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Alumni

Don Cox ’46, Matt Cox ’05 D. Pharm., and David Cox ’71
Winter 2013

David Cox ’71—Generations Rx

David Cox’s life seems equally divided between his South Bend pharmacy and hunting. And family encompasses both.

Cox is the second generation of a three-generation dynasty of pharmacists in South Bend, the county seat of Pacific County, just upstream on the Willapa River from Willapa Bay.

Don Cox ’46 graduated from Washington State University twice, first in chemistry before joining the Army during World War II, then in pharmacy in 1946. He began his career in Long Beach, then started the South Bend Pharmacy in 1958. The business is difficult to miss. Just off of U.S. 101, it is painted a tasteful gray with … » More …

Helen Szablya - small
Winter 2013

Helen Szablya ’76—Living in interesting times

Only seven when World War II came to Budapest, Helen Szablya remembers that December night in 1944 when she woke to the sound of bombs. The Soviet air raid was just the beginning of a siege that lasted more than a year and led to a Soviet occupation that culminated in a bloody attempt at a revolution in 1956. 

At one point during the siege, all 22 members of Szablya’s household took shelter in a little room that was normally used for ironing. It was on a lower floor and the safest place in the house. The family and their workers stretched their supplies, eating … » More …

Dan Rottler on windmill
Winter 2013

Dan Rottler ’92—Atop towers of power

On a windy night, when some of us might worry about things going bump in the dark, Dan Rottler ’92 frets over 20-ton boxes of gears turning more than 200 feet above the ground. The gearboxes are like outsized automobile transmissions, capable of cranking the energy of the slowly turning 16-rpm blade of a wind turbine up to 1,800 rpm.

As plant manager of Puget Sound Energy’s Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility, Rottler has 149 of these beasts to lose sleep over. Not to mention wildfires, lightning strikes, microbursts of changing weather, blizzards, ice-covered power lines, and even more unexpected things, like the time … » More …

Bunny Levine. Photo Jon Rou
Winter 2013

Second Acts

Bernice “Bunny” Levine ’51 is free for lunch. She thinks. But first she has to call her agent to make sure she doesn’t have an audition.

The last time I checked in with her, the 80-something actress was on her way to shoot a Hooters commercial. Her life has gotten so much more interesting since she retired, she says. Especially now that she has moved to California and thrown herself into her lifelong dream of being an actress.

Levine grew up in East Orange, New Jersey. She had a sister whom she describes as the pretty one, but, she admits, she got the attention. “I’ve … » More …

WSU tailgating
Winter 2013

Cougar encampments

On home game weekends during football season, WSU’s Pullman campus goes through a rapid and dramatic transformation. As soon as students and staff vacate their parking lots, a new community, equipped with hibachis and hot dog buns, motors in. These RV-driving Cougar fans come with their families, friends, and sometimes their cats and dogs, too. They set up outdoor living rooms, roam through campus, and share food and fun with the friends and strangers around them.

“It really is its own culture,” says Bridgette Brady, director of transportation services. “What we have here is very important to WSU. And we are unique in how many … » More …

Northside Residence Hall, WSU
Winter 2013

Posts for Winter 2013

 

Water to the Promised Land

I thoroughly enjoyed the article on the Columbia Basin Irrigation project in the recent issue of WSM. It brought back so many memories. I farmed for a year (1953) with a partner, Vern Divers, a bit south of Quincy. Subsequently, while a research associate in the Agricultural Economics department, I did research on the economics of different systems of irrigation in the Basin.

Interesting to read of the research by Whittlesey and Butcher. I was a member of the Agricultural Economics faculty with them and always respected them, professionally and personally. I retired in 1986.

Ralph A. Loomis

Edmonds

» More …

First Words
Winter 2013

The Community of the Oyster

On a Saturday night in late August, the oyster community of Willapa Bay has gathered in the Raymond Theater to watch themselves on the screen. Local boy Keith Cox had gone off to Hollywood, but then returned to document his home and the life of Willapa Bay and its oystering.

Every seat in the elegant old theater is full, and the room is buzzing.

Cox is premiering the eighth in a series of documentaries on the bay, on oyster farming, on the oystermen themselves. What started out as an innocent project intended to summarize the industry has led to over 130 interviews, over 350 hours … » More …

Chance McKinney: Think About That
Winter 2013

Think About That

Chance McKinney

Chance McKinney ’96

2013

 

As the rhythmic guitars launch “Son of a Gun,” the lead song from Chance McKinney’s album Think About That, it’s easy to get hooked into his industrial country music, a powerful blend of modern country and guitar-driven rock, with some unexpected surprises along the way.

If you can expect anything from McKinney’s music, it’s a solid dose of fun. In the second track, the organ, catchy melody, and backup singers from … » More …

The Barbless Hook
Winter 2013

The Barbless Hook: Inner Sanctum of Angling Revealed

The Barbless Hook

Dennis D. Dauble ’78 MS

FishHead Press, 2013

 

In the tradition of Patrick McManus ’56, ’59, Dennis Dauble ventures into that conjoined alternate universe of outdoor sport and humor, the difference between the two being that Dauble tends to catch more fish. Perhaps that is because Dauble was a fish biologist and McManus was an English major.

Regardless, Dauble sets the tone for the book with an epigram by yet another piscatory alum, Ray … » More …

Battered Women
Winter 2013

Battered Women, Their Children, and International Law

Battered Women

Taryn Lindhorst ’84 and Jeffrey L. Edleson

Northern University Press, 2013

 

The 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction ruled that any child taken from one parent by another across international borders must be returned to their home country for custody to be properly and legally determined. While this saves parents who are victims of child abduction, it doesn’t account for those, especially women, who felt the need to emigrate to free … » More …