Dale Brandt (J70) of Sheboygan, Wis., owner of the Book Store, wrote his second book, A Pool Player’s Journey: A Product of the Funky Donkey Pool Project (Vantage Press, 2005), which describes the journey to self-improvement while in a personal journey through the subculture surrounding competitive pool.

Robert R. Frump (GJ70) of Summit, N.J., wrote The Man-Eaters of Eden — Life and Death in Kruger National Park (Lyons Press, 2006), based on an investigative safari he took while traveling through South Africa. Editor in chief at Merrill Lynch, he is in charge of all editorial material and publishes magazines, newsletters and web material for the financial services company.

Lyda Phillips (WCAS70) of Silver Spring, Md., a reporter for the Bureau of National Affairs in Washington, D.C., published two young-adult novels, Mr. Touchdown (iUniverse, 2005), the story of desegregation of a Southern high school in 1965, and Peace I Ask of Thee, Oh River (iUniverse, 2005), the tale of tragic consequences of bullying at a girls’ camp.

David J. Skorton (WCAS70, FSM74) of Iowa City, a cardiologist, became president of Cornell University in July. At the University of Iowa he focused on cardiac imaging, computer image processing and congenital heart disease in adults. He also plays the saxophone and flute. He received a Northwestern Alumni Association Merit Award in April (see "Grand Gathering," Fall 2006).

Robert M. Barrows (C71) of San Mateo, Calif., president of the advertising and public relations firm R.M. Barrows Inc. in Burlingame, ran for Congress in the Democratic primary in the 12th Congressional District of California in June.

Susan J. Rasmussen (WCAS71) of Houston, professor of anthropology at the University of Houston, wrote Those Who Touch: Tuareg Medicine Women in Anthropological Perspective (Northern Illinois University Press, 2006). The book deals with the female-dominated practice of herbalism in seminomadic Muslim communities of Tuareg.

Paul Douglass (WCAS72) of Lithonia, Ga., chief of the division of cardiology, director of cardiovascular services and chair of the hospital board at Atlanta Medical Center, was elected to the board of trustees of the American College of Cardiology in the spring. He serves as president and governor of the Georgia chapter of the American College of Cardiology.

Jeff Ravitz (C72) of Studio City, Calif., principal partner at Visual Terrain, designed the lighting for the television videotaping of Megaton 2005, produced by the Spanish Broadcasting System with a DVD release planned for 2006. He has received two Emmy Awards and four nominations for his design work. Recent projects include Neil Young’s Prairie Wind filming for Paramount and Bill Maher’s HBO special I’m Swiss.

Diane Balin (GSESP73, G84) of Riverside, Ill., began a new career in January as Cook County District 2 coordinator with the University of Illinois Extension.

Craig T. Boyd (L73, KSM73) of Winnetka, Ill., became deputy general counsel and assistant secretary of IDEX Corp. in Northbrook in March. He serves as the primary contact for the company’s business units.

Joseph E. Gadbois (GJ73) of Milwaukee is vice president of fraternal services of Catholic Family Life Insurance. He was installed as president of the fraternal section of the National Fraternal Congress of America, a trade association in Oak Brook, Ill., in March. He now oversees membership development programs for some 53,000 members in 77 chapters.

Edith Eileen Gardner (WCAS73) of Suffern, N.Y., is professor of biology at William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J. She has been chair of the biology department since 2002.

Walter D. Jones (C73) of Wellesley, Mass., was appointed to the board of trustees of the Christian Science Publishing Society, publisher of the Christian Science Monitor and other web sites and magazines. He also is a member of the Christian Science board of directors and a trustee of the Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity.

Patricia Young Lee (G73) of Honolulu received a 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Hawaii and the University of Hawaii Alumni Association in May. She is a trusts and estates attorney at Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel. She has been recognized in every edition of Best Lawyers in America since 1995. She also serves as honorary consul of France in Honolulu and received the Ordre National du Mérite from the French government for her service to the French community in Hawaii.

Ronald H. Nowaczyk (WCAS73) of Seneca, S.C., became dean of the college of arts and sciences at the University of New Haven in July. Previously he was associate vice chancellor for economic and community development and professor of psychology at East Carolina University, where he had also served as chair of the psychology department.

Mary Jo Potter (GSESP73) of Walnut Creek, Calif., a nationally recognized compliance and governance expert, is managing partner and CEO of HighperLink, an international human capital management consulting firm in San Francisco. She was appointed to a three-year term on the board of directors for Christus Health in Dallas beginning Jan. 1.

Ron Sellke (WCAS73, GSESP74) of Evanston and his wife, Linda LaBuda, will begin new teaching careers at the American International School in Vienna, Austria, in the fall. He retired from teaching mathematics at Evanston Township High School after 33 years.

Roger Cohen (J74) of Vienna, Va., became executive vice president of state legislative affairs for the Community Financial Services Association of America in Alexandria in February.

Hoyt Harris (GJ74) of Lafayette, La., anchor at KATC-TV 3, covered Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita for the station. During live coverage, which the station streamed on its web site, he and fellow staffers received e-mails from Nigeria, Malaysia, Iraq and other countries. Six months later he says, "Louisiana may be down, but it’s not out."

David A. Katz (C74, GC75) of Vestal, N.Y., rabbi at Temple Concord in Binghamton, received the honorary doctorate of divinity from the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in May. He was honored for 25 years of service to the Jewish community. In 2004–05 he was senior scholar in residence at Wagner College.

Bonnie Frieders Barber (WCAS75, G76) of Barrington, Ill., senior reinsurance accountant at Kemper Insurance Cos., was appointed president of the Butler University parent council for the 2006–07 academic year. Her son is a student at Butler.

Thomas A. Barthold (WCAS75, G75) of Layhill, Md., was named deputy chief of staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation in the U.S. Congress in July 2004. He has been acting chief of staff since November 2005 while the committee chair searches for a permanent replacement.

Darryl Konter (C75) of Atlanta is director of media relations at KEF Media Associates.

Michael McCormick (WCAS75) of Burr Ridge, Ill., became a partner at the law firm of Litchfield Cavo in Chicago in March, concentrating his practice in litigation. He is the father of four children, Patrick, Kevin, Brian and Kelly.

Nancy Karp Warshawsky (WCAS75) of New Hope, Pa., moved to Pennsylvania from New Jersey in 2005 and is busy getting her two children settled in school. She would love to hear from Northwestern alumni in her area.

Kathryn McAuliffe Duda (SCS76) of Naperville, Ill., worked as a staffing coordinator in information technology for 12 years. She also has worked in marketing communications, writing and advertising. Her twin sons graduated from college in spring 2006.

Lesley Gordon-Mountian (WCAS76) of San Francisco was promoted to director and named head of client development activities for BNP Paribas in the United States.

John J. Kula (GMu76) of Mount Prospect, Ill., is an engineering designer at the Walgreens corporate headquarters. He is the choir director and organist at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Glenview. He self-published a series of musical psalm settings for liturgical use. He is also musical director for various community theater productions and pianist for the Gold Coast Trio. He and his wife, Karen, have a son, Kevin.

Jeffrey Manber (WCAS76) of Alexandria, Va., co-wrote
Lincoln’s Wrath (Sourcebooks, 2005), which explores the antiwar newspapers shut down by President Lincoln and his administration.

Michael Stolarski (WCAS76) of River Forest, Ill., joined Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione in the area of intellectual property licensing, asset and risk management and patent portfolio valuation.

Euris E. Belle (WCAS77) of Atlanta was promoted to principal at Heidrick & Struggles International, a senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services firm, after serving in both business development and search execution roles. She is a member of the firm’s diversity services practice and a member of the education and nonprofit practice.

Kathleen Myler Drummond (J77) of Solana Beach, Calif., became West regional leader for the change implementation practice of Towers Perrin, a global human resources consulting firm.

Sharon Watson Fluker (G77, 82) of Atlanta became vice president for doctoral programs and administration for the Fund for Theological Education, a national advocate for excellence and diversity in Christian ministry. 

Alan Hirsch (KSM77) of Sacramento received the National Arbor Day Foundation’s 2005 Lawrence Enersen Award for lifetime achievement for his efforts organizing neighborhood tree plantings in Sacramento, where he lives with his wife, Vera, and 3-year-old daughter, Rebecca.

William Marianes (WCAS77) of Tucker, Ga., lawyer, joined the international law firm McGuireWoods in March 2005 as a partner in charge of the corporate practice in its Atlanta office. He was included in Best Lawyers in America, and he was also named a "Georgia Super Lawyer" by Atlanta Magazine and one of Georgia Trend magazine’s "Legal Elite."

Michael Petzar (WCAS77) of Sunnyvale, Calif., is a clinical assistant professor in the pathology department at Stanford University, where he is medical director for point-of-care testing as well as the Salinas satellite laboratory. He also is part of the hematopathology service and is associate director for the clinical hematology laboratory and coagulation laboratories. He recently completed a fellowship in transfusion medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

M. Giedre Zumbakis (G77) of Lemont, Ill., was one of eight University Club members to display her artwork in the club’s March Member Art Show.

Meredith A. Cline (C78) of Key Largo, Fla., escorted her nephew to White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, where they went sand sledding.

David Friendly (J78) of Beverly Hills, Calif., was one of five producers of the film Little Miss Sunshine, which sold at Sundance in January for $10 million. He also co-produced Big Momma’s House 2. He gave George Clooney some input on the early version of the script for the movie Good Night and Good Luck, about his father, renowned news producer Fred Friendly.

Frank Malec (WCAS78, KSM80) of North Royalton, Ohio, president and chief operating officer of Enterprise Information Services in Akron, was one of 10 Benedictine High School graduates inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame/Hall of Honors in March. He recently served one term as president of the Benedictine Alumni Association board of directors.

Miriam Conrad (J79) of Brookline, Mass., was named to a four-year term as federal public defender for Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Her term began in October 2005. She supervises 17 lawyers who represent indigent criminal defendants in federal court. She and her husband, Edward, are the parents of twin boys, Matthew and Joseph.

Antonia Contro (WCAS79) of Chicago, an artist, exhibited the site-specific installation Closed and Open: Antonia Contro at the Newberry Library in May. Her work juxtaposes recognizable images in ways that take them out of the realm of the ordinary, mixing traditional media such as drawing and photography with audio tracks and found objects.

Steven D. "Steve" Drury (D79) of Highlands Ranch, Colo., became the owner of Focused Directions, a firm that provides business consulting and executive coaching to professionals and executives throughout the United States.

Kerin Hagan (C79) of Providence works for the Rhode Island public defender with criminally charged indigent clients, doing substance abuse and mental health assessments and referrals as well as writing capital mitigation reports. Previously she provided psychiatric social work services to seriously mentally ill adults in Illinois, Wisconsin, Montana and Connecticut.

Kevin McVary (WCAS79, FSM83, GFSM89) of Golf, Ill., was recently promoted to professor of urology at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Stuart E. Palmer  (L79) of Chicago has been a Cook County Circuit Court judge since 1994.  Last December he was assigned to the Chancery Division after serving 11 years with the Criminal Division.

Bernard E. Thompson (L79) of Annandale, Va., now serves as a part-time special investigator for the FBI. He retired from the FBI in December 2000 as a supervisory special agent and attorney.

Michael H. Zaransky (L79) of Glenview, Ill., a 25-year real estate veteran and co-CEO of Prime Property Investors in Chicago, wrote Profit by Investing in Student Housing: Cash in on the Campus Housing Shortage (Kaplan Business, 2006). He is an active member in several trade organizations and has published several articles on investment in real estate and student housing.