As one of three first-place winners in the Perfect Proposal contest sponsored by Korbel Champagne, Drew Mitchell ’01 received a diamond engagement ring and help setting in motion his dramatic marriage proposal to Denise MacDonald ’02. Mitchell, a Minnetonka, Minnesota, native and current resident of White Plains, New York, returned to his hometown for a visit in early February and took his girlfriend, MacDonald, from Minneapolis, on what she thought was a chartered flight to a ski resort. A few minutes into the flight, he directed her attention outside the window to the frozen Bryant Lake below. Korbel had arranged for 8-foot-tall rose-covered letters to be laid out on the snow asking “Will You Marry Me?” The proposal was shown on The Today Show two days before Valentine’s Day. As of late February the couple hadn’t yet set their wedding date. . . . Marine Colonel Jerome M. Lynes ’80 commanded a battalion that seized the International Airport near Kandahar, Afghanistan, and defended 3,500 multinational coalition forces during Operation Enduring Freedom, the military action that brought about the expulsion of Taliban and Al Qaeda forces from Afghanistan. Lynes was awarded the Bronze Star for his involvement in the operation and more recently received his fifth Meritorious Service Medal. . . . Former ND lacrosse star* Tom Glatzel ‘01* is playing lacrosse professionally for the Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse. . . . Scott E. Moran ’90, ’97 J.D. serves as international liaison for the Atlanta Silverbacks professional men’s soccer team. . . . Joel Maturi ’67, former athletic director at Miami University in Ohio, is the new athletic director of the University of Minnesota. . . . State representative Dan McElroy ’70 was appointed director of the state of Minnesota’s finance department. One of his first tasks is to manage a projected budget shortfall of up to $3 billion. . . . Elizaveta “Liza” Kuznetsova ’96, manager of the Deloitte & Touche tax and legal department in Moscow, was found stabbed to death in her apartment last November. The 28-year-old was engaged to Igor Krivoshekov ’93M.A., ’97J.D. A memorial Mass was celebrated for her on campus last December. Charged with the crime is a former elementary school classmate of hers from her hometown of Perm, Russia. . . . Former Secretary of Agriculture Richard E. Lyng ’40 died February 1. He was 84. Credited with influencing global farm policies and helping develop the nation’s food stamp program, he served as agriculture secretary during the second Reagan administration. . . . Father James G. Karaffa, CSC, ’74, ’86M.A. was killed by a giraffe last summer while hiking in a game park in Kenya. There were no witnesses to the attack, but a news report said an autopsy showed he had been struck three times, in the chest and head, apparently by the hooves of a large animal. Investigators discovered an unusually aggressive giraffe in the area that eluded capture until it plunged over a cliff to its own death. According to the report, human blood on the giraffe’s hooves matched the priest’s. Father Karaffa was 50 and had been teaching canon law and pastoral counseling at a college in Nairobi. . . . The Army renamed a street at Fort Shafter in Honolulu “Hyland Lane” in memory of Lt. Col. Stephen Neil Hyland Jr. ’77, who was killed on 9/11 in the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. He once worked in a building on the street. At the end of the dedication ceremony, the Army band played “Notre Dame, Our Mother.” . . . The bagpipes and drums of the Chicago Police Department’s Emerald Society played the “Notre Dame Victory March” as the recessional at the memorial Mass for Mario “Motts” Tonelli ’39 in January. The ceremony was held at Chicago’s Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. Tonelli, 86, was a star fullback for the Irish in the 1930s and later survived World War II’s Bataan Death March and slave labor camps in Japan. Among those in attendance was friend John Lukacs ’99, who profiled him last year in USA Today and again on an ESPN College Gameday show that aired the day of last season’s Notre Dame-USC game. . . . According to a report in The New York Times, the U.S. Justice Department was investigating Michael L. Dini ’89Ph.D., associate professor of biology at Texas Tech University, to determine if he was discriminating against students on the basis of religion. The charge stemmed from a message he posted on his website requiring students to accept human evolution. The message said students wanting a letter of recommendation from him for postgraduate studies must “truthfully and forthrightly affirm a scientific answer” to the question of how the human species originated. The investigation was prompted by a complaint from the Liberty Legal Institute, described as a group of Christian lawyers. . . . Alfred J. “Jim” Lechner Jr. ’72J.D. was named to the Infractions Committee of the NCAA. He is one of two public members of the committee. . . . Edmund J. Adams ’63J.D. of Cincinnati is the new vice chairman of the Ohio Board of Regents, coordinating body for higher education in the state. . . . Judson R. Shaver ’79M.A., ’84Ph.D. was inaugurated as the first male president of Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. . . . Stephen J. Brogan ’77J.D. was elected managing partner of the 1,800-lawyer firm Jones Day. He becomes the seventh managing partner in the firm’s 110-year history. . . . Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma promoted Aloysius Hogan ’87, ’91J.D. to legislative counsel. . . . Former All-American tight end Ken MacAfee ’78, now an oral surgeon, won the NCAA’s Silver Anniversary Award, which recognizes former student-athletes who have distinguished themselves since their college athletics careers 25 years ago. . . . Los Angeles Superior Court Judge R. Gary Klausner ’63, ’64 was appointed judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. . . . James F. Flaherty III ’79 was elected president, chief operating officer and board member of Health Care Property Investors Inc., the nation’s largest health-care real estate investment trust. . . . Sears Roebuck named* Paul Liska ‘77* to the positions of executive vice president and president, Credit and Financial Products. . . . *Kevin J. O’Connor ’89* was sworn in as U.S. attorney for the district of Connecticut. . . . Stephen P. Connelly ’73 was named president and chief operating officer of VIASYS Healthcare Inc., a global, research-based medical technology company.