Golden Grad and Diamond Grad Reunion

Each year the WSU Alumni Association coordinates a very special event, which brings graduates back to the Pullman campus for their 50-year (Golden Grad) and 60-year (Diamond Grad) Reunions. The College of Sciences Office of Development hosts a luncheon to honor the Sciences majors among the returning alumni. The luncheon is a great time to get reacquainted with friends and share and compare stories of then and now.

College of Sciences Golden Graduates Luncheon 2008

PULLMAN, Wash. –Discussion of global warming and the theory of evolution were just a few of the highlights of the 2008 Dean’s Luncheon for members of the classes of 1948 and1958. Weighing in on these major topics of today – and also remembering vivid highlights of WSU’s past – were the following Diamond and Golden Anniversary graduates and several spouses:

2008 Golden and Diamond Grads: Front Row: Ed Donaldson, Alison (Vierock) McKeirnan, Marie (Strauch) Larsen. Back Row: Richard Gordon, Sterling Pickering, Fred Hudson.

ED DONALDSON – Class of 1948: Ed majored in physics, later earned a Ph.D. in the same field, and served on the WSU faculty in the Department of Physics for many years, retiring in 1988. Both Ed and his wife Virginia attended the luncheon, being the first to arrive because they understood the parking limitations of the university better than those visiting from afar.

The Donaldsons with Richard Gordon

MARIE (STRAUCH) LARSEN – Class of 1948: Marie came to WSC for one semester, then went into the Marine Corps during the War. She returned to her studies after hostilities ended and earned her degree in bacteriology. Eventually she served as an overseas missionary. Marie and her husband Ray Larsen both attended the luncheon, braving the drive through the snow from their home in Oregon.

Development director, Valoree Gregory gives corsage to Marie Larsen

RICHARD GORDON – Class of 1958. Richard majored in Physics and shared fond memories of several faculty from that area. While a student at WSC, he lived at the campus fire station, which he said helped with his room and board. The fire station also served as the after-hours general fix-the-plumbing crew, which lent a practical side to his education. Richard and his wife Annette attended the luncheon.

Richard Gordon shares his stories of his time in Pullman

FRED HUDSON – Class of 1958. Fred Hudson grew up in Pullman and shared several memories of what it was like to be a child of the town (a “Pullman rat” as they were called by the WSC students of the day) and then a student on College Hill. He is the son of our zoology professor, Dr. George F. Hudson, who established the Conner Museum. Fred went into the Air Force after graduation and from there into the commercial airline industry. He and his wife, Shirley, attended the luncheon.

Fred Hudson talks with Professor Mike Webster and others

ALISON (VIEROCK) MCKEIRNAN – Class of 1958: Alison majored in bacteriology and worked for Dr. Herb Eastlick in his lab for many years and raised her family in Pullman. She also returned to student life at WSU and earned a master’s degree in veterinary medicine, after which she worked at the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic lab until her retirement. She now lives in western Washington to be nearer her children and grandchildren.

Alison McKeirnan remembers working with Professor Herb Eastlick

STERLING PICKERING – Class of 1958: Sterling majored in physics and later earned a Ph.D. For a time he worked in the vineyards of academia, but he then followed that life with one as a commercial fisherman off the Alaska coast. His years as a skipper of his own boat allowed him to explore Alaska while much of it was still full wilderness. When he left that line of work, he went into the political arena. His many interests were evident in conversation.

Sterling Pickering talks with Dean of Sciences, Michael Griswold

Dean Michael Griswold welcomed all the diamond and golden grads, explaining that the College of Sciences now has hundreds of seniors each year in the life sciences and scores in the physical sciences and mathematics – clear changes from the days of the past. He explained some of the exciting faculty research being done today in clean energy technology and animal biochemistry and genetics.

Two members of WSU’s Class of 2008 joined the luncheon group. Stephanie Gering is a School of Molecular Biosciences major who is headed to medical school this fall via WSU’s WWAMI program. While an undergraduate, Stephanie worked on research into new ways to synthesize anti-viral drugs. Potentially such methods could make the drugs – including anti-HIV medicines – cheaper and therefore more available to people worldwide. Leslie Shuhler also joined the group and spoke to the Golden and Diamond Graduates. Leslie is a chemistry major. She is from Argentina and expressed her thanks for the scholarships she has received while an undergraduate due to the generosity of many WSU alumni over the years. Leslie also has done research while an undergraduate. Her work has been in chemistry and materials science under Professor Kerry Hipps. Leslie has been accepted into a Ph.D. program in her field and will pursue it after a year spent working as a chemist. Both Leslie and Stephanie received honors this year as College of Sciences outstanding undergraduates.

The College of Sciences development staff hosted the luncheon, which was held in the lounge of Eastlick Hall, named for Dr. Herb Eastlick. Biology professor Mike Webster and microbiology emeritus professor Herb Nakata also joined the group, along with communications office staff.

Previous Reunions

Meet the College of Sciences 2006 Diamond and Golden Grads

We were pleased to welcome our alumni from 50 and 60 years ago—our Golden and Diamond Grads—back to campus on April 26. This year the College of Sciences was fortunate to host four Diamond Grads and twelve Golden Grads at our annual sciences reunion luncheon where many memories were shared. In addition to those who made the trip, several who could not attend sent biographical information, and some attended the reunion, but were not available for the photo. Their notes are also included below. We hope you enjoy their stories.

Diamond grads, back row from the left: Charles Hough, Ramy Hough, Eve Hollingbery. Front row: Marian Elberson, Betty Kuhl.

Diamond Grads: Class of 1946

Marian (Stouffer) Elberson and her husband Alden “Elby” both attended Washington State College. She majored in bacteriology and belonged to Alpha Chi Omega. He left to go to war and later finished engineering school at Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia where she taught biological sciences for a few years. After graduation, he joined Bethlehem Steel and his first job was as field engineer on the second Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

They lived for a time in San Mateo where she taught sciences in a continuation school. Later they returned to the Bethlehem Steel home office in Pennsylvania. At retirement they moved to Seattle. In 1993 the pair rode 300 miles with a tour group down the Danube through Germany and Austria. They had three children and Marian now lives in Bellevue. Elby passed away in 2003.

Eve (Allert) Hollingbery majored in bacteriology and was also an Alpha Chi Omega. Her father Cornelius Allert received an honorary Cougar Father degree because all eight of his children attended WSC. During the war, Eve worked as a medical technologist at Spokane hospitals. When he returned from the war, Eve married Don Hollingbery, son of legendary football coach Babe Hollingbery, who became a Yakima/Moses Lake area architect; their five children all attended WSU as well. Eve was named a WSU Mother of the Year.

She taught medical terminology and English as a second language at Yakima Community College and, in 1973, she earned a master's degree at Eastern State College. Eve now lives in Yakima, enjoys weaving baskets and writing poetry, and swims daily.

Ramy (Newland) Hough earned her WSC degree in chemistry and also became a member of Alpha Chi Omega. She remembers when Wilson Compton became president of the college and his famous brother Arthur, one of the developers of the atomic bomb, attended his inauguration.

Ramy and her husband Charles farmed in Kentucky, restored three homes (one is now on the National Register of Historic Places) and then moved to Seattle, where he practiced law and she taught school. In the summer of 1969, she taught the three-week Student Conservation Association Boys’ Camp on Mount Rainier. The boys, 16 to 18 year-olds, did volunteer work and learned survival skills. The high point was hearing a report on their transistor radio of the first man to walk on the moon. Ramy and Charles now live in Seattle.

Betty (Drake) Kuhl, a native of Selah, earned a bacteriology degree while living in McCroskey Hall. Her most vivid memory from her freshmen year was learning that Pearl Harbor had been bombed.

Betty met her husband, Bill Kuhl, a veterinary medicine student at WSC. After living a year in Seattle, they moved to Baker City, Oregon, where Bill established his practice. After raising four daughters, Betty opened a bookstore called Betty’s Books. After retiring and after Bill’s death, she wrote a book about his life, “Dr. Bill Kuhl, Family and Friends.” Betty still lives in Baker City.

Golden grads, back row from the left: Carol Kelly, Rod Faubion, Phil O'Neill, William Scopf, Alan Neal, Tom Norris, Lila Kern, Mel Kern. Front row: Miriam Faubion, Barbara O'Neill, Jane Schopf, Shirley Melville, Emma Jean Neal, Pat Norris.

Golden Grads: Class of 1956

After earning her undergraduate degree in bacteriology, Marilyn (Johnson) Capener entered a post-graduate training course in Public Health Microbiology at the California Department of Health Services Laboratory. She passed all the exams and became a Certified Public Health Microbiologist. Marilyn eventually became director of the Berkeley City Health Laboratory, and later advanced to section chief at the California State Microbial Diseases Laboratory.

Marilyn married Gene Capener, who was employed by the Matson Navigation Company.

Marilyn retired in 2003 and lives in Orinda, Calif. She continues to be active in her community by participating on a social justice committee that provides shelter care to homeless people.

Rosemary (Long) Demich and her husband Ron earned their ways through college by working at Stadium Commons. Ron was a Navy pilot during the war. He had a WSC business degree and became an accountant and later joined his family's hardware business in Yelm, where she also worked. Ron died in 2002.

Rosemary raised six children, including a son with learning disabilities who is now out on his own. She spent many an hour supporting her children in the concession stands at basketball and football games as part of the booster club. She now enjoys water aerobics and visiting friends and family.

Miriam (Griffths) Faubion was a nursing student who lived in Regents Hill Hall. Once when returning from vacation, she became lost and got back to the dorm past curfew. Her punishment was three nights washing floors, unable to go out or even to the library. Her first and last offense!

Miriam worked 28 years as a nurse in the labor and delivery wards at Northwest Hospital in Seattle. She and her husband Roderick, who worked as a geological engineer with Burlington Northern Railroad, had four children and have celebrated more than 50 years of marriage. She enjoys gardening, cooking and traveling the world. The Faubions live in Bothell.

Nursing graduate, Carol (Albrecht) Kelly worked for over 20 years at the Veteran's Hospital in Vancouver, Wash. The assignment she found most rewarding was in the Hospice Ward.

She and her late husband, Clifford, had two children. Their son David attended WSU earning a degree in agriculture in 1981 and his daughter, Ashley,has enrolled for this fall.

Lila (Hugill) Kern, also a nursing graduate, lived in Regents Hill Hall, West House and Finch Hall in Spokane. She married WSC 1955 graduate Albert Jenisch. They had five children. After his death, Lila worked for three orthopedic surgeons in order to support her family.

In 1985 she married Mel Kern, a high school music teacher. The Kerns live in Vancouver and Lila has enjoyed learning to play the flute in recent years.

Shirley (Baldwin) Melville earned her WSC degree in bacteriology while living in Wilmer Hall. She married James Melville, who earned a bachelor's in chemistry in 1956 and a doctorate in 1971 at age 40. After she graduated, Shirley worked in the St. Lukes' Hospital Laboratory in Spokane. When her husband was discharged from the Air Force they went back to the family farm in Lamont, Wash. After James got his advanced degree, they lived in Tracy, Calif., where he worked at the wastewater treatment lab for five years. They later returned to the Lamont farm, where Shirley still lives.

Shirley enjoyed teaching. After she took her first course in bacteriology, BACT 101, she was hired to run the beginning lab for the next year. “I was able to teach that lab while it was still fresh in my mind.” She also taught new hires to run the lab in Tracy.

After earning a bacteriology degree at WSC, Emma (Barrett) Neal went on to Ohio State University for a master's degree. Afterwards she worked for Pfizer in vaccine development in Terre Haute, Indiana, for four years. She met her husband Alan Neal there. The Neals had two children and Emma opted not to return to work. She was very active in her church and with music, in sports, and volunteering with the Girl Scouts. She especially enjoyed working with youth. A special adventure took the Neals on a 300-mile canoe trip on the Wabash River in Indiana.

H. Thomas Norris and his wife Patricia (Henry) Norris were both science students at WSC in the class of 1956. Tom went on to the University of Southern California Medical School and graduated in 1959. His residency training was interrupted by the Berlin Wall crisis and he spent two years in the Medical Corps at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research involved in human cholera research.

After his residency in Boston, he joined the Department of Pathology at the University of Washington, was granted tenure and advanced to a full professor. In 1983, he was recruited to become chair of the pathology department in the East Carolina University School of Medicine in Greenville, North Carolina, and chief of pathology in their teaching hospital.

Since retiring in 1997, Tom has served as president of the East Carolina Musical Arts Education Foundation, which raised $1.5 million to acquire a pipe organ, which is now located in the St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Greenville. In 2004, Tom received a WSU alumni Achievement Award.

Pat Norris transferred to WSC from Stanford. She earned a bacteriology degree and joined Pi Beta Phi. She worked as a medical technologist in California and Boston until their children were born. She is a photographer and does her own darkroom work.

Tom and Pat enjoy world travel and split their year between Greenville and Hayden Lake, Idaho. Pat enjoys their trips abroad and their drives across the United States.

Barbara (Watkins) O'Neill is a nursing graduate who lived at Regents Hill Hall. She remembers enjoying ice skating on the flooded and frozen baseball field near the field house.

She married Phillip O'Neill, a class of 53 business major who worked as a purchasing agent for Boeing for 34 years.

Barbara advanced as a professional nursing educator. She specialized in obstetrics/gynecology her entire career. She began teaching obstetrical nursing at Tacoma School of Nursing and decided to complete a Master's of Nursing at the University of Washington. Her last teaching position was at Shoreline Community College; she retired in 1994.

A high point in her career was serving as national president of the Nurses Association of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 1982.

Barbara continues community involvement by volunteering with the WSU Pierce County Extension office and at her church as a sewing teacher. The O'Neills live in Kent.

Thomas Proteau was a pre-dentistry student. He followed his WSC experience with dental school at University of Washington. He served in the Navy five years and was in private practice for 30. His wife is Katie (Monroe) Proteau, a 58 liberal arts major. They live in Bremerton and love to travel. Tom is a dedicated member of the Lion's Club and for two years served as chairman of the board for the Northwest Lion's Club Eye Bank.

Jane (Shen) and J. William Schopf were guests at the Sciences luncheon. Jane earned a WSC horticulture degree. She had come from China in 1951 and continued her post WSC schooling at Michigan State University to earn a Ph.D. She completed a postdoc at Argonne National Lab studying space biology.

She became an associate program director at the National Science Foundation and in 1978 participated in a botanical delegation to China. She served as assistant vice-chancellor for research at UCLA and has traveled the world on various field trips, sabbaticals and to attend conferences.

Jane has recently germinated the oldest seed that has successfully sprouted a 1300 year old lotus seed. Her current research is on healthy aging and cellular repair that could be useful to all organisms including humans.

William graduated from Oberlin College and HarvardUniversity and taught geology at UCLA. He is noted for organizing the Precambrian Paleobiology Research Group and the Center for the Study of Evolution and Origin of Life.

The following folks are members of the class of 1956 and submitted alumni biographies, although they were unable to attend the reunion.

John Rumely, attended Oberlin College, but his progress was interrupted by the Army for two years. He graduated in 1948. After a summer collecting and identifying algae at Woods Hole, Mass., he entered graduate school at Washington State College, graduating with a Ph.D. in botany in 1956.

That year he started working in plant ecology at Montana State College in Bozeman, Mont., switching to plant taxonomy in 1972. He offically retired in 1988, but has continued to work in plant taxonomy. I send best wishes to all former acquaintances, said John.

Donald Steiger earned a geology degree and lived in the Alpha Gamma Rho house. He married Bettie (Alexander) Steiger, 56, Liberal Arts. Donald is a retired Army colonel. He spent the first 28 years of his career as a military intelligence officer, serving in Germany, Korea, and Vietnam. He also served as an attach to Pakistan, had duty in the Pentagon, and commanded a battalion in San Antonio, Texas, before retiring as director of attach training for the Department of Defense in 1986. He attended the National War College in 1982. Don co-founded a business building houses in the D.C. area before moving to California in 1991. He has maintained his residency in Colfax, Wash., where he owns and manages a wheat farm near Diamond. A WSU President's Associate, Don serves on the WSU Foundation's Gift Acceptance and Management Committee.

Bob C. Swanbeck, a zoology major, joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon. He explains, I am only Class of 1956 by accident! I attended WSC 1947 to 50 and then got into medical school. When I was a General Practitioner resident at Tulare County General Hospital, I wrote to WSC about my B.S. degree. Dr. (Herbert) Eastlick wrote that if I would take a four- hour course by correspondence I would get my degree. I took Contemporary International Politics, got an A and my B.S. with Honors. The diploma came in the mail, two years after my M.D.!

Bob's WSC memories include hitting a grand slam home run to win the softball championship for SAE in 1950 and taking his medical college entrance exam on a Saturday when WSC was playing USC in the WSC stadium lots of noise!
He has particularly enjoyed attending a barbershop quartet competition in Boston, and traveling all over the world.

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