Northalnd College Magazine

Northland College

Triple Year of the Woman

Women are having a profound impact on the face of philanthropy at Northland College.

Find out how. Pg 11

Magazine Home of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute

WIntEr 2014

Also in this issue: News • Class Notes • Athletics

On the CoverIcicles dangle from the ceiling

of a sea cave along the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore north of Bayfield, Wisconsin.

Northland College MagazineWINTER 2014

MissionNorthland College integrates liberal arts

studies with an environmental emphasis, enabling those it serves to address the

challenges of the future.

VisionNorthland College will be the nation’s

preeminent liberal arts college focused on the environment, preparing students and

other stakeholders to lead us toward a more sustainable, just, and prosperous future.

PresidentDr. Michael A. Miller

President’s CabinetAndy Goyke

Faculty Council President and Professor of Biology

Robert Jackson Vice President of Finance and Administration

Michele Meyer Vice President for Student Affairs and

Institutional Sustainability

Mark Peterson Executive Director, Sigurd Olson

Environmental Institute

Rick J. Smith Vice President of Institutional Marketing and

Enrollment Management

Margot Carroll Zelenz Interim Vice President of Institutional

Advancement

Magazine ContributorsJulie Buckles, Public and Media

Relations Specialist

Bob Gross, Associate Director of Institutional Marketing

Demeri Mullikin, Executive Director of Institutional Marketing

Vicki Nafey ’96, Director of Advancement Services

© 2014, Northland College

SubmissionsTo submit comments and ideas

for the Northland College magazine, please write to :

Office of Institutional Marketing Northland College 1411 Ellis Avenue Ashland, WI 54806

You can also call (715) 682-1307 or email [email protected].

Class NotesTo submit class notes or alumni

photos, please write to:

Office of Alumni Relations Northland College 1411 Ellis Avenue Ashland, WI 54806

You can also call (715) 682-1811 or email [email protected].

northland.edu/golf

July 10, 2014Apostle Highlands Golf Club

Bayfield, Wisconsin

SAVE THE DATE!

®

CONTENTS

FROM THE PRESIDENT PG. 1

NEWS PG. 2

TRIPlE YEaR OF THE WOMaN PG. 11

HOW WINE SHaPED a NaTION PG. 15

aTHlETICS PG. 18

alUMNI NEWS PG. 19

ClaSS NOTES PG. 2119

718

1 NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE

OUR FEET ON THE GROUND

The facilities crew has their hands full this winter. The region broke the record for most consecutive days below zero and received well above average snowfall—including a 31-inch snow blizzard, yet, Northland hums along.

For the first time in half a decade, the sea caves are accessible to the public. I spent an inspiring morning exploring the beauty of this icy stretch of the Lake Superior sea caves, energized by the grandeur that draws so many people to this region.

While the temperatures are frigid, the campus is heated with the vitality that comes from staff, faculty, and students. We’ve welcomed prominent, dynamic guests who keep all of us dreaming big. In these pages, you will read about alumnus Paul Sveum, who demonstrated winter camping skills, author Craig Childs, who accepted the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award for “Apocalyptic Planet,” and NASA astronaut John Herrington, the first American Indian into space, who spoke before a packed Kendrigan Gymnasium and made us all want to launch into space.

Alas, Northland continues forward with its feet on the ground. In the strategic initiative proposal process, the campus has demonstrated the resourcefulness and innovative spirit it will take to thrive in today’s competitive world. Several initiatives are under consideration and two proposals from staff and faculty are already moving forward.

The first strategic initiative is a varsity reserve athletic program—a program with immediate lift that will bring more student-athletes to campus. Also in the line up is a graphic design emphasis in the art major. Graphic design is a growing field that fits seamlessly with our existing art program. We look forward to incorporating this new generation of graphic designers into campus communications and the broader community.

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Many of the strategic initiatives throughout campus would not be possible if not for the continuing commitment from our donors of both today and generations past. You’ll note the theme of “generations” in the story on philanthropy and planned giving, where generations past are paying forward to the long-term financial health of Northland College. Read on to learn more about the activities and accomplishments we proudly share in the pages of our magazine.

Michael A. Miller President, Northland College

2 NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE WINTER 2014 2

NEWS

Northland College Announces Four-Year Tuition Guarantee

In an effort to combat the rising and often unpredictable costs of higher education, Northland College announced a four-year tuition and housing price guarantee that will begin in Fall 2014.

Freshmen will lock in at one price for all four years. Current students will lock in for their remaining years at the College.

Northland College is the first school in Wisconsin or Minnesota and one of a few in the Midwest to promise the same tuition price for all four years. Students will also lock room costs and student fees for those four years.

“A tuition guarantee provides the solid cost information students and their families need so they can plan financially for the four years it takes

students to complete college,” said College President Michael A. Miller. “It also creates additional incentive for students to finish their bachelor’s degrees in four years.”

Students who enroll, or re-enroll, in the fall of 2014 will lock in on the 2014 rate for tuition, housing, and student fees—for four continuous years.

“Since our founding, Northland has had a commitment to making college more affordable for students from a wide variety of backgrounds,” Miller said.

Northland College will also retain its Access Guarantee—a program that matches flagship public university tuition for qualifying freshmen.

In addition, the College is piloting a career bridge semester to provide professional work opportunities as well as structured career planning services for one semester after graduation. This program begins next fall and will be offered at no cost to this year’s graduating seniors.

“This is another chance for Northland students to increase their edge in the current job market or obtain valuable career experience before they enter graduate school,” Miller said. “We’re confident about the likely success of this pilot semester and hope to continue it for future graduating classes.”

Left: President Miller speaks with current students about the new Tuition Guarantee.


NEWS

Northland College and Big Water Coffee Roasters partnered last fall to develop and cross-market a coffee blend they’re calling Fenenga Fuel with the tagline, “coffee to feed your fire.”

The College and Big Water, located in Bayfield, Wisconsin, introduced the campus community to this sweet and smoky blend at Fenenga Fest in November.

The College chose the name Fenenga Fuel, honoring its first College President M.J. Fenenga, a can-do president who brought industry, ingenuity, and academic rigor to the campus. “He was the type of person who could fix the furnace if need be,” said Rick Smith, vice president of institutional marketing and enrollment management.

“We really wanted a name unique to Northland College and that would resonate with Northland College alumni and the community—nearly every Northland grad since 1966 has lived in Fenenga Hall,“ Smith said.

At first glance, Big Water owner Danielle Ewalt said she needed convincing on the name—for its potential pronunciation problems. “The spelling is phonetic though— that helps,” she said.

As she learned more about Fenenga and what he did for the future stability of the College, she was convinced. Plus she says, “Fenenga Fuel—it’s fun to say out loud.”

Turns out, there are quite a few highly organized Fenengas throughout the country. “Crazy Facebook world,” Ewalt laughed. “A woman posted on our page that she is related to M.J.—and then she did a shout out on the Fenenga Family Facebook page.”

Big Water Coffee Roasters shipped Fenenga Fuel from coast to coast during the holidays. Ewalt said she looks forward to making even more Northland connections.

The coffee partnership fits into the local foods initiative, which is now in its second year at Northland College.

College and Coffee Roaster Brew Special Blend

The first priority of the initiative is to purchase food from within 100 miles of the College. The second priority is to purchase foods and work with businesses from within 250 miles.

Last year, Northland College exceeded its ambitious goal to use local and regional foods for 20 percent of its overall food service program. Northland reached 39 percent this past semester. The College remains on track to exceed its current annual goal of 30 percent.


In October alone, 46.9 percent of the food consumed in the cafeteria and snack bar was local and regional.

“The ultimate annual goal is to purchase 80 percent local foods,” said Regional Sustainability Coordinator Nathan Engstrom.

“Northland’s success has been built on relationships with producers, growers, and businesses to create new structures and systems for distribution,” Engstrom said.

“Working with Big Water Coffee Roasters on co-branding Fenenga Fuel is one tangible measure of the uniqueness of this initiative and of the personal relationships that have come from this model,” Engstrom said.

“Northland’s commitment to sustainability and local foods fits with Big Water Coffee Roasters commitment to quality and our community,” said Danielle Ewalt who co-owns Big Water with her husband, Jon.

“We want partners for promoting coffee and the region,” Ewalt said. “Northland’s mission aligns with ours—we make similar decisions like buying milk from the local dairy.”

Fenenga Fuel is their first co-branded coffee and will be sold through the Ponzio Campus Center Store at Northland College, Ashland Baking Company, and Big Water Coffee Roasters. Fenenga Fuel is also available online at northland.edu/coffee.

Big Water Coffee Roasters and Northland College celebrated the launch of Fenenga Fuel in November

with Fenenga Fest. The event featured coffee samples, bags

of beans, Fenenga Fuel mugs, and a special

moustache themed photo-booth.


NEWS

Teaching a Community to Talk (and Listen)

What happens when a philosopher and a psychologist meet along Lake Superior? In the case of Northland College Philosophy Professor Tim Doyle (right) and Psychologist C.J. Peek of Minneapolis, a chance encounter at Roman’s Point resulted in a new model for resolving community conflict.

Doyle presented this model at a workshop, “Civil Discourse 101: How Communities Can Discuss Contentious Issues” in November

Dickinson College Joins Eco League

Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, recently accepted an invitation to join the Eco League, a consortium of colleges that have an emphasis in sustainability. Dickinson College will become the sixth college in the consortium beginning in the fall of 2014.

Dickinson is the first college to be added to the five-member Eco League since 2003 when it was founded. Currently led by Northland College, the Eco League includes the College of the Atlantic in Maine, Green Mountain College in Vermont, Prescott College in Arizona, and Alaska Pacific University in Alaska.

“The thing that binds us all together is an emphasis on the environment, community, outreach, experiential learning, and the liberal arts,” said Northland College President Michael A. Miller.

at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute (SOEI) at Northland College.

The current discourse in the United States is one of sound bites and of winners and losers, Doyle said. “If we can’t break that cycle, where does democracy go? Where does a community go?”

Devoid of winners or losers, Doyle’s project attempts to address those questions. “It’s not meant to solve all problems—but rather to start a conversation and a deeper understanding of the other person,” he said.

Doyle and his collaborators have presented at other venues. This was their first presentation in northern Wisconsin.


Dickinson recently completed a robust application process that included a self-reported study in sustainability, a campus visit from Eco League representatives, and participation in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System.

Dickinson’s participation will add experiences for their students and faculty—particularly in areas of research—and enhance the current consortium.

“Our partnership with the Eco League will provide our students with opportunities to study in areas that are ecologically distinct from what they find in the Carlisle region,” said Nancy Roseman, president and professor of biology at Dickinson College.

“Dickinson’s philosophy is rooted in ‘hands on’ learning, so providing our students with the opportunity to be exposed to and do research in the geographic and ecologically diverse areas represented by our Eco League partners is very exciting for us,” Roseman said.

Dickinson brings to the Eco League a Center for Sustainability, an organic farm, an active student body, and a vibrant international study program.

“Dickinson students are fully dedicated to the liberal arts. They utilize their education and access to amazing facilities and a dynamic faculty to help drive environmental change,” Miller said. The Eco League roster gives students access to learn about sustainability in three oceans,

Lake Superior, the Sonoran Desert, northern forests, glaciers, coastal islands, and on organic farms in five different growing regions. Through an exchange program, students are able to attend any of the Eco League colleges while enrolled at their own college.

Faculty collaborate through guest lectures, curriculum development, and co-teaching. Currently, the Eco League offers three joint courses in marine biology, sustainable business, and natural and cultural history interpretation. Most recently, a course at Northland College took students out into the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior for three weeks.

Over the next couple of years, the Eco League plans to strengthen and expand its program offerings. “This is just the beginning,” Miller said.

NC Establishes American Indian Science and Engineering Society

Under the direction of the Native American and Indigenous Cultural Center (NAICC), last fall Northland College established American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), a non-profit professional association with the goal of substantially increasing American Indian and Alaskan Native representation in the fields of engineering, science, and other related technology disciplines.

As one of its first activities, AISES members worked with the Native American Student Association and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion in November and organized a Veteran’s Day flag raising ceremony on campus. In October, Northland College was named as a Military Friendly School by G.I. Jobs in recognition of the College’s effort to assist military veterans and their family members in completing a college education.


NEWS

NC Wolf Researcher Takes Remote Look at Primates in Madagascar

For years, Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Erik Olson has been studying the greater bamboo lemur. This lemur species is a genetically unique and critically endangered primate that is one of the few mammals on the planet able to digest and detoxify materials found in bamboo—like cyanide. “Pretty cool, huh?” Olson said.

Olson, who joined the faculty in the fall of 2013, recently received

a grant from the Conservation International Primate Action Fund of the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation to continue his research on lemurs.

The greater bamboo lemur—along with many other species of lemurs—lives in Madagascar, an island country in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeast Africa. What most of us know about Madagascar has been gleaned from the animated movie of the same name, featuring New York zoo animals that end up in Africa on the island of Madagascar.

What Olson knows is much more interesting. Madagascar is

a nation with a rich biodiversity, and many of the island’s species are found nowhere else on Earth. A high number of cyclones hit the island. Lemurs, a group of primates endemic to Madagascar, are of high conservation concern.

For his research, Olson will use remotely sensed data to identify the cyclonic and anthropogenic disturbances affecting the eastern forests of Madagascar. This region of Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot and is especially impacted by human activities and tropical cyclones, both of which have been linked to changes in lemur population dynamics, densities, and behavior.


Olson will be studying the impact forest disturbances have on the distributions of four highly endangered lemur species: indri, black and white ruffed lemur, greater bamboo lemur, and diademed sifaka.

“There’s limited information on these species and how they respond to forest disturbance whether by cyclones or humans,” Olson said.

First, Olson and colleagues will try to identify areas of the forest that have been disturbed by humans or cyclones. Then the researchers can start to ask questions about lemur distributions in relation to forest disturbances and evaluate different

land management strategies and why they worked or didn’t work.

Dr. Olson’s collaborators at The Aspinall Foundation will validate the remote sensing via on-the-ground fieldwork. “We hope the project will ultimately aid resource management and conservation efforts in the region,” Olson said.

Olson became interested in lemur research as a Ph.D. candidate in environment and resources at UW-Madison. His dissertation research focused on human-wolf conflicts and predator-prey ecology, but he and a group of students designed a class project to examine the population dynamics of the gray

bamboo lemur, a more common species related to the greater bamboo lemur.

And through a series of fortunate opportunities, what started as a class project evolved into a full-scale interdisciplinary research project that resulted in two peer-reviewed publications and a conservation report for The Aspinall Foundation.

Olson admits there may not appear to be many direct connections between wolves in Wisconsin and lemurs in Madagascar. But they both involve wildlife, people, and the landscape. “For both we need to understand ecology and how humans and wildlife interact,” Olson said. “Also, I’m using the same geospatial techniques for lemurs that I use for examining wolf-human conflicts.”

Olson plans to bring his research into the classroom to demonstrate the importance of interdisciplinary work and geospatial analysis skills, and to get students interested and involved in scientific research. “What’s nice is that I get to share my work with students as it develops, which both inspires them and helps me refine how I communicate results.”

Opposite page: A lemur rests in a tree in Madagascar. Left: Olson (front row left) and other researchers in Madagascar.


NEWSPanwar Collaborates in “The Global Forest Sector”

Rajat Panwar, Chapple chair of business and social responsibility, recently finished co-editing the textbook “The Global Forest Sector: Changes, Practices, and Prospects.”

Published in January, Panwar is one of three co-editors that worked together to manage the flow of diverse articles in order to grasp continuity and themes within the publication.

“The project, which took three years to complete, was a cohesive collaboration with international writers and a rich team of individuals,” he said.

“Apocalyptic Planet” Author on campus

Author Craig Childs accepted the 2013 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award (SONWA) in January from the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute for his book, “Apocalyptic Planet, Field Guide to the Everending Earth.” Childs also spent two days visiting campus classrooms and interacting with students.

NC Faculty and Students Receive Funding for “Social Capital Funding” Research

The Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation recently awarded funding to Northland College faculty members Brandon Hofstedt, Kevin Schanning, and Angela Stroud to conduct a social

capital survey project in the spring and summer of 2014. With student involvement, the project will provide a baseline assessment of social capital measures for the Chequamegon Bay area communities of Ashland, Washburn, and the surrounding townships.

According to faculty, no comprehensive social capital data exists for these communities, making work on various economic and community development initiatives a challenge. Social capital

research suggests that measuring and understanding local forms of social capital is important for a number of reasons. Communities with strong social capital tend to have higher levels of volunteerism and community involvement, are able to quickly respond to community needs, have lower crime rates, have more effective governments, have more successful and responsible businesses, and have stronger economies.


U.S. Park Service Awards Grant to JohnsonThe U.S. National Park Service awarded funds to Sarah Johnson, assistant

professor of natural resources, and two student research assistants to carry out a $20,000, twenty-month study to assess declining vegetation on rare sandscapes in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

According to Johnson, common juniper and beach grass, species important to sandscape ecosystems and soil stabilization are experiencing decreased vigor and abundance on several islands. Loss of this vegetation threatens wildlife habitat and soil stability and increases the potential for exotic species invasion. Besides carrying out the survey, Johnson and her team will be developing and recommending management strategies to protect and restore juniper and beach grass in the park’s sandscape areas.

WDNR Awards Forestry Contract to Martin

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) awarded a contract to support Assistant Professor of Forestry Jonathan Martin’s project, “Long-Term Citizen-Based Monitoring of Biological, Hydrologic, and Climatic Variables in the Whittlesey Creek Flowage and Associated Wetlands.”

The project is funded through the WDNR’s Citizen-Based Monitoring Program. Martin will be working with work-study students over the course of the year-long project to monitor vegetation and collect water table data to provide natural resource managers with data and understanding to address the effects of climate change, invasive species, and groundwater variability on wetland health and associated wildlife habitats.

Art Meets Science Photographer Bob Gross

collaborated with Tom Fitz, associate professor of geoscience, in collecting and photographing the 13 images featuring a close up view of the rocks and minerals of the Penokee Hills—the location of a proposed mine site within an hour of campus—for “Bones of the Land,” an exhibition that hung through the end of February at the Dexter Library.

“The collection of large-scale prints lies at the intersection between art and science, offering a unique view of the geological formations that have caused so much upheaval,” Gross said. “The exhibit represents both an exploration of light and the ways in which art can illuminate the world around us.”

Northland Accepted into National Ecosystem Consortium

The Great Lakes-Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (GLNF-CESU) recently accepted Northland College as a partner member. This national network is comprised of seventeen biogeographic regional units encompassing the United States and territories and is a consortium of fourteen federal agencies and more than three hundred partners.

Northland’s participation in this network will allow for ease of networking and information exchange between Northland researchers and project managers and the more than forty partner institutions in the GLNF-CESU. These collaborations will also promote cost and other resource sharing among the partner institutions to most effectively use project funds for their research and education benefits.


omanWTriple Year of The

WINTER 2014 12

omanTriple Year of The Director of Gift Planning Scott Shrode is calling 2013 the triple year of the woman.

He isn’t kidding. Three women—Corrine E. Forster, Virginia Townley, and Ruth Barker—through planned gifts in the form of wills, trusts, and annuities, donated more than $2.2 million in 2013.

“These three women have had a significant impact in pushing forward the Northland vision,”

Shrode said.

About one-third of donations to Northland College come through planned giving, gifts of appreciated

property, real estate, life insurance, bequests, revocable trusts, charitable annuities, or irrevocable charitable trusts.

“These gifts are having a significant impact—and what’s especially satisfying is that the theme of family runs through all

of these stories,” Shrode said.


Corinne ForsterCorinne Forster has the quintessential Northland story. “In almost every detail, it fulfills the hopes of the founders for what the College could mean to the people of this region, especially immigrants and young women,” Shrode said at the ceremony that posthumously named Forster the 2013 Philanthropist of the Year.

Forster’s Northland connection begins with the start of the Northland Academy. Her father was a young man from Germany with little formal education who had worked for years on the ore docks in Ashland to support himself and his parents. Conrad H. Forster dreamed of more, and when the College came into being, he seized the opportunity.

He enrolled, obtained his degree in 1892 as a member of the first graduating class four years later, and matriculated to what is now Loyola University Dental School in Chicago. After becoming a dentist, he returned to Ashland where he practiced for over fifty years.

“Dr. Forster has been described to me as ‘the kindest man on two feet,’” Shrode said. “Even today, there are those who remember that he trusted his patients to pay when able, and he never sent a bill.”

Conrad Forster believed in equal rights and educational opportunities for women. He instilled these beliefs into his four

daughters, and he generously provided for their educational efforts. Three of the four began college at Northland. One became a dental hygienist, the second, a librarian, another a dietician, and the fourth, Corinne, became a teacher and university professor.

Like her father, Corinne Forster, was a loyal supporter of Northland, and almost twenty-five years ago notified the College that through her estate plan she would be establishing an endowment to help young women with significant financial need attend Northland.

She specified that it be named the Dr. Conrad H. Forster Scholarship to honor her father.

Corinne Forster died in 2013 and true to her word Northland College was notified that she had made substantial provision for the scholarship endowment. In addition, in her will, she left it to the discretion of a surviving family member to add additional money from her estate to that endowment.

Northland College was notified recently that Corinne Forster’s gift would be more than doubled through her family’s decision, totalling $500,000.

“Her sister told me that this decision was made because of what Northland College meant and means to the family,” Shrode said. “ In her words, ‘Northland College occupies a special place in our hearts.’”

Virginia TownleyVirginia Townley was connected to the College through her son, Bill Rogers, and through her love for nature. “I remember cutting branches on a tree and she had a fit,” Rogers said. “She would step over fallen trees before she would cut down an aging tree.”

Her grandfather was Arthur Temple, one of the largest timber barons in Texas in the early 1900s. Temple was well ahead of his time, planting a tree for nearly everyone he felled.

“Conservation wasn’t in the language then, and yet, he practiced reforestation,” Rogers said.

Rogers discovered Northland College in the 1970s. He was teaching in Eagle River and came to the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute for a conference about the Brule River. He kept in touch, and when he moved to Superior in 1988, he got more involved.

He later joined the Board of Trustees. And he got his mother involved.

WINTER 2014 14

Ruth BarkerRuth Barker discovered Northland through her mother and mother-in-law. She did not attend Northland and in fact, she first visited Northland College in 1991 at the age of 62. Yet she left $1 million from her estate to Northland College to be used for student scholarships. Her interest was more personal.

The philanthropist’s family had a long history here, including her grandfather, mother, and mother-in-law. Grandfather George W. Mead served on the Board of Trustees 1958-1961 and was instrumental in helping the College achieve accreditation. Mead Hall was named to honor his years of service and support.

Her mother Emily Baldwin Bell served on the Northland College Board of Trustees from 1960-1978 and contributed nearly $700,000 to the College in her lifetime. Baldwin Student Center, now the Baldwin Commons, was dedicated to Emily, and her first husband, Henry.

In 1950, Barker’s mother-in-law Helen Bass Barker was the first Wisconsin woman elected to become the national representative

Townley established the Brule River Scholarship at Northland College. A fitting designation, considering Townley had spent her childhood summers at the Brule River—a tradition she continued well into her eighties.

A lover of music and the arts, she also contributed to the Mary Van Evera Visual Arts Center on Northland’s campus.

Townley, who died in September at age 97, specified in her will, that $700,000 go to start an endowment to support an executive director position at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute.

Rogers said he is delighted that his mother will help continue the environmental legacy at Northland College. “I don’t know of any other school where kids can step off a plane and immediately get their hands dirty,” Rogers said. “That this is an endowment that will be there forever is a nice feeling.”

of the Wisconsin Daughters of the Revolution (DAR). The DAR was involved with Northland College in the early years and even helped build a college library (now Wakefield Hall), dedicated in 1941.

Barker was an active member and major philanthropist of many civic organizations in Wisconsin and in Arizona. At Northland College, she and her husband, Hartley, started the Hartley and Ruth Barker Endowed Scholarship, funded the Ruth and Hartley Geoscience Wing in the Larson-Juhl Center for Science and the Environment, and contributed to the renovation of Wheeler Hall.

Barker also served as the former director on the board of the Consolidated Papers Foundation, Inc. of Wisconsin Rapids, now the Mead Witter Foundation, Inc., which has given more than $2 million to Northland College over the years, including the Mead Witter Foundation Scholarship endowment.

Barker, who died in April at the age 84, was “an example of quiet perseverance, courage, and commitment,” according to her obituary.

In a 2005 article, Barker credited her parents and in-laws for inspiring her philanthropy in concluding, “You can’t take it with you, so you should do something with it.”


How

An Interview with Erica Hannickel about her new book Empire of Vines: Wine Culture in America

NationWine

shaped a

Q. You’re an environmental historian writing about grape cultivation. How does one intersect with the other and how did you get interested?

A. I came to grapes through an interest in 19th century gardening and agriculture in general. These topics spoke so interestingly about country-to-city transitions for Americans, as well as what they were thinking about in regards to nature and culture. I soon found that the environmental impact of vineyards hasn’t been widely studied, nor publicized, even in our contemporary times. Growing grapes is quite different than growing something like corn. But, the environmental historian in me immediately recognized that however beautiful vineyards might be, they are still monocultures, and of course radically alter and simplify the ecosystems they replace.

Q. In fact, you start the book talking about the environmental impacts.

A. My editor convinced me to start the introduction with an overview of environmental damage done by contemporary vineyards. Although taking some contemporary winemakers to task about their overuse of methyl bromide—a highly toxic, ozone-depleting pesticide—and sulfur is a provocative way to open a book about wine, my deeper questions

WINTER 2014 16

Q. Nicholas Longworth is a great character and one not well known. Tell me more.

A. I was shocked at every turn researching Nicholas Longworth. First, I didn’t understand how no one knows about him except for the nerdiest of wine scholars and only the most historically informed Cincinnatians. Because of his land investments and his wine, he was the second-richest man in America, behind John Jacob Astor, for a few decades—and yet he hasn’t received any of the positive or negative attention that America’s 19th century moguls regularly do. Longworth was a master mythmaker and manipulator of his own life story and business investments. He was preternaturally gifted at enswathing the unseemly in storybook grandeur. I guess this made him a great salesman, but I think he’s more than that. He’s also at the heart of constructing a larger mythos about American fruit production and wine drinking. He made people think that both were moral, democratic, genteel pastimes, working to soothe class conflict, beautify ugly landscapes, and solve the growing problems with the Industrial Revolution. He was the first American that took the leap into serious and sustained wine production, selling his products nationally and internationally.

Q. You’ve researched and written “Empire of Vines” for the last eight years, including your entire five years here at Northland College. What is the most surprising thing you learned?

A. Before landing a book contract, I thought writing was rather soul sucking. In contrast, research is always fun. Finding new things in archives, connecting with people and things from the past—what could be better? But writing, ugh. Yet in the course of turning the dissertation into a book, a process that essentially entailed reframing or rewriting it a total of four times, writing became extremely pleasurable. I think this means it just took me this long to get to a place of true facility with written language. I fully realized the corner I had turned when Andrea Wulf, author of Founding Gardeners, visited Northland last year. We were chatting with some students and she said, “A day spent writing is always a good day.” As much as I love teaching, I couldn’t agree with her more.

were really about what has animated American wine culture since the 19th century. And I was surprised to find that it had so much to do with another deep natural-cum-cultural topic: Americans’ long love affair with “manifest destiny.”

Q. Remind me about manifest destiny?

A. The 1840s was a time of superheated national expansion when U.S. leaders sought to incorporate more land into the national fabric. Manifest destiny was

used as justification for aggression in the Southwest throughout the Mexican-American War, as well as

in Oregon territory. My book focuses on the true manifest destiny period, the 1830s-1860s, but extends it through the turn of the 20th century in later chapters, especially in the way that race plays out in grape and wine literature.

Q. You grew up in California. What attracted you to the Midwestern wine story?

A. When I stumbled on the Ohio wine story, a story that used all the same grandiose language,

and made all the same promises as California—but was doing it decades before California wine hit

national markets—I was intrigued. I grew up in the foothills of the Sacramento Valley but as a kid, I didn’t

think too much about wine country. Once I moved to Iowa for my PhD, and then to Northland College to teach, I became more conscious of how California had long constructed itself as the fruit and breadbasket of the United States and the world.

Q. In what way?

A. It was as if Californians believed that their growing conditions were not only exceptional, but absolutely innate—again, like a long-time belief in manifest destiny, but at the state level. Every wine history I had ever read culminated in California, as if the Napa and Sonoma Valleys were foreordained for greatness, and everything else was passing fancy. So I was also drawn in by larger national horticultural and gardening trends of the 19th century—efforts to “cultivate the continent” that again sounded a whole lot like manifest destiny narratives to me.


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To Space and Beyond

by Northland student Anna Hipke-Krueger

John B. Herrington wants students everywhere to reach for the stars.

Herrington, a Native American astronaut, emphasized the importance of chasing dreams, the necessity of science education and, of course, what it’s like to be 200 miles above Earth’s surface to a Northland audience in February.

As a child Herrington sat in a cardboard box and dreamt of going to the moon. When he got to college, however, all he wanted to do was climb rocks. He finished his freshman year with a 1.72 grade point average.

The school kicked him out, and he went to work scaling rocks for a construction crew — his first experience with applied mathematics. With encouragement from a crew leader, he returned to college and graduated. With further encouragement from a pilot that he tutored, he joined the Navy.

Herrington earned a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering and applied to NASA.

“You can have a dream and achieve it if you work hard, but I wouldn’t have had a chance if I hadn’t met the people I did,” said Herrington who is working on a doctorate in education.

“What motivates students to learn is when they get fascinated by stuff,” he said. “That’s what I think education is about.”

Commander John B. Herrington, a Native American astronaut, spoke at Northland in the end of February to kick off a series of Indigenous Cultures Awareness Events in March. Photo by Northland student Niina Threlfall-Baum.

WINTER 2014 18

Hockey Players Connect with Reading Buddies

Northland College freshman Cody Stettin agrees that volunteerism is part of being a hockey player but still he was pleased to learn of the LumberJack’s primary service project.

For eight years, Northland hockey players have been working with the students at Lake Superior Elementary School in reading, math, and sometimes on the playground.

These student-athletes who lace up the skates for the hockey team give of themselves off the ice as well as on.

The hockey team grew moustaches in November as part of national “No Shave November” to raise awareness of men’s health

ATHLETICS

issues. By selling T-shirts and holding a raffle they raised $1,600 for prostate cancer research.

Each week like clockwork at least two of them sit and listen to elementary students read and they talk and get to know one another. Stettin said he has dyslexia and can identify with the kids who struggle. “As a kid, reading to a teacher, it was like being put on the spot,” he said.

Then, turning his attention to his young friend, John, who is reading “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” he speaks like a proud uncle. “He’s come a long way this year—he started with some basic books and he’s up to chapter books.”

The men of the Northland hockey team stretch the term student-athlete as far as possible, said hockey coach Steve Fabiilli.

“Not only does volunteering help the children in the classroom,” Fabiilli

said. “But it also allows the hockey players to gain experience and knowledge in a community where they have devoted four years of their lives.”

Third grade teacher Dawn Reardon said the exposure to college student-athletes for her students is invaluable. “They read and talk and the kids come back energized and excited—I have students raising their hands if they can have a hockey player reading buddy,” she said.

“The kids love it—they love having someone who is excited to see them come every week.”

Reardon said she feels such a connection to the reading volunteers that she now goes to hockey games to see the guys play. “I will continue to invite the hockey players for as long as Northland College has a team,” she said.

LumberJack hockey players have been volunteering at Lake Superior Elementary School for the last eight years.


ALUMNI NEWS

On the Trail: Winter Trekking in the Boundary Waters

Alumnus Paul Sveum, class of 2010, designed his own undergraduate degree, traditional ecological knowledge in outdoor education, so it’s not surprising to discover that in his professional life he continues to cut his own path. The 34-year-old Maine guide teaches bushcraft and wilderness living skills at Jack Mountain in Ashland, Maine for two-thirds of the year. For the winter season, he returns to the Ashland, Wisconsin region, specifically to his land in Cornucopia, where he teaches with former Northland College instructor Greg Weiss at Lost Creek Adventures.

In January, Sveum pulled his

narrow toboggan with strapped on winter camping gear across campus. He was headed for the cedars beneath the Wheeler Hall Bridge to demonstrate to students and faculty how he and three friends intended to trek for twenty-five to thirty days from mid-February to mid-March through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Partly inspired by conservationist Sigurd Olson, winter trekking through the Boundary Waters is something he has long aspired to do. The reasons are endless, according to Sveum. No bugs. No humidity. No dirt. Few people. “It’s my favorite season to be on the trail,” he said.

One month after his campus demo in the cedars, Sveum started his journey at Saganaga Lake, located at the end of the Gunflint

Trail. “I like to start trips at the end of the road literally and figuratively —something like a delineation between the past and now,” he said. “It is [Joseph] Campbell’s departure stage of the journey, and my mind does better when the first threshold is physical, in this case the end of the pavement and the beginning of the trail.”

In addition to food and the usual camping gear, he and fellow comrades hauled a canvas tent, stove, an axe, and fishing poles. The Northland College Outpost co-sponsored the trip lending some essential gear like the canvas tent to the project. For fuel, they hauled over 250 pounds of food, providing approximately 5,000 calories per day.

Sveum arrived at Northland

Paul Sveum speaks with students during a winter camping demonstration on campus before his trip.

WINTER 2014 20

College in 2006 pretty clear about what he wanted to do and how he wanted to do it, but he needed to learn more to get there. He credits Northland College for deepening his skills and connections. “The Northland outdoor ed faculty teach students to be good humans as well as outdoors people,” he said. “Here I was exposed to new ideas and a different realm of thought.”

Northland provides a core community of people and then an outer ring of contacts, he said. “Outdoor ed is a people business, if you know a few people, it helps—it’s all about reputation,” he said. “I’ve been able to tap into Northland’s network of environmentally sound outdoor education leaders for sponsored gear and free advice.”

Sveum said he wanted his trip to

be “more than just a rad adventure,” so he offered his services to the U.S. Forest Service who asked him to monitor and record where and how many people use the park in the winter along with snowmobile use.

This is data the Forest Service doesn’t have a great deal of and it would help benefit the management of the Boundary Waters. “The idea of giving back or social service is an idea that runs throughout Northland College and was encouraged by faculty,” Sveum said.

Sveum contacted SOEI Executive Director Mark Peterson who offered contacts and ideas in the Ely region. He asked Sveum to return to Northland College to commemorate Sigurd Olson’s birthday with a presentation on April 3rd.

“The BWCAW is a special place and has had a large influence on a lot of people, Sveum said. “I feel really fortunate to be a paddler with this amazing place in my backyard. To experience it in winter only deepens my appreciation.”

Sveum ended his trip in mid-March by walking into Ely, Minnesota. “I wanted the end of the trip to be more than just arriving at some arbitrary destination or at the car at the trailhead—I guess it goes back to the hero journey thing, the end needs to compliment the beginning,” he said. “Plus, I am going to want a stiff drink after the trip and Ely is not short on pubs.”

“The song of the north still fills me with the same gladness as when I heard it first.

— Sigurd Olson, from his book Open Horizons

I understood.”

It came not only from the land of the Great Lakes, but also from the vast regions beyond

the Canadian border. More than terrain, more than woods, lakes, and forests, it had promise and meaning and sang of the freedom and challenge of the wilderness. I seemed drawn in its general direction as naturally as a migrating bird is by unseen lines of force, or a salmon by some invisible power toward the stream where it was spawned. Within me was a constant longing, and when I listen to this song,


CLASS NOTES

CLASS OF 1958For his volunteer work, Tom Chvala

was inducted into the Milwaukee County Senior Citizen Hall of Fame in May 2013. Chvala retired from thirty-five years of teaching in 1993. He is a member and volunteer of the Wisconsin Senior Olympics Board of Directors. He and his wife Charlotte were co-chairs of the St. Ben’s meal program from their church for thirty years. Chvala carried the Wisconsin banner at the National Senior Games in Louisville, Kentucky. He is active at his parish St. Alphonsus in Greendale, Wisconsin, distributes bread to food pantries, volunteers at the Greendale Lions Club booth, and is a member of a running club called Badgerland Striders.

CLASS OF 1964Judy (Jellish) Hoppe retired from

teaching in 2013. She has since traveled to Ireland, Norway, and Italy. Her greatest joy is her three-year-old granddaughter.

CLASS OF 1967John Sabatini is officially retired,

after thirty-two years in the classroom and thirteen years at a biotech company.

CLASS OF 1970Gregory Garton is retired after forty-

one years at Great Midwest Bank in Chilton, Wisconsin.

CLASS OF 1972Michael Bornstein is an antiques

and collectables dealer in New Jersey.

CLASS OF 1973Diane Churchill Lockwood seeks

advice on retirement. Evidently Northland instilled in her a need to give back and so she’s looking for ways to do so. She says working with disadvantaged youth would be her priority. All insight appreciated. Churchill retired in January 2012 after teaching in the Pembine School District for seventeen years. She is winding down her years in Wisconsin and plans to move to New York. Her son Henry IV lives in Brooklyn and plans to marry in August.

Kathleen (Deferro) Rooni retired from teaching in 2000. She is enjoying woodcarving and crafts, and became a proud great-grandma for the second time.

CLASS OF 1975Steve Carlson retired in 2011

after thirty-five years with The Gates Corporation. He worked in five locations, including corporate headquarters in Denver, before settling down with wife Gwen in Columbia, Missouri. Gwen is a thirty-seven-year retiree from the University of Missouri, Columbia. Steve worked in production, distribution, and purchasing management before retiring from the Columbia, Missouri plant as mill room manager and LEAN coordinator.

CLASS OF 1977Kris Freundlich received fourteen

nominations from internal colleagues and external partners to the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services for the Virginia Hart award for her collaborative leadership.

Rae (Johnson) Van Dyke is retired.

CLASS OF 1982Sandy (Norberg) Shoulders is a

realtor working in Anchorage but living in Talkeetna, Alaska, where she has been since 1984. Two boys, husband Mac, two dogs, two cats, and lots of friends keep her busy. Sandy still plays music with friends and has developed the Music Academy string program through Denali Arts Council. She created and conducts a community orchestra and plays music with local friends from jazz to folk of all types. Sandy welcomes contact from any Northlanders who find themselves in Alaska.

CLASS OF 1983William Frost is working as a

biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Habitat in Kodiak, Alaska.

CLASS OF 1988Brian Nowak-Thompson is teaching

at Cornell College in the biology and chemistry departments. Jo Nowak-Thompson is teaching at the local elementary school. Their farm keeps them out of mischief.

WINTER 2014 22

CLASS OF 1990Kory Gempler was recently

promoted to manager, weather services, in the FedEx flight department.

Dan Roe is a visiting research specialist for the University of Illinois-Chicago in the Department of Computer Science.

CLASS OF 1995Tyler Hamilton is a client delivery

executive for Dell in Plano, Texas.

CLASS OF 1996After living in Pittsburgh,

Pennsylvania for twelve years, Brigid (Nielsen) Ferkett and Ross Ferkett ’97 moved to Waupaca, Wisconsin to start their own organic vegetable farm. Their three children, Leila, Fisher, and Elsa are enjoying the rural life alongside them as they begin their second season in 2014. They invite anyone to catch up on all their newest adventures at www.gravelroadfarm.com.

CLASS OF 1997Joseph Sullivan is a project

manager/field manager for an engineering firm that specializes in wastewater collection systems.

CLASS OF 1998Matthew Toavs is a senior

programmer analyst and Green Mission specialist with the global office of Whole Foods Market, Inc. in Austin, Texas. He lives there with his wife, daughter, and son.

CLASS OF 2000Shawn Stoeffler, a teacher and

coach with the Austin ISD in Austin, Texas, married Michelle L’Eplattenier November 29, 2013.

CLASS OF 2002Sarah Van Delfzijl married Dale

Ehinger on December 21, 2012 and is living in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

CLASS OF 2003Joseph Gorski is teaching at the

Canadian Academy in Kobe, Japan. He and his wife Azusa are expecting a son in February.

CLASS OF 2005Heidi Johnson is the

communications manager with First Universalist Church of Minneapolis. She earned her Master’s degree in communications in 2009 from Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu. Johnson says that she still loves wigs and lives in Minneapolis with her partner, Duggins.

Molly Ralph is a police canine officer for the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, Texas.

CLASS OF 2009Jessica Dobrin earned her Master

of Education degree from Concordia University-Portland.

September 27-28, 2014

FestivalFALL

northland.edu/alumni

Summer Reunion is now

a fabulously fun campus-wide celebration of alumni, families, friends, staff, students,

faculty and maybe a moose.


CLASS NOTES

Want to see your news in Class Notes?To submit notes, please contact:

Phone: (715) 682-1811 Email: [email protected]

Mail:

Office of Alumni Relations 1411 Ellis Avenue Ashland, WI 54806

Director of Alumni Relations: Jackie Moore ’05

Alumni News Editor: Vicki Nafey ’96

Alumni Association Board of Directors: Jim Quinn ‘73, president, K. Scott Abrams ‘77, Richard L. Ackley ‘71, Sam Berkman ‘08, Bobbi Blazkowski ‘71, Mark D. Charles ‘80, Daniel R. Crawford ‘76, Melissa Damaschke ‘03, Louis Figueroa ‘13, Laurel J. Fisher ‘72, Gail M Fridlund ‘14, Melanie E. Goble ‘01, Stuart Goldman ‘69, Mark Gross ‘83, Charles Guthrie ‘69, Beverly J. Harris ‘72, Tam Hofman ‘80, Max Metz ‘10, Peter B. Millett ‘69, Craig Mullenbrock ‘77, Erika Palmer-Wilson ‘02, Samuel D. Polonetzky ‘70, Wendy Shields ‘05, Patti Skoraczewski ‘74, Marguerite Waters ‘49, Kelly Zacharda ‘05.

To submit a note go to: northland.edu/alumni

SYMPATHY TO THE FAMILIES OF:Esther (Swanson) Crane ’29, Sun City, Arizona, died 11-22-2013

Arthur R. Heglund ’41, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, died 10-7-2013

Dr. William E. Link ’42, Columbus, Ohio, died 8-10-2013

William de la Riestra ’49, Miami Lakes, Florida, died 11-4-2013

Dorothy (Sukanen) Kittleson ’49, Brown Deer, Wisconsin, died 10-13-2013

Mary Jane (Poyer) Oberts ’50, Beloit, Wisconsin, died 11-2-2013

Edmund Soliwoda ’50, Brookfield, Wisconsin, died 1-28-2014

Allan A. Hann ’51, Highbridge, Wisconsin, died 2-1-2014

Donald R. Tourangeau ’51, Wilsonville, Oregon, died 12-10-2011

Donald D. Hecimovich ’57, Ashland, Wisconsin, died 1-26-2014

Donald S. Smith ’58, Ashland, Wisconsin, died 12-24-2013

Llewellyn Ann (Bolz) Croteau ’63, Ashland, Wisconsin, died 10-9-2013

Robert J. “Milt” Schaefer ’64, Hartland, Wisconsin, died 1-17-2014

Keith Hart ’66, DePere, Wisconsin, died 9-23-2013

Leon Solberg ’66, Ashland, Wisconsin, died 12-19-2013

Donald R. Johnson ’69, Hancock, Michigan, died 1-5-2014

Charles E. Connors ’80, Ashland, Wisconsin, died 11-7-2013

Eyvind V. Jorgensen ’81, Hillsboro, Oregon, died 5-13-2013

Julie A. Westlund ’99, Marengo, Wisconsin, died 10-17-2013

Eric R. Johnson ’04, Neenah, Wisconsin, died 11-12-2013

the Honor Roll ofDONORs

northland.edu/honorroll

WINTER 2014 24

Sponsored by the Northland College Native American and Indigenous Culture Center and the Native American Student Association

• Traditional storytelling

• Presentation: Native American NASA Astronaut Commander John B Herrington

• Talk: “Treaty Rights and Mining: An Overview”

• Screening: “Protect Our Future,” a short documentary about preserving the waters of Lake Superior directed by students from the Bad River Reservation

• Teaching Station: Craftwork Day with dream catcher weaving, tobacco ties, and beading techniques

• Dance and Drum Exhibition

• Talk: “Ma’iingan” LCO elder Jerry Smith speaks about wolves and their value and symbolism within Native American culture

• Talk: “Braiding Sweetgrass” Author Robin Wall Kimmerer

• Northland College 40th Annual Spring Powwow

Indigenous Cultures

To submit a note go to: northland.edu/alumni

Awareness Events

northland.edu/naiccFor more information go to:

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

1411 Ellis AvenueAshland, WI 54806-3999

Students in Assistant Professor of Outdoor Education Elizabeth Andre’s winter travel skills course explore the sea caves near Bayfield, Wisconsin. The caves, part of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, were accessible by ice for the first time in five years and drew thousands of tourists to the area, garnering national media attention. Photo by Bob Gross.

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