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CMU Alumni Socials
CMU Events: St. Louis Alumni Social
at Persimmon Woods Golf Club
Ron Mills, ’83; Terry Henderson, ’83; Larry Layden, ’83; Elaine Henderson, ’83; Jacque Knight Richmond, ’83; Tina Fuhler, ’83; Kara Sabo, ’84; Laurie Regan, ’82; and Bonita Hoehne, ’84
Alumni Board members Kathy Dempsey, ’86; Julie Zielger, ’91; and Julie Parrish, ’05 Annie Holder, ’97; Jennifer Anthony, ’97; Jenny Brennecke, ’96; Stephanie Jones, ’98
Matt, ’10, and Stasia Sherman, Director of Alumni Relations
More photos from the 2022 St. Louis Alumni Social: https://www.flickr.com/ photos/165662066@N06/ albums/72177720301181544
CMU Events: Springfield Alumni Social
at Springfield Brewing Co.
Marvin Manring ‘85 and Mary Ann Manring ‘86
Back row: Mary Ann Manring, ’86; Marvin Manring, ’85; John Cheary, ’70; Jacque Cheary, ’82; Don Kern, ’86; and Terry Blair, ’83 Front row: Rick Cowert, ’75; Brenda Cowert, ’75; and Lara Fors, ’92
Zeta group photo Back row: Lara Fors, ’92; Mary Ann Manring, ’86; Debbie Dodge, ’89. Front row: Morgan Maples, ’15, and Mary Ann Calloway, ’93 Keith, ’89, and Cindy Spalding and Patty and Mike Nichols, ’87 Jason Piles, ’18; Garren Johanson, ’21; Matt Loyd, ’15; Taylor Cornelison, ’15; and Morgan Maples, ’15
More photos from the 2022 Alumni Socials: https://www.flickr.com/ photos/165662066@N06/ albums/72177720303350593
Story courtesy of KOMU
Nate Brinkley, ‘02, poses with his students at Mr. Nate’s Suited and Booted Graduation Dinner.
JEFFERSON CITY - As the end of the school year wrapped up last spring, there was a special graduation celebration for four Jefferson City students.
The fifth-grade boys from East Elementary School got to say goodbye to elementary school in style. They were chosen to take part in Mr. Nate’s Suited and Booted Graduation Dinner.
“When they become men, they’ll look back and say, ‘Man, I remember how fun that going through the process of going to that graduation dinner was. I want to create that for someone else,” said Nate Brinkley ‘02. “I just wanted to create that memory for them.”
The evening starts with Brinkley, fondly called Mr. Nate by students, picking up the boys in his truck.
“Let me get a spin!” Brinkley said while taking pictures of one student he picked up. “You look good man, it’s going to be a great time!”
The boys dressed up in suit and tie for the event where they take photos at their new middle school and outside the capitol building before heading to Columbia’s CC’s City Broilers for dinner.
“I just wanted them to look their very best, even if that meant being uncomfortable for a few hours, which they have told me plenty of times,” Brinkley said with a laugh.
Brinkley works as a behavioral interventionist specialist for Jefferson City Public Schools. He said the four students who get to come to the dinner are chosen with the help of their teachers.
“Levi, this is his first year with us, but the other three, they’ve been with us since kindergarten, first grade,” he said. “I’ve known these boys for three or four years. So, I was able to see their progression.”
Nathan Vinson, Emmon Woods, Jordan Trotter, and Levi Dominguez were the four students invited to the dinner. They said it was an honor to be there for the big night.
“I felt happy,” Vinson said. “Because he could have chosen anybody else, but he chose me and them.”
“I feel special,” said Woods. “It was pretty exciting. [Mr. Nate’s] like a friend to me.”
The students said Mr. Nate means a lot to them and their classmates.
“He’s an awesome person. He looks out for students, he makes sure they’re okay, and if there’s any problem, he makes sure to take care of it,” Trotter said.
The night wasn’t only a special moment for these students, but for their families, too.
“It’s a very special night for me and my grandson because he deserves it. He’s a good kid,” Trotter’s grandma and foster parent, Wanda Seals, said. “He’s a straight-A student all year round.”
“I see [Levi’s] growth in everything that he’s doing, so I’m pretty proud of Levi,” Dominguez’s dad, Misraim Dominguez, said. “It’s going to be in his memory and I’m sure in his heart and he’s always going to have that with him.”
The idea was born out of the pandemic after elementary school graduation didn’t happen as it normally did.
“Our kids didn’t get much of a graduation, just a simple drive through the parent lane and got to wave at teachers,” Brinkley said.
So, he planned something more with the help of donations. This was the third year of the now- annual event.
He said the best part of the night is when the students see their dinner delivered.
“And the second those lids come off and those boys’ eyes get big their faces get lit up, and they just stare at their plate for a second, that’s the moment right there,” Brinkley said.
He hopes it will inspire people around the area to start special traditions like this for more students.
“I mean, that’s just what I want to do, just create that moment. I didn’t have those moments when I was growing up,” he said. “I’m hoping that people will get out there and do more things like this.”
The evening didn’t end after dinner. The students went to Applebee’s for dessert, and Brinkley gave the rest of the donations to the boys in cash - $200 each. Brinkley said he normally starts raising donations for the graduation dinners a couple of months before the end of the school year. If you’re interested in giving to next year’s dinner, you can donate to his Venmo account, @Nate-Brinkley.
President Drake, right, traveled to South Dakota to attend Tad Perry’s induction.
Perry Inducted into South Dakota Hall of Fame
Many Central Methodist alumni are familiar with Tad Perry’s long list of accomplishments at his alma mater. The former chairman of the board at CMU is legendary on the Fayette campus for not only his generosity, but his hard work and academic wisdom.
But Perry’s accomplishments go far beyond Central. In fact, he was honored this fall and enshrined in the South Dakota Hall of Fame. Perry, ’65, joined the exclusive group in September for his work in higher education.
To this day, his service as CEO of the South Dakota Board of Regents is the longest of any South Dakota higher education executive officer in history. Additionally, when Perry retired his 15 years of service made him the longest-serving state higher education executive officer in the nation. A recent article about Perry said his priority, whether as a public servant, elected official or community volunteer, was to create new opportunities that keep young people in South Dakota. The South Dakota Opportunity Scholarship serves as one of his most visible and enduring legacies.
Perry spent 43 years working in higher education, much of that time as a faculty member and administrator at Ball State University in Indiana. He spent seven of those years as chairman of the board of trustees at Central.
Perry’s wife, Carolyn, ’66, was in attendance to see her husband enshrined, along with sons Tod Perry and Jay Perry, and Jay’s wife, Heather; Tad’s sister Laura Perry Massie, ’62, and her daughter Julie Massie; Tad’s brother, Chuck Perry and his wife Kathy Drew; future CMU student Christopher Link, Laura Massie’s grandson; Rob Parsons, the son of CMU graduates Judy Martin Parsons Kottwitz and Bob Parsons; Dan Widhalm, ’85, and his wife, Julie, the daughter of Judy Martin Parsons Kottwitz and Bob Parsons; and of course, CMU President Roger Drake.
