In Memoriam
Fondly Known as "Mr. Beloit"
| Photo by Greg Anderson |
 |
Over the years, many people associated with Beloit College have simply called Joe Kobylka’51 “Mr. Beloit.” The voice of Beloit’s athletic program, the glue that holds together a spirited alumni community, and the inspiration for a generation that followed him in serving the College, Kobylka has played so many roles so well at Beloit.
At his 55th reunion celebration this fall, Kobylka was recognized with the Alumni Association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Citation.
Kobylka officially served as director of Alumni Affairs from 1966 to 1994, but he started chronicling Beloit’s history even earlier as a reporter for the Beloit Daily News. When the basketball season starts, he hopes to begin his 41st consecutive year at the microphone announcing the Buccaneers’ games. Kobylka also volunteers and participates in College life on many fronts, including as the friendly face at Beloit’s front door for decades of alumni.
“I researched many DSC candidates and wrote most of their citations, but never did I dream that someday one of them would bear my name,” Kobylka noted at the Alumni Assembly on Sept. 16 during Homecoming.
Kobylka says a chance conversation with Carey Croneis, Beloit’s fifth president, sold him on the merits of the College some 60 years ago, and the decision to come to Beloit changed his life.
“I owe Beloit a great deal,” Kobylka says. “A quality education, good friends, wonderful colleagues, exciting environment, unmatched career highlights — and above all the love and joy of my life, my wife Faith.” Joe and Faith Kellogg Kobylka’54 have two sons, Joe’78 and Rich’81, and a daughter, Sandy’87.
Editor's note: After this issue of Beloit College Magazine was printed, we learned of the death of Joe Kobylka’51, one of the most beloved members of the College community. He is featured prominently on these pages, in part because he earned the Distinguished Service Citation at Homecoming/Reunion in recognition of his many contributions to Beloit College. A full obituary will appear in the spring 2007 issue.
Beloit's First Couple
| Photo by Greg Anderson |
 |
Dave’56 and Jane Karr Threinen’56 are all about service to their alma mater. In retirement, the two moved to the city of Beloit, accepting an invitation from Beloit’s ninth president, Victor E. Ferrall, Jr., who encouraged them to get involved as resident volunteer leaders and advocates.
That was nearly seven years ago, and it has been a tremendous boon for Beloit because the Threinens have embraced volunteerism at all levels. From serving in high-profile leadership positions to performing countless behind-the-scenes acts, they have been there with enthusiasm and vigor.
Jane Karr Threinen, a former television personality, has applied her people skills to everything from leading the Alumni Association Board of Directors (she is the organization’s immediate past-president) to heeding a variety of calls for help. For instance, when the College bookstore was on the eve of its grand opening — and there were still shelves to stock and floors to sweep — Karr Threinen rolled up her sleeves.
And he was right there with her. Dave Threinen, a retired petroleum geologist who proved the value of his liberal education by changing careers with ease, serves as a life trustee on Beloit’s board of trustees and is also secretary of the Chapin Society, a gift club composed of the College’s most generous donors.
His altruism is driven by a central and very personal belief: that every student capable of succeeding at Beloit should be able to enroll, no matter their financial situation. Threinen says he never would have made it to Beloit without the help of an alumni scholarship, and now he is committed to paying forward that generosity.
In many ways, the Threinens are Beloit’s first couple, with a love story that encompasses both themselves and the larger community they now call home. For years, this dynamic couple worked separately on behalf of Beloit from their home territories of Texas and California. With the passing of their spouses, the old friends and classmates joined forces, married, and returned to the place that means so much to them.
At Homecoming/Reunion 2006, as they celebrated their jubilee reunion, the Threinens received the Distinguished Service Citation, the highest honor awarded to members of the alumni community.
A Lasting Impact
| Photo by Greg Anderson |
 |
The Beloit College Alumni Association singled out Dr. Arthur Elman’66 with the Distinguished Service Citation, the highest honor a member of the alumni community can receive. He was one of six members of the alumni community to be recognized at Homecoming/Reunion 2006 for their significant achievements.
A leader in his Boston, Mass., community and in the medical profession, Dr. Elman has always managed to make time in his busy life for Beloit. He has given the College wise counsel as a member of the board of trustees and is playing a central role in Beloit’s Classic. Daring. Life-Changing. comprehensive fund-raising campaign, launched in April of this year. For Elman, it’s a repeat performance of the talents he contributed to the College’s successful Sesquicentennial Capital Campaign, implemented a decade ago. A physician who is dedicated to the newest developments in the fields of oncology and women’s health, Dr. Elman has shared his diverse concerns and eclectic interests with his alma mater in meaningful ways.
The College’s Writing Center and the special visiting displays of historic science books from the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City were inspired by his interests and concern for creating the right foundation for a liberal arts education.
“I feel fortunate that I’ve had the chance to visit Beloit on a regular basis over the years,” Dr. Elman said in his acceptance remarks in Eaton Chapel. “I like to think that Beloit has had a lasting impact on my life, and this College deserves our enthusiastic support.”
Reshaping Healthcare Where the Need is Greatest
| Photo by Greg Anderson |
 |
Dr. Philip Christian’81 recalls working extremely hard as a Beloit College undergraduate. In fact, he still remembers being required to take a course called “Creating Things and Ideas,” which he resented at the time because he wanted to focus on his science-intensive, pre-med courses.
The class, however, turned out to be invaluable to him.
Now, as a physician with a business executive’s mind and a generous heart, one could argue that he lives that course, creating “things and ideas” where none existed before, especially when it comes to inventing new ways to extend health care to the poor, the elderly, and the underserved.
Currently working on a health initiative with the Seminole Indian tribe in Florida, Dr. Christian has also served in an emergency M.A.S.H. unit at Ground Zero, helped organize a response to the anthrax scare in Washington, D.C., and confronted public health issues at the center of war-torn Haiti. He remains involved with AIDS initiatives in Detroit, Mich., and in serving low-income and immigrant populations in Chicago. While he has set new standards for management as a physician-executive, he has never separated himself from primary care facilities and hands-on medical practice.
During Homecoming/Reunion 2006,
Dr. Christian was formally recognized for his public service when the Alumni Association presented him with the Distinguished Service Citation, the highest honor given to a member of the Beloit College alumni community.
Jakers! Or, as Americans say, Wow!
Marcy Brown’84 was still a Beloit student when she discovered her talent for humor and creative expression. “I learned that I was funny and could say things in a few lines that no one else could,” she recalls.
Now she has a golden statue to prove it.
Brown and her husband, Dennis Haley, were among a team of television animation writers honored when Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks — a show they write for — won an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Children’s Animated Series category earlier this year.
“This award means so much to us because of how much we love the series,” she says.
Jakers! airs on PBS as part of public television’s high-quality programming for kids. Set in the Irish countryside in the 1950s, the show follows the exploits of the mischievous Piggley and his friends, Dannen (a duck) and Fernando Toro (a bull).
“Jakers” is an Irish expression, which the characters regularly use in amazement and delight. Each episode illustrates a lesson — such as the value of diversity — and models intergenerational relationships between characters. Children who are drawn into the series by its juvenile protagonists are also introduced to lovable “senior” characters like Grandpa Piggley, as well as the “ageless rascal,” Wiley the Sheep.
For Brown, Jakers! is “one of those shows that you dream about your whole life” — a respected production that inspires her personally and professionally. “We’re fortunate to work with a rare and wonderful group of people,” she says.
Brown is uniquely qualified for her job. An English literature major at Beloit, she later attended the English Nanny & Governess School, where she took courses in children’s literature and child development. Her first job as a professional nanny landed her in Los Angeles; after leaving that position, she sought writing jobs in the local market. Over the next decade, she worked for a series of production companies, honing her skills and networking with industry insiders.
Today, Brown and Haley are among a select group of freelance writers who contributed storylines to Jakers!, and they continue to write for other animated series, including The Zula Patrol and Cosmic Quantum Ray. They are also developing a new show with another production company. Working out of their Los Angeles home, they collaborate on scripts that include more than dialogue.
“Writing for animation takes a combination of talent and skill,” Brown explains. “It is more challenging than writing for live action, in that we are creating a world and have to be specific about props, clothing, actions, facial expressions, camera directions, and more.”
Her association with Jakers! provided her with an unexpected thrill: meeting her idol, legendary comedian Mel Brooks, who supplies the voice of Wiley.
“I’ve loved his comedy forever,” Brown says. When she and Haley were invited to participate in one of Brooks’ rehearsals, she got to watch the master in action. “After it was over, I said to the producers, ‘we can die now and it will be fine,’” she laughs.
Discussions are underway to create a Piggley Winks feature film — a prospect that excites Brown and her fellow artists. But for now, she is just happy to savor their success. “I finally found something I love that loves me back.”
More about the Jakers! television series is on the Web: http://pbskids.org/jakers/
— N. Marie Dries’92
Putting Women's Issues First
Even when she was in high school, Julia Cuba’96 had the presence of mind to know that she wanted her pursuits to have an impact on the world.
| Photo by: Tom Guschl |
 |
And they already have. Only 10 years beyond her Beloit graduation, Cuba’s work with Troop 1500 — a scout troop that empowers girls whose moms are in prison — has been recognized nationally. Her program was the subject of an award-winning documentary film released in 2005. (For more on Troop 1500, see the summer 2006 issue of Beloit College Magazine.)
At Beloit, Cuba created her own challenges, designing her courses to deal with the real-life experiences of women who had stepped beyond their culturally assigned roles. She wound up, after a lot of theory, questioning if real women can truly define themselves. Her graduate program in social work and the opportunity to work with young girls and their incarcerated mothers has given her the chance to pursue that question into her professional career — and to have a profound impact on a new generation.
Cuba returned to Beloit for her 10-year reunion, where she took part in two screenings of Troop 1500 followed by discussions of the film and a reception with Beloit-area scouts.
At the Alumni Assembly in Eaton Chapel, Cuba’s accomplishments were formally recognized when the Beloit College Alumni Association honored her with the Young Alumni Award.
A line in her citation summed it up best: “Beloit is proud of Julia Cuba and her achievements and that we can claim her as one of our own.”
RELATED LINKS:
"Troop 1500," Beloit College Magazine, Summer 2006
Martha Peterson, Beloit's Seventh President
| Beloit College Archives |
 |
Martha Peterson, who served as Beloit’s seventh president from 1975 to 1981, died at the age of 90 on July 14, 2006, in Madison, Wis.
Beloit’s only woman president was a respected leader in American higher education. Previous to her tenure at Beloit, she served as president of Barnard College in New York City, where she earned a reputation for building alliances and maintaining calm on campus during the turmoil of the Vietnam War era.
Her impressive credentials also included a long and distinguished career as a teacher and dean of women at the University of Kansas and as dean and assistant to the president at the University of Wisconsin. Peterson also chaired the executive committee of the American Council on Education and was president of the National Association of Women Deans and Counselors. She received more than a dozen honorary degrees during her lifetime and served on the boards of many corporations and educational institutions. On many of the boards, she was the first woman to serve in the capacity of a director.
At Beloit, Peterson is perhaps best-known for prevailing during a fiscally challenging period in the College’s history. She came to Beloit at a time when difficult budget and personnel cuts were needed to maintain the school’s solvency. By the time her tenure came to a close, the College was stable and strong enough to make the transition to a new president. Her resignation to the board of trustees included an invitation: “Because we are stable, we can have a College-subsidized party to meet and greet and salute each other at 6 o’clock this afternoon … it’s not a dinner — we are not that well off — but it can be a happy hour.”
In a 1981 column in Beloit College Magazine, Peterson reflected on the three issues that dominated her nearly 40-year career: the rights and responsibilities of undergraduates, equality of opportunity for women, and nurturing of the liberal arts. She wrote about her previous posts in higher education and said “it will take a cooling off period to establish my competence in these positions. But I feel now the six years at Beloit are the most productive for the institutions of which I was a part.”
A native of Jamestown, Kan., Peterson received her bachelor’s degree Phi Beta Kappa in mathematics and education in 1937 from the University of Kansas. After teaching high school for several years, she returned to the university to earn a master’s degree and a Ph.D. degree in educational psychology and counseling.
The Beloit College community remembered Peterson in a memorial service held in Eaton Chapel in October. Peterson requested that her ashes be scattered on the Kansas farm where she was born in 1916 and which she later inherited from her grandfather.
Peterson is survived by her companion, Dr. Maxine Bennett.
