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War Victim NICHOLAS BERG, 26

ANTHONY INGRAFFEA WAS IN A HOTEL room on Long Island when he first heard about the murder of an American in Iraq named Nicholas Berg. The news flashed by on the CNN crawl, and though the name seemed familiar to Ingraffea, a professor of civil engineering at Cornell, he didn't think much of it at the time. It was only the next day, after the gruesome video of Berg's death by decapitation had been posted by the Islamist website Muntada al-Ansar and played endlessly on TV, that Ingraffea felt the shock of loss: the Nick Berg splashed across cable news was the same Nick Berg who, as a Cornell student, had dazzled Ingraffea and others on the Hill with his boundless energy and inventiveness.

Nicholas Evan Berg '00 came to Cornell in the fall of 1996 as a freshman in the College of Engineering; his first class was in Ingraffea's introductory course on civil engineering, and Berg quickly made his mark. "It wasn't just that he was bright," Ingraffea says. "They're all bright. But they don't all have the same degree of enthusiasm that Nick did."

Considering the manner in which he died, those who didn't know Berg may have come to regard him as something of a helpless victim of tragic circumstance; those who knew him on campus paint a different picture, one of a student deeply engaged with the world, a person who always seized his fate."Nick was interested in everything," says James Gossett, director of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Berg's faculty advisor. Once, Gossett bumped into Berg at Teagle Hall, and the two got to talking about Gossett's background as a competitive swimmer. Berg began asking about stroke technique--"from an engineering standpoint, of course," Gossett says. "He wanted to understand aquatic-propulsion fundamentals."

Berg spent the spring semester of 1998 on a study-abroad program in Kampala, Uganda. There, says Robin Swett, then the academic director of the program, Berg thought of a way to use a brick-making press to generate income for a local village.He used his own money to purchase the press, and, after learning the regional dialect, taught locals how to make and sell high-quality bricks. In many ways, Swett says, Berg's time in Uganda foreshadowed his trip to Iraq. "He was trying to analyze the role of the Western presence in Africa. He wanted to feel as though he was contributing something. He was always thinking about how he might be able to play a role in a way that was effective and not invasive."

Berg decided to leave Cornell after the fall semester of 1998. He returned to his home state of Pennsylvania to start a company, Prometheus Methods Tower, that specialized in repairing broadcast towers. This was the work that took him to Iraq. Shortly before the war began, though, Berg had considered returning to Cornell. "I remember the CU instruction as top notch," Berg wrote to engineering professor John Abel in an e-mail, "and I would love to continue studying at Cornell. My business comes first, but I think I could bring a unique perspective to any classes with the experience I have accumulated working on the tallest structures in the world." It's a loss to Cornell, Abel says, that Berg didn't get that chance.

A fund dedicated to "the interests Nick Berg found worthwhile" has been established; donations can be sent to: Nick Berg Memorial Fund c/o First National Bank of Chester County, P.O. Box 514,West Chester, PA 19381.

-- Farhad Manjoo '00

CALS Parade FLORA, FAUNA, FLOATS Flora, fauna, floats: The CALS Centennial got off to a festive start on May 12 with a parade up Tower Road from Day Hall to the Ag Quad. More than forty groups participated, including representatives from the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering (BEE), who won the Dean’s Award for this honey of a float.

Coming & Going MORE CHANGES TO ADMINISTRATION

DURING THE SPRING SEMESTER, TWO DEANS WERE appointed while two others and the University's chief financial officer announced plans to step down. Lisa Staiano-Coico, PhD '81, the vice provost for medical affairs at Weill Cornell Medical College, was named the new dean of the College of Human Ecology, replacing Patsy Brannon, PhD '79, whose term ended on June 30. Staiano-Coico, a microbiologist, has been on the medical college faculty since 1983. In 2003, she was appointed executive director of the Tri-Institutional Research Program, a cooperative alliance among Cornell, Rockefeller University, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Also assuming office on July 1 was Mohsen Mostafavi, the new dean of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning.Mostafavi came to Cornell after ten years as chairman (equivalent to dean) of London's Architectural Association School of Architecture. He has also served as director of the Master of Architecture 1 Program at Harvard's Graduate School of Design and is the author or coauthor of several works on building surfaces, including On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time, which won the American Institute of Architects' commendation prize. Former AAP dean Porus Olpadwala, PhD '79, has returned to teaching in the Department of City and Regional Planning.

Stepping down at the end of their terms in June 2005 will be Dean Edward Lawler of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and Dean David Butler of the School of Hotel Administration. Lawler, a sociologist with a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin,Madison, has been a member of the ILR faculty since 1994 and became dean in 1997. He plans to return to research and teaching. Butler, who has been dean since 2000, announced that he will be going into "semi-retirement." He came to Cornell in 1993 after four years as president of Menlo College in Atherton, California.

Also announcing plans to retire was Harold "Hal" Craft '60, PhD '70, the University's CFO and vice president for administration, facilities, and finance. Craft has held a variety of Cornell administrative positions since 1971, including a stint as director of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. In the 1990s, he oversaw the implementation of Lake Source Cooling. "Some of these long-range projects that I'm involved in, I'm not going to see them finished," Craft told the Daily Sun, "[but] I feel good about a number of facilities projects and about some of the changes in the financial arrangements of the University." Craft said he plans to leave Day Hall by the summer of 2005 and his future plans include "some sailing."

Alumni Trustees Elected FRANCIS '76 AND HURET '65 NAMED

MORE THAN 22,000 ALUMNI PARTICIPATED IN THE SELECtion of incoming Board of Trustees members Cheryl Parks Francis '76 and Robert Huret '65. Francis, a Burr Ridge, Illinois, native has served on the boards of Hon Industries, Hewitt Associates, and Morningstar. She earned an MBA from the University of Chicago and and has served on the Cornell University Council and as a member of the Undergraduate Business Program Campaign Committee. She is married to Zed Francis '76; their sons are Zed '07 and Mike.

Huret, who studied industrial and labor relations on the Hill and earned an MBA from Harvard, is co-founder of Financial Technology Ventures in San Francisco. He has served on the Cornell University Council since 1993 and emphasized faculty recruitment and retention, the University's land-grant mission, and lifelong education in his candidacy for the Board.

Francis and Huret begin their terms on July 1, 2004.

Striking Gold CAM TOPS FIELD

IN THE 2004 CIRCLE OF EXCELLENCE COMPETITION HELD by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Cornell Alumni Magazine was selected to receive a gold award for general excellence, College and University General Interest Magazines. Assistant Editor David Dudley won a bronze award in the Best Articles of the Year category for his feature "Anatomy of a Frat Party" (November/December 2003). The Cornell News Service was also a CASE winner, taking bronze in the Individual Institutional Relations Publications category for "Cornell Celebrates a New Beginning," the media handbook for the inauguration of Jeffrey Lehman as Cornell's eleventh president.

Benefactor SAMUEL JOHNSON, 76

ON MAY 22, ONE OF CORNELL'S MOST PROMINENT and beloved benefactors died at his home in Racine,Wisconsin. Samuel Johnson '50, chairman emeritus of the Johnson Family of Companies, had served the University for more than a half-century as advisor, supporter, trustee, and presidential councillor.He and his wife, Imogene Powers Johnson '52, were recipients of Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Awards in 2003. "Sam was the nicest important person I've ever known," says classmate John Marcham, former editor of the Cornell Alumni News, who worked with Johnson on the Daily Sun when they were undergraduates. "He was always modest. I admired the way he ran his business, the way he brought his children into the business, and his progressive policies and civic service."

As CEO of the household-products company founded by his great-grandfather, Johnson was known not only for his business acumen but his advocacy of environmental concerns. Under his leadership, S.C. Johnson and Son became an industry leader in waste prevention and the use of recycled materials, and ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons were removed from its products three years before it was mandated by law. At Cornell, Johnson funded the study of environmental issues and established the S.C. Johnson Professorship in Sustainable Global Enterprise. In 1993, Fortune magazine called him "corporate America's leading environmentalist." Johnson is survived by his wife and four children, S. Curtis Johnson '77, Helen Johnson-Leipold '78,H. Fisk Johnson '79, ME '80, MBA '84, PhD '86, and Winifred Johnson Marquart '81.

Pet Project "NO-KILL" SHELTER OPENS

IN JUNE, THE TOMPKINS COUNTY SPCA OPENED THE Dorothy Park Pet Adoption Center, a new facility with "apartment- like" accommodations for more than 100 homeless dogs and cats. Built from recycled and energy-conserving materials, the building was certified as the nation's first "green" shelter by the U.S. Green Building Council. Cornell supported the project with a $5,000 donation. "A no-kill animal shelter, where lost and abandoned animals are given a second chance for a good life, is in keeping with the character and integrity of Tompkins County," says Kathy Okun, President Jeffrey Lehman's wife and a member of the SPCA's Board of Directors. "I expect that there will continue to be many cooperative opportunities between Cornell faculty, staff, and students and our local SPCA."

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