Wild Life: J. Wayne Fears '64
It wasn’t until the plane had left that J. Wayne Fears knew something was wrong. The wilderness survival expert had charted a trip deep into uncharted British Columbia to explore a potential hunting range. He would canoe a tributary of the Stikine River through the Cassiar Mountains to an extraction point further south.
Except, the creek he had to navigate was too shallow for a canoe. The gear he had paid the pilot for amounted to a duffel bag full of literal garbage. He hadn’t seen or heard a plane in days, had no axe to keep firewood going and had to fend off a grizzly bear that entered his camp every night. It was late August and getting cold. Ostensibly a two-day trip, it was now day 15. No one was coming.
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Designing a Sustainable Future: Jane Frederick '82
Like most architects, Jane Frederick ’82 often finds inspiration while traveling abroad. In this particular instance, she was gazing at clashing styles from pre-Roman Empire to modern skyscrapers while in Baku, Azerbaijan.
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Belief and Action: Auburn University in the Era of #MeToo
When the actress Alyssa Milano tweeted “if you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted, write ‘Me Too’” on Oct. 17, 2017, no one imagined a worldwide movement would be triggered. Yet more than two years after the phrase erupted across social media and into public consciousness, conversations about sexual violence are everywhere and the roles of perpetrators and survivors are being reexamined.
On Sept. 26, 2019 Tarana Burke, activist and founder of the original “Me Too” campaign, arrived on the Plains for the Extraordinary Women Lecture, a discussion focused on the plight of women who are assaulted during their college years.
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Dad Jokes: Paul Schissler
“THIS IS THE PERFECT TIME — my son went down for a nap five minutes ago.”
Paul Schissler ’11 is standing in his New York City apartment, still jet-lagged from his latest trip: four sold-out shows opening for former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Tim Meadows at the Vermont Comedy Club.
“It was a perfect few days of comedy,” said Schissler. “Tim Meadows is just the nicest guy ever. We had a couple one-on-one conversations talking about dad stuff, because he has two kids. It was really special.”
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Breaking Bread (and Barriers): Beth Miller
One of the first things Beth Westmoreland Miller ’13 associated with Auburn was Rotel dip. The daughter of two Auburn alumni, the Miller football tailgates invariably featured the spicy beef-and-cheese dip, creating a lasting memory of community. The games eventually became her primary focus, but Miller recognized early that food can do more than feed.
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Live at the Garden: Nicole Klein
NO ONE TOLD NICOLE KLEIN ’05 how much negotiating there would be. The everyday give-and-take over booking contracts, artist lineups and compensation is a skill mastered after more than a decade in the entertainment industry. The only person she never compromised with? Herself. She knew what she wanted to do since day one — the next step was figuring out how to get there.
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Forged in Silver: William Spratling
TAXCO, MEXICO — Deep in the mountains, a small town sparkles with stalls filled with silver jewelry and furnishings. Many are shaped like indigenous animals, or bear traces of Aztec mythology, but these designs originated more than 2,000 miles away in an Auburn architecture classroom. They are the legacy of William Spratling ’62 sewn into the cultural fabric of his adopted county.
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Our Tiger: 40 Years of Aubie
A celebration of Auburn University’s mascot, as told by the people who knew him best.
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Echoes of Jake Adam York '94: The Life and Works of an Auburn Poet
A look at the life and works of a Southern poet gone too soon
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Defying the Klan: Janie Forsyth McKinney '70
They endured beatings, bombings, harassment and imprisonment—but they changed the Civil Rights Movement and demonstrated the power of individual actions to transform the nation. In 1961, Civil Rights activists organized by the Congress of Racial Equality rode interstate buses deep into the heart of segregated America to challenge local laws and customs that denied ordinary citizens basic freedoms because of the color of their skin. The 1960 Supreme Court Decision Boynton v. Virginia granted them the legal right to buy tickets for buses and sit where they’d like, but all were aware they would face violence and vitriol in the fight to end white supremacy.
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XIX: Introducing Auburn President Steven Leath
Throughout Auburn’s history the spirit of utility, adaptability and camaraderie has held strong. Never one to sit idly by while the world—our global community —stands in need, the Auburn Family has remained committed to innovating solutions for lingering problems. For the last 162 years, it has served us well. On March 29, 2018, the institution entered a new chapter, one that will see Auburn’s abilities amplified like never before.
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Lighting the Stars: Becky Colwell '94
Los Angeles — Night falls and the lights of the “Hollywood” sign flicker to life. Long strings of headlights snake their way up the hills to a small canyon overlooking the city. Inside the Greek Theatre, General Manager Becky Schmidt Colwell ’94 is doing last-minute checks on the sound, lighting, concessions—anything and everything to ensure every aspect of the concert is perfect. She’s been here before anyone else; she’ll likely be one of the last to leave.
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Taking the Shot: Shanna Lockwood
How Shanna Lockwood ’09 the sports fan became Shanna Lockwood the sports photographer is not a short story. Before she started working for the Glomerata during her undergrad she had never used a camera. Covering her first football game, however, was intoxicating.
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War and Peace: John Oakberg '69
RELATIONS BETWEEN IRAQ and the U.N. Security Council had been deteriorating for years. Four days after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait under dictator Saddam Hussein in August 1990, the council imposed a crippling financial and trade embargo against the country. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. led military action against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War.
Despite skyrocketing malnutrition, lack of medicines, and a scarcity of clean water, the desert nation’s most deleterious effects were economic—without the ability to export oil, Iraq lost 61 percent of its gross national product overnight. Hussein continued to be uncooperative with U.N. inspectors trying to determine his country’s nuclear capabilities.
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Come on Down! Auburn Alumni on the Price is Right
In the parlance of gameshow catchphrases, there is no equal. ‘Whammy’; ‘Deal or no deal’; ‘Survey says’—they all each evoke a sense of timeless nostalgia, but nothing compares to those three magic words from the longest-running gameshow in in American history.
Come. On. Down!
On November 22, 2017, Glenda Tamblyn ’83 became the latest in a long line of Auburn alumni to visit The Price is Right, fulfilling a dream that spanned a lifetime.
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Scouting Champions: Travis Coleman '07
When the Houston Astros won the 2017 World Series, most of the baseball world was in disbelief—the team with the worst record in Major League Baseball just four years earlier had transformed into a star-studded slugging, pitching juggernaut.
For Travis Coleman ’07, a regional scouting supervisor for the Astros, this was to be expected, the culmination of a plan initiated years earlier.
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Sixty Years Strong: Memories of the 1957 National Championship
SIXTY YEARS AGO this season, the Auburn Tigers celebrated an undefeated season on their way to the 1957 College Football National Championship. Auburn Magazine sat down with three of them — quarterback Lloyd Nix, defensive end Hindman Wall and tackle Ken Paduch — to look back on that incredible season.
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Branching Out: Daniel Ash '08
You are walking down a trail buried deep in old-growth forest miles from a trace of civilization in every direction.
Except that, in the tree — a cabin perched on the branches, full of ornate, bespoke details but synced with the natural, unspoiledbeauty around it. If such luxury in the middle of the forest feels like a fantasy, it is. It’s also the everyday job of Daniel Ash ’08, an architect with world-renowned arboreal homebuilders Nelson Treehouse & Supply (NTS) based outside Seattle, Wash.
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Eyes of the Storm: Meredith Reister '05
IN THE SPAN OF ONE BREATHLESS WEEK, residents of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands experienced three cataclysmic hurricanes that left its residents hanging on for dear life. For Meredith Riester ’05, a ranger with the Virgin Islands National Park, stepping up to salvage her adopted home was more than just duty — it was about survival.
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