Monmouth College Magazine Summer 2014

VOL 29 | NUM 2 | SUMMER2014

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

THERE’S A NEW PRESIDENT IN TOWN.

Monmouth College Magazine Volume 29 | Number 2 | Summer 2014 EDITORIAL BOARD Stephen M. Bloomer ’83 Vice President for Development and College Relations Jeffrey D. Rankin Director of College Communications Barry J. McNamara Associate Director of College Communications Hannah Maher Director of Alumni Engagement Monmouth College Magazine is published by the Office of Development and College Relations for alumni and friends of Monmouth College. All opinions expressed in signed articles are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial staff or the college.

We welcome letters about the college or the magazine.

Letters will be printed on a space-available basis and may be edited for length, style and clarity. Send letters, queries or submissions to: Monmouth College Magazine, 700 East Broadway, Monmouth IL 61462-1998, or email jrankin@ monmouthcollege.edu.

EDITOR Jeffrey D. Rankin ASSOCIATE EDITOR Barry J. McNamara DESIGNER Debby Winter, Winter Agency BOARD OF TRUSTEES EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE William Goldsborough ’65, Chairman Nancy Snowden, Vice Chair Gerald Marxman ’56 (Emeritus), Treasurer Karen Barrett Chism ’65 Robert Dahl Larry Gerdes Mark Kopinski ’79 Gail Simpson Owen ’74 Stanley Pepper ’76 Jack Schultz Mark Taylor ’78 Ralph Velazquez ’79 Jean Peters Witty ’88 Richard Yahnke ’66 ALUMNI BOARD EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Jeff Miller ’84, President Neil Dahlstrom ’98, Vice President Jerri Picha ’75, Secretary CONTACT US Magazine Editor 309-457-2314 jrankin@monmouthcollege.edu eNewsletter Editor 309-457-2117 mcnamara@monmouthcollege.edu www.monmouthcollege.edu/alumni/pipeline Alumni Programs 309-457-2316 alumni@monmouthcollege.edu Athletics 309-457-2322 dnolan@monmouthcollege.edu Admissions 1-800-747-2687 admissions@monmouthcollege.edu Give to Monmouth College 1-888-827-8268 www.monmouthcollege.edu/give MONMOUTH COLLEGE ADMITS STUDENTS OF ANY RACE, COLOR, RELIGION, SEX, NATIONAL OR ETHNIC ORIGIN TO ALL RIGHTS, PRIVILEGES, PROGRAMS, AND ACTIVITIES GENERALLY ACCORDED OR MADE AVAILABLE TO MONMOUTH STUDENTS. MONMOUTH COLLEGE DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE ON THE BASIS OF RACE, RELIGION, COLOR, SEX, NATIONAL ORIGIN, ANCESTRY, DISABILITY, AGE, MILITARY SERVICE, MARITAL STATUS, SEXUAL ORIENTATION OR OTHER FACTORS AS PROHIBITED

BY LAW IN ADMINISTRATION OF ITS EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, ADMISSIONS POLICIES, SCHOLARSHIPS AND LOANS, ATHLETICS AND OTHER SCHOOL-ADMINISTERED PROGRAMS.

campus news 7 books 17 sports 26 clan notes 32 last word 49

4

Meet the president

16

Where we are, how we got here

20

A fond farewell

26

Scholar-athletes

Clarence Wyatt brings an impressive blend of credentials from four decades at Centre College While building on its strong academic reputation, Monmouth has transformed in the past 20 years On a gorgeous May afternoon, Mauri Ditzler presided over his ninth and final Monmouth College commencement The Fighting Scots men’s golf team enjoyed great success on the course and in the classroom

Clarence Wyatt, Monmouth College’s 14th president, and his wife, Lobie Stone, officially joined the Monmouth College community in July.

COVER:

A portrait of 13th Monmouth College president Mauri Ditzler is unveiled by chairman of the board Bill Goldsborough ’65 (left) and dean of faculty David Timmerman at a farewell reception in May for the departing leader.

LEFT:

COVER AND OPENING SPREAD PHOTOS

BY GEORGE HARTMANN

CORRECTION: In the Winter 2014 issue, a story about William

Trubeck ’68 incorrectly identified his Vietnam service unit as the 11th Armed Cavalry Regiment. It was the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment.

TITLE A MESSAGE TO ALUMNI

Dear Fellow Scots: It is hard to believe it has been more than three months since we held our spring Alumni Board Meeting on Commencement Weekend. During our meeting, we went through a strategic planning process, reviewing the College’s mission statement, vision statement, strategic plan and campus master plan, in order to determine how the Alumni Board can best represent both alumni and the College. During the meeting the Board affirmed our support of the faculty, staff and students as they pursue a sustainable, vibrant and growing community, dedicated to excellence in every educational endeavor. Our desire is to serve Monmouth College by actively and effectively performing those functions that will foster attainment of the educational and life goals of prospective and current alumni.

The Board is committed to doing everything within our means to ensure that Monmouth College continues its mission of helping our students and alumni explore multiple perspectives on the human condition and prepare themselves for rich personal and professional lives—for leadership, citizenship and service in a global context. As alumni, we are united in our passion for Monmouth College!

The Alumni Board asks that alumni join with us in actively and effectively serving the College through engagement with the institution, other alumni and students. Opportunities for engagement include:

Supporting the Monmouth Fund or joining the McMichael Heritage Circle

Providing professional expertise to the College

Attending or hosting local and regional alumni events

Returning to campus for Homecoming or Golden Scots celebrations

Recommending prospective students to the Office of Admission

Attending student programs and activities

Assisting students with career networking, internships or job placement

This challenge is for all alumni to be actively involved with the College in supporting these and other projects.

THE MONMOUTH COLLEGE VISION STATEMENT READS: y the year 2025, Monmouth College will be nationally recognized as an excellent residential liberal arts B college which, through its distinctive integrated learning curriculum, produces graduates of extraordinary character and ability who are well-prepared professionally and personally to be leaders in a complex world.

I ask that you consider joining the Alumni Board in this supporting challenge. We look forward to partnering with you to advance our beloved alma mater.

Sincerely,

Jeff Miller ‘84 Alumni Board President

2

BREAKING NEWS

Although official numbers won’t be available until early September, Monmouth College is once again bucking a national trend by preparing to welcome a recordlevel class of first-time freshmen.

Last year’s matriculating class was one of the largest in Monmouth College history, and this year’s admission numbers promise to be equally strong.

MONMOUTH’S NEW STUDENT ENROLLMENT AGAIN ON PACE FOR RECORD LEVEL A year ago, the college’s Class of 2017 came within one student of the all-time record of 393 first-time freshmen. This year, the college is on pace to come close to that mark again.

Not only will the quantity of the Class of 2018 be high, but so will its quality. The average ACT score of entering students has risen by 1.3 points over the past two years. The number of out-of-state students has more than doubled during that time, and international students are up again, rising to a healthy 6 percent of the entering class.

Majors with large recent gains include economics, physics/ pre-engineering, mathematics, history, music, art and biochemistry. The college’s new $42 million Center for Science and Business deserves some of the credit, as this year’s entering class was the first to be able to tour the completed facility.

But Monmouth also has exceptionally strong departments throughout its curriculum, noted Tim Keefauver, vice president for strategic initiatives.

“Students are being drawn to Monmouth’s academics for many reasons—from the opportunity to work with published professors, to performing with unique music ensembles such as the Pipe Band, Chorale and jazz and a cappella groups, to conducting scientific research side-by-side with professors and with state-of-the-art equipment in the new building.”

Monmouth’s reputation for successful outcomes is also part of the reason for the increase, said Keefauver, citing the college’s recent top 15 ranking in Money magazine’s categories of Most Affordable Private Colleges and Colleges That Add the Most Value.

The college’s data shows that 99 percent of 2012 and 2013 graduates were employed or enrolled in further education within six months of commencement. Additionally, a large number of the graduates found well-paying jobs, making a Monmouth degree a good return on investment.

In the Money magazine rankings, Monmouth’s graduation rate outperformed its anticipated rate by 18 percent, while recent graduates’ earnings outperformed the expected amount by $3,500 annually. Graduation rates were predicted based on the rates of schools with students from similar socioeconomic and academic backgrounds, while expected earnings were calculated using the percentage of a school’s Pell Grant recipients, standardized test scores and the mix of majors at the school.

“We believe our impressive graduation rate is in part a result of our high-touch, 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio,” said Keefauver. “Our professors know their students personally. That not only helps them achieve in the classroom, but helps them more successfully navigate the four-year college experience.”

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

3

NEW PRESIDENT

CLARENCE WYATT ON THE MOVE FOR THE LIBERAL ARTS

BY JEFF RANKIN

When Clarence Wyatt speaks about the transformative power of a liberal arts education, he speaks from the heart.

An accomplished history professor, college administrator and community activist, Monmouth’s new president is himself a living example of how the liberal arts can provide the necessary tools for success to anyone willing to invest the time and talent. He was not only a member of the first generation in his family to attend college, but also the first generation to attend high school—his parents only having completed the eighth grade.

“There are things a residential liberal arts college can do that no other institution can do,” said Wyatt, who has spent the last four decades of his life at Centre College in Danville, Ky., a school of similar size and academic programs as Monmouth. At the urging of a high school counselor, he entered Centre in 1974, and upon graduating with a double major in English and history, immediately went to work for its development office.

Never one to let the grass grow under his feet, Wyatt soon began taking on a growing list of fundraising and strategic planning duties at Centre, while also pursuing graduate study in history at the University

4

NEW PRESIDENT

of Kentucky, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1990. Two years later, he was a full-time member of Centre’s history department. In 1993, he received national attention for his book Paper Soldiers: The American Press and the Vietnam War, and received Centre’s distinguished young alumnus award. His expertise on Vietnam would lead him to spend a semester teaching Vietnamese and U.S. history at Hanoi University as a Fulbright Fellow.

But the diversity of his interests, inspired by the liberal arts experience, would not allow him to be content in a classroom. Wyatt kept one foot in administration, becoming Centre’s chief strategist, responsible for crafting its capital campaigns and strategic plans. During his tenure, Centre achieved a growing national reputation and was the site of two vice presidential debates, which Wyatt co-chaired.

In his “spare time” at Danville, he also managed to found an award-winning main street program and develop a civil war battlefield preservation effort.

There was certainly more than enough to keep Wyatt occupied in his adopted hometown, so what would cause him to decide to pull up stakes and head north after 40 years?

“It was a great combination of circumstances,” explained the 57-year-old educator. “There is a great sorting out of liberal arts colleges that is taking place now. There are secure colleges with billion-dollar endowments which don’t think about how they can do things better, and there are other institutions that are under such pressure that they are pursuing short-term fixes that are a recipe for either stagnation or, ultimately, failure. But Monmouth is neither of those places.”

Wyatt considers his wife, Lobie Stone, an important partner in the Monmouth presidency.

ABOVE:

Interviewed in his new office in Wallace Hall, President Wyatt recounts some of the lessons he has learned over the course of four decades at a private liberal arts college.

LEFT:

A COLLEGE ON THE RISE

“A lot of good things are starting to come together here.

It’s a wonderful chance to come and be a part of a place that’s on the rise and a place where some of the experiences that I’ve had can be helpful,” Wyatt said.

While most college administrators have several months to transition to a presidency, Wyatt did not have that luxury, agreeing to take the helm July 1, just three weeks after accepting the position. He admits it has been a whirlwind, but his anchor in the storm has been his wife, Lobie Stone, whose organizational skills, energy and creativity have already been put to the test, working with director of facilities management Earl Wilfong and his dedicated team to pull off a refreshing of Quinby House’s interior that would rival for speed any HGTV makeover.

Although she is currently a professional interior designer, that is only the latest entry on her long and varied résumé.

“She is an extraordinarily talented person and she is a great example of the power of a liberal arts education,” said Wyatt. “She has a bachelor’s degree in studio art, but she has in her life run a barge line, been an oil trader, been a senior vice president for marketing for a Chicago-based oil company, been a senior stockbroker, and was a crude oil derivatives trader at Enron when Enron blew up, and then she’s also had in San Antonio a very successful interior design practice.”

Wyatt is quick to tell you that Lobie will be a key partner in the Monmouth presidency, and will also put her talents and enthusiasm to work in the community. “She’s a great advocate for the arts; she’s also a great advocate for sus-

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

5

NEW PRESIDENT

A BIG PART OF WHAT A PRIVATE LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION DOES IS TO PUSH PEOPLE BEYOND THEIR COMFORT ZONE. tainability,” he said. “Both of us in recent years have been involved in downtown development and historic preservation issues.”

Speaking of downtown development, Wyatt is optimistic about the future of the city of Monmouth, despite a gradual decline in business climate over the past two decades. “Everyone you talk to—whether it’s a faculty member or an administrator—is going to talk about the challenges of where you are located, whether it’s a metropolitan area or a small rural community,” he observed. “But there is an energy here, of which the college is a part, and we are ready to tap into it.

“The college being here is an absolute asset to the town, but in the same way, the town can provide a great learning laboratory—a great opportunity for service for our students—and the attractiveness of the town is a key part of students wanting to come here, and there are some great things starting to happen downtown. There’s an awareness of that in the town, so one of the things that I’ve been a part of in my previous life is that partnership between the town and the community, because each one needs the other,” he said.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION

Wyatt is also a fan of partnerships within a college, such as Monmouth’s recent interdisciplinary initiative within the Center for Science and Business.

“One of the things that residential liberal arts colleges can do that other settings can’t do nearly as well is break down the walls among the disciplines,” he explained. “Young people are not going to go out and live their lives solely as historians or economists or biologists. They may pursue careers within those areas, but even within the world of work they’re going to have to bring lots of other perspectives to things they deal with. You’re not going to be able to deal with situations in the workplace, much less within your personal life or within your service to a community, solely from the perspective of one discipline. You’re going to have to apply the perspectives of lots of different disciplines to that, and those are the lives that our students are going to lead.”

Having taught in Southeast Asia, Wyatt is a strong advocate for the off-campus study experience.

6

“It’s a vital truism that we live in a global community, and right here in Monmouth’s packing plant you can find 10 or 11 different languages spoken,” he said. “You can go into many establishments in a town of 10,000 in western Illinois and being able to speak Spanish can be a very handy thing. Our students live in a global society, and the more that we can help them develop that global awareness and that sense of comfort in a global society, they’re going to live lives that are more fulfilling in terms of their careers, they’re going to be more fulfilling in terms of their personal experiences, they’re going to be better prepared to lead in society.”

“To me, a big part of what a private liberal arts education does is to push people beyond their comfort zone,” he continued. “Studyabroad is a great concrete example of that. Being able to go to a very different culture and not only survive but thrive in it develops self-confidence that is going to empower them in every other aspect of their lives.”

Of his short time at Monmouth, Wyatt says he is impressed, particularly with the guidance and foresight provided by the board of trustees. “Every institution has facilities issues that it needs to deal with,” he said, “but Monmouth is miles and miles ahead of a lot of places in terms of the quality of its physical plant, and that doesn’t happen by accident.”

LOOKING FORWARD

Is Monmouth poised to achieve a greater level of national attention?

“Absolutely Monmouth is positioned to do that. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been an attractive opportunity for Lobie and me,” he said, adding, “There is no magic wand. There is no silver bullet.

What it takes is a clear sense of mission, a clear sense of purpose, solid planning, a focus on key strategic steps to get there. And all of that developed by wide involvement of the whole campus community, a sense of who you are and what it is you have to offer, you look at the strengths you have, you look at the weaknesses you have, you look at the opportunities and the challenges that are out there. You develop a plan that’s going to address all of those things through the broad involvement of the community, and then you work that plan. It’s an everyday process, but it’s a gradual process. To me, a lot of good things are coalescing in and around Monmouth.”

At what point will we know that Monmouth has arrived?

“I hope there’s never that point,” Wyatt said, “because I hope that Monmouth always stays hungry. When you stop being hungry, you stop working. I don’t care how big the endowment gets, or how many applicants we have for each slot in the entering class, or how pretty the buildings are, or how well paid the faculty and staff are, or what the test scores are—any of those numerical measures that determine the strength of a college like us, no matter what those numbers may be, I would hope that Monmouth will always be asking, ‘What’s next?’”

CAMPUS NEWS

MONMOUTH APPOINTS VETERAN CFO MARSHALL TO OVERSEE FINANCE AND BUSINESS Richard Marshall, formerly vice president for finance and administration/CFO at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, N.H., is MC’s new vice president for finance and business.

and he also served five years as vice president for administration and finance/CFO at Barton College in North Carolina before moving on to Franklin Pierce University in 2010.

A native of Illinois, Marshall began his position in March.

“I am very excited about the opportunity to serve Monmouth College,” said Marshall, who has an MBA from the University of Illinois-Springfield.

“My visit to campus during the search process confirmed that Monmouth is a very collegial community founded on strong traditions and committed to providing its students an exemplary educational experience. The campus community is very positive about the future of the institution, and I look forward to helping the college achieve its vision.”

“Richard was selected from a strong national pool,” said former president Mauri Ditzler. “One of the credentials that stood out was his range of experience as a vice president at a number of private colleges.”

Marshall’s first VP stint came in 1986 at MacMurrary College in Jacksonville. He held the vice president for business affairs position until 1998, when he joined the Vermont state college system as the dean of administration at Castleton State College. Marshall left Castleton in 2001 to become vice president for finance and administration at the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico,

Marshall completed two undergraduate degrees at Illinois College, majoring in history and in economics and business, and he has completed the Society for College and University Planning’s Planning Institute.

BLOOMER TAKES NEW ROLE AS VICE PRESIDENT FOR DEVELOPMENT AND COLLEGE RELATIONS Monmouth College has turned to one of its graduates and current staff members to take over the role of vice president for development and college relations.

Director of development and principal gifts Steve Bloomer ’83, who joined his alma mater’s development staff in 2007, was appointed to the position in February. In making the announcement, President Mauri Ditzler spoke of the positive momentum that the development office is experiencing. Just a few years after the college’s Annual Fund first reached the $1 million mark, the $2 million milestone was nearly achieved.

ents have in the future of the college.”

Ditzler said it is important that the college “seize the opportunity and build on this momentum.

Who better to do that than Steve Bloomer, who has been a big part of building that momentum as he has risen through the department?”

Bloomer served for 27 years in the National Guard, where he was employed full-time 22 years and rose to the rank of colonel. From 2004 to 2007, he was the chief of staff for the Iowa Army National Guard, managing more than 1,000 fulltime employees. He earned a master’s degree in strategic studies from the United States Army War College and American Military University.

Ditzler noted, “Our $75 million ‘Fulfilling the Promise’ campaign is moving forward more successfully than we could have imagined. … That’s an indication of the confidence that our constitu-

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

7

CAMPUS NEWS

URBAN, PETERSON RECEIVE HATCH AWARDS

William Urban, the Lee L. Morgan Professor of History and International Studies, and accounting professor Judy Peterson received MC’s prestigious Hatch Awards during the spring semester.

A member of the history department since 1966, Urban received the Hatch Award for Distinguished Scholarship and Research Urban

“His work is recognized around the world,” said faculty colleague Chris Goble while presenting the award. “His books are standard reading across central and Eastern Europe. He is an international expert on military history, especially the Baltic Crusades and the history of mercenaries.”

Peterson received the Hatch Award for Distinguished Service and “was nominated by multiple faculty members,” said faculty member Mike Connell, who presented the award.

Peterson joined the faculty in 1998, and Connell said during that time, she has been instrumental in transforming accounting into one of Monmouth’s best programs. He added, “Our graduates get great jobs and enjoy success in graduate school.”

Peterson

Peterson developed and supervises what Connell called “the model Citizenship program at Monmouth College,” Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA).

MYERS AUTHORS BOOK ON RISE OF COEDUCATION

A book by visiting assistant professor of history Christine Myers received a positive review in Victorian Studies, the journal of the North American Victorian Studies Association, which called her study of the rise of coeducation a “fascinating read.”

Myers is the author of University Coeducation in the Victoria Era: Inclusion in the United States and United Kingdom.

Myers

In the review, published in the Spring 2013 issue of Victorian Studies, the University of Birmingham’s Ruth Watts wrote, “Myers is to be congratulated on a rare comparative study on higher education in the United Kingdom and the United States. She has achieved what must have been a mammoth task by focusing strictly on one topic: the integration of women into male universities and the response of society to this integration.”

DID LOCAL SPIDERS SURVIVE POLAR VORTEX?

Cramer

8

The harsh winter added a new field of inquiry to biology professor Ken Cramer’s ongoing study of the brown recluse spider: Can the poisonous arachnid survive a polar vortex? The answer, surprisingly, was yes.

“Having a native, wild population that I can study has been a big help,” said Cramer, who a few years ago discovered the spiders in the garage and basement of a faculty colleague.

Five years ago, research conducted by Cramer and one of his former students, Alex Maywright ’05, determined “a limiting temperature of –5 degrees Celsius for brown recluse overwinter survival.” That equates to 23 degrees Fahrenheit, but the weather in western Illinois was much colder this year.

Cramer’s brown recluse research was featured in a recent issue of the Journal of Medical Entomology. Co-authored with Richard Vetter, a research associate in the department of entomology at the University of California-Riverside, the article is titled “Distribution of the Brown Recluse Spider in Illinois and Iowa.”

CORDERY’S CLASS FEATURED ON C-SPAN

A class taught by history professor Stacy Cordery was featured on C-SPAN 3’s American History TV in July.

American History TV features a weekly series called Lectures in History, in which a video crew visits colleges across the country to tape a class session in its entirety for playback at a later date.

The series features a range of classroom settings, from straight lectures presented to 250 students to seminars heavy on discussion with as few as six students.

At Monmouth, a visiting crew taped a session from Cordery’s seven-week freshman course about the 1960s.

“The class that was taped (on April 11) focused on the Women’s Liberation Movement,” said Cordery. “We discussed the ideals and goals that drove feminists and the movement, and we examined several essays published by feminist writers of the time.”

The program is available on demand at www.c-span.org/History/ Lectures-in-History/.

JOHNSON IS ‘TALKING POLITICS’ ON RADIO SHOW

Robin Johnson ’80 has served as the moderator for two lively and informative post-election forums on campus, bringing in a balanced and engaging panel to discuss the elections of 2010 and 2012.

Now, the college’s well-connected political science lecturer is bringing that format to radio, hosting Talking Politics, a half-hour public affairs interview program on KBUR-AM 1490. The show airs Fridays at 10 a.m., following the news. Podcasts of previous programs are available on the station’s www.kbur.com website.

The first program, which aired in April, featured Des Moines Reg-

CAMPUS NEWS

ister political columnist Kathy Obradovich. Iowa governor Terry Branstad, who has also visited Johnson’s college classroom via Skype, Rand Paul and Chicago Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson were other notable guests from the first few shows.

LEADERSHIP EXPERT POSNER ENGAGES STUDENTS

When national leadership expert Barry Posner asked a group of approximately 130 Monmouth students what they thought was the ONE reason he didn’t realize his dream of becoming a professional basketball player, one student chose the words of her reply carefully.

“Because you weren’t fast enough?” she timidly proposed.

Posner, a professor of leadership at Santa Clara University and co-author of the internationally-acclaimed The Leadership Challenge, appreciated the delicate response, thanking her for not saying he was too slow. He fielded several other possibilities from the group of aspiring leaders before delivering one of the key lessons he wanted to teach.

“I didn’t make it as a professional player because there are not enough teams,” he said. Once the students took a few seconds to process his unexpected reason, he continued, “Fortunately, that doesn’t apply to you. For leaders, there is no shortage of opportunities.”

The keynote speaker of the “Scots Leadership Challenge 2014,” Posner titled his talk “The Five Practices of Exemplary Student Leadership.” Those practices included: 1) model the way; 2) inspire a shared vision; 3) challenge the process; 4) enable others to act; and 5) encourage the heart.

When heading down the leadership road, Posner told the students they first have to make an “audacious assumption.”

“You need to believe that you make a difference,” he said. “The first person you need to lead is you.”

He continued, “The question to ask is not ‘Will I make a difference?’ but ‘What difference will I make?’ By asking that question, you will start to live your life in a very forward-thinking way.”

To answer his final question, “When does leadership begin?,” Posner introduced the students to “The Parable of the 12 Frogs.”

He told them there were 12 frogs sitting on a log on a pond, and seven of them decided to jump in. He then asked, “Now, how many frogs are on the log?”

Some students replied “5,” and a few said “Zero.” But the correct answer, Posner revealed, was “12 ... They made a decision to jump in, but there is a difference between deciding to do something and actually doing it.” Posner’s appearance on campus was

made possible through a Sigma Phi Epsilon connection fostered

by Monmouth College trustee Brad Nahrstadt ’89.

KELLOGG SHARES SECRETS TO TITANIC’S SUCCESS DURING WHITEMAN LECTURE

During Mary Kellogg’s highly successful 30-year career in the television industry at CBS and The Walt Disney Company, and in her current role as co-owner and executive vice president of marketing, sales and operations of Cedar Bay Entertainment, she has lived by the motto “It has to be perfect.”

Cordery

Kellogg returned to her Monmouth roots earlier this month to inspire students with her story and to share the business principles she uses at Cedar Bay, which oversees the Titanic museum attraction in Branson, Mo. (opened in 2006) and in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. (opened in 2010). True to its namesake, Titanic is the world’s largest museum attraction.

Speaking to a group of students, as well as faculty, staff, trustees and local business people, Kellogg first set the stage for her current career, then devoted the rest of her talk to ways that she and her staff endeavor to make the Titanic experience perfect for their guests.

Johnson

There are more than 400 real Titanic artifacts at each location, and they do draw in visitors, Kellogg said. “But the heart and soul of Titanic is her passengers and their stories. We focus on bringing their story to life.”

Kellogg used an example from the college to illustrate her next point.

“At Monmouth, you want to make sure your faculty is happy,” she said. “If the faculty is happy and engaged, that will benefit the students and enrich their experience. Similarly, in our company, our employees come before our guests. If our employees are happy, then the guest experience is a happy one.”

In relating a story about the importance of social media today, Kellogg shared a quotation about the importance of change and moving forward that applies to other facets of her business, as well. If you are on a downward moving escalator, she said, you will go down if you stand still. The only way to go up is by running hard.

Posner

Kellogg closed by telling students that “the world is so wide open, full of new excitement and new possibilities. Embrace it with joy and excitement. Your foundation is being built right here at Monmouth.”

Kelllogg

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

9

CAMPUS NEWS

INTERNSHIPS AT ENFOS ARE A ‘WIN-WIN’ Alumnus’s commercial software company benefits from problem-solving skills of MC students, who gain valuable real-world experience.

BY BARRY MCNAMARA AND ALYSSA JANSSEN ’15

A visit to campus last spring by one of Monmouth’s many successful alumni paved the way to summer internships for three students.

“Monmouth helped me prepare for this internship by teaching me helpful research tactics in my history classes,” said Well, who also participated in an internship at the Art Institute of Chicago, working in the Ryerson and Burnham Archives.

Gabel used Well’s company as the basis for strategic consulting projects in the two “capstone” courses he taught during the spring semester – “Strategy and Structure” and “International Business Strategy” – which are for business and international business majors, respectively.

Clayton Brundige ’15 and Dillon Lehr ’15 had fulltime internships at ENFOS, Inc., a commercial software company that helps companies manage their environmental impacts and cleanups on contaminated property through their advanced, high-tech software solutions. They learned about the Naperville company when its co-founder and executive vice president, Roger Well ’86, worked with several business classes throughout the spring semester. Well conducted on-campus interviews for internships, and also landing a parttime summer position with the company was his daughter, Madison Well ’15.

“(Business professor) Terry Gabel, (vice president) Steve Bloomer and (Wackerle Career and Leadership Center staff member) Marnie Dugan played a key role in engaging me with the students and getting the ball rolling on this idea,” said Well. “As a Monmouth graduate, I am very happy to have a group of Monmouth students helping us out this summer. The exposure to a hightech company like ENFOS and to a very exciting field of study is invaluable to them.

The foundation that each of the interns has brought to us from Monmouth is very strong.

They are all fast learners, very conscientious about doing good work, strong team players and problem solvers. It is a win-win solution for ENFOS, Monmouth, and the students.”

“Recently, I was enrolled in a class called Corporate Social Responsibility, taught by (visiting assistant professor) Julie Rothbardt,” said Lehr. “It focused on many aspects of

10

a corporation and how it should act, both ethically and legally. We explored many areas and spent a lot of time on environmental aspects, which I now work with every day.”

MONMOUTH HELPED ME PREPARE FOR THIS INTERNSHIP BY TEACHING ME RESEARCH TACTICS IN MY HISTORY CLASSES. ­—MADISON WELL ’15

In the latter class, students investigated future growth strategies for ENFOS. One strategy, said Gabel, would be to perform additional services for ENFOS’ current clients, which include British Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, Pacific Gas & Electric, 7-Eleven and Sunoco.

Another growth strategy is finding new corporate or governmental clients to work with, especially international ones.

His

“Strategy

and

Structure”

students

CAMPUS NEWS

Monmouth College is well-connected to ENFOS, Inc., a commercial software company founded by 1986 graduate Roger Well (far right). Joining Well at a gathering last month were, from left, his wife, Dana, associate professor Terry Gabel, Nicole Kamzic ’14, Dillon Lehr ’15, associate development officer Jeri Candor, Clayton Brundige ’15 and Madison Well ’15, the Wells’ daughter.

focused their efforts on helping ENFOS reduce its sales cycle time.

“These are very complex sales that can take up to two years to complete,” explained Gabel. “ENFOS works with huge companies, and selling to them requires an understanding of every one of their complex projects. Roger would like to cut that two-year cycle in half, and we’re trying to see if we can help him with that.”

“Professor Gabel had his classes well prepared and several of the students offered very solid ideas on topics they have been studying,” praised Well. “I was very impressed with the level of interest in my professional journey as a Monmouth alum and in ENFOS. I told the business students that the problem statements presented to them by Professor Gabel are real issues and exactly the same ones that our leadership team takes on. They were multifaceted challenges with sometimes, complex solutions. “ Well couldn’t recall having industry leaders speak to classes during his student days.

“For students, particularly those getting ready to graduate or move along to graduate school, they really need to hear from practitioners,” he said. “This helps them connect the dots on their academic studies to the business world. And I think it adds an extra dimension if they know you were a student at Monmouth, just like they are.”

Well also met with students in Gabel’s other classes—“Principles

of Marketing” and “Midwest Entrepreneurs”—the latter of which aptly describes Well’s career. A product of Lewistown (Ill.) High School, he first succeeded professionally in geology, following up the bachelor’s degree he received from Monmouth with a master’s degree from the University of Toledo. But after a few years on the geology side of the environmental industry, Well earned an MBA from the Keller Graduate School of Management and switched to the business side, helping to start ENFOS in 2000. One of the company’s slogans is “$6.5 trillion of global environment liabilities doesn’t manage itself.”

Well said his company is part of the growing SaaS (software as a service) marketplace. In addition to providing environmental liability software that is currently unmatched in the market, he gave the students a glimpse into another part of the formula that has made ENFOS successful.

“Most of our research and development costs were up front.

There’s maintenance and upgrades, but what we’re mainly doing now is selling the same product over and over,” with an average new contract netting more than $500,000.”

Well told the students, “I believe our company has a good product, it’s a good service and we have good people. I’m lucky. I wake up every day loving what I do. My advice to you is to do something you’re passionate about. I loved my major, and I’ve loved my career path. It’s treated me very well.”

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

11

CAMPAIGN NEWS

FIRST OCLEP TRIP IS IN THE BOOKS

Mere hours after the college’s last final exams of the spring semester, biology professor James Godde was on a flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico, with eight students for a research trip.

The group returned to the U.S. one week later, but Godde soon departed again, leading eight more students to Cuba on a 10-day trip that concluded June 4. Other faculty members on that interdisciplinary trip included modern foreign languages chair Tim Gaster, English chair Marlo Belschner and Dan Ott, assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies. “We truly had an interdisciplinary focus to our group, covering ecotourism, religious study, gender issues and Cuban history,” said Godde.

The students and faculty were able to experience both rural and urban Cuba because of the generosity of Stan ’63 and Karen Barrett Chism ’65. “The interdisciplinary focus on the trip to Cuba was, in my opinion, the full realization of the generous donors to the program, the Chisms, who have a deep passion for undergraduate research and interdisciplinary teaching and learning,” said David Timmerman, dean of MC’s faculty.

The dean was referring to a recent gift of $50,000, presented in conjunction with Stan’s 50th class reunion, which funded a new academic initiative, the Off-Campus Learning Experience Program (OCLEP). “I’ve found that it is often these trips with faculty members, and the extended conversations that take place during the travel and at the sites, that are some of the most transformative experiences for students,” said Timmerman. “They become the catalyst points where all their prior learning fuses.”

“Cuba is a beautiful, complex and fascinating country, and this opportunity allowed us a glimpse of its struggles and its potential,” said Belschner. “I am very pleased with the students’ work and focus, and I am confident that the experience had a huge impact on them—as it did on me.” Biology major Lauren Kellen ’15 felt the same way, saying “The whole trip was a fantastic adventure. It was quite the experience to venture through another country and learn their customs. The ecosystem and environment were beautiful.”

The group saw such sites as Orquidiario Soroa (an orchid garden), Havana cathedrals and a variety of caves, including Cuevas de Bellmar and the prehistoric mural at the Cuevas del Indio near Vinales.

ANNUITY ESTABLISHES CLELAND SCHOLARSHIP

Nancy Cleland of Knoxville, Tenn., has made an annuity gift of $90,000 to enhance the John W. Cleland Scholarship.

Nancy is the daughter of John W. Cleland ’43 and the granddaughter of John Scott Cleland, who was dean of the college from 1927 to 1951. Another noteworthy member of the family is Eva Hanna Cleland, an English professor at Monmouth for 37 years. She married John Scott Cleland a few years after his first wife, John W.’s mother, passed away. Cleland Hall is named in the family’s honor.

Though not an alumna of Monmouth, Nancy has fond memories of spending time on campus while visiting Eva Cleland at her home at 903 E. Broadway, now the site of the Kappa Kappa Gamma residence. “All my life, I grew up hearing stories about Monmouth College,” said Cleland. “There’s a community about

Spending a week on an interdisciplinary trip to Cuba were (clockwise, from top left): James Godde, Dan Ott, Alexander Hernandez-Sotelo ’16, Austin Wallerstedt ’16, Shannon Sullivan ’14, Rachel Landrey ’16, Lauren Kellen ’15, Yesica Alvarez ’15, Stevie Croisant ’14, Mollie Murdock ’14, Marlo Belschner, a tour guide, and Tim Gaster.

12

CAMPAIGN NEWS

Monmouth that I know my family really loved. There’s just something wonderful about going to a small school. It provides a wonderful experience that is much different from what I call the big ‘factory’ universities.”

Donasia Rasheed ’14, who spoke on behalf of the student body at the dedication of the college’s new $40 million Center for Science and Business last year, is one of many students to receive the John W. Cleland Scholarship since its creation in the mid-1980s. A general scholarship, it supports a “worthy student” at Monmouth.

“I want everybody to be able to go to college,” said Cleland. “I know my parents believed that way, too, and they didn’t want to see young men and women burdened by student loans. I wish more people would think about setting up annuities as a way to help an organization or, in this case, a college, that they really care about.”

UNIQUE SCHOLARSHIP HONORS VALUE OF HIGHER ED

Neither Ed Johnson, nor his late wife, Polly, graduated from high school. Yet the Galesburg couple, who were married 54 years, understood the value of higher education, so much so that Johnson has created a scholarship that will benefit three area schools, including Monmouth College.

The Pauline and Edwin Johnson Endowed Scholarship will support students who transfer to Monmouth College from Carl Sandburg College. On average, about 15 to 20 students enroll at Monmouth each year after studying at the nearby community college.

Johnson has committed his entire estate to helping students further their education. Thirty percent of his estate will support the Monmouth College scholarship. “My wife and I discussed what we were going to do with our money,” said Johnson. “I asked, ‘What if we invested it in kids?’ She looked at me funny for a minute, and I said ‘Scholarships. We can structure it to where it will last a while.’

She agreed that would be all right with her.”

Language in the scholarship agreement includes helping students realize their full academic potential. “I didn’t graduate from high school,” said Johnson. “There’s a lot of hard work for people who don’t follow the pathway laid out in front of them.”

PIONEERING CHEMIST ESTABLISHES TEACHING AWARD

H. Betty Weiss Oberstar ’43 made a name for herself at Bristol-Myers Squibb as director of research and development for the International Consumer Products Division of Clairol. The first woman from Monmouth’s distinguished chemistry program to receive professional distinction, she was inducted into the college’s Hall of Achievement, the highest honor it bestows upon its graduates.

That distinction ensures that Oberstar’s name lives on at Monmouth, and ensuring a legacy was also the impetus behind her $500,000 estate gift, which will fund the Garrett W. Thiessen Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award, enabling the college to both reward and encourage excellent teaching and student mentorship.

“I wanted his name to be remembered,” said Oberstar of the legendary professor, who taught at Monmouth from 1930 until his death in 1967. “He was such a special person who I admired so much. He was one of my heroes. Buildings change names, equipment and offices change or become outdated, but an award like this can live on. His name will appear every year, and it will be a way to remember him.”

Thiessen was responsible, indirectly, for Oberstar’s attendance at Monmouth. Drawn by Monmouth’s “strong reputation” in chemistry—a reputation largely developed by professor William Haldeman (who taught from 1918 to 1954) and Thiessen, she completed her final two years of study at MC. Haldeman then helped secure a spot for Oberstar in a Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin, but she got married instead. That didn’t mean Oberstar put chemistry on the back Bunsen burner, though. She spent her entire 50-year professional career in chemistry-related positions, finally settling in at Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1975.

Her work in quality control helped her fulfill a childhood dream of seeing the world, and she took business trips to “numerous countries in Europe and Southeast Asia, to Australia and New Zealand, to Sri Lanka–I traveled everywhere.” Still, the native of Ottawa, Ill., never forgot her Midwestern roots and the education she received at Monmouth.

“The college had a reputation all over the Midwest for graduating many, many students who went to get their Ph.D.s,” Oberstar said. “What wonderful teaching they had. Professor Thiessen was a very brilliant man–a charming, lovely, kind man, but a very, very tough teacher. We had a 5- to 10-question quiz at the beginning of every class that covered what we had learned the class before.

You learned the material, or you didn’t get through.”

Students will have a say in Thiessen Award winners, voting on the college’s top professor when they are seniors. The award will rotate through departments, with a three-year waiting period for a department after one of its professors wins the substantial cash award.

GOULD’S GIFT RECOGNIZES GUNDERSEN

Despite having decades of scholarly experience under his belt, history professor Lewis Gould believes that junior faculty deserve to be recognized for their research and scholarship. The nationally known historian and author is so firm in his conviction that he has established a cash award to encourage young Monmouth faculty members to pursue excellence.

Named in honor of another distinguished historian, who graduated from Monmouth College, the Gundersen Junior Faculty Scholarship Award will be presented every other year to a Monmouth faculty member with fewer than three years of service who has engaged in exemplary scholarship, research or creative work. The $1,500 stipend may be used as the recipient sees fit.

“It’s important to recognize and encourage junior faculty because they are the future of the college,” said Gould, a visiting distin-

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

13

CAMPAIGN NEWS

guished professor who is also the Eugene C. Barker Centennial Professor Emeritus in American History at the University of Texas at Austin. “Encouraging them to stay and to produce benefits everyone.”

The award honors Joan Rezner Gundersen ’68, a 1968 Monmouth graduate, who went on to earn graduate degrees from the College of William and Mary and the University of Notre Dame. Recognized as a pioneer in the women’s studies movement, she taught history at St. Olaf College from 1975 until 1990 and was one of the founding members in 1989 of California State University at San Marcos, for which she helped draft a mission statement and design the curriculum. Now the archivist and administrator for property at the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, she is the author of seven books and more than 22 articles on women’s history.

Gould said the idea to honor Gundersen came from a conversation with Monmouth history department chair Stacy Cordery, who was familiar with the alumna’s work. “It seemed to us that recognizing an alumna who had gained recognition as an historian would be a way of saying to students and faculty that Monmouth graduates can go on to rich and productive careers in the world of scholarship,” noted Gould, who added, “Connecting the award with a former student underlines the strong traditions of excellence that run through the Monmouth experience.

rience Program (OCLEP) in Cuba and, in late July, led four students to Borneo to research biodiversity. The first endowed professor in the biology department, Godde joined Monmouth’s faculty in 2001.

That was 30 years after McGrath completed his biology degree at Monmouth, studying under such professors as Ben Cooksey, John Ketterer and David Allison.

McGrath recalled spending the summer after his junior year conducting fieldwork at the college’s Mississippi River Field Station, under Ketterer’s direction. He said the experience was “very influential” in leading him to earn a master’s degree in limnology/ ecology from Drake University.

The gift toward the professorship is not the first time that McGrath has contributed to his alma mater. He supports two students annually through the Michael J. McGrath ’71 Scholarship Fund, and was pleased to meet one of the recipients, May graduate Lindsey Zagar, on a recent visit to campus.

“Monmouth College made me who I am,” he replied, when asked about his willingness to support the college at such a high level.

GODDE NAMED FIRST McGRATH PROFESSOR

Michael ’71 and Kathryn McGrath

Through a significant major gift, Michael McGrath ’71 and his wife, Kathryn, have funded the McGrath Professorship in Biology at Monmouth College.

During the commencement ceremony in May, it was announced that the first holder of the endowed position is James Godde.

“It’s an honor,” said Godde, who was not present for the announcement, having departed earlier that day to lead a group of students on a biological research trip to Puerto Rico.

Criteria for selection of the holder of the McGrath Professorship includes excellence in teaching, excellence in research and scholarship – particularly research that includes students – and excellence in service, with a focus on improvements in student learning and engagement.

Godde certainly qualifies. The off-campus study in Puerto Rico was one of three such trips that the well-traveled professor scheduled for the summer. He also was part of the Off-Campus Learning Expe-

14

From left, David ’67 and Priscilla Trubeck Adolphson ’70 visit the Adolphson Observatory atop the Center for Science and Business, along with their grandniece, Elizabeth Trubeck, and Monmouth physics professors Tim Stiles and Chris Fasano. An observatory-class, 20-inch telescope will be installed later this year.

ADOLPHSON GIFT PROVIDES CROWNING JEWEL

An estate gift from Monmouth graduates Dave ’67 and Priscilla Trubeck Adolphson ’70 of North Barrington, Ill., provided the “crowning jewel” to their alma mater’s new Center for Science and Business. The couple’s six-figure gift has created the Adolphson Observatory, providing a very fitting cap for a facility that was designed in many ways to meet and anticipate changes in science and technology in the 21st century.

CAMPAIGN NEWS

$1.2 MILLION GIFT MADE TOWARD PI PHI HOUSE

In honor of their late mother, Mary MacDill Knapheide ’35, siblings Harold “Knap” Knapheide III of Quincy, Ill., and Vicki Knapheide Wood of The Woodlands, Texas, have made a gift of $1.2 million to Monmouth College. Their gift will cover the majority of the cost of a new chapter house for the Pi Beta Phi women’s fraternity.

The $2 million facility will be constructed on the northwest corner of Ninth St. and Euclid Ave. Groundbreaking is scheduled for next spring, and the 15-bed house will be available for Pi Phi members in the fall of 2015. It is being designed in the Greek Revival and Italianate styles to reflect the architecture of Monmouth’s historic Holt House, where two of the founders boarded and planned the organization.

Neither Knapheide sibling attended Monmouth, but their mother was in the Class of 1935. She grew up in Monmouth and followed her parents to the college, where her grandfather served as a philosophy professor.

Previously known by its geographic location as North Hall, the 131bed coeducational facility is now called Pattee Hall, in recognition of a recent major gift to the college’s “Fulfilling the Promise” capital campaign by the Monmouth-based Pattee Foundation. It also honors previous gifts and more than a century of support by the Pattee family.

“The beauty is in the technology,” said Dave, who is vice president and marketing manager at Objective-AIM in North Barrington.

“You can rotate the telescope 360 degrees in either direction and tell the computer to track a certain planet. It is just fascinating.”

With a strong connection to Pi Phi, Mary Knapheide serves as a link from the organization’s very beginnings to this recent announcement. Founded in 1867 as I.C. Sorosis, it was the first women’s fraternity in the United States. Mary was initiated in 1932, and during her 2½ years as a Monmouth student, she met four of the 12 founding members—Margaret Campbell, Clara Brownlee Hutchinson, Fannie Whitenack Libbey and Inez Smith Soule.

Knap is president and CEO of Knapheide Manufacturing, the nation’s premier producer of steel service truck bodies.

Influenced by his mother’s strong family ties to Monmouth and the college, Knap joined MC’s board of trustees in 1975, serving through 1996. He later took on another term from 2002 to 2005.

Knap graduated from the University of Kansas, while Vicki majored in elementary education at the University of Arkansas.

Prior to working at Objective Aim, Dave was an information systems and technology executive at Harris Trust and Savings Bank, Aon Corporation and, most recently, KPMG Consulting. He is also a business-oriented information technology consultant.

The Adolphsons believe it was important for them to give back to Monmouth College. “The seed for giving back to the college was planted by (presidential secretary) Eileen Loya (’40) when I was a student,” said Dave. “She believed if you love Monmouth College, when you leave here you should stay involved and give back.”

That doesn’t always mean financially, he added, referring to his involvement in helping students and in serving on the alumni board.

Pris agreed, saying that giving back is a way to remember the ways that the college changed both of their lives. “I loved Monmouth because it was a real growing up experience,” she said. “I felt from the minute we graduated that we gave back what we could. We never thought we could give a gift like this, but by making an estate gift, we were able to do something truly grand.”

Architect’s rendering of new Pi Beta Phi house

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

15

TITLE FULFILLING THE PROMISE

NEW PRESIDENTIAL ERA IS A TIME TO REFLECT As Monmouth College begins a new era, with Clarence Wyatt becoming just the 14th president in its 161-year history, now is a good time for some perspective. How did the college achieve its current position as President Wyatt sat at his desk in Wallace Hall for the first time on July 1? What will drive the college during Wyatt’s tenure? And what might Monmouth look like in the more distant future?

An accomplished historian, Wyatt might appreciate a recap dating all the way back to Monmouth’s first president, David Wallace, but that job has already been handled nicely in the form of books by history professors Garvin Davenport and William Urban and college historian Jeff Rankin. Instead, here is a brief summary of how Monmouth College has grown since 1994, as the successful 14-year tenure of the college’s 10th president, Bruce Haywood, was concluding.

The newest buildings at that time were Wells Theater, completed in 1990, and Glennie Gymnasium, built in 1983. Enrollment during Haywood’s final year was 671 students, a figure that was near Monmouth’s average for the previous two decades.

Meanwhile, after receiving a much-needed boost in the mid-1980s, the college’s endowment had grown from $4 million to a still modest $24 million.

2002 First match played at Monmouth College Tennis Stadium 2002 Hewes Library renovation completed

2000 Peacock Memorial Athletic Park opens

16

1998 McMichael Residence Hall renovated

Also “rebuilt” during that time was the college’s curriculum, which underwent an extensive review more than a decade ago. That review led to Monmouth’s signature general education spine of four courses, one taken during each of a student’s four years at Monmouth. The interdisciplinary Integrated Studies categories include Introduction to Liberal Arts, Global Perspectives, Reflections and Citizenship. The

A trip through two decades of Monmouth’s fast and furious change

1996 Wackerle Career & Leadership Center opens

While the latter facility housed students, the college also constructed several new residence halls—Bowers Hall, Peterson Hall and Pattee Hall—as well as a new Greek life house, home to Alpha Xi Delta. In addition to the Huff Center, new athletic venues included Peacock Memorial Athletic Park (and the adjacent LeSuer Nature Preserve), the Monmouth College Tennis Stadium and April Zorn Memorial Stadium.

As was the case with the Huff Center, the college has also seen enrollment growth after the completion last year of its most ambitious building project of the past 20 years, the innovative $42 million Center for Science and Business.

TIME TRAVEL

2001 Bowers Hall opens

That second period of strong growth each year was attributed, in part, to the completion of the $23 million Huff Athletic Center in 2003, which was just one example of the many physical changes on campus. Kickstarted by major renovations of McMichael Residence Hall and Poling Hall in the mid-1990s, new buildings and renovations became the norm on campus for the next decade and beyond. Other significant renovations included Hewes Library, Dahl Chapel and Auditorium, Stockdale Center, the Mellinger Teaching and Learning Center, the Admission Building and Founders Village.

1999 Mellinger Teaching & Learning Center opens

In terms of enrollment, Monmouth had not had 1,000 students on campus since the 1971-72 academic year. Starting with the 1993-94 year, enrollment grew by at least 50 students for five straight years, surpassing 1,000 students in 1997-98. It has remained above that level ever since, and grew by at least 60 students each year during another three-year stretch to reach 1,343 students in 2005-06. Four years later, the college established its all-time enrollment mark of 1,379.

President Mauri Ditzler and board chairman Bill Goldsborough ’65 cut the ribbon in 2013, opening the $42 million Center for Science and Business.

ABOVE: President Richard Giese and primary donor Walter Huff ’56 (third and fourth from left) break ground in 2002 for what was then MC’s most ambitious project, the Huff Athletic Center.

TOP:

1997 Enrollment returns to 1,000 level

Change was about to come, fast and furious.

FULFILLING THE PROMISE

CAMPAIGN GOAL BREAKDOWN Active Learning $12M Civic Engagement $5M

Discerning A Purpose $7M Scholarships $4M

Complex Problem Solving $42M

Annual Fund $5M

After essentially saying, “Mission accomplished,” Ditzler added, “The college is now prepared to move confidently forward as an innovator in higher education.”

Students are drawn to Monmouth by the chance to participate in active learning. Through a series of recent initiatives, students can, for example, return to college three weeks early to conduct research as part of Summer Opportunities for Intellectual Activity (SOFIA); serve as an editor for the college’s own Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research; or spend 10 weeks on campus, conducting focused scientific research through the Kieft Summer Research Program, created by a $2.3 million estate gift from the late chemistry professor, Richard “Doc” Kieft.

Students also participate in traditional active learning opportunities, such as semester- and week-long off-campus study trips to all sorts of destinations. In 2014 alone, Monmouth students have traveled abroad to Borneo, Bulgaria, Cuba, France, Granada, Italy, Mexico, Moldova, Puerto Rico and Spain. Those experiences play a major role in opening students’ eyes to the world in which they live.

Tied closely to active learning is complex problem solving. Monmouth’s students are certainly being active as they deal with the complex issues involved with the growth and distribution of produce from the Educational Garden and, more recently, the Educational Research Farm.

“Student work in the Educational Garden exemplifies the best virtues of the liberal arts approach to education,” said dean of the faculty David Timmerman. “They are focused on a good much bigger than themselves, in this case, in environmentally sustainable agricultural practices. In addition, students and professors work together, both fully engaged in complex problem solving and the bringing together

2009 First game played on new turf at Zorn Memorial Stadium

2006 Integrated Studies curriculum implemented

2005 Pattee Hall opens

2008 Admissions Building renovated

The campaign comprises four major initiatives to help that forward movement, emphasizing active learning, civic engagement, complex problem solving and discerning a life’s purpose.

$64.6M

2014 Clarence Wyatt named president

The “Fulfilling the Promise” campaign is a fitting window through which to view the college today. In its case statement, President Mauri Ditzler wrote, “Nearly 20 years ago, the board of trustees laid out a path for propelling Monmouth to a position of prominence among private liberal arts colleges. Building an exceptional residential campus was seen as a necessary first step toward achieving that goal.”

OUR PROGRESS

2012 $75M “Fulfilling the Promise” capital campaign announced

Of course, such ambitious physical projects could not be completed without significant gifts from donors who believed in the positive direction of the college. Monmouth’s “Toward a New Horizon” capital campaign, which concluded in 2005, received $61.7 million in donor support, and the college’s $75 million “Fulfilling the Promise” campaign, officially launched in 2012, is nearing its goal, standing at $64.6 million through July 31. Today, the endowment has grown to $94 million.

$75M

AS OF JUNE 30, 2014

2011 Alpha Xi Delta house opens

college has also recently adopted a 4:4 academic calendar, allowing faculty to increase the rigor of courses for students who no longer had to take five classes per semester. It also is a best practice among many top liberal arts colleges.

2003 Huff Athletic Center opens

OUR GOAL

2013 Center for Science and Business opens

2012 4:4 academic calendar implemented

2010 First crop harvested at Educational Garden

2009 Enrollment record of 1,379 students set

2007 Peterson Hall opens

2005 $61.6M “Toward a New Horizon” capital campaign concludes

2004 Founders Village open

2003 Renovated Dahl Chapel dedicated

17

TITLE FULFILLING THE PROMISE

of multiple disciplines for the task. It is fully integrated learning.”

A similar merging of science and business issues occurs with the Scots Roast coffee beans that are roasted in the Center for Science and Business and marketed locally.

Civic engagement opportunities are plentiful for Monmouth students, from community service projects that develop from the Citizenship branch of the Integrated Studies curriculum, to public speaking programs such as ScotSpeak and Moot Court, to the types of interactions with the campus and local community that come through the college’s revitalized Greek life program, which today boasts four men’s fraternities, three women’s fraternities and one for both men and women.

The Greek life initiative is still going strong, with plans to complete a new $2 million house for Pi Beta Phi in 2015.

What will Monmouth students do with their increased opportunities to learn in and out of the classroom? That “What will I do after I graduate?” question has weighed heavily on the mind of many a college student, but Monmouth is making a very intentional effort to help its students discern their purpose. Innovative programs such as the Wackerle Career and Leadership Center and the new Lux Center and the religious life programming it provides are prime examples.

From simply helping a student with a résumé to providing opportunities for internships, networking and job interviews, the Wackerle Center is a leading reason behind the college’s 99 percent placement rate for its graduating classes of 2012 and 2013. In all, the campus community makes it a point to get to know the students and to help guide them on the best paths to positive outcomes beyond Monmouth.

As the college looks ahead, it is “well positioned to leverage the strengths of our beautiful and well-designed physical plant, and an exceptional, dedicated and loyal faculty and staff,” said Steve Bloomer, vice president for development and college relations.

Bloomer noted the record donations last year to the Monmouth Fund of nearly $2 million and added, “We are positioned to not only repeat that achievement, but also make major strides in funding a number of new or recently initiated academic programs, scholarships and new faculty positions. Our fundraising initiatives are nested in

18

the concept of our campus master plan and our strategic plan, and our team is poised for greater success in 2014-15 and beyond.

Indeed, planning will be a hallmark of the college going forward. As President Wyatt told the board of trustees at its retreat in July, “We will create a culture of planning at Monmouth, and I propose that we begin this process immediately. We will take the good work that has been done and look at it afresh, taking advantage of the points of congruity and the points of creative tension, achieving greater focus of message, effort and resources. This process will form the basis of a broader planning effort that will involve the entire community—trustees, faculty and staff, students, alumni, parents and friends. Together we will articulate a powerful vision of the guided growth of young women and men, and of how it happens especially well at Monmouth. Together we will develop the broad strategic directions by which we will pursue that vision. Together we will develop the specific actions, budgets, timelines and responsible parties that will take us to this future.

And this operational plan will inform all of our actions as an institution.”

Such a process is necessary to respond to the challenges confronting higher education, especially institutions such as Monmouth. As President Wyatt said, “A great sorting-out is taking place among residential liberal arts colleges. Some, lacking the resources and/or will to respond positively, will hunker down and hope to survive; in doing so, they set themselves on a path to stagnation, declining quality and, in some cases, extinction. Other colleges are responding by trying to be all things to all people and adopting short-term fixes that dilute or abandon a commitment to the liberal arts. A much smaller group, with the largest endowments and the deepest applicant pools, feel no sense of urgency, no need to innovate.

“Monmouth College is among a small handful of institutions distinctively positioned to define another path—to create a more intentional, purposeful and coordinated program of human development, based on the power of the liberal arts—and to ensure that this experience is responsive and available to a changing American and global society. This path represents the next stage in the evolution of the residential liberal arts experience. In this time of dramatic change for higher education, Monmouth has not only the opportunity, not just the necessity, but the duty to lead.”

THE COLLEGE IS NOW PREPARED TO MOVE CONFIDENTLY FORWARD AS AN INNOVATOR IN HIGHER EDUCATION.

ENROLLMENT 1994-2014 1500

GIVEN THE BLAH BLIGGETY BLAH ABOUT THE ECONOMY.

1200

900

600 1994

1996

1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010

2012

2014

ENDOWMENT 1994-2014 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 $0

$20M

$40M

$60M

$80M

$100M

BOOKS

GOULD

URBAN

THE REPUBLICANS: A HISTORY OF THE GRAND OLD PARTY

BAYONETS AND SCIMITARS: ARMS, ARMIES, AND MERCENARIES 1700-1789

By Lewis L. Gould Visiting Distinguished Professor of History Soft Cover, 400 Pages, $24.95 Oxford University Press

By William Urban, Lee L. Morgan Professor of History and International Studies Hardback, 256 pages, $35.96 Frontline Books

From Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War through the disputed election of George W. Bush and beyond, the Republican Party has been at the dramatic center of American politics for more than a century and a half.

LEWIS L. GOULD’s 2003 history of the Republican Party was a fast-paced account of Republican fortunes. The Republicans won praise for its even-handed, incisive analysis of Republican history, drawing on Gould’s deep knowledge of the evolution of national political history and acute feel for the interplay of personalities and ideology. In this revised and updated edition, Gould extends this history, adding a new chapter on the George W. Bush presidency, the election of 2008, and the response of the Grand Old Party to Barack Obama. His narrative covers such contemporary figures as Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and John McCain, as well as forgotten Republican leaders including James G. Blaine, Mark Hanna, Wendell Willkie and Robert A. Taft.

Contending that the historic Republican skepticism about the legitimacy of the Democratic Party has shaped American politics since the Civil War, Gould argues that the persistent flaw in the relations between the two parties has led the nation to the current crisis of stalemate and partisan bitterness. No other account of Republican history is as up-to-date, crammed with fascinating information, and ready to serve as an informed guide to today’s partisan warfare.

Based on Gould’s research in the papers of leading Republicans and his wide reading in the party’s history, The Republicans is a book that will outlast the noisy tumult of today’s partisan debates and endure as a definitive treatment of how the party has shaped the way Americans live together in a democracy.

The eighteenth century marked a watershed in European history. This was a period of significant economic, political and technological upheaval, which led to the American and French revolutions, and was to ultimately pave the way for Europe’s domination of much of the world during the nineteenth century.

The wars and political maneuvering of Frederick the Great and Catherine the Great transformed Prussia and Russia into major players in European politics. France, the richest nation in the West; survived losing successive wars, then bankrupted itself assisting the Americans in an unnecessary war of revenge. Britain became the model of economic and financial efficiency and made itself supreme in North America, the Caribbean, and in India, only to face such financial troubles that its leaders antagonized its colonial subjects in America.

This excellent new book by esteemed military historian WILLIAM URBAN traces the evolution of war making throughout this turbulent period— the politics, the weaponry, the organization of armies, and the transformation of mercenaries into professionals.

This highly readable account concentrates not just on high politics and military strategy but also on the everyday experiences of those involved giving us a compelling glimpse of the human face of warfare during this important period.

MCGUIRE GRAND CROSSING: COMING OF AGE ON CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION

By Jack McGuire ’50 Paperback, 208 pages, $14.63 Dog Ear Publishing

JACK MCGUIRE ’50 recalls his rite of passage during one of the darkest periods in U.S. history.

McGuire’s chromatic recounting of everyday life along the streets and back alleys of his childhood Grand Crossing neighborhood, recaptures the essence of inner-city Depression-era Chicago.

A gentle, malleable soul—the proverbial middle child of five—Jack struggles to find his way in the bustling, McGuire household dominated by a hard-drinking, volatile Irish-American cop-dad.

McGuire’s Roman Catholic upbringing, uncompromising as the cross of Christ, is pitted against emerging doubts about his faith, a growing aversion to his old man’s dictum that he become a priest and his own dreams of a more glamorous future as a big band leader.

Tag along with young McGuire and his cohorts through the mischievous misadventures that color their lives amid the bittersweet irony of these pivotal years. Meet the crazy quilt of characters in Chicago’s Grand Crossing neighborhood – many first generation European immigrants – who leave an indelible imprint on 18-year-old Pvt. McGuire, as he recalls those bygone days from an Army outpost in Europe during WWII.

And in a riveting you-are-there recounting of headlined exploits lauding his dad’s police career, discover why the father finally emerges a hero in his son’s eyes.

After Army service in Europe during World War II, McGuire attended Monmouth College on the GI Bill and later graduated from Northwestern University. He lives with his wife, Jill, in Wheaton, Ill.

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

19

GOLDEN SCOTS CELEBRATION

THE CLASS OF 1964 WAS BACK IN FORCE FOR ITS GOLDEN REUNION. ROW 1 (FROM LEFT): Nel Dietrich Allison, Gretchen Wright

Moore, Valerie Hamilton Bowlby, Barbara Stewart Royle, Gail Allen Harriss, Lucy Work Burroughs, Mary Bailey Marshall, Jean Cowan Kistler, Marilyn Kessinger Hubbard and Stanley McKelvie. ROW 2: Richard Whiteman, Martha Tomicek Clark, Jane Niblock Hutchinson, William Ortman, Thomas Rezner, Joanne Greer Stipp, Judith Blaich Stipp, G. Jane Wilson Dawson, Joan Nickel Sanders, Julie Stankrauff Stoffels and Sandra Epperson Wolf. ROW 3: James Millar, Fred Rumney, Dennis Walker, Donald Denney, Peter Suffredini Jr., Joan Strand Kotz, David Wark, Diana Carringer Wallace, Richard Halloran, Johanna Howell Halloran and Michael Sproston. ROW 4: James Bagwell, Robert Remmert, David Danner, John Courson, Stanley Wherry, Bernard Sutinis, James Gee Jr, Reid Beveridge, James Hutchinson and Gerald Allison. Attending the reunion but not able to be present for the picture: John Alexander, Barbara Bolon Bye, Joyce Monticue Clark, Stephen Ellis and Tom Ulmet.

A GOLDEN TIME WAS HAD BY ALL For four magical days in June, time reversed itself and it was suddenly 1964 again on the Monmouth College campus. For members of the 50-year class and other alumni from golden days past, the intervening years and the aggravations of aging seemed to melt away, as friendships were renewed, old haunts were revisited and the pride of being a Scot was celebrated again and again.

20

Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Reid Beveridge ’64 presents an insightful talk on changes in the military over the past half century.

GOLDEN SCOTS CELEBRATON

TOP: Johanna Howell Halloran ’64 and Richard Hal-

loran ’64 enjoy dessert on the front porch of Quinby House. ABOVE: President Mauri Ditzler delivered his “Last Lecture” to an appreciative audience of Golden Scots, who rewarded him with a standing ovation. BELOW: A panel of inveterate world travelers from the Class of ’64 (Tom Ulmet, Marilyn Kessinger Hubbard, Barbara Bolon Bye and Julie Stankrauff Stoffels) enjoys recalling its diverse career adventures.

TOP: Serenaded by a piper, alumni enter the former

Carnegie Library, one of the stops for the opening night’s progressive dinner. RIGHT: Lunch in the legendary Italian Village pizza brings back memories of college days. BELOW: Jane Niblock Hutchinson ’64 greets emeritus art professor Harlow Blum at an exhibition of his recent work in the college’s new downtown Fusion Theatre. BOTTOM RIGHT: Singing hymns in Dahl Chapel, alumni attending the Sunday morning worship service relive a familiar memory from their college years.

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

21

COMMENCEMENT

DITZLER PRESIDES OVER HIS FINAL MONMOUTH COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT

BY BARRY MCNAMARA

On a warm summer day in 2010, Monmouth College president Mauri Ditzler welcomed an incoming class of freshmen at the annual matriculation ceremony on Wallace Hall Plaza.

As that class—now the graduating Class of 2014—moved on from the college on a perfect May afternoon, Ditzler joined them in moving on, presiding over his ninth and final commencement exercises at Monmouth.

22

To mark the occasion, a student gave back to Ditzler one of the college’s matriculation coins that he had received during the 2010 ceremony. “He gave it to me as a token of good luck,” Ditzler told the crowd, which had turned out to see approximately 250 Monmouth students receive their diplomas.

Among those students was Will Terrill, Student Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois, who gave one of the two commencement addresses. Paul Weisenfeld, vice president of Global Programs at RTI International, gave the other.

Other speakers included Christine Malebranche of Chicago’s Jones College Prep, who received Monmouth’s annual Pre-College Teacher of the Year award; senior Beverly Krueger, who nominated Malebranche; senior Cyrus Turner, who provided the welcoming remarks; and senior Bradley Whitcomb, who gave a brief farewell on behalf of his classmates, referencing the famous Calvin Coolidge quote, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.”

Four other seniors congratulated Monmouth faculty members on their recent promotions, including Stevie Croisant, who said of English professor Marlo Belschner: “I cannot thank her enough for the time and effort she’s put into helping me become a better writer, helping me to study off campus and giving me pointers during my job search.”

Belschner was promoted to full professor, as was Kevin Baldwin (biology). Promoted to associate professor were Brad Sturgeon (chemistry) and Fred Witzig (history).

In his address, Weisenfeld spoke of the fast-changing world of communication and technology and told the graduates that “people can compete in knowledge technology if they have the knowledge to compete.” He also praised MC for its decision to focus on food security issues through its new Triads integrated learning model, saying “It’s exactly the right approach to trying to solve these global challenges.”

COMMENCEMENT

Terrill, who was actively involved in the college’s Educational Garden and was instrumental in the development of a research farm east of campus, told his classmates that for most of their lives, they had been motivated by fear. In their days as elementary and high school students, they were constantly made to fear what would happen if they didn’t learn cursive, or if they didn’t get good grades or receive a high ACT score.

Left: This would be a short caption for the photo. Caption text will go here.

After recounting a personally moving story of a moment in nature that occurred while he was working at Barefoot Gardens in nearby Macomb, he urged his classmates to instead rely on intrinsic motivation. “It’s never too late to shirk those nagging voices of fear. … Never forget to look up and watch the wind blowing through the trees.”

Terrill and Krueger were two of the nine students who graduated summa cum laude. The others were Bryce Ball, Aaron Bromeland, Christina Durante, Mitchell Heuermann, Jared Johnson, Zephan Knichel and Jacob Owens.

Owens did not speak at the ceremony, but he was certainly pleased with his Monmouth education.

“When it’s all said and done, I got just about the best possible education here,” Owens wrote on a social media post. “It set me up for so many different things in the future. I learned how to think and I learned how to learn. And I learned how to use my unique skills and maximize my potential in whatever I do.”

Malebranche spoke to the “commencement” or “beginning” spirit of the day, realizing the graduates were asking “Where do I go from here?” She told them, “Wherever you go, do it with love and do it with passion… It’s not about giving back; it’s about giving forward.”

IT’S NOT ABOUT GIVING BACK; IT’S ABOUT GIVING FORWARD. —MALEBRANCHE Her remarks came a day after similar sentiments were shared by the Rev. Dr. John Buchanan, pastor emeritus of Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church, who was the featured speaker at baccalaureate. Buchanan, who also serves as editor/ publisher of The Christian Century magazine, gave the graduates gathered in Dahl Chapel some advice for their “one wild and precious life.”

Opposite Page: President Ditzler receives a farewell hug.

Above: The Rev. Dr. Teri Ott leads the baccalaureate service.

Left: The graduation ceremony for the class of 2014 took place on a beautiful sunny day.

He told them “happiness is big business,” with all types of books and self-help seminars offered on “the one thing that everybody wants.”

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

23

COMMENCEMENT

“How will you live fully? How do you plan to be happy?” he asked. “Find something to love, find someone to love. … Descartes said ‘I think, therefore I am.’ But Descartes was wrong. I love, therefore I am.’”

The Rev. Dr. Teri Ott, whose parents were active leaders in Buchanan’s church, called the speaker “an inspiration” in her introduction. She also had words for President Ditzler.

“In a way, you are graduating, too,” she said. “You have served us faithfully and well. Thank you.”

Earlier during commencement weekend, Monmouth College officially dedicated one of its existing residence halls as Pattee Hall, honoring a gift received from the Pattee Foundation in Monmouth.

“The Pattee family’s roots in this college are strong and firm,” said Bill Goldsborough ’65, chairman of MC’s board of trustees, “and we are proud that the Pattee name will be associated with this college for years to come.”

Other commencement weekend highlights included a concert by the Chorale and the Wind Ensemble, and the senior class gift of more than $8,000 was announced at the Senior Gala. This year’s gift went toward a rock garden outside the north entrance to the Huff Athletic Center.

Azmin Pedraza proudly displays her diploma; Paul Weisenfeld, vice president of Global Programs at RTI International, delivers his commencement address; the new rock garden outside the Huff Athletic Center was the gift of the Class of 2014; Pre-College Teacher of the Year Christine Malebranche, with her nominator, Beverly Krueger; the Rev. Dr. John Buchanan at the traditional baccalaureate service; running the gauntlet of the faculty receiving line, Dan Barger prepares for a big hug from professor Mark Willhardt; Raven Robinson, one of the Fighting Scots most decorated athletes, enjoys her final day as a Monmouth student.

CLOCKWISE, FROM UPPER LEFT:

24

COMMENCEMENT

BAUDINO, FALKENRATH USED MC’S CAREER CENTER TO SECURE JOBS

BY BARRY MCNAMARA

The majority of new students that Monmouth welcomes to campus each fall are not exactly sure what they want to do when they graduate.

And even if they’re clear on the path, it’s not uncommon for them to realize that their college career is nearing its end, but they don’t yet have a full-time job lined up.

Andrew Baudino ’14 and Chris Falkenrath ’14 were in similar situations until they discovered the services of the college’s Wackerle Career & Leadership Center, which aids students in mastering the skills required to gain the cutting edge and continue their success beyond Monmouth.

Through the Wackerle Center’s assistance, both students secured jobs they began after graduating, and the positions are different from what they envisioned when they began college. Falkenrath, an international business and economics major, accepted a position as an assistant national bank examiner with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), working in Schaumburg, Ill. Baudino is an agent aspirant for State Farm in Aledo, Ill. Last fall, Falkenrath had interviews with The Boston Consulting Group, KPMG and the OCC. “The first two were case interviews, and the OCC had me take a four-hour exam, conduct a phone screening, and pass a behavioral interview after that,” said Falkenrath. “I only received one offer, but it was an offer that I was thrilled to receive, seeing how my competition was from Ivy League schools or other well-established business schools such as Northwestern.”

To prepare for those interviews, Falkenrath leaned heavily on the Wackerle Center for support.

“After contacting (program coordinator) Stephanie Kinkaid about my upcoming case interviews, she invited me to meet with her to go over my options,” said Falkenrath. “I was amazed by how much time and effort she had clearly put toward helping me. She was always ready with new problems and questions for me to solve.”

Baudino

Falkenrath

Kinkaid set up mock interviews with others around the office, reviewed Falkenrath’s résumé/cover letter and passed along hints and tips. “After a few months of meeting regularly for an hour or more each week, I began entering interviews with a much higher level of confidence,” reported Falkenrath.

In addition to the help that the Wackerle Center provided, Falkenrath spent four to 10 hours per week studying on his own for the interviews by researching the companies, running through practice cases and fine tuning and practicing his behavioral answers.

Baudino credits the Wackerle Center for notifying him that a State Farm agent was going to be on campus taking résumés.

“What they did was bring an actual employer to campus for students to meet with and talk to face to face,” he said. “I believe that it was that interaction that set me apart from the rest of the applicants. If it was not for the on-campus meeting, I could have been just another name on their list that did not get chosen.”

Beyond that, Baudino said the Wackerle Center helped him create a professional résumé, practice mock interviews and prepare for interview questions while keeping him “focused and positive” about his job search.

“If you are a student and schedule a meeting with Stephanie Kinkaid or another member of the Wackerle Center staff, they will work with you and do their best to help you find the career you are looking for after graduation,” he said.

Baudino, who double-majored in accounting and business, is entering a field that typically pays around $50,000 annually. Working at such an established company as State Farm is also excellent training for a professional who later wants to have his own agency in the independent insurance agent market.

“It feels great having employment secured while many of my classmates are still searching,” he said during the spring semester. “Now I can enjoy my last semester of college without the stress and pressure that comes with looking for a career after graduation.”

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

25

OR, MORE ACCURATELY, FOUR ... THE GPA ACHIEVED BY FIVE OF THE SCOTS CHAMPION GOLFERS

26

SPORTS

BY BARRY MCNAMARA

An amazing season on the links by the Monmouth College men’s golf team this spring was equaled by their performance in the classroom. Five Fighting Scots golfers posted perfect spring GPAs as exactly half the 22-member team earned academic honors.

Coach Dave Ragone’s team captured the Midwest Conference title and advance to the NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championships.

They posted a respectable 311.1 scoring average, and an even more impressive 3.22 grade point average for the spring semester.

One of the five golfers with a perfect 4.0 GPA, business and marketing major Drake Decker ’16, received the Elite 89 Award, presented to the student-athlete with the highest GPA at the NCAA meet.

Decker leads all Scots with a 4.0 cumulative GPA and was second in scoring average at 78.14.

Decker’s five-over-par total of 149 fell five strokes short of making the individual cut at the NCAA meet, which was played at the Grandover Resort & Conference Center in Greensboro, N.C. The Fighting Scots’ second-round team score of 314 on the resort’s East Course gave them a two-day total of 630, which did not make the cut of the top 15 scores in the 41-team field.

While Decker has more college golf ahead of him, his four teammates who made the trip to Greensboro played their final round for the Fighting Scots. Seniors Jared Johnson (78), Ryan Suttles (78) and David Blake (80) contributed to the team score, while classmate Mike Olszewski added an 84. Next to Decker, Johnson was the low man with a two-day total of 157. Blake shot 158.

“They had a great four years,” Ragone said of the senior class. “All of their hard work finally paid off. Winning conference and making the trip to nationals was a very special way for them to go out. They are not only good athletes, but they’re a special group of students, too.”

At the MWC meet, the Scots trailed by two strokes entering the final round of the 54-hole event, which was played at Aldeen Golf Course in Rockford, Ill. But the Scots jumped past second-round leader St. Norbert and first-round leader Carroll to claim the sixth MWC title under Ragone. Blake placed third at the tournament with steady rounds of 79-78-78-235. A 78-80-78 for Decker tied him for fourth while Suttles was eighth with an 84-77-77-238. All three golfers earned All-MWC honors.

As for the honors in the classroom, Ragone is not surprised by his team’s success. “We always want good students and feel that good golf and good academics go hand-in-hand,” he said. “The nature of the sport takes the same characteristics to be successful as it does in the classroom. They have to have concentration, dedication, David Blake, Mike Olzsewski, Jared Johnson, Ryan Suttles, Luke Kreiter and Drake Decker.

OPPOSITE PAGE, FROM LEFT:

self-reliance and a strong work ethic. I’ve found our student-athletes tend to be highly competitive from within. They hold themselves to high standards in both the classroom and on the links. … The veterans are showing the younger guys the importance of academics.

They’re doing a good job of upholding and raising the standard for future teams.”

Exercise science major Dan Barger ’14 and communication studies major David Beuttell ’15 had perfect 4.0 GPAs, and physics majors Johnson and Gage DeCook rounded out the group.

THEY ARE NOT ONLY GOOD ATHLETES, BUT THEY’RE A SPECIAL GROUP OF STUDENTS, TOO. Johnson and DeCook are part of another story related to the golf team’s academic success, continuing a recent tradition started by physics majors Rodney Clayton ’11 and Brandon Kemerling ’13.

Johnson plans to pursue a Ph.D. at Purdue University. He completed a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at Notre Dame last summer, studying black holes, relativistic jets and accretion discs while modeling a theory by Stanford University emeritus professor Robert Wagoner. DeCook will complete a 3:2 program at Iowa State University, earning a physics degree at Monmouth at the end of his third year this May before studying for an engineering degree during the final two years.

The students, who both finished their time at Monmouth with cumulative GPAs of 3.9, will follow a road paved by Clayton (Missouri University of Science & Technology) and Kemerling (Ohio State University). While in graduate school, Clayton was selected for a prestigious 10-week internship at NASA’s Langley Research Center, calling it “a one-of-a-kind experience.” At MUS&T, he received a graduate research assistantship to work on a laser additive manufacturing (LAM) project funded by NASA. “LAM is a relatively new manufacturing technology,” he explained. “It uses a laser and powder metal to ‘print’ almost any 3-D part imaginable. Besides my assistantship, I took numerous courses in metallurgy.”

Kemerling’s work also focuses on manufacturing—specifically, laser welding processes and performing computer simulations on those welds, using computational fluid dynamics. “My dream job would be to work in research and development for Acushnet in California,” he

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

27

SPORTS

said. “They are one of the world leaders in golf club manufacturing.

If I could integrate my academic work with my passion for golf, it would be the perfect scenario for me.”

1

“Rodney and Brandon set the bar pretty darn high,” said DeCook, who chose Monmouth, due in part to the influence of yet another MC golfer, Ryan Tapscott ’11, a fellow graduate of Riverdale High School. “They were strong players and outstanding students in a difficult major.”

2

One edge that Johnson and DeCook have on their predecessors is the use of the college’s new Center for Science and Business, which opened last fall. “If a scientific project costs too much, it’s not going anywhere,” said Johnson. “It’s been helpful to have that collaboration with the business department and to see things from that perspective.”

DeCook plans to pursue civil engineering, a field he got a taste of during an internship last summer for John Deere & Co. at its Waterloo, Iowa, facility. “I went around the facilities and analyzed static elements like loading docks, looking for structural flaws,” he said.

Integrating golf and physics was an important part of his MC experience, Kemerling said. “Having that balance in my life definitely helped me get through tougher times as far as coursework went.

The class sizes at Monmouth are such a huge advantage. Sitting in some of the classes at OSU with 60 or more students, you simply cannot interrupt class with a question you may have. In some of my physics classes at Monmouth, we had three students,” making it much easier to work closely with professors.

Kemerling and Johnson worked together on one of the first projects involving the college’s 15,000 frames per second high-speed camera, which was purchased in 2010. As a senior, Kemerling used the high-speed imagery and tracking software on a project involving water bottle rockets.

Clayton also recalled a memorable project from his undergraduate days. “Henry Schmidt and I developed a hybrid remote control vehicle,” he said. “We also had the opportunity to present our research at a conference in Vancouver. Dr. (Chris) Fasano encouraged us to apply, and we were lucky enough to be one of the few to receive grants to attend the conference.”

As a senior, Clayton participated in the college’s summer research program, working on the remote control vehicle while also mentoring two incoming freshmen.

Clayton had a dream season in 2010, leading the Scots to their

28

3

Not only does Johnson exemplify academic and athletic excellence, he also aspires to answer a call by former president Mauri Ditzler to seek a career in the Midwest and use the region’s resources to help solve global issues related to food and fuel. “I want to work with energy, things like renewable fuel cells,” he said. His Ph.D. will be in either materials science engineering or chemical and biomolecular engineering.

Drake Decker led the Scots at the NCAA Championships, where he also received the prestigious Elite 89 Award for having the top GPA of the more than 200 golfers competing at the event. second straight NCAA tourney while earning medalist honors at the MWC meet. He praised Fasano for building a strong, innovative department and said it was a major reason he chose Monmouth.

“I knew I wanted to do engineering and science, but I also wanted to play golf for all four years,” said Clayton, echoing a sentiment shared by the other three student-athletes. “After talking with Dr. Fasano, he helped me see that Monmouth would be a great place to receive a quality education that would lead to a career in engineering but still allow me to pursue collegiate athletics.”

“I’m sure that the diligence that they show in the classroom and lab feeds and is fed by their diligence on the course and with the team,” said Fasano. “I know that they will be some of our best alums.”

Today, Clayton is the staff metallurgist at Boardwalk Pipeline Partners in Houston, Texas. “It’s a great industry to be in, and I’m learning more and more on a daily basis,” said Clayton. “Hopefully, these experiences will allow me to move up in the company as a metallurgist —just as long as there’s still time to get a round of golf in.”

SPORTS

FROM LEFT:

All-Americans Raven Robinson, Briana Gardner and Emily Tysma.

FOUR SCOTS EARN ALL-AMERICAN HONORS On the final day of competition at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships, James Wilson ’15 earned All-American status for the fifth time, while Briana Gardner ’16 claimed her first. Wilson sprinted to an eighth-place finish in 48.20 in the 400-meter dash, while Gardner’s time of 24.96 in the 200-meter dash placed sixth. She had run a lifetime-best 24.22 in the prelims to become the second-fastest woman in the 200 in Monmouth history, trailing only 2001 grad Constance Jackson by .19 of a second. Wilson nearly qualified for the men’s 200 final, but his career-best of 21.53 was just off the last qualifying time.

Earlier in the meet, Raven Robinson ’14 claimed her fifth All-American award and her first in the outdoor shot put, while Emily Tysma ’14 earned her second outdoor All-American title and third overall. Robinson—whose third All-American honor in the indoor shot came at the 2014 indoor meet—broke her outdoor drought with an eighth-place throw of 46–9½. She also competed in the hammer throw and discus, placing 15th and 18th. Tysma cleared 5–7 on her second attempt to tie for sixth place in the high jump.

Also advancing to outdoor nationals were Erin Maul ’15 (shot put), Morgan Ryan ’14 (pole vault), DeAndre Smith ’14 (discus) and Rob Wallace ’17 (high jump). Wilson was also part of two relays that qualified—joining Adam Parr ’16, Eric Brown ’14 and Kiante Green

’14 in the 4x100 and Parr, Ethan Reschke ’17 and Raimius Foulkes ’15 in the 4x400.

In addition to Robinson, who was the Scots’ lone indoor All-American this season, other indoor national qualifiers were Wilson (long jump), Tysma (high jump), Ryan (pole vault), Bailey Jackson ’14 (triple jump) and the 4x400 squad of Wilson, Green, Foulkes and Parr.

At the Midwest Conference level, Monmouth once again swept all four titles, achieving that feat for the 10th consecutive year.

Green, Jackson and Robinson won two indoor conference titles, while Smith, Tysma and Wilson each won one. Robinson, Ryan and Wilson claimed two outdoor MWC titles apiece, while Green, Smith, Tysma, Scott Duncan ’14, Alyssa Edwards ’14 and Joe Ward ’16 won one each.

Impressively, Wilson was named the Most Outstanding Performer for both field and track events at the indoor meet, and he added an MOP honor outdoors. Robinson and Smith received the field honor at both events, and Green and Jackson each took home one MOP honor.

Individual school records set during the season included Smith in the discus (169–10), Green in the 55-meter dash (6.47) and Tysma in the high jump (5–8).

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

29

SPORTS

SPORTS IN REVIEW

WINTER SPORTS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: In the history of Fighting Scots women’s basketball, the following résumé describes only one player: • Played in four consecutive Midwest Conference championship games.

• Received two All-MWC honors.

• Scored more than 1,000 points.

The player in question, Marla Willard ’14, capped an outstanding career with her 13th double-double of the season, but it wasn’t quite enough to lead Monmouth past St. Norbert in the MWC title game. The Scots fell 69-60 to the Green Knights.

Willard earned her second straight all-league honor by averaging 16.1 points and 9.9 rebounds. She was second on the team with 91 assists and 55 steals, and her 33 blocked shots improved her career record to 137. In a thrilling 64-62 win over St. Norbert during the regular season, Willard made her 1,000th point memorable, netting the game-winning basket at the buzzer. She finished her career as the Scots’ fifth all-time scorer.

Other seniors who were a major part of the Scots’ 19-6 season included Kaley Corban (12.4 ppg), Jacquice Cooper (10.8 ppg) and Kim Coleman (team-high 98 assists).

Coach Melissa Bittner used the same starting lineup for all 25 games, rounded out

by Paige Nord ’15 (9.1 ppg).

MEN’S BASKETBALL: While the women’s team started four seniors, coach Todd Skrivseth’s second Scots squad did not have a senior on the roster, and only one junior. A talented sophomore class provided much of the firepower during a 6-17 season that saw Monmouth place 10th in the MWC. The top five scorers were all sophs, led by Cole Jackson (15.5 ppg) and Nick Marema (11.6 ppg). Jon Calhoun led the Scots in assists (51) and steals (23), while Andrew Mathison averaged 9.7 points and a team-high 7.0 boards. Ben Friday swatted a team-high 26 shots to go with 5.7 rebounds per game.

Marla Willard

WINTER SPORTS: Willard leads basketball Team to another MWC title game, Vallance dives into record books SPRING SPORTS: The Davids’ cap brilliant careers, Scots slug way to more softball marks

30

MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING: New coach Tom Burek led Monmouth’s men to a third-place finish at his first MWC Championships. Top three individual swimmers for the men at the league meet included Raheem Brown ’16, who was second in the 100 breaststroke (59.18), and Gabe Baginski ’14, who placed third in the 100 backstroke (53.34). The duo combined to break three individual school records during the season.

WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING: The last word of that sub-headline is significant, as Monmouth qualified its first diver for NCAA regional competition. Allie Vallance ’17 earned the honors, and the runner-up points she scored in the diving well at the MWC Championships were part of the Scots’ fifth-place finish. The Scots divers are coached by Al McGuire. The leading swimmer at the meet was Cassidy O’Connell ’16, who was third in the 400 IM with a school-record time of 4:43.60. Clarissa Henby ’15, Erin Willhite ’15 and Claire Woodrow ’17 also set individual swim records during the season.

SPRING SPORTS MEN’S TENNIS: In the last sports section of Monmouth College Magazine, it was suggested that it would be fitting if “The Davids”—David Johnson ’14 and David Stewart ’14—concluded their historic careers tied for the all-time lead in victories. That was nearly the case, with Johnson’s 155 total wins edging Stewart by one as the duo rewrote the tennis record books. The Davids partnered to capture the No. 1 doubles title at the MWC Championships, where Johnson won at No. 2 singles and Stewart at No. 3. It was the second consecutive year they swept those three titles. In their

SPORTS

careers, The Davids combined for eight MWC singles and doubles titles. They ended the season with a 24-5 mark, and their number of quality wins netted them the No. 7 spot in the ITA’s final Central Region ranking of the season, a high water mark for Monmouth tennis. They won their final 10 matches to finish with a career record of 79-23.

The brilliance displayed by The Davids highlighted another strong season for the team, as the Fighting Scots placed second in the MWC, falling 5-2 to Grinnell in the championship match. Coach Chad Braun will have to rework the top portion of his lineup, as Chris Franco ’14 was the No. 1 singles player.

SOFTBALL: Softballs left the park at a record rate for the Scots this season, and Charlotte Park ’16 was part of the reason. Park smashed a record four home runs in a 13-7 win over Knox, helping her finish with a new single-season mark of nine. Monmouth followed up the standard of 25 homers set a year ago with 31 roundtrippers during its 2118 season.

Caitlin Lingle

Other sluggers included third baseman Caitlin Lingle ’14 (.421, 6 HR, 36 RBI), right fielder Kaitlin Winkler ’14 (.389, 5 HR, 23 RBI) and first baseman

Sommer Foster ’14 (.382, 4 HR, 14 doubles). Foster and Lingle both earned All-Region and All-MWC honors, with Foster being voted the league’s co-Player of the Year.

En route to a return to the MWC playoffs, the Scots weren’t a one-dimensional team. Pitchers Skyler Johnson ’15 and Alyssa Edler ’15 combined to start 30 games, and Edler earned All-MWC honors, posting a team-high seven wins.

BASEBALL: The Scots doubled their victory total from the year before, finishing 16-18 with a 7-9 mark in the MWC South, two games out of a playoff spot. One of their wins was a milestone, as coach Roger Sander passed his mentor, Terry Glasgow, with his 344th coaching victory. At the close of his 21st season at the helm, Sander has 353 wins. Second baseman Ryan Crandall ’14 (.331, team-high 26 RBI) and pitcher Austin Hardy ’17 earned All-MWC honors. Matt Glenn ’14 (.287, 4 HR, 19 RBI) also put up strong offensive numbers.

WOMEN’S WATER POLO: In a season of firsts for the college’s newest sport, Monmouth officially played its first varsity match on March 14 (an 18-7 loss to Macalester) and, after a few near-misses, won its first match on March 29 (a 9-7 victory over Penn State-Behrend).

The first-ever goal came from Cassidy O’Connell ’16, and she also starred in Monmouth’s two victories, notching six goals in the first one and scoring three in the Scots’ season finale, a 7-4 triumph over Penn State-Behrend, where she made the all-tournament team. With a team-best 62 goals, O’Connell was named the Scots’ first all-conference player by the Collegiate Water Polo Association.

The all-time wins leader in Fighting Scots women’s basketball history has stepped down to continue her education. Melissa Jones Bittner ’03—who compiled a 133-83 record over nine seasons—announced her departure in July. Her .615 winning percentage also leads all coaches in the 40–year history of the program.

BITTNER STEPS DOWN TO PURSUE EDUCATION

“I’m extremely thankful for all the opportunities Monmouth College has afforded me,” said Bittner. “I’ve been contemplating for some time going back to school to earn my Ph.D. and felt like this was the right time. It’s a bittersweet decision. Monmouth is a first-rate institution.”

Bittner led the team to their first Midwest Conference Tournament championship and NCAA tournament appearance in 2012. The following season, the team earned their first national ranking.

She leaves the program after setting the school’s season record for wins during the 2012–13 campaign and posting eight consecutive winning seasons. The Scots have played in the last four MWC tournament championship games.

In 2003, Bittner was named an NCAA Woman of the Year finalist and, 10 years later, the three-sport athlete was inducted into the M Club Hall of Fame. She and her husband, Bryan Bittner ’04, welcomed their first child this spring.

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

31

CLAN NOTES 1938

1958

Clairus and Elizabeth Johnson Dew ’41, of Fort Wayne, Ind., who met as students at Monmouth, celebrated their 70th anniversary on June 14, 2013. Elizabeth retired from a teaching career in Fort Wayne, while Clairus retired as head of the underwriting department at Midwestern United Life Insurance Co.

John Niblock of Charleston, S.C., was honored at a November 2013 reception in Raleigh, N.C., celebrating the 30th anniversary of Action for Children, a child advocacy group Niblock founded in 1983. He was also recently named Carolinas editor and sales manager for The Produce News.

1946 John Allaman of Kirkwood, Ill., celebrated his 90th birthday on May 27.

1963

1950 Graceleanor “Gem” Baird of Kalaheo, Hawaii, has published a novel titled An Hour and a Half From Tomorrow. It is available through amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Joseph “Jack” McGuire of Wheaton, Ill., has authored Grand Crossing: Coming of Age on Chicago’s South Side during the Great Depression (See Books, p. 19). His rite of passage story centers on the McGuire household, dominated by his hard-drinking, volatile Irish-American father, Chicago police detective Martin “Mugsy” McGuire. Jack McGuire is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster, working for Variety and founding 20 North Productions.

1951 Marcia Hickok Johnson and her husband celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary on June 5. They have four children, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Lee Marshall of Palm Desert, Calif., is vice president of international marketing at Sierracin Corp. in Sylmar, Calif. He and his wife celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in 2013.

1954 Bonnie Bondurant Shaddock of Laguna Woods, Calif., was honored after retiring from a five-year stint as chairwoman of the Saddleback Memorial Foundation. She helped to raise more than $35 million during a time of economic crisis and was praised for having “a heart of gold.”

1955

1960 55th reunion June 2015

60Th reunion June 2015

Karen Bowman Angotti received the 2014 Citizen of the Year award from the Monmouth Area Chamber of Commerce for her work as founder and director of Rainbow Riders Therapeutic Horseback Riding Center.

1965

50th reunion June 2015

1966 William Stris of Valley Stream, N.Y., received a lifetime achievement award from the New York School Boards Association, the highest level of recognition it bestows upon a school board member.

1968 David Kingsley and his wife retired on Dec. 31, 2013, and closed their law office, Kingsley & Kingsley in Plantation, Fla., so that they could travel more and spend time with their four grandchildren.

Bob Kukla of Edwardsburg, Mich., was one of 25 individuals worldwide who were awarded fellow status in the American Society for Quality in 2013.

Charles Potter Jr. of Mt. Lebanon, Pa., received the Tax Executive Institute of Pittsburgh’s Distinguished Service Award for furthering the principles and progress of tax administration and the profession. Potter is a shareholder and tax attorney at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney in downtown Pittsburgh.

1970

45th reunion June 2015

Gary Sears, who has served in city management for 43 years, will retire from his city manager position in Englewood, Colo., in Sep-

Ethel “Mickey” Milligan Bailey ’52 of New Wilmington, Pa., was featured in a BBC-TV documentary on Dr. Jonas Salk and the development of the polio vaccine. She is one of only three living members of the 25-person team that worked on the vaccine. The Battle to Beat Polio can be viewed on YouTube.

32

CLAN NOTES

1975

tember. Sears has been involved with several positive development projects in the Denver suburb since taking over the position in 1997.

Skip Whitten is a systems administrator for Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG, Inc., in Oxford, Conn.

1976

1971

Neil Alexander earned his 700th career high school basketball coaching victory in January, as his Railsplitters from Lincoln (Ill.) defeated Taylorville. At the time of the milestone, Alexander had 541 wins at Lincoln. During his 37year coaching career, he has also coached at Westmer, Yorkwood and Bushnell-Prairie City.

Charles Caulkins of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., has been named to “The Top 100 Most Powerful Employment Attorneys” by Human Resource Executive magazine.

Caulkins has been the managing partner at the Ft. Lauderdale office of Fisher & Phillips LLP for more than 25 years.

1973

At a Homecoming tailgate at Monmouth, a group of alumni had such a fun time that they decided to get together for a long weekend the following summer. They have had nine such “Big Chill” weekends, including this 2013 gathering. In front are, from left, Bev Nelson ’61, Joan Wentland and Barb Divinsky Brundage ’60. In back are, from left, Jim Nelson ’60, Ed Wentland ’60, Don Hellison ’60, Mary Bullard Ford ’60, Nan Van Natta Wherry ’60, Karen Richter Herriott ’61 and Dick Wherry ’60.

Jane Kurtz of Portland, Ore., recently released her latest book, Anna Was Here. Called a “moving, coming-of-age story,” the book is available from Amazon. Kurtz is on the faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

The Rev. Dr. Precious Mays-Matthews graduated from Chicago Theological Seminary last year with a doctor of ministry degree.

She was recently appointed senior pastor of Christ Church of TruthThe Knowledge Center in Chicago.

1974

40th reunion October 3-5, 2014

Dennis Tavares of Boulder, Colo., is CIO and senior consultant/analyst at Tavares Consulting in Denver.

Bruce Weiman of Fisher, Ill., was named the 2013 IHSA Boys Track and Field Official of the Year.

1977

Mark Moore teaches at Netzaberg Middle School in Ammerthal, Germany.

1978 Dr. Joseph Welty of Dixon, Ill., was named Family Physician of the Year by the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians. He has practiced medicine in Dixon for nearly 30 years.

1979

35th reunion October 3-5, 2014

30th reunion October 3-5, 2014 Robin Jarvis of San Antonio, Texas, has co-authored Staff Educator’s Guide to Clinical Orientation: On Boarding Solutions for Nurses.

The book was written, in part, to help the nursing profession overcome 22 percent of new employees quitting during their first 45 days on the job. Jarvis is principal of R. L. Jarvis & Associates, which provides leadership development and strategic facilitation.

1984

Helen Culp Lawrence of Hampshire, Ill., is the band/orchestra director at Hampshire High School. She was a 2013 finalist for the Golden Apple Award and was chosen as one of 18 distinguished educators to be part of the Golden Apple Foundation. Her daughter, Katelyn Lawrence ’15, is a drum major for the Fighting Scots Marching Band.

Clay Vass took a career record of 392-206 into his most recent basketball coaching job at Illini Bluffs High School.

1987

These Sigma Phi Epsilon brothers vacationed together in 2013. From left are Dave Jackson ’69, Dave Nielsen ’69, Wendell Shauman ’67, Dave Lindgren ’63, Payson Wild ’67, Bob Brink ’68 and Russ Andrews ’68. The men are part of a larger group of mostly Sig Eps who have stayed close since their Monmouth days and gathered at various times over the years.

Kendall Carrier of Bradenton, Fla., is director of bands at Braden River High School. His marching band won state championships in 2012 and 2013. A five-time Teacher of the Year award winner, he directs the largest high school jazz program in the state of Florida.

1988 William Ault of Toledo, Ill., is a teacher’s aide and coach at Cumberland High School.

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

33

CLAN NOTES

Daniel Cotter, vice president, general counsel and secretary for Fidelity Life Association, was installed as the 138th president of The Chicago Bar Association (CBA) at its annual luncheon meeting in June. He is serving a one-year term.

1989

25th reunion October 3-5, 2014

Don Farr of Roseville, Ill., was named Middle School Principal of the Year by the Illinois Principals Association (IPA). The principal of Monmouth-Roseville Junior High School, Farr will be recognized by the IPA in October and receive a $1,000 honorarium.

Bradley Nahrstadt, a partner with Lipe Lyons Murphy Nahrstadt & Pontikis, has been invited to become a fellow in the Litigation Counsel of America. The LCA is a trial lawyer honorary society whose membership is limited to less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers. Nahrstadt also donated $10,000 to the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation to create a fund to be used to help defray the costs associated with attending fraternity leadership programs. As a Monmouth student, Nahrstadt was president of the fraternity’s Illinois Gamma chapter. “My involvement in Sigma Phi Epsilon shaped who I am—as a person and as a leader,” said Nahrstadt, who has served as the Illinois district governor for the fraternity since 2007. Nahrstadt was also recently elected as secretary/treasurer of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel. He will progress through the positions in the executive committee and become president in 2018.

1990 Pamela Meanes of Fairview Heights, Ill., a partner at Thompson Coburn, was elected president of the National Bar Association, the association of African-American lawyers and judges. She ran on a platform of financial stability, effective communication, advocacy for civil and political rights and practical member benefits, receiving 74 percent of the vote at the association’s annual meeting. Meanes has 20 years of experience as a civil litigator.

Christy Ogilvie McCreary of Roselle, Ill., is the author of That Kind of Girl, a Midwestern Gothic tale set in 1933 and available on Amazon.

1991 Stephen Klien of Rock Island, Ill., was promoted to professor of communication studies at Augustana College, where he is also the director of the Center for Faculty Enrichment.

1992 Kate Francis has been named vice president for development the Arts and Education Council in St. Louis, Mo. She will guide the council’s fundraising efforts. Most recently, Francis served as chief development officer for the YWCA Metro St. Louis. She previously worked for Jazz St. Louis and the St. Louis Symphony.

1994

20th reunion October 3-5, 2014

Chris Heatherly was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. Heatherly is an instructor in the Department of Joint, Multi-

34

Melissa Andeerson Clark ’96 of Bettendorf, Iowa, pictured with emeritus theatre professor Jim De Young, has remained active on the stage, recently playing Fiona in the Countryside Community Theatre’s production of Shrek: The Musical, in which her sons Spencer, 13, and Harper, 10, also performed. She has had singing leads in Quad City-area productions of Cabaret, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Drowsy Chaperone and Sunday in the Park with George, and dramatic roles in The Beauty Queen of Leenane and God of Carnage. national and Interagency Operations at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Jenn Morgan of Lincolnwood, Ill., is an acupuncturist at Bridging Channels in Glenco, Ill. She earned her master’s degree last year from the Midwest College of Oriental Medicine and became a licensed acupuncturist earlier this year.

1995 Debra Jackowniak Scarlett was featured in an article about the fiveyear renovation of her 4,000-square-foot home in Whitefish, Bay, Wis. She is a dermatologist at Madison Medical in Milwaukee.

1996 Matthew Fisher is the total rewards supervisor at Caesar’s Entertainment in Las Vegas, Nev. He received his master’s degree in theatre from UNLV last year.

Vanessa Treat Wetterling of Monmouth has been promoted to president and CEO of Prairie Radio Communications.

1997 Jill Bowles Boland is now the development director at Champaign (Ill.) County Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA).

Kunal Kapoor was named head of Information Products and Client Solutions at Morningstar. The Information Products group is responsible for product development, manufacturing and innovation at Morningstar, a leading provider of independent investment research. Kapoor joined the firm as a data analyst in 1997.

TITLE IN THE SCOTLIGHT

JENNIFER CAMPBELL YOUNG ’91 Accidental English major finds successful career in technical science The spark that was ignited in a creative writing class at Monmouth College has led to a fulfilling career for Jennifer Campbell Young, a 1991 graduate who returned to campus last fall to encourage students to consider career opportunities in environmental consulting.

Among Young’s career-defining experiences was a development project in Ventura County, Calif., for which she managed empirically designed studies and population monitoring surveys for the endangered San Fernando Valley spineflower (SFVS).

Young authored the listing package for SFVS for the state Fish and Game Commission, which remains the basis for the biology and ecology provided by the state for that taxon. She also helped implement hydrological and biological monitoring programs to minimize surface impacts from tunnel construction to the San Bernadino Forest and adjacent tribal lands.

Employed by PSOMAS, a mid-size engineering firm in downtown Los Angeles, Young holds the position of project manager/senior biologist and serves as an associate.

THE WRITING IS KEY. • her current exploration of the business-science interactions available in environmental consulting.

Young intended to major in biology, but got off to a slow start with an 8 a.m. chemistry class in the fall of her freshman year. “I wasn’t academically prepared to take that class,” recalled Young, who continued to stay on the science track until midway through her sophomore year. “I was struggling, and I remember thinking, ‘Maybe science isn’t for me.’ Looking back, I just wasn’t the right age for it.”

An influential experience for Young was participating in an Associated Colleges of the Midwest off-campus study program in Washington, D.C. “I fell in love with D.C.,” she said. “I knew that after graduation, I wanted to live either there or Chicago.” Chicago won out, and it was there where Young began thinking about science again.

“I really make my living as a technical writer,” said Young, who had some of her first memorable experiences with writing in a course taught by English professor Craig Watson. “You have to tell the story of what the data is telling you, but write it in a compelling way. The writing is key. You’ve got to learn to write. I wasn’t good at it when I first started writing at Monmouth, but I just got better and better at it through the years.”

“I put myself through an exercise,” she said. “I went to the library, and I asked myself, ‘How do I want to live my life, both professionally and outside of work?’ I wanted to work in the field, and I wanted to live in the city. As I answered these big questions about work, I was drawn toward ecology, so I volunteered at the Lincoln Park Zoo and at a prairie preserve. The wildlife restoration was fabulous—I was sold.”

That academic progress is only one of several elements of Young’s education that were of interest to MC students who attended her on-campus forum. Others included:

Intentionality came into play again, as she studied her options for graduate work in ecology. “There were opportunities in the field of restoration ecology at UW-Madison, and everywhere in California,” she said. “I chose California.”

• an off-campus study experience that enhanced her Monmouth education, greatly improving her communication skills; • a love of learning that enabled her to add to her academic résumé with graduate studies in ecology; • combining the disciplines of her MC English major with her expertise in botany to become a highly successful technical writer on environmental issues; and

She received a transfer from her day job at WBBM Radio to the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles. After laying her groundwork in science with courses at Cal State-Fullerton, she eventually settled at San Diego State University, where she earned a master’s degree in biology.

—BARRY McNAMARA

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

35

CLAN NOTES

Class of 1963 friends Anne Matthews Kilpatrick, Lolly Okey Turner Hoffman, Livvy Lunn Gibb, Barbara Sprague Aberlin, Judy Sluka Butcher, Mary Sheese Sass and Ann Mack Collier gathered in Charleston, S.C., a for a week. “After 50 years, our friendships are still strong and meaningful,” said Gibb.

1998 Cindy Johnson Beaudry is a library media specialist for Rockford (Ill.) Public Schools.

Angela Charsha of Coralville, Iowa, was honored with Iowa’s 2013 Governors Award for Volunteerism. She has been involved with the Girls on the Run organization for six years and was instrumental in bringing the program to eastern Iowa.

Chad Simpson of Monmouth won the Teresa A. White Literary Award from the Quiddity International Literary Journal and Public Radio Program for his story, “I Later Learned the Fish Was a Gar.” The story was written in response to Matthew Sugarman’s print, Lost Horizon, which Simpson saw on display at Western Illinois University.

1999

15th reunion October 3-5, 2014

Joanna Davison Triebel accepted a position as vice president of Strategic Pharma Solutions, a medical communications and advertising agency in Raleigh, N.C. She had previously worked 15 years at Glaxo Smith Kline Pharmaceuticals.

2000 Sarah Stevenson Hudgeons of Fort Worth, Texas, is an international program manager for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, focusing on Japan.

2001 Matt Fotis won The Dr. Henry P. and M. Page Laughlin Distinguished Faculty Award for Research for his book, Long Form Improvisation and American Comedy: The Harold. Fotis is an associate professor of theatre at Albright College in Reading, Pa.

2003 Megan Smith Krandel of Woodstock, Ill., is an LTD case manager for MetLife in Mount Prospect.

Dawn McRoberts Strauss, who has taught at the Kenwood Acad-

36

Ben Olson ’12 spends summers in Galesburg, Ill., as assistant golf pro at Lake Bracken, and winters as an assistant pro in Florida. Last winter he worked at Card Sound Golf Club in North Key Largo, which in March played host to President Obama. Olson is pictured at left.

emy in Chicago since 2005, received the 2012 Illinois Latin Teacher of the Year Award.

Lindsey Jozefiak Whately of Caledonia, Ill., is a senior statistical analyst at Grainger in Lake Forest, Ill. 10th reunion October 3-5, 2014 Jennifer Heiman is a corporate tax project manager for Boeing in Chicago.

2004

Kristin Martin is a vice president at Crestmark Bank in Boynton Beach, Fla.

2005 Crystal Lang Click of Crystal Lake, Ill., is a staffing representative for Baxter Healthcare in Round Lake,Ill. Ryan Danzinger is chairman of the Village of Arlington Heights (Ill.) Commission for Citizens with Disabilities. He is also assistant coach of the Hersey High School debate team.

Rhian Droy lives in Llanelli, Wales, where he owns Stamps Pub.

2006 Christopher Bastean is a hospital corpsman for the U.S. Navy at 29 Palms Naval Hospital in California.

2007 Sarah Braun is a graduate student at The American University of Paris, where she is working on her second master’s degree. Her first, in art conservation, was obtained in Lugano, Switzerland.

Paige Taylor Leath of Dallas City, Ill., is a special education teacher in the Fort Madison (Iowa) school district.

2008 Hayley Townsend Bold is a teacher at Knowledge Universe in Appleton, Wis. Hayley Parrott Down of Toulon, Ill., is a third-grade teacher in Kewanee.

Mark Lakis of East Galesburg, Ill., recently opened Heroes Never Die, a collectibles store.

IN THE SCOTLIGHT TITLE

LUKE DEVLIN ’12 Growing up in the western Illinois town of New Windsor, population 720, Luke Devlin never dreamed he would be working near a city of 30 million residents, half a world away.

Had it not been for a study-abroad opportunity before his senior year at Monmouth College, the 2012 graduate might have been content to stay near home, a place he said he knows “like the back of my hand.”

But soon after graduating, Devlin’s adventurous spirit, which had been kindled by a two-week experience at the prestigious Fulbright International Summer Institute in Bulgaria in 2012, won out. Receiving a tip from the organizer of his Bulgaria trip, MC associate dean Bren Tooley, Devlin immediately told her he was “on board” and packed his bags for Suzhou, China, where he is a college counseling intern at the Dulwich College International High School Programme, an exclusive school that caters to the upper 1 percent of Chinese society.

Now, Devlin makes his home just a half-hour train ride from Shanghai, the world’s fifth-largest city. He is adjusting so well to the new culture that he recently received a promotion. In other words, he has impressed his employers, including his immediate supervisor, Travis Coverdell, a 1992 Monmouth graduate.

Part of Devlin’s role is to teach the high school students in China about different experiences they will encounter when they matriculate at U.S. colleges and universities.

“I think we’re doing some pretty good things,” he said of his Englandbased company, which has been working with international schools for 10 years. “There are about 320 kids in the school, and I see about 160 of them, helping prepare them for the transition to studying abroad and prepare for the application process.”

One thing that is not different about Devlin’s experience is that 100 percent of the instruction is in English. A contrast occurs, though, when he asks students about their aspirations. In the U.S., says Devlin, a group of freshmen students would freely volunteer their ideas and dreams for their future.

“But for the Chinese students, it’s like pulling teeth,” he said. “Part of what I’m doing is helping these kids develop ideas. They have their nose in the book, but they don’t develop ideas outside of that.

Their system is very lecture-oriented, but I’ve found that critical thinking and problem solving are an issue.”

Devlin developed such skills at Monmouth while being immersed in four academic disciplines. He double majored in communication

studies and public relations, while adding minors in history and business.

“That definitely broadened my experience, broadened my perspective,” said Devlin.

“I think the biggest thing was I expanded my breadth of knowledge.”

His experience in Bulgaria contributed greatly to that new perspective, showing him globalization first hand.

YOU’RE TOLD ABOUT GLOBALIZATION IN SCHOOL, BUT IT’S HARD TO TEACH.

“That was the first time I had ever been out of country,” he said. “You’re told about globalization in school, but it’s hard to teach. It really clicked for me when I went to Bulgaria and I was able to compare the American perspective about issues with the perspective of someone from a developing country or a Communist country. I became aware of different cultures and how they think about the world.” Today, Devlin says he has friends from such countries as the Netherlands, Germany, Kenya, the UK, Spain, France and Indonesia, some of whom he met through a 40-member expatriate basketball league he helped develop.

Coming out of high school, Devlin recalls, “I didn’t know what the heck I wanted to do,” so helping students gain a better understanding of that has developed into a passion.

“The chances are pretty good I’ll stick with college counseling. I went through that really rough road of uncertainty, and I would like to help other people through that, either through counseling or, on the other end, as an admission representative at a college.

Eventually, I can envision getting my master’s and my doctorate in that field.”

—BARRY McNAMARA MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

37

CLAN NOTES

Monmouth’s development and college relations office has welcomed three alumni to its staff—Gena Alcorn ’88, Jennifer Erickson Sanberg ’10 and Katie Shipp ’13.

An associate development officer, Alcorn comes to Monmouth from Galesburg, where she worked the previous 10 years and served as the director of the Carl Sandburg College Foundation.

Alcorn was on Monmouth’s staff from 1995 to 2000 as director of alumni programs.

After graduating from MC with a degree in business, Sanberg Sanberg Shipp Alcorn worked three years at Allsteel in Muscatine, Iowa. As assistant director of annual giving, Sanberg is working to obtain increased year, she was the executive administrator for the Peoria Marriott levels of annual support from alumni, parents and friends of the Pere Marquette. A business administration and economics major college. with a minor in Spanish, Shipp served as president of the AssociShipp is the new assistant director of alumni relations. For the past ated Students of Monmouth College her senior year.

2008 continued Joanna Martorelli is a clinical case manager at the New England Center for Homeless Veterans in Boston, Mass.

2009

5th reunion October 3-5, 2014 Felicia Roberts of New Boston, Ill., is a solutions account associate for the Hon Co. in Muscatine, Iowa.

Kate Runge recently started a public relations job with Chad Pregracke’s Living Lands and Waters, based in East Moline, Ill. Pregracke, who has spoken several times at Monmouth College, was named CNN’s Hero of the Year for his efforts to clean up U.S. rivers, most notably the Mississippi.

2010

2012

Sarah Sherry of Richton Park, Ill., is a supply NCO for the Illinois Army National Guard.

Moran

Joe Moran, who received his J.D. from DePaul University last year, was recently named the new assistant state’s attorney for Hancock County. While in law school, he served an internship with the Kane County state’s attorney’s office. He and his wife, Jessica Houser Moran ’09, have settled in Carthage, Ill. Olin

Lindsay

Dusty Sanor Spurgeon has taken an active role in Spurgeon Veggies CSA, which produces food for the Spurgeon family, a CSA and a local farmers’ market on property between East Galesburg and Henderson, Ill.

Julie Battcher is now working at Rasmussen College in Aurora, Ill., as admissions program manager.

2013

1st reunion October 3-5, 2014

Logan Bowman of Omaha, Neb., is a ticket operations intern for the Omaha Storm Chasers, the AAA affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.

Arica Brazil of Homewood, Ill., is a corps member for City Year Chicago.

Clay Staley has been promoted to corporate safety and environmental engineer by Ox Paperboard. He will remain based out of the company’s Pekin, Ill., mill.

Kevin Lindsay is a media support specialist at Monmouth College, continuing work he did as an undergraduate intern with the website, electronic media and social media.

2011

Kyle McEwen is the club professional and course manager at Hawthorn Ridge Golf Club in Aledo, Ill.

Andrew Aberle received his doctorate degree in physical therapy from Bradley University’s College of Education and Health Sciences.

Kayla Winbigler Jones of Palatine, Ill., is a senior accountant for Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP in Chicago.

Lucas Knox of East Moline, Ill., is a recruiting partner at Aerotek in Davenport, Iowa.

38

Nicole Olin of Galesburg, Ill., recently began a new position as a hospice care consultant for Hospice Compassus in Galesburg.

Holly Pierce of Altona, Ill., was hired to work at Action Income Tax Service.

Samantha Seemann of Union, Ill., was accepted to the prestigious University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, one of just 28 veterinary schools in the nation.

Ashley Sorenson is employed by the Chicago White Sox.

BIRTHS

TITLE WEDDINGS

Madelyn Ethington and Kyle Christensen

Sarah Zaleski and Kevin Degarmo

1956

Carolyn Copeland and Sydney Cammenga May 3, 2013

2001

Mary Beth McGregor and Scott Luczu October 26, 2013

2004 2005 2006 2007

Amy Vaught and Joseph Warszalek January 18, 2014 Mollie McNamara and Jacob Emery December 9, 2013 Anna Jordan and Christopher Bastean April 26, 2014 Chelsea Brandt and Adam Ekstedt April 27, 2013

Paige Taylor and Quinn Leath November 29, 2013

Sarah Zaleski and Kevin Degarmo June 22, 2013

2008

Kelly Compton and Jason Cheline June 8, 2013

Hayley Parrott and Thomas Down Jr. September 8, 2012

2009

Madelyn Ethington and Kyle Christensen July 20, 2013

2011

2013

Cassie Hart and Rodney Clayton July 13, 2013 Kim Howard and Peyton Lumzy May 5, 2012 Rachel Jacob and Jack Donnelly December 2012

1998

Kelly Sutton Everding a daughter, Sophia September 4, 2012

Toby Vallas and Kristin a daughter, Elin Iselle June 10, 2014

2001

Jenny Bjoin Boone and Elijah a son, Garrett Benjamin August 26, 2013

2002

Tanya Moore Skinner and Aaron a daughter, Layla Jane December 17, 2013

2003

Melissa Jones Bittner and Bryan ’04 a daughter, Quin Marley May 4, 2014

2004

Michelle Flaar Carlson and Adam a son, Carter John July 24, 2013

Michelle Meyer Messman and Chad a son, Riddick Augustus October 16, 2013

Riddick Augustus Messman

Brooke Hulet Webber and Jason a son, Landyn Scott October 11, 2013

2005

Tracey Gondek Bebout and Benjamin a son, Benedict Oliver October 8, 2012

Sara Poggi Potter and Brian ’06 a daughter, Charlotte Snow April 14, 2013

2007

Tiffany Ludwig Southwood and Tyler ’05 a son, Gavin Andrew March 29, 2014

2008

Sara Hitchcock Lovell and Joshua a daughter, Annabelle Grace January 22, 2013

Ashley Yeast Tanney and Mitch ’06 a son, Micah Geoffrey June 2, 2014

2010

Emily Belrichard and John Hudson a daughter, Gabriella Addrene December 29, 2013

Anita Kubischta and Vincent a son, Elijah

2011

Kim Howard Lumzy and Peyton a daughter, Lianna September 2013

2012

Erin Murphy and Ethan Pullen a daughter, Berkley Ann September 8, 2013

Charlotte Snow Potter

Gavin Andrew Southwood

Bendict Oliver Bebout at birth (left) and at 18 months

Cassie Hart and Rodney Clayton

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

39

CLAN NOTES: DEATHS

Gordon Duncan Wimpress, seventh president of Monmouth College died Jan. 6, 2014, at the age of 91 in San Antonio, Texas. Wimpress, who assumed the presidency in 1964 at the age of 42, was Monmouth’s first non-clergy president and helped steer the college into the modern era. He quickly established an expansionist policy, increasing enrollment and adding faculty. He oversaw the college’s first modern capital campaign, a $2.6 million effort to construct a new science building and library.

Three new residence halls—Gibson, Cleland and Liedman—and a fraternity complex were also built during his presidency.

Always a man of action and vigor, Wimpress enjoyed piloting his own airplane, driving a Corvette, playing golf and playing the drums. He won the admiration of many students for his support of the civil rights movement and Vietnam peace marches.

1932

Esther Law Williams, 102, of Saratoga, Calif., died Oct. 17, 2013. She grad-

uated with a degree in mathematics and was a member of the women’s tennis team and Alpha Xi Delta.

1933

Mary Alice Smith, 101, of Harvey, Ill., died Aug. 7, 2013. Born 11-11-11 in

A native of Riverside, Calif., Wimpress earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. in general semantics from the University of Denver. After five years of teaching journalism at Whittier College and seven years as assistant to the president of the Colorado School of Mines, he assumed the presidency of Monticello College in Alton, Ill., which he held for five years.

A frequent commercial airline flyer (40,000 miles per year), Wimpress once explained he got tired of the delays caused by making connections to small towns, so he obtained his pilot’s license while at Monticello and began clocking an additional 25,000 miles per year. At Monmouth, he flew a Cessna that was owned by a friend and leased at low cost to the college.

degree from Northwestern University Medical School in 1941. For the next five years, he served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in North Africa and Italy, receiving three medals and two Bronze Stars and achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1947, Scott began practicing internal medicine in Amarillo, Texas, staying active in his field until 1992. During that time, he was an associate professor of internal medicine at the Texas Tech Medical School.

Omaha, Neb., she moved to Princeton, Ill., before enrolling at Monmouth, where she majored in English. After a short stint as a teacher, she embarked on a career as a school librarian. The library at Bremen High School in Midlothian, Ill., is named in her honor.

Jane Zimmer Swanson, 98, of Normal, Ill., died Aug. 30, 2013. She grad-

1934

1938

studied business at Monmouth for two years and worked at Spurgeon’s and Bowman Colwell in Monmouth.

chemistry major and member of the track team, he went on to the University of Illinois College of Medicine, then spent a year of internship at Gorgas Hospital in the Panama Canal Zone. Gordon joined the Naval Reserve, serving 18 months in the South Pacific as a medical officer. Following World War II, he served 18 years as a medical missionary in the Sudan, directed the Mora Valley Medical Unit for seven years and had a private practice for 11 years.

Kathryn Miller Henderson, 100, of Monmouth died July 2, 2013. She

1936

Faye Hamman, 99, of Decatur, Ill., died June 29, 2013. A member of Alpha

Xi Delta, she completed her education degree at the University of Illinois, then became a teacher.

Isabel Bickett Marshall, 99, of Monmouth, died Jan. 1, 2014. She majored in sociology and was a member of Alpha Xi Delta. Marshall remained connected to her alma mater all her life and received MC’s Distinguished Service Award in 2001. She was preceded in death by her husband of 57 years, Dr. James Marshall ’36. Survivors include children John Marshall ’68 and Jane Marshall Kellogg ’72 and a granddaughter, Lucy Kellogg Thompson ’99.

Dr. Wilbert Scott, 99, of Dallas Texas, died Feb. 27, 2014. A member of

the swim team, Scott majored in chemistry before receiving a graduate

40

Wimpress left Monmouth College in June 1970 at the height of its peak enrollment of 1,300 students to assume the presidency of Trinity University in San Antonio, where he served until 1976.

uated with a degree in history and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She worked for 40 years at the Illinois State Medical Society, the last 20 as executive secretary of the society’s women’s auxiliary.

Dr. Robert Gordon, 98, of Nebraska City, Neb., died April 10, 2014. A

Virginia Sharer Nordstrom, 95, of Moline, Ill., died Oct. 5, 2013. Before

retiring as a license examiner for the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation, she taught in a one-room school in Mercer County and worked for the Illinois State Highway Department.

1940

Charles Coulter, 95, of Whittier, Calif., died Nov. 19, 2013. He graduated

with a degree in geology and was a member of the swim team. After serving in England and France during World War as a second lieutenant in the

CLAN NOTES: DEATHS

Army Air Corps, he worked for a few years as a jeweler and watchmaker. He then moved to California, where he worked 27 years as an engineering geologist with L.A. County Flood Control. He was preceded in death by his wife, Helen Buchanan Coulter ’40.

Kathryn Swearingen Smith, 94, of Aledo, Ill., died Oct. 22, 2013. She studied English at Monmouth before graduating from the University of Colorado.

1941

Doris Robinson Eyler, 96, of Naples, Fla., died Jan. 19, 2014. She

majored in business and was a member of Crimson Masque and Kappa Delta. Eyler was a paraprofessional in the business department at Concord High School in Wilmington, Del., for a number of years. She was preceded in death by her husband of 56 years, Robert Eyler ’40, and a brother, Donald Robinson ’43.

Scott Hoyman, 93, of Rohrersville, Md., died Feb. 27, 2014. The son of Presbyterian missionaries, he was born in Egypt. He majored in government and, from 1951 on, dedicated his career to organizing textile workers in the South, particularly in North Carolina. Hoyman received an honorary degree from Monmouth in 1985. He was preceded in death by a sister, Jane Hoyman Carpenter ’35.

Ann Jones Manor, 93, of Lakeland, Fla., died Jan. 29, 2013. She graduated with a degree in English and was a member of Crimson Masque and Kappa Kappa Gamma. Survivors include her husband of 69 years, James Manor ’40.

1942

Fred Alexander of Evanston, Ill., died Nov. 22, 2013. After finishing

college, he served in the U.S. Army, including three years in Europe during World War II. Alexander retired in 1985, working the last 28 years at Motorola in advertising and marketing. He was preceded in death by his wife of 64 years, Jean Shanks Alexander ’43 (see below).

The Rev. Paul Coleman, 92, of Gibsonia, Pa., died May 27, 2014. He

graduated with a degree in English and was a member of the football and swim teams. Coleman served as a U.S. Army chaplain in Italy during World War II. An ordained Presbyterian minister, he earned graduate degrees from Pittsburgh Xenia Seminary, Harvard Divinity School and the University of Pittsburgh, where he received his Ph.D. Coleman founded Christ Church United Presbyterian in Youngstown, Pa. Alice Long Wilson of Wheaton, Ill., died March 1, 2014. She majored in history and was a teacher in the Illinois towns of Gladstone, Moline and Wheaton. The niece of legendary MC faculty member Grace Gawthrop Peterson ’22, she was also preceded in death by her husband, Eugene Wilson ’44.

1943

Jean Shanks Alexander, 90, of Evanston, Ill., died Aug. 4, 2012. She graduated with a degree in music and was a member of Pi Beta Phi. She worked at Evanston Township High School for nearly 20 years. In middle age, she took up art, studying at the Evanston Art Center and Northwestern University. Her husband was Fred Alexander ’42.

Karl Beck of Toledo, Ohio, died Aug. 25, 2013. He majored in chemistry and received his Ph.D. in that discipline from the University of Illinois.

The family of Vivian Cook McMichael ’44 gathers in June at the former McMichael family home in Monmouth, across from the college campus, following her memorial service in the college chapel. The house was the retirement home of MC’s fourth president, T.H. McMichael, and later the home of his son, longtime MC business manager David McMichael.

A leading authority on synthetic sweeteners, he worked all but two years of his career at Abbott Laboratories. He published 43 research papers and articles, the first of those based on work he did at Monmouth with Professor Garrett Thiessen. Survivors include a daughter, Laura Beck Anderson ’75.

Gloria Rathbun McKie of Galesburg, Ill., died June 6, 2014. A history major and a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, she was a teacher in several communities in and around the Galesburg area.

1944

Elizabeth McCartney Liggett, 92, of Basking Ridge, N.J., died April 18,

2014. She studied biology and was a member of Pi Beta Phi. Survivors include her husband of 70 years.

Vivian Cook McMichael, 90, of Forest Grove, Ill., died Aug. 30, 2013.

She studied elementary education for two years and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, Thomas McMichael ’44, who was grandson and greatgrandson of two Monmouth College presidents. Survivors include a son, Dan McMichael ’69. (See photo above]

Roberta McVey Wells, 90, of Fountain Hills, Ariz., died Dec. 16, 2013.

She graduated with a degree in elementary education and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Wells taught in Monmouth for more than 20 years. She was preceded in death by her husband, Willis Wells ’45. Survivors include a son, Willis Wells ’68.

1945

Ruth Kinney, 89, of Monmouth, died Dec. 9, 2013. After starting at MC, she completed her degree in education from Western Illinois University. Kinney taught at four Illinois high schools, then earned a

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

41

CLAN NOTES: DEATHS

master’s degree in library science from the University of Wisconsin and worked for 30 years as a librarian at York Community High School in Elmhurst, Ill.

Louis Shimmin Pogue, 90, of Aurora, Ill., died April 24, 2014. She

majored in Spanish and was a member of Crimson Masque and Alpha Xi Delta. She taught English, Spanish and physical education at the secondary school level at several locations close to Monmouth, completing her career with 22 years at Dixon (Ill.) High School.

Alfred Simioni, 90, of Cornelius, N.C., died July 15, 2013. He studied mathematics and was a member of Alpha Tau Omega. He was founder and past president of Simioni Builders in Charlotte, N.C., and co-owner of Industrial Cork. Co. and Midwest Pipe Covering in Elmhurst, Ill. Survivors include his wife of 64 years.

1946

Ruth Marshall Smith Dudrow, 88, of Southbury, Conn., died Dec. 24, 2013. A member of Kappa Delta, she met her first husband, Allen Smith ’43, at Monmouth, before completing her college degree at Capital University.

1947

Betty Kaeppel Baumann, 90, of Woodruff, Wis., died Feb. 8, 2014. She graduated with a degree in history. She taught in Galva, Ill., and Galesburg, Ill. Survivors include her husband of 63 years.

Joyce Busby, 89, of Litchfield, Ill., died Dec. 28, 2013. She followed her father to Monmouth and graduated with a degree in sociology while serving as a member of Kappa Delta. Busby held many jobs throughout her life, working in the insurance industry, as district manager for Avon and at the University of Iowa’s Department of Publications. Shortly before her death, she gave her alma mater the funds to purchase its first new Steinway piano in nearly a century.

Jesse Evans, 89, of Davenport, Iowa, died Nov. 18, 2013. An officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he completed an economics degree at Monmouth. Evans earned a master’s degree in music theory and music education at Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in music education at Indiana University. After 10 years in public schools, he was a professor at Taylor University, Cornell College (where he was named Iowa Music Educator of the Year) and Augustana College. He was preceded in death by his wife of 63 years, Leola Brooks Evans ’49. Survivors include his second wife, former MC faculty member Caroline Porter Evans.

Rhoda Cooper McIntyre, 88, of Dublin, Ohio, died May 4, 2014. After receiving her MC degree in biology, she earned a master’s degree at Ohio State University. A longtime educator in the Hilliard (Ohio) City School District, she retired from the state of Ohio as a Title I Reading Program consultant. She was preceded in death by her husband of 56 years.

Shirley Dunlap Meneilly, 89, of Lenexa, Kansas, died June 12, 2014. She graduated with a degree in philosophy and was a member of Alpha Xi Delta. She helped her husband (and childhood sweetheart), the Rev. Robert Meneilly ’45, to found a new United Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kansas.

Merle Milligan, 91, of Edgewood, Colo., died Nov. 30, 2013. His MC education was interrupted by service in the U.S. Army during World War, during which he was a mortar gunner in the 66th Army Division. After majoring in physics, he earned his Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University. Milligan was a mathematics professor at Adams State College, Albion College and Metropolitan State College. He was preceded in death by his three brothers—Bruce Milligan ’42, Floyd Milligan ’44 and Dale Milligan ’48—

42

Maxine Murdy Trotter ’47 of Santa Ana, Calif., a trustee emerita, died Feb. 8, 2014, at the age of 88.

Her husband of 67 years, George Trotter Jr. ’47, died June 9, 2014. After attending Whittier College in California, Maxine transferred to Monmouth to complete her physical education degree. She was active in Chorale and Kappa Kappa Gamma.

The president of Freeway Industrial Park in Santa Ana, Maxine served as treasurer of the MC board of trustees for 20 years and was on the executive committee for part of that time. The Trotters became engaged before he left to fight in World War II, where he served as a B-29 pilot in the Pacific Theater. After finishing their degrees at Monmouth College, they spent nine years in Illinois, interrupted by a return to California, where George completed a master’s of education.

During his time in Illinois, George held various teaching, coaching and administrative positions at his alma mater and two local high schools. In 1956, the Trotters moved to California after George accepted a high school teaching and coaching position.

Survivors include their son, Lt. Col. George E. Trotter III ’70, and George’s sister, Ruth Trotter Hollis ’42. and by his sister, Ethel Milligan Bailey ’52. Survivors include his wife of 65 years Louise Hoog Milligan ’48, whom he met during an MC musical production, in which they played the lead roles.

1948

Lynn Arado Camp, 87, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., died Jan. 19, 2014. She graduated with a degree in English and was a member of Pi Beta Phi. She was a stewardess for Chicago and Southern Air Lines, based in Miami, New Orleans and Memphis. She was preceded in death by her husband, John Camp ’49.

Evelyn Capp Faassen, 88, of Barrington, Ill., died March 21, 2014. While at Monmouth, she studied biology and was a member of Kappa Delta. Survivors include her husband of 66 years, John, who was her high school sweetheart.

Loren Henderson of Kennewick, Wash., died Jan. 1, 2014. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and earned a Purple Heart after being wounded in Holland. At Monmouth, Henderson studied chemistry and was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon. He completed his graduate degree at Iowa State University. In 1990, he retired from Battelle NW as a human resources manager. He had also worked at Westinghouse and General Electric.

Pete Keefer, 90, of San Dimas, Calif., died Feb. 14, 2104. He served in the U.S. Army in the European theater during World War II. He majored in business administration, was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon and started

CLAN NOTES: DEATHS

an off-campus student hangout called The Slopshop that was very popular until the first student union was created on campus in the late 1940s. Keefer had celebrated his 90th birthday on April 20, 2013, with a party that was attended by more than 50 well-wishers.

Dorothy Smith Oaks, 86, of Monmouth, died Oct. 4, 2013. A music major, she was a member of Alpha Xi Delta. She taught music in the Yorkwood School District for many years. Survivors include granddaughters Jessica Carson Caslin ’00 and Jenna Carson Purlee ’04.

Marion Winbigler, 87, of East Moline, Ill., died Jan. 23, 2014. She majored in Spanish and French and had a two-year appointment in the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. She came from a long line of Winbiglers with ties to Monmouth College, including her grandparents, John and Mary Small Winbigler, who were in the classes of 1865 and 1868, respectively. She was also preceded in death by a sister, Martha Winbigler ’53.

1949

Joan Fraser, 87, of Canton, Mich., died Aug. 8, 2013. She studied elementary education.

1950

Wallace Cleland, 86, of San Francisco, Calif., died Sept. 15, 2013. He enrolled at Monmouth after serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He then transferred to the University of Illinois, majoring in architectural design, and he worked as an architect, primarily with public schools. He was preceded in death by his father and stepmother, John Cleland and Eva Hanna Cleland, who both served on MC’s faculty, by his wife, Virginia Streeter Cleland ’46, and by brothers Robert Cleland ’41 and John Cleland ’43.

Richard Hildreth, 86, of Kewanee, Ill., died June 15, 2014. He graduated with a degree in business and was a member of the golf team and Theta Chi. Hildreth served in the Naval Reserves at the close of World War II and was called back to duty during the Korean War. After a stint as director of personnel and purchasing at Monmouth College, Hildreth was the office manager at Gamble Warehouse and retired as an accountant for Lakeworth (Fla.) Christian School. He also worked for Illinois Power. Survivors include a son, Thomas Hildreth ’83.

John Lemon, 85, of Ankeny, Iowa, died Dec. 16, 2013. He graduated with a degree in business administration and was a member of the baseball team and Tau Kappa Epsilon. An Army veteran, he retired from MidAmerican Energy in 1987.

Jerrold Linton, 86, of Batavia, Ill., died Dec. 2, 2013. He majored in physical education, played football and basketball and was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon and the Octopus Club. He was a math teacher and coach in Batavia and nearby Naperville.

Jane Martin Soerens, 84, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., died Feb. 18, 2014.

She majored in biology and was a member of Kappa Delta. Her first position out of college was at the University of Chicago, working under future Nobel Prize winner Charles Huggins. She and her husband moved to New Mexico, where she worked in plastic evaluation for Phillips Petroleum. After raising a family, she was a substitute teacher and private tutor in Monmouth County in New Jersey for a number of years.

Soerens and her husband, Chester, celebrated 62 years of marriage two days before her passing, and her husband died four days later.

Robert Sympson, 86, of Athens, Ohio, died Jan. 3, 2014. Before attending Monmouth, where he majored in chemistry and was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, he served 15 months in the U.S. Navy during World

Mary Castle Josephson ’51 of San Diego, Calif., died Feb. 8, 2014, at the age of 84. She majored in history and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. After a brief teaching career, she was secretary and bookkeeper for the veterinary practice of her husband, Charles Josephson ’52, to whom she was married 61 years. A Monmouth College trustee for 24 years, Josephson earlier served on the college’s Alumni Board for five years. She was preceded in death by a sister, Shirley Castle Sanders ’55.

War II. After receiving his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois, he taught at Ohio University from 1954 to 1992.

Donald Tezak, 90, of Urbandale, Iowa, died June 15, 2014. He graduated with a degree in political science and was a member of Alpha Tau Omega and the Octopus Club. During World War II, he was an ensign in the U.S. Navy, serving as a pilot on submarine patrol in the Atlantic.

Tezak built and operated the Town House Motel in Joliet, Ill., in 1957, then turned his interests to real estate. Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Nancy Buchanan Tezak ’50.

1951

Gerald “Chic” Anderson, 84, of Palatine, Ill., died Dec.4, 2013. The longtime athletic director at Palatine High School earned numerous honors, including the National High School Coaches Association Athletic Director of the Year in 1982 and induction into the Illinois Athletic Director’s Association Hall of Fame in 1998. Upon his retirement in 1988, his high school named its football field Chic Anderson Stadium.

Richard Bowker, 83, of Pittsburgh, Pa., died July 23, 2012. He majored in sociology.

William Komatsu, who lived in Japan, died Sept. 14, 2013. He followed his father, Takashi Komatsu ’10, to Monmouth and majored in physics.

He received an electrical engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1952 and was employed by Mitsui SRC Development in Tokyo, retiring as vice president.

Joseph Vittori, 84, of Carlsbad, Calif., died July 1, 2013. He majored in history, then served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. He taught mathematics and science in several schools in Illinois and the Los Angeles area.

1952

Carol Hilsenhoff Basinger, 83, of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., died Sept.

23, 2013. A member of Pi Beta Phi, she met her late husband, Reed Basinger ’50, at Monmouth. After raising her children and living in, among other places, England, she was a social worker at a retirement home.

James Cherry of Salinas, Calif., died Aug. 22, 2013. He majored in geology, then joined the Navy “to see the world,” serving most of his four years on the U.S.S. Estes. He continued to travel during a job with the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office, as he mapped and charted the ocean in Iceland, southern Europe and Australia. He also worked for the Navy Oceanographic Office and for its postgraduate school in California.

Survivors include his wife of more than 50 years.

Robert Ford, 83, of Carman, Ill., died June 22, 2014. He graduated with a degree in business and was a member of the track and football teams and the Octopus Club. He served in the U.S. Army during the

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

43

CLAN NOTES: DEATHS

Korean War, then used his MC degree to help run his family’s farming business. He was preceded in death by his wife of 60 years, Evelyn Howell Ford ’52. Survivors include daughters Kristeen Ford Peterson ’81 and Kelly Ford ’85.

John Gunn, 82, of Cantonment, Fla., died June 24, 2013. He majored in business administration and was a member of the football team. He spent two years on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps and another 28 years in the reserves, retiring in 1994 as a colonel. Gunn covered news and sports for newspapers in Monmouth, Galesburg and four states beyond Illinois. He blended his interest in sports and the military by amassing a 7,000-piece collection of items related primarily to military sports and Marines in college and professional sports. He also authored two books on Marine Corps football.

Helen Hass of Eagle River, Wis., died Sept. 25, 2013. She was a member of Alpha Xi Delta.

Rose Marie Campagna Keidel of North Bend, Ohio, died June 17, 2014. She was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma and received a degree from the nursing school at the University of Cincinnati.

Kathleen Kopp Kleinkopf of Lakewood, Colo., died March 9, 2014. She studied English and was a member of Pi Beta Phi. An accomplished artist, she was one of the founders of the city of Lakewood.

James Nissen, 82, of Estes Park, Colo., died June 24, 2013. Before completing his degree at Northwestern University, he studied business and was a member of the swim team and Sigma Phi Epsilon. He worked for Illinois Bell and Ameritech for 32 years, retiring in 1986 as director of accounting.

Nancy Brown Rugh, 83, of Dixon, Ill., died Feb. 27, 2014. She majored in home economics and was a member of Alpha Xi Delta. Rugh taught school in Barrington, Ill., for 10 years.

The Rev. James Snyder, 84, of Indianapolis, Ind., died Aug. 12, 2013. He graduated with a degree in religious studies and was a member of Crimson

Charles “Bud” Skov, 81, professor emeritus of physics, died July 5, 2014. Skov taught at Monmouth from 1963 to 1994, chairing the physics department for several of those 31 years.

Known as an outstanding teacher who challenged his students, Skov saw many of them go on to very successful careers. One of those students was Hiroyuki Fujita ’92, an entrepreneur who recently returned to campus to present a Whiteman Lecture.

“He was not only an amazing physics professor but a great and warm human being,” recalled Fujita, the president and CEO of Quality Electrodynamics. “I visited his office to ask him many questions after class

44

Edwin Trapp, Jr. ’53 of Dallas, Texas, died on Feb. 12, 2014, after an eight-year battle with the rare corticobasal degeneration disease. He studied economics and was a member of Theta Chi at Monmouth before completing his degree at the University of Wisconsin. He later graduated from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management Executive Program.

After 17 years of sales and marketing management with General Electric, Motorola and DuCommin, he moved to Dallas in 1970 as president and director of Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. During his 15-year tenure, Hall-Mark grew from a small regional company into a national leader of electronic component distribution. In addition to serving on Monmouth’s board of trustees, he founded the Trapp Chair of Business Management and, in 1989, received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the college.

Masque and Sigma Phi Epsilon. A Presbyterian pastor, his ministry spanned six decades in New York, his native Pennsylvania, Illinois and Indiana.

Marjorie Fuller Hiett Stempel, 82, of Huntington Beach, Calif., died April 24, 2013. A member of Pi Beta Phi, she graduated with a degree in English and taught in Whittier, Calif., for 27 years.

Richard Trowbridge, 85, of Rock Island, Ill., died April 2, 2014. He served with the 25th Army Military Police in occupied Japan before graduating from MC with a degree in English. He was a member of the golf team and Tau Kappa Epsilon. Trowbridge retired from the Mel Foster Real Estate Co. in 1984.

Richard Woods, 82, of Surprise, Ariz., died April 28, 2013. He graduated with a degree in English before receiving a master’s degree at Illinois State University. Woods taught in Illinois for 32 years.

almost every day during my student life at Monmouth, and I enjoyed every occasion with him. Dr. Skov was always happy to see me and welcomed me. … (He) definitely influenced my physics career and my understanding of American life. I will miss him.”

ics Teachers and the American Association of University Professors. He also served on the Human Rights Authority Committee for the State of Illinois, where McNamara said Skov was “a very effective member, well respected for his compassion and independent judgement.”

Jeremy McNamara, emeritus professor of English, remembers his faculty colleague of 30 years for his “sensitive, thoughtful responses to the many issues the college faced during the varying fortunes of those three decades.”

Skov completed his undergraduate work at his hometown college, Kearney State Teacher’s College in Kearney, Neb. He then served his country in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956 in the Signal Corps. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Nebraska in the same year that he joined Monmouth’s faculty.

In addition to his teaching duties, Skov was faculty representative to the Midwest Conference for several years and spent 15 months tenure as the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) representative at the Argonne National Laboratory. He had affiliations with SigmaXi, The American Physical Society, The American Association of Phys-

He and Ann would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on July 11. Other survivors include the Skovs’ three children, Mitchell Skov ’80, Norman Skov and Sarah Skov Hennemann ’90, and son-in-law, Christopher Hennemann ’91.

CLAN NOTES: DEATHS

1953

Robert Adcock, 83, of Galesburg, Ill., died May 31, 2014. A member of Theta Chi, Adcock served in the U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1954. He was a farmer and also served as director of building and grounds at Carl Sandburg College for 20 years, retiring in 1996.

Geraldine Johnson Bachrach, 83, of Cincinnati, Ohio, died Sept. 17, 2013. She was the office manager for the Adams Corporation in Cincinnati, working there for 50 years.

Mary Jo Shelby Burke, 81, of Monticello, Ind., died Sept. 14, 2013. She studied English and was a member of Alpha Xi Delta. She was retired from the probation office in Merriville, Ind. After raising her family, Burke returned to school and graduated summa cum laude from Youngstown State University. Survivors include her husband, Charles Burke ’51.

Don McBride, 82, of Vero Beach, Fla., died March 15, 2014. He majored in economics and was a member of Alpha Tau Omega. A veteran of the U.S. Army, McBride lived in California for 20 years after attending MC before returning to his native Monmouth to work at Hill Correctional Center as a food service manager. He was preceded in death by brothers Andy McBride ’34 and Jack McBride ’56. Survivors include his wife of 54 years, Susan, and a brother, Gerald McBride ’58.

1954

Ronald Boehm, 81, of Pekin, Ill., died Jan. 12, 2014. He majored in history, played men’s basketball and was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.

Boehm taught in the Illinois communities of Greenview and Virden before settling in at Pekin High School, where he taught social studies from 1960 to 1985, when he became a principal. Boehm earned master’s degrees in education administration and economics from the University of Illinois and taught economics at Illinois Central College for 20 years. Survivors include his wife, Betty Beabout Boehm ’54.

Eloise Pierson Hamilton, 82, of Warren, Ohio, died May 10, 2014. She graduated with a degree in music and was a teacher. She was preceded in death by her husband of 56 years, Collin Hamilton ’54, and by a sister, Doris Pierson Palmer ’44. Survivors include a sister, Marie Pierson Anderson ’40.

Marilyn Hilsenhoff Gardner, 81, of Waukesha, Wis., died Sept. 28,

Peter Nelson ’54 of Scottsdale, Ariz., died Jan. 22, 2014, at the age of 81. He majored in business administration and was a member of the baseball and basketball teams, the Octopus Club and Theta Chi. He then served in the U.S. Army, stationed in Japan. Nelson began a distinguished advertising career in Chicago during the Mad Men era of the 1950s, rising through the ranks to lead such accounts as State Farm Insurance and General Mills. But it was securing the McDonald’s account for his Needham, Louis and Brorby agency that led to his life-long association with the Golden Arches. He worked for McDonald’s from 1984 to 1990, in charge of their domestic marketing and new country development. In addition to his time on Monmouth’s board of trustees, Nelson served on the board of directors for such companies as Del Webb Corporation and Hamilton Stores. Survivors include his wife, Peggy, and a brother, John Nelson ’58.

Jerome Hatch ’57 of Chicago, Ill., died Sept. 2, 2013, at the age of 80. Around a two-year stint in the U.S. Army, he majored in business and was a member of Crimson Masque, Tau Kappa Epsilon and the Octopus Club. Hatch earned a master’s degree in business and embarked on a long career in human resources for such companies as Deere & Co. and American National Can, where he retired in 1995. He served on Monmouth’s board of trustees and established the Hatch Awards for academic excellence among MC faculty.

Survivors include his sister, Hazel Hatch Wharff ’49. He was preceded in death by brothers Harold Hatch ’46 and Henry Hatch ’48.

2013. She studied English for two years and was a member of Pi Beta Phi. Gardner served as branch librarian at the Warren County Library.

She was preceded in death by a sister, Carol Hilsenhoff Basinger ’52.

Survivors include her husband of 60 years, who she met in a Latin class at Monmouth High School.

John Holliday, 81, of Casa Grande, Ariz., died Jan. 12, 2014. After starting at Monmouth, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega, he graduated from Worsham College of Mortuary Science. He operated funeral homes in four Illinois towns, including Monmouth, retiring in 1993.

John Shunick, 83, of Naperville, Ill., died March 21, 2014. He majored in history and was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon. A retired colonel with the U.S. Army, he was employed by two insurance companies, Travelers and CNA.

1955

Susan Watson MacLeod Burke of Salem, Ore., died May 22, 2014. She studied classics and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She also attended Diablo Community College and UCLA. While living in California, she was a property manager for Coldwell Banker in Los Angeles.

Survivors include her husband, Arthur Burke ’52.

Mary Ann Hellemann Woerner, 80, of Pekin, Ill., died April 21, 2014.

She studied home economics and was a member of Kappa Delta.

After serving as a secretary and a receptionist, she owned and operated Merry Bee Farm and Greenhouse in Pekin with her husband.

1957

The Rev. Harold Bodeen, 91, of Mahomet, Ill., died Feb. 11, 2014. A farmer before enrolling at Monmouth, he majored in religious studies.

He ultimately served churches in eight Illinois communities, retiring in 1987.

Donald Kilgore, 77, of Selma, Calif., died Sept. 23, 2013. While at Monmouth, he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, and he later participated in baseball after transferring to Reedley College in California. He made his career in the dried fruit industry.

Gene Parker, 79, of Ballwin, Mo., died May 7, 2014. A business major, he earned a master’s degree from Kirksville Teacher’s College. He taught at Camp Point (Ill.) High School for 31 years, retiring in 1990.

1958

Lyn Cameron Johanson, 76, of Valencia, Pa., died Nov. 20, 2013. An

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

45

CLAN NOTES: DEATHS

English major, she was a member of Crimson Masque, the Pollywogs and Kappa Kappa Gamma. Survivors include her husband of 53 years, Thomas Johanson ’56.

Irvin Sprout, 77, of Roseville, Ill., died Feb. 4, 2014. He was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon and was a sixth generation Warren County farmer.

Survivors include a granddaughter, Kimberly Lambert ’12.

1959

Duwyanne Knox, 81, of Galesburg, Ill., died Jan. 7, 2014. One of 14 children, he served the U.S. Air Force for four years as a radio technician in Korea. A business major at Monmouth, he embarked on a career with Ford Motor Co., starting as a financial analyst and later transferring to Ford’s Aerospace Division in Huntington Beach, Calif., where he had the distinction of being named that community’s 100,000th citizen.

Karl Miller of Three Lakes, Wis., died Nov. 11, 2013, after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. He graduated with a degree in chemistry and was a member of Theta Chi. Miller received a master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa and taught chemistry at Maine Township high schools and Harper College. Miller bought Rustic Acres Resort in Three Lakes in 1988 and moved there permanently two years later.

1961

Richard McCann, 73, of Wheaton, Ill., died March 12, 2013. He studied geology and was a member of the football team and Theta Chi. He founded McCann Industries in Addison, Ill. Survivors include his wife, Lynn Saberson McCann ’61.

1962

David Campbell, 73, of Crossville, Tenn., died May 6, 2014. A sociology major, he participated in track and cross country and was a member of Theta Chi and the Octopus Club. Campbell worked in the food service industry for more than 30 years, owning and operating several restaurants in Colorado. He retired from Seneca Foods in 2005.

Bruce Stavenhagen, 74, of Ottawa, Ill., died March 17, 2014. He graduated with a degree in physics and was a member of Alpha Tau Omega. He worked at Libbey Owens-Ford Glass Company in several supervisory positions before starting a second career as a teacher/tutor of GED students for Illinois Valley Community College. Survivors include a brother, Gene Stavenhagen ’67.

1963

Mary Alice McLoskey Toal of Monmouth died May 1, 2014. She followed her father, Robert McLoskey ’28, and two siblings—Anne McLoskey Romine ’54 and Robert McLoskey ’58—to Monmouth, where she majored in physical education and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She served in the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant and was a teacher. Other survivors include her husband of 49 years, John Toal ’64, a sister, Margaret McLoskey McNitt ’67, and a daughter, Kathleen Toal Lee ’88.

1964

Jack Garrett, 72, of Edwards, Ill., died Feb. 7, 2014. A physical education

major, he was a member of the football, wrestling and track teams. He taught for 11 years at Metamora (Ill.) High School, starting its automotive program, then spent 31 years with the Peoria Fire Department, retiring in 2007 as battalion chief. He also owned and operated Garrett Brothers Construction.

Lawrence Keener, 72, of Kirkwood, Ill., died May 30, 2014. He graduated with a degree in physical education and was a member of the football

46

team, Sigma Phi Epsilon and the Octpus Club. Keener was a teacher and coach in the Monmouth area for many years. He taught building trades and was owner and head contractor for Keener Construction Co. Survivors include his wife of 49 years, Linda Schantz Keener ’65.

James Murphy, 71, of Camdenton, Mo., died Feb. 5, 2014. He graduated

with a degree in business and was a member of the swim team. He went on to graduate from the Naval Officer Candidate School and served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. He worked for several major companies, including Sherwin-Williams and Alcoa, retiring from Castwell Products in Skokie, Ill., in 2004.

Harold “Pete” Westphal, 78, of Bondeul, Wis., died Aug. 18, 2013. He served in the U.S. Air Force for 5½ years, attaining the rank of master sergeant. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, then taught and coached in Wisconsin before becoming a farmer. In retirement, he was a soil sample collector for 10 years.

1965

Donald Moore, 77, of Albany, Ore., died Sept. 24, 2013. After serving in the U.S. Army, he graduated with a degree in history from Monmouth, then received his master’s degree from Northern Illinois University. Moore taught middle school in Crystal Lake, Ill., for 27 years.

1966

Sandra Cisna Agvald of Minneapolis, Minn., died Jan. 19, 2013. She graduated with a degree in philosophy and was a member of the synchronized swim team.

Jerry Ponitch, 71, of Tempe, Ariz., died Dec. 29, 2013. A biology major, he was later involved with Emaho Foundation.

1967

JoAnn Gulley Mortonson, 68, of Whitefish Bay, Wis., died Aug. 2, 2013. She graduated with degrees in English and elementary education and was a member of Kappa Delta. Her sister was Elaine Gulley Stansbury ’69 (see obituary).

Robert Rylander, Jr., 68, of Herndon, Va., died Jan. 10, 2014. He graduated with a degree in business and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

1968

Richard Morrill, 67, of Merrimack, N.H., died July 17, 2013. He majored in economics and was a member of the football team and Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Morrill worked in the commercial finance industry for 30 years.

1969

Sandra Cheesman Chmiel, 66, of Vandalia, Ohio, died Jan. 27, 2014. She graduated with a degree in French and was a member of the cheerleading squad and Kappa Kappa Gamma.

Richard Dunlap, 67, of Kalispell, Mont., died Sept. 25, 2013. He grew up in

Canada and was a nationally-ranked ice skater prior to coming to MC, where he majored in economics. After earning his MBA from the University of Western Ontario, Dunlap worked in three professions—the oil business with his father in Calgary, co-owner of the Palace Bar in Whitefish, Mont., and an escrow officer at Sterling Title Services.

Terry Schneider, 65, of Grafton, Wis., died Nov. 10, 2013, after a courageous battle with cancer. He graduated with a degree in business administration and was a member of Theta Chi and the football team,

CLAN NOTES: DEATHS

Robert Buchholz, emeritus professor of biology, died April 25, 2014, at the age of 89.

First hired as a biology instructor in 1950, Buchholz was the last living member of a legendary biology faculty from his era that included Professors John Ketterer, Milton Bowman and David Allison.

After serving in the U.S. Army from 1943–46, Buchholz earned his bachelor’s degree in zoology in 1949 from Fort Hays State University in Kansas. The following year he received a master’s degree in zoology with a minor in biochemistry from Kansas State University.

During the summer of 1952 he did graduate work at the Hydrobiological Station at Put-in-Bay, Ohio.

His Ph.D. thesis at the University of Missouri in 1957 focused on the digestive systems of bats, rats and moles. While at Missouri, he met Bowman, whom he later urged to apply for a teaching position at Monmouth.

In 1962-63, he served as resident biologist for the Associated Colleges of the Midwest at Argonne National Laboratory. After being promoted to professor in 1963, he served a year as an NIH Fellow in the Department of Physiology at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Instead, he talked and talked and talked about going into physical therapy or podiatry. He even worked with Monmouth College administration to try to develop a 3/2 physical therapy program with Chicago Medical School.”

Buchholz served 12 years as department chair, beginning in 1967, and was instrumental in the establishment of the Ecological Field Station on the Mississippi River near Keiths-

“In 1997 I applied to graduate school at Stanford for a master’s degree program in liberal arts. An application requirement included an evaluation by a faculty member familiar with the applicant’s work.

Even though 34 years had elapsed since Dr. Buchholz gave me a grade in a class, he was able to write an evaluation without opening his old grade books. Since I was admitted and graduated, I assume that it was a positive evaluation.”

burg, Ill. Mike Salaway ’89, co-f0under of a successful sports rehab company, credits Buchholz as a primary influence in his decision to enter the physical therapy field.

“I had been a chemical engineering major at U of I,” Salaway explained, “and had returned to Monmouth College knowing I had science interests but not really sure what I should do. I went to see him about possible biology careers and was expecting guidance that would lead me toward becoming a medical doctor or teaching.

earning induction into the M Club Hall of Fame. A standout receiver, Schneider tried out for the Washington Redskins and their coach, Vince Lombardi. He served a six-year assignment in the U.S. Army as a drill instructor and had a successful career in manufacturing at Outboard Marine Corporation. He later was employed by Bombadier Recreation Products, working in China and Mexico. Survivors include his wife, Susan Rayniak Schneider ’69.

Dr. Stan Chism ’63 commented on the personal interest Buchholz took in his students:

Although he retired in 1990, Buchholz continued teaching through Monmouth’s Bridge Program until 1994. In 1996, he was honored with the Distinguished Service Award by the Alumni Board of Directors.

Buchholz is survived by his wife, Mona, and three sons, including Mark Buchholz ’71 and Dan Buchholz ’76.

Galesburg, Ill., before starting Midwest Hydra-Lines in 1980, working there until selling the company in 2006. He was preceded in death by a son, David Palmer ’87.

1976

Elaine Gulley Stansbury, 65, of St. Louis, Mo., died Aug. 29, 2013. She graduated with a degree in English and was a meber of Kappa Delta.

She was preceded in death by a sister, JoAnn Gulley Mortonson ’67.

Keith Morgan, 59, of Vernon Hills, Ill., died July 23, 2013. He majored in business administration and was a member of the football and golf teams and Alpha Tau Omega. He owned the Lake Forest True Value Hardware Store for the past 22 years. Survivors include his wife, Mary Campbell Morgan ’78.

1972

1977

Mark Sager, 63, of Bluffs, Ill., died July 11, 2013. A four-year member of the Fighting Scots basketball team, Sager immediately embarked on a career in teaching and coaching, starting at Yates City, Ill. He spent the bulk of his career in Bluffs, teaching history and coaching from 1982 to 2010.

1974

Donald Helander, 62, of Whitefish, Mont., died June 1, 2014, after a brief, courageous battle with cancer. He worked for 36 years for Burlington Northern Railroad, transferring to Whitefish in 1984.

David Palmer, 73, of Cameron, Ill., died Nov. 18, 2013. He graduated with a degree in business. Palmer worked at Gates Rubber Co. in

David Maguire, 58, of Orion, Ill., died Sept. 1, 2013. He studied biology before beginning his career at John Deere Harvester Works, retiring in 2009.

1982

Susan Bernier Crawford, 67, of Monmouth, died July 19, 2013, after a courageous battle with cancer. She graduated with a degree in elementary education and received her master’s degree from Illinois State University. She worked in the Peoria (Ill.) school district for 15 years before serving as a director of special education for Knox and Warren counties.

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

47

CLAN NOTES: DEATHS

1983

Layne McKee, 52, of Bushnell, Ill., died April 22, 2014. He studied physical education and was a member of the football team and Theta Chi. He was a teacher and coach in the Bushnell-Prairie City and Avon school districts.

1990

Todd Porter, 46, of La Harpe, Ill., died April 23, 2014. He majored in history and was a member of the baseball team, earning second team Academic All-American honors as a senior. A social studies teacher at La Harpe Junior High School for 22 years, Porter was also a varsity baseball coach and held a master’s degree in school administration from Western Illinois University.

2000

Kristin Hawk Keane, 36, of Toulon, Ill., died Jan. 6, 2014. She graduated with a degree in business administration and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She worked at Proctor Partners Insurance in Peoria, Ill., the State Bank of Toulon and, for the past 10 years, as director of marketing and development at Kewanee (Ill.) Hospital.

2001

University after completing his history major at MC. A theatre arts minor, he was a member of Crimson Masque.

2007

Kurt Phillips, 29, of Bloomington, Ill., died Nov. 16, 2013. Survivors include his parents, Gregory Phillips ’82 and Rae Jean Meier Phillips ’82.

Word has also been received of the following deaths: Genevieve Ball, 93, of Maple Plain, Minn., died Nov. 29, 2013. Her late husband was longtime faculty member and dean Woody Ball. Also preceding her in death was a son, Gregory Ball ’74. Survivors include daughters and Janis Ball Durr ’69 and Pamela Ball Gustafson ’77.

Linda Nickols, 63, former clerk of academic records for 16 years, died Feb. 17, 2014, after a two-year battle with cancer.

1945 Dorothy Schumaker Long of Anaheim, Calif., died Jan. 15, 2011.

1959 Gerald Calhoun of Jamestown, Calif., died on Nov. 5, 2013.

1959 Diane Dunlap LaSpisa, 74, of Elmhurst, Ill., died April 28, 2012.

Jonathan “J.P.” Schrock, 35, of Bellevue, Wash., died June 15, 2014. He graduated with a degree in topical studies and was a member of the golf and soccer teams. He worked for Republic National Distributing Co. Survivors include a sister, Tonia Schrock Woodward ’99.

1969 Mark Kachel, 66, of Brown Deer, Wis., died Sept. 20, 2012.

1974 Carla Connolly, 59, of Midlothian, Ill., died Nov. 8, 2011.

1976 Marc Stolar, 57, of Corona, Calif., died March 4, 2012.

2006

Adam Riegle, 31, of DeKalb, Ill., died April 9, 2014. A residence hall director at Northern Illinois University, he earned a master’s degree at Illinois State

Alumni Awards Spirit Shout Star Gazing M Club Hall of Fame Admission Tours Parade Highland Games Football vs. Beloit Open Houses Choral Concert Alumni Baseball

REUNION CLASSES:

1974 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014

COME HOME TO THE HIGHLANDS! 48

THE LAST WORD: MARIELA SHAKER

A MUSICIAN REFLECTS ON WAR Music is not just an alphabet or symbols.

It is not just an international language.

Indeed it is very difficult to describe what music is. Music is, in my opinion, a great way to unite people, as opposed to events such as war, which divide and tear nations and peoples apart.

Music can make the world beautiful.

In fact, music has the power to reflect the mosaic of our world harmonizing our differences (and various voices and notes) into a continuous and evolving sheet of music—and performance.

From all that I have seen from being around the community of musicians I have met recently at Monmouth College, music can aid in helping us into looking at the world from another angle.

Musicians, for example, do not always look to the financial, monetary and temporary things in life, but rather have the real desire is to see their students be accomplished and successful.

I can see the cheerfulness in the eyes of our cello teacher when her students give a beautiful recital. It is as if her eyes are saying she has just won a battle or the greatest prize in the lottery. Not only does she give herself both physically and mentally to enriching the power of music in her students, but she also devotes herself to her students so that they may always achieve in the highest academic levels.

When I think of my injured city of Aleppo, which has been torn by a savage civil war, I feel that music is able to be the remedy that can mend the souls of Syrian citizens. We should put our hands together and put in all our efforts to rebuild this city and country.

Rebuilding the infrastructure is just one thing that be done with our hands, but rebuilding the humanity and deconstructing the antagonism from the minds of the people is another thing that should be done with our hearts. We really are in need of musicians as much as we are in need of engineers and doctors!

As a citizen of Syria, it make me feel heartbroken when I see what the children in my country are learning right now as they carry weapons and are encouraged to fight rather than to unite with their so-called enemies. In fact, we need to have musicians in Syria at this time and more than any time before. These musicians will aid the new generations to overcome and to emotionally survive the war. Having great musicians will definitely help those kids to

WHEN I THINK OF MY INJURED CITY OF ALEPPO, WHICH HAS BEEN TORN

BY A SAVAGE CIVIL WAR, I FEEL THAT MUSIC IS ABLE TO BE THE REMEDY THAT CAN MEND THE SOULS OF SYRIAN CITIZENS. forget the harsh and mentally-taxing scenes of death and murder by teaching them one of the finest arts, music. I am not saying that we need to have the best performers in the world. It is just enough to have some kids who are excited enough to learn to how to make music in order for them to possess a useful and interesting hobby versus possessing the hobby of killing each other over religious or civil differences.

The most important thing about music is that it is very pure and that it can repair and enliven the universal communities of the world. I believe that the power of music will help in publishing peace and love in the world. I believe that it can help remove the pain this world has felt, and can fill hearts and minds with hope and happiness.

Music will be able to make this world a beautiful place to live in, and can help the light overcome the darkness. Music is what we need now in order to learn how to give, live and love without borders.

Mariela Shaker was born in Aleppo, Syria. A senior at Monmouth College studying music performance for her second bachelor’s degree, she earlier graduated from the University of Aleppo with a major in business administration. She is currently concertmaster of the Monmouth Chamber Orchestra and a member of the Galesburg Symphony Orchestra.

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

49

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID BOLINGBROOK IL PERMIT NO. 467

Monmouth College Magazine 700 East Broadway Monmouth IL 61462-1998

To update your name, address, or other personal information, please visit monmouthcollege.edu/update

ni event: chapters nal alum i/ /alumn d a regio 1. Atten uthcollege.edu monmo site: e MC web 2. Visit th uthcollege.edu o monm Scots: Fighting for your .com 3. Root ts o sc th u monmo Center; ackerle story: ith the W and share your w er te 4. Volun with students /wc connect ege.edu uthcoll monmo mouth: t to Mon eferral /r a studen 5. Refer uthcollege.edu monmo herings: and gat ni events lumni/events m u al r /a s fo 7. Join u uthcollege.edu monmo e!

Magazin g Colle e nmouth o M d 6. Rea

Plug into the

SCOTS ALUMNI NETWORK and recharge your life!

Stay connected to MC, no matter where you go.

Update your alumni record today!

monmouthcollege.edu/update