QUINCY SMITH ’63 received the 2014 Alumni Honour Award from the University of Alberta. Regarded as one of Canada’s top insolvency lawyers, Quincy was named a Fellow of the Insolvency Institute of Canada in 1995. He is a former president of the Calgary Bar Association, past bencher of the Law Society of Alberta, and served as senior counsel in the Calgary Office of Dentons Canada. Quincy is an honorary life director of the Calgary Stampede, co-chaired the 2005 United Way Campaign, and isa member of several nonprofit boards.
A group of Polson and Missoula Grizzly alumni and fans pose somewhere abovethe Arctic Circle on a recent Norwegian Cruise. Seated, left to right: MARYLOU RATZBURG ’64, Cheryl Thomas, MAGGIE NEWMAN ’68. Back: Emmett May, FRANK THOMAS ’70, JackieGran, KEITH URBACH ’67, JENS GRAN ’69, M.B.A. ’72,
ERNIE RATZBURG ’64, LONNIE DALE ’68, J.D. ’71, PAM DALE ’68, M.Ed. ’69, and Father Gary Reller.
JOHN NIEMI ’65, Highlands Ranch, Colo., was named the National Chapter Volunteerof the Year at the Scleroderma Foundation’s National Patient Education Conference.John is president of the Scleroderma Foundation Rocky Mountain Chapter. Scleroderma is an autoimmune disease.
ROBERT FULTON ’66, Lewiston, Idaho, was named Trustee of the Year for theIdaho Library Association. Bob served as trustee at the Lewiston City Library since 2000.
GERALD CLARK ’67, Great Falls, recently published Supplying Custer: The Powder River Supply Depot, 1876. The book documents the results of a historicalarchaeology project conducted on the Yellowstone River. Raised in Roy and Missoula, Jerry was an archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management since1975. He retired in 2006.
DENIS HOFFLANDER ’67, Sioux Falls, S.D., was inducted into the Sioux Falls Lincoln High School Hall of Fame after thirty-five years of teaching biology and coaching wrestling. Denis and Susan, his wife of forty-four years, retired in 2001 to enjoy their home in Island Park, Idaho. Denis continues to enjoy backpacking, kayaking, training bird dogs, and guiding South Dakota pheasant hunters.
PHIL VAN NESS ’68, Urbana, Ill., is chairman of the real estate law section council ofthe Illinois State Bar Association. Phil previously served as chairman of the association’s environmental law section council. Phil and his wife, Cheryl, recently moved to Urbana, where he has converted his basement into a “man cave”celebrating all things Griz.
DEE DANIELS ’70, Renton, Wash., released her latest CD, Intimate Conversations, through Origin Records. Dee earned a bachelor’s degree in art education from UM and taught high school art for a year in Seattle before launching her internationally celebrated music career. A 1997 UM Distinguished Alumna, Dee has taught at Queens College, N.Y., served as artistic director of the Frank DeMiero Jazz Festival, and was nominated for Atlanta Theater’s 2010 Suzi Bass Award. Visit www.deedaniels.com for more details about her career.
DOUGLAS COFFMAN ’73, Eugene, Ore., published Reflecting the Sublime: The Rebirth of an American Icon, based on his twenty-five years of independent research on the historic American Bison Group, a Victorian-era artistic museum display. Relegated to obscurity in the 1950s and rescued forty years later, the mounted group of six Montana bison was created by William T. Hornaday, a naturalist, conservationist, and chief taxidermist for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in the late nineteenth century. Reflecting the Sublime was publishedby the River & Plains Society of Fort Benton, where the American Bison Group now is displayed in the Museum of the Northern Great Plains.
NANCY WELLS ’73, Norwood, Colo., was presented the Silver Sage Award by thePhilmont Staff Association in July 2014. Nancy and two other women earned the award for their pioneering work as the first women on the backcountry staff at the Philmont Scout Ranch in 1972. Now, approximately 40 percent of the backcountry staff are women.
MONTE DOLACK ’74, Missoula, was chosen by Wilderness 50 and Wilderness Watch to create the official national poster celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Wilderness Act. His piece, The Peaceable Kingdom of Wilderness, is inspired by Edward Hicks’ 1820 Peaceable Kingdom.
JOHN H. EILER ’76, Juneau, Alaska, earned his doctorate in fisheries science from Oregon State University in 2013. He earned his master’s degree in wildlife and fisheries science in 1981 from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and has worked with the National Marine Fisheries Service since 1999. He is married to NANCY VALACH EILER ’78.
MICHAEL ALLEN, M.A. ’77, Ellensburg, Wash., received the Distinguished Research Award from the University of Washington, Tacoma, where he is a professor of history. Michael is co-author of A Patriot’s History of the United States, a New York Times No. 1 best-seller. He has three children: Jim, Davy, and Caroline, a UM sophomore majoring in music. Michael has many good memories of mid-1970’sMissoula and his thesis adviser, Harry W. Fritz.
RICHARD ROBBINS, M.F.A. ’79, Mankato, Minn., recently completed twenty-eight years of directing the Good Thunder Reading Series at Minnesota State University, Mankato. During that time he arranged nearly 400 campus visits by internationally acclaimed and lesser-known contemporary writers. He continues as professor and director of the creative writing program.
ROBIN JORDAN ’81, Butte, is editor of the Butte Weekly, a free, locally owned paper.
GARRY OYE ’81, M.S. ’84, Death Valley, Calif., retired from the National Park Service last summer as chief of the Wilderness Stewardship Division within the Visitor and Resource Protection Associateship at the Washington, D.C., headquarters. Garry began his career with the U.S. Forest Service in 1978 as a wilderness ranger at age nineteen. He held positions on the Clearwater, Nez Perce, Shasta-Trinity, and Inyo national forests and served for seven years as the wilderness coordinator for the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region. Throughout his thirty-six- year career, Garry worked on assignments at the Great Sand Dunes, Organ Pipe Cactus,Everglades, Fire Island, Isle Royale, and Wrangell- St. Elias, as well as in Estonia,Mexico, and Chile. He recently helped create a wilderness webisode series with American University, which can be viewed at www.youtube.com/user/NPSWilderness. Former President Jimmy Carter, who was in Atlanta for the filming, remarked, “Garry, you have the best job in the world.”
KATHLEEN PHAIR BARNARD ’82, J.D. ’85, Seattle, is a veteran labor law attorney with Schwerin Campbell Barnard Iglitzin & Lavitt in Seattle. She devotes her practice to advising and representing labor unions in all aspects of collective bargaining and litigation, as well as representing individual employees in employment discrimination and civil rights cases. [See ANDREASCHMITT ’00 for more on Kathy’s work.]
SHARON DZIK ’82, St. Paul, Minn., is director of the Office for Student Conduct and Academic Integrity and the Office for Student Affairs at the University of Minnesota. In 2014, Sharon was awarded the University of Minnesota’s President’s Award for Outstanding Service. She earned her bachelor’s degree in health and physical education at UM and was a resident assistant for two years. She states that her years at UM paved the way for understanding how great a career working with college students could be.
CAROL FOX, M.A. ’84, Helena, retired last year after nearly twenty years as restoration program chief of the Natural Resources Damage Program in Butte. Employed with the state of Montana since 1984, she worked as the state Super fundprogram manager until 1998.
ANNE HASSETT ’86, Dutton, has publishedthree novels—Almost Kings, The Sojourn,and The House on Mullan Road—and is working on her fourth. Anne is a nativeMontanan and a retired educator.
PATRICIA K. CAYE HIBBELER ’87, Phoenix, is CEO of the Phoenix Indian Center, the oldest American Indian center in the nation. Now in its sixty-eighth year, the center provides comprehensive educational, workforce, and cultural enrichment, community engagement, and supportive services to more than 7,000 individuals every year. Patricia serves on advisory boards for the president of Arizona State University and the president of Maricopa Community College, and is president of the Urban Indian Families Coalition. She has received the American Indian Excellence in Leadership Woman of the Year award and the Positively Powerful Woman award.
GARTH SCOTT ’93, ’94, Moses Lake, Wash., is a retired lieutenant colonel whocurrently works as a helicopter pilot for Northwest Medstar, a criticalcare transportservice. While attending UM, Garth was commissioned as a second lieutenantthrough the Montana National Guard Officer Candidate School located at FortHarrison. Garth’s military career spans more than twenty-eight years of service,mainly with the Montana National Guard, along with other assignments and adeployment to Iraq. During Iraqi Freedom 04, Garth served as a Blackhawk pilot andstaff officer with the 1-189th Air Assault Battalion. While stationed in Germany in1986, he competed on the U.S. Army downhill ski team and later skied on theMontana Biathlon Team. While living in Missoula, he drove school buses for BeachTransportation. Garth holds a Master of Science degree from Embry-RiddleUniversity. He currently lives in Moses Lake, Wash., with his son and has othergrown children living in Montana, New York, and Alaska.
ROD SOUZA ’95, J.D. ’99, Billings, was elected in November to the position ofYellowstone County District Court judge. For the past fifteen years, Rod served as aprosecutor and chief deputy county attorney for Yellowstone County. He took officein January.
BRENDA CLOUSER ’97, St. Ignatius, received the 2014 Maryfrances Shreeve Award,presented by UM and the Phyllis J. Washington College of Education and HumanServices for excellence in teaching. The award honors elementary or middle schoolteachers who have taught in Montana public schools for at least ten years. Brendateaches kindergarten in St. Ignatius.
TARISSA LYNN SPOONHUNTER ’97, Tucson, Ariz., earned her doctorate inAmerican Indian studies from the University of Arizona in May 2014. An enrolled
member of the Northern Arapaho and Blackfeet tribes, she works as a researcher atTohono O’odham Community College and plans to teach American Indian studies.
TINELLE BUSTAM ’98, Republic, Wash., is the new Republic district ranger on theColville National Forest in Washington. Tinelle has worked for the Forest Service forfour years, most recently serving as public services staff officer on the El YunqueNational Forest in Puerto Rico. She earned her bachelor’s degree in wildlife biologyfrom UM, her master’s in environmental and outdoor education from the StateUniversity of New York at Cortland, and her doctorate in natural resource recreationmanagement from the University of Florida.
CELINE MALONEY ’99, Pharm.D. ’00, Butte, was named clinical instructor of theyear for UM’s Skaggs School of Pharmacy in 2014. Celine is a pharmacist at St. JamesHealthcare in Butte, where she has worked with pharmacy students completingtheir hospital and inpatient advanced pharmacy practice experiences for the pasttwelve years.
DIANE TALIAFERRO, M.E.M. ’99, is the new Silver City district ranger on the GilaNational Forest. Diane previously served as wilderness and wild and scenic programmanager in the Forest Service Region 3 office in Albuquerque, N.Mex., and hasworked for the National Park Service and the Nez Perce, Gallatin, and Santa Fenational forests. Formerly a high school teacher and coach, she was named MontanaCoach of the Year after her Whitefish volleyball team won the state championship.Diane worked as a ranger for the National Park Service in Alaska and as a guide forOutward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School before earning amaster’s degree in ecosystem management at UM.
JENNIFER MARTIN ’00, M.S. ’00, Columbia Falls, is a speech pathologist at GlacierGateway Elementary School. Jennifer received her bachelor’s degree in earlychildhood education and has taught in Ecuador and Bozeman. She is married toJeremiah Martin and has two children, Julia and Ben.
ANDREA SCHMITT ’00, Olympia, Wash., is an attorney with Columbia LegalServices, working out of the Olympia and Seattle offices on the Working FamiliesProject. Last summer, KATHLEEN PHAIR BARNARD ’82, J.D. ’85, and Andrearepresented Familias Unidas por la Justica [Families United for Justice], anassociation of Washington-based farm workers, in a winning lawsuit that preventedfarm owners from denying housing access to the families of workers who asked forbetter pay. This decision was one in a series of rulings in favor of Familias Unidas,including the largest farm-worker wage and hour settlement in Washington statehistory.
ALAN FUGLEBERG ’01,’02, M.P.A. ’04, Kodiak, Alaska, is the director of KodiakCollege for the University of Alaska Anchorage. He served as assistant director forAcademic Affairs and assistant professor at Kodiak College since 2011. Alanformerly served as an associate dean for Missoula College.
BRIAN LEECH ’04, Rock Island, Ill., is assistant professor of history at AugustanaCollege. He won the 2013 Phi Alpha Theta/ Westerners International Prize for thebest doctoral dissertation on the history of the American West for his exploration ofButte’s landmark copper mine. Brian completed his dissertation, The City that AteItself: A Social and Environmental History of Open-Pit Mining in Butte, Montana, in2013 at the University of Wisconsin- Madison and currently is working on turning itinto a book.
CALI O’HARA ’04, Fort Benton, received U.S. Bank’s Pinnacle Award, the company’shighest employee achievement honor. Cali is a U.S. Bank branch manager in FortBenton. She also volunteers for Meals on Wheels and the General Federation ofWomen’s Clubs.
MAUREEN CONNORS SANTELLI ’05, ’06, Manassas, Va., graduated with the class of2014 from George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., with her doctorate in history.Maureen presented a portion of her work at the 2014 annual meeting of the Societyfor Historians of the Early American Republic in Philadelphia. She is an assistantprofessor of history at Northern Virginia Community College. Maureen and herhusband, Steve, who were married at the St. Helena Cathedral in 2010, reside in theD.C. metro area.
MICHAEL B. TRAHAN, M.A. ’07, Ph.D. ’12, Bismarck, N.Dak., has joined CHI St.Alexius Health Archway Mental Health Services as a clinical psychologist. Michaelcompleted an internship in adult and adolescent psychological disorders atAssociated Psychologists & Counselors and Norfolk Regional Center, both in Norfolk,Neb.
MEGAN WALSH ’08, Butte, received the 2014 Outstanding Young CPA Award fromthe Montana Society of CPAs. A native of Great Falls, Megan earned degrees in bothaccounting and communication studies. She is active in the Butte Chapter of CPAsand the Butte Rotary Club and is a leader in MSCPA’s Raising the BAR Group, acommittee dedicated to meeting the needs and promoting the value of CPAs underage thirty-five.
ELISE LOWE ’09, Albuquerque, N.Mex., recently earned her medical doctorate fromthe University of Washington School of Medicine via the Wyoming WWAMI medicaleducation program. Elise is completing her residency in internal medicine at theUniversity of New Mexico School of Medicine.
LINDSEY RICH, M.S. ’10, Evergreen, Colo., was awarded a Fulbright U.S. StudentProgram grant for her work in Botswana developing a long-term monitoringprogram for carnivores. She also was selected as an Evelyn K. Aitken Named P.E.O.Scholar for 2014-15 by the International Chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood. Lindsey isa fish and wildlife conservation doctoral student at Virginia Tech. Read about herresearch and the conservation outreach program Wild Joys at www.lindseyrichresearch.com.
ADAM CLINCH ’11, M.Ed. ’12, M.A. ’14, Helena, and MATTHEW WILSON, M.S. ’12,Bishop, Calif., were awarded teaching fellowships by the Knowles Science TeachingFoundation. They are two of thirty-two exceptionally talented, earlycareer STEMteachers to be awarded a five-year teaching fellowship by KSTF in 2014. This fall,Adam began teaching at his alma mater, Helena Capital High School. For the past sixyears, he has been involved with mentoring, tutoring, and teaching. Additionally, heworked as an assistant soccer coach at Capital. Matt began teaching at Home StreetMiddle School in Bishop, Calif. Previously, he was a science intern for Save theRedwoods League in San Francisco, a research associate at the Sierra NevadaAquatic Research Lab, and a math and science substitute teacher.
LEIF DRAZNIN-FRENCH ’12, Forest Grove, Ore., has filmed two independentsnowboard films since graduating from UM. His newest film, Chuurch, premiered atthe Missoula Last Best Film Fest in October.
JACK STEWARD ’12, right, Chanhassen, Minn., debuted a new cable TV series, Rockthe Park, last October. The show spotlights the beauty and wildlife of America’snational parks. Jack co-hosts the show with Colton Smith ’14, left.
CHRISTINA BLOEMEN ’14, Fort Collins, Colo., is a Fulbright scholar in Ukraine,where she teaches English and serves as a cultural ambassador. She graduated fromUM in three years with a double major in Russian and political science.
AMANDA EASTON ’14, Missoula, is events director for the Starving Artist Café andGallery in Missoula.
TORRY HILL ’14, Billings, is assistant coach and assistant athletic director at RockyMountain College. After winning two state basketball titles at Anaconda High School,Torry went on to become one of the top point guards ever for the Montana LadyGriz.
JESSICA JONES, M.A. ’14, Ronan, is the sixth-grade English teacher at Ronan MiddleSchool. She has taught college writing for the past seven years at UM and the Collegeof Wooster in Ohio, where she ran the creative writing program for children. Jessicahas served as the outreach educator for the Akron Art Museum and taughtcontinuing education with the Butler Institute of Art and University of Akron inOhio. Jessica has served as the writer-in- residence for the Cuyahoga Valley NationalPark, where she taught poetry to upper-elementary and middle-school children. Shealso worked at Calcutta Mercy Hospital in India, where she wrote about childreniving in slum areas.
