SPRING 2012 MONTANAN

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The Bakken is Rockin’

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA | Cover_Spr12.indd 1

Oil Rush Keeps UM Grads Busy

BIG THINKING UM’s New Global Leadership Initiative

The Great Outdoorsman

Steven Rinella, M.F.A. ‘00

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content

Spring 2012 Volume 29

Number 2

PUBLISHER James P. Editor-IN-CHIEF John

Foley

Heaney ’02

DESIGNER Eileen Chontos

PHOTO editor

EDITORIAL TEAM

Todd Goodrich ’88 Andrea Lewis

Rita Munzenrider ’83

Jennifer Sauer ’01 Cary Shimek

Allison Squires ’07

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Brooke Andrus ’10

Intern Alyse Backus ’12

ADVISORY BOARD Denise Dowling ’82 Daryl Gadbow ’75 Beth Hammock

Charlie Hood ’61, M.A. ’69 Bill Johnston ’79, M.P.A. ’91 Jed Liston ’82, M.Ed. ’00 Ginny Merriam ’86 Carol Williams ’65 Kurt Wilson ’83 ADVERTISING Eric Elander ’77

406-360-3321 REPRESENTATIVE elander@montana.com

EDITORIAL OFFICES

University Relations 325 Brantly Hall The University of Montana Missoula, MT 59812-7642 406-243-2488 Voluntary Subscription:

$15

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Change of address: 877-UM-ALUMS or alumniupdates@umontana.edu Please allow eight weeks for mailings to reflect changes.

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FEATURES

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Steven Rinella, right, bowfishes for pacu, a herbivorous piranha, in Guyana’s remote Rewa River with a member of the Makushi tribe.

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The Bakken Boom

By Ed Kemmick The Bakken, a vast oil formation that sits below parts of eastern Montana, western North Dakota, and two Canadian provinces, is putting thousands of people to work, including many UM graduates.

Call of the Wild

By Nate Schweber ’01 Steven Rinella, M.F.A. ’00, is a modern-day hunter-gatherer who turned his passion for the outdoors into an adventurous career. His time spent in UM’s Creative Writing Program helped make it happen.

Learning Locally, Thinking Globally 24

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By Erika Fredrickson ’99, M.S. ’09 UM’s new Global Leadership Initiative is an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to preparing students for an increasingly interconnected global society.

DEPARTMENTS 3 5 29

PAID

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The University of Montana

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52

The Bakken is Rockin’

Letters Around The Oval Raising Montana About Alumni Artifacts

Oil Rush Keeps UM Grads Busy

BIG THINKING UM’s New Global Leadership Initiative

ON THE COVER: An oil rig near Sidney is silhouetted as the sun sets.

The Great Outdoorsman

Steven Rinella, M.F.A. ‘00

COVER PHOTO BY DAVID GRUBBS

SPRING 2012

4/2/12 11:59 AM

MONTANAN SPRING 2012 |

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UM alumni, students, faculty, staff and campus guests have exclusive access to our award-winning University Catering Services. We are ready to serve you at the location of your choice – either on or off-campus.

Let our exceptional service team make your next event something your guests remember. Our chefs will use their expertise to create a menu which perfectly suits your taste and budget. Our menus are created using a wide variety of local, regional and ethnic foods to offer a diverse and satisfying dining experience.

406.243.4899 • www.umt.edu/catering

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Non-Profit U.S. Postage

PAID

montanan

The Sigma Chi Bell, which originally hung from the USS Montana, is displayed in the Adams Center.

The University of Montana

Hiker Winner

Community replaced my knee, not my lifestyle.

UM research Helps rivertop renewables reshape Chemical industry

Erin Go Bragh

Irish Studies Program Flourishes at UM

For orthopedic treatment, come to Community, we have an entire unit dedicated to orthopedics, and offer the region’s leading rehabilitation programs. We provide western Montana with the best overall orthopedic outcomes, from outpatient procedures to complex total-joint replacements. We’ll help you keep moving

Eye On The Tiger

in all directions, especially forward.

John Seidensticker

If it’s orthopedic care, of course it’s Community.

Visit communitymed.org/ortho Community Medical Center is an independent, local, non-profit hospital.

letters

Clean and Green

’66, M.S. ’68

communitymed.org/ortho

The Magazine of The UniversiTy of MonTana |

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Photo by Todd Goodrich

“Sigma Chi is a longtime and proud partner of the University. The Beta Delta chapter of Sigma Chi was chartered in 1906.

UM’s first president, Oscar Craig, was a Sigma Chi brother, and a portion of the UM campus came from a land grant by a Sigma Chi.” Rich Thompson ’73

THAT RINGS A BELL

THAT RINGS A BELL, TOO

I read the recent article “The Saga of the Sigma Chi Bell” [winter 2012 Montanan] with interest. I was there when Don Bennett recovered the bell in 1978 and again when the bell was retrieved by Bill Johnston in 1998. As president of the Sigma Chi Beta Delta House Corporation, I oversaw installation of the bell into the Adams Center lobby at Homecoming 2000. The dedication ceremony included a speech by then-University of Montana President George Dennison and was attended by area news media. The Sigma Chi Bell is dedicated to the community of Missoula and members of the Montana armed forces, particularly those who died in combat.

The fraternity is a longtime and proud partner of the University. The Beta Delta chapter of Sigma Chi was chartered in 1906. UM’s first president, Oscar Craig, was a Sigma Chi brother, and a portion of the UM campus came from a land grant by a Sigma Chi. Thanks for the memories.

I just want to express my pleasure in reading the story entitled “The Saga of the Sigma Chi Bell” in the winter 2012 Montanan. I was a member of the Beta Delta chapter of Sigma Chi in the 1940s and remember when the bell was stolen.

There aren’t too many of us left from those days.

My education was interrupted by World War II, during which I served in the Pacific for a little more than three years. I returned to school and received degrees in both business and law, with honors. I also was selected for membership in Silent Sentinel, a senior honor society.

After college I was employed by Shell Oil Co. as an attorney in the legal department with duties relating to exploring and drilling for oil and gas. I’ve been licensed to practice law in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Texas. I retired in 1977.

I am now ninety-one years of age. It was nice to see a story in the Montanan that was of great interest to me.

Rich Thompson ’73

Portland, Ore.

Albert C. Angstman ’41, J.D. ’46

FAMILIAR VOICES

In 1967, I was a twenty-two-yearold Marine stationed in Okinawa, Japan, where I saw The University of Montana Jubileers perform not once, but twice. For a Montanan so far away from home, their songs were a welcomed relief to the realities of military service.

Thanks again to the Jubileers for uplifting soldiers’ spirits across the Asian Pacific.

Robert Borberg ’72

Billings SONGBIRDS

I was downright excited to read the article “Bird Songs” in Around the Oval in the winter 2012 Montanan.

As a lover of birds, I have always fed chickadees, robins, finches, etc.

What a wonderful idea to create Chickadee Symphony!

Avis M. Schmitz Zoanni ’42

Helena

WANTED: YOUR OPINIONS

The Montanan welcomes letters to the editor.

Please sign and include your graduating year or years of attendance, home address, and phone number or e-mail address.

Send them to: Montanan Editor, 325 Brantly Hall, Missoula, MT 59812 or themontanan@umontana.edu.

Because of space limitations, we are not able to include all letters sent to us. Letters may be edited for length or clarity. While universities are places of discussion where good people do not always agree, letters deemed potentially libelous or that malign a person or group will not be published. Opinions expressed in the Montanan do not necessarily reflect those of The University of Montana.

Kingwood, Texas

The Montanan would like to thank the following people for recently donating to the magazine: Dennis and Nina Paulson, Matt Mulligan, Laird Black, Anita and Thomas Gioconda, Alene Kann, William Peery, Edgar and Marilyn Schooley, and Robert Burns.

WWW.UMT.EDU/MONTANAN

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JOHN FOGERTY JUNE 15 RINGO STARR JULY 13 EARTH, WIND & FIRE JULY 19 KELLY CLARKSON JULY 22 JOURNEY, PAT BENATAR & LOVERBOY JULY 29 DARIUS RUCKER AUGUST 4 SUGARLAND AUGUST 16 HEART SEPTEMBER 9

OUTD

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SUMMER

CONCERTS

Order tickets online or call the Northern Quest box office: 509.481.6700

Lineup is subject to change.

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Notables | President’s perspective | The Bottom Line | facetime

around the oval Left: Griz coach Wayne Tinkle cuts down the net after the Griz won the Big Sky Conference Tournament championship at Dahlberg Arena in March.

Photos by Todd Goodrich

Dance Fever

Griz Earn Second NCAA Tournament Berth in Three Seasons

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here came a point during the Big Sky Conference Tournament championship game when Wayne Tinkle just sat back, crossed his legs, and enjoyed the show put on by his Grizzlies.

“The guys were in a flow,” Tinkle says of that moment, which came in the midst of what he calls the best half of hoops he’s seen in his six years as UM men’s basketball head coach. “All the hard work and effort the group had put in was culminating right there. And to be able to witness that front and center was a thrill.”

The Grizzlies trounced Weber State University, 85-66, in front of more than 7,000 fans squeezed into Dahlberg Arena. The Griz trailed by five points at halftime, but outscored NBA-bound Damian Lillard and the Wildcats 54-30 in the second half. The victory punched the Grizzlies’ ticket to the NCAA Tournament and put an exclamation point on one of the best seasons in program history.

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It was the team’s fourteenth straight win, a school record.

That streak also was tied for the longest in the nation heading into the Big Dance. The Griz went 15-1 during Big Sky play, including a 7-1 mark on the road, both school records. The title was the program’s eighth, equaling Weber State’s mark for most league championships, and UM won twenty-five games, the second-best mark in school history.

It was the first time since 2000 that UM hosted the Big Sky Tournament and the first time in twenty years the team won the title at home. The Griz earned the right to host by claiming the regular-season championship with a win over the same Wildcats a week prior.

“Having the tournament back in Missoula and cutting the nets down in front of our home faithful was probably our proudest moment,” Tinkle says.

“To do that in front of a packed house and for our campus and community brought us a great sense of pride.”

Senior Derek Selvig shoots over Wisconsin’s Jared Berggren in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Albuquerque, N.M.

Below:

The Griz, who made the program’s ninth trip to the NCAA Tournament, received a thirteen seed and drew the fourth-seeded University of Wisconsin Badgers in Albuquerque, N.M. The game was played in The Pit, a historic venue on the University of New Mexico campus.

Tinkle liked the seed but knew his squad was in for a challenge with the Badgers of the Big Ten Conference.

“A lot of people really liked our draw, thinking it was better than playing teams like Baylor or Missouri,” Tinkle says. “But I knew Wisconsin was a pretty darn good team.”

Though they were competitive for a while, the Griz were outmatched by the Badgers, who won, 73-49.

“The guys didn’t show as well as they wanted to,” Tinkle says.

“But the loss will hopefully add some fuel to the fire to get back there next season.”

Tinkle, named Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year, will have three starters returning, including the starting backcourt tandem of Mid-Major AllAmerican and Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year Will Cherry and Big Sky Tournament MVP Kareem Jamar. Forward Mathias Ward, the team’s third leading scorer, also will be back.

Before his thoughts totally shifted to next season, Tinkle took time to reflect on what an incredible run his team had.

“Looking back and having digested it,” Tinkle says, “it’s amazing. When you look at all the records we set, it obviously rings out that it was pretty remarkable. It’s just a real feeling of joy for all the effort that we put in and where it led.”

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around the oval Griz Play Spring Game Under the New Lights

GrizNation

LIGHT IT UP

Left: Permanent lights shine on Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

Interim head coach Mick Delaney talks to defensive end Josh Harris.

Photos by Todd Goodrich

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riz football fans clad in maroon and silver migrated across campus toward Washington-Grizzly Stadium. Youngsters scurried around as their parents made their way to their seats. It looked like any other fall Saturday when the Griz play at home, except it was April 14, and this wasn’t a typical home game.

The crowd—8,731, to be exact—turned out for the annual spring game, marking the first time the Grizzlies took the turf under the new permanent lights that surround the stadium.

Usually the Griz play the spring scrimmage on the road to show appreciation to fans around the state, but this year the Grizzly Scholarship Association wanted to do things a little differently. With the addition of the lights, it felt like time to bring the scrimmage home.

“First of all, it’s been over a decade since the scrimmage has been played in Missoula,” says Greg Sundberg, GSA executive director. “It’s a great opportunity to bring a piece of the fall back to the spring. It gets that football fever going, and it’s a great way to get people back into the stadium.”

The scrimmage resembled a home game as close as possible, including a tunnel run, announcer, and, of course, Monte and Mo. The GSA sponsored a full tailgate party that featured music, food, and games for kids hosted by student-athletes.

Eric Schindler, a season-ticket holder, traveled from Helena to watch the Griz play.

“I think this is a great idea to have the game under the lights,” Schindler says. “I have traveled to Butte for the scrimmage and watched it in Helena, but this is a great crowd.”

All proceeds from the scrimmage benefit UM athletic facilities projects.

The game came less than a month after President Royce Engstrom chose not to renew the contracts of head coach Robin Pflugrad and Director of Athletics Jim O’Day. Mick Delaney, a UM assistant coach since 2008, will be the interim head coach through the 2012 season, while Senior Associate Athletic Director Jean Gee will serve as interim AD. Engstrom plans to have a permanent athletic director in place by autumn semester 2012 and a permanent head coach in time for the 2013 season.

Even with the change in leadership, the team shined under the bright lights. The offense played sharp, scoring fifty-two points and amassing 545 total yards. Four quarterbacks combined to throw for 390 yards and four touchdowns.

“It’s good to see the strength, pride, and tradition of the Montana Grizzlies carry on through the adversity they face right now,” says former kicker Brody McKnight.

The Griz open the season at home September 1 against the University of South Dakota Coyotes, who are led by former UM coach Joe Glenn.

—Alyse Backus

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BY THE NUMBERS 13: Number of consecutive

semesters UM student-athletes have maintained an average cumulative GPA above 3.0 3.06: Cumulative GPA of

UM’s 272 student-athletes, compared to 2.91, the cumulative GPA of UM’s general student population 3.69: Cumulative GPA of the

women’s cross country team, the highest of UM’s sports teams 20.5: Percentage of student-

athletes on the autumn semester dean’s list

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around the oval Green Thumbs

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disarray of storage bins, discarded junk, and various odds and ends.

Until recently, that’s what took up most of the space in UM’s Memorial Greenhouse.

Today the greenhouse no longer serves as a storage unit. It’s a bustling hub of research that benefits students in the College of Forestry and Conservation.

Where dust once accumulated, students now watch over tiny seedlings, which will be harvested and used in reforestation efforts.

Thanks to a recent and ongoing renovation, the greenhouse, which sits next to the Forestry Building, provides students with hands-on learning opportunities that didn’t exist before.

Decades ago, the Memorial Greenhouse was the answer to the University’s concerns that graduate-level forestry students couldn’t complete the needed greenhouse studies. Montana’s inclement weather conditions made year-round fieldwork impossible, and professors actually began discouraging students from pursuing the master’s program in forestry because of the lack of greenhouse space.

Plans for a new greenhouse were taking shape when tragedy struck Montana. In 1949, the Mann Gulch wildfire claimed the lives of thirteen smokejumpers in the Helena National Forest. Six of those firefighters were UM students, three of whom belonged to the School of Forestry. In 1950, the University dedicated the greenhouse to those whose lives were lost. When the building opened its doors in 1951, it became the only structure in the state specifically dedicated to the victims of the Mann Gulch tragedy.

While the greenhouse always remained partly functional, its technology fell behind and lacked modern means to really provide the forestry program with what it needed.

In 2011, after three decades of limited use and with three Dumpsters full of junk removed from the interior, the greenhouse

UM students tend to seedlings in the Memorial Greenhouse.

Photo by Todd Goodrich

Students Reap Benefits of Memorial Greenhouse Renovation

was modified into 2,500 square feet of bays for potting, sowing, fertilizing, and irrigating seedlings. The greenhouse now supports a seedling nursery program and houses 20,000 seedlings of about fifteen different plant species. Students sell some of the seedlings to conservation partners, which generates revenue that goes directly back into the seedling nursery. UM’s Wildland Restoration Program also uses the greenhouse to grow plants. In addition, the greenhouse hosts elementary school classes and other community groups to teach about the process of growing the seedlings.

Chris Keyes, the director of UM’s Applied Forest Management program and one of the key players in the renovation, says the seedling nursery relies heavily on student greenhouse volunteers and a growing number of community members.

“The vision is to teach not only the University, but bring in the community as well,” Keyes says.

Another goal of the nursery is to turn out UM graduates who have experience in forest regeneration. Keyes says there are more disturbed forests worldwide, and the demand for workers well-versed in reforestation is rising. Many different majors, from wildland restoration to international conservation, can benefit from greenhouse experience.

“It’s not just about growing seedlings,” Keyes says. “It’s about problem solving to go out there and do it. Students should be involved every step of the way.”

—Alyse Backus

WHERE’S YOUR GRIZ BEEN?

ANDREW STOCKWELL ’01 dons his Griz football jersey on top of Uhuru Peak, the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. It was taken the morning of February 10. At 19,340 feet, Mount Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa. “My father and I traveled to Tanzania to climb the mountain as a way to celebrate his sixtieth birthday,” Stockwell says. “This was a return trip. We first climbed Kilimanjaro together in February 1992 to celebrate my thirteenth birthday and his fortieth.” Congratulations, Andrew. You have won a $50 gift card to The Bookstore at UM.

Do you have a photo of yourself wearing your Griz gear in an amazing place or while on an incredible adventure? If so, send it along with a brief description to themontanan@umontana.edu. Winners will see their photo published in the Montanan and will receive a $50 gift card to The Bookstore at UM. To be considered, photos must be in focus with the UM or Griz logo clearly visible.

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Photo by Todd Goodrich

The President’s Perspective UM PROFESSOR’S COMPANY EARNS $2.5 MILLION CONTRACT

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he National Science Foundation has awarded Sunburst Sensors a $2.5 million contract to provide instruments for its studies.

Sunburst Sensors is owned by Mike DeGrandpre, a chemistry professor at UM, and Jim Beck, the company president.

DeGrandpre invented Sunburst’s Submersible Autonomous Moored Instruments [SAMIs]. The instruments measure pH and the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide in bodies of water. More than 100 of these oceanic instruments will be manufactured in Missoula.

DeGrandpre developed Sunburst Sensors in 1999 as a way to bridge his research to the private sector.

Beck, a mechanical engineer, joined the company in 2005 to diversify and improve Sunburst’s product line. The company employs a lab technician, two engineers, a research scientist, and an accountant.

DeGrandpre and his company will work with the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, a nonprofit organization that represents ninetynine leading public and private ocean research and educational institutions. Its mission is to advance research and education to promote effective ocean policies.

“Awarding the Ocean Observatories Initiative contract to Sunburst Sensors is affirmation of the quality of our technology and is a credit to the hard work by my business partner, Jim Beck, and the employees at Sunburst Sensors,” DeGrandpre says. “Through this contract, Sunburst Sensors will become a leading contributor to our understanding of the ocean carbon cycle and ocean acidification.”

Sunburst Sensors got its start in UM’s MonTEC business incubator and now has an office located on West Broadway in Missoula.

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Greetings!

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elcome to the spring 2012 issue of the Montanan. This is an issue that highlights so many of the wonderful accomplishments of our students, graduates, and faculty. The people who are associated with The University of Montana are what make it a great institution, and I take tremendous pride in what those individuals and groups have accomplished and what they contribute to the University, to Montana, to our nation, and beyond.

The past several months have presented an especially challenging time for the University. Unfortunately, like college and university campuses across the country, we have experienced a surge in reports of sexual assault and related matters. Those of you who have followed the news media know that we have been dealing with this matter in an ongoing and high-profile way. We have taken as proactive of an approach as possible, with our goals being to bring a halt to sexual assault on our campus, to care for those who have been assaulted, and to rid our learning environment of those who commit assault. Many people have poured their hearts into this effort. We have made tough decisions, and we are emerging from this episode as a stronger, safer, and smarter campus.

Along the way we have kept our nose to the grindstone; we have kept our focus on our strategic directions outlined in UM 2020: Building a University for the Global Century.

Our vision is to be one of the nation’s leading institutions, with a globally focused approach to education, research and creative scholarship, and outreach. I am proud to say we have taken many important steps toward fulfilling that vision.

For example, we recently launched the Global Leadership Initiative, a program for undergraduate students that runs parallel to their coursework and activity associated with their major field of study. The first class of GLI Fellows, selected from the incoming freshman cohort, embarked upon its examination of the “big questions” through special interdisciplinary small seminar courses. In subsequent years, the Fellows will participate in a Models of Leadership program, a major experience beyond the classroom such as study abroad, and a capstone course in which they work with one another to design, research, and propose a solution to a significant problem or opportunity with global implications.

Our GLI kick-off event occurred just weeks ago, and you can read about it in this issue of the Montanan.

We strengthened our portfolio of graduate research programming through the addition of a new Ph.D. program in systems ecology, an interdisciplinary approach to the study of ecosystems on a scale from molecules to mountain ranges. The first group of students has already enrolled. Supporting that effort was the establishment of an Institute on Ecosystems in cooperation with other institutions in the state.

Another exciting new program is the addition of a minor in Arabic studies. At the strong encouragement of our students, faculty members designed and received approval for the program, and some students will graduate this May having fulfilled the requirements for the minor. Our Mansfield Center has operated a highly successful Defense Critical Language and Culture Training Program for the past few years, and I recently had the opportunity to see firsthand students immersed in the study of Pashto.

The University of Montana is moving forward into the future, focusing on educational opportunities for students that will position them to be the leaders of our state and nation. I hope you enjoy reading about their success in these pages. Thank you for your interest and support!

Royce C. Engstrom President

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around the oval

VETS Office Helps Student-Veterans

Transition to College Life only when they needed their money, and now I see them all the time. They actually come in and talk now.”

College is different for vets. They go from a world of intense structure to total freedom. The transition from starched uniforms, rigid daily schedules, and the stress of war to textbooks and college football games can be difficult. Many are still transitioning back to civilian life and can feel a loss of the camaraderie they experienced in the military. Raap, a veteran himself, envisioned a place that alleviated that sense of loss and addressed student-veterans’ roles at the University.

“Vets are a very distinct subculture,” Raap says. “We definitely have a series of shared experiences that greatly differs from a standard student. It’s going from making no decisions to doing whatever you want.

I get a lot of deer-in-headlights expressions on that one. Freedom of choice is a completely foreign concept.”

For Chris Goidich, a first-year UM student who came to Missoula after serving more than twenty years in the Navy and Army, the VETS office is a safety zone.

“This gives vets a place to go to be a unit again and have a home,” Goidich says. “It is a feeling of belonging again.”

“Dang! This fish is really taking me to school!”

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The goal is to give vets some breathing room away from the hustle and bustle of campus. Oversized couches line the walls, and flat screen TVs often play movies while a warm pot of chili simmers in the kitchen.

The VETS office runs under Raap with the help of six work-study students, including Goidich.

“We really care about being here,” Goidich says. “Justin has taken people and given them lives again. I had nothing when I came out here, and he gave me support.”

In addition to providing assistance with administrative needs, a computer lab is available for student-veterans to print, copy, and fax for free. The center regularly hosts cookouts, military celebrations, and get-togethers for UM veterans and their families, as well as providing a space just to talk.

Raap hopes to extend the office’s services to include more peer-to-peer mentoring and programs focused on student retention.

“I really want to be able to pull back and let vets find answers themselves,” says Raap. “That’s what they are used to doing.”

—Alyse Backus

Meet Grizwald,

The University of Montana’s cartoon bear. In the winter 2012 issue of the Montanan, we asked readers to submit captions interpreting Grizwald’s actions in a humorous way. This issue’s winning caption was sent in by JIM DALBEC of Great Falls. Congratulations, Jim, you’ve won a Griz stadium blanket.

Stay tuned! In an upcoming issue of the Montanan, a new cartoon featuring Grizwald will need a caption. You could be the next winner!

Percentage of UM faculty who spend at least one hour each week engaging in community or public service, compared to 50 percent at other public institutions

224,884:

Artwork by Neal Wiegert

U

ntil this past autumn semester, student-veterans at UM had one place on campus to call their own: a desk in the back of a cramped room in the Emma Lommasson Center.

This is where they would go to check on their education benefits and report any difficulties. The desk, piled high with paperwork, and the harsh light from overhead fluorescent bulbs didn’t make for a very welcoming environment, especially for those coming back from a war zone.

The new Veterans Education and Transition Services [VETS] office, however, has changed all that. The office is a converted house that sits on the southeast edge of campus, serving as a one-stop shop for administrative tasks dealing with student-veterans’ education benefits, as well as a place to decompress and transition into the college lifestyle.

“I tried to make my old office as inviting as possible, but it just couldn’t be done,” VETS Director Justin Raap says.

“There was no privacy. I used to see vets

UM student-veterans Nick Jones, front right, a senior in finance, and Daniel Buchholtz, a sophomore in marketing, relax in the new VETS office before class.

Photo by Todd Goodrich

NEW DIGS

Record-setting number of rides given by ASUM’s bus service during autumn semester 2011

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Photo courtesy of Zachary Brown

UM Student Awarded Prestigious Scholarships UM STUDENT ZACHARY BROWN recently was awarded a $30,000 Truman Scholarship and—for the second time—a $5,000 Udall Scholarship.

Brown, a junior, majors in environmental studies with a minor in climate change studies. He is a 2009 graduate of Bozeman High School.

“This just makes me feel very grateful,” Brown says. “The process for these scholarships is very intensive, and it takes a group effort among a lot of folks on campus to make this happen. I never could have done this on my own, and I appreciate how they helped create this life-changing opportunity for me.”

Brown is UM’s twelfth Truman Scholar and thirty-fifth Udall Scholar. He also is a Presidential Leadership Scholar in UM’s Davidson Honors College. He plans to study and then work in water law with an emphasis on water allocation, land resources conflicts, and public diplomacy. He intends to work for a nonprofit organization and engage in politics to advocate for water policy and other environmental issues.

Many leadership activities helped Brown win the prestigious scholarships. He served as a board member, project coordinator, and grant writer for 1,000 New GardensMontana. His work on that project led to him being one of three students invited to attend the first Clinton Global InitiativeAmerica meeting in Chicago in June 2011.

As outreach coordinator for the UM Forum for Living with Appropriate Technology, Brown managed the donation and installation of a 2.8-kilowatt solar array.

Brown also represented the state of Montana at the Henry Clay Center Student Congress in June 2011. He served as a watershed restoration intern for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition during summer 2011 and co-wrote a thirty-page research report on watershed restoration and climate change.

In addition, Brown co-founded and organizes events for the Montana Student Environmental Alliance, which brings students from schools across Montana together for environmental training and planning at regional conferences. He also is a project developer for the Kless Revolving

Brown and former President Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global InitiativeAmerica meeting in Chicago this past June

Energy Loan Fund energy-saving projects and currently is working on developing an energyefficiency initiative for the Montana University System.

Brown participated in a UM climate change studies study-abroad program to Vietnam, and as a freshman served as one of the UM student representatives to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

This year, the Truman Scholarship Foundation, established by Congress in 1975, awarded fifty-four scholarships to students who demonstrate outstanding potential for public service and are committed to making a difference through careers in government, the nonprofit or advocacy sectors, or education.

UM student David Schaad also won a $350 Udall Honorable Mention award.

UM Takes Steps Toward Creating a Safer Campus Environment

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he University was rocked in recent months by allegations of sexual assaults involving UM students. The news prompted President Royce Engstrom to launch a special investigation into the matter conducted by outside investigator Diane Barz, a former Montana Supreme Court judge.

Engstrom released his final report on the matter in late March, which brought the investigation to a close.

“The events of the past few months have delivered a critical message to the University,” Engstrom writes in the report. “We have learned much that will help us to be a safer community, fostering a learning environment in which our students can fulfill their dreams. Now we must focus on the goal of eliminating sexual assault from our campus. I will expect and hold accountable every member of my administration and indeed every member of the campus as a whole to do his or her utmost to address that goal.”

The report details steps UM is taking to improve student safety.

These include educational programs, such as requiring all students to take an online tutorial about sexual assault and working with

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the Missoula mayor’s office on a program that emphasizes calling 9-1-1 to report a crime. UM strengthened its partnerships with individuals and programs in the community that provide resources to survivors and work to end sexual violence. UM also will continue a series of public forums and discussions regarding sexual assault, as well as other educational efforts.

The administration also revamped UM’s Student-Athlete Conduct Code, creating an Athletic Conduct Team to enforce policies and impose penalties. Code infractions are now clearly defined, with penalties outlined for each category.

The University created a seven-member team, which includes the president, that will convene when a sexual assault is reported.

UM also will hire an additional police officer to increase patrols of residence halls, and campus police will immediately contact city police in the event of assault, according to the memorandum of understanding between the two organizations.

Engstrom’s final report is available online at www.umt.edu/ president/sexualassault.

States represented by visitors to the Montana Museum of Art & Culture at UM during the past two years

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Career wins for Lady Griz coach Robin Selvig in his thirty-four seasons at UM

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around the oval

The Montana Board of Regents recently approved a new minor in Arabic studies at UM. Coursework in the minor is designed to help students achieve an advanced level in Arabic based on standards of foreign language proficiency established by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

The content of the Arabic studies minor includes linguistic and cultural components such as the orthographic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and sociolinguistic systems of the Arabic language; and the literature, history, politics, geography, religions, economy, and cultures of the Arab world.

The regents also approved a new interdisciplinary minor in global public health at UM. Coursework will emphasize a global perspective on issues of public health policy and science and applications to international and domestic situations. Students will learn about public health challenges, such as parasitic and vector-borne diseases, HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, tuberculosis, climate change impacts, trauma and violence, avian influenza, obesity, and the role of indigenous healers. Courses will use insights from disciplinary approaches that include epidemiology, anthropology, biology, political science, community health planning, communication studies, and ethics.

UM recently created its first Retirees’ Association. The association will provide all UM retirees the opportunity to remain involved with the University community through a variety of specially designed activities, events, and service opportunities.

“The creation of this new association acknowledges the significant contributions retirees have made to UM and facilitates their active engagement in the campus community,” says Amy Kinch, UM faculty development coordinator. The UM Retirees’ Association is open to all faculty, staff, and administrator retirees of UM, including those from the College of Technology, as well as their spouses/partners and the spouses/partners of deceased retirees.

Washington Post popular culture critic Hank Stuever will be the 2012 T. Anthony Pollner Professor at UM’s School of Journalism. Stuever will teach a course on pop culture coverage and will mentor students working at the Montana Kaimin, the campus newspaper. Stuever joined the Post in 1999. He was a feature writer for a decade before becoming the paper’s TV critic in 2009. The Pollner professorship was created in 2000 to honor the memory of UM alumnus Anthony Pollner. It brings to campus each fall a nationally prominent journalist who teaches for the semester in the journalism school. “I’ve always secretly hoped I would get a chance like this someday, to not only teach a class and share what I know, but also learn from a group of committed students who care deeply about journalism and writing,” Stuever says. “And I’m impressed by what [UM] and the Pollner family have created with this unique position.”

Photo by Todd Goodrich

Notable and Quotable

UM COT Team Competes in Shell Eco Marathon

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team of students and instructors The team, from left, Assistant Professor with the UM College of Technology tested the limits of an Brad Layton, Jeremy Manning, energy-efficient vehicle they spent several Kelsey Malsam, months building when they traveled to a Shaun Raunig, national competition this spring.

Grant Myhre, Andrew Machain, The team—led by Brad Layton, director of the COT’s Energy Technology Jessie Sedler, and Michael Eidum.

Program, and energy tech student Grant Myhre—brought its aluminum-framed, solar-powered car to the Shell Eco Marathon March 29-April 1 in Houston.

The competition challenged teams of high school and college students from around the country to design, build, and test energy-efficient vehicles. It took place on the city streets of downtown Houston.

Though the team experienced some technical difficulties during the competition and was just shy of the fifteen mileper-hour pace needed to post an official run, Layton called the Eco Marathon “a fantastic learning experience.”

“My team really went above and beyond my expectations and built a car that we are really proud of,” he says. “And it definitely turned some heads at the competition.”

Layton says the team built the entire vehicle, which they’ve worked on since September, with minimal outside machining assistance, including all the design, solar cell soldering, fiberglass layup, circuit design, welding, and assembly.

“Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this entire competition is that the car must complete the six-mile race with more energy than it had at the starting line,” Layton says.

“It’s essentially like finishing a trip without ever stopping for gasoline and having more in the tank than when you left. The trick is to pull in more photons than you burn.”

In next year’s competition, Layton says, the solar division will be combined with the electric one, which should make for some interesting vehicles.

“In fact, my students are already planning for next year’s competition in hopes of another solid performance,” he says.

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FACETIME:

Photo by Todd Goodrich

CLAYTON CHRISTIAN Clayton Christian didn’t take the traditional route when it came to college. He bounced in and out of school for ten years before completing his degree in business management and finance at UM. The Montana native left college twice to take ranch management positions in Hawaii and Montana.

Before graduating from college, he bought his first business, Stewart Title of Missoula County, Inc. Christian values higher education, in part because he took a different route to earn his degree. He recently assumed his new role as Montana’s commissioner of higher education after serving six years on the Board of Regents, four of those years in the chairman or vice chairman role.

Christian has three children. His daughter Lauren is a UM senior. Lyndsey, his youngest daughter, is a freshman at Montana State University, and his son, Colter, is an eighth-grader in Missoula. His wife, Dawn, completed her doctoral degree in physical therapy at UM. Why did you return to school? We moved back to Missoula when my wife enrolled in physical therapy school. I went back to school at that time. It always felt like I would finish. It was just a matter of blending it in with life. From the day I left, I assumed I would return and finish my degree, and I got the opportunity to come back and finish at UM. What was it like to be a nontraditional student at UM? At the time, I was working

full-time and had a family. In a lot of ways, it really helped me focus on what was important. As an older student, you are on a different track. I was there to get it done. I took a lot of credits and it took me a couple of years to finish.

What was your experience like on the Board of Regents? Like any new board

member, you have a sense of what you are getting into, but really don’t know until the work begins. It really became a passion for me. I’ve always appreciated higher education. I feel like it’s the driver behind not only personal success but also economic success for the state. It creates opportunities for individuals, states, and countries. As a board member, I felt it was WWW.UMT.EDU/MONTANAN

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extremely rewarding to help set policy for the state and help the 48,000 students in the system.

When the search began for the next commissioner of higher education, you were surprised to hear about your nomination. What was that like for you?

I was thrilled to be chair of the Board of Regents and really liked working at that level. My family has been very supportive of the work I have done on the board. I spent time with my family in discussion about the job of commissioner. They know I find it really valuable, and that it has become a passion for me to invest myself in higher education. But the commissioner nomination took me by surprise.

What are you looking forward to as you take over the role of commissioner? I

have worked closely with [outgoing] Commissioner Sheila Stearns. I think we have an excellent system, and we are moving in a good direction. I am not looking to change directions. I feel I can bring some continuity and keep moving down the same path. Our focus is access, affordability, and efficiency. My priorities for the past six years as a board member will be my priorities as commissioner.

What have you learned from Commissioner Stearns? I have learned a lot from Sheila.

The most important concept is that we are in public education and we are publicly funded. Sheila had an incredible ability to reach out to Montanans and policymakers across the state and disseminate the message of what higher education can do for individuals and the state.

What are your goals for the Montana University System? As the board’s CEO,

it was important for me to understand the

New Montana Commissioner of Higher Education Clayton Christian

regents’ priorities and the direction they want to go. It’s mostly what you would expect. For example, support for faculty and staff, need-based aid for students, graduate education and research, and an integrated information system. The integrated-systems approach is something I have a real interest in because I think it would improve the experience for students.

It allows students to move more freely between universities. From a student’s perspective, instead of having to choose between fourteen different institutions, they can choose the MUS. What do you think are the strengths of the MUS? The overriding strength is we

have been able to attract an unbelievable amount of talent in our faculty, staff, and administrators. That’s our greatest strength and greatest challenge. We have to figure out how we can retain that high-quality talent.

What were some of your favorite classes at UM? I really enjoyed the business classes

that I took. But roadside geology is one that sticks in my mind as one of the best classes, which is the great thing about a college education. It provides a broad set of opportunities out there, in and out of your major.

—Interview by Alyse Backus MONTANAN SPRING 2012 |

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The Bakken Boom Story by Ed Kemmick Photos by David Grubbs

Oil Rush Keeps Many UM Alums Hard at Work

John Olson has lived in Sidney for forty-eight years, so he’s seen oil booms. But he’s never seen anything like the Bakken boom now rolling across eastern Montana and western North Dakota.

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A truck hauls oil away from a rig near Sidney.

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Sidney has seen a significant increase in traffic on its main streets.

Opposite page: A flare burns off gases near an oil rig in Richland County.

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idney, whose population was pegged at 5,100 in the 2010 census, is expected to gain another 6,000 to 9,000 residents in the next few years. Three new motels are expected to open this spring, and their 225 beds will double the number available in Sidney. Apartments that rented for $300 a month barely a year ago are now going for $1,500 or even $2,000 a month.

There are obvious benefits for business people like Olson, who graduated from The University of Montana with a bachelor’s degree in education in 1962. He is the seeing it for yourself. On a recent trip there, president and owner of Blue Rock Products, he says, he counted thirty-one semi-trucks which distributes soft drinks and wholesale lined up at one intersection, trying to turn beer and wine in eastern Montana and onto Highway 2. western North Dakota.

Tom Richmond, administrator of “Our sales have gone right through the the Montana Board of Oil and Gas roof,” he says. “I guess we’re the number one Conservation, was exaggerating, but not Pepsi plant in the country right now, so we’re by much, when he described the housing enjoying some notoriety.” situation in the Williston area.

The downside is that office assistants who “Those chicken coops are starting to look made $11 to $13 an hour a year or two ago pretty valuable,” he says.

“The chickens are now command $17 to $21 an hour. Truckers going to have to find another place.” with a commercial driver’s license can make $80,000 to $110,000 a year in the oil fields, with overtime.

“It’s pretty hard to compete with that kind of situation,” Olson says.

And Sidney is not the epicenter of the Bakken boom. That would be Williston, The Bakken is an oil-bearing just over the border in North Dakota. Its population has doubled since the 2010 census formation that stretches beneath 200,000 square miles of Montana, North Dakota, to reach 25,000, and projections are that it and two Canadian provinces. It was named might hit 60,000 in three to five years. for Henry Bakken, the Williston-area farmer In early March, North Dakota officially became the third-highest oilproducing state in the country, SASKATCHEWAN behind Texas and Alaska, and it is MANITOBA expected to overtake Alaska within a year. North Dakota had 6,600 Bakken Shale wells producing oil in January, and the state has been flooded with job • Williston seekers from all over the country and Sidney • beyond. In January, North Dakota NORTH Bismarck had the lowest unemployment DAKOTA MONTANA rate—3.2 percent—in the country.

Williston In second-place Nebraska, the rate Basin was 4 percent.

The Bakken formation SOUTH Olson says the scale of activity in covers 200,000 DAKOTA square miles.

Williston is hard to describe without

on whose land the formation was discovered.

Vertical wells have been tapping the Bakken since the 1950s, but it would take another forty years for the right combination of technology to make it possible to really capitalize on the vast reserves of oil.

That combination involves horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing—the forcing of sand, water, and a mix of chemicals under tremendous pressure through perforated steel pipes thousands of feet underground. The “fracking,” as it is known, creates fissures in the rock, through which crude oil trapped in the formation slowly seeps out, ready to be drawn to the surface. Fracking is controversial in many parts of the country, but Richmond says in the Bakken, the deepest reservoirs of freshwater sit 7,000 feet above the layers where the fracking takes place.

In any case, if you combine the new technology with high oil prices—they were hovering around $105 a barrel in late March—you’ve got the Bakken boom. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are about four billion barrels of recoverable oil using existing technology in Montana and North Dakota.

Those kinds of numbers keep a lot of people busy, including many UM graduates.

Layaka Mann, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from UM, loves the excitement of the oil business.

“Anytime there’s a new, big thing, I want to be the first one there,” she says.

Mann says she stayed at UM to earn her master’s because she wanted to study

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“Anytime there’s a new, big thing, I want to be the first one there.” under geology Professor James Sears. It was Sears who suggested in 2004 that she apply to work for Sunburst Consulting in Billings. She was the company’s eighth hire, and she spent her early years with Sunburst as a field geologist in North Dakota. She worked long hours many days in a row, and she was the consulting geologist on one of the first exploration wells in the new phase of the Bakken boom. It was a dry hole, unfortunately, but she got her opportunity “to be the first one there.”

Drilling in the Bakken is enormously complicated, and Mann’s job when she started was to interpret a steady flow of information coming up from underground and make sure the drill bit was staying on track.

“When you’re going two miles horizontally, two miles underground, you have to use a lot of data,” she says. “You have to make sure all the trends you’re seeing make sense. But by the time we get the information, the bit might be 100 feet ahead of the information you’re getting.”

She likened her job to driving down the interstate looking in the rearview mirror while trying to stay between the lines. www.umt.edu/montanan

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Layaka Mann

Carter Stewart, Joseph Montalban, and Patrick Montalban From left:

Mann is now a partner in Sunburst, which employs 125 full-time and contract workers. Sunburst also has nineteen UM-trained geologists on the payroll. Mann spends most of her time in the Billings office these days, but she knows she’ll get back in the field again.

“I’m waiting for that special project to come up that I can’t stand not doing myself,” she says.

Another UM graduate with a degree in geology, Patrick Montalban ’81, put himself through college by working as a roughneck during the summers. His father, Joseph, started as a roughneck in Alberta, Canada, and went on to establish several oil companies. Patrick’s son, also Joseph, a 2009 UM graduate with a degree in business marketing, was the one who pushed Patrick toward the Bakken.

Patrick spent so many years drilling for oil in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and Texas, he never thought he’d get back to Montana and North Dakota. His company, headquartered in Cut Bank, now has an interest in seven wells in Sheridan and Roosevelt counties in northeastern Montana and two counties over the state line in North Dakota. The company also has acquired 24,000 acres in Sheridan County.

A friend of Montalban’s and a fellow ’81 graduate of UM, Carter Stewart, played a big role in discovering the western end of the Elm Coulee oil field in Richland County, where virtually all of the Bakken activity in Montana is centered.

Though the Elm Coulee is not as big as the plays in North Dakota, most of the 700 active wells in Montana are there, and some industry observers expect increased activity in Montana. As it is, taxes on oil and gas production in Montana brought in about Montanan spring 2012 |

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These man camps are set up near Trenton, N.D. The camps dot the countryside around the Bakken.

Above:

Left: Steve Ruffatto, left, and John Lee are attorneys at Crowley Fleck in Billings who work on oil and gas projects.

$2 billion for local and state government from 2000 to 2011.

The Bakken boom has had a big ripple effect on the economy, creating opportunities for hundreds of other businesses and dozens of trades and professions. That was brought home to Billings Area Chamber of Commerce President John Brewer on a recent trip to Williston. Brewer says Target Logistics is the biggest operator of “man camps” in the Bakken. The company provides more than 3,000 rooms for oil field workers and has a staff of 350—chefs, housekeepers, builders, and maintenance people—to meet their needs. Target Logistics serves 9,000 meals a day, Brewer says, and he learned that most of those meals are provided by Sysco Food Services in Billings.

One indicator of the size of the boom, Barkey says, is a comparison of wage and salary disbursements across the state. The bureau tracks those figures in the seven largest cities in Montana, and in the rest of the state separately. Last year, nearly all the major cities performed below the state average, mostly because the oil- and gas-producing counties are doing so well.

A growth rate of 4 percent a year would put a county in the top quartile statewide, Barkey says, and from the second quarter of 2010 to the second quarter of 2011, wages and salaries grew 16.2 percent in Richland County and 11.9 percent in Fallon County.

In Richland County in particular, Barkey says, “this has not been kind of a one-quarter wonder here. This has clearly taken off.”

Barkey acknowledged that high gas prices, while good for the oil-producing counties, can put a drag on other sectors of the economy. But higher energy prices are still a net benefit for Montana because energy production is such a large part of the economy, he says.

Barkey says the Bakken boom appears to have some staying power, mainly because emerging economies around the world are adding great numbers of people to the middle class, creating an enormous

“It’s just like migrant workers working in Dubai. They’re working and shipping their money home.”

In addition, Brewer says, an engineering company in Billings is working on a 3,000home subdivision in Williston. Partly because of the housing shortage, many Montanans, from Billings and all over the state, commute to the Bakken, often working for two weeks and then returning home for a week.

“It’s just like migrant workers working in Dubai,” says Patrick Barkey, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at UM. “They’re working and shipping their money home.”

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An oil drilling rig near Trenton, N.D.

demand for natural resources of all kinds.

Steve Ruffatto, an attorney with the Crowley Fleck law firm in Billings, says the Bakken boom does appear to be different from booms in the past, mostly because it is driven as much by advances in technology as by the price of oil.

But Ruffatto, a UM law school grad who focuses on natural resources and has been with Crowley Fleck since 1976, says he probably is more cautious than most people, having been through a couple of booms. Crowley Fleck, the biggest law firm in Montana and North Dakota, has been hiring in recent years at a time when many firms scaled back, and it now has thirtyfive attorneys doing work in oil and gas development matters.

John Lee, chairman of Crowley’s energy department, remembers doing title work on what turned out to be the discovery well for the Elm Coulee field. It was also the first horizontal well in Richland County.

“It basically kind of snowballed as the technology evolved,” Lee says.

Despite the continuing boom, Ruffatto says he can’t help but be wary. “I just expect that circumstances will develop that will cause it to diminish,” he says. “I’m

the one who’s saying, ‘This will pass.’ It’s a cyclical business.”

Over in Sidney, few people are trying to figure out how long the boom will last. It’s all they can do to deal with its everyday effects.

Olson, the owner of Blue Rock Products, mentioned “the horrendous increase in traffic,” new demands on law enforcement and schools, and the neverending need for new roads and increased water and sewer capacity.

All the heavy truck traffic is crumbling roads in the county, Olson says, which takes a toll on his fleet of delivery trucks. And it’s so hard to find a mechanic in Sidney that he sometimes has to have his trucks towed 270 miles to Billings for repairs.

“The list goes on and on,” he says.

Cami Skinner can sympathize with Olson. A native of Dagmar in northeastern Montana, Skinner earned a business administration degree from UM in 2003 and an M.B.A. in 2006.

Ed Kemmick studied journalism at UM in the 1970s and has worked for newspapers in Minnesota and Montana for more than thirty years. He is now a reporter and columnist for the Billings Gazette. His work has appeared in Montana Quarterly, Parade Magazine, Skeptical Inquirer, and the recently published anthology West of 98. The Big Sky, By and By, a collection of his stories, columns, and essays, was published last year.

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She is now an agricultural and business banker for Wells Fargo in Sidney and, as of January, president of the Sidney Area Chamber of Commerce.

Skinner says the population of Sidney is still given as 5,000, but if you add the people living in RVs, nearby man camps, motels, and trailers, the population has been estimated at anywhere between 6,000 and 9,000.

Despite all the impacts on Sidney, Skinner says “in many regards, daily life seems very much the same,” while “every business, for the most part, is seeing growth.”

The school district is trying hard to keep up with the growth, and it is working with the city and county to accommodate all the growing pains, Skinner says, “but I don’t know if you can ever get ahead of the curve we’re in right now.”

In a part of the state that has struggled for decades with periodic drought, wild swings in agricultural commodity prices, and the persistent feeling that its needs are ignored by the powers that be in Helena, most people are unabashedly thrilled with the boom.

You can put Mann, the consulting geologist, in that category.

“I can’t tell you how wonderful it’s been,” she says. “It’s given me the opportunity to stay in the place I love.

And now I have the opportunity to offer other people that chance.”

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Modern-Day Hunter-Gatherer Steven Rinella ’00 Turns Passion for Outdoors into Adventurous Career

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alumni profile STORY BY NATE SCHWEBER

It’s part of author and journalist Deirdre McNamer’s job to hear wild stories. After all, she teaches creative writing at The University of Montana.

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Steven Rinella glasses for blacktail deer on Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska.

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Rinella rafts out a load of moose meat in the Alaska Range.

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One story she overheard in the late 1990s still stands out. A charismatic student who regularly brought her “little bloody packets of deer meat for my freezer,” a guy who wrote a memorable essay for class about once expecting to die after eating a mess of mountain mushrooms, said he had a big snapping turtle that he planned to make into soup.

“He was a big hunter, forager, and gatherer,” McNamer says. “He had a fervent and detailed interest in where food comes from and the outdoors, and he had just fallen in love with Montana.”

The student was Steven Rinella, author of two books and host of The Sportsman Channel television show MeatEater. Rinella is a Michigan native, who now finds himself living in New York City, whose zest for the outdoors met its perfect match in Montana’s wilderness. While earning his Master of Fine Arts degree in UM’s Creative Writing Program, Rinella made the outdoors his second classroom. His adventures under the Big Sky were the template for a career spent circling the globe, writing about hunting and advocating for the habitat that wild food needs to grow.

“There’s an energy and urgency to his writing that’s almost as if there wouldn’t be anything for dinner if he didn’t get it done,” says best-selling author Ian Frazier, one of Rinella’s early mentors.

Rinella’s exploits have taken him from an unexplored river in the Philippines on assignment for Outside magazine; to South America, Vietnam, and Hawaii to film TV episodes; to the Alaska wilderness for a bison hunt that became the hook for his second book, American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon. His career trajectory was set, says his brother Matt Rinella, by his move from the Midwest to Montana.

“Steve’s interests were pretty much galvanized by the time he was twelve,” says Matt Rinella, a U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist in Miles City. “And he came to Montana because it seemed like the ideal place to chase those pursuits.”

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“There’s an energy and urgency to his writing that’s almost as if

“I actually wanted to be a professional

trapper until about the time I was twenty,” Steven Rinella says, leaning back on a furry couch cushion made from the pelt of a beaver he caught in Wyoming. It’s unusual décor to see, and an awfully unusual statement to hear, in New York City. The traffic route to Rinella’s fashionable Fort Greene neighborhood in Brooklyn courses through the borough’s gritty, urban downtown, where the only trace of Rinella’s writing subjects is a storefront chicken shop called Buffalo Boss. He lives on the ground floor of a handsome brownstone building that is far more Cliff Huxtable than, say, Jack London.

And street parking? Fuhgeddaboudit.

The irony isn’t lost on Rinella.

“My life’s goal was to spend time in wild places. It’s been the guiding principle of my life, so it’s perplexing to me how the achievement of that, the fulfillment of that, is to live here,” says Rinella, age thirtyeight. “I spend more time outdoors than anyone I know.”

Rinella’s conversation is like his prose: open, autobiographical, and filled with funny anecdotes. Dressed in Levi’s and an untucked button-down shirt, Rinella poured rum and coconut water over ice and cooked snook that he caught two days earlier on a fishing trip with his brother in Belize. Less than a week earlier, he’d given a speech in Missoula.

He was born and raised in rural Michigan, where he figured out early that selling two muskrat pelts paid better than mowing a lawn.

“He was always just real comfortable outside, very gung-ho about it,” says his brother Dan Rinella, a freshwater ecologist at the University of Alaska.

While his brothers opted for careers studying ecology and biology, Rinella felt he didn’t share their aptitude for science. After he earned his undergraduate degree in English from Michigan’s

Grand Valley State University, the price of muskrat pelts nosedived.

Rinella thought he might try his luck writing.

He road tripped to Montana, and it set his mind reeling. He remembers gazing from Interstate 90 out at mountains bigger than any he’d yet seen and wondering, “What is the delivery mechanism by which you go from being on the road to being on the top of those things?” He fished Rock Creek one day, and at night he and his brother caroused downtown Missoula, ate a MacKenzie River pizza, and shut down Charlie B’s, that quintessential North Higgins Avenue dive. The next morning, on a whim, Rinella walked over to the UM creative writing department, took an application from program director Kate Gadbow, and applied.

Gadbow says Rinella, who was in the program from 1997 through 2000, proved to be a great student because of his gunscope focus. He just wanted to write magazine articles about the outdoors, not fiction, not poetry. Rinella helped revitalize the program’s nonfiction curriculum, which had atrophied some since the recent retirement of heralded professor and Montana wordsmith William Kittredge, Gadbow says.

“Steven had a real directed idea of what he wanted to do,” she says. “He was really helpful in nurturing the idea that nonfiction could be a separate part of the Creative Writing Program, and a valid one.”

For Rinella, the classroom came second to that big Montana wild. He set about trying to walk every game trail in the state.

His partner in exploration was his brother Matt, then a student at Montana State University in Bozeman.

“We lived in the mountains,” Rinella says. “We hit it so hard that by the time I finished grad school, I knew that state better than a lot of guys who grew up there.”

Rinella hunted black bear near Thompson Falls and scoured the Sapphire Mountains and the Lee Metcalf Wilderness Area for elk. He picked morel mushrooms by the North Fork of the Flathead River and thought he might die by an Idaho riverbank after eating seven different species of wild fungus. He ate sushi made of Flathead Lake mackinaw.

Fatefully, in September 1999, he found an old bison skull deep in the Madison Mountains, kickstarting an obsession with that animal.

“Steve was a guy that you could always have a great outdoor adventure with,” says Ben Bloch, a Madison Valley artist who was Above: Rinella and friendly with Rinella when they both the buffalo skull that lived in Missoula. “And he carved out a inspired his second pretty interesting niche for himself as an book, American honorable sportsman.”

Buffalo: In Search of One day, working as a range picker at a Lost Icon the University Golf Course for extra money, Top: Rinella surfcasts Rinella says he had “a nervous breakdown,” for striped bass driving inside a cage, getting pelted by little and bluefish on Fire white balls. He suddenly was struck by the Island, N.Y.

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t

if

there wouldn’t be anything for dinner if he didn’t get it done” notion that modern American society had “traded the fecundity of the wild for pleated pants and manicured greens.”

He quit, rode his bike to his girlfriend’s apartment in the Wilma building, sat down and typed the first article he ever sold, this one to a trapping magazine. With guidance from Frazier, whom he recently had taken mule deer hunting in a canoe along the Missouri River Breaks, Rinella sold his next story to Outside magazine for a considerable hike in pay. Soon, that magazine sent him to Montauk, N.Y., to write about a shark fishing tournament, and then to the Island of Luzon in the Philippines to raft the mysterious Chaco River.

With his magazine career gaining speed, his first book project sparked when he invited McNamer and some classmates to his Rattlesnake neighborhood apartment to eat that snapping turtle.

writer or did something lucky just happen?” he says. “Looking back I’m astonished at how accidental it was.”

A few years later, he had another funny, lucky break. Rinella wound up on TV in New York City.

Around the time Rinella’s first book came out, he met in New York with his publicist, a fellow

Michigan native named Katie Finch. The idea of him starring on TV came up.

“I remember thinking, no way, he’s too rough around the edges,” says Finch, who married Rinella in 2008. Together they have a two-year-old son named James.

After Rinella moved into Finch’s Brooklyn apartment around 2006 and finished his buffalo book, TV producers started calling. He hosted a show called The Wild Within on Travel Channel in 2010. In 2011, he shot episodes for MeatEater, and the show premiered on Rinella bowhunts The Sportsman Channel in January. Director Morgan for elk in southwest Fallon says Rinella’s energy and enthusiasm make the Montana’s Lee Metcalf show compelling.

Wilderness Area.

“We get moments of absolute magic,” Fallon says.

From his metropolitan home, Rinella says he is amused by the funny paradox by which living in the city allows him to spend more time in the wilderness.

“As much as I like to hunt and fish, I work in the entertainment business,” he says. “And there are certain benefits to being in New York if you’re in the entertainment business.”

He says he just finished edits on his third book, a hunting memoir that will soon take its place on the bookshelf in his dining room that also holds volumes with titles such as The Roadside History of Montana and Visions of the Big Sky, plus that Escoffier cookbook from McNamer.

Between the books sits a Montana black bear McNamer gave him her copy of Georges Auguste Escoffier’s Le skull and that storied bison skull from the Madisons. His other Guide Culinaire, a collection of gourmet French recipes from the bison skull, a porcelain Alaskan trophy, hangs in the living room. turn of the twentieth century. One was for turtle soup. Rinella used Beneath it lies a toy train that belongs to his son, who’s sleeping in that text as a muse for his first book, The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute a back room not far from the closet with the extra freezer where Cuisine, where he chronicled his quest to harvest ingredients for a Rinella stores meat from his hunts. forty-five-course Thanksgiving feast using only Escoffier’s recipes.

Wait, an extra freezer?

In the mid-2000s, Rinella entered an Alaskan lottery for a For wild meat? In New license to hunt a buffalo in a remote river valley that held a small It doesn’t stop here!

York City?

Visit www.umt.edu/montanan herd descended from overflow stock introduced from Montana’s “Well, yeah,” Rinella to read a Web exclusive National Bison Range in 1928. Though his odds were less than Q&A with Steven Rinella. explains. “I give a lot of it 2 percent, Rinella scored one of the coveted tags and set forth to away to friends.” complete a story arc that began when he found that old Montana You can take Steven Rinella out of Montana, but you can’t take buffalo skull in the Madison Mountains.

His books were heralded by critics, teachers, friends, and family. Montana out of Steven Rinella.

Frazier described Rinella as “the best writing student I ever had.”

His brothers both complimented his grasp of science and his Nate Schweber is a freelance journalist who graduated from ability to write about ecology.

UM’s School of Journalism in 2001. His work has appeared Looking back, Rinella described his journey as “luck journalism.” in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Time magazine, He reflected on the odds of his drawing that bison tag.

Budget Travel, and The Village Voice. He lives in New “If something happens that’s too lucky, it’s like, are you a good York City and sings in a band called the New Heathens.

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STORY BY ERIKA FREDRICKSON PHOTOS BY TODD GOODRICH

Learning Locally, T UM’S NEW GLOBAL LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE CHALLENGES STUDENTS TO TACKLE BIG QUESTIONS Three years ago, University of Montana President Royce Engstrom, then provost, asked a group of faculty members to come together and brainstorm about how a UM education could change the world.

“I asked them where education should go in this Global Century,” he says. “I asked them what kind of experiences we should be giving our students and what kinds of topics and conversations we should try to enable for them.”

But the undergraduate years can be a challenging time as it is. Students often see general education requirements as something they just have to survive. Even when those courses are compelling, students still end up wading through—sometimes aimlessly—the sea of introductory courses, taking notes, and sweating exams, without quite knowing how any of it will apply to their futures.

Engstrom and the faculty talked about ways in which an undergraduate education could be designed by students in a more deliberate and interdisciplinary way. If, from Day One, students were engaged in coursework that interacted with global issues, they might better understand how their general education could make an impact. And wouldn’t that make them better citizens and leaders?

“So, out of that first discussion group,” says Engstrom, “came an experiment.”

That experiment, a donor-funded pilot program called the Global Leadership Initiative, launched this past fall. About 150 students were selected—not just honors students, but students who reflect UM in its variety of majors and backgrounds. Those select freshmen, or “Fellows,” began attending seminars, such as “Doing the Right Thing: A Global Strategy for Good Business,” which teaches ways companies can make a positive global impact through ethical corporate citizenship, and “Issues in Global Public Health,” which discusses policies that address current and future challenges to global health.

Each year, GLI Fellows will move on to another phase. The second-year component, Models of Leadership, includes offcampus retreats and engagement with national and international leaders in business, law, science, the arts, humanities, social sciences, and public service. Arlene Walker-Andrews, associate provost and GLI committee co-chair, says this component will help students see leaders as people, just like them, who took steps to go on to greater things.

“Students can meet people who are successful and who can talk about what they do and how they do it,” she says. “It helps them understand that we’re not all born with a silver spoon in our mouth and just got to our positions by luck. And I think it helps students see that you can be a banker making money and be doing volunteer work in Africa. You can be the head of an NGO and help people, but you can also be a pharmacist and help in the community.”

In the third year, Fellows get a passport paid for through GLI fundraising. They can use the passport to study abroad, but they also have other options: regional and local internships, service-learning coursework and research, or creative scholarship, all of which can be potentially donor-funded.

In their final GLI year, Fellows work in small groups of students from diverse majors to actually tackle a global problem with a specific project. Successful Fellows are awarded a certificate at graduation.

“This initiative focuses on all kinds of areas,” WalkerAndrews says. “There are classes on global public health. Gender issues in the world. Mortality. I always laugh when I say that one only because a faculty member in the humanities rightly says that we can’t forget the enduring questions, you know, what makes us human. So, mortality! These may not be the questions that students stick with the whole time, but we’re asking them to think big.”

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, Thinking Globally

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Rising Tides

they aren’t actually. And if they are, we’ll try to promote them to the University. We want to see if it would save money in the end and if “Truthiness” means preferring facts one wishes to be true, rather it would be greener.” than facts known to be true. Or as satirist Stephen Colbert, who The class, which counts as an introductory natural sciences coined the term, says, truthiness is “truth that comes from the requirement, is taught by biology scientist Art Woods. Like all the gut, not books.” Journalism Associate Professor Ray Fanning has GLI seminars, the class is small—only nine students—providing taken this humorous, pop-culture idea and applied it to his GLI an intimate environment. The students learn about ocean rise and freshman seminar, “News Literacy: Truth v. Truthiness.” acidification and the causes and effects of carbon emissions into the “Stephen Colbert defined it on his show,” Fanning says, atmosphere. They discuss climate change models and laughing. “And there is a lot of truthiness going on the effect of climate change on certain populations, in the world. Particularly in journalism there’s this and they analyze current policy. blurring between news and opinion, and sometimes “The class is structured so we’re doing a mix of it’s hard to tell which one you’re getting.” basic science,” says Woods. “What’s the science that In his class, students study the way news is contributes to the understanding of global climate gathered. They deconstruct articles to seek out when change? What sorts of effects do we think are going journalists are using direct or indirect evidence. They to happen in the next fifty or one hundred years? examine article sources and discuss whether that And then how are they going to affect our world? As source is informed and authoritative, and in what part of the class, I charge all students with developing ways that source also may be self-interested. Critical their own project. And that project has to involve thinking, like being able to dissect the news, fits the doing something about climate change and taking a purpose of the GLI program perfectly. It’s not just “This class is public stand.” about being able to sort the truth from the truthiness, universally With the idea of taking action in mind, the already it’s knowing how to take that knowledge as a leader important. We all small class works in even smaller groups on projects. in the global economy and use it to solve problems. have to be citizens, They rarely take notes, but they read a lot and everyone “All majors need this skill of critical thinking,” and hopefully participates in discussion. UM Regents Professor of Fanning says. “This class is universally important. we’re exercising Ecology and climate scientist Steve Running, climate We all have to be citizens, and hopefully we’re our rights as ethics expert Dane Scott, and Clark Fork River exercising our rights as citizens by being informed and then being able to act upon that.” citizens by being Coalition scientist Chris Brick all have visited the In another seminar, “Global Climate Change: informed and then classroom as guest speakers. Experiments like the power strip one give students a hands-on project that engages Science, Society, and Ethics,” students also learn being able to act them in climate change solutions. how to think critically and take action. Homework upon that.”

“It’s an informal atmosphere,” says Woods, for freshmen Hailey Michelson, Emmitt Stangel, “almost like you’re sitting around a kitchen table talking about these Rebecca Singleton, and Colin Soos, for instance, requires plugging things. It’s amazing what the students know and think and can say, power strips into outlets to compare green and conventional and often that gets buried when they’re in a class of fifty or one technologies, then calculating the watts to see which ones conserve the most energy. When they’ve gathered their evidence, the students hundred, and they never get a chance to speak up. I’m impressed with them.” will publish the results in a campuswide report.

The students are across the board: different majors, backgrounds, “We want to see, first of all, if they are really effective,” says and abilities, which contributes to the GLI philosophy, says Woods, Michelson. “There are a lot of products that say they’re green, but

GLI Fellows, from left, Riley Acker, Katie Stevens, Tyler Trucco, Elizabeth Schmidt, Rachel Reynolds, Danielle Howlett, Hunter Pauli, and Taylor Preston

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that rising tides can lift all boats. Stangel is a baseball player studying sociology. He heard about the program and saw it as an opportunity to be part of a new way of learning.

“I thought it was a really cool idea,” he says. “I liked everything about it. It’s cool to be the first class here to ever do it, and I’m interested to see how later down the road it can help me in life.”

Michelson, who’s thinking about majoring in journalism, is enrolled in two seminars. Besides the climate change course, she’s taking “The Net Effect,” a class about how the Internet is changing the Fellows take part in UM Professor Lee Banville’s GLI world. Some students are studying how social media seminar titled “The Net Effect” in Don Anderson Hall. interacted with the Arab Spring. Because of her potential major, she’s also exploring how the Internet Leadership component of the program. The first day is changing journalism. began with a panel on human rights and ended with “That’s what drew me to the program,” she says. a talk from Priya Jaisinghani of the U.S. Agency “I felt like I had an opportunity to take relevant for International Development, who spoke about classes about things that are going on now. You can mobile banking and its role in building economies experiment in different fields, and it’s not just glazedin places like India. over, huge classes and lecture. It’s recent stuff. It’s more The following day brought in a large spectrum hands-on. It’s relevant.” of leaders speaking about international business She laughs. and global citizenry, including Montana Governor “I’ve said that twenty million times,” Michelson Brian Schweitzer. The range of speakers and issues says. “But everything does seem more relevant when illustrates something else that the GLI promotes: “I felt like I had you’re in these kinds of classes.” the idea that you can be a banker or pharmacist or an opportunity Relevancy is exactly what Woods is going for. writer, you can be politically conservative or liberal, to take relevant “The whole idea of the GLI program is to raise the and you can still think globally. In fact, it’s exactly classes about bar for undergraduate education. And to have small that variety, says Walker-Andrews, that we need to things that are groups of incoming students grapple with really big solve the big issues. going on now. You questions,” he says. “Solving problems associated with “That’s why we say this is an education for can experiment climate change is going to need engineers, it’s going the Global Century. It’s about using your general in different fields, education and major to address these big problems. to need philosophers, it’s going to need biologists. It’s going to need all these different kinds of people working and it’s not just And it’s this need to collaborate—because I don’t on different angles. I think it’s really going to help them glazed-over, huge think any one of us is likely to eradicate malaria in to have some awareness of that interconnection.” classes and lecture. Africa by ourselves.”

The freshmen who were the first of the GLI It’s recent stuff. experiment are almost ready to move onto this next Measuring an Education It’s more hands-on. phase, and the GLI committee is preparing to invite Walker-Andrews believes there are three reasons young It’s relevant.”

200 incoming freshmen to come on board. people go to college: their parents tell them to, they This is the kind of education Walker-Andrews want a job, and they want to change the world. And hopes will define UM as the GLI continues and expands. Not too that big challenge—wanting to change the world—is the one she long ago, UM graduate surveys tried to measure the school’s success believes is foremost on the minds of incoming freshmen. And, she by asking alumni three questions: “Do you have a job?” “Is it in says, that’s the perfect time for it to happen. your area of study?” and “How much money do you make?”

“That’s when you have the energy and ideas,” she says. “And we “I think that’s a pretty crass set of questions,” Walker-Andrews probably should bank on that if we want the world to change.” says. “So we decided to change it.” The questionnaire now asks In late March, GLI students, faculty, and community about the more nuanced terms of success, trying to find out if they participants assembled on campus to kick off the Models of learned the types of world-leader skills that GLI strives for.

“We decided to make it useful,” she says, “in the sense that this GET INVOLVED is an accredited institution where we claim that we teach students UM is working toward a goal of securing three years of funding to support 600 to think critically, to do quantitative analysis, to do X, Y, and Z, Fellows. This goal totals $3 million. Philanthropic gifts for the GLI will assist with and so we need to be accountable to that.” advising and mentoring for Fellows; stipends for faculty who lead seminars; scholarships and passports for experiences beyond the classroom; Models of Leadership retreats; and capstone projects.

You are invited to support innovation at UM by making a gift to the GLI Fund.

Call Ric Thomas, senior vice president for development at the UM Foundation, at 406-243-2598, to learn more about how to become involved.

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Erika Fredrickson is the arts editor at the Missoula Independent. She graduated from UM’s Creative Writing Program in 1999 and received a master’s degree in environmental studies in 2009.

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CONGRATULATIONS TO BEN MURPHY for receiving first place in this year’s young artist division of the Music Teachers National Association composition competition.

Ben, a senior from Barrington, Ill., is recognized for his creativity and self-expression in his composition. This is one of the most prestigious music awards for university students, and we are proud to congratulate Ben—as well as all of our UM Stars.

Gifts to The University of Montana Foundation Excellence Fund help support Odyssey of the Stars scholarship recipients. The partnership between the University and its supporters enriches the student experience and fosters student success.

For more information about a gift to the Excellence Fund, please contact: Lauren Clark, Director of Annual Giving – External Campaigns The University of Montana Foundation 800.443.2593 or 406.243.2593 excellence.fund@mso.umt.edu

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n. s,

Raising Montana

Photo by Patrick Record

Dr. Cathy Capps is recognized for her work in strengthening the bond between UM and the community.

Dr. Capps Receives for All She Gives

L

isten to Dr. Cathy Capps’ stories about her life, and you may jump at your next chance to volunteer.

Capps extolled the benefits of giving and receiving at this year’s Charter Day Awards ceremony, where she received the Neil S. Bucklew Presidential Service Award. The University of Montana Foundation presents the Bucklew Award each year to a Montanan who has enhanced the bonds among the community, state, and University.

Capps, an orthopedic surgeon, moved to Missoula twenty years ago. Since then, she has thrust her heart and soul into supporting the arts, both in the community and at UM. “You get out of life what you put into it,” Capps says. “I’ve been part of so many exciting things because of my involvement in local arts. I recently had a role in a movie produced for a student’s Master of Fine Arts project, for instance. And I go to local performances, and know so many of the kids performing. That makes it so much more fun when you know people personally. In so many ways, it’s like having a group of friends.”

Capps, a longtime board member (and occasional cast member) for the Missoula Children’s Theatre, also has

served as co-president, treasurer, and current scholarship chair for the Missoula Symphony Guild. She and her husband, Dr. Tom Rickard, funded many vocal and instrumental scholarship endowments.

They also support the Buddy DeFranco Jazz Festival, Montana Rep Colony, and other arts activities. On top of that, for the past twelve years, she’s served on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the College of Visual and Performing Arts, most recently as the council president.

At the awards ceremony, she encouraged others to become involved with their communities. She summed up her thinking by paraphrasing a quote from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, saying, “Service, like mercy, is twice blessed. It blesses he who gives and he who receives.”

Capps speaks fondly of her involvement with UM. “I think UM is so respectful of your wishes—they’ll ask you where you want the money to go, then actually follow through with it. They’ll work with you to make it happen. Plus, you get to see the immediate results of where your money goes. You meet the kids who have been helped, who are grateful for the opportunity. It’s just so personal and so meaningful.”

That immediate connection with students is what drew Capps into so many volunteer efforts in the first place. Years ago, her voice teacher, Esther England, introduced her to faculty and students in UM’s School of Music. Some of the students she met needed to get to Spokane, Wash., for auditions, but had no way of getting there.

“They didn’t have snow tires or a good car,” Capps says. “They didn’t have money to stay anywhere decent. One kid, I remember thinking, he can’t go up on stage in those old shoes.”

Seizing an opportunity, as well as the steering wheel of her four-wheel-drive vehicle equipped with snow tires, she began driving students herself, buying them food, lodging, and yes, even shoes.

Capps shrugs off those efforts, and all of her volunteer efforts.

“It starts with little things—being nice to people, passing along whatever breaks people gave you to get ahead,” she says.

She obviously puts those words into action, and she believes strongly that others should as well.

“When people hear the word giving, they automatically think about money. It’s not just about money,” Capps says. “Get involved, even if you aren’t personally giving money. I’ve sat in a ticket booth selling tickets for a Jazz Fest fundraiser.

That didn’t cost me any money.

“People don’t think giving to UM is a reciprocal relationship, but it is. I get to see things, to be involved—I get so much out of it.” She pauses, then adds a closing thought: “Just as with anything in life, you’ll get out of it what you put into it. If you don’t put effort into anything, you’ll get nothing back.”

Words worthy of Shakespeare.

Congratulations, and thanks, to Dr. Cathy Capps for putting effort into helping countless UM students.

Make a gift online at www.SupportUM.org

on www.umt.edu/montanan

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about alumni ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chair

Eric D. Botterbusch ’87

Everett, WA

Past Chair

Thomas J. Dimmer ’85 Williamston, MI

Board of Directors

Alina Alvarez ’99

Denver

Leon G. Billings ’59

Bethany Beach, DE

Brandon Byars ’93 Photos courtesy of Stephen Millhouse

Portland, OR

Susan C. English ’72

Missoula

Alison Fuller ’05

New York

Dawn Houle ’94 Gaithersburg, MD

Barrett Kaiser ’99 Billings

Jim Kolokotrones ’81, ’86 Daly City, CA

Karin Larson-Pollock ’93

Mercer Island, WA

Ken Lawrence ’63 San Antonio

Allan Murphy ’65 Bend, OR

Marnie McMeel Prigge ’73 Butte

Rachel Schneller ’95 Washington, D.C.

Greg Stahl, ’82 Missoula

Greg Sundberg ’01, ’03

Missoula

Ed Tinsley ’92, ’07 Helena

Patrick Weasel Head ’71, ’73 Missoula

Pat Weber ’73

Yardley, PA

UM Alumni Association

Bill Johnston ’79, ’91 PRESIDENT AND CEO 406-243-5211 877-UM-ALUMS www.grizalum.com

STEPHEN T. MILLHOUSE ’85, Missoula, completed a 1,460-mile walk from the Poverello Center in Missoula to the Hospitality Kitchen in Los Angeles in a campaign to raise awareness and money for the homeless and the hungry. The distance was based on Stephen’s calculation of TOP: Stephen, left, chats with Gregg the number of miles the average homeless person DesElms, an advocate for homeless walks in one year. It took Stephen—a Marine veterans in the Vallejo, Calif., area.

Corps veteran—five months to complete the ABOVE: Stephen pauses in front of a mountain range in Idaho, about three journey, which he called “My One Man March.” weeks into his five-month journey to Stephen faced many challenges along the way, Los Angeles. both physically and mentally. When he began to feel pain in his left foot, he stopped at a VA clinic in Twin Falls, Idaho, where he was diagnosed with a stress fracture. Although the doctor advised him to stop the march so his broken foot could heal, he pressed on after resting for only a few days.

When he wasn’t walking, Stephen volunteered at homeless shelters and food pantries.

“In many communities, food pantries are the basic safety net keeping people out of homelessness,” he says.

The experience was eye-opening. Stephen was shocked by the prevalence of hunger and poverty in America, especially in rural areas.

“I was humbled by the response I got,” he says. “I met so many people of so many different stripes that believed in the need to help homeless people.”

He finally arrived in L.A. at the beginning of January, elated, exhausted, and thirty pounds lighter than he was when he began his march in August.

“It wasn’t until the very last block came into view that it hit me that I was about to finish,” he says. “It was an overwhelming moment, and I just let the tears fall.”

Stephen, who will donate the funds he raised to programs in the four states through which he traveled, sees his effort as a way to pay it forward to all those who helped him during his own period of living as a homeless person in both Missoula and California. But even though the walk has ended, Stephen’s journey is far from complete.

“I am in the process of putting together a PowerPoint presentation that I can take on the road,” he says. “I have walked the walk, and now I want to talk the talk.”

Keep Us Posted. Send your news to The University of Montana Alumni Association, Brantly Hall, Missoula, MT 59812. Go to www.grizalum.com and click on “Submit a Class Note,” fax your news to 406-243-4467, or call 1-877-UM-ALUMS (877-862-5867). Material in this issue reached our office by February 28, 2012.

Note: The year immediately following an alum’s name indicates either an undergraduate degree year or attendance at UM. Graduate degrees from UM are indicated by initials.

Snowbirds/Sunbirds—Anyone! Whenever you change your mailing address, please contact the alumni office.

Let us know where you are and when. Thank you.

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’30s

Cooney

’50s

signature Twenty-Six Theory. DeLynn has won the national cribbage championship four times and is currently the topranked lifetime player in the American Cribbage Congress.

their days hunting and fishing as their families face the challenges of tight budgets.

CLAIT E. BRAUN, M.S. ’65, Tucson, Ariz., recently received the Gunnison Sage Grouse Stewardship Award.

Clait is a co-discoverer of the Gunnison species of sage grouse. He currently operates Grouse Inc., a consulting firm specializing in grouse issues in the western part of North America.

LINDA MARTIN ’67,

Homer, Alaska, received a master’s degree in poetry from Pacific Lutheran University this past August. Her poetry has appeared in Bloodroot Literary Magazine, Rock & Sling, and Cirque. She and her husband own and operate a glass shop in Alaska.

TIM POWERS ’68, Provo, Utah, will retire from his position as the head swimming and diving coach at Brigham Young University at the end of his thirty-seventh season

with the team. He and his wife, Patcee, plan to serve on a church mission together.

’70s

MAE NAN ELLINGSON

’70, J.D. ’76, retired from legal practice after spending the last twentyeight years as a public finance lawyer for Dorsey & Whitney in Missoula.

Over the course of her career, Mae Nan has had a hand in several landmark projects, including the introduction of open space bonds in Missoula and the establishment of the city’s first easement on Mount Sentinel. She also was the youngest delegate to attend the Montana Constitutional Convention in 1971 and 1972, when she was twenty-four years old.

MARGARET JOHNSON

’71, Missoula, recently published her second book, The Drama Teacher’s Survival Guide #2: Activities, exercises

’60s

THOMAS BULLOCK ’61, West Covina, Calif., published Montana Memories, an e-book containing a series of recollections of his experiences growing up in Montana during the middle of the twentieth century. The stories recall the childhood adventures of young boys who spend

Photo by Tom Bauer ‘86/Missoulian

’50, Kalispell, was the subject of a recent feature story in the Flathead Beacon.

An original founder of Kalmont Distributors and Western Building Center, Ivan still enjoys frequent hikes and ski trips despite being legally blind. He also continues to help manage Western Building Center, which owns ten retail supply stores across Montana. “There’s no quit in him,” current general manager Doug Shanks tells the Beacon.

“He’s been very successful and there’s so many things that he’s done that he doesn’t talk about or beat his chest about. He’s just an amazing guy. We all look up to him.”

GARY JYSTAD ’56, Rollins, received a certificate of distinction from the Montana Medical Association in recognition of his fifty years of service as a medical doctor. He and his wife, MARY ELLEN ERICKSON JYSTAD ’56, have three children and seven grandchildren.

DELYNN COLVERT ’57, M.F.A. ’58, Missoula, recently published the fourth edition of his book Play Winning Cribbage, in which he explains his IVAN O’NEIL

’35, celebrated her 100th birthday in February at the Bee Hive retirement home in Choteau. Sixteen family members and three friends surprised Carol with a party on her special day. A lifelong Griz fan, Carol still tunes in to cheer her beloved Grizzlies to victory whenever she has the chance. She also remains in contact with EMMA LOMMASSON ’33, M.S. ’39, a dear friend from her college days in Missoula, who also recently celebrated her 100th birthday.

Carol’s family has kept the UM tradition alive, with two of her children and one of her grandchildren graduating from the University.

CAROL WELLS COONEY

Cooney photo by Nancy Thornton/Choteau Acantha

about alumni

DANA CHRISTENSEN, J.D. ’76, Kalispell, became the seventeenth U.S. District Court judge for Montana following unanimous approval by the U.S. Senate. He has worked as a partner at the law firm Christensen, Moore, Cockrell, Cummings & Axelberg PC since 1996 and has tried more than fifty trials in his thirty-five-year legal career.

U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen is helped into his robe by his son, Ben, and daughter, Cassidy, after his swearing-in at the Russell Smith Federal Courthouse in Missoula.

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TERI WHEELER WAHL RAPPE ’71, Wenatchee, Wash., is celebrating her fiftieth year of teaching music. She has taught classroom piano at Wenatchee Valley College for twenty-six years and was a church organist and pianist for forty-four years.

ARLYNN FISHBAUGH

’74, Helena, was elected president of the board of directors of the National Assembly of State Art Agencies. As the executive director of the Montana Arts Council, she hopes her service on the national board will benefit Montana arts.

“Representing NASAA allows Montana to have unique visibility with other funders that could be of benefit to NASAA and a state like Montana,” she says.

HUGH SOAPE,

M.B.A. ’74, was hired by Texas Agrilife Extension Service as an extension agent in Gregg County, Tex. TIM LONG ’78, joined the New York office of Protiviti, a global consulting firm, as a managing director specializing in the U.S. financial services practice.

Prior to joining the WWW.UMT.EDU/MONTANAN

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Programming Excellence Award from American Public Television for his documentary Glacier Park’s Night of the Grizzlies,

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superior courts across the state. Gould has been a member of the Yuma County Superior Court since his appointment in 2001.

PAM USCHUK ’86, Bayfield, Colo., published her fifth poetry collection, titled Wild in the Plaza of Memory.

Decker

830,000 acres of state land and the coordination of fire protection on about sixteen million acres of private, state, and federal land.

ANDREW GOULD ’86, Yuma, Ariz., was appointed to serve on the Arizona Court of Appeals, which reviews cases from

ALUMNI EVENTS 2012 MAY

and techniques for the theatre classroom. Margaret retired from the classroom after teaching drama at Sentinel High School in Missoula for thirty-seven years, but she remains active with the Missoula Community Theatre.

KELLY MILLER ’83, Asheville, N.C., was named president and chief executive officer of Tampa Bay & Company, a tourism and economic promotion organization based out of Hillsborough County, Fla. GINGER ALLEN ’84, Cranesville, Pa., owns Crowley’s Restaurant & Irish Pub with her husband, Charles. When they find time to sneak away from the restaurant, they can be found fly fishing on local rivers.

Ginger learned how to tie flies when she was a student at UM, and she spent several years as a flytying instructor.

ROBERT KEANE, M.S. ’84, was appointed to American Forests’ new Science Advisory Board, which will help create and evaluate the organization’s forest restoration projects and public policy initiatives. Robert is a research ecologist with the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station at the Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula.

GUS CHAMBERS ’85, Missoula, received a

JUNE

Margaret F. Johnson

’80s

JULY

for the theatre classroom

SEPTEMBER

Activities, exercises and techniques

which chronicles a night in 1967 in which separate grizzly bear attacks in Glacier National Park left two women dead. The film was the highest-rated local program in the history of MontanaPBS when it premiered in May 2011. Gus is a producer at UM’s Broadcast Media Center and MontanaPBS. DOUG DECKER ’85, Portland, Ore., was selected as Oregon’s new state forester by the Oregon Department of Forestry. In his new role, Doug, who joined the agency as a public affairs specialist in 1987, will be responsible for the management of about

AUGUST

company, Tim spent thirty years working for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in Washington, D.C.

NOV

Cooney photo by Nancy Thornton/Choteau Acantha

about alumni

For more details, call the Office of Alumni Relations, 877-UM-ALUMS, or visit www.grizalum.com.

Senior Send-Off, 4-6 p.m., UC Ballroom Commencement reunions, classes of 1942, 1952, 1962, campus International travel: Historic Reflections Luxury Cruise International travel: British Isles Odyssey Luxury Cruise Alumni event, Denver UMAA Board of Directors meeting, Denver Alumni event, Flathead Valley UMAA-sponsored Out to Lunch, Caras Park, Missoula International travel: Baltic Treasures Luxury Cruise Eighth annual UM Alumni Night with the Missoula Osprey Homecoming 2012 (Sept. 16-22) Homecoming kickoff celebration, Southgate Mall UM dorm and office decorating contests House of Delegates annual meeting, all day Homecoming buffet dinner, Food Zoo Davidson Honors College all-class reunion, all day Hello Walk UM department open houses and receptions Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony and reception Pep Rally All-Alumni Social and Dance Homecoming Hustle – 5K race Homecoming Parade Homecoming TV Tailgate Homecoming football game: Montana Grizzlies vs.

Northern Arizona University 112th Griz-Cat football game, Missoula

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about alumni ’87, M.F.A. ’91, Kalispell, published three e-books since starting her own small publishing company last year. Kathy, who also works as an instructor at Flathead Valley Community College, hopes to eventually publish hard copies of her books.

E. SCOTT MCGHEE ’87, Clarkton, N.C., earned his American Bladesmith Society Journeyman Smith Certification at the All Forged Blade Expo in San Antonio, Tex. There are fewer than 175 ABS Journeyman Smiths in the world.

LORI HARPER SUEK ’88, J.D. ’91, Billings, was one of 163 members of the U.S. Department of Justice recognized at the twenty-eighth annual Director’s Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C. Lori, who is an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Montana, was honored for her outstanding efforts in promoting justice in Indian Country.

CARIN SULLIVAN ’88 received the 2011 E.B. Craney Award for radio station promotion of the year. Presented by the KATHY DUNNEHOFF

Sullivan

Montana Broadcasters Association, the awards honor the memory of Montana broadcasting pioneer Ed Craney by recognizing excellence in all aspects of electronic WWW.UMT.EDU/MONTANAN

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media. Carin has worked in the broadcast field for more than twenty years and is currently an on-air announcer and producer for Cherry Creek Radio in Butte.

KURT WILSON ’89 and reporter Vince Devlin earned a 2011 Lee Enterprises President’s Award for excellence in news for their coverage in the Missoulian of Marine and Ronan native Tomy Parker during Parker’s recovery from the loss of his legs and most of one hand in Afghanistan.

The awards are handed out yearly to recognize outstanding efforts in journalism. Kurt is the Missoulian’s photography editor. This is his fifth President’s Award in eleven years.

’90s

’90 is the new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the University of Florida Gators. A former Grizzly quarterback who had a brief NFL playing career in the late 1980s, Brent coached several college teams over the course of his career, most recently serving as the offensive coordinator for the Boise State University Broncos.

KATHLEEN JENKS, J.D. ’92, was appointed as head judge for Missoula Municipal Court following the retirement of JUDGE DONALD LOUDEN ’77, J.D. ’80.

Kathleen, who currently studies psychology at UM, is a former general prosecutor for the Missoula bureau of the Montana Attorney General’s Office. Before that, she worked as the supervising attorney for the Child Protection BRENT PEASE

Unit of the state office, also in Missoula.

JEFFERY WEHR ’92, ’96, Odessa, Wash., was one of three educators in the nation to receive the 2011 Siemens Founders Award. The annual honor recognizes individuals or schools for encouraging

addition to $15,000 for their affiliated school or institution, recipients are given the opportunity to participate in a summer research immersion program at Oak Ridge National Laboratories in Tennessee, which Jeffery plans to attend.

JOE JOHNSTON

’93, Missoula, completed his first season as a football official in the Pac12 Conference this past fall. Joe, who is originally from Butte, has been officiating football games for more than twenty years, eight of which were spent in the Big Jeffery and Julie Wehr Sky Conference. He students to participate and his wife, Kory, have in math, science, or two children: seven-yeartechnology research old daughter Jayden and programs and working eleven-year-old son Jack.

JIM MCGOWAN ’93 to enhance math and was named publisher of science education in American high schools. In the Missoulian and the

ARIC SCHNELLER ’90, Huntsville, Tex., directed the Sam Houston State University Bearkat Marching Band when it played the national anthem prior to SHSU’s Football Championship Subdivision semifinal game against the Montana Grizzlies in December. Aric, whose father LEWIS SCHNELLER ’67, M.Ed. ’75, was a lineman for the Grizzlies, has been the director of the Jazz Studies program at SHSU since 2008. “I’ve gotten some friendly jabs from people in Montana,” Aric told the Missoulian before the game. “A couple have suggested they sacrifice me on the fifty-yard line before the game, or maybe hang me from the goal post, like a sacrificial lamb.”

Ravalli Republic, both Lee Enterprises newspapers.

Jim originally joined the Missoulian staff as a digital director in 2002.

JAMES E. BROWN ’94, Helena, was selected to be the executive director of the Montana Independent Bankers Association.

James, who has six years of congressional staff experience in Washington, D.C., spent the past five years working for the law firm of Doney Crowley Bloomquist Payne.

BRIAN TOVSON ’94 recently graduated from the Montana Law Enforcement Academy.

Upon graduation, he received the Alex F. Mavity Outstanding Student Award, which is given to the highestperforming student in each graduating class.

Brian works as a police officer in Great Falls.

Schneller

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SUMMER SEMESTER 2012

School of Extended and Lifelong Learning formerly Continuing Education

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about alumni ’93, Missoula, published a children’s book, A Dog-Gone Tale, which tells the story of three puppies who must find their way back to their parents after wandering off in the park. The book is based on a bedtime story Randy created to teach his young son the importance of staying with his parents in a way he would understand. Inspired by his son’s love of the story and aided by the encouragement of his wife, Coryll, Randy set out to re-create the tale in print.

A marketing professional by trade, Randy hopes his first effort as a children’s author will help other parents teach a valuable lesson while having fun with their children.

RANDY RUPERT

SHEL HANSER ’95, M.Ed. ’03, Billings, received The University of Montana Educational Leadership Excellence Award, given out each year by the University to an alum working in education.

Rupert

M.A. ’95, McMinnville, Ore., spent eleven months as a naval reservist in Kuwait, where he participated in both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. As a logistics department leader, Eric oversaw supply engineering and boat maintenance. He also was

ERIC SCHUCK,

responsible for providing security coverage for vessels entering and exiting ports. Eric currently is an economics professor at Linfield College.

CLAYTON CHRISTIAN

’96, Missoula, is the new commissioner of higher education for the state of Montana. A businessman

by trade, Clayton was appointed to the state Board of Regents in 2006 and served as its chairman for more than two years.

He succeeds SHEILA STEARNS ’68, M.A. ’69, Ph.D. ’83, Helena, who will retire in June.

RYAN SCRENAR ’96, Helena, was appointed to represent the St. Peter’s Hospital Foundation on the St. Peter’s Hospital board of directors.

A certified public accountant, Ryan is senior vice president and audit director for Glacier Bancorp Inc., where he has worked since May 2000.

DAVID ROBERTS, M.A. ’98, Seattle, served as a panelist at the American Philosophical Association’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. The discussion panel was titled “From Philosophical Training to Professional Blogging.” He currently works as a blogger and writer for Grist magazine.

JOE SCHAFFER ’98, Ed.D. ’10, is the president of Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyo. Before

Hanser

The award recognizes the recipient’s significant contributions to education through their vision and action. Shel has been the principal at Billings Central High School since 2002. During his run as the longest-tenured principal in the school’s history, he has seen standardized test scores consistently exceed state and national averages.

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’98, Woodstock, Va., is the vice president of marketing at Ibex Outdoor Clothing, which recently expanded its wool source to the Lehfeldt family sheep ranch in Lavina, Mont. The company will use the wool for its line of Shak Lite garments, produced with 100 percent U.S. resources.

KEITH ANDERSON

Keith, far left, and ranchers Bob and Ben Lehfeldt stand near a sheepherding wagon.

accepting the position, he was the dean and chief executive officer of the Montana State UniversityGreat Falls College of Technology.

SAMUEL FREDERICK

’99, Mason, Mich., was elected as a new shareholder for the law firm Foster Swift Collins and Smith, PC. Sam specializes in the areas of intellectual property protection and information technology, specifically in trademarks,

Frederick

trade secrets, copyrights, and software licensing.

SUE MALEK, M.A. ’99, Missoula, was one of forty-eight state leaders across the nation selected for the prestigious Toll Fellowship Program sponsored by the Council of State Governments.

Sue, who is serving her second term as a representative in the Montana Legislature, attended the weeklong seminar this past fall.

Malek

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A gift from Dick Morrison helped Chery Sabol attend UM, where she earned her creative writing degree with high honors. But for Chery, an even higher honor was Dick’s interest in her studies.

“Dick initiated a personal correspondence with me,” she says. “I can’t express how meaningful it was to me that a stranger would support and encourage my education the way he did.” Dick went even further and made an additional commitment to support the scholarship through an estate gift. Like Dick, you can support the University in your will, or through another type of planned gift such as a trust, gift annuity, life insurance policy or other asset by contacting Theresa Boyer, director of gift planning, at 406.243.2593 or theresa.boyer@mso.umt.edu.

SupportUM.org/PlannedGiving | Facebook.com/UMFoundation

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about alumni

McCrackin

MARY ANN MCCRACKIN,

Ph.D. ’99, joined the faculty at Virginia Tech as the university veterinarian and director of the Office of Animal Resources.

She previously was the director of laboratory animal resources at UM and an adjunct professor of small animal medicine at the University of Georgia.

’00s

BILLIE JO KIPP, M.A. ’00, Ph.D. ’05, is the new president of Blackfeet Community College in Browning. Billie, who dropped out of college once before going on to earn an advanced degree, hopes her achievements will help inspire struggling students. She plans to add more fouryear college programs and job-training courses to the school’s curriculum.

HUGH POWELL, M.S. ’00, Ithaca, N.Y., is a science editor at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and a contributor to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Oceanus and other publications. As an environmental journalist, Hugh tries to connect his readers with the issues he reports on. “It can be easy to think that by providing the right set of statistics— number of acres remaining or tons released into the environment— readers will become as passionate about the topic as your sources are,” he WWW.UMT.EDU/MONTANAN

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DAVID PELLERIN ’98 and his wife, BRANDI PELLERIN ’99, New London, N.H., have found success on a national level with Indikoi Sinks, a small business they started together in 2010. After getting a lot of attention for the handcrafted ceramic sinks he sold at craft fairs, David, who also runs a pottery school called Wellhouse Farm Pottery, decided to create an entire line of Pellerins sinks. Over the past two years, the pair have worked side-by-side to grow their company, which now offers thirty-six different sinks and has more than fifty showroom accounts across the U.S. David makes each sink from start to finish, and Brandi handles sales, marketing, and bookkeeping while caring for their children, three-year-old Remster and newborn twins Jarvis and Magnolia. Even back when they were both fine art students at UM, Brandi and David knew they eventually wanted to start their own business. “I will never forget when Professor Catherine Mallory said in my senior thesis class that you are not going to find a job in the paper for an artist. You have to take something you are passionate about, like art, and figure out a way to make a living at it,” Brandi says.

’04, San Diego, Calif., placed tenth overall in the female pro division of the 2011 XTERRA World Championship triathlon. Originally from Whitefish, Jessica discovered her hidden talent for endurance sports while finishing her master’s degree in exercise physiology at San Diego State. At the request of one of her professors, she completed a bicycle fitness test. Her performance was so impressive that she decided to give competitive mountain biking a whirl. Eventually, she began racing XTERRA triathlons, which include swimming, biking, and running segments. When she’s not busy training or racing, she runs her own chef and catering business, Fit Food by Jess, which has become popular among competitive athletes. Her most recent catering gigs have been with triathlon and cycling camps, including The Cycling House in Tucson, Ariz.

She attributes her success in both business and athletics to her fearless attitude. “If I didn’t like to do things that scared me, I’d never be in this position,” she tells the Missoulian. “My advice is find something you’re passionate about and commit to it. Don’t be afraid of failing.”

JESSICA NOYOLA

tells Mongabay.com. “But people read stories to find out what happens to the main characters, so I need to make sure people have enough detail to go

on that those characters are real.”

CASEY CONNORS ’02, Helena, was promoted to commercial loan officer at Mountain West Bank.

He also is active in his community, donating his time as a YMCA basketball coach and a Head Start volunteer.

TRISHA MILLER ’02,

Noyola

Missoula, won the Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon in Phoenix in January with a career-best time of 2 hours, 49 minutes, and 12 seconds. Trisha, who MONTANAN SPRING 2012 |

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about alumni has completed seventeen marathons, hopes to qualify for the 2016 Olympic marathon trials.

KENDRA MYLNECHUK ’03 played the lead role in the short film OK Breathe Auralee, which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

The movie tells the story of an Inuit woman who is desperate to have a baby.

Kendra and her husband, TYLER POTTER ’02, live in New York City.

JOSEPH DUSATKO ’04 recently graduated from the Montana Law Enforcement Academy and became an officer for the Great Falls Police Department. Before that, he specialized as an aircraft and avionics technician for the U.S. Navy.

ALAN PANEBAKER ’05, Montpelier, Vt., is the first full-time reporter for the growing online news source VTDigger.org, a Vermont-based website dedicated to coverage of state politics, consumer affairs, business, and public policy. He covers Panebaker

health care and energy issues for the publication, which is a project of the Vermont Journalism Trust.

JACQUELINE FALLON ’06, Cle Elum, Wash., plays flute and marimba in the Chiroto Marimba Ensemble, based in WWW.UMT.EDU/MONTANAN

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’09, Spokane, Wash., was hired by Spokane Public Radio as a news host and reporter for KPBX 91.1 and KSFC 91.9. Paige previously served as a disc jockey for UM’s radio station, KBGA 89.9 FM,

PAIGE BROWNING

’06, Juneau, Alaska, released his second album, The Polar Ends, early this spring. Eric gained local recognition and notoriety following the 2008 release of his first CD, The Sum of Parts, which he recorded while living in Bend, Ore. He believes his second effort—which blends rock, soul, blues, and folk— is even better than his debut, telling the Juneau Empire, “Everything I could have put into this, I did…it took a lot of work, two and a half years, every day.”

ERIC TOLLEFSON

Moscow, Idaho. She is the director of the twentyfirst annual Zimbabwean Music Festival, to be held in Moscow in early August. The event features workshops and concerts by a wide array of performers and teachers.

CAITLIN COPPLE,

M.A. ’07, became the first openly gay councilmember to be elected to the Missoula City Council last November. Caitlin, who received her master’s degree in journalism, says her interest in politics developed after she came out and became an active member of the LGBT movement.

LUCY BEARD ’08 received the United States Eventing Association’s Christine E. Stafford Groom of the Year Award for 2011. A former member of the UM Equestrian Team, Lucy now works at Jarba Farms in Kalispell as a horse trainer, groomer, and competitive rider.

Cook

’08, Bakersfield, Calif., is a breaking news and nighttime general assignment reporter at the Bakersfield Californian.

RACHEL COOK

COLIN SCOTT

’08, Whitefish, is a member of Literacy Volunteers of Flathead County, an organization that provides assistance to those who are struggling with literacy problems or learning English as a second language. He currently is working toward a Fulbright Scholarship that would allow him to spend a year teaching English in Croatia.

Browning

and helped produce and direct four shows for MontanaPBS. SHANNON KUHN ’09, Anchorage, Alaska, is the founder of Anchorage Food Mosaic, a popular blog and Facebook community dedicated to promoting culinary diversity and the use of fresh ingredients.

COLTER NUANEZ ’09, Bozeman, was named Sports Writer of the Year by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for his reporting work with the Ellensburg Daily Record in Washington. He was selected from a pool of portfolio entries from more than eighty daily newspapers. He joined the staff at the Bozeman Daily

Nuanez

Chronicle in June 2011 and was promoted to the position of sports editor in December.

TIM ROBBINS, M.B.A. ’09, Great Falls, received the Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce’s Ambassador of the Year Award. Tim served on the selection committee for Habitat for Humanity for the past four years, is a partner in the Great Falls Workforce Development Initiative, is the chairman of the Missouri River Community Management Team, and is on the Job Service Employer Committee. He works as the manager of the Great Falls Job Service.

’10s

’10, Richey, is in her second year as the K-12 music teacher in the Richey School District. A former Grizzly Marching Band saxophonist, Bridget says her goal as an educator is to broaden her students’ experience with music.

Last year, she took them to Missoula to see UM’s world percussion ensemble in concert.

She hopes to organize a student drumline to perform at school basketball games.

JASPER MILLER ’10 and FENN NELSON ’10 are the owners of one of Montana’s newest microbreweries: Higherground Brewing Company in Hamilton.

Jasper and Fenn, who grew up together in the Bitterroot Valley, are both twenty-four years old, making them the youngest brewers in the state.

SARAH RED-LAIRD ’10, Ashland, Ore., is the founder of the nonprofit organization Bee Girl, BRIDGET DAVIS

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about alumni competitions through the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

descriptions of a slowmoving Alaskan ferry with scenes from a divided family. Keema, who splits her time between Missoula and rural Alaska, is currently working on a collection of essays about growing up in southeast Alaska.

KEEMA WATERFIELD,

M.F.A. ’11, was awarded a $1,000 prize from the online literary journal Mason’s Road for her creative nonfiction piece, “Inside Passage.”

The memoir integrates

NEW LIFETIME MEMBERS

’11, Edina, Minn., completed the 2011 Northshore Inline Marathon on behalf of First Descents, an organization that offers cancer fighters and survivors a free weeklong adventure experience designed to help them reclaim their lives as they conquer the great outdoors.

Mike, who was diagnosed with Stage III testicular cancer during his sophomore year of college, participated in First Descents after his cancer went into remission following several surgeries and chemotherapy treatments. He and fifteen other young cancer survivors traveled to North Carolina for a weeklong whitewater kayaking excursion. Inspired by the experience, he decided to compete in the long-distance inline skating event to raise money for the program. The day before the race, a final push of donations put him over his goal of $1,000—the amount it takes to give one cancer survivor the chance to participate in First Descents. “The race itself was a struggle, as I did not have the top-of-the-line equipment that some of the veterans had,” he says. “However, anytime I was going up a hill and thought my legs were going to give out, thinking of all the survivors I met who have been fighting their whole life kept me going through the finish line.” Mike plans to raise more money for the program by competing in a triathlon sometime this year. He currently works as a financial representative at Northwestern Mutual.

MIKE HAUGE

The following alumni and friends made a commitment to the future of the UM Alumni Association by becoming lifetime members. You can join them by calling 877-862-5867 or by visiting our website: www.grizalum.com. The Alumni Association thanks them for their support. This list includes all new lifetime members through February 29, 2012.

SUMMERFIELD BALDRIDGE

’79, Whitefish

DAVID BELL

’96 and BRITTANY BELL ’98, Sandys,

Bermuda

CHAD BURCHARD’93,

WWW.UMT.EDU/MONTANAN

Alumni_Spr12_2.indd 43

graduated from Billings West in 2006 and went on to play quarterback for the Grizzlies, also teaches algebra and geometry at his alma mater.

JOHN MACK, M.B.A. ’11, recently joined the Great Falls Police Department.

JAIMIE THIBEAULT ’11 signed a contract to play professional volleyball for the Lavoro Doc Pontecagnano club in Italy. The former Griz volleyball star and three-time first-team All-Big Sky Conference selection also made the national team in her

native Canada and is expected to represent her country at international

Spokane, WA

PAUL CALLAHAN, M.S.

’90, J.D. ’96, Missoula TERRY CARTER

’96, and LYNN DANKOWSKI

’70, Liberty Lake, WA

ALEXANDER CARTWRIGHT JOHN CLOTFELTER

Yorktown, VA SCOTT EAMES

’76 and DEBRA CLOTFELTER,

’96, Coeur d’Alene, ID

KELLEY KOSTELECKY

MARK MCCUE

’78, Arlington, VA

’98, Denver, CO

ROBERT MCCUE

’83, Missoula

SYDNEY MCCUE, TIM MCCUE BILL MUSE

’78, Lake Tapps, WA

’87, Purdys, NY

TIMOTHY LONG

which seeks to educate hobbyist beekeepers about strategies for promoting the health and survival of their bees.

Although the insects and their byproducts provide numerous health benefits to humans, Sarah says many people do not know how to properly care for their hives.

“It’s important to baby your bees,” she tells the Ashland Daily Tidings.

ANDREW SELLE ’10, Billings, coaches quarterbacks for the football program at Billings West High School. Andrew, who

’78 and JULIE MARTIN

BALDRIDGE

Missoula

’95, Seattle, WA

and MARY MUSE, Missoula

BRIAN OEVERMANN

’92, Issaquah, WA

KARIN LARSON-POLLOCK

’93, Mercer Island, WA

TERI WHEELER WAHL RAPPE CARL RUMMEL LARRY RYAN

’72, Lenexa, KS

BARBARA SHONKWILER

Kalispell MARTHA SPOHN

’72 and THOMAS LEE,

’74, Worthington, OH

MARY GAIL SULLIVAN Thibeault

’71, Wenatchee, WA

’76 and ANNETTE RUMMEL, Missoula

ASHLEEN WILLIAMS

’79, M.B.A. ’00, Butte

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When John Mattelin graduated from UM in 2008, one of the most important lessons he’d learned actually came from his grandparents: the importance of giving back. He established the Mattelin-Weeks Scholarship in honor of his grandparents—as a way of paying tribute to them, and as a way of paying forward some of the same opportunities he had as a scholarship recipient.

Like John, you can become part of the President’s Club with a gift of $1,000 or more. To find out how, contact Lauren Clark, Director of Annual Giving – External Campaigns at 406.243.2456 or lauren.clark@mso.umt.edu.

Give now at SupportUM.org/PresidentsClub

Show your true colors!

Become a donor and show your support for the Montanan. There are four commitment levels, each with a different gift that shows our appreciation. $25 Montanan Wherever I Am window cling and Griz taillight decals $50 Montanan Wherever I Am hat or T-shirt $75 Montanan Wherever I Am license plate frame

MNTANAN

$100+ Montanan Wherever I Am fleece zip-up Donations can be sent to Montanan editor, 325 Brantly Hall, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812. For credit card contributions, call 406-243-2488. Donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Please allow a week from receipt of payment before items ship.

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about alumni IN MEMORIAM

We extend sympathy to the families of the following alumni, faculty, and friends.

Names without class or degree years include UM alumni, employees, and friends. To be included in “In Memoriam,” the UM Office of Alumni Relations requires a newspaper obituary or a letter of notification from the immediate family.

Material on this page reached our office by March 6, 2012.

’30s ELEANOR MACDONALD ECKER

Lake Havasu, AZ

’34,

ELINOR R. CLACK ’37, Monument, CA WILLIAM HOPKINS WICKES ’37, Columbia, MO ALLISON M. VINAL EASTERLING ’39, Missoula

’40s

CHARLOTTE ALBERTA FRITZ DISSLY ’40, El Paso, TX DORIS MARJORIE WEGER KAMERAD ’40, Helena ALISON MERRIAM PAYNE ’40, Springfield, VA WILLIAM ROBERT PIATT ’40, Ridgecrest, CA ALICE M. COLVIN ROSE ’40, Hamilton THEOLA MAE MEULI SEDERHOLM ’40, Bozeman JOAN M. KENNARD FOPP ’41, Great Falls JACQUELINE DESCHAMPS KENNEDY ’41,

Issaquah, WA

ELIZABETH MARIE “BETTY” RATCLIFF LARUE

Hot Springs

’42,

JAMES “HAROLD” LARUE ’42, Hot Springs COLIN OSCAR “SCOTTY” MACLEOD ’43, Billings CHESTER B. “CHET” SCHENDEL ’43, Bozeman ELDEN HARRY SAUERS ’45, Palm Desert, CA JOAN ENGELKING CHRISTENSEN ’47, Polson MARIAN AVIS LACKLEN ’47, Billings ARTHUR B. MARTIN, J.D.’47, Miles City BENJAMIN RIDDLE “BEN” DAVIS ’48, Missoula CECELIA F. WILLIAMS ANMEN ’49, Boulder LOUISE KIECKBUSCH DUNNING ’49, Tucson, AZ FRANK CHARLES OWENS ’49, Deer Lodge

’50s

ROBERT N. “BOB” DENTON ’50, Prescott, AZ GREGORY MCLAREN HALL ’50, Missoula GLORIA DEMPSEY HAUCK ’50, Helena JAMES D. HOFFMAN ’50, Glendive JOHN E. “JACK” MCCOURT ’50, Bellingham, WA JOHN D. MCRAE ’50, Missoula GRETCHEN A. RASMUSSEN RAGSDALE ’50,

Kenmore, WA

BRUCE F. SAINT ’50, Spokane, WA LOUIS ORVIN STRAND ’50, M.Ed. ’55, Big Timber RUTH M. VOORHEES VOELKER ’50, Denver WILLIAM ALLEN WORF ’50, Missoula MARGARET M. ALVIS ’51, Montara, CA JOHN B. CAGE, M.Ed. ’51, Waukesha, WI KEITH P. “SKIP” JOHNSON ’51, Butte RODNEY LANGUM ’51, Ramona, CA JOHN LUKE MCKEON ’51, Anaconda MARY LEE POWELL ALKIRE ’52, Taylorsville, UT NANCY MARIE CALVERT BURKE ’52, Butte CLARENCE T. “CHRIS” CHRISTOFFERSON ’52,

Helena

MARY JO PETERSON CONNELLY WWW.UMT.EDU/MONTANAN

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’52, Missoula

JEFFERSON VEACH DOGGETT

White Sulphur Springs

’52,

’70s

DAVID H. DUNCAN ’72, West Hollywood, CA JOY M. GIRVAN ’73, Eugene, OR WILLIAM E. PATTON, Ed.D. ’73, Missoula NANCY ANN O’LEYAR MACDONALD ’74, ’75,

ARTHUR JOHN HOLTER ’52, Racine, WI FRANK DON HUGHES JR. ’52, Kalispell JOHN ALBERT LAHR ’52, Butte ROBERT LEE LINDBORG ’52, Bigfork GORDON THOMAS LITTON ’52, Spokane, WA JOHN MICHAEL PECARICH ’52, Missoula JOSEPH FRANK “JOE FRANK” POBRISLO ’52,

Anchorage, AK

JAMES E. PURCELL ’52, J.D. ’58, Butte BETTY I. BERNHARDT WILSON ’52,

FREDERICK GORDON WILLIS ’77, Billings MICHAEL LEE GILBERT ’78, Manhattan Beach,

Tucson, AZ

Sun City West, AZ

MARLENE ANN CARRIG JACOBSEN ’53, Whitefish LEE A. JORDAN ’53, Bradenton, FL MEREDITH L. BEAR MOTT ’53, M.Ed. ’65, Destin, FL ELIZABETH GRACE “DINNY” GIBSON NELLIGAN

’53, Missoula

FAY LOUIS BUCK ’54, Choteau DON EDWIN ERICKSON ’54, Lincoln, CA PHILIP CHARLES HANSON ’54, Bigfork BOB J. LERUM ’54, Missoula GERALDINE THERESA ST. ONGE ’54, New York ARCH DUDDEN ’55, M.Ed. ’63, Butte WILLIAM L. POULSON ’55, Tremonton, UT FRANK J. BREMBERGER, M.Ed. ’56, Oshkosh, WI HARRY D. EYLAR ’56, Cypress, CA ROY WILLIAM “BILL” HAMMER ’56, Stanford EVAN ELLSWORTH CHAFFEY ’57, Providence, RI WILLIAM “BILL” CLARK KAISERMAN ’57,

Spokane, WA

ALFRED W. LABER ’57, M.S. DONALD LAWRENCE SORTE

Great Falls

’60, Mims, FL ’57, M.A. ’60,

JOHN GARFIELD BISHOP ’58, M.Ed. ’71, Butte MARY TRAVIS FORMAN ’58, Seattle THOMAS DANIEL GRADY ’58, Hayden, ID DANIEL JOSEPH RYAN ’58, Duvall, WA ELOISE KINGSTON RUSUNEN ’59, M.Ed. ’78,

Vancouver, WA

JAMES NOEL SMITH

Seattle

’60s

ARTHUR M. BULS ’60, Pauma Valley, CA JAMES PETER “PETE” JARDING ’61, Peru, IN WALTER LOUIS LENINGTON ’61, Orem, UT CONRAD “HARRY” TAHIJA ’62, Escondido, CA JUDITH E. BLACK WOLFE-HOPFINGER ’62,

Sutherlin, OR

THOMAS L. LONGAN ’63, Dixon, IL JOHN EDWARD SNYDER ’63, M.Ed. ’68, Corvallis PATRICIA ANN “PATTI” O’NEILL ’64, ’66,

Renton, WA

NELSON BRADLEY TEMPLEMAN ’64, Eugene, OR JAMES ELLIOT WERNER ’64, Helena THOMAS J. MOHOLT, J.D. ’66, Visalia, CA FRED DAVID APPELMAN ’67, Missoula WILLIAM J. “BILL” BEAMAN ’67, M.B.A. ’72, Helena ROBERT JAMES KEMP ’67, Harrisburg, PA RONALD WAYNE PATTERSON ’67, Eden Prairie, MN JOSEPH WARREN BEAN UPSHAW ’67, Tuscola, IL

FL

CA

’80s

SHIRLEY PARKS ABEL ’80, Hamilton ERIC SPENCER “BUCK” CRAIN ’80, Choteau MICHAEL WILLIAM BROGAN ’81, La Mirada, CA JAMES R. MCCORMICK JR. ’81, Great Falls CINDA MARIE TOMPKINS ’82, Helena PEGGY MAE PERCIVAL JOHNSON ’83, Missoula STEVEN LEE YOUSSI ’84, Fort Worth, TX DAVID RUSSELL JANDT ’85, Enterprise, OR JERRY BURL WILLIS ’86, Missoula JERRY L. LANE ’87, Missoula NANCY CLAIRE HOON LOGOZZO ’88, Great Falls PATRICIA JO BRANOM FELLOWS ’89, Great Falls

’90s

KYLE JAMES CLAYTON ’91, Butte SUZANNE KAY BONIFAS BEHAN CAMPBELL

’92, Troy

GRACE ARDIS MCKINNON SCALES ’93, Missoula SCOTT WILLIAM PETERS ’94, Billings THEODORE EDDY BARNEY ’96, Missoula ERIC RICHARD PERSICKE ’98, Missoula MATTHEW MYRON SAMPSON ’98, Plains MATTHEW LAWRENCE “MATTIE” GIBSON III,

M.S. ’99, Missoula ’00s

MARIAH ELIZABETH PETERSON,

Seneca Falls, NY

’59, Bozeman

WILLIAM WESLEY WERTZ, J.D. ’67, Tallahassee, LORIN DENNIS BARNES ’68, Bremerton, WA DORIS COATES FORKIN ’68, Columbia Falls KATHERINE G. MCCONNELL ’69, Deer Lodge MICHAEL HENRY MINOR ’69, Tacoma, WA JOSEPH E. TOBIN ’69, Billings

ROBERT DEE SUMMERS JR. ’74, Bozeman JACQUELINE LEE GIBSON ’75, M.A. ’88, Helena CHARLOTTE LEE KILBOURN EASTER KRESS ’77,

M.S. ’03,

STEPHEN KENT GREEN ’04, Lolo JELENA STOJAKOVIC ’06, M.A. ’09,

Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Banja

FRIENDS

RAY AVERY, Rock Creek DONALD JOE BEDUNAH, Missoula NATHANIEL BLUMBERG, Bigfork EUGENE A. “GENE” BROSOVICH, Billings CHARLES KAY BUCKINGHAM, Missoula JULIE MARIE PETERS CAUFIELD, Carson City, NV ROBBIE “ROB” DWIGHT FOSTER, Bigfork SCOTT LESTER GREENE, Missoula BETTY RANDLES HAIGHT, Helena BONNIE ROSE FELKER HAMILTON, Missoula BRIDGER WYETH HOLT, Havre EVELYN TOWLER HUGHES, Missoula DAPHNE BUGBEE JONES, Missoula JULES ALEXANDER KARLIN, Missoula JULIEN H. LEPAGE, Missoula RAYMOND WALTER MEADOWS, Stevensville SHERENE ANNE “SHERRY” PETERSEN, Missoula LINCOLN QUAPPE, Sayville, NY EUDORA ANDERSON REICH, Spokane, WA GORDON H. SIMMONS, Missoula JOHN GOODRICH WATKINS, Niwot, CO JOHN HENRY WICKS, Missoula MONTANAN SPRING 2012 |

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Montanan Marketplace Edith Freeman: Montana Seasons Cultural Homesteaders: Montana Institute of the Arts (MIA) Permanent Collection May 31, 2012 - August 25, 2012

Image: detail, Edith Freeman, The Rosy Path, no date

Meloy & Paxson Galleries at the PARTV Center | 406.243.2019 museum@umontana.edu | www.umt.edu/montanamuseum Summer Gallery Hours: Wed., Thurs., Sat. 12pm-3pm Fri. 12pm-6pm

Image: detail, Jim Dew, Northern Lights, 1959

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Montanan Marketplace

Remembered

Forever

Leave a lasting mark on the Oval by buying an engraved brick that helps support The University of Montana. Each $150 brick makes a great gift, memorial, or tribute to UM alumni, students, classmates, family members, and friends. For information or a free brochure call 406-243-2522, visit http://www.umt.edu/urelations/bricks.htm or e-mail umtbricks@umontana.edu.

Spend time with Smoke Elser in the Bob Marshall

3 Miles An Hour at THE UNIVERSITY of MONTANA

Learn.

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UNIVERSITY CENTER • 5 CAMPUS DRIVE • MISSOULA, MONTANA • CONTACT@MONTANABOOKSTORE.COM 888-333-1995 • MONTANABOOKSTORE.COM • 406-243-1234

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Montanan Marketplace

Missoula’s Finest Condos

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One and Two bedroom units all within walking distance of Missoula’s active Downtown, farmer’s market, art museum, ball park and the river-front parks and the MSO Hub. Units start at $149,900.

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KUFM-FM circa 1965

Jeff Ellis

406-529-5087

Anne Jablonski 406-546-5816

theuptownf latsmissoula.com

Philip J. Hess Memorial Studio Fund

“Join the campaign to name KUFM's newly remodeled performance studio in honor of Phil Hess Hess, who founded the UM radio station in 1965 as Chair of the Radio-TV Department.

Future Phil Hess Studio 2012 ss Phil He Contact und Chair Studio F rger

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Now known as Montana Public Radio, Phil’s dream continues as a network serving 500,000 listeners across Montana and beyond.”

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Phil Hess Studio Fund Chair, Randall Morger WWW.UMT.EDU/MONTANAN

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Montanan Marketplace

Experience the American West like Never Before.

Featured Exhibitions:

Montana Painters Alliance: Historic Ranches of Montana May 17–September 3, 2012

Romance Maker: The Watercolors of Charles M. Russell June 15–September 15, 2012

C.M. Russell MuseuM MDG Montanan 312

400 13th Street North Great Falls, MT 59401 (406) 727-8787 www.cmrussell.org

3/28/12

11:22 AM

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The Home of a Copper King The Historic Estate of the Marcus Daly Family Margaret Daly Memorial Arboretum & Gardens

Issue: Headwall 3.1 4-1-11

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by Monte Dolack & Mary Beth Percival 139 West Front Street • Missoula, Montana 8 0 0 . 8 2 5 . 761 3 • www. d o l a ck .c o m

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Montanan Marketplace Your “Bucket List” starts here . . .

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July 4: Annual Fireworks Display in the Prison Yard August 11: Montana Shakespeare in the Parks Old Montana Prison Complex Deer Lodge – Exit 184 & 187 406-846-3111 www.pcmaf.org w w w. r i c h r a n c h . c o m 1-800-532-4350

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Wherever life leads you, remember your days at The University of Montana with UM postcards and photographs.

Order greeting cards and campus photos at http://umt.edu/urelations/market or phone orders will be taken at 406-243-2522.

WWW.UMT.EDU/MONTANAN

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artifacts

of Missoula’s quality of life. Students would research the topic, design a questionnaire, go door-to-door to conduct the survey, and finally analyze the data. The results would sometimes generate articles Wicks published in peerreviewed journals.

While the course content was valuable in itself, the practical lessons Wicks taught beyond economics is where he was most impactful.

One of his famous lessons was that of the Seven Ps: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance.

“I still use the Seven Ps today,” Wesbury says. In fact, he mentions them in his most recent book, which acknowledges the role Wicks played in his career.

Wicks also had a unique method for honing students’ public speaking skills.

“He would ‘ding’ parenthetical ‘you knows,’” says Andrew Pryor, a seminar veteran from the early 2000s.

“Every time someone said ‘you know,’ he would say ‘ding.’ And he expected you to keep going and not break your concentration. It really helped students’ speech patterns, whether you liked it or not.”

Wicks also was known for his notorious Pitkin Premium homebrew, affectionately known among veterans as PP. The beverage was concocted in a plastic garbage can in Wicks’ kitchen.

“We were welcome to have a glass if we wanted,” McCue recalls. “Some did actually like it, and some said they did to kiss up to John.”

Pryor, who lovingly describes PP as an “almost nonalcoholic beer that had different flavors and consistencies each time it was brewed,” was lucky enough to be entrusted with the secret recipe.

It wasn’t a special type of hops or flavoring or brewing technique. Ever the economist, Wicks’ secret was using the most inexpensive ingredients available.

“I’m sure he had measurements for the yeast and sugar and other ingredients,” Pryor says. “But they had to be the absolute cheapest possible price you could find. That was the secret to the success of PP.” The final seminar Wicks taught was spring 2011. He died February 25, 2012, at age seventy-five.

His legend, however, lives on.

“His students loved him,” UM economics Professor Doug Dalenberg says. “John was a bit of a character. He was old-school but generated lots of lasting relationships with students.”

Wesbury and a group of veterans started a fund in the economics department in Wicks’ honor. He hopes to perpetuate the seminar because “it really does provide undergrads with things that they don’t get at other schools.”

Many veterans gathered in April for a celebration they dubbed “The Final Seminar” at the Doubletree in Missoula.

“He still had about six cases of Pitkin Premium left,” McCue says. “So we passed out a little bit to everyone and toasted John one last time. And that was the end of the PP.” And the end of an era, too.

Photos courtesy of Bob McCue

BY JOHN HEANEY ’02

THE SEVEN Ps

AND OTHER LESSONS

I

Above: Wicks’ alter ego, The Great Pumpkin, was a Halloween fixture at Shakey’s Pizza in downtown Missoula. The Missoulian featured The Great Pumpkin on the front page in the early 1970s.

An avid outdoorsman, Wicks enjoyed fishing Montana’s mountain lakes.

Top:

t’s Chicago in the early 1980s. The economy has tanked and jobs are scarce, especially in the financial industry.

Brian Wesbury, fresh out of UM with an economics degree, is competing against people with master’s degrees and extensive resumes for the few jobs that are available. His immediate future looks a bit uncertain.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Wesbury possesses one distinct advantage: He happens to be a veteran of UM economics Professor John Wicks’ empirical research design seminar. The experience gained in that class, Wesbury has since been told, is one of the key reasons he landed his first job in the storied economic department at Harris Bank.

“That’s what started off my career,” says Wesbury, who is now considered one of the top economic forecasters in the United States.

Wesbury is just one of thousands of “seminar veterans,” which is what Wicks called students who successfully completed his legendary class.

“You wear that name like a badge of honor,” says Bob McCue, a seminar veteran from the late seventies.

Wicks started teaching the class shortly after he arrived at UM in 1964. It was open to UM students in most majors, but it took more than just signing up for the class to enroll.

A new student needed a recommendation from a veteran, and he or she also had to sit for an interview with Wicks.

The class, which typically had ten to twenty students, gathered once a week on couches and chairs in the living room of Wicks’ home on South Higgins Avenue, just across from Dornblaser Field. Each student also was required to meet with him once a week at his office on campus.

Every semester the class tackled a different project, exploring economic issues ranging from finding the variables that make it more likely for a person to steal music off the Internet to local food production to determining the value

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Photos courtesy of Bob McCue

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Non-Profit U.S. Postage

PAID

MONTANAN

The University of Montana

325 Brantly Hall Missoula, MT 59812-1301 MPR004

Your health – our commitment to you, from day one.

Athlete

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