University of Northern Iowa

C N S  C o n n e c t i o n s   
Newsletter of the UNI College of Natural Sciences
Winter 2006-07

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1930s
Emmett Polder, BA '37, a retired Loras College professor, is the author of three books: North Fork Nostalgia about Iowa frontier history, Farm Boy Memories about the ecological significance of various physical features of the Cedar Falls-area environment, and Mammals of Iowa, an illustrated description of 75 mammals.

Dr. Walter E. Ditzler, BS '38, and his wife are retired and living in Corona de Tucson, AZ.

1940s
Herschel H. Slater, BA '41, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, is a meteorologist and newspaper columnist for the Chapel Hill (NC) News and lives in a retirement community.

Clarence E. Westphal, BA '47, retired after 33 years in mortgage banking, which followed 10 years of teaching and secondary school administration. He enjoys staying in touch with former students and last summer attended the 55th reunion of a high school class at West Liberty, where he was principal from 1949-52. He retired in '87 and has lived in Omaha for the past 46 years.

1950s
Arlene Ritchey, BA '50, moved from Fountain, CO, where her husband, Dick, was chief of police for 10 years, to Cottonwood, AZ, in '02. In the past few years they have traveled extensively by RV to Canada, Alaska, Mexico, Guatemala and in the U.S. They have taken cruises to the Panama Canal, Hawaii, Antarctica and the Chilean fjords.

Bill D. Page, BA '51, PhD, received the Muskegon (MI) Community Solidarity, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Drum Major Award" for '06. The award was given to the retired superintendent of schools for his leadership in the community and commitment to ideals that advance mutual respect and promote justice, peace, racial equality, service and economic opportunity.

Dave Koos, BA '59, was inducted into the Iowa Association of Track Coaches and Iowa Association of Track Officials Hall of Fame in December of '05. He taught and coached in various Iowa high schools, as well as Simpson College, from 1959-72, began his officiating career in '69, working high school and college track, football, basketball and baseball. He has been a Drake Relays official and a State Track Meet official since '72 and was inducted into the Drake Relays Wall of Honor in '04. He has served as chief umpire at the state meets since '99. Koos and his wife of 44 years, Kay, spend spring and summer in Harlan and fall and winter in Chandler, AZ. They have two sons, Tom and Todd, and four grandchildren.

1960s
Gordon W. Franck, BA '61, retired from John Deere Product Engineering Center (PEC) after 30 years of work in drafting and engineering. His last position was as a designer in current tractor engineering. Before joining the PEC, he taught industrial arts drawing and woodworking in the public schools for two years. He enjoys trout fishing at Gunnison, CO.

Larry Nelson, BA '63, retired from teaching after 35 years. His last position was as a biology professor at Waldorf College. He is now a bookseller on Amazon.com.

John Koser, BA '64, is an adjunct faculty member in physics, teacher education at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, where he teaches general physics and astronomy and supervises student teachers.

Dennis C. Vrba, BA '66, MA '70, retired in December 2003 after 33 years in education, the last 15 as natural science division chair at NIACC in Mason City. He enjoys many community, church and family activities, as well as travel with his wife Jeanne. They have three grandsons. He is also active in expanding a growing Internet business in the Midwest.

1970s
Lewis Naylor, MA '70, retired from Black & Veatch in July '06 and moved from Baltimore, MD, to Goshen, IN, where he was born. He spends his time remodeling a 100-year-old house, doing environmental consulting and traveling with his wife Ann.

Jan (Schnor) Dubbeld (BA '71, MA '73), science department chair and classroom teacher at Huntington (IN) North High School, has presented twice at the Hoosier Association of Science Teachers, Inc. state convention on a student-driven cross-curricular energy project. Now in her 13th year of teaching, she says that Dr. Wayne Anderson is still an inspiration to her after 35 years.

1980s
Jill DeAnn (Beyer) Niehaus, BA '86, MA '92, teaches statistics (college credit) and geometry at Southeast Polk High School. She recently upgraded her teaching certificate to the master educator level. This is her 20th year of teaching high school or college mathematics.

1990s
Dan Glascock, BA '90, BA '96, is a family practice physician at Cedarloo Family Practice in Cedar Falls, and Stacy (Miller) Glascock, BA '91, BA '96, is a physician assistant. Their second daughter, Abby Kate, was born 9/05.

Chad Schweitzer, BA '90, worked on the development and manufacturing scale up of Allegra-D 24 hour for Sanofi Aventis July '05-December '05 as the lead manufacturing leader. In December '05 he joined PRA International as a manager of clinical data management. He manages pharmaceutical research data from phase I through phase IV of the FDA approval process for multiple pharmaceutical companies.

Raj Desai, DIT '91, was the founding faculty member of the industrial technology program at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and was selected to be the coordinator of the program in '04.

Brian Lammers, BA '91, who is serving his 15th year in county conservation in Iowa, was promoted to executive director of the Hamilton County Conservation Board in October '05. He was previously parks operations officer for Hamilton County.

Michelle (Kuhn) Robinson, BA '93, is a medical technologist at Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, SD.

Allison (Hanneman) Staudt, BA '93, is a sales representative for Homecare Medical Supply in Charles City. She and her husband Dan have three children, Adam, 8, Megan, 5, and Olivia, 3.

Cindi Miller, BA '94, a software development manager with Fair Isaac Corporation, recently was transferred from Minneapolis, MN, to Emeryville, CA, in the San Francisco Bay area.

Darren Bechthold, BS '95, is a millwright, welder and pipefitter for Cedar River Paper in Cedar Rapids. He and his wife Angela have three children, Nicole, Jacob and Joshua. They live on a farm southeast of La Porte City and raise purebred Black Angus cattle and grain farm.

Dawn (Dierks) Luna, BA '95, was promoted to executive sales consultant-pharmaceutical representative at Novartis. She has been with Novartis for four years and in pharmaceuticals for 11 years. She and her husband Dan have two daughters, Elizabeth, born 1/02, and Abbygail, born 9/05. They own A+ Self-Storage, Inc.in Davenport.

Thomas Trego, BA '95, has been a product manager with Bandag, Inc., in Muscatine for 10 years.

Melissa (Nemmers) Billings, BA '96, is a doctor of optometry with Vision Park Family Eyecare in Urbandale, where she was named a partner in January '05. She was named "Young OD of the Year" for 2004-05 for the state of Iowa. She married David Billings, BA '96, in '96. Their daughter, Ashtyn, was born in July '04.

David S. Freiberg, BA '96, is the manager of Craters of the Moon National Monument for the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. He earned an MS in environmental studies from the University of Montana, Missoula, and completed seminary. He is married to Rebecca Petroch of Gooding, ID, and has a golden retriever and three horses.

Greg Hawthorne, BA '96, a dentist, has been a partner at Staniforth Calhoun Hawthorne Dental Office in Ames for four years. His wife Amy (Bryant) Hawthorne, BA '95, is a physician assistant with McFarland Clinic P.C., Department of Adult Medicine, in Ames. They have two children, Drew, born 10/01, and Ava, born 11/03.

Shawn Gehlsen, BA '97, graduated from Northwestern College of Chiropractic in April '04. He now owns and operates a private chiropractic practice in Nixa, MO.

Craig McClure, BS/BA '97, received a PhD in chemistry from the University of Michigan in '04 and is an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He lives in Hoover, AL, with his wife Leslie, assistant professor of biostatistics at UAB, and their daughter, Lillian, 3.

Sheila Wemark, BA '97, opened two chiropractic offices, in Lime Springs and Elma, IA, in October of '02 after graduating from Palmer College of Chiropractic in March of that year. She and her husband Aaron have two boys, Keagan, born 5/03, and Zane, born 11/04.

Travis J. Broell, BS '98, is a design technician with Hall and Hall Engineers in Hiawatha. He has two children, Grace McKenna, born 7/03, and Tayten Jacob, born 8/05.

Brian Hynek, BA '98, a research associate at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, gave two presentations at UNI in March on the latest research results from Mars. His research involves the geologic, geochemical, hydrologic and climatic evolution of Mars, and he is working with three of the current NASA missions on the Red Planet. Hynek received a PhD in Earth and planetary science from Washington University in '03.

2000s
Ryan M. Flaherty, BS '00, recently accepted a position as principal scientist with StellarNet Spectrometers in Tampa, FL.

Tanya Sperry, BA '00, is the math coordinator at Littleton (CO) Academy, a K-8 core knowledge charter school, where she teaches sixth through eighth grade math. She has two daughters, Sasha, 3, and Natalia, 6.

Eric Dybvig, BA '01, is an assistant athletic trainer and professor at Cornell College in Mount Vernon. He married Kelly Werkman, BA '02, and their son, Jackson, was born in '05.

Tim Pottebaum, BS '01, is an R & D chemist with Diamond Vogel Paints in Orange City.

Wade Williams, MS '01, teaches physics, chemistry and earth science at Camanche High School in Camanche.

Carrie Karvonen-Gutierrez, BA '02, is a research analyst/epidemiologist in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She graduated from the University of Michigan in '05 with a master's in public health in epidemiology/reproductive and women's health. She married Jaime Gutierrez in August '05.

Eric Murphy, BA '02, is a software engineer with Lockheed Martin in Omaha, NE. He has a Six Sigma Green Belt, which means that he has received two weeks of training in Six Sigma, an integrated approach for improving business performance.

Nicolette (Riherd) Rumney, BA '02, is a pre-algebra teacher at Discovery Middle School in Madison, AL. She gave birth to a daughter, Rebecca Ann, 7/05.

Brad Bechthold, BA '03, a supplier quality engineer at John Deere Power Systems in Waterloo, received a German Language Studies Certificate from UNI in December '05.

Jennifer Duffy, BS '03, is a programmer analyst with Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids.

Hannah Haarhues-Casey, BA '03, is a high school science teacher and head cross country coach in the Riverside Community School District in Oakland, IA. She married Adam Casey of Brisbane, Australia, in December of '04 and traveled to Australia the preceding summer.

Vanessa Hileman, BA '03, is a lab technician for quality control at Wells Blue Bunny in Le Mars.

Stacy (Felderman) Hirsch, BA '03, is a graphic designer at Weitz Sign in Dubuque. She was married Sept. 17, '05, to Jim Hirsch in Dubuque. UNI alumni in the wedding were Matt Kennedy, BA '03, Jamie Morrow, BA '04, Melissa George, BA '04, and Scott Clausen, BA '98.

Adam L. Hoefer, BA '03, is an architectural drafter with the Pella Corporation in Pella.

Matthew A. Boucher, BA '04, was awarded a master's degree in tuba performance from Indiana University in '06.

Heather M. Krueger, B.S. '05, is a first-year graduate student at the University of Michigan working toward a PhD in cellular and molecular biology.

Marriages

Steven Hauser, BA '84, married Jeanne Hindman Dec. 31, '05. They live in Marion.

Amy (Hanner) Wyant, BA '04, married Tyler Wyant on July 16, '05. They live in Cedar Rapids.

Births

Brian Hiles, BA '98, a systems analyst with State Farm Insurance, has a son, William Harold, born 2/05.

Stephanie (Michur) Fowler, BA '99, a physical therapist assistant with Genesis Medical Center in Davenport, gave birth to her first child, Gavin Christopher, 11/05.

Kristen (Barnett) Clark, BA '03, Clarksville, gave birth to her first child, Howard Lyle.

Deaths

Marion T. Carr, BA '50, Mankato, MN, died Dec. 10, '03. He earned an M.S. in guidance and counseling in '62 and a specialist degree in administration in '71, both from Mankato State University. He taught in schools in Kamrar and Strawberry Point, IA, and in Mankato, MN. He was very active in the Boy Scouts and traveled extensively. In '75, he was one of 11 teachers chosen as the first contingent of educators to travel to China after President Nixon made his breakthrough visit.