When asked what inspired her to write a book, Elaine Gray Dumler ’75 (criminal justice) has a simple, one-word answer. “Guilt,” she replies.
Dumler’s career as a presentation-skill trainer keeps her on the road and away from her home and family in Colorado. She felt badly about the separations and began devising methods for keeping in touch. In 2002 she decided to publish her tips. When a friend in the Air Force saw the manuscript, she urged Dumler to expand the section aimed at military families. She took that advice and spent the next four months interviewing people in the armed services, gathering their insights.
The result is I’m Already Home, described by Ladies Home Journal in an October 2004 article as a “grass-roots success story” and “a welcome tonic for families missing their loved ones.” More than 16,000 copies of the reader-friendly, down-to-earth volume have been sold.
In 104 pages Dumler gives more than 100 practical tips, lists helpful Web sites and other resources, and shares poetry, anecdotes and cartoons aimed at “keeping your family close when you’re on TDY (tour of duty).”
“Today’s ‘civilian soldier’ is a big change from earlier generations, when the vast majority of people in the service were young, unmarried men,” says Dumler, who has spent much of the past year speaking to families at military installations. She notes that 57 percent of people in the armed services are married, and nearly half of those people have children under the age of 12.
“I am so in awe of the these people,” says Dumler. “They have such strength. I am very impressed with the people we have supporting this country.”
For more information about the book, go to www.imalreadyhome.com.
Six months in Ghana provided inspiration for a book by Carrie Brown ’01 (fine art photography). As a volunteer for Cross-Cultural Solutions (CCS),
Brown documented life in the village of Woe. Born on a Monday, available at the RIT bookstore and the George Eastman House in Rochester, includes 50 color photos, three essays by Brown and three essays written by people in Woe.
Brown, who received her MFA from Savannah (Ga.) College of Art and Design in May 2004, says she hopes to return to Ghana. “I believe there’s a need to document this culture,” she says. For more on her experience, visit www.carriecbrown.com.
Col. Brian A. Crawford ’83 (criminal justice) became garrison commander at West Point in July. In this position, Crawford is responsible for many of the organizations and operations that keep the installation running.
Similar to a city manager, he oversees public works, housing, information management, public safety and force protection, transportation, contracting, community recreation, and many other facets of the community, and he manages an annual operating budget in excess of $150 million.
Prior to the West Point appointment, Crawford served as
executive officer to the director of the Installation Management Agency in Washington, D.C. Crawford began his Army career after graduating from RIT, where he participated in the ROTC program. He has spent many of the succeeding years in Germany and the U.S., having served with the 3rd Infantry Division, the 101st Airborne Division, and the 1st Infantry Division. He also served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He attended and graduated from the National War College in 2003.
Rikki Van Camp ’84 (photo science) received the 2004 Barnard J. Kolenberg Award from the New York State Associated Press Association, the organization’s top award for photography. Van Camp is a photographer for The Daily Messenger in Cananadaigua, N.Y. Her award-winning image, which also captured first place in the spot news category, captures the reaction of two people outside their burning home.
Van Camp joined the Messenger staff
in 1990.
Eugene Rosa ’67 (business), has been appointed to the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change of the National Research Council/National
Academy of Sciences, a standing committee of the academy since 1989. The three-year appointment is based upon Rosa’s research contributions to the further understanding of the human factors in global environmental impacts and his contributions to environmental science policy. Among its activities, the committee advises the National Science Foundation’s policy science program on global change issues.
Rosa is the Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor of Natural Resource and Environmental Policy, professor of sociology, affiliated professor of environmental science, affiliated professor of fine arts, and faculty associate in the Center for Integrated Biology, all at Washington State University. He is
also completing a three-year appointment on the National Board on Radioactive Waste Management of the National Academies.
Other current service for the National Academies is his membership on the Committee on Metrics for Global Change Research.
In 2004, Rosa was honored with his election as Fellow of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Three RIT alumni are among the first 11 inductees in the Alumni Hall of Fame of Oakfield-Alabama Central School District, located in a rural community in Western New York.
• Donald Boyce ’67 (business administration), retired chairman of IDEX Corp. and a member of the RIT Board of Trustees.
• Teresa Drilling ’83 (fine arts), an award-winning stop-motion animator who has worked on numerous projects including the feature films Chicken Run (2000) and Elf (2003).
• D. Mark Kingsley ’84 (fine arts), a graphic artist whose work in the music industry has been featured in advertising and CD packaging for musicians including Jewel, Bette Midler, Pat Metheney and many others.
Dan Mirer ’98 (fine arts), an artist and home brewer, created artful beer bottles during his Visiting Artist Fellowship at UrbanGlass, a not-for-profit center in Brooklyn. The experience culminated in an exhibit that showcased design and glassmaking techniques, the functionality of the bottles and the quality of the beer. UrbanGlass awards three fellowships each year. Mirer resides in the Albany, N.Y., area.
Bob Kiss ’73 (photo science) is using his 8x10-format bellows view camera to preserve historic houses in Barbados. The
so-called “chattel houses” date to mid-19th century, when freed slaves needed to build simple wooden homes that could be easily moved. Today, these houses are being destroyed, so Kiss has taken on the task of documenting all that remain.
“Not only am I trying to preserve our heritage with these prints,” he says, “I am trying to show the chattels in the best aesthetic light through the beauty of these large platinum/palladium prints.”
Kiss has received support in this project from local companies as well as Kodak and the National Art Gallery Committee. He has had several solo shows of his resulting photos.
Noted Barbadian historian Henry Fraser believes that “Bob Kiss’ brilliant work will sensitize us more than ever to the importance of the chattel house and its significance in Barbadian history, culture and development.”
Gerard L. Coté ’86 (electrical engineering), has been named head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University. He also recently became the inaugural holder of the Charles H. and Bettye Barclay Professorship in Engineering.
Coté has been at Texas A&M since 1991, starting as an assistant professor. He was named professor and associate head in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2002. He is director of the Optical Biosensing Laboratory, where the research focus is on developing biosensing and diagnostic systems using lasers, fiberoptics and electronics.
Coté is a Fellow in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. The Association of Former Students honored him with a 2002 Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching, and he was selected as a Fellow of the Michael E. DeBakey Institute for Comparative
Cardiovascular Science and Biomedical Devices at Texas A&M.
Coté received his master’s and Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Connecticut.
Venkat Purushotham ’81, ’82 (imaging science) was named to the Alumni Hall of Distinction by the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (cIcu), an Albany-based non-profit advocacy organization for private colleges and universities.
cIcu created the Independent Sector Alumni Hall of Distinction in 2000 to recognize graduates who have made extraordinary contributions to New York and the U.S. through their careers and civic service. This year, the organization honored a dozen individuals who came to New York to attend college and decided to make the state their home.
Purushotham is president and CEO of Rochester-based NexPress Solutions Inc. NexPress was formed in 1998 as a joint venture between Eastman Kodak Company and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, the world’s largest printing solutions provider. In 2004, NexPress became a wholly owned subsidiary of Kodak.
Joshua Weinberg ’89 (professional and technical communications) was named head of the new Digital Life Practice of Eastwick Communications Inc., a PR agency in Silicon Valley. Digital Life Practice provides media programs for high-tech organizations that market products or services to non-technical clients.
“The dilemma for so many organizations is how to differentiate and sell technology products to consumers without talking only about bits, bytes and specs,” said Weinberg. “Eastwick’s Digital Life Practice helps organizations communicate with consumers and other groups in language they understand and in the publications they read.”
Weinberg, a public relations professional with 15 years of consumer high-tech experience, has launched a number of high-profile consumer technology products including Sony’s VAIO PC line, Intel’s toy microscope, and Handspring’s Visor Edge. Eastwick has worked with companies including Adobe, Softbook, DoDots and SeniorNet.
Maria Claudia Cortes ’03 (M.F.A., computer graphics design) has been receiving widespread praise for her RIT thesis project, an animated Web site titled Color in Motion.
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A page from Cortes’ award-winning Web site, “Color in Motion.”
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The project received Best of Category honors in the I.D. Magazine 2004 Student Design Review competition, it was featured by Communication Arts Magazine in the 2004 Interactive Design Annual, and also made the pages of the December 2004 issue of Proyecto Diseno, the leading design magazine in Cortes’ home country, Colombia.
Cortes joined Eastman Kodak Company in 2003, working first in Rochester and now in Bogota, Colombia, for the Technical Knowledge Management Department. She is a multimedia developer and graphic designer.
To view Color in Motion, go to www.mariaclaudiacortes.com
