2019 Distinguished Alumni

For 30 years, the College of Humanities has selected distinguished alumni from among its most stellar graduates. This prestigious honor has been bestowed upon alums such as the late professor Sterling McMurrin, Terry Tempest Williams, Spencer P. Eccles, and Tracy McMillan. For the first time, the college granted this honor to siblings, Louis N. Strike (bachelor’s degree in philosophy, 1969) and Cynthia Strike Petrow (bachelor’s degree in world languages and cultures, 1976). The Strike family has a long and storied history in Utah and at the University of Utah, where three generations have been active on campus as athletes, scholars, and leaders.

At the annual Distinguished Alumni & Scholars Luncheon, held on May 2, 2019, both honorees spoke to the audience about the ways their humanities educations helped contribute to and shape their lives in transformative ways.

Strike graduated from the U with degrees in philosophy and math. He went on to earn an MBA from the University of Chicago and had a long career in finance and business leadership. Reflecting on the life course that brought him to the U, he told the story of running home after signing up for freshman year classes and being greeted by his mother, Lucy, who immediately demanded to see his class schedule. After her review, she slapped the paper down on the counter and insisted it wasn’t up-to-par for what she wanted for her son. “This is a terribly weak schedule, and I’m going to tell you why,” Strike recounted. “First, you’ve already taken trigonometry in high school. Why did you sign up for geology? You’re never going to be a geologist because you don’t even like to go outside! And finally, you can’t major in basketball. Can’t you take something with some meat on it?”

And with that, his mother convinced him to take an introductory philosophy class, which would put him face-to-face with his ancestors, the ancient Greeks. “Next thing you know, I’m sitting in Bill Whisner’s class, where he ended the first day with a story of a man approaching Socrates at the main square of Athens with a bird in his hands. He went up to Socrates and asked, ‘What is the fate of this bird?’ Socrates responded, ‘The fate of the bird is in your hands.’”

Strike explained how every class was filled with novel, engaging ideas and stories that enlivened his mind, and he quickly added the philosophy major to his math major.

“Years later, I lost a good deal of my math acumen due to the lack of practice, but my philosophy studies have followed me where I go,” he said. “And now, in my retirement, my curiosity has pushed me to look deeply at pressing issues and write about them—things like the fragility of water, clean energy, sustainability, and women’s rights. I’ll always be grateful for my mother, who pushed me toward a field of study that enriched my mind and my life, and for the great education I received at the U.”

When Strike Petrow stood at the podium to speak, she joked that she has always followed behind her brother, and today was no exception. Strike Petrow graduated with a degree in world languages and cultures, which began her lifelong love of languages. Today, she can proudly claim she has deeply studied and can communicate in eight languages.

At the U, she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was nominated homecoming queen. In her junior year, she represented Utah in America’s Junior Miss competition and was first runner-up in the nation. Her education in humanities began when she signed up for a Greek language and culture class with several close friends from the local Greek community. “We’re all thinking we speak Greek, we grew up speaking Greek, so this class would be a breeze,” Strike Petrow said. “Imagine our shock when we realized we didn’t! What we spoke was Greek-lish, which was at once startling and hilarious. All of us ridiculous Greeks from Salt Lake laughed our heads off at the words we thought were Greek that weren’t even close.”

Something else happened during that class, she said. “I absolutely loved learning this language. I was able to understand how and when and why these words got here from Greek, and it truly fascinated me. Languages reflect culture, and you get insight, like someone has pulled the curtain back on what this language represents for these people. I was hooked. So, since I was studying classical words, I thought maybe I'd like to know what it means in Italian. I signed up for Italian, and like a pearl necklace, I just kept adding more languages. For the first time in my life I started to get some pretty good-looking report cards, and to this day, learning language has been one of my greatest sources of pride.”

Both Louis and Cynthia were honored at the College of Humanities’ convocation on May 3, 2019, with friends and family cheering loudly from the front row.