1980s
Lawrence R. Armstrong, BS ‘80, BArc ’80, San Clemente, CA, was appointed to join the NAIOP Research Foundation’s Governors program. Individuals who demonstrate their commitment to the foundation’s mission by making a substantial contribution to the endowment fund are invited to accept this lifetime distinction. Armstrong was honored online at NAIOP’s CRE Converge Virtual conference, Oct. 7-8, 2020.
NAIOP—formerly known as the National Association for Industrial and Office Parks and now known as the Commercial Real Estate Development Association—is the leading organization for developers, owners and related professionals in office, industrial, retail and mixed-use real estate. It provides industry networking and education, and it advocates for effective legislation on behalf of its members.
NAIOP’s sister organization, the NAIOP Research Foundation, was established in 2000 to provide practical research and education that allows commercial real estate owners and developers to capitalize on new trends and address challenges in the industry.
Armstrong is chairman of Ware Malcomb, a contemporary and expanding full-service design firm providing professional architecture, planning, interior design, civil engineering, branding and building measurement services to corporate, commercial/residential developers and public/institutional clients throughout the world.
He joined Ware Malcomb in 1984 and soon became responsible for running the firm’s Los Angeles office. In 1988, he was promoted to principal of the firm and became CEO in 1992. In 2020, Armstrong transitioned to the role of chairman of Ware Malcomb. In addition to expanding Ware Malcomb from a Southern California firm to a national and international firm with offices in key markets across North America, Lawrence’s tenure as CEO is hallmarked by an unprecedented 40x revenue growth.
Susan Miller Crowell, BS ’84, Lisbon, OH, retired in June 2019 from her position as editor of Farm and Dairy. She joined the paper in 1985 as a staff reporter and was named editor in 1989. A native of rural Holmes County, Ohio, Crowell was raised on a dairy farm near Walnut Creek.
During her tenure, the newspaper received the Carroll Soil and Water Conservation District’s Outstanding Service Award, the Jefferson County Friend of 4-H Award and the statewide Friend of the Forest award, presented by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry. She is a past recipient of the Agriculture Communicator of the Year award from the Ohio Agri-Women, the Ohio Farm Bureau’s Agriculture Communicator Award and the Ohio Sheep Improvement Association’s Distinguished Service Award.
She has also received numerous awards for her writing, including honors from the North American Agricultural Journalists, the National Newspaper Association, Inland Press Association and American Agricultural Editors Association. She is a five-time winner of the Best Columnist award from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists.
Crowell has been the Distinguished Guest Lecturer in Agricultural Communications at The Ohio State University, and she is also a guest lecturer at Walsh University in North Canton. She served on the vice president’s advisory council for the dean of The Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and is a past president of the statewide OSU Extension advisory council.
For eight years, she was also one of Ohio’s three delegates to the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities’ Council for Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching. She also served as the CARET liaison to the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy, the governing committee for the national Cooperative Extension System.
She was the first person from Columbiana County accepted into the statewide two-year agricultural Leadership Education and Development program (better known as LEAD), which culminated in a two-week international agricultural study tour to Chile and Mexico. She has also participated in agricultural study missions to the former Soviet Union, Israel and Cuba.
Crowell lives in eastern Ohio with her husband, Keith. They have two adult children, Annette and Jon. She is a member and elder of the New Lisbon Presbyterian Church and a member of the Columbiana County Farm Bureau.
Steven M. Altman, BGS ’85, Solon, OH, president and CEO of All-Pro Cleaning Services Inc., is celebrating 35 years of service. When he graduated from Kent State, he turned down job offers in sales to pursue entrepreneurship. The door-to-door window and gutter cleaning business he started out of his apartment now focuses on commercial buildings averaging 75,000 square feet and boasts more than 150 employees. In response to COVID-19, he ordered electrostatic disinfecting equipment and started a disinfecting division in the company.
Kathleen (Kirksey) Purdy, BS ’85, MEd ’89, Alliance, OH, was elected president of the Alliance Area Democratic Club. She serves on the Stark County Democratic Central Committee and has held various positions with the AADC, including vice president.
She received Ohio Education Association Minority Caucus Outstanding Political Activist recognition and hosted the Civics Essential: Ohio 2019 Game Hour produced by Soapbox Cincinnati and Fresh Water Cleveland, an initiative that works to raise residents’ knowledge of Ohio and how the law works.
Purdy is a community advocate with extensive leadership experiences ranging from topics on women’s issues, minority concerns, political action and professional development. She retired as an elementary school teacher in Plain Local School District, after a 33-year career.
Matthew T. Morris, BS ’86, Knoxville, TN, has been chosen by the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee to serve as deputy criminal chief for the Knoxville office’s white-collar and general crimes unit. He joined the US Attorney’s Office in 1996 and has focused on prosecuting white-collar and child-exploitation offenses, including environmental crime, fraud, public corruption and child pornography. He has served as the senior litigation counsel for the US Attorney’s Office since 2018.
Morris has previously headed up the office’s Project Safe Childhood, environmental crime, asset forfeiture and affirmative civil enforcement programs. Prior to joining the office, he was an assistant regional counsel for the US Environmental Protection Agency in Atlanta for five years. Morris earned his law degree from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1990.
Teresa (Dixon) Murray, BA ’87, Broadview Heights, OH, directs the Consumer Watchdog office at the United States Public Interest Research Group, which looks out for consumers’ health, safety and financial security. Prior to her current role, she worked as a journalist and columnist covering consumer issues and personal finance for two decades for The Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest daily newspaper. She is the recipient of dozens of state and national journalism awards, including Best Columnist in Ohio, Best Business Writer in Ohio and National Headliner Award for coverage of the 2008–09 financial crisis.
Among the accomplishments of which she’s most proud is receiving a journalism public service award for exposing improper billing practices by Verizon that affected at least 15 million customers nationwide. Her work caused Verizon to reach an $80 million settlement with the FCC, the largest ever imposed at that time. She and her husband live in Greater Cleveland and have two sons and a dog. She enjoys biking, house projects and music, and she serves on her church mission team and stewardship board.
Eric Nuzum, BA ’88, New York, co-founder of Magnificent Noise, a podcast production and creative consulting company, published Make Noise: A Creator’s Guide to Podcasting and Great Audio Storytelling (Workman Publishing, December 2019), available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and Indiebound.
Nuzum was program and operations director at WKSU, 1998–2004. He worked at National Public Radio, 2004–2015, as director of programming and acquisitions, and later as vice president of programming. He was senior vice president of original content development at Audible Inc., 2015–2018, before co-founding Magnificent Noise in 2018. The company’s client roster includes The New York Times, ESPN, TED and Esther Perel Global Media.
He was awarded the National Edward R. Murrow Award for News Writing. He is also the author of Giving Up the Ghost: A Story About Friendship, 80s Music, A Lost Scrap of Paper, and What It Means to be Haunted (2012), The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula (2007) and Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America (2001).
Nuzum talked about his background and his recent book about podcasting on Elevations, a weekly radio show on WKSU, in November 2020. He spoke about successful podcasting and advised podcast startups in two conversations.