Monmouth College Magazine - Summer 2021 by Monmouth College

VOL 36 | NO 2 | SUMMER 2021

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Beginning a new path

VIEW A VIDEO: bit.ly/monmouth-labyrinth

Surrounded by students attending the LUX Summer Theological Institute for Youth, Jon Dahl ’75 turns the first shovelful of dirt at the site of what will be a permanent campus labyrinth. Along with his wife, Barbara (yellow top), Dahl donated the funds to construct the meandering contemplative path to provide the campus community with an outlet for meditation and spirituality. Also participating in the June 25 ceremony was the Rev. Jessica Hawkinson, associate chaplain and director of the LUX institute. Constructed of red and black pavers, the labyrinth will be located on the lawn behind Wallace Hall.

PRESIDENT

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2021

14 OUR LIVING LEGACY From bagpipes to academic

excellence, Monmouth draws its strength from tradition and the vision of previous generations.

28 FIRST STEPS FORWARD The Class of 2021 celebrated Commencement activities that presaged a return to normalcy.

38 THE DATA ON DATO Slugging senior sets

Scots record for home runs.

Dr. Clarence R. Wyatt BOARD OF TRUSTEES Mark Kopinski ’79, Chairman Dr. Ralph Velazquez Jr. ’79, Vice Chairman Douglas R. Carlson ’66 Daniel Cotter ’88 Robert Dahl Dr. Harvey Echols ’81 Nancy Speer Engquist ’74 Christine Beiermann Farr ’90 William J. Goldsborough ’65 Kevin Goodwin ’80 Augustin Hart III ’68 Mahendran Jawaharlal ’86 F. Austin Jones John Kemp ’82 The Rev. Robert C. McConnell ’72 Michael B. McCulley, Esq. ’70 J. Alex McGehee ’81 Gary Melvin Bradley C. Nahrstadt ’89 Gail Simpson Owen ’74 J. Hunter Peacock J. Stanley Pepper ’76 Anthony J. Perzigian ’66 Dennis M. Plummer ’73 Anita Ridge ’88 Susan Romaine The Hon. John J. Scotillo ’72 Dr. Carlos F. Smith ’90 Sherman Smith ’72 Nancy L. Snowden Mark E. Taylor ’78 Dwight Tierney ’69 Beth Bowdoin Tyre ’96 Jean Peters Witty ’88 Jackie Bell Zachmeyer ’89 ALUMNI BOARD REPRESENTATIVES TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES Andrew Kerr ’73 Roy Sye ’13

ON THE COVER: When Wallace Hall was under construction in early 1909, members of the junior class climbed to the unfinished cupola and were photographed by a compatriot stationed on the roof of the newly completed Carnegie Library (now Poling Hall). Thanks to the efforts of loyal alumni, they would get to spend their senior year in a brand new building after witnessing the destruction by fire of the old College building just months earlier.

campus news

books 25

ALUMNI BOARD EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Andrew Kerr ’73, President Sean Maher ’89, Vice President Evelina Lipecka ’06, Secretary Michelle Perry ’89, Member at Large

sports 38

EDITORIAL BOARD

alumni news

Duane Bonifer Associate Vice President for Communications and Marketing

the last word

academics 7 newsmakers 9

Photo illustration by Jeff Rankin. NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATION

Monmouth College does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability, age, military service, marital status, sexual orientation, pregnancy or other factors as prohibited by law. Monmouth College admits students of any race, religion, color, sex, and national or ethnic origin to all rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to Monmouth students.

Kristen English Vice President for Enrollment Management Hannah Maher Vice President for Development and College Relations Barry McNamara Associate Director of College Communications Jeffrey D. Rankin College Editor and Historian

Monmouth College, an Equal Opportunity Employer, is committed to diversity and encourages applications from women and minority candidates. Any inquiries regarding Title IX or the College’s Policy Prohibiting Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation (www.monmouthcollege.edu/nondiscrimination-policy) should be directed to the Title IX Coordinator identified below. The Coordinator will be available to meet with or talk to students, staff and faculty regarding issues relating to Title IX and this policy. Michelle Merritt Title IX & VI Coordinator 309-457-2114 titleix@monmouthcollege.edu

MISSION STATEMENT: Monmouth College provides a transformative educational experience within a caring community of learners. As a residential liberal arts college, we empower students to realize their full potential, live meaningful lives, pursue successful careers, and shape their communities and the world through service and leadership.

MON MOU TH COLLEGE MAGA ZIN E

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

VOL. 36 | NO. 2 EDITOR AND DESIGNER Jeffrey D. Rankin ASSOCIATE EDITOR Barry McNamara Monmouth College Magazine is published three times a year for alumni, students, parents 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. CONTACT US: MAGAZINE EDITOR jrankin@monmouthcollege.edu 309-457-2314 ADDRESS CHANGE monmouthcollege.edu/update 888-827-8268 Development & College Relations Monmouth College 700 East Broadway Monmouth, IL 61462-1998 ALUMNI PROGRAMS 309-457-2231 888-827-8268 alumni @monmouthcollege.edu REGISTRAR 309-457-2326 registrar@monmouthcollege.edu ATHLETICS 309-457-2176 athletics@monmouthcollege.edu GIVE TO MONMOUTH 309-457-2231 888-827-8268 monmouthcollege.edu/give ADMISSION 800-747-2687 admission@monmouthcollege.edu

Printed on Cascades Rolland Enviro 100 paper, made with 100 percent post-consumer fiber.

HONORING OUR LEGACY BY SERVING OUR STUDENTS

s you will see, the theme of this issue

of the magazine is “legacy.” As I read the stories, I was drawn back to The Thread that Runs So True, written by Jesse Stuart, one of the best-loved authors of Lobie’s and my native Kentucky. Stuart’s account of his time as a teacher in rural eastern Kentucky remains one of the best expressions of the power of education I’ve ever encountered. The book describes Stuart’s struggles and triumphs as he serves as a teacher, principal and county superintendent. His students range widely in age, preparation and ability. The surrounding area is one of the poorest in the nation, and many of its residents are skeptical of formal education. Yet through it all he keeps his focus on his students. How can he best serve them? What are the best ways to engage with them? To reach them where they are and to help them see the greater possibilities that learning can unlock for them? Despite all of the obstacles, maintaining this focus on his students enables him to instill in them not only knowledge, but the power that learning can have throughout their lives. Both the story and the title of Stuart’s book have long had meaning for me, and especially so in the seven years that I have been honored to serve as Monmouth’s president, for both the story and the title evoke much of what makes Monmouth so special and so essential. Like Stuart, Monmouth College has seen its share of challenges, from the founding of the College at a time when the nation was being torn asunder, through the social, cultural and economic transitions that have marched through our history ever since. At times, those challenges may have seemed insurmountable. But also like Stuart, at every turn the people of Monmouth College demonstrated that their capacity to overcome these challenges was very nearly limitless. It is the people of Monmouth College who are the threads that run so true through the College’s history. Those threads may have different origins, but together they weave

a fabric deep in richness and strength. These threads together weave the legacy that we have been honored and challenged to inherit. We assume that legacy at an especially critical time in the College’s life. Changes in society, culture and the economy are putting tremendous pressure on all of higher education, most especially residential liberal arts colleges like Monmouth. Those changes have only been accelerated and exacerbated by the pandemic. There is no denying that these pressures have heightened concerns and tensions. I am absolutely confident, however, that, like those who have preceded us, this generation—our generation—in the life of Monmouth will triumph over any obstacles. We have many strengths as we approach this work—a visionary and ambitious Board of Trustees, dedicated faculty and staff, and alumni and friends who believe in and tangibly support the mission of the College. Like those preceding generations, we will succeed because our focus will be even more clearly upon serving our students. What is it that the students of today need and want from Monmouth College? What are our strengths and limitations in meeting those needs and desires? How do we evolve and create academic, cocurricular and extracurricular programs that serve our students, and thus enable us to recruit more students, retain students more effectively, and thus generate the greater revenue to better serve our students by investing in people and programs? Every generation before us has been confronted with those same basic questions. Like every generation before us, we will, together, answer them well and successfully. Let us be a generation that the future looks back to for inspiration. I am grateful for the part that each of you will play in this adventure—for the thread that you will bring to the strong and beautiful tapestry that is— and forever will be—Monmouth College.

Dr. Clarence R. Wyatt President

CAMPUS NEWS

HEALTH CARE CENTER OPENING ON CAMPUS Partnership with OSF HealthCare makes array of affordable services available to all students

Monmouth College and OSF HealthCare are teaming up to help the College’s students stay healthy. Beginning with the 2021 fall semester, Monmouth will offer a fully staffed student health center on campus. The center, located on the first floor of McMichael Residence Hall, will be available to all students. It will be staffed by OSF HealthCare medical personnel and will specialize in serving the needs of students. “The student health center has long been a goal for our campus, and it will be great to have it serving students during the fall semester,” said Monmouth Associate Vice President of Student Life and Co-Dean of Students Michelle Merritt ’89. “It would not have been possible without the excellent work of our student leaders, especially those in Scots Senate, as well as the College’s long history with OSF HealthCare. We especially appreciate the efforts of Monmouth alumnus and Board of Trustees Vice Chair Dr. Ralph Velazquez ’79, who is chief medical officer at OSF HealthCare. Dr. Velasquez certainly helped make this a reality.” The partnership builds on the College’s strong relationship with OSF HealthCare Holy Family Medical Center in Monmouth. “I’m excited OSF HealthCare Holy Family Medical Center will expand its partnership with Monmouth College to provide students with an on-campus health care service,” said OSF HealthCare St. Mary Medical Center President Lisa DeKezel. “Our expertise will give students access to trusted, convenient, high-quality and safe health care—something everyone deserves.” The College’s student health center will offer services that include treating acute symptoms, such as covid-19, strep throat and the flu. It will also have the capacity to perform the most common tests, offer behavioral health care and provide chronic

disease management for medical conditions such as ADHD, diabetes and allergies. The student health center will offer physicals and shots for allergies and vaccinations—including for the flu and COVID-19. Its personnel will be able to write prescriptions. May graduate Griffin Morrill said the student health center will mean that “Monmouth College will be a healthier and happier campus.” Kara Fisher ’22 said the campus student health center will enhance campus life in a multitude of ways. “I’m excited about having easy access to health care,” said Fisher. “This is a great —kara fisher ’22 value to our campus. Some of my friends don’t go to the doctor right now because they don’t want to pay the copay. More of my friends will go see a health care provider now knowing that they will not have a copay.” Western Region Chief Executive Officer Roxanna Crosser said OSF HealthCare providers “are an incredible community asset.” “We’re happy this collaboration will allow an opportunity to meet the health and wellness needs of students quickly and easily,” said Crosser. “We believe Monmouth College students will also embrace the convenient, online scheduling, virtual visit options, and digital tools OSF HealthCare offers to provide additional ways students can stay engaged in their physical and mental health.”

“More of my friends will go see a health care provider now knowing that they will not have a copay.”

A former lounge in the lower level of McMichael Residence Hall is being converted into a reception area for the health center.

SUMMER 2021

CAMPUS NEWS

Research journal returns in expanded format following COVID hiatus

Vice President for Development and College Relations Hannah Maher interviews Director of Multicultural Student Services Regina Johnson during a Scots Day live stream, while faculty member Jennifer Thorndike looks on.

T A RECORD DAY OF GIVING

cots Nation pulled together to make Monmouth College’s fifth annual Scots Day of Giving the best one yet, despite covid inconveniences. The April 15 event saw new records established for both dollars raised and donors contributing. In all, 964 donors combined to raise $271,852. Earmarked to receive those funds were five focused initiatives selected by the College’s Office of Development and College Relations: the Scots Care Fund for students in need; an outdoor Wi-Fi hotspot (with the Parent & Family Council); the Champion Miller 1860 Fund, which promotes campus diversity; the Fighting Scots Society; and the Monmouth Fund. “There is so much to celebrate about the day,” said Director of Alumni Engagement Jen Armstrong. “It was a good day for Monmouth and our students. And celebrations are most welcome these days.” Following tradition, bagpipes signaled the start of Scots Day of Giving at 5 a.m., kicking off 18 hours and 53 minutes of activities in honor of the College’s founding in 1853. Some of the day’s socially distanced highlights included a coffee chat with College Historian Jeff Rankin on “The History of Scots Day;” an ice cream social; and “Sippin’ with the Scots: Italian Wine Edition,” a town-gown event with faculty member Craig Vivian and Sarah Walters, the owner of Monmouth’s Market Alley Wines. Throughout the day, an anonymous donor pledged to donate $10,000 every time the College reached another 168 donors (the number of years since Monmouth College’s founding), up to 840 donors. That total was surpassed, generating a total challenge gift donation of $50,000.

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

he latest edition of one of the leading multidisciplinary undergraduate research journals in the United States is back after a short hiatus—and it is back in a big way. The 12th edition of Monmouth College’s Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research is a double issue featuring research articles by undergraduate students from nine U.S. colleges and universities. The schools range in size from residential liberal arts colleges to a state flagship research university. Topics explored in the double issue include women’s representation in health care on American TV from 1965–2019, an exploration of Quebec French rap, and “Bodies and Boundaries During the covid-19 Pandemic.” Monmouth’s students drive the journal, published annually since its founding in 2010. The pandemic forced MJUR editors to pause the 2020 edition with a few months left in the publication process. Having students back on campus for most of the 2020–21 academic year allowed MJUR’s 10 student editors to review the 55 submissions from schools around the world. They selected five more articles to join the four that had been accepted for the 2020 edition. Faculty adviser Michelle Holschuh Simmons said she enjoys the opportunity to work with some of the College’s top students in putting together the journal. “I enjoy getting to know the very brightest students on the Monmouth College campus,” said Simmons, who has worked with MJUR since 2016. “We have amazing student editors, and I enjoy meeting the students from all the different majors. This is an opportunity for me to work as a colleague with students, and that has been a really gratifying experience.”

Nate Schroeder ’21 (left) and Holly Reyner ’21 (far right) are joined by professors Michelle Holschuh Simmons, second from left, and Tammy La Prad at the final TARTANS meeting of the 2020–21 academic year.

Hill assumes digital media post Katelyn Hill has been named Monmouth College’s director of digital media. A native of Indianapolis, Hill earned her bachelor’s degree in marketing from Ball State University and will complete her MBA at Berry (Ga.) College in 2022. The former assistant director of the Illinois Small Business Development Center of McLean County, where she helped business owners develop marketing plans, Hill most recently worked as assistant director of hospitality and events at Berry College. As director of digital media at Monmouth, Hill’s responsibilities include overseeing the College’s social media efforts and helping maintain the primary website. She is married to Daniel Hill, Monmouth College’s quarterbacks and wide receivers coach.

Grads helping fill rural teacher gap The Monmouth College TARTANS (Teachers Allied with Rural Towns and Neighborhood Schools) program is designed to help address the growing shortage of talented teachers in rural schools. Two TARTANS, Nathan Schroeder ’21 and Holly Reyner ’21, are are on their way to rural schools. Both seniors completed their student teaching in the Farmington, Ill., school district. Reyner will teach orchestra and general music to grades 4–12 in the WACO (Wayland, Iowa) school district in Wayland, Iowa, while Schroeder will teach 9–12 math in Farmington.

hen a mass shooting targeting Asian women occurred in Atlanta last spring, members of the Monmouth College Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Group responded by organizing a roundtable discussion that was held via Zoom. Panelists for the March 31 discussion—titled “Asian & Asian American Experiences in the U.S.”—were Monmouth faculty members Jialin Li, Shweta Arpit Srivastava and Michelle Damian. “We should not ignore this crime,” said faculty member Jennifer Thorndike, the event’s moderator. “This panel is an opportunity to learn, to reflect and to act. May your voices help to build a more inclusive society.” When it comes to changing preconceived notions and stereotypes, part of the action that individuals can take is to “get yourself out of your comfort zone and do different things,” said Damian, an authority on Asian history. Damian said she applied that advice to her own life when she began traveling to Japan. “But even if you can’t travel overseas—especially during the pandemic—you can do other things,” she said. “If you’re from a small town, go to a big city. If you’re from the East Coast, go to the West Coast. Otherwise, the things you see in

your daily life are just being reinforced day after day. You can also ask yourself, ‘Do I think this way because this is what I really think, or is it just because that’s what everybody around me thinks?’” Damian and Li shared some of the “deeply rooted” history of how the Japanese and Chinese have been treated in America, discussing, among other legislation and incidents, the Page Act of 1875, which effectively prohibited the entry of Chinese women into the United States, and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which had the same effect on Chinese men.

Jerel Cooper/Shutterstock.com

Campus group addresses issue of anti-Asian violence

Flowers left at Gold and Aromatherapy Spa in Atlanta for victims of the March spa shooting.

SUMMER 2021

PHILANTHROPY

Dream and Achieve Scholarship targets first-generation students By Barry McNamara

efore Nathan Gaskill ’04 was a partner at the accounting firm of Lauterbach & Amen in Naperville, Ill., he was a first-generation college student wondering if he’d have enough money to begin and continue his Monmouth College education. “First-generation college students can face a multitude of challenges,” said his wife, Laura Haumiller Gaskill ’06. “The financial burden is often one of those barriers to entry, and one we thought we could help lighten that load.” The couple had Nathan’s experience in mind when they considered supporting Monmouth’s Light This Candle campaign, which will raise a minimum of $75 million for the College’s endowment by Dec. 31, 2022. In 2015, the Gaskills created the Nathan and Laura Gaskill Accounting Prize. “If we were going to make another gift, we thought about what that would look like,” said Laura. “Both of our hearts were set on helping first-generation college students.” The Gaskills responded to the challenges of the Light This Candle campaign by initiating the Dream and Achieve Scholarship. The scholarship is for a first-generation college student, with preference given to students from the local counties of Warren, Mercer, Henderson and Knox. Recipients should also be involved in Monmouth cocurricular activities. Although preference will be given to first-year students, transfer students will also be eligible for the scholarship. A graduate of Monmouth High School, Nathan studied accounting and business in college. Playing football, he set Fighting Scots career records for the most receptions, receiving yards and touchdown catches, earning multiple All-Midwest Conference honors at receiver and on special teams. He also competed at the NCAA meet as a member of the Monmouth track team. “The scholarship that we’ve done is also inspired by Nathan’s family,” said Laura. “Both sides of his family are from the area. We wanted it to be for local students. Monmouth has impacted Nathan’s life in a significant way; it’s his hometown.” Laura’s high school experience was different from her husband’s. She came to Monmouth from Naperville Central High School. “There were a thousand seniors in my class,” she said. “At the graduation ceremony, I sat next to people I didn’t even know.” Laura knew she wanted a different experience for college, and she set out in earnest to find it, making “13 college visits over the span of a couple of months.” Then a van trip to

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

The Gaskills with their children, Ryne (left) and Levi.

Monmouth, led by longtime admission counselor Peter Pitts, helped her make her decision. “I came to campus, and I remember thinking it was the picture of what a small school should look like,” she said. Laura said she felt the freedom “to try new things” at Monmouth. That had not always been the case at Naperville Central, which she said often felt “fast-paced” in a stressful way. “At Monmouth, I had the wonderful opportunity to try new things and make new friendships,” she said. “At first, I thought I would study psychology, but then public relations really spoke to me.” Laura majored in the subject, minoring in English. Until the pandemic, she ran a small PR marketing firm, Gaskill Creative. Laura attended a writer’s workshop at the University of Chicago and is working on a novel—although the pandemic has limited her writing opportunities as her focus has been on the school schedule of the couple’s two children, who are 8 and 6, respectively. Laura said her ability to shift midstream comes from her Monmouth experience. “I can point to so many examples from my liberal arts education at Monmouth that taught me to be flexible with what’s happening—from lessons I learned in economics with Professor (Dick) Johnston, to PR classes with Professor (Benita) Dilley, to the flyers we’d put out in Chris Goble’s class,” she said.

ACADEMICS

VR IS NEW CLASSROOM REALITY

or professors and students who are more than ready to move on from classes that have anything to do with “virtual learning,”

chemistry professor Brad Sturgeon and some of his colleagues in the Center for Science and Business might say, “Not so fast.” In April, Sturgeon put to use for the first time the College’s eight new sets of virtual reality equipment. The laptop and Oculus Rift S headset systems, which are portable, join three other “fixed” VR systems in the CSB, which have been used by kinesiology instructor Jen Braun and biology professor Kevin Baldwin to help teach anatomy. On the day they debuted, Sturgeon put the systems in the hands of some of his senior students, before using them the following week with one of his introductory classes. The goal, he said, is to have the new VR systems ready to use this fall for his general chemistry and quantum mechanics courses. “It really does bring it to life,” said Sturgeon of the molecular visualization that students can experience using the systems, which were acquired through a crowdfunding initiative. “The molecule just floats right in front of you.” After strapping on a headset and controllers for each hand, students can virtually take hold of a given molecule, enlarging or shrinking it as they see fit and rotating it in any direction to better observe a part of the molecule they wish to examine. “Once I learn how to do it myself, I could enter a ‘room’ with seven other students, and I could hold a molecule, and then I could literally pass it to them and they could take over,” said Sturgeon. “You can also modify the chemical structure. We have to visualize molecules with these sorts of tools, because the molecules are too small to examine with a microscope.” Outside of the sciences, Sturgeon said the new VR systems might be used for some of the College’s “Global Perspectives” courses. “In the future, I hope that the equipment can be used to explore global perspectives using the Google Earth VR software that can take you anywhere in the world,” he said. “Just type in an address, and it takes you there immediately,” even by flying, once users get acclimated to the hand controls. In fact, Sturgeon uses the Google Earth software as a way to get his chemistry students used to working in virtual reality. “You really learn how to use the hand controls,” he said. “It gets the students more comfortable as they prepare to work with molecular models.”

Of course, today’s generation of students has quite a head start when it comes to working with

“It really does bring it to life. The molecule just floats right in front of you.” —Professor Brad Sturgeon

such technology. “They pick things up a lot faster, and they’re very willing to jump in and do it,” said Sturgeon. “The majority of my students so far have been extremely savvy with the equipment and know how to navigate it.” Baldwin spoke about bringing the first set of VR equipment to campus a few years ago. “It’s the way things are starting to head,” he said. “Medical schools are using this. I got excited about VR when I went to a conference and a professor at a medical school used it, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is a lot better than it used to be. This is pretty amazing.’ I figured, if I got excited about it, students are probably going to get pretty excited about it.” Hannah McVey, an exercise science major who graduated in May, found the VR experience enlightening. “It gives you a different perspective,” she said. “You can go inside the heart and look around. With each pump, you can see the valves moving. You can peel different layers off the heart and see all the different layers and the valves and each chamber.” Braun and Baldwin said VR complements the other ways that students learn. “If they see it on paper, if they see it in an anatomy and physiology lab and if they see it on a screen, it’s just allowing them to have that much more an opportunity to make it stick in their head,” said Braun. “We have our real specimens—bones, cadavers—that they can learn on, but this is a way of supplementing that and giving them another avenue to access the material,” said Baldwin.

Chemistry professor Brad Sturgeon (center) gave his senior students the first crack at using the College’s eight new virtual reality systems. In the foreground is Hannah Hofmann ’21, while Sturgeon assists Sara Simonson ’22.

—Barry McNamara

SUMMER 2021

ACADEMICS

TOWARD CARBON NEUTRALITY

ITO-LABELLE

KWAMBOKA

SIMPSON

hree Monmouth College environmental studies and sustainability majors and their professor have outlined a plan for how the campus could become carbon neutral in the next decade. Danielle Ito-LaBelle ’21, Nyasaina Kwamboka ’23 and Grace Simpson ’22 joined biology professor Ken Cramer in presenting a proposal last spring to the campus community. “We have to use things in a way that we don’t rob future generations—that we don’t destroy the system upon which we all depend,” said Cramer, who noted that a major reason to move toward carbon neutrality is to mitigate the effects of climate change. “Climate change is really a problem of waste and degradation. We’re dumping too much greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. One of those is carbon dioxide.” Cramer and the students want Monmouth to join nearly a dozen U.S. colleges and universities that have achieved carbon neutrality, including residential liberal arts colleges similar to Monmouth. “This is not pie-in-the-sky dreaming,” said Cramer. “This is stuff that can be done.” For their campus presentation, each student discussed an element of renewable energy. “Solar energy is the cleanest and most abundant renewable energy source available, and the United States has some of the richest solar resources in the whole world,” said Kwamboka. “That helps the environment by reducing the dependence on non-renewable energy, such as fossil fuels, and thus reduces air pollution and water pollution.” She said that part of the group’s proposal is for the College to install LED lights in parking lots, along sidewalks and for emergency lighting. “We would also like to maximize our solar output by installing solar on our buildings that have large roofs—the Center for Science and Business, the Huff Athletic Center and Hewes Library,” she said. Monmouth business and science students are helping test cutting-edge panels for a leading solar company with panels that have been installed on top of the Center for Science and Business.

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Simpson focused on wind energy. “Wind is an inexhaustible resource that will provide the College a large return on investment,” she said. “By utilizing this resource, Monmouth College will be following in the footsteps of other successful small liberal arts colleges.” She said that one Midwest residential liberal arts college projects to save $1 million over the 20-year lifespan of a wind turbine it installed on campus. “Solar and wind energy are both growing incredibly rapidly, and coal is declining,” said Cramer. “Renewable energy has been around for a long time. It’s tested, proven technologies. It’s just a matter of expanding our use of it so that we can protect the environment a little better and still do the things we like to do.” The group showed that by a large margin coal has been king as a source of energy over the last 70 years in the United States. But coal’s use peaked around 2005 and has been in sharp decline since 2010. Meanwhile, the use of biofuels and wind has risen significantly since 2000, and solar has made strong gains in the past five years. Solar’s photovoltaic capacity in megawatts is predicted to be 10 times higher in 2023 than it was just five years ago. Although wind usage peaked a decade ago, its plateau is still at a high level, with much of that usage coming from the interior regions of the country. Part of the proposal was for the College to hire a full-time sustainability officer by the summer of 2022. “We will pass on our report to subsequent generations,” said Cramer. “If and when we have a sustainability coordinator, that should be the first thing they would read just to save them some initial work. You have to have someone who is dedicated to doing this full-time.” The proposal’s first steps call for a greenhouse gas audit and to form a sustainability advisory committee. By next year, the group hopes to see individual energy metering of each building, which the students said would help drive dorm competitions to decrease usage. —Barry McNamara

“This is not pie-in-the-sky dreaming. This is stuff that can be done.”

NEWSMAKERS

After more than a decade leading Monmouth College’s spirtual life program, the Rev. Dr. Teri McDowell Ott, dean of the chapel, has accepted a new position as editor and publisher of The Presbyterian Outlook, the magazine of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which has been published since 1819. Ott will pursue her new duties from her home OTT in Monmouth, and her husband, Dan Ott, will continue to chair Monmouth’s department of philosophy and religious studies. Two longtime faculty members have announced their retirement. Judi Kessler, professor of sociology and anthropology, retires after 20 years of service. A former registered nurse with a doctorate in sociology, she has specialized in issues relating to immigration and globalization. A founding faculty member of the Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research, which is published KESSLER annually by Monmouth College, she received the Hatch Award for Distinguished Service in 2017. Carolyn Suda, lecturer in the music department and director of string activities, retires after 35 years. The former principal cellist for the Knox-Galesburg Symphony and the Monmouth Trio, she also taught at Emory University and Knox College. She regularly performed with her violinist husband, the late professor David Suda, and conducted the Monmouth College Chamber Orchestra. SUDA Francisco Ángeles of the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures and art professor Janis Wunderlich, who both joined the faculty in 2017, are corecipients of Monmouth College’s 2021 Hatch Award for Scholarship and Creative Work. An internationally renowned novelist and journalist, Ángeles’s 2019 book, Adiós a la ÁNGELES revolución, was nominated for the Luces Award for best Peruvian novel. Wunderlich is a ceramics artist and painter who has had several solo exhibitions, including one in Ohio where she earned a grant to work with high school students in rural Appalachian regions of Ohio and West Virginia. Her work has been on display in group exhibitions nearly two dozen times since she started at Monmouth, WUNDERLICH from Massachusetts to California. Recently, she received a $15,000 Individual Artist Fellowship Award from the Illinois Arts Council.

Lewis Gould, retired visiting distinguished professor of history, is the inaugural recipient of an award that bears his name—the Lewis L. Gould Award, presented by the First Ladies Association for Research and Education (FLARE). A pioneer in the study of the wives of America’s presidents, he was the first to develop a university-level course on the GOULD history and legacies of first ladies. Speaking at the award ceremony was former Monmouth College history professor Stacy Cordery, now bibliographer for the National First Ladies Library, who was mentored and inspired by Gould. Biology professor Tim Tibbetts received the Boy Scouts of America’s District Award of Merit, presented by the Inali District of the Illowa Council. The award is available to registered Scouts who render service of an outstanding nature at the district level. Tibbetts was cited for his exemplary work with the council’s Merit Badge University, an event held annually at Monmouth College TIBBETTS that helps Scouts earn merit badges. Earlier this year, Tibbetts received Monmouth College’s Hatch Award for Distinguished Service, recognizing him for leading the Pipe Band for 20 years, supervising the restoration and care of LeSuer Nature Preserve, as well as chairing the biology department and serving on Faculty Senate. Dan Nolan, who retired in December after serving 21 years as Monmouth’s sports information director, was honored with a national award by the College Sports Information Directors of America for an essay he wrote in conjunction with his retirement. Titled “Sports Information Perrspective: NOLAN Calling it a Career,” the article appeared in the spring issue of Monmouth College Magazine. It received the Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest Award for best historical feature. Cross country coach Jon Welty ’12 completed his second Ironman Triathlon in June. Held at Couer d’Alene, Idaho, where an unusual heat wave pushed the temperature to 102, the 140.6-mile race included a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. During the bike ride, the heat on the blacktop neared 120 degrees. Without the constant support of WELTY residents handing out water and spraying the contestants with hoses, Welty said that finishing the 13-hour ordeal might have been impossible.

SUMMER 2021

Around Campus

From left, Tala Tabashat, Hannah Pitman, Olivia Croasdale and Jacob Duncan take a break from their labors at the Monmouth College farm.

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Summertime, and the gardening is easy By Barry McNamara

tudents looking for the farm experience but without traditional farmers’ hours should take a hard look at joining Monmouth College’s farm and garden crew.

Rather than having to rise before the sun, crew members are able to start their days at 8 a.m. at the College’s Educational Farm and Garden, where they all have special projects to keep them busy in addition to the daily upkeep of the two distinct areas, which are both located east of campus. Biology major Hannah Pitman ’23 is tasked with the bees and the herb garden, the latter with the help of volunteer Tala Tabashat, a rising junior at Macalester College in Minnesota studying environmental science, and Monmouth student Olivia Croasdale ’24. “I’m working with Professor (Craig) Vivian on the bees, and I’m learning about their maintenance and just about bees, in general,” said Pitman. “I’ve always been kind of scared of bees, but I’ve also been fascinated by them. The first time, I was a little nervous, but I actually held a bee and it could’ve stung me, but it didn’t.” English major Jacob Duncan ’22 has prior experience at the farm through his former academic adviser, now-retired English professor Craig Watson, who also served as director at the farm. “I’ve come back because I just enjoy the rewarding nature of taking care of a crop and harvesting it and seeing the fruits of our labor, literally and figuratively,” he said. “I’ve just enjoyed being around nature, because I’ve never been an outdoors person, but I’m starting to be that way more and more the longer I do this.” Duncan is tasked with the mowing of both properties, although he’s intentionally not doing it as often. “This year, we’re keeping the grass high at the farm in order to encourage a bit more wildlife to stay around, increase the soil productivity and make it a little more of a nature preserve out at the farm,” he said. The daughter of Monmouth faculty member Petra Kuppinger, Tabashat is taking advantage of an opportunity not offered at her urban college. “I wanted to do something over the summer that relates

to my major,” she said. “I do a focus in sustainable design at my school. The practices we do here are very sustainable. Getting to work hands-on with that is a really great experience for me.” A philosophy major, Croasdale is in charge of the blueberries and the chickens. “The blueberries are one of our biggest moneymakers,” she said. “We sell them to stores and restaurants, and then we have our U-picks for them, and we also have them at the Farmers Market.” Monmouth’s Farmers Market is held Fridays on the Public Square through October. Some of the other major items from Monmouth’s farm and garden available there are strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, asparagus, honey, sweet potatoes, apples, garlic and blueberry jam. “We have seven baby chicks who are just living in our ‘Kubota Lodge’ until they’re fully feathered, and then we will let them out to roam,” said Croasdale. “We have six other chickens—five hens and one rooster, named ‘Lucky.’ Our biggest project with the chickens this summer is to get them off of store-bought feed and feed them things that we grow.” That’s part of a sustainability effort that has long been a part of the farm and garden’s philosophy. “(Farm co-director Eric) Engstrom’s main goal is to make this farm completely sustainable, so that it runs on solar power,” said Pitman. “He wants it ‘off the grid,’ so he wants a self-sustaining flock, which is why we got ‘Lucky.’” Watching something grow from seed to plant is part of the appeal of farm work, and this year’s workers hope the farm crew will also experience growth in the near future. Duncan thinks a fear of the unknown is likely holding back more students from the fulfilling work at the farm. “I think people are kind of scared to come out here,” he said. “The first time I was out here as a volunteer and we were planting garlic, I was scared to do it, because I didn’t want to do it wrong. I think since some people don’t know anything about it, they are scared to get involved.” “It’s enjoyable to come out here and put in work, and it goes by quick,” said Pitman. “Even Fridays, the 12-hour days we work, it goes by so fast, because we actually enjoy what we’re doing,” said Croasdale. “There’s never a dull day out here.” SUMMER 2021

R etirements

Stories by Barry McNamara

Ken Cramer Back to the great outdoors

en cramer’s pursuit of biology came, well, naturally. “I spent a lot of time outside as a kid. It was a refuge for me,” said Cramer, who grew up in St. Joseph, Mo., and retired this y ear after 28 years on Monmouth’s faculty. “So just being able to stay outside was the original plan behind studying biology. I always felt comfortable outside, looking at cool critters.” For a career, Cramer said he’d been interested in “conservation biology since about seventh grade.” “I was looking to go to college in-state, and the only school that had that program was the University of Missouri, so I had to go there,” he said. “That’s how subtle my college decision process was.” Following Mizzou, Cramer received a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma, and he earned a doctorate at Utah State University. “Some of my interest in being outside and studying biology was also an avoidance of people, but as you mature, you change,” he said. “In grad school, I had to teach to earn my way, and that’s where fulltime teaching became a possibility. I thought it could still go either way” between conservation and teaching. Teaching won out, with Cramer holding a visiting professor position at Central Missouri State University for three years before coming to Monmouth in 1993. Critters are still important to Cramer, but people have grown on him. He met his wife of now

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20 years, communication studies professor Trudi Peterson, on the faculty, and took her to Costa Rica recently to celebrate their milestone anniversary. “It was my fourth time there and her first,” he said. “I don’t think I can convince her to retire there, though.” Cramer helped hire several biology faculty members over the past three decades. In 1999, Kevin Baldwin joined the department, and James Godde and Tim Tibbetts were hired in 2001. The quartet was together for 20 years. “Tim has grown into a really important friend and ally in the department,” said Cramer of his frequent opponent in tennis. “All the time Tim’s put in at LeSuer Nature Preserve really took a load off of me.” And then there are Monmouth’s students, several of whom have worked with Cramer on his main research project for the past several years, the study of brown recluse spiders. “It’s been a lot of fun working with a lot of different students,” he said. “I’m still Facebook friends with a lot of them.” Among the students who stand out to him are Dr. Deb Jackowniak Scarlett ’95 “from the early days,” Joni Nelson ’07 and Dusty Sanor Spurgeon ’10. He’s also enjoyed leading or being part of student trips to locations such as Hawaii, the Grand Canyon and Death Valley, as well as the Galapagos Islands. Cramer also did extensive work on the College’s curriculum, coordinating two parts of the four-year integrated studies program—“Introduction to Liberal Arts” and “Reflections.” He worked closely with several faculty members on those projects and he listed two former colleagues— Craig Watson and the late Richard “Doc” Kieft—as “good mentors to have.” Interviewed a few weeks into his retirement, Cramer leaned back in his chair and said: “It’s nice to have nothing to do. I’m enjoying it so far. I’m working in the yard and taking care of the pond (Hamilton’s Pond, just north of campus). I’m going to learn how to play the guitar and read more, plus do plenty of cycling and tennis, which I do anyway. I’m going to do more bird watching and more vacations, hopefully—more wilderness hikes.” In other words, being outside will still be a major part of Cramer’s life, just as it’s been since his childhood.

Farhat Haq She brought the world to Monmouth

sked how she would like her 33-year tenure at Monmouth College to be remembered, retiring political science professor Farhat Haq had a very apt seven-word response: “That I brought the world to Monmouth.” Haq, who is now serving as provost at Lahore University of Management Sciences in her native Pakistan, didn’t want her statement to come off as braggadocio. Rather, she was referring to a spectrum of global perspectives she brought to the campus and local community—from courses she taught on Islam, to exotic meals she prepared in her home for guests. “The courses that I taught at Monmouth were very much about the world,” said Haq, who joined the faculty in 1987, the same year she received her doctorate in government from Cornell University. “And my home is a place where so many students and faculty members have come and shared food from a different part of the world.” As is so often the case with a college education, the lessons Haq helped teach didn’t necessarily come from a textbook. “My students could see the ways we could be different from each other—culturally, politically, spiritually—but yet connect with so many people,” she said. “Many of the students were from small towns that weren’t that diverse, but that didn’t matter. We all connected. Right now in our country, that’s something we need to understand, as our identities are overruling our actions. At the end of the day, we’re all human beings.” Haq fondly remembers a Thanksgiving gathering at the home of her longtime department colleague, the late Ira Smolensky, who was also responsible for bringing her to Monmouth. “Around the table, we had four or five different religions represented,” she said. “There were people from Nepal, Japan, Germany, Pakistan. … I made great friends at Monmouth. There was tremendous diversity and so many interesting characters. Monmouth College was my home. I sensed it with my whole being, and I always knew that my well-being was connected to the College’s well-being.” Emotions got the better of Haq as she discussed the importance of the connections and relationships that are central to the Monmouth experience. “Through the years, people would ask me, ‘Why stay at Monmouth?’ The work we do at Monmouth College has been so meaningful. We have done something good. There’s a spirit here that takes over our whole being,” she said. “It’s not just a job for

us. We get to know our students in greater depth. We are part of their trials and tribulations. We worry about them. We get to know them as fellow human beings. And that’s a privilege.” Haq came to Monmouth with considerable knowledge and expertise, but little practice or experience. She credits Smolensky for letting her find her comfort zone. “If I’d been at some larger institution, I’d have been in a silo, only teaching in my specific area,” she said. “I would’ve been straightjacketed. But at Monmouth, I had the opportunity to develop new courses. It was almost like I was still a student.” In her sixth year at Monmouth, Haq won the prestigious Burlington Northern Foundation Faculty Achievement Award. She has also received the College’s Hatch Academic Excellence Award for both teaching and scholarship. Haq’s expertise came into play midway through her tenure at Monmouth after 9/11. “I had that set of expertise with political Islam, and I was able to do some public education and engagement around that, helping people understand what Muslim and Islam is all about,” she said. Haq leaves Monmouth not only with gratitude for the connections she’s made with students and colleagues, but also with comfort in knowing she’s leaving the political science department in good hands. “When I first started, we had a very small department,” she said. “Ira and I were the only full-time faculty. We had a good partnership. And then we were able to bring in a third full-time member, and we’ve always had good part-time faculty, like Robin Johnson. The department is now in a very strong position, and that’s a very important part of my ending chapter here.”

SUMMER 2021

HONORING MONMOUTH’S By Jeff Rankin Editor

erived from the Latin noun legatus, meaning “person designated,” legacy in its earliest sense referred to property bequeathed in a will, but its definition has broadened over the centuries to include anything

inherited from those who have come before, including laying a foundation for the success of future generations. Civilizations are built on legacies of language, laws, literature and the arts. Likewise, colleges thrive on traditions of teaching and learning established by generations of faculty, trustees, administrators and alumni. To facilitate and strengthen those traditions, colleges naturally build endowments and physical plants, but less-tangible forms of legacy are equally important.

The family atmosphere that has long defined the Monmouth experience was no more evident than in this 1931 panoramic photo, taken in front of Wallace Hall. Students, faculty and staff all turned out for the occasion. Little did they imagine the many legacies that their generation would leave for the College 90 years in the future.

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An early Monmouth College pennant in the Monmouthiana Collection of the College Archives.

onmouth College was founded as a Presbyterian academy, so its religious heritage remains a part of its DNA. The early presidents were ordained ministers who saw moral instruction as central to their mission. While students of all faiths were welcomed, campus life for its first century was organized around Presbyterian principles. Required daily chapel and monthly vespers, bans on alcohol and tobacco, dancing and card playing were among the legacies of the founders that saw enduring influence. Although no longer governed by the Presbyterian Church, Monmouth College still celebrates the faith and determination of its Scotch-Irish founders. Their legacy is reflected in campus spiritual life traditions, such as chapel services; in curriculum, such as religious studies and classical languages; and in scholarships and faculty chairs they established. Monmouth’s first president, David A. Wallace, may have left the greatest legacy on a young Monmouth College. Coming to the frontier of Illinois from a comfortable life in East Boston, he assumed the burden of administrating an institution with virtually no endowment, meager facilities and few faculty members. He soon faced the task of constructing a new building while the Civil War drained much of the student body. Wallace navigated admirably, but the strains took a toll on his health and he died at the age of just 57. Speaking at the 50th anniversary celebration for Monmouth College, one of its earliest graduates, Maj. R. W. McClaughry, said of Wallace: “When the history of the

past half century shall be written and the development of this institution, this community, this state, this Mississippi Valley, this great West shall be traced; exalted among the foremost names of those whose labors will be appreciated and remembered by a grateful people will stand the name of David Alexander Wallace.” But Presbyterians like Wallace were not the only ones to leave a legacy at Monmouth College. Today, Monmouth’s presidents reside in a grand home built by Judge Ivory Quinby, who was one of the College’s early benefactors and trustees. Although Quinby was a Baptist by faith, he recognized the importance of higher education within a growing prairie town and generously offered his considerable financial and business counsel to President Wallace. When Quinby died in 1869, a Monmouth College student named William M. Walker wrote to a friend back home: “There will be no recitations tomorrow on account of the funeral of one of the founders of the College, Judge Quinby. The President of the College seems to feel his death very much. We meet tomorrow at the College Chapel and march in procession to the church and from there to the grave.”

BELOVED BAGPIPES One of the founders’ most enduring legacies, beloved by generations of Monmouth alumni, is the celebration of Scottish traditions. The first college in the nation to adopt and trademark the athletic nickname “Fighting Scots,” Monmouth has gradually built on that legacy—registering a red, white and black plaid fabric with the Scottish Register of Tartans, observing the annual tradition of Scots Day and most notably maintaining a pipe band. While new students are sometimes slow to warm to the shrill sound of bagpipes, alumni returning to campus universally report a thrill each time they hear those familiar strains.

SUMMER 2021

continued from page 15

Another meaning of legacy—often linked to Greek life—is a member’s son or daughter who pledges to the same fraternity or sorority. The term can also describe a student who is the descendant or sibling of a past or current student. Such students are critical to Monmouth’s admission program. Of the 189 graduates who crossed the Wallace Hall stage at this year’s Commencement, a full 33 were Monmouth legacies. “Legacy families are the backbone of Monmouth College,” said Kristen English, vice president for enrollment management. “It’s so special when families share the Monmouth experience across generations. When a parent or grandparent encourages their own kids or grandkids to come to Monmouth, there’s no higher praise for a Monmouth education.” Liberal arts colleges like Monmouth thrive on family ties and a love for the institution that grows over succeeding generations. This realization led to the establishment in 2005 of the Family of the Year Award, which most years illustrates a remarkable multigenerational interconnectedness of alumni. This year’s honored family, the Sondgeroths (see story, page 24) is a perfect example. The number of alumni couples who met at Monmouth and later married is remarkable. In 1979, according to the alumni directory of that year, 25 percent of Monmouth alumni were married to Monmouth alumni. English said that alumni are the best recruiters because nobody knows and understands the College and its culture better than those who experienced a Monmouth education. “We are always extremely grateful when alumni refer students to our team because we already know that student will be an ideal fit for Monmouth and someone who will bring so much to our community,” she said. “There’s nothing like hearing someone’s personal story to convince prospective students that Monmouth is a special place.”

AN ATHLETIC TRADITION With more than 50 percent of the Monmouth student body participating in at least one varsity sport, the legacy of athletics at Monmouth College cannot be ignored. The thrill of the annual Turkey Bowl football game against Knox, dating to 1888, is one of Monmouth’s most enduring traditions, but the legacies left by influential coaches and former athletes have been no less influential. Many are enshrined for their records in the M Club Hall of Fame, but many have also contributed in the form of recruiting talented student-athletes. Among

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“When a parent or grandparent encourages their own kids or grandkids to come to Monmouth, there’s no higher praise for a Monmouth education.” —KRISTEN ENGLISH

Vice President for Enrollment Managment

those legendary for attracting generations of Fighting Scots are 1921 graduates J.O. Firth and Fred “Doc” Blick, Bobby Woll ’35, Ken Geiger ’53 and Roger Haynes ’82. One of Monmouth’s oldest and most enduring legacies is military service. The commissioning of two new ROTC cadets in May (see story, page 34) is an illustration of this continuing tradition. On Veterans Day 2014, Monmouth dedicated the atrium of its Center for Science and Business in honor of the countless students, alumni, trustees and employees who have served their country in the armed forces. Among them were four Medal of Honor recipients, including the late Bobby Dunlap ’42, a hero of Iwo Jima; and his cousin, the late Vice Adm. James Stockdale ’46, who spent seven years in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” after his fighter jet was shot down over Vietnam. Monmouth is celebrated worldwide as the birthplace of the women’s fraternity movement. Active and alumnae members of Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma, which were founded at Monmouth, can thank the College’s Presbyterian founders for this legacy. Had not women been admitted to Monmouth on an equal basis with men from its inception— which was highly unusual at the time—the independent spirit of the Pi Phi and Kappa founders could not have been kindled as early as 1867 and 1870, respectively. The College’s Greek system remains strong today, thanks to the legacy of many who came before. The Beta Epsilon chapter of Alpha Xi Delta, for example, has the distinction of being the chapter closest geographically to now-defunct Lombard College in Galesburg, where the organization was founded. But it might not even exist had it not been for the perseverance of the late Alpha Xi alumna Isabel Bickett Marshall ’36, who in 1997 helped resurrect the chapter, which had been deactivated nearly 20 years earlier. Another Greek alumnus, the late Virgil Boucher ’32, remained close to the brothers of his Illinois Gamma chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon throughout his long life, and upon his death provided a generous endowment to the chapter.

HO NO RING L E GAC Y

AN EYE TOWARD THE FUTURE Ultimately, financial stability is the most important legacy that alumni and friends of Monmouth College can help provide. Former Board of Trustees chairman William Goldsborough ’65, who is chairing the current Light This Candle campaign, believes that in addition to ensuring the College’s current financial health, it is incumbent on the Board to also have forward vision. “The College of 2050 has only a single advocate—today’s trustees,” he said. “The students of 2050 haven’t been born yet, and few of today’s faculty and staff will still be around at that time. Only the current Board of Trustees can balance the complicated intergenerational needs of the institution.” A model of a trustee whose vision was focused on the future was the late Richard “Doc” Kieft. A lifelong bachelor who considered the College community his true family, the former chemistry professor became legendary over his 30year career at Monmouth for his personal style of teaching. When he left his $2.3 million estate to the chemistry department, he also created a summer research program, allowing science students an opportunity to conduct intensive cutting-edge research under close faculty supervision. One of Monmouth’s earliest organizations was the Octopus Society, a semi-secret club that formed in 1928 in order to groom eight promising young men each year for future philanthropic efforts on behalf of Monmouth College. Although the society still exists (and is now coed), educating future alumni about the importance of supporting their alma mater is no longer limited to a just a few. During their senior year, all students are asked to select a project that will be their graduation legacy to the College. Past gifts have included physical projects

such as the Scots Spirit statue, campus signage and a new carillon for Wallace Hall. At their Senior Send-Off in May, the Class of 2021 announced it had raised more than $19,000 toward Scots Care, a relief fund established to assist students struggling financially due to the covid-19 pandemic. Monmouth honors donors who support the long-term stability of the College through legacy gifts by offering membership in the McMichael Heritage Circle. Fittingly named for former presidents Jackson B. McMichael and his son Thomas H. McMichael, who together served the College for a remarkable total of 42 years (see story, page 26), the organization has five membership categories, one of which comprises bequests and planned giving. Another category honors faculty and staff who have left a unique legacy by serving the institution for at last 25 years. Legacy is the lifeblood of a liberal arts college. The cumulative wisdom distilled within its walls and dispersed by generation after generation of graduates is a powerful force. It makes its way back to the institution, providing sustenance and inspiration for future generations. Monmouth College’s legacy was planted in 1853, but it will never stop growing. On the pages that follow are stories of alumni and friends who continue to help cement Monmouth’s legacy through philanthropy, advocacy, volunteerism and, most of all, as loyal Scots.

A favorite photo stop for visiting alumni, the Scots Spirit statue is a legacy of the Class of 2015, with assistance by Gus ’68 and Rebecca Hart. It serves the dual purpose of celebrating the legacy of Monmouth’s Scottish heritage.

SUMMER 2021

AN AFFIRMATION OF LEGACY: MONMOUTH’S NEW MISSION STATEMENT

t its spring meeting, the monmouth college

Board of Trustees adopted a new mission statement for the institution. Nearly two years in the making, it was the first time in nearly 25 years that a review of the mission had been undertaken. A college’s mission statement captures its history and its present and projects its best self into the future. Monmouth’s decision to review its mission statement followed the successful 2018 reaccreditation review by the Higher Learning Commission, in which the visiting team suggested the statement then in use be reviewed for currency. Beginning in the fall of 2019, Monmouth began a comprehensive process to build a statement of mission, values and core competencies that looks toward the future while honoring the precious legacy built through the hard work and vision of previous generations. Students, alumni, faculty, staff, trustees and administrators were surveyed and numerous drafts were studied. A final version was approved by the faculty in December 2020. Shorter than the previous mission statement by 343 words, the

new mission statement emphasizes the transformational nature of Monmouth education, which draws its strength from the residential liberal arts experience and the intense interaction that occurs within the College community. Over the course of time at Monmouth, this dynamic has the power to build remarkable competence, confidence and character in students. Alumni from different generations who have reviewed the concise new statement affirm that it accurately reflects their experience, both as students and as graduates who were well-prepared for post-college life. The conclusions drawn within the mission statement reflect a timeproven formula for success that may be Monmouth College’s greatest legacy. Below is the text of the new mission statement, which will be printed on the back of business cards, communicated by College employees and integrated into future planning and promotion whenever possible. Also below are the newly adopted statements of values and core competencies.

OUR MISSION Monmouth College provides a transformative educational experience within a caring community of learners. As a residential liberal arts college, we empower students to realize their full potential, live meaningful lives, pursue successful careers, and shape their communities and the world through service and leadership. O U R VA LU E S At Monmouth College we:

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believe the liberal arts changes lives, creating committed learners capable of exploring their passions, solving difficult problems, and understanding their responsibilities to society;

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value open and critical inquiry and the pursuit of knowledge, by engaging with ideas in their complexity and contradictions, and by confronting our own assumptions;

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pride ourselves in close professional relationships among faculty, staff and students that challenge and nurture students in their personal development;

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steward the place and legacy entrusted to us, by creating a community that is intellectually and aesthetically inspiring, culturally rich, globally connected and environmentally sustainable;

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foster diversity in our curriculum, our community and beyond, committing ourselves to confronting injustice and building more equitable and inclusive practices, policies and systems;

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embody the highest standards of ethics, integrity, accountability and respect;

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embrace the plurality of worldviews and religious commitments that our community represents and honor our Presbyterian heritage.

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OUR CORE COMPETENCIES Through their curricular and cocurricular experiences, students at Monmouth College will learn to: 1.

Inquire & Analyze: Break complex problems into component parts; pursue knowledge by exploring relevant ideas, experiences, and data; analyze evidence; and come to informed conclusions.

2. Synthesize & Create: Synthesize what they have learned; bring concepts together to generate new ideas; develop creative responses; and solve problems. 3. Communicate & Interpret: Express their ideas in written and oral communication clearly and effectively; extract and construct meaning from texts, numerical data, artistic expressions and experiences. 4. Become Engaged Learners: Engage with problems and issues in their relevant contexts; examine the roles that intercultural sensitivity and diversity play as they come into relationship with others and communities; understand how societal forces and global systems affect and shape cultures; and reflect on and interpret their learning, including its moral and ethical implications.

STORIES BY BARRY McNAMARA

HONO RING L E GAC Y

THE LEGACY OF A REFERRAL Alumni connection brought gifted freshman

“I remember her telling me, ‘Just look at Monmouth. I think it would suit you. ”

PHOTO BY TODD QUICK

ne of the most talented members of the College’s “When the musical was Class of 2024 came to Monmouth because of an canceled, I had time to alumni connection. return my focus to art,” Since arriving on campus last fall, Grace Cornelius has had an she said. “I remember impressive list of accomplishments, including the top first-place reading the news and honor at the Figge Art Museum’s College Invitational Art Exhibition, a leading role as Jo March in the College’s spring production of Little Women: The Musical, and the Mixed Media Award at the College’s Juried Student Art Exhibit. Not surprised by that success is a neighbor of the Cornelius family in Warrenville, Ill., 1975 Monmouth graduate Jerri Picha. grace cornelius ’24 “I remember her telling me, ‘Just look at Monmouth. I think it would suit just hearyou,’” said Cornelius of Picha, who is just ing about completing the second of her two five-year covid terms on the College’s Alumni Board. everywhere. It was really all anyone could think about then. It The attraction was immediate. literally engulfed the entire world.” “I came on that first visit, and the minute Cornelius first created a work that symbolized how much I stepped on campus, I didn’t want to leave,” the pandemic was on everyone’s mind, with the now-familiar she said. “It just felt like home.” spiked representation of the virus emerging from the During that August 2019 visit, Cornelius head of a subject. Another of the works she created while met with theatre professor Todd Quick and PICHA still in high school was that of an armless masked nurse art professor Janis Wunderlich to learn helplessly crying while an EKG flatlines behind her. more about the two subjects that comprise her double major. In addition to the aforementioned honors and accomShe returned during the winter to compete for membership in plishments from her freshman year, Cornelius also left the College’s prestigious Stockdale Fellows leadership developquite an impression on her “Introduction to Liberal ment program. REFER A STUD Arts” professor, Carolyn Suda. ENT! On a third visit, held shortly before the pandemic, she saw a “I asked my class to write a paper on what they learned staging of The Real Inspector Hound, directed by Quick, and about themselves during the spring and summer of COVID-19 had the chance, along with other family members, to “throw —a thoughtful reflection,” said Suda. “Grace shared her collecon the wheel” with Wunderlich, who specializes in ceramics. tion of COVID-inspired art. She used her time to create and to “I knew I probably should look at a few other colleges, but at solidify her decision to major in art. I was blown away.” every one of the campuses I visited, I always compared them And the “Introduction to Liberal Arts” has also made an to how I felt at Monmouth,” said Cornelius, who is considerimpression on Cornelius. ing turning her art major into a career in interior design or “I absolutely love that class and the readings we’ve done,” fashion. said Cornelius during the fall semester. “I love literature and Cornelius said she turned her high school focus to art when the talking about what the authors are trying to say and how pandemic closed the curtain on theatre, canceling a production they’re saying it. The class just makes you think in a way that a of The Music Man just two days after the cast list had come out. lot of the classes I’ve taken haven’t done before.” Cornelius was to play the role of Marian, the librarian.

SUMMER 2021

A TRAJECTORY FOR LIFE

Childhood memories, family tradition led Van Kirk to Monmouth

ong before it was her home for four years, Monmouth College was a special place for Pam Slaughter Van Kirk. The 1976 graduate grew up just a few blocks from the College. At the age of 5, she vowed it would be where she’d go to college, following her three brothers. Now, a full six decades from her first experiences with the College, Monmouth is still a special place for Van Kirk, and she and her husband, John, are supporting it through a planned gift as part of Monmouth College’s Light This Candle campaign. “I’m just so proud of the direction the College has gone,” said Van Kirk, who lives in Monmouth and winters in the Phoenix area. “Walking around campus is much different than when I was there in the 1970s. There’s been an amazing transformation. With that in mind, my husband and I decided to put money toward Monmouth College in our trust. … Monmouth College set me on my trajectory in life. Being a ‘townie,’ the College was such an important part of growing up for me, and John also pam slaughter van kirk ’76 understands the symbiotic relationship between the town and Monmouth College. I look at it as a win-win.” Van Kirk said her father turned down an opportunity to work elsewhere so that his family could stay in Monmouth. “My happy childhood memories are intertwined with Monmouth College,” said Van Kirk, who counts sledding on campus and selling donuts in the women’s dorms among those memories. Remaining in town allowed her brothers to precede her to Monmouth—George Slaughter ’59, Adin Slaughter ’60 and Carl Slaughter ’67. Adin was later a member of Monmouth’s English faculty and, said Van Kirk, “was dorm director of Gibson Hall during the infamous Holiday Inn episode.” (Resembling a motel, students surreptitiously erected a Holiday Inn sign for the dorm’s 1966 dedication.) “It was important for my parents that we all graduate from Monmouth, and we did,” she said. “And we’ve all been successful.” Van Kirk’s success did not come in the career she first imagined. “I wanted to be a gas station attendant,” she said. “I thought that was so cool. You get to wash windows and pump the gas.”

“Being a ‘townie,’ the College was such an important part of growing up for me.”

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Pam and John Van Kirk at a recent Monmouth College gathering.

As she majored in English and elementary education at Monmouth and became further removed from her dream of working at the local Shell station, Van Kirk wasn’t sure what would come next. Warren County Public Library director Camille Radmacher ’39 encouraged her to think about library science. “She called me into her office and talked to me about pursuing a scholarship,” said Van Kirk, who went on to receive a scholarship to Rosary College—now known as Dominican University —in the Chicago suburbs, where she received her master’s degree in library science. “It was a perfect fit for me, and I’ve never thought about doing anything else.” Van Kirk’s first job was serving as the first children’s librarian in Canton, Ill. “I was given carte blanche to transform a space into the children’s library,” she said. “The custodian must’ve hated me, because I asked for all the shelves to be moved three different times that first year.” Van Kirk also made stops as the librarian for Warren School, just outside Monmouth, and in Colorado, before returning to the area to work at the Galesburg Public Library, where she served as director for 13 years. “That position really played into all the experience I had and all the talents I had,” she said. “I loved working with children, parents, staff and the public. I really lucked out.”

HONO RING L E GAC Y

PAYING BACK DR. GRIER

Estate gift honors the legacy of former Monmouth president

n the late 1940s,

from Dean Liedman about that—Dean Jean.” was encouraged to stay at Brodd also recalled being Monmouth College by none other in Gracie Peterson’s famous than President James Harper stage shows and singing a Grier. duet with Jim Nixon ’50. “It was my freshman year, “It’s a very important part and I thought about not coming of my life, the friendships I back,” said Brodd of Raleigh, made at Monmouth,” said N.C. “He offered me a $250 Brodd. “There are many placscholarship. It wasn’t really mones I choose to support, and ey that was holding me back, but Monmouth is one of them.” just the fact that he was willing Brodd hasn’t been on camto do that has stuck with me. pus since returning in 2000 It’s so important for anyone who and 2001 to celebrate her and wants an education to be able her husband’s 50-year reAs a freshman, Marilyn Rogers was convinced to continue her to get one. I’m happy to support career at Monmouth College by President James Harper Grier, who unions in back-to-back years. Monmouth with a gift, and I “I have one of those panoffered her a scholarship. Her decision to stay helped lead to a long and happy marriage to a Monmouth grad. hope this helps in some way to oramic pictures of the whole make that possible.” student body,” she said. “My Brodd’s estate gift was arranged after consuldad mounted it on a piece of Samsonite or tation with her son, Randy, who serves as her something. I brought it back for the reunion. It financial adviser. It will count toward the Colwas very popular. It made the rounds.” lege’s Light This Candle campaign. Brodd came to Monmouth from Oak Brodd eventually did leave Monmouth before Park-River Forest High School in the Chicago graduating to work in Chicago, but on a return suburbs. The connection to the College was her trip to campus, she went on a blind date with brother, Howard Rogers ’42 , who attended Wayne Brodd ’50, arranged by Ginnie Hessler Monmouth for one year. Salter ’51 and Bob Smick ’50. That led to a mar“He joined the National Guard and was riage of nearly 60 years before Wayne died in part of a mounted troop in Chicago, the Black 2009. The couple had three children, which has Horse Troop,” said Brodd. “His service time led to eight grandchildren and nine great-grandwas almost up, and then Dec. 7 happened. He marilyn rogers brodd ’51 fought in the war and was captured at the Battle children. “One of the highlights of my time at Monof the Bulge. He spent four months in a German mouth was the friendships I made,” said Brodd. “I reconnected prison, then escaped through a pipe, the day before Gen. Patton with Ginnie. I hadn’t talked to (Winbigler Hall roommate) Pat and his troops came and freed the camp. He lived to be over 90.” Clark Edmonds ’51 in a couple years.” After attending Monmouth for two years, Marilyn’s husband The late Edmonds wasn’t quite a “townie,” but she didn’t live earned a degree in electrical engineering from the University of far from campus, and Brodd recalled a memorable trip to her Illinois. He spent his career working for IBM. home. The Brodds lived in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., before moving to “Pat’s dad let us ride out to their farm in Little York on the North Carolina in 1966. The next year, they had a house built, back of a pickup truck,” she said. “Mrs. Clark got a phone call where Marilyn still resides today. Marilyn Rogers Brodd ’51

“It wasn’t really money that was holding me back, but just the fact that he was willing to do that has stuck with me. ”

SUMMER 2021

A quilter’s legacy

By Jeff Rankin

ith her parents and her husband standing behind her, Danette Forbes stared at her phone in disbelief. Tears filled her eyes on a Saturday last March as the veteran seamstress from Pekin, Ill., watched the final results of a national quilting contest. Forbes’ thoughts returned to the spring of her sophomore year at Monmouth College when her passion for quilting was born. A theatre fanatic, she had first performed in The Music Man at age 6, and as a freshman at Monmouth had assumed the position of costume shop supervisor and designer—a role she would continue through every production until her graduation in 1990. When Professor Bill Wallace announced he would be directing the musical Quilters as the spring 1988 production, she remembered her grandmother teaching her to cut out quilt squares at age 12. The two would sit on her grandmother’s porch in Aberdeen, S.D., and she would listen to romantic tales of pioneer life from her grandmother’s childhood. Quilters, which had a brief run on Broadway in 1984, revolved around a pioneer woman named Sarah, along with six women who were called her daughters, facing pioneer life. Presented as a series of tableaux matched to blocks in a quilt, the musical looked at aspects of frontier life and womanhood. In the end, the patches are assembled into a giant quilt. Besides designing and constructing her usual costumes for the show, Forbes headed to the library to research quilts, so she could design the 10-foot-square quilt that would be the showpiece of the production. Each block was 2∏ feet square. “I remember piecing it together in the Red Barn East (former experimental theatre on the second floor of what is now Poling Hall),” Forbes said. “It was so large that I had to crawl inside the quilt to grab the corners and turn it inside out before closing the open end.” Forbes said that at the time she did not know how to properly close a quilt, for in fact she had never stitched one together since cutting out blocks on her grandmother’s porch years earlier. She also needed assistance enlarging her pattern for the giant quilt, as she did not have a background in geometry, and got help from Jay Sherwood ’88. Her quilt design was also executed on the stage floor of the Little Theatre in chalk by Kevin Sefton ’90. Forbes also made sure that every costume for the show contained fabric contained in the giant quilt. “I even had to remove the lining from one dress to accomplish that,” she recalled. Shortly after Quilters closed, Forbes took up the patches of fabric she had cut out with her grandmother and completed her

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

With Forbes’ 10-foot-square quilt as a backdrop, the cast of the 1988 Monmouth production of Quilters performs in the Little Theatre. From left are: Sylvia Zethmayr ’90, Cheri Nelson ’89, Melissa Furrow ’89, Ronda Allen ’88, Veronica Laude ’88, Mary Hauser ’90 and Mary Lafferty ’88.

first real quilt. It would not be her last. After presenting that quilt to her parents for their 25th wedding anniversary, she made wedding quilts for her brother and sister, and has also made eight baby quilts and seven doll quilts. After college, Forbes moved to New Jersey to accept a position as a nanny, and in the process got involved in the semi-professional Summit Playhouse and the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival. “I was actually just four hours short of getting equity,” she said. After spending more than six years as a nanny, and loving it, Forbes decided to go to graduate school and got a master’s of Christian education at what is now Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Va. That led to a career working primarily in children’s ministry at several churches. But she never gave up her work in community theatre or passion for quilting. When Forbes’ sister became engaged in 1999, Forbes told her the wedding present would be a quilt. Fabrics and a design were selected, but life intervened and the project got put on the back burner until December 2020 when she was finally able to finish the quilt and present it to her at Christmas. After covid hit, Forbes learned about a national virtual quilting contest being sponsored by Sewing Machines Plus. Photographs and descriptions of quilts were to be submitted, and prizes included expensive sewing and quilting machines. Forbes contacted her sister and submitted photos of the wedding quilt she had finally completed before Christmas. Titled “Dream Catcher,” the traditional quilt in the “Flock of Geese”

HONO RING L E GAC Y

Forbes poses with the awardwinning-quilt that she began in 1999 but didn’t complete until just before last Christmas. Her passion for quilting began after designing and constructing the backdrop for the Monmouth College production of Quilters. block pattern contained more than 200 different fabrics in intricate pieces. More than 220 quilts were entered in the contest and voting lasted one month. In addition to a People’s Choice award, five expert judges selected a Best of Show winner and runner-up. At the end of a weeklong online festival, winners were announced and Forbes was astonished to learn her submission had made the Top 5. Tuning in on March 20, Forbes watched incredulously as three of the Top 5 were eliminated. “I thought, ‘I’m going to win a prize!” she said. In the end, she took second place, but the judges complimented her entry as being the only traditional quilt and expertly done. They suggested that there should have been two categories—one for traditional quilts and one for art quilts. As runner-up, Forbes received a Baby Lock Celebrate Serger machine and a Baby Lock Presto II sewing and quilting machine— both valuable prizes—but Forbes said the greatest reward was being honored by peers as a master quilter. She is continuing her quilting passion by designing a series of historical baby quilts, from the

American Revolution to World War II, that she plans to publish. After working for a time as a substitute teacher, Forbes recently returned to a career as a nanny, which also allows her time to research, design and construct quilts. It’s a legacy passed down from her grandmother, but which did not come to full flower until her time in the Monmouth theatre department, where she incidentally left a legacy of her own. “When I started working there, costumes were not cataloged,” Forbes said. “I created the first costume database and tagged every costume with a number.” When she was first recruited to Monmouth, Forbes was promised she would have a brand new theatre to work in by her sophomore year, but construction on the Wells Theater was not completed until after she graduated. Still, she savors her Monmouth memories. “I fell in love with the little barn (Little Theatre), walking the boards that so many generations had walked,” she said. “The souls of so many people were wrapped up in it.” Just like a quilt.

SUMMER 2021

Family of the Year is a living Monmouth legacy

family tree, as we all know, is full of great-

grandparents and cousins, sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, branching off to the past in all directions from a single person. Equally complex are the various limbs and branches of a Monmouth College admission tree. When 1921 graduate John Oscar Firth began sending students to Monmouth from Murphysboro, Ill., such as future M Club Hall of Famers Virgil “Tige” Boucher ’32 , John Weatherly ’33 and Bobby Woll ’35, how

Monmouth’s Sondgeroth clan includes, from left: Blake, Kim, Lucas, Brock and Byron. Missing from the photo are Suzie and youngest son, Reid.

many future Monmouth students did Firth’s recruits attract, especially Woll, who coached Fighting Scots athletics for 45 years? How many students can trace their Monmouth decision directly back to those original referrals made by Firth? The same could be asked of Fielding Smith ’25, who sent scores of students Monmouth’s way from just up the road in Viola, Ill. Surely Smith’s generation of Fighting Scots yielded even more future alumni? But how many? And then there’s the case of Byron Sondgeroth, who graduated from Monmouth in 1988. Perhaps the first person that Byron helped to attend Monmouth was his younger brother, Brock Sondgeroth ’97. Brock would eventually marry his Monmouth classmate Kimberly Marty ’98. Brock and Kim are both longtime high school teachers in a popular in-state recruiting region for the College—Brock in Mendota and Kim in Coal City. Surely, they’ve suggested their alma mater to some of their students over the past quarter-century, and surely some of those students have matriculated. Byron and his wife, Suzie, also influenced the Monmouth decision of three other Sondgeroths—their sons Blake ’17, Lucas ’20 and Reid ’23. And here’s where the Sondgeroths’ Monmouth College branches really start to sprout. After graduating, Blake worked as an admission counselor for two years, with his primary role to bring new students to Monmouth. Lucas and Reid both served as Scot Ambassadors, charged with helping prospective students learn more about the school on their campus visits. “Blake was a great admission counselor, good at connecting with prospective students and their families but also skilled at data mining and analysis,” said Vice President for Enrollment

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Management Kristen English. But the Sondgeroths’ effect on her department go far beyond Blake’s professional duties, said English. “Suzie and Byron have also been incredibly helpful in support of our recruitment efforts. They have been so willing to assist with recruitment events and initiatives. We are big Sondgeroth family fans over here in admission.” While calculating the number of Monmouth alumni who can trace their college decision to Byron Sondgeroth is likely an inexact science, one thing is certain. For their efforts to help Monmouth College—from admission to retention, and from Alumni Board service to membership in the Loyal Scots Society for regular annual giving—the Sondgeroths have earned this year’s honor as Family of the Year. (For other 2021 Alumni Impact Award recipients and M Club Hall of Fame inductees, see page 50.) The superintendent for the North Pekin Marquette Heights School District in Illinois, Byron has also served as a high school Spanish teacher and middle school principal. His brother, Brock, is equally passionate about his role as an art teacher. “I believe as a teacher it is my duty to be there for every student to guide them to better themselves in any way possible,” he said. “Art is full of life lessons—to never give up, to learn from our mistakes, to push through the hard times, to love what we do, to see things in a different light, and to open our minds to the unimaginable. It is my responsibility to demonstrate these traits to the students so they know that anything is possible if you work for it.” Although Suzie is not an alumna, she worked with her husband to establish the College’s Parent and Family Council, serving as liaisons to the parent community and the administration. The council plans an annual fundraising project that is intended to improve the student experience and leave a lasting impact on campus. The Sondgeroths also offer advice through meetings with senior staff, roundtable events with parents, and helping respond to parent questions on the College’s Facebook page. Former Fighting Scots men’s soccer coach Kooten Johnson got used to being around the Sondgeroth family, both at home and on the road. “There weren’t many Saturdays in the fall when I didn’t see Byron and Suzie, whether that was on campus supporting Lucas and Reid on the soccer field or on the road in Green Bay for an away game at St. Norbert,” he said. “Monmouth is built on family bloodlines that keep the Fighting Scot tradition alive, and they exhibit this to full effect.”

HO NO RING L E GAC Y BOOKS

Two alumni writers inspired by theme of legacy Poet found her ‘place,’ thanks to experience at Monmouth The back cover of Amy Wright Vollmar’s new book of poems, Follow, says she “was born in southern Illinois and can sing numerous folk songs about frogs, dogs and mules. Luckily, she also went to Monmouth College to study Yeats and Eliot.” The 1985 graduate, who now lives in Battlefield, Mo., said she is profoundly grateful for that Monmouth education. “I had a rare experience at Monmouth,” said Vollmar, who is married to Kenneth Vollmar ’83, a computer science major at Monmouth who now works for Boeing. “I have read about women poets’ experiences at other colleges and universities—where women were treated as second-class writers, or not writers at

Setting youth on right path is Cannon’s legacy of hope A former Army intelligence analyst, Lance Zedric ’83 has written 11 books,

many dealing with military history. The title of his most recent work, Full Cannon, might also suggest a war theme, but in fact it details the remarkable story of the legacy of hope a former soldier has been building since leaving the military. To residents of Peoria, Ill., Carl Cannon is a household name. It is especially familiar to Zedric, who co-authored this autobiography with Cannon and has worked with him in his efforts to help at-risk, inner-city kids. Readers not familiar with Cannon will discover a human dynamo, whose years

all—and I realized that I never once felt that way at Monmouth. It was a place where I never had to wonder if I could be a poet. I was just accepted as one.” Vollmar was originally encouraged to pursue poetry by her father, who “had me memorizing Robert Frost poems when I was a little girl.” She was helped along in her pursuit by some pivotal moments during her Monmouth education, including one in a class taught by English professor Jeremy McNamara. “By the time he told us the story about Yeats choosing to become a poet of place, I was ready to make that choice, too,” she said. “What helped me most was that he emphasized that Yeats chose to be a poet, and that he worked all of his life to do that job.” Vollmar had made her choice, but she had to wait a while to find her voice. “I didn’t really find my rhythm and voice until I moved to Missouri,” she

said. “Luckily, a new journal of the Ozark arts had just been started in northern Arkansas, and they really liked my new work. Now I’m part of what we optimistically call the ‘Ozarks Renaissance.’” In the foreword to Vollmar’s book, University of Central Arkansas creative writing professor Mark Spitzer writes: “Her method is that of a photographer whose lens celebrates straying from the path, getting lost in the underbrush, and finding new trails through ‘chips of chert’ ... In essence, this is a gallery of mind-photos in which a poet who knows the intricacies of a unique nature-scape follows paths through mountains she knows at a cellular level.” Vollmar admits that writing such poetry about the wilderness can get “messy,” so she recommends a mud-proof notebook to anyone who wants to Follow her lead. —Barry McNamara

as an Army MP transformed him from a troubled kid who grew up in the projects to a man on a mission, determined to steer kids like himself away from trouble, through education and leadership. A talented football player in high school, Cannon is recruited to play college ball, but ashamed to admit to his parents that he is unprepared academically, so he begins a ruse that he is actually enrolled in college. Desperate and ashamed, he secretly enlists in the Army, despite knowing that his father, a veteran and a policeman, would object. After tours as an MP in Korea, a remote nuclear base in the Pacific and Germany, Cannon reluctantly finds himself transferred to the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, where interaction with prisoners begins transforming his life’s mission. Realizing that for most of these tragic individuals it is too late for

redemption, he becomes determined to intervene with troubled youth before they take a misguided path. When retirement allows him to return to his hometown and work at a nearby federal prison, Cannon begins visiting local public schools with inmates, allowing them to tell the students their personal stories. The success of the program causes Cannon to leave the prison and begin working directly with kids through the Peoria Park District. The story to this point is engrossing, but it is only prologue to Cannon’s amazing recent achievements, including chairing the boards of the Peoria Housing Authority and Illinois Central College. His highly successful ELITE Youth Outreach program has drawn national attention. —Jeff Rankin

Follow: Poems by Amy Wright Vollmar Cornerpost Press Paperback, 100 pgs. $16.95

Full Cannon: Love, Leadership and Making a Difference War Room Press Paperback, 410 pgs. $19.99

SUMMER 2021

THE ENDURING LEGACY OF By JEFF RANKIN Editor

onmouth College may be the only school in the country with two of its principal buildings bearing the same name. Within shouting distance of one another are McMichael Residence Hall and McMichael Academic Hall. This apparent duplication is hardly surprising if you consider the impact the McMichael family had on the development of the institution. Four generations of McMichaels labored for Monmouth College—a total of 78 years. Members of four generations enrolled as students. Three McMichaels served as senior administrators, actively helping to shape Monmouth College’s heritage. And speaking of heritage, the leadership circle for active donors is known as the McMichael Heritage Circle. Monmouth College’s second president, Jackson Burgess McMichael, was born in Poland, Ohio, in 1833. His boyhood was spent on the family farm and at age 17 he

Five generations of McMichaels are represented in this 1948 photograph, taken in what is now Dahl Chapel. Looking at portraits of Presidents Jackson B. McMichael and Thomas McMichael are Thomas’s son, David; David’s son, Thomas; and Thomas’s son, Tommy.

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

became apprenticed to a carriage maker and wheelwright. Longing for an education, he studied independently and eventually graduated from Westminster College and Xenia Seminary. He was ordained in 1862 and accepted a pastorate at the United Presbyterian Church in Sugar Creek, Ohio. That same year, he married Mary N. Hanna of Washington, Pa. The McMichaels’ first child, Thomas Hanna McMichael, was born in 1863 during the closing hours of the Battle of Gettysburg. He would become Monmouth’s fourth president. In 1872, Jackson McMichael was elected chair of church history at Xenia Seminary, but he continued his pastorate at Sugar Creek. In 1878, he accepted the presidency of Monmouth College, succeeding founding president David Wallace. He was 45 years old and in vigorous health. The faculty liked him, although his style was quieter than the charismatic, inspirational leadership of Wallace. McMichael saw his primary goal as expanding the curriculum. For this, he had to reach beyond his ministerial training. He constantly fought the problems of the conservative church and its shortage of finances. When he created the department of music, the College did not even own a piano. McMichael was president during the rise in Darwinism and started a modernization movement around 1890—adding sociology, civics, economics and psychology. He spent a large part of his time defending the liberal arts college, although he agreed with some of the principles of the state universities: increasing endowment, adopting modern methods and testing the tastes of the public. He warned that if these things were not done, the people would turn from the College “like a flock of sheep from a juiceless rick of straw in early spring to pastures green.” McMichael was president for 19 years,

retiring in 1897 to return to his old church at Bellbrook, Ohio. On New Year’s Eve in 1902, he was holding his weekly prayer meeting at the church. He had just removed his overcoat and was preparing to sit in his chair, when he collapsed and died. That chair is today in the College archives. McMichael’s son Thomas Hanna McMichael came to Monmouth with his parents in 1878 and was educated in the Monmouth schools. He was not a model student. As a sophomore at Monmouth College, he was expelled for breaking up a meeting of the Christian Union and for disorderly conduct in chapel. When the matter was brought before the faculty, his father excused himself. He then expelled his son at the request of the faculty. Eventually, Tom was permitted to re-enter. As a senior, he disregarded the 10 o’clock rule—that no young lady was allowed to entertain a young man after 10 p.m. His future wife, Minnie McDill, lived in a boarding house on East Second Avenue. The proprietress would escort him out at 10, but he would go around the house and climb through Minnie’s window. Still, he became an excellent student and graduated with honors in 1886. Thomas’s sister, Mary Grace McMichael, was a young woman as beautiful as he was handsome. She entered Monmouth College in 1888 and quickly became one of its most popular students. Sadly, she contracted a sudden illness at the age of 18 and died. “Tell them how much I loved them all, and how I thank them for being so good to me,” she said of her classmates as she lay dying. “Tell them not to put off the confession and service of Christ till they are older; they may not live until old, and some may follow me soon.” The College bell tolled at noon on the day of Grace’s death, and a window in the chapel was dedicated in her honor by her classmates. After graduating from Monmouth, Thomas McMichael entered the seminary at Xenia and was ordained in 1890. That year, he married Minnie at the family home in Burlington, Iowa. Her grandfather, the Rev. David McDill, was a prominent Presbyterian

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THE McMICHAELS minister and a charter trustee of Monmouth College. In 1892, Thomas was named pastor of the large First United Presbyterian Church of Cleveland, Ohio. When Monmouth College invited Thomas McMichael to become its president in 1903, he was not at all enthusiastic. Recent years had not been prosperous for the College, the endowment and equipment being valued at only $300,000. The income had dwindled and the student body numbered a meager 142. According to his successor, President James Harper Grier, McMichael told him he only accepted “Because no one else would take it.” He accepted a $3,000 salary and the right to live for free in the president’s home. McMichael was a born fundraiser. When the Carnegie Foundation offered a matching grant for a library if the College could raise $30,000 of its own, he raised the money despite a deep recession. In 1907 construction started on the library and a new heating plant, but it came too late. On Nov. 14, Old Main was destroyed by fire. Classes were held at Second U.P. Church, the College auditorium, the gymnasium, professors’ homes and soon the new library. Within 15 months, Wallace Hall was completed. The science building, named for McMichael’s father, opened the following year. In 1914, McMichael Home—Monmouth’s first residence hall—opened. The trustees, grateful for McMichael’s leadership, surprised him by naming it in his honor. In 1925, the College sought recognition of the American Association of University

Women. Associate membership was granted—the College was told it needed more Ph.D.s and a resident physician. McMichael quipped that the reason full membership wasn’t granted was that the association was composed entirely of women and it is never regarded as womanly to be wooed too easily or to capitulate too readily. “We will, therefore, keep up the wooing,” he declared. That same year, Minnie had an accident while in Chicago, bruising her left foot. She may have been diabetic, as it would not heal, and her leg required amputation a month later. She was beloved by all the students and known as the “College Mother.” She died in 1929, the same year that her son, David M. McMichael, a 1916 Monmouth graduate, was named business manager of the College. Like his father, David had been a star athlete at Monmouth, becoming the only The granddaughter of a prominent student to letter Presbyterian minister, in five major Minnie McDill married sports—football, her Monmouth College basketball, baseclassmate Thomas ball, track and McMichael. After he tennis. During became president in World War I, 1903, she was lovingly David served in known to generations the French amof students as the bulance corps. “College Mother.” Thomas McMichael celebrated his 30th anniversary as president in 1933. The mayor of Monmouth proclaimed June 1 as McMichael Day. Store windows were decorated, red and white carnations were dropped on campus from a plane and special music dedicated to McMichael was played on Chicago radio stations WGN and WLS. Editorials, feature stories and photographs were published in newspapers, including the Chicago Daily News. In 1934, McMichael married Nellie Logue, a woman he knew from Cleveland. He retired in 1936, after 33 years as president, living in a house across from the campus on North Ninth Street. He continued traveling for the College, raising money, despite declining health. Nellie died in 1937

and Thomas the following year, A third-generation administrator for Monmouth at age 74. College, David McMichael David McMichael remained (above right) served as business manager under Presibusiness manager—and dent Grier and was responsible eventually vice president— for bringing the Navy pre-flight between 1929 and 1953. He and officer refresher programs briefly shared an office suite to campus during World War in Carnegie Library with his II, a lifesaving measure for the father, President Thomas College, which had lost virtually McMichael, as seen in this its entire male population to 1933 photograph. military service. In 1940, David’s son, Thomas Nash McMichael, entered Monmouth College, where he would meet Vivian Cook ’44. His education was interrupted for three years during World War II, during which he served as a combat infantryman in the European theater. In 1943, he married Vivian, who would wait for him to return to Monmouth College and complete his education. That he did, graduating in 1946. Tom initially went to work for a local bank, while also serving as the swim coach for Monmouth College. In 1950, he joined his father at the College, serving as assistant business manager. Two years later, Vivian and Tom moved their young family to Santa Ana, Calif., and were joined there a year later by Tom’s father, David, upon his retirement. Until his death in 1983, and until their deaths in 2003 and 2013, respectively, David, Tom and Vivian remained loyal to their alma mater.

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By Barry McNamara

Time for some old-fashioned streaming After a senior year spent largely online, the Class of ’21 finally gets to unwind

t the conclusion of their freshman year, some members of the Monmouth College Class of 2021 watched that school year’s seniors walk across the Wallace Hall stage and receive their diplomas. Those freshmen didn’t know it at the time, but the Class of 2018’s Commencement ceremony would be the College’s last on the Wallace Hall Plaza for a full three years—until their own ceremony May 16 on a pleasantly cool afternoon with peaks of sunshine. The 2019 ceremony was moved into the Huff Athletic Center because of inclement weather, while last year’s Commencement was held virtually because of the covid -19 pandemic. “This was something I spoke loudly about at the first senior meeting we had,” said Abigail Bourscheidt, one of 189 members of the Class of 2021 who proudly strode across the stage to receive their Monmouth College diploma from President Clarence R. Wyatt during the one-hour (continued on page 30)

FOR VIDEOS AND MORE PHOTOS: monmouthcollege.edu/commencement

UP WITH THE RED AND WHITE! Newly graduated seniors exuberantly release crepe paper streamers at the end of a ceremony that nearly matched a traditional Monmouth Commencement, which had been absent from Wallace Hall Plaza since 2018. SUMMER 2021

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President Wyatt raises a toast to the Class of 2021 at the Senior Send-Off, held the night before Commencement at April Zorn Memorial Stadium.

A brilliant and raucous display of fireworks capped off the tribute to the Class of 2021 on the evening before their graduation.

Decked out in tartan stole, colorful cords, flowers and balloon, Tori Chaffee epitomized the festive atmosphere of Commencement 2021.

One of the few indications that things had not quite returned to normal was the donning of masks by the soon-to-be graduates.

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ceremony. “I’m very excited we were able to do it.” The College awarded a total of 208 degrees at its 164th Commencement ceremony, which was seen by a crowd of about 1,100. The ceremony was livestreamed on Facebook. Asked what she was thinking in the moments before she received her diploma, Bourscheidt replied, “Four years goes by fast.” “This was much needed after a year like this,” said senior Zach Harris. “It was awesome to see all my classmates walk across the stage. I couldn’t help but keep smiling.” Four years ago, some of the Class of 2021 had participated in a high school graduation ceremony on Monmouth’s campus, including Hannah McVey of Monmouth. “This was definitely super special,” she said. “A lot of my family graduated from Monmouth, and I’m glad I was able to walk across the stage like they have in the past.” In his welcoming remarks, Wyatt said gazing upon the graduating class was a sight for sore eyes. “This is one of the most beautiful sights I’ve seen in some time,” he said. “This is what it’s all about.” The assembled graduates and their guests was a signal that life is edging closer to a return to normal, but the ceremony still made a few concessions to the lingering pandemic—prerecorded singing by the Monmouth Chorale, no congratulatory recessional past a line of faculty, and the absence of a keynote speaker. But, as has been the custom at recent Commencement ceremonies for the College, the Class of 2021 heard from one of its own, Joe Doner, who was this year’s Student Laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. Doner spoke to his classmates about the passing of the torch that is part of the Monmouth tradition, and also about traditions that were derailed when the pandemic hit during the second half of the class’ junior year. “Each and every one of us endured a thousand obstacles,” he said. “Every lost ID card, every failed test, every Zoom class that we thought would never end, every Monmouth tradition that was canceled these past 14 months, every meal we had to pick up from the cafeteria and eat elsewhere—every barrier overcome served not only as a widening of our own character and competence, but the widening of Monmouth’s as well.” Completing that difficult journey has set the Class of 2021 up well for the journeys that lie ahead. “I am honored to have been able to speak to you all today,” he said. “Your examples of perseverance have pushed me to persevere, the courage I’ve observed in you has increased my courage, and your dedication to success will forever prod me to seek success. I look forward to walking into the blazing sunlight of our futures together.” The ceremony concluded with Dean of the Faculty Mark Willhardt offering one final piece of instruction to the Class of 2021—the correct way to hold a crepe paper streamer before launching it skyward. The red and white explosion capped a successful, feel-good event for the graduates and their families and friends. “It was excellent,” said Director of Campus Events Ryan Doyle. “The weather was great, and last night’s Senior Send-Off went off without a hitch. It really all went perfectly, and the streamers at the end was a great idea.”

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Spotlight on Seniors

Profiles by Barry McNamara

Megan Davis Public health major helped lead Monmouth’s COVID-fighting team

his year’s recipient of Monmouth College’s White and Crimson Leadership Award was a familiar face to almost every member of the campus community. Megan Davis was recognized for her efforts to minimize the impact of covid-19 at Monmouth. Serving as the student supervisor for the College’s covid testing efforts—and working closely with the faculty/staff leadership team—the public health major was likely across the table at some point from every student, professor and staff member over the course of the semester. Davis returned to campus about 10 days prior to the rest of Monmouth’s students in the spring to take part in training for the SHIELD Illinois program, which deploys the University of Illinois’ innovative saliva test. The lion’s share of the 2,500 covid tests taken by the campus community came three days prior to the start of classes Jan. 25. “I’ve been very impressed and pleased with Megan’s work as the student coordinator of the covid testing center,” said her supervisor, psychology professor Joan Wertz. “She oversaw 10 student workers’ schedules to make sure the center was always staffed and the samples were delivered to a testing lab, worked with our athletics department to ensure our athletes were testing according to their protocols, and successfully managed nearly all aspects of running the testing center. She has been an integral part of ensuring our campus community’s safety during the pandemic.” By knowing everyone’s status with the coronavirus just prior to entering the semester, the College was able to have as safe of a start as possible. The final day of classes was May 5, marking the first time since the fall of 2019 that Monmouth completed a full semester without sending all its students home to learn remotely. After the initial wave of covid testing was conducted in the Huff Athletic Center fieldhouse, Davis settled into a routine of staffing the College’s smaller testing site in the Haldeman-Thiessen Center two mornings a week. Special testing days for student-athletes meant she sometimes worked additional days. “I never thought I’d be looking at tubes of saliva for a whole semester,” said Davis.

Davis began her time at Monmouth as a biochemistry major, but “I realized I didn’t want to go to med school. But I still wanted to be in a health field,” she said. “I decided that my energy would be best suited for public health. I did some research on my own, and Professor Wertz helped make it happen.” Davis traces her love of science to a high school teacher who taught biotechnology and helped his students become certified in the field before entering college. For Davis, that college was originally going to be the University of Arizona, but she visited Monmouth in the spring of her senior year after being recruited for golf. “On my visit, my tour guide knew everybody she passed, and I thought that was pretty cool,” said Davis. “I knew it wouldn’t be that way at Arizona. So golf brought me here, but I stayed because of the small campus.” Now, Davis has interacted with everybody on campus, and she met even more people thanks to a semester abroad opportunity at Finland’s University of Tampere in 2019. It turned out that was the last full semester for students to be abroad before the pandemic hit worldwide. “Everyone thought at the beginning, ‘Oh, it’s just a bad flu. We’ll get sent home for a couple weeks and then we’ll come back,’ ” said Davis of the spring of 2020. “But it got worse and worse. By the end of the semester, I realized, ‘Oh, this is real. This is a big deal.’” In addition to her major, Davis graduated with minors in chemistry and mathematics. This fall, she’ll attend a two-year master’s degree program in global, environmental and occupational health at the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado-Denver.

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Seth Croslow and Kyle McLaughlin Research opportunities provided the right chemistry for grad school prep

articipating in research projects throughout their four years is only part of the appeal for Monmouth chemistry majors. They also have several opportunities to present their research, sometimes on a national stage, which will serve them well for graduate school. Seniors Seth Croslow and Kyle McLaughlin, who both worked in Professor Audra Goach’s research lab at Monmouth, participated in this spring’s virtual American Chemical Society meeting, a four-week long conference. “One of the great things about Monmouth is all the opportunities available for students, from the summer research program to presenting at conferCROSLOW ences,” said Croslow. “It really puts you a step ahead.” Goach and Croslow gave invited talks at the conference. “Seth spoke in a session with high-powered professors from all over the world,” said Goach. “The professor right before his talk was from the UK, and the one right after his talk had just been featured in a leading science magazine. He did a really great job.” At this spring’s Honors Convocation, Croslow received the Don R. Josephson Memorial Prize for outstanding work in the sciences. McLaughlin received the senior biochemistry award. Goach said the pair of seniors has taken full advantage of what Monmouth College has to offer. “We have a strong research program that gives students an idea of what it’s like to apply the discipline,” said Goach. “They can see whether or not they have an interest in medicine, or in working in industry. They also get a lot of practice with communicating their work, by presenting at conferences and presenting to students here. They also write about their work. For example, Seth wrote an undergraduate thesis.” McLaughlin will attend a doctoral program at the Medical College of Wisconsin and plans to be part of the research faculty at an R1 university, a school identified by the Carnegie Classification of

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Institutions of Higher Education as a doctoral university with very high research activity. “Working in Audra’s lab has given me crucial skills in how to approach scientific problems,” said McLaughlin. “It’s helped me to develop methods to study whatever we’re studying and to think critically.” Croslow is unsure which path he’ll take, so he’ll use his years in graduate school to figure it out. “I might want to go into industry, or I might want to teach at a research school,” said Croslow, who will study material science in the doctoral program at the University of Illinois. Goach said her department provides a “win-win” teaching approach, giving chemistry students the independence to work on research projects, but also being easily accessible. “In grad school, I rarely saw my adviser,” said Goach. “That gave me the independence to fail, which ultimately allows you to succeed. But we’re also not like the average lab at a huge university. We’re only working with about 10 students or so each, so we can provide a lot of individual attention, if they need it.” Some of that independence for Croslow and McLaughlin came in the construction of a Brewster Angle Microscope (BAM), a piece of equipment with a cost “typically in six figures,” said Croslow. As an underclassman, Croslow helped Brandon Allen ’19—who’s now studying at Yale—with his Lego version of a BAM. He and McLaughlin have MCLAUGHLIN since worked on a new model, using aluminum supports and pieces built on the department’s 3-D printer. Croslow and McLaughlin have also collaborated with the graduate students of Goach’s research collaborator at Colorado State University, helping her analyze data. Goach, Croslow and McLaughlin submitted a pedagogical paper about that research, which has to do with the development of a lab to teach students how to use micropipettes through visualization of data.

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Abierre Minor and Brenda Matias-Cruz Senior duo brought a fresh perspective and energy to student government

erhaps more than any other school year, student government played a critical role at Monmouth College in 2020–21. Known as Scots Senate, Monmouth’s elected student leaders celebrated a year of expanded services, new initiatives and greater communication. “It’s been a very good year,” said Scots Senate President Abierre Minor. “We’ve provided some highly requested services to campus and put on some big events.” During a very challenging year for Monmouth students because of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of those services—Scots Care, a fund to help students in need—was appreciated so much that Monmouth’s Class of 2021 decided to support it with its senior class gift. “When I heard that, I was very excited,” said Vice President Brenda Matias-Cruz . “It’s students giving back to students. That really supports the sense of community, which was one of our top goals when we took office.” Minor called Scots Care “an emergency fund or a covid fund.” “We began working on it as soon as we started our positions,” she said. “A lot of (federal and state) government services don’t apply to students. If Monmouth students had needs, they could apply directly to Scots Care for funds MINOR for things like groceries or travel. We wanted to be able to supply the things that students really needed.” One of their organization’s most practical accomplishments was simply a name change. “We opened our meetings so that any student is welcome, not just representatives of organizations,” said Matias-Cruz. “And we changed our name from the Associated Students of Monmouth College to Scots Student Senate, or Scots Senate for short. The name change encompasses more what we are really all about. We’re here for the students, and we want to listen to the students’ voices.”

Scots Senate also placed more of an emphasis on hearing directly from the source on certain issues, which is why guests such as the dean of the faculty, co-deans of student life, registrar and director of global engagement were given the floor at Scots Senate meetings. “People would tell us after those talks, ‘We didn’t know that. It really changed our perspective,’” said Minor. “And that was another of our goals—transparency.” Other highlights of the year included “My Story,” an event in Dahl Chapel at which Minor said students “shared their life stories, their goals, their ambitions. It was a great time to gather and be vulnerable together.” Additional issues addressed by MATIAS-CRUZ Scots Senate included student retention, Homecoming events, social distancing and moving classes fully online, which the College was forced to do after a spike in covid cases in western Illinois toward the end of the fall semester. Realizing it had been a difficult year for everyone, Scots Senate in April treated faculty and staff to food and drink at Einstein Bros. Bagels in Hewes Library. “It’s so important for us to express our gratitude to the faculty and staff for all the good that’s happened this year, despite all the hardballs that have been lobbed at them,” said Minor. “They’ve handled it really well.” Less than a week later, the organization celebrated National Student Leadership Week with a cookout that included games and a raffle. Both Minor and Matias-Cruz believe their experience leading Scots Senate will help them in the future. Minor has applied to work with Illinois state government as a legislative assistant, with the possibility of becoming a full-time grad student at the University of Illinois-Springfield. Matias-Cruz hopes to find a job where she can “go into schools and work with kids.” “This experience will help me with that,” she said. “I’ve grown into a stronger leader, and I’m more confident in myself.”

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Brandon Graeff and Brock Crippen With no previous military experience, new second lieutenants shined as ROTC cadets

t the close of her remarks at Monmouth College the week Graeff and Crippen continued to impress Sommers with their before Commencement, Lt. Col. Joan Sommers formally “grit and resiliency,” staying strong in the program despite their introduced whom she called “the United States Army’s physical distance from “On a day like today, newest second lieutenants”—2021 graduates Macomb, their full college you really think Brock Crippen and Brandon Graeff. schedules and the obstacles The commissioning ceremony for put in place by the pandemic. about all the work it Crippen and Graeff was the first “My professors were all took to get here. It’s a one in a decade for a Monmouth super supportive, working humbling experience, student who had completed the around my schedule,” said and it’s well worth GRAEFF Army ROTC program. Held Crippen. “I started off the sacrifices that in the Veterans Memorial playing basketball, and were made.” Great Room on the main then I moved into just BRANDON GRAEFF floor of the College’s Center doing res life as an RA for Science and Business, the and a head resident, but it still required a lot of work and a ceremony featured traditions lot of time management. I’ve maintained Dean’s List, so I’ve such as the pinning of gold been very proud of that. I didn’t let my academics slip. It’s bars and the “Silver Dollar been very hectic, but it’s been the most rewarding three years Salute.” of my life.” A political science major, Crippen Said Graeff: “On a day like today, will be an ordnance corps officer. you really think about all the work Graeff, who studied business and economics, it took to get here. It’s a humbling will be an infantry officer. experience, and it’s well worth “This was everything I thought it would be,” said Crippen, the sacrifices that were made.” who transferred to Monmouth at the start of his sophomore Although military science CRIPPEN year. “The people I’ve met, the connections I’ve made. It classes and training were makes me really excited to take the next step.” held at WIU, Crippen said, Graeff agreed. “I’m a Scot at heart. It might “All the opportunities that came with it, the experiences, be through Western, but the people I’ve met and the places I was able to go—it’s really Monmouth played a part all tied a bow on my college career,” he said. “I came here playing the way.” football, and the Army just fit into that personality type. It’s A revered military tradition been everything I wanted it to be. It’s been a perfect fit for me— dating back to the 19th century, the atmosphere, the competitiveness, the drive that everybody the “Silver Dollar Salute” is a else has.” coin presentation to a fellow enlisted The second lieutenants made news in the program two years member, given as a token of appreciation for their guidance and ago after attending basic training at Fort Knox in Kentucky. They mentoring. Graeff presented a silver dollar to his grandfather, both received ROTC national scholarships, which covered their while Crippen chose his father. tuition costs at Monmouth. The coin recipient will then follow the military career of the “They had no military experience, but they were both newly commissioned officer. In the event the officer should individually recognized,” said Sommers of the pair, who trained reach the rank of general, the enlisted service member will give as members of the Leatherneck Battalion at Western Illinois the silver dollar back to symbolize completion of the cycle of University in Macomb. “I was intrigued and impressed.” leadership.

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Monmouth College has pursued its mission of preparing young people of all backgrounds for fulfilling lives of learning, leadership and service. It has done so through the dedication of generations of faculty and staff, and through the generosity of generations of alumni and friends. In the challenging environment of higher education today, many colleges have made a choice between academic quality and access to opportunity. Some institutions have chosen to focus primarily on serving students from affluent households that can afford the cost of a private college education. Others, in order to remain affordable, have sacrificed the quality of the experience. As a result, their graduates are often less competitive in the job market or for admission to the best graduate and professional schools. By strengthening its endowment, Monmouth seeks to insure that an excellent private liberal arts education is available to all who can benefit from it.

Through it, we will fund:

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Documented planned gifts to Monmouth: $31.2M

254 endowed scholarships & prizes account for 37% of the total endowment

Department support & funded lectures encompass $15M of the total endowment

1,100 acres of farmland accounts for roughly $11.5M of Monmouth’s endowment

87% of $75M goal, or $65.1M achieved

onmouth seeks a path through a dual commitment to quality and opportunity, making the College even more distinctive. This commitment is only possible-and can only be maintained and strengthened-because of generous and visionary philanthropy from alumni, parents and friends.

he Light This Candle campaign seeks to grow Monmouth’s endowment. A strong and wellmanaged endowment demonstrates long-term stability, fiscal responsibility and financial viability. It enhances the College’s prestige and credibility. Achieving a stronger endowment affords Monmouth the opportunity to take the distinctive path-to maintain a high-quality academic program while providing access to students. A stronger endowment also supports the development of the best teacher-scholars, those who will carry on and enhance the College’s tradition of the guided growth of young people through a rigorous and nurturing education in the liberal arts and sciences. Monmouth College is a special place for many reasons, but central among them is a shared commitment to success. Our collaboration during the Light This Candle campaign will ensure the College’s success, now and well into the future.

monmouthcollege.edu/give/light-this-candle-campaign

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Mike Dato ’21

By Barry McNamara

HOMER HISTORY

The data on Dato is in: through more than a century of games, no Monmouth College baseball player has ever hit more home runs than Mike Dato.

he right-handed first baseman from Oswego, Ill., belted 19 long balls in his Fighting Scots career to move past two sluggers who had held the mark at 18 for years— Craig Foxall ’96 and Taylor Thiel ’02. Foxall established the record in 1996, passing, among others with 17, his former Scots teammate, LaMar Rudd ’95. Thiel pulled even in 2002, in the process nosing out his batterymate for both his high school team and the Scots, Joe Larkins ’02. A third member of Monmouth’s 17-home run club is Dato’s former teammate, Grant Myers ’18. In the Scots’ record-breaking 2018 season, Myers smashed 10 homers to go with 54 RBI, while Dato played a great Pippen to that Jordan-esque effort, going yard eight times while driving in 39. Dato’s record-breaking roundtripper was

bittersweet. His three-run blast came during a 12–5 season-ending loss to Knox, the only time the Scots fell to the Prairie Fire in six meetings this spring. Had the Scots won the rain-soaked contest at Blodgett Field, they would have advanced to the Midwest Conference championship series. “It was an inside fastball, and I was just trying to put the barrel on it,” said Dato. “I got pretty emotional when I hit it, and Coach gave me a pretty big hug when I got back to the dugout.” Another emotional home run came during that 2018 season. “I remember his first one (at Eureka),” said coach Alan Betourne ’05. “But the most memorable one is probably the one he hit against St. Norbert in the conference championship

(Continued on page 40)

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SCOTSPORTS Dato acknowledges the crowd after hitting a three-run blast against MacMurray in 2018. It was his first career home run in a home game.

game. There’s a little backstory there he can tell you about.” That long ball to left in the eighth inning against the Green Knights at Glasgow Field put the finishing touches on a 10–3 victory, which advanced the Scots to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 16 years. “That game started off in a rain delay, and it got pretty chirpy between us and St. Norbert,” said Dato. “They were doing some really weird things, like planting their flag right in the middle of our field. That really motivated us all to a whole other level. Everyone was so locked in for that game. That home run kind of sealed the deal for us. It was one of the farthest “There are times when you’re balls I’ve ever hit. It landed out by the road. I gave it feeling pretty good and you’re a little pimp, which their seeing the ball really well that you catcher didn’t like too much.” go up there thinking you’re going Even before he’d played a game at Monmouth, to give the ball a ride. But for the Betourne thought Dato most part, I tried to not get into might be something my head too much with that.” special. “I loved his size and I loved his swing,” he said. —Mike Dato “I could see he had a very compact swing.” That swing, said Dato, didn’t lead to many homers at Oswego. He was more of a gap-to-gap hitter. The over-the-fence power came at Monmouth as his strength grew and he refined his approach. Betourne said he shares a special connection with Dato, which goes back to his recruiting visit in 2016. “About an hour after we let him go to meet with admissions, I got a call from (athletic secretary) Kathy Haas that someone was up front to see me,” said Betourne. “It was Mike, and he committed to Monmouth right then and there. We had a connection right on the spot, and we’ve become really, really close.” That relationship also describes how Betourne has felt about Myers, who was part of the coaching staff this season. He said that having Myers as both a veteran teammate and a coach was beneficial to Dato’s progress into the Scots’ all-time leading slugger.

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“I think that’s important and has really helped him—to see how hard Grant worked, and to see his approach and what he accomplished,” said Betourne. “Having him around has really helped Mike mentally. It’s helped him approach the game in a different way and helped him slow it down.” Betourne said Dato’s record is not a product of a home runoriented offensive philosophy. “We teach gap-to-gap and barreling it up—hitting the ball solid,” he said. “There are a lot of drills we do to work on keeping the barrel through the hitting zone as long as possible. That’s something we’ve taught for a very long time. Mike’s got such a great swing that if he barrels it up, it’s going to go a long way.” So “gap-to-gap” is the buzz phrase, but not launch angle. “I hate launch angle. I’m not a launch angle fan,” said Betourne. “Everybody has a natural uppercut. Launch angle is just a hot word right now. We do not teach our guys to try to lift everything.” “There are times when you’re feeling pretty good and you’re seeing the ball really well that you go up there thinking you’re going to give the ball a ride,” said Dato. “But for the most part, I tried to not get into my head too much with that, because that’s when I would struggle. Just focus on taking the ball hard up the middle.” Dato is grateful for his time at Monmouth, and for the bonds he formed with his teammates and coaches. “It didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but to look at it as a whole, I can’t thank the coaches enough for everything they did for me,” he said. “And I know the friends I made on the team are going to be friendships that last a lifetime.” Dato graduated with a degree in exercise science, but before he puts those skills to use, he hopes to continue playing the sport he loves. “There are a couple of independent league teams on the East Coast I might try out for,” he said.

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Communications veteran named SID Veteran sports communications and marketing professional Nathan Baliva has been named Monmouth College sports

information director. Baliva comes to Monmouth from the Peoria Chiefs minor league baseball team of the Midwest League, where he spent the last 18 years as the organization’s director of media, broadcasting and baseball operations. Baliva succeeds Dan Nolan, who retired after 21 years at the College. BALIVA “Getting into college athletics has always been a goal of mine, and Monmouth has an excellent program,” said Baliva. “I’m excited to be part of the Fighting Scots family. I have some big shoes to fill here and I’m ready for the challenge.” While with the Chiefs, Baliva ran the team’s community relations, social media and host family programs. The radio broadcaster of nearly 2,500 minor league baseball games, Baliva was also responsible for all of the Chiefs’

press releases, game notes, game recaps, local and national media interactions, the team blog and podcast, statistics and interviews. In addition to working full-time with the Chiefs since 2003, Baliva has experience with high school and college sports. As a broadcaster he has called the Illinois High School Association boys’ and girls’ soccer state finals since 2015, broadcasted three IHSA girls’ basketball state finals, and was on the call for the IHSA football state finals in 2017 and 2018. Baliva has called high school basketball, football, soccer, volleyball, baseball and softball at nearly every school in the state between Champaign and the Quad Cities. He has also called women’s soccer on ESPN+ for Illinois State University and written extensively for online publications and sports blogs. A native of Chatham, Ill., Baliva graduated from Marquette University in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast and electronic communication. While at Marquette, he spent a semester abroad at St. Claire’s University in Oxford, England. Baliva earned a master’s degree in sports communication from the University of Florida in 2003.

Dacus to oversee swimming and diving Jake Dacus, whose work has helped collegiate swimmers earn national recognition, was named Monmouth College swimming and diving coach in May. Dacus joins Monmouth after three seasons as the assistant men’s and women’s swim coach at Pacific Lutheran University in Washington. While at Pacific Lutheran, Dacus helped coach Kaycee Simpson, who won multiple conference titles and qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 100-meter breaststroke, 100-meter butterfly and 200-meDACUS ter butterfly. Dacus succeeds Tom Burek , who died in December of complications related to covid -19. “Obviously, I wish I was here under different circumstances,” said Dacus. “I didn’t personally know Coach Burek, but I had heard of him within the swimming community. Everyone loved

and admired him, and I know I have very big shoes to fill here.” The butterfly was Dacus’ specialty when he swam at Pacific Lutheran. His name is etched on the Lutes’ top 10 lists for the 100- and 200-meter butterfly, and he was a top-five finisher in both events for three seasons. While he was a coach, Pacific Lutheran had numerous Academic All-Americans, and Dacus also oversaw the Lutes’ recruiting program and database. Dacus said he is excited to build on a Scots program that did not have intercollegiate competition in 2020–21 because of the pandemic. A Renton, Wash., native, Dacus started his coaching career in 2016 at NCAA Division III St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. He spent two seasons as an assistant with the Bearcats, where he helped coach Jacob Davis, the program’s first NCAA All-American and national meet qualifier. Dacus has also coached the Valley Aquatics Swim Team in Washington since September 2018. That position allowed him to work with swimmers ages 10–18 with daily workouts and instruction based on their abilities.

SUMMER 2021

SCOTSPORTS

Track & Field

BEST EFFORTS PAY OFF AT NATIONALS By Barry McNamara

KENZIE BAKER ’21 Her season this year was one of the pleasant surprises of my coaching career. She had a lifetime best essentially every time she ran.” 42

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

eniors Kenzie Baker and Drew Thaxton had some of the best performances in Fighting Scots track and field history as they ended their careers as All-Americans. At the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Greensboro, N.C., Thaxton had two throws of over 54 feet to qualify for the nine-man shot put finals, where his heave of 55 ft., 3 in. placed seventh behind a throw of 59-9 by champion Kevin Ruechel of Wisconsin-Stout. Thaxton’s throw in the final would have been a school record when the season started, but he had already rewritten the record book twice, topping out at 57-7, which beat the pre-2021 mark by nearly three feet. No other recent Monmouth shot put record holder had ever broken the existing mark by more than a few inches. “Drew’s a unique talent,” said Monmouth coach Roger Haynes ’82 of the 5-foot-7 Thaxton, who was listed on the football roster at 260 pounds. “He doesn’t have the prototypical body type, but he’s athletic and very nimble on his feet. At one of our practices, he did a back flip. I wasn’t sure everybody saw it, so I had him do it again, and the whole team was whooping and hollering. There aren’t many guys that size nimble enough to do a back flip.” Where Thaxton was prototypical—at least as far as Monmouth track athletes go—was his improvement under the tutelage of the Scots’ coaching staff. In Thaxton’s case, that was throws coach Brian Woodard ’97. “Drew and Coach Woodard worked well together, and Drew was really strong in his technical work,” said Haynes. “He made a big improvement as a junior and senior.” That was also the case for Baker, although her strong start to her junior season was derailed when the outdoor portion was canceled. “Her season this year was one of the pleasant surprises of my coaching career,” said Haynes. “She had a lifetime best essentially every time she ran. Because we had a shorter season, she didn’t get the variety of races we would normally have. She

DREW THAXTON ’21 He doesn’t have the prototypical body type, but he’s athletic and very nimble on his feet.”

ran the 200 at most meets because we didn’t want to miss out on a good weather day.” Baker was assigned the inside lane in the 200-meter dash final, which followed an outstanding qualifying performance in the outside lane two days earlier, when she was clocked at 24.38 seconds, a mark that’s been bettered only twice by a Monmouth sprinter—both times by Constance Jackson ’01. “To run a lifetime best out of Lane 8 is really something,” said Haynes. “I was hoping she might be able to run a 24.5, but she came in at 24.38. That’s a product of her technical knowledge of our race model. She ran it extremely well.” With her eighth-place finish of 24.72 seconds in the final, Baker earned her first All-American honor. Bailey Forsyth of Pacific Lutheran won the race in 23.74 seconds. Junior Jordan Peckham finished 12th nationally in the 400-meter dash with a career-best time of 56.96. Peckham is now the Scots’ third fastest 400 sprinter behind M Club Hall of Famers Heather Furrow ’98 and Jackson. She entered the event seeded 19th and finished seven spots better with her new PR. “Jordan PR’d every time she ran the 400 this year,” said Haynes. “It’s really a credit to her mental strength that she was able to do that. Both she and Kenzie had a pretty good understanding of our training. They’re simple things, but they both did them well and got better and better.” Sophomore pole vaulter Reed Wilson finished in a tie for 13th

nationally after not clearing the opening height of 15-1. Wilson’s career-best, accomplished earlier in the season, was 16-1∑, which ranks sixth on Monmouth’s honor roll Triple jumper Austin Pfau missed qualifying for nationals by a single centimeter, but Haynes is still proud of the senior’s career, as he improved from a 40-foot high school triple jumper to one who could go 47-5 and also reach 23 feet in the long jump. Perhaps Wilson, with his national meet experience, can help fill a void that’s been created on the team by the loss of seniors like Pfau, Darius Williams, Alex Cutright, Hannah McVey and Baker. “We lose 15 seniors, so we need some people to step up in a leadership capacity,” said Haynes. “Hopefully, some of that knowledge those seniors had will have been absorbed by our returners”—passed forward, essentially, much like the baton in a relay race. For readers wondering whether the Scots men continued their dominance of Midwest Conference meets, the answer is that their streak of 21 consecutive indoor titles is still intact, as there was no indoor meet this year. The outdoor meet, which the Scots have won 18 of the past 19 years, was also not held. On a rainy weekend in May, Monmouth’s men and women hosted, and won, a conference meet that had only South Division schools, while Ripon hosted the North Division meet. SUMMER 2021

SPRING SPORTS SUMMARY BASEBALL

Nick Thomas ’21

MEN’S LACROSSE Spring brought the return of Fighting Scots intercollegiate athletics, although there were still restrictions related to the pandemic. None of the teams took their annual spring break trips to warmer climates, which cut into the number of games they played. The lacrosse programs also faced a shortage of opponents, as several schools opted out of the spring season. That led to a smaller field for the Midwest Lacrosse Conference men’s playoffs, but a talented Monmouth team might’ve qualified anyway, as coach Chris Klaiber’s squad built upon the success it had achieved during last spring’s pandemic-shortened season. In 2020, Monmouth won its first four games, holding teams to less than five goals per game, but the Scots would play only two more contests before the season was halted. Defense was again a large part of the Scots’ identity this spring, as they held six of their nine opponents to six goals or less. Meanwhile, the offense averaged more than 10 goals per game, led by senior Jeff Knapp and sophomore Kain Donohoo, who combined to find the net 52 times. Mitch Perez added a team-high 13 assists. Senior Nick Thomas was named the MLC’s Defensive Player of the Year, and he was joined as a first team all-conference selection by Knapp, Donohoo and sophomores Teagan Simons and James Nowicki. Other Scots recognized as all-conference were seniors Shayne Sendera and Perez, junior Corbin Personett, sophomores Michael Casey and Gordon Kiesgen and freshman Xandru Borst. Appearing in its first MLC playoff game, Monmouth topped Cornell 14–6 before falling to the University of Northwestern in the championship game to end its season at 6–3.

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

The Fighting Scots missed out on good weather on both ends of their schedule. Not taking a spring break trip eliminated nearly a dozen games in the Sunshine State and, as a result, only four games were played in March. Due to rainouts on the final weekend in mid-May, the season was extended with three make-up games. The Scots needed to win two of them to advance to the MWC championship series but fell 10–8 to Illinois College and 11–5 to Knox. Sandwiched in between was an 11–1 win over the Prairie Fire. The Scots were led by South Division Pitcher of the Year Addison Fletcher. The sophomore right hander went 6-0 with a 3.56 ERA. Joining Fletcher on the all-conference team were seniors Jordan Ball and Sean Davis. Batting in the nine hole, Ball hit .372/.417/.670 in conference play while leading the Scots in RBIs (35), triples, doubles and total bases. His six triples led the MWC while tying the Scots single-season record, and he was second in the league in RBIs. Davis hit safely in his final 22 games and slashed .363/.455/.480 on the season. Senior Mike Dato (see lead story) eclipsed the Scots’ career home run record on the season’s final day, while his classmate, Matt Temaner, finished second in career runs, trailing only M Club Hall of Famer Chris Wheat.

WOMEN’S LACROSSE Three Fighting Scots were named All-Midwest Women’s Lacrosse Conference as Monmouth finished 2–6 in the shortened season. Seniors Aspen Chadderdon and Lesly Montoya were named to the second team while returning senior Haydn DeLeeuw received honorable mention. A midfielder, Chadderdon scored 11 times, including one of the Scots’ two game-winning goals, finishing second on the team in both goals and points. She also had a team-high 36 draw controls. Montoya 14 caused turnovers and helped the Scots’ defense hold their final four opponents to 11 goals or less. DeLeeuw scored seven goals, including hat tricks in her final two contests. Two other Scots joined Chadderdon with double-figure goals on the season—sophomores Madison Meldrum (14) and MacKenzie Homes (10).

GOLF Competing in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships, women’s golfer Morgan Bemis carded back-to-back rounds of 83 at The Links in Jacksonville, Ill. The junior

finished ninth individually to earn All-SLIAC honors. The SLIAC Championships for the men were held at Gateway National Golf Links in Madison, Ill., where sophomore Ryan Prusak shot rounds of 82-77-80 to Morgan Bemis ’22 place eighth and earn all-conference honors. As a team, Monmouth’s men placed eighth, while Webster won its fourth straight title.

SOFTBALL First-year coach Alexa McClaughry earned her initial victory at Monmouth with a 10–2 triumph at Knox, beginning a stretch of six splits in the Scots’ final nine doubleheaders of the year. Junior catcher Jessica Pauley and sophomore center fielder Calista Warmowski were both named to the MWC’s All-South Division team. Pauley batted a team-high .377 and also paced the squad in RBI (21), slugging percentage (.532) and on-base percentage, among several other categories. Warmowski hit .299 with 12 RBI while leading the team in at-bats and runs. She also had seven outfield assists. Freshman pitcher Abigail Leber posted all six of Monmouth’s wins—half of them by shutout—and had a 1.32 WHIP over 83 innings.

TENNIS Brothers Joseph Shie and Andrew Shie were among the leaders for the Scots during their 2–7 season, which included three narrow losses to Cornell. A senior, Joseph was 7–2 at No. 1 singles and won five doubles matches with senior Zach Harris, while Andrew, a junior, won five doubles matches with classmate Brendan Guenther in conference play. On the women’s side, sophomore Isabel Hammond picked up the most wins for the Scots in their five spring matches, winning twice in singles and once in doubles with classmate Emily Henson.

IN THE SCOTLIGHT

EMILY SHEETZ ’18

Grad student is helping NASA improve robotic functions By BARRY McNAMAR A

ne of Monmouth College’s most accomplished students in the humanities helped bring one of its most accomplished science students to campus. That science student, Emily Sheetz ’18, is now a graduate student at the University of Michigan, where she has secured a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities fellowship, with a goal of helping to improve robotics being designed for space exploration. When Sheetz was a student at Lincoln-Way East High School in Frankfort, Ill., she relied on advice in selecting a college from a former Lincoln-Way East student, Emma Vanderpool ’17. “I really wasn’t sure about attending a small school, but Emma told me how great Monmouth was,” said Sheetz, whose friend studied classics and received many accolades, including being named Monmouth’s Student Laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. “Based on everything she said, I applied.” Like Vanderpool, Sheetz was an award-winning student at Monmouth. Among her achievements, the summa cum laude graduate received the sole first-place award at a meeting of the Illinois Section of the Mathematics Association of America and received the College’s Paul Cramer Prize for outstanding work in upper-level mathematics. She also completed Monmouth’s highly selective Honors Program, in addition to majoring in mathematics and computer science, with a minor in Spanish. Now in the third year of her program at Michigan, Sheetz is pursuing a doctorate in computer science and engineering with a focus on artificial intelligence and robotics. Most of her first two years were spent in Ann Arbor, but COVID caused her to work remotely in 2020. She was therefore eager to begin the hands-on work of her NASA fellowship, which involves improving robotic manipulation. “In industry, you see robotics using what they call a ‘pick-and-place’ action, like you’d see on an assembly line,” Sheetz said. “NASA is interested in having robots do more involved tasks than ‘pick-and-place,’ such as a screwing motion with a screwdriver. “Robots, for example, could do repairs on the International Space Station, or could collect samples on the Moon. If the robots can execute those actions, it will keep the astronauts safer,” which is the chief appeal of the project for NASA. Sheetz is especially interested in improving the skills of a robot named Valkyrie. “Valkyrie is a very cool, almost humanoid robot,” she said.

“Her hand is almost like a human hand. What I’m working on is what sort of information Valkyrie needs to know to accomplish those more involved tasks. I’m writing controllers that will help her perform these more complex motions, like the screwdriver motion.” In May, Sheetz was finally able to travel to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where she is spending the summer working on

bimanual manipulation for the Valkyrie robot, meaning it will interact with objects using both arms. She was previously in the Lone Star State for an internship in 2019, working with TRACLabs, a software company in Webster, Texas, a few miles away from the space center. “Because of TRACLabs’ proximity and working relationship with the Johnson Space Center, the internship got me thinking about how robots can assist with space exploration, and ultimately helped me earn the NASA fellowship,” said Sheetz. While the end goal of her fellowship is to help astronauts through robotics, Sheetz is not yet sure about the end goal of her doctorate. “To be honest, I’m still deciding,” said Sheetz, who expects her doctoral program will take a total of five to seven years to complete. “I’ve done a lot of teaching and tutoring at Monmouth and in my graduate program, and I would be interested in pursuing a career in academia as an engineering professor. But my work has also shown me what an industry job could look like, doing applied research.”

Sheetz poses with her “partner” at the Johnson Space Center, a humanoid robot named Valkyrie.

SUMMER 2021

WE WELCOME NEWS AND PHOTOS related to your career, awards, reunions or travel with your Monmouth College friends, and any other information of interest to your classmates or alumni. We also welcome announcements

NEWS

and photos of alumni weddings and births, as well as alumni obituaries. Please see page 48 for submission guidelines.

1952

Ralph Whiteman 301 Courtyard Blvd. Monmouth, IL 61462-1098 ralphwhiteman1@gmail.com

1956

Sally Smith Larson 5135 Davantry Dr. Dunwoody, GA 30338-4554 larsar@bellsouth.net

1960

Nancy Van Natta Wherry 1910 Highwood Ave. Pekin, IL 61554 njwherry@gmail.com

John and Carolyn Davis Penney are enjoying retirement in Farmington, N.M. They have 13 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and a new puppy.

1962

Deeks Carroll 12433 Steamboat Springs Dr. Mokena, IL 60448-1639 deekscarroll@yahoo.com

Chicago-area alumni from the classes of 1962 and 1963 recently held a mini-reunion at an Arlington Heights, Ill., restaurant. From left are: Larry Manning ’62, Janet Pearson Manning ’62, Bill Graue ’63, Barbara Graue, Kenneth Knox ’62, Judith Knox, Alice Bowdish, Ken Bowdish ’63, Rodney McQueen ’62 and Diane McQueen.

analogous to the prestigious Kentucky Colonel award. The term “sagamore” was used by Native American tribes to describe a lesser chief among the tribe to whom the true chief would look for wisdom and advice. The Sagamore of the Wabash Award has been presented to presidents, astronauts, scholars, artists and ordinary citizens who have contributed significantly to Hoosier heritage.

1966

Susan Kauzlarich Kuster 1863 Township Rd. 2850N Seaton, IL 61476-9608 susan.kuster@gmail.com

1965

Dave Coots of Westfield, Ind., was recognized by Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb with the Sagamore of the Wabash award. The highest honor that the Indiana governor bestows, the award was created in the 1940s to be

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

1970

Richard Jewell retired in 2019 from 35 years of teaching English, humanities and religion in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. He and his wife, Ann Ludlow—also a retired college teacher—live in the heart of Minneapolis, two miles from the George Floyd memorial site. In retirement, he continues his volunteer work as co-founder and

general coordinator of Minnesota Writing and English, and recently is keeping himself busy writing an interpretation of the ancient book Yoga Sutras by Patanjali.

1973

Nick Tucker 429 Linden Ave. Apt. 1-W Wilmette, IL 60091 njtuckersr@gmail.com

1975

Dave Boyd 11237 OH-38 SE London, OH 43140-9716 jdb00750@gmail.com 614-477-9383

1978

Kathleen Clark Kimmel 347 Blackhawk Dr. Hopewell, IL 61565-9457 kckcat@gmail.com

1980 40th

REUNION

Phil Kleckler ’06 celebrates a national championship for his Lindsey Wilson College Blue Raiders football team with his wife, Randi, and son, Rory.

OCT. 22-24, 2021

Sue Sucharzewski Buresch of Lakefield, Minn., is retiring from the Jackson County Central School District after 25 years of teaching and one year on the Special Education Assessment Team.

1981 40th

REUNION

OCT. 22-24, 2021

1983

Paula Rundell Brooks 1702 Aster Ln. Godfrey, IL 62035-5612 dogpau2@charter.net

1984

Chris Pio 4262 Maple Dr. Galesburg, IL 61401-9510 cpio4262@gmail.com

Rebecca Root Kometer of South Elgin, Ill., married Ryan Kometer in 2019 after having met over 30 years ago at Augustana College.

1985 35th

REUNION

OCT. 22-24, 2021

Illinois Department of Human Services, ending a 33-year career.

1987

Marissa Fangusaro Allen of Geneva, Ill., recently celebrated 18 years at Our Children’s Homestead, a foster care/adoption agency in Naperville, Ill. She has been its CEO for three years.

1988

After more than eight years at the Presbyterian Church of Traverse City, Mich., the Rev. William and his wife, Margie Kerr Myers, have accepted a call from First Presbyterian Church of Charleston, W.V.

1986 35th

REUNION

Dan Cotter of Chicago received the Lawyers-LendA-Hand inaugural “My Hero” Award for 2021. The award, which honors an attorney for contributions to a tutoring or mentoring program, channels the Chicago legal community’s resources to assist youth. Cotter has been involved in the organization for more than 20 years as a board member, board president, fundraiser and volunteer. Best known for his competitive weightlifting supporting Lifting for Lend-A-Hand, Cotter has helped raise close to $350,000 for the organization since 2002.

1990 30th

OCT. 22-24, 2021

Kim Thierry of Galesburg, Ill., retired in 2020 as local office administrator for the

REUNION

OCT. 22-24, 2021

Kristyne Gilbert of Monmouth was named Citizen of the Year by the Monmouth Area Chamber of Commerce. The executive di-

rector for Monmouth’s Buchanan Center for the Arts, she recently completed an extensive remodeling of the downtown facility.

1991 30th

REUNION

OCT. 22-24, 2021

1992

Kate Francis of Springfield, Mo., has been named museum affairs officer for development and fundraising by the Springfield Art Museum. She previously served as chief development officer for The Phoenix Symphony.

1995 25th

REUNION

1996 25th

REUNION

GILBERT

OCT. 22-24, 2021 COTTER

OCT. 22-24, 2021

1998

Jennifer Goedke of Arlington, Va., has been named chief of staff for Rep. Jared Huffman (D– Calif.). She previously served as deputy chief of staff for U.S. representatives Mike Thompson, Tulsi Gabbard and Lynn Woolsey. FRANCIS

SUMMER 2021

ALUMNI NEWS | CLASS NOTES

1999

2015

Ann McClung Klungseth 512 N. Main St. Washington, IL 61571-1525 ajclung@hotmail.com

2000 20th

REUNION

2001 20th

REUNION

5th

15th

REUNION

5th

OCT. 22-24, 2021

Lisa Bondi of Schererville, Ind., has begun a new position as director of marketing and sales for Elevate Senior Living. GOEDKE

2006 15th

KNUTE

REUNION

OCT. 22-24, 2021

Phil Kleckler of Columbia, Ky., in his fourth season as defensive coordinator of the Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) College football team, helped lead the Blue Raiders to the NAIA national championship in May. The team, which finished its season 11–0, defeated Northwestern (Iowa) 45–13 for the title. Kleckler was also named the FootballScoop NAIA Coordinator of the Year.

2007

Hilary Hawkinson Stott P.O. Box 83 Bristol, IL 660512 hilhawkstott@gmail.com

DULEE

Corey White of St. Louis has been named head of production planning for MilliporeSigma. He is responsible for the supply chain at 11 manufacturing sites.

2008 WILLIAMS

OCT. 22-24, 2021

2016

OCT. 22-24, 2021

Caitlin Weinstein Knute of Lenexa, Kan., is an anchor/investigator for KSHB-TV, an NBC affiliate in Kansas City. She was previously a news anchor in Peoria, Ill., and Raleigh/Durham, N.C.

2005

REUNION

Nick Sargis of Aurora, Ill., has been promoted to the position of theatre supervisor for the Fox Valley Park District Performing Arts Department.

Two classmates lead a trucking company that recently received a national award. Brooke Morgan Roth (vice president of operations) and Seth Leitner (director of safety) work for Fort Transfer Company of Morton, Ill., which transports liquid bulk chemicals across the country. With 150 drivers in its fleet, it hauls hazardous materials, herbicides and industrial chemicals. In June, their team was

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

2008 classmates Brooke Morgan Roth and Seth Leitner display the safety award given to their trucking company.

awarded the Grand Award Prize for Safety by the National Tank Truck Carriers Association, for fleets with 12.5 to 15 million miles driven.

2009

Felicia Roberts Wachob of Tulsa, Okla., has taken a position as an inside sales represenatitive for the publishing department of Educational Development Corporation.

2010 10th

REUNION

2011 10th

REUNION

OCT. 22-24, 2021

2012

REUNION

OCT. 22-24, 2021

2017 5th

REUNION

OCT. 22-24, 2021

Jacob Marx 106 S. Front St., Apt. 2D Philadelphia, PA 19106 jacob.p.marx@uscg.mil

Dr. Brad Dulee of Kimberly, Ala., graduated medical school at UICOM-Rockford in May and is starting his pediatrics residency at University of Alabama-Birmingham/Children’s of Alabama. Jessica Fox Carroll of Carthage, Ill., is marketing director of a senior living facility in Keokuk, Iowa. Her husband, Aaron, works for his family’s farm. Johnny Williams III will begin his studies in the MFA Shakespeare and Performance program at Mary Baldwin (Va.) University this fall. He previously served as technical director for The Kewanee (Ill.) Park District Community Theatre.

Abigail Davis Cline has been education coordinator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum since August 2018.

2018

Rod Ojong has been hired as the safeties coach for the University at Buffalo (N.Y.) Bulls football team. He was previously defensive quality control coach for the Georgia Bulldogs.

2020

Logan Thiele of Monmouth completed his second year as head wrestling coach at United High School.

1st

REUNION

OCT. 22-24, 2021

Submission Guidelines Submit your news online at monmouthcollege.edu/alumni/updates, by email to alumni@monmouthcollege.edu, or by mail to Monmouth College Magazine, Attn: Alumni Programs, 700 East Broadway, Monmouth IL 61462-1998. Digital photos should have a minimum resolution of 300 pixels per inch. Please include a photo caption with full names that clearly match faces, class years, date and location. We reserve the right to reject images for any reason, especially those with low resolution and those that require purchase from a photo gallery website. Submissions will be published at the discretion of the editors on a space-available basis.

IN THE SCOTLIGHT

Gary Carstens ’77, Ryan Dawson ’21 & Rebecca Quick ’21 Alumni artists get fired up over unique artisan pottery experience By BARRY McNAMAR A

he heat of a Midwest summer can be oppressive, but for two Monmouth College students a “real feel” over the century mark isn’t all that bad. Ryan Dawson and Rebecca Quick recently participated in a project where the temperature reached well into four digits. The May graduates took part in a wood-salt firing workshop led by Monmouth alumnus Gary Carstens ’77. The workshop was held at Adamah Clay Studios in Dodgeville, Wis., which has a catenary-arch wood-salt kiln that can hold up to 700 ceramic pots in each firing. Accompanying the two art majors at the three-day event was Monmouth art professor Janis Mars Wunderlich. “The workshop began with a full day of loading,” said Wunderlich. “It took an entire day for participants to load nearly 600 works of ceramic art into the kiln.” Because wood ash and sodium from salt is inserted into the kiln’s atmosphere during the firing process, the entire surface of the kiln, including walls and shelves, gets a glassy finish. Therefore, said Wunderlich, every item going into the kiln must be “wadded,” using a refractory material to keep the ceramic works from sticking to the shelves. “The wood and salt fumes, combined with a reduction atmosphere in the kiln, cause a beautiful, varied and somewhat unpredictable glaze surface,” she said. “Glaze results can include lovely flashes of color, ‘orange peel’ texture and crystalline formations on the surface.” Quick and Dawson assisted with loading and stoking the kiln —“feeding the beast”—as its temperature rose to over 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit in the 30-hour firing. “Ryan and I signed up for the 1 to 9 a.m. shift and got the fun time of talking throughout the night to stay awake,” said Quick. “We ended up sticking it out for a few more hours than anticipated because one section of the kiln wasn’t reaching 3,000 degrees. When that cone pack finally reached cone 10, we called it quits and stoked the fire one last time before throwing salt into it. When that happened, fire was shooting out of the peeps like no other and we had to evacuate to avoid the chemical inhalation.”

Wunderlich said the firing process calls for constant attention and revision. “Gary expertly guided participants through the process of firing this large, fully manual kiln, which included constant stoking, adjustment of air dampers and manually checking the temperature,” said Wunderlich. “It is a very hands-on, problem-solving experience because there are many small adjustments that must be made in order to reach the desired temperature and have an even firing.” While only two Monmouth students were able to participate in person, several other students in Wunderlich’s 200-level ceramics class sent their pots to be fired in the kiln. In all, Monmouth students had nearly 200 pots in the firing. Wunderlich said the results “were absolutely stunning.” Quick called the firing “a phenomenal experience.” “I didn’t realize what Janis was getting me into, but I wouldn’t have wanted to spend my weekend doing anything else,” said Quick. “Overall, it was a blast, and I would love to do it again in the fall.”

ABOVE: In Wisconsin, Gary Carstens ’77 (seated) welcomed, from left, Rebecca Quick ’21, art professor Janis Wunderlich and Ryan Dawson ’21. LEFT: The rich depth of color left by the wood ash and salt is evident in this teapot from the firing.

SUMMER 2021

HOMECOMING PREVIEW

2021 ALUMNI IMPACT AWARD WINNERS, HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES ANNOUNCED

our 2021 recipients of Alumni Impact Awards have been announced. They will be honored during Homecoming weekend, Oct. 22-24, along with three new inductees to the M Club Hall of Fame. Also honored as Family of the Year will be the Sondgeroths (see story, page 24).

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS AWARD Wendell Shauman ’67 could simply be described as a “farmer,” but that only scratches the surface of his contributions to agriculture. He has taken on various local, state and national leadership roles in the agricultural community in addition to the daily operation of his 1,100-acre corn and soybean farm near Monmouth. After graduating from Monmouth, Shauman earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in genetics from the University of Nebraska. In his early career, he was a corn breeder for Funk Seeds International and managed its Midwest territory. Shauman has served the nation’s agricultural community in several ways, most prominently in his role as chair of the U.S. Grains Council. During his seven years on its board, he traveled to three dozen countries, encouraging the foreign purchase of grains produced in the United States. He has served on numerous boards and committees, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant Variety Protection Board, the National Corn Growers Association Research Committee, the Illinois Farm Bureau Board, the Illinois Soybean Board, the Warren County Farm Bureau Board and the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, for which he served as chairman for one year. In 2015, Shauman was named an Eagle Award recipient, the Illinois Farm Bureau’s highest award for agriculture industry advocates. Shauman has been cited for his commitment to his alma mater, going above and beyond his connection with the Class of 1967 by keeping track of and engaging with the classes three years ahead and behind. He also works with Monmouth’s Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter, providing valuable networking opportunities.

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DISTINGUISHED YOUNG ALUMNUS AWARD Shortly before it was announced that Alex Tanney ’11 is this year’s recipient of Monmouth College’s Distinguished Young Alumnus honor, the former Fighting Scots standout switched professions. But Tanney’s new job is very much related to his old one. He’s transitioned from a nineyear veteran of the National Football League to one of the newest members of the coaching staff of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles. Tanney gained a variety of different perspectives during his time as an NFL quarterback, learning from more than a dozen offensive coordinators and sharing insights with players such as Tony Romo and Josh McCown. The pupil then became the teacher, as, in his last years in the league, he provided wise counsel to young New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones. That relationship helped pave the way for Tanney’s new role as offensive quality control coach for the Eagles. As he provides input through that position, he won’t just be falling back on lessons from his NFL playing days. He’s been closely involved with the game of football his entire life, growing up as the son of Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame coach Don Tanney ’79. Tanney’s learning curve continued during his playing days at Monmouth, especially from the head coach at the time, Steve Bell, and his top two assistants, Dave Ragone and current Monmouth head coach Chad Braun. “I always knew Alex would be a coach someday,” said Braun. “His dad is a hall of fame high school coach and in a lot of ways Alex was like having a coach on the field when he played at Monmouth. He was given the freedom to get us in the right play a lot of times.” Tanney was the Midwest Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year each of the three seasons that he led the Fighting Scots to MWC titles and NCAA playoff berths (2008, 2009 and 2011). His name remains atop the all-time NCAA list for all divisions with his 157 touchdown passes, and his 14,249 passing yards and 1,205 career completions are both Division III records.

October 22–24, 2021 DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD No person knows more about the history of Monmouth College than Jeff Rankin.

Communicating the stories behind that history has been one of Rankin’s main tasks at Monmouth since 1992, when he became director of communications. Even before then, he had a passion for sharing the history of Monmouth, editing and co-authoring the book Born of the Prairie, a history of the town published for its sesquicentennial celebration in 1981, when Rankin was just two years removed from graduating from St. Lawrence University. (Rankin said he chose the New York college only because his twin brother had decided to attend Monmouth. But the brothers have been back together for decades now, as Doug is a longtime member of the College’s theatre faculty.) For the past 29 years, Rankin has served as the editor for what is now known as Monmouth College Magazine. He also authors a recurring “Monmouthiana” feature for the magazine, digging deeper into the colorful personalities and traditions that have helped make the College what it is today. Now working under the job title of College editor and historian, Rankin says “it’s perhaps no accident” that he became editor of the magazine, as he possesses a photograph of himself in his crib at six months old, holding a copy of “that venerable publication.” It was no doubt brought home to him by his father, Glen Rankin ’43—also a recipient of the College’s Distinguished Service Award—who had a long career in Monmouth admissions and development, recruiting hundreds of students and securing many important gifts. Jeff’s wife, Terri Rankin, and daughter, Amanda Cox, are also Monmouth

alumni, and the Rankins were honored as the College’s Family of the Year in 2015. In conjunction with the College’s own sesquicentennial in 2003, Rankin co-authored the definitive work A Thousand Hearts’ Devotion: A History of Monmouth College.

HATCH AWARD FOR DISTINGUISHED TEACHING Laura Moore came to Monmouth in 2006, after completing her doctoral work in chemistry at Stanford University. In just her second year on the faculty, the biophysical chemist was named chair of the chemistry department. In that role, she’s been instrumental in reviving, and then maintaining, the College’s American Chemical Society accreditation. Each summer, Moore supervises a student research group as part of the Kieft Summer Research Program, and those students have gone on to graduate school, medical school and industry. In addition to her discipline-based work, Moore has been director of Monmouth’s pre-med program since her hire, cocoordinator of the SOFIA summer research programs since 2010 and co-coordinator of the College’s new neuroscience major. She has also served on a variety of faculty standing committees. “Dr. Moore’s leadership has been a steadying force for years at Monmouth, whether she’s guiding students through the intricacies of pre-med preparation, helping faculty conceive and execute their SOFIA projects, or positioning the chemistry department to explore those things which matter to students most,” said Dean of the Faculty Mark Willhardt.

M CLUB HALL OF FAME Peter Sprecher ’08

Kathy Wagoner

Justin Zigler ’06

A four-time All-American and sixtime national qualifier in the pole vault, Sprecher helped the Scots record back-toback top-three NCAA finishes, starting at the 2007 Division III outdoor meet, when he captured the national title in the pole vault and the 10 team points that went with it as the Scots placed third. He also won the Midwest Conference pole vault title six times, and his best vaults indoors and outdoor place him No. 2 on Monmouth’s all-time list.

Coach Wagoner took over the volleyball program in 1981 and led the spikers to back-to-back conference titles in her first two seasons. The Scots posted 20 or more victories in four of her six seasons, going 110-51. In softball, her teams went 94-62-1, winning South Division titles in 1985 and 1987 and claiming the conference title in her final campaign. She currently holds the top winning percentage among all Monmouth volleyball and softball coaches.

In his senior season, football linebacker Zigler made a then-record 115 tackles, including a record 23 behind the line of scrimmage. That pushed his career total to 361, which currently leads the Scots’ all-time category by a wide margin. He was named to the Football Gazette All-American First Team and was the organization’s West Region Linebacker of the Year. He was named the Midwest Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year, one of his three All-MWC selections.

SUMMER 2021

WEDDINGS

Have a wedding or baby photo to share? Email your high-resolution digital image to alumni@ monmouthcollege.edu. Be sure to include all pertinent information, including date of wedding or birth, couples and parents’ names and class years (if applicable), and Several of his ZBT fraternity brothers attended the wedding of Jim Schiro ’81 in Temecula, Calif., in June. From left are: Mike Wolf ’84, Ray Vance ’81, Alex McGehee ’81, Tim McCabe ’81, Schiro, John Perschke ’81 and Craig Dahlquist ’78.

MELISSA KRAGE ’10 AND ERIC ALBRECHT

1981 Jim Schiro and Marcella Castillo June 25, 2021

2012 Dan Steamer and Sarah Carnes June 12, 2021

2010 Melissa Krage and Eric Albrecht May 1, 2021

2017 Jessica Fox and Aaron Carroll February 1, 2020

Lauren Zipse and Christopher Wakeham April 17, 2021

KAITLYN TROUTT ’19 AND SCOTT DEUNK ’17

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

identification of all individuals in photos, if not obvious. Birth information (including a baby’s photo) can also be submitted at the following address: monmouthcollege.edu/ alumni/services/wee-scots

Scott Deunk and Kaitlyn Troutt ’19 January 21, 2020

JESSICA FOX ’17 AND AARON CARROLL

DAN STEAMER ’12 AND SARAH CARNES

BIRTHS

CLARA SYE

IVAN CLAEYS

ELEANOR JANE FARMER

2007 Paige Taylor Leath and Quinn a son, Piercen Craig January 25, 2021

ALEX DANIEL REINHARDT

2011 Erin Fitzpatrick Farmer and Lindsay a daughter, Eleanor Jane October 9, 2020 2013 Veronica Woodruff Claeys and Ky ’12 a son, Ivan July 23, 2020

2008 Kelly and Steve Santell a daughter, Samantha Coraline October 5, 2020

Alexis Fulkerson Garren and Sebastian a son, Atticus Jude January 4, 2020

2009 Breanna Webb Schwarz and Chris ’09 a daughter, Stella Laine April 15, 2021

Colleen Sinclair Sye and Roy ’13 a daughter, Clara Marie April 6, 2021

MAISIE K. VIGNONE

Erika Kruchten Pirman and Adam a son, Benjamin Thomas May 12, 2021

ADRIENNE COOPER RILEY

Briana Tucker Vignone and Justin a daughter, Maisie K. October 6, 2020

2010 Sara Wenzel Riley and Andrew a daughter, Adrienne Cooper August 4, 2020

BENJAMIN THOMAS PIRMAN

ATTICUS JUDE GARREN

2014 Sara Frakes Reinhardt and Joe a son, Alex Daniel April 21, 2021

STELLA LAINE SCHWARZ

SUMMER 2021

NEW ALUMNI BOARD MEMBERS REPRESENT FOUR DECADES

onmouth College recently welcomed four new members to its Alumni Board, each having attended the College during a different decade. The Alumni Board supports the Monmouth College Alumni Association—the body of all former Monmouth students who have completed at least two semesters of academic work. Members are elected from nominations submitted by or solicited from alumni and members of the College administration. The board meets twice a year—in the spring and in the fall around Homecoming. By decade, the new members include Robin Jarvis ’84, Deletra Hudson ’92, Chris Schwarz ’09 and Ed Wimp ’12. Jarvis lives in Nashville, Tenn., where she is the director of learning and organizational development for Wellpath, a 16,000-person company that runs mental health hospitals and provides medical care for people who are incarcerated. Jarvis leads a team responsible for e-learning, JARVIS instructor-led learning, and all organizational development for the entire company. She holds a master’s degree in leadership from Walden University and earned an associate fellowship in global talent management from the Wharton School of Business. Jarvis co-authored The Staff Educator’s Guide to Clinical Orientation, which was awarded Best Continuing Education Book by the American Journal of Nursing. Hudson lives in St. Louis, where she owns a company that provides financial consulting and coaching to municipalities in Missouri and Illinois. She’s also an author and speaker on financial literacy and economic and community development. After graduating from Monmouth, Hudson HUDSON earned an MBA in finance from Webster University. She partners with the NAACP, the Urban League, school districts and other community organizations to increase the financial knowledge of youth, families, government and business owners with a goal of transforming the communities in which they live. Schwarz recently started a new chapter in his education career, becoming principal of United High School, just outside of Monmouth. Previously, Schwarz was the junior high principal in the United district. He holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from Western Illinois University

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

and is working toward completion of his terminal professional degree in education, also from WIU. In his spare time, Schwarz has served his alma mater as a mock interviewer for the Wackerle Center for Careers, Leadership and Fellowships, and as a Fighting Scots SCHWARZ assistant baseball coach. Schwarz is married to Breanna Webb Schwarz ’09. Wimp, of Apopka, Fla., is an attorney with Fulmer, LeRoy & Albee. He holds an MBA from Full Sail University and a J.D. from Florida A&M College of Law. Wimp, who broke into the music industry with the band Earth, Wind & Fire, is the author of Building Fans, Fame & Wealth: WIMP The 18 Revenue Streams of Music, which he has spoken about on campus. “I would like to make it a lifelong mission to give back to Monmouth College in as many ways as I can,” he said of his decision to join the board.

OBITUARIES

1941

W i l b u r Wright, 105, of Springfield, Ill., died March 23, 2020. He was believed to be Monmouth’s oldest living alum at the time. A native of Canada, he became a U.S. citizen in 1937. Wright graduated with a degree in speech communication and theater arts. He worked as a draftsman and cartographer for the Illinois Department of Transportation.

1945

Dr. Paul Grice, 94, of Tulsa, Okla., died Nov. 18, 2019. He was born in Egypt, the son of Presbyterian missionaries, and attended school there. At Monmouth, Grice studied biology and participated in swimming and track. A Navy veteran, he served in World War II and postwar on several ships in the Atlantic, in Japan, and on the aircraft carrier Constellation. While attending the University of Illinois Medical School, he met his wife of 73 years. For nearly 60 years, they lived together in Muskogee, Okla., where Grice was the chief of surgery at a VA hospital.

1948

Marion Pritchard Nebel, 95, of Mequon, Wis., died Feb. 8, 2021. A member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, from which she’d recently received her 75-year membership pin, she graduated with a degree in chemistry. She worked in the office of the Boston Store in Glendale for more than 40 years and was a co-founder of Mequon’s junior kindergarten. At the age of 85, she went skydiving, surprising her family and friends.

1949

Charles Moysey of Oak Brook, Ill., died Nov. 26, 2020. He was a member of the golf team and Theta Chi.

1950

Julia Heath Harvey, 92, of Peoria, Ariz., died April 20, 2021. She was a member of Kappa Delta. She was preceded in death by her husband of 68 years, William Harvey ’49. After raising her children, she started a business career at Thunderbird Graduate School, where she rose to director of college relations.

IN MEMORIA M

Dr. Frank W. Fitch ’51 Dr. Frank W. Fitch, 91, of Chicago, died April 2, 2021. An Eagle Scout who graduated at the top of his class at Monmouth College, Fitch went on to earn his M.D., M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, where he served on the faculty of its School of Medicine for 40 years. Fitch’s research in immunology led to innovations in the treatment of Rh disese in mothers with Rh incompatibility, techniques for T-cell cloning used in research laboratories around the world, and advancements in monoclonal antibody techniques that are now used as the standard for immunotheraphy treatment of multiple cancers, including breast cancer. As the Albert D. Lasker Professor in the medical school, Fitch trained 35 Ph.D. students and seven postdoctoral fellows. He served as chairman of the curriculum committee, associate dean of the medical school and director of the university’s Ben May Cancer Institute. Fitch was president of the American Association of Immunologists (AIA), editorin-chief of the Journal of Immunology and president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). He was the recipient of the Norman McLean faculty award, the Borden research award and the Lederle medical faculty award, and was a John Simon Guggenheim fellow. Fitch and his now-deceased wife of 65 years, Shirley, were avid world travelers and spent two year-long sabbaticals in Lausanne, Switzerland. Monmouth College inducted Fitch into its Hall of Achievement in 2008. A biology major at Monmouth, he was also a member of Theta Chi fraternity. Survivors include his brother, Robert P. Fitch ’58. Laverne Johnson Loek of Boulder, Colo., died Nov. 10, 2017.

1951

James Bailey of Penney Farms, Fla., died Jan. 28, 2021. He was married to Barbara Atkinson Bailey ’52, and one of his cousins was longtime Monmouth professor Lee McGaan ’69. William Chestnutt, 92, of Columbia, Md., died Feb. 13, 2021. A member of Theta Chi, he graduated with a degree in history. Chestnutt served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne and was a public school principal for 30 years. Survivors include his wife of 70 years, Lorna Stevenson Chestnutt ’51.

Patricia Clark Edmonds, 91, of Sparta, Ill., died March 2, 2021. She graduated with a degree in business and economics and was a member of Pi Beta Phi. She spent her life caring for her family, along with all that goes with being a farm wife. Survivors include a sister, Jane Clark Sanderson ’52, a daughter, Barbara Edmonds Brown ’78, and a granddaughter, Erika Hefler ’15.

1952

William Kennedy, of Sun City, Ariz., died in November 2019. He graduated with a degree in biology and was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon. Survivors include his wife, Marlowe Mazanec Kennedy ’52.

SUMMER 2021

1953

Jack Peterson, 89, of Lincoln, Neb., died Jan. 20, 2021. He studied psychology and was a member of the baseball team. A Navy veteran, he worked in Lincoln’s public schools for many years, serving as principal at two middle schools.

1954

A u b r e y Neville, 88, of Elgin, Ill., died May 2, 2021. A member of Theta Chi, he studied business before serving in the U.S. Army. Most of his career was devoted to overseeing Neville Brothers Distributing, a family milk distribution business. He assembled a collection of more than 50 horse-drawn milk and industrial wagons and 3,000 glass milk bottles from all 50 states. Some of his other jobs included California highway patrolman, grocery store owner, founder of a corporate travel agency and an international emergency medical service, pro wrestling promoter and National Ski Patrol worker, during which time he was a member of an Olympic bobsledding team. Survivors include his wife of 58 years. Scott Overton, 89, of Savannah, Ga., died in April 2021. He graduated with a degree in economics and was a member of Alpha Tau Omega. Overton was president of a real estate development company and owned numerous small water companies in northeast New Jersey. Survivors include his wife, Marolyn Short Overton ’58. Donald Steiner, 92, of Raymond, Neb., died April 13, 2021. A member of the track team, he graduated with a degree in Greek. Steiner had a lengthy and decorated military service, that included his chaplaincy with the Air Force Reserve from 1969 to 1986. He also served in the Navy, the Navy Reserve and the Oregon National Guard. Steiner graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and also held a master of divinity degree. He served congregations in six states and was a staff member of the Presbytery of South Dakota and the Presbytery of Homestead, receiving the Outstanding Presbyterian of the Year Award and, later, the Outstanding Retired Presbyterian Annual Award.

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

1955

William George of East Palestine, Ohio, died Dec. 13, 2020. He was a member of the football and swim teams and Alpha Tau Omega. Survivors include a son, Gary George ’81. Allen McGehee, 87, of Hammond, La., died May 11, 2021. He graduated with a degree in business administration and was a member of the football and basketball teams and Tau Kappa Epsilon. McGehee served four years as a Navy aviator, then built a business in construction and development in Silvis, Ill. He was a former member of Monmouth’s Board of Trustees. Survivors include a son, Alex McGehee ’81, and a granddaughter, Courtney McGehee ’18. Carolyn Bollman Wood of Antrim, N.H., died Aug. 8, 2017. She graduated with a degree in mathematics James Stripe, 88, of Browns Valley, Calif., died May 20, 2021. A biology major, he was a member of Theta Chi fraternity and participated in basketball and track.

1956

Carol Linquist Christensen, 86, of Rock Island, Ill., died Feb. 15, 2021. She studied business administration and was a member of Pi Beta Phi. Christensen worked for 20 years as a secretary for John Deere. She was preceded in death by her husband of 54 years, her Monmouth High School sweetheart William Christensen ’56.

1957

Jack Thurber, 85, of Cedar Mill, Ore., died Feb. 16, 2021. After one year at Monmouth, he joined the Army Corps of Engineers. He completed his degree at Oregon State College, where he was part of the effort to change the name of the school to Oregon State University. Thurber had a career in industrial marketing, then was a marketing consultant through his firm, Thurber Advertising. Thurber was active with the Boy Scouts and, as an avid outdoorsman, climbed Mt. Hood seven times. He was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon at Monmouth.

1959

Gary Wiegel, 83, of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, died May 12, 2021. He graduated with a degree in business administration and was a member of the football and golf teams and Tau Kappa Epsilon. Wiegel had transferred to Monmouth from Rice University, where he also played football. He served in the Army and the Army Reserves and worked for John Deere Co. in Moline, Ill., before graduating from Drake Law School and practicing law in Mount Pleasant for 56 years.

1960

Andrew Connolley Jr., 85, of White Bird, Ind., died Oct. 30, 2019. He joined the Navy during the Korean War, then started a long career in the telephone industry, first in DeKalb, Ill., and then in Idaho, where he formed his own telephone interconnect company, with which he was still involved at the time of his death.

Donn Denniston, 83, of Novi, Mich., died May 30, 2021, after a courageous battle with Parkinson’s disease. He followed his father, Homer Denniston ’20, to Monmouth, where he met Judy Stafford Denniston ’60, his wife of 58 years, who preceded him in death. He earned a master’s degree in business administration from Indiana University, then worked for U.S. Gypsum in Chicago, while also serving in the Army National Guard and the Army Air Force Reserve. Denniston then worked in marketing for Ford Motor Company for 30 years. Survivors include a brother, Chuck Denniston ’54.

Thomas Dicus, 85, of Jasper, Ga., died Nov. 9, 2020. He studied physical education. Dicus owned Turfway Lawn Equipment in Tequesta, Fla.

Glenna Craig Edwards of Waxhaw, N.C., died in 2020. She graduated with a degree in history and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma.

ALUMNI NEWS | OBITUARIES

William McBride of Elyria, Ohio, died Dec. 17, 2020. He graduated with a degree in business administration and was a member of Alpha Tau Omega. William McKelvey of Castaic, Calif., died in a car-pedestrian accident on Dec. 22, 2020. He graduated with a degree in physics. Audrey Larson Nehmer, 82, of Carol Stream, Ill., died Oct. 19, 2020, after many years of living with dementia. A member of Kappa Delta, she graduated with a degree in elementary education. Nehmer was a full-time teacher, then worked with homebound students and was a substitute teacher. She also held positions in accounts receivable and as a pharmacist’s apprentice. She is survived by her husband of 60 years, her high school sweetheart Bruce Nehmer ’60. Kenneth Nelson of Wonder Lake, Ill., died Jan. 10, 2018. He was a member of the Fighting Scots football team

1961

Ronald Lundal, 81, of Glen Ellyn, Ill., died Sept. 18, 2020. He graduated with a degree in economics and was a member of the football, cross country and swim teams and Alpha Tau Omega. Lundal served in the Army Reserves from 1962–69, then worked as a salesman before founding Caster Specialties and Accessories in 1974. He served as president of the company until his retirement. Survivors include his wife, Suzanne Walters Lundal ’63. Gloria Heaton Schuren, 81, of Genoa City, Wis., died Feb. 8, 2021. She graduated with a degree in physical education. Schuren taught physical education for 16 years and operated Morning Glory Collectibles in Genoa City.

1962

Dana Furry, 79, of Springfield, Ill., died May 20, 2020, of complications from cancer. She completed her degree at Illinois College. Furry earned a master’s degree in social work from Washington University in St. Louis, then embarked on a career in social work with the State of Illinois.

IN MEMORIAM

Joe Tait ’59 Joe Tait, a sports broadcasting legend who was the longtime voice of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, died March 10, 2021, after a long battle with cancer and kidney failure. He was 83. Tait began his sports broadcasting career while serving as a manager for the Fighting Scots’ football and basketball teams. When the clock was running at basketball games, Tait would sit on the stage of the old Waid Gymnasium doing play-by-play into a tape recorder. Tait also served as the College’s sports information director in 1956 and 1957 and announced Fighting Scots games for the local AM station until his graduation, also selling the advertising that made broadcasting the games possible. In his 2011 autobiography, Tait recalled his early days in the profession in Monmouth, offering a valuable lesson for today’s college students. “I wasn’t paid anything by the SID department,” he wrote. “Three papers used my stories. … None of them paid me, either. I didn’t care. I was happy to get my work out there. Too many kids worry about what a job will pay rather than what the job can do for them in terms of experience.” In 1970, Tait became the radio voice of the expansion Cavaliers. With the exception of two seasons in the 1980s and illness during his final season, he called Cavs games through 2011—more than 3,000 in all. During the 1960s, Tait had bounced around from small town to small town, up and down the dial, keeping all the rejection letters he received along the way as he attempted to break into larger markets (he also spent three years in the Army Security Agency in Turkey and Germany). Tait also broadcast Cleveland Indians baseball for 16 years. In 2010, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame media wing, receiving the Curt Gowdy Media Award. For 31 years, Tait was the TV voice of the Mount Union Purple Raiders, a perennial power in small college football. As the Fighting Scots’ own fortunes on the gridiron improved, Tait always hoped that Mount Union and Monmouth would meet in the Division III championship game. A multiple winner of the Ohio Sportscaster of the Year Award, Tait was also known to take time during his broadcasts to deliver updates on Monmouth College men’s basketball. Word of Tait’s death brought condolences from across the nation, including this tweet from LeBron James: “Rest In Paradise my friend!! You’ll be extremely missed here!” Tait was inducted into the M Club Hall of Fame in 1991 and into Monmouth’s Hall of Achievement in 2009. As a student, he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, Sigma Tau Delta, M Club and The Oracle staff.

SUMMER 2021

ALUMNI NEWS | OBITUARIES

1963

Larry Christiansen, 79, of Chula Vista, Calif., died Jan. 27, 2021. He studied music and was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon. Christiansen was a professor of music and business law for 40 years at Southwestern College in Chula Vista. He composed many choral pieces and an opera. Peter Frantzen, 79, of Forsyth, Mo., died April 1, 2021. He graduated with a degree in economics, then moved to St. Louis, where he had a career as a financial adviser.

1964

Dixie Simms Jenks, 79, of Mon mout h died March 13, 2021, of cancer. She completed a degree in elementary education at Parsons College and earned a master’s degree in education from Western Illinois University. Jenks worked in the Monmouth school district for 35 years as a classroom teacher and reading specialist.

1965

Eleanor Hedenberg Berry, 76, of New Canaan, Conn., died July 13, 2019. She studied speech communication and theater arts and was a member of Crimson Masque and Kappa Kappa Gamma.

1966

Helen Hase Lorenz of Fennville, Mich., died Dec. 23, 2016. She graduated with a degree in religious studies.

1968

Augusto “Gus” Basombrio, 75, of Lima, Peru, died in May 2021. Raised in Peru, he studied at Monmouth before completing a degree in Spanish and history at Lakeland College. He taught at Loyal (Wis.) High School for 33 years. He and his wife of nearly 50 years, who survives, bred and raised Cairn terriers.

1970

John Hilligoss, 69, of Sugar Grove, Ill., died Feb. 6, 2018. He served in the Navy during the Vietnam War as a Seabee and retired in 2015 from P.S. and Associates in Naperville, Ill., as a vice president and underwriter. Susan Rudy of Castle Rock, Colo., died March 10, 2018. She was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma.

1971 58

Reid Holmes, 69, of Orchard Park, N.Y., died July 23, 2018.

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Jerry Mason, 71, of Watseka, Ill., died March 23, 2021, in the house where he was raised. A member of Theta Chi, he left Monmouth to serve four years in the U.S. Army. Mason also studied at Western Illinois University and completed a two-year degree in electronics technology at Valparaiso Technical Institute. He plied his trade in Washington and Illinois, retiring from Bosch in Watseka in 2013.

1972

Marjorie Montgomery Waddell, 71, of Louisburg, Kan., died March 27, 2021. She studied biology at Monmouth for three years, completing her degree at Western Illinois University, then later obtained an MBA. Waddell built a successful career in purchasing and worked for large pharmaceutical and animal health companies such as Bayer and Pfizer.

1973

Margaret Ames, 70, of Belleville, Ill., died March 8, 2021. A member of Pi Beta Phi, she studied history. Ames was an office worker for Evans & Dixon law firm in St. Louis. Michael Dunn, 69, of Stevensville, Mont., died Feb. 1, 2021, after battling cancer. He studied biology and was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon before completing his degree at Northwestern University.

1974

Paula Emons-Fuessle, 69, of Washington, Ill., died March 22, 2021. She studied history, then completed her degree at the University of Illinois, where she also earned a master’s degree in library science. She made a career of her passion for knitting, developing a podcast that had more than a million downloads, and publishing several YouTube knitting tutorials. Emons-Fuessle was also a member of Celtic Pipes and Drums and played throughout the Midwest and internationally. Survivors include her husband, Robert Fuessle ’72, and a son, Torben Fuessle ’00.

1975

Norm Lydiard, 67, of Glendale, Ariz., one of the best golfers in Fighting Scots history, died of cancer on March 28, 2020. He studied physical education and, in addition

to being a two-time medalist at the Midwest Conference golf meet, played football. John Unterfrantz, 68, of Crown Point, Ind., died Feb. 6, 2021. He graduated with a degree in business administration and was a member of the football and baseball teams and Alpha Tau Omega. Unterfrantz taught and coached at Morton East High School. He and his wife of nearly 40 years had two sets of twins. Alva Walker of Winchester, Va., died in August 2020.

1976

Edward Beck, 66, of Butler, Pa., died Feb. 11, 2021. He graduated with a degree in geology and was a member of the soccer team, the Pipe Band and Zeta Beta Tau. Beck was a production supervisor for Penreco for 29 years, then did work in background investigations. Lu Anne HeatherlyGrant, 66, of Nauvoo, Ill., died March 14, 2021. A member of Pi Beta Phi, she studied elementary education. Many of the jobs she held throughout her life involved bookkeeping. Jean-Claude Kergaravat, 68, of Lee, Mass., died March 20, 2021, of cancer. Born in France, he came to the U.S. as an infant. He studied psychology at Monmouth before completing his bachelor’s degree at Hofstra University. Kergaravat had two careers, first serving as a troubleshooter for Hallmark and helping to resurrect several stores. He also ran his own card and gift shop. He then was a direct care worker for almost 20 years for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation. Kergaravat was also an accomplished guitarist, playing for local bands and recording artists.

1977

Robert Springsteen of Fishers, Ind., died March 1, 2021, of pancreatic cancer. A member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and the swim team, he graduated with a degree in geology.

ALUMNI NEWS | OBITUARIES

1980

Paul Palmer of Brentwood, Mo., died in March 2021. He graduated with a degree in mathematics and was a member of the soccer team and Zeta Beta Tau.

2021 Fighting Scots Society Golf Outing Eager to return to the links after COVID canceled last year’s outing, nearly 150 golfers participated in the 2021 Fighting Scots Society Golf Outing, held June 25 at Monmouth’s Gibson Woods. “This year’s event filled up in record time, and we are so grateful for the support of Monmouth athletics,” said Vice President for Development and College Relations Hannah Maher. The annual event, which helps fund everything from athletics travel to uniforms, is made possible through sponsorships by area businesses. More than $25,000 was raised, a record.

1990

Holly Hamline Reynolds, 52, of East Galesburg, Ill., died Feb. 10, 2021. She studied music, then worked as a paraprofessional and as an administrative assistant at Lake Bracken Country Club.

1998

Jamie Goodwin, 45, of Monticello, Mo., died April 17, 2021. He completed a degree in criminal justice at Truman State University. Goodwin spent 20 years as an officer for the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole and had recently started a new position as Lewis County circuit clerk. He also farmed and raised cattle and goats.

Welcome weather

Leading them into battle

Members of 36 foursomes arrived smiling, as forecasts of heavy rain proved unfounded.

Kieren Marshall ’21, a piper from Melbourne, Australia, serenaded the procession of golf carts as the event got underway.

A family affair

Cool partners

2009

Micah Mahan, 35, of Rockford, Ill., died April 27, 2020. A member of the Pipe Band, he graduated with a degree in classics, then graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary. Mahan was a Bible and world religions teacher at Rockford Christian for three years.

2017

Amanique J o n e s Sproston, 25, of Galesburg, Ill., died March 17, 2021. An elementary education major, she was a substitute teacher, paraprofessional and coach, Sproston was working toward her master’s degree in early education.

Troy McCrery ’87 and son Jake McCrery ’20, a member of the Fighting Scots lacrosse team, enjoyed the outing.

Comfort stations from OSF HealthCare and the Warren County YMCA helped golfers deal with the elements.

Faculty/Staff Roger Hawk, 76, of Toulon, Ill., a former supervisor of Monmouth student teachers, died April 20, 2021. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Kristin Hawk Keane ’00. Paul Grischke, 86, of Grand Rapids, Mich., an instructor of music from 1963–1967, died June 3, 2021.

Feeding the masses A large crowd enjoyed food, prizes and fellowship at the American Legion hall, following a long afternoon on the course.

Margaret Ketterer, a longtime active member of the campus community, died June 30, 2021, at age 96. She was the widow of the late biology professor John Ketterer.

SUMMER 2021

THE LAST WORD

Jean Peters Witty ’88

THE SCOT BEAT GOES ON

THREE GENERATIONS OF SCOTS Jean Witty ’88 at Commencement with her son, Thomas ’21 and her father, Richard Peters ’58.

underestimated how proud i’d feel

as my son stepped onto the stage to receive his diploma in May. Most parents feel a sense of pride when their children accomplish something they’ve always dreamed of on their behalf, but this moment was especially poignant. Thomas is the fourth generation of our family to attend and graduate from Monmouth College: my grandparents (Dr. James Marshall ’36 and Isabel Bickett Marshall ’36), his grandparents (Carolbel Creswell Peters ’61 and Richard Peters ’58), my cousin (Lucy Kellogg Thompson ’99) and I, ’88, and now Thomas Witty ’21. All have walked the halls of Wallace, cheered in the football stadium and studied in the carrels of the Monmouth library. We share a common bond through our family heritage and now through our experiences as Fighting Scots. This past year has been an especially historic one for education at all levels. With the covid-19 pandemic, learning at Monmouth was moved online, students on the once-vibrant campus were sent into their rooms, and social separation became the norm. I was worried that as a college senior, my son’s last year at Monmouth would be a disappointment. How wrong I was! In the face of a changing academic and social climate, Thomas did what many Monmouth students do well—he adapted and grew. He and his baseball teammates (Jordan Ball ’21, Grant Powers ’21, Matthew Temener ’21 and Austin Vannaken ’21) figured out with the help of Coach Alan Betourne ’05 how to successfully carry out fall ball practices and how to move forward with a successful fall baseball outdoor season. Who cared that they all had to “mask up” in the dugout? The Scots wanted to play! And when they were asked to pick up meals from the “caf” rather than eat in large groups, quadmates became family and home became the four walls of the space they shared in the dorm. Thomas was blessed in relationships with extended family members in the town of Monmouth such as Buster and Jane Marshall Kellogg ’72, much as I had been when I was on campus in the late 1980s. For him, attending Monmouth was not just about the education in communications (his major) or

MONMOUTH COLLEGE MAGAZINE

about athletics (through the baseball team)—the experience cemented in his mind what it means to overcome obstacles that were not even imaginable on his first day on campus. He learned what community means and how to be an important part of the success of that community. As chair of the Enrollment Management Committee on the College’s Board of Trustees, I care a great deal about the experiences of all our students on campus—during a pandemic or otherwise. I help to guide and oversee the recruitment of new students and the retention of our current ones. Being a legacy at Monmouth makes this role a unique one, as I am motivated each day to share what has been meaningful for myself and for members of my family. How could I promote our campus to others, if I wouldn’t be willing to educate my own children there?! Initiatives such as the creation of the engineering major and partnerships with local businesses (such as the acquisition of the industrial 3-D printer, Ellie) are recent examples of ways our campus is growing in the sciences. In addition to seeking a firstrate academic experience, many students come to our campus so they can continue to compete in a sport they enjoy. They come to sing, to play an instrument, or pursue their passion for art. It is our job as alumni and friends of the College to support their success by giving to the College on an annual basis. At Monmouth, our students are as varied as they are unique. I saw this as each graduate of the Class of 2021 crossed the stage to receive his or her diploma. Not stopped by even a pandemic, our newest Scot alumni held their heads high as they ended their days on our campus and looked forward to a bright future. Those of us older alumni know that their road to success may not be smooth nor straight. But here’s one thing that will always be true: they are proud Fighting Scots and there is no limit to the possibilities ahead of them. Will there be a fifth generation Fighting Scot in our family? Hopefully someday! As for today, however, I encourage all to support our great campus in any way that you are able. No gift is too small, and large gifts are certainly welcomed! Let’s bring this legacy forward so that all may continue to know the pride of being a Fighting Scot. Jean Peters Witty ’88, Ph.D., is curriculum director and senior instructor for Rancho Solano Preparatory School in Phoenix, Ariz. She has been a member of the Monmouth College Board of Trustees since 2000.

Your greatest gift to Monmouth could be a name. Your college experiences are personal and priceless. You may have met lifelong friends at Monmouth, or a lifelong partner. You may have discovered a hidden talent or passion, thanks to an inspirational professor. These were memorable years you wouldn’t trade for the world. But wouldn’t it be great to share the experience? You can, by sharing the name of a child, grandchild, niece or nephew—or any talented young person who you believe could benefit from a Monmouth education. Perhaps you have considered making an estate gift to Monmouth, but even if you haven’t, recommending a prospective student can ultimately have as great an impact. It’s easy to do. Just go to:

monmouthcollege.edu/future-scot and nominate a high school or transfer student whom you believe would be a perfect match for Monmouth!

WE’RE SOCIAL! Monmouth College Monmouth College Athletics Monmouth College Alumni @Monmouth @MCFightingScots @Monmouth_Alumni @MonmouthCollege @MonmouthCollegeAthletics @ThisisMonmouth ThisIsMonmouth

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Monmouth College Magazine SUMMER 2021

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