Donna Wickham’s musical career is hitting some high notes. Last fall she released two CDs in one month, and both are getting rave reviews. Wickham (BM ’00, MM ’03), a DU alumna who heads up the vocal jazz program at the Lamont School of Music, celebrated the release of a […]
Moses Brewer is an institution in Denver and around the country, a one-name brand not unlike Beyonce, Plato, Bono and Oprah, says colleague and friend Sylvia Cordy, a PR executive who knows branding. “People don’t say ‘Moses Brewer,’ they say ‘Moses.’ He’s built that kind of reputation,” she says. “Whenever […]
“I gotta go watch plays,” says Jim Wishmier, sounding like a theater critic anticipating another night of drama. He will see drama, all right—compelling acting, plaintive expressions and emotional outbursts from an ensemble cast that might include the likes of Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Kevin Durant. Indeed, the plays […]
Though they both earned BSBA degrees from DU in 1970, the top executives at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Jerry Blann and Jay Kemmerer, never met on campus during their undergraduate years. Blann was an All-American on the ski team that won three national championships during his four years at DU. […]
It’s not so unusual that Courtney Mitchell, who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal, would want to return to the country for her wedding. But Mitchell and her partner, Sarah Welton, made history in June when they became the first lesbian couple to publicly wed in Nepal. “What […]
Longtime DU engineering Professor Roger Salters died at his home on Jan. 13, 2012. He was 72. Salters had been under treatment for prostate cancer since October. Salters was born in Switzer, S.C., on Aug. 5, 1939. He was born into a military family and spent his early years in […]
Famed Broadway producer and Tony Award winner Elliot Martin, who attended the University of Denver from 1943–46, was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in New York on Jan. 30. Martin studied theater under one of DU’s most noted professors, Camden Bell. Instead of completing his bachelor’s degree, […]
Retired U.S. Air Force Major Gen. Ben Funk, a commanding officer in World War II and a key figure in developing America’s ballistic missile program and launching the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft, died Jan. 21—three months before his 99th birthday—at his home in Long Beach, Calif. Born Ben Ivan Funk […]
Growing up in Corpus Christi, Texas, DU alumna Mary Pat Mueller (BA ’83) learned how to upholster a simple story at a young age. It’s a hazard of small-town life. When your setting lacks hustle and bustle, Mueller says, “you have to channel a part of yourself that knows how […]
Lauren Garan says she was “a stocky little gymnast” when she was last in Denver. That was during a brief visit in July, shortly after she received her MS in advertising management at DU and a few months before the ulcerative colitis she had dealt with for 12 years suddenly […]
Terence Tarr was generous to his friends and displayed his gourmet cooking skills at dinner parties he co-hosted. He loved the opera, enjoyed gardening, rooted avidly for the Denver Broncos and helped breed five generations of Norwegian elk hounds. While certainly no penny pincher, Tarr was nonetheless rather frugal when […]
Early on the morning of Sept. 8, which happened to be his 82nd birthday, Herman Motz collapsed in the bathroom of his Denver home. He was unconscious when the paramedics arrived. They detected no pulse or blood pressure and thought he had suffered a heart attack. Motz was taken to […]
University of Denver alumna Michelle Kwan (BA international studies ’09), the most decorated figure skater in American history, can add another item to her long list of accomplishments: She’s been elected to the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame class of 2012. “Throughout my competitive career, it was always important […]
A few years ago, a group of alumni from the tight-knit Class of 1956 decided the standard 10-year reunions weren’t cutting it. Now they reconvene every five. “We were having such a good time that we said, ‘We ought to get together more often. We’re getting older. We’d better step […]
A lifelong skier who learned the sport on a tiny ski hill in Wisconsin, Aspen Skiing Co. CEO and President Mike Kaplan (MBA ’93) now runs one of the world’s top ski complexes. Aspen has four resorts offering a wide range of terrain: the beginner’s paradise at Buttermilk; the steeps […]