President's Gala & Old Main Society

Friday, December 9, President Michael T. Benson hosted the 2012 Holiday Gala to pay tribute to the many generous donors - individuals, businesses and foundations - who have qualified for membership in both the President's Giving Society and the Old Main Society.

The President’s Giving Society represents alumni and friends who play an ongoing and vital role in the institution and its success by annually contributing cash or in-kind gifts of $1,000 or more to the University.

Old Main Society members symbolize the spirit of devotion and sacrifice that our early founders demonstrated in constructing our first building – Old Main.  These donors are, in a very real sense, this University’s modern-day founders.  This prestigious gift club at SUU recognizes cumulative lifetime giving to the university in excess of $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for organizations. 

The newest members of the Old Main Society during 2012, inducted and welcomed into the society that evening were Walter ('51) & Alice Gibson, Maud Trismen Mason, Jerry Grover, Scott Snow, Anthony Stocks, Betty McDonald and June Sewing. 

Special tribute was paid to Maud Trismen Mason and Cedar City Corporation for their extraordinary generosity and commitment to SUU.

Maud Trismen Mason has spent her life in search of beauty and has, indeed, lived a life of grace and elegance while, at the same time, remaining unafraid of dirtying her hands in the earth.

Maud Trismen Mason, Keith Mason and President Benson
Old Main Society Centurium Circle

Born in New York City in 1931, she grew in Forest Hills, New York, and in Buck Hill Falls, Pennsylvania. Her parents, Frederick and Gladys, steeped her in the cultural arts with love and guidance, teaching by example. Galleries and museums were a large part of Maud’s life. When she was six, the family moved to Winter Park, Florida, her father having purchased an historic 40-acre estate and its 21-room mansion known to all as The Palms.

As a girl of central Florida, Maud became accomplished at the piano, and learned from her mother the lessons of nurturing botanicals in the rich landscape of the family grounds on Lake Osceola. As a student at the hometown Rollins College, Maud excelled in all subjects and was honored as the outstanding history student at her 1951 graduation. She would later attend Oberlin College in Ohio and Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.

For a time, she studied music and managed her husband’s worldwide career as a concert organist, even unto tuning the mammoth instruments. In 1954, she became curator of living arts at Rollins College and further broadened her interests in the arts and in sports. She found her life’s greatest calling when studying at central Florida’s Maitland Art Research Studio, creating assemblage art. The Center’s Attilio Banca was the champion of her work, which was at the forefront of the new movement that used found objects to compose three-dimensional expressions.

In 1964, her work earned a Gold Medal at the New York World’s Fair, and in the years that followed, her assemblages were shown in many venues and were in great demand.

Along the way, she maintained her love of music and accompanied a number of string quartets, and she built her lifelong love of animals into an additional career training horses in both English and Western style.

In 2009, Maud and her manager Keith Mason relocated to nearby Kanarraville and began to immerse themselves in the life of Iron County and of the University while enjoying their greenhouse filled with Maud’s tropical gardens, including her well-tended crepe myrtle. Maud and Keith, who wed in 2011, were pleased to greatly aid in the funding of the Southern Utah Museum of Art, as they intend to enjoy the work of myriad artists in the new Rocki Alice Gallery in memory of Frederick D. Trismen. The gallery is named for the German Shepherds that brought them together.

Michal Adams, Nina Barnes, Mayor Joe Burgess and President Benson
Old Main Society Gold Medallion

Some 46 years after Cedar City was founded in 1851, its citizens labored famously to establish what is now Southern Utah University. Today, that pioneering spirit continues to succor and to inspire as the rewardingly symbiotic relationship of this town and its school has continued with unabated success for 115 years. The history of each is steeped in sacrifice and resolve in a common goal of building for the future.

From its earliest beginnings when 35 men trekked from Parowan to settle the area, the town has revered education. Today, with some 30,000 residents within its 20 square miles, that level of reverence has only deepened.

Cedar City Mayor Joe Burgess has wisely said that without Southern Utah University, Cedar City would not be Cedar City. Conversely, all would agree, SUU would not be SUU without Cedar City. That truth is at the heart of what has cemented a marriage benefitting untold numbers of citizens and students in a variety of ways.

SUU is honored to be a member of the Cedar City community and be served by the Cedar City Corporation, which has maintained its enduring commitment to SUU over many decades and in diverse and momentous instances. Community leaders have always provided support across a broad range of needs and have steered public monies to the University and its programs on many mutually-beneficial fronts, including in support of such important University components as the Utah Summer Games and the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

The Utah Summer Games, founded in 1986 as a program designed to bring people to the City and to the University, required great cooperation between the two, and City representatives were generous in providing not only numerous playing fields and other venues, but personnel as well. Over the past 26 years, mayors, council members and City managers have done much to put the Games on sound financial footing.

The world-renowned Utah Shakespeare Festival, too, is among the most grateful recipients of the generosity and dedication of the City. Through its 51 years of progressive success, the Festival has ever been able to count upon the City for support, and Cedar leaders have been unstinting in their sustenance, including aiding in the construction of the Randall L. Jones Theatre in the late 1980s and today, in providing Redevelopment Agency monies toward the new Shakespeare Theatre complex, currently in the funding phase.

In countless and varied ways, Cedar City Corporation continues to aid the University in its mission of serving the populace through a variety of service and educational programs. 

Following dinner, guests moved to the Randall L. Jones Theatre for Brad Carroll and Peter Sham's A Christmas Carol On the Air, a hilarious behind-the-scenes story of radio actors and their conflicts as they tell Dickens' tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. The role of Scrooge was played by Utah Shakespeare Festival founder Fred C. Adams.

Betty McDonald
Old Main Society Level

June Sewing
Old Main Society Level

Stuart Jones
Vice President for University Advancement

Yuletide Singers
Recent SUU Graduates

SUU wins at NAU

Saturday, November 10, the Thunderbird Nation migrated to Flagstaff, AZ as our football team closed out the season against the Lumberjacks of Northern Arizona.

The game was beyond exciting as senior DL Cody Larsen sacked NAU quarterback Cary Grossart on fourth-and-three from the SUU five yard line to seal a 35-29 triple-overtime win over Northern Arizona and claim the inaugural Grand Canyon trophy.

Southern Utah has been a football spoiler this season. On October 27, Brad Sorensen threw for a season-high 392 yards and Colton Cook hit a 36-yard game-winning field goal as our team upset NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) No. 1 Eastern Washington 30-27. And then going into last Saturday's game against NAU, the Lumberjacks were ranked No. 11 in the country and were sitting alone atop the Big Sky Conference standings. Our win over NAU was their first in Big Sky play and only their second of the season.

Prior to the game, a good group of alumni, boosters and students gathered in the Dubois Center for a pre-game party. Thank you to everyone who came.

Go Thunderbirds!

Tribute to the Founders Poem Unveiling

Fae Decker Dix ('26) and daughter Nancy

An inspiring event during Homecoming week was the unveiling of a large engraved panel of glass in the President's Suite on the third floor of Old Main displaying a beautiful remembrance to the founders of the University.

In 1947, Branch Agricultural College graduate Fae Decker Dix ('26) wrote "Tribute to the Founders of SUU," a poem performed at the College Cavalcade presented during Commencement week in 1947 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the BAC (known now as Southern Utah University). The pageant was a beautiful evening program presented in the football stadium, which at that time ran north and south at the base of the west side of Old Main Hill. It featured a water curtain which turned colors and separated the audience from the football field.

Fae was passionate about learning and, for a woman in the 1920's, had an uncommon interest in a college education. She was an avid reader, loved history and journalism, and was an advocate of cultural and civic events, finding particular enjoyment in music, art, literature and theater. She was active in the community and served for sixteen years as the coordinator for adult education in Iron County and provided valuable service and leadership to the Cedar City Fine Arts Guild and the Cedar City Music Arts and Arts Exhibit Committee.

Fae moved from Cedar City in 1956 to Logan and later to Salt Lake City, where she continued to make her mark in adult education, arts and civic affairs. On October 29, 2002, Fae passed away in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the age of 96.

Tribute to the Founders of SUU

Give us the work and strength to get it done,

So rang the burden of their decision,

We must and we will, every woman and man,

This was their prophecy, this their vision.

Then face this task, 'tis time for actual deeds.

We've logs to get, and brick and sullen lime,

And rocks to cut from yonder firm red cliffs,

and roads to build, and many hills to climb.

So break the earth and raise the towering walls,

This our privilege -- this our blessed task,

To build for those ahead, those yet to come,

This be our answer when the future asks!

With a stubborn trust, and unflinching faith,

They toiled and they labored from dawn to dark,

In the barren fields and the frozen hills

By dint of hard labor they left their mark.

Till, from a thousand dreams they had built this one,

And taught it as a part of the way to live,

Not what I will get back from this life,

But only how much can I give?

-- Fae Decker Dix

Engraved Glass Panel on the third floor of Old Main

Homecoming Banquet 2012

The annual Homecoming Banquet was held Thursday, September 27, in the Gilbert Great Hall of the Hunter Conference Center. Alumni from all eras came together to reconnect, reminisce and celebrate an evening of being True to SUU.

Honored at the banquet were three individuals who have distinguished themselves in their careers and service to the University.

Ellen Wheeler, 2012 Outstanding Alumnus

Ellen Wheeler, who is among the most renowned of all SUU theatre arts and dance students, is a three-time winner of the Daytime Emmy Award, and has made a significant mark in the annals of television’s daytime drama world. She was born in Hollywood into a theatre family and shined on the stage at Cedar High School and at this University before finding stardom in, first, Another World, then in All My Children, playing roles in each that gained her Emmys. Then she moved behind the camera as a director for As The World Turns, earning an Emmy nomination. Finally, she progressed to the post of executive producer of Guiding Light, which won her a third Emmy when it was named best dramatic series in 2007. In that position, she set new standards for audience interaction and for filming techniques that have been adopted by other productions. Today, she and her husband, Shannon Comp, who also has SUU roots, maintain a ranch in Virgin, Utah, and a home in Cedar City. They have two children.

Craig Jones, 2012 Distinguished Service Award

William Craig Jones, well-steeped in the heritage of this institution, served as a beloved member of the political science faculty for 35 years, and was an architect of the pre-law program. Additionally, he was instrumental in establishing what has become the Michael O. Leavitt Center for Politics and Public Service. He completed his studies at the College of Southern Utah, where he played basketball, in 1959 and went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees at BYU. It was when he was completing his doctorate at the University of Arizona in 1963 that he was enticed back to Cedar City where he came to love teaching the philosophies of government and citizenship that frame our nation. He continued to work in the family business, as well, maintaining the sheep and cattle herds on the Jones ranch in Iron County. Also, he gave of his time and talents across a wide range of civic bodies in the region and the state. He and his wife Bonnie are the parents of four and grandparents of 16.

Jamie Shaw, 2012 Young Alumnus

Globetrotting Jamie Shaw, who earned a bachelor’s degree from SUU in 1996 in business administration and finance, has always shined in whatever arena she has chosen. Today, she serves as a senior consultant for Event Knowledge Services, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, aiding cities around the world in their bids to host major events. Currently, she is engaged in Istanbul, Turkey’s quest to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. Her specialty is the staffing for such grand undertakings and she began her career in human resources with Verizon after gaining an MBA from BYU. Subsequently, she became manager of HR Planning and Operations for the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympic Games. A stint with Starbucks preceded her current career, which has seen her work in successful campaigns around the world, including Rio de Janeiro’s 2016 Olympic bid. A native of Aurora, Utah, she was exceedingly vital in student life at SUU, including activity in SUUSA, Future Business Leaders of America, the Student Alumni Association and Alpha Phi Sorority.

The traditional singing of the Grand Old BAC was performed by students from the College of Performing and Visual Arts and tables containing a variety of University treasures were on display. Below are four such displays: books singed from the 1948 Old Main fire, Old Sorrel's hobbles, memorabilia from SUU's Centennial Celebration and the dress worn by Ruth Higbee when she graduated from the Branch Agricultural College (BAC) in 1916.

Books from Old Main

Old Sorrel's Hobbles

Centennial Memorabilia

Graduation Dress from 1916

Thor's Thunder Classic 2012

Congratulations to IC Group and team members Jeremy Williams ('01), Greg Tait ('74), Sadie Palmer and Brad Brown ('89)  for winning the 2012 Thor's Thunder Classic on Monday, September 24 with a score of 55 (16 under par).

It was a beautiful day at Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club with mild temperatures (high 70's to low 80's) and cloud cover throughout the tournament. It was a perfect day for golf.

Thank you to Color Country Pediatrics for once again being our title sponsor. Their commitment to SUU and Thor's Thunder Classic is wonderful and we appreciate their title sponsorship. We are also extremely grateful to Wells Fargo and Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club for their major sponsorship; and to MHTN Architects, Interform and SUU Marketing for their sponsorship.

We also appreciate the following businesses and individuals who were hole sponsors: AMPAC, Brick Oven, Dell Computers, Christy's Red Hot Blue Glue, Dick & Sunny Reinhold, Hill Sports, Intermountain Valley View Medical Center, Jacobsen Construction, Leavitt Group, Nate & Lindsay Esplin, President Michael T. Benson, State Bank of Southern Utah, SUU Student Services, Walter Maxwell Gibson College of Science & Engineering and Zions Bank.

SUU Day at Lagoon

The Alumni Association hosted its annual SUU Day at Lagoon on Saturday, August 4th. With twice as many participants as last year (nearly 200 alumni and guests), this years event was a huge success. 

One highlight of the day was watching Cameron Levins ('12), 2012 NCAA National Champion in the 5K and 10K, run the 10,000-meters at the London Summer Olympics. Cameron recorded an 11th-place finished and missed out on a top-10 finished by a mere second.

Thank you to everyone who attended and we look forward to seeing you next year!

Alumni Spotlight: Kevin Butler & Eric Houle

Kevin Butler and Eric Houle are the most recent additions to Southern Utah University’s Coaching Factory Hall of Fame for their achievements as coaches and their impact on their athletes and their sport.

After an all-state football career at Grantsville High School, Kevin Butler went on to further gridiron greatness at Southern Utah University, where he was a three-year starter on the offensive line for the Thunderbirds. He coached for a year at Tooele High School, and then returned to Grantsville in 1984 as an assistant football coach before assuming the top job in 1987. He lead the Cowboys to glory, winning three state crowns, including the first in the school’s history in 1992, and amassing a record of 117 and 54 over 16 seasons, with each team progressing to the playoffs.

He coached 50 first-team All-State players, seven Utah MVPs and was three times names coach of the year for the state. Beyond that, he was largely responsible for upgrading Cowboy Stadium, making it a site that instilled pride in the school and the community. He also was the initial coach for Grantsville High School’s wrestling and golf programs in the mid-80’s and coached girls’ track and field as well.

Additionally, he instituted the little league wrestling program in Grantsville in 1985 and the little league Ute football program in 1987. In 2009, he joined the staff of one of his former players when Clint Christiansen became Stansbury High School’s first football coach and aided the Stallions on their road to becoming another dynasty in Utah 3-A football.

Eric Houle, who has mentored the cross country and track and field teams at Southern Utah University since 1992, has become one of America’s most respected coaches.

Previous to returning to his alma mater, he turned in a stellar 11-year run as cross country coach at Salt Lake City’s Judge Memorial high School, producing three state championship teams along with five runner-up squads. He was three times named coach of the year in Utah.

At SUU he has led his teams to 38 conference championships and can boast of an NCAA Mountain Division cross country championship as well, a feat for which he was named region coach of the year. He has won conference coach of the year honors an impressive 32 times, coaching both men’s and women’s teams in cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field. Along the way, he has coached 735 all-conference athletes, 252 individual conference champions 25 conference athletes of the year, 27 conference newcomers of the year 24 NCAA national qualifiers, 75 NCAA West regional qualifiers, four NCAA All-Americans and one NCAA National Champion.

His teams have excelled in the classroom as well over the years, garnering two academic national championships and a runner-up honor while nine athletes have been named academic all-America. Coach Houle earned two bachelor’s degrees from SUU in 1981 as well as a master’s degree in 1998.