Class Notes Fall 2021

Marlene Barnett AS ’51 was named 1950 Homecoming Queen, and was involved in the Singing Musettes, a performing student group. After graduating with her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Utah in 1953, she moved to the East Coast, where she taught elementary school for 23 years in Washington, DC, New York City, and State College, Pennsylvania. Marlene returned to Utah in 1981, and taught for an additional 17 years in the Weber School District, retiring in 1998. Motivated by the years of music experience she had at Weber, she has been in singing groups for most of her life. Marlene served for eight years on the Weber County Library Board, and 12 years on the Symphony Association Board. In 2009, Marlene was honored by Ogden City in the Mayor’s Awards in the Arts with a Lifetime Contribution to the Arts award. Marlene has three children and lives in Ogden.

Orrin J Sharp BS ’67 is a retired president and CEO of Dows Investment Corp. Industrial and Commercial Developments in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He attributes his career success to the manufacturing engineering program at WSU. He has been married to Suzanne Shepherd Sharp since 1967. They have three children and nine grandchildren.
Donald Godfrey BS ’68 is an Arizona State University professor emeritus of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. He is the author of 15 journalism, history, and family history books, including titles such as In Their Footsteps (2018), C. Francis Jenkins, Pioneer of Film and Television (2014) and Methods of Historical Analysis in Electronic Media (2006). He is a producer and media consultant, and worked in corporate communications from 1985–2012 doing advertising, public relations and corporate video. He worked in television production, as an IBEW sound engineer for KIRO Television, in Seattle, Washington, from 1969–1981, where he worked in news and production. He was the recipient of the Broadcast Education Association’s BEA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. He lives in Queen Creek, Arizona.

J. Bryan Gilbert BA ’78 received his doctor of dental surgery (DDS) in 1982 from Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. He founded, owned and operated Gilbert Family Dental in Ogden, Utah, where he worked for nearly 40 years. He is a member of both the American and Utah Dental Association, and has served as the Weber Dental Society President. He retired in December 2020. During his first year at WSU, he was on the swim team. His wife, Ann Avondet Gilbert BS ’79, was a student athlete as well, and competed in volleyball, basketball and softball for all four years. They married in 1983. Ann taught English, and coached volleyball, basketball, and track and field at Davis High School. She later became a stay-at-home mother. They have four children, three of whom are WSU graduates.

Class Notes | Fall 2021