Alumni
Gloria Flora to Speak at Commencement
Gloria Flora (’77 B.S. L.Arch.), who received a College of Arts and Architecture Alumni Award in 2001, will serve as the college’s spring 2005 commencement speaker during a ceremony to be held at noon on Saturday, May 14, in Eisenhower Auditorium.
Flora attracted public attention when, as supervisor
for the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana,
she placed 350,000 acres of the eastern face of
the Rockies off-limits to drilling.
In her next position, as supervisor of Humboldt-
Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada, Flora inspired controversy
again when she recommended the U.S. Forest
Service permanently close a washed-out road along the
Jarbidge River in order to preserve the bull trout, a
threatened species under the federal Endangered Species
Act. Although Flora was an influential force in the
U.S. Forest Service, and some speculate she could have
become the first female chief of the agency, she resigned
from the Forest Service after both she and her employees
were continually harassed.
Flora went on to create Sustainable Obtainable Solutions (SOS), a nonprofit environmental consulting firm, in 2001. SOS was created to ensure the sustainability of public lands and the plant, animal and human communities that depend on them. In 2002, Flora testified before the House Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health at a hearing on ecoterrorism and lawlessness in national forests.
She has received various awards and recognition for her work, including the Murie Award for courageous stewardship of public lands (Wilderness Society), the Environmental Quality Award for exemplary resource decision-making (Natural Resources Council of America) and Sunset Magazine’s Environmental Hero Award. She is currently in great demand as a public speaker and lives on a ranch in Montana with her husband. –KAH
Graphic Design Alumna Honored by Alumni Association
Colleen Meade Claps (’94 B.A. Graphic
Design) is the College of Arts and
Architecture’s recipient of the newly established
Penn State Alumni Association Alumni Achievement
Award, a new award created to honor
alumni under age 35. Claps’ graphic design skills,
creativity and leadership ability have allowed her
to leave her mark on a diverse selection of national
publications since graduating from Penn State 11 years ago.
In her current position as associate creative director at Vanity Fair magazine, she is responsible for developing and producing all creative projects for the promotion, sales and marketing departments for the magazine. She and her staff, which includes six designers, a copywriter and a production manager, produce special advertising sections, direct mail pieces, event collateral materials, invitations, media kits and other promotional pieces for Vanity Fair.
Claps has been with Vanity Fair since 1999, spending four years as design director before assuming her current position in 2003. Prior to Vanity Fair, she was art director at Harper’s BAZAAR and promotion art director for Discover magazine. She began her career as an assistant art director at M&C Magazine, a trade publication for the meeting and convention planning industry. Claps is a member of the board of the Arts and Architecture/Performing Arts Alumni Society.–AMM
Penn State Represented Among Finalists for Flight 93 Memorial
Alumnus Jason Kentner (’99 B.L.A.) and emeritus landscape architecture faculty member E. Lynn Miller, who retired in 1990, are among the finalists for the Flight 93 Memorial Design Competition. The memorial will be created in honor of the 40 passengers and crew who died on September 11, 2001. The victims of Flight 93 fought off terrorists who were believed to be steering the plane toward Washington, D.C., and forced the airliner to crash in a remote coalmining field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
The five final designs were chosen from 1,011 submissions. Kentner and Miller, along with landscape architect Frederick Steiner and architect Karen Lewis, were selected for their design, “Memory Trail.” Steiner is dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin, where Miller is a visiting professor of landscape architecture and Kentner is a lecturer.
The “Memory Trail” design reclaims the land of the crash site with natural elements symbolizing the collective heroism of the Flight 93 victims. The memorial begins with a drive lined by 40 red maples, representing the 40 passengers and crew of the flight. The road then takes an abrupt turn, a metaphor for the unexpected events of 9/11. After the turn, another 40 red maples form a pattern and edge a unity lake that is a remnant of the land’s surface mining days.
The visitors’ center rises up over the roll in the center of the site and has views of both the earth and the sky, reminiscent of the view from an airplane. Among other elements, the design includes a natural bowl planted with 3,021 white oaks—one for every person who died in the events of September 11. After stopping at the archive center, visitors will leave through a native forest that has been planted with 40 more red maples.
Finalists were awarded $25,000 to begin work on
Stage II of the competition, where they will further develop
their memorial concepts and submit 3-D models,
plans and other materials to the Stage II jury. The
final design will be chosen in early September. –KAH
P a s s i n g s
Kelly Yeaton, professor emeritus of theatre, died February 10 in State College, at age 93. Born in Maine, Yeaton was a World War II veteran and received degrees from Tufts University and the University of Washington. He joined the Penn State theatre faculty in 1946, retiring in 1976. He is probably best known for his expertise in theater in-the-round and arena-style staging.
Yeaton introduced the “Center Stage” technique to Penn State and the State College community with his direction of Samson Raphaelson’s Skylark at the State College Hotel in the 1940s. He not only introduced arena theatre to Penn State, but was also the driving force behind the founding of the Pavilion Theatre in the mid-1960s, in a structure that was formerly a cattle judging arena. Ruth, his wife of 50 years, survives with their son Michael, of Tyrone, their daughter, Carol L. Hartman, of Centennial, Colo., and six grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to the School of Theatre Reading Room, in care of Penn State, University Park, PA 16802.
Arthur Jack Snyder (’39 B.S. L.Arch.), nationally known golf course architect, died February 12 in Phoenix, at age 87. Born in 1917 in Pennsylvania, Snyder was the eldest of three brothers who became golf course superintendents. His completed courses are renowned throughout the west, Hawaii and Mexico. In total he designed more than 50 golf courses and remodeled numerous others. In 2002, Snyder was inducted into the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame. He is survived by his two daughters, Judith Marx and husband Harry, and Jean Nolan and husband Chris; two brothers, James H. Snyder and Carl H. Snyder; and a grandson, Nels Martens.
