SEARCHING FOR BIGFOOT FALL 2009 O < a < a place of mind GENETIC KNO1 UNTANGLED FROM HERE. / ^\\ ■ Mi. :*%*wl^S ^2f It takes big-sky thinking to discover potential cancer treatments, pain medications or cleaner fuels. UBC consistently ranks among the best in the world for the way it translates research results into new therapies and products, thanks to a bold spirit of innovation. The approach has created 137 spin-off companies and products that have generated more than $5 billion in sales. And UBC is among the first universities to commit to ensuring new technologies reach the developing world. That is big-sky thinking, with a big heart. UBC I a place of mind 7reiP TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 Take Note 12 Letters to the Editor 14 Combing the Cosmos: Searching for the Origins of the Universe bvmaryveidman,bsc'86 Launched this spring, the Planck and Herschel research satellites are expected to revolutionize modern astronomy. 17 Footprints and Fables: John Green's Half-Century Hunt for Bigfoot ByDonWeiis,BA'89 Newspaper journalist, author, publisher, businessman, politician, competitive sailor, boat builder, husband, father, community service leader and sasquatch investigator. Meet John Green, wearer of many hats. 20 From Hugs to Hazing: A History of Student Orientation Often a reflection of the times, student orientation has taken different forms at UBC over the past century. 24 Literati Party: Alumni Achievement Awards 2009 This annual highlight of the campus calendar was inspiring, stylish and fun. 31 UBC and the Olympics Learning: UBC is encouraging provocative questions about Olympics and society. Be there: Enter to win a pair of free Olympic hockey or sledge hockey tickets. 32 Prelude to a Dream Career By David Gordon Duke, bmus>7i Kevin Zakresky is set to rock the world of choral music. 34 The BOyS Of War By Bob Bagnall, BASc(Cwil)'49 Seventy years ago war was declared. Sixty years ago the class of '49 graduated. In between, 65 young men completed an intense year of study at UBC before serving in WWII. 36 Alumni News 38 Class Acts 42 Books 44 T-Bird News 47 In Memoriam Cover image: In May, an Ariane 5 rocket carrying the Herschel and Planck satellite pair lifted off from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana (see page 14). Photo (detail): ESA - S. Corvaja. EDITOR IN CHIEF Christopher Petty, MFA'86 MANAGING EDITOR Vanessa Clarke, BA ART DIRECTOR Keith Leinweber, BDes CONTRIBUTORS Michael Awmack, Ba'oi, MET'09 Adrienne Watt BOARD OF DIRECTORS CHAIR Ian Robertson, BSc'86, BA'88, MA, MBA VICE CHAIR Miranda Lam, LLB'02. treasurer Robin Elliott, BCoM'65 MEMBERS-AT-LARGE (07-10) Don Dalik, BCom, LLB'76 Dallas Leung, BCoM'94 MEMBERS-AT-LARGE (08-11) Brent Cameron, BA, MBA'06 Marsha Walden, BCom'So Ernest Yee, BA'83, MA'87 MEMBERS AT LARGE '09-'12 Aderita Guerreiro, BA'77 Mark Mawhinney, BA'94 PAST CHAIR (09-10) Doug Robinson, BCoM'71, LLB'72. SENIOR ADMINISTRATION REP (09-10) Stephen Owen, MBA, LLB'72, LLM Brian Sullivan, AB, MPH AMS REP (09-10) Tom Dvorak CONVOCATION SENATE REP (09-10) Chris Gorman, BA'99, MBA'09 YOUNG ALUMNI REP (08-09) Carmen Lee, BA'01 OKANAGAN REP (08-09) Catherine Comben, BA'67 APPOINTMENT TO BOARD (09-10) Ian Warner, BCoM'69 Rod Hoffmeister, BA'67 Judy Rogers, BRE'71 Jim Southcott BCoM'82 EX-OFFICIO PRESIDENT, UBC Stephen Toope, ab, llb and bcl, phd PRESIDENT'S DESIGNATE Barbara Miles, ba, postgrad certificate in ed. CHANCELLOR, UBC Sarah Morgan-Silvester, BCOM'82 ASSOCIATE VP, ALUMNI / EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Marie Earl, ab, mla Trek Magazine (formerly the UBC Alumni Chronicle) is published three times a year by the UBC Alumni Association and distributed free of charge to UBC alumni and friends. Opinions expressed in the magazine do not necessarily reflect the views of the Alumni Association or the university. Address correspondence to: The Editor, UBC Alumni Affairs, 6251 Cecil Green Park Road, Vancouver, bc, Canada v6t izi e-mail to chris.petty@ubc.ca Letters published at the editor's discretion and may be edited for space. Contact the editor for advertising rates. CONTACT NUMBERS AT UBC Address Changes via e-mail Alumni Association toll free Trek Editor UBC Info Line Belkin Gallery Bookstore Chan Centre Frederic Wood Theatre Museum of Anthropology Volume 64, Number 3 I Printed i: 604.822.8921 alumni.association@ubc.ca 604.822.3313 800.883.3088 604.822.8914 604.822.4636 604.822.2759 604.822.2665 604.822.2697 604.822.2678 604.822.5087 Canada by Mitchell Press Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40063528 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Records Department UBC Development Office Suite 500 5950 University Boulevard Vancouver, bc v6t IZ3 Fall 2009 Trek 3 NICELY FOLDED LAUNDRY, HIGH ACHIEVEMENT AND THE NATURE OF GREATNESS. A few weeks ago, I had occasion to use a laundromat. I don't know what the situation is in your part of the world, but here in Vancouver laundromats are quickly becoming anachronisms. But my washer was dead, so I went looking. The only laundromat within a mile of my house was a broken down old place on the Burnaby-New Westminster border. I dragged my three bags inside, expecting the worst. But it was clean, smelled like soap and had a few open machines. I began loading a machine, then noticed the sign above the little desk where the manager sat: "Wash and Fold: $6.50 per load." A quick visit to my arithmetic skills told me that soap, coin slots and time dictated spending a couple of dollars on the luxury. Wash and fold it was. The manager was a friendly, middle-aged Asian man. He checked my bags of laundry, then said, "Three loads. Ready by two-thirty." The clock above his desk, beside the sign, said "11:45." I headed out for my favourite greasy spoon breakfast at Mom's Cafe, down the street. Later that afternoon I hauled the washed and folded laundry onto my bed to sort it out. The laundry guy had put each of the three loads in its own yellow plastic bag and tied it shut with a strip of fabric-softener sheet. The knot tying the sheet was a half-bow with a piece sticking out for me to pull the knot apart. Classy, I thought. But that was just the beginning. Inside the bags, each piece of laundry was perfectly folded and arranged so that each stack of clean clothes formed a solid square. Underwear, socks, facecloths, towels, shirts, pants, all geometrically folded to oblong perfection. No wrinkles, no mismatched socks. Even my wife, who is a very picky laundress, was impressed. This guy not only took pride in his work, he was exceptional at it. At $6.50 a load. Oddly enough, I happened at that time to be writing speeches for the MCs of the Alumni Association's gala Achievement Awards celebration. I was trying to express our theme of "greatness," and what special combination of character, intellect and personality caused a person to reach a little higher and try a little harder, like the recipients of our Achievement awards (see page 24 for bios of these remarkable people). I'm sure the guy at the laundromat doesn't consider his work great in any way. It's his way of making a living, providing for his family, building his business. He doesn't have to put the extra care (or flair) into his work to keep his customers: wash and fold doesn't require artistry, but that's what he puts into it. So, I'm no closer to figuring out what constitutes "greatness," or why some people, in the course of their day, choose to push towards excellence instead of settling for OK, especially if they don't have to. But I look at our remarkable Achievement Award recipients, and at the guy in the laundromat, and see the similarity. Some people just won't accept second best. Lucky for the rest of us. Chris Petty, mfa'86, Editor in Chief 4 Trek Fall 2009 take note UBC student Samuel Bailey (L) and National University of Lesotho student Lineo Ntho worked together in Lesotho this summer. Depression Increases Cancer Mortality Rate Depression can affect a cancer patient's likelihood of survival, according to UBC researchers who have conducted the world's first analysis of existing cancer and depression research. Studies have shown that individuals' attitudes can impact their physical health. To determine the effects of depression on cancer patients' disease progression and survival, UBC department of Psychology graduate student Jillian Satin and colleagues analyzed all studies to date on the topic. They found 26 studies with a total of 9,417 patients that examined the effects of depression on cancer progression and survival. "We found an increased risk of death in patients who report more depressive symptoms and also in patients who have been diagnosed with a depressive disorder compared to patients who have not," says Satin. In the combined studies, the death rates were as much as 25 per cent higher in patients experiencing depressive symptoms and 39 per cent higher in patients diagnosed with major or minor depression. The increased risks remained even after considering other clinical characteristics that might affect survival, indicating that depression may actually play a part in shortening survival. However, the authors say additional research must be conducted before any conclusions can be reached. The authors add that their analysis combined results across different tumor types, so future studies should look at the effects of depression on specific kinds of cancer. The investigators note that the actual risk of death associated with depression in cancer patients is still small, so patients should not feel that they must maintain a positive attitude to beat their disease. Nevertheless, the study indicates that it is important for physicians to screen cancer patients regularly for depression and to provide appropriate treatments. The researchers did not find a clear association between depression and cancer progression; only three studies were available for analysis. Take Note is edited from material that appears in other UBC publications, including UBC Reports. We thank those reporters and Public Affairs for allowing us to use their material. Going Global There's a lot to be said for practical experience as a supplement to academic learning. Coop students, for example, add a slice of real life to their education by interspersing study terms with related work terms. But International Service Learning (ISL) takes the whole concept of experiential learning one step further, forming partnerships around the world and influencing students in a more profound way than conventional work experience. Go Global is UBC's ISL program and it currently offers student placements in Costa Rica, Rwanda, Mexico, Swaziland, Uganda and, new this past summer, Lesotho. It encourages involvement from students across a broad range of disciplines including engineering, social work, psychology, education and science. Students who meet the criteria are matched with projects that appeal to their academic and personal interests, working with local organizations on achieving locally-defined objectives. Before leaving for their chosen destination, students learn about its culture and are coached in team building and intercultural communication skills. Photo courtesy of Tamara Baldwin, Go Globa Fall 2009 Trek 5 take note In Lesotho last summer, engineering students helped design and build ventilated pit toilets in an area lacking proper sanitation facilities. Poor sanitation and contaminated water lead to a host of health issues and high mortality rates. Mathabo Tsepa, PhD'08, was born and raised in Lesotho and suggested the project to Go Global. She now teaches at Lesotho University but acts as the Go Global liaison with local organizations. The latrine project was a great success and more projects are planned for the coming summer. Associate director of Go Global Tamara Baldwin said of the Lesotho project: "The focus was on working with the community organization to ensure the work would continue after they left. They've trained local youths who have gained important work skills and will be better able to contribute to their community." For the students it's a challenging hands-on test of their ability to problem-solve, work as an effective team member and make a real difference in the quality of life of others. It also gives them a new reference point for understanding the world. Other Go Global ISL projects include: ■ Swaziland: working with SOS Children's Villages on initiatives including teaching youth strategies for finding work and supporting families impacted by HIV/AIDS ■ Uganda: assisting community libraries to raise rates of reading and computer literacy ■ Costa Rica: studying the impact of tourism and industry on environment and animal habitats ■ Mexico: assisting small cooperatives to establish a dialogue for leadership and development ■ Rwanda: teaching business planning and ESL to a weavers cooperative "Buy This, My Friend" Finding commonality with someone else can often be the precursor to friendship. While it's obvious that commonalities make a stranger seem more familiar and make conversation easier, this human tendency to make connections may impact more than just our social lives. A recent UBC study examined the effect of perceived similarities in a sales context. It concluded that clients who thought they shared something in common with a salesperson might be more likely to make a purchase. "It turns out that in face-to-face situations, the need for social connectedness among individuals can result in their being persuaded more easily," says Darren Dahl, a professor at the Sauder School of Business. Dahl conducted the study (The Persuasive Role of Incidental Similarity on Attitudes and Purchase Intentions in a Sales Context) with colleagues Jo Andrea Hoegg and Lan Jiang, along with Amitava Chattopadhyay of the European Institute of Business Administration. The researchers observed their subjects in a fitness-centre setting where a new training program was being promoted. Subjects who believed they shared the same birthday as the trainer were more likely to sign up for the program than those who did not. Dahl says the research provides management insight into the power of cultivating similarity between consumers and sales agents in the retail context and points out that Disney's theme park employees wear badges displaying their names and home towns. But if companies try and capitalize on this by making the shopping experience as personalized as possible, they may want to exercise caution. While perceived similarities can enhance business, accompanying them with negative behaviour can create the opposite effect. The study demonstrated that when subjects witnessed negative behaviour from the fitness centre trainer (who pretended to yell at someone while on the telephone), those who believed they shared a birthday with him were likely to feel more alienated by the behaviour than those who didn't. Human Activity Causes Major Erosion A new study finds that large-scale farming projects can erode the Earth's surface at rates comparable to those of the world's largest rivers and glaciers. Published online in the journal Nature Geoscience, the research offers stark evidence of how humans are reshaping the planet. It also finds (contrary to previous scholarship) that rivers are as powerful as glaciers at eroding landscapes. "Our initial goal was to investigate the claim that rivers are less erosive than glaciers," says professor of geography Michele Koppes, lead author of the study. "But while exploring that, we found the causes of the highest rates of erosion in many areas are climate change and human activity such as modern agriculture." In some cases, the researchers found large-scale farming eroded lowland agricultural fields at rates comparable to glaciers and rivers in the most tectonically active mountain belts. "This study shows that humans are playing a significant role in speeding erosion in low lying areas," says Koppes, who conducted the study with David Montgomery of the University of Washington. "These low-altitude areas do not have the same rate of tectonic uplift, so the land is being denuded at an unsustainable rate." Koppes says other significant causes of low- altitude erosion include glacier melting caused by climate change and volcanic eruptions. The highest erosion rates are typically seen at high altitudes where tectonic forces pit rising rock against rivers and glaciers, says Koppes, who with Montgomery created an updated database of erosion rates for more than 900 rivers and glaciers worldwide, documented over the past decade with new geologic measuring techniques. Contrary to previous scholarship, they found that rivers and glaciers in active mountain ranges are both capable of eroding landscapes by more than one centimetre per year. Studies had previously indicated that glaciers could erode landscapes as much as 10 times faster than rivers, Koppes says. 6 Trek Fall 2009 UBC Okanagan's new University Centre offers a home away from home. New Social Hub for Kelowna Campus Students attending UBC Okanagan have more places to relax, study and get together after a major new facility opened this summer. The $3 3-million University Centre is a hub for student activity offering everything from fresh food to financial aid. It includes three collegia where students can hang out, eat lunch, spend time with classmates and study. Each has a relaxing lounge-style atmosphere and is outfitted with comfortable furniture and a kitchen, a home away from home for commuter students. There is also a designated space for visiting alumni. The 79,000 sq. ft. building houses learning centres, offices for student services and the Students' Union, club space, a sushi bar and a pub-style restaurant. Another offering on the food front is the Green Thread Market, an innovative marketeria: part cafeteria and part market. It provides students with healthy, ethnically diverse food choices including organic, vegan, vegetarian and Halal. The kitchen buys locally wherever possible, aiming for a 200-km diet. This is the first Green Thread Market, developed by UBC's Kelowna food services provider Aramark. The centre also offers a credit union, a 100-seat cinema, a multi-faith space and a medical clinic. "We built the University Centre to serve our growing student population," says Ian Cull, Associate VP, Students. "We went from 3,000 students to more than 6,100 students and expect that number to increase to 7,500 students by 2012. The University Centre will contribute greatly to the student experience." The new facility has been more than two and a half years in the making. The UBC Okanagan Students' Union contributed $3 million to the project, and an anonymous donor gave more than $ 1 million to establish the J. Peter Meekison Student Centre, located on the ground floor. Peter Meekison was the public administrator appointed by the BC government to oversee the former Okanagan University College's 2005 transition into two new institutions: UBC Okanagan and Okanagan College. Long-Term Workers Hit Harder by Layoffs tttf Economics Professor Craig Riddell recently conducted a study that explored the impact of unemployment on long-term employees versus more recent hires. He discovered that the first group experienced more difficulty finding new work, and when they did were more likely to face a significant drop in pay. "When these folks lose their jobs, they are looking at pay cuts by as much as 30 per cent when they find new work," says Riddell, who explains that longer-term employers tend to accrue higher wages as they become more senior. "When they find themselves back in the competitive labour market, most just can't find employment at a comparable salary with the qualifications they have." It also takes them up to 3 5 per cent longer to find replacement work than other job seekers more used to navigating the employment market. The long-termers also faced a greater emotional toll, being more susceptible to stress, depression, divorce, suicide and lower life-expectancy. The numbers of long-term employees out of work has risen rapidly with the latest recession and is especially prevalent among the manufacturing, forestry, fishing and pulp and paper industries. Riddell is a member of Canada's Expert Panel on Older Workers, which exists to support and improve conditions for older workers. He also heads the Canadian Labour Market and Skills Research Network, which aims to improve our understanding of the national labour market. The study fills a gap in national data and could have beneficial effects if used to inform unemployment policies. It suggests that despite paying into EI for many years, long-term employees facing layoff did not receive enough support. Riddell thinks the impact of unemployment on them justifies an increase in EI benefits. The study also recommends considering a national wage insurance program. Photograph: Jody Jacob Fall 2009 Trek 7 take note UBC's Barber Learning Centre is supporting a project to digitize images from the Salt Spring Island Archives. Sharing Island Treasures Without the support of a UBC-based program, the rich visual history of a local island community would remain confined to thousands of aging film negatives. Thanks to the BC History Digitization Program and the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC, photos of local events, people and ceremonies from Salt Spring Island, along with aerial shots from years past, will soon be available for viewing online. The program has provided a matching grant of $10,000 to the Salt Spring Archives to digitize 15,000 negatives of photos taken from 1958 to 1973 by local photojournalist Marshall Sharp. "The project wouldn't have happened without this support, because we needed additional equipment," says Barbara Dumoulin, secretary of the Salt Spring Island Historical Society, and a grant writer and volunteer archivist for the Salt Spring Archives. The funding helped the organization purchase two additional scanners. So far, about 8,000 negatives have been scanned and Dumoulin hopes to have the rest completed by the end of the year. The Salt Spring Island initiative is one of 14 projects throughout BC that received funding from the digitization program, launched by the Barber Learning Centre in 2006. Since then, 52 projects around the province have received more than $450,000 in total funding, underlining the Centre's commitment to community engagement. "We continue to be impressed with the breadth of material represented in this year's group of applications," says Chris Hives, University Archivist. "In addition to several photographic digitization projects, we have also had requests to support the digitization of community newspapers and publications, oral histories, early British Columbia documents and graphic materials." The assistance allows recipients to make the fascinating stories of BC communities accessible for audiences throughout the province and beyond. By the way, most of UBC's publications - including The Ubyssey, the Totem, Trek Magazine (and the Chronicle before it) and UBC Reports - have been digitized and placed online. Visit http://ubcpubs.library.ubc.ca/ to take a trip back in time. Sex Trade Outreach ife A mobile outreach service run by former sex trade workers for women still in the trade is having a beneficial impact on their health and vulnerability to physical assault, according to a UBC study co-led by Professor Patricia Janssen of the School of Population and Public Health. The service operates out of a van and goes to where women are working to offer advice, intervene in a crisis, help document dangerous encounters, make available condoms and clean needles and provide a watchful presence. The study surveyed 100 Vancouver sex trade workers who had used the outreach service, 90 per cent of whom reported the van and staff made them feel safer on the streets. Sixteen per cent reported escaping physical assault as a result of the van's presence and 10 per cent avoiding sexual assault because of it. Sex trade workers are one of Vancouver's most vulnerable populations, with more than 60 going missing from the Downtown Eastside since the 1980s. "Sex trade workers face multiple dangers associated with communicable disease, alienation from family and friends, lack of access to health services and police protection, random and partner violence and even murder," says Janssen. Trek Fall 2009 Photographs courtesy Salt Spring Island Archives The outreach van costs $20,000 per year to run and is funded by many agencies including the provincial government. It was launched in 2004 by the Vancouver Agreement Women's Strategy Task Team, WISH Drop-In Centre Society and the Prostitution Alternatives Counselling and Education Society. Partners in the study include co-author Kate Gibson, executive director of WISH, Child and Family Research Group, St. Paul's Hospital, and the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. Downtown Eastside Initiatives Get Major Boost Ik Two UBC initiatives in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside are receiving a major increase in funding over the next seven years. The $2.i7-million donation from HSBC Bank Canada is the largest gift UBC has received from a financial institution, and the latest of several it has received from the bank. One of the beneficiaries is the Learning Exchange, which engages students and others from the university community in offering free educational resources to Downtown Eastside residents. The Exchange's offerings include computer skills workshops and an ESL program for new immigrants. The Exchange organizes community service learning placements for UBC students in inner schools and non-profit organizations where they act as tutors, mentors and role models for kids and youth, inspiring them to stay in school. The students learn about important social issues as a result of their volunteering. The other program to benefit from the donation is a partnership between the faculty of Medicine and St. Paul's Hospital that is carrying out leading research into addictions. Some of the money will fund the HSBC Fellowship in Addiction Research, awarded to a post-doctoral student working with individuals in Vancouver and surrounding areas who are affected by addiction and mental illness. The recipient will work with Michael Krausz, a psychiatrist, researcher and world authority on addictions treatments who holds the joint UBC/ St. Paul's Providence Health Care BC Leadership Chair in Addictions Research. The Force of Sustainability Stephen J. Toope, President, UBC "Sustainability" has become one of our society's most compelling-if somewhat imprecise- ideas. From climate change and resource management to social equality and cultural diversity, this concept drives us to examine how we can live in harmony with the world around us, and insists that we make choices that will have a positive impact on generations to come. As individuals, each of us has an opportunity and a responsibility to apply the filter of sustainability to our activities and show our children, our friends and our neighbours how they, too, can affect change. At UBC, we apply that filter to every aspect of our business and have imbedded the notion of sustainability into Place and Promise: The UBC Plan, a strategic plan for the next phase ofthe university's development. This is an exciting step for those of us who work at UBC, because it lets us show the world what a coordinated, collegial and cooperative effort can accomplish. Our goal is to create a vibrant academic, social and cultural community that governs itself with the highest principles of sustainability in mind. This means our research projects and teaching facilities will continue to lead the country in making sustainability the foundation of campus operations. It also means that faculty, staff and students on campus-and alumni in their post-UBC lives-wil I reflect the spirit of the university's sustainability pledge: to factor ecological, social and economic consequences into our personal and professional decisions. Our Sustainability Academic Strategy, developed this year, outlines both the philosophical and practical application of this idea, and how it is changing UBC's campuses. Visit our sustainability website, www.sas.ubc.ca for more information. Our efforts are no better exemplified than in our approach to the development of UBC's academic core and residential neighbourhoods. UTown@UBC has earned praise across the country and is viewed in other university settings around the world as a model, sustainable community that incorporates the very best social, intellectual and cultural elements in a residential university setting. Our academic core is no less exemplary. The needs of a large, research-oriented university tend to challenge the good intentions of a sustainability policy. The competitive nature of university awards dictates that institutions like ours be able to respond quickly when new facilities need to be built. But at UBC, sustainability trumps all other pressures. Our list of recent "green" buildings is impressive, including the Lui Centre, which uses materials salvaged from the old Armouries; the heritage core of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre; the spectacular Life Sciences Centre; and the Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory, both built to LEED Gold certification; and many others. Indeed, sustainability is more than just an idea at UBC; it's at the core of our mission. Fall 2009 Trek 9 take note ^. ^ } >t ' ■ * 1 • V *< \ *•• * ■• \ % 4 * • :^v \ ! ^ % eft i ▼jwc*;»r* »? r * ft ' V I 1 . * Jfc ) •N •,vM 1 Primary lobular breast cancer tumour cells. 1 Photo: courtesy BC Cancer Agency Breast Cancer Breakthrough it The October issue of international science journal Nature carried the cover story of a cancer research breakthrough made by investigators in BC. The new findings increase our knowledge on the origins and spread of cancers and will help shape new therapies. Samuel Aparicio's team used next-generation sequencing technology to decode the DNA of a metastatic lobular breast cancer tumour, and have found the mutations that caused it to spread. Lobular breast cancer accounts for around io per cent of all breast cancers and (with the exclusion of non-melanoma skin cancer) breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting Canadian women. Aparicio is head of the breast cancer research program at the BC Cancer Agency and holds the Canada Research Chair in Molecular Oncology. He also holds the Nan and Lorraine Robertson Chair in Breast Cancer Research at UBC and is a professor in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Also on the team was professor of medical genetics Marco Marra. Aparicio's team partnered with BC Cancer Agency's Genome Sciences Centre to examine the progression of the lobular breast cancer tumour over a nine year period, comparing the 3 2 mutations they found in the metastatic tumour with those in the original tumour and finding an overlap of just five. This led the scientists to believe the five mutations were associated with the origins of the cancer, an association not previously made. "I never thought I would see this in my lifetime," said Aparicio. "This is a watershed event in our ability to understand the causes of breast cancer and to develop personalized medicines for our patients. The number of doors that can now be opened to future research is considerable." Climate Change Challenges Fisheries ifc'The first major study to examine how climate change impacts ocean fisheries was recently completed by the Sea Around Us Project at UBC with partners at Princeton University. It concluded that fisheries distribution is likely to be affected by climate change and that tropical regions - areas where land-based food production is already forecast to suffer - would be hardest hit. "Our projections show that climate change may lead to a 3 o to 70 per cent increase in catch potential in high-latitude regions and a drop of up to 40 per cent in the tropics," said lead author William Cheung, now based at the University of East Anglia in the UK. The study covered more than a thousand species of fish accounting for about 70 per cent of catch worldwide and considered a large number of environmental and biological factors influencing ocean fisheries. It used two different climate change scenarios and calculated the impact of both on fisheries distribution between 2005 and 2055. Areas expected to see the biggest losses in catch potential by 2055 include the US (with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii), Indonesia, Chile and China. High latitude areas expected to see the biggest increases include Norway, Greenland, Alaska and the east coast of Russia. Overall, Canada's is projected to stay the same, but the west coast may see a 20 per cent decrease and the east coast a 10 per cent increase. UBC Fisheries professor Daniel Pauly, who leads the team, cautions against interpreting an increased catch in some areas as a benefit. "We need to keep the big picture in mind when looking at the 'winners' and 'losers' of climate change," he says. "Major shifts in fish populations will create a host of changes in ocean ecosystems likely resulting in species loss and problems for the people who now catch them. "While warmer waters might attract new species to colder regions, the rise in temperature might make the environment inhospitable to current species in the region that cannot move to even higher latitudes. Often these species are important to the diets and culture of native subsistence fishermen." The Sea Around Us Project is a scientific collaboration between UBC and the Pew Environment Group. It exists to assess fisheries impacts and seek policy solutions. See www.seaaroundus.org for more information. Canary Islands Trip winner Olivia Freeman graduated this year with a BSc degree in Natural Resource Conservation. She entered UBC's Unbelievably Easy Travel Contest in September and won a Canary Islands Cruise for two. Her friends and family are being exceptionally nice to her. 10 Trek Fall 2009 Shared Resource, Shared Responsibility Ian Robertson, BSc'86, BA'88, MBA, MA, Chair, UBC Alumni Association Look back over UBC's 100-year history and you'll realize how far the university has come. Now that it has a $10 billion impact on BC's economy and produces a sizable share of the social capital required for a healthy society, it's hard to imagine the struggle to establish the university in the first place or the fact that it could ever have faced closure. But UBC's evolution from a collection of shacks into a first-class research and teaching institution didn't just magically happen. It came about as a result of the efforts of people who understood the importance of post-secondary education and cared about the university's future - not least its alumni. The fact that UBC is a shared resource is even reflected in the university motto Tuum Est (it's yours, or it's up to you), coined by UBC's first president, Dr. Frank Fairchild Wesbrook. He believed that student self-government was vital to the growth of a university. In turn, the student body stands to gain or lose depending on its investment in university governance, and the AMS over the years has advised, criticized, lobbied on behalf of, and tempered the decisions of university administrations. It's not surprising that the same group of students who set up UBC's AMS also set up the Alumni Association in 1917. Its raison d'etre then was the same as it is now - to serve the university and its alumni. The Association communicates regularly with the alumni body: alerting you to both the university's considerable accomplishments and its challenges; notifying you of opportunities for involvement; and enlisting your support as members of UBC's convocation. One upcoming issue to which alumni - and indeed all British Columbians who benefit from UBC's success - will want to pay attention is the relationship between the university and Metro Vancouver (formerly the GVRD), specifically as it pertains to governance over the academic use of UBC's lands. Alumni are regularly consulted as important stakeholders when the university is undergoing major change, and the Association's Board of Directors are your front-line representatives. When issues warrant, you should make your views known to appropriate decision makers. You should also make sure you have a say in who sits at your Alumni Association board table. The success of any election is determined not by the result, but by the voter turnout - a more reliable indicator of relevance, emotional investment, and faith in process. As part of a broader review of our bylaws and the way we nominate candidates for Chancellor, UBC Board of Governors, and Senate, we will be examining the way you vote for members of the Alumni Association Board of Directors. We hope to enhance your ability to exercise your right. After all, the university is in your hands, too. From Here Marie Earl, Executive Director UBC Alumni Association I Associate Vice President, Alumni UBC has recently launched a branding campaign. This is a public story-telling effort aimed at capturing some essential truths about UBC that are both individually held and, in some fashion, resonate with those of us who make up the UBC community: faculty, students, staff, alumni and others. Visit the UBC homepage (www.ubc.ca) and you can browse through some observations from students, faculty staff and alumni about UBC. Click on "A Place of Mind" in the top banner, then "Learn More." You will find A Place of Mind. UBC is tackling the world's big problems. From here, with you. Having been invited to share, one student writes, "I can promote inter- religious cooperation and action. From Here." Let's wish her every success. Another student offers, "Increasing access to essential medicines. From Here." A web link then delivers those whose interest is piqued to another website to learn about the student organization Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, which is dedicated to enhancing the impact of universities' biomedical research on global health. Their tagline? Our drugs. Our labs. Our responsibility. A powerful statement of accountability. Others are cynical or flippant. "I can see Alaska. From Here." Or "No Sky Train to and From Here." Alumni entries include: "Making friends from across the globe. From Here." "Contribute as a global citizen. From Here." And from what must surely be a proud Theatre department graduate judging from the web link back to the department, "Artistic vision ignited. From Here." Thus we see the fabric of our community begin to take shape. It's a sort of crazy quilt to which a great number of people have contributed. I find inspiration in this act of co-creation. Asa metaphor, A Place of Mind certainly works for me. Cultural geographers study how our physical environs inform our sense of who we are as a people. I cannot imagine anyone being immune to the beauty of the Point Grey and Okanagan campuses. These are special places that we are privileged to inhabit. And UBC is very much a place of discovery. Whether professors or students, UBC scholars are endlessly curious about the world. They challenge us to share in their passions. Alumni tell us also about discovering so much about themselves while at UBC. They fall in and out of love. They take risks of all kinds. They form lifelong friendships. They figure out what they truly value and why. So for me, talking about UBC solely as a place of mind doesn't tell the full story. For me, UBC is also an emotional landscape. Developing the heart. From Here. letters to the editor: Dear Editor: I enjoyed the summer 2009 issue of Trek Magazine, but I question a couple of small factual points. First, in the article UTown® UBC, the Science Building is in the list of major academic buildings undergoing renovation in recent years. The Faculty of Science has students, staff, and faculty in many buildings on the Point Grey campus so none can be considered "the" Science Building. I believe you refer to the heritage core of the Chemistry Building, the first of many Science buildings erected and recently re-opened after major renovations to the interior. Second, in Little Known Facts about UBC (p.34) I find it difficult to accept the notion that the Biological Sciences building is shaped like a cell. As an undergraduate who studied in the building and as a long-time faculty member occupant, I know the building presents a challenge to anyone trying to find a lecture hall or office for the first time (and probably the second and third times), but there are few biologists who would liken the current building configuration to a cell. A cell has a semi-permeable membrane enclosing its contents whereas the building has a major gap in its perimeter and any plans that may have existed for a wing that would complete the perimeter were long ago abandoned. On the other hand, to those with a long-term view the structure has grown over the decades through the periodic addition of new wings and so has a certain "organismal" character. Come to think of it, the article could provide the basis for an interesting topic for discussion in an introductory biology course. Dr. Paul G. Harrison, BSc'jo, Associate Dean, Students, Faculty of Science Dear Editor: I was reading through the Trek Magazine I received in today's mail, and I couldn't help but notice an error in the Little Known Facts about UBC.The Ladner Clocktower does not have 133 bells. In fact, it has zero bells. Having been inside on several occasions, I can assure you there is not a single bell in the tower. It's a moderately well-known fact that there are no bells, but rather a series of loudspeakers (visible from the outside, below the windows, protected by metal grating), which blast music from a cassette player on a timer in the small carillon building beside the tower. This is why it was so easy for the engineers to change the song as one of their pranks years ago - they simply broke into the little building and changed the cassette. You're welcome to ask Plant Ops to confirm that there are no bells in the tower. In addition, according to the Library Archives website, the height of the tower is 121 feet, not 140 as printed. (See http://www.library.ubc.ca/ archives/bldgs/ladnerclocktow.htm) I believe it would be appropriate to print a correction in the next issue. Chris Anderson BA'oy The building we refer to in the article was partially built before the outbreak ofWWI in 1914. During the Great Trek, marchers sat on the girders of the unfinished structure, providing us with a great iconic photo of the event. At that time, the structure was called "the Science Building." As far as the cell shape of the Biological Sciences goes, it would be hard to define what, exactly, a cell looks like. There are other buildings on campus that look like things (the computer science building looks like a computer, circa i<)<)6), and we still insist that BioSci looks like some kind of cell. We've asked everyone, and no one can tell us with any certainty that the Ladner Clock Tower has or has not any bells. Guess we're going to have to enlist some engineers to break into the place to find out. -Ed. UBC Alumni Association Board of Directors 2009-2010 Ex-Officio PRESIDENT'S DESIGNATE Barbara Miles BA, Postgrad Certificate in Ed. UBC PRESIDENT Stephen Toope AB, LLB & BCL, PhD UBC CHANCELLOR Sarah Morgan-Silvester BCom'82 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Marie Earl, AB, MLA Directors CHAIR '09-'10 Ian Robertson BSc'86, BA'88, MA, MBA VICE CHAIR '09-'10 Miranda Lam LLB'02 TREASURER '08-'10 Robin Elliott BCom'65 MEMBERS AT LARGE '07-'10 Don Dalik BCom, LLB'76 Dallas Leung BCom'94 MEMBERS AT LARGE '08-'11 Brent Cameron BA, MBA'06 Blake Hanna MBA'82 Marsha Walden BCom'80 Ernest Yee BA'83, MA'87 MEMBERS AT LARGE '09-'12 Aderita Guerreiro BA'77 Mark Mawhinney BA'94 PAST CHAIR '09-'10 Doug Robinson BCom'71, LLB'72 AMS REPRESENTATIVE '09-'10 Tom Dvorak CONVOCATION SENATE REP. '09-'10 Chris Gorman BA'99 FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE '09-'10 Sally Thorne BSN'79, MSN'83, PhD SENIOR ADMIN REPRESENTATIVES '09-'10 Stephen Owen MBA,LLB'72, LLM Brian Sullivan AB, MPH APPOINTMENTS '09-'10 Carmen Lee BA'01 Catherine Comben BA'67 Rod Hoffmeister BA'67 Ian Warner BCom'89 Judy Rogers BRE'71 Jim Southcott BCom'82 12 Trek Fall 2009 UBC O The MBNA® MasterCard® credit card Credit you don't have to cram for Apply now for your University of British Columbia Alumni Association MasterCard and join more than 16,000 UBC alumni and students in supporting your Association. Call 1-866-434-5393 for an Instant Decision and quote Priority Code BPFY Monday - Friday 8 am - 8 pm (Eastern Time) Visit www.alumni.ubc.ca/rewards/mastercard.php for more information. mbna MasterCard Combing the Cosmos: Searching for the origins of the Universe Launched this spring, the Planck and Herschel research satellites are expected to revolutionize modern astronomy. By HILARY FELDMAN BSc'. Unbelievably lush and green, even by West Coast standards, the jungle grows in overlapping layers. Exotic birdcalls ring out, joining the tiny croaks of poison dart frogs and loud monkey shrieks. Every surface crawls with life as super-sized insects scurry about. Without warning, a thunderous roar reverberates, drowning out everything. Blazing brightly, a huge Ariane rocket rises into the air followed by a puffy trail. French Guiana is a surreal combination of Caribbean paradise and rocket science mecca. The area boasts one of the most modern and well-equipped spaceports in the world, and sun-seeking tourists are often outnumbered by astronomers and rocket scientists attending launches. This May, one of those VIP guests was UBC astronomy professor Douglas Scott, who joined colleagues to witness the culmination of years of hard work. Two research satellites, Planck and Herschel, were heading into space. "A launch is really a once-in-a-lifetime experience," says Scott. "Satellites take ten or twenty years to build. I've been involved with Planck for at least a dozen years, and many people have been involved since the 1980s." The mission is focused on an area of astronomy known as cosmology, which is the study of large-scale structure in the universe. It's a topic that brings together scientists from around the globe. Planck and Herschel are huge multinational collaborations coordinated by the European Space Agency. Herschel will collect infrared data on star and galaxy formation, while Planck is surveying the cosmic microwave background, sometimes called the "echo of the Big Bang." Essentially, this is radiation left over from long ago when the universe was just starting to grow structure. "It's the same kind of wavelengths you use in your microwave oven," says Scott, "but these are fantastically faint so you need a very sensitive instrument to detect them." Scott and his UBC colleagues are involved in several aspects of the mission. Along with postdoctoral researcher Adam Moss and programmer Andrew Walker, Scott is responsible for developing data analysis software to test Planck. In addition, department members are involved with the Herschel observatory. Scott, Mark Halpern, and four postdoctoral researchers are part of the largest survey, which focuses on early star-forming galaxies. The spaceport in Kourou is a long way from UBC. Travelling from Vancouver is complicated, requiring multiple flights and island-hopping across the French Caribbean. In contrast, flying from Europe is simpler thanks to regular direct flights from Paris to the sole airport in Cayenne. French Guiana is one of the 26 regions of France, classified as an overseas department. It is the only part of Europe located in South America. In fact, sharp eyes will notice that French Guiana appears as an inset on the euro coin's map of Europe. Why is there a vital spaceport in such a remote place? Not only are the French ambitious about taking a leading role in the European Space Agency, but the site is ideal for the purpose, lying only 500 kilometres north of the equator. From here, rockets benefit from a slingshot effect thanks to increased rotational velocity, along with a wide launch angle, consistently great weather, and a conveniently sparse population (just in case something goes wrong). Fortunately for the spectators, the launch of Planck and Herschel went without a hitch. After much cheering, sighs of relief and champagne celebrations, the scientists found time to explore the sights before dispersing around the world to follow the satellites' progress. Although it seems a long way from stately chateaux along the Loire or rolling fields of lavender - most of French Guiana is equatorial rainforest - colonial history has left a long and complicated legacy around this part of the Caribbean. Tourists can experience a mix of features, from verdant South American jungle to haute cuisine (with a good chance of a rocket launch thrown in for excitement). It's not a cheap holiday destination. But where else could you find a version of Paris transplanted to South America? You can buy baguettes and pain au chocolat in the boulangerie, while admiring fantastic biodiversity. Avid naturalists will find myriad treasures, from mangrove swamps to macaws, sloths to nesting sea turtles. With the gruelling work of data analysis still months away, Scott and his colleagues opted for a boat trip to the lies du Salut, which includes infamous Devil's Island. The penal colony, formerly home to Henri "Papillon" Photos (Clockwise from top): Toucan on the fles du Salut ■ Leatherback sea turtle returns to the ocean after laying eggs ■ Mother and baby three-toed sloths in French Guiana. Photos: Brendan Crill. I' Scientists remove the Planck telescope's protective cover. Photo: ESA -S. Corvaja. Planck spacecraft undergoing testing at a facility in Toulouse. Photo: Thales/ESA - Studio Bazile. Charriere, operated for a century until the 1950s and was immortalized in books and on film (think Steve McQueen). Now a pristine nature reserve, the islands combine decaying prison ruins with incredible flora and fauna. The French Space Agency owns the area, which is evacuated on launch days to avoid any accidents. Started in 1964, Guiana Space Centre is the region's biggest single employer and contributes about 15 per cent of the gross domestic product. The spaceport's long-term viability is promising, thanks to a safe, efficient and reliable record. With up to nine Ariane rocket launches each year, plus future Russian Soyuz rocket launches scheduled, the spaceport is busy and lucrative. The joint launch of the Planck and Herschel satellites is poised to revolutionize modern astronomy. Each instrument weighs in at the size of a small truck, making it momentous to send these high-precision detectors into space. Once in position, the satellites are designed to separate and take independent measurements. The information gathered by the satellites can answer some fundamental questions. Very early in time, some unknown process caused minute variations in the distribution of matter, which led to the gradual formation of all structure including galaxies, stars, and planets. Those early times and processes can be studied by looking at the microwave background. Now back at UBC, Scott remains in constant contact with his collaborators as the measurements start to pour in. Both Planck and Herschel are functioning as hoped. Over the coming months and years, the core science teams will meet in slightly less exotic places, primarily mainland Europe, to discuss the detailed findings and agree on answers to some pretty big questions. Their hope is to advance our basic understanding of the universe, so that future generations can look at the sky and see the beauty of its underlying intricacies. Hilary Feldman is a Vancouver-based freelance writer. While her own training is in zoology, Hilary has had lifelong exposure to space science - both her father and husband are astronomers. UBC'S GREAT (STAR) TREKKERS UBC's contribution to space astronomy includes work by Jaymie Matthews, lead investigator for the MOST microsatellite, which studies variation in the brightness of stars. Mark Halpern and Douglas Scott worked on the balloon-borne experiment BLAST, which served as a prototype for part of the Herschel observatory and was the subject of a recent feature-length documentary (BLAST!). Halpern is also working on a second balloon experiment, SPIDER, looking at the microwave background. Matthews and Brett Gladman are on the team for the Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite, which will study nearby asteroids and comets. Beyond research funded by the Canadian Space Agency, UBC astronomers are involved in a wide range of space projects. Harvey Richer is one of the main Canadian users of the Hubble Space Telescope in his search for the oldest stars in the universe. Halpern is a key member of the science team for the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, a previous microwave background project sponsored by NASA. Canadian scientists, many from UBC, also contribute to missions looking at physical, chemical, and biological processes in space. 16 Trek Fall 2009 / Newspaper journalist, author, publisher, businessman, politician, competitive sailor, boat builder, husband, father, community service leader and sasquatch investigator. Meet John Green, wearer of many hats. By DON WELLS BA'8 I have vivid memories of the sasquatch. I grew up in the shadow of Alberta's Rocky Mountains and was enthralled by the reports of sightings of an enormous bipedal creature in the Kootenay Plains wilderness region near Banff National Park. I was part of a group of kids that regularly fished with our fathers in that area in the late 1960s, and I remember casting our lines in the twilight hours and listening to our fathers discuss the most recent "Bigfoot" sightings they had heard on the radio or read in newspapers. I was 12 years old, and the prospects of a hairy monster stalking the mountains where our families went camping thrilled and terrified me. I also remember being excited to discover a book in our local library about sasquatch encounters written by a man from Harrison Hot Springs, BC, named John Green. Those times came back in a big way when, four decades later, I found myself sitting in the living room of the author himself, a UBC graduate (BA'46) who still resides in Harrison Hot Springs and is still regarded as the world's most prolific researcher and author on the lingering mystery of the sasquatch. John Green is not a rugged outdoorsman who has spent a lifetime in the bush. His upbringing was strictly urban and his 82 years have been spent in amazingly eclectic 1 pursuits. Yes, sasquatch investigator is on the list, but so is newspaper journalist, author, publisher, businessman, politician, investor, competitive sailor, boat builder, husband, father and community service leader. The sasquatch may never have received worldwide attention if it had not been for Green, and for a serendipitous chain of events that began at UBC in 1943. An academically gifted 17-year-old majoring in English, Green agreed to tag along with a chum on his way to the Publications Board office in the basement of Brock Hall to pick up a writing assignment for The Ubyssey newspaper. It was there in the offices of "the Pub" that his interest was sparked to pursue a career in the newspaper world. As the son of Howard Green, a long-time Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister, John was no stranger to public issues. He was also a born communicator who took quickly to the mechanics of news writing. While a student, he turned out copy on university affairs for The Ubyssey and Totem yearbooks, and for The Province newspaper. He graduated at 19 and went to work for a year as a reporter for the Vancouver News Herald before moving to New York in 1947 to attend graduate school in Journalism at Columbia University. He worked part-time for The Globe and Mail in New York, and later as a full-time reporter for two years at the paper's Toronto headquarters, then returned to Vancouver to cover local news for The Province. After a subsequent stint at the Victoria Times Colonist, he bought his own paper in 1954, the Agassiz-Harrison Advance. "Talk about an upside-down career," he laughs as he recalls the peculiar journey from New York to a tiny community paper in the Upper Fraser Valley. "Our circulation was in the hundreds, but owning your own paper was what many people in the business wanted to do in those days." / Fall 2009 Trek 17 John Green's high-profile father studied law at the University ofToronto. His mother, Marion Green (nee Mounce), was the daughter of a Vancouver Island lumber baron and the first woman to graduate from UBC's faculty of Agricultural Sciences. In spite of his blue-blooded urban roots, small town life in Agassiz agreed with John and wife June, and they quickly settled in and began to raise the first of four children. A turning point came one day in 1956 when a Swiss-born farm labourer from the Alberta foothills named Rene Dahinden entered the newspaper's office and asked Green if he knew anything about reported sightings of a large two-footed creature that bore a resemblance to the Abominable Snowman of Nepal. Green told Dahinden that the reports were nonsense and that he was wasting his time. "I referred him to some local hunters thinking they would talk him out of it. But of course I also put something in the paper about it and that started some talk about sightings that happened here in 1941. People I knew and respected were involved, so I had to take it a bit more seriously." In the months that followed the visit by Dahinden, Green became increasingly curious about the 1941 incidents that reportedly took place in the vicinity of Ruby Creek, a short distance up the Fraser River. His research began by interviewing the son of a deceased deputy sheriff from Whatcom County in Washington who had investigated sightings around Ruby Creek. The deputy had made sketches and plaster casts of footprints and arranged for a local magistrate and former trial lawyer to cross examine four witnesses to the incidents before taking their sworn affidavits. Then in the fall of 195 8, The Province newspaper reported that a bulldozer operator from Eureka, California, named Jerry Crew had discovered hundreds of footprints on a logging road in northwestern California. Green and his wife immediately drove south where they connected with Crew on a road construction site near the Oregon border. At first he thought they had made the three-day drive only to be confronted with a prank. "When we got there, this fellow said that we were too late and that they had just back-bladed the fresh prints, and I thought, oh sure," said Green. "Then he said, 'but have a look around, you'll find some older ones.' June opened the car door and there was a footprint a few feet from the car. What particularly impressed me was the similarity between the outline of these tracks and the tracings I had of one of the Ruby Creek footprints." Convinced that something much heavier than a man had made the deep footprints, Green stepped up his efforts to get scientists to take the subject more seriously and made frequent trips to California, sometimes with tracking dogs, to investigate the validity of reports and inspect footprints. He also became part of a loose network of sasquatch hunters, one of whom was Roger Patterson from Yakima, Washington, who Green invited on an excursion to an area of Northern California known as Bluff Creek. Patterson came to Bluff Creek a month later hoping to get pictures of fresh tracks for a movie he intended to make about his search for Bigfoot. What he got was a 40-second 16 millimetre film clip of what appears to be a large female biped walking upright along a creek bed. Almost overnight, the film went around the world, including a screening at UBC, and sparked renewed interest and speculation about the creature's existence. "There was already some publicity at the time, but it would have died down had the movie not been made," says Green. In response to claims that the film had been manipulated, he went to Los Angeles and the Walt Disney film studios to ask if they could have wildlife film experts look at the film to determine if it was a fake. The man Green spoke to declined, saying that they had already seen the film and deemed it to be legitimate, and that whatever it was in the film was neither an animal nor a machine and had indeed walked in front of a camera. The number of reports increased dramatically after the film caught public attention, and Green had to work hard to maintain his records of reported sightings and tracks. Once the computer came of age, he spent a dozen years maintaining a data base that grew to some 4,000 entries, but abandoned his work when the Internet made it impossible to keep up with the information that was available on-line. In 1968, he released his first book on the sasquatch and sold his newspaper a few years 4.' Green measures the stride distance of B tracks discovered in 1967 near Bluff M Creek where the Patterson film was made. later to concentrate on producing more books and continuing his research. He has lost track of the number of books and revised versions he has written, but estimates that he has sold close to 250,000 copies. Rene Dahinden tramped fruitlessly through the wilderness for decades until his death in 2002, but Green's sasquatch investigation did not dominate his life. He kept up with a number of other occupations, including raising his family, running a business and pursuing his political aspirations, which focused on offering the provincial electorate an alternative to BC's traditional two-party system, or as he describes it, "a free enterprise government that hasn't gone crazy." He eventually announced his intention to run for provincial office as a Conservative, losing by a wide margin in each of the four elections in which he ran. After getting himself elected as village mayor of Harrison Hot Springs in 1963, he led a crude but effective process of pumping hundreds of thousands of tons of sand from the lake bottom to cover the enormous boulders that lined the shore, thereby creating the popular beach that exists today and helping to transform the area into one of southwestern BC's most popular recreation destinations. Some years later he founded the World Sand Sculpture Championships, which gained international profile for the region for almost two decades. A competitive sailboat racer in his youth and an engineer at heart, he found the time and ingenuity to design and construct the first fiberglass hull sailboat to ply BC waters. He 18 Trek Fall 2009 tr- F John Green began archiving plaster casts of footprints in 1958 following the discovery of tracks on a remote road construction site in Northern California. also became an adept investor after his father died and left him a sizable inheritance. "I had the golden touch there for a while," he says with a wry smile. Finding himself with more money than he had ever wanted or needed, he gave some away to his children, but also exercised various forms of philanthropy. Well into his seventies, he returned to municipal what the tracks in question were actually like, and they had no interest in finding out." In spite of ongoing reports of sightings and tracks, and in spite of a number of prominent primate experts endorsing the merit of further investigation, the media on both sides of the Canada-US border determined that Bigfoot had died along with Ray Wallace. Still, Green politics after becoming increasingly disenchanted contends, the work to find out what kind of with the decisions and priorities of the Harrison creature can make deep tracks throughout the Hot Springs village council. Four decades after first being elected, he again waged a successful campaign for a commissioner's seat in 2002. That same year, news broke that the family of a road-building contractor from Washington named Ray Wallace claimed upon his death that it was he, and not a large unknown animal, that had made the tracks using huge carved wooden feet in the Bluff Creek area where Roger Patterson's film was made. Green bitterly recalls how the media had a hay day with the story that Bigfoot was a hoax all along, perpetrated by a renowned practical joker, even though it was clear that it was Wallace's family, not Wallace himself, who had "confessed" about the footprints. As an ex-newspaper man, Green knew that editors love such revelations, substantiated or not, and the effect they have on newspaper sales. "The story was nonsense, since everyone who had looked into the subject knew that huge bipedal tracks had shown up all over North America long before Ray Wallace was born. None of the media bothered to check the accuracy of the story. None of them realized western North American wilderness continues, but in relative obscurity. Nobody in the media, he laments, really cares. "The fact is that the tracks exist, and no human being has yet proven to be able to replicate the tracks of the depth recorded. I'd like to know what's making the bloody tracks." He has been encouraged recently by new investigations, led most notably by Dr. Jeff Meldrum, a physical anthropologist from Idaho State University who specializes in the evolution of bipedal walking. There is also new interest in the Patterson film. Forensic animators and physical anthropologists have begun using animation software to examine 116 frames of the film, paying particular attention to the pivot points of the joints in the arms and legs to pinpoint their relative length. He hopes that new technology will show that the creature in the film is not merely a human in a suit by accurately determining the ratio referred to by primatologists as the intermembral index, which compares the relative lengths of bones in the arms and legs. If somebody can successfully Below: Bigfoot ancestor? John Green with a skull model of Gigantopithecus. Washington State University Professor Grover Krantz constructed the model of what the skull of the giant ape might have looked like, based on size and structure of fossilized teeth and jawbones found in China. do that, he contends, neither the media nor the rank and file of zoologists will be able to ignore the possibilities. In the meantime, those of us who have been fascinated by the idea of another bipedal hominid existing on the earth should be grateful for the work of John Green, and for his courage in maintaining an open-minded attitude in spite of mainstream skepticism. His work and personal credibility were instrumental in prompting a wider body of inquiry, one that has been essential in responding to an enduring groundswell of innate human curiosity, and which has applied much-needed rigor and discipline to the investigation of a subject that for decades thrilled many an imagination, mine included. Don Wells is a freelance writer, producer and communications strategist based in White Rock, BC Global Minds Challenge how digital technologies are fostering global learning Calling all K-12 Teacher + Show the world how you and yoi are using digital technology in innovative ■ Showcase your technology projects on the VANOC 2010 Website. ■ Win 1 of 5 $2010 prizes for your school! educ.ubc.ca/globalminds Class: December 19,2009 Fall 2009 Trek 19 FROM HUGS TO HAZING: „„..„„,- .- 1IBC A HISTORY OF STUDENT ORIENTATION AT UBC. Often a reflection of the times, student orientation has taken different forms at UBC over the past century. Early Frosh initiations involved the preparation of a bonfire on False Creek flats (1921). Photo: Bridgman Studio. It's the morning of September 8, 2009, and busloads of students are arriving at the eastern edge of the Vancouver campus. A nervous anticipation pervades the slightly chilly, late-summer air. The students are beginning a four-year journey that will forever shape their academic, professional and personal lives. Student orientation - or Imagine, as it is called these days, and Create on the Okanagan campus - will help them keep the memory of this day vividly intact for decades to come. Throughout the morning, lines of students snake around campus chanting faculty yells with spirit that would put even the Great Trekkers to shame. Many are dressed in faculty colours and some future engineers have painted their faces red. Student bands strut their stuff and student clubs of every stripe vie for new recruits. Later, thousands assemble for a pep rally in the new Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Arena, giving voice to the UBC rant: "I AM UBC. I am not a number or an apathetic bore. I don't go to school on a hill, or on an island, or in Ontario." Afterwards, students filter out of the arena towards the Imagine carnival on Main Mall, where the celebratioins continue. Whether they're aware of it or not, the students are carrying on a decades-long tradition. Orientation has taken a few different forms at UBC over the past century, sometimes more akin to hazing ritual than welcoming ceremony, and often a reflection of the times. The following excerpts describing student orientation (or initiation) through the decades are taken from UBC: The First 100 Years by Eric Darner and Herbert Rosengarten, available for purchase at the UBC Bookstore. Please note that references have been removed. See the publication for sources. 1915-1925 During "Frosh Week," freshmen were subjected to various combinations of paint, dye, grease, foodstuffs, blindfolds, dunking, electric shocks, shaving, and messy or uncomfortable obstacle courses before being marched through the streets ofVancouver by older students beating pans and reciting Varsity chants and yells. When Homer Thompson, future archaeologist and professor of Classics, entered UBC in 1921, he was the youngest member of his class, and was wearing short trousers, as a fifteen year old boy of modest height would have done in those days. Legend has it that some "hairy-legged engineers" fell on him, "debagged him and hoisted the offending shorts on an outside pulley beam in the gable of the physics building where they fluttered ominously to other callow freshmen." "Freshettes" may have been treated better, although they too were infantilized and tormented by female Seniors: the hazing of freshettes in October 1917 included their being blindfolded, led into a room, and given an electric shock. "After crawling under some benches into the assembly hall they had various stunts to do, such as playing leap frog, riding brooms, eating soda biscuits suspended from strings, and rubbing off chalk marks on the floor with wet cheesecloth held in their teeth." However, a protective "big sister" attitude soon developed that kept these ceremonies from the excesses perpetrated by the men. After their separate rituals, men and women (and occasionally a few faculty members) joined together for the huge bonfire and pep rally held in the evening. 20 Trek Fall 2009 Photos courtesy of UBC Library Archives 1925-1930 As UBC's second decade wore on, students began to challenge some of their social traditions, particularly the rites of initiation. Some student leaders were keen to reform this annual tradition, partly in the hope that respectable initiations would convince Senate to accord more power to the AMS. Perhaps because of their growing numbers, frosh effectively protested initiation rituals in 1924 and 1925, participating instead in a day of public service followed by mandatory arm-band wearing. By 1929, initiation was officially described as a welcome to the University, requiring only that frosh wear placards and green skull-caps, carry the AMS handbook, and attend AMS meetings and games. To these events was added a new and important ceremony to acknowledge the Great Trek: the annual Cairn Ceremony, held on Main Mall beside the cairn constructed by students participating in The Pilgrimage, reminded incoming students of the self-help tradition established earlier. Such restrained and well-ordered events notwithstanding, more traditional forms of initiation persisted: students still attended pep rallies, formed snake parades through downtown Vancouver, and built huge bonfires. However, the more extreme forms of hazing, especially those involving physical violence disappeared, or, as later events would suggest, went underground. 1930-1939 Large Arts-Science brawls in 1931, 1934, and 1936 were seen by many in the university community as an expression of youthful exuberance and camaraderie, but the Senate and others concerned about UBC's public image were not impressed, and sought to bring them to an end. Brawls often accompanied the first-year student initiations, which continued unabated. The Ubyssey and the student handbook warned first-year students that they had better follow the rules of Frosh Week or suffer unspecified but dire consequences. Officially, initiation in the early 1930s was relatively tame, consisting of such modest rituals as wearing a green toque, beret, necktie, or placard (purchased at student expense). Frosh were expected to attend a special Players' Club performance, compete against sophomores in a tug-of-war match, participate in a Friday night smoker, attend special athletics events, and build the usual huge bonfire for the pep rally preceding the snake parade through downtown Vancouver. Other stories, however, were later told of the liberal application of mercurochrome, lampblack, grease, kalsomine, and plaster of Paris to blindfolded frosh, as well as mock beatings with "bludgeons the size of baseball bats." At least the hair-cutting and electric shocks of earlier years appear to have been abandoned First year women, freshettes, Till Students involved in hazing in front of the library (1950). Stories were told of the liberal application of mercurochrome, lampblack, grease, kalsomine, and plaster of Paris to blindfolded frosh, as well as mock beatings with "bludgeons the size of baseball bats." faced a less intimidating initiation with a special dinner and candle-light ceremony followed by two weeks of wearing green hats or socks and obeying strict rules on public behaviour. Women students from out of town were also subjected to a ritual tea with the Dean of Women, who served them sausage rolls and pastries in her apartment on South Granville, and engaged them in polite but awkward conversation. Despite their popularity, initiation rituals became a potential liability to the image of the University. Following a scandal at the University of Alberta in which a student successfully sued for mental trauma suffered during his initiation, UBC's Senate considered limiting student exuberance in 1934 and the following year forbade any form of student fights or initiation rituals that might damage people or property. Nonetheless, autumn revelries went a little too far in 1936 when students disrupted downtown Vancouver and damaged property during what was considered the biggest snake parade ever held there. City police responded in large numbers to the disturbance after one reveler cut his hand smashing the windshield of a car that had tried to break the line of students... the annual bonfire that autumn exploded because of excessive use of gasoline, seriously burning one student. Fall 2009 Trek 21 1939-1945 President Klinck used the war to reform student culture Year after year, he had attempted to persuade the Freshman class that wild initiation rituals damaged the image of the University. Now Klinck explained that there was no place for such "childish foolishness" when all extra-curricular efforts should support the war. Student leaders agreed, replacing overt hazing with volunteer games of "push-ball." However, these contests (which used a huge canvass ball filled with hay) soon became known as "push-brawl" and attracted unfavourable media attention [In 1942] there was no "Frosh Reception" or accompanying rituals, but instead a "Frosh Dance" which seniors could attend only by invitation. The 1943 Frosh Week was very quiet, although a spontaneous skirmish in front of the Library resulted in a few freshmen being thrown into the lily pond Although the Student Council agreed to tone down official freshman initiation activities, not all students were so restrained. The relative peace of 1943 was broken in November by a large "three faculty" fight that interrupted classes and brought complaints from professors. It was believed that freshmen and sophomores were responsible, organized by some unknown leader and including COTC cadets who took part quite against regulations. Lt.-Colonel Shrum promised to discipline the cadets, and the Student Council promised to find the instigators. The Ubyssey condemned the whole event as immature and demanded action by the Discipline Committee. 1945-1950 If President Klinck set a standard for sober propriety (frequently violated by students), his successor had a very different influence. President MacKenzie surprised students with his penchant for roaming the campus dressed in shabby clothes, drinking cups of hot milk in the cafeteria, and chatting with whomever he met. Students were flabbergasted when they learned that this down-to-earth stranger with the lumbering gait was in fact the University President. He wore a freshman beanie during his first year and swapped war-stories with student-veterans, turning a blind eye to liquor violations and sharing the occasional beer Pranks and petty practical jokes (such as planting a hen on a Library bookcase to surprise the Librarian) were on the rise, as were infractions of AMS regulations. The Discipline Committee was mocked in The Totem for its ineffectiveness, especially regarding the prohibition of drinking on campus. One club above all set a new tone for unabashed frivolity: the Jokers' Club, founded in 1945 by three veterans intent on performing amusing and sometimes outrageous antics such as gold fish swallowing, a Frog Derby, and roller skating marathons Lively initiation rites returned, but aside from the formal welcoming ceremonies, freshmen were usually subjected only to embarrassing clothing and silly rituals, with a few victims tossed in the lily pond; gone were the huge pep meets, bonfires, and snake dances through the streets of Vancouver. Still, a determined group maintained the rowdier traditions that now pitted engineering students against all other freshmen, who sometimes turned the tables on their would-be assailants. Fraternities continued their own hazing traditions, but without official sanction. Faculty Balls, and the annual High Jinks women-only parties organized by the Women's Undergraduate Society, were popular once again. 1951-1962 In keeping with their well-earned reputation for rowdy intransigence, some engineering students did their best to paint themselves as the "bad boys" on campus with spitting contests, homage to a symbolic Lady Godiva, sorties by goon squads during Frosh Week, and such childish pranks as stealing toilet seats or other campus fixtures men at Fort Camp residence from time to time raided the women's residences nearby, stealing their underwear or decorating their rooms with crabs taken from the nearby beaches. When freshmen initiation ran amok ("sadistic," observed psychology professor Edro Signori), students promised to keep participation voluntary and to bring an end to the physical intimidation that had characterized these rites; as a token of their new sense of responsibility, they even began bringing their own dunk tanks to preserve the lily pond outside the Library from damage. President Norman MacKenzie joins students in a soccer match (1940s^ 1962-1975 After only four months on the job addressing strident and seemingly endless student demands, [President] Hare retreated to England to recover from influenza and exhaustion, staying there for much of September and October 1968 and attracting the accusation by the unsympathetic Ubyssey that he was hiding from students. While he recuperated, students unofficially opened their new Student Union Building (SUB) with a "pub-in"—illegal beer drinking—to protest the absence of a licensed facility on campus. After all, students had paid for much of the new SUB. A month later, on October 24, 1968, American youth radical and Yippie Jerry Rubin visited UBC where he addressed an unruly crowd of 1,000 or more before leading many of them to the UBC Faculty Club for a sit-in. Protestors (some of whom were not students) made vague demands for an end to the authoritarian structures of the University (including the AMS Student Council) and for greater democratic participation by students. As reported in The Ubyssey: The students created mass confusion and participated in such activities as drinking the faculty liquor, smoking their cigarettes, doing up dope, climbing over furniture, burning dollar bills and an American flag, swimming nude in the patio pool and basically enjoying themselves.... Most of the faculty in attendance seemed to accept the situation with resignation and merely left when it became apparent that the students wouldn't. Imagine 2009, UBC Vancouver. 1975-1985 Some student pranks and stunts were losing their appeal; although beer drinking contests and the occasional tanking still occurred each autumn, freshman hazing had effectively been discredited and discontinued; and instead of the near-riots of earlier years, inter-faculty rivalry found less damaging outlets, such as the symbolic vandalism of the new concrete "E" block placed on Main Mall near the recently completed engineering buildings. Students in Forestry, Agricultural Sciences, Nursing, and other programs took turns painting their own identities onto the block, faithfully repainted each time with a red E by students in engineering. The growing influence of the feminist movement also contributed to the more serious—some might say more mature—outlook of UBC students toward stunts by engineering students. The Lady Godiva ride, the offensive "Red Rag" newspaper, and the annual Smoker with its often lurid entertainment now met with considerable opposition, especially from women entering Applied Science, and after 1979, from the new Dean, Martin Wedepohl.... The AMS held welcoming barbecues, but many of the earlier traditions intended to inculcate school spirit and group identity had been re-evaluated over the 'seventies and found wanting. Gone were pep meets, freshman beanies, and school songs and yells. Individual faculties or residences still held welcoming ceremonies and socials, but by 1980 students were doubting the merits of holding the UBC Imagine 2009, UBC Vancouver. "frosh retreat," the official gathering organized by the University at Camp Elphinstone since the late 1950s; its demise brought an end to any sort of university-wide formal initiation until the arrival of "Imagine UBC" days in the late 'nineties. 1997-2008 Improving the student experience was among the first priorities of the [Martha] Piper administration For the past several decades, as the institution grew larger, faculties and departments had largely taken over the job of greeting new students, but in the autumn of 1997 UBC revived an earlier tradition of welcoming first year students across the University. Through "Imagine UBC" new students received a welcome by the President, an opportunity to meet deans, tours of the campus, and an evening of social events. Classes were cancelled for the day to permit senior student volunteers to coordinate and host the occasion; with over 5,000 first-year students participating in the inaugural event, the day was deemed a great success. Within a few years, "Imagine UBC" had added faculty representatives and a pep rally, complete with chants and slogans designed to instill a sense of pride in the University... "Imagine UBC" became the largest welcome event at a Canadian university, escalating into a whole week of activities coordinated with the AMS and the Graduate Student Society. Photos: (left) courtesy of UBC Library Archives Fall 2009 Trek 23 The 2009 UBC Alumni Achievement Awards speak. ;^lt£#j$1 2" '■■'■. ]>n ii.*JWI'iKi™ I JOHN FRASER LIFE ■ ■■-■•'" 5 L_.. JENNIFER MERVYN EDWIN H.K. YEN JUEL-EttiOENT PARISA BASTANI 5 EDUCATION VIDAYAKONG kim Campbell' GARY BIRCH ~';;-i \ JUDITH HALL jusvic.E'5iJ uS,Si- g£!E«n_5n5«^nej« GRANT D. BURNYEAT ™ pwic itairri UBC SCHOOL OF NURSING What makes a UBC Alumni Achievement Award Recipient Great? On November 10, more than 500 alumni and friends of UBC gathered at UBC's Life Sciences Centre to find out. Hon. John A. Fraser llb'54, lld'04 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Since graduating from UBC law school in 1954, John Fraser has had a long and successful career, first as a practising lawyer and later as a federal politician, cabinet minister and Speaker of the House of Commons. His deep commitment to social and environmental causes has earned him the respect of his peers as well as a considerable collection of awards and honours. Even in retirement, he remains an active member of numerous boards and councils. After being called to the Bar of British Columbia in 1955, Mr. Fraser became a partner at the law firm of Ladner Downs - now Borden Ladner Gervais - where he remained until his election to the Canadian House of Commons in 1972. From 1979 to 1980 he served as the Minister for the Environment and from 1984 to 1985 he was the Minister of Fisheries. In these roles he made significant contributions to the environmental protection of North America through his involvement in the creation of a US-Canada acid rain reduction agreement (he was the first Canadian politician to broach this issue with the US), the US-Canada Pacific Salmon Treaty and an international agreement to prevent the flooding of parts of BC by a proposed Skagit River dam in Washington State. From 1986 to 1994, Mr. Fraser served as the Speaker of the House of Commons, the first Speaker to be elected in a free vote by the Members of Parliament. His achievements in this role include establishing the House of Commons Environmental Program, which included "Greening the Hill," and the Task Force on the Disabled and Handicapped, which addressed access and employment opportunities on Parliament Hill. Following his retirement from politics in I994> Mr. Fraser was appointed Canadian Ambassador for the Environment, a role he filled until 1998 and in which he was responsible for Canada's follow-up to commitments made at the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio in 1992. Since then, he has chaired the Defence Minister's Monitoring Committee (1997-2003), the Pacific Fisheries Conservation Council (1998-2005) and the BC Pacific Salmon Forum (2005-2009), and has been a director on many other boards. He is a past member of the Advisory Council for the faculty of Graduate Studies at UBC. He is currently a Director of Oceans Network Canada under the aegis of the University ofVictoria. He is a Queen's Counsel, and in 1995 was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and member of the Order of BC. In 1994 he was appointed an honorary Lieutenant Colonel in the Seaforth Highlanders and in 1997 was made an honorary Colonel. He has also received the Canadian Forces Decoration. In 2002, he received the Vimy Award from the Conference of Defence Associations Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the defence and security of Canada and to the preservation of our democratic values. He has received honorary doctorates from Simon Fraser University and St. Lawrence University, both in 1999, and from UBC in 2004. The Right Honourable Kim CampbeU ba'69, llb'83, lldvo ALUMNI AWARD OF DISTINCTION At UBC, Kim Campbell studied political science, was involved in student government and became the first female president of a freshman class. It was just a hint at the groundbreaking career to follow. Before becoming Canada's 19th and first female Prime Minister in 1993, she was the country's first female Minister of Justice and Attorney-General and the first woman to become Minister of National Defence for a NATO country. She has represented Canada at Commonwealth and NATO conferences, the G-7 Summit and the UN General Assembly. She has continued to be a high profile player in the political sphere, holding many senior advisory roles in international organizations concerned with the promotion of democracy, the economic challenges of developing nations, nuclear non-proliferation and climate change. After her tenure as PM, Ms Campbell joined the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard as a Fellow before serving as the Canadian Consul General in Los Angeles (1996-2000). She returned to the Kennedy school afterwards as a Fellow in the Centre for Public Leadership and joined the faculty as a lecturer. She remains an honorary fellow. uests gather in the west atrium of UBC's Life Sciences Centre for the awards presentation ceremony. She is a founding member of the Club of Madrid, a group made up of former heads of government and heads of state who work to promote democracy through peer relations with country leaders. From 2002 to 2006, she served the organization first as acting president, then vice president and then secretary general. One of the club's initiatives with which she is currently involved is the Global Leadership for Climate Action. Other exclusive organizations she has headed are the Council of Women World Leaders, composed of current and former female prime ministers and presidents and the International Women's Forum, a global organization of women of significant and diverse achievement. She plays senior roles in several other organizations with a mandate to promote democracy and good governance. These include the [Ukrainian] Foundation for Effective Governance, the International Centre for the study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, the World Movement for Democracy, the Arab Democracy Foundation and the Pacific Council on International Policy. She is also a trustee of the International Crisis Group, which is generally recognized as the world's leading independent and non-partisan source of analysis and advice to governments and intergovernmental bodies. Ms Campbell's work in the corporate sphere has focused on the hi-tech, bio-tech and medical devices industries. She is also a popular public speaker. Among her many accolades, Ms Campbell is an honorary fellow of the London School of Economics (where, in the 1970s, she undertook doctoral studies in Soviet Government), holds several honorary doctorates and was recently appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada. Her best-selling autobiography, Time and Chance, is now in its third edition. Jennifer Mervyn PhD'06 OUTSTANDING YOUNG ALUMNUS AWARD It isn't easy for homeless youth to get off the streets. The family histories of violence, substance abuse and neglect that many of them share make the street community a welcome alternative, at least for a time. But without the stability and sense of purpose that a home and steady job provide, many will find themselves trapped in lives filled with drugs, violence and crime. Photo: Chris Borchert Fall 2009 Trek 2 5 Jennifer Mervyn is a Metis community health leader who understands the challenges these youth face. She found herself living on the streets in the early 1990s, and her experiences motivated her to build a career dedicated to improving the lives of at-risk and homeless aboriginal youth. Dr. Mervyn was able to get her own life back on track after moving to Montreal in 1994. She attended Concordia University, graduating with a BA in psychology in 1996. She then returned west to complete an MA in counselling psychology at Trinity Western University. After writing her master's thesis, Dr. Mervyn decided on a different (and more impactful) medium for her PhD project. Between 2002 and 2006, she researched, produced and presented the first video-ethnography doctoral dissertation ever submitted at UBC. Metamorphosis: an In-Depth Look at the Lives of Former Street Kids focused on the stories of a number of former street youth who had found the strength and determination to make the transition back into mainstream life. The film screened at a number of aboriginal research and homelessness conferences and was well received. In 2005, she became involved with the Kla-how-eya drop-in centre in Surrey, BC, meeting with the aboriginal street youth there and setting up a photo-therapy program. The participants told their personal stories by creating collages using photographs, leading to greater community understanding of the issues underlying homelessness. The collages were displayed in the centre and received a significant amount of media coverage. Dr. Mervyn used a similar approach for a 10-week expressive-therapy program for at-risk youth in the South Fraser region, a partnership with the Knowledgeable Aboriginal Youth Association. In addition to learning technical skills, the youth had the opportunity to make their voices heard and put their artistic talents on display. Some of their work was selected for inclusion in a wall-sized installation piece at the World Urban Forum, hosted by Vancouver. Dr. Mervyn worked for the Fraser Health Authority for more than seven years as a crisis counselor and is based now with the Ministry of Children and Families working in Child and Youth Mental Health. She assesses mental health and suicide risk and provides support for youth in need of assistance. She has been an official member of the Aboriginal Homelessness Steering Committee since 2005 and is a voting member for the Urban Aboriginal Strategy. Since 2003, she has worked with children in five slum areas of Cebu, Philippines, on behalf of the Orchid Project and the International Gospel Centre. Dr. Edwin H.K. Yen HONORARY ALUMNUS AWARD Edwin Yen served UBC as dean of Dentistry for 13 years until 2006. Under his watch, the faculty evolved into a world leader for research and education. He modernized learning facilities, restructured the undergraduate curriculum, increased international collaboration and raised standards for the dental profession worldwide. He is highly respected in his field and an inspiration and role model to colleagues and students. Dr. Yen believes in lifelong learning and the retention of professional competence. To this end, he was involved in creating bylaws to support ongoing learning. He also stepped forward to tackle the complex problem of establishing a process for assessing and training international dentists in accordance with national standards. He established a novel Gary Birch addresses the audience after receiving his Global Citizenship Award. 26 Trek Fall 2009 Photo: Chris Borchert international Dental Degree Completion program that has become the model for Canada, and the resulting international collaboration has enriched the student learning experience. Students also benefited from his reimaging of the undergraduate program, creating a problem-based learning model and a high-tech, multidisciplinary oral health centre. He won financial backing from the Nobel Biocare Company of Sweden (an advanced dental equipment company) for this international educational facility and community service clinic. Dr. Yen established sound financial and business policies in the faculty, to sustain and grow its mission. He also led a delegation from the Canadian Association for Dental Research to enhance research funding as the former Medical Research Council changed to the current Canadian Institutes for Health Research. Dr. Yen's other contributions include the initiation of an integrated patient-centred care clinic, the launch of a degree program in dental hygiene, the introduction of a simulator system to assist in clinical training and the co-design of a patient management software system. Beyond the faculty, he served on numerous UBC advisory and task committees. Beyond the university he has served on international institutional reviews and curriculum task forces, and is a popular presenter at international conferences. Dr. Yen has been successful in engaging dentistry alumni in the life and future of the faculty. An annual alumni reception he initiated eight years ago has grown from 3 o attendees to more than 500. He celebrates alumni career successes and provides a forum for discussion via the annual dental conference. Many alumni are now involved in providing clinical experiences for students and their donations to the faculty support the next generation of dentists. Engaging and enthusiastic, Dr. Yen is a great ambassador for the faculty and UBC. He is past president of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, the Canadian Association of Orthodontics, the Association of Canadian Faculties of Dentistry and the Canadian Foundation for the Advancement of Orthodontics, and served as treasurer for the International Association for Dental Research. Parisa Bastani basc'09 OUTSTANDING FUTURE ALUMNUS AWARD Not many people can claim to have driven a race car, and hardly anyone can say they headed a team to design, build and compete in one, but for recent engineering grad Parisa Bastani this experience was just one of several highlights to mark her jam-packed years at UBC. Her student record is notable not only for outstanding academic achievement, but also for extensive involvement outside the classroom and a willingness to serve the student population as a leader, mentor and representative. Ms Bastani's brush with race cars came as captain of UBC's Formula Society of Automotive Engineers, which designs and builds a new race car each year to compete against 140 other universities and colleges worldwide in an annual race in California. She was the first female to captain and technically lead a Formula SAE team from North America and during her time at UBC has been a mentor to more than 100 students in automotive engineering design and manufacture. But the Formula Society was not the only team she was involved with. As chair of the Engineering Student Team Council she provided leadership to hundreds of fellow students working in 12 teams on challenging projects to design and/or build submarines, robots, space shuttles, rockets, concrete toboggans, helicopters and fuel-efficient green cars. She not only provided technical expertise, but also encouraged collaboration among departments and facilitated fundraising. She has mentored many junior students in their career planning and academic needs, helped international students settle into new surroundings and advised on effective leadership in multi-cultural teams. She has been a speaker for various leadership, engineering, and international events, and has served on several committees and councils within the faculty of Applied Science. Academically, Ms Bastani is outstanding. She was a permanent fixture on the Dean's Honour list since her first year at UBC and in 2009 was named a Wesbrook scholar, UBC's most prestigious student designation. She has also been noticed by professional organizations and the corporate sector, and was granted an award for Best Engineering Paper on suspension design from GM in a competition that included faculty as well as students. She recently accepted full graduate scholarships for Oxford and Cambridge universities. Although she will be in demand from industry, automotive engineering isn't necessarily her future. Her graduate work will be in technology management and policy. She is driven by humanitarian considerations and how technological advances can be optimized and regulated for the well-being of all segments of society. Vida Yakong bsn'04, msn'08, Phd candidate OUTSTANDING FUTURE ALUMNUS AWARD The Okanagan may be a long way from northern Ghana, but that doesn't stop community health nurse and current UBC PhD candidate Vida Yakong from travelling back to the West African country every year. These aren't your usual visits home, however. Vida makes the annual trip as part of her work with Project GROW (Ghana Rural Opportunities for Women), an organization focused on building economic capacity and improving health outcomes for the women and children of the northern Ghanaian villages of Nyobok and Nksenzie. Project GROW applies theories of adult education to best practices developed at successful asset-based community development and microcredit projects around the world, and has created a sustainable model for working in these communities. Much of the success of the project is the result of Vida's passion and commitment to the cause, as well as her personal knowledge of the gender inequalities and socio-cultural and economic problems that women and children face in the region. Born in Nyobok to a polygamous family of subsistence farmers, Vida was one of ten children. At the age of eight her father took her out of primary school and put her to work as a shepherd. Because of deeply engrained beliefs about gender roles and responsibilities, her education was not seen as a priority. At the age of 11, after the death of her father, Vida was able to return to school, eventually completing primary and middle school with the strong support of her mother. Because of her family's poverty as well as continued gender discrimination, she was unable to attend secondary school. But Vida refused to let this roadblock stand in her way. She worked Fall 2009 Trek 27 through the secondary curriculum independently and challenged the national graduation examinations. She continued her education, first training - and later working - as a community health nurse and rural nurse practitioner in Ghana. She moved to Kelowna to complete her bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing at UBC Okanagan. In doing so, she became the first female in her village to attain a university education. Her desire in completing her PhD and working with Project GROW has been to leverage her own educational opportunities for the betterment of the lives of women and children in her home village. Carrying out this work, of course, requires resources. Fortunately, Vida also acts as an effective advocate for her organization. The inspirational leadership that she has provided over the past two years has made it possible for Project GROW to raise more than half the funds required to meet its $40,000 long-term fundraising goal. Vida has received numerous scholarships and awards including the UBCO School of Nursing MSN Scholarship, the UBCO PhD Tuition Award and the PEO International Peace Scholarship. This past May, she traveled to Washington, DC, to receive a Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund Award, given to ten female graduate students from developing countries, from the World Bank. Gary Birch basc'83, PhD'hh GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP AWARD Gary Birch is an adjunct professor of electrical and computer engineering who specializes in human-machine interface systems with a view to developing technologies that assist people with limited mobility. He is a social advocate with a keen sense of the responsibility that goes hand-in-hand with the engineering profession and its potential to serve humanity. As someone who enjoys widespread respect from scientists, the disabled community, policy makers and the corporate sector, Dr. Birch is an effective driver of innovative and collaborative research, and has been particularly successful at transferring research and development into commercially available devices. The main vehicle for these efforts has been the Neil Squire Society, a non-profit founded 25 years ago for which he serves as executive director. It exists to develop technologies, services and programs to increase options, improve life, and empower members of the disabled population. Dr. Birch's longtime leadership has guided research efforts and resulted in many life-changing technologies. His current work developing a brain- computer interface - a switch that can be controlled using brain signals - is particularly exciting. In the future, people with even severe physical disabilities may gain control over elements in their immediate environment, such as light and heat, and even over prosthetic limbs. This potentially life-changing research could lead to far greater independence and less reliance on resources and caregivers. Dr. Birch's connections and prodigious research record - he has produced more than 100 original papers - ensure that the latest technology is available for both applications and further research. At UBC, he has ties to the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD, an organization seeking new treatments for people with spinal cord injuries) and helped raise funds for a new research centre at Vancouver General Hospital. As someone who has lived with a spinal cord injury since his teens, Dr. Birch participates on a panel that advises ICORD on research relevance. At the governmental level he has served on the Advisory Committee on Disability Tax Measures for the Canada Revenue Agency and the BC Minister's Advisory Council on Information Technology. He is currently chair of Industry Canada's advisory committee on assistive technologies. Service on many key councils and committees means he has been able to exert influence on industry standards and best practices, and he is playing an instrumental role in pushing for policies and action to ensure that persons with disabilities who stand to benefit the most have access to new technologies. Dr. Birch has been recognized with a Leadership Award from BC Paraplegic Association, induction into the Terry Fox Hall of Fame, and a Meritorious Achievement Award from the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC. He was recently appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. Dr. Judith Hall OUTSTANDING FACULTY COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD Judith Hall is a leading pediatrician and clinical geneticist who has focused her research on disorders of growth, such as dwarfism, and birth defects, such as spina bifida and congenital contractures. She is driven by curiosity, sees her field as an art as much as a science, and enjoys her work so much she tends to take little time off. The results have been prolific. During more than 3 o years of clinical research Dr. Hall has identified many new syndromes (two bear her name) and documented the natural history of many others. She has also discovered the mechanisms behind many disorders and developed new ways to classify them. She has published more than 290 original articles - some considered classics - and 10 books, two of them award-winning. Her Handbook of Normal Physical Measurements is essential for physicians specializing in growth disturbances in children. Dr. Hall was educated and spent her early career in the US, where she studied under Victor McKusick, widely regarded as the founder of modern medical genetics. She moved to Vancouver in 19 81, becoming a UBC professor of Medical Genetics and director of Genetic Services for BC and, later, Head of the Department of Pediatrics at UBC and BC Children's Hospital. Now a professor emerita, she is based at the Children's and Women's Health Centre of British Columbia. Although Dr. Hall is a world authority in her field, her biggest motivation has been translating discovery into clinical care and improved treatments. To this end she has devoted countless volunteer hours driving professional standards, providing advice to patients and caregivers, and developing links with lay support groups. She has served on parent support boards, written newsletter articles in layperson's language and been instrumental in developing the resources, services and care guidelines so vital for coping with genetic illnesses. She also advocates for research into rare disorders. Dr. Hall has been honoured with life membership in Little People of America. Dr. Hall has also done much to set high standards for her profession. She has held many senior roles in major national and international Trek Fall 2009 Co-hosts Claire Newell BA'92 and Duncan McCue LLB'96. science and medicine organizations, helping them to reshape priorities and commitments. Her volunteering includes board work for the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, the International Pediatric Association, the Vancouver Foundation, the Medical Research Foundation of Canada, the US and Canadian Children's Miracle Networks, Genome Canada, and the Canadian Council of Academies. She has received many prestigious awards including a Senior Killam Prize for Research and the Ross Award from the Canadian Pediatric Society. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada. Mr. Justice GrantD. Burnyeat llb'73 BLYTHE EAGLES VOLUNTEER LEADERSHIP AWARD Grant Burnyeat's appetite for volunteering was evident during his undergraduate years when he became involved in student government. He started out as AMS representative for Law, but when a crisis occurred with the AMS executive after half a term he decided to run against the incumbents and was elected president in one of the largest voter turnouts in the society's history. He graduated the following year, but Mr. Burnyeat's involvement with the university had only just begun. He joined the law firm Davis and Company in 1973 and was appointed Queen's Counsel in The reception and after party were held in the east atrium of UBC's Life Sciences Centre. 1992. He was founding chair of the insolvency section of the BC branch of the Canadian Bar Association and in 1987 was elected as a bencher of the Law Society of British Columbia, which is responsible for upholding and protecting the public interest in the administration of justice; establishing professional and educational standards; and regulating the practice of law. He went on to become treasurer (now called the president). Despite career demands on his time, he had plenty of advice to spare for articling UBC law students and recent grads, whose formative professional years are guided by the Law Society. Mr. Burnyeat's volunteer efforts are not limited to his profession. He continued his volunteering bent acting as president of the Vancouver and BC Safety councils and as chair of the Vancouver Planning Commission. He was the founding president of Bard on the Beach Theatre Society, a non-profit dedicated to making Shakespeare affordable and accessible to a broad audience. He was a long-time member of the Board of Variance for the City of Vancouver. He presently volunteers with The Arts Club Theatre Company and Focus Foundation, and is a director of the international board of his fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon. He has also served as president of the BC Liberal Party and of the Vancouver Civic Non-Partisan Association. But one of the main beneficiaries of Mr. Burnyeat's time and effort has been UBC. From 1973 to 1980 he was a member of the fundraising and management committees for the university's Aquatic Centre, built in 1978. In the mid '80s, he served a term as president of the Alumni Association and chaired a fundraising committee for alumni programs. He was a member of the UBC Senate from 1983 to 1989 and more recently has been heavily involved in a fundraising project to replace the Law faculty building. He was a founding director of the Law Alumni Association and co-founder and the first and current president of AMSnet, an organization that links past student leaders with the current AMS executive. It recently provided guidance for students during deliberations with the UBC administration for a new Student Union Building. Mr. Burnyeat was honoured during the university's 75 th anniversary celebrations as one of its top 75 graduates. In 2002, he received The Queen's Jubilee Medal. He was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 1996. Photos: Chris Borchert Fall 2009 Trek 29 UBC School of Nursing Since its beginnings in 1919, the UBC School of Nursing has been a pioneer in the field of public health. As the first degree-granting nursing program in the British Empire, the school's innovative approach to nurse education forever changed the way that Canadian nurses were trained. The informal hospital apprenticeship undertaken by many early nurses was replaced with a rigorous theoretical and practical academic experience, creating a new professional standard for Canada. The early twentieth century was a time of great change and growth in British Columbia. Immigration, urbanization and industrialization were all on the rise and, as the province grew more prosperous, interest in education and health status increased. By the time Canada entered into World War I, there were already indications that the field of nursing was set to experience significant and lasting change. The enormous contribution made by women, including nurses, during the war secured a major social shift in how the occupation and women in general were regarded. Nurses were increasingly being seen as role models in society and nursing leaders were beginning to lend their support to the idea of nursing becoming a profession that required a university education. Although previous attempts to introduce a I Vida Yakong (C) received an Outstanding Future Alumnus Award. university-level education had been thwarted, in 1918 two significant events prompted a move towards the requirement of formal academic credentials. The passing of the Registered Nurses Act set new standards for the profession, creating new and greater expectations for nurses. At the same time, the Spanish Influenza epidemic that was spreading around the world with the return of soldiers from Europe demonstrated the need for Canada to develop robust public health leadership. Given the environment, it became clear that nurses needed the further training and knowledge that a university education would provide. Around this time Ethel Johns, a public health leader, became director of the Vancouver John Fraser received a Lifetime Achievement Award. General Hospital School of Nursing. Her commitment to raising nursing standards led UBC to launch its bachelor's degree program in nursing administered by the Faculty of Applied Science. In 1919 the school enrolled its first students and over the next 90 years more than 8,000 graduates joined the ranks of nursing professionals occupying positions in homes and hospitals across the province and around the world. Thanks to the foresight and dedication of Johns and others 90 years ago, the UBC School of Nursing is recognized world-wide as a leader in academic nursing, offering programs that remain on the cutting edge of both knowledge generation and practice application. The Alumni Achievement Awards wouldn't happen without these generous sponsors: GOLD SILVER BRONZE SUPPORTING WELLINGTON WEST CLEARSKarr INVESTMENT program HSBCH» The world's local bank DU Manulife Financial Insurance Meloche Monnex mbna AUCTION GRAND PRIZE: G The Coast Sundance I.odge Sun Peaks . RAY & BERNDTSON GLOBAL LEADERS IN EXECUTIVE SEARCH ^Ttelus8 IS1 AtfiSiT DISPLAYS AND SIGNAGE: theportables. llnduhow Exhibits I Custom Graphic! Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP Mahony & Sons Public House IN-KIND Bounty Cellars Winery Clark's Audio-Visual Services The Lazy Gourmet Mail-o-Matic Minuteman Press (Burrard) Mitchell Press UBC Life Sciences Centre Vancouver Courier 30 Trek Fall 2009 Photos: Varun Saran, BSc'08 LEARNING FROM THE GAMES As the 2010 Winter Games approach, UBC is encouraging people to ask provocative questions about what Olympic and Paralympic Games mean to our society. A diverse mix of scholars and athletes will explore the upcoming mega-event through a variety of lenses, such as gender, diversity, ethics, science and sustainability. Intellectual Muscle: University Dialogues for Vancouver 2010 Intellectual Muscle is an eclectic series of thought- provoking podcasts by prominent and up-and-coming Canadian scholars on topics related to the 2010 Winter Games: INTELLECTUAL MUSCLE UNIVERSITY DIALOGUES FOR VANCOUVER 2010 www.theglobeandmail.com/intellectualmuscle Developed by Vancouver 2010 and UBC in collaboration with universities across Canada and The Globe and Mail, the series will run until the end of the Games in March 2010. Speakers such as Judy Illes (UBC Canada Research Chair in Neuroethics) and Margaret Sommerville (of McGill's Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law) examine topics ranging from gender identity in men's figure skating to the politics of sport. The program is being led by UBC Continuing Studies' Don Black, who has been seconded to VANOC as director of Education Programs for 2010. "The Games may be in Vancouver, but they are Canada's Games and this is an opportunity to participate in a truly national conversation," says Black, calling Intellectual Muscle part of the first-ever online, interactive, bilingual Games education program. Another component of VANOC's education program is an online teachers' forum moderated by UBC's Faculty of Education. Led by Professor David Vogt, this website helps K-12 teachers share resources and innovative ideas for Games-themed classroom lessons. As a special legacy, the Faculty of Education has also launched The UBC Global Minds Challenge, an international initiative for K-12 schools to demonstrate how digital technologies are fostering global learning (see page 19). Sports and Society Speaker Series Join us in person and online for five thought provoking dialogues with Olympic & Paralympic athletes. The events will take place at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts over February and March. Sport and Society will be the feature program on Intellectual Muscle during the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Canadians will be invited to the website where topical polling questions raised by these events will invite dialogue. Keynote speakers will also be available to chat online and video and podcasts will be available after the live events. Moderated by prominent Canadian journalists, this five- part series will feature Olympians and Paralympians who have used their celebrity to make a difference in lively, debate with prominent invited guests. All events will take place in UBC's Chan Centre. February 8: What new ethical challenges have recent scientific advances created? (with Richard Pound, former Olympic swimmer, McGill Chancellor and World Anti-Doping Agency chairman.) February 12: Can sport and play serve as a development tool for the world's most disadvantaged children? (with Johann Koss, former Olympic speed- skater and president of international humanitarian organization Right To Play.) march 5: Are major sporting events inclusive of First Nations and other groups? (with Waneek Horn Miller, former water polo Olympian and member of the Mohawk First Nation.) march 10: Rick Hansen, former wheelchair basketball Paralympian, will discuss sports and challenge. march 13: What are Olympic legacies and are they worth the effort? (with Bruce Kidd, former track and field athlete and University of Toronto professor.) UBC Winter Games Event Series Beginning this fall, UBC lectures and symposia will focus on Games-related themes. "We will be showcasing the diverse mix of Games- related research and critical scholarship that is taking place at UBC," says Bob Sparks, director of UBC's School of Human Kinetics and chair of UBC's 2010 Education Committee. Confirmed topics include the relationship between sport, art and politics; technology and the body; symbolism in sport; and the historical context of the Olympic Games. Events include: December 3: Dismissing the Dis in Disability (with Andrei Krassioukov, clinical associate director, ICORD and Gary Birch, executive director, Neil Squire Society and adjunct professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering) December 8: Don Cherry Got it Right (for once): Why Maurice Richard is a Canadian Hero (with Benoit Melancpn of the University of Montreal, award-winning author of The Rocket: A Cultural History of Maurice Richard, 2009). December 17: Vancouver 2010, A State-of-the-Art Anti-Doping Program (with Dr. Matt Fedoruk, manager for VANOC in Anti-Doping Operations) January 21: Back or Ban Boosters for the Body and Brain? (with James Rupert, assistant professor, School of Human Kinetics, and Dan Eisenhardt, CEO, Recon Instruments.) Visit ubc.ca/2010 and events.ubc.ca for information on these and other UBC 2010 learning opportunities. Are you a torchbearer helping light the way to the 2010 Winter Games? Let us know. Send your name, graduating year, degree, along with the date and location of your route to 2010.games@ubc.ca. (Torchbearers will be recognized online at ubc.ca/2010) Get in on the Olympics Action! ENTER A DRAW FOR FREE HOCKEY AND SLEDGE HOCKEY TICKETS Fill out an online form or call us by January 22 to be entered into a draw for one of three pairs of Olympics hockey and sledge hockey tickets: Web form: www.alumni.ubc.ca/tickets Telephone: 604.822.3313 You must a UBC alumnus residing in Canada (outside Quebec) to enter. Prizes: A pair of tickets to the women's hockey playoff on Saturday, February 20, at 2:30pm A pair of tickets to Canada Vs Norway Sledge Hockey on Tuesday, March 16, at 8:30pm A pair of tickets to the Sledge Hockey Bronze Medal game on Saturday, March 20, at 1:00pm Fall 2009 Trek 31 IBP9IH li&rfl i^Bl WM fl IPfljl SB BS IS • 1 JsSEtTo/v /sly- A InfPISliSNi! 1 < < \1v-' On the UBC campus, at its leafy best in early August, Kevin Michael Zakresky fit in perfectly with the other twenty-something summer students. He was trying out a shaved-head look for the season and sporting a fresh tattoo, one of the first things on his to-do list when he returned to the coast earlier in the summer from his new base in southern Virginia. The new look somewhat belies his status in the music world; Kevin Zakresky is one of this country's rising conductors, a specialist in choral music with a strong back-up interest in historical performance practice. He was back at UBC to conduct a musical theatre ensemble for the elite Young Artist Experience summer music program. YAE brings top young classical performers to campus, providing them with traditional workshops and coaching as well as a wider and more eclectic range of enrichment activities, such as musical theatre, African drumming and dance. Afterwards he shared his approaches to motivating young singers at the BC Choral Federation's Summer Workshops for teachers, and directed seminars on conducting. After a busy 2009/10 season including an assortment of workshops and adjudicating gigs, he'll return to campus next May to conduct in a special Chan Centre program celebrating the late Joyce Maguire, a greatly loved - and wonderfully effective - doyenne of the British Columbia choral scene. At 27, Zakresky has accumulated a surprising amount of experience. He was active as a rehearsal pianist from his early teens, and has been playing piano (he was a soloist with the Prince George Symphony), singing tenor, and conducting for at least half his life. Born in Saskatchewan, but hailing from Prince George, Zakresky came to Vancouver to study at UBC. Very quickly he entered the orbit of Bruce Pullan, the long-time conductor of the renowned Vancouver Bach Choir who, as it happened, was just starting a new phase of his teaching "I got to do just about everything at UBC, from chant to contemporary music to Gilbert and Sullivan." career at the School of Music. This proved a happy conjunction: Pullan's way with choirs and developing conductors made him the perfect mentor. Even while studying at UBC, Zakresky landed the plum job of music director at St. Francis-in-the-Wood Church in the posh West Vancouver neighbourhood of Caulfeild Cove, and picked up conducting and coaching assignments for a number ofVancouver groups, including a gig with choral luminary Sir David Wilcocks on a sing-your-way-to-Alaska cruise. "I got to do just about everything at UBC," says Zakresky, "from chant to contemporary music to Gilbert and Sullivan." After completing his Master of Music degree in 2006, Zakresky sampled a number of different vocal and choral environments, including Cambridge, before deciding that the master's degree in Choral Conducting and doctoral program at Yale were the right next step for him. Yale's lavish resources were a bit of a pleasant shock after cash-strapped British Columbia. Zakresky arrived on full scholarship, supplemented by a living stipend. For his master's thesis project, he was given a substantial US$8500 to put together a team of performers. Most of the other grad students opted to conduct makeshift choirs with instrumental 32 Trek Fall 2009 ensembles; Zakresky decided to stage Purcell's hour-long opera Dido and Aeneas, with soloists, small choir and period orchestra. "I got players in from New York and planned the rehearsals very carefully, since they weren't all that interested in too many trips up to New Haven. I also got a theatre guy who was very, very familiar with the conventions of Restoration theatre." Ultimately they settled on a mixed historical/modern conception, with some period costumes and wigs and more trendy details like Aeneas, the caddish male lead of the piece, abandoning Dido with Starbucks mug in hand. Yale was also a place to work with conducting guru Simon Carrington. "Simon was all about detail, detail, detail: know everything there is to know about a score before even thinking of conducting." Zakresky is now learning repertoire and prepping for doctoral level exams; he expects to complete his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale in 2011. While that's going on, he's not haunting the libraries of New Haven. Last year he was offered the position of Choirmaster and Music Program Director at Chatham Hall, a private Episcopal school for Girls in South Central Virginia. "It's a wonderful environment: great resources, small classes and a very fine staff of teachers." He's got big plans for this season: Britten's Missa Brevis or possibly the pageant opera Noye's Pludde, Medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen's Ordo virtutum (a religious GROUP HOME AND AUTO INSURANCE for members of the University of British Columbia Alumni Association PROTECTION MADE EASY- GROUP RATES MADE EASIER! As a member of the University of British Columbia Alumni Association, you can save on your home and auto insurance through preferred group rates, while enjoying high-quality insurance products and outstanding service. Request a quote and you could When you choose TD Insurance Meloche Monnex services, we are able to provide financial and marketing support for UBC alumni programs and events. Dtttinailon ol your choice! EBB UBC "■*V«W*^ MelocheMonnex.com/ubc 1 866 352 6187 (Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.) Insurance Meloche Monnex The TD Insurance Meloche Monnex home and auto insurance program is underwritten by SECURITY NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY and distributed by Meloche Monnex Insurance and Financial Services Inc. in Quebec and by Meloche Monnex Financial Services Inc. in the rest ol Canada. Due to provincial legislation, our auto insurance program is not off ered in British Columbia, Manitoba or Saskatchewan. *No purchase required. Contest ends on January 16,2010. Skill-testing question required. Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. Complete contest rules available at MelocheMonnex.com. Mehcne Monnex3 is a trade-mark of Meloche Monnex Inc. TD Insurance is a trade-mark of The Toronto-Dominion Bank, used under license. allegory that he intends to stage as a beauty pageant) and a piece by Ontario composer Nancy Telfer: all demanding works well beyond regular high-school musical fare. Much as he enjoys his new environment, as an ambitious conductor on the way up he has to keep his eye out for opportunities. At this stage in his career trajectory, working in the US is a distinct possibility, at least for the time being. But his ultimate dream is to find a conducting gig back here at home. Whatever pragmatic decisions dictate, there are matters of heart. In this Zakresky wears his loyalties, if not on his sleeve, then just as prominently displayed: the new tattoo is a Maple Leaf. David Gordon Duke, BMus'71 regularly writes about music and musicians in Vancouver. He is currently dean of the faculty of Language, Literature and Performing Arts at Douglas College. Fall 2009 Trek 33 The Boys of war By BOB BAGNALL, PEng, BASc(Civil)'49 Seventy years ago war was declared. Sixty years ago the class of '49 graduated from UBC. In between, 65 young men taking the No. 2 Canadian Army University Course at UBC completed an intense year of study before serving in WWII. I was one of them. We were among 1,100 boys attending universities across Canada who absorbed 44 hours of lectures and labs every week from September 1943 to May 1944. To qualify for the course, we had to be between 17 and 19, in good health and have junior and senior matriculation marks of 75 per cent or better in math, physics and chemistry. The army's intention was to create a pool of NCOs and officers for the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and the Canadian Military Engineers. After a month of basic training in Alberta we arrived on campus in September and were housed in the wartime huts at Acadia Camp. We marched to class each day in uniform and returned in the evening for two and a half ne successful grads of UBC's Canadian Army University Course standing on the Library steps. FRONT ROW: Registrar Wood (far left), Chancellor Eric Hamber (in overcoat), Major-General Pearkes (centre), Dr. Gordon Shrum (next to Pearkes), Captain Dunster (wearing glasses) and Professor Walter Gage (far right). Photo courtesy Bob Bagnall. hours of compulsory homework. The curriculum was weighted heavily to sciences and math. Discipline was provided by a captain and three sergeants, who were present 24 hours a day. Pay was $1.30 per day, which didn't leave much opportunity for hi-jinks! On graduation, we were offered a choice of serving with the Infantry, Artillery or Armoured forces. Most of us became NCOs and some of us officers during the last year of the war. The army university course was arduous and difficult, but we cherish the fellowship and camaraderie that it spawned and have maintained a close association over the past 65 years. Many of us returned to UBC to complete our education in engineering. This September, the class of '49 returned to campus to celebrate the 60th anniversary of graduation. 2010 UBC Desert Classic March 7-8,2010 ■ Palm Desert, CA Brought to you by UBC Alumni Affairs and UBC Athletics Catch up with fellow UBC alumni and friends at dinner. The next morning, break out your clubs for a round of great desert golf. •If Tourn Monday, March 8,1:00pm shotgun start, esert Willow Golf Resort, Palm Desert, CA Register at www.alumni.ubc.ca/events. Questions? Contact Sarah Saddler: 604.822.6183 or sarah.saddler@ubc.ca. ALUMNI WEEKEND DATE IClC] yj H^H^I 34 Trek Fall 2009 A student is "tanked" during orientation in 1987. Photo courtesy AMS Archives ALUMNI NEWS A Reunion Story By Al Boggie BA'50, MD'54 In May, UBC's first graduating class in Medicine met in Whistler for its 55 th anniversary reunion. We had a particularly strong camaraderie as students and we were excited to renew it. The bonds created through learning, challenges and opportunities experienced together at UBC were as strong as ever. We planned our visit to Whistler with the goal of visiting its Olympic venues. We stayed at the Pan Pacific Whistler Village Hotel and took a four-hour tour of the venues with Whistler Eco Tours. A local guide described the particular features of each, and a chance encounter with two small black bears at one site added a dose of reality to the venture. The hospitality and enthusiasm of hotel and tour staff contributed to an ideal reunion. I am a retired professor of family practice and associate dean of admissions at UBC, and the university has been the source of many lifelong friendships and important experiences. But it was my years as a student that were the most formative. As much as I enjoyed the wonder of the mountains at Whistler and was awed at the new construction for the Olympics, I was struck by how fulfilling it was to be with my old classmates. There is something deeply personal about education. One's accomplishments, failures, inspiration, perseverance and intelligence are revealed to peers, and living through it all together creates unique relationships. Our 55 th anniversary reunion was a wonderful reminder of this, and I encourage other alumni to engage fellow classmates at every opportunity. If you find it half as fulfilling as I have, it is not something to be passed up. Reunions To find out if your class is planning a special celebration or to initiate one yourself, visit our website at: www.alumni.ubc.ca/events/reunions. For help and more information, please contact: APPLIED SCIENCE: Tracey Charette at 604.822.9454 or alumni@apsc.ubc.ca ARTS: Christine Lee at 604.822.9359 or christine.lee@ubc.ca DENTISTRY: Jenn Parsons at 604.822.6751 or dentalum@interchange.ubc.ca FORESTRY: Jenna McCann at 604.822.8787 or jenna.mccann@ubc.ca LAW: Janine Root at 604.822.2584 or janine.root@ubc.ca MEDICINE: Laura Laverdure 604.875.4411 extension 67741 or Med.Alumni@ubc.ca SAUDER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: Kim Duffell at 604.822.6027 or alumni@sauder.ubc.ca SCIENCE: Matthew Corker at 604.822.1864 or matthew.corker@ubc.ca If your faculty isn't listed, please contact Liz King at liz.king@ubc.ca, 604.827.5084 or toll free at 800.883.3088. Alumni Networks All alumni are members of the Alumni Association, but smaller networks form around alumni with common affinities. Graduates of the Arts Co-op program recently formed the Arts Co-op Alumni Network, for example, and other affinity groups are in the works. Find out if your faculty, department, student club or current locality has an alumni group (or how to set one up) by asking your Alumni Relations representative: UBC Okanagan alumni: Brenda at brenda.tournier@ubc.ca Asia-based alumni: Mei Mei at meimei.yiu@apro.ubc.ca ■ All other UBC alumni: Caely-Ann at caely-ann.mcnabb@ubc.ca There are already more than 50 regional networks around the globe and the list continues to grow. Find out if there is any activity in your current locality by visiting www.alumni.ubc.ca/ connect. Boston-area alumni have a new alumni representative; Yuanyuan Yin, BASc'08, is busy planning her first alumni gathering, so keep an eye out for your email invitation. We're looking for volunteers to build the alumni network in Montreal. If you're interested, contact Caely-Ann McNabb at caely-ann.mcnabb@ubc.ca or 800.883.3088. Past Events UBC Bound! took place throughout Asia and North America over the summer with alumni helping to welcome more than 300 new students into the UBC community ... San Francisco alumni attended the Canadian Consulate's Canada Day celebration, caught a Giants game with UVic alumni and volunteered at the San Francisco Food Bank ... Florida alumni got together for their regular brunch ... New York alumni recently gathered for a pub night and the annual Canadian Association of New York alumni reception ... Alumni in Toronto enjoyed an afternoon of beer-tasting and a brunch ... Ottawa alumni gathered for an evening at the pub ... Victoria alumni formed a book club ... alumni in London (UK) shared a picnic on BC Day. These are just samples of UBC alumni activity going on all over the globe. Be sure to update your email and current address with us so we can let you know when an event is happening in your area. Alumni and friends living in Florida met up in July. Jumni thronged Banana Republic to pick up tips on dressing for success. 36 Trek Fall 2009 UBC Dialogues: Coming to a community near you! UBC Alumni Affairs brings UBC Dialogues to communities near you - asking provocative questions and fostering dialogue. Our event series sponsor for the Lower Mainland is CBC. Here are some past highlights. For photos and podcasts of these and other UBC Dialogues as well as a listing of which communities we'll be visiting next, see www.alumni.ubc.ca. CBC (OTTAWA) Pierre Berton: Canada's Original Gonzo Journalist, 1920-2004 Whether he was teaching Canadians how to roll a joint on CBC TV, releasing a greased pig at the Hotel Vancouver or making Canadians take interest and pride in their own history, Pierre Berton, BA'41, DLit'85, was always larger than life. (BURNABY) Personalized Medicine: Hope or Hype? DNA may reveal a pre-disposition to a myriad of diseases. What are the ethical, economic and social implications? (Moderated by Stephen Quinn ofthe CBC) (SEATTLE) US Health Care on Life Support: Is the Cure Worse than the Disease? As the healthcare debate continues to heat up in the US, opponents of universal healthcare have taken aim at the Canadian model. Is there a model of universal healthcare that would work in the US? What are the pros and cons ofthe current international universal healthcare systems? (TORONTO) Sustainability and the City: Can you make the scene and still be green ? Since an average city requires 300 to 1000 times its landmass to support daily demands such as food, garbage disposal and energy, is it really possible for urban residents to be green? The Next Step: Defining Your Style The Next Step event series is aimed at recent grads who are transitioning into the world of work. On October 22, alumni packed Banana Republic on Robson Street for style tips from fashion columnist J. J. Lee, MArcb'oo, and entertainment from broadcaster, comedian, filmmaker and future grad Tetsuro Shigematsu. Visit www.alumni.ubc.ca/events/nextstep to pick up style tips and watch a short video. Second Annual UBCO Alumni Endowment Fund Gala Two hundred alumni and friends gathered on September 23 for the second Annual UBCO Alumni Endowment Fund Gala. This year it was held in the brand-new University Centre's Ballroom, hosted by the Okanagan Alumni Chapter Committee, and emceed by chapter chair, Catherine Comben, BA'6y. The evening included the presentation of the 2009 Community Builder Award to alumnus Paul Mitchell, QC, BCom'78, LLB'79. Alumni around Campus Four young alumni presented at the CLASS Conference on October 24, a new initiative to help first year students make the academic transition from high school to university. More information can be found at http://class.ubc.ca/ program/young-alumni-panel-and-reception. | The TBirds 1959 football team, including Bill Crawford (R), was welcomed back to campus for homecoming and met the current squad before cheering them on against the Regina Rams. At this year's TEDxTerry Talks on October 3, alumna Jennifer Gardy, BSc'oo, spoke on the topic of "Public Health in the 21st Century: the Open-Source Outbreak." Her presentation is available to view at www.terry.ubc.ca/terrytalks. Thirty alumni took to rough waters in late September to compete in the alumni heat at Day of the Longboat. Next fall, consider putting together an alumni team and make a splash at this fun campus community event. More than 3,000 students and alumni cheered on the T-Birds at Homecoming in September. A sea of blue and gold ensured the Regina Rams were intimidated in the stands, but this phenomenal show of school spirit wasn't enough to tilt the scales in our favour as the T-Birds lost 28-17. The T-Birds '59 Football team - the 1959 CIAU champions - was honoured at the game and celebrated its 50th reunion with a pre-game locker room visit and reception. Co-captains Jack Henwood, BCom'60, and Doug Mitchell, LLB'62, participated in a ceremonial coin toss before the game. Photo: Richard Lam Fall 2009 Trek 37 claSSACTS The Golden Girls of UBC This September, the International Triathlon Union held the World Championship Grand Final at Surfer's Paradise on Australia's Gold Coast. Representing Canada in the 35-39 age group was Suzanne Chandler, BA'94, (L) now a resident of Australia but still a Canadian citizen at heart. In the 40-44 age group was Stephanie Kieffer, BSc'89, (R) of Vancouver. They are the daughters of Anne J. Brown, BA'82, and John C. Brown, who was a UBC faculty member from 1964 to 1992. Stephanie entered the race to defend the gold medal title she earned in 2008 in Vancouver. Suzanne entered determined to give her sister a run for her money, even though they competed in different age groups. They had trained together in Vancouver during the summer and their times for the swim, cycle and run were all very close. In the end, the sisters both won gold for team Canada. Suzanne was challenged throughout the cycling by the eventual second-place finisher, but took the lead early in the run. Her finishing kick allowed for a healthy margin by the end of the race. Stephanie (a former UBC varsity swimmer) led her age category from the first swim buoy. Suzanne and Stephanie's impressive achievement is even more remarkable given the demands on their time. Stephanie is the mother of three children under the age of 12; holds a part-time position as a genetic counsellor at Children's and Women's Health Centre of BC; is a clinical assistant professor in the department of Medical Genetics at UBC; and is the head coach of two ice hockey teams with the Vancouver Thunderbird Minor Hockey Association. At the age of 22, Suzanne was diagnosed with a cardiac problem requiring the implantation of a pacemaker. She has never allowed this to interfere with her participation in physically demanding sports, including soccer. She was awarded a cross country scholarship to the University of Hawaii; won the Northern Territory Australia Sprint Championship; and after a local race at Alice Springs was anointed Queen of the Mountain. She has two children under the age of seven. The sisters are quick to credit others for making it all possible. Coaches Alan Carlsson and Margaret Beardslee provide motivation and guidance, while spouses Andrew Chandler and Timothy Kieffer, BSc'89, PhD'94, provide support around the home to enable upwards of ten training sessions a week. Both spouses have demanding professions. Andrew is a pilot with Qantas Airlines and Timothy is a respected UBC professor operating an extensive laboratory involved in diabetes research. 1950S Irving K. Barber OC, OBC, BSF';o, LLD'02 has been awarded a 2009 Special Award for Philanthropy by the BC Museums Association (BCMA). The award was made in recognition of his involvement with several philanthropic activities in the province, most notably his gift for the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC, which provides innovative support and funding to the cultural sector. The award was presented at the BCMA's annual Awards Banquet in Osoyoos, BC ... Douglas Henderson BA'j6 was recently made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). This is the highest level of membership. Since the last course in chemistry that he ever took was Chemistry 101, he is possibly the only FRSC ever elected with just freshman chemistry. After some years with the IBM Research Laboratory in San Jose, California, he was a professor of chemistry at Brigham Young University. He is now an emeritus professor but is still active in research. Next June he expects to attend a conference in I96OS Brno, Czech Republic, and intends to take a balloon ride over Prague with his friend, Anatol ... Ian H. Stewart QC, BA'57, LLB'60 received a Legacy Award for Sport from the University of Victoria at its annual awards dinner on October 13.The award recognizes Ian's role as a visionary for athletics at UVic, where he served for 12 years as a member and chair of the university's board of governors. He helped set the course for the Vikes recreation and athletics program, now regarded as one of the best in Canada. As a student at UBC, Ian was a member of the Thunderbird football and rugby teams, served as president of the Big Block Club, the Men's Athletic Association and Students' Council and was a member and president of Phi Delta Theta. Ian resides in Victoria with his wife of 43 years, Gillian (nee Edgell, BFA'61), where he practiced law and until recently owned a multi-award-winning auto dealership. Maurice Hornocker PbD(Zoology)'68 is one of 29 animal conservationists nominated to receive the Indianapolis Prize, the world's leading award for animal conservation. Maurice, a native of Allerton, Iowa, and president of Selway Institute, a non-profit research and education organization, has been nominated for devoting his career to studying wild cats and advocating for the conservation of large carnivores, including the first-ever field investigation of cougars. His findings on social behavior and predation ecology changed how cougars were managed across the West: from a bounty animal to a regulation-protected species. Maurice is currently producing two books on cougars. 38 Trek Fall 2009 Photo: Johnathan King aul Mitchell is the 2009 recipient of the Okanagan Alumni Community Builder Award. 1970S Alan F.J. Artibise PfoD'72 has been named provost of the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, starting in late October. Preceding this appointment he was executive dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University (ASU); served as executive director of ASU's Institute for Social Science Research; and was a professor in the School of Government, Politics and Global Studies. He is a certified planner and a recognized expert in North American urban development and is trained as a political scientist and urban historian ... Okanagan lawyer and community advocate Paul Mitchell BCom'78, LLB'79 ls the 2009 recipient of the Okanagan Alumni Community Builder Award. The award honours his outstanding efforts in building bridges between UBC Okanagan and the greater community while making a difference locally, regionally and globally. Born and raised in Kelowna, Paul is a managing partner of the law firm Pushor Mitchell LLP, the largest BC law firm outside of Vancouver. He has been a driving force behind numerous community initiatives, from leading efforts to bring UBC to Kelowna to chairing a bid campaign to host the Memorial Cup. Paul has also devoted his time as president of the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce, director of the BC Chamber of Commerce, trustee of Kelowna General Hospital, vice-chair of the Central Okanagan Foundation and Kelowna General Hospital Foundation, campaign chair for the United Way, and director of BrainTrust Canada ... In June 2009, Margaret Ostrowski LLB'79, QC received the YWCA Women of Distinction Award in the category of Business and the Professions for her leadership, volunteerism, sustained commitment and support and encouragement of others in the legal profession. She is a past president of the Canadian Bar Association in BC and a former member of the governing body of the Law Society of BC ... Brian J. McParland BASc'79, MSc'81, PbD'85 has been living in Amersham, England, for ten years with wife Sharon and daughters Siobhan and Aine. He is the head medical physicist of GE Healthcare Medical Diagnostics and has been managing and advising on proprietary diagnostic nuclear medicine and PET tracer clinical trials in the UK, India, Europe and the US. His book, Nuclear Medicine Radiation Dosimetry: Advanced Theoretical Principles is published by Springer and he was recently an invited speaker describing his views on the future of medical imaging and PET tracers to the Royal Society of Medicine in London and the Association of Nuclear Medicine Physicians of India in Bangalore. I98OS Kenton Low BCom'80 has joined Bardel Entertainment as head of its interactive division, leaving his position as president of New Media BC. Previously, he served as president and CEO of Robeez Footwear Ltd. and as an executive with Disney and Vivendi Universal ... Vicente Loyola MD'83 's a pathologist at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Trail, BC. He recently became a certified Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology. To earn the credential, Dr. Loyola met rigorous educational and experiential eligibility requirements then passed a comprehensive written examination. He has demonstrated the knowledge and skills necessary to direct laboratories engaged in the microbiological diagnosis of human disease. 1990S Heidi Clark BA'90, BEd'93 was profiled in the September 2009 issue of Canadian Family magazine as a Great Teacher Award recipient. The kindergarten teacher at Vancouver's inner-city Florence Nightingale Elementary School has a holistic approach towards education and incorporates lessons about yoga, meditation and nutrition into her classroom teaching. She is passionate about literacy and in her free time runs two popular intensive literacy and numeracy programs for preschoolers. She has also written the book An Alphabet Adventure with artist Susan McCallum, with illustration help from her class. She's currently working on her master's degree in education through UBC's urban learner program ... The Synergy Awards have honoured outstanding university-industry research collaborations since 1995. Winners ofthe 2009 Synergy Awards for Innovation include Dr. Robert Rohling BASc'91 and Dr. Septimiu (Tim) Salcudean of UBC, and their research partners at Ultrasonix Medical Corporation, a leading developer and manufacturer of high quality diagnostic ultrasound imaging systems. The partnership began in 2001 when Ultrasonix released its initial research device, and has developed over the years to include five laboratory and clinical installations of the Ultrasonix ultrasound system at UBC. The company has taken advantage of research being performed at UBC by licensing cutting-edge technologies that help improve patient care in multiple ultrasound markets. Ultrasonix now employs four UBC grads as full-time research and development staff and has provided co-op opportunities for current students ... Cindy Meston BA'9 T> MA'93, PhD'95 is a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. She has published a book, Why Women Have Sex, with evolutionary psychologist co-author David Buss. Using the voices of real women, Why Women Have Sex reveals the motivations that guide women's sexual decisions and explains the deep-seated psychology and biology that often unwittingly drive women's desires. Published by Times Books and Henry Holt Publishing, the book was released on October 1 in the US, Canada Fall 2009 Trek 39 why women have sex r.-i.'i rn I u i* f ii 'rn-nA'r thr PrK^jJt^ 4j/ Kr± in cv.vwv.v. Metmw f/ux ™> mvmto. buhupum. and in seven other countries. Throughout the fall, Cindy did extensive publicity for the book on national television and radio as well as in magazines. Information about the book and about Cindy Meston's work can be found on her research website, www.mestonlab.com ... GO Design Collaborative, a local emerging design studio founded by Pauline (Alam) Thimm BA'93 and Jen Uegama BA'96 was recently recognized in the wild card category of FormShift, a sustainable design contest put on by the Architectural Institute of British Columbia (AIBC) and the City of Vancouver. In August, Pauline and Jen's submission, DenCity:IntenCity, was featured in the FormShift exhibit at the AIBC Architecture Centre Gallery. The proposal addresses the lack of vision for Vancouver's remaining industrial lands by suggesting non-traditional uses, such as integrating urban farmland as an artificial elevated ground plane. DenCity:IntenCity encourages broader thinking with respect to the city's infrastructure. It calls for the revitalization of unused rail tracks. It also demonstrates the benefits of densifying diverse, large-scale activities in terms of waste recycling and energy production. Finally, the proposal suggests that such a visionary form-shifting structure be located at one of the city's numerous waterfront gateways, where transportation, infrastructure, services and industry collide, and where it could serve as a beacon of Vancouver's commitment to building bold solutions for its future ... Jonathan Aikman BA'94 has completed a new book on the financial crisis, When Prime Brokers Fail: The Unheeded Risks to Hedge Funds, Banks and the Financial Industry. It will be published by Bloomberg Press in February 2010 ... Joanne C. McNeal PhD'97 has taught art education at the University of Alberta for the past year, spending her summers coordinating mural painting projects for the City of Edmonton along a previously graffiti-ridden light rapid transit corridor. This summer, she led community youths and artists in painting four new murals to accompany one they completed in 2008. Business owners paid for scaffolding, fences, and security and even loaned ladders to the painters. The transit authority supported the initiative. The murals took two weeks each to complete and seem to have achieved their purpose of decreasing the amount of graffiti along the tracks. Although the first mural was hit with graffiti after six months and needed repainting, none of them have since been targeted. Not only have the murals beautified the neighbourhood and cheered up the corridor, they have raised the level of local pride ... Richmond chartered accountant, Dennis Cojuco BSc'99 has received a Community Service Award from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of BC. In 1999, Dennis co-founded the Enspire Foundation with the aims of supporting the education of children living in substandard conditions and inspiring others to make a difference in the global community. The Enspire Foundation began its outreach program by organizing soup kitchens, hosting fundraisers, and partnering with the Pag-aalay Ng Puso Foundation in the Philippines. Between 1999 and 2002, Enspirey sent funds through this partner foundation to help pay for the education of children living in Navotas, a poverty-stricken city in Metro Manila. Dennis has served as vice president and a director of Enspire since its inception, and has been one of the lead event coordinators for Resonance, an annual amateur choir festival and fundraising event. Enspire's last six Resonance festivals have raised more than $62,000. This money has been used for tuition fees for indigent students in Navotas, and locally for Richmond High's global perspectives program. This money also enabled Enspire to fund and build the first stand-alone library in Norzagaray, in the Philippines' Bulacan province. Dennis was one of 15 Canadians to help build the facility in 2006. In the short term, Enspire continues to support families in Navotas and help build the community in Norzagaray. In May, Dennis and a group of Canadian professionals and students helped fund and build the first two homes in a new housing community for 130 low-income families. In the long term, he and his colleagues hope to undertake similar projects in other developing countries. 2000S Bryan Nykon BA'01 has been selected as one of Rotary's World Peace Fellows and will study peacemaking and conflict resolution at the Rotary Center for International Studies at the University of Bradford in England. Sponsored by the British Columbia Rotary District 5040, Nykon started his fellowship in fall 2009, pursuing a master's degree in peace studies with Joanne C. McNeal coordinated mural-painting projects for the City of Edmonton along a graffiti-ridden light rapid transit corridor. 40 Trek Fall 2009 David Velan was nominated for an INDEX: People's Choice Award for his heat exchanger, EcoDrain™. a strong focus on media studies. His goal is to bring cultures together by creating media content that shows our common humanity and looks for solutions to conflicts beyond the traditional win and lose. The Rotary World Peace Fellows are selected every year in a globally competitive process based on their professional, academic and personal achievements ... The BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation has named Chef Daniel Lesnes BEd'oz as the recipient of its 2009 Outstanding Teacher Award. The foundation is dedicated to working with educators to bring BC's agriculture to students. For the past nine years Daniel has been the official chef for the foundation's summer institute, searching out local produce to serve and sharing cooking techniques and recipes with participants. Determined to do more to teach students the benefits of supporting local agriculture, Chef Lesnes is launching a pilot program involving local produce and 13 secondary school teaching kitchens in the Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver regions ... This summer, a new product co-designed by David Velan, BASc'oz, was nominated for an INDEX: People's Choice Award. The mission of INDEX: is to generate design that improves quality of life. Velan's product, EcoDrain™, is a unique patent-pending heat exchanger which transfers heat from hot shower waste water to cold incoming water. This cuts water heater use for showers by 25 to 70 per cent. Learn more about EcoDrain™ at www.ecodrain.ca ... The British Columbia Film Foundation has awarded a $10,000 Daryl Duke Scholarship to UBC film production alumna and past president of the UBC Film Production Alumni Association Amy Belling BFA'03. The scholarships were created to honor the significant contribution of Daryl Duke to the film and television industry while assisting in the advanced education of exceptional BC filmmakers. Amy is an award-winning director of photography and producer. Her production credits include the acclaimed short films Why The Anderson Children Didn't Come to Dinner (2003), The Saddest Boy in the World (2006) and the Genie-nominated short Regarding Sarah (2006), as well as the feature film Mount Pleasant (2006). Amy is currently completing her master of fine arts in cinematography at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. ... In July 2009, Diane P.Janes PhD'oj began her new position as an associate professor (tenured) with the University of Cape Breton in Sydney, NS. She serves as chair of the education department of the School of Education, Health and Wellness and teaches in their BEd and MEd programs. Before moving to Nova Scotia, Diane was faculty with the University of Saskatchewan. She is also adjunct faculty with Royal Roads University, Athabasca University and UBC. Her research interests include educational technology, e-learning strategic planning, and e-research ... The Global Forum for Health Research and The Lancet have shortlisted an essay by Brenda Ogembo BA'oj. Show Me the Money! From Rhetoric to Action in Addressing the Global Human Resources for Health Crisis will be published in Young Voices in Research for Health 2005) m November ... Janet Hudgins BA'06 has published Treason: The Violation of Trust (Xlibris Publishing, 2008). Treason tells the story of William Palmer and his descendents, blending fiction and fact into a compelling historical narrative. As Puritans in the 17th Century; Quakers in the 18th Century; part of the Loyalist Diaspora to Shelburne, Nova Scotia, after the American Revolution; and Canadian soldiers in the trenches of World War I, the Palmer family lived the events of this key period of North American history. Hudgins' story, which was written after more than eight years of searching records and exploring the sites it would depict, was written largely to encourage young people to read about and enjoy their own fascinating history ... Educator Tiffany Poirier BEd'06 has just published Q is for Question: An ABC of Philosophy, an illustrated non-fiction book for children about life's most important questions. Through thought-provoking and playful verse, she asks open-ended questions that guide a child to discover, debate and articulate his or her own true beliefs ... In October and November, Steve Bell-Irving BHK'07 and Nicole Akeroyd BHK'09 volunteered in Kathmandu, Nepal, through a group called Volunteers Abroad. During their eight week placements, they used skills developed at UBC including teaching children and young adults about nutrition, physical rehab and exercise. After their placements, they planned to hike the Annapurna Circuit. They blogged about their experiences at: http:// carpediemwhynot.blogspot.com (Steve) and http://nicaker.blogspot.com (Nicole) ... Natalie Doonan MFA'08 and Katherine Somody BA'08, along with collaborators Meghan Eldridge and Sean George, started The Miss Guides. The Miss Guides is a Vancouver-based artist collective whose members and collaborators have all worked together as animateurs (the haughty French name for tour guides), on and off for the past 15 years. This summer they led/ performed Walking the Ruins: Fragments of Vancouver. Part historical tour and part fictional performance, this hour-long walk was rooted in the idea of ruins as fragmentary remains, and attempted to piece together conflicting visions of the city by making unexpected connections between four diverse and surprising sites of past and present-day ruin. From breathtaking attractions such as Harbour Centre's The Lookout to contentious projects like the new Canada Line, The Miss Guides turned their lens on a city gearing up for the international pageantry of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Tiffany Poirier has published an illustrated book for children about life's most important questions Fall 2009 Trek 41 books Huge Blue: Western Canadian Travel Sketches PATRICK M. PILARSKI, BASc'04 Leaf Press, $16.95 west coast haiku set deceptively simple words perfectly precise BE DIFFERENT or be dead: Your Business Survival Guide ROY OSING, BSc'69 Granville Island Publishing, $34.95 Distinguishing your company in a saturated marketplace is a persisting test that many business leaders never pass. In order to survive unruly external conditions, organizations need to adopt internal practices that allow them to be seen as unique by their customers. Osing refers to these practices as his BE DIFFERENT strategies. It is important to recognize that creating a formula for being different is difficult and sounds almost counter-intuitive. Osing, however, cuts through the inspirational jargon with which many business texts distract their readers and provides a practical and concrete framework that can be customized to suit both large and small enterprises. His recommendations to improve your strategic planning, marketing, sales and customer service approaches also compel you to rethink your staff structure and your investment in information technology. BE DIFFERENT does exactly what it recommends its readers to do: cuts the crap and focuses on execution. Osing is the current president and CEO of Brilliance for Business. More information about this book and the seminars Osing offers can be found at: www.bedifferentorbedead.com. Reviewed by Matthew Corker, BCom'08 42 Trek Fall 2009 McPoems BILLEH NICKERSON, MFA'03 Arsenal Pulp Press, $15.95 So often, poets take their work far too seriously; emphasizing form and word choice over insight and accessibility. This is not the case with the clever collection McPoems. Its unpretentious and humorous take on fast-food culture flows with a pace and wit that is uncommon in the poetic tradition. In one poem, Tricks, Nickerson reflects on the absurd behaviour he'd seen in his years working at a fast-food restaurant. Sometimes it's grown men with straws attached to their bicuspids so they look like walruses, or people who place their burgers on top of their heads like models in a comportment class. Despite his irreverent tone and titles like Pancakes and No Pickles, Nickerson manages to successfully inject a necessary dash of humanity into his work. In Gloria, he writes: For weeks fellow workers find GLORIA spelled out in French fries, underlined in ketchup on bare tabletops. In the staff room a group wonders who would do such a thing... At the monthly staff meeting your manager asks to be summoned as soon as someone finds the culprit, but on the afternoon you spot her, an elderly woman with shaky hands.. .you just sit down with her, listen as she tells you why. Billeh Nickerson's first poetry book, The Asthmatic Glassblower, was shortlisted for the Publishing Triangle Poetry Prize. He is a founding member of the performance troupe Haiku Night in Canada and is the past editor of the literary journals Event and Prism International. Enter the Chrysanthemum FIONA TINWEI LAM, BA'86, MFA'oz Caitlin Press, $16.95 Fiona Tinwei Lam's latest poetry collection, Enter the Chrysanthemum, is a heartfelt and startlingly honest examination of family and relationships. The opening poem, Chrysanthemum, is a bold look at the insecurity of a child. My favorite of her paintings was of chrysanthemums... If only I had been paper, a delicate, upturned face stroked with such precise tenderness. This longing for parental affection is echoed in House, when she reflects on the emotional repercussions of divorce. In it, she uses a gingerbread family as a symbol of a boy's shattered sense of family. This year, the house is smaller. My son makes a gingerbread self a dad, a mom - all burnt. We eat them, cut new ones from the spare roof, and bake again, his father and I lying chastely on the sheet... Throughout the collection, the chrysanthemum appears repeatedly as a symbol of stability and connection between generations. The most notable reappearance is in Chrysanthemum Tea, where the flower acts as a curative bond between a mother and daughter. As a child, I marveled: flowers I could drink... Pale gold elixir my mother dispensed to quell a fever or aching throat. Lam's simple yet sincere lyrically-driven poems portray slices of life that reveal hidden truths about our relationships and the important role that family plays in our personal development. Her clear and intimate style makes it easy to relate to her work. Tragedy at Second Narrows ERIC JAMIESON, BA'71 Harbour Publishing, $32.95 On June 17, 1958, the bridge under construction across Vancouver's Second Narrows collapsed into Burrard Inlet, killing eighteen workers. As dramatic images of broken bridge-spans tilting into the sea appeared in the media, people began asking how a construction project using the most modern engineering and materials available could possibly suffer such a catastrophic failure. In Tragedy at Second Narrows, Eric Jamieson examines the story of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge collapse in the form of a gripping narrative involving local politicians, construction bosses, engineers and the ironworkers themselves. With fascinating archival images to complement the story, the book provides an engaging look at the worst industrial accident in Vancouver's history. Other Alumni Books Out of Hungary Towner CAROL WOOTTON, MA'70 The Briss New Star Books, $19.00 MICHAEL TREGEBOV, MFA'78 Stranger Wycott's Place: Stories from the Cariboo-Chilcotin New Star Books, $19.00 JOHN SCHREIBER, BA'69, MA'76 Hitler's Greatest Speeches XLibris, $111.99 NATHAN S. GANAPATHI, LLB'74 The Summer Between Harbour Publishing, $17.95 ANDREW BINKS, MFA'07 Bubble Homes and Fish Farts Charlesbridge, $23.95 FIONA BAYROCK, BCom'86 Woodstock Rising Dundurn, $21.99 TOM WAYMAN, BA'66 Fall 2009 Trek 43 I Josh Whyte Men's Basketball Expectations run high for this season's T-Birds. After a second place finish in last year's CIS finals, the team has added some talented recruits to a strong group of returning players. Among the key returnees is Canada West all-star Josh Whyte, who averaged 13.8 points per game and was fourth in Canada West with 4.9 assists during the 2008-09 season. Three- point specialist Blain LaBranche and 2008-09 rebounding leader Brent Malish are also among the familiar faces that will star in this year's line-up. The most highly-touted of UBC's 2009 rookies is 6'n" Chad Posthumus, who averaged 39 points and 25 rebounds per game at River East Collegiate in Winnipeg. Another name to keep tabs on is Kamar Burke. A transfer from Thompson Rivers University, he led the Wolfpack with 15.5 points, 8.2 rebounds and three assists per game during the 2007-08 season. Despite the loss of some key figures from last year's silver medal squad, the Thunderbirds look poised for another run at a birth in the National Championship Final Eight. Women's Basketball After last season's first-half growing pains, this year's edition of the Thunderbirds figures to have a more immediate impact in the Canada West. The T-Birds' young players now have a full season of CIS experience under their belts and the potential to go deep in the playoffs. Point-guard Lia St. Pierre is one of the players who should benefit from last year's campaign. St. Pierre averaged an impressive 9.4 points as a rookie in 2008-09, and can build on those totals. In the absence of Leanne Evans, last year's points-per-game leader, Zara Huntley, the highest-scoring returning player, will figure prominently in UBC's quest for success. Huntley played with Team Canada at the 2009 FISU Games in Belgrade and is continuing to develop into a dominant offensive force in the paint. Also helping bolster the T-birds will be Devan Lisson, who should have an improved 2009-10 campaign after an injured ACL diminished her output last year. Alex Vieweg is another Thunderbird coming off an injury- plagued season and if she is able to stay healthy, her contributions will be noticeable. Vieweg and Lisson are also expected to be among the leaders on this young team that features just one fifth-year senior in Candace Morisset. Scott Wasden Volleyball After historically spending a large portion of their pre-season in Vancouver, both the men's and women's volleyball teams have taken their 2009-10 exhibition seasons on the road. The two squads open their seasons at home against the Winnipeg Wesmen on October 23-24. With a short regular season, the men play nine weekends and the women 10, both T-Bird teams will have to be at the top of their game from the get-go. The women's squad looks to continue their dominant play and will have a major target on their collective back as the two-time defending National Champions. Despite the losses of All-Canadian Marisa Field and captain Danielle Petersen, the T-Bird women have the talent to be one of the top squads in the country with national team players Jen Hinze, Kyla Richey, Liz Cordonier, and Claire Hanna leading the charge. The men also lost key fifth-years in All-Canadian Steve Gotch and captain Jared Krause, both of whom are now with the men's national team, and they are going to rely on some their youngsters to step up and fill the void. 44 Trek Fall 2009 Photographs: Rich Lam Football The Thunderbirds will need a massive mid- season turnaround in order to make the post-season. UBC has struggled to find a way to slow down opposing offences and currently sits last in Canada West, having allowed a league-worst 32.8 points per game. A defensive bright spot, however, has been the UBC pass defence. They rank second in the league in passing yards allowed and safety Alex Babalos sits atop Canada West in three different tackling categories. Despite some early-season woes and bouts of inconsistency, the T-Birds' offence is improving as the season progresses. Quarterback Billy Greene had a surge in passing yards and touchdown passes recently with former high school teammate Spencer Betts being Greene's end-zone target of choice with three touchdown receptions in five games. Greene ranks fourth in the conference in individual passing yards and if he keeps up his play (he has thrown for over 600 yards in his last two games), he should continue to climb in the rankings. With some help from other teams, and an about-face on the field, UBC could still sneak into the fourth and final playoff spot. It won't be easy, as the always competitive Canada West has been as unpredictable as ever this season. However, a more consistent result on both sides of the ball will go a long way towards making the playoffs a real possibility. Men's Soccer After a tough start to the season, the T-Birds have won four of their last five matches, putting them in the middle of the pack in Canada West at 4-3-0. UBC has been rock solid defensively, and is one of only two teams to have averaged less than one goal against per game. Unfortunately, the Thunderbirds have managed just eight goals themselves in seven games, despite frequently dominant offensive zone play, which includes being awarded more than twice as many corner kicks as opponents. The biggest contributor on offence is Devin Gunenc, the 2008 Canada West Rookie of the Year. Gunenc leads all T-Birds with two goals and two assists, while no other T-bird has scored twice this year. The T-Birds should be able to stick around and be a threat in the playoffs, provided they find some finish and make good on their offensive zone threats. With only one spot at Nationals available to a Canada West team, they will need timely scoring down the stretch as they look for another shot at a CIS National Championship. Women's Soccer UBC's traditionally strong women's soccer team has struggled to find their footing this season and currently find themselves battling for a playoff spot in the Canada West. The crux of the T-Birds trouble is offence. Their goals-for total to date exceeds only the two last place teams in the conference. On the other hand, rookie striker Rachael Sawer accounts for one-third of all T-Bird goals with four, and shows no signs of slowing down. Additionally, Caitlin Davie has recently had a surge of offense after a slow start. Davie now has two goals and two assists, and leads the team with nine shots on goal. On the back end, things look much better. UBC sits tied for second fewest goals against, and All-Canadian goalkeeper Jaclyn Dunnett has continued to be a solid presence between the posts. A tough start to the season - UBC faced rivals and top-ranked TWU twice in their first six games - will have to be overcome if these perennial powers are to battle for the conference crown. Men's Hockey The Thunderbirds have faced some tough tests heading into the 2009-10 pre-season. In their first exhibition game, the T-birds were upset by the NAIT Ooks before bouncing back the next night with a dominant win. Scott Wasden, one of six newcomers on this year's team, stepped up in the victory with three goals and an assist, showing that he could be the man to lead the Thunderbirds in their upcoming season. UBC was the underdog in the next game, a home-ice affair versus the Abbotsford Heat, the Calgary Flames' AHL affiliate. The T-birds battled back from a three-goal deficit, but ultimately lost the hard-hitting game 3-2. In their final two games of the pre-season, the T-birds traveled to Minnesota to face two NCAA Division 1 teams. The T-Birds were shut out 4-0 by Minnesota-Duluth, and lost 6-1 to the University of Minnesota. Women's Hockey The UBC women's hockey team looks to build on last season's improved play with a good mix of new faces and experienced veterans. Standout goaltender, Melinda Choy, is foremost among returning players, and the T-Birds will need another big season from Choy in order to make a repeat trip to the post-season. On the blue line, Kelsey Halvorson is coming off a great rookie campaign in which she was named to the 2008-09 Canada West All-Rookie Team. Halvorson, along with rookie Rayna Cruickshank of the national U-18 team, anchor UBC's defense corps. Jenny Mahovlich, who led last season's Thunderbirds in scoring, and speedster Lisa Bonang are expected to lead the charge to the net. Converted defender Tamara Pickford will also contribute in her new role as forward. Despite strong exhibition play, the team enters the 2009-10 regular season with much still to be determined. They opened their home schedule on October 9-10 versus the Calgary Dinos. Fall 2009 Trek 45 ■nJ_> \; Tales from the Old Auditorium: If Walls Could Talk The Old Auditorium is being renovated, and we're reminiscing about a campus landmark. Do you have a story to share? Did you tread the boards during your time at UBC? If so, you may remember the Old Auditorium, a favourite venue for musical and theatrical performances. Built in 1925, it is one of the campus' original buildings. Members of The Players' Club (a student theatre club founded in 1915 and revived last year) and the Musical Society (founded in 1916, with its final season of shows in 1989) used the building to put on countless productions over the years. Members of the Film Society also took advantage of the space, which has played host to the likes of Van Morrison, Ravi Shankar, Dylan Thomas and Paul Robeson. It 1 Still visible on the wooden backstage walls are names, years and productions roughly daubed in paint: Pat Larsen (1933-39); David Gurr (1952); Mary W. Spilsbury (1962-63); Hugh Maclean (Macbeth 72); Barb Lindner (South Pacific, '82); Bill Houghton, (No, No, Nanette, 74); Bobbi Allard ('83). If only walls could talk. Now the Old Auditorium is undergoing renovations with the grand reopening scheduled for the fall of 2010. The new Old Aud will be a performance space for UBC's prestigious School of Music. As many original features as possible, including ornate plasterwork and huge windows, will be retained. And it will gain some new ones, such as an orchestra pit. The painted names, of course, will stay. We'd love to hear some of the stories behind those names and productions to help preserve the history of a campus landmark. Do you have a tale to tell from the Old Auditorium? Did you fall off the stage? Pull off a record number of encores? Forget your lines? Experience a backstage emergency? Did you meet your partner there? Start a food fight in the cafeteria? See someone perform before they became famous? Send your behind-the-curtains scoop to Vanessa Clarke, and we'll publish the best stories in the spring issue of Trek Magazine: vanessa.clarke@ubc.ca UBC Alumni Association, 6251 Cecil Green Park Road Vancouver BC V6T1Z1 THE DEAN'S LIST UBC ALUMNI WINE The dean may be listing, but the wine is exceptionally well-balanced. Never made the Dean's List when you were a student? Well now you can demonstrate how smart you are by buying a bottle or three of this excellent Chardonnay. It's one of four varieties (pinot noir, merlot, and an award-winning pinot blanc are the others) that we are offering under the UBC Alumni label. Our partner in wine is Bounty Cellars of Kelowna. Proceeds will support the construction of an alumni centre on the Vancouver campus, with amenities and space to serve the whole community as well as providing a welcoming spot for your next visit to campus. See our website for details on how to order: www.alumni.ubc/rewards/wine.php N MEMORIAM DONALD B. RIX, LLD'o6 Dr. Don Rix was an icon and his passing leaves a huge void in the community and sorrow in many hearts. A visionary, entrepreneur, philanthropist, business leader, tireless community volunteer, mentor, consummate corporate citizen, devoted husband and father, Don was - at the core - a physician and healer. Born in Orillia, ON, in 1931, Don grew up in nearby London, where he attended London South Collegiate High School, followed by the University of Western Ontario, where he obtained his BA in 1953 and his MD in 1957. Don moved to Vancouver in 1958 to intern at the Vancouver General Hospital. Following his internship, he worked with Adam Waldie, practicing family medicine in Point Grey for five years. Don attributed his passion for community service to Adam, volunteering for the first time as a door-to-door canvasser for the United Way and the Salvation Army. While in general practice Don's fascination with diagnostic medicine grew and he joined the fledgling lab company, Metropolitan Biomedical Laboratories (Metro). He left general practice, returned to VGH, and completed general pathology in 1968. After a short stint as a pathologist, Don decided to focus on building Metro. Through acquisition and expansion, Metro became Metro-McNair; through partnership with MDS, it became MDS Metro; and through its sale in 2006, it became LifeLabs. Don's vision and innovation built the largest private laboratory company providing services across BC. He applied that same visionary thinking to Cantest, a small environmental laboratory he purchased in 1974. Through his leadership, Cantest became one of Canada's leading industrial labs. Don did business the old fashioned way. His handshake was as good as a signed deal. Don was a pioneer. Long before private companies offered pension plans, he did; long before companies provided educational support to their staff, he did; and long before companies supported their staff's volunteerism in their communities, he did. Even in the early days of his career, Don gave his time to charities as a member or chair of many boards including Sunnyhill Hospital Foundation, Children's Hospital Foundation and Canuck Place Children's Hospice. Don's approach to philanthropy was rare. He was personally interested, involved, and gave his experience and leadership generously. Don was extremely proud of his association with the organizations and institutions he helped and supported - like the Bursary Fund at BCIT, MusicFest and UBC and the University of Western Ontario for expansion of their medical training. Don was passionate about education, which he viewed as fundamental. Some of his most memorable times were those spent mentoring medical students. As a leader, Don was particularly proud to be the first physician to chair the Vancouver Board of Trade (2008/09). During that time, he established the Rix Center for Corporate Citizenship and Engaged Leadership to encourage philanthropy among business We depend on friends and relatives for our IN MEMORIAM materials. Please send obituaries (500 words or less) to Michael Awmack at michael.awmack@ubc.ca. We will edit all materials to fit the space available. When sending photos, please send originals or high resolution scans (at least 300 dpi) as separate files. leaders and businesses. Don received numerous awards and honours for his community service including honorary doctorates from UWO, UBC, SFU, UVic, UNBC, BCIT and The Justice Institute. Don cherished the Order of British Columbia (2004), the Order of Canada (2008), and the Canadian Medical Association's FNG. Starr Award for distinguished achievement (August 2009). Don faced his final challenge with enormous courage and grace. His legacy is entrenched and the thousands of people whose lives he touched will never forget him. Predeceased by his beloved wife Eleanor in 2007, Don is survived by his daughter Laurie and her husband Neil Macrae, his brother Robert (Bob) Rix and wife Judith, Neil's sister Donna Macrae and her husband Bill Didur and close friends Frances Lasser and Jim Russell. ABRAHAM ROGATNICK Honorary UBC Alumnus Abraham Rogatnick - architect, academic, artist, teacher, actor, mentor, and author - was born in Boston, MA, in 1923. He passed away on August 3 o in Vancouver, aged 8 5. The rich cultural scene we enjoy in Vancouver today was nurtured in its infancy by people like Abraham, who arrived in the city more than 50 years ago to work as an architect and quickly plunged into active support of the arts, which the city had only begun to foster at the time. Abraham studied architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design under the influence of Walter Gropius, a major early twentieth century pioneer and educator in modern art and design. Abraham had interrupted previous undergraduate studies to serve a three and a half year stint as a foot soldier during WWII, experiencing combat at the German Front, participating in several campaigns including the Battle of the Bulge and ultimately being promoted to staff sergeant. On his arrival in Vancouver, just after completing further study in Germany on a Fulbright Fellowship, he and Alvin Balkind founded the first commercial gallery in Vancouver devoted to contemporary art featuring the work of pioneer artists such as Jack Shadbolt, Gordon Smith, Lionel Thomas and John Koerner, and launching the careers of younger Fall 2009 Trek 47 artists such as Tony Onley and Roy Kiyooka. In 1958, Abraham joined a group of artists, architects, writers and theatre people to found what is now known as the Arts Club Theatre. He was appointed to the school of Architecture at UBC in 1959, where he initiated the Study Abroad Program that now provides students with learning experiences in cities around the world. It began in Venice, where Abraham was already considered a world expert on the history of the architecture and urban development. Abraham spoke Italian fluently and was proficient in several other languages. He received a Master Teacher Award and retired as professor emeritus in 1985. He served on juries for many arts awards and competitions in Canada and supervised the compilation of the architectural program for the National Gallery of Canada. He continued to act as architectural advisor to its director, Jean Sutherland Boggs, as well as to the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art and director of the Crown Corporation appointed by Prime Minister Trudeau to oversee the building of the National Gallery and the Museum of Man in Ottawa. From 1971 to '72 Abraham served as interim director of the Vancouver Art Gallery and designed several installations for exhibitions there and many others for the UBC Fine Arts Gallery among other venues. He wrote and lectured extensively on art and architecture, including a contribution to the book devoted to his friend and colleague, B.C. Binning. During the 1960s and early '70s he collaborated with Binning on the successful Festivals of the Contemporary Arts at UBC. A few years after retirement Abraham began a career on the stage and in film, quickly racking up roles in several Vancouver theatres as well as appearing in films and videos made for TV. He designed stage sets for several Vancouver productions and often coached speech makers in various fields, including government. Abraham attained honorary status in the Architectural Institute of British Columbia, was a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and a recipient of the Barbara Dalrymple Award for Community Service and an honorary doctorate from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. Last year, he was presented with an Honorary Alumnus Award at the UBC Alumni Achievement Awards. For many of those in attendance, his witty and memorable speech was the highlight of the evening. HENRY (SYD) SKINNER Honorary UBC Alumnus Mr. Henry (Syd) Skinner passed away on April 19, 2009. Syd was an honorary alumnus of UBC and a generous supporter of the landscape architecture program in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Henry Skinner Syd was born in England in 1909 and came to Canada in 1928. He spent more than 70 years in Vancouver, working mostly at various executive dining clubs as both a server and a maitre d'. However, Syd's own passion was gardening. His love of the land began in his early years when he worked as a thresher on farms. When he moved to Vancouver and bought his own home, he spent his leisure time gardening and produced prize-winning azaleas and camellias. Syd once said that he saw himself as a nurturer, helping others to thrive - and this included everything from his garden to his family to students who studied topics close to his heart at UBC. Syd's association with UBC began with his friendship with President Norman MacKenzie, who was president of UBC from 1944 until 1962. He was friends with many other notable UBC figures including dean of graduate studies Gordon Shrum (1956-1961) and former president John MacDonald (1962-1967). In 1989, Syd established the Henry (Syd) Skinner Scholarship, which provided funding for four students in the landscape architecture program. His lifetime contributions to the endowment for this scholarship total more than $500,000, and his generosity has helped more than 5 5 students achieve their goals of becoming landscape architects. The landscape architecture program, the Faculty of Applied Science and the university would like to extend their deep regrets and condolences to Syd's family. Syd was a valued member of the UBC community, and his friendship will be very greatly missed. MARY CAMPBELL BA'30 Mary Elizabeth Campbell was born on October 11, 1910, in Vancouver. She was one of the last two living members of Vancouver's 1930 world champion women's basketball team. After learning to play basketball in the basement of St. Giles United Church in the Vancouver neighbourhood of Mount Pleasant, Mary earned a spot as a forward on the UBC varsity team. In 1930 the team traveled to Prague for the International Women's Games, winning the championship over the French team with a score of 18-14. 48 Trek Fall 2009 After graduating, Ms Campbell embarked on a teaching career that would last four decades. She taught physical education at John Oliver High School in Vancouver, creating a local powerhouse in track and basketball. In 1961, she joined the teaching staff of the new Windermere High, where she headed the English department. She trained uncounted young athletes over the decades, few of whom ever knew she had played for a world championship team. The UBC squad was all but forgotten for many years until university sports historian Fred Hume and others revived interest in the team in the early 1990s. Feminist scholars also found much to admire in young women who travelled halfway around the globe to contest a world sport championship. Mary passed away on March 4, 2009, at the age of 98. LOIS FISHER BA'31 Lois Marion Fisher (nee Tourtellotte) was born on May 30, 1911, in Schenectady, NY. She died on April 18, 2009, at Vancouver General Hospital. The death of teammate Mary Campbell a month previously, age 98, left Mrs. Fisher as the sole surviving player of the 1930 Vancouver's world champion women's basketball team. A guard for the UBC varsity squad, she was a 19 year-old Arts student when the team was selected to represent Canada at a tournament held in Czechoslovakia. The Canadian women scored an 18-14 victory over France before 10,000 spectators at on outdoor cinder court at Prague. After graduation in 1931, Mrs. Fisher became a homemaker and mother. The team was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 19 81, the university's sports hall of fame in 1993, the Basketball BC Hall of Fame in 2003, and the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. IRENE GRACE SCOTT BA'34 Irene Grace Scott (nee Elgie) passed over just after her 95th birthday on July 4, 2009. Irene was born in Davidson, SK, but lived most of her life in BC. She will be joyous to be reunited with her parents, her sister Norma, and her husband Ivor. Her daughter, Beverley, and son Brian already miss her. Elisa, who provided much assistance, Dan, her grandchildren, and nieces and nephews all have fond memories of her. Irene was a truly remarkable woman who, despite the devastating blow of her dad's death as a teenager, assisted her Mom in the Depression and still managed to graduate from UBC in the '30s. Irene taught high school, and to get to her exchange school in Moncton, NB, she drove alone in her Plymouth across the country and then back again through the States because WWII had broken out and gas was rationed in Canada. At the end of the war, she married her dashing airman and became a devoted mother to Brian and Beverley. Later she founded a successful jewelry business that required no initial capital since she began with beach agates. Irene rode horses, skied, spoke French, wrote about BC history (among other pieces) and was always active in the University Women's Club of Vancouver. She was always considerate of others, never ever complained and was kind and dignified - a lovely lady. JOSEPH ROY POGSON BASc'40 It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Joseph Roy Pogson on July 24, 2008, at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, BC. Roy was born in Vancouver on January 16, 1920, to Joseph and Minnie Jane (nee Burman) Pogson. He was predeceased by his parents, sister Jean, and his loving wife, Ruby Elizabeth Pogson (nee McDonald). Roy was an excellent student, passing through high school quickly and, after completing Grade 13, continuing on to UBC. He thoroughly enjoyed attending university and earned a degree in electrical engineering. His first job in his professional career was with BC Electric in Victoria. After a short time there, he enlisted in the RCAF. He was posted to Vernon, Montreal, Ottawa, Brandon, and Great Britain. After the war ended in 1945, Roy returned to BC Electric/BC Hydro where he worked until his retirement in June 1984. Roy enjoyed traveling in his retirement. Roy and Ruby traveled to England and Scotland to trace their roots. They went to see the fall colours of the Maritimes, the bright lights of Las Vegas and Reno, the warm sands of Honolulu and Maui, the huge trees of Big Sur, the pounding waves off the coast of Oregon and the sights closer to home on Vancouver Island. Roy was a wonderful family man who loved his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren dearly. He welcomed visits from family and enjoyed hearing how everyone was doing. He provided his family with a solid, caring, loving home where children were nurtured and raised. WILLIAM GEORGE WELLINGTON BSc'41 Bill passed away peacefully on November 25, 2008, at the age of 88, in his birth city of William George Wellington Fall 2009 Trek 49 IN MEMORIAM Vancouver. Bill was a respected and honoured entomologist and biometeorologist. He received his bachelor's degree in honours zoology under the mentorship of Professor George Spencer duringWWII. He then joined the Canadian Meteorological Service, where he became a forecaster for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Bill spent hours in an upper-air calibration laboratory in Ontario, checking the accuracy of air-temperature gauges used on aircraft flying to Europe. On summer evenings he was often the target of black flies and, as a retaliatory measure, released several of them into the calibration lab at conditions equivalent to 10,000 metres of altitude. The flies survived, and Bill's interest in insect responses to high-altitude conditions and transport in the upper atmosphere was piqued. His experiments led to a master's degree and ten papers, including one published in Nature. After the war, Bill left the Meteorological Service and, at the invitation of Professor Carl Atwood, began a doctorate in entomology at the University ofToronto. Bill's doctoral work led to a thesis on behaviour of spruce budworm larvae in response to meteorological variables and to a series of papers that included another in Nature. Bill was known for his generous collaborative and mentoring spirit. His career took him to Victoria to lead the bioclimatological unit in forest biology (1953-1968); to the University ofToronto, as professor of ecology (1968- 1970); and back to UBC (1970- 1988) where he was director of the Institute of Resource Ecology from 1973 to 1979. Bill was ambidextrous: during lectures, he switched the chalk from his right hand, where it had been writing words, to his left, which he used for drawing. During his career, he was honoured with: the Gold Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Canadian Entomology; Award for Outstanding Achievement in Biometeorology; CJ. Woodworth Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement; Undergraduate Professor of the Year; Killam Senior Research Fellow (UBC 1980); professor emeritus status; and Fellowship in the Entomological Society of Canada, the Explorer's Club and the Royal Society of Canada. He was especially proud of being in the Explorer's Club with all his boyhood heroes. Bill will be remembered by his wife, Margret (nee Reiss), and his family. His legacy includes a lasting appreciation for the power of the spoken and written word, the value of careful observation and attention to detail, an enjoyment of history, the importance of hugs, and the delight of Monty Python. DR. MARTIN GOODWIN BSc(Agr)'43 Dr. Martin Goodwin, of Portales, NM, died Wednesday, April 1, 2009, at the age of 87. Dr. Goodwin was born August 8, 1921, to Ray Star and Emma Goodwin (nee Brune) in Vancouver. He left for the US in 1948. On March 7, 1980, he married Cathy Dennison at Cannon Air Force Base. After graduating from UBC, he earned his medical degree at McGill University in 1948. He served his internship and residency at Scott and White Hospital in Temple, TX, from 1948 to 1952. In 1952, he was an instructor of radiology at the University of Texas. He served as a captain in the Medical Corps of the US Army from 1952 until 1955, and served as a colonel in the Medical Corps of the US Air Force from 1975 to 1979. Dr. Goodwin practiced medicine specializing in radiology in Clovis, Portales, Tucumcari, and Cannon Air Force Base from 1955 to 1996. He also served as the chairman of the board of directors of the New Mexico Health and Human Services, and as a clinical professor of health at Western Michigan University and Eastern New Mexico University. Dr. Goodwin was a fellow of the American College of Radiology and was a member of the New Mexico Radiology Society of New Mexico, Thoracic Society, Radiology Society of North America, Society of Nuclear Medicine, American College of Nuclear Physicians, American College of Chest Physicians, First Presbyterian Church, the Elks Lodge, the Lions, the Masons and the Shriners. He was a ham radio enthusiast, loved traveling and politics, and was the team doctor at Clovis High School for many years. KENNETH (KEN) W. HARRIS BASc'49 Born on July 18, 1927, to British immigrants Marjorie Francis Watson and Harry Joseph Harris, Ken was born and raised in Melville, SK. At 18, he pursued his dream at UBC. His first job upon graduating was with Public Works. He married the love of his life, Loraine, on April 6, 19 51. In 1965, Ken moved his family across Canada to Fort William to take a promotion with the Greater Water Levels Board of Canada to survey Lake Superior. On finishing this project, he moved to Ottawa in 1967 to work with Public Works and retired from Environment Canada in 1984. Curling and golf were his sports. His greatest joy was his cottage on Calabogie Lake. Ken passed away on March 31, 2009. MACKENZIE CHARLES "MAC" NORRIS BASc'ji Mac passed away after a brief illness, peacefully and with dignity, with his family at his side on January 25, 2009, at Lion's Gate Hospital. Mac was born June 2, 1925, in Silverton, BC, and raised in Nelson. During WWII he served as a pilot in the RCAF and the RNVR Fleet Air Arm. He returned to Canada graduating from UBC with a degree in forest engineering. During his undergraduate years at UBC he worked in sawmills, logging camps and at timber cruising throughout BC. He had a long and distinguished railroad career spanning 20 years with Canadian Pacific Railroad and 20 years with PGE/BC Rail. From 1978 until 1990 Mac was president, CEO and director of the BC Rail Group Mac Norris 50 Trek Fall 2009 of Companies and during his tenure as VP and president the railway was rebuilt and reorganized, becoming a very profitable venture. He had a special 20 year association with Peter Armstrong, executive chairman and CEO of Great Canadian Railtours Co/Rocky Mountaineer Vacations. He was a founding director of Rocky Mountaineer and upon retirement was honoured with a lifetime Honorary Director Award. He also served as a director of Pacific Insight Electronics Corp. Mac had a strong sense of public service and gave generous support to his church congregation, his Rotary colleagues (he was a Paul Harris Fellow of the Vancouver Rotary Club) and the fellow residents of his beloved Silverton, BC. During his life Mac touched others with his traits of integrity, responsibility and initiative, but his greatest legacy is the love he had for his beloved wife, Clara, his family and his home province. The family wishes to express their heartfelt thanks to Dr. Mayo, Dr. Fingland and all the other outstanding personnel at Lion's Gate Hospital ICU and for the exceptional care provided by Dr. Greg Phillips. ADELIA FRANCES LIVESEY BA'57, MA'61, Senior Instructor Emerita, English dept. Adelia Livesey (nee Thurber) was born on June 11, 1916, in the small fishing town of Freeport, NS, on the Bay of Fundy. Her parents were descendants of 17th Century Puritan settlers to the eastern seaboard and of United Empire Loyalists. She was an enthusiastic teacher of English, equally at home with literature, ESL and the crafting of clear expository prose and fine report writing. Given her Nova Scotian Baptist ancestry, it is not surprising she had a special love for 17th Century poetry and prose: Marvell, Donne, the Metaphysical and Cavalier poets, and above all John Milton - that great poet of the will, somewhat out of fashion in our time. She grew up in Prince Rupert where her father captained a small fishing fleet. Her high school principal was the outstanding French and classics scholar and educator, Dr. Edith Lucas, whom she would meet again in the 1950s when teaching English to new Canadians in Victoria. Dr. Lucas pioneered the teaching of English to the wave of immigrants and displaced persons arriving in Canada prior to and following WWII. Adelia's family moved to Vancouver in 1932. She finished high school at Lord Byng in West Point Grey, and entered UBC. Having studied elocution and performed on stage from childhood, she immediately joined the Players Club, performing such roles as Mrs. Hardcastle in Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer (1936) and acting as assistant director to Dorothy Somerset (1937). After marriage she moved to Victoria, raising a family and turning her energies to community service. She served on executive boards for a multitude of organizations: Local Council of Women, Women's Canadian Club, YMCA and the John Howard Society. Her teaching career began in 19 51 when, as convenor of the welfare committee of the Greater Victoria Citizenship Council, she was asked to help teach English to a group of seventy-five newly arrived German lads. With the help of Dr. Lucas, classes were set up and later formalized under the School District of Greater Victoria. Adelia taught with the evening division of the adult education program for nine years, the last five as director. After teacher training at Victoria College, she taught for two years at Oak Bay High School before moving to Vancouver in i960. Her master's thesis was based on her experience Adelia Livesey teaching ESL in multilingual classes. Shortly after, she joined the English department at UBC to teach undergraduate literature and creative writing. She continued with graduate work in linguistics at the University ofWashington, was a member of numerous professional and learned societies, and served as consultant to consulates and organizations on the teaching of English. As well, she was active on the boards of the Dante Alighieri Society and the Chamber Music Society of Vancouver. In 1963, through the Centre of Continuing Education, Adelia began offering technical writing programs to engineers and other professionals in BC. She also set up courses for the departments of electrical and mechanical engineering to help improve students' reports. Upon retirement in 19 81, Adelia was granted emerita status. By this time, her work with engineering students and professionals had grown into a much-enjoyed second career. She continued to teach report writing at UBC and give seminars to major engineering firms. As well, she edited guidelines for the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC, and acted as consultant to several of the Association's brief committees, going over presentations to various levels of government. In 1992 she was included in the honours and awards list for her contributions to the profession. Adelia loved to travel. Special places, where she would spend many weeks at a time, were Florence and Assisi, Iran, Istanbul and elsewhere in Turkey, and London. In the latter, she could indulge her love of the stage and pack in as much as possible - theatre, opera, ballet, concerts and musicals. She was an accomplished seamstress, confectioning wardrobes for herself and her two girls, later smocking dresses for her granddaughters. She was one of the happy recipients in the English department of the witty, light and satiric verse of Geoffrey B. Riddehough, professor emeritus of classics. Penned or typed on scraps of paper, post cards and memoranda, a remarkable collection of his amusing 'little things' arrived by mail, were dropped in a box at the office or delivered discreetly in person. Among her favourite prose is the following from 17th C Law Reports: Fall 2009 Trek 51 IN MEMORIAM And yet Time hath its revolutions; there must be a period and an end to all Temporal things - finis rerum - an end of names and dignities and whatsoever is terrene, and why not ofDe Vere? For where is Bohun? Where is Mowbray? Where is Mortimer? Nay, which is more and most of all, Where is Plantagenet? They are entombed in the urns and sepulchres of mortality. And yet the name and dignity ofDe Vere stand so long as it pleaseth God. Judgement of Lord Justice Crewe in the Earl of Oxford's case, 1626 RUTH KRON SIGAL BA'57 MEd'77 Ruth (Ruta) was born in Kaunas, Lithuania on July 28, 1936, and lived a privileged life in Siauliai (Shavel) until the Nazi invasion in 1941. Ruth, her younger sister, Tamara, and her parents, Gita and Meyer Kron, were interned in the ghetto in Siauliai. In 1943, the ghetto was cleared of children during a kinderaktion. Ruth was given responsibility for hiding herself and her sister, but they were ultimately discovered and Tamara was taken away on a transport truck, never to be seen again. Ruth was saved by her mother's cousin - who had connections - and was quickly smuggled out of the ghetto in a garbage truck. She was hidden by a Catholic family, Ona and Antanas Ragauskas and their two-year-old daughter, Grazina, for about 18 months until liberation by the Soviets. At that point, Ruth reluctantly returned to her parents. She was still afraid to be openly Jewish. The family lived in Lithuania for two more years, then escaped from the Soviets when the KGB wanted Meyer to spy for them. They escaped via Poland into Germany where they settled in a Displaced Persons' Camp. There, her younger brother, Leo (MD'71), was born. After five years in Germany, the family moved first to Montreal, then to Regina, finally settling in Vancouver. With only six years of formal education and four years of English, Ruth began classes at UBC, graduating with a BA in bacteriology. While at Hillel she met Cecil (MD'59) and they were married for close to 52 years. They raised two daughters, Marilee (MA'87) and Elana, and a son. When her youngest, Michael (BA'90), was born in 1967, Ruth took a "break" from work. This was the beginning of a change of career as she was instrumental in founding the Vancouver Crisis Centre and SAFER. In her 40s, she completed a master of education in counselling psychology and became a registered psychologist as well as a registered social worker. Ruth then became the director of UBCs Women's Resources Centre for 25 years. There, she profoundly shaped the lives of thousands of women and men. Upon "retiring" from UBC, Ruth continued to supervise practicum students there and worked as a consultant at Hope House and Jewish Family Services Agency. Ruth received many awards for her contributions to both the UBC and general community. She received the YWCA Woman of Distinction Life Achievement Award, UBC AMS Great Trekker Award and the UBC President's Service Award for Excellence, all in 2001. As well, she was honoured by the BC Psychological Association and other national and local organizations. Not bad for an immigrant girl who was told by her first English 200 professor that she wasn't university material and that she should drop out. Instead, she switched professors. In later life, Ruth became more active in reconnecting with her early childhood experiences during the Holocaust. She reestablished many friendships that she had made immediately before and after the war. She continued to have warm relations with the Ragauskas and visited them on numerous occasions after the USSR fell. Their own granddaughter was named Ruta, after her. Grazina, who now lives in Surrey, told us that Ruth died four years to the day, after "their" mother, Ona. Ruth was co-founder of the Vancouver Hidden Children of the Holocaust Group and was active in Holocaust education, establishing an award in her parent's name to support Holocaust education in high schools in BC. Ruth lived with great courage, passion and vivacity, filling every room with fun and laughter. She was a woman who followed her own rules and provided a living model for how a woman could "have it all." She deeply mourned the losses of her sister, her parents and her grandson, Zach Prince. On December 16, 2008, Ruth died peacefully at home surrounded by her family after a valiant struggle with kidney cancer. Donations in her memory may be made to The Meyer & Gita Kron & Ruth Kron Sigal Fund for Excellence in Holocaust Education at The Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (604.264.0499). PAUL E. JARVIS BASc'58 Born in Fort William, ON, in 193 5, Paul attended Lakehead Technical College, working at logging and fire-fighting camps. At UBC he earned a degree in forest engineering. From 1958 to 1977, Paul worked on a range of projects for several water engineering consultants and agencies, such as Silver Falls Hydro Station, ON; Lakehead Harbor Terminal; BC Water Resources Branch; Burntwood River Hydro Project, Manitoba; Manitoba Hydro; and Newfoundland Marine Works. In 1977 Paul was appointed deputy minister of the Manitoba Department of Energy and Mines and later deputy minister of the merged Department of Natural Resources and Northern Affairs. He subsequently served as VP of corporate planning for Manitoba Hydro, and VP of special projects for Saskatchewan Water Corp. In the 1990s, Paul returned to consulting in renewable resource development for crown corporations, government agencies, First Nations and private corporations. In the international arena, he led a CIDA team in planning assistance to the Ghana Water Corporation. Paul is survived by his wife of 51 years, Joan Lecain, and daughters Elizabeth Handford, Catherine and Mary Ellen, plus grandson Henry Jarvis Handford. Family and friends will deeply miss his wry sense of humor and great story-telling. He was a favorite classmate of '58. DAVID HOWARD ROSS STOWE BCom'58 David was an extraordinary man who lived life to the fullest and gave much of himself to create opportunities for others. Following a short battle with cancer, he passed away on September 7, 2009. He leaves behind his wife of 51 years, Mary-Anne, and their children, Lesley (Geoffrey Scott), Craig (Elisabet), and 52 Trek Fall 2009 Marianne (Rob Thomson); his sister, Diane (Don Merson) and brother-in-law Bruce Johnstone; and grandchildren Mackenzie, Alexa, Sebastian, Douglas and Gillian, along with many nieces and nephews. Born inToronto in 1932, David was a graduate of Upper Canada College and UBC. He enjoyed a distinguished career with Scott Paper Ltd. as corporate VP of sales and marketing. David served as chairman of The Vancouver Port Authority, chairman of Junior Achievement of BC and as national revenue chairman (BC) for the Liberal Party of Canada. He was also a very active member of the Royal British Columbia Museum Board. An avid skier and golfing enthusiast he enjoyed spending time at Whistler and Palm Desert. David will be greatly missed by family and friends. The family would like to extend their greatest appreciation of the care and support given by all the staff at the palliative unit at VGH. CHESTER (CHES) JAMES LARSON BEd'6i Ches Larson passed away at the age of 8 5. He left his wife of 62 years, Ev, children Ken (Lynne), Al (Val), Judy (Gerald), Sue (John), six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. In addition to teaching for 3 5 years - 3 3 at Kelowna Secondary School - Ches served as caller for the Kelowna Wagon-wheelers, and president of the 1120 Rock Club and the Ches Larson Kelowna Badminton Club. He also ran marriage encounter weekends and was founding president of the local Central Okanagan Retired Teachers Association branch. He was also greatly involved at St. Michael's Cathedral where he was a sidesman and a bible reader. Ches enjoyed dancing, wine-making, gardening, the birds in the backyard and most of all his family. He was excited by the fact that he had been retired for almost as many years as he had taught. Ches' life was full of activity, always helping where he could. Finally his spirit gave out on him, but not before he left a legacy to be remembered and cherished by many. Ches will be missed by all who knew him. DONALD ARTHUR WEBBER BEt>'65, MEd'73 Don passed away at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in his 81st year. He will be greatly missed by his loving family - wife Nancy and sons Donald and Darren. Don was born in Vancouver, graduated from Lord Byng High School and then Normal School. After beginning his teaching career, he pursued his education during evenings and in the summers until he earned his master of education in fine arts from UBC. Don loved teaching and enjoyed interaction with students and co-workers. He used materials in a myriad of ways. He was one of the founders of the BC Art Teachers Association, with which he was involved in many ways. Don's faith in God was significant and he was always an active member of his church. Family and friends will remember Don for his love of conversation, his spontaneity and his helpfulness. SONIA WILLIAMS BA'67, MEd'74 Sonia Lawrence Williams passed away in hospital on January 20, 2008, after a long illness, stoically borne. Three of her friends were at her bedside. Sonia was born in 1934 in Cheshire and grew up in Yorkshire, England. The only child of Frank and Isa Williams (nee Lawrence), Sonia often acknowledged the interests and talents that her parents bequeathed to her. Through her father she developed a love of literature; from her mother, an interest in the theatre arts, especially costume design. Her Grandmother and Grandfather Lawrence also greatly influenced her. Her grandmother was an Edwardian woman of strong personality, and Sonia learned (through example and through observation) how a household was managed - from the household budget, to the cooking, to being a gracious hostess - and how to enjoy life outside the home. Sonia also spoke of the love and great kindness of her Aunt Marian. From an early age, Sonia decided she wanted something more from life. She began training as a radiographer at the age of 16 and a half. She attained her certification and began to work in British hospitals as an x-ray technician. "On a lark," she decided to travel to Canada, with the intention just to visit and experience a bit of the world. She found employment in a Montreal hospital immediately. The cold climate, always a concern for Sonia, persuaded her to move west. She settled in Vancouver in the 1950s, where she remained the rest of her life. Sonia practised as an x-ray technician at the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster and at the Vancouver General Hospital. In 1959, she received her certification as a Canadian x-ray technician. Ever restless and ready for new challenges, she upgraded her education and entered UBC. She obtained her honours BA in history in 1967. Her love of history would enrich all her travels. Sonia Williams Fall 2009 Trek 53 IN MEMORIAM Sonia joined the staff at the BC Institute of Technology in the 1960s. Concurrently, she completed her master's degree in education. Sonia would remain at BCIT for the rest of her working life, ending her career as head of the Health Administration Program. In 1976, she married David L. Watkins, a marriage that would last until his death in 1991. Sonia had a passion for travel. She returned annually to England in the years after her mother's death, to care for her father. While there, she tried to find a bit of time to explore - to bicycle in Scotland, or visit the Lake Country. After her father's death in the mid-8os Sonia was able to indulge her passion. She travelled to India, China, Cambodia (an unnerving experience), South Africa, Egypt (she loved the desert heat), the Middle East, Turkey, Greece, Libya, Tunisia, and Australia, as well as the European countries. In between these adventures, she sought warmth in Hawaii and Mexico. Sonia loved the opera, and was a regular attendee ofVancouver Opera for many years. Whenever possible, she would travel to see rarely performed operas at festivals around the world - Glyndebourne, Glimmerglass, London, Berlin, Wexford She enjoyed numerous trips to San Francisco, Seattle, New York, and Victoria with the Vancouver Opera Guild and the Opera Club. She was able to visit Bayreuth for the Wagner Festival in 2006. Her opera activities extended to working for the Guild and the Opera Club in many volunteer capacities. Sonia bought her condominium in 1975, and would live there until her death. She served many terms on the strata council, and later worked as a volunteer for the Condominium Home Owners Association. Sonia had a love of fine cooking and wine. She was an excellent and adventurous cook, and many friends have been treated to delicious meals and excellent wine, as well as good conversation. GERALD PODERSKY-CANNON BA'70, MA'79 Gerry passed away peacefully on July 15, 2009, at 12:20am in the presence of his loving family after a long and valiant battle with lymphoma. Gerry will be sadly missed by his wife, Donna Moroz, sons David and Joel Podersky- Cannon, daughter Selena La Brooy, son Julian La Brooy and daughter-in-law Noriko Tajima, mother May Cannon, brother Wayne Cannon and sister-in-law Nancy, nephews Kipp and Renny, sister Lynne Cannon and partner Gail Spitler, and long time family friend Eileen Mitchell. He was predeceased by his father, Harry Cannon, and former wife Shari Podersky-Cannon. Gerry was always active in his community and its political life as chair of the UBC Alma Mater Special Events Committee and member of the UBC Alumni Association board, UBC Senate, various federal Liberal Party policy development committees, the board of the internationally renowned Kinesis Dance Troupe, the Canadian Club and the Canadian Council of Africa. Gerry developed a worldwide network of friends from experiences in England, Canada and Africa (including the Yukon and Tanzania), and from his varied business relationships at Vancouver City Hall, the film industry, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, BC Hydro, Lightwave Medical Industries, Spectrum, Natco International, P2 Solar Energy Corp, Cordova Mining, Sterling Health Service and Canafra Minerals. To his children, he was a mentor, role model, man of inspiration and loving father. To his wife he was everything: business partner, friend, lover, husband, and soul mate. He may be gone but never forgotten. There will only be one Gerry Podersky-Cannon. PAUL LEROY RIOPELLE BSW'83 Retired alcohol and drug counsellor, bon vivant, friend for the long haul, brother and uncle, Paul - born April 9, 1941, in Cut Knife, SK - passed away September 22, 2008, in Salmon Arm, BC, of cancer, at the age of 67. Following the premature death of his father, Leroy, who managed a grain elevator in Cut Knife, Paul moved to Salmon Arm in 1958 with his mother and sisters. There he completed high school while serving as a keen member of the Rocky Mountain Rangers army cadet corps. Paul was a high-spirited, popular and bright student for whom learning came easily, despite a less-than-perfect attendance record. "Teach me the course in 15 minutes," he would say at exam time to a boyhood friend and fellow cadet. After graduation, Paul was accepted for the Regular Force Officer Candidate program and completed training as a signals officer. Transferred to the reserve force in 1964, he was called back to active duty and employed in a supervisory capacity during construction of the Diefenbunker in Carp, ON. Increasing alcohol dependency brought an end to his promising military career. For a decade or so, Paul lived hard and worked around BC as an assistant forest ranger and log scaler. Then, "fed up with this kind of life," he quit drinking and returned to school, leaving UBC in 1983 clutching a degree in social work. Paul began working as an alcohol and drug counsellor at a treatment centre in Maple Ridge where his humanity soon became apparent and lifelong bonds were formed. Succeeding postings took Paul to other centres in the BC interior before a major heart attack in 1987 slowed him down. Later, he stoically came to terms with the onset of cancer. Recuperating back in Salmon Arm, Paul remained active in his field through contract assignments and the shared fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. Army cadets and the Legion also benefited from his support. Determined to defeat an expanding waistline, Paul forced himself to keep walking, but it was the joy of skiing - and occasionally snowboarding - with friends on Silver Star Mountain that he truly fancied. Perhaps a stable female relationship was the one thing missing in Paul's life, though "there were a couple of scares." Nevertheless, women were drawn to him and remained friends. Maybe it was his infectious, dervish way on the dance floor. Paul's accessibility had no boundaries - literally. One night he picked up a ringing phone to learn a friend was seeking help in the wake of a highway accident. "Where are you?" "Kalispell, Montana," the friend replied. "I'll be right there," Paul said. And he was. Paul had a shining personality and special ability to connect and impart meaning to the lives of those who knew him. He leaves behind a host of admirers. 54 Trek Fall 2009 ALUMNI TERM LIFE INSURANCE The need for life insurance is one of life's most important lessons. Whatever life brings, make sure the people who count on you will be well taken care of. With your Alumni Term Life Insurance plan, you may give your loved ones the financial security to continue living the life you dreamed of for them, no matter what. Call us at 1 888 913-6333 or e-mail am_service<amanulife.com What will life teach you? nncm manulife.com/UBCmag UBC DU Manulife Financial Underwritten by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company (Manulife Financial) When you choose Alumni Term Life Insurance, Manulife Financial provides financial and marketing support for UBC alumni programs and events. Get a Second Opinion In these turbulent investment markets, a Second Opinion could bring you the stability you're looking for. Why Do You Need a Second Opinion? Uncertain market conditions can leave you trying to balance your own peace-of-mind with your investment needs and goals. We can help guide you through a process to understand where you stand today and will help you to: ■ Understand and prioritize your goals Before considering specific investments, it's important to identify your goals and priorities. What do you want to achieve? How much time do you have? What is your risk comfort level? ■ Assess your current portfolio We can share with you our investment process which is designed to help ensure you are in the best position to achieve what you want. This process will define an appropriate asset mix and analyze your existing investments. ■ Make changes where needed You will also receive helpful recommendations on how you may potentially get more from your investments, including GICs, mutual funds, RSPs, RRIFs, and RESPs. Contact us to schedule a Second Opinion today: Call 1.877.464.6104 ■ Email invest@clearsight.ca ■ Visit www.clearsight.ca/ubc tsssm UBC vy UBC ALUMNI Sign up online to receive our free monthly e-newsletter, The ViewPoint. The newsletter provides timely financial information written by our internal experts as well as recent news about our affinity partners. www.clearsight.ca/ubc 1.877.464.6104 Sf^EST II EMPLOYERS M %. . IN CANADA S ^""^ 2 0 09 REPORT ON BUSUtSS WELLINGTON WEST CLEARSIGHT INVESTMENT PROGRAM The Clearsight Investment Program is available through (1) Wellington West Capital Inc., a member of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, Member CIPF and (2) Wellington West Financial Services Inc., a member ofthe Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada. C4052CA
UBC Publications
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Trek [2009-09]
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Title | Trek |
Publisher | [Vancouver] : University of British Columbia Alumni Association |
Date Issued | [2009-09] |
Subject |
University of British Columbia. Alumni Association |
Geographic Location |
Vancouver (B.C.) |
Genre |
Periodicals |
Type |
Text |
FileFormat | application/pdf |
Language | English |
Notes | Titled "[The] Graduate Chronicle" from April 1931 - October 1948; "[The] UBC Alumni Chronicle" from December 1948 - December 1982 and September 1989 - September 2000; "[The] Alumni UBC Chronicle" from March 1983 - March 1989; and "Trek" from March 2001 onwards. |
Identifier | LH3.B7 A6 LH3_B7_A6_2009_025 |
Collection |
University Publications |
Source | Original Format: University of British Columbia. Archives. |
Date Available | 2015-07-15 |
Provider | Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library |
Rights | Images provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy, or otherwise use these images must be obtained from the University of British Columbia Alumni Association. |
CatalogueRecord | http://resolve.library.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/catsearch?bid=2432419 |
DOI | 10.14288/1.0224294 |
AggregatedSourceRepository | CONTENTdm |
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