Dushan "Duke" Petrovich '74 Named Wrigley President

Dushan "Duke" Petrovich '74, Knox trustee and former member of the Knox Business Advisory Council, has been named president of the William Wrigley Jr. Company. Petrovich has been with Wrigley for more than 30 years and will be responsible for the company's worldwide strategy, operations, and business performance.

Soon after graduating from Knox with a bachelor's degree in economics, Petrovich joined Wrigley as an accountant in the company's finance department and later served as vice president, corporate controller and vice president, corporate treasurer. In his most recent role as senior vice president and chief administrative officer, Petrovich has been responsible for many of the company's vital functions, including People, Learning, and Development (the company's human resources organization), global procurement, global supply chain, global real estate, information technology, and corporate communications. Read more.

"Knox is a small school that prepares you to compete in a big world," says Petrovich, who was profiled in the fall issue of the Knox Magazine. Read the article.

Weathering The Economic Storm

To help the Knox community better understand the deepening financial crisis, professors Steve Cohn, Rich Stout, and John Spittell led a discussion about the issues associated with the financial crisis and the steps being taken to address the issue.

A major concern many people have is what the plunging stock market is doing to their 401(k) retirement plans. John Spittell, executive-in-residence and professor of business and management, and Rich Stout, professor of economics, agree that the best thing you can do is stay calm. "Should you panic in a situation like this?" Spittell asked. "No. Should you be concerned and vigilant? Yes." Read more of Spittell's and Stout's remarks on the financial crisis in The Register-Mail.

The pair also discussed the role the Federal Reserve Bank is playing in the current financial crisis. Read more on the Federal Reserve Bank in The Register-Mail.

Roskams Return Last Dog Tag

The journey is finally over. After seven years, hundreds of phone calls, and thousands of miles, V.R. "Swede" '51 and Martha Jacobsen Roskam '52 returned the last of 31 dog tags they found at a market in Vietnam to its rightful owner. "We have been so blessed by meeting these wonderful guys who gave so much of themselves at that time and suffered so much," says Martha. "It was something we were supposed to do -- and we did it." Read more.

Knox Initiates Eco-Friendly Initiatives

Campus Celebrates Sustainability
Knox has taken major strides toward becoming a sustainable environment, including doing away with lunch trays to save water, providing reusable to-go containers in the cafeteria, and building a new bike shed on campus. To celebrate, the President's Task Force on Sustainability held an all-campus EquiKnox Picnic on September 22.

Students, faculty, and staff enjoyed dinner on the Gizmo patio using compostable utensils, registered their bicycles with the Galesburg Police Department, helped add bricks around the campus prairie plot, and learned about sustainability efforts happening on the Knox Campus. Read more about the picnic in The Register-Mail.

Read more about sustainability efforts at Knox.

Speaker Promotes Sustainable Society
On October 8, Sandra Steingraber, a native of central Illinois who has written extensively on environmental health, visited the Knox campus to discuss how colleges can build ecologically sustainable campuses and societies through "green" curriculum, institutional practices, and student activism. Read more on Steingraber and campus sustainability.

Professor Teaches Simplicity
Tim Kasser, associate professor of psychology, wrote The High Price of Materialism and teaches about voluntary simplicity in the class, Alternatives to Consumerism. His article "The Good Life or the Goods Life" recently appeared in the fall issue of the Knox Magazine. Read the Knox Magazine article.

A Note from the Editors

Family & Friends Weekend 2008
All parents, family members, and friends of the Knox community are invited to Family & Friends Weekend on October 24, 25, and 26. Be sure to check out the schedule, which now has a listing of the classes that are open to visitors. And don't forget to stop by the registration table on Friday or Saturday for the most up-to-date information on the weekend's activities. View the Family & Friends Weekend schedule and register online!

More News For Parents
The Knox College Business Office is now offering the opportunity to use credit cards online for payment of tuition. Learn more about tuition payments.

Countdown to Homecoming!
Homecoming is a few short weeks away. Have you registered yet? Don't miss your chance to catch up with old friends, chat with your favorite professors, visit classes with current students, or wander around campus. Register now and encourage your classmates to do the same!


 
Campus News 

Knox Celebrates 150th Anniversary of Debate
A banner declaring "Knox College for Lincoln" draped over the east side of Old Main set the stage for the 150 year anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas Debate in Galesburg on October 4. Called "Reunion Tour '08," the audience, many in period dress, became witness to history as Abraham Lincoln, a Republican upstart, debated Stephen Douglas, the most well-known Democrat of the time. Abraham Lincoln was played by George Buss and Stephen Douglas was played by Timothy Connors.  Read more about the Lincoln-Douglas Debate anniversary in The Knox Student.

See more photos from Reunion Tour '08 in The Register-Mail.

Scholars Gather for Lincoln Colloquium
Nearly 400 people attended the 23rd Annual Lincoln Colloquium at Knox on October 11. Leading historians, including Allen Guelzo, James McPherson, Garry Wills, David Zarefsky, and Rodney Davis and Douglas Wilson of the Lincoln Studies Center, gave presentations about Lincoln and the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. The colloquium also featured exhibits by Lincoln organizations and collectors. 

The Colloquium was presented by the Lincoln Studies Center, in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Lincoln Home National Historic Site, The Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, The Indiana Historical Society, and The Chicago History Museum.

Remembering Lincoln in Galesburg
When Abraham Lincoln debated Stephen Douglas on a blustery October day in 1858, Galesburg was a young city of 5,000 people and a hotbed of abolitionist activities. Those who went to the debates and later set their impressions down in print were mesmerized with Lincoln, according to accounts compiled by The Register-Mail. 

Senate Candidates Debate at Knox
Two days after the 150th Anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas Debate at Knox, another debate took place on campus, this one between Democrat Richard Durbin, U.S. Senator from Illinois, and Republican Steven Sauerberg, who is challenging Durbin in the November election. The debate was broadcast statewide by the Illinois Radio Network. Read more about the Durbin-Sauerberg debate.

The debate is being rebroadcast on the Illinois Channel this week throughout the state. View the schedule.

More campus news and features.

Student News

Belger First Generation to Attend College
Living in Elizabeth, Illinois, Sara Belger '12 said she felt that she was expected to follow the same track as most of the people who surrounded her, which meant working full-time and taking a few classes at a community college. Since she already had a job as a waitress, she could have continued to work after graduating from high school, as her mother did. Instead, she came to Knox. Read more in The Knox Student.

Transplant Recipient Eyes More Donors
All too familiar with the many difficulties facing someone in need of an organ or tissue transplant, Knox College junior Jackie Stillmaker is working to make the lives of those in need a little easier. Ever since her three different corneal transplants, Stillmaker has done her best to raise awareness and support for the many needs of organ and tissue recipients. Her latest endeavor is heading up Knox College's role in the Donate Life Illinois 2008 Campus Challenge, an intercollegiate competition to register new organ and tissue donors. Read more about Stillmaker in The Register-Mail story.

Studying Abroad Offers Much More Than An Education
As an international relations major, with a history and economics minor, Jessica Wise '09 says studying abroad provides an opportunity to learn more about the way the world works, to see things through different eyes, absorb a foreign culture, and have a lot of fun. Wise spent the better part of her junior year at the School for International Training (SIT) in Ireland. Read more about Wise and her studies in Ireland.

Student Shares Story of Iowa Flood
When junior Clayton Besong drove back to his hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, last spring, he had no idea it would be one of the last times he would see the train bridge; a sign he was close to home. The bridge collapsed when the Cedar River rose more than 30 feet and flooded several sections of the city. "I really didn't think something like this would happen," said Besong, of the flood. "It's Iowa, we're landlocked. That's why I was in such disbelief." Read more about Besong in The Knox Student.

More coverage of Knox students is available on the Knox news page.


Alumni News

Lawrence Named Illinoisan of the Year
Michael Lawrence '64, retired director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, recently received "Illinoisan of the Year" honors from the Illinois News Broadcasters Association (INBA). The INBA says Lawrence has been a watchdog of Illinois politics for decades and continues to work for reform at the institute.

Before joining the institute in 1997, Lawrence was press secretary to Jim Edgar during Edgar's tenure both as governor and as secretary of state. He also has served on the Illinois Courts Commission and the State Board of Ethics. Lawrence headed news bureaus in Springfield for the Quad City Times, Lee Enterprises and the Chicago Sun Times, and was an editor at the Quad City Times and a reporter at The Register-Mail. Read more about Lawrence.

Know a good student?
If you know someone whom you think might flourish at Knox, please tell us. You'll be helping Knox pursue its mission of providing the kind of education that prepares students to thrive in every aspect of their lives. Recommend a student today.

Alumni Notes

Bill Ives '55 recently visited his hometown of Aledo, Illinois, where he attended the dedication of a marker he sponsored that designates Abraham Lincoln's association with Mercer County. After graduating from Knox, Ives attend Harvard Law School and currently practices law in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Earlier this month, Knox County Board member and first-year Monmouth College American politics Professor Caroline Andrews Porter '58, registered students and faculty at a voter registration drive on the Monmouth campus. Many were first-time voters. "Young people, for various reasons, seem to be inspired by this election," said Porter. Read about Porter in The Register-Mail article.

Brian Tibbets '96, Latin teacher at Monmouth-Roseville High School for the last six years, was named Illinois Classical Conference Latin Teacher of the Year. Read more about Tibbets in the Monmouth Review Atlas.

Hannah Sherry '05 has been chosen to join The Register-Mail's newly formed Political Focus Group. Sherry works with developmentally disabled adults in Galesburg and has been in the Army Reserves for five years.

Donnie Forti '06 is the morning show producer at the ABC affiliate in Wausau, Wisconsin. He writes scripts, decides which stories will air, and edits video for a two-hour newscast that airs before Good Morning America.

Meghan Reardon '08 had her Chicago acting debut this fall in an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula at The Building Stage. Read more about Reardon's debut. 

Jessica Strache '08 and Megan Hall '08 have had their work selected to be shown during the new choreographers' showcase at the 2008 Dance Chicago Festival. Learn more about the Dance Chicago festival.

CORRECTION: In the September issue of the Gizmogram, we noted that Michael Hinken '96 was a summer 2008 Writing Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In fact, he was a winter fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center from 2007-08. We apologize for the error.

Read and post Class Notes in the Knox Online Community.



Faculty & Staff News

Lincoln Scholars Honored
Rodney Davis and Douglas Wilson, co-directors of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox, are among 30 individuals from around the world who will receive a special Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial edition of The Order of Lincoln, the highest honor from the State of Illinois.

Davis and Wilson are among the nation's foremost Lincoln scholars. They recently released the first critical edition of the texts of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. They also co-edited Herndon's Informants, which assembles first-hand recollections from people who knew Lincoln, and Herndon's Lincoln, a biography by William Herndon, Lincoln's law partner in Springfield. Read more about Douglas and Wilson.

Phil Haring, Professor of Political Science from 1954-1980, Passes
Professor Emeritus of Political Science Philip Haring died at his home in Nantucket on September 27. He would have been 93 on October 7. He graduated from Harvard College and served in the Navy at Pearl Harbor. Read more about professor Haring's naval service in the Knox Magazine.

Professor Haring spent 26 years as a professor of political science at Knox, from 1954 until 1980. He was a much-loved teacher, who was known for challenging his students to think deeply about complex political and philosophical problems. During the Vietnam War, he was a valued mentor for students who were struggling with questions about the war and decisions about military service. In 1970, he published the book Political Morality. Read Haring's obituary in The Register-Mail.

Faculty & Staff Notes

Neil Blackadder, associate professor of theatre, received a fellowship to attend the Banff International Literary Translation Centre in Banff, Canada, where he completed a translation from German of the play Tattoo by the Swiss writers Igor Bauersima and Réjane Desvignes.  This summer's issue of LMDA Review (The Newsletter of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas) featured, in a new collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Toronto, "Play-in-Print: A Selection from The Ballad of the Pine Tree Killer by Rebekka Kricheldorf, translated by Neil Blackadder," and "'A Fundamental Resistance': An Interview with Neil Blackadder by Beth Gallagher." The newly released book France: A Traveler's Literary Companion from Whereabouts Press features Neil's translation from French of "Rue Laferrière" by Jacques Réda. His translation of The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents will premier on the New York stage in November.

Vitalist Theatre, co-founded by Elizabeth Carlin-Metz, professor of theatre and Robin Metz, director of Knox's Program in Creative Writing, has won a Chicago After Dark Award for Outstanding Overall Technical Achievement in their most recent production of A Passage to India.

Nancy Eberhardt, professor of anthropology, presented a paper titled "What Does It Mean to Be Shan? Shifting Ethnic Markers for Shan in Northern Thailand" at the International Burma Studies Conference, held in October at Northern Illinois University.

Gregory Gilbert, associate professor of art, presented the lecture "Random Order: The Art and Life of Robert Rauschenberg" earlier this month at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa. Gilbert also talked about his work at Knox and with the Figge Art Museum on WVIK, Rock Island National Public Radio, in September.

Michael Godsil '76, instructor in art, will present a gallery talk about the works of photographers Barbara Morgan and Carlotta Corpron at The Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, on November 2. Multiple photographs by both photographers are in the current exhibit of 80 photographs: "In the Light -- Photographs from the Brent Sikkema Collection." 

Tim Kasser, associate professor of psychology, recently gave eight talks in the United Kingdom:

• At the Labour Party Fringe Conference, he participated in panels on "Transport in an oil and climate constrained world" and "Beyond Growth: Well-being in a low carbon economy." 
• Kasser participated in these same two panels at the Conservative Party Fringe Conference and also spoke there on "Towards a Green New Deal." 
• He gave a talk on "A revolution of values: Materialism and its alternatives" at an event sponsored by the New Economics Foundation in London
• "A primer on intrinsic and extrinsic goals" was a talk given by Kasser to master's students in Positive Psychology at the University of East London.
• He spoke on "National values and the well-being of future generations" at the Northampton School for Girls in Northampton. 
• The article "If you build it, will they come?: Public transport and personal values" was published in The Independent, a UK newspaper.

In September, Laura Lane, professor of music, appeared on Don Wooten's Saturday Morning Live program on WVIK, Rock Island National Public Radio, where she talked about her work at Knox.

Magali Roy-Fequiere, associate professor of Gender and Women's Studies, presented a paper on the "Cartographies of Identities: Puerto Rico(ans) in the 21st Century" in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she discussed the work of award-winning novelist and poet Mayra Santos Febres. Roy-Fequiere has also been elected to the Puerto Rican Studies Association's Executive Council for 2008-2010.

Chuck Schulz '72, professor of physics, and collaborators from the University of Notre Dame, had a paper appear in Inorganic Chemistry: "Hydrogen Bonding Influence of 1,10-Phenanthroline on Five-Coordinate High-Spin Imidazole-Ligated Iron(II) Porphyrinates."

Jennifer Smith, assistant professor of dance, had her Chicago-based dance company, Back & To The Left Productions, selected to perform in the 2008 DanceChicago Festival. Learn more about the Dance Chicago Festival.

Jennifer Templeton, associate professor of biology, has published research carried out with Joyce Christensen '03 titled, "A behavioral analysis of prey detection lateralization & unilateral transfer in European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)," in Behavioural Processes.

Lincoln's writing and the Lincoln-Douglas Debates were the focus of two presentations given by Douglas Wilson, co-director of the Linoln Studies Center, in Peoria last month. Read more about Wilson's presentation in the Peoria Journal Star.



Contact Us
Submissions to The Gizmogram should be made to the editors at gizmogram@knox.edu. Submissions may be edited for space.

Editors
Megan Scott '96  & Cheri Siebken

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