Crestland Reunion Hall of Fame

Crestland Reunion Hall of Fame for 2010

Tim Westcott, Class of 1975

Tim Westcott is part of the Faculty in this prestigious University that has been honored as a "Military Friendly School".

For the second year in a row, Park University has been honored by G.I. Jobs magazine on its list of Military Friendly Schools. The list honors the top 15 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools doing the most to embrace America's veterans as students.

Schools on the 2011 Military Friendly Schools list offer additional benefits to student veterans such as on-campus veterans programs, credit for service and military spouse programs. In addition, schools on the list were recognized for their efforts to recruit and retain military and veteran students, results in recruiting military and veteran students, and academic accreditations.

"Park University began serving the military in the 1800s and that dedication continues today," said Park University President Michael H. Droge, Ph.D. "The entire University community is proud to be serving those who serve our country, and this recognition from G.I. Jobs about our success in that effort is deeply appreciated."

The G.I. Jobs honor is yet another in a string of tributes to Park University's efforts to educate members of the U.S. military. In spring 2009, the University was one of 20 higher learning institutions in the country -- and the only one in the Midwest -- awarded a portion of a total of $2 million in grants from the American Council on Education and the Walmart Foundation. The $100,000 Success for Veterans Award Grant recognized model programs advancing access and success in higher education for veterans and their families.

In addition, Park is one of the "Top 20 Military-Friendly Colleges and Universities" in the country, according to Military Advanced Education. Furthermore, this summer, Park was also selected as the top-ranked value among private colleges and universities nationwide by Parents & Colleges, an online resource for parents of college-bound students.

Last year, Park University launched a website, http://military.park.edu/, dedicated to assisting veterans and current U.S. military personnel with their higher education pursuits. The website provides a one-stop shop for current military members and veterans to get information about degrees and online programs at Park, as well as the application and financial aid process.
 

About the Society

The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is an effort to systematically increase our understanding of how students at the college level learn and of what teaching strategies are most effective at promoting this learning. Converging interests of historians in Britain, Australia, Sweden, and the United States resulted in the organization of this society in November 2006 at the ISSOTL conference in Washington, D.C.

This society exists to
1. create a community of historians interested in this study,
2. build capacity among historians for analyzing their teaching, and
3. promote the scholarship of teaching and learning in history internationally.

Founding Members
Tim Westcott, Park University, is listed as one of over 100 Founding Members from Universities all over the world.

• Westcott presents session for Westport Historical Society
  
  Tim Westcott, Ph.D., associate professor of history and chair of the Department of Culture and Society, provided the keynote session at the Westport Historical Society Speaker Series on Aug. 14, 2010 in Kansas City, Mo. Westcott discussed "General Order No. 11" which was issued by Union Brig. Gen. Thomas Ewing Jr. on Aug. 25, 1863, in retaliation for a Missouri "Bushwhackers" raid on Lawrence, Kan. According to Westcott, the Order compulsively evacuated four western Missouri counties and eradicated sanctuary and subsistence to Confederate troops. The Order represented a "total war" approach of the Abraham Lincoln administration.
   
• Tim Westcott contributes articles and photos for Facebook: Westport Historical Society
  
  The Westport Historical Society celebrates and commemorates the 19th Century when Americans journeyed West to chase their dream. Many chose the town of Westport as the point where they "jumped off" onto the trails and into the great American Wilderness. The Westport Historical Society actively preserves the unique moment in history of the great Westward Migration by sharing the stories of how Kansas City began and by educating the greater Kansas City community of Westport's role in the shaping of the society in America.
   
• Alexander Majors Historic House & Museum
  Alexander Majors ran one of the country's largest freighting companies from Kansas City, created the Pony Express, and gave "Buffalo Bill" Cody his first job. In the westward expansion of the 1850s, his firm's freighting operations were instrumental in bringing supplies to settlements from the Dakotas to Arizona. The prominence of Majors' company attracted governmental and private shippers to Westport Landing, giving Kansas City a head start towards economic success. Constructed in 1856, Majors' 3,400 square foot ante-bellum home in Kansas City is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Restored in 1984, the home features original hardwood floors and millwork, as well as furnishings of the era. Also on the site are blacksmithing demonstrations, gardens, and displays of tools, wagons and carriages from the mid-1800s.
  < < < Photo at left shows Dr. Timothy C. Westcott giving a historic presentation to 2nd graders inside one of the rooms of the house.
   
• History and Social Studies at Park University - Fall 2008
  Timothy C. Westcott, Ph.D., associate professor of history and Chair, Department of Social Sciences recently was invited to a regional discussion at the Kansas City Museum to discuss the Museum’s future educational programming and the interrelationship of exhibits to education. The Kansas City Museum is currently closed for a two-year renovation. The Museum, also known as Corinthian Hall, was the private residence of millionaire Robert A. Long.
  

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  By awarding Dr. Timothy Westott a postion on the Crestland Reunion Hall of Fame we applaud an educator who not only obviously does his job well, but spends much time outside the university doing volunteer work. It is the unpaid, time-consuming, often thankless tasks that he has performed for various historical sites and organizations to help the public better understand how our great country was built that we honor Tim with this award.
   

Article printed in the Rod Library - Special Collections at the University of Northern Iowa in the fall of 1974:

In 1987, the Religious Studies Program offered JoDee a one-semester temporary appointment. She stayed for eleven years. JoDee's presence brought a whole new dimension to our department and we were all - students and colleagues alike - the richer for it. She was a natural. She loved ideas, loved books, loved to study religion and to teach about religion; loved myth and ritual and feminine spiritual imagery--and joyfully shared all her loves with any who cared to listen.

 Teaching, for JoDee, was far more than imparting information, far more than sharpening critical thinking skills. Teaching also meant cultivating an empathetic approach to the wondrous variety of people's worldviews. It meant engaging students holistically, with equal regard for heart and mind. It meant helping them to integrate all of their life experiences in a way that enabled them to become more capable members of our society, and more compassionate citizens of the world. For many young people - especially those who took her Women and Religion class - having JoDee as their teacher was a life- giving affirmation. For others - particularly those in her introductory courses on World Religions and Religion in America - it was a substantial challenge to be confronted with new paradigms and alternative belief systems.

Indeed, JoDee's very self-presentation was often a challenge: She was a confident, wise, justice-minded, feminist woman - an uncommon experience for many students at a school of science and technology. Invariably the students were stretched by their encounter with JoDee. In spite of reluctance and resistance on the part of some, they grew both personally and intellectually. It is to honor JoDee's gifts to her students that a memorial scholarship fund has been established in her name through the ISU Foundation.

Teaching, for JoDee, was a life's vocation, and one she was wont to relinquish. Throughout her years of illness, her devotion to teaching was a source of amazement for myself and our colleagues. As sick as she was, she came to Iowa State every day that she could muster the energy, to be in the classroom with her students. When she lost her hair from the chemotherapy, JoDee began wearing a variety of hats, and often when she arrived on campus, I could tell what kind of day she was having by the degree of droopiness of her hat brim. Many a day she would walk, slowly and agonizingly, from her office to the classroom. She would move to the front of the room, sit down at the desk facing her students, take a deep breath, and begin.

Gradually, her voice would grow stronger and her gestures become more animated. She would get up out of her chair and walk toward her students, asking probing questions, telling her stories, and inviting them to tell her their stories in return. It came to me on one such day that, for JoDee, the classroom was as much a sanctuary as was a field of wild flowers or a star-studded night sky; that these were graced moments; that we had entered into sacred time and space. And when I looked closely, I am quite certain that I saw the brim of her hat turning upwards, ever so slightly, and I knew then that JoDee, in that time and space, was free and whole as she imparted to her students unforgettable lessons of courage, dignity, dedication, and love.

JoDee died of breast cancer November 21, 1998.

By Mary Sawyer, November 28, 1998

Honored by: Mary Sawyer
Edna Wiser
Students from Religion Class
Other colleagues

Section B - Row 8
There are many women in my life who do not really know how important they are to me. They have served as wonderful role models and I have learned much from them. This includes my mother, Florence Lystila Cline, who is still very active at 85; my sister Ann, a very giving individual and many female friends. Special Iowa friends are Jodee Rottler, Rachel Christensen and Mary Anne Gibson. 4/15/94

Narrative Updated: 4/15/1994
Honored By: Jean Palmer

Jodee Rottler filled her 55 years of life on this earth with more accomplishments than a dozen people normally fill in a lifetime. You will note from her obituary plus the articles quoted above that she had held many varied positions, taught more subjects, been involved in self-help groups, yet had time to raise a family while keeping her musical talents honed. Those who have honored her have only touched the surface of her total achievements in life.

Her obituary: Joan Dee (JoDee) Rottler was born March 3, 1943 at Storm Lake, IA, the daughter of Slater and Margaret Brockman and died Saturday, November 21, 1998 of breast cancer at her home in Des Moines.

She graduated from Crestland High School in Early, IA in 1961. She received a B.A. in history and government from Iowa State University in 1965. Her graduate education included a Master's degree in Russian History from Indiana University in 1967 and a Master's degree in Religious Studies from Mundelein College in 1979. She was employed as a secondary math teacher in Louisville, KY and at Dowling High School in Des Moines. She was a program advisor for the Dean of Students Office at Iowa State University, a campus minister at Drake Newman and the University of Northern Iowa and a UCCM campus minister.

She was the first director of the Renewal Center at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines and later continued the program as a private, non-profit community service program.

For the past 11 years she has been an Instructor of Religious Studies as ISU in Ames, where she recently received an Excellence in Teaching Award. The award read "In recognition of your profound care and compassion for students, and extraordinary dedication to teaching from your colleagues in Philosophy and Religious Studies, Iowa State University." She also gave numerous workshops, lectures and retreats and served as a spiritual counselor throughout Iowa.

Joan married Steven Rottler on June 18, 1967. She has two sons, Benjamin, 25 of Tokyo, Japan and Christopher, 21, of Des Moines.

In addition to her immediate family she is survived by her mother, Margaret Brockman of Odebolt, a sister, Kay Clanton of Omaha, NE and a brother, Mike Brockman of Nevada city, CA.

Joan's belief in the sacredness of earth and its people involved her in many community issues including education, religion, politics, the environment, Native American issues, and breast cancer education and support groups.

Joan will be remembered for her great and generous heart, for her enormous capacity for life-long friendships; for her ability to elicit the best from others; for her ability to challenge and affirm students; for living the courage of her convictions; for enduring and also embracing much physical suffering, including living with breast cancer for four years.

She will be remembered for her love of books, teaching, learning, music and her great skill in dancing. She was accomplished in piano, guitar, baritone horn and vocal harmony.

Joan taught and lived the mind-body-spirit connection before it became part of the popular language. As Renewal Center director in 1994 she initiated and taught Buddhist meditation classes which grew into an ongoing meditation group. As director she also initiated and co-hosted a Buddhist retreat at the Unitarian Church last spring.

A teaching colleague remarked that she "was an ecumenical minister wherever she went in institutions of higher education."

She will be missed by family, friends, students and all who came in touch with her prophetic presence.

A service of remembrance was held Friday, November 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Dunn's Funeral Home, 2121 Grand. A memorial service was held Saturday, November 28 at 11 p.m. at the Unitarian Church at Bell and Casady Drive. Another memorial service was held Dec. 7 at the Memorial Union on the ISU Campus. Joan's body was cremated.

Dennis Neil Marple was appointed head of the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University in October, 1992, with administrative responsibilities for instruction, research and extension programs that support the swine, beef, dairy, sheep, horse and poultry industries. He resigned that position March 26, 2001.

Dr. Marple, a native of Nemaha, Iowa, received his B.S. degree at Iowa State University in 1967, the M.S. degree from Iowa State in 1968, and a Ph.D. degree from Purdue in 1971 with emphasis on Meat Science and Environmental Physiology. Two years of post-doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison followed, where he conducted post-doctoral studies on animal physiology and meat quality.

Dr. Marple joined the faculty of the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences at Auburn University in 1973 where he was involved in teaching and research activities until being appointed Head of the Department in 1989. He taught courses in animal growth and development, and was involved in research on swine growth and meat quality as well as beef cattle research on shipping fever and fescue toxicity. He was the first recipient of the Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the Southern Section of ASAS, was named Alumni Professor by the Auburn University Alumni Association, and twice received the annual Outstanding Research Award from the Director of the Alabama Experiment Station.

Dr. Marple is past President of American Society of Animal Science (ASAS), a past President of the Southern Section of ASAS, a former member of the Boards of Directors of ASAS and Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST), and serves as Treasurer of the Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS). He served as Secretary and Chair of North Central Animal Science Administrators (NCA-6). While an officer of ASAS, he helped place ASAS among the leading scientific societies in publication technology. As Chair of the Publications Committee and a member of Editor's Advisory Operations Committee, he facilitated development of the electronic version of Journal of Animal Science and encouraged acceptance of publications and abstracts via electronic format.

As Head of the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University for nine years, Dr. Marple led with vigor and his accomplishments were myriad. Monthly faculty meetings were established. He initiated development of a strategic plan for the department. Eleven faculty members were hired. He organized the faculty into four key discipline groups with master projects developed and established in each area. With great interest Dr. Marple watched the computer world explode beginning in the early Nineties and moved quickly to implement e-mail and network use within the department and established computer support staff for the department. A new undergraduate curriculum was established. Dr. Marple enhanced the Animal Breeding and Genetics group to become a Program of Excellence with national and international prominence. Realizing the importance of communicating with alumni, he established and published a newsletter twice annually.

In 1994, he coordinated a highly successful departmental CSRS review. The Mid-States DRPC, in 1996, was merged with DRPC (Dairy Records Processing Center) at Raleigh, North Carolina, to form the Dairy Records Management System (DRMS) headquartered in Kildee Hall. He coordinated planning and renovation of several facilities, including the Swine Teaching Farm, Bilsland Farm, and Ruminant Nutrition Farm. He served as liaison to the planning committee for the National Swine Research Information Center that opened in 1999.

Two landmark events were celebrated during Dr. Marple's tenure as Department Head. In April 1996, the Department of Animal Science celebrated its first 100 years with appropriate ceremony. He instigated a departmental history to record the many noteworthy events and people in Animal Science at Iowa State, "A Heritage of Leadership" (R. L. Willham).

In October 1996, groundbreaking ceremonies were held for a new state-of-the-art $21-million Kildee Addition. The addition was ceremoniously dedicated in November 1998. He also coordinated establishment of the Ensminger Chair with former Dean of Agriculture David G. Topel as the first Chair.

During his years as Head of the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University, international travel included Russia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, China and India. Dr. Marple was Co-leader of the Ensminger Ag Tech School in Ukraine in 1996, and Leader of the Ensminger Ag Tech School in China in 1998.

Dr. Marple was elected as a Fellow-Administration to ASAS at the 2000 annual meeting. He was named an Honorary Master Pork Producer by the Iowa Pork Producers Association at the Iowa Pork Congress held in 2000 in Des Moines. He is a member of the Endocrine Society, the American Physiological Society, and the American Society for the Advancement of Science. He is also a member of the Agricultural Advisory Committee of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and serves as an ex-officio member on the Boards of Directors of the Iowa Pork Producer's Association and the Iowa Cattlemen's Association. He is the author or co-author of 57 journal papers and 73 abstracts of presentations at scientific meetings, and has made invited presentations at numerous professional meetings in the US and seven foreign countries. In 1966, he married Jan Mason, of Early, Iowa. They have two children, Mary Lynne and David.

Dennis was nominated by one of his classmates for this award. In high school Dennis applied himself to his studies so his success in the academic world was no surprise to anyone who attended school with him. He has returned to the Auburn, Alabama area where his grown children are living and where he has close ties with Auburn Univ.