Profiles of ability
and conviction

Philip West '60 Marcia Sowles '72 Rick Mishler '74

Lighting paths to peace is lifelong journey

THE SON OF HEIFER International founders Lucy and Dan West, Philip West ’60 grew up on the family farm near Middlebury, Ind.

As a junior at Manchester College, the peace studies major applied his farm skills as a Seagoing Cowboy, tending to 28
heifers en route to poor Japanese farmers struggling to recover from World War II. He remained to study Japanese at International Christian University in Tokyo.

After graduation, West completed his selective service as a conscientious objector, teaching English in communist Poland with Brethren Volunteer Service. He studied Chinese at Harvard, earning his Ph.D. in modern Chinese history and East Asian languages in 1971. His first book, Yenching University and Sino-Western Relations 1916-1952, was nominated by Harvard
University Press for a Pulitzer Prize.

Throughout his career, West has broadened and enriched the East Asian curriculum in university classrooms and in public schools. He also has helped the State of Indiana establish a relationship with Zhejiang Province in China, promoting education programs and advising the state how to attract East Asian businesses.

For 10 years, West led the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at the University of Montana, named for the former Senate majority leader and U.S. ambassador to Japan. He continues on the faculty.

For his lifelong commitment to exposing the realities of war and illuminating paths to peace, the College presented Philip West with a 2011 Alumni Honor Award.

BY MELINDA LANTZ '81

Integrity, fairness guide pursuit of justice

HER RAZOR-SHARP LEGAL MIND and passion for fairness earn Marcia K. Sowles ’72 respect as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.

With her MC degree (she majored in mathematics and history) in hand, Sowles
embarked on her legal education at Valparaiso University Law School. She then gained valuable federal class action experience and attention with Legal Services in South Bend. In 1979, Yale
University selected her as one of only 12 young attorneys in the
nation for its prestigious Master of Law program.

Sowles then spent seven years with the United States Department of Energy, serving as lead attorney in several complex cases against major oil companies. She also had significant responsibilities in the DOE’s two largest enforcement actions, each resulting in a judgment of more than $1 billion.

She joined the Justice Department in 1987, serving as senior counsel for more than 13 years, defending agencies against
constitutional and statutory challenges to federal statutes, and
administrative decisions and orders. She also works to enforce
regulations and remedy regulatory violations.

A loyal supporter of Manchester College, Marcia has served on the Board of Trustees and Alumni Board of Directors and mentors younger Manchester graduates in the Washington area. For her deep sense of integrity and fairness, her lifelong pursuit of justice, and her faithful service to Manchester College, Marcia Sowles received a 2011 Alumni Honor Award.

BY MELINDA LANTZ '81

Compassionate medicine defines
discovery, service

DR. RICK MISHLER ’74 is a world-recognized pioneer in nephrology dedicated to improving the lives of kidney
patients. He says the liberal arts education he received at Manchester College helped prepare him for that life.

He discovered a whole new world on the North Manchester campus. Mishler studied Russian and embarked on a January
session course to Cold War-era Soviet Union.

The academic rigors of his biology-chemistry major prepared him for Indiana University School of Medicine and a residency in internal medicine at Michigan State University. After a nephrology fellowship at the University of Wisconsin, Mishler joined the Arizona Kidney
Disease and Hypertension Centers in Phoenix.

There, he and colleagues developed a groundbreaking procedure to correct vascular access problems in hemodialysis patients. The outpatient procedure is more convenient, less traumatic and less expensive than a hospital emergency room procedure – and results in a better quality of life for dialysis patients.

For more than 15 years, Mishler flew his plane to a remote area of Arizona to treat Native American kidney patients who didn’t have access to care. He also has traveled with the College’s Medical
Practicum during January session.

For applying his intellect and talent to forge new knowledge in
medicine, and for drawing upon his compassion in ways that improve the human condition, Dr. Rick Mishler received a 2011 Alumni Honor Award.

BY MELINDA LANTZ '81