The annual Author’s Night at the USU Eastern Library in November was a success in many ways. Not only were the presenters very good, and the subjects interesting, but the attendance was well beyond what anyone expected, with over 30 people showing up.
The authors, all having done books themselves, having edited books, or published articles and papers, work on the USU Eastern Campus. They covered subjects from using higher thinking for problem solving to understanding crime investigation.
The first presenter was Susan Rhoades Neel who is a history professor at the school. Her presentation dealt with the original paleontologists that excavated at what became Dinosaur National Monument in Uintah County. She spoke about the bittersweet story of Earl and Pearl Douglass. Earl Douglass worked his way from a meager Minnesota childhood to become a scientist for the Carnegie Museum and discovered, in 1909, the deposit of fossils that would become Dinosaur National Monument. Along the slow road to these accomplishments, Earl met Pearl Goetschius, whom he married in 1905. Together they founded a homestead in the Uintah Basin called Dinosaur Ranch. Neel specializes in environmental history and will soon be having a study published about the Hayden expedition in the Four Corners region.
The second presenter was Stan Martineau, who has headed up the automotive program at the college for 16 years. Martineau talked about using higher thinking to solve problems and he applied it to a real world situation in which professional technicians who had put a specialized truck together could not get it to run, yet a group of Martineau’s students found the problem through information gathering and deduction. Martineau is nationally known for his abilities in automotive analysis and teaching skills. His name is listed in the Automotive Hall of Fame and is one of only 400 people to have their name there. He has had a number of articles published over the years, both nationally and internationally. He also works with the University of West Virginia and has had several articles published by the National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium there.
Sandie Nadelson did a presentation about her published research concerning how much nurses care. Nadelson is the director of the nursing progam at the college, and over the years wondered about nursing and what the difference was between people in that profession and others in terms of caring about others. She has had a number of articles published on the subject, as well as on other research she has done. She said that while some think caring cannot be taught she disagrees. She has presented on a number of topics internationally as well as in many places in the United States. Being a nurse with a PHD herself, she had often wondered about some of what she saw in the profession if terms of care about patients. She said that hospitals are putting more of a premium on patient experience than they used to, largely because Medicare is starting to survey patients about their care and it could cost them money.
Presenter number four was Noel Carmack, who is an Assistant Professor of Art at USU Eastern. Carmack, who has done extensive research on art in the LDS religion and the artists themselves. He went over a list of early Mormon artists such as Gutzon Borglum (the sculptor who built Mount Rushmore) and John Held Jr. (most famous for his 1920’s magazine covers featuring flapper girls). He has published articles in various journals including BYU Studies, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, the Utah Historical Quarterly and the Journal of Mormon History.
Rich Walton, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the college, presented on his research into crime investigation. Walton is considered one of the best experts in the country in dealing with cold case investigations. Walton talked about a case he encountered while working as sheriff in northern California that had taken place 60 years before. He eventually uncovered that the conviction of a man for a crime was wrong and the man got a pardon from the governor of California posthumously. He has been published nationally for his work on many kinds of forensic techniques, and is considered one of the best experts on blood splatter analysis.
The evening ended with the presenters talking with individual audience members as they enjoyed refreshments provided by the library.
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