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Raising Greatness
Winter 2021
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Contents
ON THE COVER:
Athletes in their own right, Elisabeth Robinson ’81, ’95G, Ellen Hughes ’91 and Eileen Shiffrin ’81 are perhaps better known for the role they played in cultivating their children’s sports careers. Quinn and Jack Hughes were top NHL recruits, Mikaela Shiffrin is an Olympic gold-medalist skier and Duncan Robinson went to the NBA Finals last year with the Miami Heat. These superstars say their mothers played a key role in their development as athletes.
Sculpture heads created by UNH art professor Ben Cariens tell a story about love, loss and endurance.
A full year into the global COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have discovered that doing our part means disengaging from “normal” life: working from home, ordering our groceries on the internet, visiting our families and friends on Zoom. But there are those who have remained on the frontlines — doctors and nurses, health care experts and policymakers, microbiologists and virologists and drug developers — including no small number of UNH alumni, eight of whom share their stories here.
Andrew ’12 and Jim ’15G Scott suffered life-altering injuries just 15 months apart. To find its way forward, the Scott family, makers of the well-known Wellness pet food brand, turned to UNH’s Northeast Passage (NEP). Today, the Scotts donate 100% of the profits from their newest endeavor, RAWZ, to organizations including NEP that support traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury recovery.
UNH art professor Benjamin Cariens was adopted from a Korean orphanage and spent his childhood in Europe with American parents who worked for the CIA. Today, his approach to making art encourages students to pay attention to what’s in front of them, to embrace downtime as much as productivity — and to celebrate their own scars and imperfections.
Departments
Class Notes

Ana Gobledale ’75G
Dinesh Thakur ’92G
Erica Tamposi ’14
In Memoriam

Maxine Morse ’51H
Gov. Stephen Merrill ’69
Robert Coffey ’05G
Sculpture heads created by UNH art professor Ben Cariens tell a story about love, loss and endurance.
President’s Column
The View From T-Hall
Photo of Jim Dean

E

arly in this year’s State of the University address, my annual report to the Wildcat community, l talked about how proud I am of UNH’s response to COVID-19: How hundreds of faculty and staff rallied to transition our classes online last spring, along with most of our research. How they then worked long hours over the summer preparing our campuses to reopen in the fall with in-person learning and created a comprehensive public health campaign to keep our community safe and operational. How they built and staffed two state-of-the-art COVID testing labs on our Durham campus, and one on our Manchester campus, which have now handled more than 350,000 tests. Today, our COVID testing program is among the finest, most effective in U.S. higher education.

I noted, too, that more than 400,000 Americans (now over 500,000), including more than 1,000 here in New Hampshire, were among the 2 million individuals globally who had lost their lives in the pandemic. Their numbers include friends and family from our UNH community. “Our hearts go out to each of you who lost a loved one,” I said, and paused.

In that fleeting silence, the weight of it all hit home. History will show that 2020 was a year of unprecedented challenges and real pain. But I believe it also will show that our response reflected the compassion, resiliency, creativity and pride that define our Wildcat family.

UNH blue logo
Editor-in-Chief
Kristin Waterfield Duisberg

Current Editor
Jody Record ’95

Class Notes Editor
Allison Battles ’02 

Feature Writers
Bethany Clarke ’20G
Michelle Morrissey ’97
Keith Testa

Contributing and Staff Writers
Allison Battles ’02
Callie Carr
Ali Goldstein
Brooks Payette ’12
Robbin Ray ’82
Jody Record ’95
Keith Testa

Contributing and Staff Photographers
John Bazemore/AP
Justin Britton
Jonathan Fanning
Jeremy Gasowski
Jure Makovec/Getty Images
Lisa Nugent
Beth Potier
Scott Ripley
Marto Tacca/AP
Matt Troisi ’22
David Vogt
China Wong ’18

Editorial Office
15 Strafford Ave., Durham, NH 03824
alumni.editor@unh.edu

Publication Board of Directors
James W. Dean Jr.
President, University of New Hampshire

Debbie Dutton
Vice President, Advancement

Mica Stark ’96
Associate Vice President,
Communications and Public Affairs

Susan Entz ’08G
Associate Vice President, Alumni Association

Heidi Dufour Ames ’02
President, UNH Alumni Association

UNH Magazine cover image
cover photo by Jeremy Gasowski

UNH Magazine is published three times a year by the University of New Hampshire, Office of University Communications and Public Affairs and the Office of the President.

© 2021, University of New Hampshire. Readers may send letters, news items and email address changes to alumni.editor@unh.edu.

Photo by Jeremy Gasowski
Jeremy Gasowski
Gregg Moore, research associate professor in the department of biological sciences, and lab technician Jenny Gibson ’16, ‘19G check marsh sediment accretion plots in the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve next to the Jackson Estuarine Laboratory on Adams Point in Durham. Moore and Gibson are part of a multidisciplinary Coastal Habitat Restoration and Resilience Team whose applied research in coastal and estuarine habitats emphasizes ecological restoration and strengthening the coastal community’s ability to adapt to climate threats using nature-based solutions.
Editor’s Desk
From the Editor’s Desk
A

s this issue of UNH Magazine goes live, UNH is closing in on a remarkable milestone: one full year of remote operations. If someone had told me on March 16, 2020, as I prepared to work from home for a few weeks — gathering up a few extra story files for the spring/summer magazine and a handful of books I wanted to consider for “Bookshelf” — that one year later I’d be fully moved into a home office with three complete online-only issues of the magazine under my belt, I would have told them their crystal ball must surely be broken. At the time, a month or two of remote work sounded like a welcome change of pace. But a whole year? Impossible.

Illustration
Peter and Maria Hoey
Current
Current
On the heels of a nearly snowless December and January, winter welcomed UNH students, who began the spring semester on Feb. 1, back to campus with a string of February snowstorms.
Scott Ripley
Fanning the Flames of Opportunity
Cyndee Gruden returns to her alma mater as the first female dean of CEPS
Cyndee Gruden portrait
Jeremy Gasowski
You often hear first-generation students say that college changed their lives, their path and what they thought was feasible. Many, in fact, say the experience showed them possibilities they never knew existed. Back in 1987, Cyndee Gruden ’91,’93G was one of those students. Today, she’s the first woman to be named dean of UNH’s College of Engineering and Physical Sciences (CEPS).

“I became a civil engineer because my parents worked in construction. I was an excellent student in math and science, so engineering seemed like a reasonable option,” she says. “I expected to receive my degree and work. I had no idea that I would spend my career in higher education. In fact, I had no idea that was even an option.”

Mr. Sullivan Goes to Washington
UNH Carsey School fellow named to Biden administration
Jake Sullivan has returned to Washington. A senior fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy, Sullivan was named President Joe Biden’s national security advisor in November. He’s the youngest person to hold the post in almost 60 years.

It is a position for which Sullivan is eminently qualified. He previously served in former President Barack Obama’s administration as deputy assistant to the president, helped to negotiate the Iran nuclear deal and was national security advisor to then Vice President Biden. He was deputy chief of staff to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a senior policy advisor during her run for president in 2016.

Jake Sullivan portrait
David Vogt
UNH Nursing students at work
Scott Ripley
Poised for Growth
State-of-the-art center will expand health sciences programs
A year ago, the space off Waterworks Road next to Gregg Hall was a parking lot. This fall, it will be an academic building buzzing with activity: home to fully equipped simulation labs that mimic hospital, clinic, primary care and other health care settings to prepare students in the College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) for the experience of delivering care with real equipment and technology. Funded with a $9 million grant from the state of New Hampshire to address the state’s healthcare workforce shortage, the 20,000-square-foot Health Sciences Simulation Center (HSSC) will provide enhanced educational opportunities for students in a range of CHHS disciplines, including nursing, occupational therapy, athletic training and health sciences.
The Poison in His Past
A shift in medium helps veteran journalist tell his most personal story
I

t’s not as if Dana Jennings ’80 couldn’t find the words. An editor for the New York Times, Jennings started out as a print journalist. He’s written three novels, two works of nonfiction and a children’s book. #hecanwrite.

But to talk about the impact a literal toxic environment had on his life, to make the audience understand the smells and sounds and the poison that spewed from the 55-gallon steel drums at Kingston Steel Drum, Jennings picked up a different pen. And he sketched. Furiously, it seems to the eye. Purposely. Telling the story of his father’s cancer, his own cancer and the rage against the hazardous waste site where both worked decades earlier.

Dana Jennings illustration 1
Courtesy Dana Jennings
UNH student cuddles with two cows
Jeremy Gasowski
Cows and Horses and Humans
A close-knit crew of students and staff care for the UNH herds
Day or night, hot or cold, rain or shine. In a world of health or pandemic. None of that changes when the cows are milked. When the horses get fed. Life at the UNH barns, and the tending of the animals, remains constant. “Every single day of the year, we’re here,” says Brenda Hess-McAskill, the longtime manager of UNH’s equine facilities.

Even with campus quiet for an extended period of time during the COVID-lengthened semester break, there was a close-knit crew of students and staff caring for the university’s herds. Like animal science senior Hannah Majewski ’21, who grew up participating in 4-H and started working with the campus cows her sophomore year. She’s one of four student workers who live above the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center, in apartments the students simply refer to as “upstairs.”

Every morning, Majewski is up at 3:30 to milk and care for the cows. Alongside her regular chores — from cleaning stalls to providing fresh grain — she’s also sure to give the cows some pampering, like scratches behind the ears.

Cows and Horses and Humans
A close-knit crew of students and staff care for the UNH herds
UNH student cuddles with two cows
Jeremy Gasowski
It’s not as if Day or night, hot or cold, rain or shine. In a world of health or pandemic. None of that changes when the cows are milked. When the horses get fed. Life at the UNH barns, and the tending of the animals, remains constant. “Every single day of the year, we’re here,” says Brenda Hess-McAskill, the longtime manager of UNH’s equine facilities.

Even with campus quiet for an extended period of time during the COVID-lengthened semester break, there was a close-knit crew of students and staff caring for the university’s herds. Like animal science senior Hannah Majewski ’21, who grew up participating in 4-H and started working with the campus cows her sophomore year. She’s one of four student workers who live above the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center, in apartments the students simply refer to as “upstairs.”

Every morning, Majewski is up at 3:30 to milk and care for the cows. Alongside her regular chores — from cleaning stalls to providing fresh grain — she’s also sure to give the cows some pampering, like scratches behind the ears.

“Atten-hut”
UNH Army ROTC program earns top honor
T

he university’s Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program recently received the MacArthur Award as the No.1 top-performing unit out of 42 units in the brigade, which includes New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and New England. The unit learned of the award via a videoconference in January.

The annual award is given based on academic and fitness scores, retention and commissioning rates, program administrative metrics and organizational culture. It has been presented annually since 1989 by the U.S. Army Cadet Command and the Gen. Douglas MacArthur Foundation to recognize the ideals of duty, honor and country.

ROTC members in salute
Matt Troisi ’22
“Atten-hut”
UNH Army ROTC program earns top honor
ROTC members in salute
Jeremy Gasowski
T

he university’s Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program recently received the MacArthur Award as the No.1 top-performing unit out of 42 units in the brigade, which includes New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and New England. The unit learned of the award via a videoconference in January.

The annual award is given based on academic and fitness scores, retention and commissioning rates, program administrative metrics and organizational culture. It has been presented annually since 1989 by the U.S. Army Cadet Command and the Gen. Douglas MacArthur Foundation to recognize the ideals of duty, honor and country.

Inquiry
One-Two Punch
UNH researchers discover new inhibitor combination for rare form of cancer
UNH researcher in the lab
Jeremy Gasowski
C

ancer research has come a long way, but there are many miles to go, particularly for forms of the disease for which there is currently no known cure. Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM), a rare form of lymphoma, is one of those cancers — today, there is only one FDA-approved treatment. But with the work being done at UNH, that may one day change.

Researchers have taken the novel approach of targeting specific cell proteins that control DNA information using inhibitors, a class of immunotherapy drugs that are known to be effective in reducing the growth of cancer cells. What’s more, when combined with a second drug, these inhibitors were even more successful in killing the WM cancer cells — a finding which could lead to more treatment options in the future.

Faculty and Staff News
Nada Al-Haddad, a research assistant professor in the UNH Space Science Center, received a prestigious four-year, $690,000 NASA grant to support her solar-based research. The grant is part of NASA’s Early Career Investigator Program (ECIP), designed to support outstanding scientific research and career development of scientists who study the connections between the sun and the solar system. Approximately 20% of ECIP applicants – 11 scientists including Al-Haddad – received funding in the latest round. Al-Haddad joined UNH as a research faculty member in 2020 after several years of conducting research at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and then teaching physics at UNH. Her research focuses on the magnetic structure of coronal mass ejections – large-scale eruptions of plasma and energy from the sun that can disrupt satellite communications, power grids and radio communications.
Seafloor mapper extraordinaire Andy Armstrong has brought home the gold. The co-director of the NOAA-UNH Joint Hydrographic Center, Armstrong has been awarded a Department of Commerce Gold Medal by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for his contributions to delineate the U.S. extended continental shelf, a maritime region that could possess valuable resources and habitats for marine life. The NOAA award recognizes Armstrong’s excellence in seafloor mapping and data science initiatives that will help the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Program define the geographical limits of this zone, which begins more than 200 nautical miles offshore. The medal is the latest of Armstrong’s awards recognizing his scientific achievements; he was inducted into the Hydrographer Hall of Fame in 2019 by the Hydrographic Society of America and there is a basin in the Gulf of Mexico that now bears his name.
Described as “a force in physics,” Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is among 10 individuals the journal Nature has recognized for making some of the most significant contributions to science in 2020. “Nature’s 10” noted the assistant professor of physics and core faculty in women’s and gender studies “pursues the nature of dark matter while also confronting racism in science and society.” The tenure-track professor co-founded Particles for Justice in 2018 to fight systemic sexism in academia and mounted a #strike4blacklives response to systemic racism and violence against Black individuals in conjunction with the #shutdownSTEM and #shutdownacademia initiatives. Prescod-Weinstein is a theoretical cosmologist and particle physicist who studies dark matter, work that’s at the intersection of physics and astronomy. She is also active in research in Black feminist science, technology and society studies.
Serita Frey, a leading researcher on soil microbial ecology, has been selected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). A professor of natural resources and the environment at UNH, Frey was recognized for “her distinguished contributions to microbial and ecosystem ecology, particularly the effect of anthropogenic stressors, or human activities like deforestation and urbanization, on soil microbial communities and microbial-mediated carbon and nitrogen cycles.” Her research focuses on how human activities — climate change, agricultural management, invasive species — affect ecosystems, with an emphasis on soil microorganisms and nutrient cycling. In 2020, the Web of Science group named Frey to its highly cited researchers list, a distinction earned by fewer than 0.1% of scientists globally. She was among 489 AAAS members awarded the honor.
Kabria BaumgartnerAndrew Coppens and Elyse Hambacher, all faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts, have won research grants from the Spencer Foundation, a national organization founded in 1971 that focuses exclusively on supporting education research. Baumgartner, associate professor of English and American studies, will use her grant to support her book project about Robert Morris, the first African American trial lawyer and an influential 19th-century thinker on African American education. An assistant professor of education, Coppens will use the grant to conduct a study of students from rural areas of northeastern U.S. where college attendance is highly variable by socio-economic group. Hambacher, associate professor of education, will undertake a case study of justice-oriented white teachers and administrators in two predominantly white school districts to illuminate how these professionals engage with concepts of race, anti-racism and whiteness, a subject on which little research now exists.
Sports
cardboard cutouts of healthcare workers in the stands at a sporting event
China Wong ’18
UNH Athletics teamed up with Dover’s Wentworth-Douglass Hospital to show its appreciation for the dedication shown by the healthcare workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic by “inviting” 200 local doctors, nurses, therapists and others to the men’s hockey team’s Feb. 12 matchup with Northeastern University. Echoing the virtual fan practices of the NBA, NHL and more, life-sized cutouts of healthcare workers decked out in scrubs, PPE and street clothes were set up a dedicated section of seats in the Whittemore Center Arena, where they will remain for the duration of the 2020-21 hockey season.
Sports
UNH football practice
Jeremy Gasowski
Moving the Goalposts
A COVID-flipped Wildcat football season kicked off March 5
W

hen it comes to spring sports, one’s thoughts typically turn to baseball. The crack of the bat echoing in the crisp air. The clap of the ball against a worn leather mitt. But at UNH in 2021, spring means football.

As with so many things during COVID-19, the virus prevented the Wildcats from taking the field in the fall when all UNH sports were postponed. Almost immediately, there was talk of moving the football season to spring, but it wasn’t official until the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) unveiled its spring schedule Oct. 27.

It was certainly more than welcome news for the Wildcats. UNH began its season at home vs. Albany on March 5.

Sports
And Then There Were Two
American records, that is, for professional runner Elle Purrier ’18, who on Feb. 13 demolished the previous women’s indoor two-mile record of 9:18.35, running a blazing 9:10.28 at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in New York. It was the fastest women’s two-mile time in the world this year and the third-fastest ever, and it comes just 12 months after Purrier took down another American record: On Feb. 9, 2020, she ran a 4:16.85 indoor mile to eclipse the record held by Mary Decker Slaney since 1982 — 37 years earlier.
Elle Purrier running through the finish line
Justin Britton
Bookshelf
Beneficence: A Novel typography
Beneficence book cover
body copy of Beneficence
Meredith Hall, former faculty
David R. Godine,
Oct. 2020
I

n fictional Alstead, Maine, the Senter family — parents Tup and Doris and children Sonny, Dodie and Beston — live off the 236 acres of good land that’s been in Tup’s family for generations, and in which Tup’s forbearers are buried. In alternating chapters, Doris, Tup and Dodie take turns describing a quiet, steady life of hard work and deep contentment as they run their dairy farm. But it doesn’t take long for Doris to make an assertion that presages a tragedy that will turn the family of five to a family of four: “I have learned that nothing terrible is going to happen here. You have to be careful, to pay attention, and then you just trust that everything is going to be all right. It’s a price you pay for the quiet and beauty of the land.”

Get Puzzled
Crossword Puzzle
Brendan Quigley headshot
Professional puzzlemaker Brendan Emmett Quigley ’96 creates custom puzzles for UNH Magazine that include clues from one or more of the issue’s feature stories.
Mother
Nature
Providing love and lessons while raising greatness
Providing love and lessons while
raising greatness
By Keith Testa
Jeremy Gasowski
Mother
Nature
Providing love and
lessons while
raising greatness
By Keith Testa
Jeremy Gasowski
L

ife as a professional basketball player can be a nomadic adventure. Few are as well-acquainted with that experience as New Hampshire native Duncan Robinson, whose circuitous path to the NBA once included a winter stretch shuttling back-and-forth between the conflicting climates of South Dakota and South Beach.

Robinson has since established himself as a starter on a Miami Heat team that went to the NBA Finals last season, but he still faces the mental and physical grind of living out of a suitcase for days or weeks at a time, bouncing from city to city on overnight flights and maintaining a schedule on which stability and regularity are in short supply.

Alyssa Mixon illustration
Ashley Pinkham illustration
Beth Daly illustration
Alyssa Mixon illustration
Ashley Pinkham illustration
Beth Daly illustration
Jim Bello illustration
Jim Bello illustration
Dispatches
From the
Pandemic
Marc Sedam illustration
Paul Guyre illustration
Theresa Macphail illustration
Lori Shibinette illustration
Marc Sedam illustration
Paul Guyre illustration
Theresa Macphail illustration
Lori Shibinette illustration
As the COVID-19 pandemic raged on, most of us stayed home. These Wildcats went to work.
As told to Kristin Waterfield Duisberg
Illustrations by Peter and Maria Hoey
“I Felt Both Defeated and Uplifted at the Same Time”
Alyssa Mixon illustration
When COVID-19 was officially declared a worldwide pandemic, I realized we were about to enter a war unlike anything we have ever seen before. A war where the enemy is invisible and our armor includes a mask, gloves, soap and water. The battle is real, it is raw and it is relentless. It has crossed the threshold into our homes, our streets, our schools and our hospitals. Lockdowns, cancellations, closings and self-isolation have become an ongoing reality throughout the country and the world.

As physicians, our weapons lie beyond medications, diagnostic tools and interventions. Our weapons include our composure, our compassion and our competence. Where there is panic, we provide calm. Where there is fear, we offer courage. And where there is anger, we practice patience. We continue to stand united as a medical community despite having to stand six feet apart.
 

Triumph, Not Trauma
Life-altering injuries didn’t stop the Scott family. Instead, they led the Scotts to new ways of helping others.
By Michelle Morrissey ’97
Jim and Jane Scott holding dog food bags
Courtesy Scott family
W

hen her son Jim Scott III was 23, Janet Scott was told she should find a nursing home for him to live out the rest of his life. It was 2006, and Jim had been seriously injured in a car accident. He was suffering from a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and a host of other medical issues.

But putting her son in a nursing home would have felt like giving up, like failure — things that just aren’t in the Scott family DNA.

And 15 years later, the Scotts are using their philanthropy to help ensure that other people going through a similar medical crisis have options, as well. Janet and husband, Jim Scott Jr., own and operate RAWZ Natural Pet Food, a company they built with two goals: to make quality pet food and to donate 100% of its profits back to organizations that helped them navigate some of their family’s most challenging moments.

Finding
Beauty
in What’s
Broken
Scars, loss and difference mark Ben Cariens’ roundabout route to a career in art.
By Bethany Clarke ’20G
B

en Cariens’ office is lined with a row of sculpted heads. What looks like long tendrils of white string or spaghetti come from their open mouths. The effect is striking, as if the heads emerge from the walls surrounding them. It feels like they have something to say … or scream.

And indeed, the heads have a story to tell. For years, Cariens, an associate professor of art and art history at UNH since 2000, had the rubber mold for one of them laying around. Then, a vessel that was important to him broke — an antique vase from Korea. He glued it back together, and in the process realized there was something really meaningful about putting something back together. He was going through a divorce, reorganizing and grieving, so mending the vessel reminded him of mending himself. Soon after this, he rediscovered the rubber mold. He made a new cast with it, which he subsequently broke and repaired, a process of destruction and revival that evoked the Japanese art of kintsugi, which celebrates the “scars” of mended objects rather than treating them as something to be disguised. It was therapeutic. 

“In the course of life, things break, and we have to put them back together,” Cariens says. “We have to put ourselves back together but there’s a real beauty in that process.”

Jeremy Gasowski
Ben Cariens sitting in workshop
Jeremy Gasowski
Finding
Beauty
in What’s
Broken
Scars, loss and difference mark Ben Cariens’ roundabout route to a career in art.
By Bethany Clarke ’20G
B

en Cariens’ office is lined with a row of sculpted heads. What looks like long tendrils of white string or spaghetti come from their open mouths. The effect is striking, as if the heads emerge from the walls surrounding them. It feels like they have something to say … or scream.

And indeed, the heads have a story to tell. For years, Cariens, an associate professor of art and art history at UNH since 2000, had the rubber mold for one of them laying around. Then, a vessel that was important to him broke — an antique vase from Korea. He glued it back together, and in the process realized there was something really meaningful about putting something back together. He was going through a divorce, reorganizing and grieving, so mending the vessel reminded him of mending himself. Soon after this, he rediscovered the rubber mold. He made a new cast with it, which he subsequently broke and repaired, a process of destruction and revival that evoked the Japanese art of kintsugi, which celebrates the “scars” of mended objects rather than treating them as something to be disguised. It was therapeutic. 

“In the course of life, things break, and we have to put them back together,” Cariens says. “We have to put ourselves back together but there’s a real beauty in that process.”

Class Notes
Don’t see a column for your class? Please send news to your class secretary, listed at the end of the class columns, or submit directly to classnotes.editor@unh.edu. The deadline for the next issue is May 1.
Don’t see a column for your class? Please send news to your class secretary, listed at the end of the class columns, or submit directly to classnotes.editor@unh.edu. The deadline for the next issue is May 1.
Jump to Year
Organized winter sports at UNH began in 1922, when President Ralph Dorn Hetzel appointed a committee to form an outing club. The resultant Winter Sports team competed in skating, hockey, boxing and baseball, as well as skiing — then regarded the “elite” athletic endeavor of the five. In the early years, there weren’t many women who skied (Charlotte Boothroyd Chase ’38 was quoted in a UNH Magazine story many years ago, ruefully noting that they were nonetheless encouraged to spectate), but by 1947 women’s skiing was well established, with its team members practicing and competing alongside their male counterparts at Durham’s Beech Hill, just a short trek from campus.
UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
1941
Nancy Bryant on behalf of Lonnie (Eleanor) Gould Bryant
9 Rickey Drive
Maynard, MA 01754
bryantnab@yahoo.com; 978-501-0334
I am sorry to report that Betty Browne Cheeseman passed away at her home in Wenham, MA, on Oct. 21, 2020. After graduating from UNH, Betty worked at the Sleighton Farm Girls School near Philadelphia. In 1942, she married Herbert Cheeseman and traveled with him stateside while he served in the U.S. Army until he was sent to the Pacific Theater. After World War II, the couple settled in Wenham, where they raised three children, all of whom became Air Force officers. Betty was very active in community affairs in Wenham, establishing an in-school library at the Buker School, serving as a public library trustee, and volunteering for the Wenham Museum and the First Church Women’s Guild. Betty was passionate about the Girl Scouts of America, serving as a troop leader and council vice president and receiving the rarely awarded 75-Year Pin in 2017. Betty enjoyed traveling, sewing, board games and nature. To quote her obituary, “she valued the beauty of this world and lived a caring and peace-seeking life.” Betty was predeceased by her beloved husband of 72 years, her son Alan and her daughter Marsha and is survived by her son Gary, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. We send our heartfelt condolences to her family. The Class of ‘41 was part of the Greatest Generation, growing up in the Great Depression and then facing the challenges of World War II right after graduating from UNH. I feel privileged to write about them in this column. And I am often struck by the attributes that our long-lived 41’ers share in common: a strong commitment to community service, an appreciation of nature, a joyful love of family, and a zest for living. May we all continue to learn from their example!
Joan Lamson celebrating her birthday with her family sitting around a fire pit
Joan Lamson ’49 (center) celebrated her 93rd birthday — and daughter and class of 1973 alumna Cindy Lamson Siegler’s 70th — with food and funny stories around a fire pit, brought to her New London, NH, home by her other daughter, Deb Lamson ’75.
1949
Joan Boodey Lamson
51 Lamson Lane
New London, NH 03257
unhjblamson@gmail.com
Here’s what we did, during our dreadful pandemic, to celebrate special days.  My daughter Deb Lamson ’75 and her husband Chuck Pinkerton brought a fire pit here from their home in Portsmouth on the day before Thanksgiving.  We sat around the fire eating turkey sandwiches and thought of American Indians sitting in this same lakeside spot, cooking over their fire, the plentiful trout they had caught in Pleasant Lake. On the Wednesday before Christmas (heavy rain due on Christmas) we ate hot soup around the fire, sang carols and exchanged gifts. And now on January 15 we are celebrating my 93 years, and daughter Cindy Lamson ’73 Siegler’s big 70 with food and very funny stories around the fire pit.  Don’t plan big dinners, and be flexible with the date, because you can’t control the weather!   President Dick Dart is still finding the most unusual, humorous, reminiscent and heart-warming pictures, sayings, and exotic places on his computer, and sending them to a big list of friends, including me. Phyllis Karpinski Martin is still living in Newport, NH, where she and her husband brought up their eight children; but she is now residing up on the hill in Summercrest. Donald Lake, who died on Aug. 13, 2020, in Waterbury, CT, at age 9 was an 18-year-old freshman at UNH when he enlisted in the Army.  He landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and later was in the Battle of the Bulge and entered Berlin July 3,1945.  Returning home, he married his childhood sweetheart Mary “Mig” Dame and they enjoyed 69 years together, until her death in 2016.  After UNH Don earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of Delaware and then he worked 32 years for DuPont in Wilmington.  In 2008 they moved to Litchfield to be near their daughter and family; their son and his family live in California.  They have five grandchildren, too. Caroline “Carol” Eaton Huddleston passed away at her home in Lancaster last August with her family at her side.  Carol and her husband John brought up four children, and later enjoyed five grandchildren and five great grandchildren.  She was predeceased by John as well as son John “Jay” Huddleston.  Carol’s career was as a nutritionist at Weeks Memorial Hospital and for 20 years at the Coos County Nursing Home in Berlin, and she was a dedicated EMT volunteer of the Lancaster Ambulance Corps.  Her family and friends will never forget the homemade donuts, English muffins, jams and zucchini relish she loved to make for them.  Charles Farwell, Jr., who graduated with a degree in psychology, died in March 2020 in his hometown of Nashua, NH.  Charlie later graduated from the New England Institute of Anatomy and Funeral Directing and joined his father in the operation of the Farwell Funeral Service, and then served as the executive director of the funeral home for over 50 years.  He was a founding member of Home Health and Hospice Care in Nashua.  Charlie married his high school sweetheart Blanche “Bianca” Soucy, and they shared 68 years together.  They have four children and three grandkids.  In retirement they enjoyed winters at Daytona Beach Shores and summers with family and longtime friends in New Hampshire. I will close with the last verse of a Christmas time poem written by Bill Batchelder in 1940 when he was 14 years old and sent to me by his wife Betty: “The angels sing again this year/Their song of “Hope and Peace/And may their message of goodwill/Never, never cease.” Happy New Year; may 2021 hear this message!
Alumni Profile
By Kristin Waterfield Duisberg
Lessons in Living
Ana Gobledale ’75G
Ana Gobledale and family on front porch
Courtesy Ana Gobledale
A

t the age most of her peers were just beginning college — 18 — Ana Gobledale ’75G arrived at UNH from Illinois to earn a Master of Arts in teaching. As a bored 14-year-old, she and a friend had acted upon her father’s teasing suggestion that they entertain themselves one summer Saturday by taking the CLEP college placement exam, and she ended up earning 24 credit hours toward college. Gobledale could claim those hours only if she enrolled in at least one college-level course, however, so as a high school sophomore, she took an evening intro to philosophy course at Central YMCA College in downtown Chicago, where her father taught. That class led to others, and the following year she left high school for Shimer College in Mt. Carroll, Illinois. A study abroad program, a stint traveling through Europe, and a transfer to Western Illinois University later, she had an undergraduate degree in English in hand — and a plan to eventually teach at the college level.

Alumni Profile
By Kristin Waterfield Duisberg
The Whistleblower
Dinesh Thakur ’92G
Jonathan Fanning
I

n summer 2003, Dinesh Thakur ’92G had been in his new job as director and global head of research information and portfolio management for Ranbaxy Laboratory in Guragon, India, for only a couple of months when he spotted a man, drunk and injured, laying in the middle of a busy road. Though he was on his way home from a long day at work, and though his driver urged him not to, Thakur insisted on stopping to carry the man off the road and transporting him to the nearest hospital, where his concern — and his willingness to pay for the injured man’s care, in cash, in advance of treatment — was met with suspicion. Indeed, the day after the incident, local police showed up at Thakur’s Ranbaxy office, assuming the only reason he’d helped the stranger had to be because he’d been the one who had run him over.

Alumni Profile
By Keith Testa
Broad Appeal
Erica Tamposi ’14
courtesy Comedy Central Studios
A

little more than three years ago, Erica Tamposi ’14 found herself in the enviable position of weighing job offers from Netflix — for production work similar to what she’d been doing for years — and the NFL Network. She ultimately chose the latter, citing the creative freedom that came with the position as the tiebreaker.

So, how’s that going?

When the NFL handed out its year-end awards at a glitzy gala the night before the Super Bowl a few years ago, Tamposi handed out wedding cakes, cellos and rolls of toilet paper as inconvenient gag gifts to unsuspecting red carpet recipients.

In Memoriam
Bright shall thy mem’ry be

Maxine Morse ’51H
The “ultimate connector,” she was a tireless advocate for UNH

T

he realization that Maxine Morse didn’t attend UNH might come as a surprise to anyone who met her at the Whittemore Center, where she held season tickets for men’s hockey; at the Paul Creative Arts Center, where she regularly took in theatre, dance and music performances; or at any number of campus events that would find her chatting with university leadership and the students who held her endowed scholarship. In fact, she was a proud member of Cornell University’s class of 1945, for which she served as class president and with which she eagerly participated in her 75th reunion via Zoom last year. But she was equally proud of her connections to UNH, alma mater of two of her four children, Beth Kiendl, Morris “Morey” Goodman ’85, Jane Goodman and Ellen Goodman ’79, as well as her late husband, Richard Morse ’51 — the namesake of Morse Hall.

The Hon. Stephen Merrill ’69
He was the first UNH graduate to become governor, and a quintessential family man

A

t the end of his second term as New Hampshire’s 77th governor in 1996, the Hon. Stephen Merrill ’69 was 50 years old, still relatively young in the world of politics. Though he had gained the office on his first try and won his second election with some 70 percent of the popular vote, he made the decision not to run for a third term. His two sons, Ian and Stephen, had been born while he was in office, and he wanted to spend more time with them.

Robert Coffey Jr. ’05G
He was a guiding light in and beyond the university’s LGBTQ+ community

W

hen asked what one thing she wants people to know about her son Bob, Jackie Coffey reaches for a Maya Angelou quote: I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. “I truly believe that was one of my son’s greatest gifts,” Jackie says. “For all those people, soon to become friends, that Bob met, they never forgot him because of the way he made them feel. Valued. Understood. Included. Important.”

Parting Shot
Durham’s Main Street sunrise
Beth Potier
Worth a Thousand … Likes?

As photographers often say, the best camera is the one you have with you. For longtime UNH staffer and frequent UNH Magazine contributor Beth Potier, manager of research communications in Communications and Public Affairs and Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Research, Economic Engagement and Outreach, that happened to be her iPhone. She caught this shot on Durham’s Main Street on a February Friday morning as she waited for a group of fellow early risers to join her for a sunrise walk. “It was about 6:45, and the sun rising over the hill behind the Durham Community Church was just incredible,” Potier recalls. “Luckily, at that hour, I was able to stand in the middle of Main Street and just snap away.”

Potier shared the image on Twitter and it was subsequently picked up for UNH’s official Instagram page, where it racked up more than 7,400 likes in three days — and sparked some fun engagement with alumni, community members and at least one prospective grad student.

By Kristin Waterfield Duisberg
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Thanks for reading our Winter 2021 issue!