Gail Miller

Winter 2006

Barbara Novak: Business as ministry

After Barbara Novak ’72 received an M.A. in bassoon performance from Southern Illinois University, she became second bassoonist in the Spokane Symphony. “I really got a chance to play everything from the great second bassoon parts to the great contra bassoon solos. I had a great time . . . . I think that the training I got in the orchestra here [Washington State University] was superb. It probably was the catalyst that . . . launched me into performing as a career.”

Novak’s life was changed, though, by the tragic death of her son, Steve, in a mine exploration accident.

“When my son died, … » More …

Fall 2004

Viewing life through the lens of a camera

After a dozen years as a photojournalist with KIRO-TV, Brian Miller left the security of a television-station job in 1998 to start his own company, Wide Angle TV.

Two factors influenced his decision-time and money. And he yearned to be independent.

He now works one-third as much as he did before and earns three times the money, he says. But the freelance business can be unpredictable, subject to such variables as the weather and the economy.

Miller won’t venture a guess at an “average” work week. “There isn’t any”-and he’s fine with that. Some days he might put in 15-20 hours-when he’s working. The downside … » More …

Winter 2005

Carolyn Schactler: Inspired by many sources

While at Washington State College, Carolyn Campbell Schactler of Yakima was a violinist and swimmer in the synchronized group, Fish Fans. She later taught both of these skills, but it was her designing and sewing that launched her career and led to international recognition. Although she graduated with a B.A. in music in 1949, she says, “That wasn’t really my thing. I had been designing and making clothes in my spare moments ever since I can remember. That was really my forte.”

Schactler studied at home and abroad, earning an M.A. from Central Washington University and doing postgraduate work at the University of Texas and … » More …

Fall 2005

Operation Chow Hound

In 1945, the German occupation had Holland on its knees. The Dutch were starving, because the Germans were not supplying them with food. Adelderd Davids of Nijmegen, Holland, six years old at the time, lived in Rotterdam. “It was awful,” he recalls. “We ate tulip bulbs. Some people ate rats, because there was absolutely nothing. We had two or three potatoes for 10 people. Our mother would ask after dinner, ‘Who is still hungry? You can eat the peelings.’ On a feast day they made a torte out of the bulbs.”

England’s Royal Air Force and the United States 8th Air Force joined together to … » More …

Spring 2005

Woodley collects, identifies, and preserves flies

From his office in the Smithsonian Institution’s Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Norm Woodley helps care for the world’s largest bug collection and identifies threatening pests before they get into the country.

A fly specialist and taxonomist, Woodley (’76 Entom.) is also a curator of the 40 million specimens housed primarily at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. He and his colleagues use the collection and their expertise to identify insects that have hitchhiked into the country on overseas cargo shipments. Federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service agents collect the bugs and larvae they find on goods that come in on ships and planes. … » More …

Spring 2005

Thomas hits paydirt with composting advice

Tamara Thomas is not afraid to get down and dirty helping clients solve earthy problems. She owns Terre-Source, a one-woman consulting firm in Mt. Vernon that specializes in composting.

Her clients include North Mason Fiber Company in Belfair, area governments in King and Snohomish counties, and Washington State University.

Thomas’s interest in composting dates back to the 1980s, when a Master Composter friend gave her a home composting system for her birthday. “I’ve been a home composter ever since, ” she says.

While pursuing a master’s degree (’02 Soil Chem.) at WSU, she worked with professor of crop and soil sciences Dave Bezdicek, who remembers … » More …