Theodore A. Bosler
Vice President, Lincoln Capital Management (Retired)
Chicago, Ill.
Ted enjoyed a successful 35-year career in investment management before retiring as vice president of Lincoln Capital Management Company. During that time, the company grew to have more than $45 billion under management. Since 1997, Ted, who obtained his M.B.A. at Northwestern University, has been a trustee of 13 mutual funds managed by William Blair and Company, LLC, in Chicago.
Outside his professional career, Ted shared his expertise as a member of several boards, including Medical Care America, the Kellogg School Advisory Board and Thresholds, a Chicago not-for-profit psychosocial rehabilitation organization. He currently serves as president of Crystal Downs Country Club in Frankfort, Michigan.
In Scottsdale, Ted has played an active role with the Desert Foothills Land Trust as board member since 2001 and chairman of the Fund Development Committee since 1999. He participated in the purchase of 500 acres in a canyon just north of Scottsdale, building on an interest in land preservation that stems from the 1980s when he joined the Board of the Crystal Lake Watershed Fund in Northern Michigan.
Ted gets much of the credit for recent dramatic changes to the profile and demographics of Denison’s student body. He learned of the Posse Program through a close friend, saw the possibilities of what the program and Denison could do for each other, and encouraged us to become a partner school. Posse works with inner-city high schools in Chicago and other major cities to identify students with strong college potential whose life circumstances may obstruct a college education. Participating colleges and universities each send a selection committee to put together a “posse” of ten students. Each posse stays together for intensive mentoring by Posse staff until they leave for school. Upon their arrival on campus, trained faculty members take over the mentoring role. Denison now has enrolled five Posse classes from Chicago and two from Boston.
Ted is a veteran Denison volunteer. He served on a number of reunion committees, the President’s Leadership Council and Harris Tight Huffman Society, was the National Planned Giving Chair in 1999-2000, and served as president of the Chicago North Alumni Club. He credits Denison with being a major factor in helping him mature and be successful in his career, and treasures the lifelong friendships that started on campus 50 years ago.
Joseph H. Tomas
Senior Portfolio Manager, Lakepoint Investment Partners
Cleveland, Ohio
A highly respected voice in his industry, Joe began his career at the leading regional investment firm McDonald & Company immediately after his term in the U.S. Air Force. He obtained his M.B.A. from the University of Cincinnati in 1964, and was named managing partner in 1971, and senior partner in 1979. In 1983, with McDonald as an investor, he formed and served as president of American Asset Management, an investment advisory firm. In 1999, Joe facilitated the start-up of Lakepoint Investment Partners and joined the company as senior portfolio manager.
Joe continues to be active in the Cleveland community. From 1983 to 2003, he was a trustee (now honorary) of Case Western Reserve University, serving two terms as chair of the investment committee. He is co-chair of Parkworks, an organization helping the city of Cleveland with tree planting, park and garden projects, and building inner-city playgrounds. He serves as trustee and chair of the investment committee for the Cleveland Institute of Music and University Circle, Inc., and serves on the retirement board of trustees of the Ohio Highway Patrol. Joe and Ellen have been honored by the Epilepsy Foundation of Northeast Ohio; they provide a yearly cash award for epilepsy research at the Cleveland Clinic.
Among his past Cleveland civic involvements, Joe served as a director of the Greater Cleveland Growth Association and trustee of the City Club, nationally recognized as “The Citadel of Free Speech.” He served as chair of St. Luke’s Hospital and was presented an Edward Myers outstanding trustee award. Following the sale of the hospital, Joe served as trustee and chair of the investment committee of the St. Luke’s Foundation until March 2006, when he was elected honorary trustee. The Foundation has grown to over $200 million and is a leading contributor to many area charitable organizations.
Joe’s work on behalf of Denison is legendary. His volunteer work through the years has left his imprint on Denison in both visual and unseen ways. He served on Denison’s Board of Trustees for 30 years, retiring to Life Trustee status in 2002. He is on the Campaign Executive Committee for the current Higher Ground Campaign and has been vital in identifying prospects, recruiting volunteers and soliciting donors. He chaired the National Prospect Identification Program that led to Denison’s capital campaign between 1988 and 1992.
David R. Skeen
Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Muskingum College
New Concord, Ohio
David retired in May 2005 after 37 years of teaching, earning praise as “the quintessential professor” by Muskingum College President Anne Steele. He had served as her interim predecessor, chosen because of his “steadiness, maturity, sound judgment and leadership” according to the chair of Muskingum’s board. By all accounts, David performed with distinction in a critical transition role. The students had high praise as well, selecting him to be the college’s 2005 commencement speaker.
David, and his wife, Becky Bates ’62, began his retirement with an August 2005 trip to Lithuania, under the auspices of a prestigious Fulbright Scholar appointment to Lithuanian Christian College. He was invited to teach, assist with curriculum development, and consult with faculty on developing research programs. Holder of a master of arts from Xavier University and a doctorate from the University of North Dakota, David is willing to demonstrate his belief in the viability of a small liberal arts college by extending his expertise to developing institutions abroad—as he did in the spring of 2003 with a sabbatical teaching position at the American College of Thessaloniki.
David’s principal nominator describes him as a “caring listener, culturally sensitive, ever-curious, bright…and fun!” His unique gifts are enhanced “by his generous giving of self, accented with his non-heralding of self, and all punctuated with an underlying joie de vivre and subtle sense of humor.”
In the New Concord community, David was one of the founding members of R.E.New, a volunteer citizens’ group promoting economic and aesthetic improvement for the village. He served as president of the group from 1986-88, returned to the post in 2000, and has just led the creation of a community-wide recreation council for the New Concord area. David was instrumental in organizing an emergency medical squad for the community and served as a technician on the squad from 1977-81. At the College Drive Presbyterian Church, David has served as elder, continuing chairperson of the steward and mission committee, and as finance committee chair for the Muskingum Valley Presbytery.
As a Denison volunteer, David has served on various reunion committees, as a career advisor, and a member of the Varsity D Association.
Constance K. Barsky
Director, Learning by Design,
Ohio State University,
Columbus, Ohio
After majoring in chemistry at Denison, Con-stance became the first woman to earn a doctorate in geochemistry from the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at Washington University in St. Louis. She then took positions at the University of Missouri and Granville’s Owens-Corning Technical Research Center, before becoming an administrative manager for the Ohio State University Department of Chemistry in 1987. Six years later, she moved to the physics department as host-site administrator for Project Discovery—the Statewide Systemic Initiative (SSI) in Mathematics and Science Education, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the State of Ohio. When she took over as statewide SSI director, her purview included evaluations of program impact on teacher behavior and student achievement—work that laid the foundation for her current research.
In 1996, Constance began an inspired collaboration with physics professor and Nobel Laureate Kenneth G. Wilson. The two co-founded Learning by Design, an educational research organization established to initiate novel ideas on education reform. Their research, which focuses on stability and change in vital American institutions and integrates education, productivity, economic, and socio-technological systems, may well have implications for the success of education reforms. The Wilson-Barksy collaboration has received wide professional acclaim and has resulted in numerous publications and conference presentations.
In 2002, Constance was a Dibner Fellow at the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology—a consortium of Harvard, MIT, Brandeis, and Boston University—which was established in 1992 as an international center for advanced research in the field. She investigated processes of change that could be precursory to a classification scheme for episodes in science and technology that would ultimately permit the development of analogies to education.
Outside the professional realm, Constance is a dedicated volunteer for her sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. In recognition of her work as co-advisor for the Denison chapter, she was named Ohio Province Chapter Advisor of the Year for 2000-01. She is also an active participant in the business of the Granville community and currently serves on the Village Council.
Her volunteer service to Denison includes serving as an alumni-nominated trustee 1988-94; board member of the Denison University Research Foundation 1989-present; consistent reunion volunteer, career advisor, Campaign and President’s Associates volunteer, and Alumni Council officer (vice president 1988-90, president 1990-92).
T. Kim Cromwell
Principal, Cromwell Consulting Provincetown, Mass. / Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
When she was a teenager, Kim Cromwell won an award that lauded her “joy in living and keen sense of justice.” That award, she says, nurtured her courage and optimism.
As the principal of Cromwell Consulting, which she formed in 1999 after 16 years in corporate America, Kim shows her client companies the profound impact that diversity and people strategies can have on organizations. Working with Fortune 100 companies, government agencies, and non-profits, Kim provides coaching, leadership development, and human-resource strategies that accelerate organizational success.
Kim, who earned a master of arts from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, is a recognized authority on diversity, frequently called upon to speak about the impact diversity strategies can have on organizational productivity. Quoted in Fortune magazine, heard on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and “Marketplace,” Kim was a founding member of the business advisory council of the Human Rights Campaign—the largest gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil-rights organization in the country. In 1991, then-mayor of New York City David Dinkins invited her to be a presenter at a ground-breaking conference, “Invisible Diversity: Gays and Lesbians in the Corporation.” Since then, she has presented on a range of current workforce issues at the FBI and many national conferences.
As an activist and loyal alumna, Kim co-founded the Denison Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Alumni/ae Association in 1989. The group’s work has helped restore, maintain, and strengthen Denison ties for gay alumni. Many of them are now giving back to the college by contributing financially, and by consulting with faculty, the administration, and students about syllabi, readings, library holdings, diversity training for staff, and issues in the classroom. Kim has lectured to current classes and recruited other GLBAA alums to do the same. In short, she is a model of what a liberal arts education can accomplish in the world as well as a model for Denison’s students of the value and promise of that education.
As a volunteer, Kim is a big believer in giving back. In addition to her work with HRC, she has had broad influence here at Denison, serving Admissions as a DARTer, Career Services as an advisor, Alumni Affairs and the Annual Fund as a reunion committee member, and the Alumni Council as member-at-large, vice president of careers, and president of both the council and the Society of the Alumni.