Domers in the news

Author: Notre Dame Magazine staff

Detroit attorney Robert Battista ’61 was appointed chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that investigates and attempts to remedy unfair labor practices by employers and unions. . . . Claire C. Gordon ’76 was promoted to senior research scientist at the Army’s soldier systems center in Natick, Massachusetts. Senior scientists are civilians but they are accorded the same military courtesies as brigadier generals. She becomes one of only 33 senior scientists in the Army and the only woman. Her specialty applying biostatistical measurements of the human body to ensure that protective clothing and equipment, workstations, and shelters designed for soldiers accommodate all body sizes and shapes. . . . Former Wendy’s executive Charles W. Rath ’58 was named to the new position of executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Value City Department Stores Inc. . . . Zimbawean Callistus E. Madavo ’65, ’67M.A., ’69Ph.D. is vice president of the World Bank for the Africa Region. He has been with the bank since 1969. . . . Chris Rohrs ’71 is president of the Television Bureau of Advertising, which promotes the purchase of advertising on TV. . . . Tab Baldwin ’81 coached New Zealand’s national team to the semifinals of the World Basketball Championships in Indianapolis last September. After upsetting China and Puerto Rico, the Kiwis lost the bronze medal to NBA star Dirk Nowitzki and Germany, 117-94. . . . When a 20-year-old defendant charged with marijuana possession told an Orange County Superior Court judge last year that the drug made him play basketball better, the judge, Marc Kelly ’82, challenged the assumption by challenging him to a game of one-on-one. A few weeks later the defendant returned to court to show proof he had attended a substance-abuse class, and afterward they faced off. Kelly, 42, a sub for the Irish from 1979-82, beat the 20-year-old 10-3. According to press reports the young offender did not smoke before the game. . . . Steve Leahy ’78M.A. is the new president and chief executive officer of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce. . . . Ralph Horgan ’82 is executive director of the Pittsburgh Parking Authority, an independent, for-profit agency whose resources include the city’s approximately 8,000 parking meters. . . . John Cavanaugh ’77M.A., ’78Ph.D., provost and vice chancellor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, is leaving to become president of the University of West Florida. . . . Daniel J. Buckley ’77, ’80J.D. was appointed a judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court. . . . John J. Hargrove ’64, ’67J.D. was appointed chief judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California. . . . Ethna Bennert Cooper ’80J.D. was appointed judge of the Hamilton County (Ohio) Municipal Court. . . . Former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Frederick J. Martone ’72J.D. has become a federal judge in Arizona. . . . John J. Coyle Jr. ’68J.D. was named a judge of the New Jersey Superior Court. . . . William Klatt ‘81J.D., former chief legal counsel to Ohio Governor Bob Taft, was elected judge of the 10th District Court of Appeals in Franklin County. . . . Daniel J. Buckley ’77, ’80J.D. was appointed a judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court. . . . William E. Weber ’96J.D. joined the staff of the U.S. Senate as counsel for the Governmental Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, Restructuring and the District of Columbia. . . . . Attorney Patrick A. Salvi ’78J.D. of Waukegan, Illinois, won a $4.1 million jury verdict for the survivors of a patient whose physician failed to diagnose an abdominal aneurism. . . . USA Today profiled Mario “Motts” Tonelli ’39, a star fullback for the Irish in the 1930s who later survived World War II’s Bataan Death March and slave labor camps in Japan. In the last of the camps he was issued prisoner number was 58, his uniform number at Notre Dame. But his most amazing experience occurred during the death march. A Japanese soldier demanded Tonelli’s class ring under threat of execution, and Tonelli grudgingly handed it over. A few minutes later a Japanese officer returned it, telling him to hide it somewhere. The officer said he had gone to USC and had in fact seen Tonelli beat the Trojans in 1937. “I know how much this ring means to you, so I wanted to get it back to you,” the officer said. Tonelli says he always thought the compassionate officer would look him someday, but he never did. He assumes the man didn’t survive the war. . . . The NCAA hired Abe Frank ’84J.D. to be director of federal relations for the organization in Washington, D.C. . . . Creighton Miller ’44, the All-American halfback who later helped organize the National Football League Players Association as its lawyer, died last May at age 79. In 1943 Miller led the nation in rushing as the Irish ended the season No. 1. He was the son of 1908 team captain Harry Miller and nephew of Don Miller, one of the Four Horsemen. Another uncle, Ray, became mayor of Cleveland in the 1930s. Creighton finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy balloting in 1943. The winner was the late Angelo Bertelli ’44, his quarterback. . . . The winner of the 1949 Heisman, Leon Hart ’50, died in September at age 73. He was an end on both offense and defense and played in 38 straight games for the Irish without a loss. His grandson Brandon was a reserve tight end on this year’s team, and Grandpa Hart attended the first two home games before being hospitalized in South Bend. . . . Two weeks after the passing of Leon Hart, his co-captain on the 1949 national championship team, Jim A. Martin ’50, died at age 78. A decorated war hero with the Marines in World War II, Martin was 21 when he enrolled as a freshman in 1946. Like Hart he starred at end, but he was shifted to tackle his senior year. Although Hart won the Heisman Trophy, it was Martin, the campus heavyweight boxing champion, who won the George Gipp Award as the school’s finest athlete their senior year. He went on to a 14-year NFL career during which he was reunited with Hart on great Detroit Lions teams in the 1950s.

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In his second year as coach of the Air Force Academy’s men’s basketball team, former attorney Joe Scott ’90J.D. led the Falcons to a 9-19 record in 2001-02. The team’s six non-conference Division I wins were its most since joining the Mountain West Conference in 1980. Before coming to the Air Force Academy, Scott was an assistant coach at his undergraduate alma mater, Princeton, from 1993-2000. . . . Leonard F. Mongeon ’48, former budget and programs director of the National Security Agency, died at the age of 74. . . . The new system of sanctions against Iraq agreed upon last May by the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members was influenced by proposals presented in the book Smart Sanctions: Targeting Economic Statecraft, by government professor George Lopez and Kroc Institute visiting fellow David Cortright ’68. . . . Elmer Angsman ’46, a reserve for the Irish who set a postseason rushing record in the 1947 NFL championship game that still stands, died in April 2002 at age 76. Angsman was the star of 1947 title game, in which his Chicago Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles 28-21. His average gain of 15.9 yards remains the best ever in postseason for 10 or more rushing attempts. He scored on two 70-yard touchdown runs over a frozen field at Chicago’s original Comiskey Park. In later years Angsman worked as a commentator on TV and radio football broadcasts. . . . Tom Bates ’60, longtime sports information director at the U.S. Naval Academy, died of cancer at the age of 64. . . . John R. Skinner ’63 was elected president of Michael C. Kearney & Associates Inc., which specializes in cleaning computer rooms and other high-risk spaces. . . . David Wehner ’72 was appointed dean of the California Polytechnic State University College of Agriculture. He had been serving as interim dean. . . . The New York Times, Business Week and other publications have written about Digital Divide Data, a one-of-a-kind nonprofit group founded by Tim Keller ’00 and others. The organization hires disabled Cambodians to do data-entry typing. Among the organization’s customers has been the Harvard Crimson, which hired it to input 19th century editions of the student newspaper to make them part of an electronic archive. . . . John E. Barilich ’71 won the Department of Veterans Affairs’ 2001 Social Worker of the Year award. He is social work executive for the V.A. healthcare system in Pittsburgh. . . . James L. Knighton ’76 was named president of Caliper Technologies Corporation, which makes computer chips than can perform laboratory tests. . . . Kevin R. Callahan ’83 was appointed chief executive officer of Allianz Insurance Company, a member of the Allianz Group, a large financial services company. . . . Matthew D. Kelly ’85 was named executive vice president of First Financial Bank of Downingtown, Pennsylvania. . . . . President Bush singled out Ricardo Rios ’95, a teacher in Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education program, during a party fund-raising stop in South Bend in early September 2002. Rios was teaching math and science to middle-school students at Saint Adalbert Catholic School in South Bend. . . . Thomas M. Rohrs ’73, senior vice president of Applied Materials Inc., joined the board of directors of Ion Systems Inc.