Rob Gleeson (BSBA ’10) says his finance degree comes in handy as a stand-up comic. “I can manage what little money I do make,” Gleeson cracks. The 23-year-old Gleeson, a former fixture on the Denver comedy circuit, takes his funny business seriously. He constantly emails himself jokes or bits of […]

Megan McDowell’s life has never been the same since Sept. 11, 2001 — it has been transformed into a life full of giving, receiving and gratitude. The tragic events of 9/11 inspired the grief counselor and mother of three to start Heartworks — a nonprofit for women to cultivate spiritual […]

“Hero lifts vehicle, saves man from drowning.” It’s a headline suitable for the Daily Planet in a Superman comic, but for Scott Larson, it’s no fictitious tale. Larson is credited with saving a man’s life on June 18 near Buena Vista, Colo. That afternoon, the 21-year-old DU senior finished hiking […]

  Nicholas Sauer (BA ’05) was elected to the board of education for District 220 in his hometown of Barrington, Ill., in 2009. The board’s youngest member, he already is well respected and shares governance responsibility for a $121 million operating budget, 14 buildings, 1,165 staff members and 9,150 students. […]

New York City is a big — and oftentimes scary — place for newcomers, but John Ritter (BA ’72, BS ’72) is always there to provide some direction. “Whenever I receive a call from a student or a DU graduate who is moving to New York, I try to make […]

Every January for most of the past two decades, DU alumnus Patrick Grant (MBA ’73) has sat tall in the saddle at Denver’s National Western Stock Show, shepherding the annual event through another 16-day exhibition. Corralling 16,000 head of livestock. Welcoming cattlemen, ranchers and rodeo hands from 45 nations. Raising […]

You’d think her job as chief financial officer and executive vice president of corporate services for Home Depot would keep her busy enough, but Carol Tomé (MBA ’81) also finds time to serve on the boards of the United Parcel Service and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and to […]

Dennis Powers (JD ’66) grew up near the New Jersey shore, where he sailed, surfed, water-skied, kayaked and fished. He has channeled his love of the sea to pen five maritime books. His first, The Raging Sea (Citadel, 2005), was about the devastating 1964 tsunami that crashed down the West […]

Former English Professor Bill Zaranka, who served as DU’s provost from 1989–2001, says he doesn’t really know how he ended up in the job. It certainly was not part of his plan. As a writer, all he wanted was isolation and huge blocks of free time — the exact opposite […]

Raised in one of Denver’s poorest neighborhoods and incarcerated at 16, Jose Guerrero was going nowhere fast. Slam poetry helped the DU student turn his life around.

Florence (Dunning) Sikes (BA theater ’55, MA theater ’60) dedicated her life to helping others achieve success in theater and performance. Sikes — who died in July 2009 — was so passionate about her vocation that she donated a portion of her estate to DU’s theater department to support the […]

As president of RBC Daniels, Brad Busse (BS ’80) stays pretty busy. He’s one of the most seasoned investment bankers in the world of telecommunications and has completed some of the industry’s most significant transactions. But he still finds time to make an imprint where it’s needed. “I felt I […]

Beware the restaurants claiming to be authentic New York delis, says Al Belsky. Most of them aren’t. “You travel all over the country and you go to different cities and [you see places that] say ‘New York deli’ and they’re not, they’re always crap,” says Belsky (BSBA ’72), owner of […]

Bryan Welch (BA English ’81) says people should cut pessimism out of their lives and practice positive visualization to achieve happiness, abundance and sustainability. Welch says people have a responsibility to create a sustainable world for themselves and for future generations. The key to accomplishing this, he says, is for […]

“Where were you when you heard?” It’s a phrase every generation knows. Everyone has experienced a national tragedy where the Earth seemingly stood still as feelings of horror, disbelief and fear set in. Years later, people can tell you exactly where they were when they heard the news. In the […]