Book Collection

Eugene Nordstrom ’62 is the author of “Reflections in Gold.” His first two novels were “The Honeymoon Car” and “The Road to Glory Land.”

Steven Van Wyk ’67 is the author of “Computer Solutions in Physics.” The book combines physics, mathematics and computer science to show students how to solve difficult problems in physics, engineering and mathematics using computer software. Van Wyk teaches at Olympia College in Bremerton, Wash. (See www.worldscibooks.com/physics/6553.html.) (World Scientific Publishing Co., 2008)

Lesley Johnson Farmer ’71 is author of “Teen Girls and Technology,” a book that explores whether teenage girls are left behind in the technology race. (See amazon.com.) (Teachers College Press, 2008)

Gerard DeGroot ’77 is a professor of modern history at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. His 11th book, “The Sixties Unplugged: A Kaleidoscopic History of a Disorderly Decade,” offers an “object lesson in the distortions nostalgia can create as it strives to impose order on memory and value on mayhem,” according to the publisher's Web site. (Harvard University Publishing, 2008)

Deanne Eagle ’79, New York, N.Y., is the author of “The Quest of the Quantum Gang,” a middle-grade (ages 10-12) space fantasy novel that tells the story of a latchkey kid from the wrong side of the comet who loses her mom, cuts school and then discovers there are problems in the world bigger than hers. The story draws upon “the universal beliefs of good and evil that I absorbed in Dr. (George) Ball’s lectures, leavened with humor and a touch of bratty irreverence,” Eagle said. (See the related Web site www.quantumgang.com.)

John Zilly ’85 is the author of 11 guidebooks. His latest, “Kissing the Trail: Mountain Bike Trails Northwest and Central Oregon” (second edition), describes 84 mountain bike rides near Portland, Bend, Hood River, Mount Hood, Oakridge and Eugene. Detailed directions, photos, GPS-ready maps and elevation profiles are included. (Adventure Press, 2008.)

Laura Schulz ’97, Paul Franzmann, James Payne and Hans Matschukat (husband of Elizabeth Harris Matschukat ’71), co-authored “Soldiers, Pioneers & Indian People: Positive Interaction between Cultures in Southeastern Washington” published by Fort Walla Walla Museum in 2007. Their work earned the 2008 Award for Publication Excellence from the Washington Museum Association.

Tom Cronin, president emeritus of Whitman College (1993-2005), is the author of “On The Presidency: Teacher, Soldier, Shaman, Pol.” Cronin’s latest work offers a “realistic and probing study” of the U.S. presidency and why one human being can rarely meet the qualities of “mind, character and experience” demanded by the public. Cronin is the McHugh Professor of American Institutions and Leadership at Colorado College. (Paradigm Publishers, August 2008)