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From renderings to reality: The renovated Roe Green Theatre opens

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 23:10:18 +0000

From renderings to reality: The renovated Roe Green Theatre opens Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/06/2023 - 16:10

Allison Nitch

'The arts give joy and meaning to life, and I’m so pleased that Roe Green has chosen to support ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder and the surrounding community in such a creative and meaningful way,' says Chancellor Phil DiStefano

With the grand opening of the renovated Roe Green Theatre on Nov. 3, the university has ushered in a new era for ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder’s Department of Theatre & Dance.

To celebrate the theater’s opening, the department hosted a celebratory ribbon-cutting featuring remarks from campus and university leadership—as well as the theater’s namesake, Roe Green—ahead of the opening night performance of Working, A Musical.

The state-of-the-art renovations were made possible with a gift from arts patron, philanthropist and alumna Roe Green (Comm, Thtr’70) in 2021. Formerly known as the University Theatre, the iconic theater was renamed in recognition of Green’s generosity.

At the top of the page: Roe Green, an arts patron, philanthropist and ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder alumna, cuts the ceremonial ribbon for the newly renovated Roe Green Theatre. She is flanked by Chancellor Philip DiStefano (left) and Bud Coleman, the Roe Green Professor of Theatre and associate dean of faculty affairs and initiatives in the College of Arts and Sciences. Above: Green enjoys a moment at the doors of the theater. (ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder photos by Casey A. Cass)

“The arts give joy and meaning to life, and I’m so pleased that Roe Green has chosen to support ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder and the surrounding community in such a creative and meaningful way,” said ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano.

Innovation by design

Originally built in 1904 as the campus library on what would become the Norlin Quadrangle, the theater’s last major update was completed more than 30 years ago. According to the Campus Master Plan, a major addition in 1985 included new studios and classrooms for the Division of Dance. In 1989, the older sections were renovated, and a new stage house was added to provide a backstage and wings for the existing theater.

This time around, improving the theater-going experience through advanced acoustics and audience comfort were the key renovation goals. This included adding a near-silent air-handling system, improved stage lighting, optimized acoustic-speaker placement and faceted surfaces that clearly reflect sound from the stage to the audience.

“Our brilliant architects from Architectural Workshop not only achieved this goal—they were also able to improve the positions for theatrical lighting and speakers, the air handling and the overall aesthetics of the space,” said Bud Coleman, the Roe Green Professor of Theatre and associate dean of faculty affairs and initiatives in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“This is modern acoustical science at work—and the impacts are profound,” said Jonathan Spencer, assistant professor of lighting design, in a video tour of the renovated theater.

Embracing the arts

Green’s record-breaking $5 million gift—the largest ever to the Department of Theatre & Dance—was announced in 2021 and welcomed students and the community back to campus after pandemic restrictions.

“The arts are what make us human,” said Green when asked why supporting live performance matters. When budgets get tight, she said, “The first thing the schools take away are the arts. It should be the last thing they take away!”

In addition to the theater’s sweeping physical upgrades, Green’s gift also establishes endowed funds for student scholarships, theater maintenance and “launch” events designed to kick-start students’ careers.

The arts are what make us human,” said Green when asked why supporting live performance matters. When budgets get tight, she said, “The first thing the schools take away are the arts. It should be the last thing they take away!”

“Through her generous philanthropy, many more students, faculty, staff and community members will be able to embrace the life-changing power of theater and dance,” said DiStefano.

One of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder’s largest arts donors to date, Green previously established the campus's Roe Green Theatre Artist Residency Program and the theater department’s first endowed faculty chair.

Transforming lives, transforming the future

The renovated theater’s opening coincided with the debut of Working, A Musical—a celebration of the unsung heroes of everyday life, such as the schoolteacher, phone operator, waitress, millworker, mason and homemaker. In ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ’s production, this classic has been updated for a modern age, featuring new interviews with ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ workers and new songs by Tony Award-winning composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, as well as favorites by Stephen Schwartz, Craig Carnelia, James Taylor and Micki Grant.

Based on Studs Terkel’s best-selling book of interviews with American workers, the production runs through Nov. 12 and is the 2023–24 Roe Green Production. This program is funded by the Roe Green Visiting Theatre Artist Fund, which allows the Department of Theatre & Dance to invite professional guest artists to campus annually to work with ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder students.

Coleman said Green’s generous gifts are truly an investment in the future of live performance at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder.

“Roe’s endowment will mean that the theater will continue to have funding to make necessary changes to stay current with new technologies, and will also provide scholarships for students to pursue the study of theater,” he said.

“Roe’s conviction in the power of theater to transform lives inspires us to work harder, work better and work smarter.”

Additional funding support was provided by the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder Graduate School Professional Master’s Program in Experience Design, the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Foundation and the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder Department of Theatre & Dance.

"The arts give joy and meaning to life, and I’m so pleased that Roe Green has chosen to support ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder and the surrounding community in such a creative and meaningful way,” said ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano.

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‘Little decisions influenced my life’

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 22:57:35 +0000

‘Little decisions influenced my life’ Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/21/2022 - 16:57

Clay Bonnyman Evans

ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder grad Patricia Sheffels establishes keynote-speaker program to address environmental issues

Patricia Sheffels vividly remembers the day she was called down to the front of “one of those steep lecture halls” during a geography final at the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder in the mid-1950s.

The freshman from California took seriously Professor Tim Kelley’s admonition that anyone caught cheating by proctors would be summoned, dismissed and flunked. Just 10 minutes into the exam, she and two male students were called.

“I thought, ‘I haven’t cheated. I haven’t looked at anyone else’s paper!’” Sheffels (Geog’58) recalls. “I could barely walk down the stairs; my knees were shaking so badly.”

At the top of the page: Alumna Patricia Sheffels has created Patricia Sheffels Visiting Scholar Keynote Speaker series (Ben Hale). Above: Kyle Powys Whyte, environmental justice professor at the University of Michigan, was the inaugural speaker (Ben Hale).

“You three look pretty confident about this test,” she recalls Kelley saying. But then he smiled and told them they were getting an A in the course, based on their A work on every assignment and the mid-term exam.

And that, Sheffels says, is how she came to major in geography.

“It was a very whimsical reason,” she says with a chuckle.

More than a half-century later, Sheffels continues to show her appreciation for her ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder experience and education through numerous gifts. Most recently, she established a new fund to create the Patricia Sheffels Visiting Scholar Keynote Speaker which brings interdisciplinary scholars to discuss and explore how to solve the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.

The first Sheffels speaker, Professor Kyle Powys Whyte, enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and Professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, presented his talk “Against Crisis Science: Research Futures for Climate and Energy Justice” on March 15.

“It was a really insightful and provocative talk to go along with several other talks and meetings during his multi-day visit,” says Max Boykoff, professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Studies. “I think this is a great tradition starting. It will help students have consistent contact with really top scholars from around the country and the world.”

Sheffels worked with Boykoff and Michelle Gaffga, College of Arts and Sciences director of development, to find a way to support her goal of helping to find ways to address climate change and other critical environmental problems. Her children, Eric Sheffels of Boston and Kristin Simpson of Kirkland, Washington, also contributed to the speaker program.

“Kyle Whyte was available to students, the lecture attendees and the community, and he did an admirable job. I couldn’t have been more pleased with the inaugural event and the speaker,” Patricia Sheffels says.

Sheffels grew up in Riverside, California, daughter of a dean at Riverside Junior College (now Riverside City College) and a public-school teacher. Active in dance, she took a job as summer stock at the Perry-Mansfield performing arts camp in Steamboat Springs, ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ, when she was a teenager.

“I did that for two summers. I liked ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ, and I was also learning to ski, so, totally unadvised, I applied to ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ,” she recalls.

I think the keynote speaker series is a great tradition starting. It will help students have consistent contact with really top scholars from around the country and the world.”

It turned out to be the perfect choice for her. She met her former husband at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder.

Her advisor Kelley stepped in once again to give her a boost when she asked him to write a letter of recommendation for a teaching job in Great Falls, Montana, where she was moving with her husband after graduation. Unsure whether Kelley had written the letter, she tentatively reminded him of her request.

“He slapped his hand on the table and said, ‘Pat, you’re going to get a job! The superintendent of schools in Great Falls was my fraternity brother at the University of Washington, and I told him to give you a job,’” she says. “I think your college years to a very large extent shape the rest of your life, not only the people you meet, but the ideas and knowledge you gain. ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ became a real family to me.”

And while Sheffels doesn’t make a big deal of it, she also used to “commute” between Boulder and Southern California with actor Robert Redford, a member of her husband’s fraternity during his year at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ.

“We shared gas expenses,” Sheffels says circumspectly, noting only that the famous actor and activist was not above the sort of shenanigans one often expects of college students.

ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder grad Patricia Sheffels establishes keynote-speaker program to address environmental issues.

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‘She is gold’

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 21:43:22 +0000

‘She is gold’ Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/18/2022 - 15:43

Clay Bonnyman Evans

ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder graduate Rose Ann Bershenyi’s ‘gifts are transformative’

The list of Rose Ann Bershenyi’s significant gifts to the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder is impressively long.

Bershenyi (Art’66; MFA’69), who grew up in Boulder and spent her career as an art teacher specializing in jewelry and metalsmithing at then-Baseline Junior High School, has focused her many gifts over the years at arts programs.

“I wanted to make a difference for programs that don’t always receive gifts and students who may have a hard time getting a scholarship. Too often moneys aren’t available to the arts and people in the arts,” says Bershenyi, whose mother was a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder.

Beyond art, Bershenyi has also given to Inside the Greenhouse Project, which works to deepen our understanding of how climate change-related issues are and can be communicated. The project does this by creatively communicating the complex topic through interactive theatre, film, fine art, performance art and television programming.

At the top of the page: Rose Ann Bershenyi meets with a few recipients of the many gifts she’s provided over the years at the College of Arts & Sciences Scholarship Brunch in 2018. Photo by Amber Story. Above: The Martyr, from the series Unofficial Portraits by Hung Liu, is part of the Sharkive, whose presence at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder was made possible in part through a gift by Rose Ann Bershenyi.

She has created endowed scholarships for students in art and art history, theatre and dance, the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ in D.C. program, and the Miramontes Arts & Sciences Program (MASP), which is an inclusive academic community for traditionally underrepresented and/or first-generation college students.

Bershenyi’s gifts have helped many individual students, as well as numerous institutions on campus.

Bershenyi has supported the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Art Museum’s acquisition of artworks, including a quilt by Gina Adams and the Sharkive, an internationally important collection of prints created in the studio of Bud and Barbara Shark.

“Having (the Sharkive) materials on campus for class use, exhibition and research means that we can offer our visitors access to artwork by internationally known artists made in our own backyard,” says Hope Saska, curator for the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Art Museum, noting just one example of Bershenyi’s legacy. “The acquisition offers numerous pedagogical opportunities, not only in the range of artists the Sharkive encompasses, but in the way the materials demonstrate artistic process.”

Bershenyi’s generosity was essential in making sure that two important funds reached endowment status: the Art and Art History Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Endowed Scholarship Fund to provide scholarships for students who help diversify the student body, and a fellowship in the dance program to provide support for MFA candidates.

She recently gave to the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies (CNAIS), and she helped to fully endow two funds that support students of dance.

“I’ve never had a donor like her,” says Amber Story, associate director of development in the Office of Advancement for the College of Arts and Sciences. “Her gifts are transformative. She doesn’t want it to be about her; she just wants to help. She loves ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ, loves Boulder, and she trusts the university to do the right thing. She is gold.”

Bershenyi, who now lives in Aurora, is hesitant to put herself in the spotlight, preferring to let her gifts speak for themselves. She says she seeks guidance from Story and others to determine where her donations will have the most impact and expects to continue giving into the foreseeable future.

“I give when I’m inspired, where it’s needed the most, with guidance,” she says.

ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder graduate Rose Ann Bershenyi’s ‘gifts are transformative.’

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Students seeking museum work experience get a helping hand

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 18:48:49 +0000

Students seeking museum work experience get a helping hand Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/07/2021 - 12:48

Clint Talbott

Dexter and Gina Williams, friends of the university and fans of art, establish fund to pay students to work in the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Art Museum

When students work at museums while still in school, they gain experience that can boost their careers. But unpaid museum internships and volunteer work can exclude students who need a paycheck to finish college.

Catch-22.

At the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder, the newly established Dexter and Gina Williams Student Endowment Fund aims to square this circle. The fund will support paid student positions at the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Art Museum.

At the top of the page: On the left is a student reviewing ancient points in an Art of Ancient Roman coins class at the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Art Museum. Photo by Glenn Asakawa. On the right is Persuasive Prints (Installation view), ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Art Museum, February 6–March 12, 2020. Photo by Patrick Campbell, © University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder. Above: Dexter and Gina Williams

“This helps set a more level playing field for everyone who wants to do the work and be involved in the museum,” said Dexter Williams, who earned a master’s in art history from ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder in 1984. His thesis focused on photographer Robert Frank and the Beat Generation.

Williams also holds a BA in social ecology from the University of California, Irvine, and, like his wife, Gina Padilla Williams, enjoyed a successful career in finance. Since taking an undergraduate class in art history in the 1970s, however, Dexter’s passion has been art and art history.

In recent years, some observers have debated the utility of unpaid museum internships and volunteer work. Last June, the Association of Art Museum Directors formally urged art museums to offer paid internships, which the group said was “essential to increasing access and equity for the museum profession.”

The Williamses agreed that it’s important for students to gain museum experience, with a paid position opening the opportunity to a wider and more economically diverse audience.

They also believe that “while working in a museum is certainly rewarding, just as importantly, that experience gives students a little bit of a leg up” as they seek jobs in museums, galleries and auction houses.

Gina and Dexter hope that students working at the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Art Museum not only burnish their credentials but also expand the museum’s institutional knowledge of its growing collection, “so they'll leave a legacy behind as well.”

When they interact with museum experts and mentors, students help to shape the museum’s in-gallery activities and exhibitions. ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Art Museum student employees also support art research, writing and business while working on programs and projects throughout the academic year.

Traci McDonald, visitor experience coordinator at the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Art Museum, said the museum’s staff is dedicated to paying students for their contributions and to building a program in which students are trained in professional skills to engage meaningfully with museum visitors.

Students in this program learn the inner workings of museums and work directly with staff and faculty.

While working in a museum is certainly rewarding, just as importantly, that experience gives students a little bit of a leg up."

“We are so grateful and excited to have Dexter and Gina's support, as it helps us to achieve our goal to employ all our students while offering them the unique training experience that will help them throughout their careers and their life,” McDonald said.

“We recognize an overreliance on unpaid labor in museums presents obstacles for future professionals who wish to gain entry to the field,” she added. “We are committed to identifying and shaping new paths forward and are truly honored to receive this generous gift.”

Sandra Q. Firmin, the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Art Museum’s director and chief curator, praised Gina and Dexter Williams as “stalwart supporters for the arts on campus.”

The couple has also funded a scholarship for graduate students in the Department of Art and Art History, and Dexter serves on the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Advisory Board and the Art Museum's Community Council.

Firmin added that Dexter and Gina Williams’ “bequest of the Williams BEAT Collection is a transformational gift, featuring the cutting-edge literature, photographs and paintings of this important era in the history of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ and the United States and will enrich the educational experience of students.”

For more information or to support students in the Department of Art and Art History or the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Art Museum, contact Associate Director of Development Amber Story.

Dexter and Gina Williams, friends of the university and fans of art, establish fund to pay students to work in the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Art Museum.

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Honoring a visionary, lost too soon

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 19:13:17 +0000

Honoring a visionary, lost too soon Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/25/2019 - 13:13

Clay Bonnyman Evans

New endowed fund will support physics fellowships in honor of the late Deborah Jin

In 2001, Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell became the second and third — of five, to date — faculty members at the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder to receive the Nobel Prize, for their work in creating a Bose-Einstein condensate.

Deborah Jin in her laboratory and (above) during a ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Wizards presentation. Photos by Glenn Asakawa and Casey A. Cass.

Until she died of cancer at the tragically young age of 47 in 2016, many Nobel handicappers had put their money on Deborah Jin to become ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder’s next laureate, thanks to her groundbreaking work in creating a fermionic condensate — a feat even more challenging than creating the Bose-Einstein condensate.

“A lot, lot harder,” Wieman answered a reporter from the New York Times when asked to compare Jin’s achievement to his Nobel-recognized work. “What did come out was more impressive than I thought would be possible.”

“There’s that classic saying that dancer Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards, and in heels,” says Patricia Rankin, professor of physics at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder. “That’s what Debbie did with the fermionic condensate.”

Jin’s “visionary and methodical approach made it possible to use these ultracold gases as model systems to tease out the quantum principles that lead to behaviors in real materials, such as superconductivity,”according to the journal Nature.

But Jin, professor of physics and fellow of JILA — a joint institute between the university and the National Institute for Science and Technology — didn’t just hide away in the lab. She had a rich family life, raising a daughter with her husband, JILA physicist John Bohn. She cared for and challenged her students, both in and out of the classroom, and was known as a tireless mentor and champion of women in science.

To honor her legacy, the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder College of Arts & Sciences has created the Deborah Jin Endowed Graduate Fellowships Fund, which will fully support the work and mentorship of two graduate scholars in physics each semester, starting in 2020.

The initial goal is to raise $1 million for this endowment. With gifts from the Heising Simons Foundation, the Chancellor’s Office and JILA, the physics department has raised $700,000. Wieman and his wife, Sarah Gilbert, would like to bring this to $800,000. They have pledged another $50,000 as a challenge to encourage others to contribute.

Debbie Jin embodied the highest ideals in physical science, and we hope to support and inspire others who might emulate her.”
—James W.C. White, interim dean

To date, faculty and other supporters have donated more than $26,000 toward Wieman’s and Gilbert’s $50,000 matching gift, according to ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder’s Office of Advancement.

“This endowment honors a consummate, exemplary scientist whom we lost too soon,” says James W.C. White, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Debbie Jin embodied the highest ideals in physical science, and we hope to support and inspire others who might emulate her.”

In addition, the college will provide annual support as needed to ensure that the fellowships will fully cover awardees’ tuition costs for an entire semester.

Awardees will be chosen based on their graduate-school application materials, except for scores on the GRE (Graduate Record Examination), which are “known to disadvantage applicants from under-represented groups,” according to White.

How to help

To contribute to the Deborah Jin Fellowships, contact Jane Marsh in the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder Office of Advancement at jane.marsh@colorado.edu or 303-541-1444. You can also contribute online.

Preference will be given to applicants “who represent the spirit of Deborah Jin and have demonstrated a commitment to … serving their community and/or family and … breaking barriers for underserved or underrepresented populations in the larger Physics community.”

“We want to honor Debbie Jin’s legacy as one of the pioneering women physicists of her time by bringing people into physics with the promise to follow in her footsteps,” Rankin says. “We have a really good physics department, and by paying attention to the need to broaden participation and perspectives, we will help direct the future of the field.”

US News & World Report ranks ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder’s Physics Department as 14^thbest in the world, including second-best in atomic/molecular/optical physics and sixth in quantum physics. The international Shanghai Ranking Consultancy ranks the department as the world’s 12^thbest.

New endowed fund will support physics fellowships in honor of the late Deborah Jin.

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Geography prof left lifelong impression on students

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 06:00:00 +0000

Geography prof left lifelong impression on students Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/14/2015 - 00:00

Clint Talbott

Albert W. Smith (second from right) with a meteorology class in 1942 at Clark University. Photo courtesy of Albert W. Smith family.

Several have donated to the Albert W. Smith Geography Scholarship to honor the man and his caring mentorship and to help today’s students

It was just one personal letter, but it reaffirmed, recognized and acclaimed the lifelong work of a professor.

“No one outside of my immediate family positively influenced my life more than Professor Smith,” Jim Nance, a former student, wrote to the professor’s family. “He counseled me at critical times and even rescued me once when I had lost my life’s direction.”

In 1952, Albert W. Smith joined the faculty at the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder and became the first chair of the Department of Geography—after geography and geology split into two departments.

He served as a professor until 1983, when he retired and moved to Vashon Island, Washington. Professor Smith passed away in February 2008 at the age of 86.

Nance met Smith in 1960, when Nance was an 18-year-old freshman. “Social activities were my focus, and my college courses were not priorities,” he recalls.

But Smith had a “rare sense of humor and special human insight.” Nance had no idea what to study, and Smith suggested Geography 101. “It was my favorite class. I pulled my only B that first semester and went on to major in geography.”

At the time of his retirement, the department established the Albert W. Smith Geography Scholarship. In the past two decades, the scholarship has supported outstanding ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder geography students.

This year, former students have contributed to the fund for two reasons: They want to support good students of geography, and they want to honor the memory of Professor Smith.

Albert W. Smith served in the Marine Corps in the Philipines in 1945. Photo courtesy of Albert W. Smith family.

In 1943, Smith graduated with a bachelor’s in geography from Clark University in Massachusetts. He went directly into the U.S. Marine Corps and served as an intelligence officer in a squadron called the Bombing Banshees.

After the war, he earned his master’s from ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder and his doctorate from the University of Washington.

Phil Smith, manager of technical & regional services for the Bonneville Power Administration in Oregon, said that his father never spoke much about his wartime service. But the elder Smith did note, with a certain pride, that “once a Marine, always a Marine.”

Professor Smith told his family that when he was in high school, a teacher saw his academic promise and urged him to pursue scholarships, which he received. Smith came from a working-class family and going to college was not his presumptive path in life.

“I think this woman had a huge role in getting him into school,” Phil Smith observes.

The teacher also seems to have influenced the way he later viewed his role as a professor and mentor.

“He really enjoyed working with young people,” Phil Smith recalls. “I don’t think he pushed anyone. He was just encouraging.”

"Since my life has been wonderful and geography was the springboard, I will be forever grateful for his influence. I only regret that I did not tell him myself how crucial a role he played in my happiness.”

Pat Sheffels, who earned her bachelor’s in geography in 1958, recalled three professors in the department during her studies. All of them, she said, showed keen interest in their students.

Albert W. Smith was one of those nurturing mentors. “I looked on those professors as people who really cared about their students,” Sheffels said.

Sheffels taught fifth grade for a while, then started a family. Later, she became a planning commissioner in Belleview, Washington, a career that lasted two decades.

Elizabeth Reed, a 1976 geography alumna, said she “flip-flopped” during her first 18 months at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder trying to decide on a major.

She discovered the Geography Department and was most drawn to cartography. “I absolutely loved all aspects of it mainly because of Dr. Smith’s teaching techniques and personality.”

Her first job after college was with the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ planning office, where she developed a statewide mapping system to assure that variables such as soil types, wildlife-migration patterns and fault zones were taken into account for any sort of proposed development of highways, electric lines and the like.

“I had the skills and inspiration from Dr. Smith that resulted in a very satisfying career,” Reed says, adding:

“I am so pleased that there is a venue to donate under his name and that I am able to do so. He made a huge difference in my life!”

Like Reed, Nance says geography helped his career. And like her, he contributed to the Albert W. Smith scholarship to pay respect to the man and his legacy:

“Since he contributed so much to my well-being, I want to honor his caring spirit in the form of support for geography students.”

After graduating in 1965 with his bachelor’s, Nance had a degree “but no idea of a career or profession.”

He did, however, love to ski and became a “ski bum,” teaching skiing in New Mexico and traveling to Europe to ski. There, he had an epiphany; he wanted to be a geography professor in Boulder, like Professor Smith.

Nance wrote Smith from Spain in 1968 asking Smith for help getting into a master’s program. Smith admitted Nance to the graduate program and offered Nance a teaching assistantship, which solved the question of how Nance would pay for school.

Smith’s assistance was a “watershed event in my life,” Nance writes. The once-wandering student earned his master’s and then Ph.D. in geography. He never taught at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder, but his background served him well in his profession: real-estate development.

“Since my life has been wonderful and geography was the springboard, I will be forever grateful for his influence,” Nance wrote the Smith family in 2008, upon learning of his mentor’s passing. Nance added:

“I only regret that I did not tell him myself how crucial a role he played in my happiness.”

For more information on the Albert W. Smith Geography Scholarship, click here.

Clint Talbott is director of communications and external relations for the College of Arts and Sciences and editor of the College of Arts and Sciences Magazine.

It was just one personal letter, but it reaffirmed, recognized and acclaimed the lifelong work of a professor. “No one outside of my immediate family positively influenced my life more than Professor Smith,” a former student wrote to the professor’s family. “He counseled me at critical times and even rescued me once when I had lost my life’s direction.”

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Major gift to SEEC caps decades of service, giving

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 06:00:00 +0000

Major gift to SEEC caps decades of service, giving Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/09/2015 - 00:00

Clint Talbott

Bob and Nancy Sievers make generous contribution to new Sustainability, Energy and Environment Complex at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder

Following four decades of service in a host of roles and several gifts to the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder, Bob and Nancy Sievers have made a major capstone contribution to advance the development of the new laboratory and office complex at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Avenue and Foothills Parkway in Boulder, dedicated to sustainability, energy and environmental research, informally called “SEEC.”

In the last five decades, Sievers has served in many roles: chemistry professor, chair of the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Board of Regents, public-health pioneer, lunar-dust scientist, inventor, entrepreneur and, by the way, sculptor.

Bob and Nancy Sievers in the “Seat of Wisdom,” a slab of black Moroccan marble carved by Bob Sievers and given as a gift to the university. It is located in the atrium of the CIRES building. Photo by Laura Kriho.

In the atrium of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), natural light illuminates a marble sculpture called the “Seat of Wisdom.” Sievers carved the sculpture himself and directed CIRES itself for 13 years.

If the university is a seat of wisdom, Sievers personifies the metaphor.

The public might know him as the former ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ regent who catalyzed the move of the university’s medical campus to the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, as a leading force in transforming the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder campus into a hub of environmental research and scholarship, or as an indefatigable crusader in the effort to eradicate measles worldwide with dry, inhalable vaccines.

Now, Bob and Nancy Sievers are investing in another seat of wisdom, the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Complex now being completed on ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder’s East Campus.

But for more than a decade, Sievers has worked to wipe measles off the map. He and his colleagues have spent years working toward that goal, propelled by a $20 million grant that he won competitively from the Gates Foundation to lead an international group of 35 scientists, engineers, physicians and students to create better vaccines and devices for processing and delivering pharmaceuticals.

Sievers has been particularly instrumental in developing and testing a ground-breaking inhalable vaccine that, he and his colleagues believe, could help eliminate measles, which kills approximately 400 children a day worldwide.

The inhalable measles vaccine, which has been covered in The New York Times and on CBS News, eliminates needles along with their waste and danger.

ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ 60 percent of vaccines that are manufactured are never used. Once a dried measles vaccine is mixed with water for injection, it must be used within hours or discarded.

Developed by Aktiv-Dry, a company Sievers co-founded in 2002, the inhalable measles vaccine addresses those shortcomings. The vaccine is dried in clean conditions, and, without needles, it carries a low risk of infection from contaminants. The vaccine is delivered via a PuffHaler®, the company’s fine particle dry-powder aerosol delivery system.

The inhalable vaccine is also cost-effective. At 27 cents per dose, it costs about the same as the needle-delivered aqueous vaccine.

Bob Sievers, shown in 2011 with help from his then-11-year-old grandson Benjamin Louis Sievers, demonstrates how vaccines can be delivered by inhaling from a bag. Photo by Glenn Asakawa.

An independent study commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation compared four different measles-vaccines delivery systems, including the Aktiv-Dry inhalable powder. Over four decades, the study concluded, dry inhalable measles vaccines could save up to $700 million—mostly from eliminating wasted vaccine and avoiding the cost of needle disposal.

Sievers’ team has found that the dry-powder vaccine was comparably effective to the injectable vaccine in cotton rats. In another study, researchers found that the inhalable vaccine fully protected rhesus monkeys against the measles virus.

And a preliminary Phase I clinical trial of 60 adults in India found the inhalable vaccine to be safe, with no adverse events observed. Further clinical trials of Sievers’ inhalable vaccine will depend on finding new investors.

In pursuit of the public good

Sievers is an analytical chemist who worked for the Air Force and led the chemical analysis of moon rocks carried back to Earth by Apollo missions. In 1984, he co-founded Sievers Instruments, a company ultimately acquired by GE; it manufactured highly sensitive instruments to analyze trace organic chemicals.

Sievers has advised 40 doctoral students in analytical chemistry at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder. He and his students have written more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters that have been cited by more than 6,000 other research groups.

“Although there are many within the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ family who have served our institution with honor and distinction, I know of no one who has done so with more effectiveness, enthusiasm and loyalty than Bob Sievers.”

Sievers and his colleagues have been awarded 40 U.S. and foreign patents, with others pending. His list of awards and professional/service activities stretches over a page and a half.

Peter Steinhauer, a retired oral surgeon who graduated from ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1958, served with Sievers on the Board of Regents for a decade.

Steinhauer emphasizes the importance of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ’s acquiring the Fitzsimons Army Hospital and its transformation into the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Anschutz Medical Campus. “As chair of the Board of Regents at the time, Bob was the leader of this remarkable undertaking to what is today one of the greatest health sciences centers in the world,” Steinhauer says.

Finding those who contribute in as many ways as Sievers has is rare, Steinhauer adds. “The children of India, the citizens of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ and the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ are among the recipients of his generosity and expertise.”

“Although there are many within the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ family who have served our institution with honor and distinction, I know of no one who has done so with more effectiveness, enthusiasm and loyalty than Bob Sievers.”

Barrie Hartman, former executive editor of the Boulder Daily Camera and, like Steinhauer and Sievers, a member of the Boulder Rotary Club concurs.

Bob Sievers and some of his marble sculptures. Photo by Glenn Asakawa.

“To me, Bob Sievers has always stood as one of our community’s true giants. His spectacular track record as a scholar and scientist has made the university and Boulder proud for years,” Hartman says.

“I have always referred to him with his wonderfully inventive mind as the Benjamin Franklin of today. Ole’ Ben is just plain lucky that Bob didn’t show up on the scene first. He would have been the one to discover electricity and a whole lot more.”

For his part, Bob Sievers gives special recognition to Nancy. “I couldn’t have accomplished anywhere near what I think I have without Nancy’s unfailing support.”

Nancy earned a master’s degree at the University of Northern ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ in Special Education and taught children with special-learning needs in the Boulder Valley School District; in recent years she has been a volunteer for ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ’s Director Club, and in numerous Boulder community activities.

The college sweethearts at the University of Illinois have been married since 1961. They have a son, Eric Sievers, the chief medical officer of Trillium Therapeutics Inc., in Canada, and a daughter, Christie Spencer, who is the CEO of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Can LLC in Boulder, and a graduate of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder.

One of their grand-children, Kelsey Spencer, is a graduate of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ’s Leeds School of Business and works in marketing a line of natural cleaning and laundry products at Boulder Clean Corp, while also serving as the new head coach of the Fairview High School Volleyball Team.

STEM education and collaborative research

The Sievers have focused much of their earlier philanthropic efforts on STEM education for women. (STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.) They have funded a STEM scholarship for women. For the last four years, that scholarship has gone to Lexy Kresl, who was a basketball standout at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder and gradated in May with her B.A. in integrative physiology.

Sievers recalled an incident that helped mobilize the couple to support STEM education for women. In a Boulder junior high school, “which will remain nameless”, Sievers’ daughter told a counselor that she’d like to take math the following year.

The counselor asked why. “Women don’t need math,” the counselor said.

“We were just infuriated,” Bob Sievers says, adding that the incident occurred three decades ago.

And while ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ has made strides in gender equity, Sievers emphasizes that it is also a leader in interdisciplinary research, which he says is necessary to surmount the world’s biggest problems.

Today’s staggering challenges include public-health issues such as preventable causes of mass mortality, including measles. Do these things ever become discouraging?

“Occasionally, but as long as I see people like Bill and Melinda Gates doing what they’re doing with their wealth … trying to persuade people that where you were born and how wealthy your parents are shouldn’t determine what kind of health care you’re going to get, that gives me hope,” he says.

“It makes it possible when I fail to get a grant that I’d hoped to get to say, ‘OK, we’ve got to suck it up and go try again.’”

That spirit and the university’s emphasis on interdisciplinary research illustrate why SEEC is “so important,” Sievers says. “SEEC lets us bring under the same roof a lot of people who will have coffee together and will think of things to (research) together that they would have never have thought of had they been strung out across campus.”

When the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Complex is complete, it, too, will feature a marble seat of wisdom, also carved and donated by Sievers. Like the west campus and other outstanding research centers, SEEC promises to be a hub of research and scholarship, a place for the best and brightest to let their light shine.

For more information on ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder’s Sustainability, Energy and Environment Complex, click here.

Clint Talbott is director of communications and external relations for the College of Arts and Sciences and editor of the College of Arts and Sciences Magazine.

Following four decades of service in a host of roles and several gifts to ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ, Bob and Nancy Sievers have made a major capstone contribution to advance the development of the new laboratory and office complex at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Avenue and Foothills Parkway in Boulder, dedicated to sustainability, energy and environmental research.

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Couple’s $1 million bequest supports neuroscience, conservative scholarship

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Aug 2015 06:00:00 +0000

Couple’s $1 million bequest supports neuroscience, conservative scholarship Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 08/30/2015 - 00:00

Clint Talbott

Endowed scholarships to assist students focused on understanding the brain’s workings and those studying conservative initiatives and Western Civilization

As a liberal undergraduate, Todd D. McIntyre planned to study psychology and then attend law school. He didn’t anticipate becoming so fascinated with science, the brain in particular, that he’d completely change his academic trajectory and then launch a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry, where developing treatments for brain pathologies has been his primary focus.

He also didn’t anticipate becoming more conservative.

He attributes his success in part to a solid work ethic, good analytical and writing skills and the help of mentors at the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder and elsewhere.

Because of his gratitude for the help he received at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ and as a way to engage students in diverse thought and inquiry, he and his wife, Bertha Michiyo McIntyre, have established a $500,000 bequest to fund scholarships for ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder neuroscience students who qualify for financial aid.

They have also established a $500,000 bequest to fund scholarships for students of economics, history, political science and philosophy who are focusing their studies on conservative thought, public policy, economics and leadership.

Impressed by ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder’s innovative Conservative Thought and Policy Program, now in its third year of hosting an annual visiting scholar, the McIntyres decided to enhance ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ’s efforts to expose students to these “transformative concepts.”

McIntyre earned his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. in psychology (the latter two in the neuroscience program) from ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder in 1977, ’83 and ’86, respectively. Then he served four years as a staff fellow in neuropharmacology at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., where he continued his doctoral research on the molecular mechanisms of alcohol and drug abuse.

After considering several academic appointments, he moved to the private sector to help pharmaceutical companies effectively navigate the pharmacologic, toxicologic and clinical requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its counterparts in Canada, Europe and Asia.

"You have to be very confident to say to government physicians, politely, ‘I understand your position, but I think you’re mistaken, and here’s why.’”

Today, McIntyre is vice president of regulatory affairs at DURECT Pharmaceuticals, where he is responsible for completion of studies necessary for a new drug to gain the FDA’s approval. In three decades, acting as the chief negotiator with the FDA for several companies, he has helped them win worldwide approval for well-known drugs including Risperdal, Consta, Invega, Effexor, Pristiq and Razadyne, which treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and Alzheimer’s disease.

McIntyre attributes his early interest in psychology and the brain to a desire to better understand mental illness.

“As academia would have it,” McIntyre notes, “college curricula aim to give students a well-rounded education, and to do so they must typically fulfill the natural-sciences requirements.” He opted for an introductory course in molecular and cellular biology (MCDB) and one in biopsychology.

“I thought this stuff was really, really interesting.” Taking more classes only stoked his interest in neuroscience, a new but rapidly growing discipline.

For the last hundred years, McIntyre notes, scientists have been amassing ever-more-convincing evidence that human behavior and mental illness “were rooted in the brain’s cellular processes and interactions. Drugs, therapeutic or otherwise, exert their effects by activating or suppressing those neural processes.”

ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder was and continues to be an important hub of neuroscientific research. While scholars dating back to the Greeks had asked the right questions about human behavior, McIntyre says, the ability to identify the answers has broadened exponentially with technological innovations, which have engendered more questions.

For the research industry, the ability to transform large volumes of data (typically in excess of 100,000 pages, but now digital) into a compelling story and conclusion is a valuable commodity.

The reams of data cover medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, multiple clinical trials, statistics and manufacturing details.

“I discovered I had the ability to review data from multiple disciplines that other people had developed and distill it to its essence and integrate that across disciplines,” McIntyre says. “And if you can do that, you can be successful in the pharmaceutical industry.”

He also learned that he had a knack for negotiating with the FDA and other countries’ regulatory agencies. “Most scientists do not like negotiating, even when they think their own hypotheses and conclusions are correct. You have to be very confident to say to government physicians, politely, ‘I understand your position, but I think you’re mistaken, and here’s why.’”

He describes himself as having been “very liberal” while at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder, but says that, as predicted by Winston Churchill, “I have become more conservative through the years.”

“I also realized that I had neglected a certain portion of my education. So during my frequent travel, I started studying the classics and the history of man’s efforts to govern, especially that which influenced America’s founding fathers. And of course working for and with the government for 30 years (his wife, Bertha, worked in the U.S. Senate) provides a much different perspective.”

He characterized the efforts as encouraging “a more balanced menu of options in Boulder.”

“What my wife and I want to do is say to students is that just as it is important to be exposed to other cultures and ideas, it’s equally important to be exposed to the great works of Western civilization and to actively debate those ‘ancient ideas’ vs. those holding sway today.

“Obviously, America makes many mistakes, and other countries do many things correctly, but there’s something quite unique about the evolution of Western civilization and its manifestation in America that has engendered and facilitated this idea of self-governance under written law as opposed to under a ruling class.”

To learn about how to help the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ through your estate planning, please contact Katy Herbert Kotlarczyk at 303-541-1205 or Katy.Kotlarczyk@cu.edu. For more information about the Center for Western Civilization and the Conservative Thought and Policy program, please contact Kimberly Bowman at 303-541-1446 or via email at kimberly.bowman@colorado.edu

Clint Talbott is director of communications and external relations for the College of Arts and Sciences and editor of the College of Arts and Sciences Magazine.

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‘Water stains: That usually means something, right?’

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 06:00:00 +0000

‘Water stains: That usually means something, right?’ Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/16/2015 - 00:00

Clint Talbott

Ken and Ruth Wright are pioneers in the research of water engineering at Machu Picchu. Photo courtesy of Ruth and Ken Wright.

Most people who see something curious during world travels might briefly muse about it, perhaps weave it into a cocktail-party anecdote, but otherwise let it go.

But most people are not like Ruth Wright or her husband, Ken.

"Without modern surveying instruments, the Inca built the canal on a 3-percent slope leading into Machu Picchu. “Had the slope been too steep, the water would have jumped out of the canal; if too shallow, it would have flowed too slowly.”

When Ruth returned to Boulder from a 1974 trip to Machu Picchu, the imperial Inca city in modern-day Peru, she was vexed by this question: How did the Inca get a reliable source of water to a city sitting high on an Andean ridge?

“When we hiked around, there were a series of carved granite drops, and they looked alike, and they had a backdrop and side where they had niches, and you could see water stains,” Wright recalls, adding:

“Water stains: That usually means something, right?”

Ruth Wright points to a water channel recently discovered by the couple’s team. Photo courtesy of Ruth and Ken Wright.

That question launched a four-decade pursuit of answers and ultimately transformed Ruth and Ken Wright into world-renowned experts on the hydrogeology, paleohydrology and civil engineering of Machu Picchu and other Incan sites.

For their work in Peru, they’ve received high praise, awards and honorary degrees. In 2002, National Geographic magazine consulted them for an artistic rendering of Machu Picchu as it would have appeared on winter solstice 1530. Today, they are consulting with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian on anexhibition on the “Great Inka Road,” which opens in June.

Ruth, with the late Alfredo Valencia Zegarra, wrote The Machu Picchu Guidebook: A Self-Guided Tour, which draws on the Wrights’ and Zegarra’s careful research and has sold 100,000 copies.

But the Wrights spent two decades just trying to get Peru’s permission to do the hydrological research. This is surprising, given their impressive resumés.

While still in law school, Ruth, a 1972 graduate of the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder Law School, wrote the documents that the citizens of Boulder later adopted as the city’s 55-foot limit on the height of buildings. She served in the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ House of Representatives for 14 years and was the second woman in state history to serve as minority leader.

In 1961, Ken founded Wright Water Engineers, which has amassed a long list of awards and whose work includes being a special consultant to ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Gov. Richard Lamm on the rehabilitation of the Big Thompson Canyon, which suffered a deadly flood in 1976. He also served on the Boulder City Council.

Ken Wright gestures toward one of the Incas’ water channels. Photo courtesy of Ken and Ruth Wright.

Such people get things done. But when Ruth and Ken repeatedly asked Peruvian officials for permits to conduct an archaeological investigation into the Machu Picchu water system, they got nowhere.

Later, they asked newly minted Sen. Tim Wirth for a letter of reference, which he provided to the Peruvian Embassy. When Wirth later became Assistant Secretary of State for Global Affairs, his earlier letter was noted by the Peruvian Embassy in Washington.

Wheels began turning at the Foreign Office in Lima. It did not take long before the Wrights were busy working at Machu Picchu.

Once Ruth, Ken and Wright Water Engineers got started, the Peruvians “loved our work,” Ruth notes.

Ruth gestures toward a line of medals hung on the couple’s dining-room wall. “They’re all from Peru, various universities and two really special ones, which are presidential medals for distinguished service to the Republic.”

What made the initially hesitant Peruvian government lavish such praise on the Wrights? “We have helped bring back the legacy of the Inca, especially to the young people of Peru,” Ruth said.

Invading Spaniards in the 16th century overran the Inca civilization. But the work of the Wrights and others underscores that, as Ken notes, “They were such good organizers, good engineers, such good builders, and they had a very high standard of care.”

Revealing such things to contemporary Peruvians helps demonstrate that their ancestors “were very special people,” Ken observes.

Ruth Wright is co-author The Machu Picchu Guidebook

Ruth, Ken and the late Alfredo Valencia Zegarra, an archaeologist in Cusco, Peru, collaborated on several books. But the one most likely to find its way into the average person’s hands is Ruth and Alfredo’s Machu Picchu Guidebook: A Self-Guided Tour, first published in 2001.

Although the conquistadors crushed the Incan civilization, the Spaniards apparently never visited Machu Picchu.

The place sits 1,500 feet above the Urubamba River, which carved the Sacred Valley and ultimately flows to the Amazon. Higher in the Sacred Valley, which is dotted with Incan archaeological marvels, the climate is drier.

On the Urubamba River just below Machu Picchu lies Aguas Caliente (now called Machu Picchu Pueblo), where the rain sometimes comes in sheets. The densely vegetated and warm locale can obscure the fact that, at 8,000 feet in elevation, Machu Picchu is about as high as Aspen, Colo.

The Machu Picchu Guidebook explains what visitors are seeing section by section, room by room, sometimes rock by rock. It includes a chapter on “Inca Water Management.”

The Incas did not need water for irrigation, given the 77 inches of annual rainfall at the site. But for drinking, bathing and other uses, the Inca built a half-mile long canal that channeled up to 30 gallons of water per minute to the city.

Without modern surveying instruments, the Inca built the canal on a 3-percent slope leading into Machu Picchu. “Had the slope been too steep, the water would have jumped out of the canal; if too shallow, it would have flowed too slowly” to the first of 16 fountains, Wright and Zegarra write.

The Machu Picchu Guidebook, published by Good Earth Publishing in Boulder, is now in its second edition. It has also been published by Peru’s Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, Facultad de Ingeniería Civil.

With a stack of books and scholarly articles on Inca engineering to their credit, they continue to study Inca sites. Their most recent journal article has just been submitted for review.

Neither Ruth nor Ken anticipated that they’d spend a good portion of their lives researching the civil-engineering marvels in pre-Columbian Peru. Ruth puts it this way:

“We got turned on, and we couldn’t turn it off.”

Ken Wright and Alfredo Valencia Zegarra are authors of Machu Picchu: A Civil Engineering Marvel. Ken, Ruth, Zegarra and Gordon McEwan are co-authors of Moray: Inca Engineering Mystery. Ken is the author of Tipon: Water Engineering Masterpiece of the Inca Empire. Ruth is the author of Machu Picchu Revealed.

Clint Talbott is director of communications and external relations for the College of Arts and Sciences and editor of the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Arts & Sciences Magazine.

Most people who see something curious during world travels might briefly muse about it, perhaps weave it into a cocktail-party anecdote, but otherwise let it go. But most people are not like Ruth Wright or her husband, Ken. In 1974, she wondered about water stains on rocks at Machu Picchu. This led to four decades of study of the Inca engineering and culture.

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Economics alum leaves $3.7 million to endow chair

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Economics alum leaves $3.7 million to endow chair Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/17/2014 - 00:00

Melanie Sidwell

Gift also funds student sabbatical program, because Eugene Eaton believed ‘studying economics in an international setting would add a lot to the student’s appreciation for the discipline’

A physically imposing man with a brilliant mind and self-deprecating wit, University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder economics alumnus Eugene D. Eaton Jr. (’65, ’67, ’71) was larger than life. He served as a navigator in the 9th Aerospace Defense Division of the U.S. Air Force. He was awarded a Fulbright professorship. He was a faculty member of the University of Alaska and, in his later years, worked as an economic consultant for organizations associated with the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

Eaton, who died in 2013, continues to leave an impact through estate gifts that establish endowments to benefit the Department of Economics and the College of Music at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder. Combined, the commitments of more than $6 million constitute the largest gift the campus has received since 2007.

“This cross-disciplinary gift from an alumnus who remembered us in his will is leaving a legacy for generations of students,” said Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “Bequests like this shape the future of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder and we are grateful.”

Eaton described his time as a ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder student as “that wonderfully dissipating life” and lamented in his self-authored obituary that “too soon I had a respectable doctorate … [I] had to face the prospect that I might actually have to become employed, a first for me.”

While the social sciences engaged his mind and led to his successful career, it was music that riveted the economist outside of the classroom. Eaton attended many concerts at the College of Music and relished debates with the economics faculty, said Integrative Physiology Professor Todd Gleeson, who served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 2002 through 2012.

“It was clear he embraced the academic community at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ-Boulder,” said Gleeson, who knew Eaton well. “Economics and music were clearly two different areas of interest for him, and he pursued both of them carefully. This gift was his attempt to address his two passions: one professional and one cultural.”

The economics portion of the gift, which totals more than $3.7 million, will be split two ways:

A $1.36 million endowment will fund a new travel sabbatical program for undergraduates, which will enable students in economics to broaden their knowledge of the marketplace in a culture other than their own. The program aims to provide a different kind of international experience for students who will design a creative and unconventional study plan abroad, with preference given to those interested in regions of the southern or eastern hemispheres.

“Gene thought studying economics in an international setting would add a lot to the student’s appreciation for the discipline and for how other systems work,” Gleeson said.

A $2.36 million endowment will fund a new chair in economics, substantially enhancing the department’s ability to attract the most distinguished scholars and practitioners, said Professor Nicholas E. Flores, chair of the Department of Economics.

“On all levels, this gift is huge for us,” Flores said. “You get expertise and a record of scholarship immediately from a senior scholar.”

In addition, $2.36 million from the gift will fund an endowed chair of Baroque music in the College of Music. Learn more.

Melanie Sidwell is communications manager at the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Office of Advancement.

Gift also funds student sabbatical program, because Eugene Eaton believed ‘studying economics in an international setting would add a lot to the student’s appreciation for the discipline’

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Donors

From renderings to reality: The renovated Roe Green Theatre opens

'The arts give joy and meaning to life, and I’m so pleased that Roe Green has chosen to support ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder and the surrounding community in such a creative and meaningful way,' says Chancellor Phil DiStefano

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Several have donated to the Albert W. Smith Geography Scholarship to honor the man and his caring mentorship and to help today’s students

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