Alumni News
Compiled by Paula Wagner Apfelbach '83

80s

The American Law Institute (ALI) has welcomed Juliet Kostritsky JD'80 as a new member. On the faculty of Case Western Reserve University's School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio, since 1984, she has held the John Homer Kapp professor of law chair since 1999. ALI members are chosen on the basis of professional achievement and demonstrated interest in improving the law.

In November, Paul Lundsten '80, JD'83 took the bench as a judge in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District IV, which includes twenty-four counties in the southwestern and central parts of the state. Prior to this appointment by former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson '63, JD'66, Lundsten served as a Wisconsin assistant attorney general.

Drawing on her observations during fifteen years among the Dominicans, (Ada) Elizabeth Neely Evasdaughter PhD'81 has written a book about the modernization of a religious order. In Two Rivers, or, Dominican Nuns in the Land of the Ice Cream Sundae (Xlibris), the Raleigh, North Carolina, author shows how supposedly "uniform" nuns develop strong individual histories, and how their communities follow suit. According to the synopsis, "If you like books about cutesy nuns, idealized nuns, or wicked nuns, you will not like this book. These characters are quirky or warped, partisan or open to change."

Recently promoted to president and chief operating officer of the M. A. Mortenson Company in Minneapolis is Thomas Gunkel '82. During his nineteen years and numerous positions with the construction firm, Gunkel has worked on projects around the country and around the world. He also opened Mortenson's Milwaukee office in 1987.

Tom (C. Thomas) Sylke '82, JD'85 writes that he is "living a modern, professional version of A Tale of Two Cities in Milwaukee and San Francisco" ever since he "went solo" in November 1998 as the owner and principal of the Sylke Law Offices. The intellectual property practice has offices in Milwaukee, Palo Alto, and Berkeley, California. "While many people believe I should move to California," he writes, "I stay committed to my lifestyle, my family (my mom, Nancy Bremer Sylke '49 [of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin]), and my career in Wisconsin. I hope to be part of the growth of the technology fields here." Sylke is on the board of the UW Law Alumni Association, was a two-term chair of the law school's board of visitors, and has been a guest lecturer at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee. He is active with the UW Marching Band Alumni Association, whose "annual performance at a Badger football game is tougher than any final exam or work project I've ever encountered."

Susan Huang, the proud sister of Cynthia Christofferson Bachmann '83, wrote to say that Bachmann was recently promoted to vice president of plumbing for North America at Kohler, Incorporated, in Kohler, Wisconsin. Bachmann started her career with Boeing in Seattle, and about six years ago, she and her spouse, Jeff Bachmann '85, moved back to Wisconsin. They live in Plymouth.

St. Martin's Press published Suzen Fuehrer Ziegahn '83's first book — Seven Steps to Bonding with Your Stepchild — in March. The author lives in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.

Jacobus Wealth Management (JWM) in Milwaukee has welcomed Scott Powell '84, MBA'89, a chartered financial analyst, as a vice president and principal officer of the private, multi-client, family office and investment advisory firm. Other JWM principal officers include Chair and CEO Richard Jacobus '51, MBA'59 and Vice President Julie Enloe '90.

It's been a year since Paul Umentum JD'84 was ordained a permanent deacon for the Catholic diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and assigned to St. Mary of the Angels parish there. Deacon Umentum has also continued to practice law in Green Bay.

Princeton University Press has applauded Lisa McGirr '85 for her "new insights into how the New Right burgeoned from grassroots coffee klatches into the formidable political force it is today" — praise issued for her new book, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right. McGirr is an assistant professor of history at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

There's been quite a flurry of Badger activity at the Foley & Lardner law firm, as six graduates have been elected to partnership. The group includes Ann Mennell '85, Michael Aprahamian '89, and Eric Nelson '89 in the Milwaukee office; Mark Kassel '87, MS'95 and Daniel Kaplan '88 in the Madison office; and Michele Schafer Simkin '88 in the firm's Washington, D.C., office.

Todd Weiss '86 let us know that, for the past year, he has been a general assignment reporter for Computerworld, writing for both the weekly print and daily online editions. He was previously a staff writer for the Lancaster [Pennsylvania] New Era, and in his UW days, for the Daily Cardinal. While Weiss's work immerses him in the information technology industry, he notes that he lives in East Petersburg, Pennsylvania, "in the middle of Amish country."

After Greece, by Christopher Bakken '89, has won the 2001 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry — an international award for the best unpublished, book-length collection of poetry in English. Bakken's work, selected from more than five hundred manuscripts, earned him a $2,000 honorarium and publication of the book by award sponsor Truman State University Press. The poet is an assistant professor of English at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

New York University Assistant Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies Eliot Borenstein MA'89, PhD'93 has written a new book titled Men without Women: Masculinity and Revolution in Russian Fiction, 1917-1929. It's published by Duke University Press.

Alumni News: early years, 40s-50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s

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