Alumni return, reminisce, and recognize the retiring presidential couple
Lawrence Today magazine, Fall 2004
There is an ongoing debate in certain circles as to whether there is
such a word as “reune” — allegedly the verb for what one does
at a “reunion.” Pending resolution of the issue, we’ll
stick with “reunite,” thank you very much, and note that a considerable
amount of reuniting took place at Lawrence in June, when more than 900 alumni
and guests gathered for Reunion Weekend 2004.
The
main business of Reunion Weekend is, of course, class reunions, which this
year meant the Classes of 1994 (10th
Reunion), 1988-1990 (15th
Reunion Cluster), 1979 (25th
Reunion), 1968-70 (35th
Reunion Cluster), 1964 (40th
Reunion), and 1954 (50th Reunion)
and the Classes of 1940–49 (Fractured
Forties Reunion).
In addition to the “official” schedule planned for each reunion group,
some classes laid on special events of their own. Organizers of the 35th Cluster
Reunion planned a “Freshman Studies Reprise,” by way of a book discussion
led by Gervais Reed, professor emeritus of French, and Richard Yatzeck,
professor of Russian.
Members of the Class of 1964 arranged to have coffee and donuts in
the Union with their faculty contemporaries, Corry Azzi, ’65, professor
emeritus of economics, and Daniel Taylor, ’63, the Hiram A. Jones Professor
of Classics.
Members of the Classes of 1940 through 1949 were invited to attend a custom-designed
Fractured Forties Reunion, so called because many in those classes saw their
college careers fractured by World War II and then resumed under the postwar
GI Bill. Along with members of the 50th Reunion Class of 1954 and the Super
Golden Reunion Classes of 1939 and before, the Fractured Forties folks were
housed in Hiett Hall, Lawrence’s newest student residence, which had just completed
its first academic year of student residency.
Previous Reunion Weekends have offered reunions-within-the-reunion tailored
to such specialized alumni constituencies as choir members, jazz musicians,
and
veterans of the Kurgan Term in Russia. This year, alumni of the Wind
Ensemble
and Symphonic Band from the Classes of 1980-2003 participated in activities
led by retiring Director of Bands Robert
Levy that included a
Friday concert and a Saturday trumpet recital.
Alumni who are members of The Founders Club and the Lawrence-Downer Legacy
Circle were guests of President and Mrs. Warch for a special program and reception.
Offering
an even dozen opportunities for continued learning, Friday’s Alumni
College courses ranged from classical Greece to modern Iraq and from music
to wine, with stops at Freshman Studies and a World
War II exhibit at the Outagamie
Museum. Also on the “faculty” were alumni Harry MacLean, ’64,
teaching “The Art of Non-Fiction Narrative,” and Davis Fisher, ’64,
who offered “Understanding Money Styles.” In addition, class sessions
throughout the day introduced reunion-goers to “Voyager for Alumni,” Lawrence’s
new Web-based alumni directory service.
Retired Coach Gene Davis, who planned the route for Reunion Weekend’s
annual 5K Fun Run/Walk and presided
over it for a number of years, was invited to return
this year as starter for the 2004 edition.
The all-volunteer Alumni Choir rehearsed
on Saturday and then, as is tradition, performed at the Reunion Convocation,
under the direction of Richard Bjella,
associate professor of music and director of choral studies, and accompanied
at the Brombaugh Opus 33 organ by David A. Heller, ’81, professor of
music and university organist at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas.
For its second number, from Handel’s Messiah, the choir
was conducted by Richard
Westenburg, ’54, D.F.A. ’80, music director
of Musica Sacra, New York City.
Centerpiece of the 2004 Reunion Convocation was retiring President Richard
Warch’s
annual state-of-the-university address to
the alumni, appropriately titled “One
Last Time.” Presided over by Alumni Association President Jo Howarth
Noonan, ’78,
the convocation also included formal presentation of class reunion gifts
(which will be covered in a printed publication, Report on Giving
2003-04), as
well as the annual presentation of awards honoring individual alumni, which
are reported below.
Finally — using that word quite literally — the Reunion Convocation
offered an opportunity for alumni to express appreciation for the service to
Lawrence of Richard and Margot Warch — which included the presentation
of three large notebooks of messages from alumni and other friends, clandestinely
solicited by the Alumni Office and received in great numbers.
Eight alumni honored for career achievement, service
Three alumni were recognized with distinguished achievement awards and five
with service awards during Reunion Weekend. Jean Bragg Schumaker’s
award was presented at her class’s Friday night dinner
by Board of Trustees Chair Jeffrey Riester, ’70; all others were conferred
at Saturday’s Reunion Convocation by President Warch.
Jean Bragg Schumaker, ’68, and David Hawkanson, ’69, received
the Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award, which recognizes alumni
of more than 15 years for outstanding contributions to and achievements in
a career field.
Schumaker
co-founded the Center for Research on Learning at the University of Kansas
in 1978 and now serves as its associate director. Also an associate professor
in the Department of Special Education at the UK, she is regarded
as one
of the
nation’s leading researchers in the field of learning disabilities.
She has been principal investigator of research grants and contracts totaling
nearly $60 million and has written more than 80 articles for professional
journals, 29 book chapters, and 45 books and instructional manuals for classroom
teachers, including Teaching Every Adolescent Every Day: Learning
in Diverse High School Classrooms, which she co-edited.
Schumaker also founded the International Training Network (ITN), whose 1,200
trainers teach educators throughout the world to use the scientifically based
instructional practices developed by the CRL. In 1983, she established Edge
Enterprises, an educational research and publishing organization that provides
specialized instructional materials to educators.
Hawkanson, executive director of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, has
had a distinguished 30-year professional career managing regional theatres
across the country. Prior to being named executive director of Steppenwolf
Theatre in 2003, he spent six years as managing director of the Guthrie Theater
in Minneapolis, where he first began his career as a house manager in 1970.
He also has held managerial positions with the American Conservatory Theater,
the Arizona Theater Company, and the Hartford Stage Company, which received
a special Tony Award in 1989 for
outstanding achievement in regional theatre while under his management.
Hawkanson is a former senior staff member at the National Endowment for the
Arts and a former chairman and panelist for its theatre program. He has served
as an officer and
board member of the Alliance for Arts Advocates, Theater Trustees of America,
the Theatre Communications Group, Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, New York
Stage and Film, and the American Arts Alliance.
Mary Louise Knutson, ’88, received the Nathan M. Pusey Young Alumni
Distinguished Achievement Award, which recognizes alumni of 15 years or less
for significant
contributions to and achievements in a career field.
A jazz pianist and composer based in Minneapolis, Knutson has been called “one
of the most exciting and innovative artists to happen to jazz piano in quite
some time.” Her debut jazz trio CD, “Call Me When You Get There,” spent
eight consecutive weeks in the top 50 in the United States and Canada following
its 2001 release and earned Knutson “Top New Jazz Instrumentalist
of the Year” honors.
She has been honored numerous times as a composer, including two awards from
Billboard magazine, and her composition “Merle the Pearl” streams
on the Internet as the theme music for “Jazz Release,” an interview
program on JazzSteps.com. In addition, the CD’s title track composition
was selected as the music for the art documentary “Wellington Lee:
60 Years of Artistic Photography.”
A former instructor in jazz piano and improvisation at Carleton College,
Knutson has toured
internationally and regularly plays clubs, festivals, and concert halls with
her jazz trio or as a soloist.
William
Mittlefehldt, ’68, received the George B.
Walter Service to Society Award, which recognizes alumni who best exemplify
the ideals of a liberal education through socially useful service in their
community, the nation, or the world. Since 1974, Mittlefehldt has taught
social studies, futuristics, environmental issues, and — by
example — community
service at Anoka High School in Minnesota.
He is widely recognized as the author of innovative and effective curricula,
and his economics curriculum “Minnesota, Where Are We Growing?” earned
first-prize honors in the 1987 National Economics Award Program. In 1992,
he was honored by the Amway Corporation and Time magazine as one of nine “Earth
Teachers of the Year” for his curricular unit “Energy: How Weather
Is Created,” which also earned Anoka High School a $10,000 grant from
Amway. In 2002, Mittlefehldt was named a regional winner of the NASDAQ Distinguished
Teaching Award, and, most recently, he was a first-place winner at the secondary-school
level of the 3M-sponsored Innovative Economic
Education Awards.
He serves on the national advisory board for Rescue Mission Planet Earth,
is an advisor to Vermont’s Center for a Sustainable Future, and serves
as a curriculum designer for the Water on the Web team at the University
of Minnesota.
Kelly Carroll Rhodes, ’89, and Gina Perri
Jaeckl, ’94, each received
the Marshall B. Hulbert Young Alumni Service Award, presented to alumni of
15 years or less who have provided significant service to Lawrence.
Rhodes, Edina, Minn., has served as class secretary for her class for 11
of the 15 years since their graduation, served on all three of their reunion
steering committees, and volunteered as a career contact and an admissions
volunteer. In 2003, she completed a four-year term on the Lawrence University
Alumni Association Board of Directors, during which she was a member of the
student relations committee and later assumed leadership of the careers committee
and served on the board’s executive committee.
Jaeckl, Chicago, has been active with her 5th- and 10th-year reunion steering
committees and also served on the gift committee for her 10th Reunion this
year. She has worked as a volunteer for the admissions program and served
for three years as a
career contact. In addition, she has helped organize and host alumni events
in the Chicago region and been active
on the Viking Gift Committee, soliciting support from young alumni for The
Lawrence Fund.
Walter
and Barbara Ives Isaac, both ’64, Lakewood, Colo., shared
the Gertrude B. Jupp Outstanding Service Award, presented to an alumnus or
alumna
of Lawrence
or Milwaukee-Downer of more than 15 years who has provided outstanding service
to their college. The Isaacs have served as key alumni leaders, working on
every reunion committee since they graduated and as regional volunteers in
Denver.
Barbara Isaac has served as a volunteer admissions worker in the Denver area
for more than 20 years, coordinating countless admissions events and persuading
many Denver high school students to
enroll at Lawrence.
Walter Isaac served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors for six years,
where he chaired the communications committee for two years and served on the
executive committee for four. He was president of the LUAA from 2001-03.