Author: Continuum staff

Alumni Association News

February 22, 2010

Founders Day 2010

Founders Day traditions date back to 1899, when the Utah State Legislature voted to move the University of Utah to its present location on Salt Lake City’s east bench. The event coincided with the University’s founding on February 28 and inspired a celebration that continues to this day.

In honor of the founding of the U, the Alumni Association each year presents four (or occasionally, as this year, three) Distinguished Alumnus/a Awards to U of U alumni in recognition of their outstanding personal and professional achievements. An Honorary Alumnus/a Award is also given to an exceptional non-U of U graduate who has supported the University of Utah in its mission. The following recipients of the 2010 awards were recognized at the annual Founders Day Banquet on February 24:

Distinguished Alumni

Larry D. Gluth BS’83, a former vice president with Starbucks, is currently senior vice president of the U.S. and Canada area office for Habitat for Humanity International, as well as vice chair of the U of U’s National Advisory Council.

M. Elizabeth Hale Hammond BS’64 MD’67, medical director of the Office of Research for Intermountain Health Care, is a U of U professor of pathology, a former professor at Harvard, and an internationally known expert in transplantation pathology.

Robert A. McDonald MBA’78, president, CEO, and chair of the board of Procter & Gamble and a member of the David Eccles School of Business National Advisory Board, graduated in the top 2 percent of his West Point class and served as a captain in the U.S. Army for five years before joining P&G.

Due to unavoidable circumstances, Fred P. Lampropoulos ex’70, founder of Merit Medical Systems medical device company, was unable to participate in this year’s Founders Day celebration. He will be honored in 2011.

Honorary Alumna

Marta S. Weeks-Wulf, an Episcopal priest, is a civic leader and philanthropist whose generosity includes gifts to the College of Mines and Earth Sciences toward construction of the new Frederick Albert Sutton Building, named in honor of her father, a noted field geologist.

Thank you!

The Alumni Association wishes to express its appreciation to the Founders Day 2010 primary sponsors: Deseret News and the Episcopal Diocese of Utah.

Tutoring and Teaching

Emeritus Board member Ted Nagata tutors a couple of Bryant Intermediate School students.

Emeritus Alumni Board (EAB) members have been busy for the past couple of years. In addition to participating in Reality Town and Career Fair Day (covered in the Fall 2009 issue of Continuum), many members have also volunteered in a tutoring project taking place at Bryant Intermediate School.

A significant number of Bryant students are just learning English and often come from home environments where income is limited and the parents don’t speak English. In fact, there are some 30 different languages spoken at the school. The lofty goal of the EAB’s effort is to assure that these middle school students are prepared to continue their education successfully through high school and, hopefully, beyond.

Teaching students to read English was—and is—the project’s primary goal, although a few tutors also work with students in elementary math. One-on-one tutoring sessions are typically conducted once or twice a week during 45-minute class periods. Volunteer tutors are coached in the strategies to help students learn to read or to read better.

Last spring, 15 volunteers tutored 18 students on a weekly basis. Currently, 25 tutors have signed up to assist in the project during 2009-10. Most of the tutors are emeritus alumni, including four from the EAB. Bryant teacher Michelle Stimpson BA’00 MEd’03, who tutors limited English-speaking students, reports that the students made impressive progress last year in improving their reading skills and vocabulary.

The coordinator of the Bryant School projects, including Reality Town and Career Fair, is John Bennion BS’61 MA’62, an educational consultant and coordinator of a statewide Novice Teacher Research Study, whose expertise in education has proved invaluable to the effort. EAB member Carolyn Kump BS’53 is responsible for recruiting volunteer tutors this year.

“It is a very rewarding experience, especially since the students are so eager to learn and appreciate the help they are receiving,” says Bennion.
In the end, both students and volunteers are the beneficiaries of a really good idea brought to life.

—Contributed by Emeritus Alumni Board member Pat Capson Brown BA’47 MA’82.

Utah Bests BYU in Collecting Food and Funds

SAB member Katie Ence solicits donations from Ute fans in support of the Rivalry Week Food Drive. Photo courtesy John Fackler

The University of Utah may have lost to BYU in its last encounter on the gridiron, but the U swept the 2009 Rivalry Week Food Drive in both food and funds donated—to the benefit of hungry families in Utah.

During Rivalry Week, Nov. 13-28 (leading up to the U of U-BYU game in Provo on Nov. 28), the U collected 232,767 pounds of food to BYU’s 162,318. U of U supporters donated $60,228; BYU’s, $55,285. Both universities topped their previous records for both poundage and dollars.

“The Rivalry Week Food Drive brings an added dimension of fun and competition to game week,” says Ann Bardsley BA’84, chair of the Alumni Association’s Community Service Committee. “But the best part of the food drive is that through the combined efforts of the alumni associations at the U and BYU, increased numbers of people are served by the food pantries this season.”

In fact, Utah’s pounds of food collected is an overall record, while BYU’s is the most the school has raised in the 15 years of competition. BYU topped its $45,000 amount from 2008 by more than $10,000; Utah exceeded its 2008 total by $25,000, due in large part to the sale of “Beat BYU” T-shirts, a project led by the U’s Student Alumni Board (SAB).

Many groups played a part in the competition. Members of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and the SAB placed hundreds of food barrels around campus
and throughout the University community. The Campus Store alone raised more than $10,000 through the sale of Rivalry Week T-shirts and another $4,000 from Block U cards at $1 each.

Says John Fackler BS’89 BS’94 MprA’95, director of Alumni Relations and coordinator of the SAB, “The Utah Food Bank estimates that each dollar donated can be turned into 12 pounds of food, which would mean that we raised the equivalent of 1,386,000 pounds of food through monetary donations!”

All food and funds collected go directly to Utah food banks to be distributed to needy families across the state.

Alumni Career Services: Empowering the Unemployed

Julie Swaner

Julie Swaner’s specialty is not only helping unemployed people find jobs, but also keeping them focused and their spirits up. The challenge quotient to Swaner’s job has risen dramatically over the past year or so, no thanks to the economic upheaval experienced throughout the country and around the globe beginning in late 2008. While Utah is in better shape than most other states—at this writing, unemployment nationwide is hovering around 10 percent, while in Utah it’s pegged at 7 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics—the jobless numbers are high enough to keep her hopping. Continuum asked Swaner to provide an update on how her office has been handling the rush.

As manager of Alumni Career Services (ACS), you have no doubt seen an increase in alumni coming to you for help in finding a job due to the economic downturn. How has this affected your workload?

The huge increase [in jobless numbers] started around October 2008 and continued through August 2009. The good news is that the largest proportion of those who were laid off in the early round have since found employment. However, some individuals have been out of work for a year or more because their particular industry was especially hard hit. Yes, my workload has increased substantially over the past year and a half.

Last fall, you reinstituted ACS’s Job Club. Could you explain what that’s about and how it helps job seekers?

Job Club is a support group for any job seeker in the valley (preferably those with a college degree)—not just University of Utah alumni, which make up the majority, but also alums from other Utah schools such as BYU and Utah State, and some from out of state. Job Club offers up-to-date, cutting-edge information about how to conduct a successful job search. Speakers are brought in to offer advice in their respective areas of expertise. Looking for a job can be a lonely, isolating process, and Job Club addresses that problem by connecting people to others in the same situation. Many within the group have generated strong supportive relationships that have helped them turn their situation around more quickly. Job Club meets every Friday afternoon in Career Services and is free.

What do you say to people who have been out of work for a while to help keep their spirits up?

Job seekers really should consider joining a support group—one such as Job Club. A supportive environment helps them understand that, in most cases, the situation is structural, not personal. It is imperative that job seekers remain positive and hold an “attitude of gratitude.” Negativity can undermine the job seeker’s efforts and state of mind, and recruiters sense that negativity in a heartbeat. Also, activity is critical to keeping those endorphins flowing, and one way of doing that is by volunteering. Donating your time to a cause that is heartfelt may bring a positive sense of self by knowing that you are giving back to the community. A side benefit is that the job seeker remains visible and has a presence in the public domain, as well as the opportunity to network.

What would you say are the most important things a job seeker can do to improve his or her chances of landing a job?

A job seeker must communicate, in stories and words, that he or she is a problem-solver. The message must be targeted, focused, and constructed for each interview. This means that job seekers must understand their unique ‘brand’—that is, where can they add value to a particular organization and how they can positively impact the employer’s bottom line. They should be aware of what is unique about their skills, abilities, and performance. Too often people fail at this. These are the kinds
of issues and concerns that Job Club addresses.

I should mention that, even if a person is not jobless, such skills are useful for anyone who wants to improve their employment situation.

For more information about the programs offered by Alumni Career Services, contact Julie Swaner at (801) 585-5036 or jswaner@sa.utah.edu or visit www.alumni.utah.edu/career.

Student Alumni Board Officers for 2009-10

The University of Utah Student Alumni Board (SAB) offers a unique opportunity for students to work together with U of U alumni in planning and participating in various campus programs and events, including Homecoming, PlazaFest, The MUSS, the Utah vs. BYU Food Drive, and the year-end “After Party” bash held in the Union Building in collaboration with ASUU. Members of the SAB are also appointed to Alumni Association committees and participate in many Alumni Association programs. L-R, McKenzie Newton (VP), Sarah Hanks (VP), Parker Ence (President), Rochelle McConkie (VP), and Kasi Goodwin (VP).

ULink: “Linking you with the U”

The University of Utah Alumni Association has officially launched its first online social network and directory. ULink, designed and tailored specifically for University of Utah alumni, provides innovative networking features to foster a thriving online community.

At ULink, you can:

  • Search for and communicate with fellow alumni
  • Create and customize your own profile pages, adding news feeds, YouTube
    videos, Facebook apps, Flickr photos, LinkedIn pages, and more
  • Register for Alumni Association-sponsored events
  • Stay in touch with your local alumni chapter communities
  • Upload your résumé or search job openings posted by other alumni
  • And so much more!

In Memoriam

February 22, 2010

WEB EXTRA~

Royden G. Derrick ex’38, a former Utah industrialist and an emeritus general authority for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died at home on December 7. He was 94.

Royden Glade Derrick was born on an unusually cold day of September 7, 1915, to Hyrum and Margaret Glade Derrick in Salt Lake City. He grew up a shy boy in the Avenues of Salt Lake, spending much of his youth exploring the foothills around City Creek Canyon. Trained as an engineer at the University of Utah, Royden formed Western Steel Company in 1945. Specializing in high-rise buildings and steel bridges, Western Steel won awards for the Colorado River and Dirty Devil bridges of southern Utah. The company grew steadily to become the largest steel fabricator between the Mississippi River and the west coast and was acquired by Joy Manufacturing in 1974. Royden’s tireless work ethic led him to community, national, and international service. He sat on the board of directors for numerous Utah and regional corporations; served as chair of the University of Utah’s Board of Regents; presided over the Salt Lake Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; sat as chair of the National Association of the Partners of the Americas; and held the position of president of the Utah Manufacturer’s Association. He also participated in several State Department initiatives focusing on Third World development and improvement. In recognition of his community service he received an Honorary Citizenship from Lapaz, Bolivia; the Jesse Knight Industrial Citizenship Award from Brigham Young University; and an Honorary doctorate of humanities from the University of Utah.

In 1973, he stepped away from his business and civic responsibilities when LDS Church leaders called him to be president of the England Leeds Mission. Forty-eight hours after completing this mission, church leaders called him to immediately return to Europe to preside over the newly organized Ireland Dublin Mission. Days after arriving in Dublin he was asked to serve as a member of the newly founded First Quorum of the Seventy. In his 14 years as a Seventy, he served in many capacities. He strengthened the church in the America Northeast, Canada East and Asia areas. He led efforts in the Missionary and Genealogical Departments and served as the President of the Seattle Washington Temple. In 1989, church leaders granted Royden emeritus status.

He is survived by his wife of 72 years, Allie Olsen Derrick; three sons: James (and Karen), David (and Marsha), and Bruce (and Trish) Derrick; son-in-law Roger Wood (and Kathy); 18 grandchildren; and 24 great-grandchildren. He is preceded in death by five older brothers and an older sister, as well as his daughter, Linda Derrick Wood. Interment is at Salt Lake City cemetery. In lieu of flowers, family suggests contributions to the Linda Derrick Wood Endowed Scholarship in the College of Nursing at the University of Utah, 540 Arapeen Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84108.

Edited from the notice published in The Salt Lake Tribune 12/10-12/12/2009.

 

Julian Maack BFA’51, former director of the Department of Medical Illustrations at the University of Utah School of Medicine, died December 25. He was 83.

George Julian Maack was born in Salt Lake City on February 23, 1926, to George Julian and Doris Mellor Maack. During World War II, he joined the Navy after graduating from high school and served as a navigator on the USS Brookings from 1944-1946. After his service in the Navy, Julian attended the prestigious California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, Calif., studying fine arts, sculpture, photography, silversmith, pottery, and ballet, and received a teaching certificate. He also pursued graduate studies in art at the University of Utah with an emphasis in serigraphy. Julian retired after 48 years as director of the Department of Medical Illustrations at the University of Utah School of Medicine, where he made many lifelong friends and associates. His illustrations can be found in many medical textbooks still in use today.

Maack had a passion for running and was able to enjoy the sport for 27 great years. He ran countless races and completed 20 marathons, his favorite being Big Sur International Marathon in Northern California. Julian’s artistic gentle nature, positive outlook, and concern for others overflowed to all those who knew him. He also loved to express himself through his love of photography and writing haikus. In 2008, he published his first book, dedicated to the love of his life, Bette. The title is simply HAIKU and the book is filled with his wonderful poems and illustrations. Two favorites:

A small bird

Flew by I didn’t see

A shadow chirping

Life is

A continuum of moments

Thirst for each one of them

Julian married Bette on November 20, 1950. They met in California, where they were both attending college. In Dad’s words, this began the first chapter of their 57-year love story. Julian was a loving husband, dad, and brother. He is survived by daughter Leslee (husband Darius Gray), sons Michael, Dana (wife Mardi) and John (wife Carol); and grandchildren Aidan Gray, David and Lauren Maack, and Dominique and Destany Maack.

In lieu of flowers, family suggests a donation to the U of U Internal Medicine Department and Care Source Home Health and Hospice Center. Donations may be made at any Key Bank.

Edited from the notice published in The Salt Lake Tribune on 12/30/09.

 

Don H. Nelson BA’45 MD’47, a former chair of the University of Utah Department of Endocrinology, died at home January 11 after a short illness. He was 84.

Don Harry Nelson was born in Salt Lake City on November 28, 1925, to Harry and Eudora Eschler Nelson. He graduated from the University of Utah Medical School at the age of 21 and went on to a distinguished career at Harvard University, University of Southern California, and the University of Utah, and also served as chief of medicine at LDS Hospital. While he gained renown as a biochemist, clinician, and professor of endocrinology—he wrote material still used in texts today in medical schools worldwide he also secured a piece of medical history. Nelson syndrome, a condition in which a tumor in the pituitary gland produces too much of a hormone (which in turns creates excessive pigment) bears his name. Much of his research centered on cortisol, the main hormone produced by the adrenal gland. His work in separating the hormone in blood has helped diagnose conditions such as Addison’s disease and Cushing’s syndrome. Over the course of his career, he was honored by the National Academy of Sciences, NASA, and the Endocrine Society.

Don and Beverly Webb were married in the Salt Lake Temple on January 22, 1949. Beverly died in 2002 and Don married Maxine Donnelly Hilton, a longtime family friend, in 2004. An active member of the LDS Church, Don served in many callings. He loved his time as bishop and as a teacher of the gospel, and he and Beverly served a mission to Boston, Mass.

Growing up in the shadow of the stadium, Don was a lifelong fan. He also enjoyed his association with the Study Group, his Medical Class friends and new friends at the JCC.

Don is survived by his wife Maxine; children Joan and David Creer (SLC), Margaret Reiser (Washington, D.C.), and Michael and Peggy Nelson (Millville, Utah); 15 grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; and one brother, Richard (Ettalue). He was preceded in death by his mother and father, his brothers Quentin and Claron, and a granddaughter, Christine Reiser. Interment is at the Millville City Cemetery, Cache Valley, Utah. In lieu of flowers, family suggests contributions to the LDS Perpetual Education Fund.

Edited from the notice published in the Deseret News from 1/13-1/14/2010 and other sources.

S. Grover “Sam” Rich, Jr. BA’42, founder and director of the Institute of International Relations and former professor of political science at the University of Utah, died on Christmas morning 2009. He was 91.

Samuel Grover Rich was born December 18, 1918, to S. Grover and Mildred Forgeon Rich. After graduating from the U, Sam studied and honeymooned with his new bride, Ruth Bennion Summerhays, at the University of Mexico. He went to Spain in 1943 as the U.S. vice consul to Spain during World War II, then received his doctorate in 1948 at Stanford University. He received the first Ford Fellowship granted to the U of U in post-graduate studies at Princeton, Yale, and Columbia, and then returned to the U and established the International Relations program. Shortly thereafter he founded the International Studies Association of professors at UC Berkeley, one of the first at a western state university. During his long teaching career he held visiting professorships at the University of Santander, Spain; University of Aix-Marseille in Nice, France; and Wilton House estate in London, England. S. Grover also had the honor of serving as President Kennedy’s appointee as professor of foreign affairs at the National War College in Washington, D.C., in 1962. He served as a lecturer for both the New York Council on Foreign Relations and the Department of Defense, and was a member of the Service Review Board for the U.S. Information Agency. He was a speaker at civic groups and on college campuses from the U. of Michigan to UC Berkeley. Speaking at the Berkeley campus during the Vietnam War required that he have body guards assigned to him, and at UC Santa Barbara when Governor Reagan had to call out the National Guard to quell the riots on campus.

Among his various writings, Rich contributed to textbooks on law and American foreign policy in publications in German, French, and Spanish. Always active in community affairs, he served as vice chairman of the Art Barn on Finch Lane, as a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Mark’s School, and as president of the Salt Lake Committee on Foreign Relations, the Inter-American Council of Utah, and the Utah United Nations Association. He served as state director of UNESCO andwas on the board of the McGillis School. He was also a philanthropist extraordinaire, donating generously to KUED, Pioneer Memorial Theatre, the Huntsman Cancer Institute, and many others.

As a young man, Sam served as a missionary for the LDS Church in England, and throughout his life he prided himself on his pioneer heritage and maintained a devoted respect for the church and its charitable activities. His family were the sons of Charles Coulson Rich, settlers of the Bear River Valley. Sam’s grandfather, Joseph Rich, was one of the first founders of the myth of the Bear Lake Monster.

Sam Rich is survived by his wife of 68 years, Ruth, sister Gloria Rich Hendricks, daughter Laurie Rich (Leonard) Coulson, granddaughter Brooks Coulson (Du) Nguyen, and great-granddaughter Annabella Li Nguyen. He was preceded in death by one son, Samuel Grover Rich III.

Edited from the notice published in The Salt Lake Tribune on 12/30/09.

The Topsy-Turvy World of College Cheerleading

February 19, 2010

University “yell masters” have evolved over 125 years of rallying team spirit.

The U’s first female cheerleader, Bette Mae Barton BS’46, now Bette Barton Lobb* (she eventually married fellow cheerleader Jerry Lobb), pictured here in 1946.

Cheerleading is a uniquely American contribution to the world of college athletics. The first recorded cheer occurred at a Princeton game in 1884. The University of Utah was not far behind, with a “yelling brigade” formed to support the University football team in 1894. Within a few years, the position of “yell master” had been established, and by the 1920s it was an elective student body office. In 1921, the “yell master” at the University of Utah shared popular yells such as “Sic’em, Utah” and “Sons of Utah” with other colleges around the country (each simply filling in the blank with the name of their own state or college), and even “Oskee-wow-wow,” written for the University of Illinois but apparently used at the U as well. By the end of the 1920s, however, the term “yell master” was falling out of use, replaced by today’s term, “cheerleader.” As the U of U grew, the need for more than one cheerleader was recognized, and by 1928 each was allowed to have up to two assistants. Until World War II, cheerleaders were always men, despite the fact that many women wanted to participate and often applied for the position. It wasn’t until 1942 that the first woman cheerleader at the U, freshman Bette Mae Barton, “whose acrobatic ability is second only to the famous India Rubber Man,” according to The Daily Utah Chronicle, joined the squad. Despite being strongly discouraged from even joining by the Dean of Women (because, Bette was told, it was “scandalous” and “would taint her reputation,” etc.), she served as a cheerleader for all four years of her college career. From there, the gender balance continued its reversal, until there were consistently more women than men on the cheerleading squad. At Ute games and rallies in the 1950s, there would be as many as six women and at least a couple of men leading cheers. In the ensuing decades, cheerleading at the University of Utah, as well as throughout the country, developed into an athletic contest in its own right, and the University’s team won the Western Regional College Championship in cheerleading in 1983. Today the University of Utah cheerleading squad continues a long tradition of promoting enthusiasm and spirit for all athletic contests.

—Roy Webb BA’84 MS’91, Multimedia Archivist, J. Willard Marriott Library

*Sadly, Bette Barton Lobb died January 22, 2010, before having a chance to see this column.

In Memoriam

February 11, 2010

J. Gerald BryneJ. Gerald “Gerry” Byrne, professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Metallurgical Engineering, died July 10 from complications following surgery. He was 79.

Joseph Gerald Byrne was born July 15, 1930, in Bronx, New York. He attended Mount Saint Michael High School and Stevens Institute of Technology, where he received an M.E. (mechanical engineer, 1953) and a master’s of science (1957) in metallurgy. He went on to obtain a doctorate in metallurgy from Northwestern University in 1960. He was a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology and then became a full professor at the University of Utah, where he was appointed Ivor D. Thomas Professor of Physical Metallurgy in the Department of Metallurgical Engineering (1987) and was also a professor in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering. He was a distinguished teacher and research scientist with over 145 articles and a book to his name. Some of his many accomplishments and awards included helping establish a department of Materials Science at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas in 1972, being appointed to the National Materials Advisory Board Panel (1972), becoming a Fellow of the American Society of Metals (1982), being appointed associate editor of the Materials Science and Engineering Journal (1988), and receiving the Eminent Engineer Award from Tau Beta Pi (1989). His teaching awards included the University of Utah Student Choice Award for Excellence in Teaching (1992-93) and the College of Mines and Earth Science Outstanding Teacher Award (1992-93). He stepped down as department chair in 1997 and retired in 2000, receiving professor emeritus status.

An avid reader, Gerry continued to pursue his love of learning by auditing one to three classes each semester until his death. Gerry also had a passion for skiing that he encouraged in many others by becoming a part-time ski instructor at Park West (now The Canyons), Snowbird, and ultimately at Alta, fulfilling one of his dreams. He loved traveling both for business and pleasure and had seen much of the world, and he had a great sense of humor, marked especially by his dry wit.

Gerry Byrne was preceded in death by his wife Joan Lorraine Byrne of 41 years, Linda Heinonen Byrne of five years, and most recently, his companion Renee Dec Reilly. He is survived by his four children and their spouses, Beth Kucharski (Joseph), Maura Hashiguchi (Mark), Dan Byrne (Christine Davison), and Noreen Parry (Douglas); seven grandchildren: Timothy (Kate Vigour), Michael, and Ann Kucharski, Lauren, Shannon, and Patrick Hashiguchi, and Courtney Parry; and step-grandchild Kim Davison. In lieu of flowers, family suggests contributions to the American Cancer Society.

Edited from the notice published in The Salt Lake Tribune from 7/14-7/15/2010.

 

Arnold FribergArnold Friberg, a painter noted for his religious and patriotic works, died in Salt Lake City on July 1. He was 96.

Friberg is perhaps best known for his 1975 painting The Prayer at Valley Forge, a depiction of George Washington praying at Valley Forge. He is also well known for his 15 “pre-visualization” paintings for the Cecil B. DeMille film The Ten Commandments, which were used to promote the film worldwide and for which he received an Academy Award nomination. Friberg was also commissioned to paint portraits of the British royal family, including Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he was also known for his paintings of scenes from the Book of Mormon.

Friberg was born December 21, 1913, in Winnetka, Illinois. The family moved to Arizona when he was 3 and converted to the LDS Church when he was 7, by which time Friberg had begun drawing cartoons. As a teen, he made extra money painting signs for local businesses and perfected his skills as an illustrator by continuing to draw his own comic strips. He eventually studied art at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and later alongside fellow student Norman Rockwell at the Grand Central School of Art. Friberg also served in the U.S. Army during World War II.
After marriage, Friberg worked in San Francisco before moving in 1950 to Utah, where he taught art at the University of Utah. A short time later, Friberg briefly lived in Hollywood while creating his paintings for The Ten Commandments. Friberg continued painting in his Salt Lake City studio late into his life. The Utah Cultural Arts Foundation will purchase all of the artwork Friberg possessed at the time of his death for a planned Arnold Friberg Museum of Art, which will be at a Utah location that is yet to be determined.

Arnold Friberg was preceded in death by his first wife, Hedve Mae Baxter, in 1986. He is survived by his second wife, Heidi Groskopf Friberg of Salt Lake City; two children from his first marriage, Frank Friberg and Patricia Friberg; two stepsons, Peter and Izzie Dominy; 10 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.

Edited from numerous published sources.

 

Richard MovitzRichard “Dick” Movitz BS’49, a University of Utah ski champion and Olympic skier, died on May 13. He was 84.

Richard D. Movitz was born in Salt Lake City on December 10, 1925, to Samuel and Edith Movitz. After graduation from East High School, he attended the University of Utah, where he was a member of the 1947 team that won the NCAA championship. He competed in the Olympics in 1948 and later went on to become a member of a U.S. Team that competed in the world ski championships. As a result of his accomplishments, Movitz was inducted into the U.S. Ski Hall Of Fame in 1970 and into the Utah Sports Hall Of Fame in 1975. He served as the chair on the International Competition committee and as a member of the Olympic Ski Committee as well.

Movitz also served in the U.S. Air Force, and his family business, Movitz Company, was a local wholesale costume jewelry and intermountain Seiko distributor. Movitz married Eileen Rogers on September 14, 1960, and the two spent almost 50 “happy, adventurous years” together.

Dick is survived by his wife, Eileen, three children, Marci Willey (Jim), Tina Ranney (Roger), and David Movitz; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by grandson Jeffery Willey.

Edited from the notice and an article published in The Salt Lake Tribune on May 18.

 

John PetersJohn M. Peters BS’57 MD’60, a pioneering epidemiologist who played a crucial role in demonstrating the short- and long-term effects of air pollutants on the health of children, died of pancreatic cancer May 6 at his home in San Marino, Calif. He was 75.

Peters was the driving force in creating the Children’s Health Study, which has followed nearly 1,800 Southern California children since 1993 to determine how their health was affected by varying levels of air pollution. Among other findings, the study showed that short-term exposure to pollutants increases asthma and absences from school, that children living and studying near freeways suffer the worst effects from air pollution, and that long-term exposure stunts the growth of the lungs, leading to breathing impairments and other problems in adulthood.

John Milton Peters was born April 24, 1935, in Brigham City, Utah. He received a bachelor’s degree in biology and his medical degree from the University of Utah. After a one-year surgical residency at Johns Hopkins University, he was drafted and spent two years as a captain in the Army at Ft. Belvoir, Va. Although he had originally planned to become a surgeon, the Army sent him to care for military workers at the North and South poles and other remote locations, where he began to appreciate that workplaces themselves could create health risks. That led to a change in career course, and he received a master’s in public health and a doctorate from Harvard University. For his doctoral thesis, he showed that the health effects of smoking on Harvard undergraduates could appear in just a few years. He served on the faculty at Harvard until 1980, when he moved to USC and founded the division of environmental health in the department of preventive medicine. He designed and implemented the Children’s Health Study and directed it for 10 years.

A member of his college golf team, he was a lifelong aficionado and was described as fiercely competitive, not only in golf but in everything. He was a master of crossword puzzles and an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox and the Celtics.

Peters’ first marriage, to Carolyn Widtsoe Durham, ended in divorce. He is survived by his second wife, the former Ruth Kloepfer; a sister, Jody King of New York; three sons, John of Iowa City, Iowa, Philip of Piedmont, Calif., and Charles of Orlando, Fla.; a daughter, Susa Brush of Salt Lake City; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Edited from the May 14 article in the Los Angeles Times.

Gazette

December 18, 2009

News of the University

Good Chemistry

The U’s chemistry facility will be expanding, thanks to the NIH and private grants

Department of Chemistry
An architect’s illustration of the new Department of Chemistry building. Image courtesy Prescott Muir Architects.

In June 2009, the Department of Chemistry received a grant of $8 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) toward the construction of an addition to the south tower of the Henry Eying Building specifically to support biological and biophysical chemistry research. The NIH grant will enhance the department’s position as a national and international leader in biological and biophysical chemistry, the fundamental sciences in advancing medicine and biotechnology.

Constructing and equipping the new facility is estimated to cost $20 million. In addition to the NIH grant and University funds, private contributions are being sought. In recognition of a major gift toward this project by the Lawrence [BS’45] and Helen [ex’46] Thatcher family of Salt Lake City, the newly expanded south chemistry tower will be named the Thatcher Building for Biological and Biophysical Chemistry. The Thatchers and their four children are all alumni of the U.

“We are extremely grateful to the Thatcher family and the NIH for their support,” says Henry S. White, department chair. “The new building will increase collaboration between research groups that specialize in organic and biochemical synthesis, spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, and biophysical modeling and simulation, and thereby attract and retain high-profile researchers to the faculty.”

This project comes at a crucial time for the department, as the north tower of the Eyring Building is now more than 40 years old and needs upgrading. Space for research is already stretched to capacity, and the department’s undergraduate population is projected to increase over the next several years. “Our department has a great track record of producing undergraduates who go on to graduate school and to medical school,” says Distinguished Professor C. Dale Poulter. “But it will be extremely difficult to maintain that high standard with 40-year-old facilities.”

The new building will include a mass spectrometry facility, advanced undergraduate laboratories, two floors for imaging and spectroscopy, biochemistry and organic synthesis, and a floor for theory and modeling. The groundbreaking is expected to take place in fall 2010.

Accolades

Congratulations to Kelsey Price, a freshman at the U, who triumphed over 563 other students in a national civic engagement competition this past summer. The Our Voice Our Country Summer Scholarship Competition required participants to identify what they believe to be the most urgent problem facing our nation, and to nominate an expert in the field ready to post an achievable solution, which may later be presented to key leaders in Congress as an outcome. Price chose to address the ongoing conflict in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) region of Pakistan as her topic and wisely picked a former member of the Musharraf and Bhutto governments, Harvard fellow Hassan Abbas, as a problem solver able to articulate a plan of action. Price received a $1,000 scholarship, which can be used for supplies or any other costs related to her studies.

Ivor J. Benjamin
Ivor J. Benjamin;
Photo courtesy U of U Health Sciences Public Affairs

Kudos also to Ivor J. Benjamin, M.D., professor of internal medicine and biochemistry and the Christi T. Smith Endowed Chair of Cardiovascular Research at the U of U School of Medicine, who was recently granted a $2.5 million Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health—one of the organization’s most prestigious honors. Benjamin was recognized for his pioneering model proposing that one cause of heart disease may be that one of the body’s most powerful antioxidants—molecules generally believed to protect the heart—actually might lead to disease in the heart and other organs when a gene mutation causes the body to overproduce the molecule. His theory, which stirred some controversy when initially presented in 2007, represents a paradigm shift in understanding the causes of heart disease.

For additional accolades, visit www.unews.utah.edu and select “Recognizing U.”

Back from the Brink

Former U of u professor Brooke Hopkins’ recovery is detailed in an inspiring blog.

Brooke Hopkins
Brooke Hopkins

In November 2008, life took a 180-degree turn for retired English professor Brooke Hopkins.

While riding his bicycle through Salt Lake City’s City Creek Canyon, Hopkins collided with another cyclist. Although the other bicyclist was unhurt, the violent collision threw Hopkins to the ground. His neck was broken.

During the past year, Hopkins has been fighting for his life. He is almost completely paralyzed—a cruel blow for a man renowned for his vitality and physical strength. Hopkins and his wife, U professor and internationally noted medical ethicist Peggy Battin, have lived through the dramatic ups and downs of his recovery together, buoyed by loving support from family, friends, strangers, and the medical community. The Salt Lake Tribune has published several articles about Brooke’s inspiring struggle.

Hopkins’ recovery is chronicled in a blog maintained by the family and others. The blog not only provides updates on Hopkins’ progress, but it also serves as an inspirational gathering place for the scores of students, colleagues, and friends who continue to wish Hopkins well.

Visit Brooke Hopkins’ and Peggy Battin’s blog at brookeandpeggy.blogspot.com.

Campus Notebook

Prescott Muir
Prescott Muir
Photo courtesy Scott Peterson

New Head of School of Architecture
Prescott Muir BFA’82, AIA, an award-winning architect practicing in Salt Lake City and southern California since 1976, is the new director of the University’s School of Architecture, a department in the College of Architecture + Planning. Among Muir’s design projects are familiar Utah cultural icons including the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center and the Bridge Project for Artspace in Salt Lake City, and the Ethel Wattis Kimball Visual Arts Center and the Pleasant Valley Library in Ogden. No stranger to the academic setting, Muir also has been an adjunct professor at the U since 1993, teaching design studios for graduate students in architecture.

U Research

U Research Tops One-Third Billion Dollars
The University of Utah collected a record $354.7 million in research funding during the 2009 fiscal year, an impressive 16 percent annual increase despite the economic recession and modest assistance from federal stimulus funds. The University’s research funding totaled $354,659,178 for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2009, up more than $49 million from the $305,621,461 collected during the previous year. Only $1.5 million of the $49 million increase came from funds provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Within the University, funding rose significantly in all colleges with external research funding exceeding $5 million annually. They include the School of Medicine and the colleges of Engineering, Science, Mines and Earth Sciences, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Social and Behavioral Science.

Office for Equity and Diversity Awarded Prestigious Grants
The Suder Foundation (TSF) has awarded two grants to the University of Utah’s Office for Equity and Diversity that are designated for the creation of The Suder Scholars Program, a new national scholarship program designed to improve graduation rates of selected first-generation college students. The two grants, totaling $70,000, consist of a $10,000 scholar profile grant and a one-year $60,000 planning grant. Upon the successful completion of the planning grant year, the Office for Equity and Diversity will receive scholarship support and seed funding for program operations from TSF for a pilot cohort of up to 20 first-generation students. The foundation is providing financial, academic, psychological, and social assistance for Suder Scholars at selected state universities throughout the United States.

Walkway

U to Develop Climate Action Plan for Campus
Since taking the helm in July as the director of the Office of Sustainability, Myron Willson MArch’97, a local architect and adjunct professor at the U, has begun heading up a number of projects with a primary focus on the U’s Climate Action Plan. The plan is a requirement of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment—a document signed by President Young on Earth Day 2008 that now has the signatures of the presidents of more than 650 colleges and universities across the United States—committing each institution to achieving varying degrees of climate neutrality. Using a greenhouse gas inventory completed in May 2009, the Office of Sustainability will be working with offices and departments across campus to develop a comprehensive action plan to guide the U of U toward becoming climate neutral. The plan will focus on carbon reductions within the areas of transportation, food systems, building design, and curriculum.

In Memoriam

Marvin G. Hess BS’50 MS’53, 83, a former University of Utah head wrestling coach

Robert “Bob” Mason BS’50, 89, a former professor of medicinal chemistry at the U

Emil Smith, 97, a former University of Utah professor and pioneer in protein chemistry

V. Douglas Snow ex’48, 82, former professor of art and chair of the Department of Art and Art History at the U

Jodi Wetzel BA’65 MA’67, 66, former instructor of composition at the U and the first director of the Women’s Studies Department at Metropolitan State College of Denver

For more on these and other memoria, click here.

In the Fullness of Time

December 18, 2009

For this composer, success was slow to come but is all the sweeter for it.

By Catherine Reese Newton

Marie Bennett composing music at her home in Salt Lake City. Photos by John Luke.

Marie Barker Nelson Bennett BA’47 MFA’52 PhD’80 is living evidence of the adage that good things come to those who wait. Bennett, now 83, studied with one of the 20th century’s pre-eminent composers—an accomplishment that was in itself a study in persistence—and then worked in relative obscurity until she was “discovered” at age 68. Since then, her music has been performed and recorded by such prominent musicians as Baltimore Symphony music director Marin Alsop, the first woman to head a major U.S. orchestra; Gerard Schwarz, currently director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra; and noted clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. Her 20-years-in-the-making opera, Orpheus Lex, with libretto by playwright and novelist David Kranes, U of U professor emeritus of English, will be performed at New York City’s Symphony Space on February 13.

Bennett has been composing since she was about 6 years old. She grew up in a musical home; her mother, Virginia Freeze Barker, was a professional soprano who gathered her twin daughters, Marie and Marillyn, around her at the piano bench as she practiced. Bennett’s piano teachers included her mother’s professional accompanist, Becky Almond; another early influence was composer Helen Taylor Johannesen, her fifth-grade teacher. “She taught the entire fifth-grade class to sing in three-part harmony,” Bennett wrote in an autobiographical sketch. Bennett started accompanying her mother when she was about 14. “It taught me how to breathe with her—that was a big thing to me,” she recalls. “It made me sensitive to phrasing.” After receiving a bachelor’s degree in music from the U of U, Bennett wanted to study composition with contemporary German composer Paul Hindemith at Yale University. Her initial application to Yale was answered with a mimeographed rejection letter. Her twin had already been accepted into Yale Drama School, so their father, Ellis Barker, suggested Marie apply again. And again. And again.

“The rejection slips were not even signed,” Bennett recalls, even when she had enclosed a song she had written. Finally, one of the rejection notes came with a signature attached, so Barker phoned the school— “Calling New Haven was a big deal in those days; it took three hours to get through,” Bennett says—and arranged for his daughter to take the entrance exam.

“[Longtime Mormon Tabernacle organist] Alexander Schreiner tutored me in writing like Bach all summer,” Bennett says. The tutoring clearly paid off: She passed the test.

More obstacles met Bennett in Connecticut, where she says school officials refused to recognize her degree and informed her that the required bachelor’s level courses left no room for study with Hindemith. Undeterred, she asked the composer if she could audit his classes; he consented, and later gave her full credit for those courses. “He helped me graduate in two years” rather than the expected four, she notes.

“He was a complete genius,” she says of her famous teacher, whom she ranks with Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland among the 20th century’s leading musical figures. “He poured out his knowledge. I took a class in two-part writing and learned how to control dissonances and tonalities. It’s a very subtle thing; it gives the music more depth than average contemporary music.”

“That level of instruction really pans out” in Bennett’s music, says Stoltzman, who has recorded a sonata and a concerto by Bennett. “She learned from Hindemith and transcended his teaching, which is something a teacher really wants… . Other people who worked with Hindemith got kind of bound by his teachings and turned out music that sounds like lesser Hindemith. Marie is too wild a spirit for that.” Stoltzman says Bennett’s craft is particularly evident in her work for small ensembles. “Chamber music is very revealing when a composer doesn’t have his act together or his craft honed. You can see the seams or step in the cracks. Marie understands that.”

After returning to Salt Lake City, Bennett taught at the McCune School of Music and continued her studies in piano (with Gladys Gladstone, known as “the first lady of piano in Utah”) and composition (at the U with Leroy Robertson), completing a master’s degree, but her composing career didn’t exactly take off. She married Harlan Eugene Nelson in 1950, and the couple had four children. She continued composing, mostly for church and community groups, and in 1973, when all her children were in school full time, she decided to pursue a doctorate at the U in order to “be a real composer.” Her teachers this time included composition professors Ramiro Cortes, the first Hispanic American to have achieved international recognition in classical music; Vladimir Ussachevsky, an avant-garde electronic and acoustic music composer; and Bruce Reich, former head of the U’s composition area. While she was still studying for her doctorate, the Utah Symphony premiered her first symphony, The Medead, in 1977.

“It was kind of unusual,” Bennett says, noting that she was 47 when she entered the doctoral program, which took her seven years to complete. “If you go when you’re older, you don’t want the grade, you just want the knowledge.” Her doctoral thesis was the oratorio Once in Israel, with libretto by author Emma Lou Thayne BA’45 MA’70.

In April 1981, Bennett’s 26-yearold daughter was killed in a car crash involving a drunk driver. Less than a month later, her husband died of heart failure while hiking. She took over management of the Salt Palace Travelodge, which the couple owned, but continued composing “as an outlet.”

“It was a solace for me to have my music,” she says. In response to her loss, she wrote “Demeter” (a movement in her song cycle Song of the Goddesses) about the Greek goddess of agriculture who loses her daughter to the underworld.

Bennett’s big break came in 1994, when Boston composer William Thomas McKinley approached her about recording her music on his label, MMC Recordings. Since then, she has written seven more symphonies, five concertos, and various vocal and chamber pieces, including a trombone sonata, a “Gloria” for mixed chorus and organ, and the recently premiered trio “A Filigree of Flowers.” The latter is based on poetry by her twin sister, Marillyn, a frequent collaborator. Besides Hindemith, Bennett cites Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Béla Bartók, and Rodion Shchedrin as major influences. “My symphonies are kind of like those [composers]; I haven’t gone far out like [Krzysztof] Penderecki,” she says.

Her 20-years-in-the-making opera, Orpheus Lex, with libretto by David Kranes, U of U professor emeritus of English, will be performed at New York City’s Symphony space on February 13.

Writing an operatic treatment of the Orpheus myth was a longtime pet project. (Orpheus is considered the greatest musician and poet in Greek mythology; his music prevented the Argonauts’ ship from being destroyed while passing the island of the Sirens. The story of his journey to the underworld to retrieve his lover, Eurydice, has inspired dozens of operas in the past four centuries.) “As a little girl, I would put away melodies and say, ‘This is for my opera,’ ” she says. About 20 years ago, after “the musical ideas from my childhood were long forgotten,” she decided it was time to write that opera. She chose Kranes as her librettist because she liked his work, though they had never met.

Initially, Bennett wasn’t sure what to do with the libretto, which reinvents Orpheus as a popular folk musician who has retired to his mountain retreat in Idaho. There is a poignant twist involving the mirrored fates of Orpheus and Eurydice. “It was too far out,” she remembers. “I put it away for a couple of years. Then one day I thought, ‘Marie, get it out. Here’s your chance; this is a lifetime dream.’ ” She chose a scene she found relatable and soon was on her way. “Now I love the libretto,” she says. “It’s marvelous.”

“She’s an extraordinary composer,” Kranes says. “What was exceptional for me, and very positive, was that she honored my text almost completely and never asked me to rewrite it to be more to her liking or to suit a musical number… . She really tuned in emotionally.”

Marie married Wallace Grant Bennett in 2003. She still gets up every morning at 5 to compose. “I start work by 6 or 7,” she says. “I sit at the piano and improvise; I let the ideas come. I’ve trained myself to accept all ideas. I take the ones I like and arrange them. “It’s really exciting to be a composer and feel like you’re breathing something new into the world,” she continues. “Almost everything I have accomplished has been since I was 50. … I wish I’d had the confidence I have now when I was younger, but you get confidence through what you do.”

–Catherine Reese Newton has written about classical music for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1990.

Association News

December 18, 2009

Emeritus Alumni Recognize Outstanding Peers

The Emeritus Alumni Board’s Merit of Honor Award is given each year to five alumni recognized not only for their impressive professional achievements but also for their commitment to the U and contributions to the community. The 2009 awardees were recognized at the Merit of Honor Awards Banquet in November 2009. Below, brief bios of each of this year’srecipients. For full biographies, click here.
Ruth Draper CrockattRuth Draper Crockatt BA’47, an ardent supporter and promoter of the arts, served as executive director of the Utah Arts Council from 1974 to 1985. She helped found the Western States Arts Federation and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. She has also held numerous prominent civic positions, including serving as president of the Utah League of Women Voters. Crockatt has been recognized for her service with honors including a Heritage Foundation Award, the Cathedral of the Madeleine Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts and Humanities, and the Utah Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. Duane HillDuane C. Hill BA’50 is president of his own company, Marketing Concepts. He previously served as national sales manager and program director for KSL-TV, and as director of advertising services for the American Stores Company. He is currently president of the Rotary Club of Salt Lake City and is a longtime member of the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce. Hill is past chair of the Council of Governors of the American Advertising Federation and has also served as president or chair of organizations including the Salt Lake Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Utah Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Donald LewonDonald A. Lewon BS’58 is president of Utah Metal Works, a scrap metal business started by his grandfather in Montana in the early 1900s. He has been an active supporter of the U of U’s College of Social and Behavioral Science, including serving as a founding member and chair of its advisory board. He has also supported the Sam Rich Scholars in Global Affairs, the Middle Eastern Lecture Series, and the annual Sicilano Forum. Lewon and his wife fund four of the college’s Honor Roll Scholarships each year. In 2006, he received the college’s Distinguished Alumni Award. Colleen MaloufColleen D. Malouf BS’58 has served since 1984 as president and CEO of Friends for Sight, dedicated to preserving sight through comprehensive vision screenings. She was also a founder and the first president of the nonprofit CARE-UTAH. A specialist in market development consulting, Malouf previously served as the director of development for Westminster College and has provided public relations support to the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Salt Lake City and has also been a board member with Ballet West.
Don TibbsDon V. Tibbs JD’49, a native of Manti, Utah, served in the U.S. Army in World War II and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. Following graduation from the U of U, Tibbs returned to Sanpete County, where he was elected county attorney and later appointed a judge in the Sixth Judicial District Court of Utah, where he served for 23 years. He then sat as the Senior District Court Judge for six years before retiring. Tibbs has also been involved in community affairs—as president of the Manti Jaycees and as local chair of the Red Cross, March of Dimes, and other organizations.

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Science is Super

Nobel Laureate Mario Capecchi Talks to Alumni, Kids

Capecchi and Jacobsen

Mario Capecchi is greeted by U of U alum Dick Jacobsen, co-founder of the Beechwood School.

U of U geneticist Mario Capecchi made a special guest appearance at a Bay Area Alumni Chapter event on October 1, almost exactly two years after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology (shared with two other researchers). Capecchi was invited to talk about his pioneering work in gene targeting, which has broad ramifications for the potential treatment and cure of disease and for which he won the Nobel Prize. More than 100 alumni from the San Francisco Bay Area gathered for a reception at the William J. Rutter Center on the University of California San Francisco-Mission Bay Campus. (The venue is connected to U of U alumnus William J. Rutter MS’50, a leader in biotechnology research, who received the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award at Founders Day in February 2009.)

Before introducing Capecchi, U of U President Michael K. Young acknowledged the efforts of outgoing chapter president Nancy Gregovich BA’89, along with the important contributions that the Bay Area Alumni Chapter has made in support of the University. He then touched on a few of the major activities and achievements taking place on the U of U campus. Capecchi then took the stage and explained in layman’s terms the highly complex nature of gene targeting in mice—through his work in homologous recombination, he developed the first mice with targeted mutations in 1989—highlighting many of the benefits the research could yield to all fields of biomedicine.

Italian-born Capecchi also related the story of his difficult childhood, wandering the streets of Italy for four years during World War II, trying to stay alive, while his mother was being held by the Nazis. After the war, Capecchi’s mother found him in a hospital, took him to the U.S., and put him in school. He didn’t learn to read until he was 9, but, against all odds, went on to graduate from Antioch College and receive a doctorate from Harvard, followed by pursuing the career path that led him to the University of Utah in 1973. Capecchi then recounted his experiences at the Nobel Prize presentation ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo in December 2007 and shared photos of the elaborate and various events involved during the celebration, which lasted several days.

He finished his presentation by fielding questions from alumni and expressing his appreciation for the support of the U’s alumni community. “I think it was one of the Bay Area’s best events yet, but with a presenter like Dr. Capecchi and his remarkable story, it was destined to be a crowd pleaser,” remarked Gregovich afterward. The following day, Capecchi paid a special visit to the Beechwood School in Menlo Park to talk to fifth- through eighth-grade students about how fascinating the study of science can be. Capecchi, who thoroughly enjoys encounters with students, was invited there by U of U alumnus Dick Jacobsen BS’68, who, along with his wife, Susan Jacobsen BA’66, and his partners in WSJ Properties, have been working to fulfill a need they recognized in some of the underprivileged neighborhoods in east Palo Alto and Menlo Park. Together, they formed the California Family Foundation, which focuses on housing, jobs, and education, including founding the Beechwood School, which opened in 1986. Virtually all of the students at Beechwood are on scholarship and come from neighborhoods where the rate of public high school graduation hovers at about 25 percent.

Referring to the challenges presented early in his life, Capecchi recounted the tale of his time spent homeless on the streets of wartime Italy. His mission at Beechwood was to stress to the students that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. “I’m going to try to talk you into becoming scientists,” said Capecchi, “because it’s a marvelous vocation.” Capecchi related his research with “knockout genes in mice” and answered numerous questions from curious kids—about his wartime experiences, about why he left Harvard for the University of Utah, and about science. At the end of his visit, Capecchi presented 10 students with medals awarded for academic achievement and overcoming their own difficult situations.

“If you have a good education, you can do anything,” said Capecchi.

For more on Mario Capecchi’s life and work, read “A Nobel Effort” in the Winter 2007-08 issue of Continuum.

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Hostess with the Mostest

U of U President Michael K. Young with Margaret Price Carlston.

Margaret Price Carlston BS’37, the University of Utah’s 1936-37 “Homecoming Hostess,” was an honorary guest at this year’s Homecoming “Redvolution” events in September.

At the time of “Susie” Price’s senior year Homecoming, the term “hostess” was used most often in reference to her honorary appointment (rather than “queen”), although she was featured in a picture and caption as “selected as the 1937 queen of beauty by students of the University of Utah” in the Dec. 27, 1936, Philadelphia Inquirer. A similar picture and caption were published in England’s Daily Sketch (“beauty queen of Salt Lake City”) and the L.A. Times (of “Utah’s Queen… Margaret Price, dimpled co-ed”) around the same time. (The British clipping was mailed in an envelope addressed to “Miss Margaret Price, Student at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, U.S.A.”) Part of her duties as “hostess” included giving a short introduction on a radio broadcast welcoming all alumni and inviting “the public of the entire state” to visit the U of U campus for Homecoming.

“Susie” Price, 1936

Price and her Homecoming attendants, Adelaide “Addy” Campbell and Julia Brixen, were selected by a panel of two Utah Supreme Court justices, David W. Moffat and William H. Folland. The justices chose from some 25 candidates, two from each of the University of Utah’s sororities and a handful of at-large students. Price was then a member of the Delta Gamma sorority, president of Associated Women Students, vice president of Spurs, and co-chair of the Founders Day committee. U of U Homecoming at the time featured a downtown parade of floats, created by various campus entities, on the morning of the Homecoming football game. Price and her attendants actually rode the ASUU float, but Delta Gamma’s won second place among sorority floats. As noted by one sorority sister in a Delta Gamma newsletter published shortly thereafter, “We felt repaid for the time we spent sewing crepe paper on muslin and tacking it onto the truck.”

Born in Salt Lake City in 1916, Margaret attended East High School before graduating from the U of U with a degree in business education, with a focus on shorthand and typing. She was promptly hired by Utah Gov. Charles R. Mabey, applying her abilities toward duties including typing the governor’s book The Pony Express: An Epic of the Old West. In 1940, Margaret married Kenneth DeWitt Carlston BS’38, and together they raised five children. In 1955, Margaret and Ken moved their family to Whittier, Calif., where she returned to college to get her California teaching credentials. She taught high school English as a full-time substitute teacher for nearly 30 years, retiring from teaching when she was 86. Ken died in 1992, and in 2005, Margaret, now 93, moved back to Salt Lake City to be near her two daughters.

—Contributed by Marcia C. Dibble, assistant editor of Continuum.

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Beehive Honor Society

Buzzing Along


The Beehive Honor society board of directors welcomes three new members this year (L-R): Josh Bradley BA’98 MD’02, a physician with Intermountain Health Care; Camille Coons Wheatley HBS’06 MArch’08, an architect with AJC Architects; and Randy Wood BS’09 BA’09, a marketing project manager for Ivory Homes.

Beehive, the oldest local honor society on the University of Utah campus, is busy planning for another stimulating, active year. The 10-member Board of Directors hopes to increase the amount and number of scholarship awards provided to deserving University of Utah students. The board is also working to reach out to its nearly 1,000 members living throughout the United States, as well as to develop additional community service projects and other opportunities to better engage members. For more information about the Beehive Honor Society, visit www.alumni.utah.edu/beehive.


David Jensen,
BHS president

Save the date! Founders Day 2010

The 2010 Founders Day celebration and banquet will take place on Wednesday, February 24, at Little America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, when the following four Distinguished Alumni will be recognized for their outstanding professional and personal achievements: Larry D. Gluth BS’83, M. Elizabeth Hale Hammond BS’64 MD’67, Fred P. Lampropoulous ex’70, and Robert A. McDonald MBA’78. Marta S. Weeks will receive the Honorary Alumna Award.

Look for updated information—including photos and extended biographies—at www.alumni.utah/foundersday.

Young Alumni Board (YAB)

It seems that the Young Alumni Board’s achievements and aspirations grow by leaps and bounds every year. The YAB continues to present its well-received and popular Speaker & Networking Series—periodic gatherings that feature either a U of U sports personality or a specialist on a contemporary topic of interest. And this year, the YAB’s Homecoming 5K Run/Walk/ Stroll & Kids 1K Fun Run was bigger and better than ever. More than 700 runners participated, and, in the process, raised more than $32,000 for student scholarships.

Heading up the YAB’s activities again this year are Jeremy Barlow BS’99, president, and Brandon Riley BA’98, vice president. New members include (group photo, L-R) Matt Klein BA’06 MA’07, an auditor with Deloitte & Touche; Nicole Barber BA’04, a loan servicing specialist for Wells Fargo Bank; Daniel Owen BS’03, a land manager for Property Reserve, Inc.; Julie Nelson BA’99 JD’03, an attorney for the State of Utah; Tim Conde BA’00 JD’04, an attorney with Stoel Rives LLP; and Julie Davidson BFA’02, owner of Bibitty, LLC, a product photography and design business, and, pictured individually (L-R), Sharon Mangelson BS’01 MPrA’03, a CPA with Hansen Barnett & Maxwell, P.C.; Joel Manwill BS’96, a pediatric occupational therapist; and Derek Winegar BS’05, a dentist.