Through the Years

’50s

Leonidas Ralph Mecham BS’51 MPA’51 has retired as director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. Mecham served under three chief justices and occupied the position of director for more than 20 years, longer than any other director in the 67-year history of the office. In recognition of his long service, the primary conference facility in the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building has been renamed the Leonidas Ralph Mecham Judicial Conference Center. This spring, the House and Senate passed a Joint Congressional Resolution recognizing Mecham for “outstanding service”; six separate Judicial Conference committees also adopted resolutions of appreciation. Mecham was also honored with the 2006 National Public Service Award from the American Society for Public Administration and the National Academy of Public Administration, the premier award for excellence in public service at all levels of government.

Ted Capener BS’53, former vice president for University Relations at the University of Utah and publisher of Continuum (see Summer 2006’s “And Finally” column), has been inducted into the Silver Circle Society for career achievement in television by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Capener has served as a television broadcast professional for more than 40 years; he currently hosts “Utah Conversations with Ted Capener” on the U of U’s public television station, KUED Channel 7. He was elected to the national PBS board of directors in 1986 and served four years as chairman of the board.

’60s

Lloyd S. Cluff BS’60 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Western States Seismic Policy Council (WSSPC) for his achievements worldwide in improving our understanding of earthquake hazards and developing practical measures to reduce the risks. Working on projects from the Trans-Alaska Pipeline to the Aswan Dam during his 45-year career, Cluff has been an advisor on earthquake hazards and risk reduction measures in more than 100 countries, from Afghanistan to Venezuela. Lloyd also helped develop the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and has served on advisory boards of state and national organizations including the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

’60s

Scott S. Parker BS’60 was named among “30 people who have had a powerful impact on healthcare” during the past three decades by Modern Healthcare Magazine. The prominent trade publication’s list includes Sen. Edward Kennedy, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Parker was the first president of Intermountain Healthcare and oversaw the creation of the nonprofit healthcare system when it was divested from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1975. He continued to lead Utah’s flagship hospital organization until his retirement in 1999, helping Intermountain maintain its status as a national model for providing high-quality care at lower-than-average costs.

Mike Garibaldi BS’68 MS’69 competed in the 2006 FINA World Masters Aquatics event as a member of the gold medal championship 55+ NorCal-TriValley team that went undefeated with a 6-0 record against some 8,000 competitors from around the world. Garibaldi’s team also won the U.S. National Masters 55+ championship in June. Garibaldi is a former U of U captain, record holder, and All-American swimmer in the freestyle events. He is also a member of the Utah Athletic Hall of Fame. He now coaches water polo and swimming in Napa, Calif., and teaches a Masters water polo class at Napa Valley College.

’70s

C. David Kikumoto BS’71 has been named chair of the national board of directors of Volunteers of America, a nonprofit, faith-based organization dedicated to helping those in need rebuild their lives and reach their full potential. Kikumoto is the founder and chief operating officer of Denver Management Advisors, a team of health care professionals providing cost-containment services to large employers, insurers, and health care providers. Prior to founding DMA, Kikumoto was CEO and vice chairman of Rocky Mountain Healthcare, the holding company of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans in Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada.

Ron Carlson MA’72 has left Arizona State University and will commence directing the graduate fiction program at the University of California in Irvine. Carlson served as faculty at the summer 2006 Napa Valley Writers’ Conference and at The San Juan Workshops in Ouray, Colo., and as fiction faculty at the Tomales Bay Workshops in northern California in October. His novel Five Skies (Viking) is forthcoming in May 2007, and a feature film, Keith—adapted from the story of the same name in his collection The Hotel Eden (1998)—will be released by Miramax in 2007.

’80s

R. Scott Ward BA’80 PhD’94, PT, has been elected to a three-year term as president of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). Ward is chair of the Division of Physical Therapy at the University of Utah and a practicing physical therapist at the University. The author of numerous published research articles, Ward was the 2003 recipient of the Barbara Knothe Burn Therapists Achievement Award from the American Burn Association. He has also been honored with APTA’s Lucy Blair Service Award (1999) and the Utah Chapter of APTA’s Physical Therapist of the Year Award (1994).

Gary M. Burlingame MS’81 PhD’83 and former University of Utah Professor Addie Fuhriman, a frequent collaborator, received the 2006 Distinguished Group Psychologist Award from the American Psychological Association’s Division 49, the Group Psychology and Psychotherapy subspecialty. The lifetime achievement award recognizes group psychologists whose theory, research, or practice has made important contributions to our knowledge of group behavior. Burlingame, a professor in the Brigham Young University Department of Psychology, received a similar award a few years ago from the American Group Psychotherapy Association.

James C. Jensen BS’82, M.D., has joined the faculty of Marshall Medical School and begun performing advanced surgeries at Cabell Huntington Hospital, in Huntington, Va., where he uses the new “da Vinci” surgical system, a robotic platform that provides the surgeon with four robotic arms and allows for the surgeon’s hand movements to be scaled. Jensen has performed hundreds of robotic surgeries, including more than 200 of the complex surgeries to remove the prostate gland. A board-certified urologist, he also is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

John Nogawski BS’82 and Robert Madden have been named presidents and chief operating officers for CBS Television Distribution Group (CTDG), a new worldwide production, distribution, and media sales company that combines CBS Paramount Domestic Television, King World, and CBS Paramount International Television into one division. Since March 2002, Nogawski had been president, CBS Paramount Domestic Television, where he helmed sales efforts for first-run series including Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, as well as off-network launches for Medium, NCIS, and Frasier.

Douglas L. Christiansen BS’88 MPA’93 PhD’93 has been named Vanderbilt University’s dean of admissions and associate provost for enrollment, a newly established position designed to enhance the university’s admissions and financial aid efforts. Christiansen was previously assistant vice president for enrollment management and dean of admissions at Purdue University. Under his leadership, applications for admission to Purdue increased 48 percent, resulting in improved academic quality, ethnic diversity, and international presence. Prior to coming to Purdue in 1995, Christiansen was associate director of Student Recruitment and High School Services at the University of Utah.

’90s

R. Mark Gomez BA’90, CPA, was recently promoted to vice president-Operations for the American Express Company. In this role, he oversees operations in the Americas for the global Travelers Cheque and Prepaid Services division of the Fortune 50 company. Gomez has worked for American Express for 10 years in increasing levels of responsibility—in finance, operations, and marketing—and has been recognized among the company’s 75,000 employees as one of its “150 Great Citizens” for his volunteer community and church work.

Arlen Lancaster BS’98 has been appointed chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the primary federal agency that works directly with private landowners to help them conserve, maintain, and improve their natural resources. Lancaster has served as deputy assistant secretary of Congressional Relations at USDA since April 2005. He previously served in various senior staff positions in Congress, having worked for Senator Mike Crapo as a senior policy advisor, and as the staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Forestry, Conservation, and Rural Revitalization. He played a key role in crafting the conservation title of the 2002 Farm Bill. He also worked for Senator Robert Bennett from 1998 to 1999.

’00s

Paul Ketzle PhD’04 won first place and a $1,000 cash prize in the 2006 Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition’s novel category for his unpublished manuscript Hero (or The Late Michael Brown). Ketzle is a writing instructor in the University of Utah’s Honors and LEAP programs, former managing editor of Western Humanities Review, and co-editor (with Mike White, U of U doctoral candidate in Poetry) of the literary journal Quarterly West. His review of Anna Leahy’s Power and Identity in the Creative Writing Classroom, in roundtable with Nicole Walker PhD’06 and Eric Burger PhD’05, appeared in the Fall 2006 issue of the critical journal Pedagogy (www.dukeupress.edu/pedagogy/). Ketzle has contributed to Continuum magazine and is on its advisory board. He is also on the working board of the writing conference Writers @ Work (www.writersatwork.org/).

Matthew Batt PhD’06 has begun teaching English and Creative Writing as assistant professor of English and Philosophy at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he is also creative-nonfiction editor for Real magazine. He received honorable mention from Alyson Hagy in the 13th Annual Utah Writers’ Contest for his story “Morning, Noon, Night,” which appears in the Spring 2006 Western Humanities Review (www.hum.utah.edu/whr).

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