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Spring 2024

WSM Spring 2007

Spring 2007

A Conversation about Art and Biology with Ellen Dissanayake ’57

Ellen Franzen Dissanayake came to Washington State College from Walla Walla in 1953 as a music major. At the time, undergraduates were required to take four science classes. After taking the legendary BioSci 101 from Winfield Hatch and Human Physiology from Donald S. Farner, she found it easy to “think biologically,” which influenced her subsequent interest in the evolutionary origins of the arts.

At graduation, she married fellow student and zoologist John Eisenberg, and they moved to Berkeley, where he would attend graduate school. He was well on his way to becoming a prominent mammalian ethologist and was a rich source of thinking on behavior … » 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

Phyllis Campbell: Being about forever

Someone recently told Phyllis Campbell ’73 that she had the perfect resume to run for governor.

In her office high above 5th Avenue in Seattle, Campbell tells me this with a mixture of amusement and certitude. Running for political office is the last thing she’s interested in.

“You can print that,” she says. “I’ll never run for political office.

“I value people who do,” she adds, “but that’s not my calling.”

Politics, after all, is so short-term.

Campbell shows me, with obvious pleasure, the medal that represents the Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award with which she was recently honored. Campbell’s relationship to Washington State University, which … » 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

Viticultural art

Wine-By-Cougars, the precocious young wine club sponsored by the Washington State University Alumni Association, is adding art to its viticultural appeal. The wine club will offer a special “Artist Expression 2007,” a union of student art and alumni winemaking.

The wine club approached the digital design class taught in Fine Arts and asked students to design a wine label for a special spring release from Woodward Canyon, owned and operated by Rick Small ’69. Design students were instructed to reflect viticulture and the land-grant ideal on their labels. The label chosen is by Annette Ticknor ’07, a communication major and fine art student. (Full disclosure: … » 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 …

Spring 2007

What Robbie Cowgill eats

Name: Robbie Cowgill

Position: Forward

Age: 20

Height: 6' 10"

Target weight: 210 pounds

Daily calories required to maintain weight: 6,000-7,000

 

Typical day’s diet

Breakfast: Two or more biscuits with gravy, three scrambled eggs, three pieces of bacon, glass of milk, glass of water.

School-day snacks: Peanut butter crackers, cheese crackers, Ritz bits. They’re at the ready in his backpack so he can eat during class.

Lunch: Meat (“steak is good”), two or three baked potatoes with sour cream, butter, and cheese. Milk. No dessert if he has afternoon practice.

Emergency snack: Tray of cinnamon rolls or a Tony’s Frozen Pizza.

Dinner: … » More …