Domers in the news

Author: John Monczunsk

Kenneth Stinson ’64, chairman of Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc., one of the nation’s largest construction firms, was elected in May to Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees. He has been a member of the College of Engineering’s advisory council since 1996. . . . Ann Claire Williams ’75J.D., a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, was the commencement speaker at Saint Mary’s College this year. A former elementary school teacher before beginning her legal career, Williams was appointed by President Reagan in 1985 to the bench of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois. In 1999 she was named a judge for the 7th Circuit of the appeals court by President Clinton. . . . Joseph A. Cari Jr. ’74 ’78J.D. has been named to the Terrorism/Counterterroism Advisory Board for the Human Rights Watch, the nation’s largest human rights organization. Cari also recently jointed the Dilenschneider Group, a public strategy, strategic planning firm with offices in New York and Chicago. . . . Matthew Slaughter ’90, a Dartmouth University associate professor of business administration, has been named by President Bush to the Council of Economic Advisers. The three-member group is charged by Congress to provide the president with objective economic analysis and advice on domestic and international economic issues. . . . Legendary former DePaul University basketball coach Ray Meyer ’38 died March 17 at age 92. Those paying respects at the beloved coach’s funeral comprised a virtual Who’s Who of collegiate and professional basketball, and included former ND coach Digger Phelps. . . . Alex Montoya ’96 was named director of Latino Affairs for the San Diego Padres major league baseball team. Previously he had been director of communications of the San Diego County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. . . . HotPads.com, an innovative map-based housing search engine, recently was launched by Douglas Pope ’04, Matthew Corgan ’04, ’04MBA, and John Fitzpatrick ’03. The free Internet tool allows apartment hunters to simultaneously search by location for a condo, apartment or rental house. Following graduation, Tim Licata ’06 joined the enterprise to help further develop its technology. . . . Another housing website with Domer connections is InternNation.com, founded by Fran Larkin ’05. The website is a clearinghouse for student interns looking for temporary housing. Larkin said he got the idea for the website after he experienced housing problems during his three undergraduate internships. . . . Julia Monczunski ’02, a reporter/producer for South Dakota Public Radio, won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award from the Association of Radio and Television News Directors in April for her story on South Dakota National Guardsmen re-adjusting to civilian life after combat in Iraq. Also, in January, she appeared in the PBS Frontline documentary “Country Boys.” The film was shot at the David (Kentucky) School, which Monczunski visited while a student as part of the Center for Social Concerns’ Appalachian Seminar. . . . Casa Madero, the Mexican winery owned by José Milmo ’59, was featured in a Houston Chronicle story detailing how the Notre Dame engineering graduate has upgraded the winery, shifting from producing a clear brandy to vastly improved red wines. . . . Roderick West ’90, the utility executive who has been instrumental in restoring power to post-Katrina New Orleans, was named chairman of Louisiana State University’s Board of Supervisors. He succeeds Baton Rouge attorney Bernie Boudreaux, who resigned in a controversy stemming from his alleged attempt to force out the LSU president. . . . It has been a homecoming for former Notre Dame pitching ace Ryan Doherty, who joined the South Bend Silver Hawks this year as a reliever. The 7-foot-1-inch pitcher signed last year with the Arizona Diamondbacks as a non-drafted free agent, following his junior year at ND. . . . David M. Barrett ’59 was honored recently with a reception on the presidential yacht the USS Sequoia for his years of service as independent counsel to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. He recently completed a 10-year, $23-million investigation into whether former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros, a former ND trustee and mayor of San Antonio, had lied to the FBI during his background check for his cabinet appointment and whether Clinton administration officials had impeded the investigation. In 1999, Cisneros pled guilty to the misdemeanor charge of lying to the FBI and paid a $10,000 fine. . . . Rudy Beverage, Inc. was founded recently by Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger ’76 , whose walk-on football career inspired the famous movie, and Drew Carver, son-in-law of Rudy’s coach, Dan Devine. The company markets two low-sugar, high-nutrition beverages. . . . The National Transportation Safety Board concluded in its final report issued in May that ice on the wing was the probable cause of the November 2004 crash that killed Teddy Ebersol, the 14-year-old brother of Charlie Ebersol ’05. Charlie, his brother and their father, NBC sports executive Dick Ebersol, were en route to South Bend when the plane crashed on takeoff at the Montrose Regional Airport in Colorado. . . . Michael Satarino ’69 is the principal of the high school named best in the nation by Newsweek. The 200-student School for the Talented and Gifted in Dallas is a public school with a 60 percent minority enrollment. . . . Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice and former Irish star defensive end Alan Page ’67 and Knute Rockne ’14 were named to the list of the “100 Most Influential NCAA Student-Athletes.” The honor was announced in March in conjunction with the NCAA’s centennial celebration. . . . In March a bronze statue of Rockne, sculpted by Jerry McKenna ’62, was dedicated in the coaching icon’s birth city of Voss, Norway, in observance of the 75th anniversary of his plane-crash death. The Voss statue, which contains steel from a carriage made by Rockne’s father in Voss, gold leaf from Notre Dame’s Golden Dome and aluminum from the fatal plane, is identical to one located in front of South Bend’s College Football Hall of Fame. . . . “Voices of a Vanished World,” a music piece composed by Marjan Helms ’85M.A. that commemorates the Holocaust, had its world premiere in May with the Michigan State University Child’s Choir performing.