Shipherd's Record fall 2008

FALL 2008

From volunteering in their communities to aiding third world countries, Olivet alumni are committed to

Social Responsibility

President’s

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REPORT

As we finish our fall semester I would like to report on some great student achievements. First, we had sold out audiences for our musical, “Godspell,” this past November. It was a wonderful production that utilized live music, area dancers and Olivet College singers and actors. Secondly, both our men’s and women’s golf teams won MIAA championships this fall, as you will read in this issue.

In the Annual Report, you read about the college’s many fund-raisers and the opening of several new facilities. Record enrollment was reported as well. I want to thank again all the alumni, friends and trustees that supported these projects.

Our new curriculum development process is well under way, supported by Dave Cutler ’65. We are looking to put in place several new programs ranging from a second special education degree to a musical theatre concentration, actuarial science, insurance claims Donald L. Tuski ’85, Ph.D. investigations, computer science education and information technology management. We are also in the final stages of starting a Master in Business Administration in insurance and risk management for fall 2009.

As we move into the winter months I want to make you aware of some of our initiatives. I have been working with the mayor of Olivet, city merchants and developers to enhance the town in a way that makes sense to the college, community and the public schools. With the support of Cutler we were able to purchase commercial property on the corner across from The Cutler Event Center.

We are in the process of locating investors and people who are interested in opening some type of restaurant. If you are interested, please contact Mark Veich, vice president for institutional advancement, at (269) 749-7635.

We are also working hard to raise the last $1 million for the M. Gorton Riethmiller Art Building. You may remember that Charles ’46, Ph.D., and Rev. Dr. Peggy (Riethmiller) Blackman have made the lead gift and are naming the building after Gorton Riethmiller, president of Olivet College from 1957 to 1970.

The Kresge Foundation is also supporting the project with a $1.2 million challenge grant. If you are interested in the arts at Olivet this is a wonderful opportunity to support them; please contact Veich.

Finally, with the current economic climate, Olivet College is working hard to keep tuition costs down. I am happy to say that we are still one of the most efficient and cost effective colleges in the Midwest. One of our new priorities, like many individuals and organizations, is to become debt free. This will allow us to do more for our students and employees on an annual basis. Therefore, I am creating a debt reduction plan that will utilize some of our newer programs and summer conferences, as well as donations from alumni who support this initiative and want to designate their giving toward this end.

Once again, I would like to thank alumni, friends, foundations, corporations and trustees for supporting the college. Olivet is stronger because of your efforts.

Sincerely,

Donald L. Tuski ’85, Ph.D. President (269) 749-7641 dtuski@olivetcollege.edu

BOARD OF TRUSTEES OFFICERS David T. Hayhow, Chair, Okemos The Hon. Judge Denise Page Hood, Vice Chair, Detroit William Middlebrooks, Vice Chair, West Bloomfield Robert M. Lawrence ’57, Secretary, Grosse Ile Stanley Dole, Treasurer, Grand Rapids MEMBERS G. Asenath Andrews ’72, Detroit Sandy Aranyos ’68, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Thomas Burke ’82, Carmel, Ind. James W. Butler III, East Lansing Priscilla Upton Byrns, St. Joseph Dennis Daugherty ’70, Mattawan Robert Ewigleben, Albion Jamey T. Fitzpatrick ’86, Grand Ledge George F. Francis III, Southfield Rich Hamann ’85, Kalamazoo David E. Hathaway, J.D., Ada Rod Hathaway ’81, Wayland William N. Healy ’79, Brighton Barbara Hill, Southfield Sharon R. Hobbs, Ph.D., East Lansing Timothy Hodge ’83, D.O., Holt Thomas Hoisington, Lansing Jeff Koch ’90, New York, N.Y. Thomas E. Kolassa ’69, Battle Creek Dean Lewis ’55, J.D., Kalamazoo Jeff Mathie ’88, Olivet Charles McPhail ’64, Houston, Texas Martin L. Mitchell ’73, Ed.D., Coldwater Tom Nesbitt ’63, White Lake The Rev. Don Olsen, Ph.D., Waukegan, Ill. George Pyne III ’65, Milford, Mass.

The Rev. Nancy Barto Rohde ’65, Petoskey Samuel H. Thomas, Ann Arbor Karen Van Hentenryck ’81, South Lyon TRUSTEE SPOTLIGHT ROD HATHAWAY ’81 Hometown: Bronson Now lives in: Wayland Education: Bachelor’s degree in political science from Olivet Occupation: Vice president of marketing and a principal owner of Buiten & Associates, a fullservice insurance agency in Grand Rapids.

Responsibilities: Meeting with clients and analyzing their insurance needs.

Community: Very active with ACB Hoops, a national youth travel basketball team. Rod does everything from mentoring and coaching, to fund-raising.

Hobbies: Olivet College sports, with a high priority on men’s basketball. Rod and wife, Amy, also enjoy traveling and high school sports.

OLIVET COLLEGE SHIPHERD’S RECORD

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Shipherd’s Record is named in memory of “Father” John J. Shipherd, who established Olivet College in 1844. The magazine is published twice annually for Olivet alumni and friends.

MAGAZINE STAFF

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Vice President for Institutional Advancement Mark Veich Managing Editor Molly (Reed) Goaley ’05 Graphic Design/Art Direction Bruce Snyder Director of Alumni Relations Marty (Mason) Jennings ’67 Sports Information Director Geoff Henson Director of Foundation Relations and Special Events Shannon Tiernan Editorial: Nicole Babcock Jackie Bounds Michelle Erskine Katelyn Harmon Christine Moulton Pam Rutyna Linda Jo Scott The Wall Street Journal Send change of address notices to: Olivet College Development Office Olivet, MI 49076 (269) 749-7625 pfrayer@olivetcollege.edu

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Features 6 8

Making a Difference Around the World Angel of Mercy

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One Man’s Crusade

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Contributing to Cancer Research

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Volunteering is Second Nature

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A True Calling

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Fulfilling God’s Will

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Iron Mom

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The Cutler Event Center

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The Game of Work

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CAMPUS ADMINISTRATION President Donald L. Tuski ’85, Ph.D. Executive Assistant to the President Barb Spencer Vice President for Administration Larry Colvin Vice President and Dean for Academic Affairs Norma Curtis Vice President and CFO Bill Kurtz Director of Athletics Dominic Livedoti ’65 Vice President and Dean for Student Life Linda Logan, Ph.D. Vice President for Enrollment Management Larry Vallar ’84 Vice President for Institutional Advancement Mark Veich

Departments 2 Around the Square 5 Faculty and Staff News 32 Development 34 Comet Athletics 38 Class Notes

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26 On the cover: Simone McSparran ’06 FALL

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Around THE SQUARE Cutler Receives National Medal of Technology and Innovation President George W. Bush recently announced the recipients of the nation’s highest honors for science and technology, the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, for 2007. David Cutler ’65 was among the eight laureates selected for the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Cutler is a noted software engineer and Technical Fellow at Microsoft.

Responsible for the design of the Windows Operating System, he is generally considered one of the top programmers worldwide.

Cutler graduated from Olivet with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. Before joining Microsoft, he worked at Digital Equipment Corporation, where he designed and delivered several successful operating systems, including VAX/VMS, RSX-11M and VAXELN. After arriving at Microsoft in 1988, he launched the Windows NT group and has since led the development of three major releases of the product. In addition to leading the Windows 2000 team, Cutler

contributed to the architecture of all parts of the system.

In recognition of his significant contributions to the field, Cutler was awarded membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 1993. A native of DeWitt, he holds more than 20 patents and is an affiliate professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Washington.

Dave Cutler ’65 and President George W. Bush Cutler has made several significant contributions to the college. Thanks to In addition, Cutler recently his generosity, the college was able to contributed two donations totaling $4.3 purchase the corner lot at the intersection million for the construction of The Cutler of South Main Street and Butterfield Event Center, which opened in August.

Highway, where Olivet Properties LLC The $5.1 million multipurpose facility will soon be located. Cutler also funded a includes a fitness center, 100-meter track, program during the summer which allowed locker rooms, coaches’ offices and wrestling faculty members to re-evaluate the room. For more information on The Cutler curriculum and create new courses.

Event Center, see page 24.

Center for Congregational Leadership Established Olivet College has partnered with the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches (NACCC) to establish the Center for Congregational Leadership on campus. According to Rev. Dr. Thomas Richard, executive secretary of the NACCC, the center is “part of a national campaign to strengthen Rev. Betsey Mauro Congregational church leadership and growth for vital ministry in the 21st century.”

Rev. Betsey Mauro, D.Min., will serve as dean of the center and will be appointed to the faculty at Olivet. She is

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responsible for developing training and educational opportunities for churches and lay leaders to help strengthen their Congregational Christian witness in America’s rapidly changing culture.

“Because the Center for Congregational Leadership is based at Olivet College, this strategic partnership will lend mutual strength to each of our endeavors as we share resources, ideas and mutual goals,” Mauro said. “The center will bring Congregationalists to the campus for study and refreshment, and raise awareness of Olivet College as a fine liberal arts school.”

The NACCC partnered with Olivet College last year as part of Branching Out, a campaign designed to strengthen Congregational church leadership and ministry.

Chartwells Implements “Trayless” Program Chartwells, Olivet College’s food service provider, recently implemented “Trayless Tuesdays and Thursdays” on campus. The program requires anyone who eats in the Kirk Center cafeteria on those days to dine without a tray, which helps the college conserve water and energy and reduce waste.

According to Ben Marciniak-Jennings, food service director, going “trayless” twice a week for the academic year will allow the college to conserve approximately 6,400 gallons of water. “The program will maximize our environmental impact and help Olivet save costs and precious natural resources,” Marciniak-Jennings said.

Students and employees also have the option of going “trayless” on other days of the week if they choose.

New and Full-Time Faculty Mambers Announced Four new faculty members joined Olivet College at the beginning of the fall 2008 semester.

Dina Battaglia, Ph.D., has been named associate professor of psychology.

She began her teaching career at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., and has taught courses in personality and social psychology at several institutions in Indiana. Battaglia earned a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University, and a master’s degree and doctorate from Texas Christian University.

Ross Bohms ’71 has been named assistant professor of mathematics and chair of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department. He has taught at Charlotte High School, and has previously instructed courses at Olivet, as well as Lansing Community College (LCC). Bohms earned a bachelor’s degree from Olivet and a master’s degree from Michigan State University (MSU).

Karen Chaney, Ph.D., is Olivet’s new assistant professor of religious studies and ethics. She has taught at various institutions in California and Massachusetts, most recently at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif.

In addition, she has been a fellow at the Center for Ethics and Social Policy at the

Dina Battaglia, Ph.D.

Ross Bohms ’71

Karen Chaney, Ph.D.

Marco Wiedenhoeft, Ph.D.

Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, and has served as program director for diversity and community at GTU. Chaney earned a bachelor’s degree from MSU, a Master of Divinity from the Harvard Divinity School and a doctorate from GTU. Marco Wiedenhoeft, Ph.D., is Olivet’s new assistant professor of physics and mathematics. Prior to Olivet, he was a visiting professor of physics at Grand

Valley State University (GVSU) and post-doctoral appointment at Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. Wiedenhoeft earned a diplom physicist from Technische Universität in Berlin, Germany, and a doctorate from WMU. In addition to the new hires, three adjunct instructors at Olivet College are now full-time faculty members. Dustin Byrd and Samantha Myers have been named assistant professors of interdisciplinary studies and retention officers. Patrick Fields, Ph.D., has been named assistant professor of biology.

Byrd has taught courses in philosophy and religion at GVSU and WMU. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and is pursuing a doctorate from WMU. Myers has taught research and writing courses at Olivet, and has also taught at LCC. She earned a bachelor’s degree from WMU and a master’s degree from Indiana State University.

Fields, also known as “Doc Choc,” is an expert on chocolate who lectures about the topic nationally. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California (U of C) at Davis, a master’s degree from U of C at Berkeley and a doctorate from MSU.

Kurtz Named Vice President and CFO

Lecture and Symposium Speaker Series

Bill Kurtz has been named vice president and chief financial officer at Olivet College. Kurtz brings nearly 30 years of financial management experience to Olivet, including banking, budgeting, financial reporting and investment management. He was employed with Monarch Community Bancorp, Inc. since 1997, serving most recently as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He has also held executive positions with several accounting and financial organizations, such as Southwestern State Employees Credit Union, Trailmaster Suspension and Century Bank and Trust.

In addition, Kurtz serves as an Bill Kurtz advisory committee member to the Miller College business program, a finance committee member to the Community Health Center of Branch County Foundation and treasurer of Branch County Habitat for Humanity.

A resident of Coldwater, Kurtz earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Western Michigan University.

John Perkins, author of “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” and Ray Krone, exonerated death row inmate and director of communications and training for Witness to Innocence, both spoke as part of Olivet College’s fall 2008 Lecture and Symposium Series.

Perkins’ books, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” and “The Secret History of the American Empire” detail the clandestine operations that created the world’s first truly global empire. His speech, titled “The Secret History of the American Empire: What Next and How to Change It,” drew on experiences described in these two blockbuster books.

Ray Krone was convicted twice for a murder he did not commit. He spent 10 years in prison, including two years and eight months on death row. In 2002, attorney Alan Simpson was able to convince an appeals court that DNA found at the murder scene pointed to another man. When prosecutors dropped the charges against Krone, he became the 100th person exonerated from death row in the United Stated since 1973.

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Students IN THE NEWS Jessica Frayer, a junior from Bellevue, participated in an internship with the Charlotte Police Department during the summer. Frayer’s experiences included patrolling the city and responding to calls with officers from the department, witnessing autopsies and touring the Michigan State Crime Lab. Emma Henson, a senior from Shelby Township, participated in an internship with the University of Dreams during the summer. Henson served as an events coordinator for the Los Angeles branch of the organization, which offers two months of professional experience to college students pursuing or discovering their “dream” profession. Henson’s responsibilities included working with University of Dreams staff to help place interns and planning events at Catalina Island, Huntington Beach and Las Vegas.

James Reynolds, a sophomore from Kalamazoo; Casey Smith, a sophomore from Dimondale; and James Tanis, a junior from Jenison, were featured on Lansing’s WLNS TV 6 News in September. The three were featured for serving in the armed forces before coming to Olivet College to play football. Reynolds serves in the U.S. Air Force, Smith serves in the U.S. Marine Corps and Tanis serves in the Michigan National Guard.

Students who attended the event include: freshman Kayleigh Miller, of Burr Oak; sophomores Crystal Adams, of Whitmore Lake; Chris Behnke, of Bellevue; and Samantha Warner, of Union City; juniors Sara Miller, of Casnovia; and Ryan Patten, of Charlotte; and seniors Tham Doan, of Lansing; Amy Johnson, of Gaylord; Jennifer Martin, of Taylor; and Jim Sullivan, of Wyoming.

Olivet’s Alpha Alpha chapter of Gamma Iota Sigma, a national insurance and risk management student society, traveled to Richmond, Va. for the organization’s 37th annual management conference in October. The group was one of three chapters to receive the Superior Chapter Award at the conference. They also received awards for chapter management, community service, alumni relations, membership development and public relations. In addition, chapter president Ryan Coburn, a senior from Wayland, was the only student to organize and conduct two workshops for the event. Other students who participated in the conference include: freshmen Tiffany Allen, of Marshall; Jesslyn Gray, of Albion; and Mason Novess, of Marshall; sophomores Danielle Bastian, of Olivet;

Jerren Cooper, of Albion; Collen Gregory, of Bronson; Jonathan Hon, of Alma; and Zachary McMunigal, of Linden; juniors Christine Cameron, of Elkhart; Justin Gargus, of Bangor; Paige Smith, of Boyne Falls; and Melissa Thompson, of Olivet; and seniors Matthew Conrad, of Byron; Scott Fenech, of Gaylord; Justin Hulsebos, of Wayland; Bledar Malaj, of Macomb; Jason Miller, of Scotts; Cameron Rodgers, of Holt; Kevin Shettler, of Mulliken; Dallas Vanenkevort, of Erie, Pa.; and Troy Williamson, of Battle Creek.

Daron Cruickshank, a junior from Inkster, recently tried out for “The Ultimate Fighter,” a reality show on Spike TV in which contestants compete for a contract with the Ultimate Fighter Championship.

In order to prepare for the tryouts, Cruickshank trained at Xtreme Couture, a leading mixed martial arts training facility in Las Vegas, where he competed with professional fighters such as Martin Kampmann, Forrest Griffin, Randy Couture and Stephan Bonnar. In addition, Cruickshank currently holds the Xtreme Cagefighting Championship 170 lbs. belt in the state of Michigan.

Olivet’s Flag Football Team Captures State Championship

Five members of the Nu Gamma Xi sorority participated in the National Down Syndrome Society’s seventh annual Buddy Walk in Lansing in September. Johanna Hughes, a senior from Detroit; Shantell Mathis, a junior from Detroit; Kayla Miller, a junior from Eaton Rapids; Anabel Montalvo, a senior from Detroit; and Jessie Wells, a sophomore from Charlotte, along with their advisor Regina Armstrong, assistant professor of criminal justice, participated in the walk as part of National Down Syndrome Awareness Month.

In October, 10 members of Middle Ground, a student organization that assists youth aging out of the foster care system, attended the Aging Out of Foster Care Conference in Dearborn. The group received scholarships to attend the conference from Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health Agency.

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Olivet’s flag football team recently defeated Central Michigan University to become the 2008 State Flag Football Champions. Members of the team include: freshmen Marcellus Howell, of Upatoi, Ga.; Anthony Humphries, of Detroit; Seth McCumby, of Haslett; Cordell Miller, of Lansing; Majjor Walker, of Lansing; and Javonte Wells, of Lansing; sophomores Brent Hissong, of East Lansing; Brandan Kimble, of Grand Rapids; Brandon Satterfield, of Battle Creek; Dwayne White-Smith, of Detroit; Andre Williams, of Detroit; and Enoch Young, of Detroit; juniors Timothy Esper, of New Hudson; Kenneth Harthun, of White Lake; Ben Hughes, of Marshall; and Blake Walters, of Olivet; and seniors Eddie Ward, of Muskegon; and Nickolas Wolf, of Charlotte. The team was organized by Jake Schuler, director of residence life, Blair Hall and intramural sports.

Faculty AND STAFF Kim Abbott joined the college in July as financial account manager. She is responsible for supervising Business Office functions, which includes student account receivables.

Abbott’s background includes working as an accountant at Albion College, where she maintained financial information for various funds, Kim Abbott supported the annual external audit of the college’s financial statement and managed student payroll.

Regina Armstrong, assistant professor of criminal justice, and Phil Reed, assistant professor of criminal justice and criminal justice program director, were certified in Pressure Point Control Tactics (PPCT) defense in June.

Lori Britton, who formerly served as associate registrar for research at Olivet, is now serving as certification officer and administrative assistant to the Education Department.

Laura Fitch ’03 joined Olivet in the fall as an admissions representative. She is responsible for recruiting prospective students.

Jeffrey Hayes has been named facilities supervisor at Olivet. Hayes is responsible for managing projects, hiring contractors and overseeing the general maintenance of the college.

Mike Hubbel, professor of insurance and risk management and insurance program director, presented several seminars throughout the spring and summer, including “The Business of Insurance” for Risk Management Solutions in Newark, Calif.; “The Impact of the Insurance Cycle on Underwriting” for Arch Insurance Group, “Insurance Academy” for Deloitte & Touche and “Introduction to Insurance” for Willis in New York, N.Y.; and “Increasing Business Acumen Regarding Insurance” for Argonaut Insurance Company in San Antonio, Texas, and Colony Insurance Company in Denver, Colo. In addition,

he was a guest lecturer for an economics class at Northern Michigan Community College in Petoskey on the topic of the “Insurance Market Cycle.” Hubbel also taught a master’s course titled “RMI 5051 Managing Risk” on weekends in Philadelphia for the Fox School of Business at Temple University during the fall.

Ramona Kime ’80, Ph.D., adjunct associate professor of music and faculty accompanist, recently gave presentations on teaching adult piano students to several music teacher groups in Michigan.

In addition, she wrote an article for Keyboard Companion magazine about teaching techniques to adults. Kime also serves frequently as an adjudicator for various piano competitions at the state and local levels.

Susanne Lewis, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry and chemistry program director, presented a paper at the 20th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education at Indiana University titled “Using POGIL in a Predominantly Pre-medical Department.”

Her research demonstrated with statistical significance that students who were instructed using the Process-Oriented Suzanne Lewis, Ph.D. Guided-Inquiry Learning (POGIL) system answered more final exam questions correctly than those who learned through lectures alone.

Myrna Pedelty, former administrative assistant to the Education Department and Comet Learning and Student Success (CLASS) Center, is now serving Olivet as library assistant and administrative assistant to the Center for Congregational Leadership.

Jane Reiter, library director, attended a conference titled “Librarian as Architect: Planning, Building, Renewing” in Oak Brook, Ill. In addition, she spoke about making retail products from recycled material at the 4-H Business and

Entrepreneurship Expo at Michigan State University in July. Reiter also read to children involved in a summer enrichment program emphasizing literacy skills in Battle Creek.

Kelly Rial joined Olivet’s staff in July as a customer service specialist. She is responsible for providing customer service to students and visitors of the college, as well as assisting staff and faculty with general administrative duties. Rial’s background includes working as a retail sales merchandiser for Hershey’s Chocolate, where she managed sales, merchandising and customer service in grocery and convenience stores throughout southwest Michigan.

Leslie Sullivan has been named a customer service representative for the Student Administrative Services Center (SASC) at Olivet. Her responsibilities include providing customer service to students and visitors of the SASC. Dianne Thomas has been named director of the Betsy Dole Women’s Resource Center. She is responsible for the center’s programming and providing information, education and services related to gender issues to the Olivet College community.

Dianne Thomas Prior to Olivet, Thomas served as program coordinator for Faith Health Network of In One Accord in Battle Creek, and as an event coordinator for Bellevue Community Schools. She has also held many positions as an educator and instructor.

Sarah Vanden Heuvel ’08 was recently named a financial aid officer at Olivet.

She is responsible for the college’s work study program and for awarding and processing financial aid for students.

Vanden Heuvel also serves as the head varsity girls’ basketball coach at Bellevue High School.

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Making a Difference Since its founding in 1844 by Father John J. Shipherd, one of Olivet College’s guiding principles was to teach students the “divine art and science of doing good to others.” That principle has since developed into the college’s academic vision of Education for Individual and Social Responsibility.

From volunteering in their communities to aiding third world countries, Olivet’s students, faculty, staff and alumni are committed to serving others on both a local and global scale. Some have dedicated their life’s work to a specific cause, while others simply go wherever help is needed. But no matter if the call to serve seems big or small, one thing is certain; every day, Olivetians all over the world are living up to that guiding principle.

BY JACKIE BOUNDS Simone McSparran ’06 lived in Ethiopia for six months last year. She volunteered her time to develop a business plan and generate enthusiasm for a grassroots Ethiopian organization called the Rainbow Humanitarian Caretaker Foundation.

Rainbow, as McSparran refers to it, has an urban project that assists HIV-positive mothers and their children financially, so that the children are able to attend school and remain healthy. “The organization is expanding with a rural project to assist families in the countryside. They plan to build a school and facility for the children that are orphaned by HIV,” she said.

McSparran heard about the project while attending her mother’s church, Tribe, in Los Angeles. “A guest speaker told compelling stories of children orphaned by HIV,” she said. “I was so touched; I felt the need to do something. The woman, Rainbow founder Weyenshet “Winni” Shiferaw, asked for donations to build a school and orphanage in rural Ethiopia.

“As a recent college graduate, I told her I didn’t have much money, but I was willing to donate my time to help the organization,” said McSparran, who has traveled all over the world. Though this was her first trip to Africa, she has lived and worked in Canada, China and Mexico.

“I really love to travel,” she said. “I’m outgoing; I like to learn the local language and usually don’t get lost.” She quickly generated a plan to raise money for her trip. Her fund-raisers included a concert with four bands, a benefit dinner created by Above: McSparran (center) with a group of villagers and Rainbow Founder Winni Shiferaw (second from right).

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professional chefs and the time-tested method of asking everyone she knew (including her Sigma Beta sisters) for donations to support her in Ethiopia.

She had the opportunity to live with Winni’s sister’s family in a small town.

While there, she visited rural villages where many people live in mud huts with their cows and horses. “The country people cook indoors so smoke fills the homes,” she said. “It’s the little girls’ job to collect water from a local river all day long. Some families don’t have enough firewood to heat their

out of resources,” she said. “I didn’t want that to happen again.

“I learned that our plan needed to be part of the local culture,” she said. “That way we weren’t trying to make them a Westernized town with cement buildings in the middle of the countryside. A mud hut community was much more natural for them. A school made of stone buildings clustered together was more appealing than one giant cement building.” One major dilemma was how to get resources into a community up a dirt road in the mountains.

Using her Olivet College

someone on the inside, meaning the villagers.

“Growing up in L.A., I experienced a lot of diversity,” she said. “We were always going to benefit events or concerts. My parents are active in many humanitarian efforts and they instilled in me a sense of social responsibility like that of Olivet College. I see needs everywhere.

“Some people are only comfortable helping locally, others globally. If everybody does a little bit, it will make the world a better place.”

Around the World homes. Many Ethiopians are hurt by poverty and HIV illness.”

McSparran conducted baseline research and developed methods to improve the infrastructure of the rural community, which was still living in the same conditions as 3,000 years ago (with the addition of plastic jugs). She worked hard to make Winni’s dream of a country school a reality. “Winni is a visionary, but I tried to keep her ideas grounded by Simone McSparran ’06 checking feasibility; the most critical element of being sustainable,” she said.

McSparran saw first-hand the large number of abandoned humanitarian projects that littered the countryside. “I think most of those started with the best of intentions in the 1980s, but later ran

education, she assessed the situation and tried to take advantage of natural resources, and determine how the community’s most dire needs could be met on a limited budget.

McSparran created a 40-page business plan for Rainbow, including a budget and comprehensive management guide with the goal of rallying support to fund the project.

“Though it is a grassroots Ethiopian effort, it is a U.S. tax code certified 501(c)(3) charitable organization to make it more appealing for western donors. Rainbow is very local, so they lacked knowledge of Western business practices. I assisted them with developing some marketing tools and basic administrative procedures.”

She had an advantage living with locals and built trusting relationships. McSparran later learned that other organizations have trouble getting involved because it’s difficult to get anything done unless you know

Her goal for the future is finding a way to bridge the gap between project donors and activities. “I think it’s important to make the people with money feel involved in some way, rather than just signing a check for humanitarian efforts like the Rainbow project,” she said.

As a Sigma Beta, she completed a few volunteer projects and helped with on-campus service days, but did nothing of this magnitude. She was the first Rainbow volunteer. “I felt my gift to this organization was assisting with start-up,” she said.

“Other people are better at the followthrough. I felt called to help for six months, and then it was time to step away and watch it grow.”

As McSparran reflected on the project, she is pleased to report that grants with her proposal have generated a lot of active interest. Because of her developmental tools, Rainbow is moving forward with people and project goals.

To learn more about the Rainbow Humanitarian Caretaker Foundation, visit rainbowtoethiopia.org.

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Ange

BY MOLLY (REED) GOALEY ’05

T

Kula Samba ’73

The soft glow of candles surrounding a portrait of Kula

Samba ’73 lent a warm light to the Olivet Congregational Church on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 21, 2008. As Olivet College students, faculty and staff huddled together in the cold building to participate in the day’s events, special remembrance was given to a woman who dedicated her short life to the welfare of her country.

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Alumni who attended Olivet in the early ’70s remember Samba, of Sierra Leone, with kind words. Described as beautiful, amiable and charitable, she was involved with the International Club and the church choir, and was a member of the Sigma Beta society. She came to Olivet College to seize the rare opportunity of receiving an education, taking her thousands of miles away from a country ravaged by civil war. But it was the same civil war that brought Samba back to Sierra Leone, answering a call to serve a country desperate for social change – no matter what was at stake, or who was in charge.

After earning her bachelor’s degree from Olivet, Samba continued her education, obtained U.S. citizenship and began a steady career in nursing. She had created a good life for herself in America, but felt compelled to use her experience to serve the people of her war torn country.

Returning to Sierra Leone, Samba began her peace work by serving as minister for social welfare, children and gender under the administration of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, the country’s first democratically elected president, in 1996.

Much of her work concerned disarming children through a United Nations-funded program. One year later, Kabbah’s government was overthrown by a military junta, forcing the president into exile in the neighboring country of Guinea. Samba was invited by the junta to continue her work in social reform. She accepted, and knowingly incriminated herself in order to aid young victims of the war.

el of Mercy Many have wondered why Samba chose to join the rebel forces, a group considered worldwide to be savage criminals, after beginning her work as part of the country’s legitimate government.

According to a letter to the college from Andrea Rosario-Gborie, a woman who was incarcerated with Samba near the end

Alhasan Ceesay ’71 and Kula Samba ’73

of her life, it was simply because she recognized a need that transcended politics.

“I knew Kula Samba to have been a woman of grassroots activism who took matters into her own hands and tried to end the war by bringing all actors together, rebel and soldier alike, whether the international community liked it or not,” Rosario-Gborie said. “I wish that I could say that everyone involved in the de facto government she was part of were good

people, but that would not be true. Kula Samba was an angel of mercy, far and away a much better and braver human being than any of us will ever have to be in our lifetime.”

Before the restoration of Kabbah’s government, Samba worked to institute reforms for hospitals and prisons in Sierra Leone, and continued to register and disarm children. “She welcomed all children, combatant or otherwise, into her home for registration, disarmament and referral to the Red Cross and other organizations for assistance,” RosarioGborie said. Sadly, no documentation of this work exists. According to RosarioGborie, Samba’s home was looted by troops and civil defense, and her work was destroyed as punishment for her involvement with the junta. Every registration form for child combatants was burned, as were all of Samba’s possessions.

“As Kula recounted this story to me during our detention together, she never once regretted losing her personal belongings – the photos of loved ones, her clothing and furnishings – all looted,” Rosario-Gborie said. “Yet she felt the greatest sorrow over the deliberate destruction of the registrations of these children who had suffered greatly during the war.”

After Kabbah resumed leadership from the junta, Samba and RosarioGborie, along with 20 other women, were detained at the Lungi International Airport. The women were kept in a single room, with one liter of water and one meal a day. “There was no water for sanitation, no toilets, no electricity and it was hot – very hot,” Rosario-Gborie said. “But that was nothing compared to where Kula

spent her last days.” Incidentally, Samba spent the remainder of her life detained at the maximum security Pademba Road prison, an overcrowded, centuries-old facility notorious for its deplorable conditions, rampant disease and torture of inmates. Before her incarceration, she had attempted an effort to bring the prison up to modern penal standards. “It saddens me to think that after surviving that ordeal she would still lose her life,” Rosario-Gborie said.

In October 1998 following her incarceration, Samba was publicly executed for treason, along with 23 men who were involved with the junta. Her shocking death was condemned by human rights organizations as a serious violation of international human rights covenants.

“While it was true that she was a military officer, she used non-violence as a weapon against tyranny, education as a weapon against poverty and medicine as a weapon against disease,” Rosario-Gborie said of her friend. “She hated injustice and showed the world that she was not a hypocrite. She had a chance to be saved from an unjust death by simply saying that she was an American. Instead, she chose to die with her compatriots as a Sierra Leonean who loved her people and country.”

The college’s MLK Day tribute to Samba culminated with a dedication ceremony at the Burrage Library, where a new theater was named for her. Adeyemi Paul, a Sierra Leonean journalist who was present at the fateful day of her execution, traveled to Olivet for the ceremony.

Though Paul knew little about Samba before her death, he recalled a woman who stayed committed to her country and people until the very end of her life. “I was there at that unforgettable event when they were all brought out from a military truck and were called upon one at a time to give a last statement,” Paul said.

“That was when Kula stepped down from the truck singing, ‘We shall overcome, we shall overcome someday.’”

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BY MOLLY (REED) GOALEY ’05

When he was 14 years old, Alhasan Ceesay ’71, M.D., crossed paths in his village of Njawara, the Gambia, with a family in urgent need of medical care. A man had been leading his pregnant wife and young son for miles on the back of a donkey, desperately searching for help for his sick family.

Within a mile of reaching a distant hospital, the woman and her son, who was no Alhasan Ceesay ’71, M.D. more than three, died from illnesses that could have been prevented with proper health care.

That encounter changed Ceesay’s life. “Having learned the sad news of the demise of the family, I made a tearful covenant with God that whatever path He chose for me, let that include minimizing the tragic suffering that unfolded before me by the death of this villager and her child,” he said. From that moment, Ceesay decided to become a doctor and, one day, open a medical center where members of his village could receive free health care.

Ceesay believed a Western education was the key to achieving his goals. Although his father, a farmer, objected to the idea, Ceesay persisted and in 1967 arrived at Alpena Community College (ACC) to begin his long quest for an education. After receiving his associate degree from ACC, one of his professors encouraged him to

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apply to Olivet. He received a full-tuition and residency problems returned and he scholarship from the Besser Foundation was denied admission. Frustrated but of Alpena and enrolled at the college in determined, he bided his time by taking 1969. “The professors were very kind to postgraduate courses at Howard me, Kula (Samba ’71, of Sierra Leone) University in Washington, D.C. At last, and another student from the Gambia, in 1979, his prayers seemed to have George Abraham (’74),” Ceesay said. been answered when he was accepted “Doris into the Harrington University of was a good Liberia Medical host to us School in Africans and Monrovia.

Ed Speare Ceesay went was very back to Africa to helpful. I begin his wanted to get classes, but my degree in because of biology and go political unrest on to medical in the Gambia, school, and he had to flee they helped us back to the foreign United States. students reach Though his our goals.” situation often Although seemed Ceesay hopeless, earned his Ceesay never bachelor’s gave up on his degree from quest to become Olivet in a doctor. He 1971, his continued ultimate goal studying at Alhasan Ceesay ’71 and Kula Samba ’73 of becoming a Michigan State doctor would University and remain out of reach for many years.

Wayne State University before finally Without proper sponsorship or residency being accepted at the American status in the United States, he was University of the Caribbean in the West denied admission to medical school.

Indies. In 1992, after 25 years of Ceesay’s friends encouraged him to take struggle, he was awarded his Doctor of graduate classes, in hopes that a master’s Medicine degree. The next year, he degree would make it easier for him to returned to the Gambia, completed his gain entry into medical school. In 1973, internship at the Royal Victoria Hospital he earned his master’s degree in in Banjul and embarked on a “one-man biological sciences from Michigan crusade of providing medical aid to the Technological University. “Believe it or villagers free of charge.” not, on graduation day sadness set in,” Ceesay began his crusade by Ceesay said of completing his graduate establishing the Manding Medical studies. “All these accidental degrees Centre in Njawara. “There is a sheer were not in my plan and the prospect of shortage of medical facilities in the getting into medical school was getting region, which accounts for 25 percent of distant.”

Gambian children’s deaths before the Ceesay again tried to apply to age of five due to malnutrition, medical school, but the same sponsorship pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and worm

infestation,” he said. “The objective is to serve the rural sector of the Gambia by making proper medical service available to the villager.” Ceesay said the center serves no fewer than 500 patients and up to 1,500 in a weekend.

In addition to treating patients, Ceesay and his team of volunteer doctors offer educational presentations throughout the region. “We hold bimonthly field trips to teach villagers about hygiene, preventative medicine and sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS,” he said. “By this exercise, the center believes it will help reduce the number infected and the vector responsible for these diseases.”

Because Manding offers free treatment to the elderly, children and pregnant women, and charges only a portion of the average private practice fee to other patients, proper funding has not yet been secured to build a complete hospital. Though land for the building has been donated, the center currently operates out of a small shed. But with 30,000 supportive villagers behind him, Ceesay is relentless in drawing attention to their cause. “We set up charities in the United Kingdom and Alpena,” he said.

In addition, he has written two books, “The Legend Against All Odds” and “Medicine for the Villager,” which chronicle his educational journey and the establishment of Manding. All proceeds from the books, available at www.amazon.com, will go toward constructing the facility.

Ceesay and his supporters hope to break ground on the first phase of the hospital, a children’s wing, in the near future. “Every cent donated from every country will be used for the Manding Medical Centre,” he said, adding that the exchange rate from U.S. to Gambian currency is very favorable. “Anything helps. A few pennies may sound like a small amount, but that collects into a multitude of pennies.”

For more information on the Manding Medical Centre, visit http://beehive.thisisessex.co.uk/gambimed.

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Contributing to Cancer Research

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BY LINDA JO SCOTT

Though his years at Olivet College were interrupted by three years in the army during World War II, Melvin M. Ketchel ’48, Ph.D., still remembers his college days with great fondness.

Ketchel lived in Blair Hall and remembers how Dean Ramsey lived there, too, and walked over to Dole Hall along with Ketchel and his friends for meals.

The student body was only 300 at the time, so, as Ketchel describes, “classes were more like seminars.” Though he majored in science, Ketchel also played clarinet in the college orchestra under Dr. Pedro Paz. During those four years he remembers playing all of the Beethoven symphonies and Prokofiev’s “Classical Symphony.”

Practically no one had cars in those days, so life was confined pretty much to the town of Olivet. There were no restrictions on the coming and going of male students, but the women were subject to very strict rules about signing in and out of the dorm, so, as Ketchel puts it, with a chuckle, “For all practical purposes, there was no need to restrict the men.”

Olivet was a dry town then, and Ketchel found it a subject of amusement that the dean of women met the girls as they returned from dates and seemed to stand very close to them while she greeted them to check whether or not they had been drinking.

Ketchel also recalls that there was no mail delivery on campus, so each morning after breakfast, everyone walked down to the post office.

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Mel Ketchel ’48

By the time Ketchel actually graduated from Olivet, he had nearly completed a master’s degree in biology at Western Reserve (now Case Western) University in Cleveland.

He then went right on to Harvard, where he earned a doctorate in biology in 1954. He stayed on as a research associate there in the medical school and then went on to direct the gynecologyendocrine laboratory at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, where he studied the immunological aspects of cancer.

Though he had always wanted to teach at a small college like Olivet, Ketchel instead pursued medical research. He was a professor of physiology at Tufts Medical School for a period, and then had a sabbatical year at

Cambridge University in England. Later he directed the Oak Ridge Population Research Institute in Tennessee, where he served as vice president of the local chapter of Planned Parenthood.

In 1975 he was recruited by the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, where he worked on male contraceptives and immunological methods of contraception. Then, in 1980, he went to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., where he helped organize the evaluation of grant applications. Though he retired from the NIH in 1994, he went on to work part-time for a company that had a contract to organize the review of grant applications in a breast cancer program administered by the U.S. Army. That morphed into a virtual full-time job for a number of years, as the program expanded to include prostate and ovarian cancer, as well as some other diseases. He still works on that project.

Now 86, Ketchel is mostly retired and lives in Maryland with his wife, Georgene.

Ketchel would enjoy hearing from classmates from the ’40s. E-mail him at mketchel@aim.com.

Volunteering is Second Nature

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BY JACKIE BOUNDS

Richard Atkinson ’68 feels the same natural high from volunteering as he does when he’s finished running a race. “My endorphins are just popping after a great race,” said the retired teacher and marathon runner. “It’s similar to how I feel when I’m volunteering and able to help people.”

Atkinson began volunteering as a result of working as a special education teacher for many years. He recognizes people’s needs and understands the importance of human interaction. Atkinson taught mentally retarded, autistic and mentally gifted adults and children for 35 years; 13 years in downtown Philadelphia and 22 years at W.B. Saul High School for Vocational Agriculture, also in Philadelphia.

Atkinson was inspired by 1972 Olympic gold medal marathon runner Frank Shorter, and started running as a way to deal with his job stress. He recalls starting slow, running three- and five-mile races. Later, he worked up to 10-, 20- and 26-mile marathons. Atkinson is proud to say that he has completed at least 10 marathons. Now he stays in shape by competing in triathlons because they are a little bit easier on his knees.

“Athletics are fun for me, it’s an outlet for my energy and competitiveness,” he said. “But volunteering is what keeps me going. I like to help people and understand how important it is to connect with others.”

His two special projects involve delivering meals to shut-ins for Meals on Wheels and serving as a trail guide for a local nature preserve. “A couple times a month, I lead preschool and elementary school children on trails looking for lions

and tigers and bears,” he said with a smile. “The students are always interested in the trees and leaves.

They’re urban kids who rarely spend time in the woods; it’s a great learning experience for them.”

Atkinson savors his trail adventures with earnest, but especially treasures his time with the Meals on Wheels program.

Volunteering to deliver meals allows him to develop closer relationships with people.

Many times he is the driver; other times he serves as the runner, in a figurative sense, taking meals inside the homes. “I really enjoy getting out and speaking with the program participants,” he said. “Sometimes it’s the only human interaction those people have all day. You’d be surprised how much it means for them to hear a friendly ‘hello.’

“It’s only an hour of my time in one day and I get to meet some really interesting people,” he said. “Even when I was taking care of my wife while she was ill, I could still get away for an hour. I think the general population perceives volunteering as hard work or that it takes too much time.

I feel invigorated after I’m done; - it gives me a positive mental attitude. I wish more people would get involved.”

Atkinson volunteers because he enjoys giving back to his community. Growing up in the small town of Coldwater, he knew all of his neighbors and he continues that tradition. Now he stays active and involved in his cozy community of Glenside, Pa., population 8,000.

“I think the best part of volunteering is seeing people rise above their conditions,” he said. He recalled one diabetic woman named Dorothy on his delivery route. “She

Richard Atkinson ’68

has a breathing machine and one day I came in with her meal and she informed me that she had gone blind. I immediately asked what I could do to help her. She was so calm and said she was fine; her daughter would be coming out tomorrow.

The only thing she needed was for me to read her doctor’s phone number so she could dial the number. She had already memorized the keypad. It seemed like such a simple thing for me to do, but I know it made a difference to her.”

Another example of Atkinson’s good will is helping a blind and partially deaf man named John. “He’s in his mid-80s, lives alone, and mows his own yard,” said Atkinson. “I’m not saying he does the greatest job, but he’s out there doing it.

John ties a rope to his belt loop with the other end tied to the porch. He is a sharp man and keeps up with world events and politics. He knows my voice and knows that I’ll stop and listen for a bit. He likes to have someone to bounce his ideas off.”

Atkinson says it’s little things like talking that help people connect with one another. “Volunteering is a personal thing,” he said. “You can’t force volunteerism. Honestly, I get so much out of it, especially when I know I’m helping someone else, it makes my day better, too.”

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A Tru

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BY PAM RUTYNA

Christy Klein ’82 has been extremely fortunate in her career. While some people may spend time getting by in their daily work, the 1982 Olivet College graduate finds her job inspiring and believes she has found her true calling.

“What I do for a living is my passion,” Klein said. “It’s my calling in life.”

Klein has worked at Starr Commonwealth in Albion for more than 21 years. She originally majored in English and minored in biology at Olivet before earning a master’s of special education degree with an endorsement in emotionally impaired and learning disabilities from Western Michigan University (WMU).

For the first 10 years of her career at Starr Commonwealth, Klein worked in the classroom, teaching English, math and social studies. It was a job that she had held previously. “Before I came to Starr Commonwealth, I worked in Albion public schools with special education students,” she explained. “I am grateful to have had that experience in the public school system because I was able to compare behavior and I knew what was to be expected.”

However, her time in the Albion public school system was short-lived, mainly due to her contacts at Starr Commonwealth. “From 1983 to 1984, I interned at Starr while I was earning my master’s degree at WMU,” Klein said.

“While I was working in the Albion schools, the director from Starr called me and asked me to substitute there for a couple of days. Then I was asked to sub for a couple of weeks, then a couple of months. Before I knew it, I was hired fulltime.”

Christy Klein ’82

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ue Calling While she may have begun as a teacher, Klein has been a teacher consultant for the past 11 years at Starr Commonwealth and works with teachers to provide the best education possible.

She also helps coordinate the special education program and administers achievement tests to the students.

Starr Commonwealth is a nationally recognized children and family services nonprofit organization that provides several kinds of aid to individuals seeking to better their lives. According to Klein, Starr provides these services to males who have committed and are charged with a delinquent act. The organization is considered a special education facility for students with emotional impairments.

Starr Commonwealth has residential programs that specialize in substance abuse, delinquency and sexual reactive youth. The residents may live there

“This is truly a calling for me. Working with these kids has been life changing and I’m grateful.”

Christy Klein ’82

between three months and two years, depending on their program.

“Those of us working here are trying to change the lives of these troubled teens,” Klein said. “I am employed through the Calhoun Intermediate School District (ISD) and these students are our clients. We work collaboratively with Starr and Calhoun ISD to provide the best education and treatment.

“However, this is more than just a teaching job,” Klein continued. “We continue to support our students after they leave the classroom for the day. We may join them at dinner, go on day trips, play softball or join them for clean-up days around campus. We work side-by-side with them so they have a better chance of achieving their goals. It’s very reminiscent of what my college days at Olivet were like.”

At Olivet, Klein, whose father, Jare Klein, was the wrestling coach from 1968 to 2001, said she had people who cared about her, including professors who taught her and her peers to care about others.

“Teachers at Olivet always had a different approach,” she said. “As students, we were often invited over for dinner, and the professors were right there, by our side throughout our college career. Olivet was smaller, more personal and we had a personal relationship with the programs, professors and students, which is very similar to Starr Commonwealth. Thus, Olivet graduates who come to work at Starr have a natural knack for helping these kids because of these experiences.”

After dedicating more than 21 years of her professional career to the students at Starr Commonwealth, Klein has no intentions of leaving. “This is truly a calling for me,” she said. “Working with these kids has been life changing and I’m grateful. It’s helped me to become a successful mother to two daughters and I’ve developed a tolerance for different groups of people I might not otherwise have had.

“We all have issues in life,” she continued. “These students just need an extra push. We are trying to change the way they think and behave because they may not have been given that opportunity growing up. They simply need love and that’s what we try to give them.”

About Starr Commonwealth Starr Commonwealth is a nationally recognized children and family services nonprofit organization licensed by the states of Michigan and Ohio. The organization serves more than 4,000 children, families and professionals through strength-based residential and community-based programs in Albion, Battle Creek and Detroit, Michigan and Van Wert and Columbus, Ohio. Starr also offers a variety of training for professionals working with youth. Olivet College alumni who currently work with Starr Commonwealth include: Martin Mitchell ’73, Ed.D., Olivet College Board of Trustees member, serves as president and chief executive officer Karla Boulanger-Solis ’93 Eugene Brown ’08 Gerald Dozie ’07 Jessica (Pletz) Droscha ’07 Matthew Flora ’03 Katie Gudding ’04 William Hagerty ’06 Michael Heisler ’98 Christy Klein ’82 Jeffery Kucharczyk ’94 Rich Mattea ’74 Kelli McCloy ’99 Jacob Otten ’07 Keegan Robbins ’08 Debra Rowe ’95 Jeffrey Thigpen ’07 Shannon Wilson ’98

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Fulfilling God’s W

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BY CHRISTINE MOULTON, SOPHOMORE

“Christ is my core desire for life. We have been friends since I was 12 and since then, He has brought the most incredible encounters into my life.”

Katherine (Kat) Taylor Roesch ’06 has been following God since she was a young girl and says she would not have found Olivet without His guidance. “It was love at first discussion with Bernie (McConnell ’82, former assistant vice president of enrollment management),” she said about her initial visit to the college. “The friendly discussion and

Katherine Roesch ’06, second from left, serves Mission Mazahua in Central Mexico.

perfect clarity of possibilities with financial aid made me feel at home simply after walking in that office door.”

Roesch was drawn to the high level of community service that students were expected to maintain at Olivet. “I was

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active in high school and my community involvement continued at Olivet,” she said. “Olivet really expects that of a person, which was another reason I felt comfortable when I visited.”

Roesch has been involved with mission work since she was 17, when she visited Tanzania. “I was overwhelmed by the cultural differences and physical needs not met in such a friendly, Christfilled country,” she said.

Now serving Mission Mazahua in Central Mexico, Roesch says she uses social responsibility as a way to fulfill God’s plan for her. “I use service work to build a relationship with those around me and God, and watch my desires become closer to His desires,” she said.

In addition, she has redefined what it means to engage in “mission” work. “The word ‘mission’ is so packed with expectations,” Roesch said. “I have reworked my image of ‘mission’ since I have been here in Mexico. Every day of everyone’s life in Christ is a mission. God asks us to do things that we should do, but sometimes don’t care to do.”

Roesch first became involved with Mission Mazahua when she visited with a class led by Rev. Mike Fales ’75, director of service learning and campus ministries, and assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies and religion, and Maria Davis, Ph.D., Natural and Physical Sciences Department chair and professor of biology. “A friend from Olivet, Jean Paul

Cortes (junior), had parents who started the mission 30 years ago on a hope and a prayer,” Roesch said.

She decided to return to the mission as her practicum project. “I thought I was going to join the Peace Corps, but God closed that door,” Roesch said.

Since then, Roesch has done numerous jobs for the mission, including cleaning bedrooms and bathrooms, and teaching English. And soon she will serve as director of a Christian service camp that will run from Dec. 26 through Jan. 2, 2009 for college students from the United States and Mexico. In addition, she updates monthly periodicals on www.missionmazahua.com.

Roesch plans to restart her English classes for the community soon and is excited for the addition of swimming lessons. “There is currently no chlorine in the pool and it is running off an open system,” she said. “I hope to close the system and obtain some chlorine soon.”

Roesch has also assisted with wheelchair distribution projects, and has participated in other work with service groups that come to the Hacienda.

Although her life is centered around the mission and her work, she tries to find time to relax and enjoy the beauty of her surroundings. “I have a thing for the horses here,” Roesch said. “They are all pregnant now, too. I love walking in the mountains, and the forests of Central Mexico are breathtaking.”

Roesch’s favorite part about working with the mission is her surroundings and the people she serves there. “I find my sanctuary in nature and my fellowship

Will with people,” she said. “They are my greatest difficulty and my greatest joy.

The people stun me. It also helps to have the mountains and fields to escape to, where simply a look takes my breath away. They are the awesome wonders of the Lord.”

Roesch doesn’t feel the need to attract others to do mission work because, “the desire to make the world a better place is inside all of us. Whether it is God’s version of a better place or our own,” she said. “If God is calling someone to work, He is calling them to missions. The more you act in His will, the more amazing places He will take you. The backyard is a pretty stunning place. We just need to open our eyes.”

Roesch is currently working on her master’s degree in International Health and Development through Tulane University in New Orleans. “I think the Lord wants me to be a medical doctor or residential nurse with the medical missions in the summers,” she said. “But who knows? This is a daily trip and I am in love with the land of Central Mexico.

I could stay forever.” God’s will. God’s way.

Being Socially Responsible in Central Mexico

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BY MICHELLE ERSKINE, SENIOR

Between Alpha Omega, Comet technology often needed to survive. Many Christian Fellowship, Gospel Choir and are stricken by poverty and also need the Echo, sophomore Judith Tellezfinancial assistance. According to TellezGonzalez has a hard time finding time to Gonzalez, the mission covers up to 50 run, read, play her guitar and simply percent of medical expenses for those in socialize. Originally from Portes Gil, need.

Mexico, she is an international student who Tellez-Gonzalez gives a lot of time and found Olivet with the help of Rev. Michael effort to the project. “Their self esteem is Fales ’75, director of service learning and low because they think there is no one campus ministries, around in the same assistant professor of situation,” she said. She Interdisciplinary studies often counsels people and and co-advisor for lets them know that “they international students. can know Jesus Christ.”

Tellez-Gonzalez is a Regarding social student who fills her life responsibility, Tellezwith social responsibility.

Gonzalez said, “The Bible “As an individual, my tells us to do everything for faith in Christ has been God and it doesn’t matter the main source of social who you help as long as it is responsibility,” she said. for Him. She added, “To And not only does Tellezwork in this mission is a Gonzalez practice social blessing because I have responsibility here in the learned a lot and grown up states, she takes the idea as a person. It has helped globally. She is active in me to value what I have.”

Judith Tellez-Gonzalez, sophomore Mission Mazahua, an In addition to evangelical mission created by the parents volunteering with Mission Mazahua, of Olivet junior Jean Paul Cortes, which Tellez-Gonzalez has participated in many several students and alumni of the college mission trips through the college and has serve. The Mazahuans are an indigenous also volunteered outside of school. Keeping people with little education and low income busy, she has done service work in located in rural areas 60 miles northwest of Pennsylvania and Tennessee, and has Mexico City. Through the mission group, worked as a counselor at Christian camps Tellez-Gonzalez provides moral and in Novi and Milwaukee, Wis. spiritual counseling to the Mazahuan Tellez-Gonzalez exhibits social people, and helps them develop a sense of responsibility all the time. Along with her community. volunteer work, she is working on a In addition to counseling, the mission specialized major to become an English provides medical equipment and supplies teacher back in Mexico. She believes that to those who need it. They strive to assist she has learned a lot by attending Olivet, the deaf and those with accessibility issues. and feels her English has improved since Tellez-Gonzalez helps teach people how to joining the journalism/mass communication use their wheelchairs and crutches, and seminar. According to Tellez-Gonzalez, assists with transportation when they need better English means better communication, medical help. which will aid in her efforts to continue Because the Mazahuan people are an being socially responsible. indigenous culture, they lack the medical

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Iron Mom

BY ALEXANDRA ALTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Kathy Roche-Wallace ’00 Photos by Brian Knight

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Kathy Roche-Wallace ’00 was recently featured in The Wall Street Journal for competing in Primal Quest, a 10-day, 548mile adventure race through southwest Montana. The article is reprinted below.

Big Sky, Mont.

Four days and 263 miles into a backcountry race and Kathy RocheWallace isn’t even halfway to the finish.

She’s limping on a big toe that is infected and swollen. She has a purple bruise the size of a grapefruit on her left thigh from a spill down a mountainside. Her sweat smells of vinegar and ammonia, a sign her fuel-starved body has started burning muscle.

Ms. Roche-Wallace is 47 years old and has six children. Her oldest, Melissa Hughes, 27, has joined her on this 548mile race through southwest Montana. It’s just past 10 a.m. in late June, but Ms. Roche-Wallace has stopped counting hours or days. She has run 100-mile races and knows that keeping track of time can chip away at one’s resolve. “You have to learn to shut time off,” she says. “Melissa needs to learn that.”

They’ve hiked 91 miles of mountain terrain, logging more than 20,000 feet in elevation gains. They’ve biked and kayaked 150 miles, and, all told, slept just 12 hours. Now, they’re facing a snowcovered pass through the Crazy Mountains that rises 5,500 feet from where they sit slumped and aching in the dirt. “This is the crux,” says Ms. RocheWallace, a skinny blonde with scrawny calves and a crooked-toothed smile. “If we can make it through this, we can get through the race.”

Ms. Roche-Wallace belongs to a rare class of athletes who crave such events as Primal Quest – a 10-day race of running, climbing, hiking, paddling and biking. She and 223 other racers will fight sleep deprivation, dehydration and hypothermia

while navigating Montana’s grizzly-bear surgically removed to head off foot country. Most of the four-person teams injuries and infection. Ultra-races test hope just to complete the race without minds as well as bodies, says Timothy serious injury. It’s not a relay, and fewer Noakes, a professor of exercise and sports than half the teams will finish. “The science at the University of Cape Town problem with our sport is that people can Medical School in South Africa. “In ultraunderstand a marathon, people can endurance races,” he says, “you’ll find understand an Ironman,” says Don that the winners are the most mentally Mann, Primal Quest’s race director and a fit.” The competition also gives an escape former Navy SEAL. “But when you’re from day-to-day worries. “You can’t think talking about doing that every day, for 10 about work, you can’t think about family, days, people can’t understand it.” you can’t think about emotional issues,” Primal Quest is an adventure race, an offshoot of the French sport that spread abroad in the mid-1990s. It appeals to would-be explorers seeking to test their resolve against weather, uncharted terrain and chance runins with wild animals.

Ultra-endurance racing has grown fivefold in the past decade, with more than 400 races a year.

During the Gobi March, for example, runners Roche-Wallace ’99 (right) with her Primal Quest teammates, face sand storms and including husband Eric Wallace, daughter Melissa Hughes brutal heat as they cross and Scott Campau.

155 miles of China’s Gobi Desert. There’s a 150-mile race says Ivy McIver, 33, of Salt Lake City. through subfreezing temperatures in She’s shivering on a Montana riverbank Antarctica. And in California’s Badwater two days into the race after her kayak summer race, runners risk heat stroke overturned in 38-degree white water. and worse in a 135-mile march through “I do it to detach.”

Death Valley.

Fifty-six teams gather at the start The sport draws mostly amateur line on a foggy morning. Primal Quest athletes in their 30s and 40s, men and 2008 begins with a scramble up Lone women who have honed the mental Peak, an 11,166-foot snowcapped peak discipline to race for days. Most have obscured by mist. Ms. Roche-Wallace full-time careers, but they devote three and her daughter check their gear one to six hours a day to train. Some work out last time and giggle nervously. in sports labs that circulate the lower Ms. Roche-Wallace, a fitness trainer levels of oxygen found at high altitudes. in Marshall, Mich., says she dreamed she The most fanatic have their toenails reached a cliff face but had forgotten continued on pg. 20

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her climbing harness. Ms. Hughes, a science teacher in Seattle, dreamed she couldn’t quiet down her students. They’ve run races together for years, but nothing of this distance. Ms. Hughes says her racing strategy is to “keep up with Mom.” Ms. Hughes still fumes about a race in Florida when, a mile from the finish, her mother turned back because she had fallen behind. “She needs to learn to respect me as an athlete,” Ms. Hughes says.

A few minutes later, a cheer erupts and racers charge up the hill and disappear into the forest. They emerge as specks moving across the snowy summit, looking like a row of marching ants. After the first checkpoint, the racers descend and follow a 37-mile forest trail into a river valley. At daybreak, they’ll kayak 25 miles.

By nightfall, Mike Kloser’s team arrives first at the river, hours ahead of the others. Mr. Kloser, of Vail, Colo., is a 48year-old activities director at a ski resort.

He has won four out of five Primal Quest races. His entire body, including his narrow, leathery face, seems made of lean, ropey muscle. Other racers spend the night on the mountain, cold and exhausted. Two teams have already quit.

Ms. Roche-Wallace’s team – which also includes her husband, Eric Wallace, and Scott Campau, a firefighter from Muskegon, Mich. – hikes through the night. Around midnight, they recall spotting grizzly-bear tracks, unmistakable with their long claws and narrow toes.

They lose the trail and cross a freezing stream, soaking their feet. They stop to rest, but it’s too cold to sleep. They argue about whether to pitch a tent. Ms. RocheWallace keeps them moving. “I didn’t want

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to be the weak one,” she says. “It’s that simple: pure ego.”

Her team reaches the river checkpoint by midmorning. Support crews have giant plastic bins filled with Doritos, potato chips, licorice, Snickers bars, M&Ms, Gatorade, energy bars, protein powder, electrolyte tablets and cans of Ensure.

Adventure racers can burn 15,000 calories a day but can’t stomach big meals.

Some racers will lose 15 to 20 pounds over the next week. Ms. Roche-Wallace and her team eat beef stew, then pass out in the shade of a support-crew truck.

Ms. Roche-Wallace was in her 30s when she discovered how far and fast she could run. She was living on a 200-acre cattle farm near Marshall, Mich., raising the five children she had in quick succession after dropping out of college and marrying at age 19. Her parents were divorced and her father struggled with alcoholism. “Our family was pretty torn apart,” she says. “Being young and not really sure who I was, I was looking for someone to take over.”

She started jogging two miles a day to get out of the house, leaving her children with a neighbor. “I didn’t have anything that was my own,” she says. “It was always the kids.” She ran her first triathlon in 1991, and quickly moved on to marathons.

Her children were ages 5 to 9, so she rose at 5 a.m. to train. On weekends, she would go to a lake, put the children in inner tubes and tow them with a rope while she swam. After school, she would take them to the high-school track. In 1992, Ms. Roche-Wallace entered her first Hawaii Ironman, a triathlon that

comprises a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. In 1994, she turned pro.

At age 39, Ms. Roche-Wallace returned to college to study health and physical education. She enrolled at Olivet College, and donated her triathlon earnings, about $3,000, to the American Cancer Society so that she could compete

Primal Quest contenders at the start line.

Participants run, climb, hike, paddle and bike 548 miles during the 10-day race.

as a college amateur. She set records in five track events and graduated in 2000. “She’s one of the toughest athletes I’ve coached,” says Karen Lutzke, a former track and cross-country coach at Olivet. After splitting with her husband in 1998, Ms. Roche-Wallace married Mr. Wallace, a triathlete and bike mechanic, and they had a son, her sixth child.

Ms. Roche-Wallace finished her first 100-mile trail run when she was 44. In 2003, she became the first woman in the U.S. to complete a triple Ironman triathlon, swimming 7.2 miles, biking 336 miles and running 78.6 miles. She entered four more, winning second place in 2005 and 2006.

She tried to set a record by racing 10

Ironman triathlons in 10 days, but quit halfway with a swollen Achilles tendon.

Ms. Roche-Wallace says she’s not sure where her drive comes from. But overcoming pain, she says, makes other hardships manageable: “You pull from it all the time.”

Four days into the race, Ms. RocheWallace’s team begins climbing the Crazy

Mountains. They move slowly up a steep dirt road alongside an alpine stream. They are sunburned. The soles of their feet are bruised. They’ve hiked 36 hours with two hours of sleep between midnight and 2 a.m. Then they biked 130 miles.

For the last three miles, the team has stopped every few hundred yards to rest Ms. Hughes’s blistered feet. She is doubled over, leaning on her hiking poles. Ms. RocheWallace gives Ms. Hughes her hiking boots and takes her daughter’s light trail shoes. A few minutes later, they stop under an aspen tree and divide up the food in Ms. Hughes’s pack to lighten her load. Mr. Wallace flops back on his 30-pound pack and falls asleep. “Eric, get up,” Ms. Roche-Wallace says to her husband. He stands, and they slowly begin a 31-mile overnight hike. “We’re in survival mode,” Ms. RocheWallace says.

With her mother’s hiking boots, Ms. Hughes goes faster.

She began running with her mother while in high school.

During Ms. Hughes’s junior year, they were running at night when a car hit them from behind. Ms. RocheWallace was thrown into a ditch and suffered cuts and bruises. Ms. Hughes spent three days in intensive care with fractured legs.

The team climbs a shale path through groves of aspen and pine. Two black bears paw at a tree stump across the river. Four

miles farther, the trail disappears under two feet of snow. They trudge until dusk, then debate about whether to rest or push to the summit, recalls Mr. Campau, the firefighter. He wanted to speed up. He missed the cut-off time for the 2006 Primal Quest. “It eats away at me,” he says. He ran his first adventure race in 2003, a few months after his 4-month-old son died. Training got him out of the house during his depression, he says. His wife and two children are waiting at the finish.

Ms. Roche-Wallace worried about moving too fast in the dark. The snow had hardened into ice and the trail was just a foot wide, flanked by a sheer drop-off. She

“She’s one of the toughest athletes I’ve coached,” says Karen Lutzke, a former track and crosscountry coach at Olivet. finally agreed to pick up the pace. With new resolve, they reached the 10,000-foot summit at 1 a.m. They descended and slept for two hours, until daybreak. They ran the last 15 miles and staggered out of the Crazy Mountains, 250 miles from the finish.

The next 93 miles is by bike. Racers finish and hobble like old men to the medical tents. “Some feet look like ground beef,” says Nadia Shehata, a medical student and race volunteer from Calgary, Canada.

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50 have dropped out. The team that held third place for much of the race was rescued by helicopter. Four teams have been disqualified after injured or fed-up team members quit.

Susan Bower, a 38-year-old teacher from Truckee, Calif., was stopped by shooting pains in her leg. A medical volunteer pulled the tape off her heel and found an exposed Achilles tendon. Doug Judson, a burly man with a blond goatee, reached the Crazy Mountains, near the halfway point in the race. Then he collapsed from dehydration and a respiratory infection.

Those who continue battle hallucinations and blackouts from sleep

The team finished in 25th place, after 10 days and one hour.

deprivation. Paul Meade, a pharmaceutical sales representative from Seattle, saw a new house for sale. A moment later, it was gone. Others saw grizzly bears morph into tree stumps. During a 45-mile overnight hike, Julie Ardoin, a New Orleans lawyer, saw Elvis Presley and then wandered off the trail. Her teammate tied a nylon rope to her waist and towed her until daybreak. Blain Reeves and his team held fifth place for the first half of the race, but they quit after a teammate fell ill. “It’s so hard to walk away,” says Mr. Reeves, a

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43-year-old lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army’s southern command.

Roche-Wallace pauses before the rafting portion of the race.

The weather and rebellious. They pass a pasture of is 90 degrees and muggy, and a week into yellow mustard blossoms and wooded the race Ms. Roche-Wallace’s team has hills. They finish at 11 a.m. in 25th place, covered 450 miles. They have two days to after 10 days and one hour. Mr. Kloser’s finish. Ms. Roche-Wallace limps as they team leave a checkpoint by the Gallatin River. won the race after five days and 11 hours.

Earlier, a medic had tried to relieve the Temperatures are in the 80s, but pressure on her infected toe by slicing the mother and daughter put on fleece jackets. skin beneath the toenail with a razor.

Their toes will stay numb for weeks. Ms. “How’s your foot?” her husband asks.

Roche-Wallace isn’t sure she’ll do this “Fine,” she says. “Liar,” he says. again. But when she returns home, she’ll They scramble on boulders along the begin training. Ms. Hughes talks about river. Ms. Roche-Wallace stops. “Where’s how she almost quit.

Melissa?”she asks. “She’s way behind,” Mr. Early in the race, Ms. Hughes found a Wallace says. “What if she falls?” Ms. note in her pack from her mother that said Roche-Wallace says. They consider going “I love you.” Ms. Roche-Wallace’s own back, but Ms. Hughes appears five mother had a habit of hiding notes in her minutes later. They climb until 1 a.m. and daughter’s pockets. Two months after her sleep a couple of hours. mother’s death in 1998, Ms. RocheThe final hike follows a 38-mile trail Wallace found notes in her pack during a with an 8,700-foot climb that they need to race. Her mother had asked Ms. Hughes finish in less than 30 hours. They lose the to put them there shortly before she died. trail and wander for nearly three hours in a “Go, girl,” said one. marsh, they recall. It’s 2 a.m. and they are Sitting a few yards past the finish line, ankle-deep in freezing water. Using a map Ms. Hughes says, “I seriously thought, and compass, they orient toward the final ‘Can I do this? Is it worth it? What the checkpoint and bushwhack to the trail. hell am I doing out here?’ But already in The descent is 3,000 feet of switchbacks. this moment, I’m wanting more. I know At the bottom, they see the house lights I can do better, which is really, really sick.” on Ennis Lake. They walk three miles on a rocky road, a last assault on their bruised Reprinted by permission of The Wall feet. They arrive at the last checkpoint at Street Journal, Copyright © 2008 Dow 4 a.m. and eat cold hamburgers left by Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights their support crew. They sleep an hour and Reserved Worldwide. License number rise at dawn. Osprey and white pelicans 2016511016980 feed on rainbow trout. Mr. Campau does a little dance. Thirty-one miles left.

Roche-Wallace also has three sons who are The homestretch is on bike. They students at Olivet College: junior Ben pedal around the lake, their muscles stiff Hughes and seniors Nate and Justin Hughes, of Marshall.

A Return to Turkey

BY MARTY (MASON) JENNINGS ’67

It all started at Olivet College in the 1960s, when after three years of study, she decided to try something else. Becker ended up working for the Detroit News, then moved to New York City where she was the assistant librarian for a bank, a research librarian on Wall Street and later worked with the editorial staff of a publishing house.

Travels took Becker to Europe, where she took the Orient Express to Istanbul to meet with friends.

She immediately felt at home in Turkey, where she stayed for three months.

Vermont was next, where she was the librarian for the public library in a small town. She had a “well educated audience,” including Jay Rockefeller.

Becker found herself back in Olivet in the 1970s and in need of a degree. This was her second time as a student at the college; the first Maxine Becker ’75 time “majoring in Hendrick” and the second time “majoring in Having grown up in town, it was an Buchanan,” who were both English easy decision for Maxine Becker ’75 to professors at Olivet. attend Olivet College. Becker enjoyed her After graduating from the college, she years on campus – she was involved in earned her master’s degree in library everything from theatre, to the newspaper, science from Western Michigan University. to the bridge table – and she didn’t have While in Kalamazoo, she campaigned for to be good at any of the activities. “That Brian Hampton, who was running for was what Olivet was all about,” Becker Congress, and worked with the Upjohn said. “Being able to participate at any level Institute for Employment Research. She in many different activities.” also worked for Depreciation Programs, Serving as a librarian on a military providing education seminars for the base is not what Becker set out to do upon public utility industry. Even though earning her degree. But this year, she has economic times were tough, leaving jobs found herself in Turkey at the Incirlik Air and finding new ones was never an issue Force Base doing just that. “My first year with Becker. “It never occurred to me that will be a learning experience; the second, I couldn’t do everything,” she exclaimed. implementing; the third, reality sets in; Becker went on to work for the and on the fourth, everything will be in University of Guam. While there she place,” Becker said. “Then it will be time earned a master’s degree in Micronesian to move on.”

studies. “I had a fabulous time with my classes and people my own age.” It was to be short-lived, however. Soon after, a friend from the College of the Marshall Islands called, asking Becker to come work as the librarian there. Becker chose to go. The library was “a mess,” a challenge, needless to say. Eight years later, Becker admitted that she had “not backed down and believed in harangue.” Instead, she cleaned up the library and decided that it was time to move on once more.

Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba had an opening for a librarian. She applied, received a phone call and was told that she was hired. “I believe I was the only person who applied,” she said. Four-and-a-half years later, she was once again ready to leave. “I like to tear things apart and put them back together,” Becker said.

Knowing that she was good at turning libraries around, Becker was told that the Incirlik Air Force Base in Turkey needed help. Reflecting on her visit to Turkey 40 years prior brought fond memories and an easy decision to return. In April she moved to the base. With an apartment and a garden and open market close by, Becker is content to call Turkey home for now – until another challenge presents itself.

Her experiences have been many: she once tracked black bears in Appalachia; crewed a hot air balloon used to locate prehistoric rock formations in Death Valley; monitored orangutans in Borneo with primatologist Birute Galdikas; traveled to Africa to help set up a rural library and delivered library books in an outrigger canoe.

Life has always had its challenges for Becker, but she has taken them on without concern or worry. Within a few years, she will be thinking about where to live when she retires. With so many experiences, she just might continue to go from one exciting location to another.

E-mail Becker at mab1@fastmail.fm.

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Cutler Event Center is Cuttin Dave Cutler ’65

T

BY MOLLY (REED) GOALEY ’05

The dust has settled, revealing a new and improved Olivet College campus this fall. Students returned to a new apartment-style residence hall, auditorium, classrooms and chemistry lab. But after months of anticipation, there was one building the entire campus community was ready to see.

And on Sept. 23, they got their chance when the college officially opened The Cutler Event Center with a community open house. Students, employees and local residents came to tour the facility and watch the Comet volleyball team play one of the first athletic events to be held there.

The 44,500-square-foot building, which was added onto the existing Cutler Athletic Complex, houses a gymnasium, fitness center, wrestling room, locker rooms, coaches’ offices and multipurpose rooms.

It is used by the college and community for activities such as student events, guest speakers, commencement exercises, athletic events, concerts and conferences.

Although the building officially opened in September, it got a warm welcome from alumni during Homecoming in October, when Dave Cutler ’65

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dedicated the facility to the 1961 football In order to conserve energy and cut team. The college was able to build the heating costs, the lobby and offices along center thanks to the generosity of Cutler, the facility’s outer glass wall utilize radiant who donated two gifts totaling $4.3 million heat through concrete, which keeps the toward the $5.1 million project. rooms insulated. The center also uses an During the air-to-air heat dedication, Cutler exchanger in the commented on locker rooms. how quickly the Rather than building was throwing exhaust completed. The air away to the college had atmosphere, the broken ground for unit allows its the facility less heat and than a year humidity to be From left: George Pyne ’65, Don Tuski ’85, Ph.D., before, during passed along to and Dave Cutler ’65 during a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Homecoming ventilation air 2007. And coming in. The although construction moved quickly, building is also equipped with Demand careful measures were taken to make the Control Ventilation (DCV) technology. building process as clean and efficient as DCV tracks the amount of people in a possible. space and provides the correct amount of According to CSM Group, the ventilation air for that number, a process company contracted to build the event that avoids constantly ventilating an area. center, 63 percent of total construction Additional energy-saving methods waste, or 79.48 tons of dry wall, concrete include using an automated light system and steel, was recycled during the project. controlled by sensors to save electricity In addition, the building itself has many when no one is present. The center also design features that make it consistent puts a cap on water consumption by using with today’s environmental standards. low-flow toilets and urinals in locker

ng-Edge

rooms and public bathrooms, as well as faucets controlled by sensors.

In addition to its “green” features, the building has many amenities that cater to student-athletes, who use the facility on a daily basis. When they’re not using the state-of-the-art equipment in the fitness center, many athletes can be found in the gymnasium, which contains one main basketball court and three practice courts, one main volleyball court and five practice courts, two tennis courts, two batting cages and a 100-meter track. In addition, the gymnasium utilizes a floating floor, meaning the flooring is not directly attached to the concrete beneath it.

The floating floor is able to absorb shock, enhance performance and greatly reduce injury.

During the dedication ceremony, Cutler and many of his 1961 football teammates said they wished they had a facility like the new event center when they were students at Olivet. And today’s students feel fortunate to have it, as well as the other new buildings on campus.

“Students are seeing Olivet give something back to them,” said Greg Jarratt, a senior wrestler from Centreville, “and it’s generating a real sense of school pride.”

The new fitness center allows student athletes, faculty and staff to train and work out.

The lobby area of the new Cutler Event Center.

The gymnasium area of the new Cutler Event Center.

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L “The Game of Work” 26

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BY PAM RUTYNA

Larry Vallar is quite familiar with leadership roles. After all, it seems as if he’s been a leader his entire life. Back in the 1980s, when he attended Olivet College, Vallar, a business administration major with a concentration in insurance and risk management and marketing, worked three jobs, including serving as a resident advisor. In addition, he presided over Elite, a fraternity he helped bring to Olivet’s campus, and led the football team as one of its captains.

After leaving college, the 1984 graduate worked in the insurance industry for approximately eight years before switching to a career in retail. He spent 15 years working his way up the corporate ladder, moving from Michigan to North Carolina to Minnesota and back.

It wasn’t until 2002, after Vallar and his family settled in Marshall, that he decided to establish roots; and in order to do so, he needed to find a job that allowed him to stay put. At the time, he was the regional operations manager for Dollar General and was in charge of 228 stores in Northern Indiana and Michigan.

“In retail, you often are relocated as you advance,” he said. “I knew that if I wanted a vice president position with my company, I would need to move to Arizona, possibly, and my wife and I wanted to stay in Michigan.”

Then it happened. At an alumni event in 2003 in Grosse Ile, Vallar reconnected with his college friend, Don Tuski ’85, Ph.D., president of Olivet College, and told him that he would love to give back in any way he could to the college he loved so dearly.

In 2006, Vallar became the vice president of enrollment management.

“It was a dream come true,” he said.

Vallar took his leadership skills and put them to work immediately at Olivet College. His first order of business was to grow his team. When he began, he had two full-time admissions representatives and two part-time staff members. Today, there are eight full-time members and one

part-time employee. “Enrollment is so critical to this college,” Vallar said. “It’s the life blood and if I was going to help grow the college, I needed more employees.”

With his staff on board, Vallar has been able to change the enrollment process. He’s pushed the admissions deadline back from mid-summer to early

increase of almost 4 times. While most of those students were commuters, 20 percent of those attending eventually became residents.”

Today, Vallar and his staff are working under a new philosophy inspired by “The Game of Work,” by Charles Coonradt.

The book, which explains how to bring recreational motivation to the workplace, inspired Vallar to develop his own plan for the department.

“We need admissions to be a sophisticated operation, so we started with a mission and strategic plan,” he said.

Working off of his vision, Vallar and his staff identified objectives and goals and developed three important ways to obtain more students.

First, they looked at sourcing.

“We identified individuals who can get us in front of the students, such as alumni, guidance counselors and Larry Vallar ’84 monitors the effectiveness of enrollment management’s recruiting efforts. principals, and we looked at a way we can communicate with spring, which has allowed the college to be them,” Vallar said. better prepared.

Secondly, they looked at how to court He also created the Community the students, their parents and those close Connection Grant program last year, to them. “Students like to be courted, so which is available to any new freshman, transfer or non-traditional commuter student not currently enrolled at Olivet.

“I look at myself as their coach What began as a pilot program in four communities near the college, including and help them to meet their Bellevue, Charlotte, Marshall and Olivet, goals. We provide frequent will expand during the 2009 spring feedback with each other on semester to include 27 additional high schools, including Lansing and Battle what’s working and what’s Creek schools, to name a few. The grant, not.” which totals $9,290 a year per student, is given before state and federal aid.

Larry Vallar ’84 “Olivet College is conveniently located in mid-Michigan and there were 4,000 students within commuting distance of the campus,” Vallar said. now, once we are introduced to them, our “We only had 2 percent of those students first communication begins within 48 attending college here. In our pilot hours of that first meeting,” he continued. program, we included four communities “Before, we might not have contacted and had 37 students take advantage of them for months. We want to know what’s those savings. We then opened it up and important to them as far as a college is had 139 students admitted, which was an concerned, such as ‘what do they want to

take away from their college experience.’

Then we make our communication specific to what they want.”

Third, Vallar and his staff provide the campus visit. “We take what we’ve found out during the courting phase and make their campus visit as specific to their needs as we can,” Vallar said.

In order to follow through with these three important metrics, Vallar has implemented a performance management piece to the “Game of Work” that allows his staff members to create their own individualized goals for each of their own territories. “I look at myself as their coach and help them to meet their goals,” he said. “We provide frequent feedback with each other on what’s working and what’s not.”

Vallar’s “Game of Work” philosophy seems to be working. This fall, the college welcomed 1,145 new and returning students, which is the highest enrollment figure ever.

While Vallar is proud of everything he and his team have accomplished, he’s quick to credit Tuski with much of the success. “We couldn’t have made all these changes without Don’s willingness to be open to new ideas,” Vallar said. “He has given us the support we need to try something new. I couldn’t have succeeded without him or my team.”

With all the success Vallar has enjoyed this past semester, he is still humbled that he is able to make this kind of contribution to his alma mater and believes he is blessed. “I absolutely love my job and the people I work with,” he said. “I truly enjoy what I’m doing. There are so many ways alums can give back to Olivet and they have an opportunity to improve the school. I don’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to. I know that Olivet has given me so much and helped to shape me as a leader, which I apply to my personal and professional life today.”

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BY NICOLE BABCOCK, SENIOR During the summer, I experienced a series of “firsts” in a short period of time. I enrolled in an outdoor recreation class for ILT, and while I could have written a paper to get credit, the adventurer in me screamed, “Go on the trip!” So, on July 7, 12 Olivet students crammed into two college vans with the least amount of gear we would need to survive the trek. It took two days to get to Estes Park, Colo. These

Nicole Babcock (front row, left) with her ILT class in Estes Park, Colo.

were “firsts” numbers one and two: I had never been in a car that long and I had never been west of Chicago.

The real adventure did not start until the third day of our trip, with a day hike to Loch Vale, Glass Lake and Sky Pond. A half-mile in, we were all exhausted;

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Todd Hibbs, head wrestling coach, assistant professor of HPERS and trip facilitator, explained this was due to the altitude. The spectacular views added to taking my breath away.

The next day brought another “first.”

We teamed up with two Czech Republic natives who were conveniently going to the same area as us. The next hike was roughly three miles to Battle Mountain, where we would camp for the night. Carrying all the gear on my back made it the most difficult hike of my life. I hiked most of the way without the group, taking time to enjoy the views and think to myself. Dinner that evening was my “first” time cooking a meal over a little camping stove.

The next leg of the hike was to Longs Peak, one of the Rocky Mountain range’s famous “fourteeners” (meaning its elevation reaches more than 14,000 feet above sea level). The hike was divided into parts. Boulder Field, just like the name sounds, was tough, but we had no idea what was to come. On the other side of the mountain was the Narrows – again, the name says it all. Then came the Troughs, a climb up loose rock. This was by far the hardest part of the entire hike, but with just a little bit further to go, we were at the top (14,259 feet). I was in awe – it was completely mesmerizing. Going down the

mountain all I could think was, “How did I climb this?” That’s when I realized another “first” – I had entrusted my life to this group of people whom I had only known for three days, because one wrong step meant everything.

After a rest day, we set up camp at Gray Jay and spent the next few days living off the land. We worked together to cook meals and spent free time playing euchre. On our last night, we had a visit from a bear. It was exciting and nerveracking at the same time. Besides the bear, we had multiple animal sightings, including long horn sheep, marmots, picas, elk, moose, foxes, chipmunks and more.

Most of these were for the “first” time.

The end of the trip brought another bunch of “firsts.” I had never stayed in the wilderness for that long. I had never showered at a Laundromat. I had never spent the night in a hippie town or been to a blues bar. I had never had mussels, lobster bisque or calamari. And, I had never become so close with people in such a short amount of time. I truly believe my time in Colorado was the best experience of my life so far. I know it was the people who made the trip so memorable. So, to Brice Grant, Joe Yurisich, Joel Rozeboom, John Bauman, Amber Askin, Matt McNeil, Jake Schuler, Jim Neal, Ben Hitchcock, Dan Reed and Coach Hibbs, thanks for everything.

BY KATELYN HARMON, JUNIOR Ten students left Olivet on May 7 to begin a six-day journey through the Upper Peninsula (UP) as part of the Michigan Copper Country Travels EXP class. The objective was to study the geology and culture of the region.

“Students understand and retain geological, cultural, political and historical information when they ride into the darkness of the Quincy Mine, look out from the escarpment at the Lake of the Clouds, eat a pasty, view the stained glass windows and Jacobsville sandstone of St. Paul the Apostle Church in Hancock, visit the site of the Italian Hall Disaster, and ride down Silver Street in Hurley,” said Craig Korpela, Ph.D., adjunct instructor of interdisciplinary studies and former UP resident.

In addition to myself, students who attended the trip included Jon Arends,

Justin Hughes, Craig Jenkins, Jennifer Martin, Levi Martin, Justin Hutchison, Elijah Keller, Justin Wilcox and Madge Harris.

The whirlwind tour included a viewing of iron ore smelting artifacts and buildings at the Fayette Historic State Park, a trek into the Empire and Tilden iron ore mines, an in-depth tour of the Seaman Mineral Museum and a voyage into the earth at the Quincy Mine. The class also explored the historic cities of Calumet, Houghton and Marquette.

After a trip down to the mouth of the Presque Isle, the class visited the Porcupine Mountain (also known as “The Porkies”) State Park. Robert Wild, a Department of Natural Resources park interpreter, gave the class a guided tour and discussed the geology of the area.

The class was able to go to the Nonesuch mining operation site, an area that few Katelyn Harmon (center) with members of her Michigan Copper Country Travels EXP course.

visitors explore. Wild discussed the significance of the 19th century mining operation.

“Going into the trip I really had no idea how much mining actually occurred in the UP. I also did not realize how much the UP depends on tourism in order to survive,” said Jennifer Martin.

No geology trip to the Upper Peninsula would be complete without an excursion to the Gogebic Range, where one can observe the remnants of the iron mining industry. This included the open pit mine between Ramsay and Wakefield, the location of the Sunday Lake Mine, and a glimpse of the social aspects of a frontier community in Hurley, Wis. The class also learned valuable UP cultural lessons; from the appropriate pronunciation of pasty (past-ee), to the politically correct way to speak of the Finnish ethnic group. “It’s ‘Finn’ not ‘Finlander,’” said Jenkins.

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Student Profile

Weekdays With Mitch

H

BY CHRISTINE MOULTON, SOPHOMORE

Have you ever had the opportunity to talk to an American Olympian? Or a former University of Michigan (U of M) Heisman Trophy winner? Have you ever had the chance to meet a TV actor from “The Closer” or watch Joe Dumars during a press conference? Have you ever interviewed faithful Tigers fans saying goodbye to their childhood memories as old Tiger Stadium crashed to the ground?

This summer I was given the opportunity of a lifetime: to work alongside Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press sports columnist and radio talk show host for 760 WJR, and do all of these things and more.

As his intern, my job was to research local and national headlines for possible stories, select a call-in topic for the audience to debate, contact and schedule possible guests, compile a show rundown, and prepare the studio for Mitch and his co-host Ken Brown.

As summer progressed, I learned enough to be given a shot at producing the show and on July 31, my wildest dreams came true – I produced the entire program by myself. The guests that day included Desmond Howard, a former U of M football player, and Tommie Smith and John Carlos, American athletes famous for the 1968 Olympic Black Power salute.

Working for Mitch and his producer, Marc Rosenthal, opened numerous doors for me into the world of professional journalism. I was given the opportunity to do field work and interview bystanders watching the demolition of Tiger Stadium. My interview was aired on the show and I was critiqued, evaluated and praised by Albom and Brown.

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In addition, I was able to travel with Brown and Ray Prosser, the audio board engineer, to the Palace of Auburn Hills to witness a press conference given by Piston’s President and General Manager Joe Dumars on the firing of Coach Flip Saunders.

I now understand the hard work and dedication that it takes to produce awardwinning articles and radio programs. I have respect for the men and women who advertise for the show, mix songs and voice clips, and run the sound boards.

When I left the WJR studio on my

Christine Moulton and Mitch Albom share a moment on the set of Albom’s radio talk show.

On July 8, I met Robert Gossett, who plays Commander Taylor on TNT’s hit TV show, “The Closer.”

Working for “The Mitch Albom Show” not only taught me what it was like to work in the broadcast business, but it also taught me how to be a better journalist. When I pick up a newspaper or listen to a radio broadcast, I know what it’s like to be on the other side – the producing side.

last day, I left with the knowledge of what it takes to be a real journalist. I left with the tools and the insight to pursue a career in journalism and reach for a dream that I have wanted since I was in high school.

The experience I gained this summer will only help me as I continue my work in journalism.

Student Profile

Animal Companion

BY MOLLY (REED) GOALEY ’05

Sarah Klepinger, a senior biology major from Onondaga, has always had a great respect for animals. When she was 17, her family found an orphaned baby bunny in their yard and took it to Wildside Rehabilitation & Education Center in Eaton Rapids. Soon after, Klepinger was dealing with sick, injured and orphaned animals on a regular basis. “I started talking to the employees at the center and I expressed an interest in wild animals,” she said. “They decided to give me a tour and I was hooked.” The Wildside staff asked Klepinger if she would like to volunteer at the facility, which specializes in rehabilitating indigenous wildlife, and she accepted without hesitation.

Now, five years later, her volunteer days are filled with feeding various birds and mammals, cleaning cages, assisting with medical procedures and bathing a brain damaged beaver. But to Klepinger, it’s all in a day’s work.

Depending on the season, the number of birds and animals at the center can range from 25 to 250. According to Klepinger, that number is especially high in the spring when the babies are born. From squirrels, to hummingbirds, to deer, she must be

prepared to deal with a variety of creatures on a regular basis. “We will take any indigenous wildlife except raccoons, skunks and bats, because of the rabies factor,” she said. “And we don’t take domestic critters.” According to Louise Sagaert, executive director and founder of Wildside, the center is typically home to 10 to 20 different species of birds, and mammals such as cottontail rabbits, squirrels, opossums, deer, foxes, muskrats, coyotes, beavers and woodchucks. But occasionally, a rarer creature will turn up at their door.

“Once we got a bobcat in that had been hit by a car,” Klepinger said. “I had to assist with some of the medical procedures.” Unfortunately, Wildside volunteers and staff were not able to save the animal, which was gravely injured.

“It was very sad,” Klepinger said. “But it was still an amazing experience.”

The center also has some nonreleasable, educational animals.

“We have a resident beaver named

Paddle,” Klepinger said. “He is very sweet and very clumsy, and everybody loves him.” When Paddle was a baby, he got into some arsenic that left him with brain damage. He has since been a permanent resident at Wildside. “He has his own little cage and he gets a bath every day,” Klepinger added. “Bathing that beaver is a trip.”

Although she plans to go to graduate school after Olivet to study biology or speech pathology, Klepinger hopes to continue volunteering with indigenous animals. In April, she was one of five Olivet students recognized by the Michigan Campus Compact (MCC) for her work with Wildside. She received the MCC’s Commitment to Service Award for both the breadth and depth of her community involvement – and it’s a commitment she plans to continue permanently. “No matter where I am, I will always support the environment and wildlife,” she said. “My main concern is that humans are doing so much damage to the natural world every day, in so many different ways – pollution, habitat destruction, illegal hunting – it’s important that we protect the Earth and make it a little better for them.”

Sarah Klepinger, senior

Development

NEWS

Kresge Grant Will Fund Art Buliding Olivet College is once again on the cusp of transforming campus, thanks to a $1.2 million challenge grant from The Kresge Foundation. The grant, which was awarded in October, will be used to build the M. Gorton Riethemiller Art Building next to Burrage Library and across the street from Dole Hall.

Olivet has already received a $1.5 million lead gift toward the project from Charles ’46, Ph.D., and the Rev. Dr. Peggy (Riethmiller) Blackman. Of this, $500,000 will be restricted to an endowment for

ongoing maintenance of the building, with the additional gift being earmarked for construction. The college expects to raise an additional $1 million through alumni, friends and foundations, some of which is already being pursued.

The $3.5 million project includes a 14,000-square-foot Georgian revival-style building complete with an art gallery, fine art vault and art classrooms. The facility will be used primarily by the college’s visual arts program, but also by other

faculty, students, alumni, friends and the community.

According to Gary Wertheimer, Visual and Performing Arts Department chair, the new facility will help recruitment tremendously. “We bring a lot of potential art students through the current facility, but they don’t come back after seeing it,” he said. “These students are looking at other MIAA (Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association) schools, Michigan State, etc., and there’s no comparison. There are high school facilities better than ours.

“It’ll be great to work in an inspiring space that is conducive to creativity, and it’ll help recruiting new students tremendously,” he added.

The new facility will also have a classroom dedicated solely to art education majors. The room will simulate the environment students will have when they graduate and are working in their own rooms. Qualified, upper-division students will also have access to private studio space, similar to what they would have if they attended a larger university art program. The space will give students a sense of ownership in the program while allowing them to pursue their art in a manner that helps them transition into a career.

Alumni and friends interested in supporting this project may contact Mark Veich, vice president for institutional advancement, at (269) 749-7535 or via e-mail at mveich@olivetcollege.edu.

Federau Challenge Doug Federau, member of the college’s insurance advisory committee, past president of the Independent Agents Association of Michigan, retired president of the Federau Group and longtime supporter of Olivet’s insurance and risk management program (IRM), has issued a challenge to all fellow supporters of the college.

He will match your commitment to the IRM program up to a total of $200,000 over a two-year period.

Olivet’s insurance conference room, where a large majority of Federau’s insurance memorabilia is on display, will be named after him, along with a scholarship for IRM students.

This is a great opportunity to ensure the continued success of Olivet College’s nationally recognized IRM program.

Below is a list of ways you can meet Federau’s challenge. Please consider making a contribution.

Naming a classroom Insurance student endowed scholarship Partner

$50,000

Investor

$500

Associate

$250

$25,000 $2,000

For more information, or to make a pledge, contact Ed Heator ’80 at (269) 749-6691 or via e-mail at eheator@olivetcollege.edu.

McPhail ’64 Named to Olivet College Board of Trustees Charles McPhail was recently elected to the Olivet College Board of Trustees.

McPhail is a 1964 graduate of Olivet and resident of Houston, Texas. He is chairman and chief executive of Texas Steel Conversion, a privately held company that specializes in custom steel pipe manufacturing.

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McPhail also serves as chairman, president and chief executive of JoyVer, Inc., a boutique finance company that specializes in managing private family trust funds and the acquisition of residential Non-Performing Mortgage Loan Notes and real estate owned properties.

To learn more about giving to Olivet College, visit www.olivetcollege.edu

Giving Through Your

Individual Retirement Account

Enjoy the Benefits of Giving Through Your IRA Are you looking for a simple, convenient way to make a gift to charity this year without dipping into your checking or savings account? If you are more than 70-1/2 years old, you can transfer up to $100,000 from your IRA to charity in 2008 without paying any federal income tax. Your gift can be made simply by notifying your plan custodian of your intent to make a current transfer to Olivet or another charitable organization. And you will feel good knowing that you were able to make a simple easy gift from your IRA this year.

For more information on how to make an IRA rollover gift in 2008, please contact us at (269) 749-7630 or via e-mail at mveich@olivetcollege.edu.

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Comet Golfers Capture M

T

BY GEOFF HENSON

The Olivet College men’s and women’s golf teams captured the 2008 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) championship in dominating fashion. It is only the second time in MIAA history that one school has won both the men’s and women’s golf title in the same season. In addition, the teams combined to place nine golfers on the AllMIAA teams, including seven earning first-team honors.

The Comet men matched an MIAA record by winning six of eight league jamborees and won the conference championship by 25 strokes, 2,395-2,420, over second-place Hope College. Olivet had a team score less than 300 strokes in five rounds, including a season-best 291 at Wuskowhan Players Club, Hope’s home course.

“I knew we had a chance to win this year for two reasons,” said Head Men’s Coach Gary Morrison. “The first reason is the three seniors feel that they blew their

From left: Assistant coach Kevin Allard ’81, Luke Godin, Nick Harless, Brock Gleadall, Eric Ross, Drew Lasky, Justin Lesansky and Head Coach Gary Morrison

chances last year and wanted to prove that 2008 was their year to win the MIAA championship. The second reason is you win a championship with a veteran team and that is what we had with those three seniors.”

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MIAA Championships Seniors Brock Gleadall, of Stratford, Ontario, and Justin Lesansky, of LaSalle, Ontario, and freshman Drew Lasky, of Marshall, were first-team All-MIAA selections, while senior Eric Ross, of Burlington, Ontario, was a second-team selection.

In the eight league rounds, Lasky led the Comets with a 74.4 stroke average.

Lesansky was a close second with a 74.5 average. Gleadall and Ross finished with a 75.4 and 76.4 average, respectively.

Sophomore Nick Harless of DeWitt also participated in all eight rounds, and averaged 78.3 strokes.

“For a freshman, Drew had a great season,” says Morrison. “Justin had a frustrating season last year and used that as motivation to have a great senior season. Brock was mentally ready this year and finished the season very strong.

Eric is our captain and knows a lot about the game of golf. He took a serious approach to the season and wanted to go out on a high. Nick dedicated last summer to improving his game and the results showed on the course this fall.”

Winners of the 2006 and 2007 MIAA championship, the women took first-place at each of the four jamborees and the final two-day championship round this season. They beat runner-up Saint Mary’s (Ind.) College by 57 strokes, 1,977-2,034, and set course records at all four jamborees.

“The defining moment of the fall season was the second jamboree,” said Head Women’s Coach Bill Maas. “We won that outing by 19 strokes to take a 27 stroke lead. A lot of schools were surprised that we won by that many strokes. I think a lot of people thought it would be a closer race this year but our players just stepped up huge.”

The women placed four golfers — senior Lindsay Pipkin, of White Lake, juniors Katie Misko, of Alma, and

Megan Rimmel, of Ithaca, and The men have already received the sophomore Amber Conrad, of Battle league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Creek — on the All-MIAA first-team, Division III National Championships and freshman Lauren Campbell, of May 13-16 in Port St. Lucie, Fla. “I am Fenton, on the All-MIAA second team. happy that we get to go back to nationals,” With her All-MIAA award, Pipkin is the Morrison said. “I know that the guys are first female in school history to earn firstalso excited and fired up for their chance team All-MIAA honors four consecutive to play at a national level.” years. It is also the second consecutive The women will have to play a threeyear that Olivet had all five golfers earn round MIAA playoff next spring to all-league honors. determine the league’s automatic berth for Pipkin was second in the MIAA the national championships. A year ago, player standings with an 81.7 stroke average in six rounds. Conrad, Rimmel and Misko were each separated by one stroke. Conrad led the way at 496 strokes (82.7 average), followed by Rimmel, 497 (82.8), and Misko, 498 (83.0). Campbell averaged 85.5 strokes.

“I am very proud From left: Lindsay Pipkin, Katie Misko, Lauren Campbell, Megan of Lindsay,” Maas said. Rimmel, Amber Conrad, Abby Wheeler, Trisha McKim and Head “Being a four-time All- Coach Bill Maas ’89.

MIAA performer at Olivet is a special thing and I am not even sure if we have the Comets won the playoff and advanced realized the magnitude of it. Katie to the national championships for the stepped up and had a great season. It second consecutive season. The 2008 was not so much that she improved her NCAA Division III National Women’s swing, but her mental focus and attitude Golf Championships will take place at the were much more positive and that made same location and at the same time as the her a better golfer. men’s championships.

“Megan got off to a solid start and “We are in the same position that we that set the tone for her season. I think have been the last two years,” said Maas. that she is ready to take a big step up.

“We need to be focused for the spring Amber just goes out and brings back a season because the rest of the schools are score that we can count almost every time. not going to just hand it to us. We have to She has become a very solid player with a be competitive and prove that we are the bright future. Lauren exceeded my best team.” expectations. I am never quite sure what to expect from a freshman, but I thought that she had a very good first year.”

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Goodman Joins Comet Staff This past summer, Angela Goodman was named Olivet’s new head cross country and track and field coach. She is in charge of both the men’s and women’s programs.

Prior to coming to Olivet, Goodman directed and coached Division I cross country and track and field programs for 14 years. Most recently, she was the director of women’s cross country and track and field at Michigan State University from 1998-2006.

Goodman also served as the head women’s cross Angela Goodman country and track and field coach at the University of Connecticut for two years, graduate assistant track and field coach at Syracuse University for one year

and assistant track and field coach at Yale University for three years.

In addition, Goodman was head women’s coach for the U.S. National Track and Field Team at the 2007 Norwich Union International in Glasgow, Scotland.

She was also an assistant coach for the U.S. National Team at the 2001 World University Games in Beijing, China, and the 1997 Outdoor World Championships in Athens, Greece.

Goodman earned a bachelor’s degree in child development and family studies from Purdue University in 1988. While at Purdue, she was a four-year letterwinner on the track and field team.

In 1987 and 1988, Goodman won the Big Ten Indoor and Outdoor Championship in the triple jump. She holds the Purdue indoor and outdoor record in the triple jump. Goodman was inducted into the Purdue University Women’s Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1994.

2008 Athletic Hall of Fame Ceremony

From left: Bill Feddeler ’62, Patricia Ann (Harding) Weeks ’85 and Dean Souden ’68

Olivet College inducted three new members – Bill Feddeler ’62, Dean Souden ’68 and Patricia Ann (Harding) Weeks ’85 – into its Athletic Hall of Fame Sept. 13. The trio was recognized at halftime of the football game and formally inducted at a dinner after the game.

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Feddeler was a member of the football and track and field teams at Olivet, earning four varsity letters in football and three in track and field. He was a co-captain of the 1961 football team, which finished the season with an 8-1 record. For his efforts, Feddeler earned first-team All-MIAA honors and was named to the AP All-Star Team. In track, he participated in the throwing events and was selected as the team’s MVP in 1959.

Souden earned three varsity letters on the football team, where he played on the offensive line. He earned All-MIAA honors in 1967. Souden was a member of the basketball team. After earning a letter his freshman and sophomore year, he served as the freshman basketball coach.

Weeks was a letterwinner on the volleyball, basketball and softball teams at Olivet. In softball, she was a first-team All-MIAA selection in 1983 and 1984 and was selected as the team’s MVP in 1984.

2008-09 Basketball Schedules MIAA MEN’S SCHEDULE JANUARY 7 HOPE * ...................... 7:30 P.M. 10 @ Trine (Ind.) * .......................... 3 p.m.

14 ALBION * ............................ 8 P.M. 17 @ Kalamazoo * ........................... 3 p.m.

21 @ Calvin * ....................... 7:30 p.m.

24 ALMA * ............................ 3 P.M. 28 @ Adrian * ....................... 7:30 p.m.

31 @ Hope * ....................... 7:30 p.m.

FEBRUARY 4 TRINE (Ind.) * ..................... 7:30 P.M. 7 @ Albion * ............................ 3 p.m.

11 KALAMAZOO * .......................... 8 P.M. 14 CALVIN * ............................ 3 P.M. 18 @ Alma * ............................ 8 p.m.

21 ADRIAN * ............................ 3 P.M. BOLD and CAPS denote home game *Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association game MIAA WOMEN’S SCHEDULE DECEMBER 10 @ Kalamazoo * ........................ 7:30 p.m.

13 SAINT MARY’S (Ind.) * ............... 3 P.M. 22 ADRIAN * ........................ 7:30 P.M. JANUARY 3 MARYGROVE .............................. 2 P.M. 7 @ Alma * ......................... 7:30 p.m.

10 ALBION * .............................. 3 P.M. 14 TRINE (Ind.) * ............................. 6 P.M. 17 @ Hope * .............................. 5 p.m.

21 CALVIN * ........................ 7:30 P.M. 24 @ Adrian * .............................. 3 p.m.

31 KALAMAZOO * ............................ 3 P.M. FEBRUARY 4 @ Saint Mary’s (Ind.) * ............. 7:30 p.m.

7 @ Trine (Ind.) .............................. 1 p.m.

11 ALMA * .............................. 6 P.M. 14 @ Calvin * .............................. 3 p.m.

18 HOPE * ........................ 7:30 P.M. 21 @ Albion * .............................. 3 p.m.

BOLD and CAPS denote home game *Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association game

Comet NEWS & NOTES For the second consecutive year, Olivet College was fourth in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Commissioners’ Cup standings in 2007-08, collecting 110 points. The men were fourth and the women were eighth in their respective All-Sport Standings.

Ninety-two student-athletes received recognition on the 2007-08 MIAA Academic Honor Roll. Nine of those student-athletes – Sarah Boyd, of Napoleon, Ohio; Shannah Fisher, of Delton; Brian Jaffee, of Bowling Green, Ohio; Jennifer Lambarth, of Saline; Andrew Lansang, of Rock Springs, Wyo.; Courtney Mich, of Bay City; Dustin Meisner, of Temperance; Jessica Petkus, of Milford; and Rachel Tunison, of Erie –

MIAA Commissioner David Nielson presents Dustin Meisner with the Al Deal Award.

achieved the honor for the fourth consecutive year.

Five teams – women’s swimming and diving (3.460), women’s golf (3.402), women’s basketball (3.386), volleyball (3.340) and women’s cross country (3.331) – received the 2007-08 MIAA Team GPA award.

Meisner was the recipient of the 2007-08 MIAA Al Deal Award, which is presented annually to the graduating senior who has excelled in academics and athletics, as well as displayed outstanding leadership qualities. Meisner was also named to the 2008 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® first-team. He is the first student-athlete in school history to be a two-time first-team Academic All-America® selection.

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams were named to the 2007-08 College Swimming Coaches Athletic Association (CSCAA) Academic All-American team.

Individually, Kellen Beckwith, of Farmington Hills, was named a CSCAA Scholar Academic AllMike May American. Meisner and Mich are CSCAA Honorable Mention Scholar Academic All-Americans.

The men’s soccer team placed three players on the 2008 All-MIAA teams.

Sophomore forward Mike May, of Mason, was a first-team selection, while sophomore goalie Ethan Felsing, of Mason, and senior forward Graham Lockwood, of Haslett, were second-team selections. May led the Comets in scoring with 25 points (10 goals and five assists).

Lockwood was second with 21 points (nine goals and three assists).

Felsing started every game in goal, made 95 saves and posted a 1.40 goals against average. Olivet Lizzy Julian finished with a 10-91 record for its first winning season since 2000 and tied for third in the MIAA standings with an 8-6 record.

Freshmen Lizzy Julian, of Mattawan, and Faith Hatt, of Rochester Hills, led the Olivet women’s soccer team in 2008. Julian

scored 16 goals to go along with three assists for 35 points, while Hatt had 23 points (eight goals and team-leading seven assists). Julian and senior Kellie O’Dowd, of Jackson, earned second-team AllMIAA honors.

Five football players earned 2008 All-MIAA honors. Junior running back Pat Clasgens, of Livonia, junior punter Ryan Patten, of Charlotte, senior defensive back Michael Terranova, of Lansing, and junior linebacker Hakeem Yakubu, of Kalamazoo, were first-team selections, while junior defensive back Alex Hill, of Berrien Springs, was a second-team selection.

Three new assistant coaches joined the Olivet athletic staff this fall. Mike

Mike Smith

Chris Stewart

Smith and Chris Stewart are now part of the football coaching staff. Smith is also serving the college as a freshmen retention officer, while Stewart is also an instructor, assistant strength and conditioning coach and assistant track and field coach.

Bubby Leasure served as the goalkeepers’ coach for both the men’s and women’s soccer programs. In addition, Heather Heather Sjoquist Sjoquist joined the athletic staff as an assistant athletic trainer.

The wrestling team will host the Mid-States Conference Tournament Feb. 7, 2009. The Comets were ranked No. 16 in the preseason National Wrestling Coaches Association Coaches Poll. Senior Kyle Vanderhyde, of Sparta, is the top-ranked wrestler at 174 pounds, while senior Jason Brew, of Sparta, is No. 2 at 157 pounds.

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Class Notes FROM THE OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS Olivet’s 2008 Homecoming, “Getting Better With Time,” was exciting. More alumni were on campus than during any other Homecoming I’ve been a part of.

Thank you for making it a memorable time for so many.

You still have time to contribute to Olivet College before the year ends. Remember, the classes with the highest giving percentage, largest class gift and the largest percentage of increase in participation for 2008 will be recognized during Commencement May 16, 2009.

Marty (Mason) Jennings ’67 The holidays are just ahead.

I want to wish each of you a very happy holiday season and a healthy and prosperous new year.

Please stay in touch. I really enjoy hearing from you.

1930s Larida (Scott) Petersen ’31 recently spent a month at the home of her son Steve Petersen ex’67 in Decatur. While at home in Olivet she enjoys having son Francis Petersen ’69 read to her; the most recent book was “Brothers Karamazov,” followed by a book discussion. Daily walks keep her healthy.

1940s Betty (Pugh) Henning ’42 lives in Fort Wayne, Ind., where she retired in 1993, having been the librarian for the young adult department at the Fort Wayne Library for 30 years. After graduation she worked as an admissions counselor for Olivet College. Her former husband, Bob Henning ’42, now deceased, was in the Navy, and with his travels, they lived in California, Illinois and Virginia. She eventually went back to Indiana where she and daughter, Susie, now deceased, attended the University of Indiana. Betty earned her master’s degree in library science while Susie earned her master’s in journalism. Betty has fond memories of her four years on campus, especially living in the Soronian house and her friendships with her sorority sisters.

Betty (Pugh) Henning ’42

Yours truly,

1950s

Marty (Mason) Jennings ’67 Director of Alumni Relations (269) 749-7644 mjennings@olivetcollege.edu

Dean Lewis ’55 and wife, Jeanene, recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a family dinner and seashore vacation at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. They were married June 21, 1958, at the First Presbyterian Church in Sturgis and have five children and 13 grandchildren. Dean has practiced law in Kalamazoo for many years. Jeanene is a former teacher and business owner. E-mail Dean at lewisinkazoo@juno.com.

Upcoming Alumni Events

Roy Schreck ’56 donated his beloved collection of Civil War books to Olivet College. Roy is a retired teacher and was inducted into the Olivet College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007.

Jan. 30 Alumni Social and Presentation: “Recession: Bad News or Buying Opportunity?” Hosted by Steve Jones ’77, Grand Rapids Art Museum, includes refreshments, live jazz and tours. More details to come.

March 13 Jupiter, Fla. Alumni Social March 14 Marco Island, Fla. Alumni Social March 15 Sarasota, Fla. Alumni Social

Neal Ballheim ex’59, Rotary International District 6400 past governor, was presented with the prestigious H. Williams Ives Lifetime Achievement Award in July at the district conference in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Neal has been owner and manager of the Ballheim Funeral Home in Ecorse since 1962 and is a graduate of Wayne State University’s mortuary science program. E-mail Neal at nballheim@sbcglobal.net.

Oct. 9-11 Homecoming, football game vs. Kalamazoo Neal Ballheim ex’59 (left)

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George Gullen ’61 with the Grosse Ile Chorale performing in Beijing.

1960s George Gullen ’61 went to China during the summer with the Grosse Ile Chorale, performing in concert in Beijing, Xian and Shanghai. Each concert was given jointly with one or more Chinese choirs. The Grosse Ile Chorale performed at the Michigan Choral Directors Association meeting at Central Michigan University Nov. 1. E-mail George at gulleng@comcast.net.

Janis (Austin) Boling ’63 retired in May from her job as office manager of a law firm, having worked there for 18 years. Jan is working part-time but spends her free time with grandchildren, gardening and reading. She has two sons, one daughter and three granddaughters. E-mail Jan at jboling@broadstripe.net.

Tom Appel ’65 just returned from spending a month on an Elderhostel trip with 12 others in Southeast Asia, beginning in Bangkok, Thailand and ending in Ho Chi Minh City. Laos and Cambodia were also visited. The trip included visits to temples; experiencing local modes of transportation; lectures on the cultures; meetings with locals to discuss wildlife preservation, sustainable agriculture, economics, politics and education; and visits to world heritage sites. E-mail Tom at TAppel1864@aol.com.

Sharon (Carlisle) Brolick ex’65, in her seventh year with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Oklahoma, was promoted to district director.

Her responsibilities include all fund-raising efforts, developing corporate partnerships in the community and the local district’s board development. Sharon and husband, Hank, have four children and 11 grandchildren.

E-mail Sharon at Sharon.brolick@bbbsok.org.

Sharon (Carlisle) Brolick ex’65 Terry Connon ’65, with his company, Audio Visual Connections, Inc., is the provider of audiovisual rental equipment and services to the Hilton Carillon Park in Dallas and The Hilton Southlake Town Square Hotel in Southlake, Texas. The hotels were recently awarded first and second place with the prestigious “Connie Award” by the Hilton Hotel Corporation for overall customer service and satisfaction in all of North America. Terry took part in the presentation. E-mail Terry at tconnon@tampabay.rr.com.

Carol (Fergerson) Westby ’67 is the online facilitator and legislative ambassador of Sanilac County School retirees chapter of Michigan Association Retired School Personnel (MARSP). She is a member of the local Lions Club and recently moved from Texas to Michigan. E-mail Carol at jackadandy@aol.com.

Bob Ferguson ’68 spends much of his time in sub-Saharan Africa where he is helping upgrade tuberculosis laboratories. Much of his time is spent in Tanzania.

Candi (Carpenter) Putnam ’68 recently retired from the Marshall School District. Candi was a teacher, principal, adult education director, and for 22 years the community education director. She also taught in Coldwater and Lebanon Junction, Ky. E-mail Candi at candiceputnam@me.com.

Jon Rupright ’68 is a board-certified doctor in physical medicine and rehabilitation and general medicine at the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia, Mo. He is also the clinical associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation and has been the medical director of traumatic brain injury rehabilitation programs for 17 years. He has been published and does research in neuropharmacology for memory in brain injury, and is currently conducting a study of Namenda (an FDA-approved medicine that has been proven to safely treat symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease) in memory and attention, and faith and healing for brain injury. E-mail Jon at ruprightj@health.missouri.edu.

Lorna (Brown) Spencer ’68 and her daughter, Courtney, business partner for seven years, recently bought the Baltimore office of A Choice Nanny, a nanny referral service. Lorna has owned the Columbia office in Howard County, Md., for 18 years. They help parents find nannies and positions for nannies in the central Maryland area. E-mail Lorna at lbspencer@verizon.net.

Oliver Tuthill ’68 is finishing production on his newest film “The Right to Bear Arms,” starring John Savage and Tara Walker. The film tells the story of illegal gun dealers targeting a United States prosecuting attorney for assassination.

Oliver wrote the screenplay, is directing the film and is also playing the role of the federal prosecuting attorney. Post-production is due to be completed by late spring 2009. E-mail Oliver at owtuthi@earthlink.net.

Tony Kruzman ’67 is the principal of the Pine Lake/Oakland University Collaborative School in Bloomfield Hills. Tony is in his 39th year as an educator.

E-mail Tony at TKruzman@bloomfield.org.

Hisatake “Hisa” Shibamoto ex’67 met with President Don Tuski ’85, Ph.D., and Vice President for Institutional Advancement Mark Veich in October on their trip to Japan. Hisa is the president and chief executive officer for New Holland HFT Japan, Inc., the leading farm equipment importer and retailer in Japan.

E-mail Hisa at LEL02306@nifty.com.

From left: Hisatake “Hisa” Shibamoto ex’67, Olivet President Don Tuski ’85, Ph.D., and Mark Veich.

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Class Notes Brian Benner ’69 was recently named to the 2008 Michigan Super Lawyers list of outstanding lawyers. He was selected out of a group of lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Brian’s firm, Benner and Foran, in Farmington Hills, handles cases involving vehicular accidents, vacation injuries, airplane crashes, medical malpractice, general negligence, products liability, workplace incidents, workers’ compensation, employment law and immigration. His offices are also located in New York, California, Nevada and Washington, D.C., as well as in England, Germany and Switzerland. E-mail Brian at bbenner@brianbennerlawfirm.com.

Karl Hollander ’69 lives and works as an art administrator and artist in Melbourne, Fla. E-mail Karl at karlhollander@msn.com.

1970s John Baker ’72 retired from teaching three years ago. He is a substitute teacher for the Portage schools and a coach for the wrestling team at North Middle School in Portage. E-mail John at gpackerfanatic@aol.com.

Martin Kapff ’72 and partner Bob Merliss live in Palm Springs, Calif. Martin would enjoy hearing from classmates. E-mail Martin at socialbear@aol.com.

Doug Burger ’73 retired from Marshall Middle School after teaching math and science for 35 years. He continues as the assistant football coach for the school’s varsity offensive line and defensive end positions. E-mail Doug at sburger@cablespeed.com.

Martin “Marty” Mitchell ’73 and wife Shirlee celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary Nov. 2. Marty is the president and chief executive officer for Starr Commonwealth, a boarding school for troubled youth. He is also a member of the Olivet College Board of Trustees. Marty and Shirlee have three daughters: Lisa, married to Vice President Mark Veich, Lynda Kipp and Leslie Brown’01, and four grandchildren. E-mail Marty at mitchellm@starr.org.

Liz Walker ’73 is leaving WBZ-TV in Boston after 28 years. She is an ordained minister at the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain, Mass. She has traveled several times to war-ravaged Sudan, and in 2002 produced a documentary about the country titled “In the Lion’s Mouth.”

Jim Chapin ’76 arrived in Kuwait in March and will be returning to Michigan in December. He is the Installation Chaplain for the Army Life Support Area at Ali Al Salem Base in Kuwait. The location is known as “Theatre Gateway,” because most military and civilian personnel pass through this area when going into Afganistan or Iraq. E-mail Jim at james.chapin@asab.afcent.af.mil.

Jim Chapin ’76

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John Jones ’76 was recently promoted to senior vice president of regional and physician services for Bronson Healthcare in Kalamazoo.

Martha Hart ’78 sang with the Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck in August.

She has preformed throughout North America and France, recording extensively and has presented master classes at various universities. Robert Byrens ’79 is also part of the Saugatuck music organization. E-mail Martha at tmchart@grm.net.

Timothy Wiltse ’78 is the chief financial officer of Visiting Nurse Associations of America, Inc. (VNAA) in Washington, D.C. VNAA is the national membership association for all visiting nurse and home health agencies. Timothy and wife, Ann (Benson) ’89, have one daughter and live in Harpers Ferry, W. Va. E-mail Timothy at twiltse@vnaa.org.

Richard Aaron ’79 has joined the law practice of Fahey Schultz Burzych Rhodes PLC, in Okemos. Richard is a recognized expert in energy and public utility law. He serves DTE Energy and is counsel to the Midland Cogeneration Venture, the state’s largest independent power producer, and to Indiana Michigan Power Company.

Richard is a frequent speaker and writer on regulatory and public utility topics.

Cindy (Weikle) Heator ’79 spent the summer in Jackson, Wyo., visiting her sister. Her daughter, Shelby Heator ’08, and Jesse Keene ’08 moved to Jackson, Wyo. after graduation. E-mail Cindy at cheator@unioncityschools.org.

1980s Rev. Edward Dawson’82, D.Min., has From left: Cindy (Weikle) Heator ’79, been appointed hospital chaplain at Banner Shelby Heator ’08, and Jesse Estrella Medical Center in Phoenix. He Keene ’08. continues serving as adjunct faculty at South Mountain Community College, teaching world religions and rock music and culture, as well as private organ and piano. He also hosts a radio program called “SELAH,” serves as organist at Fisher Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church, and serves on the South Mountain Interfaith Coalition Board and the Arizona Ecumenical Council. E-mail Edward at RevED@rock.com or Edward.Dawson@smcmail.maricopa.edu.

Bethany (Spence) Henson ’86 is living in Rochester Hills with husband, Bill, and children, Hannah, 18, Alex, 16, and Sam, 13. She has a photography studio and works as a special investigator for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. E-mail Bethany at bethanyhenson@gmail.com.

Joe ’87 and Stacie (Shively) ’86 Rogers renewed their vows on Saturday, July 26, celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary From left: Stacie (Shively) ’86, with family and friends.

Rev. Mike Fales ’75 and Joe Rogers ’87.

Rev. Mike Fales ’75 officiated the ceremony in the Olivet Congregational Church. Mark Simon ’86 and Marianne (McKay) Swager ex’89 were present.

maintained with a great deal of accuracy. Nicole is married to Eldon Evans ’91; they have a son, Edward, 19. E-mail Nicole at nevans@cityofeastlansing.com.

Rev. Kathy Chesney ’88 is enrolled at Sioux Falls Seminary in Sioux Falls, S. D., working on a Master of Divinity degree. She was appointed by the Dakotas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church to serve the parishes of Philip and Interior, S.D. E-mail Kathy at chez@gwtc.net.

Rob ’94 and Tara (Lulis) ’94 Karbowski live in Portage. Rob is the purchasing manager for the Three Rivers plant of American Axle Manufacturing. They have two children, Zachary, 10, and Tenley, 6. E-mail Rob at karbo71@yahoo.com; and Tara at tkarbo72@yahoo.com.

Jerome Webster ’88, Ph.D., is the vice president for student and administrative affairs at Terra Community College in Fremont, Ohio.

He was a presidential fellow at the college while at the University of Toledo and served as Terra’s dean of students from July 2001 to December 2002. Since that time, he has been the dean of students at both Lawrence Technological University in Southfield and Cuyahoga Community College’s eastern campus in Highland Hills, Ohio.

Dan Smith ’97 is the client liaison for the Information Systems Alliance in Midland.

Dan coached the Central Michigan Colts baseball team to an eighth place finish in the 2008 World Series in Lafayette, Ind. He coached baseball at St. Louis (Mich.)

High School for eight seasons, compiling a 198-75 record while winning four league championships. Dan was recently signed to be the assistant coach at Saginaw Valley State University for the 2008-09 season. Dan and wife, Mindy, live in Midland with daughters, Summer, 5, and Allison, 3. E-mail Dan at northporter14@yahoo.com.

Kim (Bosman) ’93 and Brad ’94 Rauchfuss moved to Illinois, where Brad is the manager of human resources at the Kraft Foods plant in Champaign, Ill. Their children are Rachel, 8, Dean, 7, and Alexandra, 4. E-mail Brad at Bradley.rauchfuss@kraft.com.

Mike Fitzpatrick ’98 coaches football and directs the theater department’s spring plays for Marshall High School. Mike and wife, Cassandra (Arnold) ’99, have two sons, Jake, 4, and Ben, 1. E-mail Mike at mfitzpatrick@marshall.k12.mi.us.

Loren Partlo ’89 recently completed a 14month assignment, working at the United States Military Academy as the assistant director of Jerome Webster ’88, Ph.D. and instructor for the West Point cadet boxing program. He is currently working in the Detroit area for the Department of the Navy as the educational specialist in charge of servicing Michigan and Indiana. Loren is also working on his doctorate in educational leadership from Central Michigan University. E-mail Loren at Loren.Partlo@Navy.mil.

Ann (Benson) Wiltse ’89 is the study coordinator in the pharmaceutical toxicology study division with MedImmune, Inc. of Gaithersburg, Md. She is married to Timothy ’78. E-mail Ann at wiltsea@yahoo.com.

1990s Caraly Anne Foreman ’90, after working 18 years in government (two years overseas and 16 in Arizona), now lives in Austin, Texas. She is the legislative liaison and senior planner for the Department of Transportation for the state of Texas.

E-mail Caraly at caralyanne@att.net.

Nicole (Bennett) Evans ’91 is East Lansing’s new city clerk. She has been working for the city for 16 years. She now oversees the municipality’s elections, and manages information that needs to be

Michael Manning ’92 is a seventh grade language arts teacher in South Carolina.

E-mail Michael at mikermanning@hotmail.com.

Scott Barry ’99 has been working as an umpire in professional baseball for nine years. Currently he works in Triple-A and fills in for Major League Baseball. Over the past three years he has worked 200 games in the major leagues; 135 of those games were during the 2008 season. Scott and wife, Christine (May) ’01, live in Quincy and have two sons, Cameron, 3, and Alex, 2. E-mail Scott at sabarry@charter.net.

2000s Scott Pratt ’00 is the assistant director of Oak Park Recreation.

Scott earned his Master in Sports Administration from Wayne State University in May 2008. He and wife, Erika, have two daughters, Sofia, 3, and Maya, 10 months.

E-mail Scott at spratt@ci.oakpark.mi.us.

From left: Daughter Sofia, Scott Pratt ’00, wife Erika and daughter Maya.

Nicole (Bennett) Evans ’91

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Class Notes Steffen Cornell ’06 was listed in the last edition of Shipherd’s Record with an incorrect e-mail address. E-mail Steffen at CornellS@michigan.gov.

Meghan (Egan) Kunzelman ’06 is teaching high school math and is the varsity volleyball and softball coach and assistant girls’ basketball coach at Stone Memorial High School in Crossville, Tenn. This fall her volleyball team finished the season as district, regional and sectional champions and made it to the final four in the Tennessee State Tournament. The team had a record of 46-7, and Meghan was named Co-Coach of the Year in her district. Husband, Benjamin Kunzelman ’06, is working for Cummins Filtration as a technical assistant and coordinator of knowledge management. E-mail at Meghan_egan55@yahoo.com.

From Left: Ed and Lyn Collins, Jean Paul Cortes, Richard Vahs and Ponja (Davenport) Vahs ’03.

Klorida “Ridi” Miraj ’02 is a program manager at Microsoft in Seattle, Wash.

E-mail Ridi at Klorida.miraj@gmail.com.

Ponja (Davenport) Vahs ’03 and husband Richard met with senior Jean Paul Cortes and Olivet College employees Lyn and Ed Collins at Dollywood in Gatlinburg, Tenn., during their summer vacation. E-mail Ponja at pvahs@olivetcollege.edu.

Heather Cook ’04 is a packaging development coordinator at Alliance Associates in Coldwater. E-mail Heather at cookhm@yahoo.com.

Jack Lingenfelter ’04 works for the Department of Defense for the TankAutomotive and Armaments Command (TACOM), headquartered in Warren. It is one of the Army’s largest weapon systems research, development and sustainment organizations. Jack is a contract specialist for the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWV) and is responsible for the procurement and engineering changes on the HMMWVs which are purchased for the Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy. Once purchased, the vehicles are used for training in the United States and sent to Southwest Asia to be used in the war. Jack also owns J & M Tent Rentals in Warren. E-mail Jack at jack.lingenfelter1@us.army.mil.

Denise (Ritzer) Folkersma ’07 is a customer representative for Northwestern Bank in Manistee. She is in training to become a personal banker. Denise is on the board of the Manistee Jaycees and does publicity for them.

Hristo Kozhuharov ’07 was selected as one of Omicron Delta Kappa’s 2008 scholarship recipients. To be chosen, recipients must have been a senior or have graduated within the past five years and must have maintained at least a 3.5 From left: Olivet junior Katelyn Harmon, GPA. He or she must have Deyan Kozhuharov ’08, Hristo Kozhuharov ’07 planned to enroll as a graduate ` Ann Vang at Homecoming. and fiancee student within three years from the date of the application. Hristo is currently attending Concordia University in Ann Arbor and working for CoverX Corporation in Southfield. E-mail Hristo at hkozhuharov@yahoo.com.

Jason Marino ’07 is the human resource manager for Tenneco Automotive/Elite Staffing Inc. in Marshall. He is also a defensive back coach for the freshmen and junior varsity teams at Battle Creek Central High School. Jerry Miller ex’06 coaches with Jason. E-mail Jason at jmarino@elitestaffinginc.com.

Priyanka Mehra ’04 is working for Mint (www.livemint.com), a financial daily publication, in New Delhi, India. She covers marketing and advertising and writes for Campaign, the paper’s weekly marketing supplement. E-mail Priyanka at Primehra@hotmail.com.

Eleni Mitropoulos ’07 was an intern for the Detroit Tigers after graduation, doing Internet technology. She then traveled to France and upon return became a copy editor for The Battle Creek Enquirer. She also traveled to Greece for several weeks during the summer. E-mail Eleni at gemini6886@yahoo.com.

Katie (Graebner) Ingraham ’05 is a complex director at the University of Buffalo in New York. Katie graduated with her master’s degree in student affairs in higher education May 9 from Western Kentucky University. E-mail Katie at kgraebner@gmail.com.

Eleni Mitropoulos ’07

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The Ring That Came Full Circle

BY MARTY (MASON) JENNINGS ’67

Adeola “Eunice” Oladele ’07 spent the summer in Nigeria, her homeland, where she was a television intern. She is in her last semester at the City University of New York’s graduate school of journalism.

E-mail Eunice at aeoladele@hotmail.com.

Adeola “Eunice” Oladele ’07

Mauricio Palli ’07 is an admissions counselor for Robert Morris College in Chicago. He assists prospective, returning and continuing students with all aspects of the admissions process. E-mail Mauricio at mpalli@robertmorris.edu.

Igor Rasula ’08 is in the Erasmus Mundus master’s program in journalism and media with Globalization. He is studying in Denmark for the first semester and Amsterdam for the second, and will study in the United Kingdom in 2009-10. E-mail Igor at igorrasula@yahoo.com.

Kate Strein ’08 is in Taiwan, teaching 20 English classes a week to third, fifth and sixth graders. E-mail Kate at kstrein@yahoo.com.

Igor Rasula ’08

Kate Strein ’08

On graduation day in 1977, Matthew Nemer-Kaiser was thrilled when his parents surprised him with an Olivet College class ring. He wore it for eight years, and then it just disappeared one day while he was boating at the Saint Clair Marina. Matthew had “wept and had long lamented about it,” and as years passed, he was convinced that he would never see his ring again.

In June, I received an e-mail from Melanie Jones in Huntsville, Ala., describing an Olivet College, ring with the initials “JNK” and “Alpha Psi Omega” engraved inside; she wanted to find the owner.

Melanie’s grandfather had been the harbor master at the marina and had found the ring in 1985. After his death, the ring went to Melanie. She kept it for years, moving from Michigan to Oklahoma, Texas and Idaho, and then to Alabama.

I went through Matthew Nemer-Kaiser ’77 yearbooks and checked the registrar’s office, but no male student had the three initials that were on the ring. As a last resort I decided to mention the ring in Olivet’s E-Newsletter.

Brad Mellor ’76 responded to the E-Newsletter with several suggestions, but with each one the middle initial did not match. The following day Brad e-mailed again, saying “I found him! The ring belongs to Matthew Jonas Nemer-Kaiser, who was one of my two best friends from college. When I called him, he just about flipped out. What an awesome coincidence!” There were supposed to have been four large initials on the ring, but when it was inscribed, the “M” was smaller than the other letters. When Melanie contacted me, she did not mention the smaller “M.” After the discovery, Matthew called me, and I put him in touch with Melanie. They talked about the “traveling” ring, which she immediately mailed to him, and Matthew thanked her with a gift of flowers. Melanie’s husband, MoJo, a disc jockey on 104.3 WZYP in Huntsville, interviewed Matthew on air, and the uplifting story was even mentioned on the local television station.

After receiving the ring Matthew said, “In the summer I sew canvas and upholstery in the Saint Clair Harbor. I want to use the Saint Clair Boat Harbor for a huge used boat show next spring. For my efforts in organizing this event, I would like a large amount of the proceeds to go to Safe Horizons, a domestic abuse shelter in Saint Clair County. I guess Melanie’s deceased grandfather, the former harbor master, decided to give me a reward for my efforts (in organizing a fund-raiser for a worthy cause).”

The ring came full circle! In this day and age, isn’t it heartwarming to hear a story with such a happy ending?

Matthew is a teacher at Hamtramck High School and lives near St. Clair.

E-mail Matthew at jonasnemer@yahoo.com.

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Dozier Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Nelson Kjos ’62

On Saturday, Oct. 25, Bobby Dozier ’68 was honored at the Public School League (PSL) Football Championship in Detroit where he received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Head football coach at Mackenzie High School for 26 years, Bobby coached three players who led their National Football League (NFL) teams to Super Bowl Championships: Jerome Bettis, former Los Angeles Ram and Pittsburgh Steeler; Pepper Johnson, former New York Giant, Cleveland Brown, Detroit Lion and New York Jet; and Gilbert Brown, former Green Bay Packer. Four more of his players also went on to play in the NFL: Kevin Brooks, Derrick Carr, Reggie Thornton and Sylvester Wright.

Bobby is a member of the Bobby Dozier ’68 (left) accepting Olivet College Athletic Hall of his award.

Fame and the Michigan High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame. He is a member of the National Football Coaches Association, National Coaches Association, Michigan and National Athletic Directors Association, Friends of Mackenzie Board of Directors and the NAACP. On Saturday, July 19, Bobby attended the Green Bay Packers 38th Hall of Fame Induction Banquet when Gilbert Brown was inducted. “I am proud for him, his family, Mackenzie and the PSL,” Bobby said. “He is a great guy on- and off- thefield, and he matured into a wonderful man.”

In 2002 Bobby retired and now lives in Houston where he continues to inspire the youth of America as a motivational speaker. E-mail Bobby at RDOZ48234@aol.com.

In addition to his love of mathematics, Nelson Kjos ’62 discovered a knack for writing poetry while a student at Olivet. In 1969, Nelson founded the Registered Investment Advisory Firm and in 1971, he created the Technical Tick Index, a major stock market forecasting tool.

Through the years, he managed the portfolios of individuals, corporations, municipalities and a value mutual fund. He also served as a financial columnist for a leading minority newspaper and published several volumes of poetry. Nelson recently combined his talents as a writer and financial manager to create “The Renaissance Poet of Wall Street and Nelson Kjos ’62 Main Street: The Collected Poems and Prose 1960-2007,” his latest book of poetry. The following is a poem from the book: Democracy and the Patriot (A Conversation) Patriot: My vigilant and majestic friend, my beloved democracy, the freedom defender of the people.

Democracy: Your enthusiasm invigorates me.

Yet, there are those who violently disagree with you.

Patriot: Fortunately, society is supportive of your sister, the rule of law,without her, you would surely wither away.

Democracy: You are how you live. Once I was the underdog, and now I’m the norm.

Patriot: Your persistence of justice for everyone overwhelms me.

Nevertheless, the rogue nations and barbarians continue planning your downfall.

Democracy: Menacing as my enemies are, my strength and resolve grows stronger every day.

Alumni Trip to France - Oct. 31 - Nov. 8, 2009 A perfect start and end to your French trip – “The City of Lights” – Paris. Enjoy a seven-night cruise in an outside stateroom, visiting Auvers-sur-Oise, where Van Gogh lived; the stunning Gothic cathedral of Rouen; the charming harbor town with slateroofed houses in Honfleur; the home and village of Monet in Giverny; the beaches of Normandy where the Allied Forces landed; a tour of Paris; and more on a journey aboard the River Baroness, cruising the Seine, Rhone and Saone rivers. Based on double occupancy, rates are $2,096 per person for category 3 or $2,346 per person for category 2; includes airfare of approximately $1,000. For more information, contact Marty (Mason) Jennings ’67 at (269) 749-9017 or mjennings@olivetcollege.edu.

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Patriot: Millions of people have been killed, (journalists, politicians, teachers, students, workers, judges, lawyers, police officers, firefighters, artists, poets, writers, citizens, and the men and women of the armed services) shedding their blood for you.

Democracy: Courageous people who cherish the freedom of speech, worship, press, and work are willing to fight those who oppose their innate human rights.

Patriot: You inspire me in a way that never ends.

Democracy: And the will of free and loving people inspires me.

However, the world’s fight for freedom is never-ending, and never-ending I will be.

My Adopted Alma Mater

BY LINDA JO SCOTT, PH.D., PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF ENGLISH Though I am a 1961 alumna of Yankton College in Yankton, S.D., I have chosen to adopt Olivet as my true alma mater.

I have made this choice because my own college, sad to say, closed its doors in 1984 and has now become a federal minimumsecurity prison.

My connections to Yankton go back a long way, for my grandparents first met there before the turn of the 20th century, and 27 relatives have since gone to the high school academy or the college on that campus over the years.

Like Olivet, Yankton was affiliated with the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches and United Church of Christ, and was founded by an earnest Christian man who believed in extending higher education out into the wilderness.

What stimulated my desire to write about my former alma mater for Shipherd’s Record was that, after many years away from the college, I went back for an all-class reunion this last summer. It was quite natural for me to be fearful that the campus would feel so different Linda Jo Scott that my memories of it would be spoiled.

But, surprisingly, I was pleased with what I saw. The campus looks better than it ever did. Old buildings have been completely restored and prisoners work regularly on the grounds, which have far more flowers and far fewer weeds than ever.

Yet still, my beloved college is no longer a college and Olivet has provided me with a kind and loving adoptive home ever since Yankton closed its doors.

It was at Olivet that I took up creative writing. Back in 1980, as a literature professor, I was asked to teach a course in poetry writing. I quickly started writing poems along with my students,

and what became a passion for writing of all kinds has now grown into a part-time second career as a freelance journalist and columnist for the Marshall Ad-Visor and Battle Creek Enquirer.

It was at Olivet that I began playing the violin more seriously, joining the Battle Creek Symphony back in 1978, when I first came to Olivet. I also played at many of my students’ weddings, as well as in churches, restaurants, country clubs and for various organizations.

It was at Olivet I met fellow faculty and staff members and students who have become life-long friends.

It was at Olivet that I started going to church again, for 20 years at the Olivet Congregational Church and then, eventually, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lansing.

It was at Olivet that I got most of my experience in teaching, all of which I am now putting to use as a part-time teacher of older folks in the Institute for Learning in Retirement, through Kellogg Community College.

Since my retirement in 1998, I have enjoyed my various ties with the college, volunteering at the Oak Chest every Tuesday morning, writing articles for Shipherd’s Record, attending (and sometimes participating in) various concerts, judging the Leo T. Hendrick Writing Prize entries and getting to be the guest poet for the Abbie Copps Poetry Contest, which I had run for 18 years.

So now you understand why, even though I never attended Olivet, my heart now belongs to the college and I will be forever grateful that I have become one of her adopted alums.

Noel Dean’s Pink Arrow Project Benefits Cancer Survivors

Noel Dean ’91

While watching NFL quarterback Brett Favre’s wife, Deanna, sport a pink jersey during a game, Lowell High School (LHS) Football Coach Noel Dean ’91 came up with a unique idea for a fund-raiser. So on Sept. 12, the Lowell Red Arrows became the Pink Arrows for one night. Suiting up in pink jerseys to honor breast cancer survivors, victims and their families, more than $100,000 was raised to benefit three community efforts in the fight against cancer. This more than doubled the team’s expectations.

“When we started this project in its original form it was for awareness and selfless actions for community service. It grew to be honoring and fund-raising, as well,” Dean said. The entire community got involved by selling and wearing pink T-shirts for the game.

“There is more to high school football than football. I thought this would be a unique way to get us back to our roots, to what really matters. This whole project was amazing. There is a sense that there is a greater good, and I like that,” Dean said in a press release from LHS. Dean has been the football coach at LHS for 13 years with a record of 125-23. Within the last five years he has won two state championships with 11 playoff appearances. E-mail him at NDean@lowell.k12.mi.us.

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MARRIAGES Tammy McKee ’92 and David Walters, Oct. 26, 2007, Olivet Congregational Church. Linda McGuire ’04 was the matron of honor. E-mail Tammy at tammyf2006@sbcglobal.net.

Cameron A. Lakatos ’01 and Vaughn Hurlbut, June 14, 2008, Lumen Ecclesiae Chapel, Siena Heights University in Adrian. The wedding party included Olivetians Dan Gonzales ex’01, Gail (Hoag) Lakatos ’01, Patrick Lakatos ’00, Greg Lippert ’99, Mickey Seelye ’03, Brad Slusher ’02 and Josh Vance ’99.

E-mail Cameron at CALakatos@Dow.com.

Eric Pocan ’03 and Amy Yockey ex’05, Aug. 16, 2008, Eagle Eye Golf Club in East Lansing. Olivetians in the wedding included Abbie Adams ex’05, Benji Garza ’05 and Travis Miller ’04. E-mail Eric at epocan28@hotmail.com.

Alvin Littel ’04 and Danielle McCamman, May 10, 2008, Kanley Chapel on Western Michigan University’s campus. Rev. Mike Fales ’75 officiated. Alvin is teaching at Bangor Middle School and coaching wrestling. E-mail Alvin at alvinlittel@yahoo.com.

Erica Anderson ’06 and Aaron Knowlton ex’04, June 14, 2008, Conklin.

Olivetians in the wedding were Andrew Boyd ’04, Jake Casey ’08, Dan Kilberg ’07, Jerry Miller ex’06, Glen Pafford ’03, senior Aryn Perkins, Katie Reed ’06, Allison R. Shakinis ’06, Ryan Swartz ex’04, Gina M. Willard ’06 and Jacob Warren ex’06. E-mail Erica at erk41@hotmail.com.

Meghan Egan ’06 and Benjamin Kunzelman ’06, June 28, 2008. The wedding party included Olivetians Andy Feuerstein ’07, Brian Hardin ex’08, Matt Kunzelman ex’05, Jenna (Little) Long ex’06, Mark Long ’05, Joline Mangus ’05 and Tanja Rupert ’04.

Joel Jolink ’06 and Kari Searles ’06, July 19, 2008, Olivet Congregational Church. Rev. Mike Fales ’75 officiated. Olivetians in the wedding were Andy Feuerstein ’07 and Austin Lortz ex’06. Joel is teaching seventh grade and Kari sixth grade at Marshall Middle School. E-mail Joel at joeljolink@gmail.com and Kari at karijolink@gmail.com.

In Memoriam

Thelma (Bowes) Pryor ’27, Oct. 13, 2008, Chelsea.

Mildred (Towsley) Maes Parrott ’32, July 29, 2008, Marshall E. Newman Pettitt ’37, July 1, 2008. Fountain Hills, Ariz. His wife, Dorothy (Densmore) Pettitt ’36 preceded him in death in 1999.

Carol Collins ’38, April 23, 2008, Carmel Valley, Calif.

Paul Hockstad ’40, Aug. 11, 2008, Traverse City Mary (Porter Coates) Wresche ’42, Oct. 2, 2008, Marshall.

She is survived by daughter Pat (Coates) Zook ’68, and son-in-law Tom Zook ’67.

Ruth L. LeBlond ’43, Oct. 28, 2007, Saint Johns Vera Karlan ’44, Dec. 1, 2007, White Plains, New York Lois F. Thomson ’44, June 21, 2008, Decatur, Ala. Elizabeth (Steward) McCloud ’46, May 29, 2008, Malibu, Calif.

Richard Miller ’46, June 27, 2008, Cincinnati, Ohio. He is survived by wife, Mary Joan (Sternlight) Miller ’45. E-mail Mary Joan at rjmiller@eos.net.

Charlotte A. Brick ’47, March 16, 2006, Chippewa Falls, Wisc.

Budwin Conn ’48, June 4, 2007, Boston, Mass.

Marcia Mueller ’48, Jan. 11, 2007. Asheville, N.C. Beatrice Mary (Burnham) Greer ex’50, July 13, 2008, Los Alamitos, Calif.

She is survived by husband, Elwin H. Greer ex’48.

Leslie “Lefty” Stewart ’52, Sept. 2, 2008, St. Clair Jane (Huber) Southward ’55, Jan. 26, 2008, Jackson Glenn Mansfield Hurd ’59, Jan. 4, 2006, Danville, Calif.

Michael Morier ’61, May 6, 2008, Belen, N.M. His mother, Ethel Morier, was an Olivet graduate.

Deanna Thompson ’06 and Joseph Larson, Sept. 6, 2008, in Howard City.

Michele Michalek ’06 was the maid of honor. E-mail Deanna at deannamthompson@hotmail.com.

Bernard “Bernie” Abrams ’64, July 2, 2008, Grand Rapids

Jeremy Droscha ’07 and Jessica Pletz ’07, Sept. 6, 2008, Olivet Congregational Church. Rev. Mike Fales ’75 officiated. E-mail Jessica at droschaaj@starr.org.

Clark “Matt” Matthews ex’67, Feb. 14, 2008, Berkley

Ryan Key ’08 and Hillary Estes, June 14, 2008, Phoenix. Olivetians in the wedding were senior Alex Esters and Dustin Meisner ’08. Ananta Fetters ’07 and Koji Takahashi ’08 attended the wedding.

Joan (Robbert) McKay ex’65, May 7, 2008, Battle Creek.

Charles “Cubby” Culbertson ’69, Oct. 28, 2008; Hixson, Tenn.

Ernest “Dewey” Fittro ’72, Delaware, Ohio. He is survived by wife, Joyce, and sons, D.J., Matthew and Casey, and brothers Mike Fittro ’68, Gary Fittro ex’74, Dan ’75, Dan’s wife Carmen (Fonseca) Fittro ’69, and sister Cynthia Fittro ex’73.

Rick Kesteloot ’77, Sept. 26, 2008, Muskegon

BIRTHS

James D. Kent ’78, June 22, 2007, Lancaster, S.C.

Carey Jarvis ’95 and wife, Alexis, a daughter, Sydney Katelynn, Aug. 7, 2008.

E-mail Carey at dancechapel@yahoo.com.

Mildred Moore ’85, June 28, 2008, Lanham, Md.

Karri (Klee) McManus ’96 and husband, Mark, a daughter, Audrey, Jan. 27, 2008. Audrey joins brothers, Owen, 5, and Garrett, 3. E-mail Karri at mcmanus@acd.net.

Michael Pajtas ’07, June 25, 2008, Flushing

Greg Almy ’98 and Nikki Cirka-Almy ’99, a son, Aaron Gregory, May 5, 2008.

He joins sister, Gianna, 3. E-mail Nikki at almy_nikki@hotmail.com.

Amy (Wood) ’99 and Matt ’00 Tanis, a daughter, Addison Grace, July 31, 2008.

Jessica (Davenport) ’00 and Jason ’03 Creager, a son, Junior Edward, Oct. 31, 2008. He joins brother, Chipper, 2. His grandmother is Ponja (Davenport) Vahs ’03. E-mail Jessica at jessicadavenport22@yahoo.com and Jason at jasoncreager22@yahoo.com.

Navneet “Bunny” Singh ’01 and wife, Mehaa, a daughter, Ruhani, July 2008.

Jason Wells ’02 and wife, Stephanie, a son, Lucas Donovan, Aug. 7, 2008.

E-mail Jason at Jason.D.Wells@marsh.com.

Joline Mangus ’05 and Nathan Hurst, a son, Landon Lee Hurst, Sept. 27, 2007.

E-mail Joline at jolinem@hotmail.com.

48

SHIPHERD’ S

RECORD

Stacey McDaniel ’06, Sept. 12, 2008, Charlotte

FRIENDS AND FORMER EMPLOYEES Lucy K. Harwood, July 19, 2008, Muskegon. She is survived by husband, Dr. James Harwood ’70. E-mail James at jmlkharwood@netzero.com.

Christine Koops, Aug. 2, 2008, Charlotte. Former admissions supervisor from 1957-1974. She was preceded in death by husband James P. Koops, Sr., former employee, in 1981, and son, James P. Koops, Jr. ’64, in 2003.

Joseph Pedelty, Oct. 18, 2008, Olivet. He is survived by wife, Myrna Pedelty, library assistant at Olivet College, daughter, Angelita Pedelty ’03, and sons, Isaac and Norman.

Becky (Harris Parkinson) Ramage, Oct. 17, 2008, Olivet. Becky worked for campus life, services and activities at Olivet College from 1978 - 1987. She is survived by husband, Scott Ramage ’89, owner of Tim’s Pizza in Olivet.

Warren “Swede” Thomas, July 15, 2008, Fort Myers, Fla. Former coach at Olivet College during the 1950s.

Ralph Vahs, July 10, 2008, Olivet. Olivet College Board of Trustees emeritus.

Survived by son, Richard Vahs, and daughter-in-law Ponja (Davenport) Vahs ’03.

F

BY MARTY (MASON) JENNINGS ’67

Frances (Friend) Collins ’28 still remembers her first night at Olivet College in 1924, and meeting her roommate, Mildred Calkins. After six weeks on campus, Collins was very homesick and wanted to leave, but her mother refused to allow her to return home.

“That was the best thing she could have done,” Collins said. Before attending Olivet, she had never been away from home.

Collins’ family had a farm in Orland, Ind., and had some difficult times. Therefore, her father’s sister, Fannie Quick, wife of Olivet’s town doctor, paid for Collins’ room in Shipherd Hall. After a year, Collins moved with three friends to a room in a house on Main Street.

Elizabeth Hance ’28 was one of her roommates, and remained her best friend upon graduation. Her cousin, Gula (Quick) Powers ’13, a Soronian, was not pleased when Collins and all her friends decided to pledge Sigma Beta. “The Sigmas were all smart but did not have the nice clothes like the Soronians,” Collins said, with a laugh.

She met her husband, Stanley “Collie” Collins ’27, a Phi Alpha Pi, at Olivet. When they would attend dances at Phi Alpha or Adelphic, she would wear an evening gown Frances (Friend) Collins ’28 and there would always be an orchestra playing. Stanley was the one who would get her “dance card filled out.” After her graduation in 1928, they were married in Detroit; her parents attended and, afterwards, they all went to see vaudeville entertainer Al Jolson at the famous Fox Theater.

Frances clearly remembers classes in Burrage Library, Mather Hall, Parsons Hall and Shipherd Hall. Her favorite class was with her novel professor, Abbie Copps. “Green Acres” and “Madame Bovary” were two books that she especially enjoyed reading in class.

In the 1920s Olivet had dirt roads and no cars were allowed on campus. There were sidewalks and Frances

enjoyed roller skating downtown to the College Inn for breakfast on weekends for warm, homemade cinnamon rolls.

It was compulsory to attend chapel every day – females and males sat separately. The dining hall was in the basement of Shipherd Hall, where everyone sat at a round table with a “pader” or “mader,” father or mother of the dining area.

In season, “maple syrup right from the trees was poured over broken biscuits,” to everyone’s delight.

One of Collins’ jobs on campus was polishing silverware for the dining room. Former President Gorton Riethmiller ’28 was in her class, but she remembers his wife, Vera, better. She saw her first movie, the original “Phantom of the Opera” at the Olivet Theater and got her first driver’s license from Ralph Vahs; “There was no test,” she said.

The Collinses had one daughter, Nancy ’57, a Sigma Beta who married Jack Fieldman ’56, a Phi Alpha, like Stanley. The Fieldmans have three daughters and eight grandchildren.

It was Collins and Katherine (Packard) Wyles ’16 who came up with the idea of building a Sigma house after the original one burned down. Funds were raised, and the existing Sigma Beta house opened in the fall of 1963. In the 1970s, Collins returned to Olivet College to work during the summers and often visited her friend, Elizabeth Hance ’28, who was the librarian at Albion College at the time.

Collins lives in Williamsburg in her own apartment, which has a framed painting of Shipherd Hall in the living room. In August, she and her granddaughter flew to Florida to spend a few days with her daughter and son-in-law.

Collins looks forward to celebrating her 102nd birthday Feb. 20, 2009 in Viera, Fla., where she will be moving in January.

I’m Proud of My Alma Mater

BY DON WINGER ’62 For anyone familiar with the history of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) it is no secret that winning football seasons at Olivet College have been few and far between.

One of those winning seasons was 1961 when the Comets, coached by Stu Parsell, finished with an 8-1 record. Their only loss was to league foe Albion College by a 13-0 score.

During that season I was a junior at Olivet working my way through school as the team’s sports information director.

As you can imagine it was a fun year for all.

The quarterback of that team was Dave Cutler, a Dewitt native who would go on after graduation in 1965 to make a name for himself with Microsoft. After joining the corporation in 1988 he went on to design the Windows Operating System.

He is respected throughout the world and recently was at The White House where he was presented with the National Medal of Technology and Don Winger ’62 Innovation by President George W. Bush.

Dave has never forgotten Olivet. It is through his generosity that the college was able to build the Cutler Athletic Complex that includes dressing rooms, coaches offices, team meeting rooms and a football field fitted with artificial turf.

That wasn’t enough for Dave, however, so he gave the college additional funds to help build an addition known as The Cutler Event Center. It is a 44,500-square-foot facility that has a 100-meter track, a fitness center, a wrestling room and can be used for multiple purposes such as commencement and concerts.

In all, Dave has contributed $4.3 million toward the $5.1 million facility.

Last Saturday was Homecoming and members of the 1961 team along with Coach Parsell were invited back for the dedication. I also was invited back.

Each of the players was presented with an Olivet College sweatshirt that bore his uniform number and his last name inscribed on the back. My shirt and that of Richard Hughes, another of the student writers, bore the number 00.

All of us were introduced on the field prior to the football game between the Comets and Albion which the visitors won 10-5. We also helped to cut the ribbon officially opening the Cutler Athletic Center after the game.

Since I no longer can drive, I was transported to Olivet by Lenny “Tex” Tyler, a member of that team, who went on to become the head football coach at Au Gres Sims High School for more than 20 years. We were accompanied

by Bill Lake, the current Hale High School coach, who was one of Tyler’s players.

What a wonderful day it was for all of us.

Many of us have not seen each other for more than 40 years. It was great to talk about old times.

While this year’s team gets to play on artificial turf under brilliant lights, we remembered the games played at Reed Field. There were times they were literally played in the mud and during night games it seemed that only the moon and stars were lighting the field.

Like the 1961 team, the football team in 2007 had a winning season — the best kind of season since it went to the NCAA Division III playoffs.

Yes, Olivet College has changed since I was a student there.

But the changes have been for the better.

I’m proud to call it my alma mater.

Originally printed in the Midland Daily News Oct. 7, 2008. Don Winger ’62 is the retired executive sports editor of the Midland Daily News. E-mail him at dwinger103@aol.com or call him at (989) 631-0347.

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