Bell Tower Winter 2015

THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF CHRISTIAN BROTHERS UNIVERSITY

WINTER 2015

tradition

http://CBUProven.evisors.com

BELL TOWER winter 2015 1

JOHN SMARRELLI JR., PhD, President

s we begin the second semester

of our academic year here at CBU,

I am reminded of the strength of

our community. The members of

the CBU family are dedicated to the Lasallian

values of the school, which help them

distinguish themselves in their personal,

professional, and civic lives.

We believe that the class of 2015 will

honor this tradition, and CBU has given them

the skills and education that makes their

success possible. As you’ll see in this issue of

the Bell Tower, some members of the class

of 2015 have already started to look at how

they can use their Lasallian education to

benefit their communities.

Like our students, CBU is constantly

growing and improving upon itself. In the

coming year we will say goodbye to Kenrick

Hall. Though parting ways with a building

that holds so many memories for alumni and

faculty alike is not easy, we are committed

to the preservation of those memories and

to the community that began in those halls.

One avenue for capturing the history of our

cornerstone building is the Kenrick Memory

Project, spearheaded by a recent alumna and

a current student. We hope that you will be a

part of this important project.

One of the tenets of the Lasallian tradition

is the idea of Together and By Association.

Here at CBU we are constantly working

to keep the fact that we, as a Lasallian

institution, are a part of a worldwide

community. Each member of the CBU

community—Brothers, students, faculty,

and staff—shares the same commitment to

serving others and furthering the education

of those around us, both at CBU and in our

own individual communities.

Looking toward the coming academic

year, I urge you to keep in mind that, as

alumni and friends of CBU, you too are a

part of this community. Come and enjoy the

exciting academic and athletic events here

on campus, learn more about our history,

renew your connection with CBU. We foresee

a bright future for our community, and we

invite you to take part.

FROM THE PRESIDENT:


#SmarrelliSelfie

2 BELL TOWER winter 2015

Maria Lensing (’01, ’07)President, National Alumni Board/CBUnited

Published by the CBU Office of Advancement Non-profit postage is paid at Memphis, TN.

POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to: CBU Office of Advancement, Attn: Bell Tower650 East Parkway South, Memphis TN 38104

——————————————————————BELL TOWER

EDITOR/DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIESCory Dugan

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS & DONOR RELATIONS Wendy Sumner-Winter (’05)

DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE SERVICES

Jacob Edwards

DIRECTOR OF ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONSEric Opperman

NEW YORK TIMES SCHOLARSHIP INTERN

Hannah Evon (’15)

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORSDr. Tracie Burke, Amber Campbell (’17),

Caroline Mitchell Carrico (’10), Myiesha Griffin, Brother Ernest Miller, John Morris, Shanice Oliver (’15), Devon

Wade (’16) ——————————————————————

UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATIONPRESIDENT

John Smarrelli Jr., Ph.D.

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADVANCEMENTSteve Crisman

BOARD OF TRUSTEES, 2014-15John Mitchell Graves (’83), chairman

Stephen T. Dunavant (’83), vice chair

Emily Sawyer Greer (’84), secretary

James L. Reber (’82), treasurer

Louis F. (Bo) Allen Jr.H. Wayne Brafford

Robert H. BuckmanRichard A. Cargile (’82)

Leslie L. Daniel (’90)Brother Konrad Diebold, FSC

Stephen T. Dunavant (’83)Brother Chris Englert, FSC (’77)

John Mitchell Graves (’83)William W. Graves

Emily Sawyer Greer (’84)Monsignor Valentine Handwerker

Russell J. HensleyJames J. Isaacs

Christopher Koch Jr. (’87)Maria Lensing (’01, ’07)

Brother Bernard LoCoco, FSCDouglas J. Marchant

Harold G. McNeil (’79)Glenn W. Mitchell IIIPastor Keith Norman

Brother Michael F. Quirk, FSCJames L. Reber (’82)

Brother Larry Schatz, FSCJoshua Shipley (’01)Dr. John Smarrelli Jr.

Stephen L. Waechter (’71)Dr. Margaret H. West

Laurel C. Williams, J.D. (’82)H. McCall Wilson (’89, ’94)

Dear Bucs:


he holiday season that recently passed led me to think of how I cherish the different activities that we do with

the family. Some of them are now traditions that we hold dear, and others are new memories that we will call upon fondly. This year however, was

a very interesting year for me because I had family from Peru join us and with them came a set of holiday traditions that I had forgotten and will adopt moving forward. And that’s the beauty of traditions, that they are passed down to the next generation who will, hopefully, understand why they were important enough to become traditions and have enough respect for the previous generation to follow them. Granted, every person is unique and so will add his or her own flavor to whatever event. To me, that is the beauty of traditions that are upheld by the following generations, that they get to appreciate them and make them their own. CBU is also a school of tradition. What I took from “faith, service, and community” is likely different from today’s classes that spend a whole month of September in Service and whose community has changed radically from the days we roamed the halls. However, our traditions in teaching, in brotherhood, in making sure no student gets left behind, these traditions remain and grow and adjust to the times of the new students that are now part of our CBU alumni family. If you haven’t stopped by the campus in some time, I encourage you to go because you will find a new student body of whom you will be proud and who you will admire, and also experience a renewed sense of what it is that you owned from our traditions, similarly to the holiday Peruvian traditions that my kids will now practice in our modified Lensing version. Oh yes, there is beauty in traditions, old and new, and in knowing that no matter where you are or what you are doing, if someone says “St. John Baptist de La Salle,” you will undoubtedly answer, “Pray for us!” So I hope you enjoyed your holidays and I hope that you feel compelled to join our new CBUnited Alumni group. We are coming together, calling for all of you lost alumni, so that we can be a force that pushes to continue the traditions of CBU and encourage the growth of the new ones emerging from the incredible students that we have on campus. May 2015 be the year we can truly be CBUnited. And may we keep Jesus in our hearts. Forever.

Sincerely,


THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF CHRISTIAN BROTHERS UNIVERSIT Y

FALL 2014

Waste Not,Want Not: a student-led effort seeks to recover and redirect CBU’s food waste to the hungry of Memphis

Cheer Determination: CBU faculty member and former professional dancer creates charitable cheer organization

September of Service sets records for participation hours and volunteers during its third year

The Right Path: Ronald Fotso (’15) followed the Lasallian path from Cameroon all the way to CBU

Q&A with the New AD: Brian Summers, CBU’s seventh athletic director, takes the helm and lays out his vision for Buccaneer athletics

History: Moving in a Straight LineAn 18-page recreation of the new CBU timeline in Aflonso Dining Hall

Together and By Association: Brother Ernest Miller examines a founding principle of Lasallian identity

The Kenrick Memory Project: In advance of plans for a new School of Arts building, a project plans to preserve the history of CBU’s first building on the Parkway campus.

Completing the Circuit: At his retirement this year, Brother Louis Althaus is the longest serving Christian Brother in the history of CBU.

+Jubilee: CBHS Celebrates Brother Joel McGraw ......... 12

Dr. Marguerite Cooper: Rest in Peace, Dr. Mom .... 51Back Page: 25 Years of Art at CBU ...............................................52

Photo AlbumsAlumni Weekend .......................................................... 42Bell Tower Gala .............................................................. 44Bucs Beat Tigers ............................................................ 46

Class Notes1960 & 1970s .............................. 121980s ............................................. 131990s ............................................ 392000s .......................................... 402010s ......................................... 47

In Memoriam ........................ 50

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SEND NEWS FOR CLASS NOTES to CBU Alumni Office, 650 East Parkway South, Memphis TN 38104. Or send email to [email protected].

SEND YOUR PHOTOS TOO! Digital photos should be a minimum of 1200 x 1800 pixels.

SEND ADDRESS CHANGES to Bell Tower, CBU Office of Advancement, 650 East Parkway South, Memphis TN 38104.

Whenever you see this red “video play” button with an article, look for a “video extra” online at www.cbu.edu/belltower.

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FRONT COVER BY JACOB EDWARDS

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mailto:[email protected]

www.cbu.edu/belltower


or years, Memphis has been the distribution center for Mid-South agriculture. Yet many people in the area lack access to affordable

fresh food. They live in “food deserts” with limited access to any supermarket. America does not have a food shortage problem; it has a food waste problem. While 50 million Americans live at risk of hunger, food continues to be America’s largest waste stream, with 40% of food grown going to waste. According to the EPA, America’s food waste amounted to 36 million tons in 2011. Food waste costs the U.S. $165 billion every year and accounts for 25 percent our country’s freshwater use. Many people in the Mid-South must rely on gas stations, mini-marts, and fast-food restaurants for their food

purchases. Numerous inner-city citizens lack transportation to and from major grocers; inadequate or expensive public transportation can make the trip cost a lot, with rides taking 45 minutes or more each way. Neighborhood farmers markets are an option, but are closed most of the year. Tight budgets lead to nutrition problems. Many people must choose between buying food and paying for their utilities and rent. Food vouchers and stamps are not accepted by some merchants who sell fresh fruits and vegetables. During the Spring 2014 semester, Anna Birg (’13) attended the “Mid-South Farm to Table” sustainability conference. While at this conference, Anna came across the idea of a Food Recovery Network (FRN), and wanted to bring it to the CBU

BY S H A N I C E O L I V E R ( ’ 1 5 )

Waste Not, Want NotA STUDENT-LED EFFORT SEEKS TO RECOVER AND REDIRECT CBU’S FOOD WASTE TO THE HUNGRY OF MEMPHIS____________________

food des·ert:

(noun) an urban area in

which it is difficult to

buy affordable or good-

quality fresh food.

A 2010 Gallup poll ranked Memphis #1 for hunger in the country… A startling 26 percent of people in the Memphis Metropolitan Statistical Area said they couldn’t afford to buy food for their families in the last 12 months.

Members of the CBU Food Recovery Network and the Lasallian Collegians recently teamed up to “harvest” 67 pounds of recovered leftovers from CBU Food Services and deliver it to the Memphis Union Mission.

4 BELL TOWER winter 2015 PHOTO COURTESY OF LASALLIAN COLLEGIANS


community. She shared the purpose of the Food Recovery Network, which is to unite students from colleges and universities to fight food waste and hunger by recovering perishable food that would otherwise go to waste from their campuses and the surrounding communities and donating it to people in need. After hearing this astonishing idea, a group of students—Michael MacMiller, Shanice Oliver (the author), Jonathan Mosley, and Sara Swisher—came together to bring the Food Recovery Network to life in at CBU. The four of us, all current CBU students, made an effort to learn about food deserts and studied how thrown away leftovers could potentially change the lives of those who live in poverty and food desert locations. After months of research, we were astonished to discover that there were starving people just blocks away from the CBU campus. CBU decided to participate with Food Recovery Network in August 2014 and to donate surplus cafeteria food to local shelters and soup kitchens. The scale of the donations is even larger than expected—within the span of a month, CBU recovered over 300 pounds of leftover food. We are continuously amazed and gratified after feeding local starving citizens rather than disposing of the food from CBU’s dining services. The FRN goal is to donate 1,000 pounds of food to the community by the end of the 2014 semester. For the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, CBU FRN is conducting a “Season of Giving Back.” The project’s purpose is to have students take the time out during the holiday season to feed those who are in need. Instead of coordinating a recovery every week, it will be twice a week so twice the difference can be made in the community during this traditional time of giving and giving thanks. Being that CBU is a Lasallian university, one of our primary goals is to foster service for the betterment of our community. Being sustainable and knowledgeable of the needs of the community is making a difference in the lives of hundreds of civilians. CBU will continue to be the source for those who are in need. n

CHEERDETERMINATION

CBU Faculty Member and Former Professional Dancer Creates Charitable Cheer Organization

CHANDA MURPHY (bottom right) and partner Ashley Bradford with volunteer members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon at the 2014 Cheer for the Kids Competition.

BY M Y E G R I F F I N

s a former competitive and profes-sional NBA cheerleader for the Memphis Grizzlies and current choreographer for the CBU

Deckhands, Chanda Murphy (’03) combined her passion for dance and her Lasallian teachings into a non-profit orga-nization called Cheer for the Kids. Many members of the Lasallian com-munity vow to give back to the commu-nity in various ways, but Murphy, as both

an alumna and a faculty member in the Behavioral Sciences Department, said that it was important for her to continue the legacy and give back as well. “Some people give money, and some give of their time. My way would be through my effort and my time,” Murphy said. In 2006, Murphy and Ashley Bradford, her best friend and also a former professional dancer, brainstormed ideas that would keep them involved with the dance world. From there, they decided to combine the art of competitive dance into an organization with

BELL TOWER winter 2015 5 PHOTO COURTESY OF CHANDA MURPHY


a philanthropic mission. Shortly thereafter, Cheer for the Kids was founded. “We wanted the kids to have an avenue to dance, but we wanted them to really understand that there is more than competi-tive dance,” Murphy said. Cheer for the Kids is a cheer-and-dance competition judged by the Universal Cheer Association that raises money to benefit local child-focused organizations. Cheerleaders from all over the United States creatively raise money and awareness all year long through their own creative channels. They then come together for one day of competition, divided up between age groups and categories, and eager to see which team raised the most money. Murphy vividly recalls her years as a competitive dancer and is elated to see that the cheerleaders are involved and engaged in philanthropy and get to see another world outside of dance. “Competitive dance is serious, and you often get so focused on winning that you can lose sight of how fortunate you are. Not everyone can do this,” she said. Since its founding, the cheerleaders along with donor support have raised more than $150,000 dollars for various local organi-zations, benefitting hundreds of children and families. For the past few years, Cheer for the Kids has also been able to continue making dreams come true for children

through the Make-a Wish Foundation. Murphy is glad to see the efforts of the organization are making an impact not only on the cheerleaders and the kids getting their wishes granted, but also on her students and community at CBU.“One of the greatest things that we do is give back to the community, and I learned this at CBU. That is why I came back and decided to teach here. The Lasallian spirit is always with you, and it’s easier to give back when you are a part of that community.” Murphy said that many times people look at what she and Bradford have done with the organization as if it is something that can’t be attained by just anyone. “The fact that my best friend and I had an idea ten years ago shows people that if you have an idea and you’re passionate about it, you can make it work,” she said. “Anybody can do what we do. Don’t take no for an answer. Use the Lasallian spirit and let it drive you. ” The next competition will be held January 31, 2015 at Arlington High School and is expected to draw nearly 60 teams, 1,000 participants, and 300 spectators. More information is available at cheerforthekids.com. Volunteer and dona-tion inquiries can be addressed to [email protected]. n

set records for participation hours and volunteers during its third year in 2014! Official service hours this year totaled 1,930! That’s almost an entire work year!

• 2012

• 2013

• 2014

Left: Chanda Murphy dancing as a CBU Deckhand and (at right) in her previous dance career as a Grizz Girl for the NBA Memphis Grizzlies.

6 BELL TOWER winter 2015 PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHANDA MURPHY

cheerforthekids.com




There’s more!444

SHELBY FARMS

HOPE LODGE



Lots more photos at www.facebook.com/septemberofservice

9/1: St. Mary’s Soup Kitchenprepping, preparing and serving food9/2: Caritas Villagecleaning up trash around the neighborhood9/3: St. Therese of Lisieuxtrimming trees, weeding flower beds, moving chain link fence9/4: Society of St. Andrewsgleaning excess produce from Agricenter Farmer’s Market and delivering to hunger relief agencies9/5: Convoy of Hopesorting food, setting up tables, chairs, and temporary fencing

9/6: Bike MSunloading trucks, setting up popup tents, tables, chairs and other duties9/7: Color Run (for DeNeuville Learning Center) handing out water, assisting with check-in, revving up the crowd at the finish festival, tossing color9/8: De La Salle Elementary Schoolcleaning up gymnasium/assembly hall stage, removing computers for recycling9/9: Memphis Recovery Centerart therapy projects with the youth residents 9/10: Faith Christian Academy re-organizing the school library9/11: September 11 Memorial ushering visitors, greeting guests, helping to ensure food is out for guests, cleaning up after event at Memphis Fire Museum

DE LA SALLEELEMENTARY

McKELLAR LAKE

BELTLINE COMMUNITY

30 Days of Good Deeds

9/12: Elmwood Cemeterycleaning the streets and picking up trash for the most historic cemetery in Memphis9/13: Cooper-Young Festivalsupervising games, an obstacle course, a bounce house, and the prize table9/14: Shelby Farmshelping set up behind the scenes for Spooky Nights Halloween event9/15: St. Augustine Catholic Churchteaching senior citizens how to use their smart phones and computers9/16: Habitat for Humanity Restoresorting and organizing donations, stocking the shelves, assisting customers9/17: Memphis Zooassisting staff with Stingray Bay exhibit, giraffe feeding, and camel rides


https://www.facebook.com/septemberofservice

https://www.facebook.com/septemberofservice


9/22: Mid-South Food Bankinspecting, sorting, and packing food9/23: Overton Parkcleaning up and beautifying the Old Forest9/24: Beltline Communityworking with Jacob’s Ladder on a construction project9/25: Le Bonheur Children’s Hospitaltaking the Amenities Cart and Coffee Cart around to the patients and familiesS9/26: Livable Memphishelping prepare empty buildings for a MemFix event in the Edge neighborhood

FIRST WORKS

FAITH ACADEMY

9/27: Lichterman Nature Centercleaning trails, clipping vegetation, removing kudzu, and shoveling gravel.9/28: Collierville Animal Shelterhelping to care for homeless animals9/29: Madonna Learning Centerassisting teachers in classrooms with students ages 5-19.9/30: SOS at CBUhelping move Education Offices, art studios, and Language Lab out of Kenrick Hall; clearing Barry Hall attic; clearing vacant Rozier Hall dorms for office relocations; campus clean-up

COLOR RUN

9/18: First Workspackaging leftover food from CBU’s cafeteria, delivering and serving it to children and families9/19: Memphis Child Advocacy Centerweeding, raking leaves, outdoor beautification9/20: McKeller Lakecleaning up trash and recyclables with Memphis River Warriors9/21: Hope Lodgedeep cleaning of common areas and picking up trash around the property



BY M Y E G R I F F I N

Coming from humble beginnings but armed with a Lasallian education and

the guidance of Christian Brothers, RONALD FOTSO (’15) has found his own

personal meaning in the charism since continuing his education at CBU.

THE RIGHT PATH


Fotso, a senior computer science major, had big plans to take the education he acquired at CBU back to poor village children in Cameroon, his native country in Central Africa. But he has gained a new perspective on what it means to be Lasallian after coming to the United States and being the recipient of unexpected generosity. Although he still plans to take his knowledge of computer science back to the children, he’s learned something else that he wants to share with them even more. He wants to show them just how important it is, once they have been given opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have, to reach back and help others. As a graduate of Le Collège De La Salle in Douala, the largest city in Cameroon, Fotso was already a product of Lasallian education and had a general understanding of what that meant. He was always taught Christian principles and believed the Lasallian ideals of educating those in the most need. So when asked to join a mission to build a school for poor children, he gladly obliged. “The Lasallian Brothers influenced me a lot because they went beyond education,” Fotso said. “We thought we were just there to receive an education, but they taught me spir-ituality. They touched the heart. They taught us that you should give without expecting

anything in return. Because of that, I decided to continue to follow their teachings.” Following the example of the Brothers, Fotso dedicated his time for over five years driving two hours from the city to the village everyday to teach children who otherwise did not have a chance for education because of their economic status. More and more students became interested in this new opportunity, and the school’s dedicated vol-unteers were forced to organize their efforts. As an organization instead of a loose team of volunteers, they could raise money to build a school large enough to accommodate all of the children. With Fotso as a co-founder, the Lasallian Volunteers of Cameroon was established in 1992. Within ten years, a high school was built and named the Mutien-Marie Center, after Brother Mutien-Marie Wiaux who dedi-cated his life to educating the poor. “The school is a technology school,” Fotso explained. “We want the children to gain knowledge in an area where than can learn to be independent and actually be able to work. We don’t want them living in the streets or resorting to crime for survival. We want to show them a different way of life.” After years of teaching technology classes in the village and attending a community

college in the city, Fotso was approached by a mentor and partner in the organization. He strongly encouraged him to attend a univer-sity in the United States to learn more about modern technologies and offered to help pay for this education. Fotso obtained a student visa and made the voyage to America, having faith that all would work out for the best and that his mentor would finance his education. “God made me choose CBU,” Fotso said. “There were a lot of Lasallian universi-ties, and moving to New York, Chicago, or Philadelphia were options. CBU was my decision for a reason I can’t explain. But I made the right choice, because the Brothers at CBU confirmed my belief in Lasallian education.” After only one year at CBU, however, donations from the mentor ran out. Though the mentor’s intentions were noble, Fotso was told he would have to discontinue his education. Disappointed and upset, he was ready to give up when Brother Dominic Ehrmantraut, Director of Mission at CBU, stepped in. This is the point where Fotso began to realize that the students in Africa needed more than just technical education. “Brother Dominic made connections for

Ronald Fotso (in red) in 2010 leading students in Friday Prayers at the Mutien-

Marie Center in Mbalmayo, Cameroon.

continued on page 13 44

(OPPOSITE) PHOTO BY CORY DUGAN / OTHERS COURTESY OF RONALD FOTSO


Patrick Corley and Stella Mei Corley celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary

on November 28, 2014. They met on the basketball court at CBU during a “lounge” dance in January 1962.

Carl Koch recently had his latest book, Leading Like Francis – Building God’s

House, published by New City Press. The book introduces the reader to the foundational principles of servant-leadership and how they are clearly manifested in the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Carl was the first director of the MA in Servant Leadership Program at Viterbo University and program coordinator at the Franciscan Spirituality Center in La Crosse, WI. He has authored 36 books and continues to facilitate retreats and servant leadership seminars.

Geoffrey Bull retired in June after a career of flying (Air Force) and

engineering (Union Electric/Ameren, Harris Controls/General Electric, and Southern Company Services). He’s living outside of Birmingham, AL and is looking forward to volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, motorcycling, fishing and traveling. James B. Moore was inducted into the Engineering Management Honor Society on May 9, 2014. James is the founder and president of RadioMobile, Inc., a new startup company located in San Diego, CA.

Terry Mitchell has released his first CD of instrumental guitar music. Good Touch

features 10 instrumental selections for guitar, six of them original, a project more than 25 years in the making and is now available on CD Baby and Amazon.

’70

’64

’77

’67

BY J O H N M O R R I S

For the past 50 years, Brother Joel William McGraw (’68) has shined as a beacon of light, hope, and humility to Christian Brothers High School and the greater Memphis community. Entering the religious order at the age of 18, Brother Joel professed his vows on August 26, 1964. In the 50 years since that solemn profession, he has impacted thousands through his philanthropic leadership and volunteerism, thus making an impact of enormous proportions in Memphis. Brother Joel, who graduated from CBHS in 1963, has taught there for 47 of the 50 years that he has served as a Christian Brother. Nearly 10,000 students have passed through CBHS during that time, and it’s safe to say that most knew Brother Joel. Alumni throughout the Mid-South and the entire 50 states will attest to the impact that Brother Joel made on them, not only during their four years at CBHS, but thereafter. He continually prays for them, wishes them well on their birthdays, anniversaries, births, job promotions, and attends their funerals. He is the quintessential “Brothers’ Boy,” a term of endearment that all CBHS graduates are called. One of the hallmarks of CBHS is service to the poor and the greater community. Brother Joel is at the forefront of all efforts in helping

student’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor. During elections, he ensures the voting booths are set up and working at CBHS. Brother Joel is also known to all because he opens CBHS to all. Ladies of Charity, Ave Maria Home, churches (Catholic and other denominations), Blue Streak, Kiwanis Club, St. Vincent de Paul Society, Shelby Farms, Italian Festival, Madonna Circle—all of these organizations he allows to use the campus, free of charge, to host their fundraisers, socials, or outreach efforts. He is the recipient of the following awards and honors: CBHS Hall of Fame, 1986; UNICO Service Award, 2008; Diversity Memphis Award, 2010; Ave Marie Home honoree, 2010 and Martyrs of Memphis Award, 2012. In his spare time he speaks to church groups, delivers vocation talks, and counsels students before their Confirmation or retreat. He also helped assemble and write the first history of the Diocese of Memphis at its Silver Jubilee in 1996. A Christian Brother and teacher for 50 years, assistant principal for the past 23 years, and archivist for the school to preserve the history of both the school and its impact on Memphis, Brother Joel is a treasure to behold. And how does he spend the rest of his spare time? Well, he sweeps the hallways between classes. This humble act summarizes the character of Brother Joel—a servant of God who continues to serve others. n

the less fortunate, for example, in collecting for the missions. Outside of CBHS, Brother Joel is well-known in community, both in church, social, and philanthropic endeavors. He plays organ at various parishes across the diocese over the past four decades. His love of music takes him to support the band. He rarely misses a

Brother Joel and Brother Chris Englert (’77), president of CBHS

Check out youtu.be/5MMovhiBrSw or cbu.edu/belltower for a video tribute

Brother Joel McGraw Celebrated by CBHS for 50-Year Jubilee

12 BELL TOWER winter 2015 PHOTO COURTESY OF CBHS

http://youtu.be/bVCeGWQ21K0

http://youtu.be/5MMovhiBrSw

http://www.cbu.edu/belltower


me, helped me find scholarship money, and encouraged me the whole time. He intro-duced me to some nice people. One of whom I later heard made it possible for me to finish school,” Fotso said. “I knew the Brothers dedicated their lives to help people, but this went beyond what I expected.” Brother Dominic believes that Fotso was deserving of all that he was given at CBU and that helping him was just his call of duty. “When we learned about his situation, we reached out to him because he had gener-ously given of himself to the Lasallian Mission on another continent,” Brother Dominic said. “Through an ongoing pro-cess with Brothers assisting and identify-ing further generous benefactors, we have been able to see Ronald to his senior year. Ronald has been a driving force behind our international students’ activities. He is quiet in disposition, but he rises to the forefront when he sets his sights—both in his studies and in service within the context of community.” His original intentions were to go home to Cameroon, but the overwhelming level of support he has received in America has given him pause. He is now working to find different ways he can continue his mission and still help the children in need while possibly staying in America. He now realizes that there is more he can do for these children than simply teach them technology courses. As a student intern in the CBU Office of Advancement, Fotso spent some time in the grants office and has acquired some skills in grant writing. He now sees the possibility and value of securing grants to make it pos-sible for more Africans to come to the United States, receive a Lasallian university educa-

tion, and taking it back to their countries. The idea of selflessly sharing resources to benefit others had become his new goal for these students. Bob Arnold, director of grants at CBU, has confidence in Fotso’s abilities. “Ronald picked up on the nuances of grant writing quickly, learning how to research founda-tions and construct funding proposals. Within weeks, he was giving me incisive critiques of my own proposals. I think it’s admirable that he wants to use what he learns here at CBU to help students like him have a similar educational experience.” Fotso believes that the Christian Brothers in Africa put him on the right path and pro-vided him with the foundation he needed in his faith and his essential understanding of the Lasallian mission. But it wasn’t until he came to CBU that he learned the most valuable lesson. “Besides the computer science education I got at CBU, if I could take anything back to Africa, the most important thing would be the idea of sharing what you have to help others grow. Back home is different, and people don’t usually share their wealth or even knowledge. In America, everybody is open and willing to help you grow. I would like to take this idea back and teach them that you will be happier when you help people. When you can help somebody grow and be happy that you were able to see them grow into a better person, that is what it is all about.” In September, Fotso was selected as one of the five CBU Lasallian Fellows for 2105, and will receive a $5,000 award from benefactors Robert Buckman and Joyce Mollerup upon graduation (see page 47). He is scheduled to graduate in May 2015 and has high hopes that he will be able to secure grants to addi-tionally support his new mission. n

Fotso with other Lasallian Volunteers of Cameroon at the Mutien Center in 2010.

Tara Chandler was named director of

the Bethesda Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Program in Boynton Beach, FL in June. She is responsible for the overall operations of the wound care and hyperbaric medicine program as well as the establishment and implementation of operational processes. The program specializes in the treatment of chronic wounds and related non-responsive conditions and offers hospital-based outpatient wound care and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Prior to joining Bethesda, Tara served as the director of Pulmonary and Hyperbaric Services at St. Mary’s Medical Center and Palm Beach Children’s Hospital.

D. Keith Pigues, author, speaker, and former Dean of North Carolina Central

University’s School of Business, has joined Keen Strategy as a Partner. Keith, who co-authored the book Winning with Customers: A Playbook for B2B, will be responsible for building and driving Keen’s B2B Solutions. While new as partner to Keen, Keith has a long-standing relationship with the firm, serving as an advisor to the firm for the past several years.

Susan Appling received the Lucy Blair Service Award from the American Physical

Therapy Association (APTA) during the association’s NEXT Conference & Exposition in June. Susan an associate professor for the Department of Physical Therapy in the College of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and the clinical coordinator for the Orthopedic Physical Therapy Residency Program. She is also a consultant and practitioner with University Therapists in Memphis. The Lucy Blair Service Award honors members who have made exceptional contributions to the association through district, chapter, committee, section, task force, or national activities.Dr. Rob Kissell accepted a position with Tennessee Tech University that began in August 2014. He is the chair of the Biology Department.

’80

’84

’86

33 FOTSO continued from page 11




Welcome to CBU!It has been an exciting time, I’m still in the wonderful honeymoon period that comes with all new jobs. It’s been an opportunity to get to know our staff, get familiarized with the Memphis area, and get my family down here and start to get out in the community. It’s been a nice start to the school year.

You mentioned your family — you had a new addition recently.Reagan was born May 31, so it’s been a busy summer for us. Between a new baby, moving, and trying to find a new home down here, it’s been a whirlwind summer. But it’s been one that we welcomed and knew was going to be part of the process. We’re excited about what it’s brought us.

Let’s talk about your background. You were a two-sport student-athlete, and then you spent a long time at Lewis University, another Lasallian school.I had the wonderful opportunity to be a college athlete, playing at North Central College, a Division III school. I played baseball for my first three years, and then I decided to embarrass myself on the golf

course instead of on the baseball field my senior year. But I had an opportunity to play both sports, and I loved every minute of it. Moving forward, one of the nice things about my time at Lewis was the opportunity to grow from within. A lot of people in our industry have to hopscotch around the country from job to job in order to get the experiences I was able to get at Lewis. I started in sports information and got my hands in a variety of areas. I got an MBA in finance, and then I was promoted to assistant AD and took on more duties

and more roles. Then I was promoted to associate AD after that. It gave me a chance to grow and add to my professional skill set in one spot. It’s something Lewis was able to provide for me and I certainly appreciate that. It got to the point where I felt it was my turn to look for an opportunity to lead a department and be an athletic director. Coming to a fellow Lasallian school, a school that had a similar feel to Lewis as far as the people and the culture on campus, was the right setting both personally and professionally.

You served on several NCAA committees while you were at Lewis.My mentors encouraged me to take on additional duties to make myself more marketable down the road. I learned that lesson from a couple of my bosses, Paul Zakowski and Dan Schumacher. They encouraged me to get involved in other areas. I served on campus committees, but I also served on NCAA committees. I served on the national collegiate men’s volleyball committee, which is a Division I and Division II committee for men’s volleyball.

I N T E R V I E W E D BYE R I C O P P E R M A N &

K E N O P P E R M A N

To listen to the full interview

with Brian Summers, visit

www.gobucsgo.com/MeetBrian.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MEMPHIS DAILY NEWS/ANDREW J. BREIG

Brian Summers became the seventh Director of Athletics in the history of CBU this past summer.

He came to CBU from Lewis University, a fellow NCAA D-II Lasallian school in Romeoville,

IL (a suburb of Chicago). At Lewis, Summers supervised 10 of the school’s 18 sports, oversaw

all athletics fundraising, and directed the department’s marketing and promotions efforts. He

started the school’s first corporate sponsorship program, expanded the school’s Varsity Club,

and developed student fan reward programs and promotions that increased game attendance.

He sat down earlier this fall to chat and lay out his vision for CBU Athletics.

Q&A ADwith the

new

http://www.gobucsgo.com/MeetBrian


I was the national chair for two years for men’s volleyball. More recently, I spent the last three years on the regional committee for baseball. That’s something I’ve certainly appreciated. You always hear coaches feel like they’re not getting a fair shake when it comes to postseason bid times, so it’s a good experience to have gone through, so I can fully understand the process and I can relate that back to our coaches.

How is Memphis so far compared to Chicago? A little smaller?Just a touch. Memphis is a large city, with 700,000 people living in the city. But you get jaded by how big Chicago is. I feel like I drive through Memphis, and I wonder where’d the city go? It’s just not as spread out. And then people talk about traffic. Obviously we’ve got the Sam Cooper construction, people say avoid it with a passion, stay away. And it’s a five-minute backup. Everything is relative. I’ve gotten plenty of grief from my staff that I haven’t yet experienced a full Memphis summer.

Any other big differences that stick out?I’ve been lucky to be able to take in some of the sights so far. I’ve been able to take in three things I didn’t take advantage of when I was in the Chicago area. I went to the Botanic Gardens and saw a Styx concert as part of CBU’s table. The setting they have set up and the band shell they have is a wonderful setup. I was able to go down to a Redbirds game on a Saturday night. I was able to take the kids that night. It was one of the hot nights, so we wisely showed up about the seventh-inning stretch and watched the fireworks, and that was a hit with the three-year-old. And one thing that Memphis has better than anywhere else, certainly better than the Chicagoland area, is the Memphis Zoo. We went last weekend with my family, and my parents were in town. The zoo is wonderful. My parents have gone to zoos throughout their lives, both of them said ‘I’ve never seen a panda in my life.’ And we’ve got pandas at the Memphis Zoo. As I’ve found out, there are four zoos in the country that have pandas, and the Memphis Zoo is one of them. With munchkins, we certainly weren’t able to get to everything, so it’s on our list to go back.

Have you been to Graceland yet?Well, Associate Athletics Director Donna

Crone and our administrative assistant, Susan Fuller, are both well-versed on Elvis. As it turns out, my wedding anniversary falls on Elvis Death Day, so August 16 is not just a special day in the Summers household apparently. They took me by on the Friday night prior to the candlelight vigil—they said there was some fun people-watching. So we drove by and saw everybody lined up, it was interesting.

Any good restaurants so far? Barbecue?The only barbecue I’ve had so far, and I’ll tout it to high heavens, is Central Barbecue right across the street here. I’m looking forward to branching out, but we’ve got a great partnership with them. And it’s nice when your partners have great quality products, and they are one of them for sure.

By the way, you laughed at how we overreact to traffic. Wait ‘til you see us when it snows.I remember living in Richmond, Virginia, I was in grade school. We got 20 inches of snow, which is a ton anywhere. But we got 20 inches of snow, and we were out of school for two weeks. I remember that vividly as a child.

Why CBU?There’s a couple of different reasons. One, the opportunity to stay within a Lasallian school. Almost my entire professional career was at a Lasallian school, and I’ve really gotten accustomed to the feel that it had and it presented. So when I was looking for something new, and you’re going to do a full uproot of your family, you want to find something that felt comfortable, that felt similar. And I really got that feel here. It was also the Brothers and their mission. Being able to teach the masses is something I believe in very strongly about with our student-athletes. I believe we play a teaching role in their development. Another piece was that I’m passionate about Division II. I love the level, I like what it has to offer for college athletics. I truly believe that it offers the best of both worlds as far as being a student and an athlete. You get to compete at a high, high level in athletics, particularly in the Gulf South Conference. But also, you can be a true student and achieve at a high level in your academic studies, and it really melds those well. Division III really focuses on the student side, and you also play athletics, and Division I sometimes pays lip service to the fact that they’re also students, but I feel there’s a better melding of it at our level, and the opportunity to compete at a high level, I believe there’s better access to it than at other levels. In particular, because of the strength of our conference, if you can compete at the top of our conference, you can make a Final Four and win a national championship. And certainly, that was appealing about this position. We’re not there with some of our sports, but that’s our goal moving forward.

Is there anything you did that worked at Lewis that you can bring here?There are a number of things. First and foremost is a corporate sponsorship program. We’ve had a smaller one here in the past, but I intend to expand that. That will provide some additional resources to our teams, so we can do additional things, we can do some small capital improvements, we can expand our coverage and our video broadcasts. We can use those dollars to enhance our student-athletes’ experiences. So I’m trying to identify partners who feel that there’s value in partnering with us and certainly returning

I’m passionate about Division II.

I truly believe that it

offers the best of both

worlds as far as being a

student and an athlete.

You get to compete at a

high, high level in

athletics, particularly in

the Gulf South

Conference. But also, you

can be a true student and

achieve at a high level in

your academic studies.


that value to them. Another thing we did at Lewis was a student fan rewards program, and that’s something I’m trying to get off the ground here. It’ll be a mobile app where our students can check in, earn point for attending games, and then we can reward them through our corporate partners. Those are two simple ones.

What’s your vision for the future of CBU athletics?I laid out three goals to our coaches and our student-athletes. First, we want to graduate our student-athletes. We’ve set a target for an 80 percent graduation rate for our student-athletes. We’re currently at 67 percent. That’s good, it’s actually among the best in the Gulf South, but we can be better. We are a high academic institution, we should be retaining our students at a higher rate and graduating them at a higher rate. For me, that’s goal number one. [Note: CBU was honored with a NCAA Academic Excellence Award this spring for posting an academic success rate of 90 percent—one of only 20 colleges in the U.S.] Secondly, we want to qualify all of our teams for the Gulf South Tournament. The

minimum is for our teams to get in the tournament, and as we all know with tournaments, you just let the chips fall where they go, you’ve got some chances to take people down once you get there. And for our teams where the teams automatically qualify for the tournament, like golf or cross country, our goal is to finish in the top half. And our third goal is to be in the top 100 in the NACDA Director’s Cup. You earn points based on your appearances in the NCAA championships. The farther you go, the more points you get. The school that wins it gets a wonderful crystal trophy, and Grand Valley State has won it nine of the last 10 years. But our goal right now, we can be a top 100 program. Long term, goal number one is still to graduate at 80 percent. That one doesn’t change. The second goal is that we want to win the Gulf South All-Sports Trophy. There are two, a men’s and a women’s. And we’d like to win them both. To me, that’s where we need to be. That’s where we were at Lewis. That’s something we were able to achieve, and it’s a collective achievement when you’re able to pull that off as a department. It means

you’re running a broad-based program. The all-sports trophy for the conference works the same way as the Director’s Cup, but you earn points for how you do in conference championships instead of NCAA championships. So our goal, long term, is to win that all-sports trophy. And the last one, we want to be a top-10 private school in the Director’s Cup. The better our teams achieve in our conference, particularly with the strength of our conference, the greater the likelihood of making the NCAA Tournament. And if we’re capable of winning the conference all-sports trophy, West Florida did that and finished ninth overall in the Director’s Cup standings. West Florida has been the standard bearer for a number of years, and that’s our target, that’s where we want to be.

Why do you think CBU and the Gulf South Conference are a good fit?It’s a great competitive Division II conference. We have schools in our league—especially as we’ve added some private schools—that are like-minded in our academic pursuits. So our league has a group of schools that are more similar to us

We’ve set a target for an 80 percent

graduation rate for our student-athletes.

We’re currently at 67

percent. That’s good, it’s

actually among the best

in the Gulf South, but we

can be better. For me, that’s goal number one.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MEMPHIS DAILY NEWS/ANDREW J. BREIG


than have been in the past. The opportunity for our athletes to compete at a high, high level and get a great education makes perfect sense for us to maintain the wonderful relationship we’ve had with the Gulf South for the last 20 years or so.

Will the volleyball and basketball locker rooms be upgraded? Will volleyball be fully funded?Part of my job is to go out and find the resources to be able to do those things. The locker rooms are an area we’d like to improve. It’s a matter of finding the right people through our corporate partnerships, through our alumni donors and friends of the program to be able to support those things, and as we do that, that will be the plan, to upgrade those facilities and also to build new facilities. We don’t have locker rooms at all for baseball, softball or soccer, and it’s a priority to provide those facilities for those teams as well and not just upgrade the ones that already have more visibility than our other programs. Funding the volleyball program dovetails with what we were talking about earlier with our programs being broad-based. For us to be able to compete at the level that I’ve described, we’re going to need to fund our programs in a way that’s comparable to our competitors in the league. The schools in our league fund their programs at a near fully-funded rate. So the challenge for us is to identify how we can fill in those resources in order to achieve at that level. So yes, the target is to get us to the point where we’re essentially fully-funded in all of our sports, so we can compete for championships at the conference level but also on the regional and national level.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?The future is bright for CBU. We’ve enrolled 356 freshmen, which is the largest in the 143 years of the university. We’ve got an opportunity to be able to build on that momentum. By having that record freshman class and increased retention in our other classes, we’ve got full dorms as well. On the athletics side, an ulterior motive for me is that we’ve got a more captive audience available than has been in the past to try to encourage them to come out to games. It helps the health of the university to have that kind of wonderful momentum. n

MEN’S BASKETBALL Date Opponent Location Time 01/03 VALDOSTA STATE Valdosta, GA 7:00 PM 01/05 WEST FLORIDA Pensacola, FL 7:00 PM 01/10 NORTH ALABAMA Florence, AL 3:00 PM 01/12 ALABAMA-HUNTSVILLE Canale Arena 7:00 PM 01/15 UNION UNIVERSITY Jackson, TN 8:00 PM 01/22 SHORTER UNIVERSITY Canale Arena 7:00 PM 01/24 LEE UNIVERSITY Canale Arena 4:00 PM 01/29 MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE Clinton, MS 8:00 PM 01/31 DELTA STATE Cleveland, TN 4:00 PM 02/05 WEST ALABAMA Livingston, AL 7:30 PM 02/07 WEST GEORGIA Carrollton, GA 3:00 PM 02/12 WEST FLORIDA Canale Arena 7:00 PM 02/14 VALDOSTA STATE Canale Arena 4:00 PM 02/19 ALABAMA-HUNTSVILLE Huntsville, AL 7:30 PM 02/21 NORTH ALABAMA Canale Arena 4:00 PM 02/26 UNION UNIVERSITY Canale Arena 7:00 PM 03/03 GSC Quarterfinal TBA TBA 03/06 GSC Semifinal Homewood, AL TBA 03/07 GSC Championship Homewood, AL TBA 03/14-17 NCAA Division II Regional TBA TBA 03/25-28 NCAA Division II Elite Eight Evansville, IN TBA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Date Opponent Location Time 01/03 VALDOSTA STATE Valdosta, GA 5:00 PM 01/05 WEST FLORIDA Pensacola, FL 5:00 PM 01/10 NORTH ALABAMA Florence, AL 1:00 PM 01/12 ALABAMA-HUNTSVILLE Canale Arena 5:00 PM 01/15 UNION UNIVERSITY Jackson, TN 6:00 PM 01/22 SHORTER UNIVERSITY Canale Arena 5:00 PM 01/24 LEE UNIVERSITY Canale Arena 2:00 PM 01/29 MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE Clinton, MS 6:00 PM 01/31 DELTA STATE Cleveland, TN 2:00 PM 02/05 WEST ALABAMA Livingston, AL 5:30 PM 02/07 WEST GEORGIA Carrollton, GA 1:00 PM 02/12 WEST FLORIDA Canale Arena 5:00 PM 02/14 VALDOSTA STATE Canale Arena 2:00 PM 02/19 ALABAMA-HUNTSVILLE Huntsville, AL 5:30 PM 02/21 NORTH ALABAMA Canale Arena 2:00 PM

HOMECOMING

HOMECOMING


02/26 UNION UNIVERSITY Canale Arena 5:00 PM 03/03 GSC Quarterfinal TBA TBA 03/06 GSC Semifinal Homewood, AL TBA 03/07 GSC Championship Homewood, AL TBA 3/13-16 NCAA Division II Regional TBA TBA 3/24-27 NCAA Division II Elite Eight Sioux Falls, SD TBA

BASEBALL Date Opponent Location Time 02/01 Lemoyne-Owen (DH) Nadicksbernd Field 12:00 PM02/03 Freed-Hardeman Nadicksbernd Field 1:00 PM02/07 William Woods (Mo.) (DH) Nadicksbernd Field 1:00 PM02/08 William Woods (Mo.) Nadicksbernd Field 1:00 PM02/14 MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE (DH) Nadicksbernd Field 12:00 PM02/15 MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE Nadicksbernd Field 1:00 PM02/19 Freed-Hardeman Henderson, TN 4:00 PM02/21 SHORTER UNIVERSITY (DH) Nadicksbernd Field 12:00 PM02/22 SHORTER UNIVERSITY Nadicksbernd Field 1:00 PM02/25 Calumet-St. Joseph Nadicksbernd Field TBA02/28 WEST FLORIDA (DH) Pensacola, FL TBA03/01 WEST FLORIDA Pensacola, FL TBA03/07 DELTA STATE (DH) Nadicksbernd Field 12:00 PM03/08 DELTA STATE Nadicksbernd Field 1:00 PM03/11 Edgewood College Nadicksbernd Field 2:00 PM03/12 Illinois Wesleyan Nadicksbernd Field 1:00 PM03/14 NORTH ALABAMA (DH) Florence, AL TBA03/15 NORTH ALABAMA Florence, AL TBA03/21 VALDOSTA STATE (DH) Nadicksbernd Field 12:00 PM03/22 VALDOSTA STATE Nadicksbernd Field 1:00 PM03/24 Tennessee-Martin Martin, TN TBA03/28 WEST ALABAMA (DH) Livingston, AL TBA03/29 WEST ALABAMA Livingston, AL TBA04/01 Lemoyne-Owen (DH) Jesse Turner Park 1:00 PM04/03 UNION UNIVERSITY (DH) Jackson, TN TBA04/04 UNION UNIVERSITY Jackson, TN TBA04/11 ALABAMA-HUNTSVILLE (DH) Nadicksbernd Field 12:00 PM04/12 ALABAMA-HUNTSVILLE Nadicksbernd Field 1:00 PM04/14 Henderson State Nadicksbernd Field 3:00 PM04/18 WEST GEORGIA (DH) Carrollton, GA TBA04/19 WEST GEORGIA Carrollton, GA TBA04/25 LEE UNIVERSITY (DH) Nadicksbernd Field 12:00 PM

04/26 LEE UNIVERSITY Nadicksbernd Field 1:00 PM

SOFTBALLDate Opponent Location Time 02/01 Harding University (DH) Searcy, AR 12:00 PM 02/6-8 Ouachita Baptist Tournament Arkadelphia, AR TBA 02/14 MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE (DH) Bland Field TBA 02/15 MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE Bland Field TBA 02/18 Lemoyne-Owen (DH) Bland Field 1:00 PM 02/21 SHORTER UNIVERSITY (DH) Bland Field 1:00 PM 02/22 SHORTER UNIVERSITY Bland Field 12:00 PM 02/28 WEST FLORIDA (DH) Pensacola, FL 1:00 PM 03/01 WEST FLORIDA Pensacola, FL 1:00 PM 03/03 Trevecca Nazarene (DH) Nashville, TN 1:00 PM 03/07 DELTA STATE (DH) Bland Field 2:00 PM 03/08 DELTA STATE Bland Field 1:00 PM 03/10 Miles College (DH) Fairfield, AL 1:00 PM 03/14 NORTH ALABAMA (DH) Florence, AL TBA 03/15 NORTH ALABAMA Florence, AL TBA 03/19 Stillman College (DH) Tuscaloosa, AL 2:00 PM 03/21 VALDOSTA STATE (DH) Bland Field 1:00 PM 03/22 VALDOSTA STATE Bland Field 12:00 PM 03/25 Bethel University (DH) Bland Field 1:00 PM 03/28 WEST ALABAMA (DH) Livingston, AL 2:00 PM 03/29 WEST ALABAMA Livingston, AL 2:00 PM 04/03 UNION UNIVERSITY (DH) Jackson, TN TBA 04/04 UNION UNIVERSITY Jackson, TN TBA 04/06 Bethel University (DH) McKenzie, TN 1:00 PM 04/11 ALABAMA-HUNTSVILLE (DH) Bland Field 2:00 PM 04/12 ALABAMA-HUNTSVILLE Bland Field 12:00 PM 04/18 WEST GEORGIA (DH) Carrollton, GA 1:00 PM 04/19 WEST GEORGIA Carrollton, GA 1:00 PM 04/25 LEE UNIVERSITY (DH) Bland Field TBA 04/26 LEE UNIVERSITY Bland Field TBA

CROSS COUNTRY/TRACK & FIELD Date Opponent Location Time 02/07 USATF National CC Championship Boulder, CO 12:00 PM

Note: CAPS indicate Gulf South Conference opponent



At the beginning of the 2013-14 academic year, CBU

unveiled a photographic timeline of the University that

had been designed and installed by Harding Creative

in Alfonso Dining Hall, encircling the entire cafeteria

between the eye-level windows and the clerestory

windows above. Over the next 18 pages, we’ll attempt

to recreate the Timeline (with some adaptations and a

few extra facts or stories along the way).

CBC is founded with four Brothers and 26 students on November 19 at 612 Adams Avenue

1871

Brother Maurelian, CBC’s first president, begins his 33-year tenure.1871

1873 Yellow fever epidemic hits Memphis. The Brothers remain while most of the population flees. Brother Hosea of Mary dies serving the afflicted on May 1.

HISTORY


CBC student body includes elementary, secondary, and collegiate students.1875 1875 The first bachelor of arts degrees were awarded to Richard A. Odium and Raphael E. Semmes.

Can you name the CBU presidents?Since its founding, CBU has been served by 22 presidents (several of whom have served more than one non-consecutive term). Alas, we could only fit 77 percent of them on the cover of this issue.

Here’s the challenge: Can you identify the presidents pictured on the cover? Use the handy diagram at right and go to cbu.edu/belltower to submit your answers. (Hint: there’s a list of all 22 at cbu.edu/past-presidents.) Prizes will be awarded!


http://www.cbu.edu/belltower

http://www.cbu.edu/past-presidents



Maurelian Society in Richard III1880

The CBC Community of Christian Brothers1887

BY E R N E S T J . M I L L E R , F S C

he legacy John Baptist de La Salle and the first Brothers bequeath to us today began on Easter 1680. Michel Sauvage, FSC,

one of the foremost interpreters of the Founder, sets the context for us: “This date marks the beginning for the upheaval of the entire internal universe of De La Salle. It marks the perceptible taking hold of a process of interior and social liberation which [brought] him to a point where he had neither the intention, the desire, nor the courage to go by himself.”1

Together and by A FOUNDING PRINCIPLE OF LASALLIAN IDENTITY, RE-EXAMINED IN THREE MOVEMENTS

This article is adapted from an address delivered at Lewis University in June 2014.


John D. Canale Sr., Class Valedictorian1891

Malcolm Patterson, CBC Alumnus & Tennessee Governor (1907-1911)

CBC football squad1922

In other words, together and by association, a fundamental characteristic of Lasallian charism and identity, emerges for De La Salle in Easter. Together and by association—at least the term—was born in the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. This explains why the Brothers’ vow of association—our first vow—is indispensable to our identity. Brother Michel points out “the unifying principle of all the spiritual teaching of De La Salle is found in his teaching on the Holy Spirit. For De La Salle, it is the Spirit who leads him to an ever more profound knowledge of ... the living God who saves. It is the Spirit that gives him his special charism.... It is the Spirit who leads the Brothers as it had led him to see the most urgent needs of [children and] young people. It is the Spirit who sends the Brothers to [them] with the enthusiasm, the hope, and the power to enter into combat against the injustice of the world.”2

In faith and hope, we trust the Spirit leads and sends us today, Brothers and Lasallian Partners, together and by association, into the mission field of Christian education and evangelization. Brother Alvaro Echeverria, former Superior General, asserts: “In the context

of the globalized world in which we live today, [association for the educational service of those who are poor] involves excluding no one and being concerned principally about those who are excluded.” With this opening meditation on Easter and the Spirit in view, I will seek to set out a broad perspective and interpretative frame in order to better appreciate the challenge that comes from witnessing the value of together and by association in daily ministry. To achieve this purpose, I have three movements:

1. providing a primer on the nature and purpose of Lasallian association;

2. identifying four markers to ground association; and

3. closing thoughts.

FIRST MOVEMENTI begin the first movement by drawing on chapter 15, verse 58 in Paul’s First Letter to the Christians in Corinth: “Be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” De La Salle and the first Brothers most

days were like the Apostles Peter and Paul, faltering as often as they flourished in God’s work. That’s why we must thrust aside the pious, sanitized view of De La Salle and the Founding Story that often holds sway. Let us not forget their reality: They had to contend with crises, conflict, and stumbling blocks to conduct the Christian and Gratuitous Schools in the early years. In 2010, the Institute promulgated Circular 461, entitled “Associated for the Lasallian Mission... An Act of Hope.” This text is our most authoritative statement on association. It points out that “we recognize in today’s quite different context the same factors... present at the origins of the [Institute and Lasallian education]: 1.

AssociationThe Brothers’ vow of association—our first vow—is indispensable to our identity.

continued on next page 44


State championship soccer team1923 CBC Follies1930

Typing class on Adams Avenue1933

crisis/crossroads, and 2. the eyes of faith/hope in the future.”3

Circular 461 puts forward five fundamental elements to “identify the experience of Lasallian association and promote unity in the ongoing, dynamic process of association across the Institute’s Districts and Regions.”4

• Association exists for the mission. • Association implies being a member of a community for the mission. • Association results from experience and is a dynamic journey, not an

acquired status. • Association stems from faith, vocation, and state of life. • Association presupposes a freely made commitment.

Here, I will limit my focus to the first one: Association exists for the mission. The Circular reads: “The immediate and ultimate goal of all Lasallian association is our educational mission. There is no point in talking about association unless the discussion focuses on this mission. These reciprocal and dynamic realities of association and mission make explicit the Lasallian approach to faith, [justice] and community.” According to 461, associated for mission supposes a participation in a collective Lasallian identity... framed in three fundamental dynamics.”5

1. De La Salle is our life-model and spiritual guide. He is the touchstone for discernment.

2. Brothers and Partners have co-responsibility for mission. Both the Brothers’ vocation and other Lasallian vocations are needed.

3. Association transcends any one ministry or circle of people.6

As the 42nd General Chapter puts it, “The Spirit invites us to a deeper and richer understanding of who we are and what we are called to do.”

SECOND MOVEMENTLike use of the term Lasallian, we must be careful association does not simply become a cliché. Therefore, I put forward a few broad markers for your contemplation and response. They are proposed in light of association exists for mission.

• Ministry is what we do: First and foremost, see your work as ministry.

The way of living Lasallian association and the way of doing Lasallian mission are inseparable ways.


Adams Avenue Library

Groundbreaking for Parkway campus1939

CBC moves from Adams Avenue to East Parkway1940

De La Salle emphasized that what we do as educators is an apostolic ministry. Like teachers and other educators, see yourself as ministers engaged in a Catholic and Lasallian educational community.

• Publicness: I agree with the view that we are not about not pretentiousness and prestige for the sake of status. Yet, false humility has no place. We are about achieving excellence in the whole realm of Christian education. So, joyfully and unapologetically tell your ministry’s story which is part of a bigger historical narrative now into its fourth century.

• Relationships in community: De La Salle emphasized the constancy of relationships in community. Develop a wide-ranging web of respectful and productive relationships within the campus community and beyond the campus.

Each Lasallian ministry seeks to achieve the purpose of the Institute, to provide a human and Christian education to the young, especially those who are poor, in different ways. Take up the task to learn and, in turn, provide a fresh, deeper perspective of the Institute’s mission and the distinctive character of Lasallian education today.

THIRD MOVEMENT To conclude, the way of living Lasallian association and the way of doing Lasallian mission are inseparable ways. It is up this undivided road, this steep road, that

Brothers and Partners must travel and toil. Association and Mission are undivided in the bold faith-filled and spirit-filled vision of John Baptist de La Salle. They cannot, therefore, be divided in our purpose, our action, and our life. The gifting of the Spirit comes to us as individual persons and as a community of faith. Every generation needs a Pentecost. Convoking Vatican Council II, John XXIII, a great and wonderful Christian and (Lasallian) Saint, prayed for a new Pentecost in our day. His prayer is coordinate with Martin Luther King Jr.’s sermonic words, the “fierce urgency of now.” Strengthen your association with one another as you strengthen your association with the Pentecost Spirit. Like the disciples in the Upper Room, we need the Spirit to help us overcome fears, to overcome locked doors, to overcome indecision. We need the wonder-working power of the Holy Spirit to breathe new life in us to act with holy boldness. Lasallian education and evangelization are to be ever vital and vibrant for God’s reign now. To that end, association for mission must hear the echo in the liturgical invocation De La Salle uses in his meditation for the Vigil of Pentecost: “Send forth your Holy Spirit to give us a new life and you will renew the face of the earth.” Giving glory and honor to almighty God. n

1 Michel Sauvage, FSC, lecture on “The Gospel

Journey of St. John Baptist de La Salle,” (translated

from the French by Luke Salm, FSC) Center of St.

Louis of the French (Rome) 11 December 1984, 72 ibid., 17 3 Brothers of the Christian Schools General Council,

Circular 461: “Associated for the Lasallian Mission ...

an act of HOPE” (Rome, 2010), 17 4 ibid., 235 ibid., 24 6 ibid.

BROTHER ERNEST MILLER is a doctorial student at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He recently completed three years as the associate director for Mission and Ministry in the District of Eastern North America, the geographic region for all Lasallian educational ministries in six states, Washington, DC, and Ontario, Canada.

Kenrick Hall was completed in 1940. Battersby Hall was also constructed that year, originally as the Brothers’ residence.


Freshman Brothers Boys1942 The Christian Brothers Band, formed in 1872, is oldest high school band in America. The 1942 band was led by Brother Joseph Raphael.

1942

The Kenrick Memory Project is a collaborative public history project to preserve the history of one of Christian Brothers University’s oldest buildings and to help build the community culture of CBU. Many of CBU’s stakeholders have vivid memories of their time in Kenrick Hall, and this multimedia project hopes to preserve those memories and the artifacts associated with them and to present them to the current and future CBU community. The Kenrick Memory Project is a joint venture of the CBU Honors Program, the Student Government Association, the Plough Library, the Office of Advancement, and the CBU Alumni Association. Additionally, history major Amber Campbell (’17) worked on the project as an independent study class through the History Department during the Fall 2014 semester. The course was supervised by alumna Caroline Mitchell Carrico (’10) who is also involved in the leadership of the project. This project has multiple components. The project team is interested in collecting as many individual memories related to Kenrick as possible. Students set up a booth at the International Festival of Hops during Alumni Weekend in October and encouraged returning alumni to record their impressions of the building. Alumni, trustees, faculty, staff, and current students are also asked to add to the project by emailing their memories to [email protected]. Using these memories as a starting

theKENRICK



Siena College students cheer for CBC1943

Collegiate courses suspended for WWII1944 Mechanical Drawing class1944

Memory Projectpoint, the team will compile a list of artifacts to be included in a Kenrick time capsule that will be housed in a few of the building’s lockers. Additionally, Amber Campbell is conducting three in-depth oral histories that will record three different perspectives of Kenrick, one from a Brother, the second from a faculty member, and the third from an alumnus. The audio files and transcripts will become a part of the CBU Oral History Archive in the campus archives, maintained by the Plough Library Staff. These components of the Kenrick Memory Project will serve as tangible connections to the history of CBU, as embodied in Kenrick Hall, in the new Dr. Rose Deal School of Arts building. The project will also connect current students, faculty, staff, trustees, and alumni to the changes being made at CBU while emphasizing the importance of campus history and traditions.


West Tennessee 1-Mile Relay Champs1945 Billy Leppert Golden Glove1945

Scooters on campus1946

“My favorite memory is definitely the Kenrick attic. We had tried to get up there before, but the door had always been locked. However, Halloween night 2000, I happened to look up and noticed that there was a light on in the attic. I quickly grabbed my friend Alexis and we headed up. The door were unlocked. We ventured in and were completely overwhelmed. Not only was there just a ton of stuff up there, but chairs positioned like someone spent time up there looking over the campus (and the girls’ dorms). There was definitely a creepy feeling. We left to get some more people to go with us, mainly because we were scared to be up there alone. We all signed our names to the wall, as other people had, but after awhile, the creepy feeling returned and we just felt like we had to get out of there. I have returned a couple of times, always during daylight, and while it still feels eerie, it will never be as scary as it was on a Halloween night. But it was so much fun!” — Julie Gilmore (’01)

1. Pictures of Kenrick inside and out2. Album and video of photos of what happened in

Kenrick, day in the life, Kenrick events, (e.g scary stories)

3. Knights of Columbus emblem from bulletin board 4. Plaque and biography of two Kenrick brothers5. A piece of chalk and chalkboard /blackboard6. Dr. Wranovix7. A tile from the CBC logo because thousands of

students have walked across it8. A piece of carpet from HP lounge9. The oldest/most interesting thing in the attic10. The stop motion animation film from Tiny Circus11. Dr. Wranovix12. The cross on top of Kenrick13. Photo of all the Brothers14. Campus map15. Photo book about Dr. Deal and how she gave

money for School of Arts16. Brother Francisco’s calligraphy 17. Asbestos18. A tank top and a glove (because it’s always too hot

or too cold)19. A broken clock (because the batteries are always

dead)— selections from Honors Program MIND Meeting

SUGGESTIONS FOR KENRICK TIME CAPSULE

1)

http://youtu.be/hqyhR6p8xiA


Barry Hall constructed1950 College Capers1950

De La Salle Gymnasium was also constructed in 1950. At the time, it was the largest gym in Memphis.

“Uhm, we had, we had a guy on campus. He was in the Knights. He was a buddy, who was in the habit of coming back from partying from over wherever he was partying. He got in the habit of parking his little MG car wherever the heck he wanted to. Sometimes he parked it… well, at that point in time, there used to be a nice wooded area where the apartments are now. And there was a row, a hedgerow separating the parking lot from that little area. And there were a couple of times he drove through the hedge. I mean, let’s face it, he was driving drunk, and he was parking wherever he wanted to. So one night some of us are sitting around, we see him come back. He pulls that little MG up and he just wedges it…. And so we watched him stumble into his room, like ‘you know what? We’re going to teach him a lesson.’ So there were six of us and interestingly enough, six guys, especially six young guys, can pick up a MG. With three guys on each side you can get it maneuvered. If you have enough guys you can pick it up. We didn’t have to do much because it’s a small car…. So anyway, we put it in Kenrick. We weren’t content to just put it in Kenrick. We wanted to make it as difficult as possible for it to be gotten out. So instead of leaving it lengthwise, we did it width-wise…. The next morning people start showing up for class. First person opens up the door, and there’s the car. Most people start laughing about it and it’s not until someone alerts security, ‘Yo, hey! There’s a car.’ By that time there are students all over the place…. We’re just all watching, so security goes to [his] door. They knock on the door and, of course, he’s hungover. He comes walking to the door with his bathrobe on. Security says ‘We need you to move your car.’ And of course he goes, ‘Okay, sure. Where did I leave it?’ They say, ‘Just bring your keys and come with us. We need to move this car.’ They don’t tell him where it’s at. They start walking in the direction of Kenrick and Maurelian. They start walking him up the stairs to Kenrick and he realizes about halfway up the stairs. Open up the door, and there’s his MG sitting in Kenrick.” — Steve Mitchell (’85)

u

r

[email protected]

Aircraft Engine Mechanics1948



New computer system installed1960 CBC becomes the first integrated private college in Memphis.

Original Bell Tower1958

John A. Donahue, CBC’s first African-American student, went on to become Brother Ernest Capistran.

At the commencement ceremony this past May, Academic Vice President Frank Buscher honored the newest Professors Emeriti at CBU, a distinction that is granted upon retirement to select members of the faculty in recognition of their highly distinguished service in the classroom and to the University. Brother Louis, as Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineer-ing, was one of the two so honored. Fittingly, Brother Louis was also working as he received this honor, serving as faculty marshall for the commencement procession as he has done for the past nine ceremonies (and as a student marshall for countless ceremonies prior to that). And

while the recognition deservedly honored his tenure as a teacher, Brother Louis has actually held many additional positions at CBU—including the one Dr. Buscher currently holds, which empowered him to grant this emeritus status to his predecessor. Brother Louis came to CBU in 1960 to teach electrical engineering. Over the years, he also served as co-director of the Computer Center, assistant dean of students, dean of students, bookstore manager, chair of the Electrical Engineering Department (twice), chair of the Engineer-

ing Division (the equivalent of dean, prior to the establishment of the School of Engineering), academic vice president (twice), and executive assistant to the president (twice). He has also served on the CBU Board of Trustees (1988-93) and on various boards, councils, and committees for the Midwest District of the Christian Brothers and Christian Brothers Services. Asked if he had a favorite or least favorite amongst all of those duties, he said, “I never had an awful job at CBU. I never had to be president.”

BROTHER LOUIS ALTHAUS WAS BORN in Mundelein, IL in 1931. He entered the

AT HIS RETIREMENT THIS YEAR, BROTHER LOUIS ALTHAUS IS THE LONGEST SERVING CHRISTIAN BROTHER IN THE HISTORY OF CBU.“I’ve been around,” Brother Louis Althaus responded succinctly, when asked about his 54 years at Christian Brothers University.

BY CO R Y D U G A N

St. Joseph Hall was constructed in 1955. Maurelian Hall, the first dorm, opened in 1958.


Elvis Presely stops by to play football1963

Christian Brothers College becomes co-educational1970Christian Brothers High School opens campus on Walnut Grove Road

1965

PHOTO BY CORY DUGAN

Rozier Hall was constructed in 1965. The original

Science Center was built in 1967, and Plough Library in

1969.


Christian Brothers College Homecoming Court

1970

Danny Thomas receives honorary degree1970 Computer lab1970s

Christian Brothers in 1949, received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota in 1953, and became a high school math teacher. “I was teaching at a high school in Missouri in 1957, and the Brother Visitor told me to go to Notre Dame and get a degree in engineering and then go to Memphis and teach it,” he recalled. “I said ‘I don’t know where Notre Dame is, and I don’t know where Memphis is. I don’t even know what engineering is. But, hey, it sounds good to me.’” He arrived at the University of Notre Dame and tried to enroll in the master’s program in engineering. “They said, ‘But you don’t have a bachelor’s degree in engineering. You’ll have to get that first.’ So I got both in about three years, started as an undergraduate and did summers and just kind of seamlessly shifted to the master’s program.” Brother Louis arrived at Christian Brothers College in January 1960 with his brand new Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree. “Memphis took some getting used to,” he said. “I got here and walked down the street to a drive-in to buy a Coke. And they said, ‘You can’t get a Coke here, because this is the black window.’ Actually, they called it the ‘colored window.’ I had to walk around the building to another window, the one for white people, just to buy a Coke. That was new and different to me. I didn’t like that.” Besides engineering, Brother Louis also taught calculus in his early days at CBC. “That was common back then, for the engineers to teach math. The high school

was still here then, but it was pretty much all in Kenrick Hall. Some of the Brothers taught there—English teachers, for example, taught both high school and college classes. Since my background was in engineering and the math I was teaching was college-level, I never taught in the high school.” In the grand tradition of the Christian Brothers, it wasn’t long before Brother Louis was multi-tasking. “They made me dean of men the second year I was here and sent me to take care of the dorms,” Brother Louis explained. “I was put in charge of Maurelian Hall. I was dean for two years, and by large the students were pretty well behaved. They would drink up on the train tracks, so they wouldn’t technically get

caught drinking in the dorm or on campus.” One minor incident he somewhat wryly recalls involved one of his electrical engineering students, who had just returned from a conference in Nashville, where he won the student paper contest. “I went down to his room on the first floor of Maurelian to congratulate him on what a great job he’d done,” he said. “I walked into his room, and there was a bottle of gin on the table. I had to ‘campus’ him for a month—he couldn’t leave campus for a full month. Except I gave him permission to go to another conference and deliver another paper. Because he really was brilliant. Except for the gin.” After two years in the dorm, Brother

Brother Louis at work in the Computer Center in the early 1960s


Men’s Basketball Team1971

First female graduate, Linda Shanks1971

Louis was moved to another incongruous second job: manager of the bookstore. In the early 1960s, the campus bookstore was located in Kenrick Hall and sold both high school and college textbooks. Brother Luke Grande, who became president a year later, was the previous the manager and gave Brother Louis valuable advice when he handed over the bookstore. “Luke warned me about this particular professor in the Business school back then. He always came down before the start of the semester and made sure we had his textbooks in stock. But he never used them, and over the years the word had gotten out to the students. So they knew he didn’t use the textbooks, and they never bought them. So I ordered one copy of his book and put it on the shelf just

to show him we stocked it. No one ever bought it, and I saved the bookstore a mint by not ordering them for the whole class.” Brother Lambert Thomas Matthews was president when Brother Louis arrived at CBC, and went on afterward to be director of the student Christian Brothers in Memphis and then Brother Visitor for the St. Louis Province (now the Midwest District). His nine-year presidency was notable for the marked growth in campus infrastructure: St. Joseph Hall, Maurelian Hall, the original Bell Tower, Stritch Hall, St. Benilde Hall, and the Theater were all constructed under his watch. Another notable addition was the arrival in 1960 of the first computer on campus, an IBM 1620 that was purchased for use in

data processing and to meet the advances being made in engineering at the time. “There was only one other computer in town, in a research center downtown at UT,” Brother Louis remembered. “I helped write a proposal for $20-30,000 to help pay for it. I remember they hauled it in the back doors at St. Joseph, through the big roll-up doors, and we had to turn it on and play with it while it was still in the receiving area.” There was apparently some question about where the new computer should live. Brother Lambert Thomas decided it should go in an office area on the lower floor of Ave Maria Hall (which was demolished in 1992 to make way for Buckman Hall). “I told him it wouldn’t fit,” Brother Louis said. “I got a floor plan drawn up with the square footage, and I placed the keypunch-es and the computer and the reader and the printer, blocked to size. I said, ‘Yes, you can put all those pieces in the room, but you won’t have any room left for any people to operate it.’ So Lambert says, ‘Oh. I guess we’re going to have to build something.’” The result was the construction of what is today named the Rosanne Beringer Center for Computer Studies, added onto the existing (but still fairly new) St. Joseph Hall. “St. Joseph was originally an L-shaped building with a courtyard inside the ell,” Brother Louis explained. “But they filled in that part for the Computer Center. And it was built very quickly, within six months or so. We had to have a place to put the computer.” The 1620 one of the first digital computers, and despite its large physical size, the computing power was very small.

Brother Louis (far right) with CBU’s first computer, an IBM 1620, in 1960

The Thomas Center was constructed in 1971.


Men’s Tennis Team1975 Mother Teresa welcomed by CBC president Brother Theodore Drahmann

1988 First graduating MBA class1989

ON APRIL 4, 1968, Memphis (along with the rest of the world) was shaken by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel. As plans for a Memorial March began to be circulate, a number of Christian Brothers, faculty members, and students at CBC decided to partici-pate. “The woman who was the secretary in the Computer Center told me, ‘If you go down there and march, I’m going to quit!’” Brother Louis Althaus remembered. “Well, I marched. And she didn’t quit.” Dr. Bob Brittingham (Economics, Emeritus) and Dr. Larry Gulde (Mathematics, Emeritus), both Christian Brothers at

that time, were among the other members of the CBC community who joined the march

of 10,000 mourners led by Coretta Scott King through

downtown Memphis on April 8, a mere four days after the

assassination. Brittingham carried a miniature

Minox camera (“It was kind of like the spy cameras you see in

movies,” he said) and documented the event.

“It was a little bit scary, with soldiers lining both sides of the

street with their guns raised,” Brother Louis said. “But it was a well-behaved

parade.” Brittingham remembered the

organizers working the crowd, walking among the marchers leading a quiet

call-and-response: “‘What kind of march are we having today?’ they’d ask. ‘Peaceful,’ the marchers would answer. And it was. It was a very dignified and solemn and respectful event.” n

PHOTOS BY DR. ROBERT BRITTINGHAM

Nolan Engineering Center was constructed in 1986.


Christian Brothers College becomes Christian Brothers University1990 Buckman Hall constructed1992

“Sometimes you’d have to run a program through and then compile it, and then run it through again because there wasn’t enough memory for the whole program,” Brother Louis recalled. “Sometimes run it through two or three times, then compile it, and run it through some more. Physi-cally there were huge, but ‘mentally’ they were tiny. Your smartphone today is much bigger—in computing power—than the thing we had to build a space for. The entire computer had something like 15-20K of memory. Kilobytes. That’s the size of an average email.” Brother Lambert Thomas was followed in the presidency by Brother Terence McLaughlin, whose brief two-year tenure was marked by the decision to move the high school and the purchase of the land on Walnut Grove Road on which to construct it. There was also controversy over Brother Terence’s decision to integrate the high school by accepting Jesse Turner, its first African-American student, in 1963. (The college division of CBC had been integrated three years earlier in 1960 when John Donahue entered. Donahue went on to join the Christian Brothers as Brother Ernest Capistran.) “Terence got in a lot of trouble,” Brother Louis said, referring to reactions from the Catholic hierarchy at the time that resulted in Brother Terence’s reassignment. “That was a shame.”

“THE UNIVERSITY WAS GETTING its legs back then,” Brother Louis says of his first four years at CBU. “It was very disorganized. There was really just Business and Engineering. There was mathematics but no biology or other sciences, no liberal

arts to speak of. “The Engineering Council for Profes-sional Development paid us a visit to accredit us for engineering, sometime around 1963 or 1964. We didn’t know they were coming. They showed up, looked around, and said we weren’t accreditable. That set some things in motion.” At the same time, there were other plans in the works for Brother Louis. “So I came to CBU in 1960 with a master’s in engi-neering,” he said. “I was here for four years and they said I should get a doctorate.” So he left CBU and headed back to Notre Dame get his PhD in 1964. “That was a really good time to be at Notre Dame,” Brother Louis laughed. “Ara Parseghian was the football coach. He won the national championship while I was there in 1966.”

But his thesis work was not to be pursued uninterrupted. Brother Camillus Defresne, who was academic dean at the time, came to Notre Dame to pay Brother Louis a visit. “He told me I had to stop studying for my doctorate and come back to CBC. He said, ‘We’re losing our whole Electrical Engineering Department, so you have to come back and teach.’” Back in Memphis and now chairing an

Brothers and staff in the Computer Center, 1963: (seated) Br. Daniel Hansen, Br. Kilian Bernardine, Br. Christopher, Br. Dan Weems, Br. Raymond, Br. Ambrose; (standing) Br. Lawrence Justin, Br. Liguori John, Br. Luperius Arnold, Mel Woolsey, Br. Louis Althaus, Jerry Bradshaw, Br. Jeffery Francis, Br. Liguori Gabriel, Br.

Herman John, Br. Joseph Paschal


De La Salle Gym is renovated, new Canale Arena opens2004Lady Bucs NCAA National Soccer Champs2002

almost vacant department, Brother Louis set about hiring a whole new faculty. “It was a learning year,” Brother Louis said. “All the new hires in 1967-68 were first- year teachers. Three of the new teachers that he recruited ended up becoming CBU institutions in their own right. Dr. Fred Terry (Emeritus), who went on to become the longest-serving dean in the School of Engineering, was one of the first to come on board. John Ventura (’65), a recent alumnus who had just finished his master’s degree at the University of Florida, returned as a teacher in 1967 and stayed for five years. He came back again in 2000 and is still teaching at CBU. In fact, he was named the Distinguished Lasallian Educator this year. “We started the year with no electronics teacher, so I would go into the class and give the students an assignment in electron-ics, “ Brother Louis recalled. “We got by like that for a little while. Johnny Ventura said, ‘I know a guy in Florida, he’d be a great teacher. His name is Reg Rodriguez.’ So we called him up, and he came in two or three weeks after the semester started and started teaching electronics. It was great. He got me out of that class.” Reginald Rodriguez (Emeritus) was also named Distinguished Lasallian Educator in 2000 and retired in 2001. With the faculty crisis averted, attention was once again on the accreditation issue. “This was a challenge for us, we decided we wanted—needed— to be accredited,” Brother Louis said. “I went back to Notre Dame in 1968 and finished up my thesis really quickly, and I came back in 1969. The faculty—Ray Brown and Reg and

Johnny—we sat down and looked at it and studied it, and then we made expeditions to study accredited schools. Johnny went up to Cleveland, and I went down to New Orleans and to LSU, and we talked to people and asked them what you had to do to get accredited. We had a consultant come in from Kansas. We were going to do this.” The accreditation team from the Engineering Council for Professional Development (ECPD) returned to CBC in 1970. Brother Louis was the dean by this time. “The chair of the ECPD was from the University of Massachusetts, and he met with me up in my office in the Fort [Battersby Hall]. He said to me, ‘You can

always tell the quality of an Engineering faculty by the length of the carpet on the floor. The longer the knap on the carpet, the poorer the faculty.’ “Well, we had concrete floors. No knap at all. So we got accredited—the first accredited program in Memphis. And they don’t judge us by the carpet anymore.” [From one of Brother Louis’ historical charts (see below for more): CBU first offered degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering in 1955. Civil engineering was added in 1962, and chemical engineering in 1966. Electrical and mechanical engineering were both initially accredited in 1970. Civil engineering followed in 1983, and chemical engineering gained

(l-r) Brother Louis, Brother Bernard LoCoco, Tim McCarver (CBHS ’59), and Lance Forsdick (’61) in Saint Louis for a Cardinals game in the 1970s


De La Salle Gym is renovated, new Canale Arena opens Cooper-Wilson Center for Life Sciences constructed, Assisi Hall Science Learning Center renovated

2008 Living Learning Center completed2011

accreditation in 1985. All four have been fully accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), the successor to ECPD, ever since and are up for review next year.]

“THE WATERSHED YEAR AT CBU WAS 1970. We got accreditation in engineering. The Board of Trustees was formed. Brother Camillus totally reorganized academics. And women came to campus.” Actually, there had been a Board of Trustees at CBU prior to 1970, but it had consisted of representatives from the Brother’s Community, the Bishop of Nashville (this was prior to the establish-ment of the Diocese of Memphis), and the

Provincial of the St. Louis District of the Christian Brothers (who automatically served as the chairman). The Board that was instituted in 1970 completely changed the dynamic of the college. A layperson, Edward Duke, was the chair. Members of the initial 19-member board comprised nine Brothers (including then-president Brother Malcolm O’Sullivan and past president Brother Terence McLaughlin) and ten prominent members of the Memphis community. Brother Camillus Defresne had been in charge of academics for a number of years by 1970, but this was the year he chose to restructure things along the lines that many secular universities had long previous

followed. “Camillus was really a remarkable man,” Brother Louis said. “He brought CBU into the modern era academically. He established the rank-and-tenure system here, putting the assistant-associate-full professor rank into place for faculty. He laid the foundation for the four Schools we know now–Arts, Business, Engineering, and Sciences—and the deanships which govern them.” And then there were the women. “The shift from all-male to co-ed was actually fairly smooth,” Brother Louis said. “They put the women on the top floor of Maurelian and locked the doors at both ends. So we had a few more dorm restric-tions than when it was all men,” he chuckled. Academically, it meant more students and some really good new ones. There were three new female engineering students in 1970: Earnie Marie Houston Clark (’72) and Wendy Tetley Bullock (’72) were transfers, and Elaine Ashby (’74) was the only freshman woman in engineering. “Elaine got all A’s through her entire time,” Brother Louis recalled. “Except for one B from George Krupika—which Elaine never let us forget.” Brother Louis was teaching a class in Electrical Circuits at the time, and had a new idea about how to teach it that he had heard about at Penn State. “The idea was that you go to class the first day and say, ‘Here’s the textbook. We’re not going to meet again as a class. You’ll have an exam at the end; if you flunk it, you can take it again. You can keep taking it until you pass it, or you can just give up the course.’ It ended up being way more work than

(l-r) Brother Michael Witt (now a Monsignor in the the Archdiocese of Saint Louis), Brother Theodore Drahmann, and Brother Louis in the 1980s


actually teaching the class day to day. Those students bothered the life out of me every single day of the semester. “Elaine Ashby was in this class. Her mother called me and said, ‘My daughter does not learn that way.’ So I said, ‘Well, she’s going to have to flunk the course then.’ This was just before Easter, so Elaine comes into my class right after Easter break. There are ten chapters in the textbook, and she offers to take a test on each one. Within a week and a half, she’d passed all ten chapters. She was brilliant. And apparently she could learn that way, after all.”

BROTHER MALCOLM O’SULLIVAN asked Brother Louis to assume the position of academic vice president in 1972, with the departure of Brother Camillus. “It was a pretty hectic year, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep the job at the end of it. But then the Board of Trustees brought Bernard LoCoco in as president. The transition was kind of sudden, and Bernard asked me to stay on. So, I said ‘Okay, I’ll give it another year.’ “Bernard was a really good president. He said to me early on, ‘You run the academic side. I don’t know anything about academics, I’m supposed to raise money.’

And he hired Joe Gold to run Admissions. Those were very good years.” The Admissions Office at that time was located on the second floor of Ave Maria Hall, and Brother Louis’ was on the first floor. Brother Louis and Joe Gold both had a habit of working late. “Joe worked until 9 o’clock at night quite often, and he’d come down to my office to talk. ‘Well, the people in Memphis are going to bed and don’t want to talk to me anymore,’ he’d say. ‘So I’m going to start calling people in California.’ “He’d also call me up at night sometimes and ask if he could come down and talk. ‘I’ve got some questions for you,’ he’d always say. They would always be questions about recruiting; he was trying out ideas on me. The first would be a great idea, the second would be okay, and the third one was ‘No, Joe. No, I don’t think we can get away with that.’ Then he’d disappear back upstairs to his office and get to work on the ideas that weren’t against the rules. He probably did a few marginal things form time to time, but he was really good at recruiting.” At this year’s convocation for faculty and staff prior to the start of classes, Dr. Anne Kenworthy started her report on the incoming freshman class by asking Brother Louis to stand. “Ever since I came back to

CBU four years ago in Admissions, all I’ve heard Brother Louis talk about is Joe Gold,” she began. “All I hear about is Joe Gold, Joe Gold, Joe Gold. Brother Louis laid down this challenge: Joe Gold, 1987, 355 freshmen.” She then struck a weightlifter’s victory pose, fists lifted. Brother Louis was among those who laughed and applauded.

BROTHER LOUIS ENDED UP SERVING as academic vice president for seven years with Brother Bernard and three more years under Brother Theodore Drahmann, for a total of 11 consecutive years in the position. After stepping down as vice president in 1983, Brother Louis took a sabbatical in upstate New York and studied at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “I was theoretically going to get another master’s in computer science, but that would have taken longer than the year I was granted on the sabbati-cal. So I came back here and taught the computer classes that I’d taken at Rensse-laer. And I taught electrical engineering again for a few years.” Brother Louis served as chair of the department again for six years, then joined the President’s Office as executive assistant under Brother Michael McGinniss and

Members of the Brothers Community gathered for the announcement this spring of the establishment of the Brother Louis Althaus Scholarship to benefit freshman engineering students. (l-r) Br. Terence McLaughlin, Br. Francisco Martin, Br. Robert Staub, Br. Ignatius Brown, Br. Louis, David Nicolas (’64), Patricia Nicolas, Br. Dominic Ehrmantraut, Br. Tom Sullivan, Br. Michael Schmelzer, Br. Joel Bauymeyer, and Br. Getachew Alemayehu.

PHOTO BY CORY DUGAN


Monica Cole was named by Wells Fargo as the Executive Vice President and Division Manager

of the Southern Region. Based in St. Louis, Cole will manage five Regional Commercial Banking offices serving middle market companies with annual revenues of $20 million or greater in Missouri, Kentucky and Kansas.

Gary Rikard was appointed by Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant to be executive director of the

Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality in July. A partner with Butler Snow, LLP in Memphis, Gary has practiced environmental law since 1996, serving as senior attorney at MDEQ from 1996 to 1998. Prior to earning his law degree, he worked as an environmental engineer at MDEQ, specializing in permitting and water quality compliance issues. His specialized legal experience includes negotiating complex permitting and enforcement issues before the United States Environmental Protection Agency and representing MDEQ before the

Demetra Liggins has been selected for inclusion in Texas Rising Stars® 2014 by Thomson Reuters. Texas Rising Stars is part of Super Lawyers, a rating service of outstanding lawyers who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Demetra is a partner with Thompson & Knight in Houston, specializing in bankruptcy law.Dr. Minoli Perera is now an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago Department of Medicine.Patrice Williamson-Thomas was selected to the Class of 2014 of the Memphis Business Journal’s “Top Forty Under 40.” Patrice is the deputy director of Neighborhood Improvement with the City of Memphis

Rebecca Ciscel moved to Clarksburg, WV in December 2013, where she started working for

Tetrick & Bartlett, PLLC in to continue her career as a CPA in the external auditing field.

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Mississippi Supreme Court.

Steve Denegri joined Inner Reach Corporation in Oklahoma City as its networking data storage consultant

and financial analyst in November. Steve is also managing director and co-founder of Lumen Civitatis, a non-profit that supports Catholic education, culture, and leadership via lectures, roundtables, conferences, and courses. It organized the Magnificat Day of Faith on November 1 which drew 2,000 people to the Cannon Center in Memphis.J. Drew Koester was named interim principal financial officer and interim treasurer of Education Realty Trust Inc. in July. He is the chief accounting officer and a senior vice president with the Memphis-based company which develops and manages housing on college campuses.

Mauricio Calvo was selected to the Class of 2014 of the Memphis Business Journal’s “Top Forty Under

40.” Mauricio is the executive director of Latino Memphis.

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continued under Brother Stan Sobczyk. “Brother Louis is not only a fine teacher, but an outstanding administrator,” Brother Stan recalled. “Whenever he was called upon to help out with a challenging situation, he always said ‘yes’ and always had the insights to solve problems as they arose. Throughout his years as a teacher and administrator, Brother Louis was always concerned about the CBU students, their well-being, and their academic success.” In 2001, Brother Stan asked him to resume the position of academic vice president. He returned to it for three more years. “That’s a total of 14 years. I set that record,” he laughed. For the last decade, Brother Louis has served four presidents—Brother Stan Sobczyk, Brother Vincent Malham, Lance Forsdick (twice), and Dr. John Smarrelli—in the role of executive assistant. Adding the previous six years he spent in the position with Brother Michael and Brother Stan, that 16 years is undoubtedly another record. “On a personal level, I always depended on Brother Louis’ wise counsel during my years at CBU,” Brother Stan added. “He was always there when I needed him.”

AS IT MIGHT BE OBVIOUS FROM A number of the anecdotes in Brother Louis’

long history at CBU, he keeps track of records. And facts. And numbers. And trends. Perhaps his longest tenure has been an unofficial one, as an historian and a number cruncher. Aside from his aforemen-tioned monitoring of freshman class sizes, he can provide graphs that track total enrollment from 1954 to the present, subdivided by academic School. He has charts that chronically document the faculty for each department in the School of Engineering. Likewise, he can supply a history of membership on the Board of Trustees and a detailed archival narrative of the Computer Center (complete with hardware, system, and personnel invento-ries). This position of historian-statistician-documentarian may be unofficial, but it is

widely acknowledged. More often than not, when a question arises on campus that relates to history or specific facts and figures, the quickest and most reliable solution is: “Ask Brother Louis. He’ll know.” “When I was Dean of Engineering between 1999 and 2005, I had an opportu-nity to work under Brother Louis as academic vice president,” said Dr. Siripong Malasri (who is once again Dean of Engineering). “I found that he was always well-organized and based his decisions on facts and figures. Of course, he is an engineer.” This article began with a recitation of all the jobs that Brother Louis has held in 54 years at CBU. During those years, he has seen 11 presidents, 13 new buildings (plus five major renovations), and thousands of graduates walk across the stage at Commencement. (If asked, he could undoubtedly provide an exact number for those graduates. Complete with footnotes.) “Second only to our Founder, St. John Baptist de La Salle, Brother Louis has permeated the culture of CBU, serving in every capacity except president,” said President John Smarrelli. “His understand-ing of the historical timeline of CBU is unparalleled, and even as Professor Emeritus, he will continue to grace us with his wisdom on a very regular basis.” n

“I never had an awful job at CBU. I never had to be

president.”



Jessica Stonesifer has joined the Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon engineering and

architectural firm as project manager in the Nashville office. She will be

responsible for managing and designing tasks

through Barge Waggoner’s aviation contracts.

Eric Stookey (MBA) is a new independent member of the Amedi ca Corporation’s

Board of Directors. Eric most recently served as the president of the Extremities-Biologics division at Wright Medical Group until August 2014. He served in various other marketing and sales positions at Wright Medical Group, including senior vice president and chief commercial officer from January 2010 to November 2011, as vice president of North American Sales from 2007 to January 2010, and vice president of US Sales from 2005 until 2007.

Tyree Daniels was featured in an article titled “The NEXT GEN! Who’s Leading the Way to Our Future?”

in the August/September 2014 edition of MBQ: Inside Business. Tyree is a senior vice president at Raymond James in Memphis.Laura Williamson, DMV is working as a relief vet in the Birmingham, AL area.

Robin Turner (MEM), director of Global Packaging Development at Medtronic, was honored as

the recipient of the 2014 Craig Blackman Graduate Engineering Alumni Award at the Annual Graduate Engineering Celebration on May 9. Robin, a Certified Packaging Professional (CPP), is a member of CBU Packaging Advisory Board and Medtronic representative for the CBU Healthcare Packaging Consortium. Her professional accomplishments and recognitions include the Paperboard Packaging Council Nationwide Award of Excellence in Structural Design for INFUSE Packaging, a U.S. Patent on Blister Packaging Cosmetic Article and Means to Protect Applicator, and a U.S. Patent on Modular Surgical Tray and Cover. She is a Leadership Memphis Executive Program graduate and has also been involved in various humanitarian activities, including the Nicaragua Mission Team, Kenya Mission, Habitat for Humanity, Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief, Mid-South Foodbank, Leadership Memphis, and St. Jude Hero.David Sloan (MBA ’02, MAT ’06) and

Debbi Sloan (’00, MEd ’02) are the owners and operators of Tartan Apparel (www.tartanapparel.com), a retail ecommerce store which offers unique t-shirts. Tartan Apparel, which started in 2013, designs and prints all of its clothing in the United States. Debbie serves as creative director and is responsible for all design work. David, who has many years of business experience, is responsible for all business functions and sales.Lorraine Delgado announced her engagement to Javier Santiago. He popped the question after a romantic balloon ride at sunset. Lorraine is currently a quality control biochemist at GSK in Philadelphia.

Margaret Saurin was selected as just the second head coach in the history of the women’s soccer

program at Oakland University in Rochester, MI. Margaret was previously the head coach at Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne and was selected as the Summit League Coach of the Year in 2012. She wasinducted into the CBU Athletic Hall of Fame in April (see the Spring 2014 issue of Bell Tower).

Stephan Adair and his wife, Liz Shaw Adair (’05), relocated to Minneapolis this summer, where Liz

is enrolled in the PhD program at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Stephan was working as a premier service manager at Mood Media in Austin and

received his master’s degree in experimental psychology in 2010 from the University of Mississippi. Liz and Stephan celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary in August.Ashley Wise Jett attended the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy, and graduated in 2008 with a doctorate of pharmacy degree. She is now pharmacist-in-charge at Walmart in Oakland, TN. Ashley and her husband, Bryan Paul (a clinical pharmacist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center), have a 2-year-old daughter, Bryley.

Dr. Michael Beebe is finishing an orthopedic surgery residency at the University of Utah and has accepted

an orthopedic trauma fellowship in Tampa, FL.Liz Shaw Adair graduated in May with her MBA from Texas State University in San Marcos, TX, and was awarded the “Outstanding Graduate Student” award for the year. Liz has also accepted admission into the PhD program at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. She and her husband, Stephan Adair (’04), relocated to Minneapolis this summer abd celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary in August.

Dr. Jenny Bernard is a veterinarian and pathology fellow at the San Diego Zoo.

Ashley Miller is currently at the University of Memphis working for the Center for Research in Educational Policy as a research

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Justin Hanson (’02), former reporter for WMC-TV, is pictured above surrounded by celebrating supporters as he was elected the new mayor of Covington, TN on November 4. After a three-month campaign, Justin defeated incumbent mayor David Gordon 59 percent to 41 percent.


www.tartanapparel.com

www.tartanapparel.com


associate. She just published her first journal article, “Identifying Predictors for Children Witnessing Intimate Partner Violence,” in the Journal of Family Violence (2014) 29:675-679. JT Malasri (also MBA ’12) was selected to the Class of 2014 of the “Top Forty Under 40” by Memphis Business Journal. JT is supervisor of Residential Engineering at MLGW.Mallori Poff Longhridge is a nurse at Lebonheur Children’s Hospital. Her daughter, Amelia, recently met her dad, Scott, for the first time because she was born during his military deployment.Dr. Brent Prentiss graduated from Tennessee State University in Physical Therapy and was recently married to Dana Marie Hinton. The couple has moved back in Memphis from Nashville.

Faisal Ansari was promoted to project manager for the International Association of

Chiefs of Police, working on police training programs in Middle East and North Africa.Captain Joshua K. Dove was inducted into the Engineering Management Honor Society on May 9, 2014. Joshua is a C-17A Instructor Pilot assigned to the 62nd Operations Support Squadron, Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. He served four times in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He also flew airdrop missions in Afghanistan. He has received various military medals. Julie Newman is operations manager at GENCO in Nashville. In a recent email to Dr. Randel Price, Julie listed what she called “a few real life bullet points” describing her job: liaison between construction and the operations team of several systems in the main process building of a green site serving the solar industry; write start-up plan and act as point of contact for construction, conditioning and start-up of assigned equipment (heat exchangers, distillation columns, pumps, etc); track and implement ongoing design changes to the constantly developing technology of the polycrystalline silicon production process via P&IDs and work instructions; work closely with chemistry lab to ensure process compliance and use statistical analysis techniques to ensure process stability and fine tune processes; manage an entire multi-million dollar business unit for Dell, people, process and profit; write and approve contracts, manage team of 100 operations teammate to meet production goals, lead design and improvement projects, and manage the budget. (Whew!) Bobby Lawrence announced his

engagement to Jessie Barton. Bobby is currently a medical student at Dubusk College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Jeremy Todd Armstrong, Esq. has passed the bar. Jeremy received his J.D. degree from Cecil C. Humphreys

School of Law, Class of 2014.

Dr. Andrew K. Assadollahi has joined the CBU School of Engineering as a full-time assistant

Joseph Rodgers (’06) and his wife, Clancy, welcomed a baby girl, JON BRYMER RODGERS, on October 30, 2013.

Corta Thompson Nilsson (’04) and her husband, Bo, welcomed FILIP NILSSON, their new son, on March 30, 2014. The family has also recently moved to Dubai, where they will live for two-three years. Bo works for Mueller Industries, and Corta was a nurse at Methodist University Hospital prior to moving. She did her nursing training at William Carey University.

Summer Williams (’01) and Keith Moltzan were married in March 2013 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. On June 10, 2014 they welcomed the birth of their daughter, MEADOW LYNN MOLTZAN.

Kim Ries Whittington (’03) and Alan Whittington (’05) welcomed daughter REMY NICHOLE WHITTINGTON on May 13, 2014. The family is currently living in Houston.

Jason Deng (’06) and his wife welcomed a daughter, MELINDA YUE DENG, born on May 17, 2014. Jason is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy in Orlando.

Dr. Justin Carmichael (’07) and his wife, Jessica, welcomed their daughter, MALLORY FAITH CARMICHAEL, on May 19, 2014. The family is currently

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living in Grapeville, TX.

Christopher Sage (’05) and his wife, Carrie, welcomed their new daughter, ALESSANDRA SAGE, in July 2014.

Captain Whitney Heath Vickery (’08) and her husband, Stephen, announce the birth of their son, ELIOTT LUTHER VICKERY. Whitney and Stephen are in the army and currently stationed in Misawa Air Base in Japan.

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Tammy Ferguson Newsom (‘07, ‘09) and her husband, Michael, celebrated the birth of twins ROWAN ELIZABETH NEWSOM and MASON ALEXANDER NEWSOM on February 20, 2014. Joining in the celebration was one very proud aunt, Tammy Shaw Ferguson (‘02, ‘08).

babybucs

professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.Aaron Lamey graduated from the University of Memphis with a Master of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Management Information Systems. Aaron is the network and telecommunications director at CBU and is teaching Management Information Systems classes in the CBU College of Adult Professional Studies.



ALUMNI WEEKENDAlumni Weekend 2014 took place October 3-5, with a variety of events including the September of Service Finale and International Festival of Hops on Friday evening, in conjunction with Buc

soccer matches and tailgating by families and fans; a President’s Brunch on Saturday morning; a concert by the Divine Voices Gospel Choir in the University Theater on Saturday afternoon; a CBU-sponsored concert by Americana blues-rocker Paul Thorn at the Levitt Shell in Overton Park on Saturday evening; and the Ladies Hat & Tea Party on Sunday afternoon in the Deal Courtyard. More photos on CBU’s Flickr site »

Minna Zhao (’12) and Nick Watkins (’12) at the International Festival of Hops on Friday evening.

Lauren Smith, Tom Kresyman (’03), Julie Gilmore (’02), Ray Karasek (’01), Felix Bishop (’82), and Maureen Collins (’02) at the International Festival of Hops on Friday evening.

Soccer match tailgaters with their very own Buccaneer.

Alumni Weekend soccer night foot traffic on the Bridge.

PHOTOS BY JACOB EDWARDS

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cbualumni/collections/72157648119773680/


Dr. John Smarrelli Jr. welcomes all of CBU’s “guests” at the Levitt Shell in Overton Park on Saturday evening.

CBU at the Shell on Saturday evening.

Melissa Faber, Madeline Faber (’15), Geral ine Wardlow, Wilma Reynolds, and Flo Gadomski at the Ladies Hat & Tea Party on Sunday.

New AD Brian Summers speaks at the President’s Brunch on

Saturday in Alfonso Dining Hall.

PHOTOS BY CORY DUGAN

Checking out the Alfonso Timeline at brunch.


Distinguished Alumnus Michael Pohlman (’79) and Catherine Pohlman

President John Smarrelli Jr., Maurelian Medal recipient Bishop J. Terry Steib, and Maria Lensing (’01 & ’07)

Distinguished Young Alumna Analice Sowell (’02 & ’05) and Michael Sowell

CBUnited/National Alumni Board President Maria Lensing (’01 & ’07)

BELL TOWER GALAThe third annual Bell Tower Gala was held November 15, 2014 at the Hilton Memphis. This year’s Gala honored Michael Pohlman (’79) as its 2014 Distinguished Alumnus and Analice Sowell (’02

& ’05) as the Distinguished Young Alumna. Pohlman is CEO and president of the Pickering Firm, an engineering and architecture company in Memphis. He has managed numerous projects for a variety of Pickering clients including governmental, private and public sectors in the industrial, commercial and federal markets. His corporate clients have included FedEx, UPS and Nike to mention a few, and governmental clients have included the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, TVA and the Tennessee National Guard. Sowell is the chair of the Science Department at Memphis University School, where she teaches Honors Chemistry and was recently voted the recipient of the John M. Nail Outstanding Teaching Award by the members of the graduating class. She is a member of the American Chemical Society and serves on its National Committee for Community Outreach Activities and High School Chemistry. Also honored was the Most Reverend J. Terry Steib, Bishop of Memphis, who was the recipient of CBU’s Maurelian Medal in recognition of his significant contributions to education. All proceeds support CBU’s exceptional academic programs and scholarships.


Lynn and Jim Isaacs, CBU trustee Carolyn and Benjamin Head

Joe Birch, AFSC (’78), Robyn Davis Birch (’77), Natalie Hurt Birch (’11 & ’16), and Joseph Birch III (’11)

Barbara and Joe Evangelisti John and Susan Huffman


BUCS BEAT TIGERSThe CBU Buccaneers upset the Memphis Tigers 74-70 in overtime at FedExForum on November 12. “It’s a special thing,” CBU head coach Mike Nienaber said. “Tonight,

we’re going to enjoy it because it is special. But it’s not going to help us make the NCAA regional or anything. But everybody in Memphis knows what a big thing this is for us.” Senior forward Sidy Sall posted game-highs of 20 points and 11 rebounds to go with five assists, two blocks and two steals. Senior guard Trey Casey scored 19 with a game-high five steals, while junior Drew Hildreth scored 14 with three steals. Senior guard Ryan Fleming scored 11 with a game-high nine assists against two turnovers. “It’s a lot of fun being a D-II team that takes down a D-I team,” Fleming said. “Especially since we’re both here in Memphis. We did have 16 turnovers as a team, but that comes with playing a D-I team like Memphis.” “It means a lot, this shows how hard we’ve been working this preseason,” said Sall. “I can’t be happier than this right now. We’re getting back to work tomorrow. This is just the beginning, we’re not done yet.” n

Bucs celebrating their big win

In the stands accepting the congratulations of President Smarrelli

Sidy Sall scored 20 points for the game high. Trey Casey scored 19 points.

PHOTOS BY JOE MURPHY


PHOTOS BY CORY DUGAN & JACOB EDWARDS

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Jessica Hines-Beard presented a poster entitled “Early and age-related changes in the

glaucomatous DBA/2J retina” at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) international meeting in Orlando, FL.Terence Netzel has been accepted to the Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies program at CBU.Keith Wyrick was inducted into the Engineering Management Honor Society on May 9, 2014. Keith has worked in the utility industry for Midsouth Utility Consultants as a protection and substation design engineer. He and Kasey Bramlitt (’12) were married on November 22 in a wedding ceremony at the Memphis Zoo.

Xinyu von Buttlar has started the M.S. in Pharmacology program at the University of Tennessee Health

Science Center.Amanda Fitzgerald had her first paper, entitled “The behavioral pharmacology of zolpidem: evidence for the functional significance of alpha1-containing GABA A receptors,” published (with co-authors Brittney Wright and Scott Heldt) in the May

2014 edition of Psychopharmacology. Catherine Gluszek and Austin Gooch were married on October 5, 2014.Jay Healy (MBA) was the subject of an article in the August 7 edition of the Wall Street Journal entitled “A Plan to Rescue an Underfunded Insurance Policy.” Jay is president of Century Wealth Management in Memphis.Anthony Maranise, OblSB (Catholic Studies ’17) will have his scholarly book review of Sports & Christianity (Eds, N. Watson & A. Parker; Routledge, 2013) published in the September 2014 issue of the journal, Religious Studies Review. Further, he has contributed a chapter entitled “Beyond Praying for Players: The Responsibilities of Sports Chaplains” to a forthcoming text, Sports Chaplaincy: Trends, Issues, and Debates (Eds, A. Parker, N. Watson, & J. White; Ashgate Press) scheduled for publication and release in April 2015.

Kasey Bramlitt and Keith Wyrick (’10) were married on November 22. The wedding was held at the

Memphis Zoo.Luanzo Lung’Aho is teaching high school chemistry at Frazier High School.

Rachael Reese Covington presented a poster as part of her M.S. thesis work. It was at the National Society of Genetic Counselors, and is entitled: “Implementation of Crisis Intervention Training in Genetic Counseling Training Programs”.

Kyra Clapper is finishing the first year of work towards her master’s degrees in both history and French

at the University of Memphis. She was awarded a two-year teaching fellowship and won funding to support her work in France this summer, where she studied French and conducted research for her thesis on the nineteenth-century French writer and politician, François-René de Chateaubriand. She was also elected president of the University of Memphis Graduate History Association.Melissa Duong is now a community investment manager at First Tennessee Bank. She was featured in the New Memphis Institute’s “I Choose Memphis” spotlight in the Memphis Daily News in June and was featured in an article titled “The NEXT GEN! Who’s Leading the Way to Our Future?” in


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The CBU Lasallian Fellows Class of 2015: (l-r) Mallory Harvey (Civil Engineering), Shanice Oliver (Marketing), Joyce Mollerup, Robert Buckman, Ronald Fotso (Computer Science), Lauren Harrett (Civil Engineering), and John David “JD” Wolfe (Biochemistry). CBU Lasallian Fellowships are presented annually to five members of the senior class based upon the reflection of Lasallian values in their scholarship, leadership and service. Upon graduation, the Fellows will be awarded $5,000 as a means of perpetuating their work in the community. The Fellowships are made possible through the creative generosity of benefactors Joyce Mollerup and Robert Buckman. (More info at cbu.edu/cbu-lasallian-fellows »)

http://www.cbu.edu/cbu-lasallian-fellows

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the August/September 2014 edition of MBQ: Inside Business.Bryana Polk is serving as a Lasallian Volunteer at Serviam Gardens in Bronx, NY.Alicia Russell received her MAT in English and History this spring. She was also selected by the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program to teach English in Japan, which she began in August. Alicia is extremely excited about this opportunity; she has had the dream of teaching in Japan for a number of years now.Lauren D’Surney has started the M.S. in Pharmacology program at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.Jessica Green is teaching high school chemistry at Arlington High School.Lauryn Murphy was accepted to the CBU Physician Assistant program.Cameron Volpe, currently a student at the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine, had an abstract accepted for publication in the veterinary student online journal, The Vet Gazette (Volume 50, Issue 3). Cameron conducted a project this summer at Mississippi State entitled “Thermal imaging assessments of body temperature in the equine eye, muzzle, and coronary band,” and presented a poster at the 2014 Merial-NIH Veterinary Scholars Symposium at Cornell University this July. Cameron and Jonathan Fili are engaged to be married in June 2015. Angela Williams has been accepted to the Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies program at CBU.

Antwa’nae Briars is serving as a Lasallian Volunteer at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis.

Garrett Burton has been accepted to the Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies program at CBU.Jake Garbuzinski, Buccaneer pitcher, was named by the Gulf South Conference to the All-GSC Tournament Team following the 2014 conference tournament. Jake threw a nine-hit shutout in the Bucs’ 1-0 win over West Alabama in Saturday’s second round. The win was CBU’s first-ever GSC Tournament victory, and Jake is the CBU’s first-ever All-GSC Tournament selection.Andrea Guyton is serving as a Lasallian Volunteer at St. Peter’s High School in Staten Island, NY.Kyle Johnson is a first-year law student at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis. Kyle was also named to the Spring Academic All-GSC Team by the Gulf South Conference. A graduating golfer

on the Buccaneer team, Kyle carried a 3.41 GPA in business administration, shooting a 79.9 average as he played in 19 of the team’s 24 rounds.Marie Joiner was named to the Spring Academic All-GSC Team by the Gulf South Conference. A graduating third baseman on the Buccaneer softball team, Marie carried a 3.62 GPA in history while hitting .298 with 45 hits, seven doubles and 23 runs scored, all team-highs. She was also Academic All-GSC as a junior.Julia Kueter is serving as a Lasallian Volunteer at De La Salle Blackfeet School in Browning, MT.Latoria Lewis is a first-year law student at Faulkner University School of Law in Montgomery, AL.Jessica Schneider started the Church Health Center Scholar program in June.Caleb Smith passed the ISTA Certified Packaging Lab Technician Test in April. ISTA (International Safe Transit Association) allows students to take the technician level test of its three-level Certified Packaging Laboratory Professional Program.

Alison Welch was honored as a recipient of a Gulf South Conference Top Ten Award this past summer. These awards, based on athletic, academic and extracurricular achievement during the 2013-14 academic year, recognize the top five male and top five female student-athletes in the conference. Alison was a star player on the Buccaneer volleyball team.Yuan (Eva) Chen was accepted into the 2014 entering class of the Master of Cytopathology Practice (MCP) Degree Program in the College of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, Tennessee. She was awarded the University of Tennessee A&D Chancellor Scholarship, named after Andrew D. Holt who was a former president of the University of Tennessee.

Joanna Arnett has been accepted into the 2015 entering class of the University of Tennessee School of

Pharmacy in Memphis.Mallory Harvey and Gabriela Gomez-

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Reynolds Bone & Griesbeck PLC announced an expansion of the J. G. Griesbeck Memorial Scholarship at CBU in September, transitioning it over the next few years to a $50,000 endowed scholarship for a student majoring in Accounting. This scholarship is named in honor of Joseph George Griesbeck, a founding partner of the firm, who attended CBC high school on Adams Avenue. This scholarship was originally created in the 1980s and has benefitted CBU accounting students as well the Memphis community since its inception.Pictured above (seated, r-l), John Griesbeck, managing partner at RBG, is joined by President John Smarrelli, Steve Crisman (Senior Vice President for Advancement) and a group of RBG partners and CBU alumni for the official signing ceremony. Standing (l-r) are Lee Griesbeck, Paul Pennebaker, Sheri Campbell (’92), Skeet Haag (’81), Rebecca Jacobs (’10), Kelly Summons (’09), Richard Saviori, Zach Ogale (’11), Charles Bennett (’08), and Billy Griesbeck.

PHOTO BY CORY DUGAN


Pedro passed the ISTA Certified Packaging Lab Technician Test in April. ISTA (International Safe Transit Association) allows students to take the technician level test of its three-level Certified Packaging Laboratory Professional Program. Sarah Langsdon has been accepted to the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine.Emily Phillips was selected as a recipient of a $1000 award from the River Arts Festival, which was presented on May 30 at the Jay Etkin Gallery during the River Arts poster unveiling.

Trey McGinnis and Becky Wauford won the Memphis Rocks “School” category (for the

second year in a row!) at the “On Location: Memphis International Film and Music Festival” at Studio on the Square in April. Their film, September of Service Non-Profits Make Memphis Rock, highlights the many agencies with which CBU works during September of Service. The film can be viewed at youtu.be/EyFbkbAhT7Y.Gina Sabbatini (PAS) was selected as a featured Student Spotlight on the Student Academy of the American Academy of Physician Assistants website. Gina is president of the CBU PA Class of 2016 and the SAAAPA Student Society chapter at CBU. Becky Wauford also passed the ISTA Certified Packaging Lab Technician Test in April. ISTA (International Safe Transit Association) allows students to take the technician level test of its three-level Certified Packaging Laboratory Professional Program.

Taylor Flake has been elected as a justice on the 2015 Tennessee intercollegiate Supreme Court.

She will serve with four other justices from other universities in Tennessee.Alex Othmani passed the ISTA Certified Packaging Lab Technician Test in April. ISTA (International Safe Transit Association) allows students to take the technician level test of its three-level Certified Packaging Laboratory Professional Program.

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BaseballMac Cooley (’15) was voted to the All-GSC Baseball Second Team this spring. Mac hit .300 with 10 doubles, 18 RBI and 20 runs for the 2014 season. Mac also started 10 games as pitcher and ranked third on the team in innings pitched and strikeouts.Basketball Trey Casey (’15) was honored as a recipient of a GSC Top Ten Award. These awards, based on athletic, academic, and extracurricular achievement during the 2013-14 academic year, recognize the top five male and top five student-athletes in the conference.Cross CountryShelley DeHarte (’18) won the GSC Men’s Freshman Runner of the Week during the 2014 season.Abby Moore (’18) won the GSC Cross Country Women’s Freshman Runner of the Week during the 2014 season.Hannah Owen (’18) won the GSC Women’s Freshman Runner of the Week twice during the 2014 season.Golf Andrew Aristorenas (’15) was named to the Spring Academic All-GSC Team by the Gulf South Conference. Andew carried a 4.0 GPA and played in 15 rounds, shooting an 81.5 average. Carter Billingsley (’17) finished 94th in the NCAA Division II South/Southeast Regional Golf Tournament. Carter is CBU’s first-ever selection to an NCAA golf regional.SoccerBrendan Bennett (’18) was named First Team All-GSC and won three GSC Freshman of the Week awards during the 2014 soccer season. Chelsea Casaccia (’16) was voted All-Region Third Team and All-GSC Second Team for the 2014 season. Chelsea started all 19 games at midfield with two assists and two points, playing 1,414 minutes.Jose Ferraz (’16) won First Team All-Region and First Team All-GSC, and was named GSC Player of the Week twice during the 2014 season. He scored six game-winning goals, ranking 10th in the nation. He is 20th in the nation in goals per game and 29th in points per game. Andrew Forrest (’18) was voted Second Team All-GSC and named GSC Defender of the Week during the 2014 soccer season.Devon Jackson (’18) was named GSC Player of the Week during the 2014 soccer season.Shane Keely (’16) was voted Second Team All-GSC for the 2014 season after scoring three goals with one assist for seven points.Carmen Manes (’15) earned First-Team All-GSC soccer honors for the 2014 season. She was

also a third-team All-Region pick. Britton McGuire (’16) was named First Team All-GSC and earned a spot on the All-Region Second Team. He also won two GSC Defender of the Week awards during the 2014 season. He is 16th in the nation in goals against average and 22nd with an .812 save percentage.Gabrielle Pilgrim (’17) was named to the Capital One Academic All-District Soccer Team for the South Region. She played 14 games, starting 13, while carrying a perfect 4.0 GPA in English.Camilla Rodrigues (’16) was named Second Team All-America by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and spots on the All-Region First Team and the All-GSC First Team. She was also named to the Capital One Academic All-District Team for the South Region. In 19 games, she scored 10 goals and 11 assists for 31 points, while carrying a 3.38 GPA in Civil Engineering. She led the GSC and is 11th in the nation in assists per game. Sean Rutter (’15) was named GSC Soccer Defender of the Week during the 2014 season and was also named First Team All-GSC. He also earned a spot on the Second-Team All-Region. Diego Silva Vieira (’17) was voted Second Team All-GSC and awarded the GSC Soccer Player of the Week during the 2014 season.Robyn Wade (’15) was a third-team pick on the All-Region Team and was named GSC Soccer Defender of the Week for the seventh time of her career during the 2014 season. She broke the CBU record for career saves with 236 and also broke the records for career shutouts and victories. She is 93rd in the nation in goals against average.VolleyballSami Gruse (’15) was named All-GSC Volleyball Second Team, finishing third in the GSC with 9.54 assists per set.Brinsley Cooper (’17) was a First Team All-GSC pick, leading the conference with a .322 hitting percentage, and was named GSC Offensive Volleyball Player of the Week during the 2014 season.Alexis Gillis (’17) was a First Team All-GSC pick for the second consecutive year and was named the GSC Defensive Volleyball Player of the Week during the 2014 season.Maggie Sorensen (’18) was named GSC Defensive Volleyball Player of the Week during the 2014 season. She also received two Freshman of the Week awards.

BUC NOTES

youtu.be/EyFbkbAhT

50 BELL TOWER winter 201550 BELL TOWER winter 2015

Alumni———————1940sEDMOND R. BELOTE (’42)December 5, 2014; Memphis, TNSurvivors include brother Eugene Belote (’54)JAMES MARNEN CRAVEN (’42)December 1, 2014; Memphis, TNDR. SYLVESTER WILLIAM HORA (’43)January 3, 2015; Corinth, MS———————1950sGLENN SPENCER CALVERT JR. (’54)December 20, 2014; Tequesta, FLFERMAN C. COX SR. (’58) November 6, 2014; Pine Bluff, ARWILLIAM “BILL” DULWEBER (AA ’51) July 11, 2014; Longview, TXWILLIAM “BILL” G. POWERS (’59) September 13, 2014; Memphis, TNSurvivors include grandchildren Kalli Powers (’12) and Michael Powers (’14)———————1960sEUGENE D. BARRE (’60) August 26, 2014; Memphis, TNEDWARD S. BOBOWSKI (’67) June 9, 2014; Cincinnati, OHLAWRENCE “LARRY” CONWAY JR. (’69) July 26, 2014; Plano, TXJOHN MARSHALL MATTINGLY (’61) December 12, 2013; Campbell, CAPRABHAKAR S. OAK (’65) April 7, 2014; Vernon Hills, ILWILLIAM FLOYD PLUNK (’65) December 12, 2014; Memphis, TNANDREW PHILLIP “ANDY” PRICE (’67) October 17, 2014; Inman, SCEDWARD R. SHANAHAN JR. (’68) May 22, 2014; Hackettstown, NJROBERT G. TADIN (’61) Germantown, TN; December 15, 2014GEORGE WHITWORTH (’66)February 10, 2015; St. Louis, MO———————1970sTIMOTHY BROUGHTON (’77)January 6, 2015; Lakeland, TNBERNARD ERIC GANT (’79) October 17, 2014; Memphis, TNALBERTO DEL ROSARIO (’70)November 27, 2014; Memphis, TN

Survivors include son Anthony Del Rosario (’91)———————1980sJAMES JOSEPH III (’86) October 3, 2014; Memphis, TNTERRY THOMAS OWEN SR. (’84) May 16, 2014; Memphis, TNCYNTHIA “CINDY” DOWDA VINCENT (’85)Lafayette, LA; December 19, 2014Survivors include husband Ken Vincent (’88)HUGO L. WHITTEN (’83) July 19, 2014; Memphis, TN———————1990sJANET JAMIESON BENNETT (’90)January 20, 2015; Maryville, TNSTEVEN A. BROADWAY (’99) May 18, 2014; Memphis, TNPATRICK BRYAN CASEY (’90) November 27, 2104; Memphis, TNMICHAEL JOHN MARTELLO (’93)February 10, 2015; Memphis, TNPATRICIA “PATTY” SHEA WILSON (’95) August 9, 2014; Cypress, TXSurvivors include sister Kelly Shea Wilson (’90), brother-in-law Daniel Wilson (’88), and neice Kaitlyn Wilson (’18)———————2000sPATRICK METCALF CRUMP (’02) May 15, 2014; Memphis, TNMICAH D. WHEELER (’05) September 2, 2014; Memphis, TN———————2010sCHARLES S. “CHARLIE” HUGHES (’16) April 20, 2014; Hernando, MSCICELY LYNN VAUGHN-JONES (’10) May 19, 2014; Memphis, TN

Faculty, Staff & Friends———————DORMA APPLINGJanuary 5, 2015; Memphis, TNJEFFREY A. BAILEY June 11, 2014; Memphis, TNLUKE FRANCIS BORGERJanuary 3, 2015; Memphis, TNMARY ANN BRENNER September 10, 2014; Memphis, TNROBERT EDWARD CARSONJanuary 3, 2015; Mermphis, TN

May all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace. in memoriam

SISTER CAROL CLASGENS September 17, 2014; Louisville, KYWALTER GUNTI CRONE August, 23, 2014; Memphis, TNSurvivors include brother Harrell Crone (’54) and nephew Chris Crone (‘76)JEANNE MYERS FISHER July 2, 2014; Memphis, TNNANCY SANTOS GERACI September 25, 2014; Metarie, LASurvivors include daughters Dorain Geraci Stone (’02) and Mallory Geraci (‘13)WALTER J. KLIMEK June 1, 2014; Memphis, TNMARY BELLE REHKOPF MANLEY August 1, 2014; Memphis, TNJOSHUA C. MARONDE May 17, 2014; Memphis, TNSUE SCULL MCDERMOTT May 15, 2014; Collierville, TNWINIFRED WESTNEY PERKINS August 17, 2014; Memphis, TNSISTER TERESITA RODRIGUEZ August 9, 2014; Corpus Christi, TXHAROLD W. SCHAEFGEN SR. November 17, 2014; Memphis, TNDR. JOHN JOSEPH SHEA JR.February 8, 2105; Memphis, TNJAMES C. SUDDUTH October 1, 2014; Memphis, TN———————BROTHER MATTHEW SZATKOWSKI, FSCJanuary 27, 2015; Sun Valley, CA

A De La Salle Christian Brother for 57 years, Brother Matt taught theater arts and speech at CBU from 1987 to 2009. After his retirement, he moved to Los Angeles and later to Villa Scalabrini in Sun Valley, CA.———————DR. VIRGIL H. TODD October 21, 2014; Memphis, TN


in memoriam


DR. MARGUERITE BARRIER COOPER always claimed that she had lived five lives: as a child growing up in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina as the oldest of two brothers and four sisters; as an undergraduate student at the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina; as a wife and mother; as a graduate student at Memphis State University; and as a professor of chemistry at CBU. While some start thinking about retirement at age 55, Cooper became the first female candidate to be accepted into the doctoral program in chemistry at Memphis State University (now University of Memphis). Not easily discouraged, it had taken her 12 years to get there because she had to take extra subjects, including German (since, at the time, much of the chemistry curriculum was written in German). Also, an early morning explosion in the MSU chemistry lab destroyed a year’s worth of Cooper’s doctoral work housed in the lab’s freezer. While teaching part-time at both Memphis State and Southwestern (now Rhodes) College, Cooper, at 57, became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in Chemistry at MSU, in 1977. She joined CBU’s School of Science that year and taught chemistry to hundreds of students until her retirement in 2009 at the ripe young age of 91. She wore a lab coat with “Dr. Mom” monogrammed on it throughout her career. She received the nickname from Marolyn Howe (’79), one of her first students in 1977, and it stuck. The class presented Cooper with a lab coat, embellished with “Mom” in iron-on transfer. Cooper proudly wore it until it was threadbare and casually mentioned to an alum from the ’77 class that it was time to retire it. A few weeks later, a new lab coat with “Mom” silk-screened on the back. appeared in her office. After that, Cooper received a new lab coat every couple of years (and the “Dr.” part was added eventually) , each one a little nicer than the last, paid for anonymously by one of the students from that 1977 class. The Dr. Marguerite Cooper Distinguished Professor Award was established at CBU in 1988, to be presented annually to a full-time School of Science professor who exemplifies excellence in teaching; service to the faculty, staff, and students; professional growth and development; and scholarly research. Dr. Cooper was awarded the Brother Dominic Dunn Service Award in 1994 and lauded for her “extraordinary appreciation for the art of learning.” She was honored by the University of Memphis in 2007 as a “Distinguished Alumna” and again in 2012 as one of the “100 Women” who had contributed to the vitality of the University of Memphis since its founding in 1912. In 2008, the Cooper-Wilson Center for Life Sciences was con-structed at Christian Brothers University and named in her honor. Her portrait hangs in the lobby, greeting students and visitors alike with a warm welcoming smile—and wearing her “Dr. Mom” lab coat. Dr. Cooper is survived by son Joseph M. Cooper and daughter Susan Cooper Wilson, as well as grandchildren, great-grandchildren, many nieces, nephews, and an extended family that includes the entire CBU Community.

(at right) Dr. Cooper at the Cooper-Wilson Center groundbreaking in 2007; with daughter Susan Cooper Wilson at the unveiling of her portrait in 2012.

DR. MOMMARGUERITE BARRIER COOPERJuly 3, 2014; Memphis, TN

PHOTOS BY CORY DUGAN


BACK PAGE

he Beverly and Sam Ross Art Gallery at CBU will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year.

During its early days at 612 Adams Street, CBU established a tradition of exhibiting art. For example, Mary Solari (1849-1929), considered one of the 100 most important artists in the State of Tennessee, exhibited her work on the Adams Street campus. But the tradition died out along with collegiate courses during the early 20th Century, due to World Wars and the relocation of the campus. Art exhibits were finally resumed in 1990, when Brother Robert Werle founded the Christian Brothers University Gallery and was named its director and curator of the University’s art collections. His original pur-pose in establishing the gallery was to bring original works of art to campus for the educa-tion and enjoyment of the students. Since its beginning, Brother Robert has worked diligently to maintain a reputation for quality art exhibits on campus. Located on the lower level of Plough Library, the gallery continues its original mission as an educational exhibition gallery that allows artists to showcase their works and gives visitors the opportunity to view original pieces that they may never see on display anywhere else. Although artwork may be purchased from exhibitions, the Ross Gallery is purposefully not competitive with other commercial or

public galleries in Memphis. Commissions are not collected from artists on sales, nor are any gallery costs passed along to artists. “The gallery gives artists the freedom to exhibit what they think is important for students to see. We invite them because we think their artwork has something to say and something that our students should hear,” said Brother Robert, who still serves as gallery director. “It gives us an oppor-tunity to invite extremely interesting and creative people to our campus, and it is fun for me to help them showcase their work.” The gallery hosts between four and six exhibits per academic calendar year, running August through May. The season is set every year in January for the following year with the goals of displaying vastly different styles, media, and artistic focal points. Brother Robert feels that the differences in all of the exhibitions are what makes them interesting. “Other galleries have their own audiences, obligations, and commitments to different types or art. We want our students to think differently and be open to appreciate different forms of art—ranging from studio art, pot-tery, paintings, metal, and photography. ” Although Brother Robert says he doesn’t have a favorite exhibit during his tenure as gallery director for nearly 25 years, he does highlight one from in 1994. “Picking a favorite exhibit is like trying to decide which of your children you like best,” he said. “But

‘Contemporary Studio Glass: The Sam and Beverly Ross Collection’ in 1994 was certainly a highlight for me. It presented studio glass art for the first time in Memphis. This art is special because studio glass is handmade and not manufactured or mass produced like other glass.” The Ross Collection of studio glass was later donated to CBU. Sam and Beverly Ross also consented—“after a great deal of convincing,” according to Brother Robert—to allow the gallery to be named in their honor, in appreciation for their contributions to the university and its students, as well as for their patronage of the arts. The Beverly & Sam Ross Gallery exhibits are, as always, free and open to the public. n

SPRING 2015 EXHIBITIONSBartlett Art Association Exhibit

February 20 – March 26, 2015

Christie Moody: Explorations in GlassApril 17 – May 22, 2015

FALL 2015 EXHIBITIONSNick Peña

CBU Visual Arts Faculty August 21 - October 8, 2015

Annabelle Meacham: Tacos or Sushi? October 16 - December 10, 2015

All opening dates are Fridays and all have a public reception that evening, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

25 YEARS OF ART EXHIBITS AT CBU

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Bell Tower Winter 2015