DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS 2009

Mr. Palmer Muech

Mr. Palmer Muech

Mr. Palmer Muech graduated from Perryville High School in 1957. Following graduation, he served in the United States Army prior to attending Williamette University in Salem, Oregon, where he received his BA in Physical Education in 1966. He did his M.Ed. degree graduate course work at Central Washington State University, Ellensburg in 1967 and graduate course work in Sports Administration at Wichita State University, Kansas from 1985-87.

Muench dedicated his life to a sport he loved, baseball. During his lifetime, he directed all aspects of baseball programs including head coach, athletic director, minor league manager, and instructor.

At the professional level, Muench played three years in the Kansas City A’s minor league system, played one year in the Chicago White Sox minor league system, served as coach and trainer in the Philadelphia Phillies minor league system for five years, was Director of Business Operations for the San Diego Padres for two years, was Manager and Director of Player Personnel for the Kentucky Rifles Baseball in the Frontier League for one year and finished his career with ten years as instructor of athletes, including major and minor leaguers, and high school and little leaguers in the IMG Baseball Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

At the collegiate level, Muench coached at several different school during his career. These included Western State College of Colorado in Gunnison, Colorado; Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington; Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina; St. John’s College in Winfield, Kansas; and Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

He earned various awards during his coaching career, including NAIA District Coach of the Year; MIAA Conference Coach of the Year (1985 and 1987); Faculty Merit Award from Southeast Missouri (1987 and 1989); and a 25-year plaque for Excellence in Coaching Baseball.

Muench organized and conducted numerous clinics during his career and was involved in community baseball programs as coach, organizer, manager and featured speaker.

His charitable and church involvement included serving as Sunday school superintendent, Elder of his church, Habitat for Humanity, server in the Our Daily Bread Soup Kitchen, and served on the Board of Directors of the Hope Seeds, Inc.

Sadly, on the morning of June 18, 2009, Palmer Muench passed away in Bradenton, Florida. He is survived by his wife, Gloria, two sons, Gregg and Douglas, and three grandchildren.

Dr. Robert J. Bert

Dr. Robert J. Bert

Dr. Robert J. Bert graduated from Perryville High School in 1972. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Missouri-Rolla with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering in 1976. His post baccalaureate studies were completed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Premedical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering from 1979-1981. In 1991, he received a Doctor of Medicine Degree from the University of Illinois-Urbana and in 1991, he completed his Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Neurosciences from the University of Illinois-Urbana.

Dr. Bert’s post-doctoral training included a Surgery Internship at St. Joseph Hospital, a Fellowship in Research: Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, his Residency in Diagnostic Radiology at the University of Massachusetts and a Fellowship in Neuroradiology at Boston Medical Center.

Currently Dr. Bert is serving as Director of Neuroradiology and Clinical MRI Director, Neuroradiology Fellowship Program at the University of CO Denver Health Sciences Center.

Dr. Bert has been awarded two University Fellowships from the University of Illinois, Urbana; the Johnson Endowment Fellowship from the University of Illinois, Urbana; the ARVO (Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology) Travel Fellow; and was voted as one of America’s Top Doctors in 2009.

His academic position appointment currently is Associate Professor of Radiology at the University of CO Denver Health Sciences Center.

Dr. Bert has memberships in many medical organizations, has served on many committees, and has received funding for numerous research projects.

He has done peer review work for the “American Journal of Neurology,” the “Journal of Computer—Assisted Tomography”and the “Academic Radiology.”

Dr. Bert has been published in 17 peer-reviewed publications, a non-peer-reviewed government publication and has written a chapter in the book “Imaging Cerebrovascular Disease.”

In addition, he has made dozens of presentations and gave lectures at various scientific and medical meetings and conferences. Dr. Bert was also invited to be a guest lecturer at the Polish Magnetic Resonance Imaging Society Annual Meeting in Bialystok, Poland, in 1999 and at the Congress of Polish Society of Neurosurgery Annual Meeting in 2000.

Before beginning his career in the medical field, Dr. Bert worked as a professional engineer for the Wisconsin Power & Light Company in the mechanical engineering department from 1977-1982. He also developed software for the NEXT computer from 1992-93, for graphical presentation of patient database information, including voice sound bites for dictation or radiological and pathology reports, image display or radiology films and pathology slides, with instructional references for on-line teaching material.

Dr. Bert is married to Phyllis Dodds Bert, formerly of Portland, Tennessee. They live in Longmont, Colorado, and have one daughter, Nicolette, age 4. Dr. Bert has four sisters and one brother and is the son of John (Class of 1941) and Alice Bert of Perryville, Missouri.

Dr. David L. Hacker

Dr. David L. Hacker

Dr. David L. Hacker graduated from Perryville High School in 1973. In 1976, he completed his B.S. in Chemistry from Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He was an M.S. student in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Iowa State University from 1978 to 1981 and received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Michigan State University in 1988.

He is currently a senior scientist in the Laboratory of Cellular Biotechnology under the direction of Professor Florian Wurm at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) where he directs research projects in cellular biotechnology. He is also the manager of the Protein Expression Core Facility of the Department of Life Sciences at the EPFL. He teaches laboratory courses for Masters students in bioengineering and chemical engineering and a doctoral course on recombinant protein expression in mammalian cells.

Prior to moving to Switzerland in 2001, he was a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Tennessee (USA) from 1992. There his research involved the investigation of the molecular mechanisms of RNA virus assemble and gene expression. He taught undergraduate courses in virology and directed independent study projects and doctoral courses in virology.

He obtained a Ph.D. in Microbiology in 1988 from Michigan State University where he studied mammalian DNA tumor viruses. He then spent five and a half years as a postdoctoral fellow in molecular virology at the University of Geneva School of Medicine, the University of California-Berkeley, and the University of Nebraska.

Dr. Hacker has written or co-authored over three dozen journal articles and over two dozen chapters in scientific books.

His honors and awards include the NIH Fogarty International Post Doctoral Fellowship in 1988, the National Science Foundation Plant Biology Postdoctoral Fellowship in 1990, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory-University of Tennessee Science Alliance Award from 1996 to 2000, the Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher, Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee in 2000, and the EPFL Excellence Award in 2004 and 2006.

Dr. Hacker is married to Sylvie Rochat-Hacker and they have two children, Célia and Aude Hacker. His hobbies include hiking, cross-country skiing, reading, and listening to music. He has one sister, Darlene (Daniel) Kiefer (Class of 1972), and is the son of Charles (Class of 1941) and Alice (nee Hemmann—Class of 1950) Hacker, all of Perryville.