Features
Kat Braz
A Window into Westwood Manor

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.

A Window into Westwood Manor
Profiles
Kat Braz
A Story in Stones

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.

A Story in Stones
Features
Kat Braz
Call of the Wild

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.

Call of the Wild
Profiles
Kat Braz
Come From Away

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.

Come From Away
Profiles
Kat Braz
A Way with Words

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.

A Way with Words

Stories

The Kidney Campaign

The Kidney Campaign

A U-M connection led to an altruistic organ donation, despite COVID-19 and a cancer scare.

For years, Ed Silberman lived a relatively normal life during the day. But every night, the 63-year-old financial adviser from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, went through two rounds of peritoneal dialysis, which uses the abdominal lining to filter blood inside the body. At his age, a normal kidney functions at 85% or higher. By fall 2019, Silberman’s kidneys were functioning at 7%.

As one of 100,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant, his best hope was to match with a living donor. So Silberman’s family, including son-in-law Jeremy Garson, JD’14, launched a social media campaign to find a stranger to save Silberman’s life.

The Future of Edge Computing

The Future of Edge Computing

High capacity batteries key to evolving autonomous systems

Cloud computing supports a vast array of information and systems every day. Whether it’s Google, social media or file storage, billions of people rely on the internet to stay connected. When that connection is interrupted, it causes inconvenience for the average user. However, if autonomous systems were to rely solely on cloud computing, maintaining a connection could mean the difference between safe operation and disaster. Imagine a self-driving car that required a stable cellular connection to avoid collision.

Lt. Bardach Comes Home

Lt. Bardach Comes Home

Remains of soldier killed in Vietnam return to Indiana after 51 years

Ann (Bardach) Vollmar (LA’67) will never forget the cold January day in 1968 when an army captain from Fort Harrison knocked on the door of her family’s Westfield, Indiana, home. Her father was away in New York City for business, and her mother was still at work in downtown Indianapolis. Vollmar was home alone with her younger brother, and the two of them knew the captain’s visit must be related to their oldest brother, 1st Lt. Alan Bardach (M’66), who was fighting in Vietnam.

An Internal Drive

An Internal Drive

Alumnae share their roads to success at KAR

Robin Leslie (T’84) doesn’t think of herself as a trailblazer. But when she enrolled in computer information technology at Purdue, the department was in its infancy. She was one of few women in the major — and one of few students of color.

“It was a new field,” Leslie says. “Not very many people looked like me. I just focused on my work and what I needed to learn. I knew I wanted to work in information technology (IT) for the rest of my life.”

Surviving the Storm

Surviving the Storm

Houston Boilers rally to aid family recovering from Hurricane Harvey

Steve and Cathy Gurnell were prepared to wait it out. They’d lived in their home in Katy, Texas, a western suburb of Houston, for 19 years. No strangers to bad storms, they’d stayed through Rita (2005), Ike (2008), and other smaller hurricanes and tropical storms. As rain from Hurricane Harvey pummeled Texas, friends and family called and texted the Gurnells to check on their safety. Among those concerned were the couple’s middle child, Carrie (LA’10), an assistant volleyball coach at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.

Summer Party Rages On

Summer Party Rages On

Cary A unit friends celebrate 45th annual reunion

Ask any Cary Quad resident circa 1974, “Who was the biggest jerk who walked the halls?” and you were likely to hear the same answer: Chuck Harville (P’76, DP’89). It was a mantle he didn’t mind. It can be fun to be the instigator. In those days, orientation programs were less structured, and as leader of A unit orientation, it fell to Harville to assimilate the frosh.

An Arm for Yaretzi

An Arm for Yaretzi

Telescoping prosthesis enables 10-year-old girl to bow violin

It’s atypical to see a piano as part of a grade school orchestra ensemble, but that’s exactly what Zayra Vincent encountered when she visited the Burgin Elementary School music room this spring. There, in the back of the Arlignton, Texas, classroom, a smiling 10-year-old girl plucked out notes on the keyboard with one finger.

The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden

Alumnus renovates his sophomore landscape design 20 years later

The hidden light court encased within the walls of Duncan Hall in downtown Lafayette, Indiana, was neglected and overgrown when Aura Lee Emsweller was hired as the hall’s first executive director in 1996.

The Georgian, colonial-style building opened in 1931 as a meeting place for social, patriotic, charitable, educational, and cultural events. A 1958 addition created the inner courtyard, designed to allow light to pass through the stately ballroom windows. It was in this narrow, unkempt space with a mucky, untended pond and ivy climbing the brick walls that Emsweller’s 6-year-old son, Schuyler, discovered a wonderland for the imagination.