MIZZOU magazine Spring 2026

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mizzou.com | Spring 2026

Seeing Missouri p. 30

In Columbia’s arts district, creators shape the region’s people, places and culture.

History that Binds a Lifetime 14 Sound that Defines a State 24 Power that Fuels the Future 38

FIRST LOOK POSTGAME SPLASHDOWN Amy Kontras, BJ ’13, photographed the Kansas City Royals’ MJ Melendez mid-drenching during a 2024 postgame celebration after the team defeated the Chicago White Sox. Kontras is a freelance photojournalist based in Kansas City, Mo.

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T R AV EL MYT H #1 7

“I’LL SPEND ALL DAY ON A BUS” With Touring Tigers, even the journey itself delivers moments you’ll remember.

Where will you go next? mizzou.com/travel

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FROM THE EDITOR Editorial and Advertising Executive Editor Robert D. Waller Editor Randall Roberts, BA ’88 Art Director Blake Dinsdale, BA ’99 Contributing Editor Chris Blose, MA ’04 Class Notes Editor Jennifer Manning, BJ ’18 Advertising Scott Dahl: 573-882-2374 Mizzou Alumni Association 123 Reynolds Alumni Center 704 Conley Avenue Columbia, MO 65211 573-882-6611 Executive Director, Publisher Todd A. McCubbin, M Ed ’95

F R A N K S TA C K

Legacies, Seen and Shaped Over Time As this issue of MIZZOU was nearing completion, we learned of the passing of artist and educator Frank Stack. The news arrived days before the magazine was scheduled to ship to the printer, as we were finalizing a cover featuring one of his luminous watercolors. The sad news reframed a story we had already been reporting, one rooted in the place he helped shape for decades.

Stack, a Mizzou professor emeritus of art and a longtime presence at Orr Street Studios, figures prominently in our exploration of Columbia’s North Village Arts District. (“City as Canvas,” page 30). To write about that creative community, and to place Stack’s work on the cover, without acknowledging his presence would have felt incomplete.

Stack’s influence on Columbia’s visual art scene endures in the work, the spaces and the people he shaped through years of teaching and practice.

His legacy is not abstract. It is visible in the studios still in use, the artists still making work and the district that continues to evolve around them. On Facebook, former students noted their professor’s impact on their work. Charlie Triplett, BFA ’03, called Stack “a master of giving students concrete feedback.” He added, “Under his tutelage, I transitioned from drawing with careful boring precision to sweeping confident gestures other faculty pointed to as examples.”

This issue now carries both a portrait of that momentum and a moment of reflection shaped by the loss of a master craftsman and colorist.

The magazine also reaches far beyond Columbia to trace an international story rooted in the Missouri School of Journalism nearly a

In this undated watercolor, Frank Stack, professor emeritus of art, captures Jesse Hall overlooking a far less developed Mizzou campus, seen from the south and facing north.

century ago. After MIZZOU received an email from Jeffrey Kao, we began reporting the intertwined lives of his father, George Kao, MA ’34, and his father’s lifelong friend Ma Hsin-yeh, BJ ’34, who first met as journalism students in Columbia before returning to China.

That reporting journey led us through archival research, translated local histories and cross-continental conversations. What emerged was a story that endures not simply as history, but as a testament to the long reach of ideas, education and human connection across cultures and generations. (“The Friendship That Survived Two Chinas,” page 14.) We also examine the work of the Center for Rural Energy Security, whose research, teaching and outreach advance Mizzou’s public mission by strengthening energy resilience in rural communities. (“Lighting the Way,” page 38.)

Magazines are built on deadlines, but they are also shaped by moments that arrive unannounced. As you move through these pages, we hope you’ll discover both a university’s work unfolding in real time and the lasting relationships that give that work meaning.

Mission The Mizzou Alumni Association proudly supports the best interests and traditions of Missouri’s flagship university and its alumni worldwide.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Kim Utlaut, BS ’89 President-elect Morgan Corder, BA ’18 Immediate Past President Leigh Anne Taylor Knight, BS HES ’89, BS Ed 90, M Ed ’91 Treasurer Kevin Gibbens, BS BA ’81 Secretary Todd McCubbin, M Ed ’95 Directors Adrienne Barber, BA ’01; Joanna Russell Bliss, BA, BS Ed ’97; Eric Braverman, BA ’87; Brent Buerck, MPA ’05; Clarissa Cauthorn, BS ’15; Adam Gafke, BS ’97; Chris Hurt, BA ’88; Ashley Hutcheson, BS CiE ’01; Cheryl Jordan, BA ’84; Emily Kueker, BS ’02; Col. Pete O’Neill, BA ’00; Daniel Pierce, BA, BJ ’99; Gabriela Ramirez-Arellano, BS BA ’91; Jermaine Reed, BGS ’06; Amber Rowson, BS ME ’99; BS ’07; Nick Ruthmann, BS ’05, MD ’13; John Twitty, BS Ed ’75; Vanessa Vaughn West, BA ’99; Justin Wilson, BS CoE ’07 Student Representative Andrew Gerstner

Editors Emeriti Karen Worley, BJ ’73, and Dale Smith, BJ ’88 MIZZOU magazine Spring 2026, Volume 114, Number 3 Published triannually by the Mizzou Alumni Association ISSN 2833-3970 Address changes: mizzou.com/update or call 800-372-6822 Comments: mizzou@missouri.edu mizzou.com/magazine Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the official position of the University of Missouri or the Mizzou Alumni Association. ©2026

RANDALL ROBERTS, BA ’88 Editor

SPRING 2026

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TABLE OF CONTENTS MORE FROM MIZZOU Explore the latest on research, student success and innovation at Show Me Mizzou. Subscribe for weekly highlights at showme.missouri.edu

Departments 1 First Look

Photojournalist Amy Kontras, BJ ’13, a Kansas City, Mo.–based freelancer, captures a split‑second Royals moment with an eye for timing, access and aftermath.

6 Around the Columns

Logging Jesse’s Dome; remembering Mr. Tiger Stripe and his ice cream; launching women’s hockey at Mizzou; and more.

45 Mizzou Alumni News Running the Numbers Jaume Padilla crosses the finish line with the same discipline he brings to the lab. A nutrition and exercise physiology professor, Padilla applies his research on human performance directly to marathon training and tests ideas on fueling, pacing and recovery mile by mile. Watch at mizzou.us/padilla.

CONTRIBUTORS Jessica Vaughn Martin, BJ ’15, is an independent journalist whose work has appeared in Food Network Magazine and Feast Magazine and who cofounded Leftovers Community. She produces the Canned Peaches and River Town podcasts for KBIA. In this issue, she writes about Orr Street Studios (page 32).

Jon Hadusek, BJ ’12, is a Columbia-based writer whose work spans music, arts and culture, including long-running contributions to Consequence of Sound. Inside, Hadusek journeys into Jesse Hall’s dome (page 6), and surveys the monthly First Fridays downtown art crawl (page 35).

Honoring this year’s Henry S. Geyer Award recipients; remembering journalism educators Jack “King of the Jingle” Smith, BA ’62, and “Ranly’s Rules” namesake Don Ranly, PhD ’76; and more.

45 Class Notes

Careers advance, families grow and milestones quietly redefine what comes next across the Mizzou alumni community.

49 Alumni Bookshelf

A practical guide to collecting art; a new collection

by Missouri’s former poet laureate; an investigation into a wrongful conviction; and more.

64 Semper Mizzou

Daria Kirpach is an illustrator whose clients include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Science magazine. A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, she studied graphic arts at Italy’s Academy of Fine Arts before working for five years as chief illustrator at Litchistudio. In this issue, she illuminated “Lighting the Way,” about Mizzou’s new Center for Rural Energy Security (page 38).

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mizzou.com | Spring 2026

In Columbia’s arts district, creators shape the region’s people, places and culture. | 30

The Bond History Couldn’t Break 14 Where Missouri’s Music Lives 24 Powering Rural America 38

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About the cover For this issue, we turned to the archives of the late artist and Mizzou Professor Emeritus Frank Stack, a longtime fixture in the North Village Arts District, where he maintained a studio. His painting accompanies a feature about his work as part of the district’s community of artists, spaces and creative energy (page 30).

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facebook.com/mizzou x.com/mizzou instagram.com/mizzou @mizzou

Council for Advancement & Support of Education Awards 2025: District VI Awards: “Beneath a Tiger Moon”; “Punchlines in a Pressure Cooker,” (Winter 2025) 2024: District VI Award: General Interest Magazine 2022: Bronze, Periodical/Magazine Design 2021: Gold, Feature Writing (“Who Was I in College?,” Winter 2020) 2020: Bronze, Feature Writing (“Forever Young,” Spring 2019) 2019: Bronze, General Interest Magazine Society for Publication Designers Awards 2025 silver medal: “The Invisible Networks,” Fall 2024 2025 medal finalist: “The Guardians of Silent Worlds,” Spring 2024 2025 merit awards: “Hog Harmony,”(2) Winter 2024; “Capturing Jumpers,” Spring 2024 2024 merit awards: “Vlad Has Stories,”(2) Winter 2023; “The Cosmochemist’s Guide to the Galaxy” Spring 2023 2023 medal finalist: “A LIFE in Focus,” Spring 2022 2022 merit awards: “The Long Quiet,” Winter 2021; “International Reach,” Spring 2021; Spring 2021 cover

PA D I L L A : J O H N K N E P P E R ; I C E C R E A M : A B B I E L A N K I T US

Revisiting the legacy of Mort Walker, BA ’48, through a new retrospective that celebrates 75 years of Beetle Bailey.

Features

XUE XIN RONG

In early 20th-century Taipei, delivery riders on bicycles distribute Central Daily News. The scene mirrored the world that shaped Mizzou journalism alumni Ma Hsin-yeh, BJ ’34, and George Kao, MA ’34, whose friendship, forged in Columbia, endured history’s fault lines.

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The Friendship that Survived Two Chinas

A handshake at Katy Station in the early 1930s forged a bond that outlasted war, exile and the division of a nation. story by randall roberts, ba ’88

City as Canvas

The North Village Arts District has transformed a ramshackle area of CoMo into a community of creators. stories by jessica vaughn martin, bj ’15, jon hadusek, bj ’12 marcus wilkins, ba ’03

24 38

Play. Pause. Preserve.

The Budds Center for American Music Studies blends scholarship and listening to keep the state’s analog and digital records alive. story by jack wax, bs ed ’73, ms ’76, ma ’87

Lighting the Way

Mizzou’s new Center for Rural Energy Security applies a practical Midwestern perspective to energy policy, challenges and opportunities. story by chris blose, ma ’04

SPRING 2026

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AROUND THE COLUMNS

Marked by secret society names and dates, the fourth floor of Jesse Hall is closed off, but an ongoing Mizzou Archives 3D-scan project will allow alumni to search for their names.

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On the fourth floor of Jesse Hall, in a spot best left a mystery, a system of ladders leads skyward some 180 feet above the Quad to the inner recesses of the dome.

Only select Mizzou students and faculty have made the mildly treacherous climb — the members of “secret societies” of decades past. Per tradition, they were allowed into the dome to paint their names and graduation dates in white onto the aged, exposed wood.

Such tags reach back to at least the early 1900s and cover practically every inch of the inner dome’s top tier, resulting in a visual spectacle hidden in plain sight and locked away. In recent years, Jesse Hall’s highest reaches have been updated with improved security measures to prevent student explorers from trying to enter the inner sanctum.

This inaccessibility is among the motivations behind a new 3D-scan project by the University of Missouri Archives. Archivists hope not only to preserve the physical history of the dome’s interior but also to make it visible for those who would never see its secrets otherwise.

“It’s important for the alumni who’ve gone here, who obviously can’t get up here anymore and who’ve never seen this,” says Haley Lykins, BA ’21, the

MIZZOUMAGAZINE

public services archivist for University Archives.

“It will also be useful if we get a reference question like, ‘I think my uncle was in a secret society, but I don’t know anything about it.’ Well, we could look for his name in the dome.”

Lykins helms a small team including scanners Jessica Totsch, PhD ’25, who works at the Museum of Art and Archaeology, and history graduate student Catherine Hutinett, BA ’21. Using iPads and a specialized app, they’ve been taking hundreds of pictures and panoramic scans that they compile into a 3D rendering. When the archives launches the digital exhibit, online visitors will be able to examine the inner dome much like Google Maps’ Street View, including the ability to zoom in to see the student tags. Lykins calls it “a way for us to bring that history to more people.”

As of press time, the project is still in progress, with university archivists gathering historical research on the organizations that accessed the dome through the years. The exhibit is expected to go live in late spring. After Jesse Hall, Lykins hopes to continue the project with other campus buildings.

— Jon Hadusek, BJ ’12

ABBIE LANKITUS

Secrets of the Dome

FROM THE PRESIDENT Momentum You Make Possible

BLAKE DINSDALE

RARE EARTH IN RUINS University of Missouri researchers are developing a way to turn abandoned mining waste into a domestic source of rare-earth elements used in electronics, vehicles and national defense. Baolin Deng, above left, Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and co-director of the Missouri Water Center, and research scientist Pan Ni, above right, have secured a $2.8 million Department of Energy grant. Collaborators include Mizzou College of Engineering faculty Jian Lin, Jaewon Lee and Caixia “Ellen” Wan, along with researchers at Quasar Energy Group and the University of Colorado.

The team’s approach targets specific rare-earth elements at the molecular level using ion-imprinted polymers made from seafood-processing byproducts. These materials are molded to bind elements in mining wastewater while filtering out unneeded items. “There are plenty of materials that can strip contaminants from wastewater, but the key here is selectivity,” Deng says. “With 17 rare-earth elements that share strikingly similar properties, the ability to separate them individually is transformative.”

The team will use artificial intelligence to improve polymer performance and element-specific targeting. As the work advances, they also will optimize the materials, identify waste streams with the highest concentrations and begin field testing at Missouri mining sites. “These elements are like twin brothers when it comes to telling them apart,” Ni says. “It’s incredibly challenging to differentiate them.”

As Mizzou alumni, you know that Tigers lead the way.

We were the first public university west of the Mississippi, the world’s first school of journalism and home of the largest university research reactor. Innovation defines our community, and we continue to pioneer new ways to improve lives and make a difference.

Last year, we established the Center for Rural Energy Security (CRES), the first university institute in the country focused on the effects of energy policy and technology on rural communities and agriculture. In this issue, you’ll see how CRES unites Mizzou faculty, industry partners and community stakeholders to drive breakthrough research that shapes a brighter future, including for the more than 2 million Missourians who call rural areas home. A special thank you goes to Garrett Hawkins, President of the Missouri Farm Bureau, and other founding partners Missouri Corn, Associated Electric Cooperative Inc, Missouri Public Utility Alliance, Ameren, Evergy and Spire.

Our work resonates throughout Missouri and across the nation, including with state and federal leaders who continue to advance our land-grant mission of teaching, research and meaningful engagement. We’re also achieving international recognition. Mizzou is the No. 13 flagship university in the world and No. 2 among public SEC universities based on TIME Magazine ranking data.

Central to Mizzou’s unprecedented success is the support of our more than 370,000 dedicated alumni. Your commitment moves us forward, and we need your help to keep building momentum. That’s why we’re proud to share Power the Roar, our $2 billion campaign to secure Mizzou’s impact for generations. Power the Roar is your opportunity to get involved, support your passion at Mizzou and show the world what the Tiger community can accomplish.

There’s so much to be proud of at Mizzou, and I know even greater achievements are ahead. Together, we can solve the challenges of today while preparing leaders for tomorrow.

MUN Y. CHOI, PHD President, University of Missouri

SPRING 2026

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AROUND THE COLUMNS

Ron Powers’ Story on Screen

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MIZZOUMAGAZINE

IN CLASSIC BEAUTY

Top: Based on Pulitzer Prize-winner Ron Powers’ book No One Cares About Crazy People, a new documentary examines lived experience, loss and the urgent need for reform in mental health care.

U.S. News & World Report has named Mizzou one of 35 U.S. colleges with especially beautiful campuses. In highlighting the university, U.S. News pointed to the Francis Quadrangle Columns, the Mizzou Botanic Garden and landmark buildings including Jesse Hall and Memorial Union. The distinction places Mizzou among a select group of campuses noted for architectural and landscape character.

F I L M : C O U RT E SY L I N D A P R I VAT T E ; C A M P U S : A B B I E L A N K I T U S

They were, as their father remembers, “sparkling children full of hope and talent,” boys who made the future feel expansive and sure. Then, as young adults, both were stricken with schizophrenia. One, a virtuoso musician, died by suicide.

From that experience, Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Powers, BJ ’63, DHL ’12, wrote No One Cares About Crazy People (2017), which is both a memoir and history of mental health care. Now the book has inspired a namesake documentary that tells the stories of Powers and others while also reporting on grassroots efforts to remake the country’s broken mental-health system.

Director Gail Freedman, a former colleague of Powers at CBS News, launched the five-year project after stumbling upon his book. The film packs star power, with narration by actor Bob Odenkirk and music by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. After opening in 2025 with screenings and public discussions at venues nationwide, wider distribution and streaming are in the works for spring 2026. For details, visit noonecaresfilm.com.

Powers, who also served as an advisor, is proud of the documentary, even as he describes revisiting the past as “crushingly sad.” Now living in a senior residence in Vermont, Powers, 84, acknowledges not only the grief but also a sense of purpose. His mission is to “spread the word about the reality of serious mental illness” and push for reforms that support patients, families and communities alike. — Dale Smith, BJ ’88 If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org for free, confidential support.

Briefly Stephanie Reid Arndt has been appointed dean of the University of Missouri College of Health Sciences, effective June 1, following a competitive national search.

She succeeds Kristofer Hagglund, who will retire in August after leading the college since 2013.

YA N : A B B I E L A N K I T US ; K A N N A N & N G UY E N : M I C H A E L C A L I

COSMIC MISFITS REVEALED Scientists at the University of Missouri are using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to uncover some truly strange inhabitants of the early universe. Led by Haojing Yan, a Mizzou astronomy professor and co-author of a new study, the team has identified a small group of objects that look deceptively simple at first glance. They appear as tiny point-like dots, the kind usually classified as stars or quasars. But when researchers analyze their light in detail, a different picture emerges.

Spectroscopy reveals only narrow emission lines, a signature typically linked to galaxies forming stars, not quasars powered by supermassive black holes. This unusual mix of traits

Mizzou astronomy inspires the team to professor Haojing Yan nickname the objects “platypus galaxies.”

“Each property on its own is familiar to us,” Yan says, “but when added together, they create something we’ve never seen before.”

The discovery raises fresh questions about how galaxies formed in the early universe.

Conventional theories emphasize violent mergers, but these misfit objects may have formed differently. “These ‘platypus galaxies’ may have formed without such dramatic events,” Yan says.

The research suggests the early universe may have been more flexible than scientists once assumed.

INVENTORS POWER PROGRESS Two Mizzou professors have been named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors, an honor that recognizes important new inventions. Raghuraman Kannan, left, who has joint appointments at Mizzou’s School of Medicine and College of Engineering and is the Michael J. and Sharon R. Bukstein Chair in Cancer Research, has created tiny drug delivery systems that target cancer tumors while reducing harm to healthy tissue. His work could lead to better treatments for several types of cancer. Henry Nguyen, right, studies plant genetics at Mizzou’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. He develops tools that help crops, especially soybeans, better survive tough conditions such as drought and heat.

Mizzou Athletics received a $3 million gift from longtime supporters Paul and Lynn Ann Vogel to support the Competitive Excellence Fund. The donation will help advance championship-level opportunities and fund a new exclusive donor lounge in Mizzou Arena.

The University of Missouri’s Rural Scholars Program received a $1.175 million federal grant to address health care gaps by placing students in rural hospitals and clinics. The funding will support scholarships, curriculum development and new technology for the Shelden Clinical Simulation Center.

Construction is underway on the University of Missouri’s new Soybean Cyst Nematode Diagnostics Lab, with completion expected by July 2026. The $2 million state-funded facility will expand nematode testing, hands-on training and research to address a costly threat to Missouri farmers.

SPRING 2026

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AROUND THE COLUMNS #MizzouBuzz @MedCloudInsider @Mizzou researchers have launched PSBench, a database of 1.4 million annotated protein structure models designed to improve the reliability and transparency of AI-driven scientific predictions.

American football has long been in the spotlight when it comes to brain injuries. But thanks, in part, to a Mizzou researcher, the danger facing the other type of footballers is getting more notice, and just in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in America.

Back when Ross Zafonte, executive vice dean of the University of Missouri School of Medicine, played high school football, the word “concussion” was not widely used, and head injuries weren’t taken too seriously in any sport. “We thought everyone got better in a couple of days,” Zafonte says. “We now realize it’s more complicated. Some people don’t get better right away.”

While at Harvard, Zafonte was principal investigator on a landmark Football Players Health Study, directly leading to increased awareness of the signs, effects and medical risk factors of traumatic head injuries among players. He also helped identify a new sign of concussion known as SHAAKE (Spontaneous Headshake

10 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

After a Kinematic Event), when an athlete shakes their head as if to “clear the cobwebs.”

Zafonte has been shifting his attention from the gridiron to the pitch. Specifically, he’s focused on the number of high-velocity headers, or use of the forehead to pass, shoot or clear the ball, a player takes over the course of their career, especially those players who do it more than 1,000 times a year. He says in the U.S., Major League Soccer has made strides to address these issues, but internationally, there are more divergent forces at play, each with a different interpretation of the situation.

“Is all this contact necessary?”

Zafonte says. “With headers, we’re trying to limit them, especially in youth soccer and later in life when the neck mass isn’t there to support the head. They’re almost a bobblehead. It’s all about mitigating the risk without destroying the fabric of the game.”

— Tony Rehagen, BA, BJ ’01

@KevoPosts McDonald’s All-American game Co-MVPs Arizona commit Caleb Holt Missouri commit Jason Crowe Jr. Remember the names. @toddwhitaker Such an honor to watch and meet legendary comedian @GregWarren Long time guest on @bobandtom! He is awesome! And a fellow @Mizzou grad to boot! See him any chance you get! @MizzouSwimDive HISTORY IS MADE Collier Dyer not only becomes the first NCAA Champion in Mizzou Diving History, but he BROKE THE SCHOOL SCORING RECORD

BLAKE DINSDALE

Physics of the Header

@GovMikeKehoe Great to be on @Mizzou’s campus today, discussing real issues and real solutions for Missouri agriculture with @cafnr and Collegiate Farm Bureau students.

Agriculture contributes $93.7 billion annually to Missouri's economy. Our administration is proud to work with higher education partners to invest in future leaders, support producers, and ensure Missouri continues to be a national leader in ag innovation.

Mr. Tiger Stripe’s Sweet Science Black and gold didn’t become a flavor at Mizzou until Robert T. Marshall, BS Ag ’54, MS ’58, PhD ’60, made it one.

Marshall, who died at 93 on Jan. 14, earned his doctorate in dairy science microbiology. As a teacher and researcher, he was the creative and scientific force behind Tiger Stripe ice cream, the signature Buck’s Ice Cream Place flavor that has become a campus tradition.

“I created a black-and-gold ice cream, and so my name got around because people like it,” Marshall told Dairy Herd Management in 2020.

Introduced in 1989 at the opening of Buck’s Ice Cream Place, where students continue to prepare and package Tiger Stripe as part of hands-on learning in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, the creation reflected Marshall’s belief that science lessons should be experiential. Known affectionately as “Mr. Tiger Stripe,” he left a legacy that lives on in Eckles Hall, where each black-and-gold scoop carries his curiosity, patience and pride.

A L A R M W I L L S O U N D : WOJ C I E C H WA N DZ E L ; A L P H A- G A L : B L A K E D I N S DA L E

A GRAMMY, BUILT SLOWLY By the time the Grammys were awarded on Feb. 1, Alarm Will Sound already had spent decades making the case for the music it was being honored for. The ensemble won Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for Dennehy: Land of Winter, with conductor Alan Pierson, in a category stacked with serious company, including Third Coast Percussion, Lili Haydn and the Neave Trio. Pierson and Alarm Will Sound also were nominated for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.

Two of the group’s 21 members are faculty at Mizzou. Cellist Stefan Freund is a professor of composition and artistic director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative and is one of the group’s founding members, having been there at its 1996 inception in Rochester, New York. Clarinetist Bill Kalinkos, also with the group since its founding, is an adjunct instructor and co-director of the Mizzou Creative Improvisation Collective.

Their presence is felt locally in a very direct way. Alarm Will Sound curates the annual Mizzou International Composers Festival, a weeklong, hands-on collision of composers, performers and unfinished ideas. The 2026 festival will occur July 20–25, with concerts each evening July 22–25 in the Missouri Theatre. This year’s guest composers are influential electronic producer and composer Jlin and acclaimed German-born composer Karola Obermüller.

THE BITE THAT ERASES MEAT It’s becoming increasingly common to know someone who can’t eat a hamburger anymore, not by choice, but because a single tick bite rewired their immune system. As cases of alpha-gal syndrome rise nationwide, and with no FDAapproved treatment in sight, Mizzou researchers are stepping in to untangle one of the country’s fastest‑growing and most perplexing food allergies. A major new analysis shows alpha‑gal cases skyrocketing, with incidence measures rising roughly 100‑fold from 2014 to 2024.

Alpha-gal syndrome occurs when a lone star tick injects a sugar molecule, alpha-gal, into the skin. This molecule triggers the immune system to react when a person later consumes red meat or other mammal-derived foods such as milk and cheese. Unlike typical food allergies, reactions often are delayed for several hours, so diagnosis is challenging. Symptoms can range from hives and stomach pain to severe throat swelling.

To address the growing need, Mizzou immunologist and dermatologist Benjamin Casterline recently received a grant from the Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences to study the syndrome more deeply. He is collecting blood samples and symptom data from Missouri patients and using artificial intelligence to identify trends across ages, genetics and other health factors. “There is still a lot we don’t know about alpha-gal syndrome,” Casterline says. “But if we can learn more about patients’ blood, genes, gut bacteria and other factors, perhaps we can pinpoint which patients seem to be most at-risk.”

SPRING 2026 11

AROUND THE COLUMNS

MIND OVER MULLIGANS

“Mentally, knowing that I was playing the best in the world and that I could go out there and compete against anyone — why couldn’t I do that at Mizzou?”

Thus far, Viskari has done just that. He hopes to follow through on his success in the fall to drive the Tigers this spring and eventually himself to a career on the PGA Tour.

— TR

Last summer, Tiger golfer Veikka Viskari earned British Amateur bronze but then struggled early at Mizzou.

“Instead of pressing, we worked on patience, letting the game come to me,” he says. The new approach has paid off on the course this spring.

BREAKING THE ICE In January, Mizzou’s hockey club announced it will launch a women’s team in 2026. The move came before the U.S. Women’s National Hockey Team added an exclamation point to the expanding popularity of the sport by bringing home an Olympic gold medal home from Milan. The Tigers will join 118 other women’s teams in the American College Hockey Association, including fellow SEC schools Arkansas, Auburn and Tennessee. The goal is to stage a developmental season with limited games in 2026–27 before skating full-strength into intercollegiate competition the following year. “This is an exciting step forward for University of Missouri Hockey,” Mizzou Hockey CEO John Lamond said in a press release.

“Adding a women’s team reflects the continued growth of hockey at Mizzou.” — TR 12 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

V I S K A R I : M I Z Z O U AT H L E T I C S ; H O C K E Y : A D O B E S TO C K

Golfer Veikka Viskari teed off for the spring season with plenty of momentum: In summer 2025, he took bronze at the British Amateur Championship, one of the most prestigious amateur events in the sport. The Mizzou junior continued in the fall season by finishing first among his Tiger teammates in four of five events, including two top-10 placements and a 62 in the first round of the Moraine Intercollegiate. The outing tied for the second-best round in school history.

The success is a far cry from Viskari’s sophomore year, his first as a Tiger after transferring from VCU. “I felt like my game didn’t really transfer over,” he says. “It just wasn’t showing up tournaments.”

The problem puzzled Viskari. No doubt, part of the issue was an adjustment to tougher set-ups and stiffer competition of the SEC. But Missouri had state-of-the-art training facilities, technology, strength and conditioning coaches, and oncampus access to A.L. Gustin Golf Course. As it turns out, Viskari’s issue was less physical than psychological, something he learned the Tiger coaching staff also was equipped to help him overcome.

“Last spring, when I hit a low point, I started talking to a mental coach,” Viskari says. “I hadn’t done that before. It started as an experiment, a phone call. Then we chatted a few times. They broke it down for me and helped me shift my approach. Instead of pressing, we worked on patience, letting the game come to me. And sometimes even-par might be a great score, I don’t have to play perfectly to be in contention.”

The third-place finish at the British Amateur was proof that the new approach was working.

“It was a huge turning point for me,” he says.

VAULT FORCE Mizzou gymnastics delivered a standout season by ranking among the nation’s top teams throughout the year after a program-best third-place finish at the 2025 NCAA Championships.

The Tigers remained nationally competitive against one of the country’s toughest schedules and capped the regular season with a solid SEC Championship showing before advancing to the NCAA postseason, which ended in the Sweet 16. Hannah Horton posted an individual score of 9.8875 on the uneven bars at the NCAA Championship semifinals.

TIGER KINGS Mizzou Chess Team made its most emphatic move yet in 2026 when it captured the President’s Cup, collegiate chess’s national championship, in March at Memorial Union in Columbia. Competing on home turf, the Tigers emerged from a Final Four field to earn their second national title since the program’s founding in 2019. Anchored by a roster of four grandmasters, Mizzou has established itself as one of the nation’s premier collegiate chess programs.

Scoreboard 1 Based on available

records, the number of times a Kansas men’s basketball player has ever transferred to Mizzou; Bryson Tiller entered the portal and joins the 2026–27 Tigers. Other transfers as of press time include Jamier Jones from Providence and Jaylen Carey from Tennessee.

12 Consecutive NCAA

Division I Wrestling Championships in which the Mizzou grapplers have finished in the Top 15.

49 Number of

S TA D I U M , M I TC H E L L : M I Z Z O U AT H L E T I C S ; C H E S S : A D O B E S TO C K

Mizzou men’s basketball players who surpassed 1,000 career points as a Tiger after Mark Mitchell joined the group this season.

Mitchell is the 8th to accomplish that feat in just two seasons.

Tradition Set in Stone Tiger football fans watching games in person in 2025 or tuning in on TV no doubt watched with interest as work on the north end zone progressed each week. As the new enclosure gradually came together, many alumni likely noticed the ongoing absence of something old: the Rock M. Shortly after the 2024 football home finale, crews moved the white-painted rocks to a safe storage space, except for a few that were shipped to Mizzou Softball Stadium to recreate a miniature “M” for that venue. An even smaller “M” was assembled on the berm behind the home bench at Faurot Field on Senior Day 2025 so outgoing footballers could continue the

tradition of selecting a keepsake stone.

But school officials want to assure fans that big Rock M, including two truckloads of original boulders, will be in place for incoming freshmen to give them a new coat of white paint before the 2026 football season kicks off.

“From the earliest days of the project’s conception, it was critical that the Rock M returns as part of the renovated north end zone,” says Dave Matter, BJ ’00, Mizzou’s associate athletics director for strategic communications. “It will retain the same shape and iconic presence that generations of fans recognize. We know fans will be excited to see the new version back in place this season.” — TR

49.350 Seasonhigh vault rotation that propelled the Tiger gymnastics team to a sixth-place finish at the SEC Championships, which helped them to their second-straight No. 2 seed in the NCAA Regional.

497.75 Program‑record 3‑meter score by senior Collier Dyer on March 27 in Atlanta, winning to become Mizzou diving’s first NCAA champion.

SPRING 2026 13

Spring 2026

A handshake at Katy Station in the early 1930s forged a bond that would outlast war, exile and national rupture.

The Friendship that Survived Two Chinas Story by Randall Roberts, BA ’88

15

HISTORY

far from China’s political centers and tucked into a Chen’ao Cun village in Pingyang County where the mountains overwhelm the horizon. Homes built in the traditional Jiangnan style, with clean lines and curved tile roofs, date back to the Ming Dynasty more than four centuries ago.

In October 2024, local officials quietly opened the Ma Hsin-yeh Ancestral Home Museum, restoring a traditional courtyard residence that once belonged to a family of teachers and scholars.

Photos show rooms humble in scale and furnished less like an exhibition than a preserved life, with photographs, documents and panels tracing the career of a man who would one day carry a Chinese newspaper operation across a collapsing nation and into exile.

For Jeffrey Kao, walking through the museum triggered an unexpected reckoning with his own family history. Among the displays of Ma Hsin-yeh, BJ ’34, was a photograph of his father, George Kao, MA ’34, standing beside Ma. Jeffrey already understood the outline of Ma’s life through his father’s recollections and writings, but this was different. “Seeing my father there, inside a museum in China, was genuinely moving,” Jeffrey says. He calls the exhibit a tribute to Ma’s family heritage and legacy. “My father’s friendship is in some ways a part of that, one that begun so many years and miles away in a small college town.”

Specifically, Ma and Kao met 7,000 miles away at the University of Missouri nearly a century ago, when they arrived on campus a few years apart. Both joined an audacious experiment welcoming Chinese students to study at the Missouri School of Journalism as China was straining toward modernity.

16 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

By the end of the 1930s, China would be engulfed by invasion, civil war and revolution. By the end of the ’40s, the Nationalist Party, which envisioned a modern constitutional republic and was led by Chiang Kai-shek, would retreat across the Taiwan Strait, while the Chinese Communist Party would consolidate power on the mainland under Mao Zedong. The United States, once an educational partner, would become a geopolitical rival.

In the years that followed, Ma and Kao entered different institutions and political arenas but remained tied by their concern for China’s future.

Their brief overlap at Mizzou proved unexpectedly lasting, and the skills they carried from it would be tested sooner than either could imagine.

MA DIDN’T STUMBLE INTO WRITING AND REPORTING. He was shaped for it early in that southeastern Zhejiang village, where learning was a birthright. Born in 1909 to a well-studied family, he grew up in a household steeped in books. His earliest schooling took place at home, where a strict grandfather in the Confucian mold taught him poetry and classical prose before he was old enough to sit at a desk.

This background shows in his writing. When Ma described the spring blooming season of his youth, he recalled that their “courtyard lawn was covered with fallen osmanthus flowers, like a layer of embroidered red carpet.”

“It was always about education,” says his daughter, Diana Ip, who was born in Taiwan right after the family’s 1949 exodus from mainland China. Ma’s foundation provided him a seriousness that set him apart. As a teenager, he gravitated toward editing newspapers and journals, and his teacher, the renowned modern Chinese literary icon, Zhu Ziqing, took notice.

P R E V I O US PAG E S : M A : C O U RT E SY T H E M I S S O U R I S C H O O L O F J O U R N A L I S M ; K AO : W E S L E Y B L AC K M O R E

A spare but elegant house sits in southeastern Zhejiang,

WILLIAMS AND CHAO-CHU: UNIVERSIT Y ARCHIVES, C:11/ 13/3; KAO AND MA : COURTESY JEFFREY KAO

Top: Journalism students George Kao, left, and Ma Hsin-yeh, right, were among a small group of Chinese students who studied at the Missouri School of Journalism in the 1930s.

Left: Chinese diplomat Wu Chao‑chu (right) and Walter Williams, founder of the Missouri School of Journalism, pose with two Ming Dynasty-era stone lions presented to the university in 1931. The lions became an enduring symbol.

SPRING 2026 17

HISTORY

Right: George Kao photographed in his commencement regalia during his time in Columbia.

CHINA

18 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

U.S.A.

School of Journalism founder Walter Williams cultivated deep ties in China, particularly in Beijing at Yenching University. The same year that Ma arrived, those relationships took tangible form when H.H. Kung, China’s minister of industry and a descendant of Confucius, gifted two Ming Dynasty-era stone lions to the school.

They still stand outside Walter Williams Hall.

Ma spent three years at Mizzou, a period he later described with affection. “My teachers, classmates, the local Americans and the Chinese community, especially my fellow Chinese students, were all friendly and kind,” he wrote.

GEORGE KAO ARRIVED TO EARN HIS MASTER’S DEGREE at the Missouri School of Journalism in 1933 after studying at Yenching. He was greeted at Katy Station by a smiling stranger. It was Ma. “That welcome meant a great deal to my father.

It shaped how he understood journalism and what it meant to be a journalist,” Jeffrey says, adding that his dad “felt that Ma exemplified what he was aspiring to be.” A brief front-page story in The Columbia Missourian noted Kao’s arrival.

EMPRESS: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; KAO: COURTESY JEFFREY KAO

Below: In 1931, Chinese student Ma Hsin-yeh boarded the Empress of Canada to make the 7,500-mile journey from Shanghai to Vancouver, B.C. He then took a train to Columbia.

At 17, after a short stay at Xiamen University during a period of student unrest, he transferred to the Central Political School, then led by Chiang Kai‑shek. “Everything was unstable,” Ip says.

In 1931, at 22, Ma earned the chance to study at Mizzou and chose journalism.

Ma departed Shanghai in August of that year aboard the Empress of Canada and traveled via Japan and Canada to the United States. He remembered the crossing as both physical and psychological passage. “I felt a sense of exhilaration and freedom amidst the blue waves of the Pacific Ocean,” Ma wrote in an essay later in life. “I had always envied students who went abroad, and now I finally had the opportunity myself.”

As the ship passed Hawaii and reached Vancouver, B.C., “Mountains stretched out before us like a vast ribbon,” he wrote. “The New World had arrived.” The journey continued eastbound and south by rail until, late one autumn night, the train slipped into the MKT train depot, better known as Katy Station, on East Broadway.

Despite the understandable culture shock, Ma remembered not isolation but open doors. “To our surprise, we were incredibly well received,” he wrote.

He linked that warmth to ties already in place.

The first two Chinese students had arrived to study journalism in 1908, and more followed.

C O U R T E S Y T H E I N S T I T U T E O F M O D E R N H I S T O R Y, A C A D E M I A S I N I C A

Born in 1912 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to parents attending the University of Michigan under a program that invited Chinese nationals to study in America, Kao returned to China with his family at age 3 and was raised in Nanjing, Beijing and Shanghai. He came of age in a bilingual, bicultural world.

As he got to know Mizzou, Kao’s circle of friends grew. Photographs from those years show him relaxed and self-possessed: standing with fellow Chinese students on campus lawns, gathered in small expatriate circles, even posing between the stone lions.

After Mizzou, Kao entered Columbia University to study international relations while also writing for English- and Chinese-language publications about American affairs and culture.

He earned his MA in 1937, but the escalating Sino-Japanese conflict soon redirected his work toward advocacy.

From 1937 to 1945, he emerged as one of the most active Chinese voices in the United States. He edited an English-language monthly and argued China’s case against Japanese aggression in both print and public forums. His efforts were varied and included adapting the Chinese national anthem into English for a 1939 World’s Fair program arranged by famed bandleader Artie Shaw. In 1945, he served as information officer for the Chinese delegation at the founding of the United Nations.

Beyond his work for the Chinese Republic, Kao stayed attuned to American life. He was the lone Chinese correspondent in the Foreign Press Association to contribute to the 1939 volume of essays You Americans. One reviewer noted

that “strangely, it is the Chinese correspondent, George Kao, who exhibits the most intelligent understanding of Americans.”

Armed with his master’s degree and a mission, Kao’s former classmate Ma had been called home by the ruling Nationalist Party in 1934.

The Japanese invasion of Manchuria was in full swing, and having studied the workings of modern press, Ma’s job was to apply them. When the elite Central Political School established a journalism department the following year, Ma became its founding chair. One project he took on

Top: The offices of Central Daily News, where Mizzou journalism alumnus Ma Hsin-yeh rose within one of China’s most influential newspapers.

Above: Ma at work inside his Daily News office.

SPRING 2026 19

George Kao, left, and Ma Hsin‑yeh, third from right, pose with Chinese classmates outside the Missouri School of Journalism in the early 1930s. Ma stands behind a Ming Dynasty-era stone lion.

20 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

was adapting Williams’ famed Journalist’s Creed for mainland China reporters and editors.

Over the decades, Ma trained thousands of Chinese journalists, who fanned out across the country to report as he’d learned at Mizzou, but with a patriotic spin. “When students returned, they adapted the Missouri Method,” says Yong Volz, the Roger Gafke Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the Missouri School of Journalism. “They added publicity courses aligned with nationalist goals.

Some became propagandists or censors; they saw it as serving a higher need.” Volz co‑authored the paper “American Pragmatism and Chinese Modernization: Importing the Missouri Model of Journalism Education to Modern China.”

War collapsed the distance between theory and reality. Japan invaded China in 1937, forcing the ruling government inland; Ma followed, drawing

closer to the Nationalist Party’s news apparatus.

By 1945, as president of The Central Daily News in Nanjing, he was leading a national institution under strain. Japan had surrendered, but the Chinese Communist Party was pressing its revolution.

The paper sat at the nerve center of the Nationalist government and was expected to project continuity as conditions deteriorated. “The Chinese Communists were sweeping the mainland,” Ma recalled in a late‑career essay, “and we had to publish our newspaper every day as usual while, at the same time, gradually withdrawing all our equipment to Taiwan.” A delayed edition suggested weakness; a missed one signaled chaos. Despite friction and public criticism, Ma ordered the machinery to be dismantled and moved the entire news operation to Taiwan in January 1949.

On Oct. 1, 1949, Chinese Communist Party leader

COURTESY JEFFREY KAO

HISTORY

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Mao Zedong announced the birth of the People’s Republic of China. By then, Chiang Kai-shek and the expelled Republic of China government had withdrawn to Taiwan. More than 75 years later, that division continues to shape events beyond China.

KAO WATCHED CHINA’S REVOLUTION FROM AFAR. With him and his family living on the West Coast, Kao was safe and at a remove from the turmoil his friends faced. Despite that distance, he and Ma kept in touch.

In 1957, Kao got a job as chief editor of the China branch of Voice of America. The role displayed American power but demanded restraint. Broadcasting before the United States formally recognized the People’s Republic of China, Kao worked inside a narrow corridor between languages and political systems. He shaped news that had to travel without hardening into ideology. In this role, his friendship with Ma took on an official dimension.

Alongside his public work, Kao maintained a quieter vocation as a translator. He worked in both directions, rendering American writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Eugene O’Neill and Thomas Wolfe into Chinese for the first time, and later helping introduce modern Chinese literature to English-language readers.

The Ma family has photos of the two friends posing together from nearly every decade since their first Mizzou meeting. Although Ip recalls Kao being constantly in motion — Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States — whenever his path crossed with her father, the effect on Ma was unmistakable. “He was euphoric!” Ip says.

In 1959, Ma became the Republic of China’s ambassador to Panama. While there, he worked to support the Chinese community during a politically fraught moment between Panama and the U.S. “Many Chinese laborers had been brought in to work,” Ip explains, “suffering hardship, malaria and death.” Those who survived and stayed, she notes, have become an influential part of Panamanian society.

Ma returned to Taipei five years later to lead the Central News Agency. He held the role for the rest of his professional life. In 1984, he returned to Mizzou to accept the Missouri Honor Medal. He remained an influential statesman until his death in 1991.

Jeffrey Kao first met Ma in Taiwan in the early 1970s. At the time, Ma was near the center of political power, but what struck the younger Kao was more than his status. “What impressed

China, Taiwan and the Politics Behind the Story In the early 1900s, China was trying to redefine itself. The last imperial dynasty had collapsed, and the new Republic of China was struggling to pull together a country divided by warlords, foreign powers and competing political movements. Two groups emerged with very different ideas about China’s future. The Nationalist Party, known as the Kuomintang, imagined a modern constitutional republic.

The Chinese Communist Party, founded a bit later, pushed for a socialist revolution. For a brief period, the two sides cooperated, but by the late 1920s, the alliance dissolved.

The country descended into civil war.

Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931, and later of much of China, forced the Nationalists and Communists into an uneasy partnership during World War II. But once the war ended, the conflict between them resumed almost immediately.

By 1949, the Communists had gained control of the mainland, and Mao Zedong declared

Communist forces enter Beiping during the Chinese civil war in 1949. They soon restored the city’s name, Beijing, and made it China’s capital.

the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Chiang Kai‑shek and the Nationalist government fled to Taiwan, where they continued to operate as the Republic of China.

From that point on, two governments claimed to represent China, each insisting on its own legitimacy. Wartime agreements had stated that Taiwan should be returned to China after Japan’s defeat, but they hadn’t resolved which government that meant.

Although China’s development, growing economic ties and social engagement with Taiwan have in many ways brought the two sides closer, that ambiguity, born of war, ideology and competing national visions, has endured ever since and still shapes relations across the Taiwan Strait today.

SPRING 2026 21

Bottom: George Kao while working at the Chinese News Service offices in New York City after graduation.

22 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

people about Ambassador Ma wasn’t just his historical importance but the strength of his character,” Jeffrey says. In Western shorthand, he explains, one might call him a Renaissance man, “but in China the emphasis is more on morality, deportment and ethics — humility, graciousness.”

George Kao died in 2008, and by then he was regarded as a bridge-builder driven by cultural exchange in the literal sense. Major news outlets reported on his passing. “His whole life embodied the two cultures,” Jeffrey told The Washington Post for his father’s obituary. “He sincerely believed that the key to good translation was not just knowing the language but having an understanding of the people and culture behind the words.”

M A : C O U R T E S Y T H E I N S T I T U T E O F M O D E R N H I S T O R Y, A C A D E M I A S I N I C A ; K A O : C O U R T E S Y J E F F R E Y K A O

Top: Ma Hsin-yeh, left, with President Ernesto de la Guardia of Panama, far right.

His work carried the Mizzou journalism alumnus from newspaper offices into diplomacy and writing.

AFTER KAO’S DEATH, JEFFREY BEGAN SORTING through decades of drafts, correspondence and unfinished projects. Among them he found an old journal his dad’s friend Ma had kept during his years in Panama. “I was startled by its importance, both personally and historically,” he says. Believing Ma’s journal should be saved for posterity, Jeffrey contacted Ip and sent it to her in Taiwan. “That’s how we got to know each other.”

Plans to restore Ma’s ancestral home had begun circulating in the mid-2010s as interest in landmark preservation grew. “The Chinese care intensely about history, and when something is seen as cultural heritage, they preserve it for tourism and culture,” Ip says. As work commenced, she was at work on her biography, called Ma Hsin-yeh, Luminary of Modern Chinese Journalism. It will be published in Taiwan later this year.

Originally built more than 450 years ago, the structure was deteriorating, she says, and residents still occupied parts of it. She wondered why Chinese officials would preserve the home of a man associated with journalism and the Republic of China.

The answer, Ip believes, transcends crossstrait politics. “They saw him as someone who brought ideas from the West and reshaped them into something new, something relevant to the time and fundamental to the study of Chinese journalism.” Her meticulous archive of photos

Left: Former Mizzou students pose for a reunion photograph, reflecting bonds formed in Columbia that endured across decades and distance.

G R O U P : C O U RT E S Y T H E M I S S O U R I S C H O O L O F J O U R N A L I S M ; M U S E U M : C O U RT E S Y D I A N A I P A N D J E F F R E Y K A O

Bottom: The entrance to the Ma Hsin-yeh Ancestral Home Museum. The dedicatory inscription was written

by Chiang Hsiao-yen, former Vice-Chairman of the Kuomintang in Taiwan. Inside the home, a display features images from Ma’s time at Mizzou.

and documents enrich the exhibit.

For Ip, the project also carries a more personal weight: “We want harmony. Ma spent half his life in Taiwan and half his life on the mainland, but he never returned home. He never saw his parents again.”

“In wartime, people tell themselves it will be over in a week, and then it isn’t,” she adds. “It’s very sad. After we finished the book. I felt I could go back, and I did. As the plane approached Wenzhou, a flood of emotions came over me. Dad had finally come home.”

Jeffrey was already planning a trip to China when Ip told him the home restoration was on track, so he added a brief detour. “We were delighted to find some photos of my father,” he says, “and an account of Ma’s J-School experience among the many displays chronicling his life.”

What struck him was how naturally the past reached forward. The photos, the records and

“They saw him as someone who brought ideas from the West and reshaped them into something new, something relevant to the time and fundamental to the study of Chinese journalism.” the rooms in Chen’ao showed that the friendship had never gone dormant. It carried itself through upheaval until it rested in the hands of their children and grandchildren. The restoration felt less like tribute than a reminder of what endured, the continuation of a nearly century‑long friendship forged at Mizzou, before war, before exile, before two Chinas. M SPRING 2026 23

The Budds Center for American Music Studies blends scholarship and listening to keep the state’s analog records alive.

BY JACK WAX, BS ED ’73, MS ’76, MA ’87

24 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

As the audience filtered into the State Historical Society of Missouri last fall, a mid‑tempo country tune played through the room.

It was Joe Keene’s “Till Something Better Comes Along,” a twangy warm‑up from his Kennett, Mo., years.

The pedal steel sent out clean, bending lines that hovered over the low conversation.

SPRING 2026 25

RESEARCH

listening as people settled into their seats. As director of the Budds Center for American Music Studies, she had helped bring this gathering together. The room filled with students, researchers and local musicians drawn by a shared curiosity.

After a brief introduction, historian and songwriter Hunter Moore stepped to the front.

He let the last chords fade before turning the room’s attention to Kennett Sound Studios, the modest operation where Keene and more than 350 musicians recorded country, gospel and rock across three decades.

Kennett was never a big operation, Moore told the audience, but its influence spread farther than its footprint suggested. Musicians came for Keene’s ear, the room’s unvarnished sound and the sense that something lasting could happen there on any given night. The studio’s catalog remains a reminder that Missouri’s musical imprint often starts in small, unassuming places.

The shift from Keene’s smooth warm‑up balladry to his story felt natural. His voice and that pedal steel line had already reminded the room that Missouri’s musical past is rich, but also easy to lose if no one is paying attention. As the last note hung, the sounds from old Missouri had time-traveled into the present.

INSIDE ROOM 135 of the Fine Arts Building not far away, the Budds Center library holds a steady quiet. Murph moves through the stacks with practiced ease as she lifts albums and books that sketch Missouri’s musical arc. The room serves as the center’s base. It draws scholars, musicians and audiences toward Mizzou.

The Budds Center stands alone for its focus on Missouri’s musical heritage. “That’s our niche, with North and South America in our broader view,” Murph says. Anyone can access the non26 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

circulating collection in person or through the online catalog.

She settles at a table and talks about the collection’s utility. “We can learn a lot of things about whatever was going on in Missouri and the United States by the music that was popular at various times,” she says. “We can learn why Kansas City had a jazz scene and how the Mississippi River played a role in the development of St. Louis blues.”

As she speaks, the shelves offer visual confirmation: Traditional music of indigenous people.

Riverboat fiddling. Ella Fitzgerald. Eminem.

Scott Joplin. Nelly. Joni Mitchell. The Beatles.

The range reads like a map of American musical influence, with Missouri threaded through it.

While Murph and a team of interns organized and cataloged the collection over the past few years, the center gained a foothold in academic

P R E V I O U S PAG E S : A D O B E STO C K , B L A K E D I N S DA L E

MEGAN MURPH STOOD NEAR THE BACK,

KOLDEN LAM

music studies. It has funded performances and recordings by prominent Missouri composers and supported research projects that carry the state’s musical story into new contexts.

Murph’s own work fits the same pattern. She teaches a course on Missouri music, sings and plays instruments ranging from Balinese gamelan to Korean drums. Her academic research centers on ecomusicology, the study of how sound, place and culture shape one another. That path has drawn her toward experimental pieces and the political signals carried by sound installations.

ONCE A MONTH when the class is offered, Matt Fetterly turns his Missouri Music class into a preservation lab. He teaches students how to build and edit Wikipedia entries so the state’s musical

memories don’t vanish. “Missouri has a super‑rich musical history,” he says, “and sometimes important histories of Missouri musicians are unwritten or sparsely documented.”

Until Mizzou students revised the page for Jane Froman, the Missouri‑born, Oscar-nominated actress and singer who was among the country’s most successful female artists from the 1930s to the 1950s, her entry included no discography.

Clean pages matter, Fetterly tells them, because search engines and large language models surface Wikipedia first. “If you Google something, a lot of times it’ll be the Wikipedia article that comes up as the first search result,” he says.

The classroom work sits atop a deeper foundation. Michael J. Budds died shortly before Murph began her work at the center.

A professor at the School of Music, he taught more than 10,000 students during his 37 years

Megan Murph, director of the Budds Center for American Music Studies, teaches Missouri music and researches ecomusicology. She explores how sound, place and culture shape one another.

SPRING 2026 27

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Left: Jane Froman, the Missouri-born, Oscar-nominated actress and singer, performs on NBC Radio; students have been expanding her Wikipedia entry and others through original research.

Right: John William “Blind” Boone, a midMissouri composer whose songs are receiving renewed attention through Budds Center– supported research.

of the most successful,” she says. The project has personal meaning. Her great‑grandfather lived in Columbia and worked in the Boone household.

The Budds Center also revives major compositions for listeners. Names like Virgil Thomson or John Cheetham may be unfamiliar to casual audiences, but they resonate with David Rayl, chair of the Budds Center board of directors and former conductor of Mizzou’s University Singers and Choral Union. During his years at Mizzou, Rayl worked alongside Budds and Cheetham, a prolific composer of choral and ensemble music.

They envisioned bringing back pre-Civil War choral music into circulation, a project started during Budds’ lifetime but completed after his death, when the Budds Center sponsored a recording of Virgil Thomson’s Shape Note Hymn Arrangements.

The Center also funded the recording of A Yuletide Offering: Carol Arrangements by John Cheetham, a collaborative work featuring choirs from three other universities. “I loved John’s choral music,” Rayl says, “and it’s wonderful to have been able to come back after more than 15 years to record it and to have it be a part of the Budds Center activities.”

Together, these efforts point in the same

F R O M A N : C O U RT E SY J A N E F R O M A N PA P E R S , 1 8 9 1–1 9 8 0, W E S T E R N H I S TO R I C A L M A N U S C R I P T C O L L E C T I O N ; B O O N E : S TAT E H I S TO R I C A L S O C I E T Y O F M I S S O U R I

at Mizzou. He also wrote and edited books on American sounds and songs and became the first musicologist in the Missouri Music Hall of Fame. His $4 million gift in 2019 ensured that his scholarship and love of American music would keep reaching new listeners.

After his death, colleague Judith Mabary, MA ’79, edited a book of essays for the College Music Society in his honor. “Michael wanted the center, which was named after his family and not just him, to be a place that offered performances to the community, as well as a place for researchers and students,” she says. He was esteemed by his peers and demanding in the classroom, a combination that pushed students to do more than they thought possible.

Support from the Budds Center extends beyond the web. With center backing, vocalist and scholar Jolie Rocke, a lecturer at Prairie View A&M University in Houston, is bringing fresh attention to the vocal music of mid‑Missouri composer John William “Blind” Boone. She has researched Boone’s songs and soon will record some of them.

“The world needs to know about the artists at the turn of the 19th century who were people of color and who did well, and Blind Boone was one

RESEARCH

JAM: ABBIE LANKITUS; BUDDS: UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI SCHOOL OF MUSIC

direction. Students shore up the public record.

Scholars revive overlooked catalogs. Performers carry the work into rooms where audiences can hear it. The result is simple and necessary.

Missouri’s musical past stays present.

THE BUDDS CENTER’S REACH shows when the conversation widens beyond music alone.

In 2024, Mizzou’s Center and the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy hosted Dana Gorzelany‑Mostak, a professor of music at Georgia College & State University and a leading scholar of campaign soundtracks, to speak about election playlists and how they influence voters.

“Eminem’s song ‘Lose Yourself’ has been used by four different presidential campaigns,” she says.

“The way candidates use music and the way we as audiences use music is complicated. There are a lot of moving parts. And you really need to bring interdisciplinary perspectives to fully grasp what campaign music means for politicians and voters.”

Mizzou geography professor Soren Larsen, for example, has been building programs with Murph and other faculty that explore the rela-

tionship between music and place. In Weston, Mo., he led a symposium that paired performances with conversations about listening to location: people, the sounds that carry, architecture, the natural world. The overarching questions, according to Larsen: “How do we listen to place? What are the poTop: Musicians gather for a monthly song litical implications of how circle hosted by the Budds Center, bringing community members together through shared we listen, and what kinds music. Above: Michael J. Budds, a longtime of experiments can we do School of Music professor and scholar of to expand the range and American music, made a $4 million gift in register of our ears and all 2019 to ensure the Budds Center’s work would our sensory modalities to continue reaching new listeners. register place?”

Such queries loop back to a quieter realm. Behind the door of Room 135, the Budds Center’s multimedia library awaits. More than shelves and sleeves, it’s an extension of Budds’ research and writing, a place built to keep music connected to people and people connected to music. M SPRING 2026 29

City as Canvas

COLUMBIA’S ARTS SCENE has long been shaped by Mizzou, with generations of alumni choosing to stay, return or put down roots here. Faculty artists, former students and creatives trained in Mizzou classrooms have helped build a city where making art is not an extracurricular activity but a way of life.

Galleries, studios, performance spaces and pop-up events stretch across town, forming a collaborative culture grounded in academic rigor and a DIY spirit.

That influence comes into especially sharp focus in the North Village Arts District, a roughly nineblock, walkable pocket that feels less like a destination and more like a living ecosystem. More than 100 artists, studios and venues cluster here, generating a level of creative energy more often associated with much larger cities.

Orr Street Studios serves as the district’s creative anchor, its personality evident in everything from artist-designed doors to rotating exhibitions. The stories that follow move outward from that center to the artists and events shaping Columbia’s most colorful neighborhood.

We spotlight longtime Orr Street occupant and Mizzou art professor emeritus Frank Stack, whose influence threads through generations of creatives. Stack died April 12. We also turn our attention to First Fridays, which brings the community into the streets each month for a free art crawl alive with music, new exhibitions and open studios. Some Fridays can draw up to 800 visitors, proof that even a modest arts district can deliver cosmopolitan energy. By the end of the year, a new North Village park will add a welcome touch of green space. Together, these details reveal an area that lights itself from within.

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The Doors to Columbia’s Art Community ORR STREET STUDIOS has been an anchor in the Columbia arts world since its inception nearly 20 years ago. It opens the door for new and seasoned artists to expand their art and their community. Situated just east of downtown’s Wabash bus station, it’s in the heart of the North Village Arts District.

The compound is more than a gallery and studio space.

It is also a nonprofit organization “dedicated to heightening awareness and appreciation of art and local artists for Columbians and visitors alike,” per its mission statement. “It’s a place not only for artists to make art, but to communicate with each other and the community, and for the community to experience art,” says Chris Teeter, BA ’72, artist and founding member of Orr Street Studios.

That appreciation begins the moment you enter and are greeted by the gallery’s oldest original artwork: a collection of massive six-by-nine-foot pieces, embellished with stories in the form of metal work and found materials. These are the renowned studio doors, each of which glides open to unveil one of 16 individual studios.

Crafted by Teeter, a metal sculptor and painter, the doors were the first art pieces installed in the building ahead of its opening and remain some of its most beloved. For longtime Orr Street resident artist and board member Tootie Burns, BS ’89, the doors brought her in.

“I think they’re the best art in Columbia,” she says of her friend and neighbor Teeter’s doors. “I saw him the day after the studios opened in 2007, and there was such a tremendous buzz about Orr Street Studios that I said, ‘Please put me on 32 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

the list for when new studios are available.’” He did, and a year later Burns settled in. She has used the space ever since to create a variety of mixed-media pieces, such as a beaded skull on a painted canvas background and a small flock of birds wearing leafy masks.

Painters, mixed media artists, photographers and writers use Orr Street Studios to weave their own work into the eclectic property’s tapestry. Rotating shows speckle the walls with color. Many well-known Columbia artists, including Frank Stack, John Fennell and Artlandish founder Lisa Bartlett, have at one time or another made their artistic home here.

This, in part, is how the North Village Arts District came to be, with Orr Street Studios, Sager Reeves gallery and Ernie’s Cafe drawing in new neighbors. David Spear, MA ’12, keeps his AlleywayArts studio in the area, and Art Underground, Fretboard Coffee and, more recently, the boutique Hedda and Nightjar Arts Collective have entered the district. In the last few years, Orr Street opened its artist-in-residency program, offering four studios to young, underrepresented artists “whose practice could benefit from dedicated studio space and who could not otherwise afford one,” according to the program description. In total, Orr Street currently houses 25 artist spaces.

TO BETTER UNDERSTAND the studio’s grounding presence in Columbia’s visual art scene, you first have to know how much it has changed in two decades. Orr Street Studios opened two

PA RB EB VI EI OLUASN KP AI TGUESS : D A V I D S P E A R ; D O O R S : C H R I S T E E T E R

How Orr Street Studios helped the North Village Arts District shine and grow. BY JESSICA VAUGHN MARTIN, BJ ’15

ABBIE LANKITUS

ARTS

years before the official formation of the North Village Arts District in 2009. “When we first started, it was PS gallery and the [Columbia] Art League,” Teeter says of the early 2000s art community. Before it was Orr Street Studios, the block housed a dilapidated Sunshine Laundry building and shipping dock.

Despite its state, local developer Mark Timberlake, BS ME ’82, saw its best days ahead. He needed someone to help bring them to life. He put his trust in Teeter to lead a project that would provide space for committed artists. For nearly 20 years, it has.

It hasn’t been without speed bumps. In late summer 2024, a fire threatened to shut them down. The blaze damaged eight studios, including Burns’ space. As in the early 2000s, though, Timberlake and his crew worked quickly to restore the building. “The fire was in July, and we were back in our studios in October,” Burns says.

In the aftermath, Columbia stepped up. “People rallied around the studios,” Burns says. “They still came out for First Fridays, came down for different activities.” It’s this community, one that keeps showing up, that underscores the impact Orr Street Studios has had on the larger art community, and on Columbia as a whole.

Current Orr Street Board President Barbara Hoppe, JD ’86, describes the institution as “like your town square, where artists and community come together.” Teeter highlights the tightknit groups of twenty-somethings that make Orr Street Studios their gathering place on First Fridays. “It’s a neutral meeting place for young people.” It’s a welcome evolution, she adds. “It’s not a bar, it’s not a church. It’s just a nice place to meet. The energy is good. And it’s free.”

More space for art-driven community gatherings is on the horizon. The planned North Village Park, located southeast of Rose Music Hall and north of Orr Street Studios, will open to the public by the end of 2026. The city parks department is transforming the long empty Ameren property into green space. Featuring a walking path and room to relax, the park will provide a platform for art shows and live events.

Artist Tootie Burns, BS ’89, stands outside her studio at Orr Street Studios, part of a creative hub that has shaped Columbia’s arts scene since its inception.

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ARTS

It’s this community, one that keeps showing up, that underscores the impact Orr Street Studios has had on the larger art community, and on Columbia as a whole.

Clockwise from left: visitors at an artist's studio watch him paint at First Fridays; musicians perform at Orr Street Studios, which recently marked its 20th anniversary; crowds flock to Orr Street Studios on a First Friday in February.

ABBIE LANKITUS

Area artists have been invited to create original pieces for the new park.

Teeter didn’t expect Orr Street Studio to become such a crucial hub. The studio’s original tagline was “art and artists,” but they’ve since added the word community. “When I talked to people about renting a studio,” he says, “they were interested in having a place to work, having a place to interact with the public that was not their house and being part of a community of artists, benefiting from the encouragement of people all housed together making this art.”

It was appealing not just to the folks renting the spaces, but to the patrons, as well. Teeter calls it a gradual shift: “We still focus on art and artists, but community plays a bigger part than I would have ever envisioned.”

Orr Street Studios is free and open to the public Wednesday through Friday, 12–4 p.m., and for evening events during First Fridays. The space also is available to rent for private events; it has played host to many a wedding and other community celebrations over the years.

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Columbia’s Monthly Creative Surge

ABBIE LANKITUS

First Fridays have become the place to see and be seen in Columbia. BY JON HADUSEK, BJ ’12

COLLEGE AVE.

ORR ST.

HITT ST.

10TH ST.

9TH ST.

Friday during the warmer months. That number likely will increase when the city begins work on a park on Orr Street, which will feature art installations and a space for live music.

Nguyen describes First Fridays as “a nice way to start out the month and the weekend for Columbia.” She’s always struck by how many people come through: “visitors and tourists, college students maybe discovering it for the first time — because it’s a happening.”

Barbara Hoppe, JD ’86, the president of the Orr Street board, compares the First Fridays vibe to Columbia’s defunct Twilight Festival, a recurring summer event that celebrated art and street performance downtown from 1990 through 2008. She believes First Fridays North Village Arts District have filled that void by encouragPARK AVE. ing community engagement with E. ASH ST. not only the arts, but one another.

WALNUT ST. “It draws a lot of people downBROADWAY BLVD. town to a variety of galleries and CHERRY ST. other businesses,” Hoppe says.

LOCUST ST. “People can get out and not only enjoy art but also see each other and communicate. It becomes • Ernie’s • Sager Reeves Gallery an old-fashioned • Orr St. Studios • New Rose park town square kind of thing: a The North Village Arts District (better known to many alumni as the area near Ernie’s). community.”

8TH ST.

AS EVENING DESCENDS at the end of the first work week of the month, downtown Columbia springs to life with an influx of pedestrian foot traffic that signals the beginning of First Fridays festivities.

Known around town as a day for art gallery openings and “gallery crawls,” First Fridays took shape in Columbia over the past two decades in conjunction with the growth of the North Village Arts District.

First Fridays crawlers might start their night at Fretboard Coffee, located in the “Artist Alley” running parallel to the Wabash Bus Station. Here, they can grab a drink before weaving through the connected underground tunnels. Colloquially known as “the catacombs,” these tunnels are adorned with local art.

An ascent into the Hedda clothing boutique, the former space of the Artlandish Gallery, leads back outside to a veritable street festival during the warmer months. Buskers, fire spinners and food vendors take over the nearby lawn outside the Sager Reeves Gallery.

For Sager Reeves, First Fridays is the moment to present new exhibits. Gallery designer Jonny Pez likens it to a casual party atmosphere, complete with an open wine and beer bar and a DJ from nearby Hitt Records. Galleries encourage patrons to take in, discuss and, ideally, buy the art around them.

“Fridays are a great day of celebration,” Pez says. “It’s the end of the work week for most people. To have it be one particular Friday every month, consistently, rain or shine, that’s something that people can rely on. And if we didn’t do it, a lot less people would be exposed to the art we’re putting up every month. Exposure to art, I think, is important to all humans.”

Around the corner from Sager Reeves is Orr Street Studios, an obligatory stop and a First Fridays finale for many. Like those at Sager Reeves, Orr Street Studio artists also unveil their latest exhibits during the event. Local musicians and a bar by Six Mile Bridge Brewery enliven the scene with communal energy.

Orr Street Studios manager Sarah Nguyen estimates that up to 1,200 people pass through the space on a typical First

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The Art of Being Frank LOOKING THROUGH FRANK STACK’S COLLECTION of original art at the State Historical Society of Missouri (SHSMO), you can’t help noticing the cosmic joke: Few artists ever lived up to their name quite so literally.

Reams of sketches, paintings, lithographs and etchings stack high in archival boxes, each one showcasing his forthright, unmistakable — frank, if you will — style.

An esteemed Mizzou professor emeritus of art, legendary underground cartoonist and dedicated fine artist, Stack died April 12 in Columbia, Mo., at age 88. The artist was a longtime fixture in and around the North Village Arts District, where he maintained a studio for decades and presented several exhibitions, including “Frank Stack at 75” in 2012 and “A Year of Figure Painting” in 2020.

His most recent show, a career retrospective, was organized for his 87th birthday in 2024.

His family embraced creativity as a perpetual way of life at home, says Joan Stack, his daughter and curator of art collections at the State Historical Society of Missouri.

“Dad always had a sketchbook within reach, and once he made us an illustrated alphabet with pictures for each letter,” she says. “My brother and I also had a toy box, and Dad painted us jumping over a mountain on it.”

Stack’s multifaceted artistic interests included a lifetime fascination with comics and cartooning. In 1957, while still an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin, he served as 36 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

editor of The Texas Ranger, a student humor magazine. After graduating and serving in the U.S. Army, he earned a master’s degree at the University of Wyoming and took a faculty position in the art department at Mizzou, where he taught from 1963 until his retirement in 2001.

During this time, he spent a year abroad. He studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris and published the satirical underground comic book The New Adventures of Jesus under the winking, folksy nom de plume “Foolbert Sturgeon.”

Stack’s alter ego gave him room to sharpen his edgy sociopolitical commentary as he moved through academia.

Over the years, the artist developed friendships with contemporary underground comics luminaries Robert Crumb (Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural) and the late Harvey Pekar (American Splendor). Most notably, Stack illustrated Pekar’s graphic novel Our Cancer Year, an acclaimed autobiographical account of Pekar’s life following a 1990 lymphoma diagnosis.

Writing in the academic journal ImageText about Our Cancer Year, Bruce Dadey at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, described Stack as conveying “a reality that encompasses both the sublime and mundane,” noting the book’s “willingness to let the visual manifest itself in all its complexity without its being given a particular meaning through text.”

Stack’s work spans several media, including oil, watercolor, pastel, intaglio and lithography, and often features Missouri landscapes

ROB HILL

His underground comics and decades of teaching shaped a generation of artists in Columbia’s North Village Arts District and beyond. BY MARCUS WILKINS, BA ’03

ARTS

A Season Shaped by Art and Community Columbia takes on a different rhythm when students leave for the summer.

Its vibrant arts events help shape the season with a sense of creativity, community and continuity.

First Fridays Arts Events (Monthly)

Dates: May 1, June 5, July 3 and August 7 Location: North Village Arts District Details: Monthly arts crawl with galleries, studios, performances and community arts programming.

Art in the Park

Dates: June 6–7 Location: Stephens Lake Park Details: Columbia’s largest and oldest fine arts festival, featuring around 110 artists, children’s art areas, live music and food trucks. Free admission.

Mizzou International Composers Festival (Mizzou New Music Initiative with Alarm Will Sound)

Artwork by Frank Stack spans comics, portraiture and place. Stack illustrated Harvey Pekar’s Our Cancer Year, painted comic artist Robert Crumb (top right) and taught art to thousands of Mizzou alumni.

and cityscapes. A selection of his original work is currently on display at the State Historical Society of Missouri and Mizzou’s Museum of Art & Archaeology. His work also has been shown in France, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Turkey and South Korea.

In 2025, at the annual Comic-Con in San Diego, the Will Eisner Comic Awards inducted Stack into its Hall of Fame. He couldn’t attend because of his fragile health, so Joan and Stack’s grandson William accepted the award on his behalf.

Also last year, Stack swung by a sale of his work in his studio and private gallery at the Balsamic Warehouse just north of Orr Street Studios. The space overflowed with hundreds of framed and unframed pieces, many scarcely larger than a greeting card, with walls displaying larger works. From a sofa to the side, Stack greeted friends and quietly watched people appreciate his work. Many smaller drawings and paintings were born of his daily ink-and-watercolor ritual, and each felt like a moment seized by a meticulous, restless hand.

Stack’s family says his true passion remained the same. “He wanted to be remembered mostly as a painter and a great draftsman,” Joan says. “He was also a phenomenal colorist who enjoyed the problem of drawing and painting directly from nature.” M

Dates: July 20–25 Location: Sinquefield Music Center and Missouri Theatre Details: Weeklong festival featuring public concerts, workshops, world premieres by eight resident composers and Alarm Will Sound as ensemble in residence. The Distinguished Guest Composers for 2026 are Jlin and Karola Obermüller. All concerts are free and open to the public.

Zipper Fest

Date: September 12 Location: Arcade District, Fay Street Details: Annual community arts festival featuring 50-plus craft and art vendors, food trucks, live music and interactive “Connection Corners” installations.

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38 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

LIGHTING THE

WAY

Mizzou’s new Center for Rural Energy Security applies a practical Midwestern perspective to rural energy policy, challenges and opportunities.

CHRIS BLOSE, MA ’04

DARIA KIRPACH

AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITIES have future opportunities in the energy sector not available to their urban counterparts.

“Rural communities generally bear the brunt of infrastructure, even if the energy serves larger population centers,” says Mike Sykuta, associate professor in Mizzou’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) and director of Mizzou’s new Center for Rural Energy Security (CRES).

Infrastructure such as pipelines for oil and natural gas and powerlines for energy transmission dot our rural landscapes. Increasingly those landscapes also include wind turbines, solar installations and energy-hungry server farms. At the same time, a sparser rural population leads to a higher cost of energy transmission per person, a challenge compounded by lower-than-average incomes.

Each of these issues has implications for rural land and the people who live on it.

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RESEARCH

“ It was clear to us that rural areas are often overlooked, even though they’re often where critical energy infrastructure is sited.”

“They’re in the crosshairs of a lot of large-scale national transmission development,” Sykuta says, “but at the same time, the benefits of some of the newer technologies could have disproportionate benefits for rural communities versus urban communities.”

CRES exists to analyze and understand these trends, challenges and opportunities, whether they relate to infrastructure, cost or security. As Sykuta notes, there’s no shortage of energy-related think tanks in the United States. However, until now, few if any have focused on the perspective of people far from the nation’s coasts.

“It was clear to us that rural areas are often overlooked, even though they’re often where critical energy infrastructure is sited,” says Adrienne Ohler, an economist, associate professor in CAFNR and CRES affiliate who collaborates on research with Sykuta.

CRES launched in 2025 to make sure rural areas are not overlooked in the future of energy policy.

Sykuta, an economist with applied research experience as the executive director of Mizzou’s Financial Research Institute, knows a land-grant university in an agricultural state in the middle of the country is perfectly suited to deliver such research and perspective. When University of Missouri President Mun Choi announced the construction of the Energy Innovation Center and signaled the desire for Mizzou to be at the 40 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

center of energy advances and conversations, Sykuta knew the time was right for CRES. “Our mission is to provide a nonpartisan, unbiased perspective on how federal and state energy policies affect rural America,” he says. Put simply, he wants CRES to be an “honest broker” of information for policymakers, the public and industry.

Applying Research to Rural Realities

When a large-scale renewable energy project comes to a rural county, what happens to existing industries? Does the county see more money? Do the people who live there get bigger paychecks?

One of CRES’s first major research projects, “Economic Effects of Large-Scale Wind and Solar Projects,” sets out to answer these questions through detailed economic analysis. Sykuta, Ohler and fellow CRES affiliate Austin Landini started by gathering data on every single solar and wind installation in each U.S. county from the years 2001 to 2021.

The researchers broke out specific counties using the USDA’s definition of “rural,” in particular counties with more than 10 percent of the economy devoted to agriculture. Now they are examining how wind and solar installations affect a county’s gross domestic product, employment and wages. Those three initial factors are

established in an initial working paper, likely to be published this year. Now, the team is diving deeper into how the installations affect rural sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and construction.

“So far, wind seems to have large, significant positive effects,” Sykuta says, referring to increases to a county’s GDP, employment levels and wages.

When getting into specific industries, there are “somewhat significant” effects on the utility and construction sectors from wind. There seems to be no significant effect, positive or negative, on agriculture or manufacturing.

The story for solar projects is more neutral.

According to the study, they have no significant effect, positive or negative, on county GDP, employment or wages. They also seem to have no effect on the agriculture, utility or construction sectors, although there’s weak evidence of minor negative effects on manufacturing after five years.

Neutral effects may seem anticlimactic, but they’re actually quite telling, Ohler says. “If we are replacing large amounts of land, you might expect that that would have an impact on agriculture, but we don’t,” she says. “I think the real story is there’s either not much of an effect, or at least there’s no negative effect.”

Research results such as this are both practical and useful for a number of stakeholders. First, they provide policymakers clear economic data to use as they craft legislation around future renewable energy projects. Second, companies in energy and other affected industries can use them in planning and strategy. CRES gets funding from industry partners such as the Missouri Farm Bureau, the Missouri Public Utility Alliance, Ameren and various energy cooperatives because those companies benefit from unbiased research produced and vetted by an honest broker.

Perhaps most important, Ohler says, communities and their leaders can use the information to make informed decisions about their own future, including what kind of energy projects they choose to adopt.

What Comes Next

Even with such high-impact research, Sykuta points out CRES is still in a nascent stage.

The team is intentionally multidisciplinary, with CRES affiliates coming from CAFNR; the College of Arts and Science, including both the Department of Economics and the Truman School of Government & Public Affairs; and the College of Engineering. Sykuta hopes to increase such collaboration, both at Mizzou and beyond, in the future. He also hopes to hire team members in

strategic communications to ensure CRES’ work reaches the people who need it.

The importance of that last task can’t be overstated. “Some of what we hope to be able to do, as a land-grant university should do, is to translate scientific research that’s primarily delivered to academic audiences and pull out the lessons that it has for policy,” Sykuta says.

Case in point: Zack Miller’s long-term climate modeling research. Miller, a CRES affiliate and chair of the Department of Economics, says that he typically does not publish in a policy- or public-facing realm. But his work absolutely has practical value.

For example, Miller uses statistical modeling to examine the cycles of climate change, including when it slows down and when it accelerates. “I find this 80-year fluctuation, and it has policy implications,” Miller says. “A policymaker can’t look at short-term results and assume they’re the result of any one policy.” They need to look at a number of factors instead, including longterm patterns.

Still, as Miller notes, his work is intended for an audience steeped in economic methodologies and statistics. “There’s a different need when you take that to a policymaker,” he says. CRES hopes to extract the key points from such rigorous research and present it in a way that makes clear sense to the public and the legislators who serve them.

Two other CRES projects already underway have clear connections to rural needs. One examines the increased electrification of heat and air conditioning in rural households, and how they affect the risk of payment delinquencies for customers as bills rise in the summer and winter.

Another tracks current county ordinances across Missouri for the zoning of wind and solar projects; the goal is to create an annual survey to see how the regulatory landscape changes over time.

Other topics are ripe for CRES research. Ohler points to a divisive but pervasive topic: the infrastructure and energy usage of large-scale data centers, which she sees as a massive opportunity for policy-driven research as demand increases in the AI era. So, too, is the study of security and regulation as it relates to mission-critical military infrastructure. Many military installations, including some in Missouri, are tied to local and rural energy grids. All such research, and the insights that come from it, will be filtered through the lens of what matters most to rural communities in the state of Missouri and across the country.

“This is not just where Missouri has a comparative advantage,” Miller says. “It’s also where Mizzou has a comparative advantage.” M

Opportunities in Rural Energy Pastoral communities also have future opportunities in the energy sector not available to their urban counterparts. Mike Sykuta, director of CRES, names a few below: Land for renewable energy projects CRES research shows a positive economic effect for rural counties that have large-scale wind installations, for example.

Alternative fuels Renewable natural gas comes from the decomposition of organic matter, including farm waste. Ethanol and biodiesel are also established examples.

Emerging technology This includes energy microgrids and small-scale nuclear generation, both of which are designed to be more resilient to shocks — such as widespread blackouts — than larger grids.

SPRING 2026 41

Thank you for Making Mizzou Stronger.

The Mizzou Alumni Association welcomes last year's new life members.

Steven Adams Olivia Aker John Akers David Anderson Debra Anderson Lauren Arand Vishvi Aurora Reagan Austin Natalia Avalos Thomas Bankhead Caleb Barbero Russell Barclay, Ph.D. Dalton Barker Kendall Barnes Brittany Barrientos Callie Bartok Abigail Baugus William Bay Holland Belvin Brian Bennett Jeffrey Berger Lisa Berger David Bethel, Ed.D. Isabella Bickhaus James Bieser Kay Bieser Steve Bingham Jennifer Bishop Karie Black The Honorable Rusty Black Kathleen Blackburn Jan Bleakley Cynthia Bledsoe Philip Bledsoe Cody Blevins Barbara Bloch Lynton Bock Nathanial Bock Stephen Bohm Kathryn Bohr Jared Both Reagan Bradley Jacquelyn Brazas Daniel Brewer Owen Brewer Alice Brewka 42 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

Noah Brinkman Kyle Briscoe, Ph.D. Anna Brokaw Justin Browne Curtis Brumley Dean Bryant Logan Bryant Olivia Buehler Debora Buerk Amelia Burgess Olivia Butler Peyton Caldwell Michael Carney Ellen Carter Gregory Carter Kelly Casler Donna Checkett Isabel Cherrito Clara Chesebro Matthew Chlibec Tessla Chlibec Peter Chou, Ph.D. Donna Claes, M.D. Claire Clay Susan Coats William Coby Nicholas Cokenour Brian Cole Madison Connell Susan Conrad Richard Cooper, Jr. Kenna Cornelius, J.D. Caleb Cowen Evan Cox Hailey Cox Bradley Crank Ryan Crawmer Gwen Crites Lily Cushing C.J. Davis Caden Davis Colin Davis Kaitlyn Davis Courtney Delaney Dawit Demissie, M.D. Robert Dengel Mike Detchemendy Craig Dieso Sarah Dieso Everett Dietle Kyle Dimon Larry Dorman Svetlana Dorroh Kaitlin Drake Shelly Dreyer Christopher Drury Julie Drury Julie Dusold Culbertson Susan Eddleman, D.D.S. Maizey Edgar Anne Edgington

Laura Edlow Kathryn Eisler Timothy Eldridge Eliana Eubanks Camille Farris Jack Ficken Cynthia Fiegenbaum Nick Fischer Victoria Fischer Melanie Fleer Eric Fogg Sharon Follas Colvin Follis Tiffany Ford Keygan Fox Lorna Frahm Robert Frahm Katherine Fraley Mackenzie Froidl Savanah Fussell Gary Gabel Joan Gabel Brooke Gangel Thomas Garagnani David Gardner, II Barbara Garrett Bennett Gatlin Marissa Gehlert Sophia Geppert Justin Gerke, Ph.D. Mary Gibbs Patrick Gilbreth, M.D. Collin Gillam Elizabeth Gillam Jacob Godwin Zachary Gramke Garrett Greenfield James Griffin, Jr., Ph.D. Faith Grofe Andale Gross T. Timotheia Haag Sarah Hackman Melody Hagans Melissa Hagemann Curtis Hainds Harper Hairston Caleb Hammond Seth Hansen Kaden Harmon Olivia Harmon Grant Harms Amanda Harrell, D.V.M. Charles Harris Gertrude Harris Madelyn Harris Shari Harris Richard Hartman, M.D. Susan Hartman Julia Hasbrouck Georgia Hatfield Jordan Hayes

Kendra Henley Jeraldo Henry Mira Hentschel Joseph Hepler Jason Hetherington Lynda Hirsekorn Jason Hoffarth Doty Leah-Anne Hoffman Shawn Hogan Grant Holmes Greg Horn Linda Horn Debra Houston, SPHR Allison Huffman Drew Hurlburt Patience Jackson James Jarvis Collin Jeffries Liana Jenkins William Jenkins Kraig Johnson Britain Johnston Donna Jones Keith Jones Lew Jones Spencer Juergens Cooper Justus Dr. Srikanth Kavirayani James Keating Hanna Keeter Cassandra Kefalas Emma Keim Tre Kent George Kichura, M.D. Joe Kingsbury Justine Kingsbury Dallas Kleiboeker Sophia Koch Amanda Koenigstein Rich Kolkmeier Katherine Koziatek Kathryn Kraft Brooke Kramer Madeline Kreikemeier Ryan Krueger Teri Krueger Ella Kruse Eleanor Kuester Benjamin Kuhlmann Carol Kunce Kevin Kunce Hannah LaChance Rebecca Laird Jane Lankford Elizabeth Latson Rebecca Lawver, Ph.D. Kelly Leal Richard Leboeuf Judith LeFevre Erica Lembke Gary Lembke

Drew Lewis Julia Lewis, Ed.D. Sara Liess Dr. Richard Limbert Xin Liu, Ph.D. Madelyn Long Jackson Lundberg Dr. Paul Luong Jennifer Luong Jill Luther, D.V.M. Martin MacDonald Bronwyn MacFarlane, Ph.D. Anna Marshall Brenden Marshall Levi Martin Wendy Marx-Cunitz Reagan Matteotti Lily Mattingly Jason McClitis Laurel McCoy JT McDermott J. Brock McEwen Brian McGarry Nicholas McLean Robert McMillen Emily McNulty Sandra Meisenheimer Cathy Meyer Jerald Meyer Dale Michels Douglas Milford Kimberly Milford Amy Miller Carol Miller John Miller Justin Miller Nina Momphard Latisha Moon Jeffrey Moore Sally Moore Deborah Morton Jian Mulligan William Mulligan, Ph.D. Mary Murphy Jessica Nichols John O'Connor Kimberly O'Connor Kathleen Osthoff Jonathan Overberg Dennis Parker Terri Parker Katherine Parkins Nicholas Pauley Gwendolyn Pearl Jenna Pearl Jack Allen Peveto Anna Pfaff Noah Phelps Chad Phillips Mary Phillips Dr. Janet Porter

Stephen Porter Kenneth Pospisil Olivia Prudhomme Christopher Putzler Tyler Quinlan Elizabeth Raetz John Raetz Madeline Raetz Gabriela Ramirez-Arellano Kerstin Randolph Corbin Ray Frank Reardon Lucy Reardon Dr. Karen Reid Maddison Reiss Jared Reynolds Nikki Reynolds Isaac Rhode Ryanne Rhude Megan Rice Austin Robb Andrew Roddy Braeden Rogers Kayley Rogers Matthew Rogers Hannah Runion Jacob Rush James Rush Steven Salyer Grace Sanders Karen Sands Keith Sands Chad Sayre Daryl Scales, Sr. Adam Scheer Kimberly Schellenberger Kurt Schellenberger Holly Schieber William Schifman Meredith Schmitz Richard Schwarz, Ph.D. Sheila Scott Fatemeh Shahedipour, Ph.D. Dr. Chad Sharky Jessica Sharky Steven Sharp Emma Sheerman John Sheerman, D.V.M. Julie Sheerman, Ph.D. Tess Sheerman Alyssa Shelby, D.V.M. Lori Shelton Maris Henry Sheridan Joseph Simmons Ben Smith Shawna Davis Abbie Smothers Samuel Snyder Gregory Sorenson Arthur Spears, P.E. Kraig Spence SPRING 2026 43

Marie Spence Alyson Spiek Holly Stephens Anna Stoll Mindy Stomp Tobey Stosberg, Ph.D. Nora Strawbridge Mary Sutton Austin Swafford Mariah Swafford Cheryl Swartz Wade Swartz William Talley Elizabeth TankersleyBankhead, Ph.D. Herb Taylor Kathryn Taylor Terry Taylor Charles Teeter

Lauren Tellman Amanda Terbrock Louis Terbrock Galen Thomas Linda Thomas Nathan Thomas William Thompson Clara Threlkeld James Treaster Adyson Trower Carolyn Trower Mary Tumbarello James Valbracht Melinda Van Eaton William Van Eaton Ryleigh Van Emmerik Izaiah Vasseur Cathleen Veach Laura Vinyard

Tim Vinyard Scott Vogler Timothy Wagman Cassidy Walker Bridgette Walshe Laila Waterman Cameron Watson Emily Watson Hanna Watson Clara Wavering Sara Westcott Carolyn Wheeler Thomas Wicks, Ph.D. The Honorable Stanley Williams Amelia Wilson Che Wilson Finn Wilson Julia Wilson

Kathleen Wilson Kyleigh Wilson Luke Wolz John Wonderly Brooks Wood Marshall Woody Ashley Wysong, M.D. Addie Yoder Joshlin Yoder Rebecca Young Emily Zerr

Give your Tiger Pride purpose.

Become a life member of the Mizzou Alumni Association.

Every life membership is a gift with an immediate impact, a portion of which goes into a lasting fund that powers: ̭ Homecoming and other hallmark traditions ̭ Student scholarships that change lives ̭ Nationwide events and volunteer opportunities Upgrade today at mizzou.com/life or by calling 573-882-6611.

Life members receive a Truman keychain, custom MAA tumbler and life member lapel pin — a small token of our thanks for your support.

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44 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS Class Notes 1960

John J. Pierce, BA ’65, of Ramsey, N.J., wrote Imagination and Evolution: A Truer History of Science Fiction (Hollywood Comics, 2026).

Norman Polsky, BA ’66, of St. Louis, owner and broker at Coldwell Banker Premier Group, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Real Estate.

1970

Roar of the Engaged

SAM O’KEEFE

I’ve had the privilege of serving in leadership roles for two successful Mizzou fundraising campaigns, and that vantage point gives me a clear perspective on moments that truly matter. Over the past 25 years, the generosity of our alumni and donors has always been transformational.

Yes, our $2 billion campaign goal is ambitious. And yes, the priorities it supports are bold and forward-looking. What’s different now is the scale of opportunity before us.

Power the Roar carries that same promise.

What excites me most is the generosity behind this effort and the breadth of engagement it invites. That’s where our 2/2/2 approach comes in: $2 billion raised; 2 million points of engagement, which we call “Mizzou moments”; and 200,000 Tigers engaged, opening more pathways than ever before for alumni to make a difference.

This framework reflects an important truth: Time and talent are powerful ways to fuel impact. Serving in a volunteer role, attending an event, advocating for Mizzou in your community, supporting a MIZZOUMADE business — all these moments matter. Collectively, they strengthen our university in ways no single metric could capture.

Through Power the Roar, we are challenging ourselves to become the very best version of a modern alumni community: One that values participation alongside contribution. One that recognizes engagement not as a transaction, but as a relationship.

You’ll see examples of this throughout the pages that follow. From expanded volunteer opportunities (“This Is Belonging at Mizzou,” page 54) to new ways alumni can connect with students and one another, the campaign is broadening both who participates and how.

As the campaign progresses, we’ll continue to share our momentum and measure our impact. In the meantime, I invite you to embrace the idea that there is a place for everyone in Power the Roar, for your time, talent and treasure.

TODD MCCUBBIN, M ED ’95 Executive Director, Mizzou Alumni Association Email: mccubbint@missouri.edu X: @MizzouTodd

H M I Z ZO U A LUMNI A SSO C IATIO N ANNUAL M EM BER | H L IF E MEM BER

Steve Turner, BJ ’73, of Chesterfield, Mo., wrote PR That Works: Real Strategies. Real Campaigns.

Real Results (Paramount Press, 2025).

Mitchell Baden, BS Ed ’78, of Wildwood, Mo., president and chief executive officer of Royal Banks of Missouri, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Banking and Finance.

1980

Susan Trautman, BS ’80, MPA ’87, of St. Louis, retired chief executive officer of Great Rivers Greenway, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Living Legends.

Rick Walsh, BA ’80, of St. Louis, firm chairman at Lewis Rice LLC, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Professional Services.

Rhonda HammNiebruegge, BA ’82, of St. Louis, executive director of St. Louis Lambert International Airport, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Leading Industries.

Ellen Fuson Port, BS Ed ’83, of St. Louis, received the Bob Jones Award from the United States Golf Association.

HMary Rhodes Russell, JD ’83, of Chesterfield,

Mo., received the 2025 Sandra Day O’Connor Award from the National Judicial College.

Stacey Goldman, BJ ’85, of St. Louis, principal at Cannonball, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Professional Services.

Jerry Townsend, BS Acc ’85, of St. Louis, Midwest regional managing director at UHY LLP, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Professional Services.

HRichard Engel Jr., JD ’87, of St. Louis, managing partner at Armstrong Teasdale LLP, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Professional Services.

Jim DeGraffenreid, BS ’87, of Phoenix, wrote General Physics: Why and How Things Move (KendallHunt Publishing, 2025).

Jim Sansone, JD ’87, of St. Louis, principal at the Sansone Group, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Real Estate.

HLisa Walker, BA ’87, of Wentzville, Mo., wrote A Victor’s Heart: Don’t Bring a Knife to a Jesus Fight (Bookbaby, 2025).

Lesley Hoffarth, BS CiE ’88, of Kirkwood, Mo., president and executive director of Forest Park Forever, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Nonprofits.

Mary Lamie, BS CiE ’88, of Millstadt, Ill., executive vice president of multimodal enterprises at Bi-State Development, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Leading Industries.

HSimon Pursifull, BA ’89, of St. Charles, Mo., retired after 35 years with State Farm Insurance.

SPRING 2026 45

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS

Geyer award recipients, standing from left, U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, Drew Dampf and Richard Miller, and seated, Ina Rae Brazeale, widow of recipient Chuck Brazeale, before an event at the Missouri governor's mansion.

Where Missouri Meets Mizzou Charles “Chuck” Brazeale BS Ag '57 A lifelong commitment to public service guided Brazeale’s decades of legislative advocacy on behalf of Mizzou’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. His sustained leadership of the Missouri Flagship Council, including multiple terms and service as board chair in 2024 and 2025, helped strengthen political partnerships supporting the university’s statewide mission. Colleagues recognized his clear understanding of the college’s impact across Missouri. Beyond distinguished careers in the U.S. Army and as president of TPNB Bank, Brazeale measured success through generosity and service. He died in December 2025 and left a lasting legacy.

46 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

Drew Dampf BS '13 Public service has defined Dampf’s professional path, which includes more than a decade of experience across Missouri’s legislative and executive branches. His career began in the Missouri State Capitol as an intern and bill monitor before progressing to senior staff roles for multiple senators, including chief of staff positions for former State Senator Dan Hegeman and Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin, BS BA ’78.

Now serving as legislative director for Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, Dampf oversees policy priorities and caucus operations. His work has contributed to major investments in NextGen MURR, NextGen Precision Health and statewide MU Extension programming.

U.S. Rep Sam Graves BS Ag '86 Representing Missouri’s Sixth District since 2001 has centered Graves’s work on infrastructure, agriculture and rural communities. As a sixth‑generation farmer and small businessman, he chairs the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. He has advanced investments in I‑70 and in rural bridges, railways and waterways vital to farmers statewide. His perspective as a graduate of Mizzou’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources informs a consistent commitment to the land‑grant mission. Support for agricultural research, MU Extension and the Greenley Research Farm has helped align federal priorities with Missouri’s needs.

Richard Miller BA '70 Leadership and advocacy at the state level have shaped Miller’s relationship with Mizzou for more than two decades. In his role as chief executive officer of Miller’s Professional Imaging and Mpix.com, the nation’s largest professional photo lab organization, he uses his platform to champion the university’s mission across Missouri. As a founding member of the Missouri Flagship Council, Miller has educated legislators for more than 20 years about Mizzou’s impact on research, healthcare and student success. His continued service includes leadership roles with the Mizzou: Our Time to Lead campaign, Missouri 100 and the For All We Call Mizzou campaign.

SCOT T SCHAEFER

The annual Henry S. Geyer Awards honor public officials and citizens whose enduring leadership has advanced higher education and the mission of the University of Missouri. Their stories trace the space where public service and the land-grant mission come together.

Charlotte Cicero, scholarship recipient

IT’S THE MOMENT they call your name, the crowd erupts and with arms raised, you take your walk. Handshakes. Caps fly. Family time.

Mom’s crying. Dad’s crying. Now, you’re crying.

It’s moments when endings turn into beginnings.

At Mizzou, it’s how we roar. And it’s generosity that makes it possible.

Read Charlotte’s story.

POWERTHEROAR.COM SPRING 2026 47

CONNECTIONS THAT FUEL YOU The MIZZOUMADE® Business Network helps entrepreneurs connect, partner and grow.

Join for free at mizzou.us/MMBN. Our thanks to these MIZZOUMADE coffee shops, who Make Mizzou Stronger.

48 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS ALUMNI BOOKSHELF

Bound in Black and Gold This season’s alumni books range from a deep investigation of a wrongful conviction to new poetry and a study of Ghana’s drum conflicts. Together, they show the breadth and precision alumni bring to their work.

Art for Everyone: How to Collect Art & Personalize Your Space on Any Budget by Liz Lidgett, BJ ’07. The art advisor, Martha Stewart Living contributor and gallery owner provides a welcoming, practical guide that helps anyone confidently choose and buy art on any budget (Simon & Schuster/Simon Element, 2026).

1

Duct Tape and White Lies: A Woman’s Practical Guide to Real Life Success by Emily Lampkin, BA ’95. A candid, practical guide that gives women real tools to navigate the pressures, expectations, and invisible labor of leadership (Regalo Press, 2026).

2

If We Don’t Get It: A People’s History of Ferguson by Stefan M. Bradley, PhD ’03. A gripping, interview-driven history of how young Black activists transformed the unrest in Ferguson into a national movement for justice (The New Press, 2025).

3

Maintenance by William Trowbridge, BA ’63, MA ’65. A poetry collection from Missouri’s former Poet Laureate, praised for his witty and compassionate take on the everyday work of keeping things together (Spartan Press, 2025).

4

Gwendolyn & Eddie by Michael O.L. Seabaugh, BJ ’69. A 1950s homemaker leans on an unruly monkey as her marriage crumbles and tragedy approaches (Kohler, 2025).

5

The Noise Silence Makes: Secularity and Ghana’s Drum Wars by Mariam Goshadze MA ’12. A study of Accra’s longrunning drumming ban and the clashes it sparked between traditional authorities and Pentecostal and charismatic churches (Duke University Press, 2025).

6

Injustice Town by Rick Tulsky, BJ ’72. An exposé of the wrongful conviction of

Lamonte McIntyre and the police and prosecutorial corruption uncovered in Kansas City, Kan., praised by John Grisham and Buzz Bissinger (Pegasus, 2026).

The Illustrated Mark Twain and the Buffalo Express by Thomas Reigstad, MA ’72. The notable Twain scholar compiled ten of Mark Twain’s Buffalo Express stories and presented them with a century of illustrations to create a historically layered look at his 1869–70 newspaper writing (North Country, 2024).

8

The Amazing Life of Jeffrey Deroine by Greg Olson, MA ’09. A biography uncovering the remarkable life of trader, diplomat and frontier settler Jeffrey Deroine, who was born enslaved in 1806 St. Louis (University of Missouri Press, 2026).

9

7

10

The Bootlegger’s Bride

by Rick Skwiot, MA ’92. Set in

St. Louis’ Polish immigrant neighborhoods, this historical novel weaves murder, family drama, and coming-of-age struggles across prohibition through Vietnam (Amphorae Publishing Group, 2025).

Opening Boxes: How to Navigate Life When You Have Autism by Jay Rothman, BA ’83. Part memoir, part guide offering practical guidance for autistic adults from an author who penned a chapter in the second edition of Temple Grandin’s Different...Not Less.

(Jay Rothman, 2025) 11

Scalable Talent Management: Proven People Strategies for Excellence in Organizations of Any Size by Deborah Snellen, BS Ed ’79. A practical guide introducing Snellen’s 4C Model (culture, capacity, capability and career) to help organizations of any size build stronger workplaces (Kendall Hunt, 2025).

12

SPRING 2026 49

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS 1990

Brian Behrens, BS BA ’91, of St. Louis, a partner at Carmody MacDonald PC, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Professional Services.

HTracy Henke, BA ’91, of Chesterfield, Mo., deputy executive director and chief operating officer at Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Center St. Louis, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Leading Industries.

Larry Linthacum, BS BA ’91, Ed D ’16, of Jefferson City, Mo., president and chief executive officer of Special Olympics Missouri, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Nonprofits.

Mark Branstetter, BS BA ’92, MBA ’93, of St. Louis, partner at Panattoni Development, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Real Estate.

H Jody Mitori, BJ ’94, of Columbia, Mo., is chief marketing and communications officer for the University of Missouri System and the University of Missouri.

Larry Weinberg, BS Acc ’94, of St. Louis, president of Accounting Career Consultants, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Professional Services.

Tim Nowak, BS BA ’92, of St. Louis, executive director of World Trade Center St. Louis, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Government, Economic & Community Development.

Michael DeCamp, JD ’95, of St. Louis, president and chief executive officer of Expedition Ag Partners, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Leading Industries.

Terri Owen, BA ’94, of St. Louis, general manager of FleishmanHillard St. Louis, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Professional Services.

Kristen Sorth, BA ’94, MPA ’98, of St. Louis, director and chief executive officer of St. Louis County Library, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Nonprofits.

Chris Hohn, JD ’95, of St. Louis, chair and partner at Thompson Coburn LLP, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Professional Services.

Kevin McLaughlin, JD ’95, of St. Louis, co-managing partner at UB Greensfelder, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Professional Services.

HTom Boren, MPA ’96, of Columbia, Mo., retired

after 29 years with the University of Missouri Advancement.

Brett Conner, BS ’98, of Lee’s Summit, Mo., is chief manufacturing officer for SME. Orvin Kimbraugh, BSW ’98, MSW ’00, of St. Louis, chairman and chief executive officer of Midwest BankCentre, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Banking & Finance.

Jody Sowell, MA ’98, of St. Louis, president and chief executive officer of the Missouri Historical Society, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Nonprofits.

HColby Tanner, BA ’98, of Haslet, Texas, is chief executive officer of OmniTRAX. HMindy Mazur, BA ’99, of

Webster Groves, Mo., owner and chief executive officer of Mazur & Co., was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Professional Services.

HStephanie Regagnon, BA ’99, of Kirkwood, Mo., director of the Yield Lab Institute, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Emerging Leaders.

2000

Matthew Murray, BA ’00, of Chicago is a principal at Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies.

Heather Peterson, BS ’00, of Barnhart, Mo., earned her certified meeting planner credential.

John Kuebler, BJ ’01, of Chicago, is a finalist for the 2026 Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Leadership.

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Care that endures For more than 30 years, Barbara Levy built a nursing career rooted in compassion.

Now in retirement, she continues to make a difference, caring for people and animals in a new way. Through a charitable gift annuity, she supports nursing and veterinary programs at Mizzou while securing a reliable income for life.

Discover how a charitable gift annuity can support Mizzou — and your future.

Contact a gift advisor at 573-882-0272 or giftplanning@missouri.edu.

Gift Planning University of Missouri

Disclosure: State and federal laws regulate gift annuities, and regulations differ from state to state. The University of Missouri will provide you with a statement disclosing any information required by state and federal regulations governing your agreement. Certain states have specific disclosure requirements for gift annuities: Annuities are subject to regulation by the State of California. Payments under such agreements, however, are not protected or otherwise guaranteed by any government agency or the California Life and Health Insurance Guarantee Association. A charitable gift annuity is not regulated by the Oklahoma Insurance Department and is not protected by a guaranty association affiliated with the Oklahoma Insurance Department. Charitable gift annuities are not regulated by and are not under the jurisdiction of the South Dakota Division of Insurance. Persons should seek the advice of competent counsel when considering an annuity. The information on this page is for educational purposes only. Consult your financial and tax advisors before making a gift.

SPRING 2026 51

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS Meridith McAvoy Perkins, BSF ’01, of St. Louis, executive director of Forest ReLeaf of Missouri, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Nonprofits.

Laura Ray, BS Acc, M Acc ’01, of Chicago, managing partner at Deloitte Tax LLP, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Professional Services.

Ryan McClure, BJ ’03, of St. Louis, executive director of the Gateway Arch Park Foundation, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Nonprofits.

Jean Becker BA ’78, BJ ’78, translated her School of Journalism education into a long career working in the inner circle of a presidential family. The Martinsburg, Mo., native spent 30 years working for President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara. After spending 10 years as a journalist, she became the First Lady’s deputy press secretary, and after the Bushes left the White House she became the former president’s chief of staff.

She’s continuing to share stories from her experiences, along with those of her peers from past presidencies. Becker’s third book, Don’t Tell the President: The Best, Worst, and Mostly Untold Stories from Presidential Advance, was released in February. It’s co-authored by Tom Collamore, who also worked in the first Bush administration with her.

The book focuses on the groups of specialized White House staff and volunteers responsible for planning and coordinating a president’s travel and itinerary outside the White House. The duties include scouting future presidential stops to assess press access, motorcade routes and security.

Becker’s first two books were about Bush, but she originally pitched Don’t Tell The President to HarperCollins after the success of her debut book, The Man I Knew: The Amazing Story of George H. W. Bush’s Post-Presidency. The publisher expressed interest, but asked for another Bush book first, which led to Character Matters (2024), about the life lessons she learned from the former president.

Upon completion of Character Matters, discussion turned to her earlier idea. Shelves are filled 52 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

with books about presidents and the worlds they inhabited. Few, if any, had examined advance teams and the logistics of presidential travel, at least not until Becker’s book.

“I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit to in bars with presidential advance Top: Jean Becker, second people,” Becker says.

“They all have unbe- from left, with Barbara Bush, seated, during Becker’s years lievable stories.”

The book features working for the Bush family.

A keen documentarian of the stories from 96 foradministration, Becker began mer members of pres- her career in the White House idential teams, from press office and went on to the administrations of serve in senior roles of trust.

Lyndon B. Johnson to Barack Obama. They share first-person accounts of historical moments, along with more lighthearted recollections. Even 95-year-old Lloyd Hand, Johnson’s chief of protocol, contributed.

“They were trained to operate in the shadows, behind the curtain and never let the sun shine on them,” co-author Collamore says. “To the casual reader I think it really helps them understand all that goes into a presidential appearance at the White House or a complex one at some foreign capital.” — Alex Schiffer, BJ ’17

Jason Goodson, BA Acc ’04, of Wentzville, Mo., chief business officer at PleoPharma, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Leading Industries.

Blake Hamilton, BA ’04, of St. Louis, interim president and chief executive officer of International Institute of St. Louis, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Nonprofits.

Joan Sheridan, BA ’04, of New Orleans, is an attorney with Chaffe McCall, LLP. Elliott Kellner, BA ’05, MS ’13, PhD ’15, of St. Louis, executive director of Taylor Geospatial Institute, was named to the 2026 St. Louis Business 500: Leading Industries.

Hollie King, BS BA ’08, of London is the chief executive officer and founder of Sweet Bee Organics.

Greg Olson, MA ’09, of Columbia, Mo., wrote The Amazing Life of Jeffrey

H M I Z ZOU ALU M N I ASSOCI ATI ON AN N UAL M EM B ER | H L IF E ME MB E R

COURTESY JEAN BECKER

Making History Happen on Time

Ellen Zimmer, BS Acc ’03, of Brentwood, Mo., is chief financial officer at Tarlton Corporation.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO ACHIEVE EXCELLENCE? Ensure Mizzou competes and thrives as a leading research institution. Support the Chancellor’s Fund for Excellence. mizzou.us/cfe • 573-882-6511

SPRING 2026 53

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS Deroine: Enslaved Trader, Prairie Diplomat, and Missouri Settler (University of Missouri Press, 2026).

2010

H Bryan Weintrop, BA ’12, of Los Angeles, is a partner at Venable LLP.

Hanna Battah, BJ ’15, of New York, is a News Anchor and Correspondent for ABC News.

Curtis Strubinger, BS Acc, M Acc ’15, of Charlotte, N.C., is an attorney at Robinson Bradshaw.

2020

Julia Bower, BJ ’21, MA ’22, of Chicago, is vice president at JPMorganChase.

HTyler Hagan, BS BA ’23, of Chicago, is ABL syndications associate at J.P. Morgan.

MIZZOU GIVING DAY

NUTS ABOUT GENEROSITY

This Is Belonging at Mizzou

Mizzou Giving Day generated 3,095 gifts during a 24-hour surge of philanthropy from noon March 11 to noon March 12. Donor participation surpassed totals from the past four years as alumni, faculty, staff and friends from all 50 states and several countries supported scholarships, research, health care and MU Extension programs serving every Missouri county.

Thirty-three colleges, schools and units participated, making it one of the broadest campus engagements in the event’s nineyear history. The $1.9 million raised counts toward Power the Roar, Mizzou’s $2 billion campaign.

Through the new Name a Mizzou Squirrel initiative, donors laid claim to 209 campus critters.

The Mizzou Ambassadors program continues to demonstrate the impact of alumni who stay engaged and ready to serve. Through just-in-time volunteer opportunities, ambassadors support students and university programs at moments that matter most. This year alone, 925 ambassadors wrote and mailed more than 16,500 congratulatory notes to newly admitted Mizzou students, offering a welcoming connection before they ever set foot on campus. Another 595 ambassadors helped review and award more than $750,000 in Mizzou Alumni Association scholarships, which directly shape students’ futures.

Interest in the program is growing fast.

Already, 2,437 ambassadors have signed up toward a goal of 3,000 volunteers.

Each new ambassador strengthens Mizzou’s ability to show up when needed, whether through a handwritten note, thoughtful review or timely support.

Interested alumni can volunteer at mizzou.com/mizambassador

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Tell your Mizzou story and support student scholarships that help students find out what drives them.

MIZZOU.COM/PLATES

54 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

H M I Z ZOU ALU M N I ASSOCI ATI ON AN N UAL M EM B ER | H L IF E ME MB E R

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56 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS Faculty Deaths

Blake Seigel, BS BA ’23, of Chicago, is a sports sales planner at NBCUniversal.

HAudrey Stanard, BJ ’23, MA ’25, of Washington, Mo., is a photojournalist with the Missourian Media Group.

Tallis Johnson, BA ’25, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., is a multimedia journalist at KBSI Fox23.

Weddings

HTaylor Kinnerup, BJ ’17, and Jordan Noble, MA ’20, of Phoenix, Oct. 11, 2025.

Bailey Lawson, BS ’19, and John Ginos, BS BA ’19, of St. Louis, Oct. 11, 2025.

HKristen Rogge, BS, BS BA ’24, and Anthony Spinello, BS BA ’22, of Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 31, 2026.

Howard Hinkel, of Columbia, Mo., Nov. 25, 2025, at 84. He was an English professor and longtime department chair.

Richard Hocks, of St. Charles, Mo., Oct. 24, 2025, at 89. He was a professor emeritus of English.

George P. Kennedy, BJ ’64, PhD ’78, of Columbia, died March 20, 2026. He joined the Missouri School of Journalism faculty in 1974 and served as managing editor of The Missourian, department chair, and associate dean.

Deaths

Nancy Thompson Tipton, BJ ’44, of Lakewood, Colo., Feb. 7, 2026, at 102. She was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma and a World War II codebreaker.

H Verda Goodman

Deutscher, BA ’49, of

Washington, D.C., April 10, 2023, at 98. She served in the U.S. Army.

Helen Wells Wilson, BS Ed ’51, of Prairie Village, Kan., March 9, 2025, at 95. She was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma.

Jorae Miller, BS Ed ’52, of St. Louis, Nov. 11, 2025, at 94.

HMary Ann Mattingly Taylor, BS Ed ’52, of Woodstock, Ga., Nov. 6, 2025, at 95.

She was a member of Gamma Phi Beta.

HDonna Grate, BS Ed ’53, of Oak Harbor, Wash., Oct. 27, 2025, at 93.

She was a member of Chi Omega.

Wayne Tucker, BS BA ’54, of Oronogo, Mo., Feb. 21, 2026, at 94. He served in the U.S. Army.

HDonna Esmay, BA ’56, of Cheyenne, Wy., Dec. 3, 2025, at 91. She was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta.

HWilliam Pittman, BS ’56, of Schenectady, N.Y., Oct. 15, 2025, at 90.

He served in the U.S. Army.

HCarroll Vowels, BS Ag ’56, of Eau Claire, Wis., Jan. 2, 2026, at 91. He was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho and served in the U.S. Air Force.

HCharles Brazeale, BS Ag ’57, of Columbia, Mo., Dec. 30, 2025, at 90.

He served in the U.S. Army for 20 years.

HHelen Louise Loughran, BA ’57, of Greenville, Miss., Nov. 27, 2025, at 89. She was a member of Delta Gamma.

HLaura “Larkie” Esther, BSN ’58, of Joplin, Mo.,

Dec. 3, 2025, at 89. She was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta.

HJoanna Todd, BA ’58, of Asheville, N.C., Jan. 26, 2026, at 79. She was a member of Chi Omega.

HDavid T. O’Neal Jr., BSCHE ’59, of Hillsborough, Calif., March 13, 2026 at 89.

HDavid Gene Snider, BS CiE ’59, of Nixa, Mo., Nov. 18, 2025, at 88. He served in the Army National Guard.

Jay Milne, MD ’60, of Springfield, Mo., April 23, 2024, at 89. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi and served in the U.S. Navy.

HGary Schmedding, BJ ’60, of Chapin, S.C., Dec. 2, 2025, at 87. He was a member of Delta Chi and served in the U.S. Army.

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SPRING 2026 57

THANK YOU! The Mizzou Alumni Association is grateful for the support of our partners, whose contributions help sustain and enhance our programming and traditions.

Please join us in thanking the following 2025 MAA sponsors:

Interested in becoming an MAA sponsor?

Visit mizzou.com/sponsorship for ways to boost your business and brand, while Making Mizzou Stronger at the same time.

58 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

“ Mizzou provided me with more than an education.”

For Bill Alkemeyer, BS ME ’91, that meant the tools to build his own business — and his future. Today, he’s paying it forward with a planned gift that creates opportunities for the next generation of engineering leaders.

Explore how you can give through your estate plan. Contact a gift advisor at 573-882-0272 or giftplanning@missouri.edu.

Gift Planning University of Missouri

SPRING 2026 59

Celebrate with us as we open the doors to the NEW Thompson Center for Autism & Neurodevelopment

GRAND OPENING C E L E B R AT I O N M AY 7 - 8 , 2 0 2 6

GRAND OPENING EVENTS

Don’t miss these opportunities to celebrate this extraordinary new space.

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4:30 PM

9:00 AM - 12:30 PM

City of Columbia Proclamation as an Autism Friendly City at the “Keyhole” Corner of Broadway and 8th Street Downtown Columbia

Open House Thompson Center for Autism & Neurodevelopment 701 Veterans United Drive —— 10:15 AM

Ribbon Cutting & Program

E V E N T R E G I S T R AT I O N I S O P E N !

For details and to register for events, scan the QR code or visit the event website: thompsonfoundation.org/grandopening Questions? Contact Christine Pickett, 573-882-1923, christine@thompsonfoundation.org

Extraordinary T O G E T H E R

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS Sandra Yon, BS Ed ’60, of Virginia Beach, Va., July 6, 2024. She was a member of Alpha Phi. Burton Jensen, BA ’61, of Inverness, Ill., Jan. 11, 2026, at 86. He was a member of Sigma Chi and served in the U.S. Army.

George Lutman, BA ’61, MD ’64, of Greensboro, N.C., Jan. 14, 2026, at 86.

HCharlotte DeEtte Cole, BSN ’62, of Mt. Vernon, Mo., Nov. 27, 2025, at 85.

Nancy Wedig, BJ ’62, of Bridgeton, Mo., Dec. 26, 2025, at 85. She was a member of Alpha Chi Omega.

Margaret Ruffner, BJ ’63, of Barrington, Ill., Jan. 26, 2026, at 85.

HGary T. Sacks, BS BA ’63, of St. Louis, Jan. 29, 2026,

at 84. He was a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi. Richard Beesely, EdD ’64, Oakland City, Ind., Feb. 19, 2026, at 95. He served in the U.S. Army.

Nancy Kirkham Forderhase, MA PhD ’64, Fort Myers, Fla., at 85.

Winifred “Wicky” Sleight, BA ’64, MA ’69, of Marshall, Mo., Aug. 24, 2025. She was a member of Alpha Phi. HJoe Buerkle, BS BA ’65, JD ’68, of Laramie, Wy., Feb. 3, 2026, at 82.

HSharon Stowers, BSN ’65, of Centralia, Mo., Nov. 6, 2025, at 81. She served in the U.S. Navy.

Ulysses Walls, BA ’65, of San Diego, Jan. 13, 2026, at 83. He was a dentist for more than 30 years.

Nancy Grantham, BS Ed ’66, M Ed ’67, of Camdenton, Mo., Dec. 30, 2025, at 82.

Marshall Odell, BSF ’66, of Colorado Springs, Colo., Nov. 6, 2025, at 86.

He served in the U.S. Army.

David Dishman, BS EE ’67, of Poway, Calif., Dec. 15, 2025, at 81. He served in the U.S. Navy.

Richard Brownlee III, BA ’68, JD ’72, of Jefferson City, Mo., Dec. 30, 2025, at 79. He was a member of Sigma Nu. HJudith Hodoval, MA ’68, of Evansville, Ill., Jan. 12, 2026, at 84.

HRonda Selby, BS Ed ’69, of Montross, Va., Nov. 19, 2024, at 77. She was an Army wife, teacher and paralegal.

HMelvin Black, BA ’70, of Chicago, Jan. 18, 2026, at 80.

Jill Murray Draper, BJ ’76, of Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 12, 2026, at 72.

William Jenkins, PhD ’70, of Colleyville, Texas, Nov. 26, 2025, at 88.

HAlan Organ, MD ’76, of Overland Park, Kan., Jan. 31, 2026, at 77.

HF. Stephen Byergo, DVM ’71, of Tipton, Mo., Nov. 13, 2025, at 77.

HG. William Goldinger Jr., BS Ag ’71, MS ’72, of Hannibal, Mo., Nov. 11, 2025, at 76.

HAndy Reese, PhD ’71, of Augusta, Ga., Nov. 8, 2025, at 83.

Nate Allen, BJ ’73, of Fayetteville, Ark., Dec. 3, 2025, at 75.

John Robert “Bob” Reece, BS Ag ’74, of Wichita Falls, Texas, Jan. 14, 2026, at 91.

HSam Phillips, BS PA ’78, JD ’82, of Columbia, Mo., Dec. 16, 2025, at 70.

He was deputy chief disciplinary counsel for the Missouri Supreme Court.

Kevin R. Sweeney, JD ’82, of Kansas City, Mo., Feb. 19, 2026, at 68.

Epie Pius, MA ’90, PhD ’03, of Columbia, Mo., Feb. 5, 2026, at 71.

Andrew O’Haro, BA ’17, of Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 4, 2025, at 32.

Andrea Mykala Williams, BA ’18, of Memphis, Tenn., July 8, 2020, at 24.

The lifelong perks of being a Mizzou alum.

Your education and hard work should be rewarded — especially now.

As a University of Missouri graduate, you and qualifying family members may be eligible for exclusive senior living discounts at Brookdale.

Whether you’re considering independent living, assisted living or memory care, including Alzheimer’s, Brookdale offers the comfort of choice and the confidence of compassionate care.

You’ll enjoy a lifestyle with less to manage and more to enjoy — housekeeping, laundry and restaurant-style dining included. And with staff on-site 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you’ll have peace of mind, too.

Call us at (866) 749-7445 or drop in for a visit and mention “Tigers” to learn more.

For more details, visit brookdale.com/mizzoualumni.

Applicable to all discounts: Residents under a Life Care Agreement are not eligible for the discounts. These discounts do not apply to any room, board or services which are paid for all or in part by any state or federally funded program. Discounts are available to members and their family members, including spouse, adult children, siblings, parents, grandparents, and corresponding in-law or step adult children. Subject to availability. Discounts cannot be combined with any other offer or discount. Further restriction may apply. * The Senior Living discount is only applicable to new residents of a Brookdale independent living, assisted living, or memory care community admitting under an executed residency agreement. Discount applies only to the monthly fee/basic service rate, excluding care costs and other fees and is calculated based on the initial monthly fee/basic service rate. ** The In-Home Services discount is only applicable to new clients of personal assistance services by a Brookdale agency under an executed service agreement. *** A Short-Term Stay discount is only applicable to new residents of a Brookdale assisted living or memory care community admitting under an executed respite agreement. Discount applies to the daily rate.

1405450 DSM

©2025 Brookdale Senior Living Inc. All rights reserved.

BROOKDALE SENIOR LIVING is a registered trademark of Brookdale Senior Living Inc.

H M I Z ZO U A LUMNI A SSO C IATIO N ANNUAL M EM BER | H L IF E MEM BER

SENIOR LIVING:

7.5% OFF

monthly fee/basic service rate*

IN-HOME SERVICES:

10% OFF service rate**

SHORT-TERM STAY: DISCOUNTED RATES VARY

%

by community***

SPRING 2026 61

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS REMEMBERING

JACK SMITH CRAFTED WHAT AMERICA WHISTLED At Leo Burnett Worldwide, the Chicago advertising agency that produced some of the nation’s most enduring campaigns, colleagues liked to say they could tell when Jack Smith, BA ’62, oversaw a late-night brainstorming session: The scripts came back with soy sauce splashes on them. Smith liked gathering his team at a sushi bar, spreading pages across the table and nudging ideas loose in the lively chaos. Creativity, he believed, needed room, laughter, shared sake and the occasional mess.

Smith died Jan. 27 at age 87. Before retiring in 1994, he became a defining creative force at Leo Burnett, eventually serving as group president and deputy chief creative officer. Many readers will remember his work through iconic campaigns such as United Airlines’ “Fly the Friendly Skies,” 7UP’s “Feels So Good Comin’ Down” and Heinz’s “Slow Dance.”

Smith studied communication at Mizzou and helped finance his education by playing drums with the College Cats, which he described as the first live group ever hired by the Tan-Tar-A Resort at the Lake of the Ozarks.

After decades in Chicago, he returned to Mizzou to teach strategic communication. Students often realized they’d grown up hearing his work long before they met the man behind it. He urged them to stay curious and keep the “trapdoors” of their minds open so ideas could wander in.

An adman who also wrote classic jingles, Smith lent his creativity to the university by contributing to the theme song for Mizzou's second fundraising campaign, “For All We Call Mizzou.”

Although he unsuccessfully pitched the theme song to Sheryl Crow, BS Ed ’84, he later delighted in learning she had unknowingly sung one of his jingles early in her career: “It’s a Good Time for the Great Taste of McDonald’s.”

In 2017, the Missouri School of Journalism honored Smith with the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, recognizing a career that shaped an industry, generations of students and the catchiest corners of America’s memory.

DEGREE KEY Bachelor’s degrees in engineering BS ChE, chemical BS CiE, civil BS CoE, computer BS EE, electrical BS IE, industrial BS ME, mechanical Master’s degrees M Acc, accounting MS Ag Ed, agricultural education MA, arts M Ed, education MS, science MSW, social work MPA, public affairs

Doctoral degrees PhD, philosophy EdD, education JD, law MD, medicine DVM, veterinary medicine Incomplete degree Arts, arts and science Bus, business Educ, education Engr, engineering Journ, journalism Scan for detailed degree information.

Brookdale Senior Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 brookdale.com Drury Hotels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 druryhotels.com Farmers Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 farmersinsurancechoice.com/mizzou Farmers National Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 farmersnational.com Langdon & Emison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-3 langdonemison.com Mizzou Advancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47, 52, 53, 59 giving.missouri.edu Mizzou Alumni Association . . . . . . . . 2, 42, 44, 48, 54, 58 mizzou.com The Mizzou Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 themizzoustore.com Thompson Foundation for Autism & Neurodevelopment 60 thompsonfoundation.org Trulaske College of Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-4 business.missouri.edu To advertise in MIZZOU, call 573-882-6611

62 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

ROB HILL

Bachelor’s degrees BS Acc, accounting BS Ag, agriculture BA, arts BS BA, business administration BS Ed, education BFA, fine arts BS FW, fisheries and wildlife BGS, general studies BHS, health sciences BS HE, home economics BS HES, human environmental sciences BJ, journalism BS Med, medicine BSN, nursing BS, science BSW, social work

A DV E RT ISI NG I N DE X

REMEMBERING

Events May 2 St. Louis Black & Gold Gala, Saint Louis Club, Clayton, Mo. 9 Senior Sendoff, Francis Quadrangle, Columbia 13 MIZ-ZOO Night at the Houston Zoo, Great Ape Gallery, Houston

The Man Behind Ranly’s Rules

BLAKE DINSDALE

A personal tribute to Mizzou Journalism icon Don Ranly.

“Beware the dasher who, when in doubt, dashes,” Don Ranly told me. His face displayed the kindly and slightly conspiratorial smile that appeared whenever a topic had piqued his interest.

When I heard Dr. Ranly, PhD ’76, former head of the magazine sequence at the Missouri School of Journalism, had died in November 2025, this memory stood out in a flood of many. It occurred when I was working as one of his assistants during his final semester teaching Magazine Editing in 2002.

I had just worked through a hefty pile of heavily marked-up student exercises, and we were chatting casually about personal pet peeves. My grievance concerned the overuse of em dashes.

I probably made some haughty remark about nobody knowing how to use a colon or a comma anymore. Dr. Ranly, never haughty but always invested in questions of style, responded with his memorable gem of a sentence.

It stuck with me. If you’re one of the countless journalism graduates who crossed paths with him during his three decades teaching, some witticism probably stuck with you, too. Maybe you learned not only the intricacies of grammar but also an editor’s most important traits, including a “reduced thirst for glory.” Perhaps you participated in his thorough and thoughtful Vox magazine postmortems. You might still keep a printed copy of “Ranly’s Rules” in a stack with your AP Stylebook and Strunk & White. Or you took one of his philosophical courses, such as General Semantics, and you witnessed the moment his eyes shone even brighter than usual when a

student came to some deep understanding in the course of classroom discussion.

To be clear, such understanding seemed more critical to his goals than mere grammatical correctness. He stood for clarity and precision, not pedantry. He wanted writers and editors to help their readers better understand the world around them. He knew that using clear, compelling language was the path to such understanding. In an era of shrinking editorial staffs, information overload and AI writing that is riddled with em dashes (I digress), that mission feels more important than ever. His legacy reflects that. In 2019, alumni and friends established the Don Ranly Magazine Scholarship, awarded to students focused on careers in the magazine business.

I think of Dr. Ranly often. I’m even breaking editorial style to include “Dr.” with his name because “Dr.” is simply his first name in my mind. Whenever a run-on sentence in a manuscript cries out for punctuation, he’s there.

As I write a practical how-to story, I recall his enthusiasm for “refrigerator journalism,” even if folks don’t clip stories and place them on household appliances anymore. “The map is not the territory,” the foundational idea behind General Semantics, has grounded my own personal philosophy.

Most of all, though, I remember the smile, and the infinite well of curiosity and kindness behind it. If you were ever on the receiving end of that smile, consider yourself fortunate, and hold onto the wisdom that came with it.

— Chris Blose, MA ’04

15 Mizzou Summer Kickoff, The Young School at Truman Heritage Habitat for Humanity, Independence, Mo. 20–21 Murray Center at Ten: Celebrating the Future of Documentary, Metrograph, New York City June 1 Tiger Club of St. Louis’s John Kadlec Classic Golf Tournament, Bogey Hills Country Club, St. Charles, Mo. 10 Power the Roar Chicago, Fulton Social + Terrace on 18, Chicago July 26 Tab Benoit, The Blue Note, Columbia August 6 Rocky Mountain Tigers Golf Tournament, Arrowhead Golf Club, Littleton, Co. September 3 Tiger Football home opener vs.

Arkansas– Pine Bluff, Memorial Stadium, Columbia SPRING 2026 63

Too Old to Enlist, Too Lazy to Resist Brian Walker wants to introduce comic-strip fans to a side of Beetle Bailey that people often miss. The newspaper staple about a naphappy Army private at the fictional Camp Swampy featured the best artwork of its kind, produced by his father. Mort Walker, BA ’48, was a gifted illustrator admired by his peers, including Doonesbury creator Gary Trudeau, Brian writes in his new book released for the strip’s 75-year anniversary.

The 276-page coffee table book, Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey: 75 Years of Smiles (Fantagraphics Books), is a retrospective anthology with the best examples of his dad’s drawings alongside a history of the Army-themed comic strip, according to the younger Walker.

“There have been many Beetle Bailey books, but the quality of this one is unprecedented,” says Brian, who followed dad into the family business as a cartoonist. He’s also a historian and a former director of the Museum of Cartoon Art. As a comic artist, Mort Walker was a double threat: both a strong joke writer and an unmatched illustrator in the funnies until his death in 2018. He created or co-created nine strips between 1950 and 1998. The strip Hi and Lois debuted in 1954 64 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

as a spinoff of Beetle Bailey. Both are still running today. Ditto for Pvt. Beetle Bailey & Co. In addition to Brian, Mort Walker’s sons Greg and Neal continue to work on Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois, carrying on the family’s long-running cartooning legacy.

The challenge for a cartoonist is making a joke work using few words or none at all. Brian leaned on his dad’s advice in assembling the picture-heavy history of Beetle Bailey that spans seven decades.

“I’ve always tried to get as many funny pictures into my work as possible,” Mort Walker was fond of saying. Among the illustrations Brian chose is a giant color panel featuring an exasperated Sgt. Snorkel chasing Beetle, Cookie taking out the garbage, and Miss Buxley strolling past an admiring Gen. Halftrack. In other words, a typical day at the always dysfunctional outpost.

In other Mort Walker news, The Lexicon of Comicana, his playfully instructive 1980 guide to the visual language of cartoons, continues to draw fans. Brian edited the recently republished edition, and famed comic artist Chris Ware penned the forward.

For more information on Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey: 75 Years of Smiles, visit Fantagraphics.com. — Rob McCarthy, BJ ’87

C O M I C S T R I P : © 1 9 9 3 C O M I C A N A , I N C . D I S T R I B U T E D B Y K I N G F E AT U R E S SY N D I C AT E , I N C .

SEMPER MIZZOU

Ours is a story that started almost 40 years ago, when Mizzou alums Bob Langdon and Kent Emison became law partners in Lexington, Mo and started the law firm of Langdon & Emison with just the two of them and a legal secretary.

Today we have grown to 25 attorneys and over 80 staff members who represent seriously injured individuals and their families in county, state and federal courtrooms nationwide. We were selected as one of the top 10 personal injury firms by Best Law Firms of America for 2026.

M-I-Z!!!

www.LangdonEmison.com | 1-800-397-4910 Kansas City | Independence | Lexington | Chicago | Philadelphia

Address change? Update at mizzou.com/update or call 800-372-6822.

123 Fulton, MO 65251

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