Ohio Today Spring 2016

ohiotoday FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF OHIO UNIVERSITY

Spring 2016: Reinvention

SPRING 2016

Features WASTE NOT Ohio University strives to reduce and repurpose its waste. Culinary Services, for instance, rejects a mere fraction of food when preparing meals. The Compost Facility turns dining hall remains into fertilizer in a big way. The Voinovich School, Facilities Management, and Bobcat students also play key roles in these ongoing and expanding reinventions of best practices.

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NEW CONVICTIONS Sean Bearden, AS ’11, Sandra Brown, BSS ’12, and Sajad Shakoor, BSS ’13, share more in common than an OHIO education. They all earned their Bobcat degrees behind bars.

The University gave these inmates, and many others, the chance to reinvent themselves.

Incarceration, thus, winds up one component of their existence, not what defines them.

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CHANGING FORTUNES Some people donate money to help those experiencing homelessness. Others wanting to assist the vulnerable volunteer their time at shelters. Katie Jackson Patel, BBA ’07, reached out to the needy by reinventing herself. She quit her successful climb up the corporate ladder at a Fortune 500 company to accept a position with the Atlanta Mission.

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ABOVE: Sarah Davis, an assistant professor in the Environmental Studies Program at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs at OHIO, sets up equipment for measuring photosynthesis produced by sorghum at a research plot in The Ridges in summer 2013. She and a graduate student “applied byproducts from a digester that converts food waste into biogas to the sorghum to test its efficacy as fertilizer,” Davis recalled earlier this year. Photo by Ben Siegel, BSVC ’02

MORE THAN A SPORTING CHANCE A half-century ago, OHIO developed a notion to reinvent sports administration. The results revolutionized athletics and business. In 1966, the University, under trailblazing educator James Mason, created the first degree-granting academic program in sports administration in the world. With illustrious graduates dominating the industry, the program remains at the top of the field.

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A BOBCAT FOLLOWS THE BOUNCING BALL Lip service from Molly Haynes, BSJ ’90, about reinventing herself?

Never! Weekdays, she works as an account manager at a technology consulting company. In her free time, Haynes gives voice to her passion of being a public address announcer for women’s sports. She counts the NCAA Women’s Final Four among several of her significant gigs.

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ON THE COVER: Asher Pollock (front), a junior painting and drawing major in the Honors Tutorial College at OHIO, helps paint a mural on the Athens Bread Company on East State Street as part of an Art and Entrepreneurship course.

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Photo by John Halley, MFA ’87

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Departments 2 President’s message 3 From the editor 4 Letters to the editor 5 Your OHIO Alumni answer a fun question.

6 Across the College Green

44 In memoriam

Recent and unfolding developments about OHIO people, entities, initiatives, pursuits, activities, events—and more!

46 Bobcat brainteaser

34 Bobcat tracks

Q&A with an OHIO faculty or staff member.

Alumni history, perspective, photos, news, and announcements.

48 Last word Inside back cover Still more Photo column by University Photography Supervisor Ben Siegel, BSVC ’02

spring 2016 • 1

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

The future OHIO president, age 18, sports Bobcat pride on the East Green. The University transformed him, he says, and reinventing others—and itself—remains a touchstone of the institution. Photo courtesy of Roderick J. McDavis, BSED ’70

Transformation and reinvention and back

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y OHIO story may sound familiar to you. I came to Athens in 1966 as an introverted 17-year-old kid from Dayton, Ohio. I wanted to study social sciences in secondary education and run track. My wife, Deborah, will attest that four years later I departed Ohio University and returned to Dayton a confident, more talkative young man prepared to serve my community as an educator. I definitely had been transformed!

As Ohio University’s president, I have witnessed this sort of transformation in students year after year. I have heard the familiar stories from my fellow alumni again and again.

Ours is a university that embraces individuals and invites them to reinvent themselves. More than that, it is a place where we learn how to continue to grow and to transform throughout our lifetimes. Here, inside the halls and along the brick pathways of Ohio University, I have found that some of its pioneering spirit rubs off on us.

Over more than 210 years of history, this singular place has faced many challenges, beginning with the effort to build a university where there was only wilderness. Then, two centuries marked by a Civil War, two World Wars, periods of economic prosperity and depression, and social and civil rights movements. Each challenge has been an opportunity for growth, development, and transformation. This is where Ohio University truly shines.

Today, OHIO is tackling college affordability; providing innovative programs designed to enhance student success; expanding its footprint in new communities like Dublin and Cleveland; building and renovating our campuses; responding to our state’s need for

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healthcare workers; understanding and adapting to world trends; and devoting time and talent to our southeastern Ohio communities.

All this to provide transformational education for our students and transformational impact for our community, state, nation, and world.

This edition of Ohio Today celebrates this spirit of reinvention, which lives at the very core of Ohio University. You’ll meet alumni who changed their lives by earning OHIO degrees while incarcerated; witness a career move from the corporate to the nonprofit sector; learn about our sports administration program, which invented the field 50 years ago and continues to transform it today; encounter a student who is bravely transforming the way he’s seen by others; see murals by students who are reinventing our local landscape; and take a walk inside OHIO’s steam tunnels, where an energy grid is being transformed.

I imagine these stories will ring as true for you as they do for me.

They provide more evidence of OHIO’s special propensity to transform and change people’s lives for the better.

Cordially,

Roderick J. McDavis

President www.ohio.edu/president/blog • @OHIOPrezOffice

A time to ...

FROM THE EDITOR One more time In boom or bust, healthiness or infirmity, joy or anguish, in need or opening, inspiration or desperation, diversion or passion, reinvention emerges.

Take business. Nokia, the Finnish communications technology giant, springs from a wood pulp mill in 1865. Royal Dutch Shell oil and gas, headquartered in the Netherlands, traces to a London shopkeeper who expanded his antiques line in 1833 with Far East shells. American Express, of the eponymous credit card, stems from an express mail concern based in Buffalo, New York, in 1850.

People redo themselves, too. Ronald Reagan transformed from actor to politician. Defensive tackle and Pro Football Hall of Famer Alan Page earned a seat on the Minnesota Supreme Court after leaving the gridiron. Laura Ingalls Wilder published her first book, from the Little House on the Prairie autobiographical novels, at age 65.

Grandma Moses started painting at age 76.

Institutions also undergo makeovers. Vassar College, founded for women, went coed in 1969; all-male Northwestern University began admitting women in 1869. The reunification of Germany in 1990 compelled remaking large and small there and elsewhere, as sweeping shifts do. Societal progress—vis-à-vis race, gender, disability, humanitarianism, etc.—means or implies commencing afresh.

Reinvention hinges on listening and responding to ourselves and others—to the circumstances around it—as this edition of Ohio Today suggests. Overcoming difficulties. Seizing occasions. Making advances. And solving problems. Seeking new directions. Rethinking prevailing assumptions. Considering something in a different way.

And building a better mousetrap.

Academia and reinvention dovetail. Students, professors, administrators, alumni, et al. re-envision themselves and Green and White colleagues through opportunities and challenges inherent at OHIO. Bobcats who assert that they remain the same internally before, during, and after their University years nevertheless partake in reinvention of someone, of something—by sharing in the experience of higher education. OHIO reinvents itself and humanity innately, reflexively, inevitably, through tweak or overhaul, while staying recognizable over the eras.

“After a cruel childhood, one must reinvent oneself,” writes poet Mary Oliver in Blue Pastures from 1995. “Then reimagine the world.”

Novelist Anne Rice offers a happier iteration: “The young reinvent the universe,” a character voices in The Wolf Gift from 2012. “And they give the new universe to us as their gift.”

No matter our age, we surely relate, in some way, to what John le Carré, the spy novelist, observes in Conversations with him, a 2004 book of interviews. This former British Foreign Service officer and Eton College languages teacher—and, ironically, son of a con man—says, “I am still making order out of chaos by reinvention." —Peter Szatmary

Be involved Reach goals Have fun Make plans

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Ohio University Office of Annual Giving P.O. Box 869 Athens, OH 45701

spring 2016 • 3

LETTERS

Butt of a joke “Lights Out on Lighting Up” in the fall magazine detailed a recent OHIO milestone in health and well-being: the tobacco-free policy that went into effect. In 1964, I was a graduate student in psychology at OHIO and it seems anyone could smoke anywhere. It was considered your right. My friend, Lee, was a graduate assistant who smoked while teaching class. I remember once he had a cigarette in one hand and a piece of chalk in the other. He became animated and mixed up the chalk and the cigarette. He threw the chalk on the classroom floor and stomped on it and tried to write on the board with his cigarette.

—Robert Schappe, MS ’65, Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan

Espousing another viewpoint Tarnished silver screen I started writing this 1970 recollection of the Athena Cinema after reading coverage of its 100th anniversary in the fall 2015 edition, theme of milestones, only to realize I was actually thinking of the venue across the street: the Varsity! Still, my memory might be worth sharing. In 1970, the Academy Award-winning film Z, loosely based on the 1963 military coup in Greece, was playing at the now-defunct Varsity. On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of unarmed Kent State University demonstrators protesting the Vietnam War, killing four and wounding nine students. School campuses began to fall like dominos, including at OHIO. I’ll never forget walking across the Court and Union intersection the morning after rioting had forced OHIO President Claude Sowle to close the school and cancel commencement, giving us 24 hours to vacate the Athens Campus. Tear gas was still heavy in the air and my eyes watered as I looked down Court Street, lined with Ohio National Guardsmen standing with rifles at the ready. I especially recall the ones in front of the Varsity Theater, whose marquee proclaimed Z now showing. I was not the only one to catch the irony.

—Marc Levin, BBA ’72, Napa, California

More Bobcat landmarks Speaking of milestones, could two of them have led to OHIO’s nickname, Harvard on the Hocking? I allude to the arrivals from Harvard of two consecutive OHIO presidents: John Baker in 1945 and Vernon Alden in 1962. On the athletics front, a milestone was reached in 2005 when Frank Solich arrived as head football coach: six bowl games in the last seven years, plus an earlier appearance in 2007.

—Mike Johnson, BSJ ’67, North Canton, Ohio

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Love the magazine. Very informative. In the fall edition, the final article about the gay couple was balanced. [“A Union without a Hitch,” a Q&A with Jeremy Webster, dean of the Honors Tutorial College and associate professor of English, and Paul Jones, Crowl Professor of English and departmental graduate studies director, who celebrated their 20th anniversary by becoming Athens County’s first same-sex couple to marry legally.] Now how about some balance to the offering; could you please share an article about a straight couple that works at the University and all they’ve done to make their marriage succeed? Thank you!

—Dave Spirk, BSED ’70, Plainfield, Illinois TOP: A show of force—the Ohio National Guard— gets as much play as the featured movie at the Varsity Theater in spring 1970. LEFT: The June 1952 OHIO Alumnus (LEFT) puts Baker (right), with Wayne Adams, BFA ’52, Student Council president (center), on the cover to celebrate the laying of the cornerstone of the old Student Center. The March 1962 cover (RIGHT) introduces newly installed Alden, wife Marion, and their young children. Photos courtesy of Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections

WRITE TO US. Ohio Today welcomes comments from readers. We reserve the right to edit for grammar, space, clarity, and civility. Send letters by e-mail to ohiotoday@ohio.edu or by mail to 213 McKee House, 1 Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701. We regret that we cannot publish all messages in print or online.

YOUR OHIO memories & more

Try that again Bobcat alumni experienced or witnessed many reinventions through OHIO. Graduates share some here.

Uptown burned. Twice.

—Deanna Meyers-Kochensparger, BFA ’84

—Editor Peter Szatmary “I was on the roof of the Radio-Television Building during the March 1984 fire in uptown Athens,” remembers Tim Cook, a retired TV studio engineering supervisor for the University. “I was called in to work to watch for ash and floating debris and check satellite dish cable. I was on the roof for the duration of the fire. I took this picture two or three days later.”

I transferred to OHIO to start anew—new major (therapeutic recreation), new state, new friends that became family. I truly fell in love with OHIO and the three years I spent in Athens were some of my favorite.

—Ashley Arquilla, BSRS ’08 I grew up in Cleveland. Went to Cleveland State a few years and transferred to OHIO, which completely changed my life. It allowed me to take chances I could never take before.

It allowed me to see nature as never before.

And, if you know what I mean, it allowed me to raise my consciousness to levels I never thought possible in a lifetime.

—James Cahill, BSC ’76 I learned how to teach. As part of my graduate school scholarship in the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism, I was required to teach one journalism course each quarter.

I was terrified at first, but after comparing notes with other graduate associates, taking teaching courses and seminars, and using trial and error in front of my students, I got the hang of it. Those teaching experiences set the stage for my future profession as a college professor at Salem State University.

—Peggy Dillon, MSJ ’94, PHD ’97 Back in ’65, I was a naïve, young 18-yearold. OHIO helped me grow up and prepare me for a teaching career that would sustain me and two children and provide a decent, reliable retirement. Thank you, OHIO (and my dad for the financial support), so I was able to take care of myself my whole life. My OHIO years were the best years of my life!

—Yutonia Watson-Armstrong, BSHE ’69 I reinvented my career. I graduated with a political science degree. Got a job in Palm

Beach County courthouse, until all new hires were laid off due to budget cuts. I became a credit counselor in September 2011 and never looked back.

—Andy Weber, BA ’11 I switched from engineering to geology, got a B.S., went to University of Wyoming for a master’s, and had a happy and rewarding career in the U.S. Geological Survey, thanks mostly to my OHIO time!

—Jim French, BS ’57 A week after I moved to OHIO, 9/11 happened. We huddled together in our dorm watching the news. It bonded us! I also changed majors, allowing me to see changes I could make as an educator! I am now pursuing my master’s at OHIO.

—Rian Burnett, BSED ’07 My years at OHIO taught me to look below the surface. That meant really getting to know people, not making quick judgments.

It also meant digging down to find my passion. I started as a science major because that would get me a job, and I ended up a psychology major because I realized that was my passion. OHIO allowed me take many different kinds of classes and meet people from all over the world as I discovered who I was and who I would become.

—Jill Sabatine, BA ’86

I was a freshman in 1954. The big news was the former John Baker student union that featured the 1804 lounge and the 1954 lounge. The dining was great and the piano in the 1804 room was there for me to play any time I wanted.

—John Venesile, BFA ’58 My freshman fall quarter was the last quarter that the old Baker Center was open.

Glad I got a glimpse of what I heard was an epic hangout for many years. I was also one of the last years to graduate during the quarter era.

—Hannah Tangi, BSC ’10, CERT ’10 The reinvention I experienced was of myself.

I came to OHIO from a very sheltered community. I experienced the best, was taught by the best, and met some of the most influential peers. I became a teacher.

Not just a teacher, but a special education teacher. An awesome career that I recently retired from. If not for this experience, who knows what I would have done with my life.

I’m truly grateful.

—Muffy Mentzer Lamm, BSED ’82 NEXT ISSUE’S QUESTION: Innovation at OHIO means what to you? Send letters to 213 McKee House, 1 Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701; e-mails to ohiotoday@ohio.edu; or posts to the Ohio University Alumni Association’s Facebook page (by “liking” us on the site).

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ACROSS THE college green

GENERATING ARTWORK

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n eyesore prompted a masterpiece at the four new residence halls and living/learning center on OHIO’s South Green: a three-dimensional brick relief sculpture reinventing University history on two of the four walls that encase a generator.

Tad Gallaugher, a retired designer and illustrator for OHIO’s Printing Services, created the imagery, which includes the Convocation Center (pictured), Back South, University seal, and more. Sculptors Brad and Tammy Spencer, from Reidsville, North Carolina, carved the 1,750-brick tribute. The south-facing iconography measures about 17 feet wide by 9 feet tall, the east-facing view 29 feet wide by 9 feet tall.

Christine Sheets, BBA ’94, MBA ’02, assistant vice president for Student Affairs, conceived the idea for a sculpture, which took bricklayers about one week to install. —Megan Henry, BSJ ’18 Photo by Anna Winstead, BSVC ’16

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In the news ADVANCING PHYSICIAN TRAINING The Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine recently joined the exclusive “Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium” with 20 other U.S. medical schools. Each member of the affiliation, selected by the American Medical Association, receives $75,000 over three years to help reinvent medical education to address 21st-century needs. Heritage College was chosen for its “transformative care curriculum.” It launches in 2018 to provide primary care students a direct route to family medicine residency programs within the Cleveland Clinic system. A national advisory panel invited the 21 medical schools from 170 countrywide; these designees round out 11 others previously handpicked.

ORDER UP: NEW ITEMS AND PAYMENT The Hilltop Café at Ohio University Chillicothe Campus reinvented some offerings last semester. The changes provide a more student-focused menu and allow for payment through Bobcat Cash, money put on a student ID like a prepaid debit card. Added to the choices: a burrito bar similar to Chipotle. Discontinued: pizza, due to low sales. Hilltop Café also serves deli sandwiches, customized salads, homemade soups, Starbucks coffee, and grab-and-go. “We want to provide students with their favorite foods, at competitive prices, without leaving campus,” said OHIO General Manager, Retail Operations Christopher Schmitt. Nursing student Casey Thompson agreed: “I like the fact that I can get quality food at a reasonable price.”

VISIONARY STEPPED UP AT OHIO Kyle Abraham, American choreographer and recent MacArthur Fellow, showed Bobcats how dance involves reinvention. During a master class last October for OHIO dance majors and dance faculty, high school students, and professional dancers, Abraham explained that he incorporates his background into pieces, uses found urban actions, and applies African movements. Abraham also watched OHIO students perform part of his “Quiet Dance,” based on his father’s death from Alzheimer’s disease. “This was a unique opportunity for our students not only to hear his life story and struggles as a gay black man in American culture, but also to receive valuable feedback and coaching,” said Nathan Andary, BFA ’99, OHIO dance lecturer. Abraham’s appearance formed part of the annual statewide OhioDance Fall Festival and Conference. —Briefs by Megan Henry, BSJ ’18 For more news, go online to ohiotoday.org/spring-2016.

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ACROSS THE college green

Illustration by Nathalie McClune, BFA ’16

SMOOTHER FIRST-GEN TRANSITION

Advising 101: Put heads together

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ast January, University College launched a Student Success Advisor initiative across the Athens Campus for first- and second-year Bobcats. The program recasts traditional notions of scholastic counsel to pursue two interrelated objectives: assist those beginning higher education with meeting their goals and, in the process, increase University retention rates.

“It gives the colleges extra ‘hands on deck’ to help students early in their academic careers when they typically need the most advising because they have academic struggles, change majors, and sometimes need more attention than upperclassmen,” said Jenny Klein, assistant dean for success and persistence.

Spanning seven colleges, from Arts and Sciences to Engineering and Technology, the approach reinvents traditional advising. Historically, authority figures created plans for students, who had little to no say in the matter beyond picking majors and minors. The Student Success Advisor model, instead, encourages advisors to collaborate with students on blueprints.

“Advising used to be prescriptive, like a doctor and patient relationship,” Klein said. “Students are more successful if they have a stake in the game, and they’ve chosen the path they are on. They also understand why they are doing what they are doing, so their motivation is higher.”

“If it weren’t for the great advising I’ve had, I would not have been given half of the great opportunities that I have,” said University College sophomore MacKenzie Hintze, who plans to major in biological science and who cited encouragement from her advisor to join the Ohio Fellows Program for nontraditional scholars as an example.

“University College continues to reinvent and progress the student experience,” said Klein, “here through shared responsibility and engagement.” —Jim Harris, BBA ’04, director of marketing and communication, University College

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Launching shortly before the Student Success Advisor project, the OHIO First Scholars program also reinvents undergraduate life. Debuting last fall under the auspices of University College and the Allen Student Advising Center (and building on prior University efforts), it benefits first-generation college students. They constitute about 25 percent of each incoming class; OHIO defines them as those whose parents or guardians never completed an associate degree or higher at a university or college.

Services run the gamut. Options include mentoring from firstgeneration college graduates and supportive staff; free tutoring; walkin advising; We Are First, a student organization on their behalf; a “first-gen” seminar course; and a new Residential Housing community for them (with quarters for 36).

Forty-three mentee/mentor connections were made in the fall. In an end-of-semester evaluation, one mentee wrote, “My mentor served as my mom away from home, and I really appreciated that.”

Kyrstan Rose, a freshman from Lisbon, Ohio, said she enjoyed living in the inaugural OHIO First Scholars House.

“It has really opened up the door to some great opportunities,” Rose said. “It’s been my best decision since coming to Ohio University. I’ve made so many friends that I don’t want to ever leave. We’re like a family.”

She also values receiving extra attention.

“I’ve learned so much already,” Rose said. “The staff has helped me apply for scholarships, student loans, and all of the essentials you need. Those things helped me because my parents didn’t know anything about college. If it wasn’t for the first-generation student programs, I would be lost.” —Jim Harris

Grover Center reinvents itself once more

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n its first major renovation since 2001, Grover Center is adding 12,000 square feet to the 184,000-plus square-foot building. The multimillion-dollar improvements create facilities for interdisciplinary education and install state-of-the-art resources for several College of Health Sciences and Professions schools and departments.

“With the 2001 renovation, we were able to bring the entire college under one roof,” said Dean Randy Leite of that $24.5 million refurbishment to a site dating to 1960. “Now we look forward to modifying our space to provide optimal support for programs and more interdisciplinary opportunities for students and faculty.”

According to blueprints, square footage will be gained by converting the gymnasium into two separate floors of upgraded research, teaching, and laboratory space. The new first floor will accommodate WellWorks fitness activities and the athletic training, nutrition, and exercise physiology programs, facilitating clinical outreach activities as well as teaching and research.

The second floor will house simulation facilities including the new Interdisciplinary Simulation Laboratory (ISL), designed for students in nursing, exercise physiology, physical therapy, child and family studies, and other health disciplines.

The School of Nursing will gain use of the ISL’s state-of-the-art training facilities, including six simulated flex rooms and three eight-

bedside skill units equipped with the latest technology, as well as more centrally located storage space.

School of Nursing Director Deborah Henderson said, “The renovation provides new, technologically advanced shared space in the college and allows the school to expand simulation experiences across baccalaureate and master’s programs.”

Patty Snider, BSH ’06, BSN ’08, MSN ’12, associate director for bachelor of science in nursing operations, elaborated: “The nursing lab increases from one lab to four individual labs, allowing for concurrent laboratory instruction. The new lab allows for open lab practice hours as well to better accommodate student schedules.”

The second floor will also house the Team-Based Learning Lab, an educational laboratory. It can seat 150 or, using a built-in retractable wall, transform into two smaller labs.

Further overhauls include renovating and upgrading the Food and Nutrition Sciences test kitchen and almost tripling the computer lab/ testing center on the second floor from 700 to 2,000 square feet.

The remodeling of Grover began in March. Most work on the new first and second floor areas should be completed by December, the kitchen by August, and the computer lab by June 2017. For blueprints and photos, go online to ohiotoday.org/spring-2016.

—Kate Fox, College of Health Sciences and Professions staff writer

Steaming ahead

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HIO made steam tunnel repairs on the Athens Campus last May as part of a larger effort to reinvent energy at OHIO. The University’s $79 million Energy Infrastructure Projects Initiative, approved in June 2014, funded this $2 million undertaking.

Preliminary data suggest that the repairs reduced water consumption by 30 percent and energy consumption by 20 percent on average for June and July, said Joel Baetens, director of utilities at OHIO. A further component of the Energy Infrastructure Projects Initiative entailed improving steam production by replacing coal with natural gas as the primary heating fuel in the Lausche plant on the Athens Campus; the switch, a multiphase project, reduces carbon from heating fuel by nearly 50 percent, said Baetens, adding that OHIO met its commitment to eliminate use of coal—doing so by Thanksgiving, ahead of schedule.

The multiyear Energy Infrastructure Projects Initiative addresses Environmental Protection Agency regulations and includes four areas: utility master plan, chilled water, electric, and steam. —Staff report Photo by Ben Siegel, BSVC ’02

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ACROSS THE college green

Local pride

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HIO film major and transgender student Patrick Local began living as a male about one year ago. As a trans male, Local was designated female at birth and recently began medical transition.

Has the Honors Tutorial College sophomore and Smith House resident assistant reinvented himself?

“There were a lot of changes I needed to make prior to transitioning, and I’ve had to reinvent myself in those ways,” states

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Local. “Because I already see myself as male, transitioning is not a reinvention so much a method of alignment; however, I’ve had to reinvent the way others see me.”

The words to define ourselves and others matter. Local calls himself “a transgender man majoring in film.” He continues, “I hope one day to separate my gender as male from my experience as transgender, but at this time, the two deeply intertwine. I don’t feel like I’ve made enough work to call myself a filmmaker

yet, but maybe one day I will.”

Natasha Maidoff, visiting assistant professor of film at OHIO, praises the young man and burgeoning artist. “Patrick has unusual insight and courage in using internal challenges to inspire and inform his creative work,” she says. “The honesty about finding who he is gender-wise allows him to take risks that make his films exceptional.”

Local answered e-mail questions about himself and his aesthetic. Edited excerpts follow.

realization and the day I came out, there was a great deal of suppression and denial.

I don’t believe, though, that I carried these feelings prior to high school. Instead, I believe that growing up in a conservative home combined with poor media representation left me with insufficient vocabulary to describe my experiences. It actually was much worse to realize I was transgender because suddenly there was a solution, albeit partial, to my pain, but it was wildly unattainable then. The day I started testosterone provided me great relief, and I was very happy, but part of me remains regretful and angry that it happened so late.

“I make a point to talk about my transition when people are curious because I feel comfortable sharing, and it removes the burden from others while still providing people with firsthand information,” said Patrick Local (LEFT), shown with a still from a film he shot last semester. “I also talk about it to make it impossible for me ever to be stealth.” Photo by Ben Siegel, BSVC ’02

For more of the interview, and for transgender terminology, go online to ohiotoday.org/ spring-2016. —Editor Peter Szatmary Summarize your awareness of your gender identity.

I always felt something was wrong, but it wasn’t until around 14 years old that this sensation started to take the form of gender dysphoria. Between this dawning

You’re completely out. How have people reacted?

The response has been overwhelmingly supportive, perhaps because I surround myself with like-minded individuals. My OHIO classmates and professors have been wonderful, though sometimes needing a little education. Occasionally, I see people from my hometown [Waverly, Ohio], and most have been surprisingly kind, though I avoid those I suspect will be negative. My family is still coming to terms and has a lot to learn. For most of them, I’m still waiting for the day they use my chosen name and pronouns. But they’re getting there. The most negative reactions come from members of my parents’ church. The former pastor in particular said very unkind things to me.

Maidoff, one of your OHIO film professors, said, “Patrick had to overcome huge obstacles and internal fears to make the choices he has made. If you can do that in your creative field, you are miles ahead of anyone else.” Who are your influences?

Maya Deren is my favorite filmmaker. I have great respect for Lana Wachowski’s work and her experience as a transgender woman in Hollywood. Laverne Cox is a wonderful actress and an excellent transgender role model.

Quantifying transgender people proves difficult.

The most commonly cited figure: 700,000 in the U.S., up to 0.3 percent of the population.

There is agreement that transgender people endure physical or sexual violence, attempt suicide, confront poverty, and face widespread discrimination (for example, healthcare, work, and housing) at exponentially higher percentages than most others.

It’s bad right now, but it’s improving in very small increments. The public is indoctrinated with this pervasive transphobic propaganda— that transgender women are perverted men, that our identities are a joke, that medical transition is mutilation, that the allowance of transgender people into the bathrooms of their identity would increase sexual assault.

Many people I know believe these things, despite significant evidence against these fallacies. This system of beliefs is a direct cause of those problems.

Your filmmaking and transgender goals?

I want to use film to explore issues of representation and privilege. I’m not sure what the medium will be—documentary work, narrative fiction, film studies—but having the conversation is important to me. I had a lot of specific transition-related goals, and I’m making progress on them.

I came out to my family and friends, and I was very happy to get my name and gender marker legally changed and start my medical transition. More than that, though, my goal is to be successful in some way. For a lot of people in my hometown, I may be the only transgender person they are aware of knowing. It’s important I do well in school and my career because I don’t want them to blame my lack of success on my transition.

It sounds irrational, but I see that thought process a lot. This would have negative consequences for transgender kids who come after me in that town.

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ACROSS THE college green

Paint by numbers: OHIO reinvents the cityscape

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ou never know whom you’ll meet on Court Street.

Last spring, OHIO graduate student Barry O’Keefe, a third-year printmaker in the School of Art + Design, was working on a mural when someone offered him a job.

He was painting coal miners—symbolizing the geographic toilers of yore—on the side of Lucky’s Sports Tavern in a project of the school’s visiting artist Chris Stain. Lynn Garbo, head of Historic Downtown Nelsonville, passed by. Voila! Garbo commissioned O’Keefe on the spot, and, by summer, he added a colorful brick pattern to the side of a building at 5 Public Square in Nelsonville to reflect the town’s brick industry.

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Public art connects neighborhoods, explores identities, and starts conversations—a welcome activity for idealistic students and tight-knit communities. Indeed, Athens suddenly abounds with this democratic, populist genre: six murals the past year, including the restored 1966 amalgam by Aethelred Eldridge, professor emeritus of painting at OHIO, outside Seigfred Hall, plus the Nelsonville piece.

“Murals are the water fountain of art,” O’Keefe said, “there for everybody to use at any time.”

“There are several more murals planned in both Athens and Nelsonville in the coming months, some in very visible locations near uptown and others in unlikely places, including the newly expanded waste water treatment plant,” said Paige Alost, Athens County Visitors Bureau executive director.

O’Keefe, also involved in refurbishing the Eldridge, loves that the murals provide aesthetic pleasure and civic meaning by “taking some aspect of the region’s history and dignifying it, giving it a reverent voice,” he said.

Connections also inspired the mural outside Athens Bread Company on East State Street. John Sabraw, OHIO professor of art and Painting + Drawing chair, chatted up owner Doug Wistendahl, BBA ’69, a former lawyer and OHIO professor who hails from Athens.

“He came in as a customer and we got talking about him being an artist and I mentioned that I had this big, long blank wall that I always thought needed something and I had an idea of what it might be, kind of a minimalist wheat field kind of thing,” said Wistendahl. “And he said to me, ‘Well, listen, I have a class of students that has to go do a project and it will be a mural.’”

The process wound up wonderfully slow, Sabraw recalled. “People would stop [to look],” he said. “I can’t tell you how many conversations we had every day. It was hard to keep working." —Jon Greenberg, BSJ ’01, lives in Deerfield, Illinois, and has worked for ESPN, TouchVision, and Team Marketing Report. Megan Henry, BSJ ’18, contributed reporting to this story.

PAGE 12: “The mural has several parts spread across three walls,” explained Honors Tutorial College junior Asher Pollock, whose Art and Entrepreneurship class designed and painted it. They mixed “a classical scenic wall painting with a contemporary flair, noticeable in the color scheme and the little bread thief, the inspiration for which was the outlaw street artist Banksy.”

Photo by Sarah McDowell, BFA ’02 LEFT: Murals “are public, democratic, and free,” said OHIO graduate student Barry O’Keefe, who created this one in Nelsonville to honor its brick industry. BOTTOM: “A coal miner 25 feet tall, that’s reverent,” said O’Keefe, “because that piece of this area’s history is often not visible.” Photos by John Halley, MFA ’87 For more about the local murals, go online to ohiotoday.org/spring-2016.

s p r i n g 2 0 1 6 • 13

ACROSS THE college green

Memorable missives

Traversing cultures in contemporary Central Asia

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HIO School of Media Arts and Studies Emeritus Professor David Mould, PHD ’89, loves postcards. He has regularly traveled to Central Asia since the mid-1990s, and his latest book, Postcards from Stanland, published by Ohio University Press, blends his experiences in parts of “Stanland”— Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—since the fall of the Soviet Union with interviews and research. Mould, whose background includes print and television journalism, answered questions via e-mail. —Megan Henry, BSJ ’18 “Change is the new norm,” you write, in Central Asia. Are these countries reinventing themselves?

It’s more like re-reinvention. Before the Soviet era, there were no national borders. Your identity was defined by religion, family, clan, and place. The Soviets feared such muddled loyalties could breed Islamic, social, or political movements. In the 1920s, they sliced and diced the region into Soviet Socialist Republics. Essentially, they constructed nationalities, giving each a defined territory, along with a ready-made history, language, culture, and ethnic profile. These artificial borders remain today. People woke up in 1991 to learn that they now lived in an independent country. Since then, these countries have struggled to create a national identity separate from the Soviet past.

What culture shock did you undergo in Stanland?

The most profound was the attitudes of people who had lived most of their lives in the Soviet era. The ideology and institutions that had held them together for 75 years suddenly disappeared, and there was nothing to replace them. There was a huge

14 • o h i o t o d ay . o r g

story. Journalists have been attacked and their families threatened, and they find no recourse from an often corrupt judiciary. The result is widespread self-censorship.

For more about the book and the author, go online to ohiotoday.org/spring-2016.

brain drain as skilled people—engineers, doctors, teachers, artists—left for Russia or Germany. I write about the desperation of the mid-1990s when the economy was in freefall and people cursed a future that seemed to offer nothing.

You also write about working with journalists in Central Asia.

Official censorship is gone, and governmentowned media have a diminishing audience share. The private media sector is growing.

But it would be a mistake to label these newspapers, radio, and TV stations and online news sites as “independent.” Few can support themselves through advertising, and many are financed by corporations with close ties to political interests. Network TV licenses are awarded to the family or business associates of government figures.

Media that criticize the powers that be face indirect pressures to drop or tone down a

You taught as a Fulbright scholar in 199697 at Kyrgyz National University in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and at Eurasian National University in Astana, Kazakhstan, in 2011.

What did you notice?

Academic achievement at state universities is usually measured by the number of hours students spend in class, not by what they learn—“long hours in cold classrooms,” as one colleague put it. Teachers are paid by the classroom hour, so have little incentive to change the system. Many teach the way they were taught in the Soviet era—from behind the lectern, delivering material to be regurgitated on exams. If students ask questions, it is to clarify something the teacher has said; the material itself is rarely under discussion. There have been technical changes, such as the adoption of a credithour system, but overall change comes slowly. At some universities, corruption— the buying of admission, grades, and diplomas—and systemic cheating have devalued education. It’s hard to blame teachers for taking bribes because their pay is pitifully low.

You revel in writing details. Osh, the second largest city in Kyrgyzstan, has no telephone directory. People cannot buy milk at bazaars without bringing containers. At a nightclub without heat, patrons danced in overcoats, boots, and fur hats. You’re still a reporter, huh?

Yes, that’s what I love doing best, and that’s how I began my career in the UK in the 1970s.

Editor’s note: Each edition of Ohio Today covers a recent Ohio University Press book.

A powerful spin

C

hemical interactions occur all around us, but scientists struggle to detect them in individual molecules. Not SawWai Hla, a full professor in OHIO’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and head of the Electronic and Magnetic Materials and Devices Group in the Nanoscience and Technology Division at Argonne National Laboratory in suburban Chicago.

He is one of the first physicists to complete experiments on this infinitesimal scale, using bits of material such as gold or copper and a custom-made microscope with a probe one atom in width. Time and again, his work has redrawn the field.

“Every day, I’m seeing things that nobody has ever seen,” Hla says.

In 2000, he and colleagues performed the first chemical reaction of one molecule at a time. A decade later, his team constructed the world’s smallest superconductor—less than one nanometer wide. (A human hair? About 100,000 nanometers thick.) More recently, Hla and crew created a functional motor from a handful of molecules for a “NanoCar Race” this autumn. Not just fun and games, that: The teensy contraption could eventually be scaled up to power a device.

Those insights help others understand how molecules form bonds and interface with their surroundings. “To look at individual molecules, and see how they react, was a big breakthrough,” says Katharina Franke, an experimental physicist at Free University of Berlin.

Now, Hla intends to reinvent electronics by exploiting an atom-level phenomenon he believes can increase computing power exponentially.

Digital fare relies on a flow of electrons known as current. But electrons are inevitably lost during this process, hence why a laptop becomes hot after hours of use. Hla thinks harnessing an electron’s

“spin”—a measure of the angle and momentum of magnetism—could allow for computers to come with more memory and faster processing.

This approach is called spintronics. Traditional computers operate on binary instructions of either “0” or “1.” Hla says computers that employ spintronics will someday utilize the space between “0” and “1”—therefore packing much more information and power into a smaller area.

In an important step in 2010, Hla and partners were the first to capture images of electron spin and change its direction. They erected a scanning tunneling microscope that froze single cobalt atoms atop a layer of manganese by cooling them with liquid helium to -440 degrees Fahrenheit. Then they snapped images with the microscope and used a long tungsten needle coated in iron to alter the spin’s direction.

Hla redefines what other physicists deem the limits to nanoscale exploration. Equally important to him, former students find his energy and excitement for such discoveries contagious, as 100 percent of them have continued their scholarship after or landed jobs in the discipline, reports Hla, who arrived at OHIO in 2001.

“The work I started with Saw and the understanding I developed building the scanning tunneling microscope during my graduate work has shaped my career,” says Kendal Clark, MA ’05, PHD ’10, assistant professor of physics at Central Methodist University.

“I really enjoy figuring out what exists in nature but we don’t know, probing the intimate details of atoms and molecules,” Hla enthuses. “If we’re going to continue this trend of miniaturization, somebody has to be investigating the next generation of electronics and computers.” —Amy Nordrum, BSJ ’10, is a freelance science writer in New York City. Her credits include Scientific American and Popular Mechanics.

Saw-Wai Hla adjusts a sample on an ultrahighvacuum low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope, used for atomic scale imaging and atomic manipulation and located in the Surface Science Lab at OHIO, in October 2013. He and students built the instrument for about $80,000, with Hla buying the stainless steel chamber on eBay. Photo by Rob Hardin, BSC ’08 INSET: “This is an OHIO logo created by repositioning 50 individual silver atoms on a silver crystal surface,” Hla explains. “The bumps are individual atoms. The size of this atomic logo is 30 nanometers; the waves inside the circles are formed by electrons.

This is a direct observation of a quantum effect known as the ‘wave-particle duality.’” Photo courtesy of the Physics and Astronomy Department

s p r i n g 2 0 1 6 • 15

ACROSS THE college green

Calendar of events for alumni and friends of ohio university | ohioalumni.org/calendar

W

herever you live, Ohio University wants to keep in touch with you.

Alumni chapters exist around the globe to help you meet and reconnect with fellow Bobcats. Of course, you’ll occasionally want to find a reason to return to campus—spring is the perfect time to visit! For a full schedule of chapter, society, and on-campus events, including reunions, visit ohio.edu/alumni. —Kaitlyn Pacheco, BSJ ’17, and Hailee Tavoian, coordinator, Advancement Communication & Marketing

Save the date!

SEPT. 15-18 IN ATHENS facebook.com/groups/ OUBlackAlumniReunion/

"OHIO Day" Let MAY 3, 2016, go down in Columbus history as “OHIO Day”! Attend a women’s leadership breakfast, rub shoulders with government officials at a State Government Luncheon, or delight in a Dinner with 12 Strangers, hosted by OHIO deans and alumni.

URL The Bobcat network assists recent graduates determined to make their mark.

Sessions, held on MAY 20 during On The Green Weekend, include salary negotiations, mentorship, and stress management.

Career and Leadership Development Center resources also will be available. ohio.edu/alumni/onthegreen

Return to class at On The Green Weekend in May to explore topics and issues— but without term papers or tests!

Sample Alumni College mini courses for 2016: A Brief Look at Women’s History at Ohio University, 1869-1970s Bill Kimok, University archivist and records manager Ailing in Place: Environmental Health in Appalachia Michele Morrone, professor of environmental health science at OHIO The 1980s: The Age of Reagan and Madonna Chester Pach, OHIO associate professor of history

APRIL 13 • CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY “Sometimes the best definition of amazing is that we don’t give up, and that’s enough.”

—Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and 2015 Women’s Leadership Symposium speaker

Exploring ways women lead and contribute to society. And building partnerships between students and prominent women in Ohio.

womensleadershipevent.org

“OH, I DO” LOVE YOU (and the University) Recommit to your Bobcat sweetheart in Galbreath Memorial Chapel on MAY 22 during On The Green Weekend. A guided vow renewal ceremony celebrates couples who connected with their spouses through OHIO. ohio.edu/alumni/onthegreen

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“OHIO Day”

Impacts of 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing on the Future of Manufacturing Timothy Cyders, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at OHIO

ON THE GREEN WEEKEND: MAY 18-22 ALUMNI COLLEGE: MAY 19-21 ohio.edu/alumni/onthegreen

(RE)INVENTING HERSTORY

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embers of OHIO’s Chinese Learners Association performed at the seventh annual International Women’s Day Festival held in March 2015 in the Baker University Center Ballroom. The theme for the worldwide event, occurring during Women’s History Month, was “Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture It!” The University’s celebration also included other ethnic dance, poetry readings, fashion shows, personal essays, and more. OHIO’s yearly rendition averages more than 600 attendees from the Athens Campus and local community. First observed in 1911, International Women’s Day has evolved into a spotlight of and cause for women. —Staff report Photo by Olivia Wallace, BSVC ’16

s p r i n g 2 0 1 6 • 17

Waste not

E

sther Grossman removes the lid of a 55-gallon barrel of decomposing food scraps, holds her breath, and peers in.

“The last time, there was an egg on top that was still whole, but the shell was soft instead of hard,” says the OHIO sophomore chemistry and engineering physics major in the Honors Tutorial College.

Four mornings a week in the fall, as part of her work as a Voinovich Scholar to help investigate energy production through anaerobic digesters (see below), Grossman trekked up to The Ridges to check progress at the Ohio University Compost Facility.

The largest in-vessel system of its kind at colleges and universities nationwide, the multimillion-dollar site serves as the centerpiece of a growing effort to reduce and repurpose waste at OHIO and in the region. This eco-friendly enterprise, dubbed Soil to Soil, creates, refines, and reinvents environmental stewardship and strengthens the area’s economy while inspiring student Bobcats to go deep green.

University officials consider such ingenuity the future of energy

18 • o h i o t o d ay . o r g

production and waste management. The Consortium for Energy, Economics and the Environment (CE3) in the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, in partnership with the Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ College of Engineering and Technology and the College of Arts and Sciences, oversees the multipronged undertaking. A grant six years ago from the Sugar Bush Foundation jumpstarted the endeavor by forging an alliance between the Voinovich School and Rural Action, a nonprofit encouraging sustainable development in Appalachian Ohio.

“The concept of zero waste is easy to say but difficult to accomplish,” says Scott Miller, MS ’96, director of energy and environmental programs in the Voinovich School. “At a large institution like this, it’s no one person’s job to track these things, and the temptation is to stay in our own silos. We want to knit people together in a more coherent fashion. We want to create a system-level approach.”

On the menu: thoroughness Much of the fuel for the initiative comes from food—meaning Culinary Services. The massive operation serves nearly 4 million meals a year on the Athens Campus and employs more than 220 full-timers and 2,100 students, making it a major employer in Athens County. It runs a central supply kitchen, bakery, three residential dining venues, five cafes, three campus markets, a retail food court, a casual dining restaurant, a food truck, and catering services, says Mark Brunton, BSVC ’00, assistant director for Auxiliaries marketing and communications.

Culinary Services keeps a tight rein on waste. It discards only a tiny portion of food during meal preparation, says Director of Culinary Services Rich Neumann—in fiscal year 2015, a scant 0.7 percent. The industry average? Two percent. And OHIO’s fractional waste gains new life as compost.

Almost 30 percent of the venture’s 70-plus vendors come from the area, providing meat, eggs, dairy, produce, and retail items. Buying local supports regional sustainability by pumping dollars into the economy and reducing pollution associated with transportation.

“We spend more than $2 million with local vendors annually,” Brunton says. “Just in the last two years, we increased our local

spend from 12 percent to more than 17 percent of our total foodbuying budget, with a goal to reach 20 percent.”

The mantra: use everything, be thrifty, promote well-being, says Mary Jones, associate director of Culinary Services. Fresh vegetable trimmings become base for stocks and broth. Select meat cuts by a full-time butcher yield bits for stock for recipes. A cook-chill method prepares and stores pastas, soups, and deli. In-house production not only saves money; it also advances healthiness. Fresh-cut meats contain less sodium than packaged varieties; seasonal vegetables contain more nutrients than canned alternatives. Diners with bigger eyes than stomachs—leftovers constitute most of the negligible refuse—scrape remains into totes to be rolled onto box trucks for delivery to the compost facility.

The dirt: transformation Which hums with activity as the engine of Soil to Soil. Twice a day, grounds crews truck in food waste to be fed into two in-vessel composting machines with a combined six tons of capacity. They turn leftovers into compost and fertilizer for campus landscaping and athletic fields within a few months.

Yard waste—leaves, brush, tree stumps—also becomes compost.

PAGE 18: OHIO Culinary Services produces almost 3.8 million meals per year. The University spent $11.8 million on food and beverages in fiscal year 2015. It spends more than 17 percent on locally grown food, sourced within a 250 mile radius of the Athens Campus or in Ohio. All food must be traceable to the producer. Food handling and treatment practices must be tracked. Bethany Bella, a sophomore interested in international environmental policy and communications, and a Voinovich Undergraduate Research Scholar, created this photo illustration from her cultural anthropology final assignment in fall 2014 examining food waste among OHIO students at dining halls. THIS PAGE: OHIO’s Compost Facility turns University food waste into usable soil. Photo by Jilly Burns, BSVC ’16

s p r i n g 2 0 1 6 • 19

TOP: At OHIO’s Compost Facility in September, the green machine, a lift, raises a “toter” bin of food waste and tips it into the orange mixer.

Next, carbon-rich wood chips (outside the back door) are added as a bulking agent. This material is then loaded into a holding vessel for about two weeks to “cook”—bacteria grow and generate heat to help break down organic matter. After further steps, including curation and screening, highly enriched soil results.

LEFT: At the Bioenergy Open House at the Compost Facility in October, Kim Miller, Voinovich School research scientist (left), discusses experimental biodigestors with Voinovich School colleagues Mark Weinberg (center), founding dean, and Jackie Kloepfer, research associate.

One Voinovich School project: turning food waste into fuel. Photos by Jilly Burns, BSVC ’16

20 • o h i o t o d ay . o r g

OHIO recently expanded into food waste composting: blending food leftovers with a bulking agent such as wood chips.

“Composting is a much better use of food waste than sending it to a landfill,” says Steve Mack, MED ’04, director of Facilities Management.

“We can actually cut down greenhouse gases, too, reuse it as soil amendment, and cut down on our use of manmade fertilizer.”

With growth—of this movement and University enrollment—more waste arrives at the facility annually, Mack says. Cue the research on anaerobic digesters, in which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. Assistant Professor Sarah Davis and research scientist Kim Miller, of the Voinovich School Environmental Studies Program, built a system of four dry digesters and a wet one that convert some excess food waste into methane. They and a group of students, including Grossman, monitor results and gather data daily. The goal: generate energy from waste.

“A system that uses waste as a feedstock is almost a no-brainer,” Davis says. “Waste is something we pay to get rid of. If we can convert that into energy, then why not?”

CE3’s Miller says opportunities for reducing and reusing waste exist in every corner of the University. To make that happen, he and his squad ask questions.

For instance, “Are there businesses that can use recycled materials?

Can they reprocess these materials for resale? Are there local small entrepreneurs trying to expand their product lines?” Miller wonders.

So does Ari Blumer, a Voinovich Scholar on a CE3 fact-finding unit exploring connections among food, energy, and water. A

sophomore engineering physics major in the Honors Tutorial College, Blumer interviews local officials and environmental experts.

“At every step there’s a question. Where does this link up to energy use? Where does this link up to food? It’s this big dynamic process,” he says. “We’re trying to understand, for example, water coming to OHIO from the Athens water treatment facility. How much energy does it take to get to our doorstep? How much energy does it take to go through various systems at the University? How much energy does it take to be treated? For food, how much do we get from local sources? How much from larger corporate sources? With that, it becomes an issue of the energy used for transportation, the water used to grow it.”

Kate Blyth, a junior double major in environmental geography and Spanish, works alongside Andrew Ladd’s recycling and refuse team in Facilities to reduce waste at events. Student zero-waste coordinator in the Voinovich School, she supervises fellow student workers and volunteers who explain recycling and serve as “goalies” at zero-waste stations equipped with recycling, composting, and landfill containers.

Recycling at football tailgates this past season ranged from roughly 60 percent in the parking lot to around 95 percent in the VIP areas, Blyth estimates. The outreach drew positive comments and genuine questions, she says. “People would come up and have these long conversations with us.” —Sally Parker is the special projects editor at the Rochester (New York) Business Journal. Her freelance credits in higher education include Duke University, Oberlin College, and Cornell University.

OHIO continues to improve the sustainability of events across the Athens Campus by focusing on waste reduction and diversion. Zero-waste activities at football games, On The Green Weekend, and commencement ceremonies help spread awareness. In fact, the University gains acclaim for such undertakings. For instance, OHIO beat 98 other colleges and universities in the national GameDay Recycling Challenge by recycling and composting 7,225 pounds of waste during the Oct. 17 football matchup against rival Western Michigan with a 96 percent diversion rate. This photo, taken on April 13, 2014, occurred on Athens Beautification Day, in which almost 2,000 students showed their appreciation for the city of Athens through community service cleanup projects. This annual effort also is a zerowaste event. Photo courtesy of the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs

For video and more about zero waste, go online to ohiotoday.org/spring-2016.

s p r i n g 2 0 1 6 • 21

New convictions

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hio University’s championing of students who otherwise often lack

OHIO’S ACCESS MISSION

access to higher education attests to the best in Bobcats. Freed slave

REACHES A VARIETY OF

John Newton Templeton became the University’s first and nation’s

fourth African-American graduate in 1828. Margaret Boyd made history in

STUDENTS, INCLUDING INMATES

1873 as OHIO’s first female graduate. And in 1895, the University claimed its first international graduate in engineering student Saki Taro Murayama of Japan.

This inclusiveness continues today. OHIO offers assistance to first-generation college students through University College’s First Scholars program discussed on page 8. Students from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds, including foster care alumni, Appalachian scholars, and underrepresented minorities, may receive financial scholarships, academic resources, and/or support services from programs offered through the University’s Office for Multicultural Student Access and Retention. OHIO’s Regional Higher Education hinges on an open admissions policy, welcoming any student with a high school diploma or equivalent.

The University further supplies several methods of educational delivery. Online undergraduate and graduate degrees underscore flexibility and convenience for students unable to attend a physical campus due to family obligations, job responsibilities, or other factors.

Degrees also are available through print-based courses—for students who can’t come to campus and don’t have Internet access for online courses. One such population is incarcerated students. Ohio University helps them move beyond their mistakes and reinvent themselves.

22 • o h i o t o d ay . o r g

Scope

In print-based courses, also known as correspondence courses, inmates mail assignments to instructors for feedback and grading. This may seem like an antiquated distance learning method versus the pervasive online gamut colleges provide today, but a correspondence course is often a prisoner’s only option.

Sandra Brown, BSS ’12, incarcerated in the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Illinois, enrolled because, she said, “a lot of the schools offered courses, but most of them were online. Here in Illinois, we don’t have online access.”

Print-based courses aren’t gut courses, either. When Sean Bearden, AS ’11, was incarcerated and choosing schools, he picked OHIO because of the credibility associated with many of the courses stipulating at least one proctored exam and with a university that had a physical presence.

“I was kind of skeptical about getting a degree while incarcerated,” he said. “I didn’t want to get a degree that would be questioned or viewed as a handout.” Bearden took heart that OHIO compelled his

This illustration suggests that higher education forms a base for incarcerated students to change for the better—and includes images of Bobcat examples Sajad Shakoor, BSS ’13 (left), and Sean Bearden, AS ’11 (center). The female in silhouette alludes metaphorically to Sandra Brown, BSS ’12, another inmate embracing reinvention.

Illustration by Shoangh Rae

s p r i n g 2 0 1 6 • 23

proctors to sign the examination certificate, preventing cheating and ensuring integrity.

What began in 1974 as an associate degree program through independent study for about 200 incarcerated students in Ohio expanded over the decades to include a Bachelor of Specialized Studies or Bachelor of Technical and Applied Studies for hundreds more across the country. Since 1982, upward of 750 incarcerated students have earned degrees from the University.

During 2014-15, 79 percent of the 400plus students taking print courses were incarcerated students.

“Ohio University gives incarcerated students a means to change their lives for the better. Alumni are living proof of the value of second chances and the transformative power of education,” said Bill Willan, executive dean for Regional Higher Education at OHIO, and once involved with the University’s incarcerated students at an administrative level. Also, as former Southern Campus dean at OHIO, Willan organized computer training at a federal correctional facility in Ashland, Kentucky, and spoke at inmate graduation ceremonies there. “The significance of their accomplishments was very evident in the inmates’ faces—I can’t express how much it meant to them,” he said.

Efficacy

Jimmy Taylor, MA ’99, associate professor of sociology, criminology, and criminal justice at the Zanesville Campus, started teaching print-based courses in 2005, including Criminal Justice, Deviant Behavior, and Punishment and Society, to correctional students. They exert extra effort, he said, writing several more pages than mandated, for instance, and incorporating personal experiences into essays.

“They are so honest. They provide details of prison life you never wanted to know, but they’re sharing it and making it relevant,” he said. “As a result, I get the sense they’re getting more out of it.”

Statistics corroborate the positive outcomes, Taylor said. “Wherever you have

24 • o h i o t o d ay . o r g

less access to education, there are higher crime rates and higher recidivism.”

Indeed, studies link education to a decrease in repeat incarceration. A 2003 analysis by the Correctional Education Association and Management & Training Corporation Institute, “Education Reduces Crime: Three-State Recidivism Study,” found that aggregate recidivism rates dropped by 10 percentage points for inmates undergoing correctional education in Maryland, Minnesota, and Ohio. A 2013 RAND Corporation report, “Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education: A Meta-Analysis of Programs that Provide Education to Incarcerated Adults,” estimated a nearly 13 percentage point reduction in the risk of recidivism for correctional education participants compared to those who do not engage in such curriculum.

While academia may not enrich every inmate student, it benefits many of those in OHIO’s fold.

Sajad Shakoor

Sajad Shakoor, BSS ’13, was serving 25 years to life under California’s Three Strikes sentencing law when he looked inward. Shakoor joined gangs as a youth to find acceptance. That acceptance spurred involvement in crime—and two strikes for burglary and the third for instigating a fight.

“I was doing a lot of time in solitary confinement. You start thinking, ‘Is this really worth it?’” he recalled. After the chaplain gave a sermon about human potential, Shakoor resolved “to do something with my life.”

He earned a GED and then an associate degree from Coastline Community College.

His bachelor’s degree, via OHIO while incarcerated, especially demonstrated his capabilities, Shakoor said.

“My degree gave me the pathway to my future success. Everything that happened— not only in prison, my freedom—was a direct result of this degree,” he said. “This degree says I can do anything I can set my mind to.”

Shakoor is pursuing a Ph.D. in education, with a specialty in prison and distance

learning, through the Western Institute for Social Research in Berkeley, California.

Sean Bearden

Bearden pled guilty to first-degree attempted assault in 2005 and served six-plus years of an eight-year sentence. He arrived to prison “with a criminal mentality,” Bearden said.

Since “you are surrounded by more of that,” he continued, “you are trying to earn the respect of others.”

Eventually, Bearden realized this shortsightedness. “That’s when I started to change,” he recounted.

Bearden earned an associate degree through OHIO behind bars. A bachelor’s degree in physics and applied mathematics from University at Buffalo followed upon release. Bearden is now a doctoral student in experimental condensed matter physics at the University of California, San Diego.

“Nowadays I’m assimilated into how most students work. I use Google and Wikipedia.

You don’t have the World Wide Web at your fingertips when you’re incarcerated.

You can go to the library, but you may only have access during certain hours,” Bearden said. Using textbooks instead of the Internet was slower but abetted comprehension and boosted self-reliance. “I have a stronger grasp of the basics,” he said, because of OHIO’s system.

Sandra Brown

Brown was sentenced to 22 years for firstdegree murder in 2001. While a changed mindset motivated Shakoor and Bearden to embrace education, Brown was enrolled in courses at Malcolm X College in Chicago when convicted. Brown started at OHIO in 2005.

“On the outside when I was doing courses at Malcolm X, I was taking the courses to get from point A to point B,” she explained.

Brown now appreciates formal acquisition of knowledge as pragmatic, uplifting, and profound. “Education has changed my life. It has opened me up to the human condition,” she said. Brown feels that teaching is her calling and is a teaching assistant in her

Illustration by Shoangh Rae

For how Shakoor, Bearden, and Brown pay education forward, go online to ohiotoday.org/ spring-2016.

2012, California voters approved the Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012. Shakoor’s case was reviewed, and he was released in spring 2013. He was part of OHIO’s commencement in May 2014.

“It wasn’t just for me; it was for all the people I knew,” Shakoor said. “The people that I impacted, they saw this as a source of hope. This was their first ever real-life example of a person who went through this program and finished the program, and then walked across the stage. It was huge for them.”

In December 2014, he started the nonprofit Golden State Institute to provide values-based distance education primarily to incarcerated students.

“If I can give back to the people in prison, that’s my first priority. I want to take advantage of everything that has been given to me and give back in the most impactful ways,” he said.

Gratitude correctional facility, helping others shift their attitudes and enhance their prospects.

“I ask myself, ‘If I’m not able to do this, if I’m not able to teach, what else would I be doing?’ I couldn’t come up with an answer,” she said. “This is what I was born to do.”

Brown is pursuing a master’s degree in humanities through California State University.

Momentum

These Bobcats win recognition for their intellectual endeavors.

Last July, Brown earned the Marilyn Buck Award from the Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund, presented to an incarcerated or formerly incarcerated individual working for justice. According to the Davis-Putter website, Brown “has encouraged many women to join her in academic pursuits and in doing so, they have been able to transform their lives now out of prison.”

Brown told the award committee she intends to advance social change in the education sector, particularly among women.

She observed the women around her in prison as broken. “I am reminded that’s who

I once was,” hence her determination to empower women in her cell block. “Better is there if we actually believe it and go after it.”

Brown wants to teach college courses when released and earn a doctorate one day.

Bearden recently received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a Sloan Foundation’s Minority Ph.D. Program Scholarship to apply to his culminating degree—on top of a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in 2014 for his baccalaureate studies. His research into theoretical spin-laser operation could lead to high-speed data transfer, which, Bearden said, would “relieve the bottlenecking of interconnects in modern processors.”

Shakoor was instrumental in a Hope for Strikers group when serving time in San Quentin State Prison in California. The group met with Stanford University law professors striving to redress California’s Three Strikes Law in regard to nonviolent offenders, because of the almost 9,000 people convicted under the 1994 law, more than half were for nonviolent crimes, Stanford News documented. In November

Associate Professor Taylor said his incarcerated students tend to be grateful, even for homework, as it fosters introspection and builds tools.

“They thank us for giving them the opportunity,” he reflected. “Incarcerated students seem to be really aware of what’s at stake.”

Shakoor put it this way: “You guys [at OHIO] played a part in not only rescuing my life, you made me into a decent human being.” He continued: “Not only that, but you saved many lives because if it was not for this transformation, there’s no telling what kind of stupidity I would have been implicated in.

That’s a direct result of this education.”

Brown echoed this indebtedness to OHIO faculty and staff. “Each and every one has poured something into me that has helped me help someone else,” she said.

“I thank them all from the bottom of my heart for that. Their lessons have not been thrown to the wayside. They have truly been internalized for me.” —Megan Bulow, BSJ ’06, communication manager, Office of Instructional Innovation at OHIO

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OHIO ALUMNA FORSAKES CORPORATE OFFICE FOR HOMELESS SHELTER

Changing fortunes

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ix years after graduation, Ohio University College of Business alumna Katie Jackson Patel seemed on the right track. She worked in marketing at a Fortune 500 company, climbing the corporate ladder. Patel, BBA ’07, had turned a summer internship her junior year at OHIO into a permanent position and then received two rapid promotions. But she felt unfulfilled. A humanitarian calling beckoned.

So Patel quit a job the envy of many to lead the marketing team at Atlanta Mission, a Christian ministry founded in 1938. She shares success stories, raises awareness, and contributes to development efforts for its emergency shelter, rehabilitation and recovery services, vocational training, and transitional housing. The largest and longestrunning provider of its kind in Atlanta, the haven served more than 715,000 meals, provided upward of 265,000 nights of shelter, ended homelessness for almost 650 people, and helped 240 people obtain employment in fiscal year 2015.

“I was scared to jump from a comfortable, predictable environment, but I had to balance whether comfort was more important than pursuing something that really mattered,” she said.

Following instincts Her reinvention didn’t come out of nowhere.

When moving to Atlanta in 2008 for her first promotion, Patel started volunteering weekly at the refuge. “It captured my heart,” she said. “People would come in with a library card that they used for identification and maybe $5, and that was it. I wanted to help.” A few years later, Patel joined the board. In June 2013, she signed on as a fulltime employee.

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PAGE 26: “This is the kitchen where I became involved with Atlanta Mission; I served Friday dinner here at My Sister’s House [the mission’s shelter for women and children experiencing homelessness] beginning in 2008,” Katie Patel recalled. For many, “the process of transformation begins with a meal—the entry into our other services.” Photo by Rachel Solid LEFT: Each morning, volunteers wash sheets at The Shepherd’s Inn, Atlanta Mission’s overnight shelter for men, with beds made prior to guests arriving in the afternoon. “Many shelters hand guests sheets to make the bed themselves,” Patel explained. “Our approach is a first step in showing dignity and care to those we serve.”

Photo courtesy of Atlanta Mission

“Katie would have succeeded no matter what career she chose, but she developed a passion for philanthropy early on through church and mission trips,” said her father, Mike Jackson. “She’s always had a good heart.”

Patel also knew she was meant to be a Bobcat. Her parents, OHIO alums, met in Jefferson Dining Hall, Mike, BSED ’68, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. (Ret.), instantly smitten with Karen, BSED ’69, a retired middle school English teacher who now is a part-time advisor for student teachers.

Patel cherishes fond childhood memories of the College Green. “We’d visit once a year growing up,” she explained. “When it came time for college, I didn’t even consider anywhere else.”

Taking stock Patel pursued a marketing major at the College of Business and a sales certificate with the Schey Sales Centre. In her free time, she volunteered at Timothy House, a local homeless shelter run by Good Works, a Christian outreach center, whose founder and executive director is Keith Wasserman, BGS ’81. “The place was very impactful to me, especially because I’d only seen urban homelessness,” Patel said.

Another pivotal experience occurred at the funeral of a colleague at the Fortune 500 company in 2008. Confronting mortality made Patel reassess priorities. She researched alternative vocations, analyzed her strengths, took inventories and personality tests, and

made lists of her interests. “I started meeting with people for breakfast literally every day for a month,” Patel recalled. “I knew changing paths would be a big decision and wanted to go in with my eyes wide open.”

She credits her husband, Akash, a software engineer and co-founder of Tin Roof Software, with encouraging her epiphany.

In fact, they met through Atlanta Mission when he donated items. The Patels held their wedding there, donated their wedding shower gifts to the women and children’s shelter, and asked guests to donate to the cause in lieu of buying them presents.

Although support from immediate family didn’t surprise Patel, goodwill from others did. “Colleagues in their 50s and 60s told me how they wished they’d pursued their passion,” she said. And her bosses provided a safety net: an unconditional job offer should she change her mind.

Showing appreciation Patel’s strong business background through the College of Business and Schey Sales Centre helped, too. “I learned so much about business, marketing, sales, and networking” at OHIO, she reflected. “I still think about and use those skills on a daily basis.” Patel continued, “While I did reinvent my career, and the world I’m pursuing it in, my education helped me from reinventing basic skills, which has eased the transition.”

Patricia Walker, food service supervisor at Atlanta Mission’s My Sister’s House, a shelter for women and women with children,

applauds Patel. “Because of her personality and heart, I knew that she would be a good person to tell Atlanta Mission’s story,” Walker said. “Katie has a way of helping others find out what they can be and helping them to reach that.” Patel, Walker observed, “takes the time to speak to the women and children at the shelter and to learn their names.”

Take Lisa, Patel recounted, using a pseudonym for privacy’s sake. Lisa was married, had children, and enjoyed a stable home. But inner demons wreaked havoc, and she lost everything and ended up living on the streets. “The last three years were most intense,” said Patel. “She would be walking down the street and fall asleep, because she was afraid to sleep at night.”

Lisa eventually found her way to the Atlanta Mission and completed the organization’s transformation program. Eight months later, she has two part-time jobs and is saving money for permanent housing. “Lisa used to think that the only future she had was to live on the streets,” Patel said. “She has hope and a future again.”

After reinventing herself, Patel strives to give others the same opportunity through breaking stereotypes of homelessness. “So often people have negative images of the homeless, but the biggest thing I’ve learned is that people who are homeless are like everyone else—they’ve just had something bad happen,” she said. —Brianna Wilson, marketing and communications specialist, College of Business at OHIO

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More than a sporting chance OHIO REIMAGINES THE GAME

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ifty years ago, the chair of the graduate program in physical education at Ohio University embarked on an audacious mission to reinvent the administrator’s role in sports. From inception, the industry had operated under flawed logic and blinkered policy by hiring business experts or former athletes. Osmosis between the two was assumed and taken for granted. This practice created all sorts of problems because the groups knew little, if anything, about each other. The Bobcat professor sought to bridge this gap. His efforts led to the birth of sport management education. And OHIO became—and remains—the vanguard in this pursuit.

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PAGE 28: “The courage of OHIO’s James Mason (TOP) to actualize the vision of Walter O’Malley (BOTTOM), owner of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, led to the creation of the Sports Administration Program at the University,” said Jim Kahler, executive director of OHIO’s Center for Sports Administration. “They saw the need for the sports business industry to educate the next generation in key oversight issues such as stadiums, contracts, tickets, sponsorships, and marketing.” RIGHT: Mason presents the James Lavery Scholarship Award in 1988 to John Shafer, MSA ’89, who upon graduating became director of ticket operations at North Carolina State University. Seated, wearing glasses, is Charles Higgins, OHIO’s longest tenured MSA program coordinator (1976-95).

Practice James Mason was a fan of sports and physical education. He worked out regularly, loved golf and tennis, and was a first-rate handball player, recalled daughters Jan Mason Getz and Nancy Carol Mason in a retrospective article for OHIO. He also prized intellectual exercise, insisting that his discipline be called “physical education,” not “phys ed,” “PE,” or “gym.” As a doctoral student at Columbia University, Mason combined his passion for athletics and his love of academia under the tutelage of Clifford Brown, one of his professors. This coaching proved fateful.

Brown shared with Mason a maverick concept he was developing with Walter O’Malley, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers of Major League Baseball. The entrepreneur recognized that field managers had scant or no business training and sensed that the enterprise would run better if frontoffice executives weren’t simply fans or former athletes, but instead came to their assignments drilled in facilities oversight, player contract negotiations, marketing, and the rest of the business of sports. Over time, O’Malley approached Brown about this notion, and they dreamed up a playbook for educators to prepare the next generation of administrators in the commercial side of sports. Mason, Brown’s doctoral student, took that idea and ran with it.

Play After graduating from Columbia, Mason taught physical education for several years at Baylor University and then University of Miami, but he remained preoccupied by the thought that the future of sports lay in applying management theory to them. Mason dressed the part, too—always wearing a suit and tie to class.

An appointment at OHIO in 1959 gave him the chance to realize his vision. But only after painstaking labor. He spent seven years putting the foundations in place, pitching the idea to administrators more than once. In 1966, OHIO, through Mason, launched a master’s degree in sports administration (MSA), the first degree-granting academic program of its type in the world. Biscayne College at St. Thomas University and St. John’s University established undergraduate sport management programs several years later. The second master’s program arrived in 1971 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

OHIO’s curriculum included business, communications, and physical education.

Advanced courses in speech, management, personnel, labor relations, psychology, and sociology followed. The first class comprised two people. From the start, Mason recognized the imperative to embed students in the profession. So, in spring 1970, he took a semester-long sabbatical to traverse the country to line up internship opportunities.

By 1971, the program had grown to 30 graduates annually. It underwent refinement and expansion over the decades, and since then, more than 1,200 students have progressed through the graduate program. Now, each year, around 25 students earn the dual MBA/MSA, 25 earn the Professional MSA, and 70 earn the undergraduate sport management degree, which debuted a generation ago. And alumni populate the highest ranks of professional and collegiate athletics.

s p r i n g 2 0 1 6 • 29

“When I came to Ohio University in 1970, front offices and athletic departments were small and unsophisticated. But today, the sports industry is a competitive business.

The education I received from OHIO’s sports administration program is how I went from daydreaming about a career in professional basketball to becoming president of two NBA teams,” said Andy Dolich, MED ’71, who served as president of business operations for the Memphis Grizzlies (2001-08) and president/COO of the Golden State Warriors (1994-95), among other governing stints with the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League and with the Oakland As in Major League Baseball.

Allison Kelly, MSA ’97, vice president for partnership marketing at Major League Soccer, also found her footing at OHIO. “I thought I was going to take a year of classes and walk away with a degree that would help me transition into the sports industry. I really found much more. It was a year of great experiences, friendships, and a fantastic network of people to see me through my career,” she said.

Kelly, a former elementary schoolteacher who enrolled in the sports administration program after a summer volunteering for the World Cup, recounts volunteering for the NBA All-Star game in Cleveland while enrolled on the Athens Campus. “A team of students were recruited to run the fan zone by an OHIO alum, where we were basically pegged by basketballs for hours, but it was fun. Those experiences add up and I still use it today as an example of improving fan engagement.”

Student success shows in other ways, too. OHIO alumni report the highest average salary three years after graduation, according to SportBusiness International’s annual survey. The alumni network is one of the most active in the world, with programs across the globe trying to implement a similar legacy of giving back. Forbes cited OHIO as the “MVP in sports management graduate programs” and “arguably the most hailed program of its kind.”

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Photo courtesy of Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections

Cheers

Competition OHIO’s sports administration program started in the College of Health Sciences; a focus on business prompted relocation to the College of Business in 2008. Since Mason’s departure in late 1970, five people have shepherded the program, and each has ensured that OHIO remains ahead of the curve.

For instance, retired professor Andy Kreutzer, MSA ’81, PHD ’89, who guided things from 1995 to 2005, developed and implemented an advanced dual-degree option in which graduates could earn an MBA and MSA in two years.

“I had been talking to MSA grads about the growing complexity and challenges of leading and managing in the sports industry,” he recalled. “For me, the epiphany was the addition of a graduate elective on the business of sports in Harvard’s MBA curriculum.

That was a clarion call that the competition had changed, and if we planned to stay on the cutting edge, we needed to change.”

Norm O’Reilly, current department chair, agreed. “The industry was shifting from hiring former athletes and fans to engaging business professionals who understand the field. Sports was increasingly global and the impact of technology was reverberating throughout the profession.”

Most recently, an MSA program for professionals in the sports industry kicked off with online coursework and classes in 2010.

And in 2014, all programs were recognized by the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation, a specialized accrediting body that promotes and recognizes excellence in sport management education worldwide in colleges and universities at the baccalaureate and master’s levels.

Victory No wonder, then, that for the past four years, OHIO’s sports program has dominated the international rankings among 600-plus programs. SportBusiness International named the Bobcat MSA/MBA the best program in the world in 2012, 2013, and 2015. The University’s professional MSA won top honors in 2014 and 2015. And OHIO’s undergraduate sport management degree came in second in 2015. Indeed, all OHIO offerings land in the top two every year, per SportBusiness International, whether in the media service’s new grading categories or its existing ones.

“It still astounds me. There was a time when OHIO was it; it was the only program in the country,” said Dolich. “Think about the growth of sports, like the NFL or NBA,

Other Bobcats in leadership roles in sport management and related business Emilio Collins, MSA ’96 National Basketball Association executive vice president, global marketing partnerships Tracy Ellis-Ward, MSA ’92 Big East Conference associate commissioner for women’s basketball Chad Estis, BSC ’93, MSA ’94 Dallas Cowboys executive vice president, business operations

over the past 50 years. There are thousands of men and women—graduates of OHIO— in the industry changing it for the better.”

Preston McClellan, MBA/MSA ’14, continues the lineage. “I would not be where I am today without this program,” said McClellan, who manages social media for the PGA Tour, the leading professional golf organization in America. “From a networking perspective, it holds weight to have a degree from OHIO. We call it the ‘OHIO family’ and that’s the truth. You’ll do everything you can to help another graduate.”

The influence on the industry is lasting and profound—and one that Mason dreamed of.

“Ohio University didn’t just give me a great education for my professional career. I’m still connected to the place and my classmates,” said Bernard Muir, MSA ’92, athletic director for Stanford University. “In every circle, I run into people at colleges, in facilities, or marketing firms that spent time in Athens.

I hear about the impact this program had on each individual and I still recommend it to people who want to get into the business of sports.” —Jessica Gardner, director of communications, College of Business at OHIO For related video, go online to ohiotoday.org/ spring-2016.

Andrew Greer, BSEH ’91, MSA ’93 Under Armour global vice president, product merchandising Derrick Hall, MSA ’93 Arizona Diamondbacks president and chief executive officer Michael Hargrave, MSA ’87 Richard Petty Motorsports executive vice president, chief marketing officer PAGE 30: Allen Flexer (second from left), cofounder of SMG venue management, marketing and development, and SMG colleague Tim Murphy, MED ’81 (far left), announce a diversity scholarship for OHIO in May 1983, with Hilda Richards, College of Health and Human Services dean (center); Higgins (second from right); and James Lavery, College of Health and Human Services associate dean. “This scholarship from industry leader SMG brings added recognition to OHIO and its Sports Administration Program,” Higgins noted. TOP: PGA Tour rookie Patrick Rodgers (Nike hat, gray sweater) readies a putting lesson for a 360-degree camera at the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Feb. 3.

Preston McClellan, MBA/MSA ’14, PGA Tour social media manager, conceived of this virtual-reality video for its Facebook page. ABOVE: Kenisha Webb, MBA/MSA ’15 (left), and Shauna Smith, MBA/MSA ’14, attend OHIO’s annual Darren Butler Sports Business Forum in fall 2013. Webb is an account executive at Just Marketing, Smith a marketing specialist with T-Mobile. Most photos courtesy of the College of Business. Mason page 28 (Jan Mason Getz) and Rodgers this page (Preston McClellan).

Elliott Hill, MSA ’88 Nike president of geographies and sales Tom Hunt, MSA ’92 D.C. United chief operating officer Nobby Ito, MSA ’91 Nippon Professional Baseball executive director, baseball operations Pat O’Conner, MSA ’81 Minor League Baseball president and chief executive officer Mike Owens, MSA ’80 Gander Mountain retired president Len Perna, MSA ’90 Turnkey Sports & Entertainment president and chief executive officer Terry Savarise, BBA ’81, MSA ’82 Chicago White Sox and United Center senior vice president, operations —Jessica Gardner

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A Bobcat follows the bouncing ball

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work-study job at Ohio University became Molly Haynes’ ticket to the NCAA Women’s Final Four. Spring marked her third consecutive season as the public address announcer for the hoopla, with the climactic games in Indianapolis on April 3 and 5 this go-round.

“The first year (in Nashville, Tennessee), I was sitting at the table and I had an ah-ha moment,” recalled Haynes, BSJ ’90. “I’m looking at the crowds and the teams,” she continued, “and I can’t believe I’m doing this right now.”

One reason for her surprise? The Lancaster, Ohio, native and broadcast journalism major—who completed her freshman studies at the Lancaster Campus and then transferred to the Athens Campus— will be doing what she’s done for years: welcoming patrons and declaring lineups, scores, and fouls at the high school, college, and professional levels. But she takes the mike in her spare time. After graduation, Haynes bypassed journalism for a career in sales.

“When I graduated, there weren’t a lot of opportunities for women to be sports reporters/anchors, etc. That was definitely my

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interest. But my interest far exceeded the timing,” said Haynes, who pays the bulk of the bills as an account manager at Revolution Group, a technology consulting company in Westerville, Ohio.

Come women’s basketball season, however, she reinvents herself as an enthusiastic—yet mostly impartial—announcer. Haynes categorized the assignment “a great alternative.”

Approach “Fans are very smart today, and I don’t think you need to constantly talk,” she said. “I think you find a balance between being excited and doing a modified play-by-play.”

At an NCAA championship, the scale of the contest demands nonpartisanship, and Haynes bespeaks such professionalism, colleagues attest.

“We felt Molly had the best experience and a great vocal and different things that she brought to the table,” said Carrie Snyder, assistant director of championships and alliances at the NCAA. “She’s done a great job.”

Snyder knew Haynes from The Ohio State University, where Haynes has called women’s basketball since the early 1990s. When the NCAA began looking for a new announcer for the women’s tournament, Snyder remembered Haynes.

“When I do Ohio State games, I can be a little bit partial,” said Haynes. “But when you do the Final Four, or you do the girls’ high school state basketball championship, you have to be neutral. You have to be pumped up and neutral and excited for both teams.”

Origins Haynes got her start in the field while at OHIO, gigging as a work-study public address announcer for several women’s teams: volleyball, softball, and basketball. What began out of necessity to make ends meet became a labor of love, as her gusto resounded in a strong, clear, engaged tone.

Peggy Pruitt, now retired senior associate athletic director at OHIO, knew Haynes was a friend of some student-athletes and saw her at games—and happily gave Haynes this opportunity. She recognized the potential in Haynes immediately.

“She was very good at it,” Pruitt said.

Haynes figured she was on to something when, a bit later, she was invited to cover the finals of the Ohio girls’ high school basketball state tournament while still in college with co-announcer Wendy Craver, a Columbus, Ohio, television reporter and announcer for Ohio State women’s basketball. Before long, Haynes found herself subbing for Craver as needed. When Craver retired, Haynes became the permanent announcer for the Buckeyes women. Later credits include the Columbus Quest in the American Basketball League before that women’s professional basketball league folded in 1998.

PAGE 32: Molly Haynes, BSJ ’90, an account manager at a technology consulting company, doubles as a public address announcer in off-hours.

She called the Ohio State vs. Michigan State women’s basketball game on Dec. 31 in Columbus. “It was a very physical game” for the nationally ranked teams, Haynes remembered. “Four players from Michigan State and one Buckeye fouled out.” Her Buckeyes won “a tough battle,” 85-80.

Context Far more men announce college and professional sports than women. Still, the latter continue to make inroads of late. In the Big Ten Conference, in addition to Ohio State, Wisconsin uses two women announcers for women’s soccer, basketball, volleyball, and softball. Auburn and Stanford also utilize women public address announcers for women’s basketball. In Major League Baseball, Renel Brooks-Moon joined the San Francisco Giants in 2000. She took over from another woman, Sherry Davis. And Sacramento college and professional basketball denizens have long heard Jaime Coffee describe the action.

“A women’s voice doing women’s sports sets a tone for the competition,” said Molly Yanity, MS ’11, PHD ’13, assistant professor of journalism at Quinnipiac University and a former sports reporter at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

“The women that are doing it are really good at it,” Yanity said.

“They’re familiar with the game and the players, and it also is something that helps to bring in more women fans.” According to surveys, women make up more than 50 percent of fans of the four major men’s professional sports in the U.S., she said.

“I think for basketball I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist,” Haynes reflected. “I do a lot of prep work before the game happens. I am very familiar with the teams and do a little research on the players and look at pronunciations so that I pronounce their names correctly.”

She added: “If I hadn’t attended OHIO, if I hadn’t met Dr. Pruitt, and I hadn’t interviewed for this particular work-study job, I wouldn’t be talking to you today.” Haynes proclaimed, “It’s just funny how the path takes you.” —Martha Allan is a veteran journalist who has worked at newspapers in Indiana, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.

She continued, “I always arrive about an hour and a half before the game starts so I can review game scripts, fill out my scripts for starting lineups, and get correct pronunciations. I always want to be prepared.” Photo by Andrew Spear, BSVC ’10 Haynes practiced that ritual (ABOVE, both photos) at the 2015 NCAA Women’s Final Four in Tampa, Florida, last April. Photos courtesy of Molly Haynes

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BOBCAT TRACKS for alumni and friends

A day in the life OHIO abounded with twists and turns in 1967, as fit the mercurial times. For every joyous development— the dedication of Mackinnon Hall, a four-story Georgian residence for 220 women—a sad occasion occurred—the death of Walter Gamertsfelder, University president from 1943 to 1945, at age 81.

Meanwhile, “The Flamers” student group promoted a card block cheering section and bus transportation for fans to away games. And the cost of a class ring from the Ohio University Alumni Association? About $30. Read on for more examples.

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We are saddened; we are stunned; we are perplexed.

Veteran journalist Dick Belsky, BSJ ’67, who pens the alumni essay on page 35, recalls nothing about the story he filed (LEFT) on the front page of The Post, the Bobcat student newspaper, related to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, he wrote in an e-mail.

“I don’t remember writing a piece, but I apparently did.” Instead, Belsky cited “the initial moment we heard about the shooting, the note on the classroom confirming the worst, and then the four long days watching it all on the single TV set in Parks Hall.” He continued, “It all seemed unreal then, and I just assumed at first it wasn’t anything serious. JFK always made jokes at press conferences, and I figured he might just laugh about it next time we saw him on TV. But we soon found out the unthinkable had happened.” The University mourned (UPPER RIGHT), and OHIO President Vernon Alden (LOWER RIGHT) spoke at an Athens Campus service.

—Editor Peter Szatmary Photos courtesy of Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections

Traveling two diverging roads

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always wanted to be a writer when I majored in journalism at Ohio University back in the ’60s. I kept pretty good company. One of my best friends was Joe Eszterhas, who became a hugely successful Hollywood screenwriter (Basic Instinct, Jagged Edge). I also worked at the independent, student-run newspaper The Post with Clarence Page, BSJ ’69, who would earn a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1989. OHIO reflected that turbulent era in America, and I wrote outspoken columns for The Post and other student publications about politics, Vietnam, race relations, and student protests.

I figured I’d continue doing that kind of thing after graduation: file commentaries and grow into nonfiction books and literary novels. But I wound up going in a different career direction. I got a job as a reporter at the New York Post and fell in love with New York City media. I became city editor when I was barely 30, running an entire newsroom for Rupert Murdoch during the heady tabloid days of the ’70s and ’80s when the Post sold 1 million copies a day. Later, I became news editor of Star magazine and directed coverage of the O. J. Simpson murder trial, the death of Princess Diana, and other sensational celebrity stories. After that, I was managing editor of the New York Daily News, the largest tabloid in the country. Finally, with the onset of the digital age, I joined NBC—first as a vice president for digital news at local stations and then as managing editor of NBCNews.com.

But I never lost the urge I had in Athens to write my own stuff instead of following breaking news and telling other people what to recount.

So a few years ago I penned a mystery novel called The Kennedy Connection. I based it on one of the most life-changing events I ever experienced while at OHIO: the assassination of President Kennedy during my freshman year of 1963. I

remember my friend Bill Thomas, BSJ ’67, telling me the shocking news as I walked across the College Green to an afternoon class that day. Like many people of my generation, I’ve always had questions that couldn’t be answered about the JFK assassination. So I concocted a thriller about a series of present-day murders in New York City that connect to that fateful day in Dallas more than a half century ago—and got to do what I could never do as a journalist: make up my own answers.

When Simon & Schuster published The Kennedy Connection in 2014 and offered me a three-book contract for a series featuring newspaper reporter Gil Malloy, I finally did what I had dreamed about doing as a Bobcat in Athens. I left daily journalism and reinvented myself as a full-time novelist. My second crime book, a novella, The Midnight Hour, about a man wrongfully executed for the massacre of his family and the search for the real killer, came out early last year, and my third, the full-length Shooting for the Stars, about several unsolved celebrity murders, in August 2015. I’m working on another Gil Malloy installment, Blonde Ice, plus other exciting writing projects.

Not that I regret my time in the newsroom. But I’m happy I got the chance to change course after all these years.

I once had dinner with Eszterhas in Los Angeles when he was at the height of his screenwriting career and I was a top editor chasing news about him for Star. As we reminisced about our days at OHIO—and laughed at the ironic intersection of our current roles—he told me if he wasn’t doing what he was doing, he thought he might really have fun doing what I was doing.

All of us have pursued different paths since leaving Athens.

But—to paraphrase poet Robert Frost— it’s never too late to go back and explore the road not taken. —Dick Belsky, BSJ ’67

Also in 1967 at OHIO …

• Some students interviewed with recruiters from Dow Chemical while other Bobcats protested its making of napalm.

• WOUB radio introduced rock ‘n’ roll to the programming.

• Non-academic employees held a nine-day strike for payroll deduction of union dues.

• Time magazine featured the school and OHIO president Vernon R. Alden.

• Speakers included English theater director Tyrone Guthrie and American Communist Party head Gus Hall.

• Number of degrees conferred on the class of 1967 at commencement: 1,429, the most in OHIO history.

• The golf team won the Mid-American Conference championship, and the football team tied for the crown with Toledo.

• The Marching Band banished all women and majorettes from the ranks to become all-male.

• Freshmen were prohibited from having cars.

• Creative writing professor Daniel Keyes agreed to let his novel, Flowers for Algernon, be adapted into the Hollywood movie, Charly.

• The Association (“Cherish”), Martha Reeves (ABOVE) and the Vandellas (“Heat Wave”), and Tommy James and the Shondells (“Hanky Panky”) performed at Homecoming.

• Fall quarter saw record enrollment of some 16,500 students at the Athens Campus. Total enrollment at all campuses: 21,800.

• The School of Theatre, the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, and the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering debuted. —Entries compiled by Editor Peter Szatmary from editions of The Ohio Alumnus and The Post. Photo courtesy of Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections

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BOBCAT TRACKS for alumni and friends

HASHTAG BOBCAT ROMANCE @ohioalumni Instagram reinvented Valentine’s Day for the digital era by asking alumni to submit their OHIO love story for a contest. Edited excerpts of some winners follow. For other entries and photos, go online to ohiotoday.org/spring-2016.

—Kate Erlewine, BSVC ‘01, online & digital communication coordinator, Advancement Communication & Marketing

My husband, Tim Kelso, BSC ’05, and I met a few years after college. A mutual work friend tried to set us up and, unbeknownst to us, pretended each of us had a crush on the other. A couple minutes into our conversation, we discovered we both graduated from OHIO and something immediately clicked. Two years later, he proposed on College Green, and last fall we visited the spot with our two children. My best decision in life wasn’t marrying my husband—it was attending OHIO, which ultimately led me to him and our #OHIOlovestory.

— Our son’s middle name is ATHENS. SMILE, AND START WRITING “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Legend has it when Ernest Hemingway was challenged by other writers to tell a story in six words, he devised this poignant piece. Employing extreme brevity to tell stories has since inspired writers and nonwriters to do the same.

The Ohio University Alumni Association and the Barbara Geralds Institute for Storytelling and Social Impact in the Scripps College of Communication created the #OHIO6words contest, challenging alumni to post their six-word story and an OHIO-related photo on OUAA’s Instagram during Homecoming 2015.

More than 100 photos resulted and the first of four installments from the contest—about baby Bobcats—are on ohiotoday.org/spring-2016.

“Contributors’ six-word memoirs coupled with their photographic images offer potent portraits of Ohio University and its legacy,” said Lynn Harter, Scripps College of Communication professor and Institute codirector. —Kelee Riesbeck, BSJ ’91, assistant director, Advancement Communication & Marketing

ABOVE: Chris Surber, BS ’07, with son Theodore Athens Surber, on OHIO’s College Green. Photo courtesy of Lauren Surber, Chris’s wife and Theodore’s mom

—Lisa Kelso, BBA ’03

I chose Ryors Hall in 1979 because it was one of the dorms allowing men and women to live on the same floor. Little did I know that would change my life! I was delivering pizza for Angelo’s one night and I noticed the address was my dorm room on the second floor. Turns out, my roommate was having a party. The majority were second-floor women. No surprise. One caught my eye right away. A couple years later, I married her: Christi Lane. We celebrated our 30th anniversary last year.

—Kevin Fritz, BSJ ’82

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Photo by Brian Kellogg, BSS ’07 | briankellogg.com

An exquisite site 5 for your special day

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Future Bobcats “It is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, and furnishes a complete answer to those who contend for the gradual degeneration of the human species, that every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last,” wrote Charles Dickens in Nicholas Nickleby, originally published in installments in 1838-39. Ohio Today agrees with the British novelist—and feels the same way about all previous new additions to the OHIO family! Green and White parents shared a few details about their bundles of joy via e-mail. —Editor Peter Szatmary

1. REESE ELIZABETH KOEHLER (left) and BEAU RICHARD KOEHLER Born: Aug. 14, 2015; 5 lb, 12 oz, 20½ in for Reese; 7 lb, 21¼ in for Beau. Reese is the older of the fraternal twins by 15 minutes.

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Photo: 12 lb, 10 oz, 24½ in for Reese; 16 lb, 10 oz, 25½ in for Beau at 4 months Parents: Emily Rudnicki Koehler, BFA ’07, art director at Findaway digital content delivery in Solon, Ohio, and Chris Koehler, in information management services in Brecksville Siblings: Brother, Cole, 2½, pictured Residence: Parma Parental resemblance: “Reese looks like her mom and Beau looks like his dad.”

Emerging personalities: “Reese and Beau love smiling and laughing, especially at their brother and dad.”

2. VERONICA MAE DRAVENSTOTT

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Born: Aug. 22, 2015; 6 lb, 10 oz; 21 in Photo: 11 lb, 8 oz, 24 in, at 4 months Parents: Kelley Dravenstott, BSED ’09, MED ’12, first-grade teacher at W. W. Evans Elementary School in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and Ronald Dravenstott, BSIS ’09, MS ’12, senior modeler/operations researcher at Geisinger Health System in Danville Siblings: First child Residence: Danville Parental resemblance: “Everyone says she has daddy’s nose and mommy’s eyes.”

Emerging personality: “She is a happy baby who loves to talk, smile, and laugh.”

Impressive feat: “She is a very active baby and has started rolling earlier than expected!”

He never cries unless hungry. And as long as mom or dad is near, he is content.”

Adorableness example: “Often raises his left eyebrow when closely listening to you talk.”

3. SULLIVAN MATTHEW VALES

4. BRANDON ERIC WOODS

Born: Sept. 30, 2015; 8 lb, 4 oz; 20 in Photo: 10 lb, 8 oz, 20¾ in, at 1 month Parents: Elizabeth Mazzola Vales, BA ’06, CERT ’06, director of marketing at Brandmuscle local marketing software, in Cleveland, Ohio, and Vincent Vales, BA ’06, software analyst at MRI Software, property and investment management solutions, in Solon Siblings: Sister, Scarlett, 3, pictured Residence: Macedonia Parental resemblance: “Mom’s bright eyes and dad’s calm demeanor.”

Emerging personality: “He is very calm and quiet.

Born: Sept. 24, 2015; 6 lb; 19 in Photo: 11 lb at 3 months Parents: Erin Bailey Woods, BSED ’98, MED ’04, 4/5 grade teacher at Darby Creek Elementary School in Hilliard, Ohio, and Joe Woods, IT planning engineer for Nationwide Insurance, in the Columbus area Siblings: Brother Adam, 2, pictured Residence: Hilliard Parental resemblance: “Most people believe Brandon looks like his mom.”

Emerging personality: “Giving big smiles.”

4 Alumni parents, did a future Bobcat—new baby or adopted child—arrive recently? E-mail a photo and details to ohiotoday@ohio.edu.

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BOBCAT TRACKS for alumni and friends

Bobcat sightings OHIO shows up at work, play, exercise, and more, whether near or far!

1. “This is the engine of my 757,” writes Mark Trankina, AAS ’86, BSAS ’89, a pilot for Delta Air Lines and a “very proud” Bobcat. 2. Bruce and Christy Poorman, BSC ’71 and BSED ’75, respectively, charted an OHIO course at the Rock and Dock at North Coast Harbor Marina behind the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, last summer. “This is our fourth ‘Bobcat’ in the last 25 years. Each has been green and white, carried the name and paw mark logo on the side, and hoisted a paw mark flag,” writes Bruce, publisher and president of Drug Discovery News, and Christy, an executive sales representative at Sanofi healthcare. Janice Pae, AB ’60, 1985 Medal of Merit recipient, sent the photo of the latest vessel, a Catalina 36. 3. Paul Standley, BSCE ’07 (center), celebrated his Las Vegas wedding last summer to Tiffany Davis in front of the Hoover Dam with Jeff Reed, BSC ’06 (left), who submitted this photo; Jake Jarosz, BSC ’06; and Ron Bauer, BSSP ’06 (not pictured). 4. Karina Quintans, MAIA ’95 (bottom row, right), sent this photo of the 20-year reunion of classmates (and a few of their children) from the Center for International Studies. During the return to the Athens Campus last April, they enjoyed new places like Restaurant

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Salaam (pictured) and revisited favorites like the Athens Farmers Market. 5. U.S. Air Force Capt. Dan Miller, BS ’09, sported Bobcat gear to run the Petra (Jordan) Desert Half Marathon in September. A meteorologist now stationed at the Pentagon, he spent last summer deployed in Jordan. 6.

(Left to right) Amy Dingle, BSRS ’97, director of outdoor connections at the Five Rivers MetroParks in Dayton, Ohio; Wade Walcutt, BSRS ’99, director of the Greensboro, North Carolina, Parks and Recreation Department; and Karen O’Donnell, BSRS ’99, recreation manager at Commerce City, Colorado, Parks and Recreation, graduated from the National Recreation and Park Association’s Directors School, a two-year program in professional development, in August in Wheeling, West Virginia. 7. U.S. Army Reserve Capt. John Bencivenga, BA ’86, and his son, Cade, watched American Pharoah become the 12th horse to win the Triple Crown in June at the Belmont Stakes in Elmont, New York. —Compiled

by Editor Peter Szatmary

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Send your photos to ohiotoday@ohio.edu or Ohio Today, 213 McKee House, 1 Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701.

’76

Letting their hair down?

Norma Schroeder Smalley, BS ’59, sent this photo of what she called “ponytail night,” taken, Smalley writes, on Jan. 29, 1956, during final exams week. “We were freshmen on 2 BN (2 back north) Lindley Hall.” Smalley identifies the Bobcats from left to right. FIRST ROW: B. J. Zyp Thayer, BFA ’59; Nancy Elson Kosmetos, GEN ’59; Smalley; and Judy Finch Hurst, BSED ’59 (deceased). SECOND ROW: Susie Strackbein Thomas, AA ’58 (deceased); Mary Wirts, BFA ’59; Peggy Upstill Spindler, BS ’60; and Peggy Pancoast Gray, BSED ’59. “My memories of the 15 freshmen on the floor take me back to that wonderful first year,” Smalley adds.

’58

John Alter, BFA ’58, and his wife, Elizabeth, were named the 2015 Tree Farmer of the Year in Florida by the state forestry association via the tree farm program. Their Alter-Bevis Farms encompass almost 1,000 acres in northeast Jackson County, including a home site, 600 acres of pine plantations, and 18 tree farm stands, plus pasture lease for beef cattle, cultivated land for row crops, and hunting leases on forested areas.

’68

Diana Brenner, BFA ’68, was included in “Achievements of Women in Architecture,” an Ohio Valley Region exhibit held at the Center for Architecture and Design in Columbus, Ohio, and presented in part by the Columbus, Ohio, chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Based in Indianapolis, she is president of the largest woman-owned architectural firm in Indiana.

’69

David Keck, BSED ’69, MED ’71, presented

“Learning Styles Instruments: Use and Disuse” at the Ohio Association for Career and Technical Educators summer conference in Columbus. He teaches mental health at Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare in Columbus.

’70

Steve Iseman, BFA ’70, delivered the keynote speech at the Central Ohio chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s 2015 PRism Awards banquet. Professor Emeritus at Ohio Northern University, he is a past president of the chapter and a former member of the society’s national board of directors.

’75

Steven Lesser, BSJ ’75, was appointed to the American Bar Association’s standing committee of membership and to the Florida Bar’s board of legal specialization and education. He heads the construction law and litigation group and is a shareholder at the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, office of Becker & Poliakoff, a commercial law firm.

William Hawal, AB ’76, a partner at Spangenberg Shibley & Liber, a boutique civil litigation trial firm in Cleveland, Ohio, made the 22nd (2016) edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the field of medical malpractice-plaintiffs, a distinction he regularly earns.

Hawal also has been designated a Super Lawyer in Ohio by Super Lawyers magazine for many years running, among numerous other honors.

Marilyn Sukke McCall, BSHE ’76, MA ’83, a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant, gave a talk, “To Eat or Not to Eat Gluten: This Is Just One of the Questions,” at the American Association of Diabetes Educators 2015

conference. The Bobcat works at UnityPoint Health Jones Regional Medical Center in Anamosa, Iowa. She lives in Springville with her husband, Daryl McCall, BSEE ’80, MSEE ’85, a senior systems engineer, fly by wire, at Rockwell Collins, which provides communication and aviation electronic solutions in aerospace and defense and is based in Cedar Rapids.

Laura Pritchard, BFA ’76, displayed 10 of her batik paintings on silk in a group show at the 2015 Festival of Music and Arts at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She lives in the area.

A Charitable Remainder Trust is a gift that gives twice

The Office of Gift Planning can help you explore a host of gift options to plan for the future, receive current benefits, and provide lasting support for Ohio University.

Charitable Remainder Trusts provide: For more information, contact Kelli Kotowski Executive Director of Development, Gift Planning and Principal Gifts kotowski@ohio.edu • 740.597.1819

• an income stream • a charitable income tax deduction • a partial bypass of capital gains • generous future support for Ohio University

s p r i n g 2 0 1 6 • 39

BOBCAT TRACKS for alumni and friends

’77

David Johnson, MED ’77, retired after 36 years in public education, the last 34 of which as athletic director at Frank Scott Bunnell High School in Stratford, Connecticut, where he lives with his wife, Mary Ellen.

Kent Zimmerman, MA ’77, received the 2015 Outstanding Educator Award from the International Listening Association at its annual convention. He is a professor of communication at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio.

’78

Charles Denton, AB ’78, made The Best Lawyers in America list for 2016 for environmental law and environmental litigation.

A partner in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, office of Barnes & Thornburg, he has been included in the annual compendium for the past 20 years. Denton chairs the firm’s national environmental law department.

Stephen Sachs, MM ’78, has been named dean of fine arts at Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi. He also continues his duties as professor of music and music chair. Sachs is a pianist by training.

’79

Sharon Fountain, AB ’79, ranked as one of The Best Lawyers in America for 2016. A partner in the Dallas office of Thompson and Knight, a full-service firm, she has earned the award since 2001 for employee benefits (employee retirement income security act) law and tax law. Fountain also was selected as a 2015 Texas Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers magazine for employee benefits; she’s been designated as such since 2003.

’83

Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan, Jr., BSC ’83, has been named executive director of Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation. Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, and founded in 1976, it is the largest

membership organization of its kind urging the end of the death penalty in the U.S., according to press materials. He had been regional minister and president of the Pennsylvania Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Prior, he served as unit president of the Pennsylvania State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Eighteen years ago, his sister, Jennifer, was shot and killed at age 21 in a crime that has never been solved.

’84

Herman Counts, III, AB ’84, was promoted to senior vice president, servicing risk operations, at Wells Fargo in the San Antonio, Texas, area.

Dave Craig, BSC ’84, vice president of human resources at Fazoli’s, the quick-service Italian restaurant chain, and his team won a 2015 silver Stevie Award in the human resources department of the year category at the 13th annual American Business

Awards. Craig and company previously earned gold, the top prize, in 2012 for the Lexington, Kentucky-based business.

William Wyss, MA ’84, retired as the chair of the Louisville (Ohio) High School social studies department. He now is an adjunct psychology instructor at the University of Mount Union.

’88

Russ Revock, MFA ’88, represented the United States in the Międzynarodowe Biennale Miniatury 8, an international juried exhibition of miniature prints; it opened in Częstochowa, Poland, and traveled throughout the country and to other European cities.

He also was one of 24 American artists to exhibit at the 14th Lessedra World Art Print Annual at the Lessedra Gallery in Sofia, Bulgaria. Revock is an associate professor of art at Cleveland State University.

’89

Wendy Brown Chapkis, BSJ ’89, owner of

JOIN OUR TEAM! HELP SHAPE OUR VISION OF SPORTS & ACADEMICS!

Become an Ohio Bobcat Club member and support more than 440 Green and White student-athletes.

Call 740.593.1176 | E-mail bobcatclub@ohio.edu | Go online to ohiobobcatclub.com

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We’re on our way home— to OHIO

Memories of driving through the rolling hills of Southeastern Ohio as a child caused Kelsey Bowman to stir with inspiration at the announcement of the 2016 Homecoming theme, “All Roads Lead Home.” “[Watching] the OHIO brick buildings come into view after returning from a vacation, I always felt a sense of comfort and home,” said Bowman, a junior interactive multimedia major. “Athens has always been, and always will be, home to me.”

More than 2,200 votes from the OHIO community echoed her sentiment, deciding this year’s theme via an online survey and officially launching the annual Homecoming logo competition.

Bowman’s design outdid two dozen submissions, earning her bragging rights and a $100 prize.

Homecoming occurs Oct. 5-8.

Go to ohio.edu/homecoming for details about the 2016 soiree.

—Hailee Tavoian

Wendy Brown Voice Talent, was part of a team to win a 2015 Telly Award for local TV and local cable, health and wellness, for the commercial, “It’s My Time,” produced by Full Throttle Intermedia for Ambay Plastic Surgery. She voiced the spot.

Chapkis lives with her husband, Evan, in Tampa, Florida.

Mike Szymanski, BSJ ’89, was promoted to assistant vice president of 1st Source Bank. A private banker, he serves the South Bend, Indiana, area.

’92

Gregory Laurence, AB ’92, earned tenure and a promotion to associate professor of management at University of Michigan-Flint School of Management.

Tony Sias, MFA ’92, has been named president and CEO of Karamu House, a cultural arts center and theater in Cleveland, Ohio. He has more than 20 years of experience as an arts administrator, educator, actor, and director; for the past nine years, Sias served as director of arts education for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

The 100-year-old Karamu is the oldest African-American theater and arts institution in the U.S.

’97

James Schweikert, AA ’97, joined Black McCuskey Souers & Arbaugh, a full-service law firm with offices in Canton and Dover, Ohio, as a partner in the intellectual property practice. He focuses on patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and related litigation and specializes in mechanical, electro-mechanical, and electrical arts. Schweikert works at the Canton branch.

’98

Trace Conger, BA ’98, won a 2015 Shamus Award for Best Indie P.I. Novel from the Private Eye Writers of America for his debut work, The Shadow Broker.

Bree Downey Gillespie, BSC ’98, was named to the board of directors of USA Field Hockey, the national governing body for the sport. She was a four-year starter for the OHIO women’s field hockey team, captain her senior year, a MAC All-Conference player, and a North-South All-Star.

Gillespie is founder and executive director of Lanco Premier Field Hockey, a youth development program in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband, Michael, and their children, Benjamin and Abigail.

’01

Rosemary Pennington, BSJ ’01, is now an assistant professor of journalism

’94

Anthony Petruzzi, AB ’94, made the list of The Best Lawyers in America for 2016, as he has every year since 2013. Petruzzi practices white-collar criminal defense, corporate investigation, and business litigation for the fullservice Tucker Ellis in Cleveland.

’95

2016 TOURS

6 Barcelona & San Sebastian May 29-June 7

Robin Diamond Miller, AB ’95, has been appointed vice chair of the business litigation practice group of Ulmer & Berne, a full-service law firm. She is a partner in the Cincinnati, Ohio, office and focuses on complex commercial litigation.

Ireland to Westport May 3-11

Robert Munz, BFA ’95, has been named vice president and middle market representative at First Niagara financial group’s equipment leasing and finance team in western Pennsylvania and Ohio. He operates out of Cleveland for the communityoriented bank. Munz previously worked for Key Equipment Finance and Maxus Capital Group.

Alaska Passages Cruise July 25-Aug. 4

A Transpacific Voyage: Lands & Islands of Mystery May 5-19 American Empress: Passage of Lewis & Clark May 7-15 Essential Europe May 17-June 4 Spain: Barcelona & San Sebastian May 29-June 7 In the Wake of the Vikings June 8-16 Grand Danube Passage June 22-July 6 Coastal Maine & New Brunswick July 20-27 London Immersion Aug. 17-28 North America’s Majestic Great Lakes Aug. 22-31 Italian Riviera Sept. 3-11 Captivating Mediterranean Cruise Oct. 8-16 Southern Charm Oct. 23-29 The Art of Living Provence Oct. 28-Nov. 19

Click on the “travel” link at ohio.edu/alumni

s p r i n g 2 0 1 6 • 41

BOBCAT TRACKS for alumni and friends

at Miami University, after earning her doctorate in mass communication from Indiana University last June.

’03

Matt Baehr, MBA ’03, vice president of membership at the Washington, D.C., office of the Direct Marketing Association, earned a “Forty under 40” award from the Association Forum of Chicagoland and USAE weekly trade newspaper. The commendation recognizes 40 up-and-coming association or nonprofit management professionals younger than age 40.

Maria Davila, BA ’03, began working at the Ohio Department of Transportation’s new division of opportunity, diversity, and

inclusion as regional outreach manager for districts 3, 4, and 12; she serves as liaison for the small/disadvantaged business enterprise community.

anchor/reporter at WSET-TV, an ABC affiliate in Lynchburg, Virginia, now also teaches sports broadcasting at Liberty University as an adjunct professor.

Cami Thompson Ross, BA ’03, MBA ’05, and Kyle Ross, BA ’02, wed on July 15 at Amasa Stone Chapel at Case Western Reserve University and held the reception at the English Oak Room at Tower City Center in Cleveland. They honeymooned in Greece and Turkey. The bride is coordinator of programming at the international affairs office of Case Western; the groom is a self-employed sports handicapper.

’06

’05

Justin Feldkamp, BSJ ’05, a sports

bobcatstore.ohioalumni.org

OPT-IN LIST Save 18.04% on your next purchase.

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Madison Koenig, ABENG ’15, CERT ’15, accepted a position as justice for immigrants group coordinator at the Cabrini Immigrant Services of New York City.

Jeff Reed, BSC ’06, joined Cummins power company as its global communications leader in corporate responsibility.

Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, he previously worked as communications director for Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice.

OHIO ALUMNI BOOKS

’08

Ohio University alumni publish books across subjects and genres. Here are releases within the last year.

Lindsey Krauss French, BBA ’08, held a “Bobcat merger,” as she put it, with Brian French, BBA ’07, on July 18.

The nuptials occurred in Powell, Ohio, where they live. The wedding included OHIO alumni Kelly Hunter Masters, BSH ’09, maid of honor; Katie Gillman Kallmerten, BSC ’08, bridesmaid; the bride’s brother, Andrew Krauss, BSSP ’06, groomsman; and Dave Shanabarger, BBA ’07, groomsman. The Frenches honeymooned in Maui.

She works as a marketing manager at JPMorgan Chase in Westerville, and he is an assistant superintendent at Kinsale Golf and Fitness Club in Powell.

’12 Join our

’15

Courtney Vastine, MSW ’12, a medical social worker helping gynecologic cancer patients in an outpatient clinic at Baylor College of Medicine, writes that she was “instrumental in expanding our women’s cancer support program to include services for breast cancer patients as well; this new expansion launched in January at Baylor’s cancer center.”

Rebecca Wyss, ABENG ’15, CERT ’15, accepted a position as food pantry coordinator at the Cabrini Immigrant Services of New York City. —Compiled by Editor Peter Szatmary

The Master’s Tree, children’s Christian picture book (Tate Publishing), by Ian Bishop, AA ’15 • The Girl Who Founded Nebraska and Other Stories, fiction (EXIT Press), by Gary Carr, MA ’66 • Scar Tissue, crime thriller, part of the series about underground private investigator Finn Harding (Black Mill Books), by Trace Conger, BA ’98 • Dismantlements of Silence, new and selected poems (Texas Review Press), by William Davis, AB ’62, MA ’65, PHD ’67 • Marjorie Hammond: A Lifetime of Memories, autobiography (Susanna Lagoon/J. K. Eckert), by Marjorie Smith Hammond, BSED ’42, MED ’61 • Bodies, Speech, and Reproductive Knowledge in Early Modern England, literary and cultural analyses (Routledge),

by Sara Luttfring, AB ’02 • The Lost and Found, novel about a recent Midwest college graduate who becomes an au pair in Dublin, Ireland (CreateSpace), by Sara Normand, BSJ ’08 • How Self-Love Woke the Mama Bear: Opening a Gift after Nineteen Years, reflections (Lulu), by Melanie Police, BSED ’96 —Compiled by Editor Peter Szatmary

If you’re a Bobcat author and want to be considered for a future OHIO alumni books list, send a press release about your recent or forthcoming work to Ohio Today, 213 McKee House, 1 Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701 or via e-mail to ohiotoday@ohio.edu.

he On t

Green Weekend

JOin yOur OHIO Alumni AssOciatiOn

May 18-22 On The Green Weekend 2016, the annual spring Homecoming, features academics and arts for the entire OHIO community!

Partake in Alumni College courses, wine tours, BBQ, and an “Under the Elms” concert. Lace up your sneakers for the Bobcat Dash 5K or play a round of golf. Renew your vows with your Bobcat sweetheart at OH, I dO. And enjoy a film festival that shows blockbusters from 1966, 1976, and 1986.

For the first time, On The Green Weekend will host Cruise-In at the Convo, the OHIO Alumni Varsity Band’s annual fundraiser to support the Marching 110.

Whatever you fancy, share your photos, memories, and excitement with us using #OTG2016 on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

ited! v n i e r You a it! miss t ' n Do

Go to ohio.edu/alumni/onthegreen for more information and to register.

Konneker Alumni Center 52 University Terrace 1 Ohio University Athens, OH 45701 s p r i n g 2 0 1 6 • 43

IN MEMORIAM remembering fellow Bobcats

1920s

Ida (Cohen) Hall, BSED ’27 D. Eloise (Ralph) Fultz, ELED ’28 Dorothy L. (Williams) Cardot, BSED ’29 Margaret E. Dietz, ELED ’29

1930s

Zita M. (Smith) Cadwallader, BSED ’30 Henrietta (Kruger) McGinnis, ELED ’30 Thelma F. (Workman) Gossett, BSED ’34 Joseph H. Glander, BSED ’35 Edna (Johnson) Carlin, COED ’36, BSED ’39 Thomas J. Petrus, BSED ’36 Helen Mills Schmidt, AB ’36 Maxine E. (Brunton) Slavens, ELED ’36 Helen R. (Simonton) Stauffer, ELED ’36 Alice M. (Fletcher) Gibson, BSED ’37 Mary L. (Seenes) Norris, BSED ’37 Helen V. (Piper) Tedrick, BSED ’37 Gertrude M. (Marty) Allen, BSED ’38 U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. (Ret.) Peter I. Olsen, BSED ’39

1940s

Ellen (Cooley) Booth, AB ’40 Ted T. Buczek, BSCOM ’40 Jeanne S. (Hydivitz) Glick, BSSS ’40 Eloise (Owens) Robinson, BSHEC ’40 William Hubert Schmidt, BSED ’40 Marjorie (Wheaton) Walker, AB ’40 Barbara J. (Brenner) Alfred, BS ’41 Helen R. (Henrich) Cook, AB ’41 Edward J. Finley, BSJ ’41 Louis P. Schwendeman, BSCE ’41 M. Grace Turley, KP ’41, BSED ’44 Mary M. (Flood) Welch, BSED ’41 Anthony G. Frasca, BSCOM ’42 Dr. C. Frederick Kittle, AB ’42, LLD ’67 U.S. Army Brig. Gen. (Ret.) James M. Abraham, BSEE ’43, BSIE ’48 Walter B. Albright, Jr., General ’43 Helen M. Andrews, BSED ’43 Alice (Maccombs) Hensch, BSED ’43 Elizabeth A. (Ford) Huettner, BFA ’43 Jean (Zink) Isabel, AB ’43 Arada (Pickering) Lewis, BS ’43 Eva D. McSeveney, BS ’43 Gerard L. Novario, BSCOM ’43 Lee (Simmons) Petersen, AB ’43, MA ’48 Clara E. (Tipton) Sheskey, ELED ’43 Elizabeth (Pace) Tanner, BSHEC ’43 Eleanor V. (Bartlett) Conley, BSHEC ’44 Anna L. (Lonchar) Maurer, BSCOM ’44 Dr. Victor C. Whitacre, BS ’44

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Shirley P. (Buhoup) Wilcox, BSHEC ’44 Betty F. (Feezel) Wilk, BSJ ’44 Eleanor E. Kee, BSS ’45 Robert D. Laird, BSCOM ’47 Carolyn H. (Hopkins) Oster, AB ’47 Dr. James W. Petersen, AB ’47, MA ’48 Sanford Slavin, BSCE ’47 Dr. Ralph E. Ackerman, BSED ’48, MED ’49 Carl M. Brookman, BSAE ’48 Margaret P. (Hartman) McCormick, BSED ’48 Julia A. (Jones) Miller, BSJ ’48 Howard R. Reep, BSCOM ’48 Roger C. Sweet, MS ’48 Richard A. Wolschlag, BSCOM ’48 Ralph F. Youngmann, BSCOM ’48 Charlotte (Baker) Baer, General ’49 Clair Berry, BSCOM ’49 James N. Campbell, BSED ’49, MED ’54 Ruth A. (Peterson) Graydon, BFA ’49 Donald R. Miracle, BSED ’49 David C. Neuhaus, BFA ’49 Jack L. Sharlike, BSCOM ’49 Charles E. Tippett, BSCOM ’49 Sara (Maier) Trimmer, AB ’49

1950s

Mary H. (Hughes) Berry, AB ’50 Emma J. Brewer, BS ’50 Theodore E. Byers, BSCHE ’50 Frank N. Elliott, MA ’50 Paul C. Faubel, BSIE ’50 Joseph M. Finerty, MA ’50 Edward Gold, General ’50 Howard F. Hammack, BSEE ’50 Raymond C. Hendershot, BSCOM ’50 Dr. Jack W. McGonagle, General ’50 Byron D. Russell, BSAGR ’50 Vivian (Stevens) Vaughters, BSED ’50 Jack L. Woodruff, General ’50 Carl W. Zabel, Jr., General ’50 Marcia M. Bean, BFA ’51 Ronald K. Brookey, BSED ’51, MED ’55 Evea L. (Winner) Carrico, BSED ’51 Charles R. Emrick, Jr., BSCOM ’51, MSJ ’52 Frances (Wolfson) Freedman, General ’51 Robert A. Herman, General ’51 Rosemary (Bower) Sigman, BSHEC ’51 Norma (Sossi) Stiles, General ’51 Quinn H. Stumpf, BSCOM ’51 John W. Swisher, BFA ’51 H. E. Underwood, BSEE ’51 Donna J. (Corey) Varn, AA ’51 Janet (Pickenpaugh) Betcher, AB ’52

Jean (Robe) Bissell, BSED ’52 James R. Demattio, BS ’52 Helen L. (Murphy) Eversberg, AA ’52, BSHEC ’56 George J. Gellos, MS ’52 James A. Hughes, AB ’52 Dr. Andrew V. Johnston, MED ’52 Edgar C. Kincaid, BSCOM ’52 Jane (Snider) Massie, General ’52 Fred H. Moore, General ’52 Steven P. Relich, BSED ’52 George L. Snyder, BSJ ’52 Mary A. (Hills) Stack, BSED ’52 Charles A. Stiles, General ’52 Paul E. Thomas, BSME ’52 Robert K. Beattie, BSCOM ’53 Carolyn M. (Donnell) Cowden, BSED ’53 Allen J. Friedenthal, BSJ ’53 Barbara A. (Poland) Harris, BSED ’53 William F. Herr, BFA ’53 David L. Leightenheimer, BSED ’53 Patrick J. Mooney, BSED ’53 Nancy A. (Rutherford) Penn, BSED ’53 John L. Shaffer, BSED ’53 Robert S. English, BSCOM ’54 James A. Fleming, BSCE ’54 Mary (Lawrence) Davis, AA ’55 David M. Eells, General ’55 Dr. Edwin Gordon, MED ’55 Jack B. Irvin, General ’55 Joanne F. (Rody) Schuller, BSED ’55 Rebecca L. (Brooks) Arendall, BFA ’56 Mary E. (Clark) David, AA ’56, BSHEC ’57 Hugh E. Joslin, BSEE ’56 James E. Thorn, BSJ ’56 Barbara A. Alexander, BSCOM ’57 Charles H. Alexander, BSCOM ’57 USAF Lt. Col. (Ret.) Ronald A. Bond, BA ’57 Elizabeth A. (Johnson) Cromer, BSED ’57 Donald G. Horvath, BSEE ’57, MS ’61 Dan Payne, BA ’57, MA ’58 Paul A. Villilo, General ’57 Virginia (Smith) Wiley, BSS ’57 Franklin N. Winter, BSIT ’57 James E. Woods, BSCOM ’57 Donald E. Bachmeier, BSIT ’58 Thora (Erwine) Brown, BS ’58 Don F. Galek, BSCOM ’58 Martha E. (Kinney) Lasure, BSED ’58 Idamae Ryan, BSED ’58 Antoinette (Gentile) Weber, BSED ’58 James G. Wiley, BSIT ’58 Paul W. Zimmer, BSJ ’58 Marlys E. (Dalrymple) Archbold, BSED ’59 James H. Bolender, BSCOM ’59 Helen (Calkins) Isensee, BSCOM ’59

Richard W. Leach, BSAE ’59 Shirley (Potter) MacFadden, BSED ’59 Donald E. Sparks, BSED ’59 Nina (Markley) Tegarden, AB ’59

1960s

Doris (Dever) Ach, BSED ’60 Marilyn J. (Bullock) Bernd, BSED ’60 Gerald E. Goodlive, BSIT ’60 William C. McGuire, BSCOM ’60 Gordon L. Owens, BS ’60, MS ’62 Janet W. (James) Plantz, BSED ’60 Mary Louise (Nilsson) Wells, AB ’60 Karen R. (Atkins) Bump, AA ’61, AB ’77 Anna V. Conaway, BSED ’61, MED ’67 Kenneth E. Fisher Sr., BSED ’61 Judith A. (Morehart) Fletcher, BS ’61 Herman J. Panyard, BSJ ’61 Russell G. Sheley, Jr., AB ’61 Dr. Jerry L. Walke, MED ’61 William H. Field, BSIT ’62 Dr. David A. Peach, BSCOM ’62, MBA ’64 Lorne H. Seidman, BSCOM ’62 Mildred Tabler Vore, AA ’62 Frederick E. Wade, BSCE ’62 Jerry R. Boehm, BS ’63 Sandra (Cook) Bowling, BSED ’63 Jack A. Cartellone, BBA ’63 Trena L. Kinnan, BSED ’63, MED ’68 Shirley M. (Hans) Latshaw, AA ’63 Allen B. Martin, BSED ’63 James G. Mourning, BBA ’63 Charles L. Gibbons, BSED ’64 Thomas V. Hendricks, BBA ’64 Donald S. Tracey, BS ’64 Robert A. Wadd, BSED ’64 Allen R. Brown, BSED ’65, MED ’70 Francis M. Daniels, BSED ’65 Dr. Robert W. Dillon, MA ’65, PHD ’69 Robert L. Feuerbacher, BA ’65, MS ’71 Ingrid E. (Carlson) Juelfs, BSED ’65 Charlotte (Dietrich) Kennedy, BSED ’65 Ralph P. Morgan, Jr., BA ’65 Faye (Dalton) Rodd, BSED ’65 Linda S. (Poulson) Alden, BSJ ’66 Charles R. Hoffhine II, BBA ’66 James D. Spurgeon, BSIT ’66 Dr. David A. Welton, MED ’66, PHD ’70 Robert E. Busche, General ’67 Orval E. Cottrill, MED ’67 Dale M. Limbert, Jr., BSED ’67 Constance (Couille) Madar, AB ’67 James I. Ross, AB ’67 Audrey A. Finney, BSED ’68 Dr. Joanne E. Ford, AB ’68, PHD ’96 Jeffrey H. Halderman, BBA ’68, MS ’69 Craig L. Heydon, MS ’68, MBA ’69

Terry A. Kovalchik, BSED ’68 Dr. Karen (Sturges) Morante, BS ’68 James R. Patterson, BSJ ’68 Janice L. (Lehman) Specker, BSED ’68 Jonathan A. Tarbox, AB ’68 Beverly G. Arnoff, AB ’69, BSED ’69 Gary H. Bailey, MED ’69 Stephen C. Dwight, BSC ’69 Marilyn L. Johnson, BSED ’69 Michael F. Pletcher, MED ’69 Kenneth W. Stano, BSME ’69 Joan M. (Kopelman) Wolk, AB ’69

1970s

Dennis R. Bourdreau, BBA ’70 Harry W. Johnson, Jr., BSED ’70 Richard J. Maheu, BBA ’70 Jesse L. Rotman, BSJ ’70 Dee M. Van Horn, BSED ’70 Charles J. Wipperman, BBA ’70 Jay A. Buerkel, BSIT ’71 Martha L. Laufman, BFA ’71 Linda J. (Chapman) Snow, BSED ’71 Sally L. Tarbet, BSED ’71 Herbert Bushong, AB ’72 Dr. Kenneth P. Cicuto, BS ’72 William J. Datovech, BFA ’72 Bernice E. Dawson, BSED ’72 U.S. Army Col. (Ret.) Charles A. Woodbeck, MA ’72 Cecilia K. Alexander, BSJ ’73 Virginia L. Collins, BSED ’73 Dianna J. Fraizer, AAS ’73 Elaine (Tomson) Joseph, AB ’73 Edith M. Rupert, BSED ’73 Nancy S. (Wolf ) Thompson, BSJ ’73 Geoffrey P. Cave, BBA ’74 Michael A. Cercone, BBA ’74 George E. Hill, MED ’74 Thomas G. McClung, AAS ’74 Ronald B. Nelson, BSC ’74 Barbara Ray, BSED ’74 Thomas N. Tusick, BBA ’74 Gregory A. Hale, AB ’75 John S. Kaczmarczyk, BGS ’75 John G. Krauss, BSED ’75 Charles J. Schultz, BBA ’75 Richard J. Tramba, BBA ’75 Norman J. Gillespie, AB ’76 Patricia M. McKinney, BSHSS ’76 Cynthia A. (Ellsworth) Moseley, MED ’76 Patrick T. Rose, BGS ’76, MED ’77 Dr. Jon M. Walro, MS ’76, PHD ’80 Timothy L. Casey, BBA ’77 Linda T. (Kline) Gonzales, AB ’77 Wanda Mae Stahley, MS ’77 Neil Carlson, BBA ’78

William F. Ottinger, MBA ’78 Mark Ament, BBA ’79 Cheryl Y. Bratton, BBA ’79 Betty J. Cochran, General ’79 Ilse M. Hillen, AB ’79 Patricia L. Kissling, AB ’79 Deborah L. Kuenz, BFA ’79 John G. Timmons, MA ’79, MFA ’81

1980s

David N. Christman, BSED ’80 Gwendolyn D. Coles, BBA ’80 Patrick M. Curby, MBA ’80 Aurelius Frank Ray, BSC ’80 Teresa L. (Buckley) Davis, BMUS ’81 Charles H. Faulk, Jr., BSIT ’81 Catharine M. Jeffords, BS ’82 Hazel M. (Thacker) Schuer, AIS ’82, BBA ’85 Jane (Bankes) Dodge, MED ’83 Alice B. Fletcher, MED ’83 Kathy L. (Debo) Scott, BSHEC ’83 Ralph E. Watts, BSIT ’83 James Emuge, MAIA ’84 Jeanette Louise Lester, BSED ’84 Esther P. (Guliford) McCrary, AAB ’85 Carol Sue (Schenz) Pasqual, BSHEC ’85 David C. McComb, BS ’86 Kenneth F. A. Rehill, BGS ’86 Dr. Robert S. Vandrak, DO ’86 Carolyn S. (Kennard) Walker, BSED ’86 Andrea L. (Ralph) Williams, MED ’86 Tami Lynn (Greenfield) Boehmer, BSJ ’87 Edson Graham Kindler, BBA ’87, MBA ’89 Dr. Martha (Howes) McCoy, PHD ’87 Glenna K. (McCorkle) Legrand, MHSA ’88 Michael Anthony Bateman, BSISE ’89 Anthony L. Clements, AA ’89 William Joseph Evans, AA ’89 Dennis Edward Kroeger, AS ’89 Shirley A. Lambert, MHSA ’89 Patricia Simone Morgan, AS ’89 Eugene A. Norris, Jr., AIS ’89 Ann (McMahon) Sickels, MED ’89 William Richard Spradling, General ’89

1990s

Karen Sue Bryan, MED ’90 Rex E. Cox, AS ’90, BSS ’93 Jay L. Law, AA ’90 Richard Boyd Legrand, BGS ’90 Norma J. Liberatore, BGS ’90 Michael Allan Turner, AA ’90

Wayne A. Warner, MA ’90 Jerome Fredrick Hickle, BSED ’91 Jane E. Hutchins, BSED ’91 Paul Robert Messner, AAB ’91 Gerry Lee Bradshaw, AA ’92 Jeffery S. Comisford, AIS ’92 Gayle Felicia Fields, MA ’92 Ruth Eells Gerhold, MED ’92 Perry Richard Hall, BSS ’92 Michael Wayne Boddie, AAB ’93, AA ’94 Laura Ruth Marchand, AB ’93 Sheila S. Hensley Riley, BBA ’93 Judy Elizabeth Bradshaw, AS ’95 William Curtis Jones, AAB ’95 Gayle (Moatz) Sit, BSCHE ’95 Troy F. Smith, AS ’95 Sarah (Boor) Bennett, BBA ’96 Stephen Robert Lennon, MBA ’96 Karen Elaine Delfs, BSSE ’97 Craig Anthony Heaton, AAB ’97 Eric Lee Strait, BSC ’98

2000s

Michael T. Davis, BBA ’01 Elizabeth Kelley, AS ’01, BSED ’06 Kimberly Lynn Collier, BSED ’02 Yvonne A. Broughton, BSS ’05 Mary F. Kitts, AAB ’05 Thomas K. Koster, BSC ’08 Daniel Ryan Reimold, PHD ’08

2010s

Frank Ryan Scurlock, BSC ’10 Shannon Lee Gleditsch, MHA ’14 Suzanne M. Boyd, BSN ’15

Faculty/Staff

Cecelia Baird, Athens, Ohio, retired administrative associate, Colleges of Education and Business, Oct. 26 Stephanie N. Childers, Portmouth, Ohio, former instructor, Ohio University Chillicothe Campus, Aug. 16 Charles R. Collett, Glouster, Ohio, retired auto mechanic, Grounds Maintenance, Oct. 1 Martha Harry, Fort Smith, Arkansas, retired cook, Dining Services, Nov. 2, 2015

Ohio, professor emeritus of art, College of Fine Arts, Nov. 17 Stephen Kopp, Huntington, West Virginia, former provost (2002-05), Dec. 17, 2014 Travis J. Male, Amesville, Ohio, former custodial worker (1999-2011), Dining Services, Nov. 16 Dr. E. Dale Mattmiller, General ’77, Gaylord, Michigan, director emeritus, Hudson Health Center and Unified Health Service (1963-86), Sept. 21 Herschel R. McNabb, General ’86, Waverly, Ohio, assistant dean emeritus, College of Business, June 29 Charles P. Mickelson, MA ’75, Athens, Ohio, retired director, Ohio Program of Intenstive English (19852010), Feb. 17 Wayne Peck, Albany, Ohio, retired maintenance worker, Facilities Management, Sept. 15 Robert N. Rhodes, Chicago, Illinois, associate professor emeritus of African American Studies, College of Arts and Sciences (1971-2006), Dec. 4 James E. Rodgers, III, BGS ’78, Athens, Ohio, former business manager for The Post (1990-2009), Division of Student Affairs, Aug. 6, 2009 Charles L. Scott, MSJ ’70, Athens, Ohio, professor emeritus of visual communication (1976-2005), Scripps College of Communication, Nov. 20 Nathan J. Van Oort, Sr., Coolville, Ohio, former police officer (2000-06), Ohio University Police Department, Nov. 7 Hubert G. Wilhelm, Columbus, Ohio, professor emeritus of geography (1963-98), Nov. 20 —Compiled by Jennifer Shutt Bowie, BSJ ’94, MS ’99, based on information received by the University’s Office of Advancement Services prior to

David L. Hostetler, MFA ’49, Athens,

Dec. 15, 2015

s p r i n g 2 0 1 6 • 45

BOBCAT brainteaser

Reinventions

1

For the solution, go online to ohiotoday.org/spring-2016.

14

ACROSS

17

1. Crime syndicate 4. Symbols representing online gamers 11. _____ Winsalot, Ohio University’s live Bobcat mascot 1983-99 14. Eggs, in a lab 15. Welsh _____, cheese dish 16. “Stopping by Woods _____ Snowy Evening,” Frost poem 17. “Reinvention” of a 1903 invention

by Wilbur and Orville Wright 19. U.S. movie org. that gave Steve Martin its most recent Life Achievement Award 20. Washington bills 21. The Promise _____ Campaign, which raised more than $500 million for OHIO over the past eight years 23. “Reinvention” of an 1888 invention by George Eastman 30. Attributes 31. “Reinvention” of an 1876 invention

by Alexander Graham Bell 35. Scarce as _____ teeth 39. Saintly aureoles 40. Green or white for OHIO 41. Online marketplace for handmade and vintage items 42. “Reinvention” of an 1857 invention by Elisha Otis 47. Morally equivalent to 49. “Reinvention” of an 1884 invention by Lewis Waterman 54. Site of the Potala Palace 55. Boykin, Davis, or Redding 58. Favored contraction in “The StarSpangled Banner” 59. “Reinvention” of an 1888 invention by Thomas A. Edison 66. Overworked horse 67. Heirs’ expectations 68. Hero of Matrix films 69. JFK’s predecessor 70. Surprise or alarm 71. Obtain

DOWN

1. Magical power 2. Pizza place 3. Kind of breath 4. Jackie’s second husband 5. Dict. designation of nonstandard spelling 6. Dadaist Jean (or Hans) 7. Kind of no. on a business card 8. Defunct hoops org.

46 • o h i o t o d ay . o r g

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9. _____ Tin Tin: German shepherd movie star 10. Stone slabs erected as monuments 11. Vino bianco from Veneto 12. Reach a conclusion by reasoning 13. The late Mrs. Gorbachev 18. Faulkner’s _____ Lay Dying 22. “Whew! That wore me out!”

24. Guns for 1 Across 25. AT&T or Comcast, e.g.

26. Syllable expressing disapproval 27. Subgroup of Igbo people in Nigeria 28. Asian-American NBA player Jeremy 29. Brit. honor 31. _____ Loves Me, 1963 musical by Masteroff, Bock, and Harnick 32. It may be found next to a door 33. Jolson and Pacino 34. Kansas City nine 36. Familiar name of symphonic rock

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65 68 77

band noted for “Evil Woman” and “Telephone Line” 37. Hide-hair connector 38. Soon-to-be OHIO alumni, perhaps (abbr.)

40. The Paradine _____, 1947 Hitchcock film 42. It may be easily inflated 43. _____-disant: self-proclaimed 44. Pro’s opposite 45. Big initials in security services 46. Once around OHIO’s Goldsberry Track 48. Parking units 49. Fair-haired 50. In the future 51. The L in XL 52. Eugene Field’s “Wynken, Blynken, and _____” 53. The _____, winner of Best Picture of 1973 and starring former OHIO

71

student Paul Newman 56. “So that’s the way it is” 57. Robert Burns or Sean Connery, for example 60. East in German 61. “The _____”: Kingston Trio song also known as “The Man Who Never Returned” 62. Standard on the links 63. Lawyer (abbr.)

64. Cartoon collectible 65. Twice, a fly —Jim Bernhard has written crossword puzzles for The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times syndicate, among other media. He also has authored books on numerous topics, including Final Chapters: How Famous Authors Died (2015) and Puns, Puzzles, and Wordplay (2014), both released by Skyhorse Publishing.

ohiotoday Mission statement Ohio Today informs, celebrates, and engages alumni, faculty, staff, students, and friends of Ohio University.

Editor Peter Szatmary Art Director Sarah McDowell, BFA ’02 Contributors Martha Allan Bethany Bella, BSS ’18 Dick Belsky, BSJ ’67 Jim Bernhard Jennifer Shutt Bowie, BSJ ’94, MS ’99 Megan Bulow, BSJ ’06 Jilly Burns, BSVC ’16 Kate Erlewine, BSVC ’01 Kate Fox Jessica Gardner Jan Mason Getz Jon Greenberg, BSJ ’01 John Halley, MFA ’87 Rob Hardin, BSC ’08 Jim Harris, BBA ’04 Megan Henry, BSJ ’18 Brian Kellogg, BSS ’07 Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections Nathalie McClune, BFA ’16 Roderick J. McDavis, BSED ’70 Amy Nordrum, BSJ ’10 Kaitlyn Pacheco, BSJ ’17 Sally Parker Shoangh Rae Kelee Riesbeck, BSJ ’91 Lexi Senic Ben Siegel, BSVC ’02 Rachel Solid Andrew Spear, BSVC ’10 Hailee Tavoian Olivia Wallace, BSVC ’16 Brianna Wilson Anna Winstead, BSVC ’16 Proofreader Emily Caldwell, BSJ ’88, MS ’99 Printer The Watkins Printing Co.

Ohio University

President Roderick J. McDavis, BSED ’70 Acting Chief Marketing Officer Bethany Venable, BSJ ’06, BA ’11 Assistant Vice President for Alumni Relations and Executive Director of the Alumni Association Jennifer Neubauer Executive Director of Advancement Communication & Marketing Jennifer Shutt Bowie, BSJ ’94, MS ’99 Director, Creative Services, Advancement Communication & Marketing Kari Gunter-Seymour Peterson, BFA ’94

Codirector, Online & Digital Communication, Advancement Communication & Marketing Sarah Filipiak, BSJ ’01

Ohio Today advisory board

What’s new?

Share your news with fellow alumni by completing this form and mailing it to Ohio Today, 213 McKee House, 1 Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701-2979; sending an e-mail to ohiotoday@ohio.­edu or a fax to 740.597.9070; or visiting ohtoday.us/class-note.

Melissa Wervey Arnold, BSJ ’99 (alumni representative), chief executive officer, Ohio Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics

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Amber Epling, BSJ ’04, director of presidential communications

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Cary Frith, BSJ ’92, MS ’98, associate dean, Honors Tutorial College

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Jessica Gardner, director of communications, College of Business

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Jenny Hall-Jones, AB ’95, MED ’97, PHD ’11, dean of students and interim vice president, Student Affairs

Degree & graduation year (if an Ohio University alum) ..........................................................................................................................

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Laurie Sheridan Lach, BSC ’92, director of development and external affairs, Ohio University Lancaster/Pickerington

Address ..........................................................................................................................

Heather Lawrence-Benedict, associate professor of sports administration, College of Business

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Peter Mather, interim dean, University College, and vice provost for undergraduate education Jennifer Neubauer, assistant vice president, Alumni Relations, and executive director, Ohio University Alumni Association Brian Stemen, MA ’98, copywriter, University Communications and Marketing

Street

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State

ZIP

Home phone ..........................................................................................................................

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News you’d like to share: ..........................................................................................................................

Ohio University Alumni Association

Board of Directors Julie Mann Keppner, BBA ’02, chair Ronald Teplitzky, AB ’84, vice chair Joseph Becherer, BFA ’87, MFA ’89 Robin Bowlus, BFA ’98 Craig Brown, BSC ’82 Cynthia Calhoun, BSEE ’88 Bryon Carley, BSC ’81 Casey Christopher, BS ’02 Brenda Dancil-Jones, AB ’70 Jim Daniel, BSED ’68, MED ’72 Steve Ellis, BS ’82 Alissa Galford, BSC ’05 Todd Grandominico, BBA ’00, CERT ’00 Mike Jackson, BSED ’68, HON ’12 Matthew Latham, AA ’06 Jeffrey Laturell, BSC ’80, MBA ’82 Timothy Law, DO ’94 Connie Lawson-Davis, BSED ’67 Robert “Rocky” Mansfield, BSCHE ’74 Lyndsay Markley, BA ’02 Carolyn “Bitsy” Merriman, BFA ’77 Julia Brophy Righter, BSC ’78 Kenneth Rusche, BSED ’73 Dustin Starkey, BS ’98 Larry Starr, BSED ’68, MED ’71 Stacia Taylor, BSC ’82 Kyle Triplett, BA ’12 Kendra Lutes, BS ’17, Student Alumni Board president

.......................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................... ..........................................................................................................................

Contact information Editorial offices are at 213 McKee House, 1 Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701-2979.

Send questions, comments, ideas, and submissions (such as Bobcat tracks, future Bobcats, and alumni books) to that address, e-mail to ohiotoday@ohio.edu or call Editor Peter Szatmary at 740.593.1891. Make address changes at ohio.edu/alumni or via Advancement Services, WUSOC 168, Athens, OH 45701-0869. Send in memoriam details to the latter or via e-mail to advinfo@ohio.edu. The OHIO switchboard is 740.593.1000.

Ohio Today is published three times a year. Its digital companion is ohiotoday.org. Both are produced by University Advancement, with funding from The Ohio University Foundation.

Views expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the staff or University policies.

Copyright © 2016 by Ohio University.

Ohio University is an affirmative action institution.

s p r i n g 2 0 1 6 • 47

LAST WORD

Author, author!

C

harles Smith, distinguished professor of playwriting and head of the Professional Playwriting Program at OHIO, explores American history. His Free Man of Color remembers John Newton Templeton, born a slave and OHIO’s first African-American graduate in 1828. In The Gospel According to James, the title character escapes a lynching that killed his two friends in Marion, Indiana, in 1930. Knock Me a Kiss concerns the marriage of Yolande Du Bois, daughter of W. E. B. Du Bois, the Harlem Renaissance intellectual, to poet Countee Cullen, rumored to be gay. Smith’s literary adaptations include Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson, and Toomer’s Cane.

Sometimes the Bobcat addresses reinvention, but usually not, he said.

“When I think of reinvention, I think of a complete makeover, akin to the flowers made by Passion Works Studio in Athens.

They begin with two-dimensional recycled aluminum printing plates that are cut, folded, and formed into three-dimensional hand-painted flowers. The finished product bears no resemblance to the original,” Smith analogized. “In all of my work, characters make choices that change how we view them.

The resulting new view closely resembled the old except for one very small but incredibly critical detail that changes the entire picture.”

Many of his debuts occurred at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago when Smith was a playwright-in-residence. Indiana Repertory Theatre commissioned three plays. Smith’s other accolades span numerous awards and national tours—and, at OHIO, serving as Presidential Research Scholar in Arts and Humanities and giving the inaugural fall commencement speech last December. He answered e-mail questions about his career.

Edited excerpts follow. For more of the Q&A, go online to ohiotoday.org/spring-2016.

Objects in the Mirror, by Charles Smith (pictured), received a developmental production in Chicago last fall at the Goodman Theatre’s annual New Stages Festival.

Photo by Ben Siegel, BSVC ’02

—Editor Peter Szatmary

Taylor. Shedrick flees the war in Liberia and ends up in a number of refugee camps in Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea. Finally, after years in refugee camps, he has the opportunity for resettlement to Australia but has to take on an assumed identity to do so. He doesn’t really reinvent himself. In fact, it is his inability to reinvent himself, to live as someone else, that causes his problems. While the play involves the very temporary reinvention of Shedrick Yarkpai, the play is ultimately about memory, family, identity, and survival.

Your latest play, Objects in the Mirror, incorporates reinvention?

A young boy named Shedrick Yarkpai comes of age in Liberia during the bloody rule of Charles

Talk about commissions.

Most of my plays over the past 20-plus years have been written on commission. I generally receive two types. The first is an open commission to

oa ty o.doaryg. o r g 4 8 • 4o8h•i oothoi d

write on whatever topic I choose. The second, the theater submits a topic. If I choose to accept the commission, how I approach that topic is up to me.

What do you remember about your first creative output?

It was chaotic, messy, and dangerous because it was also very personal. My work is still very personal but now I have control of when and how personal it is.

What do you like best about OHIO? OHIO has always supported the arts. I believe OHIO doesn’t consider the arts to be ancillary. I believe University administration understands that cultural richness is just as important as all of life’s other necessities. After all, living a good life is more important than living a long life.

STILL MORE

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

“I took this photo of a patient room in Building 5, part of the Kirkbride Complex, in The Ridges, the former insane asylum, in February. The master plan committee for The Ridges issued a framework plan for the massive site last January, assessing its 730 acres of land and investigating possible uses for its 700,000 gross square feet of building space. This framework plan, in conjunction with the University’s master plan, represents a significant opportunity to reinvent a major OHIO asset,” writes University Photography Supervisor Ben Siegel, BSVC ’02, about the subject of his column. “Realization will likely require decades of civic commitment and a good understanding of the University’s broader public mission.” —Staff report Photo by Ben Siegel, BSVC ’02 For more photos, go online to ohiotoday.org/ spring-2016

NONPROFIT ORG U. S . P O S TAG E

P A I D Advancement Services WUSOC 164 1 Ohio University Athens, Ohio 45701-0869

CO LU M B U S , O H I O P E R M I T N O. 4 4 1 6

Ruff going

M

edia nationwide petted Tumbles, a terrier mix born without front paws, in November, after Friends of the Shelter Dogs in Athens and Ohio University’s Innovation Center fetched some help: a wheelchair made from a 3-D printer. No shaggy-dog story, this reinvention, this innovation, for the canine rescued at two weeks old. The first design, taking about 14 hours to print, didn’t fare so well for the runt of this litter who spilled forward on it. Tweaking resulted in a smaller version, with training wheels for the seven-week-old. Future devices will be provided as bowwow grows. “A two-legged puppy named Tumbles is living up to his name,” remarked CBS News. “A two-legged shelter puppy is back on his feet thanks to scientists in Ohio,” punned ABC News. As of press deadline, Tumbles, whose video went viral, had romped his way to 1,092 likes on his Facebook page. —Editor Peter Szatmary Illustration by Lexi Senic

COMING NEXT EDITION: The theme will be OHIO “innovation.”