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Spring 2024

WSU faculty

Spring 2010

Of honor and friendship

One of the most successful partnerships in WSU history began in failure.

It was the spring of 1975, Kansas State University. Guy Palmer was given a piece of ore in an analytical chemistry class and told to figure out how much nickel was in it. He got it wrong, earning an F.

This happened to be in the highly competitive environment of undergraduates vying for veterinary school. About one in ten applicants would gain admission, so it was not exactly in students’ interest to help each other out. But Terry McElwain saw Palmer struggling to redo the assignment while working on a second one. … » More …

Winter 2009

Grover Krantz (1931–2002) and Clyde

I’ve been a teacher all my life, and I think I might as well be a teacher after I’m dead,” Grover Krantz told the Smithsonian’s anthropology collections manager David Hunt as they negotiated Krantz’s proposed donation of his skeleton to the Smithsonian’s natural history museum. As a physical anthropologist specializing in hominoid evolution, Krantz gleaned his understanding and ideas by studying the bones of apes and humans. Following his death, his own bones would become available for study.

Odds were, however, that his bones would remain in a drawer, alongside the bones of his three Irish wolfhounds, which he had already donated, waiting for whatever … » More …

Winter 2003

Tim Pavish new head of WSU Alumni Relations

Tim Pavish has been named executive director of Washington State University Alumni Relations and the Alumni Association. The 1980 graduate of WSU’s Edward R. Murrow School of Communication was selected from 50 applicants in a national search. He began his new job September 8, succeeding Keith Lincoln, who is retiring.

“Tim has been a tremendous friend of our university over the years. We have greatly appreciated his loyalty, his hard work, and his wise counsel. He is an ideal choice to continue the job of building the association and meeting the needs of our alumni,” says WSU president V. Lane Rawlins.

Before accepting the WSU … » More …

Winter 2003

All for one, one for all

In the president’s conference room I have placed a Smithsonian Institution poster showing a group of about a dozen meerkats. For many years I have been fascinated by these small mammals, about the size of prairie dogs, that survive in the harsh conditions of the Kalahari Desert. I first learned of them in an article in the Smithsonian magazine in the early 1980s. Since that time there have been a number of studies, magazine articles, and at least three television specials on these small members of the mongoose family. They have been the subjects of extensive study, not just because they are small, cute, and … » More …

Summer 2003

George E. Duvall, gentleman scholar

George E. Duval, 82, a pioneer of shock physics research and professor emeritus at Washington State University, died January 3, 2003 in Vancouver. He was internationally recognized as a founder and leader in studies related to shock wave propagation in solids and liquids. Many colleagues regarded him as the dean of U.S. shock wave science.

The Louisiana native spent his youth in Oregon. His studies at Oregon State University were interrupted in 1941 when he joined the University of California’s Division of War Research to work on underwater acoustics problems. He returned to OSU in 1945 to finish his bachelor’s degree and completed a doctorate … » More …

Summer 2003

White gave students and colleagues “a sense of hope and pride”

More than half of Washington State University’s living pharmacy alumni graduated during Allen I. White’s 39-year tenure (1940-1979) as professor and/or dean of the College of Pharmacy. He was appointed dean in 1960, a position he held until retirement 19 years later. Last June, he and his wife, Edith, moved from Pullman to Fountain Hills, Arizona, where he died December 23, 2002 at age 88.

The Silverton, Oregon native and son of a Lutheran minister completed three degrees from the University of Minnesota-a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy (1937) and both a master’s degree (1938) and a doctorate in pharmaceutical chemistry (1940). In 1983 he won … » More …

Summer 2003

Bhatia built Honors, International Programs

Career educator Vishnu N. “Vic” Bhatia was a builder. Not with bricks and mortar, but with vision, drive, and diplomacy. He demonstrated this during his 47 years (1951–98) at Washington State University as a teacher, administrator, innovator, and ambassador. His efforts were not limited to pharmacy, his chosen field, but were interdisciplinary, as well as international.

His greatest contributions were as head of the Honors Program (1964-93) and director of International Education (1973-90). Shortly after his arrival at WSU, he and other faculty colleagues, including mathematics professors Sidney Hacker and Donald Bushaw, began laying groundwork for an academic program that would rank among the very … » More …

Fall 2006

Video: V. Lane Rawlins to retire

President V. Lane Rawlins has announced his intention to retire from Washington State University. WSU’s ninth president says he will serve through the next academic year. He plans to spend his remaining time as president focusing on legislative issues, continuing to improve the quality of education at WSU, and moving forward on the WSU Foundation’s fundraising efforts.

 

 

Video produced by Hannelore Sudermann for Washington State Magazine

Fall 2006

Terrell honored

Last spring, amid smiles and tears and tales from years past, nearly 100 Washington State University officials, students, alumni, and faculty gathered in the atrium of the New Library to rename the 1994 building the Terrell Library in honor of president emeritus Glenn Terrell.

Ever warm and easygoing, Terrell, who had traveled from Seattle with his wife, Gail, accepted applause, hugs, and handshakes from his friends and former staff before sitting down to the dedication.

At the May event, Terrell said that the dedication of that particular building was especially meaningful, since the library is truly the center of the University.