• Fly-fishing school honors spirit of pipeline victim
  Ten years after his death, Liam Wood's spirit lives on in the school created to honor his passion for fly-fishing and his deep love of the natural world.
  Since 2004, the Liam Wood Flyfishing and River Guardian School in Bellingham has used the art of fly-fishing to connect students to the ecology of fish, rivers and watersheds in the hope that getting them outdoors will spawn a connection to nature and a desire to protect it.
  
  The Liam Wood Flyfishing and River Guardian School works to pass on Liam's love of fishing to youths, students and other members of the community through sessions taught by Leo Bodensteiner, an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Science at WWU. Bodensteiner has studied fish, habitats and stream ecology for about 30 years.

---

• WWU grad chosen for commencement address
  Rick Dale, a Western Washington University graduate and an expert in building 911 communications systems, will be the keynote speaker at the university's graduation ceremonies Saturday, June 13.
  
  Dale is the chairman and CEO of iXP Corp., a company that develops complex emergency communication systems, including the 911 call center for the New York Police Department. Dale, who earned a degree in Business Administration/Computer Science, will speak about the value of ethics and integrity in business.

• ---

  10 years later, Kings learning to feel joy again
  Wade King is forever a child.
  
  His friends are becoming men. But Wade always will be a boy, in the memories of those who love him and on the gravestone etched with the prayer he said each night with dad, Frank King.
  
  Ten years later, the Kings talk about those first nightmarish days that gave way to years of fog, about pushing for pipeline safety, about honoring their son's memory, and about being able to smile with happiness instead of always weeping in pain.
  Over the years, they've shifted their attention to good deeds to honor their son. The most public of those include the donation of $400,000 to the new Wade King Elementary School and $4 million to Western Washington University for athletic scholarships and recreational programs. WWU in turn named its new student recreation center after the boy.
  

  ---

• WWU's Jordan Welling earns ESPN honor
  Western Washington University distance runner Jordan Welling has been named a first-team College Sports Information Directors of America/ESPN The Magazine College Division District 8 Academic All-Star in men's track and field and cross country. Welling, a sophomore from Burlington, is a Manufacturing & Supply Chain Management major maintaining a 3.55 grade point average (4.0 scale).

Seattle Times

• Is WWU professor provocative, or an abusive bully?
  Over the years, Western Washington University professor Perry Mills has referred to an overweight student as a "400-pound canary who warbles nothingness"; slapped the nickname "Precious" on a male colleague he believed to be gay; and called a female colleague a "bimbo" and "slut" to her face.
  Those remarks were just for starters, according to university records.

California Chronicle

• An epic journey
  Nike (pronounced nee-kay) Imoru is a Renaissance person, and we mean the actual Renaissance: She's a scholar of 16th century Shakespearean theater. Yet she's also a Renaissance person in the broader sense: a Spokane actress, university professor, director, literary scholar, personal coach and a film casting director for North by Northwest.
  
  The University of Hull had a teacher-exchange program with Western Washington University in Bellingham, so Imoru agreed, somewhat reluctantly, to an exchange. She ended up loving the experience, mainly because she was able to form her own experimental group called The Possibilities. The group toured the Northwest, including Idaho, which is how she came to the attention of the University of Idaho. In 2001, Imoru said goodbye to Britain and took a job as a professor at the University of Idaho. She directed "The Tempest" and "As You Like It" at the Idaho Repertory Theatre, and also started directing shows for Interplayers Theatre, Spokane's professional theater.

The Skagit Valley Herald

• On the hunt for oysters
  As empty clamshells crunched and tidal mud squished under their rubber boots, Christine Woodward and Pamela Maxwell scrutinized their finds, looking for signs that the native Olympia oyster is reproducing in Fidalgo Bay.
  
  But the species is in trouble. The number of oysters in Washington has declined from historic levels by as much as 90 percent, said Paul Dinnel, a marine scientist who specializes in marine invertebrates and toxicology at Western Washington University’s Shannon Point Marine Center.