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U N I V E R S I T Y O F
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N I V E R S I T Y O F
A G A Z I N E
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UNIVERSITY
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Early childhood
education takes flight
Office of the Chancellor
Dear Readers:
We at DU are surely no strangers to the inexorable cycles of economic boom and bust. For most of our 145-year
history, our well-being was tied to the health of the local economy and the overall economy of the state. Early on,
the cycles were driven by the timing of gold and silver strikes in the Rockies and the impact of weather on Colorado
agriculture. As the city and the region grew in fits and starts, so did we.
Along the way we’ve enjoyed some very big highs and endured some very deep lows, such as the time following the
silver panic of the 1890s when we were in such dire straits (and deep debt) that we considered selling University
Hall to a group of investors who would convert it into a glue factory. Our condition was so fragile that our theology
department, which had its own endowment, seceded from the University to go its own way as the Iliff School of
Theology.
The University community lived through 120 years of boom and bust, up until the last great crisis in the mid 1980s.
Once again our institutional health was poor and our survival on the line, but the outcome was very different from
such crises in the past. We were not rescued by an economic miracle, a government bailout, an angelic donation or
any other such Band-Aid. Rather, the institution picked itself up and made some fundamental changes—changes
that gradually led us back to stability. Chancellor Dwight Smith and his colleagues made some hard choices, and the
institution began to move in ways uncharacteristic of traditional academia. The faculty revamped the curriculum in
bold and innovative ways. We became more creative and less risk-averse. We became vastly more sophisticated in our
operations and planning, particularly in the years under Chancellor Dan Ritchie. The kinds of decisions we made and
actions we took back in those dark days served us well as we grew into the institution we know today—a DU that is
innovative and agile, operationally sophisticated and focused on absolute quality.
Today, the University enjoys the strongest financial condition of its history, even as we face the roiling economic storm
that has engulfed the nation and much of the world. Our enrollments are solid, and looking ahead to next fall, we
have nearly 11,000 applications for the new class of 1,145 first-year undergraduates, up 30 percent from a year ago and
up more than 70 percent from the number of applicants just two years ago. Applications for our graduate programs
are up as well, and our footprint has broadened considerably. Nearly 60 percent of our undergraduates now come
from states other than Colorado, and our population of international students (both undergraduates and graduates) is
nearing 900. We are recruiting and hiring great faculty members, for whom we compete on a national scale. Our cash
reserves are solid and we have great liquidity. Unlike a number of other institutions, we are proceeding with major
construction projects (a new building for the Morgridge College of Education, an addition to Ben Cherrington Hall
and a new soccer stadium and training facility) because they are all fully funded, without debt. Our major concern is
for our students and their families, and so we have moved substantial new resources into financial aid.
Like so many times in our past, we face an uncertain and daunting economy. We look ahead with great caution, fully
aware of the worst-case scenarios. This time is different, though, because we are different.
news • events
Office of the Chancellor
• sports • community
Mary Reed Building | 2199 S. University Blvd. | Denver, CO 80208 | 303.871.2111 | Fax 303.871.4101 | www.du.edu/chancellor
2 University of Denver Magazine Spring 2009
Contents
Features
22 A New Direction
Through a program in the Four Corners, DU’s Graduate School of Social
Work is educating social workers about the region’s unique needs.
By Brenda Gillen
34 Islam in America
What does it mean to be Shi’i in a country that understands so little
about Islam? A new book by DU Professor Liyakat Takim traces the his-
tory and experiences of the Shi’i community in America.
By Tamara Chapman
Departments
44 Editor’s Note
45 Letters
47 DU Update
08 News Soccer stadium
11 Arts Indian art and identity
12 Q&A Chaplain Gary Brower
16 Sports Women’s basketball coach
19 People Cookbook author Elizabeth Yarnell
21 History Campus radio
37 Alumni Connections
Online only at www.du.edu/magazine:
Academics Science and politics
Research Waste reactor
This page: Wheylaya Becenti, 7, daughter of social work alumnus Leland Becenti,
works on a traditional Navajo weaving. Becenti teaches traditional crafts as a
coping mechanism. Photo by Marc Piscotty. Story on page 22.
Editor’s Note
MAGAZINE
w w w. d u . e d u / m a g a z i n e
U N I V E R SVolume
I T Y9, Number
O F 3
M A G A Z I N E
UN I V ER S I T Y O F
MPublisher
AGAZINE
UNIVERSITY OF
There is a lot of buzz about education at DU Carol Farnsworth
MAGAZINE
these days, and not just in the ways you might
Managing Editor
expect. Sure, we’re in the business of educating Chelsey Baker-Hauck (BA ’96)
college students in a traditional campus setting.
Associate Editor
But our learning environment also includes pre-K Tamara Chapman
options, a school for gifted elementary and middle
Editors
school students, non-traditional programs for
Richard Chapman
adult learners, and continuing education for senior Kathryn Mayer (BA ’07)
citizens. Nathan Solheim
Built for Learning explores how and why the University of Denver
B u i lt F or L e a r n i n g
Junior Virginia Woodfork and sophomore Cameron Lewis celebrated Barack Obama’s victory Nov. 4,
joining hundreds of students at the Cable Center to watch election returns. The University hosts
Republican and Democratic college chapters, and more than a thousand students joined DU Students
for Barack Obama. DU was a top stop on the presidential campaign trail, hosting visits by Obama,
John McCain, Mitt Romney, Ralph Nader and Bob Barr.
When the sultry afternoon of Aug. 28 trudges up to the dinner hour, DU soccer fans will be eagerly settling into brand new
seats.
Floodlights will power up and a new scoreboard flicker on. The whistle will blow, cleats will stab manicured sod, and DU will unleash a
women’s team that won’t quit the pitch until they’ve blown the Gaels of Saint Mary’s College back to Northern California.
The next night, DU’s men’s team will sprint onto the turf and keep running until they’ve booted the Stanford Cardinal from ecclesias-
tical red to a pale pink.
Welcome to the University’s $6.7 million,
1,771-seat soccer stadium and conditioning com-
plex, a new DU jewel aimed at kick-starting soccer
to a new level and giving athletes in all sports a bet-
ter way to train.
“Under the lights, there’s extra energy and
extra passion,” says center midfielder Collin Audley,
a junior. “That first night will be really exciting.”
“I don’t think there’s going to be a better place
in the country to see a game,” says mens’ coach
Bobby Muuss.
Even the School of Art and Art History is
excited. As part of the overall project, the school is
getting a 12,500-square-foot studio on the south
side of the Ritchie Center. The studio will help rein-
state the Master of Fine Arts program and afford
drawing and painting students much-needed space
to work and learn.
The one-story, garden-level art annex is being combined with the soccer and conditioning complex for cost-effectiveness, says
University Architect Mark Rodgers. The $9.2 million combined project is to be completed by late fall.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity,” notes Annette Stott, director of the School of Art and Art History. “Things that the faculty have been
talking about for a couple years now become possible with this.”
Stott envisions classes in the annex by January 2010.
“It’s good that if you put in an athletic project you find some way to connect it with the rest of the school,” says Audley, who proclaims
a love of art when he isn’t scoring goals for the 10-7-2 Pioneers.
In 2008, DU men finished atop the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and qualified for the NCAA tournament, falling in the first
round to UC Davis 4-0.
DU women notched 19 victories, won the Sun Belt Conference and postseason tournament, and placed six players on the all-
conference team. DU women earned a trip to the NCAA tournament but lost in the first round to Kansas 2-1.
The results may be a prelude to glory days ahead.
“We want to be among the best soccer programs in the country on both the men’s and women’s side,” Muuss says.
Being the best means recruiting the best, he cautions. It also means scheduling top opponents like St. Louis and San Diego State and
attracting diehard fans. Being limited to day games in summer heat makes program building tough, he points out; televising night games
and exciting fans make that easier. Hence the need for the new stadium.
“We’ve lost kids because of facilities,” says women’s coach Jeff Hooker. “If [a recruit] sees a university has lights and a great field, they
think the school cares a little more about them.”
The strength and conditioning area will be tucked under the stands and will provide 11,000 square feet of training space for student-
athletes in all 17 DU Division I sports. The aim is to build unity and help with injury prevention and recovery.
“Getting healthy, staying healthy and getting stronger together as a team,” as Rodgers puts it. “That’s competing at the highest level.”
Wayne Armstrong
Eighty-eight percent of DU freshmen report a favorable image of the
finance major Monica
institution, and 81 percent of seniors would choose DU again if they could
Kumar is a rarity among
start their college careers over, according to the 2008 National Survey of
twenty-somethings:
Student Engagement (NSSE) released Nov. 10.
She knows the person
DU students continue to rank their education higher than peer institu-
she is. While many her
tions in four benchmark categories, including student-faculty interaction, level
age struggle with iden-
of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, and enriching educa-
tity, Kumar grasped a
tional experiences.
foothold years ago.
The survey doesn’t rank the colleges that participate; instead it provides
“She’s more prag-
a comparison between individual schools and peer and national institutions
matic than ideological,”
based on surveys of freshmen and seniors. The survey measured DU with
says Jo Calhoun, associ-
three different comparison groups: a self-selected peer group; a group of
ate provost of Student
institutions with the same Carnegie Classification; and with all 2008 NSSE
Life.
participants.
Kumar is Hindu
Student respondents gave DU particularly high marks on the level of
and a first-generation
faculty-student engagement. Eighty-eight percent of seniors surveyed at least
American. Her par-
occasionally discuss career plans with faculty, 56 percent of freshmen spend
ents—products of an
time with faculty on activities other than coursework, and by their senior year,
arranged marriage in India—are her inspiration. She loves Dr. Seuss.
26 percent of students have conducted research with faculty.
“He has these truly complex ideas that he just simplifies for children,”
Eighty-one percent of freshmen feel that the University places substantial
Kumar gushes. “Oh, the Places You’ll Go! makes me cry every time I
emphasis on academics, and 58 percent of them frequently work harder than
read it.”
they thought they could to meet faculty expectations.
If what she’s already accomplished is any indication, Kumar will
More than 380,000 randomly selected freshmen and senior students
be going places, too (graduate school and a career in New York City are
from 722 participating four-year colleges and universities nationwide took part
next on the agenda). Kumar is a member of DU’s Pioneer Leadership
in the 2008 survey.
Program and has been involved with the All Undergraduate Student
—Media Relations Staff
Association (AUSA) Senate since her freshman year. “I just kind of con-
sumed it,” she says.
Indeed. Her Senate roles have included terms as a Daniels College
DU ranks second for of Business senator and president of the DU Programs Board. Now, as
president of the undergraduate student body, she’s working on brand-
undergraduate study abroad ing a Pioneer identity (“It goes beyond a mascot,” Kumar explains),
developing sustainable energy on campus (she and fellow senators are
The University of Denver ranks second in the nation among doctoral working on a bike-sharing program with the city of Denver) and creat-
and research institutions in the percentage of undergraduate students ing a more cohesive campus community.
participating in study-abroad programs, according to the 2008 Open Perhaps what motivates her most is service to others—beyond
Doors report released by the Institute of International Education in late the borders of DU or even the nation.
November. Her family has been volunteering at an Indian heritage camp for
The report, which reflects data from the 2006–07 academic year, 10 years, where she helped teach identity to adopted Indian children
shows that DU sent 74.4 percent of its undergraduates abroad, just behind with Anglo parents. Even after visiting India on her own a handful of
Yeshiva University, which sent 75.7 percent of its undergraduates. Nationally, times, it was her trip there with others who had never seen the coun-
just over 1 percent of all enrolled undergraduates studied abroad. try that, she says, “changed my life.” During a winter DU interterm
DU offers more than 150 study-abroad programs in 56 nations. Its course—Project Dharamsala—she spent her days teaching English.
Cherrington Global Scholars program gives all eligible juniors and seniors “I tutored an ex-political prisoner who was only in prison because he
the opportunity to spend one academic quarter studying abroad at no supported the Dalai Lama. He will never be able to see his family back
additional cost beyond their normal tuition. The University will spend $10 in Tibet; it was just heartbreaking,” she says.
million this year on study abroad. In addition to student tuition, housing and If you ask her why she does so much—and so wholeheartedly—
some meals, this expense includes nearly $1 million for transportation, visa Kumar answers without hesitation: “It’s my responsibility to work
application fees and insurance mandated by host countries or universities. hard and give back.”
—Kristal Griffith —Kathryn Mayer
—Chase Squires
Steven Berlin Johnson, best-selling author of six books on the intersection of science, technology and
personal experience, including Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter.
America’s education system faces many challenges. Some critics contend that our public school system needs a radical
overhaul, while others recommend incremental reform. Virtually everyone agrees that there are more questions than
answers in this important policy arena. Join the discussion as the University of Denver’s 2008–2009 Bridges to the Future
series, which is free and open to the public, looks at the future of education in our complex society.
Go to www.du.edu/bridges to RSVP
or watch live online on March 31.
For those without Internet access,
please call 303.871.2357.
Q What is your
function on
campus?
Q Many college students are living away from home,
family and community influences. Do you see faith as a
priority for most students, or is it something that goes on the
back burner?
groups on campus. They of conversations about religion, but these happen in dorms
shouldn’t be treated and outside the classroom and not necessarily with religious
separately just because professionals.
they are religious groups.
So, for example, I
encouraged the student
senate to agree to fund
religious student groups just like any other group.
Q What is the greatest need of today’s college students
in the area of faith?
Wayne Armstrong
Somebody said the other day, “We used to not be able to microscope to the table, offering researchers glimpses
talk about sex, politics or religion. Well, sex is on prime-time inside cells and a chance to see how living things work
television, politics is all around us, and religion is the last on a molecular level.
of the barriers to be broken.” I think it is one of those really Biology Associate Professor Joe Angleson (pic-
private pieces, and we don’t have good ways of talking about tured) worked with colleagues and the provost’s office
it. I’m not so sure that it’s a question about the acceptance over nine months to select and fund the purchase of
of religious diversity. It’s a question of whether people are the nearly $500,000 Olympus laser-scanning confocal
microscope. It’s expected to help scientists delve into
willing to talk about or have a place to talk about questions of
the mysteries of bioscience, chasing diseases such as
faith without feeling like they are going to look weird to their
diabetes and neuromuscular malfunctions.
friends.
The microscope uses lasers to focus light on the subject; receptors pick up the
resulting image and deliver it to computer screens. Using it, scientists can see inside
a cell and focus on specific sections while eliminating the visual “clutter” for a clear
Wayne Armstrong
ling big, tough issues: Colorado’s economy, the future of the state’s water supply and the state
constitution.
At a state Capitol news conference Nov. 14, DU Chancellor Robert Coombe announced the
blue-ribbon panel is taking on immigration—a topic that has sparked years of debate and massive
demonstrations and that touches everything from the country’s economy to national security.
Coombe said the assembled panel of 19 scholars, business professionals and civic leaders
understands the work won’t be easy. But the state and the nation must work toward a resolution, he
said, and DU is committed to lending its voice and expertise.
“As an institution of higher education in the state, it is really our responsibility, our obligation,”
Coombe said. “Our hope is that the Strategic Issues Program on immigration will be able not so much
to come forward with a solution, but perhaps come forward with a framework for a solution.”
Jim Griesemer (pictured), director of the program and dean emeritus of DU’s Daniels College of Business, said the nonpartisan panel will hear from some
leading political figures, including former Colorado Govs. Dick Lamm and Bill Owens, state Attorney General John Suthers and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.
But they are also hearing from people working with social service agencies and others who understand the impact of immigration—both legal and illegal—on the
economy, health care, schools and other areas of government and society.
The Strategic Issues Program was founded in 2005.
The immigration panel’s final report—due in fall 2009—will be widely shared with the public, the media, public officials, business and community leaders
and other interested parties.
>>www.du.edu/issues
—Chase Squires
www.giftplanning.du.edu
In head coach Erik Johnson’s world, two important people are at every DU women’s basketball game: Tom
Wilson and Isaac Newton.
And the game always boils down to one thing: Does Johnson’s scrappy group of DU players know enough about Isaac Newton’s
physics to get a Wilson-brand basketball through the rim more often than the other team?
Physics and basketball. For Johnson, who took over the DU women’s team last spring, they’re as much a fit as sneakers and socks.
When he watches forward Nnenna Akotaobi pump a jump shot or point guard Andi Mason stroke a free throw, shooting tips he
learned from his physicist father more than two decades ago come rattling to mind. Will the parabolic arc enlarge the target? Are there
Z vectors or just X and Y variables? What about gravity? Buoyant force? Drag? Will the backspin soften the shot?
And if the ball misses, can the rebounder properly judge the angle of incidence and get into position?
And you thought basketball was just something to eat popcorn by!
“His first word was ‘ball,’” Johnson’s mother, Kathryn, recalls.
His first basket was a hoop that his father, Jim, hung on a tree in the family’s backyard in Northern California. Roots and dirt
around the trunk kept the fourth-grader from dribbling. So, he learned to shoot—the physicist’s way.
“I told him about moving his arm in a nice plane and trying to get a good arc to get a bigger target,” says Jim Johnson, who admits
to a preference for bird-watching. “It’s not rocket science.”
But it is physics, which the elder Johnson knew from a long career at Stanford’s Linear Accelerator Center, a two-mile-long labora-
tory for crash-testing atomic particles.
“I learned to shoot over wires and branches and all that kind of stuff,” the younger Johnson says. “That’s why I became a great
shooter.”
Call it trial by bramble. Toss in the 6-foot-4 frame Johnson grew into and you get the makings of a distinguished playing career at
UC-San Diego, where he set career and single-season records for three-pointers and appeared in three NCAA Division III tournaments.
Johnson’s entry into women’s basketball began in 1994 in graduate school at the University of Rhode Island. The women’s coach
recruited him as a male practice player she hoped could toughen up her 6-2 center. So, Johnson knocked heads, studied, coached a little
and inched his way toward a career that since 1995 has brought coaching assistantships at the University of Rhode Island, San Diego,
Boston College and last spring, the top spot at DU.
“Right now, the perception is [that DU is] a nice little school you go to if you’re a smart kid and want to play some basketball,”
Johnson says. “I want to change the culture: If you’re a serious basketball player in Colorado, DU is on your list.”
Johnson’s effort to do that began April 30, 2008, the day he was introduced at DU and first met his team, a quirky assortment of
disenchanted veterans and returning redshirts.
“We heard there would be a team meeting at 6:30 in the morning,” recalls Akotaobi, a senior. “In walks coach Johnson and he’s just
full of energy, and we’re like, ‘Who is this guy?’”
The team didn’t wait to find out.
“They came to me and said, ‘Coach, we want to win the Sun Belt. What does it take? What do we have to do?’” Johnson recalls.
“They needed to be pushed, they needed to be disciplined; they were hungry for it.”
Most of them anyway. Three of the four recruits Johnson telephoned on his first day at DU said they were with him. The fourth
wasn’t sure. Jenny Vaughan, a blue-chip point guard being groomed for Canada’s Olympic team, had scholarship offers from Utah, San
Diego and Michigan. She had committed to DU, but the coach who recruited her was gone. Who was this guy Johnson, she wondered?
Answering that took two and a half hours on the phone and a flight to Vaughan’s hometown in Dundas, Ontario.
“We met, talked; he came to school,” Vaughan recalls. “He came to my house for dinner, met my family.”
Oddly, she recognized Johnson’s name from e-mails he had sent her while recruiting for Boston College. The familiarity made her
feel better, she says, but she still needed to size up the guy.
“We were hoping he’d say the things we wanted to hear, and he definitely did,” she says.
What turned the tide?
“When we mutually realized I wanted to win as bad as she did,” Johnson says.
With Vaughan in the fold, Johnson returned to the “push” his players had asked for. The new discipline began with, well, discipline,
which led to tough conditioning drills and weight room work “like we mean business.”
Watch a practice and you see a rigorous splash of skills-drills, instruction, flying bodies, aggressive rebounding, running to
exhaustion and more talk than a pep rally. Everybody’s attentive; everybody’s involved. No showboating, no hissy fits, no doggin’ it.
The energy alone could run the lights in Hamilton Gym.
All from a team picked in preseason to finish sixth.
“I get so pumped up in practice cause of how hard we work,” Akotaobi says. “We’re jumping in passing lanes, we’re stealing balls,
we’re diving on the floor. We play an up-tempo, exciting style of basketball.”
Which may be like calling the Indy 500 a Sunday drive.
“I’m a nice person off the court,” says freshman Kaetlyn Murdoch of Temple, Texas, a 5-11 forward who uncoils for rebounds like
a boa constrictor after a small goat. “On the court, I’m not too nice.”
Her blue eyes shock with intensity.
“I don’t want to knock anyone’s teeth out,” she continues. “Just push them down and get the ball.”
The end of practice doesn’t end Johnson’s day. There are 6-, 4- and 2-years-olds waiting for him at home with wife Laura Davis, a
two-time All-American in volleyball at Ohio State and an Olympic team alternate.
“I can think I’m the greatest coach in the world, but when I get home there are still diapers to be changed and dishes to be
washed,” he chuckles.
To Johnson, the need to be a good husband and father is as important as being a good coach. He’s driven to balance both and
excel at each. “It needs to be magical,” he says of his obligations.
It is for Vaughan. “He genuinely cares about us. It’s awesome.”
Adds Akotaobi: “We’re all basically freshmen again … and I’m lovin’ it.”
>>www.DenverPioneers.com
Wayne Armstrong
(MLS ’98) awoke blind in one eye. The
news wasn’t good: multiple sclerosis. Although her sight
returned, the medical reality loomed.
Instead of melting down, however, she cooked up a
solution that improved her health and changed her career.
Today, the former instructional designer feels better and
lists inventor and cookbook author among her credits.
Yarnell, whose cupboards at the time featured
Gummi Bears and little else, believed she could fight
the disease by eating better. She took cooking lessons,
but fatigue won out. “Everything I wanted to cook took
forever, especially since my focus was on whole foods,” she
says.
Stumped by the Dutch oven she received as a
wedding present, this self-proclaimed “last-minute cook”
threw meat and vegetables in the pot and cranked her
oven as high as it would go (450 degrees). “Forty-five
minutes later,” she says, “it just smelled so heavenly. I
took it out, and we had a great dinner.”
Yarnell began experimenting with carbs and other
ingredients. Ultimately, she landed upon a solution for
whole-food, complete meals spanning culinary traditions
that require little prep and only 30–45 minutes to cook.
When a houseguest asked for her secret, Yarnell
drafted a 12-page manuscript. “It explained the concept
and the method and included a couple recipes,” she says.
“I started handing that out with Dutch ovens as wedding
gifts. People loved it.”
In 2001, she expanded the booklet, pitched publishers, launched a Web site and began the patent process to protect
her “infusion” cooking method.
Some 50 rejections later, Yarnell needed a new plan. Publishers were not interested. She didn’t own a restaurant. She
wasn’t a famous chef or chef to someone famous. She hadn’t even gone to culinary school. After promising negotiations,
corporate sponsorship from a major Dutch oven brand also fizzled out.
“This thing I’d been working on for five years fell through completely,” recalls Yarnell, who by then had two small
children. “Even my agent expressed a lack of faith in me, so I fired him. I said, ‘OK. I’m going to cry for a month, then what
am I going to do?’”
Despite her fears about the expense and stress of independent publishing, Yarnell rallied family resources, including
an advance on her inheritance, to publish 2,000 cookbooks. She sold all of them the first month. Over the next few years,
Yarnell sold another 10,000.
She set out for the 2007 Book Expo America to snag a new agent and a mainstream publisher. “As it turned out, the
editor from Broadway Books (a Random House imprint) already owned my cookbook,” Yarnell marvels.
The new edition of Glorious One-Pot Meals came out in January 2008. After years with little financial ease or sleep,
Yarnell says, “My biggest definition of success is having people ‘get it.’ This is a totally different concept, not just another
cookbook.”
>>www.elizabethyarnell.com
>>www.effortlesseating.com
University of Denver Magazine Update 19
Donor Spotlight
Houston Harte
Growing up on the plains of West Texas, Houston Harte (BSBA ’83) was sur-
rounded by a dusty horizon, long, flat stretches of cotton and oil fields, and philan-
thropy.
“Giving was just part of my family,” says Harte, who now lives in Santa Barbara,
Calif., as a semi-retired investor. “My grandparents and parents would give money
to kids’ families for school or summer camps—kids I grew up with playing on the
playground.”
During the Great Depression, Harte says, his grandparents collected shoes and
gave them to needy kids around town.
Craig Korn
The lessons were not lost on Harte, and today he sees a horizon of better
futures for kids through his own philanthropy.
He and his wife, Anne, recently pledged $250,000 to create the Harte Family Endowed Scholarship Fund at the University of Denver.
“Houston is so incredibly generous and humble that he initially discouraged us from using his name on the endowed fund,” says Ed Harris, vice
chancellor for University Advancement. “Only after we explained that attaching an alumnus name to the fund could both encourage his peers to con-
sider similar gifts and educate students on the importance of alumni giving did he acquiesce.”
Harte also directly supports a current DU student with money for “books, housing, whatever she needs,” says Harte, whose son, also named
Houston, is a senior at DU studying real estate development and construction management.
“My childhood was great, and I didn’t really appreciate it at the time,” Harte says. “The kids today are working a little harder than I did, and they
don’t have the opportunities I had, so I like to help.”
The giving comes back to him, he adds, “not in the form of the child coming back to say I’m a CEO of a huge company, but in the way of just be-
ing presented with an opportunity to help a kid. That really makes me feel good.”
—Doug McPherson
AT H L E T IC S
& R ECR E ATION
“Radio should supply an outlet for emotion and be a vehicle for expression,” declared sophomore John “Nile” Wendorf
(BA ’72) in 1970.
It was the height of the Vietnam protest era and Wendorf, general manager of student-run campus radio station KVDU, had
recently secured the last noncommercial FM radio frequency in the Denver area.
During Wendorf’s tenure at the station, KVDU had gone from a station that adhered to a restrictive Top-40 play-list to one
dominated by progressive rock—a far cry from the station’s original programming.
When KVDU started operating from the modestly equipped T-8 Building on South York Street in November 1947, the station
broadcast campus news, original radio dramas and played classical music and the popular bebop music of the time. As a carrier-
current station, however, KVDU could only reach students living on campus.
DU Archives
By the late 1960s, KVDU was comparably equipped to any commercial
radio station, according to The Clarion, but it still needed licensing from
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to extend the station’s
operating power throughout Denver.
Motivated by the belief that “a university like DU needs to be attached
to the community around it,” Wendorf took on the challenge of obtaining an
FCC license when he became general manager in 1969.
At the same time, students including Bill Feinberg (BA ’72) worked
to secure more airtime for progressive rock music from bands such as the
Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin and the Doors, while others, including James
Levin (BA ’72), expressed concern that the “radical hippie element of DU”
had taken over the station.
On April 15, 1970, Wendorf and his supporters beat out their
competition—a local church—and the University received a license to
broadcast to an area stretching from Colorado Springs, Colo., to Cheyenne,
Wyo.
When it came time to affix the FM transmitter on the Mary Reed
Building’s tower, the students discovered they needed an additional $2,000. Without hesitation, and without his parents’ knowledge,
Wendorf withdrew money from his tuition account to pay for the installation.
The FM station, known as KCFR, started broadcasting on Sept. 17, 1970, with what Wendorf described as avant-garde
programming that included rock, jazz, blues, folk and classical. During that same academic year, KVDU was forced to shut down as its
student staffers left to work for KCFR.
Wendorf would be the FM station’s only student general manager. After its first year on the air, the University began hiring
professionals to run KCFR. Wendorf says he supported the decision because “KCFR wasn’t sustainable as a student-run radio station.”
Feinberg, however, saw it differently, saying the administration had become “uncomfortable with the power that could be
harnessed by students in a potentially inappropriate way,” as the on-campus anti-war protest Woodstock West had demonstrated the
previous year.
During the transition years, KCFR remained connected to DU, which continued providing funding and facilities.
In 1984, KCFR became an independent community radio station—one of two stations that founded the Colorado Public Radio
network.
New student radio stations emerged to follow KVDU and KCFR, starting with KAOS in 1971 and KEGH in 1982. But they
struggled with the same problems that plagued the former carrier-current station, and they, too, became defunct.
Technology has helped DU’s current radio station, KVDU, overcome many of the problems its predecessors encountered. Because
KVDU broadcasts over the Internet, students living off campus or studying abroad can easily tune in to the station’s hip-hop, pop and
indie offerings.
As campus radio was for earlier generations, “KVDU is the student voice of the University of Denver,” says sophomore Eric
Peterson, KVDU’s Web developer.
>>KVDU.du.edu
T
he Four Corners is a vast region with long stretches of
highway between small towns. The area encompasses parts
of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, and its diverse
geography includes mountain ranges, river valleys, dry canyons, windy
mesas and desert. Farmington, N.M., one of the region’s larger cities, is
home to about 42,425 people and three Starbucks.
The region also is home to numerous American Indian tribes—
including Navajo, Hopi, Ute Mountain and Southern Ute—each with
distinctive customs and belief systems.
Like the rest of America, the region has problems—poverty, lack
of education, lack of employment, alcohol and drug addiction, domestic
violence and other crimes. But complex jurisdictional boundaries and the
interplay of federal, tribal and state systems can hinder social services.
The University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW)
is hoping to help improve the outlook, designing its Four Corners Master
of Social Work (MSW) program specifically to meet the needs of the Four
Corners region, including American Indians, educating students about the
region’s unique backgrounds and Native American communities. Founded
in 2002 as a way to reach students in underserved areas where the need
for social services is great but the opportunities for social-work training
are limited, the program aims to equip both Native and non-native social
workers with the tools they need to relate to diverse perspectives.
“The program is going to improve the services that are offered to
Native Americans,” says Marie Jim, a Four Corners Advisory Council
member from the Navajo tribe in Ganado, Ariz. “There will be fewer
barriers, so services will be better.”
C reated in 2008 with a $1.5 million gift from the Cydney (BSBA ’78,
MBA ’80) and Tom (MBA ’79) Marsico Family Foundation, the
Marsico Institute for Early Learning and Literacy is tasked with
University is not out there doing this research in isolation. Rather,
we should be building relationships with practitioners, policymak-
ers and people who are working to improve early childhood in
becoming an information resource for parents, professionals, legisla- Colorado.”
tors and others with a vested interest in early childhood learning. How does Colorado compare with other states in early child-
“DU has a strong interest in the importance of early childhood hood education? Generally speaking, the state gets a passing grade, but
as a part of the broader educational system of the United States,” there’s clearly room to improve.
says Maloney, former dean of the Morgridge College. “What we’re In its 2007 ranking of the 38 states with a defined preschool ini-
trying to do with the Marsico Institute is coordinate with other work tiative, the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER)
going on across campus and bring the University’s resources to bear ranked Colorado 36th for resource allocation based on state-funded
on critical issues that the field of early childhood and the state are fac- spending and 29th for resource allocation based on all reported
ing right now. We see this as a critical time to strengthen what we’re spending.
doing in early childhood learning, and we really take it seriously.” Colorado ranked 22nd for the percent of 4-year-olds and 11th for
Although the institute is still in its infancy, Maloney has a clear the percent of 3-year-olds enrolled in the state’s preschool program.
vision of its future. And in a comparison of Colorado’s policies to 10 critical areas identi-
“In five years, I would like the Marsico Institute for Early Learn- fied by NIEER, the 2007 report awarded the state points for meet-
ing and Literacy to be seen as the hub for early childhood research ing benchmarks for specialized pre-kindergarten teacher training,
and early childhood policy analysis in the state of Colorado and to be teacher in-service hours, maximum class-size limits, staff-child ratio
known on a national level for contributing original research on issues and monitoring, but noted that Colorado didn’t meet NIEER goals
pertinent to improving learning environments for very young chil- for early learning standards, teacher degree requirements, assistant
dren,” Maloney says. teacher degree requirements, screening/referral and support services
In the shorter-term, Maloney says, “We want to help inform and meals.
important policy discussions related to early childhood.” In the 2008 edition of Education Week’s Quality Counts, Colorado
She pictures the institute having an important role in bringing ranked 25th of 51 (all states and the District of Columbia) for the
together the best minds and the best research to solve problems and percent of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in preschool. The state earned
to improve the full complement of early childhood services. kudos for aligning its early learning standards with K-12 standards,
“We’re going to do a lot of work in partnership with other but it lost credit for failing to define school readiness, assess the
organizations,” Maloney says. “It’s very important that the readiness of students entering school or have a policy for providing
director for Colorado’s Office of the much more than proximity, much is really built upon Smart Start
Lieutenant Governor. more than ‘the center is two blocks Colorado. They started this, and
“It’s important for families to be away and that’s where I’m sending we took what they did and prodded
really knowledgeable consumers,” my kid.’” it into a much more 21st century
she says. “Paying top dollar doesn’t The Marsico Institute’s Web technology environment.
necessarily mean you’re getting the site isn’t the first of its kind, but it “The Web site we created
best opportunity for your child, so breaks new ground for two reasons: is dynamic. It’s designed so the
parents have to do research and openness to input for users and community can continue to build
investigate whether a particular a guiding philosophy of favoring it. The Marsico Institute will help
provider meets the needs of their collaboration over credit. maintain the site, but we’ll host it
family. Does it uphold the values they “Other states have done in such a way that it’s not obvious
think are important? Does the center something similar, but they’re not that we’re the developers because
afford the necessary educational using our exact model,” Maloney EarlyChildhoodColorado is a service.
opportunities? I think it’s got to be says. “The work that we’ve done It’s not about us.”
mean to be Shi’i
in a country that
understands so
A new book by
DU Professor
Liyakat Takim
and experiences
of the Shi’i
community in
America.
Wayne Armstrong
In recent years, Islam has emerged as the nation’s fastest growing religion, making it, says DU religious stud-
ies Associate Professor Liyakat Takim, “a very American phenomenon.”
So American, in fact, that in many U.S. communities the mosque is almost as much a part of the cityscape
as the church and temple. “For a long time, Islam has been a foreign phenomenon—located somewhere in the
Middle East or the Far East. We talk about Islam and the West, but we should be talking about Islam in the West,”
Takim says, adding that “Muslims are pumping gas; they are serving combos at McDonald’s.”
Despite their growing presence in American life, Muslims remain strangers to many of their fellow citizens. In
fact, when they give it any thought at all, Americans tend to regard the Muslim community as monolithic, Takim
says. Few understand the sectarian and cultural differences that characterize—and often divide—this community.
Even when people understand the distinctions between Sunni and Shi’i, they are unlikely to grasp the differences
between one subsect and another.
Takim attempts to remedy that in his forthcoming book, which introduces readers to the ethnically and cul-
turally diverse American Shi’i community, whose members follow the Koranic interpretations advanced by Ali ibn
Abi Talib. (Ali was the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, and Shi’is regard him as Muhammad’s rightful
successor.) Because they are outnumbered by Sunni Muslims, Takim describes Shi’is as a “double minority” in
American life, a misunderstood group within a misunderstood group.
Takim’s book—Shi’ism in America—is due in bookstores in late summer or early fall. According to Takim’s
editor, Jennifer Hammer of New York University Press, the book breaks new ground, describing a community
that has been largely ignored by scholars.
“Most of the research that has been conducted on American Muslims has tended to focus on the Sunni
community—and, to a lesser extent, on matters relating to the Nation of Islam,” she explains. “This work will be
the first comprehensive study of the Shi’i experience in America and will therefore make a significant contribution
to the literature, from Islamic studies to American religions.”
In doing so, the book also traces the history of the Shi’i community in America and explores how, as Ham-
mer puts it, “Shi’is have negotiated their identity in the American context, and what the contemporary composi-
tion of the Shi’i community is. It also illuminates how living in the West has impelled the community to grapple
with the ways in which Islamic law may respond to the challenges of modernity and how they have interacted
with non-Shi’i groups in the United States, from Sunni Muslims to the Christian majority.”
Takim’s interest in Shi’ism stems, in part, from his own faith and came around the 1970s, when the Wahabis started making their mark
experiences. A Shi’i himself and a native of Tanzania, he was once in America,” he says, describing a conservative strain of Sunnism that
the imam of an Islamic center in Toronto. There, and in the U.S. dominates the religious culture of Saudi Arabia.
communities he has explored, he has seen firsthand how Shi’is are With Wahabism on the rise in American Sunni communities, it
perceived and, too often, misunderstood. To gain insight into their has not been uncommon for Shi’is to be shunned within Islamic cen-
experiences, Takim surveyed and interviewed many members of Shi’i ters and groups, Takim says, citing a number of troubling trends and
enclaves, traveling to their community centers and mosques, visiting news items. On U.S. campuses, for example, members of the Mus-
them in their homes and even, on occasion, in their prison cells. lim Student Association frequently spar over sectarian differences,
The Shi’i experience in America dates back to the 1880s, when with some Sunnis calling for the exclusion of Shi’is. Increasingly, the
a tiny community of the early immigrants settled in Massachusetts, Shi’i faithful have arrived at their local mosques only to discover omi-
Indiana and Michigan. These Shi’is hailed primarily from Lebanon. nous signs posted on the front door: “No Shi’i allowed.”
Over the next decades, Shi’is crop up in unexpected places, much to What’s more, Takim says, when Shi’is and Sunnis clash in, say,
the delight of Takim, who took great pleasure in tracking their Ameri- Iraq or Lebanon, the confrontation also surfaces on domestic soil.
can odyssey. At least three members of the faith sailed on the Titanic; Nowhere was that more telling than in Dearborn, Mich., after the
only one of them, the sole female in the tiny group, survived. A few 2006 execution of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, a Sunni. In the days fol-
years later, in 1924, the nation’s first Shi’i mosque opened in unlikely lowing Hussein’s hanging, avenging Sunnis vandalized some Shi’i
Michigan City, Ind. businesses. Although the episode was limited in scope, it left the Shi’i
Throughout these early years, Takim explains, the Sunnis and worried about the possibility of escalating hostilities.
Shi’is found themselves so outnumbered that they overlooked their Takim has felt the sting of this anti-Shi’i campaign himself.
sectarian differences and worked together to preserve Islamic values. When he was a visiting professor at the University of Miami between
In the midst of America’s largely Christian milieu, in the face of its 1991 and 2001, Sunni students discouraged other Muslim students
boisterous culture, Takim says, “They had to accentuate their Islamic from taking his classes on the grounds that he was a Shi’i. “What we
identity.” see is sectarian differences from abroad arising in America,” he says.
Since the 1970s, the Shi’i population—indeed the Muslim Although this worries him, he finds hope in the Americanization
population as a whole—has experienced dramatic diversification of Sunni and Shi’i youth. “The younger generation is going to be dif-
triggered by immigration from Africa, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq, ferent because they are all pretty much university trained,” he says,
among others. What’s more, the Shi’is also have increased their noting that they have been exposed to a diverse range of viewpoints.
numbers through proselytizing and conversions. This growth has Like so many second- and third-generation Americans before them,
resulted in tensions among the various groups, who often disagree he explains, “they are challenging the culture. The culture they are
over rituals and religious practices. For example, the Shi’is of Leba- creating is primarily an American one.”
non may find the rituals of their Pakistani counterparts offensive, if Takim’s book also looks at how Shi’is have adjusted to American
only because the latter show some traces of Hindu culture. Other life and American attitudes in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks on the
Shi’is may be alarmed by how their Iranian cousins use passion World Trade Center and Pentagon. In many respects, Takim explains,
plays in mourning practices. Shi’is were able to use 9/11 to their advantage, reversing negative
Many immigrant Shi’is also have struggled to understand what opinions that grew out of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, when Shi’i
Takim calls “black Shi’i,” or African-American converts to the faith. followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah. Americans
Like so many demographic groups populating the American scene, came to associate the Shi’i with the subsequent seizure of the U.S.
Shi’is struggle with differences. “There is racism in the Shi’i commu- embassy and the taking of 52 American hostages.
nity, too, as in other communities,” he explains. The resulting view of Shi’is as Islam’s radicals was, in many
The identity issues that emerge from these frictions give Takim respects, altered by the events of 9/11. As Americans learned more
much to ponder. What does it mean to be Shi’i in a culture that touts about Osama Bin Laden, they also learned about Wahabism and other
the advantages of pluralism, in a country that understands so little forms of extremism. Once the U.S. launched its invasion of Iraq,
about Islam? And what makes a Shi’i a Shi’i when the community Shi’is were viewed more favorably—as supporters and allies. Along
demonstrates so much diversity? the way, American Shi’is used the post-9/11 events to denounce
“I think what surprised me was how the Shi’is are divided the violence associated with Bin Laden and to clarify their position
about how to approach Americans,” Takim says, looking back on within American society.
his research. Some Shi’is want to assimilate fully, while the more That process continues to this day. Like so many minority
conservative often favor isolation and retreat. But as Takim sees it, groups in the United States, Shi’is are learning to sustain their culture
the community’s largest failing has been its reluctance to engage the and practice their religion within the American context. “The Shi’is
larger multiethnic society. An impregnable isolation, he argues, only are as American as anybody else,” Takim says, “and they are proud of
perpetuates marginalization. their American identity.”
Takim is especially interested in fissures between American
Shi’is and Sunnis, noting that the two communities tended to coexist The New York University Press will post publication details about Shi’ism in
peacefully for much of the 20th century. “I think the turning point America in spring 2009 at www.nyupress.org.
In 1956, the then newly established Denver Hawaiian Club flew in 200 pounds of orchids from the Hawaiian
Islands to make leis. Students Kenneth Yim (BSBA ’57), Shirley (Collins) Petsch (BA ’57), Grace Yamaguchi
(attd. 1955–56) and Lemisa Untalan (BA ’56) planned to sell the leis at the May Days carnival that night. If
you have your own May Days memories to share, please let us know.
Class of 1959
50th Class Reunion
1964 Kynewisbok
June 5-6, 2009
The Class of 1959 is invited to return to campus Class of 1964: A lot can happen in 35 years, and we want to
to celebrate this remarkable occasion. Reconnect catch up with as many of you we can. Your classmates want to hear
with friends, classmates, faculty and students while from you, too!
taking part in events such as the annual Emeritus What have you been up to? Share photos and family news,
Tea, Pioneer Alumni Legends inductions, spring discuss your travels and hobbies, or reminisce about your time at
Commencement and more. DU.
You can post you note online at www.alumni.du.edu, e-mail
For more reunion information, please contact du-magazine@du.edu or mail in the form on page 49. Class of ’64
the Office of Alumni Relations at
notes will appear in the fall issue. We’ll randomly select a prize
1-800-871-3822 or www.alumni.du.edu.
winner from all entries received by May 1.
Marlow Ediger (EdD Idjon Kurnaedy (MPA ’63) of Surrey, British 1970
’63) of North Newton, Columbia, moved from Indonesia to Canada Audrey (Friedman)
Kan., published the nearly 20 years ago. In Indonesia, Idjon taught Marcus (BA ’70)
following articles: at several universities, including the Indonesian of Denver wrote
“Current Events, the Senior Army College. All of her children are the book Survival in
Student, and the Social married, and she has three grandchildren. Shanghai: The Journals
Studies” in The Social of Fred Marcus (Pacific
Studies Review, “Mental View, 2008) with co-
Health in the Curriculum” in the Journal 1966 author Rena Krasno.
of Instructional Psychology, “Leadership in the Leroy Tsutsumi (BA ’66) is an educational The book describes
School Setting” in Education Magazine, “The aide at the Hawaiian Mission Academy in her late husband’s
American High School” in the College Student Honolulu, where he teaches English for experience as a Jewish
Journal, “The Old Order Amish and the Social second-language learners. Leroy fondly refugee in Shanghai. Audrey is a member of
Studies” in Perspectives, and “The School remembers the anthropology courses he took the Anti-Defamation League Catholic-Jewish
Principal as Reading Supervisor” in Reading from Alan Olson as a student at DU. Dialogue and a board member of the Kepner
Improvement. Educational Excellence Program, which
provides enrichment for students in Kepner
Charles “Chuck” Ferries (attd. 1957–63) was 1967 Middle School. Prior, Audrey founded and
inducted into the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Oren Quist (MS ’67, PhD ’73) retired from served as the executive vice president for
Hall of Fame in October 2008. Chuck is a his position as head of South Dakota State A.R.E. Publishing Inc.
former member of DU’s varsity ski team University’s physics department. He now
and a two-time Olympian. He also has the lives in Mankato, Minn.
distinction of being the only American to ever
win the Hahnenkamm slalom in Kitzbuehel,
Austria. Chuck lives in Ketchum, Idaho, with
his wife, Nancy.
Wayne Armstrong
Helen Davis (EdD ’61) believes that her doctoral degree opened many doors for her
but, ironically, some doors nearly closed while she was trying to earn it.
“I was asked, ‘Does your husband have his doctorate? We don’t grant doctoral
degrees to women if their husbands don’t have one first.’”
Undaunted, Davis simply started taking classes and, simultaneously, society
evolved. Ultimately, she was granted her degree.
Clearly, Davis is a woman who takes advantage of opportunities and who cre-
ates them where they don’t exist. Because of her tenacious passion and many accom-
plishments, Davis is the 2009 recipient of the University of Denver’s Professional
Achievement Award.
Davis is a renowned artist, teacher and community activist who has inspired other
artists, teachers and activists to believe in their passions.
She set up an arts and crafts program for military families and personnel at
Fitzsimons Army Medical Center after World War II and then worked for 25 years as
a consultant for similar Army hospital programs. She headed the Colorado Women’s
College (CWC) art department from 1962–71 and ran the Boulder Valley School
District’s art program from 1971–76. She’s been an exhibiting artist, curator, juror and
lecturer across the United States.
Beyond her community achievements, Davis’ art is critically acclaimed and
includes painting, sculpture, ceramics, fiber and photography. All of her art is two- or
three-dimensional and that, again, is because of an opportunity she seized.
During World War II, Davis was an undergraduate at Northwest Missouri
State University, where the industrial arts department was hurting for students.
Woodworking, mechanical drawing and architecture courses had traditionally been dominated by men, who were then off to war.
“I took advantage of that, and I received a minor in industrial arts,” she says. “It gave me a technical background that few art people had.”
Millie (Schairer) Russell (CWC ’66) studied art under Davis and is today an accomplished artist. She says Davis’ effectiveness is due to her
positive approach to life.
“She taught by emphasizing the best in what you were doing,” says Russell. “She made you feel so positive about what you were doing that
you could hardly wait to do more.”
Davis, like most artists, has developed an “artist’s statement.” Hers is simple: “I make things because I must.” Similarly, her motivation to
teach and advance art in the community derives from deceptively simple needs.
“When I’m passionate about something, I want to share it,” she says. “I’m passionate about art, so I have found ways to share it over my
entire life.”
—Janalee Card Chmel
1995 For her gift and ongoing work in the community, Chambers is the recipient of DU’s 2009
John Evans Award—the University’s highest alumni honor.
Vinay “Mickey” Desai (MA ’95) is the While Chambers says she loves the building itself, she says she made her quick commitment
executive director of the Anti-Prejudice
because the vision matched her own belief in systemic change for women and girls.
Consortium in Atlanta. Mickey has worked
“We weren’t talking about building a building, per se,” she says, “but a place where the occu-
in the nonprofit sector since 2001 and helped
revive the Atlanta Nonprofit Professionals pants come together and their energies create a positive impact on the community.”
organization. He chairs the Metropolitan An only child, Chambers grew up in an “oil family” and ultimately ran her family’s oil com-
Counseling Services Board of Directors and pany for more than a decade. She believes it is a responsibility, and a privilege, to share her good
is a member of the Georgia Lakes Society fortune.
Board of Directors and the United Way’s “I learned at my father’s knee that if you have an ability to make large gifts, then you
Volunteer Involvement Program Alumni should,” she says. From her mother, Chambers learned the importance of helping people.
Association. Mickey lives in Jonesboro, Ga. “My mother was a good liberal, and she gave of her time and talent,” says Chambers. “That’s
where I get the emotional underpinnings of my work.”
Jonquil Powell (BA ’95, MEPM ’99) Chambers says her proudest accomplishment is the work that she’s done for women and
joined the Greater Yellowstone Coalition,
girls across many states. She established women’s foundations in states where her family’s busi-
located in Bozeman, Mont., as the associate
ness operated, including Wyoming, Montana and Oklahoma. She also gave generously to already-
development director. Jonquil’s fiancé,
Erik Nelson, is a native of Bozeman and a established women’s foundations in North Dakota.
partner in the design and development firm “I give systemically so that I can promote the greatest possible change for women,”
ThinkTank Design. Chambers says.
Today, she runs the Chambers Family Fund, which “seeks upstream solutions to improve
the lives of women and girls.” She recently made a $50,000 challenge gift at a Women’s
Foundation of Colorado luncheon, and she champions early childhood education.
But Chambers never seeks attention for her own actions. Instead, she says, “It has been
extraordinary to be able to help women.”
—Janalee Card Chmel
T CERTIFICA
| GIF TE
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BOOKSTORE
&
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|
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REGULAR STOR E H O U R S
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especially teenagers,” Shoureshi says. “The other part was that, even though Timber did not have a formal
education in engineering or computer science, he had an innovative mind.”
Dick, who held bachelor’s and master’s degrees in management and administration from Yale University, began inventing ways to make
life better—and faster—at an early age. He was fascinated with automobiles and bicycles and worked tirelessly to improve their designs. He
invented a better baby carrier when Annette complained about having to remove her children from car seats when they were sleeping. The
result—the Sit ’n’ Stroll—is sold by Hammacher Schlemmer.
With his son Corban, Dick tackled what he believed is one of the biggest wastes in society: the internal combustion engine. In an effort to
reduce that waste, they invented the IRIS, which stands for Internally Radiating Impulse Structure; their company, Tendix, holds the patent.
“The IRIS replaces the piston and cylinder architecture found in most engines with a revolutionary device designed to more fully harness
the energy of combustion activity,” Corban explains.
In the months after Dick’s death, the invention received major awards from NASA and ConocoPhillips.
Annette says her husband always involved their children in his work, whether it was his latest invention or re-wiring the dining room
lights.
“Timber taught all of the time. He used absolutely everything to teach,” says Annette. “He especially liked bouncing problems off the kids
to see what ideas they could come up with together.”
She says the DU environment was “great fertilizer” for his ideas.
Similarly, Shoureshi believes that Dick’s home life contributed to his rapport with DU students.
“He and Annette had 11 children! That prepared him to understand deeply how to communicate with students.”
Todd Rinehart, assistant vice chancellor for enrollment and director of admission, frequently saw Dick’s interaction with prospective
students and their parents.
“Timber was very committed to making our world a better place and was inspired to invent things that helped people in their daily lives,”
Rinehart says. “While he truly was committed to DU and the discipline of engineering, he shared the same innovative and entrepreneurial
spirit that many of the young students he met with possessed.
“Timber believed in his heart that he could make a difference with a student who, someday in the future, would make a difference in our
world.”
—Janalee Card Chmel
iStockphoto
Today’s stock market is showing volatility unlike any time in
history; the Dow may be up 500 points one day and then down
700 points the next. The economy is in a recession. What should
an individual do in this environment?
Don’t panic. The long-run average annual return for the stock
market is about 12 percent. There will be some years where the
return may be higher—the late 1990s, for example—and years
where the return can be negative—the early 2000s, for example.
Invest in stocks for the long term; don’t sell just because the
market is down.
Invest conservatively. It is important to continue to save, but save now by investing in low-risk bonds, such as treasury bonds or low-risk
bond mutual funds. Bank certificates of deposit, which are FDIC insured, can also be an alternative. Match their maturities to when you will
need the cash, whether it be in six months, in two years, or whatever time frame fits your investment life cycle.
Deaths
1930s Kenneth Dorst (PhD ’66), San Jose, Calif., 8-17-08
John Edwards (BA ’39), Englewood, Colo., 6-4-08 Ezekiel “Eski’a” Mphahlele (PhD ’68), Johanesburg,
South Africa, 10-27-08
1940s Paul Murin (BSBA ’68), Chicago, 8-23-08
James Flanigan (BA ’41, JD ’46), Denver, 8-30-08
Valerie (Vannatter) Watts (BA ’47), Hays, Kan., 6-12-07 1970s
Phyllis (Ingram) Ross (BA ’48), Englewood, Colo., 9-1-08 Timothy Geier (BSBA ’71), Cleveland, 3-6-08
George Hess (BS ’49), Boise, Idaho, 9-2-02 David Virden (BA ’71), Manchester, Mass., 8-29-08
Clark Scott (BA ’49), Lakewood, Colo., 10-9-08 Donald Wasko (JD ’71), Steamboat Springs, Colo., 8-26-08
Leo Zuckerman (BA ’49, LLB ’58), San Francisco, 12-6-07 Patricia Wagnon (MA ’74), Sacramento, Calif., 8-7-08
1950s 1980s
Orville Turner (BA ’50, MA ’55), Littleton, Colo., 7-20-08 Mark Kunsman (BA ’85), Bridgewater, N.J., 11-4-07
Rayman Overton (BS ’51), Broomfield, Colo., 6-9-08
Everett Pond (BS ’53), Denver, 9-17-08 Faculty and Staff
Arthur Robbins (attd. 1951–53), Denver, 7-2-08 Ilene Alfrey, custodian (retired 1999), Wheat Ridge, Colo., 11-7-08
Olav Svennevik (MA ’55), Oslo, Norway, 12-7-07 Charles “Mike” Beall, political science professor emeritus,
Longmont, Colo., 9-22-08
1960s Emma Bieshaar, registrar’s office (retired 1981),
Thomas Valliant (BSBA ’63), Englewood, Colo., 2-21-08 Lakewood, Colo., 9-29-08
Gerry Difford (MA ’64), Golden, Colo., 8-18-08 John Kice, chemistry professor emeritus, dean emeritus of natural science,
Warner Bromgard (MSBA ’66), Lakewood, Colo., 4-4-08 mathematics and engineering, Aurora, Colo., 10-31-08
2008
Beth Gyurovits
(MBA ’08) was
Reunion recaps
named director
of marketing and On Aug. 9, 2008,
Internet programs graduates of DU’s MBA
for the nonprofit Class of ’88 celebrated their
National Pain 20th reunion with a picnic.
Foundation. Prior, From left: Steve Dill of
Beth worked as Golden, Colo.; Denis Foley
a Web manager of Denver; David Velasco
at Johns Manville and as the global Web of Highlands Ranch, Colo.;
strategist for Maxtor Corp. In 2000 she
Tony Juarez (kneeling) of
started the Denver Women’s Hockey
Pueblo, Colo.; Pamela White
League and served as the president and
director of marketing. Beth lives in of Lafayette, Colo.; J.P. Illes
Highlands Ranch, Colo. of Aurora, Colo.; Jim Darr
of Lakewood, Colo.; Stan
Andrea McCrady (BM ’08) completed Gross of Longmont, Colo.
DU’s four-year bachelor of music degree in
two years. Andrea, who previously practiced Last December these DU alumnae
family medicine in Spokane, Wash., got together for an ornament exchange, a
pursued the degree to ground her music tradition they have carried on for nearly
academically. 20 years. Although a varied mixture of
stay-at-home moms, part-time workers
Andy Thomas (BSBA ’08) of Bow, N.H.,
and career women, they are held together
has signed a one-year, entry-level minor
league contract with the National Hockey by the common bond of sisterly affection
League’s Anaheim Ducks. Andy plans on as all were members of Delta Zeta during
making his professional debut playing for their time at DU. Pictured (back row, from
the Iowa Chops of the American Hockey left): Gloria (Weiner) Eddy (BA ’90) of
League. Centennial, Colo.; Shannon (Richardson)
Harding (BA ’90) of Greenwood Village,
Post your class note online at www.alumni.du.edu, Colo.; Patsy (Ruther) Di Domenico (BSBA
e-mail du-magazine@du.edu or mail in the form
’90) of Highlands Ranch, Colo.; Kari (Armato) Ansay (BA ’90) of Castle Rock, Colo.; Cheryl (Dolechek)
on page 57.
Metzger (BSBA ’90) of Aurora, Colo.; Mary (Scharrer) Inabu (BSBA ’89) of Aurora, Colo.; Pam (Norris)
Krammer (BSBA ’89) of Lone Tree, Colo. Middle Row (from left): Steff (Engel) Frese (BSBA ’90) of
Broomfield, Colo.; Susan (Bradbury) Kamberos (BSBA ’89) of Littleton, Colo.; Chris (Pastor) Nelson
(BSBA ’90) of Thornton, Colo.; Shannon (Marshall) Neary (BSacc ’90) of Belton, Texas. Front: Amy
(Marshall) Van Orman (BA ’90) of Parker, Colo.
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50 University of Denver Magazine Spring 2009 303-871-2776
TreaT yourself To
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The sancTuary.
And Put More Athletes on the DU Roster.