St. Ambrose Legends Retire - St. Ambrose University

The Magazine of St. Ambrose University | Spring 2012
St. Ambrose Legends Retire
ALSO INSIDE: Cradle of Women’s Coaches

Scene
The Magazine of St. Ambrose University
Spring 2012 | Volume XXXVIII | Number 1
Managing Editor
Linda Hirsch
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Editor
Craig DeVrieze
Staff Writers
Jane Kettering
Robin Youngblood
Staff Assistant
Darcy Duncalf
Contributing Writers
Susan Flansburg
Ted Stephens III ’01, ’04
Designer
Sally Paustian ’94
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2 Under the Oaks
Meet the “Sims,” “Pamcakes” and an alum who is teaching
autistic children how to act. Then see how St. Ambrose is
earning its military-friendly stripes. Find all that and more
“Under the Oaks.”
www.sau.edu/scene
scene@sau.edu
Photo and illustration credits: Leslie Bell: cover,
pages 10–13, original paintings; John Mohr
Photography: cover, pages 6, 7, 10–13, 29 ;
Dan Videtich: pages 3, 10, 14; Greg Boll: page 8;
Kevin Schmidt: page 26; Grant Legan Photography: page 32; Quad-City Times, page 33.
Scene is published by the Communications and Marketing office for the alumni, students, parents, friends, faculty and staff of
St. Ambrose University. Its purpose is to inform and inspire through stories highlighting the many quality people and programs that
are the essence of St. Ambrose’s distinguished heritage of Catholic, values-based education. Circulation is approximately 23,000.
St. Ambrose University—independent, diocesan, and Catholic—enables its students to develop intellectually, spiritually,
ethically, socially, artistically and physically to enrich their own lives and the lives of others.
St. Ambrose University, 518 W. Locust St., Davenport, Iowa 52803

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Features
9 Retiring Types
Four iconic St. Ambrose professors will close the books
on more than 140 combined years at a school they quickly
came to love. So how has St. Ambrose changed since
the ’70s in the eyes of Joan Trapp, Leslie Bell ’72, Paul
Jacobson and Rich Legg? And about those bows?
14 Diocesan Heritage
One of 11 Catholic, diocesan universities in the country,
St. Ambrose is helping Ambrosians honor that heritage by
following the example of Saint Ambrose of Milan.
16 A Home for Ambrose of Milan
Rev. Robert “Bud” Grant ’80 awoke one morning with a
plan to create a center to learn about and honor Ambrogio
di Milano. A journey spanning two years and as many
continents is bringing that dream home.
Alumni Profile
26 A Treat that Smells like Feet
At “Treat House” in Davenport, Ann Schwickerath ’98
lives St. Ambrose’s diocesan heritage by giving inner-city
kids a sense of sanctuary.
28 Alumni News
The Gift of Giving shows what caring benefactors truly do
for fellow Ambrosians; a St. Ambrose alum sees hope on
the famine-stricken Horn of Africa; a decade on, the SAU
Wine Festival is aging well; and 20 Ambrosians go around
the world to see one of our own wed.
30 Class Notes
21 A Cradle of Coaches
Lisa Bluder. Robin Becker Pingeton ’90. Tasha
McDowell ’98. And don’t forget Bill Fennelly. You could
fill a Final Four with the Division I women’s basketball
coaches whose careers were launched at St. Ambrose.
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Campus Triples
Bandwidth Capacity
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The growing popularity of video streaming
was draining bandwidth capacity on the
St. Ambrose campus. But students taking a
break from their studies now can Skype, play X-Box, utilize YouTube
or watch Netflix to beat the band.
In time for the start of spring semester, the university’s information
resources technology office completed a project that tripled the
available bandwidth across campus.
Sean McGinn ’06, assistant IT director, said St. Ambrose started the
year with 100 megabits per second (Mbps) of bandwidth capacity, a
total that was “maxed” daily when school was in session. Hardware
upgrades have increased that total to 300 Mbps, with 200 directed
to residence halls alone.
The remaining 100 Mbps should sufficiently serve classrooms and
administrative offices for at least another 18 months, McGinn said.
But new advances in video technology, specifically the anticipated
growth of high-definition downloads, eventually will require further
upgrades, he said.
—Craig DeVrieze
More Than the Name is New
The newly named St. Ambrose College of Health and Human Services
(CHHS) is poised to advance important changes occurring in education and
the health and human service fields.
Changes began in July of 2010 when the School of Social Work became
part of the former College of Education and Health Sciences. The newly
named CHHS also houses the teacher education program and graduate programs
in education, and oversees the Children’s Campus. Those programs
are being combined within a newly created School of Education within
CHHS.
The new name “better reflects the diversity and scope” of programs
offered by the steadily growing CHHS, said Sandra Cassady, PhD, dean of
the college. “The School of Education will provide future and current teachers
a range of opportunities with our undergraduate and graduate program
offerings.”
New programming in the health fields also is being considered.
—Craig DeVrieze
Learn more about the College of Health and Human Services at sau.edu/scene
When Steve Finn ’02 MBA, was digging up potatoes
and plucking tomatoes from their vines last summer,
he conjured memories of time spent on his Uncle
Buddy’s farm in Pennsylvania during his teens.
Manager of Sodexo Dining Services at St. Ambrose,
Finn’s boyhood memories were sparked while he
worked a small plot of land at the St. Vincent’s
Center, along with members of GreenLife, the
environmental club at SAU.
The garden project is part of a contract Sodexo
has had since the mid-1990s with Des Moinesbased
Loffredo Fresh Produce Co., to provide the
St. Ambrose community with locally-grown food.
The produce distributor, with a building in
Moline, has contracts with Midwest-only farmers.
“There’s a big difference between getting your
produce out of California or locally,” Finn said.
Summers, Finn also gets vegetables from the
GreenLife plot. Last year, GreenLife harvested 162
pounds of tomatoes, 30 pounds of zucchini and 28
pounds of carrots.
Sodexo also is helping the farmers. “It’s not hit
or miss like at a farmer’s market,” Finn explained.
“Every week, the farmer knows he will be selling 10
bushels of a product.”
Finn actually has a bigger dream. “My vision,” he
said, “is that we have a farmer that can pull up to the
dock here, and I’ll say, ‘We’ll take it all.”
—Robin Youngblood
BUYING LOCAL
a ‘growing’ trend for Sodexo

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They’re No Dummies
High-tech ‘sims’ teach health science lessons
Cherry Pepper is having a bad morning.
The simulators can mimic a heart murmur. They can display
Overnight, she was tolerating fluids, walking short distances and the telltale sounds of pneumonia in a lung. They can also react to
her appetite was returning a bit in the wake of an emergency appendectomy
two days earlier.
Physical Therapy Program Director Michael Puthoff, PhD, said
repositioning in bed, a skill PT students must consistently practice.
Now, she says she is dizzy and feeling nauseous, but what really is PT students are clamoring for more such hands on experiences and
troubling her are the spiders on the ceiling of her hospital room. Kaney said plans are being made to expand use of the simulators
Something is decidedly wrong here, and it will be up to junior across the nursing curriculum.
St. Ambrose nursing students Brittani Felderman, Danika Sawyer and Nursing student Sawyer, who recently began working as a clinical
Thomas Koehler to read the signs and find the problem.
assistant in the emergency rooms at both Genesis Medical Center
The dizziness, nausea and, particularly, the creepy crawlers that Davenport campuses, said the realness of talking to the simulators
only a hallucinating Cherry Pepper can see are strong clues. The has helped her develop a better bedside manner.
insulin IV drip attached to her left arm completes the tale.
“Some people are kind of edgy when they don’t feel well,” she
The trio decides a blood sugar test is in order, discovers Mrs.
said. “So it really helps you develop your people skills, too.”
Pepper is hypoglycemic and, while Sawyer turns off the insulin drip, —Craig DeVrieze
Koehler phones the patient’s doctor for a prescription.
Watch a video of the “sims” lab at sau.edu/scene
Crisis averted. But here’s the real news: Although Cherry Pepper
isn’t a human being, she is much more authentic than those aforementioned
spiders.
Nursing, physical therapy and occupational therapy students in
SAU’s College of Health and Human Services are learning practical
lessons this year using six high fidelity simulators that are part
mannequin and part computer.
“These ‘sims’ can do anything,” Felderman said. “You can make
them do anything. You can make them say anything.”
“They can drop their blood pressure,” Koehler concurred. “They
can make them die, essentially. You have to be prepared for any
situation you could encounter in real life with these mannequins,
which is really what’s invaluable about them.”
In this setting, the “they” is Mary Lou Kaney, an assistant
professor and lab director in the nursing department. This simulation
exercise is one of countless practical nursing drills 300-level nursing
students will experience this year with the help of these high-tech
simulators. The six “sims” were purchased with grant money from
the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, the Riverboat Development
Authority and the Scott County Regional Authority.
With teaching staff cueing a computer, the high-tech mannequins
can talk, mimic different medical issues, change breathing patterns,
heart rates and blood pressures and respond to medications. They
can be catheterized, ventilated, intubated and made up to display a
variety of wounds. One bleeds. Another gives birth.
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Students Live Mark Brand’s Dream
For three years, Mark Brand, PhD, dreamed of leading a study
abroad trip to Israel. Four months after his tragic death, that
dream was realized by five students.
Brand, assistant professor of marketing studies, developed the
idea for a trip during a visit to his daughter and son-in-law in
Israel in 2009. That same year he learned of his cancer diagnosis.
“He came back with the idea of a trip that would focus on Israel’s
high-tech industry, challenging how students look at Israel by
studying something other than religion,” said Brand’s wife, Maxine.
The support of the Quad Cities Jewish community and the
Heeren Family Scholarship Fund for Israel Studies offset a
portion of student costs. Brand worked hard to iron out other
details. “As sick as he was, he traveled to Israel in 2010 to put the
initial pieces together,” said Maxine. “Maybe it was knowing
that he had a short time.”
In early January, the students and two faculty members
departed the Quad Cities for the two-week trip, which included
stops in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Tel Aviv and southern Israel. The
group visited sites of cultural and religious significance, plus several
colleges and universities. Interwoven was the study of business,
marketing and economics.
Raised on an Iowa farm, senior Joe Bailey focused his research
on high-tech agriculture. “Being in the desert, Israelis have
realized incredible advancements in irrigation,” he said. “I discovered
farmers turning irrigation systems on and off with cell
phones, as well as checking soil moisture and temperature that
way. It was amazing.”
Ian Ross ’10, a graduate student in accounting, was impressed
by a company that manufactured electric cars. “They created
and offered an entire infrastructure of support, such as battery
exchange and charging packages, akin to cell phone plans,” he
said.
Sophomore Kemper Rusteberg was fascinated by a visit to
Kafrit, a global plastics manufacturing company. It is owned by
a kibbutz, or communal settlement. “The kibbutz is the CEO,
very interesting from a managing perspective,” said Rusteberg.
Rusteberg said Brand’s dream will help shape his future.
“Dr. Brand would say that you’ve got to be able to ‘market’
yourself,” he said. “A trip like this really puts us in a place to do
so, very positively. I believe SAU’s Israel study abroad program
was his crowning achievement.”
—Jane Kettering
For more information about the Heeren scholarship or to donate to the fund,
contact Sally Crino in the St. Ambrose Advancement Office at 563/333-6080.
A Towering New Logo
A cross and spire have towered over the St. Ambrose campus since Ambrose Hall was dedicated in 1885,
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and it towers now next to the university’s name in the official St. Ambrose University logo introduced at
the start of the spring semester.
The spire was among several designs considered by President Joan Lescinski, CSJ, PhD, and the cabinet
to add visual emphasis to the former wordmark logo. The tower icon was well received in a survey seeking
input from the St. Ambrose community last year.
“The cross and spire speak to the enduring Catholic Intellectual tradition of St. Ambrose University, to
its diocesan heritage and to the spirituality that remains a central tenet of the St. Ambrose mission,” said
Sr. Lescinski. “It is a very appropriate addition.”
The president introduced the logo at a January gathering of faculty and staff. It will appear on future
campus communications and will be phased into publications, and print and television advertising.

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Theater Company Offers
Autistic Students a Chance to ‘Inter-Act’
Tucked into a corner, alone, a young girl spent two
months watching her fellow students play games,
stumble through tongue twisters and make faces. She
watched them get dressed up and recite lines. She
watched them work together. Then one day, “Julia”
walked over and joined the group.
Kim Furness ’96 says she was “blown away” when
that happened, but she has begun to expect extraordinary
things from these special students. They have
autism, a developmental disorder often characterized
by socially inappropriate behavior, communication
problems and withdrawal. Participating in an acting
class is probably the last thing most people would
expect of them.
Yet these students make believers of all who see
them. They first came together two years ago when a
Quad Cities speech pathologist contacted Furness—
owner of Curtainbox Theatre Company—about
starting a drama therapy class. The subject of several
ongoing research projects, drama therapy has been
hailed as potentially helpful in improving communication
and social skills for autistic students.
“These kids really connect with each other,”
Furness said. “The parents are like, ‘They’ve got
friends now!’ One parent said, ‘My son would never
initiate conversations with me, but he does now. His
confidence and comfort have improved so much.’”
Furness’ autism class is one of several acting classes
offered by her company. She said working with her
autistic students gives her a special sense of purpose
and joy. “This class helps a wonderful group of kids
feel like they fit in, sometimes for the first time in
their lives,” she said. “It’s really important.”
Furness caps the classes at eight
to ten students per term, and the
company has never made enough
money to pay Furness a salary. By the
middle of 2011, she wasn’t sure she
could continue the programs.
Then, luck struck. First, Furness
won $30,000 from an Iowa Lottery
scratch-off ticket. Next, she won a
$7,500 gift from Royal Neighbors of
America for writing an essay about
her company. Finally, she won a
chance to make commercials for
Denver Mattress Company by writing
an essay about how much she loved
her new mattress.
“The cash infusion has been wonderful,”
she said. “It will help keep the
company afloat for another year.”
For her autistic students and their
families, it’s a dream come true. “Our parents see
these kids as a blessing,” she said. “But you know
their hearts are breaking too. They want their kids to
feel like they belong. When you see a child like ‘Julia’
standing on stage, costumed, delivering her lines to
an audience, you see that dream is possible.”
—Susan Flansburg
For more information about Curtainbox Theatre Company, visit
sau.edu/scene
“This class helps a
wonderful group
of kids feel like they
fit in, sometimes
for the first time in
their lives.”
—KIM FURNESS ’96
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St. Ambrose Sets Pace with
Yellow Ribbon Program
There has been a yellow ribbon tied
around the old Ambrose Hall oaks,
figuratively at least, since 2009.
That’s when St. Ambrose became one of the first
schools in the United States to join the Yellow Ribbon
Program (YRP) offered to returning service men and
women in conjunction with the Department of Veterans
Affairs.
This effort, led by former Vice President for
Advancement, Ed Littig, PhD, and President Joan
Lescinski, CSJ, PhD, has placed St. Ambrose University
among institutions nationally recognized as “military
friendly.”
“It has been incredible, “ said John Fury, a former
United States Marine from Davenport. With a big
assist from the YRP, Fury is pursuing his bachelor’s
in accounting through the university’s adult learning
program at the 54th Street location in Davenport.
The Yellow Ribbon GI education program was a
provision in the Post-9/11 veterans educational act.
With in-kind subsidies from participating schools like
St. Ambrose, the program means some veterans of the
Iraq and Afghanistan wars won’t have to pay a dime outof-pocket
to obtain a degree.
“My dad is a Vietnam veteran and had the GI Bill,” Fury
said. “When I explained the benefits I receive through the
Yellow Ribbon Program, he was in awe.”
Since becoming an early YRP partner, St. Ambrose has
taught other colleges and universities in the region how
to participate, said Elizabeth Loveless ’96 MBA, director of
graduate admissions and services.
St. Ambrose agreed to grant as much as $5,000 toward
an undergraduate degree and $2,425 toward a graduate
degree for up to 250 eligible veterans. Among the
eligibility requirements, veterans must have
served 36 months or more since 9/11. The
VA matches each SAU grant. Additional VA
benefits cover the cost of books and provide
a monthly living stipend.
The program supplements the Post 9/11
GI Bill, enabling returning soldiers to take
advantage of a private liberal arts education.
Last year, 34 vets made use of the YRP at
St. Ambrose and the university has spent
$134,600 since the 2009–10 academic year
on matching YRP aid, said Julie Haack ’03
MBA, director of financial aid.
Fury said a classroom discussion about
financial aid with his fellow Ambrosians last
year left him feeling a bit sheepish, knowing
that most of them do not have the financial
benefits that come with military service.
But he didn’t get a whiff of resentment
from students and staff, who said they see
the YRP and GI Bill as a means to repay a
serious debt owed to Fury and all veterans.
Fury is grateful in return.
“I volunteered to go over there,” he said. “I
just felt like service was something I needed
to do, especially in a time of war. To come
back and have somebody say ‘Well, because
you sacrificed for us, we’ll help you meet
your goals,’ that means a lot.”
—Craig DeVrieze
Learn more about veterans services at
St. Ambrose at sau.edu/scene.
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From ‘Hurt Locker’ to ‘Back to School’
If you’ve seen the Oscar-winning movie “The Hurt Locker,” you have
some idea of what John Fury experienced during a six-month tour as
an explosive ordinance disposal technician in Iraq.
Now an SAU student and a Davenport police officer, Fury said the
movie had its share of Hollywood flourishes, but did effectively convey
the edge-of-your-seat nature of his work in Iraq.
“The intensity, I would say that part was accurate. There are no
uniforms (for insurgents) over there. You really are guessing who is
going to come at you next,” he said
A Marine from 2001 through 2009, Fury said he and a teammate
“rendered safe” more than 150 bombs and IEDs during a particularly
intense time for troops in Iraq from October 2006 to March 2007.
He suffered a traumatic brain injury just 10 days before returning
home when the vehicle in which he and three fellow troops were
riding was completely destroyed by 1,000 pounds of explosives
hidden in a culvert running under a road. All four were knocked
unconscious, but their lives were spared because they were in a joint
response vehicle equipped with 32,000 pounds of armor. “Basically a
bank truck on steroids,” Fury said.
Fury spent the final three years of his military career stateside,
and during that time he resumed a college education he’d abandoned
to join the Marines, taking classes through the American
Military University online program.
He returned to Davenport as a civilian in 2010, then enrolled
in the SAU adult learner program. While working fulltime as a
Davenport police officer, Fury intends to obtain his bachelor’s in
accounting and then pursue a master’s. He said he will continue his
police career, where he believes an SAU education is sure to serve
him well.
—Craig DeVrieze
Former Marine, SAU Grad Fills
New Vets Position
Over the first of his two tours of duty in Iraq, former
Marine Sgt. Andrew Gates used a shovel and cement
truck to keep crucial supply routes open to frontline US
operating bases.
Gates will have more tools
at his disposal as St. Ambrose’s
first coordinator of veterans
recruitment and services. But he
believes paving a path to available
education benefits is no less
of a service to his former comrades
in arms.
“I really don’t see myself as a
recruiter,” said Gates, a 32-yearold
Iowa native who received his
SAU bachelor’s degree in journalism
at winter commencement ceremonies in December.
“I’m here to facilitate the experience and to make it as
convenient as possible for them to get their education.
“Recruiting is going to be a big part of my job. But I
am not just trying to sell something here. I have been
through the St. Ambrose experience. It worked for me. It
can work for others.”
Gates used the GI Bill and the Yellow Ribbon Program
to earn his SAU degree, and he wants to be sure other
veterans maximize their opportunities.
“No matter what benefits you have,” he said, “I need
to get you in a classroom.”
The creation of the position and the purposeful hiring
of a war-tested veteran should strengthen SAU’s reputation
among veterans groups. That was a goal from the
outset. But John Cooper, SAU’s vice president for enrollment
management, said the school succeeded not only
in hiring a veteran. It hired the right one.
“Andrew graduated on Saturday and we hired him
that following Monday,” Cooper said. “That’s how
impressed we were with what he brings to our effort to
better serve veterans at St. Ambrose.’’
—Craig DeVrieze
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Who is SAU?
Pam Fox is.
When students enter Cosgrove cafeteria,
chances are good that Pam Fox may be the
one sitting on the swivel stool, ready to
scan their meal cards. Pam can personally
greet about half these students (that’s a
whopping 400 to 500 names). With her
infectious laugh and big heart, Pam is a
cafeteria fixture.
‘Pamcakes’ short takes:
> She first worked in the cafeteria at the
age of 15.
> Her father ran breakfast and lunch
service in the ’60s and ’70s with
only one helper.
> She used to watch Rev. Edward Catich ’34
practice calligraphy while he waited for
his meals.
> She left and then returned to St. Ambrose in 2003 and
now feels like a “second mom” to students who linger
at her station.
> Pam loves to bring in old yearbooks to show studentathletes
pictures of their coaches as students, especially
when it involves 70s-era short shorts.
> She has several nicknames given by students:
“Pamcakes,” compliments of basketball player
Michael Kennedy, and “Pam-a-lam-a-ding-dong,”
which she hears several times over each day.
> She attends as many ballgames, plays and commencements
as possible. “You get close to the kids.”
> Why food service? “Everybody’s got to eat,” says Pam.
And then she laughs.
For more about Pam Fox, go to www.sau.edu/scene.
—Jane Kettering
Head basketball coach Ray
Shovlain ’79, ’82 MBA thought his
Fighting Bees played with a little
more pep this year, thanks to the
brassy encouragement from SAU’s
new pep band. The 14-student
group, part of a new ensemble class
offered by the music department
and led by adjunct percussion
instructor Brian Zeglis, played at
men’s and women’s home games.
SAU Pep Band
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4
stories
PROFESSORS
[142 years]
Thousands of Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
by Craig DeVrieze
original paintings by Leslie Bell ’72
Additional Faculty
Retirements
Brenda DuBois, PhD
professor of social work,
at SAU since 1997
Ragene Gwin, EdD
professor of kinesiology,
since 1990
Dolores Hilden, PhD
professor and chair of
nursing, since 1999
Craig Shoemaker, PhD
professor of marketing
studies, since 1992
Judith White, EdD
professor and director of
education, since 2007
They found a small Catholic college in a modest Midwest community, both so warm and
welcoming they couldn’t help but feel at home.
“It was a nice little campus,” Rich Legg, PhD, remembered of his initial impression of the
St. Ambrose he discovered on arrival in 1978. “It looked like an interesting place to be.”
St. Ambrose College was that in the 1970s. And St. Ambrose University still is that
today, as biology professor Legg, art professor Leslie Bell ’72, MFA, music professor Joan
Trapp, DMA, and philosophy professor Paul Jacobson, PhD, all look toward their May
retirements.
Both in terms of the physical plant and enrollment, St. Ambrose nearly has tripled in
size since each joined the teaching staff in the bell-bottomed 1970s. It has not grown so
big, however, that one man or woman cannot make their mark, or so vast that his or her
departure won’t leave a void.
Trapp will retire after 38 years of advancing the St. Ambrose mission, Bell after 37,
Jacobson after 34 and Legg after 33. Each will leave a lasting legacy and Jacobson said the
unique beauty of St. Ambrose is the opportunity to do just that.
“The thing I always liked about St. Ambrose was that it was small enough that
individuals could make a difference,” Jacobson said. “I think that is still true today.”
Legg, likewise, applauded the freedom that a sense of St. Ambrose community has
afforded faculty to do what they do best. And, though some of the school’s early intimacy
has been lost to expansion, Legg said the school’s growth and progress are laudable, too.
“I like to think of it as a mini-multiversity, with all kinds of different programs serving
many constituencies,” he said.
Trapp was one of six female faculty members campus-wide when she joined the music
department, and she said she is pleased to have watched St. Ambrose grow more diverse
among both faculty and students and more global in its outlook.
“It is so dynamic and alive, and they have the global perspective of a small world,” she
said. “And yet we still have to give a lot of encouragement to students to experience that
bigger world. It’s easy to be isolated in Davenport and in Iowa and the Midwest. The
increase in international studies, students going abroad, going different places to learn
and serve, that has been a really important growth aspect.”
Bell agreed. “The school has grown bigger,’’ he said, “but it has also grown much more
complicated and much more representative of what the world looks like and how the
world thinks.”
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“I think it is wonderful to not just teach students
exactly what they want to learn to get a job.
Give them a lifetime of inquiry, of
self-improvement, of commitment to society.”
Leslie Bell
Caring for a ‘very caring place’
A silent, contemplative walk through
the snow with 150 fellow Ambrosians was
a perfect beginning to the final semester of
Leslie Bell’s fulltime career at St. Ambrose.
“It was pretty powerful,” Bell ’72
said of a Jan. 17 march from campus
to Davenport’s Hilltop District to help
launch Civil Rights Week on campus.
“Not a peep was said. Just thinking about
Martin Luther King, thinking about the
civil rights movement and the ongoingness
of it. I think that’s what St. Ambrose does.
It is a very caring place.”
It is a place Bell has cared for since
he arrived in 1965, a budding artist
eager to learn under legendary professor
Rev. Edward Catich.
Bell didn’t know quite how much he
cared for St. Ambrose, however, until
Fr. Catich, his once and future mentor,
helped show him the way off campus
when Bell failed to take his studies quite
seriously enough in 1969.
“I was in a band and I was dating my
future first wife and … Well, I’ll leave the
rest unsaid. It was the 1960s after all,” said
Bell, who took his future wife and his guitar
to a commune in Grand Mound, Iowa.
In time, Bell realized St. Ambrose was
the community to which he really belonged. He came back for his
degree and happily joined the faculty in 1974 after obtaining his
Master of Fine Arts from Northern Illinois University.
“It was comforting to be on a campus where social justice,
ethics and morality were part of the daily dialogue,” said Bell, who
is pleased to note those values remain at the heart of a St. Ambrose
education.
“It has grown a lot,” he said of the university, “but it has
grown in rings around the liberally educated central core. I think
it is wonderful to not just teach students exactly what they want
to learn to get a job. Give them a lifetime of inquiry, of selfimprovement,
of commitment to society.”
About that ponytail …
Bell came to St. Ambrose in the 1960s and, essentially, never left.
Not St. Ambrose. Nor, at least in spirit, the ’60s .
Bell, who will remain at SAU as an adjunct prof, has grown into
an iconic faculty member while also carving a role as a campus
iconoclast. More easily done in academia, he agreed of the latter,
but: “The freedom you have at a university is the freedom you
claim for yourself. It is encouraged, but you need the courage to be
encouraged.”
If that is a ’60s sensibility, then Bell’s signature ponytail is symbolic
of same. But he stressed, “That’s not a style or an affectation.
It’s really a life goal to be yourself.”
It’s a life lesson he and the art department have stressed for
students, as well. “We want them to be self-aware,” he said. “It
has kept me excited for 37 years.”
10

Reading Really is Fundamental
Books fill every nook and more than a
few crannies of Paul Jacobson’s Ambrose
Hall office. Although he will confess to
being a fanatical supporter of order, the
longtime St. Ambrose philosophy professor
finds comfort amid the stacks.
The idea of tidily transferring his collection
of books to an e-reader he could hold
in one hand? That’s a concept more foreign
than the tranquil Quad Cities once seemed
to a New Jersey kid who grew up across the
bay from bustling Manhattan.
Jacobson’s passion for the printed page
is a philosophy he has been sharing with his
St. Ambrose students since he arrived on
campus in 1977. And it’s one he will continue
to espouse until his last class closes its
books in mid-May.
“Maybe people will be glad I’m gone
because this approach seems so outmoded
to many students,” he said. “But I tend to
use the Xerox machine a lot because I want to get words into the
students’ hands and I want them to read things carefully.”
Reading drew Jacobson to teaching and philosophy.
“Reading really changed my life,” he said. “And I don’t mean
deciphering letters. I mean learning how to milk a text. I mean to
really take it apart. Some of the works of Plato I have read many,
many times and I am still finding things I didn’t see before. And I
try to communicate that excitement of discovering meaning to my
classes.”
As both the world and the word grow more digital, Jacobson fears
texting and tweeting are being confused for reading and writing.
“What are you capable of expressing in 140 characters?” he asked.
“The shortest Platonic dialog is 17 pages of text.”
Jacobson conceded the immediate availability of information
today is an educational gold mine.
“The challenge,” he said, “is to help people—not just students,
faculty as well—mine all that information. They have to be
challenged to read important things and to read them closely and
carefully.”
About those jackets …
The short answer? Pockets.
“I smoked for a long time,” Jacobson said of the cotton,
multi-pocketed, safari-style coats he has sported almost daily
through his 34-year St. Ambrose career. “I always had my
cigarettes one place. I’ve got a calendar here. I’ve got my coffee
card up here. Single dollar bill down here. Nail clipper. Key fob.
Banjo picks. I’m organized in a world that seems to resist my
best efforts.”
So no deeper, philosophical explanation for owning a dozen
or more such jackets? Well, he confessed, “It’s not quite an
academic gown, but it is a uniform.”
Paul Jacobson
“I am still finding things I didn’t see before. And I try to
communicate that excitement of discovering meaning to my classes.”
11

Tech Revolution?
Nope, Evolution
Rich Legg watches the parade of thumbs
dancing across smartphone keyboards as
students exit his biology classes and he
wonders if they might better be served by a
few minutes alone with their thoughts.
The rapid march of technology dramatically
has changed the world and the
world of education since Legg came to
St. Ambrose in 1978. On the other hand,
Legg would argue, not much has changed
at all.
“Students really haven’t changed,”
he said. “They’re 20 years old. They’re
narcissistic sons-of-guns. It’s their job.”
That, of course, is a taste of the sardonic
wit for which Legg will be remembered
when he retires from teaching in May. In a
more serious vein, his intellectual training
tells him that what seems like a technological revolution really is
just the earth spinning on its axis.
“I’m an evolutionary biologist,” he said. “Thirty years is nothing,
for gosh sakes.’’
Between Legg’s birth in New York City in 1950 and his arrival
at St. Ambrose, the television transformed society, too, he noted.
Before that, the telephone, the automobile and the airplane
changed the world as well.
“The automobile basically shaped the planet the last century,”
Legg said.
He did concede that “nothing impacted education, short of the
printing press, more than the computer. You have instant access to
so many ideas you would never even have encountered before.”
He said he wishes students did not come to his classroom as jobfocused
as they now seem. Yet, on the whole, Legg insisted, “I still
see our students as largely having the same quality. They read and
write about as well as students I had 30 years ago. I don’t know
about penmanship, because you don’t see it.”
But, oh my, can those thumbs dance.
About those bows …
There is a simpler explanation than you might imagine to those
bow ties the lanky Professor Legg has made his signature during
his 30 years at SAU.
Traditional, overhanging ties were a bit of a problem when the
biologist put an eye to a microscope. But that’s not to say Legg
isn’t also a bit of a non-conformist. He donned his first bow to
deliver his master’s oral summation. “Along with cardinal red
pants with big billowing sheep on them,” he said. “I guess it was
some kind of a statement.”
So’s the bow. Legg owns 50 of them: “One for every class in a
semester,” he said. And nope. No clip-ons. He ties his bows. “Just
like putting a shoe on your neck,” he explained.
Rich Legg
“I’m an evolutionary biologist. Thirty years is nothing.”
12

“Now we know that there are
other types of music that are worthy of
our study and respect. I really like where
music has gotten to in my lifetime.”
Joan Trapp
Trapp Rhymes with Rap
For the record, Joan Trapp does not
own an MP3 player.
But among a case of CDs she packed
for a recent drive to visit her mother in
Indianapolis, the Jay-Z/Kanye West collaboration
“Watch the Throne” got the
heaviest play.
That’s right. Joan Trapp—small-town
Iowan, accomplished classical pianist,
doctor of musical arts—has gone hip-hop.
Just a little, anyway.
“It’s a fabulous album, very artful, “ she
said of a CD she was vetting for discussion
in music appreciation classes in her final
semester at St. Ambrose. “ I was really
amazed how much I did like it. It became
not just a listening exercise for class.“
After 38 years in the St. Ambrose music
department, Trapp’s appreciation for
music has not waned and the advent of
new technology only has created more
avenues to appreciate wider ranges and
different genres.
“I don’t see a downside,” said Trapp,
who noted doors to new music have
been opened by radio options like Sirius
and internet sites such as Pandora and
YouTube.
Surprisingly, much like the students she remembers from when
she arrived here in 1973, modern collegians remain a bit narrow
in their tastes. Trapp said she challenges them to open their minds
and ears.
“To me, the risk of taking on new and different music is something
that I enjoy,” she said. “So you don’t like it? OK. Don’t go
back there. But there is so much that is worth trying.”
Trapp’s central interest is classical music. Yet, even there, easier
access has helped push boundaries beyond the proverbial “Dead
White Men,” she said.
“Those are still wonderful composers,” she said. “But now we
know that there are other types of music that are worthy of our
study and respect. I really like where music has gotten to in my
lifetime.”
About that piano …
More than 50 years at her craft doesn’t afford a pianist the
luxury of not practicing.
“A lot of my own self-respect is tied up in getting to the piano
every day,” said Trapp. “So, of course, I feel horrible on days that
I don’t. If I can get in three hours a day, I feel pretty good.”
There are days, though, when she can squeeze in only an hour
or two at best. So (current students, please stop reading) what
gives then?
“I should practice scales and arpeggios and such,” she said,
before sheepishly confessing: “I don’t always.”
13

St. Ambrose will be recognized as a leading
Midwestern university rooted in its diocesan
heritage and Catholic Intellectual Tradition.
Ambrosians are committed to academic excellence,
the liberal arts, social justice and service.
This is the fourth issue of Scene in which we continue to
“unpack” our university’s vision statement to explore the
meaning and significance of each of its elements, so that
we may understand this vision more wholly, and thus use
it more purposefully to guide us in planning for the future.
14

Diocesan Heritage
by Ted Stephens III ’01, ’04
From humble beginnings as an academy
created by the first bishop of Davenport,
St. Ambrose has always welcomed
students of all religious faiths, all
ethnic backgrounds and all economic
circumstances.
Fully 130 years after Bishop John
McMullen’s dream began with a first
class of 33 students, St. Ambrose holds
firm to its distinction as a diocesan university
built upon a foundation of faith,
learning and justice. Our institutional
identity is so deeply informed by our
diocesan heritage and mission of enriching
lives, you can see it in the actions of
our students, faculty, staff and alumni.
But how does a Catholic, diocesan
university like St. Ambrose—now one
of only 11 in the country—maintain our
diocesan character? How do we grow it?
Perhaps we should look no further
than the new center for the study of Saint
Ambrose of Milan. It is an initiative that
at its core best represents the Catholic
Intellectual Tradition that is alive and
flourishing at St. Ambrose today. It is a
perfect example of professors and students,
alumni and scholars, Catholics
and non-Catholics, asking a full range of
questions, driven by a passionate commitment
to pursue the true definition of what
it is to be Ambrosian. Together, they are
powerfully uncovering a way to live for
the betterment of others.
Consider the life of Saint Ambrose of
Milan: Know him and you will find a
man at the very heart of our mission—a
person who wrestled with intellectual,
spiritual, ethical and social issues while
also addressing artistic and physical
aspects of life. He was an active leader,
dedicated to Milan and to his regional
diocese, and a driving force behind imperial
events. He was, as Rev. Robert “Bud”
Grant, PhD, will tell you, both Roman
and Catholic.
“As a diocesan university,” Fr. Grant
wrote recently, “St. Ambrose offers a
unique charism that distinguishes us from
secular, non-Catholic and Catholic colleges
administered by a religious order
today.”
That is the gift of connectedness to our
patron saint, a man who simply wanted
the best for the people around him. To
celebrate his legacy is to live life as both
a person of the world and a person of the
Church. Saint Ambrose showed us that it
is essential for our faith to influence our
work, our service, our politics and our
social relationships. It is something not
just reserved for Sunday mornings, or
whenever it is convenient. Rather, it must
be something that changes the way we do
everything in our lives, everyday.
In other words, it defines our heritage.
15

In his mind, it was like a scene out of a movie: A Roman Catholic priest from the Midwest
moves swiftly through the Porta Sant’ Anna, past the Gardes Suisses standing watch over the
Santa Sede—The Holy See—and into the maze of passageways that make up the Il Vaticano.
He passes by Michelangelo’s Cappella Sistina, Raphael’s Stanze della Segnatura. There’s a sense of
urgency in his step. His heart is beating a mile a minute. If there were a soundtrack in the background,
the beats would be low and ominous and on the verge of building into a lush crescendo.
But then, silence.
He’s arrived at security. He checks in, handing over his passport (it is another country, after all).
And in the best Italian this Midwestern American can muster, he says,
“Ho un appuntamento con Monsignore Cesare Pasini.”
Into the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana he goes: marble hallways where saints once walked have led
him to a surprisingly stark, clinical, modern-looking elevator illuminated with fluorescent lighting. He
presses the “up” button, steps in, takes a deep breath and thinks: “People don’t get to do this everyday.”
Intimidation has set in. The elevator rises. The bell dings. The doors split open.
Centering Ambrogio
Bringing our namesake home
Months earlier, Rev. Robert “Bud” Grant, PhD,
had been scouring bookstore shelves in Milan
when he came across “Ambrogio di Milano:
Azione e Pensiero di un Vescova,” a book he
now recognizes as the best biography of Saint
Ambrose available anywhere.
“I have to meet this guy,” he had thought as
he purchased Monsignor Cesare Pasini’s book
and scurried out the door in search of a street
he had yet to walk down or a church door he
had yet to walk through. Either was certain to
reveal something new about ancient Milan or
the man who had fascinated Fr. Grant since he
was a freshman student on the college campus
that bears the Ambrose name.
Now, Fr. Grant ’80 sat across from Msgr.
Pasini in his sprawling office adjacent to the
larger-than-life reading room of the biblioteca,
the solid, hardwood desks overpowered only
by a ceiling full of Pinturicchio frescoes. He
wasn’t sure why Msgr. Pasini, the prefect of
the biblioteca, agreed to meet with him, but he
was glad that he had.
“I explained right away that I was a professor and
priest at St. Ambrose University—the only university
named after Saint Ambrose of Milan,” he recalled.
“This delighted the Monsignore to no end. He just
started giving me books about Ambrose, and a list of
people I needed to get to know.”
Their conversation—all in Italian—turned scholarly,
and on more than one occasion Msgr. Pasini
flashed a curious smile, signaling that there was
more to be discovered about Ambrose, the man the
Monsignore had dedicated a lifetime to researching.
At one point during their discussion Fr. Grant
asked whether Msgr. Pasini thought Ambrose had
exercised any influence on Augustine, who framed the
concepts of original sin. Msgr. Pasini leaned forward,
conspiratorially tapped Fr. Grant on the arm and
said, “Not so much his theology—more’s the pity.”
“I think he was implying things would have turned
out very differently for the Church if Augustine
would have listened to Ambrose,” Fr. Grant said.
“You see, this whole business of human nature being
disastrously flawed, that we are only capable of
sinning, Ambrose didn’t believe that. He thought it
was rubbish. Rather, he believed people should pick
themselves up by their bootstraps and do what needs
to be done. He believed Christians could do great
things and sent people out to do them.
16

y Ted Stephens III ’01, ’04
“If Augustine had inherited some of that confidence
in human nature, we might not have this strain of
pessimism that we have in Christianity today. This
lack of confidence in our human being.”
During this first meeting, Fr. Grant suggested
that Msgr. Pasini’s book needed to be translated to
English. At that point, the only English-language
book on Ambrose had been written by Neil McLynn.
When Fr. Grant asked what Italian scholars thought
of McLynn’s book, which he described as essentially
a character assassination on Ambrose, Msgr. Pasini
smiled charitably. “You’ll notice he hasn’t written on
the subject since,” he replied.
With that, the two men bid farewell. As they did,
Msgr. Pasini pulled an article he had written from his
satchel—an introduction to Saint Ambrose of Milan,
written in his native Italian. He gave it to Fr. Grant. “I
had been given a test. He wanted me to translate it.”
17

A Vision is Born
A year earlier on his farm near Stockton, Iowa,
Fr. Grant awoke one morning and thought: “We are
the only St. Ambrose University in the world. Saint
Ambrose is the most neglected father of the Church.
He is the least translated, the least represented in
art, the least recognized. If you ask people who the
fathers of the Church are, he is consistently eclipsed
by Augustine.
“Why,” Fr. Grant wondered of the university
whose theology department he joined in 1994, “aren’t
we committing our work, our lives, to this man?”
That morning, he took the idea of a center, a
physical home for the study and scholarship of
Saint Ambrose of Milan, to Aron Aji, PhD, dean of
St. Ambrose’s College of Arts and Sciences.
“Why didn’t we do this a hundred
years ago?” Aji asked him.
The vision had been born: To
build a true home. To form a
place—the place—in the Englishspeaking
world where students
and scholars and religious men and
women would gather to collaborate,
share and learn about a man who
became a bishop under the most
extraordinary of circumstances.
Two years later, the vision is
closer to reality.
“As we mold this center,”
Fr. Grant said, “St. Ambrose
University will be the source of
Ambrose scholarship in the liberal
arts. It will be a focus for our identity as a diocesan
university in the Catholic intellectual tradition. And
it will be an investment in our commitment to being
a leading Midwestern university, to defining what it
truly means to be Ambrosian.”
Young Alumni Make Commitment
to Ambrose Center
Lauren Bryner ’13 had
never felt prouder to be a St. Ambrose University student than
the moment she walked through the doors of the Basilica Sant’
Ambrogio in Milan this winter.
“Standing in the center of that church and knowing the patron
saint of my school designed and built it, and then walking down
into the crypt and seeing his body, it finally made me stand
behind my decision to attend St. Ambrose 100 percent,” she
acknowledged.
It’s that type of student experience that has propelled five
St. Ambrose graduates to support the center for the study of
Saint Ambrose of Milan with pledges of more than $40,000
toward an endowment goal of $250,000. The group—which
includes Dorothy Anello ’02, Deanna Bott ’01, Matthew
Ehlman ’02, Ted Stephens iii ’01, ’04 and Karen (Clark)
Brenot ’01, DO, and her husband Matthew—hopes that Bryner’s
experience will be just one of thousands such revelations for
Ambrosians everywhere as they gain a more intimate relationship
with the university’s namesake.
“If you graduate from St. Ambrose and don’t have a sense of
who Ambrose really was, you miss out on a critical component
of your educational experience,” explained Anello, a teacher
in Des Moines, Iowa. “By supporting this center both through
active involvement and our financial commitment, we know the
spirit of Ambrose will be there. It will live there.”
Bryner couldn’t agree more. “I came to St. Ambrose from
Indiana on a whim,” she said. “At the time I had no idea it was
the only St. Ambrose University in the world, but now I care so
much about this place because I understand what he stood for
and how Ambrose the man shows us what it really means to be
an Ambrosian.”
The donations from the group of alumni will go toward
funding scholarly research, lectures and a yearly symposium, as
well as providing a scholarship for deserving students like Bryner
to travel on the yearly winter interim trip to Italy.
Learn how you can support the center for the study of Saint Ambrose of Milan
at sau.edu/scene.
18

“St. Ambrose University will be the source of
Ambrose scholarship in the liberal arts… And it will be
an investment in our commitment to being a leading
Midwestern university, to defining what it truly means
to be Ambrosian.” —Rev. Bud Grant ’80
Duomo facade, Milan, Italy
His da Vinci moment
At first, Fr. Grant wanted to name the center “The
Ambrose Academy” in homage not only to the man,
but also to the founding of the university in 1882.
But a quick Google search to see if that name had
been claimed yielded an unexpected result: a Classe
Ambrosiana at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan.
The classe was led by don Francesco Braschi.
“Naturally, I tracked him down. I had to,” Fr. Grant
quipped. “Braschi was a pleasant guy about my
height, with a long beard that falls halfway down his
body. He’s quirky. And brilliant. We talked about
projects we could collaborate on, and our unified mission
of bringing the world to a greater understanding
of who Ambrose was. And how relevant he can be to
our life today.”
As their first meeting came to a close, Braschi put
on a pair of surgical gloves, removed a key that was
dangling on a string from his waist, and walked to
one of the stale-looking, locked cases that dotted
the entire perimeter of the room. He pulled out a
cardboard portfolio of drawings from Leonardo da
Vinci—drawings that had never been seen in public.
Braschi asked Fr. Grant if he could help preserve
them.
“Of course I said ‘Yes,’” Fr. Grant said with a
laugh, knowing full well that he neither had the
power to make such a decision, nor the resources
to meet the challenge. Faculty members in the
St. Ambrose art department later told him,
half-jokingly, that he was out of his mind.
“This is something I’m told frequently,”
Fr. Grant said.
Yet, his dream was anything but crazy. It
turned into something that could actually
happen with the signing of a Memorandum
of Understanding between SAU and the
Biblioteca Ambrosiana in May 2010, the
only such agreement ever made by the
Milan institution with another organization.
The partnership with “the greatest place on the
planet for fourth century research” not only gave
international credibility to SAU’s future center, but
it also meant the university could send students and
professors to Italy for scholarship and the biblioteca
can send their people to Davenport.
“Our library has agreed to help them with the
digitization of their archives, and myself and others
will continue to write for the ‘Studia Ambrosiana,’”
Fr. Grant said.
Although the SAU center for the study of
Saint Ambrose of Milan will not officially be dedicated
until it is fully funded, much already has been
accomplished toward achieving Fr. Grant’s dream:
> Marsha Colish, PhD, from Yale University gave the
keynote address at a symposium on Saint Ambrose
last fall, where she was joined by five faculty
members addressing how Ambrose influenced their
academic discipline.
> A theology course on Saint Ambrose of Milan
has been offered for the third year in a row, with
the best undergraduate work being posted to the
center’s new website.
> Three articles have been published in the Studia
Ambrosiana by St. Ambrose faculty.
> Fr. Grant recently completed a “fifth and nearly final”
English translation of Msgr. Pasini’s book, which
includes information about St. Ambrose University in
the forward. It will be published this year.
19

20
> St. Ambrose will host an April 4 symposium on
cultural tradition and religious innovation of
Saint Ambrose of Milan. The keynote address
by author Cristina Sogno, PhD, will focus on
Ambrose of Milan’s role in a pivotal moment in the
transformation of Roman culture.
> The center has a physical presence on campus in the
Ambrose Room on the third floor of the library.
> Finally and most notably, the center also has a
director, Ethan Gannaway, PhD, who was hired as
executive coordinator in the fall and will continue to
teach history.
“Ethan is a legit scholar. I am not,” Fr. Grant said.
“If this center is going to succeed, it will be because of
people like him. He is passionate, a fantastic teacher,
a great writer, and he loves the century in which
Ambrose lived.”
Font of learning
Over the next few years, the center will become
the premier place for research and study of Saint
Ambrose in the English-speaking world. It will do so
through publications and translations, lectures and
study abroad trips, symposiums and scholarships, and
internships both in the United States and abroad in
collaboration with the Academia Ambrosiana.
The SAU center’s motto, fons luminus (font of
learning) means it was founded to assist a global
community of scholars who will contribute their
insights to enriching
Basillica of Saint Ambrose in Milan, Italy
the Catholic
church and today’s
increasingly
interconnected
world. That is
already happening
with and for
St. Ambrose students.
James
Hendricks ’14 just
returned from
the annual winter
interim trip to Italy
with Fr. Grant and Gannaway. The sophomore is
so committed to the center and its mission that he is
taking extra courses now so that he can devote his last
semester of college to working for the center.
“Even if I don’t get any academic credit for it, the
knowledge and the experience I’ve gained already
from those two guys. I feel obligated to help,” he said.
“Walking into the Basilica Sant’ Ambrogio in
Milan for the first time, it was just this simple space,”
he said. “We walked around the altar to where Saint
Ambrose rests in this glass coffin. To literally see him
was to have a real connection with him. There he
was, lying in front of me, and in some way, was still
showing how we can all lead by his example. The
truth is that we—as members of this Ambrose community—have
a bond with this man that no one else
will ever have. No one can identify with him the way
that we can.”
The experience echoes one that Fr. Grant had with
a group of St. Ambrose students 12 years earlier in a
small classroom in central India.
“We were at this school, talking with the students,
the teacher translating what we were saying. We
would say five words, and then he would go on for
five minutes. And at some point, he slipped into
English,” Fr. Grant recalled.
“Be proud of India! Be proud of India!” the teacher
said.
“I want that. I want Ambrosians to be proud of
Saint Ambrose,” Fr. Grant declared. “To know that
we have this connection with this man. And we have
an opportunity—even a responsibility—to celebrate
his legacy by modeling his life in ours.”
For more information on the center for the study of Saint
Ambrose of Milan, visit sau.edu/scene

Queen Bee Pedigree:
You Could Fill a Final Four
from SAU’s Cradle of Coaches
by Craig DeVrieze
Lisa Bluder
Head Coach, University of Iowa 2000–present
Head Coach, St. Ambrose University 1984–90
21

If St. Ambrose
is a cradle of Division I
women’s basketball coaches, then
Jim Fox—the curmudgeonly former Quad Cities prep
football coaching legend who directed St. Ambrose
athletics from 1984 through 1994—would be the hand
that rocked the cradle.
Reluctantly, perhaps, at first.
“I know when I first got there, he probably hadn’t
been to many basketball games in his life—he wasn’t
a fan,” said Lisa Bluder, the current University of Iowa
women’s head coach who may have been the cagiest of
Fox’s SAU hires. “By the time we left, he was a huge fan
of women’s basketball. He saw the value and supported
it greatly at that point.”
Before he died in 2006, Fox remembered he was on
the verge of hiring another candidate when an application
from Bluder—then 21, newly married and straightout-of-the
University of Northern Iowa—crossed his
desk in the summer of 1984.
On a hunch, Fox and then vice president of administration
and future university president Edward Rogalski,
PhD, opted to hand the energetic rookie the keys to the
St. Ambrose program.
“It was a stroke of good fortune, but we did see something
in her that was extraordinary,” Rogalski said. “We
saw that and took the chance.”
With that, this cradle of coaches was off and rocking.
Robin Becker Pingeton ’90
Head Coach, University of Missouri 2010–present
Head Coach, St. Ambrose University 1992–2000
22

Bluder begat Robin Becker Pingeton ’90, who begat
Tasha McDowell ’98.
When the 2011–12 season began, they collectively
helmed three of the 338 Division I women’s basketball
programs around the country: Bluder at Big Ten Iowa,
Pingeton at Big 12 Missouri and McDowell at Western
Michigan of the Mid-American Conference.
Add Iowa State’s Bill Fennelly, a Davenport native
who assisted St. Ambrose women’s coach Bob Duax as
a college freshman in 1976, and you could have fielded a
Final Four filled with big-time coaches with a Queen Bee
pedigree.
“It’s kind of cool to think about it that way,” Bluder
said. “There has been a good group that has gone
through there, that’s for sure.”
If the SAU coaching pipeline isn’t quite unprecedented
among small college programs, it is exceedingly rare.
Bluder can recall only one comparable situation, but
it is a doozy. Immaculata University in Pennsylvania has
ties to three coaches who advanced to Division I Final
Fours.
“That’s pretty impressive,” Bluder said.
St. Ambrose needn’t apologize.
Bluder won better than 82 percent of her games over
a 6-year span at the Queen Bees helm, and in 2010
became just the 34th coach in NCAA women’s basketball
history to win 500 games. She opened this season
with a 567-241 career record and ranked second in alltime
wins at Iowa with 211. Her Iowa teams advanced
to the NCAA Tournament in eight of her first 11 seasons
and she took Drake to a pair before that.
Pingeton poured in a still-SAU-record 2,502 points
under Bluder’s direction from 1986–90, and then, upon
graduation, followed her coach to Drake for two seasons
as an assistant coach. She returned to St. Ambrose to
helm her own program from 1992 through 2000, eclipsing
Bluder’s school record of 165 wins with 192 of her
own. She led the Queen Bees to the national tournament
five times.
For the Record
COACH RECORD NCAA BERTHS
Lisa Bluder 567-241 10
Bill Fennelly 520-213 10
Robin Becker Pingeton 351-175 2
Tasha McDowell 25-65 0
TOTALS 1463-692 22
(Numbers through 2010–11 season)
Next? The current quartet might not be the last
Queen Bee products to grace a Division I bench.
Future candidates include:
Jenny (DeSmet) Putnam ’91 – The Rock Island Alleman
graduate has been a Pingeton assistant since 2003
and a coach for over a decade. Currently, the wife and
mother of three said she is content at Missouri. “It’s
a great situation so there is just no reason to leave,”
she said.
Jennifer Goetz ’07 – A three-time St. Ambrose All-
American as a player, Goetz spent three seasons as
an SAU assistant, then led Davenport Assumption to
an Iowa state high school title in her head coaching
debut last year. Currently is head coach at Pleasant
Valley (Iowa) High School.
Krista Van Hauen – Current Queen Bees head coach
brought three years of experience as a Division
I assistant, one at Bradley and two at Northern
Colorado, to St. Ambrose. Last year’s 29-5 record was
the best debut by any of SAU’s 10 women’s coaches.
23

Bill Fennelly
Head Coach, Iowa State University 1995–present
Assistant Coach, St. Ambrose University 1976
After three seasons as a Fennelly assistant at Iowa
State, Pingeton became head coach at Illinois State.
There, her teams won three conference championships
and advanced to a pair of NCAA tourneys from 2003–10.
She is in her second season of rebuilding at Missouri and
opened the season with a 351-175 career record.
McDowell, a Rock Island native, played a lone SAU
season under Pingeton in 1995–96, leading a 27-7 team
in scoring, assists and steals. She launched her coaching
career as an SAU student assistant the following year
and then spent 11 years as an assistant at some of the
top Division I programs in the country before becoming
head coach at Western Michigan in 2008. She was let go
in March after failing to turn around the WMU program.
Fennelly also is a 500-game winner over 23 seasons
of head coaching, 17 at Iowa State. He wasn’t looking to
coach when he enrolled at St. Ambrose as a freshman,
but Duax, a family friend, asked if he would be interested
in helping launch a women’s program.
“I really enjoyed it and appreciated that chance,”
Fennelly said. “It got me hooked to do what I have done
all my life.”
Women’s basketball was just a club sport that inaugural
season, but it has gone on to become arguably
the most successful varsity program on campus with an
844-287 record over its first 35 campaigns, each of those
a winning season.=
“
There were so many people who were willing to
put their arms around us, help guide us, mold us, lead us and mentor us.
Those are the kind of people who are at St. Ambrose.
They allow you to spread your wings and be successful.
”
—Robin Becker Pingeton ’90
24

Tasha McDowell ’98
Head Coach, Western Michigan University 2008–12
Assistant Coach, St. Ambrose University 1997
Duax, Dave Day and Ken Buckles had solid success
prior to Bluder’s arrival in ’84, but the program truly
found legs with her on the bench and Becker on the
floor.
“Give a ton of credit to Lisa and to that administration
when she was there,” Pingeton said. “She had to pave a
new way of thinking. I think she brought that mindset
of what it took to be successful in that program. That
opened the door for me. And from there, it opened the
door for Tasha.”
Bluder said the support of Rogalski, Fox and then Vice
President of Finance Ed Henkhaus ‘64 allowed her to
create an attractive program for recruits via road trips
to California and Florida, and games vs. big-school opponents
like Notre Dame, Iowa State and Bradley.
“I think St. Ambrose let us out of the box a little bit and
let us try different things to be successful,” Bluder said.
Rogalski said Bluder and her successors helped themselves
by recruiting smart players who could supplement
partial grants with academic scholarship money.
Players also engaged in fundraising. And alumni benefactors
helped with the beefed-up travel budgets as well,
Rogalski said.
Rogalski, though, said that putting women’s sports on
the same level as men’s was important at St. Ambrose
and said that meant going beyond federally mandated
Title IX funding. “We wanted to make a commitment
that was not just the routine one,” he said.
Bluder and Pingeton said support at St. Ambrose went
beyond the bottom line, citing a team/family approach
that included the help of current men’s coach and
athletic director Ray Shovlain ’79, ’82 MBA and countless
others like Don “Duke” Schneider ’76, who televised
games and coaches shows on SAUtv.
“That wasn’t happening at that level then,” Pingeton said.
“I don’t know if it happens now at that level, to be honest
with you.
“It’s amazing how a place like that can have such a huge
impact on your life,’’ Pingeton added. “There were so many
people there who were willing to put their arms around us,
help guide us, mold us, lead us and mentor us. Those are the
kind of people that are at St. Ambrose. They allow you to
spread your wings and be successful.”
Pingeton said key lessons were learned from wearing so
many different hats while commanding a small college program.
“You’re the equipment manager, you wash uniforms,
there’s no task that is beneath you,” she said. “You really
have to roll up your sleeves and do everything.”
McDowell said one thing she learned in her two years with
the program is that SAU coaches do everything the right way.
“It was a school and a program of integrity,” she said, “and
I try to run my program that same way.”
Pingeton agreed, noting her central mission as a coach
today is the same as it was for her first game as the queen
Queen Bee.
“I don’t care if I am coaching NAIA or Division I,” she said.
“It’s about the opportunity to give back to a sport you love,
really impact players’ lives and give them a chance to be successful.”
25

26
“ They all come
with different
emotions…
But when they get
here, they know
what to expect.
This is a home and
we are a family.
”

alumniPROFILE
TREAT HOUSE:
food for body and spirit
by Susan Flansburg
Visit Project Renewal’s
Treat House after school and you’ll see what
director Ann Schwickerath ’98 calls “organized
chaos.” A less discerning eye might miss the “organized”
piece of the scene, though: 30-some kids sit,
slouch and sprawl elbow-to-elbow as they chatter, do
homework, eat snacks, play video games and clown
around. It’s noisy, cluttered and smells like feet.
Organized? Only a pro could tell.
And after 19 years, Schwickerath is a pro. As the
accidental director of this after-school and summer
program for Davenport’s inner city kids—she
went from an intern to director overnight, when
the previous director unexpectedly stepped down
—Schwickerath has played Treat House mom since
1993. Accident or not, she says it’s the only job for
her now.
It would be a tough sell for many people. Situated
across from a one-time crack house (it was raided
less than five years ago), down the alley from a soup
kitchen on one corner and transitional housing on the
other, and two houses away from a facility for courtordered
rehab for delinquent teenage boys, working
at the Treat House might seem a little … Dangerous?
Schwickerath shrugs.
“You can run into trouble anywhere,” she said.
“This is a safe haven.”
Project Renewal was created in 1973 by Sister
Concetta Bendicente, PHJC, at Warren and West
Fifth streets in Davenport. Disturbed by the large
number of unsupervised children roaming the
neighborhood day and night, she wanted to give the
children structure, caring and a bite to eat. That bite
to eat spawned the nickname, the Treat House. But
it’s clear the place—and the resident mom—provide
sustenance on many levels.
“I remember every moment a child has sat on
my lap and said, ‘I wish you were my mom,’”
Schwickerath said. “They all come to us with
different emotions. Maybe they didn’t get enough
sleep. Maybe their house was raided last night.
Maybe they didn’t have dinner and are really hungry.
But when they get here, they know what to expect.
This is a home and we are a family.”
The family includes assistant director Carl
Calloway, several SAU student volunteers and volunteers
from churches, schools and other organizations
throughout the greater community. Three or four
paid interns also assist during the full-time summer
program, as did Schwickerath when she first came on
board. Newly graduated with a University of Iowa
social work degree and a burgeoning sense of social
justice, Schwickerath brought her brand of quiet
progress to Project Renewal.
As Project Renewal transitioned from a part-time
playtime program to Schwickerath’s family-style
home with structure and rules, she began to get the
urge to go back to school to pursue art education.
She chose St. Ambrose, she said, because she didn’t
want to leave Treat House. Her choice turned out to
be serendipitous.
“The social justice mission resonated for me,” she
said. “And the faculty and staff were so supportive.
Still are. They prepare students who make great
interns and volunteers here.”
Schwickerath cites a wonderful synergy between
the SAU students and Project Renewal’s inner city
kids.
“Our kids have maybe never known someone
who’s worked to achieve their potential and dreamed
big,” she said. “It’s hard to break the cycle of their
poverty without showing them what can be. They
won’t believe it can happen. St. Ambrose students
reinforce that it can, just by being here.”
Learn more about Project Renewal at sau.edu/scene
27

alumniNEWS
Preview Events Uncork
Wine Festival
In early March, Wine at the Warehouse served as an
introduction to this year’s St. Ambrose University
Wine Festival, the opening act of a trifecta that’s
proven its staying power since the festival debuted
10 years ago.
Next up is the Wine Festival Preview Dinner on
April 14, which allows patrons to meet a featured
vendor, Smith Madrone Vineyards, and try their
wines.
“Plus, guests can bid on specialized auction items
that focus on wine trips and specialty wines,” said
dinner chairperson Molly Carroll. “In recent years
we’ve had a theme that made it more exciting,
so that you feel like you’re in the heart of wine
country.”
In the past decade, the wine festivals have raised
more than $500,000, much of that as a result of the
efforts of several volunteers who have no immediate
connection to St. Ambrose.
“It’s incredibly compelling that the mission of the
university still speaks to them,” said Alumni Director r
Amy Hoover Jones ’02.
There has been a concerted effort to make the
festival a bigger event through the three components.
For example, at the Preview Dinner this year, there
will be a boutique wine auction featuring wine that
can’t be purchased in the Quad Cities.
An additional enticement to attend the Preview
Dinner is that the $125 ticket price includes a ticket to
the May 19 Wine Festival.
WINE TIME
Preview dinner
Saturday, April 14, 2012
6 p.m. Reception
7 p.m. Dinner, live auction,
entertainment
Rogalski Center Ballroom
$125 per person
Wine Festival
Saturday, May 19, 2012
3–6 p.m.
St. Ambrose University campus
(outdoors)
$45 per person for advance tickets,
$50 at festival
For a full 2012 Wine Fest schedule
visit sau.edu/scene
28

alumniNEWS
The Gift of Giving
Scholarship Puts Student Back on Track
Against her parents’ best
advice, Alexa Vikel (left)
tried life as a “grown up”
without the benefit of a college
education. “After all, “
she recalled, “I was 18 and
thought I knew more than
they did.”
Working 60 hours a week
and still “barely getting by” convinced
her that college had merit, after all. So
Vikel followed her mother from Texas to
Davenport and enrolled at St. Ambrose
University to pursue a degree in business
management in January 2009.
“It was the best decision I have made to
date,” she said.
Mike Humes ’69 understands. He
worked 60-hour weeks himself after
graduating from Rock Island High
School. But after he punched out following
his weeknight shifts as a spot welder
at International Harvester, Humes would
make his way to St. Ambrose for classes
from 8 a.m. to noon.
“And then,” he said, “I would go home,
study, go to bed, get up and be at IH by
eleven to do it all over again. Weekends, I
pumped gas. I was tired. I was tired a lot.“
Now 65 and retired from a successful
business career as founder of Mutual Med,
Inc., Humes still feels a keen sense of pride
in his hard-earned St. Ambrose education.
Yet one thing makes him prouder.
That’s when members of the Mike and
Mary Humes Scholars program collect
St. Ambrose degrees of their own, then
move on to “become productive, responsible adults.”
Chief among the reasons Humes and his wife,
Mary, (right) established the need-based scholarship
program in 2002 is that jobs like those he leaned on to
work his way through school aren’t nearly as available
today. They didn’t want to see a lack of money stand
between a willing student and success.
“Students don’t have to be getting straight A’s,” said
Humes, a member of the SAU Board of Trustees. “But
good kids doing their best to get an education who, for
whatever reason, run out of money, we want to help.”
Vikel was preparing to withdraw from St. Ambrose
in fall 2010 because her mother had lost her job and
Vikel lost access to student loans because she lacked
proof of parental employment.
“Then I got news that I received the Humes
Scholarship,” Vikel said. “I cannot even put into
words how wonderful that blessing was. My mom
and I probably cried for an hour because we were so
happy.”
With a big assist from the
Humes Scholars program,
which has helped 25 to 40
Ambrose students each year
over the past decade, Vikel
expects to graduate next December. Beyond that, she
hopes to enroll in the St. Ambrose MBA program.
And beyond that? Well, Vikel doesn’t know where
she is headed, but said she plans to look back by giving
back. She hopes to someday endow a scholarship program
of her own. “Like Mr. and Mrs. Humes believed
in me to help me live out my dreams, I want to do the
same for someone in the future,” she said.
Humes likes hearing that “pay it forward” attitude.
“That makes me feel as good about what we’re doing
as anything,” he said.
“Mr. and Mrs. Humes believed
in me to help me live out my
dreams. I want to do the same
for someone in the future.”
—Alexa Vikel
29

classNOTES
50
The Fifties
Robert Glendon ’51 has published
his fourth book, “Forgotten Times
Remembered: During the Great
Depression” via AuthorHouse.
Glendon describes the novel as a
“warm look at a grim time.”
60
The Sixties
James Maher ’68 retired in 2008
and since then has been spending
his time between the Philippines
and Florida, enjoying both places.
Bob Zahlmann ’68 retired from
Regions Bank where he was
production manager. He spent the
past 28 years in mortgage banking
working for BancBoston, Chase, and
Regions banks. Bob and his wife
Chris reside in Indialantic, Fla.
70
The Seventies
Rick Martenson ’72 opened
his own counseling practice,
QCCounselor PLC, in Davenport
this past September.
In December, Mike Duffy ’73
received the Man of the Year award
from the Miami Project and its
Midwestern fundraising arm, the
Chicago Chapter of the Buoniconti
Fund to Cure Paralysis.
80
The Eighties
Kelcey Chandler ’80, after selling
her chiropractic practice in 2000 to
spend more time with her children,
went sailing around the world.
Kelcey and her family now reside in
New Zealand, where they have lived
for five years.
90
The Nineties
Todd Sturdy ’90 has joined Iowa
State’s football staff as wide
receivers coach and passing game
coordinator. He had been offensive
coordinator at Washington State
University since 2008 following
one season in that role at Eastern
Washington University. Sturdy was
85-40 in 12 seasons as head coach at
St. Ambrose prior to that.
Randee Duncan ’97 MBA is a
member of the Plus 60 Club board.
The Plus 60 program, sponsored by
the Quad-City Times, encourages
seniors to be active mentally and
physically as well as encouraging
interaction with a diverse
community group.
Jen (Boyle) Walker ’99 is an
environmental manager at
EnviroNET, Inc. in Davenport. She
was appointed to the Diocese of
Davenport’s Finance Council in 2011
and nominated to the St. Ambrose
Alumni Board in January.
00
The Zeros
Chris Ingstad ’02, ’04 MBA was
appointed vice president at Pearl
Mutual Funds in Muscatine and his
wife Sarah (Trokey) Ingstad ’07,
’09 MBA, is the executive director
at Sunnybrook Assisted Living.
The couple makes their home in
Muscatine.
Mimi (Krupke) Clark ’04 is the
marketing coordinator for Western
New Mexico University, Silver City,
N.M.
Matt Jennings ’06 MBA was
appointed as the head volleyball
coach at Michigan Tech University,
Houghton, Mich.
Chad Driscoll ’08 is a program officer
for education and youth development
for the Iowa Commission
on Volunteer Services in Des
Moines, Iowa.
10
The Teens
Jenny Clark ’10 was inducted into
the Cambridge High School Hall
of Fame in December, for her
achievements in basketball.
Rachael Crawford ’10 is a sales
development representative for
Yodle, Inc., Austin, Texas.
Abbey Curran ’11 is the breast
health representative for the
Methodist Medical Center,
Breast Health Recruitment and
Assessment program, Peoria, Ill.
The Charlotte Knights, a minor
league baseball team in Fort Mill,
S.C., hired Audrey Stanek ‘11 to
work in their client services and
community relations department.
■Marriages
Margaret Speer ’89, ’96 and Dana
Curtin, Jacksonville, Fla.
Jenny Pender ’95 and Tim Staub,
Riverdale, Iowa
Craig Burkle ’00 and Jessica Schalk,
Davenport
Melissa Lowary ’00 and Cory Hart,
Urbandale, Iowa
Justin Trine ’02,’03 MBA and Kate
VenHorst, Davenport
Alecia Logan ’04 and Ryan Burns,
Orlando, Fla.
Ty Rakestraw ’07 and Melissa
Bond, Peoria, Ill.
Nicole Frotscher ’08 and Brett
Stang, Scottsdale, Ariz.
John Hammar ’08, ’09 MAcc and
Karen Haycraft ’10, Cedar Rapids,
Iowa
Jake Toft ’09 and Kayla
Williams ’11, Davenport
Alicia Brown ‘10 and Brian Werner,
Moline, Ill.
Steven Claeys ’11 and Heidi
Kroeger, Davenport
Matthew Dunn ’11 and Arielle
Willson ’11, Maquoketa, Iowa
■Births
Christina (Patterson) Meeker ’87
and her husband Randy, welcomed
the arrival of their new baby boy,
Charles Michael, on Mar. 12, 2011.
Charlie joined siblings Matt, Sarah,
and Jackie in the Meeker clan.
Ken ’91 and Melissa (Lee)
Harbauer ’93, are happy to
announce the birth of their
daughter, Savannah Marie, born
Oct. 20, 2011.
Chris Salrin ’97 and wife Dayla,
had a son, Nathan, on Feb. 5, 2012.
Nathan was welcomed home by
brothers Tyler and Andrew.
Sean Smith ’99, ’01 MOT and his
wife Mary, brought home a baby
girl, Catherine, born on July 7, 2011.
Catherine joins sister Isabel and
brothers Joe and Conner.
30

Jeremy Koch ’02 is the project director for the USAID-funded Teach
English for Life Learning (TELL) Program in Ethiopia. He and his wife,
Kimberly, have lived in Africa for more than four years. Koch agreed
to share his observations about the ongoing drought and famine on the
Horn of Africa with fellow Ambrosians.
Jason ’00 MPT and Andrea (Moss)
Elgin ’00 MPT welcomed a baby
boy, Eli, to their family on Dec. 29,
2011. Eli is little brother to Kaitlyn,
Jadyn, and Alexis.
Elizabeth (Boardman)
Hulsbrink ’00 and her husband
Jeff celebrated the birth of their
daughter, Elouise, on Oct. 5, 2011.
Elouise was welcomed home by her
big sister Clare.
Eric ’01 and Amy (Bialon) Jensen
’01 are happy to announce the birth
of their son, Luke Thomas, born on
July 6, 2011.
Adam ’02, ’04 MOL and Mimi
(Krupke) Clark ’04, are happy to
announce a new addition to their
family, Caden Kwan, on Mar. 10,
2011.
Joe ’03 and his wife Trina (Gillen)
Murray ’04 celebrated the birth of
twin daughters, Rowan Kimberly
and Brynn Taylor on July 3, 2011.
Allison (Hemphill) Stanley ’03,
’04 MOT and her husband Scott
are proud to announce the birth
of their daughter, Alyssa, on July
18, 2011.
Kristy (Hand) Volesky ’03, ’06
MOL and her husband Matt,
brought home a baby girl, Katelyn,
born on June 29, 2011, who will be a
little sister to sibling Brooklyn.
Nicole (Blazina) ’04 and David
“D.J.)”Brown ’05 celebrated the
birth of a baby girl, Addison Marie,
on Nov. 3, 2011.
Lindsay (Crane) Vargas ’04 and
her husband, Kevin, are the proud
parents of a girl, Maggie, born Aug.
27, 2011.
Hope in the Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa is no stranger to drought
and famine. There have been 42 droughts in
the Horn since 1980. The 2011 famine was
caused by the worst drought the region has
seen in 60 years. It is a chronic challenge for
the people and governments of the region, and
many wonder if the Horn will ever be able to
rid itself of famine.
The World Food Program estimates that
more than 13 million people have been affected
by the ongoing famine and that number continues
to rise.
Amid the current emergency response, however,
a story of hope has emerged, one starkly
at odds with the too-memorable images of the
drought and famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s.
Efforts of the last 15 years to limit the devastation
have borne fruit. That famine affected
about 8 million Ethiopians; the current famine
is affecting about half that many. Instead of
creating refugees, Ethiopia is housing refugee
camps to support those fleeing the famine in
neighboring countries. Ethiopia is no longer
the face of famine; instead it is a part of the
response effort.
With the support of international
development organizations, Ethiopia has
made significant investments to expand its
water distribution infrastructure and make
fertile land more productive. Health extension
workers have been mobilized to provide much
needed medical care. Cereal banks have been
established to ensure that farmers can feed their
livestock. There is still a lot of work to do, but
the progress is undeniable.
To an expatriate living and working in
Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, the
drought is hardly noticeable. This, too, is a
sign of progress. The limited geography
of the drought-affected areas helps focus
the response effort.
Continuing along this path of
development means a day may come in
the not too distant future when Ethiopia
can say that it has brought an end to
famine within its borders. This would
be a tremendous achievement and could
serve as a model of development for other
countries suffering from chronic droughts
in the Horn of Africa.
— Jeremy Koch ’02
31

Ryan ’05 and Jayne (Lunz) Antonik
’05 are the proud parents of a
daughter, Morgan Patricia, born on
Sept. 28, 2011.
Across the World for an
Ambrosian Wedding
“
It’s nice to know that
no matter where in
the world you meet,
other Ambrosians can
make it feel like home.
”
We like to think the bonds formed at SAU
are strong enough to carry us halfway across
the world. For nearly 20 alumni, and current
and former staff, the Ambrosian spirit did just that shortly after the
New Year.
The Ambrose group trekked to the tiny Middle Eastern island
of Bahrain to witness the four-day traditional Indian wedding
of Ria Subrahmanyam to her high school sweetheart, Nipuna
Panditha (pictured above at Sacred Heart School in Bahrain).
By day, the group toured the island. Evenings were
marked with authentic food and dancing. Each night
represented a distinct aspect of the bride’s heritage,
including a henna night, Arabian night (in tents in
the Bahraini desert), Indian night and a traditional
Western wedding ceremony and reception. The
Ambrosians had the chance to experience an entirely
new culture, which was enhanced by the authentic
clothing each wore and took home.
“Being across the world was the trip of a lifetime, but getting
to experience everything with other Ambrosians made it seem
surreal,” said Heather Behrens ’10. “It’s nice to know that no
matter where in the world you meet, other Ambrosians can make
it feel like home.”
Matt Hansen, St. Ambrose director of residence life, made the
trip with his wife, Jayme, and their two children. Also in Bahrain
were Ambrosians Erin Craghead MOL ’10, Steph DeLacy ’09, Alan
Hartley MEA ’11, Diane Hennan ’09, Seth Kaltwasser ’09, Mike
Lindsey, Grant Legan ’10, Megan Steahr ’09 and Heather Venema
’06, MOL ’08, and current student Mary Schechinger.
— Heather Venema
Rick ’05, ’06 MAcc and Lindsay
(Miller) Schaefer ‘05 welcomed the
first addition to their family, a girl,
Olivia Noelle, on Nov. 22, 2011.
■Deaths
John “Jack” Nagle ’38 Academy,
’42, Bettendorf, Iowa, Jan. 24, 2012
Dan Flynn ’39, Rock Island, Dec. 28,
2011
Willard “Bill” King ’40, Davenport,
Dec. 26, 2011
Theodore “Ted” Lapka ’42,
Naperville, Ill., Dec. 1, 2011
Leo Swett ’47, Waukegan, Ill.,
Dec. 28, 2011
Donald Manson ’48 Academy, ‘52,
Atlanta, Ga., Dec. 24, 2011
Daniel Lawlor ’49, Clinton, Iowa,
Jan. 7, 2012
Joseph Bush ’50 Academy, The
Villages, Fla., Nov. 12, 2011
Rex Concannon ’50, Riverdale,
Iowa, Jan. 12, 2012
Rev. William ‘Digger’ Dawson ’50,
Davenport, Dec. 13, 2011
Domenico Dilulio ’50, Sherrard, Ill.,
Nov. 6, 2011
Dr. Thomas Mogan ’50, Nashville,
Tenn., June 11, 2011
Dr. Donald Heming ’51, Davenport,
Dec. 23, 2011
James Murphy ’51 Academy,’56,
LeClaire, Iowa, Sept. 16, 2011
32

classNOTES
Bobby Williams ’52, East Moline,
Ill., Dec. 10, 2011
Lawrence Eck ’53, Westmont, Ill.,
Dec. 11, 2011
Roy Buckrop ’56, Moline, Ill., Nov.
1, 2011
Eugene Walton ’57, Cumming, Ga.,
Dec. 2, 2011
Celestino “Chele” George ’59,
Bettendorf, Iowa, Jan. 7, 2012
Ronald Janssens ’59, Rock Island,
Nov. 15, 2011
Rev. Ernest Braida ’60, Knoxville,
Iowa, Jan. 6, 2012
George Doe ’61, Clinton, Iowa,
Dec. 11, 2011
Marvin Doyle ’61, Argyle, Iowa,
Aug. 7, 2011
John Meier ’62, Cedar Falls, Iowa,
June 24, 2011
F. Eugene “Gene” Bender ’63,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, June 29, 2011
Dr. Thomas Bowen ’63, Solon,
Iowa, Aug. 20, 2011
Mark Love ’64, Newton, NJ, Nov.
29, 2011
Joseph Brady ’65, Davenport, Nov.
7, 2011
Thomas Drew ’66, Dixon, Ill., Oct.
24, 2011
Richard Podlashes ’67, East Moline,
Ill., Nov. 6, 2011
Robert Vescio ’72, Pewaukee,
Wisc., April 15, 2011
Michael Randolph ’74, Anamosa,
Iowa, Aug. 13, 2011
Idalia “Dally” Leese ’76,
Bloomington, Ill., Dec. 15, 2010
Rev. Theodore “Ted” Borger ’79,
Verona, Wis., Dec. 16, 2011
Kenneth Hanger ’79, Moline, Ill.,
Jan. 7, 2012
Douglas Brown ’83, West Des
Moines, Iowa, Nov. 1, 2011
Brian Carey ’84 MBA, Carmel, Ind.,
Dec. 6, 2011
Robert “Bob” Jurevitz ’86,
Bettendorf, Iowa, Nov. 19, 2011
Robert “Bob” Bakula ’94 MBA,
Guntesville, Ala., July 31, 2011
Michelle Kolar ’99, Davenport,
Nov. 3, 2011
Hannah Joy Olson ’11 MSW, West
Salem, Wis., Sept. 18, 2011
Faculty and Staff
Rev. William ‘Digger’ Dawson ’50,
Davenport, Dec. 13, 2011
Mary Jo Meier, Rock Island, Ill.,
Nov. 20, 2011
What’s New? Let us know what
you’ve been up to! Drop us a note
at Alumni Relations, St. Ambrose
University, 518 W. Locust St.,
Davenport, Iowa 52803 or go online
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Found Ring Comforts Alum’s Family
It was one of their legendary family reunions on Thanksgiving
weekend, 2011. Gathered at a Wisconsin waterpark were
the daughters of the late David Schlichting ’75, their mother,
spouses, and all their children and grandchildren.
“The whole time we were talking about rings,” said Michelle
“Shelly” O’Brien, Schlichting’s oldest daughter.
During the weekend, middle daughter Lisa had a moment
of panic when she looked down at her ring-less left hand. “She
laughed, remembering that she had left her wedding ring at home
because she was afraid of losing it on the waterslide,” O’Brien said.
“Throughout the weekend there were ring gifts too,” she
added. “I bought Lisa a ring for her upcoming birthday and my
sister Stacy brought my granddaughter Melissa a mood ring. It
was uncanny.”
But there was another ring waiting for the sisters, one that
would bring unexpected comfort. When Lisa returned home to
Batavia, Ill., she found a message about a 1975 St. Ambrose class
ring that had been found in a sewer in Eldridge, Iowa. “Because
of the initials inside the band, the university had traced it to
our father and
because he had “This was a sign from our dad,
passed away,
and suddenly the whole weekend
they called my
all tied together.”
sister,” O’Brien
said.
Their father
graduated from
St. Ambrose at
the age of 34.
How his class
ring ended up in
a sewer baffled
the sisters.
Schlichting, who
died in 2004, had been a 30-year employee of Iowa American
Water Co., but had only worked at the plant.
“I automatically started crying when Lisa called me with the
news,” O’Brien said. “We’re Catholic and firm believers in signs.
This was a sign from our dad, and suddenly the whole weekend
all tied together. I believe my Dad is watching over us.
“We lost him so young, but we will forever hold him in our
thoughts, memories and hearts.”
—Jane Kettering

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Thinking Pink
The St. Ambrose Queen Bees basketball squad was among
many decked out in pink on Feb. 4 at the PE Center.
The team’s annual breast cancer awareness event
became a celebration of Ray and Betsy Shovlain’s
biggest win ever. In support of Betsy‘s successful
battle vs. breast cancer, the SAU community raised $1,800
for the Kramer Society of the Quad-Cities.
For a video interview with Betsy Shovlain and more
“Pink Out’’ pictures, visit sau.edu/scene.