Fall2014

FALL 2014

At the

Helm

New President M. David Rudd has heady plans for the U of M’s future, page 12 AN APP A DAY

Can a smartphone solve your healthcare ills? A U of M professor provides the answer, page 20

LOST LEGENDS

We scoured the four corners of the Earth to find these Tiger legends, page 26

Incoming University of Memphis freshmen learn about Tiger traditions, the value of student involvement and how to successfully navigate their first year at the annual Frosh Camp, held at Camp NaCoMe in Pleasantville, Tenn. Since its inception in 1994, a student executive board and more than 60 upperclassmen counselors have prepared thousands of students for their U of M journey. Activities include the popular boat-building contest/race that produces splashes of excitement. (Photo by Rhonda Consentino)

FALL 2014

2 3 11 12

From the President University News Sports Bits Minding the University’s Business by Greg Russell Dr. M. David Rudd, the University of Memphis’ 12th president, has heady plans for the University’s future.

18 20 24

On the cover: Dr. M. David Rudd became the school’s 12th president May 1. Get to know the man behind the desk. Page 12

Taking Refuge by Eric Butterman Recent graduate Fatima Noor’s journey took her through Memphis to the most unlikely of destinations.

An App a Day by Anita Houk Are smartphones really wise enough to detect major health issues such as congestive heart failure? A U of M professor provides the answer.

The Tigers of Wall Street by Gabrielle Maxey The generosity of a philanthropist will mean big gains for University of Memphis students.

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Lost Legends by Greg Russell

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The Graduates by Sara Hoover

They may not be the best known U of M athletes, but their on-field heroics definitely earned them a place in Tiger lore.

The University of Memphis Graduate School’s original graduating class may all have had the same degree — a master of arts in education — but it led them down very different paths.

34

Not for Pete’s Sake by Samuel Prager

38

A short story by Eric McQuade

43 46 49 56

The Columns Alumni Review Alumni Activities Class Notes In Memoriam

A U of M music instructor journeys to U.S. military bases and hospitals in Europe to deliver a bit of Americana.

“Whoa Broke”

FALL 2014

EDITOR Greg Russell (MS ’93) grussll@memphis.edu

FROM THE

FEATURES DESIGNER Aaron Drown adrown@memphis.edu COLUMNS DESIGNER Will Marshall (MFA ’14) wjmrshll@memphis.edu CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Gabrielle Maxey (BA ’80) gmaxey@memphis.edu PHOTOGRAPHER Rhonda Cosentino rgcsntno@memphis.edu WRITERS Eric Butterman Sara Hoover (MFA ’13) Anita Houk Samuel Prager PROOFREADERS Jan Russell (BA ’95) Jill Westfall PRESIDENT M. David Rudd VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNICATIONS, PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MARKETING Linda Bonnin MISSION The University of Memphis is a learner-centered metropolitan research university providing high quality educational experiences while pursuing new knowledge through research, artistic expression, and interdisciplinary and engaged scholarship.

The University of Memphis is one of 45 institutions in the Tennessee Board of Regents system, the sixth largest system of higher education in the nation. TBR is the governing board for this system, which comprises six universities, 13 two-year colleges and 27 Colleges of Applied Technology. The TBR system enrolls more than 80 percent of all Tennessee students attending public institutions of higher education.

The University of Memphis’ name, seal, logos and Tigers are registered marks of the University of Memphis and use in any manner is prohibited unless prior written approval is obtained from the University of Memphis. The University of Memphis Magazine (USPS-662-550) is published three times a year by the Division of Communications, Public Relations and Marketing of the University of Memphis, 303 Administration Building, Memphis, TN 38152-3370.

Periodical Postage paid at Memphis, TN 38152.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Alumni & Development Office, The University of Memphis, 120 Alumni Center, Memphis, TN 38152-3760.

PRESIDENT Dear alumni and friends of the University: The academic school year is just beginning, but there is already a great deal of exciting news to share.

First, the University of Memphis did something this fall semester that it has not done in 22 years: it held the line on tuition. This is important for several reasons. Student loan debt continues to pile up at an alarming rate, increasing at almost a 6-percent clip each year. A large percentage of seniors across the nation have nearly $30,000 in student loan debt upon graduation, up $10,000 in the past decade alone.

As part of our commitment to providing students with an exceptional academic experience — and doing so at a reasonable cost — I am proud to say we are the only university in Tennessee that did not raise tuition for this academic year, and one of a very few in the entire country. Out-of-state students are paying at least $3,000 less this year than last, and students within a 250-mile radius, regardless of what state they reside in, are paying a rate closer to half of last year’s out-of-state tuition. Already a best-bargain school, we are well on a path to becoming nationally known for providing excellence and affordability and doing so in the same sentence.

Also, the University of Memphis’ research mission received a major boost this summer when the Assisi Foundation of Memphis awarded a $1.5 million lead grant for the construction of the BioHUB. This facility will promote advanced, collaborative research, and is an essential part of our effort to grow our research capacity to $100 million over the next decade. Our research initiatives, including those of Dr. Santosh Kumar, who is recognized as a world leader in the field of mobile health and who is featured on page 20, continue to make a difference in the lives of our citizens both locally and nationally.

Once again, our teacher preparation programs have been ranked among the best in the nation in a review by U.S. News & World Report. We were ranked 27th for our undergraduate elementary program and 28th for our graduate secondary program, placing them in the top 3.5 percent in the country. In terms of national rankings, the teacher prep programs have demonstrated the most significant performances of any academic programs at the U of M. These are just a few of the exciting stories that are happening on campus. Please visit my blog at blogs.memphis.edu/president to read about more.

As we move forward, we will always strive for excellence in everything we do, from the curriculum, to the research mission, to our service arm and to our connection to the community. I have no doubt that we can achieve excellence in the classroom and in our research and be known for affordability at the same time. Go Tigers!

Sincerely,

M. David Rudd President 2

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Music to the ears The University of Memphis has launched a campaign to raise $40 million for construction of a new Music Center.

The proposed location on Central Avenue, near the U of M Holiday Inn, will align the Center with existing arts facilities, allowing students and visitors to easily enjoy the visual and performing arts offerings on campus, and reinforces the U of M as a destination for the arts.

An essential capital project in the Campus Master Plan, the new Music Center is a priority for President M. David Rudd and underscores the University’s commitment to the arts. “The arts are an essential element to a comprehensive and effective educational experience,” says Dr. Rudd.

At over 40,000 square feet, the Center will more than double the space in the 50-year-old building where the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music is currently housed.

“From intimate recitals to full-scale opera, our diverse offerings will be

“I am confident the investments of our supporters for this new Music Center will allow us to continue to attract world-class students and faculty while helping us carry on the legacy of the Scheidt School,” says Randal Rushing, director of the School of Music. (Photo by Rhonda Consentino)

experienced in a Music Center that is in keeping with our stature in the field,” says Richard R. Ranta, dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts.

Launched with a lead gift from the Rudi E. Scheidt family, more than 200 friends, alumni, faculty and staff have already contributed toward bringing state funding to the project. “We are blessed with some of the finest music students anywhere, and this will finally enable them to have an adequate rehearsal and performance facility,” says Scheidt.

The Center will feature a performance hall that seats up to 1,200, an expansive stage and significant advancements in technology. It will

enhance the U of M’s ability to compete for the highest-caliber students, faculty and guest artists.

The private fundraising goal is $10 million. Every dollar raised will be matched on a three-to-one basis by government funds.

“The new Music Center will add importantly to the cultural vitality of the Memphis community, and we greatly look forward to exploring ways that the Memphis Symphony may be a participant,” says Roland Valliere, president and CEO of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

Teacher prep programs receive high marks The Teacher Prep Review, published by U.S. News & World Report in

“As a faculty member in Educational Psychology and Research, I am

conjunction with the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), has

fully cognizant of the high-quality teacher preparation programs in the

ranked the elementary and secondary teacher preparation programs at

College of Education, Health and Human Sciences, but to be recognized

the University of Memphis among the best in the nation for the second

by U.S. News and NCTQ places teacher preparation programs at the

straight year.

University of Memphis on a world stage as stars,” says Dr. Karen Weddle-

The U of M was ranked 27th for its undergraduate elementary program

West, interim provost. “This recognition exemplifies the stellar research-

and 28th for the graduate secondary program. The Review evaluated

ers who serve as faculty, the experienced practitioners who serve as clini-

more than 800 elementary teacher programs and more than 800 sec-

cal instructors and the student-scholars at the University of Memphis.”

ondary teacher education programs nationally. These rankings suggest a

The NCTQ takes an in-depth look at admissions standards, course

strong institutional commitment to high-quality teacher training.

Within Tennessee, the U of M elementary program was rated second and

requirements, course syllabi, textbooks, capstone projects, student teaching manuals and graduate surveys, among other sources, as blueprints

the secondary program fifth. In the Southern region, the U of M was ranked

for training teachers. It applies specific and measurable standards that

11th among elementary programs and seventh among secondary programs.

identify the teacher preparation programs most likely to get the best

“Few would disagree with the claim that teacher education is essen-

outcomes for their students. To develop these standards, the NCTQ

tial to the success of Memphis and our nation,” says President M. David

consulted with international and domestic experts on teacher education,

Rudd. “We can take great pride in being recognized as a national leader

faculty and deans from schools of education, statistical experts and PK-12

and innovator in an area that touches so many lives. I am grateful for the

leaders.

expertise, talent and hard work of our faculty and congratulate them on a

Visit www.nctq.org/teacherPrep/review2014.do to read the report.

remarkable accomplishment.”

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From Memphis to Mars started, we did theatres and arenas, but not full

like, ‘Huh?’ They didn’t know I could sing.”

tions in the heart of Texas — there’s more to a

Bomb threats in Honolulu. Arctic-like condi-

arenas. Little clubs, stuff like that. To go from

Which leads to the bigger picture for Whalum.

Bruno Mars tour than just screaming fans. Just

that in 2011, and that was my first tour fresh off

ask former U of M student Kameron Whalum.

of school, to two years later selling out arenas

make a name for himself. He played his first-ever

and playing in the Super Bowl, it is a dream

solo show at the Hard Rock Café in Memphis — a

come true.”

sellout — in February, followed by performances

Whalum is a member of Mars’ live band, the Grammy-nominated Hooligans.

The University of Memphis Magazine talked

Whalum has played the Grammys twice,

When he is not on tour, he is busy working to

in Atlanta that received rave reviews.

to Whalum just before the platinum-selling

with Mars and The Hooligans teaming with

group’s 40-plus city Moonshine Jungle Tour

Rhianna and Sting for a three-song tribute to

name. When my stint with Bruno is over, or

that included a sold-old performance at FedEx-

reggae legend Bob Marley at this year’s show.

when I am taking a break, I still want to be

Forum in downtown Memphis in June.

“The University was definitely a major boost to my aspirations and to my musical career,”

The group was the halftime headline act at the Super Bowl in February, playing before tens of millions of fans at the game and on TV.

says Whalum, who was a member of the jazz

“It was so cold at the rehearsals, 10 degrees,

band at the U of M and who calls the Scheidt

my trombone froze up,” laughs Whalum. “Luckily,

School of Music “extraordinary.”

it was a pleasant 45 degrees the day of the game.”

A trombonist and singer, Whalum was picked

Besides the Super Bowl, the group has per-

“I want to spread my brand, spread my

relevant. A lot of people don’t know me for my singing unless they go to my church.”

Whalum’s life hasn’t been all music. Flash back to 2002.

“Ever since I was little, all I wanted to do was to play basketball for the Tigers,” says Whalum.

“That was it. I was a ballboy for the Tigers

by Mars to be a part of his band in 2011, just

formed on Saturday Night Live, The Today Show

when I was 11, 12, 13 years old. It was during

out of school.

and another spot that had people saying, “Huh?”

the Antonio Burks era. It was going to be the

“I feel like I joined Bruno right on the tail end of the takeoff,” recalls Whalum. “When I 4

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“First time I sang on TV with Bruno was on the Ellen Show,” says Whalum. “People were

Tigers and then the NBA.” But then entered a “Mr. Piecuch.”

THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

UNIVERSITY NEWS Opposite: Former University of Memphis student Kameron Whalum (second from left) with Bruno Mars and other members of The Hooligans during a sold-out performance at New York’s Madison Square Garden in July. Whalum, a part of the Grammy-nominated group since 2011, first started playing the trombone while at Sea Isle Elementary in Memphis.

trombone players. I just wanted to be different.”

With Mars and The Hooligans, Whalum says the music is “throwback.”

“It brings back the Ohio Players, the Commodores, a James Brown-type of feel that music wasn’t getting for a long time. It takes people back to a good place in their minds.”

“When I went to Overton High, my thoughts were to play basketball and to play in the band.

I love them both, but my band director, Mr.

The audience ranges from pre-teens to seniors.

“At my church, there is a guy who is

(Chris) Piecuch, put a stop to that. He was like

70-something, and after we did the Super

‘No, while you are here, you are in the band

Bowl, he said from that point he has been lis-

and you’re going to focus on what you are

tening to Bruno and watching us on YouTube.”

doing in the band.’”

Whalum often returns to Overton, which he

Which might have fans of pop music saying, “Thank you, Mr. Piecuch.”

says he “owes everything to” and gives masterclasses for current students as well as young

Whalum hails from a rich music tradition. His

people at the Stax Academy downtown.

uncle, Kirk, is a Grammy Award-winning saxo-

“From seeing all the stuff they see in the

phonist — the instrument of choice for most of

bad areas, it is easy to stop dreaming. I try to

his relatives.

give them something they can see where they

So why trombone?

can look at me and say he came from this city,

“My brother and my uncle play saxophone —

someone who came from the public schools

almost everyone in the family does. I knew trum-

here in Memphis and made it.”

pet players. I knew sax players, but I didn’t know

Encore!

We caught up with Whalum again near the end of the current tour and asked him five more questions: Favorite city so far and why?

Memphis. I’d been looking forward to playing at home since I started.

Favorite city as far as food?

Osaka, Japan. I watched them cook live lobster right in front of me!

Current favorite Tiger?

Shaq Goodwin. We haven’t had a dominant big man like that since Joey Dorsey.

Most unusual tour moment?

When we had to run off stage after the first song in Hawaii (because of a bomb threat) and then coming back and picking up right where we had stopped.

Favorite moment with Bruno?

Taking him around Memphis a little, Graceland. And being able to get in the studio with him at the famous Royal Studios.

— by Greg Russell

Murry, Weddle-West assume new roles at U of M Two longtime University of Memphis

Weddle-West takes the place of Rudd,

employees have been promoted to new

who assumed the U of M presidency on

roles: Melanie Stovall Murry has been

May 16.

named University Counsel and Karen

“Throughout her career, she has dem-

Weddle-West is serving as interim provost.

onstrated that she puts students and their

Murry replaces Sheri Lipman, who was

Melanie Stovall Murry

needs first in everything she does,” says

named U.S. District Judge for the Western

Rudd. “She is innovative and inclusive in

District of Tennessee in May. In addition to

how she approaches solutions. Her depth

providing leadership to the Office of Legal

and breadth of knowledge, expertise and

Counsel, Murry will also oversee the Univer-

understanding of our academic programs

sity’s Immigration Services.

across campus is unparalleled.”

“During her time at the University, Melanie has demonstrated a remarkable depth of

Karen Weddle-West

Weddle-West was appointed the University’s director of Diversity Initiatives in 2012

knowledge, broad range of legal expertise and competence that will serve

and has also served as vice provost for Graduate Programs since 2003.

the University of Memphis well. I have great confidence in her leadership

As diversity director, she has been the conduit for programs, services,

of the Office of Legal Counsel,” says U of M President M. David Rudd.

funds and resources designed to promote, sustain and enhance campus

Murry has been with the University since December 2002 and has

diversity in higher education. As vice provost for Graduate Programs/dean

served as both associate and assistant University Counsel. She is also

of the Graduate School, she has overseen all programs and initiatives of

an adjunct faculty member for the doctoral program in higher education

the Graduate School. Notable accomplishments during her tenure include

administration for the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences,

facilitating the launch of more than 60 new graduate programs and chair-

as well as an instructor for the University’s Tennessee Institute for Pre-Law.

ing or serving on more than 100 dissertation committees.

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5

UNIVERSITY NEWS U of M creative writing teachers Cary Holladay and John Bensko have penned 12 books between them. They are the first to be profiled in our “married professors” series.

U of M: Did you come to the U of M together?

CH: John started teaching here in the mid1990s, in the early days of the MFA program.

I left a position as manager of public affairs for Memphis Park Services for the U of M in 2002. For an academic couple, getting jobs at the same place is a prize.

U of M: How are your writing styles similar and how do they differ?

JB: Both of us are fascinated by nature, history and human experience. I write poetry as well as fiction, so that’s a difference. But we'd both describe our fiction as poetic in style and in structure. We’re attracted to quirky characters and situations, and both of us have a sense of humor in our writing and in life.

U of M: Both being writers, do you critique each other’s work? Do you usually take any

Dynamic duos This is the first in a series of profiles of mar-

Holladay writes novels and short stories.

ried couples who teach at the U of M. In this

Horse People: Stories and The Deer in the

issue, we spotlight Cary Holladay and John

Mirror both were published in 2013. Her others

Bensko, both professors of Creative Writing in

are A Fight in the Doctor’s Office, The Quick-

the Department of English.

Change Artist: Stories, Mercury, The Palace

John Bensko serves as coordinator of the Creative Writing program and directs the Cre-

of Wasted Footsteps, and The People Down South.

ative Writing study abroad program in Alicante,

Here is our conversation with the literary couple.

Spain; Cary Holladay has been director of the

U of M: How did you two meet?

River City Writers Series for many years.

This dynamic duo has written a total of 12

CH: I had literally just moved to Memphis.

The second day I was here, I met John and

constructive suggestions the other makes?

CH: Yes and yes. We push each other to develop ideas, pursue opportunities and become more insightful as writers.

We encourage each other. That’s the most important thing.

U of M: What are the high and low points of working together so closely?

JB: It’s fun. Our offices are right next to each other, which makes it easy to get advice and pep talks. Sometimes it makes it harder to separate our jobs from our life outside work, but everyone has that problem to some extent. We help each other to see the teaching of creative writing as an art more than an occupation.

U of M: Outside of work, do you share many interests or do you have varied pursuits?

CH: John launched a summer creative writ-

books between them. Bensko’s newest volume

thought, “He's really tall, and he's really cute.”

ing program in Spain, a country he first visited

of poetry, Visitations, won the Anita Claire

At the time, we were both teaching at Rhodes

on a Fulbright professorship. He enjoys art,

Scharf Award from the University of Tampa

College. His son, Tom, was 11. To win their

fishing and growing tomatoes. I rescue cats

Press. He is the author of three additional

hearts, I went on a baking campaign and

and tend an herb garden. We read all the time.

books of poetry, The Iron City, The Waterman's

was thrilled when Tom said, “Those chocolate

We’ve been known to fight over a good book!

Children, and Green Soldiers, for which he won

chip cookies are awesome.” John and I got

Our Midtown house is running out of space,

the Yale Younger Poets Award; and a collection

married in 2001.

but we can't stop buying books by colleagues,

of short stories, Sea Dogs.

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students and friends.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

UNIVERSITY NEWS

An artist’s rendering of the U of M’s new recreation center that is expected to be fully open by 2018. It will be located near the corner of Southern Avenue and Echles.

Fun and games: University moves toward new Rec Center The Student Government Association at the University of Memphis has approved a fee increase to fund construction of a new student recreation and fitness center.

The 192,500-sq.-ft. center will be located along Southern Avenue, north of the existing Student Recreation and Fitness Center. Construction will be done in three phases, with the center scheduled to open in 2018.

The signature facility will feature a main four-court divisible gym, six racquetball courts, a multi-purpose fitness center with a climbing wall, a natatorium with a recreational pool and lane pool, an outdoor leisure pool, lockers, classrooms and training rooms. There also will be a twocourt gym, a quarter-mile indoor track, a wellness and nutrition area, juice bar, offices and large-group exercise areas. Outdoors, there will be three full-size turf fields, basketball courts and tennis courts. A land bridge will make the center accessible from the northern part of the campus.

The center will be funded by a student fee increase of $307 for 2014-15.

“The Student Recreation and Fitness Center has become a vital part of students’ lives and health on our campus and vividly demonstrates the mind-body connection,” says Dr. Rosie Phillips Bingham, vice president for Student Affairs. “Individuals who take good care of their physical selves are better able to tackle the rigors of academic life. Further, the recreation center provides a point of connection between students and the University.”

There are other benefits as well, Bingham says.

“Students who feel a sense of belonging on the campus are more likely to stay through graduation. Our students like that sense of connection; they like using the rec center and they wanted a center that was up-to-date and provides more room for the growing numbers of students who use the facility. I believe they will be very pleased with the new, modern recreation center.”

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UNIVERSITY NEWS

University holds the line on tuition The Tennessee Board of Regents approved two proposals from the

living within 250 miles of Memphis.

University of Memphis that will keep in-state tuition flat for the upcoming

Under the new 250-R program, undergraduate students who gradu-

academic year and will also significantly reduce the amount out-of-state

ated from a high school within the 250-mile radius will now pay $12,456

students pay to attend the U of M.

a year (plus mandatory fees), an almost $10,000 reduction from last

After an average increase of 7.3 percent over the last 10 years, University officials proposed that tuition remain flat for 2014-15. This marks the first time in 22 years that all U of M students will not see a tuition increase.

“Affordability is a key component of our strategy to encourage more

year’s amount of $21,768.

All students (regardless of classification) who live outside of the 250-mile radius will also see a reduction in out-of-state tuition. Fulltime undergraduate students will pay $3,000 less for an annual cost

students to attend the University of Memphis and complete college on

of $18,768. Full-time graduate students taking nine hours of classes a

time,” says President M. David Rudd. “The University has always been a

semester will see their out-of-state fees drop to $17,082 from $19,476.

great educational value, but it is an even better value now.”

All out-of-state students enrolled at the U of M’s Cecil C. Humphreys

Undergraduate in-state students taking a full academic course load of 12 hours at the U of M will continue to pay $7,056 per year, plus mandatory fees of $1,563. In-state graduate students taking at least nine hours will pay $8,298 a year, plus any additional mandatory fees.

Also, the Board of Regents approved the University’s proposal to reduce

School of Law will see their tuition reduced from $37,864 to $23,852.

Mandatory fees will be in addition to out-of-state tuition.

All changes take effect this fall.

Current data show that 54 percent of out-of-state students attending the U of M remain in the region after graduation.

tuition for out-of-state students, including a special reduction for students

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Campus School to expand learning facilities Chalk one up for parents at the Campus School: their efforts are meaning that the pupils at the school that has served as a training ground for student-teachers for a century will be getting enhanced learning facilities and equipment well beyond chalkboards, pencils and paper.

The parents and the University’s College of Education, Health and Human Sciences are seeking to transform an existing annex building into additional classrooms and a cutting-edge learning lab. The “training annex” will expand learning opportunities by teaching students enhanced science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills and encouraging a greater appreciation for global languages, diversity and

University researchers, such as biomedical engineering professor Erno Lindner, will have greatly enhanced laboratories to conduct collaborative research in the new BioHUB, which will provide a four-fold increase in facility capacity.

Assisi grant huge for U of M research efforts The Assisi Foundation of Memphis has

facility capacity and will allow high-performing

awarded a $1.5 million lead grant to the Univer-

graduate students and renowned research

sity of Memphis for construction of the BioHUB,

faculty to better partner with local and national

art equipment,” explains Susan Copeland,

a new bioscience research building that will

scientists to advance current responses to a

director of Campus School. “It will also free up

create a multidisciplinary space where students,

number of diseases and disorders that affect

space in our existing facility to provide continu-

scientists and researchers can collaborate and

society.

ing high-quality instruction.”

produce groundbreaking developments.

cultures.

“Students will have access to state-of-the-

The Campus School Parent Network is

“Our faculty members are engaged in excit-

The BioHUB will support the University’s planned growth in biomedical and behav-

spearheading fundraising for the project. The

ing, cutting-edge research — research that has

ioral science research, resulting in an influx of

goal is to raise $750,000 (about a third of that

a profound impact on the lives of those in

additional federally funded research to West

total is in hand).

Memphis, the state of Tennessee and across

Tennessee, and it will allow the University to

“Not only will the ‘training annex’ address

the globe. This facility is an essential part of

compete more effectively in the recruitment of

the current shortage of teaching and learning

our effort to grow research capacity to $100

highly qualified faculty, postdoctoral associates,

space at Campus School, it will also position

million over the next decade,” says President

graduate students and undergraduates.

the school for the next phase of innovative

M. David Rudd.

elementary education and provide excellent

The BioHUB will provide modern facilities to

The total project cost of $36 million includes construction, non-movable equipment and

clinical teaching experiences for University stu-

support research in biologic and biochemical

furnishing expenses. In addition to the lead

dents entering the teaching profession,” says

research, biomaterial and biodevice develop-

grant from the Assisi Foundation, the state of

Alan Ferguson, a Campus School parent.

ment, and behavioral neuroscience research.

Tennessee and the University have committed

For more than a decade, the BioHUB has

$2 million in pre- and full-planning funding for

The Campus School, originally known as The Training School in the early 1900s, is already

been an essential part of the University’s

this project. To move forward to the construc-

known as a flagship for innovative teaching.

Campus Master Plan and is a crucial element

tion phase, the University needs to secure an

The 340 pupils at the grades-one-through-five

of its accreditation in 2015. The state-of-the-

additional $6.5 million by the end of this year

facility hail from 28 zip codes.

art facility will promote advanced, collabora-

in order to qualify for $26 million in matching

tive research, post-baccalaureate training and

support from the state. The construction phase

undergraduate education.

is estimated to last 14 months and will con-

For those who would like to contribute, there is a “Make a Gift” link at www.memphis.edu/ cehhs/roomtogrow.php.

It’s hoped that the annex will be ready for the 2015-16 school year.

W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U

The two-story, 68,500-sq.-ft. BioHUB will be located along the eastern edge of the main

clude with an additional two-month move-in period for furnishings and personnel.

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UNIVERSITY NEWS

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

SPORTS BITS

Holding court University of Memphis alumna Bonnie

me to play — mostly men. They thought I was just

Dondeville Farley says that in the early 1960s,

trying to show off. Some of the letters that were

there “weren’t any women to play tennis with”

written in to the paper were just awful. Stuff like,

and “very few women’s teams at the collegiate

‘Why don’t you mind your own business.’ ‘Women

level.”

shouldn’t play against men.’ I got letters from all

So she did the next best thing.

Farley (BSEd ’66, MEd ’69) became perhaps

across the country, mean, hostile ones.

“That made me mad. But half the time,

the first female to play on an NCAA men’s

opposing teams would have me play their No.

squad when she tried out and made then-

1 guy, and I would get creamed.”

Memphis State University’s tennis team in 1963. It was no fluke.

Farley won the No. 5 singles title while

Farley says her own male teammates were very supportive.

“At one match, someone said something really

competing at the Tennessee Intercollegiate

ugly to me, and I thought Kenny (her partner)

Athletic Conference championships in 1963

was going to get him. Rude, flirtatious comments.

at Sewanee. She and former Tiger Ken Lewis

I thought Kenny was going to kill him!

paired to form the No. 1 doubles team at Memphis, going undefeated for two straight years.

“Kenny and I killed them,” she says. “I hit the ball hard, I was competitive and I could lob. But my serve was terrible — I served like a girl,” she says, tongue in cheek.

Farley is naturally ambidextrous, which was

“But I also got some encouraging letters, saying things like, ‘You go, Bonnie!’”

Farley says the team’s coach, Dr. William Walker, was also her English teacher.

“If it had not been for him, I would not have passed that English class. I mean, he was hard.

He started out with 30 or 40 students and there

one reason opponents dreaded playing her

ended up being only five left. I stayed after class

from an early age. She was the No. 1-ranked

every day, and I said to him, ‘Dr. Walker, you

female in the South as a 15-year-old.

have to help me.’ He helped me through it.”

“I had a unique style of hitting deadly

Farley made national headlines on a number

forehands from either side,” she says. “I would

of occasions as a female playing on a men’s

switch hands and always hit with a forehand.

team. She moved on to a teaching career in

I just did that from the first time I picked up a

Memphis in 1966, a profession she stayed in for

racquet, and it stuck with me.”

40 years. But she also made news outside of

Former U of M women’s tennis coach Charlotte Peterson says Farley was extremely competitive and hated to lose.

“I played against her in open tournaments,”

her accomplishments on the Tiger team.

“Pat Boone, the singer, said, ‘I am going down to Memphis, and there is a girl there who thinks she can beat me and I am going

says Peterson. “She was the best. Two fore-

to beat her.’ I played him twice and beat him

hands, no backhand. Both forehands were

twice. He wasn’t very good. He got on his

equally strong.” Peterson says it didn’t matter

knees and begged me not to beat him.

which side it was hit to because her stroke was “lethal” from either side.

But times were very different in the early

“Boone then said, ‘We are going to do this again.’ But the next time he came down, he

Top: Bonne Dondeville Farley is still very active on the tennis court; she is known for having a “lethal” forehand from both the left-hand and right-hand sides. Above: Farley made national headlines when she made the Tiger men’s tennis team in 1963, becoming perhaps the first female to compete on an all-male squad at the college level. (Photo courtesy of U of M Athletics)

“I still play with the group of guys I grew up with. They don’t mess around. It is competitive.”

Farley also accomplished another first: she

brought Pancho Segura. Pancho made me look

is the only female inducted into the U of M

1960s. Ole Miss refused to play Memphis

stupid!” Segura is a former No. 1 co-ranked

men’s Hall of Fame.

because “they had a girl on the team.” She was

player in the world.

dealt a good dose of harassment.

“There were a lot of people who just didn’t want W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U

Farley is still frequently on the tennis court all these years later.

“In the Hall of Fame, it says, ‘Bonnie Dondeville, men’s tennis.’ It looks like a typo,” she points out with a laugh. — ­ by Greg Russell FA L L 2 014

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Minding the University’s Business On May 1, Dr. M. David Rudd was named the University of Memphis’ 12th president.

The former military psychologist has heady plans for the University’s future.

BY GREG RUSSELL New University of Memphis President M. David Rudd poses the question, which easily stumps the listener.

“There is only one thing that has not outpaced the cost of health care in the U.S. and it is not tuition,” says Dr. Rudd, heading off the obvious before inviting a response with a quizzical look. “It is the cost of textbooks. Isn’t that remarkable?”

On this day in early July, Rudd is sounding as much the part of economist as he is University president, which bodes well for potential and current U of M students and their parents, and, for that matter, anyone interested in the viability of the school. (The University faced a $20 million operating deficit for the fiscal year that ended June 30; Rudd has since implemented a strategic plan to offset future shortfalls.)

In his first interview with The University of Memphis Magazine since taking the helm of University president this summer, Rudd discusses how his military background and psychology degree have meshed into research that has made him a Pentagon “go-to” guy. He offers a glimpse into his personal life, as well as details his plan of action for the University — ­ at times sounding like a concerned parent and at others, a man on a mission.

A TIGER THEN AND NOW Before exploring Rudd’s goals as U of M president, let’s travel to the third floor of the U of M’s Administration Building and get to know the man behind the desk. Surprisingly, the Ivy League school graduate doesn’t sound too unlike the typical University of Memphis student.

“If you look at my own experience in college, I was a first-generation college student,” says Rudd, who received his degree in psychology 12

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while on an Army ROTC scholarship at Princeton. “Both sides of the family were tobacco farmers. My father became an enlisted Marine who didn’t have a college degree. My mother now has a college degree, but she went back and completed it 10 years after I completed mine.

“I have always had a great appreciation for the difference that college degrees made in both my life and in my wife’s life. She is a first-generation college student, too.”

Dr. Loretta Rudd, a U of M associate professor of educational psychology with a specialty in early childhood education, describes Rudd as “down-toearth.” She says the two began dating in ninth grade, “If you can consider your mom driving you to the mall as a date,” she fondly recalls.

“Across all aspects of his life, I have watched him grow both professionally and personally,” she says. “When it comes to attaining goals, he is persistent in the pursuit and patient in the process.”

On the social side: “He is an avid classic rock fan, he likes to golf and he loves movies — our families used to tease us when we were younger that we should both be movie critics because we saw every movie on the day it came out,” she imparts with a laugh.

On the professional side: “He first and foremost recognizes that institutions of higher education exist for students,” she says. “His family didn’t come from wealth, and he attended Princeton on an Army scholarship. So he knows attending college can be a financial challenge for students. He recognizes that many of our universities are the same price now as Princeton, which puts them out of reach for many college students. He is passionate about providing access for everyone, regardless of economic status, regardless of gender, race or ethnicity. He feels everyone should have the opportunity to obtain a degree.”

THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

New University of Memphis President M. David Rudd with his wife, Professor Loretta Rudd, son, Nicholas, and daughter, Emma.

Interim President R. Brad Martin (far left) handed over the reins of the University of Memphis presidency to Dr. M. David Rudd (far right) May 1. They are pictured with their spouses, Dina Martin and Dr. Loretta Rudd.

(Photos by Rhonda Cosentino)

HIGH MARKS Dr. David Jobes, a professor of psychology at Catholic University of America who has collaborated with President Rudd for two decades on suicide prevention, says the U of M president possesses “dynamic” leadership qualities.

“He has a really pragmatic, clear way of thinking,” says Jobes, “very organized. And you don’t get the feeling that it is all about him or that he craves the limelight. He is a super-competent guy, doing extraordinary things — that is how he has gotten to where he is, at a relatively young age.”

In Rudd, Jobes says, the University has an administrator who is not only responsible, but who will also make tough choices that address the U of M’s bottom line — even when the decisions are unpopular.

“I don’t think he relishes doing things that upset people, but he is going to do the right thing,” Jobes says. “He is going to be responsible.

If the feedback is fair, he will respond to it. That is what I want to see in a university president: someone who has a conviction and a sense of vision, even when it is an unpopular decision to make. David will do that.”

Another fellow psychologist says Rudd has had “university president written all over him” for as long as he has known him.

“It is just obvious he has a sense of vision, and he has great poise,” says Dr. Thomas Joiner, a professor of psychology at Florida State University who has worked with Rudd on suicide research for 22 years.

“He is easy to get along with. People take to him. He is very genuine — what you see is what you get.”

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Loretta Rudd says that her husband has exhibited an ability to relate to students, also.

“I would sit outside the large lecture hall at Baylor (where he was a professor) waiting for him to come out for lunch, and the students would come out of his class and say, ‘Wow! That was great! He was great!’

That was really exciting to see that he could have that kind of impact on students, and the impact that he has had on the variety of different patients he has worked with for over 25 years now is remarkable to me.”

BATTLE TESTED One doesn’t have to dig too deep to find another arena that Rudd is passionate about — he has spent more years of his life than not working in some capacity with the military.

After he received his PhD in psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, Rudd fulfilled the five-year military service requirement of his Princeton ROTC scholarship as an Army psychologist during the Gulf War era. He worked closely with battlefield soldiers who were exposed to, among other things, toxic chemicals after Saddam Hussein ordered oil fields to be set on fire. He has testified seven times before Congress on matters related to suicide and veterans, and serves as founder and scientific director of the National Center for Veterans Studies. His work focuses on post-traumatic stress disorder.

“He is one of the experts in this field,” says Jobes. “I think for the Pentagon, and especially for the Army, he is one of the go-to guys.

“David feels passionately about something that is inherently tragic­— when men and women take the oath and serve our nation, and they go THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

Dr. Rudd, center, was given glowing remarks by his former employer: “President Rudd is a very dynamic person who we recruited to lead the College of Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Utah,” says the school’s president, Dr. David W. Pershing. “He was instrumental in increasing the external research funding profile of the college and in bringing a stronger focus on veterans issues to the college and the University overall.”

fight in combat and come back and don’t make it, by taking their lives,” continues Jobes. “It is heartbreaking to see these folks struggle as they do. David is a patriot. It is hard not to feel strongly about men and women in service — or veterans — who are taking their lives at record rates.”

President Rudd says he decided on psychology for his career path after becoming close to two professors at Princeton, including the renowned social psychologist Dr. John Darley.

“While I was in graduate school, I got involved in a treatment program for high-risk adolescents — the majority of them had made suicide attempts,” Rudd says. “It was a family-therapy program for suicidal adolescents, which intrigued me. After I got out of school, I started working with high-risk soldiers. That was before the Gulf War, but once the war started, even though it was a short war, there still were a range of post-war issues. Chief among them was Gulf War syndrome.

I became involved in differentiating a kind of psychiatric and physical consequence that was unique to Gulf War syndrome. A lot of the people had post-trauma problems and suicide risk, and I have continued that work ever since.”

A recent suicide prevention clinical trial Rudd conducted with soldiers at Fort Carson in Colorado “should make a major splash nationally,” Jobes says.

Rudd says the program that he and his collaborators have developed is “arguably the most effective treatment to date for suicide attempters, and I would argue the most effective brief treatment to date without question.”

W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U

RESEARCH, STUDENT PROGRAMS TAKE CENTER STAGE Very high on Rudd’s to-do list is growing the University’s research capacity to more than $100 million over the next decade.

The 170,000-square-foot BioHub is a piece of that puzzle.

“From a research perspective, we have some great faculty expertise in terms of knowledge creation,” Rudd says. “But we have not had the facilities that we need to move forward. Part of what has limited our research capacity has been infrastructure. When we talk about infrastructure, we are really talking about facilities — and we are talking about people as a part of that.”

Rudd says he also wants to grow such student programs as First Scholars, the Helen Hardin Honors Program and Emerging Leaders.

“These programs connect our students to campus and connect them to people, meaning faculty, staff and other students,” he points out. “If we do those two things well, not only do our students perform better, they have a better educational experience. We will retain them at higher rates, and we will help them graduate at higher rates.”

The city’s reputation for entrepreneurship is not lost on Rudd, either.

“Memphis is the home of entrepreneurship. Think about all the great businesses that have been developed here: FedEx, Holiday Inn, AutoZone, the list goes on and on. Our opportunity to partner with those entities and to embrace entrepreneurship and innovation through our Crews Center for Entrepreneurship is a unique one. We will embrace that.”

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Professor Loretta Rudd also set to make a difference Though they approach it from opposite ends of the age spectrum, University of Memphis clinical associate professor Loretta Rudd says she and her husband, U of M President M. David Rudd, have a similar passion for educating young people.

“At a basketball game some time back, Governor (Bill) Haslam asked us both if we had one pot of money, what would we do with it,” Dr. Loretta Rudd recalls.

“I said I would put it toward early care and learning because if you don’t put it there, children will never reach higher education.

President Rudd, as you would expect, said ‘higher education.’”

It’s a good-natured rivalry, she says, that should benefit the University and city of Memphis in many ways.

Dr. Loretta Rudd is developing a degree program in early care and learning at the University of Memphis with the ultimate goal of improving child outcome.

While President Rudd is focusing on strengthening the U of M’s academic

very interested in childcare,” she recalls.

impossible for many childcare workers to

opportunities for college-age students,

“I found that the individuals who work in

become traditional college students, so

Loretta Rudd is developing a degree pro-

childcare are very well-meaning and hun-

a hybrid pathway where the majority of

gram in early care and learning that has an

gry for more formal training and education.

courses are online is being developed.

ultimate goal of improving child outcome.

“It is not enough to love children, and

“Many of the women that are out there

in my research, 100 percent of childcare

in childcare can’t leave their jobs to come

gap in our K-12 schools until we address

providers say they do this because they love

out and take university classes,” she says.

ages 0-3,” she says.

children. It is not just supposed to be about

“They just can’t. We are looking at creat-

“We will never close that achievement

The way to do this, says the specialist in early

feeding and changing those children, but

ing some short, professional development

childhood development, is to provide those

providing stimulating and enhanced environ-

courses whereby if they take all of them in a

who work in childcare with a better work envi-

ments for their development and preparing

series, it would equal university credit. We’re

ronment and with targeted education.

them for the schoolhouse.”

looking at online and night courses as well.

“It has become my passion to really

In addition, the U of M offers experiential

program will debut in fall 2015; however,

learning credits for job experiences that

in childcare, and to improve their skills and

two of its classes are set for this semester.

relate to the chosen field of study.”

knowledge in an effort to improve child out-

Rudd says both are already full.

come,” says Rudd. “I want to legitimize the field of early care and learning.”

The associate professor of education

The U of M has a child development

She says Memphis is the perfect setting for this type of program.

degree program, but she says the early

“I look at our resources that are here:

care and learning program will focus on

the Urban Child Institute, Project Memphis,

psychology says she was drawn to early care

pre-elementary children and will address

PeopleFirst and on and on; I think it is ripe

and learning as a stay-at-home mom while

how to set up a stimulating environment,

for an intervention that can make a dif-

working on her dissertation after the birth of

plan curriculum and assess and guide chil-

ference in our children’s future, which will

her two children.

dren’s behavior in early childcare settings.

then make a difference in our city, state and

“During my doctoral studies, I became 16

The early care and learning degree

improve the working conditions for those

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The associate professor says it is

ultimately our nation.”

THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

Dr. Rudd and Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam agree that higher education is the key for the city of Memphis and the state as a whole to prosper.

THE BOTTOM LINE Ask Rudd what he wants to be remembered for after his U of M tenure is over, and he doesn’t hesitate: “I want to be known for being a part of excellence in all areas of the comprehensive educational experience for our students while maintaining affordability, which will allow us the broadest reach in terms of the number of lives that we impact. I want to be remembered for making this University known for excellence and affordability and doing so in the same sentence.”

He says the biggest challenge is not financial in higher education, but being able to achieve excellence while maintaining affordability.

“I think that is the critical thing: that we provide an exceptional experience, and we do it at a reasonable cost; one that doesn’t burden our students with enduring debt. We want to be responsible and accountable to our students and the taxpayers on how we structure our tuition and fee approach.

“Given the number of first-generation college students at our university, affordability is critical. We spend a lot of time studying this and looking for ways to accomplish that.”

One of Rudd’s focus areas has been on the University’s finances.

“What we are doing is what I call ‘strategic budgeting,’” Rudd says. “We have not had a very refined budget model. Part of the problem of not having a refined budget model is that it hasn’t allowed us to strategically invest, W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U

and it hasn’t allowed us to track and understand expenses and expenditures — nor be proactive in terms of inhibiting and limiting spending.

“We have created an initiative called Strategic Resource Investment that helps prevent the University from creating large deficits while allowing the school to invest in areas of potential growth.”

As provost, Rudd helped spearhead several initiatives to boost retention and graduation rates that included the U of M’s pledge of a no tuition hike this fall.

“With graduation rates and state funding so closely tied together, we must increase our retention rate and graduate students in a timely manner,” Rudd says.

END NOTES Ultimately, Rudd says, it is imperative for the University to prosper.

“I would argue that education is the single most important thing for the future of our city and for the state. Education is that foundation.

“If we can embrace excellence and affordability at the same time, I think the opportunity for growth at this university is significant,” Rudd says. “It will be exciting for us to grow in the coming years, it will be exciting for us to innovate in the coming years and it will be exciting to see what kind of research we produce as we build our infrastructure.”

Visit www.memphis.edu/presweb/bio-rudd.php for more information on Dr. Rudd.

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17

M

Taking

efuge R

aybe one of the few small gifts is that she was so young. Fatima Noor’s first memories may have been of a Somali refugee camp but she was off to Denmark when she was 4.

There are only so many memories she has of the camp.

Of the lack of food. Of the medical treatment. The latter likely the reason the 21-yearold believes her twin brothers never lived to see their first birthday.

Thankfully, most of her young childhood was spent learning in Denmark. Danish would be one of three languages of fluency by the time she was through. “I was too small to Her start was inauspicious — in a think so much about what happened,” she says. “I was Somali refugee camp — but recent just growing up and learning like everyone else.” graduate Fatima Noor’s journey took Noor’s first culture shock, in her mind, was actually returnher through Memphis to the most ing to Africa. To Kenya. unlikely of destinations.

“I was around 11 or 12 and this was my chance to really understand my roots and have a Somali identity that I didn’t have before,” she says. “It also gave me a chance to connect with family.” But, still, opportunities were limited, and it was time to come to the United States and join her father, who had found Memphis.

“This was so much easier because of the places I had been,” she says. “Now moving had become normal, and I was much better prepared for America.”

But that’s not to say that pressure wasn’t there for the then-13-year-old. With all the potential firsts. First to graduate high school.

College. Who knows?

When she did proudly receive that high school diploma, Noor knew she wasn’t ready

by Eric

Butterman

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

Above, recent U of M alum Fatima Noor outside the White House, where she will work as a special assistant in the Office of the Director for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security.

W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U

“It’s humbling, and I’m excited,” she says. for a large campus, that community college “Getting this opportunity just shows me that was the right starting point if she was to it pays off to persevere and go on no matter succeed. “I was actually unsure if I could how unreal or scary it may seem. When I even succeed there!” she says of Southwest started my first semester at the University of Tennessee Community College. “But my Memphis, I was scared I might not succeed. parents kept giving me moral support. They Just like in junior college. But I did. I rememcouldn’t help me fill out all the forms and ber that as I take on this next step.” help me figure out a lot of things — but they But, no matter where the road takes her — could tell me I could do it.” and where hasn’t it taken her? — Noor always And she did. Receiving two scholarships credits her parents for laying the groundwork for from the University of Memphis after her perseverance. “They always said I could accomperformance at Southwest, Noor found she plish many things if I believed,” she says. flourished.

And maybe it started with them just believBut she also found time to work with World ing in her.

Relief Memphis and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.

“I saw that I was a good person to be an advo(Eric Butterman is a Texas-based freelance cate for immigrants through my experience,” journalist whose work has appeared in more she says. “I could relate to their fears, their need than 50 publications, including Glamour and to have someone stand up for them. Caseworkers ESPN.com.) may be the only people they know. They need to have people there for their interests.”

She could even share her experience at what might be their FATIMA NOOR is one of three U of M recent ultimate goal — as she became a naturalized citizen herself last graduates to receive Presidential Appointments. The year. other two are: Between that and graduatCHIMENE OKERE has begun work as a special ing with a degree in psychology assistant in the Office of Capital Access at the U.S. this spring, her story would be a Small Business Administration. His responsibilities beautiful one. A miraculous one. include assisting small-business owners with acquiring If it ended there. financial resources and managing a community But this one stretches beyond a development portfolio that focuses on economically cap-and-gown ceremony. Beyond disadvantaged clients. He majored in economics with a Noor’s wildest imagination. minor in Italian.

This one reaches Washington.

With a Presidential TAYLOR DODD is a confidential assistant to Appointment within the Obama the director of the Department of the Treasury.

Administration, Noor has been She is working in financial accounting and budget named a special assistant in the management. Dodd majored in accounting with a Office of the Director for U.S. minor in international business. She was very active on Citizenship and Immigration campus, and was selected Miss University of Memphis Services in the Department of in 2013.

Homeland Security. Her full-time position lasts until January 2017.

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19

by

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Are smartphones really wise enough to detect major health issues such as congestive heart failure?

Anita Houk

A University of Memphis professor provides the answer.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

To old-school University of Memphis alumni, mobile health might bring to mind a medical clinic on wheels — usually a bus.

But for U of M computer science professor Santosh Kumar, it involves monitoring major diseases and behavioral addictions with something that easily slips into a pocket: a smartphone.

Dr. Kumar is developing wearable sensors and software that tranform a person’s smartphone into a data-gathering device that sheds light on behaviors and environments to improve healthcare and health-care strategies.

Stress and congestive heart failure — Kumar’s system can monitor those. Smoking, drug addiction and alcohol use, those, too.

The data collected by the smartphone will help scientists intervene — and possibly prevent chronic behaviors — by being a sort of Johnnyon-the-spot. For example, the phone tells researchers if a person with an alcohol problem has been in a bar, and if so, for how long. It also picks up stress indicators and can gather data about how the heart is performing, if the lungs are gathering fluid and detects other disease indicators, possibly warding off major health issues. It holds the promise of better treatment plans and possibly cheaper insurance rates.

“Why would someone not want to wear something that is light and compact and does the same things that a heavy heart monitor can do?” asks U of M alumna Dianne Moody (BBA ’10), who said family members with heart conditions have had to wear heavy probes and other cumbersome equipment while being monitored. “It is convenient and it’s cost saving.”

Kumar’s research has made him one of the world’s leading experts in the exploding field of mobile health (mHealth).

He says that the mHealth market that is $1.3 billion today is projected to be $20 billion by 2018, meaning a huge potential market that has lagged behind other industries.

University of Memphis President M. David Rudd says Kumar’s work is helping “create a culture of research excellence that is essential for our research future.”

W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U

Computer Science Professor Santosh Kumar is considered one of the world’s leading authorities on mobile health (mHealth).

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21

MAN ON A MISSION “Accomplishing any vision,” Kumar patiently explains, “requires you to build the right steps to climb the staircase.”

To that purpose, Kumar has been busy at the U of M developing futuristic theories and practical devices, connecting experts across the sciences and nation and landing millions of dollars in federal research grants.

His early investigations involved burglary detection and tracking. He won an NSF grant (2007-2011, $500k) and developed AutoWitness, a tiny, inexpensive tracking tag that is embedded in an item allowing for easy tracking if it is stolen. That innovation led to Kumar being named by Popular Science magazine as one of 2010’s “Brilliant 10 Young Scientists.”

Since then, Kumar has been named a Faudree Professor; received the Distinguished Research Award from the College of Arts and Sciences; mentored at NIH mHealth training sessions; lectured at the National Institutes of Health, Duke University Medical School, UCLA Medical School, Georgia Tech, and the University of California-San Diego; and given talks at the White House.

CHANGING LIVES “Research,” Kumar says, “is about making something possible. What unsolved societal problems that exist now can we solve in the near future? When I see a problem that has a high impact, I see a chance to solve it through the confluence of multiple disciplines.”

Into his quarters at Dunn Hall he crams a world of expertise, from a personal library of computer science books to assorted psychiatric journal articles, pertinent volumes on physiology, treatises on medical ethics, and binders stuffed with statistics and technical information.

Periodically his cell phone dings or computer pings with updates, appointments, contacts to consult, articles to complete, colleagues to greet.

He is not overwhelmed. Kumar has constructed an efficient epicenter for advancing cutting-edge research across the sciences, the technologies and the United States.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

University of Memphis researcher Santosh Kumar, at right, and doctoral candidate Md. Mahbubur Rahman demonstrate how mobile health works: a smartphone communicates with a small monitor worn on the chest.

(Photos by Rhonda Cosentino)

He intends for this work to change lives. Many lives.

“Unless a project has high-societal impact, we may not be able to get to it,” he states simply.

Take congestive heart failure: The American Heart Association reports that 5.3 million Americans have this chronic disease in which the heart can’t pump properly; 660,000 new cases are diagnosed every year.

After talking to physicians and collaborating with a colleague who specializes in remote sensing with radar, Dr. Emre Ertin of Ohio State University, Kumar and Ertin saw a potential for using radar in heart cases.

Ertin envisioned that radar sensors developed for defense applications could be miniaturized; the technology adapted so that, rather than looking for motion in the sky, radar could look for motion in the body.

Their EasySense project was thus born — intended, in part, to estimate fluid buildup in the lungs that precedes congestive heart failure. EasySense (2012-2015, NSF, $600,000) uses Doppler sensing with ultra-wideband radio frequency probes, plus radar techniques and compressive sensing. A low-power receiver fits on a tiny mobile device.

A BIG-PICTURE PERSON While Kumar doesn’t shy away from the professional limelight, he prefers sharing it, speaking of himself and other experts as “the marketing persons for these projects,” and the army of students and post docs as those “who do all the real work.”

He seems all business; however, not lost on a visitor is a drawing near his desk by one of his youngsters — artwork so colorful, so personal, its place of honor so indicative of Kumar’s versatility.

A patient man? “Sometimes my wife tells me I am — with the kids.”

His happy acknowledgement is delivered in a linguistic lilt true to his native India.

Kumar arrived at U of M in Fall 2006, a PhD from Ohio State University in hand. Early on, he delved into deploying wireless sensors to detect and track intruders.

When NIH put out a call for high-profile projects involving development of sensors to monitor human health and behavior, Kumar was excited.

“I thought this could be done, but I knew zero about the stressbehavior domain,” Kumar admits. “So I reached out to experts who could have a potential match with this. We felt enthusiastic that it may be possible to develop something. And we were selected to be part of that esteemed team at NIH (2007-2012, $2.2 million) to develop sensors to assess stress and addictive behavior.

“Because we exceeded sponsor expectations, project visibility increased. The work introduced us to the area of mobile health, which represents a majority of our research work today.”

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For the congestive heart failure project, for example: “From the getgo, we needed participation of the relevant health experts (Dr. William Abraham and Dr. Clay Marsh of The Ohio State University Medical School), sensor experts (Dr. Emre Ertin), and data analytics. It’s not enough to design something that works; it must work well enough to be clinically useful.”

To coordinate experts across so many fields, an emissary must talk their highly specialized talk, pique their curiosity and sustain their enthusiasm.

Kumar calls it “translation.”

“To me, it is a joy to read about physiology and to translate what something means, and then decide what I need from my sensor expert and which kind of analytics expert we need to proceed. I translate into each one’s professional language or vocabulary and somehow bring everything back together and let them see the problem solved.

“To me, it’s not a problem to talk to a computer scientist at 6 a.m. and translate that information so that, at 7 a.m., I can get on the phone with a cardiologist and explain.”

Being the scientist behind the curtain comes naturally. “It requires someone who takes a holistic view: Who do I bring in, what pitch do I make, so that they feel interested — even though they are a star in their own research world?

“I enjoy the process of learning different disciplines. This is how I was wired and built,” Kumar says. “I love deep, theoretical research, but I also love solving a large-scale problem.”

“I’m that big-picture person who likes to link to the different disciplines.”

Does communicating with so many uber-specialists ever present the odd problem?

“I’ve rarely found someone who didn’t get along with me,” Kumar says with his typically diplomatic smile and disarmingly gentle tone.

“If there is a person who doesn’t get along with others, I deal with A, then with B, and translate it.”

If Kumar thinks of himself as a builder in mHealth, please call him a master builder; and, like any master builder, Kumar starts with a master plan, even for the onset of an idea.

He decides which project to pursue simply by narrowing the field step by step.

“What is at stake is that, if we can pull all this off, many people can be helped,” says Kumar.

“I don’t lose sight of the end goal. That’s what helps you get through the rough bumps along the way.”

(Anita Houk is a Memphis-based freelancer and a former reporter for The Commercial Appeal.)

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THE TIGERS OF

WALL STREET The generosity of a philanthropist will mean big gains for University of Memphis students.

by Gabrielle Maxey By this fall, part of the bustling first floor of the Fogelman College of Business & Economics (FCBE) will become even busier as it’s transformed into a facsimile of a Wall Street trading firm.

In May, Michael Cook, founder and CEO of SouthernSun Asset Management, and his wife, Jennifer, committed $1 million toward establishing a state-of-the-art finance trading lab in the Fogelman College. The agreement included a $500,000 matching pledge, bringing the total endowment to $1.5 million.

The Cook Trading Lab will offer innovative tools to help supplement traditional classroom teaching and provide resources to help business students stay on the cusp of a fast-changing industry. The technology and data center will give students experience through practical, handson learning in an academic environment.

“Michael Cook’s remarkable generosity will have a profound and enduring impact on the lives of our students and the broader Memphis community,” says President M. David Rudd. “It’s a gift that provides a 24

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solid foundation for an innovative, cutting-edge educational experience that will help prepare our students and develop the skills necessary for a highly competitive job market.”

The Lab will mimic an actual Wall Street office. It will be equipped with glass walls, real-time tickers and 12 Bloomberg Terminals. The terminals allow users access to the Bloomberg Professional Service, where they can monitor and analyze real-time financial and market data and place trades on an electronic platform. The system also provides news, price quotes and messaging across its proprietary secure network.

FCBE students will be able to run simulations with actual data and observe how their decisions could actually impact the market – tasks that can be difficult to track using free web-based services.

“Our goal at the Fogelman College is to reduce the gap between what is taught in the classroom and what actually happens in a professional environment,” says Dr. Rajiv Grover, the College’s dean.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

The generosity of philanthropists Michael and Jennifer Cook has resulted in a state-of-the-art finance trading lab in the Fogelman College. Michael Cook is pictured above with U of M President M. David Rudd.

Dr. P.K. Jain, professor and interim chair of Finance, says the Lab will offer an opportunity to better prepare students than ever before. “It is comparable to a coach training his basketball team. The coach can teach the rules and strategies of the game, but until there is a court and a ball for the players to practice with, the team will be unsuccessful.

The Cook Trading Lab is the court and the Bloomberg Terminals are the basketballs.”

It is envisioned that implementation of the Lab will have a positive impact not only on Fogelman College students and faculty, but also across the city as well. “Jennifer and I believe that when the stature and quality of the University of Memphis is elevated, it literally elevates our city,” says Cook, a lifelong Memphian. “We envision a scenario where the University of Memphis accelerates, not only as a destination for local students, but also for students from around the world, where the University embraces the moment and seizes the opportunity to retain those local and global students here in Memphis, positively impacting every aspect of Memphis life.”

The Cooks believe support is not just about making a cash donation, but dedicating time and energy to FCBE students. “The trading lab, over W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U

time, should allow the faculty to develop a competitive advantage over other business schools by offering state-of-the-art, real-time, handson training in financial analytics and trading,” Cook says. “Our goals include, for one, pairing the ‘book smarts’ component brought by the FCBE faculty with the ‘street smarts’ of professional practitioners in our community who are at the top of their field.

“And two, offering insight and experience in a wide range of financial analytics from geopolitical impacts on public and private company financial analysis to commodities futures trading strategies. For the students, our hope is that the financial analytics and trading lab is a catalyst to inspire, motivate and most importantly prepare them to enter most any job in the competitive world of finance with a high degree of confidence.”

The Cooks are parents of four children; son Phillip works with Cook at SouthernSun Asset Management. Established in 1989, the researchdriven investment management firm has about $5 billion in assets under management implementing SMID-Cap, Small-Cap and Global Equity investment strategies.

With 25 years of experience as a research analyst and portfolio manager, Cook has been featured and quoted in such publications as The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, and has appeared on CNBC, Fox Business News and Bloomberg TV. He is a frequent presenter at national and European investor conferences on U.S. and Global Smalland Mid-Cap opportunities.

In recognition of his support, Cook was inducted into the Fogelman College’s Investors in Excellence in July. This elite group of FCBE supporters exhibit great influence on increasing the College’s enrollment, implementing dynamic new programs, expanding financial support to students and faculty, and building mutually beneficial connections between the University and the Memphis community.

Charles McVean, chair and CEO of Charles McVean Trading & Investments LLC and the catalyst behind FCBE’s Peer Power tutoring program, says, “This creates a great, great opportunity for the Fogelman College of Business. I was excited to learn that Mr. Cook’s approach to trading is a far-sighted, fundamental approach that allows for significant macroeconomic context in which individual investments are made.”

Among the courses scheduled to be taught in the Lab are Stock Portfolio Management and Financial Modeling. Courses in different majors, such as accounting, supply chain management, economics and international business, will also have access to the Lab and will benefit from its resources.

These application classes will better engage students by giving them a taste of real-world business practice. “As a teacher, it is extremely motivating to watch your students actually become invested in the material you’re teaching instead of just trying to make the grade,” says Dr. Sandra Mortal, associate professor of Finance. “In these hands-on laboratory settings, students will beg to stay after class because they’re so interested in what they are doing. This doesn’t generally happen in a typical classroom. The excitement is infectious.”

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LOST LEGENDS They may not be the best known former U of M athletes, but their on-field heroics definitely earned them a place in Tiger lore.

by Greg Russell 26

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

M

ention the name Anfernee Hardaway or DeAngelo Williams, and you know what happens: memories so vivid they could have happened yesterday start flowing in by the sackful. But these three University of Memphis athletes whose names might not as readily ding that mental bell deserve legendary status, too. They were heroes, if for even one day.

THE GLASS SLIPPER Rico Ball remembers each night telling his young son a bedtime story so unbelievable that it could almost qualify for fairy-tale status about an often-vilified quarterback who rose up on one leg to smack down a mighty Goliath — when ne’er a soul on Earth thought it could happen.

“My son liked to hear that story over and over again — that was his bedtime story the first four years of his life,” says Ball. “When he turned 5, he was like, ‘Hey dad I think I have heard it enough!’”

Now who exactly is Rico Ball? He was one of the few quarterbacks at the collegiate level to outduel Peyton Manning on the playing field. His connection to Memphis? Ball, now W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U

Rico Ball was known by another name while playing for the Tigers, but he left an indelible mark on the program.

an actor who splits time between Atlanta and Hollywood, was better known in his playing days as Qadry Anderson, the Tiger quarterback who led Memphis to the wildly stunning 21-17 win over sixth-ranked Tennessee on a cool November night in 1996 at Liberty Bowl Stadium.

Oddsmakers gave the 3-6 Tigers virtually no chance; they entered the game as 28-point underdogs. The Vols, meanwhile, still had national title aspirations and had thumped Memphis in all 15 previous meetings.

Memphis’ defense played the starring role the entire game, bewildering Manning with a number of different looks. Then there was the crazy Kevin Cobb kickoff return for a touchdown that was the ESPN College Football Play of the Year. But the Tigers still trailed 17-14 with about six minutes left in the final quarter, the ball on their own 30 and the offense only mustering 83 yards up to that point.

But up stepped Anderson, gimpy ankle and all.

“I thought I had broken my ankle early in the final drive,” recalls Anderson. “I dropped back to pass, I slipped, the tackler came in and caught me in an awkward position, and I rolled over my ankle and I heard something pop. It was one of the scariest feelings I ever had on a football field. When I jumped up, I actually thought my ankle was broke so I went toward the sidelines. I took two steps toward the sideline, but I said to myself, ‘No way, no way. We are about to score.’

“Coach (Rip) Scherer sent in the next play, and I put Chancy Carr in motion and once he broke past the defender, I was able to limp back, and I looked the safety off. Carr got behind the secondary, and I released it. It was right on the money, and he caught it for 41 yards down to the Tennessee 16.

“I remember at that very moment, coming into the huddle and remember the belief in everyone’s eyes. I told them, ‘Look guys, we are going to score here. We are going to win it.’ There was no doubt in my mind.”

After a 13-yard scamper up the middle by fullback Jeremy Scruggs, the ball rested at the 3-yard line with 34 seconds to play.

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“I grew up playing soccer,” recalls Bernard Licari — Bernie to his teammates. “It is the main sport in Malta. From the day you start walking, you play it.”

Licari was looking to come to the U.S. to study when he “somehow crossed paths with Bartels.”

And for Tiger soccer fans, it was lucky he did, especially in that match with Saint Louis.

“It was a hard-fought game,” recalls Licari.

“Brooks Monaghan (current Tiger women’s soccer coach) had lots of saves.” Neff adds, “They were peppering our net early — our goalkeeper played out of his mind.”

With the score 0-0, Licari delivered “the goal.”

From the top of the Memphis box, Tiger Scott Grant found Licari in the center of the field with a perfectly placed diagonal pass over the defense.

“It was just me against a couple of defenders,” Licari says. “I then beat them, but first I had a little fun with them, making them go left, making them go right. I remember faking the shot and the goalkeeper dropped and I dragged the ball around him and put it in the net. There were then a lot of people on the field going crazy.”

“Bernie had this move where he’d dribble it at an angle, then hesitate, then fake, and people would shift and be off balance and then he would score,” Neff says. “He used that move on the play.”

The Tigers held on for a few more minutes for a 1-0 pulsating upset, giving the team its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance.

“That conference championship T-shirt, I still have it even though it has holes in it,” says Neff, now living in Denver, with a laugh.

Licari now works for Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich.

Then came “the pass.”

“I remember dropping back to pass and I locked eyes with the defender and he froze.

I was able to stare him down and freeze him and that gave just enough room to hit our tight end, Chris Powers. I have to tell you it was one of the best feelings I have ever had.”

Anderson stood in the tunnel after the game, watching Tiger fans tear down the goal posts, tears welling in his eyes.

Memphis won 21-17 and reserved Anderson’s place in Tiger lore.

CAN YOU SAY, “GOOOOOOAL?” In this year of the World Cup, with soccer leaving almost every other sport combined in the digital dust on social media, what better time than to revisit the biggest and perhaps most spectacular goal in University of Memphis futbol history?

The year was 1993 and lowly Memphis State University, losers of six of its past nine matches, entered the Great Midwest Conference tournament with an almost impossible mission: win three games in three days, a task made even more daunting with nationally ranked Saint Louis likely lurking if the Tigers somehow sneaked into the finals.

“We were the bottom seed and were coming into the tournament off a very bad loss a week earlier to Centenary,” says Johnny Neff, who was a freshman starter for the Tigers. “One of their coaches, Gareth O’Sullivan, used to play for the Tigers so that made it even worse. It was the low point of the season. Coach (Chris) Bartels got so mad at us on the bus ride home that he stood over us and yelled that we could mope about it or move on.”

Move on is what the Tigers did. Friday night came at Echles Field and Memphis upset Alabama-Birmingham 2-1. Saturday?

Different team, Marquette, same result. But Memphis still had to overcome the Billikens, a team that blindsided Memphis 4-0 earlier in the season and was led by Brian McBride, a first-team All American who later played in three World Cups.

But the Tigers had a dazzling star of their own, an athlete who later played on his country’s Olympic and national teams.

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THE CLOCK WAS TICKING …

Soccer player Bernard Licari says he is surprised to be remembered as having perhaps the biggest goal in U of M history.

Roger Bannister started “the club” 60 years ago; it took a Tiger 29 years to find his way in.

In 1954, the British-born Bannister became the first person to run a sub fourminute mile, a feat once thought humanly impossible. Jim Ryun, Sebastian Coe and THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

others followed. But Memphis track and field, in existence since 1915 and with NCAA national champions (think Ed Hammonds, Terron Wright) and dozens of All Americans, never had a runner come close — that is until a young, fresh-faced Scottish lad landed in Memphis in 1982.

“It was always my ambition to do the mile in under four minutes,” says Colin Hume, who now works in the banking industry near Edinburgh, Scotland. “In the UK, I wasn’t getting any faster than 4:04. Then I got the chance to come over to Memphis. I came over right after Christmas in 1982 and went straight into the indoor season.”

Hume quickly showed he meant business. He broke the school record in the 1500 meters with a 3:42.2, which still stands today, and also set the standard for the Tiger’s 3000-meter steeplechase, which stood until 2003 when Hungarian Mate Nemeth broke his mark.

Legendary U of M coach Glenn Hays had taken a few Tiger athletes to Middle Tennessee State University for a “last chance” meet in March of 1983 to qualify for the upcoming NCAA indoor championships when the “magic mile” occurred.

“I knew I was in fairly good shape at the time,” says Hume. “The Tuesday before, we ran a time trial on the outdoor track at Memphis. I ran 2:57 that day for three quarters of a mile and I felt I could hold that another lap. The only question was getting into the right race.”

Hume’s 3:42.2 1500 meters translated to about four minutes, so Hays knew Hume had a shot.

“It just doesn’t take training, it takes ability,” says Hays. “We talked about running an even pace, but one under four minutes.”

When the gun went off, Paul Rugut of SMU quickly took the lead with Hume in hot pursuit.

“The Kenyan took it out, which I had planned to do,” recalls Hume. “I was running up his heels the whole time, trying to go quicker and quicker the whole time.”

Another obstacle, Hume says, was the track itself. Most indoor tracks are 200 meters, W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U

but the MTSU track is 256 meters, meaning about 6.3 laps for the mile, and it runs around bleachers above a basketball court. “And it is hard as a rock,” says current MTSU runner Alden Dixon. “We swear it is asphalt that is painted green!”

Says Hume, “If you run on a normal indoor track, it would be eight laps for a mile and you would know where you are at any given time. This track made it difficult to pace yourself.”

But with Hays running to each quarter-mile mark, Hume knew where he stood.

“The split times were spot on,” recalls Hume. “First quarter, 58, 1:58 at the half and the third, as always the case in a mile race, the third slowed. It was at 2:59, almost three minutes. I decided to go to the front at that point.

“I never knew the Kenyan stayed with me as long as he did because I never saw him again when I decided to go the front and stay in front. I felt pretty strong over the last quarter. I felt I might be pretty close.

“It wasn’t until Coach Hays came up to me with his digital stopwatch and showed me the time. All I was interested in was that there was a ‘3’ in the front. I couldn’t have cared if it was 3:59.9 or whatever.”

What it ended up being was 3:59.58, making Hume the 395th person in the world to break four minutes, the third Scot — and the first and still only Tiger to do it.

“My dad followed me really closely, but because of the time difference, it wasn’t until the following day I got to tell him. He said, ‘Well done, but I am expecting 3:55 come the summer,’” Hume fondly recalls.

“I don’t keep a lot of running trophies in the house, but I still have the plaque for doing the sub-four-minute mile,” says Hume, who later competed for Scotland in the Commonwealth Games. “I have great memories of Memphis. It got me something I possibly wouldn’t have gotten if I hadn’t come across to the Americas.”

Colin Hume, with daughter Laura, still holds two U of M track and field records. He lives in Scotland with his wife, Jacqueline, and son, Michael.

Watch for more “Lost Legends” in upcoming issues.

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The University of Memphis Graduate School’s original class may all have had the same degree — a master of arts in education — but it led them down very different paths.

The Graduates

by Sara Hoover

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

OPPOSITE PAGE: FIRST ROW: Betty Lou Alston, C.E. Barnett, Mattie Browning, Patricia Billingsley, Robert M. Brasher, Joy Barbour, Martha R. Hopper, Nelle Hulle, Stanley H. Harris, Russell B. Johnson, Ella Dale Jeter, William R. Kessler SECOND ROW: George H. Barnes, Eva Cox, Olva Carney, H.A. Carney, Vernon Drane, Clarence Denman, Ester Holderman Kelly, Bertrand Kock, Ruby King, Mildren Kennon, Manelle Laurence, Dorothy Rich Morton THIRD ROW: Lorraine B. Davis, Grover C. Driver, Jr., Mary Louise Davis, Margaret Gwinn, Mary Virginia Gates, Betty Jane Hamilton, Joseph Richard Martin, Ruth S. Moore, Thelma Nave, William R. Orr, Oliver Pittman, W.M. Ross FOURTH ROW: William E. Russell, Virgil A. Rose, Hobart O. Reagan, Mary Simonds, John C. Stathis, Kostas Chris Stathis, Mrs. John B. Scruggs, Jr., Frank Story, Frederic C. Starck, Susiebelle Wade, Orrin C. Williams, Mary K. Wiggins FIFTH ROW: Albert Woody, Mrs. Harry Walton, Edith Wallace, Gordon L. Wallace

In the early 1950s,

the University of Memphis and the country in general was a very different place. The school was still using the quarter system, the campus newspaper was known as The Tiger Rag and nationwide, college professors complained of student apathy.

But at what was then known as Memphis State College, 18 students were getting ready to make history as the first graduating class of the Graduate School. Three of these students use colorful anecdotes to take a look back at this different era.

The Greatest Show on Earth Before Vernon Drane (BS ’50, MA ’51) ever set foot on campus, he ran off and joined the circus. He played saxophone for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus’ band for nine years.

Attrition due to low wages meant the traveling show was usually short on musicians by the time it got to Memphis, so Drane had an opportunity to join as a very young musician.

“Because they had lost band members along the way, the music conductor would take some of us with him. I worked with him every time,” he recalls. “You talk about fun. The book of sheet music looked like a Sears and Roebuck catalog with one number after another.”

Drane played in the Bartlett High School band as a student, but he also found himself on the teaching side by random chance. He had gone to the iconic Memphis music store Amro Music to buy a saxophone, but he instead came away with a job. Milford Averwater, who founded the store in 1921, didn’t have a clarinet teacher so the musically versatile Drane found himself filling in. The Depression-era lessons sometimes were traded for potatoes or wooden reeds. The family moved, and Drane graduated from Wichita Falls High School in Texas in 1941.

Shortly thereafter, he was drafted by the military during World War II. In Europe, an Army major was looking for band members, so Drane volunteered to work the group’s generators as they marched and played for the USO in Italy and Austria.

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The University’s first graduating class of its newly established Graduate School during a commencement processional on campus near the Administration Building in 1951.

After the war, Drane returned to Amro to work full time, and he decided to use the GI Bill to enter Memphis State.

Walking around the band room, he met his future wife, Winifred.

“Some guy was pestering the heck out of her,” says Drane. “I ran into the room and started talking to her and that was it.”

They married in 1948, and the newlyweds lived in Vet Village, which were old Army barracks near present-day Rawls Hall that served as on-campus housing for married students.

Drane received a bachelor’s in music and subsequently applied for several jobs.

“I talked to the (Memphis public schools) superintendent, and the salary they offered was ridiculous: $2,400. I made that playing dance halls and still had time to do other things.”

Drane also worked as a backup singer for Sam Phillips at Sun Studio, and he picked up extra cash writing lead sheets for various bands that would show up to record.

“Groups would come there and sing songs, but they couldn’t write music — they just played and sang. I’d take the tape home and write the lead sheet so they could send it in and copyright the music.”

Averwater soon provided the musician with financial stability by offering him steady work at Amro.

Then in the early 1950s, Drane decided to get his master’s in education. He found the new Graduate School demanding.

“It was just trying to establish what to do and what direction, still being a teacher’s college,” he says. “When we were starting, it was a FA L L 2 014

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building process. The three-hour classes were pretty tough. I still had to go to work afterwards.”

Drane has returned to campus since his college days and finds it much bigger: “It’s a monster now, especially the music department.”

His connection to Amro Music? It just ended. Through four generations of Averwaters and after 65 years, he recently retired.

Secret Agent Man

Alumnus Vernon Drane met his wife, the late Winifred Drane, at the school in the 1940s. His son, Windel, and daughter, Karen Busler, are both alums, too. (Photo by Rhonda Cosentino) 32

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John Stathis (BA ’50, MA ’51) and his brother, Kostas (BA ’50, MA ’51), had the distinction of submitting the first two completed theses to the Graduate School. Both studied in what was then the College of Education.

Born to parents who had immigrated from Greece, the brothers grew up in Memphis. After graduating from Humes High School, John attended Memphis State as a math major. As a returning Navy vet, Kostas enrolled and majored in psychology.

“I found it to be quite challenging. The faculty was terrific,” John says. “We had some very capable teachers. My major professor, Dr. Howard Kaltenborn, was the mathematics department head. I remember R.M. Robison, dean of men, and Flora Rawls, dean of women, both with affection.”

John recalls an attempt to turn Memphis State College into the University of Tennessee at Memphis and didn’t like it. He says College president Jack Smith was trying to make Memphis part of the UT system to attain university status. Smith petitioned the Tennessee State Legislature in 1951, but failed.

“I remember Jack very well,” John says. “I did not want to become part (of UT). My feelings were Memphis State had grown tremendously in 35 years by the time I got into it. UT was and is an excellent school.

The feeling was we were doing fine on our own. We didn’t want or need to be strung along into the UT system.”

John reached draft age while at Memphis, but reporting to duty was deferred until he completed his studies. After graduating, his first job was as a high school math teacher in Georgia, a position that paid $2,008. Kostas also got a teaching position in Georgia. John, though, THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

Above: Brothers John and Kostas Stathis were the first students at thenMemphis State College to submit completed theses. At right, Dr. William “Bill” Burkett was a two-sport star at the school and a member of the first graduating class of the Graduate School.

was soon called up by the Marine Corps.

“On the way to Korea, I was sent back to teaching mathematics because it was supposedly deemed an essential occupation. I never thought it was essential, but apparently it was. I was not allowed to stay in the service.”

He then worked at the Training School, now the U of M’s Campus School, for four years before joining the Air Force’s new cybernetics department. After a stint at the Pentagon, John worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he retired after 40 years.

On a visit to Memphis, John noticed the campus growth.

“We had 80 acres to begin with,” he says. “There is area that the school encompasses that I’m not even familiar with. It’s grown considerably. It was a good time. I enjoyed school.”

Double play Dr. William “Bill” Burkett (BS ’51, MA ’51) came to Memphis in 1949 because of a Memphis sports legend, and in many ways, became one himself.

Burkett, much like current New England Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski, not only excelled at football, he was a terror on the baseball diamond as a right-handed pitcher. The Tigers went 18-3 on the gridiron during his two years, and posted back-to-back winning seasons in baseball, as well. He was inducted into the M Club Hall of Fame in 1998 for his performances on both fields.

He only landed at Memphis State because of a connection that would continue into this past decade: his junior college coach had recommended the Tiger football program to the highly sought-after player because he had played alongside legend Billy “Spook” Murphy, who was serving as an assistant coach under Ralph Hatley in 1949.

Burkett says Memphis State College offered him opportunities to succeed on and off the field.

“I enjoyed the friendly atmosphere among the football and baseball players and all the coaches,” says Burkett. “I appreciated the interest and concern of my instructors as well.”

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Before coming to Memphis, Burkett, the fifth of eight children, was an All-American football player at East Central Junior College in Mississippi.

Burkett was a dual threat of sorts in the classroom, too: as he earned his bachelor’s degree in social studies, he simultaneously worked toward his master of arts in education.

After receiving his master’s, Burkett’s first job was coaching football and baseball at Memphis’ Messick High School, making $2,700 a year.

After one year, he returned to Mortimer Jordan High School in his hometown of Morris, Ala., as a head coach and was later named principal. When Burkett retired after more than 35 years in education, he had obtained a doctorate in education from the University of Alabama in 1971, retired as a full colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves and was an ordained minister.

The William E. Burkett Multi-Handicapped Center in Birmingham, Ala., is a school for students with disabilities. It was named after Burkett at the request of the school’s faculty and parents. He had the new structure built for students who were previously housed in substandard facilities.

(Dr. William Burkett passed away after the writing of this article.)

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Not for Pete’s Sake A U of M music instructor journeys to U.S. military bases and hospitals in Europe to deliver a bit of Americana.

by Samuel Prager

P

atriotism comes in all shapes and sizes, but for University of Memphis instructor Jeremy Tubbs, it’s all about sound.

The director of the Entertainment/Music Industry program at the U of M’s Lambuth campus is a co-founding member of Willy Pete, a rock band that makes frequent tours to American military bases in Europe to support U.S. troops, á la Bob Hope and his USO tours.

“The best way I’ve collectively heard the project explained over the past decade is that these military communities are really isolated, a lot of them with families. And they are bounced around every three or five years to a different country and they never really get to live at home until they retire,” says Tubbs. “They have ‘American’ environments, but they’re stuck behind these intimidating walls with fences. It’s kind of surreal.”

The band plays at venues with as many as 12,000 soldiers and their families, but they

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also do intimate performances in hospital rooms for injured military personnel. Tubbs tours with the group at least once a year — he went for a week this past May — and often takes a U of M student to give him or her experience in the music industry.

“You have to think that some of these soldiers have been in Afghanistan or Iraq for maybe 16 months,” he says. “Then they come up to Germany to take a break and relax.

They might even have a family at the bases that has been there for four or five years.

“But these soldiers aren’t really home even at these bases. They are still in a foreign country. So, every piece of America, every piece of their home that we can bring with us, brings a lot of morale to the troops. It’s us doing what we can to help.”

U.S. Navy Captain Steve Nakagawa has served in the military for 28 years. He says Willy Pete is a welcome sight to soldiers needing a pick-me-up.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

Members of Willy Pete made a visit to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany where they were enthusiastically met by staff members and nurses.

Band members and personnel include Carolyn Long (second from left), U of M music instructor Jeremy Tubbs (fourth from left), Jarian Felton (ninth from left), Simon Hunt (seventh from right), and from fifth from right to far right: Lindsey Guillot, Dave Nowak, Doug Pierce, Brian Guillot and Brandon Goff.

“Having been in the military for 28 years, I know from experience that being sent around the world to fight for your country can instill a significant amount of pride in a person,” says Nakagawa. “But it’s terrible being away from your family, your country, your community, everything. Having bands like Willy Pete who are willing to take time from their families and life to travel over to Europe and bring a piece of America to the soldiers overseas is great. They bring America to the people who need it most.

“When I was deployed, I remember hearing American songs played by bands in clubs. But it’s not the same as when an actual American rock band takes time out to come play for you and you know it’s for you. It means a whole lot to sing along to songs with groups that have American accents,” says Nakagawa.

Air Force medic Timothy Carentz was stationed at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany when he first met the band.

“When you’re in America, you have a lot of say in what you eat, what you wear or what you watch on TV, but when you go to a deployed location overseas, you’d be surprised about what you miss from home,” Carentz says. “You see people get excited to get a bag of Twizzlers from home. So when someone comes from home and sits down with you and wants to make friends with you, it’s really meaningful. Some people come through thinking they’re on the red carpet, but when Willy Pete W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U

comes through, they put everyone else on the red carpet.”

Carentz says he would accompany Willy Pete through the military hospitals in Landstuhl while the group visited wounded soldiers. “I had done that for various celebrities and musicians before who typically would just spend seconds with the patients, but Willy Pete would sit there playing music, talking with them, signing autographs and taking pictures.

“They stayed at my house a few times during their trips, and we would wake up around five in the morning and not come back until midnight. One time when they stayed with me, they played 14 concerts in three days, all at separate venues,” Carentz recalls.

Although Tubbs says all of the concerts are very meaningful, the “up-close-and-personal” shows are most memorable.

“Some of our favorite shows are the smaller, more intimate ones,” he says. “We go to different bases, and we’ll talk and do some songs. We try to just hang out with the soldiers and have a good time.

“We’ll ask what songs they like. They’ll go, ‘I like Lynyrd Skynyrd.’

We’ll say, ‘OK, OK.’ We’ll play ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ or whatever song we know by the group.”

Willy Pete has made many big-name friendships in the militaryaiding community, including the Red Cross, USO, Wounded Warrior Project and the Department of Defense. The organizations will typically FA L L 2 014

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split the band’s expenses in exchange for the shows. Private donors also contribute financial support while Hotel Christine in Landstuhl offers the group free lodging. Tubbs notes that it costs roughly $30,000 for the group to make the trip for a week.

Former USO Stuttgart Programs and Volunteers coordinator Stephanie Norby calls them “true patriots.”

“They were always so appreciative to get food and accommodations provided whenever possible, but were just happy to have a venue where they could sing, dance and make our service members feel at home again,” she says.

The man and the plan behind the music “I’ve played guitar non-stop since I was 7 years old,” says Tubbs. “I’d hear a jingle on TV and go try to figure it out on the piano or guitar. My mom saw this and really encouraged it and made me practice. I’m glad she recognized and made me pursue it. She understood the artistic side of it, which is something I feel a lot of parents don’t do.”

Over the years, Tubbs also learned bass and drums. His passion led him to study music at Lambuth University before the U of M acquired the Jackson, Tenn.-based, centuryold school in 2011.

“Once I graduated from Lambuth, my passion led me to Memphis. It was either Memphis or Nashville, and Nashville just wasn’t me. I was, and still am, engulfed in music,” Tubbs says.

Tubbs continued to pursue his musical education at several notable universities, including Oxford University in England and Berklee College of Music in Boston, before moving to Memphis to get his master’s degree and doctorate in musicology at the U of M. While Tubbs was attending the U of M, he met lifetime band mate and friend Doug Pierce, who founded Willy Pete and, according to Tubbs, is the creative mastermind behind the group. Early on in their friendship, the two started a band, Pierce; Tubbs played drums and Pierce sang and played guitar.

The two, along with a bassist, toured the country while Tubbs was still earning his doc36

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

torate. In 2004, when many Americans were signing up for the military to help fight the war on terrorism, the band members felt the need to serve the country as well.

“We couldn’t serve in the traditional sense by joining the Army,” says Tubbs. “So we did what we knew how to do – play music.”

Willy Pete also has a wide array of corporate sponsors.

“M&M’s, NASCAR, Jimmy Buffet, Disney and tons of others,” Tubbs says. “They give us boxes filled with T-shirts, jackets and magnets.

I can’t tell you how many Jimmy Buffet T-shirts I’ve handed out over the years. They want that NASCAR jacket, too.”

Tubbs says the group prides itself on its versatility.

“We do original songs and also covers.

We have three lead singers in the band: an African-American male vocalist who does most of our gospel and R&B songs, a pop princess who does all of our Adele and Katy Perry covers, and then Doug who does mostly country and rock vocals. Collectively, we have this ability to play all of the main genres of popular music.”

After a decade of touring European military bases, Willy Pete plans to continue going overseas to serve soldiers. He says that the band could become a full-time gig at some point.

“It’s important that our military know we appreciate them, and that we don’t forget about them. That’s why our motto is ‘We Don’t Forget,’” Tubbs says. “These people are protecting us and are working really hard to protect our freedom and allow us to live a normal life, which is something they are sacrificing for us. We hope to be a voice from a stage saying we’re going to play some music that you love and want to hear.

“We’re not a German, Italian or French band. We are an American rock band, straight from the birthplace of rock ’n’ roll, and we’re here to deliver you the songs you want to hear,” Tubbs concludes.

Visit www.willypete.com for more on Willy Pete.

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Opposite, top: Band members Joe Urcavich and Jarian Felton spend time visiting with a wounded warrior in Europe. Opposite, center: A wounded warrior shares a smile with Willy Pete’s Lindsey Guillot, Joe Urcavich, Doug Pierce, Jeremy Tubbs, Jarian Felton and Brandon Goff. Opposite, bottom: The band, á la Bob Hope’s USO tours, performs as many as 14 concerts in three days at

military bases throughout Europe. Above: Band members Doug Pierce (center) and Brandon Goff (right) visit with a wounded warrior in a military hospital in Germany. Below: Joe Urcavich, Jarian Felton, Lindsey Guillot, Jeremy Tubbs, Brandon Goff and Doug Pierce bring a smile and thumbs up from a wounded warrior.

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WHOA

BROKE a short story

by Eric McQuade

J

eremy Franklin had just whipped the mower around a stack of railroad ties when a Chevy pick-up missing a bumper met him in the driveway.

There was a dog in the passenger seat. Mangy coat and all, it was clearly an English setter, a young one, its hair matted and stained brown with mud. Before he got a good look he thought the dog might be one of his grandfather’s. Pop owned twelve pointing dogs and a two thousand acre game ranch around Sugar Tree. Jeremy was sixteen. He’d been in charge of the dogs for a year.

“Your grandpa around?” the driver asked. It was Fitz, a man Pop called an old con. Pop should know because he was seventy-five and had seen all kinds. Fitz owed Pop money, too.

“Yes, sir,” Jeremy said.

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“Can you fetch him for me?”

He’d make no argument with Fitz. Fitz was not the kind of man he should be talking to alone.

Inside the house, in the office, Pop wore the bifocals he used when looking over the receipts. The ledger was open. All he seemed to do these days was look at the same things over and over. Since Jeremy’s mother had passed, Pop had to handle all the details. She was always better organized.

“Fitz?” Pop said. “Fitzy is here?”

It was enough to make Pop forgive the interruption. He got up and went outside to talk.

“Good morning, Mr. Franklin,” Fitz said.

“You looking for work?”

“On account of our debt, I wanted to make you a trade.”

Pop squinted at the dog in the truck. “For a mutt?”

“She’s a real hunting dog,” Fitz said. “She’s got papers and everything.”

THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

“Papers don’t help a dog point.”

“What do you pay for a nice pretty girl like this? I’m talking about a broke dog. A genuine pointer. Whoa broke.”

“Why would you have a dog like this?” Pop asked.

“I won her fair in a card game.”

“Well, that sounds about right.”

“She can point. I’ve seen it myself. She’s stylish.”

Pop shook his head. He looked at the filthy dog. Then without looking at Jeremy he said, “We have room for one more in the pens, right?”

“We’re full, sir,” Jeremy said. It was two, even three to a cage.

It was like Pop lost count just walking out to the yard. He and his mother had come to the Sugar Tree farm ten years ago, when Jeremy was six, because Pop had begun losing everything. First Grandma to diabetes, and then, slowly, his memory.

“I don’t think—” Pop began.

“It’s worth your while,” Fitz said. “Now—for real—what would a dog like this cost you?”

“It would settle us up if what you’re saying is true, and then some. I do want a litter. She ain’t fixed, is she?”

“No, sir.” Fitz smiled. “She’s perfect as she is. Her name is Winnie. Don’t go changing her name. She’ll heel, but only if you use her name proper.”

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innie smelled like an old knee brace. She didn’t heel worth a damn, didn’t come. Didn’t mind anything Jeremy asked her to do.

She licked his face when told to sit. Man, she was dirty. Where in God’s name had she been? He bathed her over at the hose in the backyard. He started with the ears and worked back to her tail and down to her paws, and she shivered the whole time, scared as hell. If his mother were there, she’d already know what to do to keep Winnie out of trouble with Pop. She used to let Jeremy sneak the dogs in the house to take hot baths, and she spoiled them with snacks of bacon and grease. When Pop really started losing it, he called from the hardware store saying someone stole his truck. Mom drove up and walked him around downtown until they found his truck, and made him feel as if someone really had taken it. They weren’t to embarrass him in his old age, was Mom’s message. She kept the family in balance.

Careful not to cut the dog’s skin, Jeremy sliced out burrs snarled in her fur. She was white except for a black and brown mask and some dark freckles on her back. She was brand new, and he wanted to keep her.

He leashed her. “Winnie,” he commanded. “Sit.” She rolled over and tried to dry off in the grass.

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“Get up and sit down now.”

She kept on in the grass.

“Winnie?”

Might as well be asking her to make breakfast.

“That’s your name,” he said. “Isn’t it, girl?” He wrapped a towel around her, lifted her to her feet, held her, and talked quietly to her.

After a while he led her by the leash to the chain link pens.

The two females, Bessie and Sarah, barked when he brought her close, and she tried to hide behind his legs.

No use moving her in with that jealous lot.

He nudged her forward, and the other dogs gathered at the gates to sniff her. Second from the end was old Ripley, an orange and white setter, nine years old, and gentle. She nuzzled up to Ripley through a space between the wires. Ripley could work.

Rearrange the dogs and pair her with Ripley, and it might just happen peaceful and quiet.

A

t lunch he told Pop about Winnie and her new friend Ripley.

He left out that Winnie didn’t know her name and was feral as a turkey buzzard. She was sweet, yes, but she did not have the formal training Fitz claimed she did. This Jeremy kept to himself.

“We got to take your girl for a hunt tomorrow morning,” Pop all but shouted over the TV. “Yes, sir.”

“Why don’t you bring the other one along if they’re getting on so good? There aren’t any bookings tomorrow, so we can rustle up some wild quail in the east coveys near the river.”

“What if Winnie ain’t much of a pointer?”

“She’ll point.”

“But what if she won’t? Could we keep her as an inside dog?”

He might as well be asking if he could grow his hair out and vote Democrat.

“Fitz says she works with style.”

“The man’s been known to stretch the truth, sir.”

Pop didn’t look away from the TV. “Sounds like I’m a fool and Fitz is a liar.”

Jeremy shuddered at challenging Pop. “I didn’t say that, Pop...”

Pop stared at the TV. “Tell you one thing about Fitz you may not know.”

“Yes, sir.”

“He never run out on his wife and little boy.” He pounded his fist on the table. “Man stuck.” He looked hard at Jeremy, but then FA L L 2 014

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his look softened, as if he was surprised to find Jeremy sitting there and not someone else.

these days; he got too agitated with them, and all the chores on the ranch consumed him more than ever.

“You just have them dogs ready to go in the morning, son,” Pop said. “We’ll see if she can point or if she can’t.”

It wrecked Jeremy to see the dogs stuck in cages, so he wore them out on runs when they were restless.

M

cClintock. That had been Jeremy’s last name, his father’s last name, until Pop took him down to the courthouse and changed it after Mom died. Pop rode him pretty hard, as if he were trying to whup something out of him, some bad thing in his bloodline. Since that day at the courthouse, Pop had never again said the name McClintock.

When a dog wouldn’t come around, or got too old, when a dog had used up its last chance with Pop, Pop drove off with that dog and came back alone. Before Mom died two summers back, she told him about a dog that bit him as a child. She said she’d never seen Pop so angry. Yes, Pop worked him hard, she insisted, but it was out of love. You had to earn your meals on a farm. It was years before Jeremy figured out that every time Mom snuck him out to the movies and a Mexican restaurant, it meant one of the dogs would be gone when they got back.

A

t first light he went to the pens. One by one he slid a metal dish full of wet canned food under the fences. He took turns letting them out to stretch their legs. Pop didn’t approve of comforting dogs—dogs served one purpose and that was to hunt. But his grandfather spent less time with the dogs

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After corralling the last of the dogs into the fences, he collared up Winnie and Ripley and met Pop by the stone road that led east to the river.

Pop finished racking the twenty gauges for the hunt and came over to scratch Ripley’s neck. “There you are.” Pop mulled something—the same furrowed look he made when he tried his hand at the accounting. “What’s this dog’s name again?”

“That’s Ripley, Pop.” “Hell, I knew that.” He roughed up the dog’s ears. “You know this old boy has been with me a long while. He used to cover a hundred yards like it was the space between a hungry man and the refrigerator.”

“A good pointing dog, too,” Jeremy said.

“You’re telling Noah about rising water.” Pop slapped Ripley hard on the side. “Ain’t that right, you old rebel? Let’s move out, anyhow,” Pop said. “Ride in the back with the dogs.”

Pop didn’t want dirty fingers on the leather. The seats weren’t shiny leather, but lived-in leather like a pair of cattleman’s gloves. It came that way. Pop can’t live without a new truck, Jeremy’s mom used to say.

Approaching the quail coveys, he held the dogs near him and listened to the tires on the long, flat stones they’d laid one backbreaking offseason through the ranch. Pop drove faster than he should, and here and there the stones jostled them violently.

Jeremy held onto the dogs. He told Winnie to watch Ripley when they got to the coveys. He told her to hold her point and don’t do anything stupid.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

T

hey stopped near a field of tall grass colored gold from a late-summer drought, waist high and full of prickles. These were the wild quail, not the birds Pop released on the ranch to stock for the hunters. Pop climbed out of the cab. “Let’s see what these dogs can do.” He put down the tailgate, whistled, and the dogs leapt out, full of purpose. “Get on it,” Pop said, as he always did.

Winnie and Ripley sprinted into the fields and crisscrossed at full speed until they were almost out of sight. Jeremy liked this part of the property, where the sky was biggest and you could see forever in most any direction. It was a place Pop saved for the family to hunt.

“She can run, all right,” Jeremy said.

“Running ain’t hunting. There aren’t any quail here anyhow,” Pop said. That wasn’t true. The wild ones were down near one of the creeks that fed into the river. For someone who spent his whole life here, Pop mistook a landmark way too often.

“She does run pretty,” Pop admitted. In the distance, Winnie bounded out of the open field, disappeared, and then flashed back across the dried-up basin.

Good pointers didn’t flush birds; they froze at the point. That left a hunter to come and bump them out for a shot.

Ripley ran a step behind Winnie, but veered towards the underbrush where the birds were. Jeremy and Pop plodded well behind, watching for a point. The dogs kept fanning back and forth. Winnie darted like a kite in a crosswind, yet she kept an eye on Ripley and weaved back to follow him. Ripley guided her towards the saplings and brush where the quail fed. If you had a staunch pointer like Ripley, you could have a real day hunting and come home with enough quail to fill the freezer.

Ripley tracked a scent into a green patch and coiled tight, his right knee bent off the ground. His spine bowed. His tail went up rigid, and his nose and eyes formed a perfect line on something in front of him.

Winnie stepped in just behind Ripley and froze.

“Let’s go see,” Pop said.

They crept up on the point.

Jeremy moved ahead of Pop, his heart thumping, imagining the bird taking flight and turning into the sky, the quiet before the shot—a perfect hunt her first time out. He loaded a few rounds and clicked off the safety and readied for the flush.

But just then Winnie smelled something. She barked and plunged into the cover in front of Ripley, and a family of quail foraging in the thicket flushed before he could take aim.

T

en minutes later the dogs were back in the truck, panting and lapping up water from one of Mom’s old saucepans.

He and Pop sat on the tailgate drinking ice water from a Thermos. Pop said, “You need to be up tomorrow and ready with eggs and bacon for the boys around seven. They need a hot breakfast before the hunt. I’ll clean out the pens and feed the dogs for you.” Pop fanned himself with the brim of his Stetson.

In the distance a quail returned to the covey and landed without a sound. A hen, maybe. “Too crowded in the pens with all these dogs,” Pop said. “Why didn’t you tell me it was so bad out there?”

“We can add space.” He’d told Pop several times they needed more room.

“I don’t know about that. These dogs already run our lives.

Somebody has to go.”

Pop shut the tailgate on Winnie and Ripley. Jeremy looked at them and felt himself tremble.

“Let’s get back,” Pop said. “Why don’t you ride up front?”

Pop knew he was worried about Winnie. That’s why he wanted him up front. Jeremy wanted to say it wasn’t fair—it wasn’t fair to punish her for not being broke. With a little help from Ripley and some training, she could point just like Fitz had said she could.

Better, even.

“I want to talk about this girl,” Pop said.

Jeremy waited.

Maybe she just ain’t cut out for hunting,” Pop said.

“We can still have puppies with her, right?”

“I don’t want puppies with a fool dog.”

Jeremy was quiet. Then he said, “Why don’t you let me break her, sir? ” For this Pop had no answer, and they drove the rest of the way in silence. Now that hunting season had arrived, it would be hard as hell with all the work. And cold soon enough. All the things Mom did seemed impossible to replace—mostly the kindness she found in Pop and brought out, the way Pop could once bring out the best in his dogs. Kindness was there, all right, but Jeremy didn’t know how to bring it out.

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W

hen they made it back, Pop took both dogs and tied their leashes to the old post in the backyard. “Did Ripley seem slow to you?”

Jeremy felt wrecked all over again. “He looked stylish to me, Pop.”

Pop left the shotguns racked in the truck. The dogs wound themselves around the post. Jeremy could name every movie he and his mother had seen together, and every dog that wasn’t there when they got back. Names stuck.

Pop nodded. He looked at the sky a minute. “All right, son, take the quail inside and help your mother dress them for supper.”

“Okay, Pop,” he said finally, and lifted the empty cooler and carried it into the house.

Jeremy looked at the dogs circling the post on their leashes, wagging their long tails. Pop had lost his memory for good. There were no quail. They hadn’t even gotten a shot off. His mom was dead. Otherwise she’d be there to meet them after the hunt with Cokes and sandwiches.

About the Author Eric McQuade admits his writing career began inauspiciously. “I started by writing a terrible, terrible story,” says the MFA student in creative writing. “It was called ‘Puddle Jumpers’ and I sent it to The New Yorker. I suppose that would be like putting a VCR on Craigslist for $2 million. I didn’t get too many bites from the editorial staff.”

But that was 10 years ago, and McQuade’s talent and approach to writing have clearly evolved.

“I’m really into this idea now that writing should be an exploration of what you don’t know,” says the Raleigh, N.C., native. “I also believe that writing shouldn’t carry messages. If you leave a story feeling clean and wholesome with all your questions answered, the writer has failed. The mystery – that’s why someone should write.”

For “Whoa Broke,” he was inspired by two English setters from a kill shelter in Jackson, Tenn. “I don’t know their backstory, but the vet said they were probably abandoned by hunters because they weren’t good pointers.”

About the Artist Carolyn Asselin comes by her interest – and talent – in art naturally. She started taking art classes in seventh grade, and started graphic design classes her junior year of high school. “I loved drawing and originally considered myself a watercolor painter, but found that I really enjoyed illustrating on the computer,” says the senior art major with a concentration in graphic design and a minor in Japanese. “My mom was an artist in high school, and so is my brother, so it runs in the family.”

Asselin approached “Whoa Broke” like it was a memory. “Memory plays a large role in the story and it is full of beautiful locations and details, and I wanted to showcase them,” she says. “I also wanted to incorporate the feeling of old landscape paintings while still depicting the emotions in the story. ”

“Whoa Broke” marks the fourth installment in our creative writing series. Do you enjoy reading these works of fiction?

Let publications editor Greg Russell know at grussll@memphis.edu.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

THE

ALUMNI REVIEW

“Memphis has a world-class business industry and we are striving to continue this legacy. But we can’t just talk about being the best … we have to act upon our words.”

Michael Cook, founder and CEO of SouthernSun Asset Management, who established the Cook Trading Lab with his wife, Jennifer.

FEATURE STORIES

ON THE RECORD

ALUMNI ACTIVITIES

CLASS NOTES

IN MEMORIAM

Tee time

By Gabrielle Maxey

On a steamy Thursday morning in July, members of The First Tee of Memphis haul golf equipment across a field under the smokestack of the former Firestone plant in north Memphis, setting up a putting clinic for youngsters from First Baptist Church Broad Street.

GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE FIRST TEE, a youth mentoring program that teaches life skills through the game of golf. It’s located in a roomy trailer at the old Firestone site.

As important as teaching golf skills is, First Tee stresses nine core values to its young participants: honesty, integrity, respect, responsibility, courtesy, sportsmanship, confidence, judgment and perseverance.

The program includes lessons, tournaments and volunteerism. Etiquette is expected and respected. Players must know the rules, keep

“Your next shot is always your best shot,” says Nyrone Hawkins, executive director of The First Tee of Memphis. “It’s not about obstacles, but about how you handle them.” The program began as the Mid-South Jr. Golf Association in 1991 at Pine Hill Golf Course. (Photos by Rhonda Cosentino)

shirts tucked in, shake hands firmly.

“Working with the youth of Memphis has always been a passion of mine,” says First Tee’s

had nonprofit experience.”

Hawkins, who sports a “Tiger for Life” golf

community and the meaning of responsibility and respect. One of our nine core values is

executive director Nyrone Hawkins, a Tiger

shirt, admits he wasn’t really a golfer before he

perseverance, and learning to play golf you are

football player from 1988-92. Hawkins had

came to First Tee. “I did know the language and

going to need it, trust me. Perseverance is also

been working in the nonprofit sector for several

some rules, but my skills set was youth and a

needed to be successful at most anything in life;

years, including positions at Binghampton

knowledge of nonprofits.”

once you get it you tend to keep using it. We

Neighborhood School, Taylor Brown Garden

The First Tee provides opportunities for

start our youth out with setting personal ‘pars.’ A

Group Home and Just Care Family. “I heard

young people to experience a positive, safe place

personal par is a small goal that can be obtained

The First Tee of Memphis was looking for an

surrounded by caring adults, says Hawkins (BLS

with little help from others. It’s your goal so it is

executive director. I knew the game of golf and

’07). “They learn the value of giving back to their

personal. Next we build from personal pars to

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FEATURE STORY

goal setting and volunteering.”

when I left school without my degree she stayed

coaching younger golfers. “To see the spark in

in contact with me in Alabama and encouraged

their eyes when they hit the ball in the hole is

75,000 youth, ages 5 to 18. In 2013 it served

me to get back in school. I returned to the U of

just beautiful,” says Marissa. Will she keep golfing

340 youngsters in spring, summer and fall

M in 2005. Dr. Lyons cried when I came back to

now that she’s in college? “There are blind

programming and another 15,000 through its

get my degree and she cried again in 2007 as I

people who play golf,” she laughs, “so I’m pretty

National School Program and other community

walked across the FedExForum stage.

sure I will.”

Since 1999, First Tee has served more than

outreach initiatives. Since 2012, participants

“Dr. Acey helped build me into the socially

have attended a number of national events,

responsible man I am today, always stretching

clinic, makes young people become “more

highlighted by Malik Luckett playing in the Nature

me to do more and be more, never giving up

coachable,” says Hawkins.

Valley First Tee Open at Pebble Beach, Calif., and

on me. He held me accountable not only for

Andy Chung and Grant Hill attending the Life

my actions, but for the actions of everyone in

the ball to fall in the hole, but more distance

Skills and Leadership Academy.

my inner circle. Dr. Acey taught me that I am my

control – make it stop between two ropes that

brother’s keeper.”

have been laid out on the grass. Most of the first

While helping young people, The First Tee also benefits the community. “We are building

When Hawkins took over at The First Tee,

Teaching younger kids, as with the putting

The goal of today’s lesson is not to get

strikes overshoot the mark by a wide margin; by

the next generation of leaders for the city of

he set three goals: rebuild the programming

the third or fourth attempt most of the future

Memphis,” Hawkins explains. “We have one

into something kids would enjoy; take youth

Tiger Woods land the ball between the ropes. All

of the most diverse programs in Memphis.

to national First Tee events; and improve his

the while, the mentors pepper them with words

We bring youth together from all segments of

own golf game. “I’m happy to report we have

of encouragement.

Memphis society and walks of life and build

accomplished all three of them,” he says, “but

great youth leaders by teaching our nine healthy

my golf skills are needing more work.”

habits. We have a 100-percent high school graduation rate over the last three years.”

Forty percent of First Tee youth get help with

One student learning to set his own goals

donated by individuals and corporations – are

people, and I like that we get to play other First

provided for those who need them. “We teach

Tee teams,” says Boris, who wears a crisp blue-

some of our upper-level kids to build clubs,”

and-white striped First Tee golf shirt.

Myles Rivers, a senior at Ridgeway High

Three participants have been selected as

School, has been part of First Tee for 10 years.

First Tee Scholars at Cornell University, Lipscomb

“It’s helped me persevere and learn life skills,”

University and the University of Tennessee

he says. “If I didn’t have First Tee I’d probably be

Knoxville. In fact, Golf Digest has ranked

playing basketball and getting into trouble. They

Memphis as the top municipality for its positive

tie in life skills while you get experience. Life

impact on junior golfers.

gets frustrating at times, but you can’t hang onto

“The lifelong friends from Memphis State football

something negative.”

Marissa Buford, 18, a freshman at Christian

have been an amazing part of my life. Living in

Brothers University, has been coming to First

South Hall, the old athletics dorm, helped me

Tee since she was 11. “It’s taught me respect

to grow into a man and build relationships with

for the world around us, for things and for our

athletes other than football players. We had

surroundings,” says the computer engineering

some major victories in football during my years

major, who earned $25,000 in scholarships.

– Alabama, USC and Florida to name a few.”

“Plus it keeps me calm and collected.” A bad

He credits Dr. Bonita Lyons and Dr. David

shot “is enough to break a golfer’s heart,”

Acey as important influences. “Dr. Lyons always

Marissa says, “but as long as you keep a clear

encouraged me to reach for the stars. Even

mind, you’ll make every shot better.” She enjoys

44

FA L L 2 014

competitive.” They are, they do, and they will be.

Colonial Middle School and a three-year veteran of First Tee. “I like that we get to meet new

Hawkins himself has been inspired by sports.

Most of them know: “Be safe. Have fun. Be

is Boris Combest, an 11-year-old who attends

paying their fees. Golf shoes, bags and clubs –

Hawkins adds.

“What are our three rules?” they’re asked.

Myles Rivers helps Nyia Hawkins line up a putt during a First Tee golf lesson in July.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

On the Record We asked five people on campus to answer a few questions:

AMELIA MAYAHI

BROOKS MONAGHAN

sustainability coordinator

women’s head soccer coach

DR. KATHERINE LAMBERT-PENNINGTON associate professor of anthropology

MARTIN IFEDI

RAFI CHOWDHURY

graduate student in sport and leisure commerce and football player

psychology alumnus and chess club founder

If I had an extra hour in the day I would …

sit back in a hammock and meditate, or ”nap”

spend more time at my cabin

sit in the hammock on my front porch

play video games

listen to an audio book on Financial IQ

The hardest subject in school for me was …

chemistry

math

geometry

mathematics

math

I wish I understood why …

so many people are careless in their actions towards the environment

women think the way they do sometimes

attempts to preserve the Overton Park Greensward have inspired such vitriol

gas prices are so high

financial education is not mandatory in school

I am most inspired by …

Margaret Mead, John Muir, the Dalai Lama and my parents

my parents

people with the courage to think for themselves and act on their convictions

my oldest brother and my mother

entrepreneurs Cameron Johnson and Mark Zuckerberg

What I wish others knew about the U of M …

how many employees and students care about the wellbeing of our campus

we have some of the best coaches in the country

there are a lot of great, smart, caring faculty here

how great an education it provides

it is crucial to get and stay in touch with a mentor all through college

I want to be known for …

a lifesaving invention would be great!

making a difference in the lives of every kid I coach

having integrity and compassion

being a gentleman

my perpetual hunger for knowledge and flexibility

My favorite place on campus is …

a tie between TIGUrS Urban Garden and the Recycle Zone

the soccer practice field

the fountain, especially in the evening

UC restaurant

the gym/track

My dream job would be …

working for National Geographic

what I do now, coaching U of M women’s soccer

don’t I already have it?

Athletic Director of the University of Memphis

I do not want a job. I am aspiring to become an Internet entrepreneur

The phrase I use most is …

If only I had a dollar for every time I forgot something!

trust me 100 percent

It strikes me that ...

affirmative

If knowledge is an ocean, we are just toying with the sand between our fingers

In 10 years, I think the U of M will …

will be a key role model for sustainability

have one of the best athletic programs in the country

still be an anchor of education, scholarship and leadership in the city

be one of the top universities in the country

be 10 years older

W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U

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45

Alumni Activities

1

2

3

4

1. Dr. Aram Goudsouzian, center, accepts the Distinguished Research Award from Anita Vaughn (BA ’77, MPA ’82), Alumni Association president. At right is U of M President M. David Rudd.

2. Jamie Russell (BBA ’02) and his daughter take a break during Pouncer’s Spring Fling and Egg Hunt.

3. International MBA students attend the IMBA Alumni Club Union and Reunion.

4. The Arts & Sciences Alumni Chapter Reception/Auction drew (from left) Marcia Boyd (BS ’68, MPA ’80), Betty Moore (BA ’82, JD ’86) and Breauna Phillips (BS ’13).

5. Attending the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences Alumni Chapter Hall of Fame induction were (from left) Dr. Randy McPherson (BSEd ’80, MS ’84, EdD ’93), Sharon McNary (BSEd ’83, MEd ’86), Allyson Chick (BSEd ’00), Dr. Eli T. Morris (BSEd ’77), Marvis LaVerne Kneeland Jones (BSEd ’73, MEd ’75), Joseph A. Clayton (BSEd ’54, MA ’61), Dr. Patricia Murrell, Dr. Donald Wagner and Madan M. Birla (MA ’82).

6. Pouncer demonstrates his arcade skills at the Pouncer’s Pals Incredible Pizza Birthday Party.

7. At the Communication Sciences and Disorders Alumni Awards are (from left) Dean Maurice Mendel; Darlene Winters (BA ’76, MA ’79) and Denise Perkins (MA ’84).

8. Members of the National Alumni Association executive board attending the Young Alumni Legacy Social include (from left) Jamie Russell (BBA ’02), Kim Barnett (BA ’95, EMBA ’99), Dana Gabrion (BA ’98), Andrew Bailey (BBA ’00, EMBA ’05), John Lawrence (BA ’94, MS ’98), Paul Jewell (BA ’78) and Renee DeGutis (BS ’83).

9. Attending the University College Outstanding Alumni Awards were (from left) William Harbin (BPS ’99), Outstanding Service Award; Brian Holb (BPS ’13), Outstanding Young Alum; Maxine Strawder (MALS ’09), Outstanding Alumna; and Dean Dan Lattimore.

10. U of M President M. David Rudd, Becky Sadowski (BA ’69, MEd ’72), Bob Sadowski (BS ’69, MEd ’71, MEd ’73), Mary White (BS ’79, MA ’94) and Thomas “Buddy” White (BS ’75, MEd ’87) celebrate at the Lambuth Social.

46

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

5

7

9

W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U

6

8

10

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47

FEATURE STORY

Sealing the deal

By Gabrielle Maxey

Robert Huff is used to giving his seal of approval. As a student at Lambuth College, Huff was president of Kappa Sigma fraternity. The new chapter house needed a large fraternity crest, which Huff created. He quickly realized what a huge potential market he had – a crest for every Kappa Sigma chapter in the country. A business was born.

FORTY YEARS LATER, Robert Huff Designs has created seals for state senators and representatives, judges and courtrooms in all 50

Robert Huff (left) illustrated his close ties to the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law by creating state and federal seals for the school’s historic courtroom as a gift to Dean Peter Letsou.

states, for movie sets and individuals. He even has made seals for foreign embassies and for the British Parliament.

Huff produced the first U of M seal (for

Nev. All of my products are on display at the

Huff says. “As many as 10 movie sets have called

Judicial College.” Huff also attends international

and bought them for courtroom scenes.”

then-Memphis State) when he was still a student.

conventions for elected city, state and national

“Charles Holmes was the PR director at that

officials.

time,” he recalls. “It took a former student, lawyer

While the seals typically are 15 to 24 inches

Huff’s wife Brenda, a CPA, earned her BBA degree from the U of M. His stepson, David Ratton, graduated from the U of M’s Cecil C.

and state senator to get permission to sell them.”

in diameter, the company recently made and

Humphreys School of Law in 2012 and earned

Today he is still creating U of M seals, but he now

installed an eight-foot North Carolina seal in the

his MBA from the Fogelman College of Business

makes them as gifts to give to family and friends

state’s Senate chamber. Most of the seals are a

& Economics.

who have graduated from the University.

poured casting of polyurethane foam. The larger

The state and federal seals hanging in the Law

seals are custom cut from high-density urethane

School were gifts from Huff to Dean Peter Letsou.

foamboard.

“The addition of these beautiful, hand-made seals

In recent years, the fastest growing segment of Huff’s business has been personalizing state Senate and House of Representative seals. “All

“Thirty years ago I would hire the top

to our historic courtroom adds the final touch

politicians have an ego, and the personalized

student artist at the Memphis Academy of Art to

to what is already one of the most beautifully

seals fill that void,” he says. “They have so many

sculpt original seals before making a mold and

restored and historic rooms in our state,” Letsou

certificates on their walls that no one reads them,

pouring the castings,” Huff says. “The advent of a

says. “Mr. Huff was generous enough to offer

but they will notice the seal.”

computer-driven router has taken their job.” Today

his services free of charge as a gesture of how

he has three employees and the casting and

much he and his family care about Memphis Law.

painting are jobbed out.

Knowing that he has created seals like these for

How does he get the business? “By personally showing state seals to the county clerk or judge, our success rate is 95 percent,” Huff

Huff’s seals can even be spotted on the big

courtrooms across the region, I am immensely

says. “There is an extensive ‘grapevine’ in the

screen. Probably the most famous was for The

pleased and proud to have these works of art

judicial community. Judges attend conferences

Fugitive, starring Harrison Ford. “Not many people

displayed in our School.”

as well as the National Judicial College in Reno,

or companies make reproductions of state seals,”

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

CLASS NOTES

1969

David Wade (JD) was selected by MBQ

1977

Diane Ciarloni (BS) is part

magazine as a Power Player among Memphis

Jeff Harrell was promoted

of the Happy Kids-Happy Pets

lawyers in the area of business litigation. He is

to vice president of operations

team whose five boxed sets

a director and shareholder with Martin, Tate,

for Great Southern Corp. He

of collectible cards and CDs

Morrow & Marston and a member of the

has been employed at Great

received the 2014 Family

firm’s litigation section. Wade also is an adjunct

Southern for 28 years, most

Choice Award for best toy in

professor at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of

recently as national sales

Law.

manager.

has 55 cards and a read-along CD designed for

1975

1978

children ages 4 to 9. Each card includes a colorful

Frank R. Holmes (BA) has been elected

Laurie Tucker (BBA, MBA ’83) is co-founder and

picture of a pet and a story “written” by that pet.

to the board of directors for The Woodlands,

chief strategy officer at Calade Partners. She had

Ciarloni also has written animal stories for Chicken

Texas, Chamber of Commerce. He also serves

been senior vice president of corporate marketing

Soup for the Soul and for Listen to the Animals, a

on boards for The Woodlands Economic

at FedEx Services.

multi-volume series produced by Guideposts.

Development Partnership and the Conroe, Texas,

the pet category. The award recognizes the best in children’s and parenting products. Each set

Economic Development Council. He is in his 12th

Melody Weintraub (BA, MAT ’07), art teacher

Allie J. Prescott III (BA, JD ’72) was inducted

year as vice president for university advancement

at Briarcrest Christian School, was named the

into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in May.

at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville,

2014 Middle School Art Educator of the Year by

He is a former Tiger baseball player and former

Texas, and is married to Maria A. Holmes (BA

the Tennessee Art Education Association.

president and CEO of the Memphis Redbirds AAA

’75), who is assistant director for the Honors

baseball team.

College at SHSU.

1979 Mark E. Wiygul (BS) earned his DDS from the

1970

Martin F. Thompson (BBA, JD ’78) and two

University of Tennessee College of Dentistry in

Donald Godwin (MS) was named to D

friends founded the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater

1983 and has practiced general and cosmetic

Magazine’s 2014 list of The Best Lawyers in

Memphis Invitational Tennis Tournament 15

dentistry in East Memphis for 31 years. He is

Dallas. He is chair and CEO of Godwin Lewis, a

years ago. The tournament, now held at four

a fellow of the American College of Dentists,

Texas trial and appellate law firm. This marks the

area country clubs, has raised more than $1.5

has served as president of the Memphis Dental

seventh time Godwin has earned a place on the

million to serve over 4,000 children in the

Society and has been named a Top Dentist by

list.

United States. In 2013 the United States Tennis

Memphis Magazine for six consecutive years.

Association’s Southern Chapter recognized this Ted Rasbach (BBA) retired in 2001 from

charity tournament as Special Event of the Year in

1980

the Valero Refinery after a 21-year career as

Tennessee.

Richard Alan Bunch (JD) authored a new book, Zen Sight and Tangerine Butterflies: New

human resources manager. Since retiring he has served on the city of Bartlett Family Assistance

1976

and Selected Poems. It includes such poems

Commission and is a volunteer on Bartlett’s

Beverly Fisher (BA) is an attorney and the

as “Winter’s Light,” “Sometimes like Anacreon,”

Grievance Review Board. In 2011 Rasbach

author of Grace Among the Leavings, a Civil War

“Beneath a Purple Sky,” “Has My Heart,” “Really,

received the Jefferson Award for public service

novella published in 2013. A play based on the

You Can Rhyme Your Fate,” “Caravan to Arabia,”

and was named the 2014 Volunteer of the Year

book had a stage reading in July at Lincoln’s New

“Fanning You With a White Moon” and “In Hail

for the city of Bartlett.

Salem Historic Site, a reconstruction of the village

and Sleet.” He recently gave a reading in Davis,

where Abraham Lincoln spent his early childhood.

Calif., where he lives. His daughter, Katharine,

1974

is a student in Santa Cruz, Calif., where she is

Carolyn Chism Hardy (BBA, MBA ’87),

Jim Summers (JD) was elected president of the

majoring in biology. His son, Rick, is a student

president and CFO of Chism Hardy Investments,

Tennessee Association of Construction Counsel.

at Sacramento City College and is majoring in

received the Ruby R. Wharton Outstanding

He is an attorney with Allen, Summers, Simpson,

Women Award for business.

Lillie & Gresham.

W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U

* Lambuth University Graduate

FA L L 2 014

49

CLASS NOTES

1991

business with an interest in computer science.

Dr. Walker D. Wright (BBA) received his doctor

Bunch’s wife, Rita, is an assistant dean and chief

of ministry degree in theology and art from

Conrad Pegues (BA, MA

operations officer at the University of California

Memphis Theological Seminary in May. He also

’93) received the Academic

Davis. His website is RichardAlanBunch.com.

earned a master of divinity degree from MTS.

Library Association of Ohio

Wright has pastored White Stone Missionary

Diversity Scholarship. He is

Baptist Church since 1981.

pursuing a master of library and

Dr. David D. Paige (BBA, MAT ’04, EdD ’08) received tenure and was promoted to associate

information science degree

professor in the Annsley Frazier Thornton School

1987

with a specialization in academic libraries at Kent

of Education at Bellarmine University in Louisville.

Beth Stengel (JD), a shareholder with the Evans

State University. Pegues works in the circulation

Petree law firm, is secretary of the Tennessee

department at the Miami University Libraries in

Association of Construction Counsel.

Oxford, Ohio, and aspires to work in an academic

1981 Linda J. Higgins (MA) was appointed to the Tennessee Historical Commission by Gov. Bill

Sue McGuire Adams (MBA)

Haslam. Higgins, who is retired, was elected

was named sales manager of the

Madison County historian in 2007. In 2009 she

Marriott Shoals Hotel & Spa in

co-authored the book Madison County, part of the

Florence, Ala. She is responsible

Images of America series. Higgins is a member of

for business transient, foreign

the West Tennessee Historical Society and had an article published in its 2013 journal.

1985 Ruth Ann Hale (BA) was named director of

library in the South.

1989

and international travel as well as motorcoach accounts. Adams has more than 20 years of sales experience, winning numerous top producer awards.

development and public relations for the Baddour

Ed Bryant (BA) is the new president and

Center in Senatobia, Miss. She previously worked

CEO of the St. Louis Minority Business Council.

as director of media and community relations at

He previously served as vice president of the

Methodist Healthcare for nearly 19 years.

Economic Development Collaborative for the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership.

1986

Before that, he led public affairs and created an

Nancy Hopps McDonald (MFA) was named

award-winning stakeholder engagement program

director of alumni affairs at Blue Mountain College

for Pfizer’s Chesterfield, Mo., research and

in Mississippi. Since 2011, McDonald has served

development facility.

as activities coordinator at the Good Samaritan

Tom Ray (BFA) is senior production manager at Oden, a Memphis company specializing in B2B marketing strategy, design, content development and technology.

1993 Susan Akil Ewing (BBA, MBA ’99) is vice president and director of client services for Sullivan Branding.

Terri Landwehr (MBA) is director of accounting for EdR Collegiate Housing.

Susan Schmidt (BA, MPA ’99) was named president of the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, a national organization committed to strengthening society by enabling a talented, prepared workforce. She previously was campus director of the Alliance program at the U of M and was chair of the Association of Nonprofit Educators.

Society at Fairfield Glade, a retirement community

M.O. Eckel III (BPS), a student

in Crossville, Tenn. She also had a 25-year

at Mississippi College School of

Schmidt served on the Alliance board of directors

teaching career at St. Paul’s Catholic School,

Law, received the Frisby Griffing

and as board secretary before being named vice

Memphis College of Art, Roane State Community

Marble Scholarship given to a

president in 2013.

College and Tennessee Tech University.

second- or third-year student in the top third of the class who

Dr. Donald B. Taylor (BSEd, PhD ’92) was named the eighth president of Cabrini College in Radnor, Pa. He had been provost and chief academic officer at Benedictine University since 2008.

shows potential for outstanding service to the legal profession.

1994 Kirk Caraway (BA, JD ’97) was selected as a “Top-Rated Lawyer in Labor and Employment” by

1990

American Lawyer Media. He is

Robert Stephens (BSEE) was promoted to vice

a partner with Allen, Summers,

president and North America oil and gas lead for

Simpson, Lillie & Gresham.

Capgemini U.S.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

Tapan Shah (MS) was

Sandra Perry (BA) was elected

Philosophy; and Sociology and Criminal Justice;

promoted to partner-principal

to the Executive Committee of

and 40 academic programs, nearly 70 faculty

at the public accounting and

the law firm Bose McKinney

members and 800 majors. He joined the faculty

consulting firm Crowe Horwath,

& Evans for a three-year term.

in the MSUM Philosophy Department in 2003

where he works in risk consulting

Perry, who joined the firm in

after teaching for two years at Humboldt State

2002, is a partner in the Labor

University and one year at Northern Illinois

services. He is based in the company’s Oak Brook, Ill., office and has been

and Employment Group.

with the firm for 18 years. Shah leads the financial

University. He was promoted to professor in 2012 and served as chair of the Philosophy Department

crimes risk system implementation practice where

1998

he has helped several large financial institutions

Ashley Bugg Brown (BFA) played Herod in

implement large, complex anti-money laundering

the Theatre Memphis production of Jesus Christ

Sherrie Hopper (BA, MA ’03) is the chair of

systems.

Superstar.

the Social Studies Department at First Assembly

1995

Jennifer Harrison (BSN, JD ’03) graduated

National History Day coordinator, Rho Kappa

Dr. Kenneth Ward (MS, PhD ’98), professor

from the Loewenberg School of Nursing in 1998

National Honor Society sponsor, and coordinated

and director of the Division of Social and

and from the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law

the first National History Bowl in West Tennessee.

Behavioral Sciences in the U of M’s School of

in 2003. In May she graduated from Temple

She assists in curriculum development and

Public Health, received the 2014 Willard R. Sparks

University’s James E. Beasley School of Law with a

research that has been presented at social

Eminent Faculty Award. His research applies

master’s of law in trial advocacy (LLM).

studies conferences in the U.S. and abroad.

during the 2012-2013 academic year.

Christian School, where she also serves as the

behavioral science to prevent and manage

Hopper is an Advanced Placement reader for the

chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer

Jeanie Rittenberry (BSEd) was named senior

College Board. She also serves on the College

and osteoporosis.

vice president and director of marketing at

of Arts and Sciences Alumni Board and most

FirstBank.

recently was named the Shelby County Historical

1996

Commission’s Top Teacher of 2014 for her work

Robin Hogue-Hughes

1999

(BPS, JD ’01) is an associate

Kell Christie (MFA) directed the Theatre

attorney in the Bartlett office

Memphis production of Jesus Christ Superstar.

of Closetrack. She has more

2000

commercial real estate closing,

Tony Silva (BM, MM ’03, DMA ’08, JD ’08)

1997

the Memphis area. She teaches dual enrollment FACS and is an instructor in the Political Science Department.

was appointed to the board of directors of the Memphis Repertory Orchestra. He practices

Scott Lencke (BA) is operations manager at

immigration law at Donati Law.

Visible Music College.

2001

2003

Maj. Scott Delius (JD) was elected to serve on the

advancement of the FACS history program in government, AP government and history at

than 20 years of residential and title and legal experience.

with the U of M’s History Day program and the

board of governors of the

Dr. Randy Cagle (PhD) was

46,000-member State Bar of

named dean of the College of

Georgia. Delius is an Afghanistan

This Ain’t Chicago: Race, Class and Regional

Humanities and Social Sciences

veteran and serves in the

Identity in the Post-Soul South. She is an assistant

at Minnesota State University

professor of sociology at the U of M.

Georgia Army National Guard. In his civilian

Moorhead. He had been serving

life, he practices law at the Delius Law Firm in

as interim dean. Cagle will

Atlanta, serves on the Georgia Judicial Nominating

oversee a college that includes five departments:

Commission and volunteers for the Fulton County

Economics, Law and Politics; English; History,

Veterans Court.

Languages, Critical Race and Women’s Studies;

W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U

Dr. Zandria Robinson (BA, MA ’05) authored

FA L L 2 014

51

CLASS NOTES

Alan Arnette (BSEE ’79)

– almost. The longtime mountain s of Alzheimer’s disease to the top of world enes awar of age mess his g takin is tte Alan Arne liest mountain in the world. K2 is remote K2, the second highest and second dead climber is attempting to reach the peak of , one has died trying. The climb offers have scaled the northern Pakistan mountain and very steep. For every four climbers who nt and a persistent threat of avalanche. not to mention punishing slopes of 80 perce fewer places to rest than Mount Everest, us for severe storms than can blow to the challenge, and the mountain is famo add n oxyge of lack and de altitu high Extremely ing death, you’re already dead. It’s part of for dealing with fear? “If you live life avoid in without warning. Arnette’s philosophy any extreme sport.” st peak, and has climbed the Seven summited Mount Everest, the world’s highe The Fort Collins, Colo., resident already has Karakoram mountain range as K2. ed Broad Peak, which is part of the same climb has also he K2, for are prep To Summits. exceeds 14,000 feet) and 58 peaks total.

Colorado’s “fourteeners” (a mountain that Since January, Arnette has climbed 12 of us vacationer. Arnette reached the National Park than even the most adventuro He has spent more time in Rocky Mountain vement, on his fourth attempt. summit of Mount Everest, his highest achie research. He lost his mother, Ida, his climbing to Alzheimer’s awareness and ate dedic to e desir his by d fuele is on His passi his job at Hewlett Packard and made osed, Arnette took early retirement from to the disease in 2009. After she was diagn the world’s hardest mountain for the who was in a nursing home. “Why not climb numerous trips to Memphis to care for Ida, world’s hardest disease?” asks Arnette. st by the general public and by the ress on Alzheimer’s and the lack of intere prog of lack the with ated frustr me beco He has on the disease. “Alzheimer’s is a cs and latest developments in the research government. He is well-schooled in the politi , while funding for other diseases is “Funding is in the $500 to $600 million range tsunami that will bankrupt us,” Arnette says. years is astronomical. People think of it as will be getting Alzheimer’s in the coming in the billions. The number of people who ” al part of aging, and it’s not; there is no cure. inevitable. Sixty percent think it’s just a norm imer’s and advocating for more vational speaker, sharing his stories of Alzhe a When he’s not climbing, he works as a moti far, Arnette has raised $150,000 toward along with his adventures in climbing. So research and better treatment of patients, . e.com research at AlanArnett and donate to Alzheimer’s awareness and goal of $1 million. You can follow his climb

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

2004

2009

Brit Fitzpatrick (MA) was named one of

Marcus Washington (BA)

Andrew J. Droke (BM, JD

“20 Young Memphians Who Are Shaping the

is weekend evening anchor at

’13) is an associate with the

City’s Future” by The Memphis Flyer. In 2013

WJZ-TV in Baltimore. He had

law firm of McNabb, Bragorgos

she created MentorMe, an online platform

been a reporter at Nashville’s

& Burgess. During law school,

that connects mentors with mentees by using

CBS affiliate, WTVF-TV, for

he was a member of the

personality profiles to ensure a compatible fit. She

six years. Prior to Nashville,

editorial board of the University

has worked with such organizations as Girls Inc.,

of Memphis Law Review and

Start Co. and the YMCA.

Washington worked as a reporter in Tulsa, Okla., and Charlottesville, Va.

2005 Tara Burton (MBA) is president/CEO of the FedEx Employees Credit Association. She had been chief operating officer at the credit union, which reports 67,000 members.

Nick Furlotte (BS, MS ’08), a statistical geneticist, is doing research for 23andMe, a DNA analysis company in California. He seeks to understand the relationships between disease risk, genetics and lifestyle by looking at gene-

served as a legal extern for Judge Bernice Donald of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Morgan Pettigrew (BA)

Katie Parker (JD), a family law attorney at Boyd

College of Law in May. During law school she was an associate

Collar Nolen & Tuggle in Atlanta, was honored as

with the Shelby County District

a Georgia Rising Star for 2014.

Todd Patten (EdD) was appointed dean for student success at Harding University in Searcy, Ark. He also serves as associate professor of counselor education and chair of university studies at Harding, where he has been for 10 years.

by-environment interactions and finding new

Holly Whitfield (BFA) writes the “I Love

associations between phenotypes. Furlotte earned

Memphis” blog and is the media content

a PhD in computer science from UCLA.

strategist for the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau.

2007

graduated from Mississippi

Attorney’s Office, the city of Memphis Law Division and Regional One Health.

2012 Noelle Brown (BSEd) is serving a 10-month term of national service with FEMA Corps, an AmericaCorps National Civilian Community Corps program. FEMA Corps members travel to disaster-affected communities to offer assistance and support long-term recovery operations.

Since the program was launched, members have responded to disasters such as severe flooding in Colorado, Hurricane Sandy and the tornado in

Victoria Russell (MA) gave a lecture titled

2010

“Caveat Emptor: International Cultural Property

Caryn Desiree “Desi” Dwyer Spellings

and the Law” at the U of M on how the law, art

(BSN, MSN ’14) passed her board certification

and artifacts intersect. The presentation was part

to become a family nurse practitioner in June.

of a symposium which examined the ethical,

She is employed with Methodist Le Bonheur

his infographic “The Sitting Disease” at the Global

Germantown Hospital.

Spa & Wellness Summit held in New Delhi, India.

2011

2014

emotional and legal issues of returning cultural materials to their country of origin. Russell is a student at the Salmon P. Chase College of Law and senior managing editor of the Northern Kentucky Law Review.

2008 Michaela Whitehead (BA, MS ’11), a psychotherapist and Licensed Professional Counselor, joined Cognitive Dynamic Therapy Associates, a group psychology practice in Pittsburgh.

Moore, Okla.

2013 Johnnathan Preyer (BFA) won second place for

Jocelyn Donald (BA), known as Jo’zzy in the

Darrah Hall (BS) spent the

music industry, released her first solo recording

summer on Capitol Hill as part

project, Twenty90s. Since graduation, she has

of the Congressional Coalition

worked as a songwriter collaborating with such

on Adoption Institute’s Foster

artists as Ginuwine, Jamie Foxx, Nate Walka and

Youth Internship Program. The

Trey Songz. Jo’zzy also made an appearance

program allows individuals

at the Memphis Music Foundation as part of

who have spent time in the

its “Backstage Pass” of music industry insider

foster care system with an opportunity to

seminars.

intern in a Congressional office and share their experiences and perspectives with Congressional

She treats adults with trauma and substance

policymakers. She served in the office of Sen. Ron

abuse issues.

Wyden of Oregon.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

ASSOCIATION STAFF

Alumni Association National Executive Board of Directors: Anita Vaughn (BA ’77, MPA ’83), President; Allie Prescott (BA ’69, JD ’72), Past President; Kim Barnett (BA ’95, MBA ’99), Vice President for Membership; Wei Chen (IMBA ’98), Vice President for Communication; Greg Siskin (BBA ’85, MBA ’00), Vice President for Finances; Hon. Robert L. “Butch” Childers (BBA ’71, JD ’74), Vice President for Programs and Events; Dana Gabrion (BA ’98); David Kustoff (BBA ’89, JD ’92); Eric Robertson (BA ’03); Jamie Russell (BBA ’02); Andrew Bailey (BBA ’00, EMBA ’05); Ron Hart (BBA ’81, MBA ’83); Karimeh McDaniel (BA ’02); Angela Craig (BA ’94); John Bomer (BBA ’72); Jim Dean (BSET ’80); Summer Owens (BBA ’01); Robert Stephens (BSEE ’90) Advisers to the Executive Director: John Bobango (JD ’83); Renee DeGutis (BS ’83); Paul Jewell (BA ’78); John Lawrence (BA ’94, MS ’98); John Koski (BA ’88); Deanie Parker (BPS ’77, MPA ’88); Mark Long (BSEE ’85); Jim Strickland (BBA ’86, JD ’89); Cathy Ross (MBA ’82); Hon. Diane Vescovo (JD ’80); Dr. Robert Wright (BS ’77) Club and Chapter Presidents: Arts & Sciences: Mary Anne McCraw (BS ’94, MS ’13); Band: Jeremy Stinson (BA ’02, MAT ’06); Business & Economics: Shannon McDowell (BBA ’01, MS ’02); Communication Sciences and Disorders: Denice Perkins (MA ’84); Education, Health and Human Sciences: Randy McPherson (BSEd ’80, MS ’84, EdD ‘93); Engineering: Eddie White (BSEE ’09, BSCE ’09, MA ’13); Frosh Camp Alumni Club: Justin Hipner (BBA ’97, MBA ’00); Half Century Club: J.B. “Pappy” Latimer (BS ’52); Hispanic Alumni Council: Nestor Rodriguez (BA ’02); International MBA: Daniel Bradford (BBA ’07, IMBA ‘09); Journalism: Chris Sheffield (BA ’90); Kemmons Wilson School: Anthony Petrina (BBA ’10); Lambuth: John Yarbrough (BS ‘72), Madeline McDonald (BS ‘80); Law: Vickie Hardy Jones (JD ’96); Luther C. McClellan: Renee Wills (BBA ’07, MS ‘08); Master of Public Administration: Arnetta Stanton-Macklin (BBA ’90, MPA ’95); Nursing: Collin Johnson (MSN ’10); Professional MBA: J.R. Parsons (PMBA ‘09); Student Ambassador Board: Gabriel Okpah; University of Memphis Association of Retirees: Ginny Reed; University College: Sherri Stephens (BPS ’07); Young Alumni: Cal Overman (BPS ‘11) Out of Town Groups: Atlanta: Don Sparkman (BSEE ’87); New England/Boston: Bob Canfield (BBA ’59); Chicago: Lauren Isaacman (BA ’02, MA ’06), Brittany Miller (BA ’10); Denver: Laura Laufenberg (BBA ’11), Jeremy Taylor (BBA ’01); Houston: Andrew Glisson (BBA ’07); Indianapolis: Larry Messing (BA ’99); Little Rock: Courtney Powell (BS ’10); Minneapolis: Dr. Steven McCullar (BBA ’97); Nashville: Mike Dodd (JD ’01); New York City: Meagan Ratliff (BSEd ‘08); Orlando: Alex Shipman (BA ’07, MBA ‘10); St. Louis: Ashlee Roberts (BA ‘08); Washington D.C.: Michelle Whyte (BA ‘01) Alumni Staff: Associate Vice President, Alumni and Constituent Relations & Executive Director, Alumni Association: Tammy Hedges; Director: Joe Biggers; Assistant Directors: Holly Snyder (BA ’09, MA ‘13), Terez Wilson (BSEd ’08); Alumni Coordinators: Marina Barrett (BSEd ’11, MALS ‘13), Brandon Hoyer, Shannon Miller (BA ’98), Kaylee Heathcott Pierce, Jacki Rodriguez (BA ’03) Alumni Administrative Staff: Monique Udell (BPS ‘13), Ben Zawacki

Greetings from up!

C d l r o W e th Tiger fans Walter Rose and Casey Lissau of Memphis sent this photo from a pregame American Outlaws party during their World Cup trip to Natal, Brazil, this summer. “The best part of the trip was obviously the U.S.A. vs. Ghana match,” says Lissau. “From the singing of the national anthem with 10,000plus U.S. supporters, to the celebration of John Brooks’ game-winning header, it was the type of game you’ll never forget.” The U.S. beat Ghana 2-1 with the go-ahead goal in the 86th minute. The Outlaws is a national organization whose goal is to support the U.S. team at home and abroad.

(Been somewhere interesting? Send your travel photo along with details of your trip to editor Greg Russell at grussll@memphis.edu.)

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IN MEMORIAM

The University of Memphis Alumni Association expresses sympathy to the families and friends of these individuals:

ALUMNI (Listed alphabetically by decades) 1940s-50s Garland H. Allen ’59, June ’14 Dr. James Louis Alston Jr. ’43, May ’14 Roy James Barnes ’58, Jan. ’14 Mary Evelyn Farrar Bond ’40, ’58, Feb. ’14 Gisela Mendel Booth ’53, April ’14 Ruby Nell Brewer ’55, Feb. ’14 Betty Grace Dunn Bulle* ’55, Dec. ’13 Dr. William E. Burkett ’51, July ’13 Richard H. Carter ’55, Dec. ’13 Bettye J. Clissold* ’53, April ’14 Edna Adams Curry ’59, Dec. ’13 Millard Davis ’55, Dec. ’13 Alta Gray Freeman* ’56, March ’14 Charles Randolph Gillespie ’59, May ’14 Nancy McCluney Grogan ’51, March ’14 Laurin Janet Hagen ’58, March ’14 James D. Hallmark ’59, Dec. ’13 Stephen Ray Harris ’59, May ’14 Donald A. Heinz ’58, May ’14 James Arnold Jarboe ’49, Feb. ’14 Barbara Kouns ’55, ’67, Jan. ’14 John Wesley Lawson ’58, April ’14 Harlon Jerome Lett* ’40, Dec. ’13 Benjamin Reed Mabe ’59, April ’14 Nancy Jean McLeary* ’48, June ’14 Frank Lewis McRae ’52, ’64, May ’14 Charles Francis Mohler ’47, May ’14` Marshall W. Moriarty ’55, Jan. ’14 Frances Weaver Neisler* ’46, Jan. ’14 William Louis Pankey ’52, Dec. ’13 Kathryn Louise Rodgers Abernathy Speer ’58, Jan. ’14 Catherine Howard Thomason ’55, April ’14 Clinton Murphy Williams ’55 May ’14 Andrew Fred Willis ’50, Feb. ’14 Freddie Wayne Wood ’53, ’57, May ’14 1960s-70s Paul Penney Anderson ’77, ’78, Jan. ’14 Sister Nardine Aquadro ’77, Dec. ’13 Linda Lee Austin ’74, ’77, ’84, ’92, June ’14 Florence Joy Batte ’68, Dec. ’13 John Faye Bellew ’67, ’74, April ’14 Drue D. Birmingham Jr. ’64, May ’14 Joseph Patrick Blankinship ’72, ’85, Jan. ’14 William Bryant Bretherick II ’62, ’63, Dec. ’13 Randall Lee Britton ’73, ’78, Jan. ’14 Roger Stephen Brown ’79, Dec. ’13 Otilla Kay Bungard ’72, May ’14 Rubye Mae Williams Carlile ’65, ’67, Feb. ’14 David Wilson Carlisle ’63, Dec. ’13 Donald Clements ’64, ’66 Jan. ’14 Randy Morris Cole ’70, March ’14 Dr. Marguerite Cooper ’68, ’74, July ’14 Clifford C. Councille ’65, May ’14 Drury Browne Crawley III ’65, March ’14 56

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* Lambuth University graduate

John George Dando ’73, March ’14 Fred Lee Davis III ’64, ’67, Jan. ’14 Margaret Lee Davis ’74, Feb. ’14 Mary McClintock Davis ’68, April ’14 Ellen Nash Devore ’62, March ’14 Carolyn Dobbs ’63, Feb. ’14 Jane Stephens Dutcher ’65, March ’14 George Goodloe Early Jr. ’65, March ’14 Richard Boling Faulk ’72, March ’14 Max Foner ’63, June ’14 Eugene Michael Frulla ’79, ’93, April ’14 William Percy Galbreath ’73, Jan. ’14 Philip D. Giberson ’70, March ’14 Veda Kay Glover* ’70, March ’13 William Gray Jr. ’72, March ’14 Helen McNeil Hicks ’65, June ’14 James F. Hicks ’67, Feb. ’14 Richard Kevin Howarth* ’74, ’78, June ’14 Edward Wayne Hudspeth ’73, June ’14 William Thomas Hutton ’68, March ’14 Thomas Frederick Jenkins Jr. ’74, Feb. ’14 Jack Delmar Johnston ’67, Jan. ’14 Donald Gray Jones ’63, April ’14 Helen C. Kain ’75, April ’14 Gloria McCormick Larkin ’73, April ’14 Geraldine Peeler Mann ’66, March ’14 Hill Howard Massengill ’64, April ’14 Vernon Raymond McGarity ’71, May ’14 Clyde E. Middleton ’64, Feb. ’14 Fred W. Middleton ’66, Jan. ’14 Douglas Eugene Mills ’70, April ’14 James Larry Page ’61, ’71, Jan. ’14 Carla Hicks Parker ’67, March ’14 Jimmy Petty ’61, Feb. ’14 Robert Lynn Putman ’67, ’88, Dec. ’13 Frances Newell Underwood Reeder ’67, ’72, Dec. ’13 Truett A. Ricks ’65, ’67, March ’14 Billy D. Robbins ’78, March ’14 Robert Gilbert Rodgers* ’60, Dec. ’13 C.L. “Buck” Rogers ’76, Feb. ’14 Charles Edward Runyon ’74, Jan. ’14 Albert Donato Santi ’67, May ’14 Margaret Shelton* ’72, ’94 Dec. ’13 Jerry Wayne Simpson ’73, Dec. ’13 David A. Skaarer ’68, May ’14 Cecil Douglas Smith ’63, ’68, Jan. ’14 Robert Thomas Swindell ’61, April ’14 Larry L. Taylor ’61, Dec. ’13 Wilmoth Fant Trezevant ’67, ’76, May ’14 Terry Lee Trice ’60, March ’14 Kennel Venson ’69, March ’14 Janet Paul Vogelsberg ’75, March ’14 Charlie Mae Smith Ware ’70, Feb. ’14 Brandon Warner ’68, June ’14 Frank Armstrong Watson ’68, Dec. ’13 Frank Stegall Wesson ’62, May ’14 Carol Calaway Wilson ’67, ’73, Jan. ’14 Perry Andrew Wilson ’74, March ’14 James C. Zapalac ’70, ’71, Jan. ’14 1980s-90s Chris Adams ’83, Feb. ’14 Watis Anderson ’81, Dec. ’13 James Winthrop Banning ’80, Feb. ’14

David Barger Jr. ’90, June ’14 Gary Lee Barker ’96, Dec. ’13 Regina Marie Bell-Sacre ’96, May ’14 Geraldine Bowden Blackburn ’90, April ’14 Michael Burns ’83, Dec. ’13 Grant Bailey Caldwell ’94, April ’14 Larry Barkley Creson ’93, Jan. ’14 Jeffrey Mark Crews ’85, Jan. ’14 Marilyn Kay Gaines ’90, Feb. ’14 Susan Houston Goetz ’87, Feb. ’14 Gary Len Groce ’88, March ’14 William Kenneth Harvey ’84, June ’14 Jon Roger Hudson ’92, March ’14 Kenneth Neil Jackson ’96, June ’14 Charles Lee Jones Jr. ’92, Feb. ’14 Carolyn Mitchell Kittle ’80, ’89, March ’14 David Andrew Lail ’88, Feb. ’14 Elizabeth Irene Barnette Lamport* ’84, Feb. ’14 Lawrence Perilloux Levet Jr. ’93, Jan. ’14 Mary Ann McKeating ’94, Feb. ’14 Marchell Malin McNevin ’82, April ’14 Marjorie M. Nevin ’86, Dec. ’13 Lori Lee Noreman ’85, May ’14 Terry Thomas Owen ’87, May ’14 James Arthur Ritchie ’86, May ’14 Lloyd Franklin Shook ’82, March ’14 David Clark Spain ’93, Jan. ’14 Joey Lee Blackburn Starnes ’94, April ’14 Joe Michael Stinnett Jr. ’96, April ’14 Sondra Hopkins Sutton ’81, Jan. ’14 Stephen Kyle Tapp ’90, April ’14 David Allen Taylor ’81, April ’14 Donna L. Wagner ’97, Feb. ’14 Norma Jean Stange Wallace* ’95, Jan. ’14 Ann Marie Early Walsh ’84, Feb. ’14 Sheila Molly Becker Williams ’93, ’95, ’98, ’04, March ’14 2000s Melanie Denise Bruce Collins ’02, Feb. ’14 David Michael Discenza ’01, Feb. ’14 Joseph Tyler Gibson ’11, March ’14 Adam Hairston, Aug. ’14 Jordan Llewellyn John ’13, Jan. ’14 William Harley Melton ’02. Jan. ’14 Michael Alexander Petrina ’12, May ’14 Lee Wayne Turner ’13, Jan. ’14 Cathryn Rebecca Walker ’13, April ’14 Janice Marie Washington ’00, Feb. ’14 Faculty/Staff Dr. G. Douglas “Doug” Mayo ’39, April ’14 Sue Scull McDermott ’86, May ’14 Larry R. Petersen, May ’14 Bessie Mary Wiley, April ’14 Friends Jane Perry Cremer, May ’14 Henry Harvey Hancock, May ’14 Dena Thaxton Huffman, March ’14 Martha Hunt Robertson Huie, May ’14 Janet Mildred Tadlock Jennings, Jan. ’14 Virginia Claire Hays Klettner, May ’14 Stella Menke, March ’14 Talmadge Tolson, April ’14 THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

M

Matters

BERSHI M E P

DEANIE PARKER BPS ’77, MPA ’88

University of Memphis Alumni Association Life Member • Retired President and CEO, Soulsville • Past President of the Alumni Association National Executive Board of Directors and past member of the Board of Visitors • A former Stax recording artist • Executive Director of the Emmy-winning film project “I Am A Man” • A Center for Research on Women selection for ‘100 Women who Made a Difference to the University of Memphis’ • Member of the Empowering The Dream Centennial Cabinet • U of M donor and University community philanthropist

Awards include: • 2012 Featured Speaker for the Black History Month’s Closing Ceremonies • 2012 Alumni Centennial Processional Delegate • 2010 Eye Of The Tiger • 2006 Distinguished Alumna Award recipient • 2008 Journalism Outstanding Alumna Award recipient • 2003 University College Outstanding Alumna Award recipient • Women of Achievement Award for Initiative • Public Relations Society of America’s Memphis Communicator of the Year Award • Diversity Memphis Humanitarian of the Year Award

BECOME AN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION MEMBER TODAY. Stay connected and network with other graduates and friends of our beloved University.

A single membership is only $35 per year.

Visit memphis.edu/alumni or call 901.678.ALUM.

A Tennessee Board of Regents Institution An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action University

The University of Memphis Division of Communications, Public Relations and Marketing 303 Administration Building Memphis, Tennessee 38152-3370

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