is featured in Lonestar, Fox network’s new one-hour drama that launched in September. Set in Texas, the show is about “a good-looking, charming, charismatic con artist who also happens to be a bigamist.” Yes, that’s Wolk, in the lead role of Robert Allen. He was most recently seen in Hallmark Hall of Fame’s Front of the Class, about a young man with Tourette’s syndrome.

Michigan School of Nursing alum Merilynne Rush has left midwifery and is now a home funeral guide. What’s that? Someone who helps folks care for their loved one at home in the hours or days after death. Conventional funerals cost thousands of dollars. More and more people are wanting to do things differently, in a way that is more consistent with the simple and natural way they have lived their life.

A ‘home funeral’ is a noncommercial, family-centered response to death that involves the family and friends in the care and preparation of the body for burial or cremation. Embalming is not required, nor is a fancy, and costly, casket.

To learn more, visit www.AfterDeathHomeCare.com

University of Michigan alumni John Burnside (EECS, 2002) and Andy Matthews (SM, 2002) have joined forces to create iFlightPlanner.com, a new and innovative flight planning utility for the general and business aviation communities. By developing a simple guided process that helps pilots ensure that they are completing critical pre-flight tasks, John and Andy are helping pilots plan more efficiently and fly safer. Based in Ann Arbor near the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport, iFlightPlanner.com offers both FREE and subscription based services and can be reached via their website, iFlightPlanner.com.

Using methodology developed and utilized by DOD and NASA, University of Michigan alumnus Paul Gogulski (BSCE,’60) and Rob Wagner (MSME, Case Western ’74) have joined together in developing programs for integrating systems engineering into the construction industry. Requirements-driven, model-based programs are being developed to analyze the possibility of conflicting requirements of various components of existing systems with the objective of simplifying the process of design, and promoting communication between individuals and teams working both on the design and execution of construction projects.

Paul Gogulski is President of Gogulski & Associates, Inc., a forensic engineering and construction consulting firm with offices in Beaufort, SC and Las Vegas, NV. Paul wishes to connect with Michigan Alumni in Abu Dhabi, Jeddah and Jakarta, where he scheduled to present seminars on the Construction Claims Process. He can be reached at (702) 249-3350.

Website: construction-expert.com email: [email protected].

Herbert H. Dobbs, Ph.D. ME 72, has been elected to the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) College of Fellows and will be recognized at the SME Awards & Installation Banquet at the the Henry Hotel, Fairborn Plaza, 300 Town Center Drive, Dearborn, MI 48126 on November 13, 2010.

Dr. Dobbs also is a fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the Michigan Society of Professional Engineers (MSPE). He is a retired Colonel, USA, and Secretary of the Board of Directors of Torvec, Inc., Rochester, NY. He retired from the U.S. Army in 1983 after serving 28 years and later served with the U.S. Army Science Board (ASB) from 1994-2006.

BS IOE ’90 Alumni Jon Schram founded a company called “The Purple Guys” in 2001. They were recently recognized in Kansas City as a “Best of Kansas City Business” in the Computer/IT Consulting category.

Dear Editor,
My memoir. “Michigan Days”. has gone to the publisher. I hope that it will be ready by class reunion in October. I was not a “typical student” (if there was such an animal). I was an Army veteran who had knocked around Europe for a year and a half before enrolling at Michigan. I worked full time. I lived and boarded in a cooperative house. I did’nt participate in student activities. Nevertheless, I believe that my story is worth recording. Because there seems to be a dearth of more or less contemporary student memoirs, I encourage other alumni to flesh out the picture by telling their stories.

I’m willing to give a copy to alumni who want one. In return I’d ask that recipients consider contributing to the John H. Wilde Scholarship that I set up at the School of Engineering in memory of my father, Edward H. Wilde, Engineering 1925. The scholarship benefits a deserving student from the Upper Peninsula.

I plan to attend the 1960 class reunion. Or I can be contacted at:
308 Hunting Road
Greenwood, S.C. 29646
Sincerely,
John H. Wilde

My book, Aliisa’s Letter: Legacy of Faith, was published in June of 2010. A young nurse discovers her Finnish heritage in the Keweenaw peninsula of Michigan. The stories of a Finnish immigrant woman and a contemporary nurse are intertwined. Chilbirth, midwifery, abortion and medical technolgy are part of the plot. My website is www.carolvanderwoude.com

Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Science alumnus Paul Gross of WDIV-TV in Detroit has written the first-ever book about Michigan weather, and sales have been so strong that just two weeks after “Extreme Michigan Weather: The Wild World of the Great Lakes State” hit bookstores, Paul’s publisher (University of Michigan Press) already had to order a second printing! “Extreme Michigan Weather” is available at all major bookstores, or through the U of M Press website (http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=349123).