Emeritus Alumni Recognize Outstanding Peers

The Emeritus Alumni Board’s Merit of Honor Award is given each year to five alumni recognized not only for their impressive professional achievements but also for their commitment to the U and contributions to the community. The 2009 awardees were recognized at the Merit of Honor Awards Banquet in November 2009. Below, brief bios of each of this year’srecipients. For full biographies, click here.

Ruth Draper Crockatt BA’47, an ardent supporter and promoter of the arts, served as executive director of the Utah Arts Council from 1974 to 1985. She helped found the Western States Arts Federation and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. She has also held numerous prominent civic positions, including serving as president of the Utah League of Women Voters. Crockatt has been recognized for her service with honors including a Heritage Foundation Award, the Cathedral of the Madeleine Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts and Humanities, and the Utah Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts.	Duane C. Hill BA’50 is president of his own company, Marketing Concepts. He previously served as national sales manager and program director for KSL-TV, and as director of advertising services for the American Stores Company. He is currently president of the Rotary Club of Salt Lake City and is a longtime member of the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce. Hill is past chair of the Council of Governors of the American Advertising Federation and has also served as president or chair of organizations including the Salt Lake Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Utah Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Donald A. Lewon BS’58 is president of Utah Metal Works, a scrap metal business started by his grandfather in Montana in the early 1900s. He has been an active supporter of the U of U’s College of Social and Behavioral Science, including serving as a founding member and chair of its advisory board. He has also supported the Sam Rich Scholars in Global Affairs, the Middle Eastern Lecture Series, and the annual Sicilano Forum. Lewon and his wife fund four of the college’s Honor Roll Scholarships each year. In 2006, he received the college’s Distinguished Alumni Award.	Colleen D. Malouf BS’58 has served since 1984 as president and CEO of Friends for Sight, dedicated to preserving sight through comprehensive vision screenings. She was also a founder and the first president of the nonprofit CARE-UTAH. A specialist in market development consulting, Malouf previously served as the director of development for Westminster College and has provided public relations support to the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Salt Lake City and has also been a board member with Ballet West.
Don V. Tibbs JD’49, a native of Manti, Utah, served in the U.S. Army in World War II and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. Following graduation from the U of U, Tibbs returned to Sanpete County, where he was elected county attorney and later appointed a judge in the Sixth Judicial District Court of Utah, where he served for 23 years. He then sat as the Senior District Court Judge for six years before retiring. Tibbs has also been involved in community affairs—as president of the Manti Jaycees and as local chair of the Red Cross, March of Dimes, and other organizations.

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Science is Super

Nobel Laureate Mario Capecchi Talks to Alumni, Kids

Mario Capecchi is greeted by U of U alum Dick Jacobsen, co-founder of the Beechwood School.

U of U geneticist Mario Capecchi made a special guest appearance at a Bay Area Alumni Chapter event on October 1, almost exactly two years after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology (shared with two other researchers). Capecchi was invited to talk about his pioneering work in gene targeting, which has broad ramifications for the potential treatment and cure of disease and for which he won the Nobel Prize. More than 100 alumni from the San Francisco Bay Area gathered for a reception at the William J. Rutter Center on the University of California San Francisco-Mission Bay Campus. (The venue is connected to U of U alumnus William J. Rutter MS’50, a leader in biotechnology research, who received the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award at Founders Day in February 2009.)

Before introducing Capecchi, U of U President Michael K. Young acknowledged the efforts of outgoing chapter president Nancy Gregovich BA’89, along with the important contributions that the Bay Area Alumni Chapter has made in support of the University. He then touched on a few of the major activities and achievements taking place on the U of U campus. Capecchi then took the stage and explained in layman’s terms the highly complex nature of gene targeting in mice—through his work in homologous recombination, he developed the first mice with targeted mutations in 1989—highlighting many of the benefits the research could yield to all fields of biomedicine.

Italian-born Capecchi also related the story of his difficult childhood, wandering the streets of Italy for four years during World War II, trying to stay alive, while his mother was being held by the Nazis. After the war, Capecchi’s mother found him in a hospital, took him to the U.S., and put him in school. He didn’t learn to read until he was 9, but, against all odds, went on to graduate from Antioch College and receive a doctorate from Harvard, followed by pursuing the career path that led him to the University of Utah in 1973. Capecchi then recounted his experiences at the Nobel Prize presentation ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo in December 2007 and shared photos of the elaborate and various events involved during the celebration, which lasted several days.

He finished his presentation by fielding questions from alumni and expressing his appreciation for the support of the U’s alumni community. “I think it was one of the Bay Area’s best events yet, but with a presenter like Dr. Capecchi and his remarkable story, it was destined to be a crowd pleaser,” remarked Gregovich afterward. The following day, Capecchi paid a special visit to the Beechwood School in Menlo Park to talk to fifth- through eighth-grade students about how fascinating the study of science can be. Capecchi, who thoroughly enjoys encounters with students, was invited there by U of U alumnus Dick Jacobsen BS’68, who, along with his wife, Susan Jacobsen BA’66, and his partners in WSJ Properties, have been working to fulfill a need they recognized in some of the underprivileged neighborhoods in east Palo Alto and Menlo Park. Together, they formed the California Family Foundation, which focuses on housing, jobs, and education, including founding the Beechwood School, which opened in 1986. Virtually all of the students at Beechwood are on scholarship and come from neighborhoods where the rate of public high school graduation hovers at about 25 percent.

Referring to the challenges presented early in his life, Capecchi recounted the tale of his time spent homeless on the streets of wartime Italy. His mission at Beechwood was to stress to the students that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. “I’m going to try to talk you into becoming scientists,” said Capecchi, “because it’s a marvelous vocation.” Capecchi related his research with “knockout genes in mice” and answered numerous questions from curious kids—about his wartime experiences, about why he left Harvard for the University of Utah, and about science. At the end of his visit, Capecchi presented 10 students with medals awarded for academic achievement and overcoming their own difficult situations.

“If you have a good education, you can do anything,” said Capecchi.

For more on Mario Capecchi’s life and work, read “A Nobel Effort” in the Winter 2007-08 issue of Continuum.

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Hostess with the Mostest

U of U President Michael K. Young with Margaret Price Carlston.

Margaret Price Carlston BS’37, the University of Utah’s 1936-37 “Homecoming Hostess,” was an honorary guest at this year’s Homecoming “Redvolution” events in September.

At the time of “Susie” Price’s senior year Homecoming, the term “hostess” was used most often in reference to her honorary appointment (rather than “queen”), although she was featured in a picture and caption as “selected as the 1937 queen of beauty by students of the University of Utah” in the Dec. 27, 1936, Philadelphia Inquirer. A similar picture and caption were published in England’s Daily Sketch (“beauty queen of Salt Lake City”) and the L.A. Times (of “Utah’s Queen… Margaret Price, dimpled co-ed”) around the same time. (The British clipping was mailed in an envelope addressed to “Miss Margaret Price, Student at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, U.S.A.”) Part of her duties as “hostess” included giving a short introduction on a radio broadcast welcoming all alumni and inviting “the public of the entire state” to visit the U of U campus for Homecoming.

“Susie” Price, 1936

Price and her Homecoming attendants, Adelaide “Addy” Campbell and Julia Brixen, were selected by a panel of two Utah Supreme Court justices, David W. Moffat and William H. Folland. The justices chose from some 25 candidates, two from each of the University of Utah’s sororities and a handful of at-large students. Price was then a member of the Delta Gamma sorority, president of Associated Women Students, vice president of Spurs, and co-chair of the Founders Day committee. U of U Homecoming at the time featured a downtown parade of floats, created by various campus entities, on the morning of the Homecoming football game. Price and her attendants actually rode the ASUU float, but Delta Gamma’s won second place among sorority floats. As noted by one sorority sister in a Delta Gamma newsletter published shortly thereafter, “We felt repaid for the time we spent sewing crepe paper on muslin and tacking it onto the truck.”

Born in Salt Lake City in 1916, Margaret attended East High School before graduating from the U of U with a degree in business education, with a focus on shorthand and typing. She was promptly hired by Utah Gov. Charles R. Mabey, applying her abilities toward duties including typing the governor’s book The Pony Express: An Epic of the Old West. In 1940, Margaret married Kenneth DeWitt Carlston BS’38, and together they raised five children. In 1955, Margaret and Ken moved their family to Whittier, Calif., where she returned to college to get her California teaching credentials. She taught high school English as a full-time substitute teacher for nearly 30 years, retiring from teaching when she was 86. Ken died in 1992, and in 2005, Margaret, now 93, moved back to Salt Lake City to be near her two daughters.

—Contributed by Marcia C. Dibble, assistant editor of Continuum.

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Beehive Honor Society

Buzzing Along

The Beehive Honor society board of directors welcomes three new members this year (L-R): Josh Bradley BA’98 MD’02, a physician with Intermountain Health Care; Camille Coons Wheatley HBS’06 MArch’08, an architect with AJC Architects; and Randy Wood BS’09 BA’09, a marketing project manager for Ivory Homes.

Beehive, the oldest local honor society on the University of Utah campus, is busy planning for another stimulating, active year. The 10-member Board of Directors hopes to increase the amount and number of scholarship awards provided to deserving University of Utah students. The board is also working to reach out to its nearly 1,000 members living throughout the United States, as well as to develop additional community service projects and other opportunities to better engage members. For more information about the Beehive Honor Society, visit www.alumni.utah.edu/beehive.

David Jensen,
BHS president

Young Alumni Board (YAB)

It seems that the Young Alumni Board’s achievements and aspirations grow by leaps and bounds every year. The YAB continues to present its well-received and popular Speaker & Networking Series—periodic gatherings that feature either a U of U sports personality or a specialist on a contemporary topic of interest. And this year, the YAB’s Homecoming 5K Run/Walk/ Stroll & Kids 1K Fun Run was bigger and better than ever. More than 700 runners participated, and, in the process, raised more than $32,000 for student scholarships.

Heading up the YAB’s activities again this year are Jeremy Barlow BS’99, president, and Brandon Riley BA’98, vice president. New members include (group photo, L-R) Matt Klein BA’06 MA’07, an auditor with Deloitte & Touche; Nicole Barber BA’04, a loan servicing specialist for Wells Fargo Bank; Daniel Owen BS’03, a land manager for Property Reserve, Inc.; Julie Nelson BA’99 JD’03, an attorney for the State of Utah; Tim Conde BA’00 JD’04, an attorney with Stoel Rives LLP; and Julie Davidson BFA’02, owner of Bibitty, LLC, a product photography and design business, and, pictured individually (L-R), Sharon Mangelson BS’01 MPrA’03, a CPA with Hansen Barnett & Maxwell, P.C.; Joel Manwill BS’96, a pediatric occupational therapist; and Derek Winegar BS’05, a dentist.