Today, he’s still crushing bones, but as a research chemist. And the results may change the way doctors repair bones, fuse spines, mend cartilage and even regenerate blood vessels for generations to come.

“Call it bone in a bottle,” says Benedict, now vice president of research and development for Sulzer Biologics in suburban Denver. “Essentially we’re using chemistry to teach bones how to heal themselves and grow new parts. So far it’s worked 100 percent of the time in human trials. It’s a dream I’ve been chasing for 16 years.”

Benedict is one of four MSUM graduates who will receive Distinguished Alumni Awards during a Homecoming Week Awards Banquet at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12 at the Ramada Plaza Suites.

You’d think Benedict had already peaked professionally. While a senior research chemist for Procter & Gamble, Benedict invented the chemical formulation for Actonel, one of the nation’s leading drugs in combating the debilitating affects of osteoporosis.

Procter & Gamble expects the U.S. market for Actonel, approved by the FDA last year, will exceed $100 million in its first year.

“I’m very proud of the work I did developing Actonel,” he said. “But this new bone growth factor has extraordinary potential.”

Called Ne-Osteo, it’s a molecular cocktail of proteins that uses the magic of human biology to repair itself.

”What we do is extract naturally occurring bone morphogenic proteins (BMP) from cow bones and then purify them. The result is a chemical that signals bone cells to regenerate.”

BMPs, he said, appear to play an embryonic role in all mammal development by signaling stem cells not only to make bone, but also to grow new blood vessels and other tissues.

“If you genetically alter BMPs in fish embryos, for example, the result could be a fish with feathers,” he said. “Or in fowl, chickens with scales.”

The point being: BMPs are powerful and influential biological triggers.

Nevertheless, he said, BMPs are BMPs, whether they come from cows or humans. The molecular structure is essentially the same in all mammals.

“We use cow bones because they’re plentiful here,” says Benedict, whose suburban office in the Denver suburb of  Wheat Ridge is just 40 miles south of an abattoir in Greeley, where 4,000 cattle are slaughtered daily.

But the BMP cocktail Benedict is refining is so purified and specific that it takes about 300 pounds of cow femurs—crushed, filtered, separated and reduced into molecular basics­­to produce less than a gram of Ne-Osteo.

“Mother nature is a good chemist, but she’s also very frugal,” he said.

Benedict, an Osakis, Minn., native, earned a chemistry degree at Minnesota State University Moorhead in 1966 and was a starting center on the Dragon footgball team all four years. While studying for his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he also played two years of semi-professional football for the Madison Mustangs, then a farm team for the Green Bay Packers.

“I wasn’t as big and fast as most of the semi-pro players, but I was just as smart,” he said. “Anyway, I made $25 a practice and $100 a game. That was a lot for a graduate student then.”

But he took a worse beating in the classroom. “I just wasn’t prepared to compete at that level academically. In fact, I failed all four of my preliminary exams the first semester. But after putting in 20 hours a day studying, I eventually caught up.”

His wife, Pam (Wimmer), from the Fargo Wimmer Jewelry family, received an art degree from MSUM in 1967. After she graduated, the two married and Pam taught art in Madison area schools while Jim finished his doctorate.

He’s convinced his football and fraternity experience helped him get hired at Procter & Gamble.

“Back then not many Ph.D. chemists were being hired anywhere,” he said.  “Fortunately, one of UW-Madison’s distinguished science professors, Larry Dahl, also happened to be a football fan. We developed a relationship and he wrote me a letter of recommendation to P&G. And oddly enough, the P&G recruiter who interviewed me was also a fellow member of the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity. We happened to meet at a national convention when I was named Sig Tau’s Man of the Year while I was a student at Moorhead State.”

As a young chemist at Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Benedict cut his teeth, so to speak, working on  a team developing Crest’s anti-calcification toothpaste.

Today’s version, Crest tartar protection toothpaste, helps prevent plaque from calcifying into tartar, which can cause periodontal disease.

More than a decade later, after painstakingly refining and tinkering with the same molecular structures he manipulated while developing that toothpaste, Benedict concocted the molecular formula for what’s now known as Actonel, slated to become one of  P&G’s most profitable pharmaceuticals.

He did it despite warnings from his immediate superior at P&G to abandon what then looked like an unprofitable project.

“We believed in the work so much, we carried out our research as surreptitiously as possible,” he said.  His two colleagues on the project weren’t as stealthy. Both were transferred out of the department. But Benedict kept the project alive in his spare time until the corporation decided to renew it.

Osteoporosis, a disease that causes bones to thin and become brittle, affects about 25 million Americans—80 percent of them women. It’s one of the top six causes of death in older women and is responsible for more than 1.5 million fractures a year.

“No, I don’t get a piece of the action from Procter & Gamble’s sales of the drug,” Benedict said. “Research was part of my job. In any case, it’s a remarkable feeling knowing that the drug can help so many people.”

But it was at Procter & Gamble where his research on bones, bone disease and skeletal structure began.

A big, soft-spoken man, Benedict visually lights up when talk turns to chemistry. He patiently explains the complexities of his research in simple terms.

“It all started with chemicals called bisphosphonates,” Benedict said. “We were interested in them at P&G because bisphosphonates soften hard water by attaching themselves to the minerals in water and deactivating them. And they love calcium. The theory was that if we added them to detergent, it would prevent the buildup of soap scum around tubs and sinks.”

On teeth, for example, they attached to enamel, and tended to prevent plaque from turning into tartar (calcium).

But in the human body, they discovered, bisphosphonates head straight for the bones, where they also attach themselves to calcium. And once they reach bone, they do more than attach—they inhibit the action of osteoclasts, the cells that resorb or tear down old bone. The result: the right formulation of  bisphosphonates showed potential to slow down or stop bone loss.

Bone, Benedict explains, is a living tissue that’s in a constant process of breaking down and building up. “We literally grow a new skeleton about every 10 years,” he said. “It’s an interesting interaction between two types of cells: osteoclasts, which resorb or tear down old and damaged bone, and osteoblasts, which rebuild new bone.”

What Actonel does is inhibit the destructive behavior of osteoclasts, which then allows osteoblasts free reign to build new bone.

“I spent about 10 years at Procter & Gamble researching these chemicals, making literally hundreds of molecules to find the right effect, hanging new atoms off other atoms, adjusting the spatial relationships among them.  Then all of a sudden the idea came to me about how exactly to construct this particular molecule that would create the cellular activity we wanted.”

After painstaking research to ensure that the molecules in Actonel were relatively cheap and easy to synthesize, and also non-toxic, it took another decade to get the drug approved by the FDA.

“The average time it takes to get a new drug to market now is 15 years,” Benedict said. “And the average cost is over $300 million. You need deep pockets to play in this game.”

That’s been part of Benedict’s learning curve since that day 16 years ago when he left P&G to join two colleagues (Andy Tofe and Jim Poser) in a small Denver-based biotech start-up company called Mitral Medical. The three met while working on bone protein and growth factors at P&G

“In hindsight, it was a terrible decision,” he said. “Procter & Gamble was a great company to work for with incredible resources. But I was 41 at the time, so maybe it was a midlife crisis of sorts.”

But they were also in pursuit of a dream, something beyond detergents and toothpaste: developing bone growth factors. And they all wanted to be hands-on chemists, not administrators.

Besides, the small Denver company they joined, which originally focused on making artificial heart valves, had the venture capital to support their work.

“Our goal was to fish these BMPs out of cow bones and put them in a product suitable for treating people, a natural bone graft material an orthopedic surgeon could take out of a bottle and apply in surgeries,” he said.

The problem, of course, was isolating and purifying the exact blend of BMPs to do the job. That’s what occupied Benedict for the past 16 years, and it’s still a process in constant refinement.

Meanwhile, Mitral Medical was acquired from Dow Chemical by Intermedics Orthopedics. Benedict stuck with the bone growth research while his two colleagues left to pursue other research and academic endeavors.

Still needing financing to continue the dental research, the Swiss biotech firm Sulzer Medical acquired the rest of Benedict’s bone growth project in 2000. Sulzer is primarily involved in developing implantable medical devices and biomaterials for worldwide orthopedic and cardiovascular markets.

“Originally,” he said, “Sulzer thought the bone growth factor would have applications for stabilizing their implantable medical devices—essentially growing bone around them. Now, however, our research has extended beyond that and Sulzer is backing us.”

Benedict’s job today is more bureaucratic—managing the Denver division’s bone growth research, which employs more than 60 people, and its hurdles through FDA requirements

“Mostly I spend my time infecting others with the same enthusiasm I have for this product,” he said. “It’s an endless process keeping the dream alive because other areas of the corporation are also developing biomedical breakthroughs that need funding. The bottom line is to keep reinforcing our hopes for this product’s medical and profit potential.”

They’re now monitoring human trials of their bone growth material in Europe, mostly on patients undergoing spinal fusions.

“Often people with lower back pain need spinal fusions because a disc bulges or slips and pinches a nerve,” Benedict said. “When doctors go in to put the disc back where it belongs, they need to structurally support it with plates, rods and screws and then surround it with bone material, often grafted from the patient’s hip. The bone hopefully grows around the implants. It’s like concrete reinforced with steel.

“Well, the problem is that it works only two-thirds of the time and taking a bone graft from a hip, for example, hurts like hell. And a lot of patients just don’t have enough bone in their hips. Our product is mixed with an extender material that resembles play dough. The doctor simply packs the fusion with it, and within three to six months it turns into natural bone—it’s convenient, simple and painless.”

Meanwhile, two humanitarian uses of the drug by doctors in Denver have added more credence to Ne-Osteo:

* The former manager of the new Denver International Airport, who’s confined to a wheelchair, experienced back pain so severe he became bedridden. After several unsuccessful surgeries, doctors used BMP to fuse his spine. Today, he’s back in his wheelchair able to sit up again.
* A young Denver woman born with uneven legs underwent three unsuccessful surgeries in an attempt to lengthen her shorter leg. Before resorting to amputating the leg because they couldn’t get a fusion at the growth site, surgeons tried one last time to save her leg using Ne-Osteo. It worked, and she’s walking today.

While the focus has been on spinal fusions, Benedict said, the potential for this bone growth product is expanding to the point where it could be used to regenerate blood vessels and blocked arteries following heart attacks, and for dental and cartilage repair. Benedict’s newest patents in these areas are beginning to open up even broader prospects for BMPs.

But with more than 30 years of methodical laboratory research under his belt, Benedict is beginning to take a different approach to the rest of his career.

He and his wife Pam now live in a fashionable pastoral neighborhood in Arvada, Colo., with a picture window view of Pike’s Peak, Bufallo Bill’s burial site on Lookout Mountain  and the sun setting over the continental divide. Horses in the backyard and BMWs in the driveway suggest success. They’ve raised three children. Pam  is busy as a kitchen design consultant.

Now he’s seriously thinking about teaching high school.

“Once I feel that my work here is done, I’d like to infect young people with the same enthusiasm I have for chemistry,” he said. “So much of the modern world relies on and can be explained by chemistry that I think many more of us need to learn about it. I’d like to contribute to that effort.”

1940’s
Helon Opgrand Jacobson ’38 (elem ed) ’41 (elem ed) lives in Sun City, AZ, where she is a free lance writer. Helon and her husband, Obed, have traveled to all 50 states plus 60 foreign countries.

1950’s
Rose Gustafson ’51 (elem ed) ’61 (elem ed) lives in Warren, MN.  In 1979 she retired after 44 years of teaching.
Angela Coppini Warner ’52 (elem ed) ’64 (elem ed) is a retired teacher living in Las Vegas, NV. She enjoys attending the North Dakota Picnic every year.
Elmer Erdman ’52 (elem ed) ’57 (MS, educ admin) lives in Huntington Beach, CA. Elmer and his wife, Jane, keep busy with yacht club activities, visiting children and grandchildren, and sail in their 26’ sailboat.
Joyce Jones Holm Junge ’53 (phy ed/bus ed) lives in Detroit Lakes, MN, with her husband Keith. She taught in Fargo, West Fargo and Cass County where she was superintendent of schools for several years.
Malcom “Mac” Dahl ’53 (social st/phy ed) lives in La Crescent, MN, with his wife Barbara. He retired from teaching and took up service activities, such as Legion, Vets, church, meals on wheels, and golf.
Richard Holzer ’53 (soc st) moved from Moorhead to California in 1950, and has been there ever since. Currently he lives in Miraloma.
John Rosequist ’54 (math) lives in Balla Vista, AR, with his wife, Isabell Cole. John is retired now, but taught electronic courses at MSUM and Wahpeton School of Science in ND, and developed an electronics curriculum for Texas Western College.
Philip Kiltie ‘56 (elem ed) and his wife Jeannine live in Alexandria, MN, most of the year, but they spend winters in Apache Junction, AZ.
June Hayer ’57 (elem ed) lives in Fargo, ND, with her husband Harry.  Recently June and several Gamma Nu’s got together in Arizona.  Are there any pictures you would like to share?

1960’s
Jan Dodge ’64 (elem ed) and Paul Kittelson ’61 (speech) have retired from teaching in the Morris and Benson, MN, schools. Paul is the mayor of Benson while Jan keeps busy with reading, gardening and lots of bridge. The Kittlesons live in Benson, MN.
Patricia Jacklitch ’62 (soc studies) lives in East Grand Forks, MN where she is completing her 35th year with the school system.  Pat was named the Minnesota School Counselor Association High School Counselor of the Year for 2001. Congratulations, Pat!
Sharlowe Welch Farrell ’63 (elem ed) is getting ready to retire after a career that includes teaching in Tacoma, WA, the Azores, Germany, Italy, Korea, and now San Diego. Sharlowe is now a second grad teacher in San Diego, CA, where she lives.
Clarice “Kelly” Christianson Falk ’36 (AS) ’63 (elem ed) was recently inducted into the Roseau, MN, Community Schools Hall of Fame.
John Leppert ’65 (Eng) works as WIC coordinator of the ND Dept. of health.  John and his wife Jill live in Bismarck, ND, but their two children both attend MSUM! They are planning a family trip to the UK and southern Africa for June to see the solar eclipse in Zambia.
Stephen Smalley ’66 (geog/hist) lives in Little Falls, MN, with his wife, Jane. After teaching for many years, Stephen is now employed by Schmidt Laboratory in St. Cloud.
Norm Sunstad ’66 (psych) just retired having spent 32 years in university housing administration. When he attended MSUM, Norm’s last name was Snustad. It is now Sunstad, which is the way the name was spelled in Norway a few generations ago.
Allan Windom ’68 (elem ed) recently retired from the Rosemount-Apple Valley Schools after 33 years of teaching. Allan and his wife, Maren, live in Burnsville, MN.
Mary Ann Germundson ’68 (elem ed) and her husband, Omer, live 6 months in Fergus Falls, MN, and 6 months in Mesa, AZ. She enjoys gardening, sewing, quilting, reading and time with her 10 grandchildren.
Marvin Gunderson ’68 (hist) ’78 (MA counseling) and his wife, Judy, live in Elbow Lake, MN, where Marv owns an insurance agency.
Dennis Romanini ’69 (mktg/bus admin) lives in Solon, Ohio, with his wife Candace. In 1981 Dennis purchased Tanglewood Country Club which was voted the best private course in northern Ohio in 2000.
Fran Kochis ’69 (Eng) lives in Grand Forks, ND, where she is an English lecturer at the University of North Dakota.

1970’s
Richard Jarrett ’70 (health/PE) lives in Beaufort, SC, with his wife, Sue.  Richard is comtemplating retirement after 30+ years teaching and coaching.  He says when the time comes, he is heading for his log cabin in the Smokies!
Gene ’70 (mgmt) and Mary ’74 (mktg) Johnson are living in Side Lake, MN. They own the Johnson Agency/Farmers Insurance Group in Hibbing.
Don Bowman ’71 (mass comm) is self-employed as a discount retailer in Bemidji, MN, where he lives with his wife, Mindy.
Gay Derby Ekberg ’71 (spch/lang/hearing) is a speech/language pathologist for elementary schools at Elbow Lake and Kensington.  Gay and her husband, Gordon, live in Herman, MN.
Brenda Carter Shaw ’72 (health/PE) lives in Eden Prairie, MN, and has several careers. After teaching for 10 years she moved to Minneapolis where she switched careers and is now a legal secretary. Brenda is also a semi-professional blackjack dealer for private parties, has her own candy company, and has published a blackjack dealers instructional curriculum.
Denise Pulkrabek Oppergaard ’72 (math) lives in Grand Forks, ND, with her husband, Roger. She is in her 25th year teaching math at Sacred Heart High School. After the school was destroyed in the 1997 flood, she spent two years teaching in a temporary building. She now teaches 7th ­ 10th grade math in the school’s brand new building.
Leslie Wagner ’72 (elem ed) is an elementary teacher in Crookston, MN, where he lives. His wife, Linda Carlson ’72, passed away in December of 1999.
Michael ’73 (math) and Mary Renken ‘72 (elem ed) Borken live in Corvallis, OR where Mary is a math teacher at Linn-Benton Community College, and Mike is on the faculty of Oregon State Univ. After graduating from MSUM they joined the Peace Corps. Since leaving the Peace Corps, they have traveled and lived in several places, including North Africa.
George French ’72 (soc wk) supervises child welfare, child protection and children’s mental health for the Collaborative County Child Family Social Workers. He and his wife, Arletta, live in Hinkley, MN.
Jack L. ’73 (geog) and Leola ’74 (med tech) Olson live in Bismarck, ND.  Jack is a senior planner for the ND Dept. of Transportation, and Leola is a medical technologist at St. Alexius Medical Center.
Terry ’73 (social wk) and Sharon ’72 (bus ed) ’98 (social wk) Jacobson live in Moorhead, MN.  Terry is the human resource director fo Clay County.  He has 32 years with the milatary ans was recently chosen Command Chief Master Sergeant at the ND Air National Guard. Sharon is a social worker at MeritCare in Fargo.
Kirsten Anderson ’74 (sp ed) teaches fourth grade in Barnesville, MN, where she lives with her husband, Thomas.
Terry Hertel ’74 (bus admin) is a programmer/analyst in Simi Valley, CA, where she moved two years ago.  Terry doesn’t miss winter one bit!
SueAnn Clanton ’74 (elem ed) lives in Buffalo, SD, with her husband, Gary. After raising four children and helping out on the Clanton ranch for 20 years, Terry returned to work as the career and testing facilitator for Harding County High School.
Kevin McGrew ’74 (psych) ’75 (MS school psych) is director of the Institute for Applied Psychometrics and a visiting scholar in educational psychology at the U of M. In July he attended the Internat’l School Pschylogy Assoc. conference in Dinan, France, and in November participated in the “Spearman Seminar” in Sydney, Australia.
Ellen Stowell ’75 (speech/lang/hearing) lives in Chattanooga, TN, with her husband, Timothy. After 25 years as a full-time speech pathologist, she made a career switch to marketing and is now employed by Siskin Hospital for Rehabilitation. When not working, she keeps busy turning her yard into one big flower garden!
Daniel Roos ’75 (Eng) is an English instructor and NCA coordinator for Minnesota West Community College in Worthington, MN, where he and his wife, Laurita, live.
Doug Haugen ’76 (soc wk) lives in Lake in the Hills, IL, with his wife, Doris. Doug is director of Lutheran men in mission for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Am.
Bob Durham ’76 (fin) and his wife Mary, live in Burnsville, MN, where Bob is co-owner of Total Office Products Inc.
Renee Schaible Caswell ’78 (bus admin) lives in Scottsdale, AZ, with her husband Steven, and their two children. She is an anesthesiologist for the Mayo Clinic Scottsdale Anesthesiology, and she is also an assistant professor and residency coordinator there.
Virginia Sanden Bren ’78 (nursing) is infection control coordinator for Altru Health System. Ginnie lives in East Grand Forks, MN, with her husband Steven and their two children. She says she greatly appreciates the training she received at MSUM!
Catherine Jelsing ’78 (lib arts) ’98 (univ studies) lives in Fargo, ND, with her husband, Terry.  After working for Forum Communications for 14 years, Cathy recently accepted the position of grants manager for Trollwood Performing Arts School.
Carolyn Susag Story’79 (mktg) and her husband, Thomas, live in Park City, MT, with their two preschoolers. After spending 9 years as a chef with Mirage Resorts in Las Vegas, Carolyn now enjoys her time as an at-home Mom.
Lori Simon Maddock ’79 (elem ed) teaches kindergarten in Maddock, ND, where she lives with her husband, Rod, and their 4 children.
Nancy Anderson Schmitz ’79 (indiv major) is a higher ed. administrator at Oakland University. She lives in Lake Orion, MI, with her husband, Tyler.
James ’79 (mktg) and Jane ’78 (soc wk) Gorecki, live in Woodridge, IL, with their three daughters. James is sales manager for Praten Industries, Jane is president of the Village Newcomer Club and a board member for the community food pantry.
Gerri Hlebain Joyce’79 (acctg) and her husband and two sons live in Moraga, CA. Geri is a homemaker and library volunteer.

1980’s
Kelly Pratt Raymond ’80 (indiv major) credits Dr. Richard Reed (psychology) with changing her life by encouraging her to pursue her dream of dancing. She has had a 15 year career in commercial production and the movie industry and is the owner of Shoreham Village Builders & Hollywood Park Publications, in Detroit Lakes, MN, where she lives.
Mike Strege ’80 (acctg) lives in Fargo, ND, with his wife, Debra. He is the area sales manager for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.
Chase “Casey” Enarson ’80 (mass comm) is district manager for Bon Appetit, a contract foodservice company, in Novato, CA, where he lives.
Patrick Atkinson ’81 (soc wk/crim jus) recently received the outstanding Humanitarian and Distinguished Citizen award from The Lions Clubs International in Antigua, Guatemala. The award was presented to Patrick in recognition of the many education, advocacy and legal defense programs he has designed for undereducated women, single mothers, and violence and drug-affected families in Guatemala. He was recently in the African nations of Malawi, Tanzania and Kenya, working at the request of the United Nations to develop residential-educational programs for AIDS orphans surviving on the streets.
Chad Mead ’81 (soc wk) ’89 (elem ed) is a school social worker in Buffalo, MN, where he lives with his wife and three children. He recently printed a book Golf Etiquette for Geniuses, which may be viewed at www.golf-genius.com.
Tamara Gross Doerr ’81 (elem ed) lives in Minot, ND, with her two children. She teaches music, bands and choir at Nedrose School, a rural school district with 250 students. Tammy sends this message to all PFY grads of 1981-82: “Can you believe we’ve been out of college and into the ‘real world’ for 20 years?!!”
Barb Dauner ’81 (soc wk) is a probabion office supervisor for Ada County Juvenile Court. She lives in Boise, ID, with her husband, Ted, and their two children.
Dan Brinkman ’81 (phy ed/soc studies) lives in Hutchinson, MN, with his wife Deann, and their two children. He teaches 8th grade phy ed and coaches varsity football and B-squad girls basketball.
Kurt ’82 (fin) and Susan ’83 (soc wk) Kratzke live in Moorhead, MN, with their three sons. Kurt is project manager for Wells Fargo Bank’s North Central Banking Group. Susan is a director in the long term care division of Banner Health system. Whenever possible they escape to their cabin on Lake Franklin!
Bonnie Schmidt ’82 (bus ad) owns her own restaurant in Norcross, MN, and is helping to raise an extended family.
Gene Anderson ’82 (bus ed) is a junior high math teacher and coach in Mandan, ND, where he and his wife, Connie, live.
Kelli Buss Schmitt ’82 (office admin/bus ed) is a special ed teacher in the Dakota Prairie School District. She lives in McVille, ND, with her husband, Dan, and their daughter.
Lisa Johnson ’83 (mass comm) celebrates her 10th anniversary at KUMD radio this fall. She produces and hosts a morning show called “Northland Morning” in Duluth, MN, where she and her daughter live. Listen online at www.kumd.org!
Dave Demke ’84 (theatre) is associate director of training for Shakespeare & Company, in Lenox, MA, where he lives with his wife, Lynda.
Brad Back ’84 (speech) developed a deep love for silent film as a result of classes he took from Ted Larson. Brad wrote the book The Secret of Mary Miles Minter’s Mother, which attempts to solve the unsolved murder of 1922’s William Desmond Taylor. The book is available at www.lstbooks.com/bookview/6096.
Beth Rakke ’84 (indiv major) ’90 (couns & human dev) received her Ph.D. in 1997 from Indiana State University. She works as a psychologist in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, Beth and her partner, Denise, live in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Suzanne Wasfaret Eiken ’84 (crim just) is a child support investigator in Williston, ND, where she lives with her husband, Dwight, and their two children.
Ann Willeson Sorteberg ’84 (indus illustration) is a lecturer of education and teacher learning center coordinator for Mayville State University in ND.
Lori Hammel ’84 (theatre) opened a solo exhibit “Opening Night,” at the Duplex Gallery, located at the Duplex Calaret Theatre in New York City.  It’s on view through January 15, 2002.  Hammel has been showing her artwork in Manhattan galleries and exhibition spaces for several years.  She was honored with an award in painting competition at the Times Square Gallery in 1998.  Her work can be found in private collections across the United States.
Mary Pederson Metelmann ’85 (soc wk) is a stay-at-home Mom. She received her masters in social work from Simmons College and did clinical social work for several years. She now lives in Belmont, MA, with her husband, Claye, and their two children.
Byron Jorgenson ’85 (indus tech) was named Young Engineer of the Yer in 1998. Byron and his wife, Beth, and their two children live in LinoLakes, MN, where he works as manager of product development for Hoffman Enclosures.
Paul Selid ’85 (fin) lives in Bexley, Ohio, with his wife, Mary, and their four daughters. Paul was recently named president of the Lexford Divison of Equity Residential Properties Trust.
Steven Johnson ’85 (acctg) is an attorney for the Vogel Law Firm, but says he is also a “soccer Dad”, coaching and watching his three daughters play. Steve, his wife, Jackie, and their children live in Reiles Acres, ND.
Janet Harlow Krause ’85 (spch/lang/hear) teaches deaf and hard of hearing children in Eau Claire, WI. She works part-time and loves it for the balance it allows between work and family. Janet and her husband, Harley, and their two children live in Chippewa Falls, WI.
Tracy Nelson ’86 (bus admin/acctg) lives in Lakeville, MN, with his wife Jackie, and their two children. He is a senior credit analyst for US Bancorp/Firstar.
Eileen McCann Dahl ’86 (nursing) says she enjoys retirement in beautiful Montana, where she lives with her husband, Ted. After several years teaching, she is now a trained volunteer for Hospice.
Steven Shannon ’86 (bus admin/mktg) lives in Corpus Christi, TX, where he is chief pilot for Halo Flight, a non-profit air ambulance company.
Gregg Jossart ’87 (chem) is a laparoscopic surgeon in San Francisco, CA, where he lives with his wife, Theresa, and their three children.
Tim Krile ’87 (fin) owns All Wireless Solutions in Fargo, ND, where he and his wife, Terry, live.
Mona Tedford Sharpe ’87 (bus admin/fin) is a trust officer for Wells Fargo Bank in St. Cloud, MN, where she and her husband, Peter, and their two children live.
Leah Erickson Carpenter ’87 (crim just) is a trooper for the Minnesota State Patrol in the Bemidji, MN, area. She and her husband, Bryan, live in Becida, MN.
Suzanne Schmidtbauer Shearson ’87 (spch/lang/hear) lives in Lino Lakes, MN, with her husband, David, and their three children. She resigned from Osseo Area Schools after 10 years of fun to be with her children full-time.
Stephanie Knutson ’88 (math) lives in Crookston, MN, where she and her husband, Dean, own a photography studio. They have one 4-year old son.
Kristi Paulson ’88 (speech comm/pol sci) has a masters degree in speech comm from NDSU and a law degree from the U. of MN. She manages a law firm in Apple Valley, MN, where she lives.
Carmen Croonquist ’88 (soc st) is director of career services for the U. of Wisconsin-River Falls. She says her lack of career planning as a student (Her first job after graduation was as a heavy equipment operator.) fueled her desire to help other college students make wise career choices. Carmen and her husband, Thomas Ross, live in Hudson, WI.
Sandra Goff ’88 (mgt) and Murray ’93 (CIS) Stefferud live in Champlin, MN, with their daughter.  Sandi is a restaurant manager for Davanni’s Pizza and Hot Hoagies, and Murray is a programmer/analyst for Steinwall, Inc.
Robert Cameron ’88 (soc st) lives in Goodlettsville, TN, with his wife, Robin, and their two sons. Bob works for Vaughan Printing, and when he isn’t working, he is training for the 26 mile Country Music Marathon. Let’s wish him luck!
Kelly Hein ’88 (elem ed) and her family live in Winona, MN, where Kelly says she is a domestic engineer! She enjoys being a fill-time Mom, teaching water fitness, and volunteering for church, Girl Scouts, and her kids’ schools.
Paul Eitel ’88 (speech comm) and his wife, Mary, live in Staples, MN, with their five children. Paul is a sales and marketing assistant for Louis Kemp Seafood and part-time radio announcer.
Kau Ellingson Rubbelke ’90 (mass comm) lives in Elko, MN, with her husband, Joe, and their two children. Kay is a communication consultant for a national benefits consulting firm.
Catherine Finke Ilkka ’89 (elem ed) is currently on a leave from teaching 6th grade while she works on her masters in education. Catherine, her husband, Greg, and their four small children live in New Prague, MN.
Rob Reardon ’89 (crim just/soc) is a project manager for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. He lives in Prescott, WI.
Brenda Linstad Lund ’89 (bus admin) lives in Minnetonka, MN, with her husband, John and their two children. She is now at at-home Mom, after spending 9 years at General Mills.

1990’s
Joel Raddatz ’90 (soc st) teaches special ed., world history, civics, econ. And English for the Stillwater Schools. He lives in Afton, MN, with his wife, Susan, and their two children.
Paula Ous Aalgaard ’90 (indiv major) started a home-based business called OUS Consulting in January. She assists people in non-profit organizations with organizational effectiveness. Paula and her husband, Nathan, live in Moorhead, MN.
Paul Waletzko ’90 (com sci) lives with his wife, Brenda, in Monument, CO, where he is an IT project manager for Ingersol Rand.
Jennifer Pray Hall ’90 (music) teaches music in the Oklahoma City Public Schools and has worked for the International Music Camp for 23 years. She lives in Norman, OK.
Melissa Hedlund Glander ’90 (acctg) lives in Fargo, ND, where she is an accountant for Heartland Health Systems.
Kristin Saar Carroll ’91 (graphic comm) lives in Midland, MI, with her husband, Brian, and their boy/girl twins. She is a free lance graphic designer.
Tim Purdon ’91 (Eng) lives in Bismarck, ND, where he is an attorney.
Kate Melchoir ’91 (psych) and Derrich Woehle ’91 (psych) are living in Westland, MI. Kate just started a clinical PhD program, and Derrich is currently working on his dissertation for his PhD in clinical psychology.
Amy Nelson ’91 (pol sci/int’l business) is executive director of the ND Fair Housing Council in Bismarck, ND, where she lives.
Tanya Kofstad Leiran ’92 (bus admin) is officer manager for the Keith Leiran American Family Insurance Agency. Tanya and Keith have three children and live in Ottertail, MN.
Patrick Lockwood ’92 (paralegal) recently received the Jennifer Krohn Award for GLBT Student from Great Minnesota. He received the award in recognition of the 15 years of work he has done in northern Minnesota as a diversity advocate. Currently he directs youth activities and training programs for Bemidji Safe.
TyAnn Schindler ’92 (biol) is a lab technician at Cargill, Inc. TyAnn lives in Barnesville, MN.
Roberta Schuelke ’92 (fin) is a personal banker at Wells Fargo Bank in Barnesville, MN, where she and her husband, Bryon, live.
Vicky Vietz-Reile ’93 (soc wk) lives in Rugby, ND, with her husband Aaron. Vicky is a social worker and has her own massage business.
Mark Wanek ’93 (art) started the graphic design department and still works for Rapid City Regional Hospital in Rapid City, SD, where he lives. Mark has won about 30 ADDY awards and says “Thanks MSU”!
Michelle Foulk Olson ’93 (mass comm) and her husband, Jody, live in Scottsdale, AZ, with their twin boys. Michelle is the public relations director for Lavidge & Baumayr Public Relations.
Kristine Anderson Fulton ’93 (Eng) is director of development for Cottey College in Nevada, MD, where she lives with her husband, Sid, and their daughter.
Matthew Thomason ’93 (fin) is a loan officer with State Bank of Fargo. He and his wife, Jill, and their two children live in Moorhead.
Linda Hanson ’93 (nursing) and her husband, Rolf, live in Crookston, MN, where Linda works for Polk County Public Health.
Tom Tumberg ’93 (anthro) and Amanda Gronhovd ’91 (anthro) live in Tucson, AZ. Tim is enrolled in the anthropology PhD program at the U. of Arizona and Amanda works for an archaeology firm.
Vicki Anderson Markhart ’93 (SLHS) is a speech pathologist in the pediatrics department of Courage Burnsville Therapy Services. She lives in Rosemount, MN, with her husband, Shawn, and their daughter.
Ruth Rondeau ’94 (legal aid) is a realty specialist for the US Fish & Wildlife Service. She lives in Fergus Falls, MN, with her husband, Tony.
Jody Nelson Dahlen ’94 (soc wk) and her husband, Jason, life in Evansville, MN, where Jody is a case manager for Otter Tail County Human Services.
Heather Glasford ’94 (SLHS) is a speech pathologist for Apache Jct. Schools in Mesa, AZ, where she lives with her husband, Noel, and their two children.
Corey ’94 (pol sce/mass comm) and Brenda Piotter Elmer ‘94 (pol sci/mass comm) live in Woodbury, MN, with their son. Corey is attending Wm Mitchell Law School and working as a lobbyist. Brenda is a legislative director for the State of Minnesota.
Julie Schulz ’95 (spec ed) is special needs coordinator for Head Start in Dakota County. She lives in Apple Valley, MN, with her husband Andrew.
Roe French ’95 (speech comm) is an admissions rep. for the U.of M. in Crookston, MN, where she and her husband, George, live.
Peggy Su Miller ’95 (graphic comm) lives in Moorhead, MN, where she
works as an ad designer for Forum Communications.
Karen Meier ’96 (spch/lang/hrg) and Ryan ’95 (energy mgmt) Urbach live in Andover, MN with their new baby.  Karen is a Speech Language Pathologist at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics.  Ryan is an Area Network Engineer at Siemens Building Technologies.
Susan Hunke ’96 (Am studies) and her husband, Bill Shirley, live in Basalt, CO, where Susan is a development associate with Aspen Valley Medical Foundation.
David Shea ’96 (graphic comm) is delivery manager for BI, lives in St. Louis Park, MN, and says he is having a blast!
Sara ’96 (biol) and Kim ’96 (phy ed) Rosendahl live in Champlin, MN, with their daughter. Sara is a physician assistant and Kim is a physical therapist.
Jason ’97 (speech comm) and Renee ’96 (legal asst) Slagter live in Omaha, NE, where Jason is in technical sales for the Maxim Group, and Renee is a paralegal.
Julie Pikala ’97 (bus admin) and her daughter live in Fergus Falls, MN, where Julie is a court deputy for Otter Tail County.
Amy Jaegere ’97 (music) just finished her first year in the music therapy program at UWO in Oshkosh, WI, where she lives. She also teaches piano lessons and works at an antique mall.
Mark Moitzheim ’97 (psych) was recently promoted to Operations Manager of the “great indoors.”  He resides in Lake Forest, CA.
Josh Gray ’98 (biol) is an administrative Assistant at Daktronics in Brookings, SD. Daktronics is a designer and manufacturer of electronic scoring and timing systems, computer programmable displays and video voting systems.
Riccardo Simpson ’98 (Eng) ’01 (MFA) recently moved to southern California to pursue a teaching/screenwriting career. He thanks MSUM faculty for all their support and encouragement.
Griffin Lechner (Victor) ’98 (univ studies) is a major account manager for Cisco Systems in Alburquerque, NM, where he lives with his wife, Helen.
Michelle Jabs ’98 (speech) is marketing coordinator for Capital Credit Union in Busmarck, MN.
Benjamin Weerts ’99 (mgt) is an accounts receivable manager for MasTec North America in Bemidji, MN, where he lives.
Gretchen Sagmoe ’99 (mass com) lives in Sioux Falls, SD, where she is creative assistant at Anderson Friesen Creative ad agency. She says she owes her leadership skills to MSUM’s Pi Sigma Epsilon!
Sheri Zimmerman ’99 (fin) is living in Everett, WA, where she is a benefits consultant for Great West Life & Annuity.

2000’s
Angele Eileen Pikala ’00 (soc wk) is a child protection worker for Otter Tail County Human Services in Fergus Falls, MN.
Trina Lundstrum ’00 (psych) lives in Forest Grove, OR, where she is a graduate student at Pacific University School of Occupational Therapy. Trina is a past student Homecoming coordinator. We miss you, Trina!

“I’ve eaten so much fish, I feel like a trained seal,” he said.

The end result: Jeff Hagen’s second illustrated journey into Wisconsin’s distinctive fish-fry culture, “Codfather 2,” a snuggly 89-page travelogue tracing one of the dairy state’s Friday night rituals.

His first book on the subject, “Fry Me to the Moon,” was a primer for the uninitiated, which he published nearly two years ago after visiting more than 60 fish fry venues—taking him from the streets of Sheboygan to the shores of Gitchee Gummeee (Lake Superior).”

It even earned him a segment on the Food Channel’s “Extreme Cuisine” show, which still gets an occasional repeat airing.

“Codfather 2” is an extension of his first book, prompted in part by Wisconsinites—calling in on Hagen’s various post-publication radio interviews­­who felt their favorite fish fry was snubbed in his first book, and from other Midwesterners who argued that Cheeseheads don’t have a monopoly on weekend fry-fests.

So Hagen went on the road again, this time even crossing state lines into Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois on a broader quest to savor the communal spirit, good cheer and chow at the heart of this Friday night rite.

Now, with more than 160 fish fry appearances under his expanding belt, Hagen returns from the dusty blue highways of the Midwest with this message: “In the smallest places lie the greatest rewards.”

The badger state’s fish fry obsession is a cultural and culinary phenomenon, says Hagen, a Minnesota State University Moorhead alumnus (1968 art graduate) who jokingly refers to himself as Wisconsin’s frequent fryer. “Even the New York Times assigns a reporter to write about this tradition where Wisconsinites, like lemmings, descend on their favorite Friday night fish fry.”

Like rooting for the Packers, he said, it’s a happening with its own motto: “Thank cod it’s Friday.”

In his new book, Hagen introduces his readers to 34 more of his favorite fish fries, at establishments with names ranging from “What the Heck” and “Eat My Fish” to “The Longbranch Restaurant” and “Cayuga Hotel Saloon.”

He’s also found some culinary twists on the custom: from fried whitefish livers and smoked trout and ginger spring rolls to dill pickle soup and booyah, a chicken-and-vegetable soup/stew of Belgian origin.

And along the way, as kind of a side dish, Hagen relates some history about roadside diners, octagonal architecture, Jessie James and the invention of the salad bar “sneeze shield.”

Like in his first book, each fish fry profile is accompanied by one of Hagen’s color pencil illustrations of each establishment.

Hagen believes this high-fat ritual is rooted in Wisconsin’s German Catholic immigrants. “For years, meatless Fridays were the rule,” he said. “Many churches and nearby taverns held Friday night fish fries for people of the faith. That changed, of course, with the emergence of Vatican Two.”

Also influential, the proximity of the Great Lakes. “Up until the 1950s, both Lake Superior and Lake Michigan provided a cornucopia of fresh-water fish, especially perch,” he said. “But when the lamprey eel arrived in the ballast tanks of Atlantic freighters, they devastated much of the Great Lakes fish population. So did pollution and disease. Today, if you can find it, Great Lakes perch often sells at market value, just like lobster.”

The advent of the refrigerated truck after World War II allowed cod and haddock to reach Wisconsin from the coast, preserving Wisconsin’s collective payday respite.

Unlike many American traditions, Hagen said, this one seems to be getting stronger. “It’s part of a family tradition that in some cases goes back 40 years,” he said. “I stumbled on one small town with a population of 100 people that features three fish fries every Friday night.”

But it’s hard to top the Serb Memorial Hall fish fry in Milwaukee—billed as the largest fish fry in the world--which attracts more than 5,500 hungry souls on Good Friday.

Hagen, 56, is a retired school teacher who taught art for 30 years in Madison, Wis. He’s also an accomplished writer and illustrator with five books to his credit. His illustrated children’s book, “Hiawatha Passing,” was ranked among the New York Times’ 10 Best Children’s Picture Books when it was published in 1995.

He also wrote and illustrated two books that focus on other rustic traditions, “Northern Retreats,” about rural bed and breakfasters, and “Steeple Chase,” about old country churches.

“I prefer these close to the heartland, taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary,” he said. “I’m always amazed at the unheralded treasurers we have in our backyards.”

The menu at a typical fish fry, Hagen instructs, includes deep fried battered or breaded fish (usually cod, but sometimes haddock, white fish, perch, cat fish, walleye, trout and even commercially grown blue gills) along with french fries and maybe potato pancakes,, cole slaw, rolls or rye bread and, for adults, a pitcher of beer or, the state’s unofficial beverage of choice: the brandy old-fashioned.

“Wisconsin leads the nation, by a long shot, in brandy consumption,” Hagen said. “The average adult in the state consumes 46 gallons a year. Nevada is way behind in second place with an average of 20 gallons a year per adult.”

Fish fry prices (sans booze) range from $5.95 to $16.95 per person, Hagen said, averaging about $8.95.

Apparently hooked on saturated fats, Hagen is now working on a new book about hamburgers and hot dogs, tentatively titled “In Search of the Holy Grill.”

That’s why Moorhead native and MSUM distinguished alumnus Rodney Tweten, now a professor of microbiology at the University of Oklahoma’s Health Sciences Center, received a three-year, $2.48 million grant to fund research for a new drug that has the potential to do just that.

He and his colleagues have developed a method to rapidly generate and screen mutants of anthrax toxin that could neutralize the deadly effects of the bacteria. These agents could potentially be used to reduce or eliminate deaths among late stage inhalation anthrax disease victims.

“Yes, we’ve gotten some attention recently,” said Tweten, who was interviewed by CBS-TV Nightly News this week and featured in the Boston Globe.

Tweten, who earned a biology degree at MSU Moorhead in 1976 and then a master’s degree in bacteriology at North Dakota State University, received the anthrax research grant from the Oklahoma City Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism and the National Institute of Justice.

The Oklahoma City institute grew out of the desire of the survivors and families of the Murrah Federal Building bombing of April 19, 1995 to have a living memorial and help other cities avoid similar tragedies. Tweten’s office is located about a mile from the Murrah Building.

“Unfortunately, today’s anthrax vaccine is not appropriate for protecting the general public,” said Tweten, who’s heading the research team. “There is a critical need to develop new therapies that could be quickly administered following a bio-terrorist attack. The drug we’re working on could be much more effective, since it would target toxin activity after the initial anthrax infections.”

And this kind of therapy, he said, may also be useful against other types of biological weapons.

“Anthrax toxin is comprised of three proteins, and these proteins have to work together to create the actual toxin,” he said. “One of my former students who did his post-doctoral studies at Harvard University discovered that if you mutated one of these proteins in the right place, when it combines with the other anthrax proteins, it inactivates the toxins. We’re simply replacing a functional sub-unit with a dysfunctional one.”

With the grant, Tweten and his team will try to discover additional mutants that can be used as a therapeutic to block the action of the toxin. In the late stages of anthrax, he said, it is the toxin, not the growth of bacteria, which kills people

“What we’re doing now is mutating each of the three different anthrax proteins that comprise the toxins—making about 1,500 of them very rapidly—then screening them for their ability to inhibit toxin production. What these mutants do is compete with the active toxin. If we can slip one of them into the complex, it shuts it down. In other words, if one part doesn’t work, it all doesn’t work.”

Tweten, who’s been working with bacterial toxins for about 20 years, said he’s really interested in the application of this technology in a broader sense. “We just had the opportunity to apply this technology to see if it would work on anthrax,” he said. “We wrote the grant a year and a half ago, and received it six months ago, before any of the recent terrorist attacks on the United States.”

Their research focuses on anthrax, he said, because its structure is well known and it makes a good research model. In addition to the anthrax research grant, Tweten also has two grants from the National Institutes of Health to study the structural biology of other toxins.

“Most of us in the field of bacterial toxin biology realized long ago that anthrax is a potential bio-weapon,” he said. “We knew it could happen, but we didn’t expect it.”

If Tweten’s project proves workable, it should be effective on all strains of anthrax that produce the toxin. “And all strains produce the toxin,” he said.

While the project could be several years away from human use, the grant, he said, should speed up the process.

Tweten earned a doctorate in microbiology at Kansas State University. Following a two-year post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of California and a  year as a research scientist with Abbott Laboratories in Chicago, he joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma in 1985.

The son of Omer and Mary Tweten of Moorhead, he was named an MSU Moorhead Distinguished Alumni in 1997.

Tweten’s research is one of 10 counter-terrorism projects currently being pursued by the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. The institute’s research is funded through a cooperative agreement with the National Institute of Justice, which is the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice.

How about a dead-ringer Michael Jackson impersonator for your wedding dance? About $4,000, which, of course, includes back-up dancers.

Or a hula-hoop professional, who can twirl 25 hoops in different directions at the same time. This one’s pricey: about $1,600 for a six-minute show.

Too much? Okay, let’s try a Jesse Ventura look-a-like to mingle with your corporate clients at a cocktail party. About $400.

You name it, they’ve got it, whether it’s a birthday party for your horse or a cocktail party for Russian Cosmonauts. Just contact two Minnesota State University Moorhead alums—Alana and Janna Joos­­who’ve parlayed their musical talent, a bit of chutzpa and their North Dakota work ethic into one of the most prominent look-a-like and entertainment agencies in the country.

The sisters, raised on a Wimbledon, N.D., farm, are co-owners of Entertainment Express (www.EntertainmentExpress.LA) and International Celebrity Images (www.InternationalCelebrityImages.com) of Los Angeles. Their Rolodex literally contains more than 2,000 names of entertainers ranging from mimes and mariachi bands to psychics and belly dancers, plus 1,000 celebrity look-a-likes and impersonators.

Even some of their clients are celebrities. Their credits range from supplying a marching band for Tori Spelling’s 13th birthday party to booking look-a-likes for the movies “Pulp Fiction” and “Reindeer Games.” One of their Bill Gates look-a-likes is starring in a new independent film, “Nothing So Strange,” which premiered at Slamdance Film Festival in January.

“I once deejayed a Penny Marshall and Carry Fisher birthday party,” said Alana. “It was pretty impressive. Bette Midler, Barbara Streisand, Frank Zappa  and all kinds of celebrities were there. David Bowie kept urging me to ‘play some Jagga (translation: Mick Jagger), man, play some Jagga.’ ”

On average, they book about 1,000 gigs a year—from singing telegrams and television commercials to glittering Las Vegas stage shows.

While both sisters grew up playing drums in their high school band and majored in music at MSU Moorhead, their careers took different paths after graduating.

Alana, now 49, joined a show band as a drummer for a USO tour entertaining troops in Korea before linking up with an agent who booked her in a trio playing night clubs across the Midwest. One night, she was hired as the drummer for a band that played back-up for comedian Jerry Van Dyke (today best-known as Luther from the television series “Coach”).

“After the show, I asked him if he’d hire me as his regular drummer,” Alana said. “He couldn’t pay me much, but I didn’t care. I toured the Midwest with him then played the main lounges at Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe and then Reno. When that job was done, I drove to Hollywood and never left.”

Within two weeks she was working six nights a week as a drummer in dance clubs around Los Angeles. She enrolled in California State University at Northridge, where she earned a master’s degree in music and worked as a teaching assistant, conductor and musical director.

Meanwhile, she continued booking jobs for her band. “Then someone would call and ask how they could hire a clown, maybe, or a magician,” she said. “So I just looked them up in the yellow pages. One thing led to another, and now I have about 2,000 performers available.”

While she was building her business during the 1980s, Alana played the part of a drummer in three motion pictures: “Unfaithfully Yours” with Dudley Moore; “Going Berserk” with John Candy; and “The Sting II” starring Jackie Gleason.

“Those were cherished moments,” she said. “It was a great experience watching these terrific actors work at their craft.”

Janna, now 47, graduated from MSUM in 1976, two years after Alana, and a week later was teaching music in Anamoose, N.D. Six years and three schools later (Neche, Luverne and Milnor schools in North Dakota), she quit teaching to manage an AM radio station in Las Vegas and a sister station in Amarillo, Tex.. By
1990 she joined her sister’s growing business in Los Angeles.

Like the farm chores they shared in Wimbledon, the two sisters divvy up their responsibilities: Alana works mostly with Entertainment Express; Janna with International Celebrity Images.

“When I first came out here,” Janna said, “I was helping my sister book and find acts for Entertainment Express. Then a friend of ours, Liz Taylor look-a-like Nancy Casey, approached us to help book her act. She gave us some other contacts and today, we’re one of the biggest celebrity look-a-like companies in the world.”

To bolster that claim, in 1990 the Joos sisters started a promotion called The Reel Awards, a spoof of the Oscars and other celebrity award shows designed to recognize new talent in the look-a-like and impersonator industry.

They’ve held these ceremonies for the past decade at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel the Monday evening preceding the Academy Awards. The Hollywood Roosevelt was the site for the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929. This year’s event is slated for March 18.

It’s a feeding frenzy for Tinsel Town paparazzi and the international press, who feast on star clones ranging from Charlie Chaplin and Madonna to Marilyn Monroe and, of course, Elvis.

“We hand out awards and everyone has a great time,” she said.

Who hires pseudo-celebs? Well, take one of their hottest look-a-likes going now, George W. Bush.

“The best guy we have now doing George W. lives in Missouri and can make from $3,500 to $4,000 for a few hours of work,” Janna said.

That’s more than the real president makes ($192.30 an hour, based on the annual chief of state’s annual salary of $400,000 working 40-hour weeks).

“A corporate client, for example, might hire him to appear at a banquet,” Janna said. “We could also throw in a limousine and a couple of Secret Service agents.”

She said impersonators can raise the level of excitement even for celebrity-hardened Los Angeles residents. “They give pizzazz to a party or corporate function. It’s just that aura of celebrity, whether it’s real or fake.”

Janna said International Celebrity Images provides look-a-likes for events ranging from private birthday parties and bar or bat mitzvahs to Las Vegas legends shows and, on one occasion, a Jay Leno look-a-like for the “The Tonight Show.” One of their Marilyn Monroe impersonators did an entire movie for CBS-TV called “Marilyn & Me.”

Their impersonators and look-a-likes come from 30 states and six foreign countries. “Just about all of them approach us first,” Janna said. “The interest has really increased since we’ve had our Web site up. I get at least two or three e-mail inquiries a day. A lot of them say their friends think they look like so-and-so and ask us what their potential is.”

What do you do with 25 Elvis’s, 20 Marilyn Monroes, six Whoopi Goldbergs and a couple Popes? “Well, not all of them are dead-ringers,” Janna said. “But not everyone can afford the best. Some of our impersonators have similarities, but they’re not perfect. Even if they’re not mirror images, we can find them work.”

Janna said one of their Michael Jackson impersonators actually sings and dances as well, if not better, than the real thing. One’s had more than $45,000 in plastic surgery to keep up with the eccentric singer’s changing appearance.

About a third of their 1,000 look-a-likes and impersonators literally work full time as celebrity duplicates, supplementing their income with other Hollywood industry work.

It’s not enough to just look the part and mimic mannerisms. “They have to be comfortable in the limelight,” Janna said. “That’s not usually a problem. Oddly enough, it’s hard to get some of them out of character.”

A few of their body-doubles—the Madame Pompadour, the Thomas Mann (German novelist) and the Beethoven, for example­­aren’t much in demand. “We haven’t booked them yet, but they’re available,” Janna said. “Wish we had a Russell Crowe when ‘The Gladiator’ movie came out. Now we do.”

The other side of the business, Entertainment Express, maintains a virtual warehouse of entertainers, ranging from palm readers and stilt walkers to bands and exotic animal acts.

“I have about 2,000 entertainers available at my fingertips,” says Alana, who not only manages the business, but still books herself out as both a drummer and a deejay. “I go out a couple times a month, just to keep active.”

Last year she  landed another role in a movie, this time a speaking part. “When the producer for ‘Nothing So Strange’ contacted my sister Janna about look-a-likes for their movie, he told her they were also looking for non-professional actors. I auditioned and got the part. To watch the progress of the movie, which involved the assassination of Bill Gates, go to the web site www.NothingSoStrange.com. It’s being marketed by the same people who created ‘Blair Witch Project’ so I think it’s going to make a big splash.”

Their more upscale West Coast clients tend to spend more on entertainment than the average American consumer. Dropping $20,000 on a birthday party or bar mitzvah, or $70 a meal for wedding guests, isn’t shocking.

“We can put together an entire entertainment package, including theme parties, room decorations, centerpieces, signs, games, interactive dancers. You name it, we’ll find it,” Alana said.

That includes casino games, gypsy bands, airbrush T-shirt artists, glassblowers, lasers, rollerskating shows and bungie runs.

“What’s popular now are interactive and bigger games, like inflatable Velcro walls,” she said. “Both Janna and I still deejay parties for Entertainment Express.”

With 24 years of experience, the sisters operate their business from Alana’s  house in San Fernando Valley, a few blocks from Cal State-Northridge on a half-acre lot. “It’s as close to a farm as we get these days,” Alana said. “We can do business poolside or take a walk through the garden. We love it.”

The sisters admit business is their life, working long hours seven days a week. But it comes with some surprises.

“A few days before the 4th of July, I got a call from a television associate in L.A. who requested a band for a small party,” Alana said. “We were driving to the address up in the hills, and we kept driving and driving until we came to these very exclusive properties. We ended up at the home of Dennis Tito, the Los Angeles billionaire who paid $20 million for a ride on the international space station. He was throwing a party for his fellow Russian Cosmonauts.”

They once got a call from a lady who was hosting a birthday party for her horse. “Oh yes, if you want to give your pets a wedding, we can arrange for The Animal Minister to perform the ceremony,” Alana said. “ It’s wacky, but in L.A. we’ve experienced just about everything and anything.

Those kind of requests don’t crop up much in Wimbledon, where their younger brother Robert runs the family farm with occasional assistance from their parents, Allan and Vivian.

Growing up, Janna did most of the work around the house and garden, while Alana drove tractors, did the haying and hauled grain.

But when Alana joined the school band as a drummer and Janna followed later (“We both picked the drums because the school provided them free,” Alana said), it was hard to keep them down at the farm.

Today the two sisters see their parents several times a year, and stay in regular phone contact.

“It surprises lots of folks out here when they find out that we grew up on a North Dakota farm,” Alana said. “We have to tell them we’re not impersonators. We’re the real thing.”

Those statistics are frightening to Liz Fortune, who has worked with people with eating disorders for more than 11 years. It also hits a personal chord as a woman who has struggled with bulimia for part of her adult life.

“I was a recreational bulimic while I was a student at Moorhead State the first time around,” said Fortune, who dropped out of school to raise a family. “When other students finished finals they’d go out and get smashed. But my friends and I would go out and binge on food. We got our high from eating. But then we’d have to relieve ourselves and it became a weight management procedure as well as a way to deal with our feelings.”

Fortune triumphed over her eating disorder, but many others aren’t as fortunate.

“I think the numbers are underreported,” she says. “Most clients we see have been treated frequently for depression, but unless they show physical symptoms, doctors don’t ask the right questions to diagnose the disease and patients don’t reveal that they have an eating disorder.”

Fortune says most eating disorder facilities that are well known charge from $30,000 to $65,000 for a 30- or 45-day program. “Many families don’t have the resources or the insurance coverage to get the treatment they need.”

That’s one reason Fortune opened Saguaro Springs, a residential eating disorder treatment facility in Tucson, Ariz., specializing in compulsive overeating, bulimia and anorexia.

“I had an eating disorder and have worked with clients with eating disorders. I wanted to provide treatment for people who didn’t have fantastic insurance coverage,” Fortune said. She developed Saguaro Springs in response to the lack of adequate and affordable treatment. Saguaro Springs costs $10,000 for a 28-day treatment program.

“The reason we can offer our program at such a low cost is because our staff is committed to providing top-quality services at a price that anyone can afford,” Fortune said.

Sounds like a good business strategy for Fortune, who returned to MSU Moorhead after a divorce and earned degrees in business administration and human services. While her first job as a financial manager/public relations officer for a drug and alcohol service provider was a management position, it was the helping side of the organization that she was drawn to.

“I come from a long line of addiction, and though I didn’t drink per se, I developed a lot of alcoholic personality characteristics without knowing why,” she says. “I didn’t like that part of myself and that’s part of what drew me into the counseling field.  I needed to learn more about that.”

A job as director of senior services in Mayville, N.D., left Fortune, a single parent in a small town, with little to do. “If you don’t drink or play bingo, you don’t have a social life,” she says. She decided to continue her education, letting fate play the hand.

“I was torn between pursuing a master’s degree in counseling or in public health administration,” Fortune said. “I called NDSU at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday and the public administration class had already met that week while the counseling class met that night and Thursday. I figured that was a sign from above showing me that was what I was meant to do. At 5 o’clock I was on my way to NDSU and three years later I received my master’s degree in education in counseling.”

It’s those kinds of “signs”, she says, that have helped her make major life decisions, including opening Saguaro Springs.

“When I was in North Dakota and lost my home (through a divorce), a friend gave me a saying that states “Confucius say a man who doesn’t have courage to take foot off first base never gets to second.’ So when I moved to Tucson, I resumed my maiden name—Fortune—and started using fortune cookies when I did presentations. When I saw this home I thought it would be an ideal setting for an eating disorders clinic, but had been contemplating it a long time. One day I was at a Chinese restaurant with a gal whose fortune cookie read, ‘Confucius say a man who doesn’t have courage to take foot off first base never gets to second.’ It was Fortune’s sign to buy the house.

On the day of the contract signing, Fortune said doubts crept back in her psyche and she prayed for a sign to confirm she was doing the right thing. “At one of the busiest intersections in Tucson, a movie marquee showed the movies playing that day and the first one was titled “Cookie’s Fortune.” I just burst out laughing and realized this was definitely the right decision.”

Two weeks later, her friend sent her a second base and it sits out in the clinic’s back yard. “A lot of us spend our whole life wishing and waiting for things to happen but we don’t have the courage to take that first step,” Fortune said. “The distance between first and second base is our belief in ourselves and our belief in God. That’s how I knew I was on the right track.”

Saguaro Springs is on the right track, celebrating its two-year anniversary in January. Located in a quiet, residential neighborhood in northwest Tucson, the four-bedroom home sits on a one-acre spread at the foothills of the Catalina Mountains, with lush cacti forming a serene backdrop for intense counseling and personal reflection.

“Eating disorders are extremely complex. These patients cross the line back and forth,” she explains. “With eating disorders we’re usually dealing with a lot of abuse; the trust level is very poor. Their own body, as well as food, is the enemy, but yet they need food to sustain life.

“For some, they feel so depleted emotionally that they feel they are only their addiction and if they give that up then they have nothing. Our goal is to give them the tools to go forward and to create a life for themselves.”

Saguaro Springs is a level 2 facility providing 24-hour medical care. Its clients don’t have immediate life-threatening physical or emotional problems.

“We are fairly unique because not many level 2 facilities exist in the country,” Fortune said. “Most are level 1 (for severe eating disorders cases) or halfway houses.”

Saguaro Springs is available as a patient’s first line of defense after outpatient treatment has failed or as an extended care program for those leaving a level I facility and requiring additional treatment before returning home.

She stresses that an eating disorder is not about what a patient is eating or not eating. Rather, it’s about physical, emotional or sexual abuse and/or neglect, and until those issues are addressed, an eating disorder treatment program is just an expensive diet program.

Fortune’s diverse background enables her to work with a variety of clients, having worked with children as young as two or clients in their late 80s. She is nationally certified as an addictions counselor, a clinical hypnotherapist and a compulsive gambling therapist. She’s been in private practice since 1991 and contracts with a variety of county and state agencies.

Helping clients find the inner strength to cope with life and to overcome their personal struggles is the most rewarding part of her work.

“Our ego strength determines how we deal with life’s blows,” Fortune said. Building a solid foundation of security, love, discipline and boundaries gives individuals the resources needed to make positive choices and to deal with the tough problems that arise,” Fortune said. “Ego strength is sculpted by our parents and it’s extremely important that parents teach and communicate these values to their children to build strong character. We can’t keep our children from outside influences, such as the media or peers, but we can build their character.”

For the most part, Saguaro Springs’ clients have succeeded in overcoming their addictions. “Some have had experiences with larger treatment centers and they feel they got more out of our center than other facilities,” Fortune said. “The key to remember is that a person with an eating disorder can’t totally put away the addiction. They have to learn to live with it.”

We'd like to introduce them to you…

MSUM ALUMNI FOUNDATION PRESIDENT KAY PARRIES (Illinois State University ‘79) is store manager for Herberger's at West Acres.  Kay is a member of Fargo West Rotary and past president of Moorhead Rotary.  She serves on the MeritCare Foundation Board and the Fargo Theatre Board.  She is past council president for Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd and past president of Junior Achievement.  Kay is a recipient of the Athena Award.

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD MEIDINGER (MSUM '72) is a partner at Eide Bailly LLP.  He is a member and past president of Moorhead Rotary, and a member and past president of Red River Valley Estate Planning Council.  He received his CPA designation in 1974 and CFP designation in 1989.  He was named Accountant Advocate of the Year by the Small Business Administration in 1999.

TREASURER JEROME FEDER (MSUM ’71) is the managing partner of Feder Properties in Fargo and president of Feder Realty Company.  He serves on the Fargo Downtown Community Partnership and the MeritCare Foundation.  He is a past board member of the Center for Parents and Children, the Fargo Rotary Club, United Way of Cass-Clay, and the board of Dakota Hospital.  Jerry has also been president of the Family House Foundation (1982-96) and president of Temple Beth El.

MARJORIE AAKRE (MSUM '76).  After a 25-year career in banking, Marj is now focusing on family and volunteering in the FM area.

LISA BORGEN (MSUM '93) received a law degree from the University of North Dakota in 1996.  She was elected to the office of Clay County Attorney in 1999.

JO BURDICK (MSUM '84) received her master's degree in nursing from the University of North Dakota.  She is Director of Home Health Care for MeritCare in Fargo.  Jo's professional affiliations include the National Association for Home Care and the North Dakota Nurses' Association District IV.  She was recently named the 2001 District IV Nurse of the year.  MSUM selected Jo as 2001 recipient of the Eva Vraspir Excellence in Nursing Alumni Award.

DOUGLAS CAMERON (MSUM '78) is relationship manager at BNC Bank in Fargo.  He is a member of Moorhead Rotary Club.  Doug's interests include golf and soccer, and he's a former chair of the Dragon Open.

ELLEN JEAN DIEDERICH (MSUM '83) is a watermedia artist and workshop instructor.  Her Neo-Impressionistic paintings have been displayed in numerous national exhibitions and published in a variety of literature and painting books.  She is a member of P.E.O., has served as an officer for Women of Today, and as past president of the Red River Watercolor Society.  She is recognized as a Signature member of the Midwest Watercolor Society and the Red River Watercolor Society and has won numerous art awards.

RICHARD DUBORD holds a doctorate in social work from the University of Utah.  He retired from MSUM in 2000 after teaching for 27 years.   Dick served MSUM as chair of the social work department for ten years and twice as interim dean.  He received MSUM's Excellence Award for Service to the Community and University in 1996; was recognized by the National Association of Social Workers for Outstanding Contribution in Social Work Education in 1998; and, most recently, received the 2000 Human Rights Award from the City of Moorhead.  He currently serves on four other boards:  Moorhead Public Library, Riverview Place, Friendship, Inc., and New Rivers Press.  He enjoys a serious avocation as a wood carver and sculptor.

DANIEL HANNAHER (MSUM '75) is president of Hannaher's, Inc. in Fargo.  He is a member of the MeritCare Foundation Board and the Village Family Service Center Board.  Dan has also served as North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party Chair.

RICHARD HENDERSON (MSUM '75) received his law degree from the University of Chicago in 1983.  He practices with the Nilles, Hanson & Davies Law Firm.  Rick chairs the Moorhead Human Rights Commission.

JOAN JUSTESEN received her diploma in nursing from St. Andrew's School of Nursing, Bottineau, North Dakota, and her B.S.N. and Masters of Business Administration from MSUM.  She is senior executive of MeritCare Health System.

LEE MASSEY (MSUM '72) is president and executive producer of Media Productions.  Lee is past chairman of the United Way of Cass-Clay Board of Trustees and chairs the Marketing Committee.  He is past president of the YMCA Board and chairs the Membership and Marketing Committee.  Lee is a member of the Fargo-Moorhead Chamber of Commerce Leadership Committee and is on the board of directors of the Plains Art Museum.  He is a co-founder and former board chair of The Red River Dance and Performing Company.  Lee is a recipient of the American Advertising Federation Silver Medal Award.

SUSAN MCDOWELL (MSUM '74) works in the decorating business specializing in wallpapering and painting.  She's also a sales representative for a marketing firm.  Susie is a Befriender at  Christ the King Lutheran Church and is a member of the Moorhead Knights of Columbus.

GARY NESS (MSUM '73) is partner-in-charge of the Fargo office at Eide Bailly LLP.  He is a member of the Fargo Country Club, Gateway Lions, American Legion, and VFW.

GREG NESS (MSUM '74 and '88) is CEO of GL Ness, Inc.  Greg has been a recipient of the North Dakota Small Businessperson of the Year Award, granted by the SBA in Washington, D.C.; and the Advertising Federation Silver Medal Award.  He also served as a delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business.

GARY NOLTE (MSUM '72) is managing director of US Bancorp Piper Jaffray.  Gary's a member of Rotary International.  He's served on various fund-raising committees for Rotary and was elected District Governor for 1998-99.   His interests include golf, sailing and old cars.

GEORGE SOULE (MSUM '76) received his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School in 1979.  He is a partner at Bowman and Brooke LLP.  He is a member of the Minnesota State Bar Association, the Minnesota American Indian Bar Association, and the Minnesota Defense Lawyers Association.  George was appointed Chair of the Minnesota Commission on Judicial Selection by Governor Jesse Ventura.  His awards include the Professionalism Award from the Hennepin County Bar Association and MSU’s Howard Lysne Business and Economics Alumni Achievement Award.

MARK VANYO (MSUM '75) is president of Coldwell Banker/1st Realty Encore.  He was named Realtor of the Year in Minnesota in 1993, and he received the Distinguished Service Award for Dragon Hall of Fame in 1998.  Mark is a member of Spud Boosters and Knights of Columbus.

SAMUEL WAI (MSUM ‘76) is treasurer at American Crystal Sugar Company.  He serves on the FM Symphony Orchestra Board and the Board of the FM Youth Symphonies, the FM Area Foundation Board, the MSU Advisory Board, the Cultural Diversity Resource Board, the Lake Agassiz Arts Council, and the Minnesota Public Radio Regional Council.

HAL WENTZEL (MSUM ' 78) is vice president/branch manager of Bremer Bank in Moorhead.  He has 23 years of banking experience.  A Moorhead resident for 20 years, Hal has been active in the Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Moorhead, and many community fund drives.  He is a former member of the Moorhead Healthy Community Initiative Board of Directors and Fund Development Committee.  He is a veteran of the United States Air Force.

ARTS AND HUMANITIES

MSUM offers spring China tour
MSUM will offer a 19-day study tour to China this spring, led by languages profesor Jenny Lin. Lin has traveled extensively in China and led a study tour there in May 2000. Scheduled stops include the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Yungang Grottoes, Stone Forest and the Tera Cotta Museum. Several of the scheduled sites are classified by the United Nations UNESCO World Heritage Committee as World Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites.

The tour is open to the public on a space available basis. For more information, contact Lin at 218-236-2913 or linjj@mnstate.edu

Travel to Ecuador this spring
Benjamin Smith, assistant professor of languages, will lead a tour group to Ecuador in May 2002. The 10-day tour will start in Quito, with day trips to Parque Nacional Cotopaxi, a park at the foot of one of Ecuador’s active volcanoes; the Mitad Del Mundo, the monument at the actual Ecuatorial line dividing northern and southern hemispheres; the Indian market in Otavalo, the hub of activity for Ecuador’s most lively commerce, folk art and artisans. The final leg of the trip will be to the Galapogos Islands for five days.
 
The tour is open to the public on a space available basis. For more information, contact Smith at 218-291-4267 or smithbe@mnstate.edu by Feb. 1, 2002.

Literary tour of the British Isles scheduled for May
English Professor Alan Davis will lead a tour to Ireland May 11-27 (proposed dates). The tour will include stops at London, Bath, Stratford, Dublin, Kilarney, (stopping to kiss the Blarney stone; visit to the Ring of Kerry, Bunratty, Cliffs of Moher), Galway, Belfast, Edinburgh and York. Davis has led previous tours to Ireland and also led this past spring’s Eurospring tour.

The tour is open to the public on a space available basis. For more information, contact Al Davis at 218-236-4681 or davisa@mnstate.edu or Jill Holsen at 218-236-2956 or holsenj@mnstate.edu

MSUM professor brings art to the elderly
Assistant professor of art and design Lila Hauge-Stoffel received a $20,000 grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts (through the National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Fund) for an art therapy project partnering with the elderly in assisted living facilities in Fargo-Moorhead. Research indicates that loneliness, boredom and helplessness are major problems for the elderly. This project attempts to measure the effects of art therapy in combating those problems. Hauge-Stoffel is one of two coordinators working with area artists and designers to develop independent residencies in the facilities. Currently, about 50 residents at the Pioneer House Assisted Living for Seniors in Fargo are involved in the activities, which run October, 2001 through May, 2002. Two residencies have occurred—one on storytelling and another on quilting. Six more activities are scheduled, with MSUM art students being involved next spring.

Women travelers focus of lecture, research
Susan Imbarrato, assistant professor of English, gave the first Arts and Humanities Dean’s Colloquium lecture on “Early American Women Travelers: Ruminations and Encounters” on Nov. 15. Her talk comes out of an ongoing study of women and travel conditions in America from 1750-1830, a period marked by the arrival of the stagecoach and the railroad. Imbarrato has been working on women’s travel narratives and tavern records for information on the frequency of female travel and details on how long they stayed, how much they spent, what they ate, with whom they traveled, and why they traveled.

English professors lead book discussions
Two MSUM English faculty led discussions at the Northern Plaines Writers Series, co-sponsored by the Moorhead Public Library and MSUM’s Livingston Lord Library. The writer’s series, in which four books recommended by readers are discussed, was held Wednesday evenings this fall. Rick Gjervold led a discussion on Jon Hassler’s Rookery Blues, a light-hearted novel about life at “Rookery State University” in Minnesota in the 1960s. Ken Bennett led a discussion of Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horse, which received a National Book Award.

MSUM profs show their work
The following MSUM Art faculty showed their works this fall in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts gallery: Mick Amick, Deborah Mae Broad, Don Clark, Heidi Fedde, Loral Hannaher, Zhimin Guan, Julie Mader-Meersman, Marty Meersman, Trygve Olson, Carl Oltvedt, Jim Park, Carol Scott, Allen Sheets, Sherry Short, and Will Shynkaruk.
 

BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY

State department selects two photos by Gudmundson for Embassy collection
Two black and white photographs of the North Dakota landscape by mass communications professor Wayne Gudmundson, “North of Tuttle” and “Sentinel Butte,” have been selected by the Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies to be part of the permanent collection in the United States Embassy in Iceland.

His photographs were among 245 works by 152 artists selected by FAPE’s millennium committee to show off American culture at the more than 160 U.S. Embassies around the world.

Gudmundson selected the embassy in Iceland because he’s been working on a collection of ancestral landscapes in that country, which, coupled with his own writings about those places, he plans to develop into a book.

Handbook of the Media in Asia edited by mass communications professor
Dr. D. Shelton Gunaratne, professor of mass communications, edited a new book titled “Handbook of the Media in Asia”—“a comprehensive survey and outline of the media throughout 25 countries of Asia,” according to Kevin Engels, who reviewed the book in the December 2000 issue of AsiaPacific MediaEducator.

Engels says the introductory overview written by Gunaratne should be “compulsory reading for everyone involved with the media in Asia.”

The 35 contributors to the Handbook and Gunaratne followed the same format for each country in order to provide a balanced and objective presentation. This format includes 10 sections, such as national profile, development of press and broadcasting, new electronic media, policy trends for press and broadcasting, among others.

About 55 percent of the world’s population lives in the countries included in the 722-page book.

University of Lincoln exchange program offered
Students in mass communications, art and graphic design can now exchange places with University of Lincoln, England, for a full year or a spring semester paying tuition and fees at their home institution.

Credits can be applied toward major, minor or elective requirements and will contribute toward grade point averages. Students usually study through a combination of lectures, workshops, seminars and tutorials as well as practical projects, presentations and written work.

The University of Lincoln sits in the shadow of a beautiful and imposing cathedral on the banks of a marina that once was a Roman port in the historical city of Lincoln, England. Though the university dates back 130 years, teaching facilities are new and state-of-the-art.

Business professor teaches marketing to the world
Business administration Professor Alan MacDonald spent summer 2001                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        in Kazakhstan teaching principles of marketing. As a teacher through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) he taught a classroom of Central Asian marketing lecturers who had Russian as a common language.

Through working in transitional economic areas and developing economies, MacDonald sometimes makes a contribution to an entire region. Helping bring marketing concepts to countries developing their economies led MacDonald to Africa, the Pacific-Asian region and South America.

His international teaching is a boost to the International Business Program. He and colleagues travel and live in other countries, stay abreast of activities around the world and discuss ways to integrate the globe into the MSUM classroom
 
Some of  his recent contracts have been through USAID, an independent federal government agency that works to support long-term and equitable economic growth.

Economic Education Center provides teacher training
Economic literacy is the goal of MSUM’s Economic Education Center says Vern Dobis, director of the Center and an economics professor. Minnesota’s K-12 teachers have opportunities to teach and apply economic concepts. Yet, most teachers have received no formal economics training.

Dobis says the intention of the Center is to develop and conduct teacher and community education programs using existing organizations and networks. The MSUM Center provides teacher training, student programs and innovative curricula to help teachers prepare their students to succeed in our complex, global economy. It utilizes material published by the National Council on Economic Education and the Minnesota Council of Economic Education.

The Center hosted its first Great Plains Economics Challenge in 2000 with 16 teams representing 13 schools and 89 students.

EDUCATION AND HUMAN SERVICES
 
$800,000 grant links White Earth College with MSUM to train paraeducators
White Earth Tribal and Community College (WETCC) has received an $800,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to train students for an associate art degree in paraeducation with an emphasis on special education.

MSU Moorhead’s special education department, which helped prepare the grant proposal, will serve as a partner and liaison on the project with WETCC.

The grant will help WETCC students who are interested in the paraeducator training program, paving the way for further education and ultimately a university degree at MSUM.

Paraeducation is a degree aimed at college students who want to work as a teacher’s aide in the classroom. The grant’s goal is to recruit more Native American paraeducators in the region who can also act as role models for Native American special education students.

The project will include an exchange of faculty and students between WETCC and the MSUM special education department. It will also provide culturally diverse observation and field experience opportunities for students on both campuses.
 

MSUM $209,000 NSF grant to create public exhibits explaining topical science
MSU Moorhead has received a $209,000 National Science Foundation grant to develop a series of traveling, interactive public exhibits during the next three years that will illustrate and explain new research in the physical sciences.

The grant includes funding that will create a unique collaboration involving students and faculty at MSUM and White Earth Tribal and Community College along with regional high school teachers and the staff at the MSUM Regional Science Center.

Part of the grant also involves developing classroom curriculum materials that will accompany the traveling exhibit to local schools, museums and public venues.

The theme of the project, “Seeing is Believing,” is aimed at giving students and the public a visual and practical look at four specific areas of modern science: Dark Matter in Spiral Galaxies, Probability in Games of Chance and Beyond, X-ray Microtomography, and Green (environmental) Chemistry.

MSUM physics professor Matthew Craig (College of Social and Natural Sciences) and science center director George Davis, co-directors of the project, along with WETCC President Dr. Helen Klassen, said students and teachers will be selected this spring to begin working on the first set of exhibitions this summer.

Teachers interested in this project—in areas ranging from mathematics and science to graphic design and computer sciences­­should contact Craig at the MSUM physics department, 218-236-2439 or mcraig@mnstate.edu
 

SOCIAL AND NATURAL SCIENCES

MSUM profs start DragonTech
Chemistry Professor Joe Provost and biology Professor Mark Wallert have embarked on a business venture they could only have imagined several years ago. But these scientists are crunching numbers and analyzing the market to put their new company on the national map—DragonTech.

DragonTech is a biotechnology company that provides services, research and development for pharmaceutical companies and biomedical researchers. Michael Chambers, president and CEO of Fargo-based biotech company Aldevron, LCC, helped breath fire into this Dragon venture nearly three years ago.

“We’ve been working on projects with and for Aldevron for four years,” Wallert said. “He started his company about five years ago, and shortly after we offered our facilities and technical help that he needed for certain projects.”

“We started our company slowly two years ago and formalized most of the paperwork in May,” Provost said. Just four weeks into business (they officially started August, 2001), DragonTech employs one full-time lab assistant (Kris Mortenson, 2001, biology/chemistry-biotechnology emphasis), one part-time student and several interns.

Aldevron is DragonTech’s corporate partner, and together, the two companies work on several projects. Much of DragonTech’s own work focuses on research and development for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, providing DNA for gene therapy research, and expression and purification of protein for industrial and academic researchers. DragonTech is already international in scope, with one contract out of Canada, as well as deals with Prometic Biosciences, Maxygen, Entara and potential work with Promega and the U.S. Army.

MSUM will provide the facilities for DragonTech, becoming an academic partner in this innovative business venture.

“Biology and chemistry faculty can teach research, projects and techniques, but students don’t get the real world business lab experience,” Wallert said. “DragonTech will allow them to transfer that knowledge into the workforce.”

“As the company starts to grow and profit, the university will share in that. It will help students, faculty and staff,” Provost said.

“A couple of things remain at the center of all this,” Wallert said. “Doing this on campus provides opportunities for students and potential jobs for alumni. The fact that we’re on campus makes us much more efficient and flexible in how we operate the business.”

Both are quick to commend President Barden, Vice President Crockett, Dean Jepson and other administrators for their support of this project. And the Small Business Development Center has been instrumental in developing the business from day one.

These two colleagues, friends and researchers have a special synergistic relationship that allows them to successfully combine their teaching, research and grant writing activities. It will also form the foundation of a new business that’s sure to flourish.

Provost, who’s CEO, says this will be successful because he’s partnered with someone who is his equal. Wallert, who’s president of the company, adds “and foolish enough to trust.”

Business has never been so fun.

MSUM offers tropical biology field trip to Costa Rica
A spring break trip to the forests of Costa Rica will be part of a field course in tropical biology offered through the MSUM biology department.

It will include weekly two-hour lectures spring semester, plus a 10-day field trip March 8-17 to field stations in the cloud forests near San Luis and the tropical dry forest on the Pacific coast at Cabo Blanco.

MSUM biology professors Brian Wisenden and Donna Bruns Stockrahm, both experienced field researches, will lead the trip. The tour is open to the public on a space available basis. For more information, contact Bruns Stockrahm, 218-287-5000 or stockram@mnstate.edu; or Wisenden at 218-287-5001 or wisenden@mnstate.edu

Judging the world’s best fibbers
When John Soeth, president of the Burlington Liar’s Club, sent his usual announcement to the wire services about this year’s World Champion Liar contest, he wasn’t prepared for the response.

“In one day I received more than 50 telephone calls from media outlets around the world,” said Soeth, a Moorhead native and retired high school administrator.

Journalists from nearly all 50 states and from the BBC, Vienna, Japan, Africa, New Zealand and a long list of other nations called his home last week in Burlington, Wis., to get the scoop on the liar’s club and how to participate.

“It must be they’re all looking for a diversion away from tragic news about Sept. 11 and the war in Afghanistan,” said Soeth, a 1955 elementary education graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead.

He compared it to the response the liar’s contest received during World War II. “Typically we get about 500 entries,” he said. “But during the war we received between 10,000 and 18,000 a year. I suppose the soldiers were looking for a diversion and some connection to home.”

Soeth, 71, the brother of Moorhead Fire Chief Marty Soeth, was named president of the Burlington Liar’s Club in 1980 when he was assistant school superintendent in Burlington. “I can’t imagine why they picked me,” he joked. “Maybe it’s because I spent most of my career attempting to sell budgets to the school board.”

The liar’s club, if you can believe their history, began in 1929 when local newspaper reporter Otis Hulett, a well-known prankster, fabricated a story about a contest held by a group of local police and firemen who sat around the station on New Year’s Day seeing who could tell the biggest whopper.

Hulett distributed the story to the wire services, Soeth said, and it appeared in newspapers across the nation. He got so much mail from people who wanted to enter the contest, Hulett decided to start a real club.

For a dime and a lie, people from around the world could become card-carrying, lifetime honorary members of what he christened the Burlington Liar’s Club.

“There’s only one rule,” Soeth said. “No politicians are allowed to enter. They’re professionals, and we’re amateurs.”

Inflation has increased the one-time membership fee to $1 and a lie, but nonmembers are welcome to send in a lie without a fee.

“We get letters all the time saying that the dollar is enclosed, but it’s not,” Soeth said. “Can you believe that?”

To submit a lie, send it to: Burlington Liar’s Club, 179 F Court, Burlington, Wis., 53105.

Soeth and a local friend, Mitzi Robers­­the only two club officers­­ judge the contests themselves the week before Christmas. Off-color or mean-spirited lies are rejected.

Soeth said the club’s mission is to preserve the tall tale as a fun expression of exaggeration, not much different that the tales of Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill and Mike Fink.

They announce the winner on New Year’s Day.

Last year’s winner was Gordon Zwicky of Oshkosh, Wis. Zwicky, who believes in obeying all road sings, said that while on a trip to Florida with his wife, they saw a sign stating: “clean restrooms ahead.”

Two months after leaving Wisconsin, the couple arrived in Florida after having cleaned 450 restrooms with 267 rolls of paper towels, three cases of toilet bowl cleaner and 86 bottles of Windex. They were so tired, they returned home soon after arriving in Florida.

Soeth—who taught at White Earth for two years and Parkers Prairie for four years after graduating from MSUM—settled in Wisconsin with his wife Janet after earning a master’s degree in elementary school administration from the university. For the past 25 years they’ve lived in Burlington (pop: 10,000), situated between Chicago and Milwaukee.

Here are a few other interesting tall tales submitted to the Burlington Liar’s Club:

* “My chili was so hot, it took two weeks to thaw after I took it out of the freezer.”
* A Missourian claimed it was so cold one winter that he actually saw a politician standing on a street corner with his hands in his own pockets.
* A husband insisted that his wife was so lazy she feeds her chickens popcorn so that the eggs will turn themselves when she fries them.
* One man claimed there was so much iron in the local wells that the town pointed north during electrical storms.
* Another entrant insisted that his family was so poor his parents couldn’t afford to window shop.
* Frank E. Simo of Kenosha said he and his wife traveled to California and back without having to buy gas because his fuel gauge was stuck on full.
* Another Wisconsinite reported that a robin in his back yard built a nest with a hole in the bottom because she liked to lay eggs, but didn’t like kids.
* A Green Bay resident reported that “our weeping willow tree is so large that our insurance agent required us to carry flood insurance.”
* Because of a drought, one farmer alleged, the cattle in North Dakota were so skinny one summer that ranchers were putting carbon paper between them and branding them two at a time.
* Another winning entry: “One hot summer day, I was riding my horse through a corn field. It got so hot that the corn began to pop, and the air was filled with white popcorn. When my horse saw all that white popcorn, he thought it was snow, so he lay down and froze to death.”

Fast forward to Jan. 29, 2002. Miller will be running. And carrying the Olympic Torch as part of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Torch Relay. He is one of 11,500 Torchbearers who will carry the Olympic Flame on its 46-state, 65-day, 13,500-mile cross-country journey to Salt Lake City, Utah.

It’s an honor Miller is proud to uphold. But it’s the three-year trek he took in getting there that’s been a life-changing experience.

“I’ve become two different people,” explains Miller. “The person I was before cancer, and the person I am today. I feel like a used car with a re-built engine just happy to be on the road of life again. I even enjoy the hills, curves and the occasional flat tire. Life is more fulfilling today than ever before.”

Life was pretty fulfilling before March 6, 1998. He was recently married to his college sweetheart, Jenny Lenhardt (’94 mass communications/English), and he’d made significant strides with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals as one of the company’s youngest and most successful healthcare representatives. Miller, a 1996 graduate with a degree in business management, was a 27-year-old dynamo who had collected a plethora of company awards and honors in his two short years with the company.

On March 6, 1998 in Bismarck, N.D., Miller was playing a pick-up basketball game at the YMCA when a seizure stopped him cold. He suffered a second seizure less than two hours later. Twenty-four hours after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, Miller was at Mayo Clinic under the care of one of the country’s most admired brain surgeons, who performed a relatively uncommon awake craniotomy. This particular surgery enhanced Miller’s chances at resuming mobility and function since the tumor was located adjacent to the motor strip controlling function on his left side. Still, the surgeon told him that he’d be lucky to walk without a limp.

So began an intense cycle of physical therapy, chemotherapy and radiation treatments. He admits he was often an overzealous patient when it came to his rehab. Although things started off tediously slow, Miller quickly made improvements, which both shocked and delighted his physical therapists.

“Once I realized I had another shot at life, I decided it was time to get to work, to start rehab and to get my life back,” Miller said. “The only thing I could control was my emotions and the way I carried myself. So I didn’t complain, I remained upbeat and tried to cheer everyone else up.”

It was that positive attitude that prompted Kelly Preto to nominate Miller for the Olympic Torchbearer award.

It was that positive attitude that prompted Kelly Preto, a Pfizer travel consultant from Cleveland, Ohio, to nominate Miller for the Olympic Torchbearer award.

“I’ve been working with Jim for about three years. One day I was having a pretty bad day and was reading a newsletter he had sent. And I thought nothing compares to what he’s been through,” Preto explained.

“Jim is classy, considerate and cool. All of his colleagues have good things to say about him,” Preto said. “He’s always been very appreciative, even of the smallest favors. And despite all that he’s dealt with, he still has an upbeat and optimistic attitude.”

A total of 11,500 torchbearers will participate in the relay, chosen from three different selection programs based on the theme “Inspire.”

“There is a fire, a spirit that burns in all of us. We are looking for the Olympian in everyone,” said Mitt Romeny, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. “Torchbearers will be people from all walks of life who have inspired others, whether an individual or a community. As the flame journeys throughout America, our intention is that it will serve as a catalyst, motivating individuals to strive for excellence and achievement in their lives, effecting positive change in their own communities.”

The Olympic Flame began its journey on Dec. 4 in Atlanta, which was the last place it rested on U.S. soil, and will cross the country for the opening ceremony in Salt Lake City, making stops at 125 major cities and hundreds of towns along the way. Each of the torchbearers will carry the flame approximately 0.2 miles, or about two city blocks. Miller will run in Casper, Wyo.

It will be a personal highlight for Miller, just as are the memories that he’s created since being diagnosed with cancer nearly three years ago.

“A man named Charles Richards once said, ‘Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another gets a full year’s value out of a week.’ Two years ago, that was just a quote by some guy,” Miller said. “Today, it’s a reminder to make every day count.

“To be perfectly honest, I live from one MRI to the next, but I look at what I’ve accomplished in between each. I’m not waiting to do things,” Miller said. “I’m taking trips, spending more time with my family, taking more walks with my wife. I’m not as worried about my 401K as I am about making memories with the people I love.”

Miller continues to embrace each day. The months leading up to the Olympic Relay will be busy. He’s interviewing for a promotion opportunity with Pfizer in Minneapolis. And he and Jenny are expecting their first child, a son conceived through in-vitro fertilization, around Christmastime.

“If I could go back to life before I had cancer, I wouldn’t,” Miller said. “The person I’ve become after cancer looks at life differently and doesn’t take things for granted. Everything is really coming together.”