Class Notes V2
Kevin Schwartzhoff, BS ’80, Kent, Ohio, has been named Kent’s new Parks and Recreation Department director. He most recently served as public services director for Colerain Township near Cincinnati.
Kenneth Durgans, MA ’81, Kansas City, Mo., was named associate provost for diversity and inclusion at Kansas City University. Previously, he was with the University of Colorado, School of Dental Medicine, in Aurora, Colo., where he served as a key member of the dean’s senior administrative team with oversight for all diversity and inclusion activities that support students, faculty and staff. He has held similar positions at several institutions.
Richard Kibler, BS ’81, Hartville, Ohio, a Hugh A. Glauser School of Music alumnus, has been named Stark County’s 2020 Music Educator of the Year, and he was presented with the award during a recent Canton Symphony Orchestra concert. Kibler currently teaches band in the Lake Local Schools. Another Kent State alumnus, Brian Kieffer, MM ’14, Canton, Ohio, who has taught vocal music in the Plain Local Schools for more than 30 years, received the annual award in 2018. Several other Kent State alumni have also been finalists for the distinction since its inception in 2017.
Anna Halberstam Rubin, PhD ’82, Palo Alto, Calif., was the only member of her immediate family to survive the Holocaust. She gave a talk about her experiences at Temple Beth-El in Eureka, Calif., in September 2019, with readings from her recently published memoir, Just a Little Girl: Despair and Deliverance (April 2019). She is also the author of Sholom Aleichem: The Writer as Social Historian (1989).
Margaret Giller, BS ’83, Petersburg, Va., worked as a GS-07 to 13 safety and occupational health professional for the DoD/Army at major training areas in Germany; at a five-state Army Reserve Region headquartered in Pittsburgh; and at Fort Lee, Va. (25 years). She is currently with the Area Support Group, Kuwait (a major US Army base/deployment camp), functioning as area radiation safety officer. She was awarded Army Safety & Health/Explosive Safety professional certification in December 2019.
Robin Alford, BS ’84, Crestview, Fla., wrote: “I have retired from the Department of Defense as a civil servant in the acquisitions career field, with 34 years of service to our country. I am also a licensed nail technician and certified medical nail technician, and am now operating my own nail services business, TALONted, with an emphasis on providing safe services to persons who are classified as “at risk” because of chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”
Benjamin Holbert, III, BA ’84, Beachwood, Ohio, has been accepted into the Cleveland Leadership Center’s Class of 2020, a premiere senior leadership think tank. The ten-month program—which aims to give members a better understanding of the role of diversity within the community and to cultivate relationships with leaders across a wide range of sectors, industries and backgrounds—began in September 2019. Holbert is a business owner and has served as mayor of Woodmere Village, Ohio, since January 2018, after serving as councilman for six years. He also has many years of experience as a local TV news anchor.
Michael Armstrong, BBA ’86, MBA ’90, Cleveland, has published his debut children’s book, Best Day Ever (Sterling Publishing, spring 2020). It’s the last day of summer vacation and William has one thing left to accomplish: have the best day ever. Unfortunately, his meticulous efforts keep getting sidetracked by Anna’s outlandish interruptions. After dismissing each one, William is finally ready to have the best day ever—if only he could figure out how. Described as “hilarious” and “infused with fun,” the book is available on Amazon, BN.com, BAM.com and bookstores everywhere. Learn more at www.michaeljarmstrongbooks.com.
Stephanie Donofe Meeks, BS ’87, MEd ’97, K-12 School Library Media Licensure 2003, Columbus, Ohio, library media specialist at Columbus Public Schools and former director for integrated technology at the Ohio Department of Education, was recognized as the 2019 Presidential Award recipient in October 2019, at the OELMA [Ohio Educational Library Media Association] conference in Dublin, Ohio. The award is presented to an individual or group who has provided notable service and significant contributions to OELMA and school librarians.
Beth (Snode) Zbasnik, BA ’87, MA ’96, Minerva, Ohio, wrote: “I recently self-published a children’s book titled, Cooper: a fish, a flower shop, a funeral home and a happy ending. The concept was swirling around in my mind for about 15 years, then pen finally met paper. Based on a true story, it is available at the major booksellers. I am the assistant clinical coordinator in the Physician Assistant Studies Program at the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio.”
Tony Trigilio, BA ’88, Chicago, wrote: “I was selected for Newcity magazine’s “Lit 50: Who Really Rocks Books in Chicago, 2019,” honoring the year’s top 50 literary figures in Chicago. Also, my latest book, Ghosts of the Upper Floor: The Complete Dark Shadows (of My Childhood), Book 3, was published this year by BlazeVOX Books.”
Todd Washburn, BS ’88, Dripping Springs, Texas, in November 2019 became the superintendent of schools in Dripping Springs Independent School District (ISD), a district with more than 7,200 students west of Austin, Texas. Previously, he had been the associate superintendent of curriculum and instruction at Eanes ISD since 2016. He received a master’s degree in educational administration and superintendent certificate from Southwest Texas State University in 2003. Over his 29 years in education, he also served as a teacher/coach, assistant principal and principal at both the middle school and high school levels, and the executive director of secondary curriculum in Leander ISD.
Jennifer (Loudiana) Hollinger, BGS ’89, MEd ’94, Massillon, Ohio, is the director of user support and classroom technology in Information Technology Services at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio. She is also an adjunct instructor at Walsh in the DeVille School of Business, and she is on the planning team for and teaches the freshman orientation required course. Previously, she was the education and training specialist in Information Technology Services at Case Western Reserve University and a senior web coordinator in Information Technology at The University of Utah. She is married to Brian Hollinger, BA ’90.
50th Reunion: 1970
Paula Stone Tucker, BA ’70, MA ’74, EdS ’81, Tallmadge, Ohio, is author of Surviving: A Kent State Memoir, available on Amazon, about her years at Kent State, when she was a witness to the May 4, 1970 shootings. She won the Silver Award for Memoir and Autobiography from the Florida Writers Association. Tucker splits her time between Northeast Ohio and The Villages, Fla.
Margaret (Shoaf) Tracey, BS ’70, Warren, Ohio; Cheryl (Youngmann) Russo,
BS ’71, Medina, Ohio; and Margaret (Hoyer) Akbar, BS ’72, Chippewa Lake, Ohio, met fall quarter 1967 and became friends and roommates in Terrace Hall, Koontz Hall and Tonkin Court (off-campus apartments). All became teachers. Tracey is a member of the American Association of University Women, Warren-Trumbull branch. Russo earned a MEd in reading and literacy from the University of Akron. Akbar earned a MEd ’80 in administration and a MEd ’82 in psychology from the University of Akron; she went on to become a school psychologist in the Medina, Ohio, school district. The former “roomies” frequently visit the Kent Campus for their get-togethers. Pictured, (left to right): Margaret Akbar, Cheryl Russo, Margaret Tracey.
Greg Long, BBA ’71, Wooster, Ohio, a retired lieutenant colonel, participated in a panel with other former members of the Kent State ROTC, “Honoring Those Who Served in ROTC in 1970,” in November 2019 at the Kent State Student Center, as part of the university’s 50th Commemoration of May 4, 1970, events. President and managing partner of Long, Cook & Samsa, Inc., an accounting firm in Wooster, Ohio, he serves as treasurer and chair for the Committee on Finance of the Kent State University Foundation, is a member of the College of Business Administration’s National Advisory Board and chair of the college’s Accounting Advisory Council.
Todd Raskin, BS ’72, Chagrin Falls, Ohio, founding partner of Mazanec, Raskin & Ryder Co., LPA, which has offices in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, has been named Cleveland’s 2020 “Lawyer of the Year” in civil rights law by Best Lawyers. It’s his third time receiving the designation, which he also received in 2013 and 2017. Raskin has a diverse legal practice with an emphasis on civil rights and government liability defense, as well as the defense of employers, both public and private.
Dixie Benshoff Ludick, MEd ’73, PhD ’77, Aurora, Ohio, was awarded the Hiram College Lifetime Achievement Award by President Lori Varlotta in a ceremony at Hiram College on June 15, 2019. Dr. Ludick is a nationally recognized psychologist who has provided consultation and training for professionals in industry, education, medicine and nonprofit agencies, and clinical services to college students, couples, groups, seniors and families. She is currently adjunct assistant professor of community and family medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University. Her book, Increasing Your Personal and Professional Effectiveness: A Manual for Women Who Want to Accomplish More without Changing Who They Are, was published in 2016.
Carter Strang, BS ’73, MEd ’79, Shaker Heights, Ohio, wrote: “I organized and spoke at ‘The Kent State Shootings, May 4, 1970—The Day the War Came Home and Its Legal Aftermath,’ a CLE [Continuing Legal Education] seminar at a Cleveland-Marshall Law Alumni event in October 2019. Other speakers included attorneys for the Ohio National Guard and students involved in the criminal and civil litigation. The CLE was the subject of a Record-Courier article on Oct. 27, 2019.”
Daryl Hall, BS ’74, Scottsdale, Ariz., wrote: “My book, Flashback: A Young Man’s Search for Truth About the Kent State Shootings, was released on Amazon in October 2019. Written in memory of the four slain students who died on May 4, 1970, the book begins when I learn about the shootings as a senior in high school only a forty-five-minute drive from Kent State; I’d signed a letter of intent to play football for the Flashes in the fall. While the shooting aftermath is the main theme of the book, I also share stories during my four years at Kent State, which include the Vietnam War, the impeachment of President Nixon, college life, music of the time and KSU football. During my time on campus, the football team won the first conference championship in school history (1972); teammates on the squad included Gary Pinkel, Gerald Tinker, Jack Lambert, Nick Saban and Larry Poole.”
John Matsis, BFA ’74, Las Vegas, was one of ten former Farrell High School (Farrell, Pa.) graduates inducted into the Farrell Alumni Hall of Fame at its 15th annual banquet on Oct. 12 at the Park Inn by Radisson. He was honored for carving out a multi-faceted career through varied professional endeavors, which included acting, teaching at bartender school, city government, culinary school, school accreditation and evaluation, real estate and the teaching of social media strategies from Kent, Ohio, to Atlanta, to the Shenango Valley and, for the last 20 years, Las Vegas.
Michael Cajero, MFA ’76, Tucson, Ariz., wrote: “I graduated from the KSU Art Department with a MFA in studio art; emphasis on sculpture, painting and art history. My advisor was Leroy Flint. From 1971 to 1975, the main influence at the time came from process art [which emphasizes the “process” of making art and the concepts of change and transience]. Artists like Lynda Benglis, Joseph Beuys, Arte Povera, Robert Smithson, Vito Acconci, Robert Morris, etc. provided a strong direction for our work.
Another strong influence was the industrial sensibility provided by Akron and Cleveland, which encouraged artists to use common building materials such as tar, paper, plastic, paint, rubber, etc. I built an environment out of common masking tape. Ephemerality was a key element in the creation of my figured sculpture.
I’ve continued along the same line of thinking up to the present day, and I’m still producing work. All my sculpture, drawings and ceramics are in the collection of the Process Museum in Tucson, Ariz.” The museum is open by appointment for tours. Reservations can be made on the website, www.processmuseum.org, or processmuseum@gmail.com.
Tom Sudow, BA ’76, Shaker Heights, Ohio, was elected International President of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs (FJMC) in July 2019. He will serve a two-year term as the 44th president of the global organization, which is celebrating its 90th year, and he says destigmatizing addiction and mental illness will be among top agenda items in Conservative synagogues across the globe in the coming years. As a KSU student, Sudow was active at the university’s Hillel, where he met his wife, Michele. Currently, he is director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship at Ashland University and the director of business development for Cleveland Clinic Innovations in Cleveland.
Robert Trifiletti, MA ’76, Boston, was a graduate student working in Tri-Towers in 1970. The events surrounding May 4 were traumatic for him, and he only returned to campus in 1976 to finish his master’s degree. During his career, he worked for the US Department of Education and The Washington Post.
As a program officer in the Office of English Language Acquisition, for many years he volunteered to teach Italian and Spanish to government employees and donated the tuition to My Sister’s Place, a shelter for survivors of domestic violence. He and the employees of the Office of Language Acquisition received a President’s Award from President George W. Bush in 2005 for extraordinary support of voluntarism through the Combined Federal Campaign National Capital Area.
Since 2008, he has been the director of the Italian Center of New York City, Boston Office, where he initiates conferences on Italian culture and the Holocaust. Trifiletti appeared briefly in and wrote his part of the documentary “God is the Bigger Elvis,” which was nominated for an Academy Award: Documentary Short Subject in 2012.
As part of the Prisoner Visitation Service, he volunteers at the Federal Medical Center, Devens, Mass., and he helps feed the homeless at the Pine Street Inn: Shattuck Men’s Shelter, Boston. He also teaches Italian and donates the tuition to women’s shelters in Boston.
Gary Zwick, BBA ’76, Bainbridge Twp., Ohio, wrote: “I am a partner in the Cleveland law firm of Walter Haverfield, LLP, where I practice in the areas of tax, estates and trusts and ERISA [Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974] law. Recently, the legal treatise I coauthored with James John Jurinski of the University of Portland, Tax and Financial Planning for the Loosely Held Family Business—originally published by ALI-ABA in 1999 and updated thereafter, but out of print for almost 10 years—was picked up by Edward Elgar Publishers in the UK. We updated it, and it is now back in print. The book is generally found in law libraries around the country and used as a textbook. I am married to Linda Hollander Zwick, BA ’77.”
Michele (Makros) Weitzel, BFA ’77, Copley, Ohio, is a local beekeeper and first-time author. She was dedicated to her career as a graphic designer before choosing early retirement to take care of her aging mother. While liquidating her mother's estate, she came across WWII memorabilia and a large collection of love letters between her mother and father, inspiring her to write Love Letters from the Marine Wolf: A US Hospital and Transport Ship, an Army Medic Afloat, and a War Bride in World War II, available on Amazon. The book qualified as an art exhibit at the grand opening reception of the 50 Years of VCD at the Kent State University Alumni Show in August 2019.
Michael Batchelor, BS ’78, MA ’82, Fairview, Pa., was appointed to the board of directors of Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania, a philanthropy network now comprising 100 grant-making organizations of all types. Batchelor was selected as the first executive director of The Erie Community Foundation (ECF) in 1990, and was named its president in 1996. Under his leadership, assets grew from $20 million to $448 million, placing ECF within the top 10 percent of community foundations nationwide.
Raymond Borom, BA ’63, MEd ’66, Akron, Ohio, former director of affirmative action at Kent State from 1983 to 1997, and his son, R. Todd Borom, BA ’83, Glen Cove, NY, collaborated in writing Don’t Die Broke: Easy Steps on How to Save, Invest and Build Your Wealth, was released on Amazon and in bookstores early February 2020. The 100-page book is designed to help anyone—teen, millennial or baby boomer—quickly learn how the stock market works and why it’s essential to begin investing.
George Palovich, MFA ’64, and Janet Trisler, (who attended KSU from 1960-62 and received a BFA from The University of Akron in 1972), Sun City, Ariz., were given a
50-year retrospective of their artwork at West Valley Art Museum and Peoria City Hall Art Gallery in Peoria, Ariz., from Nov. 25, 2019 to Jan. 17, 2020. The exhibition, An Artistic Life Together, included works in ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, fine printmaking and dolls produced over their 58-year art career and marriage. To view more of their work see https://sites.google.com/site/artbytripal/welcome.
Charles “Chuck” Miley, BS ’65, Maplewood, NJ, wrote: “The 9/11 Memorial Museum located at ground zero in the footprint of the World Trade Towers in New York City, has acquired my woodblock print diptych for their permanent collection. The woodblock print has pochoir, relief and collage elements and is titled ‘T’was Rangda Set the Birds Afire I & II.’ The image of Rangda is of Balinese Hinduism and is one manifestation of Durga the killer witch.”
Gary Featheringham, BS ’66, North Potomac, Md., wrote, “My memoir, Three Months of Socialism: Living in USSR During the 1970s, was published through Amazon (August 2019). It captures the first three months of our daily life while I was working at the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, from 1972 to 1977, assigned to the East European Operations of Control Data Corporation, a supercomputer manufacturer. It is not political, but rather documents our struggles living under the Soviet system and trying to raise an infant daughter.”
Patricia Arredondo,
BSE ’67, Phoenix, was elected chair of The American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, Inc. for the 2019-2020 academic year. Dr. Arredondo, a first-generation college student, is a scholar-practitioner, organizational consultant, licensed psychologist and the author of seven books and other scholarly publications. Her latest book is Latinx Immigrants: Transcending Acculturation and Xenophobia (2018). She is president of the Arredondo Advisory Group and faculty fellow with Fielding Graduate University. For her leadership and scholarship in psychology she was recognized as a Changemaker: Top 25 Psychologists of Color by the American Psychological Association in 2018.
Richard Margolis, BS ’69, Rochester, NY, exhibited Upheaval: Photographs of Anti-War Events at Kent State & Ohio Ku Klux Klan Rallies during the Cleveland Photo Fest at Images Photographic Arts Gallery in Lakewood, Ohio, from Sept. 15 to Oct. 12, 2019. The images were printed in 2018 and 2019 from existing negatives of photos taken between 1965 and 1970 at and around Kent State—many never printed until recently. Margolis was a photojournalism major, edited the 1968 Chestnut Burr and lived in Kent until 1972. He photographed Sunday night, May 3, 1970, and was processing film on Monday when the sirens began going by. He photographed on campus later that afternoon and at several memorial events following the shootings. He is now printing that and other film from back then, exhibiting prints in his studio/gallery in Rochester. For more information see www.richardmargolis.com. Pictured: Viewing “Gretchen and I on a Date—1965,” included in Upheaval.
90
Lisa (Hicks) Dael, BA ’90, MLS ’91, Athens, Ohio, wrote: “In October 2019 I was promoted to assistant director of online and outreach programs for the Patton College of Education at Ohio University.”
Erica Maxwell, BSE ’93, MEd ’96, Chandler, Ariz., was hired as the Arizona Department of Education’s first-ever associate superintendent of equity, diversity and inclusion. In addition to her more than 25 years as a certified educator, she has supported at-risk youth and diverse student populations by cofounding the Arizona Multicultural Education Conference in 2011 and founding Club READ (Reading Experiences Appreciating Diversity), a free summer reading club for Chandler students in 2013. She received the East Valley NAACP Education Advocacy Award in 2015.
Don Decker, BS ’94, Weston, Fla., was recently appointed city manager, chief executive officer of the City of Weston, Fla. He was previously the director of parks and recreation for the city and has worked for Weston since 2001.
Ryan Keating, BBA ’97, Westlake, Ohio, was named chief financial officer of Sea-Land Chemical Company.
Brandi Hephner LaBanc, MEd ’97, Hadley, Mass., was named the vice chancellor for student affairs and campus life at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She began her new duties in January 2020. Hephner LaBanc, who has more than two decades of experience in higher education, previously served as vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Mississippi, since 2012—the first woman to hold that position in the university’s history. She has also been a professor of higher education since July 2019 and was associate professor of higher education from 2012-19.
Among her honors and special recognitions, Hephner LaBanc was inducted into the 2013 Hall of Fame by the College of Education, Health and Human Services at Kent State and has been recognized by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators as a Pillar of the Profession for 2020. At Ole Miss, she received the Lift Every Voice award, a highly regarded diversity and inclusion honor bestowed by colleague and student nominations.
Kellea Tibbs, BA ’97, Frankfort, Ky., in February 2019 accepted a new position as the director for alumni relations at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Ky. Previously, she was an assistant director for the OHIO Alumni Association at Ohio University for seven years.
Joseph Connell, MA ’98, Brooklyn, NY, has been promoted to deputy director of neighborhood contracts for the New York City Department of Housing Preservation
and Development.
Mark Fink, AA ’97, BGS ’98, Ithaca, NY, director of teaching and learning with technology for Ithaca College, has joined ShapingEDU: Dreamers, Doers, and Drivers Shaping the Future of Learning in the Digital Age, hosted by Arizona State University’s Skysong Innovation Campus. The vision is for change-making individuals from a wide variety of learning-focused organizations across the world to collaborate on big ideas for transforming education. By deliberate design, ShapingEDU is action-oriented and believes the future is what we invent it to be. Dr. Fink leads one of the 10 actions and was appointed “mayor” to the neighborhood that is working to bolster intergenerational leadership for learning futures. While at Kent State, he was a counselor with the Academic Success Center, where cognitive and metacognitive strategies enabled student success.
Rebecca Lewis, BA ’98, Bryn Mawr, Penn., in summer 2019 studied lowland rain forest and montane cloud forests while investigating the biotic, physical and cultural forces that affect tropical biodiversity in Costa Rica. A lower school science teacher at Baldwin School, she is a graduate student in Miami University’s Global Field Program.
Micah Kraus, BA ’99, MA ’01, Akron, Ohio, gave an artist talk on Oct. 12, 2019, about the creative process and subject matter of the artwork in his exhibition A Reasonable Decline hosted by Akron Soul Train, an artist residency program fostering a more vibrant downtown Akron. The exhibition ran from Sept. 16 to Oct. 17, 2019. In his laser etchings on display, Kraus used local Akron imagery of decaying buildings, flaking signs and other general urban crustiness, burned through layers of ink and into paper, reducing beloved memories into abstracted representations.
Kelly Groomes-O’Donnell, BS ’99, Medina, Ohio, in summer 2019 studied lowland rain forest and montane cloud forests while investigating the biotic, physical and cultural forces that affect tropical biodiversity in Costa Rica. An 8th grade science teacher at Midview Local School District, she is a graduate student in Miami University’s Earth Expeditions.
Lisa Roberts, BS ’99, Mount Juliet, Tenn., is a comedy talent buyer at National Shows 2 (a concert promotion company, www.nationalshows2.com) based in Nashville, Tenn. She programs comedy for a few exclusively booked NS2 venues and also books nationally touring comedians in theaters nationwide. She has been featured in Pollstar magazine with various comedians she has presented.