Alumni
on the C-130J program. My wife, Kathleen, also works on the same project as a senior program manager. Between the two of us, we cover quite a bit of the C-130J customer base.”
1986 Lois Highfill, Psyc, celebrated 50 years of marriage to her husband, Jim, CE’54, on June 6, 2004.
1987 Dan Harper, CE, joined T.R. Hughes Commercial Group as a project manager. He is responsible for estimating, sales, project management and supervision. • Derek Hodnett, GeoE, is now a senior geotechnical engineer at Aquaterra LLC, a Chattanooga, Tenn., consulting firm. • Ron Rolfes, left, CE, joined Clayco Con struction Co. as a project director and brings to the company more than 16 years of experience in the construction industry. • Linda M. (Reed) Tutko, MetE: “I was recently promoted to lieutenant colonel and have moved to Headquarters Air Force Space Command to work officer assignments. Rich, CSci’88, is also at Space Command working with up-and-coming satellites. Our daughter, Megan, a future Miner, entered the fifth grade this year.”
"90s
Boring and Bland unite Ms. Boring and Mr. Bland w ere married on June 12 in Independence, Mo., and the wedding w as neither boring nor bland. "It was great," said the groom. "We had family and a bunch of college and high school friends there, and our reception was at a winery. We all had a great time." You may know them as Katie Boring, CE'03, and Nathan Bland, a former UMR student. They met while studying engineering at UMR. Sorority sisters started calling Katie, "Katie Exciting," a nickname that stuck. Now she's taken her husband's name, and said she gave no consideration to being known as Katie Boring-Bland. Nathan and Katie Bland While it's not known who mailed the wedding announcement to The Tonight Showm\\\ headlines reading "Boring-Bland" over their picture, the impending merger was mentioned by Jay Leno during a segment he calls "funny headlines." "It caught us by surprise," Nathan said. "We each got, like, 10 phone calls from friends that night." The Kansas City Star got in on the fun with an article about the couple that was picked up by newspapers across the country. Residing in Durham, N.C., Nathan is a mining engineer for Martin Marietta Materials Inc. and Katie is working on her master's degree in environmental engineering at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
(Weddings William Acheson, MS EMgt'95, married Felisa "Sally" Salud Aldas Lewis on July 3, 2004.
Christopher Keithley, AE'02, MS AE'03, married Rebecca Durham, CE'03, on Dec. 27, 2003.
Steve Beattie, CE'98, married Tracy Davenport, CE'98, MS EMgt'01, on Nov. 8 , 2003.
Daniel G. Perry, GeoE'99, married Lori D. Meyr on Aug. 31, 2003.
Todd Balkenbush, ME'94, married Crystal Hoover on April 3, 2004.
1990 Chris Chiodini, CE, was listed in Ingram's magazine’s “40 under 40” issue. He is a senior civil engineer at Burns & McDonnell in Kansas City. • Holly (Langston) Setter, EE: “I recently completed a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Kansas and am enjoying my job as a supervisor at Sprint in Overland Park, Kan.” • Daniel Wiltshire, EMgt: “I recently left Johnson Controls after 11 years in
NOTES
Matt Fischer, CSci'99, married Paige Navin, ME'01, on May 22, 2004, in Loveland, Colo. They reside in Fort Collins, Colo.
Curtis Schmidt, CSci'02, married Sheila Sparks on March 20, 2004. Kevin M. Van Leer, CSci'04, married Jillian R. Straatmann on May 22, 2004. Vernon D. Volker, PetE'54, married Iva M. Brown on Feb. 21, 2004.
Bradley C. Flauaus, ChE'94, married Angela M. Pastorino on Oct. 11,2003. Jason Jeffries, CE'02, MS CE'04, married Shannon Foil, CE'02, MS CE'03, on May 29, 2004.
Send us your wedding photos and stories and we ll publish them in a future issue of the Alumnus.
(Continued on page 56)
MSM-UMR ALUMNUS / Winter 2004
55