COVER IMAGE
Spring 2000
CONTENTS

Smokin'

The Last Best Good Story

Not Your Father's Generation

Hooked On Teaching

Bucking Trends

Amazon Dreams

C'est Missoula Vie

AROUND THE OVAL
SPORTS
CLASS NOTES
ALUMNI NOTES


Contact Us
About the Montanan
PAST ISSUES
Around the Oval


UM Scientists (from left) Joe Glassy, Steve Running and Ramakrishna Nemani

Up, Up and Away
UM reached new heights in December with the launch of NASA's Terra environmental satellite. Campus researchers designed software for the $1.3 billion Terra—a stethoscope in the sky that will provide daily checkups on the Earth's health. The satellite measures global climate change, net productivity, deforestation, glacial retreat and more.

The launch climaxed nearly two decades of work by UM scientists. Immediately after liftoff, forestry Professor Steve Running said, "We're in business! Our software is now in orbit. I didn't think I could go that long without breathing."

With Terra data streaming in, UM now is the regional center for analyzing the imagery, developing uses for the information and training others in its use.

Greetings from the President
George Dennison This issue of the Montanan focuses quite appropriately upon the students, the lifeblood of the University. In these few pages, you will have the wonderful occasion to relive a bit of your own experience as you become more acquainted with the outstanding young people who have chosen The University of Montana. They come for a variety of reasons, just as we did in our time, and they share with us the joy and challenge of learning. Over the years I have known UM as a student and administrator, I have become ever more impressed by the dedication and devotion of the entire University community to the nurturing and development of the young people entrusted to us for guidance.

Colleges and universities exist to serve the needs of society by educating succeeding generations of students. With the changes that threaten almost daily to overwhelm us, we must become ever more diligent in protecting the quality of life we want in our increasingly interdependent global societies. We must find ways to ensure that our students are engaged in their own education so that it becomes a habit of the heart as they leave us and take leadership within society.

In view of the importance of engagement, we at UM have come to think in terms of learning, discovery and involvement rather than the model of teaching, research and service used in my time as a student. The values and purposes remain the same, but today we stress the importance of active engagement.

I think you will find in this issue reinforcement for your continued love for and loyalty to the University. I must say once again how much we depend upon you for our success.


George M. Dennison
President

Keep on Truckin'
Keep on Truckin' You're probably not used to seeing grizzlies on the road, but you may want to look again if you see an eighteen-wheeler coming at you with its paws poised for a strike. Don't panic. It's Jim Palmer's unique way of recruiting for UM—a 53-foot semi-tractor trailer bearing the Grizzly logo— set free in February to roam the nation's highways and interstates.

Palmer and his son, Scott, lifelong Grizzly fans, offered the rig, painted with UM logos on the sides and back, to help promote UM and support the University's recruitment effort. The graphics include a World Wide Web address for viewers who would like more information.

The Palmers report they will route the truck to areas of the country that UM targets for recruitment. This moving billboard is the first of its kind among the 200 colleges and universities under contract with the Atlanta-based Collegiate Licensing Co., which represents UM in overseeing commercial logo use.

Palmer started his trucking firm with one truck that he drove himself. Missoula-based Jim Palmer Trucking was incorporated in 1966 and has grown into a nationwide carrier with a 350-truck fleet and facilities in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Salina, Kansas; and Tampa, Florida.

If you see the truck in your neighborhood, don't honk: Roar.

Coming Home
Montanans looking to blame the peripatetic out-of-stater for "overpopulating" the state in recent years have mainly themselves to blame. An analysis of Montana migration patterns between 1993 and 1997 shows that three out of five households migrating to Montana are returnees. Put another way, in 60 percent of migrant households, at least one household member has lived here previously.

Christiane von Reichert, an assistant professor of geography at UM, noted this relatively high return rate and found a unique way to research why Montanans are coming home: She attended eighteen high school reunions in communities throughout the state and interviewed some 300 alumni over the course of two summers.

Funded in 1999 by the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, von Reichert's research confirmed what most of us suspected: Montanans leave the state mainly for education and jobs. Employment is not an issue for those returning. They come back for "family, community, the environment, or a combination of these factors." One person reported "I was homesick for the views."

Alumni-We Want You And we want you bad.
You haven't responded at the rate we'd like to our request for stories on favorite professors. To refresh your memory, we're looking for more than a few good stories on UM faculty to run in a large feature planned on current and former faculty members. We've received a few, but we want more. Please send your remembrances and tributes (500 words or less) to 315 Brantly Hall, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812. If you want to bounce some ideas off an editor, call (406) 243-4842.

We're also interested in collecting photos of personalized Griz and UM license plates for a photo feature. If you've honored your school or the Griz on your plates, please send a closeup color photo or slide of the plate to the address above, along with your name, address and phone number.

This is a big magazine, and we can't do it all without you.

A Winning Idea
Joe Glenn
New Griz Coach Joe Glenn
The loss of Grizzly football Coach Mick Dennehy, who left UM to become head coach at Utah State, was quickly assuaged in December with the hiring of Joe Glenn, 50, one of the most successful coaches in the NCAA Division II. Glenn, who held coaching positions with the Griz in the 1980s, also brings a coaching staff with him.

Glenn has coached at the college level for nearly a quarter of a century and was head coach for fifteen of those seasons, most recently at the University of Northern Colorado, where he had an eleven-year record of 98-35 and eleven straight winning seasons. The UNC Bears made five straight trips to the NCAA Division II playoffs and won national championships in 1996 and 1997.

Glenn served as quarterback/receivers coach for the Grizzlies in 1980-81 and as offensive coordinator from 1982 to 1985.

"I am just tremendously excited about the opportunity to become the head football coach at The University of Montana," Glenn said. "And in the same breath I'm just as excited about the staff I'm bringing with me-they'll set the town on its ears. They are great coaches, they're winners, and they've got a lot of (championship) rings." Griz fans have a few months to contemplate those words-and to anticipate what they may mean.

Get Immersed in E-Commerce
An immersion course in e-commerce held recently at UM is now available free of charge on the Internet. Hosted by the Montana World Trade Center, the webcast features nationally recognized executives, government officials, innovative thinkers and industry leaders who gathered at UM to create the three-part course. The trade center describes E-Business 2000 as aimed at "sharing real-time experience, using real-life models for real world solutions" in e-commerce.

Among the presenters featured in the webcast are John Connors, a UM alumnus now vice president of the Worldwide Enterprise Group at Microsoft Corp.; Sanjay Gupta, managing director of electronic commerce marketing programs for Federal Express; and Richard Jayo, director of local markets for US West Communications.

Log directly on to the webcast by entering www.globalspeak.com/html/webcast_e-business.htm.

Those interested in getting ahead of the curve may want to attend another course offered by the MWTC this summer, E-America: How to Succeed in the E-Business Economy. The four-day course will be held July 30 to August 2 at UM's Gallagher Business Building and will feature presenters from leading e-business companies, as well as small business executives who have transformed their companies through e-business. Those interested may call (888) 773-2703 or e-mail: info@win.org.

Pushing That $1-Million Mark
EOS Training Session
EOS training session
UM's Earth Observing System Education Project continues on a roll with its most recent good news being grants totaling $850,000 from NASA and the U.S. Department of Education. A NASA grant of $500,000 will be used for teacher training opportunities, especially for American Indian K-12 educators. The EOS Education Project trains educators worldwide to use data from NASA's Earth Observing System (see photos and story on Page 2). Part of a $2 million direct appropriation from NASA (divided among UM, the University of Idaho and Wheeling Jesuit University), this grant will focus on expanding the project's geographic information system and remote-sensing program development.

A Hoot
Lance C. Clark '89 recently sent a printout of an e-mail circulating out there. If you haven't seen this one, we think you'll enjoy it:

Montana Temperature Conversion Chart

60ƒ: Floridians wear coats, gloves and woolly hats; Montana people sunbathe.

50ƒ: New Yorkers try to turn on the heat; Montana people plant gardens.

40ƒ: Italian cars won't start; Montana people drive with the windows down.

32ƒ: Distilled water freezes; Montanans store their beer outdoors.

20ƒ: Californians shiver uncontrollably; Montana people have the last cook-out before it gets cold.

15ƒ: New York landlords finally turn up the heat; Montana people throw on a sweatshirt.

Zero: Californians fly away to Mexico; Montanans lick the flagpole.

-20ƒ: People in Miami cease to exist; Montana people get out their winter coats.

-40ƒ: Hollywood disintegrates; Montana Girl Scouts begin selling cookies door-to-door.

-60ƒ: Polar bears begin to evacuate Antarctica*; Montana Boy Scouts postpone "Winter Survival" classes until it gets cold enough.

-80ƒ: Mount St. Helens freezes; Montana people rent some videos.

-100ƒ: Santa Claus abandons the North Pole; Montana people get frustrated when they can't thaw the keg.

-297ƒ: Microbial life survives on dairy products; Montana cows complain of farmers with cold hands.

-460ƒ: ALL atomic motion stops; Montana people start saying ... "Cold 'nuff for ya?"

-500ƒ: Hell freezes over; the Montana State Bobcats beat the Griz.

The EOS Education Project was selected from among 163 applicants for another NASA grant—this one for $300,000. Called the Earth Sciences Enterprise Grant, this three-year award will be used to market and promote three Earth-system science classes for K-12 students.

Finally, the project will receive $50,000 from the first year of a five-year $5.5 million DOE Technology Challenge Grant, awarded to the University of Idaho in Moscow and Potlatch (Idaho) School District. The grant provides teacher training in advanced technologies for the classroom. UM will provide satellite data and imagery to highlight the historic trek of the Corps of Discovery.

Requiem for a Philosopher & a President
Two well-known and loved Montana leaders died in late December—UM philosophy Professor Emeritus Henry Bugbee and Michael Malone, president of Montana State University.

Bugbee, as renowned for his fly-fishing technique as his philosophical insights, died December 18 in Missoula at age 84. Considered a beacon of intellect and inspiration at UM, where he taught, with some interludes, from 1957 to 1977, Bugbee was praised as "the ultimate exemplar of the examined life" by Harvard Professor Willard Van Orman Quine.

In gratitude for Bugbee's many contributions to UM, Regents Professor Albert Borgmann established the Bugbee Lecture Endowment in 1989, a staple of UM's spring calendar for eleven years.

"Henry was the only genius I've known firsthand, and there are two kinds of geniuses," Borgmann said. "One kind takes their gifts out on the rest of humanity, and the other is suffused by the grace of their gifts in everything they do. Henry belonged to the latter kind."

Mike Malone, MSU president for nearly ten years, known nationally for his books on Western history, died December 21 in Bozeman of an apparent heart attack. He was 59.

Malone published eight books, including The American West: A Twentieth Century History and The Battle for Butte: Mining and Politics on the Northern Frontier, 1864-1906.

A longtime friend and colleague of Malone's, UM President Dennison eulogized him in the Montana Kaimin: "Mike had a wonderful way of meeting people. He loved to talk, but he listened as well. As he traveled around Montana, he collected stories and material, all of which ultimately enriched the history he wrote. But he wasn't always reporting or recording. He genuinely liked people, especially Montanans who adopted him when he came to MSU in 1967. . . . Mike's untimely death will take much of the joy I found in the healthy competition between our two universities. . . . [It] kept us both on our toes, trying to make certain that we sustained the pace."

In January, the state Board of Regents named former University of Wyoming President Terry P. Roark as temporary president at MSU. He will oversee operations at MSU and the campuses in Billings, Havre and Great Falls until a permanent replacement is named.

Nothing Moot About These Guys
National Moot Court Competition
From Left: Bobbi Frazer, Taryn Stampf & John Mudd
Three UM law students made their university and state proud, to say nothing of their law school, by winning the National Moot Court Competition in New York City in February. The winning team-Taryn Stampfl of Eureka, John Mudd of Missoula and Bobbi Frazer of Plains and Billings—represented the law school at the final competition, triumphing over thirteen teams during four days of elimination rounds.

It wasn't the first national title for the law school. Montana won the moot court championship in 1981. This year's team was coached by Visiting Assistant Professor Larry Howell and Associate Dean Melissa Harrison.

Editor's Notes
This issue of the Montanan was a process of discovery. We shined the spotlight on UM's raison d'etre—its students—and we liked what we saw. We think you will, too.

We're proud to report that five UM students—three writers and two artists—contributed to this issue; it is telling to note that their work is as professionally executed as any found in past issues. Somebody is doing something right.

This issue also features writing by Dan Vichorek, making his debut in this publication by taking us on a wild Amazonian ride, and Patia Stephens, fresh from her CASE college awards for stories and photos in the Fall 1999 Montanan. Terry Brenner contributes a telling student profile story and Jocelyn Siler describes how one becomes a teacher.

You may wonder how the cover happened. "Live" students were recruited from the UC and the Oval in a two-hour period prior to the photo shoot. We were looking for a good cross-section of students; the only prerequisite was that they show up in what they were wearing and be willing to gaze at certain spots on cue for endless minutes. As to the "others," we'll let you speculate . . .

Joan Melcher
Editor
Montanan


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