Alumni News

Summer/Fall 2017, Issue No. 101

Henry "Hank" Chamberlin, 1939. Chamberlin, who passed away in October 1998, was inducted in to the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame on March 4, 2016. The late Chamberlin is known as the "Father of Forestry Education" in Arkansas, as he devoted life to the timber and forest industry. After completing his forestry degree at Penn State, he earned a Master of Forestry at Yale University in 1940 and began working at Louisiana State University where he later became head of the forestry program. In 1945, Chamberlin started the forestry department at the University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM) and retired from UAM in 1980. (Adapted from Tree Talk, Arkansas Forestry Association newsletter, March 2016).

Paul "Sunshine" Shogren, 1951, Oakland, MD. "I have a project of contacting the 33 surviving members of the Class of 1951. I am on the church council, and a service officer for the Legion. I veggie garden and am active in the Marine Corps League. I am completing my 79^th year as an active Scouter in Troop 1 of Oakland. I am assisting the various organizations commemorating the WWI centennial - a big deal coming up on November 11."

The Class of 1958 has been as active as ever with TWO reunions in 2015 (one at Mont Alto in June 2015 and one in Post Falls, ID, in Sept. 2015, hosted by classmate Bill O'Connell), and their 59^th anniversary reunion at Mont Alto, May 30-June 1, 2017. Here are just a few photos from these events.

Classmates of '58 in Mont Alto 67th reunion photo, June 2015, Heritage Room, Millstream Café.
Seated: Joe Frank, Vernon VanOrder, Ralph Heilig, William McCafferty, George Siehl*
Standing: Richard Kost, Henry Hartman, Robert Slagle, Charles Strauss, Charles Rine**, Richard Hunter, Louis Shain, Ralph Peace, Maurice Hobaugh, Roger Odell

Post Falls, ID, Sept. 2015
Seated: Earl Reinsel - '56, Bill O'Connell - '58, Don Wermingler - '58, Ralph Heilig - '58
Standing: Henry Hartman - '58, Joe Frank - '58, Dave Note - '58, Joe Eichert - '63, Ralph Peace - '58, Chuck Strauss - '58.
Also attended but missed banquet - Lou Shain - '58

Those who were able to make the June 2017 to the Mont Alto campus: Bob Slagle, Henry Hartman, Roger Odell, Bill Durdan ('59); Jim and Doris Durdan, Joe and Toni Frank, Chuck and Carol Strauss, Ralph & Gisela Peace, Dick and Dorothy Hunter, Maurice (Duke or Sarge) and Irene Hobaugh, Lou and Bobbi Shain, Chuck Rine, George and Nancy Siehl, Lena Swartz, Ralph Heilig and Marie Wolson. Activities included lunch (shown here) at the Millstream Café.

The Class of 1960 held a mini reunion at The Corner Room in State College in September 2015, courtesy of a long-standing friendship between Vic Standa '60 and Ted Onufrak '79. Standa hired Onufrak for a summer position with the USDA Forest Service in Elk City, ID, back in 1977, when Onufrak was a sophomore forestry student. Standa was from Johnstown, PA, and the two kept in touch throughout the years. In 2015, Standa, who now lives in Philipsburg, MT, requested that Onufrak get him tickets to the Rutgers-Penn State football game. Standa's two sons attended the game - one flew in from Houston and other flew in from Indonesia where he works for a mining company. Standa contacted his classmates, too, and six were able to attend the mini-reunion.

Seated, left to right: Dan Speace, Joel Hockinson, Linda Hockinson, Maggie Uber, Norm Uber, Jim Detuerck, Stan Johnson, Ruth Ann Johnson, Jim Lacek, Bobbie Speace. Standing: Vic and Carole Standa.

Vic ('60) and Carole Standa with Ted Onufrak ('79).

Stephen Schoenholtz, 1979, Blacksburg, VA. From Virginia Tech's CNRE News, Winter 2017: "Professor Stephen Schoenholtz has been named president of the National Institutes for Water Resources. Schoenholtz has served as director of the Virginia Water Resources Research Center since 2006 and coordinates Virginia Tech's "Water: Resources, Policy, and Management" degree. The interdisciplinary undergraduate degree, which launched in late 2015, is the first of its kind in the nation."

Ken Kane, 1982, Kane, PA. Kane was recently elected to serve a three-year term on our College of Ag Sciences Alumni Society board of directors. And in November 2016, the McKean County Conservation District awarded Ken Kane the annual Conservation Partnership Award at an inaugural awards luncheon in Bradford, PA. The award, which honors an individual for outstanding dedication and commitment to conservation and the well-being of the residents of McKean County, is sponsored by Penn State Extension, McKean County Conservation District, and the Farm Service Agency.

Douglas Tavella, 1983g, Effort, PA. Tavella was awarded the Presidential Field Forester Award for District 7 at the SAF National Convention in Madison, WI, in November 2016.

Matt Beaver, 1990, Millmont, PA. In March 2016, Beaver became district forester of the PA DCNR's Bald Eagle State Forest District in central Pennsylvania.

Andrew Egan, 1993g, McKeesport, PA. Egan was named chancellor and chief academic officer at Penn State Greater Allegheny effective February 15, 2016. In his new position, Egan will also hold the title of professor of forest resources. Egan began his teaching and research career as an assistant professor at West Virginia University in 1994. Other positions he has held include executive director of the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute at New Mexico Highlands University, dean of the School of Forestry and Natural Resources at Paul Smith's College in New York, . He has been a tenured professor at the University of Maine (Orono), the Université Laval in Quebec, Canada, and Brandon University in Brandon, Manitoba, where he most recently served as dean of the Faculty of Science and acting associate vice president for research.

Carrie Gilbert, 2003 and 2009g, Cudahy, WI. In May 2016, Gilbert was appointed Deputy Forest Supervisor, Allegheny National Forest. She grew up in Selinsgrove, PA. She has worked for both the USDA Forest Service and Pennsylvania's Bureau of Forestry in the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Her most recent position was as the Regional Environmental Coordinator at the U.S. Forest Service's Eastern Regional Office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.