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May / June 2011

John Zayac '82 & Ilana Lidsky McGuinn '95 Sky Captain John Zayac '82 When John Zayac races, he can finish a five-mile course—complete with turns and turbulence—in about a minute and seventeen seconds. For more than a decade, Zayac has been a devotee of air racing, in which half a dozen planes fly a route […]

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John Zayac '82 & Ilana Lidsky McGuinn '95

Sky Captain

John Zayac '82

When John Zayac races, he can finish a five-mile course—complete with turns and turbulence—in about a minute and seventeen seconds. For more than a decade, Zayac has been a devotee of air racing, in which half a dozen planes fly a route including three turns at about 240 miles per hour. Zayac says the whole experience offers an adrenaline rush, but that the scariest moments come at the start of each event. "Everybody is headed to the same point, but you can't bump in airplanes like in NASCAR," Zayac says. "It's not forgiving."

John ZayacWhen Zayac is not competing at the races (held in Reno, Nevada), he is the CEO of Denver-based IBG Business Services, a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm; he also flies for leisure, travel, business, and occasional air shows. His flying career has not been without some close calls. Zayac made an emergency landing on a road en route to his first air race in Reno due to engine trouble, and a couple of years ago he was forced to do a controlled crash-landing after his engine blew up over the Rocky Mountains. "I was able to drive it between some rocks in the peaks of the mountains and rip the wings off," Zayac recalls, "and at that same time slow the aircraft down and lose all the excess fuel."

Both times, Zayac walked away without a scratch.

— Laura Gallup

 

Vision Quest

Ilana Lidsky McGuinn '95

As an undergrad in Arts and Sciences, Ilana Lidsky McGuinn sometimes got into minor car accidents and bumped into things in the dark. At the time, she figured that her clumsiness was due

to being absent-minded. Then, along with her sister and brother, she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye disease with no known treatment or cure.

Ilana Lidsky McGuinnIn 2005, McGuinn's family founded Hope for Vision to fund research on retinitis pigmentosa and other blinding diseases such as macular degeneration. With just one full-time employee, Hope for Vision relies on a network of volunteers, who raise funds by hosting benefits in cities from New York to Los Angeles.

A stay-at-home mother of four, McGuinn has lost about 90 percent of her vision in dim lighting and almost all her peripheral vision; she gave up driving several years ago. "I can read and I can see my kids' faces," says McGuinn, who holds a PhD in psychology. "I can do a lot of things with my central vision that I'm very grateful for." She notes that advances have been made toward reversing other forms of blindness via chip implantation, gene therapy, and vitamin treatments, offering hope for retinitis pigmentosa patients like herself. "Science will advance," says McGuinn. "We will help fund that science—and one day people who have blinding diseases will be able to see."

— Allison Ong '12

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