1930s

Joe Caraher (’35 Journalism) is author of East Side, West Side, All Around the Town (Pajokirk, 2003), a collection of newspaper columns he’s written over a half-century. He is retired editor and publisher of the Herald & News in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Sylvia Haapala (’38 Home Ec., ’38 Educ.), Winlock, celebrated her 90th birthday January 15, 2003. She taught at Toledo and Winlock high schools for 30 years.

1940s

The Ed K. Erickson Theatre Off Broadway at Seattle Central Community College has been dedicated in honor of Ed Erickson (’40 Educ., ’46 B.Ed., ’48 M.A. Educ., ’65 Ed.D.), founding president of the Seattle Community College system.

Richard Sagle (’42 Pharm.), was one of only 27 of the National Weather Service’s 11,000 volunteer weather observers to receive the John Campanius Holm Award in 2003. He has recorded temperatures and precipitation daily for almost 46 years in the northern Ferry County community of Republic.

Wendell Oliver (’48 Wildlife Biol.), Toppenish, retired wildlife biologist for the Washington State Game Department, has been a consulting biologist for 10 years for such clients as the Yakama Indian Nation and various public utility districts.

Ed Soper (’49 Agri.), Lake Forest Park, reports 74 former residents of the Pine Manor men’s cooperative living group at WSC attended an April 25-27 reunion in Pullman. The gathering included 52 spouses. Cliff Gillies (’51 Phys. Ed., ’59 M.S. Phys. Ed.), South Bend, was master of ceremonies, and Carl Ronning (’42 Polit. Sci.), Whidbey Island, was one of the earliest residents.

1950s

Florence Wager (’50 Speech Comm., ’54 Educ.), a retired arts administrator for the San Francisco Symphony Association, was among the 2002 Women of Achievement selected by Clark College in Vancouver. She also received the Women Sustaining the American Spirit Award from the Clark County YWCA.

David Allen (’52 Engl.) is an Episcopal monk of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Stanley M. Miller (’52 Dairy Sci.) and Barbara A. Kitlar Miller (’53 Home Ec. Educ.), Bellevue, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary June 29, 2003.

Elaine Zakarison (’54 Sociology), Pullman, was awarded the Women’s Studies Alumni Award for 2002 from WSU. She was the executive director of the YWCA at WSU, 1961-62 and 1966-75. Later she became an assistant to the dean of students, 1979, and director of Supportive Service Programs, 1987. She served as director of Student Services for the YWCA of the U.S., 1987-95.

1960s

Martin Favero (’61 M.S. Bact. & Pub. Health, ’64 Ph.D. Bact.) was the inaugural recipient of a lectureship award in his name presented by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology in San Antonio last June. Favero is director of scientific and clinical affairs at Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP). Prior to joining ASP in 1996, he worked 32 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in various positions, including director of the CDC’s Hospital Infections Program.

Bob Boehm (’62 Mech. Engr., ’64 M.S. Mech. Engr.) is director of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Center for Energy Research. In 1990, he became chair of UNLV’s newly formed engineering department. He spent more than 20 years teaching at the University of Utah, where he was department chairman.

S.M. “Ghazi” Ghazanfar (’62 Bus. Adm., ’64 M.A. Econ., and ’69 Ph.D. Econ.), Moscow, Idaho, is editor of and a contributor to Medieval Islamic Economic Thought, published by Routledge Curzon in 2003. Earlier this year, he received the Lifetime Alumni Award for Excellence for his long-term commitment to students and the University of Idaho. He taught economics, 1968-2002, and was department chair, 1979-81, 1993-2001.

Michael Keller (’64 Phys. Ed.) retired after 25 years as track-and-field coach at the University of Idaho. He now is a realty professional with Windermere Real Estate-Manito LLC in Spokane.

David A. Bryant (’66 Forest & Range Mgmt.) is the new president of Oklahoma Panhandle State University at Goodwell. Earlier he was vice provost and director of agriculture extension services and professor of animal and range sciences at Montana State University.

Norm Howard (’67 Hotel & Rest. Adm.) is the new general manager at the Grand Union Hotel in Fort Benton, Montana. He has more than 30 years of hotel industry experience at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane and in California, Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky, and Arizona.

1970s

Thomas Roche (’70 Ph.D. Chem.) was honored as a University Distinguished Professor at Kansas State in May. He is a leading researcher studying mammalian pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC), a central decision-making factor in how a body uses sugar.

Kevin Heimbigner (’71 Acct., ’73 Teach. Cert.) retired after 30 years as a business education teacher and coach at Toutle Lake, Odessa, and Naselle high schools. Three times he was Washington State Baseball Coach of the Year, amassing a 411-102 record. He also coached basketball and football, winning 26 league championships. Now he is a staff writer for the Chinook Observer in Long Beach.

Mike Hinz (’73 Animal Sci., ’78 Bus. Adm.) retired in 2002 after working at WSU for 28 years, including 24 as chemistry department storeroom manager. Since 1993, he has been head track-and-field coach of Pullman High School and the Pullman Comets summer club. Under Hinz, PHS has claimed three state championships⁠—boys in 1998 and 2003 and girls in 2001.

Since 1973, David Leary (’74 M.A. Police Sci. & Adm.) has held numerous positions at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Last summer he was again appointed security chief, a position he held in the mid-1980s, when he introduced the lab’s first special response team and K9 dog patrols.

Matthew Wanchena (’74 Arch St.) of Woodinville has been accepted into a special doctoral program in the business school at Kennedy-Western in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He is being awarded 50 percent of the credits required for his doctorate as a result of his prior work experience, military service, and education. He expects to complete the degree in 18 months. He was a building plans examiner/building inspector for the SeaTac Airport Building Department.

Barbara Huprich Deckert (’75 Engl.), Elkridge, Maryland, tells us that her first book, Sewing for Plus Sizes: Design, Fit, and Construction for Ample Apparel (Taunton Press), now is in paperback. It sold more than 14,000 copies in hardback. Her second book, Sewing 911: Practical and Creative Rescues for Sewing Emergencies (Taunton Press), was reviewed in WSM fall 2002. She also writes articles for several national sewing magazines, has appeared on sewing programs aired on PBS and HGTV, and runs a custom clothing business.

Rob Wayne Hansen (’75 Hist.) received the 2002 Teacher of the Year Award presented by Moses Lake Wal-Mart. The 28-year educator teaches fifth grade at Knolls Vista Elementary in Moses Lake.

American food writer Robert Carmack (’76 Comm.), Sydney, Australia, is author of a new book devoted to cheese fondues, meat, and fish cooked in wine and stock fondues. He previously was a food researcher for Time-Life books.

Master Sgt. Michael Olsen (’76 Forest & Range Mgmt.) is a program facilitator of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at Old Town High School, Old Town, Maine. He has served in the Army for 25 years.

William C. Barr (’77 M.A. Child & Family Studies) is senior vice president of health care operations for The Regency Group, a four-state affiliation of Blue Cross and/or Blue Shield companies in the Northwest. The appointment was announced in July at company headquarters in Portland. He has more than 25 years experience in the health care industry.

Suzanne Carr Pease (’77 M.A. Child Development) took office as president of the National Association of Women Business Owners in June. She owns Ampersand Graphics, a New Jersey graphic design firm.

Gary Versteege (’77 Comm.) and Gary Anderson opened the 12,000-square-foot Seattle Auction House in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood in December 2002.

Stephen Fodor (’78 Biol., ’82 M.S. Biochem.), San Diego, was appointed to the Scientific Advisory Board of Phenomix. He is the scientific founder, chairman, and CEO of Affymetrix. His development and use of DNA chip technology has led to broad commercial applications in many areas of basic and clinical research.

Abdullah Al Musa (’79 Plant Path.) was appointed president of the University of Jordan in February 2002. At UJ he has served as academic vice president, scientific and medical faculty, dean of the faculty of agriculture, deputy dean of the agriculture faculty, and head of the department of plant protection.

Mickey Urdea (’79 Ph.D. Biochem.) has been elected to the board of directors for Quantum Dot Corp. in Hayward, California. He has published more than 185 scientific papers and has 89 issued patents and patent applications, having developed numerous patented compounds, processes, and devices.

1980s

Phil Hinrichs (’80 Agri.) was inducted into the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges’ Hall of Fame in June. He compiled a 19-1 pitching record at Yakima Valley College in 1976 and 1977. He later pitched at WSU for two years and played professionally for six years in the San Francisco Giants organization. He is a wheat and grain broker in Pullman.

Martin L. Heimbigner (’81 Bus. Adm.) is a partner in the Seattle accounting firm of Tatum Partners. He serves on the City Bank board of directors.

Janine Anderson (‘83 Comm.) has joined the Tri-Cities Visitor and Convention Bureau as membership director.

Mary McLeod Wadsworth (’83 Interior Design) has been named a principal at Civic Design in Great Falls, Montana. She is lead computer-aided drafting manager and interior designer for the company. She has a dozen years of experience in project management with Eddie Bauer, SeaFirst Bank, the Children’s Museum of Montana, and the state of Montana.

Donald E. Tilton (’85 Mech. Engr.) is co-founder of Isothermal Systems Research, Inc., a company that has developed cooling technology expected to save the military about $300 million in weapons costs. In June ISR received a Value Engineering Achievement Award from U.S. Department of Defense officials during ceremonies in Washington, D.C. Tilton developed the initial spray-cool technology that the military will use aboard airplanes and in ground vehicles. He is chairman for business strategy of the company based at Liberty Lake near Spokane.

Physics professor Paul E. Adams (’86 M.S. Physics) was selected for the Marian Pfister Anschutz Endowed Professorship in Education at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas. He is looking for ways to use the collective talents of FHSU faculty to develop quality teachers for western Kansas.

John Mercer (‘86 Comm.), anchor at KTVN-TV in Reno, Nevada, for the past eight years, has been named news anchor at WDEF-TV in Chatanooga, Tennessee. He started his broadcasting career in Yakima, and later was a news anchor at KOBI-TV in Medford, Oregon.

Edmund Viesturs (’87 D.V.M.), Seattle, reached the summit of 26,658-foot Nanga Parbat in Pakistan June 22. His goal is to climb the world’s 14 highest peaks without using bottled oxygen. Nanga Parbat was his 13th. The

avalanche-prone peak, known as the “Killer Mountain,” has been the site of a number of mountaineering disasters. Nepal’s 26,545-foot Annapurna still remains on his list.

1990s

Diana L. Dreisbach (’92 Bus. Adm./Marketing) and Jack Danridge were married in September 2002. They make their home in Lacey. She is an accounts specialist at an Olympia bank.

After the 2003 Washington legislative session, Jane Yung Dennie (’93 English) accepted a position as an assistant attorney general assigned to the University of Washington Medical Center. She previously worked on WSU government relations causes for more than six years.

Julie Everton Elliott (’93 English) has joined the staff of Schurz Library at the Indiana University-South Bend campus.

Scott O. Patterson (’93 Polit. Sci.) has been hired as chief information officer and director of public affairs for C-T in Vancouver, Clark County’s public transportation. Earlier he was public affairs director with the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce for three years.

Tim W. Busse (’94 Comm., ’97 Educ. Teaching Certificate) has been recognized for his teaching at Spokane’s East Valley Middle School. He teaches a class for seventh- and eighth-grade students who haven’t fared well in mainstream classes. He was one of 18 teachers chosen to travel to China with the University of Washington’s East Asian Resource Center to learn about Chinese culture.

Andrew Perkins (’95 Environmental Sci., ’98 M.B.A.) is an assistant professor of marketing at the Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University, Houston. His current research focuses on the influence of implicit strength of identification on attitude formation.

Debra Kim Kwong White (’95 Pharm.) and Gilbert Lee White (’90 Polit. Sci.) were married May 3, 2003, in Kauai, Hawaii. She is a neuroscience sales representative with Eli Lilly and Co. in Seattle. He is a senior development officer at Seattle University.

Robert J. Harrington (’96 Bus. Adm., ’01 Ph.D. Bus. Adm.), a former chef with a doctorate in strategic management, is dean of the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute in Thibodaux, Louisiana.

Heidi Pierce (’96 Arch, ’96 Arch. St.) has joined Zeck Butler Architects P.S. in Spokane.

Bryan Chiu (’97 Gen. St./Social Sci.) was voted Canadian Football League outstanding lineman in 2003. His team, the Montreal Alouettes, won the Grey Cup last season for the first time in 25 years.

Renee Tarabochia (‘97 Hotel & Rest. Adm./Bus. Adm.) and Joe Robertson (‘99 Crim. Just.) were married August 10, 2002, in Seattle. They have purchased a home in Maple Valley.

Randall & Hurley, Inc., a nine-year-old Spokane company owned and operated by Clay Randall and Lynn Hurley (‘98 Math), boosted its revenues by 40 percent in 2000 and increased its customer base by 150 companies. The company handles retirement plans on behalf of clients, most of them small- to medium-sized businesses in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, area.

Jed P. Sparks (’98 Ph.D. Botany), an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University since 2002, received the Faculty Early Career Development Program grant from the National Science Foundation. He will receive $500,000 in research support over five years. His research focuses on how plant communities physiologically respond and contribute to environmental conditions in the atmosphere and soil around them.

Michael S. Wilson (’98 Arch., ’98 Arch. St.) has joined the Spokane architecture firm of Madsen Mitchell Everson and Conrad as an intern.