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Around the Oval

Open Dialogue:

Annual trip gives opposing groups the chance to learn from one another

Eight years ago in the midst of a heated battle between The University of Montana’s Environmental Studies Program and conservative Montana legislators, a congenial meeting between ranchers, miners, a conservative state representative and UM environmental studies students seemed impossible.

But for the past seven years, such meetings have occurred.

These days, students and former UM EVST Professor Tom Roy spend a long weekend each fall with state Representative John Esp (R-Big Timber) learning about ranching and mining in Montana. While they may not agree on all issues, the meetings have produced a mutual respect and opened dialogue between the two groups.

The primary purpose of the trip, Roy says, is to give students a better understanding about what it means to make a living as a rancher or a miner, especially because many EVST students aren’t Montana natives.

During the 2003 Montana legislative session, questions were raised by conservative lawmakers about funding for the EVST program at UM, and Roy was brought in to defend it and address concerns. Esp and Roy met following the legislative session and agreed that many EVST students didn’t have a working understanding of life in rural Montana.

“Our students had no idea what it was like to live in rural Montana or to live off of the land,” Roy says.

Esp invited Roy to bring his students to Big Timber the following fall, and they’ve continued the trip ever since.

“We keep learning from each other,” Esp says about why he continues to find the trips valuable.

Lauren Koshere, a twenty-four-year-old EVST student from Wisconsin, had a chance to make the trip with Roy and eleven others this past October. Going into the trip she was open to whatever experiences she was afforded. “I’m not a Montana native,” she says. “I’m really interested in learning more about ranching and rural Montana lifestyles.”

This year the group toured the East Boulder Mine of the Stillwater Mining Company and met with multiple cattle and sheep ranchers.

Koshere says she learned the most at the East Boulder Mine, where platinum and palladium, which are used to make catalytic converters for automobiles, are produced. She says it was a good reminder that mining is a vital part of the Montana economy.

She says the trip also filled a lot of holes in her knowledge about environmental issues and reminded her of the many things she doesn’t yet know or understand about Montana and the West in general. Koshere acknowledged that policies often affect ranchers and miners differently and says the experience served to temper any immediate reactions she would, as an EVST student, be prone to have toward environmental policy.

“Now when I think or hear of an issue that affects ranchers, I have ranchers in my mind that I’m thinking of,” Koshere says. “I remember the jokes that Rick said or the comments that Bill offered—I think of real people and real families and real places.”

Roy agrees with this sentiment.

“Sometimes it’s so easy to get caught up in the rhetoric of a specific side of an issue—we somehow become detached,” he says. “The trip to Big Timber gives students a chance to put faces on the other side of the issues they’re tackling.”

While students and ranchers may hold differences of opinion, “we have not visited anybody who hasn’t been welcoming and gracious,” Roy says. “It’s not always us versus them. [The trip] has created a chance for dialogue.”

—Colette Maddock

UM Anglers Shine at World Fly-Fishing Championship

Jesse Filingo enrolled at UM for the same reason as many other students, and that’s the incredible fly-fishing western Montana has to offer. While the Bitterroot, the Blackfoot, the Clark Fork, and Rock Creek are what lured Filingo to Missoula, attending UM presented him with an opportunity to fish in a place he’d never dreamed of: Ireland.

Filingo, an environmental studies student from Nashville, Tenn., and University staff member Tony Tomsu teamed up to represent UM at the inaugural World Varsities Fly-Fishing Championship on Lough Corrib in Ireland last August. The Griz duo fared well, placing an impressive third out of fifteen teams in the competition.

“It was incredible,” Filingo says of the trip. “It was my first time out of the country. When we pulled up to the Corrib, it took my breath away. Truly amazing.”

Filingo earned his spot on the UM team by going through a rigorous tryout last spring. The first part was to write an essay about the role fishing has played in his life and how it got him to where he was. The next step was a live casting audition, which took place on a windy day on the Oval. Prospective team members cast—both seated and standing—to Hula Hoop targets that ranged in distance from thirty-five to seventy-five feet away.

“Jesse effectively conveyed the breadth of his fishing experience, as well as his genuine love of fly-fishing,” Tomsu says of Filingo’s performance. “The guy showed he really knows how to fish.”

The catch-and-release competition was held on Lough Corrib, a 44,000-acre body of water in western Ireland. The name of the game was to catch as many fish as possible, the bigger the better. Teams ventured out on a boat with a “gillie,” or boatsman, who was in charge of keeping track of each angler’s haul.

“It was difficult fishing,” Filingo says. “It was completely different from what I’m used to here. There were huge waves. It was almost like fishing in the ocean.”

Tomsu caught three fish on the first day, while Filingo netted two to put the UM squad in fourth place. The second day produced the biggest fish Filingo caught, a twenty-inch brown trout weighing close to three pounds.

“It came out of a wave and just nailed my fly,” Filingo says. “It fought hard, and it was a good battle. But I won.”

Filingo figures that fish jumped the UM squad into third place, besting the likes of the tradition-rich Finnish and Scottish squads, which had current and former members of their national fly-fishing teams competing. Ireland’s Galway Mayo Institute of Technology won the event, while Limerick Institute of Technology, the host team, was second.

David Sutton, a lecturer at LIT who helped organize the competition, says there was no point in staging a world championship without world-class anglers. And he wasn’t disappointed in UM’s offering.

“When we set out on inaugurating this event, what we wanted the most were passionate fishermen to fish on the Corrib so that this unique fishery could be fully appreciated,” Sutton says. “We knew we had to attract a team from the United States’ spiritual home of fly-fishing, and that is Montana.

“It was obvious that they had a great pride in representing the USA, The University of Montana, and fly-fishing in Montana,” Sutton says. “They engaged with every aspect of the competition, and made the most of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Notable and Quotable

Top Obama administration officials, leading scientists, business leaders, and environmental advocates convened at UM in October for the twentieth annual Society of Environmental Journalists conference. The prestigious gathering explored a wide range of environmental and scientific issues and offered training in new media skills for working journalists. Nearly 800 people participated in the conference. Highlights included a tour of Glacier National Park with Jon Jarvis, director of the National Park Service; a plenary session exploring lessons from the Gulf oil spill with Jane Lubchenco, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and a discussion titled The Changing West featuring UM Professor and Nobel laureate Steve Running and Executive Director of the Nez Perce Tribe Rebecca Miles. UM alum Jim Bruggers ’81, M.S. ’87, who serves on the SEJ board of directors, says, “Our members have been telling us they found the conference to be a very rewarding and worthwhile experience. I’m personally so grateful to the leaders at UM who made this conference happen and to those on campus and in the community who supported them.” Bruggers adds: “SEJ conferences are also in the inspiration business—and in that, UM and the larger community also excelled. There is no doubt in my mind that participants went home better equipped to cover the environmental issues of our time, with new sources and new ideas, and with memories of Missoula to last a lifetime.”

UM has been awarded a $1.5 million federal grant to support the preclinical development of low-dose methamphetamine as a treatment to limit the damage caused by traumatic brain injuries. The Department of Defense grant was awarded by the Office of Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs to David Poulsen, a researcher in UM’s Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences. “This grant will help us optimize the dosing regimen and determine the maximum window the drug can be therapeutically applied,” Poulsen says. His research has demonstrated that rats suffering severe traumatic brain injuries show behavioral, cognitive, and neuromotor problems thirty days after the injury. However, injured rats treated with low-dose methamphetamine experience profound improvements. “After thirty days, we can’t differentiate them from normal rats,” he says. “It’s like they never had an injury.” He says the military seeks a drug that can be administered to soldiers exposed to blast-force energy waves from explosions such as those experienced during warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The President’s Perspective

After just three months “on the job” as president of The University of Montana, I am delighted to have the opportunity to share some of my early impressions and the major directions in which we are headed. I have been pleasantly surprised by the tremendous sense of optimism about the University and the outpouring of expressions of interest. In the past several weeks, I have had the opportunity to meet with a wide range of individuals and groups who have a stake in the University. People literally from coast to coast have taken time to convey their thoughts and experiences with me on topics ranging from academics to Grizzly Athletics to facilities. No matter the topic, it is clear that they are grateful for their connection to the University and they see the University as key to the future of our state and nation. I believe few institutions enjoy the intensity of feeling evoked by The University of Montana. The past twenty years of leadership of George M. Dennison have positioned us strongly.

What are the key directions for the future? The University has a broad mission, being one of the few institutions that covers the educational range from two-year through doctoral education. Here are some of the major opportunities we must address: 1) student success: helping to ensure that students who begin their education at UM have a high likelihood of graduating; 2) two-year education: providing an even more responsive and effective College of Technology that can help meet work force needs and give students a cost-effective way of beginning a college education; 3) the baccalaureate experience: restructuring the undergraduate experience to produce the citizens and leaders for the twenty-first century by incorporating greater exposure to the “big questions,” increasing opportunity for “beyond the classroom” learning, and developing more interdisciplinary problem-solving; 4) strategic growth in graduate programs: identifying and resourcing those programs that have high student demand, strong placement opportunities, and capacity to strengthen; 5) research and creative scholarship: building our competitiveness as a research institution and increasing our focus on the application of research through technology transfer; and 6) building one of the most effective learning environments in public higher education with the support of cultural richness, winning athletics, and our stunning environment.

We have much to do, and we will call upon the partnership of all readers of the Montanan. What an exciting time for The University of Montana! I am proud to be a part of its future.

Royce C. Engstrom
President

Odyssey Strikes Up the Band

The UM College of Visual and Performing Arts will Strike Up the Band when Tim Holtan, M.M.E. ’83, returns to campus Saturday, March 19, as the featured guest artist and alumni honoree at Odyssey of the Stars—A Celebration of Artistic Journeys.

Odyssey of the Stars, now in its eleventh year, features UM students and faculty and honors outstanding performing and visual arts alumni, telling the stories of their artistic journeys. This year’s production, Strike Up the Band, begins at 7:30 p.m. in the University Theatre.

In 1983 after earning a Master of Music Education degree at UM, Holtan became director of bands at Great Falls High School, a position he held for five years. In 1988 he was accepted into the U.S. Army band program and began a career filled with many prestigious military assignments that would take him all over the world.

Holtan now picks up his conductor’s baton as Lt. Col. Timothy J. Holtan, commandant of the U.S. Army School of Music, a position he assumed in July 2010 after serving five years as the leader of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point.

An active conductor, adjudicator, and clinician, he has presented concerts and clinics in forty states, Canada, Japan, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Europe. His ensembles have been seen on national network television broadcasts and have performed on diverse stages such as the Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall, DAR Constitution Hall, the Mormon Tabernacle, and the Myerson Symphony Center.

Odyssey of the Stars, an evening of entertainment spotlighting UM students studying music, art, theater and dance, and media arts, benefits the College of Visual and Performing Arts scholarship fund. For ticket and sponsorship information, call 406-243-4971.

Horizon Air’s UM-Themed Plane Takes Flight

It’s a bird! It’s Superman! No, it’s a maroon and silver University of Montana-themed plane!

If you live in Canada, Mexico, or anywhere in between, there’s a chance you’ve recently looked up to the sky and exclaimed these exact words. That’s because a freshly painted Horizon Air Q400 turboprop with a Griz theme took to the skies in late November, and it stops in many of the forty-five cities Horizon serves throughout the western United States, including—that’s right—Bozeman.

To celebrate the plane’s unveiling, UM, the Missoula International Airport, and Horizon Air held a tailgate party November 19 at the airport. When the aircraft arrived from Seattle, UM mascot Monte rolled out a Griz-themed carpet to welcome all passengers, including UM Executive Vice President Jim Foley and his wife, Julie, and Dan Russo, Horizon’s vice president of marketing and communications. The pep band played “Up With Montana” as they exited the plane.

UM Bee Researchers Find Major New Suspect for CCD

UM honeybee researchers and their partners recently discovered a one-two punch combination that may cause Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious malady that is depopulating beehives around the globe.

UM biology Research Professor Jerry Bromenshenk says his research group has learned that a honeybee virus previously unknown to North America, as well as a fungal pathogen, were found in all their samples collected at hives afflicted by CCD from 2006 to 2009. Those two pathogens were not found in the control groups—colonies with no history of CCD in Montana and Australia.

“We truly don’t know if these two pathogens cause CCD or whether the colonies with CCD are more likely to succumb to these two pathogens,” Bromenshenk says. “It’s a work in progress, but it may be the most important advance in the search for the cause of CCD in the previous three years.”

The research was published in October in PLoS ONE, a scientific journal found online at www.plosone.org.

The story created quite the media buzz. It was featured on the front page of The New York Times and Missoulian newspapers, as well as in a segment on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

The first of the suspect pathogens, insect iridescent virus (IIV), is similar to a virus first reported in India twenty years ago, as well as a virus found in moths. It afflicts the abdomens of bees and is called iridescent because infected host tissues may take on a bluish-green or purplish hue.

The fungus is called Nosema ceranae. With this pathogen, the bee ingests spores that allow the fungus to spread in the gut. Either the iridescent virus or the fungus by itself can make bees sick, but together they might be too much for most bee colonies.

“From our data, there seems to be a correlation between the presence of these two pathogens together,” says Robert Cramer, a research partner and fungal pathologist at Montana State University. “We envision the bee gets an infection from one or the other, and this causes the bees to become stressed, which then allows the second infection to come in and more effectively cause disease.”

Bromenshenk says most researchers worldwide investigating the cause of CCD studied RNA viruses associated with honeybees. The insect iridescent virus his team correlated with the disorder is a DNA virus.

“This is a fundamental difference that takes CCD research in a whole new direction,” he says.

The research group’s samples of ground-up honeybees were analyzed at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, a U.S. Army-backed laboratory based at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. Edgewood has developed a liquid-chromatograph proteomics mass-spectrometry device, which identified and quantified as many as 30,000 proteins in each sample. This voluminous dataset revealed the iridescent virus and fungus were present in all CCD samples.

The team of UM bee specialists and MSU fungal pathologists eventually grew to include insect virus specialists at Texas Tech University and the Instituto de Ecologia, A.C., in Mexico. Much of the work was done at Bee Alert Technology Inc. in Missoula, a private company Bromenshenk and his partners started that licenses honeybee technologies discovered at UM.

Where’s Your GRIZ Been?

MARK BELLIS ’05 proudly dons his Griz jacket on a recent visit to the Galapagos Islands. The bird next to him is a blue-footed booby. “It was the most incredible trip of my life so far,” Bellis says. “I even celebrated my fiftieth birthday while I was there. Go Griz!”

Congratulations, Mark. You have won a $50 gift card for The Bookstore at UM.

Do you have a photo of yourself wearing your Griz gear in an amazing place or while on an incredible adventure? If so, send it along with a brief description to: themontanan@umontana.edu. Winners will see their photo published in the Montanan and will receive a $50 gift card to The Bookstore at UM. To be considered, photos must be in focus with the UM or Griz logo clearly visible.

UM Elects to Remain in Big Sky Conference

The University of Montana is staying put.

President Royce Engstrom announced in November that Grizzly Athletics will stay in the Big Sky Conference and the Football Championship Subdivision. University officials had the opportunity to consider a move to the Western Athletic Conference of the Football Bowl Subdivision.

“It was a complex issue with many pros and cons,” says Engstrom. “In the end, the better course is to stay with the conference we helped establish in 1963 and to continue building on its solid foundation.”

Engstrom says three principles guided his decision. First, he wanted to maintain the cross-state rivalry between UM and Montana State, which he regards as essential to the state’s cultural fabric. The two institutions played their first college football rivalry game in 1897. Now nicknamed the Brawl of the Wild, it’s the fourth-oldest active rivalry in the FCS and the oldest west of the Mississippi River.

Second, Engstrom wanted UM to compete with more mission-similar institutions. He says the addition of the University of North Dakota strengthened the Big Sky Conference in that regard.

Finally, he wanted to ensure that UM athletic teams can compete successfully and maintain the prestige and integrity the program has demonstrated over the years.

“At this time, FCS football presents the best overall fit for the University, it provides our student-athletes and fans with a great experience, and it is consistent with the strategic direction of the University,” Engstrom says.

“I agree this is the best course for The University of Montana at this particular time,” UM Athletic Director Jim O’Day says. “Right now, Grizzly Athletics needs to concentrate on building its athletics infrastructure. That should be our top priority and where we should be allocating our energy.”

UM will compete in an expanded Big Sky Conference starting in 2012. On November 1, UND and Southern Utah University accepted invitations to become core members of the conference. California Polytechnic State University and the University of California, Davis, also joined the conference in recent months as affiliate members for football.

“We are thrilled that The University of Montana has decided to stay in the Big Sky Conference,” says league commissioner Doug Fullerton. “Montana’s athletics programs have flourished in the Big Sky Conference, and its football program is the standard bearer in the Football Championship Subdivision. Our presidents have a vision for the future of the Big Sky, and I thank Dr. Engstrom for helping define and believing in that vision.”

Chase Reynolds: By the Numbers

His college career may not have had the ending he wanted, but Chase Reynolds will go down in Griz lore as one of the best running backs to ever play at UM. He battled numerous injuries during the 2010 season, when the Griz finished 7-4 under first-year head coach Robin Pflugrad and missed the playoffs. Reynolds, who hails from Drummond, was a bright spot for the Grizzlies and left his mark on UM’s record book. Here’s a look at a few of his statistics:

59: Career touchdowns for Reynolds, a UM record 52: Career rushing touchdowns for Reynolds, also a UM record 2: Steve Carlson Awards, given to the most valuable player of the Griz 4,067: Career rushing yards gained by Reynolds, three shy of the UM record set by Yohance Humphrey from 1998 to 2001

UM Harriers Claim First Big Sky Title Since 1984

The UM women’s cross country team won the Big Sky Conference championship in October, the school’s first title since 1984. The Grizzlies became the first team other than Northern Arizona University or Weber State University to win the championship since 1995.

Senior Katrina Drennen paced UM, taking second place in a time of 15 minutes, 51 seconds in the five-kilometer race. Drennen, whose father, Scott, also ran at UM, placed in the top three in the Big Sky Championships for the third consecutive season. Keli Dennehy, a freshman from Butte, earned All-Big Sky honors with a fourth-place finish.

UM coach Courtney Babcock, who is in her third year leading the Griz, was named the Big Sky Conference Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year. The award was based on voting by league coaches.

Holding Court: UM Student Interns with Boston Celtics

Nick Ferrington calls the whole thing a surreal experience.

He went Christmas shopping with Shaquille O’Neal. He interviewed Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and other NBA stars. He was right in the action when LeBron James and the Miami Heat were in town to open the season.

Surreal? Yes. But such is life for an intern with the storied Boston Celtics.

Ferrington, 24, is a UM student from Whitefish who will graduate in May with a B.A. in communication studies, a certificate in entertainment management, and a minor in media arts. His career goal is to land a full-time gig working for an NBA team, and he’s getting the hands-on experience he needs to make it a reality.

“My responsibilities vary,” Ferrington says. “I help put media packets together, check in the media before the games and get their credentials, answer questions. And when games are over, I go into the locker rooms and get quotes from the players and distribute them to the media.”

He also got to help O’Neal—who was dressed as Santa Claus—shop for presents at Toys R Us to donate to Toys for Tots.

Ferrington calls the home opening game against the Miami Heat one of the highlights of his internship.

“I can honestly say that when LeBron James was announced, the booing from the Celtics fans was one of the loudest things I’ve ever heard,” he says. “It was almost traumatizing to hear.”

Ferrington landed the job with the help of Cheryl Minnick, internship coordinator at UM.

“This is unlike anything I’ve ever done before,” Ferrington says, “and a lot of it has to do with the help Cheryl gave me. She’s an invaluable tool, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity.”

Business Students Get Chance to Grill Warren Buffett

When Daniel Byrd, a student in UM’s School of Business Administration, has the chance to ask Warren Buffett any question he wants, he’s not going to waste the opportunity.

“I would ask him to give advice on what he would recommend for any young business professional entering the world of business today,” he says.

Byrd is one of twenty Master of Business Administration and Master of Accountancy students who will travel to Omaha, Neb., in March to meet the legendary investor. While there, students will engage with Buffett during an extended question-and-answer session and also tour two Berkshire Hathaway subsidiaries.

Buffett personally extended the invitation to UM students in September at the Montana Economic Development Summit in Butte, where he addressed more than 2,000 Montanans as the keynote speaker.

“While the most important things in life aren’t about money, UM’s business plan competition and entrepreneurship programs are preparing these students to be successful and to be competitive,” Buffett says. “UM really has a first-class business school and M.B.A. program. I look forward to meeting these bright students in person.”

Buffett’s positive impression of the business school originated through his interactions with Montana Senator Max Baucus and J.J. Adams, who received his M.B.A. at UM and is currently the economic development adviser for the Senate Finance Committee, which Baucus chairs.

Those selected for the opportunity are strong students committed to building a career for themselves, says UM Associate Professor Simona Stan, director of the M.B.A. program.

To prepare for the trip, participants enrolled in a specialized spring semester M.B.A. elective course on business strategy. Six guest speakers will present different perspectives on the world of Buffett, Stan says.

“[The students] did extensive research, educated themselves about Buffett, and have very positive personalities,” Stan says.

The selection process required applicants to provide a brief proposal on how they plan to use the knowledge they gain on the trip to give back to the community. After the trip, each participant will be required to disseminate the information to the rest of the community in some way.

“We chose students who are socially involved and care about the community," Stan says.

Masterworks Exhibit a Smashing Success

Missoula residents and visitors to UM are taking advantage of the rare opportunity to view paintings by some of the world’s most prominent artists. Renior, Magritte, Gaugin, and Other Masterpieces from a Private Collection is on display in the Montana Museum of Art & Culture at UM through March 12.

The exhibition features works from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century by renowned artists Alexander Archipenko, Rosa Bonheur, William Bouguereau, Max Ernst, Paul Gaguin, René Magritte, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, George Romney, Théo van Rysselberghe, and John William Waterhouse.

More than 500 people attended the opening reception on November 12, and seventy to eighty people have visited the exhibit each day since then.

MMAC has had an overwhelmingly positive response since the exhibition opened. People have commented that the exhibit “raises the cultural bar for Missoula and Montana.”

“I feel like I’m in London or Rome,” another viewer of the exhibition says.

And rightly so.

Featured works include three portraits by Renoir, which provide compelling evidence of the evolution of his styles throughout his lifetime; Romney’s romantic painting of Emma Hart, a woman considered one of the most beguiling beauties of the mid-1700s; and Bonheur’s double-portrait of her favorite pet stag.

In addition to the masterpiece exhibition, Three Centuries of European Prints, a collection of works from MMAC’s Permanent Collection, are on view in the museum’s Paxson Gallery. These prints were drawn from the same time period as the masterworks, and have never before been displayed at UM.

“We are incredibly heartened by the response to the print collection also on view,” says MMAC Director Barbara Koostra.

Extended gallery hours for the exhibitions are from noon to 3 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, and from noon to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday.

—Colette Maddock

The Bottom Line:

#23

UM's spot on The Daily Beast's second annual Top 50 Safest Colleges list (458 U.S. schools were considered for the ranking)

161,246

Number of community service hours UM students completed during the 2009-10 academic year

15,642

Record number of students enrolled at UM during autumn semester 2010, topping last year’s mark by 721 students

9

Number of former Montana Grizzlies on National Football League teams

2

Number of wins the UM men's basketball team posted over Pac-10 foes in December

"What I’ve found is that it’s not just Griz Nation where I have traveled...it is Griz World!” writes Captain Tyson Frost from Afghanistan, where he is a pilot with the Air National Guard’s 141st Air Refueling Wing, based at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Wash. “Frosty” grew up the son of a UM graduate in Great Falls and describes himself as “a super-big Griz fan ever since childhood.” He recently completed his 100th combat sortie. “I have two Griz hats that I always wear underneath my headset on each combat sortie,” Frost says. “It brings me luck.”"

Former UM student Johnathon Crowe and his fellow Griz fans posed for this picture in the Tangi Valley of Afghanistan, where they are stationed with the Montana National Guard’s 230th Vertical Engineers unit. The 230th was deployed in January 2010 and missed the most recent football season, but they cheered on the Griz from afar. From left to right: Keith Dietz (kneeling), Mitchell Cales, Francisco Morazan, Donald Chaney, Lawrence Gregg, Johnathon Crowe, Kristopher Krause.

U.S. Navy pilot Michael Molloy of Missoula is stationed in Bahrain with the Helicopter Sea Combat Two Six (HSC-26) Chargers, Detachment One, also known as the Desert Hawks. Mike’s sister, Brynn, who works at UM, says he’s a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy but “comes from generations of UM grads and is a diehard Griz fan.”

Meet Grizwald

Meet Grizwald, The University of Montana’s cartoon bear. In the fall 2010 issue of the Montanan, we asked readers to submit captions interpreting Grizwald’s actions in a humorous way. This issue’s winning caption was sent in by LISA M. BORELLI ’00. Congratulations, Lisa, you’ve won a Griz stadium blanket. Stay tuned! In an upcoming issue of the Montanan, a new cartoon featuring Grizwald will need a caption. You could be the next winner!

Facetime: Molly Moon Neitzel ’01

After graduating from UM in 2001 with a degree in journalism, Molly Moon Neitzel’s career path ran the gamut—from fundraising and event planning to a stint as executive director for a national nonprofit and then as campaign manager for Seattle Democrat Dow Constantine. Absolutely nothing pointed to a career in ice cream. Nothing on the surface, that is. Everything inside, though, including a childhood spent at the local ice cream shop with her grandpa, and her college years spent working at the Big Dipper in Missoula, prepared her for the biggest—and most ambitious—career move of her life. She would own an ice cream empire in Seattle, the city that consumes the third-largest amount of ice cream in the country. Granted, she didn’t know it would become an empire. She thought she’d be making the ice cream herself and would have seven scoopers. Now, forty-seven employees, a truck, two stores (with a third on the way), and an upcoming cookbook later, rising to the top has become a sweet reality.

When did your love affair with ice cream officially begin? Growing up I was allowed to have an ice cream cone every day in the summer. My grandparents owned a bar in Boise, and they would go there every morning to collect the bank deposit and vacuum the floors. In the summer they took care of me a lot. We’d go to the grocery store every day, and my grandpa and I would go to the deli counter and get an ice cream cone. He would get strawberry, and I’d get something with chocolate. Then we’d go home and have lunch.

Did you have any experience before you opened your first shop? The summer of my freshman year, I worked at Goody’s Goodies in Boise. I learned how to make caramel corn and was a scooper. I also played guitar on the patio every Thursday night. When I came back to school sophomore year, I got a job at the Big Dipper and worked there three years. I learned everything there was to learn about running an ice cream shop from Charlie Beaton ’91. He was this rad, punk rock guy. I thought it was pretty cool he’d gotten a business degree and wanted to go and make ice cream. I was the first person he taught his recipes to, and I felt pretty proud of that. When I became the student body president, I didn’t have a lot of time, and I’m pretty sure Charlie fired me. I don’t know if he remembers, but I think it’s funny. Seven years later, I called him and asked him to help me open an ice cream shop, and he did.

In 2003 you ran the nonprofit Music for America. How did that happen? While in Montana, I ended up marrying my favorite musician in town, and he wanted to move to Seattle. I got a job as a fundraiser and event planner for the University of Washington’s School of Medicine during 2001-03. Being married to a musician, I was really involved in the Seattle music community. In 2003 I got really passionate about the Howard Dean campaign and found a bunch of guys in Brooklyn who started Music for America. I asked if I could run their West Coast chapter and throw concerts for Howard Dean in Seattle to raise awareness about voting. I was still working full time as a fundraiser.

A Silicon Valley venture capitalist heard about us and flew us to his house. We spent a weekend brainstorming what Music for America would look like if it were a big national organization. He said he’d give us the money so we could make a difference in the 2004 presidential election, but only if I was the executive director. I was blown away. I wanted to be the West Coast events director, but when I got the offer, I quit my job. We opened offices in Seattle, San Francisco, and New York, and hired staff in thirteen swing states. We ran a really amazing campaign and partnered with more than 300 bands to register their fans to vote. We had 90,000 volunteers. We were exhausted for a long time. The day Bush won in 2004, I felt like I lost the election. I also filed for divorce. I totally uprooted my life. To keep the organization going, I had to start a huge fundraising campaign. After the 2006 midterm elections, I was burnt out and felt like it was time to do something else.

Ice cream was the next logical step? It took six years after I graduated college and had a career in politics to say screw that, I want to make ice cream. After the election in 2006, I started thinking I wanted to own an ice cream shop. And I wanted a business that embodied all of my political values but also profited. I ran Dow Constantine’s 2007 campaign and worked for a city councilwoman while writing a business plan for an ice cream company. I felt like ice cream was the only thing I knew anything about other than politics and music. I didn’t want another political job. Seattle didn’t have anything like the Big Dipper. I wanted to do it right—with all my green, sustainable, and local values. I wrote the plan with a budget to pay everyone 100 percent of their health insurance. I thought it might be hard to make a living, but I didn’t have anything to lose. In the fall of 2007, I asked friends and colleagues to invest. I raised $250,000 in six weeks. People liked the business plan. We started construction in 2008 on my birthday, January 7.

When did you realize this was going to be a success? On our first day, we had a line down the street, around the corner, down that block, to the next corner. I have five people working full time making ice cream in the summer. It’s massive, and I had no idea.

Why do you think your concept was so well received? There were no gourmet ice cream shops in Seattle. There wasn’t the use of organic, local ingredients. A lot of creativity and spontaneity goes into our menu. We work off the seasonality of Seattle. We get on the phone with farmers and then make stuff based on what they have. Every two weeks we have something new.

We use local, reclaimed wood in our decor. The counters are made of recycled materials, and all the paper products are compostable. The spoons are biodegradable.

I was trying to influence political actions through music, but now I feel like I’m meeting people’s political and social needs. I’m meeting a need that wasn’t met before. A big part of my intent is to show the business community that you can do all the right things and still make money.

—Interview by Stefanie Ellis

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