1954
Kenneth Rystrom is living in Florence, Ore., since retiring from Virginia Tech in May 1997. He had worked for The Columbian in Vancouver, Wash., and for the Des Moines Register and Tribune before teaching a total of 20 years at Washington State University, the University of Redlands and Virginia Tech. The third edition of his editorial writing book, The Why, Who and How of the Editorial Page, was published in fall 1998. He has also published a book titled A Book-Comber’s Guide to the Oregon Coast, which describes 60 bookstores and the recreational and cultural aspects of communities along the coast. Since retiring, he has spent time setting type and printing various items on two 100-year-old Chandler & Price job presses. One of his publications, The Seawatch Press, a monthly distributed through the American Amateur Press Association, received an award as best new publication in 1997.
1955
Marlin Bree, St. Paul, Minn., was profiled in the 1999 “Who’s Who in America” and in “Who’s Who in Media and Communications.
1958
Judith Ramey, Evanston, Ill., is an attorney working in labor law for the federal government. She graduated from Loyola of Chicago School of Law in 1979. She continued to do freelance writing for a time after she earned her law degree and hopes to return to that when she retires.
1965
Dan Mook is an employee of the Nebraska Department of Education and is a Nebraska ETV communication consultant and TV program producer.
1971
Patrick diNatale, Lenexa, Kan., retired in 1997 after 25 years as an advertising agency creative director. He still does selected projects.
1975
Gregory Lukow is at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, helping establish the country’s first graduate program in moving image archive studies in collaboration with UCLA’s Department of Film and Television and Library and Information Sciences School. He was formerly director of the American Film Institute’s National Center for Film and Video Preservation. He is editor of a book, titled The Administration of Television Newsfilm and Videotape Collections: A Curatorial Manual. In addition, he was a film critic from 1985-93 for KCRW, the National Public Radio affiliate in Los Angeles.
1976
Mike McKnight, reporter with WOWT-TV in Omaha received a second place award in general news coverage for 1999 in the Nebraska News Photographers “TV” Video Competition.
1977
Kevin Higley moved from Rochester, N.Y., to Denver in June 1998 and is working as a freelance photojournalist. His wife, Lucy McGath Higley, also a 1977 NU grad, is the director of public policy for US West in Denver.
Steve Roth has joined Swanson Russell Associates, Lincoln, as public relations associate. He handles public relations needs for various clients, primarily in the agriculture and outdoor recreation industries. Prior to joining SRA, Roth was self-employed as a public relations/marketing contractor and served as director of communications for the Nebraska Soybean Association. For the past 20 years, Roth has covered Nebraska sports and news at the high school and college levels for KWBE Radio, KLIN Radio and NETV.
1978
Michael K. Branigan, Denver, is senior account executive with The Denver Business Journal.
1979
Gregg Pejsar teaches photography at Dana College, Blair, and is one of the directors of the “Forum,” Dana’s “liberal arts” space for gallery shows, special events programs, etc. He received a master’s degree in communications from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1997.
1982
Curt Maas has been a video specialist at Image Base Inc. in Chicago for the past 11 years. The company specializes in business and corporate video and multimedia communication. He lives in Bolingbrook, Ill., with his wife, Joanna, and their sons, Ryan and Tony — and greyhounds Royce and Amber.
1983
Margaret “Peggy” Hinz is director of communications for the California Endowment, Woodlands Hills, Calif. She directs the development and implementation of all the endowment’s communications activities. Before joining the endowment, Hinz worked 15 years with the American Red Cross, part of that time as director of external communications for the national headquarters. Most recently, she was communication and marketing officer for the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Red Cross. The California Endowment’s mission is
to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and to improve the health status of Californians.
Patricia Gallagher Newberry, Cincinnati, Ohio, is a half-time visiting instructor at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. She previously spent about a dozen years working for newspapers.
1988
Lisa Davis is an instructor of operations training for the Union Pacific Railroad. Based in West Chicago, Lisa teaches air brake and train handling, mechanical, block signals, track warrants/track bulletins, general code or operating rules and hazardous materials. She previously worked as a locomotive engineer, conductor and switchman/brakeman for 10 years. In December, she recorded the voice-over portion of the hazardous materials training video used throughout the UP system. She was recently accepted for membership in the American Council of Railroad Women, whose members are railroad women in management roles. Davis will soon expand her role as an instructor by teaching a dispatcher rules course at the UP headquarters in Omaha.
1989
Todd Christenson is national sales manager for “Electronic Products,” a publication of the Hearst Corporation. He is also a board member of the Business Marketing Association, New York Chapter, and is president of the Nebraska Society of New York.
1990
Jeffrey Z. Carney, photographer at the Omaha World-Herald, was named the 1999 “Still” Photographer of the Year at the Nebraska News Photographers Association’s annual awards presentation May 15. This was the third consecutive year Carney received the Photographer of the Year award. Carney also received a first place award in the photo story category and second place awards in the pictorial, sports feature and sports action categories and an honorable mention award in the feature category.
1991
Jill D. Gifford, Lincoln, is the Entrepreneur Assistance Program Manager (EAP) and a Food Industry Consultant for the UNL Food Processing Center. Her primary responsibility is to manage the EAP and provide business and marketing assistance to start-up and small food manufacturers. The program provides marketing, business development and technical assistance to entrepreneurs from Nebraska and throughout the country.
1992
Nick Hytrek is a reporter at the Sioux City (Iowa) Journal. He covers courts and county government.
1994
Lori Holy has been named assistant general counsel for the National Association of Broadcasting. She started at NAB in 1996 as a law clerk and has handled low-power radio and equal employment issues.
William Lauer, photographer at the Lincoln Journal Star, received an honorable mention award in the sports feature category in the 1999 Nebraska News Photographers Association competition.
1996
Scott Blair accepted a position in April with The Integer Group in Denver. He is a media planner/buyer, working on the firm’s business team and with the Coors account.
Tim Pearson married April Snow in 1996. He has been at the Norfolk Daily News since graduation, first as assistant wire editor, then as sports editor/assistant wire editor and now as head wire editor.
Jeff Zeleny received the Outstanding Achievement in Writing Award and first place in feature writing in the Best of Gannett competition announced in April. Zeleny, a reporter at the Des Moines Register, won for a series, “The Guys You Date Turn Up Dead.” The judges remarked, “The execution of this project was excellent. Each story pushed you to the next. Good narrative, pacing, characters. Suspenseful. You can’t put this down.”
1997
Jill Blobaum, West Des Moines, Iowa, is a lead generation coordinator for the Guidant Insurance Group. She is in charge of direct marketing promotions for the firm.
Vince D’Adamo is a sports writer at the Napa Valley Register in Napa, Calif., his hometown. As a student, he worked as a sportscaster and sports producer for KLIN Radio in Lincoln and as a sports writer for the Daily Nebraskan. In Napa, about 90 percent of his reporting is devoted to high school sports. He also writes a Sunday column every three weeks and says his biggest assignment has been covering the Oakland Raiders’ camp and the San Francisco 49ers’ season. He covered the 49ers-Packers NFC wild card game, something he describes as the highlight of his professional career thus far.
Gerik Parmele, photographer at the Grand Island Independent, received first place awards in the spot news category and the feature category in the 1999 Nebraska News Photographers Association competition. He also earned third place in the photographer of the year competition and an honorable mention in the feature category.
Julie Luedtke has been hired as a media buyer for Swanson Russell Associates’ Lincoln office. Prior to joining SRA she worked as a group client services representative at Ameritas, a Lincoln-based insurance firm.
Jennifer Milke started work March 3 as a public relations technologist for Husker Power, the NU Athletic Department’s strength program. She designs brochures and helps produce a weekly newsletter and maintains the program’s Web site.
Greg Parish has been promoted to associate production manager at Swanson Russell Associates, Lincoln, where he had been a production artist since 1997. His new responsibilities include overseeing production of printed pieces and working with art department staff to produce communications materials for various clients.
1998
Christy Aegerter began a job in April as director of public relations and marketing for the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben in Omaha.
Paula Lavigne Sullivan is the education reporter at the St. Joseph News Press, St. Joseph, Mo.
1999
Lindsay Peterson, a May broadcasting graduate, will be a summer intern in the office of Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel in Washington, D.C.