january 2013 | trinity university magazine

TRINITYTHE MAGAZINE OF TRINITY UNIVERSITY | JANUARY 2013

Students intern in Botswana and Swaziland

Curriculum Reform: Less—but strategically focused—is More

Out of Africa:

It is my sincere hope that all of you enjoyed a holiday season fi lled with warmth, family, and friends, just as Penelope, Benjamin, and

I have done. At Trinity, we anticipate a New Year full of promise and possibili-ties: faculty continue to develop innovative programs, the curriculum is undergoing a philosophical shift compatible with the times, and new opportunities at home and abroad are greatly enriching students’ academic experiences. You’ll read about some of them in this issue. However, that is not to say that institutions of higher learning are not facing challenges, and Trinity is no exception. Competition for the best and brightest students is fi ercer than ever, and the economic need of students continues to grow. Add to this the growing popular-ity of alternative education options, e.g. massive open on-line courses (MOOCs) from prestigious institutions such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, and it’s easy to understand why some are questioning the viability of private, liberal arts and sciences education. While MOOCs undoubtedly provide access to brilliant lectures and off er valid and valuable information, I would argue that there is more—a lot more, in fact—to education. MOOCs and other forms of online delivery provide information, not an education. Trinity off ers an intensive, hands-on, highly personal approach that teaches students to apply their academic knowledge in completely new situa-tions. Small, residential liberal arts colleges and universities excel at teaching students how to reason carefully, solve complex problems,

be creative and entrepreneurial, work in teams, and communicate clearly and eff ectively in writing and speaking. Recent research reported by the Council of Independent Colleges has shown that students from colleges and universities like Trinity are more likely to take on leadership roles on campus and in the community and ex-perience larger gains in personal and social development than other students. First generation, low-income, at risk students, and students of color, are also more likely to graduate if they attend small liberal arts colleges and universities. Of course, the reality is that education of this quality is not cheap. Trinity has been fortunate in that it has been able to draw on its endowment to subsidize the actual cost of this type of education by holding tuition to a level signifi cantly below its peers. Beyond that, Trinity awards an additional $38 million in scholarships and fi nancial aid to 90 percent of the student body—a substantially higher percent-age than found at other selective institutions. Recent increases in fi nancial aid are unsustainable. For me this is a very personal issue. As students who benefi t-ted tremendously from scholarships, both Penelope and I believe passionately in “paying it forward,” and we have done so at our respective institutions in Australia and the UK and at Trinity by establishing scholarships. Going forward, I am deeply grateful for the many of you who feel the same way and who respond generously. I recognize that there are many demands on your resources, but I want to assure you that every gift in support of scholarships or in supporting outstanding academic or athletic programs is a gift that can make a signifi cant impact on thousands of lives for years to come. Th ink of scholarship recipi-ents, entrepreneurs Dirk Elmendorff , Pat Condon, and Richard Yoo, who co-founded Rackspace, now a publically traded company that employs more than 4,700 people. Th ink of Dr. Mark Kline, whose work with pediatric AIDS patients has saved thousands of lives in 13 countries around the globe, or think of Dr. Ana Unruh, Trinity’s fi rst Rhodes Scholar, who is now Deputy Staff Director at the U.S. House of Representatives. And there are many more like them. Could there be a more rewarding or positive return on investment than alumni like that? Th ank you for your continued loyalty and support. May your New Year be fi lled with the joy and sense of accomplishment that come with paying it forward. Together, we will make the world a better place.

Sincerely,

Dennis Ahlburg

P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E

President Dennis Ahlburg and his family welcome the crowd to the annual Christmas concert in Laurie Auditorium.

TRINITYTHE MAGAZINE OF TRINITY UNIVERSITY | JANUARY 2013

Katie Ogawa, right, interned at the Baylor Children’s Clinic in Botswana last summer.page 24

Expert animal tracker Casey MacFarlane showed students the ropes at High Lonesome. page 12

George Burmeister tackles energy issues. Profiles start on page 32.

F E A T U R E S

24 Out of Africa

28 Less is More

D E P A R T M E N T S 4 Trinity Today

16 Faculty/Staff Focus

32 Profiles

40 Advancement

47 Alumnews

58 Class Acts

64 A Christmas Vision

Before the Henry Moore sculpture, the reflection pool was the focal point on the Esplanade. (inside back cover)

January 2013

TRINITY RECALLING SARAH BURKE

Reading about Russian professor Sarah Burke’s retirement in the January 2012 magazine brought back a fond memory. I was an arts writer for the Trinitonian, and when I was assigned to cover the opening of an exhibition of 20th-century Russian paintings at the McNay Art Museum, I was pleased at the prospect of applying what I had learned in Dr. Burke’s course on Russian avant-garde art. At the opening reception, I tracked down the curator and plied him with questions about the works on display by Na-talia Goncharova, Lyubov Popova, and other artists I had studied in Dr. Burke’s class. At one point the curator remarked, “It’s nice to fi nd somebody who’s actually interested in talking about the art.Th e other reporters here are interested in writing only about who’s attending the reception.” Th ank you, Dr. Burke—you made my night (and the curator’s, too).

Lisa Morin Carcia ’90Seattle

ENERGY REACTION

Th e July 2012 issue of Trinity features an arti-cle about Scott Tinker ’82. “Alternative Fuels of the Future: Energy Expert Explores Op-tions in New Documentary” is, we can safely assume, a prominent expression of what are the “establishment” views on world energy futures. Tinker’s work is discussed by An-drew Faught, who writes: “In 98 minutes that span eleven countries, Tinker takes viewers on a hunt for solutions. What he discovers is that the planet’s 21st century energy needs will best be served with a balanced energy “portfolio” that includes coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, biofuels, hydro, wind, solar, and geothermal sources. Getting there will be a decades long process but the transition, as the fi lm demonstrates, is already underway.”Th ank you Scott and [writer] Andrew for a nicely put way of saying that the process of

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Sharon Jones Schweitzer ’75

EDITOR

Mary Denny

ART DIRECTOR

Michelle Wilby Friesenhahn ’77

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Mike Agresta, Rend Altai ’15 R. Douglas Brackenridge, Julie Catalano,

Nancy Cook-Monroe, Andrea Davis ’12, Andrew Faught, Susie Gonzalez,

Russell Guerrero ’83,James Hill ’76, Mary Lance,

Michael Lawrence,

PROOFREADER Beth Hoffman ’67

PHOTOGRAPHER

David Smith

PRESIDENT

Dennis A. Ahlburg

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Sharon J. Bell, Ted Beneski,Walter F. Brown Jr., Phyllis Browning,

Richard W. Calvert, Miles Cortez, James F. Dicke II, Douglas D. Hawthorne, George C. Hixon, Walter R. Huntley Jr.,

John R. Hurd, E. Carey Joullian IV, The Rev. Richard R. Kannwischer,

Richard M. Kleberg III, Katherine W. Klinger, John C. Korbell, Oliver T. Lee,Gregory Love, Steven P. Mach, Robert S.

McClane, Melody Boone Meyer, Forrest E. Miller, Marshall B. Miller Jr.,

Michael F. Neidorff, Barbara W. Pierce, Thomas R. Semmes, Paul H. Smith,

L. Herbert Stumberg Jr., Lissa Walls Vahldiek

Trinity is published two times a year by the Office of University Communications

and is sent to alumni, faculty, staff, graduate students, parents of undergradu-

ates, and friends of the University.

EDITORIAL OFFICES Trinity University

Office of University Communications One Trinity Place

San Antonio, TX 78212-7200 E-mail: mdenny@ trinity.edu

Phone: 210-999-8406 Fax: 210-999-8449

www.trinity.edu

It’s an exciting time at Trinity. A number of new summer research and study options are being developed, all of which refl ect the em-phasis on global engagement and interdisci-plinary teaching that are becoming hallmarks of a Trinity education. Our cover story highlights the summer internships that saw four students travel to Botswana and Swaziland to intern at two Baylor Pediatric AIDS Clinics established by alumnus Dr. Mark Kline. (Dr. Kline was profi led in Trinity several years ago when he established the fi rst pediatric AIDS clinic in Romania.) Th e inaugural summer in Shanghai program, modeled on the very successful summer in Madrid program, was also a stellar international experience. Closer to home, another initiative took students and professors to the Colorado Rockies for an interdisciplinary course that combined the sciences and the liberal arts. As always, Trinity alumni continue to make us proud. Our profi le subjects this issue include an energy entrepreneur, a Broadway fi ght choreographer, a business woman who designs and manufactures “hot, racy” mobil-ity devices, and a recent alumna who spent two years designing labs for a university in Saudi Arabia. For nostalgia, read the wonderful Doug Brackenridge, who recalls the refl ection pond that once was a focal point on the esplanade. Alumni from the early 60s may recognize the student about to be tossed in, a birthday tradition that continues today, albeit in Miller fountain. And, for inspiration— thanks to Th omas Willbanks ’57 for bringing it to our attention—we are reprinting a piece written by late President James W. Laurie on what, at fi rst, seemed a very bleak Christmas. Happy New Year.

Mary Denny

Send comments, ideas, or suggestions to [email protected] or Mary Denny, One Trinity Place, San Antonio, Texas 78212.

From the Editor

T O T H E E D I T O R

January 2013 3

free-market capitalism is sorting things out, no solar energy activism, please. But the real truth is this: our energy Masters want more oil pumped and more nukes built. Solar can be talked about, but only in passing. Capital-ism does not like solar energy produced because it can’t really be “capitalized.” And as Walter Cronkite used to say, “that’s the way it is.” Th at is, unless we raise Hell.

Newtrey Ellison ’62Austin

LIKED CRYSTAL BRIDGES

I want to tell you how much I enjoyed the July issue of Trinity, especially the nice article about Crystal Bridges along with pictures. By the way, I happened to run across this article by Dr. James W. Laurie and found it quite in-teresting in the way he could see “structures in a manner that would transcend sight.”

Th omas G. Willbanks ’57Pastor First Presbyterian ChurchMesquite, Texas

Editor’s note: Th e essay mentioned above is reprinted as a Commentary on page 64.

KUDOS

Trinity has been one of the greatest infl u-ences on our lives, and we love getting the magazine. Keep up the great work!

Bobby McKinney ’07Houston

Your July issue of Trinity was one of the best in every way—

Red McCombsSan Antonio

Your comments and suggestions are

always welcome and encouraged.

Send them to Mary Denny, editor,

Trinity University,

Offi ce of University Communications,

One Trinity Place,

San Antonio, TX 78212-7200, or

[email protected]

SHELTER FROM THE STORM

We got back from summer in New England just in time for Hurricane Isaac. While se-questered in our house riding out the bands of wind and rain we thoroughly enjoyed the latest edition of your beautiful magazine. We were also pleasantly surprised to see the very kind mentions of both of our professional endeavors in the class notes section. Th ank you for updating our friends and classmates!

Lori ’89 and Bill Th ompson ’88St. Th omas, Virgin Islands

POSITIVE FEEDBACK

Th ank you for highlighting the Broach Foun-dation for Brain Cancer Research in the most recent edition of the Trinity magazine. We have received a lot of positive feedback from the article and are so glad for the awareness the article brings to this particular cancer.

Jamie Broach ’01Houston

OLD FRIENDS

Many thanks for the copy of Trinity that arrived here today. What a great line-up of pieces, many of them about old friends and colleagues. I’ll have dinner with Arun Venu-gopal in the city next week. I’m especially grateful for the contact info on Moya Ball and Dick Gentry. I had not heard that Moya and Alan moved back to the UK.

Harry HainesProfessor, Montclair State UniversityMontclair, N.J.

BEYOND TRINITY

Just a note to let you know I have gotten a lot of positive feedback on the article, both from classmates and, surprisingly, from people in San Antonio who somehow saw it, although they have no connection with Trinity!Th anks for doing such a great job!

Jim Peyton ’65San Antonio

TRINITYTHE MAGAZINE OF TRINITY UNIVERSITY | JULY 2012

Alumna’s vision integrates art, architecture, and nature

Energy Expert Explores Options

Is the Tea Party History?

Crystal Bridges:

4 Trinity

T R I N I T Y T O D AY

San Antonio investment manager named chairman

San Antonio investment manager John C. Korbell has been elected chairman of the Trinity University Board of Trustees. He succeeds Walter R. Huntley

Jr. ’71, ’73, an Atlanta businessman. Other offi cers of the Board of Trustees are Douglas D. Hawthorne ’69, ’72, vice chairman; Sharon J. Bell, honorary vice chair; Th omas R. Semmes, treasurer; and E. Carey Joullian IV ’82, secretary. A Trinity Trustee since 1978, Korbell is a managing director of wealth manage-ment and senior investment management consultant at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in San Antonio. He has been frequently recognized as one of the Top 100 Finan-cial Advisers in the wealth management industry by Barron’s magazine. An active leader in the San Antonio community, Korbell currently serves as chairman of the board of Southwest Research Institute. He is past chairman and current member of the board of governors of the Cancer Th erapy and Research Center. A Texas A&M gradu-ate, Korbell earned a bachelor of science in civil engineering and a bachelor of arts in English. Hawthorne is president and chief execu-tive offi cer of Texas Health Resources, where

he oversees 24 acute care and short-stay hospitals affi liated with the Texas Health Presbyterian, Texas Health Arlington Me-morial, and Texas Health Harris Method-ist hospitals. Under his leadership, Texas Health has received numerous awards, and he has been included six times (2003-2009) on Modern Healthcare magazine’s list of 100 Most Powerful People in Health Care. He currently chairs the Health Leadership Council Executive Task Force on the Un-insured and is a member of the American Hospital Association’s President’s Forum. At Trinity, he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1969 and a master’s in Health Care Admin-istration in 1972 and was named Distin-guished Alumnus in 1995. An attorney and board member since 1988, Bell is managing partner with Rogers and Bell of Tulsa, Okla., and Trustee for the Chapman Trusts. Prior to earning her law degree, she was an urban planner. She was named Woman of the Year in 2011 by Th e Journal Record of Oklahoma City, received an Outstanding Service Award from the Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry, and the Humanitarian Award from the Oklahoma Conference for Community & Justice. Bell serves on various boards, including the

Children’s Medical Center, the University of Tulsa, and the Oklahoma Investment Forum.

Semmes is a San Antonio businessman and president of the Semmes Foundation, a charitable foundation established by his father D. R. Semmes. Semmes and his fam-ily have taken an active role in the develop-ment of Trinity University for more than 50 years. Th e Semmes Foundation established the D. R. Semmes Distinguished Professor-ship of Chemistry and supports a scholar-ship program for students with interests in the science professions. Semmes has been a board member since 1994.

Joullian, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and history from Trinity in 1982, is president and chief operating offi cer of Mustang Fuel Corp. in Oklahoma City. He also is a principal of Th e Joullian Foundation and member of the board of directors of the Bank of Oklahoma Financial Corp. He serves as chairman of Mustang Ventures Company, parent of Mustang Gas Products, LLC, and previously worked at Th e First National Bank in Okla-homa City, as a lending associate. He was elected to the Trinity board in 2005.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES ELECTS NEW OFFICERS

Sharon J. BellDouglas D. HawthorneJohn C. Korbell Thomas R. SemmesE. Carey Joullian IV

January 2013 5


Trinity Tomorrow initiative nearing completion

As vice president for Faculty and Student Aff airs, I interact with many of the groups that make up the Trinity com-munity: members of the faculty and staff , current students, board members, and alumni. Over the past two years, as a co-chair for the Trinity Tomorrow strategic planning initiative, I have had conversa-tions with these groups that have taken on a new character as we collectively consider the priorities and goals that will guide our decision making for the next decade. I have been continually impressed by the Trinity community’s engagement with this ambitious challenge. All of these groups care about the future of Trinity and have been willing to invest considerable time, energy, and thought in designing a road map to lead us there. Last September, we circulated the fi rst draft of the Trinity Tomorrow strategic plan. Th e Trinity Tomorrow Commit-tee is currently in the process of revising this draft to refl ect the feedback we have received. We are also fi nalizing a budget and assessment plan. Th e fi nal plan will be presented for approval to the Board of Trustees in Spring 2013. As we approach the end of this plan-ning process, I want to share some broad themes that have emerged. Th ese themes affi rm Trinity’s enduring strengths and values, while indicating new ways to strengthen the University in an increasing-ly competitive higher education landscape.

• A Trinity education educates the whole student and involves the whole campus

working in a coordinated way, from professors to coaches and staff . We want all students to benefi t from attending a resi-dential college and experiencing the many co-curricular as well as academic opportu-nities Trinity provides.

• A Trinity education starts in the class-room but doesn’t stay there. It includes work in the community and even the world as well as experiences outside the classroom on campus. Trinity will con-tinue to be a leader in San Antonio and be-yond through volunteerism, partnerships with other organizations, and course work that takes students outside the classroom, including new study abroad opportunities.

• A Trinity education starts when you are an undergraduate but doesn’t stop there. We want to inspire in our students a lifetime love of learning, and we want to stay engaged with them as alumni. We believe that alumni represent our great-est underutilized resource at a time when their support has never been more critical.

• A Trinity education gives students op-portunities to apply, test, and use what they learn. At Trinity, we practice what we teach. We want to create new opportunities for all students to extend their academic learning in new contexts, including intern-ships and research with faculty members.

Although the challenges facing all univer-sities today are daunting, we are confi dent that we can meet them by building on the considerable resources that have made a Trinity education so strong: our loca-tion and facilities, our excellent faculty representing a broad range of disciplines, our dedicated staff , our talented alumni, our dedicated board, and our remarkable students. I want to thank the many people who have contributed to our planning. Speaking on behalf of the Trinity Tomor-row committee, we are all indebted to you for your work.

Please read the full draft and follow our progress at trinity.edu/trinitytomorrow

Michael FischerVice President, Faculty and Student Aff airs

Lisa Baronio joined the Trinity adminis-tration last August as vice president for alumni relations and development. She is responsible for providing leadership and strategic vision to all aspects of the Univer-sity’s fundraising activities and constituent relationships and will oversee staff in an-nual, major, and planned giving; corporate and foundation relations; advancement services; and alumni relations. Baronio, formerly vice president for ad-vancement and director of development at the University of North Texas Founda-tion in Denton, has 19 years experience as a successful higher education fund-raiser, many of those years in executive leadership positions. She has a strong

track record of strengthening fundrais-ing programs, as well as comprehensive fundraising, volunteer management, and campaign and major gift experience. She holds a bachelor’s in business admin-istration from the University of Iowa in management sciences, a bachelor of arts in computer science from the University of Iowa, and an executive M.B.A. from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

New to Administration

Lisa Baronio

6 Trinity

MOVING FORWARD

Coalition seeks to strengthen, sustain fraternities, sororities


A “blueprint” for Trinity’s social fraternities and sororities meant to ensure their long-term success on campus is nearing comple-

tion. Greek alumni, Trustees, and adminis-trators have worked diligently throughout the summer and fall to develop a plan aimed at strengthening the relationship between fraternities and sororities, the University’s Offi ce of Campus and Community Involve-ment (CCI), and Trinity alumni. On a parallel front, University staff is working with the two fraternities and two

sororities that were suspended last spring on reinstatement plans that could reduce their two- to three-year suspensions. CCI direc-tor Jamie Th ompson says the suspended groups are working from a template that addresses scholarship, leadership, service, and comradery. “In developing their re-instatement plans, we’re asking the groups to look beyond the sanctions imposed and consider their values and how their actions and activities will refl ect those values.” Th e news of the suspensions last spring brought an outcry from Greek alumni, many

of whom viewed the University’s actions as the beginning of the end of Greek life on the Trinity campus. A selected group of alumni and Trustees have been meeting separately to develop a framework of recommenda-tions that could enhance the sustainability of these campus organizations, increase alumni involvement in the clubs, and improve com-munication between the University, Greek alumni, and Trinity’s fraternitiesand sororities. Dave Mansen, president of the Trinity University Alumni Association and chair of the National Alumni Board, has been the chair of a Greek alumni task force. He says as a result of this team’s process, alumni will likely be more involved in new member ori-entation and other activities. “We expect an increased role for our Greek Alumni Advi-sory Council as it works with both students and the CCI team.” One of the administration’s recommen-dations that came up during this process includes moving away from calling Trinity’s fraternities and sororities “Greeks.” “Greek has a very negative connotation in the higher education marketplace, and some of our active groups do not have Greek names,” Mansen explains. Th e draft blueprint includes input from students, CCI staff , Trustees, and top ad-ministrators, including Michael Fischer, vice president for Faculty and Student Aff airs, who has served as coordinator for all the groups exploring Trinity’s current fraternity and sorority environment. “We’ve strengthened communication with alumni, and this has al-lowed us to demonstrate the University’s com-mitment to the long term viability of Trinity’s fraternities and sororities,” Fischer says. A fi nal draft , tentatively titled “Blueprint for Trinity University’s Fraternities and Sororities,” is expected to be approved by the Board of Trustees in early spring.

Sharon Jones Schweitzer ’75

Illus

tratio

n by

Mich

elle W

ilby F

riese

nhah

n ’77

July 2012 7

UNCOVERING JEWISH HISTORY

Aft er many false starts, pressure from Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Israel, and long days under a burning sun, Trinity religion

professor Chad Spigel, senior Joshua Pedrick ‘13, and other archaeologists uncovered a magnifi cent mosaic tile in the synagogue within Huqoq, an ancient Jewish village mentioned in the Bible and the Talmud and dating to the Late Roman/Byzantine period (4th to 6th centuries). Th e excavated tile depicts the biblical story of Samson burning grain in fi elds and olive orchards with torches tied between the tails of foxes (Judges 15:5). “Although we know that mosaic fl oors existed in ancient synagogues, it is always exciting when you are there when one is excavated,” says Spigel. “Th e fact that there was also an inscription and a clearly identifi able biblical scene made the fi nd even more meaningful.“ Coupled with another Samson mosaic discovery in a nearby synagogue, the tiles suggest that stories about Samson might have been a popular motif in ancient Jewish communities of the region. As such, they hint toward answers about Jewish interpretations and artistic culture. “While we expected to fi nd a fl oor for the synagogue building, we had no idea that we were going to fi nd such a beautiful mosaic fl oor,” says Spigel. “So in many ways our goals for the season were both reached and exceeded.”Even as the dig exceeded their goals, the excavation was not without challenges. One dealt with some sites yielding nothing, a common occurrence on digs. Another, more serious hurdle came from the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Israel who believed the archaeologists might disturb ancient Jewish graves. Th ey protested, and, in extreme cases such as at Huqoq, vandalized the sites to discourage further excavation. Although Spigel convinced them that the team was not excavating graves, there remained constant concern that the objectors might attempt to either shut down the excavations or vandalize the fi nds. For Pedrick, a religion major from Houston,

Professor, student unearth ancient tiles in Israel


Trinity University religion professor Chad Spigel, left, works with Trinity student Joshua Pedrick of Houston to unearth ancient artifacts.

Phot

o by J

im H

aber

man

neither the heat, the long tedious hours, nor the pressure from the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community dampened his enthusiasm or the overall experience. “Working in the village with Dr. Spigel was more fun than a barrel of monkeys coated in Silly Putty,” he says. “Not many people get to experience the exciting discovery of such a signifi cant archaeological fi nd, let alone as an

undergraduate. It was incredible to watch the staff discuss the fi nds and instruct us in how to excavate. Being taught by highly trained and experienced archaeologists was the best imaginable way to learn fi eld research.”Excavations at the site—and the opportunity for Trinity undergraduates to participate—will continue in summer 2013. Andrea Davis ’12

Fall Sports round up R


8 Trinity

For the 21st straight year, the U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” guide awarded Trinity University a No.1 ranking in the category of institutions that off er a full range of undergraduate pro-grams as well as select master’s programs in the Western part of the United States.Trinity also received a No. 1 ranking in the publication’s best value category, “Great Schools, Great Prices.” In addition, U.S. News & World Report ranked the University’s en-gineering science program No. 32 among the nation’s best schools where the highest degree off ered is a bachelor’s or master’s. In the 2013 Fiske Guide to Colleges, Trinity was recognized as a Best Buy, one of only 41 schools to receive that designation.

Trinity was included in the 2013 edition of The Best 377 Colleges, an annual guide published by The Princeton Review, which highlights only 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance has included Trinity University on its list of the country’s best values in private colleges, ranking it at No. 29. Kiplinger’s annual list identifi es 100 private universities and 100 liberal arts col-leges that combine outstanding education with economic value.

CROSS COUNTRYTh e Tiger men’s and women’s teams compet-ed in the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships at Terre Haute, Ind. Trinity’s women finished in 12th place, the second-best performance in school history. Trinity’s men, competing as a team at nationals for the first time, recorded a 32nd-place finish. In his first season as the Tiger head cross-country coach, Derick Lawrence was elected the South/Southeast Regional Coach of the Year. He guided the Tiger women to the South/Southeast Regional title, and the men to a runner-up finish in Atlanta. The Tiger teams won the Southern Col-legiate Athletic Conference Champion-ships for the first time in Trinity annals. Trinity’s women earned a perfect score of 15, the first SCAC team to accomplish that feat, and nine women and eight men run-ners turned in times for All-SCAC honors. Junior Vanessa Moreno won the confer-ence women’s race, and was named SCAC Women’s Cross Country Runner of the Year. Taylor Piske was selected as SCAC Men’s Freshman of the Year. Coach Lawrence was named the SCAC Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year.

MEN’S SOCCERTrinity captured its 15th SCAC Champi-onship in front of the Tiger fans, com-pleting the regular season with an 18-0-3 record. Tom Carwile was named SCAC Newcomer of the Year, the third con-secutive Trinity player to earn the honor. Six Trinity players were selected for the All-SCAC Team. The team advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the 16th time in their history, losing to Montclair State in the third round. Trinity’s head coach is Paul McGinlay.

Hear usWOMEN’S SOCCERTrinity (15-1-3 for the season) hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tourna-ment, beating Puget Sound in the opener but losing to Hardin-Simmons in the second round. It was the Tigers’ 18th trip to the NCAA event. The Tigers won their 17th SCAC confer-ence title. Emily Jorgens became Trinity’s fourth consecutive player to win the SCAC Offensive Player of the Year Award. Katie Garrett was just the third goalkeeper in SCAC history to be named the Defensive Player of the Year. A total of 11 Tiger play-ers were named to the All-SCAC Team. Trinity is led by head coach Lance Key.

VOLLEYBALL The Tigers, led by head coach Julie Jen-kins, earned an at-large bid to the NCAA playoffs, after finishing as runners-up at the SCAC Tournament in Colorado. Play-ing in their 19th NCAA postseason tour-nament, Trinity fell to Juniata in the open-ing round. Senior Meredith Erwin and sophomore Layne Hubbard were named American Volleyball Coaches Association Honorable Mention All-Americans. Junior Maryn Swierc joined her two teammates on the All-South Region Team. Erwin was elected as SCAC Backrow Player of the Year, while Hubbard and Swierc were also selected for the All-SCAC Team. Coach Jenkins was named SCAC Coach of the Year for the 10th time.

FOOTBALL Trinity completed the campaign with a 7-3 overall record, and a 16th SCAC Championship. The Tigers produced 14 All-SCAC players, led by three top award winners. Senior Mason Lytal was named Offensive Player of the Year, junior Thom-

as Puskarich earned Defensive Player of the Year honors, and sophomore Matthew Kennemer was voted Special Teams Player of the Year. Steve Mohr was selected as SCAC Coach of the Year for the 12th time, tying him for the most accolades in conference history. Coach Mohr stands in the top-10 among active coaches in career wins (181), and the top-25 in winning percentage.

January 2013 9

Sophomore Brings Home the Gold

Roar


Sophomore tennis player Aaron Skinner from Columbia, Mo., captured the 10th Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Small College Championship in Mobile, Alabama, in a match that included two 7-6 nerve-racking tiebreakers. Having endured several surgeries and numerous injuries, he won a “play-in match” just to get into the main draw of the prestigious event, then bested the top seed of the tournament to become a national champion. Skinner’s accomplishment is the second ITA men’s singles crown for Trinity, with the fi rst coming from Jamie Broach in 1997. Since that time, the Tiger men have won three doubles championships, including a 2010 title by Bobby Cocanougher and Cory Kowal. Trinity’s women have brought home two national singles championships, and three in doubles.

Aaron Skinner

Junior Katie Ogawa, left, displays a T-shirt designed for residents of Hope Hall, a new residential com-munity she organized. H.O.P.E. (Homelessness Outreach Pursuing Education) residents will serve together weekly with community partners that serve individuals experiencing homelessness.

s

“I am defi nitely proud I can put that up on the wall for Trinity,” the modest Skinner says. “It is obviously a unique feeling to win a na-tional title for Trinity. I try to take everything point by point. It lets me keep my head in the match, instead of getting overwhelmed.” James Hill ’76

A pre-election article in the Christian Science Monitor titled “23 Books I Wish Obama and Romney Would Read,” included professor David Lesch’s recent Fall of the House of Assad.

The Trinity athletics program was ranked seventh in the December 6, 2012 Learfi eld Sports Directors’ Cup release. The Learfi eld Sports Directors’ Cup is administered by the National Association of College Directors of Athletics.

The Tigers were ranked 7th in the presti-gious Learfi eld Director’s Cup following their successful fall season. The standings are based on how the more than 400 NCAA Division III schools fi nish nation-ally in the postseason. Teams that scored points in the rankings included men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, and volleyball. Trinity was ranked 34th at the end of last season. This year’s seventh-place ranking is the best for Trinity since the 2007-08 season, which saw the Tigers fi nish the school year in 13th place overall.

McNair Scholar Program is path to successfor fi rst generation student

Studying in Salvador, Brazil, last spring was a long way from San Antonio’s Lee High School, but Trinity senior Saman-

tha Gonzalez, the fi rst in her family to attend college, felt right at home. A product of Trinity’s Upward Bound program in high school and a McNair Scholar, Gonzalez is a sociology major who spent the semester abroad learning about a public health program in Brazil. She worked alongside students from such institutions as Johns Hopkins, Tulane, Brandeis, and Smith College, all of whom competed for the intensive program and wrapped up the international experience by writing a 40-page research paper. Gonzalez’s fi rst exposure to public health issues took place during a McNair-sponsored summer research program in the health pro-motion and disease prevention department at


10 Trinity

Senior Samantha Gonzalez studied public health programs during her semester in Brazil. Gonzalez credits the support and mentoring she received from Upward Bound and the McNair Scholars programs with helping her achieve her college degree.

the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Th ere, she learned that health is more than a medical profi le; it is also infl uenced by education, language, and other social factors. “I fell in love with this type of work and hope to further my education in this fi eld,” she says. Aft er she graduates in May, Gonzalez plans to pursue a master’s in public health, which will represent a “personal best” for her and a joyous moment for her family. “Th ey are very proud of me and not only because I’m the fi rst to graduate from college, but be-cause I will be graduating from such a pres-tigious institution as Trinity. Th ey always tell my younger cousins and my nieces to follow my lead because if I could do it, then they can, too!” Gonzalez acknowledges the help she got along the way. Upward Bound staff ers

provided guidance on her college applica-tions and admissions essays, and the program required Saturday classes, which instilled a work ethic that prepared her for Trinity’s rigorous courses. She even got a “sneak peak” at a typical Trinity class by taking a writing workshop the summer before her fi rst year. McNair staff ers have continued to nurture Gonzalez and her McNair cohort by off er-ing academic and emotional support. Once, Teresa Morrison, the program’s assistant director, personally drove Gonzalez and two other Scholars to Fort Worth to visit graduate schools when scheduling confl icts arose. When asked to advise other fi rst-generation students, Gonzalez says the path to college isn’t easy, but it isn’t impossible, either. She urges talented high school students to take the initiative to fi nd resources to help with the process. She said Upward Bound director Simone Carnegie-Diaz was vital in making sure she didn’t miss any of Trinity’s applica-tion deadlines. Without the McNair program, Gonzalez says she “would have been so lost at Trinity. I wouldn’t have felt as assertive with what I wanted to do with my life, and I wouldn’t have met the amazing life-long friends or mentors. I am so thankful for both of the programs because they have helped mold me into the woman I am today.” In 2012, the U.S. Department of Education renewed funding for both the Upward Bound program and a $220,000 fi ve-year grant for the McNair Scholars program, which prepares fi rst-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students for substantive research in order to pursue a doctorate. Since its inception at Trinity in 2007, the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program has assisted and mentored 69 Schol-ars. Upward Bound is now in its 34th year at Trinity, while the McNair program is entering its sixth year.

Susie P. Gonzalez

January 2013 11

Inaugural program Focuses on Chinese Policies, Politics


Last May, eleven Trinity students crossed the Pacifi c to learn about contemporary politics and policy in

a country where nearly a fi ft h of humanity or 1.3 billion people live. Th ey found Shanghai—population 25 million—alive with international fl avor and bristling with commerce and construction, and had what professor Dante Suarez, associate chair of Trinity’s department of business administration, described as “hands down, the best educational experience that I have ever been part of in any capacity.” Th e students were the inaugural cohort for Trinity’s new Shanghai Summer Program. Co-developed by Stephen Field, director of Trinity’s Chinese Program and co-chair of the East Asia Studies at Trinity (EAST) and Suarez, the six-week long program is unique in that American and Chinese students, many at graduate level, study together in the same classroom, learning about each other as individuals and about their respective countries. “I know of no other like it,” says an enthusiastic Suarez. Th e study abroad program combined visits to cultural and historic sites and classes held at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), one of the top three universities in China and oft en compared to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. Th e two three-hour, for-credit courses included “Governance and Public Policy in Contemporary China” taught by SJTU professor Bo Peng, a world-renowned scholar in Chinese policies and politics, and “Comparative Views of Modern China” taught by Suarez. Most of the students took advantage of the optional opportunity to take twice-weekly Mandarin Chinese language classes organized by Trinity’s modern languages and literatures professor Jie Zhang, who arranged for the classes to be adapted to each student’s pre-trip language skill. Field and Zhang both made visits during the program and accompanied the groups on

SUMMER IN SHANGHAI

several excursions. Weekends included fi eld trips to Beijing, Hangzhou, and San Antonio’s newest sister city, Wuxi, among others, and students had the opportunity to meet with local offi cials and dignitaries as well as tour cultural sites. On the last day of class, students were asked which country—China or the United States of America—has the best system of governance. As students self-divided into teams to debate the question, Suarez was astounded that each team was one-half Chinese, one-half American. “It was astonishing to see Chinese students arguing for American governance and American students arguing for Chinese. “ One of the participants, Oklahoma City sophomore Lila Ritger, an international

business and Chinese languages double major, says the experience “pushed me to know what I want to do in life and that is to do business in some way with China. But more important, the program taught us the need to learn more about the world around us, plus the courses gave us a more balanced view of China and its people, its policies and politics.” Speaking for the group, Ritger adds, “We all had our lives changed by the experience in Shanghai Jiao Tong, which is what study abroad really is all about.”

Mary Lance

For more information about the Summer 2013 Shanghai Program, please contact professor Dante Suarez: [email protected].

Professor Dante Suarez, far left, and the fi rst cohort of students to participate in the Summer in Shanghai program visited cultural and historic sites in China during their stay.

Colorado ranch ideal setting for interdisciplinary study


12 Trinity

For two action-packed weeks last July, 10 Trinity University students and fi ve faculty camped on a ranch at the western slope of the Rocky Mountains near Grand Junction, Colo., where they studied nature from multiple perspectives.

The camp was at the high end of a long valley called the Book Cliff geological formation on the High Lonesome ranch owned by Paul

Vahldiek and Trinity Trustee Lissa Walls Vahldiek ’80. Th e class, an environmental studies course titled “Landscape in Space and Time,” was taught by faculty members from diff erent disciplines: Richard Reed, sociology and anthropology; Elizabeth Ward, art and art history; Kathleen Surpless, geosciences; Kelly Lyons, biology; and Greg Hazelton, an environmental fellow from the Associated Colleges of the South, who teaches at Trinity. “Th e goal of the course was to give students a well-rounded introduction to environmental studies,” says Reed, who helped organize the class. Th e course combined the usual elements found in an environmental science class, such as biology, chemistry, and geosciences, but also added issues found in the social sciences such as water policy and environmental justice. Plus, students and faculty used art and

writing to examine their relationship tothe land. “When an interdisciplinary course works, students come to a richer understanding about how the world works. Th is helps to enhance the development of their personal perspectives and has the potential to make them better thinkers overall,” explains Surpless. “In this course, students who were more oriented toward the sciences, political science, or anthropology gained a better understanding of the power of personal expression, and the more creative-driven students gained an appreciation for the power of understanding natural systems and what this can bring to the creative process.” Classes began early in the mornings and included fi eld trips around the ranch and visits to particular geological formations, plant formations, and ecosystems. Lessons featured research on animal habitats along river systems as well as information on the cultural history and history of land use of the area.

LEARNING AT HIGH LONESOME

Sophomore Katelyn Underbrink hikes the Gobbling area on the ranch, while studying geologic formations and animal habitats.

Drawing stratigraphy deepened under-standing of geological landscapes.


January 2013 13

Professor of Anthropology Richard Reed and student Carina Hiscock explore a long-deserted log cabin from the turn of the 20th Century.

Students learning proper use of a com-pass; Tayler Miller, Nathan Tweedy, Nicola Hill, Katelyn Underbrink, KatherineBanick, Hudson Batista (left to right).

Aft ernoons were reserved for refl ection, and participants spent the time reading, writing, and creating artwork. Dinner preparation was a shared activity followed by discussions on environmental literature. Katie Banick, a senior from Houston, was drawn to the class for the stunning location and the line-up of professors. Among her most memorable occurrences: exploring the ranch with professor Lyons and encountering a large herd of elk, and birding several times with professor Ward. Banick also enjoyed the unique interdisciplinary nature of the course. “Th e various perspectives became very cohesive to me as the weeks progressed,” she says. A highlight of the course was time spent with an animal tracker from the High Lonesome ranch. “He wanted to teach us about his work and made us very aware that he was working with living creatures,” says Carina Hiscock, a sophomore from Abilene. “He told us to minimize our footprints and try not to disturb the area. Th ere was an element of danger as we were tracking the path a mountain lion had made only hours before.” Th e group followed the tracker all the way to the site of a recent kill by the lion.

At the end of the two-week stay, faculty members say they had learned as much from the experience as the students. “We also made artwork and developed written pieces,” says Surpless. “I think that this was a critical part of the course that helped to break down barriers between teachers and students as well as across disciplines. I personally wrote some really terrible poetry, but I had a terrifi c time doing it!” Russell Guerrero ’83


14 Trinity

Trinity launches leadership program for school principals

NEW ERA, NEW FOCUS

Many remember their school principals as nice people who patted heads as the children walked

in each morning, or who gave them a talking-to if they popped gum in class. Nowadays, gum isn’t the problem and principals need a diff erent kind of preparation. “Th e job of principal is just bigger than it used to be,” says Shari Albright, Trinity’s nationally recognized Norine R. Murchison Professor of Practice and chairman of the education department. “Th ere are so many competing demands on schools these days with the accountability system, the economic downturn, and with the greater needs that students and their families bring to our school settings. Technology and social media are changing the nature of learning, so principals sit in the very important position of guiding the design of the teaching and learning to fi t the evolving context and culture in which schools will live.” To equip principals as schools and learning evolve, Albright will use a $2.5 million grant from Th e Ewing Halsell Foundation (see page 15), administered over fi ve years, to provide scholarships for Trinity’s new principal preparation program, which focuses on transformational school leadership for this changing world. “Th e Ewing Halsell Foundation understands that the pipeline of leadership is absolutely essential in order to turn struggling schools around and to move good schools to great,” Albright says. “Th e grant will allow Trinity to launch our new program and provide the scholarship support needed to attract top notch educators from across the region into school leadership.” Building on the community outreach Murchison Professor and department chair John Moore began in the 1970s, which Paul Kelleher continued during his tenure in those positions, Albright and her team are gearing the program to San Antonio. “I think people

(in San Antonio) look to Trinity frequently as a home of intellectual development and opportunities and as an institution that cares deeply about education and being part of solutions for the city,” she says. Th e timing couldn’t be better: Mayor Julían Castro has set a goal of achieving the greatest educational turnaround in the nation as part of SA2020, a process of citywide input designed to improve San Antonio’s quality of life and appeal to employers. Albright serves on the Mayor’s Brainpower Commission, an outgrowth of SA2020 that is developing an aggressive plan. Th e City’s Education Policy Adviser, Jeanne

Russell, shares Albright’s beliefs about the critical role of principals. “Th ere is a clear need to invest in programs that will give principals new tools, new ways to think, and new ways to approach education as we seek to make our city among the most educated in not just our country, but the world. “A new breed of principals can take the lead in setting a more aspirational tone for San Antonio students, one that is focused on developing multi-faceted thinkers for a global economy,” Russell adds. Richard Middleton, retired superintendent of Northeast ISD, agrees the new program will make a diff erence where it ultimately

pallss

Shari Albright


January 2013 15

HalsellFoundation Supports NewPrincipalPreparationProgram

The Ewing Halsell Foundation of San Antonio awarded a generous $2.5

million leadership grant to a visionary Trinity program to strengthen school principals in K-12 San Antonio public and charter schools. Th e grant will be admin-istered over a fi ve-year period in the form of forgivable loans to outstanding teacher leaders who are selected by their districts to become innovative and transformational school leaders. In exchange for the scholar-ship, candidates will commit to serve in a school leadership capacity in a school of need in the Greater San Antonio area for four years. Th is cadre of high-performing, entrepreneurial, transformative, Master’s-prepared leaders will be able to dramatically improve the levels of student achievement and aspiration in the San Antonio region. Th e Ewing Halsell Foundation has stra-tegically partnered with Trinity University for nearly 50 years, funding important pro-grams including a distinguished professor-ship, a scholarship endowment, Th e Trinity University Press, and other initiatives. Trinity’s education department is recog-nized as one of the top seven educator prep-aration programs nationally and has a long and sustained commitment to promoting educational excellence within the greater San Antonio community. Th e department is responsible for three nationally certi-fi ed master’s level educator preparation programs. Michael Lawrence

matters most--in the classroom. He explains, “Th e principals can harness the energy of excellent teachers; they can emphasize what they need to change, they can guide their practice. For example, how the principal sees the school’s belief system about children is very important to how parents and teachers believe their kids can succeed.” Reiterating Albright’s claim that the role of principal requires a diff erent skill set in the 21st century, Middleton – who has worked in education for 39 years – says in “the old days,” everything “perked along” without much bother. Today, the principal’s expertise must cover not just classroom instruction but also analysis of student achievement and performance measures, management or building of multi-million dollar facilities, and oversight of renovation and fundraising, especially in low-income communities that need aft er-school opportunities.

“Th ere are so many things on a principal’s plate,” he concludes. “We need them (principals) to look at how they are as leaders, how they work with stakeholders, and how they move the whole program forward.” Improving education in the seventh largest city in the country seems an out-sized ambition for a department of eight full-time faculty at one of San Antonio’s smallest institutions of higher learning. But Albright has no doubts about its success, nor do other community players. “Trinity is a small program, but our local educational institutions are becoming more and more collaborative,” Russell says, “and this is an opportunity for Trinity to pilot an approach that may have applications to other schools as well. I hope that Trinity will emerge as a thought leader as all of our institutions seek to give principals the best possible opportunity to succeed.” Nancy Cook-Monroe

Ron Nirenberg, associate general manager of KRTU, left, former San Antonio mayor Lila Cockrill, and professor Bill Christ, were on hand for the fi nal concert in the year-long celebration of KRTU’s tenth anniversary.

KRTU JAZZ CONCERT ENDS 10TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

T RT R I N I T YY T OT D AYY

Halseoun

w

ndS

New

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFoun SNew

THE EWING HALSELL FOUNDATION

16 Trinity


Global Health Symposium Lays Groundwork for BroadeningInternationalStudies Major

In an eff ort to address the global dimensions of that issue, Trinity held a global health symposium on September

14 and 15, 2012. Professors Nanette Le Coat (modern languages and literatures) and Robert Blystone (biology) organized and moderated the event, which was intended to illustrate ways of being involved in global health that don’t necessarily mean becoming a physician, such as serving as a public policy adviser or working in non-governmental organizations. Th ey also wanted to gauge student interest in the subject and showcase the various ways Trinity alumni were making an impact on global health. Th e symposium drew more than 50 students, who heard presentations from 12 guest speakers, including four alumni, three Trinity faculty, and fi ve Trinity students who have become involved in global health, plus other distinguished professionals in the fi eld. Alumni participants included Alyson Rose-Wood ’03, an international public health specialist in the U.S. department of health and human services; Dr. Mark Kline ’79, physician-in-chief of Texas Children’s Hospital; Chris Helfrich ’03, “Nothing But Nets” director; and Jin In ’95, founder of 4Girls Glocal Leadership. In her presentation, Rose-Wood detailed the many problems that arose following the earthquake in Haiti, such as deciding which part of the Haitian population would receive a cholera vaccine and if all the vaccines should be dedicated to Haiti or be evenly distributed among the diff erent countries that

were reporting cholera outbreaks. Dr. Kline discussed his “addicting experience” with lowering the pediatric HIV/AIDS death rate by providing life-saving care and treatment through his clinics and program, Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI). Based on the success of his initial program in Constanta, Romania, which lowered the death rate from 13 percent in 1998-2001 to 1 percent in 2004-2008, he opened similar pediatric HIV/AIDS clinics in Botswana and other African countries. (See feature pages 24-27). Also working in Africa, Helfrich is helping stop the spread of malaria, a treatable and preventable disease, by selling and distributing $10 nets to malaria-ridden communities in Africa, through his “Nothing but Nets” initiative. He reported that malaria deaths dropped 40 percent and insisted “we can be the generation to end this disease.”In’s presentation, “Inspiring Future Women

Leaders to Accelerate Global Health,” noted that one reason girls are so valuable is that, for every $1 given to them, they give back 80-90 percent to their community. She also discussed the eight millennium goals: to reduce child mortality rates; reduce poverty and hunger; improve environmental sustainability and maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality; and develop a global partnership. With a successful symposium behind them and inspired by the high degree of student interest, Blystone says the next step is to form an advisory board to determine the feasibility of creating a concentration in global health within the international studies major. Th e next hurdle will be to fund the project which will require not only money but time and staff . Rend Altai ’15

Dr. Mark Kline ’79, Jin In ’95, Alyson Rose-Wood ’03, and Chris Helfrich ’03, left to right, shared their unique insights and observations during the Global Health sym-posium last fall. All are involved with signifi cant global health care initiatives.

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” –Martin Luther King Jr.

January 2013 17


HIGH TECH GET HIGHER

EARLY DETECTION

Program gives students competitive edge

Microwave technology advances fi ght against breast cancer

SAP® University Alliances (SAP) which Trinity joined last fall, is a global endeavor that provides faculty members with tools and resources necessary to teach students how technology can enable integrated business processes and strategic thinking and gives students skills that add immediate value in the marketplace. Information systems professor Ruben Mancha, SAP faculty coordinator, incorporated SAP technologies into two business courses this fall. Students in the program gain hands-on experience with state-of-the-art soft ware and grow skills relevant to their careers and chosen fi elds, say offi cials with the global initiative that has more than 1,000 member

campuses in 60+ countries. SAP resources feature an advanced, interactive Web portal designed for the academic population worldwide that connects faculty, students, SAP customers and partners, and SAP internal experts. Trinity gains access to SAP Business Suite soft ware via hosting from an SAP-licensed, non-profi t University Competence Center, which obviates investment in a costly data center infrastructure in order to participate. Curriculum support comes from SAP’s growing collection of ready-to-use, faculty-

developed course materials that can be shared among member campuses. Trinity professors also may take advantage of free SAP-sponsored curriculum workshops off ered during semester breaks and annual academic conferences for members. Th e world’s leading provider of business soft ware, SAP off ers enterprise resource planning (ERP), business intelligence (BI) and related applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. Global demand for certifi ed SAP professionals increases every year, and SAP is dedicated to helping universities enable students to hit the ground running at companies using SAP soft ware.

The outlook is promising for women who dread mammograms and doctors who are always looking

for better ways to detect breast cancer. An international team of researchers from Spain, Canada, and Trinity is developing a bra prototype equipped with 16 small antennas that would transmit microwaves and receive electromagnetic pulses that read the density of a woman’s breast tissue, establishing a baseline image and helping to detect a malignancy. Joshua Schwartz, assistant professor of engineering science at Trinity, says the method would not completely rule out mammograms but could replace a self-exam and serve as an early-warning system. Researchers at McGill University in Montreal—Schwartz’s alma mater—called him in to shape electromagnetic pulses for what is called a “randome,” a phantom breast containing a mass

similar to a tumor. Schwartz was able to improve the image to provide a pinpoint picture of the tissue rather than a

broad slice lacking detail. If, over time, successive images showed a larger and larger tissue mass

in a patient, a medical professional would be alerted. “With this method, there’s no

compression, and the microwaves are harmless,” Schwartz explains, adding that the radiation in the microwave is much less than in a cell phone. Details are spelled out in a journal paper titled “Experimental Demonstration of Pulse Shaping for Time-Domain Microwave Breast Imaging” that was published in October in Progress in Electromagnetics Research. Th e next step is clinical trials of the “randome” and a search for equipment that is compact, convenient, and aff ordable, Schwartz said.

Susie P. Gonzalez

18 Trinity


The Ecopoetry Anthology edited by Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street; intro by Robert Hass In Th e Ecopoetry Anthology, editors Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street present hundreds of poems —80 historical from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century and more than 300 contemporary—that add to our reality about the natural world, its beauties and its degradations. Th is groundbreaking collection has the capacity to transform people’s lives aesthetically and politically. Poetry’s eloquent and ineff able power can work to enhance our understand-ing of the world beyond the human and lead us to act with more respect, humility, and stewardship toward the environment.

Trinity science professors and students are eagerly awaiting the arrival of three new microscopes

that will incorporate nanotechnology across the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula. Obtained through a grant titled “Seeing at the Nanoscale: Exploring the Relationship Between Function and Structure,” the $280,000 project is funded by a $250,000 gift from the W. M. Keck Foundation and a $30,000 contribution from the University. Physics and astronomy professor Jennifer Steele, principal investigator on the project, says the grant includes a new scanning electron microscope, which takes pictures using electrons instead of light, plus an upgrade to an existing atomic force microscope(AFM), and the addition of a second AFM. Professors and students from Trinity’s departments of physics and astronomy, chemistry, biology, and geosciences will conduct initial research. In time, scientists from other San Antonio institutions of higher learning may be able to send research questions and log on to a computer network with research data for course work or web conferences. Images from the scanning electron microscope will be streamed to a television monitor in the lobby of the new Center for the Sciences and Innovation (CSI) on the Trinity campus, reinforcing the concept of “opening up science” to the entire campus community and promoting interactions that spark interdepartmental collaborations. According to Steele, the scanning electron microscope will provide images with signifi cantly higher resolutions than those from other available microscopes, adding that such close-up images will foster elemental analysis that relates structure to the function of material and help uncover a material’s composition or properties. For

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

Keck Foundation grant elevates nanotechnology study

example, geoscience students will be able to determine the elements present in rocks, which can better explain how rocks were formed, and thus support existing theories or inspire new ones. In anticipation of the microscopes’ arrival, Steele is developing a new course on nanotechnology fabrication methods. “Students will have to reproduce someone else’s work—read a paper, fi gure out what the (fi rst) scientists did, go through as many of the details of the paper as possible—and publish it with images and graphics. It will be a more realistic picture of what it’s like to do grad school research,” she says. Th e equipment, which must be built specifi cally for Trinity, is expected to arrive this spring. It will be housed initially in the geosciences department in the Marrs McLean Science Center and moved to the CSI when construction is completed in 2014.

Jennifer Steele

January 2013 19


New Releases from Trinity University Press www.tupress.trinity.edu

The Power of Trees by Gretchen C. Daily and Charles J. Katz Jr.Intimate in size yet quietly breathtaking in scope, this graceful book will forever change how you think, and how you feel, about trees. In poetically charged scientifi c observations, renowned conservation biologist Gretchen Daily narrates the evolution, impact, and natural wonder of trees. Charles Katz’s twenty-six duotone black and white photographs illustrate the development of trees: how trunks are formed, what tree rings tell us about human societies, and how trees defi ne the future of humanity.

Literary Washington, D.C.edited by Patrick Allen; foreword by Alan Cheuse Th e public face of Washington—the gridiron of L’Enfant’s avenues, the buttoned-down demeanor of Sloan Wilson’s archetypal Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, the monumental buildings of the Triangle--rarely gives up the secrets of this city’s rich life. But beneath the surface there are countless stories to be told. From the early swamp days to the Civil War, the Gilded Age to the New Deal and McCar-thy eras, as the center of world power to its underlying multicultural social fabric, Washington is a writer’s town. Literary Washington, D.C. collects the rich writings about our nation’s capital spanning several hundred years.

The Ranch That Was Us by Becky Crouch Patterson; foreword by Willie Nelson Braiding strands of earthen insight with uproarious storytelling, legendary Texas Hill Country author Becky Patterson recreates the his-tory of the Stieler Hill Ranch in twenty-four anecdotal chapters inter-spersed with original artwork. Th e result is a mixture of memoir and montage, treasure chest and tableau vivant of a world that’s beautiful, brash, and wonderfully heartbreaking. Patterson, the daughter of Texas folk hero and self-proclaimed mayor of Luckenbach, Hondo Crouch, has big shoes to fi ll, and she does so successfully in this colorful collec-tion of Hill Country and Texas ranch vignettes.

100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do: How My Brother Disappeared by Kim Staff ordBret and Kim, the oldest sons of the celebrated poet and paci-fi st William Staff ord, were inseparable. Kim was the itinerant wanderer; Bret the obedient servant. As childhood ebbed, though, this reticence took its toll, and Bret took his life, leav-ing the family — and Kim — to endure the loss. Staff ord shares his brother’s life and what it teaches about the nature of depres-sion, the tender ancestry of violence, the quest for harmonious relations, and, fi nally, the trick of joy.

20 Trinity

Administration

Steven Bachrach, the D. R. Semmes Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, was named to a three-year appointment as assistant vice president for special projects in the office of Faculty and Student Affairs.

Art and Art History

Liz Ward had a solo show at the Moody Gallery in Houston. Her work was also shown in group shows at Texas Tech University in Lubbock and the Grand Gallery at McNeese State University, Lake Charles, La.

Athletics

James Hill ’76, “The Voice of the Tigers,” received the 2012 Rhea Fern Malsbury Award, the highest award given to a Trinity employee.

Business Administration

Deli Yang addressed patent and trademark examiners at the Summer Intellectual Property (IP) School organized by the United Nations World IP Organization (WIPO) last summer.

Campus and Community Involvement

Jamie Thompson ’05 was promoted to director of Campus & Community Involvement.

Chemistry

Michelle Bushey was elected treasurer of the Division of Analytical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. The term of office will run from January 2013 to December 2015.

Faculty | Staff Focus

David W. Lesch, professor of Middle East history, has been named the Ewing Halsell Distinguished Professor of History eff ective in 2015. He will assume the post when cur-rent holder John McCusker, retires. Sussan Siavoshi, professor and chair of the political science department, has become the Una Chapman Cox Professor of International Re-lations. She fi lls the position previously held by Mary Ann Tetrault, who retired last May. Lesch is the author or editor of 12 books focusing on the Middle East, most recently Syria: Th e Fall of the House of Assad (Yale University Press, 2012). Anew edited volume, Th e Arab Spring: Change and Resistance in the Middle East came out in November. Lesch consistently advises offi cials in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and the United Nations on diplomatic issues, and worked directly with former U.S. presidents engaged in Middle East negotiations.His articles on Middle East aff airs have ap-peared in Th e New York Times and Th e Wash-ington Post, among other print media. He has been quoted in more than 400 newspa-pers worldwide, featured in magazine articles in 20 countries, and made guest appearances on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, Al-Jazeera, NPR, and the BBC. Currently, he is a producer, screenwriter, and consultant on a feature fi lm on the Middle East. Lesch received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1991 and has been at Trin-ity since 1992. At Trinity, he has served on numerous committees, led Trinity’s Model Arab League program for nine years, and was chair or co-chair of the history department

Two Faculty Named to Endowed Professorships


from 2008 to 2012. He received the Trinity University award for outstanding research in 2008. Although he opted for an academic career, Lesch was also the No. 1 draft pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1980. Th e Ewing Halsell Foundation established the Ewing Halsell Distinguished Professor-ship in History in 1989. A native of Iran, Siavoshi earned her un-dergraduate degree in political science from Pahlavi University in Iran and both her mas-ter’s and Ph.D. in political science at Ohio State University, where she began her teach-ing career. Since coming to Trinity in 1986, Siavoshi has published numerous scholarly articles, chapters, and book reviews, and presented papers at 27 conferences around the world. Her book, Liberal Nationalism in Iran: the Failure of a Movement, was pub-lished in 1990 and translated into a Persian edition in 2001. She is a faculty mentor and has served on numerous University commit-tees, including the Promotion and Tenure committee, the Standing Committee for Assessing the Common Curriculum, and an ad hoc committee on diversity. A knowl-edgeable and sought-aft er speaker, Siavoshi has given generously of her time addressing groups throughout the broader community and shared her expertise and perspective during campus events such as Diffi cult Dialogues, Women’s History Month, and A Trinity Summer. Una Chapman Cox, who had a keen interest in enhancing the Foreign Service, established the Una Chapman Cox Distinguished Profes-sorship in International Relations in 1981.

David W. Lesch Sussan Siavoshi

January 2013 21

Communications

Aaron Delwiche and Jennifer Henderson co-edited the interdisciplinary anthology, Participatory Cultures Handbook, published by Routledge. Sammye Johnson served as a judge for the 2012 National Magazine Awards, considered the Pulitzer Prizes of the magazine industry. Johnson also published “Research: The Fulbright Experience,” and “The Finnish Line: A Few of My Favorite Things” in the professional journal Magazine Matter.

Patrick Keating’s essays, “Shooting for Selznick” and “Emotional Curves and Linear Narratives,” were published in The Classical Hollywood Reader, a new anthology of essays about studio-era Hollywood.

Education

Angela Breidenstein co-authored Leading for Powerful Learning: A Guide for Instructional Leaders, published by Teachers College Press at Columbia University.

English

Victoria Aarons published “The Certainties of History and the Uncertainties of Representation in Post-Holocaust Writing,” in the most recent issue of Studies in American Jewish Literature. Andrew Porter’s novel, In Between Days, has been published by Knopf Publishers. David Rando’s essay, “The Perverse in Historical Perception: Anne Frank and Neutral Milk Hotel in the Aeroplane over the Sea,” was published in Resounding Pasts: Essays on Literature, Popular Music, and Cultural Memory. His book, Modernist Fiction and News: Representing Experience in the Early Twentieth Century, was reviewed in The Journal of Modern Periodical Studies.

Communication professor Rob Huesca spent the summer and fall semester in Benin, West Africa, on administrative leave. He studied French and also worked as a volunteer at an arts organization, where he taught a youth video course. Before leaving, Huesca partnered with local youth arts and cultural nonprofi t SaySi to create a cultural exchange. His African students produced videos on local food and culture and may be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/CIAMOBenin.

Facilities Services

Jose Vasquez and Leo Vasquez received the Helen Heare McKinley Award in December.

Geosciences

Kathleen Surpless received the Biggs Award for Excellence in Earth Science Teaching from the Geological Society of America in November. Previously, Surpless had been awarded more than $450,000 in grants from the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund and from the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program to support her work.

Health Care Administration

Amer Kaissi published “Primary Care Physician Shortage, Health Care Reform and Convenient Care: Challenge Meets Opportunity?”” in the Southern Medical Journal.

History

David Lesch’s book, Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad, was published by Yale University Press.

Library

Brenda Sheffield received the Helen Heare McKinley Employee Excellence Award for June 2012.


22 Trinity

Browne’s Poems Earn NEA Fellowship

POETRY PAYS OFF


Music

Diane Persellin co-authored the guidebook Strengthening Undergraduate Learning: Six Research-Based Principles for Teaching and Their Applications published by the Mellon Foundation.

Psychology

Carolyn Becker joined the Board of Directors for the Academy for Eating Disorders as the director of Public Affairs. The Academy for Eating Disorders is a global, multidisciplinary, professional association committed to leadership in eating disorders research, education, treatment, and prevention. She is also associate editor for Behaviour Research and Therapy, an international multidisciplinary journal focused on cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). Jane Childers and Trinity alumnae Mary Elaine Heard ’04, Anushka Pai ’03, Kolette Ring ’07, and Julie (Vaughan) Sallquist ’04 co-authored “Children use different cues to guide noun and verb extensions,” which was published in Language Learning and Development, 8,1-22.

Religion

Ruben Dupertuis’ essay on comic-book Bibles, titled “Translating the Bible into Pictures,” was published in Text, Image, and Otherness in Children’s Bibles: What Is in the Picture? (Semeia Studies 56; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature Press, 2012). Chad Spigel’s book, Ancient Synagogue Seating Capacities: Methodology, Analysis and Limits, was published by Mohr Siebeck in their Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism series. “Romans 8:29-30 as a Non-

Poetry professor Jenny Browne is no stranger to discomfort. In fact, she welcomes it. When she encounters what she calls a “splinter,” a distressing piece of language or unsettling image, she dives into the mental and emotional struggle of “peeling back layers of the problem” in a search for discovery. “Th at’s what poets do,” she says. And she does it remarkably well. Browne recently submitted 20 poems from her new work titled Dear Stranger to the National Endowment for the Arts, where they landed her a $25,000 creative

writing Fellowship. To be published this spring by the University of Tampa Press, the volume will include, among other topics, poems that are love letters to cities she’s never visited and to her recently-deceased father in which she explores ways she did and didn’t know him,. Calling it a “huge honor” to be one of only 40 of the 1,173 applicants for the Fellowship, Browne adds, “Th is is an acknowledgement that not just my work, but creative work in general, matters.”

Susie P. Gonzalez

Mathematics

Saber Elaydi was appointed a Fellow of the department of mathematics and the department of economics of Izmir University of Economics, Turkey. This entitles him to collaborate with faculty from both departments and co-supervise Ph.D. students.

Modern Languages and Literatures

Nina Ekstein’s article, “Sex in Rotrou’s Theater: Performance and Disorder,” was published in Orbis Litterarum. Another article, “The Theatrical lieu de culture within Molière’s Plays,” appeared in Lieux de culture dans la France du XVIIe siècle. Rita Urquijo-Ruiz’s book, Wild Tongues: Transnational Mexican Popular Cultures was published by the University of Texas Press as part of its Chicana Matters Series.

Pauline Interpolation,” an article by William O. Walker Jr., emeritus, appeared in Journal For the Study of Paul and His Letters.

Trinity University Press

San Antonio’s literary arts organization, Gemini Ink, honored Barbara Ras with the Award for Literary Excellence at its annual Inkstravaganza gala on September 27, 2012.

University Communications

Susie P. Gonzalez received the 2012 Maggie Cousins Headliner Award from the Association for Women in Communications San Antonio(AWCSA) Chapter.

The Trinity women’s volleyball team was on hand to congratulate James Hill ’76 after he received the Fern Malsbury award last fall. As the Voice of the Tigers, Hill is widely known for his enthusiastic athletic announcing and commentary. A long time and devoted Trinity employee, Hill is assistant sports informa-tion offi cer in the athletic department.

January 2013 23

I N M E M O R I A M

Earl M. Lewis, professor emeritus and the driving force behind Trinity’s nationally recognized urban studies program, died Saturday, October 13, 2012 in

Houston. He was 92.Lewis, Trinity’s fi rst tenured African American professor, joined the University in 1968. Th e graduate Urban Studies Program he founded and directed from 1968 until his re-tirement in 1990 was transformative in its infl uence. Lewis and his colleagues trained and mentored more than 250 men and women to work in the public and private sectors, opening the way for them to contribute to the governance of this region, and far beyond. Graduates of the program routinely became city planners and city managers in major metropolitan areas across the country or attained other pro-fessional positions in state and federal government agencies and private economic development corporations. Lewis earned his undergraduate degree at Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Mississippi. He earned a master’s degree in American history at Loyola University in Chicago, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago. In 1978, he earned an LL.D. from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. He was the author of numer-ous publications and was active on local, state, and national boards and commissions, including the Coalition for the Education of Black Children and Youth in Texas and South-west Research Institute in San Antonio. In 1981, Lewis was named the George Brackenridge Dis-tinguished Professor of Urban Studies at Trinity, the fi rst to hold the newly established professorship. Trinity twice nominated him for National Professor of the Year. His many honors included the Award for Service to the State of Texas by Texas Ministers for Social Progress in 1976 and the Brotherhood Award by the San Antonio chapter of the National Council of Christians and Jews in 1978, among other honors and civic activities. Lewis is survived by his wife, Hazelyn, two sons, a daughter, and a granddaughter.

John Silber ’47, who was named Trinity’s Distinguished Alumnus in 1975, died September 27 at age 86 aft er a long and distinguished career. Silber was an outspo-

ken, oft en controversial educational leader, who earned a national reputation as president of Boston University. At Trinity, Silber organized the Triniteers and became its fi rst president. He also joined the debate team, where he met and later married Kathryn Underwood ’46. Aft er earning bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and fi ne arts and minoring in German and music, Silber spent a year at the Yale Divinity School before entering the University of Texas Law School. He dropped out, returning to Yale to earn a doctorate in philosophy. In 1971, he took over failing Boston University and, despite notorious clashes with faculty and students, brought the school to new levels of academic excellence and fi nan-cial stability. During his presidency, which lasted until 1996, BU’s endowment rose dramatically from $18.8 million to $654 million when he stepped down. Its physical plant more than doubled, the admissions standards were raised, and enrollment doubled. He enhanced the faculty with high-profi le hires such as Nobel Prize winners Elie Wiesel, Derek Walcott, and Saul Bellow (a character in Bellow’s novel Ravelstein, Dr. Starling, is inspired by Silber); a future U.S. poet laureate, Robert Pinsky; soprano Phyllis Curtin; and literary critics Christopher Ricks and Roger Shattuck. In 1990, he came within 77,000 votes of becoming governor of Massachusetts and later served as chairman of the state Board of Education from 1995 to 1999. In the latter capacity, Silber was a chief architect of the MCAS exams, which are taken annually by public school students throughout the Commonwealth. Silber is survived by seven children, 26 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. His wife died in 2005 and a son, David, died in 1994.

John Silber ‘47Earl M. Lewis

24 Trinity

Katie Garrett helps a young friend during her internship in Swaziland. With the exception of the Baylor Pediatric AIDS Initiative clinics, she was shocked to learn how few resources there were to treat AIDS patients.

by Mike Agresta

July 2012 25

Katie Ogawa had no idea how much worse it could get. For weeks, the Trinity junior had been interning at the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) clinic in

Botswana. BIPAI clinics work with outpatient children with HIV and AIDS, helping keep them on the anti-retroviral therapies they need to stay alive. Th e clinics, now active in more than ten countries hard-hit by the AIDS pandemic, are modern and, in the words of Trinity biology professor Robert Blystone, “state-of-the-art, comparable to what you’d fi nd in the United States.” Now, however, Ogawa was taking her first tour of the public hospital, not 100 feet away from the BIPAI clinic. On the blog she kept during her internship, Ogawa described the scene: Th ere are no separations between the beds. Some beds are on the fl oor. It felt like there were people everywhere! I might have been most surprised when I saw the “procedure room.” It was just another room, not exactly clean nor tidy. Th e “table” that all the procedures were done on was much like one found in an athletic training room, but the fabric was quite torn up. I was also told that needles are commonly stuck in the table, like a pin cushion. My mind quickly jumped to the rate of HIV here as my hands remained in my pockets…. Th ere are no “visiting hours” or times when the parents go home. Th e mothers are to take care of the children, not necessarily the nurse. Th at is to say, each bed had a child and a mother. It was a vision of the status quo of pediatric AIDS treatment in Africa, minus the resources, expertise, and infrastructure of international non-government organizations like BIPAI. And it wasn’t a pretty sight. Ogawa was one of four Trinity students who volunteered last summer in BIPAI clinics in Botswana and Swaziland, small southern African countries where the HIV infection rate tops 25 percent. BIPAI was founded by Dr. Mark Kline, ’79, now Physician-in-Chief at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.

Trinity students come home sobered—and successful— from summer internships at pediatric AIDS clinics in Swaziland and Botswana.

Th e seed for BIPAI was planted in 1996, when, on an offi cial trip to Romania, Dr. Kline toured hospitals, clinics, and orphanages and saw children dying from lack of access to anti-retroviral drugs commonly available in the United States. Upon his return, he began to mobilize donors and doctors to build an organization that would eventually serve twelve countries across Africa and the world. Blystone, who taught Dr. Kline three decades ago, arranged the learning opportunity for his current Trinity students. “Th e function of BIPAI’s program is to provide medical care for children who are HIV/AIDS positive and to help them toward a more normal life, primarily through the use of anti-retroviral therapy,” he says. “It works. Mark has children moving into their teenage years who would have been dead ten years ago.” Much of the Trinity students’ time was spent working with teenagers living with HIV/AIDS in “Teen Club.” Th eir work focused on creating an environment of trust for young people who may have to hide their HIV/AIDS status in their home communities. “It was really exciting to see them just be normal kids, normal teenagers,” says senior Katie Garrett, who volunteered in Swaziland. “Th e HIV treatment is so successful for these kids, they’re able to live into adolescenthood. Th at’s exciting; they’re kind of a new group.” Garrett and her fellow volunteers had to adjust to some disquieting quirks of modern African culture. For instance, while preparing snacks for Teen Club, Garrett quickly learned that many club members hated the taste of peanut butter. Th is is because Plumpy Nut, an ultra-low-cost malnutrition supplement, is made from a peanut butter base. Many poor African children associate the fl avor with traumatic experiences in hospitals and clinics. At the same time, the volunteers also witnessed a stirring resilience among the HIV/AIDS-positive teens with whom they worked. On her blog, Ogawa describes a typical day at Teen Club organized around the theme

26 Trinity

like straw, sand, dirt, tin cans, and mulch, Lesotho NGO workers had devised a way to build recycled water fi ltration systems to encourage the planting of backyard gardens in water-poor areas. Garrett and Halton hoped to replicate the model in Swaziland. “We spent a lot of our time researching how we could get these materials and fi nding prices,” Halton says. “In the end, we presented the project to the director of the clinic. A plan was drawn up to create two of these gardens on the clinic grounds. Th at’s now in process. Model gardens act as teaching aids for patients, to show how they can create their own food supply. Th ere’s a direct relationship between progressive HIV and malnutrition.” On their last day in Swaziland, Garrett and Halton met with a representative of a local non-profi t to present their proposal. Th e meeting—and the proposal project in general—was a success. “It fell almost perfectly in line with our goals, and within an

hour, we made a deal to partner with their organization,” Garrett wrote on her travel blog. “We found funding, labor, and assurance that our project would come to life.” Th e four weeks in Africa brought highs and lows. For Ogawa and her fellow volunteer Paige Patrick in Botswana, the highs included striking up a friendship with the aunt of Botswana’s current president, Ian Khama. Th e two Trinity students met regularly for tea with the elderly British-born woman, who regaled them with stories of her youth in Botswana and her sister’s controversial marriage with Sir Seretse Khama, the leader of Botswana’s independence movement and the nation’s fi rst president.

With all this preparation, students found themselves itching to get involved in the work of BIPAI beyond Teen Club, pill counting, and shadowing doctors. Looking back, students agree that volunteering at BIPAI, and in Africa generally, is not for the meek. “You need to be a self-starter, someone who’s motivated to come up with ideas, take initiative, and start projects on your own,” Garrett says. “You have the resources to come up with ideas and make something happen in the short time that you’re there, but if you don’t have the self-starting attitude you’re just going to end up following the doctors around all the time.” For Garrett and her fellow Swaziland volunteer, junior Barley Halton, that meant developing a pamphlet for Teen Club and writing a grant proposal for the Swaziland BIPAI clinic. Th e proposal was based on a keyhole garden initiative in nearby Lesotho that they’d learned about from BIPAI doctors. Using only easy-to-fi nd materials

of the Olympics. Volunteers organized races and other events. “At one point during a race, I looked to the side and one of the boys with crutches was playing soccer in the parking lot with some other boys,” Ogawa wrote. “Seeing him pass the ball with his crutch was truly inspiring.” Th is non-credit summer abroad experience, as designed by Blystone and Kline’s staff at BIPAI, aimed to give undergraduates a taste of international public health opportunities and challenges in two countries that are sorely underserved yet politically stable. “I wanted students to develop a broader perspective of health issues, to understand how health issues fi t into the broader geopolitical domain, and to see how they as undergraduates can make a diff erence,” Blystone says. Th e pilot program was, by all accounts, a success. In preparation for their trip, all four students took a one-hour course with Blystone in Spring 2012. Th e seminar included discussions of local customs, child psychology, and HIV/AIDS specifi cs; guest lectures from the likes of professor Alfred Montoya, an anthropologist who studies HIV/AIDS control in Asia; a visit to Houston to talk to Dr. Kline’s staff ; and Skype conversations with older students from other universities who had visited the clinics in question. “Now they’re in another seminar course,” Blystone reports. “Th ey’re missionaries now, telling other students what their experiences were like.” He hopes that Trinity’s partnership with BIPAI will continue and become offi cial over the next few years. However, he cautions, that will mostly depend on fi nding better funding to help future students cover the expenses of overseas travel.

Barley Halton takes time out for fun with village children. Halton and his fellow Trinity volunteer, Katie Garrett, helped develop plans for a model gar-den on the BIPAI clinic grounds to teach villagers how to grow their own food supply. Nutri-tion plays a signifi cant role in the progression of HIV/AIDS.

A more challenging aspect of the trip came when unpracticed students were thrust into the sensitive role of representatives of the international medical community in societies that sometimes view Western-style medicine with skepticism. Ogawa, a Christian, was working with a teen girl in the BIPAI Clinic’s “Adolescent Transition” programs, asking questions about her understanding of her HIV diagnosis, when the patient suddenly asked Ogawa how she could believe in God when HIV/AIDS existed in the world. “I was taken aback because we were talking about prevention,” Ogawa says. “At the same time, it was a valid question, because it was something she was struggling with. I looked to the doctor in the room, and she said, ‘You can answer it if you want.’ I started sharing, saying that sometimes there are struggles, but He doesn’t give us anything we can’t handle. She was like, ‘Okay, I think I understand.’ Th en the doctor piped in: ‘In addition to having faith in God, you have to have faith in your medicine.’” Th is was in reference to one of the major problems with keeping HIV/AIDS patients on anti-retroviral therapies in Africa—the prevalence of so-called “healing churches” that claim to cure the disease through the power of prayer. Doctors and religious missionaries must walk a fi ne line,

allowing their patients to benefi t from the hope and strength that come with faith while still encouraging them to be realistic about the scientifi c effi cacy of anti-retroviral drugs. It was a role, however, that Ogawa relished taking on. “I was in a position where I really didn’t know what to say, but it was a really powerful position to be in, to try to answer these questions,” she says. “It’s a question we all struggle with: Why is there bad in the world?” Th is question was oft en on the minds of all four volunteers as they were introduced to the sorry state of medical care across the region. Much as Ogawa and Patrick had been taken aback by the conditions at the public hospital in Botswana, Garrett and Halton were shocked to learn that cancer patients in Swaziland had almost no recourse to treatment. Af-ter a visit

to Good Shepherd Hospi-tal in Mbabane, Garrett

wrote of the experience on her travel blog, “Some of these people have absolutely no hope and are sitting in these beds just wait-ing to die. Teresa, as an oncology nurse, was especially frustrated with the situation. Th e country, the WHOLE country, is allowed 1kg of morphine per year and essentially no hospice care… Th ere is essentially no oncol-ogy department here—no radiation, no ac-cess to chemo, nothing but a scalpel and last ditch eff orts to amputate the aff ected organ.” Garrett and other students expressed newfound gratitude for the high level of care they’d taken for granted in their home country. Far from being discouraged, however, the student volunteers were in fact energized about the prospect of pursuing careers in international health. For Garrett, it was the example of her mentors and new friends that made the diff erence. “Th e more I hang out with these doctors who aren’t very old, as in their early thirties, and are super funny and cool and pretty and awesome, the more I can see myself doing this,” she wrote on her blog. Halton echoes her sentiment. He adds that, as an undergraduate pre-med, with an entire decade of training standing between him and a medical practice, he had begun to idly wonder whether medicine really was his calling. Th is hands-on experience, however, had him waking up each morning excited to go to the clinic and make a diff erence. “It’s something I could defi nitely see doing for the rest of my life,” he says.

In Botswana, Paige Patrick, left, and Katie Ogawa, enjoy a lighter moment after a long day working with young HIV/AIDS patients.

January 2013 27

28 Trinity

Less--but strategically focused--is MoreBy Andrew Faught

Curriculum Revision Reflects Philosophical ShiftIt’s a question getting no small consideration at Trinity these days: What skills and experiences should defi ne the University’s graduates over the next decade? “What could be more fundamental than that?”asks University President Dennis Ahlburg.

January 2013 29

More than a year of soul searching could soon yield answers. Th is spring, faculty are expected to vote on an ambitious curricular

blueprint developed by three elected Univer-sity committees and presented at numerous faculty forums. Th e process has been led by the ad hoc Coordinating Committee for Curricular Revision, a faculty-driven eff ort undertaken in tandem with Trinity Tomor-row, the broader strategic planning process initiated by Ahlburg upon his arrival in January 2010. Nearly 80 faculty members—approximately one third of Trinity’s full-time professors—have been directly involved in a discussion that, among other things, calls for reworking students’ fi rst-year experience into something more intensive. Th e initiative is attempting to steer the University to a higher education landscape that presents new and sometimes disquieting vistas. Gone are the “boom times” of 20 years ago, Ahlburg says, replaced by a fragile national economy, high unemployment, and a changing ability and willingness among prospective students to pay for college. A

proliferation of online educational opportu-nities and the occasional charge that colleges and universities have become glorifi ed social clubs further complicates the picture for institutions that long have operated without such appraisals. “Th ere’s been a questioning of the value of higher education, which has not occurred before,” says Ahlburg. While no one doubts Trinity’s vitality, “it’s a good time to be very clear about what it is you stand for and where you’re going,” Ahlburg adds. “In the past, the idea has been that students are empty vessels, so we will fi ll them up and all will be well. We’ve learned that model is not particularly eff ective for meeting 21st century demands.” Spelled out in a 30-page report, the cur-ricular revision, in addition to an enhanced fi rst-year experience, calls for a core capaci-ties requirement, an interdisciplinary course cluster, expanded experiential learning op-portunities in San Antonio and abroad, and of course the major. Whether such reforms are viewed as evolutionary or revolutionary, the proposed changes are far more sweeping than the University’s last curriculum reforms

in 2002, which tweaked a curriculum frame-work adopted in the 1980s. Th en, a handful of changes were made to required “under-standings”—also known as the University’s “breadth requirement”—that dictated student learning. Th e new proposal instead favors “capacities,” a philosophical shift that requires less—but more focused—student coursework, with an emphasis on clear com-munication, critical thinking, and the ability to craft reasoned arguments. Proposed changes were born of an in-depth review of Trinity’s curriculum, an eff ort initially chaired by biology professor Mark Brodl, but later assumed by classical studies professor Erwin Cook. Cook calls the process “long and intensely laborious,” and one de-signed to involve as many faculty as possible. In September 2011, the Committee for Curriculum Review held a day-long Univer-sity-wide retreat and symposium to identify shared educational priorities. Th at was followed in January 2012 by an “Ideas Lab,” an innovative workshop in which two-dozen elected faculty members were engaged in “outside the box” thinking as they generated

30 Trinity

says English professor Willis Salomon, who served on the summer committee with Christ. Th e plan would require more interac-tion among faculty members in planning and teaching courses, he adds. Despite the overhaul, Salomon says Trinity won’t look unfamiliar to alumni, should the proposal pass: “Any alumnus who has taken a writing class in the last 30 years will recog-nize what the writing intensive courses are about. Anyone who was here in the last 30 years will recognize the strong interdisciplin-ary character of Trinity’s faculty and their ability to work together to create interdisci-plinary opportunities. I think anyone who has been here in the last 30 years will recog-nize their major.” Revising the fi rst-year experience for students “is one of the major redefi nitions in the curriculum, as we’ve proposed it, but I don’t see any wholesale changes here, I really don’t.” Salomon says. “Th ings have been go-ing too well for too long to require anything drastic. Th e proposal is based on a lot of enduring principles of liberal arts education.”At the heart of the proposed fi rst-year experience would be a new paired-course that would replace the existing two-course fi rst-year seminar and writing workshop requirement. In its stead would be a team-taught “holistic approach” that would address “a growing, national concern that today’s undergraduates are ‘academically adrift ’ – showing little demonstrable improvement in critical thinking and reading, complex reading, and writing in their fi rst two years of college,” according to the report. “Th is is a national problem and a cultural problem that students do not write as well as they did 10 to 20 years ago,” Salomon says.

Over the last 10 to 20 years, there’s been a movement from the mastery of content to demonstrating competencies--or capacities,” Christ says. “Th at’s what we’ve done with this curriculum. You’re still going to get content, but it’s in the context of these capacities. We want all of our students to be able to say, sure, they’ve majored in a certain discipline, but that they have this capacities foundation that we can be proud to say is part of a Trin-ity education. We think it will help them not only personally, but professionally.” For students, additional changes adopted in conjunction with a new curriculum could mean taking four classes per semester in-stead of fi ve or six. “Th at would invite more in-depth study, with an emphasis on rigorous teaching and more demanding projects,”

creative solutions to grand challenges, Cook explains. Th e group developed fi ve curricular prototypes. Th en in March, the committee sponsored a “Design Lab,” in which a dozen elected faculty representatives were charged with identifying the “best ideas” from the Ideas Lab to craft a single curricular propos-al. Finally, a third committee, this one with 15 elected faculty members, worked through-out the summer to refi ne the proposal. Th e report was infl uenced in part by similar eff orts at other small liberal arts colleges and at Stanford University, where a focus on capacity development is already underway. It was in the 1980s that colleges and universities nationwide were fi rst pressed for greater accountability by government agencies, state boards, and regional and professional accrediting bodies concerned about student performance. Landmark re-ports, such as “A Nation at Risk” in 1983 and “Integrity in the College Curriculum” in 1985 helped drive discussions. Outside scrutiny continues decades later, and many Trinity faculty have welcomed the opportunity for introspection. Some of those involved in the process say that, given the hyper-driven nature of the 21st century, a new academic soft ware is in order. “Th is really is a joyous time,” says commu-nication professor William Christ, a member of the summer committee that completed the design of the new curriculum. Christ and others describe the process as collegial throughout. If the proposed changes are approved, they could be enacted no sooner than fall 2014. “Even if it doesn’t pass,” says Christ, “the process we’ve gone through has been very good for the faculty and the institution.”

Erwin Cook

January 2013 31

“Th e digital revolution is a wonderful thing, but what it’s done is make written commu-nication less of a priority. Writing and verbal communication have been at the center of the idea of an educated person in the West for 2,500 years, and I don’t think we need to reinvent its importance. We need only to reemphasize it.”

Faculty have expressed “broad support,” the report says, for infusing the fi rst-year experi-ence with a team-taught course capable of better addressing writing instruction “in the context of powerful, engaging content.” Th e revised approach would continue in the spirit of the current HUMA freshman seminar. “A more intense fi rst-year experience gets students into college academic life in a more concerted way,” Salomon says. “Schools that do this manage to get the best work from their students earlier than schools that don’t.” As proposed, Trinity will continue to play to its strengths: a 9-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio and a strong mix of pre-professional and liberal arts degree programs. Salomon also highlights the University’s urban setting, “in which hybridizations and biculturalism have been extremely friendly and extremely open to all sorts of town and gown ideas and opportunities. And because we’re so close to Mexico, we have an international profi le. In many ways, our distinctiveness drove some of these attempts to redefi ne the curriculum as well.” In particular, Cook notes, “we have proposed a substantial increased emphasis on experiential learning. As a small liberal arts college, Trinity is virtually unique in be-ing situated in one of the nation’s largest and most diverse cities, and failure to exploit that

fully as an integral part of a Trinity education would represent an enormous lost oppor-tunity. But we’ve also defi ned experiential learning very broadly to include objectives such as global engagement and study abroad that are already hallmarks of a Trinity educa-tion.” Sophomore Lucretia Durant, a business ad-ministration and political science major from Scottsdale, Ariz., calls the fi rst-year changes “the most profound feature” of the proposed curriculum revisons. “It allows student en-gagement in interdisciplinary concepts that are relevant to the 21st century,” says Durant, who sits on the University Curriculum Council, which allows her to off er opinions from a student perspective. “It establishes a foundation for students to engage in acceler-ated discussion and signifi cant research in their respective fi elds of study.” Ahlburg, meanwhile, is pragmatic in the face of possible change. “We’re not throw-ing out the old model,” he says, “but we’re fi tting what we’ve always done so well to the demands of the 21st century.”

“Th e digital revolution is a wonderful thing, but what it’s done is make written communication less of a priority. Writing and verbal communication have been at the center of the idea of an educated person in the West for 2,500 years, and I don’t think we need to reinvent its importance.” —Willis Salomon

32 Trinity

January 2013 33

P R O F I L E

Ron Piretti ‘71F i g h t c l u b

Ron Piretti is well trained in the art of combat. He can throw a punch, wield a knife, thrust a dagger, and slice the air with a sword. He has instigated countless

fi ghts and shown eager combatants how to best their opponents, ending with victory for some and an untimely—or well deserved—end for others. Not to worry. Piretti’s expertise is only for show – literally. As a fl ight director and certifi ed teacher of the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD), Piretti works hard to create those realistic heart-stopping theatrical moments while adhering to the society’s high standards of safety and profes-sionalism. Quiet and soft -spoken, Piretti seems the last per-son you’d imagine teaching people to beat each other up. But there’s more to this Stratford, Connecticut, na-tive than meets the eye. He defi nes himself primarily as an actor, racking up credits in Broadway, off -Broadway, and regional stage shows, along with fi lm, televi-sion, and commercial jobs. He’s also a writer, director, teacher, and coach. Piretti learned early on the value of versatility, especially in the tough and unpredictable world of show business. He entered that world well-armed aft er graduating from Trinity, thanks to Paul Baker’s legendary Integration of Abilities class. “He was phenomenal,” says Piretti. “It was one of the best classes I’ve ever taken in my life. He just opened you up artistically, as an actor, and brought in all the elements of art into theatre, which I had never thought of before. He was the greatest infl uence on me.” Aft er graduation, Piretti headed straight for the Big Apple where he landed his fi rst job –

as a bartender. Aft er doing “a couple of little things” in theatre, he realized that he wanted and needed more training. Off he went to Chicago to get two more degrees—BFA and MFA—from the then-Goodman School of Drama. But New York beckoned, and Piretti went back to “where I always wanted to be,” with a new job waiting for him – as a bartender. He did some off -off -Broadway, calling it “an intense time to be in New York, when it was still dirty and kind of scary, but it was also a very exciting time. One era was ending and another was beginning.” Piretti’s personal new era began when he got

his Actors Equity card for the show “Room Service,” with Shelley Berman. With a grow-ing interest in stage combat, he also helped to form Fights R Us, a group that performed “all over the place, put on shows, making up fi ghts. People said, ‘Why don’t you choreo-graph fi ghts?’ So I did.” One thing led to another, and Piretti was hired as fi ght director for the four-time Tony winner In the Heights, his fi rst Broadway show. His next job was even more impressive—the 2009 revival of West Side Story. Writer and director Arthur Laurents, then 92, gave him only one direction for the iconic, intricate fi ght scenes: “No holds barred.” In a par-ticularly surreal twist, Piretti also ended up

playing Offi cer Krupke in that same produc-tion when the original actor left . “I asked to audition, and they said yes.” Laurents himself hired Piretti on the spot. “He hugged me and said, ‘Don’t spend all the money in one place, and have fun.’” Just like that, Piretti made his Broadway debut. “It was an amazing experi-ence. Beyond my wildest dreams.” Piretti’s latest gigs include “staging a cat fi ght” for Broadway’s Th e Performers, with Henry Winkler and Alicia Silverstone; a dance piece based on Th e Miracle Worker in Chicago with Broadway legend Ann Reinking (“a great lady and good friend who’s been a mentor to me”); and a return to San Antonio

last summer to stage the fi ght scenes in Othello for Shake-speare in the Park, directed by fellow Trinity alumus Richard Rosen. His teaching and coaching resume includes stints at Marymount Manhat-tan College and the Actors Studio MFA Program at Pace University in New York; and most recently the Performing Arts Project, a summer inten-sive in North Carolina with classes in music, dance, acting, and stage combat for students age 16-22. Working with the Barrow Group (“my theatrical home”) for fi ft een years, Piretti enjoys a community of fellow artists, takes acting and guitar lessons,

works out, and keeps body and soul together with tai chi and meditation. He is pragmatic and unsentimental about his calling, balanc-ing the realities of an insanely competitive fi eld with unabashed infatuation. “If I didn’t love it, it would be the most ridiculous busi-ness to be a part of,” he says. “You never know where that next job is going to come from.” It gives “fi ghting for a living” a whole new meaning, and Ron Piretti has mastered that with aplomb.

Julie Catalano

Phot

o by D

on H

amer

man

34 Trinity

January 2013 35

E n e r g y e f f i c i e n t

George Burmeister is so at home in the mountains of Colorado that it’s hard to imagine him anywhere else. Fact is, as founder and president of Boulder-based

Colorado Energy Group (CEG) with satellite offi ces in Washington D.C., and Sacramento and Stockton, California, he’s usually every-where else as a leading energy adviser to gov-ernments, utilities, developers, and energy effi ciency and renewable energy technology providers and suppliers. Th e St. Louis native gives fair warning: “Quick, uncensored honesty works for me. I shoot from the hip and have for the past 25 years.” He would have to, considering that his meteoric career includes appointments at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. “Th is is more than just a job,” he explains. “Climate is the number one issue of our lifetime, I believe.” He traces this passion back to Trinity, where he started as a journalism, broadcast-ing and fi lm major, until he took professor Paul Goring’s class, “Man and his Modern Environment.” It was an eye-opener for the 18-year-old, who explained, “I had a hard time reconciling the traditional ‘be fruitful and multiply’ teachings of my youth with overpopulation and environmental conse-quences.” Switching his major to environ-mental studies with an emphasis in business administration, he helped start a Greenpeace chapter on campus. He also credits his late mother, who had him volunteering at nurs-ing homes and hospitals at an early age. “Maybe that empathy carried over to my career,” he muses. Aft er graduation, Burmeister gave the family business in textile manufacturing a try, working for a West German apparel

fi rm in Dallas half the year and lobbying for the Sierra Club in Colorado the other half. Eventually Colorado won out, and he got his master’s degree in public administration at the University of Colorado at Denver in 1989. It was his position as program principal/senior policy specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) in 1990 that allowed Burmeister to branch out. “I was working in all fi ft y states with all the nonprofi ts, the national labs involved in energy, and all the governor’s offi ces. It was kind of my springboard.” Along the way, he learned that Oregon’s Speaker of the House was trying to eliminate the state’s energy of-fi ce. Burmeister stepped in to dissuade him, saying that the offi ce was “doing great things, saving a lot of money, creating jobs and reducing a lot of emissions.” Th e department

was saved and with it the job of director and environmental leader Christine Ervin. Burmeister’s good karma came back to him while he was giving a speech on a book he co-authored, Energy Management and Conservation (NCSL, 1993). Ervin was in the audience, about to start her new job for President Clinton as Assistant Secretary, Offi ce of Energy Effi ciency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. DOE. Aft erward she asked Burmeister if he would come to Washington to work for her. As a senior special assistant, Burmeister was on “cloud nine, working on things that I love,” until the midterm elections brought Newt Gingrich and the Republicans into power, putting anything

climate related in the cross-hairs. “We had to take out 4,000 references to climate in the DOE budget because it was not politically acceptable at the time,” he says. Still, nothing could dampen what Burmeister calls “one of the highlights of my life – organizing the Environmental Inaugural Ball” when Clinton was re-elected in 1996. Burmeister stayed an extra year in D.C. for the chance to work with Scott Sklar, “the number one environmental lobbyist in Washington and one of my three best friends in life.” As executive director of Americans for Clean Energy (“the old solar lobby creat-ed by Dennis Hayes – that was cool!”), ACE mobilized a national grass roots membership of solar advocates and successfully helped defend the $1.2 billion annual federal clean energy budget.

While working as policy director for the National Association of State Energy Offi cials (NASEO), Bur-meister began thinking of starting his own company, partly motivated by his children, Rachel, now 19, and Benjamin, 21, from his fi rst 23-year marriage. “Th ey were one and three when we moved to Washington.” Founding CEG gave him more quality family time and got them back to Boul-der in 1999. He hints that a fourth offi ce in Dallas is a possibility soon, having met “a wonderful woman from

San Angelo” there. As for the future, Burmeister sees it as a bright one, despite ongoing political polar-ization. “You can’t win ’em all, but it’s a very exciting time. With respect to the climate issue, the key is economic development and job creation. I think that’s language that both sides of the aisle respect. It’s not a partisan issue, and it shouldn’t be.” Th e new energy economy, he adds, is “limitless, boundless. Th ere are such great opportunities now. It is happening. People a lot smarter, a lot brighter, and a lot younger are coming up and taking the reins.” Perhaps. But they can’t possibly have more energy. Julie Catalano

George Burmeister ‘81

P R O F I L E

Phot

o by D

on H

amer

man

January 2013 37

Upwardly mobile

Talking with Sue Chen is an exercise in, well, exercise. Dashing here and there in impossibly high heels through her offi ces in Carson, California, Chen seems to

be everywhere at once. You soon realize that there is literally no stopping her. Even as a child, “I knew that I was going to do some-thing big. I just had no idea what it was.” It didn’t take her long to fi nd out. At 23, she became the CEO of Nova Medical Products, Inc. (novamedical-products.com), now an 18-year-old com-pany closing in on an-nual sales of $30 mil-lion with what Chen calls a “hot, racy line” of safety and mobil-ity products, “while changing the stigma that’s oft en attached to these products.” She half-jokingly says this job was her second choice. Th e Taiwanese-born Chen, who immi-grated with her fam-ily from Kaohsiung when she was four, learned a sobering lesson in her sixth-grade civics class in Florida: “I can never be president of the United States of America.” Undaunted, Chen moved on to her next goal: “Change the world.” College was her fi rst real step in that direction. “When I visited Trinity I felt right at home. I thought, wow, this is a place where I could really fi nd myself.” She found herself changing her major three times in the fi rst year (“I wanted to be the next Connie Chung!”). “Th at’s the great thing about a liberal arts education. At Trinity you could dive right in and fi nd out if what you think you want to be is really for you.” While trying to decide, Chen was developing “this little obsession with getting

to know my roots,” eventually landing on an international studies major with an emphasis on Asian studies. “To which my mother re-sponded, ‘You’re already Asian. Why do you need to study it?’” Chen calls it “one of the smartest and most defi ning decisions” of her life, crediting pro-fessor Coleen Grissom’s diversity program as “inspirational in making me proud of who I was.” Chen remembers watching a documen-tary called “Big Happiness, Small Happiness,” about the one-child policy in China. “Th e story was if you have a boy, it’s a Big Happi-ness. A girl is a Small Happiness.” As one of three daughters, Chen believes this was partly “why my father wanted us to grow up in

America. My parents raised us to believe that we could do anything.” Sadly, Chen lost her father at age 14, but as a rehab physician, he had already started the wheels of Nova turning before his death from cancer. “He was so frustrated at the lack of innovation and beautiful equipment for his patients.” His brothers carried on, but “with-out my father’s vision and leadership, they were making the same old stuff – gray, indus-trial, unattractive.” Aft er graduation, Chen moved to Los Angeles “to get job experience.” Her disapproval of a joint venture prospect led her frustrated grandfather to tell her to run the company herself. “Th ey said, ‘We’ll

give you six months. Here’s some inventory, here’s some capital.’ It was do or die.” Chen did. “I feel that I showed them that women are as capable as men, and that I’ve made a diff erence in their daughters’ lives.” She says they now have “a wonderful partnership.” It was an encounter with a “sassy, amazing woman” in 1995 who told Chen how much her European style walker – one of Nova’s early favorites – meant to her, that changed everything. Chen asked her if she could choose any color for it, what would it be? Hot red, Ms. Sassy replied. Chen could relate. “I said, of course. I drive a red car, I paint my toenails red. Why not a hot red walker?” It set two things in motion: “One, this company is

going to be defi ned by the voices and the courage and mobility of our customers; and two, we had to be a company that was doing something diff erent. We can change things here.” Nova’s product line features colorful bags and canes, bath-room safety items, and other things for “when your body starts wearing down and you need a little help here and there.” Nova has 70 em-ployees and a second offi ce in Chicago. Chen is on the move again, heading

toward the door of her offi ce that’s overfl ow-ing with paperwork, fabric samples, the American fl ag, shark pictures – Chen is on the board of both Reef Check Foundation and Shark Savers – and another presence, unseen but not forgotten. “Even though I never knew my dad as an adult, I feel like I get to share in his mission, which is such a blessing.” And more. “I get to improve people’s lives. I get to save sharks. I am the happiest CEO around.” Make that one Big Happiness – to go. Julie Catalano

Sue Chen ’92

P R O F I L E

Phot

o by D

on M

ilici

38 Trinity

January 2013 39

M a s t e r p l a n

Melinda Parshall has been in classes at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Aff airs for exactly one week, and already she’s sounding a bit frazzled. “It’s just so

overwhelming,” says the full-time graduate student who’s working toward a master’s degree in urban planning. “It’s so interesting the diff erent kinds of questions asked, and the diff erent kind of focus you can have. It’s so exciting, and so refreshing.” If you noticed how quickly Parshall went from “overwhelmed” to “excited,” then you can understand how the Houston native moved from San Antonio to Houston to New York to Saudi Arabia to Los Angeles, throwing in visits to a dozen or so countries in between (“I should keep count”), without so much as a hiccup. Th e vivacious Houston native is nothing if not adaptable. Aft er graduation with a B.A. in history, Parshall worked as a research assistant at Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts while moonlighting at prestigious global design and architecture fi rm HOK. What followed was a classic example of right place, right time. “Two weeks aft er I started there, they signed a master plan for a new university in Saudi Arabia.” And not just any university. Th is was to be a 5.5 million square foot, state-of-the-art, world-class model of sustainable design located in Th uwal, a small fi shing village on the Red Sea. It was the 2006 brainchild of the Saudi king, who wanted it done in three years. And it was: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), broke ground in 2007 and was completed in 2009.

Th e massive, global endeavor “kind of began my journey” with a role in design and development fi rst in Houston, and then relocation to the New York offi ce in 2008, where working with more than forty principal investigators at KAUST to understand their research focus “was a really intense time but really interesting.” Th ings were about to get even more interesting: Parshall met her future husband, Brendan Rauw, who was also being recruited for the project. “So we were both able to get jobs there,” Parshall says with a laugh. “It’s such an unbelievable story, the way it

worked out.” Th e couple married in 2010, in a “very small ceremony in city hall” in New York City, before departing – with their two rescue dogs accompanying them in a climate controlled compartment on Luft hansa – for their new home on the KAUST campus, about thirty miles from the city of Jeddah. Th ey just moved back to the U.S. in February of 2012. During those two years, Parshall worked as lab design coordinator, managing design and equipment procurement with a capital budget of $80 million. “It was the fi rst university with mixed classes [men and women] in Saudi Arabia, so that was a very big change.” As for the image of oppressed women, Parshall says that was not the case in Jeddah. “It reminded

me of New York, with a very big social scene, people out late at night.” Although female outsiders could wear conservative dress, Parshall actually felt more at home and less conspicuous in the traditional abaya, a loose fi tting robe-like garment. “Th e abayas I bought were beautiful, very colorful.” Leaving Saudi left Parshall with mixed feelings. She misses the freedom to travel and the couple’s newfound passion – diving. “Th e university had a boat, we’d just hop on and go out diving in the Red Sea. Th at’s an experience I’ll never forget.” But with Rauw’s new job as associate vice chancellor and

executive director of entrepreneurship at UCLA, “it was the best catalyst to say, okay, the timing’s right to further my education.” Parshall can frequently be found at sidewalk cafes near their Westwood home, sketching her surroundings for studio class. It was a long, roundabout way from Texas, and Parshall will never forget the three Trinity professors who most infl uenced her: Char Miller, whose class “A

City in History” resonated greatly; they still stay in touch. Eve Duff y was an adviser “who encouraged me to study abroad in Berlin, which gave me a global approach to my jobs.” Finally, history professor Linda Salvucci “was really provocative in the way she made you rethink certain things. I’ve certainly taken that to heart as I’ve lived abroad.” As for her current studies, Parshall hopes to maintain an international focus, eyeing South America and Latin America as her “next frontiers.” Th e LEED-accredited professional is also keenly interested in eco-tourism as “a way to get developing countries into ecological and sustainable development while boosting their economies. I’m going to talk to my advisor about doing a study on that.” Sounds like a plan. Julie Catalano

Melinda Parshall ‘06

P R O F I L E

Phot

o by D

on M

ilici

40 Trinity

A D V A N C E M E N T

Scholarships, professorshipsenrich academic landscape

Visible throughout the metro-politan San Antonio area, the T. Frank Murchison Memorial Tower on Trinity‘s campus symbolizes the prominence

of one of the University’s most infl uential and generous patrons. Th e tower’s principal donor, Trinity Trustee Arch S. Underwood, requested that it be named aft er Murchison, his long-time friend. “Frank has done about as much to build Trinity as anybody I know,” Underwood said. “We need something tall on this campus to remind us of him because he was a tall man in Trinity’s aff airs.” Indeed, during the fi rst decade of Trinity’s presence in San Antonio, locals referred to Murchison as “Mr. Trinity,” due to his commitment of time, expertise, and fi nancial resources to the University. Th e Murchison family had a long associa-tion with Trinity dating back to 1910 when T. (for Th omas) Frank, a native of Athens, Texas, enrolled as a freshman at Trinity in Waxa-hachie. His father, John W. Murchison, the town’s bank president, hoped that the disci-plined atmosphere of a Presbyterian univer-sity would prove benefi cial for Frank and his younger brother, Clint. While Frank thrived at Trinity, Clint preferred to be outdoors rather than in confi ning classrooms. He lasted only three weeks and embarked on a legend-ary career in the oil industry that made him a Texas icon. (His son, Clint Murchison, Jr., was the fi rst owner of the Dallas Cowboys.) Clint Murchison Sr. joined with Underwood in 1951 to underwrite the cost of the original Student Union Building. Another brother, John W. Murchison, served on Trinity’s Board of Trustees and contributed generously to University projects. During his four years at Trinity, Frank Mur-chison (Class of 1914) excelled in academics and found ample time for extracurricular

Murchsion Influence Permeates Campus

By R. Douglas Brackenridge

activities and business trips to Dallas. Th e Mi-rage described him as “a leader in all student activities. No one fears but his ready wit for emergencies and his broad smiling counte-nance will make for him a great fortune.” He served as president of the Press Club, presi-dent of the State Intercollegiate Press Associa-tion, president of his junior class, president of the Ratio-Maeonian Literary Society, treasurer of the Y. M.C.A., and associate editor of the Mirage. His senior thesis was titled, “Th e Organization of the Banking System in the United States.” Keen on athletics, Frank played football, basketball, baseball, and tennis, serving on several occasions as manager as well as player. Murchison also evidenced a sense of humor. As seniors, he and a group of friends off ered

tongue-in-cheek advice to young men who wanted to date Trinity co-eds. Frank’s sugges-tion was, “See that all pictures of out-of-town girls are removed from watches before enter-ing the [women’s residence] hall.” Th e 1914 Mirage featured a new organization known as Th e Ego Club, with Murchison listed as one of the charter members. Th e group had no presi-dent because everyone voted for himself.Aft er military service in World War I, Frank returned to Athens to take charge of the bank for his ailing father. Subsequently, he teamed up with his brother Clint to purchase land leases for gas and oil exploration, but they eventually separated because Frank thought Clint was too impetuous and wanted to expand too rapidly. Frank amassed his own fortune through ownership of gas and oil

Murchison Tower, a prominent landmark, dominates the Trinity campus.

January 2013 41


T. Frank Murchsion graduated from Trinity in Waxahachie but eventu-ally played a very infl uential role in Trinity history after its move to the skyline campus. He served on the Board of Trustees, and his philanthropy continues to support numerous faculty and students.

pipelines, land leases, and other enterprises including banking and ranching. In the 1930s, he established an offi ce in San Antonio and moved into a new home on Ironwood Drive in Olmos Park designed by an aspiring young architect named O’Neil Ford. In 1940, when Trinity was seeking to move from Waxahachie, civic leaders in several Texas cities hoped to entice Trinity to relocate in their communities. A member of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce visited Mur-chison to enlist his support to bring Trinity to the Alamo City. Initially, Murchison declared that he had no interest in the project. Only when his visitor told him that plans for the new Trinity were far reaching and involved millions of dollars to build a new campus and to create a substantial endowment did Murchison’s attitude change. ”If you are going in for something big, count me in,” he said, “I am not interested in a little boll weevil college in San Antonio. I am interested in a greater Trinity University.” From that point forward, Murchison’s in-volvement with Trinity grew steadily. In 1942 he became a member of the Board of Trustees,

and he served as its vice-chairman for a number of years. Few decisions were made regarding Trinity’s future without fi rst consult-ing Murchison and securing his approval and support. Fellow Trustee C. W. Miller described Murchison’s pivotal role in shaping

Trinity’s future. “In those early days, Frank was the spark plug. We spent many days and many evenings in Frank’s living room talking, planning, arguing, and dreaming. He was the man with the great vision. He had a vision of Trinity when those around

him simply couldn’t quite see all of it. He saw Trinity as a great cultural institution.” As co-chairman of the building committee, Murchison had considerable infl uence in de-ciding the location of the new campus and in inviting O’Neil Ford to become the University architect. As co-chair of the search commit-tee for a new president, he was instrumental in persuading James W. Laurie to come to Trinity. He provided funds to erect one of the fi rst buildings on the new campus, Murchi-son Dormitory, named in memory of his late father, John W. Murchison. As chairman of the athletic committee, Murchison took a special interest in football and tennis and funded athletic scholarships for those sports. He had aspirations for Trinity to become a member of the Southwest Conference and attain national recognition for its outstanding athletic program. In poor health and hobbled by crippling arthritis, Murchison died in 1955 at the age of 62. Trinity Trustees expressed their “profound gratitude to our late colleague for his vision, leadership, and support in helping to make possible Trinity University as it now exists and in laying present foundations for the achievement of his dream of a great Christian university.” Fortunately for Trinity, the Murchison con-nection didn’t end in 1955. His widow, Norine Randal Murchison, shared and retained her late husband’s commitment to Trinity. Edu-cated at Stephens College and Southern Meth-odist University, Norine was active in San Antonio civic and social life. She was a found-ing member and lifelong patron of the Charity Ball Association, a volunteer organization created to support children whose needs were not being met by other charitable institutions. An avid traveler, she visited Africa, Alaska, and Europe, among other destinations. Norine’s involvement with Trinity dated back

“I am not interested in a little boll weevilcollege in San Antonio. I am interested in a greater TrinityUniversity.”

42 Trinity

Grace Carmona, ’92 was thrilled to learn she had been awarded a Murchison Scholarship. Today she works at anaccounting fi rm in Houston.

to the early 1950s when she co-chaired a committee to undertake a major landscaping project on the barren campus. She frequently attended campus events and regularly con-tributed to endowment and operating budget needs. During her lifetime, she created a substantial Library Trust Fund and established the Norine R. Murchison Chair of Education and the Norine R. Murchison Endowed Schol-arship Fund. In 1979, Interim President Bruce Th omas expressed his gratitude with these words. “You have been a constant source of in-spiration to those of us here on the staff and to other donors, and I feel that your expressions of confi dence in the future of this University have ensured a bright future for it. ‘Th ank you’ is woefully inadequate, but I do not know any way to improve on it.” At her death in 1985, Norine Murchison left a bequest of approximately $27 million (now worth $69 million) to Trinity University. She indicated in her will that funds from her estate were to be used solely for educational purpos-es, such as scholarships for students and com-pensation for professorships. President Ronald K. Calgaard utilized the bequest to supple-

ment existing Murchison funds and to create new ones including the T. Frank and Norine R. Murchison Faculty Development Fund, the Norine R. Murchison Education Scholarship Fund, and the Norine R. Murchison Gradu-

ate Scholarship Fund. Distributions from the Murchison scholarship funds from 1989 to the present have amounted to approximately $42 million dollars, and they continue to under-write multiple academic endeavors. Gracie Carmona ’92, now employed in the audit department of a Houston accounting fi rm, recalled the excitement in her house-hold when she was awarded a Murchison Scholarship. “I have never doubted the quality of the education I received,” she said, “and I am certain my career in account-ing benefi tted from the personal guidance I received from professors like Petrea Sandlin and Linda Specht. I will always be grateful for the opportunity the Murchison Scholarship provided me at Trinity University.” Today 108 students are receiving Murchison Scholar-ships that average roughly $18,00 annually, and another 16 undergraduates who have indicated they want to become teachers are receiving Murchison Education Scholarships that range between $1,000 and $12,0000. Th ree endowed Professorships today bear the Murchison name: Th e Norine R. Murchi-son Distinguished Professorship in Education, currently held by Shari Albright; the T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professorship in the Humanities, currently held by Arturo Madrid; and the Norine R. Murchison Distinguished Professorship in Classical Studies, currently held by Erwin Cook. A recent addition is the Murchison Term Professorships that provide three-year term appointments for outstanding tenured professors. Th ose are currently held by professors Nancy Mills (chemistry), Mat-thew Stroud (modern languages and litera-tures), and Don Clark (history). Near the end of Frank Murchison’s life, a reporter asked him how he planned to dispose of his wealth. Murchison said that he had thoughts about establishing a founda-tion but they had not been fully formulated. Th e reporter concluded his article with these prescient words: “No one knows the plans, which will at last crystallize in his mind. But the chances appear good that one day, in some manner or another, thousands of young men and women will be the benefi ciaries of Frank Murchison.” On campus today, we have only to look up at the iconic Tower and look around at the outstanding faculty and student body to see the fulfi llment of his prediction. R. Douglas Brackenridge

Norine Murchison unveils the plaque on the Murchison Tower honoring her husband’s role in the campus development. After his death, she continued his interest and exceptional philanthropic commitment.

January 2013 43

In addition to three endowed professorships, Murchison gifts fund three three-year term professorships. Current holders are chemistry professor Nancy Mills, Spanish professor Matt Stroud, and history professor Don Clark, left to right.

Three of the more than 100 current holders of Murchison scholarships are shown in the shadow of the tower that honors the late Trustee and philanthropist.

Trinity Press plans Murchison book

Celebrating the University’s close asso-ciation with the Murchison family, Trin-ity University Press is working with Burk Murchison, great-nephew to T. Frank Murchison, on a forthcoming book about the creation of the Texas Stadium, the long-time home of the Dallas Cowboys.Th e book will recount the exciting story of how Burk’s father, Clint Murchison Jr. applied his passion for architecture in building the famous Texas Stadium—an innovative structure known for the hole in its dome. As founder of the Dallas Cowboys football team, Clint Murchi-son Jr. created a revolution in specta-tor sports and launched a team that, three decades, fi ve Super Bowl appear-ances, and two world championships later, would become a legend. To be co-written with Dallas Morning News sportswriter Michael Granberry, this never-before-told narrative of the Texas Stadium will appear in 2014.

Sources for this article include information from the Trinity University Archives, the Offi ces of Advancement and Endowments, interviews with acquaintances of the Murchisons, and

books by Jane Wolfe, Th e Murchisons (New York, 1989) and Bryan Burrough, Th e Big Rich: Th e Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes (New York, 2009).

44 Trinity

Entrepreneur Honors Mentor with Gift for CSI

San Antonio entrepreneur and Trinity alumnus Sardar Biglari ’99 pledged $250,000 through the Biglari Founda-tion to support a portion of the new Center for the Sciences and Innovation (CSI) in honor of former Trinity faculty member Philip L. Cooley, Ph.D.

At Biglari’s request, entrepreneurship classroom 383 in Phase III of the CSI will be named in honor of Cooley, his former professor and the Prassel Distinguished Professor of Business Administration, who retired last May. A commemorative plaque to be placed inside the classroom will highlight Cooley’s accomplishments in “mentor-ing hundreds of future business leaders and advancing in-depth knowledge in the area of finance.”

Biglari’s gift to Trinity accentuates the role of entrepreneurship in the new CSI facility and underscores his own success in the world of business. At 22, Biglari started a small hedge fund with money collected from the proceeds of an Internet company he founded while at-tending Trinity. Biglari, an entrepreneur, businessman, and investor, is chairman and CEO of Biglari Holdings, a diversi-fied holding company.


The recently established Janet McNutt Endowed Scholarship Fund at Trinity

will provide critical new fi nancial resources for talented students in need of support to achieve their dreams. Created by Janet McNutt ’63, the fund is the latest example of her generous support of Trinity and the broader community. As an undergraduate, she was a music major and continues to support that department with discretionary funds that are used to keep the pianos in tune and address other needs. In 2011, McNutt began exploring planned giving options with the University and de-cided to create the new scholarship fund with $100,000 rolled over from an existing indi-vidual retirement account. She was pleased to be able to take advantage of the opportunity to make an outright gift from her IRA with-out tax penalties.

New endowment gift s of this amount are held by Trinity for 12 rolling quarters until they mature, then ultimately generate 4.5 percent, or about $4,500 annually, based on Trinity’s endowment policy as approved by the Board of Trustees. McNutt also named Trinity as the benefi ciary of the remainder of her IRA account. Th e gift to Trinity qualifi ed McNutt for membership in the University’s Heritage Society, which recognizes individuals who have included Trinity in their estate plans. “I enjoy being able to give back to Trinity and to San Antonio,” she says. “I look forward to meeting the students who will be helped by this new scholarship fund.” In addition to her work for Trinity, McNutt is active in many other San Antonio organizations, serving on several boards including those of Texas Public Radio and Planned Parenthood of San Antonio. Th e law Ms. McNutt took advantage of allowed tax-free IRA charitable rollovers up to $100,000 by individuals age 70½ or older. Congress recently extended this special incentive through December 31, 2013. If you are over age 70½, you are permitted to roll over up to $100,000 from your IRA without claiming any increased income or paying any additional tax. If you would like to speak with someone who can provide additional information, please contact the Offi ce of Planned Giving at (210) 999-7697 or e-mail [email protected].

Alumna Endows New Scholarship Fund

CYN

THIA

CLA

RK P

HO

TOS.

COM

Janet McNutt ’63

January 2013 45


In personnel records, he was known as Andrés Hernandez, a Trinity employee for more than two decades who was

named the Physical Plant Employee of the Year in 2005. But to former President Ron and Genie Calgaard, “Andy” was the guardian of their home who greeted them nearly every Monday morning with the question, “How many parties are we having this week?” Despite his tough visage, “his face was precious to us,” recalls Genie Calgaard. Th e former president seconds that opinion, lauding Andy for keep-ing their home at 150 Oakmont “shipshape” during nearly all of his 20-year tenure as president of Trinity. Th e Calgaards forged such a bond with Andy that soon aft er he died in September 2011, they began exploring ways to honor his memory on campus. Th ey decided to establish and fund “Andy’s Place,” an outdoor area adjacent to the Prassel Parking Garage and also near the offi ces that are now called

An estate gift from former Trinity Univer-sity Trustee Charles H. Pistor Jr. provided

vital support for Trinity’s fi rst Global Health Symposium held on campus September 14-15, 2012. Pistor died this past July from complications of West Nile encephalopathy. A successful banker, businessman, and civic leader in Dal-las, he spent a lifetime dedicated to education and medical advancement. He served on Trin-ity’s Board from 1980 to 1984. Kris Howland, Trinity’s director of planned giving, worked with Pistor’s wife of sixty years, Regina Pistor, and their daughter, Lori, class of ’76, in determining that the Global Health Symposium would be a fi tting recipient for the gift . “We were excited about the opportunity for attendees and all those who will ultimately benefi t from the conversations, research, and

Estate Gift Helps Underwrite Global Health Symposium

Calgaards Fund Andy’s Place in Memory of Long-time Employee

progress following the symposium,” says Lori. Her father’s gift was particularly relevant and poignant as a reminder to participants that global health concerns are local as well as international. Th e landmark symposium allowed Trinity to encourage students to apply their studies in various fi elds to issues of global health. It also highlighted some of Trinity’s graduates who are pursuing work in the fi eld, pro-vided an opportunity for students to meet potential mentors, fostered connections and collaborations among local institutions, laid the groundwork for expanded study of global health at Trinity, and promoted service work in foreign settings. (See story page 16.) Th e University is deeply grateful for Charles Pistor’s life of service and generosity, including his designation of Trinity in his estate plan-

ning. For more information about including Trinity in your estate planning, please call the Offi ce of Planned Giving at 210-999-7697.

Facilities Services. Covered by a garage overhang and furnished with Adirondack chairs, a picnic table, a barbecue pit, and equipment to play a relaxing game of “washers,” Andy’s Place has become a popular gathering spot for Facilities Services staff during lunch breaks and other social oc-

casions. During the dedication ceremony last August, Ron Calgaard noted, “We wanted to honor Andy, yes, but we also wanted to recog-nize the dedication of all of those employees who are so loyal and concerned about how our campus looks. It takes a lot of people to build an institution.”

Charles H. Pistor Jr.

President Ron and Genie Calgaard

46 Trinity

Dr. Max AdlerDr. Mark L. BingDonyn K. Bird, Esq.Mr. Ned D. BoddieMrs. Geraldine L. BooneMrs. Lorrie P. BreedloveDr. Carol B. BrownMs. Donna S. CameronDr. Gary W. CoxMrs. Jeanne P. DouglasMrs. Constance C. ElmsMrs. Karen E. FoxworthMr. Jack J. Froboese Jr.Ms. Margaret J. GavinMrs. Estela Getzen

Challenge Thenand Now

Trinity’s Most Generous Generationis the 1970s with a participation rate of 7.57%!

Mrs. Annette C. GouldMr. John Paul GouldDr. Peter N. HofmannDr. Bernard J. HorakMs. Annabel HouseDr. David E. JohnsonMrs. Rebecca S. JonesDr. Katherine W. KlingerMrs. Betsy KroppMr. Thomas A. MasinterDr. S. Morton McPhailMs. Pamela A. MoyeMs. Donna S. MuntMr. Wendell R. Peters

Ms. Julia K. PowellMs. Lynne L. PuckettMr. Victor S. RecchiMr. Ashby L. Rice, IIIMs. Cynthia L. SailorDr. Ronald W. ScatesMr. Herman F. SchimpffMrs. Sarah B. ShawMrs. Rebecca P. SimpsonThe Honorable Katherine SmithMr. Earl D. SnogaMr. John L. StoverDr. Alicia H. ThomasMr. W. Ronald Thomas

Mrs. Betsy M. ThurloMr. Dennis C. WattsMr. James W. WeberMrs. Suzanne M. WestMrs. Linda S. WetzDr. Belle S. WheelanMr. David B. WheelerMichael K. Wheeler, M.D.Mrs. Sally W. WheelerDr. Sara W. WhiteMr. Charles D. WhiteheadMrs. Joan F. WhiteleyMrs. Janet ZimmermanMr. Raymond C. Zowarka Jr.

Class of 1972

During November, alumni from the 1970s and 1980s were issued a challenge to see which decade could finish the month with the highest

percentage of donor participation. Challenge Then and Now was a huge success, energizing alumni spirits and providing support for the Trinity experience of current students.

Below is a list of donors from 1972, the class with the highest participation in the winning decade. Thank you to all our challenge participants; final challenge numbers and a complete list of donors can be found online attrinity.edu/ThenandNow. Overall alumni participation currently stands at 6.38 percent. All alumni can help increase that by making a gift online at trinity.edu/give.

Phot

o by

Ahn

-Vie

t Din

h ‘1

5. S

tadi

um D

rive,

Then

and

Now

January 2013 47

A L U M N E W S

At a dinner on January 25, the Trinity University Alumni Association

bestowed its highest honor, the Distinguished Alumnus Award, on retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner ’79. On learning he was to be the honoree, Bergner responded in typical fashion. “I just feel humbled – this honor was something that never entered my mind.” But this humble reaction belies a distinguished and highly decorated 30-year military career and 30-year marriage to his wife, Carla, that included multiple deployments and numerous demanding, high level assignments. Along with service at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, service with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and service on the National Security Council staff at the White House, he was the Deputy Commander of the Multi-National Force in Mosul and served in Baghdad with the Multi-National Force as well. While in the military, Bergner earned a Master of Public Administration from the City University of New York. Prior to his retirement in 2010, Bergner was the U.S. Army’s Chief of Public Affairs, responsible for the formulation of communications and public affairs strategies, a job of enormous reach. During his three decades of service, Bergner earned 12 decorations and badges, including the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of

Distinguished Alumnus Believes in Servant Leadership

Merit (with Oak Leaf Cluster) and Bronze Star Medal (with two Oak Leaf Clusters) for action and service in combat. After retirement, Bergner began a new career at USAA, a San Antonio-based insurance, banking, and investment company that serves 9.4 million U.S. military members and their families. He currently serves as president of The USAA Property

An officer and a gentleman

and Casualty Insurance Group.During an interview, Bergner, boyish-faced, openly friendly, and with a ready laugh, tapped his finger on the table and emphasized, “This is the most important thing about me I want to tell.” He then related the moment at his Army swearing in ceremony, when his father, a U.S. Army Colonel, advised

him, ‘If you take care of your soldiers, they will take care of everything else.’ “I have lived my life trying to fulfill that challenge,” says Bergner, who explained his core philosophy as “servant leadership.” “As a Trinity graduate, I left with a comprehensive liberal arts education and a strong sense that our country needs people who understand the importance of service to community, government, volunteerism, or the military.” Bergner attended Trinity on a full R.O.T.C. scholarship, and along with this early military experience he thanks his labor economics professor Joe Davis for influencing him to become a global thinker and understand the importance of having an international focus. He also credits Trinity with developing his ability to write. “That competency in written expression was a central part of enabling many facets of my career.” His advice to current Trinity students? “Challenge yourself to leave school with a global view and a commitment to keep learning and serving others.”

Mary Lance

Kevin Bergner ’79.

48 Trinity

A L U M N E W S

Where Are They Now?

A proud native of Paris where he attended two years of college, John Burke boasted

that it was the county seat of Lamar County in northeastern Texas and “the second larg-est Paris in the world.” Burke earned his baccalaureate degree (1959) at Texas Tech University and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Ohio State University (1963). As a young Ph.D. in the post-Sputnik era, Burke had to choose between a career in industry or one in higher education. He chose education because he wanted to foster an interest in science among up-coming student generations. At Trinity (1963-2000) Burke helped develop an outstand-ing science faculty and highly regarded undergraduate student research programs. During the early years, he faced considerable challenges. To accommodate laboratory students, sessions often ran from early morning to late evening in cramped quarters that lacked even basic vent hoods. Despite the challenges, Burke sensed that Trinity was on the move. New buildings were being erected, the endowment was growing, and Trinity students were bright, industrious, and intellectually curious. As chem-istry department chair (1969-1976) and dean of the Division of Science, Mathematics, and Engineering (1976-1986), Burke was positioned to implement his vision for Trinity’s future. While emphasizing the importance of classroom teaching, he fostered a pattern of undergraduate research by inviting nationally

known scientists to give semi-nars and to encourage students to pursue graduate work at their respective institutions. Visitors were impressed with what they saw at Trinity and became ad-vocates for the Texas school. As a result, Trinity faculty received invitations to give lectures and seminars that enhanced Trinity’s reputation for scientific studies.Gregarious by nature, Burke had interests other than academ-

ics. At Paris Junior College he played varsity tennis, and he has maintained a life-long interest in athletic activities. The first social event he attended at Trinity was an exhibition tennis match in 1964 between Chuck McKinley and Dennis Ralston who had just won the Davis Cup. As a tennis-playing faculty member, he was asked to interview tennis recruits and had opportunities to hit with varsity team members.

Burke was also the first faculty sponsor of Trinity’s Club Soccer Team and helped to organize an intercollegiate soccer conference in the late 1960s. Beyond athlet-ics, Burke had a penchant for music. At a faculty talent show in the 1970s, Burke (drums), and colleagues Bill Kurtin (guitar), and Dale Clyde (piano) per-formed as the Three Molecules. Out of that trio emerged the Medina Mud Band. Thirty years later the group continues to per-form at country western dance venues and is popular with the Trinity community.Burke retired in 2000 in order to care for his family and wife, Gwen, whose breast cancer had metastasized. She died the following year. Burke resides in San Antonio and maintains close contact with his three children and eight grandchildren. Still active in the Medina Mud Band, he also plays the guitar and accordion “but not for anybody but myself.” He plays golf five days a week with a group of equally avid friends and enjoys watching premier European soccer and other sporting events on television. Reading inter-ests include Swedish detective novels and historical narratives combined with an annual visit to the Hesselager family in Sweden. Other preferences are biography, popular fiction, and articles dealing with major scientific developments.Burke welcomes e-mails and letters at [email protected] or 1835 Buck Ridge Lane, San Antonio, Texas 78232. R. Douglas Brackenridge

John Burke, professor emeritus

January 2013 49

A L U M N E W S

When asked what he would miss most after teaching 33 years

(1968-2001) at Trinity, John Moore replied, “The students have been my favorite part of working here at Trinity.” His response reflected what had always been his highest priorities as a member of the department of education—to motivate, inspire, and empower his students to be skilled, innovative, and caring educators. Student and peer accolades over the years attest

to a high attainment of his pedagogical goals.Moore always loved school and from an early age knew that he wanted to be a teacher. As a Trinity student, Moore participated in a variety of campus social and educational activities and was president of the Bengal Lancers. His student teaching assignment at Fox Tech in downtown San Antonio awakened him to the problems and possibilities of public school teaching. After earning graduate

degrees at SMU and Baylor, he taught social studies in Victoria, Texas. In 1968, Moore joined the Trinity faculty in the department of education and five years later became department chair. At his first curriculum council meeting, two colleagues moved and seconded to abolish the department of education. Although the motion was defeated, Moore left the meeting disconcerted but determined to make his department one of the best on campus.Working closely with local public schools and business organizations, he developed innovative programs that made a lasting impact on the San Antonio educational community. Included among his many accomplishments were the Brackenridge Interns in Teaching Program, the Trinity Prize for Excellence in Teaching, and the International School of the Americas, a school of choice in partnership with the North East Independent School District. At Trinity, he instituted the Five Year Degree Program, the first in Texas, that featured an education studies major in humanities and a 5th year internship under the supervision of a master teacher. Trinity honored Moore with the Norine R. Murchison Distinguished Professorship in Education and the Z. T. Scott Award for outstanding teaching and advising. In 2002, he was the first recipient of the Spirit of Trinity Award given by the Alumni Association.In their search for a retirement location, Moore, and his wife,

Suzanne, visited Sedona, Arizona, and were immediately captivated by its magnificent scenery and hospitable climate. He refers to Sedona as “a magical place” and loves his life in Red Rock Country. But Moore never really retired—he simply changed his base of operations. As a Friend of the Forest, Coconino National Forest, he is a member of the Trail Patrol Committee and hikes three days a week most weeks. He also works one afternoon at the Visitor’s Center of the Red Rock Ranger District. Twice a week he volunteers at Montezuma Castle National Monument, giving tours and talks and answering questions. (Suzanne calls it his outdoor classroom.) On Saturday mornings he leads a bird walk at Red Rock State Park. Both Moore and his wife are active in The Church of the Red Rocks, where he sings in the choir and serves on various commissions and committees and she is the organist. His reading and travel interests are in western history with a focus on Native American culture. Moore keeps a record of former students and colleagues who have come by to visit in Sedona, and the number is 70 and counting. He can be reached by telephone (928-282-4561) or by mail at 545 Brewer Road, Sedona, Arizona 86336.

R. Douglas Brackenridge

John Moore, professor emeritus

50 Trinity

AlumNet Turns 20!

A L U M N E W S

Kimberlyn Montford, associate professor of music, and Jim Boelens ‘76, a retired U.S. Army chaplain,

have been named Class Marshal and Alumni Sponsor, respectively, for the Class of 2016. The duo will frame the college experience for the class, offering to help students see where they are, where they have been, and where they are headed.A New Jersey native, Montford holds a Bachelor of Music from Westminster Choir College, a Master of Music from Northwestern University, and a doctorate from Rutgers University. She teaches courses ranging from hip hop culture to operas of Verdi and Wagner and researches documents containing the musical activities of nuns, which are housed in the Vatican archives. As Class Marshal, Montford will serve as a welcoming and personal representative of the faculty and advise the class on academic and personal matters.

Marshal, Sponsor Named for Class of 2016

Faculty, alumnus provide support, unity, and mentoring

Last September, AlumNet, the Trinity University electronic newsletter, celebrated its 20-year anniversary.

Begun by biology professor Bob Blystone with the help of Steve Curry ’84, then the academic programmer in the Computing Center (now Information Technology Services), AlumNet debuted on Sept. 2, 1992, and was sent to 16 alumni for whom Blystone had e-mail addresses. At the time, Trinity subscribed to an electronic service called BitNet that connected schools, and Trinity became the first private university in San Antonio to go online. (Initially, the Internet was limited to non-profit use.)Blystone knew that if AlumNet was going to take off, it had to be on a regular schedule. He decided it would be a weekly, and AlumNet #2 was transmitted on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 1992. As word spread, more and more alumni signed up. In October of 1993, AlumNet was featured as an innovative

Boelens graduated from Trinity with B.A.s in journalism and English. An ordained Presbyterian minister, he earned his Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and served congregations in Omaha and Austin, prior to entering active duty as a chaplain with

the Army. Retired after 24 years, Boelens volunteers at the TSA Canine Breeding and Development Center, working with Labrador retriever puppies. As Alumni Sponsor, he will serve as a consistent presence and resource for students as they engage in the San Antonio community and off-campus issues.

new use of the Internet at the EduCOM conference in Philadelphia, and the following year it was still the only electronic alumni newsletter in the world. By 1995, more than 300 alumni were signed up.On Jan. 1, 1996, everything changed. The IBM grant funding BitNet ran out as well as other grants that were funding other bits and pieces of what had become the Internet. In order to continue, the non-profit restriction was lifted. During the spring of 1996, the Internet grew at 18,000 percent per month for three consecutive months.From the beginning, Blystone kept the Alumni Relations office informed. A draft of each issue was sent to them for review prior to transmission. But, in 1996, interest in the newsletter exploded. Subscriptions shot up from 300 to nearly 1,200. It became clear that AlumNet was going to have to evolve. It had become too big for two volunteers to support on a weekly basis. Four years after its creation, AlumNet became an official

monthly publication of Trinity University, and the offices of Alumni Relations and University Communications took over editorship.Today, AlumNet is transmitted to some 17,000 subscribers every month. New technologies have dressed it up with pictures and colors beyond the simple text-only format of AlumNet #1; however, the original issues in print can be viewed in the Archives at Coates Library. But it’s nice to know that Blystone’s legacy fills an important if little-known niche in history as the oldest university e-publication on earth. Happy 20th birthday, AlumNet. Steve Curry ’84Editor’s note: Stephen Curry recently joined Trinity United Methodist Church in San Antonio as a student pastor. This internship will complete his seminary studies leading to a Master’s of Divinity at the Perkins School of Theology. Curry was a systems programmer at Trinity for 27 years.

Kimberlyn Montford Jim Boelens ’76

January 2013 51

A L U M N E W S

Benefi t your Alma Mater

Drive with Trinity pride,

Trinity University specialty plates are available for the first time and may be purchased through MyPlates, the official Texas specialty plate vendor. Released in October, the plates

are DMV certified and made to fit on a wide range of vehicles including automobiles, motorcycles, and boats.Trinity University plates start at $55 for a one-year, background-only design, and personalization starts at $85 for one year. The cost per year decreases with the number of years the plates are ordered. Ten percent of sales from the specialty plates benefits Trinity University.Additional pricing details and other information are available at www.myplates.com/go/trinity

Chapter and Network Activities

“Same plate I’ve had for 25 years, better background,” writes Kevin Jones ’81 of his new Trinity license plate. Buy yours at myplates.com/go/trinity

A r i z o n a

The chapter’s fi rst alumni family picnic was held on October 13 at the Desert Horizon Park in Scottsdale. Alumni spanning four decades and their families enjoyed a barbecue, became reacquainted with former class-mates, and met new friends. It was hard to tell who had a better time, the alumni or all the young kids running around together.

A t l a n t a

Alumni from the class of 1997 to 2012 had a great time at a Happy Hour on September 12 at the Square Pub in downtown Decatur. It was an opportunity to relax after work and meet, reconnect, and network with fellow alumni.

Trinity alumni and their families spent a cool yet sunny Sunday afternoon in Atlanta at the house of Nicole Allen ’94.

52 Trinity

Jenny Savage ’05, president of the Colo-rado Alumni Chapter, Jim Laurie ’63, son of former Trinity President James Laurie; Neal Pat-rick, a guest; and Kate Wilson ’06 were among many alumni and par-ents who gathered at the reception with Trin-ity University President Dennis A. Ahlburg on August 13 at the home of Trinity Trustee Miles Cortez ’65 and his wife Jan Cortez in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado.

A L U M N E W S

C o l o r a d o

Alumni met at Wynkoop Brewing Company in downtown Denver on July 11 for a beer tasting and tour. Wynkoop’s conductor/idea man, Marty Jones, led the group on a tour through the brewery while describing the “liquid art” they were drinking. At the end of the tour, Jones pulled out a guitar and performed his own beer-themed songs before tapping a 5-gallon keg of the one-time only wheat beer that Wynkoop brewed for the event: “Tiger’s Pride.” The next event was the family picnic at Washington Park in Denver on September 16. About 30 alumni were in attendance, with classes represented from the 70s through the 2000s. The weather cooperated perfectly. Alumni and their guests were able to enjoy hamburgers and hotdogs by the lake at the park. A corn-hole tournament was played, with Whitney Irwin ’06 sweeping the bracket. Scott Spencer MHA ’09 and Dave Siever ’03 came

B a y A r e a

San Francisco’s Biergarten on Oc-tavia was the venue for an alumni social hour on October 3.

C h i c a g o

About a dozen alumni met on October 11 for Happy Hour at the Zed451 on Clark Street.

A u s t i n

The chapter set sail on July 27 on Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin to support Hospice Austin’s Camp Brave Heart, a three-day camp for kids who have recently lost a loved one. Fun and fellowship was had by all with special thanks to the sponsors Mangia’s Pizza, Schlotsky’s Sandwiches, Tito’s Vodka, and Brown Distribut-ing. On September 27, alumni gathered at the Handlebar for “First September,” an event to rally around students fresh out of Trinity embarking on their fi rst September not attending school.

Austin Chapter alumni set sail on a boat cruise on Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin to support Hospice Austin’s Camp Brave Heart.

in second. On October 11, the chapter hosted professor Amer Kaissi, from the Healthcare Administration department, for a lecture on healthcare reform at the Denver Press Club. Kaissi described reform provisions from the point of view of both presidential candidates, as well as what might happen after the November elections.

D a l l a s

The annual “Welcome to Dallas” Happy Hour was held at J. Black’s on June 21, 2012. Alumni toasted the 2012 graduates and welcomed them to the Dallas chapter. The 11th Annual Asian Film Festival of Dallas was proud to host Trinity alumni at the grand penthouse of the Stoneleigh Hotel on July 12 for their opening night party. They all knew it was the real deal the moment the Lion Dancers came busting through the crowd for a special

January 2013 53

A L U M N E W S

Alumni and their families gathered at Washington Park in Denver on September 16. Nearly 30 alumni were in attendance, with classes represented from the 70s through the 2000s.

Alumni met at Wynkoop Brewing Company in downtown Denver on July 11 for a beer tasting and tour.

54 Trinity

Colorado-area alumni enjoyed a tour (and Michael Phelps run-in!) on May 19 at the Olympic Training Center led by Terris Tiller ‘00.

A L U M N E W S

surprise performance. From the party, several alumni attended the Texas Premiere of Ace Attorney from the very prolifi c and popular Japanese director, Takeshi Miike at the Magnolia Theatre in the West Village. The chapter held a “Back to School” service project with Community Partners on July 21. It was well organized and timed well enough that it wasn’t too exhausting. It was a great opportunity for alumni to serve the community and connect with fellow alumni. Alumni also

met on September 16 to cheer on the Texas Rangers against the Seattle Mariners. The Rangers won 2-1, bringing a bright ending to a drizzly Sunday. The chapter held its “First September” on September 28 at El Fenix Mexican Restaurant to welcome recent alumni to the area. The next event was the wine tasting on October 17 at Wine’tastic. A hand-picked selection of wines, custom-created for Trinity alumni, was offered with introductions on each special pick. Wines

were sampled while light hors d’oeuvres were served.

F o r t W o r t h

The Fort Worth chapter held its annual “Welcome to Fort Worth” Happy Hour on June 21 at Chuy’s on West 7th Street to honor the 2012 graduates. Those who came had a great time establishing new con-nections or catching up with old friends. The chapter held its “First September” Happy

Hour at Bar Louie in the West 7th area of Fort Worth. Alumni met again at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art on October 20 for a special tour of the new exhibition, To See as Artists See: American Art from The Phillips Collection. It is the fi rst large-scale, traveling presentation of The Phillips’s celebrated collection of Ameri-can art. On November 3, the Fort Worth and Dallas chapters teamed up to support the Dallas Mavericks at their home opener against the Charlotte Bobcats.

January 2013 55

A L U M N E W S

The Houston-area alumni had a great time at the Trinity Day at the Astros on Sunday, July 8.

The Fort Worth Chapter-area alumni met at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art on October 20 for a special tour of the new exhibition “To See as Artists See: Ameri-can Art from the Phillips Collection.” Left to right: Kyle Felix, Kristie Gibson, Amber and Bryan Cancel, Rush Olson, Phillip, Blake and Jessica Poole, Michael Johnston, Jodi and Doug Saegesser.

Nine teams squared off at the Houston golf tournament on October 20 at an amazingly mani-cured golf course of Tour 18.

The Mavericks returned the favor by taking care of busi-ness and picking up their third win of the season. Good times were had by all. A sincere thank you to all who came and pulled together to make this a fun and successful event!

H o u s t o n

The Houston-area alumni got together on June 28 at Celtic Gardens to welcome in the 2012 graduates to the Houston community. This is always one of the chapter’s most well attended events. More than 70 alumni gathered to share stories of college and professional life while enjoying tasty food and cold drinks. The chapter alumni gathered at the Inn at the Ballpark on July 8 to enjoy drinks and appetizers before the Astros took on the Brewers. It was a fun game with a good mix of alumni and families. The game went to extra innings, and we ended up losing 5 to 3, but the gathering was not dampened, even by the storm. Alumni attended the Houston Symphony Orchestra’s presentation of The Wizard of Oz on July 21. They enjoyed the large-screen presentation of the show. To kick off the fall season, alumni gathered on September 15 at the popular Saint Arnold’s Brewery to enjoy some local craft beer and tour the brewery. This was one of the most popular events of the year as TU alumni of all ages came out to catch up and network over cold drinks and tasty tacos. We look forward to continuing this event in the future! The chapter’s golf tournament on October 20 at Tour 18 was also a great success. The weather was perfect for the nine groups to play for trophies, prizes, and bragging rights. Trophies were awarded to each member of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place teams. Special thanks go to the sponsors of the event and event volunteers.

A L U M N E W S

56 Trinity

G r e a t e r L o s A n g e l e s

Alumni enjoyed whale watching on August 4 in Newport Beach. They saw lots of marine life, in-cluding two blue whales, and had a wonderful time.

N a s h v i l l e

Alumni gathered on August 16 for a Night at the Nashville Sounds. They enjoyed the lovely evening and celebrated the Sounds’ win on “Elvis Night” at Greer Stadium. As usual, the “dizzy spin around the bat” fan game was the crowd favorite! Be on the lookout for information on their next event, tentatively scheduled for early 2013.

National Capital Area

On a beautiful day in August, alumni gathered at the home of Luke Peterson ’02 and family for the National Capital Area Summer Potluck BBQ. Many attendees were new to the area and happy to reunite with former classmates over brisket and beer. On September 21, alumni met to cheer on the Washington Nation-als as they took on the Milwau-kee Brewers. The chapter held a private tour of the U.S. Supreme Court, arranged by General William Suter ‘59, on September 26. After the tour, all attendees had the opportunity to meet with General Suter in his offi ces. On October 6, alumni stepped back into the Texas Hill Country as they gathered for lunch at Hill Country BBQ. Thirty-one attendees enjoyed reminiscing about their college days while enjoying Texas specialties such as brisket, Kreuz sausage, corn pudding, and Blue Bell ice cream. The chapter plans to continue this annual tradition.On November 5, Trinity alumni gathered at a local Washington D.C. tavern to test their knowl-edge of current events, politics, and popular culture. Although the group’s knowledge of George Clooney movies was limited, they made a come back during the ge-

The Greater Los Angeles chapter-area alumni en-joyed whale watching on August 4 in Newport Beach.

Carrie Bryant ‘05 and Leslie South ‘04 en-joyed meet-ing Nashville area-alumni while watch-ing the Nash-ville Sounds.

On a beautiful day in August, the DC area-alumni gathered at the home of Luke Peterson ‘02 and family for the National Capital Area Chapter’s Summer Potluck BBQ.

ography round -- and were proud not to fi nish in last place.

N e w Y o r k

On a hot August afternoon, a group of brave Trinity alumni visited the Bohemian Hall Beer Garden (also known as the Astoria Beer Garden) to mingle and meet. Sitting at long tables in the backyard of New York’s oldest beer garden, folks reminisced over beers and brats. It was a fun-fi lled afternoon and a great way to kick-off the 2012-2013 events calendar! On September 20, alumni gathered to celebrate the beginning of fall at Hill Country Barbeque. With great food and plenty of Shiner Bock beer to go around, alumni from all ages net-worked, caught up with friends, and met fellow alumni over gua-camole and barbeque sliders.

A L U M N E W S

January 2013 57

More than 50 alumni representing six de-cades attended the San Antonio Alumni Kick-Off Happy Hour on August 23 at Tycoon Flats.

The NCA Chapter area-alumni enjoyed stepping back into the Texas Hill Country on October 6. They gathered for lunch at Hill Country BBQ, which reminded them of their San Antonio days at Trinity.

O k l a h o m a C i t y

Alumni in the Oklahoma City area enjoyed wine, appetizers, and good company during a wine tasting at Bin 73 on October 3, 2012.

S a n A n t o n i o

On August 23, more than 50 alumni representing six decades attended a Kick-Off Happy Hour at Tycoon Flats. It was another successful start to the chapter’s 2012-2013 event season. Trinity University Making Connections 2012 was the most interactive, engaging event to date! YEAH! Seventy-nine students registered and 79 students attended so we had more students than alumni for the fi rst time! Fifty-six alumni attended and everyone had the opportunity to tweet questions and concerns about careers in real time and fi nd answers quickly. The thought-provoking keynote speaker, Trinity Trustee Tres Kleberg ’65, said the key to professional networking began with developing, then nurturing, great relationships. He was followed by Drew Scheberle ’93, senior VP of Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, who was also dynamic and gave valuable insights for students on current trends in careers in central Texas. Despite the early morning rain, October 14 turned out to be a great day for Trinity soccer. Both the men’s and women’s teams beat Centenary (La), while a crowd of close to 50 alumni and their families cheered them on. The jerseys and t-shirts provided by soccer coaches, Paul McGinlay and Lance Key, were a huge hit!

58 Trinity

A note aboutphoto submissions: Digital photos should be saved at a minimum size of 4” x 6” at a resolution of 300 dpi or 1200 x 1800 pixels. Save in jpg format and e-mail as attach-ments to [email protected]. Prints should be mailed to: Of-fi ce of Alumni Relations, Trinity University, One Trinity Place, San Antonio, Texas 78212-7200There’s a chapter near you!If you would like to be involved in chapter activities or to serve on the Board, contact these respective chapter presidents. The ones listed with * denote that they are not yet established chapters. They are in the forma-tion stage.

*Albuquerque:Scott Webster ‘[email protected]

ArizonaBryan Bertucci ’[email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

AtlantaDan Wright ’96, [email protected]@alum.trinity.edu AustinRich Coffey ’02,[email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

The Bay AreaWalter Evans ’07,[email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

ChicagoErin Baker ‘[email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

ColoradoJenny Savage ’05,[email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

DallasNatalie Webb ’04,[email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

*FloridaJody Tompson ’[email protected]

Fort WorthBryan Cancel ’[email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

HoustonCraig Fecel ’00,[email protected] [email protected]

*Kansas CityTravis Holt ‘[email protected]

Los AngelesMatt Clark ‘[email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

National Capital AreaGenevieve Moreland ‘[email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

New England (includes New Hamp-shire, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut)Jessica Patrick ‘02,[email protected] [email protected]

New YorkNora Ziegenhagen ‘04,[email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

Oklahoma CityJenny Richard ‘97 [email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

*PortlandJonathan Logan ‘[email protected]

San AntonioJames Sanders ‘98,[email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

San DiegoSara Quarterman ‘04,[email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

SeattleHeather Richardson ‘[email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

St. LouisCourtney Rawlins ‘[email protected]@alum.trinity.edu

*TulsaHilary McKinney ‘[email protected]

C L A S S A C T S

S a n D i e g o

On September 15, alumni and their families went to La Jolla Shores beach for a sunset bonfi re. The chapter provided hot dogs and s’mores for roasting over the fi re and hot chocolate to keep them warm. All had a great time!

S e a t t l e

The Seattle chapter-area alumni took a tour on August 25 of Pike Place Market. included stops at Vital Tea Leaf, DeLaurentis, Bot-tega Italiana, Crumpet Shop, BB Ranch, Pike Place Chowder, Pure Food Fish Market, Truffl e Cafe and Seatown. They enjoyed the fellowship with Trinity alumni on this wonderful tour.

Alumni and their family members in the San Diego Chapter gathered for the Sunset Bonfi re at La Jolla Shores beach on September 15.

Dion Wade ’02 and Heidi Ochoa ’77 enjoyed the stop at DeLau-renti Specialty Food & Wine during the Pike Place Market tour.

C L A S S A C T S

Class Acts

1 9 4 3

Margaret Pearson Baublit Seehafer at-tended Trinity in the winter of 1939-40 and is interested in hearing from anyone who was in school with her.

1 9 4 7

Catherine Boand Miller has been elected Incoming president of Resident’s Association of Bayou Manor in Houston.

1 9 4 8

Lucille Leal Bridgewater lives in Phoenix where she does volunteer work and enjoys traveling.

1 9 5 4

Gayle Smith Epperson and Virginia Grafa Stotts were in North Carolina in the sum-mer enjoying scenic views and walking some of the Appalachian Trail. On the way home, they stopped by Greensboro, N.C., to visit with Mary Webb Olson ’56 and in Jacksonville, Texas, to see Mary “Pid” Bone Adamson ’51.

1 9 5 7

Leon Ginsberg was the keynote speaker at the 13th Annual Social Work Confer-ence held at Coker College in October. He received The Council on Social Work Education’s Significant Lifetime Achieve-ment in Social Work Award in 2011. Three recent books, The Hope for School Reform,The New Social Studies: People, Projects, and Perspectives, and The Tragedy of School Reform, as well as a forthcoming Constructivism and the New Social Studies, collectively, include Allan Kownslar’s role as one of the nation’s main leaders in the New Social Studies Movement with emphasis on ten of his books, which stress an inquiry-oriented,

The Geosciences Field Trip to the Hill Country in October 2012 was a huge success with students, faculty, and alumni from the 60s to present day participating.

January 2013 59

point-counterpoint approach to the writ-ing and teaching of history and political science. Bobbie Braly Smetherman thought it time for a reunion with her good friends and former suitemates who had lived on the third floor of Isabel for their last two years at Trinity. She e-mailed Mary Jane Grafton Judd, Dorothy Lass Christ Tilson, and Lanelle Waddil Taylor. The four gathered at the home of Dorothy Tilson in Pasadena, Calif. Mary Jane reported that for three days they enjoyed the pool, they ate, talked,and reminisced, but also took time for the Huntington and a play at the Los Angeles Concert Hall. Charles H. Teykl is serving as a parish associate at St. Phillip Presbyte-rian Church in Hurst, Texas.

1 9 5 9

William K. Suter completed 50 years of consecutive federal service on September 2, 2012. He entered the Army on September 2, 1962, retired on February 1, 1991, and was appointed Clerk of the Supreme Court the same day.

1 9 6 0

Betty Jameson Verdino sent a photo-graph of the “Wine and Music” event honoring Lucia and Larry Street ’59 and celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Literacy Council of Fort Bend County, Texas.

Allan Kownslar L-R, Angelo Verdino, Betty Verdino ’60. Lucia Street ’59. and Larry Street ’59

C L A S S A C T S

For the RecordM a r r i a g e s

Lorrie Hayes and David W. Castle ‘81

January 7, 2012 Nora Bernson and

David Abell ‘89 September 15, 2012

Marty Canner and Tracy Gostyla

‘95 April 21, 2012 Gerald Dax

Pummill and Heather MacKay

Morlang ‘98 June 9, 2012 Chris

Jackson and Stephanie Plagens ‘01

June 17, 2012 Long Le and

Jennifer Powell ‘02 July 6, 2012

Sean O’Neal and Jessica Rangel

‘04 June 2, 2012 Taylor Oliver ’05

and Danielle Mitchell ‘05 April 14,

2012 Ryan Condon ’05 and Holly

Frindell ‘06 June 2, 2012 Phil

Avacato ’09 and Meaghan Golden

‘09 February 11, 2012 Jason Roe

’06 and Sarah Lube ‘09 June 30, 2012

Jonathan Rasmussen and Christina

Carni ‘10 February 11, 2012

B i r t h s

Olivia Lily Mitchell to Craig Mitchell

and Katherine Chiarello ‘95 March

24, 2012 Tessa Grace to Kristen and

Doug Conyers ‘97 August 22, 2012

Dylan William to Jason and Lindsay

Anhold Lew ‘97 July 12, 2012

Blythe to Alistair and Lee Boyd

Charlton ‘99 March 4, 2012 Chloe

Evelyn to Matt and Kathleen

Chamberlain Yarbro ‘99 February 2,

2011 Adrian Christopher to

Alfonso and Kathryn Feazel Ibarreta

‘01 August 30, 2012 Alexandra

Catherine to Christopher and Jenny

Chriesl Ogle ‘01 February 10, 2012

Dixon Bennett to Ryan ’04 and

Shelley Laabs Weber ‘01 June 5,

2012 Ofelia Ana to Damian and Erika

Lamoreaux Cano ‘02 May 28, 2012

Etienne to Erick and Karen Booker

Estrada ‘02 May 4, 2012 Adelaide

Robertson to Jeffrey ’01 and Saman-

tha Robertson Holy ‘02 July 26, 2012

Piper Jean to Ben ’02 and Lane Her-

mann Rideout ‘02 June 11, 2012

Logan Patrick to Daniel and Emily

Moeller White ‘02 November 21, 2011

Cheese Club. Lima has published short stories, fiction, and non-fiction through-out her writing career and was nominated for an Agatha Award for best short story. Uma Pemmaraju was one of six North-side ISD alumni honored at Westin La Cantera Resort at a gala sponsored by the NISD Partnership organization, where she received the Pillar of Responsibility award. She is currently an anchor and host for the Fox News Channel, “America’s News HQ.”

1 9 8 1

Sally Bailey has been promoted to full professor in theatre at Kansas State University. She was awarded the American Alliance for Theatre in Education Distin-guished Book Award 2011 for her book, Barrier-Free Theatre.

1 9 8 2

Scott Blount has joined the Sullivan International Group as chief operations officer working out of the San Francisco office. David Holmes spoke at a dinner and reception honoring the new members of Alpha Kappa Psi on April 14 in the Skyline Room at Trinity. Holmes reflected on changes in the business world over the last thirty years and new challenges faced by the class as they launch their business careers.

1 9 8 4

Colin Campbell has been elected to a third term on the board of directors of the Visual Effects Society, the entertainment industry’s organization representing all areas of film, television, and commercials, with 2,500 members in 29 countries. Robert Delwood is the senior systems analyst at Barios Technology in NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston. XML Press recently published Delwood’s The Secret Life of Word. It explains Microsoft-Word’s automation and scripting abilities.

1 9 8 5

Jim Grocholski has been named CEO of the 65-bed Wesley Rehabilitation Hospital in Wichita, Kan.

1 9 8 6

Gretchen Magers has been named women’s tennis head coach at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. She has been head coach at San Diego City College since 2008 and previously served as tennis professional at several prestigious clubs on the California

60 Trinity

1 9 6 1

Fredrick Finch has published Starry Nights: Stories of The Days With Jesus. Fred lives in Birmingham, Ala. and is a retired Riverside editor-in -chief.

1 9 6 4

Kay Jordan is the recipient of the Each Moment Matters Award presented by the Presbyterian Communities and Services Foundation. She is being honored for her work at Faith Presbyterian Hospice in Dallas.

1 9 6 9

E.J. “Jere” Pederson is the former executive vice president and CEO of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He will be serving as the acting head of Texas A&M Health Science Center.

1 9 7 2

John Hall is the recipient of the Lynn Ford Craftsman Award from the San Antonio Conservation Society. Over the past 35 years, Hall has finely-crafted millwork to produce matches that have contrib-uted to the rehabilitation of a number of historic buildings in the San Antonio area. Dr. Bernard J. Horak is the director of the master’s program in health services administration at Georgetown University. Wayne Smith is one of only eight national health leaders who have been included in all eleven of the rankings published annu-ally in the magazine, Modern Healthcare. Smith is president and chief executive officer of Community Health Systems in Franklin, Tenn. Other Trinity alumni included on the list were Joe Allison ’73, president and CEO of Baylor Health Care System in Dallas, and Douglas Hawthorne ’69 ’72, president and CEO of Presbyterian Health Care Resources of Dallas. Belle Wheelan was the opening speaker at The Links, Inc., the Historically Black Colleges and Universities-Community College Collabora-tive Convention in June. The organization works to build strong ties between schools and enhance completion rates. Wheelan is chief executive officer for the South-ern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. In addition to her receiving the Distinguished Alumna Award in 2002, she has been honored with four honorary degrees, and the AAUW Woman of Distinction Award in 2002, and was named in Washingtonian magazine among the 100 Most Powerful Women in Washington, D.C.

1 9 7 3

Bob Warneke has retired from his posi-tion at the State of Texas and is working as a travel adviser for his wife’s company, JB Journeys.

1 9 7 4

Naomi Shihab Nye has been named lau-reate of the 2013 NSA Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature. She will be presented the $25,000 prize, a silver medallion, and a certificate during official ceremonies at the University of Oklahoma in fall 2013.

1 9 7 5

Harry “Bud” Holzman is a retired U.S. Army officer and petroleum geologist who has advised the U.S. Central Command on oil and gas matters in Iraq. In 2004, the Army put him in charge of evaluating the entire Iraqi infrastructure system, from oil and natural gas to electricity, includ-ing how to estimate what the country has and how to rebuild it. This included refineries, pipelines, and electric power generation plants. Larry Waks is included in the 2013 edition of Best Lawyers in America.

1 9 7 8

Kimberly Dotson is a Doctor of Audiol-ogy living in King City, Ore. She has received the Charles Holland Award for Excellence for her superior service at So-

nus Westside, a premier audiology clinic. Raul E. Hinojosa has been appointed to the Board of the U.S. Selection Service System.

1 9 8 0

Robert Bowling has been appointed a U.S. administrative law judge and as-signed to Huntington, W.Va. Maria Lima presented a writer’s workshop at San An-tonio College, sponsored by the Cheshyre

Kimberly Dotson

C L A S S A C T S

For the Record

Peighton Song to T.J. ’04 and Carolyn

Nguyen Collier ‘03 April 4, 2011

Andrew Connor to Bryan ’04 and

Sarah Empson Quilici ‘03 April 8,

2012

coast. Gretchen was a quarterfinalist at the U.S. Open, French Open, and Wimble-don. She represented the United States in the 1984 Olympics and a number of international events. Mike Hensley and his wife, Carol, have bottled their inaugu-ral 2009 Hensley Family Vineyards Hillside Cabernet Sauvignon in Napa Valley, producing 395 cases to be distributed in Calif., Texas, and Washington, D.C. Julie Keim performed at the Victoria Bach Festival. She sang the soprano role in the famous American masterwork, Knoxville: Summer of 1915, by Samuel Barber. Jerome Renaud and Laura Eastman Renaud reside in Dunwoody, Ga. They recently celebrated their 26th anniversary and the high school graduation of their daughter.

1 9 8 7

Michael C. McMurray was elected by the Board of Directors of Owens Corning to be vice president and chief financial officer. He has been with Owens Corning since 2008 following two decades with Royal Dutch Shell.

1 9 8 8

Bryce D. Linsenmayer has been named a partner in the Houston office of McGuireWoods LLP. His practice includes mergers and acquisitions, stock and asset acquisitions, and joint ventures. Following graduation, Talley Summerlin formed a rock band with his brothers. They toured the Southeast for about 13 years. He has resumed writing songs and has recently released his first solo EP called Shake the Gates. He lives in Madison, N.J., and will perform for the next year in the Northeast U.S.

1 9 8 9

David Abell is a “serial entrepreneur” whose latest company is TriLumina Corp., maker of the world’s fastest and most powerful semiconductor lasers.Christopher Haunschild has joined the tax department in the international firm of Greenberg Taurig, LLP. He is located in the Silicon Valley, Calif. office.

B i r t h s ( c o n t i n u e d )

January 2013 61

I n M e m o r i a m

Mary Jane Harty ‘35

July 21, 2012

Elizabeth Motley ‘38

August 2, 2012

Mildred Naomi Stacks Rausal ‘39

May 19, 2012

Rev. Edward M. Esler ‘45

March 14, 2012

Alice Paul Tyson Jacob ‘46

July 1, 2012

Betty Grisham Ullman ‘46

July 7, 2012

John R. Silber ‘47

September 27, 2012

Wanda Addington Cates ‘48

September 3, 2012

Charles “Chuck” Arthur Lewis ‘48

August 16, 2012

David C. Paul ‘48

October 11, 2012

Dorothy Stephens Sharpe ‘48

August 7, 2012

Norma Johnston ‘49

July 22. 2012

Alfred “Al” West ‘50

July 29, 2012

Earl Wisdom ‘50

August 9, 2012

Henry “Hank” G. Escobedo ‘51

June 4, 2012

James Ralph “Jim” Ferguson ‘51

June 27, 2012

Samuel Miles King ‘51

August 19, 2012

William McCall ‘51

September 8, 2012

Dr. Gordon O. Stafford ‘52

June 28, 2012

Donald Kennedy ‘54

September 3, 2012

Dalton E. Klaus ‘55

April 1, 2012

Irving I. Lipskind ‘55

May 26, 2012

Lou Ippolito Smith ‘56

June 17, 2012

1 9 9 0

Margaret Oertling Cupples is a manag-ing partner in the firm of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP and has been listed in the inaugural edition of the top 250 Women in Litigation. Her practice focuses on civil appeals and commercial litigation. Kristene West Hays is an educator in the Northeast ISD in San Antonio. Christian Mammen has been named a partner in the firm of Hogan Lovells. He practices intellectual property litigation, with an emphasis on patent litigation. He recently served as acting assistant dean of interna-tional and graduate programs and visiting professor with the University of California Hastings College.

1 9 9 1

Bill Holmes has been promoted to first chief business development officer at Netflix, Inc. in Los Gatos, Calif.

1 9 9 2

Sue Chen is the founder of Nova Medical Products and has been named one of Fortune magazine’s 2011 “10 Most Pow-erful Women Entrepreneurs.” She will be speaking at the October 24th Conference for Women in Austin. Michael Roth is the new principal of Vera Scott Elementary School in Colorado Springs.

1 9 9 3

Tiffani Richburg Lupenski is now the news director at the KATU-TV, the ABC affiliate in Portland, Ore. She has been an executive producer in Seattle and Denver, and she previously worked for CNN Head-line News.

1 9 9 4

Kelly Mullins Haas was joined by alumni football players and their families for a re-union and a Tiger football game. The group included Jeff Bryan, Martin Kellner, Derrick Stokes, John Tobola. Also, Gar-rett Taylor ’92, Ross Copeland ’95 and Joe Terry ’95. Amy Waddell Stewart left her “cutest little town in Conneticut” to return to Colorado. They are living in Broomfield, Colo. Amy is looking forward to volunteering at school with Young Life in Boulder. Eric Youngstrom has been named vice president of marketing for Food On The Table, a consumer app that powers the shopping and meal planning experi-ences of more than one million families.

1 9 9 5

Tanya Spencer serves as the acting principal officer of the U.S. Consulate General in Dubai. She joined the Consul-ate as chief of the political/economic section in 2011. She has served in Kabul, Afghanistan, as special assistant to the Ambassador in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as an economic officer, and in Bratislava,

Pictured, from left to right, Sam Warters ‘03, Jenny De Souza Venza (03’), and Kate Rawley Warters ‘04 at the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

62 Trinity

C L A S S A C T S

For the Record

firm of Hughes Watters Askanase in Hous-ton where he received the 2011-2012 President’s Award for outstanding contri-butions as co-chair of the Eikenburg Law Week Fun Run Committee. The award was presented at the annual Houston Bar Association dinner at the River Oaks Country Club.

1 9 9 9

Monica Vargas-Mahar is the COO of the Providence Memorial Hospital in El Paso, a 359-bed hospital owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp. She is being recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the Up and Comers of 2012

2 0 0 0

Rachel Petrich Cook is a new associate at Alliance Title, LLC in Baton Rouge, La.

2 0 0 1

Kevin C. Hughes resides in the Nether-lands, where he is senior legal officer for the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Den Haag, Netherlands.

2 0 0 2

Canaan C. Factor has accepted the posi-tion of vice president at Post Oak Energy Capital. He resides in Houston.

2 0 0 3

Aaron M. Harison co-founded the online news publication The Washington Free Beacon. He currently serves as the president of the site’s parent organization, The Center for American Freedom, which is based in Washington, D.C. Celina Suarez has been named to the faculty at the University of Arkansas. Suarez is an assistant profes-sor in the department of geosciences in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. She was featured in a 2011 episode of the television show Dirty Jobs to showcase the physically demanding nature of paleontological research on a dig site. She was described by the show’s host as a “cardiovascular machine with a giant brain and an insatiable level of curiosity.”

2 0 0 4

Jennifer L. Bergman lives in Cleveland, Ohio, where she is a partner in a law of-fice. She has been selected by the Rotary Club to go to the Virgin Islands for a Group Study Exchange to learn about the people and the culture of the region.

2 0 0 5

Morley Healy is a program manager for Via Christi Health, Kansas’ largest health-services provider. She was named to the Board of Directors of Ballantine Communications, Inc. Miranda McGee taught a three-class Shakespeare in the Summer workshop at the Howmet Play-house in Cincinnati. In July she performed in The Nerd.

2 0 0 6

Laurie Mont teaches and works her own line of designs at the Austin School of Fashion and Design. After a brief time designing children’s clothing at Carter’s, Mont moved back to Austin and started teaching a variety of classes. Her line of feminine dresses, jackets, and more are on www.lauriemont.com.

2 0 0 8

Nickolas Chea has been accepted to an executive MBA program at UTSA. He has

I n M e m o r i a m

Slovakia, as a political officer.

1 9 9 6

Susan Conley has been named CEO for DeKalb Community Hospital in Smithville and Stones River Hospital in Woodbury, Tenn.

1 9 9 7

Michael Beaver has been named president of St. Anthony Hospital by SSM Health Care Oklahoma. Major Beth Kelley Horine took command of the 4th Combat Camera Squadron August 4, 2012 at March Air Reserve Base, Calif. She recently received an in-residence Masters of Military Arts and Sciences from Air University In June.

1 9 9 8

Simon R. Mayer is an associate in the

Charles “Ted” Kastor ‘57

February 28, 2012

William Alfred Moerner ‘58

September 9, 2012

Louis A. “Charlie” Millican ‘59

May 11, 2012

Betty Ann Janert ‘61

September 4, 2012

Winnie Ruth Marsh Price ‘61

August 2, 2012

Dwight A Carper ‘ 62

April 10, 2010

Patricia Elizabeth Nevins McIlhenny ‘63

May 9, 2012

Patricia Singleton ‘63

July 28, 2012

Alex Thomas ‘63

September 8, 2012

Christos Zachariades ‘65

July 24, 2012

George B. Killick ‘66

August 21, 2012

J. Howard Fitch ‘71

September 16, 2012

Paul Callihan ‘72

March 31, 2012

Joseph Cavin ‘72

September 3, 2012

Joseph Charles Lusco ‘72

June 4, 2012

Jack Max “Jackie” Landman, Jr. ‘74

August 17, 2012

Sharon Joan Vaughan ‘75

June 11, 2012

John Winston Moseley ‘79

October 25, 2011

Harry S. Redmon, III ‘84

June 6, 2012

Ted Turner ‘86

June 6, 2012

Deborah S. Bryant ‘87

June 1, 2012

Lee Dirks ‘88

August 28, 2012

Tiffany Tankersley ‘90

September 7, 2012

From left to right, siblings Suzanne Mammen ‘99 and Christo-pher Mammen ‘05, George Thomas ‘98, and Margot Slosson Fuentes ‘09 visited Cuba for a week in October with the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

Simon R. Mayer

January 2013 63

Bobby McKinney ’07 married Jenny Robicheaux ’09 on April 17, 2011. Alumni in the wedding party included (left to right) are Steven Leach ’07, Claire Adams ’09, Adrian Chenault ’07, Jenny Robicheaux McKinney ’09, Bobby McKinney ’07, Adam Clemmons ’05, Matt Simmons ’06, Danielle Dory ’09, Ron Fortin ’08,and Jill Rushing ’08.

also recently received a promotion with Valero Energy. Renae Goettel benefited from the Make-A-Wish organization and as a result she met her idol, Sean Elliot. That brought her to San Antonio and to Trinity. After graduation she worked for the Spurs and is now involved with the Make-A-Wish organization. On September 23, in Seattle, she was work-ing on the 5K walk and fund raiser at Marymoor Park. Son Nguyen has entered

Pictured left to right are Candice Comeaux ’01, Kathlyn “Kylie” Feazel Ibarreta ’01, and Andrea Schoeneberger Shields ’01 at a baby shower in Waltham, Mass. the University of Chicago Booth School

of Business as a full-time MBA candidate. Angeline Vuong graduated from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley in May and has accepted a position as project manager for immigration policy and eco-nomic policy at the Center for American

Progress in Washington, D. C.

2 0 1 1

Alisa Dill is attending the University of Texas School of Dentistry in Houston. Elenora M. Leeper serves as the director of young professional relations for the Downtown Alliance San Antonio. Greg Starbird is a second year MFA lighting de-sign student at the University of Houston. He is also a TA for lighting and sound technology and oversees the undergradu-ate lighting crew.

2 0 1 2

Patrick Crim entered the Sixth Annual LG Mobile U.S. National Texting Champi-onships. The competition began with 100,000 entrants that over eight weeks was narrowed to 180 and that was narrowed to 10 finalists that included Crim. Unfortunately, he did not win the $50,000. Zach Garcia recently signed a professional contract with the San Antonio Scorpions of the North American Soccer League. Ben Klimesh has been drafted by the Cincinnati Reds and “is ready to work his way toward his dream of pitching in the big leagues.” At Trinity he broke the conference records for career strikeouts and strikeouts in a season and ranks in the top 10 in Division III History for career strikeouts. Paige Perry has been advised that her just published book, Turn The Page, is available from Amazon.

Son Nguyen

64 Trinity

The Christmas I remember best was spent in the hospital. Eyes bandaged. Visibility, zero.

It was December of 1959. My doctor had given me the dreary verdict of almost complete immobility for weeks, and forecast for recovery of vision in one eye (the good one) was then uncertain.

Even with people in the room, one becomes very lonely in the dark. Especially is this true when one is accustomed to the active life of the bustling campus of a young and vigorous university. For a much lon-ger period of time than a minister cares to admit, it did not seem possible for me to maintain vision without sight.

Then came the almost ludicrous moment when our University architects brought to my hospital room six beautiful drawings of proposed new buildings. What could I say? How could I critique these architectural conceptions with both eyes so blindly harnessed?

And then it came clearly into focus what must be done. I would see these structures in a manner that would transcend sight, through sharing them with others in terms of the great educational purposes to be served.

Upon my invitation, friends of the University came to discuss these matters with me in my hospital room, until I came to “see” these buildings with more meaningful perception than ever before. And viewing the drawings under such circumstances seemed to help me communicate much more effectively the vital role of Christian education in the life of this nation and its people.

Today I can look out my window on this campus and see all but one of those drawings outlined against the sky, vibrant indeed in the life of this University. And yet, in some ways, they will never again be quite so poignantly real in my mind’s eye as they were on that Christmas eve three years ago.

The spirit of Christmas? Traditionally it brings to mind Santa Claus and the reading of lovely messages on greeting cards and the lighting of trees and the exchanging of presents. But one who has encountered the harsh reality of blindness without warning discovers anew in Christmas its deeper spiritual meaning, sur-passing the limitations of the physical view.

For Christmas, as it has been so richly given me to see, really exists in the hearts of people who have been touched with the love of humanity, a love that tells of the concern of

God for those whom He created and who belong to Him throughout eternity.

At Christmas time, I am drawn ever more intently and clearly to this understanding of the true meaning of a moment in time when the love of God became visi-ble and real and wonderfully sensitive in the life of a little Child.

And this perception of the spirit is life’s greatest trea-sure, for it can be seen and understood even when

one is separated in some physical way from the beau-ties of God’s material world.

By James W. Laurie,

president, Trinity University,

1951-1970

Reprinted fromSan Antonio Expressand NewsSunday, December 23, 1962

A Christmas Vision

CCompleted in 1952 with fund-ing provided by

Trinity trustee T. Frank Murchison, the Reflec-tion Pool once sparkled as the Esplanade’s focal point on the new campus. In 1956 it was retrofitted to feed a nearby water-fall and rock garden as a memorial to Murchison who had died the previous year. Murchison envisioned the pool’s pure blue water to be seen and appreciated by those who passed by as an adornment to the campus landscaping. Trinity students, however, had other ideas regarding the pool’s functional-ity. Tossing unwilling victims in the Reflection Pool’s shallow waters quickly became a deeply engrained student tradition. No special occasions were necessary to prompt such immersions, but first-year students were prime targets. It was not unusual for recent victims to appear in the dining hall dripping wet from their latest encounter with Trin-ity’s “outdoor baptistry.” At the end of the orientation period, sophomores dumped trash and left-over food on first-year stu-dents and directed them to wash off in the pool. Dunkings in the Reflection Pool were not limited to first-year students. Newly elected class and student council of-ficers, newly engaged couples, Greek pledges, and members of other campus organizations were subject to immersions that frequently turned into rowdy af-fairs. In the early 1960s a student suffered a serious gash to his

head that required an emergency trip to the hospital. The Office of Student Life threatened disciplin-ary action against students and organizations who continued to engage in the practice. As a result, the tradition evolved into a more genteel ritual of friends tossing friends into the pool on their birthdays. Long before its demise, the Reflection Pool suffered from benign neglect and student scorn. Despite sporadic efforts by physical plant staff to maintain water purity, the pool frequently contained algae and other aquatic growth along with debris from student pranks. Condi-tions became so bad in 1961 that a group of students undertook what they termed the “Reflec-tion Pool War” by organizing an

Reflection Pool

all-day event to clean the pool and the nearby rock garden. That effort proved to be only a tempo-rary fix. The pool continued to be plagued with algae and other pollutants. A 1964 Trinitonian report stated that “the surface of the water is now filled with the corpses of once-lively tadpoles, in addition to a few floating water bugs. Trinity may have to deal with the Society for the Preven-tion of Cruelty to Animals before long.” The pool remained a fixture until periodic modifications re-duced it to a small rock fountain surrounded by quadrants of grass and bisected by a paved walkway. Nearby benches provided seat-ing for reading and relaxation. Over time, the birthday dunking tradition shifted to the Miller

Fountain, located on a grassy site east of the original Northup Hall, where the circulating water was cleaner and the site less ac-cident prone. In 1983 the Henry Moore sculpture, Large Interior Form, occupied the former site of the Reflection Pool. The brick perimeter is the only legacy of what was once Trinity’s minia-ture water park, the source of fun and consternation for numerous student generations.If you would like to share your stories or photographs of being dunked in the Reflection Pool with the Trinity University Special Collections and Archives, please contact Amy Roberson, special collections librarian and University archivist, at [email protected] or (210) 999-7613. R. Douglas Brackenridge

Circa 1963, birthdays required

a dunk in the refl ection poolon the Esplanade.

[ déjà view ]

kkkkkkkk

ddd d d dd d d

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuus.ss.s.s.s.s.sssssss.s.s.s.s.s.s........... ddddddddddddddddddddd

aa a aaa aaaaaaaa n nnnnnnnnouououououuouououooouououuo s sssss ssooooooooonenenenenennnnnnnened d d ddd dd ddtttttttererererererereer atatatattttttedededededdeddededdeededd yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas ssssssssssssss ssaaaaaaaaaaampmpmmmmpmpmpmpmpmpmpmmpmpmpmpmppmpmmmmpmmmmmpppmpppusuusususuusuusuusususususuuusuuuuuuuuuuudedededededededeedededdedddedeedentnntntntntnttntnntntntntntts,s,s,s,ss,s,ss asasasasasasasasassas nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnctctccctctctctctctccctttcttioioioioioioioioioioiioooioonnanananananannanaaal-l-l-l-l-l-lll-ll-l-iciciciccicicicicccictititititittititit msmsmmmsmsmsmmsmmsssss sssssssshahahahahahaahahahalllllllllllllllowowowowowowowowwoooo aa a a aaaaaaaa dededededededdddedd epepepepepepepepppppppplylylyylylylyyyylylylyyy itititititititititttioioioioioiooioooooonn.n.n.n.nnn.nnnnn NNNNNNNNNNNNNNooooooooooonnnnnnnnececececececececececcccecceseseseseseseseessssessasasasasaasasasasasaaaaryrryryryryryryryyryy sisiisisiisiisioononoonononononnono ss,s,s,ss, bbbbbbbbbutututututututututuu hehehehehehehhhh adadadadddd ttttthahahahhahhahhhatttttt rrererereeeququququqququq iriririirrrededeededeeeded aaaannnnn emememeeememerrererergegegeeenncncncnnnnnncyyyy aaalalalalalalaalalallllllllllllll dadadadadadadd yyyy eeveveeevveveneenenenenenenntttttt tototottototo cccclelelelel ananaannnana tttthehehehehehehehhehhehh pppppoooooooooooolllll FoFoFoFoFoFoFooununununuunnu tattataatt ininininnniinnnn lolololollll cacaccaacacateteteeetedddddddddd ononononnonnnnonon aaaaaaaa gggggggggrarrarararrar ssssssssssss yyyyy

CiCiCiCiCiCiCCiiiCCCiCCC rcrcrcccrccrcrrrcrcr aaaaaaaaaaaaaa 111919191919999991991911919999919966363666666666363333663663366666636366663663666633663,,,,,,,,bibibibibbibbibbibb rtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrthdhdhdhdhdhdhdhdhdhdhdddhhddayayayayayayayayayayayyaayyssssssssssssss rerererererereeeereequququququuuuqquuququuuuquqq iiiirrrrrrrrriirrririiirrrirrirreeeeeedededdedddddddeeedeeedeedeeedeedeeeeeeeeee

aaa aaa a aaa duddudududududuududuududuuduuunknknknknkknnnknknkkknkkknnknn iiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnn ththththththhthhhththththttt e eee eeeeeee rerereereereerreereefl fl fl flfl flflflfl flflflfl flflflflflecececececececccceeecctititititititititiitt onononoooononononnnonnononoo ppppppppppppppppppoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo lllllllllllonononononononnononoooon tttttttttttttthehehheeeeeeeehehehheeheheeheehhh EEEEEEEEEEEEEEspspspspspspspsppspsps lalalalaalalalalalalaaaaannanananannnaaanaannnnn ddddddddedddedeeeeeeedededdededededdeeededdddddddedeedeeded .........

One Trinity PlaceSan Antonio, TX 78212-7200

change service requested

Distinguished Lecture SeriesSeries made possible by Mr. and Mrs. Walter F. Brown Sr. of San Antonio

February 5Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, MP, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (2007 to 2010)

7:30 p.m., Laurie Auditorium

CAMERON LECTURE on politics and public affairsLecture made possible by a gift from Mrs. Flora Crichton of San Antonio

Felipe Calderon, former president of Mexico (2006-2012)March 21, 7:30 p.m., Laurie Auditorium

Coming this Spring

Both Lectures are free, but tickets are required.See Trinity website for distribution dates.

Non-Profit OrganizationU. S. Postage

P A I DPermit No. 210

San Antonio, Texas 78212

january 2013 | trinity university magazine

Documents

brightest students

risk students

students of color

teaching students

students academic experiences

economic need of students

type of education

sciences education