View updated photos as of November 22, 2006.
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Updated construction photos as of October 25, 2006.
]]>Quick, if I were to ask you to respond with the first image what comes to mind when I say "Howard Dean," how would you respond?
About a year ago, I attended a meeting with a handful of state utility regulatory commissioners, and got into a conversation with my colleague from Vermont, John Burke. The topic: the real Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont, Democratic candidate for President and current chairman of the Democratic National Committee. I was struck by the how completely Dean had been defined and forever identified by the media with the "Dean scream," a sound byte lasting just a few seconds. In the conversation which followed, I learned from John that the Howard Dean he first knew as Governor was very different from the caricature shaped by the national media...indeed, had a reputation as a moderate during his years as Governor.
This is not about what you may think of Howard Dean or his politics. Although it is about how what you think about him and other public figures, and how our views are formed. It's about the real people behind the caricatures created of them by the national media.
Roger Thies, Wabash 1966, is in a position to speak to this question with authority. Recently, we got together for dinner, which gave me a chance to thank him for his participation in the Phi Psi Campaign for Leadership and to catch up on what he has been doing for most of the past 40 years.
After graduating, he went on to the University of Chicago School of Law, graduating in 1969. After knocking around for awhile (there were a lot of us doing a little of that back then), at the suggestion of his sister, he joined G. D. Searle & Co. as a staff attorney in 1970.
G.D. Searle & Co. was founded in Omaha, Nebraska in 1888 and was incorporated in Chicago in 1908, locating in suburban Chicago in 1941. Searle focused on pharmaceuticals and because of its success expanded into making complex medical devices and animal health products. The company is known for its release of Enovid, the first commercial oral contraceptive, in 1960. It is also known for its release of the first bulk laxative, Metamucil, in 1934; Dramamine, for motion sickness; the COX-2 inhibitor Celebrex; Ambien for insomnia; and NutraSweet, an artificial sweetener, in 1981.
By the mid-1970s, the company was struggling because of an absence of new patented pharmaceutical products and, in part due to the FDA's reluctance to approve aspartame (NutraSweet) because of alleged adverse effects on animals in testing. In 1977, after a two-year stint as the youngest Secretary of Defense in the nation's history, Donald Rumsfeld was named CEO at Searle. The turnaround proved to be challenging, as the number of employees in the company was cut by more than half as the company returned to its core strength in pharmaceuticals and NutraSweet. . One of the people Rumsfeld turned to was Brother Thies.
Getting Roger to talk about his experiences working with Rumsfeld was difficult, perhaps because Rumsfeld -- like Dean -- has been caricatured by the media. Opinions of both men tend to be polarized. As Roger opened up, however, a different picture of Rumsfeld emerged. During those challenging years, the portrait Brother Thies paints is of a businessman who focused on rebuilding a business based on the company’s core strengths. Roger’s stories described a leader who demanded preparation and timely advice from his staff, listened and made decisions based on the information he was provided. Rumsfeld’s concerns for ethical behavior and patient safety were critical in the decisions he made as he revitalized the company. Roger’s admiration for Rumsfeld was apparent in everything he said. While Roger didn't say so, as the outlines of Rumsfeld's portrait emerged, it was also apparent that Rumsfeld relied on Roger for input. Brother Thies' anecdotes focused on Rumsfeld but also revealed why Roger became a key adviser: he didn't sugar-coat his input and was direct, on occasion perhaps even brutally candid, in his advice on company practices. It is perhaps telling that Brother Thies was assigned the daunting task of getting NutraSweet approved, which was critical to the company’s success.
I suspect that Roger's initial hesitation to talk about Rumsfeld arises largely from a respect for his privacy and because the media portrait of Rumsfeld, like that of Dean, has been a polarizing one.
In 1985, after leading the term which turned around Searle, Rumsfeld guided the acquisition of G.D. Searle & Company by Monsanto. Monsanto Company and its G.D. Searle unit merged with Pharmacia & Upjohn (itself the result of the merger of Pharmacia and Upjohn) to become Pharmacia Corporation in April 2000. Pfizer in turn acquired Pharmacia in 2003.
In 1988, after serving as Searle’s Vice President and General Counsel, Brother Thies moved to Washington and joined a relatively small law firm, Hyman, Phelps & McNamara. The emerging firm quickly built a reputation and an impressive client list. Characterized by Roger as a "boutique firm," HPM has grown to become the largest dedicated food and drug law firm in the nation, although I had to go to the firm's Web site to learn that fact.
Roger has two adult sons, one of whom has followed him into the law; the other is a member of a young rock band which is seeking to translate local popularity into a sustainable breakthrough.
Despite Roger's considerable accomplishments, many of those who knew him at Wabash will recall his abilities at the bridge and ping pong tables. Those in the classes which came after the Class of 1966 will also recall Roger's very specific and colorful standards for freshmen tasked with making wakeup calls.
I don't know how the system works now, but back then, when a "red tag" was hung on the call board, it meant that the rhyne was to make three calls in the five minutes leading up to the hour or half hour. On the third call, the recipient was to be turned out of bed if necessary.
In Roger's case, the first call was to be delivered with a large (in those days, 12 oz.) bottled Coke; the second call was to be accompanied by a cigarette; and on the third call, typically the rhyne found Bro. Thies sitting in his "tighty whities" with his legs over the side of his bed, somewhere between half and fully awake, drinking his Coke and puffing on his Viceroy before making his way downstairs from the dorm to greet the day.
For those who don't know him, Brother Thies' road from that Phi Psi cold dorm to the executive offices of GD Searle and then on to senior (aging as he would describe it) partner/director of a low profile but highly respected specialty Washington law firms might seem somewhat improbable. But for those who knew him back then, it makes perfect sense. And as Secretary Rumsfeld himself might put it, the dorm story need not be shared with Roger's clients, since they have no "need to know."
To discuss a particularly memorable hand of bridge or reconnect with Bro. Thies, drop him an e-mail at <RCT@hpm.com> or e-mail me if you want to give him a call.
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Much has changed at 602 West Wabash Ave since construction began in March. Windows are going in the new vestibule, new lights are on in rooms and halls, many of the study rooms and common areas have the first and second coats of paint, and soon flooring and other finishes will be underway.
While you are on campus, the undergraduates welcome you to their temporary residence at the old FIJI house (corner of South Grant Street and West Jefferson). And if you have the chance, take a few minutes to meet the members of the new pledge class (pictured right). After all, they are the future of Phi Psi. They are the ones who will live and study in the renovated chapter house. These pledges and the upperclassmen brothers are the reason for our efforts. Take a few minutes to meet them when you are back on campus!
View some updated construction photos as of September 27, 2006.
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On the exterior, there is new grass and most of the work is complete. The contractors are installing the new aluminum storefront windows and work will begin soon on a new roof over the study room wing.
On the interior, most of the spaces now have wallboard and new plaster and paint are visible in the basement and the new third floor rooms. The new sanitary lines and water supply lines are installed and the new first and second floor restrooms are framed and awaiting drywall.
View some updated photos as of September 13, 2006.
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On the exterior, the sidewalks, patio, and brickwork are now all complete and a new roof will be installed over the study room wing within the next month. Work on the new vestibule continues. In the next few weeks the yard will be graded to final grade. In addition, the back parking lot will get a new coat of asphalt before the project is complete.
On the interior, the new basement restrooms have been framed and the plumbing rough-ins are now complete. On the main floor, work continues in the great hall/dining hall space and kitchen. On the third floor, all of the new study rooms and suites have been framed and drywall is in place. The mechanical, plumbing, and electrical rough-ins are mostly complete.
In the study room wing, all of the rooms have been framed and the drywall is in place. The contractors tell us that we have “purple board” or a drywall material that is stronger than the average drywall. In addition, the study room wing is getting new restrooms including new plumbing (water and sanitary lines) and new fixtures. All study rooms have new windows and each room will have its own AC/heating unit.
In the next few weeks the Housing Corporation and the undergraduates will select the final finishes and furnishings.
View some updated photos as of August 21, 2006.
]]>Ever "Googled" someone you knew and had lost touch with over the years? It can be an interesting exercise, to say the least.
Last December, I was trying to get in touch with a pledge brother, Dave Kasting. The telephone number which Wabash had on record was either wrong or obsolete. So I entered Dave's name in the Google search window and waited for results.
From that search, I learned (among other things) that Brother Kasting had served as Director of Neonatology at the Ventura County (California) Medical Center's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a program established to address the special needs of critically ill newborns and premature infants, where special resources are needed. He was also instrumental in establishing the Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital. Another "hit" on a Web site called Travel Talk Radio was puzzling, because Google took me to that site's book store, where a book entitled "Wiggle-Butts and Up-Faces" was featured. What had Dave gotten himself into? Turns out that the book was on teaching kids to swim, and Brother Kasting was quoted as a reviewer.
A year after we graduated from Wabash, I shared an apartment with Dave in the summer of 1968. Dave and his roommates had completed their first year of medical school at IU, and I was in Indianapolis to work in the U. S. Senate campaign of Bill Ruckelshaus, who went on to a distinguished career, being twice named head of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (as the agency's first administrator, by Richard Nixon, and brought back as its fifth, by Ronald Reagan) and perhaps most famously, for resigning when asked to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox during the Watergate investigation.
Another roommate was Steve Williams, a (gasp!) DePauw graduate who was to become the protégé of Dr. Lawrence Einhorn, the oncologist who led the development of the definitive treatment of testicular cancer, and treated and saved the life of Lance Armstrong. In the fall of 2004, Steve was honored by the Indianapolis Association of Wabash Men with the "Spirit of the Monon Bell Award" which is presented by alumni of each school to an exceptional alumnus of the other.
Having known Steve for many years, I was asked to make the presentation, and recalled that summer of 1968 as follows:
"Do you have any idea what it’s like to live with three first-year medical students? At the end of a long, grueling day in the political wars, you would head home knowing that your evening would be taken up playing practice dummy as your roommates took turn sharpening their physical exam skills. I think it was probably a couple of months after moving out that fall before the bruises on my back healed from the nightly sessions of diagnosis by "percussing" (where the doctor typically uses his middle finger to thump your back, listening for telltale sounds which would suggest a problem). Most people who give their body to science do so when they are through with it. To this day, the chilling phrase 'turn your head and cough' activates my 'fright or flight' reflex."
The last time we got together may have been for Dave's wedding. After graduating from IU Medical School he went on to do his internship and residency at Stanford Medical Center, with advanced studies in neonatology at McGill University in Montreal (one of if not the leading institution in all of Canada) and at Stanford. In addition to being a highly regarded practitioner, he found time to organize national medical conferences and to write articles for the Journal of Pediatrics.
But the phone numbers I found in my search turned up empty. Puzzling. When I called in the evening hoping to leave a message, I got voice mail messages from other people, not Dave.
Having seemingly reached a dead end, I temporarily shelved the project. Then an unexpected e-mail came in over the transom, with a solution to the puzzle and lots of news, but (with typical modesty) virtually nothing about his impressive professional achievements.
“Both of my parents (who farmed in the Seymour area) have passed away, so my trips to Indiana are becoming fewer and fewer," he writes. "My life is going well. I don’t know if you heard but I had a Sudden Cardiac Death event, which I obviously survived. Luckily there were physicians and an ER nurse at the event where it happened. They responded with CPR and the whole bit, even called in a helicopter, but I made them send it away. You know how stubborn we MD’s can be. It turns out I had Ventricular Fibrillation secondary to a scarred area in my Left Ventricle. Cardiac catheterization revealed normal vessels, so we don’t have an answer as to why the area is infarcted. I now have an implanted defibrillator/pacemaker and I am on multiple medications, but so far no repeat episodes. It has been almost 2 years.
"Needless to say I have slowed down a lot. I now do administrative work only, no nights or weekends. I am a full Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford and just recently was promoted to Medical Director Neonatal Perinatal Medicine and Vice President of Pregnancy and Newborn Services at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital where I work."
Dave went on to relate that he and Ann celebrated 35 years of marriage on May 30, and reports that both of their children, Delilah 23 and Scott 20, are back living at home with them. One eyebrow-raising piece of news from a staunch 1964 backer of Barry Goldwater: "I remain a stanch independent who has never voted for a Republican," he reports, then goes on to add, "I have instilled in both of my children a strong liberal ethic."
"I have lots of good memories of my days at Wabash. It was much more difficult than medical school. We worked very hard but we also played hard. I get indigestion just thinking about eating a Phi Psi Special at the Snacker at 1AM."
For those who attended Wabash over most of the last half century, Dave's last reference may bring a nostalgic smile (and that touch of indigestion he mentions)...but the Snacker was torn down awhile ago... to make way for a Walgreen's.
]]>After graduating from Wabash, he went on to the University of Chicago, where he earned an MBA and Masters in Economics. During this time, he partially financed his graduate education by conducting seminars in political polling techniques and campaign management as a research fellow for the Republican National Committee.
Returning to the Detroit area in 1967, Davis discontinued active partisan political involvement, going to go to work as a management consultant for Touche Ross and later as a financial executive of the Ford Motor Company. From the late 1960s to 1980, Davis concentrated on his business career and raising a family with his wife, Susan Pomeroy and their three children. However, Terry remained active in community affairs, serving as Chairman of the Board of Advisors for Wayne County Community College.
The 1980 Presidential campaign found Davis engaged in fundraising in Michigan on Reagan’s behalf. Early in the Primary season, Reagan’s campaign sputtered, and those who were closest to him (Edwin [Ed] Meese III, who had been chief of staff for then-Governor Reagan, and later Attorney General; and the late William J. Casey, Chairman of Reagan’s campaign committee, and later Director of the CIA) made the decision to change the campaign’s professional leadership. That meant replacing John Sears, who had also managed Reagan’s hard-fought but ultimately unsuccessful 1976 bid for the nomination.
One of the results of that decision was that others who had been brought into the campaign by Sears also dropped by the wayside. As the Reagan campaign began to gain momentum after its initial struggles, it dawned on the campaign that no one knew what if any planning had been done for the actual convention, which was to be held in Detroit.
Ultimately, a series of calls to Michigan Republicans led Meese and Casey to contact Davis, who was CFO of Ford Motor Land Development Corporation, a Ford subsidiary which developed and managed the company’s properties, including significant properties in the heart of downtown Detroit. Intrigued by the challenge, Davis called upon his prior Goldwater experience and put together a group of young MBA staffers, issuing them a challenge:
“I asked them if they were interested in volunteering for a project in their spare time, off the clock. That project would involve putting together a plan which would anticipate all the needs, logistical and communication requirements for the Reagan campaign’s National Convention presence. At the time, we didn’t even know if the nomination would be decided before the Convention, so this was an absolutely critical task.
“The group rose to the occasion. They put together a comprehensive plan in 72 hours which blew away the Reagan campaign leadership,” Davis recalled.
As it turned out, before leaving the Reagan campaign, Sears had contracted out management of the Convention to the legendary Indiana Republican Party leader and organizer, the late L. Keith Bulen. As a result, Davis was assigned as Bulen’s deputy to work for Reagan when the Convention convened that summer in Detroit. Bulen and Davis developed a close working relationship and mutual respect for each other.
When Bulen was assigned the daunting task of organizing the entire northeast quadrant of the nation for Reagan as National Political Director for the 1980 fall campaign, he wanted Davis to manage the Reagan campaign in Michigan. Without Davis’s knowledge, Bulen had Bill Casey call Henry Ford II, who was supporting Carter and had no access to the top Reagan people. Casey convinced Ford it would be in his and Ford’s interest to give Davis a leave of absence to join the Reagan team. Consequently, within hours, Davis was sent on leave to the Reagan campaign. The Michigan campaign organization, as established by Davis, became a model for other states and the successful working relationship grew into a warm friendship which spanned two decades, ending only when Bulen died of cancer in 1999.
In the wake of Reagan’s election, even though Davis had returned to Ford, Bulen and others urged Davis to move to Washington and take a position in the new administration. Initially, Davis refused, wanting to remain with Ford and continue his business career. As before, this was decided by a telephone call to Henry Ford II by President Reagan. As a result, Davis was informed by Mr. Ford that he was to take another leave of absence to join the administration.
Initially assigned by the White House to reorganize the General Services Administration (GSA) which is responsible for the construction, maintenance and operation of all federal buildings, establishing the policies for all Federal government product, service and technology purchasing -- and even overseeing the National Archives for the Federal Government, after two years, Davis received the Outstanding Public Service Award based upon GSA’s operations which government critic, Ralph Nader, called the best-managed government agency. Davis also served on the Cabinet Council for Administration and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences for Information Technology.
Departing the GSA in 1985, Davis continued to serve in both the Reagan and Bush administrations as Controller of the Office of the President and as a consultant managing projects in the Departments of Agriculture, Transportation, United States Pension Guarantee Corporation and serving on the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Privatization Task Force. Requested to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, Davis declined in order to return home to Michigan and spend more time with his family.
“My experiences during that time of my life left me with a profound appreciation for the importance and value of friendships, trust and personal integrity. That was a lesson which was exemplified by Keith Bulen and was the cornerstone to whatever we could accomplish,” Davis said.
When Davis’ son Chip graduated from Wabash in 1991, Terry’s friend Keith Bulen encouraged Chip to join the transition team of newly-elected Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newman. After working for Newman for 3 years, Chip likewise returned to Michigan, where he presently serves as Deputy General Counsel for the Republican majority in the Michigan State Senate.
Today, Davis is a Principal at the CDRV Group of Companies, an investment advisory and financial consulting firm. He is also an associate professor of economics and finance at Walsh College, serves on the boards of directors of several businesses, business groups, and civic organizations, as well as serving as Mayor Pro Tem of the City of Grosse Pointe Farms.
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If you promised yourself you'd read the latest issue of the Wabash Magazine, but haven't gotten around to it just yet, go dig it out of the stack of items you set aside to read in "awhile."
Or click on this link: http://www.wabash.edu/magazine/index.cfm?news_id=3577
Jim Childress was a zoology major/chem minor at Wabash when Waugh Hall was inhabited by the likes of the legendary Willis Johnson (coauthor with Professors Richard Laubengayer, Louis DeLanney and Thomas Cole of the text which guided generations of Wabash men through Bio 1 and 2) and Elliott Williams, who taught ecology to Wabash students before the rest of the world had heard the word, let alone learned how to spell it.
Even so, the "creek" referred to in the headline of the article is (probably) not Sugar Creek, site of many Williams-led expeditions over the years.
To whet your appetite for the full article, here are a few excerpts:
"That burst of enthusiasm over a 're-discovered' deep-sea specimen says a lot about what drove a boy from Greensburg, Indiana to explore the ocean depths and become one of the leading experts in his field: Jim Childress is a man who always follows his greatest curiosities."
"And he’s not surprised his interests have led him to the depths of the sea. After all, he spent many of his formative years getting to the bottom of the curious waters in his own backyard, playing in the creek behind his house. There he waded and collected a wide variety of local aquatic life: tadpoles, frogs, turtles, and anything else he found. The various animals accumulated in aquariums filling his room and spilling over to the rest of his house. Today, his University of California, Santa Barbara office is similarly crammed with animal pictures, posters, and fossils, now complete with living deep-sea creatures kept in pressurized tanks across the hall."
" 'I was always drawn to the water as a kid, and I loved fishing in the creek with my father,' Childress says. 'But what I enjoyed most was exploring, so when I got older and my scientific interests developed, I guess I began to view the ocean as a much larger creek.' "
* * * * *
"In 1979, Childress was a member of an expedition that forever changed the way we understand that complex environment. Following the discovery in 1977 of a thriving community of tubeworms, giant clams, white crabs, and other species in the mineral rich, warm water spewed by the Galapagos Rift hydrothermal vent, Childress and his colleagues began to study the physiological adaptations of these creatures that lived where none had ever expected to find abundant life. Under-standing these adaptations has become much of his life’s work, taking him to hydrothermal vents around the world."
* * * * *
"In May 2005, Childress was honored with the prestigious Cody Award from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Awarded once every two years, the Cody recognizes scientific achievement in oceanography, marine biology, or earth science."
" 'I’m just proud to be associated with the names of past Cody award winners,' Childress says. 'I have a tremendous level of admiration for that group of scientists.'"
"Another unexpected honor came from his former graduate student, Dr. Erik Thuesen. During a series of cruises off the coast of California, Thuesen and Childress discovered at great depths several colorful species of jellyfish that had never been identified. When it came time to name the creatures, Thuesen called the black jellyfish Vampyrocrossota childressi after Childress, to match his mentor’s dark sense of humor....I thought it was funny he chose to name the black jellyfish after me, but I was flattered as well.' "
* * * * *
" 'All living things are amazing. I love to go hiking in the mountains; when you think about what it takes just for my body to balance as I walk from one rock to another, it’s remarkable. You do it without even thinking about it, and that’s what I find so fascinating. I’m just always trying to figure out why things are the way they are.'"
" 'I’m not sure how my work will be viewed 100 years from now, if at all. But I hope that future scientists will follow their own curiosities the way I have. If they do, then some day I think we have a chance to put the pieces together.' "
From the Spring 2006 issue of WABASH Magazine
article by Colin Hodgkins
May 24, 2006
The house is empty. Not only were there no students, there was no equipment, no furnishings, no kitchen equipment, no chapter artifacts, no drywall, and no study room ceilings. This was the-Grinch-just-came-and-took-every-last-speck-from-Cindy-Lou-Who’s-house kind of empty. The absence of everything but concrete walls was quite remarkable, and suggests that workers are beginning the building up that comes after the tearing out. Photo Album.
The concrete blocks which have been hidden behind the drywall are solid. Construction teams are installing new HVAC capacity and fire sprinkling capability—new copper pipes and air transport tubes are visible in the study wing rooms. There is a new side door on the east side which leads to the east stairs to go up to the Great Hall or down to the basement. The east side porch and front vestibule are taking shape nicely. The space which will accommodate a wheelchair lift for disabled visitors or students is being prepared. Windows on the third floor are being filled in, developing the bathrooms and suites that will constitute the area that used to be the cold dormitory, so that study room space per man can be increase by 50%. Basement level bathrooms are being installed, such that social functions can be held in the basement and the rest of the chapter house can be locked off. The kitchen has been cleared out, and walls will be removed so that the kitchen can expand to the east and south. Nearly every area of the house will experience improvement—making the chapter house the place to sleep, eat, study, and be a Wabash Phi Psi for the next forty or fifty years. -Terry Hamilton '89
The chapter house also humbly welcomed Doug Coplen ’81, Tim Cobb ’91, Trent Newcomb ’96, John Fields ’96, Jack Mansfield ’01, Larry Landis ’67, Joe Klen ’97, Roger Busch ’96 and presumably others who may have dropped in over the weekend while yours truly roamed the grounds.
While the view from the street is somewhat foreboding—mounds of dirt, partial construction on the façade of the house and east side, boards over the front windows—these brothers and their guests ventured in to find a house that has been almost completely stripped by construction activity.
Yet we did find plenty of memories just by thinking back—of that first Ristine house—of kitchen crew—of Leona the cook—of the open windows in the cold dormitory—of pushing one another to gain speed so to excel in varsity sports—of social gatherings—of Beta Mu—of wiffle ball in the front yard—of the time capsule placed in 1998 at the 50th anniversary of the refounding that has been unearthed—of great days and great friendship.
We all realized the exciting potential of the renovated house, both for the chapter and the College. We are building the chapter house of the future, that will enable these memories for the next forty or fifty years. Even though the walls and floors were stripped down to the concrete, all the furniture, pictures and artifacts were packed and moved, and there was no place to even sit down, it was a very nice visit indeed. -Terry Hamilton '89
]]>There are many reasons to be excited this weekend--seeing the College in its beauty, meeting up with old friends and fraternity brothers, and seeing the progress of the renovations project. Joe, Larry, and I will be in and around the house from 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. on Saturday to greet you, but one of us might be able to meet you there by special arrangement if you just give us a call or email. I wish you a great visit to the College and a great Big Bash Reunion weekend. Thanks for your continuing support of our renovations project!
-Terry Hamilton '89