those things fly.”

The app was created by five UNO students and nine faculty members from the College of Information Science & Technology and the College of Education working with 24 high school students and seven Omaha-area teachers, and representatives from the UNL Extension 4-H Youth Development office. The program was funded by a $100,000 grant from the State of Nebraska’s Nebraska Research Initiative to produce real-world solutions via mobile technology through collaborative work between the University of Nebraska and K-12 schools within the state.

To create the app, each student group was assigned a plane to research and program

into the app utilizing 3-D modeling software. The research and models were brought to UNO students to be coded.

“The things we learn here in college are … how people can learn on their own and bring things together in a collaborative way,” says Zac Fowler, IT outreach director for UNO's College of Information Science and Technology. “At the high school level, the things that students are exposed to are pretty new. We faced a lot of challenges we weren’t expecting because of the concepts that they just hadn’t learned yet.”

The SAC Museum app launches this summer.

Members of UNO’s student leadership group for Project MATTERS traveled to Washington, D.C., in April to showcase it at the annual USA Science and Engineering Festival.

“Zac and his team and the high schoolers worked together to make this happen,” Grandgenett says. “I think it is a really important partnership.”

The partnership enters its second year with a new client — Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo. This year’s Project MATTERS has students will work on multiple app ideas, ranging from informational scavenger hunts utilizing GPS capabilities to fighting games based on educational knowledge of animal species.

Throughout it all, Grandgenett says, the ultimate goal was creating a process that can be replicated at dozens or even hundreds of other schools across the country and world.

“It’s very raw, what the teachers have been able to give them, but they certainly have a lot of energy and tenacity for the task at hand.“ — Charley Reed, University Communications

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Zipping Along Car-sharing program logging big miles at UNO EVEN IF THEY DON’T have their own wheels, UNO students always have a ride waiting just a reservation away.

That’s thanks to the university’s partnership with Zipcar, an automobile-sharing program at UNO since February 2013. Open to students, faculty, staff and community members, it provides two cars that can be rented by members for rates ranging from $7.50 per hour to $69 per day.

Going Places with Art UNO Art in Public Places Class gets student artwork around campus, on the road

Helm says good public art requires a level of ambiguity, so breaking up the first two projects into stand-alone images and words underscored the process of learning public language.

THERE’S NO MISTAKING THE SIGNS — Professor David Helm’s students are really going places.

“I came up with this idea for them to work with visual ‘ingredients’ that are familiar to people,” he says.

“That way audiences will immediately recognize what it is, but the artistic elements then leave it open to interpretation.”

Last semester, in fact, they reached all corners of campus.

That happened through Helm’s Art in Public Places course. In it, students learned and fine-tuned the process of creating and presenting public art. Doing so, says Helm, a professor of sculpture in the UNO department of art & art history, is more than just placing artwork in shared space and walking away.

His course progressed in two phases. First, students developed road signs to place around campus. Each student had to request permission from administrative staff before placing their sign on property, then stood near their sign during the display period to observe reactions of passersby. For the second phase, students developed large-scale words and walked across campus March 10 creating “wordy interventions.”

“I’ve really been challenged by this class,” says Jacob Mosher, a senior studio art major. “It has forced me to think about art in other ways, particularly the application towards a broader audience.”

Nadia Shinkunas, also a senior studio art major, says thinking about how other people might interpret one’s work has been eye-opening.

“The more mindful and respectful you are of other people’s opinions and feelings, the easier it is to achieve your goals,” she says. “This will help me in the future, not only with the art that I create, but in dealing with the public in general, which is sometimes difficult for artists to do.”

— Noelle Lynn Blood, College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media

“It is no doubt a great service to have available to students, especially students who live on campus,” says Angela Eikenberry, an associate professor of public administration and UNO’s Sustainability Committee chair. “With Zipcar, a student could live on campus car-free and still get to the store, restaurants, entertainment venues, etc.”

Zipcar is proving popular. One year after it launched, the program saw a high of 37 reservations in February 2014 with 1,347 miles driven between the two cars. Since Zipcar’s debut there have been 309 reservations totaling 16,010 miles.

Zipcar estimates each of its cars takes 15 other cars off the road.

“Zipcar is an important option in addressing our transportation needs,” says Patrick Wheeler, UNO’s senior environmental health and safety specialist. “It provides one option that has proven effective in reducing the need for vehicle ownership, reduced costs for users and reduced the burden of parking vehicles on campus.”

For more information on Zipcar and to learn how to join, visit www.zipcar.com/unomaha.

— Sarah Kole, University Communications

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Partners from the Start Charter partner organizations of UNO’s Community Engagement Center.

A Time To Heal Inclusive Communities MaverickPR Metro Area Continuum of Care for the Homeless (MACCH) Nebraska Shakespeare Festival Nebraska Watershed Network Nebraskans for Civic Reform UNO Office of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS) Omaha by Design Omaha Public Library Queer Nebraska Youth Networks Sigma Phi Epsilon Social Media Lab Spirituality, Public Health, and Religion (SPHRS) Support and Training for the Evaluation of Programs (STEPS) UNO Sustainability Organizations The Omaha Community Foundation (OCF) UNO Volunteer Program Assessment Wellness Council of the Midlands (WELCOM) WhyArts?

The Power of Place The Power of Partnership UNO’s Community Engagement Center open for business SINCE ITS INCEPTION IN 1908, UNO has served Nebraska’s most populous city.

Now, more than a century later, that commitment has a physical home in UNO’s newest building — the UNO Community Engagement Center (CEC).

Opened in March and formally dedicated in April, the CEC is the only comprehensive stand-alone engagement-specific university facility in the country. Begun in October 2012, it is UNO’s newest building and among its largest at 60,000 square feet.

Under the guidance of Sara Woods, assistant to the senior vice chancellor for community engagement, 21 community and university partner organizations are utilizing the space with more certainly to come.

“We are already witnessing the impact of co-locating our community and university partners in the CEC,” Woods says. “Organizations are developing collaborations, planning service-learning opportunities and research activities and enriching their operations through shared resources and services.

“Community and campus organizations are using our meeting spaces for their events, which in turn is raising our campus profile as an eager and accessible partner.”

The CEC’s partners were competitively selected from UNO and across the Omaha area. As part of the partnership, the community organizations have access to UNO resources, such as the university’s expansive library collections, faculty experts and student workers. University partners in the building will be extensively involved in outreach throughout Omaha area.

In addition to the community and university partners, several signature university outreach programs are permanently housed in the CEC: UNO’s award winning Service Learning Academy; the new Student Volunteer and Leadership Collaborative (home to UNO’s signature service days), and the William Brennan Institute for Labor Studies. Additionally, the CEC is home to the University of Nebraska’s Buffett Early Childhood Institute.

“Dedicating campus space specifically and intentionally to community engagement is simply the right thing to do, and this is the time to do it,” Woods says. “By investing in engagement, we are investing in the success of our students, the national impact of our campus, and the well-being of our community.”

— Alyson Roach, University Communications

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Two for the Road FOR UNO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Specialist Michael Grube, the 20 minutes he spends commuting to and from work each day on the Keystone Trail are sacrosanct.

“You can’t build yourself out of that problem,” says Eikenberry, an assistant professor in the School of Public Administration. “If you build more parking, people drive to use it.”

On the seat of his bicycle — not in his car — Grube spends six miles charging his batteries before the workday, then another six re-charging them after the final whistle blows. That’s a lot of charging, considering Grube pedaled more than 5,200 miles in 2012 and 2013.

But Eikenberry points to two UNO advantages she hopes will bring even more bikers — a campus located in the center of the city and connection to the extensive Keystone Trail system. Those advantages could be amplified, Eikenberry says, with small enhancements at UNO such as more bike racks, bike loan stations and perhaps a facility where riders could change clothes and shower.

“It feels like I have this tiny little secret,” says Grube, 38, (pictured, second and third photos) who rides even in winter. “I’m so much happier on a bike.

I’m saving money on gas, I get in a light aerobic workout and it jazzes me up for the day.

“And on these spring days, to be able to get off work and unwind on my bike… .”

Grube’s not alone in his passion for cycling.

According to David Corbin, emeritus professor in HPER and longtime bicycling advocate, approximately 370 riders bike to campus.

Corbin says UNO has come a long way recently to encourage bicycling to campus. He credits the construction of on-campus residence halls with aiding a spike in bike traffic.

Still, there’s a car-first mentality that’s difficult to overcome.

“People still have a tendency to think that cars are the best way to get around,” Corbin says.

“But, really, parking is the most stressful thing here at UNO.” Agreement comes from Angela Eikenberry, who each day bikes or walks to campus, where she is chair of UNO’s Sustainability Committee.

Changes are being implemented. A recent grant, provided in part through Live Well Omaha and the Douglas County Health Department, helped replace all bike racks on campus. And Corbin was instrumental in starting a bike “library” program in HPER’s Outdoor Venture Center. There, faculty, staff and students can check out a bike, helmet and bike lock for free for up to two days.

UNO Student Government and Blue Cross Blue Shield, meanwhile, have funded two B-cycle stations on campus, partnering with Omaha’s bike-sharing system. The program began in 2009.

A half-dozen bikes are available to rent at daily, monthly and annual fees.

All that is one reason why UNO in 2012 received honorable mention from the League of American Bicyclists as a Bicycle Friendly University.

If that trend continues, Grube’s little secret will be secret no more.

— John Dechant

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Have a Seat UNO splashed its “O” logo around town in early 2014 with branded messaging on various Metro Area Transit bus benches. The marketing push features eight designs on 30 benches, including stops near TD Ameritrade Park in time for the College World Series.

COME ON DOWN! THE PRICE HAS BEEN right for at least three Mavericks since 2007. That’s how many UNO folks have come away winners on TV’s longest-running game show, “The Price is Right.” Most recent was senior Danyelle Stephenson, who in February walked away with more than $50,000 in cash and prizes, including a new Chevy Spark. Just three years ago, then-sophomore Chelse Koca won more than $56,000 in prizes on the show, including a 2011 Toyota Prius and a six-day, all-expenses paid trip to Barcelona. In 2007, UNO graduate Aaron Rouse (then a student at Hastings College), won a Pontiac Vibe on the show.

Photos: Courtesy Danyelle Stephenson

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UNO SHUTTLES: 40 Years of Moving People Across Campus Complaining about parking is something of a rite of passage at UNO. One that bonds one generation of students to the next.

And it’s been that way from the start — even at UNO’s former campus at 24th and Pratt Streets where the university stood from 1908 to 1938. One Gateway article talked of students parking so close together on both sides of Pratt that passage was blocked — as were driveways of adjacent homes.

Back then, streetcars helped ease congestion. For the last 41 years, shuttles have been the answer.

UNO has utilized some form of shuttle service since 1973. Today, up to a dozen shuttles can be seen transporting students, faculty and staff among UNO’s Dodge Campus, Pacific Campus and the Crossroads Mall. According to UNO Parking Services, an average of 2,000 passengers a day ride the inter-campus shuttles while 1,800 passengers a day use the Crossroads shuttle system.

University Archivist Les Valentine witnessed the start of UNO’s shuttle system firsthand as a student. Its introduction, he says, was a necessary byproduct of UNO’s entrance into the University of Nebraska system.

That meant more students competing for the same parking stalls.

“We need to remember that during this whole shuttle history, UNO was expanding in programs and buildings,” Valentine says. “Having a shuttle system is something that UNO has always been able to fall back on if people are upset about parking availability.”

Originally, UNO’s shuttle service transported passengers between the old Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum and Dodge Campus. That appeased residents of nearby neighborhoods who didn’t want students parking on their streets — or the university taking properties with an eye toward converting them to parking lots.

“The argument the neighborhoods had was, ‘Why do you need to tear down these houses for parking? Why not use a shuttle?’” Valentine says. “UNO administrators’ response was that we have shuttles and there is still a problem. Ironically, we both took the space to the west and began using shuttles.”

As UNO continued to expand westward and into what is now the Pacific Campus, the purpose of UNO’s shuttle service changed.

“The shuttles now are really serving as a people-moving system rather than a point A to point B remote parking transportation solution,” says Jim Ecker, UNO’s parking manager.

Ecker says that while there remains a need for off-campus parking transportation, there is a high likelihood it soon will be eliminated in favor of the new surface parking created when UNO opens its new arena in 2015. Approximately 1,700 spaces will be available for students to use when no events are scheduled.

“We anticipate at some point we will not be able to use Crossroads,” Ecker says. “That remote parking will go away and the replacement will be the surface parking down there.”

Ecker says UNO is exploring ways to improve scheduling and provide more user-friendly information on the shuttle system.

“We would like to look at technology to improve operation in terms of scheduling,” he says. “We have looked at other universities that have shuttle systems and they have GPS systems and very sophisticated scheduling. There are some that are less intensive that, through apps, can tell you information about the bus schedule.”

While there is no way to tell what the next 40 years will hold for UNO’s parking situation, there is a strong likelihood that, somehow, shuttles will continue to play a major role.

— Charley Reed, University Communications

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ATHLETICS

Mavericks Honor Their Own at Annual Banquet

GOING THE DISTANCE

Seniors Sami Spenner and John Karhoff received career achievement awards during the annual Maverick Awards Banquet April 27. More than 500 people attended the fifth annual event at Embassy Suites in La Vista, Neb., where the Mavericks presented 11 awards.

Spenner, UNO’s track and field standout, won the Connie Claussen Senior Career Achievement Award, which recognizes outstanding career athletic, academic and community service. Karhoff, from the men’s basketball team, won the Don Leahy Senior John Karhoff and Sami Spenner Career Achievement Award, which recognizes a male athlete who has had a similarly sterling career. Men’s basketball players have won four of the five Leahy Awards.

Spenner also earned the Marian Ivers Female Athlete of the Year award while Josh Archibald was named Male Athlete of the Year for his All-American season for the UNO hockey team.

Senior Melanie McCormick of the women’s soccer team earned the inaugural ACE Award, given to the student-athlete who completes his/her career with a career 4.0 grade-point average.

Other awards presented: Mikaela Shaw, women’s basketball Female Newcomer of the Year

Going the Distance Here’s a look at the farthest each of UNO’s 15 Division I teams has or will travel to compete this year — plus a long hike by individual standout Sami Spenner to prove she’s among the nation’s elite pentathletes.

Basketball – Honolulu, Hawaii 3,820 MILES

Christian Garcia, men’s soccer Male Newcomer of the Year

Tennis – Coral Gables, Fla. 1,655 MILES MEN’S

Monica Bosiljevac, women’s soccer Bob Kruger Commitment Award for outstanding community service Joe Marinkovich, men’s soccer Dr. John Langan Phoenix Award for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity

Baseball – Port Charlotte, Fla. 1,533 MILES Hockey – Durham, N.H. 1,496 MILES Soccer – Nashville, Tenn. 742 MILES Tennis – Miami, Fla. 1,649 MILES

Amber Lutmer, women’s soccer Maverick Muscle Award

Basketball – Bakersfield, Calif. 1,564 MILES

Zahn Raubenheimer, hockey Maverick Muscle Award

Sami Spenner, Track and Field – Walnut, Calif. 1,533 MILES WOMEN’S

Josh Archibald

Golf – San Diego, Calif. 1,610 MILES

Softball – Kissimmee Fla. 1,437 MILES Golf – Ocala, Fla. 1,352 MILES Soccer – El Paso, Texas 1,012 MILES Volleyball – Hammond, La. 979 MILES Cross Country – Fort Wayne, Ind. 617 MILES Track and Field – Fort Wayne, Ind. 617 MILES

Mikaela Shaw

Christian Garcia

Monica Bosiljevac

Joe Marinkovich

Amber Lutmer

Zahn Raubenheimer

Swimming and Diving – Indianapolis, Ind. 612 MILES

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ATHLETICS

RUNNING, WALKING TO $152,000

Taking Shape UNO/Community Arena rises on Center Street WHILE THE AMOUNT OF construction on UNO’s Dodge Street campus has been considerable during the last five years, the biggest project in campus history is just now hitting stride south of Center Street.

Set to open in October 2015, the UNO/Community Arena is taking shape at 67th and Center Streets. The future home of UNO hockey, basketball and volleyball will be a transformative project not only for athletics but also for the campus and the Omaha community.

Construction crews have finished deep foundations on which the 7,500-seat arena and practice ice will sit. Structural steel was rising through the summer, giving passersby an early look at the new building’s profile.

Associate Athletic Director Mike Kemp says work is on schedule for UNO to open the building for its first athletic event, a hockey game against Air Force in October 2015.

Kemp in early spring was finalizing contracts for all subcontractors working on the building. The selection of some vendors, such as those providing ice-resurfacing machines and dasher boards, already has been made due to the long time needed for production and fulfillment of those items. UNO Athletics also was hiring arena management staff.

Kemp says less visible aspects of the arena project — such as development of a ticketing plan for the building — are ongoing.

Site work continues around the building. Due to the amount of earth brought in for the project, the arena will sit from 5 to 10 feet above the initial lay of the land. A bridge across Papio Creek also was taking shape.

For ongoing updates of the arena, visit OMavs.com and click on the link for “Maverick Minutes,” a monthly video featuring a behind-the-scenes look at arena construction and other stories from Omaha Athletics.

— Dave Ahlers, Assistant Athletic Director, Communications

AN ESTIMATED 1,100 PEOPLE took part in UNO’s annual Claussen-Leahy Run & Walk, held April 26 at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village. The event, one of the marquee fundraisers for UNO Athletics, brought $152,000 for scholarships and program enhancements for all 15 UNO teams.

The Run & Walk, now in its third year, is an outgrowth of the former UNO Women’s Walk, which began in 1986 to raise money for women’s athletics. Since then, the events combined have raised more than $4.5 million.

The 2014 Run & Walk, now in its second year at Aksarben Village, featured a first-ever 10K run, a 5K run and a 2K walk. It began with an 800 meter Kids' Race and an Elders' Walk around Stinson Park. UNO student-athletes also conducted sports clinics for all Kids' Race participants.

Joe and Kacey Lempka chaired the 2014 Run & Walk and more than 50 vendor booths were available.

INTO THE HALL THREE MAVERICKS WERE INDUCTED into the Omaha Sports Hall of Fame April 24 at the Scott Conference Center on UNO’s campus.

Entering the 2014 class were Associate Athletic Director Mike Kemp, former football player Chris Bober and former basketball player Dean Thompson Jr. UNO track and field standout Sami Spenner also was recognized as the hall's Sportswoman of the Year for her record-setting year in the pentathlon and heptathlon.

Kemp was UNO’s first hockey head coach, starting the program in 1996. He guided the Mavericks for 12 years, compiling a record of 171-178-54. In 2004-05, Kemp was named the Central Collegiate Hockey Association Coach of the Year, and he was a finalist for the Spencer Penrose Trophy as national coach of the year three times. He led the Mavericks to their first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament in 2006. He was inducted into the Omaha Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010.

Bober was a two-time All-American who played for the UNO football team from 1995 to 1999. He played seven years in the NFL with the New York Giants and Kansas City Chiefs, retiring in 2006. He was inducted into the UNO Athletics Hall of Fame that same year.

Thompson, who played for the Mavericks from 1980 to 1984, is the Mavericks’ all-time leading scorer with 1,816 points. He led UNO to 81 wins and three trips to the NCAA Division II tournament. Thompson was named All-North Central Conference in each of those seasons and a second-team All-American as a senior. In 1984, he was the Omaha Sportscasters’ Association Sportsman of the Year. He was inducted into the UNO Athletics Hall of Fame in 1990.

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ATHLETICS

Bits of the Bull NEW GROUND UNO soccer squads open their first full season on new pitch as all Maverick teams enter final year of Division I transition For much of 2013, getting to play on-campus seemed like an almost unattainable goal for the UNO men’s and women’s soccer teams.

Work eventually was completed but both teams combined to play just a handful of games on the beautiful, all-weather surface (The guys played three games, the gals two).

Optimism — and the hope for a significant home-field advantage — abounds as 2014 approaches.

“Having a facility like Caniglia Field allows us to attract top opponents, and that builds the profile of your program, especially one like ours that’s so new,” says Jason Mims, UNO men’s head coach. “Soccer is a small world, and if you have high-caliber teams come in, word spreads and you’re able to attract more teams from the top conferences for non-conference games.”

Mims’ team opens its fourth season at home Aug. 29 and Aug. 31 against, respectively, traditional powers UC Santa Clara and Stanford.

“When you schedule great teams in a great facility, your guys get excited,” Mims says. “They train harder and they play harder and eventually, if you have success, that should help you recruit top players.”

Previously, UNO’s women’s soccer team played its home games on the UNO soccer field at Chili Greens, a modest facility even by the Division II standards under which the Mavericks once played.

“Now, we can practice, change, get treatment in the training room, workout and study all in one place,” Klosterman says. “We have the best of all worlds. There is not a better facility in the Summit League than ours.”

Rookwood, a three-year starter who tied for the team lead with four goals, three of them gamewinners. All-Newcomer selection Mark Moulton, a forward, also is part of a talented 2013 freshman class ready to take leading roles in 2014.

Women’s Soccer

The UNO women’s soccer team returns seven starters in 2014, led

by All-Summit League Second Team The women play their home opener Aug. 22 against defender Hannah Wampler. Wampler Incarnate Word. and all-freshman left back Lauren Lawler anchor a back line that helped Following is a preview of all Maverick teams the Mavericks reduce their goalsplaying this fall. All UNO teams now have against average from 2.33 in 2012 completed two seasons of Summit League play to 1.81 in 2013. Also contributing to that effort and enter their final year of Division I transition.

Beginning in 2015 Maverick teams will be eligible is junior goalie Meaghan Clark, the Mavericks’ starting goalie each of the past two seasons. to compete for Summit and NCAA postseason championship appearances.

The Mavs finished 3-11-2 overall and 1-6 in the

Men’s Soccer The UNO men’s soccer team has increased its win total each year of its three-year existence and will look to continue that trend this fall after posting a 6-9-1 record in 2013.

The Mavericks closed hot, winning their last three games and four of their last six last. That included a 3-3 record in the Summit League for third place overall. UNO remains ineligible for the conference tournament for one more year, but the Mavericks hope to contend for the regular season title.

Omaha must replace four starters from last season’s squad, including goalkeeper Matt Grosey who allowed only five goals in six Summit contests.

Josh Christensen, who started every game in net as a freshman in 2011, redshirted last fall and will be a junior and the lead candidate to replace Grosey.

UNO returns 10 players who started at least seven games last season, The UNO women’s soccer team, established in including All-Summit 1999, views its first full season at Caniglia Field a League First Team center bit differently.

Felipe da Silva of Rio de “For me, it goes deeper than just the full season,” Janeiro, Brazil, Summit League Newcomer of the says Don Klosterman, the only head coach in Year Christian Garcia, team history. “For us, it’s so important to be in a forward, and Vance one place.”

Summit League after starting 3-5-2. In their final six losses, four came by one goal or in overtime.

Gone are top goal scorers Melanie McCormick and Monica Bosiljevac. Returning are midfielder/ forward Chelsi Rohloff and forward Ava Doetsch, both sophomores. Rohloff led the team in shots (29) and shots on goal (14). Center midfielder Courtney Neville returns after her first year in the program, too. Neville played more minutes than any other Maverick attacker and had one assist and seven shots on goal.

UNO has one more season to complete before it becomes eligible for the conference tournament in 2015.

Volleyball With two seasons of Summit League play under its belt and its final year of Division I transition on the horizon, the Omaha volleyball team is ready for the 2014 season.

Junior middle blocker Megan Schmale highlights UNO’s corps of returning players as the first Maverick in school history to earn All-Summit recognition with honorable-mention status in 2013. As a sophomore, Schmale averaged 1.16 blocks and 2.02 kills per set. Her blocking average ranked among the top 100 nationally. She also led the Summit League in blocks per set, block assists and total blocks, and her .295 attack percentage

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ATHLETICS

ranked fifth among league hitters through regular-season play.

A veteran group of juniors with considerable starting experience joins Schmale. That includes outside hitter Kelley Wollak, middle blockers Amy Taylor and Diane Banderas, libero Kimberly Bailey and setter/rightside hitter Michaela Schimmer.

"Kelley and Amy are really stepping up and becoming attacking threats, and we're developing into a group of hitters who can score a lot of points," head coach Rose Shires says. "Kimberly is also playing at a high level as our libero.

"We're pushing to be a more solid team both offensively and defensively this season. Our blocking has continued to prove itself worthy of the Division I competitive level, and we spent a lot of time in the spring on our offensive ability to score."

The incoming freshman class includes a pair of high school All-Americans, a first for the Maverick program, in outside hitter Mackenzie Horkey (Chaska, Minn.) and setter Sydney O'Shaughnessy (Omaha Marian). Horkey's team played internationally in Italy in April, and both she and O'Shaughnessy were part of club squads that qualified for national tournaments in the summer.

"We're excited for our freshmen to come in and compete for spots this fall," Shires says. "They'll bring a lot of competitiveness to the mix."

Oral Roberts' return to the Summit League also will change the landscape of play for the Mavericks in 2014.

"With Oral Roberts, Denver, IUPUI, Fort Wayne and South Dakota on our schedule, five of our nine league peers will have had an RPI of 130 or higher in 2013," Shires says. "That makes our already strong conference even stronger and makes the season tougher, but it gives us a great challenge. Our goal as a team is to finish in the top half of the Summit League."

Omaha opens its 2014 schedule with the Omaha Classic tournament at Sapp Fieldhouse Aug. 29-30. The field includes Central Michigan, Drake and UMKC. The Mavericks continue with the Iowa State-hosted Cyclone Classic and road tournaments at Saint Louis and Texas A&M Corpus Christi before Summit League play begins Sept. 26.

Cross Country UNO’s cross country team returns nearly all its roster from last season, giving a reason for optimism to Coach Marc Bierbaum.

“I’m excited because we’re a year older,” Bierbaum say. “We were a young team last year, and that additional experience is going to help.”

seasons have progressed, you can see that the guys do things well and through that, they’ve gained the maturity that’s needed to compete at Division I.” Leading scorer Karl Krieser returns for his senior year as do classmates Alex Holtan and Taylor Sidzyik. All three have played for the Mavericks since UNO launched its Division I program. The Mavs also return Lucas Gervais, a senior who transferred from Minnesota State Fergus Falls last season, junior Mitch Ryan and sophomore Miles Russell. Four new players have been added to the roster.

Iowan Kristin Rogers of Cedar Rapids was UNO’s top runner in three of the Mavericks’ six races last season. She’ll be counted on to lead the way for a team looking to improve on its sixth-place finish in the Summit League Championship.

Unlike most sports, golf has a split season with teams playing in the fall and spring. Though the fall schedule is not yet finalized, the Mavericks will host the Maverick Collegiate Invitational at Arbor Links Golf Club in Nebraska City in early October. Last year, they finished second in their first-ever Division I home tournament.

Rogers and fellow seniors Ashley Kildow, MiKayla Peck and Katarina Zarudnaya will be the nucleus of scoring for the Mavericks. Also expected to contribute is redshirt sophomore Kristen Carmichael and junior Perla Gutierrez, who sat out last year after transferring to UNO.

The Omaha women’s golf team has dealt with a roster in flux during the first three years of its Division I transition. Several players have left the team while others have transferred. Still, Tim Nelson will begin the fall season with a solid onetwo combination of junior Katie Kesti and senior Sophie Peters. The duo finished as UNO’s top scorers last season, and Kesti made major strides in her second year with career-best 18-hole and tournament scores.

The Mavericks compete in a collection of regional meets, including the Woody Greeno Invitational at Nebraska in September, before taking part in the Summit League Championship in Fargo in early November.

“We’re going to continue to be a young team with just one senior and a few new people,” Nelson says. “Because our players are playing more holes and longer courses when they get to college, we’re still trying to help them grow their experience in these situations. That will help us be successful.”

Men’s Golf

In addition to Kesti and Peters, juniors Makenna Kroeker and Gentry Carveth and sophomore Kat Slump are expected to return.

All but one player from 2013 returns for the Maverick golf team, now in its third year and continuing to establish its foothold as a Division I team.

“When we started the men’s program, our players didn’t have extensive competitive experience,” says Tim Nelson, UNO director of golf who oversees the men’s and women’s teams. “As the

Women’s Golf

Nelson is also upbeat about his incoming players, a class that includes McCook, Neb., native Megan Vetrovsky, the 2013 Class B individual champion.

– Dave Ahlers with Nate Pohlen and Bonnie Ryan, UNO Athletics

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UNO professor studies prairie grasses as untapped source of biofuel

By Greg Kozol

When visitors take in the vista of UNO’s 320-acre Glacier Creek Preserve north of Omaha, they’re getting a glimpse of the past.

“You can see nothing but prairie,” UNO Biology Professor Tom Bragg says. “What we’re looking at is probably the way it was in the 1800s.”

THE MAVERICK Ford produced 2,099,263 Maverick cars in the United States from 1969 to 1977.

LEARNING TO FLY Founded in 1990, UNO’s Aviation Institute prepares students for careers in two specializations: Air Transport Administration and Professional Flight. The program, which debuted a new flight simulator in 2013, has 130 students and nearly 600 alumni.

RUNNING FOR COVER Air-raid drills began at Omaha University in January 1942 and continued at least through 1943.

But the preserve also might be providing a look at the future.

benefits of switchgrass as opposed to crops like corn.

So says Bragg’s colleague Tim Dickson. Also a biology professor, Dickson believes the tall grass prairies of Nebraska and other Midwestern states can not only help prevent erosion and fight pesty insects, but they also might one day fill up our gas tanks and help America gain energy independence.

The research could open the door to increased use of switchgrass as a biofuel.

Right now, corn and soybeans are widely used because the seeds can be easily converted into biofuel. Engineers are trying to develop ways to make switchgrass a viable option, but widespread commercial production remains elusive.

“The idea that you can have your cake and eat it too, to have these landscapes that have environmental benefits and have a commodity that you can sell, is kind of appealing,” Dickson says. “People are looking for alternatives.”

Dickson has studied the advantages of planting switchgrass and other types of prairie grass. His research, published with 16 other authors by the National Academy of Sciences, primarily examined ecological

“It’s kind of the difference between eating corn and eating grass,” Dickson says. “Corn is a lot easier to break down than grass.”

What Dickson’s research shows is that switchgrass offers environmental advantages — even if an immediate cash benefit doesn’t exist from biofuel production.

Consider the soybean aphid, a soft-bodied insect that feeds on one of the largest crops in the Midwest. Making matters

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Photo: Eric Francis

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worse, the aphid reproduces prolifically, causing significant economic damage as an infestation spreads during the growing season.

Dickson’s research found that switchgrass, a perennial with plenty of stumps and plant litter left over during the winter, creates a perfect natural habitat for animal and insect species. Some of those species happen to be predators of the soybean aphid, allowing farmers to control the pest with less reliance on insecticides.

“What we found is in some ways not surprising,” he says. “The number of species in perennial grasslands is a lot higher than the number that exists in corn.”

In addition, switchgrass reduces greenhouse gas emissions through microbes in the soil that prevent the release of methane.

Switchgrass also prevents erosion, which is important for marginal lands planted with corn during the ethanol boom.

“Switchgrass can grow in degraded soil, poor soils,” Dickson says. “It tends to be more productive in richer soils.”

Much of Dickson’s research centered on fields in Michigan and Wisconsin. But

there’s plenty to study at UNO’s Glacier Creek Preserve, which has doubled in size in recent years to 320 acres. It boasts a seas of prairie grass, birds, butterflies and numerous other species — all just 12 miles from UNO’s campus.

Visitors, says Preserve Director Bragg, “drop off the road and can’t believe they’re looking at grassland all around them.”

The future could bring a 228-acre expansion, if enough funds can be raised.

Bragg calls the preserve an “underthe-radar” asset that allows research opportunities on prairie management, small mammals, bird populations and soil management.

marginal lands. This is important, Dickson says, because switchgrass is necessary for controlling erosion and it will be relegated to poorer soil as long as corn and soybeans are more profitable.

The current research reminds Dickson of the days when he found himself at “ground zero” of the ethanol debate. Corn-based ethanol generated enormous benefits for rural areas and energy consumers, but at a

Once farmers can convert switchgrass and prairie grass to ethanol, farmers have a real benefit to sell it as biofuel.

And, no, there isn’t a glacier on the site, although the preserve does have a stream with that name. “We needed a good name for a grant,” Bragg says.

Dickson plans to conduct future research at Glacier Creek to examines what types of prairie grass species grow best on

cost that included increases to erosion and food prices.

Dickson hopes biofuel made from switchgrass will create similar upsides, but without as much baggage.

“There are a lot of issues with growing corn ethanol because of increased commodity prices and increased erosion,” he says. “I think there is definitely a backlash.”

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WALKING ON WATER New Research Sheds Light on Sea Legs

By Rick Davis

It’s sort of like the walk of an intoxicated person.

That’s how UNO researcher Jeff Kaipust describes the gait of seafarers aboard ship.

“The steps are kind of choppy, they might be longer and they tend to sway from side to side,” says Kaipust, who spent 10 days aboard the Thomas G. Thompson research vessel last April in a first-of-its-kind study looking at the gait of sailors.

CHIEF CHAPLAIN — AND ADMIRAL

BATTLING BATTLESHIPS

Stanton Salisbury, a member of UNO’s first-ever graduating class in 1913, was an ordained minister who once served on the USS Omaha, then the fastest cruiser in the world. He later became an admiral in the U.S. Navy and chief of Navy chaplains. He served in World War I and II and was at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked Dec. 7, 1941, surviving strafing of his car by Japanese pilots. A scholarship in his name is awarded every year at UNO.

Typically, folks in UNO’s HPER pool go to great lengths to stay afloat. But for at least one day a year it’s all about sinking. Among the more popular Homecoming events at UNO recently is Battleship. Four students pile into canoes then try to sink other canoes by scooping water and dumping them into boats.

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Kaipust is the building coordinator at UNO’s internationally recognized Nebraska Biomechanics Research Building — a state-of-the-art center that houses seven research labs dedicated to studying human movement variability.

Photo: Eric Francis

The research aboard the Thomas G. Thompson — a 274foot government research ship operated by the University of Washington — came about through collaboration with University of Minnesota researcher Thomas Stoffregen, Ph.D., who has studied sea sickness and standing body posture — or how people control body sway.

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other scientists were onboard, as the ship was headed back to its homeport.

Stoffregen says the research was “elegantly simple.”

Participating crew members were tested along a large open deck at the rear of the ship, walking back and forth for about eight minutes. Then they were tested walking back and forth for eight minutes along the interior of the ship.

“We were looking at the difference the role of the horizon had on their timing,” Kaipust says.

It’s no secret — as anyone who’s sailed can attest — that it takes a couple of days aboard ship get your “sea legs,” adapting and adjusting to walking with the constant rocking and rolling over waves.

“If you’re on a cruise, they’ll tell you, ‘If you feel uncomfortable, if you’re worried about sea sickness, if you’re feeling unsteady, get up on deck and look at the horizon,’” adds Stoffregen. “Well, let’s see if that matters.”

“But when I started looking into this, it turned out that no scientist had ever done any controlled research on it — period, end of story,” Stoffregen says. “So that was a big open door.”

They also were tested walking across the long axis of the ship (fore and aft) and the short axis of the ship (port and starboard) to see what differences may occur. (The stepping patterns were more variable along the short axis, as the movements of ship were more pronounced.)

He contacted Nick Stergiou, Ph.D., professor and director of UNO’s Biomechanics Research Building, and the two decided to collaborate on the research. In April 2013, the research team boarded the Thomas G. Thompson in Honolulu for a 10day voyage back to its home port in Seattle.

Kaipust brought the equipment necessary to study the sailors’ gait, including portable sensors placed under participating crew members’ shoes, one at the toe and one at the heel.

The researchers conducted an initial test while the ship was docked, to get some baseline data, then set sail. It was a rough beginning. The trade winds kicked up, making the sea choppy.

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The researchers also studied the walking patterns of the crew members at sea compared to while the ship was docked.

“Dr. Stergiou has a theory that the elderly have walking patterns that are similar to those of a person who is adjusting to walking on a boat,” Kaipust says. “We were trying to see if that theory is true.”

And what did they find? “Yes, in general, they do have kind of a similar movement pattern or variability pattern,” Kaipust says. “Secondly, we’re looking at how these crew members have adapted, and if that could translate into helping elderly individuals.”

Stoffregen also says the research may have some implications for astronauts, who often return from space flight feeling motion sickness. “This phenomenon is almost identical to an ancient phenomenon of travel by sea,” he explains. “There are remarkable similarities. And it’s a whole lot cheaper to study the nautical version.”

When you’re walking on a boat, you’re kind of at the mercy of the boat. If the boat tilts one way, then you’re just going to go with it.

“We all got sick,” Stoffregen recalls. “It was three days before we were all up and about again.”

After that initial setback, the research crew — Stoffregen, two of his students and Kaipust — got back to work. In addition to the four researchers, there were about 25 crew members onboard engaged in the day-to-day operation of the ship. No

Another study, Stoffregen says, is being planned, and he’s excited about the possibilities.

“This research is totally in its infancy,” he says. “We have an amazing opportunity.”

TICKET TO RIDE

DRIVING NEBRASKA

In May, LeeAnn Vaughan (pictured third from left) showed her Burke High students just how far she’ll go to help them learn about the stars — about 45,000 feet high. A 1999 UNO graduate, Vaughan participated in NASA’s Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors program, composed of 12 two-person teams with educators from 10 states. Each educator was paired with a professional astronomer to observe how airborne infrared astronomy is conducted. That took place on SOFIA — the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy — a modified Boeing 747 that climbs as high as 8.5 miles above Earth to escape the atmosphere’s deleterious effects and scan the stars with an 8.2-foot-wide telescope.

David Dittmer, a 1996 UNO graduate, spent nearly three years as commander of one of the U.S. Navy’s largest submarines — fittingly, the USS Nebraska. The ballistic missile sub is as long as Omaha’s Woodmen of the World building is tall, measuring 560 feet and weighing 18,000 tons.

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PROVING THEMSELVES AT WHITE SANDS The White Sands Proving Ground took on a decidedly Omaha University flavor in the 1950s — thanks to just one family. Four members of the Schluter clan had ties to the U.S. Army missile range in southern New Mexico.

Leonard Schluter (’52) was a chemist at the guided missile and rocket test center. Dewey (’55) worked in the flight simulation branch of the electro-mechanical lab. Leonard’s then-wife, Ruth (Lane, ’51), was employed in the post quartermaster division in the accounting department.

Eric (’55) was a physicist in the flight determination laboratory.

Leonard later worked for NASA on the Apollo project at the White Sands Test Facility outside Las Cruces, N.M. Among his tasks was overseeing the cleaning of any contaminants on equipment astronauts were to take to the moon.

Her Exercise Programs are

The Strategic Air & Space Museum in Ashland, Neb., partners with UNO’s Office of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Education to provide cuttingedge educational opportunities for students, teachers, families and adult learners. The museum also has strong ties to the UNO Aviation Institute and provides internships and service-learning for UNO students.

Photo: Eric Francis

SPACED OUT

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What is the most effective and efficient way to exercise in outer space?

That’s a question UNO graduate Melissa Scott-Pandorf, Ph.D., has been wrestling with since becoming an exercise scientist for NASA contractor Wyle five years ago.

“We are trying to optimize to the most efficient exercise program you could possibly develop,” Scott-Pandorf says from her home in Kearney, Neb., where she now telecommutes with the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

So how does one exercise in zero gravity? And why is it important for crew members aboard the International Space Station to continue an exercise routine?

Let’s take the second question first.

“Basically, our crew tends to lose bone, especially in the legs and hip areas,” Scott-Pandorf says. “When you walk on earth, you have gravity acting on all of your body all of the time. When you go up there, you don’t have those forces anymore.”

“If the treadmill were locked into the space station and a crew member began running on it, data would show the whole space station moving,” Scott-Pandorf says. “It’s really that easy to jolt around the entire space station.”

Crew members can have up to two exercise sessions per day. They are encouraged to do four days a week on the treadmill, two days on the CEVIS and four to six days of ARED. What we learn in space can help us on terra firma.

Stress on your bone and muscle helps keep them healthy on earth.

When we exercise, muscle and bone break down and remodel themselves stronger. When we don’t use them, they get weaker.

“I think some of this research can cross over into rehabilitation,” Scott-Pandorf says. “It’s interesting to us to know the exact forces that are happening within the hip, within the spine, within the calcaneus (heel) bone, and knowing that information can be helpful to someone who is in rehabilitation sciences and is trying to mitigate things like osteoporosis.”

In zero gravity — where one can push around a 500-pound barbell with ease — the challenge becomes putting stress, or force, on muscle and bone. Crew members tend to put more stress on their upper body as they pull themselves around the space station.

Over the past three years, Scott-Pandorf also has been working with a neuroscience lab at Johnson Space Center, trying to develop interventions to help crew members adapt more quickly once they return to Earth.

“It’s a lot like what you would see in the elderly as you progress through time,” Scott-Pandorf says. “Our crew does not have osteoporosis necessarily, but you can find some with osteopenictype tendencies. So we try to use exercise to mitigate those losses.

“When they get back to earth, the whole body, especially the sensory system, has a hard time making sense of the return to full gravity,” she says. “They are actually very unsteady.”

“The goal is really to find those exercises that are most efficient and efficacious at keeping muscle and bone throughout space flight.”

Which brings us back to the first question about exercising in zero gravity.

of this

Interestingly, each piece of equipment features a “vibration isolation system” — that allows the equipment to sort of free-float and keeps any applied force from being transferred to the space station.

NASA has developed exercise equipment with “loading devices” that place force on the body. Take, for instance, the T-2, a modified Woodway treadmill with bungee cords anchored at the base on each side. The bungee cords clip to a harness that goes over a crew member’s shoulders and fastens at the waist — pulling them onto the treadmill. There’s also a stationary bike, called CEVIS (Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization System), and another piece of equipment called ARED (Advanced Resistive Exercise Device), which provides more anaerobic training through the use of vacuum cylinders.

Scott-Pandorf is working with the biomechanics facility at UNO, studying whether a small vibrating chip inserted into the soles of crew members’ shoes could heighten their sensory systems and allow their bodies to adjust more quickly once they are back on earth.

Nick Stergiou, Ph.D., professor and director of UNO’s Biomechanics Research Building — whose graduates are working everywhere from academia to government agencies to medical centers — says he is proud of what his former student has accomplished.

“We have come full circle, from faculty-student to research collaborators,” Stergiou says. “She was a fantastic student, with a strong work ethic. I am very proud of what she has done.”

Scott-Pandorf, who earned undergraduate (2003) and master’s (2006) degrees in exercise science from UNO, considers her UNO education and internship with Dr. Stergiou “great opportunities.”

“I learned so much there,” she says.

SUITED FOR SPACE LIFE

By Rick Davis

That was the title of Dorothy Novotny’s article in the 1967 American Journal of Nursing reporting on her experiences as one of the first two women to graduate from the U.S. Air Force’s Aerospace Nursing Program. The 1962 graduate’s training included jumps from a helicopter into the ocean, experiencing weightlessness in a C-130, time on a centrifuge and rides in simulated flights in the Gemini spacecraft.

Five years later, Novotny (pictured, left) was part of the NASA team that performed autopsies on the three astronauts who died in the Apollo 1 crash. She retired as a Lt. Col. in 1979.

Photo: Eric Francis

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TRAV

All Aboard: Michael Blakely, Chloe Davidson Zach Griffith, Natalie Christiansen, Emily Hassenstab climb aboard a former Omaha Streetcar at Durham Museum.

FIRST IN FLIGHT? You might have heard this one before, but it bears repeating — Omaha University in 1930 became perhaps the first NCAA football team to travel to game by airplane, flying to Fremont to play Midland Lutheran College. The teams tied 0-0. Because of poor lighting, OU returned to campus by bus. A plaque with a photo of the OU team and its ride was included in a College Football Hall of Fame exhibit.

DODGING TRAFFIC According to a City of Omaha report, the estimated average daily traffic on Dodge Street in front of UNO at 60th street is 58,500 cars. That’s the Big O’s 30th busiest spot. Tops — 90th and West Dodge at 107,596.

LIGHTING UP Only after five years of petitioning by the Omaha University Board of Regents did the City of Omaha install traffic lights at 60th and Dodge, doing so in November 1949 at a cost of $2,700.

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It took one 15-hour plane flight, two taxi rides and a short walk through back streets, but Brandon Hulsebusch finally had reached his new home for the next five months — Himachal Pradesh, India.

“I was truly out my comfort zone for the first time,” says Hulsebusch, a UNO student who this June completed a five-month stay in India through the university’s study abroad program. “It kind of just hits you like a sack of rocks. I realized I was in the middle of nowhere, on the other side of the world.”

And loving every minute of it.

“Other than studying, the main purpose of studying abroad is to expand your horizons,” Hulsebusch says. “To test the waters of the world, see who you really are and what you’re really capable of.”

VEL

More and more UNO students are doing the same, leaving the comfort of friends, family and beds to study abroad. During the 2012-2013 academic year, 366 UNO students studied abroad in more than 30 countries. That’s up 62 percent from a decade ago. continued

By Austin Gaule

5 CENTS PER HOUR

ROOM FOR ONE MORE?

That was the cost of the first parking meters put on campus beginning in September 1955. By the end of the year, 300 were installed (at a cost of $102 each). By 1963 there were 956 parking meters on campus. Independent Student Association members put “Santa” hoods on them in late December that year, giving parkers a one-day reprieve on fees. The number of meters climbed past 1,200 before all meters were taken down in 1969, replaced by a $12 yearly permit fee.

How many students can you fit into a Volkswagen? We’re not sure. There’s no record of the number of UNO Lamda Chi Alpha fraternity members stuffed into this Bug in the 1970s.

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DON’T BE A PHON-EE UNO Psychology Professor Joseph Brown doesn’t want to be on the road when you are. Not, at least, if you’re on your phone.

“People don’t realize the demand placed on their brain when they talk on a cell phone while driving,” says Brown, perhaps the state’s foremost expert on cell phone use while driving.

The human brain, he points out, has a limited amount of available attention. Cell phones strain that attention. “Cell phone conversations are much more dangerous than similar conversations held with a person in the car,” Brown says. “It is arguably as dangerous to talk on a cell phone while driving as it is to drive while intoxicated.” And don’t think a hands-free or voiceactivated phone is any better.

Where your mind is at is just as important as where your hands are. “As dangerous as it is to take your eyes from the road, it is almost as dangerous to take your mind off the road,” Brown says.

“Hands-free/voice-activated devices of any sort are NOT safe to use while driving.”

BOMB OF A PREDICTION Omaha University Chemistry Professor William Noyce knew his atoms. In 1944-45, Noyce worked on Iowa State’s campus as part of the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb. Noyce’s historic role landed him numerous speaking engagements after the war.

Optimists abounded then over the practical technological applications of atomic energy — Noyce included. He didn’t demur in 1945 when asked about a prediction that atomic energy would power cars within two years. “It may be that an experimental model will be developed by then,” said Noyce.

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More trips are in the works. In March, UNO committed itself to doubling its number of study abroad participants, joining 160 other universities to do so as part of the Institute of International Education Generation Study Abroad initiative. For UNO, the goal is to have close to 600 students studying abroad.

Emily Hassenstab, manager of UNO’s Education Abroad and Global Partnerships office, points to numerous benefits to studying abroad. Students can earn credit toward their degrees, for instance.

Additionally, graduation and retention rates

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for students who study abroad are higher than the general student population.

And afterward, that experience abroad just might help students land a job, too.

“All my students come back so mature and ready for life after graduation,” Hassenstab says. “They have life skills and life experience. Employers are looking for those types of qualities these days.”

Given UNO Magazine’s “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” theme, some of those students were asked to share a few of their travel tips.

Chloe Davidson Senior, Economics and International Business University of Tartu, Estonia

DON’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT SPRING 2013 During my semester in Tartu, Estonia, my friend and I traveled to Vilnius, Lithuania.

My residence permit ID card was enough to get there, but to get back I needed my passport —which I left in Estonia — to board the bus. After being turned away by four bus drivers, I tried to hitchhike out of the city. Four rides later, at the outskirts of Vilnius, my Estonian friend called me and had made arrangements for me to ride with his friend back to Tartu the next day. I stayed the night in Vilnius, then had an enjoyable ride with good company back to Tartu the next day.

Niki Holzapfel Senior, Master of Arts in English Oxford

SPRING OF 2013 CHANNEL YOUR THOUGHTS Upon arriving in Brighton, England, “the city by the sea,” on a cold and dreary day in March, our tour guide led us to a vacant seafront. My inner mermaid was so delighted that I ran to the edge of the tide, forgetting it would crash onto the shore. When the water started approaching, I ran to escape the tide.

But I slipped and fell. Fully clothed, with camera in hand, I felt the English Channel’s crashing tide soak my clothes. I sloshed around Brighton the rest of the day with waterlogged boots and a ruined camera whose pictures now looked like impressionistic paintings. In short, be wary of large bodies of water when touring a new place, and more generally, be aware of your surroundings.

Megan Liken Graduate, Political Science, Islamic Studies Moulay Ismail University, Morocco

CRAMMING INTO A CAB SUMMER 2011 Morocco has a lot to offer for the traveling novice. Public transportation is equally terrifying and hilarious. We took the grand taxi, which essentially follows the rules of a bus, but was, in fact, a taxi. You pay your fare and the taxi drops you off on designated stops. But the driver will not begin en route until the taxi is at its six-person capacity. Which can make for awkward conversation — or no conversation at all. The doors remain locked, the windows remain up, and you are jammed into a car full of people in 100-degree heat.

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Michael Blakely Senior, Marketing, International Business Rome, Paris

Zach Griffith Senior, Finance, Accounting Bendigo, Australia - Mumbai & Jalgaon, India

GET OUT OF YOUR ELEMENT SUMMER 2013 Kangaroos, beaches and ‘No Worries,’ or Humidity, Rain and Poverty? My abroad experiences in 2013 were polar opposites. Initially, I thought the first option would appeal to me more. But I learned more in the three weeks I spent on a faculty-led trip to Mumbai and Jalgaon, India, than the four months I spent in Bendigo, Australia. Don’t get me wrong, both were amazing opportunities that I learned a great deal from, but India was the true challenge I was seeking. I was so far out of my element, that I was forced to adapt in a short amount of time. From the food, traditions and overall quality of life, I was taken in by a whole new world that changed me into a better person as a whole.

STUDY AHEAD SUMMER 2012 From my experiences, the first day is always the most difficult when arriving in a new country.

Typically you are tired, disoriented and anxious upon landing. I highly recommend buying a guidebook for the city you are traveling to and studying it well before you leave. This will give you a chance to study a map in order to get oriented with how the city is situated and where your hotel is. You should have a plan on how you are getting to your hotel and once there, always carry one of their business cards with you for taxicab reference.

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THUMBS 15 13 OUT, 11 9 NOSES PLUGGED

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The Omaha University football team had to call an audible that day in 1929 when its bus got stuck in the mud on the way to a game against Tarkio College in Missouri. Players hitchhiked the rest of way, getting to the game on cattle trucks. OU didn’t stink it up, either, winning 6-3.

POET, PILOT, PROFESSOR Omaha University College of Commerce and Finance Dean A.J. Dunlap flew across Nebraska over six days in May 1931, holding a “commencement tour” in a plane painted blue and white with the monogram of the Municipal University of Omaha in water colors under its wings.

He made visits to Scottsbluff, Gering, Morrill and Neligh. Dunlap also was a poet, publishing several collections of his work.

Natalie Christiansen Senior, Spanish and Pre-Nursing Lima, Peru

BEWARE CROWDED BUSES FALL 2012 I was riding the bus listening to my iPod, but I assured that it was tightly tucked away in my backpack and on my lap as I had been warned of frequent pick pocketing. Suddenly, the man behind me tapped me on my back and apologized for accidentally vomiting on my shoulder (which actually happened). Grossed out but still trying to be friendly, I told him it was OK and started to take off my sweater. He handed me some tissue and proceeded to get off the bus. When I got everything situated again, I realized the headphones in my ear weren’t playing any music anymore. Gone was my iPod — along with my dignity — as I soon learned the man had pulled “one of the oldest tricks in the book.”

Emily Hassenstab Manager, Education Abroad and Global Partnerships

ODDS AND ENDS • Only pack what you can carry comfortably — comfortably being the key word.

• D o your research, but expect the unexpected.

International travel forces you to adapt to new circumstances and out of your comfort zone, so go with the flow and enjoy it!

• O pen yourself to new experiences and you will learn something every time. I can’t say you won’t regret it — you may — but I can promise that you will learn from it.

STRIKING OUT ON STREETCARS You knew UNO used to be located at 24th and Pratt Streets from 1908 to 1938, right? Then you probably also knew students took streetcars to campus. Travel to campus grew a bit dicey in 1935, though, when workers for the Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway company went on strike. The company hired strikebreakers from Brooklyn and other Eastern cities, covered windows with heavy wire and put armed guards on board. Violence broke out during riots. A man was killed and more than 90 persons wounded. Omaha was put under martial law for three days that June and 1,800 National Guard troops were called to town. One more man was killed but the violence eventually subsided and the strike eventually ended.

WHEELING TO A RECORD Twenty-four UNO staff and students set a Guinness World Record for the longest wheelchair basketball game, playing 26 hours and three minutes in the Sapp Fieldhouse Sept. 24-25, 2004.

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Flying into

HISTORY

By John Burger

It’s often said that civilization as we know it almost came to an end on Oct. 27, 1962. After almost two weeks of confrontation between the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union, the world seemed to be on the brink of a nuclear war.

The impasse would come to be known as the Cuban missile crisis — and UNO graduate Gerald E. McIlmoyle was in the thick of it.

McIlmoyle, who would receive a BS in military science from UNO in 1966, was one of only a few U-2 spy plane pilots flying over Cuba during a 13-day period in October 1962. Their mission: to provide photographic confirmation that the Soviets were installing nuclear missiles on the island.

Cold War tensions already were aggravated by the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion the year prior. Now, the Soviets were in Fidel Castro’s Cuba installing medium-range missiles that could strike most of the continental U.S. Negotiations led to a peaceful outcome.

But without the key evidence that missiles were there, those negotiations might have failed.

A NOSE FOR SPACE

INVASION OF THE GREEN BERETS

Why does the space shuttle look the way it does? In part due to the work of 1944 graduate Al Eggers, a longtime, award-winning NASA aerospace engineer. With colleague Harvey Allen, Eggers in the 1950s theoretically proved that space reentry vehicles with a cone-shaped nose would generate aerodynamic lift during transit through the atmosphere, decreasing rate of descent and increasing likelihood of survival. Good thing, considering initial entry occurs at about Mach 25. “Not only should pointed bodies be avoided,” Eggers and Allen wrote in a classified 1953 paper, “but the rounded nose should have as large a radius as possible.”

Twenty 20 U.S. Army Special Forces Green Berets parachuted into a field west of Crossroads Mall in May 1961, then invaded campus — to talk about guerrilla combat during a presentation in the Student Center for Armed Forces Week.

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UP, UP AND AWAY Students participating in UNO’s Eureka program started at ground level and moved to the sky in 2012.

Students from Girls Inc. learned how to program robots in Roskens Hall before moving to the Strategic Air & Space Museum. More than 1,000 paper airplanes, each with a printed URL address, were attached to a helium balloon and launched. The balloons shattered at around 100,000 feet, releasing the planes. Reports and locations for the planes were received in the following days. The fun was part of UNO’s effort to stress STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

I’LL JUST WALK No Planes, Trains or Automobiles for Rudy Haluza, thank you — walking suits him just fine.

The UNO graduate in 1964 broke a 45-year-old national record when he covered seven miles and 1,614 yards in one hour, topping the 1918 record of seven miles, 1,450 yds.

Haluza later would compete in the 1964 Rome Olympics and 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where he finished fourth in racewalking — still the highest Olympic finish ever by an American race walker.

Photo: Matt Houston

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AIR UNO The end of World War II was a boon to many universities not just in surplus students, but also in surplus goods, courtesy the War Assets Administration. For Omaha University, that meant the acquisition of three fighter planes — a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (pictured), a Fairchild PT-19 and the remains of a Stearman PT-17.

Veterans and other students used the planes in aircraft and mechanics classes. The P-47, which originally cost $50,000, was purchased from the WAA for $150 plus ferrying and insurance charges. It was a gift to OU’s Division of Technical Institutes from T.L. Combs and Sons Jewelers.

Then-OU student Dick Leed (’48), a former P-38 pilot with the 13th Air Force in the Philippines, flew the P-47 fighter plane from Altus, Okla., to the Omaha airport in 1946. The two-hour, 500-mile trek was the easy part. Getting it the last 10 miles to campus was another matter.

Omaha’s Police Department gave the university permission to tow the plane on Dodge Street — at 3 a.m. on a Sunday. With three motorcycle policemen running interference and Dodge traffic diverted to Douglas Street, the plane left the airport and journeyed up Carter Lake Boulevard to 16th and Dodge. From there it was on to Elmwood Park Drive leading to the university. Then came some nifty maneuvering, the P-47’s 40foot wingspan requiring wiggling to and fro to dodge the numerous Elmwood Park trees. Getting the PT-19 to campus was an easier affair.

Also donated, the plane was flown from Lincoln to a flying field owned

by OU instructor William Durand — Durand’s Sky Ranch at 84th and McKinley Streets. The plane was then dismantled and transported from the field to the University by truck.

Enrollment in the training courses peaked immediately after the war when many veterans desired mechanic instruction to obtain civilian aircraft jobs. Three to four full-time instructors were employed to teach the quarterly classes of from 50 to 75 students. But the training ended in 1949, and the planes had a rough go thereafter. In 1952 the Fairchild caught fire during an OU football game, likely started by a cigarette.

By the end of its campus stay the P-47 housed a nest of robins in the air duct under its fuselage. The planes were scrapped in 1953.

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The following month, McIlmoyle found himself giving President John F. Kennedy a private tour of a U-2 at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. JFK told him the photos were crucial.

Flying the Dragon Lady Born in 1930 in North Platte, Neb., McIlmoyle graduated from nearby McCook Junior College in 1950. Rather than get drafted for the Korean War, he enlisted in the Air Force, went through aviation cadet training and got his wings as a second lieutenant. Distinguishing himself as a fighter pilot, McIlmoyle was recruited for a secret program that got airborne in 1955. With the CIA in need of a reconnaissance vehicle that could elude radar and enemy fire, Lockheed designed a superlight, single-seat jet/glider that could soar to 70,000 feet.

Flying the “Dragon Lady,” as the U-2 was nicknamed, required special skill, particularly the ability to keep it within a narrow speed range at the higher altitudes.

“If you go through compressibility, the tail section says ‘Hasta la vista. I’m going home by myself,’” McIlmoyle says. “We lost a lot of pilots that way [during training], because at the time I started flying the airplane we didn’t have an ejection seat.”

McIlmoyle’s early missions in the U-2 were to collect atmospheric data from high-altitude nuclear weapons tests being conducted by the world’s superpowers in the late 1950s. He could see the mushroom clouds from a distance, but often when he landed he noticed that the exterior of the plane was extremely hot from radioactive particles.

Tense Times But then came one of the most challenging points in his career. His colleague, Maj. Richard S. Heyser, flew the first mission over Cuba on Oct. 14, 1962, bringing back photographic evidence of the nuclear missile installation. McIlmoyle and others flew subsequent sorties, bringing back more photos. His mission on Oct. 25 was perhaps the hairiest. Although his plane had devices to warn its pilot of radar detection and anti-aircraft missiles, he said he never got any of those signals.

“I didn’t know I was under fire, but as I turned over on my last target … I saw two missile condensation trails come up behind me. One had exploded at about 5,000 feet above me, and I estimated the other one exploded at about 10,000 feet above me.”

It was a close call, 14 miles above Cuba.

Two days later, on Oct. 27, McIlmoyle’s fellow airman, Maj. Rudolf Anderson, flew the same route, but in the opposite direction. McIlmoyle believes he flew straight into the anti-aircraft missile and “never saw the thing come up.” Anderson was the only combat casualty during the crisis.

Meanwhile that day, the Navy enforcing a blockade against Soviet ships heading toward Cuba had a close call with a nuclear-armed sub. The Kennedy

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President Kennedy told me, I’ll never be able to thank you guys enough for those pictures you brought back. It allowed me to negotiate a peaceful settlement to this crisis.

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administration was trying to figure out how to interpret signals from the Kremlin.

In the end, Moscow accepted a deal offered by the U.S., and the world was spared of “mutually assured destruction.”

Later on, toward the end of his career, McIlmoyle, by now a brigadier general, was entrusted with the responsibility for maintaining and updating the secret codes that the President of the United States would need in order to launch a nuclear strike.

Since retiring, McIlmoyle has continued his education, completing a CPA program at the University of Virginia and serving as a comptroller and president of a medical organization. He also sold real estate for a while.

At 84, he isn’t resting on his laurels. He stays active in church and Knights of Columbus activities and keeps in touch with his four children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren (his wife of more than 60 years, Patricia Ruth, died last year).

He lives in South Florida, a mere 300 miles from where he made history with the Dragon Lady.

Reflecting on those tense days in October 1962, he’s not quite sure things would have escalated to a nuclear holocaust.

“I thought Kennedy and [Soviet premier Nikita S.] Khrushchev were not going to get us into a nuclear war,” he says. “How could you get your whole country in and have it vaporized? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

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Alum Pilots Elite Aircraft Carrying Special Cargo By Susan Houston Klaus There’s no Goose to be found, but when the Doomsday Plane takes flight, you’ll often find two Mavericks on board.

Apologies to Tom Cruise in “Top Gun.” But there’s one flying Maverick who’s been assigned a pretty impressive mission — for real.

That’s UNO alum Major Jon Grossrhode.

A 2002 grad, Grossrhode is living “the highlight of my career” as a member of the 1st Airborne Command & Control Squadron — part of the 55th Operations Group stationed at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Neb. Chief among his responsibilities: serving as an instructor pilot on the elite E-4B. One of four in service, the aircraft serves as the National Airborne Operations Center for the President of the United States, Secretary of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff.

To civilians, it’s better known as the “Doomsday plane.” In case of a national emergency, this modified, militarized and fortified Boeing 747-200 would become a command, control and communications center executed through the U.S. Strategic Command.

Routinely, however, the E-4B is the plane Grossrhode flies to take a fellow UNO graduate on overseas trips — Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. Since taking office in February 2013, Hagel has logged about 163,000 miles, averaging more than 10,000 a month.

Long before he landed in the cockpit, Grossrhode was an Air Force kid — born on base in Minot, N.D., and with roots in North Bend, Neb., about an hour west of Omaha. He attended Arizona State for a year, but later landed at UNO to pursue his career path.

“Being around planes and the Air Force growing up, I knew I wanted to fly,” he says. “The UNO Aviation Institute has a premier program. My instructors tailored my instruction and supported my plan. [The Bachelor of General Studies] was a great education. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

position while another plane is connecting to refuel in mid-air.

Grossrhode earned his private pilot’s license in 2001 as part of the Aviation Institute’s degree program. One year later, and two days after graduating from UNO, he started his Air Force career.

“It’s a huge responsibility,” he says. “The Secretary has a tight schedule and we bounce around to a lot of locations. Getting him to where he needs to be on time and safely is something none of us take lightly.”

He went to Pensacola, Fla., for initial pilot training and later Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Okla., where he got his pilot wings. After graduation, he was retained at Vance as a First Assignment Instructor Pilot.

Nor does that important passenger take for granted who’s getting him from Point A to Point B.

In 2007, he was assigned to Offutt, where he’s flown OC-135 and WC-135 treaty verification flights.

But another, very selective, opportunity beckoned. In 2011, Grossrhode joined the nearly 190 members of the 1st Airborne Command & Control Squadron.

Today, he’s one of three pilots assigned to Secretary Hagel’s plane for overseas flights. And even when the E-4B isn’t carrying the secretary, Grossrhode and his squadron often remain in the air.

“There’s always one of the E-4Bs on alert somewhere in the world,” he says. “We do local training missions around Lincoln and Omaha to practice touch-and-go’s and air refueling.”

The aircraft, says Grossrhode, “flies like a dream.” Still, with a plane of this size and weight, there are special considerations. Imagine taxiing an aircraft that’s 231 feet long, with a 196-foot wingspan. Or maintaining

HELICOPTER HERO Whenever Hubert Humphrey was in the Twin Cities, 1962 graduate Bernard Thompson was the man he’d often call for a lift. Thompson, a U.S. Army Lt. Col., was Humphrey’s personal helicopter pilot there — and with good reason.

Thompson had flown for the Army since 1952, logging more than 150 combat missions in Korea. He was eligible for retirement in 1967 but volunteered for a year’s duty in Vietnam, where he was in charge of helicopter operations in the Mekong Delta. He was killed in action in 1968.

For Grossrhode, it’s just another day at the office, but one he always appreciates. His is a dream job, to be in control of this 230-ton aircraft with one very important passenger.

“It’s neat to have a Nebraska crew flying me all over the world,” says Hagel, a North Platte native and 1971 UNO grad. “[The E-4B] is an impressive aircraft. It’s a privilege to be on that plane with the people who fly it, who maintain it, who serve it, and are part of it.”

Hagel says his own UNO experience continues to be a defining part of his life.

“I had some of the best people teach me at UNO that I’ve ever known. What I learned at UNO and what I got out of the experience, because of the institution and the instructors, has really carried with me throughout my life and everything I’ve done.”

And about the pilot with whom he has much in common: “I have supreme confidence in my fellow Maverick and know everything is secure and buttoned down,” Hagel says. “You can rely on those Mavericks up front.”

IT’S A HIGH, BOOMING KICK Back in 1927 you could do fun things like starting a football game by dropping a football from a low-flying airplane.

That’s what sponsor Overland Tire Company did when Omaha University debuted its new football field at 24th and Ames Avenue.

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Photo: Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo

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Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Major Jon Grossrhode Show the O just before departing Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, en route to Hawaii for a ministerial with ASEAN ministers of defense.

FLYING INTO HISTORY UNO graduate James Warren had a habit of making history. Warren in 1942 enlisted with the U.S. Army Air Force, training in Tuskegee, Ala., and becoming one of the first black U.S. fighter pilots — a Tuskegee Airmen. Later he became an ace pilot in three wars, logging 173 combat missions and 12,000 flight hours. He was navigator of “the “Hanoi Taxi,” the C-141 that in 1973 flew into Hanoi, North Vietnam, and left with the first group of American POWs. And he was part of the Apollo 14 recovery

team, flying its crew home from splashdown near Pago Pago, American Samoa. But Warren made history on the ground, too. On April 5, 1945, he and 35 other black officers stationed at Freeman Field in Seymour, Ind., were arrested for entering an all-white officers club. “We were well-trained, educated men, and it was just too much to take to be discriminated against,” he said in a 2004 UNO Alum magazine article. “We had to make a stand.

It went totally against my manhood.” Warren and

company eventually were arrested and threatened with court-martial before having an administrative reprimand placed in each of their official military records. In 1995, President Clinton removed those reprimands, stating that the actions of Warren and his fellow officers led to desegregation of the military via an executive order by President Truman in 1948. “What happened way back when was wrong,” Warren said. “What happened in 1995 was right. They finally did the right thing.”

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WHAT’S ON THE MENU? Beginning in 1948, Union Pacific menu covers in its dining cars featured universities from the 12 western states that the railroad served. Only three weren’t state universities, and Omaha U. was one of them. An accompanying photograph featured students posing outside Arts & Sciences Hall. The menu cover said OU then had 4,000 students representing 22 states and a number of foreign countries, plus “the largest evening school program between Chicago and Denver.”

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KEEPING

MARKING TIME There is only one Nebraska State Historical Marker on UNO’s campus — but it has nothing to do with UNO. Nebraska State Historical Marker 170 on UNO’s Pacific Campus near the Peter Kiewit Institute commemorates the U.S. Postal Air Mail Service that began at that location at Ak-Sar-Ben Field May 15, 1920. A tornado in 1924 destroyed its hangar, but services already were being transferred to a new field at Fort Crook. The field still was being used as late as the 1940s, though, used for training during World War II.

SPIKED Omaha University canceled classes in 1939 so that students could attend and perform in parades and exhibits (some dressed in period costume) for Golden Spike Days. The event commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Driving of the Golden Spike and completion of the first transcontinental railroad.

Photo: Courtesy Union Pacific

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U.P. ON TRACK

by Greg Kozol

Everyone needs to start somewhere.

Kelli (Sears) Dunn (pictured right) found herself in a call center environment after graduating from UNO in 1991.

The former student body president landed a job calling scrap metal dealers to generate freight business for Union Pacific.

Dunn grew up in Ainsworth, Neb., and recalls having no particular fascination with trains. Her bachelor’s degree was in pre-law, and she initially expressed interest in working for a university foundation.

She joined Union Pacific because of the Omaha company’s management training program.

“I liked it,” she says. “You never knew what you were going to get into on the phone call.”

In the early 1990s, the economy was on the cusp of the dot-com revolution. Dunn attended UNO with students who would be among be the first to capitalize on an explosion of Internet start-ups and new job opportunities.

Dunn took a different route, choosing to work for a railroad company that traces its roots to 1862. She has never regretted it.

“The freight infrastructure is our competitive advantage as a country,” she says. “Computer systems may come and go. You will always need to move freight to keep our economy going.”

Union Pacific is among the biggest employers of UNO students, hiring dozens each year. Union Pacific recruits from the nation’s top universities, and Lynn Andrews, the company’s chief technology officer, has said UNO interns “are as good as any we see.”

About 80 percent of Union Pacific’s new hires have interned with the company.

Dunn rose through the ranks and now serves as Union Pacific’s superintendent of transportation services in St. Louis. In 2014, her position gives her responsibility for 1,300 employees and 1,900 miles of mainline track from Chicago to Paducah, Ky. On a daily basis, she participates in executive conference calls, assesses the impact of weather on rail networks and sometimes heads to the rail yard for safety reviews.

“I don’t think I realized how lucky I was to work at Union Pacific,” Dunn says. “The opportunity is limitless.”

Dunn isn’t the only UNO graduate to find opportunity at Union Pacific. Of the company’s 4,700 employees in Omaha, about 750 graduated from UNO. From switchmen to computer systems analysts, these UNO graduates help keep the trains running for one of Omaha’s largest employers. Top executives with UNO degrees include former CEO Jim Young, who died in February, and current CEO John (Jack) Koraleski.

UNO students don’t work there by accident. Union Pacific develops relationships with the university through

internships, job fairs and even a hands-on role in a marketing class.

“We want their top talent here,” says Rebecca Potter, Union Pacific’s director of recruiting for the western region. “To be able to say this Fortune 200 company is right in our backyard, that’s a good selling point.”

Union Pacific employs students from a variety of majors and all of UNO’s academic colleges. Students with business and information technology degrees are in the greatest demand, Potter said.

Union Pacific sends a company liaison to work directly with UNO’s College of Information Science & Technology.

“In any given year, a dozen students get offers,” says Dr. Deepak Khazanchi, associate dean of IS&T. “They would probably hire another 50 if they could get their hands on them.”

Khazanchi, who worked for Rail India after receiving his undergraduate degree, says a railroad company offers more cutting-edge technology than people realize. Union Pacific targets students with degrees in computer science and information assurance, which involves the protection of data and computer networks, he says.

“I think information technology in any modern corporation is a strategic asset,” Khazanchi says. “One of the things UP offers is a diverse place to work, in terms of the kind of things students can do. UP has a couple of spinoff businesses, and IT is one of the driving forces.”

One of those business units, known as PST, uses computer simulations to test the operation of a locomotive in certain weather conditions.

The technology isn’t the company’s only appeal when recruiting students. “The stability of the company is always a number one factor,” Potter says. “It’s hard to find a company that’s been here for 150 years.”

Dunn believes UNO’s contributions to Union Pacific are due to more than proximity. She says the commuter nature of the university results in students with a nose for a real-world business environment.

“UNO has produced some tremendous executives,” says Dunn, who has a master’s degree in international business from Saint Louis University. “It’s focused on people who want to be serious about their careers.”

Shortly after starting her career with Union Pacific, Dunn was contacted about the foundation job she once wanted.

She turned it down.

“It was a good decision,” she says.

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The first thing Randall Herbst recalled after the Red Baron slammed down into a Minnesota cornfield was the distinct smell of fresh blood and shredded flesh.

Fear in theAir

Herbst was an assistant basketball coach for the University of North Dakota then.

He and two other coaches were crammed aboard a single-engine, six-seater, flying back to Grand Forks after attending a coaching clinic in Des Moines.

The drone of the engine drowned conversation as the plane flew through the cold dark October night. About an hour into the journey, though, a series of loud bangs shook the plane.

“I sat up and said ‘What in the world was that?!’” Herbst recalls.

The plane had hit a flock of Canadian Geese, slamming into them like a squad of feathered bowling balls. The collision damaged a flap on the plane’s wing, and the pilot was losing control.

By Mike Bell

ALMOST AN ASTRONAUT Jerry Bowline never flew a spacecraft — but he piloted just about anything else with wings.

Bowline, who died in 2008, estimated he had flown 85 different aircraft during an illustrious Air Force career. Among the 1964 graduate’s many notable achievements was selection to Aerospace Research Pilot School, a training ground for future astronauts (more than two doze would earn astronaut wings).

In 1966 Bowline received the school’s Hontz Trophy,

given to the top scholar and flier in each class. He received the award from Chuck Yeager and retired Lt. Gen. James Doolittle of World War II Tokyo Air Raid fame.

GOING NOWHERE FAST Since the HPER Building’s opening in August 2009 following renovation, users have logged more than 318,000 miles on 20 treadmills.

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The coaches grew tense as the pilot spoke into his headset, then turned to them: Something isn’t right, he said; they had to land immediately. He got in contact with an airstrip in Minneapolis and tried to coordinate an emergency landing. But there wasn’t enough fuel to make it there. The pilot told Herbst and the other passengers they would have to make an emergency landing at a smaller landing strip in nearby Springfield, Minn.

Herbst began to think of his loved ones. “Is this it?” he asked himself. “Is this how this is going to go down?’”

The plane jolted back and forth and bobbed up and down as they began their descent. Just as they were about to land, though, the pilot pulled the plane back into the sky.

“We’re all over the place,” Herbst says. “The pilot, he’s talking in a panic, yelling at us that he doesn’t know what’s happened.”

The pilot circled the small strip and prepared for another landing. Herbst looked out his window. He could see the flashing red and blue lights of two police cars racing to the strip.

The plane slammed into the ground front-end first, kept going, then barreled into an adjacent cornfield until eventually coming to a stop — safely.

The Red Baron was dented all over and splattered in blood and guts. The passengers emerged unscathed — but not unscarred.

Flying with Fear Herbst, now UNO’s assistant basketball coach, walked away from the experience with more than just his carry-on baggage.

Since that 2000 flight he has combated a fear of flying — not easy considering the Maverick men’s basketball team took to the air 16 times last season, including 8,000 miles to and from Hawaii.

Herbst is not alone.

In a 2013 study, “Prevalence and Behavioral Styles of Fear of Flying,” Aviation Psychologist Dr. Lucas van Gerwen estimates up to 35 percent of people possess some level of anxiety toward flying.

Scott Vlasek, director of the UNO Aviation Institute, says many factors lead to fear of flying. Most simply, he says, it’s not natural to soar across the Earth at 600 miles per hour in a metal tube — surrounded by strangers, no less.

“You have no control of your situation,” Vlasek says. “You’ve given that to the crew, and that can be very hard for some to deal with.”

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An individual with anxiety can, however, try several nonpharmaceutical measures to alleviate their worries. Staying occupied through conversation, reading, playing video games or other distractions can reduce anxiety. For those with debilitating fears of flying, they may have to talk to a doctor for medication, Vlasek says.

“The last thing you want is to have some sort of episode on the plane,” Vlasek says. “What Herbst unfortunately went through is very tough.”

For some, the pre-flight ritual of parking, baggage check, security screenings and waiting to board can be even more stressful than turbulent weather. For UNO Chancellor John Christensen, that’s a problem he’s faced since his first flight in the late 1960s.

“I was unable to get on the plane three times for my flight out of boot camp. I had these paralyzing panic attacks,” Christensen says. He avoided flying as much as possible for a time. While completing his doctorate at the University of Kansas, he attended a program for those who have trouble flying, and learned the core issue to his problem; it a wasn’t fear of heights or claustrophobia, but a loss of control to total strangers.

What happened was frightening, but you have to get back up on the horse. (or the plane) “You’re turning your life over to a stranger in a very unusual set of circumstances,” Christensen says.

To help, he began taking trips to the airport more often. Picking up or dropping off friends and family, greeting the flight staff, even getting a glimpse of the pilot and co-pilot before takeoff helped quell immensely. A strict routine of arriving early to acclimate to the airport helps, he said.

Herbst has found ways of combating his anxiety despite never wanting to fly again after the accident. He used to go for a window seat, but now takes the aisle seat. He cannot sleep on the plane no matter how tired he is, so he tries to stay active with a game on his iPad or through conversation. Turbulence still makes him uneasy, he says, and he feels sorry for anyone sitting next to him due to his jitteriness.

“I have to prepare myself mentally for landing, but as the years have gone on, it’s gotten easier,” Herbst says.

DISASTER IN THE DESERT

HE SAID IT

Three UNO graduates were a part of the April 1980 failed rescue attempt of the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran, when eight servicemen died in a helicopter crash. Among the hostages were two UNO graduates — Paul Needham (’72) and Leland Holland (’62). Among the helicopter pilots flying that day was 1974 UNO grad Charles Williamson — a childhood friend of Needham. The pair grew up grew up less than two blocks from each other, played sandlot football together, and were classmates at Bellevue Mission Junior High School, Bellevue High School and UNO. Needham’s first night home in Bellevue, Neb., after his release was spent with Williamson.

When UNO Baseball Coach Bob Herold took over the Mavericks, the Mavericks were still playing at Westgate Field, adjacent to Interstate 80 and railroad tracks.

“Planes, trains and automobiles,” Herold said to the Omaha WorldHerald in April. “The players couldn’t hear a word I said.”

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CENTURY CLUB

2013 UNO CENTURY CLUB

In 1973, the UNO Alumni Association created its premier giving society — the UNO Century Club — asking graduates to contribute $100 or more. The first 44 members contributed $5,250.

Today, the Century Club includes more than 1,000 members who each year combine to give more than $225,000.

The UNO Century Club is vital to UNO’s continued growth as one of the nation’s top metropolitan universities. In 2012, the Alumni Association introduced four new funds to which Century Club members could direct their gifts. The four funds — the Communications & Social Media Fund, the Alumni Engagement & Programs Fund, the Thompson Alumni Center Fund, and the Alumni Innovation Fund — support daily activities of the Alumni Association that make the alumni network’s reach greater and its impact stronger.

In 2013, the UNO Alumni Board of Directors voted to add a new level to the Century Club — the Landmark Level, recognizing annual donors of $10,000 or more. It also increased the entry Bronze Level to recognition of gifts of $250 or more. The 2014 Century Club listing in UNO Magazine, which will print in June 2015, will recognize donors of $250 or more.

On behalf of the university, its students, faculty and alumni, the UNO Alumni Association and the University of Nebraska Foundation recognize the generosity of UNO Century Club members who believe strongly in the mission of the university and support its ongoing success.

Help UNO build its alumni network by making your 2014 Century Club donation today! Use the envelope at the center of this magazine or visit unoalumni.org.

This list reflects all Century Club-level gifts to the UNO Alumni Association from Jan. 1, 2013 to Dec. 31, 2013.

PLATINUM CLUB ($2,500+) Mr. and Mrs. Ray D. Barr Chancellor and Mrs. John E. Christensen Mr. and Mrs. John H. Christensen Mr. and Mrs. Mark E. Grieb Mr. Richard D. Holland Mr. Robert Matison Ms. Louise A. Rinn Maj. Thomas A. Spencer, Retd.

DIAMOND CLUB ($1,000-2,499) Mr. and Mrs. Garrett G. Anderson Mr. and Mrs. J Patrick Anderson Mr. William R. Boers William and Silvia Conley Mr. and Mrs. Michael T. DeFreece Mr. and Mrs. Lee Denker, Jr. Mr. Stephen A. Donahoe Mrs. Peggy L. Doty Mr. and Mrs. James L. Easton Mr. Todd and Mrs. Cathy Engle Mr. Donald L. Fjellin Ms. Jane H. Gilbert Mr. and Mrs. David H. Gross Mr. and Mrs. John W. Hancock, Jr. Terry and Judy Haney Mr. and Mrs. Paul R. Hogan Cherianne and Roger Jacquart Mr. John A. Jeter Mr. Timothy J. Kasun Mr. John J. and Dr. Stephanie F. Koraleski Mr. and Mrs. Harold B. Kosowsky Mr. David G. Langevin Mr. Jim Leslie Mr. David H. Luding Ms. Patricia J. Matson and Mr. A. Edward Gottesman

Mrs. Nancy Noack Mr. and Mrs. Gary D. Penisten Mr. William R. Peters Mr. David J. Pfeffer and Ms. Stacy A. Scholtz Mr. and Mrs. James C. Ressegieu Mr. and Mrs. Steve W. Seline Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Tews Mr. and Mrs. Daniel J. Thiele Mr. Joel M. Wilson

GOLDEN CLUB ($500-999) Lt. Gen. Donald O. Aldridge, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Mark E. Anderson Robert J. and Deborah A. Bezousek Hon. D. Nick Caporale Mr. Robert J. Carlisle Mr. and Mrs. Ralph F. Connolly Rev. and Mrs. Norman A. Crews Mr. and Mrs. Gary L. Crouch Ms. June Crow-Johnson Mr. and Mrs. James Cullison Mr. and Mrs. Donald L. Darling Lt. Gen. Russell C. Davis, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Douglas G. Durbin John W. and Nancy C. Estabrook CMSgt. and Mrs. Alfred J. Fransen, Retd.

Ambassador Laurie S. Fulton Dr. and Mrs. Patrick M. Gerbus Mr. Francis R. Greguras Mr. and Mrs. Brian C. Hamilton Dr. and Mrs. Theodore W. Heise Christine M. Jeffrey, M.D. Mr. and Mrs. John J. Jesse, III Mr. and Mrs. Gerald E. Karlin Mr. A. William Kernen Mrs. Susan M. Kielty-Clark

Mr. Gary W. Lemons Mr. Robert Linden Mr. and Mrs. Chunhua Liu Mr. Adam J. Marek Mr. and Mrs. Gerald F. McDonald Lt. Col. Robert L. McKaig Mr. and Ms. Michael J. McLarney Mr. and Mrs. Douglas E. Merz Mr. and Mrs. Dwight L. Morgan Mr. and Mrs. Kevin D. Munro Ms. Deena Murphy Rev. Donald Nesheim Mr. and Mrs. William M. Ojile, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Patora Gregg and Kathy Paulsen Sondra S. Peters and Kermit C. Peters Mr. and Mrs. Edward L. Powers Mr. George A. Rasula Mr. Dustin J. Rief Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Smith Ms. Shirley A. Spieker Mr. Richard C. Stoufer Col. and Mrs. Loren E. Timm, Retd.

Lt. Col. and Mrs. Donald E. Treaster Mr. and Mrs. William Trotter Suzanne Wallin Kossow Mr. and Mrs. Larry L. Watson Mr. Marshall A. Widman Mr. and Mrs. Ronald E. Withem

SILVER CLUB ($250-499) Mr. and Mrs. Nathanael J. Adamson Mrs. Mollie K. Anderson Mrs. Nancy L. Austin Mr. James J. Baker and Dr. Stephanie M. Semier Mr. and Mrs. Robin O. Bates

Mr. and Mrs. Michael F. Baumert Col. and Mrs. Lyle D. Bender Mr. and Mrs. Fred J. Beschorner, III Mrs. Sarah E. Birdwell Mr. and Mrs. Thomas M. Bizzarri, Sr. Mr. Patrick H. Brennan Mr. Kenneth R. Brown Mr. Larry G. Buland Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Burton Mrs. Patricia L. Burton Richard and Nancy Callis Mr. Robert A. Carpenter Mr. Everett L. Cook Marilyn L. Cowger, M.D. Mr. and Mrs. Michael E. Cuba Mr. and Mrs. Richard G. Cummings Dr. and Mrs. James R. Dolan Mr. and Mrs. Delaine R. Donohue Mr. and Mrs. John D. Dunn Mr. and Mrs. David A. Dwornicki Maj. Gen. and Mrs. James C. Enney, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Ronald V. Euler Mr. Lawrence Fargher Mr. Leonard L. Finnegan, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Terry G. Forsberg Mr. and Mrs. Steve Furbush Mr. and Mrs. John C. Furstenberg Mr. and Mrs. Ronald N. Gass Natalie J. Gendler, Ph.D. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Goldstein Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Gustafson Mr. and Mrs. Bryan P. Guy Mr. Robert A. Harling Eleanor J. Harper Mr. Melvin H. Harrington Mr. Clifford S. Hayes Col. Charles W. Holderness, Retd.

Mr. Neil M. Hopkins Mr. W. Craig Howell and Dr. Deborah Smith-Howell Col. Delbert C. Huddleston, Retd.

Mr. Henry G. Hudson Mr. and Mrs. Eric M. Jacoba Col. Douglas A. Jewett, Retd.

Dr. Erica L. Johnson, Ph.D. and Dr. Howard Skogman Dr. and Mrs. Barry J. Jose Mr. and Mrs. Donald G. Kathol, FACEC Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Killion Mr. Peter Kink, Jr. and Mrs. Bonita E. Allred Mr. John P. Kirk Mrs. Mary Guin Knoll Mr. and Mrs. Thomas D. Knox Mr. David J. Kriegler Mr. and Mrs. David J. Kroeger Mr. Joseph F. Kurgan Mr. Louis E. and Hon. Patricia A. Lamberty Mr. and Mrs. G. Curtis Lansbery Maj. Mensvil N. Larson, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Sam G. Leftwich Dr. Mary J. Lickteig Mrs. Laurell B. Meredith Mr. and Mrs. L. A. Miller Mr. Charles A. Monico Capt. William H. Moore Jr. Mr. Rohit R. Nayak Mr. and Mrs. Daniel J. Nealon Mr. Lowell A. Neuhaus Mr. and Mrs. Walter C. Nodean Col. and Mrs. Richard A. Orsini Mr. and Mrs. Steven C. Parker Mr. and Mrs. Brian D. Pegram Mr. and Mrs. Stephen R. Pitzer

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CENTURY CLUB Mr. John B. Preisinger Mr. and Mrs. John A. Prescott Mr. Jerome Prismantas Tom L. and Joan Quinlin Mr. and Mrs. Richard S. Reiser Ling Ren, Ph.D. Mr. Louis A. Rich Mr. Ted L. Ridgway Mrs. Margaret A. Ringhofer Drs. William H. and Jane S. Roccaforte Mr. Lloyd Roitstein Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Runyon Mr. and Mrs. Wayne L. Russell Mr. Mark B. Schwietz Mr. Richard Scott Mrs. Susan Dishon Secrest Mr. and Mrs. Neil E. Shooter Ms. Shirley K. Siebler Mr. Gregory C. Snyder Mr. and Mrs. Leonard M. Sommer Ms. Judy A. Sorenson Ms. Dara J. Spivack Mr. and Mrs. Todd Stoney Lt. Col. Jarvis A. Strong, Jr. Lt. Col. and Mrs. Charles E. Toomer, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas P. Tosoni Mr. and Mrs. David J. Treinen Col. and Mrs. Milo Treska, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Eugene A. Trout Mr. Harold D. Vanlue Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Warren Dr. and Mrs. Eric G. Weber, Ed.D. Mr. Morgan A. R. White Mr. and Mrs. Jerome W. Wilks Dr. and Mrs. Robert L. Willice Mr. and Mrs. John K. Wilson Mr. and Mrs. James E. Winship, Jr. LTC (Ret) Wilson A. Younge, Jr. Dr. and Mrs. Raymond Ziebarth Mr. and Mrs. Steven W. Zuckweiler

BRONZE CLUB ($100-249) Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth H. Abel Mr. Robert C. Adams Mr. Steven R. Adams Lt. Col. Philip J. Adelman, Retd.

Mr. Gabriel Adler Mr. and Mrs. James E. Aguilar Mrs. Kaitlin C. Ahart Ms. Sharon E. Ahmad Mr. Chris W. Albers Ms. Heather R. Alexander CMSgt. and Mrs. James L. Alf, Retd.

Mr. Robert H. Alfers Ms. Elizabeth C. Alicea Ms. Gail L. Allbery Col. and Mrs. John E. Alley, Retd.

Echo G. Allman Mr. Adrian M. Alvarez Mr. Park O. Ames

Mr. and Mrs. Lee A. Anderbery Ms. Jean M. Andersen Mr. David Anderson Mr. Geoffrey and Dr. Debra K. Anderson Mr. Donald G. Anderson Ms. Mary E. Anderson Rev. Russell F. Anderson Col. and Mrs. Steven L. Andraschko Mrs. Martha E. Antonson Ms. Sharon E. Appleby Mr. Russell T. Aragon Mr. John F. Arkwright Mr. Michael C. Arnold Mr. and Mrs. William G. Arnold Mrs. Sharon Ashby Mr. and Mrs. Brian D. Asmus Lt. Col. and Mrs. Eugene T. Atkinson, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Frank E. Babic, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Larry J. Bailey Mr. Keith O. Bailey Ms. Kay L. Baldwin Mrs. Beverly J. Banks Ms. Udoxie Barbee Mr. Charles C. Barbera Mr. and Mrs. Phillip R. Barchman Ms. Deborah J. Barclay Capt. James F. Bard, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Josh Barker Mrs. Cecelia R. Barrington Drs. Sean G. and Stephanie L. Barry Mr. and Mrs. Howard W. Barton Mr. and Mrs. Roger Baumgart Mr. and Mrs. Peter K. Baumhefner Mr. Steven Beckwith Mr. Michael F. Bednarz, Jr. Ms. Patricia J. Bennett Ruth E. Benson, Ed.D. Mr. and Mrs. Wilbert E. Beran Mr. and Mrs. Chris D. Berens Col. Paul A. Bergerot, Retd.

Mr. Joseph I. Bergmann, USAF (Ret) Mr. and Mrs. Mark W. Berner Mr. and Mrs. George J. Bighia, Sr. Maj. Gen. Edward C. Binder Mr. and Mrs. Gary G. Birge Dr. Thomas A. Birk and Mrs. Constance J. Sorensen-Birk Mr. Paul C. Birney Mr. and Mrs. Wayne H. Bloebaum Mr. and Mrs. Leslie L. Blouin Mr. Lawrence Bock Mr. Larry J. Bockelman Mrs. Nancy Jones Boersma Mr. Gary Boettcher Mr. Richard L. Boone Dr. and Mrs. Ramakrishna R. Boppana Lt. Col. and Mrs. Marvin L. Borgman, Retd.

Ms. Linda J. Bors Mr. John W. Bower Mr. Delbert D. Bowers Mr. Gordon L. Boyer Ms. Linda G. Boyer Mr. and Mrs. Arthur J. Braun Mr. and Mrs. Lewis S. G. Braxton, Jr. Ms. Anne L. Breslow-Davies Mr. and Mrs. Dennis G. Brewster Mrs. Patricia I. Brinkman CW3 Billy Broadway, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Daniel R. Brown Mr. Richard D. Brown Mr. Jeffrey A. Brozek Mr. and Mrs. Keith A. Brozek Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Buffington Mr. and Mrs. John F. Burke Mr. and Mrs. Roger A. Burmeister Mr. and Mrs. Donald P. Bush, CPA Mr. Dennis E. Bussom Mr. Daniel H. Bye Mr. and Mrs. Norman V. Cadorette, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Calvert Col. David A. Camacho Mr. Gary J. Campisi Mr. Eduardo Canas Ruben A. Candia, Ph.D. Mr. and Mrs. David J. Carlsen Mr. and Mrs. William D. Ceely, Jr. Mr. Ronald Chaffin Lt. Col. and Mrs. Gerald L. Chamberlen, Retd.

Sgt. and Mrs. Thomas H. Chambers Col. and Mrs. Clarence W. Chancey, Jr., Retd.

Mr. Robert F. Chandler Mr. and Mrs. William Cheese Mr. and Mrs. Jerald L. Chesnut Dr. and Mrs. Charles F. Chevalier Mr. and Mrs. George A. Chittenden Mr. and Mrs. Raymond D. Christensen Mr. and Mrs. William L. Christensen Mr. and Mrs. Gary A. Christiansen Mr. and Mrs. Richard H. Christie Mr. and Mrs. John J. Chrostek, Jr. Col. and Mrs. Eugene E. Cirillo, USAF (Ret) Mr. Arnel B. Citurs Ms. Karen N. Clark Mr. and Mrs. Paul M. Clark Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Clarke Mr. and Mrs. Timothy J. Classen Lt. Col. George R. Cockle Christopher J. Cold, M.D. Mr. Oscar Coleman Mr. and Mrs. Michael L. Combs Col. and Mrs. Donald R. Condrill, Retd.

Pastor Frank Coniglio

Col. and Mrs. John P. Connell Ms. Kai E. Cook Mr. Paul A. Cordell Mr. Kevin R. Cornett Mr. Herbert Cossano Dr. and Mrs. Richard T. Cotton Mr. David J. Coulton Lt. Col. Robert E. Courneen, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth J. Cousino, Sr. Dr. Hugh P. Cowdin and Ms. Catherine E. Rokes Mr. Michael Cox and Mrs. Penny J. Cody-Cox Mr. and Mrs. Douglas P. Cramer Lt. Col. Richard E. Crotty Mr. Clyde E. Cummings Maj. Gen. and Mrs. Jerry R. Curry, Retd.

Mr. Lycurgus C. Curry, Jr. Mr. Paul M. Curry, Jr. Mr. T. Eugene Dahlgren Mrs. Jacqueline Y. Danielson Lana M. Danielson, Ph.D. Mr. Joseph Danko Mr. Richard F. Darling Ms. Linnea A. Davidson Mr. Richard Davis Rev. and Mrs. Terry L. Deffenbaugh Lt. Col. James M. Dellaripa, USAF (Ret) Mr. and Mrs. Norman Denenberg Ms. Dianne K. Desler Mr. and Mrs. Donald Deter Mr. John P. Devries Mr. and Mrs. John H. Dickerson Mr. Dennis S. Dickinson Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey A. Dinzole Ms. Mary Dircks Mr. and Mrs. N. Phillips Dodge, Jr. Mr. Nate P. Dodge and Mrs. Meg Lauritzen Dodge Mr. and Mrs. Gary M. Domet Mr. and Mrs. Douglas A. Dougherty Mr. James A. Douglas Dr. and Mrs. Charles S. Dresher Mr. and Mrs. Richard T. Drew Mr. and Mrs. Michael C. Drey Mr. and Mrs. Davin W. Drittler Mr. and Mrs. David J. DuCharme Ms. Christine S. Dyas Mr. and Mrs. Rex D. Earl Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Eaton Mr. Paul F. Ebisch Mr. James M. Ecker Mr. and Mrs. Lennie O. Edwards, Jr. Mr. Dan Friedlund and Mrs. Ramona M. Edwards Lt. Col. Ralph G. Egenmaier, Retd.

Lt. Col. Arthur R. Ellisen, Retd.

Dr. and Mrs. Robert A. Embree, Ph.D. Mr. and Mrs. David A. Emry

Mr. and Mrs. James Erixon Mrs. Jacqueline A. Estee Mr. and Mrs. Harlan Falk Mr. Edward Fallon Maj. Gen. Vincent E. Falter, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Glenn L. Farris Mr. and Mrs. Eugene D. Feit Mr. and Mrs. Walter Fichter Mr. and Mrs. John A. Fiscus Col. and Mrs. James M. Fisher, Retd.

Mr. Michael P. Flanagan Mr. and Mrs. Gerald J. Flood Mr. Anthony W. Flott Dr. and Mrs. Robert J. Fonda Mr. William A. Forsee Betty G. Foster, Ph.D. Drs. Edward T. and Mary L. Foster Lt. Col. Gerald F. Foster Mr. Bruce Fowler Mr. Andrew S. Fox Dr. and Mrs. Jack Fraenkel Dr. and Mrs. Warren Francke Mr. Robert G. Frank Mrs. Joanne L. Freeman Mr. Alan F. Friebe Mrs. Sharon L. Friedrich Dr. and Mrs. Henry R. Frost Mr. Jack A. Frost Lt. Col. Robert C. Gaddi, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Mike Gallagher Mr. Joseph M. Gasnick Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gathmann Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Gauck Mr. and Mrs. David Gaul Mr. Ronald C. Geasland Ms. Anne B. Gee Mr. Christopher M. Geier Mr. Paul Geihs Mr. and Mrs. John S. Gelecki Mr. Robert S. Georgecink Mr. and Mrs. Pranab K. Ghosh Mr. Stephen G. Gidley Mr. and Mrs. Gary P. Gillaspy Mr. and Mrs. William H. Gober Charles M. Godwin, Ed.D. Mr. and Mrs. Denis I. Goeser Mr. and Mrs. Frank N. Goldberg Mr. Dan K. Gomez Mr. and Mrs. Larry M. Gomez Mr. and Mrs. James M. Gould Dr. and Mrs. Michael J. Grace Mr. and Mrs. Richard R. Graham Mr. and Mrs. Bernard A. Graves Mr. Mark D. Graybill Mr. and Mrs. Patrick D. Gredys Ms. Alyce C. Green Dr. and Mrs. James P. Gregory Mr. Richard Gregory Mr. Robert Gries Dr. and Mrs. William T. Griffin Mrs. Marilyn A. Griffith

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CENTURY CLUB Mr. and Mrs. Cliff Grosskopf Mr. and Mrs. Roger E. Grote Mr. Timothy Grove Mr. Charles B. Gruenig Mr. and Mrs. Larry R. Guenther Mr. and Mrs. John R. Gustafson Ms. Jo Ann Haafke Mr. and Mrs. William J. Hahn, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Jack R. Hall MSgt.and Mrs. Paul N. Hall, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Otto E. Haman Mr. Kazuichi Hamasaki Timothy E. Hamel and Somboon Jaiharn-Hamel Maj. and Mrs. Jesse Hamilton, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew M. Hansen Col. and Mrs. Donald C. Hansen, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Hansen Ms. Lucille E. Hansen Mr. and Mrs. Michael F. Hansen Lt. Col. and Mrs. Kurt C. Haripar Mr. Dale W. Harkert Mr. and Mrs. Jack A. Harlan Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Harmon Dr. and Mrs. Roger K. Harned Mr. James L. Harrel Mr. and Mrs. James J. Harrington Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Hartigan Mr. and Mrs. Louis G. Hatch Mr. and Mrs. Randy R. Haug Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Hauth Mr. and Mrs. Bruce K. Hayden, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Terrence M. Healey Mr. Robert Hearron Jack Heidel, Ph.D. Mr. and Mrs. Richard F. Hekl, Sr. Mrs. Sherry M. Hellmuth Mr. and Mrs. Floyd G. Hellyer Ms. Eleanor M. Helmann Lt. Col. and Mrs. Joseph L. Henderson, Sr. Gary and Trudy Henson Mr. and Mrs. H. Robert Herold, II Mr. and Mrs. David P. Hesselink Mrs. Joyce G. Higgins Col. James G. Hill Dr. John W. Hill and Ms. Tommie C. Parker Mr. and Mrs. Peter W. Hill Mr. and Mrs. Donald L. Hirsh Dr. and Mrs. John H. Hoehne Dr. and Ms. William L. Hoevet Ms. Tammy J. Hoffman Shari R. Hofschire Mr. Robert L. Hopkins Lt. Col. and Mrs. Guenther O. Horn, Retd.

Mr. John C. Horton Mrs. Jeanette Hosek Mr. and Mrs. Donald R. Hotz, Jr. Mrs. Helen L. Houston

Mr. Joseph E. Howland Lt. Col. Hans G. Huettig, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Daniel R. Hug Mr. Stacy P. Hughes Mr. and Mrs. Booker T. Huling Dr. and Mrs. R. Thomas Hunt Mr. Harold H. Hunter Mr. and Mrs. Donald E. Iburg Dr. and Mrs. Charles A. Ihrke Mr. Charles E. Iverson Mr. and Mrs. Thaddeus E. Jackson, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Roger D. Jacobsen Mr. Thomas L. Jamieson Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Jamieson Mr. Richard P. Janese Mr. and Mrs. Mark R. Jefferson, CLU Mr. and Mrs. Stefan G. Jenkins Mr. and Mrs. Gene Jensen Mr. and Mrs. Clark E. Jenson Mr. and Mrs. Carl A. Johnson Mr. and Mrs. Dwight E. Johnson Noreen L. Johnson Col. Perry C. Johnson, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. James W. Johnston, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Laska H. Jones, Sr. Mr. Michael A. Jones Mr. Wendell H. Jones Mr. William F. Kabourek Ms. Melody Kahm Mr. and Mrs. Dennis L. Kaiser Mr. and Mrs. Kurtis K. Kammerer Lt. Col. and Mrs. James C. Kasperbauer Mr. Edward Kauss Mr. and Mrs. Donald R. Kavalec Lt. Col. and Mrs. John H. Keene, Retd.

Mrs. Eileen L. Kegley Mr. William J. Keiderling Dr. and Mrs. Ralph H. Keill, Jr. Lt. Col. and Mrs. Richard C. Kellems, Retd.

Mr. Timothy Kelley Mr. and Mrs. Michael F. Kelly Mr. and Mrs. John P. Kennedy Mr. and Mrs. Shawn Kennedy Ms. Kathleen Kersey Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Ketchum Mr. Clyde W. Ketelsen Mr. Richard N. Ketelsen Ms. Ann T. Kieffer Mrs. Betty J. Kieran Mr. John K. Kieran Mr. and Mrs. Gerald F. King Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Kingery Ms. Joan Klanderud Mr. Michael C. Knebel Mr. Donald E. Kneifl Ms. Mary K. Knight Mr. Sever Knutson

Mr. and Mrs. Craig A. Knutzen Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth J. Koehler Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth J. Kopocis Mr. and Mrs. James J. Koranda Mr. and Mrs. Michael C. Kotch Mr. Donald R. Kotrc Mr. and Mrs. Leroy F. Kozeny Ms. Elizabeth L. Kraemer Mr. and Mrs. Michael P. Krehbiel Mr. and Mrs. James B. Kresnik Ms. Phyllis E. Kroeger Lt. Col. Gilbert A. Krom, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Jack J. Kubat, Jr. Ms. Margaret M. Kubat Mr. John E. Kuhfahl, Jr. Mr. William M. Kult Lt. Col. and Mrs. Paul M. Kunichika Ms. Lou Ann Landholm Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey A. Lapel Mr. James A. Lastovica Dr. and Mrs. C. Rex Latta Ms. Doris D. Launderville Ms. Fredericka M. Laux Mr. Patrick J. Lavelle Mrs. Carolyn J. Law Joel D. Lebsack, Ed.D. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph S. Lecci Mr. Jerald Leidy Mr. David M. Leigh Mr. and Mrs. Thomas R. Leise Mrs. Margaret K. Lemen Mr. and Mrs. Larry T. Leverett Mr. James Lewis Dr. and Mrs. Kirk C. Lewis Mr. and Mrs. Thomas G. Lewis Mr. Tom Liefer Mr. Robert J. Lindberg Mr. Willie Lindsey Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Lodes Ms. Lorraine J. Loeffler Mr. Abraham L. Logan Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Logan II Ms. Veronica E. Long Col. and Mrs. Juan R. Lopez De La Cruz, Retd.

Ms. Joan L. Lukas Lt. Col. Hillary A. Luton Mr. and Mrs. Bob L. Lykke Mr. and Mrs. Henry P. Maass, Jr. Mr. Robert E. Mackie and Ms. Kathy L. Lee Ms. Andrena L. MacLeod Mr. William MacQuarrie Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Malashock Dr. and Mrs. Stanley J. Maliszewski Lt. Col. Louis A. Mallia, Retd.

Ms. Gayle M. Malmquist Mr. Beau and Mrs. Maria Malnack Mr. David Manning Mr. Roger L L. Mansfield

Capt. and Mrs. Ronald N. Maraz, Retd.

Mr. Donald G. Marks Mrs. Barbara E. Markuson George L. Marling and Laura Marling Mrs. Mary L. Marshall Mrs. Kathleen H. Martin Mr. Roger A. Martz Mr. and Mrs. John A. Mascarello Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Massara Mr. and Mrs. Leonard A. Mauro Cmdr. William McBride Mr. and Mrs. Johnnie B. McCaa Mr. and Mrs. Joe T. McCartney, Jr. Col. and Mrs. Jack L. McClaran, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Keith McCormick Mr. and Mrs. William M. McCracken Mrs. Mary McCully Ms. Alice J. McDowell Mr. and Mrs. Daniel P. McElligott Roger L. McGargill Jr., Ph.D. Ms. Mary T. McGovern Lt. Col. Lawrence A. McIntyre, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. McMahon Mr. Mark McMillan Mr. and Mrs. R. K. McMillan SMSgt. Wilson H. McMillan, Retd.

Ms. Sheila A. McNeill Lt. Col. John J. McOscar, Retd.

Mrs. Rebecca L. Means Maj. and Mrs. Michael J. Mears, Retd.

Mr. David Meier Mr. and Mrs. Doulgas M. Meier Marilyn F. Mellor, M.D. Mr. James D. Melson Mr. and Mrs. Norman J. Melton Mrs. Darlene Menard Mr. and Mrs. Michael L. Mench Ms. Gloria A. Wallen-Mendez Mr. and Mrs. Michael F. Merrick Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Meyer Dr. and Mrs. Bill T. Meyer Mr. Gregory J. Mikuls Mr. and Mrs. Ronald C. Milfs Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence M. Militti Dr. and Mrs. Michael J. Millea Mr. and Mrs. Kent R. Miller Mr. Scott L. Miller Mr. and Mrs. Jon R. Minks Dr. and Mrs. Vincent F. Miscia Capt. and Mrs. Matthew C. Misfeldt Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Mitchell Jr. Mrs. Mary E. Moberg Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Moenssen Mrs. Maureen M. Moluf Sgt. and Mrs. John W. Moore Ms. Juanita Moore Dr. Russell P. Moore Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Moran N. Leonard Morgenstern, M.D. Mrs. Mary L. Morrissey Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Morrissey II Mrs. L. Louise Moss Mr. and Mrs. Doug Mossberg Mr. and Mrs. Richard D. Muhlbauer Maj. and Mrs. Warren E. Mullen, Retd.

Mrs. Dorothy L. Mundt Mr. William F. Munoff Mr. and Mrs. William W. Musgrave Col. Charles W. Myers, Retd. USAF Mrs. Marjorie C. Nabity Mr. and Mrs. John E. Nahas Mr. and Mrs. Willie Nantz Mr. and Mrs. Daniel P. Neary Mr. and Mrs. William D. Nelsen Mr. and Mrs. Bradford J. Nelson Mr. Darold N. Nelson Mr. and Mrs. Elbert L. Nelson, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Irwin H. Nelson Lt. Col. and Mrs. Phillip H. Nelson, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Garrett W. Neuman Mr. and Mrs. Nelson L. Newman Mrs. Ann S. Newton Mr. Phillip N. Nguyen Mr. and Mrs. Rick Niday Mrs. Patricia M. North Mrs. Mary M. Northrop Mr. Grant P. Novak Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Novotny Dr. and Mrs. Michael J. Nuschy Mr. and Mrs. Robert O'Brien Mr. Pedro E. Okoruwa Mr. Richard L. O'Larry Mr. Howard C. Olson Mr. and Mrs. Conrad M. Olsson Mrs. Marjorie I. O'Reilly Rev. William D. Osick Mr. Charles Ostler Mr. Michael B. Ostrom and Ms. Benita M. Seliga Dr. Dorothy A. Ostrowski Mr. and Mrs. John C. Ott Dr. and Mrs. Joel M. Padmore Mr. and Mrs. Terry Palensky Mr. and Mrs. Ralph V. Palmer LTC (Ret) Curtis G. Parker, Retd.

Mr. Robert G. Parolek Capt. Dennis R. Partenheimer, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Donald J. Pavelka, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey S. Peake Mr. Robert E. Peirce Mr. Larry J. Penne Mr. and Mrs. Arthur D. Pepin Mr. Robert L. Perry Mr. Gerald F. Pesek Dr. and Mrs. Howard A. Peters Mr. and Mrs. Larry D. Peters

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CENTURY CLUB Mr. and Mrs. David W. Peters Mr. Alfred W. and Dr. Carol J. Petersen Ms. Beverly M. Petersen Mr. Dale L. Petersen Mr. and Mrs. Donald R. Peterson Mr. and Mrs. Norman E. Peterson Mr. and Mrs. Dieter Petz Mr. Scott N. Pham Mr. and Ms. Scott W. Phillips Mr. Robert E. Pierson Mr. Efren Pol Ms. Mary A. Poppino MSGT and Mrs. James Porter, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. William L. Powers LTC Cecil G. Prentis, Retd.

Mr. John Pribramsky and Ms. Sherry Loseke Mr. Patrick and Dr. Clare Prince Maj. Elza B. Pringle Jr. Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Warren W. Pryor Mr. and Mrs. Gerald A. Radek Mr. and Mrs. Larry R. Rainwater Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Ramm Mr. Lonzale Ramsey, Sr. Mr. and Mrs. George Randle, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Richard R. Rankin Mr. and Ms. John B. Rapier, III Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Rasgorshek, Jr. Mr. Brent E. Rasmussen Mr. Guy L. Reece, II and Mrs. Shirley A. Rogers-Reece Mr. Matthew S. Rehder Mr. Alan Reinarz Mr. Wessley R. Reisser Mr. and Mrs. William C. Reitan Mr. and Mrs. William W. Reynolds, Jr. Mrs. Susan E. Riccio Col. Michael E. Richardson, Retd.

Mr. Robert E. Ridder Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth J. Rieschl Tricia K. Riggins Ms. Mary E. Riley Mr. and Mrs. LeRoy A. Roberts Mr. Zane O. Gresham and Ms. Carol J. Robinson Mr. Larry Rock and Dr. Melissa Garner Mr. and Mrs. John C. Rogers Judith Z. Rojas, Ph.D. Mr. Ronald L. Rosberg Mr. Robert D. Rose, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. William F. Ross Mr. and Mrs. Louis J. Rotella, Jr. Joanne K. Rowney Mr. Frederick M. Rudie Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Russo Mr. and Mrs. Warren H. Rutledge Margaret F. Ryan Turner, Ph.D.

Mr. and Mrs. William K. Ryan Mr. Sterling M. Ryder Mr. and Mrs. Thomas M. Rymph Mr. Raul Saldivar, Jr. and Ms. Ellen B. Saldivar Rev. and Mrs. Gary A. Sallquist Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Sambasile Ms. Kathy M. Sangimino Mr. John M. Savage Mr. Dennis and Dr. Beverly Schaffer Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Q. Schiefer Mr. William R. Schlott Mr. Aksel M. Schmidt Mr. Wesley Schmidt Mr. Stephen E. Schneckloth Lt. Col. and Mrs. Frank W. Schnee, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Edward A. Schneider Mr. and Mrs. Scott C. Schneider Mr. and Mrs. Helmer A. Schoenfeld Lt. Col. Gerrit J. Scholten, Retd.

Mr. David M. and Dr. Laura E. Schulte Mrs. Shirley A. Schultz Mr. and Mrs. Robert Schutte Ms. Charlyn Scott Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Secor, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. J. Terry Seliga Ms. Pamela S. Sellenrick Ms. Pamela M. Seward Col. H. Kenneth Seymour, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Fred L. Sgroi Capt. Jimmy D. Shaw Ms. Margaret D. Shearer Parker L. Shipley, J.D. and Velma C. Shipley, Ph.D. Mr. and Mrs. Daniel J. Showalter, Jr. Dr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Shuey, Jr. Mr. Daniel Silvea Jens B. Simonsen LTC Billy G. Sims, USA, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Skalla Mr. Leonard R. Skillan Mr. and Mrs. Robert R. Sklenar Mr. and Mrs. Donald E. Skokan Mr. and Mrs. Kevin F. Sliwinski Mrs. D. Eileen Smith Mr. David E. Smith CMSgt. and Mrs. H. Dean Smith, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Raymond E. Smith Mr. and Mrs. Rodney S. Smith Col. and Mrs. Charles V. Smoot, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. David Snow Maj. Albert L. Snyder, USAF, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Larry E. Socha Col. F. V. Sohle, Jr. Mr. Donald B. Solwold Mr. and Mrs. James W. Sorensen

LTC and Mrs. Hugh E. Spellman, Retd.

Mrs. Dorothy J. Spence Mr. and Mrs. Craig R. Spinharney Mr. and Mrs. Stanley W. Standifer, Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Mark J. Stanek Dr. William R. Staplin and Ruth A. Staplin Mr. and Mrs. Peter T. Starke Mr. and Mrs. Troy A. Staroscik Mr. and Mrs. William A. Startzer Mr. and Mrs. Francis J. Staskiewicz, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Stein John A. Stephens, Ph.D. Mr. David F. Steppat Mrs. Janice K. Steppat Mr. and Mrs. Donald R. Stewart Ms. Joanne M. Stewart Dr. and Mrs. Timothy J. Stivrins Mr. and Mrs. Mark L. Stokes Mr. Dan J. Stoney Mr. and Mrs. Paul J. Strawhecker Mr. Stephen B. Strehle Dr. Donald L. and Mrs. Ramona J. Stroh Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Stubblefield Mr. Robert J. Stutzman Maj. and Mrs. Theodore S. Suchoski, Retd.

Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Sullivan Ms. Maureen R. Svagera Mr. Alan B. Swain Mr. Ronald L. Swain Mr. Mark W. Swanson Mrs. Patricia N. Swanson Mr. and Mrs. Warren C. Swanson Mr. Robert E. Synowicki, Jr. Mr. Ralph M. Tait Mr. and Mrs. Wayne J. Tannahill Mr. Roy Tate Maj. and Mrs. Burgess L. Taylor Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Taylor Mr. Turner M. Tefft, Jr. Mr. Quinn R. Tell Mrs. and Dr. Lorraine M. Thiele Mrs. Joanne G. Thietje Lt. Col. and Mrs. James D. Thomas, Retd.

Mr. Leroy Thomas, Sr. Dr. and Mrs. Austin B. Thompson Col. James D. Thompson, Retd.

Mr. Wade H. Thomson Mr. John P. Thorslev Mr. Donald K. Tickler Maj. and Mrs. Frank R. Till, Retd.

Mr. Ben Tobias Mr. and Mrs. Robert D. Todd Maj. William K. Tokumoto, Retd.

Drs. Dan E. and Suzanne Nelson Tolman Ms. Lisa M. Tosoni-Manning Mr. James E. Townes Ms. Sandra Trandahl Mr. and Mrs. Omer C. Trout, Jr. Mr. Eugene F. Truax Mr. Jeffrey Turley and Dr. Mary Ryan-Turley Mr. Lawrence E. Turner Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Turner Ms. Margaret A. Twohey Mr. Richard Ulmer and Ms. Anita F. Stork Mr. Timothy J. Vail Ms. Carol Valdrighi Mr. Leslie Valentine and Ms. Carol Gutchewsky Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Van Rossum Mr. and Mrs. Brett A. Vasek Col. Dennis P. Vasey, Retd.

Col. Thomas B. Vaughn, Retd.

Mr. Lee D. Velde and Mr. Healy Leong, AIA Mr. and Mrs. Federico T. Verceles Lt. Col. Carl F. Vercio, Retd.

Mr. Michael T. Vilcinskas Mr. and Mrs. John J. Vitton, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Emil H. Vollman Mr. Brian Wadsworth Bill O. Wakefield, Ph.D. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas D. Waldman, J.D. Mr. Chien Chung Wang Mr. and Mrs. Dwight M. Warak, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Clark H. Ward Mrs. Frances F. Ward Mr. Gilbert J. Wargo Mr. Jeffrey L. Wasson Mr. Doneley H. Watson Mr. and Mrs. Robert B. Way Mrs. Michelle M. Weatherly Mr. and Mrs. Larry J. Weber, CPA Mr. Sol L. Weinberg Ms. Sherry J. Weis Dr. Ellen L. Weiss Mr. Glenn A. Welz Mr. Rob R. Wemhoff Mrs. Linda F. Wendel Capt. and Mrs. Thomas P. Westgaard, Retd.

Mr. Stuart A. Westphal Mrs. Susan H. White Mr. and Mrs. Don A. Whitmer Mrs. and Maj. Eileen S. Whittemore Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin D. Wiesman Mr. and Mrs. Gregory E. Wilcox Dr. and Mrs. Wesley G. Wilhelm Mr. and Mrs. Craig D. Wilkins Mrs. Adele Williams

Dr. and Mrs. Eric M. Williams Mr. and Mrs. Jack W. Williams Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Williams Mrs. Mary C. Wilson Mr. Nick A. Wilson Mr. Johan Windmuller, M.A. Mr. Harry M. Wines CMSgt. and Mrs. Laverne Wingate, Retd.

Ms. Rebecca L. Wingate Mr. and Mrs. William D. Witschen Mr. and Mrs. Steven H. Wittmuss Mr. and Mrs. Vernon H. Wood, Jr. Sara and Kirby Woods Mrs. Carole A. Woodworth Mr. Grover E. Wright Dr. and Mrs. Robert G. Wright Mr. Robert S. and Dr. Mary M. Wurtz Mr. and Mrs. Donald Yanke Mr. Jeffry S. Yarrington Dr. W. Ross Yates Mr. and Mrs. Frank V. Yelick Mr. Paul A. Yochum Mr. Lawrence J. Zahm Mrs. Martha K. Zajicek Mr. Ted I. Zidenberg Mr. and Mrs. Spencer E. Zimmerman

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CLASS 66

DAVID AUSTIN (BGE) prior to graduating

had completed six years in the United States Marine Corps and five years in the United States Air Force. After graduating he spent another 14 years in the Air Force, retiring in 1980 as a major. His final assignment in the Air Force was with NASA as the quality assurance manager for the space shuttle program. Upon retirement he stayed at NASA on the space shuttle program then on the space station Freedom program. After that stint, he became the program manager for advanced technology planning for the human mission to Mars. Austin retired from NASA in 1997 and worked for private industry until 2002. He since has spent his time substitute teaching and in various volunteer activities. His three children and grandchildren all live in northern Virginia, as he does.

He writes: “Graduating from UNO provided me with the opportunity to be commissioned in the United States Air Force and eventually gaining an MBA. I will always be thankful that I had the opportunity to attend UNO.” djaustin.ehs55@verizon.net

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ARTHUR LOUGHRY (BA) lives in Arlington,

Texas, and wrote a novel on the American Revolution that was inspired by a government class at UNO. The synopsis reads: “The Scottish Mackenzies plan an escape from poverty and an oppressive English king. John provides superior leadership with Scottish soldiers and militias to help the English army control Indians. The Mackenzies go to America and for seven years join the quest for independence. They are patriots

NO T E S

CLASS NOTES

Send your classnotes to www.unoalumni.org/classnotes.

Or, post your note on the UNO Alumni Association Facebook site: www.facebook.com/UNOAlumni

learning the price is high in blood, separation and distrust of friends.” alpscorp@swbell.net

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ALBERT HODAPP (MA) presented a poster

titled “Media and Nature” at the National Association of School Psychologists Convention in Washington, D.C., in February.

ALFONSO LENHARDT (BS) was nominated in April by President Barack Obama to become the next deputy administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Lenhardt was U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania from 2009 to 2013. In 2001 Lenhardt was appointed the 36th Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. Senate, becoming the first AfricanAmerican to serve as an officer of Congress. In this capacity he oversaw a staff of 826 employees and a $2 million budget and was responsible for security to protect the Senate and more. He previously spent 31 years in the U.S. Army, retiring in 1997 as a major general.

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MICHAEL R. KEALY (BA) was re-elected by shareholders to the 2014 board of directors at law firm Parsons Behle & Latimer. Kealy will serve as vice president and secretary.

MARK ALLEN (BS) after 14 years producing television in Los Angeles has moved back to Omaha

and opened Storage Room A Productions. He has several reality-based projects in the works in hopes of getting pilot orders. Allen and his studio will be launching a live kick-starter event for the pilot orders in June, which will include a one-of-a-kind performance. Five UNO interns are working on the productions, with several others helping on an as-needed basis. This fall, Allen will be teaching the university’s first-ever course on producing reality television.

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ERIC CARLSON (BSBA) lives in Omaha

with his wife, Kristy, and four boys. He manages the combined purchasing department for Douglas County and the City of Omaha. He oversees operation of the county warehouse, mailroom, garage and print shop. He previously worked in IT procurement at First Data Corporation and Hewlett Packard in Omaha.

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HOWARD KEITH HATFIELD (MA)

after a 10-year career in athletic training and a 15-year career as a physician assistant, has created a stretch device that helps stretch the foot, calf and hamstring — called The Hatfield Strap. A patent is pending, but the product is available at www. hatfieldstrap.com. hatfield94@comcast.net

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STEVE MARTIN (MA) received an

honorary doctor of law degree from Washburn University at commencement exercises May 17.

Martin has been president, CEO and board director of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska since 2002.

JULIE CONDON SIBERT (BS) recently co-authored a marriage book, “Pursuit of Passion: Discovering True Intimacy in Your Marriage.” She is a freelance writer, editor and speaker whose topic niche is sexual intimacy in marriage.

She blogs regularly on her site at www.IntimacyInMarriage.com.

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MIKE FLANAGAN (MPA) lives in Overland

Park, Kan., and is chairman for the Overland Park Planning Commission. He has been a member of the planning commission since 2005. He also has served as chair of the Community Development Block Grant Committee and the Comprehensive Plan Committee for the City of Overland Park. He previously worked for Union Pacific Railroad in Omaha and as an association manager for Applied Measurement Professionals in Olathe, Kan. Mpaulf62@gmail.com

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CLASS NOTES BILL ESCH (BGS) lives in Omaha and in February at the Orange Kettlebell Club California Open in Cost Mesa, Calif., became the first American to achieve master of sport international class rank while setting a new North American record in the long cycle kettlebell competition. He was named best male overall lifter of the California Open Championships, and was awarded the Sergey Mishin Award for best overall lifter coefficient. He is co-founder and owner of Smith and Esch Fitness Systems in Omaha.

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TOM CENTARRI (BGS)

has worked in Catholic schools as a theology teacher, in parishes as a youth minister and at Newman Centers as a campus minister. Since February of 2011 he has been ministering full time to junior high, high school and young adults at Mary our Queen parish in Omaha. He earned a master of arts in pastoral ministry from Mount Marty College in Yankton, S.D., in 2008.

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NOELLE BLOOD (BS) was hired as a

communications specialist for the UNO College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media. In this role, she is responsible for coordinating the college’s message in digital and print media across its five academic units. In addition, she works directly with UNO’s communications team to promote the college and ensure its cohesion with university branding policy.

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PHIL MANLEY

directed the video board feeds at the Ice Cube Curling Center for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Manley was working for Van Wagner Big Screen Networks. He took time to “Show the O” in front of the Olympic rings at Olympic Park in Sochi, Russia.

NATALIE MCGOVERN (BS) was crowned Ms. Nebraska United States 2014.

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CLASS NOTES ELEANOR FAYE ALDRIDGE, daughter of Jillian (Eisma, ’11) and Max (’11) Aldridge of Omaha.

KEIRA NICOLE APPLEGATE, daughter of Shawna (Lucas, ’06) and Bruce (’05) Applegate of Ontario, Calif.

MILA JAMES BASS, daughter of Erin (Longfield, ’06, ’10) and Zach (’02) Bass of Omaha.

FUTURE ALUMS Since 1991, the UNO Alumni Association has given more than 2,000 free shirts and bibs to children and grandchildren of UNO graduates! Get YOUR child a new O baby! shirt today!

Submit a birth announcement within 1 year of birth by completing the form at unoalumni.org/futurealums

CROSBY WILLIAM FALKE, son of Megan (Kwasnieski, ’06) and Patrick (’07) Falke of Omaha and grandson of Leslie Kwasnieski (’86) of Omaha.

EULALIE ELAINE GAMVROUDIS, daughter of Panagiotis and Meleah Groenjes (’12) Gamvroudis of Plattsmouth, Neb. TRENTON JAMES HISER, son of Nicholas and Kelly (Beck, ’10) Hiser of Bellevue, Neb.

GRACYN LAMBERT BEHN, son ASHER WILLIAM IDLE, son of Karly (Kolden, ’08) and Justin (’10) Idle of of Ann (Farris, ’09) and Drew (’09) Newnan, Ga. Behn of Columbus, Neb.

SCARLETT ANN PARKS, daughter of David and Sara (Kirchhevel, ’12) Parks of Omaha.

DANICA MARIE PECHA, daughter of Kristine and Steven (’06) Pecha of Omaha.

GEMMA JOYCE PERDUNN, daughter of Ashley and Michael (’13) Perdunn of Omaha.

MICHAEL WARREN PETERSON, son of Daniel and Jennifer (McLaughlin, ’09) Peterson of Omaha and grandson of Charles (’75, ’80) and Kathleen (’75, ’79 ’87, ’01) Peterson of Omaha.

KENDALL LAUREN BIEL, daughter of Laura and Rollin (’90) Biel of Elkhorn, Neb.

EMMETT HENRY JOHNSON, son of Amy (Campbell, ’10) and Nick (’10) Johnson of Omaha.

EMERSON JOY ROSE, daughter of Joshua and Dana (’02) Rose of Abilene, Texas

AMELIA HELENE BRAND, daughter of Gerald and Vanessa (Tanderup, ’01) Brand of Tekamah, Neb., and granddaughter of Arthur Tanderup (’89) of Neligh, Neb.

ZANDER KENNETH LAMBRECHT, son of Devyn and Kristen (Ackerman, ’09) Lambrecht of Omaha.

CHARLOTTE ROSE STEIER, daughter of Rachel (Truckenbrod, student) and John (’12) Steier of Omaha.

AVA ANN ODEH, daughter of Jessica (Loehr, ’10) and Hisham (’09) Odeh of Omaha and granddaughter of Hadia Odeh (’79) of Omaha.

WYATT HUDSON STRAATMANN, son of Pat and Kelly (’12) Straatmann of Omaha.

ALAYNA MARIE CARLSON, daughter of Tara (Lamme, ’06) and Craig (’10) Carlson of Omaha.

IN MEMORIAM

MADISON JANE PANDORF, daughter of Melissa Scott-Pandorf (’03, ’05) and Jesse Pandorf (’02) of Kearney, Neb.

HENRY ANDRES TORRES, son of Heather and Andres (’13) Torres of Omaha.

A list of alumni whose deaths were reported to the UNO Alumni Association from Dec. 11, 2013 to April 15.

UNO Magazine incorrectly listed Becky Fendrick in the In Memoriam section of the Spring 2014 issue. We regret the error and apologize for our mistake.

Alumni 1940 1946 1949 1950

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1963 Thomas C. Utts George J. Shafer Jean D. Holland Jay J. Chasen Dorothy M. Anderson Warren F. Christie Richard H. Hansen Frederick W. Rice Robert H. Ward Katherine L. Fletcher Ronald W. Benson Gerald E. Campbell Joyce Culligan Bill E. Kiffin Jack E. Hallstrom Lyle L. Skov Robert W. Henkel Mary A. Kishiyama William W. Grassman Frank Agosta Charles G. Hunter Charles I. Scudder Thomas W. Slack Dale Bocock F. Mike Miles Dorothy R. Novotny

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1967 1968 1969

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Charles C. Workman Jack R. Dunlap Orville D. Menard Michael J. Topolosky Larry L’Heureux Duane M. Katz David Davis John Bluvas Carl W. Gaborik William J. Coad John B. McCracken William G. Ballard Clyde E. Duncan Donald R. Masters Claire Murphy Edward J. Sadler Louis Treadway Karen Turco Richard L. Anderson M. Y. Greenberg Mitchell F. Lane Merritt Walls Melvin D. Westenskow Gerald R. Adams Mary A. Clark

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1975 1976

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Marvin D. Davis Ruth E. Latham David M. Rossiter Fred K. Budzyna Brian W. Dauner Jean R. Gottsch Gary E. Langston Richard D. Walsh Beverly N. Bartholow Eric D. Boshart James M. Ingram Barry W. Miller Cathy L. Young Howard T. Lenz Rodney E. Austin Roxanne F. Gilmore Connie K. Smith Kathleen M. England Edgar M. Splittgerber Debra A. Thiesfeld James R. Young Gary G. Bennett Jane D. Hulsey Kathleen A. Scheiblhofer David Smart Valora J. Stewart

1981 Joyce A. Burbach

Alan L. Ruff

Nelson Perry Kathleen M. Wallace Phyllis M. Japp Michael E. Minarik James Johnston Paul J. Nyholm L. V. Peterson Curtis G. Royer Jamie Leblond Cheryl F. Blue Dawn M. Busenbark Lindy S. Osborne Douglas L. Ferguson Catherine A. Caffrey Jessica E. Nabity Karla Stowe Julie A. Schultz Michael E. Daly

1982 Kenneth K. Jacobsen 1986

1988

1989 1992 1995

1996 1998 2002 2003 2007 2009

Faculty & Staff Dr. Edward J. Sadler

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CLASS NOTES

SEND A CLASS NOTE

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING SINCE GRADUATING FROM UNO? Send updates to us with Name, Class Year, Degree, Phone, Address and Email.

Send to: UNO Magazine Class Notes, 6705 Dodge St., Omaha, NE 68182-0010.

Fax to (402) 554-3787 or submit online at www.unoalumni.org/classnote.

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Thompson Center at UNO | 6705 Dodge St. 402-554-3368 | www.thethompsoncenter.org

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SIGHTS & SOUNDS

SIGHTS & SOUNDS A look at happenings on and off campus

Going Bowling Members of Omaha University’s 1955 Tangerine Bowl team gathered at UNO’s Criss Library in April to see the debut of the game’s film synced with its newfound audio broadcast.

OU won the game 7-6 over Eastern Kentucky.

The game, with audio, can be seen online at bit.ly/1955OUTangerine

Now Topping 100K Thanks to the addition of more than 1,500 graduates at May commencement, the worldwide UNO alumni network now includes more than 100,000 living graduates. Since the first class graduated in 1913, more than 117,000 degrees have been issued overall.

7 Days of Service Hundreds of UNO students spent their Spring Break in March serving others as part of the university’s 11th Annual Seven Days of Service. The popular service and engagement project featured UNO students volunteering at various sites throughout metropolitan Omaha, including time helping Habitat for Humanity.

True Colors UNO’s Indian Student Association hosted its annual Holi: Festival of Colors in April in the Pep Bowl. The ancient Indian festival of colors celebrates spring, new life and diversity, with colors representing “tolerance, camaraderie and equality.”

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Fun in the Sand Celebrated Indian folk artist Vijayalakshmi Mohan returned to the UNO campus in April to create one of her signature rangolis—a decorative and impermanent pattern comprised of colored sands, rice powders, beads, and other materials—in the atrium of the College of Business Administration’s Mammel Hall.

Moving Performance Thirty dancers from UNO's The Moving Company under the direction of Professor Josie Metal-Corbin performed “Drought” on April 12 as part of National Water Dance Day, an initiative designed to bring attention to the fragility of U.S. waterways. The work, choreographed

by Jeff Curtis, was performed on the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge. Dancers were accompanied by UNO's Ensemble 768 under the direction of Dr. Christie Beard.

Busy as Bees More than 400 students from the Omaha area were on campus in April to cheer on 32 of their classmates competing in the second annual UNO Calculus Bee. Two groups of 16 students each competed against each other in live head-to-head match-ups. Twenty schools were represented. Students were selected from more than 550 entrants who completing an entrance exam.

Pictures by Jeff Beieremann, University Relations

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FOR FUN

FOR FUN Test your brainpower with these puzzles created by UNO graduate (and former football player) Terry Stickels (’76). An author, speaker and puzzle maker, Stickels’ FRAME GAMES is published by USA Weekend magazine and in 600 newspapers. For more information on Stickels, or to order any of his books, visit www.terrystickels.com

Visual — Puzzle 101

Below are 4 squares made with matchsticks. Move 2 and only 2 of the matchsticks to create 5 squares.

Logic — Puzzle 14

Mike’s father-in-law has one daughter only. The daughter’s mother-inlaw has a son named Robert who has a son named Tyler. Tyler is Mike’s: A.) Cousin B.) Nephew C.) Uncle D.) Son E.) Father

Mathematics — Puzzle 27

Ten former classmates meet for dinner and each shakes hand with the other one time. How many total handshakes will take place among the 10 friends?

A) 100 B) 50 C) 45 D) 23 E) 11

Language — Puzzle 137

ANSWERS VISUAL: Move any 2 of the 3 numbered matchsticks to here.

Now you have 5 squares. The 4 small ones and the one large one. We don’t care about the extra matchstick sticking out…we don’t need it!

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LANGUAGE: Goalie is the odd one out. All the rest begin with a consonant and then alternate vowel, consonant, vowel, etc.

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One of the words below does not belong with the others based on a simple, straightforward characteristic in the construction of the words. Which one is the odd one out?

Panoramic Tolerate Remote Camera Below Goalie

MATHEMATICS: C) 45 9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1

Puzzles taken from The Big Brain Puzzle Book, created

by Terry Stickels for the Alzheimer’s Association.

LOGIC: B.) NEPHEW ANSWERS

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UNO Magazine is the flagship publication of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and is published three times a year. It is mailed to all UNO graduates and to community leaders in and out of Nebraska. Please share your copy with anyone who might benefit from the work of our great university.

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TRAVEL TIPS UNO students are leaving the comfort of friends, family and beds to study abroad.

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FLYING INTO HISTORY UNO graduate Gerald E. McIlmoyle in the thick of the Cuban missile crisis.

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KEEPING U.P. ON TRACK Union Pacific is among the biggest employers of UNO students, hiring dozens each year.