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Class Notes 2009
Alumni from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences share their personal and professional updates.
1940 | 1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | 2000 | Obituaries
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1940
R. Byron Bird (BS ’47, chemical engineering) has published a book, Ichi, Ni, San: Adventures with Japanese Numbers. He is a professor emeritus of chemical and biological engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Elston Edward (Steve) Roady (AM ’47, PhD ’51, political science) married widow Priscilla Thayer Jones on June 13, 2009. They reside in a Premier Active Retirement Community—Westminister Oaks in Tallahassee, Fla. Roady retired December 31, 1983, as professor emeritus from Florida State University, where he began instructing in 1947. His specialities in research and publications were campaign finance and corrupt and illegal practices in democratic party systems.
Beatrice “Betty” Holzem Woodard (AB ’49, sciences and letters) and Ralph E. Woodard will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary on June 11, 2009. They were married at St. John’s Catholic Chapel on the campus of the University of Illinois. Ralph Woodard and three of their six children (Scott, Daryl, and Mark) are also U of I alumni.
1950
Charles J. Graham (AB ’50, science and letters; AM ’51, PhD ’55, political science) was presented with a 2009 Mondale Award by Ambassador Walter Mondale for his passion to develop international education in Minnesota, and for promoting student exchanges that inspire young people, which benefits the Japan and Minnesota partnership. This interest led to the Minnesota State University of Akita, Japan (now called Akita International University). Graham served the Minnesota State Universities System as president of Saint Cloud State University and interim president of Metropolitan State University. He has also served as president of Hamline University.
1960
Ronald Primeau (AM ’69, PhD ’71, English) made a film with David Schock called Jump Back, Honey: The Poetry and Performance of Herbert Woodward Martin. He has also written a biography of Martin, providing insight on African American literature.
Jim Rubin (AB ’67, philosophy), founding partner in the Chicago-based law firm Butler Rubin Saltarelli & Boyd LLP, has been named as one of America’s top 25 pre-eminent insurance and reinsurance practitioners by the Best of the Best USA guide by Legal Media Group. Attorneys are selected from nominations submitted by in-house counsel and peers. Rubin also ranked No. 1 (tie) among Illinois reinsurance attorneys in the 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 editions of Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.
1970
Larry Dalkoff (BA ’70, political science) competed in the American Natural Bodybuilding and Fitness Championship in Phoenix, Ariz., on May 30, 2009. Dalkoff placed third in the Ultra Masters division.
Bonnie McGee (AB ’71, teaching of English) chronicled her voyage around the world on her 33-foot sailboat from 1984 to 1988 in her new book Voices on the Wind, to be published in March 2009. The large format book shares stories of the islanders she met along the way.
Edward M. Lerner (BS ’71, physics) has published his seventh science-fiction novel, and his third in collaboration with NYT bestseller Larry Niven. Destroyer of Worlds continues the Fleet of Worlds saga.
Wilbur Rich (PhD, ’72, political science) has been awarded the Norton Long Career Achievement Award from the American Political Science Association. The award is given biennially to a senior political scientist who has made a major scholarly contribution to the study of urban politics. He is the William R. Kenan Jr. professor of political science at Wellesley College, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1991.
Russell K. Skowronek (AB ’79, anthropology and political science) co-authored HMS Fowey Lost and Found: Being the Discovery, Excavation, and Identification of a British Man-of-War Lost off the Cape of Florida in 1748, with George R. Fischer in January 2009. Skowronek teaches at Santa Clara University.
1980
CDR Walter Wm. Dalitsch III, MC, USN (BS ’88, biology), has been serving as the Command Flight Surgeon for the Navy and Marine Corps School of Aviation Safety at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., for a year. He teaches aeromedical and human factors to squadron Aviation Safety Officers and prospective Commanding Officers and Executive Officers. He also teaches Student Flight Surgeons and Residents in Aerospace Medicine. Previously, he was director of public health at Naval Hospital Naples, Italy, serving an American population of approximately 16,000. Dalitsch has been serving in the military for 17 years. He and his wife, Megan, have a seven-and-a-half-month-old son, Will.
Eileen Favorite (AB ’86, English) has published her first novel entitled The Heroines, in 2008, about a mother and daughter who run a boarding house for heroines in literature when they need a break from their stories. The book was chosen as a best debut novel by the Rocky Mountain News and the audio version was nominated for best audio book of the year by a critic from Booklist, the publication of the American Library Association.
Steven M. Malkin, MD (BS ’83, biology), was elected president-elect of the Illinois State Medical Society (ISMS). He has been a member of ISMS since beginning his private practice. He has been on the Board of Trustees since 2004 and has served on numerous councils and committees, including the Council on Economics and the Committee on CME Activities.
Bruce Rapkin (AM ’85, PhD ’87, psychology) has been appointed director of the Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Comprehensive Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s NCI-designated Cancer Center. He will also lead a new division of Einstein’s department of epidemiology and population health, Community Collaboration and Implementation Science. Previously, Rapkin served as director of the Community Health and Health Disparities Laboratory at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, as well as attending psychologist in its psychiatry service.
Ann Stevens (AM ’89, PhD ’93, microbiology) received Virginia Tech’s 2009 Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award is presented to only two faculty members each year, who are selected by the university’s Academy of Teaching Excellence from among faculty members who have received certificates of teaching excellence in the preceding three years. Stevens won outstanding teaching awards from the Department of Biological Sciences in 2002, 2003, and 2007. She will be inducted into the Academy of Teaching Excellence.
1990
Kris Clements, DVM (BS ’97, biology), completed a two-year continuing education program at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine designed to enhance the business, communication, and planning skills of busy animal health professionals. She also completed the Executive Veterinary Program with a focus on swine health management; the program consisted of 10 two-day interactive modules. She is a resident and teaching associate at the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
Joseph Schohl (AB ’90, finance) left his position as general counsel of DaVita Inc. to launch GeneralCounselWest, a law firm that serves as outside general counsel to fast-growing companies. In June, he married Mary Kowenhoven in a ceremony in Connecticut.
2000
Carrie W. Abramson (BS ’03, microbiology), who lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., has graduated from the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy.
Erin Wilding-Martin (MS ’00, mathematics; PhD ’09, educational policy studies), recently graduated with her second degree from U of I. Her dissertation was "Paul Ernest's Social Constructivist Philosophy of Mathematics Education." She is an associate professor of mathematics at Parkland College, where she has been teaching since 2001.
Obituaries
Claire B. Alport (AB ’40, general curriculum) passed away August 8, 2009, at age 90. She is survived by her husband, Bertram Alport.
Dorothy Bates-Brown passed away at age 89 in late June 2009. She was the wife of the late Professor Leonard Bates, who taught history at the University of Illinois from 1954-1983. During the last years of her life, Dorothy lived on the east coast. Her burial was at Mount Hope Cemetery in Urbana.
Martin N. Chase (BS ’44, physics; MS ’47, math) passed away June 15, 2009, in Greenville, Ill., at age 87. He had been involved in operations research and computer systems consulting and he actively used computers from the early ’40s until early this year.
Roger E. Koeppe (MS ’48, PhD ’50, chemistry) passed away on May 16, 2009, in Stillwater, Okla., at age 87. He grew up in China as the son of American missionary parents, receiving his grade school education from his mother. At U of I, Koeppe researched amino acid metabolism with Dr. William C. Rose, and later in his career he focused on intermediary metabolism and its control, and the effects of vitamins and hormones. Koeppe worked for the Department of Biochemistry at Oklahoma State University from 1959 to 1990; in 1963, he was appointed the fourth head of the department, a position in which he served until his retirement. He was named 1989 Oklahoma Scientist of the Year by the Oklahoma Academy of Science. He is survived by his wife, Norma; their five children Roger II, Mary, Sarah, Edwin, and Peter; 11 grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; brother, Owen and JoAnn; and sister, Ruth and James.
William (“Bill”) Browning Sanders (AB ’47, science and letters) passed away on January 25, 2009, at the age of 86. Sanders was called to serve in World War II during his sophomore year at the University of Illinois. After serving four years in the Military Police, he returned to and graduated from the University, where his focus was business administration. Sanders worked with Metropolitan Life Insurance for over 40 years until his retirement, and continued to consult with MetLife thereafter. He was one of the founding members of the Southwest Missouri Estate Planning Council. Sanders also enjoyed and competed in golf tournaments. He was preceded in death by his son Scott and grandchild Kelin. He is survived by his wife, Ann; son, Rex; sister, Phyllis Barnes; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.