Moorhead State University
Alumnews
      (Summer of 1999)

What a Joint!

Warren Bielke is taking the biggest risk of his life trying to market a chemical concoction that looks like a sea-green syrup.

That  liquid, however, is a complex polymer that, to date, is the next best thing to human cartilage. And Bielke hopes it will flow into liquid green capital for the 200 or so private investors who’ve already put up $20 million to turn the once fledgling firm into medical marvel.

Bielke, a 1969 MSU business administration graduate, isn’t a chemist, a doctor or even a scientist. Raised in a working class south Minneapolis neighborhood by his divorced mother, he intended to pump gas for a living. Instead, he washed dishes at Kise Commons and barely survived his first two years at MSU.

Today he’s a 52-year-old multimillionaire who’s earned a gold plated track record selling medical devices and managing biotechnology companies.

Like all new medical start-ups, he admits, the odds of failing are about 95 percent.

"But it’s a calculated risk," said Bielke, a Frank Gifford look-alike who’s president and CEO of Advanced Bio-Surfaces, a two-year-old  company located in a Minnetonka, Minn., industrial park. "The product is amazing, the need is tremendous and we’ve protected ourselves with solid patents. We also have a great management team. Still, we’re not building a better mouse trap here. We’re opening up an entire new field. That’s the risk."

When God made human cartilage, Bielke said, it was an act of perfection. "Cartilage is so incredibly smooth, flexible and cushiony. Science just can’t duplicate it."

Tough competition.

Yet clinical trials using this green stuff (it doesn’t have a name yet)  for total knee replacements are impressive. Doctors simply inject the two-part liquid polymer between the knee joints after cleaning out all the debris. When the two liquids combine--like epoxy glue--they solidify within three minutes, forming a cushion between the bones. It’s then custom fit by the doctor, who molds the polymer to the shape of the bones that rock against it.

Shizzaam—artificial cartilage. (It’s purposely colored green, by the way, to make it easy to see through an arthroscope.)

For the 16 million Americans who suffer from osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease, Bielke’s risk is their best hope. Called the "wear and tear" disease, osteoarthritis is also the most common form of arthritis. It can attack any joint in the body—fingers, toes, elbows, shoulders, hips and even the spine.

Today, an average knee replacement using an artificial stainless steel knee costs between $25,000 and $30,000 including a two-week hospital stay and months of physical rehabilitation. This new procedure using the green polymer, however, would cost about $5,000. No hospital stay. No physical therapy. The patient is up and about the next day.

"Knee replacements alone cost Americans about $5 billion a year," Bielke said. "If our product succeeds, it would cut those health-care costs alone to about $1 billion."

Clinical trials, taking place in Europe now, are expected to begin in the United States this summer. If approved for commercial use, the green artificial cartilage will be available in Europe next year, and in the United States by 2002.

"We already have a list of more than a thousand patients and a couple hundred doctors who are seriously interested in our product," Bielke said.
 

Pump jockey to dishwasher
It’s an unlikely outcome for a poor Minneapolis kid whose original goal in life was to pump gas.

"I had no intention of enrolling in college after I graduated from Roosevelt High School," said Bielke, who recently established a $1 million scholarship fund for average, but hardworking Roosevelt High graduates. "I was an ordinary student who spent most of my free time working at a Mobil station on the corner of 34th and Lake Street. My father was an alcoholic who divorced my mother when I was about 12 years old. Mom spent most of her time working 12 hour days, six days a week at a dry cleaners. I’d walk her to the bus stop every morning at 6:30 on my way to school."

But when he became a senior, a high school counselor noticed that Bielke didn’t even try taking a Scholastic Aptitude Test. "He talked me into it, and my numbers came up average. But he said my scores were good enough to get into a state college, so he made some telephone calls. The catch was, we didn’t have any money in the family. I needed a job."

Moorhead State not only accepted him as a student, but guaranteed Bielke a job as a dishwasher in the Kise Commons kitchen.

So he and his mom then went shopping at Seven Corners for his first suitcase, bought him a train ticket to Moorhead, and that fall young Bielke landed in Ballard Hall, a stranger in a strange land.

He barely struggled by with a 2.00 GPA his first two years. But his management skills surfaced early in the kitchen.

"Bob Lehr, who was Kise manager Clint Stacy’s assistant then, always had difficulty getting students to show up for work," Bielke said. "So I volunteered to help looking for students who needed money and a free meal. I made sure they showed up and in my second year at Kise I graduated from pot, pan and dish washer to student manager, and I think I was the first student manager at Kise"

Bielke sailed through MSU the same way he did at Roosevelt High—showed up for classes every day, kept his mouth shut, did his homework, pulled average grades, worked during his spare time. But at the end of his MSU career, he started hitting some As and Bs in business courses. Especially when the topic was sales.

His first job out of college: an accountant for First National Bank in Minneapolis where he sat at a desk all day trying to stay awake. "I couldn’t handle being chained to a desk. So I applied for a sales job with a medical company that included four months training in Chicago. They transferred me to Dayton, Ohio where I started my sales career."

Movin’ on up
Bielke was in hog heaven, making $9,000 a year along with a company car and an expense account. But as time went on, Bielke became one of the company’s top salesmen, selling $5 to $10 million in product a year. "The problem was, commissions were small in the first place. But they had the incentives backward. The more you sold, the lower the percentages were on commissions."

He finally realized that he’d do better selling products on straight commission for smaller companies that couldn’t afford to hire a full-time sales staff. So he quit his secure job and started selling products for a half dozen small medical start-up companies.

Bielke moved back to Minneapolis in 1978 after marrying his wife Christine, who worked on his sales staff in after moving back to Minneapolis..

During the next decade he worked for a variety of bio-tech companies, which included setting up a sales force for  Pentax, the Japanese camera maker that launched a new medical division in Minneapolis.

Meanwhile, throughout his career Bielke kept investing his own money in a variety of medical start-ups.

But his big break came in 1991 when he met a doctor who had an idea for developing self-expanding and balloon-expandable stents which could be applied to the thousands of miles of tubes and vessels in the human body that clog up due to aging, disease or trauma.

So Bielke became president and CEO of InStent, another risky medical start-up company. Within four years, however, InStent had 70 employees with divisions in Eden Prairie, Minn., and Tel Aviv.  By 1995, the company reported about $2.4 million in revenues, a 211 percent increase over the previous year.

Like at Advanced Bio-Surfaces, Bielke’s job at InStent was to manage the business end of the company, hire the talent and raise private capital to finance research and development.

In 1996 the Minneapolis-based Medtronic, Inc., the world’s leading medical technology company, bought InStent for a  whopping $240 million. He made his investors--who made 10 to 15 times their original investment in two years--very happy.

Top this?
How could he top that? By taking another risk.

Bielke, fresh off his InStent success, got a tip from the corporate attorney who oversaw the Medtronic acquisition, that a physician named Dr. Jeff Felt had a concept of developing a minimally invasive arthroscopic procedure that may simulate certain characteristics of human cartilage. Dr. Felt was looking for an experienced manager to  spearhead the company to continue researching and developing his concept.

Bielke jumped in, overseeing another medical start-up company for the sixth time in his career.

That was two years ago. Today, Advanced Bio-Surfaces employs 42 people—mostly scientists, lab specialists, engineers and physicians—at its 13,000 square foot headquarters in Minnetonka. To intensify testing on the green polymer, the company will expand another 6,000 square feet this summer.

Initial pilot studies of the Advanced Bio-Surfaces product involved six patients in Norway, two in Denmark and six in Mexico. Results showed that the green polymer indeed was effective in relieving pain and restoring function.

Now the question is: how  bio-compatible is it and how long will it last? Machine simulations, Bielke said, show that the green polymer may last up to 10 years before it starts to break down.

In the United States,  ABS is now seeking Food and Drug Administration approval to begin human clinical trials necessary to get pre-market approval, which eventually leads to commercially marketing it in the United States.

Meanwhile scientists at ABS continue to improve, refine and test the green polymer in an array of biologically sealed rooms that resemble Frankenstien laboratories.

A social side to capitalism
"What’s really exciting about a product like this is that it will have such an impact," Bielke said. "Most people who have knee replacements are senior citizens. They’re either stuck in wheelchairs or their mobility is severely limited. The pain can be excruciating. A total knee replacement, the way it’s done today, involves three or four months of therapy. At that age, it’s a big chunk out of their remaining life. This new arthroscopic procedure would improve thousands, maybe millions of lives. And it could go way beyond that if it’s also used to repair cartilage in other joints of the human body."

So how did this poor Minneapolis kid with average test scores and average grades become a multimillionaire who’s now sitting on the edge of a medical marvel?

"I certainly didn’t do it by myself," he said. "I’ve been fortunate in surrounding myself with good people. Yes, I’m probably average when it comes to intelligence. But I’ve got some common sense too, and I’m a good listener, an essential trait for a salesman or business manager. You have to know the needs of your customers. Above all, though, I have a strong work ethic, which I acquired from my mother."

That’s why Bielke established a $1 million scholarship fund for Roosevelt High graduates. It will pay for about half the tuition ($4,000) at a state university for about 10 Roosevelt High students each year. And it requires the student to live on campus the first year.

"It’s an attempt to break the chain of poverty in low income neighborhoods," Bielke said. "When I lived on campus at MSU, I intermingled with people who were successful and happy. It encouraged me to succeed."

 B+ or an A student can get scholarships," Bielke said. "I want to help the kids who work hard, show up at school every day and maybe get C or B- grades. These are the kids who can make a real contribution after they leave school, but often don’t get the opportunities they need to start on the road to success."

He should know. The contacts he made at MSU, he says, helped change his life.

By MSU senior Becky Klindt

"Gimme two in the blue and a beef jerky too," she’d yell across the bar with her index finger stuck up in the air like she was punctuating her statement. Though you’d have no clue what it meant, you knew she’d get  your order and get it right.

She knew it all, she could match the face with the drink and take care of the six people next to you too. That was Gert Endahl, originator of the Gert Burger at Mick’s Office.  Many claim it’s the best burger in town, and I’m one of them.

I was 10 the first time I stepped into Mick’s. My dad decided we were going to have Gert Burgers for lunch. I was a bit upset. McDonald’s would have been just fine with me, and who knew what was on a Gert Burger anyway.

As we drove past the Dairy Queen, across the railroad tracks, and turned into the gravel parking lot before the Taco John’s, I wasn’t sure what to expect. All I saw was an old red building with a faded turquoise neon sign out front.  It was nothing like the golden arches and I knew there wasn’t going to be any Happy Meals. When I asked my dad why we were here and what a Gert Burger was, he just laughed.

"It’s a "Cheers" atmosphere, everyone knows everybody," said Ruth Palmer, co-owner of Mick’s.

Yet that atmosphere was present long before the sitcom "Cheers" started. it originated with people like Gert Endahl.

When my dad and I went into Mick’s that first time, Gert wasn’t there. In fact, I still thought Gert was some kind of ingredient you put on a hamburger. While I sat with my dad in the round corner booth stained with signatures and sketches, I soon discovered that Gert was the lady who used to flip the burgers at Mick’s.

As I sat eating my quarter pound burger with cheese and pickles and platter full of cottage fries with my dad, I realized that Gert must have done more than flip burgers. The burger looked like any other burger, but the taste was amazing. All the paper boxes and plastic toys of a Happy Meal couldn’t compare to the burger I was enjoying. The aroma of the bar started to add to the taste and I was slowly getting sucked into the mystique of Mick’s. I discovered why Mick’s was special and why my dad wanted to share a Gert burger with me.

"Chicken soup is suppose to be Jewish Penicillin because someone who loves you serves it to you," said Larry "Drone" Peterson, an MSU alum who once worked with Gert at the old Blackhawk Bar. "Everything about Gert,  she did it just for you, so it was special."

Gert, by the way,  was the only full-time waitress at the Blackhawk bar for 27 years.

In the early 70s, the Blackhawk was the hot-spot in Moorhead, Peterson said. During the day, it was a drinking man’s bar. Gert would come in at about 4-5 p.m. and she knew by 9:30 p.m. the place would be elbow to elbow full of college students. "There were two bartenders on and one waitress for the whole place," said Drone. That waitress was Gert.

"I will never see a waitress as good as she was," Peterson said. "She knew everyone’s name and everyone’s drink. She’d come out with trays full, she’d come back with orders, and she’d never miss a beat."

Gert, now 90 and retired, was a professional waitress for over 30 years. During her years at the Blackhawk, she would never take a tip from a college student. "You’d try to give her a tip and she would say ‘No, no, you keep that honey, you need it more than I do," Peterson said.

After the Blackhawk closed in 1975, Gert took a little time off and later went to Mick’s to help Jerry Mickley start up a grill, but just until he hired someone else. "But he didn’t try to hire anyone else," Gert said.

At Mick’s, Gert cooked burgers from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. "The grill was suppose to close at 2, but kids would still be lined up so I would just keep serving. The owner would get mad, but I wouldn’t pay attention,  I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to let the kids down. What was he going to do, fire me?" she said.

"The kids from MSU started calling them Gert Burgers," she laughed. "They liked them so much because we ordered the quarter pound burgers." They came on a big platter with raw, fried or no onions, mustard, ketchup and/or pickles, with or without cheese.

Gert was the first to "make it your way."

Gert Burgers are still made that way. "We can’t take any credit for the burgers," said Tim Palmer, co-owner of Mick’s. "When we bought the business from (Jerry) we still haven’t changed anything. We still get the same cottage fries, the same meat, everything. We haven’t changed anything."

The truth is, not much has changed around Mick’s. Gert is no longer flipping the burgers, but the atmosphere is still the same. Gert made the burgers good, but the people who work there now still carry on the tradition. "Simple," is how Bob Masanz, a bartender at Mick’s, describes the atmosphere.

"We don’t have the exotic drinks, just basic drinks, basic beer, and basic burgers, that’s what people come here for. We have judges, doctors, lawyers, transients, students. Everyone comes in here and everyone feels comfortable."

John Hauglid grew up in Moorhead and remembers frequenting Mick’s. At first, Hauglid claimed the atmosphere at Mick’s today just isn’t the same. "Mick’s would be packed at night with college kids and adults and parents as well. Of course, I am the adult now, so maybe it’s still happening and I am not just noticing it."

Jerry Mickley, a.k.a. Mick, the man with the curly handlebar mustache who would sing behind the bar, was the original owner of Mick’s. "He was a character to say the least," said Hauglid. "He gave people in the bar such a bad time that if you couldn’t take a joke you couldn’t get along with him. He was a hard guy to get to know, but anyone who got to know  him soon realized he’d give you the shirt off his back."

According to Hauglid, there were many people he bailed out of jail, or lent money to.  He even lent money to help a friend buy an engagement ring, then let him  work it off behind the bar.

Mickley didn’t promote the bar formally, but he did come up with little ways that brought in big business. Every night, he had to make a nightly deposit. He’d call a cab and take two or three people from the bar as his body guards. Hauglid said, "To go to the bank, which was right on the corner, we first went to Specks, the Bismarck, and we made a big loop-de-loop, and that was his promotion." Mickley advertised by going to other bars and persuading the people to follow him to Mick’s.

Between Mick and Gert, they got the college kids in to the bar. Gert was so well known from her days at the Blackhawk, that once the college crowd heard she was at Mick’s, they followed her there. Hauglid said, "The burgers were always popular. That brought a lot of people in. A lot of people just came in to see Gert."

And they stayed. The reason:  good company,  good food and cheap beer. "(Mick) got the college kids in here. He hired all college kids. He also had the cheapest glass of beer in town," Hauglid said. The beer is still cheap, not 25 cents a draw, but during happy hour it’s 85 cents and regularly it’s $1.15.

Visiting the bar during the day, the parking lot is usually full of pick-up trucks, minivans, luxury cars, and police vehicles.  The grill in the dimly lit bar is always full of burgers, and most of the time there’s a line forming around the bar to order burgers.

The bar is the original from the old Mick’s , which was located on Center Avenue and 4th Street across from what is now the US Bank Building. "They (Mickley and friends) took this bar and had a parade down Main Street when they were moving from there to here. And they brought the bar through the window. So they had an official parade for the moving of Mick’s," Ruth Palmer said.

A lot of the interior in Mick’s is original. The vinyl corner booth full of signatures is originally from the Rolling Keg bar, and then the Bratwurst House, which was the name of the place before Mick’s came. The faded turquoise neon sign outside is a Mick’s original. The only difference is that the Palmer’s, the current owners,  have expanded the inside and also added a big screen television in the corner where Mickley’s stool used to be.

Mickley rarely tended bar, but he was often behind it in his own little corner throwing ice cubes in the air and catching them in his glass while he sang. According to Hauglid, the stool had a seat belt attached so he wouldn’t fall off at the end of the night.

Jerry Mickley died in the 1980s and then Tim and Ruth Palmer took over. Their philosophy on running the bar is pretty simple. "Well now, you don’t fix something that’s not broke," Tim said.

"What you see is what you get," Ruth said. "We don’t have dance floors and such. Our bartenders have to be cheerful and work with the crowd."

And they do. When you go into Mick’s, Ruth will know if she has seen you before or not. "I remember you," she’ll say. And then you start to see the wheels turn as she tries to figure out who you are and when she last saw you.

Tim, Ruth, Bob and the rest of the staff at Mick’s will always try to connect the face with a name or place. The personalities of the staff dictated the mood. Just like Gert set the mood at the beginning.

"I enjoyed those college kids. I don’t know how many thousands I got to know through all the years," Gert said.

The young people must have enjoyed her just as much. Why else would a father want to share a legend like the Gert Burger with his daughter, and why else would that daughter want to share it with everyone else.

(Becky Klindt, who graduated this spring with a mass communications degree, wrote this story for a magazine writing class.)

* MSU has asked the Moorhead Police Department to assist in patrolling the residence halls, which resulted in 14 citations of minors consuming alcohol in Nelson Hall. Police also confiscated marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Said MSU student affairs vice president Steve Butler: "From what I understand, there were obviously people who were drunk in the hallways the officers could smell alcohol. And they could also smell marijuana in the hallway. This is probable cause." In a letter to the editor, two students wrote: "Is the fact that the police were allowed to enter a locked residence hall in order to conduct a ‘patrol’ a breach of our right to privacy? Is this any different than the police being allowed to enter a locked apartment building that is not affiliated with MSU, without probable cause in order to conduct a search? Could it be that MPD were actively searching for violations based upon past experience in Nelson? This could be interpreted as unlawful probable cause."
* "It was cavalier, callous and a shoddy way of treating a man who has given 19 years to MSU," said MSU faculty association president Dan Knighton after the university announced it would not renew the contract of head men’s basketball coach Dave Schellhase after completing three straight 8-19 losing seasons.. "Coach Schellhase has had a good run, but we felt it was time for a change," said athletic director Katy Wilson. Schellhase was just two wins shy of his 300th career victory at the Dragon helm. When asked for a reason behind the firing, Steven Butler, vice president for student affairs told The Advocate sports editor: "You’re an investigative reporter. If you look at the record, it speaks for itself."
* In an Advocate editorial: "MSU has dropped the ball on its men’s basketball coach. And the cold, no-frills press release sent out Monday left more questions than answers…Let’s be hones. Administrators are giving contradictory stories about whey Schellhase is out (none of which seem to be solid reasons) and which may have led to actions contrary to faculty and school regulations….Maybe some honesty in this situation would have been the best policy. Or, at the very least, some people should have checked to make sure their stories were straight."
* Instead of getting "sex on the beach" in Cancun, Mexico, three MSU students got screwed at the airport. On a spring break getaway they faced uncooperative tour representatives, canceled hotel reservations, house in the airport and a missing car. "We spent 51 hours of a seven-day vacation in an airport,"  one of the students said. "Does that sound like fun to you?"
* Nearly 60 percent of 655 students surveyed recently said they didn’t want MSU to change its name, while 26 percent were in favor of the change and 17  were indifferent. The survey was taken by MSU’s Student Senate in an attempt to give President Roland Barden some input on the issue. The trustees of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities last year approved Mankato State University’s name change to "Minnesota State University, Mankato," opening the door for the system’s other institutions to reconsider their names. Barden said he favors changing MSU’s name to include the word Minnesota (maybe Minnesota State University, Moorhead) because Moorhead isn’t well-known outside the tri-state area. But Barden will consider feedback from the Student Senate and other university constituent groups before making his own recommendation to MnSCU before next school year. Nearly 70 percent of students surveyed also said they were in favor of changing the traditional graduation day from  Friday to Saturday.
* Aramarik’s 46-year reign as MSU’s food service vendor will end July 1, loosing the bidding war to Sodexho Marriott of Alamonte Springs, Fla. "Sodexho Marriott is a new company with new ideas and processes, " said Steven Butler, vice president for student affairs. "We had a good relationship with Aramark, and this doesn’t mean there was anything wrong. We want to take food service to a higher level." The new company said it would like to retain as many Aramark employees as are interested in staying. Says an Advocate editorial: "College food is important to students. While the deal with Sodexho Marriott may be cheaper than the one it has with Aramark, will students eat it up? MSU hasn’t consulted with students about what they think. If students feel they need to have a voice in this, they need to make it heard."
* Although nearly 60 percent of 655 students surveyed by student senate still see the optional plus/minus grading system as a problem, MSU President Roland Barden said it will be a smooth transition. Starting next fall, each professor will decide whether a student’s grade will reflect the low or high end of the grade scale rather than the standard letter grade they use now. Senate has opposed the move to optional plus and minus grading from the first stages of discussion. "The interest has come from the faculty, who will be able to more accurately report on a student’s performance in the class," Barden said. "It doesn’t affect a majority of students."
 

Hadamar, Grafeneck, Hartheim and Sonnenstein.

 Not as notorious as Dachau, Auschwitz, Buchenwald or Treblinka.

"That’s because these were institutions for Germany’s physically and mentally disabled," said Mark Mostert, a Moorhead State University special education professor. "But they may as well have been concentration camps, because in the basement of these buildings the Nazis killed more than 400,000 children and adults."

The disabled were, as Hitler called them, ‘life unworthy of life,’  Mostert said, economic burdens wasting national resources and interfering with Germany’s quest for genetic perfection. But how did he convince the German population to accept his perverse intentions?

Last summer, Mostert spent three months at the University of Cologne where he lectured on special education topics and launched a research project to document what happened to disabled children under the Nazi regime.

"When Hitler came to power in 1933, his idea of creating a genetically pure race was clear in his mind," Mostert said. "But he worried about what the public reaction would be to his final solution."

Slowly, insidiously and methodically, he began a propaganda campaign emphasizing racial purity and how the impure—Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, anyone different—threatened Germany’s future.

"By the mid-1930s," Mostert said, "Hitler signed an Institutional Sterilization Law, which allowed the government to sterilize women, and some men, with mental and physical defects. The goal: to protect the integrity of the gene pool."

But in 1938, he said,  Hitler found an opportunity that would eventually lead to the Holocaust, his first pretext for state sanctioned killing. It came at the request of a German family who begged Hitler to put to death their severely disabled daughter.

"They were called the Knauer family," Mostert said. "We don’t know their first names. But in 1938 they made a personal plea to Hitler, which, I believe, opened the floodgates for genocide."

As Hitler’s attending physician, Karl Brandt testified at the Nuremberg trails that he examined the Knauer child in a Leipzig hospital, describing the child as a "creature…born blind, an idiot—at least it seemed to be an idiot—as it lacked one leg and part of an arm."

After the inspection, Hitler and Brandt decided to sanction the killing of the child.

In his trial testimony, Brandt emphasized that part of the rationale in this approach was to absolve the parents of any guilt or incrimination that they were responsible for the death of their child. Instead, the state would officially accept responsibility.

Said Mostert: "Death sanctioned, in other words, by the government."

The machinery was already in place. "Before the death of the Knauer child," Mostert said, "Hitler authorized Brandt to formally establish a state-sanctioned program to kill children suffering from physical and intellectual disabilities. He was just waiting for a loophole."

That, according to Mostert, was the line Hitler had to cross before he could embark on his ultimate goal. The dam had burst. The Knauer child became the catalyst for the Holocaust.

By 1938, in the midst of building a war machine, Hitler authorized the wholesale slaughter of the disabled. But he didn’t make it public. "The institutions were perfect testing grounds, " Mostert said, "because the inmates were captives and they were isolated."

This is how it worked: Nazi busses with spray-painted windows pulled up to the these hospitals, loaded the patients, and then took them to centralized mental institutions such as Hadamar and Grafeneck. They were starved, they were shot, they were given lethal injections, Mostert said. "Then Nazi scientists began to experiment with lethal gases. That’s when  they came up with their favorite, the odorless gas carbon dioxide. It would become the gas of choice when the Holocaust arrived."

To cover up this mass slaughter, Mostert said, the victim’s relatives would receive a note in the mail stating, in effect: During a transfer to another institution, your loved one died of pneumonia. If you wish to receive their ashes, we’ll ship them to you COD.

"It got a little dicey for Hitler when five or six families in a single town got the same letter," Mostert said.

The mass butchering of the disabled ended in 1941 when the Catholic Archbishop of Munster Clemens Graf Von Galen denounced Hitler from the pulpit for "killing our children."

Hitler and his cronies considered assassinating Von Galen, but instead pulled the plug on the program. The soldiers and scientists who ran the death chambers at the mental institutions were immediately transferred to concentration camps in Poland and Russia where their services were soon to be in demand.

"It makes you wonder," Mostert said, "what would have happened if more people publicly denounced Hitler."

During his visit to Germany last summer, Mostert discovered a special education system about a decade or two behind America’s. "Disabled children are still separated, not mainstreamed. But the universities look to the United States as the leader in special education research."

In fact, the 3,000 special education students at the University of Cologne all read the leading United States text on the subject, "Exceptional Children" by Hallahan and Kauffman. "What’s interesting is, they have to read it in English," Mostert said.

Mostert began his research after a visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. A disillusionment with the current trends in special education spurred him on.

"There’s a propensity now in special education to champion new, untested approaches without the benefit of research," he said. "So I’ve decided to take a real look at what happened to German society that so radically changed its attitude toward the disabled. I’m especially interested in the Knauer family. The goal is simple. We don’t want to repeat those mistakes."

By Jeff Burrill

It's 98 down and two to go, as the Old Order of Owls gears up for its Centennial reunion.

According to committee chairman Wayne Ingersoll, "2001: An Owl Odyssey" is well ahead of schedule per alumni response and monetary contributions.

"As of May 16, we've heard from nearly 200 brothers," Ingersoll said. "And they've been generous with seed money donations."

Ingersoll and core committee members Dave Miller, Larry "Drone" Peterson, Jeff Burrill, and Mark Boche have been meeting periodically since August, 1996.

"We've had input from other brother Owls, including Dave Holsen, Thad Stafford, Dan LaRock, Harris Shellito, Ted DuCharme, and Larry Scott," Ingersoll continued. "All Owls are welcome to attend meetings to share ideas and opinions."

The Owls' 100th anniversary celebration is scheduled for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, July 5, 6, 7, 2001. Proposed events include--first and foremost--a kegger. Also on the tentative agenda is registration, luncheon, campus and city tours, banquet/program/dance. Perhaps a golf tournament.

"We welcome input from brother Owls throughout the country, as to what activities we should hold during the Centennial weekend," Peterson related.

"We'd like to put together a memorabilia display," Boche added. "Owl paddles, old Owl t-shirts and sweat shirts. Party favors, such as beer mugs. Photographs. Fraternity pins. Anything relating to the Owls. Send it in. We'll tag it. Pick it up when you leave, or we'll mail it back."

"We're also missing a lot of names," Miller said. "And addresses. We've exhausted the Alumni Association's records. We're now searching the Internet for addresses."

Any Owls who would like to attend Centennial reunion committee meetings, contribute memorabilia, offer activity suggestions, or know the whereabouts of brothers who have not been contacted, please write or phone Wayne Ingersoll at 1324 5th Ave. So., Moorhead, MN 56560 (218-233-0116).

The following is a list of Owls who have responded, thus far, indicating they will be attending the Old Order of Owls 100th Anniversary Celebration:

Dave Alto, Jerry (Amo) Aumndson, Donald N. Anderson, Erik Anderson, John Anderson, Blair Archer, Billy (Hud) Auten, Terry Bartness, Bruce Bausman, Brant Beeson, Jim Berg, Darrell Bertness, Doug Bertsch, Don Betzen, Bob Billberg, Michael G. Blumberg, Mark (Snake) Boche, Bob Bowlsby, Ted Brill, Chris Bungert, Col. Julien Burkness, Jeff Burrill, Adam Callow, Rick Cochran, Don Conn, John Conzemius, Charles Cook, Tim Cook, William Corcoran, Ralph Crews, Mac Dahl, William Devine, Steve DiBrito, Marshall Doran, Mike Dorsey, Craig Driscoll, Ted (The Bag) DuCharme, Donovan Dulski, Shawn Dye, Steve Ehlers, Eugene Eininger, Keith (Skip) Enger, Lyle Fair, Norm Felde, Vic Fergen, Freeman Fountain, Jim (Chico) Galvin, Joe Gehlen, Russ Gerdin, Dr. Clalrence (Soc) Glasrud, Dr. David Gossiee, Richard Gray, Donn Groth, Roger Haire, Jim (Whitey) Hanson, Gordon Harstad, Tim Hart, Dr. John Haugo, Mark Haugo, Mark Hellerud, Erling Herman, Hank Hettwer, Dareld Hirschey, Richard Holzer, Paul Hopman, Jim Howland, John Hough, Steve Huseman, Dieter Humbert, Wayne Pierce Ingersoll, Don Iverson, Richard Jackson, Clilfton Jacobson, William Jacobson, Allen Jensen, Kenneth Jensen, Ronald L. Johnson, Tom W. Johnson, Charlie Jose, John Kjera, John Klug, Rob Knutson, Jeffrey Koehn, Ray Kotchian, Richard Krabbenhoft, Marvin Krafve, Herman Krajeck, James Krajeck, Jerry Kranz, Gerald Kriesel, Ray (Kirby) Kuklenski, DeWayne Kurpius, Sidney Kurtz, Lowell Kutches, Bob (Balooba) Lambert, Brian D. Lauhermeier, Frank Leidenfrost, James Lein, Dale Lestina, Charles Luna, Jim (County) McCabe, Bernard McGuire, Dave Mack, Britton Mattson, Robert Melchior, Richard Mickelson, Jerome Miksche, Dave (Moves) Miller, Donald Miller, Jerry Miller, Rodney Miller, Sherman Moe, Frank Mollner, Russell Monson, Josh Morgan, Orville Moran, Wayne Mosey, Stan Motschenbacher, John Mytinger, Gordon Nelson, David Nibbe, Doug Nick, Erik Nilsen, Dr. Orlow Nokken, Henry Nubson, Kris Oas, Karl (Mobey Kral) Oelker, Mark Olivieri, Keith Olson, Lee (Opie) Overmoen, Robert Pawlowski, Roger Pearson, Bill Peschel, Larry (Drone) Peterson, Rod Peterson, Aaron Puppe, Norm Przbilla, Robert Purcell, Kevin (Father Owl) Quinn, Shannon Reck, Kevin Reitz, Jerome Rengel, Victor Robertson, Virgil Robinson, Tom (Joe Rock) Rockne, Charles Scheel, Wally Scheer, Robert Schmidt, Mark Schmitz, Richard Schmitz, Vern Schnathorst, John Schuster, Larry Scott, Andrew Shellito, Harris Shellito, Jim (Shoes) Shoemaker, Marv Skaar, Dale Skallerud, Dean Skallerud, Gary Smith, Dr. T. Edison Smith, John (Jo-Jo Man) South, Paul (Poola) Spafford, Thad Stafford, Fred Stalley, Don Stetson, Harvey Stewart, Earl Stottler,Chuck Strand, David Strand, Brad Sturn, Mike Sullivan, Randy Sullivan, Robert (Rube) Sullivan, DeWayne Sundby, Alvin Swanson, David Rene Sweet, Ryland Syverson, Ronald Thompson, Don Tirk, Dave Torson, Robert Utke, James Van Tassel, Leonard Varriano, Gary Vitali, David Waldon, Jim (Susie Wong in Hong Kong) Wanshura, Charles Warner, David Weitnauer, John (Jack) Wilcox, Bobby Williams.

Bremer, a psychology professor, came to MSU 31 years ago after earning his doctorate at Michigan State University. A specialist in social psychology, he chaired the MSU psychology department for eight years. He and his wife Joanne plan to retire to their home on Tulaby Lake in northern Becker County.

Brown, chair of the health and physical education department for 12 of the last 15 years, came to MSU in 1979 after teaching and coaching stops at Mississippi Valley State, Warner (Oregon) Pacific and Monmouth (Ill.) College. He served as an assistant football coach here and men’s and women’s tennis coach. A native of Fayetteville, N.C., Brown earned his doctorate from the University  of New Mexico. After retiring, he’ll return to Fayetteville where he’s building a house.

Brunton, a sociology/anthropology professor, came to MSU 30 years ago after earning her doctorate in anthropology from Washington State University. A specialist in cultural anthropology and linguistics who grew up in Walla Walla, Wash., she chaired the department at MSU for nine years. She’ll finish her master’s degree in marriage and family therapy this spring and may start a new career as a counselor after retiring. She and her husband live in rural Hawley.

Erickson, a collection management librarian, came to MSU 33 years ago after serving as a history and music teacher at Zumbrota High School and as a librarian at Fertile and Moorhead High Schools. A Glenwood, Minn., native, he earned his master’s and specialist’s degrees in library science from the University of Minnesota. He plans to retire in Moorhead, travel and enroll in a few Elderhostel programs.

Fortier, the winningest football coach in Dragon history, compiled a 152-80-4 overall record during his 23 seasons as MSU’s head football coach. A Bemidji native and graduate of North Dakota State University, Fortier came to MSU in 1970, guiding the Dragons to nine Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championships and seven post-season playoff trips. As Men’s Athletic Director from 1973-92, he became president of the NAIA Football Coaches Association, later creating both the NSIC Metrodome Classic and the Snow Bowl, the NCAA Division II all-star game staged each January in Fargo. He is a member of the NAIA, North Dakota State and Minnesota State High School Coaches Association Halls of Fame.

Johanson, a philosophy professor, came to MSU 33 years ago after earning his doctorate from Yale University. A native of Fergus Falls, he chaired MSU’s philosophy department for three terms and is a specialist in the philosophy of religion. He and his wife Alice will move to Durham, N.C.

Snyder, a nursing professor, came to MSU 23 years ago as the first official employee of the university’s nursing department. Originally from Danbury, Conn., she earned her nursing degree at the University of Connecticut  and worked as a public health nurse in Montgomery County, Maryland, and at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health where she earned her master’s degree. Moving to Minnesota in 1973, she worked for the Minnesota Department of Health in the northwestern part of the state before joining the MSU faculty. She intends to retire in Moorhead.

Bev Wesley, a professor of sociology at the New Center for Multidisciplinary Studies, came to Moorhead in 1971 and taught part-time in the university’s sociology department before earning her doctorate at the University of Minnesota. She taught full-time in the sociology department for a year before transferring in 1974 to the New Center, where she’s been ever since. A specialist in human sexuality along with marriage and family, she coordinated MSU’s women’s studies program for four years. The White Bear Lake, Minn., native will retire in Moorhead with her husband Walter, who retired last year from MSU’s physics department.

It’s been 10 years now that MSU has been requesting bonding money to complete the project.

"This property around the campus is owned by the state and it’s the state’s responsibility to keep the property from becoming a blight on the surrounding community," said Sen. Keith Langseth, who along with Rep. Kevin Goodno has been trying to resolve the long-delayed project. "The governor’s veto ambushed the Legislature, city and Moorhead State community."

The City of Moorhead had promised more than $300,000 worth of in-kind services as an incentive for the state to remove homes in the expansion area.

Goodno said he intends to move forward with the MSU funding proposal again when the Legislature convenes in February but first he wants to find out what objections the governor may have.

Goodno said even if the Legislature overrides Ventura’s veto, the governor can still pile-drive the funding by not issuing the bonds.

"Ventura calls this stuff pork," Langseth said. "If you look at what he vetoes and whant he didn’t veto, pork is outside the metropolitan area and good stuff is inside the metropolitan area."

He was referring, of course, to Ventura’s preservation of $60 million in bonding for light-rail transit in the Twin Cities area.

Said an editorial in The Forum: "Ventura, whose attitude about higher education seems to mirror his unfamiliarity with it, didn’t do even elementary school-level homework on this matter. The MSU work will be delayed until the 2000 Legislature can override Ventura’s veto, which surely will happen. Legislators know the MSU project is fiscally responsible and needed now. And the state has the money to do the job. Meanwhile, MSU and city officials will continue the effort to keep the deteriorating houses from becoming magnets for vandals and rats."

Of the original 87 houses in the five-block area, about 30 are still standing. Six will be kept for university offices.

The $3.7 million is needed to tear down and dispose of  the houses and pave parts of  the area for parking.

Denny the Dragon may be decommissioned as MSU’s mascot, but 78-year old Robert Bruns can still draw life into the old cartoon character.

In less than a minute, he’ll gladly sketch a replica of the Dragon mascot that held sway here from the 1930s through the 1950s. It was an aptly cheerful symbol for a campus struggling through the Depression, World War II and the Korean Conflict.

An amateur cartoonist most his life, Bruns drew Denny the Dragon for Moorhead State’s 1947 yearbook. "I graduated in 1947 in a class of only 47 students," he said. "Those were good days."

He hasn’t lost his artistic touch

Bruns, who retired in Fergus Falls 13 years ago after 40 years of teaching, is quick to admit he didn’t create Denny the Dragon. That credit goes to Mina (Peoples) Miller, who’s recovering from a stroke now at her home in Richland, Wash.  (During part of her career, she worked for the federal government explaining to the public why the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II and what its affect would be.)

Bruns, a Fargo native, came to Moorhead State in 1941, majoring in history. He just about completed his degree when the Uncle Sam called. He spent most of his military service in the South Pacific aboard Landing Ship Tank 451 of the Navy’s Amphibious Task Force. That’s when he created a mischievous cartoon sailor character, TARFU (Things Are Really Fouled Up), that appeared in local Navy news media.

During his Navy career he drew over 200 cartoons and collected them in his autobiography "My Stretch in the Service."

"Needless to say, it never gained the status of a Sad Sack or a Beetle Bailey," Bruns said. "I never intended to become a professional artists. But I’ve always used my so-called art talent to express ideas in school work, community affairs and hobbies.

His "Wally Warrior" became the school spirit of Wheaton High School where he taught for 19 years; since 1966, when he joined the Fergus Falls High School faculty as audio-visual director, he’s drawn and encouraged the use of the already established Fergus Falls "Otter" for school activities; he created mascots for Hillcrest Academy in Fergus Falls and for the Fergus Falls Community College Spartans.

Although Bruns only missed 12 days of work due to illness during his 40 years of teaching, after retiring he’s undergone eight operations. But it hasn’t dimmed his spirit.

For the 1996 and 1997 reunions for the USS LST 451 in Branson, Mo., he assembled a 47-page booklet filled with photographs, statistics and cartoons detailing the history of the WWII ship and its crew.

"I really like MSU’s new mascot," said Bruns, "Its sleek modern design fits the times."

MSU’s dragon has come a long way since its birth following the fire that devastated Old Main, the school’s central building, on Feb. 9, 1930.

Legend has it that Flora Frick, a prominent physical education professor then, came up with the school mascot when she saw the football team running out of a temporary dressing room below the campus heating plant and said. "They look just like dragons."

Steam rising over a serpentine line of stampeding football heroes makes for a romantic beginning. And a good story. But it’s a bit wide of the truth.

Moorhead State adopted the dragon  in the spring of 1930 by a vote of the student body, says Clarence "Soc" Glasrud, an MSU alumnus and professor emeritus who’s currently writing the final chapter of the university’s history.

"Before then the school’s athletic teams were called the Peds, for pedagogues, a fancy word for teachers. Before that they were simply called the Teachers. But a lot of teacher colleges back then shared the same name."

As school spirit rallied around the catastrophic 1930 fire, Glasrud said, the students decided to vote on a new symbol to express a new campus vitality.

According to The Mistic, the campus newspaper then, the name committee insisted that the new mascot, besides reflecting school spirit, "should be a two-syllable word, and one that is yelled from the lungs and not the throat."

The choices narrowed down to the Mistics, the Trojans, the Eagles, the Spartans and the winning choice, the Dragons.

Glasrud, who enrolled at Moorhead State the following fall, became a features editor of the 1931 yearbook that dedicated that year’s edition to the new post-fire vigor: "The Dragon….Symbol of the spirit of MSTC(Moorhead State Teachers College): Born of the devastating and purifying fire…."

The original symbol of the dragon, Glasrud said, was drawn by artists at Buckbee Mears Co. in St. Paul, who produced the engravings for the yearbook. That original, oriental-style dragon rising up on its haunches, stood alone as the university’s symbol for nearly a decade.

In the late 1930s, however, it was upstaged by Denny the Dragon, a cartoon figure that resembled a friendly Walt Disney duck with reptilian dorsal fins.

After that, chaos reigned. An assortment of dragons, ranging from the funny to the fierce, appeared on Moorhead State brochures, football helmets, t-shirts and stationery. But none commanded enough presence to eclipse the other.

The new dragon arrived just in time to celebrate MSU’s centennial.

"It was a project for one of my first graphic design courses," said Haley Johnson, the creator the MSU’s modern dragon who now owns her own design firm in Minneapolis. "I had no idea the university would select it. But my teacher, Phil Mousseau, really liked the design and brought it to the attention of the administration.

Mousseau, now retired, had assigned the dragon as a class graphic design project for 15 years and Johnson’s, he said, was the best he’d seen.

He said the new dragon—a geometrical, fire-breathing serpent curled in a tight circle—combines a strong character with an unforgettable shape. "It’s compact, vital, aggressive and it’s usable in any kind of space, Mousseau said.

Johnson wanted $1,000 for the design, but settled for the university’s offer of $500. Today, she said, she’s charge in the six-digit dollar range for creating a college logo.

Tuesday, October 5, through Saturday, October 9, the students have decorating contests, an all campus picnic, a hypnotist, a parade, the annual variety show and royalty coronation, and, of course, the burning of the M to kick off homecoming week.

ALUMNI ACTIVITIES

Friday, October 8

* Alumni Awards Banquet, 5:30 p.m.  Ramada Plaza Suites  A large slate of nominees is being evaluated and award winners will be announced very soon.

* Johnny Holm and his Traveling Fun Show, 9:00 p.m.  Ramada Plaza Suites.  He was such a hit last year, we decided to have him return.

Saturday, October 9

* Homecoming Parade, 12:00 Noon - MSU Campus.

* Homecoming Game, 1:30 p.m.  Moorhead State versus Wayne State.  Enjoy the game at Nemzek Field with kickoff at 1:30.

* Homecoming Banquet and Dragon Hall of Fame, 5:30 p.m. Radisson Plaza.  Come and celebrate with the following Dragon athletes.

Ross Fortier: A remarkable 23-year career at MSU includes a 152-80-4 record and numerous community and professional accomplishments.

Bob Billberg: A wrestling legend at MSU and a member of the NAIA National Hall of Fame.

Fred Dahnke: An MSU athlete and coach who piloted MSU to nine NSIC championships in nine seasons
Wendy DeVorak-Kohler: A three-year basketball letter-winner who has charted a remarkable coaching career at Alexandria, MN.

Kirby Kuklenski: All conference football player who also competed in basketball and boxing at Moorhead State in the late 1940,s.

Lorny Johnson: Three-time all-conference football tackle at MSU who was voted "Little All American" by the AP in 1963.

Mary Sampson-Worke: A volleyball standout who led the Dragons to the NAIA National Championships as a senior.

Orlow Nokken: A long-time coach and supporter of Dragon athletics who will get the Outstanding Service Award from the Athletic Department.

* Alumni Social, 9:00 p.m. - Knights of Columbus, Moorhead, MN.

Call the MSU Alumni Office at 218-236-3265 with any questions

The Ramada Plaza Suites is our official reunion site for 1999 and we encourage you to call them for their special MSU room rates - $69 a night for a single and $89 for a two-room suite

Our reunions have simple goals: provide you with an opportunity to meet other MSU grads, see that you have a god time at a nice location, and give you an opportunity to meet the decision-makers at MSU such as President Barden. We try to do this in a way that’s convenient for you and doesn’t cost a small fortune. We’re also committed to finding interesting locations at which to hold reunions; we’ve discovered that hotel receptions, for example, are not the first choice for most alumni.

We are always looking for places to hold reunions.  If you think you’d like to have a gathering of MSU Dragons near where you live, please let me know.  We can’t accommodate everyone, but normally we can work something out.  Even if a contingent from MSU can’t attend, and you are willing to be the host, we can always help create the invitation, provide postage and manage the mailing services.  With that in mind, the following reunions are either set or in the planning stages.

July 22 ? We’ll watch the FM Red Hawks battle the Madison Black Wolf

September 12 ? Our Twin Cities alumni will take a trip on the Mississippi River aboard the Jonathan Padelford, an authentic replica of the boats that worked the river at the turn of the century

September 11 ? The folks in Bismarck will have a Pitchfork Barbecue at Fort Lincoln State Park

October 9 & 10 ? Homecoming ? Be sure to see the schedule printed in this issue of the Alumnews; invitations will go out in late August.

Grand Forks, Detroit Lakes and Fergus Falls reunions are in the planning stages and should be announced soon.

Our out-of-state reunions next year will be held in Seattle, New York City and Washington, DC
 

I hope you have a great summer and I’m looking forward to seeing you at one of our events.  If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at our toll free number, 877-270-2586

Or she may conduct critical briefings with some of the Army’s top brass, or work with native Hawaiians to preserve prehistoric religious sites.

It’s all in a day’s work for Dr. Laurie J. Lucking (’71, history), the Cultural Resources Program Manager for the U.S. Army Garrison, Hawaii.

Lucking was recognized for her work in April when she won the 1998 Secretary of the Army Environmental Award for Cultural Resources Management in the individual category. She accepted the award at the Pentagon during the Department of the Army award ceremony. She was one of five finalists selected from Army installations worldwide.

Colonel Totten, Director of Public Works, The Garrison, wrote: "Dr. Lucking has been instrumental in establishing a strong working relationship with the local communities. Her efforts have enabled the Army to execute a robust tactical training program, as well as responsibly protect the multitude of cultural and historical resources in Hawaii."

Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera recognized Lucking for her contribution to military readiness while managing cultural resources on Hawaii and Oahu.

"I was stunned to be selected," said Lucking, a civilian employee in the Army’s Hawaii Directorate of Public Works Branch at Wheeler Army Airfield, "especially because our program is pretty new."

It’s a dream job for this Fergus Falls, Minn., native who, at age 10, decided to be an archeologist.

"I watched an archeology team from the University of Minnesota work on a dig at the Orwall Dam (near Fergus Falls) when I was 16. All I ever wanted to be was an archaeologist," Lucking says. "I met Professor Eldon Johnson that year, and when I was admitted to the U of M, he became my advisor."

Lucking holds master’s and doctoral degrees in anthropology with an emphasis in archaeology and minors in botany/ecology.

Lucking began her career in 1978 as a co-op student with the St. Paul District Corps of Engineers. After completing her dissertation, she took time off to raise a family and did archaeological consulting for government agencies. In 1988, she resumed her career with the St. Paul District Corps of Engineers and later the Pacific Ocean Division Corps of Engineers. She has done fieldwork in Mexico, New Guinea, Palau, and the American Northwest and Midwest.

"I spent about three-and-a-half years in New Guinea working on a project in the Highlands," Lucking said. "It was a well-funded site and an exotic location—everything you go into archaeology for."

Her work in Minnesota included the Mississippi River headwaters territory and encompassed civil work projects, from flood control and bank stabilization to Indian burial mounds and archaeological sites on federal land.

Lucking joined the U.S. Army Garrison, Hawaii (the Garrison) in 1995. The Garrison provides and coordinates all installation facilities, services, and logistics in Hawaii. It consists of two major sub-installations—Schofield Barracks and Fort Shafter, one major training area (Pohakuloa, 100,000 acres on the island of Hawaii), and 25 smaller sub-installations—covering a total of 156,000 acres on two islands.

As the only staff member in the Cultural Resources Section, Lucking’s charge is to "protect and preserve cultural resources to the greatest possible extent while allowing uninterrupted training of Army troops and improvements to their quality of life." She has established Integrated Cultural Resources Management Plans for four major areas that outline procedures to manage historic and archaeological properties within the military mission of an installation. This initiative enabled Lucking to identify 800 buildings and structures as potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

"My job is to do my best to protect all the historical buildings and structures, as well as the archeological sites, on Army land in Hawaii," Lucking said. "We have 350 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. These historic buildings are sort of a microcosm of military history in the Pacific, the history of the U.S. Army in Hawaii, and very much a part of the political and developmental history of the state of Hawaii."

Through her efforts, Wheeler and Fort Shafter are national historic landmarks, and the Schofield Barracks Historic District was placed on the Hawaiian Register of Historic Places in 1997, and on the National Register in July 1998. Shoefield encompasses three family housing areas, five quadrangle barracks, a health clinic, theatre, Soldier’s Chapel, and Conroy Bowl (the site of historic sporting events). It includes the original post construction and landscaping from 1918 to 1940.

"There was a lot of opposition on the part of the Army to maintain these facilities," Lucking said. "But my job is to protect these things while ensuring the Army fulfills its mission to train and deploy soldiers and to ensure they have a decent quality of life." The conflict between historic building preservation and new construction, is a common theme in Lucking’s work.

"It took two-and-a-half years of briefing, discussing and negotiating Memoranda of Agreement before Schofield was placed on the National Register," Lucking said. "It was a compromise among the State Historic Preservation Office, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the Army."

It was worth it, Lucking says. "It’s a legacy that’s been preserved for military presence and for the people of Hawaii. Shofield Barracks is like a living museum of Army installation planning, and represents the history of the military in Hawaii. It looks just the way it did in the 1920s. It may not be as great as an accomplishment as preserving Charleston, S.C., but it’s nice to know that you have saved something."

In addition, an active training range has also been preserved and has been opened up for limited hunting and limited public tours.

Despite no staff, Lucking reviews hundreds of work orders each year for projects that could potentially affect historic properties and archaeological sites. She has personally completed 40 small-scale surveys and monitoring projects. (Perhaps because of what she’s accomplished, she’ll hire two archaeological interns this year.) "I’m looking forward to doing more of our fieldwork in-house," she said.

That’s what attracted Lucking to this work in the first place. "The archaeological sites are just incredible on Pohakuloa, which is located between two volcanoes," Lucking said. "It’s covered in old lava flows, has little vegetation, and is like a desert. The preservation is nearly perfect because the land is so dry. You can still see the toopa (spell?) cloths and gourds used to gather water, the huge shrines made out of rock slabs, and the old trails that cross the island are still visible. It’s everything you go into archaeology for."

Lucking still has thousands of acres of land to explore, and depending on the terrain, the fieldwork can take weeks or months.

"We then need to evaluate them (structures/sites) for eligibility to the National Register, taking into consideration the Army’s plans for these properties."

In addition to historic preservation of physical properties, Lucking has begun a process to open Ukanipo Heiau, a prehistoric Hawaiian religious site at Makua Military Reservation, to Native Hawaiian religious practitioners under the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. After a brush fire revealed a much larger series of historic sites connected to the Heiau, Army surveys discovered five unexploded World War II bombs ranging from 100 to 1,000 pounds. She worked with ordnance experts and community members to figure out how to dispose of the bombs and minimize impact on the sties. All of the bombs were successfully detonated.

Despite the exotic work she has done around the world, Lucking has found a home in Hawaii.

"I don’t ever want to leave here," she says.

Mike and Trina Sandlie-Pepin
He: Sergeant, Woodbury (Minn.) Police Dept.
She: Police Officer, Brooklyn Park (Minn.) Police Dept.
She: 1992, Criminal Justice
He: 1991, Business Administration

An image problem. It’s a common perception that the police officers involved in the Littleton, Colo., school shooting did too little, too late for the children of Columbine High School. That’s one of Trina Sandlie-Pepin’s biggest frustrations—the public’s misunderstanding of what law enforcement is and what it can do. "Cops have to make hard decisions fast, and people always second guess from the comfort of their own home after they have had plenty of time to think it over," she says. "Every cop wants to save a life, and if they can, they will. It’s very painful and frustrating to me when people second guess like they did with the Columbine murders." That’s one reason she steered away from a law enforcement career—for a while, at least.

Theirs is a story similar to many Moorhead State alumni. Mike Pepin and Trina Sandlie met in college, fell in love, and got married in 1991. Trina, with a criminal justice degree, always desired a law enforcement career. Mike, who arrived at MSU with an associate degree in law enforcement, felt a business degree would enhance his background. Destined for the two-career path, Mike was hired by the Woodbury Police Department in 1991. He later became the fire arms instructor, field training officer, and use of force instructor. Trina says, "I saw what Mike gave up to be a cop, so I decided to explore other options." She worked in personnel, loss control, sales, airline security. "I missed what I really like about law enforcement," Trina said. "The ever-changing tasks, dealing with different cultures, working nights and weekends. Things can be really exciting and it never stops being a challenge."

It’s a tough job. Trina completed the Brooklyn Park Field Training Program in 1996. "It’s very stressful," she says. "They critique everything you do, and there’s so much to learn and know. They don’t want a muffin head out on the street. But so much of this work is intuitive." She joined the force full-time after completing the training program. And when the Sandlie-Pepins get home at night—or morning—(she works 10 p.m.-6 a.m. and he’s on the 9 p.m.-7 a.m. shift) there’s just a hint of rivarly. Mike made sergeant before Trina, but they each respectfully acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of each other’s department.

A good fit. Interestingly, the personalities of Trina and Mike fit their respective departments. Mike, who could have easily gotten a job with his associate degree, is a strong advocate of education. So is his department. Minnesota law requires 48 continuing education credits every three years for police officers, but Woodbury has "a huge training budget," Mike says, "and we usually have more than 200 post approved training credits every three years. We’re also very service oriented," he says. "I like the variety of going to a crime-in-progress call and also helping the little old lady cross the street. That keeps my job interesting." Woodbury’s population has doubled since 1991 and is the fastest growing city in Minnesota. It’s also a well-educated and affluent community.

Located in the northwest metro area, Brooklyn Park is a suburb with an inner city flavor and a very diverse socioeconomic group. BPPD also fits Trina’s personality. "We are very busy and officers don’t do any follow-up. I can literally do calls all night long. I get the preliminary information, then I go on to the next call. There is no down time. It’s fast paced, and that fits my personality."

Drugs and parents. However, the rigors and frustrations of law enforcement are pretty much the same everywhere. In Woodbury, Mike says the major problems are related to retail crime, DWIs, and domestic assaults. In Brooklyn Park, it’s "domestic, domestic, domestic," Trina says, along with theft from auto and noise disturbance. But what’s common to nearly all crime is that it’s drug related—everything from forgeries to theft. "It’s unbelievable the 100 percent correlation between methamphetamine use and crime," Mike said.

Drugs and parents are the biggest challenges facing today’s police officers. "It’s amazing the kids I deal with," Trina says. "They come from dysfunctional families and the parents don’t care if their kid is smoking pot or drinking." Mike agrees. When parents are confronted with children who have broken laws, "they argue with you about the evidence you have while the kid goes up to his room," Mike says. "If it happens the first time with no consequences, it’s going to happen again," he says.  "We’ve become very permissive and there are so few boundaries for kids. There are no consequences at home, teachers aren’t allowed to do anything, and the police and courts can’t do anything."

Trina tells of a Maple Grove citizen who wrote a letter to the Brooklyn Park Police Department chastising the officers for concerning themselves with her drunken teenager when there are criminals to be caught. "It’s just an example of how parents are with their children," Trina says.  "Kids are looking for parameters and guidelines and they’re not getting anything from their parents."

The Littleton, Colo., incident—and too many others like it—have hit home that fact pretty hard. So what are we to do?

Law enforcement trends. Woodbury PD started a "restorative justice program for juveniles four years ago," Mike says. "It was taking so long for kids to get to the court system that there wasn’t an immediate consequence to their actions. This program ensures that within a week of shoplifting, the arresting officer, the child, the parent(s), the employee, and three important adults in the child’s life—whom he has identified—gather together to talk about the action, talk about the consequences, and add shame to the behavior. The results have been positive, and the number of repeat offenders is very low," he says. (Statistics??)

The program is catching on. Washington County has implemented the program and it’s gaining momentum in our area. Mike says the national trend in law enforcement is the "broken window" theory. He explains that if you have an abandoned house with a broken window and you repair it, no one will break the other windows. But if the window remains broken, the other windows will get broken, too. He says New York City began arresting people who urinated in the subway system, and eventually, assaults and rapes on the subway system went down dramatically. "People saw you couldn’t get away with urinating, so they knew they weren’t going to get away with something worse."

Their scariest moments. Mike says the scariest moment he’s experienced as a cop is to pull a woman out of a burning car. Trina’s most fearful experience had to do with a near riot that erupted between two factions of a family. "When you’re outnumbered and everyone is anger at the law enforcement, it’s really scary."

The fun and challenge. The work has its rewards. "I really thought I’d have more impact," Mike says. "On the other hand, there are some cases where you don’t think you have any impact and you find out later that you did." Mike arrested a 12-year-old boy on _____ charges a few years ago. Today, that young man remembers Mike is thankful for his intervention. Mike would eventually like to teach full time or work his way up to police chief. While Trina isn’t burned out, she is surprised by the lack of respect for law enforcement by juveniles and adults. "People tell me they’ll be out of jail before my shift’s over, and that’s a little disheartening," she says. "But I still love it. And when you do make an impact, that’s pretty cool."

MSU alum named America’s Greatest Thinker

Last year MSU student Mac Schneider took second place in the Great American Think-Off, an annual philosophical debate sponsored by the New York Mills Cultural Center. This year an MSU alum, Mark Friestad,  took first place, and was declared America’s Greatest Thinker. The debate was broadcast around the world on C-SPAN and the following Monday after his victory, Friestad was flown to New York for a live interview with Kati Couric on NBC’s "Today Show".

 Friestad, 26, teaches 10th grade social studies in his hometown of Valley City, N.D. , where he graduated from high school in 1991. He graduated from MSU in 1995 with a degree in mass communications, then earned a social studies education degree from Valley City State University in 1997. At MSU, Friestad was a campus news reporter and worked at local radio stations.

The Great American Think-Off began in 1993 as a modest event in the tiny Minnesota town of New York Mills (pop. 963) and has since become one of America’s premier philosophy competitions. The question in this year’s debate: "Which is more dangerous: science or religion? Friestad argued, after much internal debate with himself, that science was the most dangerous. The other three finalist included a teacher at Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College, a Boston entrepreneur who owns a computer programming company,  and a registered nurse from Misswa, Minn.  Here’s the essay he submitted to earn his position as a finalist, and ultimately as the victor:
 

By Mark Friestad

In the book Animal Farm by George Orwell, the animals' dream of a perfectly equal society crumbles when pigs assume leadership of farm life. Soon pigs are enjoying certain advantages, such as a better diet.  The pigs defend this to the other animals by reasoning that their work, which is "brain work", not manual labor, requires better nutrition, and thus, the pigs should eat better.  The other animals are told, "this has been proved by Science, comrades," and lacking evidence to the contrary, they are convinced.

Considering the question, "Which is More Dangerous: Science or Religion?" we cannot conclude that either is inherently more dangerous. Science and religion are both powerful ideas: one holding that we cannot accept an untested idea, the other holding that ultimately we must accept some truths without proof.  Although instinct may tell us that science, being provable, must be safer; in fact, the more dangerous idea is the one we accept more blindly.  I believe that to be science.

While most educated people today can distinguish between religious fanaticism and sincere faith, most are not sophisticated enough to make qualified scientific judgments.  When Scottish scientists cloned sheep, public debate focused not on the relevant question, which was the promise unlocked by the discovery, but on the more easily understandable issue of whether we ought to clone humans.

An important moral question, yes, but it led us away from the merits of the research itself.  Even among college graduates, few can discuss in detail if a space-based missile defense system would be effective, or if space research is beneficial, or it nuclear energy is safe.  And  the nature of scientific progress ensures that in the future the average person will be less, not more, capable of making technical judgments.

Take the theory of Multiple Intelligences, which holds that there are at least eight different ways in which people are intelligent, but that schools typically measure only two-- verbal and mathematical.  If we subscribe to this theory, it could drastically change the way kids are taught, as the traditional skills-- reading,  writing, and arithmetic-- are de-emphasized in order to make time for other activities.  But among classroom teachers, how many are sufficiently versed in the MI research to decide whether it is or isn't valid.  The same could be said for research into ADD, or gender bias, or any of a host of other educational theories.

To compensate for our lack of scientific acumen, we rely on experts, trusting that their education and experience will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. From the dawn of science, this has produced results ranging from the ridiculous to the tragic. Faith in the practice of bleeding--still a common medical technique in the 18th Century --hastened the death of George Washington.  William Kellogg, founder of the Kellogg breakfast cereal company, built a following on the science that sexual abstinence, exercise, and bowel movements would cure almost any ailment.  Hitler's campaign of genocide was grounded less in the gospel of white supremacy than in  the science of eugenics, the theory  (subscribed to by some prominent 20th Century scientists) that mankind's gene pool could be permanently improved by eliminating its weaker elements.

Society these days is so skeptical that an expert boasting "proof" has tremendous power.  Yet even these admit that sometimes they're wrong. But we continue to follow blindly.

Sometimes science's work is perverted to fit our social needs. Consider the work of Charles Darwin.  His theories of natural selection and survival of the fittest were a major scientific contribution, but their social impact was just as profound.  "Social Darwinism" is held by many people to this day to be reason
that people are poor, or uneducated, or criminal.

It isn't the scientists fault.  Did Darwin suspect or intend that his work would be invoked in a debate over whether to give young mothers welfare?  Scientists don't claim their work is "the truth".  But that's usually what the public takes it for.

Without question, science holds unlimited promise.  But the public, fascinated with progress, often asks, "Can we?" without always addressing, "Should we?" Science doesn't purport to make ethical judgments. That makes it dangerous.

In an age of rapid communications and openness, religious fanaticism is quickly exposed for what it is.  But science continues to win legions of followers. Science needs ethics and wisdom independent of itself for restraint.  Otherwise,  we might find ourselves blindly led by the experts down a road we don't want to go.

Lisa Mounts, a spring Moorhead State University graduate, has been named assistant director for university advancement and will be responsible for MSU’s overall alumni activities and programs in the Twin Cities.

Mounts, a mass communications major from Dalton, Minn., co-anchored MSU’s weekly Campus News program that aired Saturdays this winter and spring on Prairie Public Television. She was also president of the university’s chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Mounts has worked as a circulation assistant and retention clerk at The Forum, as a production assistant for WDAY-TV and as a public relations intern for the City of Moorhead.

In this newly created position, Mounts will create and strengthen relationships between the university and its alumni through events, services, communications and volunteer involvement. She’ll also support admissions recruitment activities.
 

Olson, 40, replaces Dave Schellhase, whose contract was not renewed.

A native of Tomahawk, WI, Olson spent the last nine seasons at Black Hills State. He posted a 179-90 record and guided the Yellow Jackets to three straight appearances at the NAIA Division II National Tournament.

Olson produced eight consecutive winning seasons at BHSU, including a 26-7 finish in 1998-99, and exits as the winningest coach in Yellow Jacket history. He was saluted as SDIC Coach of the Year three times.

During Olson's tenure at BHSU, 93 per cent of the Yellow Jacket seniors received degrees, or are on schedule to graduate. His last club had a composite 3.07 grade point average.

Olson began his collegiate coaching career at Mount Senario College (WI), and led the Fighting Saints to four straight winning seasons. The Saints captured Upper Midwest Collegiate Conference Championships in his last two seasons with 20 and 23-win records.

Olson served as head coach at Gustavus Adolphus College in 1989-90 and posted a 14-11 record before accepting the post as head coach at Black Hills State.

Olson graduated from St. Norbert College in 1981 and received a master's degree in Physical Edcuation from Norwich University (VT) in 1982.

Olson began his coaching career at Northwestern Military Academy in Lake Geneva, WI, and later coached at Bay Port High School in Green Bay, WI. His fashioned a prep coaching record of 38-22.

He and his wife Colleen are the parents of two children, Katy, 16, and Erik, 13.
 
 

30s
Esther Janson ’31 (el ed) writes that she enjoys living in her own home and watching the children going to school right across the street. She lives in Clinton.
Margaret Vowles Danforth ’37 (French/Eng) writes "Greetings to the friends and faculty members I knew while I attended the Training School for four years and later as a college student from 1933-1937. For a few years I taught in Crookston, MN. During the World War II years I worked at Arlington Hall Station (Signal Corps) where I met my husband of 53 years. When our three sons were in elementary school I attended Catholic University to earn a master’s degree in library science, leading to a late career in the Arlington County Schools. We lived in the Shenandoah Valley for several years but moved to our present home in a retirement community in a northern Virginia suburb of Washington, DC."

40s
Herbert Colmer ’42 (el ed/geog) retired 20 years ago after living in Florida since 1942. He and his wife Doris have moved to the eastern Tennessee Smokie Mountains in 1989. He enjoys travel and yard work, and volunteers weekly at a local sheltered workshop for the handicapped. Herb, who lives in Greeneville, TN, says "Say hello to all the ‘War Years’ students."
Margaret Chilton ’44 (Eng/art) is the author of Virgin of the Candy Scoop, a book which was nominated for the Eleventh Annual Northeastern Minnesota Book Award sponsored by the Friends of the University of Minnesota Duluth Library and the Friends of the Duluth Public Library. The award recognizes books which best represent northeastern Minnesota’s history, culture, heritage or lifestyle.
Joyce Stadum Larson ’49 (el ed) graduated with a two-year degree in 1949 and moved to Wadena to teach and has remained there since. She taught for 37 years, mostly first grade, and retired in 1992. She married Bill Larson, a principal, teacher and coach, who is now retired also. They raised three children and have seven grandchildren. She says "Enjoyed MSTC ? good two year prep for teaching elementary. Hi to all the PI’s. Enjoyed all the friendly students and staff at MSTC."

50s
Alda Jorve Rydin ’51 (el ed) writes "After teaching 31 years in the Sleepy Eye Public School District, I retired as of June 1st, 1998. Lots of volunteer activities in the community family events, hobbies, travel ? retirement has many opportunities to be useful!" Alda has four daughters and 10 grandchildren.
John Rosequist ’54 (math) retired from the US Army in 1973 with 27 years of service with the rank of Chief Warrant officer 4. He worked with radar electronics. He then taught electronics at MSU in 1975 and 1976, and taught at the North Dakota State School of Science in 1981. He was a constant at General Telephone Electronics in California from 1977 through 1980, and retired in 1981 and moved with his wife Isabel to Rogers, AR.
Darrel Schuetze ’55 (soc st) retired from teaching in 1993 and now works in District Court. He and his wife Sharon have three grown children and live in Spicer.
Jim Anderson ’55 (bus ed) just retired from Fullerton College, Fullerton, CA, where he was a business professor for 21 years before becoming Dean of the Business and Computer Information Systems division for 12 years. In addition, he taught in high schools for nine years. He continues to work part time as a consultant for International Education for the College. He writes "Our latest adventure is an exchange program with a college in Beijing, China. As a result of this position I have traveled to China twice in the last three years."
Richard El Rite ’57 (phy ed) ’66 (MA, hlth/phy ed) retired after 25 years as Intramural Director and Wrestling Coach at Michigan Tech University in 1988. He and his wife Rosi winter in Desert Hot Springs, CA, and spend the summers in Hancock, MI. Richard just won the California State Shuffleboard Association Singles Championship, which was held at Leisure World in Laguna Hills, CA. Richard and Rosi have five children, three in CA and two in MI, and seven grandchildren. He stays active umpiring and refereeing high school athletic contests.
Constance Oseid Karlson ’58 (el ed) and her husband Richard enjoy their children and grandchildren, travel and their place at Mille Lacs Lake. She also sews and enjoys quilting. They live in Cannon Falls.
Gordon Aanerud ’58 (math) retired from teaching science at Carlton High School in 1992, after teaching for 34 years in the communities of Osakis, Foley and Carlton. He was elected to the County Board of Commissioners in 1991 and is still serving. He and his wife Donnis own a small farm where they raise registered quarter horses, doing their own training and sales. He says he’s also found time to take his horses on an extended elk hunt each fall since he retired, and he adds "Retirement is a great JOB."
Janet Horn Bedow ’59 (el ed) taught for 38 years in Aurora-Hoyt Lakes, Grand Rapids, and Anoka-Hennepin District II. She taught second through fourth grade and elementary reading. She and her husband Roger were also Anoka County foster parents for 28 years. Janet is now retired and living in Coon Rapids.
 

60s
Gordy Grossman ’60 (hlth/phy ed) and his wife Barb live in Hastings and spend their winters in Mesa, AZ, at Silveridge Resort. He works part time at a court attendant and enjoys playing golf and cards.
Charles Wohlwend ’62 (chem) moved to Colorado in 1972. He became a Fellow in the Academy of General Dentistry, and showed Arabian horses and raised Greyhounds for a number of years. He loves to hunt elk and fish. Dr. Wohlwend lives on 30 acres in Beulah, Co, a mountain community with horses, dogs and a few wild animals like deer.
Russ Miller ’64 (bus ed) will be retiring from teaching in Little Falls, after teaching and coaching for a total of 35 years. His wife Sharon will retire also and they plan to "just enjoy one day at a time." Russ and Sharon’s children live in Seattle, Sartel, and Moorhead, where daughter Katie is a student. They have one grandchild and another on the way.
Carol Ruberts Jungerheld ’64 (el ed) has retired after 30 years of teaching. She’s still busy, though, and is involved with a theatre auxiliary, travel and consultant work with the Vista Unified School District. She and her husband Curt live in Bonsall, CA.
Mike Olson ’64 (el ed) ’67 (MA, el admin) has retired from 34 years of public school teaching, 21 years with the Fargo School System. He now works part time as a university supervisor in MSU’s Teacher Education Department. He also works part time as a concrete finisher during the construction season. Mike flies model airplanes, hunts, trains dogs and is an active ham radio operator. He sings in a quartet, "The Agonizers," works on his hunting house in Gackle, ND, and participates in plays. Mike and his wife Bonnie live in Fargo.
Ronald Urich ’64 (chem) and his wife Theresia have been married for 29 years, and have lived in Omaha, NE, for all that time. He’s a computer analyst for Mutual of Omaha, and is looking forward to retirement in Bimini or Jamaica.
Elizabeth Green McNutt ’65 (el ed) enjoys being retired, but still substitute teaches in the Fargo schools. She’s active in the Fargo Music Club and continues to sing solos and direct her church choir. She lives in Fargo with her husband Paul.
Bernie Larson ’65 (HPER) has been selected to receive the 1999 Charles Forsythe Award by the Michigan High School Athletic Association. Bernie is an active member of the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, is a charter member of the Pennfield Lions Club, and has served the MHSSA for ten hears as a registered official in baskteball and baseball. He was named regional Athletic Director of the Year in 199101992, and was selected the MIAAA Athletic Director of the Year in 1991-1992. The Charles Forsythe Award is presented to individuals who make outstanding contributions to the interscholastic athletics community.
Rick Lathrop ’67 (hist) works in the Fox River Valley of Illinois, representing school employee members of the IEA-NEA and advocating for public education. Rick and Marcia will celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary this summer with their three children and five grandchildren. Rick lives in Richton Park, IL.
Jerry Melby ’67 (bus ed) is a business and drivers education instructor at Buffalo High School. His wife Cheryl works for Prudential Insurance.
Victor Machart ’67 (hist) is a speech language pathologist serving six of eleven schools in the Lower Yukon School District along the Bering Sea and Yukon River. He says "I fly to my schools with the ‘bush pilots’ and love every minute of it. I work mainly with Eskimo students." Victor lives in Mountain Village, AK.
Ronald Trontvet ’67 (bus ed) retired from teaching accounting at Northland Community and Technical College in May. He and his wife Carolyn live in Thief River Falls.
William Newton ’66 (mus) ’70 (MA, mus) taught vocal music for 13 years, and then left to become the Director of Labor relations for the Minnesota Community College Faculty in 1985, which is a part of the former Minnesota Education and National Education Associations. He and his wife Judith have five children and five grandchildren and live in Eagan.
Ron Chepesiuk ’68 (hist) is the recipient of the American Library Association International Relations Committee John Ames Humphry/OCLC/Forest Press Award. He was selected because he has contributed to international librarianship as an interviewer, journalist, author and scholar. Chepesiuk is founder and executive director of Winthrop University’s Senior Research Associate Program, a university think tank that supports the Archives’ objectives and programming. He’s the author of 10 books and more than 1,500 articles. He’s also a contributing editor to American Libraries magazine and a contributing editor to several other publications. Chepesiuk, who also holds a degree form the University of Ireland, University College Dublin, is head of Archives and Special Collections at Winthrop University’s Dacus Library in Rock Hill, SC.
Doug Hanson ’68 (indus tech) ’69 (art) has been a professor of art at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, IA, since 1971. During that time he has taught ceramics, sculpture and drawing, served several terms as chair of the department, and received a Fullbright Visiting Artist Lecturship to England. His work has been shown in 29 competitive and 78 invitational exhibits, earning a number of awards. He has also taken part in the Potters for Peace Tours to Nicaragua three times. Some of his work is represented in Paul Donhauser’s History of American Ceramics. Doug and his wife Sue Deibner live in Mount Vernon, IA.

70s
David Blattenbauer ’70 (el ed) is a teacher, a trucker, and a farmer. He’s in his 29th year of teaching, and currently teaches sixth grade in Waubun. He’s farmed for 25 years, and is also involved in owner-operator trucking of straw, hay, grain and equipment. David and his wife Coleen have two children.
Jim Maxson ’70 (Eng/bus admin/mktg) a former North Dakota state senator, has been named a director and trustee of Integrity Mutual Funds and Ranson Managed Portfolios, which are sponsored by ND Holdings Inc., a mutual fund management company. He’s a partner in the Minot-based law firm of Farhart, Lian and Maxson.
Rheta Westad Prigge ’71 (el ed) writes "I attended Moorhead State from 1952-1954, when students actually knew each others names, and lived on the 4th floor Wheeler with a real SPECIAL group of gals. Married Bill Prigge in 1954. We have three sons…four daughters…Taught 1st grade 25 years in Henning, MN. Retired and moved to the Rio Grande Valley, Harlingen, TX. It’s a beautiful, affordable area. Hi! Donna L. ? Cheryl U. 2601 Louanne Lane, Harlingen, TX 78550, 956-425-2786."
Clint Van Camp ’71 (hlth/phy ed) is an instructor at American River College in Sacramento, CA, teaching courses in telecommunications and computer applications. He and his wife Reiko live in Davis.
Lee Cornell ’72 (Eng) ’86 (MS, com sci) is on a year-long sabbatical from his position as an associate professor of computer science at Minnesota State University, Mankato. His wife Jo, who attended MSU, continues to teach fourth grade at Kennedy Elementary.
Geryldean Brannan ’72 (el ed) ’80 (MS, rdg) taught in the Fargo Public Schools for 22 years. She and her husband Jerry Hasche retired to Las Vegas in June, 1994.
Marc Langseth ’73 (phy ed) ’91 (math) and his wife Mary live in Fargo with their three children. Mark is a math teacher and girls basketball coach at Oak Grover Lutheran School. He was the 1996, 1997 and 1998 Coach of the Year for District II girls basketball in ND.
Bruce Koepp ’74 (bio) is laboratory manager for Lawrence R. Thompson, M.D, where he specializes in anatomic pathology. He skis, runs, reads, writes, and takes part in summer football camps. He’s finishing his first fiction story and says "Any alum literary agents interested?" Bruce and his wife Georgi live in Sonoma, CA, with their two sons.
Larry Nordick ’73 (bus admin) is the coordinator and an assistant professor in MSU’s Paralegal Program. He was formerly executive director of Northwest Minnesota Legal Services (Moorhead), and managing attorney of Legal Assistance of North Dakota.
Jeff Tiedeman ’74 (mass comm) has worked for the Grand Forks Herald, a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper for the coverage of the flood of 1997, for 24 _ years. He’s food editor, copy editor, and a former sportswriter.
Gail Hohback ’74 (soc wk) works for the State of Michigan as a parole agent. She also teaches a youth group for an inner city ministry and writes "God is good to me!" Gail lives in Lowell, MI.
Elaine Spielman DeGroot ’75 (math) is still enjoying life in Moorhead. She’s hoping to play more golf this year than last, and is planning a trip through northern MN to see the sights and play tourist. "Life is good! Have great memories of being a member of the golf team ? we were small in numbers, had very little $ for the program but had a lot of fun!" Elaine is a health benefits advisor for the VA Medical Center and lives in Moorhead with her husband Michael.
Paul Stadem ’75 (bio) writes "Things are going well in EGF. The new dikes are being completed, our homes and businesses are being put back together, the new schools are now complete and open and Cabela’s is coming to town." Paul and his wife DeeDee live in East Grand Forks with their two children.

Rick Killion ’75 (mass comm) has launched a new magazine, Smart Business, which will reach approximately 30,000 readers a month in North Dakota, South Dakota, northern Minnesota and southern Manitoba. The magazine will cover business topics with a particular emphasis on news that owners and managers can apply to their individual business endeavors.
Paul Danielson ’77 (indus ed) has spent 21years at Honeywell in various technical and field management positions. His current duties include leading a project to develop and deploy field service automation tools to 1600 service technicians across North America. Paul and his wife Marilyn live in White Bear Lake with their two children.
Linda Russell ’77 (el ed) writes "After years of mothering/gardening and teaching Civil War history I’m back in the classroom again. My daughter and I are Civil War reenactors and we both eat soy beans. Go Red River Valley!" Linda lives in Edmonds, WA.
Jane Beare ’78 (mass comm) is an owner and vice president of Publication Services, Inc. (PSI) which publishes From House To Home, a bi-monthly home magazine that circulates in the Fargo-Moorhead area. She is also on the staff of Smart Business, a new magazine for owners and managers of individual businesses.
Toni Steenblock Guay ’78 (el ed) has taught elementary grades in the Hardin, MT, school system for 20 years. She’s currently teaching 6th grade social studies in the middle school. Toni and her husband Jerry have two children.
John Stoering ’79 (dist ed) and Anita Collins Stoering ’80 (mgmt) met while students living in the Human Relations coed dorm and were married in December, 1980. John works in insurance sales for Franklin Life Insurance Company, and Anita works for Banker Systems, Inc. They live in Sauk Rapids with their two children.
Oscar Swanson ’79 (ind illus) is co-owner and manager of Meadow Lanes West Bowling Center and Sports Bar. He and his wife Amy live in Manitowoc, WI, and have two children.

80s
Nancy Anderson Schmit ’80 (ind maj) lives with her husband Tyler and daughter in Lake Orion, MI. Nancy is the director of the Health and Counseling Center at Oakland University in Rochester, MI.
Mike Bruhn ’81 (bus admin) has been involved in the optical profession for the past 17 years, and has owned his own store, Bruhn Optical, in Park Rapids for the past ten years. He and his wife Julie have two children.
Barbara Licha Perkins ’81 (acctg) practices employment law for the VA in Albuquerque. She says "However, I still keep ties to Minnesota and my home state, North Dakota, and have a cabin in the Park Rapids area. My husband recently retired and enjoys spending lots of time with our young son, Alex."
Lyn Mogen Sebenaker ’81 (soc wk) moved to the Cities in 1993 and is currently director of social service admissions at the Texas Terrace Care Center, a nursing home in St. Louis Park. Her daughter April graduated from Jamestown College in 1997 and now resides in grand Forks. Lyn enjoys the arts, walking, the outdoors, pool and bowling.
Joan Hovren Snyder ’81 (phy ed) has taught in the North St. Paul, Maplewood, Oakdale School District for 10 years, and has just completed her master’s degree through Hamline University. She and her husband Randy live in Woodbury with their two children.
David Wrolstad ’81 (mgmt) has returned to Fargo with his wife Joan and two sons. David was the branch manager for Gate City Federal Savings Bank in Jamestown for 12years, and recently accepted the position of branch manager for Gate City Federal’s four Fargo branches and the Moorhead branch.
Marquita Martindale Hains ’82 (mktg/bus admin) has been named by Frandsen Financial Corporation as Director of Compliance and Training-Southern Region. She is responsible for overall training and compliance testing for nine banks in the southern region of Minnesota. She was also recently awarded the Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager designation by the Institute of Certified Bankers, a non-profit organization sponsored by the American Bankers Association. Marquita lives in Mankato with her husband Brad and two sons, Jay (10) and Josh (8).
Pamela Helling White ’82 (soc wk) was a social worker for the developmentally disabled for 13 _ years at Meeker County Social Services. In Sept., 1998, she was promoted to social services supervisor. She and her husband Paul live in Litchfield and have two children.
Mary Keller Torgerson ’82 (career ed) lives with her husband Joseph and three children in Philomath, OR. She’s a homemaker, very involved with the children’s school, and also teaches a religious education class through her church.
Lynn Harty Ketelsen ’82 (mass comm) and Scott Ketelsen ’82 (acctg) live in Falcon Heights with their two daughters. Scott is manager of consumer lending support at TCF Bank, and Lynn is the customer service manager at the John Roberts Co. They write "We are busy with work and activities with our children. We enjoy getting together in the Cities with the friends we made back at MSU! Has it really been 20 years?"
Merilee Sustad Potucek ’82 (fin) writes "I am now back to work full time, after having worked part time since we adopted our first child eight years ago. I started working at the Ada Elementary Grade School as their secretary in August of 1998 and love it! Mark is employed at Loretel Systems as their marketing manager. Our home and lives have fully recovered after the flood of ’97. Life is good!" Merilee and Mark now have two children.
Chuck Stober ’83 (bus admin) completed a graduate degree in Denver in 1989. Currently, he’s regional sales manager for UNUM/Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company, overseeing national and regional group insurance accounts in six Rocky Mountain states. He lives in the North Denver Metro area suburb of Broomfield, CO. When he’s not working he’s camping with his family, climbing mountains or cross-country skiing.
Linda Veiseth Boraas ’83 (phy ed) was laid off from her part-time DAPE position, but found a job as a job coach with Interstate Rehabilitation Center, working with disabled adults in Cannon Falls. She still coaches 9th grade volleyball and am an assistant girls basketball coach. Linda and her husband Dave live in Goodhue.
Kevin Stewart ’83 (poli sci/crim just) and his wife Kim have purchased a 1999 27’ camper and a conversion van so they can visit all the great places in the USA. He writes "I encourage all alumni to email their favorite places. Thanks in advance for the info. kstwart@gcentral.com." Kevin and his wife Kim live in Bismarck, where he is a health-safety director for the American Red Cross. They have two daughters.
Mark Connelly ’86 (soc st) is an RN in the emergency room and surgery at Sioux Valley Vermillion Campus. He enjoys playing city league basketball and softball, and kayaking in the summer. He and his wife Nikki have two daughters, Tracy (3) and Kelly (6 months). They reside in Vermillion, SD.
Gary Ulrich ’86 (phys) has been promoted to Navy Lt. Commander while serving with the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corp Unit, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. He earned a degree from the Bradley Academy for the Visual Arts in York, PA, in 1995.
Glenda Fonder Pistorius ’86 (soc wk/crim just) has been in the social work field as a hospital and nursing home social worker since 1986. She served on the Minnesota Board of Nursing Home Social Workers for three years. In 1997 she decided to take some time off to devote to her family. She and her husband David live in West Fargo with their three sons, and are expecting their fourth child in September.
Lawson Cline ’87 (indus tech) has been employed with Technical Services for Electronics for the past 9 _ years. They solve interconnection programs for a number of medical companies, and Lawson designs manufacturing processes as well as some products. He lives in Glencoe with his wife Mary and their four children.
Mary Johnston Kensok ’87 (is in her 12th year of teaching at the primary level and teaches kindergarten for Ventral Cass Schools in Casselton, ND. She’s taught summer youth art classes to over 200 children in the past four years and has started to do presentations on "Creative Art Experiences for Young Children" to groups of pre-school, early childhood and elementary educators and looks forward to redirecting her education career. She and her husband Jack have two children.
Nancy Lamb Grabowski ’87 (soc wk) works for Todd County Social Services, assisting people with mental retardation. She married Lyle Grabowski in April, 1997, and they had their first child, Seth, in October, 1998. They live in Little Falls, and Nancy says "Seth brings a lot of joy to our lives."
Suzanne Brague Wagner ’87 (mass comm) and her husband John celebrated the firth of their first child, Andrew Brague Wagner, on August 12, 1998. She says "Drew weighed in at 9 pounds 15 oz and was 21" long. He is growing healthy and strong and loves to help Mom work on designing web pages." Suzanne is a computer consultant, living with her family in Toledo, OH.
Dana Thompson ’87 (acctg) owns and operates a sound contracting company, Sound Environments, Inc., in Fargo.
Liz Severn ’88 (Eng) ’97 (MFA, Eng) has been elected to The Society for Values in Higher Education, a learned society founded in 1923 by Yale Professor Charles Foster Kent. The Society supports values inquiry through ongoing collaborative and interdisciplinary research into issues of values and ethics.
Carol Roise Spillum ’88 (off admin) ’93 (MBA) lives in Sioux Falls, SD. She is the assistant controller for Augustana College and her husband Mike Spillum ’88 (mktg) is the sales manager for HiRoller Conveyors. They have two children, Joy (6) and Wade (2).
Karla McCrory Gavin ’88 (German) moved to the position of Senior Women’s Administrator/Athletic Media Relations/Athletic Alumni Coordinator at Upper Iowa University in May. She’s coached softball and volleyball and taught in the HPER Department the past seven years and is looking forward to new challenges. Karla and her husband Ray live in Fayette, IA, with their daughter Megan.
Carolyn Ahmann Boutain ’88 (mus ind) is in charge of the Department of Cultural Activities for the Fargo Park District, with activities at Trollwood Park, Santa Village, the Robert D. Johnson Recreation Center, Rheault Farm and Light Up The Night. She and her husband David have a son.
Eugene Simon ’88 (mktg) wrote "I will be earning my MBA from Moorhead State spring semester." He is a lease asset manager for U.S. Bank, and lives in Fargo with his wife Sherri and two children.
Lisa Stocco Perala ’88 (el ed) has been teaching in the same district in Hibbing since she graduated in 1998. She writes "I really enjoy the young children, including my two children at home. It’s awesome to see them learn step by step in school!" Lisa and her husband Michael and children live in Virginia.
Alan Arneson ’88 (mgmt) and Lisa Boe Arneson ’90 (acctg) live in Badger. Alan graduated from Free Lutheran Seminary in Minneapolis in 1993 and now serves two Free Lutheran churches in Badger and rural Greenbush. Lisa and Alan were married in August, 1990, and have three healthy and wonderful sons, Brady (6), Kyle (4) and Aaron (2). Lisa is the "household manager," is involved in the church, and gives piano lessons to 14 students.
Nancy Schend Hambrecht ’88 (ind maj) and her husband Brock have been married for nine years and have two "great kids." She’s a case manager for DD for Southeast Human Services. They just built a new home and plan to stay in Fargo for years to come.
Mark Josephson ’89 (bio) attended the University of Minnesota Medical School on a United States Navy Health Professions Scholarship and graduated in 1996. He’s completing his residency training in family practice at Pensacola Naval Hospital in Florida, and will graduate in June, 1999. He and his wife Serena live in Pensacola.
Dawn Bentley ’89 (Eng) teaches junior and senior English and directs the drama and speech programs for the Clearbrook-Gonvick Schools. As a member of the local CAPP Committee she’s helped bring in numerous arts experiences to the students in her very isolated school.
Gail Landstrom Haberstroh ’89 (bus ed) married Brian Haberstroh in June of 1998. She’s been teaching algebra, probability and statistics, keyboarding and general business at Breckenridge High School for five years, and is also the head girls track coach and the cross country coach. She lives in Wahpeton.
Donna McMaster ’89 (anth) is leaving alumni life to drive the backroads of Minnesota in search of large fiberglass roadside animals. She wishes you well, especially those of you whose names and information she mangled in Alumnotes from time to time, and she will miss you all. You are a great bunch of folks. Dragons rule!

90s
Diane Muscha Jones ’90 (math) and her husband Scott and son Kyle moved to Hampton, VA, from Honolulu, HI, in July, 1998. Both work at headquarters Air Combat Command, Langley Air Force Base, VA. Diane, an Air Force Captain, is a manpower programmer and Scott, a civil service employee, is an environmental engineer.
Karen Wilharm Toivonen ’90 (math) and Greg Toivonen ’90 (el ed) are living in Alexandria. Karen is a registered representative with WMA Securities and Greg teaches third grade. They have a son, grant (2) and are expecting their second child in August.
Debbie Sandy Miele ’90 (MS, rdg) is a preschool teacher at East Stroudburg University’s Child Care Center. She’s also co-chair for Monroe County’s Association for the Education of Young Children’s Annual Conference. They try to educate the county’s child care providers with information on developmentally appropriate practices. She and her husband Joe have a son, Matthew.
John Looby ’90 (chem) lives in Rapid City, SD. He writes "Diplomate in internal medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Assistant professor for the University of South Dakota School of Medicine. My wife Jennifer and son (Nicholas John), however, are my pride and joy by far."
Heidi Anderson Driscoll ’90 (psych/math) lives in Abilene, TX, with her husband Michael and two children. She says "I am currently a stay at home mom who tutors and teaches chemistry on the side for home schooled children. Life is good."
Eric Johnson ’91 (bus admin) was selected as the 4th Space Surveillance Squadron’s Company Grade Officer of the Year for 1998. Last fall he played in the Military World Softball Championship in Lubbock TX, for Holloman AFB. This summer he’s being transferred to a HQ Air Force Space Command Assignment in Colorado Springs, CO. Captain Johnson and his wife Lisa are currently living in Alamagordo, NM.
Wendy Moser Van Batavia ’91 (spec ed) writes "My husband Brice and I moved back to the Alexandria area. We live and work in Parkers Prairie and enjoy small town life. Our two daughters, McKenzie (4) and Madison (2) keep us running! Hello to Neumaier-Holmquist RA’s and CA’s from Sept. ’88 through June ’91."
Bob Oiek ’91 (acctg) has been working in the Cities since graduation. He’s currently a CPA for Winthrop & Wernstine, PA, a law firm where he’s the accounting manager. He and his wife Wendy have a home in rural Woodbury with they share with their daughter, Isabelle.
Kerry Fricke Gregoryk ’91 (art) taught art in the Bismarck Public Schools for nearly 5 years and is now pursuing a master’s degree in information systems management. She works at valley City State University as the Faculty materials Center Coordinator and serves as adjunct faculty. She and her husband Garry have a daughter.
Trish Mattern Helgeson ’91 (mktg) and Christian Helgeson ’91 (soc st) have moved back to ND. Trish is an account executive with Odney Advertising Agency in Bismarck and Christian sells office machines for OMF. Previously, they lived in Glendive, MT, where Trish was marketing director for the medical center and Christian sold office projects. Their daughter Taylor is 20 months old.
Andrew Kunka ’91 (Eng) and Jennifer Kiethen Kunka were married three years ago. They are both pursuing Ph.D.s in English at Purdue University, and they both teach in Purdue’s English Department. They live in Lafayette, IN.
Kurt Jaeger ’92 (el ed) is currently the athletic director and a middle school teacher in a K-8 Catholic school in Anoka, where he has been employed for six years. He lives in Osseo.
Dina Geiszler ’92 (psych) is a job search instructor for the Minnesota Workforce Center-Rural MN CEP. She says "Helping people plan to reach their goals and dreams has been wonderful. I lead groups on how to interview, write resumes, balance work and family and goal setting, to name a few. We work with people ages 14 to 65, from those who have never worked to former executives. Every day is new, fun and challenging." Dina lives in Moorhead.
Luanne Erickson ’92 (crim just) began working as a deputy sheriff for the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Department in Mankato after graduation. She owns a home along the Minnesota River just outside of Mankato and says "Still single with no children."
Nicole Otto ’92 (poli sci) writes "I've been working as a lobbyist for nursing homes and senior housing for the past 4 _ years, and in the off-season I follow my true passion traveling. I’ve returned to England a couple of times to see friends I made at Portsmouth when I was on exchange in 1990-1991. I traveled through Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia with my sister in 1997. Last November I took the trip of my life to Singapore and Malaysia, traveling by myself for the first time. The last seven years since graduation have been great!" Nicole lives in St. Paul when she’s not on the road.
Amy Ann Peterson Pearson ’92 (psych) and her husband Timothy have been living in Iowa for almost 3 _ years and, she says, "Much to my surprise really enjoying life sough of the Minnesota border! The joys of our lives (other than family and friends are our 4 lb. Yorkshire Terrier and traveling. Last year we traveled to Scandinavia, which brought back many great Eurospring memories." The Pearsons live in Grimes, IA.
Elizabeth LaVenuta ’92 (poli sci/phil) resides in Webberville, MI, a suburb of Lansing, and has started her own law practice in Okemos, MI. She passed the Feb. 1998 Bar Exam in Michigan and her practice consists mainly of criminal law, domestic relations and civil rights.
Mitchell Brunfelt ’92 (poli sci/crim just) has accepted a position as an associate attorney with the law firm of Colosimo, Patchin, Aronson & Kearney, Ltd., in Virginia, MN. He will be practicing in the areas of civil litigation, personal injury and labor and employment law.
Timothy Nokken ’92 (poli sci) has completed his Ph.D. in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has accepted a tenure-track faculty position in the Department of Political Science at the University of Houston in Texas.
Jennifer Johnson Kusilek ’92 (mass comm) and her husband Shannon have moved south to Missouri, a warmer state. She says "I am very thankful to be an at-home mother of two little boys. I do day care full time and teach a grief recovery class." She lives with her family in St. Joseph, MO.
Renae Buckhouse Hermen ’94 9mass comm) has been promoted to media director for Wendt Advertising and Public Relations in Great Falls, MT. She and her husband Trent have a daughter, Rebecca.
Paul Fitterer ’94 (fin) was recognized by the North Dakota Society of CPAs for receiving one of the three highest scores for North Dakota candidates on the November, 1998 Certified Public Accountant exam. Paul works for North Central Data Cooperative in Mandan as a software specialist.
Tom Mooney ’94 (anth) graduated from the M.A. program in Museum Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and is now working full-time as a Library/Archives technician in the University’s Archives. He is engaged to be married to Laura Barss in Newport, OR, on August 7th, 1999.
Kimberly Pulczinski ’95 (mass comm) was a field representative in Phoenix for GMR Marketing, but has been transferred to the corporate office in Milwaukee, WI, where she is field manager for 18 cities across the United States. GMR is the largest event marketing company in the U.S., and has many high profile clients including Phillip Morris, Sony Play Station, Proctor and Gamble in addition to the PGA, NFL and NBA.
Jason Schumann ’95 (mass comm) and Kim Schumann ’95 (psych) ’97 (MS, couns) live in St. Paul. Jason has recently accepted the position of senior account executive with the Minneapolis-based advertising and public relations agency Colle & McVoy. He will serve in the consumer public relations team working on a variety of account work for the agency's largest client, Pfizer Animal Health. His responsibilities will include strategic planning, national media relations, spokesperson management, special events marketing and community relations.
Amy Young ’95 (mass comm) has been named Director of Communications for the Pine to Prairie Council of the Girl Scouts. Pine to Prairie Council serves 33 counties in northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota. Amy will promote Girl Scouts, revitalize the council publications and create awareness of the organization and its mission to all audiences.
Rory Erchul ’95 (mktg) started working for Post-Newsweek Cable in Fargo as a senior at MSU, and worked up to his current position as marketing manager in Norfolk, NE. The company changed its name to Cable One in 1997. He says "Really enjoy it and look forward to continuing my education in the communications industry." Rory and his wife Jennifer live in Norfolk, NE.
Stephanie Gillman ’96 (el ed) is teaching at Holy Trinity School, a private Catholic high school just 20 minutes away from her hometown. She directs the one-act and spring plays, and also coaches the speech team. She adds, "During the Superbowl game, I and four other MSU alums were chatting and we all realized that we had lived in Neumaier. We are very sad to see it go. It holds many memories."
Vicki Meyer ’96 (lib arts) is a nanny in the Twin Cities area. She enjoys NASCAR racing, reading and movies. She says "I enjoyed my time at MSU and all the great friends I made."
Ben Lacina ’97 (mus) teaches general music at Highwood Hills Elementary School in St. Paul, a school of about 550 kids. He also founded PUSH Magazine, a creative journal highlighting the arts and music scenes in MN, ND and MT. PUSH has been recognized locally and internationally, and can be reached by e-mail at pushinfo@pushpublications.com.
Paula Hiles Bjerk ’97 (psych) wrote "I often wondered ? why do I have to take this class? Although the reason was not obvious initially, as I moved into the work force I realized how often I was tapping into information gained from my classes and experiences at MSU." Paula and her husband Gregg have three children and live in Morris.
Tim Epema ’97 (el ed) teaches all levels at MACCRAY (Maynard-Clara City-Raymond). He says that along with full-time subbing, he coaches JV baseball and 8th grade football and basketball. Tim lives in Clara City.

’32 Evelyn Nylander Ohman, Detroit Lakes, March, 1999. After graduation she taught in various country schools. After her marriage in 1941 she lived in the Hawley and Audubon area, the Iron Range, and in Monticello. After retirement she and her husband moved to Leaf Lake near Audubon.

’36 Annabelle Kreps Johnson, Harwood, ND, April, 1999. She was a teacher in the Moorhead and Hawley schools until her marriage in 1940, when she and her husband moved to a farm near Harwood. She was involved with the Prosper Homemakers, Prosper Pixies, 4-H Club, WCTU, the garden Club, the Red River Valley fair, and the Maple Sheyenne Lutheran Church.

’36 Milo Monson, Havre, MT, December, 1998. He graduated with degrees in math, geology and science in 1936. A year later he joined the U.S. Weather Service bureau in Williston, ND, where he married AnaBellel Pepple in 1938. Most of his years were spent with the Bureau in Havre, where he retired in 1973.

’40 Elaine Korbel Lantz, Barnesville, April, 1999. After teaching for two years near Breckenridge she moved to Redwood City, CA. She married there in 1943, and worked in a defense plant while her husband serviced with the U.S. Army in Europe. After the war they returned to the Barnesville area, where she worked as a teacher’s aid until she retired.

’40 Adele Adams Ruliffson Ottinger, Moorhead, Feb., 1999. She taught in several North Dakota schools until she married, She later received a master’s degree in art education from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and taught art in the Fargo schools. She moved to Moorhead in 1987.

’41 Margaret Sletto Sadlowski, Le Sueur, April, 1999. She taught for many years in the Brandon area. After her marriage in 1953 she lived in Mooreton, ND, and taught there after her husband’s death. She moved to Le Sueur in 1985.

’42 Ruth Miller Evert, Sabin, April, 1999. She taught in Arthur, ND, and Barnesville until her marriage in 1944, when she moved to Sabin.

’42 Helen Paavola Lepisto, New York Mills, April, 1999. She taught in a rural school before teaching in Wadena until 1947, when she married. She and her husband operated Lepisto Apparel in New York Mills. She began teaching again in 1962, earned her bachelor’s degree in 1967, and retired in 1984.

’47 Donald Morgan, Fargo, Jan., 1999. A graduate of the Campus School, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at MSU. He taught in the Fargo Public Schools for 30 years.

40s Glenn Flint, Alexandria, Feb., 1999. Glenn attended Moorhead  State, leaving to work at WDAY as their news director. When WDAY added television in 1953, he became the station’s first news anchor. Two years later he became an administrative assistant to North Dakota Senator Milton Young. He returned to broadcasting in 1958 as general manager and vice president of KCMT-TV in Alexandria. He also served as a Norwest  Bank board member from 1995 to 1997, and was past president of the Minnesota Broadcasters Association and the Northwest Radio-TV News Association.

’51 Shirley Thyse Cornell, Fargo, May, 1999. She married in 1952 and lived in various locations until 1969, when she moved to Fargo. She taught school in Herman and Barnesville, and then in the Fargo schools until she retired in 1990. Since then she had wintered in Tucson, AZ.

’53 Armella Nagl Williamson, Watford City, ND, June, 1999. Armella taught in Montevideo and Minnetonka, in Geraldine, Montana, and in North Dakota in West Fargo, Alexander and Watford City.

’61 Lee Bardenas, Apple Valley, Nov., 1998. After graduation he earned a master’s degree in education, guidance and counseling from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, MI. He taught in Bemidji from 1962 to 1992, when he began teaching in Minneapolis.

’62 Dennis Wright, Perham, Feb., 1999. He taught in Minnesota and North Dakota schools until he retired in 1982. He moved to Perham in 1991.

’65 Jean Swenson, Fargo, March, 1999. After graduation she moved to White Bear Lake, where she taught until 1981, when she retired to Fargo.

’66 Mary Dolence, Audubon, March, 1999. After her marriage, she and her husband lived in Fargo and she attended MSU. She taught English in Mapleton, ND until they moved to Audubon in 1975, where she worked as a substitute teacher until retiring in 1980.

’67 Elaine Hulteen Welch, Enderlin, Feb., 1999. She married in 1968 and worked for Northwestern bell Telephone Company and later as a bookkeeper for WDAY. She and her husband moved to Enderlin in 1988, where she worked for the post office in Valley City, ND.

’69 Dorothy Neuman, Breckenridge, Feb., 1999. She was a teacher for the Campbell-Tintah Schools for years, and later operated a daycare center in her home.

’69 Geraldl Kuehl, Moorhead, March, 1999. After graduation he taught in Maplelton, ND, for four years. Since 1973 he had worked full time at the North Dakota air National guard. He served as township supervisor for Oakport township, coached soccer and Babe Ruth baseball, and was active in his church and the American Legion.

’74 LaLonna Pueringer Duffy, Red Lake Falls, Jan., 1999. She worked as a certified public accountant for Wiedmer and Roel in Fargo, until she moved to San Francisco and earned a master’s degree from Golden Gate University. She was a chief financial officer for Pacific Molasses there.

’75 Marlene Tilton Olson, Moorhead, Feb., 1999. Marlene taught special education at Parkers Prairie, Audubon and Moorhead, before spending the last nine years teaching second grade at George Washington Elementary School in Moorhead. She married Roger Olson, ’76, in 1978. Marlene left three children, Erin, Brent and Lynn. Her funeral was held Feb. 28 at her beloved George Washington School, with more than 1000 in attendance.

’79 Patricia Gulsvig, Peoria, AZ, Feb., 1999. She was an attorney and had a practice in North Dakota before moving to Arizona in 1987.

’85 Bruce Kolding, Moorhead, Feb., 1999. Kolding started the advocacy agency Gentle Inc. He ran for the City Council in 1991 and had served on the Citizen’s Advisory Committee. Recently he was honored by Moorhead’s Human Rights Commission for his advocacy work, which included his winning fight to force the city to improve wheelchair access.

Audrey Smerud, Moorhead, Feb., 1999. Audrey was a friend of Moorhead State, who was active for many years with the MSU Regional Science Center. She had served as a member of the Advisory Board, edited the Prairie Smoke newsletter, and through her work with Scouting sent many volunteers to the Center.