Four children died in the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak. Attorney Bill Marler's client survived, but only after spending six months in the hospital. Marler sued and won a $15.6 million settlement for Brianne Kiner. Even more significant, the work he produced for the case made him an expert not only on E. coli, but on the whole food production system.
» More ...In spite of nearly universal name recognition and a client list that runs through the Pacific Northwest alphabet, Rockey himself rarely shows up in the press. In this age of Google, it's unnerving to go looking for someone who you know permeates a civic and business culture, and he just isn't there.
» More ...Shortly after Jay Rockey '50 arrived in Seattle to handle the public relations for the 1962 World's Fair, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran an editorial claiming it could not see how the fair could possibly make it. "Do you really know what you're doing?" Rockey's wife asked him. Turns out he did.
» More ...Kathleen Flenniken (née Dillon) ’83 writes about her children and vacuuming, about sex and death, about fame and Edna St. Vincent Millay’s husband (“Oh the beauty of his wretchedness.”). Her poems are tight and clear and smart and often very funny. While she was at Washington State University, she studied civil engineering.
A career in engineering that evolved toward poetry may not be typical, but it’s a fine match, says Flenniken. In engineering, “you can’t hide behind your language. You have to say what’s true, and if it’s not true, that’s a problem that needs to be fixed.” And with that, you are ready to … » More …
Two years ago Mary Alyce Burleigh bought herself a bright yellow scooter. The former Kirkland mayor and current city council member uses it to zip around town to meetings and local fundraisers. She finds she is as busy in her retirement as she was during her 29 years as a teacher for Redmond High School. Recently she parked her scooter and perched on a city park bench in downtown Kirkland to talk with Hannelore Sudermann about life, civic involvement, and getting 80 miles to the gallon.
My goal was always to be a high school history teacher. I really took a broad range of courses … » More …
Back in the late 1960s, when Jo Washburn was athletic director for women’s intramural sports at Washington State University, she had to stretch $1,200 to cover all the expenses of the volleyball, gymnastics, basketball, field hockey, skiing, and tennis teams.
Women’s athletics was a second-class affair. The athletes had to carpool to away games and sleep four to a hotel room to save money. They had to buy their own uniforms. They helped set up spectator seating for their meets. And they trained only when the facilities weren’t being used by the men’s teams. Few, if any, received athletic scholarships.
Meanwhile, their male counterparts traveled … » More …
The Office of Strategic Services, our country's first centralized intelligence agency, was formed during the Second World War to train men and women in the arts of sabotage and espionage and then to send them around the world to protect our nation's interests. Among the many Washington State College students and alumni who served in that conflict, five friends and classmates trained together in the OSS, then went to North Africa, Italy, England, and China to help win the war.
» More ...There’s an old knee-slapper that goes something like this: Why does a chicken coop have two doors? Because if it had four doors (drumroll, please) it would be a sedan!
“It’s a really lousy joke,” says architect Harley Cowan ‘96, who can’t help chuckling often these days after the “Chicken Sedan” he built for his backyard flock snared two of Portland’s top architectural honors, earning billing alongside designs for major condominium projects, university buildings, and medical facilities.
Spurred by wife Carrie’s interest in raising chickens and armed with a bit of research, Cowan designed his combination coop and sheltered run with a classic A-frame, … » More …
One morning this winter, the Benton County Juvenile Justice Center is quiet since most of the residents are in classrooms and only one teen waits in lock-up. A couple of the guards are having an early lunch at a table at the end of the long corridor.
Through the security doors and down a few hallways Jacqueline van Wormer (’90, MA ’92)and her team sit at their desks looking up at a dry erase board with words detailing steps to help these residents and other young people in their community steer away from more time in custody. At the top of the board the team … » More …
Nadia Daud spends nearly 80 percent of her time living abroad, traveling to some of the most troubled regions of the world. When she’s not overseas, she has an apartment in Washington, D.C. But ask her where her home is, and she’ll tell you—Pullman, Washington.
The 31-year-old refugee officer with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security grew up south of Pioneer Hill in Pullman, graduated from local schools, and then matriculated to Washington State University. It was a remarkably stable childhood for someone who now lives out of a suitcase and spends her days interviewing refugees.
“In this last year and a half I … » More …