David Gaus ’84 knows how far it is from rural Ecuador to the capital, Quito — a distance that can be a matter of life and death for people in need of medical care. With Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC, Gaus founded Andean Health & Development to help close that gap. Gaus, the organization’s executive director since 1994, has spurred development of two hospitals and established local and international government, academic and charitable partnerships to transform care in the Ecuadorian countryside. Andean’s philosophy of training local physicians to serve remote communities in need has become a model throughout Latin America. Gaus’ journey from an accounting undergraduate to a medical doctor hailed as a hero in Ecuador, with Hesburgh as inspiration and partner, is recounted in the new book, Long Road from Quito, by journalist Tony Hiss. . . . A thriving youth chess scene in Chicago owes a lot to the enthusiastic support of Michael Cardinale ’87, the longtime president and tournament director of the Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago, whose free competitions throughout the year — now sponsored by the Chicago Chess Foundation — have grown to attract thousands of players. The tournament held this year on January 19 was named for its founder; the Michael Cardinale Chess Tournament represented a fulfillment of his vision. “When we started, we were able to attract only a handful of young boys and girls,” Cardinale said. “Now with 8,000 participants throughout the past four years, the number is growing and the competition is serving as a model for inner city schools, clubs and other activities.” During the tournament, Cardinale received the Chicago foundation’s highest honor, the Ted and Susan Oppenheimer Award, just months after accepting the Natalie Broughton Award from the Illinois Chess Association. . . . Mike Turzai ’81 began his third term as Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in January. A 10-term Republican representing the state’s 28th District in Allegheny County, Turzai made a brief run for governor in the 2018 election and previously served as House majority leader from 2011 to 2015. . . . Two recent Notre Dame architecture graduates, Alexander Preudhomme ’18 and Rachel Staud ’18, were winners in the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art’s Acanthus Awards for work they completed as students — Preudhomme for his design of a civic market hall in Lafayette, California, and Staud for a country estate that the jury said “borders on the accomplishment of a professional.” . . . Many happy returns to Raghib “Rocket” Ismail ’94, whose many happy returns as an electrifying Notre Dame football player helped him earn a place in the 2019 College Football Hall of Fame class. Ismail’s five kickoff returns for touchdowns remains a Notre Dame record, and he’s the only player in NCAA history to have had two career games with two kickoff returns for touchdowns. As a receiver, he averaged 22 yards per catch, another school record, and Ismail is one of only two Fighting Irish players with more than 1,000 career yards in both rushing and receiving. . . . Eugene “Boo” Corrigan ’90 has athletic administration in his blood. He’s the son of former Notre Dame athletic director Gene Corrigan (and the brother of Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse coach Kevin Corrigan). West Point’s athletic director since 2011, Boo Corrigan was hired in January to take over at North Carolina State. “The apple doesn’t fall from the tree,” Corrigan’s mother, Lena, told the Raleigh News & Observer. “I think he had a pretty good role model.” The AD job not only runs in the Corrigan family, but in the Notre Dame family, too: Corrigan is one of nine Notre Dame graduates working as athletic directors at Division I schools, including Notre Dame’s own Jack Swarbrick ’76, Ohio State’s Gene Smith ’77, North Carolina’s Bubba Cunningham ’84, ’88MBA and Auburn’s Allen Greene ’00. . . . We’ll skip the groaner pot puns (such as references to the “pro bowl” quarterback who played “on grass”) and be blunt: Joe Montana ’79 is investing in the marijuana industry. Montana announced in January that his venture capital firm would be part of a $75 million investment in the California company Caliva, which includes a farm, retail store, distribution center and delivery service. In California, the sale and use of marijuana is legal among adults over age 21 for recreational and medical purposes. Jokes aside, Montana emphasized in a statement reported by the Associated Press that marijuana “can provide relief to many people and can make a serious impact on opioid use or addiction.” . . . In the hearts of Notre Dame fans, Ruth Riley Hunter ’01 has always been a hall of famer. Now it’s official. In February the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame announced that Riley Hunter would be inducted with its 2019 class on June 8 in Knoxville, Tennessee. A three-time All-American who led the 2001 Notre Dame women’s basketball team to the national title, she went on to win two WNBA championships, playoff MVP honors and an Olympic gold medal. The former general manager of the WNBA’s San Antonio Silver Stars, Riley Hunter spent the 2018-19 season as the first female broadcast analyst for the NBA’s Miami Heat. . . . Christopher Murphy ’68, chairman and CEO of 1st Source Bank in South Bend, was elected to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s board of directors. Murphy will serve through 2021 on the nine-member board that represents a cross-section of the economy in the Fed’s seventh district, which includes parts of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa. He has previously served as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council. . . . Reminiscent of his fleeting moment on the Notre Dame Stadium stage, Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger ’76 made a brief star turn on Broadway in a one-night-only performance February 11 at New York’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Dream Big adapted the undersized defensive end’s iconic story — immortalized in the 1993 movie Rudy and the 2017 documentary Rudy Ruettiger: The Walk On — into an autobiographical solo show chronicling the bulldog determination that led Rudy onto the field in a Fighting Irish football uniform. . . . Dick Nussbaum ’74, ’79J.D., president of the Class A Midwest League, received Minor League Baseball’s 35th annual Warren Giles Award recognizing outstanding service by a league president. The former Notre Dame centerfielder, who served as the Midwest League general counsel for more than two decades before becoming president in 2015, also was elected vice-chairman of the Council of League Presidents. . . . If cities had more accurate data about road temperature, winter driving conditions could be safer and street treatment cheaper. Cost-prohibitive sensors have made it difficult to gather the information necessary to determine the ideal time to apply ice-melting salt, for example. With his Notre Dame IDEA Center-supported startup, Frost Control Systems, Bradley Tener ’17 wants to change that. In January, the South Bend Tribune reported on the impact of Tener’s pilot program in South Bend. In 2017 he installed six sensors at local intersections at no cost to the city. Monitors and infrared cameras track street conditions and air and road temperatures — which can differ significantly — as well as weather data such as dew point and humidity, reporting the information to the city’s Department of Public Works. Tener, whose fundraising efforts have included a $20,000 “High Potential Startup” grant from Elevate Ventures, has run similar tests in Lincoln, Nebraska, and in Battle Creek and Wyoming, Michigan. Eric Horvath ’93, South Bend’s public works director, said the Frost Control Systems network has allowed crews to better target road treatments, saving time and money while reducing accidents.
Jason Kelly is an associate editor of this magazine.