Fort Lewis College may be a small liberal arts school in isolated Southwest Colorado, but its graduates have scattered across the country and around the globe as they have pursued their careers.
Among the estimated 28,000 alumni are an Austrian count and a sheikh from Dubai. Eric Coble, class of 1990, studied English and became a playwright with a Broadway premiere in 2014. Marissa Molina, class of 2014, may not have been out of school as long, but she was one of two teachers honored at the White House as a “Champion of Change.” Matt Campbell, class of 2004, works his “dream job” as an attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, and Adrienne Chalapah, ’09, has parlayed her success at open mic nights at the College Union Building into a career as a Native American comedienne.
For those who question the value of a degree in American history, Patrick Saunders, who graduated in 1981, used his to become an award-winning sportswriter at The Denver Post, and is most proud of a series he wrote on the difficulties professional athletes face when dealing with mental illness. Barnaby Hinkle, who graduated from FLC in 1981 along with Saunders, used his business-administration training to climb the ranks at Anheuser-Busch, where he worked in sports and entertainment marketing.
The list of accomplished alumni is long, but three shared their recollections of their time at the Fort. The paths they’ve taken are quite different, but they all treasure their time at the college and in the Four Corners.
Chuck Baltzer came to FLC to study geology related to the oil and gas industry but is grateful the Geology Department required a generalist approach for his degree in 1982, because he ended up in the hard-rock side of the discipline.
For the past 20 years, he has owned Environmental Support Services in Evergreen, helping entities from landfills to companies in the mining industry comply with environmental regulations.
He has fond memories of Frank O. Bowman, the founder of the Geology Department at the college, whom he had to convince to let him take calculus and physics at the same time, even though calculus was a prerequisite for physics.
Earlier this year, Baltzer donated $90,000 to FLC. The majority of the donation will go toward a laboratory and student study library in the new Geosciences, Physics and Engineering Hall, with the remainder allocated to support research.
Chris Schauble, class of 1991, took his broadcast journalism degree to Denver, where he was part of the team at KCNC that won a regional Emmy for its coverage of the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. In 2001, he and his family moved to Los Angeles, where he has won two Emmys and five Golden Mike Awards, working first for the NBC affiliate and, for the last five years, as the morning anchor on KTLA.
Schauble has been a guest instructor at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. FLC honored him with the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2002.
Tara Trask has spent the 21 years since she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology building Tara Trask and Associates, a prominent litigation-strategy, jury-research and trial-consulting firm with offices in San Francisco and Dallas. Working on complex civil litigation cases ranging from intellectual property to liability and contract disputes, she has been involved in more than 400 jury trials in 25 states and U.S. territories.
One of her earliest cases was working for Oprah Winfrey’s defense when Texan ranchers sued her for saying she wouldn’t eat another burger after hearing about potential dangers of mad cow disease and its human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Winfrey won. Trask also worked on Centocor v. Abbott, which resulted in the largest patent-infringement award in U.S. history, $1.57 billion.
Q. How did you choose FLC?
A. Baltzer: In the summer of 1978 or ’79, I took a Four Corners Geology Society field trip led by Don Baars, who was teaching at Fort Lewis then. I admired his knowledge of the Colorado Plateau, and I wanted to come learn from him. It turned out that when I arrived, he had left – we had probably passed each other on the road. It only took a week to get over my anger because I found these most elegant professors.
A. Schauble: My mom was a part-time instructor at the (University of Colorado) and (Colorado State University), so I didn’t want to go there. I wanted to stay in state, and I was an outdoorsy guy, so I liked Durango. It was an amazing choice for me because it’s so small.
A. Trask: I actually chose FLC on accident. I had completed one semester at the University of Texas at Austin and a year at community college in Dallas, and I was pretty directionless. So in September of 1990, I moved to Durango to take a year off school and ski. It was during that time that FLC came to my attention ... One of the best decisions I ever made.
Q. What is the best or most important thing you learned at FLC?
A. Baltzer: There are a lot of things, but I really appreciate the way Fort Lewis forced a rounding of my education because the liberal arts made me more prepared for life. I took most of those classes in summer sessions. For philosophy, the only class available was Death and Dying, and that turned out to be one of the most useful classes I ever took.
A. Schauble: I remember one of my business professors, who’s retired now, said that within five years, we would forget almost everything we learned, but we would remember the ability to think critically. That still rings true today because I have to critically analyze events and situations all the time.
A. Trask: How to raise the bar on what I expect of myself and others. The nuts and bolts of my degree have also served me incredibly well. I have a (Bachelor of Arts) from Fort Lewis College, and I would stack my knowledge of research methodology and design, general psychology and the larger philosophical sphere in which they operate up against that of others with advanced degrees every day. The critical thinking skills and ability to deconstruct abstract ideas has been a core component of my thinking ever since.
Q. Was there something you wish you learned at Fort Lewis but didn’t?
A. Baltzer: I would have appreciated learning the day-to-day terminology used in mining. When you’re just out of school and trying to prove you’re qualified, not understanding that can be a deal-killer. They need to help students make that transition.
A. Schauble: Not so much something I wish I’d learned, but I was so gung-ho to get out into the world that I went to summer classes and graduated early. I never took that backpacking trip across Europe.
A. Trask: Not that I can recall. I loved my education at the Fort.
Q. What advice would you give current FLC students?
A. Baltzer: It’s a good thing to be techno-savvy, but don’t forget to be hands-on, boots-on-the-ground. I know mining engineers who’ve never even been underground. So don’t get lost in the technology.
A. Schauble: I would say to my younger self: “You’re on the right track, you can slow down and really enjoy this time in your life. The world will still be there when you get there, and talent will always be recognized.” And travel, even if it’s just regionally in the Four Corners. Go see more of the world.
A. Trask: Enjoy the freedom that living in Durango and attending FLC provides. I skied 60-70 days a year. I rafted the Grand Canyon on a private permit. I coached the girls and boys high school swimmers and divers for three years. But I still wish I had done more traveling, camping, fishing, all that area provides.
abutler@durangoherald.com
Chris Schauble biography (PDF)
