Knudson suffered a serious head injury in a recent motorcycle accident and is in intensive care at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester.

Knudson and Lee have three young children.

“House listings in the Twin Cities up 7.7 percent; sales up 5.3 percent,” Star Tribune, May 10, 2013. Opus College of Business professor Herb Tousley is quoted.

“Time to celebrate other ‘mothers,’ too,” Star Tribune, May 10, 2013. Communication and Journalism professor Carol Bruess is quoted.

“Minneapolis political upheaval signals possible major change at City Hall,” MinnPost, May 13, 2013. Communication and Journalism professor Kevin Sauter is quoted.

“Good Question: How Often Are Women Taking Their Husbands’ Names?” WCCO, May 15, 2013. Communication and Journalism professor Carol Bruess is quoted.

“Obituary: Robert Cherry Foy II, professor at University of St. Thomas in St. Paul,” Star Tribune, May 16, 2013.

“Friday Opinuendo: Minnesota: On business ethics, memorials, and more,” Pioneer Press, May 17, 2013. The Center for Ethical Business Cultures is mentioned.

“Youth sports experts answer viewer questions,” KARE 11, May 17, 2013. Head men’s basketball coach and Psychology professor John Tauer is quoted.

“Parents Express Concerns about Day Care Unionization Costs,” KSTP, May 17, 2013. Finance professor Dave Vang is quoted.

“The Vatican’s Rebirth in the Face of Scandal,” Huffington Post, May 17, 2013. Theology professor Massimo Faggioli is featured.

“Higher sales, hiring and spending signal robust business optimism,” Star Tribune, May 17, 2013. Finance professor Dave Vang is quoted.

“Foes of Minnesota’s same-sex marriage law don’t see way to block it,” Star Tribune, May 18, 2013. School of Law professor Tom Berg is quoted.

“Minnesota: Don’t cherry-pick: be real about the effects of higher taxes,” Pioneer Press, May 18, 2013. Commentary by Finance professor John Spry.

“Heartland Institute wastes real scientists’ time – yet again,” The Guardian, May 20, 2013. Commentary by Engineering professor John Abraham.

“Christians Must Confront Scientific Illiteracy,” Huffington Post, May 21, 2013. Commentary by School of Law professor Charles Reid.

“Extended interview with St. Thomas Geologist about gravel slide,” KARE 11, May 22, 2013. Environmental Science program director Tom Hickson is featured.

“If You Build It, Who Will Come?” Washington City Paper, May 22, 2013. Opus College of Business professor Charles “Mel” Gray is mentioned.

“MALL OF AMERICA: Does bigger mean better?” KMSP, May 22, 2013. Opus College of Business professor Dave Brennan is quoted.

“Disproving science when it comes to an afterlife,” The Catholic Register, May 22, 2013. Theology professor Terence Nichols is mentioned.

Evon, 91, died Tuesday, May 21, at her residence in Apple Valley at Seasons Care Center. A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at Czapleweski Funeral Home in Hayfield, Minn.

Dr. Ameeta Jaiswal-Dale.

Dr. Ameeta Jaiswal-Dale, Finance Department, Opus College of Business, is the author of “Retrieving Financial Information in XBRL: Next Generation EDGAR,” which she presented at the American Accounting Association Mid Atlantic Regional annual meeting, held in April in New Jersey.

Dr. John Wendt

Dr. John Wendt, Ethics and Business Law Department, Opus College of Business, is the author of an article titled “The Road to the London 2012 Olympic Games: ‘The Selection Games,’” which has been accepted for publication by the Entertainment & Sports Lawyer. Wendt also presented “Doping and the Competitive Athlete” at the Fairview 2013 Current Concepts in Sports Medicine: “Overhead Athletic Injuries: Safe to Pitch or Throwing Caution to the Wind?”

Huber met recently with Dr. Julie Sullivan, president-elect, and agreed to remain for another year before ending an association with St. Thomas that began as a graduate student and continued with roles as a professor and administrator for more than two decades.

“I want to thank Sue for her exceptional service to the university,” said Father Dennis Dease, president, who appointed her executive vice president and chief academic officer on an interim basis in June 2008 and on a permanent basis the following April. “She has performed with distinction in every position she has held, and she has been a great leader and collaborator on so many projects.”

“I am pleased and grateful that Sue will remain with St. Thomas for another academic year,” said Sullivan, who will succeed Dease as president when he retires June 30. “Continuity is necessary in a position as critical as chief academic officer, especially with issues such as our accreditation visit this fall. It’s important that Sue is involved in those issues.”

Sullivan said she will launch a national search this fall for Huber’s replacement.

Huber said she will retire with mixed emotions because she has loved each of the faculty and administrative positions that she has held at St. Thomas since 1992.

“I have never been bored at work, and that’s because St. Thomas is such a dynamic institution,” she said. I can’t imagine having a more satisfying career. This is a stimulating educational community, and I will always treasure the time I have spent in the classroom with students and outside of the classroom engaged with colleagues in efforts to improve our programs and our learning environment.”

Huber joined the St. Thomas community as a graduate student and earned two degrees: a master’s in curriculum and instruction and a doctorate in educational leadership. Her bachelor’s degree in Latin and English is from the former College of St. Teresa in Winona.

She taught English in Burnsville and Roseville public schools and English as a Second Language at Hamline University before she moved to St. Andrew’s Catholic School in St. Paul as an English teacher and then principal. She was dean of continuing education and special programs at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota before joining the St. Thomas School of Education faculty.

She served as chair of the Teacher Education Department and was associate dean of the School of Education before she was appointed interim dean in 2006. She became the first dean of the College of Applied Professional Studies in 2007 after a decision to bring the School of Education and the Graduate School of Professional Psychology into the new college (since renamed the College of Education, Learning and Counseling).

Huber’s professional appointments include service on the boards of Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice, and the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at St. Thomas and St. John’s University. She is a board member at Risen Christ School in Minneapolis and a former board member of the Convent of the Visitation School in Mendota Heights.

“I’ve always felt that racing on the bike is a microcosm of life. There are the joys and the tragedies and the pain and the elation, and sometimes you just have to get back on the saddle.”

~ John Barron

John Barron, 53, has been on a bicycle (or tricycle) most of his life – from the time he was a lad of 4 scooting around on his tricycle on the sidewalks of St. Louis Park to entering local road races as an adult to competing at the velodrome at the National Sports Center in Blaine.

He no longer races, but he’s back on the saddle as team manager of a female collegiate all-star bicycle racing team that will compete at the Nature Valley Grand Prix, which is held annually during June in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

From trike to racing bike

An older brother raced and influenced him to ride “at a higher level.”

“He fixed up a bike for me and turned it into a racing bike,” Barron said in a recent interview. “He showed me how to ride a light, fast, skinny-tire bike, and he noticed that I was pretty good on the bike.”

The coaching he received from his brother was informal – such as how to position himself on the bike, and he offered this advice: “Just go fast.”

John Barron, about 4 years old, on the saddle and ready to ride.

Barron, director of St. Thomas’ Service Center, bought a used racing bike in 1988 and he began to compete. “My first race was on a course in the Minnetonka area, and it was fun. Racing is hard and it hurts, but it’s fun, too,” Barron said.

After some 100 races during a 13-year span, he stopped racing and became a Level One coach, USA Cycling’s highest certification level.

“I took the classes mostly for fun but also to work with junior racers and do some casual coaching. And then I got the opportunity to manage a professional team for the Nature Valley Grand Prix in 2004. … The team wasn’t able to bring its manager, so I was the interim manager and I did a lot of the logistics and that kind of thing,” Barron said. “That was my introduction to managing a professional team at a big professional race. I had a lot fun with that, and I did that for three years in a row.”

In 2007 he was asked to help form and manage a female collegiate all-star bicycle racing team to race at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. This June will be his seventh year managing the Kowalski’s Markets Collegiate All-Stars, the team’s official title.

The Nature Valley Grand Prix, part of the Nature Valley Bicycle Festival (June 6-16), will feature six races over five days, June 12-16. The first race – the 7.7-mile St. Paul Riverfront Time Trial – will roll past the University of St. Thomas from 8:30 a.m. until about noon Wednesday, June 12, on Mississippi River Boulevard; the start line and finish line of this “race of truth” will be located just south of the Ford Bridge. Other stages of the grand prix will be held in Cannon Falls, Minneapolis and Stillwater, Minn., and Menomonie, Wis. St. Paul also will be host to a second race on June 12, the St. Paul Downtown Criterium, with races starting at 6:15 p.m.

The all-stars

Six all-stars are selected each year to compete in the grand prix based on how they finished in the USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships, which was held May 3-5 this year in Ogden, Utah. The goal of the program, Barron said, is “to identify otherwise relatively invisible collegiate student-athletes who are on the bike – identify them and give them an opportunity to race at the highest level.”

John Barron raced for 13 years, which included a lot of races on the velodrome oval at the National Sports Center in Blaine.

“These young women are exceptional,” he added. “They are student-athletes so they have to figure out how to manage their time and their studies as well as an incredible number of hours of training on the bike.”

Thirteen women in the past six years have received pro contracts. This year’s team members hail from Vermont, California, Massachusetts and Colorado.

“My job is primarily logistics,” Barron said. “Getting them here and creating an environment where all they have to worry about is getting on their bikes and racing. … It gets better and better every year, but we’ve got a real nice package going where it all just seems to work. Because my support staff and, indeed, the people who make this very successful race happen, are all volunteers, my job is really to make sure that everybody has fun, because these volunteers don’t do it for the pay, they do it for a chance to give back to racing and to have fun.”

His duties include working with the media, coordinating with USA Cycling, working with the racers’ coaches, and arranging for housing during the grand prix and also a three-day training camp in Wisconsin that he hosts before the start of the series. His team’s support staff includes a bike mechanic, a massage therapist and others who, like Barron, all raced at one time.

“Being a part of the all-star team is a chance to be a part of racing without being wheel-to-wheel. … What I get out of it is the satisfaction of sharing my knowledge and experience with others,” Barron said.

Microcosm of life

Racing, like life, can be loaded with disappointment. Often you don’t win the race. No one likes to lose, but we learn, get back on the saddle and ride forward, and we hope there is joy and elation along the way.

In the various grand prix stages, the all-stars typically are overmatched by older, more experienced elite and professional racers; still, as Barron points out, “They usually come away saying it was one of the funnest things they’ve ever done. … My racers usually come away from this week of racing saying it was just a fantastic experience. Fun. Filled with learning. Filled with meeting new people. Meeting coaches and sponsors from around the country, and traveling and connecting with people in a different part of the country – these are all opportunities.”

The bike festival also is an opportunity to raise funds for Children’s Lighthouse of Minnesota, the festival’s 2013 benefiting charity. According to the festival’s website, the nonprofit “has been working since 2009 to create the first residential children’s hospice and respite care home in the Twin Cities. The home will provide palliative care for children with conditions not responsive to curative care.”

In bicycle racing, as in life, win or lose you get back on the saddle and ride again – and sometimes it’s for those who can’t.

Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, 
And say my glory was I had such friends.

I have always loved those words, which are the closing two lines of the poem, “The Municipal Gallery Revisited,” and as I approach my final weeks as president of the University of St. Thomas I cannot find a more appropriate valedictory in thanking this community.

I find it fitting to quote Yeats, considering that he counts among the dozens of Irish poets who have visited our campus over our 128 years. He appeared on a bitterly cold  January day in 1904 to give a St. Paul Seminary lecture to what one newsletter called “a large and cultured audience.”

I also borrowed Yeats’ words about friendship when I informed the faculty last May of my plans to retire, and in an effort to add some levity to the situation I quoted a  second Yeats observation: “Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” The line drew welcome laughter, and I said it could be seen as even inspirational. “I know there have been days that were difficult as well as days that were good,” I told the faculty. “It’s the kind of existential resignation captured in the more homespun American proverb, ‘Some days you’re the bug; some days you’re the windshield.’” And there was more laughter!

In all seriousness, my gratitude today knows no bounds, and for good reason. Any success that I have enjoyed during my 22 years as president has been directly the result of generous, unselfish and heroic work by you – our faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni and benefactors. Or, as I like to say when I address a gathering, our “friends all.”

You also have been kind beyond description – to me and to St. Thomas. I will forever carry fond memories of those kindnesses, which I know were borne out of a genuine desire to make this a better university and to help us provide the best possible education for our students. The lengths to which you go to provide assistance astound me time and time again, almost to the point that it would be easy to take you for granted. I hope I never have done so.

As you know, I am fond of quoting our mission statement, which so perfectly captures what we attempt to do – to educate students “to be morally responsible leaders who think critically, act wisely, and work skillfully to advance the common good.” I take comfort in knowing how those words unite us as we seek to live up to one more Yeats maxim: that “education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire” – and I know they will motivate me in the years ahead.

I will see you around campus!

Read more from St. Thomas Magazine.

The President’s Staff under Father Dennis Dease endorsed the tobacco-free concept at its May 6 meeting, and a committee will be appointed to work out an implementation plan in conjunction with smoking cessation programs before returning to the President’s Staff this fall for final approval. The policy would affect the St. Paul and Minneapolis campuses but not the Rome campus or the Gainey Conference Center in Owatonna.

More than 30 Minnesota colleges and universities already have tobacco bans. Nationwide, 700 are tobacco free and more than 1,000 are smoke free.

“Research shows that having a tobacco-free campus literally changes the behavior of students,” said Dr. Jane Canney, vice president for student affairs. “They smoke less and have a better understanding of the health and wellness aspects of their lives, and they come to value a tobacco-free environment.”

In the St. Thomas policy, “tobacco” is defined as any lighted cigarette, cigar, pipe, clove cigarette, hookah smoked products, electronic cigarettes and smokeless tobacco in any form. Promotion, sale or distribution of tobacco products and merchandise, including any items carrying tobacco logos, will be prohibited on campus or at any university-sponsored events.

“Compliance with this policy will depend upon the cooperation of all faculty, staff and students as well as campus visitors,” states a policy proposal considered by the President’s Staff. “The university will develop training programs to assist and prepare students and employees to help one another honor the tobacco-free environment that this policy supports.”

Proposal came from students

In the fall semester of 2010, Mike Orth, then president of the sophomore class and until recently president of the Undergraduate Student Government, approached St. Thomas leadership about ways to reduce tobacco use on campus.

“Mike took a real leadership role on the issue,” Canney said. “He formed a USG Tobacco Policy Review Committee during the 2010-2011 academic year, which conducted two student surveys and did thorough research. They involved a lot of students, and they concluded that they wanted to advocate for a tobacco-free campus.”

Orth decided to become involved because he knew the issue would become “incredibly important” for the St. Thomas community. Over time, he became convinced it made sense for St. Thomas to be tobacco free.

“A tobacco-free campus means two things,” he said. “First, that our university offers a safe and healthy place for students, faculty and staff to work, attend class and live. Second, that St. Thomas encourages the entire community to make healthy choices. That has an especially profound impact on students who are developing habits for the rest of their lives.”

Through the surveys and interviews, the USG committee became more familiar with the pros and cons of limited or no tobacco consumption on campus. Supporters objected to inhaling second-hand smoke and believed limits or a ban would promote healthy practices for people to follow for the rest of their lives, including in smoke-free work places. Opponents said a ban would infringe on their personal freedoms and would create safety concerns and littering problems by forcing people to smoke on public property, such as sidewalks, streets and the Summit Avenue median.

“There are strong opinions on both sides of the issue,” Orth said. “A change like this takes time, and we have been careful to include every opinion in the discussion.”

Tobacco-Free Campus work group formed

Following the Undergraduate Student Government recommendation in the fall of 2011, a Tobacco-Free Campus work group was formed. It included representation from faculty, students, exempt staff and non-exempt staff. After 18 months of consultation and research, the work group developed a draft tobacco free campus policy proposal.

This spring, members of the workgroup made nearly 20 presentations to committees and organizations across campus, discussing the proposal and assuring each constituency that it would be involved in future discussions regarding implementation of the policy once it was approved.

“I believe we are ready to move forward as an educational institution and not only become a tobacco-free campus,” Orth said, “but also utilize this opportunity to educate our students, faculty, and staff about living healthier lives.”

Among those participating on the Tobacco Free Campus work group is Dr. Jill Manske, a biology professor who completed a master’s degree in public health at the University of Minnesota last year. Manske and Dr. Jolynn Gardner of the Health and Human Performance Department (also a work group member) are developing tools to assess the attitudes and tobacco use before and after the ban.

Manske said she became involved in the work group a year ago after Canney asked her if she would be interested in serving as faculty representative. She said yes because of its origin as a student-generated initiative.

“It represents the type of student/grass-root ‘working for the common good’ that we hope to inspire in our students,” said Manske, who teaches a course in women’s health. “I also see this as an important women’s health issue. More men than women smoke, but smoking among college-age women has increased since the 1980s for a variety of reasons, including weight control and media exposure.”

Manske cited a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General’s report that women’s death rates due to lung cancer, a disease primarily caused by cigarette smoking, have increased 600 percent since 1950 and that “smoking-related disease among women is full-blown epidemic.”

Added Manske: “I think that anything we can do to counter these social pressures, and to introduce a different culture around tobacco use, is important.”

U of M will have smoking ban

The University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus is the most recent to announce a ban – at least a smoking ban, that is. The University Senate, made up of faculty, students and staff, voted May 2 in favor of a smoking ban and President Eric Kaler concurred, telling the Star Tribune: “A tobacco-free campus has become an expectation … rather than an innovation. It’s about time for us.” The ban could begin in the fall of 2014, and in the meantime officials will determine details such as whether the ban will include chewing tobacco.

Two other U of M campuses already have bans – tobacco in Crookston and smoking in Duluth. Private colleges with tobacco bans are Bethel, Northwestern, St. Catherine and St. Scholastica, and other major public institutions include state universities in Bemidji, Mankato, Marshall, Moorhead, St. Cloud and Winona.

The program featured much laughter, some tears, two sustained standing ovations, kind words, and a chance to see Dease cover his distinguished gray hair with a Harley Davidson “do-rag,” complete with bright orange flames.

Speaking at the event were Father John Malone, vice president for mission, and Archbishop Harry Flynn, chair of the university’s board for the past 18 years.

Flynn, also sporting a Harley cap at the podium, commented on Malone’s string of jokes and stories that peppered the program. “When Father Malone was speaking, I was wishing this was six years ago and I was still in office … so I could can him.”

Father John Malone, left, cracks a joke as Archbishop Emeritus Harry Flynn and Father Dease look on.

The archbishop turned serious and described this as a bittersweet time for the university. “We’ve all grown with him,” he said of Dease, who will retire at the end of June after 22 years as the university’s president.

“The hardest job in the world is being president of a Catholic university,” he said. “The president is responsible to so many constituents … students, faculty, the board, alumni and to the local bishop. It is a delicate balance, and Father Dease has done it brilliantly.”

Flynn said there are two types of leaders. One is the “instrumentalist” who is focused primarily on getting the job done. The other is the “expressive leader” who accomplishes tasks through encouragement, through listening, by making sure the morale is high and who leads others to work toward goals. “Those two forms of leaders landed in one person, Father Dease. He has been a patient, patient leader … and how important that is.

“I always describe Father Dease as steel wrapped in velvet. He smiles when he asks you for something.”

There are stories behind the Harley do-rags and the Groucho glasses.

Years ago, Dr. Ron Bennett, former dean of the School of Engineering, gave Dease a piggy-bank for his office desk. It was inscribed, “My Harley Fund,” and Dease often joked that he planned to buy a Harley motorcycle when he retired. At the start of the program, Malone and Dease donned their do-rags and the archbishop put on a more dignified Harley beret.

The origins of the Groucho glasses go back two years, to the fall faculty convocation. At the annual gathering, Dease put on a pair of Groucho glasses while commenting on a widely reported controversy involving British climate-change skeptic Lord Christopher Monkton and St. Thomas engineering professor and climate-change expert Dr. John Abraham. It was in the course of the controversy that Monkton called Dease a “creep of a president.”

As Malone recounted the story Friday afternoon, members of the audience took their Groucho glasses out of hiding and put them on.

Staff and faculty applaud Father Dease at a sendoff celebration.

“I thought a nice thing about getting old is you couldn’t be shocked anymore,” Dease said when he took the podium. “I was wrong. I never believed I’d be up here with an archbishop in a Harley hat and me in a do-rag.”

Dease’s remarks were short. “I don’t have a speech. I want to say thanks to all faculty and staff for making the St. Thomas culture so really, really special … and it’s hard to look out and say that with everyone wearing Groucho glasses.”

And at that, the audience rose and gave him a long standing ovation.

Leave a Farewell Note for Father Dennis Dease

If you were unable to attend the faculty and staff farewell celebration for St. Thomas President Father Dennis Dease, you can still offer your best wishes to him by signing a memory book that will be given to him when he retires on June 30. Stop by Aquinas Hall Room 102 to sign the book through Friday, May 31. The first 100 signers will receive commemorative Groucho glasses.

George Baboila

George Baboila, School of Social Work; Virgil Wiebe, School of Law; and Jennifer Wright, School of Law, presented on “Teaching Interprofessional Ethics,” April 30, to a packed audience at the American Association of Law Schools annual clinical Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Hans Gustafson

Dr. Hans Gustafson, Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning, and Theology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, wrote a chapter, titled “Place, Spiritual Anthropology, and Sacramentality in Merton’s Later Years,” for the forthcoming book The Merton Annual: Studies in Culture, Spirituality, and Social Concerns, Volume 25 (David Belcastro and Joseph Raab, eds. Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2013, pp. 74-90).

Mark Jensen, University Relations, has a solo exhibition of selected prints from his North Shore Portfolio, titled “Rocks, Trees, and Moss,” hanging this month at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, located on Lowry Hill in Minneapolis. This portfolio is comprised of color photographs taken with a large format view camera along the North Shore of Lake Superior. The original images were created using 4×5 color transparency film. This is the first exhibit of Jensen’s color work in Minneapolis. Jensen also will display a portrait from the National Endowment for the Humanities-funded “Minneapolis – Portrait of a  Lifestyle” and others commissioned by the Minnesota Historical Society for its “Minnesota 2000 Documentary Photography Project” at Art-a-Whirl the third week in May.

Dr. Meg Wilkes Karraker

Dr. Meg Wilkes Karraker, Sociology and Criminal Justice Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is editor of The Other People: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Migration  (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

Contributors include specialists in migration studies from anthopology, criminal justice, family studies, legal studies, nursing, political science, social welfare, sociology and women’s studies. The authors have lived experience in African, Australian, Canadian, German, Hmong, Korean, Middle Eastern and United Kingdom cultures. They hold positions at universities in Australia, Canada and across the United States, and include the deputy head of the University of Southern Queensland Law School, Australia, and the director of the Asylum and Refugee Law Clinic at Pepperdine University School of Law.

Karraker wrote the introductory chapter “Global Migration in the Twenty-first Century.” Jennifer Blank (B.A. Sociology, Criminal Justice, University of St. Thomas; M.A. criminology, Middlesex University) is the author of “Human Trafficking, Migration, and Gender: An Interdisciplinary Approach,” based on her interviews with men engaged in sex trafficking in London. Dr. Sue Smith-Cunnien, Sociology and Criminal Justice Department, contributed “Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Nation): Zimbabweans in South Africa,” based on her work in those societies. Jan Orf, UST Libraries, and Mathew Vicknair, sociology and economics major, co-wrote an appendix, “Resources for Research on Global Migration.”

The cover, by award-winning Twin Cities photographer Wing Young Huie, depicts an emigrant from Sudan awaiting the bus to adult education classes on a snowy January morning in St. Paul, Minn. The book is dedicated to that person.

Dr. John Wendt

Dr. John Wendt, Department of Ethics and Business Law, Opus College of Business, co-presented “I Can Do This! Where is the Bottom?: An Analysis of Risk Management Plans for Swimmers in Triathlons” with Dean John Miller of Troy University and Professor Gina A. Pauline of Syracuse University at the 26th Annual Conference on Sport, Physical Activity, Recreation and Law.  Wendt and Miller also co-presented “Risk Communication Management of Concussions in High School Football, Who Knew?” at the conference.

Students and faculty from the Chemistry Department presented their research at the 245th American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition, held April 7-11 in New Orleans, La. Student presenters, their projects and their research advisers were: Cole Johnson, “Computational Analysis of Molecular Fluoroquinolone using GAMESS” (student of Dr. Joseph Brom); Wendy Consoer, “Characterization of Ozonation Products for the Macrolide Antibiotic Roxithromycin,” Sam Jensen, “Assessing Estrogenic and Androgenic Activity of UV Filter Photoproducts,” and Maia Moffatt, “Effects of Ozonation on the Antibacterial Activity of the Macrolide Roxithromycin” (students of Dr.  Kristine H. Wammer); Mark Schwerkoske, “Novel Antimalarial Compounds,” Tommy Gentle, “Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Isoluminol Derivatives,” Sam Fish, “Kinetics of Hindered Amine and Isocyanates Reactions,” Olga Zamulko, “Synthesis of a Topologically Designed Novel Antibiotic,” Mark Frommelt, “Synthesis of a Near Infrared Absorbing Photochrome,” Suzanne Mages, “Tunable Radiopaque Polymers,” Becca Kummer, “Synthesis of a Novel Antibacterial Compound,” Sarah Larson, “A Novel Route to N-Alkylated Benzimidazoles,” and Brooke Capelle, “Synthesis of Novel Thermochromic Compounds” (students of Dr.  J. Thomas Ippoliti); Jenna Johnson, “Intermolecular Contacts Involving Halogen Atoms in the Solid-State Structures of Some bis-Benzylideneanilines” (student of Dr. William Ojala); Bryan Haugen, “Synthetic Pathway of Symmetrical Triazole-based N-Heterocyclic Carbenes,” and Kayla Ryan, “Toward Group Two Metal Alkoxides and Aryloxides using Hydrothermal Synthesis” (students of Dr. Marites A. Guino-o); Amber R. Schoenecker, “Characterization of Glycosaminoglycans and Their Interactions with TAT Peptide to Increase Drug Specificity,” Kyle Chamberlain, ‪”Quantitative Determination of DNA Affinity for PEGylated PAMAM Dendrimer Gene Delivery Vehicles,” Danielle Francen, ‪”Tat Peptide-Mediated Gene Delivery: Complex Formation and Interaction with Cell-Surface Glycosaminoglycans,” and Kristin J. Braden, “Charge Density and Stereochemistry Affect the Interaction of PAMAM Dendrimer with Glycosaminoglycans” (students of Dr. Lisa E. Prevette); Christina Rozeske, “Hydroboration as a Route to Cyclic Boranes” (student of Dr.  Eric Fort); Zach Henseler, “Characterization of Cationic DNA Transfection Agents Binding to Supramolecular G-DNA” (student of Dr. Tom Marsh).

Faculty presenting talks were Dr.  J. Thomas Ippoliti, Chemistry Department, College of Arts and Sciences, “Utilizing Undergraduate Research Results in Organic Spectroscopy,” and Dr. Eric Fort, Chemistry Department, “Improving Routes to Azaborine Containing Molecules.” Faculty presenting posters were Dr.  Joseph Brom, Chemistry Department, “Quantum Interference: How To Measure the Wavelength of a Particle,” and Dr. Lisa Prevette, Chemistry Department, “Quantifying the Interaction of Tat Peptide and Cell-Surface Glycosaminoglycans.”

Ten faculty and one library staff member presented various aspects of their work with the UST Writing Across the Curriculum program held April 4 and 5 at the Minnesota Writing and English Conference at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn.

Supporting Student Writing Across the Curriculum 1: Teaching Revision, Scaffolding Assignments, and Revising ESL Assignment Design
• Dr. Lon Otto (English)
• Dr. Michael Degnan (Philosophy)
• Dr. Juan Li (English)

Supporting Student Writing Across the Curriculum 2: Writing as a Means of Learning Course Content
• Dr. Stephanie Grimm (Accounting)
• Dr. Colin Martin (Biology)
• Dr. Kevin Henderson (Management)

Supporting Student Writing Across the Curriculum 3: Using Technology and Partnering with Librarians to Enhance Student Learning
• Ms. Talia Nadir (Research and Instruction Librarian)
• Dr. Debra Petersen (Communication and Journalism)
• Dr. Daniel Tight (Spanish)
• Dr. Andrea Nesmith (School of Social Work)

“Transformation from Within: Creating a Culture of Writing at the University of St. Thomas”
• Dr. Erika Scheurer (WAC director, English)

During his 1973-2001 tenure at St. Thomas, Foy taught British literature and was best known for teaching Shakespeare. He also served as chair of the English Department from 1973-1976, and as the founding director of the Center for Faculty Development from 1981-1987.

After graduating in 1955 from Emory University in Atlanta, he served as a navigator/radar observer in the U.S. Air Force, 1956-1959, and in the Minnesota Air National Guard, 1959-1961. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in English (Latin minor) at the University of Minnesota in 1973.

He is survived by daughters Malinda Foy and Elizabeth Foy Bergman, and grandchildren Helena and William Bergman. His wife of 42 years, Nancy Burkitt Foy, died in 2002.

On campus: Dr. Robert (Rob) C. Foy II.

Elizabeth remembers her father having two great passions for things (other than people) in his life – his garden and drama – specifically Shakespeare: “While his passions wandered and expanded – at the end those two things remained core to who he was.

“As to his garden, there were many hand-drawn plans for the garden floating around the house. He was a quasi-trained landscape architect as he dropped out of college for a semester to study the subject, reflecting an interest in plants and design he had had since childhood. But after one semester he clearly knew that his greatest satisfaction was in academia. His garden plans all featured ‘the grass circle,’ which was the centerpiece of the garden. As a child it really frustrated me that we were not allowed to walk on it. I mean – it was just grass! Only as an adult have I really come to understand the beautiful geometric simplicity it represented. The best time to talk with him was when he was gardening. His hands were busy – but his mind free. I can remember long talks, mostly about politics and government with him while he planted.”

“Over the years, he had many young helpers beyond me and my sister – they came away knowing a lot more about Shakespeare, gardening, and landscape architecture, and I think they always knew they had found a friend and mentor,” Malinda commented.

“Drama was his other consistent passion,” Elizabeth continued. “We went to the theater a lot. I might have been 6 when I sat through my first Shakespearean play. I am not sure when exactly I started to understand them or more importantly appreciate them – but I remain an active and appreciative theater goer. There would always be a lecture before the show. First explaining the plot and then detailing how the play should really be done. Phrases such as ‘if the director really understands Shakespeare …’ were common. Most memorable was his discussion of the levels. He would say, ‘On one level this is a play about love, but on another level – which meant a deeper one – it is about loss of identity.’ There were always three levels.

“My sister and I would jokingly ask him to tell us about the levels before he started on this topic, and he would be delighted we were so interested. It took him a while to realize that his sweet girls had become snotty teenagers. I sometimes find myself talking about the levels after I see a play.”

“But more than anything, my father and mother encouraged me and my sister to find our potential, believe in ourselves, and serve our communities,” Malinda summarized.

Dr. Michael Jordan, English Department, describes Foy as “an engaged teacher with far-reaching intellectual interests that rendered him well suited to be the founding director of the Faculty Development program at St. Thomas, a position he first held the year I arrived here in 1982. He was also one of the collaborators for a program at St. Thomas called ‘Texts and Traditions’ that for a short while brought together core courses in English and theology in an integrated sequence. Rob brought intellectual spark and wit to every conversation, and was especially renowned for his Shakespeare course.

“I regarded Rob as something of a mentor during my first years at St. Thomas, and he graciously introduced me to the complex reality of the institution while assuring me that there were good opportunities here for true interdisciplinary learning. The sound of his laughter during hallway conversations was a regular feature of life in the English Department. In the years following his retirement, I would encounter him from time to time at the theater or at a classical music concert or in the hardware store, and it was evident that he never lost the endless love of learning that seemed always to be brimming in him.”

Being a student of Foy’s also made for interesting experiences. Brian Brown ’98 M.A, executive director of media and publications in University Relations, recalls taking a couple of master’s in English classes with him in the 1990s, including an independent study one summer on the influence of jazz on the Beat poets:

”Once a week I would bike over to Rob’s house near Macalester and we would talk for hours – rarely on topic, unless I forced the issue. Rob was passionate about so many things – Shakespeare, gardening, travel. Eventually, his beloved wife, Nancy, would step out onto the porch with homemade iced tea and cookies. Rob would turn to me – often midsentence – and say, ‘Well, that’s enough of that. Let’s eat something.’

“Rob frequently embodied the ‘absent-minded professor’ stereotype. I remember stopping by his office at 44 North Cleveland once when he was particularly distracted. I asked him what was wrong, and he said he rode his brand-new bike to campus and someone stole it. ‘I leaned it up against the tree outside and when I went back out a few hours later it was gone!’”

Although Foy was particularly fond of Shakespeare, it wasn’t all Shakespeare all the time in class. Kelly Engebretson ’99 M.A., a writer and editor in University Relations, recalls this unique Shakespeare class break: “Dr. Foy unwittingly introduced me to yoga during his Shakespeare class when I was a graduate student in 1997. He asked a friend of his – an instructor at a nearby yoga studio – to lead a 15-minute yoga session during the break in our three-hour evening class. Every week she showed up to lead us through a series of sun salutations and the like. Those of us who didn’t smoke would participate, and we loved it. I can still picture Dr. Foy, barefoot and jolly, easing into ‘Downward Dog’ like it was no trouble at all.”

Foy was among 25 noted and popular professors whose faces were featured in caricatures drawn by John Kascht ’83 on the cover of the 1981 Aquinas yearbook, along with caricatures of the university’s president, provost and Vice President Walter Mondale.

A colleague, Dr. Lon Otto, describes Foy as a “brilliant scholar, working always on a book about Shakespeare and the biblical David story, a book that never was finished but is very real and powerful to those of us who knew Rob, a book in the oral tradition, always his most natural medium, along with soil and brick and plants. He was one of the most complicated and interesting people I’ve ever known – funny and generous and deeply intelligent, passionate about what he loved, absolutely unforgettable.”

Foy was the chair of the English Department when Otto was hired at St. Thomas. “He and Nancy made me feel like a part of their family those first few years, and I will be forever grateful to have been included in that loving and intellectual and often chaotic household. Among his many other talents, Rob was a formidable landscape gardener. It was an honor and an education to scavenge brick and stone with him on demolition sites in the evenings after the workers had quit for the day, to build fences with him, to follow the ever-evolving intricacies of his richly folded city garden.”

Nancy shared Rob’s passion for gardening. Their garden was written about in both the Minneapolis and St. Paul daily newspapers, and in Highland Park’s The Villager. Titled Healing Words, The Villager story was reprinted in the fall 2005 edition of Writing in the Margins (Page 12), a publication of the English Department.

Carol Nigrelli, the author, wrote: “’It’s a great way for a mental guy to get his hands dirty,’ Foy said. The division of labor was simple: He did the work; his wife nodded her approval. ‘My wife loved the garden,’ Foy said. ‘She loved to buy plants for it. She loved to show it off. She loved to be on garden tours. But she didn’t want to get her hands dirty.’”

Their love of gardening and their advocacy for the Center for Victims of Torture resulted in the 2005 publication of Landskips, a 46-page book of Rob’s poetry about nature and gardens. He dedicated the book to his late wife: “Lover of gardens and the Center for Victims of Torture.” Proceeds from sales of the book were donated to the center.

A memorial service will be held 10 a.m. Saturday, June 1, at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in St. Paul. An open house will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, May 31, at 1671 Berkeley Ave., St. Paul. An obituary and guest book can be viewed at legacy.com.

Father Dennis Dease will retire on June 30, completing 22 years as the 14th president of the University of St. Thomas.

The St. Thomas that Dease will hand over to Dr. Julie Sullivan on July 1 is dramatically different from the St. Thomas he inherited from Monsignor Terrence Murphy, yet his desire always has been simple and forthright – to improve the quality of education and to carry out the mission.

That desire has manifested itself in many ways – in new campuses and new buildings, in a more racially and ethnically diverse student body, in a stronger faculty and staff, and in highly successful fundraising efforts.

Dease is the first to credit the entire St. Thomas community for making so many dreams come true. He speaks quietly of how “incredibly blessed” he is to be surrounded by people “who care deeply about this university and who have a deep passion for learning and helping others to learn.”

He sat down this spring to reflect on his presidency and to look ahead to the challenges that await his successor and the University of St. Thomas.

Q. Twenty-two years! Does it seem that long?

A. The first year seemed like 22 years because of the learning curve, but the last 20 years have just vaporized. It’s like if you get on a plane and don’t have anything to read, the trip takes forever. But if you have a good book, you’re there before you know it. There has been so much activity and growth here at St. Thomas that the years have just flown by.

Q. In 1991, how long – honestly, now – did you expect to be president? Are you surprised that you have served 22 years?

A. I knew the average term for a university president in the United States was about 6.5 years, and a little longer in Catholic institutions. Archbishop John Roach, our chairman at the time, asked me on the day of the board’s interview with me if I would be willing to give 10 years to the job. I said I would. I was just hoping I could hang in there for 10 years!

Why did I stay 22 years? No one is more surprised than I am. Maybe it was just the grace of God. One thing I know for sure: It’s important to have good people around you to take on responsibility and work together, and ours is a wonderful culture in that sense. I am so fortunate that the faculty and staff became my friends and have been magnificent in carrying out our mission, and I could not have asked for a better board of trustees. They are can-do, make-it-happen individuals who know how to solve problems. Those are the real reasons for the long run.

This is a unique kind of university. You don’t find here the acerbic divisions that are so common in academe. On a 1 to 10 scale in this regard, the St. Thomas community rates a 10. I do not exaggerate. Sure, we’ve had strong disagreements at times, but the civility with which we have carried on our discussions always made me proud.

Q. How has the job changed over the years?

A. The job as a Catholic university president is never easy, but there is less stridency today surrounding our Catholic identity. There is more clarity, thanks to the decade-long discussion prompted by the Holy See’s document Ex Corde Ecclesiae. In my early years, there were many hard discussions trying to balance the role of Catholicism with that of a university. As I leave office, the dominant issue is affordability.

Q. What has been St. Thomas’ most significant accomplishment during your tenure? Is there any particular accomplishment with which you take personal pride?

A. We put a lot of effort into strengthening our Catholic identity. We are clearer today about the meaning of our commitment to cultivate our Catholic mission. We have a rich, 4,000-year Judeo-Christian wisdom tradition upon which to draw, as well as a vibrant Catholic intellectual and cultural tradition.

I am pleased that we have steadily strengthened our faculty. Many of them come from the best universities in the world. They are productive scholars and they are just incredibly fine teachers. I see master teachers as those who not only educate but also inspire, who are passionate about their disciplines and who change lives. Their fire is burning brightly because they stoke it with research and then come into the classroom and light a fire for others. They have what William Butler Yeats said about the purpose of education being not just one of filling a bucket but lighting a fire.

We also have seen the student body change academically as judged by ACT scores (averages of 23.1 and 25.6 for entering freshmen in 1991 and 2012), and we are more diverse. We were mostly white middle class (4.5 percent students of color in 1991) but today we have higher percentages of students of color (14 percent) and international students (4 percent), and they have enriched the learning environment.

Q. In the essay that you submitted with your application to be president, you listed a priority to strengthen our Catholic character, and in your inauguration address you emphasized the need to avoid “a slippery path to a rather bland secularism.” What does the path look like today?

A. I no longer see that as the threat I saw 22 years ago because the academic environment is much more open to us being Catholic. A Catholic university is built on the  premise that faith and reason are not antithetical but are complementary. One can enrich the other. Science and religion can learn from the other, and I find that fun because my personal interests and background have been on the religion side, but in school I always found science fascinating.

Q. How do programs such as a Center for Catholic Studies and a Rome campus enhance our Catholic character?

A. Our Center for Catholic Studies enriches us as a Catholic university, and in ways we didn’t anticipate when we designed it. It enables students to integrate what they are learning in terms of their faith with a whole variety of other disciplines and perspectives. It traces and explores the Catholic influence in literature, science, philosophy and the arts.

The Rome campus was a bold step for us. It certainly wasn’t going to become a profit center, but the trustees agreed from a mission point of view that it was important. I love  the facility itself, located on the Tiber River just a 15-minute walk to St. Peter’s. We were fortunate to have a dear friend, the late Cardinal Pio Laghi, dedicate the campus, and I still remember him saying, “The city of Rome is a wonderful professor.”

Q. Why do students need a liberal arts education? What does it mean?

A. A liberal arts education is a process; it’s not a product. It’s not a discreet amount of information that you acquire; it’s the result of personal interaction with mentors, with professors. It’s not data; it’s an expansion of students’ horizons and of shaping their awareness and preparing them for lifelong learning. It is truly transformative.

It comes about because of interaction with talented, experienced teachers. Our class sizes are relatively small, which allows for interaction, and the approach that our faculty takes is inquiry based learning. There is an old saying, “Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I’ll remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.” That’s inquiry-based learning.

Q. More and more scholarship and research involves students. Why is that important?

A. It is not that common for faculty in higher education in the United States to involve undergraduate students in their research, but it is common here at St. Thomas. You get a sense of how much this means to students when you attend their poster sessions, such as the ones I have gone to for chemistry. There were so many students presenting research on poster boards. They used to be able to get all of them into the corridors on one floor, but this year there were so many that they had to have two shifts. That’s thrilling because it’s learning at its best.

Q. Another priority you cited before becoming president was a desire for St. Thomas to become a great “urban” university, and you later said that we should not just be in the city, but of the city. Have we taken sufficient steps?

A. When I was rector of the Basilica of St. Mary in downtown Minneapolis, every day people were at the door in need of housing, clothing, food or even bus tickets. People were living under the freeway bridge across the street. That weighed on me, and I thought an urban university would have something to contribute to alleviate the suffering.

The chief way we contribute is through education – by educating first-generation students and by encouraging an organic interaction between the university and the  community. We are not an ivory tower that is self-sufficient, but an urban university that responds to issues and whose students have an opportunity to learn from  community-based projects and supervised, reflective experiences. We always can do more, and I expect we will do more because we have created a culture where people want to be part of the solution.

By “of the city,” I meant that we have a responsibility to the region we serve to provide for its emerging educational needs. We will continue to do that. We are organically part of the city here, and our future will rise or fall with the future of the city.

Q. St. Thomas revised its mission statement in 2004. What does it mean to you when you look at it today?

A. It goes like this: “Inspired by Catholic intellectual tradition, the University of St. Thomas educates students to be morally responsible leaders who think critically, act wisely and work skillfully to advance the common good.” I love that mission statement because it succinctly captures us and it guides us.

Q. So it boils down to how people need to go out and do the right thing?

A. Absolutely. I have had a stream of students and faculty come through my office excited about projects. Like engineering professor Camille George and her project to dehydrate breadfruit in Haiti to preserve it and meet the nutritional needs of the people there. Or Brian Osende, an engineering student who went back to his remote village in Uganda with solar panels and his knowledge as an engineer, to electrify his village. It dawned on me that I had something in common with the people of that village because that was an electrifying experience for both of us.

Q. Throughout your presidency, you have expressed concern – even frustration – about the rising costs of education and the growing perception among some people that they cannot afford St. Thomas. How do you address that?

A. I tell them, “Don’t be scared off by the sticker price.” We have dramatically increased financial aid. I also point out that our average net cost has not increased in the last 10 years beyond the rate of inflation. The average debt load that an undergraduate student leaves St. Thomas with is around $30,000 – the same as what many new cars cost, and they won’t drive that car for the rest of their life. I believe $30,000 is a reasonable price to pay for an education.

Q. St. Thomas has been successful in raising funds, including $765 million in the Opening Doors and Ever Press Forward capital campaigns. Does the generosity of alumni and friends, even during a serious recession, surprise you?

A. It is astounding in one sense but not in another. People see the kind of institution that St. Thomas is and come to a judgment that we are adding great value to the community. They appreciate the way that we respond to emerging educational needs, and they want to be part of it.

Q. Enrollment growth in the 1970s and 1980s led to crowded conditions and decisions to open a Minneapolis campus and significantly expand the St. Paul campus. But needs remain: Music programs want better facilities, science and engineering programs are out of space and neighbors push for more on-campus housing. Is a university ever done with construction?

A. Never! I wish it could be so. But as educational needs continue to change, so must our programs and our facilities, and that entails reimagining and retrofitting the physical campus.

Q. What would you consider the “signature” buildings of your presidency?

A. Each building has been important in meeting critical needs. The Minneapolis campus buildings gave us an opportunity to concentrate many graduate and professional programs there, and each has served its distinct profession well.

In St. Paul, the Frey Science and Engineering Center addressed perhaps our greatest need, and McNeely Hall has made a huge difference to our business faculty. The three Anderson buildings have enriched student life immeasurably: the Athletic and Recreation Complex and the Student Center bring people together and allow the community to come to know itself in ways not previously possible, and you can never have enough parking.

Q. Why is diversity important?

A. I love the diversity I see on campus because it enriches the learning experience for all of our students. It better prepares them for the world in which they will live and work. In practice, when a student from Eden Prairie or New Market or Lake Benton meets a student from the Middle East or China or Africa, that student starts to ask questions about his new friend’s experiences, culture and perspective. In the process, he learns more about the world.

Q. In becoming more diverse, have we become a better reflection of the region’s racial and ethnic makeup?

A. We are definitely more reflective of the community. I can’t recall many Hmong students here 20 years ago, and there are many today. I also am pleased with the recruitment in immigrant communities. Who would have thought that the largest representations today from foreign countries would be Saudi Arabia (99 students last fall) and India (56)?

We had the opportunity a decade ago to provide space for English Language Services, and we brought international students to campus and gave them a chance to look around. The Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission in Washington provides full scholarships, and I began to develop a relationship with those officials. I was concerned about how they might view St. Thomas and they told me, “We love Catholic universities because they respect the role that faith plays in life.” We have had an excellent experience.

Q. Another way that St. Thomas provides greater access for lower-income students is through the Dease Scholarship Program. How did that come about?

A. Greg Roberts, our vice president for student affairs (until 2003) came to me one day and said the number of African-American students had dropped to a critical level. There was a general feeling in that community, he said, that St. Thomas was not a good fit for African-American students. That got my attention. I realized we would need to re-engineer our efforts. And we did.

When I see someone like Laura Lee, who was a Hmong student at St. Thomas, now at the top of her profession as a (television) anchor in Rochester, I can’t find words to express my gratitude that we were able to be there when she was saying, “Educate me, expand my horizons, give me some skills!” It’s humbling and it’s gratifying to be part of this journey.

Q. St. Thomas has largely managed to avoid controversy over the years. There have been some dust-ups and we have come under criticism for positions we have taken on certain issues, but for the most part our alumni and the broader community have stuck with us. Why?

A. It’s because people accept who we are. They may disagree with us, but they respect who we are. They also respect our graduates. I have long believed that the ultimate measure of the quality of a university is the quality of its graduates – and ours are extraordinary.

Q. Have you ever second-guessed any decisions? Or looked back and said, “I should have handled that differently”?

A. I haven’t had time! Seriously, so much has happened here. Maybe I will in retrospect, when I have had the chance to think, but not now. This is such a busy place – when one chapter closes you are already working on the next.

Sure, I have made mistakes along the way, but people are good here. Not a lot of finger pointing goes on. They acknowledge any mistakes and the explanations and say, “Let’s move on.”

Q. You never seem more a priest than when you say Mass and never more a president than when you are handing out diplomas at graduation. How are those special moments to you?

A. When I am holding the host or chalice in my hand, I feel like I am in the presence of Jesus in a way that I can’t even begin to understand or appreciate. I often experience Jesus’ love intensely in those moments, but trying to comprehend it would be like trying to understand the light that comes from the other side of the universe.

When I hand out diplomas, I see the smiles as students come up and cross the stage. They’re just so happy. There’s no finer moment in the life of a university president than when you see students who know that something very good has happened.

Q. What kind of role do you want to have as “president emeritus”?

A. I will try to be of help in whatever way I can – to the university and to Dr. Julie Sullivan, who is a wonderful person and will be an extraordinary leader. I see myself as becoming a goodwill ambassador. I have been blessed with good health, and as long as it holds up I will be active. I’m not yet ready to spend my time watching the daytime soaps or the Weather Channel.

Q. What advice do you have for your successor?

A. I will tell her to enjoy what will likely be the most wonderful job she’s ever had.

Q. In past Q&A interviews for St. Thomas magazine, we closed with the famous John Ireland quote about the need to “ever press forward” because “God intended the present to be better than the past and the future to be better than the present.” How do you relate those words to the mission of St. Thomas?

A. It inspires us to dare to be great, to dive into life, to become part of it, to make tomorrow better than today. We can actively and significantly contribute, and that is what we here at St. Thomas choose to do – to advance the common good.

Read more from St. Thomas Magazine.

“Uncommon decency,” said Morrison. “He’s a man of uncommon decency.”

Dave Nimmer

That describes the man I know – whether he was setting a policy, writing a note or admitting a mistake.

The mistake was back in 2007 when he decided not to invite Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu to campus to speak as part of the Peace Jam celebration. His reason was that Tutu had made remarks offensive to Jewish people in a 2002 speech about Israeli policy toward the Palestinians.

What I recall is a noon hour several days after he made the decision. Congressional candidate Coleen Rowley, a former FBI whistle blower, was standing on the grass in front of the Arches holding one end of a banner that read “Let Tutu Speak.”

A retired WCCO colleague of mine, Roger Nelson, and I were walking by and paused to talk with Rowley and her husband, telling them we supported their point of view and admired their courage.  At that very moment, Father Dease walked up to the four of us.

“You can take your sign down,” he said. “I have changed my mind.” He went on to tell Rowley that he had made the wrong decision and now “would be proud to extend an invitation to Archbishop Tutu to speak at UST.” He looked them in the eyes, shook their hands and said he was sorry. Nelson later told me how impressed he was by Dease’s sincerity … and humility.

“How often has any official, public or private, done that (admit a mistake) in the recent past?” Tutu’s supporters later wrote. “The action not only sends a much-needed signal on behalf of academic freedom and the cause of justice and peace worldwide, but it’s a rare example of ethics in action.”

Father Dease never changed his mind about the importance of increasing diversity at UST, most especially providing scholarships to students of color. One of those scholarships went to Laura Lee, a Hmong woman from a big family with a husband and two children of her own when she graduated.

Her mother and father had come to Laura’s December graduation from Missouri and I asked Father Dease whether he could greet them. He not only shook their hands, he spent 15 minutes telling them how proud he was of Laura and how pleased he was to offer aid and assistance.

But his best touch was when he told the Hmong elders that they had done “a fine job” of raising their daughter and St. Thomas was honored to have her as part of its family. Father Dease was both graceful and gracious.

He was also generous with his time and attention to others. They often came in handwritten notes on his office stationery. I got mine two weeks before my surgery for prostate cancer in August 2008.  He’d heard about it from others and wanted me to know I was in his thoughts and prayers.

It was that pastoral touch at the end that defines the man for me. “Please let me know if there’s any way I can be of help,” he wrote.

You have been of help, Padre. You’ve taught me what a good man is and what he does.

Editor’s note: Faculty and staff are invited to attend a celebration for Dease from 3 to 5 p.m. Friday in Woulfe Alumni Hall in the Anderson Student Center. A program will begin at 3:30.

Killowen continues the story of Hart’s crime-solving pair, American pathologist Nora Gavin and Irish archaeologist Cormac Maguire. Set again in Ireland, Hart’s novel has Gavin and Maguire investigating the puzzling connection between two men, born centuries apart, whose murdered bodies are discovered together in the trunk of a sunken car in a bog.

Hart earned an M.A. in creative writing from the University of Minnesota, a degree she earned attending one evening class every other quarter for eight years. She worked as a freelance arts journalist and theater critic – contributing to the Star Tribune, Minnesota Monthly and Minnesota Public Radio, among others – when she enrolled in graduate school strictly “to keep my brain from shrinking,” she said. Never intending to pursue a career as a novelist, she studied and wrote mainly essays, articles and memoirs.

Literary agents began knocking on her door soon after she won Glimmer Train journal’s Short Story Award for New Writers in 1996 (for the first and only short story she has ever written, “Waterborne”). But she had already decided she would pursue a novel idea that had been percolating since graduate school.

“The day Glimmer Train called me I was in bed with pneumonia, reading mysteries. And when I hung up the phone, I said, ‘I need to write this novel.’ And I did,” Hart remembered. The book became Haunted Ground, published in 2003, based on the real news story she read of a girl’s severed head found perfectly preserved in an Irish bog. It remains her bestselling novel to date.

Her other novels include Lake of Sorrows (which was copy-edited by New York Times bestselling author Tana French, still a freelancer in the publishing world at the time) and False Mermaid.

Hart spent some time away from promoting Killowen to answer questions via email and phone with the Newsroom.

Your career in crime fiction began relatively late in life, in your early 40s. Was it difficult to write your first novel, Haunted Ground, while working full-time? 

I’m not sure I’d describe the process as difficult, but it did take quite a long time! I started thinking about Haunted Ground in 1986, and didn’t begin writing it until 1996. I did spend eight years of those intervening years getting a master’s degree in creative writing, going to school in the evening and working during the day. From the time I started writing, it took about four years until the manuscript was ready to send out to publishers, and another two years before the book was finally launched. The great thing was that I wasn’t under any deadline, so I could really take the time to write the book I wanted to write; the difficulty was squeezing in writing time on evenings and weekends. My husband cooked a lot of dinners while I was out wandering imaginary bogs! Two things kept me going: I didn’t know how the story ended (and wanted to find out), and I figured that the market was good. In other words, if I could manage to write a really absorbing, entertaining, suspenseful mystery, someone would buy it.

Had I known the depth of my own ignorance I may never have started! I was teaching myself how to write  a mystery while I was writing Haunted Ground. I’m a big fan of P.D. James. To me, she’s the master mistress of the genre. I used her work as my textbook for how to write compassionate characters, interesting settings and good psychological motivation. I used A Taste for Death in particular and studied her structure, how she painted characters, etc.

Describe the moment you realized you could make a career of writing fiction for a living. Was it a leap of faith?

In early 1999, I was more than halfway through the manuscript. I had an agent waiting for it, and I guess I experienced a moment of clarity. I remember thinking, “I don’t want to be 85 years old and kicking myself for never finishing this novel.” So I asked for a six-month leave of absence from my job, and at the end of the six months, we were surviving on my freelance income at the time, along with my husband’s income as a professional touring musician. And we still had cable. My husband was a big inspiration, actually. He’d made a living for 20 years playing Irish traditional music on the accordion, and with his support I made the great leap to living as a creative artist before my book was even sold. I won’t lie – it is a challenge to make a living as self-employed artists, but we’ve managed to keep body and soul together thus far, and hope to continue.

How much archaeology, forensics and Irish history research did you do before you began writing Haunted Ground? And do you find you still have to do a lot of research for each successive novel?

Each novel is connected to a different period in history, and the field of archaeology keeps changing with new technology, so I do have to delve pretty deep into research for each new book. I read plenty of history, and I approach archaeology and forensics by reading books and journals, but also by using my journalistic skills (I was a freelance theater critic and feature writer for years), interviewing people who actually work in those specialized fields: archaeologists and antiquities experts, pathologists, police officers, DNA experts and other forensic scientists, whatever the story demands. Some of the same people have helped me for each story in the series. I’ve been so fortunate to have good contacts, and people have been very generous with their time and knowledge. It helps that Ireland is a small island, and everyone I know there is apparently connected to someone I’d like to interview.

Do you feel like an expert on those subjects now?

I don’t feel that I’m a real expert on any of the subjects I write about. But I don’t think that’s really necessary, given the level of detail required in a gripping crime novel. I do take care to read a lot about a subject before interviewing a real expert. One of my biggest fears is that one of the scientists I’ve interviewed will read one of my novels and fling it across the room, so I do try to get the scientific detail down cold. But I have learned so much. It turns out that’s my real reason for writing novels – it’s an excuse to keep learning. I get to dig into so many interesting subjects.

How do you begin a novel (i.e., do you outline; do you just plow right into the writing, chapter by chapter; do you jump between chapters, etc.)?

I tend to write a novel straight through, start to finish, rather than jumping around too much. It helps me to follow a thread, and as I mentioned earlier, I don’t know how the story ends. And I do get stuck. Sometimes it takes a few days (or even weeks) of pacing and plotting before the story takes the correct turn. But writing a novel to me is almost like doing an archaeological excavation. With each chapter I’m digging further down into my characters and into the complex situations in which they find themselves. I don’t know what’s at the bottom of the pit until I get there! Once I’ve worked out how the story ends (usually pretty far into the writing process), I do go back through and make sure that all of the hints and clues and suspenseful bits dovetail neatly.

Has the dwindling influence and sales reach of book publishing changed book promotion since Haunted Ground was published in 2003?

Hart traverses a stile at Dysert O’Dea chapel in County Clare, Ireland, 2012. (Photo by Carey Sidla)

Yes and no. There are a few really bestselling authors who always tour, and the people who get the most support for touring are the people who need it least. All the midlisters like me, we don’t get that. Publishers can’t justify sinking a lot of money into touring because there’s no visible return. I’ve done some national tours in the past at my own expense. Recently I’ve toured some libraries around Minnesota, but I’m waiting to see if I can get some support from my publisher (Scribner) to do more. The whole book universe is shifting, and no one really knows where the ground is any more. The transition between real books and ebooks is a revolution. Everybody’s waiting to see how the dust settles.

Publishers will do the traditional publicity they’ve always done – sending out copies for review, but even that’s tough. The New York Times is now the only paper to print a separate section for book reviews. High-exposure, respected outlets have really dwindled. Publishing houses are just starting to get into online marketing, and a lot of the promotion now is up to the writers. I’m in charge of keeping up my own website, and social media is expected of authors now. I enjoy Facebook and I have a Pinterest account, but I’m still getting the hang of Twitter. I thought at first I’d have nothing to say, but I enjoy posting about writing, Sisters in Crime, publishing, archaeology, cool places in Ireland … .

After J.K. Rowling “killed” Dumbledore, she said she needed a private moment to cry and mourn his death. Now that you have written four books with the crime-solving duo Nora Gavin and Cormac Maguire, have you become similarly attached to and familiar with them?

Cormac and Nora have become like old friends – although I haven’t finished with them yet, not by a long shot. I know that there are things about each of them I’ve yet to discover. And I’m probably just as attached to some of the supporting players as well. I remember my agent suggesting that I get rid of Garrett Devaney, the Garda detective in Haunted Ground, and I thought, “I can’t get rid of him – I have to know how he’s going to get on with the wife, and teaching his daughter to play the fiddle.” So Devaney actually returns in False Mermaid, the third book in the series. And fortunately, things keep turning up in Irish bogs, so I’ll never run out of material. One of the advantages to having an archaeologist as a main character is that I can dip into any period in history.

If your books were made into films, which actors would you choose to play Nora and Cormac?

Hard question! I have my own mental pictures of Cormac and Nora, and they’re not quite like any of the actors who might be chosen to play their parts. So I usually leave it up to readers. But if forced to choose… It’s been so long since I started writing the series that some of the actors I first imagined – Gabriel Byrne, Aidan Quinn – are now a little old for Cormac. So maybe Colin Farrell or Michael Fassbender, or even Jeremy Northam? And I’ve always seen someone with particularly Irish features for Nora – like Maura Tierney, or perhaps Anna Friel. Whoever the actors are, they’ve got to have a bit of chemistry!

How did your life change once you devoted your career fully to writing novels?

Hart (right) with her agent, Sally Wofford-Girand, at the book launch for Haunted Ground, November 2003. (Photo by Susan Van Baerle)

I’d say there’s a much greater flexibility in my life that I really enjoy. And a greater solitude as well, working alone so much of the time. But I really enjoy that. And the writing part of being a writer is not actually full time. About half the time, I’m doing a lot of what I used to do at my old communications job, i.e., publicity, marketing and promotion, things that are required of all writers nowadays. One of the lovely perks has been taking a tour group to Ireland – I’ve led a tour for the past three years, visiting many of the locations in my books – museums, castles, bogs, pubs. We’re taking a break this year, but I hope to do another tour in 2014.

Are you a night owl or morning person as far as writing style?

Definitely a morning person. I can’t work much at night, or even in the late afternoon! I like to work in the quiet mornings, with pen and paper, staring out the window and pretending that I’m in Ireland.

How often do you write? (Are you structured and write at a certain time for a certain length of time a certain number of days a week, or not?) And why does this work for you?

I’m afraid I’m completely undisciplined. I’d love to have a set ritual, but I don’t. But when I’m working on a book, I try to write at least three pages a day. For a long time it feels as if you’re not making any progress, but eventually those pages add up to a few chapters, and before you know it, half the book is written.

How do you celebrate the completion of a novel?

Paddy (my husband) and I usually treat ourselves to a lovely dinner out to celebrate any big project being finished at last. In addition to his music CDs, my husband has undertaken a huge documentary project, The Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection (so far containing 1,000 tunes from his repertoire of traditional music), and he has also written a book, a memoir called The Road From Castlebarnagh, about growing up playing traditional music in rural Ireland in the 1950s and 60s. It’s great – and yes, I am totally biased, but others agree!

“Hoigaard’s is sold to Vail Resorts, continuing Twin Cities buildup,” Star Tribune, April 24, 2013. Opus College of Business professor Dave Brennan is quoted.

“McKnight writers awards announced,” Star Tribune, April 24, 2013. English professor Matthew Batt is mentioned.

“Minnesota Legislature: A few job-climate positives: Pioneer Press editorial,” Pioneer Press, April 24, 2013. Economics professor John Spry is quoted.

“Shooter Now: St. Thomas’ Glenn Caruso giving $10K to Habitat for Humanity,” Pioneer Press, April 26, 2013.

“Branstad commutes life sentence of killer Rasberry Williams,” Des Moines Register, April 26, 2013. School of Law professor Mark Osler is quoted.

“What’s climate scientist James Hansen’s legacy?” The Guardian, April 29, 2013. Commentary by Engineering professor John Abraham.

“A year after her conviction, Amy Senser’s appeal to be heard Wednesday,” Star Tribune, April 29, 2013. School of Law academic achievement director Scott Swanson is quoted.

“List rage makes the rankings of what irks us,” Star Tribune, April 29, 2013. Communication and Journalism professor Carol Bruess and men’s basketball coach and Psychology professor John Tauer are quoted.

“Schools without a majority: Implications and opportunities,” Insight News, April 29, 2013. The Juilan Parker Lecture Series is mentioned.

“Twin Cities housing construction up 111 percent in April,” Star Tribune, April 29, 2013. Opus College of Business professor Herb Tousley is quoted.

“Commencement speakers announced,” KNSI, April 30, 2013. Father Dennis Dease is mentioned.

“Education-reform debate puts spotlight on institutional racism,” MinnPost, May 1, 2013. Commentary by School of Law professor Nekima Levy-Pounds.

“St. Thomas students bid farewell to outgoing president Dease,” Star Tribune, April 30, 3013.

“What We Find On Higher Ground,” Sojourners, April 30, 2013. Commentary by School of Law professor Mark Osler.

“Football: Woodbury grad Idowu invited to try out for Seattle Seahawks,” Woodbury Bulletin, May 2, 2013. Former Tommie football player Ayo Idowu is mentioned.

“St. John’s chooses Dease to speak at commencement,” St. Could Times, May 2, 2013. Father Dennis Dease is mentioned.

“Jan. 27: Insurance exchanges are next big hurdle in health care,” Star Tribune, May 5, 2013. Senior Health Policy Fellow Dave Durenberger is quoted.

“Minnesota Scene: St. Thomas wins 10th MIAC softball title in a row,” Star Tribune, May 6, 2013.

“5 Trends Guiding Future ‘Changemaker Universities,’” Forbes, May 6, 2013. Commentary by president-elect Julie Sullivan.

“Gay marriage: Opponents say passage will hurt religious liberties in Minnesota,” MinnPost, May 6, 2013. School of Law professor Teresa Collett is mentioned.

“I-35W bridge collapse: Minnesota closer to giving wreckage to victims, historians,” Pioneer Press, May 6, 2013. The School of Engineering is mentioned.

“Committee sends gay marriage measure to full Minnesota House,” Grand Forks Herald, May 6, 2013. School of Law professor Teresa Collett is mentioned.

“Tommies Blog: Ayo Idowu Gets Tryout With Seahawks,” WCCO, May 6, 2013.

“Gay-marriage bill has votes to pass Minnesota House, sponsor Clark says,” MinnPost, May 7, 2013. School of Law professor Teresa Collett is mentioned.

“This isn’t the weather we grew up with,” The Guardian, May 7, 2013. Commentary by Engineering professor John Abraham.

“Living with ALS, Part XIII: A patient becomes a teacher,” MPR, May 8, 2013. College of Education, Leadership and Counseling dean Bruce Kramer is profiled.

“Bills to redefine marriage raise concerns about religious liberty protections,” The Catholic Spirit, May 8, 2013. School of Law professor Teresa Collett is quoted.

“Black suspensions more than double other students’ in suburban schools,” Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, May 8, 2013. School of Law professor Nekima Levy-Pounds is quoted.

“Target Launches New Marketing Program Named Cartwheel,” KSTP, May 8, 2013. Finance professor David Vang is quoted.

“Had Chris Kluwe worked at the University of St. Thomas …” Star Tribune, May 9, 2013. Commentary by School of Law professor Mark Osler.

“Teresa Collett: Redefining marriage: Religious liberty is at risk,” Pioneer Press, May 9, 2013. Commentary by School of Law professor Teresa Collett.

“Friday Opinuendo: St. Thomas honors a president,” Pioneer Press, May 10, 2013.

“I try to go off the beaten track when I choose where to take my students,” said George, director of bands, Symphonic Wind Ensemble and string orchestra, and chair of the St. Thomas Music Department. “I want to take them out of their comfort zone and be pushed into a different atmosphere that they wouldn’t be able to experience here.”

This wasn’t George’s first time traveling abroad to work with international composers and music ensembles. His music exchange started 19 years ago when he was invited to Mexico City to lead a weeklong seminar at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. His charge was to discuss wind band music, form an experiment ensemble and give a concert.

The trip was such a success that they invited George back and asked him to direct and form what is now the Banda Sinfonica at the Escuela Nacional de Musica of UNAM. George returned to Mexico City two to three times a year to help develop the program until they finally hired a full-time conductor. People heard of the work he did there, and George began to receive invitations to work with other international ensembles.

Listen to the fourth movement of Roger Cichy’s Bugs, a piece commissioned by the Symphonic Wind Ensemble in 1999.

George’s research has taken him around the world to learn about the different ways countries make and perform music. As a conductor, clinician and lecturer he has traveled across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, continental Europe, Ireland and the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, China, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and India. He has worked with professional groups such as the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain and the Band of the People’s Liberation Army in  China. He also has conducted in prestigious venues such as the Sydney Opera House, the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai and the National Theatre of Performing Arts as well as the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing.

Perhaps the most meaningful benefit of these shared experiences is that they have allowed George to bring international composers back to St. Thomas to write original music for his students to perform.

“I think the most unique thing we do that most other music programs don’t is to commission new works of composers, particularly from other countries,” George said. In the last 22 years they have commissioned 80 new works for the symphonic wind ensemble, and at least half of those come from international composers.

Students learn more than they anticipate from the international pieces they have performed. Philip Smithley ’15 said that the band members were challenged last fall when they were given a piece of music titled “Desi Jhalak,” meaning “A Peek Into India,” written by Bollywood composer Shamir Tandon. Smithley said there is a “vast difference in the way music is rehearsed and performed in India, where it is not notated but rather improvised after years of studying, compared to Western music where all of our music is written out.”

George smiles as he ends a performance of the String Orchestra in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas. (Photo by Mark Brown)

Alexandra Gobell ’13 explains that the band members are often out of their “comfort zone” when performing international pieces, but that bringing the composers to St. Thomas allows them to learn about the story behind the pieces and teaches them about the composers’ native countries. Then, when possible, George takes the students to the countries where they perform such pieces as “Desi Jhalak.” Going to India was a way for the students to experience the culture of the music that they perform.

“A very important part of our touring process is the exchange of experiences. I want the students to be able to serve the culture through their music. Instead of going somewhere passively like a tourist, I want them to be immersed in the culture by meeting with their peers and trading stories and experiences of what it’s like to make music in our country, what it’s like in their country and what the differences are,” George said.

This exchange happened between Amber Neid ’14 and composer Tandon. The song was originally sent to the band in an electronic audio format without any sheet music. Neid worked with Tandon to put the song on paper so that the band could read, rehearse and perform the piece.

“That gave us a lot of practice on aural skills rather than just reading music off a piece of paper,” Neid said. “I think that made all of us better musicians. Seeing the composer light up when he heard a ‘western ensemble’ play his traditional Indian music was worth all of the work we put into it. Then, when we played it in India, it was a huge hit because it was music the audiences could relate to, but with instruments they had never seen or heard before.”

George and the students are challenged musically when working with groups of different countries, and because they are working in a new culture.

“Whenever I’m asked to conduct national music of the country I go to, it’s really intimidating because I know everyone knows it, and I’m just now learning it,” George said. “It takes a lot of study, a lot of asking questions, a lot of listening to styles of music so I approach it and seem competent.”

George has experienced many differences between how cultures approach music and rehearse. In Latin America, he learned how musicians approach rhythm differently; “What’s popular to them is highly rhythmic dances. Instead of our Top 40 music, they listen to samba and all kinds of art and dance forms. They feel these rhythms rather than read the music on the printed page.”

There are similar challenges in China where communicating meanings of the same word is expressed by tone, and George says that their music approach also is that way with bending and inflection that our language – and music – do not possess. In England or Australia, learning new terms for familiar musical functions is the challenge. “I have to think about how I’m going to say certain things and as I speak, I have to translate the terms in my brain,” George said. The same translation process happens when he must speak Spanish in Latin America. In countries where George does not know the language, however, a translator is needed, which presents numerous challenges.

Listen to a selection form Chen Qian’s Ambush! From All Sides as played by the Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

“My rehearsals are very fast-paced and to the point,” George said. “When I can’t just deliver what I want to say and I have to use a translator, I must adjust to still make it efficient. And you just hope that what the translator is saying is exactly the message that you’re trying to get across.”

In order to adapt to these situations, a certain kind of personality is needed to not only travel but also to work with people of different cultures. “If you try to force your preconceived notions onto what you’re going to experience, you’re going to be miserable. You have to have a personality that is adaptive,” George said. When he worked in Mexico, he had to get used to starting later; “When we started rehearsals at 10 a.m., we wouldn’t actually start until 11:30 a.m. At first I got upset, but then I just went with it. So, the next time we started at 11:10 a.m., then at 10:30 a.m. and then finally we started at 10 a.m. If I just tried to force it, it wouldn’t have worked.”

Traveling as part of his career was not something George expected. His first time on a plane wasn’t until he was 18 years old. Now his children, who he and his wife often bring on these trips, have seen more of the world than most adults.

“I’ve been extremely fortunate. When I started at St. Thomas I never thought my life would take me in the direction it has taken me in terms of international experiences,” George said. “The best part for me is that when I go places, people native to the culture will take me to where they go, not to where tourists go. It’s a tremendous opportunity and I feel very blessed.”

Though his interest in traveling came later in life, George’s love for music started when he was a young boy in Geneva, N.Y. “It all goes back to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass,” George said. His uncle used to have eight-track  tapes that he and his older cousin would listen to, and the sounds of Herb Alpert’s trumpet playing fascinated him.

When his cousin began to play trumpet, George was inspired to learn to play as well. He played trumpet from elementary school through high school, and then played professionally. But it was in high school when George’s interest in conducting began.

During study hall, George went to the band room to practice. When no one was watching, he stood on the podium and pretended that he was conducting a full band. Without knowing it, George was being watched by his band director. To encourage George’s interest in conducting, the band director let him rehearse a piece that George later conducted at a high school band concert.

“My life ambition was to become a high school band director,” George said. After receiving a B.M. in music education and trumpet performance from Ithaca College, he began teaching high school band in New York.

“I realized that there was more than just teaching music in high school; there’s also hall monitoring and cafeteria duty. I wasn’t interested in doing those things,” George said. So, he earned an M.M. degree in music education from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and a D.M.A. degree in conducting from the University of North Texas. During that time he also performed as a professional trumpet player and taught at the university and privately. George then came to St. Thomas in 1991.

Once a solo conductor in an empty band room, George has conducted some of the best bands and orchestras in the world, and his students are greatly benefiting from his passion and ambition. “Dr. George has been a huge inspiration for me as a future director, teacher and conductor,” Neid said. “Watching him conduct during our rehearsals has taught me a lot that I can’t learn at a desk,” Neid said.

The student musicians in Brady Educational Center practice and rehearse for perfection. But George gives them something more than notes on paper – he introduces them to the world through the music they play.

Read more from St. Thomas Magazine.

The party will be from 3 to 5 p.m. in Woulfe Alumni Hall in the Anderson Student Center. A program will begin at 3:30 p.m., and will feature remarks by Dease, Father John Malone, vice president for mission, and Archbishop Harry Flynn, chair of the St. Thomas Board of Trustees.

There is no need to R.S.V.P. for the party.

With that fame came a move to commissions of a large scale, such as the 1997 Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, the 2003 Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and across the river in Minneapolis, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, finished in 1993. These projects supplanted Gehry’s need to design domestic space. But in the summer of 2012, a Gehry-designed duplex became owner-occupied in New Orleans, a part of the actor Brad Pitt’s Make it Right Foundation’s project in the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward.

How do we connect Gehry’s Winton Guest House to the Make it Right House? What has Gehry changed, updated or invented in his domestic architecture in the last 25 years? This is the question I will be examining during my sabbatical next year.

After traveling to New Orleans several times during the last two years to lay the groundwork for this research, I realized that the city was a perfect fit for an architectural history graduate seminar at St. Thomas. And this spring, The Architecture of New Orleans course was born.

New Orleans has been called many things – the Crescent City, The Big Easy, The Birthplace of Jazz, NOLA, the City that Care Forgot. The city’s racial and ethnic makeups have created a variety of architecture found nowhere else in the United States. Settled by the French in the 18th century and controlled by Spain in 1763, New Orleans was also home to a large population of free people of color, as well as slaves.

With the arrival of the 19th century the American element of New Orleans grew with settlers from the Northeast sharing the city with immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Sicily and beyond. Each group has contributed to the architectural legacy of New Orleans in powerful ways, and students in my graduate art history seminar this spring are exploring this variety in their research with topics focusing on cemeteries, voodoo, New Urbanism in housing projects, food markets, public parks, hospitals, sacred spaces (including a contemporary Spanish Baptist church rebuilding after Katrina), colonial plantations, biophilic design, historic preservation, Pitt’s Make it Right Houses, and the connection between Walt Disney and the French Quarter.

The research provides a fabulous overview of the layers of New Orleanian architecture – strata that were made visible on a recent trip our class took to the Crescent City this past spring break.

Students found their own ways to New Orleans early in the week and researched their projects. We all gathered as a group on Thursday, March 28, at Jackson Square in the French Quarter for a walking tour of the Quarter, Central Business District and Warehouse District. I had scoped out the buildings on a previous visit and our tour required that each student present a five-minute on-the-street talk about their building as we progressed through the neighborhoods.

The students were expected to connect their presentations into our classroom discussions and also address the building as an art object. What did they see now that they were standing in front of it? There is no better way to understand the built environment than to be out in it: looking, touching and getting a feel for context and scale. I was thrilled to watch New Orleans come to life for the students.

Saturday morning found us in the Garden District at Lafayette Cemetery No. 1. The cemeteries of New Orleans, with their above ground tombs, are amazingly beautiful, and they clearly reflect the character of the city built largely just a few feet above sea level. After our cemetery visit, a little lagniappe (something extra) found us touring the adjacent neighborhood, stopping by Sandra Bullock and John Goodman’s grand Victorian-era homes.

On Friday, we were fortunate to visit the Lower Ninth Ward with John Williams, the executive architect of Brad Pitt’s Make it Right houses and a longtime New Orleans designer. Supported by funds from the Art History Department, we spent five hours on a bus tour with John. It was one of the greatest architectural experiences I have ever had, and I think my students felt the same.

The area is still, after almost eight years, coming back to life. The Make it Right Foundation hopes to build 150 homes in the neighborhood. But basic services such as grocery stores, schools and the like have not returned to the Lower Ninth. It’s still a very tough go for folks who have returned. Students were able to meet with residents, including John “Smitty” Smith and Ron Lewis at his “House of Dance and Feathers,” and learn their stories of evacuation and survival.

A duplex designed by Frank Gehry in New Orleans. (Photo by John Williams)

And it was here in the Lower Ninth where we encountered Gehry’s work. The pink and purple duplex, its hues selected by the homeowner, recalls the liveliness of New Orleans’ vernacular domestic shotgun houses and Creole cottages. It is built out of environmentally friendly materials and includes solar panels and other sustainable features. The variety of porches encourages engagement with neighbors and passersby.

Gehry believed in Pitt’s vision and wanted to make a house that responded to the “history, vernacular and climate of New Orleans,” as he stated on Make it Right’s blog.

The completion of the house is history in the making – a work by Gehry and a foundation that helped the hardest hit citizens of New Orleans when other entities were slow to do so. And now, the University of St. Thomas has a connection to both.

So he moved to Alaska.

“I picked Juneau thinking it was the largest city in the state since it was the capital. It wasn’t,” he said, laughing at his innocence. He didn’t know it then, but his misjudgment would prove inconsequential. His yet-to-be-lived career would fly him to the world’s most cosmopolitan cities.

As founder and executive director of the Clean Washington Center (1991 to 2006), an environmental technology center in Seattle, Dougherty brought his vision – to assist U.S. companies in processing and finding markets for recyclable materials − to manufacturers and governments around the globe.

In 2007, his work for the United Kingdom was honored by Her Majesty, the Queen of England, Elizabeth II, who bestowed on him the title “Honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.”

Dougherty said he doesn’t know who nominated him (the process is shrouded in secrecy) or why he, in particular, was selected, but he left a prolific trail of crumbs that may lead to the reason.

His story begins nearly 50 years ago in a tiny capital city on the panhandle of southeast Alaska.

“You can make a difference if you believe in something and you push for it”

Dougherty got his start at 22 in the office of Alaska Gov. William Allen Egan, the state’s first governor. (Alaska was a territory and did not officially become a state until 1959.) Egan tasked a small team that included Dougherty to secure national funding to get anti-poverty programs going for the rural villages inhabited by Eskimos and Alaska natives. Their effort was part of the national Great Society program, a plan created by President Lyndon B. Johnson to eliminate poverty and racial injustice in the United States.

“That was really transforming,” Dougherty said. “Even though I was a junior guy I realized what an impact I could make. … I realized, ‘Gee, I can make a change.’ And these were substantial changes we were making up there. Not only did we bring Head Start, we brought electricity to these villages and created co-ops for them.”

Dougherty also took part in educating Eskimos and Alaska natives on their rights to their lands − “lands that had never been ‘bought’ from them (when the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867),” Dougherty explained.

“So there was a land claims bill submitted to Congress to pay them for their land, but it wasn’t going anywhere until oil was discovered (in 1968) on the North Slope (the northernmost section of Alaska),” he said. “A judge ruled that the oil companies couldn’t build a pipeline through Alaska to Valdez until they knew who owned the land. So the oil companies jumped in with the natives and got them to push a settlement to the land-claims groups. In the end, the Eskimos and Indians received a huge settlement from the federal government, which then helped them create a more economic base and growth.”

This first job, he emphasized, “made it clear to me that you can make a difference if you believe in something and you push for it.” After several years, Dougherty and his family moved to Anchorage, where he served as assistant city manager. There he led an initiative to consolidate the city of Anchorage and all of its emerging, outlying suburbs – which had their own local governments – into one unified government. It had to go to vote, and it passed.

“I think Alaska was a good thing for me because it’s so sparsely populated that one young guy in his early 20s could make an impact,” he said.

Even so, after getting married and having two children in Alaska, Dougherty began to feel confined and isolated and wanted his kids to grow up in a bigger city with more opportunities.

Seattle and Tougher Challenges

After relocating to Seattle with his family, Dougherty took on “bigger” and “tougher” challenges as assistant director of the state’s Department of Trade and Economic Development.

Gov. Booth Gardner tasked Dougherty with helping smaller businesses get more financing, for which he created two programs − one in which the state of Washington allowed small business to make public stock offerings, an option available only to big business at the time. The other would create an economic development finance authority that would “sell nonrecourse bonds to help small business and economic expansion in the state,” Dougherty explained.

While hearing Dougherty’s testimony before the state legislative committee on behalf of his proposals (both of which passed after much effort), Maria Cantwell, the committee chair and now a U.S. senator (D-WA), played an inadvertent role in charting the course of his career.

She asked him to conduct a yearlong study to devise a plan for reducing Seattle’s ballooning collection of recyclables – a pile so massive the Wall Street Journal dubbed it “Mount Glassmore.”

Dougherty remembers how Cantwell broached the subject: “She said, ‘You know, the cities are collecting papers and plastics and glass. Where are the markets for those?’”

The question threw him for a loop. Dougherty responded with a laugh, “I don’t do garbage!”

One thing he did know: Seattle had started recycling plastic, paper, glass and aluminum, and they were piling up. He also knew the city was paying $20 per ton to ship the papers “to somewhere in Asia to do something with them,” he said.

After completing their study, Dougherty and his team “came to the conclusion that if you didn’t get the industry in your own region to figure out how to process that material and put it back into your own products then recycling wasn’t going to work. Because nobody wanted glass. Plastic companies certainly didn’t want plastic. And the paper industry could only take certain grades of paper.”

The study brought to light a number of conundrums. Dougherty asked himself: “What are the engineered properties (of the recyclable materials)? How do you process this stuff in an economical way so they can be put back into product?”

His answer to these challenging questions was the Clean Washington Center, which he created in 1991. The organization, an effective blend of industry experts and government officials, worked to create markets for recyclable material. Its offshoots continue its mission today.

The CWC was so successful that it soon received $4 million from the federal government to make its work available to other states.

Among its successes were developing markets for recyclables that resulted in an average of about $100 a year per household in avoided waste removal costs.

In 2001, Dougherty told online magazine Recycling Today, “This region has always had the capacity for paper, but we have also developed the capacity for plastics, too. Five years ago we had no capacity to use recycled plastics – mainly PET and HDPE. Now it is a different story. Our engineers went to plastic plants and helped them convert to recycled feedstock. The result is that now we have an annual capacity of 12 million pounds of PET and HDPE. … so that has worked really well.”

After helping several states develop similar programs, the CWC’s trail of success stories caught the attention of New Zealand. Hong Kong, Spain, Australia and Scotland followed suit.

That’s a WRAP

Dougherty remembers the fraught phone call he received from the United Kingdom in 2000: “I was up in Scotland helping them develop a program (Remade Scotland) when I got a call from a spokesman for the environment minister from the U.K. saying, ‘We are so far behind in recycling. … The European Union has set down regulations and if we don’t meet certain levels of recycling we get financial fines. Could you set up a center for all of the U.K., including Northern Ireland?’”

The challenge he was up against was huge. And tough.

David Dougherty’s Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire medal. (Photo by Mark Brown)

Using the CWC as a template and £84 million from the British government, Dougherty acted as a special adviser to shape the work programs and strategy that culminated in WRAP (Waste and Resources Management Programme). Among his collaborators was WRAP founding chairman Vic Cocker CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire, a rank one notch above “Officer”), brother of rock musician Joe Cocker.

Liz Goodwin, CEO of WRAP, who worked with Dougherty in the organization’s infancy, attested, “There were a lot of market failures that needed to be addressed. Some of the issues were lack of awareness, lack of infrastructure to make it easy for people, lack of reprocessing – both technology and infrastructure – lack of end markets, lack of confidence in end markets and lack of standards.”

When WRAP first began, Goodwin said, “household recycling rates (in the U.K.) were around 10 percent compared to 43 percent today. We were just starting on the journey  to increase recycling. … There hadn’t been any real focus on end markets or developing markets for the materials that were collected. There was very little infrastructure.”

WRAP was, and continues to be, a success. Its achievements include helping the U.K. recycling and reprocessing sector to quadruple in size between 2000 and 2008,  diverting 670,000 tons of food from landfills, decreasing growth in household packaging waste and developing a “world-first technology for the closed-loop recycling of plastic bottles, which has led to the creation of a new market for recycled plastics in the U.K.,” according to its website.

Dougherty’s work on WRAP did not go unnoticed.

He remembered, “I got a call at 5 a.m. from the British Embassy. He informed me ‘You have been to the U.K. a lot.’ And I thought ‘Uh oh, I’m going to need a working visa. This is not good.’”

But the man continued: “‘ … your significant contributions to the United Kingdom and other countries have been noticed, and noticed at the highest level. This culminates six months of research on you, and I’m calling to tell you Her Majesty wishes to bestow one of the highest titles on you for your contributions to the world.’”

The honor is not given liberally. Notably, that year Bono was named an honorary Knight Commander of the OBE. Few Americans have received the title. Gen. George S. Patton and Bob Hope are among the Americans honored with the title “Officer.”

A Reluctant Tree Hugger

Thinking restrospectively on his career, Dougherty said, “To be honest, I was more attracted to the prospect of making recycling work than answering a calling to be an environmentalist. My wife is more of an environmentalist than I am.”

But when you spend a couple hours with him, it becomes clear he harbors an inner tree hugger.

“I’ve never seen this as a waste issue. It was always a materials efficiency issue,” Dougherty said. “Once you take down a natural resource, how do you use it many, many times before you eventually have to discard it? As the population continues to expand, these resources are going to get scarce.”

When he reminisces about how far recycling has come in the United States and his small part in its progress, his eyes light up: “When we started recycling it was just glass, paper and aluminum. And then we expanded to plastic. With paper in the beginning they could only take certain grades of fiber, but now they can take all grades. That’s a true example of recycling. We used to cut a tree down to make the Sunday paper and it had a 20-minute life span before you threw it away. Now that same fiber gets used seven or eight times before it gets thrown away.”

In addition to his work with governments, Dougherty has innovated technologies for recycling discarded material into usable, marketable products for corporate clients. He worked with Adidas, turning shoe scraps – canvas, plastic, leather – into artificial turf and other products. In a collaboration with the Miami Heat, he worked with engineers to turn tire rubber and shoe scrap into better cushioning for the team’s practice court. He also helped facilitate the invention of rubberized asphalt from ground-up car tires,
an innovation that is laid on California roads by law and has been implemented in several other states.

“You’ve got to use those resources because this planet is going to have a lot more people and it has got be able to stretch its resources. To me it was always an issue of using our natural resources more intelligently,” the environmentalist in him said. Retired for a few years now, Dougherty “found a new challenge: working with Seattle Historic Parks.” As a board member, he is leading an initiative to create a conservatory for each of the budget-tight city’s 18 deteriorating historic parks.

In his long and decorated career, Dougherty traveled a path that took him around the world and transformed him into many things: executive, government worker, officer, problem solver, believer, even, arguably, environmentalist.

But when reflecting on the whole of his career, Dougherty’s choice of words evoke the spirit of a 22-year-old adventurer who once made his way from Minnesota to Alaska in 1965: “I didn’t plan this. I just followed the road.”

Read more from St. Thomas Magazine.

Dr. Adam Kay

Kay, Biology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 2001, and has been a faculty member in the UST Biology Department since 2005. His research interests have included the ecology of social behavior, tropical ecosystem ecology, and the evolution of sexual reproduction. The focus of his recent research is on urban agriculture and sustainability.

Kay teaches Biology of Sustainability, Animal Behavior, and Introduction to Field Ecology in Costa Rica. He also is the founder and director of the UST Stewardship Garden and co-founder of Sustain, the UST sustainability blog. He is committed to living a low-resource lifestyle with his daughter, Marike, his wife, Justa, and their two cats.

Freshmen Rose Nelson and Amee Ellis

Through the years, the teeter-totter marathon has raised tens of thousands of dollars for the shelter, which merged with other service organizations to become Tubman. It now offers help to families struggling with domestic violence, substance abuse and mental illness.

The St. Thomas tradition started as the result of a student disciplinary decision. A student had defaced a female doll. In reparation, the student was to design a fundraiser to benefit female victims of abuse. As a result of the unfortunate incident, the fundraiser was born.

In order to raise funds and meet their goal, each of the participating Ireland Hall residents pay a minimum amount to ride the teeter-totter for an hour. They also go out into the community to secure pledges from local businesses, family, friends, fellow students, faculty and staff.

Since the inaugural year, few things have changed. While the original event involved 48 hours of continuous teetering, the event was expanded to 72 hours in 1993. However the mission and impressive teeter-totter technique remain the same. Students continue to flock to the event hoping to claim a time-slot. Contrary to what you might expect, the night shifts are usually the first to be filled. While the May-time weather is usually mild, marathoners have had to endure poor conditions, such as the 40 degree temperatures and heavy rain in 2003. Rain or shine, they keep a positive attitude and support each other with hot chocolate and conversation.

The St. Thomas Dance Team has just completed the two-minute routine it has been preparing for since its auditions in April. Dancers wait on stage at Disney’s Wide World of Sports next to the seven other Open Division teams that made it to the final round of competition in the jazz category. Hands clasped and eyes closed, they wait as teams are announced in reverse order of where they placed.

In third place: longtime rival and consummate contender Lidenwood College from Missouri. In second: regional peer College of Saint Benedict. There is only one team left to call.

According to sophomore Annie Lindberg, the most exciting moment is when second place is announced. “You want to jump up and down but you also want to be respectful of the other teams,” she said.

But when the Tommies are called, “it’s instant tears.”

Alex Brown and Julia Randall

Samantha Maroney

Ensuring there is time for homework is critical. Ulfers requires the dancers to maintain a 2.5 GPA to stay eligible for the team. “Their primary role is to be students first. That’s why they’re here,” she said.

In addition to maintaining good grades, school spirit also remains a priority. Ulfers sees it as the team’s primary commitment. “After academics, our first responsibility to St. Thomas is to be supporting athletics,” she said. It’s a responsibility the dancers take seriously, but also one in which they take great pride.

Perdew recalls performing at football games as one of the highlights on the team. “You are proud when you’re out there because it’s such a great school, such a great team,” she said. “The football team especially talks about being one big family. We feel like we get to be part of that family on game days too.”

Maroney says that the pre-game festivities that were new this year helped raise the team’s profile: “We got to talk to alumni and their kids before games and hear about how much they love to watch us perform. We would never have gotten to do that without the pre-game parties on the plaza.”

While school spirit obligations keep them busy throughout the fall, it also is the time of year that the dancers begin preparing for competition by meeting with choreographers and learning the routines they will bring to nationals. Another reason the team has been so successful, according to Ulfers, is that each year she tries to bring something innovative or different – an ironic notion, considering the team has used the same jazz choreographer for nine years, former Tommie dancer Rachel (Brenk) Doran ’07.

“Ever since she was a sophomore on our team, Rachel has been an innovator,” Ulfers said. “Besides producing beautiful choreography, she understands the scoresheet we’re judged on and makes sure to include elements that help maximize our points.”

Alex Brown

For this season’s hip-hop routine, Ulfers was looking for something new that would challenge the team. She was not disappointed. The complex choreography from Shandon Kolberg called for intricate footwork and gravity-cheating lifts and tricks that were completely new to the dancers. “When they first learned their hip-hop dance, they truly couldn’t do it,” Ulfers said. “It makes me that much more proud of our second-place finish knowing how far they’ve come with the routine.”

Back at practice, injuries are checked. Maroney applies an Icy Hot patch to her neck as Ulfers asks, “How’s it feeling? Make sure you take it easy.” It’s an unfortunate necessity in the dance community to dance through the pain. The competitive nature of the sport often teaches dancers to perform even when they are injured because there’s always someone out there willing to take your place. But while some teams operate under the assumption that everyone is replaceable, the Tommies don’t subscribe to that notion.

Wood found that out during the final week before nationals when executing one of the difficult lifts in the team’s hip-hop routine. She was nearly sidelined by a shoulder injury, and her doctor recommended she rest. Her teammates were a motivation in pushing through the pain.

Samantha Maroney, Kelly Olson and Julie Randall lift Morgan McGowan.

“The best bet,” he said, “is to surround yourself with good people, and bet on yourself.” The president, chief executive officer and sole principal of Industrial Equities L.L.P. makes the comment quietly but not arrogantly, exuding a self-assuredness that has evolved one project at a time over the last three decades.

“I sit down with my children all the time and I always tell them the same thing: have confidence in yourself,” he said. “I studied the real estate business north, south, east and  west until I knew it, and I invest in and choose projects that I understand.

“Bet on yourself and don’t rely on others who might steer you in a different direction. You have to trust your own instincts and your own judgment.”

Allen’s philosophy has allowed him to build Minneapolis-based Industrial Equities into a commercial real estate investment, development and management firm with a portfolio of nearly 3 million square feet. His Windsor Development of Florida, a residential development company, has completed 1,500 lots in Minnesota, Arizona and Florida, and he has developed several hotels.

Projects like those are a long way from Suamico, Wis., north of Green Bay, where Allen grew up the second oldest of six children. He enrolled at Northland College in Ashland, Wis., to major in social science, minor in history and political science, and play outside linebacker in football and center in basketball.

After graduating in 1977, Allen moved to Minnesota and law school at Hamline University. He had no intention of practicing law but he believed a legal background would  better enable him “to think logically and intelligently in understanding the complexities of business and politics.”

A magazine article piqued his interest in the real estate sector, and Coldwell Banker Commercial Real Estate Services hired him – “the first and only job I ever interviewed for” – as an industrial broker in January 1981. His first deal involved an 800-square-foot lease and within two years he was one of the top five producers in the firm’s Edina office.

“John had an overriding resolve to excel and succeed, and I also saw a guy who was very proud of his family,” said Ken Sandstad, the Coldwell Banker executive who hired both Allen and Patrick Ryan ’75, now president and CEO of Ryan Companies and a fellow St. Thomas trustee with Allen. “I have seen many people who say they are highly motivated and driven, but in the end they do not live up to the talk. John always did. The pride in his family stood out for me, too.”

Allen remained with Coldwell Banker until 1995, advancing to become senior vice president and arranging more than 10 million square feet of sales and lease transactions,  and he also struck out on his own in 1983. He founded Industrial Equities because “ultimately, I wanted to develop my own portfolio,” and he has long favored institutional-grade industrial properties with the most up-to-date technology, extensive glass, ample parking and attractive landscaping.

“We are very nimble and engaged,” he said, referring to a “guerilla development” strategy that allows him “to get in, don’t take too big a bite out of the apple, get the deal  done and then move on to the next investment.” It’s important to always manage risk, especially in challenging economic times.

“We also have to remain focused,” he said. “We have resisted the temptation to go in other real estate directions. We did some hotels and residential lots and had really  good runs, but our best thrust is multitenant, institutional-grade industrial projects. We understand the market demands – and what is going to lease.”

Lee Anderson, a fellow St. Thomas trustee who owns more than 30 construction related companies, admires Allen’s ability to assess a project’s potential and move quickly if he deems it a good fit.

“John sees opportunities where others might not,” Anderson said. “He knows how to size up a good deal. He has an engaging personality, and he uses it to his advantage. People like being around John.”

Dee Ann Stinebaugh, a 1988 St. Thomas alumna, has worked for Allen since 1995 and today serves as director of property management at Industrial Equities. She calls her boss “super driven,” with an innate sense as to whether a project will work.

“He has made so many right decisions along the way, and he also has walked away from some deals that could have been bad,” she said. “He has the touch.”

Most Allen projects fly below the public radar, but one that didn’t was his proposal last year to construct a 68,000-square-foot office and warehouse building on the north side of Interstate 94, east of Highway 280 in St. Paul.

The project complied with all city requirements and industrial zoning codes, but the city council voted “no” in response to neighborhood concerns about design and parking. Allen successfully sued the city and expects to open the warehouse this year.

“I’m not litigious by nature,” Allen said, “but in this case I had to protect my investment. This will be a good project for St. Paul, with more new jobs (150) and more taxes for the city.”

Among Allen’s hobbies – and one he shares with Anderson – is restoring wooden boats, which he keeps on property he owns on Gull Lake in northern Minnesota. He has acquired 22 boats; the oldest, Chief Mackinac, is a 1917, 32-foot launch constructed by Consolidated, and the youngest dates to 1955.

“Gull Lake is one of my favorite places to be,” Allen said. “Lee encouraged me to get into antique boats and I have thoroughly enjoyed them. We have a healthy collection and competition.”

Allen’s fondness for Gull Lake led him to purchase the legendary Bar Harbor Supper Club in Lake Shore. The original 1938 restaurant burned down in 1968 and was rebuilt twice before Allen purchased it last year with an eye toward an extensive renovation that would recall its past.

“Bar Harbor’s historic presence appealed to me,” he said. “Three and four generations of families have dined and danced there. After the renovation, an older gentleman told me, ‘I am 92, and I have been coming here every summer since 1938. I thought I would hate what you’ve done, but I love it!’”

Allen jokes that Bar Harbor “never will make my Top 10 deals from a standpoint of profitability,” but he has no regrets. As he examined the project, he chose to move ahead in large measure because he believed it would benefit the community.

And it was, he might have added, another example of betting on himself.

Read more from St. Thomas Magazine.

Peter Coffey

He was known for his expertise on the European Union and international economic issues. He hosted numerous round tables at St. Thomas and was the author of more than 30 books.

According to the St. Thomas Bulletin of  Sept. 5, 1989, Coffey, an internationally known economist, was 55 when he was named to the U.S. West-endowed Chair in International Management after a yearlong search. He was widely recognized as an authority on the European Union and its possible consequences for international business, trade, banking and financial services.

He was native of York, England. He studied at the University of Durham in North England, he was a former Fulbright scholar, and he held research positions in France and West Germany and lectured or taught in nearly all the nations of the European Union.

He was described as a “world citizen” and could speak seven languages.

The York Press, England, paid tribute to Coffey Saturday, May 4.