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Winter 2004

WSU honors alumni Sande, Finch, Norris, Habereder

The Washington State University Alumni Association created the Alumni Achievement Award in 1969 to honor alumni who have rendered significant service and contributions to their profession, community, and/or WSU. Four individuals were recognized recently.

Merle Sande, M.D.

Dr. Merle A. Sande (’61 Zool.), Salt Lake City, is one of the country’s foremost authorities on infectious disease and AIDS. He spent 16 years as professor and vice chair of internal medicine, University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine, and chief of medical services at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH). From 1996 to 2002, he was a professor and chair of the Department of Medicine, University of … » More …

Summer 2007

Rob Barnard: An uplifting endeavor

When Rob Barnard ’84 was earning degrees in architecture and construction management, his professors scheduled project deadlines and tests on the same day.

“What that was teaching you was time management, how to work with a small amount of sleep and under pressure,” says Barnard, who brought that work ethic home to Portland. During the next two decades, the once-sleepy Rose City gained acclaim for innovatively solving urban problems, including transportation woes that vex most cities. Barnard’s blueprints are all over that reputation.

In magazine rankings last year, Men’s Journal deemed Portland the best place to live in the United States, praising its “nearly flawless” … » More …

Winter 2004

The Extreme Survival Almanac

In many cases, those who survived made acommitment to just get through the night or day.

This book could save your life.

Your car breaks down in a remote area. You’re lost in the woods, not knowing which way to turn, or whether to stay or to go. You’re left with serious injuries after a plane crash on a mountainside. Your boat capsizes in rough seas, miles from land and shipping lanes.

Reid Kincaid’s book, The Extreme Survival Almanac, is intended for those who find themselves in such crises and want to get out alive. The author likens the book to a helpful tool … » More …

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 …

Winter 2004

Marissa Lemargie—Busy providing humanitarian assistance in Africa, South America

Marissa Lemargie tends to take things in on a global scale. An interest in other cultures and societies led to an anthropology degree at Washington State University in 1999. A master’s degree in international development from the London School of Economics and Political Science followed.

Lemargie is now employed by USAID as an international cooperation specialist for Colombia and Paraguay in Washington, D.C. Already, the 26-year-old Ephrata native has traveled to Africa and South America on humanitarian missions. Recent plans called for her to visit Paraguay in August 2004, and Colombia in September.

Like her older brother, Kyle (’98 Polit. Sci.), who works for the … » 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 …

Winter 2004

Training Table

The Cougar Etiquette Dinner

Skillfully sidestepping the busy wait staff, Mylene Barizo circulates among the 100 diners attending the Cougar Etiquette Dinner in the Todd Hall atrium. She stops, chats casually with student-athletes seated around tables for eight, then moves on. Members of the athletic department, other University units, and Pullman community leaders are table hosts.

Barizo encourages questions, offers advice. Trying to catch people between bites is tricky. The three-course meal includes grilled Coho salmon, mai-fun noodle lace, oven-roasted game hen, garlic potato puree, and sautéed seasonal vegetables. Dessert is raspberry sorbet.

Barizo is regional human resources manager for dinner … » More …

Summer 2007

Baseball's my game

“Bobo’s my name, baseball’s my game,” says Frederick Charles “Bobo” Brayton as he sits down across from me. His face crinkles into a grin. “That’s what I tell everybody.”

At age 81, Brayton doesn’t appear intimidating–former Washington State University catcher Scott Hatteberg describes him as “a Yogi-Berra-type guy”–but Bobo’s career overwhelms me. Brayton won 1,162 games in his 33 years at WSU and was honored as the co-namesake of WSU’s baseball field.

Brayton played baseball with his father in Birdsview, Washington (near Mount Vernon), from the time he was eight years old–and not your everyday father-son game of catch. Dad pitched for a local team … » More …

Summer 2007

It’s rhubarb pie time!

Barry Swanson, professor of food science, and I see eye to eye on at least one significant issue. We like our rhubarb pie to be made exclusively with rhubarb. NOT strawberries. Just rhubarb.

However, Swanson actually prefers his rhubarb as sauce, over ice cream. Although Swanson does no research on the tart vegetable, he is an avid enthusiast and considers it an acidic parallel to his work with cranberries. And obviously, given his rhubarb enthusiasm, Swanson is from the Midwest, where every old farmstead has a rhubarb patch. “Mom always made rhubarb pie in the spring,” he says.

Rhubarb is also known by Midwesterners as … » More …