Alumni Connection
Fok ’74 and Platten ’74 Receive Reger Awards Two alumni from the 40th Reunion Class of 1974— Canning Fok (below) and Jim Platten (R)—are this year’s Fr. Walter Reger Distinguished Alumnus Award recipients. The highest honor bestowed by the Alumni Association, the award salutes an alumnus in the name of Fr. Walter Reger, OSB (1894-1971), beloved long-time secretary of the Alumni Association.
He recently completed his term as president of the Alumni Association Board of Directors. “Whenever a Saint John’s program needed promoting or an alumnus needed consoling or a student needed backing,” said several fellow alumni, “Jim Platten has been there with his sleeves rolled up and his heart in the effort.”
Elliott ’03 to Receive Basten Award
Canning Fok received the Reger Award at a gathering of the Hong Kong Alumni Chapter last March. For more than 30 years, Fok has worked at one of Asia’s largest companies, Hutchison Whampoa Limited, serving as executive director beginning in 1983 and as group managing director since 1993. Fok served on the Saint John’s Board of Regents (20032011) and currently serves as a Regent Emeritus. “Canning has earned various and considerable successes throughout his career,” says Bernie Tuohy ’72. “But … it is his continuing benevolence to others, with humility, that still defines who he is and makes him deserving of this Walter Reger recognition.” Jim Platten will receive the Reger Award at the Alumni Association Homecoming Banquet. Platten has spent most of his career in health care administration and recently accepted the position of CEO and executive director of Open Cities Health Center in St. Paul, Minn. Platten has been a class agent for more than three decades, has been the chair of the Red Tie Gala, and served on numerous alumni, fundraising and reunion committees.
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Blake Elliott ’03 will receive the Bob Basten Award at halftime of the Homecoming football game on Oct. 4. The Basten Award honors a former Johnnie football player who has demonstrated outstanding leadership and a commitment to excellence. It is given in honor of the late Bob Basten ’82, a former Minnesota Viking and founder of the Playing to Win for Life Foundation for ALS Research. Elliott’s record-breaking SJU football career is unmatched. He received the Gagliardi Trophy and a national championship in 2003. He was a three-time All-American, two-time MIAC Player of the Year and, in 2014, he was placed on ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame. Elliott is the co-owner and director of operations at Everyday Living in Eagan, Minn., a foster-care system for adults with special needs. He created the company after his younger brother suffered a traumatic brain injury just before Blake’s senior year at SJU. Elliott has served as president of the J-Club and is heavily involved in Feed My Starving Children, a nonprofit committed to ending world hunger.