@MIZZOU ASKS YOU

A Mizzou Degree
Means More

@Mizzou readers share stories of how MU has been part of their career success …

Mizzou and its outstanding faculty instilled in me a spirit of creativity and innovation that has motivated me throughout my career. Professors like Dave Dugan made a lasting impression. As the director of program operations at KMOX Radio in St. Louis, I had the honor of working directly with him after he left Mizzou. KMOX was the #1 Arbitron-rated station in the country consistently posting 20+ shares. During the fall of Communism, I will never forget our award-winning series of on-site broadcasts from Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Warsaw and Moscow’s Red Square. Also I will never forget my lasting friendships with Jack Buck, Joe Buck, Bob Costas, Art Fleming and Bob Hardy.

From KMOX, I went on to create the ESPN Radio Network and launched the sports radio revolution. I was hired by Mizzou alumus John Walsh. ESPN Radio was grounded in sports journalism. Early in the development stage, I met with the legendary Howard Cosell and laid out my plans to bring ESPN to life on the radio. In that wonderful New York accent he told me, “It will never work.” I then offered him our boxing analyst job, and he replied, “It finally has a chance!” As a personal favor to me, former President Ronald Reagan was one of our first guests. He joined Mike Utley on the air to give him encouragement after the former Detroit Lion broke his neck and was paralyzed. It was an incredible broadcast moment and sadly one of the last interviews for President Reagan.

For the last 11 years, I have worked for the Walt Disney Company. I am the director of Broadcast Synergy Marketing for Walt Disney Parks and Disney Cruise line. My team manages hundreds of entertainment, news and sports broadcasts from our theme parks and resorts. From visiting with Sheryl Crow back stage at President Clinton’s Inauguration to watching Entertainment Tonight’s Jann Carl report from Disney World, my job allows me to run into Mizzou alumni all of the time! This year, I was honored with a 2005-06 Emmy for producing the Walt Disney World Christmas Day parade on ABC. I also am responsible for producing one of the most famous brand campaigns in the history of advertising: The “I'm going to Disney World” commercials with famous athletes. I will never forget the lessons learned at Mizzou … passion for excellence and a commitment to quality.

— Kevin Young, BJ ’82

My name is Darren Gray, and I am Director of Domestic R&D for Papa John's International. It was people like Dr. William Stringer and Dr. Robert Marshall who really helped me get where I am today. Mizzou has such a great agriculture school, and it really helped me. Thanks for everything.

— Darren Gray, BS ’90

I currently serve as the director of business development for a 379-bed hospital in western Kentucky. Each day I work with members of our medical staff consisting of almost 200 physicians comprising over 40 different specialties. When I began this position I gained immediate respect from our physicians due to the fact that my graduate degree comes from Mizzou. We have several doctors who have graduated from medical school at MU and they have great respect for the University and its alumni.

— Kelly Nicholls, MSW ’00

The alumni newsletter invitation to “share your memories” of Mizzou was all the encouragement I needed. I completed my master’s degree in higher and adult education in 1987. While working on my doctorate at Mizzou, I began working at Moberly Area Community College. This institution, located just 35 miles north of Columbia, is a proud institution and one of the first community colleges in the state. Founded in 1927 and located above a Piggly Wiggly store in downtown Moberly, this college had the most humble of humble beginnings!

I have just completed my tenth year as president, and I’m happy to say that the college has grown dramatically in recent years. Our main campus in Moberly boasts beautiful, pillared, brick buildings, with a collegiate look and feel that would make the early founders proud. In addition to the main campus, we now have strong, growing off-campus sites in Kirksville, Hannibal, Edina, Mexico and Columbia. I’m proud to be a part of MACC and providing higher education to rural northeast and north central Missouri.

Without the excellent education that I received at Mizzou and the continued collaboration with contacts, friends, faculty and administrators at Mizzou, I would not have reached the level of success that I have. I remember fondly the many higher education courses I had with Dr. Joe Donaldson, Dr. Carolyn Dorsey and others in the higher education department.

— Evelyn E. Jorgenson, M Ed ’87, PhD ’96

My time at Mizzou gave me the opportunity to grow in character. I received my doctorate degree in nutrition in 1968 after earlier receiving my master's and bachelor's degrees. Most of my career was spent in industry in positions of technical director for food/feed supplier companies and as a venture group director of research for a farm implement company. However, the most rewarding part of my career came later. In 1992 I began training to be a hospital chaplain and finally after years of training and working in the corporate world, I became a staff chaplain at the local hospital. In that role, I served as an interim director of pastoral care.

Since leaving Mizzou, the most rewarding thing has been my role as a chaplain. I relate this back to my time at MU building my character. I cherish my many years at the University, and I credit those years to part of my career development.

— Paul Telle, BS ’58, MS ’63, PhD ’68

I earned a master's degree from MU in 1989. My field is extension education, and I am currently working for the University of Florida cooperative extension service. My training at MU was great. My extension program is making a difference in south Florida, where I provide bilingual education to Hispanic agricultural workers in pesticide and farm safety. My professional experience and my degree at MU really helped me to achieve where I am now.

I hope some time I can return it to Missouri.

— Cesar Asuaje, MS ’89

It is with great pride that I am a graduate of Mizzou. I am in my ninth year with Mizzou Athletics having worked my way up from a graduate student/part-time secretary position to my current position as assistant athletics director for compliance. My history with Mizzou from both an academic and athletic standpoint is what has allowed me to engage in a profession that I love — athletics compliance for the Mizzou Athletics Department.

In my current role, I am able to continue my involvement with and passion for athletics by incorporating teamwork, persistence and competitiveness in everything I do. I also serve as a role model to our student-athletes to excel, not just athletically and academically, but in life as well. Further, by staying at MU for my professional career, I hope to display to all former Tigers the true meaning of being a Tiger for life!

— Mitzi Clayton, BS Ed ’94, M Ed ’96

With my broadcasting degree from the University of Missouri in Columbia, I landed a job in my hometown of San Antonio, Texas, and now I’ve been here for 10 years. I’m an anchor at KSAT 12, the ABC affiliate. My show is Good Morning, San Antonio. My first on-air job was at KRGV, the ABC affiliate in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

I have GREAT memories of being at Mizzou! Any time I tell people that I graduated from Mizzou’s School of Journalism, everyone seems to know about the school’s prestigious reputation.

— Nancy Gonzalez, BJ ’93

My two-year master's degree in guidance and counseling and rehabilitation counseling was made up of 60 graduate hours, unlike many master's programs in the nation. Because of this, I was able to become a school psychologist in Florida after a few more graduate hours, almost doubling the salary I earned as a psychiatric rehabilitation counselor. Also, later in my school psychology career, my training in counseling led to further training in individual counseling and couple, family and individual psychotherapy. I then became licensed as a mental health counselor – LMHC (Licensed Professional Counselor equivalent in Missouri). With that license and by becoming a licensed school psychologist, I was able to open a private practice in 1981 in both fields in Winter Park, Fla.

— Denton M. Kurtz, BS ’66, M Ed ’68

I retired from Bryan Cave in St. Louis (the biggest law firm in Missouri) over a year ago. While working there, I tried more than 500 tax cases in lots of courts. About 50 percent of those cases were federal tax cases and the others were state tax cases. With regard to the state tax cases, about 80 percent were in Missouri, but 20 percent were in 30 other states.

I also was in courts of appeals for more than 80 cases, including two cases in the U.S. Supreme Court (and only won one of those two cases). I was also in the Missouri Supreme Court about 30 times (and only won 25 cases), and in the other courts of appeals. In addition, I was in several federal courts of appeals (5 areas, and mostly in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals) and was in court of appeals or Supreme Courts in about five or six other states.

In the Army JAG area, I did more than 2,000 criminal cases (in half of the cases I served as the prosecutor, and in the other half I was the defense lawyer). I was also an Army JAG judge from 1969-71.

— Juan Keller, BA ’65, JD ’67

I grew up at Mizzou. I thought I had grown up while flying B-17s over Germany in World War II and surviving 35 missions. In 1946, my good buddy and I enrolled at Mizzou for the 1946 academic year.

It wasn’t easy, enrolling. We happen to be a couple of Texans, and Mizzou back then gave preference to Missouri veterans, Missouri students, and then out-of-state veterans. Well, with some 26,000 enrollees, you can imagine what chance we had at finding school housing. I remember well some sanctimonious staff member telling me, “You oughta go to school in your own state.”

But I had visions of studying journalism, and so we finally found a room with some nice school teacher who lived at 700 Worley St. I will never forget that address. She rented us an upstairs bedroom for $35. That was $17.50 each, which we thought was a bargain.

We were living on our $75 a month GI checks, so we could afford the room, and we bought a Mizzou cafeteria meal ticket for $35. Then we had $22.50 left for the rest of the month for a beer once in a while at the Shack and a movie or two downtown and some ice cream at the Dairy, located next to the Stephens College campus. We thought we had it made!

Oh yes, Stephens. Bless those sweet little ol’ Stephens girls. They had the best parties, dances, etc., and it was all free. Oh we loved going to Stephens! But we did graduate. I have five kids, I put them all through college as well as my wife, who really did help. Now I have eight grandkids, and would you believe, I could never get any of them to go to Mizzou? Mizzou was something special. It always will be.

Oh yes, my buddy, he was Forrest L. Miller, BS Ed '49, MST '62, who got two degrees from Mizzou, one from Washington and became a very successful teacher. He lives in Rockville, MD., and I live in Texas, but we’ve been friends, roommates and buddies for more than 60 years.

Probably our favorite place at Mizzou was the library. We spent more time there our first year than anywhere else.

— Conrad Lohoefer, BJ ’49

Now that I have written more than 800 pages of my memoirs, it is obvious that my degrees definitely helped me in life. I have also written a book, Survival in the Andes.

I worked as a summer geologist with Chevron when I was in grad school. After my Army commitment, I worked for Sinclair Oil in sales for five years. Then I worked for Mobile Oil in technical sales, engineering, geological exploration and in various management positions for more than 26 years. Then I had my own engineering training and consulting business for over 13 years and finally retired in 2005. All of these positions required a college degree.

During my career, I managed to get married and have five kids and three grandsons. In addition, I have traveled to all 50 U.S. states and to 49 countries.

Without my degrees, I would not have had the opportunity to have worked in the positions that I enjoyed. I also doubt that I would have traveled as extensively as I did. So, I definitely thank good old Mizzou for the opportunities it provided me.

Presently, we live on Lake Norman, Mooresville, NC, and have a beautiful mountain home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia. My wife, Sondra Sue, BSN ’59, and I are in good health and travel quite extensively.

— Robert “Bud” Weiser, BA ’58, MA ’60

Ah, the list of great experiences Mizzou alums can remember: papers and dances, keggers and community service, moving in and meetings, football games and friends, picnics and parties, Homecoming and hayrides …

But, for me, Summer Welcome in 1971 is my oldest, and fondest, memory of Ol' Mizzou.

I'm sure I didn’t get as much out of the experience as I should have (Gerald Boyd, later the award-winning editor of The New York Times, already had perfected his dynamic leadership style as the Summer Welcome leader of our group). But, Gerald, hear me out. I have an excuse for not paying much attention.

I had been struck by a thunderbolt and my mind turned to mush at the sight of a slender young woman, with light brown hair flecked with striking red highlights, deep blue eyes, a sparkling smile and a confident air. During the rest of that Summer Welcome, she actually said “Hi” to me a couple of times (at least once, I think, to snap me out of my puppyish stare).

At the end of the two-day session, she was on her way back to St. Louis and me back to Chicago. The prospect of picking her out of 20,000 other faces after we returned for classes that August seemed dim, so I was amazed to see her in the Hudson-Gillett cafeteria line during the first week of school. She didn’t see me. We were in the same American government class. The monosyllabic Dr. Robert Karsch lectured at 7:40 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Maybe you were there, too, because there must have been 500 of us herded into Middlebush auditorium.

And, with physical education being mandatory, the brown-haired girl actually lined up to knock down pins on the lane next to mine during an activity class on the Brady Commons lanes. The other two aspiring bowlers on my lane and I would stop and stare as her ball rolled off her fingers to take a path down her ally, frequently miss-aimed toward one corner or another. But the best part was the amazing way her hips moved as she used her raised right hand to pantomime pushing the ball toward the middle of the lane while it rolled away from the intended target. The exercise never really helped her score, but it always brightened our day.

The real connection didn’t happen until junior year. Although both of us were journalism majors (she also was majoring in English education), it was a speech elective (Oral Interpretation of Literature) that finally brought us together. We sat next to each other — me a GDI with a C-plus average; her the Alpha Phi scholarship chair who had more C's in her name than on her transcript. In Oral Interp., she read aloud from classics and mysteries with a voice so crisp and clean and vibrant it sounded like classical music; I read from sports and, well, more sports, with a voice like a backward Beatles record. But she smiled anyway — a smile that could make my knees buckle.

A date happened. Then another. And, the next semester, an engagement. And, a month after graduation, a marriage. We lacked money, jobs and living quarters at the time, but we did have her belief that, together, those things and more would work out. Now with three children, jobs we have loved, homes we have treasured, master's degrees for both of us and a doctorate for her – 35 years after that 1971 Summer Welcome, things are still working out.

I am grateful to Mizzou for a journalism education and the experience of working in Tiger athletics that both led me to my first career and my first chance to teach that has led to my second career. But I wish I could come back and say “thank you” to the people who planned and led that 1971 Summer Welcome because, without you, there might not have ever been an “us.”

And we are, Thomas Anthony Lamonica and Claire Coleman Lamonica, BS Ed '75, and sometimes, it still feels like Summer Welcome!

— Thomas Lamonica, BJ ’75

An @Mizzou reader shares another story of treasured times away from studying ...

I loved reading about Lindsey Hollins and her Olympic dreams. I, too, competed on the Army ROTC rifle team — and captained it — during my first two years at Mizzou. We traveled and shot postals, usually scoring in the top three at each event. It was tons of fun, and helped cement a lifelong passion for the shooting sports that began with our weekend excursions to Green Valley Rifle and Pistol Club for practice and state/local tourneys (the Reeses are founders). I still remember the hours spent in the basement of Crowder Hall, prone in the lanes with my fellow cadets, peering through the gunpowder haze as Sgt. Maj. McMullin and Capt. McMillian drilled us in sight picture and breath control. What fun. Go, Lindsey, go!

— Teresa Matthews-Rees, BA ’82

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Last Update: November 15, 2007