MSUM alum leads one of nation’s elite fighter wings….
TOP GUNS ON THE PRAIRIE
The F-16 Falcon jet  is 17,806 pounds of pure testosterone, a lean and lethal fighting machine that can rip through the sky at 1,500 mph.

Costing between $20 to $25 million each, these metallic birds of prey can turn on a dime and carry enough fuel to stay aloft for three hours and ten minutes. Equipped with a 100-shot-per second Gatling gun and a choice of  three kinds of air-to-air missiles, it can also drop 500-pound bombs and withstand up to nine Gs (nine times the force of gravity), enough pressure to flush the blood out a pilot’s brain in seconds.

"Nine Gs hurts," says Colonel Tom Larson, a command pilot with more than 3,500 flying hours logged on fighter aircraft. "But there’s absolutely nothing like the rush of coming off a flight. Pound for pound, these planes are the best fighting machines in the free world."

Larson, a MSUM alum (’74, business administration, cum laude), is  the Operations Group Commander for the North Dakota Air National Guard’s 119th Fighter Wing—better known as the Happy Hooligans and arguably one of the best air-to-air combat units in the Air Force.

He oversees a $2.5 million budget and a staff of about 60, including 29 pilots  and a fleet of 19 F-16 Falcon jets. Their mission: to protect the air sovereignty of North America.

"We fly the oldest F-16s on the planet, yet we’ve maintained the best safety record of any unit in the Air Force," Larson said. "Since converting to F-16 in 1990, we’ve  flown more than 47,000 accident-free hours."

That’s remarkable considering the inherent danger of flying a relatively small plane that can soar at twice the speed of sound.

The Happy Hooligans have also accumulated an enviable record as a top gun unit, winning three William Tell Competitions, a worldwide weapons meet that tests pilots and ground crews from the U.S. Air Force’s premiere units in realistic, air-to-air combat situations. It’s also the only Air National Guard unit ever to twice win the Hughes Trophy, which recognizes the most outstanding air-to-air unit in the Air Force.

Larson is more than just a little proud of his operations group. And he should be. He holds the same commander post once held by his father, Duane "Pappy" Larson. In fact, the name Happy Hooligans is a derivative of "Pappy’s Hooligans," an appellation attached to Larson’s father by a disgruntled commander after Pappy’s squadron appeared a bit frayed at formation following a night on the town. (Pappy is 84 years old now and lives in South Fargo.)

"Like his father before him, Tom was born to fly fighters," says Tommy Tolman, a retired Hooligan F-16 pilot and 1974 Dragon alum. "The spirit of the entire unit swirls around Tom, who was the captain of the  1994 World Champion William Tell team. He may become the spiritual deva for the Happy Hooligans."

Yet Larson never intended to become a fighter pilot. "You know how it is when you’re young," Larson said. "You want to cut your own path, not follow in the shadow of your father. That’s the way I was until I got married, started a family and finally matured. I was 27 years old when I first went to pilot training."

Now 51, Larson can’t wait to get away from his desk-jockey job as a command bureaucrat and strap himself into the cocoon-like cockpit of an F-16. Like all pilots under his command, he flies sorties twice a week to maintain his split-second reflexes.

"We traverse a route from Fargo to the Devils Lake and Cando areas of North Dakota, where we simulate real world scenarios," Larson said. "For example, one pilot will play the good guy, what we call Blue Air, and another will play the bad guy, or Red Air, maybe simulating the maneuverability and tactics of a Russian MIG-29 or some other foreign fighter. We play cat and mouse and simulate close dogfights. Sometimes you feel like a kid playing games. But ultimately, this is very serious business."

The goal, of course, is to keep the number of landings equal to the number of takeoffs.

Larson came to MSUM to study business administration, particularly hotel-motel-restaurant management. "As a student, and the year after I graduated, I worked at the Holiday Inn as an assistant food and beverage manager," he said. "I really wasn’t sure what career path to follow. I’d spent a  couple years at the University of North Dakota, so by the time I got to Moorhead State, I was married and had two children."

He eventually did join the North Dakota Air National Guard. Not as a pilot, but as a fireman.

"I thought I’d put in my six years, then get out. But after five-and-a-half years, an opening came up for pilot school. By that time I’d matured enough to accept my father’s legacy. I applied, passed a battery of tests and interviews and got in just five days under the 27.5 year maximum age limit." (Now the age limit is 30.)

The training took about two years, including a year of basic pilot training where class rank determines if you follow up with fighter training. That’s followed by survival schools and seven months of  F-16 school, with more emphasis on combat tactics. "It’s an intense two years," Larson said.

So, as commander of one of the Air Guard’s elite fighter wings,  what traits add up to  the "right stuff" to pilot an F-16?

"Confidence, for one," Larson said. "Someone once said that any pilot who doesn’t at least privately consider himself the best in the business is in the wrong business. I agree with that. But it’s really hard to define. You need good hand-eye coordination, you have to be aggressive and reasonably intelligent. When you’re flying one of these planes in a dogfight, a thousand things can happen real fast. You have to be prepared, not to stop and think, but to fly physically and react instinctively to every move the bandit makes."

Most of the fighter pilots in the Happy Hooligans are also full-time commercial pilots. But flying an F-16 is a lot different than flying the friendly skies.

Before stepping into the cockpit of an F-16, the pilot must slip into a G-suit, outer leggings resembling chaps that contain air bladders that inflate automatically under G pressure. That’s the first indication that there’s a certain amount of danger ahead. The suit squeezes the pilot’s legs and midsection, forcing blood to stay in the upper body. Once in the cockpit, the pilot also hooks up to an oxygen mask, which can increase the flow of oxygen to 100 percent to prevent hypoxia and dizziness.

"It’s an interesting feeling," Larson said. "When the G forces increase, first you lose your peripheral vision, and eventually you lose so much blood in your head and eyes your vision narrows to the point where you seem to be looking through a straw."

If you’re not prepared for the pressure, he said, it’s possible to blank out in as little as three seconds. "Sometimes the G suits aren’t enough, so you have to compensate by tightening every muscle below your waist to keep the blood flowing up to your head."

In perspective, a 747 taking off pulls about two Gs. Astronauts are under three Gs  of pressure on take-off,  considered the maximum G force they can withstand and still move their heads and arms to control the spacecraft (even though the shuttle is usually computer controlled during launch, the astronauts need to be able to reach the controls if there is an emergency)

An F-16 pilot would only need to pull nine Gs in a fierce dogfight or trying to escape a  heat-seeking missile. At that full-afterburn speed?1,500 mph?the jet can burn all 12,000 pounds of its fuel in 15 or 20 minutes.

"You feel a kick in the pants when you light the afterburner," Larson said. "The G forces push you deep in the seat, making it difficult to move your head or lift your arms. It can be very exhausting."

That’s why the F-16’s seat back angle was expanded from 13 to 30 degrees, increasing comfort and gravity force tolerance.

The pilot controls the F-16 with a "fly-by-wire" system?electrical wires that relay commands to the aircraft. The system replaces conventional cables and linkage controls.  And instead of the usual center-mounted control stick, the pilot guides the F-16 with the throttle on his left and stick controller on his right, more convenient under high G-forces.

"It’s a hands-on, heads-up philosophy," Larson said. "The pilot can perform normal operations without turning his head or removing his hands from the controls."

Before take-off, a pilot spends about 15 minutes going through all the ground checks and aligning the inertial navigation system.

"You get a rush of adrenaline each time you push the throttle forward for take-off," Larson said. "Once airborne, you’re busy with checklist items and weapons checks as well as flying a precise formation position. There are 20 different gauges  to watch plus 15 different switch positions on the throttle alone and about 10 on the stick. When you enter your working airspace, all flying skills become automatic and you concentrate on fighting tactics to kill the bad guys or identify the unknown. And when you’re closing in on a bandit, your airspeed reaches 1,000 mph or more. Things happen fast."

The F-16 has been a mainstay of United States combat operations since 1981 and is the preferred fighter aircraft for 18 nations and NATO forces. The more than 4,000 F-16s manufactured in the past two decades have logged over six million total flying hours.

There’s a reason for that, Larson said. The F-16 is a relatively low-cost, high-performance weapons system that is unmatched in maneuverability and speed.

At  49.5 feet long, 16 feet tall and with a 32-foot wingspan, the F-16 is compact?the perfect dragon slayer.  The fuselage is virtually all engine and afterburner. As a result, it can fly more than 500 miles, deliver its weapons, defend itself against enemy aircraft, and return to its starting point. It also can locate targets in all weather and is equipped with both  warning  and countermeasure systems to avoid airborne and surface electronic threats.

While the Happy Hooligans will continue to fly F-16s, its traditional mission of air-to-air defense of the United States is changing.

"We’re now getting into the bomb-dropping business," Larson said. "A couple years ago Congress in its quadrennial defense review decided to convert several air defense units into general purpose fighter units, which means bomb droppers. Duluth and Fargo were the last two to convert under this mandate, and both are in transition  now."

The Happy Hooligans will carry BDU 33s, or small blue practice bombs, for day-to-day training. But the F-16 has the ability to carry a large variety of ordnance into combat.

The biggest change, Larson said, other than the kind of daily missions they fly, is the expanded parts of the world they’re now qualified to deploy to. "All the conflicts you see on television or read about now require bomb dropping platforms," Larson said. "That may now include the 119th Fighter Wing.

The 119th Fighter Wing, first activated after World War II, today has 1,103 military positions, 400 of them full-time jobs.

The wing also maintains an alert detachment of two jets on 24-hour alert at Langley AFB in Virginia, staffed by 18 full-time North Dakota Guardsmen.

During peacetime, the Happy Hooligans also provide disaster relief and other state missions directed by the North Dakota governor along with some drug interdiction flights for the federal government.

"Flying fighter jets is something I passionately love," Larson said. "And the F-16 is absolutely the world’s finest. When you land one of these fighters after a mission, there’s a high that hangs on. It makes the rest of the day seem pretty bland. But it always boosts your spirits."

When Bob Lee was lead guitarist  and front man for the local alternative rock band Guru Stew that played regularly  at Ralph’s Corner Bar and  Kirby’s in the early 1990s, he didn’t know a dot.com company from a T-1 line.

But he did know how to write dark, foreboding songs. "Pretty pessimistic stuff," he says. "In retrospect, it’s kind of ironic."

Today, Lee is creative director and part owner of Stone Ground Solutions, a San Francisco-based Web development company. Their national accounts include such Fortune 1000 companies as Bank of America, Charles Schwab, Gigabeat, Boeing and Techtronics.

"It all happened so fast, I still haven’t had time to catch my breath," said the 30-year-old Lee, who lives in what he calls an overpriced $1,600-a-month studio apartment  in Sausalito overlooking San Francisco Bay.

Lee, originally from Sioux Falls, S.D., came to MSUM to study music. "I wanted to be a composer," he said. Besides his rock band, he played  French horn with the university’s  orchestra and wind ensemble.

But when he graduated in 1995, after dropping out once and switching majors four times (music to photography to English and finally graphic communications), he was totally enchanted by the Web.

"It was a fluke," Lee said. "As a student worker at the university’s photography and audio visual center, I saw some of the stuff Jody Bendel, a graphic designer there, was doing on computer. I started getting into it, and I haven’t stopped since."

He eventually became what might be called the pioneering graduate of MSUM’s growing graphic communications program, which combines a study of aesthetics and digital technology. "I actually had an individualized major in Web authoring and development," Lee said. "(Technology professor) Mike Ruth helped me develop my academic studies so I could make up my own major built around multi-media and digital design."

It wasn’t until last year, however,  that the multi-media  and digital design program was approved as a concentration in MSUM’s Technology Department graphic communications program. It already has more than 120 majors.

Stone Ground Solutions’ 4,500-square-foot office, occupying the top floor of a four-story building in San Francisco’s financial district, is a business systems consulting firm using Web technologies to streamline workflow processes. The company builds Internet sites, extranet systems and corporate intranets for emerging and Fortune 1000 clients, with an emphasis on integrating high-end user-interface design with database-driven applications.

"In a nutshell, we he help existing business move online and build dot.coms for dot.com companies," Lee said. "Two years ago, three of us started the business. Now we have 28 employees and expect that to expand to 40 by the end of  the year."

Lee’s success is a microcosm of what’s happening in the world of e-commerce and communications. Situated in San Francisco just north of  the Silicon Valley, he’s literally doing business in Web-central, one of the nation’s most  wired cities.

He’s part of the so-called X-generation, weaned on computers and cunning software, who are creating a new layer of wealth that’s supercharging America’s economy. Today, more than 2.5 million people in this country are employed in the Net content and infrastructure industry.

"There’s just so much business here, and the technology is changing so fast, it’s hard to keep up," said Lee, whose workdays average about 12 hours—nine at the office, three at home.

He said corporate Web sites are no longer a marketing communications side show. "They’ve moved to center stage of enterprise infrastructure, unifying all aspects of business communications and extending them to partners, clients and  prospects."

The statistics support him. The number of people buying goods and services over the Web will grow from 18.6 million in 1998 to 64.6 million by 2002, according to industry analysts.

When Lee leaves home every morning, he drives his Jeep Wrangler over the Golden Gate bridge to his office just south of Chinatown, where he meets his two partners: John Goggin, the company’s technical director; and Andy Harris, the chief operating officer.

Their staff includes designers, programmers, data base developers, system analysts, producers and sales personnel. "I spend a lot of time in meetings with clients, trying to find out what their goals and needs are," he said. "But because I’m still the creative director, I like to keep my hands in design. I especially like doing the smaller accounts, which gives me more freedom."  (To build Web pages, Lee’s company uses a combination of HTML and "cold fusion," a web authoring tool that combines HTML and script.)

"What’s surprising is how expensive it is to run a business like this," Lee said. "Because we demand the best, we’re picky who we hire. And talent is expensive in the Bay area. But in this business, people are our only asset. So we take care of them."

Still, the turnover is mind-boggling as Web weavers jockey for positions and careers in cyberspace.

"Right now we’re kind of a middle-market business," Lee said. "We’re not as big as the major players like Organic Online, Vivid Studios or Sapient. But we’re competitive. Not surprisingly, there are also lots of bad Web developers out there. But that’s to be expected in a business  that’s new and exploding."

A dot.com career, or any career, in fact,  wasn’t in Lee’s academic schedule. "At Moorhead State, I spent a lot of time educating myself. I dabbled a lot in the humanities and literature. I wasn’t concerned about a career."

But after encountering the vast graphic landscape of the Web, it was love at first sight. "I guess you could call me a bit obsessive," he said.

After graduating, Lee moved to the Twin Cities and called one of Minnesota’s first Web authoring firms, Internet Broadcasting. He wanted to know the best way to post his resume on the Internet. Instead, they hired him as a graphic designer, a job he kept for two years.

But after visiting his sister in California during the 1997 Red River Valley winter, Lee opted for a career near the Silicon Valley and the sea—two compelling forces pulling him away from the Midwest.  While working for a leading Web authoring firm there, he met the two men who would eventually be his business partners.

"We just thought we could do a better job on our own," Lee said.

Their first office, a 600-square-foot scrunch of a room in the Market District with an entrance through a  fetid, grafitti-stained alley, had no heating or air conditioning. "It does get cold in San Francisco, and I remember buying gloves and cutting the finger tips off so I could work on my computer keyboard."

That first year their staff grew to eight people. "Our first big client was a subcontract for Boeing that we received through Hewitt Associates, followed very quickly by Bank of America," Lee said. "Those two clients basically put us on the map.
Then business took off and we haven’t stopped yet."

Now he and his partners are dealing with the concept of how big can they can get before quality suffers.  "We work with about eight to 10 clients at a time, and maintain 40 to 50 Web sites," he said. "I don’t know where it’s going to end up."

The pace may be taking its toll. "Sometimes I think I’d love to be a hermit and get away from the things of man," he said. "Maybe move to the mountains and just play my guitar. But on the other hand, despite the dizzying madness of developing a business, I also love what I’m doing."

Lee’s success hasn’t surprised his faculty advisor, Mike Ruth, who recently visited his former student in San Francisco. "I credit Bob’s success to his willingness to take risks, knowing exactly what he wanted to do for a career, and being in the right place at the right time with the right technical and aesthetic tools. I don’t think he was prepared for his rapid ascent in the corporate world with all its time constraints and personnel problems. He’ll adjust. He’s the same good-natured kid he was when he was a student here."

Lee hasn’t  abandoned his academic curiosity. "I read everything from Buddhism to the Big Bang, part of my continual exploration into finding out more about myself and this world in which we live."

And ironically, he said, his  musical style is still somewhat dark and pessimistic. "Other than having a few more wrinkles, a little less hair and a bit more cynicism, I think I'm pretty much the same. I guess the Guru Stew songwriter will always be a part of me."

And so will the inchoate graphic and fiscal potential of the Web.

"Today as yesterday, as always the same scene: a two-wheeled cart rumbles along the camp street, loaded down with several layers of corpses which had been hauled out of the barracks ….For days a haze of the ashes created by the burning of flesh has hung over the camp."—A Ravensbrück survivor

MSUM alum’s book looks inside Nazis’
Only concentration camp for women

Hunger, beatings, humiliations, suicides, and  even mass executions couldn’t exterminate the humanity of  the inmates at  Ravensbrück, the only major Nazi concentration camp for women during World War II.

"Friendships and little acts of kindness made the difference," says Jack G. Morrison, whose book, "Ravensbrück: Everyday Life in a Women’s Concentration Camp 1939-45" was released recently by Markus Weiner Press of Princeton, N.J. "Their courage and enterprise surprised me."

In fact, he said, Ravensbrück  inmates displayed strength and survival skills unique to female prisoners. "Women have always been better than men at sharing, not just things, but themselves," he said.

Morrison, a Wheaton, Minn., native and 1962 Minnesota State University Moorhead graduate, helped establish the archives of Ravensbrück after the Russian Army abandoned the former concentration camp in 1994. The Russians liberated Ravensbrück in the spring of 1945,maintaining it for nearly a half century as a military post.

Morrison, who recently retired after a 32-year career as a history professor at Shippensburg (Pa.) University, first visited the Ravensbrück Memorial in 1993 while attending a convention in Berlin. He asked  German historians there if they needed help reconstructing the history of the camp when the Russians left.

"They accepted my offer and I arrived in August of 1994, just days after the Russians moved out," he said. "There I was on the doorstep of history, with no idea what to do. For 50 years, the Russians never allowed an historian to do work there."

He returned to Ravensbrück in 1997 and again in 1998 to sift through memoirs and oral histories. "My main sources were anecdotal," he said. "The SS destroyed virtually all of the official records as the war came to a close, burning them in the crematoriums as the Russians and Americans advanced."

Fortunately, he said, someone had the good sense to contact the women at the end of the war, encouraging them to write about their experiences. "They were called Reports of Experience, and there were hundreds of them. Some as short as a single page; some more than 40 pages."

While Morrison’s book isn’t the first about Ravensbrück, it is the first detailed look at the daily lives in this unique camp that began as a detention center and devolved into a brutal, overcrowded  concentration camp for slave-laborers.

"Historians sometimes tend to juggle the numbers up," Morrison said. "Some suggest that more than 132,000 women were incarcerated in the camp during its six-year history and that more than 92,000 of them died from starvation, executions or weakness. I’d guess that no more than 100,000 women were interred there, and that maybe 20,000 to 25,000 died."

Nevertheless, he said, the horror was extreme, ranging from cruel medical experiments (sterilizing Gypsies and trying to harvest spare body parts for German soldiers) to outright slaughter (hangings, shootings and gas chambers).

"Once an inmate escaped and was missing for three days," Morrison said. "The SS guards made everyone in the escapee’s barracks stand at attention for all three days without food. When the Germans did find the woman, they beat her mercilessly. They then threw her back in the barracks, where her fellow inmates beat her to death."

Despite endless oppressions and hardships, Morrison said he came away from his research uplifted by the way these women managed to survive. "It reaffirmed their humanity," he said.

Ravensbrück is located across a scenic lake from the secluded resort village of Fürstenberg, about 55 miles north of Berlin. It was originally established by SS Chief Heinrich Himmler as a protective custody camp for criminals and enemies of the state. It was surrounded by a 12-foot wall topped with electrically charged barbed wire.

"By the time Ravensbrück opened in 1939, the Germans already had six major concentration campus in operation," Morrison said. "Ravensbrück was a result of the Nazi state’s growing intolerance to asocial elements and the criminalization of abortion, prostitution and sexual relations between Germans and non-Germans."

The first transport of 867 female prisoners arrived at Ravensbrück on May 18—860 of them German women, seven of them Austrians. The majority  were Jehovah’s Witnesses, outlawed because they refused to give the German greeting "Heil Hitler" or join the war effort. By the end of  the year, as the war escalated along with Nazi intolerance, the camp population grew to 2,290.

"The Nazis started imprisoning Gypsies, Jews, communists, and  a growing number of  women captured in occupied territories," Morrison said. "The goal was to purge German society of undesirables."

Included among Ravensbrück prisoners were special prisoners such as Emma La Guardia Gluck, sister of the mayor of New York City and one of only two known native-born Americans at the camp; Genevieve de Gaulle, granddaughter of the French leader; and Olga Himmler, sister of the SS chief, incarcerated because of her affair with a Polish officer.

In the early years of Ravensbrück, the women concocted a variety of ways to maintain their humanity and find simple pleasures. On Sundays, they were allowed to promenade, strolling the camp streets with friends. They organized educational programs, with lectures and whole courses. They wrote poetry, and passed it among themselves. They drew paintings, made handicrafts, told stories. They wrote letters to their families, and in between the lines, they scripted secret invisible ink messages made from their own urine.

Friendships, Morrison said,  were their chief survival mechanism.

By 1943, after Ravensbrück turned into a crowded slave labor camp primarily for an SS textile mill and Siemens Corporation (which manufactured electrical components), there was a full-fledged scourge of lice and fleas in the camp, which lasted until liberation.

"They even turned that into something positive," Morrison said. "Each evening the women would spend time examining each other’s clothes and bodies for lice. Those nightly delousing sessions, where one woman put another’s head in her lap and searched for vermin, were not only valuable for hygiene, but provided both physical contact and a sense of mutual sharing."

While hunger was a constant problem, rape was not.

"The SS soldiers looked at these women as inferior types," Morrison said. "It was part of their code of conduct. There was almost no sexual exploitation of the women by German soldiers."

But nearly all of the Ravensbrück survivors who wrote memoirs commented on the  extent of lesbian activity in the camp, Morrison said. "It was, by all accounts, extremely widespread," he said, "not unlike in our prison systems today. Maybe it was a means of survival. Oddly enough, in reading hundreds of memoirs and articles addressing his subject, none were written by self-acknowledged lesbians. All the information came from non-lesbian women."

As the war progressed, a massive system of over 70 subcamps surrounded Ravensbrück to provide workers for the war effort as the German labor shortage intensified. By 1942, the camp population increased from 7,000 to 15,000 and the average inmate was working 65 hours a week.

"It was chaos in the block," according to Ravensbrück survivor Rosi Mauskopf, who arrived there in 1944 at the age of 16. "They (the women prisoners) beat each other for a piece of bread. In this hell it was impossible to remain human. I experienced neither friendship nor solidarity with fellow prisoners."

Yet there were still occasional reports of little acts of kindness, Morrison said—from SS guards allowing the prison’s women and children to host a Christmas celebration to town folks and factory supervisors secretly giving food to inmates.

Eventually, extermination by work began a guiding principle at the camp. The old, sick and weak were exterminated and replaced by hoards of new inmates being shipped to Ravensbrück daily. "Feed the women as little as possible, work them as much as possible, and when they could no longer work, push them aside and let them die," Morrison said.

Of the nearly 900 children registered at Ravensbrück from 1939 to 1945, only about 2 or 3 percent survived, Morrison said. The rest all perished, most of them dying or being killed in the last months of the  war.

By the beginning of 1945, Ravensbrück’s prison population soared to nearly 46,000 in a camp designed to hold 10,000. The two  crematoriums in town and the two at the camp were operating full time, burning two to three bodies at once, according to Morrison. Then the SS opened a gas chamber at Ravensbrück, which was used for two months and killed a conservative estimate of more than 1,500 women.

By the end of March, prisoners kept pouring into Ravensbrück from occupied territories. "I think it was because of Hitler’s almost hallucinatory refusal to confront reality," Morrison said. "The Nazi leaders were in a dream world, thinking they still could win the war."

On the afternoon of April 30, advance units of the Soviet army rolled into Fürstenberg. Soon after, the Russian soldiers raped virtually every woman in this town of 5,000. "Rape was so widespread," Morrison said, "that it seemed to be a semi-official policy of the Russian government to punish their enemies. It lasted only a week; the physical and emotional trauma they inflicted were permanent."

About 3,000 prisoners were still in the camp when the Russians arrived. The previous month, the SS guards were busy exterminating and moving huge numbers of inmates out of the Fürstenberg area to erase evidence of their crimes against humanity.

Today, Fürstenberg is a quiet resort town and the site of Ravensbrück is a memorial complete with a museum, exhibits, contemplative walkways and a monument that looks over the lake toward the town.

Next year Morrison will work as a volunteer English-speaking guide at the memorial.

"Today, Ravensbrück is a monument not only to the suffering and death that took place here," Morrison said,  "but also to the human spirit, and particularly to the courage and enterprise of the women whose wills the Nazis could not subdue."

He drove home through a rain of pink insulation, detritus from more than 300 homes destroyed in town. When he arrived, he and his wife Connie (Amundson) just looked at each other in shock.

Within a few seconds, a rare F4 tornado with winds over 200 mph had left their 80-year-old family farmstead in shambles. Gone were more than 40 mature trees, a garage, a dairy barn, three grain bins, three silos, a pole barn and two Toyotas. Dugan also had to shoot four steers that were injured by the storm.

Losses just to the buildings amounted to more than a quarter million dollars.

Only their damaged house and two grain bins remained standing of what was once a picture postcard Minnesota River Valley farm that Dugan and his brother Bob have worked for more than three decades. They still haven’t found the roof of the barn yet.

"We’re taking it day by day," said Dugan, a former Dragon football and baseball player who at the age of  56 is still considering whether he and his 62-year old brother intend to rebuild. Together, they farm 800 acres of corn and soybeans.

"I don’t know why I keep doing it," said Dugan in his trademark Norwegian brogue. "The way prices are, there’s no money to be made here. It’s just in my blood."

About one-third of the homes in this southwestern Minnesota city of 3,200 people 125 miles west of the Twin Cities were damaged by the tornado that hit a little after 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 25.  Over 70 familees lost their homes. One elderly man died when he was crushed under his pickup truck, where he sought refuge. Fourteen were injured.

Connie (MSUM class of ’71, speech pathology) and her 26-year-old son Aaron were grilling supper when the sirens blared in town and a highway patrol car zoomed by the house at what seemed like 100 mph. "The sky was starting to clear from the west," Connie said. "We’re situated in a valley here and surrounded by trees, so I thought we were protected."

"We heard glass breaking and what sounded like an approaching train (the telltale whir of the tornado)," Connie said. "That’s when we screamed and headed for the basement."

Then an eerie quiet settled over the house.

"Mom," Aaron said after he emerged from the basement a few minutes later," the farm is gone."

That’s exactly what he told his dad when Dugan called from the golf course parking lot. minutes later. "When I got home," Dugan said, "the entire landscape of the farm had changed.

Meanwhile, as the storm approached, his brother Bob was driving home, apparently on a vectoring path with the tornado. He pulled off the road into a wooded area a quarter mile from the farmstead, probably saving his own life.

Thousands of volunteers streamed into Granite Falls during the two weeks following the disaster, including a contingent of MSUM alums who helped the Peterson’s clear more than 25 loads of debris from the farmstead. Helping were old Owl, Gamma Phi  and MSU friends Karen (Stauff) Luchau, Kathie (Dunbar) Lewis, Jan (Toftness) Worsech, Jackie (Arceno) Mlynarczyk, Lona (Sunby) and Charlie Jose, Barb (Lund) Ludvigson, John Tandberg, Mark Boche, Jerry and Phyliss Miller, and Joe Risch and his son Mike. Risch, who owns a flower farm outside of Moorhead, brought a truck load of flowers and trees. Later he sent a truckload of bark groundcover for landscaping around the house.

Calls also came in from Kathy (Kelleher) and Mark Brickson, Kevin and Joan (Adkins) Quinn, Mary Lynn (Marvin) Bachand, Ruth (Kotte) King, Bill Auten, Dave Mack, Dave Holsen, Tommy Bell, Grant Bottcher, Vicki (Skaar) Johnson, Rayma (Stone) Miller, Larry Scott, Linda (Froysland) Raub, Janeen (Johnson) Ringuette)and Lee and Ginny Fawbush.

"It was amazing to see all the volunteers coming to help us," said Connie, who’s been a speech pathologist in Granite Falls going on 30 years. "The Salvation Army and the Red Cross were feeding about 50 people a day at our farm alone."

The first few days after the storm, when heavily hit residential area Granite Falls was cordoned off,  the Peterson farm, located two miles west of town, turned into media central. The Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, the Associated Press, WCCO, KFGO from Fargo and four Twin Cities television stations interviewed the Petersons. "They were all very nice and considerate," Connie said. "They even volunteered to give us film if we needed it for insurance."

Peterson joked that the he hasn’t been this disconsolate since the nationally-ranked Cobbers tied the underdog Dragons in 1970 during Ross Fortier’s first year as a coach here. "We were ahead  20-7 with only two minutes to go when the Cobbers scored twice to tie the game. Fortunately, we blocked an extra point to preserve the tie. We hadn’t beaten Concordia since 1957."

Larry Scott, Dugan’s old roommate and now MSUM’s sports information director, defends his old pal. "Dugan played the whole game as an offensive tackle and kicked two field goals and two extra points. With the score 20-7, Dugan kicked a 42-yard field goal, but the officials ruled we didn’t get the play off in time. He missed the next field goal attempt after the penalty, but you can’t blame him for that. He had a great game, but he was really bummed after it. He blamed himself."

Just two weeks after the storm, Dugan and Connie seemed to maintain a sense of humor about the tragedy. But as a conversation wandered, Connie’s eyes would tear up over her smile.

The night of the tornado, some Granite Falls town folks found a sign, which once hung on the Peterson mailbox , resting on a car at a Super America gas station two miles away. The inscription read: "The Doug and Connie: Peterson Farms, Inc."

"Maybe we’ll be putting that sign up again," Dugan said. "Then maybe not."

The dedication was part of the annual Glasrud lecture series.

Glasrud, a Detroit Lakes native, taught in a country school before enrolling at MSUM in 1930 and graduating in 1934. Following a stint in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Glasrud earned both a master’s degree and doctorate at Harvard University. He returned to his alma mater in 1947 to teach, eventually serving 23 years as chair of MSUM’s English department, which is still housed in Weld Hall. He’s also credited with helping develop a separate department of speech and theatre here. He retired in 1977.

Glasrud has since written two comprehensive histories of the university: "The Moorhead Normal School" and "Moorhead State Teachers College." He’s now working on the final chapter of the university’s history.

Last Christmas an old friend in England sent him a postcard explaining that his former student, Joanne Rowling, is today known as J.K. Rowling, the world-famous author of the Harry Potter books.

Neuschwander, to quote a line from "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," said he was "so happy he felt  as though a large balloon was swelling in him."

It’s not as if Neuschwander didn’t know the difference between a Muggle (a word the book's wizards use to describe ordinary people without magical powers) and a game of Quidditch (like soccer, but played in the air on broomsticks).

"I read my first Harry Potter book last fall," says Neuschwander, a ninth grade English teacher at Melrose (Minn.) High School for the past 20 years. "My two sons, Seth, 15, and Sam, 12, liked them so much, I had to see what the attraction was."

It never crossed his mind when reading the Rowling books that the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was modeled loosely on the Wyedean School in western England near Wales where Rowling was a student. "That’s where I taught during the winter of 1978-79 after signing up for a study abroad program for student teaching through Moorhead State," he said.

As soon as he got that post card from his friend, Neuschwander dug through his college mementos and found his grade book and roster for his ninth-grade class. There was the name: Joanne Rowling.

"I was stunned," said his wife Pat (nee Sinner), a Casselton, N.D., native and a special education teacher in Melrose who graduated from MSUM in 1978. "I couldn’t believe it.."

Pat expects to use the  Potter books in her eighth-grade class this fall.

Last winter Neuschwander wrote to Rowling’s publisher hoping to hear from his former student. Lo and behold, he got a handwritten letter back from her this spring.

Rowling wrote: "One of the most wonderful and unexpected side-effects of publication is hearing from people long since vanished from my life! I do indeed remember you and was very touched by your letter.

"Words of inspiration for your students … keep writing…accept the fact that you will tear up an awful lot of work in frustration before managing to write anything you like … start by writing what you know (own feelings, people with whom you are familiar, etc.) … but most of all … READ! Nothing else will teach you what makes good writing (or bad!)."

Rowling was unemployed, divorced and living off public assistance when she started her first Harry Potter adventure in a café near her home while her infant daughter slept at her side.

"Her personal story still inspires me," said Neuschwander, who looks a little bit like a grown up Harry Potter himself.

Besides the handwritten letter, Neuschwander’s two sons each received a Harry Potter card autographed by Rowling.

What kind of grade would he give Rowling today? "Definitely an A+," he said. "She really taps into a child’s imagination. That’s probably because she’s retained her own childlike imagination. Kids are addicted to her books. It’s wonderful to see so many children reading again, instead of watching television or playing video games."

Neuschwander, who has a master’s degree in gifted education, figures that Rowling might not have been challenged enough in school, so to compensate she developed an incredible imagination.

"The Harry Potter books take on a life and magic of their own," he said. "The characterizations are incredible. I understand why children so easily empathize with Harry."

Neuschwander, no Muggle himself, opted for a magical journey to student teach abroad.

His serendipitous  "brush with fame" story just punctuates his adventure abroad, which he says was one of the best experiences of his life.

"It brings to mind a special quote I underlined in Rowling’s first Harry Potter book," said Neuschwander, who’s originally from Grygla, Minn. "It was said by Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of the Hogwarts School for Wizards. The quote: "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

50’s
Mel ’53 (indus ed) and Monica Bridgeford Peterson ’51 (el ed) are retired and live in LaCrosse, WI part-time and in Mesa, AZ for five months in the winter.

Angela Warner ’52 (el ed) ’64 (el ed) taught in Fargo, ND for many years and had many student teachers from MSUM.  She retired in 1993 and moved to Las Vegas, NV, where she now lives.

Janet Murray Hallett ’57 and ’60 (el ed) retired from teaching in Eden Prairie, MN, where she lives with her husband, Bob.

Patricia Murphy Headley ’54 (bus ed) is a retired secondary teacher.  She lives in Plymouth, MN, with her husband Calvin, but they spend winters in Bonita Springs, FL.

Jeanette Abramowski ’55 and ’68 (el ed) was a special ed teacher for many years in SD, ND, and MN, before retiring.  She now spends her time traveling to other countries, winters in Texas, and spends summers in Ortonville, MN.

Opal Daugherty Earing ’50 (el ed) spends winters in Mission, TX, and summers in Herscher, IL, with her husband Melvin.  They retired from farming in 1995, and Opal now has time for her hobby of genealogy.

Patricia Gunstinson ’56 (el ed) and William Roy ‘57 (phy ed) are both retired teachers living in Santa Maria, CA.  Bill taught accounting for 39 years, while Pat taught elementary for 25 years.

Joan Sprague ’58 (phy ed, Eng) ’68 (health) has recently retired from the San Diego Unified School District in CA, where she taught ESL and English for 16 years.  Her 42 years in teaching took her from MN, ND, CA, OR, NM, to overseas teaching in Germany, Japan, and The Philippines.  Sprague’s accomplishments include coaching a top-performing middle school gymnastics team in Kanto Plains Area of Japan in 1974, and being listed in Who’s Who among America’s Teachers, 1998.

Florence Stumbo ’58 (MS el ed) is a retired teacher living 6 months each year in Apache Junction, AZ and 6 months in Minnesota.  Florence and husband Carl Bakkum have 4 children and 9 grandchildren.

Nancy A. Olson ’55 (el ed) has written the book We Flew with our own Wings, which was published in July.  Nancy is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the Midwest 1999.  She was an elementary teacher in Glenwood, Villard and Starbuck, MN.  She received her signature status in the Red River Watercolor Society in 1999 and her painting "Copper Reflections" was in the Red River Watercolor Show at MSUM’s Dille Center for the Arts this past summer.

60’s
Joe Edlund ’65 (art) retired in 1998 after a great career teaching art and coaching swimming.  He coached both boys and girls swim teams for 32 years and will coach the girls team once again for the 2000 swim season.  He lives in Ely, MN with his wife Bonieta.

Sally Friese Hoffman ’69 (el ed)  returned to school to get a Master of Library degree after teaching on the Navajo reservation and Isleta Pueblo.  She works for the Los Alamos County Library and lives in Los Alamos, NM with her 2 children.

Mike Cool ’69 (pol sci) is a retired city manager, social studies teacher and USAF pilot. Currently Mike is developing lake property in northern Minnesota and lives in Akeley, MN with his wife Carol.

Ronald Nealis ’66 (soc st) ’70 (MA phy ed) and Louise ‘67 (el ed) live in Ocala, FL. Ron retired in 1999 after 33 years of teaching and is now house husband, part-time school tour director and manager of his own rental properties.  Lou is still teaching.

Sherman Hoseth ’67 (bus admin) ’70 (distrib ed) has retired from teaching at the ND State College of Science and now farms and sells insurance.  He lives in Twin Valley, MN, with his wife Jeannine.

Erna Nelson Hoseth ’61 (el ed) is retired and lives in Detroit Lakes, MN with her husband Arnold.

Karen Thorson Kaldor ’62 (el ed) and Darrel ’61 (phy ed) both retired teachers, live in Lake Nebagamon, WI.

Elaine Jacobson Gunderson ’62 (el ed) is a retired teacher living in Thief River Falls, MN with husband Orley.  She taught in Thief River Falls, Willmar and East Grand Forks, MN; and Reno, Nevada.

Darrel Kaldor ’61 (phy ed) and Karen Kaldor ’62 (el ed) live in Lake Nebagamon, WI.  They both recently retired from successful teaching and coaching careers at Northwestern High School in Maple, WI.  Darrel was 1998 Wisconsin Asst. Football Coach of the Year.

Dick Sethney ’61 (Eng) Carol Dorale Sethney ’66 (el ed) have retired with a combined 67 years of teaching experience.  They live half the year in Ft. Meyers, FL, and half in Rapid City, SD, and spend much of their time traveling.

Steven VanWie ’69 (bus admin/acctg) retired in 1989 after 20 years as a Naval aviator and is now employed as a captain for American Airlines.  He lives in N. Richland Hills, TX, and has a 17 year-old daughter.

Doug Hanson ’68 (indus tech) ’69 (art) is art department chair at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa where he lives with his family.  He is part of the executive committee and is a founding member of "Potters for Peace", an international network of volunteers interested in peace, justice and cultural preservation.   His role is to organize exhibitions of Nicaraguan ceramics.

Norma Hovland Van Sickle ’66 (Eng) lives in Fergus Falls, MN with her husband Charles.  She has been teaching for 34 years and says, "I still loves the kids, their humor, and their fresh ways of looking at various topics."  Norma and Charles collect and display Department 56 Dickens’ Village and North Pole houses, but have exhausted the space they have available!

Robert D. ’62 (art/indus educ) and Evonne Hanson ’62 (el ed) live in Waterloo, WI.  Robert is a retired teacher who now does a little furniture making.  Evonne is involved with family genealogy and even visited Norway last summer to check out their many cousins there.

Danny Buckle ’69 (health/PE) teaches for the Mahnomen Public Schools.  He and his wife Sharon have owned and operated Buckles Hardware in Twin Valley, MN since 1984.

70s
Larry Bopp ’71 (math) is director of information services for the city of Asheville, NC.  He and wife Yolanda live in Fairview, NC.

Paul Whitney ’77 (hist) teaches social studies in Breckenridge, MN where he lives with his wife, Nancy and their 2 children.  As a teacher/consultant for the Nat’l Geographic Society, Paul has been active in geographic education.  He co-authored From the Cedars to the Prairies, which is an ethnic studies book on Arab-Americans.

Vicki (Schroeder) Meredith ’72 (health/PE) teaches PE/health in Stewartville, MN, where she lives with her daughter.  Vicki is president of the Stewartville Historical Society and is a volunteer for Girl Scouts.

Rodney Rice ’77 (Eng) retired last year after serving 22 years in the Air Force, including 9 years teaching English at the Air Force Academy.  He is currently an associate professor of English at the South Dakota School of Mines.  Rod lives in Rapid City, SD with his wife Pamela and 3 children.

Pam Herring Wettstein ’73 (el ed) is employed as principal for Wilson Middle School in Tulsa, OK, where she lives with her husband Chuck.

Hazel Edwards Fankhanel ’76 (bus ed) and Jack Fankhanel are retired and live in Pelican Rapids, MN.

Marilee Marvig Reck ’74 (social work) ’94 (MS sociology) is Director of Waseca County Human Services.  She and her husband Dan are enjoying the "empty nest syndrome."

Patricia Morth Paula ’79 (el ed) is a teacher with O’Fallon Public Schools.  She and her husband Frank live in O’Fallon, IL, with their daughter Ashley.  She has happy memories of Mick’s Office & Gert Burgers!

Linda Russell ’76 (el ed) is back teaching after a 13-year stint at the homefront.  She lives in Edmonds,WA, with her daughter Sara.

Janet Sershen-Lachowitzer ’78 (soc wk) is retired and living with her husband Arv in Esteno, FL.

Scott Perkins ’73 (HMR/Mgt) is a contractor for Northern Classic Homes.  He lives in Lakeway, TX, with his wife Monica and children Bailey and Peter.

Gordon Hella ’75 (bus admin) is a budget analyst for the State of Nevada.  He lives in Reno, NV, with his wife Theresa and children Jeremy and Brandon.

Tim Wang ’72 (acctg) is finance director for the Northwest Minnesota Foundation.  He is involved with the North Country Snowmobile Club, Bemidji Youth Soccer, and is Bemidji Township Treasurer.  He lives in Bemidji, MN, with his wife Mary and children Jackie, Kendra, Andy and Alexa.

Pamela Beron Wedum ’75 (sp/lang) ’88 (MS sp/lang/audiology) just embarked on the 7th career change in her life and is working as a legal secretary. She lives in Choteau, MT, with husband Neal and 2 children.  Pam says Choteau is quaint, time-stopped in 1959, the sidewalks roll up at 8 p.m. and the movie theater still has $.50 candy!

Michael S. Wilson ’73 (bus admin) just moved to Washington, IA, where he lives with his wife Vicki.  He has been in the financial service field since 1985 and is currently a self-employed investment representative.

Suzann Williamson Prokosch ’78 (sp/lang/hrg) has been a speech and language therapist for many years in Minnesota and New Mexico.  She is a certified health and wellness counselor/holistic therapist with an MA in human development.  Suzann and her husband, Steven, live in Corrales, NM, where she is employed by Cottonwood Montessori.

Myrna Williams Johnson ’72 (el ed) is executive director of Camp Fire Boys and Girls for eastern ND and western MN, a board member of the ND Association of Nonprofit Organizations, and belongs to an investment club.  She lives in Moorhead, MN, and she and her husband, Allen, have two grown children.

Mark Tysver ’72 (bus admin) is a business solutions consultant for Pro Systems Corp.   He lives in Fergus Falls, MN, with his wife Faith.  They have three grown children.

Tanya Pemberton ’78 (indiv major) worked for 10 years after graduation and then enrolled in the Univ. of Puget Sound law school.  In 1994, she opened her own law office in Tacoma, WA, where she lives with her husband, Larry Frazier.

Barbra Bullis Westman ’77 (indiv major/soc wk) is pursuing her master’s in community counseling at the U. of Nebraska after 22 years in social work.  She lives with her husband Mark in Hastings, NE.

James Clausen ’71 (math) and Victoria Lund ’72 (music) live in Verndale, MN.  In 1999 James retired from the United Methodist Church and formed The Centre Stage Manufacturing Company, which makes stage curtains and fiber-optic curtains.

Beth Bronken Carlson ‘74 (music) is a music teacher for Cathedral Elementary School in Crookston, MN, where she lives with her husband Neil and two children.  In addition to teaching elementary school, she has directed high school productions for 20 years.  She is active in her church and community and says Crookston is a great town to live in.

William Buckley ’73 (biol) has been employed by Mower County as an environmental health specialist for 26 years.  He lives on the Cedar River near Austin, MN, where he enjoys watching wildlife and fishing for smallmouth bass.

Vivian Ewing ’74 (health/PE) lives in Calgary, Alberta, with her son.  She is a fashion model and aerobics instructor and has been flight attendant for Air Canada for 22 years.

David Hinkley ’71 (indus ed) is the computer and communications operations manager for Border States Electric in Fargo, ND, where he lives with his wife, Joette.

Nancy Clementson Raguse ’77 (phy ed) teaches PE as well as serving as curriculum coordinator/grad standards technician for the Wheaton, ND, schools.   She and her husband, Steve, keep busy with the activities of their three teenage children.

Kevin McGrew ’74 (psych) ’75 (MA school psych) is a visiting professor in the department of educational psychology at the University of Minnesota.  He also serves as director of the Institute for Applied Psychometrics.  He is co-author of the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities and Tests of Achievement (Third Edition).

Susan Mader Nelson ’78 (MA counseling/dev) is a rehabilitation counselor for the State of Minnesota.  In addition to her counseling career, she designs animal and flower theme tote bags on a part-time basis.  Nelson lives in Rochester, MN with her husband, Dallas.

80s
Sharon Ferris, director of academic support programs at MSUM, retired earlier this year after a 35-year career on campus.  Ferris joined the MSUM staff in 1965 as secretary to then academic dean Maurice Townsend (who went on to become president of West Georgia College).  When Roland Dille became academic dean the next year, she served as his secretary until Dille was named president of the university in 1968.

Ferris then became administrative assistant to academic dean Robert Hanson, who became president of Winona State, and three MSUM academic vice presidents—the late William Jones, F.C. Richardson and Roland Barden, all who eventually became college presidents.  She was appointed director of academic support services in 1993.

Originally from Devils Lake, ND, Ferris holds an undergraduate degree in office administration from MSUM and a master’s degree in educational administration from Tri-College University.  She and her husband Mike have two grown children.

Daryl Arnold Tumberg ’81 (soc wk) is a sales consultant for Superstation K106 Radio in New York Mills, MN, where he lives with his two children.  He plans to run in the upcoming Twin Cities marathon.  Go for it, Daryl!

Sherry Holland McDonald ’85 (mktg) has had an Allstate Insurance Agency for 14 years in Vancouver, where she lives with her husband Jeff.  They love the Northwest and enjoy camping, fishing, and their 5 children and 3 grandchildren.

Dagmar Simons Mickelsen ’86 (acctg) is a reinsurance treaty accountant with Trenwick America.  She is married to Richard Mickelsen, they have three children and live in Montrose, NY.

Douglas ’86 (acctg) and Heidi Neumann Marcussen ’86 (el ed) have lived in Ada, MN, for 10 years with their three children.  Doug owns an accounting and tax business and Heidi is the elementary principal in the Fertile-Beltrami school district.

Marianne Lovetere Linebaugh ’80 (el ed) teaches for the Vinta County school distict.  She lives in Lyman, WY, with her husband William and their two children.

Kris Lambrecht ’82 (mgt) works as vice president for digital solutions for Carlson Companies.  He lives in Burnsville, MN, with his wife Diane and their two children.

Bradley Kingsley ’84 (math) After six years of teaching and three years of graduate school, Brad is a program supervisor for a group home for juvenile boys.  He lives in Excelsior, MN.

T. J. Ryan ’84 (history) is a project director of Abt Associates.  He lives in Columbia, MD, with his wife Rosa and their four children.

Brenda Linstad Lund ’89 (bus admin) lives in Minnetonka, MN, with her husband John and their two boys.  She has taken time off from her job at General Mills to happily spend time with her children and do volunteer work at their preschool and church.

Marc Lepage ’84 (fin) operates Northstar Aviation Insurance and Western Bonding, Inc. in Fargo, ND, where he lives with his wife Yvonne and their two children.

Scott Tomes ’89 (int’l bus/mktg) is sales director for Quik-to-Fix-Foods and in his spare time raises black labs.  He lives in Minnetrista, MN.

Francis Materi ’85 (mass comm) was a triple winner in the Better Newspaper Contest, sponsored by the ND Newspaper Association.  Francis, who works for The Wishek Star, claimed first-place awards in government series reporting for stories on water damage in McIntosh County; sports series reporting for stories on the state champion wrestling team; and agricultural coverage for stories on the local farm scene.

Karla McCrory Gavin ’88 (German) has been promoted to Director of Athletics/Recreation Center Director at Upper Iowa University.  She and her husband, Ray, reside in Fayette, Iowa, with their daughter.

Louise Lund-Vaa ’83 (mass/speech comm) is working as an Air Force public affairs officer.  She lives in Yorktown, VA, with her husband Raymond and two children.

Karen Lee Wedul Evans ’87 (el ed) and her husband, Timothy, are expecting their third child any day!  Since graduating from MSUM Karen has worked with Campus Crusade for Christ and for private schools.  She now lives in South Pasadena, CA.

Dave Hickery ’87 (Eng) is editor of the weekly newspaper in Dawson, MN, where he lives with his daughter Leah.

Jeffrey Molldrem ’86 (chem) is a physician working as a hematologist at the U. of Texas’ Anderson Cancer Center where he is the chief of transplantation immunology in the department of marrow transplantation.  Jeff lives in Houston, TX.

Pamela Gregory Johnson ’87 (soc st) has been a customer service rep for CreditAmerica for 5 years and volunteers for Habitat for Humanity.  She lives in Fergus Falls, MN.

Robert (Tom) Alleckson ’82 (acctg) and Sandra Wulf Alleckson ’83 (el ed) live in Aurora, CO with their 3 daughters.  Tom works for Northwest Airlines, Sandy for the Univ. of Colorado Hospital.  They enjoy Colorado where they have lived for 6 years.

Gini Duval ’85 (MLA) is retired and living in Fargo, ND, where she is running for the North Dakota House.

Karen Busch-Arita ’80 (el ed) taught elementary school for several years before returning to school to earn a Master’s in education and work on her doctorate.  Currently she is an at-home Mom, residing in Elk Grove, CA with her husband, Steve and their son.

Barb Dauner ’81 (soc wk) is employed as a corrections-probation office supervisor for Ada County Juvenile Court.  She keeps busy with the activities of her children and teaching religious education to 4th graders.  Dauner lives in Boise, Idaho, with her husband Ted Cray and children, Danielle and Sara.

Missy Merkens Okeson ’89 (early /exceptional ed) lives in Roseau, MN, with her husband Keith and children Taylor and Tanner.

Pamela Hanson Thompson ’86 (acctg) is a CPA with her own practice, The Thompson Group P.C.  Her market niche is consulting with publicly traded companies and professional athletes.  She resides in Pheonix, AZ, with her husband, Bernard (a NBA veteran) and four children, Gabriella, and triplets Matthew, Marcus and Michael.

Ann Nelson Kohler ’89 (mass com) is employed as a personal banker for First United Bank in Grafton, ND, where she lives with her husband Dan and son Ryan.  Daughter Jennifer is attending MSUM!

Scott Thoreson ’83 (bus admin) is a hospital administrator for Springfield Medical Center, which is part of the Mayo Health System.  He lives in Springfield, MN, with his wife Gwen and three children.

Catherine Cranston ’88 (el ed) teaches second grade for the North St. Paul school district.  She lives in Somerset, WI.

Scott ’83 (music) and Carol Howard Fuhrman ’83 (soc wk) live in Fairmont, MN.  Scott is a district rep for Aid Association for Lutherans.  They spend their liesure time golfing and boating.

Paul Pries ’88 (math) is a rate development manager for General Casualty Insurance. He and his wife Betty enjoy volleyball, golf and gardening where they live in Madison, WI.

Donna Maulding Enzminger ’83 (soc wk) is a social worker for the ND State Hospital.  She and her husband Dennis have 2 children and live in Streeter, ND.

Marv Vee ’80 (bus admin) is a software analyst for Reynolds & Reynolds Automotive Division.  He lives in Centerville, OH.

Carolyn Peterson Bartuska ’87 (mktg) lives in Forest River, ND, with her husband Jack, and two children.  Carolyn says that after 10 years of driving 45 miles to work every day, she landed an at-home job as sales and service rep for Murphy Sales.  Now all her "business lunches" are with her kids!

Sheri Anderson Erickson ’81 (acctg) ’86 (bus admin) is an assistant professor of accounting at MSUM.  She lives in Fargo, ND, with husband Jim and children Kate, Jane and Sammuel.

Lori Olson Morrell ’86 (Eng) is co-owner of Morrell Photography, specializing in commercial, aerial and travel photography.  She and husband Steve live in Knoxville, TN, with children Jordan and Jonathan.

Susan Kragero Stephens ’81 (indiv major) is employed by MC1 Women’s Health Center.  She and her husband David live in Mandan, ND.

Joan Staszko Greving ’81 (mass comm) lives in Fargo, ND, with her husband Dick and three daughters.  Both Joan and Dick are sales reps for Books are Fun, a national discount book company.

Lori Schneider Quaal ’89 (el ed) plans to take a one-year leave from teaching to care for her new baby (arrived in April) and 2-year old Emily.  Lori has taught for 11 years, earned her master’s degree, and lives in Lakeville, MN, with her husband Jim.

Gail Poulson McMartin ’88 (mass comm) is mayor of St. Thomas, ND where she lives with husband Ron and their two children.

Rochelle Shirk ’85 (mass comm) has been promoted to vice president, product marketing for International Multifoods.  In her position, Shirk has overall product marketing responsibility for U.S. Foods, International Multifoods’ foodservice manufacturing business.  She lives in Plymouth, MN, with her husband and son.

A tale of two computer science majors from ’84.  David Larson lives and works in St. Louis, MO.  Scot Sloan works for a consulting firm in San Diego, CA.  They found themselves communicating via e-mail and phone regarding some business issues, never realizing that they were the same Scot Sloan and David Larson that attended classes at MSUM together.  Scot flew out to St. Louis so they could work together on a project and when David went to pick him up at the hotel lobby, they realized they knew each other!  Their names are common enough that neither one had considered asking the other if he had attended a small university in Minnesota.  As David says, "Who’d a thunk it??"

90’s
Mary Ellsworth Townsend ’94 (Eng) was awarded her MA in English Literature from Marquette University in May.  She is employed as Asst. Director of Stewardship at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI.

Niles Godes ’90 (econ) is employed as chief of staff for ND Sen. Byron Dorgan.  He graduated with honors from Georgetown University Law School in Feb. 2000, and passed the Maryland Bar.  He lives in Arlington, VA.

Pauline Matson Smith ’93 (acctg) works as an accountant for Rebuild Resources, Inc., which provides training and experience for addicted people living in half-way houses.  She lives in Hudson, WI.

Charline Johnson King ’97 (mass comm) lives in Fargo with her husband Jeff and is employed by Lightowler Johnson Associates as a marketing assistant

Laura Thares Langstraat ’90 (mass comm) is director of public relations for National Crop Insurance Services.  She lives in Prairie Village, KS, with her husband Mike and daughter Haley.

Ken Lawonn ’92 (comp info sys) is vice president and CIO for Banner Healtyh System.  He lives in Fargo with his wife, Kim, and two children.

Maxine Fagerland ’91 (soc wk) works for Ameripride Linen and Apparel in Fargo, ND.  Maxine sends her "congratulations" to Dick Dubord on his retirement and the scholarship established in his honor.

Kevin ‘90 (acctg) and Joanna Kingsbury Etzler ’93 (criminal just/soc) live in Breckenridge, MN, with their 10 month old twins.  Kevin farms and is a tax accountant and Joanne works as a juvenile counselor for Valley Lake Boys Home.

Virginia (Ginny) Anderson Erickson ’90 (el ed) was voted "Teacher of the Year" at Watford City High School for 1999-2000, where she has been a special ed teacher for 9 years and department chair for 5.  She and her husband live on a farmstead near Cartwright, ND.  Check out the picture of Ginny receiving her 24 kt Golden Apple at http://www.4eyes.net/wchs/recognition/teacher%20_year.html.

Todd Grow ’92 (lib arts) lives in Moorhead, MN, where he is the assistant manager of Wal-Mart.

Mary Bauer German ’93 (acctg) is the business manager for Strata Corporation.  She lives in Fargo, ND, with husband, Greg, and two children.

Paula Knoll ’97 (mass comm) lives in Minnetonka, MN, where she is a pharmaceutical sales rep for Pharmacie/Searle.

Michael Mueller ’91 (crim justice) and Kathlene Puterbaugh Muellr ’91 (pol sci), ’94 (MS PHSA) live in Pierre, SD with their baby son.  Mike is deputy press secretary for the governor and Kathi is the manager of data, statistics and vital records for the state department of health.

Holly Jean Wood Lindahl ’95 (el ed) married Gregg, a  Cobber, a year after she graduated.  She now as her dream job of  "stay at home mommy."  She wishes the best of luck to all her good friends from MSU days.

Stacie Willits Stein ’95 (mass comm) was recently named director of marketing and membership for the Girl Scout Council of Northwest ND.  She and her husband Kevin recently purchased a home in Minot.

Adam Callow ’95 (mass comm/mktg) moved to Chicago with his cat in May to work as a senior account exec for FCB.  He sends special greetings to his Owl brothers everywhere.

Heidi Scheusner ’96 (mass comm) recently moved to Blackburgs, VA, where she is pursuing her master’s degree in student affairs.  She would love to hear from old friends.  Check MSU’s web-site for her e-mail address.

Larry Brey ’93 (health ed) received his master’s degree in ’95 and works as program director for athletic training at Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina.  He thanks everyone and calls his days at MSUM "truly a life changing time."

Susanne Johnson Hinrichs ’93 (mktg) lives in Chadron, NE, with her husband Jody and newborn daughter.  She works as a development assistant for Chadron State College.

Sally Thompson ’93 (speech com) has been named property manager for the new Outlets at Albertville, a 250,000 square foot factory outlet center 30 minutes northwest of Minneapolis, MN.

Joan Grudem ’93 (mktg) lives in Fargo, ND and is employed as marketing manager for Intellisol International.

Leah Prussia ’95 (psych) is a counselor and dean of students for Pine Point School.  She lives in New York Mills, MN.

Lisa White ’98 (sp ed) teaches special education for the Lakeville Public Schools.  She is engaged to Jeremy Holien ’97 (art), who teaches art in Northfield, MN.

Denise Dinnel Sorenson ’98 (soc wk) is employed by CIGNA Behavioral Health as an intake specialist.  She lives with husband Todd and son Caleb in Bloomington, MN.

Shannon Kinsella ’90 (el ed) is a middle school teacher in the Richmond,VA, area, where she teaches math and science to 6th graders.  She lives in Midlothian, VA.

Paul Geppert ’94 (fin) joined the Army in 1995 and was deployed to Bosnia for a 10 month tour.  He now lives in Sioux Falls, SD, with wife Jennifer and does software training and installations for Precision Computer Systems.

Bridget Hanson ’95 (econ) moved to the Los Angeles area in August and now works as sales inventory coordinator for Premiere Radio Networks.

Richard Kappel ’97 (lib arts)  is a train dispatcher for BNSF in Grapevine, TX.

Joseph Benz ’97 (soc wk) is a recruiter for Health Partners in St. Paul, MN.

Michael Peterson ’97 (acctg) has been named as an associate with the Fargo office of Eide Bailly, in the firm’s farm accounting and tax department.

Diane Muscha Jones ’90 (math) is an officer in the US Air Force.  She lives in Hampton, VA, with her husband Scott and two children.

Marcie Marie Umlauf ’99 (psych) recently married Todd DeBoer.  She is a resident specialist with Northwestern Mental Health Center in Crookston, MN.

Mindy Grantham ’92 (mass comm)  recently moved to New York City where she accepted a job as Director of Marketing and Communications for Callen-Lorde Community Health Center.

Michael Vegoe ’93 (bus ad) lives in Eagan MN, where he works as a sales exec. for Asset Marketing, the nation’s largest sports memorabilia distributor.

Ping Zhong Sun ’91 (MS comp sci) lives in Lorton, VA, and works as a computer scientist for the Office of Inspector General, Department of Transportation.

2000
Pamela Iverson ’00 (ind design) works as a designer/drafter for Specialty Systems Engineering in Montevideo, MN, where she lives.  She says going on Eurospring was the best decision made during her college career and can’t wait to go back to Europe.

Tim Nelson ’00 (art/graphic design) has been hired as in interactive designer by Minneapolis, MN, firm Carmichael Lynch Thorburn.

Do you have more than one address?
The Alumni Foundation office has a new computer system that allows us to maintain more than one address per alum.  If you spend summer in the northland and winter somewhere warm, we want both addresses.  Reunions are being planned this winter for Arizona and possibly Florida.  If we don’t have your winter address, please call the Alumni Foundation’s toll free number 1-877-270-2586 and let us know where you’ll be.  We don’t want to miss anyone!

A few dates to remember:
Saturday, March 17, 2001: Reunion at the Wrigley Mansion in Pheonix, Arizona
July 5 ? 7, 2001: Owls Centennial at MSUM
October 11, 12, 13, 2001: MSUM Homecoming
October 12 and 13, 2001: Reunion for the classes of 1949, 1950 and 1951