Copyright @ 1998 by The University of Montana

At Home in Ghana
by Joyce H. Brusin

Wendy Harvison greets President and Mrs. Clinton in Ghana in March.

Among the 30 Peace Corps volunteers President Bill Clinton met on the first day of his historic trip to Africa this past March was 25-year-old Wendy Harvison, of Blackfoot, Idaho, who graduated from UM in 1996, with a bachelor’s degree in social work. “It was very hot that day,” she said, “and they were running way behind schedule, but he took time to talk to us.”

Harvison works, along with 146 other volunteers, in the West African country of Ghana. At the Children-In-Need youth shelter in the capital city of Accra, she teaches basic literacy and math skills to students who will in turn train other children in need. “We hope to involve more than 70 children in the program by the end of the year,” she says.

Harvison begins her days with an hour-long commute on three different “tro-tro,” transit vans packed with other commuters. “Once I get to work, the kind of day I will have is determined by whether or not we have electricity that day, which we do about 50 percent of the time,” explains Harvison. “After work, I pick one errand to do each day, such as going to the post office, because more than that is too difficult to arrange.” Harvison returns home to a “compound-house” on the Gulf of Guinea, where she shares kitchen, bath and walled-in yard with a family of 12.

“Sometimes the mother in the family will cook for all of us,” says Harvison. “Other times I shop at the huge outdoor markets or I buy street food called ‘chop,’ that’s made up of fermented corn, mashed yams, or a stew of other things. Since very little food is imported into the country there are only two Western-style grocery stores in the whole city.”

Among her many accomplishments in Ghana, Harvison says the most satisfying was the relationship she established with a 14-year-old girl from the Accra streets. “She was already seven months pregnant, but she didn’t understand what was happening to her body,” says Harvison. “She kept wondering why she was getting fat.”

“I explained what was happening to her,” says Harvison, “and arranged for us to make weekly trips to medical appointments, which my agency agreed to pay for.” When her student went into labor, Harvison went with her to the hospital, where the girl gave birth to a healthy boy.

“If I hadn’t been around, he would have literally been born on the streets, where his chances of survival wouldn’t have been very good,” says Harvison. “Now he’s nine months old, and they call him ‘Wendy’s grandson’.”

“I know this is only one person and her baby, but I also know I made a huge impact on their lives,” Harvison continues. “If I do nothing else here, this one thing would be worth all my time.”

Jack and Betty McGuin on their wedding day.

Never Too Late for Love
by Paddy MacDonald

In my years of editing Class Notes, I often received bad news. This story, however, I’m delighted to tell. In fall 1938, Jack McGuin and Betty Alff enrolled at The University of Montana. While in school, Jack married Kay Kittendorf, and Betty married James Ellen. Both couples were blessed with happy marriages.

When Betty, recently widowed, sent her usual Christmas card to the McGuins in 1996, she received a call from Jack informing her of Kay’s death. Both grieving, they struck up a writing relationship - he from San Diego and she from Melbourne, Fla. Letters led to e-mail messages and phone calls, then Jack invited Betty to visit.

“I came to San Diego for a three-day visit and I’m still here!” she writes.

The couple married in August 1997. Their wedding announcement reads: “These two old friends named Betty and Jack renewed their friendship and never looked back. Soon they decided that they’d become one, announcing to all: a new day has begun.” Congratulations!

“Fabulous Frosh” Meet to Play Again
by Rae Lynn McCarty D’Angelo

The Fabulous Frosh together again. Back row left to right: Jim Peterson, Ken Dupuis, Zip Rhoades, Al Dunham, Richard McCarty, Ray Howard, Maury Colberg, Jr. Front row left to right: Pete Glennie, Connie Orr, Dan Freund, Pete Muri, Lefty Monson, Bob Powell.

Rob Chaney of the Missoulian said it best in the Feb. 28, 1998 edition: “The old, tricky floor has been replaced. The baskets face north and south instead of east and west. Pretty soon, the whole of Adams Field House will be gutted and replaced with a new arena.

“None of that dimmed the enthusiasm of 13 members of the Montana State University Cubs - the first Missoula players to compete in the original field house back in 1953. Now they’re 63-year-old businessmen and retirees. Then, they were the Fabulous Frosh.”

Co-sponsored by the Alumni and Grizzly Athletic associations, the reunion of the Fabulous Frosh during the 1998 Griz-Cat weekend, Feb. 27 and 28 in Missoula, began with a question. Whatever happened to the team of men who had played the first game in Harry Adams Field House on Dec. 18, 1953? The answer to this question grew into a memorable reunion for 13 of the original 18 members, many of whom had not seen each other for almost 45 years.

It began with a photo session on the basketball court of the field house. Ray Howard, of Helena, later wrote of those first minutes: “When I rushed into the field house late for the picture that Friday afternoon my heart was pounding....What did we all look like now? Would I recognize everybody?...I walked onto the floor where everyone had gathered - the guys came up to me, introduced themselves, and hugged me! What a beautiful moment! That first meeting will stay with me for the rest of my life....We haven’t changed that much - our hair is grey to white, most of us have less of it, our weight has shifted somewhat, but without exception, the eyes and the smile for each of us have continued to sparkle and flash as they did forty-five years ago.”

The rest of the weekend was just as exciting. Time and time again the Grizzly fight song was sung as the group attended evening receptions, a pre-game brunch, half-time introductions at the Griz-Cat game and a shooting contest afterward. Before going their separate ways Saturday evening, they decided to meet in Billings a month later and go see their former coach, Bob “Lefty” Byrne, in Laurel. Lefty had been unable to attend the reunion in Missoula because of disabilities incurred in a 1979 farm accident.

On Saturday, April 4, 1998, nine team members were reunited again to see their old coach. Though he was unable to speak, Lefty listened intently as each man told of his life over the past 45 years. Afterwards, while Lefty’s wife, Yvonne, and their four children watched, he was presented with a plaque from the team.

No one could have predicted that the Fabulous Frosh reunion would provide so much for so many. As Al Dunham, of Union, Wash., wrote to his teammates after their first reunion: “It exceeded even my own lofty expectations. We were a very special group of guys that for some reason bonded early in our lives and the feeling manifested itself at our reunion. Now that we are older, we are still a group of very special people with varying degrees of success and unchanged personalities. What a group!”