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Summer 2024

Hannelore Sudermann

Summer 2006

Cherries—The sweet fruit of worry

In March, Don Olmstead Jr. (’70 Hort.) watches over his cherry trees night and day, ready to activate a heating system or switch on the wind machines to protect the tender buds from a killing frost. It’s a task he shares with his son and business partner, Don Olmstead III (’98 Hort.).

In April, the Olmsteads worry about pollination, which only works if pollen is on the blossoms and the weather is right for insect activity. Since most cherries can’t self-pollinate, there must be another variety close by and in bloom. To facilitate cross-pollination, the Olmsteads hire one beehive per acre, inviting a few million … » More …

Summer 2006

The CUB: Back to the future

Work has begun on a two-year, $86-million project to remodel the Compton Union Building. The plan is to modernize the 1951 building, carving out 53,000 square feet for stores and restaurants, installing a new state-of-the-art auditorium, and introducing more light and style.

The price tag, 60 percent of which will be covered by a student assessment of $120 a semester, is the highest in Washington State University history. That’s because at six stories and 235,000 square feet, the CUB is one of WSU’s largest buildings, says Travis Duncan ’05, the CUB project coordinator. The renovation involves gutting the entire building and the costly endeavor of … » More …

Spring 2007

John Leitzinger: Racing with the wind

On a small boat with six other guys, with about two weeks to travel 2,300 nautical miles, you really want to be with agreeable people.

That was John Leitzinger’s philosophy when he was looking for teammates to sail with him in the 2006 Vic-Maui International Yacht Race, a trip between Victoria, Canada, and Lahaina, Maui.

Fortunately, he long ago found a good sailing partner in his college friend, Ken Marks. After finishing their education degrees from Washington State University in 1987, the pair moved to Tacoma, where they worked as substitute teachers, lived together, and bought a boat from another Cougar classmate’s dad. “It was … » More …

Spring 2007

Foraged foods: Serving up a traditional meal from the Columbia plateau

In a wooded spot a half-mile from Washington State University’s Pullman campus, an older woman with long braids and an apron emblazoned with the words “got buns?” tended an alderwood fire. Geraldine Jim, a salmon expert from the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon, used the back of a pickup truck as her staging area. She threaded the salmon halves lengthwise onto long, stripped sticks of dogwood and ironwood. While the fish roasted, she circled the fire, running her hand up the skin side to feel for doneness. She pointed out how a half-section of the fish is threaded down the stick, the thin tail end … » More …

Spring 2007

Vaulting ambition

Despite the icy air of the late October afternoon, Todd Griffiths strips down to his skin-tight spandex uniform and lifts himself atop a bay horse named Darby. His legs move forward and in one fluid swing are back behind him, pulling him into a handstand, part of a warmup before he gives us a full display of his vaulting skills.

Vaulting is not a widely known sport in America. So tell an equestrian that you know a vaulter, and he’ll be impressed. The activity is a combination of gymnastics and dance performed atop a moving horse, so amazing, it’s hard to tear your eyes away. … » More …

Spring 2007

Spillman memorial rededicated

A memorial marker for William Jasper Spillman, a crop research pioneer and one of Washington State College’s first professors, was returned to campus last fall.

Spillman was the sixth faculty member to be hired at WSC, and the researcher responsible for developing new wheat varieties for the region. During his time here, he independently rediscovered Mendel’s law of genetics. He left WSC in 1901 to become a founder of agricultural economics, the first president of the American Agricultural Economics Association, and editor of Farm Journal. In the 1930s, before he died, he asked that his family return to the Palouse that he loved and spread … » More …

Summer 2007

Dana Patterson: The path ahead

Yellow Springs, Ohio, is a small college community with a rich history of social justice. It was a stop on the Underground Railroad and, much later, home to Antioch College, where civil rights activist Coretta Scott King went to school.

Dana Patterson, who completed her doctorate in higher education administration at Washington State University last spring, was seeking a career that would lead her into social justice and human rights activism, when she applied to be first director of the new Coretta Scott King Center at Antioch. Looking at the job description, she realized, “It’s a perfect fit for me in light of what I … » More …