Newsmakers

QUOTE/UNQUOTE "As far as I know, there is no illegal discrimination. However, there is some insensitivity." RABBI ARNOLD RESNICOFF '68, TAPPED TO DEVELOP RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE GUIDELINES FOR THE AIR FORCE ACADEMY, JUNE 28

Following allegations of religious intolerance at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff '68 was tapped by the Air Force in June to develop new guidelines to address the problem. Resnicoff, a Vietnam combat veteran and retired Navy chaplain, will develop a program to instill in cadets and Air Force personnel a respect for all faiths. Already well-acquainted with the allegations as a member of the Air Force-appointed team that investigated them last December, Resnicoff told the Rocky Mountain News, "I came back and said there is a problem, but it's fixable."...Jimmie Lee Solomon '78 and Sandy Alderson '69 have followed remarkably similar paths since their undergraduate days. Both were history majors and athletes (Solomon played football and ran track, while Alderson played baseball for the Big Green), both went on to Harvard Law School and both worked in private practice before landing jobs with Major League Baseball. It's fitting that Solomon, who joined the league in 1991 and reported to Alderson for the past six years, has now replaced him as the executive vice president of baseball operations. Alderson, who came to the commissioners office in 1998 after 17 years with the Oakland As, first as the teams general manager and then as president, departed in May to become CEO and part owner of the San Diego Padres....Bob Kirk '42 has earned a distinctive nickname thanks to his volunteer work at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. "I walk down the halls (of the hospital) and I'll meet someone and say, 'Hi, I'm Bob Kirk.' They'll say, 'No you're not, you're Bingo Bob,' "Kirk recently told the Connecticut Valley Spectator. The Etna, New Hampshire, resident has earned the moniker for calling the numbers for the hospital's weekly televised bingo game for more than 20 years.... Mark Tomizawa '78 and Linda Button '79 created such a compelling television ad campaign for the History Channel's documentary, FDR: A PresidencyRevealed, that the promotion earned a mention in The New York Times' review of the program last April.The Times cited the ad's tag line: Roosevelt "became America's shining light by keeping us in the dark." The husband-and-wife team are partners in Boston-based Smash Advertising....It's been said that you have to be willing to suffer for your art, but Brian Mann '02 certainly couldn't have anticipated that his suffering as actor Adam Sandler's stunt double in the new film, The Longest Yard, would entail taking repeated hits from retired NFL head-rattler Bill Romanowski. A former Big Green quarterback and backup quarterback for the Arena Football Leagues Los Angeles Avengers, Mann recounted to Sports Illustrated in early June the hair dying, tanning and leg shaving he had to undergo to double for Sandler. "I guess Adam does that," Mann said. But getting hit by Romanowski was, by far, the worst part of the job. "For one hit he asked the director for a 20-yard running head start," Mann said. "I've tried to think of something stupider I've done in my life. I can't."...When he took to the skies above Pensacola, Florida, last April in a Navy SNJ advanced trainer, the same plane he used as a flight instructor in 1944, Ashley "Dick" Pace '41 wanted to don his old nylon flight suit. The only problem was that he had donated it years ago to the National Museum of Naval Aviation. Fortunately, the museum let Pace borrow the flight suit. "It still fits, though I think I shrunk a little," he told the Pensacola NewsJournal...Formerworld-class disabled skier Sarah Billmeier '99, who won 13 medals in four Paralympics, addressed the graduating class of Carrabassett Valley (Maine) Academy in early June. The Morning Sentinel reported that Billmeier told the high school seniors: "Most people talk about their limitations due to their disabilities, but for me, my disability has opened doors of opportunity." Billmeier, a Maine native, is starting her fourth year at Harvard Medical School. ...Nine years after suffering a disappointing provincial election defeat that many Canadians believed spelled the end of his political career, Gordon Campbell '70 last May became the first premier in 20 years to win back-to-back elections in British Columbia. Campbell devoted his first term to "belt-tightening," according to 940 News.com, and will now focus on health care and education as British Columbia enters what Campbell terms a "golden decade" leading up to hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics....Rock the Paint, a film produced by Tony Moody '92 with music by Wyclef Jean, had its world premiere at the renowned Tribeca Film Festival in New York last April, and TurningGreen, which was executive produced by Moody and produced by Rob Malkani '92, premiered in mid-June at the Cinevegas Film Festival in Las Vegas. The pair is also teaming up to produce another film that starts shooting this fall in New York....He started modeling to pay for acting classes in Los Angeles—and then Josh Pence '04 landed on the cover of the summer issue of Abercrombie and Fitch's A & F Magazine. Pence told The Dartmouth that modeling will continue to be a sideline, despite recent assignments from Cosmopolitan and L'Uomo. "I'm here to study acting and be serious about that," Pence said in April....Hopkins Holmberg '61 was recently named the new director general of the King Faisal Hospital in Rwanda. Holmberg has worked in health care administration in Africa for more than 20 years and, according to the Rwandan Ministry of Health's newsletter (www.moh.gov.rw/media_room.html), he plans to recruit more doctors, upgrade equipment and achieve international accreditation for the newly nonprofit hospital. "This asset has to be used to the maximum degree," said Hopkins, who also hopes to reduce the number of patients who must to travel to other countries for treatment....Professor Michael Gazzaniga '61, director of Dartmouth's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, was featured last May in The New York Times' "Scientist at Work" section. The Times noted that Gazzaniga is one of the few members of President Bush's Council on Bioechics who supports stem cell research. He argues that, as in cases of brain death where organs are removed for transplants, stem cell research should be permitted on embryos in which post-fertilization has not yet reached 14 days, the time at which materials emerge that will develop into the brain. Gazzaniga believes that describing fertilized eggs as potential human beings is meaningless. "There's potential for 30 homes in a Home Depot, but if the Home Depot burns down, the headline isn't '30 Homes Burn Down,' it's 'Home Depot Burns Down,'" he told the Times.

Brian Mann '02 (right) with actor Adam Sandler

QUOTE/UNQUOTE ""When I was ski racing I set goals at the beginning of each ski season; now that I'm focused on becoming a surgeon I set goals at the beginning of each step." PARALYMPIC MEDALIST SARAH BILLMEIER '99, ADDRESSING CARRABASSETT VALLEY ACADEMY GRADUATES, JUNE 8