The Summit Magazine Spring 2022

Dedicated to Summit’s Success: Affinity for The Summit inspires alumnae giving

By Tami McMann

Terri (Rohde) Tobler '70

A school as historic as The Summit, now in its 131st year, is guaranteed to have generations of families among its graduates. Consider the four branches connected to the parents of Terri (Rohde) Tobler ’70.

The pair, Bill and Joan (Schulte) Rohde ’47, met in a second-grade classroom at The Summit and made their First Communion together. Somewhere, there’s a photo of the two children on the jungle gym at Summit. Bill and Joan crossed paths again much later, eventually marrying and enrolling their daughters, Terri and Carol, at The Summit. Terri grew up and was married in the Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel in 1981. Her three children are Summit alumni and she currently has two grandchildren in the Montessori program. Numerous members of her extended family are also among our alumni base. Those are certainly deep roots, and deep roots are often watered by a river of affinity.

A love for The Summit inspires alumnae like Terri to both volunteer and use their financial resources to strengthen the school. Terri is a sponsor of the Angel Donor Program and her generosity ensures a seventh-grade girl can attend The Summit just as she did.

“It’s important to me that she has the opportunities down the road that Summit provides,” she says.

Although she attended Summit from Grades 8-12, Terri first walked through the door as a precocious 3-year-old whose mother had her hands full.

“She brought me to Sister Ellen Marie and asked, ‘Will you take my daughter?’” Terri recalls with a smile. “The youngest children [in the school] were 5, but they made an exception and let me go to kindergarten for three years. I loved it.” Returning in eighth grade, Terri was part of a class of only 36 and remembers Summit as a wonderful, happy place. “We were a spirited group, and I think we drove the Sisters crazy,” she laughs, “but we were very close. I’m still close with my classmates.”

At Summit, the opportunities for community service made a deep impression on Terri. “Giving back was always very important to me,” she says. “I was elected to an outreach position and helped the Sisters plan ways for us girls to volunteer. It was very eye-opening to interact with people from different backgrounds.” The experiences influenced her to study social work, sociology and nursing in college.

Today, Terri draws on her expertise in planning Summit class reunions to fulfill her role on the Engagement Committee of the Alumni Board, another way she gives back to The Summit. “When I graduated, there weren’t as many opportunities to stay involved with the school, so a lot of us fell away,” she says. “I want to get people involved again. That’s what I like – connecting people.”

Peggy (Feltrup Becker) Jackson '49

As a teenager in the 1940s alongside Terri’s mother Joan, Margaret “Peggy” Feltrup ’49 could not have predicted that she would also become the matriarch of a Summit family legacy. At the time, she was simply enjoying the many friendships blossoming between women of all ages.

“Summit was small,” she recalls. “We were friends with our teachers and friends with each other. I had a sense of belonging at The Summit and I still feel at home there.”

Upon graduation, Peggy was awarded a full scholarship to Edgecliff College, a small Catholic school for undergraduate women. She recalls feeling well prepared by the nuns and lay teachers at The Summit, and she eagerly pursued dual majors in English and philosophy with minors in history and Spanish. She even had time to work as a switchboard operator in the evening.

“I knew I wanted to get married,” she says, “but my dad insisted I graduate from college first. In some ways, we were raised for a world that no longer existed, but we were given the skills to cope.” She would need those skills in the years to come, as it turned out.

Today, Peggy Jackson is a kind woman 90 years young whose Hyde Park home is decorated with books, art, photographs and memories of a long and meaningful life. It’s hard to imagine her as a 51-yearold widow raising eight children, someone who relied on her lifelong Summit friends during those dark years. After grieving the loss of her first husband, Flavian Becker SBS ’43, she married her “last husband.” Bill Jackson, 95, is still by her side 35 years later.

Documenting decades of philanthropic work, the walls in Peggy’s home office are papered with certificates of recognition from the many organizations she has supported. Among them is Summit’s Mackenzie Sargent Distinguished Alumni Award, an honor she received in 2012 for her dedicated leadership. Over the years, she was president of the Mother’s Association (now called Summit Parents Association) and the Alumni Board, also serving as Alumni Annual Fund Chair.

“I’ve made many friends through charitable work, wonderful people who have enriched my life,” she says. “Whenever I’ve given something to God, I’ve received more in so many ways.”

A Summit lifer, Peggy enrolled all her children at the school and has watched several grandchildren graduate in their formal attire. She is now a member of the Cornerstone Heritage Society after naming The Summit as a beneficiary in her estate plans to honor the school’s impact on her life and her family.

“I truly think Summit is an excellent school and I would like to see it continue,” she explains. “At Summit we were taught a wise outlook on life – that God is so good. It was a tremendous gift. Being a Summit family gave us a good grounding in faith, in scholarship and in life. If I had young children today, I would still send them to The Summit.”

Missy (Segal) Fox ’88

Missy (Segal) Fox ’88 gives back to The Summit for a different reason. Another lifer, her parents were friends with Miss Brueggemann, a science teacher in the Upper School, who influenced the family’s decision to enroll at the school. Missy has distinct memories of all-school pep rallies where little kids cheered alongside the “cool, big kids.” Her father took her to the Upper School basketball games in the era of Dexter “Skywalker” Bailey ’80.

“They made it to the state championship in 1980,” she says, “and it was a big deal because the school had just opened to boys [in 1972], so the boys’ sports program was still new.”

By the time Missy was ready to enter the Upper School herself, the economy was in a recession and her parents were not sure they could continue to afford tuition. Thanks to a generous donor and a merit scholarship from The Summit, she was able to finish high school as a Silver Knight and enjoy activities like tennis and cheer.

Missy went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in finance from Indiana University and a master’s in business administration from Xavier University. She now manages 300 rental units for Paradrome Properties, a local business started by her father. Missy’s father once employed Rick Cruse ’79, one of those Upper School basketball players she used to cheer for as a child, during summer breaks. Rick, now an attorney, and Missy remain friends today. Like Terri and Peggy, she is still close friends with her Summit besties; her maid of honor was kindergarten friend, Kelly (Evans) Arevian ’88.

As an alumna, Missy volunteers on the Alumni Board and is the past president; she is also on the Board of Trustees and serves on the Development Committee and the Buildings, Grounds and Technology Committee. Her love for The Summit is obvious, but it’s her appreciation for the donor who funded her scholarship that motivates her to give back financially. She and her husband Brian established a scholarship endowment in the Leading the Way Campaign and give yearly to The Summit Fund at the Leaders of Character Society level.

“I know that there were opportunities available to me because of my Summit education, and I want to make sure that someone else has that advantage in life,” she shares.

Missy knows something about the preciousness of life in the same way Peggy does. When Missy’s first husband, Sev de Iuliis, passed away from leukemia just a week after their wedding, she drew on her resiliency to move forward with her life. Even years later, the emotions from that grim time are never far from the surface. Despite the hardships she’s faced, Missy hopes she is remembered for being a happy person who brought joy to others.

To learn more about opportunities to give back to The Summit, contact the Development Office. We would love to hear your story; contact us online at summitcds.org/submityournews.