WSM Summer 2005

Summer 2005

Alumni Achievement Awards

Last winter the Alumni Association honored sports greats James Donaldson (’79 Soc.) and Craig Ehlo (x ’86 Soc. Sci.) with Alumni Achievement Awards for their contributions to Washington State University and professional basketball, as well as service to their respective communities.

Donaldson, who was drafted by the Seattle Supersonics after graduating in 1979, enjoyed a 14-year National Basketball Association career and was a 1988 NBA All-Star. He now lives in Seattle and is owner of Donaldson Physical Therapy & Fitness and the Donaldson Clinic, which he first opened in 1990 with the idea that he would go into physical therapy work at the end of … » More …

Summer 2005

Ruth Bennett: A former 'Youth for Nixon' puts a crimp in Christine Gregoire's majority

The way Ruth Bennett figures it, if the Libertarian Party candidate hadn’t been on Washington’s ballot for governor, Christine Gregoire (D) would have waltzed to an uncontroversial victory.

As it turned out, Gregoire’s winning margin of 129 votes made her contest with Dino Rossi (R) the closest gubernatorial race in state history.

While Bennett (’75 Anthro.) finished a distant third with just more than 2 percent of nearly three million votes cast, her 63,465 total nevertheless was plenty to turn the race into a nail-biter. Her tally shrank Gregoire’s margin of victory nearly 500-fold. By Bennett’s estimate, her campaign nearly cost Gregoire the race.

Conventional … » More …

Summer 2005

The Hospital Doctor

When the elderly couple moved into the nursing home in Tonasket, one of their main concerns was who would take care of their chickens. Gordon C. McLean (’67 Ag. Econ. ’73 M.A. Speech), administrator of the North Valley Hospital and Nursing Home, volunteered.

Listening to people and finding solutions has been his forte during a 30-year career in hospital administration. Over the past two decades, he’s breathed new life into healthcare facilities in rural eastern Washington.

McLean’s hospital ties date to 1975, when he was director of public relations at St. Mary’s Medical Center, Evansville, Indiana. Since 2001, he’s the one who answers the phone … » More …

Summer 2005

Portland pharmacist uses chemistry to duplicate natural human hormones

Forget about over-the-counter pills and creams to reduce hot flashes, insomnia, and other symptoms of perimenopause. Don’t bother with prescriptions for mass-produced synthetic hormones, either.

Instead, why not use chemistry-or bio-identical hormone replacement-to duplicate natural human hormones, and then concoct the right dosage for each individual woman? Pharmacists call this individualized procedure “compounding.”

Alison Johnston (’84 Pharm.) started doing just that in January 2003 in Portland, Oregon. She reports it seems to be working.

Johnston is the only pharmacist in a compounding-only pharmacy, Marquis Compounding Pharmacy in Portland. She has her own patients and writes prescription recommendations for their doctors to sign. A few of … » More …

Summer 2005

This man might save your life–or teach your class

Clint Cole (’87 B.S. Comp. Sci., ’00 M.S. Elec. Engr.) vividly remembers the drama of trying to save lives as a paramedic in the 1980s.

He and his fellow paramedics typically responded to emergency calls by driving as fast as possible to their destination. If they arrived in fewer than seven minutes, they were doing well. Usually, though, they weren’t fast enough.

Only about 10 of the 250 people he tried to save survived.

But as one the developers of the world’s most popular portable defibrillator, Cole has since contributed to saving tens of thousands of lives.

More than six feet tall and a little … » More …

Summer 2005

What I've Learned Since College: an interview with King County Sheriff Sue Rahr

Sue Rahr graduated from Washington State University in 1979 with a degree in criminal justice. In January 2005 she was promoted from King County chief of field operations to sheriff. She is the first woman to be sheriff of King County. The following is excerpted from an interview with Washington State Magazine’s Hannelore Sudermann, February 22, 2005 at the King County Courthouse.

Take your opportunities.

I was engaged to be married right after I graduated from college. My husband and I set a wedding date, sent out invitations. Everything was ready to go, and I got a call early in July from the Sheriff’s office … » More …

Summer 2005

Jim McKean makes poetry of a powerful time

In his new book, Home Stand: Growing Up in Sports, Jim McKean weaves together a series of essays about growing up in the Pacific Northwest in the late ’50s and early ’60s.

Poetry in motion he wasn’t. At least not on the basketball court, even though 6’9″ Jim McKean, his fadeaway jump shot, and his rebounding (he still holds the single-game Far West Classic rebounding record of 27, set against Princeton in 1967) were anchors of the rebirth of Washington State University men’s hoops in the mid-’60s.

“He didn’t have real good feet and was not a great athlete,” Marv Harshman, WSU’s head coach at … » More …

Summer 2005

Savor the Flavor

They started with soups and creative napkin folding, and spread out into a weekend of cooking and wine at the Savor the Flavor culinary show in Kennewick this March. The two-day fundraiser for the small, privately-run nonprofit Oasis School has become a major draw for eastern Washington, attracting several thousand attendees.

This year the event at the Three Rivers Convention Center featured well-known northwest chefs Mike Davis of 26 Brix in Walla Walla, who demonstrated how to make beignets, and Tom Douglas of Seattle’s Dahlia Lounge, who made barbeque pork butt tacos and goat cheese fondue.

A third of the Oasis students have parents or … » More …

Summer 2005

Gig Harbor: Laureen Lund markets the town she loves

Laureen Lund (’82 Comm.) recently celebrated her fifth anniversary as the person who sells Gig Harbor to the world. She seems to do her job well. At least, that’s why I’m sitting in her office in Gig Harbor’s city building in mid-August.

“The best use of our dollars is public relations,” she tells me, without a trace of irony or triumph. “If I can get somebody to do an article, it costs me nothing.”

I let that sink in for a minute. So-do I feel exploited?

Nah, not a bit. I’m having a fine time.

As for Lund, she just seems very pleased that she’s … » More …

Summer 2005

Jell-O brains and boa constrictors draw kids to science

Fifth-graders from seven area school districts bustled into the CUB ballroom recently for the third annual Kids Judge! Neuroscience Fair. After the participants met with their brain team-neurons, dendrites, boutons, memory, synapses-they made a visit to the Jell-O brain station where they chose from a variety of anatomically correct flavored gelatin brains.

And then to work. Clipboards in hand, the children evaluated 14 educational models developed by Washington State University NEURO 430 students, faculty, and graduate students.

The projects focused on hands-on activities through which students could learn about the function and physiology of the brain. David M. Rector, assistant professor in the Department of … » More …