She'd be the last to admit this, but Deneen Gilmour is a modern-day wonder woman who deftly juggles full-time graduate studies in mass communications with teaching four classes, acting as the communication department's internship coordinator and taking care of a family unit comprised of one husband, a 12-year-old son, three "Lost Boys" from Sudan, two very lively kittens and a baby beagle. As a former senior reporter for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, she covered the region's devastating floods in 1997, 2000 and 2001 and the story of war refugees who move to Fargo, which is how she learned about the plight of her Sudanese friends.

Bill Snyder's (Franny and the Poet, page 14) bio reads like a smart Forrest Gump's -- though Snyder's participation in historic moments was more deliberate. A member of the Class of 1942 at then-North Dakota Agricultural College, Snyder worked in the Little Country Theatre, earned an ROTC Army commission, wrote a column for the student newspaper and made the first films of Bison football and basketball games. World War II took him to the South Pacific, then in 1946 he returned to Fargo and founded Bill Snyder Films, the state's first industrial sound motion picture company. He was soon off again, headed for East Africa as a ham radio operator and movie cameraman on the Gatti-Hallicrafters Expedition. He was fired from the expedition (see full story at www.qsl.net/pa0abm/ghe/00ghe.htm), but stayed in Africa to work for Arch Oboler Productions, later following the company to Hollywood. He was hired as photo director by Fargo's first television station. Six years later he left WDAY-TV to refocus his energy on Snyder Films. Before his retirement, Snyder produced more than 800 industrial films and commercials -- including footage of the world's first jet ski and 40 shorts for Disney's Mickey Mouse Club Newsreel. His assignments took him all over the country, and for 20 years he got there by piloting his own company airplane. His collaboration with Frances Bettschen Arvold is a tiny sample of his writings.

David Danbom, professor of history at North Dakota State University, is a regular contributor to NDSU magazine. He has recently published articles in Minnesota History on the history of flour milling at St.Anthony Falls; in North Dakota History on gender, marriage and employment in Fargo during the Depression; and one in South Dakota History on doing local history.

Tammy Swift, a staff writer at North Dakota State University, (Tree guy, page 29, and Flax story, page 18) is revered around the office for her talent and sense of humor, skills also recognized by the National Federation of Press Women. Swift was named first runner-up in the organization's sweepstakes competition for winning four first-place awards. Two of the golds came for headlines in this magazine -- "D'oh!-re-mi: North Dakotan Makes Music for 'The Simpsons,'" for an article she wrote about composer Alf Clausen in the spring 2003 issue, and "Science of the Lambs," an article about NDSU researchers' studies on gestational nutrition in sheep to examine diet's effects on human pregnancy, in the fall 2003 magazine.

Terry Steen pinch hit as photographer for the meeting with ABC News anchor Robin Roberts for Excerpts, p 32. His photography has appeared in regional magazines, though by day he is a sales manager at Microsoft.

In 1975, when Nick Kelsh (cover) took this picture of a bewhiskered Jerry Richardson (architects contribute, p. 42) wearing his great-great grandfather's pre-Civil War-dress blue uniform coat, Fargo and Moorhead were celebrating the One Hundredth Anniversary of their founding. Richardson wore the coat just long enough to have the picture taken. Nowadays, he looks somewhat older than his great-great grandfather.