WSU graduate Dr. Robert W. Higgins, former U.S. Navy Deputy Surgeon General and Navy Medical Corps chief, received the 32nd Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award. Also the recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest military peacetime award, he was former president of the American Academy of Family Physicians and of the World Organization of Family Doctors.
WSU graduate and sociologist James E. Blackwell received the 31st Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award. Blackwell is a leading scholar in the areas of minorities in higher education and social movement in black communities. Blackwell received his Ph.D. in Sociology from WSU in 1959 and worked during the turbulent early 1960s as the president of the San Jose NAACP and as a teacher at San Jose State University. In 1970 the University of Massachusetts hired Blackwell to build its fledgling Department of Sociology and Anthropology at its five-year-old Boston campus where he stayed for 20 years. Blackwell remained passionately dedicated to teaching, not for the sake of knowledge alone, but to help students ” go on to graduate and professional schools and becoming important, contributing citizens.”
WSU graduate and scientist Jack Gorski, a National Academy of Sciences member, received the 30th Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award. Gorski was known for his discovery of the estrogen receptor.
WSU and Pullman community members held a vigil the evening of September 12 in Pullman’s Reaney Park in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. East Coast.
Cougar women’s volleyball received an NCAA Championship tournament at-large berth for the ninth time, all in a twelve year stretch, hosting the first and second rounds of play.
WSU dedicates the admissions office suite in the Lighty Student Services to Stan Berry, who worked 33 years in WSU admissions. He was director for 22 years.
WSU alumnus and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen became the 29th recipient of the Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award during commencement.
On March 26, the WSU Alumni Association began a six-month centennial celebration. The association started in 1898, eight years after the state Legislature created the land-grant college.
The September issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine ranks WSU 39th among the nation’s “Top 100 Values in State Universities.”
The first students recruited to WSU through the College of Education’s Future Teachers of Color program graduated during the 1998 Commencement.
The new $27 million, 100,000-square-foot Engineering, Teaching, and Research Laboratory opened. Adjacent to Dana Hall, the four-story structure was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Washington Gov. Gary Locke participates in a dialogue on race and bigotry in the Compton Union Building with students, faculty, and staff. In an address he said, “The gift of cultural pluralism is grounded in mutual respect and democracy.”
WSU received a $10 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to create an Institute for Shock Physics. The institute is directed by WSU physics professor, Yogi Gupta. In 2001 the university held a ground-breaking for a new building to house WSU’s internationally recognized Institute for Shock Physics. In 2003, the new building housing WSU’s internationally recognized Institute for Shock Physics was inaugurated.
WSU biochemists Rod Croteau and Linda Randall were elected to the National Academy of Sciences. They joined four other WSU researchers in the academy: C.A. “Bud” Ryan, a biochemist; Jim Cook, a USDA plant pathologist at WSU; John Hirth, a materials scientist; and Dieter H. von Wettstein, a plant geneticist.
The Consolidated Information Center at WSU Tri-Cities opened. Funds for the $18.6 million literary and teaching center came from the state of Washington and the U.S. Department of Energy.
WSU names Gretchen Bataille Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, effective July 1. She had been provost of the College of Letters and Science at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
WSU officially dedicated the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service. It is named for the former speaker of the house and State of Washington Congress member.
Volleyball coach Cindy Fredrick concluded her seventh season at WSU by being named PAC-10 Conference Coach of the Year, and was named AVCA District VIII Coach of the Year as well. The team finished 22-7 overall and third in the Pac-10, led by All-American Sara Silvernail.
“Common Ground,” a three-piece acrylic-on-canvas painting celebrating diversity at WSU, was dedicated in the Compton Union Building. WSU colleges and administrative units donated funds for the mural by artist Katrin Wiese, Riverside, Calif.
U.S. Army Gen. John M Shalikashvili, chairman of the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at commencement. His son Brant was one of the graduates. Shalikashvili served as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Supreme Allied Commander from 1993 through 1997, the first foreign-born American to do so.
Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Norman Borlaug, received an honorary doctoral degree from WSU during commencement in 1995. Borlaug and WSU professor, Orville Vogel, are credited with research crucial to the “Green Revolution” in wheat breeding, which has saved an estimated one billion lives in the twentieth century.
President Emeritus Glenn Terrell, who led WSU from 1967-1985, returns to WSU for dedication of the Glenn Terrell Friendship Mall.
Coach Lisa Gozley and the WSU women’s soccer team made their first NCAA Tournament appearance. The Cougs were ranked 19th by “Soccer America,” the oldest magazine devoted to American soccer.
The WSU women’s junior varsity crew team captured the crown at the National Collegiate Rowing Championship Regatta on Lake Harsha in Ohio. It was the first title for the five-year-old rowing program.
Butch T. Cougar and Mickey Mouse spent the day in Disneyland at a pre-game rally for the WSU vs. USC football game.
The WSU baseball team captured the Pac-10 North baseball title under first-year coach Steve Farrington.
Coach Kevin Eastman took WSU men’s basketball to the post-season NIT Tournament.
Cougar fans celebrate a 23-6 Apple Cup football victory against University of Washington in the snow at Martin Stadium.
WSU names Thompson Hall for Albert Wilder Thompson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at WSU from 1953-64. It had formerly just been known as the Administration Building, but those functions had moved to French Hall in 1967-1968.
The WSU African American Alumni Alliance begins in fall of 1991 during the planning of that year’s first Black Student Reunion.
The WSU men’s basketball team received an invitation to play in the NCAA Championship Tournament. They lost in the first round to Boston College, 64-67.
WSU Regent Kate Webster retired after nearly 19 years of service. She served the longest term on the WSU Board of Regents in the past 50 years. The Physical Sciences Building is named for her.
