Ripon Magazine - Winter 2014

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Speakers Bureau:

The Power of WORDS Ripon alumni communicators Internships hone senior’s skills

Deano Pape keeps pace with communication Alumni Memories: Most inspiring courses Sidney Blodgett ’16 leading soccer comeback

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Ripon College prepares students of diverse

Ripon Magazine (ISSN 1058-1855) is published twice annually by Ripon College, 300 Seward St.,

interests for lives of productive, socially responsible

Ripon, WI 54971-0248. Postage paid at Ripon, WI. Copyright Š 2014 Ripon College

citizenship. Our liberal arts curriculum and residential campus create an intimate learning community in which students experience a richly personalized education.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Ripon Magazine, PO Box 248, Ripon, WI 54971-0248 Editor: Jaye Alderson, e-mail: AldersonJ@ripon.edu Editorial

Assistants: Melissa Anderson Ric Damm Andrew McDonnell Mike Westemeier Student

Assistants: Tsering Yangchen ’14

Design: Ali Klunick Ric Damm

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Ripon College Online: www.ripon.edu R IPON C o l l e g e

Inside

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Ripon Speakers Bureau An advanced curricular initiative provides benefits for faculty, students and the community at large through the power of words and shared experiences.

Alumni Communicators

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Ripon alumni in various fields of media and communication share their experiences in connecting human to human through the stories of our time.

Teaching Communication

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Deano Pape helps students keep up with the changing technology of communication, and encourages enhancement of skills through participation in forensics.

Most Inspiring Courses

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Ripon alumni remember some classes that supported their alreadydetermined areas of interest, some that were just plain fun, and some that led their lives into an entirely new direction.

Catalina Island Recruits The first two students from Catalina Island, Calif., are attending Ripon College with support from the San Diego Foundation and Joann Selleck ’73, who has connections with the program. The students hope to help bring others from their disadvantaged community to Ripon College.

Photo: Ripon Glacier in College Fjord, Prince William Sound, Alaska, on the Blackstone Bay Route. During the scientific Harriman Expedition of 1899, glaciers here were named after elite U.S. colleges. Other Wisconsin names include Lawrence, Marquette, Beloit, Carroll and Milton, which closed in 1982.

Photo copyright 2011 Travis Shinabarger.

Departments:

20 Sports 22 Campus Notes 26 Class Notes 36 In Memoriam On the Cover: Ripon Speakers Bureau: Clockwise from bottom: Samantha Goodwin ’14, Ben Firgens ’14, Clarence Sanon ’15, Stephanie Dufner ’16, Eric Radke ’14, Philip Retson ’14. Photo by Ric Damm

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P R ESI D ENT

Defining success through the communication revolution The revolution in communication technology was coming, but it was still hard to see where it was going. There was limited Internet and email, clunky satellite phones and topic-specific Lexis-Nexus searches by special order.

I read The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Washington Post in their print form every morning before work. Fox and MSNBC didn’t exist, and social media was just a gleam in Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s 11-year-old eyes.

Twenty years ago, I wanted to be a journalist — a foreign correspondent to be exact. I was going to hopscotch around the globe, interview world leaders and write long, important missives pretending to be Hemingway at café tables from Rome or Jerusalem.

I joined the Cable News Network (CNN) in Washington, D.C., in 1995, where I worked for the great correspondent Judy Woodruff, doing background research and off-camera interviews, and occasionally sticking microphones in a politician’s face while yelling out questions. I had to share a computer. I communicated with other producers and reporters via a crude internal instant messaging system. I ripped copy off a clicketyclacking dot matrix printer. It was, however, pretty heady stuff for the mid-1990s. Americans turned to CNN first for election results, the tick-tock of the O.J. Simpson trial and tragic international news like the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

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I ran with a group of political-junkie types living in D.C. at the time. Most of us were pretty risk-averse, working in safe jobs in government, consulting and establishment journalism. One friend threw caution to the wind and joined an Internet magazine.

Founded by a company I had never heard of at the time (ahem, cough, that would be Microsoft), I thought it was preposterous that people would ever want to read magazines from their home computers. I am not even sure I understood how it could even work the first time he explained it to me. I do remember thinking he had made a big career mistake.

Fast-forward almost two decades and my old D.C. pal David Plotz is the editor-in-chief of Slate.com, one of the most popular websites in the country and the world. David also hosts Slate’s Political Gabfest, a current events podcast. David’s wife, who also is a friend from back in the D.C. days, is the author/journalist Hanna Rosin.

Hanna is a staff writer for The Atlantic and also has appeared as a guest on “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” a kind of gold standard of

current events cool. She founded the website Double X and also is the author of “The End of Men,” a book that details the advent of women as a powerful force in the 21st-century workplace. Hanna and David will be Ripon College’s joint Commencement speakers this year as we focus on the theme “Internet and the New Media.”

One of the hallmarks of a Ripon education is learning to communicate through the written and spoken word.

When I am asked by prospective students to name an academic area for which Ripon is well-known, communication is among those at the top of the list. The teaching, research and service of faculty like Jody Roy, Steve Martin and Deano Pape are the envy of other liberal arts colleges.

Ripon College’s forensics program just celebrated a century of competition, and our debate and ethics bowl teams are perennial contenders for national championships. As you will read in the pages that follow, it’s no wonder, then, that Ripon alumni are national leaders in print journalism, radio, the blogosphere, television and social media. While the technology may change, a great speech, an artful debate point or crisp sentence will never go out of style.

Zach P. Messitte, President

Imagine Tomorrow has hit its goal – but we are carrying on!

Thanks to generous support from alumni and friends, Imagine Tomorrow, Ripon College’s five-year comprehensive campaign, achieved its initial goal of $50 million in January 2014, a whole 18 months ahead of schedule. But we’re not stopping yet.

While we’re riding high on the enthusiastic wave of momentum created by the campaign, Ripon College has decided to keep to its original timeline with an ending date of July 2015. For these remaining months of the campaign, an extended goal of $60 million has been set.

“The original goal was established after a feasibility study based on where the economy was at that time,” says Wayne Webster, vice president for advancement. “Throughout this campaign, we realized we have greater potential and needs. We have many alumni and friends we have yet to involve in this process, and Imagine Tomorrow creates a unique engagement opportunity.”

Webster adds that since the comprehensive campaign began in spring 2010, the college has new leadership under President Zach Messitte, who is championing several initiatives to propel the college forward. Students also are entering Ripon with ever-evolving needs for their collegiate educational experience.

“By increasing our goal, we keep the momentum going for a better future,” Webster says. “We want an achievable goal we can celebrate at the end.

We chose $60 million because it is a challenge, but an appropriate goal that will help bring our endowment and its spending power closer in line to our peer and aspirant institutions.”

The college’s endowment as of December 31 was at $80.2 million, an all-time high. Already, the college has embarked on several initiatives to benefit students and create better opportunities in the classroom and beyond.

Forty-two new endowed funds have been established, or are in the

process of being established, since the beginning of the Imagine Tomorrow campaign, including: 30 endowed scholarships; nine other endowed funds to support student research and special programs like the Career Discovery Tour; and three new faculty chairs -- Robert Amsden, professor of theatre, is the Doreen L. ’73 and David I. Chemerow Chair in Theatre; David W. Scott, assistant professor of religion, is the Pieper Chair of Servant Leadership; and Colleen Byron, professor of chemistry, is the Oyster Chair in Chemistry.

For more information, go to ripon.edu/imagine-tomorrow

CLA R I F ICATIONS National champions A sports article in the Summer 2013 issue states correctly that Mike Immel ’96 was Ripon College’s first national champion in track and field when he won in the discus at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 1996. Earlier, Mike Van Boxel ’76 was Ripon College’s first national champion overall but in a different sport, wrestling.

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Speakers Bureau: Helping Others Through the

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After the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, Professor of Communication Jody Roy refocused her decade-long research project from analyzing hateful communication to helping to stop it.

“My teaching has changed, too,” Roy says. “I used to spend the first day of an introductory public speaking course trying to convince my students that speech skills would enhance their career prospects. That’s still true, of course, but I no longer mention it the first day of class. Instead, I begin each semester by asking students to reflect on two simple questions: ‘What do you really care about?’ and ‘How can you use your voice right now to make a difference on that issue?’ ” Her students have responded with better performance on all assignments and have become more excited about and fully engaged in the learning process. “Hoping to build on that level of engagement,” Roy says, “my departmental colleagues and I founded the Ripon Speakers Bureau.”

The advanced curricular initiative empowers students to serve as spokespeople for nonprofits whose missions align with their passions. To date, nearly 30 students have made a difference in the lives of others while also developing advanced skill sets of their own.

Tackling topics as diverse as Huntington’s disease, substance abuse, library skills and careers in aviation, Speakers Bureau students have addressed nonprofit audiences, prison inmates and middle and high school students across the country. Results have been profound.

Shawn Karsten ’09 of Ripon, Wis., credits the program with saving his life. Karsten’s father was an Emmy Awardwinning ESPN reporter who battled alcoholism and ultimately committed suicide. Karsten still was reeling from his father’s death when he lost two close friends, one to murder and one to a tragic accident. The grief was more than he could bear; he abused drugs and alcohol and contemplated taking his own life.

He says he began making peace with his past only after Speakers Bureau enabled him to reach out to help others.

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Brian Gonya ’13, left, Stephanie Dufner ’16 and Shawn Karsten ’09 reconnect with Professor of Communication Jody Roy.

“I knew that the feeling I had after I shared my initial story is the first time I had any good feelings since my father had passed the year before,” Karsten says. “It was necessary for my healing process.”

Karsten realized public speaking was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. “I saw the barriers that can be broken down by sharing your story,” he says. “It opens the door to others to share their own stories and begin their own healing process.”

He has been a professional speaker for the past 3½ years.

He and Roy have collaborated on a book, “Breaking Through to Boys in Crisis: Insights from Inmates.” And he’s gone back to an earlier dream of following in his father’s footsteps. He now is studying radio/TV/film at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and hopes eventually to combine his passions of sports and social issues through documentaries.

“I had never thought I could have a positive impact on people’s lives,” Karsten says.

“Speakers Bureau gave me that opportunity and started me on a path to take it to the broadest level that I can.”

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Brian Gonya ’13 came to Ripon College from Chicago, where he had made many poor choices in his teen years. Inspired by a class visit by alumnus Karsten, Gonya enrolled in Speakers Bureau. “It was very therapeutic because I got to transform my past into a narrative and help students,” he says. “It means my past mistakes weren’t really wasted time. I turned them into learning experiences.”

One of the first talks he gave as part of Speakers Bureau was at Ripon’s Crossroads Academy, an alternative high school for troubled and at-risk youths. A student in the class, Stephanie Dufner, had gone through rehab when she heard Gonya talk.

“I was trying to figure out what I was best suited to do,” Dufner says. “I figured the experiences I had from doing drugs and struggling with making good decisions were what could assist me.

“The passion (Brian Gonya) had for his topic showed me how powerful a person’s speech can be,” Dufner says.

“Because he also had made bad decisions, it struck a chord with me. I didn’t realize someone could go around, tell their story and have an impact the way they do.”

Gonya’s talk also influenced her to further her education.

Dufner applied and was accepted at Ripon College. Now, as a sophomore, she is double-majoring in communication and philosophy and is a member of Speakers Bureau. She hopes to become a motivational speaker.

“I want to show other struggling adolescents and at-risk youths that they can decide to make a change, put in the

Speakers Bureau is ‘win-win’ for all Ripon Speakers Bureau is a “win-win” for all involved, says Steve Martin ’96, associate professor of communication and chair of the department.

work and effort and have positive results,” she says. “When students hear it from someone who’s been there, it allows a better connection.”

Dufner’s public talks have included a brief visit to Crossroads Academy, her former school. She had a positive effect on a boy she had known there as a student.

“It was a real eye-opener for him,” she says. “That really touched me.

It proved I was doing the right thing in wanting to be a motivational speaker, if I could have that impact with only 10 minutes of speaking.

Speakers Bureau has made my dream of wanting to make a difference for adolescents possible.”

Gonya’s influence on Dufner was a “phenomenal experience,” he says.

“It was very affirming to me. It was validation that I wasn’t wasting my time and people were actually appreciating what I was saying.”

“It’s service-learning,” he says. “We want the students to learn speaking skills in a real-world situation that also has the dual benefit of a community service function that helps other people.

“We want to get students out into the real world, we want to do outreach, and we want the students to obtain people skills that come into play every day in the business and nonprofit worlds,” Martin says. “Persuasive skills is the number one skill set employers say is sorely lacking, that isn’t being taught or learned well.” That’s certainly not a concern for Ripon’s communication department alumni.

Students who have done well in both Introductory and Advanced Public Speaking may be invited to join Speakers Bureau. Once in the program, students not only speak to diverse audiences, they also become mentors for other student speakers.

Martin says he and Roy serve only as advisers for Speakers Bureau. “The students run the show, for the most part,” he says.

While some Speakers Bureau projects rely on the students’ research, others use the students’ own past experiences to address at-risk youths and bullying victims, for example.

“The students learn as much about themselves as they do about other people,” Martin says. “It’s an important self-reflective process. The liberal arts education shows that in helping others, you learn about yourself and your capabilities. It’s a strong vehicle to unleash their potential and accomplish what they never thought they could.”

One of this year’s student leaders, Ben Firgens ’14, agrees.

“I never expected the ways in which it helps me,” says Firgens, who has spoken at a prison and at an inner-city middle school. “The places we go to speak give learning opportunities you wouldn’t get in any other type of class. Speakers Bureau teaches such a wide variety of things that you can carry forward. Skill in public speaking is something most people just simply don’t have today. The confidence to speak well in public will assist you no matter what career or field you choose.”

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Ripon alumni contribute through communications From the time cavemen first drew images on walls to today’s lighting-fast electronic communications, human beings have distinguished themselves by exchanging news and stories. Here, Ripon College alumni share their perspectives on how communication has changed – and how it hasn’t.

Jaye Alderson and Tsering Yangchen ’14 contributed to these reports.

Mark Porubcansky Newspape r Porubcansky ’77 of Los Angeles, Calif., has gone from his rural Wisconsin childhood home to places around the world for nearly 12 years as a foreign correspondent and now as foreign editor of the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

Previously, he served the Times as an assistant foreign editor, foreign projects editor and deputy foreign editor since 1998, and worked in the Moscow, Vienna and Hong Kong bureaus of the Associated Press.

“I’d always been intrigued by foreign correspondence,” he says. “I grew up watching reports on the Vietnam War and Watergate. It was an era where a lot of important things were happening in the outside world, and I wanted to be a part of it.

“Journalism had a place. I was always aware of the potential of journalism for good and intrigued by the possibilities of things one could do with it.”

He enjoys now being on the editing side of the news. “It was great to have adventures, but it’s also nice to no longer get that phone call in the middle of the night telling you to pack your bags right now.

And it didn’t always seem like such a big story to me. Now I’m on the other end of that, making those kinds of judgments.”

According to Porubcansky, “The world has not gotten any smaller, but the choices of what you do and don’t do have gotten much more difficult.”

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Rory Nelson ’99 Telev is ion n e ws A self-designed major in broadcast journalism at Ripon College has paid big dividends for Rory Nelson ’99 of Arlington, Va. She now is producer of the 11 p.m. news at WUSA9 in Washington, D.C. Nelson says her job is unpredictable and exciting. “I really love producing breaking news, especially when it’s a huge story that requires us to be live on the air for several hours,” she says. “Plus, I’ve gotten to meet some pretty cool people.”

From a young age, Nelson felt destined to work in television. “My mom had the news on every night while she made dinner,” she says.

“I remember watching and thinking it would be a cool job.”

While attending Ripon, Nelson took part in an off-campus study opportunity in Washington, D.C., and interned for CBS television. “The first day of my internship, the Monica Lewinsky story broke,” she says. “It was an amazing experience, and after that I was hooked!”

After graduation, she says, she took a job running the audio board at WFRV television in Green Bay, Wis. A few months later, a producer position opened up, and she has been producing news ever since.

“I’ve worked my way up, which involved working a lot of crazy shifts and moving around,” she says. “Despite all of it, I find working in news rewarding, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

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Bill Drake ’63 R a dio Bill Drake ’63 has been in radio for 55 years and hosted the “Awake with Drake” morning show in Spartanburg, S.C., for the past 38 years.

“I always wanted to be on the radio,” Drake says. “I was at a cross era when it was the center of family attention before television took over with the instantaneous stuff we have on now.”

Drake attended Badger Boys State at Ripon College in 1958, and later enrolled as a student. The cover of his new book “Awake with Drake” includes a photo of his 1959 WRPN press card. “Ripon plays a vital part in the book,” he says. “I was one of four students who put WRPN-FM on air in 1961. Harrison Ford ’64 worked for me.”

After graduation, Drake worked for various Midwest stations before moving to South Carolina in 1972. “The kind of radio I do I call relationship radio,” Drake says, including chats about birthdays and deaths, weather, sports and community events. He even announces scores of Ripon College games because he likes to.

He also is the organizer of the annual Bill Drake Christmas Music Festival and a wellestablished quiz bowl for middle-schoolers.

“I enjoy what I do,” Drake says. “People ask if I think I’m part of a dying breed, and the answer is yes. You have to hang around an awful long time to be accepted like I am.

People don’t want to hang around a long time anymore. They’re always looking for new jobs, new markets.”

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Cheryl Rofer ’63 on l i n e f orum For 35 years, Cheryl Rofer ’63 of Santa Fe, N.M., worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. She now is a sought-after consultant on nuclear energy issues and CEO of nucleardiner.com, an online forum for discussing all aspects of nuclear energy.

“A website allows rapid response to the news with little financial investment,” Rofer says.

“Many people now get their news from the Internet and depend on sites like Nuclear Diner to provide background.”

A website makes it easy to post a forum regularly on current talked-about topics, Rofer says. “My partners and I want to provide information on nuclear issues, including civilian nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.

We also discuss related issues, like national security and radioisotopes in nature, medicine and industry.”

Communicating online is an important tool for her, Rofer says. “The Internet has completely changed our concept of communications. We now can speak to people around the globe and share photos, in real time or by many types of messages – email, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and many more. It is wonderful to be able to have this ability, but the volume of communications requires judgment on which ones are reliable and important.”

She says that today’s communications are a good thing, but there is an undercurrent of paranoia and a lack of analysis by some that allow rumors to grow quickly. “People still are learning how to deal with the great volumes of information available,” she says.

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Professor teaches students to communicate, build confidence A passion for communication has taken Deano Pape from his boyhood home on a hog farm in northeast Iowa to the upper echelon of forensics instructors across the country.

Pape, director of forensics and assistant professor of communication, has been with Ripon College for 17 years. He enjoys performing and public speaking. “I always thought it was fun,” he says. “I’ve never been one of those who fear public speaking as much as death, as some people do.”

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to understand how they use the new technology and how the technology uses them,” Pape says. “I personally fear that we are texting and computer-mediating our communicative abilities away. We’re harming our ability to communicate face-to-face, and it’s really important that students understand how to communicate – not only through traditional means but also by understanding the impact of the technology they’re using and how it affects their ability to communicate.”

He added classes on social media in the spring of 2013.

At Central College in Pella, Iowa, he found his calling after taking communication classes. He also participated on his high school and college forensics teams and soon set a life plan to teach and coach forensics at a small liberal arts college. He received his master’s degree in speech communication from Central Missouri State University and joined Ripon College immediately afterward.

Forensics is a way students can increase their communication skills, build confidence and grow intellectually and emotionally, Pape says. “When students explore an intense debate topic, research a speech that is really important to them or perform a piece of literature, they come to have a better understanding of who they are and how they communicate, and that builds incredible confidence.”

“My courses in persuasion, mass media, film criticism and social media are all about encouraging students

Pape serves on the District IV committee for the American Forensic Association. Last year, for the first

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National Forensic League founded on Ripon campus

time in his career, he was named a tournament official at Nationals. Through his work at Nationals, Pape connected with the director of the Harvard Debate Council’s Summer Institutes. Two years ago, Pape was invited to teach in the institute’s Congressional Debate Program. Last summer, he taught in its International Debate Program, and next summer he will co-direct the program.

Pape says forensics enhances communication skills and the career-readiness of all students. “It is about being able to develop sophisticated research, writing, interpersonal, emotional and critical-thinking skills that will last students a lifetime,” he says. “They will be able to communicate with confidence.”

The National Forensic League was founded on the Ripon College campus in 1925. It is the nation’s oldest and largest high school debate and speech honor society, encouraging and motivating students to participate in and become proficient in the forensic arts: debate, public speaking and interpretation.

Bruno E. Jacob ’22, a longtime assistant professor of speech at Ripon College, founded the league. The first National Tournament was held at Ripon College in 1931, with 49 schools from 17 states competing.

The college state tournament will be held the third weekend of February 2014 on the Ripon College campus. The State High School Forensics Championships will be held here at the end of March.

Since its founding, the league has enrolled more than 1.4 million members representing all 50 states, U.S. territories and several foreign countries. Currently, more than 120,000 high school students and 5,000 coach educators are active members.

He says it also is an important recruiting tool. “Ripon College has a national reputation for speech and debate, and we have been able to recruit several students each year because of our program.”

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Internships hone skills for senior communication major The fast pace and global reach of communication appeals to Tsering Yangchen ’14 of Madison, Wis., a communication major with an interest in broadcast journalism. “Communication is everywhere, whether it’s email, social media or letters,” Yangchen says. “It’s how you connect with the people around you.

“I also like reporting news to people,” she says. “I think you should always be aware of what’s going on around the world. I like broadcast journalism because that visual kind of communication can be most effective. People are so busy. They don’t have time to sit down and read a newspaper. Now, they can just click a button on their iPad, computer or Kindle. I want to be that person who reports the breaking news to them.”

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Yangchen is of Tibetan heritage but was born in the Red Cross Refugee Camp in Nepal in 1992.

In 1993, her mother was chosen to obtain a visa to come to the United States. She was sponsored by a couple from Madison, Wis., and began working to obtain visas to bring her family here. It would be five years before Yangchen and her father joined her.

“Coming to the United States meant freedom from the strict government in Nepal and escaping the hard life back there,” Yangchen says. “Over there, education is not free so my mom didn’t want me and my sister to grow up like that. Women can either become stay-at-home mothers or prostitutes. There are not a lot of options.”

“I think you should always be aware of what’s going on around the world. I like broadcast journalism because that visual kind of communication can be most effective. People are so busy. They don’t have time to sit down and read a newspaper. Now, they can just click a button on their iPad, computer or Kindle.

I want to be that person who reports the breaking news to them.”

Her mother’s original sponsors, whom Yangchen calls her “American grandparents,” helped her look at possible colleges. “I’m a first-generation (college) student, and I didn’t even know what college was.”

She applied to 10, and Ripon College was the first school to get back to her. “I’ll give this school a chance,” she thought. “I took the tour, and I just really liked the campus. I felt at home here.”

Internships have rapidly expanded Yangchen’s communication skills. As a junior, she was a news media assistant for NBC 26 television in Green Bay, helping write the news and learning about time management.

“It’s very fast-paced in the news world,” she says. “Once you find breaking news, you need to make calls immediately, and you have to be the first one to get the news. I like that.

It’s challenging.”

During the past summer, she was a news production intern at NBC 15 television in Madison, Wis. There, she did video editing and was a floor director for the morning shift, cueing the news anchors during breaks about how much time they had before they were back on the air.

At Ripon College, she is an intern for the Office of Marketing and Communications, writing articles for Ripon Magazine and the college website and working on video editing. She also is an ambassador and intern for the Admission office, and serves as residence hall assistant for

international students attending Green Lake High School.

“Internships help students understand how the real world works,” Yangchen says. “You get the knowledge and understanding that you don’t really get in the classroom.

You’re also able to network and meet people.”

During Fall Break, Yangchen participated in the Career Discovery Tour to learn about different career paths and network with successful Ripon College alumni in the Washington, D.C., area. Among them were Aurora Nelson ’99, a producer at CBS Television, and Susan Bundock ’82, an executive producer at C-Span.

“Both of these women are incredible and doing great,” Yangchen says. “They’re my inspiration. I want to do what they do.”

She now plans to apply for jobs in the Washington, D.C., area. “After going on the trip and meeting these alumni from Ripon who have come so far, it made me believe in myself that I can be there as well,” Yangchen says.

Yangchen is looking forward to finding out how far her communication skills will take her.

“You have to know your audience,” she says. “You have to know who you’re talking to. Then you can adapt your communication skills.”

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Most

Inspiring courses

Days at Ripon College are filled with classes. Some support students’ already-determined areas of interest.

Some are taken just for fun or for something a little different from their general course of study. Some have been a surprise and jump-started a whole new direction in students’ lives and careers.

Join several alumni as they share their thoughts on: What course inspired you the most during your days at Ripon College?

Paul Schoof’s “Price Theory” class and Dr. Livingston’s “Micro Economics” class. I still use that knowledge gained on almost a daily basis.

Fritz Schaupp ’80 Wilmette, Ill.

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John X. Jamrich ’43 with Soviet pilot Lt. Gamov, lead pilot with one of several Soviet flight groups that flew the LendLease planes from Fairbanks to the European front.

I was the U.S. Air Force weather liaison officer assigned to the Soviets to forecast the weather for the long flights to Russia. During my four years, we flight-cleared more than 8,000 Lend-Lease aircraft without a weather-related mishap.

All of this would not have happened to me without the superior science (physics and math) classes with Dr. Harris Barbour, a brilliant teacher. In addition to the classroom motivation, Dr. Barbour facilitated the acceptance into the AF meteorology program for me and Don Barrer. I attended the University of Chicago; Barrer went to New York University.

In retrospect, I am now 94 years old, I can firmly assert that Dr. Barbour was one of the two or three superior faculty I had as I worked my way to the Ph.D., the success in the Air Force, and eventually as president of Northern Michigan University.

John X. Jamrich ’43 Jacksonville, Fla.

Erin Ruth Maguire ’08 and Hillary April Smith ’07, Delta Psi Delta Sorority

I have to say it was Joe Hatcher’s “Theories in Counseling” course. I loved learning about the various theories, and knew I wanted to counsel in my future career. I went on not only to receive my master’s in counseling, but also worked in pastoral care and counseling at a major children’s hospital in California. I now am receiving my master’s degree in social work at Loyola University Chicago, all because I knew I had a gift to counsel others and a course and a mentoring professor to inspire me to do so. Thanks, Joe, and thanks, Ripon College.

Unforgettable memories.

Erin R. Maguire ’08 Ripon, Wis.

Irving Reyes ’13

Introductory biology courses cover DNA and RNA for a few days, so I knew I wanted to take a course that spent more time on them since I’ve always been fascinated with them but didn’t quite understand them. I was originally a chemistry major, but molecular biology inspired me to pursue a chemistrybiology major. Not only the content inspired me, but also the way the class was taught. Dr. Mark Kainz lectured with a lot of knowledge. He was thorough, challenging and always made sure questions were answered. Molecular biology opened my eyes to the amazing mind-blowing chemical and biological processes happening within us, all of which have their origins in DNA, a very significant molecule.

Irving Reyes ’13 Waukegan, Ill.

Timothy Haney ’03 and Christine Luke ’03 reunite with Dr. Eric P. Godfrey in 2010.

“Introduction to Sociology” (Sociology 110) with Dr. Eric P. Godfrey. It inspired me to earn a master’s degree and Ph.D. in sociology and to become a professional sociologist. More importantly, it forced me to think critically about social inequalities and social problems in ways that continue to shape my worldview.

Timothy J. Haney ’03 Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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Dave Neubauer ’63 during his Ripon days

Without a doubt, Dr. Edwin Webster had the most impact on me. I was a history major and attended his lectures on medieval history. We called him “Captain Eddy.” History, to me, was all about reading and writing. His lectures were always in a date sequence. He gave us impossibly long reading assignments and lots of writing, for example, “Discuss the effects of the Cluniac reforms of the Benedictine Rule against simony and concubinage in the early 10th century and the concomitant reforms by the Emperor and bishops.” You get the idea.

Conveniently, his classes were in Lane Library, on the second floor above the library entrance. After class, I didn’t have to go far to study as the library was my real home away from home. I had difficulty reading as a child — probably would call it dyslexia these days — and, as a history major, I still struggled to read and understand. So, five nights each week, after my last class and dinner, I would move to the lower library basement and a carrel I called my own. It was far too noisy and active in the dorms, and I needed quiet. There, in order to comprehend, I had to read everything twice, underline, make marginal notes, with a dictionary at my side, with no distractions.

For some reason, he assigned me my senior thesis on “Guibert, Abbott of Nogent sous Souci,” and I accepted before I found that the source material was only in French. I ordered books from other libraries and set up my medieval enclave avec “Dictionnaire Francais – Anglais” in order to understand, sometimes word-by-word. And I completed it. And I graduated. If there was an award for perseverance and patience, it would have been mine that year. I attended Dr. Webster’s final Ripon class, following which he retired, and I took verbatim notes that day.

I still have them, and I read them occasionally.

I treasure them.

Dave Neubauer ’63 Ormond Beach, Fla.

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Katharine’s “not-so-glorious finish” to the half-marathon

My most inspiring class was the half-marathon class that Professor Joe Hatcher taught. I loved learning about motivation and how to apply those techniques to everyday activities. Professor Hatcher made it fun to run and made it useful to use even after I graduated. I was able to get into great shape, and was able to run the entire half-marathon! Plus another benefit to the class was that I was able to run with my sister. We ran the entire race together and bonded over struggling to finish. We accomplished a seemingly impossible activity together which has made us that much closer. I am so thankful that Ripon offered such a class and gave me those memories that will last a lifetime.

Katharine Shadle ’12 Marengo, Ill.

My first course at Ripon was “Ancient Near East History” with Dr. Edwin Webster. It was held in a small room on the second floor of Lane Library.

There were nine of us in the class. He gave me an appreciation for the development of culture, thought and politics in the early civilizations of the world and how they influence us today. I took every class that he offered. I was thrilled to become History Department assistant my senior year. He tried to convince me to learn Latin and Greek so I could go to the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. I became a librarian instead — inspired by the love of learning that I got from him.

Deborah Johnson Van Slyke ’60 Scottsdale, Ariz.

Cady Gerlach ’05

Vance Cope-Kasten

The value of my graduate degree pales when compared to the impact on me of two philosophy classes offered by Bill Tyree and Vance Cope-Kasten, respectively. The first was a seminar on “The Nature and Destiny of Man,” by Reinhold Niebuhr. In my career, I have led the creation of a number of nonprofit organizations. My concepts for creative action have been rooted in the creativity theory I learned through Bill Tyree’s interpretation of Niebuhr.

Secondly, my coursework with Vance Cope-Kasten on the pre-Socratic philosophers — namely Heraclitus — gave me my first insights into process metaphysics which defines the fundamental building “block” of reality to be the energetic relationship between things instead of things themselves. Consequently, I came to see and use the power of community as the change agent in the catalyzing of my creative efforts.

“Creativity and Community” became my mantra, thanks to Vance and Bill.

My greatest influence at Ripon College was Adjunct Professor Louis Schubert ’91. His course in “State and Local Government” and other politics and government courses were what led me on a path into work in Washington, D.C., at a trade association, public service in Peace Corps, and ultimately back to law school and now law practice. “Professor Louie” gave students practical knowledge, skills in discourse on political issues, and an overall civic education that couldn’t be beat. What was most touching about Professor Schubert was his ability to relate to students, offer practical advice, and the personal interest he took in each and every one of us. He was a lawyer, too, and he taught me to think like one before I knew what that meant! I spoke with him often throughout school and after graduation, and was terribly saddened to learn of his far too early passing a few years ago. There are many times still today where I wish I could email him or share stories with him, or even just ask a question! He was a gem of a professor, and as a fellow alum of Ripon, he gave so much of himself to his alma mater and students. He helped me become a civically minded professional, and I am forever grateful for the experience he provided.

Cady Gerlach ’05 Iowa City, Iowa

Virgil Stucker ’74 Mill Spring, n.c.

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game of the next season. Blodgett had one of the best games of her career in a 4-0 victory over Lakeland, saving two shots while playing all 90 minutes in goal during the shutout, en route to being named Midwest Conference Defensive Performer of the Week.

Tragedy propels soccer goalkeeper into triumph hometown in Minnesota to Texas when she was killed in a head-on car crash.

That tragedy affected the entire team, but especially sophomore goalkeeper Sidney Blodgett, who had formed a special bond with Taylor as her roommate, classmate, teammate and best friend.

Taylor Ziebol

For most teams, losing a game can be the worst thing that can happen in a given year. But for Ripon College’s women’s soccer team, that changed on July 11, 2013. Sophomore teammate Taylor Ziebol was traveling from her

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“We met on move-in day as freshmen, and from that moment, we had a connection with each other,” Blodgett said. “We had the same major and did everything together to the point that if someone wanted to know where I was, they knew I was with Taylor, and vice versa.”

Ripon displayed Ziebol’s number, 25, on the front of the press box during a ceremony prior to the team’s first home

“That was a very tough weekend,” Blodgett said. “Taylor and I always stood next to each other during pregame lineups so it was really hard not having her there, especially for that first home game.”

It was just the beginning of what turned out to be one of the best seasons by a goalkeeper in Ripon program history. Blodgett was named MWC Performer of the Week four more times, while finishing the season tied for a school record with seven shutouts in Ripon’s 18 games.

The Eau Claire, Wis., native was named All-Conference Honorable Mention after the season, which saw her finish second in the MWC in both shutouts and save percentage (.834), while ranking third in saves per game (8.00). After just two years with the team, Blodgett already holds the school record for career shutouts with 13.

“It’s very exciting to be recognized for my hard work, but it also makes me work harder because I want to continue to improve and break my own records,” Blodgett says.

Before Blodgett arrived, the women’s soccer program had 16 consecutive losing seasons and just once in the previous four years had won more than four games in a season. Since joining the team, Blodgett has been part of a squad that has won 10 games in back-to-back seasons.

“I want to continue to help this

Coach Ernst notches 150th career victory during historic Lawrence contest On Nov. 16, 2013, Ron Ernst became just the second head football coach in Midwest Conference history to reach 150 career wins. The 4828 victory over Lawrence University leaves Ernst just nine wins shy of the conference record of 159.

Already Ripon’s all-time winningest coach, with 55 more wins than the next-highest total, Ernst has the most wins of any active coach in the MWC. The latest win also marks Ripon’s 14th consecutive win over Lawrence and retains the Doehling-Heselton Trophy, given to the winner of this game each year in what has become the oldest college football rivalry in the state of Wisconsin. The trophy is named for legendary former Ripon and Lawrence coaches, Carl Doehling and Bernie Heselton, respectively.

program grow and improve because we’re in the process of building a great team,” Blodgett says. “It’s awesome to be a part of the growth of this program, and it’s much more fulfilling than coming to a team that is already at a championship level.”

Blodgett is a Spanish and education major and plans to become a second grade teacher. Her brief but valuable time with Ziebol has helped shape her life.

With the end-of-season win over Lawrence, Ripon marked its 19th consecutive non-losing season. The Red Hawks finished the season ranked fourth in school history for singleseason rushing yards (3,047) and fifth for total offense in a single season (4,160).

A reception for Friends of Athletics, parents of senior players and football alumni also celebrated the 120th anniversary of the Ripon-Lawrence teams’ first meeting; the 50th anniversary of the 1963 undefeated team; the 45th anniversary of the 1968 conference championship team; and the 35th anniversary of the 1978 conference championship team.

“She was so determined and put 100 percent into everything that she attempted,” Blodgett says. “She was always positive and looked for the good in other people. Taylor lived her life the way I want to live mine.”

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Notes

FACULTY & STAFF In line with the successful “Thirteen for ‘13” initiative created by THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT in 2013, the “Fourteen for ‘14” initiative was launched in January. Fourteen different $1,400 awards will be granted during the calendar year 2014 to enhance the Ripon College campus and local community. Proposals will be considered from any member of the current faculty, staff or student body.

RICK COLES, associate professor of exercise science and offensive coordinator, will be inducted into the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame on March 29, 2014. The 2013 season is Coles’ 35th as a coach and 29th at the collegiate level. He previously coached at Lawrence University, Cornell College and Coe College. He has been at Ripon College for 15 years, the last 10 as the Red Hawks’ offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. Under Coles’ leadership, the Red Hawks ranked among the top six rushing attacks in Division III in each of the last four seasons; recorded five of the top 10 single-season team rushing performances in Midwest Conference history, including the top three; posted five of the top nine single-season team rushing touchdown totals in the MWC; and registered five of the school’s top 10 singleseason scoring outputs in program history.

BOB AMSDEN, professor of theatre and chair of the department, was named the first Doreen L. ’73 and David I. Chemerow Chair in Theatre from an endowed gift as part of the Imagine Tomorrow comprehensive campaign.

RUSSELL BLAKE, professor of history, has been named the Ralph Hale Ruppert Distinguished Professor of American History, Principles and Traditions.

COLLEEN BYRON, professor of chemistry, has been named the L. Leone Oyster ’19 Chair in Chemistry. She was a co-author on “Secondary Coenzyme Q10 Deficiency and Oxidative Stress in Cultured Fibroblasts from Patients with Riboflavin Response Multiple Acyl-CoA Dehydrogenation Deficiency,” published in the Oct. 1, 2013, issue of Human Molecular Genetics. Other co-authors included ANDREA FURDEK LARSON ’07 and WESTON RADFORD ’07. Colleen also presented a poster at the 245th American Chemical Society National Meeting in New Orleans in April on “Effects of 4-Hydroxy-2-Nonenal on Electron Transfer Flavoprotein” in conjunction with Dr. F. E. Frerman and recent graduates SAM SONDALLE ’11, HEATHER NENNIG ’11 and JIMMY RINDT ’13.

RABBI DAVID BRUSIN, adjunct professor of religion, completed 10 years at Ripon College in 2012.

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He taught a new course in spring 2013, “A Convenient Hatred: A Study of Anti-Semitism,” and will teach another new course this spring, cross-listed with history and politics and government, “The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Moral and Political Dimensions.”

Jeffries also served as the unofficial coordinator for Ripon College’s team in the 2013 National Bike Challenge. The College ranked 16th among all participating colleges and universities and was the top liberal arts college in the nation.

KURT DIETRICH, professor of music, conducted a number of workshops and played with various jazz and classical groups, and he continues to collect interviews for his book about Wisconsin jazz musicians. He also presented one of the Summer Heritage Lecture Series offerings for Ripon College, and continues to review books and recordings for international journals.

SUZANNE KATZ, associate professor of educational studies, presented a paper, “Creating Allies: Youth Theatre and Intercultural Dialogue,” at the Free Minds Free People Conference in Chicago in July 2013.

LISA ELLIS, director of prospect management and research in Advancement, who is on the board of directors for the Blue Mountain Project in Hagley Gap, Jamaica, spent two weeks in Jamaica in May 2013 to identify and strengthen partnerships with health care and economic development organizations.

JOSH FILLER, assistant professor of philosophy, recently presented three papers: “Carnapian Conventionalism,” “Ontology” and “The Philosophy of Biology,” at the 2012 meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association in San Diego, Calif.; and two invited lectures at the University of Kentucky, “Evolution and the Explanation of Altruism” and “Pluralism and the Levels of Selection.”

DAVID GRAHAM, professor of English, has been named the Helen Swift Neilson Professor of Cultural Studies. He had poems published in several print and online locations, and read his work in Madison and Appleton, Wis., and elsewhere. He served on a panel at the Wisconsin Book Festival, the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission and the selection committee for the national Poets’ Prize award.

SOREN HAUGE, professor of economics, presented a paper, “Income and education dynamics of microcredit borrower and non-borrower households in Nicaragua,” at the Midwest Economics Association’s 77th Annual Meeting in March 2013.

SUSAN MCDANIEL HILL has been promoted to visiting professor status and splits her time between the theatre department and the education department. She will continue as the costume designer and costumer and teach the “Makeup Design and Application” and “Costume Design and Construction” classes.

PAUL JEFFRIES, associate professor of philosophy, is the Ripon representative to the Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies. During his spring semester sabbatical, he attended and presented a response to the keynote address, “Teaching Environmental Justice: Interdisciplinary Approaches,” sponsored by InTeGrate NSF Program. In the summer of 2013, he presented a paper, “A MacIntyrean Pedagogical Method: Theoretical and Practical Considerations of Philosophical Autobiography,” at the seventh annual Conference of the International Society for MacIntyrean Enquiry.

SARAH MAHLER KRAAZ, professor of music, returned to campus in January 2013 after a semester teaching on the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) Florence off-campus study program. She taught “Narration in Music and Art” and “Patronage, Gender and Power in early modern Florence.” She has written an article on the significance of musical angels in an altarpiece for the Dominican church in Gubbio, Italy, by the late 14th-century Siennese painter Taddeo di Bartolo, for a book that Dr. Gail Solberg, art historian and adjunct faculty for the ACM program, is completing. Kraaz’s interest in music iconology in Renaissance art results directly from her experience of on-site teaching in Florence.

MCKENZIE LAMB, assistant professor of mathematics and computer science, presented at the 2013 Joint Mathematics Meetings in January, at Beloit College in March and at the Mathematics Association of America Wisconsin Section Meeting in April. In June, he attended a workshop at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on inquiry-based learning (IBL). He also received a grant from the Academy of Inquiry-Based Learning to create a set of IBL course notes for his “Mathematical Thinking and Writing” course.

MICHELLE LIPPART, development associate for major and planned giving in Advancement, helped at the Blue Mountain Project’s annual Back to School Fun Camp in August in the Hagley Gap district in St. Thomas, Jamaica. Joining Michelle as volunteer camp counselors for elementary schoolaged children were Ripon students Queriontae “Alim” Price ’16 of Glendale, Wis., Emily Connovich ’15 of Marinette, Wis., Yessra Sankari ’16 of Oshkosh, Wis., and Matthew Schultz ’16 of Waukesha, Wis. MICHAEL R. MAHONEY, a faculty member in the history department from 2010 to 2012, has published the book “The Other Zulus: The Spread of Zulu Ethnicity in Colonial South Africa.” It was published by Duke University Press and is available on amazon.com.

MOLLY MARGARETTEN, assistant professor of anthropology, wrote “I Get Money, Now I Get Trouble: Tanzanian Women in Durban” and “Making Hairdo: Paucity and Proverbs in Durban,” published in the South African newspaper Mail & Guardian. The articles are part of an e-book titled “Writing Invisibility: Conversations on the Hidden City.”

REBECCA MATZKE, associate professor of history, presented “The 100 Year Anniversary of World War I: A Look Back at the War That Shaped a Century” at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wis., Aug. 1, 2013. The talk was part of Ripon College’s Summer Heritage Lecture Series.

ZACH MESSITTE, president, won a second place award from the Public Radio News Directors for an interview done as host of “World Views” while he was dean of the College of International Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He wrote an opinion piece, “Time to rethink Redskins’ name,” for the Sept. 9, 2013, edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper; a collaborative opinion piece with St. Norbert College President Thomas Kunkel, “True student athletes are in Division III,” for the Wisconsin State Journal in September; and a collaborative opinion piece with St. Mary’s College of Maryland History Professor Charles J. Holden, “Disgraced Spiro Agnew would have a radio show today,” for the Chicago Sun Times in October.

He also was quoted in a November Wall Street Journal article about recruiting international students to Ripon.

TRAVIS NYGARD, assistant professor of art history, was co-curator of the exhibit “Olimpia Ogilvie,” displayed in Rodman Center for the Arts during the summer of 2013. He co-wrote the article “Indians Playing Indian at the Midwestern Corn Palaces, 1892-2013,” published in the 2013 issue of the Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC) Review; and reviewed a book for Food, Culture, and Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research. His research on ancient Maya art (http://mayaportraitproject.org) was presented at the Science Museum of Minnesota. He was the faculty mentor for five students who presented research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.

MOLLIE OBLINGER, assistant professor in the department of art and art history, has work included in a group exhibition at the South Bend Museum of Art/Century Center in South Bend, Ind., through May 2015. At the Alpena County Library in Michigan, she has a work on display that is part of the permanent collection of the Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary. She now is represented by the Angela Meleca Gallery in Columbus, Ohio, and will have work exhibited there in April.

BOB OTIS, professor emeritus of psychology, was featured on Seattle’s public radio station KPLU in a story about the killer whales at San Juan Island, Wash. Otis has spent 24 summers on San Juan Island studying orca whales, often with Ripon College students, and discusses that experience and the human response to orcas as part of the radio story.

ANN PLEISS MORRIS, assistant professor of English, took five students to the Blackfriars Conference at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va., in October.

She, AMANDA FINN ’14 of Dousman, Wis., and GARTH CLARK ’13 of Albany, Wis., presented papers. Other students attending were DIANE SMITH ’15 of Bowler, Wis., ANGELICA SCHWARTZ ’14 of Ripon, Wis., and JERRY KUREK ’14 of Whitefish Bay, Wis. A Ripon College 13 for 13 Grant funded some of the expenses.

LORNA SOPCAK, associate professor of German, participated in a seminar, “So lacht Österreich!” (“How Austria Laughs!”), sponsored by the Austrian Ministry of Education, Art and Culture in Steinbach am Attersee and Salzburg, Austria, in July 2013. She also was awarded a Recognition of Merit Award, Nov. 1, 2013, by the Wisconsin Association for Language Teachers.

TIMOTHY REED, associate professor of Spanish, co-chaired a panel and presented a paper, “Specters of Humanism in Buero Vallejo’s Las Meninas and El sueño de la razón,” at the Midwest Modern Language Association Conference in Milwaukee, Nov. 7, 2013.

EMILY STOVEL, associate professor of anthropology, has returned from a two-year leave during which she had a fellowship at the Instituto de Investigación Arqueológica y Museo Gustavo Le Paige, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. She ran the museum’s public outreach program and was the director of the anthropology graduate program of the Universidad Católica del Norte in Antofagasta, Chile.

JODY ROY, professor of communication, has been named the Victor and Carrie Palmer Endowed Chair for Leadership Values.

RAFAEL SALAS, associate professor of art, presented a solo exhibition of his artwork at Lawrence University titled “You’re Invisible Now.” He also lectured on this topic at the Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, Scotland, at Lawrence University and as a part of the Heritage Lecture Series at the Green Lake Town Square, Green Lake, Wis. In addition, Salas also has written reviews for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, including “The Beast Within’ at Tory Folliard Gallery” and “Makers in Print, an International Showcase of Art.” PAUL SCHOOFS, professor of economics, continues to have periodic live interviews on a local radio station about important macroeconomic issues. Over the summer, he and PENG “ROC” HUANG, associate professor of business management and economics, spoke to a group of Chinese students who attended the “Rivers as Bridges” program on the Ripon College campus.

DAVID WILLIAM SCOTT, assistant professor of religion and Pieper Chair of Servant Leadership, presented at several recent conferences, including the American Academy of Religion, the American Society of Church History and AsiaNetworks; and published an article, “Alcohol, Opium and the Methodists in Singapore: The Inculturation of a Moral Crusade,” in Mission Studies.

BRIAN H. SMITH, professor of religion, published an article in Spanish about the reaction of the Chilean Catholic bishops to the military coup of 1973. The article was published in the September 2013 issue of the Chilean Jesuit monthly magazine, “Mensaje,” in an issue commemorating the 40th anniversary of military intervention.

KATE SONTAG, visiting assistant professor of English, had several recent publications: Poetry Daily online; “A Poet’s Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry,” edited by Annie Finch (2012); “Villanelles, Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets” (2012); “Court Green,” Columbia College, Chicago, Winter 2013; and “Verse Wisconsin” in September 2013.

MARY UNGER, assistant professor of English, had an article, “ ‘Dropping Crooked into Rhyme’: Djuna Bames’s Disabled Poetics in The Book of Repulsive Women,” published in Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers. She also is now the managing editor of the journal.

BOB WALLACE, professor of biology, was published in the Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, SIL News, and Aquatic Biosystems. He also had several works accepted for publication: two papers from the 13th International Rotifer Symposium (India) in The International Review of Hydrobiology and, with H.A. SMITH ’07, a chapter on rotifers. Wallace also served as an adjunct professor of biology at the University of Texas at El Paso and judged for the Wisconsin Science Congress and the University of Texas at El Paso’s Campus Office of Undergraduate Research initiatives.

PATRICK WILLOUGHBY, assistant professor of chemistry, was part of a group of researchers from the University of Minnesota who published an article in the most recent edition of Nature. The article, “Alkane desaturation by concerted double hydrogen atom transfer to benzyne,” reports on “… a desaturation reaction of simple, unactivated alkanes that is mechanistically unique.” The work was completed while Willoughby was working on his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Minnesota.

ANDREA YOUNG, assistant professor of mathematics and computer science, published recent articles in Journal of Lie Theory, Problems and Resources and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies. She was funded to attend the Park City Mathematics Institute in Park City, Utah, in the summer of 2013; and received a $2,500 grant from the Academy of Inquiry-Based Learning to develop a math modeling course. She presented at these conferences: Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Session on Projects, Demonstrations and Activities that Engage Liberal Arts Mathematics, Joint Mathematics Meetings, in January 2013 in San Diego, Calif.; the Wisconsin MAA section meeting in April 2013 at the University of WisconsinMarshfield; and the American Mathematical Society Spring Section Meeting in April 2013 at Iowa State University.

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Notes Ripon College teamed up with WIXX Radio in August 2013 to sponsor the radio station’s annual Back to School Concert in Oshkosh, Wis., featuring the pop rock band, Emblem3. “Rally” the Red Hawk mascot and Ripon College staff were on hand to answer questions and deliver T-shirts and towels to the crowd of several thousand.

To view video and images from the event, visit wixx.com/backschool-concert.

Ripon College students visit Susan Bundock ’82, far left, at C-SPAN headquarters during the fall Career Discovery Tour in Washington, D.C. Bundock has been with the network since graduation and currently is executive producer of American History TV. “I realized as a kid I really loved to write, and at Ripon discovered I loved politics,” she says. Her adviser, Jack Christ, helped her create a self-designed major in politics and communication.

Rankings recognize Ripon College Ripon College is one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduate education, according to the 2014 edition of “The Best 378 Colleges” produced by The Princeton Review. Ripon also was recognized in the guide as a “Best Midwestern College,” and made the guide’s Top 20 lists for “town-gown relations are great” (ranked #5), “lots of race/class interaction” (ranked #17), and “professors get high marks” (ranked #18).

U.S. News & World Report unveiled their 2014 Best College rankings, and Ripon College made the list of National Liberal Arts Colleges that offer students the best value. In a 40-school list dominated by schools on the East coast, Ripon College was ranked 33rd in the nation and was the only Wisconsin college to meet the criteria for the “Great Schools at Great Prices” list.

Overall, Ripon College rose in the rankings on the Best National Liberal Arts Colleges listing to 120th in the nation.

College gifted with substantial funding • Ripon College has received a three-year, $100,000 presidential leadership program grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Liberal Arts Colleges Program to support arts, humanities and human sciences initiatives important to the campus

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career paths, including the establishment of a valedictory fund to empower teaching and research pursuits.

Two alumni publish article Two Ripon alumni are part of a team that published an article, “Chemical Derivatization of Peptide Carboxyl Groups for Highly Efficient Electron Transfer Dissociation” in The Journal of The American Society for Mass Spectrometry.

Co-writing the article as part of a group of seven scientists are Samuel B. Sondalle ’11 an MD/ Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Genetics at Yale University School of Medicine; and Brian Frey ’91 a senior scientist in the Lloyd Smith Research Group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The paper is a result of their work at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during the summer of 2009.

Great Lakes grant funds 60 paid internships A Career Ready Internship Initiative grant of up to $135,125 was received by The Center for Social Responsibility at Ripon College through Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corp. With this grant, the College is placing juniors and seniors with demonstrated financial need into 60 paid internships at not-for-profit organizations, businesses, governmental offices and at Ripon College itself. The grant program is for the 2013-2014 academic year. community. Ripon College was among just 70 liberal arts colleges determined eligible.

• The Suzanne & Richard Pieper Family Foundation has gifted Ripon College $120,008 to support ongoing efforts to prepare students to become ethical and values-based leaders who lift up society, enrich organizations and communities, and have a positive effect on the least privileged. The gift is in addition to a generous $1,000,000 endowment received from the Pieper Family Foundation in 2011 that established a Ripon College Pieper Family Foundation Chair in Servant-Leadership, currently held by religion instructor David William Scott.

• A $500,000 grant was received from the Mead Witter Foundation Inc. of Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., to enhance the Mead Witter Foundation Endowed Scholarship Fund to a total of $1 million. The Scholarship Fund was established at the College in 2010 with an initial gift of $500,000 to provide perpetual scholarship support for traditional, fulltime undergraduate students.

• A two-year, $565,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will support four new faculty appointments in the Humanities and incorporate non-Western subject matter into the curriculum.

The grant was made by the foundation’s Liberal Arts Colleges Program. The faculty appointments are designed to allow new faculty to assimilate to the college and senior faculty to transition to retirement by meeting developmental needs specific to their

Faculty presenting papers included Marty Farrell, professor of politics and government; David Hutson, the ACM Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in sociology/gender studies; Henrik Schatzinger, assistant professor of politics and government; and Marc Eaton, assistant professor of sociology.

Students presenting included Jacob Birenbaum ’14 of Random Lake, Wis.; Abigail Quackenboss ’15 of St. Cloud, Wis.; Sophia Kaounas ’14 of Brookings, S.D.; and Nathaniel Davidson ’14 of Elburn, Ill.

Students

ETHICS BOWL Front row: Seth McDonald, Sophia Kaounas, Caroline Lundt, Anders Goodwin. Back row: Connor Cummiskey, Garrison Anderson, Allison Macknick, JJ Grinde, Zachary Matson, Alexandra Finken

Ripon College won the Upper Midwest Regional Ethics Bowl competition at the Illinois Institute of Technology in November. This secures for them a spot at the National Ethics Bowl to be held Feb. 26-28 at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla. The undefeated championship team consists of SOPHIA KAOUNAS ’14 of Brookings, S.D.; CONNOR CUMMISKEY ’16 of Hamburg, Minn.; ANDERS GOODWIN ’15 of Milwaukee, Wis.; ZACHARY MATSON ’17 of Minnetonka, Minn.; CAROLINE LUNDT ’16 of Madison, Wis; GARRISON ANDERSON ’16 of Amery, Wis.; ALEXANDRA FINKEN ’16 of Wauwatosa, Wis.; ALLISON MACKNICK ’17 of Sheboygan, Wis.; JJ GRINDE ’17 of Ripon, Wis.; and SETH MCDONALD ’17 of Millbank, S.D. The second Ripon team, with Lundt, Anderson, Finken, Macknick, Grinde and McDonald, consisted of all firstyears and sophomores and had a record of 2-2, beating the second-and third-ranked teams.

Artist’s drawing of Jerry Kurek, left, Stephen Umhoefer and Grant Myers.

A scene from Ripon College’s fall production of “The Liar,” by David Ives, was selected for performance at the Regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan Jan. 8-12. It is the highest recognition for a non-competing entry. Actors were JERRY KUREK ’14 of Whitefish Bay, Wis.; STEPHEN UMHOEFER ’15 of Green Bay, Wis.; and GRANT MYERS ’17 of Williams Bay, Wis. From 2013 Ripon theatre productions, nominees for the Irene Ryan Audition Contest were: • Acting: Umhoefer; Kurek; CARL MEISNER ’16, Minnetonka, Minn.; KALLY GAGNON ’14, Mount Horeb, Wis.; SUSIE SHIVELY ’17, Wauwatosa, Wis.; LONDON MOSHER ’16, Sun Prairie, Wis.; and AMANDA FINN ’14, Dousman, Wis. Kurek’s scene advanced to the semifinals.

• Stage management: ANDERS GOODWIN ’15, Milwaukee, Wis., and JOSEPH JOHNS ’14, Ripon, Wis. • Theatre critics: Goodwin.

• Finn, last year’s regional winner of the critics competition, was a festival JOHNS intern.

ANN PLEISS MORRIS, assistant professor, and five students attended the Blackfriars Conference in Staunton, Va., Oct. 23 through 27.

AMANDA FINN ’14 of Dousman, Wis., presented “Epicoene or Epicene: How Stage Directions Can Completely Alter Theatrical Empathy,” a look FINN at how contemporary editing has

changed characterization in Ben Jonson’s work. GARTH CLARK ’14 of Albany, Wis., presented “A Midsummer Night’s Mess: Staging a Mechanical Play Towards the CLARK Royalty.” The conference is presented by the American Shakespeare Center’s Education and Research Department.

The Ripon College Forensics Team finished fourth out of 16 schools in December at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie. This followed a thirdplace finish out of 17 schools at Bethany Lutheran College in November. Twenty-five Ripon students competed during first semester. DAVID GARCIA ’14 of West Chicago, Ill., won Extemporaneous Speaking, and KATIE BIEDLER ’15 of Sauk Rapids, Minn., won Communication Analysis. Other award-winners include ANGELICA SCHWARTZ ’14 of Ripon, Wis., second in Program of Oral Interpretation; SOPHIA KAOUNAS ’14 of Brookings, S.D., second in Impromptu Speaking and third in Extemporaneous Speaking; HOLLY GOODWIN ’17 of Neenah, Wis., third in Impromptu Speaking; SAMANTHA GOODWIN ’14 of Milwaukee, Wis., finalist in Music Interpretation; and ANDERS GOODWIN ’15 of Milwaukee, Wis., finalist in Program of Oral Interpretation. Other competitors included DIANE SMITH ’15 of Bowler, Wis.; KATIE WARCZAK ’16 of Oshkosh, Wis.; RAEANN BRIXIUS ’16 of Tomahawk, Wis.; and first-years ALLISON MACKNICK of Sheboygan, Wis., ALLISON REINHARDT ’17 of Nelson, Wis., HANNAH RUPP of Potosi, Wis., DANAE CHALTRY of Marinette,

Wis., and ALLWIN MCDONALD and SETH MCDONALD of Millbank, S.D.

Fall Athletics highlights Women’s soccer player BRANDI PELTIER ’15 broke the school record for career goals scored this season with her third consecutive season of at least 20 goals. She now has 65 goals in her career, which broke the previous record of 62.

The cycling team returned to collegiate mountain bike nationals for the fifth year in a row. The team finished eighth among Division II schools, just 60 points shy of a top-five podium placing. The Red Hawks relay team of BEN SENKERIK ’15, SOPHIA MARCHIANDO ’17, ROSETTE REYNOLDS ’14 and TONY KAATZ ’16 did reach the podium, placing fifth in the first-ever relay event at nationals.

The Ripon volleyball team qualified for the Midwest Conference Tournament for the first time in four years, recording a 15-15 overall record and a 7-3 mark in the MWC. Their 15 victories are the most in a single season since 2004.

The Ripon women’s soccer team finished the season with a 10-7-1 record, marking their second consecutive 10-win season. That is also the second consecutive winning season for the team after a string of 16 consecutive losing campaigns.

Ripon College’s new Steinway concert grand piano, purchased in January, was dedicated during an inaugural concert Oct. 4, 2013.

Sean Chen, the 2013 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellow of the American Pianists Association, was the guest artist. The piano was purchased with a gift from the estate of Frank Brewster ’65 as part of the Imagine Tomorrow comprehensive campaign.

David Joyce, Ripon College’s 12th president, returned to campus Aug. 30, 2013, for the unveiling of his official presidential portrait.

The portrait is hung in the North Reading Room of Lane Library with the portraits of Ripon College’s other previous presidents.

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The 1930s/1940s ELEANOR HUELSMAN STEWART ’35 of

Richardson, Texas, is 99. She writes: “Since I met my husband (JAMES RUSSELL STEWART ’34, deceased) at Ripon, I have my happy memories of Ripon and the friends we met there.”

JAMES “MAGGIE” MEGELLAS ’42 of Colleyville, Texas, was

the subject of features about the continuing efforts to award him the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism during World War II: on Veterans’ Day 2013 on CBS television in Dallas; and in the Fond du Lac Reporter newspaper. http://goo.gl/0cxaep DONALD POLZIN ’43 of New London, Wis.,

writes: “I am spending my 18th winter in Arizona. I traveled extensively before. I retired 32 years ago in 1980. I have three children, and all are new grandparents.”

RAYMOND H. MCLEOD ’44 of Lincoln, Neb.,

writes: “Turning 92. Now have seven greatgrandchildren. U.S. Navy in World War II — enquiring officer on Navy ship (Pacific).”

DEAN EMANUEL ’45 and his wife, Lorrie, of Pittsville, Wis., received a 2013 Spirit of Giving Award for their support of Marshfield Clinic. Emanuel, a cardiologist who began working at the clinic in 1958, helped with the creation of a center and an annual auction which has raised more than $2 million since 1982.

SHIRLEY BANARD BRANDT ’47 and ROBERT BRANDT ’49 of Phoenix, Ariz., just celebrated

ANNA MCLEAN MATHY ’49 of Warrenville, Ill., writes, “I have an organic garden and about 10 roses, which I treasure. I attend COD’s watercolor class in art essentials, which is lots of fun. Watercolors are my hobby. I have six children, all still married, and 10 grandchildren.”

The 1950s

Connected by Ripon Recently, JOHN FRISVOLD ’53 and Marti Frisvold of Eden Prairie, Minn., were with friends at a supper club in Lake Shore, Minn.

The friends brought the couple over to the table of RYAN AMACHER ’67 and SUSAN SMITH AMACHER ’68 of Lake Shore, Minn.

Over the next minute came this exchange: “John, meet Ryan and Susan Amacher.”

John: “Marshfield, Wis.” Ryan: “Medford, Wis.” Then, in order, John always first, no other words: “Econ major.” “Econ major.”

“Merriman.” “Merriman.”

“President of Merriman.” “President of Merriman.”

“Captain of the morning dish crew.” “Captain of the morning dish crew.”

“Favorite professor: Westy.” (We both had done crib notes.) “Favorite professor: Fudd.”

No need to say more -- lots of laughs.

DICK BAILAR ’51 and his

wife, Freidel, of Monticello, Fla., travel, including a trip to her native Germany. He is blind but chairs or serves on six county boards, and was appointed to state boards on tourist development and a three-

county library consortium. His local library has been renamed the R. J. Bailar Public Library.

MONA FISHER POTTER ’51 of Asheville, N.C., reunited with about 70 students and their spouses from when she taught at Sand Hill High School in Asheville 60 years ago. She started a speech club which still is running. “You see you’ve made a mark,” she says.

BLANCHE BARTIZAL BABCOCK ’53 of Three Lakes, Wis., is a member of the local hospital auxiliary board, an investment club and a women’s bridge club.

RUSS BREMNER ’53 of Minneapolis, Minn.,

teaches English as a Second Language in Minneapolis and in Florida and works with SCORE, a consulting group for small businesses.

PATRICIA JENKINS STEAFFENS ’53 of Stoughton, Wis., writes: “Enjoyed the issue of Ripon Magazine that had a picture of the Holly Ball, circa 1950. That’s when Bill (WILLIAM STEAFFENS ’50, deceased) gave me my engagement ring. It certainly was a memorable dance! By the way, I still have his Theta Sigma Tau key on its necklace. We were married for 57½ years.” Pat took a family cruise to Alaska in July 2011 to celebrate her 80th birthday. She enjoys reading and creating beautiful needlework.

NED LUFRANO ’54 and his wife, Joan, of Chicago, Ill., celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with their children and grandchildren on Longboat Key in Sarasota, Fla., in April 2013.

their 64th wedding anniversary. They have four children, 10 grandchildren and nine greatgrandchildren. They enjoy visiting the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

ANDREW SPHEERIS ’49

of Sedona, Ariz., recently turned 89. He teaches a class for retirees on “Aging Gracefully” at a division of Yavapai College.

A full profile can be found at http://goo.gl/XEsUo0 BETH TILDEN BEATTIE ’49 retired from

directing a bell choir after 25 years and has started a choir in her retirement community.

She and her husband, Ted, sing, play duplicate bridge and travel. They live in St. Louis, Mo., in the winter and Manitou Springs, Colo., in the summer.

HELEN MATTESON SCHOTANUS ’54 and MERLE SCHOTANUS ’53 of Grantham, N.H., have

completed 14 cycling tours all over the world. Merle also enjoys raised bed gardening, serves on the President’s Council of Keene State College and is active in conservation organizations. Helen is active in early childhood professional organizations.

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BOB AINSWORTH ’57 of Upland, Calif., has written a memoir of his life, including growing up in Racine, his years at Ripon College, his ancestors, his long career in the military, his later career with World Vision International, travels around the world, his work with Christian Eye Ministry, and his marriage to BOBBIE NIESS AINSWORTH ’57.

ULYSSES DOSS ’57 of

Missoula, Mont., was featured in The Missoulian, a Montana newspaper, in an article about the founding of the University of Montana’s Black Studies Program. http://goo.gl/JLM5v7. In 1968, Doss started the program amidst the ongoing civil rights movement in the United States.

JEAN WEIFENBACH GODDEN ’57 of Wyoming, Ohio, paints watercolors. Her works have been included in many juried shows, and she won “Best of Show” in the Cincinnati Women’s Art Club Show. She also teaches private lessons. She enjoys swimming, hiking and raising orchids.

LOWELL WEBER ’57 of Edina, Minn.,

volunteers for Loaves and Fishes and helps the homeless enjoy one-month stays at his church.

He also reads nonfiction books, especially biographies and history, and enjoys golfing. He and his wife, Carol, winter in Arizona.

SUSAN POND WOJTASIK ’57 of Washington, Mass.,

volunteers at her church, meets regularly with a group of writers in Stockbridge, Mass., and is preparing a manuscript of personal essays about her past 20 years in New York City and western Massachusetts. She also is a poet.

JANE GOODMAN CLAJUS ’58 of Maineville,

Ohio, travels and is writing her family’s history.

She also teaches a few private piano students.

TED PETERSON ’58 of Loves Park, Ill., still works almost every day. For 41 years, he has owned a small business which supplies products to the professional security industry.

JERRY WHITFORD ’58 of Dodgeville, Wis., serves with the city plan commission and as president of the police and fire commission; announces high school baseball, Babe Ruth and other tournaments; and participates in the Lions Club.

The 1960s

Connected by Ripon When HAN THINZAR “HONEY” ZAW ’13, originally from Myanmar, graduated from Ripon College, she had a work visa for the United States for just a year. MARGARET “PEGI” BISSON WHEATLEY ’63 of Mill Valley, Calif., who runs a placement company for the San Francisco Bay area, says the work visa made “placement other than just temp assignments difficult. Less than an hour after we met, we received an unusual request for an events assistant with one of our nonprofit clients. The position is less than a year and could work within (Honey’s) visa. The timing was incredible and so lucky.” Zaw also met with GUY HENSHAW ’68 of Danville, Calif., to discuss business connections in the area.

Henshaw is with Henshaw and Vierra, a management counsel firm, and is a Ripon College trustee.

RUSSELL ACKLEY ’62 and NANCY HUTT ACKLEY ’63 of Pewaukee, Wis., celebrated

their 50th wedding anniversary Dec. 29, 2012.

They have three sons, two granddaughters and one grandson. They recently traveled to Italy and France.

RONALD CASE ’62 of Lincoln, Neb., is serving

his third term as an elected director for Lower Platte South Natural Resources District based in Lincoln.

VERNON CRONEN ’63 of Wilmington,

N.C., is professor emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and currently adjunct faculty, department of Communication Studies, University of North Carolina, Wilmington. His research and teaching are focused on the theory of communication, and cowrote “Coordinated Management of Meaning.” He lectures and presents workshops in various countries, most recently Denmark and Germany.

six national parks, travelled to Charleston to visit their oldest son, and Hilton Head for a week of golf. They are spending the winter in Naples, Fla.

CHERYL ROFER ’63 of Santa Fe, N.M., was quoted in numerous media features concerning nuclear issues, including the New York Times, National Geographic, Toronto’s Globe and Mail, Foreign Policy and the Canadian national network CTV. Rofer worked at the Los Alamos national laboratory for 35 years and is CEO of nucleardiner.com, an online forum. See profile on Page 11 of this issue. On Oct. 2, she spoke to Professor Brian Smith’s “Ethics and International Relations” class at Ripon College.

KAREN CARLSON ’61 of Novato, Calif., is a

DAN SCHULTZ ’63 of Silver Spring, Md.,

JIM MCKAY ’60 of Stoughton, Wis., volunteers at Madison’s Overture Center, and ushers and counts money for his church.

KARL PIOTROWSKI ’60 of Aiea, Oahu, Hawaii, retired for the second time at the end of April 2013. He now is consulting from his home.

MARILYN DEPLEWSKI TYKAL ’60 and BOB TYKAL ’61 of Davis, Ill., spent 18 days visiting

feature columnist in the Novato Advance, with the column “FEET on the Ground.” (http://goo.gl/Mt18W1) TENA SCHULTZ FRANZEN ’61 of Florence,

Ky., retired from the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Dec. 14, 2012, after 28 years. She was the laboratory manager of the chemistry department.

RICK KREUSER ’61 of Baton Rouge, La., worked overseas postings in Belgium and France during his career, and remains involved in international business.

BARBARA KRIEPS LASKIN ’61 of San Jose,

Calif., is a management analyst for Santa Clara County. She has two standard poodles who do reading and play therapy work with children.

Both dogs are retired from dog show competition.

A profile can be found at ripon.edu/laskin.

HOWARD MYERS ’61 of Mequon, Wis., is a lawyer engaging in the process of mediating employment disputes throughout the state of Wisconsin.

participated in a Swim Across America cancer research fund-raising event in September. He completed a one-mile open water swim in Chesapeake Bay and was interviewed by a local television station.

SUZIE SHADE ’63 of Chicago, Ill., retired Oct.

31, 2011, after more than 44 years at Chapman and Cutler LLP in Chicago. She is a season ticket holder of the Cubs and went to 79 home games last year.

FRANK SMOLL ’63 of Kirkland, Wash., spoke at the Aspen Institute’s Project Play roundtable in November. Project partners include the Clinton Health Matters Initiative, ESPN, Nike and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The aim is to get and keep more children involved in sports. Smoll is a psychology professor at the University of Washington.

RICH MOSCHEL ’64 of Sun City West, Ariz., has retired from substitute teaching after 11 years. He recently spent a week in Cancun, Mexico, for his nephew’s wedding.

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DAVID ROBINSON ’64 of Warren, Conn., has

been retired for seven years. He travels, has two children and five grandchildren, and has a farm on a lake in northwestern Connecticut.

DAN SICULAN ’64 of Columbia, S.C., retired

in February 2013 after 45 years in the market research business. His employers included Montgomery Ward, GENESCO, Long, Haymes and Carr (advertising), Wachovia Bank, SunTrust Bank, William M. Mercer Investment Advisory and SCANA Corp.

PATTY GASS BRAIDWOOD ’66 of Virginia

Beach, Va., writes: “Semi-retirement is great – just enough challenge to keep the mind going and just enough time to travel and enjoy family. I continue with a variety of church duties – Vacation Bible School, Altar Guild and book study.”

by private donations and just made budget by $87 in 2012.

MARY RASCHKA SIKORA ’66 of Orlando,

Fla., retired in the spring of 2013 from college classroom teaching of developmental math, but still is doing upper-level math tutoring at Valencia College and teaching English in small groups in her daughter’s second-grade classroom. She is active in watercolor painting, drawing, body conditioning and yoga.

BARRY SIMON ’66 of Albuquerque, N.M., is executive producer for the New Mexico Gay Men’s Chorus concerts, “putting my drama minor and my time in chorus to use,” he says.

He volunteers with a children’s reading program and teaches first-graders about symphony orchestras and instruments.

NANCY COX CARTER ’66 of Alfred, Maine, has a business, North Wind Picture Archives, specializing in history. Clients include publishers, television networks, museums and the National Park Service. Her pictures are carried by the Associated Press; her website, northwindpictures.com; and partner agencies in Paris, Berlin and London. She and her husband, Richard, enjoy travelling and fixing up homes in Maine and New Mexico.

GARY YERKEY ’66 of Washington, D.C., has a

BILL DESCHER ’66 and PATRICIA OLSON DESCHER ’66 of Ocean Springs, Miss.,

as division director of the Worldwide Instructional Design System (WIDS), which she helped establish in the 1990s.

She continues volunteer work with the Ripon Education Foundation, Ripon Public Library and Ripon Community Appearance Committee.

She and her husband, BILL NEILL ’67, enjoy traveling, gardening, sailing and participating in Ripon College activities.

recently cruised from New York to Bermuda with their three sons and their wives and all six grandchildren. A seventh grandchild is on the way. They still are working with their 22 McDonald’s restaurants.

DAVE GEBHARDT ’66 and his wife, Marianne,

of Bloomingdale, Ill., travelled to Alaska for three weeks in July and celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary aboard a Princess cruise ship there.

“We saw many glaciers and ate much salmon,” he says. They winter in Florida.

ROGER GREILING ’66 of Roseville, Minn., and

new book, “South to Selma: ‘Outside Agitators’ and the Civil Rights March that Changed America,” about his participation in the Selmato-Montgomery voting rights march in 1965.

It is available through Amazon.com http:// goo.gl/6a5va7. Read a full profile at http://goo. gl/8nvBk2

Ill., volunteers, travels, takes classes and spends time with family and friends. In 2012, she and her husband, John, spent five weeks in New Zealand. After she and a friend took Italian classes together, they rented a place in Bettona, Italy, in September.

SHARI VIZANKO MILLER ’66 of Stillwater,

received her designation as a certified meeting professional with emeritus status as of 2013.

Minn., is retired and keeps busy with volunteer work, babysitting her grandchildren and traveling.

NANCY OLIVER LEIFHEIT ’69 of Sycamore, Ill., reports that DAVE LEIFHEIT ‘67 is a

retired banker and now volunteers as a SCORE counselor and heads up the local AARP Tax-Aide tax preparation for senior citizens. Nancy earned a doctor of education degree and national board certification and has retired as the curriculum director of the Sycamore School District.

GEORGE SCHNEIDER ’66 of Wauwatosa,

Wis., still works full time in urgent care and occupational medicine during the day and two nights a week at the Greater Milwaukee Free Clinic. The all-volunteer clinic is funded

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The 1970s

Connected by Ripon KEVIN WARMACK ’79 of Chicago, Ill., recently received an invitation from PAUL GODBOLD ’83 of South Holland, Ill., to join his LinkedIn network. “In his message to me, he told about his Ripon connection but also the high school connection – Harvard St. George School. Outside of me, I know of one other Ripon/Harvard St. George connection: GEANNINE GRIFFITH HARRIS (’85 of Chicago Ill.). Harvard was a very small school here in Chicago, and the school itself closed in the late ’90s. Harvard gave the world Edgar Rice Burroughs, the writer of ‘Tarzan,’ and was the school from where Bobby Franks, the young man who was murdered by Loeb & Leopold, was abducted.”

NANCY GONIA BAJOREK ’69 of Elmhurst,

ALICE HALL HAYES ’69 of Washington, D.C.,

opened Hawaii’s only Life is Good Genuine Neighborhood Shoppe with a partner in August 2012.

Va., retired from government service in the Department of Defense on June 20, 2013.

However, he adds, “Retirement lasted 30 days.

I signed a one-year contract supporting a major set of construction litigation. I’m temporarily located in Aiken, S.C.”

JUDY WILKINSON NEILL ’68 of Ripon, Wis., has retired

his wife, Mindy, have worked on issues involving mental health awareness and advocacy for 15 years. Their daughter, Angela Greiling Keane, is president of the National Press Club.

WILLIAM MOORE ’66 of Lahaina, Hawaii,

NICHOLAS “CHIP” RETSON ’69 of Centreville,

GORDY MILLER ’69 of Lebanon, N.J., is the founder/principal at Alternative Investment Consulting LLC.

MARK HENKEL ’70 of

Rudolph Wis., celebrated 25 years of tae kwon do training in August 2013. He credits the year-round workouts for the fitness and control needed to continue litigating. He is a sixth-degree black belt, and his wife HILDE BORMANN HENKEL ’73 and sons, James and John, all train and teach tae kwon do.

MARK CONRAD ’73 of Chetek, Wis., is the president of University of Wisconsin-Barron County Foundation and an associate lecturer in political science.

DEBORAH EVANS CLEM ’74

and her husband, Steven, of Boulder, Colo., split time between home and a cabin in the heart of the Rockies, in the historic mining town of Leadville, where they hike, bike and telemark at Ski Cooper.

She is a historical interpreter at the Healy House museum and is involved with the Colorado Music Festival & Center for Musical Arts, a summer music festival and year-long community arts center.

MARY HUGHES SEGER ’74 of Trafalgar, Ind., retired from Eli Lilly and Co. in 2012. She now works part time as a senior medical writer for B2S consulting.

MARGARET E. ZELLMER ’74 of Shaker Heights,

Ohio, is the development and church relations manager at Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry in Cleveland, Ohio.

DEE “DUSTI” AUSTRING ’75 of Waiheke

Island, New Zealand, was a district supervisor for this year’s census, works at the library, is the booking manager at the Island’s community theatre and runs two home businesses, USANA Health Sciences and the office service ProTem. DOUGLAS DUNCAN JR. ’75 of West Palm

Beach, Fla., chairs his county’s Criminal Justice Commission, specializing in criminal defense.

He received the Professionalism Award from the Palm Beach County Bar Association.

RICHARD LEWANDOWSKI ’75 of Madison, Wis., has

been elected to the Sigma Chi Executive Committee for a two-year term, which began July 1, 2013.

LINDA MOGICATO SASSER ’75

of Bloomingdale, Ill., completed her sabbatical research on brain health and memory in the spring of 2013. As a professional speaker and consultant, she educates people about lifestyle practices that impact brain health for businesses, retirement communities, and other organizations.

Her business website is www.brainandmemoryhealth.com.

THOMAS H. BROMAN ’76 of Madison, Wis.,

presented “Pasteur’s Rabies Vaccine: Medicine’s Watershed Moment” Sept. 20, 2013, on the Ripon College campus. He is a professor in the History of Science Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

JENNIFER VOGEL POWERS ’76 of Hartland, Wis., is a 2013

Woman in the Law honoree by the Wisconsin Law Journal; and was selected by peers for inclusion in “The Best Lawyers in America 2014.” She is a partner in the law firm of Quarles & Brady LLP’s Milwaukee office, practicing in public finance and commercial finance.

MIKE GREGORY ’80 of Edgerton, Wis., was

named Green Bay Packers High School Coach of the Week during the week of Sept. 25, 2013.

Gregory, in his 14th season as the head coach of the WIAA Division III program at Edgerton High School, recorded his third conference win of the year on Sept. 20, 2013.

RICK ROSENECK ’80 of Madison, Wis., is now director of communications for The Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (WAICU), of which Ripon College is a member. He previously worked in the newspaper and radio fields, as well as in corporate communications, public information and business writing.

KURT SCHMIDT ’83 and KENDRA HOPP SCHMIDT ’82 have relocated to Vienna, Austria,

where Kurt is the assistant legal attaché at the U.S. Embassy.

KAREN MCCOY TACK ’84

ROD HAYNES ’78 of Renton, Wash., is helping to implement the Affordable Care Act in the areas of education and market exchange implementation in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska. He also recently taught an evening course about the American Civil War at Green River Community College.

of Riverside, Conn., who has written several cupcake- and cake-decorating books available on amazon.com, got national exposure recently when she created a birthday cake for Kathy Lee Gifford’s 60th birthday on the “Today” television show.

Karen shows the cake in stages on her blog: http://goo.gl/fr3PMM. A video showing Tack judging a decorating contest between hosts Gifford and Hoda Kotb can be viewed at http:// goo.gl/gSsrS2. On YouTube, she has many quick how-to videos: http://goo.gl/2KEhRQ. A free app, hello cupcake, is available at the Apple App Store.

MIKE RAINEY ’78 of Northwood, N.H., is

CAROL BRITTAIN ’86 of Fort Atkinson, Wis.,

administrator of the Waste Water Residuals Management Section of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. He also is an avid cyclist, covering thousands of miles a year on his recumbent bicycle.

has been self-employed practicing traditional Chinese medicine/acupuncture for 15 years with Acupuncture Healing Services. She also enjoys studying energy medicine.

BARBARA EDUCATE DOLAN ’78 of

Lincolnshire, Ill., is regional manager, hospital development, for the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network in Itasca, Ill.

is director of contracting for Physicians Plus in Madison.

SHANNON BENNETT ’88 reports that after 22 years in Charleston, S.C., is now communications manager for global procurement with Ingersoll Rand in Charlotte, N.C.

The 1980s

JANET BENTLEY ’88 of Laguna Niguel, Calif., is

BOB SCHMITT ’79 of Sun Prairie, Wis.,

a kindergarten teacher at Oso Grande Schools.

Connected by Ripon When NANCY HINTZ ’82 of Ripon, Wis., director of the Annual Fund and the 1851 Club at Ripon College, and a relative visited Dr. Curt Radford, in Oshkosh, Wis., she discovered Radford was the father of WESTON RADFORD ’07, who now is in his medical residency. Weston’s great-greatgreat-grandfather was Elijah Smith, the philanthropist who built Smith Hall on the Ripon College campus, where Nancy now works.

COL. JIM DONNELLY ’88 of Gambrills, Md., retired from the United States Army. A ceremony was held Sept. 26, 2013, at The Pentagon Library and Conference Center in Washington, D.C. CAROL SHAY HORNING ’88

of Madison, Wis., has a mystery novel, “Asperger Sunset,” set in Madison, Wis. The book is available through Amazon.com: http://goo.gl/r7HZyZ. Horning works for a business magazine and has had work printed in the e-zine “Extra Innings” and American Player’s Theatre’s “Book of Lore.”

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CAROLYN AGACINSKI CLARK ’89 of Renton, Wash., is a registered nurse at Alliance Nursing.

JODI M. GIBSON ’89 of Kalamazoo, Mich., is vice president of corporate social responsibility at the Kellogg Co.

MARC HEALY ’89

LAURA KREOFSKY ’91 of Portland, Ore., works

of Elgin, Ill., is an anthropology professor at Elgin Community College.

for Impact Advisors, leading the healthcare technology consulting firm’s research and development team. She also is an avid yogi and completed her yoga teacher training “just for fun” in the spring of 2103.

HEIDI ZWART HEALY ’91 is a

marketing specialist with the Wolko Design Group.

RHONDA LAUBENSTEIN HARE ’89 of

Amherst, Wis., is the principal at Chain O’ Lakes Elementary School in Waupaca and director of instruction for the School District of Waupaca.

TAMARA CHERNOS HARTY ’89 of Chantilly, Va., was interviewed for an episode of the “48 Hours” television program that aired in October.

Harty is an FBI special agent involved in the case about German native Christian Gerhartsreiter, who called himself Clark Rockefeller.

The 1990s BRIAN STOUT ’90 of Fredonia, Wis., is the assistant campus dean for Administrative and Financial Services at the University of WisconsinSheboygan. Stout was chair of the Department of Military Science and a professor of military science at the College of Management for the last four years. He served in the U.S. Army for 23 years.

SAMANTHA BAILEY ’91 of Kent, Ohio, is

principal consultant at SiftUX, a user-experience design firm specializing in information architecture and user interface design.

KARL FELD ’91 of Clayton, N.C., is working

for a social research company based in Silicon Valley. He remains in North Carolina and recently took up archery as a family sport and swims daily.

ANDREA CABALLERO DILWEG ’92 of Long Beach, Calif., is the program director for Catalyst for Payment Reform. She also has been appointed to the board of directors for the Community Hospital of Long Beach Foundation.

CLAUDINE KUBE HARPER ’92 of Racine, Wis., teaches Spanish at Eastbrook Academy in Milwaukee, Wis. LISSA GILMAN HEENAN ’92 of Birmingham,

Ala., is a pastry chef at Danberry at Inverness Assisted Living.

JAMES KOZAK ’92 of Glenview, Ill., is the managing director of ROTH Capital Partners, Venture Finance Group, a global investment bank, in Chicago, Ill. JENNIE JACOBS SCHILLER ’92 of Wauwatosa, Wis., is

director of the Histocompatibility Laboratory, a reference library dealing with tissue typing to support solid organ and bone marrow transplantation.

SUSAN FRIKKEN ’90 of Madison, Wis., (top of photo) gets climbing lessons from MIN KIM ’08 of Kenosha, Wis. Kim learned to climb from classmates at Ripon College.

Frikken and Kim connected at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They both received doctorates in physical therapy in May 2013.

LORI STICH ’91 of Colorado Springs, Colo., had Ripon encounters twice in one month. Her REDOUAN EL-YOUNSI ’90 of Tetouan,

Morocco, stands with his two sons, Mehdi, left, and Fares, who both hope to attend Ripon College. More about Redouan can be read at http://goo.gl/eQEBaO

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husband, Bernard Obluda, flew with another Delta pilot, Tom Kasson, who turned out to be part of a Ripon family: his parents, PETER KASSON ’59 and JOYCE PROUT KASSON ’61; brother DICK KASSON ’91; sister CONNIE KASSON NEGAARD ’85; a grandparent and other relatives all attended Ripon College. A week later, in Sebring, Fla., Stich met MARK ANDREWS ’73, a real estate agent and avid biker (in the photo). Lori also was featured on the NCAA website in November for their 40-in-40 campaign. http://goo.gl/KLMdvA

BRENT GOODMAN ’93 of Rhinelander, Wis., is a memberat-large of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission. He is the author of “Far From Sudden,” “The Brother Swimming Beneath Me,” and two chapbooks, “Trees are the Slowest Rivers” and “Wrong Horoscope,” which won the 1999 Frank O’Hara award.

CHRIS GRAHAM ’93 is the

new commissioner of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (NCAA Division II). He served for 10 years as executive director of the Midwest Conference (NCAA Division III) in Ripon. He also earned all-conference accolades in basketball and baseball as a student-athlete at Ripon College and was part of three Midwest Conference championship teams. He also served the College as sports information director and assistant baseball coach.

CHRISTINE PHILLIPS HESKETT ’93 and

husband, John, of Park City, Utah, have a daughter, Jane Margaret Heskett, born Sept.

3, 2012.

DEB JENSEN LAHTEINE ’93 is vice president of information systems at L. Knife & Son Inc. She is the first female vice president in the company.

PAULA SOUIK BIZOT ’94 and her husband, Dave, of Ann Arbor, Mich., have a daughter, Amy Marie Bizot, born July 1, 2012. Paula is an environmental scientist and volunteers as a nurse.

KIMBERLY WOOLLEY ’94 of

San Carlos, Calif., is associate general counsel, head of corporate law, for WilliamsSonoma Inc. The company includes these brands: Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PBTeen, West Elm, Mark & Graham and Rejuvenation Lighting.

ANGELIQUE GIANAS ’95 of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., married Jeffery Fong, May 4, 2013. She recently celebrated 17 years of working at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif., and currently is business relations manager for Downtown Disney. She also serves on the Disney VoluntEars Leadership Council.

CHRIS CORSTEN ’97 married Laura Alexandrescu, Jan. 14, 2013. They live in Romania, her home country, and both work in international development.

MICHAEL MILBURN ’97 of Chicago, Ill., is

vice president of strategy and operations for Salesforce.com.

RYAN PATNODE ’97 of Cedar Park, Texas, was promoted Nov. 1, 2013, to lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. He has been assigned to be chief of Air and Missile Defense Operations for 1CAV, Fort Hood, Texas.

CHRISTY SCHWENGEL ’97 and her

husband, Robert Knotts, of Alexandria, Va., have a daughter, Anna Joy Knotts, born March 17, 2012.

BRIAN WALSH ’97 of Port Angeles, Wash., was honored as a Champion of Change at the White House on Nov. 21, 2013.

He leads the offender education program for Peninsula College at two state prisons in Washington State. He also is corrections education director for Peninsula College. He and his wife, AUTUMN PIONTEKWALSH ’93, own Five Acre School, an independent preschool through middle school.

Autumn also is a psychotherapist with a private practice and a part-time practice with the Lower Elwha Sklallam Indian tribe.

GAIL HALSEY BERTRAM ’98 of Oshkosh, Wis., and her husband, Patrick, have a daughter, Ellen Lee Halsey Bertram, born March 20, 2013. Gail teaches first grade at Oaklawn Elementary School.

DAN HAWKSWORTH ’98 of

Randolph, N.J., vice president of global staffing at Honeywell, was quoted in Forbes magazine on Nov. 14, 2013. http://goo.gl/ FvRSmU. The article is about RallyPoint, a business that connect military personnel with corporate hiring managers.

STEPHEN KENNELLY ’98 and EMILY MEYER ’09 of Hays, Kan., were married

BILLIE SANDBERG ’98 of Portland, Ore., is assistant professor of public administration and nonprofit management in the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University.

ALEXANDER R. ARIFIANTO ’99 of Singapore talked about

progressive Islam in Indonesia in September 2013 at Ripon College. Starting in January 2014, he is a visiting fellow with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, leading the institute’s research on the 2014 Indonesian Parliamentary and Presidential elections.

HEATHER MENNE ’99 of Lakewood, Ohio,

received a year-long Health and Aging Policy fellowship in Washington, D.C., sponsored by Columbia University and the American Political Science Association. Menne is a senior research scientist in the Margaret Blenkner Research Institute of the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging in Cleveland, Ohio.

BILLY SWARTZ II ’99 of Wauwatosa,

Wis., is the assistant basketball coach at Carroll University.

The 2000s

Connected by Ripon AUSTIN DURHAM ’00 and JACLYN KENNY DURHAM ’03 of New Berlin, Wis., met each

other at Ripon College. “We live right next door to the parents of NICOLE BAUMANN ’01, who is married to DEREK BLACKMORE ’01; another couple who met at Ripon College. It’s contagious on my cul de sac!”

JULIE KAISERLING PFEIL ‘00 of

Mukwonago, Wis., and her husband, Robert, have a son, William Robert Pfeil, born July 25, 2013.

Oct. 19, 2013.

AMY TINCHER-DURIK ’96 of

BRADLEY KOZACZUK ’98 of New Holstein,

Indianola, Iowa, is the senior director of premedia services for Meredith Corp.

Wis., teaches world history at New Holstein High School.

LEILANI KUPO ’98 of Woodland, Calif., is

director of the Women’s Resources and Research Center at the University of California-Davis.

ERIC WIGHTMAN ’96 of Milwaukee, Wis., is the principal of E.W. Luther Elementary School in South Milwaukee.

JOANN DOPP ROMEO ’98

is president and owner of Romeo Enterprises, an Internet marketing company (www.

RomeoEnterprises.net); and JoAnn M. Romeo Makeup, a freelance multimedia makeup artist business (www.

JoAnnMRomeo.com).

LISA SHARPE ELLES ’01 and her husband, Dan, of Lawrence, Kan., have a daughter, Roslyn Marie Elles, born July 20, 2013.

JEFFREY MASSEN ’01 and KARALYN DEHN MASSEN ’06 of Berlin, Wis., have

a daughter, Evalynn Harms Dehn Massen, born Oct. 14, 2013.

MAURO SACCHI ’01 of Colorado Springs, Colo., visited campus Nov. 13, 2013, for the Sankofa Alumni Lecture Series. Sacchi is a

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theater/dance performing artist, teacher, director and choreographer. He recently finished his master’s degree at the Taipei National University of the Arts, Dance College, and has performed, taught master classes and presented academic papers around the world.

CHRIS THOMAS ’01 and MICHELLE MIRR THOMAS ’01 of St. Paul, Minn., have a son,

Solomon, born in April 2012.

CARRIE MITCHELL VOLP ’01 of Larsen, Wis.,

is a loss prevention specialist at Jewelers Mutual.

LIZ WEBB BEELES ’02 of Ellensburg, Wash.,

is the publications and web coordinator for the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

JOHN BITTER ’02 and his wife, Melissa,

of Cedarburg, Wis., have twins, a son, William Patrick Bitter, and a daughter, Mallory Amanda Bitter, born Aug. 25, 2013.

Bitter is the senior director of ticket sales for the Milwaukee Admirals Hockey team.

KATE BROPHY ’02 is head pharmacy technician, head of the business team and IT support with Community Pharmacy. She also plays with the Edgewood College Campus Community Band.

JUNGWON CHOI ’02 of Busan, South

Korea, married Hyun-Jin Park, Nov. 2, 2013. He is a veterinarian. Park is a soprano who has worked mostly in Germany for many years.

PETER GERLACH ’02 and CADY SINNWELL GERLACH ’05 of Iowa City, Iowa, report that

Cady graduated in May 2013 with a juris doctor degree from the Syracuse University College of Law; and a master’s degree in public administration (MPA) from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She sat for and successfully passed the Iowa bar exam this summer and is an associate at Meardon, Sueppel & Downer P.L.C. in Iowa City. Peter finished all coursework for his Ph.D. in cultural foundations of education at Syracuse University, passed his comprehensive exams and is conducting his dissertation research at Grinnell College in Iowa, studying the international student experience at small liberal arts colleges.

ALAN HUFFMAN ’02 and RITA REIFFERS HUFFMAN ’02 of Wittenberg, Wis., celebrated

their 10-year wedding anniversary this year by getting remarried by “Elvis” in Las Vegas. They run a fund-raising company that helped high school sports teams raise more than $500,000 for their teams last year.

LEIGH MLODZIK ’02 of Princeton, Wis.,

married Alissa Mansmith, Aug. 10, 2013.

He is dean of admission at Ripon College.

RYAN RADTKE ’02 and his wife, Liz, of

Atascadero, Calif., have a daughter, Katherine Sue Radtke, born July 20, 2012. Ryan and his wife are co-pastors at Hope Lutheran Church.

JESSE RYE ’02 of Providence, R.I.,

married Emily Wilson, Sept. 28, 2013.

He works for Farm Fresh Rhode Island, a nonprofit organization dedicated to growing a healthy food system that values the environment, health and quality of life of Rhode Island farmers and eaters. In September, he was promoted to co-executive director.

KIM SCOLASTICO WILSON ’02 and her

husband, Chuck, of Itasca, Ill., have a daughter, Katelyn Ashley Wilson, born April 17, 2012. After more than 10 years in the print industry, Kim now is a product manager for Bill Presentment, working with healthcare organizations to create patientfriendly statements.

TOM STORY ’02 and his wife, Adriane, of Milwaukee, Wis., have a daughter, Colette Renee Story, born Oct. 30, 2012. Tom is in his 12th year teaching third grade in the Milwaukee Public Schools.

LEAH ADLER ’03 of Prague, Czech Republic, is program leader for three school programs at Prague College: Foundation in Business, Foundation in IT, and English for Higher Education. She also works on a student exchange program with her college and a school in Sardinia.

ANGELA ANTONIEWICZ ’03 of Jersey

City, N.J., married Darren Halverson, Aug. 24, 2013. They both graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in May 2011.

She is an associate at Spar & Bernstein, P.C., practicing matrimonial and family law.

LAYNE SAMPSON BURKETTE ’03 and

her husband, Blair, of Jackson, Wis., have a daughter, Krue Hana Burkette, born Aug. 17, 2013.

JENNIFER ZUHLKE HOLT ’03 and her husband, Anthony, of Ripon, Wis., have a daughter, Ella Mae Holt, born April 20, 2012.

JOSEPH JERABEK ’03 of Las Vegas, Nev., is a

police officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

JESSICA ROSEN LIVELY ’02 of Port

Hueneme, Calif., was promoted to an operations registered principal for Lincoln Financial Advisors. She and her husband, Douglas, have a son, Nicholas Kent Lively, born Dec. 27, 2012.

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ROB LENNOX ’03 of Chicago, Ill., is a

consultant in process improvement for TranzAct Technologies, a logistics company.

APRIL MARLEWSKI ’03 married Tony Hudzinski, June 1, 2009.

They have a daughter, Lucy Rose Hudzinski, born Feb. 27, 2013. They live in Sun Prairie, where April owns her own bar, Ski’s Saloon.

LINDSEY HOEL-NEDS ’03 and NICK NEDS ’03

of Deerfield, Wis., report that Lindsey graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May 2012 with a master’s degree in theatre research with an emphasis on theatre for youth.

She is an education assistant and teaching artist at Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Nick is an associate group leader at Pharmaceutical Product Development.

ELAYNE MONNENS NORWEB ’03 and her husband, Albert, of Miami, Fla., have a daughter, Penelope Layne Norweb, born Aug. 18, 2013.

ALICE SAUNDERS ANDERSON ’04

and her husband, Ben, of Marion, Iowa, have identical twin daughters, Ada and Ruth Anderson, born Aug. 31, 2013.

Alice is a logistics engineer for UniGroup, the parent company of United and Mayflower moving companies.

CAROLYN DUVEN ’04 of Ames, Iowa, now is responsible for opening a newly leased building at Iowa State University.

GREG FURDEK ’04 of New Holstein, Wis., recently ended 5 ½ years with the U.S. Army and purchased New Holstein Family Dental.

BETH HUNTER ’04 of West Bend, Wis., is a clinical research technician with Spaulding Clinical Research.

JEREMY “BUDDY” HYLLBERG ’04 and STEPHANIE JENNIGES ’04 of

Grayslake, Ill., were married June 22, 2013.

TAMMY JOHNSON ’04 of West Bend, Wis., is a special education teacher with the West Bend School District. She and her partner, Sara Depies, have a son, Ryan Daniel Depies Johnson, born June 18, 2012. She graduated with a master of education degree from Lakeland College, Oct. 6, 2013.

DIANE KEELING ’04 of San Diego, Calif., is an assistant professor of communication studies at the University of San Diego.

CANDICE NORTH ’04 of Jacksonville, Fla., is a second-year resident physician in family medicine training at Mayo Clinic. She will participate in a medical mission trip to Cameroon, Africa, in January through March.

MISSY SKURZEWSKI ’04 of Oostburg,

Wis., married Joe Servant, Aug. 10, 2013.

She is an assistant professor and associate dean at the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan.

PAULA RICHARDSON TOMPKINS ’04 and

her husband, Ben, of Oshkosh, Wis., have a daughter, Alice Marie Tompkins, born Sept.

15, 2012. Paula is an elementary school teacher in the Wautoma Area School District.

MICHELLE TOBIN VRANEY ’04 of Shawano,

Wis., is an elementary school principal in the Menominee Indian School District. She and her husband, NICK VRANEY ’04, have two children, Rex, age 4, and Toby, age 2.

TOM BEATTY ’05 of Princeton, Wis. is an associate

HAYLEY DOYLE ’06 of Minneapolis, Minn., is an internal communications specialist at CH Robinson.

and her husband, Russ, of Chicago, Ill., have a daughter, Emma Rose Bilbrey, born April 18, 2013.

MARY GRANT HASTE ’05 and her husband,

Ryan, of Indianapolis, Ind., have a daughter, Anna Lucille Haste, born Jan. 5, 2013.

In 2012, Mary resigned from teaching in the Indianapolis Public Schools to stay home with her three young children.

SARAH MCGILL LARSON ’05 and PAUL LARSON ’05 of Elkton, Md., report that

Paul has completed his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Delaware. Sarah teaches math at Elkton High School in Cecil County, Maryland. They have a son, Parker Bryn Larson, born May 18, 2013.

married Aug. 10, 2013. Both work at the National Forensic League in Ripon.

MATTHEW JANSMA ‘06 of Midland, Mich.,

received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in July 2012.

He now is a senior chemist in the process science group of Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich.

TIMOTHY PETERS ’06 and REGAN ROGERS ’07 of Milton, Wis., have a son,

Hank Timothy Peters, born June 10, 2013.

director of admission for Ripon College.

CHRISTINE THRASHER BILBREY ’05

ARTHUR BRATTON ’08 and EMILY HOFFMAN ’10 of Ripon, Wis., were

BRYANT BEDNAREK ’07 and JESSICA CHATMON BEDNAREK ’08 of Berlin, Wis.,

have a daughter, Zoey Lynn Bednarek, born Oct. 10, 2013.

KEVIN GOYERT ’07 of San Ramon, Calif., is an investment counselor at Fisher Investments.

BOB FAULDS ’07 and STEPHANIE SOMMER FAULDS ’08 of Cottage Grove,

Wis., have a son, Michael John “Mick” Faulds, born May 21, 2013. Bob is a manager for Baker Tilly Search and Staffing in Madison, Wis. Stephanie is a function manager for the Walgreens Location Control in Windsor, Wis. KATY GRIFFITHS ’07 of West

Lafayette, Ind., married Tim Anderson, June 15, 2013. Katy is a research technician for the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine.

AMY DORMAN ’08 of Milwaukee, Wis.,

graduated in May 2013 with a master of fine arts degree from UMC School of the Arts. She now is the associate director of annual giving at Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

TIFFANY GOEBEL ’08 of Eau Claire, Wis., married Brandon Miller, Aug. 10, 2013. Tiffany is a consultant for Datacurl LLC and coaches cross country and track for Eau Claire North, a Division I high school.

KRISTEN LEMKE ’08 of Ripon, Wis., married Andrew Dorsch, Oct. 18, 2013.

RYAN LUEDTKE ’08 and LESLIE REINKE ’08 of Madison, Wis., were

married May 3, 2014. Leslie is an assistant director of childcare for La Petite Academy, and Ryan is self-employed.

ERIN MAGUIRE ’08 of Ripon, Wis., is a

resident social worker at Wheaton Franciscan Hospital-All Saints in Racine, Wis. CHRISTINA SCHNEIDER ’08 of Gurnee, Ill., married Jason Doll, June 23, 2012.

She is a 6th through 8th-grade gifted math teacher in Waukegan, Ill., and a girls’ junior varsity basketball coach in Lake Villa, Ill.

LISA MAISONNEUVE ’05 of Nashotah,

Wis., married Scott Kick, May 25, 2013.

LIZ LEACH ’07 and JEFFREY MORRELL ’09 were married Sept. 7, 2013.

PAUL M. NEUBERGER ’05 of Menomonee

Falls, Wis., is a financial adviser with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

LORYN D. OHLAUG ’05 and Daniel Merrill of Woodland Hills, Calif., have a son, Daxton Arthur, born May 16, 2013.

ASHLEIGH SMITH ’05 of Hohenwald, Tenn.,

previously worked as a caregiver at the Elephant Sanctuary. She now is the merchandise and donor services assistant in the office.

NIC TEACHOUT ’05 and STACY KRUSA TEACHOUT ’07 of Waupun, Wis., have a

JOSEF LEISTIKOW ’07 and AMIE KELLEY LEISTIKOW ’08 of Plymouth, Wis., were

featured on the television program “Good Morning America” on July 22, 2013. “Favorite Places to Visit in the Summer” showcased their family business, Kelley Country Creamery.

TYLOR LOEST ’07 and Katie Jensen were married July 6, 2013, by DANTE HOUSTON ’01. They live in Ripon, Wis., where

Tylor is a development associate for major and planned giving for Ripon College.

JODI RABAS ’07 of Broadview Heights, Ohio,

son, Paxton James Teachout, born Nov. 23, 2012. Nic is a consumer loan officer for Marine Credit Union, and Stacy is a registered nurse at Theda Clark Medical Center.

has completed a post-graduate program in pediatrics and received certification from the Academy of Chiropractic Family Practice and the Council on Chiropractic Pediatrics.

TERRI KAHLER WERNER ’05 of Hortonville,

WESTON RADFORD ’07 of Columbus, Ohio, graduated in May 2013 from the Medical College of Wisconsin. He has started his residency in internal medicine at Ohio State University Medical Center.

Wis., is a finance adviser to the Delta Pi chapter of Alpha Delta Pi. KHAATIM BOYD ’06 of Santa Cruz, Calif., is

an assistant director of development, student experience, at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

DORRIE SIQUEIROS ’07 of Boston, Mass.,

is an assistant director of residential life at Boston College.

ELI ANNIS ’09 and NELL FORREST ’09 of

Pierre, N.D., have a son, Rory Annis, born Sept. 12, 2013.

PAULA KORDEK ’09 of Belvidere, Ill., married Matthew Knight, Oct. 19, 2012. She is a business analyst for Chase Card Services, specializing in government controls.

ROBERT BERGFELD ’09 and ANN KENSETH ’10 of Wausau, Wis., were

married July 28, 2012. Robert is an assistant relationship manager with U.S. Bank, and Ann is a 4K teaching assistant at the YWCA in Wausau.

ARIELLE DENIS ’09 graduated May 25, 2013, from Northern Illinois University College of Law. She is a tentative associate for Barlow, Kobata & Denis LLP in Chicago.

NICOLE FRANZ ’09 of West Chicago, Ill., is a healthcare unit service coordinator at IPMG in St. Charles, Ill. She received her property & casualty insurance producer license in October 2012.

MARIAH GRIFFIN ’09 and ZACHARY J. LYON ’10 were married Sept. 22, 2012.

They live in River Falls, Wis. Zach works with tractor dealers for Tisco in Oakdale, Minn. Mariah works for Victoria’s Secret in Woodbury, Minn.

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PARKER HEAPS ’09 of West Bend, Wis., and RYAN HENDRICKS ’09 of Madison, Wis., are

leading a 12,000-mile driving trip to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, for the 2014 World Cup. The five-week journey through 14 countries begins June 4. Fellow travelers will include Hendricks’ wife, MELISSA BURGOS-HENDRICKS ’09, and a documentary film crew. They will donate soccer gear to children in various countries.

A story about the trip can be accessed at http://goo.gl/b0miKC

RACHAEL THIEL ’09 of Ripon, Wis., is a

senior therapist at Fox Valley Autism Treatment Program and a licensed Zumba instructor.

TIFFANY WALKER ’09 of Green

Lake, Wis., married Ben Kinas, April 28, 2012. They have a son, Cameron Donald Kinas, born Sept. 4, 2013. Tiffany is a loan support specialist at Green Lake Bank, a branch of The Baraboo National Bank.

The 2010s

HANNAH EMANUEL JAHN ’09 of Milwaukee,

Wis., graduated from Marquette Law School in May 2012. She is a litigation attorney with Weiss Law Office, S.C. Her husband, JASON JAHN ’07, is a technical architect in the Information Management Services Department with Milwaukee County.

HEATHER KOELLER ’09 of Milwaukee, Wis.,

graduated May 19, 2013, with a master’s degree in early childhood exceptional education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

She is a special education teacher for Milwaukee Public Schools at Milwaukee Spanish Immersion School.

JOSH KRAEMER ’09 and KATIE KRUEGER ’09

reconnected in Beloit, Wis. Geoff writes: “In September 2012, I was hired as a reporter for the Beloit Daily News. Bry is youth director for River of Life United Methodist Church and organized a charity event with the church’s youth group. Bry contacted me about this event, and I was glad to cover it in our newspaper. We both just thought it might be a cool little thing to note how our ties at Ripon as classmates and friends have continued to be a mutually beneficial relationship in the adult, working world.”

HALEY MOERER MADSON ’09 of Ripon, Wis.,

JOE BOEDECKER ’10 of Racine, Wis., is a fire

worked for Blue Mountain Project and Susan G. Kolman Race for the Cure. She now works at Diverse Options in Ripon.

claim representative for State Farm Insurance.

BRYAN NELL ’09 of Eugene, Ore.,

married Kara Sherman, Sept. 21, 2013.

ANGELA OLIVAS ’09 of Lubbock, Texas,

married Justin Peña, Aug. 17, 2013. She is an assistant branch manager with Texas Tech Federal Credit Union.

MEGAN PETRI ’09 of West Bend, Wis.,

married Edward Marx, Oct. 13, 2012.

She works for West Bend Mutual Insurance Co. and part time for the Boys & Girls Club of Washington County.

34

GEOFF BRUCE ’12 and BRY TUDOR ’12

ANDY BEAN ’10 of Waterbury, Conn., is the

WHITNEY LEVASH MEZA ’09 of Oshkosh, Wis., is an office manager with Evolution Communications Services LLC. She also has her own business, Whit Meza Photography, shooting engagements, weddings, newborns and families. (www.whitmezaphoto.com).

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R IPON C o l l e g e

married Sarah Skosey, July 20, 2013. He is a mechanical engineer for Emteq in New Berlin, a company that supplies LED lighting for aircraft.

DANIELLE SCHOLFIELD ’10 and VINCENT ROCCO ’11 of Madison, Wis.,

were married June 22, 2013.

HANNAH WENDLAKE ’10 of Milwaukee, Wis.,

teaches kindergarten in Wauwatosa.

PAUL WILLIAMS ‘10 of New London, Wis.,

Connected by Ripon

of Cedarburg, Wis., manage an Anytime Fitness.

Katie is the director, and Josh is the personal training director.

EMILY MEYER ’09 of Hays, Kan., graduated in May 2013 with a master of arts degree in leadership in student affairs from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. She is a hall director at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kan.

DAN SCHICK ’10 of Nashotah, Wis.,

regional field director with the Connecticut Democratic Party.

REBECCA DICHRAFF ’10 of Vancouver, Wash., married Lance Cady, June 22, 2013.

SARAH GUSTAFSON ’10 and KASEN K. RUMPF ’13 of Falcon Heights, Minn.,

were married July 27, 2013.

BRUCE KUKOWSKI ’10 and JULIE NELSON KUKOWSKI ’08 of Richmond Hill,

Ga., have a son, Travis James Kukowski, born Sept. 3, 2013. Bruce is an explosive ordnance disposal technician stationed at Fort Stewart, Ga. Julie is an assistant manager of Walgreens in Savannah.

graduated from Carroll University in May 2013 with a master’s of business administration degree. He is a pricing analyst with Bemis Performance Packaging.

APRIL AGAMAITE ’11 of Luxemburg,

Wis., married Jeremy Pingel, Dec. 15, 2012. She is a marketing coordinator for Lasorce in Green Bay. AMANDA HASSEN ’11 of Houston, Texas, is a research assistant at the University of Texas Health Science Center Mood Disorder Clinic.

JULIA HEINRICH ’11 of Wauwatosa,

Wis., has completed a term of service with Americorps’ City Year San Antonio program.

She led a team of mentors who work with at-risk youths. She now is an academic adviser with the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences at Marquette University.

NICHOLAS OSENBERG ’11 of Anoka, Minn., is the theatrical design and technical theatre teacher at Warren Consolidated School for the Performing Arts magnet high school. He teaches technical theatre in the classroom and during productions as a designer.

KYLE ROY ’11 of Appleton, Wis., is a personal trainer at Xperience Fitness in Menasha.

JORDAN SALZER ’11 of Menasha, Wis., works in supply chain operations at KimberlyClark Corp.

BETHANY PATTEN ’10 of Madison, Wis., married Oliver Wright, Sept. 1, 2012. She graduated in May 2013 with a degree in occupational therapy from Madison Area Technical College.

CASEY SCHULTZ ’11 of Lomira, Wis., is an associate accounts receivable specialist at Charter communications in Fond du Lac.

TOMISSA PORATH ’10 of Madison, Wis., is a recruitment specialist with the Girl Scouts of Wisconsin.

June 22, 2013.

ANDREW SCHALLER ’10 of Menasha, Wis., teaches social studies at Oshkosh West High School. He and his wife, Jaclyn, have a son, Landon, born March 29, 2013.

ALAN JOHNSON ’12 and AMANDA FENSKE ’13 of Ripon, Wis., were married

SPENCER LAMEKA ’12 of Port Washington, Wis., won third place in the Wisconsin Sociological Association’s undergraduate student paper competition in October 2012.

His paper was “Food Pantries: The Stigmatizing Effects of Bureaucracies.”

ERIN SCHAICK ’12 of Manchester, N.H., is a development and marketing assistant at CATCH Neighborhood Housing in Concord, N.H., and events coordinator at the University of New Hampshire-Manchester.

ANDREW FEHRENBACH ’13 and KATELYN AMELL ’13 of Berlin, Wis.,

were married June 7, 2013. They have a son, Alexander James Fehrenbach, born March 14, 2011.

ERIN GALOW ’13 of Oshkosh, Wis., works

at See Spot on 21 as an animal play and care staff; and at a family dental practice as an office assistant manager. She volunteers at Mercy Medical Center.

MAYNA R. MUENCHOW ‘13 of

Woodbridge, Va., is a latent print technician at American Systems.

ALI PELTIER ’13 of Mishawaka, Ind., is a

brewery representative for The Boston Beer Co. (Samuel Adams).

Ripon Students Publish Pictorial History Book About City History majors Amanda Gesiorski ’14, Christian Krueger ’15 and Naomi Jahn ’14 wrote a book, “Ripon (Images of America Series),” published in January. Topics include Ripon’s founding in the 1840s; the birthplace of the Republican Party in 1854; suffragette Carrie Chapman Catt (born in Ripon 1859) and department store pioneer H. Gordon Selfridge (born in 1858); and famous Ripon College alumni such as actors Spencer Tracy ’24 and Harrison Ford ’64; jazz singer Al Jarreau ’62; American physicist and health researcher Elda Emma Anderson ’22; and astronaut Jeffrey Bantle ’80. .

Ripon graduate brought the news to the world Remembered at Ripon College as an editor of the Crimson yearbook and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Richard Threlkeld ’59 became a well-known news correspondent.

His death after an automobile accident in January 2012 ended a career as a reporter, anchor and bureau chief with tenures at both CBS and ABC News.

Threlkeld was renowned for reporting from Vietnam and Moscow, the Persian Gulf War, the Patty Hearst kidnapping and trial, the Angela Davis trial, the Stanford University heart transplant on Mike Kasperak and the assassination and funeral of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

He was co-anchor with Lesley Stahl of “The CBS Morning News” from 1977-79, and reported for “CBS Sunday Morning” from its inception in 1979, as well as for “The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather.” He was a national correspondent for ABC’s “World News Tonight” from 1981 to 1989, before he returned to CBS News.

At Ripon, Threlkeld studied political science and history. He credited Ripon’s liberal arts education with helping him become a “generalist” in journalism, rather than a specialist.

“You have to have a framework of things before you can report,” Threlkeld once said. “It’s so nice to have been to a college like Ripon where you have the opportunity to get a background in history, political science, economics and other areas.

“Ripon was a remarkable learning and preparatory experience. I came here because I wanted to go to a small school. … I knew I was going to be a journalist, and I wanted to learn about as many different kinds of things and as many different areas of education as I could – economics, political science, history.”

His 2001 book, “Dispatches from the Former Evil Empire,” features his observations of the scene inside Russia and many of its old Soviet allies under the waning years of Boris Yeltsin’s regime. The preface is

by Betsy Aaron, a CNN reporter and Threlkeld’s wife.

Journalistic honors awarded to Threlkeld include an Emmy Award for his work with CBS, an Overseas Press Club award for his reporting on Lebanon and Grenada, an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award for “Status Reports” on ABC’s World News Tonight” and the New York State Bar Association Award for his “Crime in America” series.

Tsering Yangchen ’14 Madison, Wis.

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In Memoriam For full obituaries, please visit ripon.edu/obitsW14 FRANCES KING WEST CAZIER ’39 of Traverse

JOHN J. KOCH ’52 of Pewaukee, Wis., died May

MICHAEL TRADER ’63 of Estero, Fla., died

City, Mich., died April 3, 2013.

26, 2013.

Dec. 1, 2012.

ELIZABETH “BETTY” LAWSON HOLPERIN ’44

NANCY PURNELL ’52 of Westport, Conn., died

DOUGLAS POWELL ’65 of Sun Prairie, Wis.,

of Arlington, Va., died Jan. 8, 2013.

Dec. 17, 2012.

died Aug. 2, 2013.

JAMES R. SHARPE ’44 of Grass Valley, Calif.,

ELIZABETH “BETTY” OPITZ CONLON ’53 of

ROBERT W. EDWARDS JR. ’70 of Dallas, Texas,

died July 10, 2013.

Columbus, Ohio, died May 29, 2010.

died Nov. 10, 2013.

FREDERICK COOK ’45 of New Auburn, Wis.,

GEORGE NASSIOUDJIK ’53 of Spata, Greece,

LIZABETH BLY ’71 of Glendale, Wis., died

died Jan. 15, 2013.

died Aug. 21, 2013.

Sept. 2, 2013.

PATRICIA FELSKE HAMMETT ’47 of Lake

BARTON WINTER REED ’54 of Cornelius, N.C.,

WILLIAM K. HAZELTON ’71 of Key West, Fla.,

Geneva, Wis., died July 22, 2013.

died Feb. 9, 2013.

died Aug. 27, 2013.

RICHARD BLAIR IRLAND ’49 of Albuquerque,

JOYCE YARISH ROBERGE ’54 of Rice Lake,

THEODORE “TED” HINES ’73 of Chicago, Ill.,

N.M., died Nov. 24, 2012.

Wis., died Sept. 28, 2013.

died May 7, 2012.

WALTER C. KYLE ’49 of Newport News, Va.,

NORMA CLAUSEN BUCHHLZ ’55 of Murphy,

ALLAN WELLS ’75 of Reno, Nev., died July

died Sept. 4, 2013.

N.C., died Jan. 25, 2013.

18, 2009.

WILBUR NIMMER SR. ’49 of Somers, Wis., died

JERRY KELLAM JAMES ’55 of Dunwoody, Ga.,

TIM MCKENZIE ’78 of Madison, Wis., died

Sept. 20, 2013.

died Aug. 14, 2012.

Sept. 25, 2013.

RICHARD H. RANCE ’49 of Littleton, Colo., died

BRUCE GEBHARDT ’59 of Ripon, Wis., died

ROBERT MURPHY ’85 of Barrington, Ill., died

June 15, 2013.

Oct. 21, 2013.

Oct. 1, 2013.

RICHARD BEISCHEL ’50 of Palmyra, Wis., died

CHARLES RUTKOWSKI ’60 of Middleton, Wis.,

TRACEY HOFFMAN ROBERTS ’88 of

Aug. 22, 2013.

died July 19, 2013.

Watertown, Wis., died Nov. 11, 2013.

JERE DEROIN DUBOIS ’50 of Portland, Ore.,

MARGARET “PEGGY’ ROSSMAN PANAGOS ’62

BENJAMIN HOCK ’02 of Brookfield, Wis., died

died Nov. 4, 2013.

of Chatsworth, Calif., died Oct. 19, 2013.

Oct. 3, 2010.

CATHERINE “KATY” NORRIS BEISCHEL ’51 of

JOHN “JACK” SHAW ’62, formerly of Riverside,

CURTIS TARR of Walnut Creek, Calif., who

Palmyra, Wis., died Sept. 19, 2007.

Calif., died Oct. 1, 2013.

received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Ripon College in 1965, died June 21, 2012.

Ripon family returns to campus for homecoming Homecoming 2013 was celebrated on a beautiful fall weekend, Sept. 26 through 29, with a variety of activities for students, alumni and families.

On Thursday, the annual Homecoming Kick-Off Happy Hour and Class of 2014 VIP Party drew more than 150 alumni, seniors, faculty and staff to Roadhouse Pizza in downtown Ripon.

Friday’s Return on Investment Alumni Panel featured Hayley Doyle ’06, and Alumni Board members Nicole Klaas ’06, Dan McNaughton ’86 and Gregg Petersen ’78. They discussed the value of a liberal arts education; why majors don’t dictate career choice; and valuable career networking advice. Friday’s Chamber Music and Jazz at Ripon Series featured a performance by the Matt Ulery Group.

Although the Red Hawks football team came up short against Illinois College (44-28), Saturday concluded on a high note with a performance showcasing the comedic talents of Emily Galati, and fireworks over Sadoff Field.

The 2014 combined Family and Homecoming Weekend will be held Sept. 25-27. Plan now to be a part of the celebration.

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R IPON C o l l e g e

Sonya Sorich ’04 so cial media

Community at the heart of Ripon-Catalina Island ties For juniors Elizabeth “Eli” Silva and Viridiana “Viri” Vega, attending Ripon College has been a transformational experience they want to share with other students from their small Catalina Island community in California.

“Ripon is very connected with the community, and that is the way Catalina Island is,” says Silva, who plans to pursue a master’s degree in criminal justice.

“Everyone is so nice (at Ripon),” Vega adds.

“They say ‘hi’, and they don’t even know you.”

Ripon is about 2,000 miles from Avalon, the only incorporated city on the island of around 3,700 residents. It has helped the women to expand their horizons and grow both individually and in their relationships with others.

Silva and Vega are attending Ripon College thanks, in part, to support provided through the Santa Catalina Fund for Higher Education, a scholarship program developed by the San Diego Foundation to assist students who otherwise have no access to financial aid for a college education.

Through this program, the two women were introduced to Ripon College admission representatives and to Trustee Joann Selleck ’73, a lawyer in downtown San Diego with connections to the Foundation.

“Hanging out with Joann and other Ripon alumni makes me feel so good, like I can do anything,” Silva says. “Having people believe in you is just so great, and it makes me want to return home and share my experiences with others.”

This past summer, Silva and Vega organized a “Pay it Forward” fund-raising event on the Island. They raised $1,800 to help mentor students from the outgoing high school class of 2013 with advice and information about entering college. They plan to repeat the event every year.

A career in social media is exciting when one can experiment with new social networks that are constantly surfacing. Sonya Sorich ’04 of Sacramento, Calif., does just that as the social media manager and staff writer for the Sacramento Business Journal.

“Working in social media seemed like a natural progression since I’ve always enjoyed finding story sources through social networks, as opposed to the traditional ‘man on the street’ approach,” Sorich says.

As an intern in the admission office, Silva frequently works with prospective students from native Spanish-speaking backgrounds. “I always offer, ‘If your parents want to talk to me, or if your parents want to talk to my parents … That is how we do things here.’

While working for newspapers in California and Georgia, Sorich noticed the Internet’s effect on journalism and new positions created in an effort to secure a digital audience. Soon, she was part of that progression.

“I tell them, if you need help Ripon will be there for you. Ripon is a big hug.”

“I’m interested to see what happens to the social media manager role in the future,” Sorich says. “The position has been met with some level of cynicism. The argument: ‘Everybody uses social media. What makes you so special?’ However, it’s important to remember that representing a brand on Facebook is different from maintaining a personal Facebook account.”

Vega says that every day at Ripon College is different, “every day is an adventure. I love that every day I meet someone new and learn something new.”

Silva wants to offer scholarships to students in her community. “My dream is some day for a Catalina student to call me from Ripon and say, ‘This is great. I am having so much fun.’ ”

Continue the Legacy at Ripon College Help develop the next class of Ripon College students by referring a promising student to Ripon College, assisting with college fairs, or hosting or attending a reception in your area. For more ideas, contact Eliza Stephenson at 920-748-8396; or stephensone@ripon.edu

She adds, “It’s easy to underestimate the time commitment that a social media manager role requires. You get to spend a lot of time on social networks, but that freedom also comes with a responsibility to post frequent updates amid a breaking news situation or when your brand encounters a crisis. Sometimes, that happens on a Saturday. In our mobile culture, social media managers can’t simply ‘turn off’ when they’re responsible for interacting with an online audience.”

Tsering Yangchen ’14 Madison, Wis. WINTE R 2 0 1 4

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PAID PERMIT NO. 101 300 West Seward Street Ripon, WI 54971 ripon.edu Change Service Requested

F l a s h B ACK

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Class of 1901

PART OF THE FAMILY For as long as Ripon College has existed, alumni have enjoyed getting back together and reminiscing about their lives at the college and beyond. Pictured here, members of the Class of 1901 still enjoy each other’s company many years after graduation. Each summer, hundreds of alumni are welcomed back to campus during Alumni Weekend. Last year, attendees represented 37 states and seven decades of Ripon College graduates. The 2014 Alumni Weekend & Class Reunion is planned for June 26-29. With friends old and new, attendees will enjoy such activities as the Red Hawks Golf Scramble; a Fun Run/Walk; reminiscence sessions; classes with Professor Brian Smith and President Zach Messitte; Class Celebrations; Greek socials; an alumni lacrosse game; and the All Alumni March. Your invitation will be coming in the mail this spring. In the meantime, for more information, email alumni@ripon.edu or call 920-748-8126.