Local 411

A Messenger of Hope

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By Karen Schickedanz

When Oro Valley resident Tom Bush was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy 60 years ago, the disease was regarded as incurable and deadly. “It was a devastating diagnosis for my parents,” says Bush. “My parents were told that I probably wouldn’t live past the age of 21.”

But Bush, 66, says that growing up he “lived a relatively normal life, attending regular schools, just being one of the guys.” His regular life included getting married to a wonderful woman, Tina, whom he credits as being the biggest help in his life, enabling him to persevere and succeed.

After a 30-year career with the state of New Jersey, he and Tina moved to Oro Valley in 1993, where he embarked on a second, 10-year career at MDA’s national headquarters in Tucson. There he developed, operated and managed the national Web site, MDA.org.

“Tom’s success is sure to inspire hope in others with muscle diseases,” says MDA president and chief executive officer Gerald C. Weinberg, a Tucson resident. “He demonstrates that life can be full and rewarding despite the challenges disability presents.”

Now retired, Bush, who has been wheelchair-bound for more than 35 years, continues to do volunteer work for the association as well as his church, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian, and the community at large. For example, he served on the Oro Valley task force that created the Coyote Run transportation service and was a founding member of Linkages, a Tucson-based organization that helps people with disabilities find jobs.

This year, to honor his work, the MDA awarded Bush the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Robert Ross National Personal Achievement Award. Bush sees his award as an opportunity to represent thousands of people with one of the 40 neuromuscular diseases identified by the MDA — in 1996, he was re-diagnosed with a type of spinal muscular atrophy, a progressive disease that causes weakness in the muscles of the legs, arms, hands and lower back.

“I hope I can serve as a role model and deliver a message of hope for parents that those affected with a neuromuscular disease can have a productive and useful life,” Bush says.

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Art Space

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To see a video of Smith and Cohen click on image above.
By Donna L. Hull • Photography and Video By Jennifer Polixenni Brankin

Clay creations— pots, plates, teapots, funeral urns — in different stages of production fill the room. Dust lingers in the air. Cabinets fronted with glass hold finished teapots while plates decorate the kitchen countertop. A kiln sits in the spacious garage. Welcome to the home of Gail Smith and Leonard Cohen.

When the two former doctors moved from Philadelphia and built their retirement home near Marana, they included an uncommon element in the home’s design, a room dedicated to making crafts. The room, which evokes thoughts of a school art space, now serves as a place for the two to pursue their passion for pottery.

Cohen specializes in plates, cups, and tea balls — “the stuff that we keep and use,” says Smith — while Smith prefers cylinders, covered jars, teapots and vases.

Smith, who is on a mission to complete 100 teapots, finds such relaxation from being in the studio that she doesn’t even mind breaking her pieces to start again, claiming, “It’s very therapeutic to break them.”

Pottery so dominates their lives that when the couple isn’t in their home shaping clay, they can be found attending regular studio courses at Pima Community College. Their love has even spilled over to vacations that include studying with potters in France and Spain. Last year, the couple traveled to the Pyrenees and met English potter, Alan Baxter. “I didn’t love his work, but I learned a lot. Everybody I study with has taught me something,” she says. More recently, a road trip to the Seagrove area in North Carolina, a hotbed for potters, netted them a large pot by David Stuempfle, now at home in a corner of the couple’s front patio.

Most of the time though, you’ll find Cohen and Smith at home in their studio listening to an iPod, hands muddied with clay.

To see a video of Smith and Cohen click on image below.

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Capturing the Night Sky

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To see a video of Block in action click on picture above to view video of the cloudy night program on Mt Lemmon.

By Donna L. Hull • Photography By Jennifer Polixenni Brankin

PHOTO SLIDESHOW VIDEO

Adam Block has had stars in his eyes ever since he began gazing at the night sky as a toddler. Now an astrophotographer, Block is capturing those stars for others to see.

Block’s interest in astrophotography started at age 11 when he attached a Pentax film camera to an 8” Celestron telescope and discovered that the camera lens captures images the human eye can’t see.

Although his equipment and techniques have changed, Block still looks to the sky with the same youthful exuberance as he did when he was a child. Now, in place of the Pentax, Block employs a CCD camera attached to a 24” RC Optical Systems telescope. For five to ten hours, the camera’s shutter remains open, collecting a series of images while the telescope tracks the object Block wants to photograph.

Block, program coordinator at the University of Arizona’s Mt. Lemmon Sky Center says, “It’s quite an investment of time to get these images.” Using the scientific data the camera collects, Block spends five to ten more hours mixing science with art — he has to decide which aspect of the image to emphasize such as brightness or depth. “Each picture tells a story and highlighting a certain aspect of an object, whether it be a nebula or another galaxy, is part of the fun,” Block explains. The same scientific data can result in very different interpretations, depending on what quality the astrophotograher chooses to emphasize.

Block’s photos have even gained the attention of NASA, who selected a Block picture of the Witch’s Broom Nebula as “Picture of the Day” on August 19, 2008. He’s also been named to astrophotography’s Hall of Fame sponsored by Santa Barbara Instrument Group.

When not shooting, Block is often sharing his love of the sky with others through his image-processing workshop, “Making Every Pixel Count,” at Mt. Lemmon Sky Center where participants spend three days on the mountain learning how to make their own images of the universe. Whether through his photos, his class or even just a guided look at the night sky, Adam Block will put the stars in your eyes, too.

For more information on Mt. Lemmon’s SkyNights, visit skycenter.arizona.edu.

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