Byron Vedder - Daily Business Manager (AB 1933)
At age 97, one of the older alumni. On hand during the move into the publications building and was the second Daily business manager there. After graduation, he worked one year as a graduate manager of the Daily, Ensian, and Gargoyle. He remained in the newspaper business his whole life, and is still on the board of a Florida newspaper group.
Eric W. Hall - Gargoyle Editor-in-Chief (AB 1934)
Eric W. Hall passed away September 30, 2007. For the last year, he was adamant about wearing his UM National Championship hat whenever he left the room. He was in the Tribe of Michigama as "No Scalpum Hall," which is still engraved on the wall where they used to meet. He was proud of attending UM and being editor of the Gargoyle his senior year (1934). He would always laugh about the jokes he wrote for the magazine and how humorous it was. Though he received his degree in Economics, he found a career as Assistant Executive for GMC Truck & Coach Division for 25 years. His occupation was what I would call today, Graphic Artist with marketing emphasis. He strongly believed in Jesus Christ as Lord, and dedicated his life to becoming a Bible scholar. Eric Hall was a truly great man and will be missed by those who knew him.
Submitted by daughter Morna Jayne Corinne Hallsaxton
Stuart Low - Daily reporter (AB 1939)
420 Maynard experience 1936-1937 plus Journalism Department courses led to editing weekly in Chicago suburbs and, later, to editorial staffs of 2 east coast dailies. Spent four years in WWII army. Last assignment was organizing and editing weekly in '45 for U.S. troops in Berlin. Varied post-war public relations posts with Pfizer and others followed by 33-year career as CEO of family-owned drug sundry mfr. business. Local/State politics included chair Dem. Town Committee, member CT Dem. State Central Committee, chair of CT Public Transportation Commission. Retired in Guilford, CT.
Milton Orshefsky - Daily Editor-in-Chief (AB 1941)
ORSHEFSKY--Milton, 87, died peacefully at home in Sagaponack, NY, October 17, 2007 after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. A WWII veteran of Anzio and Salerno and recipient of a Bronze Star he had a 32 year career with LIFE magazine as corespondent and bureau chief in Dallas, San Francisco, Paris, Rome and Hong Kong. He is survived by his wife Nan, of 56 years and three children; David Orshefsky of Fort Lauderdale, FL; Sarah O. Newbery of Montague, NY; and Abigail Orshefsky Jackson of Port Washington, NY; and six grandchildren. A man of wit and integrity, we celebrate his adventurous life and cherish his memory.
Published in the New York Times on 10/21/2007.
Submitted by Alfred Reifman—Daily (AB 1940)
Hervie Haufler - Daily Editor-in-Chief (AB 1941)
Would be pleased to hear from any other survivors from his era--haufler@sover.net.
Now living with Patricia, married for 60 years, in a retirement community in Shelburne, Vermont. After conducting his own writing consulting business for many years, had two books on my World War II experiences published by Penguin's New American Library: Codebreakers' Victory, the story of Allied successes against Axis codes, and The Spies Who Never Were, subtitled "The true story of the Nazi spies who were actually Allied double agents."
Betty Fariss Curran - Gargoyle (AB 1942)
Settled in West Palm Beach, Florida in a high rise on the intercostals. Spent 15 years in Champaign, IL married to Chuck Curran who was a grad of IL. After he died she came back where she has two daughters. A volunteer for Hospice and the Church Mouse, a high scale second hand store run by the Episcopal Church. Many friends live in this condo there are good bridge games and dinner and lots of activities.
Patricia Simmons - Ensian Advertising Manager (AB 1947)
Writing a lot of poetry these days. Many poems have been published in small magazines, and a resolution for this year is to put together a book in hopes of getting it published.
Ann Kutz Dickey & Clayton Dickey - Daily Senior Editors (AB 1947)
Ann Kutz Dickey and Clayton Dickey, both senior editors in 1946-47, have just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. You could say that Daily romances have a certain staying power.
Buck Dawson - Michiganensian Managing Editor (AB 1948)
William (Buck) Dawson, a Hopwood winner and Michiganensian editor, died on Friday, April 4, at the age of 87.
Dawson fought during World War II and provided publicity for the war effort. In that capacity, he met actress Marlene Dietrich, who became a longtime friend. He brought Michiganensian staff members to California to cover the 1948 Rose Bowl and while there, took them to meet Dietrich and director Billy Wilder on the set of Foreign Affair. As recounted by Buck to Linda Robinson Walker, "who should come but [football coach] Fritz Crisler and the entire Michigan team. They were taking a tour, and so I introduced everybody and we had pictures of her taken with the team and the staff."
A photograph of the Ensian staff with Dietrich and Wilder is mounted in the entranceway of the Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building as one of the high points of the late 40s for Lipsey and Dawson.
Dawson was married to Rosemary Mann Corson, daughter of Matt Mann, Michigan's swimming coach from 1925 to 1954. He was widely known as a founder of the International Swimming Hall of Fame and served as its first director from 1965 to 1988. Dawson’s father was Cecil Dawson, president of the Dixie Cup Company.
David Kessel - Gargoyle (MSCHE 1954)
On the bright side, a conference he organizes every year in San Jose CA is moving to San Francisco. San Jose is very nice, but it's no San Francisco. Also, he is supposed to receive an award at the Russian Academy of Sciences next summer. There are rumors that the main components of this award are a large dish of caviar, a spoon, and a timer. We shall see.
Eric Vetter - Daily (AB 1954)
Like many others, undergraduate education from staffer to City Editor ('54) was The Daily. With colleagues like Bob Keith, Barnes Connable, Sid Klaus, Zander Hollander, Cal Samra, Donna Hendlemen, Harry Lunn, Virginia Voss, Alice Bogdonoff Silver, Mike Wolff and Helene Simon you learned you could run with the best. Later in transitions to doctoral candidate, tenured professor, management consultant and top executive of large corporations it was imperative to quickly get up the learning curve. The Daily experience was constant assurance that the new colleagues would never outshine those from Maynard Street. So thanks to all past and present staffers, night editors and senior editors for nurturing a tradition of rigor and excellence.
Wally Eberhard - Daily Night Editor (AB 1955)
He received the Sidney Kobre Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism History from the American Journalism Historians Association in October 2007. He published numerous articles on media history during his teaching career at the University of Georgia journalism department, and edited the association's scholarly journal. Now retired in Athens, he freelances a bit and tries to write fiction.
Contact: wbe1955@aol.com.
Alan Eisenberg - Daily Associate Sports Editor (AB 1956)
Became a labor lawyer representing trade unions and then served as executive director from 1981 to 2006 of actors' equity association, the union of stage actors and stage managers in the United States. His 25 years is the longest tenure in the union's almost 95-year history. Has taught since 1982, and continues to teach at the Yale School of Drama. For the last five years or so, he speaks once a year to the students of Michigan's musical theatre program (and catches a football game). He recently raised some $130,000 for the Alan Eisenberg/Actors' Equity Award, which provides a stipend of $5,000 -- selected by faculty of the musical theatre program -- to a graduating senior of the program. Has been, and remains, listed in WHO's WHO IN AMERICA, since 1982. He and wife, Claire Copley, have two children, a recent graduate of Reed College and a junior at Haverford College. They currently live in a loft, a renovated automobile parts factory building, in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, and have a house in the hills outside Todi, in Umbria, Italy, about two hours north of Rome. He is practicing tennis -- and has just about reached mediocre. He serves on a few boards of not-for-profit theatres, goes to the gym, reads, sees art, and studies art history and literature at NYU.
H. David Kaplan - Daily Feature Editor (AB 1956)
THE MICHIGAN DIFFERENCE weekend October 26-28 was a great opportunity to connect with Michigan Daily people not seen in 51 years, especially Joel and Shirley Berger, Wally Eberhard, Phyllis Lipskey, Janet Rearick, and Peter Eckstein. Also visited with still-quirky Dave Kessel of Gargoyle fame, and Kathy Norman of the Michigenensian. Several were filmed for a historic DVD.
The restored Student Publications Building seems quite functional, though the AP ticker, the Composing and Press rooms, and the sound of the typewriters were missed. But one sound is still the same after five decades...the ring of the telephones!
The cherry on the sundae of the great feast was Michigan beating Minnesota in football. Having not been back to Ann Arbor since 1977, the University changes were exhilarating. Surprisingly, the town itself seems to be frozen in time: the Blue Front still exists at State and Packard and so were the two rooming houses he stayed in from 1953-1956.
Robert Ilgenfritz - Daily (BSEE 1957)A believer that the College experience serves to not only to educate, but to help a person choose his or her path in life. As an incoming freshman he was a shy inexperienced “boy” who was supposed to become an engineer. So took the proper classes in that area, but increasingly spent his spare time in campus activities: fraternity, Engineering Honor council, Choral Union---but most importantly, The Michigan Daily Business Staff.
Here he realized that transistors were great, but the interaction with a diversified staff at the Daily held far more interest. Learning how a business works, managing and training people and dealing positively with the fact that he was a minority (Gentile) for the first time---really set my mind going. He even got paid!
So instead of following the Slide Rule, he joined the Technical Marketing Program at General Electric after graduation, leading to a career which grew into business management, and then finally into running his own business for 10 years.
So thank you, Michigan Daily, for putting me on the right track! And thanks also to Phil Brunskill and Dick Alstrom for their help and guidance.
David L. Good - Daily Sports Editor (BA 1964)
Has completed lyrics and librettos for unstaged musicals “Orvie!” and “Julia,” about longtime Dearborn Mayor Orville L. Hubbard and famously bad Michigan poet Julia A. Moore, respectively. Works part-time copy-editing online for the Center for Independent
Media. Retired in 2000 after 34 years as a reporter and editor at the Detroit News. Author of "Orvie: The Dictator of Dearborn" (Wayne State University Press, 1989).
John Dobbertin Jr. - Gargoyle Editor-in-Chief (AB 1964)
Attention GARGAlums!
Watch for the April 1 edition of the GARGAlum Newsletter. This is our 15th year of publishing! It’s gone-electronic ... well, as much as possible. There are e-mail addresses for almost half of all GARGAlums. If you receive e-mail ... & haven't sent that address... please do so! The April 1 edition will contain a great letter from 1937-38 Gargoyle Editor George Quick & much more. If you have any info you want to share with other GARGAlums, please send it to: johndobb@mwt.net
From your Editor-Hiding-From-Winter.
GARGAlum Announcement
College Humor Exhibit
At University of Wisconsin
If you are in the area of Madison, Wisconsin, during the months of August through November, take a moment to visit "The Art of College Humor." This is an exhibit in two parts, all of it based on the collection of college humor publications donated to the University of Wisconsin by Gargoyle Alumni Society President John Dobbertin, Jr. Covers from several hundred college humor publications will be on exhibit in the U-W's Memorial Union Porter Butts Gallery from August 1 through September 16. The U-W Memorial Library Special Collections Department exhibit area (9th floor) will host the exhibit of college humor publications covering content from hundreds of magazines dating back to 1874.
For more information contact: John Dobbertin, Jr. at johndobb@mwt.net
Neil Berkson - Daily Editor-in-Chief (AB 1965)
Has practiced law in Keene, New Hampshire since 1971, and will be retiring within the year. He considers his time on the Daily seminal--the foundation of both the life and professional success, which he has enjoyed. Would love to hear from any former colleagues.
Thomas Weinberg - Daily (AB 1966)
Has collected, digitized and put online some of the most important independently produced nonfiction videos since 1970's. It's free at mediaburn.org.
Robert Shiller - Daily (AB 1967)
He has begun writing a regular column (every other month) for the New York Times, in the Sunday Business Section, under "Economic View." It is a column written by seven professors of economics, of which he is one. It ties in with his experience on the Michigan Daily, and told his that he was, by writing this column, in a way returning to a former life at Michigan. (He has also been writing a monthly column for Project Syndicate, an international newspaper syndicate, for four years now). So, his experience at the Michigan Daily was formative.
Joyce Madelon Winslow - Daily Culture Editor (AB 1968)
Published 12 short stories, winning four awards from The National Press Club in Washington DC; the Raymond Carver Award, a National Endowment Grants for Literature, and two DC Commission on the Arts awards for literature. After serving as Travel Editor of Redbook and Mademoiselle magazines, and Senior Editor for Modern Maturity, she became a media strategist and spokesperson for AARP, then for Medicare. Now, she writes multi-million dollar proposals for Accenture, a business and IT consulting firm with 149,000 employees in 28 countries. She lives in DC.
Robin Wright - Daily (BA 1970)
Robin Wright, Washington Post diplomatic correspondent and BA 1970 and MA 1971, had a new book out on February 28 entitled Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East (Penguin Press). Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called it "Fascinating reading for anyone who likes true human drama. Only Wright could have written Dreams and Shadows because only Wright has traveled so widely, interviewed such diverse leaders and brought so much wisdom to analyzing the region's many-sided puzzles. This volume, full of mesmerizing detail and large truths, sets a new standard for scholarship on the modern Middle East." Information available on www.robinwright.net.
Cynthia Haven - Daily (BGS 1977)
Cynthia won the 2007/08 Milena Jesenská Journalism Fellowship, and will be going to Krakow, Warsaw, and Vienna next summer, to write a series of articles about her research for the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times as well as gathering material for her forthcoming book, Czeslaw Milosz: Memories and Recollections. After years working in the world of cultural and literary criticism, this kind of validation is enormously gratifying. One of the predecessors of the award is the late, great Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was a Jesenská Fellow in 2001.
Diane Haithman - Daily (AB 1979)
Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times (arts). Co-author of new book: The Elder Wisdom Circle Guide for a Meaningful Life, Penguin/Plume, on advice-givers aged 60-105 who reach younger generations via their website www.elderwisdomcircle.org.
Check out our YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjmGtho-vrU
Larry O. Dean - Daily (BGS 1984)
Current band, The Injured Parties' debut, FUN WITH A PURPOSE, produced by Mark Nevers (Lambchop, The Clientele, Stuart Staples) will be released fall 2008; of local interest, it includes a song called "Zingerman's Deli." Hosts a monthly songwriter round robin, Folk You!, now in its sixth year. Beginning work on his third solo album, GOOD GRIEF, in March with an international cast of supporting musicians. Working on two new poetry collections: BRIEF NUDITY, recent poems; and LOMA PRIETA, a series of persona poems based on victims of the 1989 San Francisco Bay Area earthquake. Continues working as a freelance journalist and Poet In Residence in the Chicago Public Schools.
David B. Kopel - Daily Politics & Theater writer (JD 1985)
Currently a media critic for the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post, and a contributor to National Review Online, the Volokh Conspiracy, and other on-line publications. He is the Research Director for the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Colorado, and as an Associate Policy Analyst with the Cato Institute. The Independence Institute has a lively summer internship program, and he would be delighted to receive applications from Michigan students.
(www.davekopel.org, www.i2i.org).
Lia Borek Murphy - Ensian (AB 1989)
She and her husband recently published a book, which tells the story of how they leveraged the California real estate boom of a few years ago in order to realize their dream of building a future in investment properties.
“Did you ever wonder how others bought their first rental house and the steps they took? This is the real-life story of how an average couple beat the real estate bust in California and relocated to Michigan in order to build their future in investment properties. Follow Jack and Lia as they build a portfolio of homes and deal with the ups and downs of buying and renting homes as well as their experiences as landlords.”
Available at iuniverse.com and by Feb 1st, 2008 at barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com
Jennifer Podis - Photographer and Photo Editor, Ensian (AB 1988)
Online Photo Editor and multimedia production for PalmBeachPost.com. She also spent 6 years as a photojournalist for The Palm Beach Post, and then 2 years as an editor on the paper, before moving to the Web. Prior to that, she worked at The Miami Herald, Lexington Herald-Leader, Syracuse Newspapers and The Patriot-Ledger (Mass.) She received her MA in photography from Syracuse University in 2005.
Lee Eric Ranieri - Gargoyle (BS 1993)
Received a JD from the College of William and Mary law school in 1997, and practiced law in Maryland before returning to Michigan in 2006. Now practices in Traverse City, and has his first child on the way, which is due in March. Grown older but not grown up, and interests are essentially the same as they were in Ann Arbor. Unfortunately, writing for the Gargoyle for several years drained what little creative energy he had, and he has not written or said anything funny in 15 years.
Sean H. Rhyee - Gargoyle Illustrator and Writer (BS 1996)
Graduated from Rush Medical College (Chicago) in 2002, and went on to complete a residency in emergency medicine at Cook County Hospital. Currently completing a fellowship in medical toxicology at the Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Center in Denver, CO, and is a clinical instructor in the Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Beginning in July 2008, he is taking a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (Worcester, MA). Married since October 2003 and has two young daughters.
Anna Clark - Daily News Writer (BA 2003)
Received an MFA in fiction writing from Warren Wilson College. A freelance journalist, writing primarily social and cultural features for print and online magazines, including The American Prospect, Utne Reader, Bitch Magazine, and Women's eNews. Also edits the literary and social justice blog, Isak (www.isak.typepad.com). Lives in Detroit.
Robert Fowler - Daily Copy Editor (AB 2006)
Audit Associate at Deloitte & Touche LLP.
