campus news

Enrollment management veterans head admission

Two experienced enrollment management leaders joined the Monmouth College office of admission this fall.

Stephanie Levenson, who was most recently vice president for enrollment management at John Carroll University in suburban Cleveland, was named vice president for enrollment management in September.

Ryan Cockerill was named director of admission in October.

“Stephanie provides a great mixture of deep tactical knowledge, analytical skills and broad strategic sense that will contribute strongly to recruiting students, retaining them more effectively, and supporting our mission of changing the arc of students’ lives,” said President Clarence R. Wyatt.

A 26-year veteran of the college enrollment industry, Cockerill was most recently dean of admissions and financial aid at Northland College in Ashland, Wis. Prior to that, he worked in admission at Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill., for nearly 18 years.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University and a master’s degree from Northern Illinois University.

Before her four years at John Carroll, Levenson served in steadily increasing levels of responsibility in admission at Elmhurst University in suburban Chicago, starting as associate director for traditional student recruitment and completing her 17-year tenure there as the school’s executive director of admission. She also served at Loyola University of Chicago, including as the university’s senior assistant director of admission.

A native of Decatur, Ill., Levenson earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and criminology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a master’s degree in higher education administration from Loyola University of Chicago.

LEVENSON COCKERILL

Smoke damage temporarily closes Stockdale Center

Thanks to rapid response by local firefighters, fire damage from an Oct. 6 fire in Stockdale Center was contained to a dry goods storage room in the food service area, but smoke from the blaze forced the building to be closed to the public, possibly well into next semester.

While remediation teams clean and renovate the building, only the kitchen remains open for meal preparation. Meals are currently being served in the Mellinger Commons area of the Center for Science and Business. Student mail delivery has also been temporarily relocated to that building.

No injuries occurred as a result of the fire, which was judged to have a non-intentional but undetermined cause. The flames were confined to a lower room on the southwest corner of the building. Due to extreme heat and zero visibility from smoke, firefighters had to scramble to find an alternate entrance to attack and successfully extinguish the fire.

The evening of the fire, students were fed at the new Trubeck Amphitheater, north of the Center for Science and Business, dining on hundreds of pizzas provided by local and chain restaurants.

The College has been working closely with its food service provider, Aramark, to make meal delivery as convenient and appealing as possible. An Aramark regional manager is on site several days a week, and numerous special food events are also offered each week.

Mellinger Commons has been outfitted with two buffet lines, a salad bar and a sandwich station. Additional food options have been added to Einstein Bros. Bagels in Hewes Library and Provisions on Demand (POD) in the Center for Science and Business.

The Highlander Hub, a dispensary for students in need of food, supplies and career wardrobe items, has been relocated from Stockdale Center to Hewes Library. Stockdale Center offices have been temporarily moved to Poling Hall.

“Many people are working hard to ease the disruption and inconvenience as best we can and to return to normal operation as quickly as possible,” said President Clarence R. Wyatt.

Firefighters respond to an Oct. 6 fire in a Stockdale Center storeroom that has temporarily shuttered the student union building.

(Photo by Jane Carlson ’98, Tri-States Public Radio)

CAMPUS NEWS

BUILDING A COMPUTER FROM SCRATCH

If there’s a future Bill Gates or Michael Dell among Monmouth’s student body, he or she might have drawn inspiration from last summer’s SOFIA program.

Now in its 12th year, the Summer Opportunities for Intellectual Activities program, which allows students to pursue focused research projects in July and August, introduced an unprecedented and ambitious project this year—building an 8-bit computer from scratch.

“I’d say the computer is 90% done,” the project’s faculty sponsor, computer science assistant professor Robert Utterback, said at the conclusion of the program.

“It ‘runs’ and displays some calculations, but there is one group of wires missing, and one chip doesn’t work. We think it’s because they forgot to ground it for a while—a lesson learned. The project was ambitious for three weeks. I’d say we needed three more days and another chip.”

Utterback said the project provided valuable lessons in a relatively short amount of time.

“They learned that computers are not magic,” he said. “Computers are often seen as ‘black boxes’ that do magic things, and learning about them can be overwhelming. There are a lot of different components, but each individual component is not that complicated. By building their own simple computer—roughly similar to some from the 1970s—the students got to peek under the hood and realize that computers make sense.”

The time-consuming portion of the project, said Utterback, was “debugging.”

“Actually wiring up the computer doesn’t take that long, in the same way that writing code doesn’t actually take long,” he said. “Inevitably, however, something got hooked up wrong, or we needed to make some small tweaks. Those problems ripple through the system and can be very hard to find, taking hours or sometimes days to find. You have to treat it like a puzzle to be solved and learn to enjoy the process.”

“I found it surprising how much time was spent just finding problems,” said Hazel Gablin ’26, a psychology major who might add computer science as a second major. “I was under the impression that most of the time would be spent building it, but a minimum of two-thirds of the time was just trying to figure out where we had gone wrong.”

Colton Gray, a junior computer science major, demonstrates his SOFIA group’s custom-built 8-bit computer at a poster session presented during Orientation Weekend.

A fresh crop of coaches

With more than half of the Monmouth student body participating in varsity athletics, coaches are playing an increasingly important role—as motivators, counselors and, from an admission standpoint, recruiters.

This fall, the College welcomed a slew of new mentors to the coaching ranks—many of them former Fighting Scots—spanning eight varsity sports.

Standing on the steps of Huff Athletic Center, the coaches are pictured and identified at right. Row 1 (from left): Brian Dahlstrom, head tennis coach; Thomas Van Alstine ’20, head men’s lacrosse coach; Cooper Gosch, football defensive line coach; and Jordan Tice, head women’s lacrosse coach. Row 2: Nate Robinson, football defensive backs coach; Jake Starkey ’19, assistant baseball coach; Kenzie Baker ’21, assistant track and field coach; and Brian Woodard ’97, head track and field coach. Row 3: Jack Healy, football wide receivers coach; and Brady Hunt, head cross country coach. Not pictured: Tyler Inselmann, softball assistant coach).

‘a lot of blood, sweat and tears’

Madu’s recent starring role as Shakespeare’s Juliet was her greatest acting challenge to date, but an experience she relished.

Gabriela Madu’s relentless pursuit of the stage is paying off

By Barry McNamara

Monmouth College senior Gabriela Madu has already compiled an impressive résumé of acting and singing credits. She added to it in early October when she played one of the leads in the theatre department’s production of Romeo and Juliet.

One gets the feeling, though, that she’s only just begun.

Since completing her junior year last May, Madu has had a summer internship with the Indianapolis Shakespeare Company (“Indy Shakes”), participated in one of the Open Jar Institute’s week-long “Broadway Intensives” in New York City, and received a professional contract offer after submitting an award-winning monologue.

And then came her role as Juliet, which she called “the hardest role I’ve ever played.”

FROM INDY TO VEGAS TO BROADWAY

For most of the summer, Madu was the assistant stage manager for Indy Shakes, where she “essentially did all the things you’d think an intern would do—doing call lines, cleaning up and doing setup and tear down.”

The program ended on July 31, giving Madu one week to prepare for taking a bite out of The Big Apple. She visited her mother in Las Vegas and, while there, made sure everything was in order for her Open Jar opportunity—her dancing shoes, her sheet music and, especially, her résumé, which she was touching up just hours before her flight to New York City.

Joining her at the institute, which is Broadway’s premier actor training program, was Monmouth classmate Andrew Cliffel ’23. After the two met up at the airport and made their way downtown, “We literally went right into it,” said Madu. “They asked

when I got in, and I said, ‘Fifteen minutes ago.’”

Her day went from 9 a.m. to getting home after 10 p.m. from seeing a Broadway show. One of the shows Madu and the 50 or so other aspiring actors saw was a revival of the musical Funny Girl, and they received training from one of the show’s actors, Mariah Reives. It was Reives who led a fastpaced dancing master class that Madu called “insanely terrifying.”

“I was checking my bank account to see if I could afford an early flight home,” she said. “Imposter syndrome is so real.”

Another dance class was led by Timothy Hughes, who’s played The Strongman in the musical The Greatest Showman. Madu was also impressed by another Broadway show, MJ the Musical, which tells the story of Michael Jackson.

“It was one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen in my life,” she said. “If I didn’t know he was dead, I would’ve told you that was Michael Jackson up on the stage.”

Her Open Jar experience concluded with a special cabaret performance.

“They claimed they’d be picking 20 names (out of, appropriately, an open jar) at random, but my opinion was that it would really be based on merit,” she said. “I kept thinking ‘Please pick my name. Please pick my name.’ After the seventh name, they picked me, and I went insane. I was like, ‘Yes!’ Part of me really wanted that validation.”

Her week in New York City was everything she thought it would be, and more.

“It was humbling and ego-building at the same time,” said Madu. “It changed my perspective. It changed the direction I thought I needed to be going in.”

As an example, Madu said, she learned more about how singing is not simply having a good voice.

“What is the story you’re telling with the song?” she said. “That’s what helps you stand out from everybody else. I figured out that’s a strength of mine. I can sing, but I’m not a singer. But I was one of the strongest storytellers there. And the song I chose to sing (“You Don’t Know This Man” from Parade) was a story I could really tell, as opposed to something that would just sound pretty.”

BACK ON CAMPUS

A few days after Open Jar ended, Madu was headed to Monmouth to begin her senior year, and it wasn’t long before auditions were held for Romeo and Juliet.

“Juliet was very challenging,” she said. “Initially, I was reluctant to try out for the part because Juliet is an ingénue who wants the boy, and I didn’t feel like an ingénue.”

Eventually, Madu put her hesitations about the role behind her, but there were still some challenges.

“That was a monster of a show to memorize,” she said. “For a few weeks, I had the script in my bag and nothing else. It was the hardest role I’ve played, but I had so much fun with it. It went by too fast.” Madu, who served as one of the student directors for the College’s November production of David Auburn’s Proof, also did the sound design for Romeo and Juliet, which she will submit to the annual regional Kennedy Center festival in January.

“It was humbling and ego-building at the same time,” Madu said of her whirlwind theatre experience in New York, but the actor/singer/director hasn’t had much time to dwell on it as she contemplates what she will do upon graduation.

A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES

Speaking of submissions, Madu also entered a monologue into a competition she learned about while in Indianapolis. A few weeks later, while sitting in the College’s Einstein’s Bros. Bagels shop, she received a message that her entry had taken third place. With it, should she choose, is a contract for the 2023–24 season at The Naptown African American Theatre Collective, the first Black equity theatre in Indianapolis.

Which leads to an interesting question: Where will Madu head next after she graduates from Monmouth?

The short answer is, if Madu gets an acting opportunity that’s too good to pass up, she could find herself with a theatre company, such as Naptown. But she also hopes that graduate school is in her future.

Other opportunities might arise in February in Memphis, where Madu and Cliffel will attend the United Professional Theatre Auditions, also known as UPTA. On the other side, she has already received interest in a graduate program offered by the University of Houston.

Grad schools and theatre companies alike can learn more about her at her website, gabrielamadu.com.

“I’ve put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it,” said Madu, who bills herself on the site as an actor/singer/musician.

Included on the home page is her philosophy about performance: “Performance is not only an art, but an outlet for every individual to express their desires in a way that normal conversations cannot.”

“Initially, I was reluctant to try out for the part because Juliet is an ingénue who wants the boy, and I didn’t feel like an ingénue,” Madu recalled of her audition for Romeo and Juliet. But, as is her nature, she threw herself into the role and found herself enjoying it.

MONMOUTH’S HALLOWED HALL TURNS THIRTY

By Barry McNamara

Students from Monmouth—or those who have passed through the city during their time at Monmouth College—have gone on to do great things.

cutline

A plaque at the Hall of Achievement recognizes the Whitemans’ parents as the inspiration for the recognition program. RALPH WHITEMAN ’52 DON WHITEMAN ’49

Thirty years ago, the Whiteman brothers—Don ’49, Ralph ’52 and Dick ’64—decided that fact needed to be recognized and celebrated, so they created a Hall of Achievement for Monmouth’s public schools and another for Monmouth College. The brothers, who were raised in town by their parents, Wendell ’28 and Lucille Zimmerman Whiteman, are graduates of both. “I remember talking to my brother Don, and he said, ‘You know, we’ve got two CEOs of major Fortune 500 companies who graduated from Monmouth (Harold “Red” Poling ’49 at Ford Motor Co. and James Pate ’63 at Quaker State-Pennzoil),” said Ralph Whiteman, who still lives in Monmouth today. “He said, ‘No college around here has more than one, and most of them don’t have any. We need to market that.’”

Whiteman said it can be a natural mindset to think “That can’t happen to me because I come from a small town,” or what he once called in print “a perceived corporate inferiority complex.” The men and women who have been honored through the past three decades by the entity the Whitemans started prove that mindset wrong through their achievements, and the stories they share are a source of inspiration.

“We wanted to incentivize students, to show the quality of our product,” said Whiteman. “The inductees go to classrooms and speak to students. Their message can be, ‘I was where you are, now get with the program.’ This is all student-related. That’s what the purpose of this was when we started it back in 1992.”

Having a Hall of Achievement not only satisfies that purpose, but it carries other benefits, as well, said Whiteman, who served on Monmouth College’s Board of Trustees for 24 years.

One benefit, he said, is to heighten awareness and

appreciation of the teachers at Monmouth’s schools

THE HALL OF ACHIEVEMENT and the professors IS A POINT OF PRIDE FOR at the College. MONMOUTH ALUMNI AND Another is to serve

IS ATTRACTIVE TO FUTURE STUDENTS AND TO POTENTIAL DONORS. AND TO THE PEOPLE as what he called “a report card.” “The Hall of Achievement is a IN SCHOOL, IT’S PRETTY point of pride for IMPRESSIVE TO SEE THE Monmouth alumQUALITY OF THE PEOPLE ni and is attractive

YOU’RE ASSOCIATED WITH.” to future students RALPH WHITEMAN and to potential donors,” he said. “And to the people in school, it’s pretty impressive to see the quality of the people you’re associated with. It’s a marketable item for the College. Fundraisers can take this information on the road to share with prospective donors. One way to look at it is this is our report card. It’s good for the College to have that type of recognition. It’s a pretty impressive list of names.”

In addition to Poling and Pate, some of the College’s

Continued on page 10

DICK WHITEMAN ’64

THE HALL OF ACHIEVEMENT

1992

Walter S. Huff Jr. ’56 William M. LeSuer ’42 James L. Pate ’63 Harold A Poling ’49 Helen Wagner Willey ’38

1993

The Rev. Kenneth E. Bailey ’52 Dean E. Fischer ’58 Patricia J. Hofstetter ’48

1994

The Rev. Robert H. Meneilly ’45 H. Donald Winbigler ’31

1995

Gordon F. Huber ’43 H. Betty Weiss Oberstar ’43 K. Marie Stolba ’44 Makota Tsuda ’43

1997

William J. Winslade ’63

1998

Dr. Stanley E. Chism ’63 Joan L. Rezner Gundersen ’68 Capt. Robert C. Mabry Jr. ’70

2000

Vice Adm. James Stockdale ’46

2001

Timothy G. Lee ’61

2002

Roger J. Fritz ’50

2004

Maj. Gen. Phillip G. Killey Jr. ’63

2005

William L. Trubeck ’68

2006

Maj. Gen. Stephen T. Johnson ’72

2007

Gerald A. Marxman ’56

Harold “Red” Poling ’49 rose through the ranks at Ford Motor Co. to become its CEO.

Helen Wagner Willey ’38 was the star of the daytime drama As The World Turns for 54 years.

The Rev. Robert H. Meneilly ’45 was the founding pastor of one of the largest Presbyterian congregations in the United States.

Vice Adm. James Stockdale ’46 was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery as the most senior naval officer prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Joe Tait ’59 was the play-by-play radio announcer for the NBA Cleveland Caveliers for 40 years and winner of the Curt Gowdy Media Award.

Lon Helton ’72 hosts the syndicated radio show Country Countdown USA and has been named CMA Broadcast Personality of the Year 11 times.

Dwight Tierney ’69 was a founding member of MTV Networks and later served as a senior vice president for Viacom.

Sen. Mattie Hunter ’76 is a veteran member of the Illinois legislature, currently serving as the Majority Caucus Chair.

2008

Dr. Frank Fitch ’51

2009

Joe Tait ’59

2010

Kennedy Reed ’67

2011

Jerry Mitchell ’67

2012

Hamzah Kassim ’76

2013

Frederick Wackerle ’61

2014

Tom Ulmet ’64

2015

Maj. John Huston ’68 Karen Bush Watts ’65

2016

Karin Loya ’63 Dwight Tierney ’69

2017

Col. Susan S. Sandner Gibson ’81 Lon J. Helton ’72

2018

David Bowers ’60 Won Yang Everett ’68

2019

Karen Chism ’65 William Goldsborough ’65

2020

Bonnie Shaddock ’54 Larry Gerdes

2021

Sen. Mattie Hunter ’76 Dr. Rick Kaskel ’67

2022

Hiroyuki Fujita ’92 Karen Krueger ’72 other inductees include award-winning country music radio personality Lon Helton ’72, former vice presidential candidate Vice Adm. James Stockdale ’46, MTV co-founder Dwight Tierney ’69 and soap opera star Helen Wagner Willey ’38.

The College’s list of names grew by two on Sept. 30, when Hiroyuki Fujita ’92 and Karen Krueger ’72 were inducted into its Hall of Achievement during the Alumni Impact Awards, which are part of Homecoming festivities.

Fujita, who founded Quality Electrodynamics, a global developer and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology manufacturer, is chairman of Ohio State University’s Board of Trustees. Krueger was a foreign service officer during a 41-year career with the U.S. Department of State.

One of the first inductees into the Monmouth public schools hall of achievement in 1992 was actually a Monmouth College alumna—Ira Brooks Walsh ’57. Other College alumni who have joined that select group include Gracie Peterson ’22, Leino Corgnati ’35, Robert Cramer ’54, Charles Courtney ’57 and Chris Byers and Mike Salaway, both from the Class of 1989. They joined an illustrious list that included former president Ronald Reagan, who attended second and third grade in Monmouth.

“A hall of achievement is psychologically different from a hall of fame,” said Whiteman, who oversaw the proceedings for the first 20 years. “Normally, you think of individuals being honored. We think of honorees inspiring students. ‘We were where you are today, and you can do it, too.’ It’s really kind of a unique thing with the two simultaneous halls. The intended purpose of both of them was to be an inspiration to students.”

Some alumni achieved at such a high level that many in the community knew of their accomplishments. But others have also gone on to impressive careers while flying under the radar, or while their Monmouth roots weren’t realized by many.

“Years ago, I asked a Monmouth College chaplain if they were a devotee of (nationally known author and theology professor) Kenneth Bailey,” said Whiteman, referring to his 1952 Monmouth classmate who was inducted into the College’s Hall of Achievement in 1993. “The answer was yes, but they didn’t know that Bailey had graduated from Monmouth. So this program is also a way to raise awareness of some of these individuals’ stories and backgrounds and how they tie into Monmouth.”

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Kinship was keyword for Homecoming ’22

Monmouth College celebrated Family Weekend in mid-September. The Homecoming celebration that followed two weeks later could very well have been dubbed “Family Weekend II.”

The theme of family was a thread that ran throughout the Homecoming Weekend 2022 festivities, which were staged on two glorious autumn days.

Joining the slate of traditional Homecoming activities Sept. 30–Oct. 1 was the inaugural Fighting Scots Champions Club ceremony, where members of Monmouth’s undefeated 1972 football team were honored, along with their coach, Bill “Moose” Reichow.

“These are very special men who became part of our family,” said Reichow of the 30 players from the 9-0 squad who returned to campus for the Friday night ceremony.

Charlie Goehl ’73, one of the team’s co-captains in attendance, said he certainly felt like family after a meaningful intervention by Reichow, who personally drove him back from St. Olaf College after an in-game injury, rather than leave Goehl in a Minnesota hospital.

“I don’t remember the things that happened in the games,” said Goehl. “What I remember is what Coach did for me.”

Another special ceremony was held to formally dedicate the Trubeck Amphitheater, funded by former vice chairman of the Board of Trustees Bill Trubeck ’68 in memory of his late wife, Judith Williams Trubeck ’69.

“None of it would be possible without that generosity and love of family and Monmouth College,” President Clarence R. Wyatt said in his remarks at the dedication, held Saturday afternoon.

Located just outside the north entrance of the Center for Science and Business, the Trubeck Amphitheater helps connect the College’s west-side residence halls. Designed by Monmouth First Lady Lobie Stone, the amphitheater By Barry project included the renovation of an adjoining fountain and garden area, McNamara originally dedicated to Mrs. Trubeck in 2013. “This is a wonderful addition to what is already a beautiful campus,” said Trubeck. The weekend also featured the Alumni Impact Awards on Friday evening, which included the induction of tech company founder and CEO Hiroyuki Fujita ’92 and U.S. Department of State veteran Karen Krueger ’72 into the Hall of Achievement—the highest honor the College bestows upon its graduates.

Pride and gratitude

At the Fighting Scots Champions Club ceremony, Goehl and co-captain Steve Rueckert ’73 both paid tribute to the team’s third captain, Dave Brinker ’73, who died in 2015 and was the sub-

ABOVE: The family of the late Judith Williams Trubeck ’69 is all smiles following the ribbon-cutting for the new Trubeck Amphitheater and the renovated garden and fountain dedicated to her memory. Her husband, Bill Trubeck ’68, who funded the project, is pictured at center. He is flanked, from left, by his sister, Priscilla Trubeck Adolphson ’70, vice president for development Hannah Maher, director of facilities management Sarah Young, First Lady Lobie Stone, President Clarence R. Wyatt, vice president for student affairs Karen Ogorzalek and his brother-in-law, David Adolphson ’67.

homecoming 2022

Memories with Moose

Backing up Coach Bill “Moose” Reichow (front, center) at the 50th-anniversary celebration of their 1972 undefeated football season were more than 30 of his former players. Row 1 (from left): Steve Pinkus ’75, Bob Pratt ’74, Rod Davies ’74, Warren Bank ’75, Bill Breedlove ’76, Greg Derbak ’75, Bill Dusek ’73, Matt Entrup ’75, John Carter ’74 and Gary Peevler ’74. Row 2: Paul Waszak ’74, Mike Castillo ’74, Mark Rueckert ’74, Chuck Poeltler ’76, Bill Honeycutt ’74, Dennis Plummer ’73, Butch Avery ’73, Charlie Goehl ’73 and Joe Schurr ’75. Row 3: Tom Roy ’73 and Bob Trombetta ’74. Row 4: Jim Elsey ’76, Grant Minor ’74, Tom Aggen ’75, Roger Samuels ’76, Barry Jackson ’76, Dennis Birkhofer ’73, Steve Rueckert ’74, Warren Wilson ’74, Tom Kratochvil ’73 and Bob Stinauer ’76.

ject of many stories and memories from the players.

“I was proud to be your captain then, and I’m proud to be your captain today,” said an emotional Rueckert.

The coach-player relationship was also highlighted the next day by Taylor Thiel ’02, one of the three M Club Hall of Fame inductees.

“Words cannot express my gratitude to (former) Coach (Roger) Sander,” said an emotional Thiel of the baseball coach and 1978 Monmouth graduate, who attended the ceremony despite a grave illness. “I hope I made you proud.”

Sadly, Sander died the following week. (See obituary, page 70.)

Thiel also played basketball at nearby Galesburg High School, doing so in John Thiel Gymnasium.

“Every day I was out there, I was representing my family,” he said. “I played to make them proud.”

That was a sentiment shared by another Hall of Famer, Tanesha Hughes Newell ’09, who had attended her grandmother’s funeral the day before she was inducted.

“She would always tell me how proud of me she was,” said Newell, a three-sport standout for the Scots, who said Monmouth got on her radar through legendary Monmouth Hall of Famer Virgil “Tige” Boucher ’31.

Forever Monmouth

That Boucher was still sending students Monmouth’s way some 70 years after he graduated is a testament to the staying power of the College.

The third Hall of Fame inductee, Chris Pio ’84, touched on that theme when speaking of his three children, one of whom, Eric Pio ’26, has followed him to Monmouth.

“They know that even though their dad hasn’t coached here in several years, he never left,” said Pio. “It was all worth the effort. This is the only place I ever wanted to be, and now it’s where I’ll always be.”

In accepting the Family of the Year Award on behalf of the Thome-Johnson family, Katie Minor ’04 made references at the Alumni Impact Awards to her ancestors’ connections to the College that predated Boucher by several decades.

“Going all the way back to 1868, Monmouth College pointed 10 family members in the right direction,” she said.

One of those family members was her grandmother Mary Ann Thome Johnson ’45, whom Minor called “the nexus that joined the multiple generations of Monmouth graduates in our family together.”

Monmouth traditions were a big part of Minor’s upbringing, including singing the old Monmouth College songs. To conclude her remarks, she led the Alumni Impact Awards audience in a rendition of “I Want to Go Back to Old M.C.,” which was written in 1919.

Brothers and sisters

“GOING ALL THE WAY BACK TO 1868, MONMOUTH COLLEGE POINTED 10 FAMILY MEMBERS IN THE

Later at the podium, Dis- RIGHT DIRECTION.” tinguished Alumnus Award KATIE MINOR ’04 recipient Joel Hillison ’83, a retired Army colonel, said he wouldn’t have attended Monmouth if not for his brother, Robert Hillison ’82.

In that case, a real brother made a difference. For another honoree, it was figurative sisters who enriched her time at Monmouth and beyond.

“When you join a sorority, you’re told that you’re sisters for life, but you don’t truly know what that means at the time,” said Mary Ann Larsen Zimmerman ’88, who has gone on to alumnae positions with Kappa Delta and now has the perspective to appreciate “the beauty of lifelong friendships.”

Zimmerman was inducted into the Fraternity and Sorority Hall of Fame on Saturday morning, along with Mary Grable McLeod ’87.

At the Alumni Impact Awards, educational studies professor Michelle Holschuh Simmons received the Hatch Award for Excellence in Teaching, and she, too, referenced family.

“My kids inspire me with their curiosity and their love of learning,” said Holschuh Simmons, whose husband, Bob, is also on Monmouth’s faculty.

Another faculty member, psychology professor Joan Wertz, received the Distinguished Service Award at the Alumni Impact Awards.

“I consider myself lucky to have landed in this community, to be able to have the kind of impact I do on young people, and to work to help this institution and its students thrive,” she said. “Because in return, I have thrived here, too.”

Ed Wimp ’12, stranded in Florida because of Hurricane Ian, shared via video his acceptance remarks for the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award.

“I owe a lot of what’s made me me to Monmouth,” he said. “I encourage all of you to look for ways to impact others’ lives.”

Football team member Greg Derbak ’75 echoed that sentiment during a video celebrating the 1972 squad at the Fighting Scots Champions Club ceremony.

“This place is very special to me,” said Derbak, who admitted to being “rough around the edges” during his student days. “It changed my life.”

The football team was successful when Derbak was a Scot, and it’s still winning often today. The Scots topped visiting Lawrence 62-6 in the Homecoming game on Saturday afternoon.

Inductee Mary Grable McLeod ’87 (right) and Dawn Pfeiffer Stoyanoff ’92, representing inductee Mary Ann Larsen Zimmerman ’88, light a candle at the Order of Omega ceremony. Members of the Thome-Johnson family, which was recognized as Family of the Year, included, from left: Lucy Hyde Johnson ’72, Maj. Gen. Stephen Johnson ’72, Emily Johnson Minor ’76, Grant Minor ’74, Katie Minor ’04, Ben Minor and Ashley Kaple.

From left: Hall of Achievement inductee Karen Krueger ’72, Distinguished Alumnus recipient Joel Hillison ’83 and Hatch Award winners Michelle Holschuh Simmons and Joan Wertz were honored at the Alumni Impact Awards. Hall of Achievement inductee Hiroyuki Fujita ’92 and Young Alumnus Ed Wimp ’12 accepted via video messages.

Inducted into the M Club Hall of Fame were, from left: Tanesha Hughes Newell ’09, Chris Pio ’84 and Taylor Thiel ’02.

Theta Chi alumnus John Carlson ’74 (right) headed an effort to erect a historic marker in front of the former Theta Chi house, which was dedicated at Homecoming. He is pictured with Jim Braun ’83, whose company produced the sign.

homecoming 2022 REUNION CLASSES

CLASS OF 1982. Row 1 (from left): Mary Alexander Corrigan, Roger Osborne and Judy Harrison Curtis. Row 2: Ruth Ault Shimmin, Mike Magner, Bob Hillison and Ann DeCoster Holst. CLASS OF 1992. Row 1 (from left): Todd Halihan, Susan Boland and John Thomas. Row 2: Dawn Pfeiffer Syoyanoff and Julia Zobrist Doll.

CHECK OUT A HOMECOMING HIGHLIGHTS VIDEO:

tinyurl.com/mc-homecoming22

CLASS OF 1997. (from left): Bob Strabley, Kari Bailey Shimmin and Jason Johnson.

CLASS OF 2002. Row 1 (from left): Jill Kless Bays, Tana Clouse Kutemeier and Andrew Kutemeier. Row 2: Chris Bays, Kate Pearce Shaver and Beth Tourek Veen. CLASS OF 1987. Doug Liniger.

CLASS OF 2007. Hillary Hawkinson Stott.