Winter 2002
CONTENTS
AROUND THE OVAL
CLASS NOTES
ALUMNI NOTES
Contact Us
PAST ISSUES
Alumni Chat
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Winter 2002 CONTENTS
AROUND THE OVAL Contact Us PAST ISSUES Alumni Chat |
Alumni Notes
From the Director
We were pleased to welcome six very special alumni to Homecoming in September. On page 26, you can read about these alumni who were awarded Distinguished Alumni Awards. I know you join me in recognizing Anthony M. Brown, John W. Jutila, Nancy Fields O’Connor, William G. Papesh, Marilyn Shope Peterson, and Robert J. Swan for their life accomplishments and the recognition and honor they bring to our campus. Challenges and opportunities are ahead of us. The Montana State Legislature will begin its 58th session on January 6, 2003. Projections have already been released that the state will face a serious revenue deficit. That will make our jobs of ensuring adequate state funding for the University more challenging. Please contact me at johnstonws@mso.umt.edu if you want to be involved in the Alumni Association Legislative Network. We also look forward to celebrating the University’s 110th birthday on Charter Day, February 21, 2003. In fact, the theme for Homecoming 2003 will be based on this milestone. Please watch for additional information. On behalf of all of us in the Alumni Relations Office and on campus, thanks for all you do for the University. It does make a difference and it is appreciated. See you at an alumni gathering or on campus soon. House of Delegates Meets
New and returning House of Delegates members held their annual meeting prior to Homecoming. They enjoyed two days of learning how UM works—from admissions recruiting to alumni event planning, to campus and building tours, to visits with students, directors, and deans. Homecoming activities followed, leaving the delegates ready to return to their own homes as educated and enthusiatstic advocates for the University. New delegates include: Darin Archer ’00, San Francisco; Geoffrey Badenoch ’77, M.P.A. ’82, Missoula; Bill Burkhartsmeyer ’83, Chinook; Elinor Misfeldt Dickson ’64, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Sage Grendahl ’01, Missoula; Kory Larsen ’89, J.D. ’92, Great Falls; Ted Lympus ’66, J.D. ’72, Kalispell; Barbi West Murphy ’70, Billings; Gay Nevin-Larsen ’89, Great Falls; Geannine Rapp ’92, Great Falls; Dan Smart ’90, Big Timber; Donna Roholt Ueland ’68, Fresno, California; and William von Tagen ’77, Boise, Idaho.
Dowser of the Year is UM Alumnus
The mysterious forces that assist Steve Herbert, M.A. ’84, in locating water sources all over the globe, were certainly at work years ago—bringing him to UM and thereby to his unique career as a world renown dowser. Armed with a bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of New Hampshire, Steve applied to four graduate programs in geology in the early 1980s. He was turned down by all four. Plummeting oil prices had taken oil geologists out of the field. Many had sought refuge in graduate schools, making acceptance difficult for students like Steve. Luckily, he’d applied to UM, in cultural anthropology as well as geology; the anthropology department accepted his application. “I went from studying rocks to studying spiritualism,” Steve says as his graduate work centered on examining cross-cultural experiences of religious possession. Research led him to Missoula’s Pentecostal and evangelical groups and through them to Father Diorio, a Catholic priest in Great Falls. Steve experienced a “great vision and physical healing” with Father Diorio—events that foreshadowed the next major chapter in his life. Steve finished his thesis* and made plans to stay in Missoula. Fate, however, was again making other plans. Unemployed, broke, and newly broken hearted from a failed relationship, he returned home to Littleton, New Hampshire. Several months later he submitted an article inspired by his experiences with Father Diorio to Earth Star Press. They not only published the story, but asked Steve to cover the American Society of Dowsers convention about to take place just thirty miles from Littleton. Steve’s intuitive nature, now enriched by research and personal encounters, placed him at the right spot at the right time to experience dowsing. The “circle was complete,” he acknowledges. Steve joined the society that summer, located his first well, and has never looked back. Successful dowsing relies on the ability to access one’s senses beyond the physical, and Steve feels he’s, “always been predisposed to a metaphysical world.” When dowsing, Steve draws from his metaphysical powers, his graduate work at UM, and the scientific work he’s done in geology and archeology. “Dowsing is not so much taught as caught,” Steve explains. “All humans have the innate ability. Anyone can dowse. Believers and skeptics alike seem to get a dowsing reaction. What matters more is what you believe subconsciously.” Steve’s abilities, beliefs, and seventeen years of “practice, practice, practice” have put him at the top of the field. In June the 4,400-member American Society of Dowsers selected Steve “Dowser of the Year,” recognizing his successes in dowsing well sites, training fellow dowsers, and developing water resources and sanitation programs in Africa, Central America, and the Caribbean. He has a standing invitation to return to Central America and the Caribbean to continue his dowsing and sanitation projects. If funding comes through, Steve will be dowsing in Nepal and India this winter. “It’s rare,” he admits, “that I don’t locate water.” He’s so good, he predicts the water’s depth, its yield, and quality—with an approximate 85 percent accuracy rate. Should you need to locate water (he’ll dowse for oil, gas, buried water pipes, minerals, lost graves, and hidden treasures, too), Steve’s available—between traveling, teaching, speaking, writing, and photography engagements. He’ll bring his homemade, L-shaped, brass dowsing rods and walk your land. And, when it comes together, when all is right, the rods will twist outwards, powerfully—mysteriously against his hands. *Steve’s thesis, Speaking in Tongues and Other Gifts of the Holy Spirit: a Study in Possession, is on file in the Mansfield Library. To learn more about dowsing, click on www.dowsersofthewest.org or the American Society of Dowsers at www.dowsers.org. You can e-mail Steve at waterdowser@hotmail.com.
Alumni Events February 2003 4,11,18,25 Community Lecture Series, Missoula 21 Charter Day, Missoula March 2003 4,11 Community Lecture Series, Missoula May 2003 15-17 Class Reunions (1943,1953), Missoula For more information on these events, call the UM Alumni Association: 1-877-UM ALUMS 
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Fall is such an interesting time to be on campus. Hundreds of new students arrive to join the thousands of returning students for classes. This fall, a record number of more than 13,000 students have enrolled at UM. For some of us who attended UM when enrollments were considerably lower, this number is hard to imagine. Students know today what you knew then—the University is recognized for our outstanding academic reputation and our quality of life. Thousands of you, our alumni, support the academic mission by giving generously of your time and money to ensure that the academic quality continues. Thank you once again for Getting Involved…Staying Involved.
New Members of the House of Delegates include, front row, left to right: Elinor Dickson, Donna Ueland, Geannine Rapp, and Sage Grengahl. Back row: Dan Smart, Ted Lympus, Kory Larsen, Darin Archer, and Bill Burkhartsmeyer.
PHOTO BY ELLEN GREAVES
