She was 19, pregnant, unmarried and working in a downtown St. Paul popcorn stand.

A sad, but stereotypical set of circumstances for a young Native American woman. As her doctor then bluntly asked: "What is it about you girls that you all get pregnant and nobody has a husband?"

But six weeks after giving birth to her daughter Amy at Ramsey County Hospital in St. Paul, Valerie Fox was taking classes full time at Minnesota State University Moorhead and waitressing at the TJ's Truck Stop in Glyndon.

"I was raised in a very impoverished family, but my parents and my church always stressed education," said Fox, who grew up both in Moorhead and on the White Earth Band reservation near Mahnomen.

An honor graduate of Mahnomen High School, Fox applied to Harvard University's tony Radcliffe Instutute first, but ended up a freshman at the just-as-reputable Carlton College. She dropped out only after learning she was pregnant.

So with a high school diploma, a newborn child, a year's experience selling popcorn and lowered expectations, she came to MSUM with the notion of becoming an accountant.

"Moorhead seemed like a safe, comfortable place to come back to," she said.

But  when she couldn't find an open accounting class one quarter, she took chemistry as a lark. It changed her life.

Last year, Dr. Valerie Fox completed her residency, ironically at Ramsey County Hospital (today called Regions Hospital), and is now the first American Indian doctor to work at the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe clinics in Onamia and Hinckley, Minn. She's employed by Mille Lacs Health System and is contracted to serve as a family practitioner and medical director three days a week at the band's Ne-Ia-Shing and Aazhoomog clinics.

"I believe in the mystical power of fate," says the 32-year-old Fox, who now lives on the south shore of Mille Lacs Lake with her husband Barry and their two children. "I'm supposed to be here, both to learn and give back."

After being accepted at the Mayo Medical School in Rochester after graduation from MSUM in 1991?one of 40 students selected from a field of over 1,600 applicants worldwide?she pledged to use her medical career to help Native Americans.

She kept her promise. Today, about 70 percent of her patients are Native Americans. "I'm more comfortable with Native people and they're more comfortable with me," she said. "I understand their worldview. It's where I belong."

Her goal: to eventually practice medicine at her own White Earth Reservation.

According to the 1990 Census data, American Indians are the most under-represented minority among physicians, with only 48 doctors per 100,000 people. The U.S. average is 236 doctors per 100,000 people.

And of the about 300 Native American doctors practicing in the United States, fewer than 80 work in the Indian health system.

So the odds of Fox becoming a doctor were a long-shot at best. And that's factoring in her status as a single mom and waitress.

But Fox fed on the encouragement she got from her advisor, Nick Kowanko, and other chemistry department faculty.

"Given her circumstances, she had a million excuses she could have used as a student," said Kowanko, who's now retired in Florida. "But she never did."

Another motivating attachment was the university's Native American Club, which she co-founded as a junior and became president of her senior year.

"At the time there were about 80 Native Americans on campus, but we didn't know each other because we were in different fields," Fox said. "With  (multicultural affairs director) Gus Claymore's help, we got the club together and that really helped us all feel part of the campus community."

She didn't get that support in medical school. "It was definitely an eye-opener," she said. "I was pretty much mortified when I arrived at Mayo, particularly by the caliber of students. I failed my first two biochemistry tests there, despite using the same book we did at Moorhead State. The bar got raised a whole bunch."

The competition, she said, was draining and steadily accelerating. "But I managed to work my butt off and passed everything."

By the second year, her interest wained. "I told my advisor, and he suggested I stick it through that second year so that I could take the first part of the Medical Boards," she said. "Every year in the history of Mayo, at least one person per class failed the first Boards. I was sure that was going to be me."

But everyone passed, a first for Mayo.

Her attitude, however, didn't change. In fact, it took a turn for the worse on that Saturday morning of her first autopsy.

"I've worked with dead bodies before in gross anatomy, but I wasn't ready for this one," she said. "I came in late, and the pathologist had already removed the scalp from the body. When he opened the cadaver's eyes--jaundiced from years of drug and alcohol abuse--I knew immediately it was a Native American."

Then she spotted the tattoo on his left arm, inscribed, ironically, with part of her name. (Were leaving out the exact wording of the tattoo to protect the identity of the deceased.)

"I had a hard time with that, and I actually left the autopsy. It just seemed to sum up so much of the hopelessness I've seen. Because the odds are stacked against Native Americans, many don't have a chance."

The melt-down came her third year. "I was beginning my clinical clerkship and the pressure was increasing. So I made the worst decision of my life: I let my five-year-old daughter Amy go live with her dad in St. Paul. It just magnified the stress and I started calling my parents every day crying."

In October of 1993, she bailed out, just 18 months shy of getting her medical degree.

Moving back to Fargo with her daughter, she took a job at a social service agency. "I wasn't good at it," she admits. "In fact, my employer told me to go back to medical school."

But the break did her good. "It gave me some perspective," she said. "I was so anal all my life, worried about grades and what people thought. Mayo wasn't a healthy atmosphere for me."

That's when she met her husband, Barry, a non-native who served as the fire-tender at her uncle's four-day traditional Ojibwe funeral. He was her uncle's best friend.

It was Barry, a construction worker and now stay-at-home dad, who convinced Fox to finish medical school.

After they married, she finished her degree at the University of North Dakota's Fargo Medical School and started her residency at Ramsey County Hospital.

The diversity of doctors and patients in St. Paul suited her. "I have a theory that a lot of doctors pick medicine because of low self esteem issues masked by a sense of helping others We feel better about ourselves because of the doctor-patient relationship. Throughout my medical education, I was convinced that I'm not like these people. But I discovered along the way that most medical students share these same self-doubts."

But those doubts magnified when she became a bona fide physician for the Mille Lacs Health Systems. "I didn't sleep at all my first week there," she said. "I was terrified that I'd make a mistake, forget something important. The responsibility seemed so overwhelming."

"It was a very uneasy time," she said. "Racism is unfortunately still widespread, especially in communities like Mille Lacs and White Earth where you have natives and non-natives living in close proximity with questionable treaty issues and land boundaries. It's not one-way racism. It's a two-way street. And I have no idea how to solve the problem. Fortunately the people I work with at Mille Lacs Health System are spectacular."

But even some of her Native American patients are cool to her. Part of that, she said, reflects the way they've been treated by doctors in the past. Many young physicians end up in Indian Health Service two to four years as a payback for medical school scholarships. Once they're finished with the payback, they move on.

"There's no continuity," she said. "I grew up on the reservation. Every time I made an appointment with a doctor, I'd see a new face."

The  community-owned Mille Lacs Health System, located in the center of Onamia (pop. 691) about five miles south of Mille Lacs Lake's Wigwam Bay, is a modern, homey facility. It includes a hospital, clinic and nursing home.

Because Mille Lacs Health System is located in Minnesota's ice fishing and tourism capitol, Fox also sees her share of imbedded fish hooks, cuts, drownings and morbidity from accidents.

"Other than the typical medical problems," Fox said, "I see a lot of diabetes, teen pregnancies and Hepatitis C from IV drug use here. Diabetes, especially, is becoming epidemic among the Native American population. Part of it may be genetic. According to what some scientists call the Thrifty Gene Theory, natives don't metabolize carbohydrates or sugars well because they evolved as hunters and gatherers, which required them to conserve energy. Natives apparently acquire diabetes as a result of a lifetime habit of eating a high calorie modern diet."
 

Being a physician at Mille Lacs offers her the added satisfaction of  bringing her closer to her own heritage. At one of the reservation clinics, she works closely with traditional native healer. "He's a herbalist, and I consult him periodically when a diagnosis confuses me. Hey, there's a lot to be said for native medicine. It works."

In fact, she smudges (burns sage of sweet grass) at home, a practice meant to drive away evil spirits. "There's something missing in my life," she said. "I need the sort of clarification and spirituality that comes from traditional Native American mystical thinking."

She also wants to begin a relationship with a respected local medicine woman, a spiritual healer. "I truly believe I was sent here to learn some lessons, to get through them, and then teach others."

It's the satisfaction of completing the circle.

 "Not long ago I helped a surgeon resuscitate a newborn after a C-section and a few minutes later responded to a Code Blue in the emergency room where I resuscitated an 85-year-old man," she said. That's what I call completing a full circle. It was nearly overwhelming. That's the kind of satisfaction I want to find in my own heritage."

Oddly enough, her grandmother, who died when Fox was just three years old, was a medicine woman.

At a time when out-state Alaska faces a critical teacher shortage…
Teaching in remote Eskimo village
Suites this MSUM alum just fine

Moorhead, MN…Victor Machart lives in a remote Eskimo village surrounded by teeming wildlife, majestic mountains and eternal stretches of tundra.

The Detroit Lakes native doesn't have the patience to fish, nor the aim to hunt. But he does like to wander about the countryside.

"All I have to do is walk 20 feet from the village to see the world as it was 10,000 years ago and will be 10,000 years from now," he said. "I like that."

Machart is a bush teacher, a speech pathologist for the Lower Yukon School District, headquartered in Mountain Village, Alaska. Its 1,000 students--95 percent of them Yupik Eskimos--are spread across 22,000 square miles in 11 individual schools.

At the age of 58, Machart is a newcomer to Alaska. He moved there three years ago after 20 years as a speech pathologist in central North Dakota. He's both a 1967 (history and social studies) and a 1973 (speech and language pathology) graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Despite the remoteness, Machart says he's comfortable on the tundra. "It's a beautiful, quiet place. Like living in one vast national park."

But it's not for every one. That lifestyle, combined with falling salaries, may be contributing to out-state Alaska's critical teacher shortage.

A decade ago, enterprising teachers were willing to overlook the cold, the dark and the isolation because the average classroom salary in Alaska was the highest in the nation. Last year, after adjusting for the cost of living, it slipped to 20th, according to the American Federation of Teachers.

On top of that, a nationwide teacher shortage and rising salaries in the continental United States have made it tougher for Alaska's rural schools to attract and keep educators.

Openings for speech pathologists, along with special education and math teachers, are especially hard to fill.

Fortunately for Alaska's rural children, Machart isn't going anywhere.

Once a summer fishing camp, Mountain Village sits in a depression among the hills along the north bank of the Yukon River, 500 miles straight west of Anchorage.

Machart said most of the 670 people who live here make their living hunting and fishing, supplementing their income with other jobs. Although more than 90 residents of the village still hold commercial fishing permits, the local salmon saltery and cannery were lost to modernization years ago.

Since 1976, Mountain Village has been the regional education center for the school district. Probably because it's the most centrally located village in the district. It's also the only town in the Lower Yukon connected to two other villages by a road system--a bumpy, 27-mile, rock and gravel one-laner to neighboring St. Mary's and Pitka's Point.

"Out here, you have to entertain yourself," Machart said. "You learn to appreciate small mom and pop stores where just finding the right sized shoelace or some cottage cheese or, wonder of wonders, fresh tangerines at a dollar each, is a big thrill."

Mountain Village has three churches, one medical clinic, three small general stores and no bars. "The village is 'dry,' as are all of the villages in the school district," he said. "This is the choice of the local people who wish to control alcoholism and other addictions that are problems in all rapidly changing societies."

Machart lives in a three-bedroom duplex with electricity, running water and all the modern conveniences. But if a housing shortage occurs, he'll have to share the apartment with other single teachers. And like most houses in the village, the rooms are small and the ceilings low to preserve fuel.

As one of two speech pathologist in the Lower Yukon School District, Machart is responsible for students in six of the 11 schools. And seeing that he's "on the road" 50 percent of his time, he starts each day by walking to his office at district headquarters and logging on to wunderground.com to check the local weather forecast. "The best laid plans out here are often postponed or cancelled due to the weather--fog or wind or heavy snow, either here or out on the coasts."

Then, depending on that day's schedule, he'll call Hageland Aviation in nearby St. Mary's to confirm his flight out that morning. Before leaving, he'll have to chase someone down to drive him and his equipment?testing and therapy materials?to the local air strip.

This day he's scheduled to leave for the village of Kotlink at 9:40 a.m. in a Cessna 207. He'll arrive at 10:30 or 11:30 a.m., depending on the pilot's route. Once there, he'll first consult with the special education teacher Irene Trockstad on the caseload and work with or observe one of his students in the classroom.

After lunching with the students in the school gym, he'll spend the afternoon working with, testing or observing students. After school he'll consult with classroom teachers on programs or testing. Sometimes he'll meet with parents or individually with students.

"Overall I have to make do with being a consultant, evaluator and trainer because of the time and logistics of covering six schools," he said. "That leaves most of the therapy to the special education teacher and her aides."

That night he'll sleep at the schoolhouse, cooking supper in the school kitchen.  In other villages, he might stay with another teacher.

"I spend the evening reading or watching videos. It can be very relaxing," he said. "Then around 10 p.m. I put my sleeping bag down on a rollaway in one of the classrooms and go to bed."

The next morning he works on papers until about 8 a.m., returning to the classroom to consult with teachers again. At 9 a.m. he'll stop by the Head Start program to work with or observe children, then back to school for therapy, observation or testing.

At about 2 p.m., it's time to leave. One of the school's maintenance men picks him up on a snowmobile and drives him to the airstrip. "I hope the plane is on time," he said, "because there isn't a terminal there. I dress warmly."

He arrives back at Mountain Village at about 3:30 p.m. and works on reports and projects before going home.

Machart says Eskimo students aren't much different than their counterparts in the Lower 48 states. "There are no speech and language problems typical only to Eskimos. However, there are big cultural and language differences between rural Alaskan Native students and those in Anchorage and the Lower 48."

Their life experiences are very different out here, he said, and those life experiences determine the vocabulary they use. "Their 'Village English' is much different than the academic English used in their textbooks and by their teachers."

That's why it's important, he said to distinguish between children who are language disordered and those who are language different. "When testing students for language disorder, we rely a lot on informal testing, classroom observations and parent and teacher information more so than standardized tests."

Despite the dry laws, Machart said, students throughout Alaska suffer a high rate of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which arrests their ability to learn. "Part of the reason, I suspect, is because society out here is changing so fast. It's not specifically a Native problem. History shows that the same thing happened in Caucasian Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution. It's repeated over and over again throughout history."

Another problem: a high rate of inner ear infections, which also can play havoc with learning. "Going in and out of warm houses in freezing weather contributes to the problem," he said. "So does poverty and poor nutrition."

Poverty and social change also contribute to the high 30 percent dropout rate of Native students between grades nine and 12.

"But students do succeed out here," he said. "Some go on to college here and in the Lower 48. Others go on to community colleges and trade schools. And may join the military and do well there."

Yet confrontation with the dominant high tech society often has these students feeling like failures, he said.  "I suspect many would like to go back to the simpler more personally fulfilling days when people could make a good living hunting and fishing, a time before the white man with all his technology and rules and rights came out here to try to run things."

Circumstances more that fate drew him to Alaska. Machart graduated from MSUM his first time in 1967 and taught one year in McIntosh, Minn., before being drafted into the Army and serving a year in Vietnam as a clerk. "I liked the kids, but I was a poor classroom manager," he said. "I knew classroom teaching wasn’t for me."

After the Army, Machart returned to Detroit Lakes where he pumped gas at a local truck stop. That's when his sister told him about increasing job opportunities for speech and language pathologists.

He used his G.I. Bill to return to MSUM for a speech pathology degree, graduating in 1973. He then moved to central North Dakota, first working for McLean County and then for Souris Valley Special Services, a career that lasted 20 years.

A little burned out on the routine, he moved to the Twin Cities in 1993, but quickly became disenchanted with nursing homes, insurance companies and working for for-profit rehabilitation companies. "I learned some valuable lessons, and I'm not sorry I worked in those nursing homes. I saw a lot of people who wouldn't and didn't give up on life. But working in the schools, you see life's beginnings, with all its hopes for the future. It's certainly more fun."

So when he spotted a job opening in Alaska, he jumped at it.  "I was ready for a move and I've always been intrigued about faraway places."

Now six years from retirement, Machart expects he'll stay in Alaska. "I like the remoteness here, but Mountain Village is on tribal land and to live here you must be a tribal member or be employed in the village. And once I retire I'd like to visit my sister and brothers, who live in Minnesota and Montana. It would be a lot easier flying to the Lower 48 from Anchorage, where living expenses are also more compatible with someone on a fixed income. We'll see."

When he's not teaching, Machart, reads, writes or walks along the river or on the tundra. He likes watching Native dances and going to "fiddlings," the local version of country western dances. A  group of teachers also gets together every year or so to watch the Iditarod Dog Sled Races in  Nome, about 150 miles north of Mountain Village.

"Nome is a picturesque town loaded with colorful characters," he said. "If you ever go there, be sure to stop at the Gluepot Café."

Alaska's weather doesn't faze him. "Winter comes about two weeks earlier and lingers about two weeks longer in Mountain Village than it does in Fargo," he said. "While we get storms, in the three and a half years I've been here, I've yet to see a major blizzard. Generally you guys get two or three a season."

Ultimately, Machart is a man comfortable with empty spaces, a trait that may be invaluable to a bush teacher. "I know that if I stand looking straight toward a distant point off in any direction from the village," he said,  "that there is a good chance that there's not another person in my line of vision for a thousand miles. I like that."

She's been called "deliciously cool," "elegant and beguiling" and "the single character who really touches us" by the captious critics who stalk New York City's theatre district.

Not a bad set of handles for a West Fargo girl who acquired her passion for theater at Minnesota State University Moorhead.

So why does Jan Maxwell look so inconspicuous in that full-page Sunday New York Times advertisement hyping Neil Simon's latest Broadway hit, "The Dinner Party"?

Maybe it's because she's pictured alongside Henry (The Fonz of "Happy Days") Winkler and John ("Three's Company) Ritter, the two "celeb" actors in the six-character play.

Maxwell isn't exactly an unknown herself. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress Awards by The Outer Critics Circle for her Broadway performances in "A Doll's House" and "The Sound of Music."

No wonder Newsday, the fifth largest metropolitan newspaper in the country, called this cast?which also includes the familiar faces of Len Cariou, Penny Fuller and Veanne Cox?"The most delightfully offbeat American ensemble in recent Broadway memory."

For sitcom stars Winkler and Ritter, "The Dinner Party" is their Broadway debut. For Maxwell, it's her fifth role on Broadway

While opening to mixed reviews in October, "The Dinner Party" is breaking some records on Broadway this season. It's the first to recoup its initial investment and set a record in weekly ticket sales for the 1,000-seat Music Box Theatre. (Tickets sell for $80 apiece.)

"It's a fun romp," says Maxwell. "People who come to see the show love it. Word of mouth seems to be overriding the lack of critical praise."

The intermissionless, 95-minute comedy is the 31st for Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Simon. Set in a swank Parisian restaurant, the plot surrounds the fractious and comic interplay among three ex-couples who've been mysteriously invited to dinner by the lawyer who handled their divorces.

Chock-full of Simon's trademark comic one-liners, "The Dinner Party" has been called the 71-year-old playwright's darkest and most introspective dissection of his pet themes: marriage and relationships.

While the show may be one of Maxwell's most visible roles to date, it's just another job in an intensely competitive career she began in 1979 after leaving MSUM for New York City.

 "I just keep plugging along," she said.

Now 44, Maxwell and her husband Rob,48, also an actor, live in Manhattan Plaza, located on West 43rd Street. It's designed for principle occupancy by performing artists. Their five-year-old son, Will, attends a pre-school in the same building.

For "The Dinner Party," the curtain rises on eight shows a week?Tuesdays through Sunday with matinees on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday

It's a rigorous schedule for Maxwell.

"I think the hardest part for me is not being able to read Will a story every night and put him to bed," she said. "But he comes to the theatre with me on matinee days and loves it because everyone fawns all over him."

The Broadway show, however, isn't her only gig. During the day, she juggles a full schedule of voice-overs and some on-camera appearances for radio and television commercials ranging from Maybelline cosmetics to Campbell soups. "I've done hundreds of them during the past seven years, including lots of promos for Lifetime Television. Last week I did a commercial for Kitchen Aide where I'm the voice of the cake."

She's also been the reader for about 15 books-on-tape, including a couple Mary Higgins Clark mysteries ("Before I Say Good-bye" and "We'll Meet Again" for Simon & Schuster Audio).

On top of that, she and her husband direct a company called The Barker Project, dedicated to exploring the works of British playwright Howard Barker.

When she's not riding her bike or the subway to voice-overs and auditions during the day, Maxwell spends as much time as possible with her son before the show.

At 6:30 p.m., after eating an early dinner with family, she walks to The Music Box Theatre, only a couple blocks from her home, to prep for the performance.

"The show comes down relatively early, at 9:45 p.m., and either I'm home at 10 p.m. or if someone I know comes to the play, we'll go out for a drink," she said. "A lot of people from MSU and the Fargo-Moorhead area have come to see the play and it's great to catch up."

Maxwell auditioned for her part in "The Dinner Party" last summer between performances at the Birkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, Mass., with Richard ("The Thornbirds") Chamberlain.

"I drove three hours to New York and read through the scenes with my dad while my mom coordinated an outfit for me to wear," she said. "I did the audition, had lunch with my parents and drove back to Stockbridge. On my way out of town, I had a message from my agent, who told me I had the job."

Her father, Ralph, is a retired federal court judge; her mother was a lawyer for the Environmental Protection Agency. The former West Fargo residents still spend their summers near Perham.

Maxwell, a veteran of some 30-plus shows at MSUM, started her career in New York with a string rejections and a bad dose of culture shock. "It wasn't easy," she said. "Even worse, I was a terrible waitress. I kept getting fired. So I took a variety of other odd jobs and worked children's and regional theatre."

Her break came in 1989. "I was very broke and really depressed at the time and told Rob that if I didn't find a decent job in theatre within six months, I'd quit."

Later that week she opened a fortune cookie at a Chinese restaurant that read: "When winter comes, heaven will rain success upon you."

"On my calendar, I wrote 'Here we go!' on the square for Dec. 21--the first day of winter," she said. "That's the day I got a call for my first Broadway show."

It was for the understudy in "City of Angels." She eventually ended up with the lead role and has since been in five Broadway and six Off-Broadway shows."

She's also appeared in a couple episodes of NBC television's "Law and Order" (so has her husband) and last year had roles in a few independent films.

As for working with Winkler and Ritter: "They are nice, hard working actors and the only time it hits me that they're famous is when I'm walking down the street with one of them and we can't get more than 20 feet without someone stopping them. Amazingly, they're always very gracious about it."

She says both sitcom stars are thrilled to be on Broadway. "We usually have dinner together between shows on Wednesdays. They give me great parenting advice and we do what most parents do--talk ad nauseum about our kids."

Maxwell's contract with "The Dinner Party" ends July 1st and she doesn't expect to renew.

With both Winkler and Ritter leaving the show in May, she said, the play will probably need some big names to keep running.

Maxwell's already auditioning for a couple other new Broadway plays.

"The good and bad part about a show is that, whether you want it to or not, it ends--and you move on."

Registered under the trademark BioGlue, it's potentially the strongest and safest medical adhesive ever developed.

Revenue for BioGlue last year increased 287 percent to $6.4 million, up from $1.7 million in 1999. It accounted for 8 percent of CryoLife's total revenues last year.

BioGlue is currently approved for vascular and pulmonary repair in 41 foreign countries and is commercially available in the United States for the repair of acute thoracic aortic dissections (tears in the lining of the large artery leading to the heart).

The biodegradable glue, which is stronger and faster than sutures and resembles honey both in color and consistency, is eventually absorbed by the body and replaced by scar tissue after it heals the wound. It can be used in innumerable situations where sutures are impractical--such as soft-tissue and bone repair.

Kowanko, now retired in Florida, developed the surgical glue in his MSUM chemistry laboratory.

"I'm an organic chemist who came to this problem (surgical adhesives) from a different angle," Kowanko said. "Experts in biochemistry would probably think of a hundred good reasons why the idea would not work. So they didn't try it. But it made sense to me as an organic chemist. It was a lucky guess that paid off, or rather, an inspiration of God for which I am very grateful."

Fargo surgeon Dr. David Browdie encouraged Kowanko to pursue his experiments and worked closely with Kowanko on developing the glue.

The wound closure market--ranging from sutures to staples to adhesives--is a $2 billion U.S. industry.

Surgeons use the glue, composed of animal albumin (protein) and glutaraldehyde, by applying it through a devise similar to a glue gun. The two ingredients are loaded into separate chambers. When the surgeon pulls a trigger, the ingredients precisely come together in a mixing tip at the point of application. Once applied, it reaches bonding strength within two minutes.

"The of beauty BioGlue," says Gerry Seery, vice president of marketing for CryoLife, "is that it has the potential to be used by every one of our customer groups: the cardiac surgeon, the vascular surgeon, the general surgeon as well as the orthopedic surgeon."
I
In January of 1998, BioGlue was awarded the European CE (product certification) mark, allowing unrestricted commercial distribution of BioGlue for vascular sealing and reconstruction surgeries within the European Community. The European market for use of BioGlue in vascular and pulmonary (trachea, esophageal and lung incisions) repairs is estimated to be $500 million.

It was also recently approved for use in Canada, where the market potential is about $50 million annually.

In December of 1999, CryoLife received approval from the FDA under Humanitarian Device Exemption regulations for use of BioGlue as an adjunct in the repair of acute thoracic aortic dissections. These tears in the lining of the large artery leading from the heart are life-threatening conditions that affect between 4,000 and 5,000 patients annually.

The FDA also approved BioGlue for clinical study in other blood vessels and heart surgeries.

Additionally, CryoLife intends to apply to the FDA this year for using the adhesive in lung repairs. Research is showing that applying BioGlue by catheter may replace invasive surgery to treat end-stage emphysema patients. In the surgery, doctors remove parts of the diseased lung to improve the patient's breathing and quality of life. If preliminary results hold up in humans, end-stage emphysema patients could be treated as outpatients. About 90,000 of the country's 1.8 million emphysema patients are in an end stage.

CryoLife (NYSE symbol: CRY) has pioneered technologies for human tissue and cell preservation and manufactures and distributes specialty cardiovascular and vascular medical instruments.

Kowanko, born in the Ukraine and educated in Australia, retired in 1996 after a 26-year career at MSUM.

Today, Kowanko spends several days a week as a volunteer chaplain at a local hospital in the southwest Florida town of Punta Gorda. Last year he had two new patents issued, both dealing with sterilization of medical devices.

by Jeff Burrill

A sun-flavored Friday afternoon; mid-May. Pick a year.

While cruising the back roads somewhere between Audubon and Detroit Lakes, humanities, history, chemistry, and English classes are collectively being cut.

Farmland has thawed, reclaiming its texture. Ephemeral lavender blossoms decorate lilac bushes shading the west side of two-story white houses. Robins bare their brick-red breasts.

Disconcertingly off key, four frat brothers vocalize with lung power usually reserved for shower arias: "A hundred bottles of beer on the wall! A hundred bottles of beer! If one of those bottles should happen to fall there'll be 99 bottles of beer on the wall!"

Converting beers to years, 99 is how many have passed since the Owl Fraternity was founded. And come this July-when 99 turns 100-the Owls will celebrate their centennial reunion in grandiose fashion.

Events begin at 5 p.m. Thursday, July 5, with registration and a social gathering at Fargo's Ramada Plaza Suites.

Friday, July 6, there will be tours of the Minnesota State University Moorhead campus. In planning stages is a golf tournament at the Moorhead Country Club. Concluding the day's events will be a social gathering, featuring a chuck wagon buffet held from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Ramada.

Scheduled for Saturday, July 7, is a program, banquet, and dance at the Ramada running from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. The program will include short speeches and a video history of the Owl Fraternity.

In addition, commemorative booklets, videos of the Owls' history, and centennial T-shirts are available for purchase (in advance) via the registration form.

Speaking of which, registration forms have been sent to Owls and Owl Sweethearts. Those who have not received one-or have questions or comments about the 100th anniversary reunion-please contact Wayne Ingersoll at 1324 5th Ave. So. Moorhead, MN 56560 (218-233-0116). Or e-mail Jeff Burrill at jmpb@prodigy.net.

(Registration deadline is May 1, 2001.)

Members of the Owl Centennial Reunion Committee are Mark Boche, Jeff Burrill, Wayne Ingersoll, Dave Miller, and the late, very great Larry "Drone" Peterson. Ted duCharme has also joined the committee and is overseeing the golf event.

Over the past five years, the following Owls have generously donated seed money and indicated they will be attending the Old Order of Owls 100th Anniversary celebration:

Dave Alto, Jerry Amundson, Donald N. Anderson, Erik Anderson, John Anderson, Dr. Lee Antell, Blair Archer, Bill Auten, Karl Dan Bakkum, Terry Bartness, Bruce Bausman, Brant Beeson, Craig Beeson, Larry Beeson, Jim Berg, Al Berglund, Charles Bertness, Darrell Bertness, John Bertrand, Doug Bertsch, Donald Betzen, Bob Billberg, Ken Bjorkman, Mark Boche, Bob Bowlsby, Ted Brill, Chris Bungert, Col. Dr. Julien Burkness, Jeff Burrill, Adam Callow, Ralph Carlson, Rick Cochran, Don Conn, John Conzemius, Charles Cook, Rev. Tim Cook, William Corcoran, Ralph Crews, Mac Dahl, Aaron Davis, Bill Devine, Steve DiBrito, Marshall Doran, Mike Dorsey, Craig Driscoll, Ted duCharme, Donovan Dulski, Shawn Dye, Steve Ehlers, Eugene Eininger, Keith (Skip) Enger, Tim Erholtz, Walt Erickson, Wade Ewing, Lyle Fair, Norm Felde, Vic Fergen, Elvin Foss, Dr. Freeman Fountain, Darcy Frischoltz, Jim Galvin, Joe Gehlen, Russ Gerdin, Dr. Clarence Glasrud, Dr. David Gosslee, Gray Richard, Donn Groth, Roger Haire, Jim Hanson, Gordon Harstad, Tim Hart, John Haugo, Mark Haugo, Mark Hellerud, Erling Herman, Jeff Herman, Dareld Hirschey, Richard Holzer, Bob Hopek, Paul Hopman, John Hough, Jim Howland, Steve Huseman, Dieter Humbert, Wayne Ingersoll, Don Iverson, Richard Jackson, Clifton Jacobson, Jerome (Jerry) Jacobson, William Jacobson, Allen Jensen, Kenneth Jensen, Dennis Johnson, Ronald L. Johnson, Tom W. Johnson, Charlie Jose, Ray Kavanaugh, John Kjera, Mike Kloeckner, John Klug, Rob Knutson, Jeffrey Koehn, Ray Kotchian, Richard Krabbenhoft, Marv Krafve, Herman Krajeck, Jerry Kranz, Gerald Kriesel, Ray (Kirby) Kuklenski, DeWayne Kurpius, Sidney Kurtz, Lowell Kutches, Brian Lachermeier, Bob Lambert, Josh Lamont, Dan LaRock, Brian D. Lauhermeier, Frank Leidenfrost, James Lein, Dale Lestina, Howie Lomsdal, Dave Lund, Charles Luna, Jim McCabe, Larry MacLeod, Bernard McGuire, Dave Mack, Jim Mader, Britton Mattson, Robert Melchior, Dr. Richard Menzel, Richard Mickelson, Jerome Miksche, C. David Miller, Donald Miller, Jerome (Jerry) Miller, Rodney Miller, Ronald Miller, Sherman Moe, Frank Mollner, Russell Monson, Orville Moran, Josh Morgan, Wayne Mosey, Stan Motschenbacher, Larry Murray, John Mytinger, Gordon Nelson, Scott Nelson, David Nibbe, Doug Nick, Jim Nigg, Erik Nilsen, Dr. Orlow Nokken, Tim Norsten, Henry Nubson, Kris Oas, Karl Oelker, Mark Olivieri, David Olness, Keith Olson, Lee Overmoen, John Palacio, Dr. Robert Pawlowski, Roger Pearson, Bill Peschel, Donald Peterson, Greg Peterson, Tom Plant, Leland Pommrehn, Norm Przybilla, Bob Purcell, Bob Quam, Kevin Quinn,  Shannon Reck, Kevin Reitz, Victor Robertson, Virgil Robinson, Tom Rockne, Charles Scheel, Wally Scheer, Robert Schmidt, Mark Schmitz,  Richard Schmitz, Vern Schnathorst, John  Schuster, Larry Scott, Andrew Shellito, Harris Shellito, Jim Shoemaker, Marv Skaar, Dale Skallerud, Dean Skallerud, Gary Smith, Dr. T. Edison Smith, John South, Paul Spafford, Thad Stafford, Fred Stalley, Don Stetson, Harvey Stewart, Earl Stottler, Chuck Strand, David Strand, Bradley Sturn, Mike Sullivan, Bob (Rube) Sullivan, Neil Sussenguth, Alvin Swanson, Dave Sweet, Ryland Syverson, Ronald Thompson, Don Tirk, Dave Torson, Robert Utke, James Van Tassel, James Varichak, Leonard Varriano, Gary Vitali, Von Vold, David Waldon, Jim Wanshura, Charles Warner, Bob Waters, James Weiler, David C. Weitnauer, Scott Wensman, Warren (Max) West, Jack Wilcox, Bobby Williams, Bob Winter, and last but not least, Bernie Zinda.

‘40’s
Elburn Cooper ’49 (music) is retired and lives in Forest Grove, OR, with his wife Norma.  He keeps busy playing in the Oregon Symphony Pops Big Band, the Oregon Symphonic band, a sax quartet, and several Dixie and small groups.

60’s
Janet (Lyngaas) Seim ’65 (el ed) was a finalist for Minnesota Teacher of the Year.  She teaches first grade at Vista View Elementary in Burnsville.  Her portfolio includes a picture story, "Learning is Fun From A to Z".  Janet and her husband, Rick, have three grown children.
Earl Anderson ’66 (hist) retired in June of 2000 after teaching and coaching for 34 years.  He coached boys’ golf in Alexandria, MN for 31 years and was named Minnesota State AA Boy’s Golf Coach of the Year in 1989-90.  The Minnesota Council for Social Studies selected him as Middle School Teacher of the Year for the 1999-2000 school year.  He lives with his wife Judy in Alexandria.
William Newton ’66 (music) is employed as Director of Labor Relations for the Minnesota Community College Faculty.  He enjoys his six grandchildren, golfing, and his lake home near Battle Lake.  William and his wife, Judith, live in Eagan, MN.

 ‘70’s
Ginger Deitz ’71 (el ed and special ed) ’77 (MA reading) was named North Dakota’s 2001 Teacher of the Year and was also named Fargo Teacher of the Year last fall.  Ginger began her career teaching special education at the Wahpeton Indian School.  She joined the Fargo school district in 1974.  Three years after earning her master’s degree in reading from MSUM, she started teaching at Madison Elementary School in Fargo, where she still teaches.  In 1998 she helped launch Literacy of the HEART, a nationally recognized program to improve reading skills among refugee families in the Madison Neighborhood.
Mary Beth Haverberg Anderson ’72 (el ed) is working as an educational consultant for Houghton Mifflin Company.  Upon becoming empty nesters, Mary Beth and her husband, Rob, moved from the Twin Cities to Park Rapids, MN.   Alphi Phi alumni can e-mail her at: andco@wcta.net.
Barry Baker ‘72 (music) teaches band in Cabool, MO.  He is in his 26th year of teaching after having taught in MN, WI, and OR.  He and his wife, Sandi, live in a small town just outside of Springfield, MO.
James Swezey ’74 (biol) has worked as patent curator of the Patent Culture Collection at the USDA National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research for the past 22 years.  He and his wife Ardell have one daughter and live in Peoria, IL, where they stay busy with church and school activities and a few weekend craft shows.
Annette Ranae Rahn ’74 (soc sciences) was named Woman of the Year by the Willmar, Minnesota, Area Business and Professional Women.  She started her gift basket business, Gift Creations, in 1996.  Rahn lives in Willmar with her family.
Bruce Miller ’77 (mass comm and theatre) won several awards and third-place sweepstakes honors in the National Federation of Press Women’s annual communications competition.  Bruce has been employed by The Sioux City Journal, Sioux City, IA, since 1979 and is an adjunct faculty member at Briar Cliff College.
Gary Ness ’73 (acctg) has been appointed partner-in-charge of the Fargo office of Eide Bailly LLP, a regional consulting and certified public accounting firm.  Gary and his wife, Jan, have two grown children and live in Fargo, ND.
Paul Peterson ’78 (finance) is division vice president of sales for ING ReliaStar in Minneapolis.  He lives in St. Cloud, MN, with his wife, Vicki.
Jeff Cowman ’78 (finance) was recently hired by law firm Perkins Coie LLP, in Denver.   Jeff has a general trial and arbitration practice that includes business litigation, franchise law, construction law, insurance law, workers’ compensation and product liability.
Gary Kettering ’79 (music) is director of human resources for a luxury hotel on Long Island.  He and his wife, Linda, have two adopted children from South Korea and live in Valley Stream, NY.

‘80’s
Kenneth Corey-Edstrom ’80 (hist & pol sci) has been board certified in business bankruptcy law by the American Board of Certification.  Ken is a shareholder and officer with the Brooklyn Center, MN law firm Henningson & Snoxwell LTD.
Brent Dale ’85 (ind ed) and his wife Malinda, have a baby girl, Karen Brianna, born July 18, 2000.  They live in Pine City, MN.
Sharon (TeBeest) Boyum ’89 (music) is a K-12 vocal music teacher for the Lanesboro public School.  She also coaches the speech team and sings in the contemporary worship group at her church.  She lives in Peterson, MN with her husband, Nathan, and their three children.

‘90’s
Lisa Undem ’90 (math) is employed as Air Battle Manager for the USAF.  She lives in Lynn Haven, FL.
Jerry Herman ’90 (mass comm) was named Journalist of the Year 2000 by the Colorado Springs Gazette.  Jerry was singled out for outstanding design and editing in a year that included major coverage of the Sydney Olympic Games and the presidential election.  He lives in Fountain, CO, with his wife, Jennifer, and their daughter.
Mark Privratsky, ’91 (psych) was recently hired by Lindquist & Vennum PLLP.  Mark concentrates his practice in intellectual property and other commercial litigation.  He lives in Columbia Heights, MN, with his wife, Amy.
Laura (Schuette) Solarz ’93 (math) works at Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis, managing the institutional research and student records departments.  Laura spent the summer and fall of 2000 undergoing chemotherapy for ovarian cancer and would like to thank her MSU friends who prayed for her and cheered her on during treatment.  She completed chemo in mid-November and is now in remission and feeling great!
Mary McGlynn ’94 (Eng/mass comm) received her master’s degree in English at NDSU this year.  She now lives in St. Paul, MN, and works as the assistant director of public relations and publications for William Mitchell College of Law.
Stacie (Sonnenberg) Stigman ’94 (early child ed) has been chosen as East Otter Tail County Minnesota Child Care Provider of the year.  She and her husband, Ryan, and their three children live in Perham, MN.
DeeAnn Nelson ’94 (Eng) is currently program director in charge of Elderhostel, Conferences, and Market at Olympic Park Institute in Port Angeles, WA, where she lives.
Marc ’94 (hist) and Billi Jo ’95 (pol sci) are currently serving a 2-year assignment with the Peace Corps in Turkmenistan.  Both are involved with the "business group", which consists of helping Turkmen develop business opportunities, public relations, computer skills, etc.
Kyle Christensen ’96 (mass comm) was recently promoted to senior communications specialist for Thomson Legal & Regulatory, the leading information publisher and technology solutions provider for legal and regulatory markets worldwide.  He and his wife, Stephanie, recently purchased a home in Minneapolis, MN.
Jo-Anne Desautels Hummel ’96 (music) is an at-home Mom and private trombone instructor.  She lives in Brooklyn Park, MN, with her husband, Bret, and their two children.
Jason Nelson ’96 (finance) was recently promoted to Personal Banking Officer at Prior Lake State Bank.
Brian Krzmarzick ’97 (mass comm) has been hired as director of campus programming for Mayville State University in North Dakota.  He lives in Mayville.
Ben Lacina ’97 (music) is employed by the St. Paul Public Schools as a K-6 music teacher.  He lives in Minneapolis, MN.
Daniel ’97 (elem ed) and Valerie (Larson) ’97 (music) Ray live in Fargo with their new son, Andrew.  Dan started a new job teaching third grad at Westside Elementary School in West Fargo, ND.  Val is in her fourth year directing choirs for the Barnesville, MN, High School.
Lowell Schmitz ’97 (biol) was awarded the "2000 Outstanding Wildlife Graduate Student of the Year" by the South Dakota chapter of the Wildlife Society.  He was also named "2000 Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year" by the department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at S.D. State University where he is completing his master’s theses, titled "Development of lure forages for minimizing winter depredation by deer in South Dakota."
Aaron Vandermeer ’99 (biol) is living in Kurtztown, PA, where he is studying music.  He continues to conduct his own general study into the phenomenon of "perfect (absolute) pitch".  He finds this a fascinating area to conduct research in because it links such diverse subjects as music, biology, brain development and psychology.
Lisa Henning Giese ’99 (acctg) recently earned her CPA designation.  Lisa is an associate in the audit department of Eide Bailly.  She and her husband, Chris, live in Fargo, ND.

‘00’
Renelle Robinson ’00 (music ed) is a vocal music teacher for the Pittsburg Middle School, in Pittsburg, KS, where she lives.
Lisa Johnson ’00 (Am. Studies) entered Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN, as a student in the master of divinity program this fall.

The proposed residence halls would help replace the nearly 400 beds lost when Neumaier Hall was imploded and accommodate projected enrollment increases.

Sites discussed for the new buildings, announced at a University Forum last month, are 1) east of Murray Commons, including part of the former site of Neumaier Hall; 2) The K parking lot north of Nemzek; and 3) the tennis court area on the corner of 17th Street and ninth Avenue.

The Minnesota legislature last spring approved a bill allowing MSUM to build student housing using third-party financing. In other words, a developer would fund the building and the university would provide the land and management. No tax dollars would be involved.

The next step involves the legal approval to build on state property and then searching for a developer to fund and design the project. The first hall is expected to be finished by the fall of 2002.

At the University Forum, attended by only about 35 people including media, Vice President Warren Wiese said that updating residence halls is an important retention and recruitment tool. He said students today expect more privacy and amenities, and that attracting more upper class students to live on campus has a positive effect on changing student and campus culture..

A university survey showed that freshmen and sophomores prefer living on campus in double or single rooms more so than upper-class students, who prefer more privacy.

According to the 1999 consultant's report, the campus, which now has 1,704 beds, could support up to 500 more beds if they're built like suites orapartments that would appeal to upper class, married and older-than-average students. The buildings may include underground parking, cable television hookups and full kitchens along with other conveniences.

Because the plan is also linked to projected enrollment increases, MSUM intends to build the new residence halls in at least two stages. Current projections have enrollment jumping to 7,716 students by the fall of 2004. If the number of people living in campus housing increases at the same rate, a minimum of 269 new beds would be needed.

Kick that Box! Then you’ll be able to act Shakespeare.

Well, maybe not. But it will enable you to enjoy reading and listening to Shakespeare, says Wesley Van Tassel, author of "Clues to Acting Shakespeare."

He should know. He’s studied Shakespeare for more than 30 years and coached several hundred actors on acting Shakespeare. He understands how difficult it is to enjoy Shakespeare when it’s read improperly.

"If you don’t learn how to read it, it can be incredibly boring," Van Tassel said. "You can’t lie in bed, read it and expect to stay awake. It’s meant to be read aloud."

Applying that important technique of "kicking the box," or placing emphasis on the last word of a sentence, will set the reader on a journey to enjoying Shakespeare.

"Support the final word of the verse line," Van Tassel says. "After applying this technique to any lines that are 10 syllables, it starts to make sense."

It is among several techniques Van Tassel explains in his book, which is tailored to professional actors and coaches, secondary teachers of English and drama, and all theatre students. He says the techniques are easy to learn and will help all readers to understand Shakespeare.

Van Tassel entered Minnesota State University Moorhead on a football scholarship set to study pre-medicine. He graduated in 1960 with degrees in mathematics and the general sciences, but after taking all of Del Hansen’s theatre courses, he decided the humanities suited him better than the sciences.

He went to New York and his career has been a roller coaster ride of working in professional theatre alternating with teaching theatre. He holds a master’s degree in directing and playwriting and a doctorate in dramatic literature.

He’s served as artistic director of the Westport Playhouse, the Mule Barn Theatre, and the touring Continental Theatre. He’s taught at four colleges/universities, leaving three tenured positions to return to the rigor and excitement of the theatre. He currently teaches at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Wash.

"Often, when working as a professor, I simply had to return to being a full-time practicing artist," Tassel said.

Van Tassel has coached "acting Shakespeare" to professional and student actors, staged 24 Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) productions and produced 55 others. (AEA is the union for professional actors.) He’s worked with some of the country’s finest actors, having directed stars like Donold O'Connor, Ed Ames, George Gobel, Ken Howard, Veronia Hamel and others. He has also produced shows and associate directed with Carol Channing, Cloris Leachman, Toni Tennille, Cyd Charise, Jane Powell, Phyllis Diller, Vicki Carr, among others.

"I have wonderful memories of most, but not all, of these experiences!," he says.

He’s also directed more than 100 summer or university productions, and published numerous children’s plays.

"I found this book easier to write than publish," he said. After 32 rejections, he’s only the fourth American to publish his findings and techniques on acting Shakespeare. Fewer than a dozen authors worldwide have published techniques on handling the language.

Van Tassel is convinced that once people learn how to read Shakespeare, they’ll enjoy it considerably.

"The magic of Shakespeare is in the brilliance of a composition. You come to understand and appreciate it once you start reading it and exploring the depth of it," Van Tassel said. "Every time you read Shakespeare you learn something new. That kind of mental stimulation hooks you and you can’t get free.

"Shakespeare never gives himself away. He’s a true playwright in that every character has his or her own position, and how Shakespeare as a writer feels about that character’s position is never revealed."

In "Clues to Acting Shakespeare," Van Tassel reveals the secrets you need to enjoy Shakespeare.

A review from Library Journal, August 27, 2000, states, "Van Tassel’s beautifully conceived and executed text is a Clydesdale, a workhorse of a workbook that is purposefully divided to reach manifold audiences. Through both the instructional narrative and his bountiful exercises, Van Tassel, a director and acting teacher, explicates the basic Shakespearean tenets of scansion, caesura, phrasing, breathing, textual analysis, imagery, structure and rhythm, and antithesis, and he does it gracefully and appropriately for the diverse readers he intends to reach. This is the kind of helpful instructional aid, both detailed and clear, for which both students and teachers constantly clamor…"Clues to Acting Shakespeare" is a no-brainer purchase for acting collections in all libraries."

"Clues to Acting Shakespeare" is available at all bookstores, or through Allworth Press at www.allworth.com

"I had a pretty fantastic and horrific seven years as a musician," says Minnesota State University Moorhead alumna Debra Marquart. "I lost everything in a fire, I destroyed relationships with family and friends, I experienced poverty, lawsuits and a general wear and tear of life itself. But I would never trade those years."

The experience of one musician and many weave through Marquart’s newly published book, The Hunger Bone: Rock & Roll Stories.

"It’s a mish mash of people I knew along with fictionalization," Marquart says. "I saw that the true experience of a road musician was not recorded in art. There are some films about the musician who sells his soul to the devil, but they’re stupid and fabulous at the same time. I wanted to create a more realistic portrait of the inner life of a road musician."

Marquart was a touring road musician for seven years with rock and heavy metal bands until a fire destroyed her van and equipment in 1983.  She returned to MSU Moorhead to get a bachelor’s degree in social work (1984).

"I had a pretty incredible ride as a musician and I wanted to write about it but I wasn’t a writer," Marquart said. She enrolled in MSUM’s master of liberal arts program and took writing classes. "I’ve been working on these ideas (for Hunger Bone) all these years." She received her MLA in 1990.

The book has already won the Headwaters Literary contest sponsored by New Rivers Press, a nonprofit literary publisher in Minneapolis, along with the Capricorn Novel Award sponsored by The Writer’s Voice of West Side YMCA in New York.

"I want readers to understand the life of a musician and to appreciate the sacrifices they make. The book is supposed to be funny but at the same time kind of a critique of the political economy of music," Marquart said. "Music is appreciated in this society but not valued."

The collection—short stories and microfiction (500-1,000 words long)—focuses on the unseen lives of road musicians. A judge for the Capricorn Novel Award likens her book to a "velvety cocktail." He calls it "a sort of Spinal Tap for everyman. Because Marquart writes consistently zippy sentences that make me laugh, because even the most pitiful characters remain human in embarrassingly real ways. Funny, sad, and a little bit twisted."

Marquart’s poetry collection Everything’s a Verb was published by New Rivers Press in 1995. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals such as North American Review, Three-Penny Review, New Letters, River City, Zone 3, among others.

The final chapter in The Hunger Bone, titled "Through the Beaded Door," is a piece Marquart wrote after she left the road.

"When I quit touring, I hated music. I turned off the radio when it came on, and I wanted to punch anyone who was even humming," Marquart said. "This piece helped me discover what I had originally loved about music. It got me on the road to writing about and appreciating music again."

Marquart didn’t leave music entirely. She continues to perform with her jazz-poetry, rhythm-and-blues project, The Bone People, with whom she has released two CDs: Orange Parade, a collection of acoustic/alternative rock, and A Regular Dervish, a jazz-poetry spoken word CD which is a companion disc to Everything’s a Verb.

Marquart earned an M.A. in English from Iowa State University and coordinates ISU’s creative writing program. She is the poetry editor of Flyway Literary Review. She just finished a memoir of "exile and return" about growing up in the middle of the sauerkraut triangle (near Napoleon, N.D.). She also has another book in the works, a follow-up to The Hunger Bone about her personal experiences as a woman road musician.

The Hunger Bone: Rock & Roll Stories is available at your local bookstore, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble (bn.com), or through New Rivers Press, a nonprofit literary publisher in Minneapolis, Minn., at www.newriverspress.org

An MSUM professor taught her a lesson that’s guided her artistic career.

"I was good at painting still lifes and this teacher said I could paint still lifes for the rest of my life and get better and better," Anderson said. "’But where would the excitement be?’ the teacher asked.  If there’s no excitement in your work, then you never really test yourself. So I push myself to try new things but I never really fail because I build on the past."

Anderson’s art exhibit, Posters + Books/Text + Image showed at MSU Moorhead’s Center for the Arts Gallery this winter. The exhibit was well attended, she delivered a public lecture to a packed audience, and she inspired graphic design students with her eclectic repertoire of work.

Anderson received a B.S. in art in 1969 with an emphasis in sculpture, painting and drawing. She also holds an M.A. in design from the University of California, Berkeley.

Artist as creator
Anderson is a prolific artist, a nationally acclaimed graphic designer, and a respected art educator.

A survey of her art over the past 30 years reveals an artist who is inspired by her surroundings and who delights in tackling new mediums and challenging projects.

"I’m not defined by a technique or a material or a process, but more by the ideas I work with," Anderson said. "My personal work deals with the magic and mystery of how people understand ideas, information and feelings. It’s exploratory and ongoing."

As a budding artist in the 1970s, much of Anderson’s work leaned toward the traditional. But with each new life experience she delved deeper into her soul and explored issues that mystified her.

That’s what fueled her inspiration for an artist book on images.

"I was fascinated by images I saw in Asian countries. They had a mystery and depth that the images from our culture don’t," she said. "I couldn’t figure out why. Part of it was I didn’t know and I always love the things I don’t know. But as I researched it I realized the images there represent spiritual values and our images here tend to sell things."

She says that in the last 20 years artist books have come into their own as a viable art form. Her artist books have exhibited in major galleries and museums, toured in exhibitions in Japan, England, Europe and the Soviet Union, and are in the permanent collections at the Walker Art Center, Getty Museum, New York Public Library and several universities.

The four-foot (Just a guess) artist book, "The Invitation: A Journey by One’s Self," examines the role of images in our culture and represents her exploration of the meaning of images and life.

"I’m still trying to figure that out myself," she says.

Whether it’s exploring the meaning of life or promoting her own emotional healing, as in the artist book "Ex-Husband," Anderson’s art conveys a strong conviction for women’s rights, utilizing myriad vessels to represent women.

Public commissions represent some of her most challenging work. Securing about one-third of what she applies for, she says the three major commissions she has worked on "just exhausted me."

They are truly public works of art with a life of their own. The most notable and unusual was a public art grant for the Metro Arts Commission. She was the lead artist for a multimedia collective project that integrated the work of more than 50 artists in scoring the region with art works in video, radio, literary, telephone art, visual art, children’s art and live performance. "Modern Odysseys" used artists to communicate issues regarding public transportation and received kudos for its imaginative effort. She’s received numerous regional, national and international awards for her print and book designs as well, and was named a Woman in Design International.

Artist as designer

Anderson is a design consultant, primarily for museums and public institutions throughout the United States, creating comprehensive identity programs, publications and information/exhibition design systems.

Integrating ideas from her personal work to her professional designs reaps rewards for both Anderson and her clients. The designs she completed after visiting Japan reflect her fascination with that culture’s fluid lines and free-flowing images. She spent a year in Rome as a Northwest Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in Italy Fellow, where she explored the expanded role of public and private communication in the vitalization of key public places.

"Italy doesn’t apologize for its age," she says. "They build upon the past and embrace this wonderfully rich, message vitality that comes out of it."

Contrast that with American buildings—with an average age of 40 years—that drop to the ground in a heartbeat.

"I don’t want to be frustrated by that, it’s the context in which we live. But many wonderful things come from our connection to the past," Anderson said. "I think you discover more about who you are and your culture when you’re not immersed in it."

The work she returned to do after spending time in Rome reflect a richer, deeper, and more historical process. Anderson’s success as a designer stems from understanding her clients’ investment and their audience.

"I think a lot of designers don’t see the words. Designers are storytellers," Anderson says. "Every project I do comes from the content. I give it an appropriate but unique form. We’re just inundated with symbols in our lives, and I want the work I do to make understanding easier and clearer, but in a poetic, way."

Her clients have included community organizations and public and nonprofit institutions all over the country.

While computers have enhanced a designer’s capabilities, she thinks it sometimes hinders creative thinking.

"You can do a lot of cool things with the computer and I love working with it, but it’s really just a tool for me," Anderson said.

She reverts to traditional sketching when proposing an idea to a client.

"It’s a more open process," she says. "I can draw in a way that’s persuasive and open without looking like the idea is complete. It gives me more freedom to change and to evolve the idea."

Artist as teacher
Anderson is committed to women’s rights, responsible gun control and children. She created Design Buddies in 1990, a mentoring program designed to reach out to students with an interest in art who lack encouragement, teaching or guidance. The students are paired with a mentor in the art or design field. The program is a model for other American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) chapters in the country.

A long-time educator, Anderson is currently a professor and chair of the Division of Design in the School of Art at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle. She’s earned kudos from her peers, from an early career highlight of being named North Dakota’s Outstanding Woman in Art in her early 20s, to being named Faculty Scholar at UW. It’s the first time an artist/designer has received the award, which is generally reserved for traditional research faculty.

"Teaching is exhausting," she says. "Nurturing all these people can be very tiring. I’ve enjoyed teaching, but being in the studio and doing my own work is a different kind of joy."

She resigned from her position at UW this winter and is moving to Denver, where she’ll open a studio to pursue more personal and professional work. She’s also compiling a database of designers available to do short-term teaching assignments or fellowships abroad, which she hopes to do more of herself.

"I want more balance in my life," Anderson said. "I’ve worked hard and put a lot of energy into my work. Now I’m trying to go a little slower and dig a little deeper."

Finding God in all the wrong places

(This story was written by Monica Hannon, who earned degees in history and mass communications at MSUM in 1982. He's currently the main anchor and managing editor at KFYR TV in Bismarck.)

When Patrick Atkinson says he’s been locked into a commitment, he’s speaking literally.

Atkinson, a 1981 MSUM graduate and Distinguished Alumni Award winner from Bismarck, spends 20 or more hours a month behind the bars of the infamous Sacatepéquez Regional Men’s Prison in Guatemala, Central America.

For his work, Guatemala’s national leaders and hundreds of prisoners recently recognized him in a formal ceremony in which Atkinson was named "Protector of the Nation’s Prisoners".

Cited among Atkinson’s accomplishments in this most recent award was the development of a nation-wide prison policy to separate violent from non-violent prisoners, an effort Atkinson had spearheaded

Rev. Schumacher said, "In a world in which it is all to easy to forget about poverty and hardship, Patrick’s life is a living testimony of commitment to social justice, the Christian faith, and impressive, often enviable, courage.  He has continued in his work despite having been shot at, knifed twice, bombed, suffered false accusations and rumors, and been sickened with malaria and many other diseases."

Atkinson is best known as the founder and executive director of the Bismarck, N.D-based GOD’S CHILD Project, a health and education mission in Guatemala that cares for and educates 2,500 boys and girls and 8,000 adults, most of whom are very poor battered and abandoned women with children of their own.  He is also the design architect and engineer, as well as chief fund raiser behind the development of The Dreamer Center, a four-acre community development, health and education center currently being built at the base of the notorious San Felipe slums on the outskirts of Antigua, Guatemala.

Although Atkinson has been active in Central American prison ministry since he first arrived in Guatemala in 1983, his intensive work in the Sacatepéquez regional prison began after he put several gang members behind bars.  "I had worked with local police for several weeks to stop a new street gang from forming," Atkinson said, "and the victory of our efforts was to see many of the leaders imprisoned.  That pretty much stopped the gang."

Rather than celebrating, Atkinson says he was reminded of Christ’s words to help those without clothes, without food, without medicine.  To visit the imprisoned.  "Ouch!" he says, "that really hurt, since prisoners in Guatemala receive nightmare-inspiring care; no clothes, no blankets, worm-filled food, inadequate or spoiled medicine."

Atkinson says he saw this as a calling to expand the work he was already doing.  "I soon found myself in the strange position of where I was working hard to break up gangs and get some really bad people busted, and then going into prison the next day to see if they had a blanket or were sick and needed medicine."

Each time Atkinson visits the Sacatepéquez regional men’s prison, he walks through the heavy metal gates and goes into the main prison yard, which is considered so dangerous the guards don’t even accompany him there.  "I don’t think they’re allowed to enter in groups smaller than three," Atkinson says.  "Sometimes friends and volunteers will accompany me in.  Sometimes they say they’ll wait outside."

Atkinson’s work behind bars has grown over the years to where he is now the sole provider of soap, toothpaste, blankets, and other basic toiletries for the prisoners, "things they simply did not have before," Atkinson says.  "It wasn’t uncommon for someone to be arrested and held for two or three years while their case was going to court, and to be without soap or a toothbrush that entire time."

Last summer, MSUM senior Renee Carlson traveled to Guatemala to volunteer with The GOD’S CHILD Project through the program’s ServiceTeam Experience program.

The work that is being done by Atkinson in the Sacatepéquez prison, however, is much more extensive now, and involves other local and international volunteers who are willing to help.  Atkinson has set up a prison literacy and math program, in addition to building a prison library.  He provides one-on-one counseling, arranges job interviews for prisoners when they are released, provides direct medical care, and is often called upon by prisoners and prison officials alike to help resolve internal conflicts, or to drive an inmate to the emergency room at a local national hospital.

And then there is the prison building itself.  When shower pipes snapped during a failed suicide attempt, it was Atkinson whom prison authorities called at 11 p.m. to fix them.  After toilets, pipes, and walls were busted and burned in a prison riot over abusive conditions, Atkinson found volunteers to \ repair the damage. "The regional prison has zero money in its budget for maintenance and repairs", Atkinson said.  "I’ll do all I can to get the bad guys busted," Atkinson said, "and then I’ll do all I can to see that they are treated right.  No one should ever be forced to live like this.  It’s just wrong."

Asked if he is ever afraid to enter the Sacatepéquez Regional Men’s Prison, Atkinson says that he always feels danger, but that "no one ever said being a Christian would be easy.  Sometimes we need to take a deep breath and just keep walking forward."

Atkinson says he’s been hurt on only one occasion, and that was after he broke up a black market medicine cartel that was run by a small group of prisoners.  They were finding out which prisoners were sick, and then obtaining and reselling that prisoner’s medicine at greatly inflated prices.  "Obviously they were mad when we found local benefactors who would bring the very poor, sick prisoners their medicine for free," Atkinson says.  During this incident, Atkinson was hit on the side of his head and his much-needed eyeglasses broken.  New eyeglasses were later donated to Atkinson, and his broken ones repaired for free.

"There’s one prison I can’t go into in the town of Escuintla because a street gang that enjoyed raping girls was sent there."  Atkinson says.  "We worked hard, got them busted, and then led the effort to have them prosecuted.  They received 7-12 years."  Asked about recent reports by prison officials who have been told that this gang has marked Atkinson for death after they are released, Atkinson simply says, "Let’s hope not."

Atkinson laughed when asked if he enjoyed his extensive prison ministry and said, "No, I don’t particularly enjoy doing the work in there, or scrubbing off lice and fleas every time I come out.  Believe me, there are plenty of things I would rather be doing."

 (For more information on Atkinson and The GOD’S CHILD Project, visit the program’s web-sites at www.godschild.org and www.ana.org.gt, or write PO Box 1573, Bismarck, ND, 58502)

I graduated from Moorhead State University with a degree in Business Education in 1969. In the 60’s there weren’t many female students in business classes, nor were there many female faculty.   In a class of 30, there would be five or six women, sometimes only one or two, so we women stuck together and got to know each other pretty well. Today, more than half the students in our business programs are women.

I returned to campus in 1989 to become the Director of Annual Giving.  I have always enjoyed meeting alumni one-on-one, helping them make a connection with the university, and providing any assistance I can.  When the Alumni Relations job opened up, I knew I wanted it.

Let us hear from you.  Are you wondering how many MSUM alumni live in your city?  Would you like us to plan a reunion there?  Let me know.  A reunion can be anything from a dinner in a fancy restaurant to an informal gathering in someone’s home.  We’re always looking for ideas.

Do you have a question about Homecoming?  Are you looking for a lost classmate?  Or a former professor?  Please ask me!  We want to be your connection to MSUM.  You can contact the Alumni Foundation through e-mail at alumni@mnstate.edu, or phone me at 236-2497 or toll free 1-877-270-2586.

’30 Beatrice Holte, Elem. Ed, Powers Lake, MN
’37 Gretchen Sherwood, Elem. Ed, San Diego, CA
’41 Donald Nelson, English, Lewiston, MN
’44 Eulalia Fisher, Elem. Ed, Sioux Falls, SD
’44 Marjorie Ann Wallace, Elem. Ed, Moorhead, MN
’48 Shirley Lynch, Elem. Ed, Detroit Lakes, MN
’49 Arley Lyseng, Music, Moorhead, MN
’49 Russell Moe, Social St., Montevideo, MN
’51,’58 Mildred Gaasland, Elem. Ed, Wahpeton, ND
’54 Hugh Schoephoerster, Phys. Ed and Indus. Ed, Andover, MN
’59 M. Darrell Miller, Elem. Ed, Buffalo, MN
’66 Larry Peterson, Spch Comm, Moorhead, MN
’71 Alma Rose, Elem. Ed, Fertile, MN
’71 Eunice Fernholz, Elem. Ed, Detroit Lakes, MN
’77 Michael Mendenhall, Bus. Admin, Detroit Lakes, MN
’77 Marlene Stueve, MA Couns/Dvlp, Fergus Falls, MN
’78 James Alzheimer, Eng., Otter Tail Lake, MN
’88 Mary Jo Weber, MS Reading, Lisbon, ND
’96 Lisa Thompson, Legal Assistant, Moorhead, MN

Cromwell, an assistant professor of Health and Physical Education, came to MSUM in 1968 after earning her undergraduate degree at Slippery Rock (Pa.) University and a master's degree from the University of Oklahoma. A specialist in dance who coached women's track here earlier in her career, she founded the university's Heritage Dancers in 1977. The group performs a variety of ethnic and folk dances for special events throughout the region.

Originally from western Pennsylvania, she was named Minnesota's Dance Educator of the Year in 1977 and last year earned the Lou Kellar Award from the Minnesota Association of Health, Physical Education and Dance for her outstanding service to the profession.

She plans to retire with her husband at their home in Cormorant Lake where she expects to pursue community volunteer work.

Vollmers, a professor of business administration, came to MSUM in 1979 and soon became chair of the department and director of Tri-College University's Center for Economic Education. He left in 1985 to help develop an MBA program at the Chisholm Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, then taught briefly at California Polytechnic State University before returning to MSUM.

Originally from Wheaton, Minn., he holds an undergraduate and master's degree in agricultural economics from North Dakota State University and a doctorate from Michigan State University. A marketing consultant to a variety of agribusiness and business firms, he currently chairs the university's business administration department.

Vollmers and his wife Kathy will move to Denver where they'll serve as chief operating officers for Marriage Ministries International, a non-profit with 30,000 volunteers in 80 countries.

MSUM alum finds market niche…
Building the ultimate golf toy:
Landscaped backyard greens
Two decades ago Mark Prince wrote a quickie paper for a management class here titled "Prince's Putting Palace." The assignment was intended to be a business proposal.

His grade: C-.

It was more a premonition than an assessment of his business acumen.

A self-confessed "golf hound" at the time, Prince was more interested in tee-times and fraternity activities than his GPA.

After an 11-year career selling cosmetics and perfumes in the tri-state area, Prince has finally returned to his original thesis.

Today the 38-year-old Prince owns Golf Landscapes, a Chanhassen, Minn., company that specializes in the design and construction of realistic synthetic bent grass putting greens--the ultimate backyard golf toy.

Since his start-up three years ago, Prince has installed more than 140 greens, mostly in residential backyards, but also on commercial golf courses and practice venues.

Golf Landscapes is the area's (including North Dakota) exclusive distributor for SofTrak turf systems developed by United Turf Industries in Wichita, Kansas. For the past two years running, Prince has been named the company's dealer of the year.

"This isn't like the foam-backed artificial turf you'll find on football or baseball fields," said Prince, who earned a MSUM degree in business administration and management in 1985. "It's not Astroturf. These greens look, feel and react like the real thing. That's primarily because of the unique combination of a sand and fiber surface and an eight-inch sub-base of crushed stone. The ball bounces, rolls and checks up like it would on a natural grass green."

Better yet, no watering, mowing or fertilizing is required. And the emerald green, manicured turf won't rot, corrode or fade even if left uncovered over winter.

"After a lot of personal research?and I did tons of it just because I wanted my own backyard green?I discovered that this is definitely the most advanced synthetic turf on the market," he  says.

To install an average 600- to 700-square-foot Softrak green in a typical backyard costs from $7,000 to $8,000, including integrating the green into the aesthetics of the landscape. Prince completes most projects in four days or less.

Add-ons? including sand traps, chipping areas, and tee boxes with hitting nets?can create a complete home practice paradise. Divots aren't a problem on artificial hitting and chipping surfaces. And the club spring-back is like hitting off natural turf, not concrete.

Prince, who grew up on the south side of Chicago, moved to a farm near Pipestone, Minn., as a teenager. Like lots of country kids, between chores he mowed a pasture short and fabricated his own fantasy golf fairway. "I hit lots of balls out there," he said.

He played on his high school golf team and when he came to MSUM to study business, he also joined the Dragon golf team.

But after graduating and marrying classmate Valri (nee Boldt) from Crosby, N.D., (now an accounting manager at Cargill), he became a traveling salesman for L'Oreal cosmetics covering Minnesota and North and South Dakota.

"I wasn't sure what I wanted to do," said Prince, once president of MSUM's Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity and facilities coordinator for the student union. "But that job gave me some experience in business and management that I thought I could build on."

Eight years later, he joined the designer perfume company, Parfums de Coeur, as an account manager.

With a schedule crowded with work and growing family responsibilities (the Princes have three children), he didn't have much time for golf.

"When we built our house in Chanhassen five years ago, the backyard needed landscaping," he said. "That's when I came up with the idea of installing a putting green there. I researched bent grass technologies and after looking at costs and maintenance, quickly decided it wasn't in the cards for me."

So in his spare time, Prince started looking into available alternatives through the Yellow Pages and the Internet. He finally found a company?United Turf Industries?that developed a unique solution to his problem using an artificial bent grass turf. Specializing in making artificial greens as close to PGA quality as possible, their motto is: "The ball won't know the difference. But your game will."

"I was convinced enough to install my own 400-square-foot SofTrak green in my shaded backyard, then built one for my neighbor," he said. "I was so pleased with the results, I became a part-time rep for the company."

Three years ago he rolled the dice on his career. "I had a great job with the cosmetics industry, but I didn't have a passion for it. Designing and building backyard golf greens, however, is something I do have a passion for. So I spent some of my own money for marketing, buying advertising in Minnesota Golf Magazine and putting up a display at the Greater Minnesota Golf Show at the Metrodome."

Since then he's done about $1.2 million in business and his resume includes nine greens and tee-boxes at Deer Meadows Golf Course in Cambridge, Minn.; 18-holes at Goodrich Putting Links in Maplewood; greens and tee-boxes for a private nine-hole mini-course for a couple in Hudson, Wisc., which includes an asphalt path for golf carts; plus backyard installations in Florida, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and South Dakota.

"Like any small business," he said, "I have hurdles to jump over and the profits are never where you'd like them to be. You just keep building on the successes and learning from mistakes."

But golf happens to be the fastest growing and most popular played sport in America. Since 1950, the number of golfers increased from 3.5 million to more than 30 million this year. The National Golf Foundation anticipates an additional three to four million golfers and 100 million rounds during the next decade -- an annual growth rate of one to two percent a year.

"And if the short game--putting and chipping--constitutes about half the strokes you'll take during a round of golf, it certainly pays to practice that part of your game," Prince said.

At least that's what he's counting on to sustain his new career.

The secret of SofTrak greens lies both in their surface and sub-base.

The first step in building an artificial green, Prince said, is to clear and compact the selected area, then cover it with a protective geo-textile fabric. Next, the area is filled with two layers of compacted sand?the first layer with a firm class #2 kind of gravel, the second layer a flex base of finely crushed limestone.

Then comes the creative act of contouring undulations, slopes and dips in the greens. "If you want it to look like the 18th green at Augusta National or a particular green on a local course, we can do that," Prince said. "We'll custom build it to any size or shape."

Then the synthetic bent grass turf, woven into a mat, is rolled out over the sub-base. Each blade of the synthetic grass is 1 1/8-inch-long and made from polypropylene UV-treated fibers designed to simulate the softness, texture, density and color of natural grass.

A blend of round quartz silica granules is then brushed into the turf fibers, which causes the artificial blades to stand upright, giving the surface its grass-like quality. Finally, a black and green ceramic top-dressing is spread evenly over the quartz silica.

It's the combination of quartz silica and top dressing that holds the turf firmly in place, allowing the ball to roll true and straight.

A new green, Prince says, takes a few weeks to mature. The flexible polypropylene blades, each manufactured with split ends, are designed to soften and lay down like natural grass with use. The turf lasts at least 15 to 20 years.

Ball speed, Prince said, is adjusted by adding or removing in-fill from the top dressing. The only maintenance equipment needed is a broom, a garden roller and maybe a leaf blower to remove light debris.

It's a world of difference from those ubiquitous old synthetic greens that performed no better than linoleum or a living room carpet.

Already Prince has a slate of projects scheduled to start next spring. "It's kind of a niche market--integrating greens with landscapes. Not only are they great for practicing golf, but they offer a unique design to your backyard. For example, I've replaced several pools with greens for people whose lifestyles have changed."

For special effects, the greens can also be adorned by surrounding them with rock or lumber walls, outdoor lighting, gardens and sunken pools.

But for the die-hard golfer, the choice is simply a matter of how committed they are to the old links adage: "Drive for show, putt for dough."

Larson is best known for his presentations of classical film festivals, seminars and movie series events at colleges, theatres and arts centers throughout the region. He was named a Distinguished Alumni of the university in 1998 for his contributions to students and film studies.

The funeral was held at the Fargo Theatre.

A Glyndon, Minn., native ( Glyndon High School Class of 1958 salutatorian), Larson graduated from MSU in 1962  with speech/theatre and English degrees and taught at Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Fargo for six years. He then joined the speech and theatre arts faculty at MSUM, where he taught for 32 years. He has directed MSUM’s International Film Festival and Summer Cinema Film Series more than 20 years. He also holds a master's degree in speech and drama from the University of Kansas.

Born July 5, 1940 in Fargo, Larson was preceded in death by his father and mother. His sister, Jean Johnson and her husband, Dave, live in Monticello, Minn. Funeral services are pending at Wright Funeral home.

A long-time member of the Fargo Theatre's board of directors, he was one of the initiators and co-producers of its Silent Movie Night, which began in 1974. He's also collaborated with symphonies in Butte, Mont., and Billings, Mont., as a guest scholar.

Through his work in locating, restoring and reconstructing lost and rare films, he's made donations of valuable motion pictures to The Library of Congress, The George Eastman House, The UCLA  film and Television Archive and The Museum of Modern art. He also administers the Colleen Moore Film Grant program at the university, which funds projects for student filmmakers.

He's  also provided Kevin Brownlow, British film documentarian, with rare film footage for his television productions "Universal Horror" and "Lon Chaney."

Among his many achievements, Larson has helped a number of talented young filmmakers develop careers. For example: Andy Zilch was recently chosen to work at Warner Bros. Studios with Steven Spielberg's production of AI (Artificial Intelligence) based on a script by Stanley Kubrick.. Another of his former students, Jay Johnson, works for David Letterman productions. Another is Jule Selbo, who's worked with George Lucas on the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. She also became a producer and writer for the television series "Life Goes On."

A few local landscape artists, taking a hint from winter anglers, are fighting back.

Their solution looks much like a typical Midwestern ice fishing house, a 4' x 8' studio on wheels complete with a wood burning stove and chimney. The only difference is the view, a panorama enhanced by six plexiglass picture windows.

"It's comfortable and keeps the cold out," says Carl Oltvedt, a Minnesota State University Moorhead art professor who started using the "art wagon" this winter with colleagues Robert Crowe and Dan Jones.

All three are addicted to landscape art and have been painting together going on six years. In the winter, they're accustomed to cramming themselves and their art supplies in car, stopping on a country road, and spending up to four hours together painting the surroundings.

"It's kind of a secret life of an artist," Oltvedt said. "When we do it in town, it's not unusual for police cars to slow down and watch us."

Besides the cramped conditions in a car, Crowe said, the windows fog up and the view isn't terrific.

So Crowe and his woodworking friend Jack Roberts took a hint from the legions of ice anglers who've learned to deal with winter. They built a simple plywood house over a garden trailer, painting it red to match Crowe's pickup.

"When you're drawing landscapes," Oltvedt said, " you have to be on site to watch the changing light, colors and contrasts. You have to feel a part of it. Working from a photograph lacks the form and presence of the real landscape."

When the three artists take to the road, they'll roam the countryside looking for an attractive setting. Before they start painting, they'll alert nearby farmers or homeowners about what they're doing.

"A lot of people wave when they drive by," Oltved said. "But nobody's stopped to ask if the fish are biting yet."

This spring Crowe will be outfitting his trailer with screens, which will help them survive another nemeses of outdoor artists: the mosquito.

Golfers, both novice and seasoned, are playing the sport in record numbers. The more people on the course, the more likely you’ll run into Tim the Torpedo Turf Launcher, Corey Complainer or Connie the Catatonic Concentrator.

Perhaps you’ve been guilty of acting like one these colorful characters from Chad Mead’s (’81 social work, ’89 elementary education) new book, "Golf Etiquette for Geniuses."

Take Tim the Torpedo Turf Launcher who, "as he steps up to his final approach shot to the green, hits a beautiful wedge to the pin. Unfortunately, he cruises right by the divot that aided him in putting the backspin on that lovely sight that is perched two feet from the elusive four and one quarter inch diameter hole."

Or listen to Corey Complainer and Ethel Excuse Maker on the course: "Damn wind, I hit it perfect. Why do they put a sand trap there anyway? And just look at that sand. How can they expect you to hit out of that garbage? Why can’t they cut the greens decent for a change? Obviously they cut the hole in the wrong place today."

Well, maybe you haven’t actually been one of these people, but you may have crossed paths with them.

That’s why Mead wrote a book on golf etiquette: to relieve his frustration after golfing and seeing the lack of etiquette displayed on the golf course.

"I don’t think people are intentionally rude," Mead says. "Many of the indiscretions are from new golfers just taking up the game, although old timers are also guilty of committing the occasional golfing faux pas."

Mead’s book is a gentle reminder to all golfers to be considerate of others.

"At one time or another, most golfers have probably been some of these characters, which are based on real people or a compilation of personalities," Mead said. "Most golfers are pretty good at following the rules of the course, but it just takes 10 people a day out of 500 to make a course not look as good as it could."

For Ken the Crater Creators of the world (those who create unsightly craters on beautifully manicured greens), he advises: "A fresh ball mark repaired by a player takes five seconds and will heal in 24 hours. A fresh ball mark left unrepaired for only one hour requires 15 days time before the ugly scar has satisfactorily healed."

He instructs Flag Slammers to "exercise those leg muscles and bend down with the flag and lay it down lightly or place it on the fringe with tenderness."

So it is with humor and tenderness that Mead educates today’s golfers on doing the right thing.

Mead, an above average golfer with a 5 handicap, golfs for fun. He’s an elementary school social worker in Buffalo (Minn.) school district, and coached tennis for seven years.

For copies of the book, $7.95 plus $2.50 shipping/handling and 52 cents Minnesota sales tax per book, contact Mead at 3393 Adair Avenue N.E., Buffalo, MN 55313; or phone 763-682-1430. And if you’re interested in spreading the word about golf course etiquette, maybe a copy should be left at the clubhouse…

A 25-game schedule has been set, including the April 1 opener with Concordia College junior varsity. Games have been scheduled at Concordia College Field in Moorhead, and Jack Williams Field and the Newman Outdoor Park in Fargo.

Nearly 40 students have signed a pre-season roster for this spring, and practice is expected to begin in early March. Dave Rusch, a former starting pitcher for the University of Kansas, has been signed as head coach. Rusch, later served as assistant coach at North Dakota State University.

Tim Ellis, a junior mass communications major here is president of the MSUM Baseball Club. Other club officers include Yannick Dalhouse, vice president; Mark Schmitz, secretary; and Mike Blumberg, treasurer. MSUM adjunct instructor Mark Boche serves as faculty advisor.

Organized in accordance with MSUM Club Guidelines, the Dragon baseball club is open to all MSUM students.

MSU Moorhead captured the 1983 Northern Intercollegiate Conference championship and posted a 28-15 record in the final season of intercollegiate baseball here.

Ted will be remembered as a man who loved film.  He was fond of saying that he watched a movie every day.  He made a difference in the study of film by working so hard to preserve early movies threatened by unstable film stock.  His work gained national attention.  When Entertainment Tonight movie critic Leonard Maltin heard of Ted’s passing, he called it "a huge loss;" and a local radio host who admired Ted compared the loss to a library burning down.

He’s gone, but the passion he brought to his work and the enthusiasm he shared with his students will reverberate for a long time.  Ted often remarked about how important the University was to his life.  He came for an education; he left with a career.  Ted loved his alma mater.

Larry "Drone" Peterson was a Big Man on Campus when he attended Moorhead State College in the early 60’s.  By the time I met him, he was a high school English teacher who spent his summers performing with the Straw Hat Players. He was very intelligent and passionate about his family and friends. Larry was also an artist who spent the last years of his life writing. At the time of his death, he was finishing a play script.

Drone was a raconteur of the first order—the fun really started when he arrived.  He was beloved by his fellow Owls and he was vitally interested in the upcoming summer reunion with his fraternity brothers.  Larry loved his alma mater.

Ted and Larry were contemporaries.  They knew and liked each other, yet they were very different.  They represent the variety of people who come to our university seeking a path to their future. To be sure, education is at the center; but college is also about friendship and great memories.  Like Ted and Larry.

                                                                                                            The End