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VISIONS@20
A LOOK BACK AT 20 YEARS OF FEATURE STORIES

Compared to The Alumnus, VISIONS is just a kid.
Even as VISIONS celebrates 20 years as the ISU Alumni Association’s members’ magazine, its longevity pales in comparison to the Association’s earlier periodical, The Alumnus, which published for 70 years, from 1905 until 1974. The mostly black-and-white publication contained campus news, alumni events, and class notes – not really so different from today’s VISIONS when you think about it.

After The Alumnus ceased publication in 1974, the university communicated to its alumni through The Iowa Stater, a tabloid-style newsletter published by University Relations and supported in part by the Alumni Association and ISU Foundation. The Iowa Stater was sent to all alumni from 1975 until 2002.

Meanwhile, the Alumni Association missed having a magazine it could call its own. Then-executive director Jim Hopson (’69 industrial education) and his associate executive director, Karen Tow (’67 English/speech), were often encouraged by alumni and members of the Alumni Association Board of Directors to pursue another magazine.

“People missed the magazine,” Hopson said. Tow agrees. “From the time I came on board in 1980, I remember the board always talking about wanting to implement an alumni magazine.”

Debra Solberg Gibson (’81 home economics journalism) joined the Alumni Association staff in 1982 and remembers that she had been “sort of dropping hints for a long time” to start up a new alumni magazine.
“Every time somebody would bring it up, I’d say, ‘Oooooh! I think it would be great if we had a magazine!” she says.

Finally, in 1985, the board and staff began seriously
looking at the cost, staffing, and logistics of implementing a full-color magazine for the alumni of
Iowa State. In 1987, the board approved the plan,
the Alumni Association hired writer Dan Davenport (’84 agricultural journalism), and in spring 1988,
the first VISIONS magazine was published.
“It was very well received right off the bat,” Tow remembers. “Everybody was happy to see a four-
color magazine.”

Producing a brand-new quarterly magazine was not without its “hiccups and controversies,” Tow said.
But she and Hopson agree that the biggest obstacle
was always funding.

“Shortly after we really made the decision to go with VISIONS, we started to see some reductions in university support of the Alumni Association,” Hopson said. “It made us far more independent, but it put a real strain on our operation.” And, he said, the staff was “overly optimistic” about advertising revenue.
Despite its budget woes, the magazine has persisted on a quarterly basis as the premier benefit of membership for all current members of the ISU Alumni Association. For a time in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Association sent the magazine to all ISU alumni, based on encouragement from the Board of Directors to broaden the magazine’s scope. But again, budget realities prevailed and the magazine returned to a members-only publication.

Over the years, VISIONS’ design has evolved and its staff has changed. The magazine has won many awards and has been a source of pride for the university and its alumni.

“You know, I think one reason it worked so well is that right from the beginning we wanted a quality product, and I think that’s still the case,” said Tow. “It’s just gotten better and better.”

“It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years,” said Hopson. “I look forward to every issue.”

The first issue
When VISIONS debuted in spring 1988, the first issue featured an in-depth portrait of ISU President Gordon Eaton, a glimpse into the “a-ha!” moment experienced by John Vincent Atanasoff many years before, a profile on dance professor Betty Toman, campus and alumni news, and a photo essay on Pammel Court. Editor Debra Gibson says that first issue was “overwhelming. Now I look back and I think, ‘Gosh, I can’t believe we bit that off.’”

Dreams really come true
By Debra Solberg Gibson, '81

The Minnesota Twins won the World Series. Reagan asked Gorbachev to tear down the wall. Life lessons were dispensed by the likes of Madonna and the Huxtables. I reveled in a waistline and one chin. And the Alumni Association launched a brand-new magazine.

It was the late 1980s, a time period I now vaguely remember when faced with a Trivial Pursuit question. And yet the autumn of 1987 remains deeply imprinted on my otherwise-sketchy memory as we three rookies delved into the creation of VISIONS.

To say Dan Davenport, Sandi Kellen, and I were inexperienced would be kind. Yet what we lacked in magazine savvy we made up in the pure euphoria we felt every day we came to work. If you still believe dreams come true, this was it. We got to make a magazine.

That exhilaration carried us for years.

I look back on the 35 covers I edited during my tenure and I remember the true fun we had during at least some phase of constructing every single issue. What other vocation provides the chance to sit up till all hours of the night concocting mostly useless headlines and photo captions amid pizza boxes and howling laughter? Or earns you front-row press passes when a U.S. President comes to campus? Or delivers you into the homes of persons well-known and not, all over the country, because they have stories to tell?

Creating a VISIONS issue was like diving into a giant scavenger hunt, tracking hints of enticing tales, following divergent photo trails. And on occasion, when we landed the prize and pulled together a story that reverberated off the pages, it was a moment like no other. (See above reference to “fun.”)

But it was not without work, and it was often more hours than we dared to count. Unlike most magazine audiences, the alumni demographic couldn’t be illustrated in one tidy colorful little box. Readers ran the gamut of age, income, interests. It was impossible to make everyone happy, as our passionate “letters to the editor” often attested.

Yet we could bank on this: Our readers loved their university. They paid attention to, and sometimes were hungry for, word about their campus. Even when that word wasn’t Disneyesque, more alumni than not read it, contemplated it, weighed it against what else was happening in the world. They connected.And in the end, that’s what mattered most to me.

Today, I teach magazine journalism at ISU’s Greenlee School, another job I truly love. But I’ll admit this: There are days when I’m trying to convince future writers that everyone has a story, and that in-person interviews are the best, and that Facebook is a waste of time, when my mind drifts back to those glory days
of fall ’87. And I find myself asking….

The Twins actually won the World Series?

Deb Gibson was the editor of VISIONS magazine from 1988 to 1996.

Ten years after
VISIONS ran a poignant piece entitled “Jogging Memories” on the 10-year anniversary of the tragic 1985 plane crash that killed seven Iowa Staters: three members of the ISU women’s cross country team, two coaches, a student trainer, and the pilot. Gibson says, “It was just such a devastating event in the history of the university, and when we came up on 10 years, we knew we had to do something to address it…. When people pass away, it’s so hard for their survivors when people stop asking. That’s what I remember so clearly: the gratitude that somebody remembered that it had been 10 years, that somebody still cared enough about [their daughter] to want to know more about her life. There was such appreciation there. And to this day I think that will be the favorite thing we ever did for VISIONS because it was very meaningful on so many levels.”

VEISHEA riot coverage
Just as the second issue of VISIONS was heading out the door to the magazine’s design firm in Lawrence, Kan., a student riot broke out at VEISHEA 1988. Gibson remembers, “We were brand new and we thought, ‘We have to deal with this. It’s on the national news. If we overlook it, we’ll lose credibility. What do we do?’ We thought the best way was to lead off our news section with the story.” Reaction was mixed. “Administrators were unhappy and believed that really wasn’t the purpose of the alumni magazine. Why, in the second issue, would you drag out our dirty laundry? I think had it not been our second issue we probably wouldn’t have had nearly that kind of feedback from the administration.” Readers, Gibson said, appreciated the magazine’s straightforward approach to the story.

Backlash: Hooters
A story on Hooters founder Ed Droste (’73) stirred up controversy for the magazine in the fall of 1995. Droste was a well-known, successful businessman, and editor Gibson said the staff felt the magazine would be remiss not to do a story on him. So VISIONS ran the story, along with a photo of Droste surrounded by “Hooters girls.” A firestorm of letters to the editor followed, and the magazine also printed an op-ed piece by the chair of the ISU Committee on Women condemning the magazine for running an article on an alumnus who “exploits women.”

A question of timing
A VISIONS profile on Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin (’62) in 1990 became “hugely controversial” according to Gibson, given the fact that Harkin, a Democrat, was gearing up for a 1992 run for the White House. Republican alumni were miffed. Letters criticized the magazine for its “bad judgment” and “blatantly partisan endorsement of a political candidate.” In hindsight, Gibson agrees. “You know what? They were right. It was a good piece, and I’m glad we did it, but it was bad timing.”

Taking a fresh look at Johnny Orr
In the winter 1990 issue, writer Dan Davenport captured the essence of ISU basketball coach Johnny Orr, a colorful man who had been written about so many times it could have been difficult to find anything new to say. The key was finding insights into Coach Orr that nobody else knew…and that was the magic of Davenport’s story.

‘A huge heart’
In the early 1990s, Dr. Stephen Gleason (’71 zoology) was at the forefront of national health care policy, serving as senior health care adviser to President Bill Clinton. For a story in the fall 1993 issue of VISIONS, editor Deb Gibson spent many hours with Gleason in his Des Moines offices and flew with him to Washington, D.C. “This was a brilliant guy,” Gibson remembers. “He talked very frankly about his previous addictions to drugs and alcohol and his failed marriage. Even though he had his own personal demons, he had a huge heart.” Gleason, an Iowa physician who was Gov. Tom Vilsack’s chief of staff and director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, committed suicide in March 2006 after years of struggling with pain and addiction.

On the road with Don Smith
In its first year, VISIONS ran a profile of Don Smith, a well-known alumnus who stirred up controversy during his student days. Smith, you may recall, pledged to “drag Iowa State kicking and screaming into the 20th century” during his brief and tumultuous tenure as ISU’s student body president back in 1967. Gibson remembers that the story was the first one that ruffled readers’ feathers. “They said, ‘What’s this? Why are you doing a story on this guy? He was nothing but a troublemaker.’”

A Moo U Woo
It’s not every day that the President of the United States is on your campus, so it’s a very big deal. Gibson described the event (the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Rural Conference) in April 1995 as an “amazing opportunity for the whole university” and one which landed on the cover of VISIONS magazine.

The perfect profile
“I always loved the Esprit section, which were the little profiles of alumni who were doing interesting things all over the country. That was always my favorite, because I totally believe in the idea that everybody has a story,” said editor Deb Gibson. An example: VISIONS profiled Stephanie Wells (’75 meteorology) in its fall 1988 issue. Wells was the only female pilot at NASA’s Johnson Space Center at that time. VISIONS caught up with Wells again in 2001 when a group of engineering students participated in NASA’s zero-gravity project — and Wells was one of just four pilots certified to fly the plane. Wells left NASA in 2003 and moved to Colorado to work as an FAA safety inspector.

The flood of 1993
Alumni magazines don’t cover many natural disasters – not that we’d want to – but when Hilton Coliseum and much of the Midwest flooded in 1993, VISIONS was there to tell the story. The Des Moines Register called Hilton “the world’s largest swimming pool” when the playing floor filled with 14 feet of water.

Changing of the guard
When Debra Gibson stepped down after nine years as editor of VISIONS in 1996, and when associate editor Dan Davenport did the same a few months later, one thing was certain: This magazine was about to change. It was inevitable. Carole Gieseke, the director of publications for Northwest Missouri State University, was not a magazine editor, nor was she an Iowa State graduate. But the Alumni Association hired her to do the job, and she figures that her first issue (summer 1997) was no less scary than the Gibson/Davenport inaugural issue so many years before. “I didn’t have a clue,” Gieseke remembers. She hired Karol Crosbie – a two-time ISU graduate and Ames resident – as her head writer. “She saved my life,” Gieseke says. The two, along with photographer Jim Heemstra and designers from Mauck+Associates, managed to put out a pretty decent first issue that featured, among other things, the demolition of Pammel Court.

The Iowa issue
No other issue gave the current editorial staff more sleepless nights and long, long working hours than what’s been referred to as simply “The Iowa Issue.” Published in spring 2005, the issue’s cover story ran a whopping 30 pages – a record that may never be broken. The story featured essays written by faculty and alumni, a love letter to Iowa, and mini-features on everything from the future of Iowa agriculture to the problems with Iowa to sustaining the state’s “good life.” “The positive reaction we got from readers was worth all the hard work,” says editor Carole Gieseke. “Everybody wanted extra copies. I think it became a real collector’s item.”

Generations
“This story came to me in a dream,” says editor Carole Gieseke. The VISIONS staff was struggling to find a way to tell the story of the university’s yearlong celebration of the role and impact of science and technology (“Advancing Technology: To Become the Best”) without, Gieseke says, “boring readers to death.” Maybe it was that pizza with too much garlic, but one night it just came to her: Tell the story of technology at Iowa State through the eyes of a four-generation family of engineering students, against a backdrop of the cultural and technological changes that were occurring in the U.S. at the time. Gieseke remembered a story she’d seen in a College of Engineering publication about four generations of the Liggett family: John T. Liggett had attended Iowa State at the same time the U.S. was caught up in World War I. His son, John R. Liggett, was a student during World War II, and his son, John M. Liggett, was at Iowa State during the Vietnam conflict. The fourth-generation, Ian Liggett, was a current student. Gieseke, along with writer Karol Crosbie and photographer Jim Heemstra, told the story of families, war, engineering – and the changes that technology has made in our lives.

Bridges forever
“Bridges” (winter 2004) was one of those stories about which the editors asked themselves, “Is anyone going to want to read this?” But it turned out to be one of the most popular stories in the last 10 years. When the staff surveys readers after each issue and asks which stories in the past stand out in their minds, “Bridges” comes up every time.

Alaska wild
The winter 2005 cover story about ISU alumni living in Alaska actually started out as a story about alumni working in national parks. The editors had leads on alumni in Yellowstone, Denali, Hawaii Volcanoes, and several other parks, but one by one the stories fell through. Except the alum who had worked in Denali was now an environmental activist in Alaska. And, it turned out, there were dozens of alumni living in Alaska with fascinating stories to tell. In covering those alumni, photographer Jim Heemstra and editor Carole Gieseke created their own “Alaska stories:” They got stranded in a blizzard on the Parks Highway; flew to Kodiak Island on a plane filled with gun-toting, camouflage-wearing hunters; stumbled on a moose couple doing – er, what moose do; and nearly lost their respective lunches on a halibut-fishing expedition.

We did have an umbrella covering her
You never know whether it’s OK to ask a 77-year-old distinguished professor to, um, lie down on her stomach … in the woods … in the rain. But we found Lois Tiffany, distinguished professor of botany, to be an incredibly good sport, resulting in this award-winning and much-published photograph by Jim Heemstra. Tiffany’s portrait led off a series of stories entitled “The Faculty: Adventurers, Innovators, Superstars” in the winter 2002 issue. Today, Tiffany (’45 botany, ’47 master’s, ’50 Ph.D.) remains active as an emeritus professor in ISU’s Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology.

Touched by an angel
Sometimes stories just fall into your lap. When Jeanette Johnson Bradley (’79 agronomy) responded by e-mail to an Alumni Association request that she mentor an ISU student, her answer included a heart-felt tribute to one of her undergraduate professors. The timing could not have been better: VISIONS was in the process of gathering alumni-written essays around the theme “The professor who changed my life.” All were wonderful, but Bradley’s unsolicited tribute to the late soils professor Wayne Scholtes was our hands-down favorite.

The photographers of Iowa State
Creative, high-quality photography has always been a hallmark of VISIONS. And over the years Iowa State has been lucky to have some outstanding photographers documenting the beauty of its campus. In the fall 2000 issue, VISIONS paid tribute to a few of those photographers, including Jim Heemstra, current VISIONS photographer.

An innocent man
J.D. Mullen understands what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a mistaken identity case. A false accusation rocked the 1987 graduate’s world, and although charges were eventually dropped and he was completely cleared of the crime, he lost his job and later his family. Wife Ellen Mullen (’87, master’s ’90 industrial relations) stuck by her husband through the ordeal, but the couple later divorced. J.D. has been working for the past three years as a kitchen designer for the Home Depot in Ankeny, Iowa, a job he says he “really enjoys.” He says Ellen and their three girls are doing well in Ames. Ellen is a lecturer in the ISU College of Business.

Of flying saucers and little green men
Roy Craig never thought much about reports of flying saucers and alien invasions in the 1950s and ’60s – until he was recruited as a field investigator for the Condon Project, conducted at the request of the U.S. Air Force in reaction to a then-growing number of UFO sightings. Craig (Ph.D. ’52 chemistry) never found a shred of evidence in any of the reports he investigated, and in 1995 he wrote a book about his experiences: UFOs: An Insider’s View of the Official Quest for Evidence. When a VISIONS writer and reporter visited Craig at his Ignacio, Colo., home in fall 2002, they found him sharing space with a herd of llamas and enough space-alien paraphernalia to fill a science fiction museum. A warm, funny, and intelligent man, Craig died of cancer in 2004.

150 years
VISIONS has frequently used the occasion of this anniversary or that one to take a stroll down memory lane (the 100th birthday of the Campanile in 1999 comes to mind). But the staff really pulled out all the stops last year for the sesquicentennial anniversary of the founding of the university. The spring 2007 issue featured a 16-page comprehensive timeline, plus a list of 150 “VISIONary” Iowa Staters and 150 moments in Cyclone athletics. We’ve continued to cover the anniver-sary, with features on the oral history project, 150 years of philanthropy, preserving your own memories, and more.