Ripon News

Margaret Stevens

• M.A., Ph.D., Stanford University
• B.A., Macalester College

Chamber Singers to kick off spring concert tour Monday

The Ripon College Chamber Singers will present their spring tour in Manitowoc, Sheboygan and Ripon. The choir is under the direction of Assistant Professor of Music Paul H. Thompson. The choir will perform at 7 p.m. Monday, March 14, at Roncalli High School in Manitowoc as part of the high school’s spring choir concert. The […]

Paul Thompson

• DMA, University of Colorado – Boulder
• MM, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
• B.A., Marian University

I am the Director of Choral Activities at Ripon College. I direct the Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, and Choral Union. I also teach Conducting I and II, Choral Techniques, Music History I, and in the Catalyst curriculum. My research includes applications of Servant Leadership in Choral Rehearsals, and the use of concepts from Information Pedagogy to frame Conducting Pedagogy. I conduct Aperi Animam, a professional early music choir in Milwaukee, and sing with several professional choirs throughout the country. In my free time, I love to spend time with my family and friends, read, golf and cook.

Henrik Schatzinger to speak March 17 for League of Women Voters

Henrik Schatzinger, professor of politics and government and co-director of the Center for Politics and the People, will speak March 17 for the League of Women Voters of the Ripon Area. The presentation will begin at 7 p.m. in the Ripon City Council Chambers. The audience will be limited to 25 and masks are encouraged. […]

Current developments in Russia-Ukraine War to be discussed in webinar Tuesday

“Russia-Ukraine War,” a live webinar discussion about the current event, will be presented Tuesday, March 8, by the Center for Politics and the People at Ripon College. The webinar will begin at 6:30 p.m. Central Time. The Zoom link is here. This webinar discusses Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, its causes, ongoing battles, reactions and […]

Talk about commodities markets, effect on world events to be held March 10

The developing crisis in Ukraine will be one of the topics highlighted in a virtual talk March 10 by the Center for Politics and the People at Ripon College. “Price Wars: How the Commodities Markets Made Our Chaotic World” will be presented by author and filmmaker Rupert Russell at 4:30 p.m. Central time. The Zoom […]

Jazz trio will perform March 4 as part of the Chamber Music and Jazz at Ripon series

The Mary Louise Knutson Trio will perform Friday, March 4, at Ripon College as part of the Chamber Music and Jazz at Ripon series. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Demmer Recital Hall, C.J. Rodman Center for the Arts. The trio will present a concert of jazz works. Knutson also will lead an […]

Martin Farrell will present discussion about Quad Alliance Feb. 28

Professor Emeritus of Politics and Government Martin Farrell will present a talk at 6 p.m. Feb. 28 at the Manitowoc Public Library. His discussion of the Quad Alliance is part of the library’s Great Decisions lecture series. The Quad Alliance is an informal alliance between the United States, India, Japan and Australia that is committed […]

Bryan, MacKenzie perform online recital for art song festival

Assistant Professor of Music Erin Bryan, soprano, and Visiting Instructor of Music Deb MacKenzie, piano, were invited to present a recital as part of the Sam Houston State University Art Song Festival this month. The performance, which was offered virtually, highlights American composer Lauren Spavelko’s Baby Book, a song cycle the composer describes as “truly […]

Award-winning author will read Feb. 23 in virtual Visiting Writers presentation

Poet Chen Chen will read Wednesday, Feb. 23, as part of the Visiting Writers Series at Ripon College. The virtual event will begin via Zoom link at 7 p.m. Central Time. Chen Chen is a poet and essayist interested in Asian American histories and futures, family — bio and found, queer friendship, multilingualism, hybrid texts, […]

Student directors to present One-Act Play Festival this week

One-Act Play Festival with student directors will be presented Feb. 18-19 by the Department of Theatre at Ripon College. Performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Benstead Theatre, C.J. Rodman Center for the Arts. Admission is free and open to the public, and audience members are asked to wear masks. Plays to be performed are: […]

National Donor Day highlights alumni need for kidney donations

Today is Valentine’s Day, an observation of love. But it is also National Donor Day, celebrating those who give a gift of love and life through organ, eye and tissue donation. The donation of a kidney can be done by a living donor, and two Ripon alumni are among those desperately waiting for a donated […]

Mary I. Unger will speak for Black History Month at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh

Mary I. Unger, associate professor of English and coordinator of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, will speak Wednesday, Feb. 16, for the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Black History Month programming. Her talk, “Bad Girl Brooks: Refusing Respectable Reading in the Black Chicago Renaissance,” will be held virtually via Zoom from 1-2 p.m. She will discuss […]

William J. Woolley publishes book about how modern U.S. Army was created

Creating the Modern Army: Citizen Soldiers and the American Way of War, 1919-1939, a new book by Professor Emeritus of History William J. Woolley, will be published in March by the University Press of Kansas. Woolley taught at Ripon from 1969 to 2001, and the book was inspired by the course American Military Institutions that […]

Gov. Evers appoints Rafael Francisco Salas to Wisconsin Arts Board

Gov. Tony Evers has appointed Professor of Art Rafael Francisco Salas to the Wisconsin Arts Board, the state agency responsible for the support and development of the arts throughout Wisconsin. Salas’ work has been exhibited in New York City, San Diego, Boston and venues in the Midwest, including Neville Public Museum, Museum of Wisconsin Art, […]

Susan Forrest-Lobb Jeffreys ’81 featured in new book ‘Women of Courage’

Susan “Suki” Forrest-Lobb Jeffreys ’81 of Phoenix, Arizona, is featured in the new book Women of Courage, vol. 5, published by Professional Woman Publishing. The book will be released the second week of February 2022. The anthology features stories of and thoughts about courage by Jeffreys and other women around the world. “I was honored […]

Travis Nygard featured on television segment about historic Ripon table

Travis Nygard, associate professor of art, was featured on a news report Thursday on the television station Fox 11 News. The segment can be viewed here. The report is about a table hand-crafted in Ripon in 1892-93. The Ripon Historical Society is raising $3,000 to cover the cost of purchasing the table from a Seattle […]

Bill Quistorf ’80 featured in segment of National Geographic episode

Bill Quistorf ’80 of Everett, Washington, chief pilot with the Snohomish County Helicopter Rescue Team in Washington state, is featured on an episode of National Geographic’s “Extreme Rescues.” The “Back from the Dead” episode details a dramatic and dangerous mountain rescue in 2018. The segment featuring Quistorf’s rescue team begins at the 30:40 minute mark, […]

Bryant Vande Kolk ’12 will present alumni talks today, Friday

Bryant Vande Kolk ’12 of Ellicott City, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., will be a guest speaker today. His talk will begin at 7 p.m. in the Heritage Room of S.N. Pickard Commons. At Ripon, he majored in physics with minors in Spanish and mathematics. He now serves on the Alumni Board. He received a master’s […]

Raymond Burkert Sawyer, Class of 1921, referenced in oral history interview

An Oral History Interview with Raymond Sawyer, professor emeritus of physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara, has been published by the American Institute of Physics. He is the son of Raymond Burkert Sawyer, Ripon College Class of 1921. In the interview, Sawyer talks briefly about his father. He says his parents met […]