Auburn Magazine Spring 2010

SPORTS AU swim captain named Rhodes scholar pg 24

Brother-sister duo spends time puttin’ on the grits pg 36

PROFILE

How do you define the quintessential ‘Auburn Man’ (or Woman)? pg 64

ESSAY

SPRING 2010

A Spirit Unafraid

What you don’t know about today’s students

2

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Alternative fuel.

Home of th

#1

e

Anyone can go green. We’re going orange and blue. Come back to Auburn and see why Golf Digest called us the #1 Golf City in the US. You can park your car, grab a cart, and experience 144 holes of the most beautiful and affordable golf this country has to offer.

Or walk the streets of the loveliest village you can remember where restaurants, shopping, and attractions are just a short stroll on foot not an arm and a leg! Call the Auburn-Opelika Tourism Bureau to plan your visit today.

Public Cou rse in the US! *

334-887-8747 | 866.880.8747 | aotourism.com | info@aotourism.com *Golf World Magazine a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine AU Alumni spring 10.indd 1

1

1/20/2010 10:47:19 AM

2

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Serenity Now Looking to get away from it all? Auburn’s Donald E. Davis Arboretum, operated by the College of Sciences and Mathematics, is a great place to ponder life’s big questions or just shoot the breeze. The park is home to dozens of animals and plants living in common Alabama environments, from rocky hillsides to damp bogs. Located near the President’s Home at the corner of Garden Drive and South College Street, the arboretum is open from sunrise to sunset every day of the year. Best of all, admission is free.

Photograph by Jeff Etheridge

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

3

From the Editor

On the brink

Betsy Robertson

BETSY ROBERTSON

Suzanne Johnson

EDITOR

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Editor, Auburn Magazine

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

The best reason to work on a college or university campus is the fact that you are constantly reliving your college years, for better or worse.

Once a month or so, for example, I like to wander through the stacks at Auburn’s Ralph Brown Draughon Library, inhaling the musty scent of aging paper, and pondering titles and authors that happen to catch my eye. I remember holing up for the afternoon in a favorite study carrel in the university library when I was a student (was it really almost 25 years ago?), sneaking a candy bar and reading, for the first time, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Willa Cather’s My Antonia, as well as the book that inspired me to be a journalist, All the President’s Men. Its authors, Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, were everything I wanted to be when I grew up.

In my college classes, I was being exposed to interesting ideas and people, and I was on the brink of adulthood: All my dreams were like luscious fruit on a vine, ripe and ready to be picked. Walking around Auburn’s campus, that sense of anticipation is palpable: It’s a place where nearly 25,000 young adults are just getting ready to show the world what they can do. It’s beautiful.

Students are constantly making me laugh. Not long after I moved here, I drove past fraternity row on my way home from

AUBURN MAGAZINE (ISSN 1077– 8640) is published quarterly; 4X per year; spring, summer, fall, winter, for dues-paying members of the Auburn Alumni Association. Periodicals-class postage paid in Auburn and additional mailing offices. Editorial offices are located in the Auburn Alumni Center, 317 South College St., Auburn University, AL 36849-5149. Phone (334) 844–1164.

Fax (334) 844–1477. E–mail: aubmag@auburn.edu. Contents ©2009 by the Auburn Alumni Association, all rights reserved.

ADVERTISING INFORMATION Contact Betsy Robertson at (334) 844–1164.

POSTMASTER Send address changes to 317 South College St., Auburn University, AL 36849–5149.

4

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

work one day. It was hot, one of those mid-spring Alabama 80-degree afternoons. Out in the front yard of one of the houses, three or four fraternity brothers had dragged out a hose, filled a small blue kiddie pool with water and proceeded to sit in it, basking in the setting sun, sipping beer and shooting the breeze. I smiled as I passed. When was the last time my friends and I were that uninhibited?

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read this issue’s cover story and remember what it was like to be 21 years old again.

When my colleague, associate editor Suzanne Johnson, suggested doing our own student survey, I was dubious: Would the “kids” really slow down and tell us what they’re thinking about and how they feel about issues, or would this assignment flop? To my delight, more than 800 Auburn students spilled their guts, answering our questions and candidly sharing their thoughts on everything from our planet’s growing environmental problems to the best places in town to party. Their answers are thoughtful, funny and fascinating, their optimism inspiring. Many of you have asked us to write more about students’ lives today. See Page 28 for a window on their world.

Shannon Bryant-Hankes ’84 ART DIRECTOR

Stacy Wood WEBMASTER

Jeff Hall UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHER

Jeff Etheridge EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS

Grace Henderson ’10, Courtney Johnson ’09, Rebecca Lakin ’10, Andrew Sims ’10 DESIGN ASSISTANTS

Ashley Hollis Everett ’10, Cassie Caraway ’11 ADVERTISING ASSISTANT

Amy Shaffer ’10 PRESIDENT, AUBURN UNIVERSITY

Jay Gogue ’69 VICE PRESIDENT FOR ALUMNI AFFAIRS AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AUBURN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Deborah L. Shaw ’84 PRESIDENT, AUBURN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

War Eagle!

Nancy Young Fortner ’71 AUBURN MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD CHAIR

Kay Fuston ’84

betsyrobertson@auburn.edu

LETTERS Auburn Magazine welcomes readers’ comments, but reserves the right to edit letters or to refuse publication of letters judged libelous or distasteful. Space availability may prevent publication of all letters in the magazine, in which case, letters not printed will be available on the alumni association Web site at the address listed below. No writer is eligible for publication more often than once every two issues. No anonymous letters will be accepted. Auburn Magazine is available in alternative formats for persons with disabilities. For information, call (334) 844–1143. Auburn Magazine is a benefit of membership in the Auburn Alumni Association and is not available by individual subscription.

To request a membership application, call the association at (334) 844–2586.

AUBURN MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD

Maria Baugh ’87, John Carvalho ’78, Susan Dendy ’79, Ed Dickinson ’70, Christian Flathman ’97, Tom Ford ’67, Julie Keith ’90, Mary Lou Foy ’66, Eric Ludgood ’78, Cindy McDaniel ’80, Carol Pappas ’77, Neal Reynolds ’77,

Joyce Reynolds Ringer ’59, Allen Vaughan ’75

On the cover

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

5

Play your cards right

and you reward yourself and Auburn students.

The new Spirit of Auburn credit card featuring the WorldPoints® program contributes to Auburn’s scholarship fund while building rewards for you, too.

By using this card for all your everyday purchases, you share the Auburn spirit by benefiting students who most deserve academic scholarships – at no additional cost to you – and you ultimately help shape the future of Auburn. Even more reason to enjoy redeeming all the points you earn for cash rewards, travel or merchandise. One good turn deserves another.

To apply for the card, simply call 1.800.438.6262 and mention priority code VAACIK.

Aubie, Member of the Mascot Hall of Fame

The Spirit of Auburn credit card is made possible by the Auburn Spirit Foundation for Scholarships (ASFS), which is affiliated with Auburn University. This advertisement was paid for by the ASFS. For information about the rates, fees, other costs, and benefits associated with the use of this card or to apply, call the number above or visit www.auburn.edu/spiritcard and refer to the disclosures accompanying the online credit card application. This credit card program is issued and administered by FIA Card Services, N.A. Bank of America and the Bank of America logo are registered trademarks of Bank of America Corporation. Visa is a registered trademark of Visa International Service Association and is used by the issuer pursuant to license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Platinum Plus and WorldPoints are registered trademarks of FIA Card Services, N.A. AR100650 12/22/2009 © 2010 Bank of America Corporation SOA AuburnMagazine_120809.indd 1

1/13/10 10:38:52 AM

Compton Homes

“Affordable Design & Construction of Distinctive Homes” RETIRE IN AUBURN !

Richard Compton is your Auburn retirement specialist.

334. 444. 8353 www.comptonhomes.com

6

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

As an architect, custom builder, and realtor, with more than twenty-five years experience, Mr. Compton is available to make your transition to Auburn worry-free.

Whether it’s finding just the right piece of property, building new, or modifying an existing home, Compton Homes is your source for creating the perfect setting for your retirement lifestyle.

Prices are very attractive, so this is a great time to make Auburn your home.

Visit our website or give us a call anytime. We look forward to bringing new friends to the Loveliest Village on the Plains!

On the cover Graphic design major Ashley Hollis Everett hails from Florence. Portraits for our cover story were shot by AU photographer Jeff Etheridge.

Spring 2010 F R O N T 4 From the Editor Best thing about working in higher education?

Perpetually reliving your college years.

8 The First Word

Kicking it

Readers chime in about

24 Tiger Walk

the Auburn University

From Auburn to Oxford in a single stroke.

Also: One last look at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

Marching Band.

B A C K 47 Alumni Center

Need a Gene Chizik fix?

Check out our calendar for the head football coach’s upcoming Auburn club meeting appearances.

Students Margaret Cumbee and Van Treadaway, circa 1960

10 College Street

In our campus news section: Auburn takes risk management seriously; committees vet candidates for college and school deans; and faculty member Jim Witte mans the forge.

48 Lifetime Achievement

Auburn honors four graduates who reached for the stars: an astronaut, a shipping magnate, an insurance man and a rocket scientist.

They are Auburn: Philip Smith of Stone Mountain, Ga., studies French and shoots pictures on the side; fisheries major Stefani Hazeldine of Enterprise is passionate about ocean conservation. He works for Domino’s; she works for Papa John’s. Pizza wars!

F E A T U R E S 16 Research

The horror of fire ants, a longer life through tea and more.

18 Roundup

What’s happening in your college? Check it out.

20 Concourse

Students rock the roller rink. Plus: Alabama’s youngest mayor.

28

50 Annual Report

Curious about today’s students? We were too. Turns out they’re not easy to pigeonhole. Check out Auburn Magazine’s first-ever, extremely unscientific student survey for a closer look at this strange and wonderful species. by suzanne johnson photographs by jeff etheridge

36

See what your Auburn Alumni Association has been up to.

52 Class Notes 60 In Memoriam

True Grits

64 The Last Word

How a finicky diet, a Smoky Mountains vacation and a bushel of corn turned Frank McEwen ’72 and sister Susan McEwen McIntosh ’74 into the gurus of grits. by suzanne johnson and courtney johnson photographs by philip smith

42

Hell on wheels

I Am Auburn

Journalism student Benjamin Bartley searches for the “Auburn Man.”

Curing Health Care

Auburn faculty experts gather to talk about our nation’s health care system: what works, what doesn’t and what the future may hold. with paula bobrowski, constance hendricks, paul jungnickel, fred kam, rene mceldowney, francine parker and bonnie sanderson

Musings: David Housel ’69

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

7

L E T T E R S

T O

T H E

E D I T O R

The First Word THE TOPIC Our Winter 2009 issue struck a chord

with readers: From the cover story on the Auburn University Marching Band to our back-of-the-book essay, you chimed in with your thoughts. A few of you also had words about the 2009 Iron Bowl; read on for more. Auburn Magazine welcomes letters to the editor. Send e-mail to aubmag@auburn. edu, or write us at Auburn Magazine, 317 South College St., Auburn University, AL 36849.

Wet wool and melodies

I read your article about the Auburn University Marching Band (“Marching Orders,” Winter 2009) with great interest. My wife, Carolyn Mahoney Groover, and I were both members of the Auburn band from 1969-73. We met at band camp, married two years later and continued to participate in the band throughout our college careers. Some things change, and some things never change: The marching style and the music has changed, but the rehearsal schedules are still as hot, tiresome and fun as they were 40 years ago.

I would like to tell you about two games in particular that stick out in my mind. The homecoming game in 1970 was against LSU, and it poured rain. Our uniforms were made of wool, and they smelled bad after getting wet. When the sun finally came out, our uniforms steamed in the heat. One of the girls in the band insisted on holding up her umbrella, which dripped rain on everyone else. My baritone sax had to be emptied of rainwater about every 30 minutes. The 1972 Iron Bowl was the famous “Punt, ’Bama, punt!” game. You had to have been there to experience the excitement when David Langner ran that second touchdown in.

—L.B. Groover III ’73, Tyrone, Ga. Marching in time

Wow! The Winter 2009 Auburn Magazine is amazing. After a long drive during the Thanksgiving holidays, the latest issue was awaiting our family in the mailbox. The look, feel and content made me glow inside as a proud alumnus. Better yet, your article and photographs of the Auburn University Marching Band were timely. My senior high-school-marching-band daughter was uncertain about pursuing marching band at Auburn. After reading the article, I believe the appropriate description regarding my daughter’s thoughts on the band is, “She is pumped!”

—Rich McCoy ’81, Lawrenceville, Ga. Poll politics

I found David Hill’s article (“Needed: A Shot of PR,” Winter 2009) about shots for the H1N1 virus very interesting. He suggests a “dark secret” exists

8

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

concerning the relationship between polling and propaganda. I think it’s neither dark nor secret. The last sentence suggesting that pollsters could help citizens overcome cynicism and apathy lights up the relationship very well. It’s refreshing when a politician refuses to be driven by polls. Sadly, most exploit the propaganda aspect of present-day “opinion research” and use it to script every initiative and proposal, then have the audacity to call it “leadership.”

—Richard Avery ’63, Stafford, Texas

a critical eye toward the university has been pervasive since my time on the Plains from 1984-88. Have I always agreed with every single thing Selena has written? Absolutely not. However, she is a shining example of what it means to be a member of the Auburn family—independent-minded and extremely talented. I applaud those journalists who are brave enough to say things that are necessary but aren’t popular. The article on Selena was a good one, and I am proud to have her as a member of the Auburn family. War Eagle!

—Bret Pippen ’88, Birmingham, Ala.

Technical error

I love the Winter 2009 edition of Auburn Magazine; in fact, I look forward to all my copies. But I did notice one small error on Page 11 in the caption of the “Flashback” photo of the DC-1 aircraft. It is indeed a DC-1—one of the first used for commercial transportation—but it was not a “jet” as described in the caption. This aircraft had two 710-horsepower Wright nine-cylinder, air-cooled radial engines. Jets came a little later.

—Bobby E. Pyle ’78, Pinson, Ala. Pride in accomplishment

I am surprised that so many of your readers lashed out against Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts ’88 and Auburn Magazine itself in the Winter 2009 issue. A true journalist understands that not everyone is going to appreciate, enjoy or agree with everything he or she writes—but a journalist is trained to research, investigate and research some more before reporting and submitting an article. Developing thick skin is a trait one must learn by oneself.

Selena Roberts is one of our own, a fellow alumna who was taught her trade at Auburn University by highly skilled instructors and advisers, just as an Auburn accounting, engineering or pharmacy student would be. As American citizens, we have every right to disapprove of her and of what she writes. But as Auburn alumni, I feel we should take some pride in the fact that, as one of the top sportswriters in the nation, she learned her craft at our alma mater.

—Jeff Romero ’90, Signal Mountain, Tenn.

Defending the messenger

I was surprised to pick up the Winter 2009 issue of Auburn Magazine and see predominately negative reactions to the Selena Roberts article. Please allow my voice to be heard in the wilderness.

Selena was the sports editor of The Auburn Plainsman when I was editor. She was a damn good editor and writer then, and she is now. This asinine idea that members of the Auburn family can’t turn

Consolation prize

We’re filing out of the stadium after the 2009 Iron Bowl has ended, saddened and hopeful both at the same time. This doesn’t feel like the euphoria of “six in a row” or as horrible as last year’s loss, and 87,000 of us are trying to understand why it still feels OK that we lost. Then, over the speakers in the tunnel, we hear the Auburn radio broadcast, and they’re saying that the wonderful thing about Auburn fans is that, after this loss, we all stood and continued to cheer for our team. And all at once, hearing this, all throughout the concourse, people erupted into chanting, “It’s great to be an Auburn Tiger!” The ’Bammers couldn’t understand, and hopefully it drove them crazy. That’s why I love Auburn.

—David Stankard ’78, Montgomery, Ala. An upside and a downside

Some negatives and positives from the 2009 Iron Bowl: I was ashamed and embarrassed by a few episodes of lost composure by some of the Auburn family who decided to hurl verbal insults and a few objects at the visiting Tide fans. We are better than that. I have been treated poorly in other Southeastern Conference football locations; that is not the way we should treat visiting fans in Auburn. I have been treated superbly well in Columbia, S.C., and Fayetteville, Ark., and, yes, Knoxville, Tenn., and Athens, Ga. I try to be welcoming and offer assistance to our visitors in Auburn, as has been done for me. We must maintain a high level of sportsmanship and comportment.

The positives: Auburn football showed that, even given huge challenges, the program is competitive at the highest levels of the NCAA. The support of the fans and the incredible chanting of “It’s great to be an Auburn Tiger” after the game are testaments to how true Auburn persons act. It also showed those prize recruits in attendance that Auburn is indeed a special place—one worthy of their attention. War Eagle!

—C. Herbert Shivers ’75, Huntsville, Ala.

Jule Collins smith museum of fine Art

Giving Back In A New Way! THE AUBURN UNIVERSITY OWNED HOTEL HAS BEEN COMPLETELY RENOVATED, OFFERING TRUE SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY, A GREAT

LOCATION AND UNPARALLELED SERVICE.

BRING YOUR BUSINESS TO THE HOTEL AT AUBURN UNIVERSITY AND SUPPORT AUBURN UNIVERSITY.

Continuing Auburn’s tradition of excellence since 2003 We

invite you to join us as We uphold a legacy

begun more than

60

years ago, of

fine arts

Visit

✦

auburn university’s collection.

Join

✦

Imagine your next business meeting or retreat: Come to Auburn Stay, meet and dine with us Walk to Toomer’s Corner Walk to campus and reminisce Golf at AU Club And, come back again.

support

www.jcsm.auburn.edu 901 South College Street • Auburn, AL 36849 334.844.1484 Direct: 334-821-8200 reservations@auhcc.com • www.auhcc.com

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

9

C A M P U S

N E W S

COLLEGE STREET Q and A YOU’VE BEEN A MEMBER OF the AUBURN ATHLETICS GROUNDS CREW SINCE YOU WERE AN UNDERGRADUATE AGRICULTURE MAJOR. CAREER HIGHLIGHTS?

My best experience was in 2001, when the (Tigers) defeated the No. 1-ranked Florida Gators. I was working with the field crew and watched the game from the sidelines. My worst experience was the next day, when we assessed the damage to the field, hedges and goal posts.

Eric Kleypas ’99 ASSOCIATED PRESS

Turf and grounds manager, Auburn Athletics Department

Hunger relief for Haiti Auburn University student leaders in January donated $15,000 to the United Nations World Food Programme to help provide aid to Haiti. The money was collected over the past 18 months by individual schools, colleges and organizations, as well as from people participating in various campuswide fundraisers.

The World Food Programme is the largest humanitarian agency on the globe, feeding more than 90 million people in 82 countries annually. As a first responder following the earthquakes in Haiti earlier this year, WFP brought weekly rations to more than 2 million people in decimated areas.

The Committee of 19, a group of students heading the Auburn University War on Hunger, has contributed a total of $45,000 to the agency.

“The money we have raised for WFP has come primarily through sparechange collections, not large financial contributions,” says Emma Keller ’10, the group’s president. “I hope this latest donation to aid the people of Haiti will

10

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

inspire students at Auburn and on campuses around the world to do what they can to make an impact. Our fundraising success shows that small change can, and indeed does, make a big difference.”

Auburn became involved with the U.N. World Food Programme six years ago, having been invited by the agency to be its lead academic partner in a studentdriven War on Hunger campaign. Since then, Auburn and WFP have helped create Universities Fighting World Hunger, a loose alliance of more than 130 colleges and universities around the world. Its agenda includes domestic and global hunger awareness and consciousness-raising; advocacy, fundraising, and academic initiatives including teaching, research and outreach. Committee of 19 members will continue to spearhead fundraising efforts on behalf of Haiti throughout the remainder of the spring semester.

For more information on the War on Hunger student campaign, see http:// www.auburn.edu/event/hunger/index. php.

Two degrees at a time An Auburn student working toward his or her undergraduate diploma will soon have the opportunity to simultaneously earn credit for a master’s degree.

University trustees in November approved an accelerated “dual-degree” program that is expected to appeal to top students wanting to work in fields where advanced qualifications are needed.

“It’s an attractive option for highly motivated students,” said Auburn president Jay Gogue ’69. “They can use their academic talents to more quickly earn an advanced degree through a rigorous course of study.”

Students must meet minimum gradepoint and credit-hour standards to be eligible. The university has not yet announced which majors will qualify for accelerated degrees, but the program is expected to save students both time and money, putting them in the job force more quickly, especially in fields in which workers are in short supply.

“We’ve heard from prospective students, high school teachers and guidance counselors,” said Auburn trustee Sarah B. Newton. “Many students want to augment their educational experience by working toward two degrees.”

N E W S

AUBURN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

C A M P U S

Flashback 100 years ago

75 years ago

50 years ago

25 years ago

10 years ago

Spring 1910

Spring 1935

Spring 1960

Winter 1985

Winter 2000

An article in Auburn’s student newspaper, The Orange and Blue, urged the student body to be true to the school and write a fight song for Alabama Polytechnic Institute. The “Auburn Victory March” served as an unofficial fight song until the university commissioned “War Eagle” in the mid-’50s.

Auburn freshmen F. Drawbaugh and C. Hutchinson Dean claimed to have discovered a 93rd element on the periodic table. The pair told The Plainsman that the substance was capable of growing hair on graduate dean George Petrie’s head.

The real 93rd element, neptunium, was discovered in 1940 by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley.

Alabama Polytechnic Institute officially changed its name to Auburn University. A brick-andmarble sign with the new moniker, located in front of Samford Hall and donated by Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, continues to serve as a graduation-day photo hot spot. It replaced API’s wooden marker, becoming a familiar sight along College Street.

The campus tradition of “Hey Day,” which had been popular in the 1950s and ’60s, was revived Feb. 1 at the request of Auburn president James E. Martin. As a display of the university’s friendly atmosphere, all students wear name tags on Hey Day and greet everyone they pass. Hey Day still survives today as an Auburn tradition.

The University Senate worked toward transitioning Auburn’s academic calendar from the quarter system to semesters, which involved modifying student information systems and developing new curricula that would allow most students to graduate in four years.

Administrators also designed new structures for tuition and housing costs.

Above: Freshmen line up for the annual ODK Cake Race, circa 1960.

The 2.7-mile course is an Auburn tradition that rewards endurance with (what else?) lots of sugary icing. The race was initiated by former head track coach Wilbur Hutsell in 1929 so athletics coaches could scout the incoming class for varsity recruits. These days, the race is open to anyone who wants to participate; top finishers still get a cake as a prize.

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

11

C O L L E G E

S T R E E T

Having merit Auburn University more than doubled its number of newly enrolled National Merit Scholars this year, ranking 34th nationally, according to a new National Merit Scholarship Corp. report. Auburn enrolled 64 new scholars last summer and fall compared to 31 the previous year. The 2009-10 figure places Auburn fourth in the Southeastern Conference, up from ninth last year, according to the report. Nationally, the university advanced to 34th from 56th.

Risky business When Christine L. Eick ’03 began her job as a risk manager at Auburn University in 1996, she had one employee and was known, mostly just in the business office, as the woman who handled insurance issues.

Now, nearly 14 years later, she directs a department with more than 30 staff members who deal with not only insurance but also crucial environmental, health and safety issues, like handling hazardous chemicals generated by research laboratories and managing crowds of 90,000 at football games.

When she started, Eick reported to the associate vice president for business and finance. She and her staff now have lines of communication and influence across the university. She herself reports to the executive vice president and sits in on the president’s weekly advisory meetings. Auburn’s risk experts are regularly

12

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

consulted by campus leaders and academics on a range of topics, including the design and construction of facilities, research activities, international travel by students, faculty and staff members, and sometimes even program accreditation. As her office has grown in size and stature, so has its budget, increasing from $743,000 in 2003 to more than $2 million this year.

As Auburn has built up its risk-management infrastructure, so too have other universities across the country. The growth is intended, in part, to help prevent, or at least to mitigate, such highprofile calamities as the fatal dormitory fire at Seton Hall University in 2000, and the campus shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University.

Auburn’s program, having integrated so many varied roles, has become a national model, says Janice M. Abraham, president and chief executive officer of United Educators Insurance, a

risk-management and insurance company that serves many colleges.

More than insurance One of the great challenges of managing a college is its often sprawling and diverse nature. Auburn enrolls nearly 25,000 students on a well-manicured campus of about 1,800 acres, with more than 400 buildings.

It doesn’t seem like a risky place, but accidents can happen. In 1996, just weeks before Eick was hired, a tailgater caused a fire that burned the indoor sports arena to the ground during a nationally televised football game.

The blaze caused no fatalities but did $847,000 in damage. Eick didn’t even have the job yet, but university officials sought her advice on how to respond.

Eick, now 44, has an educational background indicative of the growing professionalization of her field. She

Preschool and beyond It’s never too early to start thinking about your child’s college career. Parents with kids as young as 4 years old should apply for their child’s social security number, enroll him or her in foreignlanguage classes and start saving money for university tuition, according to Auburn University admissions experts.

earned a bachelor’s degree in safety and health management from Clemson University, a master’s in risk management and insurance from Georgia State University, and a doctorate in higher-education administration from Auburn.

When she began her job, Eick started by evaluating Auburn’s insurance programs. She discovered that the insurance policies on the university’s cars and trucks did not include deductibles.

Adding them saved a little more than $110,000 in the first year. The following year, she hired another staff member to help with insurance coverage and eventually began looking into the university’s potential liability in its outside service contracts.

At the same time, the university’s scientific research was rapidly growing.

Auburn’s total spending on scientific research reached $117 million in 2003, up 34 percent from 1996, according to data from the National Science Foundation.

With the resulting increase in liabilities, the administration agreed to Eick’s plan to expand risk-management services. In 2003 the university merged its department of occupational health and safety with the risk-management office. Since then the combined staff has increased from eight positions to 31.

Scientific risks Michael S. Freeman, a safety-and-health technician, is one of two people who ferry five-gallon steel containers of chemicals from Auburn’s hundreds of laboratories to a concrete structure on the edge of the campus, where he fills 55-gallon drums for shipping to a disposal site.

The labs generated 11,000 pounds of toxic and flammable solvents last year, and the university spent nearly $35,000 to ship and destroy them.

In a warehouse next door, Freeman has arranged dozens of other items that must be stored safely until they are destroyed or recycled, including pallets of old fluorescent bulbs, barrels of used motor oil, piles of circuit boards and buckets of batteries. He keeps the warehouse tidy, explaining that his experience in the military taught him that order and organization are keys to safety.

Auburn’s risk team inspects all laboratories that use radiological, chemical or biological materials. For example, at a secure lab in the state-of-the-art Poultry Science Building, which opened in 2005, researchers are experimenting with bacteria such as salmonella. Donning a white lab coat, Shawn McNulty ’01, assistant biosafety officer, walks around with a checklist of dozens of safety requirements. At one station, he runs the eyewash faucet, makes sure compressed-gas cylinders are properly secured and asks a researcher to produce an inventory of chemicals and the lab’s safety manuals. One of the required manuals is missing; the lab manager will have to find it, and the lab will need to be reinspected.

Officials from other colleges, including Emory University and the University of Alabama, have visited Auburn to see how its waste-management program works. The state’s Department of Environmental Management also recommends the university’s risk-management program as a model for other institutions.

Sports oversight

C O L L E G E

S T R E E T

the dozens of luxury suites and vendors’ areas. A similar check is done by riskmanagement staff members before the game begins; two others patrol the campus and popular tailgating areas to look for potential problems.

Over the years, risk-management officials have pushed for several changes that have been made to both the stadium and the game-day procedures, including sprinkler coverage to nearly the whole stadium. Their proposals were also incorporated into a $14-million renovation that added 90,000 square feet to the concourse to allow better crowd flow.

With direction from Eick and her team, Auburn’s athletics department has undertaken a broad assessment of potential hazards throughout its operations, identifying issues as varied as hazing, gambling and academic fraud that could trip up the program.

That is the ultimate goal of her department, Eick says: to help everyone on the campus become more aware of potential problems and address them before they become real.—Eric Kelderman/ The Chronicle of Higher Education. Reprinted with permission.

Athletics is one area in which risk management has had a highly visible impact, especially at sold-out football games in Jordan-Hare Stadium, which can hold more than 87,000 fans.

While football’s popularity creates enough revenue to support the rest of the athletics department, it also creates a logistical challenge, requiring the coordination of campus public-safety workers, the entire 218-member athletics department, and nearly 200 police officers from eight nearby police departments. In all, Auburn’s athletics department pays about $750,000 per home football game for the extra security and workers, says Jeff Steele, associate athletic director for facilities and operations.

To coordinate it all, Eick meets several days before kickoff with the 58-person committee of campus and municipal officials who review the game-day schedule. Earlier, two fire-safety staff members had swept the stadium to check all fire extinguishers and exits, including in

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

13

S T R E E T

JEFF ET H ERI DG E

C O L L E G E

Meet the Prof Jim E. Witte Associate professor, Adult Education Program, College of Education Backstory Witte lived in Honduras, Pakistan

and Japan before joining Auburn’s faculty in 1998. Four years ago he founded the first online academic journal dedicated to publishing peerreviewed research on learning styles. The term “learning style” refers to the unique ways people process information. Factors that affect an individual’s learning style include his or her personality, mental processing, confidence, attitude and sensory intake processes, or complex combinations of same.

MEASURING UP: Auburn researchers have teamed up with the U.S. Forest Service to inventory all the trees

in class Witte works with graduate students in

in the “managed areas” of campus. As of October, they’d noted the location, height, caliper, crown width and

adult education and enjoys the statistical aspect of researching how people retain and use information in postsecondary education.

health status of more than 6,000 trees; the data will be analyzed to determine how the trees fit into the overall Auburn ecosystem, and a training session will be held on campus to educate professionals around the state and region on proper methods for handling today’s “urban forests.”

Help wanted To paraphrase Kermit the Frog, it ain’t easy being dean, and finding new ones is a challenge. Just ask Auburn University provost Mary Ellen Mazey, who’s looking for deans to head four of the institution’s 13 schools and colleges.

Mazey has appointed search committees to fill positions that will be vacated

by Stewart Schneller, dean of the College of Sciences and Mathematics; Fran Kochan, dean of the College of Education; Paul Bobrowski, dean of the College of Business; and Richard Guthrie, dean of the College of Agriculture. Schneller, Kochan and Bobrowski are returning to the faculty ranks, while Guthrie is retiring.

Mazey says it’s not unusual for a school Auburn’s size to have several simultaneous leadership changes, and she wants administrators who will build on the university’s academic quality.

“It is incumbent on us to bring in

14

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

new deans who can take Auburn University to the next level of national and international recognition,” she adds.

Schneller and Jim Bannon of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station are co-chairs of a 12-member search committee for the top agriculture job; College of Liberal Arts dean Anne-Katrin Gramberg chairs a 12-member committee for the COSAM position; Dan Bennett, dean of the College of Architecture, Design and Construction chairs the 11-member business dean search; and College of Human Sciences dean June Henton heads a 13-member committee to fill the education slot.

Each committee expects to narrow the field and invite finalists for campus interviews in March, with final recommendations in April or May.

out of class Outside the classroom, Witte is a

woodworker, hunter, fisherman—and blacksmith.

A member of the Lee County Historical Society, his interest in Alabama history led him to study the craft, working with other blacksmiths in nearby Loachapoka. To forge iron or steel, blacksmiths heat the metal until it glows bright yelloworange, a temperature known as “forging heat,” then shape it with a hammer, anvil or chisel. The color of the heated metal is crucial, because it must be worked before reaching its melting temperature of 2500 degrees (steel) or 2750 degrees (iron). “If not used, a craft becomes lost over time,” Witte says. “I engaged in blacksmithing to preserve the craft. It’s a way to preserve a part of our history and social culture that has influenced all of us.” Some of his students have even caught the smithing bug. coming soon Witte is helping create an online master’s degree program for the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service.

C O L L E G E

Sowing the seeds JAY GOGUE ’69

President, Auburn University Auburn is often described as a large research university with the feel of a small college. As alumni, most of you can attest that the reason for this exceptional learning environment is the commitment of the Auburn family and the strong connection we all feel for our university. As 2010 begins, we have much to celebrate in spite of a down economy.

One of our main priorities at Auburn is to attract greater numbers of top-performing students and to provide more international and undergraduate research opportunities than ever before. An early indicator of success on this front is that our Honors College successfully mentored a student through the application process to become a Rhodes Scholar, one of only 32 accepted into this program for 2009 (see Page 24).

We also strongly believe in bringing the world to Auburn. In the past year alone, we’ve developed new partnerships or strengthened existing ones with institutions in China, India, Vietnam and Egypt, just to name a few. These partnerships facilitate study tours, educational exchanges and collaborative research, helping our students gain cross-cultural competencies that foster success in the global arena.

Another aspect of our exceptional

learning environment involves Auburn’s new learning communities, which put students with similar academic interests together to build support groups for longterm academic development. The Village residential community was built to facilitate that model, and more opportunities are being developed to encourage student involvement in service learning, another widely cited element of individual academic and career success.

Students at Auburn will soon have the opportunity to earn credit for a master’s degree while working toward their undergraduate diplomas. This accelerated graduate program is an attractive new option for highly motivated students who want to use their academic talents to more quickly earn an advanced degree through a rigorous course of study (see Page 10).

Increasing Auburn’s research enterprise is another area of emphasis.

Through initiatives at the Auburn Research Park and elsewhere across campus, we are working with industry and government partners on innovations in wireless technology, health sciences, bioenergy, aquaculture and other fields that are creating new study and research possibilities for our undergraduate and graduate students.

Regardless of the field of study, Auburn University strives to give its students indispensable skills that will benefit them as they enter the workforce in the years to come. As alumni, we hope you will share in the pride we all feel at being able to enhance our students’ learning and continue creating graduates who stand out, and who will continue to make Auburn stand out, as well. War Eagle!

S T R E E T

Alumni honor faculty Each fall, the Auburn Alumni Association and Auburn University honor outstanding faculty in a ceremony that recognizes research and teaching achievements. This year’s winners are: • Theodore Becker, Alumni Professor of political science, Shari Park-Gates, assistant professor of consumer affairs, and Carolyn Robinson, assistant professor of horticulture,

Becker

Alumni Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Awards; • Mary Mendonca, associate professor of biological sciences, Subhash Sinha, professor of mechanical engineering, Frank Bartol, professor of animal sciences, Mark Steltenpohl, professor of geology, Wei Wang,

Park-Gates

professor of graphic design, and Curtis Jolly, professor and chair, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, Alumni Professors;

• Francesca Adler-Baeder, associate professor of human development and family stud-

Robinson

ies, Mitchell Brown, assistant professor of political science,

and Constance Hendricks, professor of nursing, Distinguished Diversity Researchers;

• Nels Madsen, professor of mechanical engi-

neering, Minority Achievement Award;

• Kimberly Walls, professor of music education,

Graduate Faculty Lecturer;

• Sushil Bhavnani, professor of mechanical

engineering, and Mary Mendonca, associate professor of biological sciences, Leischuck Endowed Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching;

• Morris Bian, associate professor of history,

Creative Research and Scholarship Award;

• and Barry Burkhart, professor and chair,

Department of Psychology, Award for Excellence in Faculty Outreach.

The awards ceremony was held Oct. 27 at The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference

jgogue@auburn.edu

Center.

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

15

C O L L E G E

S T R E E T

Research

Stop, drop and roll In 1982, the idea of a talking car was so far-fetched it became a popular sci-fi TV series: “Knight Rider,” which chronicled the adventures of David Hasselhoff’s crime-fighting main character, Michael Knight, and his Pontiac Trans-Am, KITT. These days, Global Positioning Systems orally direct us from Point A to Point B on a regular basis. Talking cars? No big deal.

But a vehicle that talks to satellites, keeping up a steady stream of inaudible chat that can keep us from skidding on an icy road and ending up in a ditch, or worse? Even KITT couldn’t do that.

Auburn researchers have teamed with Ford Motor Co. to show how GPS satellites can act as earlywarning systems to detect when a car is about to lose control. Upon communicating with a satellite, the car responds by adjusting stability control or other features to prevent an accident.

Watery waste feeds foliage, saves cash

The scientists’ findings are the initial result of a three-year, $120,000 Ford grant to Auburn’s GPS and Vehicle Dynamics Laboratory, headed by mechanical engineering professor David Bevly.

The research was presented in mid-October at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics in San Antonio.

“What’s interesting about this technology is it’s meant to prevent the accident,” Bevly says. “It’s an entirely new way of looking at safety.”

The Auburn research team is also investigating combining the use of GPS and inertial-measurement-units data to detect and minimize skids.

“Stability control is one of the most important safety technologies of this decade,” says Jeff Rupp, manager of Ford Active Safety Systems Engineering. “Ford is committed to safety leadership, and research partnerships like our work with Auburn help us achieve success.”

The project’s breakthroughs include developing algorithms combining data from sensors in Ford vehicles with data from GPS receivers, allowing researchers to develop models that can predict a vehicle’s roll angle, sideslip and velocities under different driving conditions.

“A satellite orbiting the earth could someday prevent an auto accident,” says Gerhard Schmidt, Ford vice president for research and advanced engineering. “We applaud Auburn for these advancements and look forward to working together on the next phase of this research.”

16

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Here’s the deal with fertilizer: Synthetics are made from nonrenewable resources and may hurt the environment.

Organics work more slowly and can be expensive.

But what if a farmer had an available means of producing organic fertilizer that could also increase his income or save money?

Ask Marion Junction catfish farmer Butch Wilson in a year or so. Taking shape on his farm is a 70-by-170-foot building that will house catfish tanks, the wastewater from which will fertilize bamboo and other outdoor plants. The bamboo, in turn, will become fuel biomass for heating the fish tanks. Wilson is trying out a system developed by Auburn researchers to help Alabama farmers find new income streams.

Jesse Chappell ’79, associate professor of fisheries and allied aquacultures, is working with horticulture professor Jeff Sibley ’84 on the project. The pair have erected two greenhouses at Auburn’s E.W. Shell Fisheries Center to

study the nutrient amount and quality of fish wastewater piped from a greenhouse containing fish to a greenhouse containing plants. Fish retain 40 percent to 50 percent of nutrients in the water they live in, but the rest are excreted, creating wastewater that could make excellent plant food, Chappell says. Factors affecting the water’s efficiency as a fertilizer include the number and kind of fish in a tank, and the volume of the tank. As part of the experiment, Sibley is feeding several types of plants with the fish wastewater. He sees the most potential in growing leatherleaf ferns, snapdragons and calla lilies, but is also studying its effect on fruits and vegetables. One caveat: Fish wastewater doesn’t contain enough calcium for plants, so that must be added separately.

The research team is also examining the use of methane from fish wastewater to heat, cool and power the greenhouses themselves, possibly cutting energy consumption in half.

“There is much potential beyond normal farm setups,” Sibley says. “Empty warehouses and stores across the state could be converted into fish-and-plantproduction systems.”

‘Meat’ the winner Chris Kerth, associate professor of meat science, recently received the American Meat Science Association’s 2009 Distinguished Teaching Award. Kerth developed the Department of Animal Sciences’ muscle-foods degree option, established the Auburn University Meat Science Association and conducts research on all aspects of pasture-raised beef, from production to marketing.

C O L L E G E

S T R E E T

JEFF ET H ERI DG E

Sweet tea The fountain of youth

telomeres—repeated

might be bubbling with

sequences of DNA at

tea. Alabama Coopera-

the ends of chromo-

tive Extension Service

somes—which control

nutritionist Robert

how our chromosome

Keith says two recent

bundles behave. Over

studies have led to

time, telomeres de-

new theories about

grade and get shorter,

aging. Genetics plays

partly impacted by

a major role in how we

genetics and partly

age, the studies agree.

by oxidation and

“Long-lived people

inflammation. As the

have better-functioning

telomeres shorten, so

DNA than people who

do our lifespans.

die earlier. There are

Nightmare on ant street Note to Wes Craven: Auburn researchers have a new horror plot for you. A dangerous creature produces a body fluid that attracts an alien invader, which then multiplies and causes the creature’s head to explode. Seriously.

As bizarre as it sounds, the phenomenon is not only true but has ramifications for the nation’s population. The creature in question is the fire ant—a major pest, particularly in the southeastern United States where it has no natural enemies.

The fire ant population is much smaller in South America, which is inhabited by tiny phorid flies half the size of a grain of rice. Fire ants are fearless, says Auburn entomologist Henry Fadamiro, unless they detect the presence of phorid flies, which makes them “start to run helter-skelter.” New research indicates what the flies love so much about fire ants.

Fadamiro and his colleagues hooked electrodes to the antennae of phorid flies to find out which combination of fire ant

glands and body parts most attracted them; juice from fire ant venom was the winner. The scientists then broke down the venom into its chemical components to further pinpoint an alkaloid that proved to be the flies’ favorite scent.

With good reason. Flies that catch up with slow-moving ants deposit their eggs on the ant’s body. Two weeks later, the fly egg has moved to the ant’s head and is ready to hatch, secreting an enzyme that decapitates it.

Scientists hope identification of the fire-ant venom alkaloids may lead to improved control of fireant infestations.

The team’s research was published in Science News, German Nature and U.S. News and World Report.

Enter the tea

different theories and

leaf. One recent study

thoughts about why

found that people who

we don’t live forever,

consumed at least three

but it essentially boils

cups of tea each day

down to genetics—your

had significantly longer

DNA and how well it

telomeres than those

copies over the course

who drank less. Another

of time,” Keith says.

study showed that

In the course of aging,

multivitamin users also

mistakes or glitches

had telomeres about 5

creep into our DNA,

percent longer than

undermining its abil-

non-users, Keith says.

ity to produce body

“What we’re

proteins accurately

finding is that, yes, in

and eventually lead-

terms of what you eat

ing to death, he

and drink, you may be

adds. How well that

able to influence your

DNA performs also

genetics and possibly

depends in part on

even prolong your life.”

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

17

C O L L E G E

Close call An Auburn professor who had arrived for work in Haiti a day before that country’s catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake is safe and back in the United States. Dennis Shannon, an associate professor in the Department of Agronomy and Soils, was standing in a hotel lobby near Port-au-Prince when the tremors began. He’d traveled to Haiti to set up soil-test labs for improved crop production. Shannon stayed there for four days after the quake, helping as a translator and caring for the injured.

S T R E E T

Roundup COLLEGE OF

Agriculture Architect Fritz Haeg, author of Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn (Metropolis Books, 2008), will deliver the College of Agriculture’s E.T. York Distinguished Lecture at 7 p.m. March 23 at Auburn University’s Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. Haeg is an artist, gardener and activist who urges homeowners to convert their yards into vegetable gardens. He also travels the world creating animal dwellings designed to entice wildlife into our daily existence. “As animal habitats dwindle daily, ‘Animal Estates’ proposes the reintroduction of animals back into our cities, strip malls, garages, office parks, freeways, front yards, parking lots, skyscrapers and neighborhoods,” he says.

“Animal Estates intends to provide a provocative 21st-century model for the

18

human-animal relationship that is more intimate, visible and thoughtful.” Haeg’s presentation, “Welcoming the Wild,” is part of “Art in Agriculture,” a learning series organized by Auburn’s colleges of agriculture and liberal arts. The lecture is free and open to the public. For more on Auburn’s Art in Agriculture series, see ag.auburn.edu/ArtinAg/.

COLLEGE OF

Architecture, Design and Construction Daniel Splaingard ’06, an architecture graduate and Rural Studio alumnus, is a recipient of the Frederick P. Rose Architectural Fellowship for 2009-12.

Splaingard recently began a three-year stint with Chicago-based Bickerdike Redevelopment Corp., a company that advocates for the renewal of

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

low- and moderateincome communities in the city; the fellowship is designed to inspire and nurture a new generation of architects dedicated to creating sustainable communities for people at all income levels. Splaingard developed his commitment to community-based architectural design at Auburn and later spent time at the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and served a fellowship with the Global Arts Village in Delhi, India. He plans to assist the Bickerdike team in developing and designing affordable rental housing in an area affected by multifamily-property foreclosures and condominium conversions.

COLLEGE OF

Business Auburn’s EMBA program was listed 84th in The Financial Times’ 2009 rankings of the world’s best Executive MBA programs, marking the first time AU has been eligible to be included. Among U.S. programs, Auburn was ranked 40th and was one of only two Southeastern Conference schools that made it onto the list. … A team of three AU undergraduates competed in the

2009 Deloitte Tax Case Study Competition against other business students from more than 100 academic institutions. AU business students Natalie Maxwell, Taylor Nolen and Ashley Carroll worked against the clock to complete a complex hypothetical case study drawing on their knowledge of tax topics.

COLLEGE OF

Education One works in a structured world defined by numbers, while the other works in an area of applied philosophy.

In spite of the differences between their fields, however, Auburn faculty members Marilyn Strutchens and James Kaminsky both have demonstrated a talent for solving problems and improving practices in mathematics education and educational theory, respectively. The pair are the recipients of the College of Education’s 2009 Mildred Cheshire Fraley Distinguished Professorships. Strutchens, a professor of mathematics education and mathematics program coordinator for the Department of Curriculum and Teaching, joined the faculty in 2000 and helps lead Transforming East Alabama Mathematics (TEAM-Math), a project seeking to improve math education in regional school districts.

Kaminsky, a professor of social foundations in the Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Technology, has taught at Auburn since 1990.

He served as executive editor of Education Philosophy and Theory and remains involved in the Southeast Philosophy of Education Society, an organization of academicians from 10 states who explore such topics as home and charter schools, social justice, teaching methods, qualitative research, teacher education and morality, and civics in classroom settings.

SAMUEL GINN COLLEGE OF

Engineering Engineering alumnus Tim Cook ’82, chief operating officer of Apple Inc., has funded a new professorship within the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.

The Tim Cook Professorship in Industrial and Systems Engineering will support a faculty member in the department who demonstrates exemplary instruction, research and mentorship, and principles of teaching that Cook believes contributed to his success as an Auburn engineering student. Cook’s donation provides funds for one of 27 new engineering professorships that have been established under an initiative that created

more than 90 endowed faculty positions across Auburn’s campus.

“Professors who engage students create a passion for learning that stimulates their minds and curiosity,” says engineering dean Larry Benefield. “These professorships will help the college attract and retain premier faculty members as the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering positions itself to become one of the nation’s top engineering programs.”

SCHOOL OF

Forestry and Wildlife Sciences Feral hogs—domestic swine that have escaped their farms and, over the years, have reproduced and populated the landscape—are a growing problem in Alabama as their rooting destroys crops and pastures.

To help the state’s residents combat these hogs gone wild, the College of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences is cosponsoring “Managing Feral Hog Damage,” a series of programs scheduled for Feb. 23 in Camden, March 4 in

Sheer strength Auburn engineering faculty members Maria Auad and Hareesh Tippur are researching transparent armor materials that can withstand weapons of mass destruction.

The federal Defense Threat Reduction Agency is funding the work, which could influence national defense as well as the aerospace and transportation industries.

Evergreen and March 11 in Troy. Discussions will cover wild-hog history, feral swine diseases and parasites, trapping techniques, and laws governing removal of animals.

For information, call (334) 844-1010.

COLLEGE OF

Human Sciences Spartanburg, S.C., freshman Davis Myers is the first recipient of the South Carolina License to Learn Scholarship funded by sales of the state’s Auburn University vanity vehicle tag. Myers is studying hotel and restaurant management in the College of Human Sciences. Members of the Greenville, S.C.-based Palmetto Auburn Club successfully advocated for the establishment of an AU vanity license plate in their state in 2008. In South Carolina, up to 94 percent of the fee from the sale of each Auburn tag goes into an endowment fund for freshman scholarships; proceeds from South Carolina Auburn tag sales benefit incoming Auburn students who live in that state. For more information, see www.auburnclub.com/ palmetto/index.html.

COLLEGE OF

Liberal Arts Ozark artist Jack Deloney ’64 has donated

a Sturges etching press to the art department in Auburn’s College of Liberal Arts. Deloney had previously used the etching press to create a monotype from watercolor transfers, a technique he learned in Italy that involves painting on a plexiglass plate, then running the plate through an etching press. The device is housed in the advanced printmaking studio.

Deloney’s work can be viewed online at www. jackdeloney.com. …

The college has begun a new minor in community and civic engage-

library staff members been analyzing student input and working with Group3 Planners in Colorado to design a work area that responds to today’s study habits. The “Learning Commons,” funded by a gift from Birmingham-based EBSCO Industries Inc., offers 300 extra power outlets, 10 group-study areas and 415 seats.

The libraries also are teaming with the Miller Writing Center, Study Partners and the Office of Information Technology on campus to provide reference

C O L L E G E

are privileged to have her on our faculty,” said School of Nursing dean Barbara Witt. … Four new nursing professorships are in the process of being established at Auburn: the East Alabama Medical Center/Dr. Bill Lazenby Endowed Professorship, the Betty McLendon Fuller Endowed Professorship and the St. Francis Hospital Endowed Professorship, as well as the Barbara S. Witt Endowed Professorship for the Dean at both AU and Auburn University Montgomery.

HARRISON SCHOOL of

Pharmacy

ment. The fifteen-hour interdisciplinary minor includes courses that provide context for understanding public issues, skills designed to help students become more effective and responsible global citizens, and servicelearning opportunities to apply theory to practice.

Libraries A new common area in Ralph Brown Draughon Library is giving students a better place to plug in. For the past three years,

services, academic help and technology assistance in one location.

SCHOOL OF

Nursing Nursing professor Constance Hendricks recently was selected for a fellowship in the American Academy of Nursing, which advocates nursing education as a way of further advancing healthy policy and practice. “This is the top honor in nursing. We are extremely excited about Dr. Hendricks’ induction into the academy and

Harrison School of Pharmacy faculty, staff and students last fall coordinated one of the largest service projects in its history—providing H1N1 flu vaccinations for the campus population. The school helped to provide the vaccine free to Auburn students and employees while offering student pharmacists the chance to gain clinical skills as part of a public-health crisis. At press time, the school had provided more than two dozen clinics and immunized more than 5,000 people.

College Of

Sciences and Mathematics Biological sciences doctoral student Alexis

Janosik ’05 recently embarked on a 56-day research expedition to western Antarctica headed by the British Antarctic Survey.

Janosik studied the evolution and biogeographic distributions of Antarctic animals, especially sea stars, as part of an international team. Her work with Auburn’s Ken Halanych of the William P. and Ruth W. Molette Environmental and Climate Change Studies Laboratory in Biological Sciences will help clarify responses to global climate change by fauna in what is arguably the fastestwarming area on the planet.

COLLEGE OF

Veterinary Medicine Robert L. Gillette has been named director of the Animal Health Performance Program at Auburn, which includes the Canine Detection Research Institute and the Veterinary Sports Medicine Program. Gillette was previously director of the Richard G. and Dorothy A. Metcalf

S T R E E T

Veterinary Sports Medicine Program in the college’s clinical sciences department.

Established in 1991,

the Veterinary Sports Medicine Program studies injuries, diseases, nutritional factors and physiologic functions of dogs and horses involved in field sports and working endeavors. The canine detection program was established in 1989 to study dogs’ sense of smell and how it might be used for many different purposes, including training animals for various jobs such as security details that require drugand bomb-sniffing.

Auburn’s CDRI is the largest dedicated canine detection research program in the United States, and its associated Canine Detection Training Center is one of the largest outside the federal government.

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

19

S T U D E N T

L I F E

CONCOURSE

Mr. Mayor goes to Auburn Interview Kelley Andrews Senior, theater The 4-1-1 Mobile native Kelley Andrews was a sum-

mer intern for “The Ellen Degeneres Show,” where she pitched ideas to producers and worked with various departments from production to research. She also vetted the show’s copious incoming e-mail for potential guests. Andrews moved to New York City in January to begin an internship with MTV at the network’s studios in Times Square.

WHAT WAS YOUR FUNNIEST TV EXPERIENCE? “I

remember thinking I wanted to bring a little Southern charm to the West Coast for ‘The Ellen Degeneres Show,’ so I treated my co-workers by bringing in Southern goodies every Monday. But everyone on staff was in excellent shape and physically fit, so I’d have to make sure to use sugar-free and fat-free ingredients when preparing my baked treats.”

HOW DID YOU LAND THE MTV INTERNSHIP? “I went to the MTV careers Web site and applied, and then got an e-mail of interest three days later. There were lots of telephone interviews and e-mail correspondence before I was finally offered the job. I don’t know the specifics yet of what I’ll be doing, but I look forward to the learning experience in New York!”

FUTURE PLANS “I plan to pursue a career in the enter-

tainment industry as well as being a proactive volunteer for cancer organizations. I’ve obtained a broad range of skills through my studies and internships, and hope to use those in the entertainment field.”

SECRET OF SUCCESS “I feel that if you believe in yourself and remain focused, you’ll find the opportunities you need. If you’re open and enthusiastic, people will respond to you and help you achieve your goals.

I am a very passionate, driven person and give 100 percent to reach my dreams.”

20

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Auburn University senior Matt Hurst can’t live on campus without breaking a law or, at best, spurring an ethics inquiry.

He gets up at the crack of dawn several days a week and drives an hour to reach campus in time to find a parking space.

Then, when classes are done, he heads back to his parents’ home in LaFayette, a tiny town of 3,000 people located 13 miles west of the Alabama-Georgia state line.

Hurst has to live there. He’s the mayor.

Believed to be the youngest person in Alabama to hold the office, Hurst was elected to the post in a hard-fought race against a two-term incumbent. He won by 114 votes on Oct. 7, 2008—his 21st birthday. “I went to just about every house in LaFayette when I was running,” he recalls. “I ran saying I’d work to bring additional resources to LaFayette—that I’d get proactive in working with the Industrial Development Authority (of Chambers County)—and we’ve already got some pretty promising prospects for new industries. People here were ready for something to change, something to bring growth to LaFayette. They’re ready for us to look at the big picture and start doing something for ourselves.”

Hurst had been mulling over the idea of running for mayor since 2004, when he covered LaFayette’s municipal election for the West Point, Ga., radio station where he worked. “I got real interested in what was going on, and I’d go to city council meetings, and one day I said, ‘Ya know, I honestly believe I could do something for this town,’” he says.

The next year, he graduated from high school and enrolled at Southern Union Community College in nearby Wadley, all the while dabbling in real estate—he took a class online and wound up selling three houses—and working at the Chambers County Courthouse in La-

Fayette as a drug-court coordinator.

Hurst transferred to Auburn in 2007, planning to major in public relations.

“I’ve got a sister who got her degree in PR at Auburn a few years back, and she kind of kept on at me about that’s what I needed to be in,” he says. “I just couldn’t see myself sitting through two more years of classes and then being cooped up somewhere in an office behind a desk the rest of my life.”

So far, life as a college student-cumpolitician is working out fine—the mayor’s job pays enough for him to live on, and its duties rarely conflict with class assignments. But like most politicians, Hurst is coy about saying whether he’ll run again in 2012. “I’ll have to see how things go this time around,” he says.

“Right now, I’m focusing on bringing in new industries and making LaFayette a progressive town.”—Jamie Creamer

Low grade Auburn University ranked 119th out of 141 U.S. universities in a study rating the access and availability of sexualhealth information and resources on campus, according to an independent firm hired by the maker of Trojan condoms. The company’s annual Sexual Health Report Card scores schools based on students’ opinions of the campus health center, contraceptive availability, cost and availability of testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and availability of sexual assault and awareness programs. The University of South Carolina ranked first in the survey.

C O N C O U R S E

Change of Plans Sometimes an unexpected event makes us reprioritize, and unexpected people change our direction in life. Auburn University sophomore Rebecca Dobson learned those lessons early.

As the morning of June 19, 2003, dawned over the shores of her native St. Simons Island, Ga., Dobson, then a high-school sophomore, joined her grandparents, Jack and Margie Mills, and sister Elise for a trip to Chicago. The Mills, both seasoned pilots, were stretching the legs of their new six-passenger Piper Saratoga with plans to refuel in Nashville before flying the final stretch to Chicago.

Just above Scottsboro, the flight turned tragic: The plane lost power and crashed into a grove of trees. The Mills both died; Rebecca was airlifted to Huntsville in critical condition, and her sister received minor injuries. Most of the bones on the right side of Dobson’s face were broken, her jaw shattered.

“My first memory was during the MRI. Not that I remember much about that. I just remember waking up while going through the machine,” says Dobson, now a sophomore in Au-

burn’s College of Sciences and Mathematics. “I have images of the helicopter ride and other things, but the main thing I remember is waking up and my sister being there.”

Dobson’s parents had her transferred home after learning that one of Georgia’s top oral and maxillofacial surgeons, Jeff Capes, lived on the island. He performed surgery immediately, first replacing the original stitches and wiring Dobson’s jaw shut. Eight days later, he rebuilt her eye sockets, cheeks, chin and nose using titanium rods.

Afterward, Dobson began a long recovery that included figuring out how to restore her teeth. Capes recommended implants, but after an unsuccessful hip-bone graph, the prospects were dim, and Dobson became depressed.

Eventually, though, a silver lining appeared. Dobson found two dental surgeons who could help her, though the process required months of tissue grafting and aesthetic procedures. She’s now studying to be a dentist herself. “I’m excited about dental school,” she says.—Christy Kyser Truitt

Need some space?

Display advertising in Auburn Magazine puts your business message in front of 45,000 members of the Auburn Alumni Association—that’s 90,000 eyeballs on your company’s logo, tagline, campaign slogan, services and product promotions.

Auburn's award-winning alumni magazine is consistently cited as the most-favored benefit of membership in the Auburn Alumni Association. As part of our team of advertisers, you, too, can share in the magazine's success.

Reserve your ad space today by calling (334) 844-1164. www.aualum.org

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

21

MELISSA HUMBLE

C O N C O U R S E

Grrrrrrrl power If the “rink rash” from a skidding fall burns a crosshatched imprint of fishnets into their rock-hard thighs, so much the better.

In the rough-and-tumble world of women’s roller derby, it’s just another battle scar, proof that the Burn City Rollers are hell’s belles on wheels.

The roller derby group, boasting about a dozen members in their 20s and 30s, was formed in September 2008 and consists largely of Auburn University students, faculty, staff and alumnae, though the team hopes to recruit more players around the region.

“This is a positive outlet for aggression,” rollergirl “Jackie OwnAsses” (say it fast) explains earnestly over the din of jostling elbows, thudding falls and trash-talk—“Git offa me, you crackhead!”—on the rink at Auburn Skate Center, where the league practices three nights a week. In her other life, Jackie is known as Jess Bryars, a student at Southern Union State Community College in Wadley.

Each team member adopts a punny, over-the-top nom de guerre that reflects her derby alter-ego. “I’m a Korean adoptee, but my name—Carrie Holzmeister—so does not sound Korean. I wanted to honor that part of my heritage somehow,” says

22

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

“Cho Cold,” adding with a sigh, “It takes some people awhile to get it, though.”

Holzmeister founded the Burn City Rollers—with some help from Birmingham’s Tragic City Rollers—after reading an article about the sport’s revival.

“This started as a whim. At 5-foot-2, I’m too short to play basketball, but I can move quickly,” she says. “Skates are great equalizers, so this is an Everywoman’s sport, with no previous experience required.”

For this “Fight Club” sorority, a certain fearlessness in both the athletic and sartorial senses helps, however. “Did somebody lose a pantaloon?” Cho Cold yells, waving a swath of fabric.

The skaters camp it up with colorful tutus, ratty tights, striped knee socks, old-fashioned garters and other funky fetishes. For example, Auburn student Amber LeCroy (aka “Babe E. Quakes”) is striking in a Xena-style gladiator costume, which loses a tassel or two during scrimmage, and classmate Holly Daniel (otherwise known as “Ziggy Bloodlust”) sports black nail polish and neon-pink highlights in her hair. If you’re hovering at the edge of the rink and see a pack of these fierce, tartedup Glamazon warriors hurtling your way, some with capes bil-

Go forth and conquer Auburn University awarded 1,509 degrees during graduation ceremonies in December at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

The College of Business boasted 312 graduates, more than any other school, followed by the College of Liberal Arts with 288 and the College of Education with 125.

PHILLIP B RADSHAW

lowing behind, the total effect is like an unnerving, apocalyptic scene from “Mad Max.” To be a rollergirl is to be a femme fatale in every sense of the word.

“We get to be tough and sexy at the same time,” says Trisha Campbell (“Redrum Blur”), a graduate teaching assistant in Auburn’s English department.

Clarifies Cho Cold: “This is not the same as choreographed, cheeseball wrestling—what we do is natural sport. A former rugby player on our team says this is more physically demanding than rugby. It survives because people will pay to watch women hit each other, more so than, say, paying to watch us play softball.”

Since its bloody heyday in the 1970s, women’s roller derby has made a comeback as a cheeky, punk-influenced expression of Third Wave feminist attitude, especially in the heartland, where smalltown girls come of age at skating rinks.

Because it is anarchic, anti-corporate and dominated by mouthy, tattooed, ethnically diverse women fueled by in-yourface, radical politics, it is often described as, well, the opposite of golf. The word “empowering” pops up in conversation.

“I’ve never done anything athletic before this—I mean, I was the Quiz Bowl captain type,” emphasizes “Paina Skully,” an “X-Files” fan who just earned a master’s in English from Auburn under her real name, Nodya Boyko. “I’ve really surprised myself—and a lot of other people—

with what I am capable of physically. This is the best shape I’ve ever been in.”

The sport originally grew out of coed endurance contests during the Depression, and its guidelines were outlined by Guys and Dolls author Damon Runyon.

Victory is not determined, as some might think, by the last woman standing. Like most full-contact sports, roller derby involves overcoming obstacles to get from point A to point B, relying on an offense and a defense: The nimblest skater is the team’s “jammer,” who scores points by making laps, assisted by burly “blockers” and a “pivot.” Using practiced moves, teammates spin each other around in a sort of centrifugal do-si-do.

“We have to learn proper ways to fall,” says Babe E. Quakes, who demonstrates the “Rock Star,” dropping to her knees like Elvis; the “Baseball Slide”; and basic one-knee maneuvers. “If we sprawl spread-eagle, that’s called the ‘Ragdoll,’” she says, collapsing in a heap of blond braids and fringe.

Bumps, bruises, blisters and sore muscles throb after every practice, the rollergirls say, despite padded gear and mouthguards. “We had one broken leg, but that was a fluke, a freaky fall,” Cho Cold assures.

The Burn City Rollers have traveled to Baton Rouge, La., Knoxville, Tenn., and Mobile to compete, with the goal of eventually joining what they call the “big dogs” of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. They’re also excited about a summer trip to Oklahoma City to tackle the banked rink where Drew Barrymore filmed “Whip It.” In the meantime, the women will hold their own end-of-season awards banquet, honoring each other with trophies in categories such as “Hardest Hit,” “Most Likely to Kill Another Team Member” and “Smelliest Calves.” “We get to dress up—I mean, in an actual dress,” says “9 Lb. Hammer,” aka graduate teaching assistant Suzanne Samples.

Cooling down with a few crunches and push-ups, the sweaty skaters, mascara streaking, start planning the ceremony’s menu. “If we’re going to have tea, we’ll definitely need scones,” Cho Cold says, momentarily turning dainty, without irony.—Candice Dyer

C O N C O U R S E

Syllabus COURSE NAME AERO 4970/7970 “Starship

Propulsion” INSTRUCTOR Rhon Jenkins, retired professor of aerospace engineering, Samuel Ginn College of Engineering THE SCOOP The class aims “to introduce the student

to the conjecture, the speculation, the science, and the technology of interstellar travel,” according to the course syllabus. Jenkins starts the class with discussions of science fiction and the ways in which certain ideas might become realities, from force shields to teleportation to invisibility cloaks. “The main goal is to make the students open their minds to what they can do and what mankind can do,” he says. “I want to introduce them to the ideas and concepts of propulsion, because what you think is impossible could really be possible.” For example, class members discuss how to unravel the secret of the speed of light and travel beyond it.

WHO TAKES IT The class is designed for graduate and

senior-level undergraduate students in aerospace engineering.

VOCABULARY WORD A “starship” is any vehicle— manned or unmanned—that will allow travel from our solar system to other solar systems in a reasonable amount of time (whatever that might be).

SUGGESTED READING Frontiers of Propulsion Science (AIAA, 2009), a compilation of research relative to visionary topics such as space drives, warp drives, gravity control, faster-than-light travel and other potential breakthroughs that would revolutionize spaceflight and enable human voyages to other star systems.

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

23

S P O R T S

J E F F E T H E R I D GE

TIGER WALK

Smart guy

Swimmer nabs Rhodes scholarship Auburn University’s swim-team captain is headed across the pond in October to study as a Rhodes scholar at the University of Oxford in England.

Senior biological sciences major Jordan Anderson, who hails from Roanoke, Va., is one of 32 U.S. students and the only student from a Southeastern Conference school to receive the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, which was established upon the death of 19th-century businessman Cecil Rhodes. Funded by Rhodes’ estate, the scholarships are designed to help students increase their international understanding and advocate

24

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

for peace. Famous American Rhodes scholars include basketball player-cumpolitician Bill Bradley, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, feminist social critic Naomi Wolf, singer/songwriter Kris Kristofferson, MSNBC political analyst Rachel Maddow, U.N. ambassador Susan Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter and former White House communications director George Stephanopoulos.

Anderson plans to enroll in a master’s program in global health science, which promotes an understanding of health con-

Swim captain Jordan Anderson is enrolled in Auburn’s pre-dentistry program. “The longterm goal is to give me a better understanding of the problems in countries that I want to one day work in,” he says of his studies at the University of Oxford.

ditions in third-world countries. Boasting a 3.91 grade-point average, he is a captain of Auburn’s top-ranked swimmingand-diving team, and is a College Swim Coaches Association of America Academic All-American and a two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll member.

“It really wasn’t something I planned on winning,” Anderson says. “I just wanted to be named a finalist, so it took the pressure off while interviewing. It is really a huge honor and an incredible opportunity.”

In addition to swimming and academics, Anderson, a second-generation

On the run A pair of Auburn’s cross-country runners, Felix Kiboiywo and Ben Cheruiyot, took home All-American honors, while the Tigers finished 25th nationally at the 2009 NCAA Cross-Country Championships in November in Terre Haute, Ind. Oklahoma State took the No. 1 team spot.

TO D D VA N E M S T

college student, worked with the interdenominational Christian outreach organization Young Life and was a mentor for students at Lee Scott Academy, a private prep school in Auburn. He also aided in research on the phototyzing effects of ultraviolet light on the eye and was named an “Unsung Hero” by the Virginia Health Care Foundation for assisting dentists in his hometown with an effort to provide dental care for low-income families.

Paul Harris ’97, associate director for national prestigious scholarships at Auburn, says Anderson embodies what a Rhodes scholar is supposed to be. “He excelled in academics, exemplified leadership through being elected captain of the swim team, demonstrated athletic abilities and showed character with his work at Young Life. This shows you that the Rhodes Scholarship committee really valued who he is.”

Anderson is the fourth Auburn student to be named a Rhodes scholar, joining alumni Hugh Long ’47, Ed Gentle ’75 and Susan Karamanian ’79.

T I G E R

W A L K

Shot clock runs down on Beard-Eaves

BY JOE McADORY ’92 The place is nearly empty, quiet and dark.

Footsteps of a lone jogger echo along its concrete concourse on this cold January night … walls are painted in navy, white and orange, decorated with random black-and-white photographs of basketball legends past. The sound of running water is perpetually heard from the antiquated bathrooms. Every now and then the sound of basketballs bouncing on the wooden arena floor can be heard.

Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum is graying, cracking, showings its many wrinkles, and slowly dying before our eyes. Next year, Auburn University’s men’s and women’s basketball teams will move into their new multi-million-dollar, multi-functional, multi-shiny, multi-perfect facility across the street. Indeed, the Auburn Arena figures to be a shining light—probably the most advanced basketball facility in the state.

Beard-Eaves, named after Jeff Beard, longtime athletics director, and Joel Eaves, the most celebrated men’s basketball coach in school history, opened in 1969. What will immediately become of the saucer-shaped arena remains a question, but I believe a wrecking ball may be involved eventually.

One thing’s for certain: the final basketball game in the coliseum’s history will be March 3 when Mississippi State visits for a men’s matchup.

Auburn’s final women’s game will be Feb. 28 against Kentucky. I can’t help but wonder who will make the final basket, who will take the last shot, or turn off the lights for the final time.

Running up and down the stairs inside the coliseum can be quite taxing. Afterward, this old man chooses to rest along the concourse, peering outside one of its many windows. There is nobody else here … except in my weary mind, which can’t help but go back in time. I imagine thousands pouring through the turnstiles—some in bell-bottoms—to see Auburn great John Mengelt battle the incomparable “Pistol Pete” Maravich in short shorts. Some wore tie-dye “make love not war” peace shirts as Vietnam raged on. Didn’t matter.

Liberals and conservatives gathered together as one into this little melting pot of basketball love.

Memorial Coliseum (that’s what it was called back then) was shiny and new, seating 12,500, and replaced the vintage, wooden Auburn Sports Arena, which burned to the ground in September 1996.

Sometimes the coliseum filled to capacity, believe it or not. Winning basketball teams and an Elvis Presley concert made sure of that.

I look into the parking lot and imagine Corvairs, VW vans, family wagons and old pickups.

Fans stand in line at the concession stand and pay nominal charges for soft drinks and hot dogs, then enter the arena to find the chair-back wooden seat. I don’t care if these seats are wooden and old—they’ve always been comfortable.

Then I grab my bag and walk out the glass doors, back into the cold reality—Beard-Eaves’ days are numbered. Appreciate it while you can.

Reprinted with permission from the OpelikaAuburn News. Joe McAdory is the paper’s editorial page editor.

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

25

T I G E R

W A L K

Tall in the saddle At press time, Auburn University’s equestrian team was tied with the University of Georgia for the No. 1 spot in the Women’s Intercollegiate Equestrian National Coaches Poll, followed by Texas A&M, the University of South Carolina and Oklahoma State.

Sports roundup Tennis

10 assists on the season

As the 2010 spring

while also scoring five

season approached, the

goals. An All-SEC First

Auburn men’s tennis

Team selection for the

team was ranked 23rd in

second straight year, this

the inaugural Campbell/

is the first time she was

ITA College Tennis

placed on the NSCAA

Rankings. The Tigers are

All-Region First Team

led by junior Tim Puetz

after being a Second

and sophomore Alex

Team selection in 2008.

Stamchev, who were No.

She is the first Auburn

21 in the preseason ITA

player to be named to

doubles rankings. Puetz

the First Team since

was listed at No. 54 in

Ronda Brooks in 2005.

the singles rankings.

A senior from Satellite

The Tigers kicked off the

Beach, Fla., Howell led

spring season at Virginia

Auburn with a career-

Tech on Jan. 22.

high eight goals and added an assist to finish

Volleyball

the year with 17 points

The 2009 volleyball

on the season. Auburn

season was one worth

finished the year 10-9-3

remembering for the

(6-5-0 SEC), advancing

young AU team as it fin-

to the NCAA Tournament

ished its best season in

for the eighth time in

10 years. The Tigers fin-

school history.

Former Tigers defensive back Lee Carpenter was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease in 1986 at age 34. Though the illness has left him paralyzed, Carpenter has completed a second master’s degree and now teaches online courses in the area of criminal justice.

ished with a 16-15 overall record, concluded the

Golf

year second in the SEC

Auburn’s Cydney Clanton

West and tied for fifth

and Candace Schepperle

overall in the league.

were two of only seven

The 16 overall wins and

amateurs selected to re-

eight SEC victories were

ceive sponsor invitations

the most the team has

to play in the 2010 Kraft

had since 1999.

Nabisco Championship.

Set for March 29-April

26

Soccer

4 in Rancho Mirage,

Katy Frierson and Re-

Calif., the tournament

becca Howell were each

represents the first LPGA

voted to the National

major championship of

Soccer Coaches Associa-

the year. For Schepperle,

tion of America All-South

a senior from Birming-

Region Team, while the

ham, it will be her

entire soccer team was

second trip to the Kraft

honored with the NSCAA

Nabisco after receiving

Team Academic Award.

an invitation last year.

A sophomore from

It will be the first LPGA

Birmingham, Frierson

event for Clanton, the

led Auburn with 20

2009 North Carolina

points from her midfield

Women’s Amateur Player

position. One of just

of the Year. She is ranked

two sophomores named

second in the country in

to the First Team, she

the GolfWeek collegiate

collected a team-high

ratings.

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

In the blink of an eye Lee Carpenter ’74 will read this between 12 a.m. and 8 a.m. He sleeps during the day. That got started when the boys were still boys, so he could be rested and ready when they got back from school. When they left home, he stuck with it. He sleeps from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., talks to wife Gail (they have a blinking system, and she can kind of read his lips) and watches TV (he’s kind of fond of HGTV) until midnight.

Then Gail hooks him up to the computer and says goodnight, and that’s when he gets his work done, mainly e-mails.

Maybe one of his students has a question about the criminal justice class.

Maybe Gail wrote him a love letter from the living room. Maybe a writer wants to know what it’s like living with Lou Gehrig’s disease.

This is what it’s like: He can’t do a lot.

He can’t go camping or take out the trash,

or wash the car, or hug anyone. He can’t speak. He can’t move. A nurse bathes him.

Shaves him. A little suitcase-sized machine that’s supposed to last 12 or so hours if the power goes out breathes for him. He can’t smell, taste or eat. He’s fed liquid meals straight into his stomach through a tube.

He can’t get out in the yard with the sons or the grandsons and reenact the glory days. He can’t show them how to throw the kind of spiral that made him a star quarterback at Childersburg High School in 1970. And he can’t show them “The Tackle.”

After Bill Newton ’74 blocked two punts in the final minutes of the 1972 Iron Bowl, and David Langner ran them both in for touchdowns, and Gardner Jett kicked the extra point, all Auburn had to do was hold off the Crimson Tide for one minute. Just stop ’Bama one more time.

BOOM—the kickoff. BOOM—The Tackle. And the white Auburn jersey that made it? No. 41, Lee Carpenter.

“Of course, I made other tackles during those two years and maybe even in that same game,” says Carpenter, a defensive back for the Tigers from 1971-74. “But being in on that tackle, knowing now Alabama would have to go 80 yards in so little time against our defense … was the most important tackle or performance for me.”

Auburn went on to win the game, arguably the most memorable in Tigers football history, 17 to 16.

Carpenter can’t high-five any of his old teammates, but he can listen to them tell the old stories. And he can hear the birds up in the oaks, thanks to the sunroom built for him with funds raised by the Auburn Football Lettermen Club. He can love the wife who rolls him out there with all of his heart, one of the few muscles that still works. And he can believe in the God who made it still possible to do things, such as teaching a distance-learning course for Central Alabama Community College with an optically controlled computer interface. In other words, he can live.

Carpenter was diagnosed with aymaotropic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, in 1986.

He was playing golf. He hit the ball over the fence. When he went to climb it, his leg wouldn’t work. By 1991 he needed a ventilator to stay alive.

At first, he wasn’t going to take it. He was going to slip away. “One night when things were at a critical point and I was having difficulties breathing, we went to the hospital,” Carpenter recalls. “That night, the doctor said, ‘It’s time to make the decision.’ I said, ‘We have the will, everything is in writing,’ and I accepted my fate. After a few minutes, something came over that told me our boys needed a dad, and I said, ‘Do the ventilator.’”

Which means his grandkids still have a grandfather, and Gail still has a husband, and the old teammates still have No. 41.

So what’s it like living with Lou Gehrig’s Disease? It took him seven hours to blink the answer.

“Wonderful.”—Jeremy Henderson ’04/ The War Eagle Reader. Reprinted with permission.

W A L K

TO D D VAN E MST

T I G E R

Showtime at the arena Big-time hoops will be

2011 in the university’s

is an outstanding op-

will have a great new

on display on the Plains

new basketball arena.

portunity to showcase

arena to showcase, and

“We are excited

the new arena before

we have a community

next year as Auburn University hosts the

about our selection as a

a nationally televised

that is supportive of

second and third rounds

host site,” said Auburn

audience.”

women’s basketball.”

of the NCAA Division

athletic director Jay Ja-

I Women’s Basketball

cobs. “The new Auburn

head basketball coach

Auburn will host games

Championship for the

Arena will be one of

Nell Fortner: “I am

are to be determined

first time in its current

the finest basketball fa-

very excited and proud

this June. For ticket

bid format. The tourna-

cilities in the nation and

of the hard work our

information, see www.

ment is scheduled to

will be an ideal venue

administration put forth

ncaa.com or www.

take place in March

for the tournament. It

in securing this bid. We

auburntigers.com.

Added AU women’s

The precise days

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

27

“I worry about the economy and finding a job when I graduate.”

“I love the creed. I believe in Auburn and love it.”

“I like to study on the Samford Hall fire escape.”

“Favorite class: Matt Kearley’s ‘Intro to Biology.’”

“I love to video chat on Skype.”

“I drive a 1998 four-door Blazer.

I’m gonna cry when it dies.”

“I don’t really watch TV. Most of it is just dumb.”

“I’d totally get an eagle tattoo on my foot if I were brave enough.”

“Diet Coke is an unhealthy obsession.”

28

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

You see them whenever you visit campus: They are the ones who came after. You might speak to them, exchanging a quick “War Eagle” and noticing their clothes or their haircuts. You think you know who today’s Auburn University students are, but do you? b y

suzanne

johnson

I am

Auburn

They’re wired for sound, thumb-type text messages at lightning speed, wear flip-flops in winter and sheepskin-lined boots in summer, and generally defy stereotypes. Sociologists call them “millennials” or “echo boomers”; Auburn residents just try to avoid mowing them down as they dodge traffic on College Street, wires dangling from their ears, backpacks stuffed with laptops and other battery-operated devices.

Yet like generations before them, Auburn UniverOpposite: Silverhill sity’s current crop junior Sarah Willis got her first horse at 13. of students fills A self-described the stands of Jor“adrenaline junkie,” dan-Hare StadiWillis competes in barrel races. The um on game days, animal-sciences major wears the beloved (equine track, of course) hopes to one orange and blue, day open an equine and still bellows rehab facility. “Some “Waaaaaaaar Easay it’s like burning money, but I’ll take the gle! Hey!” in a casense of accomplishcophony of spirit. ment my horses give They believe in Aume over material things any day,” she says. burn and love it.

But just who are the individuals that make up today’s student body? When class is dismissed and the last pigskin sails through the stadium uprights, what exactly does he or she look like? Sound like? Act like? Whether you graduated in the fabulous ’50s, the swinging ’70s or even the nifty ’90s, these are not your daddy’s Tigers.

With a spirit just a tad afraid, Auburn Magazine ventured in search of the answer to the question, “Who is Auburn?” … and discovered more than 850 young adults willing to take our first-ever, very unscientific student survey. Like cells under a microscope, they laid their souls bare while we attempted to analyze their likes and dislikes, cares and concerns, and even their obsessions.

What we found: Today’s Auburn student refuses to be boxed in. He’s alternately serious and funny, industrious and lazy, innocent and jaded. She’s sometimes up for a party, sometimes down for a coffee, one day quiet and one day loud, both affected and genuine, confident and inse-

cure. They’re on the cusp of adulthood.

They are Auburn.

Student bodies Where the boys are. Admissions recruiters and university administrators alike fret over the “new” gender gap—57 percent of America’s 18 million college students are women, and the U.S. Department of Education expects that figure to reach 60 percent within the next few years. Fiftysix percent of students at the University of Florida, for example, are female, while the University of Kentucky enrolls 67 first-year women for every 50 men.

Auburn bucks the national trend, with men outnumbering women by a slim 51-to-49 percent margin that has held steady through most of the last decade. Like its peers with strong programs in male-dominated fields, AU continues to maintain relatively even numbers of male and female students—good news for those whose college years include dating as well as studying.

P H OTO G R A P H S B Y J E F F E T H E R I D G E

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

29

I

A M

A U B U R N

Major doings.

The top five fields of study in colleges and universities nationwide are business, social sciences, liberal arts, education and biological sciences, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics. Again, AU students veer slightly from the norm, enrolling students most often in liberal arts, followed closely by engineering.

The next-mostpopular majors at Auburn are in the colleges of business, sciences and mathematics, and education.

The state we’re in.

Sixty-three percent of Auburn students hail from Alabama hometowns. Other states that produce the highest proportions of today’s Tigers are Georgia (14 percent), Florida (5 percent), Tennessee (3 percent) and Texas (2 percent). Auburn’s current student body comprises young people from each of the 50 U.S. states, including three “snowbirds” from South Dakota.

Drive-bys. A mere 7 percent of Auburn students hoof it, according to our survey—the other 93 percent have wheels of some

30

kind (and yes, they complain about parking). We weren’t sure how to count one student who claimed to drive “an imaginary yellow Jeep Wrangler” or the poor kid who said he drove “nothing, since some old lady totaled my truck.”

The extent to which the AU student body ascribes to the “car

Philip Smith ’10 Stone Mountain, Ga.

as status symbol” philosophy is unclear. One kid proudly described his 1995 Eagle Vision as having “no gauges, loose steering, windows that sometimes work, and the heat’s stuck on.”

The largest proportion of survey respondents—25 percent—said they drive either a Honda Accord or Civic. A recent Boston Globe survey ranked Honda, Ford, BMW, Volkswagen and Toyota as the top-five car makes driven by college students nationwide.

I’ll take two.

Where do students go in all those

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

cars—besides driving home to see mom and dad, of course? Shopping, for one thing (with apologies to the students who said “shopping is for pansies” and “I’m in college, so I’m broke”).

According to the national college-marketing survey organization Student Monitor, 70 percent of today’s students have credit cards in their own names and are most likely to spend money on clothes, restaurants, entertainment or music.

At Auburn, clothing purchases take center stage, and students say they’d rather shop in person than online. In the Auburn/Opelika area, more than 50 percent frequent Tiger Town shopping center, home to national retail chains such as Target, Old Navy and Best Buy. Another 20 percent say they travel to Atlanta’s Lenox Square for a consumer fix, while 14 percent head to The Summit, a Birmingham shopping center, or Riverchase Galleria in Hoover.

Among individual retailers, Target, Forever 21 and Old Navy rated tops among storefronts, while the online crowd prefers shopping

the Web sites of Urban Outfitters and J. Crew.

Make mine a double. How much money do students spend on drinking? The Web site Colleges.com claims students drink an estimated 4 billion cans of beer and more than 430 gallons of alcohol annually; not surprisingly, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has identified college binge drinking as a major public health concern for 2010.

Each year, the Princeton Review compiles a list of the top 20 “party schools” in the country, and while more than

Stefani Hazeldine ’11 Enterprise, Ala.

25 percent of this year’s honors went to schools in the Southeast (led by Florida at No. 2 behind Penn State, with the universities of Mississippi and Georgia at Nos. 3 and 4, respectively), Auburn did not make the partyhardy cut. Still, several of Auburn Magazine’s student

survey respondents expressed concern about the amount of drinking that occurs among their peers on campus.

“The social scene here is all about who can get the most wasted,” one reported, while another respondent wondered, “how many of my generation will be in Alcoholics Anonymous by the time they are out of college?”

Auburn administrators in 2008 instituted a policy of notifying parents or legal guardians of their children’s involvement in public intoxication or other incidents involving the possession, consumption or distribution of alcohol or drugs.

University officials are also informed whenever police are summoned to a fraternity house.

Asked to name their favorite beverage, 30 percent of Auburn students who responded to our survey listed an alcoholic libation—most popular were beer (led by Bud Light), bourbon (mixed with Coke) and vodka. One student respondent’s “Swamp Frog” recipe, which he listed as his mostadored drink, horrifyingly combines Mountain Dew, grape Kool-Aid and vodka. More

students (37 percent) listed a nonalcoholic favorite, with soft drinks (especially Coke and Diet Coke) edging out water and sweet tea.

When students go in search of a party, most either head for one of the fraternity houses—Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Nu were mentioned most often—or complain about them.

“The fraternity beLeft: Philip Smith ’10 of Stone Mountain, Ga., wants to build a life around his three passions: French (his major), photography and music. ”I really can’t imagine life without those things in it,” he says. He belongs to Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a national men’s music fraternity, and marched in the Auburn University Marching Band for four years.

Enterprise native Stefani Hazeldine ’11 loves scuba diving and everything ocean-related. The fisheries major is a former band member and hopes to work in ocean conservation efforts in the Cape Cod, Mass., area after graduation.

Opposite: Auburn senior Collin Lowell of Mobile reads Ernest Hemingway novels and watches Quentin Tarantino films, but his main passion is music: He’s writing a senior thesis on the Chicago blues scene.

The history major plans to spend two years after graduation working for Teach for America, a program that puts teachers in rural and innercity schools. Lowell also plans to eventually earn master’s and doctoral degrees.

“As far as hobbies go, there’s only one thing for me: music.”

“My iPod is not a toy.

It’s a necessity.”

“I worry about our country’s inability to put stereotypes and other preconceived notions aside in order to foster a better understanding of each other.”

“Auburn is home. The instant I stepped foot on campus, I felt like I was home.”

“The night life in Auburn is pathetic.”

“Let’s all listen to the land we love.”

“We’re connecting through technology but disconnecting from each other personally.”

“I wish the liberal arts got more support from the university.”

“Favorite shopping place?

Does Chick-fil-A count?”

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

31

M A R C H I N G

O R D E R S

“Greatest social concern? Vampires.”

“I’m a PC, and Apples are for hippies.”

“I love anything with an ‘i’ in front of it: iPhone, iPod, iMac.”

“I got my belly button pierced as a Christmas gift to myself.”

“I don’t have any tattoos, but they’re hot on others!”

“Whoever’s the lesser evil gets my vote.”

“My whole life is my Blackberry—I couldn’t live without it.”

“I get chills every time the eagle flies before the football game.”

32

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

I

hind my apartment always has a party going on,” one respondent griped.

“Always. And with terrible karaoke, I might add.”

The SAE house recently became the first social fraternity at Auburn to require its members to undergo drug testing, The Auburn Plainsman reported last fall. “It’s common knowledge for anybody who’s around college campuses that Auburn has a drug and alcohol problem,” SAE adviser Greg Smith told

spot. The club offers live music, karaoke nights and “no cover charge” specials. “SkyBar is usually pretty bumpin’,” claimed a fan. Survey respondents also mentioned Eagles Landing apartment complex on Long Leaf Drive —particularly a unit observed to have had frequent visits by the local constabulary. One respondent huffed that Auburn police should “be out solving crimes instead of responding to noise complaints.”

Right: Senior horticulture major Jack LeCroy, from Centre, is president of the AU horticulture club, PLANET—the Professional Landcare Network, and is a member of the tennis club.

When he isn’t enjoying outdoor activities, from kayaking to rolling Toomer’s, he enjoys designing landscapes.

Tattoo you.

Twenty percent of AU students reported they sport tattoos, a proportion far below the national average of 47 percent— athough 20 percent said their fear of needles and parental disapproval were the only things standing in their way.

More than a third of students with tattoos reported having more than one, with the back and ankle as the most popular locations. Religious symbols and stars tend to be the favored artwork, students reported.

Meanwhile, body piercing— a statement of a slightly different kind—among college students is on the decline after

Opposite: Sophomore Brittany Cofield of Douglas studies information systems management but prefers shopping, decorating and styling clothes.

She hopes to do mission work after graduation. Sophomore Tasif Muzaffar, a selfdescribed “gadget guy,” is a computer engineering major from Hoover.

He aims to work in the mobile-computing industry.

the paper. “And this is one of the ways for us to say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna be part of the solution, not part of the problem.’”

Students also cited SkyBar Café on East Magnolia as a popular hot

peaking about a decade ago, according to Student Monitor. At Auburn, 53 percent of students said they have pierced ears, while another 18 percent reported having body piercings elsewhere, most often in the belly button, tongue, eyebrow or nose. A number

Jack LeCroy ’10 Centre

of students want nothing to do with needles, though.

“If I want to disfigure my body, I’ll take up an extreme sport,” one said.

Future shock. In a bad economy, applications to military and graduate schools tend to climb as new college graduates find it difficult to find jobs. According to a recent survey

by Experience Inc., a provider of university career services, 40 percent of college students said they plan to enroll in graduate school after completing their bachelor’s degrees.

On that score, Auburn students follow national averages. Forty-

seven percent of AU undergraduates in our survey said they plan to find a job, while 43 percent plan to continue on to graduate school.

Another 10 percent said they’re interested in entering the Peace Corps, pursuing a military career or doing missionary work.

But whether Auburn’s newly minted alumni work or remain in school, chances are good they’ll be back on mom and dad’s doorstep again, at least for a while. In 2008, almost 50 percent of college graduates became “boomerangers,” returning home to live with their parents while looking for work and paying off college debt. The Student Monitor study found that 73 percent of today’s graduating seniors leave college with about $23,000 in student loans and other debts.

Beautiful minds Talk is cheap.

Technology changes faster than the number of reality shows on TV, as we learned when we asked students if they use chat or instant messaging to stay in touch with their friends. “Not

since the sixth grade,” scoffed one student, while another snipped, “That’s so middle school.” The preferred form of communication is, not surprisingly, texting—often during class, much to the dismay of faculty. A Harvard University poll found that 75 percent of today’s students have a Facebook account; Colleges.com reports that 97 percent own cell phones.

“Facebook is a great way to distract yourself from what you should actually be doing,” said one AU student. “And I can text anywhere.”

Auburn students also stay in touch with Skype, a voice software application that allows talking via Internet connection rather than phone.

“I love video chat on Skype,” one student said. “It’s a great way to stay in touch with high school friends.”

It’s an iWorld. It was huge news in 2006: the iPod, Apple’s portable media player, surpassed beer as the “coolest” thing on college campuses for only the second time in the history of collegestudent marketing surveys, according to Student

A M

A U B U R N

Monitor. Asked to name their favorite electronics, Auburn students wavered between their iPods (48 percent) and iPhones (25 percent), while other mobile-phone brands, music players and video games distantly followed. One student reported: “I like anything with an ‘i’ in front of it.”

A few students listed laptop computers as their favorite toys, and almost all students use one. Nationally, 80 percent of students own laptops, while 50 percent own a desktop computer.

At Auburn, 58 percent of surveyed students said they own PCs and wouldn’t have it any other way (“I’m just not cool enough for a Mac”), while 42 percent either use Macs or wish they had one (“I’m a PC, but when I graduate I want to be a Mac”).

Can you Wii? “I Wii like a pro,” claimed one student, referring to the Nintendo home video game phenomenon that has quickly become the world’s best-selling gaming system. A room in the new Auburn Student Center has a Wii-outfitted play space, and

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

33

I

A M

A U B U R N

61 percent of our survey respondents said they either play Wii at home, on campus or at friends’ places.

Some enjoy exercise programs such as the popular Wii Fit workout (“I do it till my joints start hurting”), while others go for the games (“Cow Racing all the way!”).

That’s entertainment. Remember when kids went to mixers and watched “American Bandstand”?

Take heart: Music, television and even books still have a place in students’ lives.

Alternative rock ranks as the favorite music genre of college students nationwide, followed by mainstream rock, R&B, rap/hiphop and country.

At Auburn, 33 percent of students say they prefer alternative or independent rock, followed by mainstream and classic rock (31 percent), country (17 percent), and rap/hiphop (10 percent).

Students’ top-five favorite artists are Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Coldplay, Owl City and Kings of Leon.

Yes, dear readers, Elvis is dead.

College students spend about 11 hours a week watching TV and

34

nearly 15 hours per week on the Internet. Their favorite shows are “Gray’s Anatomy,” “Family Guy,” “The Simpsons,” “American Idol” and “ESPN SportsCenter,” Student Monitor reports. Auburn students substituted “The Office,” “Glee,” “House, M.D” and “Lost” on their lists.

When choosing books for leisure reading, Auburn students mirror the national trend among college-age adults

Jessica Stuckey ’11 Huntsville

who like to go for the jugular: Vampire stories are hot. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the best-selling titles on college campuses are Stephanie Meyer’s four-book Twilight series, Charlaine Harris’ 10-book Sookie Stackhouse saga and U.S. President Barack Obama’s Audacity of Hope. Among Auburn students, Meyer’s Twilight books were mentioned as fictionof-choice by nearly 20 percent of

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

survey respondents (although quite a few felt the need to apologize for it). Also receiving mentions were J.K. Rowling’s sevenbook Harry Potter series, The Lost Symbol and Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, and the Bible. Harris’ vampire novels, which inspired the HBO series “True Blood” (another AU student favorite), were among the students’ favorites as well.

Party lines.

In terms of political leanings, Auburn students keep one foot firmly planted to the right of center.

A Student Monitor survey shows about 36 percent of college students nationwide consider themselves Democrats, while 24 percent are Republicans, 13 percent support the Independent Party and 28 percent consider themselves nonpartisan.

Not surprisingly, Auburn students are more conservative than their counterparts in other areas of the country, with 48 percent of survey respondents labeling themselves Republican, 28 percent claiming to be non-partisan and 18 percent Democrat. Remaining students

were Independent, Libertarian or “apathetic,” the data showed.

Still, more than a third of AU students cited environmental conservation as the most pressing social issue of the new century.

“What will the world be like for my children?” one asked, while another wrote, “We’ve got to find something safe and permanent in terms of energy.”

Another 30 percent of students say they’re concerned about the state of the U.S. political system.

“Our country has an inability to put stereotypes and other preconceived notions aside in order to foster a better understanding of each other,” a respondent wrote. Another added, “People are getting too liberal and not taking credit for their own mistakes.”

Students also expressed concerns over the economy, health care reform and issues of social justice.

Auburn spirit War Eagle.

As different as today’s students might seem, they share a bond with older alumni in their love for all

things Auburn.

The eagle flight at Jordan-Hare Stadium prior to home football games ranked as current students’ favorite Auburn tradition. Also cited: the rolling of Toomer’s Corner after athletic victories and the opportunity to use “War Eagle” as a catch-all greeting, response and cheer.

Footloose. Auburn students’ biggest gripe is the lack of parking on campus, while a few complained about the pervasiveness of and privileges afforded AU’s Greeks, particularly block seating at football games. Others noted the high cost of tuition and campus dining, and lack of campus diversity.

Some students complained about a current campus fashion trend: women wearing spandex Nike biking shorts with leggings and Ugg boots.

Family affair. In the end, no matter what they listen to, drink, read or claim as a political affiliation, Auburn students love Auburn University.

Asked their favorite thing about the university, 88 percent of students

praised the family atmosphere, sense of home, and the spirit and traditions that have outlasted trends and fads, decades and generations.

“The instant I stepped foot on campus, I felt like I was home,” one student wrote.

“Auburn men and women are classy, sweet and incredible people. I’m proud to be a part of this family.”

Special thanks to the Auburn students who posed for our photo illustrations accompanying this story. The quotes are responses from Auburn Magazine’s student survey and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the models.

Left: Jessica Stuckey ’11 hopes to return to her hometown of Huntsville to teach after graduation. In the meantime, the elementary education major enjoys being a part of the Auburn University Marching Band, as well as painting. “I’ll always be involved in Auburn as much as I can,” she says.

Opposite: Junior Maryanne Stumb of Atlanta is a member of Alpha Gamma Delta and works in the AU ‘SOS’ program, which helps transfer students get acclimated.

“I’m so sad I only have a year and a half left here on the Plains,” says the human resources management major. She hopes to get a recruiting job in the Southeast after graduation.

“I love singing the Alma Mater after football games with the band and cheerleaders, win or lose.”

“I like to study at Starbucks. Any place too quiet creeps me out.”

“Favorite drink: Momma G’s sweeeeet tea!”

“On TV, I love ‘One Tree Hill’ and ‘Gossip Girl’ and almost everything on HGTV.”

“Men with eyebrow rings are sexy.”

“Dave Matthews makes me melt.”

“I use Facebook Chat every day.

It’s a great way to distract myself from what I should be doing.”

“Mom and dad say they’ll disown me if I get a tattoo.”

“The world is getting farther and farther away from God.”

“If the environment is trashed, no other concerns matter.”

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

35

Welcome to the McEwens’ place, where family life revolves around longstanding Southern traditions, not to mention home sweet hominy. by suzanne johnson and courtney johnson

True Grits Legendary things, grits. Some claim only Yankees and rank amateurs put sugar in them; tradition-spurning yuppies might toss in some Gruyère cheese. Irate wives occasionally fling hot potfuls at transgressing husbands. (Just ask 44-year-old Carolyn Brown of Boutte, La., booked on second-degree battery charges in December for allegedly dumping a saucepan of boiling grits on her sleeping boyfriend.) And a few folks think the word “grits” is simply an acronym for “girls raised in the South.”

Forget barbecue and sweet tea. Move aside, red-eye gravy and biscuits. Only one food can securely claim the status of Southern royalty, and it’s nothing more intricate or subtle than ground corn.

That fact doesn’t occur to Frank McEwen ’72 as he finishes unloading a shipment of organic maize on a cold, drizzly December day in Wilsonville, located northwest of Sylacauga near the Shelby County line. The corn cargo has just arrived from Fizzle Flat Farms in southeastern Illinois.

Sometimes the corn nuggets are yellow, sometimes blue. Today McEwen sorts and cleans thousands of fat yellow kernels, and, afterward, he’ll pour them into a funnel connected to a stone burr gristmill. Depending on what he needs, he can grind any combination of corn meal, polenta or, most often, grits.

36

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

P H OTO G R A P H S B Y P H I L I P S M I T H

Who knew grits had a color palette? Unlike white grits, yellow grits contain the corn hull.

Blue corn, which contains about 30 percent more protein than commercial hybrid yellow and white varieties, is more commonly available in the Southwest and Mexico.

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

37

T R U E

G R I T S

The ubiquitous Southern staple has become the centerpiece of the McEwen family business. While Frank produces organic, stone-ground grits at the family’s Coosa Valley Milling Co., his sister Susan McEwen McIntosh ’74 cooks them, studies them and sings their praises like the Pied Piper of grits. Her all-grits cookbook, Glorious Grits, was published by Birmingham-based Oxmoor House last fall.

In Alabama, the McEwens are making a name in the grits business. Think of Frank as the grain’s go-to guy; Susan plays the role of gustatory guru.

T

he saga of grits begins with an early-American legend.

In 1584, on what is now Roanoke Island, N.C., English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh and his men were checking out the real estate when they met up with a band of locals we now refer to as Native Americans. In the interest of diplomacy but still unsure whether they’d end up allies or adversaries, the natives and Englishmen shared a meal. One of Raleigh’s navigators, Arthur Barlowe, recorded in his journal that the men ate a boiled corn porridge that

38

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

was “very white, faire, and well tasted.” Registered dietitian A couple of decades later as colonists ar- Susan McEwen McIntosh discovered the rived in Virginia, they were introduced to ’74 versatility of corn while a native boiled corn mush called “rocka- creating and collecting homine.” Fast forward a couple of hun- recipes for her cookbook, Glorious Grits. The dred years: A “grits belt” now exists in book includes meals for the United States, formed by the crescent all occasions as well as “grits trail map” for of land arcing southward from Texas and atrue fanatics.

Oklahoma across the Southeast and up the coast to Virginia; its residents buy 75 percent of all grits sold in the country. Three states—Georgia, Oklahoma and South Carolina—have proclaimed grits as an official state food, and Charleston’s daily newspaper in 1952 assigned them Nobel-worthy properties: “A man full of grits is a man of peace.”

Despite growing up in Alabama, McIntosh didn’t grow up eating grits. “My first taste came in the fifth grade when I stayed overnight with a best friend from school,” she writes in Glorious Grits. “Her mother served us grits with eggs and biscuits for breakfast, and I thought they were awful. They were bland and mushy, and didn’t have much flavor—it’s likely that they were the quick-grits version from a box.”

Of course, those are the only type of grits many people know, and might be the reason non-Southerners don’t like them.

“You know what I say?” asks McEwen. “If they don’t like grits,

T R U E

G R I T S

they’ve never eaten good grits.”

Because, as the McEwens will tell you, all grits are not created equal.

A

bout 500 families make their homes in the farm-centric town of Wilsonville. When Frank McEwen and his father Ralph bought the Coosa Valley Milling Co. in 1978, the business was little more than a custom feed store for local farmers and ranchers. Under the McEwens, the business expanded to become a successful hardware and farm-supply store, gradually offering everything from pet supplies to organic gardening goods to Montana Silversmiths jewelry.

In the 1990s, a couple of unrelated incidents changed everything. First, Ralph and Peggy McEwen took a vacation to the Smoky Mountains, where they visited an old-fashioned gristmill affiliated with a hardware store in Sevierville, Tenn. “A man named Jimmy Temple ran this farm store much like mine and had a gristmill in the back of the store,” Frank McEwen recalls.

Adds McIntosh: “They were impressed enough to bring each of us children souvenir bags of stone-ground grits and cornmeal.

Daddy’s special gift to Frank was an idea: ‘Why don’t you buy a gristmill to grind and sell grits at the store?’ Frank replied, ‘We’ll see.’”

Nothing came of the idea until Frank McEwen had a health scare a few years later and tried to convert to a diet of organic, non-processed foods. He and wife Helen were dismayed at the scarcity of organic grits and cornmeal—then he remembered his father’s suggestion.

“I bought the mill in 2002,” Frank says. “Everybody thought I was crazy, to start with. Like most things, I did it on a whim. I bought it, and then I learned how to use it.”

The word “gristmill” evokes images of water-powered paddle wheels and millstones, but today’s grinding workrooms are surprisingly small. While a few mills still use water-turned wheels, McEwen says, that process is both expensive and slow.

“This is it,” he says with a chuckle, opening the door to the machine behind the magic. The mill itself is about the size of a small storage room, where corn is fed into a funnel, then

crushed between 20-inch granite grinding stones. McEwen sets the distance between stones according to what he plans to produce: Grits are coarser than polenta, for example, which is in turn coarser than cornmeal. Once ground, the grains are poured into a sifter, which culls the husks for chicken feed.

Early on, McEwen decided he wanted to stone-grind his grits, a process that helps retain the corn’s nutrients. (Conversely, most large manufacturers grind their corn by mashing it through metal rollers.) He also wanted his products to be 100 percent organic, which meant meeting strict U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations and limiting his mill to grinding organic corn only. McEwen & Sons is now one of only a handful of mills nationwide producing organic, stone-ground grits, polenta and cornmeal. Most of its corn is grown by Fizzle Flat Farms in Jasper County, Ill., one of the country’s few commercial organic-grain producers.

Finally ready for business, McEwen went looking for customers. “To kick-start the new business, Frank boldly delivered sample bags of grits to some of the most notable names in the Birmingham restaurant business,” McIntosh says.

A few days later, a call from award-winning chef Frank Stitt, owner of three Birmingham restaurants, garnered a standing order for grits to serve as a signature appetizer at his Highland Bar and Grill. Word spread, and McEwen began selling first to upscale restaurants around Birmingham, then throughout the country.

S

till, McEwen wasn’t satisfied just selling grits—he also wanted to provide customers with ideas on how to cook them.

Enter Susan McIntosh, a registered dietitian—the first on staff at Southern Living magazine—and author of a cookbook for Cooking Light.

In the process of developing recipes for her brother’s business, McIntosh

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

39

T R U E

G R I T S

re-discovered both the versatility of grits and the ways in which creative chefs around the country were beginning to reinvent grits dishes. Two years ago, she began working on a book devoted solely to grits, interviewing master cooks, requesting recipes and developing her own, and basically eating every grits recipe under the hot Southern sun.

“We ate a lot of grits,” McIntosh jokes. “It was nothing but grits, polenta and cornmeal for about a year.” She and her family, including sister Ann ’78, Fresh eggs go great put each recipe through the mill, so to with grits, and Frank McEwen’s family busispeak, sifting, adapting, and adjusting ness includes huningredient quantities and serving sizes dreds of free-range to perfect the dishes for home cooks. chickens in order to provide them. Poultry Glorious Grits comprises more than a responsibility falls to hundred recipes, from black-truffle grits Frank’s father, “Papa to cornbread pudding with whiskey Ralph” McEwen, and his sons, Frank Jr. sauce. Sixteen chefs and celebrity cooks and Luke, who gather from around the country contributed and crate eggs to sell along with the pounds recipes to the book, including Alabama of ground corn. first lady Patsy Riley.

40

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

In the process of writing, McIntosh discovered a lot about how far the humble grain has traveled to get to our tables.

“Grits have been reinvented to become a sophisticated dish,” she says, attributing their new popularity in part to a growing interest in Southern cooking by viewers of the Food Network and the opening of restaurants in other parts of the country that specialize in Southern cuisine. “The versatility of grits offers a great appeal,” she says. “They can be a casual supper or a really fancy dinner. We even made pecan pie and croutons with them. They really are like an empty canvas on which an artist paints a beautiful portrait, because they can be seasoned and presented in so many different ways. It just depends on how you want to present it and what you want to do.”

Noted New Orleans chef John Besh, who has developed a Food Network following in addition to his six highly touted restaurants, wrote in his introduction to McIntosh’s book: “In a fast-paced world where everything changes, it’s comforting to know that this simple, nutritious and delicious food continues to sustain and delight new generations of people who love grits—in all their glory.”

T R U E

McIntosh admits that cooking with stone-ground grits, polenta and cornmeal demands a little extra attention from the cook, but says the end result is worth the effort. A few tips: • Stone-ground grits take longer to cook—how long depends on how coarsely they’re ground. Cut the cooking time by soaking them in water overnight prior to cooking. Stir frequently to release starch and prevent clumping.

• Blue, white and yellow stoneground grits, polenta and cornmeal can be used interchangeably in most recipes.

Yellow- and blue-corn products are a bit sweeter.

• If stone-ground grits are a little too “gritty” for your taste, remove the dry husks by pouring water over the grits in a pan. Let stand; the husks will float to the top and may be skimmed off with a small strainer.

S

ome Glorious Grits recipes have personal meaning that extends beyond the McEwen family business.

The recipe for “Anniversary Shrimp and Grits,” for example, is dedicated to McEwen and McIntosh’s parents, and was developed for their 60th anniversary dinner. Not only did the senior McEwen first raise the idea of the gristmill, but “Papa Ralph” also works with McEwen’s sons to care for hundreds of free-range chickens that produce the organic brown and blue eggs also sold at the mill.

In fact, the elder McEwen often serves as a one-man marketing agency for both the mill and the cookbook.

“He’ll park right there in front of that counter and nab everybody that comes in and try to sell them a book,” McEwen says of his father. “And every time he goes to an Auburn game he loads up and takes a bunch of grits with him.”

In the end, it all comes down to family, like so many Southern traditions do. Which is why the siblings turn their conversation to an upcoming family wedding, where, McIntosh reminds her brother gently, he is in charge of the food for the reception. On the menu? A stoneground grits bar.

G R I T S

Coconut-Crusted Polenta Cakes with Triple Berry Sauce ²/³ cup sweetened flaked coconut 3¾ cups milk 1½ cups uncooked stone-ground white polenta ½ teaspoon salt ¾ cup sugar

1 tablespoon butter 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1½ teaspoons grated lemon rind 2 large eggs, lightly beaten Butter-flavored cooking spray ½ cup sweetened flaked coconut

Triple Berry Sauce: Combine 2 cups sliced strawberries, 1 cup blueberries, 1 cup raspberries, and ¹/³ cup sugar in a bowl, stirring gently to coat berries with sugar. Cover and chill. Yield: about 3 cups.

Polenta Cakes: Prepare Triple Berry Sauce. While sauce is chilling, preheat oven to 350°. Toast ²/³ cup coconut in a shallow pan at 350° for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring after 3 minutes; set aside.

Heat milk in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until milk almost comes to a boil. (Watch closely, as the milk mixture can boil out of the pan quickly.) Gradually whisk in polenta and salt. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring constantly, 10 to 12 minutes, or until very thick.

Remove from heat. Stir in sugar, butter, vanilla, lemon rind and ²/³ cup toasted coconut; stir in eggs.

Divide polenta mixture among 8 (6- to 8-ounce) ramekins coated with cooking spray.

Sprinkle each with 1 tablespoon coconut.

Place ramekins on a baking sheet, and bake at 350° for 20 to 23 minutes or until set.

Serve warm or at room temperature. (Polenta cakes may be removed from ramekins to serve, if desired. To remove cakes, run a knife around inside edge of ramekin to release polenta cake. Place polenta cakes, coconut side up, on dessert dishes; serve with Triple Berry Sauce.)

For a sophisticated dessert, spoon sweetened fresh berries atop custard-like polenta cakes.

Be sure to toss the berries and sugar together ahead of time so the berries will be sweet and juicy when it’s time for dessert.

Yield: 8 servings.

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

41

42

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Seven Auburn University faculty experts gathered in December for a conversation about health care reform, unanimously agreeing on one thing: that Band-Aids alone won’t heal the nation’s sick system.

Curing

Health Care

Paula Bobrowski

Associate dean, College of Liberal Arts; professor of health administration EXPERTISE: Health care finance, administration and marketing

Constance Hendricks Professor of nursing EXPERTISE: Community health, minority and rural health issues

Paul Jungnickel Professor and associate dean, Harrison School of Pharmacy EXPERTISE: Educational reform in pharmacy, health care policy

Fred Kam Medical director, Auburn University Medical Clinic EXPERTISE: Internal medicine, medical education

Rene McEldowney Associate professor of political science; director, health administration program EXPERTISE: Health care reform, health insurance/finance, international health care

Francine Parker Associate professor of nursing

The United States spends more on its citizens’ health care needs than nearly every other industrialized nation, yet ranks last in the quality of health care provided. Nearly three out of four Americans either has no health insurance at all or can expect their health care costs to outpace their existing insurance coverage.

How did we get here, and what issues must be addressed?

RM: The problems go back as far as (former U.S. President Richard) Nixon and have been growing worse for decades.

Health care is one of those problems that is difficult politically, difficult socially and difficult financially. We’ve been putting it off until we’ve reached a point where we can’t afford our current system, and it’s not meeting the needs of the populace.

We need to have the political and intellectual courage to do what needs to be done

I L LU S TRATION BY ERIC WESTBROOK

now. If we wait to do it down the road, it’s going to be much more painful.

FK: Do we need health care reform?

Absolutely. Is it long overdue? Absolutely. Is it going to be easy? Absolutely not.

It’s going to be a very painful process, because we are going to have to change the whole vision of health care in the United States. Everyone is emotionally attached, depending on where you are in the process. The person sitting out there with diabetes who can’t get health insurance thinks this could be the next great savior of his health care. The congressman who is enjoying his “Rolls Royce health care plan” wonders why we are even having this debate. Everyone’s going to have to ramp up and get into the process.

PB: And we must address not just the affordability of health care, but the quality. We are the highest-spending nation in the world in terms of health care,

EXPERTISE: Medical ethics, health care reform, nursing leadership

Bonnie Sanderson Associate professor of nursing EXPERTISE: Adult health, chronic and complex conditions, population health

THE FACULTY Auburn clinicians and researchers who took part in Auburn Magazine’s panel discussion on health care reform included nurses, a doctor, a pharmacist, a political scientist and a health policy expert.

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

43

C U R I N G

H E A L T H

C A R E

but our outcomes are not comparable to other countries.

RM: We spend $2.7 trillion a year on health care, twice as much as any other country, yet we are 37th in life expectancy and 28th in infant mortality. It’s unconscionable. We don’t need to put more money into the system. We need to use the money we are spending more efficiently and more wisely.

Access to health care is a key feature of the debate over reform. We know that many people have lost jobs and subsequently can’t afford insurance, but what other aspects of health care access should we be thinking about?

CH: We have the working poor, that large group of people who work in service industries. Our barbers and beauticians and people like that don’t have health insurance, and many don’t have access. When I go into rural areas, I talk to people who just want another general practitioner or a visiting nurse. They have very basic health care needs that are not being met.

FP: People do have access through emergency rooms, most of which have a physician on staff 24 hours. But there are 35 to 50 million uninsured Americans, and getting health care through the emergency room is too expensive.

PJ: There are serious problems with people using the emergency room for access to health care. Yes, they have access, but they also can go bankrupt very quickly. It isn’t free care; somebody has to pay for it. And even if people can go to the ER and get care for an episodic problem, they don’t get treatment for the chronic diseases like hypertension, asthma or diabetes. You don’t treat those with occasional episodic care.

FK: Is there access to health care?

Yes, there is access. It may not be convenient access. It may not be the right access. We worry that some people have to travel two hours to get to a doctor, but there are places in the world where people have to travel more than a day to get health care. We did it for all the right reasons, but we’ve set standards for health care in the United States that we might need to go back and look at.

Everyone wants the convenience, and everyone wants all the bells and whistles for their health care—except when it comes to paying for it.

44

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

One of the proposed ways of improving health care access is the so-called “public health option,” in which citizens could choose between government-provided or private insurance plans. What’s your take on that?

CH: I think a lot of the issue is how we define the public health option and what it means. Those of us who support it are not advocating socialized medicine, but just that everyone have access to the same kind of health care our senators and representatives have. The people voting on this have the best health care out there.

PB: Oftentimes we look at other countries that seem to have so much better nationalized health care, but many of these countries are even smaller than our states. The problems in New York are totally different from the problems in Ala-

We spend $2.7 trillion a year on health care, twice as much as any other country, yet we are 37th in life expectancy and 28th in infant mortality. It’s unconscionable.

bama. One system does not fit all in this country.

FK: I am not against the public care option. What I want, though, is that if the government is going to control health care, then really control it. I want the government to be able to say, for exam-

ple, that if you are 55 or older, you will not get a kidney transplant, period. If you are going to start legislating the options, then take control and say what the options are. If your public option still offers full freedom and flexibility, people will figure out how to work around the system, and we’ll have the same fraud and oversight problems we have with Medicare and Medicaid.

BS: It all comes down to making decisions—it seems like we as Americans are always waiting for someone else to make decisions for us, whether it’s the physicians or the insurance companies or the government or the public option. What we have to do is change the culture. The majority of people feel they are entitled to the best health care whenever they need it, but there is often no internal commitment to doing what we need in order to improve our own health.

So you’re saying that individuals themselves should assume some responsibility for controlling their own health care costs?

PB: Health care and medical care are two different things. What is being debated is medical care reform, but until we address both medical and health care reform we’ll continue to have major cost problems. Eighty percent of what we spend on health care would go away with a basic change in activities and lifestyle, including diet, immunizations, health education, etc.

FP: We need a change in the culture. Health and wellness needs to be the mantra of every individual. Personal responsibility must be assumed or these problems will never go away. The numbers related to obesity and diabetes and asthma are exponentially going up every year, and that has a lot to do with the chronic diseases and the illnesses our health care system is having to treat.

PJ: There are two primary determinants of disease: genetics and lifestyle. I support doing everything we can to provide health care needs to somebody who draws the small straw with regards to genetics. But with regard to lifestyle, there are a lot of things we could do in our health care system to incentivize healthy behaviors.

In terms of health care policy, there seem to be two major political camps: those who want to “fix it

C U R I N G

now” and those who want to “slow it down.” What are the pros and cons of each?

PB: What scares me is having this huge, massive overhaul when nobody really knows how to fix it. Just look at the education system we’ve been dumping more and more money into. We should have the best educational system in the world, yet we don’t. If we can’t even fix education, how can we fix health care on a policy level?

CH: At the same time, what is going to happen to the uninsured while we slow this process down? We’ve been having these problems for decades and have done nothing, and now we are even worse than before. What’s going to happen to people?

FK: We are talking about making big policy changes but not how those changes are going to be implemented. If we were to suddenly give 47 million more Americans health insurance, who is going to see them? You can’t just throw an extra 3,000 doctors (into the marketplace) next year. It doesn’t happen like that, nor with pharmacists or nurses. I guess when some of us say to slow it down, it’s because we want to start the process and figure out how things will fall into place.

For example, are we going to require that 50 percent of medical school graduates (practice) in primary care and, if they do, will the government pay for them to go to school?

PJ: What seems to be coming out of the proposals in the House and Senate right now is a means to expand insurance coverage, and it doesn’t address workload or workforce. With more people insured, we are certainly going to have a greater shortage of primary-care practitioners. No one is talking about changes in payment structures or changes in caredelivery models.

BS: We also have to look at integrated care as well as policy, and I’m not sure we’ve done that. There is a silo effect in treatment today—physicians, nurses, pharmacists all have their own focused goals, and I think that has to change. We really need to step back and look at the integration of care, because it is going to take a lot of give-and-take from each of the disciplines to meet some of these issues, in addition to the policy.

Some people have painted private insurers as “the bad guys” in this

debate because of escalating premiums and plan limitations. What do you think?

FK: They are being pushed to control costs by the enrollees and by the employers who are buying the plans. An insurance company is basically a bank (into which) you throw dollars (premiums) and hope you pay out less than you take in. They are not angels in this—but we have to overhaul the whole process, not just one part of it. And it will be painful. If it isn’t painful, then we simply are not doing enough.

CH: The access factor has to do with insurance. It isn’t just access to medical care, but also access to insurance. It isn’t just the working poor or people in rural communities who have problems affording insurance. On the Auburn campus, we have students who are in that transitional time between ages 23 and 25 when they can no longer stay on their parents’ policies. They either have to scramble to find some kind of coverage they can afford, and there isn’t any, or they do without, play the crapshoot and hope they don’t get sick before they finish school.

RM: Another element of the insurance-access problem is people with preexisting conditions who cannot get insurance at all. I have a student who is a juvenile diabetic and is about to rotate off his parents’ insurance. He brought me six letters where he has been rejected for medical insurance because of his preexisting condition. His parents are wellheeled. They could pay for his insurance, but nobody will insure him.

FK: We can’t just focus on health care or health care delivery. Let’s take Auburn, for example. Everybody wants their parking lot right next to their building. If you told them they’d have to park five blocks away and walk back and forth, it would be sheer mutiny. So you’re going to have to force people to change their lifestyles. We have to figure out how to re-engineer the whole system that leads to health care. We’ve taxed tobacco and alcohol, but there is a lot more that needs to be done if we are going to impact lifestyle, and there lies the challenge. How painful are we willing to go?

As a health care providers, clinicians and researchers, what would you like to see in a comprehensive health

H E A L T H

C A R E

If we were to suddenly give 47 million more Americans health insurance, who is going to see them?

You can’t just throw an extra 3,000 doctors [into the marketplace] next year. care reform package?

CH: More primary care, which would encompass health promotion and illness prevention, and would ultimately reduce the high cost of hospitalization.

In order to do that we would have to have health care providers in community settings where they could interact and intervene earlier.

FP: We also need to address end-oflife care. Research shows that the most dollars are spent at the end of someone’s life. And although most people would say they want to spend their last days or weeks or months at home, that doesn’t happen. It’s happening in the hospital.

FK: I would like to see us really finance medical education, be it pharmacists, nurses or physicians. Turn the system on its head. Right now we have more specialists than we have primary care physicians. We should have more primary care doctors than we have specialists, so maybe the government should offer to pay for their education—and, in exchange, they go into primary care and work where they’re needed.

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

45

War Eagle!

Your alumni association is a group of more than 45,000 Auburn alumni, friends and family who support Auburn University. This active association offers something for everyone! Last year we entertained 600,000 visitors to our Web site and reached 15,000 people through our Auburn Club Program.

We distributed more than 230 scholarships to students and faculty, and served more than 9,000 hot dogs at our Alumni Hospitality Tent before home football games. Nearly 200 alumni and friends chose to vacation with us last year, and we sold nearly 540 authentic Toomer’s Corner bricks for scholarships. You are a member of one of the strongest alumni associations in the nation.

w w w. a u a l u m . o r g

A L U M N I

ALUMNI CENTER

Cultivating relationships NANCY YOUNG FORTNER ’71 President, Auburn Alumni Association

N E W S

Calendar March 6 2010 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS BANQUET

(See Pages 48-49) Auburn Alumni Association Board Meeting March 8

Your Auburn Alumni Association experienced a productive year. In reviewing our 2008-09 annual report (see Pages 50-51), I am reminded that the association has an effective team—more than 200,000 living alumni, a network of 99 local Auburn alumni clubs around the country, a board of directors that sets the organization’s mission and vision, and a staff responsible for handling the organization’s operations.

As I write this message, I am reflecting on what Auburn University means to me, and why I continue to stay engaged with my alma mater. How about you?

What strong memories do you have of your student years? What moments cause you to be proud to be an Auburn Tiger?

As a fourth-generation alumna growing up in Auburn and attending Auburn High School as well as Auburn University, I admit it is difficult to imagine how any other university and town could have the same unique connection and specialness.

We have all experienced our own personal “War Eagle” moments. Mine came in October during a walking tour of Bar Harbor, Maine, in the rain on a War Eagle Travelers tour to New England and eastern Canada. As we briefly stopped to let a car back out of the driveway of a bedand-breakfast inn, my husband Robert ’73 and I noticed the vehicle sported an Alabama license plate from Houston County.

Auburn magnets adorned the car doors, and a tiger tail hung out of the trunk as if the owners were headed to an Auburn football game. I tapped on the window and met three women from Dothan on a self-directed, 2,000-mile fall-foliage tour.

I said, “You’ve heard of War Eagle moments? This is ours. War Eagle!”

I remember three occasions when I teared up and “felt” the Auburn Creed:

ing the money that made the difference between her attending college or not. She was the first member of her family to attend college, and the scholarship helped her realize her dream of attending Auburn.

She later proudly joined AU’s Student Alumni Association.

• At an Honors College alumni reception, a senior honors student spoke eloquently about what the Auburn Creed meant to him. He mentioned experiencing the “human touch” through service-learning opportunities at Auburn and planning to immediately join Auburn Alumni Association as a life member upon graduation in order to start giving back to future AU students.

• Former alumni association president Morris Savage ’59, who presented closing remarks at the 2009 Golden Eagles Reunion, challenged each of us to think about how and why we might donate our time, talent and resources to Auburn—to support and promote a culture of giving, to “pass it on” and to “believe in Auburn and love it.”

The Auburn Alumni Association cultivates lifelong relationships between Auburn and its alumni and friends: That is the “vision statement” from the association’s strategic plan. It’s about building relationships. Our football team has a slogan that reads “Do What We Do.” What is it that we do as alumni, and why do we do it?

Get involved with your local Auburn club, and connect with others in your community. Mentor a young Auburn alumnus.

Thank our Auburn men and women serving in the armed forces. Pass it on.

War Eagle!

NOMINATIONS OPEN, 2011 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Nominations will be accepted through May 31 for the Auburn Alumni Association’s most prestigious recognition program, the Lifetime Achievement Award. The award honors members of the Auburn University family—including alumni and former faculty, coaches or administrators—who have obtained professional prominence or have served their communities or Auburn in an exemplary way.

Info: (334) 844-1113 or www.aualum.org/awards.

March 24-April 9 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: ASIAN EXPLORATIONS

Experience the legendary lands of eastern Asia aboard the 684-passenger Oceania Cruises’ Nautica. Departing from Beijing, you’ll discover Seoul’s magnificent 14th-century palace, stroll along the Yangtze River on Shanghai’s famous Bund, visit ancient shrines and historic memorials in Kyoto, Hiroshima and Okinawa, and see the colorful markets of Taipei. From $4,299 per person. Info: (334) 844-1143 or www.aualum.org/travel.

March 28-April 11 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Relax on this itinerary combining luxury cruising with the beauty of New Zealand’s North and South Islands, plus Australia’s capital city of Sydney. From $6,395 per person. Info: (334) 844-1143 or www.aualum.org/travel.

April 1 NOMINATIONS OPEN, MINORITY ACHIEVEMENT AND UNDERGRADUATE FACULTY AWARDS

• I once heard an Auburn club scholarship winner thank her benefactor for provid-

nancyfortner@auburnalum.org

Nominations will be accepted through June 15 for the Auburn Alumni Association’s Minority

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

47

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

Calendar Achievement Award, which honors AU faculty who go the extra mile to recruit and retain minority students. The Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award recognizes Auburn faculty who create exceptional classroom experiences for students. Info: (334) 844-1113 or www.aualum.org/awards.

April 20 ATLANTA AUBURN CLUB

Annual meeting with Tigers head football coach Gene Chizik. Info: See club Web site at www.atlantaauburnclub.com.

April 21 COLUMBUS/PHENIX CITY AUBURN CLUB

Annual meeting with Tigers head football coach Gene Chizik. Info: See club Web site at columbusphenixcityauburnclub.wildapricot.org.

April 21-May 1 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: ARGENTINA AND CHILE

Buenos Aires: The name summons images of the fiery tango, stately colonial architecture and grand squares. Immerse yourself in the history and culture of this cosmopolitan capital on a travel adventure that explores the city and its environs.

Then travel to Chile on a scenic drive through the majestic Andes Mountains and explore Santiago, Chile’s capital city. From $3,295 per person. Info: (334) 844-1143 or www.aualum.org/travel.

April 22-24 GOLDEN EAGLES REUNION

It was the year Elvis Presley scored two of the top five songs in the country; the first “Ocean’s 11” debuted in theaters; and a single big event occurred on the Plains: State legislators officially changed Alabama Polytechnic Institute’s name to Auburn University. This year, Auburn honors the classes of 1940, 1945, 1950, 1955 and 1960. To register, call (334) 844-ALUM (2586) or see www.aualum.org/ events/golden-eagles.html.

April 26 TAMPA BAY AUBURN CLUB/FLORIDA WEST COAST AUBURN CLUB

Joint annual meeting with Tigers head football coach Gene Chizik in Tampa, Fla. Info: www. aualum.org/clubs/meetings.html.

April 27 EMERALD COAST AUBURN CLUB

Annual meeting with Tigers head football coach Gene Chizik at the Emerald Coast Conference Center, Fort Walton Beach, Fla. Info: See club Web site at www.emeraldcoastauburnclub.com.

48

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Lifetime Achievement Awards Kenneth Johns Class of 1957 Mobile native Kenneth Johns attended Auburn on an athletic scholarship and was a lineman under football coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan. Immediately after graduating, he joined Sea-Land Service Inc., a newly organized, Mobilebased company founded by transportation entrepreneur Malcolm McLean. Sea-Land would ultimately revolutionize world trade by introducing the concept of containerized ocean shipping.

“Mr. McLean envisioned the idea of the international shipping program, and together we worked on the project from the design to the implementation,” Johns says. “That took about 18 months to two years, and from that point on, it was my job to convince people around the world that this was the way international trade would be moved.”

He did. Today, about 70 percent of global shipments move via the Sea-Land container system. “That is very rewarding for me,” Johns acknowledges. “Every maritime nation uses some configuration of our system. If it weren’t for this highly intricate shipping method, mass retailers like Walmart and Target couldn’t exist, because there would not be a way to get merchandise to the distribution centers or to the stores in a timely manner. And the retail industry is just one example—global trade and international commerce have also been greatly impacted.”

The Summit, N.J., resident retired from Sea-Land after 30 years and in 1987 founded Hampshire Management Group Inc., which owns businesses serving the maritime shipping industry.

J. Smith Lanier Class of 1949 J. Smith Lanier II was born in Atlanta, graduated high school in 1945 and was accepted to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy the same year—but instead decided to enroll in Alabama Polytechnic Institute’s engineering program.

“We were in the middle of World War II, and the draft was active, so I decided I would follow in my brother’s footsteps and apply at the marine academy,” Lanier recalls.

“The war ended while I was at Auburn and before I actually entered the academy, but I went on.”

Lanier eventually earned a bachelor of science degree, and was commissioned as an officer in the Navy and called into active duty in 1953 to serve on a destroyer during the Korean War. During his first week overseas, his ship was involved in a collision and subsequently dry-docked in Japan. Afterward, Lanier and his comrades sailed around the world for nine months. “I had a great time in the Navy,” he says.

The Lanett resident returned to West Point, Ga., and began working for his aunt in the family insurance business. Now, some 60 years later, J. Smith Lanier & Co. is one of the oldest and largest independent insurance brokerage firms in the country, with offices in five Southeastern states.

Lanier helped lead a campaign to raise $9.6 million to build a Center for Therapeutic Recreation at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, served as the first chair of the College of Human Sciences dean’s advisory board and is a member of Auburn’s 1856 Society. He also has served on other volunteer boards at Auburn as well as at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, LaGrange College, Atlanta Christian College and the Callaway Gardens Foundation.

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

Calendar Gerald W. Smith Class of 1961 Huntsville resident Gerald Wayne Smith graduated from Auburn with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering, went on to the University of Alabama in Huntsville for a master’s degree in administrative science, and later attended Harvard Business School before continuing his training at Carnegie-Mellon University and at NASA in various management-education programs.

Along the way, Smith was selected to lead NASA’s efforts to design, build and fly the redesigned solid-rocket motor after the Challenger accident in 1986. Without him, the shuttle program might never have gotten back off the ground.

“I was just one of many who worked to resurrect the space program through the redesign of the solid rocket boosters,” Smith says modestly. “It was a very stressful, very exciting and, ultimately, a very rewarding experience to see that project through.”

Confident in the shuttle’s innards, NASA officials were excited—albeit anxious—as the first launch shot from the pad after a three-year suspension. “It takes about two minutes for the motors to separate from the rocket, and our entire group collectively held our breath until that happened,” Smith recalls. “And then all of us let out the biggest sigh of relief. There are so many thousands of things that have to go right for a shuttle to be successful, and any seemingly insignificant glitch will cause your heart to skip a beat.” After retiring from the space agency, Smith served as president of Ogden, Utah-based Thiokol Corp. and as executive director of the National Space Science and Technology Center in Huntsville.

May 3 MONTGOMERY AUBURN CLUB

Annual meeting with Tigers head football coach Gene Chizik at the Alcazar Shriner’s Temple. Info: www.aualum.org/clubs/meetings.html.

May 4 SHOALS AUBURN CLUB

Annual meeting with Tigers head football coach Gene Chizik at the Marriott Shoals Conference Center in Florence. Info: See club Web site at site.shoalsauburnclub.com.

May 11 HUNTSVILLE-MADISON COUNTY AUBURN CLUB

Annual meeting with Tigers head football coach Gene Chizik. Info: See club Web site at www.huntsvilleauburnclub.com.

May 13 MOBILE AUBURN CLUB/BALDWIN COUNTY AUBURN CLUB

Joint annual meeting with Tigers head football coach Gene Chizik in Mobile. Info: www.aualum. org/clubs/meetings.html.

May 22-June 1

Kathryn Cordell Thornton Class of 1974 Born in Montgomery, Kathryn Cordell Thornton received a bachelor of science in physics from Auburn before graduating from the University of Virginia with master’s and doctoral degrees in the field. She began her career as a physicist at the U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center in Charlottesville, Va., and became an astronaut for NASA in 1984, in a year that saw five successful shuttle flights.

Thornton never really considered being an astronaut until she learned NASA was taking applications. “I said, ‘Why not me?’ and I submitted my credentials,” she remembers.

Selected from a pool of 5,000 applicants, Thornton at the time was among only a handful of women ever selected for the astronaut program. She flew four missions, including on Discovery and twice on Endeavour—the second Endeavour flight was a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope— and on Columbia. Thornton now serves as associate dean for graduate programs and engineering at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. She continues to publicly advocate for manned space exploration extending to Mars and beyond.

“Humans are explorers,” she told a congressional committee in 2008. “Whether deep under the ocean, on the frigid plateaus of Antarctica, or above the atmosphere, humans are programmed to indulge our unquenchable thirst for knowledge—not only scientific data, but human experiences. We are unwilling to surrender those domains solely to robotic surrogates and forego the human experience of adventure and discovery.”

Thornton also has argued that private businesses could now provide “routine transportation” to lower Earth orbit, permitting NASA to refocus on exploration.

WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: EUROPE FOR NEW GRADS

Guided tours for young alumni in London, Paris, Rome, Pompeii and Athens, plus museum passes, admission to the Roman Colosseum and Forum, and more. Six-day tour extension available. From $1,969 per person. Info: (334) 844-1143 or www. aualum.org/travel.

May 24-June 2 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: CANADIAN ROCKIES

It’s a veritable journey back in time as you travel from Vancouver to Jasper by rail. From the moment you board VIA Rails’ The Canadian, you’ll embrace the nostalgia of a golden era; rail lines whisk travelers through scenery far removed from the highways.

From $3,399 per person. Info: (334) 844-1143 or www.aualum.org/travel.

June 2-16 WAR EAGLE TRAVELERS: Scandinavia

This luxury cruise includes the cities of Bruges, Belgium; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Berlin, Germany; Copenhagen, Denmark; Visby, Sweden; and more. Your final two stops are the Finnish capital city of Helsinki and the Swedish capital of Stockholm, where you’ll conclude the voyage with one night onboard the ship. From $4,438 per person. Info: (334) 844-1143 or www.aualum.org/travel.

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

49

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

2008–2009

Annual Report DEBBIE SHAW ’84 Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Executive Director, Auburn Alumni Association

The Auburn University spirit is invigorating, and it inspires our staff to strive for excellence in everything we do. I am proud to offer you a quick overview of our accomplishments.

Auburn’s greatest assets are its alumni and friends, and we have worked to strengthen the university by connecting with and engaging those who love Auburn.

With the aid of an active alumni board of directors, the Auburn Alumni Association has expanded its programs and services, and increased its contributions to student scholarships and faculty awards. The number of alumni and friends who choose to join the alumni association as life members continues to increase despite a down economy. Our staff has also increased the number of member benefits we offer. I hope you take full advantage of them.

Your ongoing support of the Auburn Alumni Association will become even more important in the future as we work to strengthen Auburn University’s place among world-class institutions.

Please continue to participate in any alumni activities you can, whether it’s attending a reunion, joining an area club meeting or enjoying a pregame tailgate. Your participation ensures that Auburn University continues to be a place we love and a university of which we can always be proud. War Eagle!

mechanical engineering; Mark Steltenpohl, geology and geography; Wei Wang, graphic design; Curtis Jolly ’77, agricultural economics and rural sociology; and Mary Mendonca, biological sciences.

• Three faculty members received $1,000 each as recipients of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence awards. They were: Ted Becker, political science; Shari Park-Gates, consumer affairs; and Carolyn Robinson ’96, horticulture.

• Kimberly C. Walls ’82, music education, received $2,000 from the Auburn Alumni Association as the recipient of the 2009 Distinguished Graduate Faculty Lectureship Award hosted by the Graduate School.

• Forty-two life members contributed more than $41,952 to the Circle of Excellence Society, supporting the Alumni Scholars Endowment.

• Nels Madsen, mechanical engineering, received $1,000 as the recipient of the Alumni Minority Achievement Award.

• The Golden Eagles Scholarship was introduced at the 2009 Golden Eagles Reunion honoring the classes of 1958 and 1959. Classmates donated more than $10,000. The first award will be given in 2010.

• The association launched the Toomer’s Bricks project to sell bricks excavated from Toomer’s Corner in an effort to save the beloved oaks. The project has raised more than $50,000 for scholarships.

Wei Wang

Frank Bartol

Curtis Jolly ’77

Mary Mendonca

Mark Steltenpohl

lifetime achievement awards

Four individuals were recognized for their extraordinary career accomplishments: Vince Dooley ’54, Hank Hartsfield ’54, Oliver Kingsley ’66 and Phil Lett ’44. An annual banquet recognized the contributions recipients have made to their professions and communities. student alumni association

Lyndsey Yim served as president of the Student Alumni Association, overseeing 26 student ambassadors.

Members: 3,458 (17% of undergraduate enrollment; the largest student organization on campus)

Auburn Alumni Association revenue

Auburn Alumni Association expenses

Fiscal Year Ending 9/30/09

Fiscal Year Ending 9/30/09

Rental Income

12%

Royalties

Dues & Marketing

Annual

Alumni Programs & Services

15%

7% Advertising

debbieshaw@auburn.edu

Subhash Sinha

Life Membership

5%

14%

9%

University Support

28%

20%

Investment Income

4% Gifts 6%

47% Auburn Magazine

12%

Other Income Scholarships

scholarships & academic support

• Sixty-five student scholarships were awarded this year from the $3.3 million Alumni Scholars Endowment. Alumni contributions support the endowment.

• Fifty-five area Auburn clubs awarded 152 student scholarships.

• The Alumni Professors Endowment, with almost $2 million invested, provides financial supplements to 26 faculty members each year for five-year terms.

Selected this year were: Frank Bartol, associate dean, research and graduate studies; Subhash Sinha,

50

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Members by College/School

21% Agriculture

19% Forestry

27% Business

20% Human Sciences

23% Architecture, Design & Construction

20% Liberal Arts

25% Science & Mathematics

35% Pharmacy

21% Education 30% Engineering

7%

General & Administration

19% Nursing 23% Veterinary Medicine

14%

A L U M N I

COMMUNICATIONS

Auburn Magazine was mailed quarterly in November, February, May and August to an average 38,871 households. The magazine also received two national silver medals and a regional award of excellence from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education in 2009. Editors and designers completed a design overhaul of the magazine, which resulted in a fresher, more sophisticated book that has earned positive feedback from readers.

The association extended its outreach to both members and potential members by creating a presence among five popular social media networks. The association maintains an active Web site, www.aualum.org, which received more than 16,000 visits per month.

3,978

2008-2009 AUBURN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Board Of Directors

Facebook fans

PRESIDENT

994

LinkedIn connections

2,136

Flickr photos

12,981

925 Twitter followers

Tiger2Tiger users

34

YouTube videos in playlists

Categories of Association Members

away-game travel (football 2008)

Trips offered: Travelers:

NEW GRADUATES

5 286

3,530

ANNUAL

Auburn Clubs

9,374

Clubs in Alabama: 38 Out-of-State Clubs: 61 Total: 99

LIFE

32,351

2008–2009 Auburn Alumni Association Board of Directors Back row, left to right: Steve Boucher, Walt Conn, Mike Griffin, Burt Cloud, Jack Fite, Charlie Horton, B.T. Roberts, Bill Stone.

Middle row: Bobby Poundstone, Dana Robicheaux, Howard Nelson, Mike Watson, George Smith, Mack Freeman, Debbie Shaw, Ralph Jordan. Front row: Jennifer Stephens, Lyndsey Yim, Brandon Morgan, Nancy Fortner, Marcus Conner, Janet Mertz, Skip Ryan.

Members by Gender

Member vs Nonmember Based on number of living alumni with accurate addresses

45, 255 members

15,146 FEMALE

26,092 MALE

171, 272 addressable grads

26%

Nancy Young Fortner ’71 VICE PRESIDENT

Mike Watson ’69 TREASURER

travel programs - War Eagle Travelers

(international and domestic travel) Tours offered: 30 Travelers: 161

C E N T E R

of addressable grads are members

Steven A. Boucher ’77 Burt Cloud ’66 Walt Conn ’85 Marcus Conner ’99 Burke Cox ’93 William Jackson “Jack” Fite ’85 Mack Freeman ’65 Michael Griffin ’96 Charles Horton ’65 Janet Mertz ’91 Howard Nelson ’69 Robert Poundstone ’95 Ben Tom “B.T.” Roberts ’72 Dana Robicheaux ’74 Arthur “Skip” Ryan ’69 George Smith ’75 Bill Stone ’85 EX-OFFICIO EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Deborah L. Shaw ’84 Jay Gogue ’69 Ralph Jordan Jr. ’68 Donald L. Large Jr. ’75 Joe T. McMillan ’58 Jennifer Stephens Lyndsey Yim

Mission Statement To foster and strengthen the relationship between Auburn University and its alumni and friends; to preserve and promote the university’s traditions, purposes, growth and development; and to keep alive the spirit of affection and reverence for our alma mater.

Vision Statement The Auburn Alumni Association cultivates lifelong relationships between Auburn and its alumni and friends to support the advancement of our university.

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

51

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

Class Notes GOT NEWS? Auburn Magazine 317 S. College Street Auburn University, AL 36849-5149, or aubmag@auburn.edu Life Member

Experiment Station, received the Alabama Farmers Federation’s Service to Agriculture Award in recognition of his 45-year career in the field. He plans to retire as dean in May.

Annual Member

’20–’59 John T. “Tom” SNAPSHOT

Ever vigilant Michael “Moose” Moore ’72 was visiting Auburn the night of March 4, 2008, when news broke that Auburn University freshman Lauren Burke had been abducted from campus and murdered. It made him sick. He could have saved her, or maybe helped her save herself. It’s what he does.

An expert in self-defense, Moore changed his career focus that night. Instead of just training people to handle dangerous situations as they occur, he wanted to train people to recognize and avoid risky situations altogether.

He dubbed his Brentwood, Tenn.-based company The Vigilance Group, which sort of says it all, and formulated a motto, “Vigilance Reduces Vulnerabilities.” Vigilance, he says, is a skill set people can learn. Moore is the company’s founder, president and chief executive officer.

The next year, Moore stood before a group of 2,000 Auburn sorority sisters, who listened intently as he taught them watchfulness as well as self-defense and survival techniques, emphasizing that they should be empowered to “be a lion and not a lamb.”

Moore knows what he’s talking about. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the U.S. Air Force as a tactical pilot flying F-4 Phantoms and F-15 Eagles. (“Moose” is his nickname from high school as well as his Air Force call sign.) After retiring from the military in 1992 as a lieutenant-colonel, he attended the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, specializing in counterterrorism, and trained in detecting terrorist behavioral indicators in Israel. His primary concern, though, is the idea of personal security. He now travels the country, talking to hospital personnel about how to identify and handle terrorist threats, school officials about handling bullies and troubled students, and college students about how to stay safe. Moore has revisited Auburn several times to educate athletes and other students and faculty.

“I have such a passion for what I am doing,” he says. “We can’t control the crazy people. All we can control is us giving them the opportunity.”

The Vigilance Group recently began launching instructional videos online. Check them out by searching for the company name at YouTube.com, or find more information on the Web at www.tigersix.com.—Andrew Sims

52

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Vaughan ’55 of Auburn

received the American Association of Equine Practitioners’ 2009 Distinguished Educator Award in December. He was dean of Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine from 1977-95 and formerly served as president of the AAEP as well as the American College of Veterinary Surgeons.

Kyle Butler ’59 of

Auburn retired as a U.S. Navy captain after 26 years as a supply corps officer. He later worked with American Management Systems Co. as a senior financial systems analyst and taught logistics-systems studies at Auburn University.

He retired in 2001 as AU’s director of compensation.

’60–’69 Emmette P. Waite ’60

and Janet Smith Waite ’59 of Fort Myers, Fla., celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on June 5.

James Earl Kennamer ’64 of Edgefield, S.C., was one of 29 nominees for the Indianapolis Prize, a leading award in animal conservation.

He works as chief conservation officer for the National Wild Turkey Federation.

Jim Vickrey ’64

of Montgomery was elected president of the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform Foundation board of directors, which advocates reform of the 1901 state constitution. He is a mediator and professor of speech communication at Troy University.

William W. “Bill” Cox Jr. retired after 24 years

of selling construction equipment for Linder Industrial Machinery Co. in Raleigh, N.C. He and wife Shelia live in Bluffton, S.C. Robert Kelly ’69 joined Dale and Associates architectural firm’s Jackson, Miss., office.

He has more than 38 years’ experience as an architect.

University Women’s Leadership Institute’s inaugural Extraordinary Women Lecture in November.

Thomas Redding ’70

is a research assistant professor in the University of Memphis’ cityand-regional-planning graduate program and director of the university’s Regional Economic Development Center.

Jim Voss ’72 joined the University of Colorado at Boulder’s aerospace engineering sciences department.

While working for NASA, Voss completed five spaceflights, 202 days in space and four spacewalks.

Davis M. Woodruff Jr. ’72 is president of

Management Methods Inc. in Decatur. His article, “What are the 10 Secrets of Successful Leaders?,” was featured in the December issue of Hydrocarbon Processing magazine.

Curt Harrington ’74 was

appointed vice chair of the California state bar’s Board of Legal Specialization Taxation Law Advisory Commission for 2009-10. He is a partner in the Long Beach, Calif., law firm of Harrington & Harrington.

Anita G. Newcomb

’70–’79

’76 was appointed

’62 of Auburn, dean of

Leslie F. Kenne ’70, a

AU’s College of Agriculture and director of the Alabama Agricultural

retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general, delivered the Auburn

to serve a three-year term on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of

Richard L. Guthrie

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

What do you wear?

Coming this summer ...

Brought to you by:

A L U M N I A S S O C I AT I O N

w w w . a u a l u m . o r g / s h o p

you are, we ,re there too. (well, almost)

Get involved with an Auburn alumni club in your area.

www.aualum.org/clubs a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

53

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

Making the sausage When Randy Huffman hears the old line about laws and sausages—how it’s best not to watch the production process of either—he wearily shakes his head. “Having lived in Washington, D.C., I’ve seen both being made, and hot-dog making is a much cleaner process,” says Huffman, who specializes, at the highest levels of industry and government, in the science and safety of meat. “Hot dogs have been branded as unhealthful when, in fact, they are wholesome as well as greattasting.”

The politics of proteins, however, has proved messier. Much of Huffman’s work has plunged him into public-health panics—E. coli poisonings, “mad cow” disease, carbon monoxide in meat packaging—and rallied him to the defense of certain beleaguered groceries. “Almost all food is ‘processed,’” he says, “but that term gets misused and misunderstood.”

A 1986 graduate of Auburn University’s College of Agriculture, Huffman is the chief food safety officer for Torontobased Maple Leaf Foods, Canada’s largest food producer. He also has served on advisory panels for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was popularly known as the “Meat Science Guy” in a publicinformation campaign he conducted as president of the American Meat Institute Foundation. In about a dozen videos still circulating on YouTube, he addresses

common consumer questions about the rigor of food inspections, fresh-versusaged beef and processed meat’s effects on pregnancy. In one segment, he notes that a virtuous spinach salad packs more nitrites than a ham sandwich.

“There are two things you need to know,” he says of the preservative some groups have linked, debatably, to cancer. “Cured meats contribute relatively little nitrite to the diet, and new research shows that not only is nitrite safe at the levels used, but it provides health benefits” such as improved blood pressure.

Huffman grew up atop the food chain. His father, Dale Huffman, an animal sciences professor at Auburn for 32 years, helped develop the lean groundbeef technology that gave us McDonalds’ McLean Deluxe and McRib sandwiches.

“When I was a child, my dad spent a sabbatical with Armour, the meatpacking company in Chicago,” he says of the city famously dubbed the “hog butcher of the world.” “Because of that experience, I was interested in the production side of livestock, but then I became more interested in food science.”

Maple Leaf Foods recruited the younger Huffman last year to tighten standards on its plant floor after Canada’s worst food-safety crisis—21 deaths from Listeria-contaminated deli meat. In his new management role in a company of 23,000 employees, Huffman says he’s dealing with a different, more challenging beast altogether: people.

“Not something I studied in Animal Sciences 101,” he says.—Candice Dyer

Richmond’s Baltimore branch. She is president and founder of A.G. Newcomb & Co. in Columbia, Md.

other positions within operations, customer service, marketing and economic development.

Robert Malseed ’77

of Albuquerque, N.M., was selected as an associate fellow of the American Institute

54

of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Warren McCullars ’77

was named manager of economic development for Alabama Gas Corp.

He joined Alagasco in 1977 as a new-business representative and has worked in several

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

Marybeth Hamel Leamer ’78 of Al-

pharetta, Ga., was promoted to executive vice president of human resources and adminis-

tration for Cox Enterprises Inc., where she is responsible for executive compensation, benefits, human resources, executive development and training, diversity and employee relations, corporate communications and public affairs, corporate giving, corpo-

rate services, corporate travel, and corporate security. She is also a board member of the Metro Atlanta YMCA. MARRIED Timothy A. Barton ’78 to Traci Shockney

on Oct. 17. They live in Hoover.

’80–’89 James F. Crew ’80

was appointed to the board of directors of the Washington, D.C.based National Hydropower Association. He is a relicensing project manager for Alabama Power in Birmingham.

Charles E. “Chuck” Barrett Jr. wrote his

first novel, The Savannah Project, which is scheduled to be published in March by Switchback Publishing.

He lives in Fernandina Beach, Fla. Michael Kirkpatrick ’81 was promoted to

president of DESE Research Inc., a missile research and development company in Huntsville. He joined the company in 1994 and formerly served as executive vice president. Kirkpatrick also serves on a number of advisory boards at Auburn University.

Amy S. Leopard ’81,

an attorney in Cleveland, was appointed vice chair of the Health Information Technology Practice Group of the American Health Lawyers Association.

Joseph Toles ’82

established a foundation to raise funds for a national community initiative, Quarters 4 Camp, designed to help enroll children of needy families in summercamp programs.

Ken Jackson ’83 is senior capture manager for the United Space Alliance in Huntsville.

John Miller ’83 was promoted to brigadier general, one of the three one-star positions for judge advocates in the U.S. Army. He will also assume command of the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, located in Charlottesville, Va. Tammy Moody Beasley ’84 wrote a

book, Rev It Up! The Lifestyle Diet that Puts You in the Driver’s Seat, based on a program she developed over the past eight years, which is taught in 25 states. She is a registered dietitian and certified specialist in sports dietetics practicing in Huntsville, and was recognized as Alabama’s Outstanding Dietitian of the Year in 2007.

Keith Beckham ’84

was promoted to group vice president of CB&T Bank of Middle Georgia, responsible for managing several commercial and business bankers, problemloan resolution, and a segmented commercial loan portfolio. He

Back at ya, folks City officials in Evanston, Ill., home of the Northwestern Wildcats, made good on a lost bet with their Auburn City Council counterparts and reluctantly donned AU jerseys during a public meeting in January. The two city councils had agreed prior to the Outback Bowl that the losing team’s local officials would wear the winning team’s shirts in a show of humility. The Tigers eked out a 38-35 overtime win in the New Year’s Day bowl game.

joined CB&T in February 2009 as a commercial banker.

John Bitter ’84

was inducted into the Alabama Senior Citizens Hall of Fame for his efforts on behalf of Alabama’s senior population. He was selected for the 2009 Hall of Fame Journalism Award.

Joe D. Davis ’84 was

promoted chief of the Special Test Equipment Design Branch test laboratory at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. He has worked for NASA for almost 25 years. Davis, wife Linda and their three children, Austin, Zachary, and Jodi, live in Rodentown.

Charlotte Meadows ’84 of Montgomery

was elected District 4 director of the Alabama Association of School Boards.

Susan Cantwell O’Farrell ’84 of

Mableton, Ga., is chief procurement officer and vice president of asset management for The Home Depot and recently was appointed chair of the Atlanta Children’s Shelter board of directors. She and husband Hugh have 1-year-old twins, Kate and Connor.

Adrienne Retief ’84

of Birmingham was promoted to senior associate at Davis Architects.

Ken Whidden ’84 of Destin, Fla., retired after 31 years of service in the U.S. Navy. He earned more than 3,000 instructor flight hours and flew with more than 1,500 student naval aviators.

Sharon Caton Wright ’84 of Birmingham was

named Estimator of the Year by the American Subcontractors Association of Alabama. She is the chief estimator at Johnson Kreis Construction, where she has worked for four years.

Patrick J. Clarke ’85

of Marietta, Ga., is a partner in Burr & Forman law firm’s Atlanta office. He was selected by his peers to appear in Georgia Trend magazine’s 2009 “Legal Elite” ranking. Clarke practices in the business section with a concentration in commercial lending, capital markets lending and commercial real estate, including multifamily, retail, office and industrial development.

Mike Swinson ’85

was named director of key accounts for Alabama Gas Corp.’s marketing department.

He formerly served as the company’s director of operations services.

She is also a community flute soloist.

John H. Poole ’86 of Poole and Co. Architects in Birmingham earned certification from the U.S. Green Building Council as a “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” professional.

Nick Wiley ’86 of Talla-

hassee, Fla., was named executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. He joined the agency in 1988 as a wildlife biologist and had served as executive director since 2008.

Kristi Pipes Lane ’89

received two first-place honors at the 2009 Interior Design Excellence Awards. The IDEA is given annually by the statewide chapters of the American Society of Interior Designers and the International Interior Design Association. She is a principal of Richmond, Va., architecture and design firm 3north.

MARRIED

Maria Baugh ’87

was named managing editor at Food Network Magazine. She formerly worked as executive managing editor at Glamour. She is also an owner of Butter Lane cupcake bakery in New York City’s East Village.

Sherri Goray Fulford

Terryl Royce Lowe ’81

to Audrey Grams on Oct. 3. They live in San Antonio.

BORN A daughter, Riley Catherine, to Jim Gilmore ’85 and wife Mary of Tucker, Ga., on Nov. 10.

’88, Auburn Univer-

’90–’99

sity’s executive director of governmental affairs, received the Marvin D. “Swede” Johnson Achievement Award from the Washington, D.C.-based Council for the Advancement and Support of Education in honor of her accomplishments as a highereducation lobbyist.

Kathryn “Kath” Carter

Jan Ziglar Eunice ’86

teaches third grade in the Eufaula city school system and operates an independent flute and piano studio.

establish the Honor Flight Network in south Alabama and worked to build a state-owned veterans’ cemetery at Saluda Hill.

Barry Booth ’89, a den-

tist in Spanish Fort, was named 2009 Veteran of the Year by the Mobile Bay Area Veterans Day Commission. He helped

’90 was selected for the Illinois CPA Society’s 2009 “Women to Watch” list recognizing experienced leaders in the accounting and finance profession. She is the sub-area leader in charge of the Midwest transaction advisory services practice at Ernst & Young’s Chicago office. Carter also serves as a board member of the Friends of Prentice Women’s Hospital and the Chicago Finance Network.

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

The call to serve The Auburn Alumni Association is requesting nominations for four new board directors. All nominees must be life members of the association and willing to serve on a volunteer basis. Successful nominees will be installed this fall; each will serve a four-year term.

Nominations are also requested for the officer positions of president and vice president, both of which serve two-year terms. All officer nominees must be current or former members of the alumni association board of directors and life members of the association.

Candidates should have a demonstrated history of leadership in support of the alumni association and the university.

Strong consideration will be given to those who have actively promoted the association and university through involvement with local Auburn clubs or who have otherwise contributed both time and resources to AU and the association. In agreeing to serve on the Auburn Alumni Association board, directors and officers are expected to participate in the association’s “Circle of Excellence” scholarship society.

The association board will also consider an individual’s accomplishments, as demonstrated through career development and community service, along with his or her potential for representing the association’s various constituencies. An individual’s college major(s), profession and the geographic location of his or her residence may also influence the board’s decision.

Alumni association members may submit nominations to Debbie Shaw ’84, Auburn Alumni Center, 317 South College Street, Auburn, AL 36849-5149. A nomination form must be submitted along with at least two letters of recommendation from life members of the association.

The nomination form is available at www. aualum.org or by calling (334) 844-1134.

Completed forms, letters of recommendation and resumes may be sent to the above address, faxed to (334) 844-4003 or emailed to debbieshaw@auburn.edu.

The deadline for receiving nominations and supporting documentation is 5 p.m. CST April 5. For more information, see www.aualum.org.

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

55

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

Class Notes Mike Pennington ’95 of Marietta, Ga.,

is executive director of the Georgia Economic Developers Association.

He was named one of Georgia Trend magazine’s “40 Under 40” for 2009.

Nikki M. Giamarino ’96 was promoted to

SNAPSHOT

Nashville dreams When Kella Stephenson ’01 was a kid, she and her cousin Joanna would dress up as country music mother-daughter duo The Judds and share their dreams of making it big in Nashville. Then Stephenson had to face a hard truth: She couldn’t sing.

Eventually Stephenson figured out a back way into Music City—she now represents some of Nashville’s finest songwriters as a financial planner. As director of The Kella Stephenson Co., she pays the bills, does company payroll and files tax returns for songwriters such as Hillary Lindsey, who has written five No. 1 songs for Carrie Underwood, and Grammy nominee James Slater, whose song “In My Daughter’s Eyes” was a hit for Martina McBride.

“Anything with a dollar sign related to their careers comes across my desk,” Stephenson says. “We take care of it so they can be creative and do what they do best, which is write songs.”

Stephenson graduated from Auburn with a degree in finance, and, after working for Regions Bank in Birmingham, she returned to the Plains for a master’s degree in business administration. While in graduate school, AU marketing professor Danny Butler gave her some life-changing advice. “He said, ‘Write down the top five things you would want to do if you could wake up every day and not worry about money,’” Stephenson recalls. “My top things were ‘move to Nashville’ and ‘work in the music industry in some fashion.’” Butler subsequently helped her secure an internship with musician Jeff Cook, a founding member of the Grammy-winning country music supergroup Alabama.

Stephenson loved working for the Fort Payne-based band, but didn’t want to lose sight of her original goal. So she packed her bags, headed north to Nashville, and, after living off her savings for three months, landed a job with a local business-management firm. It was there that Stephenson found her calling in personal financial planning.

“I said I would go out on my own if I got three clients, and now I have 10,” she said. “I haven’t looked back since.” Naomi and Wynonna, eat your hearts out.—Grace Henderson

56

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

director of breast care marketing for Trulife health care product manufacturer and distributor in Kennesaw, Ga. Robert Marino ’96

is an obstetrician with Lee Obstetrics & Gynecology in Auburn.

He and wife Janie Gottheif Marino ’96 have three children.

profit organization that advocates international development.

Jerlando F.L. Jackson ’97 wrote his third book, Ethnic and Racial Administrative Diversity: Understanding Work Life Realities and Experiences in Higher Education (Jossey-Bass, 2009). He is an associate professor of higher and postsecondary education in educational leadership and policy analysis, faculty associate for the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, and faculty affiliate in the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Robert Inman “Trey” Ragsdale III ’96 of

Atlanta was elected to the board of trustees of Kansas City, Mo.-based People to People International, an organization that advocates cultural understanding and humanitarian activities.

He is the chairman of PurePolitics.com, a Web site devoted to political education, news and election information.

Greg Schwab ’96, a University of Kentucky extension soil-management specialist, recently returned from assisting with a soil-fertility management project in the Republic of Georgia as part of a volunteer assignment for Washington, D.C.-based CNFA Inc., a non-

Tiffany Cobb Till ’99

completed a pilottraining course for the AS350B helicopter at American Eurocopter Corp. in Dallas. She lives in Houston, where she works as a pilot for Helicopter Services Inc. MARRIED Mary Beth Bamberg ’96 to Curt Downey

on Oct. 17. They live in Dothan.

David B. McWaters ’98 to Jenee M. Green

on June 13. They live in Tucson, Ariz.

Stephanie Horne ’99

to Ronald Grosse on Oct. 10. They live in Montgomery.

BORN Twins, Walton Calloway and Robert Blaine, to Robert Calloway Moore ’90 and wife Catherine of Birmingham on July 7.

A daughter, Aubrey Jordyn, to David Barth Hopper ’91 and wife Beth of Claremont, N.C., on Dec. 1.

A son, Dryden Boman, to Susan Dryden Whitson ’91 and husband Keir of Washington, Va., on Aug. 28.

Twins, Ashley Anne and Blake, to Matt French ’93 and wife Laura Leigh of LaGrange, Ga., on July 31.

A son, Albert Joseph, to Richard J. Martin ’93 and wife Christina of Marble, N.C., on Sept. 15.

A son, Devan Thomas, to Van Kizer ’95 and wife Kristal of Trussville on Oct. 29. He joins sister Anna Kate, 6, and brother Kurt, 4. Van is a pilot for Southwest Airlines.

A son, James Elliott, to Scott Tippins ’96 and Abby Bowden Tippins ’98 of Auburn on April 3. He joins sister, Ella Grace, 5. Scott is a Xolair clinical specialist with Genentech Inc.

A daughter, Alyssa Breanne, to William Cooper ’98 and wife Melissa of Scottsboro on May 12.

Auburn Magazine

For Alumni & Friends of Auburn University

Auburn Magazine

For Alumni & Friends of Auburn University

59

m .. oo rr gg Auburn Auburn Magazine Magazine aa uu aa ll uu m 59AuburnMag_Fall08.indd 59

59

59 57

7/11/08 5:34:32 PM

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

Class Notes A son, William Buchanan, to George P. “Kett” Harper III ’98 and Ceil Harper ’99 of Newnan, Ga., on July 2.

Amanda Hogelin Tse

was promoted to an associate of Davis Architects in Birmingham.

MARRIED

A daughter, Megan Bernice, to Christopher Murray ’98 and wife Angela of Gulfport, Miss., on Oct. 27.

Spell it out What’s a fast way to let others know you’re an Auburn fan?

Shout it on the back of your car or truck.

University officials recently introduced a new design for Auburn’s vanity license plate that has space for six instead of five letters or numbers. Proceeds from the sale of Auburn license plates in Alabama benefit the university’s “License to Learn” scholarship endowment fund for new students. The program has awarded $1.2 million in scholarships to Auburn freshmen within the past year.

While Auburn tags have been available in Alabama for more than two decades, the state of Alabama mandates that the plate design change every five years. The newest version of the Auburn tag features the familiar interlocking AU logo on the left side with an orange gradient at the bottom and a blue gradient at the top. The word “Auburn” appears across the top of the plate.

University administrators considered several design options, finally choosing one that was an overwhelming favorite among alumni-survey respondents.

“I appreciate the university asking in-state alumni to participate in choosing the new tag design,” said Debbie Shaw, AU vice president for alumni affairs. “Our alums love to show their support of Auburn, and what better place than on the highways every day.”

Auburn collegiate license plates are available at local county license offices in Alabama for $50 plus the normal tag cost of $24.25. Plates may be purchased at any time, regardless of an individual’s specified tag-renewal month.

Auburn tags are also available in Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. In South Carolina, tag sales benefit student scholarships.

For more on Auburn’s car tag program, see www.auburn. edu/cartags or call (334) 844-2586.

58

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

A daughter, Julia Abigayle, to Collier Swecker ’98 and wife Amanda of Birmingham on July 30.

A daughter, Melody Kristina, to Marcus Conner ’99 and wife Dominique of Saucier, Miss., on Jan. 5.

to Shannon G. Golden

Pasquale Baldino on May 16. They live in Hoboken, N.J. BORN A son, Edsel A. “Trey” III, to Amy Beckerle Andrews

and husband Edsel A. “Drew” Andrews Jr. of Mobile on Aug. 21.

A son, Elliot Jason, to Jaime Merrifield Guess and husband Dyer of Birmingham on Nov 23.

Golden ’99 of Mont-

A daughter, Haley Lynn Wells, to Aaron Thomas Wells and

gomery on March 6.

Jennifer Sanders Wells

A daughter, Margaret Catherine, to Andrea Coggin Harris ’99 and husband Martin of Wetumpka on June 29. She joins brother Zane, 3.

A daughter, Hannah Rees, to Jessica Good Martinez ’99 and husband Randy of Harlingen, Texas, on Nov. 23.

She joins brother Josiah and sister Alayna.

’00 Kelly Rutledge of Poole

and Co. Architects in Birmingham earned certification from the U.S. Green Building Council as a “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” professional.

chelle Goree Haynes

and husband Glen of Gainesville, Ga., on Dec. 16.

Lori Marie Moore to

A son, Sully Wilson, ’99 and Anna Park

A daughter, Mikayla Danielle, to Susan Mi-

A son, Carter Anthony, to Anthony K. Smith and wife Christina of Memphis, Tenn., on Sept. 9.

A son, Weston Boyett, to DeAnna Boyett Woods and husband Wesley of Tupelo, Miss., on Nov. 23. He joins brother Tyler, 3.

’02 Gabrielle Michaud Fuller was promoted

to an associate of Davis Architects in Birmingham.

MARRIED Adrienne N. Pearson

of Dothan on Sept.

14. She joins brother John Thomas.

to Cedric D. Moore on Oct. 17. They live in Birmingham.

’01

Marcie Sharman to

Jeff Weeks is an

ophthalmologist with Medical Arts Eye Clinic in Auburn. He and wife

Bradford Dickerson on Sept. 19. They live in Pelham.

Christi Garner Weeks

Kathryn White to Brian

have a son, Jackson, 2.

Chaisson on March 14.

They live in Fayetteville, Ark.

BORN A daughter, Dalton Ruth, to Nancy Bendinger and husband Doug of Auburn on Aug. 28.

A son, Chase Henry, to John Drew Hamilton and Jennifer Langston Hamilton of Bartlett, Tenn., on Sept. 28.

BORN A son, Sullivan Martin, to Patrick Bright and Anna Hoff Bright of Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 5.

A daughter, Kate Elizabeth, to T. Ross McKinnon and wife Leia of San Antonio on Nov. 24.

Oral history Television preacher Oral Roberts, who died in December, not only brought charismatic and Pentecostal worship to the masses but also invited people of different races onto his TV broadcasts—an unusual occurrence on prime time in the late 1960s, retired AU history professor Ed Harrell told The New York Times. Harrell is the author of Oral Roberts: An American Life (Indiana University Press, 1985) as well as a biography of evangelist Pat Robertson.

A daughter, Audrey Cate, to Jay McFarland and Sara Flurry McFarland ’03 of Mobile on Oct. 26. She joins sister Hadley.

A son, Russell Owen, to Russell Wood and Amanda Murray Wood of Olive Branch, Miss., on Aug. 20.

’03 Susan Chittooran

received a master of science degree in social policy and international social welfare from Columbia University in May. She works as a program analyst for the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor and lives in New York City.

Ed King was named

offensive- and defensive-line coach for the Columbus Lions.

He previously played football for Auburn University as well as in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints.

MARRIED Jennifer Campbell to Julian Robertson on June 6. They live in Montgomery.

’04 Rachel V. Osby was

promoted to director of alumni relations at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and executive director of the UAH Alumni Association.

MARRIED Camille Crisp to Gregory Cumuze ’08 on

Sept. 26. They live in Montgomery.

Carla Bryant Holk to Jason Owen McClinton on July 14. They live in Daphne.

BORN A daughter, Leighton Grace, to Chad Bennett and Blair Bledsoe Bennett of Montgomery on October 21.

Joshua Duplantis ’07

on Aug. 8. They live in Hattiesburg, Miss.

’05 Carrie Garmon Mussato

was promoted to senior associate in the tax department of Sellers, Richardson, Holman & West certified public accounting firm in Birmingham. She has worked with the firm for more than two years and specializes in the construction and real estate industries.

William K. Sheffield

has joined the audit department of Sellers, Richardson, Holman & West certified public accounting firm in Birmingham.

He will focus on a variety of industries, including construction, manufacturing and distribution, real estate, and employee benefit plan audits.

MARRIED

May 27.

’06

Kristen Reid was

Casey Chambers Busby

promoted to senior associate in the audit department of Sellers, Richardson, Holman & West certified public accounting firm in Birmingham. She specializes in the real estate and construction industries.

A son, Jaxon Daniel, to Jarrett Loveless and Lindsay Hamilton Love-

was promoted to senior associate in the tax department of Sellers, Richardson, Holman & West certified public accounting firm in Birmingham. She specializes in the real estate, manufacturing and legal industries.

Grantland Rice was Andrew Knight was

promoted to senior associate in the audit department of Sellers, Richardson, Holman & West certified public accounting firm in Birmingham. He has worked with the firm for two years and specializes in the real estate and transportationconsulting industries.

Bonnie Burbic to Marvin Claxton on Dec. 12.

They live in Auburn.

promoted to senior associate in the audit department of Sellers, Richardson, Holman & West certified public accounting firm in Birmingham. He specializes in the retail/ franchising, distribution, investment and educational industries.

MARRIED Katherine Damrich to

Katie Lewis was pro-

moted from assistant account executive to account executive at McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations in Nashville, Tenn.

Allison Adams to

Timothy DeJarnette on July 18. They live in Fayetteville, Ark.

Alston F. Ludwig joined

the Jackson, Miss., office of Adams and Reese law firm as an associate in the litigation group. Ludwig received his law degree from the University of Mississippi.

less of Scottsboro on Elisabeth Op’tholt to

concert master of the Auburn Symphony.

Lisha X. Li is an attorney with Burr & Forman’s litigation and product liability practice group in Birmingham. She is also a violinist and formerly served as assistant

Jeffrey Lloyd on Aug. 15. They live in Atlanta.

Kelly Findley to Andrew

Whitehead on Oct. 17.

They live in Panama City, Fla. BORN A daughter, Taylor Mackenzie, to Elizabeth Peacock Johnson and husband Jeremy of Millbrook on Sept. 2.

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

‘The Pacific’ tells tale of AU alumnus As a teenager, Eugene Sledge ’49 wanted to fight in World War II. He enlisted in the U.S. Marines in December 1942, trained as a mortarman and eventually saw combat on the Pacific island of Peleliu. By the time he participated in the Allied assault on Okinawa in the spring of 1945, his enthusiasm for war had died along with 12,500 of his fellow soldiers and as many as 200,000 Japanese troops and civilians.

Throughout it all, Sledge kept a journal, writing notes in a pocket edition of the New Testament he’d received at boot camp. Sledge’s memoirs help form the basis of HBO’s 10-part miniseries “The Pacific,” set to air March 14-May 16.

A companion to the HBO blockbuster “Band of Brothers,” “The Pacific” is the story of three Marines—one of them Sledge—who fought in the Pacific theater battles of Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and others.

Brothers John ’80 and Henry Sledge ’88 have consulted on the project for the past five years. Their father Eugene, who died in 2001 of stomach cancer, “would have zero interest in watching it,” says John Sledge. “It would have been very painful for him.”

Eugene Sledge wrote two memoirs of his military service during the war and its aftermath. “War is brutish, inglorious and a terrible waste,” he wrote in With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa (Presidio, 1981). “The only redeeming factors were my comrades’ incredible bravery and their devotion to each other. … That esprit de corps sustained us.”

“The Pacific,” produced by Hollywood powerhouses Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman, also tells the real-life stories of U.S. Marines John Basilone, a gunnery sergeant from New York, and Robert Leckie, a machine gunner who later wrote more than 30 books on military history.—Betsy Robertson

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

59

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

Segel’s War Eagle We’d like to think “How I Met Your Mother” actor Jason Segel is a true Auburn fan— he was spotted wearing an AU T-shirt on the show’s Dec. 14 episode—but, alas, it isn’t so. A CBS publicist told The Birmingham News that a vendor supplies the show’s wardrobe department with assorted vintage-type clothes sometimes worn by the characters. The fact that the Auburn logo made it on air was purely coincidence.

Class Notes ’07

Sarah Detling to Richard

Nikki Kristen Irvin to

MARRIED

Ben Leaver was promot-

Russell ’06 on

Frederick B. Darley ’97

Ann Marie Allred to Na-

ed to senior associate in the tax department of Sellers, Richardson, Holman & West certified public accounting firm in Birmingham. He specializes in the tax compliance of closely held manufacturing companies and investment partnerships.

April 4. They live in Pike Road.

on May 23. They live in Birmingham.

than Wilson on Nov. 1.

They live in Trussville.

lace on Aug. 15. They live in Montgomery.

Andrew Lee to Whitney Bolotte on May 23.

They live in Anderson, S.C.

Leslie Hewlett to

Margaret Stimpson

Bradford Price on Oct. 17. They live in Birmingham.

to Richard Mitchell on Oct. 10. They live in Atlanta.

Miller Elizabeth Goodson to Grant Martin Wal-

Katherine Liles joined

the Nashville, Tenn., firm of McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations in 2007.

Lauren Northcutt

completed an internship with the Nashville, Tenn., firm of McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations and has joined the firm full time.

Christian Young is teaching children in the Marshall Islands through WorldTeach, a Cambridge, Mass.based nonprofit organization that places volunteer teachers in developing countries.

Carrie McLeod to

Che’ Thursby to

Hoke Harper Jr. on

Brandon Beam ’09 on

April 18. They live in Key West, Fla.

Aug. 15. They live in San Diego.

’08

Thomas West to

Holden Miller of Chat-

Elizabeth Hart on Aug. 8. They live in Wake Forest, N.C.

tanooga, Tenn., was promoted from junior staffer to associate account executive at McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations.

MARRIED Kasey Beers to Matthew Jenkins on

June 13. They live in Birmingham.

Sarah E. Campbell

and Trey A. Novara ’09 on Dec. 12. They live in Tallahassee, Fla., where Trey is employed at Florida State University and Sarah is a second-year medical school student.

BORN A daughter, Kate Emily, to Michael Gill on Oct. 2.

’09 Brooke Bloom joined the Nashville, Tenn., firm of McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations as a staff associate.

Timothy E. Moore is

vice president of finance at Hoffman Media in Birmingham.

Christina Romagosa

Appleton ’07 on Nov.

graduated from the Southern Regional Education Board’s State Doctoral Scholars Program.

21. They live in Marietta, Ga.

Matthew Tufts is a

Kristin Anne Cottrell to Joseph Darin

MARRIED

60

Emily Gaston to Jason Eversull on Aug. 8.

They live in Auburn.

Sarah Poteat to James Harmon on

Talon Woods was

promoted to senior associate in the audit department of Sellers, Richardson, Holman & West certified public accounting firm in Birmingham. He specializes in timber investment and automotive dealerships.

Steven Conoly to Joan Davis on Oct. 16. They live in Montgomery.

Andrea Boulay to

Mary Hutcheson to

Charles Cheatwood on June 18. They live in Canton, Ga.

Garrett Saucer on Aug. 8. They live in Montgomery.

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

medical student at the University of South Florida and is serving as the 2009-10 Florida Medical Association parliamentarian.

July 18. They live in Macon, Ga. Michael Redding

to Rachel Free on Aug. 1. They live in Montgomery.

In Memoriam Gilbert Orson Maulsby ’34 of Colum-

bus, Ga., died Aug. 27.

A U.S. Army veteran of World War II, he retired as a surveyor with the Georgia Department of Transportation.

C. Cayce Scarborough ’35 of Raleigh, N.C.,

died Sept. 15. A U.S. Navy veteran, he was a professor at North Carolina State University and later at Auburn.

He also had served as district supervisor of vocational agriculture in southwest Alabama.

After retiring, he wrote a weekly column for the Opelika-Auburn News for six years and helped organize Auburn’s lifelong-learning program for retirees.

Thomas E. Barker Jr. ’36 of Huntsville died

Sept. 28. He founded

and served as president of Conditioned Air Corp. in Decatur for more than 30 years and was a member of the Decatur chapter of the National Society of Professional Engineers as well as a number of civic organizations.

Elsie Mann Farmer ’39

of Newnan, Ga., died Dec. 24. She was a member of the Women’s Mission Union of Central Baptist Church in Newnan and had been active in the local Junior League.

and national veterinary auxiliaries.

Leland Edson “Twink” Starr Jr. ’42

of Yorktown, Va., died Sept. 9. A U.S. Navy veteran and private pilot, he worked for Wright Aeronautical and later for the U.S. Navy as a civilian employee. He directed research on explosives, including the development and testing of an underwater antipersonnel mine, and led the University of Maryland band’s cannoneers for more than 40 years.

Ealon Madison Lambert ’40 of Wetumpka died

Sept. 14. A U.S. Army Air Corps veteran, he owned and operated Superior Blind and Glass Co. of Opelika; served as an Opelika city commissioner and mayor for 13 years; served on the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles for 18 years; and had been active in Democratic politics.

John Edgar Melson ’40

of Opelika died Sept 2.

A World War II veteran, he operated Opelika Truck and Tractor for six years and later owned Melson Tractor until 1981.

Kathryn M. Strock

James Madison Smith ’43 of Silsbee,

Texas, died Sept. 4. A U.S. Army veteran, he worked as a chemical engineer with International Paper Co. and later with Eastex Paper Co. for 19 years.

Martha Sprague Best ’45 of Montgomery

died Aug. 19. She was a member of Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church, where she served as floral coordinator for 10 years. She was also a member of the Women’s Mutual Improvement Society of Anniston and the Women’s Missionary Society for the Church of God.

’41 of Charleston, S.C.,

died Oct. 3. She was a member of several civic organizations, including the Charleston Exchange Club Auxiliary and Garden Club of Charleston as well as state, regional

William D. Salmon Jr. ’46 of Nashville, Tenn.,

died Aug. 30. He served as an armed forces medical officer for five years and later was assistant chief of medical service and chief of the

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

In Memoriam endocrinology section at the VA Hospital in Nashville, Tenn. He was also a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University.

1. She was a registered dietitian working in hospitals and long-term care units for more than 55 years.

Nancy Hurst Hawkins

Thomas Vincent Cecil

’49 of Birmingham died

’50 of Alexander City

Sept. 22. She was a retired employee of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

died Sept. 12. A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, he was an executive at Swift & Co.

Louis Elton Romine ’48 John J. Townsend ’46 of Cullman died

Aug. 8. A 23-year U.S. Air Force veteran, he worked for Buettner Brothers Lumber Co. for 25 years.

of Cullman died Sept. 7.

A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, he owned Romine’s Dry Goods in Hanceville for 55 years.

Edward Almon Wright ’48 of Jensen Beach,

James Edward Ray ’47 of Troy died Sept. 3.

A U.S. Army veteran of World War II, he taught engineering drawing at Troy State University for 31 years, and served on the Troy City Council and as mayor for three terms. He was also a member of the Alabama House of Representatives and served on the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council.

Hilda Tucker Riley ’47

of Cullman died Sept.

26. She taught in Cullman city schools for more than 20 years.

Fla., died Nov. 24. A U.S. Army Air Corps veteran, he worked as a licensed professional engineer for the U.S. Department of Energy prior to retirement and was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and Friends of the Smokies.

Robert Tripp Brown ’49

of Fayetteville, Ga., died Sept. 5. He was a pilot with Southern Airways for more than 30 years.

Elred Glenn Evans

James Howard

Irene Long Simmons ’47

George W. Etheridge Jr. ’48 of Montgomery died Sept. 21. He operated a real estate company and also worked with the Boy Scouts of America and Montgomery Bowlers Association.

Marvilene N. Morgan ’48 of Lanett died Sept.

Aug. 24. A U.S. Army Air Corps veteran of World War II, he worked in agriculture, including serving as a poultry inspector for the state of Alabama.

He was a member of Toastmasters International and served 10 years on the Marshall County Personnel Board. Evans also wrote poetry and volunteered as a “reading buddy” at West End Elementary School for 18 years.

in the preservation of the Coosa River. He was also a past president of the Elmore County Historical Society.

Ann Hubbard Henry

Lucile Taylor Magaha

Dahlen ’52 of Shoreline,

’53 of Auburn died

Lowell ’49 of Metai-

’50 of Pensacola, Fla.,

rie, La., died Dec 3.

A retired U.S. Army Air Corps pilot and gunnery instructor, he founded the New Orleans Area Auburn Club in 1965 and served as the group’s president several times.

died Oct. 1. An elementary school teacher, she retired from the Escambia County school district after 30 years.

She was a member of Delta Zeta sorority.

Wash., died Aug. 17.

A U.S. Army veteran, he served as a captain in the Medical Corps, opened a family practice in Seattle and was a fellow in the American Academy of Family Physicians. He served as president of the King County Academy of Family Physicians and was honored as YMCA Volunteer of the Year in 1999.

Sept. 24. She was a student adviser for Auburn University’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, served as a den mother for the Boy Scouts of America and was a “band parent” at Auburn High School.

Myron “Squatty”

John Lewis Moulton ’49 of Birmingham died

Aug. 23. A U.S. Air Force veteran, he served as a city commissioner in Albany as well as president of the local chamber of commerce and the National Eagle Scout Association. He was also on the board of Synovus Financial Corp. and was chairman of the board of Security Bank and Trust Co. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

Lyndon Robinson ’50

of Clanton died Sept.

22. He was an electrical engineer.

Judson Jones Copeland ’51 of Birmingham died

May 15. A U.S. Army and Navy veteran, he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity and worked for South Central Bell and BellSouth for nearly 40 years.

Doris Ginn McWaters ’51 of Birmingham

died Sept. 23. She was a member of Vestavia Hills Baptist Church.

’49 of Albertville died

of Chattanooga, Tenn., died Dec. 5. She was a former editor of The Auburn Plainsman.

War II, he was chief pharmacist at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital from 1956 to 1978.

Joseph Dudley Patrick

Alfred Eaton Walker

’49 of Birmingham died

III ’51 of Harrison,

Sept. 15. A U.S. Navy veteran, he worked for Alabama Gas Corp., was a former president of his local Rotary Club and chaired United Way efforts. He was also a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Tenn., died Aug. 18.

He was the co-owner of a specialty hardware store, Builders Hardware Co., for more than 30 years, was active in the Methodist church and helped establish two churches in the Chattanooga, Tenn., area.

Jeanette Dicks Watson ’49 of Opelika died

John Francis Adams ’52

Oct. 4. She was a teacher and librarian in Houston County.

of Knoxville, Tenn., died Dec. 30. A U.S. Navy veteran of World

Joan Merriwether Hartwell ’52 of Houston died Sept. 30. She had served as director of the Mobile Museum of Art board, president of the Historic Mobile Preservation Society, president of the Alabama Historical Society and president of the Wimbledon Garden Club. She was a former chapter president of Chi Omega sorority.

Jessie Eugene Hughes ’53 of Montgomery

died Oct. 2. A U.S. Army veteran, he worked for Sherlock, Smith & Adams Inc., a Montgomery engineering and design firm, and served as a director of First National Bank of Hartford.

Lysbeth H. Kent ’53

of Birmingham died Sept. 17. An artist, her paintings and sculptures were exhibited in local galleries, and she was a member of the Birmingham Museum of Art’s Collector’s Circle for Contemporary Art.

Harold Max Partain ’52 of Leeds died Sept.

15. He was a longtime member of the Birmingham Traffic Club.

Joe Billy Fain ’53 of Montgomery died Sept.

9. He was a teacher and coach in Elmore and Montgomery counties for more than 30 years and received the W. Kelly Mosey Environmental Award in recognition of his service

David Alan Loiry ’53 of Lynn Haven, Fla., died Sept. 24. A U.S. Army Air Corps veteran and psychologist, he served as executive director of a four-county mental health center.

Thomas William Caine ’54 of Charlotte,

N.C., died April 25. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers veteran, he worked for

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

61

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

In Memoriam Westinghouse Electric Corp. and later was a self-employed engineering consultant. He volunteered for Habitat for Humanity for 20 years and enjoyed woodworking.

Eleanor Blount Fewell ’54 of Jacksonville,

Fla., died Sept. 26. She enjoyed spending the holiday seasons decorating hospitals and businesses.

Jean Thomas Newlin ’54 of Houston died

July 17. She was a member of Wilchester Women’s Club, Wilchester Gourmet Dinner Club, Westchester Wranglerette Booster Club, Second Baptist Church, Rice Historical Society and Delta Zeta sorority.

was a board member and past president of Christ Child’s Circle, a board member and past president of Friends of Fendall Hall, a board member of the Eufaula Heritage Association, past chair and board member of Trees Eufaula, and past chair and board member of the Historic Chattahoochee Commission.

J. Robert Bishop ’56

of Tampa died Sept. 24.

A U.S. Navy Reserve veteran, he retired as a captain and served as national treasurer for the Navy League of the United States. He retired as a vice president and financial consultant for Merrill Lynch, where he worked for 35 years.

Thomas Whatley Full-

Gerald Dean Foshee ’55 of Red Level died

June 30. He was a U.S. Air Force veteran and farmer.

Robert Richard Jones

died July 10. He worked 21 years in the construction industry and later formed Bob Jones Realty.

Lynne Mooty MacElvain ’55 of Eufaula died Dec.

10. A former Kiwanis Citizen of the Year, she taught second grade at The Lakeside School for several years, and co-wrote and narrated the annual children’s nativity pageant at First United Methodist Church of Eufaula. She

62

Denzil W. Harrison ’57 of Walnut Creek, Calif., died Aug. 20. A U.S. Navy veteran, he worked as an industrial engineer for CrownZellerbach paper company and for the Naval Air Station in Alameda, Calif. He was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity, Sons in Retirement Branch 146 and the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry.

Arthur Ferd Cohen ’58 of Americus, Ga.,

died Aug. 11. He worked for his family’s business, A. Cohen & Sons, and later worked in the insurance industry. He also served as president of the Americus Auburn Club.

er ’56 of Dunwoody,

Ga., died Nov. 10. A U.S. Army veteran, he was retired from IBM. Charles A. McDade

Sr. ’55 of Atlanta

a surveying company in Pelham.

III ’56 of Orlando, Fla., died Aug. 22. A registered professional engineer in several states, he worked for U.S. Steel as a mechanical engineer during the building of Disney’s Polynesian Resort, where he served as manager of maintenance for 15 years. He later served as president and CEO of Peninsula Engineering Inc.

John West Blum Sr. ’59 of Mobile died Aug.

28. A U.S. Air Force veteran, he worked as an industrial engineer for Teledyne Continental Motors Inc. and as a manufacturing engineer with Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss.

He was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity and the Circle K Society.

H. Palmer Brooks ’59 of Tampa, Fla., died

July 7. A U.S. Navy veteran, he was a veterinarian who treated large and small animals.

Amos Watson Cory Jr. ’57 of Birmingham died

July 31. He owned

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

George Wilson King ’59 of Opelika

died Aug. 2. A U.S.

Air Force veteran, he worked in real estate and was a member of Trinity United Methodist Church of Opelika for more than 40 years.

the U.S. National Park Service at Fort Frederica on St. Simons Island for more than 20 years.

He was a member of First Baptist Church of Brunswick for 50 years.

Lawrence J. McKinney ’59 of Mobile died

Clarence Roy Edwards

Aug. 16. A U.S. Navy veteran, he served as a lieutenant in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations at the Pentagon. He served on numerous service boards in Mobile and received the M.O. Beal Scroll of Merit award as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Mobile Auburn Club.

’60 of Stuarts Draft,

Elmer Cleve Wester Jr. ’59 of Albany, Ga.,

died Aug. 3. A former Auburn football player, he owned Wester’s Tire Mart and had served on the board of directors of the Auburn Alumni Association.

Lynda Stewart Anderson ’60 of Roswell,

Ga., died Aug. 24.

She was retired from Towers, Perrin, Foster and Cosby Inc. management and human resources firm, and formerly worked as a features writer for the St. Petersburg Times, The Birmingham News and the Atlanta Journal/ Constitution.

Curtis W. Childs ’60

of Brunswick, Ga., died Sept. 10. A U.S. Army veteran of World War II, he taught school in Glynn County for 25 years and worked for

Va., died June 29. A U.S. Marine veteran, he worked for General Electric Co. for more than 30 years and helped design computer chips for NASA’s Apollo program.

Thomas G. Johnson Sr. ’61 of Mobile

died Sept. 20. A U.S. Navy veteran, he worked for International Paper Co. for 37 years. He loved golf and boating, and enjoyed building model boats.

James F. Wurthmann ’61 of Lakeland,

Fla., died June 26. He worked as a pharmacist and pharmacy supervisor for Eckerd Corp. for 25 years and later worked for MerckMedco.

Elmer Burns Lammon ’60 of Panama City

Beach, Fla., died May 11. A U.S. Army veteran, he was a registered professional engineer and founded Aerostructures, an engineering consulting company.

He was a licensed pilot, and enjoyed learning foreign languages and playing piano. He was a member of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity and Pi Tau Sigma honor society.

Joseph Kelly Reid ’60

of Richmond, Va., died Sept. 29. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the Korean War, he was a management consultant for more than 40 years and served one term as deputy treasurer of the commonwealth of Virginia.

Jimmy G. Hillyer ’61

of Houston died Aug. 22. A U.S. Air Force veteran, he worked for Uniroyal for more than 30 years.

Larry Edward Speaks ’62 of Titus died July 2.

A member of the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame, he worked for the state highway department before starting an engineering consulting firm.

Bette-Jane W. Goodwin ’63 of Clovis, N.M.,

died July 3. A community leader and prolific volunteer, she was also a certified water-safety instructor who taught swimming lessons for more than 30 years.

James B. Williams Jr. ’64 of Atlanta died

July 28. He worked for Howell Rusk Dodson Architects.

Lawson Ned Jaquith ’66 of Dalton, Ga.,

died Nov. 26. He was a 1962 graduate of Dalton High School and a member of the Dalton First Baptist Church.

Rodney Stacey Bullock ’67 of Mobile

A L U M N I

Eyes on the prize Auburn sophomore Audrey Moore was crowned Miss Alabama USA 2010 as well as Miss Congeniality at the Wright Center Concert Hall in Birmingham in October. The communication disorders major will represent the state in this year’s Miss USA competition on April 18 at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.

died Sept. 1. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, he served for almost 30 years and retired as chief warrant officer.

In 1978, he was named “Marine of the Year” in Alabama.

Donald Stephen Brown ’69 of Atlanta died Nov. 27. He was a career employee of SunTrust Banks Inc. and a member of Sigma Nu fraternity.

Nancy Lee Chiles ’70 of Birmingham died Sept.

11. She was a pianist and artist.

Ann Cockrell Davis ’70

of Clemmons, N.C., died Nov. 29. She taught English for more than 20 years at schools in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Durham, N.C., and Auburn.

Linda Jones Dupree ’70

of Birmingham died Sept. 8. She served as a juvenile probation officer in Jefferson and Shelby counties.

Raynell Miller Fetner ’70

of Ashland died Sept. 2.

She was an educator for 31 years with Sylacauga City Schools, the Clay County Board of Education and Southern Union State Community College.

Grace Preiss Jones ’70 of Auburn died July

18. A member of Chi Omega sorority and Phi Kappa Phi honor society, she was active in several civic organizations, including the

Auburn Campus Club, Auburn University’s Newcomers, Philanthropic Educational Organization and the Auburn Women’s Club.

Robert “Deke” Hall ’71

of Perdido Key, Fla., died Dec. 8. A U.S. Air Force veteran of the Korean War, he served as vice commandant of the USAF Squadron Officer School in Montgomery and taught aerospace engineering at Auburn.

After retiring, he taught weekend courses for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

Howard Kenneth Lauruhn ’71 of Birming-

ham died July 3. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, he served as a disability review specialist and union representative with the U.S. Social Security Administration for 35 years. He was a member of Delta Chi fraternity.

Louise H. Nachman ’71 of Daly City, Calif., died Sept. 9.

A civil rights activist, she taught speech and drama at Montgomery Academy, served as marketing director of the Lamplighter Dinner Theater and later worked as television personality Steve Allen’s personal assistant.

Nachman co-founded the Montgomery Little Theater and wrote a weekly newspaper column, “What’s New with Meg,” for 20 years.

Ronnie Ross ’72 of Pen-

Judith Harbuck Jack-

sacola, Fla., died Dec. 8. He was the captain of the 1970 Auburn Tigers football team and received the first college touchdown pass ever thrown by Heisman Trophy winner Pat Sullivan. He was in the construction business.

son ’78 of Auburn died

July 8. She founded the East Alabama Medical Center Foundation and was instrumental in the creation of Bethany House and the EAMC Cancer Center.

Frank L. Collins Jr.

C E N T E R

from August 1975 to July 1979.

Kappa Psi band service fraternity.

John Edmond Dumas

Harold R. Decker of

’85 of Atlanta died

Auburn died Aug. 29.

A U.S. Army and Air Force veteran, he taught aerospace engineering at Auburn for 14 years and retired as an associate professor.

Sept. 22. He was vice president of his family’s business, Southeastern Roof Decks Inc., and did mission work for a Russian orphanage.

’80 of Denton, Texas, Drew Shelton Pinkerton ’75 of Shalimar,

Fla., died Sept. 8. A partner in the law firm of Anchors Smith Grimsley, he was one of Florida’s top criminal defense attorneys, and served as chair of the Judicial Nominating Commission for the First Judicial Circuit and as a member of the First Judicial Circuit Grievance Committee.

John “Stump” Throw-

died Dec. 19. He was director of training for the clinical health psychology and behavioral medicine doctoral program in the psychology department at the University of North Texas and had previously held positions at Oklahoma State University, Rush Medical Center and the University of West Virginia. Collins formerly served as president of the Oklahoma Psychological Association.

er ’75 of Auburn died

Nov. 2. An attorney and sports enthusiast, he wrote an opinion column for The Auburn Villager newspaper and was regularly featured on a local sports radio program. While at Auburn, he was president of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.

Charles S. Cardwell ’76 of Sylacauga died

Sept. 26. A U.S. Navy veteran, he was a member of Mignon Baptist Church.

Wyatt Franklin Hearp ’77 of Midland, Ga.,

died July 10. He was a former vice president of operations for Tom’s Foods Inc.

Jon Mark Childs ’87

William R. Mountcastle

of Mobile died Sept. 25.

He was a pharmacist at Mobile Infirmary Medical Center.

Jr. of Auburn died Oct.

James Byrne Taylor ’91 of Huntsville

died Sept. 16. He was a sales representative for LC Controls Inc., and a member of the Huntsville Young Professionals and Sigma Pi fraternity.

’81 of Rogersville died

Oct. 21. He was a retired registered forester and served as a project manager for Patterson & Wilder Construction Co. Inc.

Waldir M. Pedersoli

died May 22. He was a professor of educational leadership at the University of West Georgia and had practiced law in Bethlehem, Penn., for 20 years.

of Lanham-Seabrook, Md., died Oct. 1. He taught pharmacology in Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine for more than 21 years. He also worked as a researcher for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine.

Costas “Gus” Douvanis ’93 of Carrollton, Ga.,

James Douglas Johnson

4, 2005. A U.S. Navy veteran, he taught chemistry for eight years at Birmingham Southern University and 25 years at Auburn. He was a member of Sigma Xi honorary research fraternity.

Turner Chapman Seale

Alan L. Taylor of Atlanta

Bonnie Karen Russell

’98 of Montgomery

’82 of Lapine died Sept.

died Oct. 11. He was a bladesmith and a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.

died Oct. 2. He had served on the advisory board of the Auburn University College of Human Sciences for the past 12 years.

29. She was a member of First United Methodist Church of Montgomery.

Raymond B. Furlong

Faculty and Friends

’83 of Montgomery

died Sept. 28. A U.S. Air Force veteran, he was the longest-serving headmaster at Saint James School in Montgomery and served as commander of the Air Force’s Air University

Sarah Darelle Anderson

of Robertsdale died Nov. 10. An Auburn University sophomore, she played piccolo in the AU marching and concert bands, and was a member of Kappa

A gift in memory of a decedent may be made through the Auburn Annual Fund for a specific school or college. For information, contact Sharon Awtry at (334) 844-1445 or e-mail awtrysh@ auburn.edu.

a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

63

A L U M N I

C E N T E R

The Last Word

The Mysterious Auburn Man

BY BEN BARTLEY “Once you have experienced it, you will never be the same. A part of you will, forevermore, be an Auburn Man or an Auburn Woman.”—Retired AU athletics director David Housel ’69 David Housel leans forward in a booth at Chappy’s Deli. He greets an older man two booths away. He takes a sip of coffee. “John Wayne was an Auburn Man,” he says.

He takes another sip. “So was Gary Cooper, especially in ‘High Noon.’”

Sip, sip, sip, sip. Shug Jordan. Pat Dye. Tommy Tuberville.

George Petrie. All Auburn Men. But what is an Auburn Man?

Petrie thought that Auburn Men and Women believed, as he did, in things like education and honesty and the human touch.

And because they did, he believed in Auburn. And he loved it.

And wrote all about it in the Auburn Creed. But the existence of the Auburn Man obviously predates the creed, written in 1945, because Petrie references Him in it (at least a lowercase version).

And unless we think Petrie, Auburn’s first football coach, was the original, then the Auburn Man predates Auburn football.

“One doesn’t have to be a huge athlete or Student Government Association president to be an Auburn Man,” says Eric Clemmons, a junior forestry and wildlife sciences major. “An Auburn Man uses his class and character to put a positive light on Auburn. I think of someone who bleeds orange and blue, and will carry the Auburn name with pride.”

Ruth Crocker is director of Auburn’s Women’s Studies Program, which might make her an Auburn Woman. She defines class as “income, wealth, background.”

Crocker feels that Auburn is a diverse campus full of differing ideas and opinions, and that the idea of the Auburn Man of traditional “class” and “character” is antiquated and bigoted.

“(That) image of the Auburn Man is dated,” Crocker says.

“Maybe it never was a reality.”

Sip. David Housel agrees, at least a little. The idea of the Auburn Man is complex and not necessarily divided by gender lines.

“When you say Auburn Man and define it on the Auburn Creed, (as) most people do, I think that dates and antiquates and does disservice to the creed,” Housel says. “I think the Auburn Creed and the Auburn Man (persona) extend to people of all faiths and all sexes. I don’t think you define, or limit, love of Auburn to gender.”

But he thinks ol’ man Petrie had it right: An Auburn Man

64

Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

might not be definable by the creed—after all, the creed will be interpreted differently by different generations—but an Auburn Man can always be identified by it.

The postwar students Petrie wrote for thought of the Auburn Man as “a scrappy underdog who had ideas and principles he was willing to fight for,” Housel says. “Auburn’s nature, its persona, was that of a fighter.”

That echoes what Wayne McLaughlin ’52, told me—an Auburn Man is loyal, doesn’t lose faith in Auburn and doesn’t boo.

An Auburn Man is there until the end.

Sip. Exactly, says Housel. He feels the “glory days,” the time when Auburn Man-ness was at its height, were in the ’60s, when he was roaming The Plains. Back then, he says, there was a lot of that Gary Cooper-ish sense of duty and dedication to do what was “right.”

What is right? Housel doesn’t know. He’s not sure how anyone can beyond watching Cooper and John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart do what they do. Take Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life”—he wasn’t sure what was right. He went with his gut, and, with a little help from on high, he came back to reality.

Housel says he believes the Auburn Man is a combination of tough and soft—a Wayne/Cooper/Stewart cocktail, each part integral, stirred, but not shaken, by the creed.

And if that’s the case, then the personality of an Auburn Man is more than that of the fan. It’s wrapped around the Auburn Creed, but not only the creed. It’s all gunslingers and “come get some” mixed with love of family and respect of self. It’s dedicated to duty and striving to discover right action. It’s complex and confusing and more and less. It’s Auburn.

Sip. “There is no simple definition of a good Auburn Man,” Housel says. “Because a good Auburn Man is a good man who learned to be a good man through the influence of Auburn.”

This he tells me while sitting in the last booth of the main room at Chappy’s, his back to the wall. When I sat down and introduced myself, he told me he always sits near walls, a habit he learned when he was athletic director. Why?

He was afraid he might get shot in the back … presumably by an Auburn Man. Ben Bartley is an undergraduate journalism major at Auburn.

Reprinted with permission from www.thewareaglereader.com, an online publication founded by Jeremy Henderson ’04.

JUST REDUCED ∙ to the $170’s ∙

luxury living on the trail SEE OUR LUXURY MODEL HOMES by INTERNATIONALLY-KNOWN DESIGNER From Auburn fans to golf lovers to retirees, National Village has several luxury living options for you directly on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Come see spectacular new golf cottages model

bedroom to three-bedroom golf cottage homes gives you access to worldclass golf, miles of walking trails, access to fitness room, pool and dining at the Auburn Marriott Opelika Hotel. Come

homes designed by Kay Green, one of the nation’s top

see why Golf World readers named Grand National

interior designers, and tour the available homes at

the number one public golf location in the country.

National Village in Opelika. Owning one of these two-

Now you can call it home at National Village.

TOUR THE NATIONAL AWARD-WINNING MODELS AND AVAILABLE HOMES at National Village by calling 334.749.8165 or stop by for a visit. Located in Opelika adjacent to Grand National on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Homes open seven days a week. www.nationalvillage.com

All information is believed to be accurate but is not warranted.

Auburn Alumni Center 317 South College Street Auburn, AL 36849-5149 w w w.aualum.org

With Liberty Mutual, Auburn alumni can get more from their auto and home insurance.

Savings on your home insurance when you insure both your car and home,

plus additional savings based on your driving experience, car and home safety features and more*

12-month Rate Guarantee

unlike the six-month policies that some other insurers offer

Help when you need it

with 24/7 Emergency Roadside Assistance and 24-hour claims service

Additional coverages for added security

including Umbrella Liability policies, Accident Forgiveness† and Home Insurance with optional Identity Fraud Expense Coverage Chances are, Liberty Mutual may be able to offer you more savings and benefits than your current auto and home insurance provider.

AUTO

Get more. Save more.

Find out just how much more today.

• Call 1-800-524-9400 and mention client #101128 Mon – Fri, 7 a.m. to 12:30 a.m.; Sat, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sun, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. (ET)

HOME

• Go to www.libertymutual.com/aualum • Or visit a Liberty Mutual office near you

This organization receives financial support for allowing Liberty Mutual to offer this auto and home insurance program. *Discounts and credits are available where state laws and regulations allow, and may vary by state. To the extent permitted by law, applicants are individually underwritten; not all applicants may qualify.†Accident Forgiveness coverage subject to terms and conditions of Liberty Mutual’s underwriting guidelines and is not available in all states. Coverage provided and underwritten by Liberty Mutual InsuranceCompany and its affiliates, 175 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA. A consumer report from a consumer reporting agency and/or a motor vehicle report, on all drivers listed on your policy, may be obtained wherestate laws and regulations allow. Please consult a Liberty Mutual specialist for specific details. © 2009 Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. All Rights Reserved.