1930s
Bob C. Jones (’37 Bus. Adm.), Edmonds, writes, “I am a retired banker age 87 and still kicking.”
1940s
Norman L. Garlick (’41 D.V.M.) Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, worked as a janitor at the Audian Theater in downtown Pullman for $25 a month and held the job for five years while pursuing his degree. He writes, “My career covered many important opportunities and accomplishments in the field of animal disease control and eradication, covering almost all the states in the U.S.”
Betty Saling Normandin (’41 Music, ’41 Educ.) hosted six other “Senior Cougars” in her home at the Villages in San Jose, California, September 8, 2002. Those present at the luncheon included June and Phil Lighty, Laura and Evan “Scotty” Hamley, Evie and Cliff Transeth, and Barbara and S.J. “Bill” Monro. Lola Baumann, wife of the late Jack Baumann, also attended. “It was a special time for all of us,” writes Virginia Storm Throssell of El Cerrito.
1950s
Chellis Smith Swenson (’57 Speech, ’57 Theatre Arts) who gained fame as singer “Rhinestone Rosey,” and Harlan “Chuck” Jensen were married August 24, 2002 in Tacoma. Chellis, president of the WSU Alumni Association in 1981-82, has been a longtime volunteer with Habitat for Humanity in Tacoma.
Norman R. Scott (’58 Ag. Engr.) won the Cyrus Hall McCormick-Jerome Increase Case Gold Medal Award for 2002 from the American Society of Agricultural Engineers. He is a professor in the biological and environmental engineering department at Cornell University. He conducts research and teaches development of sustainable communities, with an emphasis on biologically derived fuels, renewable energy, recycling, managed ecosystems, and industrial ecology.
1960s
Robert Boehm (’62 Mech. Engr., ’64 M.A. Mech. Engr.) received the Distinguished Teaching Award and Harry Reid Silver State Research Award from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is director of the Center for Energy Research at UNLV.
Barrie Grant (’62 D.V.M.) received the 2002 Dan Evans Memorial Award from the California Veterinary Medical Association for his ideals and achievements that are a positive influence on those entering the field of equine veterinary medicine. He practices at San Luis Rey Equine Hospital. His expertise is in equine neurology and neurosurgery.
Joe Hill (’62 Math), academic dean of the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast since 1998, retired September 2002.
Alex Ojerio (’67 Vet. Med.), former WSU veterinary faculty (1974-82) and director of the WSU Laboratory Resources Center, is a professor at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. He lives in Eugene, where his wife works at a local veterinary clinic.
Larry Dixon (’68 Police Sci., ’70 M.A. Hist.) was presented the Community Service Award of the Auburn University Montgomery Alumni Association. His public offices include the Montgomery City Council (1975-78), Alabama House of Representatives (1978-82), and Alabama Senate (1982-present). He is executive director of the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners.
Kathryn Zebarth (’68 Home Ec.) is an elk farm manager in Brandon, Minnesota. Since graduation, she has taught home economics, worked in retail management, and oversees 400 registered elk.
1970s
Verne W. House (’71 Ph.D. Ag. Econ.) received the 2002 R.J. Hildreth Award for Career Achievement in Public Policy Education at the 52nd annual conference of the National Public Policy Education Committee in Reno. The former Montana State University Extension educator was recognized for informing the public on such issues as land use, water rights and management, agriculture and taxation, as well as the Extension Service’s rural leadership project. He is professor emeritus at Clemson University. Since retiring, he has taught family public policy for three years at MSU.
Colonel Michael Perini (’72 Social Studies) is director of public affairs for Headquarters North American Aerospace Defense Command of the U.S. Air Force near Colorado Springs, Colorado. He has served on the editorial staff of Air Force Magazine, as deputy director for Headquarters Pacific Air Forces at Hickam Air Force Base, and as editor/publisher of Airman Magazine.
D. Scott Knight (’73 Polit. Sci., ’76 Teaching Cert.) is a teacher and head baseball coach at Stanwood High School and a member of the Washington State High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame. He spent two and a half weeks last summer coaching with USA Baseball and the Youth National Team in Tucson. He was a field supervisor/scout during the 72-team Junior Olympic tournament. USA Baseball holds two tournaments at the same time. The other, in Jupiter, Florida, features 58 teams. The tournaments are the only way a player aged 15 or 16 can be selected for the Youth National Team. At the end of the tournament, 36 players were nominated to participate in the Youth National Trials. Knight was one of five high school coaches in the U.S. to coach one of the two trials teams.
Jack D. Guske (’74 Psych.) has retired from the U.S. Army Reserve with the rank of lieutenant colonel after 28 years of service. For 13 years, he was assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers’ Seattle District in Emergency Management. He continues to teach at Washtucna High School.
Robert Hergert (’74 Educ.) works for Military Professional Resources Inc. on a contract basis. He retired as lieutenant colonel after 25 years of service with the U.S. Army. For MPRI, he has taught at Command School in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and now is deputy program manager for the new regular recruitment program.
Chris Stokke (’77 Nursing, ’89 M.S. Nursing), a retired Navy Nurse Corps Commander, is a tenured nursing faculty member at Olympic College in Bremerton. In 1999 he was elected to the board of directors of the Central Kitsap School District and is presently board president. He and his wife, Penny, live in Bremerton with two daughters.
Phil English (’77 Phys. Ed., ’80 M.A. Educ., ’80 Teaching Cert.) of Eisenhower High School in Yakima was named the 2001 Girls Cross Country Coach of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations. He has coached for more than 23 years, leading his girls’ teams at Carroll H.S. and Eisenhower H.S. to a combined 207-5-0 record and eight state championships through 2001. He has also coached two boys’ cross country teams to state championships. He ran cross country and track for WSU.
Alan Gross (’79 Ph.D. Psych.) was one of three recipients of the new three-year Liberal Arts Distinguished Faculty Fellowship at the University of Mississippi. The three were recognized for their teaching, research, creative accomplishments, and community service. Gross is a prolific researcher with more than 150 journal articles and book chapters to his credit.
1980s
Since James W. Hall (’82 Comm.) became director of community relations at Kadlec Medical Center in Richland, the hospital has received a number of awards for its efforts in relaying services to communities in the Tri-Cities. At the 14th Annual Healthcare Advertising Awards, Kadlec won the national Gold Medal in the “Special Video Production” category for Community Health Journal. Hall hosts the weekly program. At the 19th Annual Healthcare Advertising Awards, Kadlec earned a Silver Award for the professional recruitment advertising campaign, “The Best of Both Worlds,” an effort to attract top physicians to the area. In addition, the hospital received two Awards of Merit from the Yakima Advertising Federation’s Chinook Awards. The first was in the category of “Television” for a 30-second healthcare service advertisement. The second was in the category of “Interactive Media” for a disk-based sales program Hall created.
John L. Martins III (’82 Gen. St.) was awarded a $500 first-place honorarium for his radio play, The Fourth Psalm. The play addresses a priest’s aid to Latin refugees and the crisis of conscience which eventually consumes his mentor. It is scheduled for production this spring. Martins, a school teacher in Albuquerque, has been an associate member of the Dramatists Guild of America since 1984.
Steve Niemi (’82 D.V.M.) writes from Boston: “After 17 years in the biotech industry . . . I have returned to academia and biomedical research. Last summer I became director of the Center for Comparative Medicine (and chief veterinarian) at the Massachusetts General Hospital. I spent the previous 18 months commuting from Boston to Chicago (and beyond) to launch a new company, and finally needed a more rational lifestyle. I am really enjoying not traveling anywhere on business, not having to raise equity capital (especially in this market), but mostly just spending more time at home.”
Barbara Greene Chamberlain (’84 English and Linguistics, Honors), director, communications and public affairs at WSU Spokane, completed the Masters in Public Administration degree program at Eastern Washington University August 2002.
Gary A. Knight (’85 For. Lang.) is assistant professor of marketing and director of the Multinational Business Program in the College of Business at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Shannon Carefoot (’86 Nursing) works in the Critical Care Unit at Willamette Valley Medical Center in McMinnville, Oregon. Her husband, Brent Carefoot (’84 Bus. Adm.), is the store manager for JC Penney in McMinnville. The youngest store manager in his district, he received the 2001 Chairman’s Award for JC Penney, which goes to its top stores.
Brad Fluetsch (’86 Finance) is the chief executive and chief investment officer for Raven Asset Management in Juneau, Alaska. He is a member of the Tlingit and Haida tribes and served on the National Congress of American Indians Trust Fund Policies and Procedures Working Group.
Navy Lt. Greg Braaten (’88 Comm.) completed the Advanced Technician Communications Course at Pensacola, Florida.
Dean Pierose (’88 Hotel & Rest. Adm.) owns a successful Italian deli in Salt Lake City. During the 2002 Winter Olympics the deli catered for Sting, Dixie Chicks, Rudolph Giuliani, Desmond Tutu, the winning Canadian hockey team, Dave Matthews, and many others.
Kristal Greninger (’89 Acct.) married Cody Hassler December 14, 2001, in Las Vegas. She is a CPA with Thompson & Kreitzberg in Walla Walla.
Brian Gurley (‘89 Bus. Adm.) is controller at Triumph Learning, a publishing company in New York City.
Jeff Lageson (’89 Hist., ’97 Soc. St.), Lynnwood, Washington, writes: “My first short film, The Comic Book Shop, debuted on line at ifilm.com late last summer.
1990s
Sarah “Sadie” Moore (’91 Econ.) is vice president at Goldman Sachs Investment Bank, New York.
Corinne Tyler Isaak (’92 Humanities) has written a children’s book and produced a children’s CD. Unique Monique–Moki Time made its debut September 2002. For more information, visit www.mokitime.com. Corinne is a stay-at-home mom in Coulee City, Washington.
Christine Krkovich Jones (’92 Speech & Hearing Sci., M.A. ’95 Speech & Hearing Sci.) is a speech-language pathologist for the Medical Lake School District.
Simeon Hein (’93 Ph.D. Soc.) recently published Opening Minds: A Journey of Extraordinary Encounters, Crop Circles, and Resonance (Mount Baldy Press, 2002). The book is about the science behind the phenomena of crop circles, remote viewing, and other related subjects. The book’s Web site is www.OpeningMinds.info. Hein lives in Boulder, Colorado, where he is director of the non-profit Institute for Resonance, and also CEO and president of Mount Baldy Press, Inc.
Lawrence Thelen (’93 Theatre Arts) is author of The Show Makers: Great Directors of the American Musical Theatre, published by Routledge in 2000. The book came out in paperback last spring. He is producing associate and literary manager of Goodspeed Musicals, a professional theatre devoted to musical theatre in Moodus, Connecticut, where he lives with his wife.
Jim Valley (’94 Comm.) has been at KEX radio in Portland for three years. He writes, “I won two regional Murrow awards for reporting the last two years.”
Jennifer Burger (’95 Human Nutr. & Foods) has been a certified physician assistant at Community Health Association of Spokane since graduating from the MEDEX Northwest Physician Assistant program August 2001.
Chris Gonzales (’96 Econ.) is a real estate loan officer for FirstBank Northwest in Moscow, Idaho.
Erin Orth Hamilton (‘96 Hotel & Rest. Adm.) has worked as a manager for Red Lobster since 1996. He was promoted to general manager of Red Lobster in Lynnwood in 2000 and now is general manager of the Red Lobster Restaurant in Olympia. He and his wife, Braden, live in Lacey.
Danielle McGuire (’96 Educ.) teaches fourth grade in the Puyallup School District.
Paula Curry Donald (’98 Hum. Nutr. & Foods), a member of the Cougar Rowing team from 1995 to 1997, has been hired as assistant coach of the Kansas State rowing team. She holds a master’s degree in sports nutrition from Colorado State University.
Jason Fiman (’97 Crim. Just.) and Alice Thomas Fiman (‘97 Polit. Sci.), Olympia, report the birth of their son, Alexander Thomas, May 29, 2002. Jason is a juvenile correctional counselor, and Alice is a public information officer for the Washington State Legislature.
Navy Lt. Juan Garcia (’97 International Bus.) is participating in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan while assigned to the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu.
Tennille N. Jones (’97 Bus. Adm.) is the Seattle regional manager for Junior Achievement of Greater Puget Sound. She develops and delivers presentations on JA’s K-12 programs to schools and teachers in the Seattle and Shoreline school districts. She also coordinates the recruitment, training, placement, and scheduling of trained volunteers.
Rebecca Andrew Zanatta (’97 Comm.) has been promoted to executive director for the Alpha Phi International Foundation in Evanston, Illinois. The philanthropic priority of the sorority’s international foundation is to combat heart disease, the leading killer of women in North America.
Michele Mahoney (’98 Soils) lives in Arlington, Virginia, and is employed by the Office of Pesticide Programs at the headquarters of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She is also a Master Gardener.
2000s
Jeremy Edmondson (’00 Humanities) and Stephanie Carlson (’00 Soc.) were married June 1, 2002 in California. Stephanie works as an assistant in a law firm in Vancouver. Jeremy is a district manager for ARAMARK Uniform Services in Portland.
Stacie Harris Jones (’00 Comm.) is a communications specialist with Inland Northwest Health Services in Spokane. She and her husband, Jason, were married September 29, 2001.
Jeff Evans (’00 Comm.) is assistant media relations director at Arizona State University. He is the media contact for men’s baseball and women’s volleyball teams. As a WSU undergraduate, he worked for sports information director Rod Commons.
Navy Lt. Mark Wass (’00 Arch.) was recently designated a naval flight officer after 18 months of training in Pensacola, Florida.
Robert Biskeborn (’01 Bus. Adm.) and Shane McKinnie (’01 Bus. Adm.) received commissions as Navy officers after completing OCS in Pensacola, Florida.
Robert B. Casey (’01 Philos.) and his wife, Patricia, were married December 29, 2001 in Leavenworth, Washington.
Amanda Porter (’01 Zool., ’01 Spanish, Honors) is pursuing a master’s degree in public health at George Washington University. She has an interest in international health promotion. She writes, “I made a lot of friends and had great classes and professors (at WSU). I was challenged. I love Pullman and was sad to leave.”
Jessica Biel (’02 Comm.) has been hired as a marketing coordinator of PRR, a Seattle-based integrated communications company.
Nancy Kikendall (’02 Human Dev.), Liberty Lake, Washington, was selected to fill one of 10 openings nationally for the master’s program of American Sign Language, Linguistics and Interpretation at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. She told a Spokane paper, “I wanted a challenge. I think I’m in for one.” Gallaudet was chartered in 1864 by President Lincoln “To serve as a comprehensive, multipurpose institution of higher education for deaf and hard of hearing citizens of the United States and of the world.”
Jesse Keene (’02 Polit. Sci.) was hired by the WSU News Bureau last summer. His duties include special projects for the administration, communication and media relations, and input on WSU issues. The 2001-02 ASWSU president plans to attend law school.