japanese billiken visits american brother at · pdf filethe japanese visitors were in st....

Volume 3 5 , Is sue 2

edI t o rLaura Geiser (A&S ’90, Grad ’92)

C o n t rIbu t o rsClayton Berry

David Chilenski (Cook ’98)Marie Dilg (Grad SW ’94)John Gilmore (A&S ’88)

Nick Sargent

“o n Ca m p u s” n e w s s t o rIe sUniversity Communications

Medical Center CommunicationsBilliken Media Relations

C oV e r p h o t oKevin Lowder

de s Ig nArt Direction: Matt Krob

Universitas is published by Saint Louis University. Opinions expressed in Universitas are those of the individual authors and not necessarily those of the

University administration. Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs are welcome but will be returned only if

accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Letters to the editor must be signed, and letters not

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© 2009, Saint Louis University All rights reserved.

F A L L 2 0 0 4 W I N T E R 2 0 0 5

G reetings to Saint Louis University’s many alumni and friends around the

world. I hope the beauty and hope of spring has met you with a warm embrace wherever this message may find you. Unfortunately, as you know all too well, the economy weighs on the shoulders of our nation. In fact, in this issue of Universitas, you will read interviews with six of Saint Louis University’s brightest business and economic minds. You will find that they are cautiously optimistic about the year we have ahead of us, and they believe that our collective will is strong. They are confident a recovery will occur in due time. This downturn has affected us all, even here at SLU. However, I am proud to report that Saint Louis University remains in a strong financial position thanks to years of prudent spending, as well as responsible planning and investment. We know the economy is profoundly affecting our students and their families as well as our alumni and generous donors. That’s why we continue our dedication to being stalwart stew-ards of our students’ tuition dollars and of the generous gifts from friends and alumni like you. For the next academic year, we have com-mitted to raising tuition just 2 percent. We chose this modest increase to assure the afford-ability of a SLU education for our students and their families during these difficult times. With the sagging economy in mind, we have sought new and innovative ways to make the most of our budget dollars. In this issue of Universitas, you will read about one such program: Quantum Weather. This one-of-a-kind weather system is allow-ing the St. Louis utility company, AmerenUE, to monitor weather systems on a block-by-block basis — and it’s thanks to SLU’s department of earth and atmospheric sciences. A group of SLU professors and researchers collaborated with the utility to create this in-novative solution. The project is an excellent example of the type of private-public partnerships that help our professors and researchers make practical use of their research. It also fulfills our mission

of assisting our community. For the first time, AmerenUE can pinpoint the likely effect severe weather will have on specific neighborhoods so the company can efficiently and quickly send repair crews to shorten the length of time customers go without power. As we move forward, the University will seek more of these unique partnerships. I feel strongly that in order to strengthen com-munities like St. Louis — and those in which you live — government, private industry and educational institutions must work together. Each entity is like a leg of a stool supporting the greater good. And especially in these dif-ficult economic times, we must strike the right balance, or we may all fall down. As we face the reality of tighter budgets, such partnerships will not only help us make the most of our limited funds, they will aid in the further development of our cities and regions. Such a critical mass of collaborative decision makers and innovative thinkers can only result in positives for all of us. I am confident that in the months and years to come even more of these partnerships will come to fruition on the SLU campus, mak-ing your generous gifts even more effective in transforming the world around us.

Lawrence Biondi, S.J.President

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{ president’s message } { contents }

8 | Set for more

SLU’s volleyball team earned a top 25 national ranking and an NCAA bid thanks to a season that surprised even the coach. — By Nick Sargent

12 | economy 101

Six SLU experts tackle questions about the nation’s financial crisis and offer their opinions on what to expect next.

— By David Chilenski and Nick Sargent

17 | A QuAntum LeAp in forecASting

SLU’s partnership with the local electric company has yielded a weather monitoring, forecasting and response system that’s already in use. — By John Gilmore

20 | choice firStS

SLU history is filled with many milestones. Here are the stories behind several of those memorable dates. — By Marie Dilg

2 | on cAmpuS

Japanese visitors bring their Billiken to campus • New majors unveiled • Service and spirituality site for alumni • Students for Life • Art exhibitions

6 | BiLLiken newS

Hall of Fame inductees • Soccer accolades • Baseball at Busch Stadium

7 | AdvAncement newS

A conversation with Dr. Boyd A. Bradshaw, vice provost for enrollment management

24 | cLASS noteS

Catch up with classmates.

28 | in memoriAm

Remembering those members of the SLU community who recently died

30 | ALumni eventS

Find SLU alumni activities wherever you live.

32 | perSpective

An alumnus explains the importance of folklore.

33 | the LASt word

Letters to the editor

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depa r t ment s

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2 U N I V E R S I T A S w w w . s l u . e d u 3U N I V E R S I T A S S P R I N G 2 0 0 9

{ on campus }

Saint Louis University is launching several new undergraduate majors to prepare students for some of the country’s hottest careers. It’s also enhancing its communi-cation program to meet the needs of the 21st century.

I n October the Saint Louis University Billiken met his Japanese brother as two special visitors arrived from Osaka, Japan, with a hand-carved Billiken statue.

Normally, the Japanese Billiken — a 2-foot-tall, 30-pound wooden statue — resides in a shrine atop the 298-foot-tall Tsuten-kaku Tower. Each year, thousands of visitors donate a coin and rub the soles of the Billiken’s feet to make a wish. (In St. Louis it’s considered good luck to rub his belly.) The Japanese visitors were in St. Louis because 2008 marked the 100th anniversary of the Billiken, and they wanted to see where their revered good luck symbol got his start. Created by Florence Pretz in 1908, the Billiken enjoyed world-wide fame in his heyday. In 1912, a Billiken figure was displayed in an amusement park in Osaka as a symbol of Americana. When the park closed in 1923, the wooden statue of the Billiken disappeared. In 1980, to help revive the city’s Tsutenkaku Tower, a replica of the Billiken statue that once appeared in the park was made based on an old photograph and placed on the tower’s observation deck.

Last fall, that same Billiken toured America, along with Ryuko Takai, a vice president with the company that owns the tower, and Kei Iguchi, a writer with the Daily Yomiuri, Japan’s largest English-language newspaper. Takai took the wooden statue to visit key spots in Billiken history. Iguchi chronicled the visit. Their first stop was St. Louis. At SLU, they hopped on golf carts for a campus tour. As they came up on SLU’s iconic bronze Billiken statue, the men gasped with excitement. They jumped out of the cart for photos, and Takai placed their wooden Billiken face-to-face with his American brother. While they were admiring the statue, SLU’s Billiken mascot made a surprise appearance. The visitors were clearly excited to see the cos-tumed creature. As Takai and Iguchi rode away in a golf cart on to see another Billiken statue on campus and take a quick tour of Chaifetz Arena — where they placed the Osaka Billiken on center court —Takai summed up their affection for SLU’s beloved mascot: “Goodbye, my Billiken brother!” — Clayton Berry

Japanese Billiken visits american Brother at slU

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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

NeWS BRIefS

In January, Dr. Devin Johnston, associate professor of english, was named a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award in poetry, one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards. Johnston’s Sources, a book of poetry released last fall, was selected, and it’s the first time that a member of the SLU faculty has been up for the award.

Dr. Bert Barry (Grad ’95) is SLU’s new director of international services. Most recently he was director of english as a second language and director of international services for Webster University in St. Louis. At SLU Barry works to promote, recruit and enroll international students and students studying abroad. He also facilitates cross-cultural educational experiences on cam-pus for students and academic departments.

In November SLU Provost Joe Weixlmann was recognized by his alma mater, Canisius College, with a Distinguished Alumni Award for embodying

“the Jesuit ideal of intellectual excellence, leader-ship and service to others.” He is a 1968 graduate of the Buffalo, N.Y.-based Jesuit institution.

Dr. James Kelhoffer, associate professor of theological studies, is a winning author in Alpha Sigma Nu’s 29th annual Book Award competi-tion. His book The Diet of John the Baptist was chosen from entries submitted from among the 33 member Jesuit institutions of higher educa-tion. Winning books are selected by Alpha Sigma Nu, the Jesuit honor society, and by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, which supervises the competition.

Kate Becker (A&S ’83), former SLU Medical Center associate general counsel, is now ex-ecutive director of the University Medical Group. As executive director, she oversees all opera-tions, planning and the budget for the UMG.

In february SLU was recognized as one of the region’s best places to work by readers of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who voted SLU one of “St. Louis’ Top employers” in an online poll. The University was one of only three employers named for providing the best benefits. And in January, St. Louis Magazine once again named SLU one of St. Louis’ “Great Places to Work.” Only 58 firms made the magazine’s list this year.

Saint Louis University’s School for Profes-sional Studies, which provides degrees and certificates designed for busy adults, is launch-ing a bachelor’s degree in general studies that will be offered totally online. The new general studies degree also can be earned on site or in a combination of both formats.

SLU nAMED TO nATiOnAL HOnOr rOLL

I n February, SLU was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to disadvantaged youth. The

prestigious award is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. Honorees for the award were chosen based on a series of factors, including innovativeness of service projects and the percentage of student participation in service.

SLU PrOfESSOr iS nEW PrOvinCiAL Of THE jESUiTS’ MiSSOUri PrOvinCE

A dolfo Nicolas, S.J., superior general of the Society of Jesus, has appointed a Saint Louis University

professor as the next provincial of the Missouri Province. Douglas Marcouiller, S.J., associate professor of econom-ics, will have responsibility for some 300 Jesuits working in St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Kansas, Oklahoma, Belize and in many other places throughout the world. In addition to his teaching duties at SLU, Marcouiller serves as rector of Bellarmine House of Studies, which provides religious and academic formation for Jesuit students. He also travels regularly to Central America to teach short courses in economics at the Universidad Centroamericana, the Jesuit university in El Salvador. Marcouiller succeeds the current provincial, Timothy McMahon, S.J. (A&S ’80), July 31.

expansion in communication

In addition, SLU is adding four new areas of study to its undergraduate com-munication program for the fall, including journalism and public relations. The Univer-sity also will put more focus on practical education and hands-on experience with cutting-edge technologies.

civil engineering

Next fall, Parks College of engineer-ing, Aviation and Technology will offer an undergraduate degree in civil engineering, a career field expected to grow by nearly 20 percent during the next decade. The new major will have a strong focus on sustainable engineering and green technologies, and will be the only one of its kind in St. Louis.

health management

The School of Public Health’s new health man-agement major is tailored for students who want to study the business of health care and medicine. Students in the new major are get-ting personalized attention from the same faculty who teach courses for SLU’s No. 12-ranked master of health administration program.

environmental studies

SLU also plans to add an environmental studies major, which will offer environ-mentally focused courses in science, communica-tion, business, philosophy, theology, prelaw and more. This new program will help students understand the economic, political, legal and ethical forces that influence environmental issues.

SLU launches new majors for fall 2009

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From leFt: SLU’s bronze Billiken, Ryuko Takai, the Japanese

Tsutenkaku Tower Billiken and SLU’s Billiken mascot.

Marcouiller

Saint Louis University’s department of nu-trition and dietetics is celebrating its 75th anniversary by releasing a book. Making It: Gardens to Tables mixes recipes from top St. Louis chefs with the story of how the department began using cooking and gardening to teach that local, homegrown food is good for diners, good for the envi-ronment and good for the community.

Through photos and words, Making It traces how the department grew to empha-size sustainable food systems and created one of the only programs in the country that combines the art of cooking with the science of nutrition. It also focuses on SLU’s commitment to reach out to children in the commu-

nity and explain to them why French fries aren’t the only vegetable they should eat.

Published by SLU’s Doisy College of Health Sci-ences and Reedy Press, the book costs $15 and is available by calling (314) 977-8523. Proceeds from Making It fund scholarships for nutrition and dietet-ics students at Saint Louis University.


{ on campus }

with slU’s stUdent Body

Percent of undergraduates are biology majors, making it SLU’s most popular major. Nursing is second with 6.9 percent of undergraduates.

Percent of freshmen from outside the St. Louis metropolitan area

foreign countries that SLU’s 612 international students call home

Percent of freshmen living on campus

Students enrolled at SLU (7,814 are undergraduates) 7.5 618789 12,733

t h e A r T S a t S L U‘Good Friday’ exhibition

at MOCRASLU’s Museum of Contemporary Religious Art

continues its celebration of its 15th anniver-sary with an exhibition titled “Good friday.”

Drawing primarily on the MOCRA collection, “Good friday” considers the ways in which

artists have explored the events of the day of Jesus’ death in their work. The exhibition con-tinues through April 26. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. for more information, call (314) 977-7170 or visit

mocra.slu.edu.

SLUMA exhibits Imperial Russian artifacts

The Saint Louis University Museum of Art is presenting “Relics of a Glorious Past:

Imperial Russian Artifacts from the Collec-tion of Dr. James. f. Cooper” through Dec. 20. More than 400 items offer glimpses into the late Imperial Russian religion, its politics and the private lives of those who cherished the icons that symbolized their heritage and beliefs. SLUMA’s hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. for more infor-

mation, visit sluma.slu.edu.

Stephen Luecking, “Save-Your,” 1988

Sauce Boat from the Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich Service, 1855-

1881, Imperial Porcelain Manufactory

2010 calendar reminder

As announced in the December mailing of the annual Saint Louis University calendar, beginning this year, the calendar will no lon-ger be mailed automatically to all alumni. For fiscal and environmental reasons, the calen-dar will be mailed only to donors and to those

alumni who wish to receive it.

If you’d like to keep getting the calendar, simply make a gift to Saint Louis Univer-

sity by June 30 (an envelope is in-cluded in this issue of Universitas) or opt-in at billikenalumni.slu.

edu/calendar08.

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SErviCE AnD SPiriTUALiTy fOr ALUMni nOW OnLinE

T he office of alumni relations has established a new Web page to

aid alumni who wish to continue their commitment to spiritual growth and service. The site (www.slu.edu/alumni/service) offers online prayers, reflections and tools to assist in the virtual explora-tion of faith and spirituality. It also lists service opportunities for alumni in St. Louis or with 24 alumni clubs located across the country. For instance, in October when SLU holds its Make A Differ-ence Day, alumni clubs from around the world will hold paral-lel events in their towns.

PEDiATriC SUrGEry CHAir ESTABLiSHED

D r. Dennis W. Vane, chief of the division of pediatric surgery at Saint Louis University School of Medicine

and surgeon-in-chief of SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center, is the inaugural holder of the J. Eugene Lewis Jr., M.D., Chair in Pediatric Surgery. Funded by the board of governors of Cardinal Glennon’s Children’s Founda-tion, the chair is named for Lewis, who served as the chief of pediatric surgery from the time Cardinal Glennon opened in 1956 until his retirement in 1983. Before coming to SLU in August, Vane was chairman of pediatric surgery at the University of Vermont and surgeon-in-chief at Vermont Children’s Hospital. He also served as associate professor of surgery and pediatrics at

Indiana University. His research interests include trauma care and emergency medical services

for children.

Vane

Lewis

SLU SiBLinGS TO rECEivE MOrE AiD

S aint Louis University will increase the value of its award to undergraduate students with siblings at SLU from $1,000 to

$3,000 per year beginning this fall. Under the new plan, full-time undergraduate siblings attending SLU would each be eligible for the $3,000 award. Any additional siblings attending SLU as undergraduates also would be eligible for the award, which will be added to any other scholarships or grants a student may be awarded.

From leFt: Students for Life members Hannah Diamond, Katie Marx, Briana Klostermann, Sarah

Daubach, Rachel Rath, Amy Winkler and Matt VonRueden

at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

New book shares nutrition story and recipes

nEW GrADUATE DEGrEES TO DEBUT THiS fALL

S tudents interested in pursuing graduate studies at Saint Louis

University will have two new options this fall.

supply chain management

SLU’s John Cook School of Business will offer a new master’s degree in supply chain management. As businesses look for a competitive advantage in today’s global economy, there’s increasing demand for skilled professionals in this field.

health informatics

As technology revolutionizes the health care field, SLU’s Doisy College of Health Sciences is preparing students with a new graduate program in health informat-ics. The new master’s degree program will allow students to work as information managers and executives in hospitals and clinics, pharmaceutical companies and research organizations as they learn how technology is used to manage and store health information.

STUDeNTS FOR LIFe GROUp wINS NATIONAL hONOR

The Saint Louis University Students for Life group, which promotes a pro-life message in the community, has been recognized by the national Students for Life organization as “Group of the Year.”

During the Students for Life of America Conference in Wash-ington, D.C., in January, SLU’s chapter received the award for its large and dedicated base of student involvement, as well as for implementing many pro-life initiatives. each year, SLU’s Students for Life sponsors Respect Life Week, planning events around right-to-life issues. Last fall, the group established the

Virginia Murphy Pregnant and Parenting Student Assistance fund, an endowed scholarship that will provide assistance to any SLU

student facing unexpected pregnancy or parenthood.

MEDiCAL CEnTEr MAkES CHAnGES TO fOSTEr inTEGrATiOn

A dministrative changes at the

Medical Center were announced in January that aim to enhance academic departments and increase efficiency. In addition to serv-ing as dean of the medical school, Dr. Philip O. Alderson is now vice president for health sciences. In this expanded role, the deans of the three other Medical Center colleges and schools — Dr. Char-lotte Royeen, dean, Doisy College of Health Sciences; Dr. Teri Murray, dean, School of Nursing; and Dr. Homer Schmitz, interim dean, School of Public Health — report directly to Alderson.

Alderson

Photo by Sarah Pingel

Photo by Steve Dolan

6 U N I V E R S I T A S w w w . s l u . e d u

billiken beat

The men’s soccer Billikens picked up an NCAA Tourna-ment win for the first time since 2003 with their victory over Drake in the first round in November. They lost to Indiana in the second round of the tourna-ment. It was the 45th NCAA Tournament appearance for the Billikens.

A senior defender on the women’s soccer team, Lauren olson was named to the 2008 National Soccer Coaches Associa-tion of America/adidas Women’s Collegiate Scholar All-America team and to the Atlantic 10 All-Conference first team. She also earned A-10 Academic All-Conference and garnered a spot on the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America second team.

At a february ceremony, Billiken soccer great Al trost and the “50 Years of Saint Louis University Soccer, Including 10 National Championship Teams,” were enshrined in the Missouri Sports Hall of fame. It is the 50th anniversary of SLU’s first national champion-ship in 1959. All 10 national championship soccer teams were recognized.

The baseball Billikens will face the Missouri Tigers at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, April 1, at Busch Stadium. “We are thankful to the Car-dinals and obviously look forward to compet-ing against Mizzou,” said SLU baseball head coach Darin Hendrickson.

Three SLU men’s soccer players were selected in the 2009 Major League Soccer SuperDraft. dado hamzagic was chosen by the New england Revolution as the 10th pick in the second round (25th overall). Brandon Barklage went in the third round (36th overall) to D.C. United, and kyle pat-terson was taken by the Los Angeles Galaxy in the fourth round (48th overall).

The Saint Louis University department of athletics inducted 11 individuals into the Billiken Hall of Fame on Jan. 16 in a ceremony at Busch Student Center.

The Billiken Hall of Fame inducted its initial class in 1976. Since then, more than 240 student-athletes, teams and dignitaries have been selected for the Hall of Fame. This year’s inductees come from three categories.

{ billiken news }

Junior midfielder Kyle Harris Photo by Bill Barrett

BILLIKEN GREAT: PIONEER

charlie LaBelle (ICe HOCKeY, 1971-75): Throughout his career, LaBelle accumu-lated 86 goals and 100 assists while helping the Billikens to a pair of Central Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season and tournament championships.

BILLIKEN GREAT: CONTEMPORARY

meghann Burke (WOMeN’S SOCCeR, 1999-

2002): A four-year starter at keeper, Burke held every career goalkeeping record at her graduation. Her 38 shutouts is a school and Conference USA record. In 2004, she was named C-USA’s Co-Player of the Decade. Burke, who plays for the Boston Renegades, was SLU’s first female student-athlete drafted to play a professional sport.

wendy Sammons combs (fIeLD HOCKeY,

1986-1990): Combs was a mainstay at keeper for the Billikens. During her four years, she led the team to a 42-22-3 record and helped the 1988 and 1989 squads earn top-20 national rankings. At SLU, Combs still ranks first all-time with 42 wins and 30 shutouts.

Brad davis (MeN’S SOCCeR, 2000-2001): Davis was an All-America during his two seasons with the Billikens. He notched 34 points (10 goals, 14 assists) his sophomore season to earn C-USA Player of the Year honors. After leaving SLU, he played with the U.S. National Team. Davis has won two straight MLS Cups playing for the Houston Dynamo.

colleen hunter (VOLLeYBALL, 1999-2002): A four-year starter, Hunter is SLU’s all-time leader in kills (2,230) and ranks second in the program in total blocks (530). She earned four-straight All-C-USA honors, and she was named to the C-USA All-Decade Team.

Justin Love (MeN’S BASKeTBALL, 1998-2000): Love ranks eighth in school history with 16.3 points per game. He is best remembered for his play during the “Miracle in Memphis,” when the Billikens won four games in four days to claim the C-USA Tournament title. He was the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, averaging 21 points per game.

Laura risley mudd (VOLLeYBALL, 1996-

1999): Mudd enjoyed perhaps her best season her senior year, when she recorded 632 kills en route to being named Confer-ence USA’s Co-Player of the Year. In 1998, she earned three conference Player of the Week awards, the first SLU female athlete to do so.

marque perry (MeN’S BASKeTBALL, 1999-

2003): Perry finished his four-year career ranked among the Billikens’ top 10 scorers of all time with 1,358 points. An All-C-USA selection his junior and senior seasons, Perry earned first-team honors his senior season after scoring 17.1 points per game.

dipsy Selolwane (MeN’S SOCCeR, 2001): Selolwane came to SLU with just one season of eligibility, and he scored 25 goals — the most by a Billiken since 1964. He was the Conference USA Player of the Year. Selol-wane had stints in the MLS and with the Botswana National Team. He plays for Ajax Cape Town.

BAUMAN SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD

msgr. Louis f. meyer: Meyer played a key role in launching the SLU NCAA men’s soccer program in the late 1950s as a member of a committee that convinced SLU President Paul Reinert, S.J., to start the sport. Meyer maintained his association with soccer, and with SLU, through more than 50 years of service to the Catholic Youth Council.

Bob ramsey: Ramsey has been involved with SLU athletics for more than 20 years. He is the “Voice of the Billikens” as the play-by-play announcer for Billiken men’s basketball games. He also has called numerous wom-en’s basketball games, men’s and women’s soccer games and volleyball matches for Charter Communications. Ramsey is a talk show host on WMVN-fM.

Honorees at the Billiken Hall of Fame dinner (from left): Combs, Charmin Perry (mother of Marque Perry), Hunter, Mudd, Burke, Charles Love (father of Justin Love), LaBelle, Davis, Meyer and Ramsey.

7U N I V E R S I T A S S P R I N G 2 0 0 9

Photo by Bill Barrett

A s vice provost for enrollment management at Saint Louis University, Dr. Boyd A. Bradshaw knows the value of scholarships. Here he explains why they matter.

Can you give an example of a scholarship that has changed a life?

At the 2008 Presidential Scholarship interview weekends, I met many talented students. But one prospective scholar, Katie, from a small town in Wisconsin, was there to achieve a lifelong dream.

Katie first visited SLU at age 8, when she came along on her sister’s campus tour. She told me: “I remember loving all the flowers and standing next to Gries thinking it was incred-ibly tall. I decided then I was going to be a Billiken one day.”

When Katie was 10, her father suffered a stroke that left him permanently disabled and unemployed. Before the stroke, Katie’s family was stable. After the stroke, the family faced many challenges, most significantly financial.

When she was in high school, Katie told her mom SLU was her first choice. Katie’s mom was honest and said, “You’ll need a great scholarship to go there because we just can’t afford it.”

In March last year, Katie learned she won SLU’s Presidential Scholarship. She said, “When my dad relayed the news to me, I could hear the pride in his voice. And when I told my mom, she started to cry. Not only had I at-tained my goal, but I would be attending one of the best Jesuit universities in the United States.”

Katie is now a freshman majoring in occupa-tional therapy.

Why are scholarships so important to Saint Louis University?

They embody an opportunity for us to live out the University’s Jesuit mission of women and men serving others. In these current economic times, it is more important than ever that the University provide opportunities for the growth and education of students — and the only way we can do that is through scholarships.

How can alumni make an impact on scholarships?

Remember your experience at SLU? If some-one gave you a hand up, a scholarship, loan or a job (to borrow from the vernacular), “pay it forward.” Support a scholarship program or the fund for excellence and give a current or future student the same opportunities you enjoyed.

In light of our current economic situation, scholarship support has never been more critical to our students and their families. As illustrated in Katie’s story, few gifts offer greater satisfaction than those to scholarship funds. We want to ensure that the best and most deserving students have an opportunity to attend SLU regardless of their financial situation. And with the help of our generous alumni, we can.

In what other ways can alumni assist with student recruitment?

Our alumni are true ambassadors for what it means to achieve a Saint Louis University education. That’s why we welcome their involvement and offer our alumni a myriad of opportunities to participate in the student recruitment process.

Many of our alumni volunteers work in coop-eration with the University’s admission and alumni offices to staff college fairs all over the country. Alumni also assist us with every-thing from making phone calls to prospective students to serving as interviewers during our scholarship weekends. for more informa-tion on how to get involved with recruitment, please call Christy Sevier, program director for alumni relations in the office of admission, at (314) 977-2858 or e-mail [email protected].

What does the incoming class look like?

It’s an extraordinarily talented, academically gifted group of students with tremendous financial need. Never in my years have I seen such a gifted class, but also such a group of students who find themselves more in need than ever before. Your support of the SLU scholarship program or the fund for excel-lence will help us bring these very gifted students into the SLU community and make possible a quality education.

The uncertainty of our economy makes it essential for SLU to provide a wide variety of options to assist students and families in fi-nancing their education. We are committed to attracting and retaining the very best students and to keeping SLU’s one-of-a-kind education affordable so students like Katie can achieve their lifelong dreams.

To make a gift to a scholarship fund, use the envelope enclosed in this is-

sue of Universitas, visit giving.slu.edu or call (314) 977-2849.

{ advancement news }

Photo by Steve Schremp


The 2008 Billiken Volleyball team (from lefT): Ashley Gaillot, Casey Chernin, Katie fleming, lydia Blaha, Amelia Karges, Head Coach Anne Kordes, Bridget fonke, Alyssa Deno, Whitney Behrens, megan Boken, Sammi mcCloud, Whitney roth and Sally Warning

The SLU volleyball team had a historic season in 2008. And with five seniors coming back in 2009 the Billikens are … – By Nick Sargent


Photo by Steve Dolan


So it’s no surprise to Kordes that the Billikens went undefeated in A-10 conference play, won their first outright A-10 regular season title, beat the highest ranked opponent in school history and won their first NCAA Tournament match in school history. She just thought it was going to happen next season. That’s when the five young women who made up Kordes’ first re-cruiting class will be savvy seniors. That’s when the Billikens would start knocking off some of the nation’s top teams. That’s when they would have the A-10 shaking in their Nikes. “I’ve said consistently during my time here that I knew good things could happen in St. Louis,” Kordes said in a January interview looking back at the Billikens’ just-completed 2008 campaign. “How fast it’s happened is a testament to these kids and how hard they work. You’re not going to find a more competitive group of girls. “Our team chemistry is what has allowed us to overcome teams more athletically gifted, stronger and more experienced. We’ve fought a little bit harder. Sometimes that means you’re going to knock off some bigger, better teams.” Or, like in 2008, you knock off one of the biggest. In a September invitational tournament on the main court of Chaifetz Arena, the Billikens sent No. 3 ranked Stanford staggering back to California after a thrilling four-set match in front of a record home-court crowd. It was the type of David-and-Goliath matchup tailor-made for one of those inspirational sports movies: The scene opens with an imposing shot of the Stanford team warming up as the upstart Billikens — with only one senior on the roster — discuss their strategy for taking down the longtime vol-leyball elites. And as the game begins, it looks like the Billikens will become just another victim of the Stanford volleyball machine as the Cardinal open up a large lead. Just when it looks like the underdogs have no chance, the Billik-ens begin to chip away at the lead. The crescendo of a stirring musi-cal theme matches the increasing excitement of a cheering crowd. As the end of the match grows closer, Stanford and SLU trade points back and forth. Each score is punctuated by slow-motion high fives and hanging heads. Then the music and the crowd fade completely as the camera zooms on the scoreboard showing the Billikens own a 26-25 advan-tage. The lens then turns on junior Sammi McCloud as she steps up to serve the potential set-winning point. The movie screen is filled with nothing but a lonely white volleyball as McCloud strikes it in slow motion. You grip the seat in front of you as you watch the ball slowly turn over in midair, then cross the net … and finally land just

out of the reach of outstretched Stanford players’ hands. A perfect service ace for the win. As the crowd cheers, you see the Billikens congratulating each other with confident looks on their faces, as the Stanford team stands in the background wondering what happened. And the match continued to play out that way for two more hours — a back-and-forth nail-biter that saw the Billikens prevail 27-25, 20-25, 25-22, 25-22. A perfect Hollywood ending for the underdog story — one that would be ideal for an ensemble cast. Everyone on the floor contributed to the victory, Kordes said. When SLU faces the toughest of their nonconference foes, SLU of-ten will be outmatched in size, speed and athletic ability. But that’s where the Billikens also have an advantage, she said. Instead of rely-ing on one player to carry the team, everyone on the floor is forced to step up her game and contribute. And when it all comes together like against Stanford, the Billikens have a chance against anyone. “Honestly, the amount of passion we had just poured onto the floor,” McCloud said. “Everyone had a great night. We were all working toward the same goal — and it was obvious on court.”

It’s no coincidence that Stanford wound up on the Billikens’ sched-ule during the 2008 campaign. Since coming aboard, Kordes has tried to fill SLU’s slate with as many of the country’s elite programs as she could. Not only does the tough schedule attract highly sought-after recruits who want to take on the best, but more impor-tantly it gets the team battle-tested for the NCAA Tournament. “I tell kids we’re going to be a ranked program, but we’re not going to do that unless we beat elite teams,” Kordes said. “We can go out and win 28 games against midlevel and low-level Division I teams. But that’s not going to put us anywhere near ranking.” When the five juniors who led the 2008 team came to SLU as freshmen, Kordes said they were just happy to take a few points off a ranked team. Both the coach and those five players knew they had to take their lumps to gain experience so they would be ready to lead as seniors. And with the fifth-toughest schedule in the nation in 2008, the season looked like it would be another year for the Bil-likens to pay their dues. So while the Stanford victory grabbed the attention of the SLU campus and the country’s volleyball community, it was during a match against Northern Iowa in late September when Kordes real-ized how special the 2008 campaign could be. Just a year before, the Billikens had gone to the wire against one of the better small-school programs in the country. Perennially

among the elite in the tough Missouri Valley Conference, North-ern Iowa and SLU played each other as close as two teams could in 2007. The Billikens narrowly escaped with the victory (30-26, 27-30, 26-30, 30-27, 15-12) in SLU’s old West Pine Gym. With Saint Louis traveling to Cedar Falls, Iowa, for the 2008 rematch, Kordes expected another white-knuckler. Instead, the Billikens put the screws to the Panthers, completely shutting them down in an efficient 75-minute dispatching (25-14, 25-19, 25-19). “We executed so beautifully and played so hard,” Kordes re-called. “We all kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Stanford was something. We’ve played well against other teams, but this is for real. We’ve got something here.’” It was the success that Kordes had envisioned for SLU since she left the University of Illinois as that program’s top assistant in 2004. She was a friend of previous SLU volleyball coach Marilyn Nolen dating back to when Nolen tried to recruit Kordes to play for the Billikens. Kordes was a great admirer of Nolen and her work at SLU and knew there was a great foundation here for a strong program. SLU’s central location allows Kordes to recruit from many of the

country’s volleyball hotbeds, such as Chicago, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Louisville, Ky. — all within a five-hour drive of St. Louis. And most importantly, the academic standards at SLU are so re-nowned that they are great selling points to student-athletes who are leveraging their athletic talent for their academic futures. “I just thought, ‘What a gold mine.’ My boss at Illinois even said to me, ‘You can probably go somewhere a little more established.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but at the end of the day, I want to feel good about the degree that these kids are going to get,’” Kordes recalled. “That’s how you are going to get kids to come here. They understand that volleyball is not going to be their career. You’ve got to get them somewhere they can lay the foundation for their professional career. To me there’s no better place than Saint Louis U. That’s the reason we’ve been able to build this so quickly: Academics.”

Despite the thrilling Stanford victory and impressive match against Northern Iowa, the Billikens’ difficult nonconference schedule left them beaten (losses against ranked foes Illinois, Purdue, Utah and

defending national champion Penn State), but better for it. The team cut through the Atlantic 10, going undefeated en route to both the regular season and conference tournament titles. “The competition level in the Atlantic 10, unfortunately, is a hurdle that we have to get over. From a volleyball perspective, East Coast volleyball is not very strong. The A-10 is a very East Coast-based conference, and women’s volleyball just isn’t huge there,” Kordes said. “But if we think we can be good enough to be one of the top two teams in the A-10, that gives me the leeway to do what-ever I want scheduling nonconference teams. If I am going to recruit the best kids, they are going to know they are going to play the best teams.” The strength of the nonconference schedule also prompted NCAA officials to give the Billikens a high seeding in the tournament. And for the first time in school history, SLU won an NCAA Tournament match, taking down first-round opponent Alabama A&M (25-10, 25-15, 25-11). Just a day later in their second-round match, the Billikens took on another big-name school — University of Michigan. Typical of the team’s historic season, the game was close from the opening serve. It

took 21 tie scores, eight lead changes and five sets before Michigan eventually prevailed in the tie breaker 25-22, 19-25, 25-23, 20-25, 12-15. It was in that final match where the Billikens’ youth finally caught up with them. “We lacked a little on late fifth-set execution, and it hurt us. We hadn’t been in many situations to push us like that,” said Kordes, recalling the leads the Billikens had early in the fifth set. “We had it, and kind of watched it slip away.” To add insult to injury, the Billikens watched Stanford — a team they had beaten just a few months earlier — advance all the way to the championship against Penn State. After such a thrilling season, the second-round knockout was difficult, Kordes admitted. But the Billikens now clearly believe that they are one of the 16 best teams in the country going into next season and will not be satisfied unless they make the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. “The season definitely was one of the greatest moments of my life, to see how great our team could work together and how that hard work really paid off,” McCloud said. “It all came together. It was a great experience to be with the people we love and to see us succeed.”


<<< McCloud spikes over two Stanford players.

<< The celebration ensues after the upset of powerhouse Stanford.

< Bridget fonke goes on the offensive against Alabama A&M.

> Whitney roth sets as two Michigan players look on.

Photo by Bill Barrett Photo by Bill Barrett Photo by David Coyle, UK Athletics Photo by David Coyle, UK Athletics


SLU experts weigh in on the nation’s financial

downturn and on the future.

From leFt: Islam, Strauss, Fisher, Alderson and Wilson

not pictured: Katz

he world is facing the most widespread

financial crisis in a

generation, and everyone — from pundits to politicians

— is searching for answers. So Universitas has turned to Saint Louis University faculty experts to help sort financial fact from fiction. Six professors from the John Cook School of

Business sat down for exclusive interviews to

share their insights on what happened in 2008 and what it will take for the country to recover in 2009.

– By David Chilenski and Nick Sargent

13U N I V E R S I T A S S P R I N G 2 0 0 9Photo by James Visser

Dr. Muhammad Islamtitle: Chairman of the

economics departmenttime at SlU: 15 yearsexpertiSe: Public sector

economics, principles of economics, microeconomic theory econometrics

Dr. Jack K. Strausstitle: Simon Professor of

economicstime at SlU: 18 yearsexpertiSe: Regional forecasting,

international macroeconomics, economic growth

Q: Did people see the economic crisis coming?

A: A lot of this was forecastable. What’s interesting about these market developments is that it took the financial firms on Wall Street by surprise. The biggest loss and the hardest thing to recover, though, may be something that can’t be precisely measured — con-fidence in the markets and the firms that rely on them. Clearly, the myth that says government is an impediment to capi-talism has been deflated. Government is critical for establishing hon-est, transparent markets, enforcing contracts, providing a free flow of information and protecting private property. During the last few years, the reduction in oversight and regulation allowed this market to go from a refereed boxing match to a barroom brawl with no bouncer and rules.

Q: What has been the effect of hedge funds — these private investment funds open to fewer investors that are allowed to undertake a wider range of activities than other investment funds?

A: These new unregulated or lightly regulated financial enti-ties, including hedge funds, have come to play a much larger role in our financial system. They now actually control nearly as much capital as the regulated U.S. banking system. While these enti-ties undoubtedly enhanced stability against some kinds of shocks, they have possibly increased vulnerabilities against others. In the past, proponents of financial innovation championed that these developments would lower risk. Unfortunately, we’re finding the op-posite to be true.

Q: What effect does the crisis have on the St. Louis metropoli-tan area?

A: Our manufacturing index is low, and we’ll probably lose more jobs in the car industry. We were somewhat insulated from the subprime bubble than on the coasts. In those high-growth areas, like florida and California, employment was fueled by housing construction. Because we have a more stable economy, we find ourselves better prepared for the downturn. As a result, in St. Louis housing prices have only fallen 2 percent as compared to 20 percent on the coasts.

Q: What is the biggest hurdle to recovery?

A: The biggest hurdle is if foreign countries that have invest-ed tremendous amounts money in the United States based on the confidence in our institutions, decide to invest their money somewhere else. My biggest concern is the value of the dollar col-lapsing. If it collapses, it will force us to raise our interest rates, and ultimately the recession will be prolonged.

Q: With the faltering economy, what’s in store for local municipalities and school districts?

A: Local communities and school districts depend on retail sales and property taxes for income. The recent retail sales num-bers are pretty bad. Combine that with lower property tax assess-ments, and schools and cities may see budget shortfalls. As a result, you’ll see that these communities will not be able to maintain the level of service they are currently providing. first you’ll see administra-tive consolidation, and then capital projects will be pushed back. Of course, public safety in the form of police and fire service will be the last thing that will see any cuts.

Q: Have rating agencies, such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, added to the economic crisis?

A: The rating agencies and their decisions have come back to haunt us. They should have done better. As we’re seeing in the market, securities that were rated investment-grade should have been rated much lower. We need to find a more effective way of rating finan-cial securities. Perhaps we should move toward allowing the markets themselves to broadly assess the risk, instead of relying on a few firms that claim to have a specialized understanding.

Q: There has been a lot of focus on the housing sector. What does the government need to do to restore confidence?

A: The federal government needs to follow a two-step strategy to repair confidence. first, the government needs to decrease the cost of lending for banks. Banks are experiencing losses, and they need to ensure they have adequate reserves to stay within regulation requirements. With the government providing additional liquidity, it can lower the cost of lending while allowing the banks to have adequate loss reserves. Second, we need to protect the employment side of the economy, and part of that will be addressed with the new administra-tion’s substantial stimulus. Providing employment will ensure people can stay in their homes. This helps the banks stabilize their loans, and more importantly, the economy as a whole.

Q: What sector of the economy are you watching to see signs of a recovery?

A: In addition to the housing sector, it is important to watch commodity prices. Right now, we, as Americans, are benefiting from the low price of oil in the form of cheaper gasoline. However, it is also bad news, because it indicates that the market believes there won’t be an increase in demand for the next six to 12 months. In addition to oil, commodities like copper and aluminum have also suffered. When the price of these commodities starts to increase, it is a sign of a strengthening economy.

U N I V E R S I T A S w w w . s l u . e d u14

Dr. Bonnie Wilson (COOk ’91, A&S ’92)

title: Associate professor of economics

time at SlU: Six years expertiSe: Real estate

economics, mortgages, housing trends

Dr. Jerome A. Katztitle: Coleman foundation

Professor of entrepreneurship and director of the Billiken Angel Network

time at SlU: 21 years expertiSe: entrepreneurship and

small business, start-ups, angel investing

Q: Is buying a home a good investment?

A: It depends. One of the things that I would encourage anyone to do is think about why they own a home, or why they want to own a home. My sense is that the primary reasons that people own homes are psychological. If you rent, you get to live somewhere because some-one has given permission to you to live there. Your home is yours. It will always be there as long as you pay the mortgage. However, in terms of an investment strategy, between 1890 and 2004 the real return — the return net of inflation — of home ownership was 0.4 percent. Between 1940 to 2004, it’s a bit higher; it’s like 0.7 percent.

Q: So the idea that a house is a good investment is not re-ally true?

A: It’s an investment only in the sense that it’s giving you a long stream of services — a guaranteed place to live as long as you’re paying your mortgage. Over long periods of time, you can expect, if you buy a home and sell it, to get a bit more than inflation. But you get far less over long periods of time than if you invested in other assets. Over shorter periods time you could get lucky and buy when prices are low and get lucky and move when prices are relatively high. Or you can really get stuck having bought when prices were relatively high, like from 2004 to 2006, and if you’re in a position now where you need to move or sell, you are going to have to take a hit.

Q: What’s next with the real estate market?

A: There are a lot of people who are saying we still have further to fall. But not as far in areas like St. Louis, which did not see the dramatic increase in prices like California, Nevada and the east Coast. The other thing that people look at is the housing price-to-rental ratio, and that increased dramatically during the housing boom. It’s now falling back down, so it’s making a lot more sense now to stop renting and to start buying a home because housing prices are going down relative to rents.

Q: So is the price of housing leveling out?

A: There are a number of people who are now saying that they actually think that house prices are about where they ought to be. Their fear is that prices are about right, but everybody is so scared and the economy is in such a poor state that prices are going to continue to fall below where they actually should be, and prices will fall too far. These people are concerned that this would continue to drag the economy down. On the other side, people who think prices should continue to fall want to do nothing. They say, “Let them fall because they have to adjust back to their fundamental values.” If you think housing prices are right, you want the government to take some action, to lower mortgage-lending rates to keep prices at about their current level. If you think prices are not right, you want the prices to continue to fall. It remains to be seen who is correct.

Q: What does the downturn mean for small businesses and for entrepreneurship?

A: The shortfalls in sales that everyone else is seeing are also hitting small business. The problem is that many small businesses lack the financial resources of the big businesses and the big chains. Many small businesses face a higher risk of closing. Just as we are looking at the big three automakers and realizing that one or more could fail during the downturn, there are literally millions of small businesses that will close as well.

Q: Is there any upside to this downturn?

A: The upbeat part of this is that every downturn has seeds of opportunity. for example, in cities hit hard by foreclosures you see folks arranging tours for potential investors. In addition to tour guides, local contractors provide estimates to fix homes for these contrac-tors. It is a new revenue source and an example of a new business in this economy. New business startups will happen more than in the past because of a very specialized opportunity: eBay. This online auction site makes it possible for people who are laid off to go into business in half an hour. It also helps you structure your business, so you auto-matically go into national or even global markets and do so in a solid way. It’s actually even smarter than trying to open small business. Unlike a stand at a flea market, eBay is open 24-7 and able to take credit cards. Best of all, the cost of listing an item on eBay that goes into the global retail market comes at a minimal upfront cost. What we saw in previous downturns is that a lot of businesses start up and don’t last. That said, even those short-lived businesses do help generate some cash flow and offer job opportunities.

Q: How have economic challenges affected venture capital investments?

A: Everyone is facing hard times, including family, friends and folks — the three Fs — that most entrepreneurs rely on to get started. But the financial markets for startups, venture capital and angel investing are relatively stable, only slightly down. even this will get better, probably faster than the larger economy because President Obama is talking about an ambitious program to grow different sectors of the economy, for example green energy, and we know that will open opportunities for investment. And if President Obama plans to rebuild the national infrastructure, that’s going to make the economy different for the construction industry and companies dealing in raw materials. There will be opportunity.

U N I V E R S I T A S S P R I N G 2 0 0 9 15

16

Dr. Michael Aldersontitle: Professor of financetime at SlU: 14 yearsexpertiSe: Corporate finance,

capital structure, financial distress

Dr. James E. Fishertitle: Shaughnessy fellow

at the emerson ethics Center and associate professor of marketing

time at SlU: 24 yearsexpertiSe: Management,

business ethics

Q: After the Internet bubble burst and the Enron scandal exploded, there was a renewed focus on business ethics. Will we see that again?

A: As an institution, business has a public image that rises and falls over time. We’re in one of those periods where people have lost faith in individuals, institutions and sectors of the economy. It’s going to cause a lot of re-examination. As an applied discipline, ethics often looks at individual behavior and choice. The challenge here is to look at it from an organizational perspective, looking at the big picture of the relationship between business and society. These are big questions to grapple with; I don’t see us coming out with a tidy moral to this story.

Q: Did ethics, or the lack thereof, play a role in this crisis?

A: Without a doubt. One of the precipitating causes of this was the home mortgage mess. It looks like there were all sorts of players in that system who had perverse motives. There was a process at play that allowed people to really manipulate the system for their own individual benefit — and to do so in a way that they knew their ultimate account-ability would probably be slight. You had a lot of people benefiting disproportionately who didn’t have to suffer any of the consequences of bad decisions. If you have people insulated and don’t have to give an account for their actions, that’s certainly a recipe for disaster.

Q: What do you think the country will learn from this crisis?

A: That when things are going well, or apparently going well, there’s a reluctance to look more deeply or more carefully at what’s going on under the surface. We came through an era of prosperity — certain sectors of the economy were benefiting dispro-portionately. There were signs of imbalance. When everyone is getting richer, when the economy is expanding, when credit is easy, when home values are rising — there’s a tendency to not look as closely at what’s going on. And then when the worm turns, and the economy starts to slow down, and when things start to contract — it’s almost like then that’s when you discover that there was lots of bad stuff going on amidst this run of prosperity and good times. As Warren Buffet likes to say, “It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who is swimming naked.”

Q: Can one person make a difference?

A: One of the ethical issues we always seem to struggle with is the difficulty for an individual within an organization or within a larger system to detect when there are problems and to know when to do something. Being a member of a larger organization can often sap a personal sense of responsibility. But then what does one do with that recognition? There is a record of whistle-blowing in orga-nizations where people try to signal when things are going wrong, or illegal and unethical behaviors. More often than not it goes very badly for the whistleblower. These hard lessons of experience can leave us confused or uncertain about the impact and power one person has. We live in a complex, interconnected society, and that itself can some-times mask our own responsibility and ability to affect change.

Q: Are there historical economic crises we can look at to provide a better understanding of this situation?

A: We’re fortunate to have the world’s foremost student of the Great Depression in Ben Bernanke serving as Federal Reserve chairman. He understands very well that the effect of the Great Depression was made worse by the government after the onset of economic difficulties. Clearly, the right thing for the government to do is lever up, enabling large injections of liquidity to address the downturn.

Q: What will the effects of the government’s financial bailouts be for the average American?

A: It is hoped the economy will not contract as much as it would have without the government intervention. Ultimately, the recovery will be sooner. The key to financial recovery is recovery in the real estate markets. That’s what is causing problems with cor-porate balance sheets; the declining real estate values are dragging down the value of mortgage-backed securities. After the oil bust in Texas, the real estate market took five years to recover. People should not be surprised if the recovery comes more slowly and takes longer than in that case.

Q: What lessons should be learned and precautions taken?

A: The No. 1 lesson from this event is that an investment in your house shouldn’t be confused with your retirement savings. We should get back to paying our mortgages down sooner than later. Restrictions should make it less easy to extract equity from homes. Corporations are also learning that they can’t take liquidity for granted. As a result, businesses will use less leverage and hold more cash.

Q: What should government change?

A: Those in charge of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were presented with a moral hazard. They knew that if they were very aggressive they would make a tremendous amount of money. They also knew that if they were very aggressive and things didn’t go well, the federal government would be forced to step in. The government should shut down fannie Mae and freddie Mac and let the mort-gage market operate on its own. In contrast to the time that fannie and freddie were created, the private sector is more than capable of providing the capital for mortgage loans.

Q: Anything else you’d like to add?

A: After 14 years of teaching Saint Louis University students, I wish there would have been more SLU graduates with strong moral character and good judgment working at these entities. Our students sense that if something is too good to be true, it prob-ably is.

U N I V E R S I T A S w w w . s l u . e d u16 17

WheN The LIghTS WeNT off AroUNDST. LoUIS, A LIghT BULB WeNT oN IN The

mINDS oF reSeArCherS IN SLU’SDepArTmeNT oF eArTh AND

ATmoSpherIC SCIeNCeS.

– by John Gilmore

U N I V E R S I T A S S P R I N G 2 0 0 9


“I was watching both of those storms closely and knew they were coming, and knew they would cause major outages in the area,” said Saint Louis University Professor of Meteorology Dr. Robert Pasken (Grad ’82). He realized that, based on re-cent advances in computer technology and forecasting models, he could do a better job at predicting where and when these storms would occur if he had access to better infor-mation about local atmospheric conditions. Dr. William Dannevik (Grad ’85), chairman of SLU’s department of earth and atmospheric sciences, was one of those frustrated St. Louisans left in the dark for more than a week by the July 2006 storms. “One night I literally was sitting in the candlelight in my home when the thought occurred to me that there was some newly available, much more affordable technol-ogy that we could apply to help AmerenUE improve its response times and ability to restore power more quickly,” he said. Dannevik, who returned to his alma mater to join the department in 2004 after spending 15 years as a researcher at the Uni-versity of California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, began to revisit an idea he and his colleagues there had been exploring for turning California’s fast-devel-oping Central Valley into a “virtual valley” by installing wireless instrumentation systems that would monitor weather condi-tions, air quality, soil and water pollution,

population density, traffic patterns and power use. He started thinking of applying a similar concept in the Mississippi Valley. SLU’s meteorologists already were run-ning numerical weather prediction models for Missouri. Pasken, a research meteorolo-gist and faculty member for nearly three decades, said they were using these models for everything from predicting pollen levels so doctors could warn their patients to take their medications to forecasting when soy-bean rust, a disease that can kill off a soybean field within days, would enter Missouri. “It struck me that if we had some additional information we could vastly improve our in-house numerical models to the point that we could predict weather down to the street level,” said Pasken, architect and director of the Quantum Weather project.

“Then we could tell utility companies where and when the most severe storms were go-ing to occur.” Prompted by Pasken and Dannevik, SLU’s corporate relations staff set up a meeting with AmerenUE’s power distribu-tion group to discuss the concept. Among those attending the meeting was Ame-renUE Distribution Operations Manager Dave Wakeman, whose group is responsible for repairing the power lines damaged by storms. “It was interesting because Dave was very

attuned to weather and had been think-ing about the need to develop systems that would help them better forecast what was happening,” Dannevik said. Pasken and Dannevik explained that if AmerenUE could install a network of automated meteorological stations spread throughout eastern Missouri — a “meso-net,” in meteorological terms — SLU could integrate its forecasting tools to create this innovative new detailed storm forecasting system. By August 2007, SLU and AmerenUE had entered into a partnership to develop and operate an ultra-precise weather moni-toring, forecasting and response system — Quantum Weather. AmerenUE agreed to provide financial support for purchasing and installing the weather stations, to fund two graduate assistantships in meteorol-

ogy and to partner with the University in potential future commercial applications. “We knew it would work from a research level, but I give AmerenUE credit for their forward thinking and investing in the Quantum Weather project,” Pasken said. SLU meteorology professors Ben Abell (IT ’60, Grad ’65) and Dr. Timothy Eichler joined Pasken and Dannevik as part of the research team after the daily operations of the Quantum Weather project began. The Quantum Weather system is a stra-tegically placed network of solar-powered monitoring stations that can pinpoint

Late in the afternoon on July 19, 2006, as temperatures hovered near 100 degrees, an unusually powerful and frightening cluster of thunderstorms — locals can still tell you exactly what they were doing when they hit — howled through the St. Louis area. These devastating storms left in their wake a wide path of uprooted trees, snapped limbs and downed power lines. more than half a million AmerenUe customers lost power for up to eight days, making it the largest power outage in the history of St. Louis. Four months later, on Nov. 30, a nasty ice storm took down more AmerenUe lines across the area, once again leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power.


potential severe weather down to the street level. Fifty of the 100 planned devices, each about the size of a small printer, already have been mounted on AmerenUE power poles across the company’s 20,000-square-mile service territory. Quantum Weather feeds detailed, near real-time information about temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed, wind direction and rainfall rates over Ame-renUE radio communications systems to central computers at SLU. Using computer models and analytical tools created by University researchers, the system produces highly detailed maps of weather activity affecting specific neighborhoods. “We’re getting detailed minute-by-min-ute measurements of weather variables from stations that are just five to seven miles apart,” Dannevik said.

Conventional weather monitoring sys-tems can’t distinguish what’s happening in individual neighborhoods because monitors often are spread more than 100 miles apart

— typically at airports and in urban centers — and provide only hourly updates. Though a storm system moving through from west to east may look like a line on radar, within that system are individual cells that carry the type of strong winds, lightning and precipitation that can damage the power grid. “With this data and our short-term prediction model, we’re able to see indi-vidual wind gust events on a neighborhood-to-neighborhood basis in near real-time,” Dannevik said. “We are in constant communication with AmerenUE during weather events to help them interpret and understand the data.”

AmerenUE’s Wakeman couldn’t be happier with the results so far.

“With Quantum Weather, SLU has given us specific weather informa-tion for our service area, allowing us to stage crews and materials at the right time in the right place,” he said. “We can be poised to respond before outages occur.” Indeed, the system already has paid dividends. Last September, for example, SLU’s meteorologists helped AmerenUE understand where the heavy winds and tor-rential rains that swept across Missouri as remnants of Hurricane Ike would have the biggest impact. “With Quantum Weather we were able to tell them where and when the heaviest winds would occur so they could

prepare their crews, pack their trucks with the proper equipment, and send them to the right locations ahead of time so they could restore power in the af-fected areas much faster than they would have previously been able to

do,” Pasken said. “And on several occasions during this past winter, we were able to give AmerenUE better information about storm events that improved their responsiveness.” Mesonets such as this new Missouri net-work are relatively rare in the United States. In fact, the current density of the Quantum Weather stations is far greater than that of any other network in the country. “This puts the University in a unique position when it comes to severe storm fore-casting,” Pasken noted. “SLU will attract other researchers from across the country to do severe storms research. They can’t conduct this research anywhere else.” He added that it’s exciting to watch students contributing to the research gain forecasting experience and get enthused about the project. “It’s satisfying at a lot of levels,” he said.

Educational and research activities aside, Dannevik is quick to point out that SLU’s first priority is continuing this successful relationship with AmerenUE. “This is an outstanding example of partnering with industry to benefit the community,” he said. Yet both parties are aware that this unique ability to study microclimates could have a variety of other applications across the United States, both within and outside the utility industry. The system, for example, could help sewer districts redistribute the extra load on the sewer system caused by storm waters, enable transportation departments to send their salt trucks to areas hit hardest by snow and ice, or improve the responses of emergency management departments to the release of hazardous materials. For SLU President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., the partnership with AmerenUE is an example of the type of collaboration among universities, businesses and government agencies that, in an era in which research funding from the federal government is on the decline, absolutely must take place to move the St. Louis region forward. “SLU’s professors took the initiative to solve a problem,” he said. “Meanwhile, AmerenUE had the vision and courage to invest in our people’s ideas. The result is that SLU’s research is having a real-world impact by improving people’s lives.”

“I was watching both of those storms closely and knew they were coming, and knew they would cause major outages in the area,”

Pasken and Dannevik

An AmerenUE lineman installs a Quantum Weather station.

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SLU’s School of Medicine was established first as a

department of the University. Its faculty were prominent physicians from throughout the west, including Dr. William

Beaumont, an army surgeon whose pioneering studies of the human digestive system opened a new world of research, and Dr. Daniel Brainerd, who later founded Rush Medical College. An anti-Catholic movement that surged through the United States in the 1840s and 1850s led to the separation of the medical department from SLU in 1854. Years later, University President William Banks Rogers, S.J., SLU’s 18th president, initiated plans for the integration of a new medical school into the University. He said the Catholic community in mid-America needed the kind of physicians a high-caliber medical school could produce. He looked south down Grand Avenue and found the Marion-Sims-Beaumont College of Medicine, which was owned and operated by a group of St. Louis physicians. Following negotiations with Marion-Sims-Beaumont College of Medicine administration and with approval from the University trustees, the college was incorporated in 1903. The college’s deci-sion to merge with the University was reinforced by recommenda-tions of the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals of the American Medical Association, which insisted on university af-filiations for all schools of medicine. Soon after the incorporation, the name Saint Louis University School of Medicine supplanted the former title of Marion-Sims-Beaumont. A new group of scientifically trained teachers joined the Uni-versity’s faculty, balancing the more linguistically and philosophi-cally oriented Jesuits. Members of the arts faculty remained “jacks of all trades,” but the medical faculty introduced departmental-ization to the University. The meaningful terminology of faculty rank came into use in the medical school and gradually spread to other schools. The most significant statistic dramatizing the effect of the new medical school on the University came at its first postmerger graduation exercise in 1904: 16 graduates received bachelor’s degrees, while 93 received medical degrees.

I t was still three years before Missouri would become a state, and St. Louis was a pioneer settlement of 3,000. Young

men received their education either trading on the river or fur trapping, but Rev. Louis William DuBourg, bishop of Louisiana, saw beyond these frontier times and into St. Louis’ future. DuBourg chose to make St. Louis, not New Orleans, the head-quarters of his diocese. He set out to build both a cathedral and a college in the city. In 1818, he opened an “academy for young gentlemen,” in a private residence near the Mississippi River. Tu-ition at Saint Louis College was $12 per quarter. In 1824, the college entered into an agreement with the city government to educate poor boys, free of tuition. The city offered a tax subsidy for the program, making it the first school west of the Mississippi River to receive municipal tax support for any of its programs. DuBourg eventually asked the Society of Jesus to take over the school, and in 1829, Peter J. Verhaegen, S.J., became the school’s first Jesuit president. The State of Missouri granted the school a formal university charter in 1832, making it the first university west of the Mis-sissippi River and the second in the nation to be operated by the Jesuits. Georgetown University opened in 1789. When the Jesuits took over, the University moved to a new site at Washington Avenue and Ninth Street in what is now down-town. However, the area was considered on the outskirts of the city then. Today the St. Louis Convention Center sits on the property. In 1867, the University purchased land covered by a grove of trees at the intersection of Grand Avenue and Lindell Boulevard. In 1888, on the feast of St. Ignatius Loyola, the University opened its first building on the site and named it DuBourg Hall

— in honor of the man who envisioned it all.

– By Marie Dilg

1818FIRST UNIVERSITY WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

1836FIRST MEDICALSCHOOL WESTOF THE MISSISSIPPI

We tout them in brochures and on street banners, and they adorn the Chaifetz Arena concourse. They are Saint Louis University’s “firsts” — those seminal dates in Saint Louis University’s past that literally made history.

You may know some of them by heart. But do you know the stories behind the firsts?

THe SToRIeS BeHInD SLU’S HISToRICAL mILeSToneS.


I n what some consider his most important act as president of Saint Louis University, James Van de Velde,

S.J., welcomed an offer from Judge Richard A. Buckner of Kentucky to open a law department within the University. Van de Velde, SLU’s third president, reasoned that having a man with Buckner’s high legal attainments and national

political prominence would guarantee success of the program. He was right. Charismatic and energetic, Buckner was one of a generation of enterprising young men to move westward from Virginia and prosper in the legal profession — first as a lawyer and then as a judge. He settled in Kentucky, where his political rise was rapid. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives during the War of 1812 and was elected to three suc-cessive terms in Congress. When most men his age were thinking about retirement, Buckner decided to open a new chapter in his life. He moved to St. Louis, where his daughter settled and where one of his grandsons, Arthur Buckner Barret, later would attend SLU and become mayor of St. Louis. Buckner’s offer to open SLU’s law department was bold. Legal education was far from formalized on the frontier. Most lawyers learned their trade by means of apprenticeship, and a legal education was not a prerequisite for admission to the bar. But SLU rewarded Buckner’s confidence, and in 1842 opened what would be the first law school west of the Mississippi and the first Roman Catholic law school in the nation. SLU’s law program took its place among such prestigious schools as Harvard (1817), Yale (1824) and the University of Virginia (1826). When Buckner died, the department lost its incredible power source and closed for some years. The school reopened in 1908, however, with another distinction — it admitted the first five women to attend classes at Saint Louis University.

I n his book, The Anatomy of a Game: Football, the Rules, and the Men Who

Made the Game, College Football Hall of Fame Coach David M. Nelson stated that Saint Louis University coach “… E.B. Cochems is to forward passing what the Wright brothers are to flight.” Cochems was the first to use the legal forward pass on Sept. 5, 1906, with Bradbury Robinson passing to Jack Schneider in a game at Carroll College (Waukesha, Wis.). Robinson’s first pass was incomplete, but on SLU’s next offensive possession, Robinson hit Schneider with a 20-yard strike. The play surprised everyone in attendance, including the Carroll College defense, and Schneider marched in for a touchdown. SLU beat Carroll 22-0. The forward pass became a central feature of Cochems’ revolutionary offensive scheme during his time at SLU (1906-1908). Using the new tactic during the first season, his “Blue and White” completed a perfect 11-0 season in which they outscored opponents 407-11. Because most top college football teams and major sports media of the era were located on the East Coast, Cochems’ strategy was not embraced immediately. Pass-oriented offenses would not be adopted by the Eastern football powers for several years. But other teams in the Midwest did take notice and began using the tactic. Dispute swirled over who should get credit for the first forward pass. But legendary Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne, who some believe pioneered the forward pass, set the record straight in his biography when he wrote that Cochems “enrolled a few boys with hands like steam shovels who could toss a football just as easily and almost as far as they could throw a baseball. “One would have thought that so effective a play would have been instantly copied and become the vogue. The East, however, had not learned much or cared much about Midwest and Western football. Indeed, the East scarcely realized that football existed beyond the Alleghenies.” SLU discontinued its football program in 1949, so ironically, the university that gave the sport its most revolutionary play bid farewell to football 60 years ago.

1842FIRST LAW SCHOOLWEST OF THEMISSISSIPPI

1906FIRST FORWARD PASS IN FOOTBALL

1818SLU’s first classes were held nov. 16, 1818, in a

building similar to the drawing above, rented from Mme. Eugene Alvarez.

1836SLU’s first medical school was located on

Washington Avenue at Tenth Street.

1842The first law school building at Saint Louis University.

1906Bradbury robinson, who threw the first forward pass.


I n April 1921, George Rueppel, S.J., began transmitting weather data to the U.S. Weather Bureau and other meteorological

stations from the basement of DuBourg Hall. The U.S. Commerce Department assigned the new station the call letters WEW, which Rueppel, a meteorology professor, liked to say stood for “We Enlighten the World.” WEW became the first station west of the Mississippi, and it is the sec-ond oldest station in the country. It went on air just weeks after KDKA, the nation’s first public radio station, began broadcasting in Pittsburgh. Initially, Rueppel stuck to weather forecasts and market reports. Local farmers found the information useful. But Rueppel had bigger plans for the station. In 1923, he began producing educational and religious programming. The programming included lectures by SLU faculty covering a range of topics from “The Foundation of Catho-lic Faith” to “How Sugar is Made.” At the request of some disabled veterans in local hospitals, WEW soon began broadcasting religious services from St. Francis Xavier College Church. To accommodate the station’s growth, WEW moved in 1928 to a suite of six rooms on the top floor of what is now O’Neil Hall. The station began broadcasting full time in 1933. In 1936 it began carry-ing live University sporting events. The first sports broadcast was the

football team’s 6-0 victory over DePaul at Soldier Field in Chicago. WEW reached another milestone in 1945 when it became the first station in St. Louis to receive a permit for Frequency Modulation (FM) broadcasting. A huge 542-foot tower was built on the ground where Pius XII Memorial Library now stands. Rueppel died the day before WEW’s first FM broadcast. WEW was sold in 1954, and the tower was soon dismantled. WEW-AM 770 continues to this day as a privately owned radio sta-tion in St. Louis. The University is not without a radio station, however. WEW was faculty-run, but the communication department began a student-run station in 1949 that eventually was assigned the call letters KSLU. Located in Busch Student Center, KSLU recently was nominated as “Best College Radio Station” by mtvU, a division of the MTV network.

J oseph C. Davis, S.J., stood out among his Jesuit peers. Short and stocky, he was known for his

flowery language in even the most mundane situation. Davis’ business acumen was evident almost from the beginning of his 30 years with the University. He wanted to open a school of commerce and finance

similar to that at Columbia University in New York. SLU students had been earning commercial certificates since 1862, but they were still a part of the regular collegiate department of the University. The idea of a separate school within a university for studying business was a new concept in the United States. Davis solicited pledges from a number of local business leaders to meet the initial expenses. But the leaders never had to make good on their pledges; the school was on solid financial ground from the onset. Despite its strong start, many fellow faculty members took a dim view of the school. The idea of a school of commerce marked a dramatic change from the traditional Jesuit liberal arts program, both within the University and throughout the Jesuit order. The professional schools of medicine, law and dentistry moved toward a post-liberal arts status. Commerce and finance offered a substitute for the liberal arts on the un-dergraduate level. Despite the resistance, Davis persevered. “Because our social and individual existence must be described with such general reference to the economic phases of life, a university could not respond adequately to the purpose of education if it did not include among its colleges a flourishing school of commerce,” Davis wrote in a SLU publication in 1934. And flourish it did. In the early years of the school, classes met in DuBourg Hall. Enrollment swelled, and in 1931, the school moved into its permanent home in what eventually would be named Davis-Shaughnessy Hall in honor of Davis and Martin Shaughnessy, a prominent St. Louis businessman and University alumnus. In 2000, a new building, John and Lucy Cook Hall, was added to the existing Davis-Shaughnessy Hall. That same year, the school was renamed the John Cook School of Business.

1910FIRST BUSINESSSCHOOL WESTOF THE MISSISSIPPI

1921FIRST RADIO STATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI

1910The home of SLU’s

business school, Davis-Shaughnessy

Hall, opened in 1931. 1927An early aerial view of Parks College in Cahokia, ill.

1921Students broadcast the

news from station WEW.


1839First graduate degrees awarded west of the Mississippi River

1925First department of geophysics in the Western Hemisphere

1944First in Missouri and any south-ern state to racially integrate the student body

1967First U.S. Catholic university with a lay board of trustees

1991First, and only, School of Public Health at a Catholic university

2001First Campus Kitchen food outreach program in the nation. Today 15 schools have adopted the project.

F or a number of years, Raymond L. Sullivant, S.J., brought SLU

students to various cities in Spain for summer educational experiences. His program was so successful that in 1969, Sullivant, who was then an assistant professor of modern languages, thought it was time the University establish a permanent campus in Madrid. SLU opened offices and classrooms in the city in 1969 and was the first U.S. institution to be recognized as a foreign university by Spain’s higher education authority. Initially, the campus enrolled only students from the United States, but by the early 1980s, Spanish students were being accepted to begin their degrees in Madrid. Today, the campus has 650 stu-dents — roughly half from the United States and half from 65 other countries. The Madrid campus moved to its present location in 1992 after the University purchased and renovated two buildings on Avenida del Valle in the university district of the city.

F ollowing his service in the Marine Corps

during World War I, Oliver “Lafe” Parks began taking flying lessons in 1925. Two years later, Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight over the Atlantic Ocean got young men thinking about careers in aviation. Parks was among them.

But aviation at the time was more daredevil than serious busi-ness, and many people considered a career in the field a risky venture, including SLU alumnus Jack Alexander who called flight schools “seminaries of adventurous lunacy” in a piece he wrote for the Saturday Evening Post. Undeterred, in August 1927 Parks opened his air college in a rented hangar at Lambert Field with only five of employees and just as many airplanes. Less than two months later during a routine flight, Parks crashed in Florissant, Mo. Sustaining a litany of bro-ken bones and losing an eye, Parks survived, thanks in part to the assistance of Jesuits from the nearby St. Stanislaus Seminary. This incident led to long-term friendships that would chart an entirely

new course for the air college some 19 years later. But in the meantime, Parks persevered. He bought land in Cahokia, Ill., added courses, charter services and sightseeing flights. Only two years after its opening, Parks Air College made history when it became the nation’s first federally approved flying school in the country. With this distinction in hand, Parks weathered the Great Depression and continued to expand his college. By the time World War II broke out, college enrollment was at capacity. But that didn’t keep the U.S. government from asking Parks to start a primary flight instruction program for the Army’s flying cadets. Ultimately, Parks College and its subsidiary institutions trained 24,000 Army aviators, or one out of every 10 pilots. At this point, other men might have been happy to retire and polish their medals, but not the pioneering Parks. He immediately laid plans for the postwar era. Realizing that future aviation leaders would need a broader, more well-rounded education, Parks sought affiliation with a major university. He didn’t have to look far. Because of his nearly 20-year relationship with the Jesuits, Parks approached Saint Louis University. In 1946, he donated Parks College to SLU, infusing aviation education with Jesuit values. In the fall of 1997, after seven decades in Cahokia, the college moved into McDonnell Douglas Hall on the University’s Midtown campus. Known today as Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology — reflecting the wide breath of academic programs it offers — Parks College remains a national leader in educating future pilots.

1927FIRST FEDERALLY LICENSED SCHOOL OF AVIATION

1969FIRST U.S. UNIVERSITY WITH A FREESTANDING CAMPUS IN EUROPE

MORE FIRSTS: SAINT LOUIS UNIVeRSITY’S LONG HISTORY BOASTS SeVeRAL OTHeR MILeSTONeS.

1969Padre Arupe Hall in the heart of SLU’s Madrid campus.


dr. hal Lenobel (Dent) was re-elected for a third term as mayor of Longboat Key, Fla. He has served nine years as commis-

sioner of that city.

dr. carl kisslinger (A&S ’47, Grad ’49, ’52) is a professor emeritus of geological science at the University of Colorado and

a fellow emeritus of environmental science. He lives in Boulder, Colo.

dr. John Adams (Dent) has been retired for 15 years and lives in Milford, Conn., with his wife, Breta. He has five children

and 13 grandchildren.

dr. kevin toal (Dent) and his wife, LaVerne, celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary in November with their eight

children, 17 grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. They live in St. Louis, and their grandson graduated from SLU in December.

rich gerding (Cook) retired from McDonnell Douglas in 1992 and began a second career with the Richmond Heights

(Mo.) Fire Department, where he has worked for 16 years. His hobby of international travel has taken him to 66 countries and all seven continents. He just returned from a trip to the Middle East with three of his grandchildren. He and his wife, Yasuko, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last April.

dr. margaret Boland (A&S ’62, Grad ’65) appears in the 2009 edition of Who’s Who in the World.

dr. edward J. wegman (A&S) spent the spring 2008 semester as a visiting fellow at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathemat-

ical Sciences at Cambridge University in England. Later, he gave the keynote address at the International Conference on Multivariate Statistical Modeling and High Dimensional Data Mining in Kayseri, Turkey. He also lectured in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, and Porto, Portugal, in 2008.

george B. york, ii (P&L ’65, Grad ’68) wrote Michel de Certeau or Union in Difference, published by Gracewing. He lives in Denver.

paul pendleton (Parks) is a program manager for the military certification of-fice of the FAA. Previously he was an FAA

team leader for the implementation of the U.S. and Russian Bilateral Airworthiness Type Vali-dation program. He is the president of the Wichita (Kan.) Council of Engineering Societies and a board member of the SAE Air and Space Group.

michael mihm (Law), a U.S. district judge for the Central District of Illinois since 1982, has been named to the board

of directors of the U.S. Russia Foundation for Economic Advancement and Rule of Law, based on the recommendation of the U.S. State Depart-ment. He lives in Peoria, Ill.

thomas kummer (Law) lives in Henderson, Nev. His law firm, Kummer Kaempfer, was ranked No. 1 in Nevada by

The Best Lawyers in America for corporate law, energy law, government relations law, land use and zoning law, and mergers and acquisitions.

dr. mary h. mcgrath (Med) has been appointed to the board of commissioners of the Joint Commission. She represents

the American College of Surgeons. She is a professor of surgery in the division of plastic and re-constructive surgery at the University of California, San Francisco and practices plastic surgery.

mark griffin (A&S) received the Arthur H. Bryant Public Justice Award from the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association for his

work on behalf of consumers, farm workers and public school custodians. He is a partner at Griffin & McCandlish in Portland, Ore.

marianne muellerleile (A&S) appeared in the fi-nal episode of ABC-TV’s Boston Legal. She also ap-pears on the new Disney XD series Zeke & Luther.

michael Shay (Law) has written The Yankee Di-vision in the First World War. He lives in Wilton, Conn.

dr. patrick Sweeney (Med) received a Women & Infants’ Medical Staff Association Distinguished Service Award in December. He has been at the hospital for two decades and is the director of the division of ambulatory care. He also has been associate dean of medicine for continuing medical education at Brown University since 1992 and is a professor in the department of obstetrics and gyne-cology there. He lives in Wakefield, R.I.

elaine Bukowski (Doisy) is associate director of the postprofessional doctor of physical therapy program at Richard

Stockton College of New Jersey. She is a full professor at the college and also is a diplomat and certified senior disability analyst with the American Board of Disability Analysts. She lives in Egg Harbor Township, N.J.

Linda gosnell (A&S) has been the chief bar counsel for the Kentucky Bar for five years. Her daughter, Kelley, is the first third-generation female attorney in Kentucky. She also has a son. She lives in Lexington, Ky.

Bill migneron (Cook) is chief operating officer of Lathrop & Gage and is a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management. He is a past president of the Association of Legal Administrators and lives in Kansas City, Mo.

dr. neil Alan fenske (Med) was among 17 dermatologists nationwide listed as “America’s Top Doctors for Women” in

Women’s Health magazine. He is a professor and chairman of dermatology at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Fla.

kathryn nusbaum moran (A&S) is dean of the School of Education at the University of Indianapo-lis, where she has been since 2002. She lives in Plain-field, Ind., with her husband of 24 years, Edward.

peter von gontard (Law) was named one of the best trial attorneys in the country by Best Lawyers in America for 2009 in the areas of medical mal-practice law, personal injury litigation and product liability litigation. He lives in St. Louis.

Jack c. carey (Law) is president of the Illinois State Bar Association. His private practice concentrates in general trial work,

labor law and personal injury law. He lives in Belleville, Ill.

g. keith phoenix (Law) was named one of the best trial attorneys in the country by Best Lawyers in America for 2009 in the areas of commercial litigation, medical malpractice law, personal injury litigation and product liability litigation. He lives in St. Louis.

Akrasid Amatayakul (A&S) has been Thailand’s ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia since

2007. He lives in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Scott Brinkmeyer (Law) is with the firm Mika Meyers Beckett & Jones and was included in the 2009 edition of the Best Lawyers in America. He lives in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Janet (whitaker) Brown (Law) received a Pro Bono Award from the Missouri Bar. She lives in Poplar Bluff, Mo.

James haritatos (SW) is a full-time faculty mem-ber in the McPherson College behavioral sciences department and coordinates the health and human services emphasis program for psychology and so-ciology majors. He and his wife live in McPherson, Kan., and have two grown children.

michael mccuskey (Law) is chairman of Illinois State University’s board of trustees. He is chief U.S. district judge for the Central District of Illinois. He lives in Champaign, Ill.

John temporiti (Law) was elected chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party. He is of counsel with Gallop, Johnson & Newman in St. Louis.

gary Burns (PS) is the senior project controller for a general contractor in Las Vegas.

James foster Jr. (A&S ’76, Law ’79) was named to the Labor Relations Institute Inc.’s 2008 top 100 list of labor attorneys. He is with the firm of McMahon Berger in St. Louis.

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donna Beck Smith (Cook ’76, Grad ’81) earned the certified in financial forensics credential from the American Institute of Certified Public Ac-countants. She is practice leader of the financial advisory services group at Brown Smith Wallace in St. Louis.

Joseph mccormick (Law) is president of the Camden County (N.J.) Bar As-sociation. He is a partner and shareholder

in the Haddonfield, N.J., law firm of Wein-berg & McCormick.

Lawrence Albrecht (Grad Cook) is senior vice president of operations at Midwest BankCentre in St. Louis.

nora (mcLaughlin) carr (A&S), chief communications officer for Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.) Schools since 2005,

was inducted into the Public Relations Society of America College of Fellows in October. She has won more than 90 local, state and national awards for excellence, including the 2007 Infinity Award from the Charlotte chapter of PRSA.

michael doyle (A&S) is managing the technol-ogy team to build BP’s newest 500-position energy trading floor in downtown Chicago. He lives in Orland Park, Ill.

dr. marc d. Smith (Grad), president of the Mis-souri Hospital Association, received the MHA Distinguished Service Award for 2008. He lives in Jefferson City, Mo.

robert Zdebski (Parks) is vice president for busi-ness development for Vestas Americas of Vestas Wind Systems, a leading wind turbine manufac-turer. He lives in Portland, Ore.

thomas Burke (Law) is president of the Missouri Bar Association. He lives in St. Louis.

dr. h. dennis mollman (Med) is an associate professor and chairman of the neurosurgery divi-sion at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, Ill. He also is director of neurosciences for the 13-member Hospital Sisters Health System.

mark A. presson (PH ’81, Law ’82) has concluded more than 25 years of active duty service in the U.S. Air Force. He lives in San Antonio.

marie wozniak darstein (A&S) is executive director of the National Child Care Association. She lives in Spartan-

burg, S.C.

michael hemphill (PS) has spent his career with Emerson Electric, Fasco Motors Group and EFR Inc. He lives in Wildwood, Mo.

michael reda (Law) is a member of the Defense Research Institute’s Trucking Law Committee. He is a partner in the Helper, Broom, MacDonald, Hebrank, Tur & Noce law firm and is a member of its trucking and transportation practice area. He lives in St. Louis.

paula perkins Bryant (Law) was nomi-nated to fill the vacancy on the circuit court of the city of St. Louis. In 2004, she

was appointed to the bench as an associate circuit judge.

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U N I V E R S I T A S S P R I N G 2 0 0 9

I t’s amazing Irene Hannon’s (A&S ’76) Internet searches didn’t trigger a raid by the Department of Homeland Security. She

downloaded information on terrorism, Afghani-stan, the Taliban, the layout of the U.S. embassy in Kabul and aerial shots of the fBI office in Richmond, Va.

“I zoomed in as close as I could before I was blocked out,” she said.

Of course Hannon’s intentions were benign — just a little research for her new novel, Against All Odds, in which a high-level diplomat in Afghanistan is trying to free three U.S. hostages while dealing with a terrorist threat to his own daughter back home.

Hannon already is a successful romance novelist with 26 books to her credit and more than 1.5 million copies sold. But Against All Odds is her first suspense novel.

“This novel was a real departure for me,” she said. “With the two-continent setting, the research challenge alone was astonishing. I’ve never been to Afghanistan or worked with law enforcement. Believe me — it’s much easier to write about relationships that take place in your backyard than a terrorist plot in a country you’ve never visited.”

Hannon even turned to SLU experts for help with the book. In one critical scene a terrorist has to gain access to a well-guarded building

that has a sophisticated alarm system. Han-non had the idea of using chemicals to dissolve glass, but she wasn’t sure it would work. She ran the idea by Dr. Steven W. Buckner, chairman of the chemistry department, who tweaked her scenario a bit to make it more plausible.

Hannon published her first romance novel in 1985 while holding down a job. Today, as a full-time novelist, she attempts to write 10 good pages a day. Her novels have been honored with a number of awards, including the coveted RITA (the “Oscar” of romantic fiction) from Ro-mance Writers of America.

Hannon said her education at SLU has served her well. She draws on her psychology major when exploring relationships. The journalism classes she took — plus her work as a reporter for The University News — help with the writ-ing. So strong was her desire to write after graduating from SLU that she went on to earn a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Her first job out of college was an entry-level po-sition in corporate communications at Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. During her 20-plus years there she rose to senior group director of the depart-ment, writing speeches for August Busch III and editing the company’s worldwide magazine. The responsibilities of the job left little time for her fiction writing. So when her publisher offered a three-book contract, she left the corporate

world behind and never looked back.

Although Against All Odds is gener-ating good reviews (Romantic Times BOOKReviews: “Hannon’s extraor-dinary writing, vivid scenes and surprise ending come together for a not-to-be-missed reading experience.”), Hannon intends to continue writ-ing romance novels as well.

“I think the romance genre offers writers an ex-traordinary opportunity to touch people’s hearts and to highlight the tremendous power of love to transform lives,” she said.

Hannon’s books can be found in the inspiration-al or faith-based fiction section of bookstores.

“Basically that means they don’t contain profan-ity, gratuitous violence or graphic sex,” Hannon said. “I don’t need those to tell my stories. I know there’s often a bias against these types of books because many people assume they’ll be preachy. But that’s not true with mine. The faith content is conveyed through worldview, not evangelizing. My books are simply clean, com-pelling fiction.” — Marie Dilg

ALUMNI SpOTLIGhT

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Photo by Kevin Lowder


dr. mark L. francis (Med) is an associate profes-sor and chief of the rheumatology division at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, Ill. He received the school’s Eskridge Translational Award in Cardiovascular Disease.

matthew geekie (A&S ’84, Law ’87) is senior vice president, secretary and general counsel of Graybar. He lives in

St. Louis.

kathy (irwin) rehmer (PS) works in ethics and compliance. She lives in Webster Groves, Mo.

rex Alexander (Parks) has flown helicop-ters for 22 years, the last 14 in air medical. He also is regional operations manager in

the central United States for Omniflight Helicopters. He lives in Fort Wayne, Ind.

william evans (PS) is retired from AT&T as direc-tor of marketing services. He lives in Grubville, Mo.

donna goelz (Law) is in the business and corpo-rate practice group at Howard & Howard Attorneys in Peoria, Ill.

nicholas Jedrich (Parks) is NASA’s deputy project manager for the Express Logistics Carrier, which was manifested for two of the last three Space Shuttle flights. He lives in Annapolis, Md.

phillip weishaar (Grad) is assistant professor of special education at Southern Illinois University Ed-wardsville in the department of special education and communication disorders. He lives in Belleville, Ill.

david gamache (Law) is president of the Commercial Law League of America for the 2008-2009 term. He lives in Imperial, Mo.

christopher hoemeke (A&S) has lived in Atlanta for 10 years and has two chil-dren, Thomas and Amy. He will participate

in his first Ironman triathlon this spring.

robert Jones (Law) is senior vice president-law, general counsel and secretary of Arch Coal Inc. He lives in St. Louis.

peter kisling (Parks) is a 757-767 captain for United Airlines based in New York. He and his wife, Shala, have three children, Andrew, Kaitlin and Austin, and live in New Milford, Conn.

Stephen murphy (Law) was approved for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit.

debra Stachowski pierce (Nurs ’87, Law ’92) is vice president of compliance and associate general counsel-health care for Golden Living, a long-term care company based in Fort Smith, Ark.

theresa counts Burke (Law) was ap-pointed to the office of associate circuit judge of the 22nd Judicial Circuit. She

lives in St. Louis.

francis murphy (A&S ’88, Law ’91) is a partner with Cordell & Cordell, a family law firm. He lives in University City, Mo.

James p. carmody (Law) is a principal at Carmody MacDonald and was one of two Mis-souri lawyers accepted this year as fellows of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. He lives in St. Louis.

grace Ann Spatafora (Grad), the Irene Heinz and John LaPorte Given Distinguished Professor in the Premedical Sciences at Middlebury College, was elected to the Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering. It is the state’s highest honor in science.

val Zillig (A&S) is the planning manager with the Urban Planning Council of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Jennifer Sommers getz (A&S ’90, Law ’93) and her husband, Patrick, welcomed baby Jacob Henry on Sept. 18. Jacob’s big

brothers are Sam, Charlie and Louie. The family lives in Webster Groves, Mo.

coleen Burrus (Grad) is director of corporate relations at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

margaret (cosgrove) dephillips (Cook) is a stay-at-home mom in suburban Chicago. She and her husband, Michael, have two children, Miranda and Miles.

gary true (Law) received his master of laws in taxation from Washington University School of Law in May. He lives in Glen Carbon, Ill.

geoffrey m. gilbert (Law) was named to the Labor Relations Institute Inc.’s 2008 Top 100 list of labor attorneys. He is with

the law firm of McMahon Berger in St. Louis.

Bret cohen (Law) is listed as a Mas-sachusetts leader in labor and employment law by the 2008 guide Chambers USA:

America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. He is with the firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, and lives in Boston.

Leonardo fontana (A&S) teaches bilingual edu-cation for the Evanston (Ill.) Public Schools. He has a new baby, Lily, and a new house in Glenview, Ill.

roy Anderson (Law) is a principal with Amelung, Wulff, Willenbrock & Pankowski, focusing on insurance defense

litigation with a specialty in workers’ com-pensation. He lives in Marine, Ill.

dr. Scott Jones (PH) is North American medical director, imaging solutions and pharmaceutical products radiation, environment, safety and health for Covidien Inc. He also continues to serve as med-ical director of BarnesCare. He lives in St. Louis.

Joy holley (Law) received a Pro Bono Award from the Missouri Bar. She lives in St. Louis.

Jeff konkel (A&S) produced and appears in a documentary film released last fall, M for Missis-sippi: A Road Trip Through the Birthplace of the Blues. He owns and runs Broke & Hungry Records in St. Louis.

donald fritschie (Law) and his wife, Laura, have three children, Emily, Jack and Grace. He is a partner/shareholder at

Wallace, Saunders, Austin, Brown, Enochs in Overland Park, Kan.

diana (Logan) Schemansky (Doisy) is an oc-cupational therapist for BJC Home Care Services in St. Louis. She and her husband, Derek, have four children, Mariah, Olivia, Megan and Nicholas, and live in St. Peters, Mo.

Brian christopher, S.J. (A&S) was ordained a deacon in October at Boston College. He is completing his master’s

of divinity at Weston Jesuit School of Theology and will be ordained to the priesthood at St. Francis Xavier College Church in St. Louis on June 13.

Jeffrey (winkler) Johnson (Cook) married Linton Johnson Oct. 25 in Hayward, Calif. He is a director at Medrio, a medical software company in Oakland, Calif., and at Elfster.com.

charles d. harris (Grad) is pursuing a doctorate in political science at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He is

spending the 2008-2009 academic year in Romania as a Fulbright Scholar.

robert kenney (Law) is the chief of staff for Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster. It is the highest position a black lawyer has ever held in the Missouri attorney general’s office.

margaret Stevens (A&S) moved to Indianapolis with her husband, Dave, and children, Alison and Colin, to serve as executive director of Indiana Campus Compact.

Angela (Schroeder) derrick (Doisy ’99, Grad Doisy ’01, ’06), her husband, Matt, and daughter, Corah, welcomed baby

Maleah in October. Angela is a pediatric physical therapist in Las Cruces, N.M.

kristin (hartnagel) donaldson (Nurs) and her husband, Tom, welcomed baby Colin Patrick on July 21. Big sisters are Lydia Kay and Erynn Maeve. Kristin has left her job at Barnes Hospital after 10 years to stay home with her children. They live in Edwardsville, Ill.

dr. Andrew Jorgensen (Med) has joined the staff at Cambridge Health Alliance’s Revere (Mass.) Family Health Center. He also is an instructor at Harvard Medical School.

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kevin myers (A&S ’99, Law ’02) is an associate in the litigation department at the law firm Danna McKitrick. He lives in Fairview Heights, Ill.

capt. Jennifer parker (A&S ’99, Law ’02) re-ceived the American Bar Association’s 2007-2008 Outstanding Young Service Lawyer Award for the U.S. Marine Corps. She is a platoon com-mander at Officer Candidate’s School and lives in Stafford, Va.

Leo peoples (PS) works in sales and lives in Florissant, Mo.

Amy gulinson-enloe (Law), an attorney in Quarles & Brady’s corporate services group in Chicago, was elected to the

board of directors for the Chicago Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law Firms.

daniel kasten (Law) serves as counsel in Arm-strong Teasdale’s intellectual property services group. He lives in Ballwin, Mo.

rebecca kitchin (A&S) is studying social work in graduate school at Salisbury University in Maryland.

col. Samuel mahaney (Law) is with the U.S. Air Force and is finishing up a yearlong national security fellowship at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He will then be stationed at the Pen-tagon and will be an adjunct professor at George-town School of Law.

Brian Saxton (Parks) and his wife, Jillian, welcomed their first child, Luke Henry, on July 16. They live in Richmond, Va. Brian is a captain at Trans States Airlines, doing business as United Express and US Airways Express.

Justin carver (Law) heads the Fulton district office of the Missouri State Public Defender System and received the 2008

Lon Hocker Award for courtroom skills and talent as a litigator.

howard depew (PS) is a systems engineer in St. Louis.

Jennifer elliott (Law) is in the health care service group at Stites & Harbison and has been elected to membership in the law firm’s Louisville, Ky., offices.

dr. Sara J. Landes (A&S) is a postdoctoral re-search fellow at Harborview Medical Center at the University of Washington and received a research grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. She lives in Seattle.

Allison orlina (Law) is a contract services coordi-nator at George Washington University Hospital, working in house operations, clinical policy advis-ing and contracts supervision. She and her husband live in Silver Spring, Md.

Ann pluemer (PS) runs her own real estate busi-ness in St. Louis. She also serves on the SLU School for Professional Studies alumni board.

dr. kimberly Zlomke rodriguez (A&S) received a doctorate in clinical psychology from Louisiana State University in August and is a postdoctoral research fellow in adolescent medicine at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital. She married Andres Rodriguez in October, and they live in Houston.

valerie tanner (PS) is managing editor for the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. She lives in St. Louis.

paul woody (A&S ’01, Law ’08) is an associate with the firm of Klar, Izsak & Stenger in Richmond Heights, Mo., in the area of civil litigation. He and his wife, christine (Shine) woody (A&S ’02, Grad SW ’06), welcomed their first child, Brendan Thomas, on Jan. 6.

Jonelle harris (A&S) works in the anti-money laundering department at Edward Jones and chairs the volunteer public

relations and marketing committee for the Ronald McDonald House in St. Louis.

dr. Beth meyerson (Grad) published Ready to Go: The History and Contributions of U.S. Public Health Advisors last summer. She lives in McCordsville, Ind.

dora Schriro (Law), director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, received an Innova-tions in American Government Award from the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School for the program “Getting Ready: Keeping Communities Safe.”

Suzanne Swacker (Law) is an associate at Car-mody MacDonald in St. Louis and serves on the board of directors for Women’s Safe House.

renea daesch (PS) is a systems engineer and lives in Belleville, Ill.

chad kreikemeier (A&S) married Elizabeth Tie-hen on Sept. 27 in Omaha, Neb., and they now live in Arlington, Va. He is the foreign policy legislative assistant for U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.).

dawn mefford (Law) is a lawyer with Simon Passanante in St. Louis and was named a 2008 “Up and Coming Lawyer” by Missouri Lawyers Weekly.

Sue (Steffens) ratz (Cook) and her husband, Billy, welcomed their first child, Natalie Marie, on Jan. 20. Sue is the media planner in SLU’s market-ing and communications office.

michael rozier, S.J. (A&S) is five years into his formation as a Jesuit and has returned to SLU to begin three years of work at the School of Public Health.

dr. douglas Sexton (Grad) is assistant professor of educational studies at Chapman University Col-lege in Palm Desert, Calif. He oversees the multiple subjects and educational leadership programs.

craig Stankiewicz (Parks) and his wife, Emily, were married in October in Louisville, Ky., and now live in Chicago. He is an airport planner for Crawford, Murphy & Tilly Inc.

troy turnipseed (PS ’03, Grad Cook ’08) is as-sistant director of graduate programs at SLU’s John Cook School of Business.

Brianne (Zinna) walker (Parks) has left the Air Force after five years of service and is now with ExxonMobil Development Co. in Houston. She has two children.

dr. eric wirtz (A&S) is an active-duty captain in the U.S. Army and is in his second year of an otolaryngology-head and neck surgery residency in Honolulu.

Juanita Bransford (PS) is a senior data specialist and lives in Florissant, Mo.

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Weathering the storm?TELL CLASS nOTES

UnivErSiTAS Class notes

Saint Louis UniversityDuBourg Hall 39One Grand Blvd.St. Louis, MO 63103

fAx: (314) 977-2249

E-MAIL: [email protected]


Jennifer collins hansen (Law) is an associate with Williams Venker & Sanders in St. Louis.

natasha harris (PS) is an assistant registrar at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

John keeley (Parks) and Abby clements (Grad ’06) were married at St. Francis Xavier College Church in August. John works for AeroNavData, and Abby works for Washington University in St. Louis.

Brandon middleton (Cook) and katie whiting (Doisy ’03, Grad Doisy ’05) were married in Au-gust in Arlington Heights, Ill. Brandon graduated from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in May 2007 and is an environmental attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento, Calif. Katie is a physical therapist with North Area Physical Therapy in Carmichael, Calif.

erik n. pearson (Parks) is based in Atlanta, where he is a captain with Pinnacle Airlines flying for Delta. He flies the new 76-passenger CRJ900.

david pfeffer (A&S ’04, Law ’07) has a clerkship with Judge Michael Murphy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Salt Lake City. After the term, he intends to return to St. Louis to practice.

Lindsay potrafke (A&S) is an associate with Faruki Ireland & Cox in Dayton, Ohio, specializ-ing in commercial business litigation.

James heffner (Law) is treasurer of the young lawyers division of the Bar Associa-tion of Metropolitan St. Louis. He is an

attorney with Danna McKitrick.

Brian kaveney (Law) is with Armstrong Teasdale in St. Louis and was selected by Missouri Lawyers Weekly as one of Missouri’s “rising stars” and was on in its 2008 “Up and Coming Lawyers” list.

Brendan kelly (Law) was elected St. Clair County (Ill.) Circuit Clerk by carrying 64 percent of the vote.

Bryan mauller (Law) is with Williams Venker & Sanders in St. Louis, concentrating on product liability and toxic tort defense.

Annie ewing (Law) works in real estate foreclosures, eviction and bankruptcy at Kozeny & McCubbin in St. Louis.

She also is the assistant varsity basketball coach at Lutheran High School South and tutors at Matthews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club.

michelle huske (Cook) married gregory muck (Cook) on Aug. 2 in Glenview, Ill. Michelle is a national retail-marketing manager for Motorola. Greg is a finance analyst for Pfizer and is enrolled in SLU’s part-time law program.

James meinert (A&S) completed his service with Jesuit Volunteers International at Fabretto in Nica-ragua in December. His service began in 2006.

kathleen childs (A&S) is continuing her service that began in 2007 with Jesuit Volunteers International at Xavier High

School in Micronesia.

colleen kiphart (A&S) is pursuing a master’s degree at the E.W. Scripps School of Journal-ism at Ohio University, specializing in magazine journalism.

Jay Lipinski (PS) is director of carrier manage-ment for Savvis Communications Inc. He lives in New Athens, Ill.

katherine moore (Law) is an associate attorney at the Gilroy Law Firm in St. Louis, specializing in eminent domain law, real estate law and business litigation. In March 2008 she married Thomas Moore.

John r. Ashcroft (Law) joined the intellectual property practice group of Armstrong Teasdale in St. Louis.

Brian Biciocchi (Cook) is a financial represen-tative for the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, associated with the Hempstead Financial Group of Clayton, Mo.

Andrew Brummel (Law) joined the transactions client service group of the Kansas City Bryan Cave office.

Jennifer doering (Law) joined Danna McKitrick in St. Louis, focusing her practice in bankruptcy as well as civil and commercial litigation.

mark Jacobs (Law) is an associate with Arm-strong Teasdale in the firm’s employment and labor practice group. He lives in Ballwin, Mo.

timmi kloster (Law) joined the real estate practice group of Armstrong Teasdale in St. Louis.

LaShonda Lambert (Law) is an associate with Evans & Dixon in St. Louis, working in the firm’s workers’ compensation practice group.

nicholas marco (Cook) is in the rotational associ-ate program for Standard Chartered Bank. He lives in Medina, Ohio.

Jason moss (PS) works at the SLU School of Medicine. He lives in Collinsville, Ill.

erica oldani (Grad) is director of selection with the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, the Hempstead Financial Group of Clayton, Mo.

Stephanie osborne (SW) is serving with Jesuit Volunteers International at Xavier High School in Micronesia.

dominic richardson (A&S) and toni roper (A&S) both live in St. Louis and have founded Art Bracket, a free platform that allows artists and art organizations to find job openings, auditions and events in their city.

kristen Schenk (A&S) is serving with Jesuit Vol-unteers International at Hand in Hand Ministries in Belize.

John vieth (Grad Cook) works in Web marketing at Commerce Bank in St. Louis. He, his wife, Amy, and daughter, Julia, welcomed new baby William Christopher in September.

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Dr. Thomas Aceto Jr., former chairman of pediatrics at the School of Medicine and former pediatrician-in-chief at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center, died

Jan. 26 at the age of 79. During his 10 years as chairman, from 1980-1990, he oversaw the development of the Pediatric Research Insti-tute and the introduction of developmental pediatrics at Cardinal Glennon.

Fr. John Hubert (Hugh) Gray, S.J., for-mer vice president for the Madrid Campus, died Jan. 11 at the age of 84. From 1979 to 1988, he was SLU’s academic vice president.

From 1988 to 1992 he was vice president of the Madrid Campus. Under his direction there, two historic buildings were purchased and renovated into classroom, meeting room and faculty office space.

Dr. Francis X. Paletta Sr., an internationally recognized physician who directed the divi-sion of plastic and re-constructive surgery at Saint Louis University for 35 years, died Feb.

12 at the age of 93. He joined the faculty of SLU’s department of surgery in 1950 and formed the residency program there in 1954. In 1956, he started the Midwest’s first cleft palate team at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital. He served as chief of the division of plastic surgery until his retirement in 1985.

Dr. Vallee L. Willman (Med ’51), chairman of the department of surgery from 1969 to 1996 and the first surgeon in the Midwest to perform a heart transplant, died Feb. 8

at the age of 83. He spent all but one year of his medical career at Saint Louis University – from his first year of medical school in 1947 to his retirement as chair of surgery in 1996. Under Dr. Willman’s leadership, SLU helped pioneer some of the procedures that led to the coronary bypass surgery. Renowned for his surgical prowess, Dr. Willman also was revered by his students as a professor who not only taught them to how to be physicians but how to think critically. Even in retirement, he remained devoted to SLU – taking classes in ethics and philosophy and inspiring oth-ers at the University through presentations on the Jesuit mission of service and on the importance of health care ethics.

This list of deceased alumni was compiled by SLU’s office of research and development services. If you have a question or would like more information about an “In Memoriam” listing, please send an e-mail message to [email protected].

Mr. Abraham Rush (Law ’33)Mr. Philip Bowser (A&S ’34)Mr. Cyril Echele (A&S ’34)Mrs. Loyola (Eberling) Bushnell

(Nurs ’35)Mr. Alois Reck (Cook ’37)Mr. James Burns (A&S ’38)Sr. Richard Caron (Nurs ’38)Mrs. Rita (Kuenkel) Cooper (A&S ’38)Dr. Amedeo Losito (Med ’38)Miss Olive Kite (A&S ’39)Mr. John Smythe (Cook ’39)Rev. J. Coomes (A&S ’40)Mr. John Ochsner (Parks ’40)Mr. Henri Renard (A&S ’40)Hon. John Rickhoff (Law ’40)Miss Ann Armbruster (Nurs ’41)Mrs. Mary (Cotter) Manthey (Doisy ’41)Mrs. Patricia (Lennon) Murphy (SW ’41)Mr. Stanley Sears (Parks ’41)Miss Mary Ellen Davis (A&S ’42) Mrs. Ceil (Golden) Reh (SW ’42) Mr. Robert Carmody (Cook ’43) Mrs. Pauline (Parrish) Christofferson

(Nurs ’43) Dr. Arthur Howard (Med ’43) Dr. Ferdinand Molak (Dent ’43) Dr. Joseph Robinson (Med ’43) Mr. Herbert Sorensen (Parks ’43) Mr. George Textor (A&S ’43) Dr. Ernst Wallen (Med ’43) Rev. Msgr. James O’Connell (Cook ’45) Dr. George Schejbal (Med ’45) Dr. Frank Dzurik (Med ’46) Dr. Richard Heublein (Dent ’46) Mr. Glenn Sahrmann (Cook ’46) Dr. Gregor Sido (Med ’46) Mrs. Rita (Wavrick) Sussex (Nurs ’46) Sr. Barbara Guckenheim (A&S ’47) Mr. James Pulliam (A&S ’47) Miss Marian Reisch (Nurs ’47) Mr. Albert Woelfle (Cook ’47) Mr. Harry Clark (Cook ’48) Dr. Albert English (Dent ’48) Mr. Lafayette Foland (Cook ’48) Sr. Mary Higgs (Nurs ’48) Mr. Paul Lackland (Cook ’48) Dr. Peter Mathieu (Med ’48) Dr. Giacomo Mordente (Dent ’48) Mr. Richard Rice (Cook ’48) Ms. Mary (Loncaric) Sacone (A&S ’48) Mr. Richard Schweiger (Cook ’48) Mr. Lewis Stanley (Parks ’48) Mr. David Barrett (Cook ’49) Mr. Joseph Brennan (Parks ’49) Rev. John Futrell (A&S ’49) Dr. James Gallagher (A&S ’49)

Mr. Thomas Glennon (A&S ’49) Mr. Allan Gramlich (Cook ’49) Mrs. Margaret (Barker) Mangold

(SW ’49) Mrs. Betty (Cook) Musacchia

(Doisy ’49) Dr. Richard Saunders (Med ’49) Sr. Mary Schmitt (A&S ’49) Mrs. Joan (Seliga) Sommer (A&S ’49) Mr. Lawrence Berger (IT ’50) Mr. George Burger (Cook ’50) Mr. Angelo Constantin (Cook ’50) Dr. James Donahoe (Med ’50) Mr. Joseph Fowler (Cook ’50) Ms. Kathleen McNamara (Nurs ’50) Mr. Aloysius Michels (Parks ’50) Mr. Hugh Neville (Law ’50) Dr. Harold Schwarz (Med ’50) Mr. Alvin Simpson (IT ’50) Hon. John Bardgett (Law ’51) Sr. Mary Brinks, C.P.P.S. (A&S ’51) Dr. John Doggett (Dent ’51) Dr. Bernard Fehlman (Med ’51) Mr. Thomas Lyons (Cook ’51) Dr. William Sullivan (Med ’51) Mr. Daniel Burdette (Cook ’52) Dr. Robert Burns (Med ’52) Dr. Joseph Fulford (Dent ’52) Mr. Frank Green (Law ’52) Mrs. Irmgard Messmann (A&S ’52) Mrs. Patricia (Van Sant) Real (Nurs ’52) Dr. Eugene Tucker (Med ’52) Dr. Donald Belknap (Med ’53) Mr. Richard Derr (PH ’53) Dr. William Doubek (Med ’53) Mrs. Barbara Jean (Madura) Gordon

(Nurs ’53) Mrs. Esther (Cornbleth) Haravitch

(Doisy ’53) Mr. Robert McGroarty (IT ’53) Mrs. Callista (Curry) Basta (SW ’54) Mr. Carl Gabriel (Pub Ser ’54) Dr. Neil Gallagher (Med ’54) Dr. Charles Gariety (Med ’54) Mr. Kevin Harrington (A&S ’54) Mr. Robert Noonan (Cook ’54) Mr. John Schulz (IT ’54) Sr. Mary Chopp (Nurs ’55) Mr. Joseph Gorman (A&S ’55) Mr. Robert Hessel (Cook ’55) Mrs. Dolores (Pike) Larocque (Nurs ’55) Mr. Herbert Matthews (A&S ’55) Mr. John Rudis (Cook ’55) Mr. Robert Spalding (Law ’55) Sr. Eleanor Young, C.C.V.I.

(Pub Ser ’55) Mrs. Wyvetter (Hoover) Younge

(Law ’55)

Dr. Duane Anderson (Dent ’56) Sr. Veronica Considine (Pub Ser ’56) Col. Duane Cutright (Dent ’56) Dr. William Dixon (A&S ’56) Mr. George Fatsi (Parks ’56) Mr. William Murphy (Law ’56) Mr. Guido Negri (Cook ’56) Mr. Carl Stolwyk (IT ’56) Mr. Grantford Thomas (A&S ’56) Dr. Kenneth Walter (Med ’56) Mr. Edwin Harris (A&S ’57) Mr. Joseph Huber (Cook ’57) Mr. Albert Kadlec (Cook ’57) Mrs. Arlene (Alderson) Kellogg

(A&S ’57) Mr. Donald Peterson (Law ’57) Mr. John Richardson (Parks ’57) Hon. James Darst (Law ’58) Mr. William Eckess (IT ’58) Miss Virginia Keesee (Nurs ’58) Mr. George Meisel (Law ’58) Mr. Walter Engelbart (IT ’59) Mr. Arthur Herder (Law ’59) Mr. Kenneth Stanger (Parks ’59) Dr. Desiderius Vikor (A&S ’59) Ms. Dorothy Dolder (Doisy ’60) Mr. James Duncan (Cook ’60) Mrs. Margaret (Gorman) Hohnstedt

(Nurs ’60) Mr. Luther Ihle (PH ’60) Mrs. Gloria (Mittong) Simms (A&S ’60) Dr. William Tierney (Med ’60) Mr. Roland Young (A&S ’60) Mr. Robert Filla (Cook ’61) Sr. Christopher Querin (A&S ’61) Mr. Paul Tonies (Cook ’61) Mr. Leo Boberschmidt (A&S ’62) Mr. Robert Fetch (Pub Ser ’62) Sr. Mary Loftus (Pub Ser ’62) Mr. Howard Margraff (Cook ’62) Dr. Joseph Murray (A&S ’62) Mr. Claude Oldani (Cook ’62) Dr. John Phillips (Med ’62) Mr. Harvey Reichle (Cook ’62) Miss Dorothy Rosenfelder (A&S ’62) Mr. Charles Schukai (Cook ’62) Mr. Kenneth Sullivan (IT ’62) Mr. Arthur Vogel (Cook ’62) Mr. Charles Blood (Parks ’63) Mr. Edmund Perun (PH ’63) Mr. Richard Harig (Cook ’64) Mr. Willis Nesheim (IT ’64) Dr. Mario Santizo (A&S ’64) Mrs. Susan Caner (A&S ’65) Dr. Edward Flagg (A&S ’65) Sr. Tosca Massoni (Pub Ser ’65) Mr. Gerald Meyer (Pub Ser ’65) Mr. Daniel Sheehan (Law ’65) Mr. David Spitznagel (Law ’65) Sr. Veronica Tebbe (A&S ’65) Mr. James Townsend (Cook ’65)

Mrs. Marilyn (Burwen) Berger (Pub Ser ’66)

Mr. Manik Bhatia (IT ’67) Mr. Jean Bollinger (A&S ’67) Mr. James Lyons (Cook ’67) Mrs. Florence (Laumann) Preiner

(Nurs ’67) Sr. Mary Werner Keith (PH ’67) Mr. Donald Weyerich (Law ’67) Sr. Mary Achille Bugnitz (Pub Ser ’68) Mrs. Terry (Tegeler) Carlson (A&S ’68) Mr. Gerald Garner (A&S ’68) Dr. John King (Med ’68) Mr. James Russell (Cook ’68) Mr. James Swanston (Cook ’68) Mr. Allan Donnan (A&S ’69) Mr. Lawrence Higgins (Cook ’69) Mrs. Jane Lorenz (Pub Ser ’69) Ms. Patricia Printy (A&S ’69) Mr. Andrew Granat (Cook ’70) Mr. John Mahon (A&S ’70) Mrs. Marta (Hernandez) McCarron

(A&S ’70) Mr. George Kesler (Cook ’72) Mrs. Annora (Kelledy) Koetting

(A&S ’72) Mr. R. Holekamp (A&S ’73) Ms. Margaret Morriss (A&S ’73) Dr. George Newberry (Pub Ser ’73) Mr. Lester Paff (Law ’73) Dr. Delphin Schulz (Pub Ser ’74) Mrs. Mary (Hope) Cordes (A&S ’75) Dr. Robert Dennington (Grad ’75) Dr. Judith McGee (A&S ’75) Dr. Robert Pigg (Pub Ser ’75) Mr. Bernard Hoffmann (PS ’76) Mr. Timothy James (A&S ’76) Mr. Michael Norton (A&S ’76) Mr. Middleton Perry (Cook ’76) Rev. Dale Long (PH ’77) Mr. John Sander (Law ’77) Dr. Huei-Yuin Wang (A&S ’77) Dr. Michael Cunningham (Med ’78) Dr. Collins Henson (Pub Ser ’78) Dr. Henry Houser (Cook ’78) Dr. William Matthews (Pub Ser ’79) Dr. Thomas Spencer (Pub Ser ’79) Mr. Edwin Schubel (Cook ’81)Ms. Mary Dinkel (Law ’82)Sr. Angelica Coleman, C.C.V.I. (PH ’83)Dr. Douglas Pohl (Med ’83)Mrs. Janet Wilson (Nurs ’83)Mr. Cornelius Toomey (A&S ’84)Ms. Joanne (Kelley) Flynn (A&S ’85)Mr. Kevin Wade (A&S ’85)Mr. Mark Bertsch (Law ’86)Mr. Vernon Dudas (Law ’86)Mr. Gregory Eisenhauer (Cook ’86)Mrs. Joan (Schierding) Dankner

(Nurs ’88)Mr. Charles Zurfluh (Cook ’92)Mrs. Sandra Kimbrell (Law ’00)Mr. Michael Jacobs (A&S ’02)


Black Alumni Association President: Delouis Booth (A&S ’93, Grad ’00)

ANNUAL PRAYER BREAKfASTSaturday, April 25; 9 a.m. Busch Student Center, Saint Louis RoomPlease join us in celebrating the achievements of the SLU Mcnair Scholars and Martin Luther king jr. Scholars. Cost: $35 per alum billikenalumni.slu.edu/prayerbreakfast09

John Cook School of Business President: Jamie Jabouri (’99)

2009 ExCELLENCE AWARDSSaturday, May 9; 6:30 p.m. cocktails; 7:15 p.m. dinner and program, Shanahan Atrium in John and Lucy Cook Halljoin Dean Ellen Harshman, faculty and alumni to recognize distinguished alumni, faculty and corporate partners living the mission of service to the community and dedication to SLU through personal and professional activities.billikenalumni.slu.edu/excellenceawards09

Doisy College of health Sciences TRIVIA NIGHTSaturday, April 4; 6 p.m.; Allied Health Building, third floorjoin alumni, faculty, staff and friends for the annual trivia night. All proceeds benefit the Doisy College of Health Sciences Alumni Association Scholarship fund. billikenalumni.slu.edu/doisytrivia09

ALUMNI RECEPTIONTuesday, May 26; 6-7:30 p.m.; San Diego To be held in conjunction with the American Academy of Physician Assistants annual conference.for more information, call the SLU Medical Center office of alumni relations at (314) 977-8335.

School of public health ALUMNI RECEPTIONTuesday, March 24; 6:30-8:30 p.m.; Hilton Chicago HotelTo be held in conjunction with the American College of Healthcare Executives annual meeting.for more information, call the SLU Medical Center office of alumni relations at (314) 977-8335.

School of Dentistry/Center for Advanced Dental education President: Dr. Eugene Hayes (Dent ’66, Grad ’76)

ALUMNI RECEPTIONS Thursday, April 30; 6-8 p.m.; Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center, Orlando, fla.To be held in conjunction with the American Association of Endodontists annual session.Saturday, May 2; Boston; time and location to be announcedTo be held in conjunction with the American Association of Orthodontists annual session.for reservations, call the SLU Medical Center office of alumni relations at (314) 977-8335.

School of Medicine President: Dr. Thomas J. Olsen (’79)

ALUMNI RECEPTIONSfriday, April 3; 5:30-7 p.m.; Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Mo.To be held in conjunction with the Missouri State Medical Association annual convention. Tuesday, April 28; 6:30-8 p.m.; Sheraton Seattle HotelTo be held in conjunction with the American Academy of neurology annual meeting. Sunday, May 3, 7:30-9 p.m.; Hilton BaltimoreTo be held in conjunction with the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting.Tuesday, May 5; 5:30-7:30 p.m.; Hilton Chicago HotelTo be held in conjunction with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists annual clinical meeting. Monday, May 18; Westin San francisco Market Street HotelTo be held in conjunction with the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting. for reservations or more information about any of these receptions, call the SLU Medical Center office of alumni relations at (314) 977-8335.

School for professional Studies President: Renea Daesch (’03)

SENIOR RECOGNITION RECEPTIONfriday, May 8; 5-7 p.m.; Busch Student Center, St. Louis Roomjoin alumni, faculty and staff for a special reception honoring the May graduates.


{ alumni events }

Billiken Travel program Tours

Being a Billiken traveler puts the world at your feet. This is your chance to see it all.

2009 trip ScheduLe:

ApriL 28-mAy 11 Ukraine and RomaniamAy 4-12 france – NormandyJuLy 10-18 Ireland – ennisAug. 4-12 Cruise the Baltic SeaAug. 15-23 Cruise the Rhine RiverSept. 26-oct. 4 Italian Rivieranov. 21-30 Israel

fOR MORe DeTAILS ABOUT THeSe TRIPS AND HOW TO ReSeRVe YOUR SPACe, VISIT THe TRAVeL PROGRAM WeB SITe AT WWW.SLU.EDU/ALUMNI/TRAVEL OR

CALL (314) 977-2250 AND ASK TO Be PLACeD ON THe TRAVeL MAILING LIST.

Club City Calendar

Alumni Associations

AtLAntA | Alane Lintner (Cook ’94)(678) 461-3543 • [email protected]

BoSton | Chris Espelin (A&S ’91)(617) 484-3868 • [email protected]

chicAgo | Joe Havel (Cook ’91) (312) 397-4141 • [email protected]

cincinnAti | John Lange IV (Cook ’93)(859) 341-9603 • [email protected]

cLeveLAnd | Mark Carrabine (Cook ’75) (404) 349-2925 • [email protected]

dALLAS | Jamar Johnson (Cook ’00) (214) 334-4904 • [email protected]

denver | David Sapienza (A&S ’96) (303) 683-5730 • [email protected]

detroit | Daniel J. McGlynn (A&S ’88) (313) 259-8640 • [email protected]

houSton | Josh Howard (Cook ’98)(281) 885-8677 • [email protected]

kAnSAS city | Elizabeth Kisthardt (SW ’04) (913) 219-1422 • [email protected]

LoS AngeLeS | Brian Merriman (A&S ’95)(310) 244-6761 • [email protected]

LouiSviLLe | Lee Hyman (PUB HLTH ’95)(502) 459-4707 • [email protected]

miLwAukee | To Be AnnoUnCeD

minne ApoLiS / St. pAuL | Justin Fletcher (Cook ’00)

(952) 949-1120 • [email protected]

new york | John J. Shanahan (Cook ’83, LAW ’87, GRAD Cook ’89)


omAhA | Brad Burwell (A&S ’72)(402) 896-1923 • [email protected]

phiLAdeLphiA | Donald Richardson (GRAD ’76)(610) 539-9398 • [email protected]

SAn frAnciSco | Mark Olson (A&S ’77)(925) 691-8628 • [email protected]

SeAttLe / tAcomA | To Be AnnoUnCeD

SpringfieLd / decAtur | Judy Redick (A&S ’62)


tAmpA | Amanda Hornberger (Cook ’99)[email protected]

wAShington, d.c. | Jim Swift (Cook ’06)[email protected]

tAiwAn | Larry Chang (PUB HLTH ’88, GRAD ’00)[email protected]

thAiLAnd | Praemrudee Switachata (GRAD ’75)[email protected]

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SPRING TRAININGST. LOUIS CARDINALS VS. MINNESOTA TWINS

Sunday, March 29; 11:30 a.m.; Hammond Stadium, Fort Myers, Fla.Cost: $35 per person; includes pregame barbecue and field box ticket To register, visit billikenalumni.slu.edu/sptr09

SLU eASTer egg hUNTSaturday, April 11; 11 a.m.-1 p.m., SLU campus

J oin us for this special Saint Louis University tradition. Spring flowers and green grass have

returned, and so has the Easter Bunny and all his treats. Bring the entire family back to campus for this Easter celebration. We will have special hunts for different age groups, as well as prizes and Eas-ter goodies. Bring your camera to get that special shot of your child with the main bunny himself.

billikenalumni.slu.edu/easter09for more information, contact the office of

alumni relations at (314) 977-2250.

homeComINg 2009Sept. 25-27

J oin the SLU community in celebrating 2009 Homecoming

weekend. Come back to campus to enjoy all of the traditional fun — a concert, campus tours, the golf cart parade, soccer and fireworks. Mark your calendar now and make plans to come home to SLU this September.

www.slu.edu/alumni/homecoming.html

fOr MOrE infOrMATiOn Or rESErvATiOnS fOr Any Of THESE EvEnTS, COnTACT:

office of alUmni relations

(314) 977-2250 | [email protected] WWW.SLU.EDU/ALUMni

ATLANTACARDINALS VS. BRAVESMonday, April 27; 5:30 p.m. pregame reception, Top of the Chop Patio; 7:10 p.m. first pitch, Turner FieldCost: $30 per person; includes reception and game ticketbillikenalumni.slu.edu/braves09

BOSTON A’S VS. RED SOxWednesday, July 8; 6 p.m. pregame reception; 7:05 p.m. first pitch, Fenway ParkCost: TBDbillikenalumni.slu.edu/redsox09

ChICAGOMARY POPPINS Sunday, April 19; 11 a.m. preshow light brunch; 1 p.m. curtain, Cadillac Palace TheatreCost: $90 per person; includes show ticket and brunchbillikenalumni.slu.edu/poppinschicago09

WHITE SOx VS. INDIANSFriday, June 5; 5 p.m. pregame reception on the Patio, U.S. Cellular Field; 7 p.m. first pitchCost: $40 per person; includes reception and game ticketbillikenalumni.slu.edu/chicagosox09

CINCINNATICARDINALS VS. REDSFriday, May 8; 5:30 p.m. pregame party at Hofbrauhaus; 7:10 p.m. first pitch, Great American BallparkCost: $20 per person; includes appetizers and game ticketbillikenalumni.slu.edu/reds09

CLeVeLANDCARDINALS VS. INDIANSFriday, June 12; 6 p.m. pregame reception on the Party Deck; 7 p.m. first pitch, Progressive FieldCost: $45 per person; includes game ticket and all-you-can-eat buffetbillikenalumni.slu.edu/indians09

DALLASMASS AND BRUNCHSunday, May 3; 9:30 a.m. Mass at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas; brunch and reception immediately to followCost: $5 per personbillikenalumni.slu.edu/dallasmass09

KANSAS CITYMASS AND RECEPTIONSaturday, March 28; 5 p.m. Mass at Rockhurst High School; reception immediately to followCost: $5 per person billikenalumni.slu.edu/kcmass09

CARDINALS VS. ROYALSSaturday, June 20; 5 p.m. pregame dinner, Field Plaza; 7 p.m. first pitch, Kauffman StadiumCost: $35 per person; includes game ticket and dinnerbillikenalumni.slu.edu/kcgame09

LEGALLY BLONDE Wednesday, July 1; 6 p.m. preshow dinner; 8 p.m. curtain, Starlight TheaterCost: $55 per person; includes reception, free parking, backstage tour and plaza seating for the showbillikenalumni.slu.edu/kclegallyblonde09

LOS ANGeLeS/SOUTheRN CALIFORNIAGUYS AND DOLLS AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWLSunday, Aug. 2; 5:30 p.m. preshow dinner at the Bowl; 7:30 p.m. performanceCost: $45 per person; includes dinner and show ticketbillikenalumni.slu.edu/lasummer09

CARDINALS VS. DODGERSWednesday, Aug. 19; 7 p.m. first pitch, Dodger StadiumCost: $25 per ticket in the all-you-can-eat pavilionbillikenalumni.slu.edu/lasummer09

CARDINALS VS. PADRESSaturday, Aug. 22; 5:30 p.m. pregame reception on the rooftop; 7 p.m. first pitch, PETCO ParkCost: $35 per person; includes reception and game ticketbillikenalumni.slu.edu/lasummer09

LEGALLY BLONDESunday, Aug. 30; noon preshow reception; 1 p.m. curtain, Pantages TheaterCost: $80 per person; includes orchestra-level ticket and receptionbillikenalumni.slu.edu/lasummer09

LOUISVILLeSLU DAY AT CHURCHILL DOWNSSunday, June 7; 11 a.m., Churchill Downsjoin fellow SLU alumni for brunch and a day of horse racing at historic Churchill Downs.

Cost: $25 per personbillikenalumni.slu.edu/churchilldowns09

New YORKWEST SIDE STORY Sunday, June 21; 1 p.m. preshow reception; 3 p.m. curtain, Palace TheatreCost: $100 per person; includes reception and orchestra-level seatbillikenalumni.slu.edu/nysummer09

CARDINALS VS. METSMonday, June 22; 5:30 p.m. pregame dinner in a private Empire Suite; 7 p.m. first pitch, Citi FieldCost: $50 per person; includes reception and game ticketbillikenalumni.slu.edu/nysummer09

phILADeLphIACARDINALS VS. PHILLIESFriday, July 24; 5:30 p.m. pregame dinner; 7 p.m. first pitch, Citizens Bank ParkCost: $40 per person; includes dinner and game ticketbillikenalumni.slu.edu/phillies09

phOeNIXCARDINALS VS. DIAMONDBACKSTuesday, April 14; 5:30 p.m. pregame reception; 6:40 p.m. first pitch, Chase FieldCost: TBDbillikenalumni.slu.edu/dbacks09

SAN FRANCISCO CARDINALS VS. GIANTSSunday, May 31; noon pregame stadium tailgate; 1:10 p.m. first pitch, AT&T ParkCost: $35 per person; includes reception and game ticketbillikenalumni.slu.edu/giants09

wAShINGTON, D.C.CARDINALS VS. NATIONALS Friday, May 1; 6 p.m. pregame reception; 7:05 p.m. first pitch, Nationals ParkCost: TBDbillikenalumni.slu.edu/nationals09

Photo by Clayton Berry Phot

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w hat is black and white and red all over? OK, you’ve heard this riddle, right? So what’s your answer?

A newspaper? You were born before 1950. A skunk with diaper rash? You’re at the tail end of the boomer generation. An embarrassed zebra? Your grade school or high school kids told you this answer. A wounded nun? You’ve been educated in the Catholic school system, and your knuckles can prove it. Or a nun told you this joke after Vatican II. (That’s how I collected it!) Fidel Penguin? You’re an intellectual, or think you are. Or you are “punish” — Fa-ther Walter Ong, S.J., told me I could use that word. Or you love to play with words and conundrums.

The different answers to this riddling question — and there are many more in all regions of the United States — get to the very essence of folklore. Too often these oral texts are dismissed as trivia, silliness, lies or even myths. But they represent the informal learning process each of us experiences. They reflect our age and culture. And more than the formal learning process of diagramming sentences or solving algebraic equations, they remain with us throughout our life-time and are most often manifested in our critical rites of passage. There is an exact science of folklore, based on fieldwork, participant observation and textual recording in indices covering all genres of the oral tradition. Scholars from many differing disciplines study the vocabulary of the folk, or their ritu-als, beliefs, superstitions, rhymes, games, foods, expressions and even graffiti. All are seeking the meaning of the folk text as reflective of the culture. For more than three decades I have been a missionary for the cause: the importance of collecting the folklore to explain our cul-ture. Why do families have junk drawers with a “doohickey” in them, and everyone knows to get the screwdriver when asked? Why do we throw broken mirrors in water?

Why do we bow at funeral processions? Why do jump rope rhymes with cadenced topical verses dominate elementary school recesses? And what is the significance of the changes in their subject matter? Why are autograph book verses still being written? What does graffiti tell us? What are all those urban legends trying to teach us? After all, how many choking Do-bermans or Kentucky Fried Rats or Wal-Mart poisonous spiders can there be? Why ghost stories? Why are Gus’ pretzels — a St. Louis product — called “Mary sticks” and, when dipped in raspberry mustard, cure a hangover? All these examples, and their variations, can be found in all parts of the United States. Why? What does it say about us? Does it define our “character?” Bottom line: We need to have this folk-lore in our lives! It is necessary to validate our group bond: Plucking the daisy petals will surely predict the future husband. It is necessary to educate: “God doesn’t pay every Friday” or “Always remember to wear clean underwear; you might be in an accident.” It is necessary to integrate: “Warsh” and then

“rinsh” the dishes in the “zink.” And it is necessary to compensate: “It’s not my fault. Blame the broken mirror, or the bird that flew into the house, or the umbrella opened in the house, or the hat on the bed!”

The “raplexity” — rapid/complex change — of our society has given us even more folklore around a computer. Collecting the texts in all their variations can explain the culture as no other source. For the folk group always expresses in traditional ways — the same folk groups speak similar patterns through gen-erations. They present their lore orally, which gives way to different versions but all based on the same formula. The ori-gins of the texts are anonymous — usually

“they say” is the originator. But combined, all these criteria give way to a primary source that must not be dismissed. Re-membering, collecting, comparing and then passing it on can help us define our culture in a productive way. After all, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis is filled with “ionic” devices that actually control the weather of the region! I’m sure you heard that, haven’t you? The Arch Ef-fect is a folk tale of epic proportions. Check it out and then pass it on.Oldani is the author of Passing It On: Folklore of St. Louis. For 30 years, he was a professor, primarily at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and he was the only scriptwriter for Johnny Cash’s radio program American Folklore. He also is the author of Sweetness Preserved: The Story of the Crown Candy Kitchen. Contact him at [email protected].

{ perspective }

— By Dr. John L. Oldani (A&S ’64, Grad ’67))

Photo by Kevin Lowder


{ the last word }

Please send us your letters, class notes and address changes. There are three easy ways to reach us.

BILLIKEN STORY BRINGS POSTCARD

I got a real kick out of your last issue regarding “The Billiken: From Fad to Icon” (fall 2008).

Enclosed please find a picture post-card from the pre-World War II era. I have kept this aside for many years out of my collection — now to be added to your memorabilia department.

Dr. Alvin L. Krasne (DeNT ’46) | Boynton Beach, Fla.

BILLIKEN SIGHTING: 1899 NEWSPAPER

Forty-five years ago William B. Faherty, S.J., history professor, inspired me to no end in his Western Civilization class. It was one of the few “A” grades I received in college. One profound state-ment rings true today, as Father Faherty’s message to us then was:

“You must have a sense of history.” Today, having a sense of history is more important than ever. The History Channel, in addition to other “special” channels, serve as follow-ups to Father Faherty’s instruction and friendship over the years.

With that in mind, I enclose an interesting piece cover-ing the use of the term Billiken in 1899 found at the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.

Robert L. Potvin (A&S ’65) PReSIDeNT, NORTH BROOKfIeLD HISTORICAL COMMISSION | North Brookfield, Mass.

FAMILIAR FACES FOUND

Our family was thrilled to find ourselves featured on page 30 of Universitas (“Alumni Events”)! We always read each issue and enjoy seeing “faces from the past!” Keep up the outstanding work.

Penny Karst | Warson Woods, Mo.

KEEPING SLU IN THE FAMILY

The “Legacies” story about alumni whose children and grandchildren were welcomed as freshmen at SLU that appeared in the fall 2008 issue of Universitas inspired James J. Amelung (Law ’53) to share his own legacy photo. Pictured at his grandson’s wedding in October in Kansas City, Mo., are James (top

left), grandson — and groom — Timothy Gallagher (Parks ’01), and sons Don Amelung (Cook ’80) and Michael Amelung (Cook ’82).

1BY STANDARD MAIL:

Universitas Saint Louis University

One Grand Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63103

2BY fAx:

(314) 977-2249

3BY E-MAIL:[email protected]

30 years ago in Universitas

The spring 1979 issue of Universi-tas, then a tabloid-size newslet-

ter, featured a front-page item about the appointment of a new president, Thomas R. fitzgerald, S.J., then presi-dent of fairfield University. fitzgerald, SLU’s 30th president, remained at Saint Louis University until 1987.

Another front page story reported that at commencement comedian Bob Hope

and his wife, Dolores, would receive honorary doctor of humanities degrees in recognition of their humani-tarian efforts.

Inside, an article announced the establish-ment of the Center for Health Services education and Research, the precur-sor to SLU’s School of Public Health. The center consolidated three ex-isting master’s degree programs, including one in hospital and health administration, which was among the oldest in the country.

The issue also carried news of the SLU hockey team’s final season, which ended with a win against Lake Superior State College and a season record of 16-16-3. The hockey program, which lasted nine years, was discontinued due to its ex-pense and a lack of self-sustaining funding.

Quotable UTAS“Saint Louis University, strange as it may seem, has reached its 161st year without ever devel-oping a formal historical archive. Alumni readers, however, can now rest assured that the campus events in which they played a part will be properly preserved for posterity.”

— from an article about the launch of an official SLU archives department, founded by John f. Bannon, S.J., professor emeritus of history

Sign of the Times

“Dr. Alan Greenspan, chairman of the

President’s Council of Economic Advisers under

the Ford administration, devoted part of a recent

speech at the University to predicting a major investment

boom for American business during the 1980s.”

— Greenspan spoke at SLU on March 20, 1979. His

speech was titled: “finan-cial Markets and the

future of the U.S. economy.”

Non-profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDSt. Louis, MOPermit No. 134

One Grand Blvd.St. Louis, MO 63103

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

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Just go to billikenalumni.slu.edu/green, provide us with a current e-mail address, and help us move toward paperless communication.

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japanese billiken visits american brother at · pdf filethe japanese visitors were in st....

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