Volume 28 · Number 3 · Spring 2011
Alumni Profiles
Prized Mentor
Bruce Jackson, M.S. '76, shakes hands with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office before a ceremony in January to honor Jackson and other recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.
"The whole thing was absolutely surreal," said Jackson. He credited his mentors at UC Davis, including medical professor emeritus Robert Cardiff, for making such recognition possible.
Jackson is a professor at Massachusetts Bay Community College in Wellesley Hills, Mass., where he founded and coordinates a biotechnology program and a forensic DNA science program that, according to the college, is the first in the world to offer an associate degree in the field. College officials, in a news release, said Jackson's leadership has helped MassBay produce 17 Barry M. Goldwater Scholars. No other community college in the U.S. has had more than two students receive the presitigious undegraduate math, science and engineering honor. Of the 11 individuals and four organizations to receive the mentoring award, Jackson was the only representative of a community college. Jackson is also a researcher in the biomedical engineering and biotechnology program at University of Massechusetts Lowell, a past Fullbright Scholar and founder of the nonprofit Roots Project, which uses genetics to trace the ancestry of African Americans.
(Photo courtesy White House Press Office)
Peter Stekl '75
Peter Stekl
Occupation: Freelance writer, author of Final Flight: The Mystery of a WWII Plane Crash and the Frozen Airmen in the High Sierra and Best Hikes Near Seattle.
The crash: The 2005 discovery of the mummified body of aviation cadet Leo Mustonen of Minnesota, inspired Peter Stekel '75 to write a book about Mustonen and three other airmen lost with him in the Sierra Nevada during a routine navigation training flight in 1942. Stekel, who has been hiking the Sierra since he was a 12-year-old Boy Scout, trekked to the crash site in the remote stretches of Kings Canon National Park on a sunny afternoon in August 2007. There he made a startling find — the remains of Ernest Glenn Munn, a 23-year-old aviation cadet who perished along with 22-year-old Mustonen, preserved within the Mendel Glacier. "It was and continues to be an incredibly emotional experience for me," he said. "I knew there was a family that had been waiting for over 60 years to find out what has happened to this guy, and now they would finally know."
Closure: After five years of research, interviews and writing, Stekel's book, Final Flight, about the young men who disappeared in 1942, was published by Wilderness Press this past fall. "I used to believe that the idea and the concept of closure was psychobabble," he said. He changed his mind after attending Munn's funeral in Ohio and meeting Munn's three younger sisters, who are now grandmothers. "I saw the impact on their lives from the closure of finally knowing what happened to Glenn, [and] I realized how important that closure is." He has now committed himself to finding the last two crew-members — cadet John Mortenson, 25, of Idaho and pilot William Gamber, 23, of Ohio — to bring closure to their families as well.
Storyteller: Before his 19-year career in freelance writing, Stekel, who earned his bachelor's degree in botany, was a Bureau of Land Management ecologist and a high school biology teacher. Now he writes about an assortment of his favorite topics, such as nature, education, Olympic sports and the best hiking spots in Seattle. "I come from a family of storytellers," he said. "I like telling stories. I enjoy the creative process." He particularly enjoys telling stories about the Sierra Nevada, and his expertise on the region has made him a source for world media outlets, including National Geographic and BBC4. He has lived in Seattle for the past 20 years with his wife, Jeanie, but he visits the Sierra many times each summer. "If you like being inspired by awesome grandeur, the Sierra Nevada is your place." Stekel's book tour begins in San Diego on April 1 and ends in Oakland on April 23.
"[Getting a book published] is like seeing your child succeed. I do see my work — particularly my books — as my babies."