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Summer 2018

Finding identity and expression at WSU

Bob Dlugosh says that he and his roommate, Al, “were always chumming around Pullman together.” Best friends, Bob figured Al for straight, but he liked the guy so much he didn’t let it bother him. Bob did wonder if Al knew he was gay. In 1968, “gay” felt like a brand new word. So it probably wasn’t the one used on the sign Al and Bob found tacked to their Stephenson Hall door: “Bob and Al are gay.”

But that’s what Robert Dlugosh ’71 recalls decades later. The noun was probably something from the much crueler vernacular of the day: They were being called faggots, … » More …

Summer 2018

Evolution evolution

In a word, Michael Skinner is tenacious. Growing up on a ranch outside Pendleton, the former Eagle Scout and college wrestler learned early on that you don’t back down from a little head-butting or controversy. It’s all just part of the game.

The trait has served Skinner ’82 PhD well over the years and enabled him to persevere through the fallout of a chance discovery in his reproductive biology lab in the 1990s. The unexpected findings threw 200 years of scientific ideology into question and initiated a paradigm shift in the understanding of inheritance and evolution. They also sparked a wave of outrage and … » More …

Omar Cornejo and Joanna Kelley in their WSU lab

Spring 2018

It’s in the genes

When Omar Cornejo got his genomic analysis back from 23andMe, he and his wife, fellow population geneticist Joanna Kelley, were both a bit surprised and vindicated. Venezuelan, Cornejo expected to see the alleles, or variations of a gene, from Native American, western European, and North African populations. But he was unaware that his family’s deep history also included ancestors from sub-Saharan Africa.

That just goes to show the importance of broadly sampling the genome, says Kelley. “The lesson is that if you just look at the mitochondria, you’d assume this person is from Africa. But if you look at just the Y chromosome, you’d assume … » More …

Spring 2018

No barriers to a better world

Eman Ibrahim started volunteering in Iraq’s first cancer support center in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil when she was 18, providing psychological support and reading to patients. It was satisfying work for the energetic young woman, if heart-wrenching at times.

Yet, when the 21-year-old Kurdish medical student from Hawler Medical University became head of the Erbil Hub center last year, she wanted to do even more to help—and that meant learning new ideas. Last July, she got her opportunity with the Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program.

The highly competitive scholarship program brings 100 Iraqi college students to the United States for … » More …

Spring 2018

Communities for the golden age

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made…

(From poem Rabbi Ben Ezra by Robert Browning)

It’s never easy to find a new home.

Just ask Barbara Nelson, a former account manager from Seattle. When her husband passed away, she moved from the century-old house where they had lived for 48 years. She has piercing eyes and a strong voice, but it trembles slightly as she explains: “It was so traumatic. After the estate sale, I took five things out of that house and walked away. I felt like I … » More …

Spring 2018

At Home with Ernie Pyle

Edited by Owen V. Johnson ’68

Indiana University Press: 2016

A glimpse into the life and times of American journalist and Indiana favorite son Ernie Pyle, as seen through an extensive collection of Pyle’s folksy newspaper columns stretching from his student days in 1921 until his death by sniper fire during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

The homespun Hoosier, as Pyle was known, grew up in small-town … » More …

Spring 2018

Fires burned, cauldrons bubble

In the embers of an ancient winter day, a Swedish scout scrambles up the hill of snow-covered boulders, hurrying over the slippery ground between them along a narrow path. His panting breath trails after him until he stumbles through the castle gate gasping, “Vandals on the riverbank! Bandits to the east!”

The heavy palisade slams shut behind him as men rush to position along a glinting rock wall. From 150 feet above the valley floor, they watch as silhouettes begin scaling the boulders below. With a signal, arrows and stones rain down upon them, yet the marauders advance, dragging their weapons or clenching them in … » More …

Spring 2018

Class notes

1960s

Henry Wyborney (’62 Anthro.) and Art Sandison (’70, ’73 MS Phys. Ed.) were recently inducted into the Port Angeles High School Roughrider Hall of Fame. Henry set the state record for high jump at Port Angeles in 1957, and went on to break WSU’s high jump record three years later. Art held the second-fastest 800-meter time in the history of American track while at WSU, and still holds the state’s fastest 800-meter time for college or high school athletes, which he set for the Roughriders in 1965.

1970s

Former president and CEO of Boeing, and current WSU Regent Scott Carson (’72 Busi.) was presented … » More …

Spring 2018

In memoriam

1930s

Necia Bennett Huntley (’35 History), 104, September 24, 2017, Olympia.

Lyle G. Nicholson (’37 DVM), 102, August 9, 2017, Hood River, Oregon.

Lucile Ramsey Cavanaugh (’39 Home Econ.), 99, July 21, 2017, Winchester, Massachusetts.

1940s

Sarah Schlademan Hall (’41 History), 97, August 12, 2017, Everett.

Aurel A. Hays (’41 Hort.), 100, March 29, 2017, Rancho Mirage, California.

H. Robert Ripley (’41 Gen. St.), 94, June 27, 2015, Castro Valley, California.

Maurice R. Smith (’41 Arch., Sigma Nu), 99, November 13, 2017, Yakima.

Maxine Spencer Green (’43 Psych.), 95, June 19, 2016, Bellingham.

Lenore Johnson Hicks (’47 Home Econ.), 91, December 8, 2016, San Rafael, … » More …

Winter 2017

Medical leaders keep a community-based focus

Helping guide WSU’s community-based medical education are associate deans assigned to each of the regional hubs where students will spend their third and fourth years working alongside practicing physicians and others.

All are recognized innovators in medical education and were hired by WSU’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine following a nationwide search.

They are Dr. Larry Schecter at WSU Everett, Dr. Kevin Murray at WSU Vancouver and Dr. Farion Williams at WSU Tri-Cities.

“These associate deans will teach, recruit faculty to teach, and further the college mission by building out clinical partnerships with the rural and underserved areas,” said Ken … » More …