June 2008

APPLETON, WIS. — Bob Spoo’s latest return to his hometown of Appleton will be as one of the honored guests at Lawrence University’s annual Reunion Weekend Celebration June 20-22.

A 1975 graduate of Appleton East High School, Spoo will be recognized with a distinguished achievement award Saturday, June 15 during the Reunion Convocation at 10:30 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. He will be one of six alumni honored for career achievements, contributions to the betterment of society or volunteer service to Lawrence.

More than 900 alumni and guests from 43 states and six countries, including destinations as distant as Australia and Kenya, are expected to return to campus to participate in the weekend-long festivities.

Spoo

Spoo, professor of intellectual property, law and literature at the University of Tulsa and John Holdridge, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Program, each will receive the Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award. Named in honor of the second president of Milwaukee-Downer College, the Briggs award recognizes alumni of more than 15 years for outstanding contributions to, and achievements in, a career field.

A 1979 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Lawrence who worked as a student counselor in the admissions office after graduating, Spoo has enjoyed a career that has taken him full circle, from academia to law and back to higher education again.

A recognized scholar of Irish author James Joyce and co-editor of the preeminent literary journal James Joyce Quarterly for more than 10 years, Spoo was a tenured English professor at the University of Tulsa before embarking on a legal career. After earning his law degree in 2000 at Yale Law School, where he was the executive editor of the Yale Law Journal, Spoo joined a California law firm where he distinguished himself in copyright issues and intellectual property law.

His interests in helping artists and authors legally protect their original work grew out of his own experiences writing and editing materials about Joyce, Ezra Pound and other authors. In addition to dozens of record companies and filmmakers, Spoo has shared his expertise on copyright infringement with the National Library of Ireland, the government of Vietnam, numerous software technology companies and at conferences around the world.

Spoo recently left his position as an associate at Howard Rice Nemerovski Candady Falk & Rabkin law firm in San Francisco to return to the University of Tulsa.

Holdridge

Holdridge, a 1977 Lawrence graduate, has spent much of his career at the forefront of the fight against the use of capital punishment in the United States. Through the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Program, Holdridge advocates for the reform of the death penalty process and the protection of capital defendants’ rights.

A graduate of New York University School of Law, Holdridge, who lives in Dunham, N.C., spent time as a public defender in Connecticut’s Capital Defense and Trial Services Unit and more than a decade as director of the Mississippi and Louisiana Capital Trial Assistance Project in New Orleans. Among the clients he represented were Larry Maxwell, who faced a triple capital murder indictment but was later freed and Michael Ray Graham, who was exonerated after spending nearly 14 years on death row.

Holdridge successively co-argued the seminal case of State v. Peart, in which the Louisiana Supreme Court recognized that indigent defendants have a pretrial right to effective counsel and that the heavy caseload of the New Orleans indigent defender system violated that right.

The National Legal Aid & Defender Association honored Holdridge in 2001 with its Life in the Balance Achievement Award for his efforts in “representing not only the poorest clients but the poorest lawyers.”

Farnham Jarrard, Bristol, Va., and Judy Sutherland, Evanston, Ill., each will receive the George B. Walter Service to Society Award. Named in honor of Walter ’36, beloved former faculty member and dean of men at Lawrence who believed strongly that every individual can and should make a positive difference in the world, the award recognizes alumni who best exemplify the ideals of a liberal education through socially useful service in their community, the nation or the world.

Jarrard

Jarrard, a 1958 Lawrence graduate, made his name in the steel industry and left his mark in community service.

He entered the steel business shortly after graduation and eventually rose to president and CEO of Allied Structural Steel in Hammond, Ind. He later spent 16 years as senior vice president of Bristol Steel and Iron Works, Inc. His contributions to the industry were recognized with an honorary lifetime directorship in the American Institute of Steel Construction, one of only 11 such appointments awarded in the organization’s 87-year history.

After moving to Bristol, Jarrard immersed himself in his new community, serving as an agent for positive change and spearheading several successful economic development initiatives.

His lengthy public service includes 12 years on the Bristol town council, including eight as mayor. He also served as chair of the Bristol Utilities Board of Directors, guiding efforts that led Bristol to become the first municipal utility in the country to build and operate its own fiber optics network to provide telephone, cable and data services.

Jarrard has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Bristol’s Virginia Intermont College, co-chaired a nonprofit foundation to restore Bristol’s historic train depot and led the fight to reestablish passenger rail service between southwestern Virginia and Washington, D.C. The director of Bristol’s Paramount Center for the Arts has hailed Jarrard as “an ideal citizen, involved and interested in all aspects of the community.”

Sutherland

Sutherland, also a 1958 Lawrence graduate, is a former student of Walter, the man her award honors. While studying for her master’s degree in counseling psychology, Sutherland took an art therapy class at Chicago’s Adler School of Professional Psychology that ignited her life’s work as an educator, registered art therapist and

administrator.

She joined the Adler school as a teacher and with encouragement from the administration, soon was entrusted with the task of developing the school’s master’s degree program in art therapy and overseeing the appropriate professional accreditation. Based on the Adlerian framework that includes respect for each individual, an optimistic and collaborative approach to helping others and a commitment to advancing society through social involvement and support for the marginalized and underrepresented, the program Sutherland created was approved by the American Art Therapy Association in 1993. She served as director of the master’s program in art therapy until her retirement in 2006, nearly doubling its enrollment during her tenure.

Sutherland, who has called making art “a form of prayer,” has been a frequent presenter at Adlerian conventions and workshops around the country, focusing on using art and psychodrama in psychotherapeutic work with dreams.

Noonan

Jo Noonan, Atlanta, Ga., will be presented the Gertrude B. Jupp Outstanding Service Award. The award honors Jupp, a 1918 graduate of Milwaukee-Downer College, who was named M-D Alumna of the Year in 1964 for her long volunteer service to the college. It recognizes Lawrence and Milwaukee-Downer alumni of more than 15 years who have provided outstanding service to the college.

A 1978 graduate, Noonan has been an actively engaged volunteer, serving the college in a variety of capacities for the past 30 years. She was a member of the Lawrence University Alumni Association for six years, including two as board president (2003-05). She served as class secretary for the Class of 1978 and as a member of the Alumni Advisory Working Group. She has been active in alumni event planning for the Atlanta region and is current chair of her 30th reunion steering committee.

Tie Shue

Steve Tie Shue, Minneapolis, Minn., will receive the Marshall B. Hulbert Young Alumni Service Award, which recognizes a Lawrence alumnus or alumna of 15 years or less, who has provided significant service to the college. This award honors Hulbert ’26, known to many as “Mr. Lawrence,” who served the university in many significant capacities for 54 years.

The youngest person ever to receive the Hulbert Award, Tie Shue was the president of his graduating class in 2004 and has remained a leader among his classmates since leaving Lawrence. He served four years on the LUAA board of directors, beginning when he was still a student and ending in 2007 as vice president. He also served as chair of his class’ 5th reunion steering committee, was a four-year member of the Viking gift committee and is active as a regional event volunteer.

APPLETON, WIS. — Four members of the Lawrence University faculty were honored for teaching excellence, scholarship or creative activity Sunday, June 15 at the college’s 159th commencement.

Sturm

Fred Sturm, director of jazz studies and Kimberly-Clark Professor of Music, became the first faculty member to receive all three of Lawrence’s teaching honors given at commencement when he was presented the Award for Excellence in Creative Activity.

Established in 2006, the award recognizes outstanding creative work for advancing Lawrence’s mission. Sturm had previously been honored with the college’s Young Teacher Award (1983) and the Award for Excellence in Teaching (2005).

A 1973 Lawrence graduate, Sturm has established himself as one of the country’s leading composers and jazz educators. His most recent major composition, “Migrations,” was premiered last August by Grammy Award-winning vocalist Bobby McFerrin at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Hamburg, Germany.

He also served as the musical director for the Baseball Music Project, a touring symphonic tribute to baseball music that has been performed by major orchestras around the country as well as last month at the Performing Arts Center in Appleton. His many honors include a Grammy nomination and the ASCAP/IAJE Commission In Honor of Quincy Jones, a prize granted annually to one established jazz composer of international prominence.

“Your creative achievements have been a source of joy and inspiration for everyone in the Lawrence community,” Lawrence Provost David Burrows said in presenting Sturm his award. “Your work as a composer, arranger, performer and producer has resulted in music that delights us.”

Sturm first joined the Lawrence faculty in 1977, leaving in 1991 to teach at the Eastman School of Music in New York. He returned to the Lawrence conservatory of music in 2002. In addition to a bachelor’s degree from Lawrence, Sturm earned a master’s degree from Eastman School of Music.

Cohen

Paul Cohen, professor of history and the Patricia Hamar Boldt Chair in Liberal Studies, received Lawrence’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, given annually for outstanding performance in the teaching process, including the quest to ensure students reach their full development as individuals, human beings and future leaders of society.

A specialist in modern Europe and intellectual history, Cohen joined the Lawrence faculty in 1985. He was recognized with the college’s Freshman Studies Teaching Award in 1999.

That same year he introduced the courses “Film as History” and “History as Film” that explored how film can serve as a source of historical interpretation. His recent scholarship has focused on the portrayal of masculinity in American films after World War II, particularly cinematic representations of manhood that deviate from the Hollywood stereotypes.

“You expect much of your students and clearly have high standards,” Burrows said of Cohen. “Time and again, students comment that you have helped them develop their intellectual abilities beyond what they thought they could achieve. You are one of the professors whom students remember with fondness and gratitude, years after graduating.”

Cohen is the author of two books, “Freedom’s Moment: An Essay on the French Idea of Liberty from Rousseau to Foucault” and “Piety and Politics: Catholic Revival and the Generation of 1905-1914 in France.” He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Clark University and earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago.

Goldgar

Bertrand Goldgar, professor of English and the John N. Bergstrom Professor of Humanities, was presented the college’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship, which recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated sustained scholarly excellence for a number of years and whose work exemplifies the ideals of the teacher-scholar. He previously was recognized with the Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1976.

One of the world’s leading scholars on author Henry Fielding, Goldgar is an internationally recognized expert on 18th-century political satire.

A member of the Lawrence faculty for 51 years, Goldgar has served as a contributing editor to a landmark multi-volume edition of the works of Jonathan Swift. His volume, “Swift’s English Political Writing, 1711-1714,” covers Swift’s literary engagement in the politics of early 18th-century London.

“You are a literary historian with a deep belief in the fulfillment that results from immersion in great literature” said Burrows in presenting Goldgar his award. “You have set for yourself the goal of providing the knowledge and historical context necessary for the modern reader to understand and appreciate the art of 18th-century writers.”

Goldgar, the author of two books and five scholarly editions, earned a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and his Ph.D. from Princeton University.

Pickett

Megan Pickett, associate professor of physics, received the Lawrence’s Young Teacher Award in recognition of demonstrated excellence in the classroom and the promise of continued growth.

Pickett joined the Lawrence physics department in 2006 after six years on the faculty at Purdue University. An astrophysicist who spent four years as a research associate at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, Pickett’s research focuses on the formation of solar systems. She has been the recipient of four research grants through the NASA Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program totaling more than $500,000.

“Your passion for science is joined with a tremendous capacity for creativity,” Burrows said of Pickett. “In an era when problems of science education are a national concern, it is heartening to know that you are helping make Lawrence a leader in addressing those problems.”

Pickett earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Indiana University.

APPLETON, WIS. — Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor and a renowned New York City contemporary arts curator will be awarded honorary degrees Sunday, June 15 by Lawrence University at the college’s 159th commencement. Graduation exercises begin at 10:30 a.m. on the Main Hall green.

Lawton

Heiss

In recognition of professional achievements and civic contributions, Barbara Lawton, Wisconsin’s first elected female lieutenant governor, will receive an honorary doctor of laws. Alanna Heiss, founder and director of P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters. Lawton and Heiss are 1987 and 1966 Lawrence graduates, respectively.

Lawrence is expected to confer 295 bachelor of arts and/or music degrees to 285 seniors from 32 states and 14 foreign countries.

In addition to honorary doctorates, Lawrence also will recognize John Brandenberger, Alice G. Chapman Professor of Physics and David Cook, Philetus E. Sawyer Professor of Science, for 83 years of combined teaching service with honorary master’s degrees.

David Ross, a social sciences teacher at Madison West High School, and Kathy Sager, an English teacher at New Berlin Eisenhower High School, will receive Lawrence’s annual Outstanding Teaching in Wisconsin Award.

Associate Professor of Statistics Joy Jordan presents the address “Connect, Listen, and Be Kind” at a baccalaureate service Saturday, June 14 at 11 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The baccalaureate service and commencement ceremony are free and open to the public.

During commencement, Lawton and Heiss will join President Jill Beck, Lawrence Board of Trustees Chair Harry Jansen Kraemer Jr. and student Melanie Heindl, a senior from Kaukauna, in addressing the graduates.

Since the age of 16, when she campaigned door-to-door on behalf of Senator Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential bid, Lawton has been active in civic engagement and public service. She made state history in 2002 by becoming the first woman elected lieutenant governor in Wisconsin. She was re-elected in 2006.

Throughout her career, Lawton has been a strong advocate of opportunities for women, economic development and promotion of the arts. She was instrumental in the creation of Wisconsin Women = Prosperity, a nationally recognized economic development initiative between the public and private sectors designed to empower women to make their best contributions in corporate, political and civic life. In 1999, the Wisconsin chapter of NOW honored Lawton with its Feminist of the Year Award.

In 2007, she authored a resolution to combat global warming and promote the development of renewable energy and fuel-efficient technologies that was passed by the National Lieutenant Governor’s Association last summer. As a member of the National Leadership Council for the American Association of Colleges and Universities, she promotes the value of liberal arts education as a national resource for economic creativity and democratic vitality.

Lawton serves as the current chair of the 15-member Wisconsin Arts Board and has led efforts to develop strong arts and cultural programming in all areas of the state. She also was instrumental in helping to pass legislation that provides tax incentives to the film and video game industry in Wisconsin.

A native of Milwaukee, Lawton spent 30 years living in Green Bay, where she was one of the founders of the Greater Green Bay Area Community Foundation, the Education Resource Foundation and the Green Bay Multicultural Center. The Fort Howard Foundation recognized her efforts in 1985 with its Humanitarian Award.

In addition to earning a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in Spanish from Lawrence, Lawton earned a master’s degree in Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Heiss, once New York City’s first female parole officer for male offenders, is widely recognized as one of the visionary founders of the alternative space movement in the United States and one of the most influential curators in the world. She has been instrumental in advancing the careers of thousands of artists through the use of nontraditional exhibition spaces.

A one-time aspiring concert pianist, after earning a degree in music from Lawrence, the Louisville, Ky., native spent several years in London before moving to New York City in 1970.

Recognizing the city’s world-wide appeal to contemporary artists, she set out to provide invigorating alternatives beyond galleries and museums to showcase their work. A year later she organized her first exhibition in unused spaces beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. She founded the Institute for Art and Urban Resources in 1971 and focused on turning abandoned and underutilized New York City buildings into artists’ studios and exhibition spaces.

In 1976, she transformed a deserted, decaying public school in Queens into the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, which the New York Times once described as “a place in touch with developments around the world and able to bring them here in record time.” With 125,000 square feet of exhibition space, it is the largest contemporary art institution in the United States and among the largest in the world.

Heiss also converted a double-decker clock tower atop a 13-story building near city hall into the Clocktower Gallery, turning it into one of New York City’s most distinctive spaces for innovative exhibitions.

During her career, Heiss has organized or curated more than 700 exhibitions in New York and abroad, edited three books, wrote a fourth and contributed dozens of articles and essays for art catalogs and anthologies.

Her efforts on behalf of contemporary art have been recognized with honors from around the world, including the Mayor’s Award for Contributions to the Artistic Viability of New York City, France’s prestigious Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in the legion d’Honneur, membership in the Royal Order of the Polar Star for contributions to promoting the arts in Sweden and the Skowhegan Award for Outstanding Work in the Arts from the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.

APPLETON, WIS. — David Ross, a social sciences teacher at Madison West High School and Kathy Sager, an English teacher at New Berlin Eisenhower High School, will be recognized Sunday, June 15 with Lawrence University’s Outstanding Teaching in Wisconsin Award during the college’s 159th commencement. Both will receive a certificate, a citation and a monetary award.

Ross and Sager are the 49th and 50th Wisconsin teachers honored for education excellence by Lawrence since the program began in 1985. Nominated by Lawrence seniors, recipients are selected on their abilities to communicate effectively, create a sense of excitement in the classroom, motivate their students to pursue academic excellence while showing a genuine concern for them in, as well as outside, the classroom.

David Ross

Ross, a Madison native and 1980 graduate of West High School, returned to his alma mater in 1993. He teaches a philosophy and a social issues class for seniors and also has taught U.S. history and Western civilization courses. He serves as an advisor to the Amnesty International Club and the Young Democrats and is a member of West’s scholarship committee. He previous was awarded two outstanding teacher citations by the University of Chicago based on nominations by his former students.

Senior Jeanette Devereaux-Weber praised Ross for his engaging and respectful style in nominating him for Lawrence’s award.

“Knowledge, in Mr. Ross’ classroom, was not something to be passively attained,” wrote Devereaux-Weber. “He was not content to let anyone lay low, but encouraged every opinion. He always expected a sort of nobility from his students. The students some dubbed ‘lazy’ or ‘uninvolved’ were involved in Mr. Ross’ classes.”

Ross holds a bachelor’s degree in history from UW-Madison and is currently completing a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction at UW-Madison.

Kathy Sager

Sager began her teaching career in 1977 and joined the Eisenhower faculty the following year. She has taught courses on British and American literature, freshmen honors English and senior advanced placement literature and composition. She has served as a forensics judge and been active in the student-faculty acting troupe.

Senior Leila Sahar, who nominated Sager for the award, credited her former teacher for sparking her own interest in pursuing English as a major at Lawrence.

“Mrs. Sager has always been a very challenging teacher who expects a lot out of her students, however she provides every student with the tools they need to succeed,” Sahar wrote in her nomination letter. “She pushes them to rise to a higher level of both writing and literary analysis.”

A 30-year member of the National Council of Teachers of English, Sager earned her bachelor’s degree in education at UW-Milwaukee and holds a master’s degree in English from Aurora University.

APPLETON, WIS. — Scientists David Cook and John Brandenberger arrived on the Lawrence University campus within three years of each other. And for the past 40 years, they have been synonymous with physics and physics education at Lawrence.

Now they’re ready to take a collective curtain call, having successfully transformed their department into a nationally-recognized model of undergraduate physics education.

Cook

Brandenberger

Cook, Philetus E. Sawyer Professor of Science and Brandenberger, Alice G. Chapman Professor of Physics, will have their combined 83 years of teaching service recognized with professor emeritus status Sunday, June 15 as retiring faculty at Lawrence’s 159th commencement. They each will receive honorary master of arts degrees, ad eundem, as part of the graduation ceremonies that begin at 10:30 a.m. on the Main Hall green.

After joining the faculty in the mid-1960s — Cook in 1965, Brandenberger in 1968 — the two soon forged a friendship and partnership as the architects of an innovative initiative based on the concept of “signature programs” designed to make Lawrence distinctive. After four decades, they depart with pride in knowing “mission accomplished.”

“The initial motivation was the desire to work with larger numbers of students. In order to attract more students, we needed to have something that was unusual, something that wasn’t available at many places, if any,” said Cook. “We sought some funding and ended up getting more than we might have dreamed possible. That allowed us to move quickly in creating a couple of exciting programs that we used to attract larger numbers of good students.”

With the support of nearly $2 million in grants from national foundations, private businesses and other sources, Brandenberger and Cook parlayed vision, enthusiasm, innovation and their respective research interests in laser spectroscopy and computational physics into two high-tech laboratories that became the foundation of the department’s signature programs.

The ensuing result produced a dramatic spike in student interest and national recognition — collectively and individually — along the way. Of the nearly 600 colleges and universities in the country that award undergraduate degrees in physics, only six percent of them graduate five or more physics majors a year. Lawrence will graduate 14 physics majors this year, an all-time high and a projected-record 17 next year.

In 1998, Lawrence was showcased as a “case study” on undergraduate physics education at the national “Physics Revitalization Conference: Building Undergraduate Physics Programs for the 21st Century” in Arlington, Va. Through their collective efforts, Lawrence’s physics program also was profiled in the book “Academic Excellence,” and was included in the Physics Today article, “Why Many Undergraduate Physics Programs Are Good but Few Are Great.”

After working collaboratively for so long, it’s not surprising that they are members of each other’s mutual admiration society.

“It would be difficult to find a more conscientious colleague, with such high standards,” Brandenberger said of Cook. “The dedication, conscientiousness, the giving of extra time to the program and to the students are all David Cook hallmarks.”

“John is a fabulous colleague. We work well together,” Cook echoed. “John steadfastly encouraged my efforts in the computational direction and did yeoman’s service in editing and commenting on the proposals that I had written to the foundations that provided funding.”

Both point to their interactions and relationships with students as highlights of their storied careers.

“We like to think that we made a difference in the lives of a fair number of students, and in my mind, that’s the most important thing that we’ve accomplished,” said Cook, a long-time area church organist who often taught a class on the physics of music. “When certain students were here, we were mentors for them. But in many cases, those students have gone on to significant careers of their own. The tables were turned and those students have come back and been mentors for us.”

“That role reversal has been very important,” added Brandenberger, a model train aficionado when he’s not in his “laser palace” lab. “Seeing students leave Lawrence, develop very impressive careers and after 20 or 25 years get back together with them and be on the receiving end, living through them, savoring their successes, is very special. What better way to have spent a career, to have spent a life, than to feel you have played some role in shaping their success.”

Brandenberger has enjoyed an award-filled 40-year teaching career that began after earning his Ph.D. at Brown University. He was presented Lawrence’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 1995 and was the initial recipient in 2006 of the college’s new Excellence in Scholarship or Creativity Award. He became the first — and only — physicist in Lawrence history to be elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for research at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Lasers in Greece and was recognized by his undergraduate alma mater, Carleton College, with its distinguished alumni achievement award in 2001.

Along the way he served stints as a visiting professor at such prestigious universities as Harvard, Oxford and M.I.T.

Cook’s important contributions to the study of physics have earned him his share of honors as well, most notably his 2007 election as vice president of the American Association of Physics Teachers, a four-year appointment to the executive board that will see him serve as the association’s president in 2010. The AAPT is the world’s leading organization for physics educators with more than 12,000 members in 30 countries.

While leading the development and incorporation of computers into the physics curriculum, Cook wrote two textbooks “The Theory of the Electromagnetic Field,” one of the first to introduce computer-based numerical approaches alongside traditional approaches and “Computation and Problem Solving in Undergraduate Physics.” In 1990, Cook, too, was recognized with the college’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

“I thought I would be here two or three years and then move on,” said Cook, who earned his doctorate in physics from Harvard in 1965 and started at Lawrence the following fall. “But I discovered that Lawrence is a very special place, partly because the academic program is strong, but mostly because of the relationships among the people — students, faculty, administrators and even the relationship with the town.”

While both will maintain offices on campus in retirement and still occasionally teach a class, having been at the center of the action for so long, a sense of melancholy about turning over the keys to the store is understandable.

“It is difficult to distance ourselves,” Brandenberger admitted as he looks to his soon-to-be professor emeritus status. “We were workaholics for so many years and took pride in what emerged as the result of that work. It’s going to be hard to completely pass it on to our younger colleagues.”