ALUMNI NEWS
NEBRASKA ALUMNI MANAGEMENT TEAM CHANGES ANNOUNCED



Lincoln, Neb., Oct. 11, 2004 -- Kirk Cerny, senior vice president for membership services at the Kansas Alumni Association for the past five years, has accepted the position of associate executive director for membership and development at the Nebraska Alumni Association. He joins the staff Nov. 1.

Marc Shkolnick, associate executive director, who was in charge of membership and the programming team, is leaving Nebraska to become executive director of Alumni Relations at Colorado State University, effective Nov. 8. Shkolnick, who holds bachelor's and master's degrees from UNL, was director of alumni relations from 1993-99 and had served as associate executive director since then.

"Marc has done a tremendous job for us and will certainly be missed, but this is a wonderful career advancement opportunity for him," said Ed Paquette, executive director of the Nebraska Alumni Association. "I wish him well and know that he will do a great job for CSU.

"I'm pleased that Kirk has accepted our offer to join the staff. He brings with him a wealth of experience in membership development, strategic planning and working with volunteers and donors at one of the premier alumni associations in the country," Paquette said. "This also gives me the opportunity to reorganize the association's senior management team to serve the changing needs of our alumni and the university most effectively."

Cerny earned a bachelor's degree in human biology in 1992 and a master's degree in higher education administration in 1998, both from the University of Kansas. He served as an admissions representative for KU from 1992-1994 and as director of chapters and constituent programs for the alumni association from 1994 until he was named senior vice president in 1999.

"Kirk Cerny is one of today's elite young alumni relations' professionals," said Fred Williams, former president and CEO of the Kansas Alumni Association. He has a lot of moxie; he is a team player and will help establish a collaborative environment with other campus agencies, which in the end will result in an increase in the active involvement of alumni in the life of the university. Kirk is by heritage a Nebraskan, and I am certain that the Husker Nation will be served well by his and his lovely wife, Kelly's, presence in the Lincoln community."

The Council of Alumni Association Executives awarded Cerny a Forman Fellowship for Research in Alumni Programming in 2000-2001. He is a member of the University of Kansas School of Business Board of Advisors and the School of Education National Advisory Board.

"I'm excited to be a part of the proud Nebraska Cornhusker tradition," Cerny said. "As a Lincoln native, I look forward to coming home and working with the alumni association to achieve the goals of its members in supporting the university."

Cerny lived in Lincoln from the age of 1 until his sophomore year at East High School and has family members scattered across the state.

Cerny is one of three associate executive directors on the newly realigned alumni management team. Shelley Moses Zaborowski, '96, '00, formerly director of student programs, has been promoted to associate executive director for programs. She will continue to coordinate the Student Alumni Association, Cather Circle and Legacy programs while assuming supervisory responsibilities for all other alumni programs. Andrea Wood Cranford, '71, formerly director of communications, has been named associate executive director for communications. Other members of the management team are Kersi Pajnigar, '81, chief financial officer, and Alice Kadavy, administrative assistant.



Thank You,
Chris Andersen
Director of Chapter & Legislative Relations
Nebraska Alumni Association
PO Box 80129
1520 R Street
Lincoln, NE 68501-0129
Phone: 402-472-6078
Fax: 402-472-4635

HELP PRESERVE NEBRASKA'S HISTORICAL SITES

MAY 25, 2004

Nebraskans have a chance to do something positive for historic preservation on the November general election ballot, and members of the Nebraska Society of New York can help.

            Amendment 1 on the November ballot would clear the way for the Legislature to enact a law allowing a temporary “hold” to be placed on the assessment for the increased value when qualified historic properties are renovated or restored.

            Some 37 states use some sort of temporary tax abatement of this kind to encourage restoration of historic buildings. All states except Nebraska have some historic preservation laws on the books. Nebraska law discourages renovation and reuse of historic buildings because of the immediate property tax increases that apply.

            A statewide committee is working to inform the public about the need to approve Amendment 1. The committee needs financial support for an effective campaign. Members of the Society who would like to help can send donations made out to “Friends of Amendment 1” to 301 South 13^th St., Suite 400 Cornhusker Plaza, Lincoln , NE 68508 .

            Co-chairs of the committee are George Haecker of Bahr Vermeer & Haecker architects in Omaha and Keith Blackledge, retired newspaper editor in North Platte . Treasurers are Jim Seacrest and Helen Boosalis, both of Lincoln .

Alumni News (August 2004)

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SECTION: ;LIVING; Pg. 29

LENGTH: 390 words

HEADLINE: J. Lee Rankin

BYLINE: Kurt A. Keeler

SOURCE: World-Herald Staff Writer

BODY:
J. Lee Rankin's life reflected Nebraska values, and he serves as a reminder of the quality of public service Nebraskans have contributed to the nation.

Nationally known as general counsel of the Warren Commission that investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Rankin's less publicly acclaimed credits as a government attorney and solicitor general of the United States are woven in the very fabric of American law.

As an assistant attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department, Rankin represented the government in the landmark 1953 Brown vs. Board of Education case which established that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. In 1961, Rankin represented the American Civil Liberties Union in Gidion vs. Wainright, a case that established the right of a poor person accused in a criminal case to have a lawyer who would be paid at public expense.

Born in Hartington, Rankin was reared in Lincoln, where he graduated from the University of Nebraska School of Law. He practiced in Lincoln from 1933 until 1953, when the Eisenhower administration invited him to Washington to become an assistant attorney general of the United States in charge of the office of legal counsel at the Department of Justice.

"I had no ambition for a political job," Rankin once said. "I was happy to be practicing law in Lincoln."

But Rankin had achieved national prominence heading state campaigns for presidential candidates Thomas E. Dewey in 1948 and Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952.

After his Warren Commission duties ended in 1965, Rankin moved to New York and became corporation counsel for the City of New York under Mayor John Lindsey, a post he held for seven years.

In 1984, Rankin was named an honorary trustee of the Lincoln-based Cooper Foundation. He had authored the "Cooper Foundation History," published in 1983.

In 1985, Rankin and his wife, the former Gertrude Carpenter of Lincoln, were honored with the Nebraska Society of New York Sower Award for achievement in law.

Rankin rose from a modest beginning in northeast Nebraska to the throne of power in Washington, all the while insisting that a compassionate society live by the values it established for itself.

1907-1996

Birthplace: Hartington

Legacy: Brown vs. Board of Education

SECTION: Section C; Page 4, Column 3; Weekend Desk

LENGTH: 481 words

HEADLINE: Fairs and Festivals This Weekend

BODY:

TASTE-OF-NEBRASKA FESTIVAL, St. Bartholomew's Church, Park Avenue at 51st Street; sponsored by the Nebraska Society of New York. Sunday, 3 to 7 P.M. Cuisine from the state, including meat-and-vegetable sandwiches and sticky buns. Information: 431-9300.

SECTION: PART II/WEEKEND; CHOICES; Pg. 2

LENGTH: 498 words

HEADLINE: What's Hot Around Town

BODY:

 
Farm Fresh From
 
The Cornhusker State
 
You don't have to be a Nebraskan to enjoy a feast from the farm state. The Nebraska Society of New York has flown in hearty chow including 1,200 Runzas (meat and cabbage in baked bread), 100 yards of Wimmer's Wieners, Goody Pops, sticky buns and other fare so New Yorkers can enjoy "A Taste of Nebraska." Chow-down time is 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday at St. Bartholomew's Church, Park Avenue at 51st Street. All you can eat for $ 12.50.
 

DISTRIBUTION: TO CITY AND ASSIGNMENT DESKS AND FOOD EDITOR

LENGTH: 368 words

HEADLINE: THERE IS NO 'TASTE' LIKE NEBRASKA

DATELINE: NEW YORK, May 17

BODY:
NEW YORK, May 17 /PRN/ -- This weekend, at the third Taste of
Nebraska food extravaganza, a 7,000 pound food trend will roll into the
Big Apple.  The Nebraska Society of New York, a group of some 800
expatriates, is organizing the feast which will be held at St. Bart's
Church on Park Avenue at 51st Street, on Sunday, May 20, from 3:30 p.m.
to 7 p.m.  The price of admission for all you can eat is $15.
    Flown fresh from the Cornhusker state by Burlington Air Express, the
shipment includes: 1,200 Runza sandwiches, a meat, cabbage and special
spice mixture baked inside homemade bread dough; Valentino's pizza; 50
pounds of Wahoo Weiners; 100 yards of Wimmer's Weiners; banana and peach
flavor Goody Pop; Miller & Paine cinnamon rolls and Verdigre kolaches,
that are to Nebraskans what bagels are to New Yorkers.
    And there's more:  Nebraska beef, sausage and salami; organic corn
chips in assorted colors; Koala Creme Frozen Yogurt; Grace's Old Style
Mustard; and Lithuanian tortes.  Sky Chef is providing refrigerated
storage at the airport once the food arrives.
    Featured in the "Taste" raffle is an Ogallala Down Comforter, made
of 100 percent natural milkweed floss.  Also offered is an autographed
UNL football and other memorabilia.
    The "Taste" will also include entertainment by Nebraska artists and
entertainers now living in New York.  A general store will offer
featured foods including Dorothy Lynch Homestyle Dressing and No-Boil(R)
Lasagna Noodles, music and books by Nebraskans.
    The Nebraska Society of New York is a group of some 800 residents of
the Greater New York City/Tri-State area with ties to Nebraska.  Started
as a University of Nebraska Alumni Association Chapter some years ago,
the group now includes any and all New Yorkers who are native
Nebraskans, grew up there, worked or studied there, or have any
connection at all with the state.  The Nebraska Society was incorporated
in 1986 as a not-for-profit organization and regularly sponsors events
that nurture its common interest, Nebraska.

CONTACT -- Connie Connors of Connors Communications, 212-431-9300,
for the Nebraska Society of New York

SECTION: LIFESTYLE / FOOD; Pg. C03

LENGTH: 427 words

HEADLINE: WHAT'S COOKING

COLUMN: WHAT'S COOKING

BYLINE: LINDA H. BURGESS

BODY:


Nebraskans, or anyone in the mood to munch on regional specialties, may join the Nebraska Society of New York 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday for its third annual Taste of Nebraska celebration at St. Bartholomew's Church in Manhattan. More than 7,000 pounds of food are being shipped from
Nebraska, including delicacies such as runzas (a meat, cabbage, and spice mixture baked inside bread dough), Valentino's pizza, sticky buns, organic corn chips, kolaches (a European sweetbread with fruit filling), and plenty of beef. Tickets, $ 15 for all you can eat, are available at
the door. The church is at Park Avenue and 51st Street.

LOAD-DATE: October 25, 1995

SECTION: Domestic News

LENGTH: 406 words

HEADLINE: On The Light Side

DATELINE: LINCOLN, Neb.

BODY:
Joel Young and Julie Sharp grew up about a four-minute drive from each other in Lincoln. But they had to go to New York City to meet.

Young, 24, and Sharp, 25, met while attending a meeting of the Nebraska Society of New York, a group of former Nebraskans who get together monthly. They were to be married today at First-Plymouth Congregational Church. Young's father, the Rev. Otis Young, will officiate.

Young, a graduate of Lincoln Southeast High School, has degrees in engineering and computer science from the University of Southern California. He took a job in 1987 with AT&T's Bell Labs in Holmdel, N.J.

Sharp, a Lincoln High graduate, attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, then went to the New York City area two years ago for a summer job as a nanny. She stayed and became a legal assistant.

The two attended their first Nebraska Society meeting in the hope of finding a friendly face in the big city.

"New York is a very difficult place to meet people," said Sharp, adding that the Nebraska Society provided a place for people with common values and backgrounds to get together.

After the wedding, they plan to stay in the New York City area and continue their membership in the Nebraska Society. But they haven't given up on the idea of returning to the Midwest someday.
 
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - The worst Christmas for Richard Nichols turned into one of the best when he learned that two brothers had found nearly $$4,000 in Christmas gifts and belongings that fell off his family's car.

"I just about died," Nichols recalled when he heard the message on his answering machine that the items and the rack on which the belongings were carried had been found.

The rack and its cargo had spilled from his 1984 Ford Bronco Monday night as the family drove 80 miles between relatives' homes.

They checked the rack once en route, but when they arrived, it was gone.

Nichols retraced the route in the back of a pickup truck with a spotlight.

No luck.
 

SECTION: TEMPO; Pg. 1; ZONE: C

LENGTH: 328 words

HEADLINE: BIG APPLE ABOUNDS IN 'HUSKERS

BYLINE: Jon Anderson.

BODY:
    According to historians, prehistoric people inhabited the area now known as Nebraska as early as 8000 B.C., but many settlers date their ancestry to a more recent period, when Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune,
advised a reader to "Go west, young man, and grow with the country." Now, so many descendants are straggling back east that a Nebraska Society of New York
has set up headquarters in Rockefeller Center.

    With invitations to "come and meet Nebraska stars who 'made it' in the Big Apple," the group appeals to displaced Nebraskans to (1) join in a monthly "bar night" at a tavern called McHales on 8th Avenue, (2) jointly watch Cornhuskers games on TV, (3) eat back-home fare such as runzas, kolaches and beef jerky at the annual "Taste of Nebraska" and (4) talk about famous native Nebraskans who later lived in New York.

    The list includes Johnny Carson from Norfolk, Henry Fonda and Bil Baird from Grand Island, Gordon MacRae from Lincoln, Willa Cather from Red Cloud, Sandy Dennis from Hastings, Darryl Zanuck from Wahoo; and Montgomery Clift, Gerald Ford, Fred and Adele Astaire, Marlon Brandon and Malcolm X from Omaha.     Dick Cavett, who grew up in Gibbon, once was accused of portraying Nebraska as a land of "broad, elm-shaded streets, tall old white-frame houses, firm but kindly elders with big round watches in their vests and
smudge-faced, innocent prankish kids." It was, he said, all true.

    Nebraska clubs are not new. Washington has one. An Anchorage group is known as Nebraskan Alaskans. But New York club President Phyllis Crawley estimates her crowd at 800, so big that they consumed 7,000 pounds of
Cornhusker food flown in for last May's taste fest. The social schedule includes the "Sower Award" banquet, held each fall to honor distinguished NINYs (Nebraskans In New York), and a gathering of 150 or more for "any
televised Nebraska football game."

LOAD-DATE: March 21, 1994

SECTION: Section C; Page 6, Column 3; Living Desk

LENGTH: 739 words

HEADLINE: TASTE OF HOME FOR LONESOME NEBRASKANS

BODY:
NEBRASKANS living in New York miss the sweeping prairies, lush sunsets and college linebackers who can hit, and many do not think much of the subways and the skyscrapers and - frankly - the rudeness. But the Nebraskans recently had two tons of food from home to comfort them.

The care package, donated by Nebraska food suppliers, fed about 600 of the state's expatriates and a few curious New Yorkers at ''A Taste of Nebraska'' Sunday at the community center of St. Bartholomew's Church. The event was sponsored by the Nebraska Society of New York Inc., most of whose 800 members grew up in Nebraska or attended the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. The group holds monthly meetings, and members get together to watch Cornhuskers football games on television and to sponsor Nebraska-related events in New York - no easy chore. The society sponsored the first ''Taste of Nebraska'' two years ago.

''We're a kind of clannish group,'' said Barbara Albright, who was reared in Fremont, Neb., and now is the editor of Chocolatier magazine. ''Being from Nebraska, we're an oddity in New York.''

Robert Kelly, an actor in Manhattan who was born in Omaha, complained: ''In New York everyone is on the make. It's not that the people are bad, but they're almost necessarily rude. Have you ever tried to strike up a conversation with a stranger on the subway? If you do, you're automatically a suspicious character.''

The 4,000 pounds of treats flown in to soothe these misplaced Nebraskans included two Nebraska delicacies that many New Yorkers would not recognize: runzas, a German dish consisting of a beef-cabbage mixture wrapped in dough, and kolaches, a Czechoslovakian sweet bread that looks like a small Danish.

''New York has got the best foods from all around the world - Chinatown, Little Italy, food from Thailand and India,'' said Ron Marino, a non-Nebraskan who is district operations manager in Brooklyn for Burlington Air Express, which brought the food from Lincoln. ''But we don't have dishes from our own country, and these are our brothers.''

The shipment also included 100 pounds of sausage from Bickel's Meat Center in Omaha, 420 cinnamon rolls from the Miller & Paine bakery in Lincoln, and 960 wieners from Wimmer's Meat Products Inc. in West Point, Neb.

The feast was a time to remember Nebraska. The society members wore the bright red garb that Cornhusker fans don on game days. They decorated the community center, at Park Avenue and 50th Street, with red balloons inscribed ''Go Big Red!''

The Milton G. Waldbaum Company in Wakefield, Neb., sent 1,000 hard-boiled eggs dyed red. Dean Hughson, the company's vice president, said the quality of foods produced in Nebraska easily beats that of foods made in New York because Nebraska has purer water, cleaner air and a stronger work ethic. ''People should get their culture from New York and their eggs from the Midwest,'' he said.

In fact, most of those who sent food to the Nebraska Society said they did so in hopes of selling more of their processed foods in the New York area, in most cases by mail order.

New Yorkers in the food business, however, seemed undisturbed by the threat of competition from Nebraska.

''What does Nebraska know about food?'' asked Murray Klein, president and co-owner of Zabar's. ''They wouldn't even know how to make a dill pickle.''

Leo Steiner, owner of the Carnegie Delicatessen, conceded that he receives some of his best beef from Nebraska, but gave the state little credit for food preparation. ''When's the last time you heard of someone going to Omaha for a pastrami sandwich?'' he asked. ''I've been to Omaha. You get two slices of bread and one slice of meat. I'd like to go back there, actually. I need to lose some weight.''

But even if Nebraska may never duplicate New York's pastrami sandwiches, it offers other rewards, said Kathryn Bedke, a lawyer in Manhattan who was born in Ravenna, Neb.

About 10 years ago, she recalled, she was driving at dawn on a deserted highway in central Nebraska. ''There were these bales of hay stacked up near the road,'' she said. ''And there standing on top of the hay was a cock pheasant. There was no movement and the sun was just coming out and this cock pheasant was just standing still and looking out, saying this is my domain. I just had to stop. I looked at him for about 15 minutes, and I couldn't help but think, hey, life doesn't get any better than this.''

GRAPHIC: Photo of party at St. Bartholomew's

SECTION: Section C; Page 7, Column 1; Living Desk

LENGTH: 1060 words

HEADLINE: FOOD NOTES

BYLINE: By Florence Fabricant

BODY:

 
TASTE OF THE PRAIRIE
  Runzas, sticky buns, kolaches, Wimmer's Wieners, Sugar Spoon cheesecakes and Valentino's Pizza will be on the menu Sunday at the Taste of Nebraska Festival at St. Bartholomew's Church, 50th Street and Park Avenue. Sponsored by the Nebraska Society of New York, the $12.50-a-plate buffet of cornhusker comestibles will be served from 3:30 to 7 P.M. The location is appropriate: St. Bartholomew's was designed by Bertram Goodhue, the architect of the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln.

For an explanation of prairie foods, the University of Nebraska Press has just published ''Cather's Kitchen'' by Roger L. and Linda K. Welsch ($16.95). The book examines Nebraskan and other specialties of the Middle West as they are portrayed in the writings of Willa Cather, with particular emphasis on how they reflect frontier and prairie life. It includes many period recipes, some with annotations.

GRAPHIC: drawing

SECTION: LIFESTYLE / FOOD; Pg. B03

LENGTH: 94 words

HEADLINE: A TASTE OF MIDDLE AMERICA

COLUMN: WHAT'S COOKING

BYLINE: NANETTE STREHL

BODY:
The Nebraska Society of New York is sponsoring "A Taste of Nebraska" this Sunday from 3:30 to 7 p.m. at St. Bartholomew's Church at 50th Street and Park Avenue. Grazers can sample such middle-American
fare as sticky buns, fruit-filled European sweetbread, runzas (meat and cabbage pies), sugar spoon cheesecakes, and whirl-a-whip ice cream. Also
featured will be entertainment by Nebraska artists and entertainers who now live in New York. A general store will offer books by Nebraskans and other Nebraska memorabilia. Admission is $ 12.50.



LOAD-DATE: March 25, 1996