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Book showcases ‘world-changing’ UT alumni |
| By
Vicki L. Kroll |
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Feb 10, 2005 |
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Opposing tyranny in Nigeria. Saving lives with stem cell research. Writing books to share family stories on the struggles faced by blacks before the civil rights movement. These are a few ways UT graduates are making a difference. Their stories and others are featured in The University of Toledo Alumni Who Have Changed the World.
Published in December, the 77-page book spotlights nine people who spent some time on the UT campus before blazing trails in their respective fields.
“When I first suggested the idea for the book, it came out of the growing realization that The University of Toledo has produced an abundance of world-changing alumni — and their stories are fascinating,” UT President Dan Johnson said. “Collecting those stories and sharing them with a wider audience seemed like a worthy and exciting project.”
Enter Cynthia Nowak, editor of the Toledo Alumni Magazine. Last June she put together a committee of UT faculty and staff members and one UT graduate to help select those to be included in the book. The group focused on five areas: science and technology; arts and humanities; business and professional; public service; and social service.
“Given the number of UT alumni who have achieved distinction, the committee's biggest challenge was limiting our first volume to nine honorees,” Nowak said. “It was important for all of us that as many areas of accomplishment as possible be represented, and that we took the ‘world-changing’ part of the title seriously.”
Highlighted in the book are:
• Olatunji Abayomi (Law ’79), an attorney and chair of Human Rights Africa who is fighting for democracy in Nigeria;
• Dr. Nancy Heffner Collins (A/S ’69, MS ’74), director of the Cytotherapy Laboratory at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York whose work to improve grafts for stem cell transplantation is improving the success rate of that medical procedure;
• Jon Hendricks (attended 1949-1950), UT Distinguished Professor of Jazz, considered the father of vocalese — the art of setting lyrics to established jazz arrangements;
• Dr. Julius Jacobson II (A/S ’47), director emeritus of vascular surgery and Distinguished Service Professor of Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, who is credited with inventing microsurgery thanks to designing the double binocular microscope called the diploscope;
• Foy Kohler (attended 1924-1927), President John F. Kennedy’s U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union who played a pivotal role in achieving a peaceful resolution to the Cuban missile crisis;
• Dr. David Liddle (PhD ’72), Silicon Valley virtuoso who helped accelerate the computer revolution while working in research, development, management and entrepreneurship at several high-tech companies in western California;
• Dr. Nina McClelland (A/S ’51, MS ’63), former president and CEO of National Sanitation Foundation in Ann Arbor, Mich., who championed public health issues and raised purity standards for public drinking water;
• John Neff (Bus ’55), high-finance legend who beat the market 22 out of 31 years while managing Vanguard’s Windsor Fund at Wellington Management Co. in Philadelphia and a prime mover in the Philadelphia Scholars Program for low-income students; and
• Mildred Taylor (Ed ’65), author of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976), which won the 1977 Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children, and other novels for young readers.
Nowak wrote most of the alumni biographies, which were paired with a personal message penned by each honoree. The book’s design was done by Meredith M. Thiede, computer graphics design specialist in the Alumni Relations Office. Two thousand copies were printed.
“Cynthia Nowak and Meredith Thiede took an idea, made it better, and created a publication that every alum in the country can be proud of,” said Vern Snyder, vice president for institutional advancement. “The book will go to the University’s closest friends and then be used as we travel around the country and as ‘leave behinds’ at prospective donor calls.”
“The book reminds us in a very real way that UT is a special place and within a very few pages makes the case,” Snyder said. “The quality of an institution is demonstrated by the accomplishments of its graduates.”
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