June 1994
To help celebrate Wichita State's century-long commitment to higher education (1895-1995), the association sponsors a Centennial Fine Arts Contest. The winning artist, Mark Flickinger '84 of Arkansas City, Kan., is
presented a $5,000 check during an awards ceremony June 10.
His painting, Time and the University, and the works of the contest's other five finalists (Richard H. Moses '62 of Champaign, Ill., Jean E. Loy-Swanson '64 of Maple Grove, Minn., DeAnne Musiel '88 of Lodi, Calif., Guena
Smith '72 of Escondido, Calif., and Tim Ladwig '76 of Wichita) are on exhibit at the McKnight Art Center June 1-14.
All entries illustrate the theme, "Growing from Tradition." Prints of the winning work are produced and sold to benefit the WSU School of Art and Design and the association.
Oct. 26, 1991
Susan Mostrous '79, center, is selected queen of the Shocker Hellraiser rechartering party at Cessna Stadium. She is flanked by runners-up Sher Hurst '72, left, and Jeanette Bayouth '55, as they take a traditional lap around the track in a convertible. With the theme of Football Alive in '95, the party is attended by more than 300 people and sponsored by the Hellraisers, a group well known for 11 years of enthusiastic support for the alumni association and its mission — and an unwavering commitment to Shocker athletics.
March 1993
The alumni association's Wichita State University Alumni News helps introduce the Shocker community to WSU's 11th president — Eugene Morgan Hughes. Hughes, president at Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff, assumes his presidential post July 1 and is inaugurated during a formal ceremony Oct. 13.
His predecessor, Warren Armstrong, takes a year's sabbatical and returns as a professor of history.
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January 4, 1993
Lynda Tousley '72 (later Sade) begins as association executive director. George Fahnestock '69, association president, says, "Her love for the university is exceeded only by her enthusiasm for this opportunity to lead our 7,700-member organization."
Tousley was executive vice president of the Wichita Association of Realtors.
November 1992
Fahnestock and Joan Mitchell '86 are two of a group of Shockers who volunteer to learn a Bonnie Bing Honeyman '70/76-choreographed "Stayin' Alive" line dance for the Football Alive in '95 party Nov. 7 in Cessna Stadium. Some 150 alums and friends turn out for the event, which features a Shocker football highlights video, dinner and, for "halftime" entertainment, the crowning of a homecoming queen — Sheryl Wohlford '82, with Darlene Bailey of WSU Athletics as runner-up.
January 1992
WuShock of the Opera is the star of a send-off party at the Woodman Alumni Center for Kansas alums setting off for Denver for a performance of Phantom of the Opera and the chartering of the Colorado WSU Alumni Chapter.
Nearly 50 Wichita alums join almost 100 Colorado alumni, led by Roger Ford '71, chapter president, Jan. 25 for a chapter-chartering reception before a performance of the Tony Award-winning musical.
The next Phantom excursion is already being planned — to Dallas in spring 1993, when event hosts will include Dave Vink '61, Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter president.
May 17, 1991
Mary L. McHugh '73, left, Linda Gill, the alumni association's director of human resources and business affairs, and Arneatha Martin '75/80 celebrate the chartering of the WSU Nursing Alumni Society, the first professional society to be chartered by the association.
Nearly 70 nursing alumni gather for not
only the chartering ceremony itself, but
also the presentation of the first Distinguished Nursing Alumnus Award —
to McHugh, director of nursing research
and development at Wichita's St. Francis Regional Medical Center. McHugh and Martin are also recognized for their service
to the association and the WSU School of Nursing in establishing the society. Throughout the 1990s, the association charters a number of societies; among the earliest are the Art and Design Alumni Society, the WSU Bands Alumni Club and the WSU Elliott School of Communication Alumni Society, the latter of which is chartered March 19, 1992 during a reception and ceremony at Bank IV in downtown Wichita.
Centered around academic or professional specialties, alumni societies are the association's fastest growing membership segment for a time in the early 1990s. "The big plus of society membership," says Gerald "Jerry" Aaron '63, association president, "is the individual's affiliation with other people of similar background and professional interests."
September 1990
The association launches a new communications enterprise, Confluence, so named because, as Mike Meacham '74/98, association executive director, writes in the premiere issue, "much like two rivers coming together, so too do the university and the community come together, as do the alumni and the community, as well as the alumni and their alma mater."
Among the scores of alums appearing in the first Confluence are Rebecca Long '70, who is serving as board president of Music Theatre of Wichita, and Liz Searle '75, chief counsel for New York City's sanitation department.
The magazine, which will be published six times a year, joins the association's monthly "Alumni Report" in keeping news and information flowing throughout the worldwide Shocker community.
September 22, 1990
The Kansas City WSU Alumni Chapter becomes the newest of the association's alumni groups outside Wichita to be officially chartered. Four years earlier (Sept. 15, 1986), more than 100 WSU alumni gathered for the chartering of the Washington, D.C., chapter, a group organized some five years earlier by Scott Stucky '70. Among those attending the D.C. ceremony in the Capitol Building were Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, WSU President Warren Armstrong and WSU Director of Governmental Relations Fred Sudermann '58. The Dallas-Fort Worth alumni group is the first to have its chapter chartered — on May 2, 1986, when President Armstrong presented Chapter President Dave Vink '63 the club's official charter and gavel.
November 17, 1989
This year's Shocker Roundup, the alumni association's membership party
in honor of new members, has an additional focus: welcoming the new executive director — Michael R. Meacham '74, a Wichita lawyer who had served as
a member of the Kansas House of Representatives from 1977 to 1985.
For a Shocker Roundup cost of $15 per person for members and $7.50 for new members, attendees gather at Botanica,
the Wichita Gardens for a reception at
6:30 p.m., dinner catered by Ballingers
at 7:30 and then music by the Wichita Linemen, door prizes and carriage rides through the gardens. The month before, during the association's Oct. 17 board meeting, Dan Taylor '67, a search committee representative, presented Meacham as the committee's choice, saying, "We are confident that Mike is the candidate of choice because of his educational background, work experience and past involvement in numerous university activities and board responsibilities."
July 1984
James Moore '66/69 begins his tenure as executive director. A public school administrator
before taking the association's top position, he oversees the association's growth in services
and membership before departing in October 1989 for a directorship at the WSU Endowment Association.
He says one of the many highlights of his time as executive director was the
advent of the association's national chapter program, which kicked off with alumni groups in Dallas-Fort Worth, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.
May 17, 1989
Hundreds of guests attend the Woodman Alumni Center dedication, queueing up to tour the facility, the new home for three entities: the alumni association, the WSU Endowment Association and the WSU Board of Trustees.
K.T. Woodman '36 gave the $500,000 challenge grant that made construction of the $2.3 million building possible. One special moment during dedication ceremonies, which because of a light rain were held indoors, occurs when Norman Cash '54/55, association president, confers honorary alumna status upon Mary Inez Woodman. All four of K.T. and Mary's daughters are Shocker alumnae: Elaine Brady '61, Roberta Torrison '66, June Adams '64 and Eledra Roulier '65.
October 13, 1988
One Homecoming 1988 highlight is an evening Forum Board reception at the CAC Theatre honoring Jerry Bittle '71, creator of the nationally syndicated comic strip, Geech.
Another is also set for Oct. 13: Ray Charles in concert. Sheryl Wohlford '82 is chairing the association's homecoming events, including the Hellraiser Golf Tournament (Oct. 14) and the first-ever Alumni Art Exhibition (Oct. 10-15).
July 1986
"Welcome to the Alumni Association:
Your Home on Campus" is the headline, paired with the photograph below, on the cover of the July-August 1986 Wichita
State Alumni Report. With the alumni
house at 1944 N. Yale in the background, the photo features Don Stephan '59, association president, at front right, and association staff, including, at the very
back waving in the doorway, Laura (McMullen) Cross '25, a consultant in the association's Alumni Information Center;
Jim Moore '66/69, executive director,
center front; Susan Justice '79, associate director, second from right; and a future association director Brad Beets '87, manager of the Alumni Information
Center, second from the left, second row.
