when Don Nottingham (Law’04) snagged the stage of Boulder’s Fox Theater to sing for his law school classmates during their 2004 graduation party, he belted out Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish,” the Black Crowes’ “Hard to Handle” and other high-energy hits. He enjoyed every second of it.
From an early age, long before he became a U.S. Marine Corps Lt. General, Bernard Trainor (MA’63) pursued a simple life strategy.
re are people with a fascination for the machinations of local government, and people who like beer. Esther Manheimer (Anth’93) is at home in both camps, and among the lucky few to combine the two for her work: She’s mayor of Asheville, N.C., a place that “takes its pleasures seriously,” as the New York Times put it.
It was from a jeep on a 2008 game drive in Swaziland that Melinda MacInnis (MCreatWrit’97) saw her first wild rhinoceroses, a mother and calf.
District attorney is not a job for the faint of heart. Ask Stan Garnett (Hist’78, Law’82).
The first time Jacqueline Verdier (PolSci’05) saw a selfie stick, last year while visiting a friend in Asia, she laughed.
For Jake Hurysz, February was a good month.
In the annals of CU football, Derek McCartney has a famous name. Now he’s making one for himself.
Val Constien’s (EnvEngr’18) parents never had to tell her to go outside to play.
For millions of young children and parents worldwide, a problem-solving 7-year-old Latina girl with a flair for adventure has become a favorite imaginary friend.
No Business Like Show Business Actors play characters; Heather (Bus’03) and Jonathan Arthur (Bus’03) play actors. They’re stuntmen. “I was with Jennifer Love Hewitt for three years and Ali Larter for five, and it worked out nicely because then I knew their movements better,” Heather says. “If I do a good job, then no one
RUN, RICK, RUN! Running mountain trails was strictly forbidden for CU-Boulder’s track and cross-country athletes in the 1960s: Coach Frank Potts wanted his runners on the flats. But Rick Trujillo (Geol’70) couldn’t help himself and, on his own time, ran alone on Flagstaff and Green Mountains. “Running in circles never made sense to me,” says
With his steely blue eyes, sculpted Italian features and brawny physique, let’s just say actor Christopher Meloni (Hist’83) doesn’t have much to worry about in the looks department.
After searching for a four-year university where her Amarillo Junior College courses would transfer, she picked CU-Boulder. Her father, a draftsman working for the Santa Fe railroad, got her a free travel pass from Amarillo to Denver and then on to Boulder. At CU she became one of 36 women among 1,100 engineering majors.
Seana Steffen (PhDSoc’02) is making the world a better place one business at a time.
Essence of the Irish Pub Selecting the best Irish pubs in America seems like an idea conceived in one; few follow through on the notion the next morning. But after talking with pub owner and friend Ron Wallace, Robert Meyers (PolSci’61) spent a year traveling more than 10,000 miles for the project. The result is
The thrill of a challenge and the power to create products that sell help fuel Angela Mader (InfoSys’01) as she grows her small business.
For a high-end consumer goods company — as for chefs and epicures — presentation matters. At Williams-Sonoma, Heidi Dewell (Jour’91), makes things look good.
Throughout the 1970s huge barn dances organized by CU-Boulder students were held for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people at a farm north of Boulder. According to psychologist and self-described amateur historian Glenda Russell (Psych’79, MA’83, PhD’84), they “represent the first time in northern Colorado that gay people controlled their own space.”
Best in Class Caroline Hult (Engl, Hum’04) is a numbers geek. What started out as a desire to make her experience as recruitment director for Teach For America more efficient became an innovative standard for how the organization selects teachers. “I deeply believe that who is in the classroom matters tremendously,” she says. Her novel approach
Bonnie Burton (Engl, Jour’95) has been a self-professed geek since she was a child. Growing up she enjoyed everything from Doctor Who to The X-Files and at the age of 12 she wrote fan fiction about the Battlestar Galactica TV series. But it was her love for Star Wars that helped propel her career.
Growing up in Loveland, Colo., Stephanie Meeks (Engl’87) gained an early appreciation for place.
When Aileen El-Kadi (PhDSpan’07) migrated to the U.S. from Spain as a CU-Boulder doctoral candidate at age 27, she attempted to fit in with the rest of the students. She listened to hip-hop music, bought trendy American clothes and tried to communicate like everyone else. However she soon realized she was trying to assume a different identity from who she was.
Philip Hart (Soc’66) remembers discovering photos of his great uncle James Herman Banning in family albums of his mother’s basement. He was wearing flight goggles and posing in front of big planes. Banning was America’s first black aviator to fly coast-to-coast.
When he was a child Luke Graham (Jour’06) dreamed of being a center fielder for the New York Yankees. By the time he turned 13, he realized his dream wasn’t realistic and searched for other sports-related careers.
Colleen Glyde Julian (EPOB’97, MKines’01, PhD’07) knows a thing or two about living in rarefied air. On her way to becoming a three-time cross country and track and field All-American at CU-Boulder, she experienced firsthand how running at high altitude can leave you breathless.
Concentrating to catch the nuances of each side’s position, Trey Lyons (PolSci’00), pictured right, sits at the Geneva International Discussions on the conflict in Georgia. A foreign service officer stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Trey leads a unit focused on Georgia’s foreign policy and the Russian-occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions.
“You can change the way the rest of the world sees your country and culture in a single captured image of the Olympic flame passing through your streets,” comments Steve, chairman and CEO of Além International, an experiential marketer, creator and producer of special events based in Louisville, Colo.
Silvia Pettem (Psych’69) is the first to say that it is never too late to start a career. The 66-year-old has spent more than 40 years as an author, writer and historical researcher centered on the city of Boulder, but nearly two decades ago she realized a new passion well into her career — researching cold cases.
Jessie Mosnik (Ling’08) has become an expert at packing her suitcases.
San Diego Padres chief executive officer Tom Garfinkel (Comm’91) always has viewed baseball as a platform to bring people together.
When Gregory Hinton (Bus’77) came out as gay in 1975, one of his friends, a theology student, threatened to drive him from Boulder with whips and chains.
Toshiko Luckow’s (MTeleComm’87, MD’10) motto for life came from a professor. “You can do everything you want to do — you just can’t do it all at once,” she recalls him saying. “So, voilà! That has been my motto.”
Len’s fascination with Einstein began at CU-Boulder which he began attending at age 30. During a geology course, his professor described a study he did in Zion National Park and then shared one of Einstein’s thoughts stating, “Many times a day I remind myself that my inner and outer lives are built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead and how earnestly I must work in order to give as much as I have received and continue to receive.”
With the launch of their business Winestyr, Robert Wilson (Fin’06), pictured in the middle, his brother John Wilson (Jour’06), right, and lifelong friend Scott Washburn (Fin’06), left, have one strong intention: to elevate the visibility of small, niche wineries.
What do Justin Timberlake, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Matthew McConaughey and Harrison Ford have in common? They can all be impersonated by film and voiceover actor Ross Marquand (Thtr’04) to perfection.
“My personal pride comes from continuing to push my beliefs on responsible development and environmentally conscious development to the forefront,” he says. “If I could bridge the gap between environmental conservation and development, that would be my proudest accomplishment.”
“I’ve been around the women’s team longer than anyone, and I’m a bit of an historian,” Carol reflects on her more than 30 years of providing color commentary. “I tell a story about what people want to know, what they’re interested in.”
Striving to stand out as filmmakers in the immensely competitive city of Los Angeles, Nick Loritsch (Film’03), pictured left, and Joshua Dragge (Film’99), right, have made a giant leap in the industry with the successful debut of their independent film Born & Raised.
Ancient Greeks believed the gemstone heliodor contained the power and warmth of the sun, and to jewelry designer Winifred Adams (Fren’96), her one-of-a-kind heliodor “King Crown Ring” certainly makes a powerful impression. The finger-sized gold coronet features a nearly 10-carat yellow heliodor surrounded by eight shimmering diamonds.
On May 22, 2011, in only 35 minutes, one-third of Joplin, Mo., was destroyed. Winds peaked at 250 miles per hour, reaching a maximum width of one mile. The Joplin tornado led to 161 deaths and the destruction of more than 8,000 buildings. During the recovery of Joplin’s tragedy, composer Hubert Bird (DMus’77) found a way to bring the community together.
Rappelling into a flooded canyon in Utah’s Zion National Park, photographer Jeff Diener (EPOBio’92) was sweating in his wetsuit in the 100-degree heat. Yet on his fourth rappel deep into the canyon, all was forgotten when a cathedral of glowing sandstone appeared 70 feet below. He immediately set up his gear and began shooting photographs.
Richard Pattenaude (PhDPolSci’74) may be chancellor of the University of Maine System, but his first love is teaching — teaching political science, to be more precise. But he almost became an economist.
Joel Bloom’s (Span’00) predicament was this: fresh out of college, degree in hand and a career path that was wide open. “If there’s one question I remember above anything else, it was people always asking me what I planned to do with a B.A. in Spanish,” he says. “My answer was always the same, ‘I don’t know. I’m majoring in Spanish because it’s the only field of study I truly love.’ ”
Elly Goetz (Soc’03) learned the importance of investing in herself and others while growing up. Her parents often took in children whose families needed help and taught her to invest her own resources to help others get what they needed.
One of Son Nam Nguyen’s (Fin’90) childhood memories is collecting cans off the inner-city streets of Denver to sell for cash when he was 10.
John Murphy (Mktg’77), David Sosnowski (CivEngr’77) and Dan Park (CivEngr’77) moved to Kittredge in 1973, quickly finding they shared a passion for skiing and adventure, interests that would serve as a foundation for their friendship and formation of a multimillion-dollar business.
Fourth-generation CU alum Alan Cass (A&S ex’63, HonDocHum’99) grew up on campus playing in the ditches and fishing for crawdads in Varsity Lake with strung bacon.
Kelly Heffer Green (Comm’97) may possibly head the most important company of which you’ve never heard.
With creative fundraising and social media savvy, Morgan Heim (MJour’09) is forging a path through the jungle of modern journalism and hopes to save a few species along the way.
After more than 9,000 flight hours and 60 years as a pilot, James Patton Jr. (Aero’56) landed at the end of his career where he first took off — on the plane of his childhood dreams.
Kevin Costner isn’t a sports scientist, but he played one on the big screen. Allen Lim (MKines’97, PhDIntPhys’04), on the other hand, is the real deal, and Costner can take some credit for that.
Gourmet food hits the trail Sarah Welton (MBA’07) loved to eat and camp, so she decided to co-found PackitGourmet. “Our family has been canoeing, skiing and camping together my entire life,” she says. “My mother always prepared our meals in the style of what is now PackitGourmet — grab-it-out-of-the-pack bag.” The idea of an online
Andrew Nelson (BioChem’09) and Leah Feazel (EPOBio, MCDBio’05) were married in Cameroon last summer surrounded by people they had only known for a few weeks.
As director of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, N.M., Shelby Tisdale oversees 11,500 years of Native American history. The broad collection contains almost 10 million archaeological artifacts and about 75,000 ethnographic materials and fine arts.
Who would have thought that running and wine paired so well? Matt Dockstader (Bus’78) did and in 2004 produced the first Napa-to-Sonoma Wine Country Half Marathon.
After a lifetime of helping others and dreaming about what it would be like to serve in the Peace Corps, Ellie Vaughter’s (Thtr’91, MHum’00) aspiration is finally coming true.
In a male-dominated sports world, Alanna Rizzo (Bus’97, MJour’03) of Fox Sports Net (FSN) stands out in her role as a sideline reporter for the Rockies. But she believes a woman is equally respected and treated in her field if she’s willing to work hard and do her homework.
Many stories were recounted at the Cross Country and Track & Field Reunion Oct. 22-24 in Boulder to honor both the 2000 women’s cross country team and the 1985 men’s cross country team that finished third nationally.
Growing up in Dallas, Sarah Schupp (Bus’04) says she always wanted to be an entrepreneur. “I used to get in trouble in elementary school for selling candy to the other kids on the bus, but the detention was worth it,” she says.
Sheila Mullan (Jour’82) has good advice for college students. “Don’t just take the easy A courses in college because the courses you struggle to get through may be the ones that have the most influence on your life,” she says.
Mike A. McCoy’s (A&S’65) passion for achieving a better understanding of the interrelationship of ecological systems has evolved over the decades. “It wasn’t much understood in the ’60s,” he says.
When members of Single Carrot Theatre put on Illuminoctem last November, they used a classic storyline — destiny brings boy and girl together, they fall in love at first sight and, despite adversity, are united in the end.
Barrio street scenes come alive through Tony Ortega’s (Span’80, MFA’95) use of bold yellows, blue-greens, orange, rust and hot pinks. The brown-bodied subjects with indefinable faces keep the focus on the everyday lives of indigenous Mestizo, Indian and Latino subjects and their environment.
Dora Beale Polk has a simple philosophy: “You make your own life”
The knotted, age-worn fingers calculate $1.60 in their familiar dance across calculator keys and handwritten spreadsheets. Richard Stevens (MGeog’58) tenderly picks six tomatoes off the scale and hands them to the waiting customer.
When Randy George (ChemEngr’71, MBA’78), left, and Jim Yost (MAnth’67, PhD’72), right, met in Boulder during the late 1960s, they had no idea they’d end up running a guest ranch together in western Grand County, Colo.
My life’s over, worried Annie Lyons (Comm’03) after learning she’d received a staff assistant position with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in July 2006. She wanted the job but realized the hours would be unimaginable.
Henry Claypool’s (Geog’89) commitment to working on behalf of Americans with disabilities is a deeply personal one.
Life has been straight out of a history book. The longtime Boulder resident, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday, attended Mapleton Elementary School as a little girl, watched the Boulder Courthouse burn down Feb. 9, 1932, and attended CU during the Great Depression. She even met Buffalo Bill Cody.
He spends countless hours helping foster youth avoid homelessness at all costs, mediating between angry landlords, exhausted caseworkers and frustrated youth. Anthony manages youth enrollment in the program, the ever-growing wait list and housing inspections. His least favorite aspect is paperwork, averaging around 250 pages per youth. He spends his remaining time tackling crises. Each morning his voice mail is filled with emergencies ranging from landlords who need their rent money to youth facing eviction.
When he graduated last December, Tyler Silverman (ChemEngr’08) wasn’t even in the country. He was in Seville, Spain, getting ready to jump into a career in solar energy with Abengoa Solar New Technologies.
While in her 20s, Colorado-born Kirsten Ring Murray (EnvDes’86) moved to Seattle with an enthusiasm for its romantic landscape — woods, mountains and water and, hopefully, a career in architecture.
In her first assignment as a photojournalist in 1968, Sandra Cortner (Ital’68) moved her subject outside because of necessity — she hadn’t earned enough money yet to buy a flash. Her editor loved the result, and Sandra was propelled into a career in black-and-white portraiture that has since been highlighted in the 2006 Crested Butte Stories…Through My Lens (Wild Rose Press).
John E. Roberts (IntlAf’64) has visited 183 countries and aims to travel to the 23 remaining. While his trips were initially paid for through the Peace Corps and the U.S. State Department, these days they’re on his own dime.
Whether hiking in the mountains or walking in space, astronaut Steve Swanson’s (EngrPhys’83) life is full of adventure.
Combine artistic creativity and a love of science, add a dollop of inspiration, season with whimsy and a sense of humor and you have Julie Peasley’s (Art’91) recipe for success in crafting a geek gift teaching tool — the Particle Zoo, her collection of toy subatomic particles.
New York City fashion designer Lela Rose (Art’92) says her designs are “classic silhouettes with a whimsical twist,” a far fetch from the outdoorsy, casual styles seen in Boulder featuring fleece jackets and hiking boots.
From entertaining to inspirational, Frank Ellis’s (CivEngr’56) life is full of stories. As an entering freshman, he hitchhiked to Boulder from Ohio carrying a suitcase with a sticker that read, “CU or bust.” While a student, he hung a white flag with the hammer and sickle symbol on the university power plant smokestack as a prank.
When Jennifer Veiga (PolSci’83) told her dad she was gay, it immediately caused him concern for her political career: “Will that hurt you when you run for office?” he asked.
In seventh grade Christy Martinez Arguello (Edu’77) decided she wanted to be a lawyer. Nearly four decades later she says she reached the pinnacle of her career when former President George W. Bush named her judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado in July.
As on-site reporter for MTV’s Choose or Lose campaign at the Democratic National Convention last summer, Trevor Martin’s (Jour, Mktg’07) reporting gig wasn’t about taking notes in a traditional reporter’s notebook with an editor waiting back at the office. Rather, “it was just me with a camera and my cell,” Trevor says.
After attending CU on a Naval ROTC scholarship, then serving for the National Security Agency, Drug Enforcement Administration and Central Intelligence Agency W. Gordon Fink has seen the real world of secret agents.
