Thunderbird Night at the Bees

SUU Alumni combined with the Admissions and Marketing Offices for a FANtastic night at the Salt Lake Bees on April 17. Nearly 450 alumni, prospective students and their families enjoyed a BBQ, a great baseball game and fireworks.

Thank you to everyone who attended.

Founders Celebration 2010

Southern Utah University celebrated its founding March 24 & 25 with a variety of festivities:

Thursday
A new SUU tradition was created. Lunch at The Main featured food and stories from our founding as presented by SUU Alumni and Emerti. It was an overwhelming success!

The Howard R. Driggs Memorial Lecture was presented by Daniel Walker Howe, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American Historian.

Friday
The restored Jenson Saw Mill was dedicated at the Frontier Homestead State Park Museum (formerly the Iron Mission State Park). The Saw Mill is significant in SUU history as it cut the original timbers used to build Old Main.

The annual Founders Celebration Dinner & Awards was held in the Great Hall where David Grant , Diana Graff and Terry Alger each received Distinguished Service Awards. David served as a member of the Board of Regents and was a tireless proponent of SUU; Diana Graff is a 35-year library veteran of SUU and served as our first female academic dean; Terry Alger served as SUU Provost for 18 years during an important time of growth for the University and is still a professor of Chemistry. Also during the ceremony several important donors were recognized for their generosity in making the new science building a reality.

Happy Birthday SUU!

Alumni Spotlight: Tobin Atkinson

Tobin Atkinson (’88, Theatre Arts & Social Science) is the Artistic Director of Meat & Potato Theatre in Salt Lake City. He is directing the Everyman & Judgment Day: Miracles for a Modern Age that will open this May, a production is loaded with SUU Alumni talent.

Rebecca Marcotte (’88, Theatre) is playing the title role in Everyman, which marks 22 years since Tobin and Rebecca last worked together in the 1988 SUU production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (directed by Fred Adams and R. Scott Phillips). Joining Rebecca in the productions are Ellese Hargreaves (’09, Theatre) and Steven Grawrock (Theatre, ’10). All three actors will play a number of roles in the two medieval plays.

Tobin co-founded Meat & Potato in Washington, DC in 2005 after serving in the U.S. Army Infantry. He was the Artistic Director of Plan B Theatre from 1991-2000 after co-founding the theatre company with fellow SUU alumna Cheryl Cluff (’88, Theatre).

Everyman & Judgment Day were first performed 500 years ago but are as relevant today as they were then. Meat & Potato Theatre has updated both plays to reflect the current ways in which we grapple with the concepts of morality, judgment, compassion and death.

The plays run May 27 thru June 13 in the Studio Theatre at Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in downtown Salt Lake City. To learn about the plays and the theatre company, go to www.meatandpotato.org.

Alumni Spotlight: Lorah Bodie

Lorah Wood Bodie, Ed.D (’73, Psychology) is the Community Liaison for the Psychology Department at San Diego State University (SDSU). In that capacity, she is the Supervising Instructor for undergraduate service learning courses and the Internship Coordinator for the Masters Program in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

Dr. Bodie is a graduate of the San Diego State University - University of San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Education with an emphasis in web-based learning. Her research centers on the social presence construct and instructor behaviors as they relate to learning outcomes. In addition to her SUU degree, Lorah has a BS in Information Science from Coleman College and a MS in Counseling from San Diego State.

Lorah has worked over 20 years in strategic planning, organizational development, community relations, and information management. Prior to joining SDSU, she worked as the Manager of Research and Development for the San Diego Workforce Partnership, and as a Market Research Analyst for the Strategic Development Department at Scripps Health.

She credits her time at SUU as providing her with a solid foundation for later success in psychology, music and life in general. “I want to publically thank Dr. Blaine Johnson (my voice coach from ages 9-16), who showed me how to give power to my voice and Dr. Les Jones who fuelled my unending interest in psychology,” says Lorah. “I am also grateful to my parents, Wourth and VeLyn Wood, who instilled in me a love for learning and the confidence to keep going, no matter how difficult the challenge.”

Lorah is an accomplished musician, and in addition to a variety of day gigs, she was a professional singer for 16 years. Her musical scrapbook is available online: http://www.psychology.sdsu.edu/fp-port/index.html

In June of 2009, Lorah performed with friends (many of whom are SUU alums) in Cedar City at a fundraiser for youth football, and again at the July Jamboree.

Lorah has two sons, Jason Bodie and Jade Austin, and a daughter, Chelsey Austin, who is currently a junior Education major at SUU.

Alumni Spotlight: Jim Hoyt & Doug Snell

Jim Hoyt and Doug Snell are Southern Utah University’s most recent additions to the Coaching Factory Hall of Fame.

Jim graduated in 1979 with a degree in physical education with a secondary teaching certificate. Later that same year, he accepted a position at his alma mater, Valley High School in Orderville, Utah teaching and coaching baseball, boy’s basketball and track & field. Over the years he has taught physical education, German, Utah history, U.S. history, world history, geography and health – all with distinction. He remains one of the most honored teachers at Valley High School.

His coaching career includes 28 years as a baseball and basketball coach, three state basketball crowns, a state baseball title, as well as numerous runner-up and regional trophies. His basketball teams have amassed an impressive record of 404-263 through the years. In 2001, 2002 and 2006 his colleagues named him the 1A Coach of the Year. Jim also had the distinct opportunity of coaching all four of his sons in the high school ranks, retiring in 2007 following the graduation of his youngest.

Doug, a 1982 graduate, was captain of the Thunderbird Football Team, was an All-American nose guard and was named Outstanding Physical Education Student his senior year at SUU. He currently serves in his 15th year as athletic director at Utah’s Spanish Fork High School and has been recognized for his leadership by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education and the Utah High School Athletic Administrators Association.

His philosophy is simple: help his coaches and athletes succeed. He takes upon himself many of the mundane and tedious tasks that bog-down many coaches. By so doing, Doug makes it possible for his coaches to spend more time with each athlete and which results in strong programs and successful experiences for high school athletes.

In addition to serving as athletic director, Doug serves as an assistant coach in nearly all sports at Spanish Fork and teaches mathematics and physical education.

Several years ago, an SUU Alumnus and Salt Lake City newspaper reporter coined the moniker, “The Coaching Factory” to describe the large number of SUU alumni coaching and achieving success in the high school ranks.

Alumni Spotlight: Scott and Tori Truman McKee

Scott (’97, Chemistry) and Tori Truman McKee (‘96) are Brigham City, Utah residents where he works for ATK Space Systems as a Systems Engineer on Ares (NASA’s manned space flight launch vehicle) and she as a media specialist at Bunderson Elementary School.

Following Scott’s graduation from SUU and their marriage in June of 1997, the McKee’s moved to Phoenix, Arizona where he pursued a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Arizona State, graduating in the spring of 2003. Tori finished her bachelor’s degree at ASU and worked for that school’s Department of Management in the W.P. Carey School of Business. In 2003 the couple moved to Brigham City.

Dr. Lee Morrell was one SUU professor that positively impacted Scott’s educational experience. “He was very bright, approachable and sincere. He wanted his students to understand the information he taught,” he explains. For Tori, her American History was one of the most demanding classes she ever took. But she credits that experience in helping her figure out how to study and do well in college courses.

What favorite SUU memories do the McKee’s have? For Tori it was sneaking McDonald’s food into the library. And or Scott . . . busting Tori for sneaking McDonald’s into the library!

Scott and Tori enjoy reading, traveling, weight lifting and spending time with their family. Their goal is not to let work get in the way of life. They explain, “We work to live not live to work.”

The McKee’s have three sons: Mica (10), Spencer (7) and Kai (5).

Alumni Spotlight: Tobin Atkinson

Tobin Atkinson (’88, Theatre Arts & Social Science) is the Artistic Director of Meat & Potato Theatre in Salt Lake City. He is directing the Everyman & Judgment Day: Miracles for a Modern Age that will open this May, a production is loaded with SUU Alumni talent.

Rebecca Marcotte (’88, Theatre) is playing the title role in Everyman, which marks 22 years since Tobin and Rebecca last worked together in the 1988 SUU production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (directed by Fred Adams and R. Scott Phillips). Joining Rebecca in the productions are Ellese Hargreaves (’09, Theatre) and Steven Grawrock (Theatre, ’10). All three actors will play a number of roles in the two medieval plays.

Tobin co-founded Meat & Potato in Washington, DC in 2005 after serving in the U.S. Army Infantry. He was the Artistic Director of Plan B Theatre from 1991-2000 after co-founding the theatre company with fellow SUU alumna Cheryl Cluff (’88, Theatre).

Everyman & Judgment Day were first performed 500 years ago but are as relevant today as they were then. Meat & Potato Theatre has updated both plays to reflect the current ways in which we grapple with the concepts of morality, judgment, compassion and death.

The plays run May 27 thru June 13 in the Studio Theatre at Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in downtown Salt Lake City. To learn about the plays and the theatre company, go to www.meatandpotato.org.

Originally posted on suu.edu in March 2010