1980s

Susan Cuff ’81 has left the UM Alumni Relations office after nearly 11 years as associate director. She now is operations coordinator at Make-A-Wish Montana, helping to grant wishes to Montana children with life-threatening illnesses. She also is finishing a series of children’s stories and is on the hunt for a publisher.

Michael Lee M.A. ’82, Helena, published “A Silhouette of Liberia Photographs: 1974-1977,” a compilation of soulful and haunting documentary photos taken while he worked with the Peace Corps and the New York Blood Center’s virus research laboratory in Liberia. The photos and his narrative document what Liberia was like before the 1980 coup d’état and civil war and will serve to historically preserve that time and place. Lee’s interest in photography emerged during a 1969 tour in Vietnam, and this is his second book with documentary photographs about Liberia.

Dan Vuckovich ’82, Great Falls, received the 2017 George D. Anderson Distinguished Service Award from the Montana Society of Certified Public Accountants in June. The award is given annually to an MSCPA member whose contribution to the accounting profession and charitable and civic activities merit the society’s outstanding recognition. Vuckovich, a 35-year veteran in accounting who’s now a shareholder at Anderson ZurMuehlen, has made a tremendous impact on the profession in Montana, which includes his collaboration with former U.S. Sen. Max Baucus to institute the practice of taxing retired farmers’ CRP payments as self-employment income.

UM journalism grads Sam Richards ’83 and Tor Haugan ’11, Oakland, Calif., played a part in the East Bay Times winning the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for its coverage of the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland in December. Thirty-six people died in the fire, which promptedinvestigations into why people were allowed to live in the warehouse-turned-artists’ space and why the Oakland Fire Department was slow to respond to a problem it knew existed before the tragic fire. Haugan, video editor for the Bay Area News Group, which publishes the Times, was the video team coordinator, overseeing the production of videos about the warehouse fire, starting the day after the blaze. He wrote and produced breaking news videos; co-produced the video package that went with the news group’s Dec. 11 story about the last hours of the Ghost Ship; and produced and wrote follow-up videos, including the exclusive about how the owners had known about the dangerous electrical system. He has been with BANG since 2012. Richards is usually a city hall/general assignment reporter with the Times but worked an editing shift the Saturday morning after the fire, spending seven hours that day continuously handling feeds from reporters in the field for updating the main fire story on the East Bay Times and Mercury News websites, and doing the lead editing for the online first-day story about how family and friends of fire victims were awaiting word on the fate of their loved ones. He also reported that night, interviewing family members of people missing after the fire and witnesses to the blaze, contributing to both main print stories the next day. He has been with BANG’s predecessor companies since 1992.

Jim Galipeau ’84, Missoula, was selected to serve as an ex-officio member on the Montana Society of Certified Public Accountants board of directors. Galipeau, a shareholder at JCCS in Missoula, served as president of the board in 2004-05 and will mentor current President Joshua Herbold, who is an assistant professor of accounting at UM.

Michael Levelle ’87, Beaverton, Ore., was elected to serve as the Oregon State Bar president for 2017. He is the first African-American to serve as president in Oregon State Bar history.

MK Tan ’89, Kuching, Malaysia, is director and head of equity broking in East Malaysia for Kenanga Investment Bank, the largest retail brokerage in Malaysia. Inspired by an internship she had at D.A. Davidson after she graduated from UM, she starteda similar program at Kenanga in 2014. In addition to helping many participants with job placement, the three-month internship program has mentored 47 students in equities and derivatives trading, portfolio management, marketing skills, business operationsand fundamental and technical analysis. A native Malaysian, Tan cherishes the time she spent earning her finance degree at UM and considers Montana a second home. “I spent a very happy four years at UM and felt that I grew some of my roots, having made lifelong friends among my former colleagues and professors, whom I still keep in touch with to this day,” she writes. “Many a time, I find myself wishing I could be in the two places at the same time, and it’s really a blessing to feel I have two homes in my heart.”