Welcome to the PawPrint

2009 Alumni Attitude Survey results being compiled
Thank you for the outstanding number of responses to our 2009 C-SC Alumni Attitude Survey, which was sponsored by the alumni board and Alumni Office to determine how we can improve our services to serve you better. We will share the results and compare it to national data in our June issue of the PawPrint.

Save the date for Homecoming 2009
Mark your calendars now to be on campus September 25-27 for Homecoming 2009. Theme for the festivities is "Wild with Pride."  Homecoming will feature reunions of C-SC graduates who are ministers and those from C-SC baseball and volleyball. Special reunions are scheduled for the classes of 1949, 1959, 1964, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004 and 2007. If you're celebrating a reunion year and are interested in volunteering as a reunion year team leader, e-mail Kellie Capps, director of alumni programs at kcapps@culver.edu for all the details! Please call the Alumni Office with any questions you may have about Homecoming 800-755-2287.

Remembering George Lee
Colleagues and alumni are remembering Dr. George Lee, history professor emeritus, who died December 27, 2008. You can read the memories or add your own online.

New EXP@CSC curriculum expanding students' horizons
C-SC students finished the first semester of the new curriculum in December, including the first three-week short term in which most students took just one course. The longer classes and intense focus gave faculty more flexibility in teaching the course and many included field trips as part of the class. Some students traveled around the region; other courses went to St. Louis and Chicago; and the study-abroad course was in Turkey. Read the student blogs and other stories online.

Seen at Missouri Music Education Association Conference
The Culver-Stockton Alumni Office hosted a reception recently for C-SC alums attending the Missouri Music Education Association Conference in Osage Beach. Among the many who attended were D. Larry McSpadden, music professor emeritus, who taught Willie Grega '84 high school music. Grega most recently was in the spotlight when he was thanked during a broadcast of America's Got Talent by a former high school student who was competing on the show and who went on to win the competition. Read the full story online.

Several Missouri Music Educators attended the Missouri Music Education Association Conference in Osage Beach, Mo. On January 30, the alumni office hosted a reception for C-SC alumni attendees.

D.Larry McSpadden, faculty emeritis (center) taught Willie Grega '84 (right) who taught Bryan Hawk '09 (left).

Alum hosts Lady Wildcats
Every season the women's and men's basketball team travels to MidAmerica Nazareen University and Avila University, in the Kansas City area. This year, however, the team's overnight hotel stay was hosted by Stacy Raith, Culver-Stockton and Lady Wildcats basketball alumna from the class of '83. Stacy is the food and beverage director at Embassy Suites, where she hosted us. When we arrived at the hotel, she came on the bus and introduced herself to us.

The moment we walked through the doors, the entire team was in awe. The hotel was, in a word, amazing. As soon as we got our room assignments we could not wait to go exploring. Our rooms were wonderful and came with complimentary snacks and drinks. To us, “it was the best hotel ever."

I speak for everyone on the team when I say that we cannot thank Stacy enough for what she did for us. Not only did we spend two great nights at this hotel, but we shared an experience with the rest of our team that wouldn't have been possible without her. Meeting Stacy brought a piece of history to the team, and gave us a memory of Wildcat Basketball that will never be forgotten.

Anna Grgurich ‘11

Alumni Newsmakers

'SportsCenter' host gives credit to family

By MATT SCHUCKMAN
Herald-Whig Sports Writer
(Article and photo reprinted with permission from the Quincy Herald-Whig, January 13, 2009. Houchins graduated from C-SC in 2004 with a degree in communications.)

Josh Houchins sees nothing heroic in what he does.

"I'm doing what everybody else would do," he said. "Wanting to pay taxes and have a normal life."

Not everyone sees it as such.

"I'm honored by the fact that my normal life would be considered heroic to someone else," said Houchins, a Ewing, Mo., native who has used a wheelchair since a 1997 car accident left him paralyzed from the chest down. "That's what kind of gets me."

The 27-year-old host of "WGEM SportsCenter" and radio sales representative for WGEM will be honored Wednesday as one of Missouri's 12 unsung heroes on the floor of the General Assembly.

A resolution will be read in the state Senate honoring Missourians who have "achieved, accomplished or overcome something remarkable in their lives." They also are featured on the 2009 Senate calendar.

Houchins' parents, Richard and Jeana, and his sister, Ashli, will accompany him to Jefferson City, and he sees this as much an honor for them as it is for him.

"I'm going with my heroes," Houchins said. "They are the ones who got me through life."

They did it unselfishly. Houchins' sister transferred from Columbia College to Culver-Stockton College to help him get acclimated to his first two years at the school and continues to be a source of support.

"She's like the confidante in my life," he said. "She's the person I can tell anything to. She's still that best friend. That's pretty special."

He's equally close to his parents, who have dealt twice with tragedy.

Houchins was 15 years old when he suffered a severed C-5 vertebrae in his neck in a single-car accident about a mile from his house. The driver of the car, Pat Schroeder, was killed in the accident.

The following May, Houchins' older brother, Justin, died in his sleep from a lesion that had developed on his stomach. He was 24 years old.

"My parents have been through absolute hell, yet they smile every day," Houchins said. "It's amazing."

It's made an everlasting impression.

"I appreciate my parents so much, so much," Houchins said. "They've been through a crazy amount of stuff in their lives, yet they have the same outlook on life that I do. Nothing gets them down. They don't dwell on anything."

Neither does Houchins, who sees his everyday activities as leading a normal life.

"Who said it's not for the good? I've learned more about myself than I ever would have if this didn't happen," Houchins said. "Do I wish it didn't happen? Yes, but I dealt with it the best I know how, the best I was raised."

Alumni Board Spotlight

Where has your C-SC gear/pennant been? Clayton, 3, son of Kellie (Cox) Capps '86, shows off his C-SC pride on the train in to downtown Chicago. We want to know where you have shown off your BLUE-AND-WHITE PRIDE! Have you proudly waved your C-SC flag in an exotic place? Did you and your family take your C-SC gear on vacation? Where in the world has your C-SC gear been? E-mail a photo that shows you in Wildcat gear or with a C-SC pennant to ealumninews@culver.edu (maximum 4 MB per e-mail), and we'll use it in the e-newsletter and online. You can also "snail mail" photos to Jennifer Hiller, C-SC Alumni Office, One College Hill, Canton, MO. 63435.

Class Notes

'50s

• Joyce (Bloom) Kessler '50 has retired and lives in Longboat Key, Fla.
• Jack Barnes '57 has retired. He and his wife, Midge (Champion) '57, live in Bradenton, Fla.
• Jack James '58 has retired and lives with his wife, Pauline, in Las Vegas, Nev.

'60s

• John Beintema '65 has retired and lives in Stockton, Calif.
• Peter Zakos '67 has retired and now spends six months in Chicago, Ill., and six months in Scottsdale, Ariz.
• Art Zimmerman '67 retired June 1, 2008, after 30-plus years of service at GE Trailer Fleet Services. Art and Sharon live in Westmont, Ill.

'70s

• Nancy (Stout) Terrell '70, retired after 40 years from United Airlines in August 2008. Nancy and her husband, Bill, moved to Cape Coral, Fla. Daughter, Blair (Vacek) Kramer '03, married Steve Kramer on Oct. 6, 2007. Son, Ian Vacek, married Tracey and has two children, Ella, 5, and Anton, 2.
• Lydia Vernon-Jones '71 and her husband, Russ, live in Amherst, Mass.
• Kevin Kain '73 has retired. His son, Matthew, will graduate from California State University in May 2009. He resides with his wife, Sandy, in American Canyon, Calif.
• Gil Dickens '74 is business area manager for the U.S. Marine Corps, employed by Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. He, his wife, and three children live in Springfield. Va.
• Ben Martin '75 has been elected to the board of directors for the Educational Theatre Association, the largest school theatre organization in the world with more than 4,000 adult members and more than 50,000 student Thespians in all 50 states and around the world. He will serve for three years beginning in August 2009. He currently serves on the board of the Missouri Thespians for which he coordinates the organization's scholarship program. He lives in Lee's Summit, Mo., and is director of theatre at Lee's Summit West High School.
• Ken Sloan-Couch '75 and his wife, Marilyn, live in Roanoke, Ill., where he is pastor of the Roanoke United Methodist Church.
• JoAnn (Church) Conrad '76 has retired. She resides with her husband, Ron, in Georgetown, Texas.
• George '79 and Marcia (McDonald) Richardson '80 are proud grandparents of Rebecca Behrends, daughter of Molly and Jon Behrends. George is supervisor of parole for the Illinois Department of Corrections, and Marcia is music director and organist for the First United Methodist Church in Pekin, Ill., the city where they live.

'80s

• Scott Clodfelter '85 is managing director for Actor's Express Theatre Company, Atlanta, Ga. Scott works from his home in Atlanta.
• Rick Moorman '85 was named head girls track coach at Waco High School in Wayland, Iowa. The high school was named a 2007-08 State Champion in Physical Fitness by The President's Challenge – one of three schools in the state to be recognized. Rick and Lori (Crozier) Moorman '85 live in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
• Scott Luaders '89 and his wife, Rochelle, had a son, Beau on Oct. 1, 2008. Beau joins Julian, born July 10, 2006. Scott is a chemistry professor at Quincy University. The family lives in Fowler, Ill.
• Rick Clodfelter '89 has been named senior manager of acquisitions for the Cartoon Network. Rick lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

'90s

• Creg and Rhonda Paulk '90 enjoy themselves in front of the Tower Bridge in London, England.

  Tim Kirt '90 is the owner of an independent insurance brokerage business and father of three boys – Andrew, 5, Jacob, 4, and Ethan, 6 months. They reside in St. Charles, Mo.
• Creg and Rhonda Paulk '90 are stationed at RAF Mildenhall in England. Last July, Creg became operations group commander of the KC-135 units stationed at Mildenhall. Rhonda works as a stay-at-home mother with Dalton, 9, and Olivia, 6.  
• Beth (Emery) Campbell '91 and her family moved to a new home in Davenport, Iowa, in June 2008. She and her husband, Maury, celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary on Oct. 14, 2008. They have a daughter, Maureen, 6, and son, Curtis, 3.
• Beth (Emery) Campbell '91 and Penny (Wilhelm) Pollock '91 completed the Des Moines Half Marathon on Oct. 19, 2008. Penny lives in Macomb, Ill.
• Heather (Cramm) Goodwin '92 is a bank teller for Community Bank of Memphis. She, her husband Jason, and two children, Megan and Steven, live in Memphis, Mo.
• Patty Quisenberry '92 is a learning specialist for Columbia Public Schools in Columbia, Mo., where she lives.
• Barbara Scott Dowdy '94 has been elected to the board of directors at The Little Theatre of Jefferson City, Mo. She is the vice-president, chief marketing and communications officer at William Woods University. She resides in Jefferson City, Mo.
• Kyle Long '94 is branch manager of Farmers State Bank and Trust Company in Mount Sterling, Ill. He has one son, Brady and lives in Timewell, Ill.
• Heather (Westfall) '95 married Philip Anthony in 2003. She has a stepson, Mason, 11, and two sons, Tyler 4, and Wyatt 2.  Heather teaches fifth grade for Davenport (Iowa) Community Schools where they live.
• Sara (Mallinckrodt) Vollmar '96 is a registered nurse at St. Louis Children's Hospital. She and her husband, Matt, have two children, Isabella and Jackson. They reside in St. Charles, Mo.
• Jessica Kubes '97 does marketing for Ford Hotel Supply in St. Louis. She lives in Richmond Heights, Mo.
• Angie (Stone) Makley '97 is an attorney for UAW Legal Services in Clearwater, Fla. She and her husband, Tim, live in Palm Harbor, Fla.
• Brett Myers '99 is director of bands for Hillsboro (Mo.) R-3 School District. His wife, Nicole (Robertson) Myers '01, is a registered nurse at St. Luke's Hospital in Chesterfield, Mo. They reside in High Ridge, Mo.

'00s

• Kara Beth (Mandrell) Thompson '00 is currently working for Mid-Continent University in Mayfield, Ky., as an admissions representative and adjunct instructor in Human Resource Development. Her husband, Alan, is a seventh and eighth grade instructor at St. Bruno Grade School in Pinckneyville, Ill. They reside in Mulkeytown, Ill.
• Brad, '00 and Stacy (Stephenson) Turner '00 had a son Gannon George Turner on April 5, 2008. He joins 5-year-old brother, Issac. They reside in Brighton, Ill.
• J. Matthew Thompson '05 graduated cum laude from Southern Illinois University School of Law in 2008. He has joined the law firm of Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen in Peoria, Ill.
• Jarrod Hendricks '06 was recently named "Teacher of the Year" by the Kirksville Wal-Mart Supercenter. He received a $1,000 grant for Kirksville High School and $100 gift card to buy classroom supplies and a personalized certificate. Jarrod lives in Kirksville, Mo.