Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Spring 2024

Hannelore Sudermann

Summer 2007

Anatomy of Murder: Robert Keppel '66 Police Science, '67 MA Police Science

In 1974, during Robert Keppel’s second week as a major crimes detective with the King County Sheriff’s Office, he was assigned the cases of two women who had gone missing on the same day from Lake Samammish. They turned out to be two of Ted Bundy’s victims, and the beginning of Keppel’s career-long study of serial killers. Keppel left the Sheriff’s Office in 1982 to become the lead criminal investigator for the Washington State Attorney General’s office. At the same time, he worked on the Green River Killer Task Force. From death row in Florida, Bundy contacted Keppel, offering to help him find the Green … » More …

Summer 2007

Hoop dreams

Cougar fans are still shaking themselves awake from the dream that was the 2006-07 basketball season.

The sweet reverie set in early this winter during a game against Gonzaga at Friel Court. For the first time in years, a scrappy bunch of mostly juniors and sophomores showed us that channeled energy, resiliency, and strategic coaching could add up to victory. The Washington State University win shattered a seven-game losing streak against the Zags and started a season loaded with ending streaks and broken records.

Sports analysts who predicted we’d finish at the back of the Pac-10 were forced to take a second look at Tony … » More …

Summer 2007

Hops & beer

Raising the raw ingredients for beer can be just as complex and interesting as growing grapes for wine, says Jason Perrault '97, '01. Like grapes, hops have different varieties and characteristics. Perrault, fourth-generation heir to a hops-farming legacy, runs a hops breeding program for Yakima Valley growers, helping to ensure that Washington continues to provide three-quarters of the hops grown in this country.

» More ...
Winter 2005

The Fixer

A new hotel in an old Seattle landmark

At Fourth and Virginia in Seattle, where Belltown meets downtown a few blocks from Pike Place Market, a trendy restaurant and residential district meets up with the city’s retail center. It’s here that hotelier Craig Schafer ’76 has made his mark.

His upscale Hotel Andra is nestled in the 1926 brick corner building once beloved as the low-cost Claremont Hotel. Built as an efficiency apartment building and retaining the same spacious rooms, the boutique hotel is touted by the likes of Fortune and Condé Nast Traveler magazines and the design industry for its appealing modern look and … » More …

Winter 2005

Being Sacagawea

For the past two years historian Jeanne Eder has been traveling in Sacagawea’s footsteps. Donning a traditional dress as well as another woman’s persona, Eder has toured the West performing her interpretation of an older and wiser Sacagawea who, years after the Journey of Discovery expedition, has time to reflect.

Eder (’00 Ph.D. Hist.) teaches at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. A Dakota Sioux who grew up on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeast Montana, she researches the lives of historic Native American women and portrays them in Chautauqua-style performances.

Playing the most famous woman of the 1800s has its challenges, says Eder. “People … » More …

Winter 2005

What I've Learned Since College: an interview with Theodore Baseler

Ted Baseler is president and CEO of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. The interview with Hannelore Sudermann took place in his second-floor office at the Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville in late July. Journeying from advertising and marketing into the world of wine hasn’t been the easiest trip, but certainly one worth making, he says, as he now steers Washington’s largest wine company ahead. Baseler graduated from WSU in 1976 with a degree in communications. His wife, JoAnne, is also a Cougar (’75 Ed.), as is his daughter Andrea, who started at WSU this fall.

Look for what you want.

I took a job in advertising … » More …

Winter 2005

Medieval Missive: An ancient document rediscovered

A sacred and significant artifact of European history-a genuine papal bull from the Middle Ages-was recently found tucked among the books and papers of Washington State University’s Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections.

The bull, or bulla, named for its original form as a bubble-shaped metal plate, and later for the lead seal affixed to an official document, was most often a legal missive from the pope. Papal bulls did everything from advocate for an individual’s safe travel to advise the citizens of a country to follow their king.

The written communication from the pope now at WSU once protected a house for lepers in the … » More …

Winter 2005

A Sweet Buzz: Honey

Entomologist Steve Sheppard has never gotten over his wonder at how people came to raise swarms of stinging insects for the honey they produce.

“To see this guy dumping out thousands of bees to collect honey from their hive. . .” He shakes his head. “It’s amazing that humans ever figured it out to do that.”

But the Washington State University associate professor, who not only keeps bees himself, but unflinchingly opens beehives with his bare hands, understands the passion for honey.

People prize it as a delicacy and demand it as a staple. They cherish some honeys for their color and admire others for … » More …