Vol. 14 No. 1
Summer 2004

 

THROUGH THE YEARS

70s

Ronald Eaglin PhD’70 has announced that he will retire this year after 12 years as president of Morehead State University (MSU).

During Eaglin’s presidency, MSU opened its Space Science Center, two new regional campuses, the Kentucky Folk Art Center, and the Institute for Regional Analysis and Public Policy. Eaglin also oversaw the establishment of Kentucky’s first online degree program, and MSU experienced its highest enrollment and endowment numbers during the last year of his tenure.

Dari Scott BS’72 was recently named vice president of the National Energy Foundation (NEF), a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit educational organization dedicated to promoting better understanding of energy, natural resources, and the environment.

Employed by the NEF for 11 years, Scott will assume executive responsibilities while continuing to oversee NEF programs and provide client support to project partners, such as the Federal Department of Energy, state energy offices, and the Johnson Controls, Inc. “Igniting Creative Energy Challenge” education competition.

Michael Katzorke BS’73 has been appointed vice president of supply chain management for Smiths Aerospace, a top-tier equipment supplier to the world’s major military and civil aircraft builders and engine manufacturers.

Katzorke, based in the United States, is responsible for developing and maintaining a world-class network of suppliers for the company. Before Joining Smiths Aerospace, he held senior management positions at Cessna Aircraft Company, Allied Signal, Honeywell, and Motorola. He is also a private pilot.

James L. Shumate BA’73 JD’75 began a two-year term as presiding judge of the Utah Fifth District Court in January 2004.

Shumate was appointed to the Fifth Circuit Court in 1991 and became a district court judge in 1992. He presided over the formation of the Washington County Drug Court and helped establish the Washington County Domestic Violence Coalition. Shumate serves Beaver, Iron, and Washington counties in Southern Utah.

Kenneth N. Buchi BS’73 MD’78 is the new chair of the HealthInsight Board of Trustees. HealthInsight is a nonprofit organization created to improve the health care systems of Utah and Nevada. Buchi, a physician and an associate professor at the U School of Medicine, has served on the HealthInsight board for four years.

Harold Blomquist BS’78 recently became president and CEO of Morpho Technologies in Irvine, Calif. Morpho Technologies produces semiconductor technology that is used in various electronics applications, such as cellular phones, PDAs, and portable PCs.

Blomquist has more than 17 years of executive management experience. He serves as chair of the board for Simtek Corp. in Colorado Springs, Colo., and is a director on the board of Microsemi Corp., also in Irvine.

80s

Akhlesh Lakhtakia MS’81 PhD’83 was recognized as a distinguished professor of engineering science and mechanics at Penn State University earlier this year. This academic title is given to a limited number of outstanding professors.

Lakhtakia has been a member of the Penn State College of Engineering faculty since 1983. He received his bachelor of technology degree in electronics engineering from Banaras Hindu University in India.

Charles A. Callis BA’82 MBA’87 has been named vice president of worldwide product sales for ClearOne Communications, a Utah-based company that provides audio, video, and Web conferencing products and services for clients in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Before joining ClearOne, Callis was a founding executive of Altiris, an IT management solutions company. He also spent nearly a decade at Novell, where he held several key international positions.

Steven Rueckert BS’84 has been appointed director of member planning support for the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), one of 10 electricity reliability councils in North America.

The WECC is responsible for promoting electric system reliability for a geographical area equivalent to over half the United States. The council coordinates operation and planning activities for 156 member organizations that provide electricity to 71 million people in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Rueckert, a former WECC staff engineer, will oversee member-planning activities, study the work of current staff engineers, and serve as the WECC staff liaison to the organization’s planning coordination committee and reliability subcommittee.

John Huber BA’89 JD’95, former West Valley City chief prosecutor, has taken a new position as special assistant U.S. attorney and Utah Project Safe Neighborhoods coordinator. Project Safe Neighborhoods is a national program committed to reducing gun violence.

Huber is a former deputy prosecutor/clerk for Weber County, Utah, and has been an instructor for several Utah law enforcement organizations. He was also a member of the U’s 1986 varsity football team.

90s

Bradley R. Cahoon JD’91 has been elected chair of the board of State Law Resources, Inc. (SLR), a national network of independent law firms composed of one representative from each state and three from the District of Columbia.

As a partner with the Salt Lake City law offices of Snell & Wilmer, Cahoon focuses on administrative law and litigation, land use, environment, water, natural resources, and utilities. He is also a member of the American Lung Association of Utah Board of Directors.

Kevin Dyson BS’98 former Ute football star and veteran NFL wide receiver, has signed a one-year contract with the San Diego Chargers.

Dyson entered the NFL as a first-round draft pick in 1998. He played five seasons with the Tennessee Titans and joined the Carolina Panthers in 2003. An injury limited his season with the Panthers, but he played in all postseason games, including Super Bowl XXXVIII.

Dyson’s younger brother, Andre Dyson BS’01, also played football at the U and is a starting cornerback for the Titans. Kevin and Andre were teammates in Tennessee during the 2001-02 season.

00s

Craig Arnold PhD’01 recently accepted a position as assistant professor in the new MFA program at the University of Wyoming at Laramie.

An accomplished poet, Arnold has taught at Yale, Princeton, and the University of Texas, and spent the 2003-04 academic year as visiting writer at the University of South Dakota. He has been an Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholar, NEA grant recipient, Hodder Fellow in the Humanities at Princeton University, and winner of the prestigious Yale Series of Younger Poets competition (1998). His work has appeared in several publications, including The New Republic, Yale Review, and Paris Review (See Continuum, Winter 1998-99).

AWARD-WINNING ALUMNI

Alan C. Kay MS’68 PhD’69 received the engineering profession’s highest honor—the Charles Stark Draper Prize—on Feb. 24, 2004, in Washington, D.C. Presented annually by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the Draper Prize honors engineers whose accomplishments have significantly benefited society. Kay shares the $500,000 prize with three other distinguished engineers who facilitated the development of the world’s first practical, networked personal computers.

Kay is best known for conceptualizing personal computing and the laptop computer, and for his inventions of the overlapping-window interface and dynamic object-oriented programming, which are ubiquitous in modern computing.

Before he began his pioneering work in computers, Kay was a professional jazz guitarist, composer, and theatrical designer, and is now an amateur classical pipe organist. He attended the University of Colorado, where he earned undergraduate degrees in mathematics and molecular biology, with minors in English and anthropology. In 1966, he came to the U to study computer science and electrical engineering. He was a member of the Utah Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) research team that developed 3-D graphics, and helped design the ARPANet, which eventually became the Internet.

During the early 1970s, Kay was a founder of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). There, he led one of several groups that together created desktop publishing, the Ethernet, laser printing, and network client-servers, among other things. He went on to become an Apple fellow, Disney fellow, and chief scientist of Atari.

Today, Kay is a senior fellow at Hewlett Packard Labs, an adjunct professor of computer science at UCLA, and president of Viewpoints Research Institute, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving general education. He has received numerous awards and accolades, including his 2003 induction into the Utah Information Technology Association (UITA) Hall of Fame.

Gary O. Totland BS’60 MS’68, former Ute baseball player, coach, and founder of the Utah Special Olympics, was honored with the Utah Sports Hall of Fame Foundation Distinguished Service Award in January 2004.

John Warnock BS’61 MS’64 PhD’69, co-founder and chair of the board of Adobe Systems, won the 2003 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the information technology category.

Mike Garibaldi BS’68 MS’69, champion swimmer, water polo player, college coach, actor, and model, was inducted into the International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame in January 2004.

Victoria E. Judd BS’77 MD’80, clinical professor of pediatrics and medical director of student health at the U, has been named 2004 Utah Medical Association Board Physician of the Year.

Shane Robison BS’80 MS’83, executive vice president and chief strategy and technology officer for Hewlett Packard, was inducted into the UITA Hall of Fame in November 2003.

David Neeleman ex’81, founder and CEO of JetBlue Airways, won the 2003 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the consumer and business services category. LM

Shawn Nelson BA’02, founder and CEO of LoveSac Corp., won the 2003 Ernst & Young Utah Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the emerging companies category.

CRIMSON CLUB HALL OF FAME

Ted Jacobsen BS’52 (former Huntsman Center director) AM; Monty Howard ex’55 (former athletics ticket manager, baseball player, and coach; deceased, 2002); William Spencer BS’61 (skiing) LM; Marv Bateman ex’71 (football punter/kicker); Lisa Mitzel-Izzi BA’86 (gymnastics); and Michele Townsend-Graves ex’86 (softball) were inducted into the Crimson Club Hall of Fame in April 2004.

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