Thomas J. Watson Foundation
Fellowship Program
Whitman College Recipients
Whitman College resumed its participation in the Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowship
Program during the 1995-96 academic year. Since then, a total of seven
Whitman students have received
Watson Fellowships to finance post-graduate study/travel projects in
various parts of the world.
Whitman College also participated in the Watson Program from 1971 through 1981, when a
total of 15 Whitman students received fellowships. Here is a chronological listing of all
Whitman recipients and a brief synopsis of their study projects:
1971 -- Michael W. Johnson-Sonnleitner, a politics major at Whitman, and a
graduate of Highline High School, Seattle, Wash. Johnson-Sonnleitner visited
India to study the concepts and methods of nonviolent civil disobedience popularized by
Mohandas Gandhi during India's successful struggle for independence from England.
Ironically, while he was in India, hostilities erupted between India and Pakistan over
Bangladesh. He also visited South Africa, where government repression remained in full
force, and the island of Sicily, where a follower of Gandhi's teachings was opposing the
Mafia in his efforts to help the poor.
1971 -- Cleve Larson, an English major at Whitman, and a graduate of
Sunset High School, Beaverton, Oregon. Larson traveled to Great Britain to
compare and contrast contemporary English folklore with earlier folklore from the Elizabethan
period.
1972 -- Clifford H. Brown, an economics major at Whitman, and a graduate of
Pasco (Wash.) High School. Brown traveled to Chile and wrote a paper on the rise
and fall of then president Salvadore Allende, accurately predicting the unrest that resulted in
Allende's downfall in late 1973.
1972 -- Wayne R. Tilson, a biology major at Whitman, and a graduate of
Bellevue (Wash.) High School. Tilson traveled to England and
Scandinavia to
examine medical care and education for children, with special emphasis on programs for
retarded children.
1974 -- Betty J. Eidemiller, a biology major at Whitman, and a graduate of
Homedale (Idaho) High School. Eidemiller conducted a study of adaptive
convergence in Australian marsupials and East African placental mammals.
1975 -- Gordon P. Rubard, an environmental studies/economics major at
Whitman, and a graduate of Marina High School, San Leandro, Calif. Rubard
traveled to Scotland, Norway and Australia to study the ecological, sociological and economic
impacts of oil drilling and the ways in which such development changes the lives of people
living in those areas. A key part of his project involved documenting his research with
photographs.
1976 -- Mark E. Ralston, a biology/foreign languages & literatures (German)
major at Whitman, and a graduate of Mercer Island (Wash.) High School. Ralston
conducted biological field studies in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and
Scandinavia.
1976 -- Roberta S. Podbielancik-Norman an English major at Whitman, and
a graduate of Forrest Ridge-Sacred Heart, Bellevue, Wash.
Podbielancik-Norman studied zoological garden design in the United
Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and
the Netherlands.
1977 -- Andrew R. Dappen, an economics major at Whitman, and a
graduate of Oregon Episcopal Schools, Portland, Oregon. Dappen studied
"The Educational and Therapeutic Applications of Outdoor Recreation" in the United
Kingdom, Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Sweden and Norway.
1977 -- Robert D. Winkler, an economics major at Whitman, and a graduate
of San Leandro (Calif.) High School. Winkler traveled to
Switzerland, Germany and
the United Kingdom to study "The Craft and Tradition of Watchmaking."
1978 -- Patricia Jorgensen Troxel, an English/history major at
Whitman, and a graduate of
Sunset High School, Beaverton, Oregon. Troxel traveled throughout Europe
and the Middles East to study the cultural and artistic heritage of the medieval religious
pilgrammage routes and shrines.
1978 -- Susan K. Wierenga, a biology major at Whitman, and a graduate of
Newport High School, Bellevue, Wash. Wierenga divided her time between
West Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, England and the Netherlands while studying the
practice of falconry and its relation to wildlife research and legislation.
1979 -- Charles E. Alexander, a biology/geology major at Whitman, and a
graduate of Kennett High School, North Conway, New Hampshire.
Alexander split
his time between Canada, Scotland and England, researching early explorers of the Mackenzie
River, a 1,120-mile river that flows from Great Slave Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories
to the Arctic Ocean. As part of his project, Alexander traveled the river by canoe.
1980 -- C. Grady Walker, a biology/geology major at Whitman, and a graduate
of East High School, Salt Lake City, Utah. Walker studied
Darwin's theory of
evolution by natural selection, first by studying his letters, papers and personal library in
England, and then by following Darwin's course of travel through Chile, Peru, Argentina and
Ecuador.
1981 -- Markus E. Ursin, a psychology major at Whitman, and a graduate of
Benson High School, Portland, Oregon. Ursin, a native of Austria, studied
tile stone masonry in Austria and West Germany by working with master craftsmen.
1996 -- Katherine Deumling, a politics major at Whitman, and a graduate of
Western Mennonite School, Salem, Oregon. Deumling traveled from Italy to
Mexico to study the role food plays in the social, cultural, political and religious aspects of
day-to-day life in the small communities of developing nations.
1996 -- Jayson Jones, a music and anthropology major at Whitman, and a
graduate of Roseburg High School, Roseburg, Oregon. Jones studied
classical music in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka in his search for ways to breathe new life into
American jazz music.
1996 -- Chris DeBenedetti, an English major at Whitman, and a graduate of
Oregon Episcopal School, Portland, Oregon. DeBenedetti trekked from
Europe to West Africa to study ancient, traditional methods of brewing beer in small
communities.
1996 -- Jon Lambert, a philosophy major at Whitman, and a graduate of
Columbia River High School, Vancouver, Wash. Lambert studied the ancient
rituals and art of the tea ceremony in Japan.
1997 -- Kinoka Onnah Ogsbury, an English major at Whitman, and a graduate of
Boulder High School, Boulder, Colorado. Ogsbury is traveling through
Guatamala, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and Bhutan during the 1997-98 academic year to study
weaving as a form of cross-cultural communication.
1997 -- Amanda Walker, a theatre and English major at Whitman, and a graduate
of Walla Walla High School, Walla Walla, Wash. Walker will spend the
1997-98 academic year in England, Germany and Austria while studying the art and
techniques of theatrical combat.
1997 -- David Sprunger, an Asian studies and art major at Whitman, and a
graduate of Cleveland High School, Portland, Oregon. Sprunger will travel
through Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam and Italy to study what he calls "noodle cultures."