The Stewarts at Westwood
Robert Bruce Stewart (HDR M’68), known as R.B., joined the Purdue University staff as controller in 1925. At that time, Purdue enrolled 3,000 students, the physical plant was worth $3 million, and the endowment totaled $340,000.
Stewart, who went on to become the university’s first vice president and treasurer, is credited by many with influencing the character and growth of Purdue University. He spent 36 years building the university both fiscally and physically.
Geochemist Marissa Tremblay ’12 analyzes Antarctic rocks to unravel Earth’s climate chronology and predict the planet’s future environment
A geologic field excursion to Death Valley during spring break her first year at Barnard set Marissa Tremblay ’12 on course to becoming a scientist. She entered college intending to pursue a law degree, but stepping foot on that vast, desolate desert landscape marked with sand dunes ignited a curiosity to uncover the stories in stones.
50 Years of Wolf Park
Founded by Purdue ethologist Erich Klinghammer in 1972, Wolf Park began as an experiment to study wolf behavior. The pioneering research conducted there over the past 50 years contributed to a better understanding of the apex predator and facilitated its reintroduction into the wild.
Twenty Years After 9/11 Longhorn Reflects on the Unexpected Detour—and the Subsequent Broadway Show—that Altered His Life’s Trajectory
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Kevin Tuerff and his then-partner, also named Kevin, were on an Air France flight bound for New York City. The couple had just wrapped up a European vacation and they were eager to get home. A sudden drop in elevation over the Atlantic Ocean was the first sign that something was amiss. Then came an announcement from the cockpit.
Pioneering journalist Betsy Wade ’51 broke barriers for women in news
When Betsy Wade ’51 became the first woman to edit the news in the 105-year history of The New York Times, she noted the spittoons vanished from the city room within her first week. Her landmark appointment to the copy desk in 1956 signaled a new era for women in journalism, previously relegated to women’s pages that covered the “Four F’s” — family, food, furnishings, and fashion.
Alumnus who is deaf won’t let anything stand in the way of his dreams
Screech. Clank. Scrape. Grind. A car might make all sorts of noises that indicate there is something wrong with its machinery. Automotive technicians listen for those sounds to efficiently diagnose the problem.
Thump. Scratch. Drop. Reverb. A DJ incorporates all kinds of sound effects into a set. Playing music, mixing songs — a DJ’s entire focus is to create a stimulating auditory environment.
But what if you cannot hear?
Twenty Years After 9/11 Longhorn Reflects on the Unexpected Detour—and the Subsequent Broadway Show—that Altered His Life’s Trajectory
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Kevin Tuerff and his then-partner, also named Kevin, were on an Air France flight bound for New York City. The couple had just wrapped up a European vacation and they were eager to get home. A sudden drop in elevation over the Atlantic Ocean was the first sign that something was amiss. Then came an announcement from the cockpit.
Zoom executive credits K-State experience as launchpad for stellar career
Arriving in Manhattan, Kansas, as a freshman, Nick Chong ’91 may as well have landed in Oz. An international student, Chong was raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (pop. 1.8 million), where the soaring 88-story Petronas Twin Towers dominate the skyline. He and his three sisters lived with their parents in a small apartment above their family business. Chong’s father bought him an Apple Macintosh computer when Chong was about 13 years old. This was the budding engineer’s first foray into technology.
Alumna’s opportunities snowballed thanks to Hong Kong scholarship fund
The first time Vy Vuong ’19 experienced a snowfall, she rushed outside to play in the softly falling flakes. For this first-year student hailing from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, frolicking in the snow was somewhat of a bucket-list experience. Vuong remembers her friends laughing about her enthusiasm for the flurries. But for Vuong, the first recipient of the Barnard Club of Hong Kong scholarship fund, every experience at Barnard felt like a treasured gift.
Author Bryn Greenwood’s unconventional life inspires gritty novels
Bryn Greenwood authored her first story before she learned to write. The New York Times bestselling author vaguely recalls the thinly veiled autobiography of an alien family with a character that bore a striking resemblance to the Great Gazoo from the Flintstones. Because Greenwood ’92, ’95 was too young to write, she dictated the tale to her older sister, Liberty ’90.
Pioneering journalist Betsy Wade ’51 broke barriers for women in news
When Betsy Wade ’51 became the first woman to edit the news in the 105-year history of The New York Times, she noted the spittoons vanished from the city room within her first week. Her landmark appointment to the copy desk in 1956 signaled a new era for women in journalism, previously relegated to women’s pages that covered the “Four F’s” — family, food, furnishings, and fashion.
Sima Sistani '01 didn't take a straight line to eventually founding Houseparty
When she was growing up, Sima Sistani’s parents limited her TV time. One of the shows Sistani ’01 relished as a child was the sitcom Perfect Strangers, about a happy-go-lucky immigrant with an unbridled enthusiasm for all things American.
“We did the ‘dance of joy’ a lot,” Sistani says, referring to the silly kicking and chanting routine performed by the show’s lead characters. “I always loved to watch TV and movies, read books, or play games. The storytelling aspect really appealed to me. Because my parents wouldn’t let me watch more than thirty minutes of TV a week, I wanted it so badly. At the same time, Hollywood never felt like a space that was available to me as a first-generation Iranian-American growing up in Alabama who had no connections or ties to that world.”
Alumna treads an unconventional career path from chemical engineer to patent attorney
When a newspaper reporter asked teenage Janal Kalis (B.S. ’73, B.S. ’79) what she wanted to be when she grew up, Kalis replied, “a scientist or a lawyer.” In time, she would achieve both.
Kalis, now a patent attorney at Schwegman, Lundberg & Woessner in Minneapolis, grew up the eldest of five on a 160-acre family farm in south central Minnesota. The first in her family to graduate from high school, she first enrolled at the U of M as a history major. She received grants, worked part time, and took out student loans to pay for school. For one campus job, she prepared lecture slides for the art history department. “In those days we had huge projectors that heated up like ovens,” she says. “They were tricky to operate. Learning how projectors work was very useful.”
