2006, Fall

fall 2006

taking The

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A l u m n i

A s s o c i a t i o n

UNM ALUMNI EMBRACE THEIR COMMUNITIES + THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOMECOMING 2006

take a look

unm

Looking at:

contents 14 Children First BY

LAURIE

MELLAS

The founder of PB and J Family Services, Angie Vachio has dedicated

On the Cover:

her career to bettering children’s lives bettering.

Angie Vachio, ’75 MA, ’02 HOND,

22 Schools at the Center

says society must put children’s needs

BY

GREG

JOHNSTON

first. Here she plays with a child on the

Highland High School principal Nicki Dennis believes the heart

premises of PB and J Family Services,

of community improvement lies in our schools.

the agency she founded on behalf of children and their families. Photo by

26 Doctor to the World The founder of UNM’s primary care program Warren Heffron believes

Nick Layman.

that what works for rural New Mexico works for the rest of the world.

BY

VAN

DORN

HOOKER

38 From Flip Flops to Earthquakes Juan Morales’ extraordinary poems find their way to print.

SARI

KROSINSKY

Nick Layman

BY

Simply two much! In 1947, the UNM yearbook featured seven sets of twins. We follow them up.

BY

TERRY

GUGLIOTTA

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Fall 2006, Volume 25, Number 1, THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO, David Harris, Acting President: Karen A. Abraham, Associate Vice President, Alumni Relations; UNM ALUMNI ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Roberto Ortega, President, Albuquerque; Lillian Montoya-Real, President-Elect, Santa Fe; John Garcia, Treasurer; Angie Vachio, Past President, Albuquerque; Gene Baca, Corrales; Hilary Noskin, Albuquerque; Ruth Schifani, Albuquerque; Judy Zanotti, Albuquerque MIRAGE is published three times a year, in April, August, and December, by the University of New Mexico Alumni Association for the University’s alumni and friends.

Address all correspondence to UNM Alumni Relations Office, MSC 01-1160, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM 87131-0001. Send all Album information to the attention of Margaret Weinrod. Send all changes of address to the attention of Records. Send all other correspondence to the attention of Mary Conrad. To comply with the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, UNM provides this publication in alternative formats. If you have special needs and require an auxiliary aid or service, please contact Mary Conrad. Phone: 800-258-6866 (800-ALUM-UNM) or 505-277-5808. E-mail to Mary Conrad: mconrad@unm.edu or alumni@unm.edu. Web address: www.unmalumni.com

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Nick Layman

30 Twinning Combinations

letters to the editor

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18 Broken Windows & Stained Glass BY

MARY

CONRAD

The Dean of St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Father John Bakas applies his vision and charisma to turning his Los Angeles neighborhood around.

Looking Around: 3 Letters to the Editor 4 Connections

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5 Album 8 Fire at Zimmerman!

BY

TERRY

GUGLIOTTA

A first person reaction to the spring fire that destroyed a section of Zimmerman Library and shocked the campus.

of the University of

10 Athletics, Meet Academics BY

until its last edition in 1978. Since that time, the title was adopted by the alumni magazine which continues to publish vignettes of UNM graduates.

C A R O LY N

GONZALES

UNM’s new athletic director, Paul Krebs, puts Lobo sports and his vision of athletics into perspective.

34 Development: One Woman’s Generosity Promotes Others’ Success BY

MICHELLE

I

received my copy of Mirage today and was disturbed by some of the statements in the article. They show a complete lack of knowledge about the dates of WW I, 1914-1918, and the purpose of Memorial Day. Memorial Day was originally Decoration Day and was a day to decorate the graves of originally Civil War veterans and later veterans of all wars. It was never a day to mark significant events in the life of UNM. I guess this is a further statement of the status of UNM education and the state of knowledge of current UNM graduates.

I hope you look these things up and educate yourself about these events.

Lawrence A. Stebleton, ‘90 MA Albuquerque

Editor: By re-reading the references you make in context, you may find the story accurate.

Silko Legacy

T

Mirage was the title

New Mexico yearbook

Historic Reference

G.

McRUIZ

Jean Mullins Macey’s legacy lives in the success of the women she encouraged at UNM.

36 Alumni Outlook 39 Merchandise Lobo Hoodies and Sweatpants and Caps, Oh My!

Look At This!

hank you for publishing the interview of Leslie Marmon Silko in the last issue of Mirage. I was her student at UNM when she had published, or was about to publish, Ceremony in the mid ’70s. Our class was “The Oral Tradition” and we were only a handful of students. I have often reflected fondly on that experience, remembering it as one of the best classes in my college days.

Silko had us read O’Connor, Faulkner, Momaday, Anaya, Williams, and others.

While I grew up in a family of readers in New England, and probably would have read some of these writers without Professor Silko’s class, I am forever grateful for the context in which she put them, their common theme (or voice), and the love of her craft she so ably demonstrated. In a way, she helped define my years in New Mexico and I will always be grateful.

Again, thank you for showing us where she has been and what she has done.

Thomas R. Murphy, ’78 BA Ipswich, Massachusetts

This issue of Mirage includes a special pull-out schedule for UNM Homecoming 2006. Save it and join us!

The University of New Mexico

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new connections Three at the Helm: A three-person UNM management leadership team has been named by the Board of Regents. David Harris, acting president and chief operating officer; Reed Dasenbrock, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs; and Paul Roth, executive vice president for health sciences, will serve on an interim basis until a permanent president is named in the spring of 2007. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001177.html#more Seekers: Three regents lead

the UNM presidential search committee: Raymond Sanchez, chair; Sandra Begay-Campbell; and Mel Eaves. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001172.html#more Med Head: Professor Mary Lipscomb

has been appointed executive dean of the UNM School of Medicine.

Since coming to UNM as chair of the department of pathology in 1996, Lipscomb has a long list of accomplishments. One of the most notable is leading a group of pathology and internal medicine faculty in a winning proposal for a National Institutes of Health-funded Specialized Center of Research in Asthma, one of only eight in the country. http://hscapp.unm.edu/calendar/output/ index.cfm?fuseaction=main.release& EntryID=4952 Library Leader: Associate dean of

University Libraries Fran Wilkinson has been appointed interim dean of University Libraries. She will replace University Libraries Dean Camila Alire who announced her retirement effective July 1, 2006. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001250.html#more

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has been named the new interim executive director of the UNM-Taos Branch. She was a full-time assistant professor of psychology and academy head for Professions and Liberal Arts at UNM-Taos.

Cell and Tell: UNM was one of 20 universities to receive basic research grants through the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative. The $3.5 million grant was awarded to UNM and its collaborators to conduct research on enzymatic fuel cells.

http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001250.html#more

http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001095.html#more

research connections

Counseling Matters: UNM’s Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addiction was one of 11 sites nationwide to participate in the COMBINE study, supported by the National Institutes of Health. The study found that the medication naltrexone and up to 20 sessions of alcohol counseling by a behavioral specialist are equally effective treatments for alcohol dependence when delivered with structured medical management.

Taos Boss: Catherine M. O’Neill

Sky Monsters: Astronomers at

UNM and other researchers using the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array radio telescope have found the closest pair of supermassive black holes ever discovered in the Universe — a duo of monsters that together are more than 150 million times more massive than the sun and closer together than the earth and the bright star Vega. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001219.html#more Diabetes Direction: A research

collaboration between the departments of cell biology and physiology and surgery within the School of Medicine may lead physicians across the nation to change diabetic treatment from the outset of diagnosis. Arup Das, division chief for ophthalmology, and Paul McGuire, chair of the department of cell biology and physiology, recently received a three-year, $495,000 grant from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to study how proteinases can affect the vascular leakage that occurs in diabetic retinas. http://hscapp.unm.edu/calendar/output/ index.cfm?fuseaction=main.release& EntryID=4804

http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001220.html#more Cancer Prevention: UNM’s Cancer

Research and Treatment Center recently concluded its participation in one of the largest breast cancer prevention trials ever conducted. http://hscapp.unm.edu/calendar/output/ index.cfm?fuseaction=main.release& EntryID=4969 El Niño y el Agua: A recent article

by the Geological Society of America featuring the research of earth and planetary sciences professor Peter Fawcett and former graduate student Peter Castiglia presents evidence that El Niño-mediated winter storms are more important than previously suspected for controlling moisture availability in the US-Mexico borderlands region. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001054.html#more

honorable connections Honor Bright: Jean Claude-Diels,

professor of physics and astronomy and electrical and computer engineering, delivered the University’s 51st Annual Research Lecture in April. The title of the lecture was “Laser Light: Sensing nano changes with the lightest touch, and creating power threads in light tunnels— a Prometheus’ destiny.” http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001169.html#more Healthy and Happy: Health education professor William Kane has received two recent honors. The American Association for Health Education established The William Kane Scholarship for outstanding undergraduate students majoring in health education. The American College of Preventive Medicine also honored him for outstanding leadership.

Prost! Two UNM faculty

members have been awarded guest professorships at Humboldt University in Berlin. Art and art history professor David Craven and associate professor of German studies Susanne Baackmann received the Spring 2007 Rudolf Arnheim professorship in art history and cultural studies. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001047.html#more Judged Excellent: The New Mexico Law Review honored law professor Jim Ellis with an Excellence in Jurisprudence award for legal professionals who have made outstanding contributions to legal scholarship and the practice of law in New Mexico. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001089.html#more

http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001043.html#more

Geo Fellow: Earth and planetary sciences professor John W. Geissman is one of 45 newly elected Fellows to the American Geophysical Union. Fellows of AGU have attained acknowledged eminence in the Earth and space sciences.

Lauded Landscaper: UNM professor

http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001110.html#more

Bruce Milne received the 2006 Distinguished Landscape Ecologist Award, the most prestigious honor bestowed by the US Chapter of the International Association for Landscape Ecology. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001214.html#more Pub Ad Exec: Regent’s Professor of

Public Administration Mario Rivera was recently appointed to the Executive Council of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001052.html#more

Texty Title: UNM law professor Marsha Baum’s book, Internet Surf and Turf Revealed: The Essential Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Finding Media, has been selected for the 2006 “Texty” Textbook Excellence Award by the Text and Academic Authors Association.

http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001194.html#more Davalos Decorated: Retired athletic director Rudy Davalos was recently honored with the 2006 Dr. Albert C. Yates Distinguished Service Award bestowed upon an individual who has successfully supported, promoted, and exemplified the ideals of the Mountain West Conference. http://golobos.cstv.com/genrel/ 042406aaa.html

album compiled by Margaret Weinrod.

Look for a friend on every page!

Keep us posted!

Send your news to Margaret Weinrod The University of New Mexico Alumni Association MSC 01-1160 1 University of New Mexico Albuquerque NM 87131-0001. www.unmalumni.com/community Better yet, e-mail your news to mweinrod@unm.edu.

Fall (August) deadline: May 1 Winter (December) deadline: September 1 Spring (April) deadline: January 1 Theo Crevenna, ’43 BA, ’45 MA, is the recipient of the Orden Mexicana del Aguila Azteca, the highest award given by the Mexican government to a foreigner. The award recognizes his lifetime of service for the interests of the Hispanic community, especially Mexican nationals.

Tom Erhard, ’50 MA, ’60 PhD, was recently inducted into the New Mexico State University Athletics Hall of Fame in recognition of his 30 years as the public address voice for Aggie football and men’s basketball. He retired from NMSU in 1991 as professor emeritus in theatre arts and English. Tom lives in Las Cruces.

Grace Fink, ’58 BSHP, has been elected president of Lakewood on Parade. Her family was honored as the Grand Marshal of the event in 1990. She lives in Lakewood, Colorado.

John Córdova, ’61 BS, is a newly elected board member of the UNM Foundation.

John is owner and president of Hirst Córdova Public Relations in Albuquerque where he works as a senior counselor. He also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council for University Libraries and is past chairman of the board of trustees of UNM Hospital.

William Seager, ’61 MS, had an exhibit of his landscape paintings in Las Cruces last fall. He retired in 1998 from NMSU after 33 years as a geology professor. An avid hiker, he draws upon the Chihuahuan desert as a source for his subject matter.

Arthur E. Wright Jr., ’61 MA, ’65 PhD, (aka Brother Gregory Wright, FSC) is still a visiting professor of history at De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines.

Walter L. Baumgardner, ’62 BSPE, is now semi-retired as a partner with the law firm of Musilli, Baumgardner & Parnell, PC in Dearborn, Michigan, and has become of counsel. He also retired from the Naval Reserve in 1989 as the commanding officer of the Panama Canal. f a l l

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funding connections

media connections

Right Writing: A $30,000 grant from

Top Ranks: The UNM School of Medicine ranks second in the nation for its Rural Medicine Program for the 12th consecutive year in the latest issue of US News & World Report’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools.” Its Family Medicine Program ranks seventh— this is the 16th consecutive year it has placed in the top 10.

Additionally, UNM’s Primary Care curriculum is ranked No. 25.

Five UNM engineering programs are listed in the rankings.

the National Writing Project has been awarded to UNM to establish the High Desert Writing Project, an opportunity for Albuquerque-area teachers to participate in summer and school year programs focused on improving writing skills. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001045.html#more Small Town Design: The National

Council of Architectural Registration Boards has awarded the Design Planning Assistance Center in the UNM School of Architecture and Planning a $7,500 prize for the center’s submission, “Small Town Urbanism: The Main Street Studios.”

http://hscapp.unm.edu/calendar/output /index.cfm?fuseaction=main.release& EntryID=4843 http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001226.html#more

http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001192.html#more

To UNM Alumni and Friends living in New Mexico

this is a call to action Vote for your University of New Mexico Vote for higher education in New Mexico Vote for 2006 Bond B for Education November 7 (absentee voting begins Oct. 10; early voting begins Oct. 21) UNM projects in 2006 Bond B for Education include: • Main campus: $14.5 million for Math and Science building, HSC Education building and College of Education building.

• Branches: $2 million for UNM-Gallup technology center; $600,000 for UNM-Los Alamos lecture hall and instructional facilities; $400,000 for UNM-Taos career technical multipurpose facility; and $1 million for UNM-Valencia facility improvements.

If approved by New Mexico voters, Bond B will provide $118,360,000 for needed capital improvements in New Mexico’s public colleges and universities. The bond is funded by property taxes and its cost will be approximately $.45 per thousand dollars of the taxable value of property.

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Numero Nueve, 13, 19: Hispanic

Outlook in Higher Education featured UNM prominently in its annual lists of top 100 colleges for Hispanics. UNM ranks No. 9 for awarding doctoral degrees to Hispanics, No. 19 for master’s degrees, and No. 13 for bachelor’s degrees. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001236.html#more

student connections Outstanding in the Court! The

UNM School of Law outperformed 29 moot court teams from across the US to earn the 2006 Hispanic National Bar Association’s Moot Court Competition. The team, including members Denise Chanez, Elaine Lujan, and Damian Lara, is the first at UNM to win the national title, which includes a championship prize of $4,000 in scholarship funding. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001109.html#more Going for the Goldwater: Two

UNM students, Aaron Brooks and Katie Liberatore, were selected for the coveted Goldwater Scholarships from a nationwide field of more than 1,000 applicants. The two University Honors Program students were chosen based on their academic excellence, research experience, and potential to contribute to their fields. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001161.html#more Up and Playing: Three students in

UNM’s Dramatic Writing Program received Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards during the 2006 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival: playwrights Lou Clark, Terry Davis, and Rebecca Orchant. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001147.html#more

Make Theirs a Double! For the

second consecutive year, a team of MBA students from the Anderson Schools of Management won the 2006 national Cadillac Case Study Competition. The team presented a plan to market the Cadillac Escalade sport utility vehicle to women 35 and older. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001252.html#more http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albu querque/stories/2006/06/05/daily4.html Best Laid Plan: Satyrne

Biotechnologies, a company focused on cranio maxillofacial surgery products and simulation software, took home the Michael Gallegos Prize for Entrepreneurship, totaling $25,000, in UNM’s first-ever campus-wide Technology Business Plan competition. Team members Ryan Smith and Scott Lovald are graduate students in management at the Anderson Schools and manufacturing engineering respectively.

president, UNM Board of Regents; NCAA senior vice president; and honoree Rudy Davalos.

Tom Jernstedt,

miscellaneous connections Big Time Send Off: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson delivered the keynote address at UNM’s spring commencement. Former Congressman Manuel Lujan Jr., former UNM President John Perovich, and Jicarilla language linguist Wilhelmina Phone received honorary degrees. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001221.html#more New Nurses: The UNM College of

Nursing conferred an all-time high of nursing degrees this semester with 66 basic students receiving their degree, more than double the usual.

http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001170.html#more

http://hscapp.unm.edu/calendar/output/ index.cfm?fuseaction=main.release& EntryID=4958

Selected for Salt Lake: UNM landscape

Go West, ASM! In anticipation of

architecture master’s student Shafee Jones-Wilson was one of only 15 students selected from a nationwide field of 250 to participate in a summer internship and planning charrette to tackle downtown visioning for Salt Lake City. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001199.html#more

building connections Big Time Start: Local and national

dignitaries were on hand for the dedication ceremonies for the Rudy Davalos Basketball Center in April. Featured speakers included New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson; David Harris, acting UNM president; Jamie Koch,

a planned west-side campus for UNM, Anderson Schools of Management Dean Chuck Crespy announced that ASM will launch the first UNM west side degree program this September. The Professional Master of Business Administration will closely mirror Anderson’s popular Executive MBA program. The inaugural classes will be hosted by Intel Corporation on their Rio Rancho campus. http://www.unm.edu/~market/ cgi-bin/archives/001068.html#more

album Nasario Garcia, ’62 BA, ’63 MA, recently received the Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association for his 18th book, Old Las Vegas: Hispanic Memories of the New Mexico Meadowlands (Texas Tech University Press). Nasario lives in Santa Fe. Charles Atkinson, ’63 BFA, of Columbus, Ohio, has been elected president of the American Musicological Society beginning in November.

Van Gilbert, ’64 BAFA, ’71 MARC, received the School of Architecture and Planning Distinguished Alumni Award last fall. He was honored for his work as chair of the school’s capital campaign cabinet and his work as president of the Dean’s Council.

He lives in Albuquerque.

Carl Alongi, ’65 BABA, has been elected to the UNM Foundation Board. Carl is a co-founder and shareholder of the Albuquerque-based accounting firm Pulakos & Alongi.

Donald H. Leach, ’65 BA, ’67 MA, recently retired after 36 years as a vocational rehabilitation counselor with the State of Michigan. He and his wife, Marie, reside in Troy, Michigan.

Guy Myslivy, ’67 BABA, is the new senior vice president of ITS Noesis Business Unit and will oversee its day-to-day operations.

He lives in Oxnard, California.

Félix D. Almaráz, Jr., ’68 PhD, was inducted into the Colégio Coahuilense de Investigaciones Históricas in recognition of his scholarship in Borderlands and Texas History. The Texas State Historical Association published Tejano Epic: Essays in Honor of Félix D. Almaráz, Jr. He lives in San Antonio.

James Ellis, ’68 BABA, has recently been elected to the UNM Foundation board of directors. Ellis is the senior executive director of Global Initiatives at the University of Southern California and is the former vice dean of USC’s Marshall School of Business.

He lives in San Marino, California.

Stephen Part, ’68 BA, ’84 MA, has been awarded a Glider Lehrman summer seminar at Columbia University in NYC. Stephen is chair of the social studies department at La Cueva High School in Albuquerque.

Henry M. Rivera, ’68 BA, ’73 JD, is included in the 2007 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, in the specialty of communications law. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.

Alfred Chavez, ’68 BABA, is now university auditor at the University of San Diego after spending 25 years directing internal audit programs at the University System of Maryland and at UNM. Patricia Madrid, ’69 BA, ’73 JD, New Mexico’s Attorney General, has received the Governor’s Award as one f a l l

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CLEAN-UP BEGINS: After the fire investigation, the first job was to remove wet carpet, melted shelving, and other debris from the east basement of Zimmerman library, so the salvage operation could begin.

fire at Zimmerman S T O R Y A N D P H O T O S B Y T E R R Y G U G L I O T T A

A fire in Zimmerman library this spring shocked and saddened the UNM campus.

University archivist Terry Gugliotta, whose office is in Zimmerman, shares her reaction.

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Like many people, I awoke the morning of May 1, turned on the news, and got ready for work. A report of a fire at Zimmerman Library stopped me in my tracks. It had broken out in the periodicals area of the basement the night before at 10:50. Quick action by library staff had cleared patrons out. Despite arriving within minutes of the fire alarms, firefighters had crawled on their bellies with water hoses to find the source of the flames because the smoke was so thick.

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In the coming weeks, fire investigators and administrators assessed the situation. The damage was severe and widespread, with smoke reaching every corner of the building, coating everything with a layer of soot. The library would not reopen for the remainder of the semester. Employees were sent elsewhere to work and arrangements were made for students to have books retrieved. Interlibrary loan requests tripled. It was, after all, finals week.

A skeleton crew moved back into the building. Since the fire had damaged wiring, remaining fire alarms were not reliable and the fire marshal mapped out fire watch zones to be staffed by employees.

Two companies specializing in different aspects of cleanup arrived.

First, the unsalvageable burned, melted, and wet materials were removed by shovel and wheelbarrow. Next, the building was systematically cleaned, from top to bottom. The original John Gaw Meem (west) portion of the building only received a light dusting of soot, but it too was cleaned, from the WPA hand-carved ceiling beams to the slate floors. The nine-story tower received the same level of care. In 13 days approximately 130 microfiche/microfilm cabinets and 13,000 boxes of serials were packed and shipped to Texas for cleaning. Large portions of the building were treated overnight with ozone to remove smoke odors.

On a visit to my darkroom and office in the basement three weeks into the process, I was escorted into the area where the fire originated. I was not prepared for what I saw.

album The smell is hard to describe— burned, but different from a campfire.

The ceiling was gone. Only the concrete structure was left. The fire had evaporated the wiring, conduit, and air ducts. White paint was missing from parts of the walls and burned brown in others. Light fixtures were melted and had dripped onto books. Books that were once blue were now partially brown, caught at the edge of the fire’s reach. Strong steel shelving leaned 45 degrees with books still perfectly shelved in call number order. Study carrels were reduced to four metal legs. The heat had been so intense that it had melted the rubber out of a doorstop a hundred feet past my office.

I closed my eyes and imagined the roar of the fire, the 2000 degree heat, the sight of things melting and burning, the brave men and women rushing in to save our building and books. It was too loud, too hot, too choking. It wasn’t like television.

of the Top 20 Outstanding Women of New Mexico from the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women.

P I L L A R T O P O S T: Fire ravaged the library’s east basement, destroying the ceiling, wiring, conduit, and air ducts.

Karen Bickel Sunde, ’69 BA, ’95 PhD, was recently honored by her students at Central New Mexico Community College (formerly TVI) who inducted her into the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society in recognition of her dedication, service, and academic accomplishment. She lives in Rio Rancho.

Henry Eisenhart, ’70 BUS, ’79 PhD, is a professor and chair of the School of Hospitality, Tourism, and Family & Consumer Sciences at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. He recently returned from Brazil where he has been working with the organizers of the Pan American Games (Rio de Janeiro, 2007).

Paul Murray, ’70 BFA, was awarded the 2006 Best of Show Award of more than 3200 entries worldwide in the Pastel Journal magazine’s Top 100 contest. His winning painting was of the Grand Canyon, and his Sandia Mountain painting, “Glow,” was published on the magazine’s cover in April. His studio is in La Cienega, New Mexico. He is represented by Weems Galleries in Albuquerque and Brazos Fine Art Gallery in Taos.

Virginia R. Dugan, ’71 MA, ’75 EDSP, ’92 DED, ’95 JD, has been sworn in as president of the State Bar of New Mexico.

Dugan is a shareholder with the Albuquerque firm of Atkinson & Kelsey.

Bob Dumas, ’71 BABA, is now senior vice president and construction loan officer at the Albuquerque office of the First National Bank of Santa Fe.

Editor’s Note: The state fire marshal continues to explore the possibility of arson. Parts of the library have reopened for staff and summer-school students.

Kirk Gittings, ’72 BUS, has been honored in the New Mexico State Senate for his photographic accomplishments showcased in Shelter from the Storm: The Photographs of Kirk Gittings by Gussie Fauntleroy. Kirk was also in a show of winning projects from 2005 AIA design programs at the American Institute of Architects in Albuquerque. He lives in Albuquerque.

Patricia McCraw, ’71 BA, ’74 MA, ’85 MBA, recently published Tiffany Blue, The True Story of Turquoise, Tiffany & James P. McNulty in Territorial New Mexico 1892-1933. The book is about Tiffany & Company’s search for turquoise near Cerrillos. McNulty was Pat’s great grandfather.

A community activist, Pat runs South Valley Ink. She lives in the South Valley with her husband, two horses, a donkey, and a whole bunch of dogs.

S H E LV E S A S L A N T: Steel shelving leans 45 degrees with books still aligned in perfect call-number order.

SAD REMINDERS: Caught at the fire’s edge, some journals will be salvaged, while others were too badly burned.

Robert Murphy, ’72 BABA, has recently been elected to the UNM Foundation board of directors. Bob is a real estate developer/ broker and president of Sandia Properties in Albuquerque. f a l l

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Newly hired athletic director Paul Krebs introduces a new chapter in Lobo sports.

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athletics, meet academics (but don’t forget competition)

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A day and a half into his job as UNM’s 12th athletic

director, Paul Krebs stands at the podium and addresses the Alumni Association Board of Directors. Dressed corporately in a navy suit and tie, he appears a man

equally comfortable on a basketball court or in a

courtroom. Blue-eyed with short-cropped, gray-specked hair, he scans the room as he stands, feet shoulder-width, hands gripping the sides of the podium. Poised and calm despite having run a gauntlet of meetings, Krebs leaves no doubt that change is in the air.

“I am 180 degrees from Rudy’s [Davalos] style,” he says, quickly noting his good fortune to inherit a program that is in good shape. The UNM program is “competitive and dominant in the Mountain West Conference,” but “we can make it stronger, better,” he says.

Krebs sees the UNM position as a good career opportunity. “It’s a great job in a great conference in a part of the country I want to live,” he says, acknowledging high expectations from campus, city, state, and national leaders.

“Enhancing the visibility of the university raises the visibility of the state,” he says, adding that athletics should not be a drain, but a contributor to the university on all levels.

With 25 years of athletic experience, Krebs knows what’s important. Being NCAA compliant is critical. The program’s integrity lies in “doing things the right way,” he says. He has met with each coach to understand his/her situation and to determine “where we’re going collectively.”

Krebs’ mantra could be this: “We must always strive to be the best we can be. Athletics must contribute to the academic mission of the university.” He already recognizes a disconnect between UNM athletes’ good GPAs and their not so strong graduation rates, which he wants to turn around.

“We are in the business of education.

We must recruit outstanding athletes and hold them accountable

F I R S T L I G H T : Knowing the Lobos are always in the limelight, UNM’s new athletic director, Paul Krebs, looks forward to heading the

John Paternoster, ’71 BA, has been appointed by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to serve as a district judge in New Mexico’s Eighth Judicial District.

John lives in Santa Fe. James F. Morgan, ’72 BBA, has completed the past year as president of the UNM Retirees Association. Jim retired from UNM in 2001 after 25 years in the Comptroller’s Office.

Kathi Schroeder, ’72 BA, is managing editor of the New Mexico Business Weekly in Albuquerque. She received the American Eagle Award for Excellence from American City Business Journal (NMBW’s parent company), its highest employee honor. Kathi also has been inducted into the Girl Scouts of the Chaparral Council’s Hall of Fame for Women in Broadcasting and the Media.

Ned Sublette, ’72 BAMU, in 1981 wrote the first gay-themed country song, “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other.”

Now, nearly 25 years later, the song has been recorded by Willie Nelson. Ned lives in Clovis.

Michael Clements, ’73 BA, ’78 MD, was recently certified in hospice and palliative medicine. He maintains a private practice in Ruidoso with a specialty certification in geriatrics.

Sophie Collaros, ’73 BA, ’89 JD, has joined the UNM Health Sciences Center as the health insurance portability and accountability privacy officer. She lives in Albuquerque.

Ramon Gutierrez, ’73 BA, is currently a full professor and Chancellor’s Associate Endowed Chair at the University of California San Diego.

Sarah Bird, ’74 BA, is having her latest novel, The Flamenco Academy, published by Knopf. It is a story of obsessive love set in UNM’s flamenco dance and guitar community.

Sarah lives in Austin, Texas, where she does a back page column for Texas Monthly.

Tom Horan, ’74 MAPA, ’75 JD, has been a lobbyist at the New Mexico Legislature for the past 30 years. His clients include the City of Albuquerque, Presbyterian Health Care Services, the Educational Retirement Board, Nature Conservancy, and Ski New Mexico. He calls Albuquerque home.

Art Gonzales, ’76 BABA, has been promoted by UNM to director of equal opportunity. He lives in Albuquerque.

Gregg Mangan, ’76 BS, has been employed as a wildlife biologist for the Bureau of Land Management in Ukiah, California, for 23 years. At present, he is manager of the 72,000-acre Cache Creek Natural Area in the Coast Ranges west of Sacramento.

Neyda Martinez, ’76 BA, has taught in the New York City public school system for 23 years and has never ceased to tell her students to go away to college. Last year she was awarded the educator of the year award from Junior Achievement of New York, and

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unm A L L T O G E T H E R : Athletic director Paul Krebs takes his job seriously but keeps the tone light. His first week at work he met with all the Lobo coaches to determine

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a new weight room, and sports medicine facilities at the school’s football facility. Krebs spearheaded a $3.5 million donation for the project—the largest donation in the department’s history.

In an email note, Edward Whipple, BGSU vice president for student affairs—and Krebs’ former boss—recounts Krebs’ successes: integrating the athletic program into the mainstream of student life; increasing funding for athletics; balancing the budget; developing excellent relations with the academic community; hiring excellent coaches; increasing attendance significantly

expect it to be any different at UNM. He knows he will need to raise money.

“We will have to maximize all our revenue streams,” he says.

He states frankly that while his knowledge of UNM’s situation is

“We must always strive to be the best we can be. Athletics must contribute to the academic mission of the university.” at football and basketball games; and enhancing facilities and providing a plan for the future.

In an April 2006 Toledo Blade article, sports writer Maureen Fulton reported that when Krebs was hired in 1999, the athletic department needed a financial overhaul that resulted in cutting four men’s sports in 2002.

“Through restructuring,” she writes, “Krebs was able to get BGSU’s operating expenses under control.”

Krebs notes that resources are always a challenge and that every college fights for funds. He doesn’t

—Paul Krebs

surface only, he has no preconceived idea about eliminating any programs. “It is a polarizing process,” he says. “The issue is not on the table. My job is to get to know the people and make all the programs the best they can be.”

UNM, he knows, is the flagship university of the state, which brings “attention and notoriety.” He acknowledges UNM’s “rabid fan base” and intense media scrutiny and yet looks forward to the exclusivity that UNM enjoys by being the only college athletics program in town.

Norm Wamer, program director for SportsRadio 1470 in Toledo,

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for their actions. We must see that they graduate to become good citizens,” he says.

Krebs’ emphasis on academics at his former institution, Bowling Green State University, is evident through its 76 percent graduation rate in the latest NCAA report.

For seven years Krebs was Bowling Green’s athletic director and for the last three he also served as assistant vice president for student affairs. For the prior 15 years he worked in various capacities, including that of senior associate athletic director at Ohio State.

Krebs draws a corollary between UNM and Bowling Green.

“Both are affected by city and state politics, the governor, and a demand for tickets and parking,” he says.

Facing the day-to-day challenges of his previous job helped prepare him for his current role, Krebs says. BGSU’s athletic program advanced under Krebs’ leadership. Only 14 other programs nationally sponsor Division 1A football, men’s and women’s basketball, and men’s ice hockey.

BGSU made consecutive bowl appearances in 2003 and 2004, earning a national ranking for three years. BGSU women’s basketball won a Mid-America Conference championship and advanced to the NCAA tournament, as did women’s soccer.

Because of Krebbs’ direction, BGSU is completing an $8.7 million athletic center to house offices,

Nick Layman

the program’s next steps collectively.

album administration from Ohio State in 1981. Krebs’ wife, Marjori, an instructor in the Bowling Green College of Education and Human Development, is finishing her doctorate in leadership studies at BGSU. She anticipates completing her dissertation by December. The couple have two children, daughter Taylor, 16, and son Jacob, 12.

All this talk of buildings, cash, and grades makes a fan wonder where competition is in the equation. Krebs eyes brighten as he says, “Winning and losing are very, very important. That’s why we keep score!”

Lobo Football on the Horizon!

Sept. 2 Sept. 9 Sept. 16 Sept. 23 Sept. 30 Oct. 7 Homecoming Oct. 14 Oct. 18 Oct. 28 Nov. 11 Nov. 18 Nov. 25

Portland State New Mexico State Missouri UTEP Air Force Wyoming UNLV Utah Colorado State TCU BYU San Diego State

MWC TV

6 p.m.

6 p.m.

MWC TV 6 p.m.

CSTV 3 p.m.

MWC TV noon MWC TV 6 p.m.

CSTV 8 p.m.

MWC TV 7 p.m.

MWC TV 3:30 p.m.

MWC TV 3:30 p.m.

CSTV or MWCTV TBA MWC TV 12:30 p.m.

Home games are bolded.

Check out other fall season schedules at www.golobos.com.

Robert R. Boyd, ’75 BSEE, has published Node List Tolerance Analysis—Enhancing SPICE Capabilities with Mathcad (CRC Press).

Robert lives in Placerville, California.

James M. Burns, ’75 BUS, is author of Deadline: Stiff (Cold Tree Press), his first David Endicott mystery. He currently teaches mass media and journalism in Southern California and lives in Altadena.

Debra R. Boender, ’77 MA, ’88 PhD, has started her own practice in podiatry.

She lives in Ellicott City, Maryland.

Stephen Ciepiela, ’77 BA, ’80 MAPA, is president and co-founder of Charles Stephen and Company which has received the 2006 Corporate Citizenship Award from the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce.

The award recognizes businesses for their contributions to corporate citizenship.

Ellen Dowling, ’77 PhD, spent six weeks in Beijing, China in the spring. She taught an “executive communication” course to Chinese graduate students from Peking University’s International MBA program.

She will repeat the course this winter.

Ellen is president of Dowling & Associates, a training and consulting firm in Rio Rancho, and is the author of Presenting with Style: Advanced Strategies for Superior Presentations and The Standup Trainer.

Damian Horne, ’77 BA, a public defender in Santa Fe, has enlisted as a reserve soldier in the New Mexico National Guard, more than 25 years after his service as an Army Ranger.

Helen Lucero, ’77 MA, ’86 PhD, has retired as director of visual arts at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque.

JD Salazar, ’77 BAE, learned firsthand about life on a nuclear powered Naval aircraft carrier when he stayed two days and one night on the USS Ronald Reagan three hours off the coast of San Diego in 2005.

JD, who lives in Burr Ridge, Illinois, and nine other Illinois business and civic leaders were chosen for the experience sponsored by the Department of Defense’s Joint Civilian Orientation Conference.

JD Salazar

says Krebs had to fight hard for media coverage in Ohio. “Bowling Green played second fiddle to the University of Toledo in this media market. When Paul went out to hire coaches he hired those willing to promote and market their program and the university.”

“Paul accomplished a lot at Bowling Green. I have nothing but respect for him,” Wamer says.

“You all are getting a great guy.

He had done all he could do here and was ready to move on,” A native of Canfield, Ohio, Krebs earned a bachelor’s in business from Bowling Green in 1978 and a master’s in athletic

was written up in the New York Times.

Neyda lives in the Bronx, and her daughter, Bennell La Porte, attends UNM.

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Families confronting adversity need each other. Angie Vachio dedicated PB and J Family Services to that cause.

children first B Y

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As a society, we shy away from the drug addicted, mentally ill, and incarcerated. Urban dwellers sidestep the sick, turning attention to the red light or to the “in-the-pink” passersby.

Far from the communal watch, rural America grows a new fangled crop—state and federal prisons—seeded with broken lives, fertilized by the new economy.

Angie Vachio,’75 MA, ’02 HOND, director of New Mexico’s PB and J Family Services, Inc. (formerly Peanut Butter and Jelly), refuses to turn a blind eye and has devoted her life to opening the eyes of others. She nurtured a storage-room sized pre-school into one of the state’s largest non-profits and constructed coalitions of private and public support.

“Something Angie recognizes that others do not is that there are no throwaways—everybody deserves a second chance,” New Mexico Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish says.

Putting PB and J Together In 1970, while earning a master’s degree in special education and working at the UNM Mental Health Center, Angie observed that women treated for mental illness were also mothers who had children at home, “living in the same level of depression.” Two years later, she co-founded the pre-school with a small staff of volunteers.

Treating whole families quickly emerged as the real change agent.

By 2005, the PB and J agency had grown to 85 employees serving more than 1,700 individuals annually.

The main facility is a converted, old adobe church in the heart of Albuquerque’s South Valley. At first glance, PB and J looks like any childcare center. Little ones giggle and wiggle in a maze of colorful, age-appropriate classrooms. Out back, a cottonwood shades the requisite swing-set and big wheel. A closer look reveals that adults outnumber children.

Here, along with nationally accredited childcare, moms and dads are taught parenting skills. Other free services include health care and case management for family members affected by mental illness, addiction, child abuse, and neglect or incarceration.

Similar services are offered at a Bernalillo facility. Staff also provide in-home services.

Family Ties Make a Difference Angie, small in stature but forceful in nature, has for 35 years spread a simple, compelling message: families in

R E A C H I N G O U T : “You can’t underestimate the power of touch between parent and child,” says Angie Vachio, director of PB and J Family Services. Among other accomplishments, Angie initiated a program that keeps prisoners connected with their families.

Tracy Sprouls, ’78 BA, ’81 JD, has been elected to a second two-year term on the board of directors of the New Mexico State Bar’s taxation section. He is a partner in the Rodey law firm in Albuquerque.

Michael Tucker, ’79 BA, is the author of the just-published And Then They Loved Him, Seward Collins and the Chimera of an American Fascism, (Peter Lang Publishing).

Michael says few people know of Collins, but from the 1920s to the 1940s, the publisher of The American Review was quite famous and knew “everybody who was anybody.” Michael lives in Winchester, Massachusetts.

Elizabeth Tillar, ’79 BA ’84 MA, received her PhD in contemporary theology at Fordham University in 1999, and with the exception of two years as a writer-researcher in New York City, has had a career in academia. She now teaches philosophy, ethics, world religions, research-writing, and film at Southern New Hampshire University and edits manuscripts on the side. She lives in Farnsworth, New Hampshire.

Breda Bova, ’80 PhD, has received the 2006 Spirit of Achievement Award from the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver. The award recognizes contributions to the community on a personal, business, and civic level. Breda is a professor and senior advisor to the president of UNM. Chris Miller, ’80 BA, is manager, media relations and communications, at Sandia National Laboratories. His wife, Jeanette Kirby Miller, ’90 BUS, is director of community relations for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, which will come to Albuquerque in 2007. The Millers live in Rio Rancho.

Kevin Greenaugh, ’81 MSNE, has received the 2006 US Black Engineer Professional Achievement Award in Government.

He is currently a senior manager at the National Nuclear Security Administration in Washington, DC where he manages a nearly billion-dollar program in nuclear deterrent research and development.

Kevin lives in Glenn Dale, Maryland.

Michael “Skip” E. Hemperley, ’81 BSPE, ’92 EDSP, has been named principal of De Vargas Middle School in Santa Fe where he spent the previous six years as assistant principal.

Robin K. Levinson, ’81 BA, is the author of a new children’s book, Miriam’s Journey: Discovering a New World, part of the Gali Girls Jewish History series. It is the story of a 10-year-old’s immigration from Russia to America and is based on her grandmother’s real life experience. Robin lives in Hamilton, New Jersey.

Carmen Kavelman, ’82 BABA, has been appointed the City of Albuquerque’s director of internal audit and investigation. f a l l

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unm WORKING WONDER: The “heart and conscience” of a UNM community service initiative, Angie Vachio works personally and collectively to improve the

trouble need help to stay together and maintain bonds.

“We know now that men and women who stay connected with their families have a better chance of making it in society as opposed to returning to prison,” Denish says.

And children provided with counseling and coping skills are less likely to end up in trouble themselves, Angie adds. “Children who don’t get help will act out in ways that are not good for them—they will make poor decisions, experience early sexuality, have poor school outcomes and a high dropout rate. They will look for family in the all the wrong places.”

While helping to mend the lives of others, Angie suffered her own incomprehensible losses. The oldest of her four children, Jason, was born with developmental disabilities and died in his early teens. Son Jeremy was killed in a motorcycle accident four years ago during his senior year at UNM. “Angie has suffered severe losses in her life, but she took those experiences and developed a deep compassion and understanding of the suffering of others,” says Louise Kahn, who coordinated health services for PB and J and is an instructor in the UNM College of Nursing. “Her commitment is unshakable, she is not afraid to do the right thing.”

Prisoners Have Children, Too Skyrocketing incarceration in the US is the impetus for PB and J’s recent focus on those affected by the stigma and separation of a family member in prison, Angie says. In 2001, the

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lives of our children.

“Where we see the successes is in the little picture, in reconnecting a child with a parent, and that will sustain me until the day that I die. Whenever it’s about kids and families, it’s hopeful.”

— Angie Vachio National Institute of Corrections awarded PB and J one of only five grants nationally to develop a model system of care for children whose parents are incarcerated.

“Our country is the most aggressive jailor in the world. On any given day, 1 in 31 of us is in jail, prison, or on parole,” Angie says. “We are leaving

children in harm’s way. The children suffer unintended consequences and are forgotten in our rush to punish their parents.”

Partnering with corrections, law enforcement, and child welfare staff, Angie created the ImPACT program (Importance of Parents and Children Together), which operates in four

New Mexico correctional facilities.

The program keeps families connected during the period of incarceration and helps re-establish the family unit when a parent is released. She secured rights for more humane visitations between family members and those jailed, noting, “you can’t underestimate the power of touch between parent and child,” and is working toward uniform arrest and sentencing procedures.

“On any given day someone will be pulled over for a broken headlight and arrested on an outstanding warrant,” Angie says. “He or she will be taken to jail and in the booking process they will be asked every possible question.

But what they are never asked is, who is expecting you to come home tonight?”

Earlier this year, Angie worked with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to establish a Blue Ribbon Commission to unite agencies to fill in the gaps associated with arrests.

“Angie sees the impact of policy decisions on children and families years before others even begin to notice, and she takes action, sweeping others up to join her in the process of creating positive change,” Kahn says.

“Here in New Mexico, we are at the forefront of this movement nationally because of Angie’s commitment, effective advocacy, and open heart.”

Community Engagement In 2005, Angie was elected president of the UNM Alumni Association. She was also named a member of UNM’s new Committee for Public Service and Community Engagement. “I agreed to serve in both these roles because I want to see public service come full circle. The university needs to use its wealth of resources to help with systems development and to enact social change,” she says.

Committee chair Michael Morris, UNM College of Education, says Angie is the heart and conscience of the group. “Her passion for the poor and challenged families of our state is matched by her wisdom about why UNM must be involved with the most pressing issues facing our state— poverty, immigration, justice system reform, economic development, school improvement, and support for parents and families,” he says.

Dogged persistence is another of Angie’s qualities, Denish says. “Angie talks to people in the executive branches of government, she lobbies for money and establishes relationships with legislators, and she brings leaders to meet the children and see her programs in action. She is very hands-on.”

Small Successes Angie says her work has been a calling and a joy to carry out. “Where we see the successes is in the little picture, in reconnecting a child with a parent, and that will sustain me until the day that I die. Whenever it’s about kids and families, it’s hopeful,” she says.

Angie has announced that she will retire in 2006, but not because the work is done. In fact, the number of families in need of intervention is escalating, she says. And what about that uncompassionate society? Those tough enough to dedicate their life to service in the 21st century will need to proceed on a grand scale, she says, “because breaking the cycle is nothing but a hollow phrase” without a nationwide plan for systemic change.

“If we can’t bring ourselves to worry about the parents, then we need to care about the children left behind. And we need to act collectively,” she says.

album Charlotte Balcomb Lane, ’82 BA, has been hired by the First National Bank of Santa Fe as business development associate in its Albuquerque office.

Melanie Mills, ’83 BAFA, ’92 MA, spent 15 days working with the mental health department of the Red Cross in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, following hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She worked in two shelters and coordinated ongoing local-based expressive arts therapies for evacuees. She is senior clinician at Phoenix House in Keene, New Hampshire, and has a part time private counseling practice.

Steven Parrish, ’83 ABA, has been promoted to Colonel in the US Marine Corps Reserve and currently serves as the officer in charge of the mobilization training unit, Marine Corps Systems Command, Orlando, Florida.

He lives in Longwood.

Jean Shannon, ’83 MA, has published a book of her poems, Angelus (Fithian Press).

She also publishes local writers at her Wildflower Press, a small literary press.

Alan Blackstock, ’84 MA, ’85 PhD, editor of A Green River Reader, resides in Neola, Utah, not in Puerto Rico where we placed him in the spring 2006 Mirage. He says he has not lived in Puerto Rico since 2000.

Marilyn Court, ’84 MA, has been appointed director of the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Culture in Beaver Creek, Ohio. She had been the recreation program specialist for the past six years and supervised the youth and adult leisure sports activities.

Margaret A. Foster, ’84 BABA, ’93 JD, has joined Keleher & McLeod as of counsel in Albuquerque.

Barry Lavay, ’84 PhD, received the Adapted Physical Education Professional Recognition Award from the California Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance and the State Council of Adapted Physical Education last winter in recognition of his classroom and professional activities. Barry is a kinesiology professor at California State University, Long Beach where his primary responsibility is to train students to teach physical education to individuals with disabilities.

Barry lives in Cypress, California.

Diane M. Menapace, ’84 BSHE, ’86 MAPA, celebrated 35 years of federal government service in June. She is currently employed as a senior security specialist with the National Nuclear Security Administration in Los Alamos.

Tom Tomasi, ’84 BSME, has been named director of the Nuclear Cruise Missile Division for the Department of Energy at Kirtland Air Force Base, where he has worked since 1988. He recently established the New Mexico Handgun Academy in Albuquerque that provides concealed f a l l

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One window at a time, Father John Bakas and his church neighbors mend and revitalize their Los Angeles neighborhood.

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album handgun carry training and personal protection courses.

Oxymoron. It’s a Greek word, appropriate to this story. It refers to the joining of two contradictory terms or concepts.

Take, for example, an exquisitely lavish Greek Orthodox

Cathedral and surround it by some of the poorest, most rundown, primarily Latino residences in Los Angeles. Take Saint Sophia and the Pico-Union neighborhood.

Father John Bakas, ’69 BA, ’76 MA, calls it “providential.” The City of Los Angeles now calls it the ByzantineLatino Quarter. And, thanks largely to Father John’s efforts, it is booming.

Light behind the Clouds Father John is dean of Saint Sophia Cathedral, located at the intersection of Pico and Normandie, in an area made infamous by the Rodney King riots in 1992.

Building Saint Sophia cost its benefactor, Charles Skouras, almost $3 million in 1950; today, building estimates would approach $75 million.

The 20th Century Fox mogul backed the creation of one of the “most beautiful Orthodox churches in the Western hemisphere,” says Father John. A 90-foot dome tops its simply sculpted exterior. Once inside, the refraction of light and color from stained glass, gold leaf, and mosaic tiles

defies darkness. In both design and context, “the church is a lighthouse on rocky shores,” Father John says.

As the Los Angeles suburbs expanded, the inner city deteriorated.

When Father John first arrived at Saint Sophia in 1995, its light had dimmed and the neighboring shores had grown even rockier. The area was “blighted and depressed.” Residents—mostly Latino now—had put up barbed wire to protect themselves from rampant crime, drugs, shootings, and prostitution.

Saint Sophia better resembled a fortress than a lighthouse. The congregation contemplated moving. Father John saw the opportunity for good works.

Meaningful Change Those who knew Father John, then simply John, at UNM in the ’60s wouldn’t have been surprised at his stance. A student activist who would turn university administrator, John met

W H O L E O F M A N Y P A R T S : “We are each angels with one wing.

We can only fly embracing each other,” reads the mural on the storage building behind Father John Bakas. The dean of St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles, Father John has brought together a coalition to reverse the deterioration of the church’s neighborhood—recently named the Byzantine Latino Quarter.

Vince Baca, ’85 BUS, has been hired by the Animal Humane Association in Albuquerque to develop and oversee resource development, marketing, and public relations. Vince lives in Albuquerque.

Marietta Patricia Leis, ’85 MA, ’88 MFA, has been awarded an “Artist Residency” by the Cawdor Estates in the Scottish highlands.

Marietta lives in Sandia Park, New Mexico.

Kim Nunley, ’85 BABA, managing partner of the Albuquerque office of Grant Thornton, is one of just two women holding that position in the international accounting firm. She has been elected to a three-year term on the partnership board of the firm.

Darlene Robertson, ’85 BA, contrary to our listing in the spring 2006 Mirage, is employed at Merrill Lynch and is in the POA program to become a certified financial planner. She was only at It’s Just Lunch for a short time. We apologize for the error.

Marie Thames, ’85 BUS, ’86 MBA, has joined the New Mexico Retiree Health Care Authority as executive director. She lives in Albuquerque.

Sandra Begay-Campbell, ’86 BSPE, ’87 BSCE, is featured in a new book about female engineers, Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers (American Society of Civil Engineers). She is included in the chapter “Women in Power” for her efforts to bring solar energy to remote areas of the Navajo reservation. The UNM regent works at Sandia National Labs.

Craig Corey, ’86 BABA, has joined the New Mexico operations of Kleinfelder as business development manager.

Craig lives in Albuquerque.

TJ Ferguson, ’86 MCRP, ’93 PhD, is co-author (with Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh) of History Is in the Land: Multivocal Tribal Traditions in Arizona’s San Pedro Valley (University of Arizona Press). TJ owns Anthropological Research in Tucson and is also an adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona. He lives in Tucson.

Martin Holland, ’86 JD, has been promoted to Brigadier General in the New Mexico Air National Guard, and chief of the joint staff.

Martin is a practicing attorney and president of Holland Law in Albuquerque.

Michael Messier, ’86 AALA, is an assistant vice president at Charter Bank. He lives in Rio Rancho.

Charles J. Vigil, ’86 BABA, has been appointed by the New Mexico Supreme Court to a three-year term on the recently created New Mexico Client Protection Fund Commission, which he now chairs.

Vigil is a partner with the Rodey Law Firm in Albuquerque where he practices in the litigation department. f a l l

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many national figures—Robert Kennedy, Capote, Thurmond, Westmoreland, and King—in his work with the student speakers committee.

He campaigned for Kennedy and got a job with the Democratic Party in Albuquerque. “I was a snotty nosed, out-of-college dreamer,” Father John says.

Those experiences, and interim work as a policeman, ultimately led him to the priesthood—following four years’ training at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.

“I realized that political activism does not often connect to the human heart,” Father John says. “Earthly institutions haven’t come up with many solutions.

We’re still arguing about the same things we were arguing about in 1968.

The way I could fulfill my destiny was to work person by person to bring a measure of spirituality to life.”

Getting Together The Orthodox Church has always been an activist organization, Father John says, although first the Ottoman Empire, then Communism deprived it of its roots. Only in this millennium, 20

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L E A D I N G L I G H T : A “lighthouse on rocky shores,” St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral is located near the area of Los Angeles made infamous by the Rodney King riots. However, the tide is changing, thanks to the efforts of Father John Bakas, his congregation, and his neighbors.

he says, “are we returning to the idea that we must reach out beyond narrow ethnic borders.”

“We live in a heterogeneous, multicultural, multilingual, multi-religious world,” he says. “We don’t change the faith; we take a different approach as to how we project it.”

“Responding to reality,” as he puts it, has always been Father John’s modus operandi. “I’m a believer in the Good Samaritan story,” he says. “When the Good Samaritan found a wounded person, he didn’t ask for an identification card.

He took care of his needs.”

Nor did he attempt to convert the needy. “Our neighbors don’t have to be our parishioners to be good people,” Father John says.

“People follow Father John because he doesn’t tell them what to think,” says Marina Counelis, whose relatives sponsored the Bakas family’s move from Greece to Albuquerque

in 1959. “He has the magic to make people… feel good.”

“John has a passion for doing the right thing,” says Coleman Travelstead, who shared a house with Father John while they attended UNM, during which time John founded the UNM International Center. “The need for an international center existed, and John responded. Now, a neighborhood needs turning around, and John is responding.”

So, true to form, Father John brought together a coalition—from “collision to coalition,” he likes to say— of churches, businesses, and residents from his new community. Joining forces with neighboring Saint Thomas, the largest Latino-serving Roman Catholic church in Los Angeles, was critical.

“Father John has the vision, the drive, and the character and connections to move a vision forward,” says Saint Thomas’ Father Jay Cunnane. “He’s a

big man physically, with a big personality, almost larger than life… He also has a big voice, and sings wonderfully.”

His fluent Spanish—he is married to his Chilean college-sweetheart— wins “Father Juan” points as well.

As one, the coalition moved ahead.

One Window at a Time “I believe in the ‘broken window’ theory,” Father John says. “If you repair your window, the neighbor next door will repair his.” In fact, neighbors not only mended, they painted, cleaned, and planted. The city installed attractive lighting. Paramount Studios designed storefronts. And parishioners painted and shined St. Sophia.

In 1997, at the community’s behest, the area was designated a Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative (LANI). Grants followed. A foundation was set up to administer them. Soon the neighborhood was named a business improvement district, and more city services arrived. A recent state grant of $4 million went toward the “perfect” building for a community center, with job training, gang prevention, tutoring, mentoring, music, and arts components.

Fusion In the years since, gang activity in the neighborhood has decreased by 40 percent, Father John says, noting that some former gang members have even become gang-prevention advocates. Property values have skyrocketed. Public art, such as murals and banners, decorates the streets.

On an eight-story storage building across from Saint Sophia are painted two 100-foot high, one-winged angels.

Above them is written, “We are each angels with one wing. We can only fly embracing each other.”

In 2002, upon the neighborhood’s urging, the area was named an economic

cultural redevelopment zone, the “Byzantine Latino Quarter.” Explains Father John: “New York has its Latin Quarter; New Orleans has its French Quarter. We’re a fusion between the Byzantine east and the Latin west.”

Motivating Others As the Byzantine Latino Quarter continues to revive, Father John hopes to invigorate the participation of his congregation. “We shouldn’t be a foreign community in a foreign land but participants in our church’s neighborhood,” he says. “I’m not an adherent to abstract theology. I can tell you I’m a chef, but if you haven’t seen me cook, you don’t know that I can.”

“We train our church young to be consumers,” he says. “They must learn to be givers… There’s a hurting world out there that we can impact.”

Reflecting on his own youthful days, Father John says, “UNM was for me a window to a broader world.

Great teachers, visionaries, and leaders encouraged me.”

Father John recently urged the graduating class of neighboring USC to look outward as well. “Dedicate yourself to light-filled and meaningful lives. Keep in mind the old Greek proverb that says: ‘It is better to be a lean moorhen on a pond than a fat sparrow in a cage.’”

Next…

Father John’s own efforts and will to push forward are unflagging. His vision is farsighted, but he takes one step at a time. He says he’s responding to whatever God has in mind.

“What do you think God’s will is?” he asks. “People expect great clouds to open up. But God’s will is whatever comes next, and how you respond to it.”

album Lisa Hendrickson, ’87 BUS, ’94 MA, owns, with her husband, a custom cabinetry manufacturing company in the South Bronx, New York City. The shop was featured in the New York Times on January 8, on the cover of the “Job Market” section.

Jay Kurts, ’87 BBA, has been promoted to mountain states sales manager with InfoLogix Healthcare. InfoLogix provides point-of-care technology deployed by hospitals for electronic medical records integration. Jay and his wife, Sarah, live in Denver.

Geri Romero-Royal, ’87 MA, was recently honored as one of New Mexico State University’s Distinguished Alumni. The Albuquerque resident is Assistant Secretary of Education for the New Mexico Public Education Department.

Lewis A. Reagan, ’88 BS, has been relocated

by Kleinfelder to its McKinney, Texas, office.

The company provides professional services in natural and built environments for municipalities, government agencies, multinational firms, and industrial concerns.

Michael Kaemper, ’89 BA, ’99 JD, has been named a shareholder in the Albuquerque litigation firm of Atkinson & Thal.

Stowell Edward Larson, ’89 BA, was recently hired as the offensive coordinator for Weber State’s football team. He lives in Ogden, Utah.

Lester Kevin Tsosie, ’89 BSCE, has been hired as assistant director of Think New Mexico, a nonpartisan think tank in Santa Fe. Jackie Bradley-Ortiz, ’90 BSNU, is the nurse manager of the UNM pediatric unit at UNM Hospital.

Gloria Tristani, ’90 JD, is president of the Washington, DC-based Benton Foundation.

She is a former FCC commissioner, and lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Kristin Van Veen-Hincke, ’90 BA, is now associate director of alumni affairs, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Sheri Metzger Karmiol, ’90 BA, ’93 MA, ’97 PhD, teaches in the UNM University Honors Program. She was one of only 20 university faculty from around the world invited to participate in the Silberman Seminar at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Center for Advanced Academic studies in June. Sheri lives in Rio Rancho.

Joliean Smith, ’90 BA, has opened JMS Communications in Albuquerque.

The firm specializes in written and oral communications to help people and organizations reach their audiences.

James Stanton, ’90 BS, has been promoted to project manager at Eberline Services. He manages Eberline’s subcontract with KSI Services JV at Los Alamos National Laboratory and lives in Santa Fe. f a l l

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photos and story By greg johnston

Highland High School principal Nikki Dennis, ’90 EDSP, encourages students and their families to become involved in their communities.

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Recent calls for immigrant rights stirred up a sense of déjà vu for one Albuquerque high school principal.

Nikki Dennis, ’90 EDSP, stood in

support of her students in April for a school-sponsored immigration rights rally at Highland High School. Nikki defended student activities in newspaper and television stories, saying she wanted to give students an opportunity to exercise their right to free speech.

hools he center “I want to applaud students for being concerned about each other,” she told the Albuquerque Journal.

“I also want to applaud them for organizing something that doesn’t disrupt their education.”

Nikki, who studied education administration at UNM, is the leader of the Highland school cluster, where she oversees 14 schools. She’s also the

principal of Highland High, where she says 1,900 students comprise the most racially and culturally diverse school in New Mexico.

The population includes Asians, Mexicans, Cubans, Colombians, and others. “We are a Mecca” for immigrants in Albuquerque, Nikki says.

Highland cluster students, who range from extremely poor to fairly affluent,

S A Y I T P R O U D : The principal of Albuquerque’s Highland High School, Nikki Dennis, lauds her students’ efforts to improve their world by speaking out for their beliefs.

album Paul Strange, ’90 BUS, has been appointed provisionally as a trustee of the Mt. Diablo Unified District Board of Education. He practices law in San Francisco at the Strange Law Firm, which he founded, and lives in Concord, California.

V. Scott Affentranger, ’91 BA, ’94 MS, has been named New Mexico’s High School Principal of the Year by the New Mexico Association of Secondary School Principals.

He is principal at Rio Rancho Mid-High and lives in Albuquerque.

Abigail Aragon, ’91 JD, has been appointed

by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to serve as Judge of the Fourth Judicial District.

She is the first woman to sit on the District Court in Las Vegas.

Jester Banks, ’91 BABA, has joined Grubb & Ellis New Mexico in Albuquerque as associate broker.

Mary Lou Christophersen, ’91 BA, ’93 MBA, is president of Hawkeye Group, doing business as SGO Designer Glass, in Albuquerque.

Barbara Vigil-Lowder, ’91 MA, has received the UNM College of Education Distinguished Alumni Award in the areas of leadership and technology. She is superintendent of the Bernalillo (New Mexico) Public Schools.

Mark McClain, ’91 BSPH, is a Commander with the US Public Health Service and a Consumer Safety Officer and Investigator for the FDA. He still practices pharmacy and lives in Deep River, Connecticut.

Nancy Medaris Stone, ’91 MA, is the author of Mountain Spirit (University of Utah Press). From historical and archaeological sources, the book describes the lifeways of a largely ignored group of native peoples known as the Sheep Eater Indians. Nancy lives in Corrales, New Mexico.

Hans W. Voss, ’91 ASPE, ’92 BA, ’93 MA, ’98 JD, has been appointed by the Board of Bar Commissioners to serve a one-year term on the board. He is the Grant County Attorney and lives in Silver City, New Mexico.

Theron Kissinger, ’92 BSED, competed on the USA 50 kilometer racewalk team at the 2006 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Cup of Racewalking Championships in La Coruña, Spain.

Joseph Mills, ’92 MA, is publishing a book of poetry, Somewhere During the Spin Cycle (Press 53). He lives in Winston-Salem where he teaches at the North Carolina School of the Arts.

Eric Villegas, ’93 BS, has worked for the Oregon Employment Department since 1996. For the past year and a half, he’s worked at the central office in Salem as an operations and policy analyst. He has f a l l

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attend school side by side. Nikki believes school diversity presents great strengths as well as significant challenges.

“The peace marches of the ’70s had a huge impact on what I do today,” says the youthful 50-year-old. “I was so fortunate to see more opportunities for women and more opportunities for minorities as the direct result of community activism and support that people did back then. We need to get back to that now or our country will fail.”

Valuing Students Nikki grew up Greek Orthodox in a Mormon neighborhood in Pocatello, Idaho, the daughter of an alcoholic father and a welfare mother. She’s the oldest of eight children, five from

a first marriage and three from the second. A teacher once felt compelled to tell her classmates that Nikki was

Nikki’s desire to further her career eventually brought her to UNM for graduate studies. In 1990, as a Danford

“When you get kids that come from a diverse background, it requires you to do things differently. I think what kids can get out of education is sometimes not tangible like a test score.” the only one with divorced parents.

“I know what it feels like to be different,” she says.

Nikki’s mother, who was on welfare until Nikki was 11, earned a college degree before remarrying. Nikki went on to earn her bachelor’s and master’s in English at the University of Idaho.

Then, she says with a grin, to appease her parents, she earned a teaching certificate. It was teaching that led her down a different path.

In 1983, Nikki moved to Albuquerque with her husband, Glen, believing she would pursue a doctoral degree in American studies. Instead she ended up tutoring for UNM athletics and teaching with Outward Bound. Later, she taught freshman and sophomore English at West Mesa and Rio Grande high schools, and was an activities director at Valley and an assistant principal at Eldorado high schools.

“I was in my late 20s and realized my calling in life was kids. Basically I really liked kids and they liked me,” Nikki says. “I’ve come to value what students can offer us.”

— Nikki Dennis Scholar, Nikki earned an EdS certificate in education administration.

“I’ve always enjoyed Nikki,” says Carolyn Wood, chair of educational leadership and organizational learning at the UNM College of Education, and a onetime mentor to Nikki. “She loves to tackle problems and does a good job. I think Nikki is not afraid to be open about who she is and what she does, and she’s always willing to learn.”

Beginning at Bandelier Viola Florez, dean of the UNM College of Education, considers Nikki a visionary for education initiatives.

Before being named to her position at Highland early in 2006, Nikki was principal for ten years at Bandelier Elementary School. Through a Community Schools grant, Bandelier serves as a resource to the nearby community.

Six years ago, Nikki was asked if Bandelier would serve as a site for homeless children. Nikki agreed and soon the school was providing meals and tutoring for homeless students.

K E Y T O T H E C O M M U N I T Y : Nikki Dennis has championed the importance to the community of both Bandelier Elementary School, where she was principal for 10 years, and Highland High School, her current assignment.

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She says she tried to interact with the children to show them that the principal was not someone to fear. The Title One Homeless Project now continues at Bandelier and other APS schools and serves as many as 5,000 students. A few of the homeless students Nikki first met at Bandelier are now familiar faces to her at Highland High.

Bandelier is also one of two Albuquerque schools participating in a College of Education pilot project called Teaching Academies. The project builds a community of support with student interns, parents, schoolteachers, and UNM faculty.

“One of the things Nikki saw right away was the importance of partnering with future teachers,” Florez says.

“Bandelier is successful because of her.

She understands children, curriculum, and parents and puts a lot of energy into development. Because of that, she empowers people.”

In 2004, Nikki was recognized as one of 65 educators nationwide for a National Distinguished Principal award.

She was the only one in New Mexico to receive the award.

“One of the things I was known for at Bandelier, and I would hope at Highland, is that I really believe that for our schools to be regarded as an important part of the community, we have to be regarded as the center of the community. The way you do that is by allowing people to come in and have conversations with you.”

Outside-the-books Learning Nikki’s love of students is obvious in an exchange of hugs with girls who have gathered on a Monday morning outside the principal’s office. One of her students, Graciela Lopez, received

media attention when she organized the school’s first Unity in the Community Day in April to showcase the value of diversity.

“If I had a magic wand and could make that happen more, I’d have it happen at least on a quarterly basis,” Nikki says. “We have to allow kids experiences where they team-build and have difficult conversations that challenge their philosophical beliefs.”

“When you get kids that come from a diverse background, it requires you to do things differently. I think what kids can get out of education is sometimes not tangible like a test score, but is tangible if they can walk down the street in New York City and not be afraid.”

“If I can go to Central Avenue and not be afraid of the man who looks different than I am, I think that’s a less tangible kind of educational experience,” she says.

Something else Nikki emphasizes is a sense of community through parenting. Her son, Bryan, graduated with honors from Highland in May, and her daughter, Taylor, will begin as a ninth grader in the fall.

Earlier in the year, Nikki had a revelation after watching Bryan work at home on a physics paper with a student whose father was Mexican.

“We’re sitting there—me, the Greek girl, the kid from Mexican descendants, my German-English husband, and the two kids that are a product of our marriage. And I thought what a rich cultural environment my kids live in…

Overall, my son has a great respect for the diversity of America. I think our schools contributed to that.”

album translated a number of documents for the department and is currently on the iMatchSkills computer system team.

He lives in Keizer, Oregon.

Sonnet McKinnon, ’93 BABA, has recently been elected to the UNM Foundation board of directors. Sonnet joined her father’s microbrewery systems manufacturing business after graduation. She currently mentors scholarship recipients in connection with Reach Prep, a non-profit organization helping Black and Latino students from lower income families attain a quality independent school education. She lives in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Lee Allen, ’94 MA, is an assistant professor of instructional design & technology at the University of Memphis. This summer he will present a research paper at the International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, and Change in Organizations in Prato, Italy, entitled “Technology as a Vehicle for Institutional Change.” He lives in Cordova, Tennessee.

Christine Chavez, ’94 BA, is a real estate attorney with the global law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Based in San Francisco, she was recently promoted to partner in the firm. Chris lives in El Cerrito.

Caren I. Friedman, ’94 JD, currently is serving a three-year term on the Appellate Rules Committee to which she was appointed by the New Mexico Supreme Court. She also is serving a three-year term on the Appellate Practice Specialty Committee. Caren is a board-certified appellate specialist. Her practice focuses on civil and criminal appeals in federal, state, and tribal courts. She lives in Santa Fe. Eric Patrick, ’94 BUS, assistant professor in the University of North Carolina at Greensboro department of broadcasting and cinema, has received a Guggenheim Fellowship for a proposed animated film, “Retro-cognition.” The film will be based on 1940s radio dramas and will give an alternative view of the nuclear family.

JoAnne Quirindongo, ’94 BUS, of Albuquerque, has joined the staff of the American Society of Radiologic Technologists as advertising manager.

Pamela Thies, ’94 BSEE, works for Bohannan-Huston in Albuquerque. She earned her professional engineering license in civil engineering in 1998. She has served as vice president of young engineers for the New Mexico Society of Professional Engineers, and has received the award of “Young Engineer of the Year” from the Albuquerque Chapter and the State Society of NMSPE. Andrew Wolf, ’94 MBA/MA, has been named a financial representative at The Boston Group, an office of the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network. He lives in Acton, Massachusetts. f a l l

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The founder of UNM’s family medicine program, Warren Heffron, stretches “community” way beyond New Mexico.

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A long time ago when song lyrics were understandable, there was one tune that had a line, “…far away places with strange

Art Maes, ’95 BBA, and his wife, Adriana, ’01 BBA, have moved to Houston where Art is district manager with Philip Morris USA field sales force. Adriana has received a master’s degree in education from Texas State University in San Marcos. She is teaching fourth grade in the Cy-Fair School District in the Houston area.

sounding names that are calling, calling to me…” Warren

Art Maes

Heffron, MD, UNM professor emeritus of family and community medicine, must have heard that call. His career has taken him to

the ends of the earth, teaching, lecturing, and consulting about bringing medical care to people who lack it in the hinterlands.

Heffron’s travels have taken him to such “far away places” as Tashkent and Samarkind, Uzbekistan; Punjab and Delhi, India; Xian, Tianjin, and Chengdu, China; Rotarua, New Zealand; Tirana, Albania; and of course to places with not-so-strange names such as London, Paris, Sydney, New York, and even Texas. He has visited Kenya, South Africa, Turkey, Ethiopia, Thailand, and Kyrgyzstan. Speaking fluent Spanish, he has given lectures and consulted in most all the Central and South American countries. He has taught at the University of El Salvador, the University of Benin, King Saud University School of Medicine (Saudi Arabia), Beijing Medical School, and the University of Ibadan and Jos University School of Medicine (Nigeria), to name a few sites.

In all of these countries Heffron has extolled the greatness of the University of New Mexico’s family and community medicine program—repeatedly rated one of the 10 best in the country by US News and World Report—that he helped create almost 40 years ago.

He uses the UNM program as an example of what may be done in other countries.

To the Ends of the Earth When he was young, Warren Heffron thought going to the ends of the earth meant going to Mongolia. Recently he did just that. He was invited to lecture, teach, and consult at the medical university in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaan Baataar, on how family medicine helps the health of the country. While there he was a guest at a barbecue dinner.

Traditionally, a lamb is barbecued and the oldest person there is honored with the eyes of the barbecued lamb. Heffron knew he was the eldest, but his hosts didn’t, so fortunately they passed the honor to someone else.

Heffron was planning a sabbatical trip to Indonesia when he received a letter from the Christian Medical College in Punjab, India, saying the college had heard about this new movement called “family practice,” and wanted someone to teach them about it. So he changed plans and spent a year teaching in the

W O R L D C L A S S : Warren Heffron, MD, has taught and practiced community medicine worldwide. He views the tenets of the UNM family

Majdah al-Quhtani, ’95 BA, has been named the Albuquerque Business and Professional Women’s Young Careerist for projecting an image that reflects the role of today’s young work force in society.

M. Brandon Jakino, ’95 BABA, has been promoted to chief financial officer – North America of London-based HIT Entertainment. He lives in Plano, Texas.

John Masserini, ’95 BAMU, has been promoted to associate professor with tenure in the music department at Idaho State University. He has also been elected vice chair/chair elect of the ISU Faculty Senate.

He lives in Pocatello.

Julie Ponce, ’95 BSN, currently works at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and is attending Arizona State University for her neonatal nurse practitioner (NNP).

Will Reichard, ’95 BA, has been promoted to director of major gifts at United Way of Central New Mexico. He lives in Albuquerque.

Justin Treat, ’95 BS, has been selected as chief resident for the internal medicine program at Legacy Emanuel and Good Samaritan Hospitals in Portland for 2006-07.

He will then begin a fellowship in allergy and immunology at the University of Iowa.

Jerome C. Branche, ’96 PhD, is the author of Colonialism and Race in Luso-Hispanic Literature (University of Missouri Press) in which he examines race naming and race making in the modern period (1415-1948).

He lives in Pittsburgh.

Benjamin F. Feuchter, ’96 BA, ’99 JD, has been elected shareholder at Keleher & McLeod in Albuquerque. His practice is focuses on commercial litigation, employer

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medical school and helping establish a family medicine residency.

Heffron has traveled the world since 1966 as a missionary for instituting family medicine in third world countries and even in developed nations without adequate training programs. In many countries health care is concentrated in the cities and little is done to reach the large rural population. Heffron’s aim is to take medical care to the people of the world.

Starting in Mizzou Shortly after graduating from the University of Missouri School of Medicine, Heffron was with the US Public Health Service Indian Hospital in Fort Defiance, Arizona, from 1964 to 1966. After that stint he went to Hospital Castaner in Puerto Rico. He was forced to learn Spanish by complete immersion in the language at the small

40-bed hospital then a three-and-a half hour jeep ride from San Juan. He did a lot of surgeries and delivered a few hundred babies. His team would go into

“The most fascinating thing is to take what we’ve done here at UNM and realize that this is a valid model that can be made to work almost any place in the world.” the mountains in jeeps and set up clinic in schoolrooms. Having never formally studied Spanish, he admits he is not as proficient as he might be but gives his talks to Latin American audiences in their language.

While in Puerto Rico, he realized what was really needed was a kind of doctor that could be a generalist, who could work in places like rural Puerto

On the Map: Warren Heffron Professional Associations New Mexico Academy of Family Physicians, president Bernalillo County Academy of Family Physicians, president New Mexico Medical Society, president Greater Albuquerque Medical Association, board member American Board of Family Practice, president Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Foundation, president American Academy of Family Physicians, vice president World Organization of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Associations of General Practitioners and Family Physicians (called WONCA for obvious reasons), current president for the Americas Awards American Medical Association Physicians Recognition Award, ten times New Mexico Medical Society Robbins Award for community service University of Missouri Distinguished Service Award Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Gabe Smilkstein Memorial Award for Service in International Family Medicine UNM School of Medicine “Apple for the Teacher” faculty award for excellence in teaching Publication Samples Tips on What, When and How to Eat Family Practice textbook Bit of the Gila Monster Thyrotoxicosis Presenting as Choreoathetosis Healt and Lifestyle Issues as Risk Factors for Homelessness Dr. Sappington’s Fever Pills (Sappingon discovered quinine’s effect on malaria) Heffron has written collaborated on, or contributed to 60 or more scholarly papers, articles, or books.

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Rico (or New Mexico) and do some surgery, a lot of obstetrics, set broken bones, take care of children, and give first aid. To achieve that there needed to

—Warren Heffron

be post-graduate training available for would-be generalist doctors.

Heffron sums it up: “I came to UNM [in 1968], did three years of training here, and actually did a sub-specialty fellowship. At the end of my training, Robert Stone, who was the dean of the Medical School, called me into his office one day and said, ‘You know, there’s this new specialty called family medicine.

We need those kinds of doctors in New Mexico. Would you join our faculty and start a residency?’ So it was exactly what that dream I had had in the jungle was about. Three years before, I was sitting down there in that little jungle hospital in Puerto Rico. One night after delivering my eighth baby in a 24-hour period, I had this little dream about the kind of generalist, but specially trained, doctors we needed, and lo and behold Bob Stone had given me an offer of the job I had dreamed about. So I took the job and have been here now for over 30 years.”

When asked what he considered his greatest achievements, Heffron says his work at UNM and in consulting and teaching how to develop family medicine residencies in missionary hospitals around the world, particularly in economically developing countries. His work in helping establish and develop the Family and Community Medicine program at UNM has been his major life work. His use of what he has done at UNM to foster the development of worldwide family medicine, he hopes will be even more significant.

Global Model

Ready to Go

When queried about the most interesting place he has visited, he replies; “Every place I go is unique to me... because what I’ve been trying to do is take my hypothesis that if training family doctors is relevant to New Mexico it is even more so in the economically developing world. These countries need the kind of doctors that have been training here as family doctors. The most fascinating thing is to take what we’ve done here at UNM and realize that this is a valid model that can be made to work almost any place in the world.”

In closing our interview, Heffron says, “Another thing that we have

Warren Heffron, MD, is keeping his bags packed so he will be ready to take off when the next call comes, maybe to Timbuktu, or as the old song says, “…maybe to China or Siam.” The call will probably come through the worldwide networking of doctors of family medicine who all know about Warren Heffron and his work at UNM. He’ll be ready and will most likely travel at his own expense as he has done on most of his trips. This is the way of spreading his gospel of expanding education in family medicine and taking medical care to the people.

Honoring Doctor Heffron

T

he UNM Department of Family and Community Medicine is establishing the

Heffron Fellowship endowment in honor of Warren Heffron and his service.

The endowment’s purpose is to offer experiences in international health on

two levels: Every other year, the fund will bring a junior faculty physician from a

foreign country to UNM to spend one to two months studying family medicine education. On alternate years, the fund will support a UNM family practice resident for a one-month international elective rotation. For more information, call Joanne Branyon-Ward at 505-272-8413.

album defense, and tribal law issues at both trial and appellate levels.

Gundar Peterson, ’96 BSCE, has joined Daniel B. Stephens & Associates in Albuquerque as a member of the environmental services team.

Roderigo M. Padilla, ’97 BUS, is a BBA career advisor in the Ford Career Center and a lecturer in the marketing department at the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business. He lives in Round Rock, Texas.

Barbara Tyner, ’97 MA, was selected in May by the Lance Armstrong Foundation to speak in Washington, DC on legislation threatening funding to the cancer community. She has been very active in fundraising for the foundation. Barbara has been on the faculty at Central New Mexico Community College’s (formerly TVI) department of art and art history for six years and specializes in women’s art history and the arts of indigenous peoples.

Jon Bell, 98 BABA, ’05 MAAC, has joined Atkinson & Company in Albuquerque as a staff accountant in the audit department.

Stephen Cox, ’98 BS, received a BS in chemical engineering from Louisiana State University. He lives in Lake Charles.

Mary Alice Garcia, ’98 BA, passed the American Academy of Professional Coders’ Certified Professional Coder examination.

Mary Alice is the anti-fraud program manager at Molina Healthcare of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Natasha Lujan, ’98 MD, is practicing family medicine at the Taos Picuris Pueblo Indian Health Center in Taos.

done that has helped: seven young to mid-career doctors came to UNM as faculty development fellows. One young woman from Ecuador—she is now chairman of the family medicine department at her University. Another from Pakistan returned to start a department of family medicine.

A woman from Guatemala is now the dean of the medical school. Others continue to teach in their home countries. They stayed six months to a year at UNM. UNM has had an impact by bringing these people in. Now they have leadership roles in their countries and are infiltrating their country with our medical education model. I have watched their careers blossom and grow.”

Van Dorn Hooker, university architect emeritus, and Warren Heffron met in the late 60s when the family practice program was in its infancy and housed in a north campus building since torn down. A decade later they worked together closely to build the UNM Family Practice Center. Van Dorn is author of Only in New Mexico, an architectural history of the UNM campus, and was instrumental in publishing Miracle on the Mesa, a history of UNM. Both books are available through UNM Press (unmpress.com or 800-249-7737).

Olivia Padilla-Jackson, ’98 BABA, has been appointed by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to be director of the New Mexico Board of Finance. She lives in Albuquerque.

Yan Agranonik, ’99 MS, ’04 MBA, now works at Grant Thornton in Albuquerque as an associate in the assurance division.

Jean Pierre Arrossa, ’99 BABA, is now portfolio analyst with The Private Bank at Bank of America. He is an officer of the bank with the title of assistant vice president. He lives in Albuquerque.

Alan Augustson, ’99 BA, recently worked in Washington, DC on contract with FEMA as an analyst-advisor to its Recovery Branch during the Katrina-Rita-Wilma catastrophe.

He is now associate director—Issue Councils with the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.

He provides policy analysis and support to the chamber’s Economic Development, Infrastructure, and Healthcare Councils in Chicago.

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Seven sets of twins, featured in the 1947 UNM yearbook, talk about their lives together and apart, then and now.

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We’re all taught that it is impolite to stare, but it’s the first thing we do when we think we see twins. Our eyes dart back and forth checking facial features, hair color, and height. When we’re satisfied we see twins, we can’t resist the urge to tell them the obvious.

There are 100 million twins worldwide and nearly 119,000 twin births a year in the US. The chance of having twins increases with age, number of pregnancies, family history, and fertility treatments. The odds of having twins or a multiple birth today are just 1 in 33.

Although the odds were even less for multiple births in the late 1920s, eight sets of twins who beat the odds are pictured in the 1947 UNM yearbook. All but one set, Marylyn Glasebrook Trump, ’49 BA, and Evelyn Glasebrook Demuth, ’49, are still living, most in Albuquerque.

Today these twins say their lives are nothing extraordinary. They say they can’t describe “what it’s like to be a twin” because they don’t know anything else. But from the non-twin perspective, the experiences they recount are a window into unique relationships.

Twinseparable

Max and Rex Wagner, both ’50 BS, did everything together growing up.

They were drafted out of high school into WWII and served in the Medical Corps on the Queen Mary out of Abilene, Texas. After their service, the GI Bill afforded them the opportunity to attend UNM. With the flood of post-war college students, “medical schools were filled up,” says Rex, so they “waited two years to get into dental school.” Max and Rex have been partners in a dental office in Albuquerque for the past 46 years.

Betha Young Mount, ’48 BAFA, and Bertha Young Gatewood, ’48 BS, married the same day only one year apart and live across the street from one another. “We’re lucky that our husbands were close, like brothers,” says Betha. The twins also celebrated

nations

T W O C R O W N S ? Mildred Moutray High (left), ’50 BS, and Margaret Moutray Marchiondo, ’50 BSED, were so close in college that they ran as one homecoming queen! The duo now live only blocks apart and still take trips together.

album Mary Behm, ’99 JD, has been elected shareholder at Keleher & McLeod in Albuquerque. She works in commercial litigation and insurance law, and is also an adjunct law professor at UNM. Teresa Deras, ’99 BUS, has been promoted to administrative director by the Association of Commerce and Industry of New Mexico.

She lives in Albuquerque.

Brian N. Gonzales, ’99 BSCP, currently works as a senior software engineer at Qualcomm in San Diego.

Mike Arnold, ’00 BUS, was recently hired

by Southwest Airlines as a pilot/first officer and lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. He still serves as a pilot in the USAF Reserve.

Adam J. Battaglia, ’00 BABA, has finished his first year toward a doctor of dental medicine degree at Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine.

He has just had an article published in the American Student Dental Association’s quarterly magazine. He lives in Alton, Illinois.

Renee Barela-Gutierrez, ’00 JD, has been named town attorney by the Taos Town Council.

Brenda L. Bassett, ’00 BA, has received a BS in clinical laboratory sciences from Arizona State University. She is currently working as a medical technologist for Laboratory Sciences of Arizona and living in Sun City.

Stacey Humphrey, ’00 BABA, now works at Grant Thornton in Albuquerque as operations manager.

Denise Chanez, ’01 BA, was a member of the UNM School of Law moot court team that earned first place in the 2006 Hispanic National Bar Association’s Moot Court Competition in Seattle.

Katherine Ortega Courtney, ’01 BA, has received her PhD in psychology from the College of Science and Engineering at Texas Christian University. She is working at TCU on a project to help keep minority students from dropping out of college. Her husband, Jon Courtney, 00 BA, is pursuing his PhD at TCU. Ina Lopez, ’01 BS, is a dentist at the Esperanza Family Center in Estancia.

She lives in Moriarty, New Mexico.

Lisa Markworth, ’01 BS, received both a certificate in physician assistant studies and her MMS from Saint Francis University last year. She is employed as an interventional radiology physician assistant with Radiology Associates of Northern Kentucky and lives in California, Kentucky.

D. Voight Thornton, ’01 BA, is managing director of Tier One Productions in Albuquerque which offers DJ and event planning, Karaoke, and multimedia and video services. f a l l

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birthdays and anniversaries together and, living so close to each other, their children played together. “Our houses were indistinguishable to our children,” says Betha, who has spent her life raising her children and volunteering in the community. Bertha taught at elementary school in Albuquerque for 20 years.

Mildred Moutray High, ’50 BS, and Margaret Moutray Marchiondo, ’50 BSED, still take trips together.

They live a few blocks apart, talk on the phone everyday, and go to church together. After college, Mildred worked for three years in personnel at Sandia National Labs. Margaret worked briefly for Inland Motor Company. They both left their jobs to raise their children.

Margie Tormoehlen Babcock, ’48 BS, and Norma Tormoehlen Dolle, ’48 BAFA, sang and danced when they were young. It was the Shirley Temple

era, and the girls won an MGM contest to go to Hollywood. They didn’t find movie fame, but after college they were spotted by a talent scout on a bus and chosen to be the Toni Twins. Both Marjorie and Norma had naturally curly hair but one—they don’t remember which—tried the Toni perm anyway for honesty’s sake.

John and Frank Monteverde, both ’50, BA, were always together. Drafted after high school graduation into the Army’s 29th Infantry Division in WWII, they were in basic training together and scheduled to leave on the same boat headed for England. A few hours after boarding, Frank discovered that John hadn’t made it. He had been injured in a touch football game the day before and didn’t leave for a couple of months.

The two fought separately. Frank was captured by the Germans and held for nearly 11 months, during which time the brothers knew nothing about each other. Eventually, John became a geologist, and Frank, a lawyer.

Margaret says she never used the word “I” when she was younger. She and Mildred were so much alike that people thought of them as one person. They even ran as one Homecoming Queen.

Both Lou Ann Wilton Hunt, ’47 BAFA, and her identical twin, Betty Lou Wilton Pompeo, ’47, BAFA, majored in fine arts. They dressed alike through college and were roommates and members of Sigma Alpha Iota, a music honorary. While they were too busy to switch classes, people were still confused about who was who. Both went on to teach in the Santa Fe Public Schools, Lou Ann teaching elementary school music and Betty Lou, elementary and junior high art.

Twindividuality The only drawback to being a twin—echoed by nearly all—was not being seen as individuals. Betha and

Sometimes even twins have a hard time seeing themselves as separate people.

“In college we were so identical that talking to Norma was like talking to myself,” says Margie. But the two enjoyed the popularity that being a twin brought. They took many of the same classes, dressed alike, and were roommates in the Chi Omega house.

They learned to ski together and ended up owning side-by-side ski lodges in Aspen, Colorado.

H A P P Y E N D I N G : Nearly always together, John (left) and Frank Monteverde, both ’50 BA, were separated for almost a year in World War II with no word about each other.

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J U S T C H E C K I N G : When one attended class for the other, Bertha Young Gatewood (left), ’48 BS, and Sarah Betha Young Mount, ’48 BAFA, thought they’d fooled Professor Raymond Jonson, until the professor called them both together for a reality check.

Nick Layman

Nick Layman

Twinfused

Twincognito After the war, Margie says the ratio of men to women at UNM was about nine to one. “I’d have four or five dates a day—one for lunch, tennis, dinner, and studying,” she says. To increase that number further, she and Norma double-dated at drive-in movies.

“During the intermission, we’d go to the bathroom and switch dates when we returned to the car,” laughs Margie.

Bertha once attended Betha’s art class taught by Raymond Jonson.

“Everything seemed to go fine until the end of the semester,” says Bertha.

“When Jonson saw me walk by Fine Arts, he dragged me into class to see if there were really two of us. Jonson had a feeling he had been taken.”

Although Jack and Dick were not identical, that didn’t stop Jack from trying to fool a girl every now and then. “I once told a girl that I was a twin and since she didn’t know my

album

brother, the next time I saw her, I said I was Dick,” admits Jack. “She didn’t believe me.”

Ed Lobaugh, ’02 BSNU, ’05 MSNU, of Moriarty has a goat farm and is selling cheese, soaps, lotions, and bath salts made with his goats’ milk. His cheese won a national contest recently. His web site is http://www.theoldwindmilldairy.com.

Twinvaluable Like all siblings, these twins say they sometimes argue but, in the end, they appreciate each other and their special bond. They describe themselves as loyal, best friends, and teams.

While they see their lives as ordinary, to us twins remain mysterious. Their shared experiences, shared values, shared comfort with each other are extraordinary. While “twindom” may have its downfalls, there is much to appreciate in the intimacy of the experience.

“It’s been an interesting life,” says Lou Ann.

“OPEN WIDE” & “OPEN WIDE!” Rex (left) and Max Wagner, both ’50 BS, have maintained a dental practice in Albuquerque for more than 40 years.

Edward Williams, ’02 BUS, of Albuquerque, has joined BRYCON Corp as a project manager.

Bonita Ortiz, ’03 MAPA, has been sworn into the State Bar of New Mexico Board of Bar Commissioners and is the 2006 chair of the paralegal division of the State Bar. The Albuquerque paralegal holds two national paralegal certifications from the National Association of Legal Assistants. She is a certified legal specialist in the UNM Office of University Counsel.

Dale Olson, ’03 MBA, has joined Exagen Diagnostics in Albuquerque as director of finance and administration.

Amber Fahs, ’04 BUS, ’05 MS, is working at the Canyon Ranch Health Resort in Tucson.

Shannon Jackson, ’04 BA, is a junior account executive at Cooney Watson & Associates in Albuquerque.

Lynn E. Mostoller, ’04 JD, has joined the Keleher & McLeod law firm in Albuquerque.

Josh Bazinet, ’05 BS, has been promoted to estimator and project manager at Enterprise Builders in Albuquerque.

Brian McCarthy, ’05 MBA, has been promoted by Vantage Builders to division president for New Mexico. Brian lives in Corrales.

Nick Pattengale, ’05 MS, has received the 2006 UNM Student Award for Innovation in Informatics for his paper “A Sublinear-Time Randomized Approximation Scheme for the Robinson-Foulds Metric.” Nick is a UNM computer science graduate student.

Anthony Torres, ’05 BABA, has moved to the Washington, DC area where he is an internal auditor with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Defense. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

in memoriam Nick Layman

Bertha recall being called “twinsy,” and Margaret says people would just say “Hi, Twin” to avoid calling her or Mildred the wrong name.

Dick Tischhauser, ’51 BS, and his brother, Jack, were the only twins in this group to separate in college. Dick, who majored in mathematics and worked most of his career for Air Defense in Washington, DC, attended UNM all four years. Jack attended UNM for two years and transferred to St. Louis University to finish his BS in physics, working at Sandia National Labs from 1951 to 1988.

Clifford Eugene “Tip” Dinkle, ‘32 Henry Mendenhall, ‘32 Henry H. Herpolsheimer, ‘37 Dorothy Cox McCormick, ‘38 Jane V. Olson, ‘39 Kathleen S. Stumph, ‘40 Harry Bogren, ‘42 Jean Mullins Macey, ‘42 Florrie Stamm, ‘42 Mary Lou Sausser, ‘43 George Clyde Clark, ‘45 Kathryn “Katy” Louise McIntosh Ely, ‘45 f a l l

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see what you can do

unm

Jean Mullins Macey was

is that students on the receiving end make a new friend.

Management (ASM) Advisory Council, and the UNM Alumni Board as well as numerous committees.

“Jean was one of my all-time favorite people,” says Karen Abraham, associate vice president of alumni relations and executive director of the UNM Alumni Association. “She was a wonderful, fun, gracious, and generous person, always promoting education and women.”

And promote she did. Jean established a scholarship and two fellowships for women enrolled in ASM: the Jean Mullins Macey Endowed Scholarship for Women and the Jean Mullins Macey Endowed Fellowships for Women. In addition, Jean endowed a scholarship fund for junior or senior female students who have performed exemplary service on the UNM campus.

With her husband, Jean also endowed scholarships and building projects at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Bill’s alma mater.

“She felt that women needed all the help they could get getting through school, financially and otherwise,” says Bill. “She thought they needed a little more help than the fellows.”

They may never meet this friend—or, they may form a

Alumna Par Excellence

a friend to UNM and to its women students.

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M c R U I Z

A M B I T I O U S G O A L S : Anderson Schools of Management senior Deanna Armijo is using her Jean Mullins Macey scholarship to prepare for

o

graduate school next fall. The financial management major hopes to find a

job first as a corporate financial analyst, then as a real estate developer,

and ultimately as the owner of her own business.

One of the greatest benefits of philanthropy in education

casual or close friendship. Regardless of the quality of these connections, the students know that someone believes in them enough to help them achieve their goals.

Jean Mullins Macey was such a friend. A 1942 graduate of UNM, she gave her time, experience, and financial support to the school because of her keen interest in helping others succeed.

Jean passed away in February of this year, but many people at UNM—especially the students she helped—will always remember and appreciate her gifts.

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From Volunteer to Donor Even before she began her philanthropy to UNM, Jean exemplified a spirit of generosity to the school. Her husband, Bill, says she “did volunteer work from day one—she made herself available no matter what.” Jean served on the UNM Foundation Board of Directors, the Anderson Schools of

Perhaps the strong tradition of education in Jean’s family influenced her decisions. Her father, mother, and sister were all teachers. Her daughter, Barbara, holds a master’s degree in learning disabilities and teaches in Colorado. In examining Jean’s life, it seems inevitable she would rack up remarkable accomplishments.

Jean was one of only two students to graduate from what is now ASM with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Her classmate was also a woman—the men were at war, not at university. While her sweetheart, Bill, was overseas, Jean worked as a manager of student funds at UNM. She then worked in the federal Office of Price

eat woman… great woman Administration, which controlled prices for housing, groceries, and other wartime necessities.

After relocating to San Francisco to be chief of a statistical division in the Army Port of Embarkation, she returned to UNM and worked in admissions and registration. Bill returned from the war and started an oil and gas company, Hillmac Production Company, which he later merged into Macey and Mershon Oil, Inc., in Denver.

After a four-year courtship—they met in 1940 while Bill was a student at New Mexico Tech, and began dating in 1942—Bill and Jean married in 1946.

Jean continued to work in diverse fields, including insurance and radio.

When she became pregnant with their daughter, she left her job as a news editor for the El Paso Times and began volunteering with myriad organizations from Girl Scouts to the women’s association at church.

A Great Asset According to her friends, Jean was seldom idle and steadfastly modest in her volunteerism and philanthropy.

And throughout her years of service, Jean seemed like just one of the girls.

“Jean was warm and personable,” says Lisa McHale, administrative coordinator at ASM. “She loved to go out to lunch and chat. She made you feel like family.”

Jean also enjoyed receiving letters from the young women who were awarded the scholarship and fellowships she established.

Jean’s business acuity was a great asset to her husband’s work. “I took a lot of problems home with me,” Bill recalls, “and she helped me make a lot of decisions about personnel and things like that. She had superb judgment.”

F I N E F R I E N D : Jean Mullins Macey endowed scholarships and fellowships for women students at UNM. Jean was one of two business grads—both women—at UNM in 1942.

Honors and Awards Jean received a number of awards from UNM as an outstanding alumna, including the Erna S. Fergusson Alumni Award (1993), the ASM Hall of Fame Award (1994), and the Lobo Award (1999).

Through their generosity to UNM, Jean and Bill became members of the President’s Club and the Popejoy Society. In the President’s Club, donors make annual, unrestricted gifts to the President’s Fund for Academic Excellence. The Popejoy Society honors cumulative giving to the university.

In 1999, the couple became charter members of the New Horizons Society, which honors donors who have made planned gifts to UNM.

Loving Partnership During their 60-year marriage, the Maceys lived in Denver, Tucson, Albuquerque, and Artesia. They were fond of travel and went all over the world.

These days Bill still travels frequently with his daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. He says he has never retired and keeps busy running the family business, The Macey Corp., and with real-estate projects in Tucson and Socorro. The Western art his wife loved to collect hangs on the walls of their immaculate home. He and his caretaker, Eugenia, speak surely about Jean’s endearing personality.

“She was very outgoing and had lots of friends,” they say. “She especially liked little children. She was loving and easy to love.”

album more in memoriam Gunnar Dahlquist, ‘47 Martin W. Eckert, ‘47 Josephine Hawrylko, ‘47 John C. Marshall, ‘47 G. Rudy Camunez, ‘48 Richard Cornelius Dewitt, ‘48 Jean C. Hildreth, ‘48 A. Lincoln Coapman, ‘49 Mary Jane McDonough Compton, ‘49 Marilyn J. Murphy, ‘49 Edwin Worthington Wallace, ‘49 Harry K. Dalton, ‘50 Elbert E. Harrison Jr., ‘50 Manley Rex Roby, ’50 Paul E. Beavers, ‘51 Earl E. Ellis, ‘51 Richard Ericson, ‘51 Betty Thorne Horton, ‘51 Marion Lord, ‘51 Jack Franklin O’Hara, ‘51 Stella Marydell Roby, ’51, ‘56 Richard S. Christy, ‘52 Walter Mangold, ’52 Robert James Walpole, ‘52 Kenneth Allen Current, ‘54 Jason M. Rogers, ’54, ’70, ’75 Julien M. Tracy, ‘54 Agnes Dorothy Holm, ’55, ‘74 William L. Nicks, ‘55 Madeline E. Randle, ‘55 Raymond W. Nethers, ‘56 H. L. McCarroll, ‘58 Eleanor M. Scott, ‘58 Louise Turner, ‘59 John S. Helfrich, ‘60 John M. Musterman, ‘60 Walter D. Hewitt, ‘61 Rafael Abeyta Carrillo, ’63, ’73 Carolyn Joan Randall Dove, ‘63 Kent Edward Pullen, ‘63 Gregory Trujillo, ’63, ’67, ‘70 Stephen D. VanDelinder, ‘65 Darlene Durand Wilson, ’66, ‘71 Dwain E. Willingham, ‘67 Margaret Elma Kunkel, ‘68 Paul W. Kravagna, ‘70 Gloria T. Lyons, ‘70 Glade Frank Sperry Jr., ’70, ‘72 Thomas Robert Ferguson, ’71, ‘74 Jay Hamner, ‘71 Joseph W. Neudecker Jr., ‘71 Jennifer M. Nichols, ‘71 Jerry Dennis Thompson, ‘71 Eugene Hill Copeland, ‘72 Richard Dee Malcomson, ’72, ‘75 Harvey Chenault Phelps, ‘72 Avis Carlene Sims, ‘74 Nancy Armor Neeld, ‘75 George Rogers Smith, ‘75 Dolly June Cable, ‘76 Joseph M. Hodock, ‘77 Sherry Hill, ‘77 Ruth Elizabeth Trainovitch, ’77, ’85, ‘91 Monica Ann Coash, ‘79 Timothy W. Gosbee, ‘79 f a l l

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alumni outlook

unm

New Beginnings

By Roberto D. Ortega, ’87 JD President, UNM Alumni Association

A

s I enter into my term as president of the Alumni Association, the university is also entering into a search for a new president. I am proud to say

that we alumni will be a significant participant and a deciding factor in the choice of our new leader.

The association works closely with the university president. From that experience, we have come to identify the characteristics and qualities that fit and inspire the university’s endeavors. The presidency requires respect for the university’s history and traditions, appropriate vision for its future, and appreciation of the many people who make it function and thrive.

After participating in the formidable decision to locate a president, we must help the new president to come as close as possible to meeting all our expectations—while leaving room for new inspiration!

Fall begins with our 2006 homecoming celebrations, grouped together under the theme “There’s No Place Like UNM.” I would like to add that there

are no people like UNM alumni, as this issue of Mirage can attest. I am impressed by the examples of alumni featured who are making huge differences in their communities—in education, medicine, social services, and neighborhood improvement. I like to think that their UNM experience gave them the training and desire they have all needed to accomplish their various goals.

I might also add that there’s no place like our UNM Alumni Association home! Hodgin Hall became our official center in principle last year, and this year it will be our home in fact as our association reconfigures the physical space to accommodate the various programs and initiatives that our staff is developing in concert with your Alumni Association Board. I am looking forward to many positive initiatives coming through its doors, and I anticipate that all UNM alumni share in this optimism.

Live It Up this Fall!

W I T H

U N M

Y O U N G

A L U M N I *

August 11 Identity Theft Workshop, sponsored by Liberty Mutual, 5:30 p.m., Hodgin Hall. Contact Sue at 277-9088 to reserve your spot.

15 Finance Workshop, sponsored by Merril Lynch, 5:30 p.m., Hodgin Hall. Contact Sue at 277-9088.

24 Welcome Back Days

September 9

Wine Tasting, 2 p..m. Milagro Vineyards and Winery, Corrales $5/person 13 Grad School Prep Workshop, 5:30 p.m., location TBD 23 Football Game Tailgate, 1 p.m. UNM Stadium

2 6

Homecoming Kickoff Social, 5:30 p.m., Kelly’s Brew Pub. RSVP to Danny at milo_danny@hotmail.com.

Homecoming Young Alumni Reception, 6-8 p.m., UNM SUB, 3rd Floor Patio. RSVP to Danny at milo_danny@hotmail.com.

Gabor Racz

October YOUNG ALUMNI WELCOME: The last of the guests leave Hodgin Hall after the “Live It Up” social held by UNM Young Alumni for new grads in May.

*Young Alumni have graduated from UNM in the past 10 years. For more information, go to www.unmalumni.com/chapters/youngalumni.htm.

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UNM Alumni Chapter Calendar August 5 12 20 20 22

Austin Chapter Ice Cream Social Denver Chapter 2nd Saturday Lobo Breakfast Los Angeles Chapter 14th Annual Green Chile Fest Denver Chapter Annual Picnic and Silent Auction – Silo Park NY Area Chapter Met in the Parks – Central Park

September 2 9 9 9 10 10 16 16 23 23 30 tba tba

Denver Chapter Lobo Football TV Bash at Grand Slam – Portland State Los Angeles Chapter Hollywood Bowl featuring Willie Nelson Las Vegas Chapter Annual Green Chile Roast Denver Chapter 2nd Saturday Lobo Breakfast Washington, DC Chapter Green Chile Roast & Taco Picnic San Diego Chapter Business Meeting & Lunch – Chevy’s Restaurant Denver Chapter Lobo Football TV Bash at Grand Slam – Missouri Chicago Chapter Annual Green Chile Roast Norcal Chapter Annual Green Chile Roast Denver Chapter Lobo Football TV Bash at Grand Slam – UTEP Colorado Springs – Lobos at USAFA Tailgate and Game Atlanta Chapter Annual Green Chile Roast Austin Chapter Annual Green Chile Roast

October 7 14 14 14 19 19 21 22

Denver Chapter Lobo Football TV Bash at Grand Slam – Wyoming Las Vegas – Lobo Football Tailgate and Game Denver Chapter 2nd Saturday Lobo Breakfast Denver Chapter Lobo Football TV Bash at Grand Slam – UNLV Denver Chapter Lobo Football TV Bash at Grand Slam – Utah Chicago Chapter Football Party at Hi-Tops in Wrigleyville NY Area Chapter – Wine Tasting and Business Meeting San Diego Chapter Wine Tasting & Lunch – Bernardo Winery

November 11 11 18 25 25 tbd

Denver Chapter 2nd Saturday Lobo Breakfast Denver Chapter Lobo Football TV Bash at Grand Slam – TCU Denver Chapter Lobo Football TV Bash at Grand Slam – BYU Denver Chapter Lobo Football TV Bash at Grand Slam – SDSU San Diego Chapter Lobo Football TV Bash at McGregor’s – SDSU Chicago Chapter Art Institute Tour

Events, dates, and times are subject to change. Please contact the Alumni Relations Office at 505-277-5808 or 800-258-6866 for additional information.

U N M

A L U M N I

A S S O C I A T I O N

Educational Travel Adventures 2007 Following is the lineup of our new educational travel opportunities coming up in 2007. We hope to see you on one of them in the near future!

February 6 – 13 Alumni College in Panama

July 5 – 15 Scandinavian Discovery

March 17 – 29 Treasures of Argentina & Chile

September 23 – October 3 Alumni College – Russia’s Golden Ring

June 10 – 20 Treasures of Japan

October 6 – 17 Alumni College in Spain

Trips and dates are subject to change. For additional information, contact Charlene Chavez Tunney at the Alumni Relations Office, 505-277-5808 or 800-258-6866.

album more in memoriam Michael R. Baca, ‘80 Michael G. Gregg, ‘81 Marilyn Jean Luft, ‘82 Mary L. Dahl, ‘83 Paul Tulenko, ’85, ‘87 Peter Francis del Giudice, ‘86 Gayle Ann Travis, ‘86 Fletcher Dwight Hines, ‘91 JoAnn Chrisman, ‘95 Phillip Crazybull, ‘97 Lucy “Fivekiller” Beals, ’99, ‘02 Anne Elizabeth Kelly, ‘01 Jesse Chapmen Greenberg, ‘04 Rita Arlene Richards, ‘04 Robert Ray Emery, ‘05 Laureen (Lori) Mary McKenzie, ‘05 John K. Leach, faculty emeritus Mary Sue Wood Crewe, retired staff Edward M. Gilliland, former faculty Robert Santley, faculty U. William Weeks, former staff/coach Vicente Ojinaga, ’50, is alive and well in Santa Fe. We apologize to Vicente, his family, and his friends for mistakenly listing him in In Memoriam.

marriages Charles E. MacQuigg, ’79 BSIE, ’85 MA, and Susan K. Burns John L. Wright, ’87 BSE, and Consuelo Mancha Melissa Thomas, ’90 BABA, and Pat Salome Stephen Cox, ’98 BS, and Anne Wheat Olivia Padilla, ’98 BABA, and Travis Jackson, ’97 BA, ’00 JD Marialuisa Lucero, ’00 BABA, and James Arnold Lisa Albers, ’02 BA, ’04 MS, and Roberto Rodriguez Sara Cordova, ’02 BA, and Alan Scott Dawn Lehner, ’02 BSNU, and Robby Fithen Jennifer Minneman, ’02 BS, ’05 MPT, and Ian Martin Daniel P. Fass, ’03 BA, and Jessica M. Esquibel Erika D. Kirby, ’03 BUS, and TSgt. Eric A. Sampson Amy Littlewood, ’03 BA, and Daniel Frasco Jodie Brandow, ’04 BS, and Jason Garcia Bonnie Beers, ’05 BSED, and David Murphy, ’05 BA Travis Brooks, ’05 BSNE, and Stephanie Strachen Michelle M. Miller, ’05 BA, and Eric Maestas, ’05 BA In the spring 2006 Mirage we erroneously listed the marriage of Tanya D. Montoya, ’03 MS, and Hector G. Mezquida. Please accept our apologies.

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There’s No Place Like New Mexico!

Family stories inspire

L

ooming storm clouds contrast

Juan Morales’ poetry.

with the golden cottonwoods

of Paul Murray’s, ’70 BFA,

for $35 each. Order yours using

from flip flops to earthquakes

the registration form in the

B Y

pastel painting “Abiquiu.”

We’ve reproduced Paul’s art in our 2006 homecoming poster.

Limited copies are available, signed for $50 each, unsigned

S A R I

K R O S I N S K Y

enclosed Homecoming brochure or via our website at

Every writer knows the anxiety

unmalumni.com/homecoming or by calling 505-277-5808 or

of waiting for that first big

800-258-6866.

break. Juan Morales,’05 MFA, found the wait to be a lot shorter than he expected.

Juan Morales and his wife were painting their house in Colorado when he got the call that his first book of poems, Friday and the Year that Followed, had tied for first place in Bedbug Press’ Rhea and Seymour Gorsline Poetry Contest.

“I did a celebratory dance of some sort in my hallway,” Juan says. Five months later, he’s still getting used to it. “I’m thankful and relieved that my book found the right circumstances,” he says.

The collection has extraordinary scope, with poems taking place in present and past, in realistic and supernatural settings, in Puerto Rico, Vietnam, Ecuador, New York, and New Mexico.

Family stories have been central to Juan’s writing from the beginning.

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“The first poem that I ever wrote in a workshop was about a pair of my father’s flip flops that he kept around for 31 years, that he wore through his two tours of duty in Vietnam,” he says.

Juan says he used to be nervous about his parents’ reaction, but both have been supportive. One series of poems features his mother’s family’s experience of living through the 1949 earthquake in Ecuador. “When the sequence of earthquake poems was published, my mom said, ‘Ah, so now I’m a celebrity?’”

Juan is currently writing English translations of poems in Quichua, the indigenous language spoken in Ecuador’s mountainous communities.

He’s also writing poems on encounters between the Inca and the Spanish Conquistadors, the fall of the Inca empire, and the ensuing culture clash.

“These events present countless opportunities to explore the myths and legends born out of history, and the magical and mysterious elements they carry.”

“Friday and the Year that Followed” will be published in August. It can be purchased from the Bedbug Press website, http://www.bedbugpress.com.

unm

lobo gear

Twins Enterprise, Frontline Cap grey one size fits most $18

Twins Enterprise, Freshman Cap white front, red back, red bill one size fits most $17

Jones and Mitchell, Champ Zip Hood white S-XL $52.95

Lobo hoodies & sweatpants & caps,

oh my!

Jones and Mitchell, Kicker Estate Pant white S-XL $45.95

Jansport, Tackle Twill Hood Sweatshirt charcoal with white and black lettering S-XL $56 • XXL $59

Find more gear and gifts at www.unmalumni.com Order online or call 800-981-BOOK or 505-277-5451

Nonprofit Org US Postage Paid The University of New Mexico Alumni Association

Permit No. 222

MSC 01-1160

Burl., Vt. 05401

1 University of New Mexico Albuquerque NM 87131-0001

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME • UNM HOMECOMING 2006 • OCTOBER 2–7, 2006

Homecoming week 2006 is full of events for your brain and your heart—all topped off by a Homecoming game full of courage! Reunions and tailgates and lectures, oh my! So join us at the merry old land of UNM this fall!

we’re off to see the Lobos! w w w. u n m a l u m n i . c o m / h o m e c o m i n g • 5 0 5 - 2 7 7 - 5 8 0 8 • 8 0 0 - A L U M - U N M