auburn magazine spring 2016

FUNNY GIRL JEANNE ROBERTSON | THE ORIGINS OF WAR EAGLE

AuburnM A G A Z I N E / S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

THE BEAR FACTS | HAVE HENSONS, WILL TRAVEL

Talking Nuclear Protocol with Nobel Winner John Oakberg ’69

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SPRING 2016 Auburn Magazine 1

The Alabama Cooperative Extension System (Alabama A&M University and Auburn University) is an equal opportunity educator and employer. Everyone is welcome! © 2016 by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System

Download the newest iBook free from Auburn today!

Home & Family Protect Your

www.aces.edu/emergency

A U B U R N M A G A Z I N E . A U B U R N . E D U2


See more online at fashionfusionfaceoff.com/votehere

RUNWAY WANDERLUSTThe Apparel Merchandising and Design Association’s annual apparel event at Auburn gives apparel design and merchandising students in the College of Human Sciences a chance to show off their couture chops in a show called “Wanderlust.” The April event has been followed by the “Iron Bowl of Fashion” as Auburn and Alabama design students compete in a design challenge created by the Huntsville Museum of Art Guild. To see the designs and give an AU designer your vote, visit the web address below. (Photograph by Jeff Etheridge.)


THIS IS MAKING EDUCATION WORK.

BILLION$5.1

OVERALL CONTRIBUTION TO ALABAMA’S ECONOMY

A N D S U P P O R T S

23,600 JOBS IN ADDITION TO DIRECT EMPLOYMENT

As Auburn alumni, you are more than just acquainted with the line in our creed that embraces a belief in “hard work.”

Your Auburn degree, along with the degrees of thousands of other graduates, has played a vital role in developing and enhancing our state and our national workforce. Our approach has always combined a superlative faculty with a student body that now includes aspiring minds from some 90 countries. The result is a trained force that is focused on building, running, and working in an international economy driven by innovation.

Making Auburn’s venture more successful requires adding partnerships to the equation. Whether it’s additive manufacturing with GE Aviation or radio frequency identi� cation with Amazon, Target, and Saks Fifth Avenue, Auburn is committed to working alongside entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and government of� cials as an engine of economic opportunity. This collaboration enhances a global gateway to discovering new knowledge, advancing scholarship, and propelling economic development.

The university’s overall contribution to the state’s economy is $5.1 billion and supports 23,600 jobs in addition to direct employment.

Hard work is at the core of all our efforts, which is why the Auburn Family is making great strides in educating a smarter workforce and developing a stronger economy.


FROM THE PRESIDENT

TODAY’S SOCIETY is perhaps more transient than at any time in history. Pulling up stakes and going to a new place has become a significant part of life. Relocating can be spurred for a number of reasons, but the most common is to accelerate one’s career.

Studies have recently confirmed that more people, particularly ages 18 to 34, leave Alabama to begin or continue careers than are coming in. Therefore, it is incumbent on Auburn as a land-grant university to continue its efforts to educate an unrivaled workforce and to enhance the state’s business and industrial environments as a way to boost the economic benefit that comes with attracting companies in need of the state’s bright and hard-working citizens.

While Alabama’s automotive and aerospace industries are thriving, that is not enough to keep younger generations here. Some of the state’s other advantages—relatively low taxes, status as a right-to-work state, and pro-business regulatory climate—have recently appealed to large companies like Airbus, Google, Polaris, and Remington. Landing a string of coveted economic development projects like the ones just mentioned and others caused Business Facilities magazine to select Alabama as its 2015 “State of the Year.”

Auburn is also doing its part. Currently, the university’s overall annual contribution to the state’s economy is $5.1 billion and supports 23,600 jobs in addition to direct employment. Our efforts in this area are already significant because Auburn

educates people to excel in the many technology-driven fields of study that are of interest to Fortune 500 companies. In addition, our Office of Research and Economic Development works to forge corporate partnerships that benefit all Alabamians. Auburn will not only continue to make this issue a priority but will also step up our resolve.

Auburn welcomes the opportunity to join and work with the state’s other universities, colleges and state agencies to draw more business and industry to Alabama. The new neighbors will serve to provide a better living environment for our citizens and a home for an exceptionally skilled workforce.War Eagle!

Attracting & Retaining the Best & Brightest

Jay Gogue ’69 President, Auburn University

[email protected]

Our overall annual contribution to the state’s

economy is $5.1 billion.

Smart StuffOn Feb. 4, AU unveiled

its new $1 million supercomputer that will

enhance research across all

disciplines.

PH

OTO

GR

AP

H B

Y M

EL

ISSA

HU

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FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT FOR ALUMNI AFFAIRS

Join a ClubI HOPE YOUR NEW YEAR is off to a great start! Auburn University held its first Tiger Giving Day on Dec. 1 to increase awareness about unique projects and offered a fun and immediate way for alumni and friends to fund them. Your Auburn Alumni Association eagerly participated in this effort with a goal to raise $25,000 to establish a veterans’ scholarship endowment. Thanks to the active participation of our alumni board of directors, student alumni members, Auburn Club volunteers, and donors, we met our goal. Thanks to the generosity of more than 270 alumni and friends, deserving U.S. military veterans will receive scholarship support to have a place in the Auburn Family and a chance to obtain a world-class education.

If you are familiar with Mardi Gras, then you know it can be festive, fun and always includes beads! The Auburn Alumni Association created its own version of this celebration, Aubie Gras, for its annual club leadership conference held in early February. More than 170 loyal alumni volunteer leaders were

treated to a festive and entertaining atmosphere while receiving important leadership training during the two-day conference. Participants learned how each and every Auburn Club collectively impacts Auburn University’s success and attended sessions that included: best practices for successful events, meetings and programs;

how to generate revenue for scholarships; club participation

in Auburn student recruitment; and the importance of increasing alumni giving participation rates. In addition to the business aspect of the conference, this gathering allowed participants to network with one another to establish a stronger Auburn Club and Affiliate network of volunteers.

The following clubs were also recognized for their outstanding achievements and include: the St. Louis Auburn Club for Most Outstanding Club Event; the West Georgia Auburn Club for Most Outstanding Auburn Alumni-in-Action Project; the Greater Houston Auburn Club for Most

Outstanding Communication; the Greater Houston Auburn Club, for raising $87,000 this past year to

fund scholarships; the Greater Houston Auburn Club for Most Outstanding Young Alumni Program; the Tampa Bay Auburn Club for Highest Attendance at an Annual Meeting; and

Lee Thompson of the Huntsville-Madison Auburn Club, for Most Outstanding Club Leader.

This passionate and dedicated group of the Auburn family are inspirational and work tirelessly to foster the Auburn spirit throughout their communities. Thank you!

For the past 15 years, the Auburn Alumni Association has recognized Auburn alumni and friends who have made a significant difference in the life of Auburn University, their professions and within their communities. This year’s recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award are Jane B. Moore; Edward Lee “Ed Lee” Spencer ’52; James Shelton “Jim” Voss ’72; and Walter Stanley “Walt” Woltosz ’69. Lt. William Joel “Joel” Shumaker ’05 will also be recognized as the recipient of the Young Alumni Achievement Award. Enjoy learning more about each of these individuals in this issue.

I am pleased to invite your nominations for our Auburn Alumni Association Board of Directors. Openings include four new directors and the officer positions of president and vice-president. Directors will serve four-year terms and officers will serve two-year terms beginning fall 2016. If you are interested in learning more about serving or would like to nominate a worthy candidate, please visit aualum.org/board-of-directors for additional information. Please note the nomination deadline is March 28, 2016.

This is indeed an exciting time to be involved with the Auburn Alumni Association. I hope you will take advantage of the numerous opportunities to reconnect with each other and your alma mater in the upcoming months. Please visit our website at aualum.org for the latest event and registration information or contact our office for assistance.

Gretchen VanValkenburg ’86

Vice President for Alumni Affairs &

Executive Director, Auburn Alumni Association

[email protected]

On the map Sylar Liu points out the new AU affiliate group’s home base in China.


WE CAN BLAME IT ON TEDDY ROOSEVELT. In

1902, President Roosevelt traveled to Mississippi on a

bear-hunting trip. His associates caught a black bear and

restrained it until the president could make the kill. Teddy

the president refused, a political cartoon about the incident

made the bear smaller and cuter, a toy company got

involved, and the teddy bear was born.

Those were the beginnings of Americans’ great

fondness for bears. As our need for space has grown,

however, we’ve crowded out many of our black bear

friends. Todd Steury, a professor in the Auburn University

School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, says there are

60 black bears left in the State of Alabama. His unique

tracking and numbering system has drawn attention, not

to mention funding, for his Auburn Bear Project.

In this issue, you’ll learn more about how Steury

and his team count bears, track their activities, and can

pinpoint where they are — namely, Saraland, near Mobile,

and Mentone, in Dekalb County.

You’ll also learn that we don’t count Georgia bears

as belonging to our state. Georgia’s male bears are bad to

wander across the border in search of Alabama’s female

bears. Then they go home again.

Georgia’s wandering bears have nothing on AU

alumnus Bob Henson and his wife, Phyllis, who have

accomplished the rare feat of having visited every country

on the planet, some safer than others.

And safety—specifically, nuclear safety—is our cover

story this issue as we talk to AU’s Nobel Prize-winning

physicist John Oakberg, whose team at the International

Atomic Energy Agency has been responsible for keeping

nuclear weapons proliferation in check.

Enjoy the issue—and watch out for those bears

wandering over from Georgia. They’re up to no good.

FROM THE EDITOR

For the Love of Bears

Suzanne Johnson

Editor, Auburn Magazine

[email protected]

AuburnM A G A Z I N E

FEATURES

28 Outwitting PossumAUBURN RESEARCHERS IN THE SCHOOL OF FORESTRY AND WILDLIFE SCIENCES LEARN THAT

POSSUMS AREN’T THE ONLY ANIMALS WHO CAN “PLAY POSSUM.” IT’S LED THEM ON QUITE A WILD

BEAR CHASE. STORY BY JEREMY HENDERSON ‘04.

34 Nuclear PowerfulJOHN OAKBERG ‘69 AND HIS COLLEAGUES FROM THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY

PUT THE TEETH INTO THE U.N.’S NUCLEAR WATCHDOG PROGRAM AND THE NUCLEAR PROLIFERA-

TION TREATY, TAKING A BITE OUT OF SADDAM HUSSEIN’S PERSONAL “MANHATTAN PROJECT.”

STORY BY DEREK HERSCOVICI ‘14.

40 On the Road with the HensonsBOB ‘69 AND PHYLLIS HENSON HAVE MANAGED TO COMBINE BUSINESS WITH THEIR OWN

PERSONAL WANDERLUST TO TAKE THEM EVERYWHERE. LITERALLY. STORY BY ALEC HARVEY ‘84.


EDITOR

Suzanne Johnson

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Shannon Bryant-Hankes ’84

ART DESIGNER

Heather Peevy

UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHER

Jeff Etheridge

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS

Victoria Beasley ’16, Sarah Russell ’16

DESIGN ASSISTANTSGrace Rudder ’16, Conner Dungan ’17

IT SPECIALIST

Aaron Blackmon ’10

PRESIDENT, AUBURN UNIVERSITY Jay Gogue ’69

VICE PRESIDENT FOR ALUMNI AFFAIRS &

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AUBURN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Gretchen VanValkenburg ’86

PRESIDENT, AUBURN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Jack Fite ’85

AUBURN MAGAZINE ADVISORY COUNCIL CHAIR Neal Reynolds ’77

AUBURN MAGAZINE ADVISORY COUNCIL

Maria Baugh ’87 John Carvalho ’78

Jon Cole ’88 Christian Flathman ’97

Tom Ford ’67 Kay Fuston ’84 Julie Keith ’90

Mary Lou Foy ’66 Eric Ludgood ’78

Cindy McDaniel ’80 Napo Monasterio ’02

Carol Pappas ’77 Joyce Reynolds Ringer ’59

Allen Vaughan ’75

7 From the Editor Our abiding love for Ursus americanus floridanus. CONCOURSE 10 In the Zone Homes for AU’s growing programs in the health sciences.

14 On the March Although legally blind, AU freshman Tripp Gulledge saw no reason to keep him out of the AU Marching Band.

17 Mixed Media New art from John Baeder ‘60, new stories from Thom Gossom ‘75 and music from Don Clayton ‘75.

18 Google This Where do all those innovations from Google originate? With people like Nic DiChiara ‘15, whose entrepreneurial spirit goes back to childhood.

22 Sports “16 in 16.” A.D. Jay Jacobs lays out his vision for Auburn Athletics.

24 Philanthropy Participation matters! As Auburn makes solid strides toward its Because This is Auburn campaign goal, attention turns to participation rates. It’s not all about dollars.

THE CLASSES

54 LAA Auburn Alumni Association President Jack Fite ‘85 looks at fall traditions and this year’s Lifetime Achievement Awards.

57 Class Notes

57 In Memoriam

64 Backchat

AuburnM A G A Z I N E

AUBURN MAGAZINE (ISSN 1077– 8640) is published quarterly; 4X per year; spring, summer, fall, winter, for members of the Auburn Alumni Association. Periodicals-class postage paid in Auburn and additional mailing offices. Editorial offices are located in the Auburn Alumni Center, 317 South College St., Auburn University, AL 36849-5149. Email: [email protected]. Contents ©2015 by the Auburn Alumni Association, all rights reserved.

ADVERTISING INFORMATION Contact Jessica King at 334-844–2586 or see our media guide at aualum.org/magazine.

POSTMASTER Send address changes to AU Records, 317 South College St., Auburn, AL 36849–5149.

ON THE COVER Take a few minutes to unravel the layers of meaning behind the illustration by Auburn Magazine designer Heather Peevy, from the periodic table screened into the background, the nuclear worst-case scenario, the dual nature of nuclear energy for good or bad, the ‘92’ that represents uranium. What else can you spot?

DEPARTMENTS

54

34 57


Outbreak?

ConcourseAUBURN NEWS & VIEWS

Zika Limited in U.S.Derrick Mathias, an assistant professor specializing in medical entomology in the College of Agriculture, and Xing Ping Hu, an ACES entomologist, believe the Zika virus will present the greatest threat to residents in South Florida and South Texas, but neither expects to see a widespread outbreak in the United States.

IN THIS SECTION

Strategic Growth

10

Tripp’s Inner Vision 14

Mixed Media 17

Canine Pacemakers 20


CONCOURSE > CAMPUS NEWS

AUBURN’S WORK IN HEALTH

SCIENCES research has grown in pockets over the years, but

with the growth of interdisciplinary collaborations, it makes sense to put those researchers within shouting distance of each other instead of scat-tered across campus. In its November meeting, the Auburn University Board of Trustees approved the construction of the first two buildings in the university’s new Health Sciences Sector. The area at the corner of Lem Mor-rison Drive and South Donahue Drive is being deemed as such because it will house a new building for the School of Nursing and a new pharmaceuti-cal research building for the Harrison School of Pharmacy.

Both facilities are deliberately being located near the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine to bolster interdisciplinary collaborations. Nursing’s new building will include 89,000 square feet of classrooms, simulation labs, and clinical and de-partmental space on three floors. The board previously agreed to retain Sta-cy Norman Architects of Auburn and Ayers Saint Gross of Baltimore, Maryland, as architects and Hoar Program Management serving as construction management. The projected cost of $29 million

will be covered with gifts and univer-sity general funds. Construction began in January and should be complete by August 2017. The new pharmaceutical research building will have 37,000 square feet for pharmaceutical and interdisciplinary research labs and support space over three floors. The

board previously agreed to use Infinity Architecture of Montgomery as architects. The $16.6 million

cost will be covered with reserve funds from the pharmacy school. LBYD Inc. of Birmingham began work in January to provide the

infrastructure, including water, power, sewer and information/communication technologies, needed to support the new buildings. The $6 million project will be paid for by university general funds and is expected to be complete in August. In other action, the board approved the establishment of Auburn’s first fully online degree program, an RN to BSN program in the School of Nurs-ing. The offering would allow regis-tered nurses, or RNs, with associate degrees to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, or BSN, through online instruction. Only about 40 percent of current RNs have a BSN, but the demand for professionals with this credential is expected to rise sharply in the coming years.

In the Zone

Nursing’s new building will include 89,000 square feet of classrooms, simulation labs, and clinical and departmental space on three f loors.



COLLABORATIVE TEACHER

SPECIAL EDUCATION will

be added as an option for the

current educational specialist degree

program in the Department of Special

Education, Rehabilitation and Coun-

seling in the College of Education.

Wake, Dog, Scan

Additionally, the board approved a number of

other projects:

A $2.2 million project was

approved to build out 7,200

square feet of space in the

AUBURN ARENA to accommo-

date locker rooms, team meeting rooms,

offices and other support spaces for the

women’s volleyball team.

A $1.25 million project

will construct the AUBURN

MEMORIAL, an area on

campus meant to honor and

memorialize deceased Au-

burn students, faculty, staff,

alumni and veterans.

A $4.5 million project

will replace a STORM

DRAIN & SEWER LINE

underneath the north

end zone of Jordan-Hare

Stadium.

The board agreed to HIRE SEAY SEAY

& LITCHFIELD OF MONTGOMERY

as project architects to construct a new

Auxiliary Services maintenance

building, as well as a new Risk

Management and Safety building,

both in the facilities management

complex on West Samford Avenue.

HOLCOMBE

NORTON

PARTNERS OF BIRMING-

HAM were chosen as the

project architects to improve

the traffic on Mell Street,

West Samford Avenue &

Thach Avenue.

The project to construct two

multipurpose poultry houses and an

administrative building at the North

Auburn campus for poultry research

led to the hiring of GHAFARI

ASSOCIATES OF BIRMINGHAM

as project architect.

The board agreed to begin a project

to create an INTERDISCIPLINARY

SCIENCE BUILDING for the biological

sciences and geosciences departments

in the College of Sciences and

Mathematics, resulting from the

plan to demolish Funchess Hall.

A project to create an

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES

RESEARCH BUILDING for

crop soil and environmental

sciences, entomology and plant

pathology, and horticulture

departments in the College of

Agriculture was approved,

resulting from the plan to

demolish Funchess Hall.

A new BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN

APPLIED BIOTECHNOLOGY in the

Department of Entomology and Plant

Pathology in the College of Agriculture

will lead to Auburn becoming the

first university in Alabama to offer

an undergraduate degree in applied

biotechnology.

An ONLINE BACHELOR OF

COMPUTER SCIENCE in

the Department of Computer

Science and Software

Engineering

in the College

of Engineering

will be offered in

concentrated eight-week

terms for students with some

prior college credits but no

degree.

A DOG’S REMARKABLE NOSE

has helped mankind for ages,

but neuroscientists know little

about how the canine brain works,

particularly using the sense of smell.

Auburn researchers in engineering and

veterinary medicine are gathering this

info through functional MRI brain scans of awake, non-anesthetized

dogs. “We are the first group in the world able to study how their brains

process odorant information,” said assistant professor Gopikrishna “Gopi”

Deshpande of electrical and computer engineering. The vet school’s Canine

Performance Science staff train the dogs to get on the scanner, place their

heads in position and remain still during the scanning. Previously, dogs had

to be anesthetized before scanning.

T ime for another

2016

For dates, club sponsor and speaker information, locations and more details,

see our website, aualum.org/clubs, or contact [email protected].

• Alabama Gulf Coast

• Atlanta Area

• Greater Birmingham Area

• Greater Houston Area

• North Alabama Regional

• West Georgia

• Wiregrass Regional

A U B U R N M A G A Z I N E . A U B U R N . E D U12 AU Alumni Winter 16.indd 1 1/26/2016 3:00:16 PM


THE ARCHIVESFound in “Auburn’s Attic”

THE PHILIP HENRY GOSSE PAPERS consist of 49 4 x 5-inch

positive color transparencies of drawings of Alabama butterflies,

caterpillars, moths, beetles, dragonflies and other insects. A gifted

amateur naturalist, Gosse sketched and hand-colored the drawings in

1838 while he briefly visited Alabama. The 49 transparencies contain

the complete set of his drawings of 233 Alabama insects contained

in his unpublished Entomologia Alabamensis. Philip Gosse was an

English-born, 19th-century naturalist who took a teaching job in 1838

in Dallas County. For eight months he collected insect specimens that

he preserved in detailed watercolors of Entomologia Alabamensis. He

chronicled his life in a frontier culture in Letters from Alabama.

diglib.auburn.edu/collections/phgosse

THE BEAUTY

OF WINGS

IN FLIGHT



PLAYING AN INSTRUMENT is hard enough, but when

marching band criteria are thrown into the mix—staying in

step with others, learning where to march and remaining

in formation—it can be downright grueling. Then try it without

being able to see.

For Auburn Marching Band member Tripp Gulledge, the

ability to play is worth it.

A freshman from Mobile, Gulledge developed a love of

music at an early age, when he began taking piano lessons as a

5-year-old. When he entered middle school, he started playing

the French horn after encouragement from his band director.

“I wanted to play piano, but I didn’t really know that that

wasn’t a band instrument,” Gulledge said. “So my director

was like, ‘Well, if you don’t know what you want to play, your

parents said you’ve got a good ear and I don’t have very many

horn players, so I want you to play horn.’”

His loss of vision has added an extra element of difficulty

to playing in a marching band. Gulledge was diagnosed with

retinopathy of prematurity when he was about 6 weeks old. This

disease causes blood vessels to grow between the eye and the

retina, causing the latter to separate from the back of the eye

and impairing vision.

Doctors were able to save some of Gulledge’s vision in his

right eye through laser surgery. Because his left retina had

already detached, physicians were unable to restore vision to it.

In order to know his music and formation on the field,

Gulledge has had to make a few adjustments to the traditional

ways of learning. The band directors or grad students will

isolate the French horn part on their music notation software,

and they will send it as an MP3 file to Gulledge so that he can

hear the music he should be playing.

Gulledge serves as an alternate in the band, so he shadows

primary players during practices. Alternates learn positions

by following behind the person they are shadowing during

rehearsals, so Gulledge adjusts by simply placing his hand on

his partner’s shoulder.

“When people have to lead me around places, that’s how I

do it anyway. So I just incorporate that.”

Field conditions impact the band’s practices too, and

upgrades to the practice field, including new dressing

rooms and storage, will be underway soon. In addition, a

new rehearsal hall is planned for Goodwin Hall that will

provide the indoor practice space the band currently lacks.

The practice facility has been made a priority project in the

$1 billion Because This is Auburn campaign as one of the

primary goals for the College of Liberal Arts. In day-to-day life,

Gulledge doesn’t need to be guided by people as much as he did

previously, thanks to his new K9 companion. He received his

guide dog, Dakota, this past summer and relies on him to get

around campus.

“If I hadn’t lost so much vision, I wouldn’t have a guide

dog and my dog is the most adorable, awesome thing ever,”

Gulledge said. Dakota, a yellow Labrador retriever, has become

one of Gulledge’s best friends and has inspired him to consider

another potential career path in the future.

And as much as he loves Dakota, he loves the AU Marching

Band and the band members love him in return. “It’s something

that you can put all of your work and heart and soul and blood

and sweat and tears into and come out really pleased with what

you end up with.” —Rachael Gamlin

See more at because.auburn.edu/band.

Inner VisionWith some recorded French horn music, a determined spirit,

a passion for music and a buddy named Dakota, freshman Tripp Gulledge has found his place with the Auburn University Marching Band.



Did you know...The AU Marching Band might be the best known,

but the music department also features:

• the Symphonic Winds

• a Concert Band

• the Basketball Pep Band

• the Campus Band

• and a Jazz Band

PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF ETHERIDGE


Courtney J. Garrett ‘06 was the speaker for the 29th annual Grisham-Trentham Lecture sponsored by the consumer and design sciences department. Born

in rural Alabama to a Southern tole painter and a draftsman, Garrett used the insight she gained while studying the

design of environments to develop as an artist. “My studies at Auburn were pivotal. I gained access to an

invitation on how to think for other people,” she said. “I learned how to create spaces that affected the

everyday function of its inhabitants.”

Artistic

courtneyjgarrett.com


BOOKSHELF

John Baeder’s Road Well Taken, a monograph by Jay Williams (Vendome Press, 2015), firmly establishes Baeder ‘60 as one of the 20th century’s most important painters. Williams couches Baeder’s artistic quest as a search to discover American identity and reveal the American scene as metaphor. Baeder’s most iconic paintings portray diners and small-town life along the backroads of America.

A Slice of Life: Life Stories, by Thom Gossom ‘75 (Aquarius Press, 2015), presents a short story collection by actor and author Gossom. His memoir, Walk On, My Reluctant Journey to Integration at Auburn University, is his story as the first African-American athlete to graduate from Auburn. A Slice of Life mirrors the first season of life, reflected in a newly integrated Alabama of the 1960s and ’70s. Tommy will miss the big game if he doesn’t eat those dang “Cold Hard Grits.” A football dynasty permanently penalizes a father and a son in “Crimson Tide,” and a dimwitted Army veteran has war flashbacks in “Everybody’s Crazy.”

The Dogs Buried Over the Bridge: A Memoir in Dog Years, by Rheta Grimsley Johnson ‘77 (John F. Blair, 2016). In The Dogs Buried Over the Bridge, nationally syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson uses a parade of beloved dogs to take readers on a colorful journey. It’s not really a dog book in the Old Yeller sense; it’s a personal story that uses dogs as metaphors for love, loss, and life. “Working for newspapers ages you expo-nentially; it’s like dog years,” Johnson says. Readers follow her as a starry-eyed newlywed starting a weekly newspaper on Georgia’s exotic St. Simons Island, through stints at various other Southern newspapers, and finally to her writing life in remote and dog-friendly Fishtrap Hollow, Miss. Along the way, readers meet Rheta’s eccentric neighbors, her friends, her three husbands, and—best of all—her dogs. She introduces, among many others, Monster, “a big galoot of a mutt...”; Humphrey, who spent much of one night in an apartment complex “patiently lining stolen shoes up at our back door like a clearance rack at Payless”; Mabel (pronounced May-Belle), the first of the dogs to be buried “over the bridge” in Rheta’s sad little dog cemetery, who was “so beautiful that it never really mattered how much toilet paper she shredded...”

MIXED MEDIANow Playing

John Baeder’s Road Well Taken by Jay Williams

THREE CHORDS & THE TRUTH That’s the name of the newest CD from country

musician Don Clayton ‘75, who describes his music as “happy blues.” He cofounded the successful

Festiva Resorts in 2000, but continues to pursue his first love of singing and writing songs. Learn

more at donclaytonsongs.com


CONCOURSE > RESEARCH

WHILE MOST AUBURN FANS were celebrating Auburn’s 2013 SEC Championship win over

Missouri, one Auburn student scored an unexpected victory that felt just as exhilarating.

Sitting in the Atlanta hotel room he rented for the championship game, Nic DiChiara ’15 received rare news from techno-innovator Google: he’d been selected to become a developer for Google’s newest innovation, Google Glass.

“When I heard they were releasing Glass, it just blew my mind, and I had to try it out, so I reached out to them,” he said. “I didn’t hear back for like a year, but

they finally reached back—and I took that opportunity instantly.”

Google Glass is a device that you wear on your face like a pair of glasses. The first of its kind, Glass houses a full Android processor, a tiny projector and a prism that reflects images into the upper right corner of your vision.

You can’t go out and buy your own pair of Glass; it’s only available to the few Google selects to be Explorers: programmers who build software to pioneer Glass’s uses for public consumption.

Back in 2013 DiChiara didn’t jump at

the opportunity to become an Explorer just to be able to boast that he had Glass. He became an Explorer with a purpose. Years earlier, when his aunt, Linda, was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s

Disease, DiChiara watched her struggle to take care of herself in ways many take for granted.

“It’s one thing to have a disability like that, but also to not be able to

The Man Behind the (Google) Glass

I’ve been involved in engineering my whole life,” DiChiara said. “I just love making things. It could be anything. It started with LEGOs, then to mechanical engineering, hovercrafts.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF ETHERIDGE


CONCOURSE > RESEARCH

communicate with your family; it’s heartbreaking,” he said.

Now one of about 8,000 in the country chosen to be an Explorer, DiChiara aims to use his early access to Glass to develop software to close the gap in the quality of life between those with disabilities and those without.

His aunt’s experience inspired him to create a collection of applications for Glass called Able, which focuses on enabling the deaf and hard of hearing. The beta version of Able is available for all Android devices.

Caption, one of several components of Able, uses speech-to-text technology to give subtitles to everyday conversations, presentations and even television shows that aren’t available with closed captioning.

Inspired by stories of those with hearing disabilities, other components of the app notify hearing-impaired users of loud noises and help the user locate them.

It even listens for the user’s name and alerts the person if someone is trying to get his or her attention.

DiChiara’s innovation didn’t start with his Glass experience.

“I’ve been involved in engineering my whole life,” DiChiara said. “I just love making things. It could be anything. It started with LEGOs, then to mechanical engineering and hovercrafts.”

DiChiara has worked in whatever way he could to achieve his dreams, not the least of which is his opportunity with Google Glass. However, despite the app’s success, he’d rather the code be available to the public for free so that others can collaborate.

“As it stands right now, I’m not looking to make money off of this app,” he says. “It’s just been kind of a passion project for me; I do it in my spare time.”

Having graduated last December, DiChiara is now pursuing an MBA at the Harbert College of Business and working part-time in the College of Engineering as a webmaster.—Sarah Russell

JCSM.AUBURN.EDU

THIS IS SCULPTURE.THIS IS YOUR MUSEUM.THIS IS AUBURN.

nickdichiara.com


CALORIES BURNED

MONEY SAVED

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SOLA

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RIDE RETURN

more benefits...

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the bike tells you...

AUsome!

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EAGLE

BIKE

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Older dogs with slowing hearts are getting a new “leash” on life at Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, where advanced technology and new treat-ment protocols have created an emerging cardiology program. SEUNGWOO JUNG, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AND CLINICIAN in the cardiology service of the Wilford and Kate Bailey Small Animal Teaching Hospital, recently placed one of the most advanced pacemaker systems used in humans in Joe, a 7-year-old bulldog owned by Wayne and MaryAnn Swift of Meridian, Miss.

Because of the technology and faculty expertise, procedures once considered complicated are now

becoming routine.

“Pacemaker implantation is not new to veterinary medicine, having been done for the last 30 years,” Jung said. “What is relatively new, and the first one at Auburn, was the use of the same type of pacemaker used in human cases, which we implanted in Joe.” During Joe’s recent checkup, tests showed the pacemaker was keeping his heart beating normally. “He’s really doing quite well and from this point on, Joe will only need to be seen on a yearly basis,” Jung said.

The Beat Goes On


CALORIES BURNED

MONEY SAVED

CO2 E

MISSIONS REDUCED

SOLA

R PANEL CHARGING

RIDE RETURN

more benefits...

WAR E

AGLE

RESERVE

MILES TRAVELED

the bike tells you...

AUsome!

Go!

Joe began experiencing fainting episodes and collapsing this past September, and after visits to a Mississippi veterinarian, they determined the next stop was Auburn’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Pacemakers help monitor and control the heartbeat. A pacemaker will send electrical impulses to the heart to keep the beating rhythm in sync and pumping correctly. The procedure is similar to the one done in humans. Under anesthesia, a pacemaker wire is threaded through a dog’s vessel in the neck to the correct place in the heart. A small incision, made in the back of the shoulder, then allows for insertion of the pacemaker under the skin and connection to the wire. — Janet McCoy

The Beat Goes OnMeet Joe

This 7-year-old bulldog marches to the beat of one

of the most advanced pacemakers developed for

human use.


CONCOURSE > SPORTS

CALL IT A FAMILY GATHERING.Standing at a podium in front of

shiny trophy cases inside the Auburn Athletic Complex on a clear and chilly night, Director of Athletics Jay Jacobs ’85 on Jan. 19 cast his vision for 2016.

The former Auburn football walk-on, who rose through the ranks after working in nearly every area of the department to become athletics director in 2005, talked about where Auburn Athletics has been. And where it’s headed.

He began his remarks by reflecting on how different the campus looked on his way into work on Tuesday morning compared to a decade ago.

There was no Auburn Arena, where the roars just two days earlier were deafening as the Tigers knocked off Kentucky for

the first time in nearly two decades. Jacobs reflected on a time when

only Sewell Hall stood at the corner of Samford and Donahue. Now, a world-class student residence hall made possible by university

leadership stands in its place.

While reflecting on the past 11 years, Jacobs said he began to think of all the facility improvements that university leaders and donors helped make possible, from an indoor practice facility and soccer and track building to new facilities for golf and tennis, among others.

After reflecting on the past, Jacobs reminded the crowd why they were all there when he introduced several student-athletes. Then he set the tone for the year by focusing on four goals and 12 “Action Items” he pledged to complete this year.

He called it “16 for ’16.”The goals outlined fell in four areas:

academics, student-athlete experience, facilities and winning.

As a “16 for ’16” graphic flashed across the screens hanging from the ceiling of the room often used for recruiting events and staff functions and as a museum of sorts for visitors, Jacobs reminded those in attendance what it’s really all about: educating the student-athletes sitting on the front row and their teammates, and preparing them for successful careers and meaningful lives.

RINGS & DIPLOMAS

“As Dr. Waters likes to say, ‘We want our athletes to leave Auburn with a diploma in their hand and a ring on their finger...Our goal is to graduate our student-athletes and prepare them for successful lives and careers,” Jacobs said, referring to Gary Waters, senior associate athletics director for student-athlete support services.

It all starts with creating a student-athlete culture and experience that other schools can’t match.

“Our goal is for Auburn to be the best university for the best athletes in the nation,” Jacobs said.

While those goals don’t typically gain the attention of the media or even fans, Jacobs explained how they and his third goal, building and maintaining first-class facilities, all tie to the fourth and final goal that Jacobs says he, better than anyone, understands matters a lot. Winning.

“Our goal is to build and maintain first-class facilities for our athletes and fans...and to put our student-athletes in a

JACOBS’ 16 for ’16

PHOTOGRAPH BY WADE RACKLEY


CONCOURSE > SPORTS

position to compete for championships.”He began with academics, including

hiring a senior associate AD for academic services to succeed Waters, who is retiring, enhancing academic support until all 21 of Auburn’s teams achieve Academic Progress Rates of 950 or higher, and setting a goal that one-third of Auburn’s teams score in the top 10 percent nationally in academic progress rate.

Jacobs then stressed the importance of the student-athlete experience, specifically sports medicine services, additional resources for female student-athletes and hiring a chief inclusion officer to further foster a culture of diversity.

Facility enhancements are also at the forefront of action items for 2016.

While emphasizing that no decisions have been made, Jacobs discussed the potential renovation to the north end zone of Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“We will not move forward or seek approval from university leadership unless the project has broad support and proves to be financially feasible,” he said.

A facilities feasibility study is well

underway to gauge support for the project from donors and season ticket holders.

Jacobs stated several action items related to facilities and the stadium, including the completion of a detailed cost estimate for the potential stadium project by the end of March.

Other facilities upgrades include creating a permanent home for the volleyball team at Auburn Arena, and improvements for equestrian and softball facilities.

To meet the increased demand for softball seating following the program’s first appearance in the Women’s College World Series, Auburn is adding 835 temporary seats this season, with plans for permanent seats, spectator amenities and support facilities on the horizon.

A final action concerned the End Child Hunger in Alabama initiative, Auburn’s primary community service focus. Auburn student-athletes and staff volunteers continue to support Auburn’s Hunger Solutions Institute by preparing

food backpacks for area students in partnership with the Jason

Dufner Foundation.Jacobs highlighted achievements

from last year in compliance and stewardship. Record revenues of

more than $120 million allowed the department to set aside $5 million for

deferred maintenance and still enjoy a budget surplus of almost $2 million.

He pointed to accomplishments in the classroom, including a record 345 student-athletes with a 3.0 or higher GPA. More than half of Auburn’s teams achieved a perfect APR score in the NCAA’s most recent release.

He also recognized student-athletes in attendance, including football players Jeremy Johnson and Jordan Diamond, basketball player Tra’Cee Tanner, soccer goalkeeper Alyse Scott and All-American swimmer Annie Lazor.

“You are the only reason we are here,” Jacobs told the student-athletes.

It’s been 45 years since Auburn University abandoned the 1950s vintage Aubie head logo and introduced the new interlocking AU mark, debuted here in a copy of The Plainsman. The AU symbol was officially licensed by Auburn in 1970 and in full use by 1971. We think it’s wearing its age well.

auburntigers.com

Showing Off THE NEW AU

CONCOURSE > PHILANTHROPY


THE TREMENDOUS SUPPORT SHOWN FOR Because This is Auburn—A Campaign for Auburn University speaks to the Auburn Family’s commitment to investing in the future of our institution. Each gift you make in response to one of our student phone-a-thon callers, an invitation to join a college or school’s dean’s club, or an email seeking your support of a specific program demonstrates the influence thousands of alumni can have when they join together for Auburn’s future. Our success depends just as much on how many of our alumni donate as it does on how much they donate. In 2015, 11 percent of our alumni gave to Auburn—approximately 3 percent lower than the average rate among our SEC peer institutions. Why is our alumni participation rate so important? A college or university’s alumni participation rate is one of the key metrics used by U.S. News & World Report and other programs to determine a university’s national ranking. So, as the percentage of our alumni who donate increases, so do our national rankings. As a result, your giving strengthens our reputation

as a top-tier university and, in turn, the value of an Auburn degree—your Auburn degree. Consider this:

the 43,000 members of the Auburn Alumni Association represent nearly a quarter of Auburn’s total alumni base. With the full support of every member of the association behind this campaign, Auburn very easily could double its annual alumni participation rate. Every day, Auburn’s alumni and friends continue to set new standards for generosity and loyalty. Join with your fellow alumni by demonstrating your belief in a better Auburn, the potential of our students, and the resolve of our faculty by making a gift today.

Percentages Matter

STRENGTHENSYOUR AUBURN DEGREE

YOUR SUPPORT

the value of

Jane DiFolco Parker Vice President for Development

President, Auburn University Foundation

Learn more online and make your campaign

gift at because.auburn.edu

“Our success depends just as much on how many of our alumni donate as it does on how much they donate.”


CONCOURSE > PHILANTHROPY

THREE NEW DIRECTORS recently joined the board of the Auburn University Foundation, which also elected new officers to help lead the organization in 2016. The board’s new directors are Sharlene Reed Evans ’86 of Jacksonville, Fla., vice president of organizational effectiveness for Hitachi Consulting; Gregory Lewis Heston ’85, CPA, of Atlanta, a partner with Ernst & Young LLP; and Gerald W. Smith ’61 of Huntsville, a retired aerospace researcher and executive. Thomas Gossom Jr. ’75 of Ft. Walton Beach, Fla., who continues as board chair for a second term, is joined by newly elected board vice chair Michael McLain ’72, CEO and managing partner of Atlanta-based ICON Investment Partners; and treasurer Ronald Dykes ’69, retired BellSouth chief financial officer, also of Atlanta. The new directors replace those whose terms expired in 2015: John W. Brown ’57 of Portage, Mich.; Joe W. Forehand ’71 of Dallas; William “Bill” Stone ’85 of Rainbow City; Michael Williams of Auburn; and Wendy Wilson ’88 of Huntsville. In recognition of his extraordinary service and commitment to the foundation, the board conferred upon Brown director emeritus status.

JOIN THE AU FOUNDATION BOARD

90.6% of the $1 billion goal as of December 31, 2015

$906 MILLION

Campaign Progress

For campaign information, news and resources, visit

because.auburn.edu

New FacesCAMPAIGN SPOTLIGHT

FACILITIES

The start of construction for the Mell Classroom Building and a new School

of Nursing building represent only a portion of Auburn’s efforts to provide students with modern campus spaces and places where

they can live, learn and lead. More than $178 million of campaign efforts

will create new centers of learning like these while also preserving Auburn’s iconic

campus locations.

LEARN MORE,TAKE ACTION andGIVE ONLINE

$906CAMPAIGN PROGRESS

90.6% of the $1 billion goalas of Dec. 31, 2015

M I L L I O N

Foundation chair Thom Gossom (back) with new directors (L-R) Heston,

Evans and Smith.

For more information about the foundation and its new directors and officers, visit auburnuniversityfoundation.org.

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For more information on becoming a partner with the Auburn Alumni Association call 334-844-2960 or email [email protected] today!

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we are your connection to Auburn University alumni.

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THERE’S A STORY BEHIND EVERY GIFT. GIVE TODAY AT BECAUSE.AUBURN.EDU

Because This is Auburn — A Campaign for Auburn University is a $1 billion fundraising effort that will create thousands of new scholarships. Why? To ensure qualified students who aspire to an Auburn education will have access to it.

There is tremendous power in every gift — and within everyone who supports this cause. Each gift tells a different story. Now is the time to tell yours.

Because equipping students for a lifetime of success begins here.

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WHAT WE BELIEVE?


OTHER TALES FROM ONE OF THE SCHOOL OF

FORESTRY AND WILDLIFE SCIENCES'’ WILDEST

PROJECTS

By Jeremy Henderson ’04


OUTWITTING THE POSSUM

INCE SHE HAD SOMEHOW managed to slip the first tracking collar, Christopher Seals actually wound up catching The Possum twice. And she did the same, crazy thing both times. Normally, when the telazol wears off, animals get up and walk away, groggily oblivious to whatever’s around them.

“Not The Possum,” says Seals, a graduate student in Auburn’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences. “She will not move if any person is around. I would have to walk away

until she couldn’t see me before she would get up to leave. When I’d walk back to check on her, she would lay back down and pretend she hadn’t moved.”

The Possum had moved, though. Seals would walk away, walk back again, and find her playing dead in yet another spot.

At their second encounter, Seals posed for a picture when she was tranquilized, then waited to monitor her movements and snap a photo of her performance. She lay still, eventually lifted her head like a periscope to check for danger, and found Seals right beside her.

She turned her head. She looked at him. Seals had his iPhone ready. He took a picture just before

she put her head back down. He couldn’t get over it. Playing dead? That’s not the kind of behavior one would expect from The Possum. Because The Possum—that’s just the obvious nickname he gave her instead of her official name, rank, and serial number, MRB003F—is a 141-pound black bear.

SEEING A BEAR FAKE ITS OWN DEATH is one of dozens of revelations to come out of what Todd Steury, a wildlife ecologist at Auburn’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, refers to as the Auburn Bear Project, a study started in 2011 to learn everything learnable about the approximately 60 black bears that currently reside in the Heart of Dixie.

According to Steury, who heads the project, their certainty in that number itself is one of the project’s greatest successes.

Even as late as 2014, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources pegged the state’s bear population at between 350-400. A group of amateur bear enthusiasts that tracks black bear sightings in Alabama had it as high as 1,000.

Why the big difference?

“Well, there’s a couple of reasons,” Steury says. “One, when you ask the state how many bears there are, it’s based just on sightings, and kind of a feeling. It’s not very scientific. The other thing that’s involved is that any time you ask someone how many bears there are, how many mountain lions there are or whatever you want to know, it kind of depends upon what it is you are really asking.”

In Steury’s mind, the only question worth asking isn’t how many black bears happen to be within state lines at any given moment. He only cares about the black bears that call Alabama home.

“Every few years we’ll get a bear in Auburn, or we’ll get a bear in Lee County, but they never stay,” Steury says. “It’s a rare-enough occurrence that we can track where it goes just on the reports. So one came through Valley and Beauregard, came up north through Auburn, went around through the fisheries area north of Auburn and then kind of swung back around and went into Macon County, came back down to Tuskegee—and got hit on I-85 right outside Tuskegee.”

Another bear did almost the same thing this past summer. According to Steury, the transients tend to follow the same paths, and likely meet similar grizzly, as it were, deaths—if not by drivers then by hunters. The going theory on the most recent bear to pass through the Plains is that it was shot and killed 70 miles north around the Talladega National Forest.

Those reports don’t affect Steury’s totals. “My numbers are smaller because when you ask me how

many bears are in Alabama, I’m thinking about the breeding population,” he says. “I don’t care about a male bear who’s wandering around Tuscaloosa. He doesn’t count. I mean, he counts to the people in Tuscaloosa, but he’s not going to contribute to the bear population in any shape or form. He’s not going to reproduce unless he makes it into the breeding bear population.”

Which means unless he makes it down south to Saraland or, in recent years, up north around Mentone. That’s where the girls are.

Every few years we'll get a bear in Auburn, or we'll get a bear in Lee County, but they never stay.



What’s Up North American black

bears have short, curved claws that make them

proficient tree-climbers.

Folks around Mobile have known about the bears in The Possum’s hometown of Saraland, up in the northern part of Mobile County, for years—Chris Seals included. He grew up in Mobile, which is where he currently lives for his work with the Auburn Bear Project, and saw some in the woods as a kid.

“I was on a four-wheeler and a female with three cubs walked out in front of me while I was riding down the road,” he says.

Todd Steury knows that Mobile County may not look exactly like the place bears live in your mind, but the bears don’t really care.

“People associate bears with the mountains because that’s where we typically see them,” Steury says. “Smoky Mountain National Park—that’s still good bear habitat because not very many humans are there, so we haven’t hunted them out. It’s a history thing, not a habitat thing.

“There are a lot of bears in Mobile County because there’s a lot of vegetation, it’s very thick, and it produces a lot of mass crops—things like acorns and blackberries and other things that bears eat. Bears are a generalist species. They’ll live anywhere they can find enough food and cover.”

They’ve found it in Mobile County for years. According to Steury, Saraland was Alabama’s only black bear hotspot for more than a century.

Thanks to the Auburn Bear Project, we now know that’s no longer the case.

“The state was getting reports of bears in North Alabama and wasn’t sure if it was a bear population, so they gave us some money to start studying two areas,” Steury said. “We went in to Little River (Little River Canyon National Preserve) and put out game cameras and hair snares and were able to document



that there was a breeding bear population around Mentone. The research has kind of grown out of that.”

For two years, the work was mostly preliminary fact-finding to determine the feasibility of collecting the sort of data Steury’s 11-member team now regularly delivers. Auburn’s well-known EcoDogs took a break from sniffing out bombs to help source bear scat.

“You can tell a lot from scat,” Steury says. In 2014, once the $529,000 state conservation grant came

in, the focus became hair. The research done via the hundreds of hair snares Steury’s

team has placed across the state is notable for both the simplicity of its application and the sophistication of the results.

Set up barbed wire around some brush soaked in raspberry or vanilla extract, dangle some tuna fish over it from a tree branch, and count on the bear not minding the few scratches it takes to get to it.

“All we’re trying to do is get a little chunk of hair,” Steury says.

And they do. The team has secured more than 500 hair samples. Hair means DNA—lots of it—and DNA means accuracy.

A Walk in the Woods

Steury observes cubs taking lessons from mom near

Mentone.



“WE DON’T HAVE TO CATCH ANY BEARS (when using hair snares), we don’t need fancy permits, and we don’t need a lot of expensive equipment,” Steury says. “We can get a lot of data relatively cheaply, and from this we can estimate exactly how many bears there are.”

Steury says most of the 15-member Mentone clan are immigrants from the north Georgia mountains, seeking a better life away from the ever-increasing threat of Atlanta’s urban sprawl.

“On average we’re getting 10 DNA samples from every single one of those bears,” Steury says. “I don’t think we’ve gotten fewer than eight samples from a single bear. So we know we’re catching all the bears that are there.”

That’s the genetic side of things. Monitoring bear habits requires getting more up close and personal—and more money. Seals and other team members use cameras and cage traps baited with jelly donuts—”one bear just stared at that jelly donut for 20 minutes (before making a move),” Steury says—in order to measure and weigh the bears.

“Our bears are pretty small,” Steury says. “Females are 100-120 pounds on average. And the biggest male we’ve caught is 260 pounds.”

After being trapped, many of the bears are outfitted with $2,500 tracking collars. In his three years with the project, Seals has collared 11 bears (although thanks to The Possum it took 12 collars).

They can then sync the data with Google Earth and watch The Possum paint a digital picture around just a few square miles of Saraland.

“We’re really interested in these bears in Saraland that live so close to humans,” Steury says, pointing to the state-of-the-art doodle of data points on his computer screen. “If you look at that picture, you’ll notice one thing about this bear—she doesn’t cross any roads. She doesn’t even really cross this power line that often.”

Privacy fences, however, are no problem. In Saraland, bears routinely raid dog food dishes, bird

feeders—anything that looks like a quick and easy snack. “Males will travel where they want to go, but females have

a smaller home range,” Seals says. “Females can basically live in someone’s backyard.

“Everybody loves bears until they’re on your back porch,” he laughs.

Steury hopes that universal soft spot for bears—the ones not on your back porch—also will provide better understanding (and protection) for less loveable carnivores.

“One reason (the Auburn Bear Project) is important is because you can use that public favorability for charismatic species to leverage help for non-charismatic species,” he says. “If you can say ‘hey, let’s set aside some land for bears,’ maybe

that sets aside a lot of land for other animals that people don’t care so much about.”

Like weasels, which rank pretty low on most folks’ lovability scale.

“Weasels are a species that is really rare in Alabama,” Steury says. “We used to have them everywhere. But no one cares about weasels. If you set aside land to help bears, you help other things.”

Steury anticipates the study, in its present form, will likely last at least two more years.

“It hasn’t been that long and we haven’t analyzed all the data,” he says. “There are certain objectives we want to achieve, new questions that emerge. For instance, we’re seeing a lot of really large litters with the study up north (in Little River Canyon)—three or four cubs a year from multiple females. That’s really interesting. And the bears are denning in really odd locations.”

Usually, black bears den in trees and caves. Steury says many of the bears in Alabama are building nests.

“As long as there are still questions to answer, and as long as the state keeps providing us money, we’ll keep researching bears.”

And maybe the occasional Possum. “She’s denning right now,” Seals says of his favorite research

subject. “She might be having cubs. She didn’t have any the first time I collared her but I think she might have been hanging around with a male.”

Even The Possum can’t play possum all the time.

A A

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Usually, black bears den in trees and caves. Steury says

many of the bears in Alabama are building nests.


NUCLEAR ENERGY has the power to improve lives—or

end life as we know it. John Oakberg ’69 and his colleagues

in the International Atomic Energy Agency helped put

the teeth into the safeguards to determine how and when

it should be used, and won the 2005 Nobel Prize in science for

their work. He’ll be the first to say their job is far from over.

By Derek Herscovici ’14


WAR AND PEACE

ELATIONS BETWEEN IRAQ and the U.N. Security Council had been deteriorating for years. Four days after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait under dictator Saddam Hussein in August 1990, the council imposed a crip-pling financial and trade embargo against the country.

Shortly thereafter, the U.S. led military action against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War. Despite skyrocketing malnutrition, lack of medicines, and a scarcity of clean water, the desert nation’s most deleterious effects were economic—without the ability to export oil, Iraq lost 61 percent of its gross national product overnight. Hussein continued to be uncooperative with U.N. inspectors trying to determine his country’s nuclear capabilities. The embargo would remain in effect until 2010, although much of it was lifted following the fall of Hussein in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom, spurred by intelligence that Iraq had obtained weapons of mass destruction. For most people, weapons of mass destruction equal nuclear bombs. While the weapons information eventually proved unreliable, the idea was believable to those working with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—the United Nations’ “Atoms for Peace” organization. Among those watching closely in the early years of the 21st century: John Oakberg, a 1969 Auburn alum and IAEA information systems analyst.

THE IAEA HAD BEEN FORMED in 1957 during the Cold War, as nuclear energy was discovered and its potential for good—or bad—spread unease among societies worldwide. While promoting the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the organization also served as a watchdog of who was doing what. And in 1992, the discovery of sensitive documents hidden by the Iraqi government had the international community feeling shaken. After months of tense exchanges between IAEA inspectors

and the Hussein government, the finding uncovered what many had feared since before the first Gulf War: hidden nuclear facilities, secret long-distance missile testing and the complex machinery necessary to detonate a nuclear warhead. The WMDs weren’t there yet, but Iraq had clearly been working in that direction. “Saddam was essentially building his own Manhattan Project,” said Oakberg, who returned to Auburn in May to receive an

1992The discovery of sensitive documents hidden by the Iraqi government had the international community feeling shaken.

“Iraq was building the

same technology the

Manhattan people had

used in the 1940s to build

the Hiroshima bombs.”


WAR AND PEACE

honorary degree from his alma mater. The Manhattan Project was a military project begun in 1942 to produce the first U.S. nuclear weapon. “Iraq was building the same technology the Manhattan people had used in the 1940s to build the Hiroshima bombs,” Oakberg says. “Saddam had nuclear material, but he couldn’t use it for bad purposes because Iraq was subject to safeguards and he would have been caught. If you want to call it a loophole, the area that was not covered [by the sanctions] was nuclear activities.” Working at the IAEA from 1982 to 2007, Oakberg was heavily involved in the creation and regulation of international nuclear regulation protocols designed to keep countries from using nuclear material incorrectly or irresponsibly. Under their Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT, member countries receive assistance and resources to build nuclear reactors in exchange for annual inspections of nuclear material by trained IAEA specialists. Despite acquiescing to the treaty, Iraq during the Hussein administration was anything but compliant.

“Disinformation specialists” were used as guides through

nuclear power plants. Sensitive equipment was hidden, blocked

off or, infamously, placed in a truck that drove around the

facility while IAEA officials toured the site.

Only permitted to inspect Baghdad’s acknowledged stockpile of nuclear material, inspectors watched as clandestine facilities were built in front of them without explanation. “Everybody did observation, but you couldn’t take action,” Oakberg says. “If you look at Al-Tuwaitha, there were three places where an inspector could go and that was it. Some countries were more lax, but in Iraq, you can observe and think “that looks like an enrichment plant,” but you better keep your mouth quiet. Internally, IAEA inspectors discussed Iraq’s clandestine activities among themselves, but limita-tions in the standing NPT charter prevented them from taking action. “We knew it but there wasn’t anything that we could do.” The 1992 discovery confirmed that at least 22 other locations at the Al-Tuwaitha site had been exposed to nuclear activity through the production of an atomic warhead, while Iraq’s policy of parallel sourcing confirmed the purchase of unaccounted equipment. Facing a rogue nuclear weapons program under a noncompliant government bureaucracy, the IAEA decided that more potent measures had to be taken, lest the United Nations be little more than bystanders in an unregulated arms race. “There was this realization that the whole tenet of nuclear safeguards under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was not sufficient,” Oakberg says. “The legal instruments were strongly enhanced. As a result, [now] there’s a different kind of inspection beyond the complementary action. The inspector

THAT LOOKS LIKE AN

ENRICHMENT PLANT,

BUT YOU BETTER KEEP YOUR MOUTH QUIET.


WAR AND PEACE


is allowed to go into places that don’t have nuclear material but have activities.” The ensuing regulations enacted, known as the “Additional Protocol,” gave IAEA inspectors the teeth they needed to expose and eventually dismantle Iraq’s secret nuclear program through nonviolent clerical empowerment and interna-tional sanctions. Comprehensive analysis of future designs, transportation of sensitive equipment and the possession of dual-use nuclear material used to make “dirty bombs” would all come under the IAEA microscope, toughening methods of building a nuclear reactor or enriching uranium to make plutonium in secret. Advanced environmental sampling allowed under the Additional Protocol would eventually lead investigators to discover undeclared pluto-nium production in North Korea in 1994 and in Pakistan in 2004. In 2005 Oakberg, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei and their associates at the IAEA received the Nobel Prize in Science “for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest way possible.”

OAKBERG’S LIFE WAS shaped by nuclear energy. His hometown of Oak Ridge, Tenn., is steeped in the nuclear research community as part of the Manhattan Project. Along with Los Alamos, N. M., and Hanford, Wash., Oak Ridge was essential to not only the Manhattan Project, but also to the world of nuclear physics, research, development and commercialization. While the implementation of atomic chemistry heralded a new age of science and technology, the aftermath of the bombs used by the U.S. to end World War II sent nuclear scientists scrambling to shift research from military to peaceful purposes. When President Harry S. Truman signed the Atomic Energy Act in 1946, management of nuclear weapons and nuclear power was successfully transferred to civilian control under the Atomic Energy Commission, the predecessor of the IAEA. In Oakberg’s hometown, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory supplanted the military research operation, expanding the area’s economy and bringing in a highly educated population. In 1952, a 5-year-old Oakberg moved with his family to Oak Ridge from Ames, Iowa, where his father, a research geneti-cist, studied the effects of ionized radiation in mice with the lab’s

biology division. His mother, who held a master’s degree, instilled a love of learning in Oakberg and his two brothers. Pursuing a career outside of science never crossed his mind. “I was fortunate to be in a very scientifically oriented place,” he says. “Back in the 1950s, if you tacked the words ‘atomic’ or ‘nuclear’ onto anything it was magic.” Oakberg’s father was determined his son would get a chal-lenging education, which led to one of his most memorable Auburn experiences.

Though his family did not watch college football growing up, his father was aware that Auburn had won the national champion-ship in 1957 and expressed concern that Auburn was little more than “a big Southern football school,” Oakberg says. Touring campus for only a day, the elder Oakberg told his son to wait in their ’64 Ford outside the newly built Ralph B. Draughan Library while he went inside. “That’s what he used to gauge whether or not I would get the academic education he wanted: what reference material was there,

A BIG southern FOOTBALL SCHOOL


WAR AND PEACE


Vienna, Austriawho was published there, that type of thing. He came back out and said, ‘Okay, you can go here’. DESPITE UNPRECEDENTED LEVELS of transparency around the world, the 1992 discovery at Al-Tuwaitha, Iraq, was a sobering reminder of the dangers lurking just outside the IAEA’s scope. As Iraq made headlines around the world, IAEA Director General ElBaradei was routinely called on to deliver statements based on research done by Oakberg and his team throughout the 1990s. ElBaradei testified before the second Gulf War that Iraq’s nuclear capability was conclusively diminished and that Hussein did not possess any weapons of mass destruction following the measures taken under Additional Protocol. When the IAEA was awarded the Nobel Prize for Science in 2005, it was the culmination of more than a half-century of work by the whole of the International Safeguards community. Though awarded specifically for their efforts during the Al-Tuwaitha affair, without the people organizing the travel arrangements or the inspectors gathering information around the world, systems analysts wouldn’t be able to do their jobs, Oakberg said. Asked about winning the Nobel Prize, Oakberg compares it to “winning the Heisman trophy and the National Champion-

ship at the same time,” but admits it was the furthest thing on his mind when he graduated from Auburn nearly 40 years earlier. While minoring in geography and foreign languages would serve him well throughout his career, everything boiled down to that math degree, he says. “It proves that solving equations and proving theorems can lead to a fairly successful career, and that’s what it was. What your brain has to engage in order to

prove a complex theorem or solve a complex equation as an information analyst. That’s what a math degree did for me.” At Auburn’s 2015 Spring Commencement Oakberg received an honorary Doctorate of Science from the university, an honor he places next to the Nobel Prize.

MANDATORY RETIREMENT FORCED Oakberg out of the IAEA in 2007, but he soon found work as a safeguards consultant for the U.S. Government for Emerging Nuclear Powers, still help-ing developing countries meet IAEA and NPT requirements. Though outside the IAEA for the first time since 1982, Oakberg still maintains contacts within the agency and praised the recent deal that would allow Iran to develop nuclear power plants under extra measures that will restrict their program for the next 15 years.

Under the additional regulations, IAEA

inspectors can access Iran’s nuclear

facilities with little advance notice, severely limiting

Iran’s ability to disguise clandestine activity.

Thanks to the efforts of the IAEA and people like Oakberg dedicated to curbing the use of nuclear weapons, the world is not on the brink of atomic warfare—but the potential still exists. Even if every country agreed to NPT and Additional Protocol, there’s always the risk of isolated groups acquiring nuclear capa-bilities in secret, making transparency and open communication between parties more important than ever. “If I were to say what would be No. 1 on my wish list, it would be for every country in the world to agree to NPT,” Oakberg says. “Let’s do that first, and then let’s worry about the weapons.

“I wonder what it would take to get the whole world to just do away with the dang things?” A

auburnmagazine.auburn.edu


WAR AND PEACE


WAR AND PEACE

Around theWorldin 80 Days[PLUS 16,920]

BOB HENSON has channeled his inner road warrior to take him, along with his wife, Phyllis, around the

world and back. All around the world and back. Next destination? Maybe space.

By Alec Harvey ’84

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF ETHERIDGE


AROUND THE WORLD

PHILEAS FOGG seemingly accomplished the impossible when he was challenged, accepted and won a bet to travel Around the World in Eighty Days in Jules Verne’s classic novel.

That was 1873, and Fogg visited six countries as he circumnavigated the globe.

About 140 years later, Bob Henson ’60 and his wife, Phyllis, have done Fogg 318 countries better. It took them about 50 years, but they have traveled to 324 countries—every country in the world recognized by the Travelers’ Century Club.

“When we did it, they told us this,” Henson says of TCC and how many other people have visited every country. “They said if you put down a 1 and then put six zeroes to the left of it and then put a dot, that’s the percentage of people who have done it. … We have not met anyone else who has done it.”

Auburn RootsTRAVELING THE GLOBE was far from Henson’s mind while attending Auburn from 1957 until 1960. The aeronautical engineering student was managing Genelda Hall, which at that time housed mostly Korean War veterans, including Henson. One of those residents had a cousin, Phyllis, a banker who lived in Florida.

“He said, ‘My old-maid cousin is coming up here; would you mind taking her out?’” Henson recalls. “She was 25 years old.”

The two hit it off, dated long distance and got married in 1960 after Henson graduated. With an aeronautical industry transitioning from propeller planes to jets and rockets, Henson took a job with the telephone company. He spent 30 years in selling telephones and systems and lobbying before retiring to set up his own consulting and contract-management company. During that time, living in Hoover, the Hensons raised three sons, all of whom graduated from Auburn: Mark ’84 in industrial engineering; Mike ’86 in marketing; and Ben ’92 in mechanical engineering.

Hitting the RoadBOB AND PHYLLIS ALSO STARTED TRAVELING, first around the United States and Canada (they’ve been to all the states and provinces) and then internationally.

“The first big international trip was in 1967 from Singapore up through Southeast Asia to Mumbai in India and from there to New Delhi and Delhi,” Henson says. “We kind of toured India

and got the feel for international travel—don’t eat the food and watch out for the cow patties.”

Within the next seven years or so, the Hensons started taking annual trips with their children, mainly to Europe. “They grew up and went off to school, so Phyllis and I initiated another project during this time—genealogy,” Henson says. “Her father was Swedish and mother was German; I’m Scottish and Irish. She comes from an immigrant background;

I come from Appalachian coal mining.“We took off to research our eight grandparents, and that

took us into Sweden and Germany,” Henson adds. The Hensons wrote eight books, one on each of their grandparents. “We were influenced by genealogy, but it gave rise to an interest in international travel as well.”

“We consider ourselves lucky to have been all of these places. We’ve been really blessed with good health.

That’s the big thing.”

Photography by Jeff Etheridge


AROUND THE WORLD

Everything begins with planning, says Bob Henson. And it starts by knowing where you’re going, particularly if it’s in the middle of nowhere or has some sort of political

or religious strife occurring. “If you’re going somewhere, you’ve got to have your antenna up

about what’s going on,” he says.But that’s just the start. The Hensons have developed a checklist

of more than 100 things they need to do before leaving town, and they suggest others create the same. Their list runs the gamut, from stopping the mail to turning off the stove and turning the water off at the street.

“We plan out how long we’re going to be there, who we’re going to see, etc., and pile everything on the bed we think we might need,” Henson says. “Then we cut the volume by one-half and the weight by at least one-third. For a long time, we carried too much; then we carried too little. Anywhere we go, we always have at least a week’s clothing that’s interchangeable.”

And, as cliché as it sounds, Henson says the top three tips where health are concerned are:

NO. 1 Don’t drink the water.NO. 2 Barely eat the food, particularly in third-world countries.NO. 3 Don’t eat anything raw.

“You can’t afford to get sick,” Henson says.

The Retiring LifeHENSONS’ TELEPHONE WORK turned into a wireless and Internet networking business, and when he retired in 1987, he started his own company, Eagle One (that was his call sign as a pilot in Korea, too). At first, Eagle One and Associates worked with competitors of BellSouth, but after about five years, Henson and his company started “working with people who had money who wanted to set up competitive wireless and Internet companies,” he says. “Once I got going in this country, I realized there were a lot of opportunities internationally.”

He and Phyllis lived in Hong Kong for a couple of years, Australia for a couple of years and Singapore for a year, all the while visiting countries around those regions. About 12 years ago, Henson started auditing cell phone and Internet systems around the world on behalf of the International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the United Nations.

“I’m looking to make sure that all the systems can talk to each other,” he says. “Every country that was part of the United Nations was targeted, so it opened up an enormous amount of opportunity for travel. We packed our bags, and I got compensated enough to buy Phyllis a ticket. There’s no way in the world I could make enough money to travel to all of those places.”

So the Hensons would hit the road and the rails and the sky, Bob working along the way and Phyllis helping him. “Being a banker, Phyllis knew how to handle all of that paperwork and do the reports I’ve had to generate during this activity,” he says.

Nearly all of the Hensons’ travel has been work-related, very little of it being out-and-out vacations. “On our 45th anniversary year, we got an assignment approved that took us to Argentina, to Chile, to the Southern part of Brazil and the Amazon Basin,” Henson says. “We caught a boat ourselves over to the Antarctic Peninsula. In 2010, on our 50th anniversary, we took an actual cruise—Panama Canal, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Galapagos Islands, Machu Picchu. That was a luxury cruise. We spent some money on that puppy, almost out of character for us. Maybe seven or eight of our trips have been stuff we wanted to do and planned as vacations.”

Hitting Them AllIN 2000, the Hensons joined the Travelers’ Century Club, an organization whose members have all visited at least 100 countries. The TCC keeps its official list of world countries, and that has stood at 324 for the past few years. The Hensons were the first to achieve 324, Henson says.


AROUND THE WORLD

MOSTOBESTBob and Phyllis Henson collaborated on a list of bests, worsts

and other interesting tidbits:

MOST DIFFICULT PLACE TO REACH

The island of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean. Station No. 1 on the climbing trail on Mt. Everest, which spans Nepal and Tibet, also ranks up there.

MOST BEAUTIFUL DESTINATION

A tie between Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and the Patagonian area of Argentina and Chile. The latter, with glaciers and snow-capped mountains, “almost hurts your eyes it’s so gorgeous,” Henson says.

MOST FASCINATING DESTINATION

Ngorongoro Crater, an extinct volcano caldron full of native African wildlife in Tanzania. “It’s supposed to have at least one of every species, animal and fauna, in Africa,” Henson says. “You see everything from elephants to rhinos to geese to ducks. You could spend a month there and not see everything.”

MOST SURPRISING DESTINATION

The seven countries of Antarctica. “Lots of snow and ice and icebergs, but there’s also some mountainous territory that’s just absolutely gorgeous,” Henson says. “You expect it to be one big ol’ snow pile, but it’s not.”

MOST DANGEROUS DESTINATION Tubruq, Libya.

DESTINATION WITH THE BEST FOOD New Orleans, La.

LONGEST FLIGHT TAKEN 18.5 hours, from Sydney, Australia, to Chicago, Illinois.

BEST VIEW From the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado Mountain down on Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, its beautiful beaches and Sugarloaf Mountain.

BEST MEAL Breakfast at Brennan’s in New Orleans.

BEST SHOPPING Hong Kong “We can’t afford Paris and High Street in London,” Henson says. “Hong Kong is reasonably priced in U.S. dollars, with items inspired by the high-style places around the world but made in China and Hong Kong.”

Lee Abbamonte, a travel blogger known for being the youngest person to visit all 193 sovereign countries recognized by the United Nations, is a TCC member still attempting to reach the 324 milestone. Although he doesn’t know the Hensons, he says it’s “an incredible achievement that very few people have ever achieved.

“It shows determination and a relentless pursuit to see the world where you dedicate time and money to travel in a way that few ever have or will,” Abbamonte says via email from Kenya.

“You also need some luck on your side for certain places like Wake Island, British Indian Ocean Territory and Tristan de Cunha.”

Henson estimates the couple has been on the road between 180 and 200 days a year, with a lot of planning going into all those travels. “All of these countries, you can’t just pull up on the side of a pier in a big city and do the work I do,” he says.

“You have to make contact with telephone companies, make sure they’ll let me work with them. It’s a big coordination job, and that’s before you deal with transportation, air travel, and getting your gear in and out.”

The logistics haven’t slowed the Hensons down much. They’ve been to France, England, China and Spain, along with Srpska, Aland Islands, Kiribati and Umm al-Quwain. Brazil, Japan and Canada have been on their list, but so have Tristan da Cunha, Abkhazia and Lakshadweep.

They’ve paid cab fares, Henson has written, “in pesos, pounds, euros, dinars, shekels, ringgits, kronas and liras.”

Their favorite city? Hong Kong, Henson says. “We were the most comfortable there, where we lived and worked for almost two years in the late 1990s,” he says. “We loved the warmness of the people.”

Their least favorite spot? The last country they visited on their official quest.

In 2014, the Hensons visited Cuba, Yemen and North Korea, knocking off three of the last four countries on the list. Libya was the only one left.

“We didn’t have to go to Libya, because it wasn’t for work,” Henson recalls. “But we had 323 countries and needed to get the 324th.”

One doesn’t just stride across the border into Libya, passport in hand.

Under cover of darkness in November 2014, the


AROUND THE WORLD

The Hensons have six season tickets for Auburn football, and they make it a point to get to the Loveliest Village and tailgate at least once each year. “Our kids take all of our tickets, so we mostly have grandchild duty,” Henson says.

Don’t think the Hensons are slowing down. Bob just turned 80, Phyllis is 79, and they have trips planned for 2016. “ITU wants me to do some major work over in Europe, from Amsterdam across to Bucharest,” Henson says. “But we’ve got to get back by May because our second grandson is about to graduate from Auburn.”

Ask Henson if there’s a place he hasn’t been that he’d like to get to, and he’s quick with an answer: “The International Space Station, if you include the universe,” he says. “There’s not anywhere else in the world we have great aspirations to go that we haven’t been.

“There are some things we’d like to do, like take the Orient Express from Moscow throughout Siberia and Mongolia and out to Vladivostok,” Henson adds. “But once you’ve hit ’em all, after that you’re kind of mopping up, so to speak.”

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Hensons rode in the back of a vehicle nearly 200 miles between Egypt and Libya. They spent only a few hours in a hotel lobby before turning around and heading back. They paid hefty prices at each border crossing, but they had done something that maybe no one else in the world has done—they had visited every country in the world.

The TCC “published our names as having hit them all in a bulletin,” Henson says. “And they had a banquet in Los Angeles, where they gave us a very nice certificate.”

The Sky’s the Limit“WE CONSIDER OURSELVES LUCKY to have been all of these places,” Henson says. “We’ve been really blessed with good health. That’s the big thing.”

But all that travel has had a downside. With seven grandchildren, they have missed some family milestones, and they’re often away from friends and family.

“We’ve got neighbors, and I’m very active in the veterans association,” Henson says. “We’re members of

Bluff Park Methodist Church.”Their Hoover home holds mementos

of their travels, including an Antarctica room, a world cruise room, a genealogy

room and, yes, a refrigerator covered with magnets from the locations

they’ve visited.


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New Year?

241 S. College Street ∙ Auburn(334)844∙5140 ∙ www.auhcc.com/ariccia

New food!

A·TARICCIA TRATTORIA


We realize you have many options when it comes to making year-end donations, so we greatly appreciate your support of Tiger Giving Day on Dec. 1. Thanks to you, the Auburn Alumni Association has been able to establish a new, fully funded scholarship endowment of more than $25,000 for U.S. military veterans wishing to attend Auburn. The first scholarship will be awarded in the spring of 2017 for the 2017-18 school year.

T ha nk s aga in for t he continued suppor t of t he Aubur n A lumni A ssociation initiatives.

We couldn’t do t his w it hout you!

Thank You

YOU CAN

STILL GIVE!

(334) 844-2995www.aualum.org/veteransCONTACT STEVE INABINETVETERANS ENDOWED

SCHOLARSHIP


BLACK ALUMNI WEEKENDAPRIL 8-10, 2016

Renew old friendships. Create new memories.

Register Online Now!www.aualum.org/BAW

Photo courtesy of Intown Imagery 2015

CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION

(334) 844-1146

OR

The Office of Alumni Affairs and the Office of Diversity & Multicultural

Affairs welcomes you back to campus for Black Alumni Weekend from

Friday, April 8, through Sunday, April 10. The weekend, which coincides

with A-Day, will include a Friday night mixer, A-Day tailgate, photo shoot, Saturday night awards dinner and

dance, and Sunday worship service featuring the Alumni Gospel Choir.

We realize you have many options when it comes to making year-end donations, so we greatly appreciate your support of Tiger Giving Day on Dec. 1. Thanks to you, the Auburn Alumni Association has been able to establish a new, fully funded scholarship endowment of more than $25,000 for U.S. military veterans wishing to attend Auburn. The first scholarship will be awarded in the spring of 2017 for the 2017-18 school year.

T ha nk s aga in for t he continued suppor t of t he Aubur n A lumni A ssociation initiatives.

We couldn’t do t his w it hout you!

Thank You

YOU CAN

STILL GIVE!

(334) 844. 2995www.aualum.org/veteransCONTACT STEVE INABINETVETERANS ENDOWED

SCHOLARSHIP


the ClassesALUMNI CLASSNOTES > IN MEMORIAM

IN THIS SECTION

Singer Toni Tennille ‘60 joined Aubie in greeting Auburn fans at the A-Day Game around 1988. She was a star vocalist with the Auburn Knights in 1960 and went on to a successful career in televison and as a recording artist. Her father, Frank Tennille, sang with the first Knights’ orchestra and later was a big band singer with Bob Crosby and the Bobcats.

Aubie & Tennille

Lifetime Achievement Awards 50

Classnotes 56

In Memoriam 62

Backchat 64

diglib.auburn.edu


The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes recipients for outstanding achievements in their professional lives, personal

integrity and stature, and service to the university. It was established in 2001 to honor extraordinary accomplishments

by members of the Auburn family. Recipients of Lifetime Achievement Awards are selected by a committee of Auburn

administrators, trustees, faculty and alumni.

We proudly present the winners of this year’s awards, plus the winner of the 2016 Young Alumni Achievement Award,

as well as an introduction and welcome from Auburn Alumni Association President Jack Fite ’85.

GREETINGS FROM YOUR AUBURN

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF

DIRECTORS and Happy New Year! As spring semester begins, the alumni association will be completing its new strategic plan and we want your input. Please let us know your ideas on how we can improve your Auburn Alumni Association and increase alumni

connectivity with the university. Visit the alumni website (aualum.org), call the alumni office

or connect with one of our board members with your comments or ideas. This strategic plan will set the course for our next five years and build on and improve our mission to foster and strengthen the relationship between Auburn University and its alumni and friends.

Let’s rally and support our sports teams this spring. Our foot-ball team will be looking to take momentum into spring practice and we look forward to hosting our coaches this spring as our club leaders prepare for their annual alumni events. Our men’s and women’s basketball programs are on the rise with home game sellouts the norm. Speaking of sellouts, good luck getting a ticket to a home softball game, as coach Clint Myers and his great team attempt to return to the College World Series again this year. We

wish new baseball head Coach Butch Thompson the best as he begins building our baseball team into a national contender.

I encourage you to stay connected to Auburn and encourage others to do the same. As alumni, we all have different resources; time, input/ideas or financial, and Auburn needs us to be con-nected. We encourage your involvement in your local clubs. Ask a family member or friend to join you at an event this spring, or help recruit a local student to attend Auburn by volunteering in the FANS program. Auburn is counting on you!

Spring semester is a busy time as we host our Club Leadership Conference in February, Lifetime Achievement Awards in March, Black Alumni Weekend in April and Golden Eagles weekend in May. Now in its 15th year, the Lifetime Achievement Awards are the association’s highest honors. I hope you’ll read about this year’s honorees—as well as the recipient of our Outstanding Young Alumni award—in the pages that follow.

All the very best this year to you and our beloved Auburn!WAR EAGLE!

P.S.: Nominations for Auburn Alumni Association Board of Directors are open. If you are interested or know of a life member of the Auburn Alumni Association that is, please visit the alumni website to download a 2016 nomination form. Deadline for nomi-nations is March 28, 2016. Our association depends on it!

SPECIAL FEATURE

The 2016 Lifetime Achievement Awards

Jack Fite ’85 President, Auburn Alumni Association


Longtime Auburn University Faculty Member

Jane Moore

Judson College Bachelor’s in Education; University of Tennessee Master’s in Education; University of Alabama Ph.D. in Education.

• Jane B. Moore made significant professional contributions to Auburn University over a 28-year career on the faculty of the College of Education and the Department of Health and Human Performance (now the School of Kinesiology).

• Her service to Auburn has been recognized with the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award and the Pamela Wells Sheffield Award, which recognizes Auburn women exemplifying grace, character and a community-minded spirit.

• Moore collaborated with other researchers within Auburn University’s Motor Behavior Laboratory, making scholarly contributions to

advance the understanding about how children move and learn to move.

• She was the first woman to serve on the Auburn University Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics. In 2003, she became the first woman at Auburn to have an athletic facility named solely in her honor when the Auburn Softball Complex was renamed Jane B. Moore Field in recognition of her dedication and service to athletics at Auburn University.

• Active in community service, Moore is an annual member of the Auburn Alumni Association.

IN HER OWN

WORDS

It was certainly a big surprise to

receive this honor. I have always

loved being at Auburn

and loved my teaching and

experiences with the students.

I never thought of receiving any

special award for that. Auburn

means everything to me. It’s such a

great honor and I’m so grateful for

the recognition.

There are so many memories

when you’re here for so long and

look back on it. My special

memories are things that are

related to my work and my

association with the faculty and the

university. In 1975, when I was

appointed to the Faculty Athletics

Committee, that was a very special

opportunity for me. And of course,

one of the most special events of

my life here was the naming of the

softball field, and in 2006 the first

celebration for women’s athletics.

We had the opportunity for all

women athletes to come back on

the campus for a weekend of

celebration of their particular sport,

as well as a banquet recognizing all

the women student-athletes. Those

were certainly special times.

Play Ball!

Jane Moore with softballteam members

(from left) Courtney Shea, Jade Rhodes, Anna

Gibbs, Lexi Davis.

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Edward Lee “Ed Lee” Spencer

Auburn University Bachelor’s in Business

Class of 1952

IN HIS OWN

WORDS

I feel very honored. Not too

many people get the Lifetime

Achievement Award, and I

appreciate them recognizing me.

I hope I’m worthy of it.

My Auburn experience has

been very rewarding and very

beneficial. The biggest thing was

that it let me know how much I

didn’t know. I found out I had to

keep on learning.

I have a lot of memories,

but mostly Auburn was getting

me ready for various

opportunities in life, like getting a

scholarship and going to school

after I graduated, and being an

officer in the Air Force, where I

served a little over four years as

a regular officer.

It’s just a good place to stop

and graze and reflect and get

your strength up and move on.

Don’t think you know it all.

Learning is a lifelong process,

where you develop your interests

and pursue opportunities. Auburn

was a great opportunity.

• Ed Lee Spencer was the first Fulbright Scholarship recipient from Auburn University.

• After completing his studies, he worked at Spencer Lumber Co., then expanded his interest in construction by establishing Lee Electrical Supply, Spencer Heating and Air and Auburn Millwork.

• In 1975, Spencer joined AuburnBank’s Board of Directors and, in 1985, became chairman of the board. In 1990, he was named president and CEO of AuburnBank and currently is again serving as chairman of the board. Under his leadership, the bank added branches in other cities in Alabama and moved from $25 million in total assets to more than $668 million by the

end of 2007. In 1991, U.S. Banker magazine named AuburnBank among the nation’s top 200 community banks, the only bank in Alabama to receive this recognition.

• In 2011, Spencer was inducted into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame.

• Active in community service, where he has been a longtime advocate of affordable housing for moderate-income families, Spencer and his wife, the former Ruth Priester, have three grown children. He is a life member of the Auburn Alumni Association.

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ALUMNI CLASSNOTES > IN MEMORIAM

Col. James Shelton “Jim” Voss

Auburn University Bachelor’s in Engineering; University of Colorado Master’s in Aerospace Engineering; University of Colorado Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering

Class of 1972

IN HIS OWN

WORDS

I have believed in giving back and

supporting Auburn in as many ways

as I can, through financial things as

well as personal commitment to the

university, coming back to teach

there and work at the university

while I could. I want to help Auburn

continue its mission of teaching

and research and extension and be

able to do all those things that

impact our community in the state

of Alabama. Auburn does all those

things, but it requires a lot of help

from a lot of people.

There are so many good

memories from Auburn. Auburn is

where I met my wife. We dated and

married before I graduated. That

has to be one of the most signifi-

cant things of all about my

experience at Auburn. My wife

Suzan is an Auburn graduate, she

also participates and gives back to

the university a lot as well.

This is a wonderful award, and I

am flattered and honored to be

seen in the same group of people

that have given so much back to

Auburn University and to a lifetime

of achievement. They not only

achieved a lot themselves, but they

have helped Auburn achieve a lot

over the years. So I am really

honored by the award and hope

that I truly deserve it.

• Jim Voss went to work at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 1984 and was selected as an astronaut in 1987, training for space shuttle flights as well as training in Russia as a backup crew member to the Mir Space Station.

• Beginning in 1991, Voss began 10 years of shuttle space flights, including 163 days as a member of the Expedition 2 crew on the International Space Station.

• Since his retirement from NASA in 2003, Voss has been a professor and associate dean of engineering at Auburn, vice president for space exploration systems at the Transformational Space Corp., vice president of engineering for

SpaceDev and director of advanced programs at Sierra Nevada Corp.

• In 2009, Voss joined the faculty of the University of Colorado as a full-time Scholar in Residence.

• He was inducted into the Alabama Engineer-ing Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame in 2001.

• Voss is married to the former Suzan Curry ’71, a member of the Dean’s Leadership Council in the Auburn College of Sciences and Mathemat-ics. The couple has one daughter. Jim and Suzan Voss are joint life members of the Auburn Alumni Association.

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A U B U R N M A G A Z I N E . A U B U R N . E D U54 S H A R E Y O U R N E W S W I T H U S A T A U B M A G @ A U B U R N . E D U

ALUMNI CLASSNOTES > IN MEMORIAM

Walter Stanley “Walt” Woltosz

Auburn University Bachelor’s in Engineering; Auburn University Master’s in Engineering; University of Alabama-Huntsville Master of Arts

Class of 1969

IN HIS OWN

WORDS

While at Auburn I got an

excellent engineering education,

but I gained much more than that: I

learned perseverance and teamwork

to tackle extremely difficult

problems. I learned the importance

of communication and language,

and that how you say or write

something is as important as what

you say. And I learned to embrace

the Auburn Creed.

I’d like to see Auburn rise even

further in national rankings in all

of its programs, and to have an

endowment that ranks near the

top of the SEC rather than near the

bottom. I’d like to see all Auburn

alumni recognize that the special

love we feel for Auburn is because

Auburn made us who we are, that

the Auburn environment is unique

in higher education, and to maintain

that uniqueness takes resources.

George Petrie wrote the

Auburn Creed the year I was born. If

I have to pick only one line, I guess

it would be, “I believe that this is a

practical world and that I can count

only on what I earn. Therefore, I

believe in work, hard work.” There’s

a saying by Calvin Coolidge about

persistence, in which he says that

talent, genius, and education do not

guarantee success, it is persistence

that makes us successful. I believe

George Petrie frames that as work,

hard work.

• Walt Woltosz developed his first augmentative communication system for persons with severe communication disabilities after his mother-in-law was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease).

• That first iteration, which is still on display at the Smithsonian Institute two decades later, led him in 1981 to establish Words+, a company that offered many firsts for communication needs for the severely disabled. Renowned astrophysicist Sir Stephen Hawking wrote A Brief History of Time using Woltosz’s technology in 1988.

• In the late 1990s, Woltosz turned his inventor’s eye to the development of simulation and modeling software for drug discovery and development, and today his products are used by the world’s top 15 pharmaceutical firms to analyze new products.

• Woltosz serves on the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council, is chairman of the council’s research committee, serves on the Auburn University Foundation Board and funded the Woltosz Engineering Research Laboratory in the Shelby Center for Engineering Technology. Woltosz and his wife, Virginia, have homes in Auburn and in California. He is a life member of the Auburn Alumni Association.

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Lt. William Joel “Joel” Shumaker

Young Alumni Achievement Award Winner—Auburn University Bachelor’s in Nursing

• Joel Shumaker served in the U.S. Navy as a Navy Hospital Corpsman and enrolled in the School of Nursing in 2003. After graduating in 2005, Shumaker worked as a registered nurse with the Navy as he rapidly moved up the ranks, being promoted to charge nurse, department head and division officer in three years.

• In June 2013, Lieutenant Shumaker was deployed to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, Africa, the only enduring U.S. military base on the African continent. At Camp Lemonnier, Shumaker was one of only four nurses caring for more than 6,200 qualified beneficiaries from all four branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. Also

while at Camp Lemonnier, Shumaker served the surrounding communities by making multiple weekly trips to a local orphanage and to shelters for street children.

• Shumaker served as department head of the maternal/infant unit at the Naval Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., before transitioning to Navy Reserves in December 2014. He currently manages 41 in-patient beds in the medical/surgical/oncology specialties at St. Vincent’s East Hospital in Birmingham.

• Shumaker has three daughters and is a life member of the Auburn Alumni Association.

Class of 2005

IN HIS OWN

WORDS

When I first got the news, it was

completely overwhelming, because

Auburn means so much to me as far

as life and opportunities and in so

many ways how it’s affected my life

in a positive way.

I started at Auburn in 2001, and I

had just finished about three years

and eight months of being enlisted

as a medic with the Navy, actually

on the Marine Corps side. There was

a lot of growing up that I did in that

time that I was thankful for, but to

go to Auburn, right away, I saw the

outreach, the friendliness.

You can focus on personal

achievements, but this is what I say

to my staff now: my philosophy is

one of servant-leadership. What are

you doing for others that really

proves the value of your own

existence? I always go back to the

Auburn Creed, and the work ethic

that’s instilled by our Creed—sound

mind and sound body. It’s very much

spiritually focused, and it’s very

much focused on the way we look at

people. You’ve got to work hard,

you’ve got to take care of people

and serve others, but you’ve also

got to have fun. And you’ve got to

enjoy what God’s blessed you with,

too. I would put every single bit of

energy into studying, but when it

came time for football games, it was

time to let loose.

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THE CLASSES > CLASSNOTES

S H A R E Y O U R N E W S W I T H U S A T A U B M A G @ A U B U R N . E D U

Send your classnotes and other

updates to Auburn Magazine

317 S. College St., Auburn

University, AL 36849 or

[email protected].

1940sJIM FITZPATRICK ’42 was

presented the Cross of Military

Service at the 122nd Annual United

Daughters of the Confederacy

convention in Raleigh, N.C., on Nov.

6. He was recognized for his service

during World War II. The news was

sent in by his granddaughter

ALLISON FITZPATRICK ’06.

1950sJOSEPH MAXWELL ’54 has

invented and developed an

automated transportation system

that is powered by electricity and

can move shipping containers

automatically through the system

to multiple exit locations. Even

though the system moves at very

high speed, accidents cannot

happen and deliveries cannot be

misdirected. He writes that

Auburn’s Samuel Ginn College of

Engineering is working with him to

help commercialize the system.

Scale models of the system will be

brought to Auburn in March.

STANLEY P. WILSON ’53 was

honored by the Auburn University

Agricultural Alumni Association on

Feb. 4 with induction into the 2016

Alabama Agricultural Hall of Honor.

Wilson was assistant dean of

Auburn’s College of Agriculture and

associate director of the Alabama

Agricultural Experiment Station

from 1975-80, when he was named

Auburn’s vice president for

agriculture, home economics and

veterinary medicine. The Andalusia

native also was a cattleman who, on

retiring in 2001, donated his Angus

herd and all his farming equipment

to the College of Agriculture’s Beef

Teaching Unit, which was named in

his honor. Other honorees were

Wayne Thames, production-sector

honoree, and JAMES M. “JIM”

CRAVEY ‘70, agribusiness inductee.

Pioneer awards were presented to

the families of the late WALTER

“SONNY” CORCORAN ’54 and the

late RALPH HARRIS ’48.

1960s HENRY “HANK” MILLER JR. ’64

accepted the Congressional Gold

Medal on behalf of his father, Rear

Admiral Henry Miller, for his

participation in the Doolittle Raid

over Tokyo, also known as “Thirty

Seconds Over Tokyo, 1942.” The

presentation took place in Alameda,

Calif., aboard the U.S.S. Hornet.

1970sJAMES M. “JIM” CRAVEY ’70 was

honored by the Auburn University

Agricultural Alumni Association on

Feb. 4 with induction into the 2016

Alabama Agricultural Hall of Honor.

Cravey has held various leadership

positions with the Alabama Farmers

Federation during his 34 years there.

He retired in 2004 as commodity

department senior director and

dairy division director. He temporar-

ily returned to work in 2013 to serve

as interim executive director of the

Alabama Peanut Producers

Association. He now operates a farm

and hunting lodge in Covington

County with his brother, Albert.

Other honorees were Wayne

Thames, production-sector honoree,

and STANLEY WILSON ’53,

education/government inductee.

Pioneer awards were presented to

the families of the late WALTER

“SONNY” CORCORAN ’54 and the

late RALPH HARRIS ’48.

CATHRYN MORTON PERDUE ’73

married Louis A. Delionback on Feb.

15, 2014. They live in Reno, Nev.,

where she is working with The CFO

Group Inc. as tax manager.

JIMMY B. POOL ’71, judge of the

15th Judicial Circuit, was recently

recognized by the Alabama Law

Foundation by designating him as a

Fellow, honoring his dedication to

the legal profession and his

community. The Fellows program,

established in 1995, honors

Alabama Bar Association members

for outstanding service and

commitment. Since no more than 1

percent of bar members are invited

into Fellowship, the selection

committee chooses new members

from an exceptional group that

foundation trustee president Joe

Fawal termed “our best and

brightest.” Also awarded Fellowship

posthumously this year was MAYS

R. JEMISON ’71.

LYN BABB SCHMID ’71 is currently

president of the Delta Kappa

Gamma Society for Key Women

Educators International, located in

Austin, Texas. She is an educational

consultant for the Pennsylvania

Department of Education and lives

in Harrisburg, Pa.

KENNETH B. “BO” WALKLEY ’71

retired on Feb. 1 as vice president

for research at the National

Institute of Aerospace (NIA) in

Hampton, Va., completing a 43-year

career in aerospace. He and his

wife, JUDY WALKLEY ’73, will

continue to live in Yorktown, Va.

RICK GILL ’75 had his photography

featured in Jam—Sweets for

the Soul, recently released by

Bill Warren, pastor at Allen

Memorial Baptist Church in

Salisbury, Md. Gill and Warren were

childhood friends in Pensacola, Fla.,

where Gill currently lives. Proceeds

from the book go to charity.

For more information, visit

sweetsforthesoul.org.

TIMOTHY BARTON ’78 writes, “In

addition to my current position as

vice president for finance at

Travelink American Express Travel

in Nashville, Tenn., I recently

became an adjunct instructor at

Lipscomb University. I’m currently

teaching the Accounting for

Executives MBA program within

the college of business.”

WILLIAM HOPEWELL ’78 recently

accepted a position at RealtySouth,

located in Oneonta. He recently was

employed at Federal Land Bank

Association. He writes that he

retired in 2012 after 32 years with

Farm Credit as senior appraiser in

North Alabama, and he is currently

working with his wife, Nancy,

selling real estate and traveling

internationally with their children.

1980sSTEPHEN RAMEY ’80 recently

e



THE AWARD-WINNING ARTIST and author of the book is Auburn University alumna Rosamond Parrish from the class of 1959. Her family has a long history with Auburn. Mary Martin Hall is named after her great aunt and a number of generations have attended. Parrish’s time at Auburn was packed tightly as she double-majored in English Literature and Spanish and stayed involved in clubs on campus. She said she still fondly remembers the excitement that jolted the university when Auburn’s football team became number one in 1957. She stayed busy after graduating, with post-graduate studies in Fine Art at the National University of Mexico, the University of Hawaii, Flagler College and the University of North Florida. Her love, teachings and gift for art allowed her to teach drawing and painting at the Jacksonville Art Museum for over 23 years. She became a member of the Florida Watercolor Society in 1972 and founded the Jacksonville Watercolor Society in 1982. Watercoloring is her signature medium, with brightly colored soft strokes featured in many of her paintings. Her art has garnered plenty of attention and awards, most notably the Carl Steinsieck Award for excellence in drawing at the St. Augustine Art Association. Parrish also loves history and has been active in the St.

Augustine Historical Society, the Archeological Society and has spent years painting and admiring architecture. Her passions built over the 24 years she has lived in St. Augustine. When she first moved into town the neighborhood of Lincolnville was in disrepair, St. Augustine was barely on the map. “When I moved here we didn’t have a McDonald’s or a Home Depot or a Wal-Mart,” Parrish said. “It was just kind of a quiet small town.” While St. Augustine quickly became a tourist destination, gaining fame as numerous travel magazines and websites rated the town among “The Happiest Town,” “The Best Historic Town,” and “Best Travel Town,” Lincolnville was slower to revive. The neighborhood, once visited by Martin Luther King Jr. and the site of Civil Rights marches and protests that were instrumental in the Civil Rights Legislation of 1964, had sidewalks overrun by weeds, historic buildings shuttered and had become known as an area that “wasn’t a real great place to live.” —Rachael Gamlin

www.rosamondparrish.com

Lincolnville Comes Alive in Paint

A once-neglected neighborhood near the heart of St. Augustine flourishes in the book

Lincolnville, A Sketchbook Journal of

St. Augustine’s Historic Neighborhood.



S H A R E Y O U R N E W S W I T H U S A T A U B M A G @ A U B U R N . E D US H A R E Y O U R N E W S W I T H U S A T A U B M A G @ A U B U R N . E D U

accepted a position as chief financial

officer at Cookeville Regional

Medical Center in Cookeville, Tenn.

He came there from the CFO

position at Southampton Memorial

Hospital in Franklin, Tenn.

EDWARD HUDSON ’81 was recently

named a partner with Morris,

Manning & Martin, LLP, where he

will practice with the firm’s

residential real estate practice group

in the Columbus, Ga., office. He

represents a variety of lenders,

developers, builders, investors,

buyers and sellers.

ROBERT “BO” LAUDER ’84 has

been named Outstanding Principal/

Head of School by the Blackboard

Awards, which honors achievement

in education in New York City.

PAT B. MERRITT ’84 has been

named vice president for community

and economic development for

Georgia Electric Membership Corp.

For the past 16 years, she has led

Georgia EMC’s community

development team and brings nearly

30 years of experience working with

electric co-ops at Georgia EMC and

Oglethorpe Power Corp. She also has

served as president of the National

Rural Economic Developers

Association. She and her husband,

Darrel W. “Buz” Merritt ’85, live in

Tucker, Ga.

TROY TURNER ’84 has been named

editor of The Opelika-Auburn News,

where he began his career as a cub

reporter shortly after graduating

from Auburn. In the years between,

he has worked as a reporter,

columnist and editor at various

news publications throughout the

U.S., including early stints with the

THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE of the Auburn Alumni Association Board of Directors is requesting nominations from alumni and friends of Auburn University for four new directors. All nominees must be life members of the association, and be willing to serve on a volunteer basis. These board positions require travel to Auburn at least three times per year. Successful nominees will be installed this fall; each will serve a four-year term.

Nominations are also requested for the officer positions of president and vice president, both of which serve two-year terms. All nominees must be current or former members of the Auburn Alumni Association Board of Directors elected by the members and life members of the association.

Candidates should have a demonstrated history of leadership in support of the Auburn Alumni Association and Auburn University. Strong consideration will be shown to those who have actively promoted the association and AU through involvement with local Auburn Clubs. Additionally, persons who have previously contributed both time and resources to AU and the association will be strongly considered. In agreeing to serve on the Auburn Alumni Association board, directors and officers are expected to join the association’s sustaining life membership program through contributions to the “Circle of Excellence” scholarship society.

The Nominating Committee will also consider an individual’s accomplishments as demonstrated through career development and community service, along with their potential for representing the association’s various constituencies. Additionally, an individual’s college major(s), profession and the geographic location of his or her residence may influence the committee’s determination.

The committee encourages all alumni association members to participate by submitting nominations for consideration to Susan Barnes, Office of the Vice President for Alumni Affairs, Auburn Alumni Center, 317 South College Street, Auburn University, AL 36849-5149. A nomination form must be submitted, along with at least two letters of recommendation (but no more than four), from life members of the association. Resumes may also be submitted.

The nomination form is available for downloading on the association website (www.aualum.org), or by contacting Susan Barnes at (334) 844-3820. Completed forms, letters of recommendation and resumes may be returned to Ms. Barnes at the above address or sent to her by fax (334) 844-4003 or as email attachments ([email protected]). The deadline for receiving nominations and supporting documentation is 5 p.m. CST, March 28, 2016. For more information, see www.aualum.org.

Board Nominations



New York Times Co. at its affiliates

in Gadsden and Florence and later

at The Anniston Star, where he

served as executive editor. He

worked as an editor at newspapers

in Colorado and New Mexico before

being promoted to a role as

corporate news editor for Digital

First Media in New York, where he

led national reporting efforts.

KEVIN GREENE ’85, a former

walk-on at Auburn who went on to

play for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Los

Angeles Rams, Carolina Panthers

and San Francisco 49ers, was

recently elected to the Pro Football

Hall of Fame. Greene ranks third

all-time in NFL history with 160

sacks, trailing only his contempo-

raries and fellow Hall of Fame pass

rushers Bruce Smith and Reggie

White. He twice led the NFL in

sacks, accumulating 14 and 14.5

sacks, respectively, in 1994 and 1996.

The outside linebacker and

defensive end also accumulated 669

tackles, forced 23 fumbles and

intercepted five passes in his career,

which spanned from 1985 until

1999. Greene won a Super Bowl with

the Green Bay Packers as their

outside linebackers coach in 2011.

He currently lives in Destin, Fla.

DEBORAH SEALE BRASWELL ’87

and Steven Braswell were married

on July 18, 2015, in Helena. They live

in Alabaster, Ala. The bride’s two

children and the groom’s three

children served as the attendants.

They were planning a honeymoon in

Hawaii in February.

1990sKEVIN SNYDER ’90 has been

selected to fly with the Blue Angels,

the U.S. Navy’s flight-demonstration

squadron, under their key influencer

program while performing at the

Great Georgia Air Show in October.

The Blue Angels’ Key Influencer

program selects individuals who

shape attitudes and opinions of

youth in their communities. Key

Influencers may be experts in their

field, public figures, leaders of youth

organizations, teachers, guidance

counselors or school administrators.

They are not always the person at

the top of an organization, but

rather individuals that have an

impact on recruiting youth. Kevin is

very involved in youth in numerous

ways, including being a Scout leader.

ROBERT MATTHEW

“MATT” THOMAS ’90

and KIMPER CANNON

THOMAS ’01 announce

the birth of a daughter,

Evelyn Rosemary, on

Sept. 21, 2015. She joins

her brother, Cannon,

and family in

Birmingham.

JOHN ALLEN

HAMRICK ’91 and his

wife, Jessica, announce

the birth of their son,

John Aiden, on Oct. 7,

2015, in Johnson City,

Tenn. The grandparents

are Billy and Jeanie

Walker and JIM ’63

and LYNDALL ’66

HAMRICK.

TRACI KNIGHT INGLERIGHT ’94,

an enrichment teacher at Gwin

Elementary School in Birmingham,

was one of three Hoover School

System nominees for the Jackson-

ville State University Teacher Hall of

Fame. She has been teaching for 21

years, including 10 in her current

position at Gwin. She has served on

the Alabama Environmental

Literacy Plan Task Force, as a board

member of the Environmental

Education Association of Alabama

and on the Governor’s Task Force for

Environmental Literacy in Alabama.

Under her leadership, Gwin has

received the Project Learning Tree

Green School Award, the National

Wildlife Federation Green Flag

Award and the U.S. Department of

Education’s Green Ribbon Award.

CHUCK O’BRIEN IV ’94, principal at

Pieper O’Brien Herr Architects in

Atlanta, has been promoted to vice

president. POH is the 13th-largest

architectural firm in Atlanta, as

ranked by the Atlanta Business

Chronicle. He is a registered

architect and also is a LEED-accred-

ited professional. His design

experience includes a variety of

project types, including governmen-

tal, multi-family housing, retail,

educational, office, interiors and

master planning. As a member of

the firm’s design team, Chuck

defines the aesthetic and organiza-

tion of a project by translating the

program into the building design.

JOSEPH BRANCHE ’95 and his

wife, Grace, announce the birth

of their daughter, Sophia, on Sept.

6, 2015. The family lives in

Fullerton, Calif.

Ring!

Ring!Hello! We will be calling you this

summer to update your records for the Auburn

Alumni Association directory. The directory,

which lists all Auburn University alumni on

record, will be produced in 2017.


Planting the Idea

IMAGINE A MEGA-WEBSITE

similar to that of Amazon.com—only with plants. That’s the concept Cameron Cantrelle ’96 used when creating Plantbid, a successful online platform dedicated to connecting nurseries and professional landscapers to facilitate the sale of plants.

“Plantbid is nothing more than a communication platform to create efficiencies in the professional plant-buying community,” said Cantrelle. “It’s a way for the sellers of that community to communicate efficiently with the buyers.”

Cantrelle, a professional landscaper and a ’96 Auburn graduate with a degree in ornamental horticulture, formulated his idea for the website out of a frustration with the amount of time he had to spend searching for the plants he needed for each job. His Smoketree Landscape Services is based in Mandeville, La., across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans.

“Through the years, I’ve purchased millions of dollars of plants to install our projects… and what I realized was that I was spending an inordinate amount of time finding what I needed.”

Cantrelle confesses to his lack of technological know-how before creating his innovative website.

“Before I started Plantbid, I didn’t even check my own emails. My wife or my staff would tell me that

an email came through and then I would read it.” That didn’t deter him from developing a platform that has facilitated nearly $2 million in sales .

After coming up with the idea, Cantrelle partnered with his college best friend’s brother, Dave Wooden, who has a background in optimization and algorithms, to work on the coding and technical aspects of the tool.

In an industry that was hit hard by the 2009 economic recession and still relies heavily on outdated methods, Plantbid is a technological breath of fresh air for buyers and sellers. It’s free for sellers to post their inventories, a strong incentive to put products on the website. Buyers don’t pay until they’ve decided to purchase from a seller on Plantbid.

“It doesn’t cost the buyers anything to see what the opportunity could look like,” Cantrelle said. “They only pay when they execute the opportunity, and at that point, they’re executing it knowing that it was a smart way to buy.”

By expediting the process of sourcing plants necessary for landscape professionals to complete their jobs, Plantbid is revolutionizing the industry.

“At the end of the day, that’s what makes Plantbid,” Cantrelle said. “It’s software that can tell you who you should be shopping with based off of your unique list, help find your most profitable cost for your job, and assuring quality.”—Rachael Gamlin

plantbid.com



RODERICK D. PERRY ’95 was

recently named the director of

athletics at Indiana University-Pur-

due University, Indianapolis. It is a

Division I institution and a member

of the Summit League.

REBECCA FRATELLO ’97 battled

“crazy waves” to finish her first

Ironman competition, Ironman

Florida, in Panama City on Nov. 7.

KIMBERLY SCHLACHTA ’97 married

Michael Rabalais on April 18. The

couple lives in Fort Myers, Fla.,

where Kim has been president of

Boylan Environmental Consultants

Inc. for the past five years. Kim

was a student-athlete for the

Auburn volleyball team. After

graduation, she returned to her

hometown and started her

environmental career at Boylan in

1998. The company has provided

ecological consulting services in

Southwest Florida since 1989 to

both the private and public sector,

including wetland and wildlife

surveys, environmental planning

and permitting, impact assess-

ments, habitat management plans

and design of mitigation projects.

AMY BRATCHER ’99 received an

Ed.S. in collaborative professional

learning/instructional coaching

from Lipscomb University in

August 2015. She teaches middle

school language arts and serves as

a teacher leader. She teaches at

Ellis Middle School in Henderson-

ville, Tenn.

DANIEL GESS ’99 and DEVON

BONDS GESS ’00 announce the

birth of a daughter, Lillian Danielle,

on June 28, 2015. The family lives in

Cleveland, Ohio.

2000sNICOLE WILLIAMS ’00 has been

appointed a member of the Dallas

Judicial Nomination Commission,

serving a term that began Jan. 20

and will run through Sept. 30, 2017.

Williams is a partner in the trial

practice group of Thompson and

Knight LLP’s Dallas, Texas, office,

and focuses her practice on

litigation and counseling on matters

involving antitrust, advertising,

RICO, gaming, banking, title

curative issues, and other complex

commercial disputes and govern-

ment investigations. Nicole also

fosters the development of Dallas

youth as a mock trial coach at

James Madison High School and is

a member of the executive board of

directors for Rainbow Days.

KATIE CONNELL ’01 recently

announced the opening of her new

law firm with fellow attorney Leigh

Faulk Cummings. Connell Cum-

mings LLC is located at Cumber-

land Center in Atlanta’s Cumber-

land/Galleria area. Prior to forming

Connell Cummings, Katie was a

partner with Boyd, Collar, Nolen &

Tuggle. The firm’s practice will

encompass all family law-related

issues, including divorce, custody

and visitation, alimony, child

support, property division,

prenuptial and postnuptial

agreements, paternity and

legitimation, adoption, restraining

and protective orders, and

mediation and arbitration. A native

of Savannah, Ga., Katie was recently

reappointed by Gov. Nathan Deal to

serve on the Georgia Commission

for Child Support.

KATHLEEN B. CONNELL ‘01 has

been selected among Georgia

Trend magazine’s 2015 Legal Elite.

She practices family law with

Cumberland, Ga.-based Boyd Collar

Nolen & Tuggle.

ASHLEY WALLS ’02 is director of

general administration for Boaz

(Ala.) City Schools. She and her

husband, JAMES ROBERT WALLS

’96, have two daughters, Harper

and Hadley.

MEGGAN GRAY STOLARSKI ‘03 and

JOHN STOLARSKI ’03 announce the

birth of their third child, Aiden

Graham, on Dec. 15, 2015. He joins a

brother, Austin, and sister, Avery.

John is a principal at Allred

Stolarski Architects in Ocean

Springs, Miss., and Meggan is a

morning news anchor at WLOX-TV

in Biloxi, Miss.

GEOFFREY PEARCE ’04 and

ASHLEY HARRIS PEARCE ’09

announce the birth of their first

child, Carter Jameson Pearce, on

Jan. 30. They are hoping that, in 18

years, Carter will become a

fourth-generation Auburn student!

The Pearces live in Newnan, Ga.,

REBECCA QUINNEY SCHOBER ’04

and RICK SCHOBER ’98 announce

the birth of a son, Albert Frederick

Schober IV, on Dec. 8, 2015. The

family lives in Orrville.

CATHERINE DAVIS PATTISON ’05

and her husband, Chase, announce

the birth of a son, William Charles

Jr., “Charlie,” on March 25, 2015.

The family lives in Nashville, Tenn.

JEREMY THOMPSON ’05 is a

project architect with SolTerra, a

design-build firm in the Northwest.

The company specializes in

designing, building and managing

highly sustainable LEED Platinum

multifamily projects in Portland,

Ore., and Seattle, Wash., that feature

solar panels, green roofs and living

wall systems. Prior to his move to

Portland with his wife, Jessi, Jeremy

spent 10 years in Nashville, Tenn.,

with Earl Swensson Associates.

CAROLYN A. ALENCI ’06 was

honored by the Duane Morris

Women’s Impact Network for

Success with the Margery Reed

Professional Excellence Award. The

honor recognizes contributions

toward creating, modeling and

mentoring others regarding issues

of work-life management. She

practices in the area of intellectual

property litigation, concentrating

on the chemical and pharmaceuti-

cal industries by assisting generic

pharmaceutical companies filing

abbreviated new drug applications

with the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration. She also assists

clients in the life sciences and

medical devices fields with security

patent rights and in patent

litigation.

ANDREW BUTLER ’07 and

MADELYN KIMBROUGH BUTLER ’08

announce the birth of a son,

Coleman Russell, on Sept 10, 2015.

The family lives in Madison, Miss.

HAYDEN BLAKE HEADLEY ’07

married George Bardin Hooks Jr. in

Atlanta on Sept. 12, 2015. Hayden is

an associate attorney with Perry

and Walters in Albany, Ga., and

George is a partner with the

Americus, Ga., law firm of Arnold

and Hooks. The couple lives in

Americus with their dog, Scarlett

O’Headley Hooks.



S H A R E Y O U R N E W S W I T H U S A T A U B M A G @ A U B U R N . E D U

ARSALAN A. NAYANI ’10, a Chicago-

based associate in the government

practice group of Hinshaw &

Culbertson LLP, has been elected

treasurer of the Indian American

Bar Association of Chicago. His

one-year term began on Jan. 1.

Nayani earned his J.D. from DePaul

University College of Law after

earning his bachelor’s from Auburn.

LUKE R. CRESSMAN ’12 has

joined HDR Engineering Inc. of

Corpus Christi, Texas, as a

structural engineer. He works on

liquid bulk material dock,

Department of Defense and

energy-related projects.

ANDY MCERLEAN ’12 lives in

Austin, Texas, and works for

Everfast, a tech startup centered

around festivals and the idea of

bringing together people to share in

a common, positive experience. “In

a way, that’s what Auburn was and

is,” he writes. “It’s a place where

people come to share a completely

unique and transformative

experience.”

PATRICK L. SNELLINGS ’15

recently started work as a fisheries

biologist for Georgia DNR Wildlife

Resources Division.

IN MEMORIAM

For more complete obituaries, visit

auburnmagazine.auburn.edu.

CHARLES BURR VAUGHN ’37 of The

Villages, Fla., died on Aug. 19, 2015.

SIDNEY J. HARDY JR. ’39 of

Alberta died on Sept. 8, 2015.

MONROE F. VEST JR. ’41 of

Birmingham died on Aug. 28, 2015.

SAMUEL URIAH HARDIE JR. ’43 of

Florence died on Sept. 10, 2015.

CLARK M. HEREFORD ’43 of

Huntsville died on Sept. 9, 2015.

ETHAN C. HOLT ’43 of College

Station, Texas, died on Sept. 7, 2015.

JANE W. JACKSON ’43 of Sevier-

ville, Tenn., died on June 13, 2014.

WILLIAM FRANK JENKINS ’43 of

Birmingham died on Sept. 6, 2014.

WILLIAM H. RYAN JR. ’43 of Selma

died on Sept. 10, 2015.

MORRIS LEROY SPEARMAN ’43

of Newport News, Va., died on

Sept. 1, 2015.

JACK DOUGLAS CURLEE ‘44 of

Atlanta died on Sept. 10, 2015.

ALMA BROWNING ’46 of Griffin,

Ga., died on Sept. 19.

JANETTE KNIGHT COLLIER ‘46 of

Gadsden died on Aug. 26, 2015.

HERBERT O. FULLER JR. ’47 of

Columbus, Ga., died on Aug. 19, 2015.

JACQUELINE S. GANTT ’47 of

Andalusia died on Aug. 20, 2015.

JOSEPH HARRY ROMANO ’47 of

Hoover died on Aug. 22, 2015.

WILLIAM HEFLIN “BILL” BARTON ’48

of Tuscaloosa died on Sept. 16, 2015.

BILLY JAY BATTLE ‘48 of Birming-

ham died on Aug. 14, 2015.

TAYLOR GEORGE BURKE ‘48 of Oak

Ridge, Tenn., died on Aug. 28.

DOROTHY G. GALLOWAY ’48 of

Knoxville, Tenn., died on Jan. 21, 2015.

HELEN COWLES GOGGANS ’48 of

Montgomery died on Aug. 31, 2015.

LAURA POWELL HALL ’48 of Dallas,

Texas, died on Aug. 23, 2015.

LEONARD JOHN “BUDDY” HOOPER

’48 of Gainesville, Fla., died on Aug.

20, 2015.

JAMES WILLARD BARTLEY JR. ’49

of Waco, Texas, died on Sept. 9, 2015.

KATHERYN “KATY” SIMS BEIN-

DORF ‘49 of Vero Beach, Fla., died

on Aug. 19, 2015.

ARTHUR LEE ENNIS ’49 of Gadsden


ANGELO TOMASSO JR. ’49 of New

Britain, Conn., died on Sept. 18, 2015.

CLARENCE HORNSBY JR. ’50 of Rock

Hill, S.C., died on March 28, 2015.

EVELYN BLAKE JOHNSON ’50 of

Leesburg died on Sept. 21, 2015.

ROBERT RAY JONES ’50 of

Huntsville died on Oct. 22, 2015.

TIMOTHY B. LAGRONE ’50 of

Alexander City died on April 18, 2015.

BUTLER B. WHITFIELD ’50 of

Doerun, Ga., died on April 24, 2015.

SHELLIE O. WILLIAMSON ’50 of

Chesterfield, Mo., died on Oct. 14, 2014.

HERMAN E. BALL ’51 of Lafayette,

Colo., died on April 16, 2014.

MARVIN F. FORRESTER ’51 of Warner

Robins, Ga., died on Oct. 30, 2015.

ROBERT BROOKS GRIGGS ’51 of

Atlanta died on Aug. 27, 2015.

GEORGE ELLIS HILL ’51 of Oak

Ridge, N.C., died on Nov. 7, 2015.

FRED O. KELLEY ’51 of Birmingham

died on Jan. 14, 2015.

W. RUSSELL LASTER JR. ’51 of

Lancaster, Pa., died on Sept. 24, 2015.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWERY ’51 of

Decatur died on March 21, 2013.

CHARLES “BO” LOYD ’51 of

Scottsboro died on Aug. 19, 2015.

JOHN “BO” THOMAS MILLER ’51 of

Nashville, Tenn., died on Sept. 14, 2015.

ELEESE ADAMSON SHADDIX ’51 of

Dalton, Ga., died on Dec. 23, 2015.

THOMAS H. SIMMONS ’51 of

Kingwood, Texas, died on Jan. 12, 2015.

EDWARD T. GRAHAM ’52 of

Sarasota, Fla., died on Aug. 29, 2015.

WILFRED R. HARPER ’52 of Soso,

Miss., died on Aug. 30, 2015.

ALLAN L. PARKS ’52 of Auburn

died on May 21, 2014.

JAMES E. REYNOLDS ’52 of La

Canada Flintridge, Calif., died on

Aug. 1, 2015.

WILLIAM ROBERT “BILL” ROSS ’52 of

Indianola, Miss., died on Aug. 18, 2015.

CONRAD ELBERT ADAIR ’53 of

Andalusia died on Aug. 25, 2015.

MARVIN CLARENCE BRAND JR. ’53

of Andalusia died on Aug. 18, 2015.

W. DELANE CRANFORD ’53 of Arab

died on Feb. 27, 2014.

ANNE HARRIS HARP ’53 of

Montgomery died on Sept. 13, 2015.

BILLY JOE YORK ’53 of Cullman


WILLIAM M. FALKENBERRY ’54 of

Anniston died on Sept. 17, 2015.

JERRY W. MIKLIC ’54 of Mountain

Brook died on Aug. 14, 2014.

BYRD LEE MOORE ’54 of Fairhope


JACK DALE WILLIAMS ’54 of

Alpharetta, Ga., died on Jan. 16, 2015.

SARAH ELIZABETH CROUCH ‘55 of

Fortville, Ind., died on March 16, 2015.

AUGUSTA YORK KRACKE ’55

of Panama City, Fla., died on

Jan. 25, 2008.

THOMAS G. MIZELL ’55 of Arab

died on Nov. 4, 2015.

OLIN LEE MORGAN ’55 of Wake

Forest, N.C., died on Aug. 17, 2015.

RONALD K. OWEN ’55 of Ponte

Vedra, Fla., died on June 15, 2015.

HIRAM EDMOND PHILLIPS ’55 of

Hartford died on Sept. 7, 2015.

LOUISE GANDY PRICE ’55 of

Auburn died on Sept. 4, 2015.

CHARLES BALDWIN ’56 of Fort

White, Fla., died on April 10, 2014.

HARRY T. HALL ’56 of Marina Del

Rey, Calif., died on March 21, 2015.

THOMAS GENE LYNN ’56 of Biloxi,

Miss., died on Oct. 25, 2015.

JAMES M. WEBB ’56 of Dunwoody,

Ga., died on May 3, 2015.

BILL M. BARNETT ’57 of Fort

Worth, Texas, died on July 23, 2015.

BARBARA GLADNEY CAUTHEN ’57

of Hartselle died on Sept. 12, 2015.

LEN B. SHANNON JR. ’57 of

Birmingham died on Sept. 12, 2015.

WILLIAM R. “BILL” SMITH ’57 of


DINAH HEARN TINGLE ’57

of Mountain Brook died on

Sept. 23, 2015.


THE CLASSES > IN MEMORIAM

C. SENTELL HARPER ’58 of Reform

died on Jan. 6, 2015.

ANNE METCALF KERKHOFF ’58 of

Sugar Hill, Ga., died on Jan. 10, 2013.

CHARLES NEWTON SAMPLE ’58 of

Tomball, Texas, died on Sept. 21, 2015.

JAMES A. EMBRY II ’59 of Sevier-

ville, Tenn., died on Aug. 19, 2015.

R. DOUGLAS HAWKINS ’59 of Troy


MARY ELIZABETH “BETTY” WALSH

MORRISSEY ’59 of Alexandria, Va.,


JAMES “JIM” C. PYRON ’59 of

Loachapoka died on Sept. 3, 2015.

WILLIAM R. SALTER ’59 of Panama

City, Fla., died on April 16, 2014.

BIVIN CARTER “BILL” BROUGHTON

’60 of Meridian, Miss., died on Sept.

19, 2015.

JOSEPH WILBUR WALKER ’60 of

Fayetteville, N.C., died on April 28, 2015.

JULIAN WELDON JENKINS ’61 of

Anniston died on Sept. 16, 215.

WILLIAM D. “BILL” PARKER JR. ’61

of Anniston died on Aug. 27, 2015.

EDWIN MURPHY SALLAS ’61 of Safety

Harbor, Fla., died on Sept. 22, 2015.

SELBY A. TUGGLE ’61 of Statesboro,

Ga., died on July 7, 2015.

W.R. “GNAT” BOZEMAN JR. ’62 of

Irving, Texas, died on June 25, 2015.

FREDDIE MITCHELL BUSH ’62 of

Athens died on Aug. 19, 2015.

OSCAR C. HARPER ’63 of Montgom-

ery died on Aug. 31, 2015.

WILLIAM C. HARWELL ’62 of Coving-

ton, Ga., died on March 14, 2014.

PATRICIA CARDEN NOBLE ’63 of

Santa Fe, N.M., died on Aug. 14, 2015.

CLYDE E. WALKER ’63 of Huntsville

died on Aug. 26, 2015.

CARLTON E. WHITTLE ’63 of

Greenville died on Aug. 10, 2015.

SAMUEL JAY “SAM” BAKER ’64 of

Fairhope died on Sept. 23, 2015.

HILL R. HUFFMAN III ’64 of Canton,

Ga., died on Sept. 16, 2015.

BURLEY JOE “BUD” ALLEN ‘65 of

Bagdad, Fla., died on Sept. 12, 2015.

ALBERT RUSSELL BRITTAIN ’65

of Lake Monticello, Va., died on Aug.

18, 2015.

GERALD KEITH GINNINGS ’65

of Jonesborough, Tenn., died on

June 9, 2012.

KENT HANBY ’65 of San Angelo,

Texas, died on Nov. 14, 2015.

J. CALVIN SHAW ’65 of Dalton, Ga.,

died on Oct. 18, 2015.

CHARLES OSCAR STEPHENS ’65 of

LaGrange, Ga., died on Sept. 16, 2015.

DAVID JAMES “COACH” HOGG ’66 of

McDonough, Ga., died on Aug. 23, 2015.

ROBERT E. EILAND ’66 of Durham,

N.C., died on Nov. 5, 2015.

JOSEPH C. MILLER ’67 of Lillian


EDWIN M. ODOR ’67 of Seaford, Del.,


SARAH FRANCES “SALLY” SUTTER ’67

of Birmingham died on Sept. 4, 2015.

JAMES B. WRIGHT ’67 of Pell City


NOLA JEAN YOUNG HEADRICK ’68 of

Jackson, Miss., died on Sept. 25, 2015.

JAMES A. MAYER ’68 of Elizabeth-

town, Ky., died on Sept 10, 2015.

WILBUR FRANK “BUTCH” BENTON

’69 of Sullivan’s Island, S.C., died on

Sept. 13, 2015.

GARRY P. BLEDSOE ’69 of Gurley


DENNIE LEE SMITH ’69 of College

Station, Texas, died on Sept. 10, 2015.

CHANDLER LEE VON SCHRADER ’69

of Arlington, Va., died on Sept. 6, 2015.

PETER VINCENT BALDWIN ’70 of

Tampa, Fla., died on Sept. 11, 2015

DONALD RAY CRIPPEN ’70 of


JAMES O. HOUSE ’70 of Columbi-

ana died on Sept. 2, 2015.

ALBERT J. MCRAE III ’70 of Orange-

burg, S.C., on Sept. 20, 2015.

RICHARD W. SMART ’71 of Colonial

Beach, Va., died on July 27, 2015.

THOMAS J. BROWN JR. ’72 of

Childersburg died on Sept. 17, 2015.

JAMES LANSON ESTEP ’72 of Jonas

Ridge, N.C., died on May 9, 2015.

JAMES R. “JIM” STANSELL JR. ’73

of Tifton, Ga., died on Aug. 22, 2015.

PATRICIA WARR BAKER ’73 of

St. Simons Island, Ga., died on

Sept. 14, 2015.

RODERICK W. POWERS ’74 of


HANS L. VON SCHWEINITZ ’74

of Pflugerville, Texas, died on Aug.

26, 2015.

ROBERT HICKMAN DUPREE ’75 of

Tuscaloosa died on July 13, 2015.

WILLIAM KEITH DAVIS ’76 of Fort

Payne died on Sept. 12, 2015.

DAVID F. WATKINS ’76 of Hot

Springs, Ark., died on Aug. 17, 2015.

TOMMY ANTHONY CANARY ’77 of


JAMES ANDREW HOLMES ’77 of

Augusta, Ga., died on Sept. 12, 2015.

OMIGENE K. GLASSCOCK ’78 of

Montgomery on Aug. 29, 2015.

JEFFREY WAYNE INGRAM ’78 of

Fairhope died on Aug. 26, 2015.

RAYE R. NEWTON ’79 of Auburn


JEANETTE FRANDSEN ’80 of


GAIL HOLMES PAXMAN ’80 of Round

Rock, Texas, died on Aug. 16, 2015.

SHARON ANDERSON DANIEL ’81 of

Canton, Ga., died on Sept. 19, 2015.

PAMELA D. GODWIN ’81 of Huntsville


ANGELA R. DELAITSCH ’82 of


SARAH WALTERS FORD ’82 of


RHONDA MELISSA LESTER COTTEN

‘86 of Gulf Breeze, Fla., died on Aug.

24, 2015.

JERRY BRETT SUITER ’87 of

Dacula, Ga., died on Aug. 13, 2015.

JANA C. O’NEIL ’88 of Lanett died

on Sept. 10, 2015.

JACQUELYN C. DEMUS ’92 of


ALBERT LEE SMITH ’93 of

Guntersville died on Sept. 8, 2015.

ROBERT ANDREW HOUSE ’94 of

Decatur, Ga., died on Sept. 4, 2015.

WILLIAM HINOTE WATSON JR. ’94

of Brentwood, Tenn., died on

Sept. 18, 2015.

DAVID JASON KASERMAN ’02

of Auburn died on Sept. 19, 2015.

ROBERT GREGORY BRYANT ’09

of Mary Esther, Fla., died on

Aug. 29, 2015.

DAVID GILCHRIST KARN ’10 of

Clanton died on Sept. 1, 2015.

FACULTY AND FRIENDS

PATRICIA ANN BIRDSONG of Jasper


JAMES L. CARDEN of Calera died on

Sept. 23, 2015.

CARL H. CLARK of Auburn died on

Sept. 8, 2015.

CLARENCE BERTRAM “RED”

COLLIER JR. of Gadsden died on

Dec. 20, 2013.

VIRGINIA P. ETHERIDGE of Jefferson,

Ga., died on Sept. 6, 2015.

CAROL JEAN GARRETT of Bessemer


NORMAN NEAL KLASE of Auburn


WILLIAM W. MORRISON of Auburn


LETA ORRISON of Hoover died on

died Aug. 15, 2015.

EDWARD STEPHENS of Auburn died

on Sept. 2, 2015.

PERRY D. WELCH of Lineville died

on Aug. 23, 2015.


BACKCHATOnline Speak

HAIRY...AU prof Jason Bond discovers a new species of Tarantula near Folsom Prison and named it Johnny Cash.

HARMONY The Auburn University Indian Music Ensemble performed before Arun Gandhi’s lecture on Tuesday, Feb. 9, in the Foy Hall ballroom.

TWEET TWEET got CAM’s ball after a Panthers’ TD.

COMPLETE Danielle Tadych graduated with her brother during the College of Agriculture’s fall 2015 commencement ceremony.

FACEBOOK SOARED with Spirit in Colorado.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TODD VAN EMST

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