Purdue News

October 21, 1998 Business, community leaders serve as Old Masters WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Eleven leaders in various professional fields will visit Purdue University for the 49th Old Masters program Nov. 8-10. The Old Masters program was established in 1950 so working professionals could share their experiences and observations with students preparing to finish their college careers. During their stay on campus, the Old Masters visit classrooms and residence units, attend informal breakfasts, luncheons and dinners, and engage in candid discussions with Purdue students. All the Old Masters will participate in an all-campus reception at 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9, in McCutcheon Hall. The reception is open to the public. Those with concerns about accessibility to the reception should contact Linda Ewing, associate dean of students, at (765) 494-1252. The program is sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Students, with the student-run Old Masters Central Committee arranging program details. More information about the Old Masters program is available at the organization's Web site. Ronald Dees, Lakewood, Ohio, president and director of Bonnie Bell Inc., a cosmetics and stationery manufacturer. Dees became president of Bonnie Bell in 1992 and has led the company through continuous international growth with record revenues and earnings for the last three years. Before joining Bonnie Bell, Dees held consulting and manufacturing positions at Arthur Young and Eli Lilly & Co. He serves on a number of community, business and charitable boards. William "Dutch" Fehring, Menlo Park, Calif., former president of the International Baseball Federation and the U.S. Baseball Federation. From 1934 to 1943, Fehring was an assistant coach for Purdue's football and basketball teams, and the head coach of the baseball team. After three years of service in the U.S. Navy, Fehring coached football at Navy, Oklahoma and UCLA. He coached football and baseball at Stanford, and served as director of intramural and club sports. He also was a 16-year member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, where he was instrumental in getting baseball accepted as a permanent event. J. Bruce Harreld, Armonk, N.Y., senior vice president, strategy, IBM Corp. He assists senior IBM management in formulating overall commercial and technical strategy. He also is responsible for guiding IBM's internal business transformation and information technology initiatives. Before he joined IBM, Harreld was president of Boston Chicken Inc., and an adjunct professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Business Administration. He remains a member of Boston Chicken's board of directors and, as time permits, teaches courses on the strategic use of information technology and change management. David Mas Masumoto, Del Rey, Calif., author and organic farmer. His book, "Epitaph For a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm," won the 1995 Julia Child Cookbook Award in the Literacy Food Writing category and was a finalist for the 1996 James Beard Foundation Writing Award. Masumoto was appointed to the California Council for the Humanities board in 1994 and serves as co-chair for 1998. His other books include "Silent Strength" (1984), "Home Bound" (1989) and "Country Voices, the Oral History of a Japanese American Family Farm Community" (1987). He received the James Clavell Japanese American National Literacy Award in 1986. He is a contributing writer to USA Today, the Los Angeles Times and The Fresno Bee. Edward McMillan, Zionsville, Ind., senior consultant for the AgriBusiness Group and former president and chief executive officer of Purina Mills. Starting as a sales trainee in 1969, McMillan worked in marketing, strategic planning, business development and general management before being named president and CEO of Purina Mills in 1987. After seven years as a subsidiary of British Petroleum, McMillan led a leveraged buyout of Purina in 1993. He retired in 1996. Nancy Conkyln Saltford, Washington, D.C., professor emeritus in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Following a term as associate dean of the college from 1980 to 1988, she spent three years on leave in Washington, D.C., where she now lives with her husband, Arthur. During her leave, Saltford was deputy administrator for home economics and nutrition for the USDA's Cooperative Extension Service. Under her leadership, the program "Sustainable Families" was designed for limited-resource families. She retired from teaching in 1994. In 1997, she was honored as a distinguished alumna by Purdue's School of Consumer and Family Sciences. Peter Schneider, Los Angeles, president of Walt Disney Feature Animation and Walt Disney Theatrical Productions. Since 1985, he has been responsible for overseeing all aspects of development and production of animated motion pictures for the Walt Disney Studios. In 1996, Schneider expanded his responsibilities to include all Disney live-stage productions. From 1976 to 1980 he served as managing director of Chicago's St. Nicholas Theater. Thereafter he spent several years in London as general manager for Apollo Theater Productions. In 1983, he moved to Los Angeles to become the director of the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival. Yvonne Shaheen, Indianapolis, president and chief executive officer, Long Electric Co. Inc. Her responsibilities include overseeing personnel, reviewing any bidding over $25,000, approving expenditures, and reviewing safety policies and compliance. Shaheen has participated in civic nonprofit construction-related associations and organizations, and she has been a community volunteer. She was recently recognized as one of the Top 20 Women in Business in Indianapolis, and she also was named one of the Top 500 Women in Business by Working Women Magazine. She has received honorary doctorate degrees from Purdue's School of Education and the University of Indianapolis. She was named the 1992 Woman of the Year by Girls Incorporated of Indianapolis. David Sparks, Houston, president and chief executive officer of Professional Compounding Centers of America Inc. The Houston-based bulk pharmaceutical company is owned and operated by a network of more than 2,400 independent, community pharmacists in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The company provides its members with the equipment, bulk pharmaceuticals, flavors, consulting assistance and training to compound specialized dosage forms. Sparks for more than 22 years was the owner of independent pharmacies in the Tulsa, Okla., area, where he helped introduce compounding pharmacy to the hospice environment. Sparks also helped to establish the Oklahoma Hospice Organization and was a founding director of the Hospice of Green Country in Oklahoma. Michael Suckow, Farmington, N.M., senior director of system operations for Mesa Air Group. The company does business as the commuter airlines US Airways Express, America West Express and Mesa Airlines. Suckow's responsibilities include automating the dispatch control system and optimizing the crew staffing and utilization levels for the airline. Before joining Mesa, Suckow was vice president strategic planning and director of safety for Chautauqua Airlines, a USAirways Express carrier based in Indianapolis. There he explored alliances and partnerships between academia, government and industry to develop long-term solutions to enhance the safety of the air transportation system. Janice Voss, Houston, astronaut/mission specialist with NASA since 1990 and veteran of four missions. She first flew on STS-57 on Endeavour in June 1993. Mission highlights included retrieval of the European Retrievable Carrier satellite and the first flight of the laboratory module Spacehab. Her second flight was STS-63 on Discovery in February 1995. Mission highlights included a rendezvous (not docking) with the Russian space station Mir, the deployment and retrieval of the Spartan satellite, and the third flight of Spacehab. Her third flight, STS-83 on Columbia in April 1997, was cut short because of an electricity problem. So the entire crew and payload were launched again 84 days later as STS-94 on Columbia in July 1997. The payload was the laboratory module Spacelab, where Voss performed a wide variety of experiments in combustion, materials science, technology development, and biotechnology. Sources: Amy Fruit, Old Masters publicity co-chair, (765) 497-1520; e-mail, amyfruit@expert.cc.purdue.edu Ashlea Peterson, Old Masters publicity co-chair, (765) 463-1576, e-mail, ashleap@expert.cc.purdue.edu Linda Ewing, associate dean of students, (765) 494-1252; e-mail, lhewing@odos.purdue.edu Writer: J. Michael Willis, (765) 494-0371; e-mail, mike_willis@purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: Black-and-white photographs of most of the Old Masters are available from Purdue News Service, (765) 494-2096. To the Purdue News and Photos Page