Prospect Magazine, Fall 2021

THE MAGAZINE OF ELMHURST UNIVERSITY

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Fall 2021 The Magazine of Elmhurst University

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v o l u m e i v, n u m b e r

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THE SESQUICENTENNIAL ISSUE

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H. Richard and Reinhold Niebuhr were two of the 20th century’s leading theologians. Before that, they were students at Elmhurst.

From bells and beanies to the ceremonial mace, a collection of treasures help tell the story of Elmhurst’s first 150 years.

In the century and a half since its founding, Elmhurst has continually reinvented itself—while staying true to its roots.

Niebuhrs 101

D E PA R T M E N T S

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Elmhurst, Curated

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55 ALUMNI NEWS

I N T H E CLASS ROOM

Telling Untold Stories B E YON D T H E CLASS ROOM

Alejandro Lopez, Sergeant and Student Rev. H. Scott Matheney, Soul Worker

59 C L ASS N OT E S

Judy and Lisa VanArsdale, Coming Full Circle

6 4 M Y C A R E E R PAT H

Read the magazine online at elmhurst.edu/Prospect.

Pioneering Spirit

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A RTS S P OT L I G H T

Good Sports: Bluejays Through the Years

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The Magazine of Elmhurst University

Fall 2021 volume

1v, number 11

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Jonathan Shearer SENIOR DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS AND EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Desiree Chen CREATIVE DIRECTION & DESIGN

Laura Ress Design EDITOR

Margaret Currie PROJECT MANAGER

Natalie Bieri CONTRIBUTORS

Emily Ayshford, Molly Heim, Brian Moore, Dave Roos, Andrew Santella PHOTOGRAPHY

Vintage postcards from the University archives paint a picture of Elmhurst’s first 150 years.

Bob Coscarelli, Rob Hart, Mark Hensel, Sarah Nader, Justin Runquist, Andrew Schones, Kurt Wehde, Stacy Wescott, Steve Woltmann PHOTO COORDINATOR

Lauren Altiery ILLUSTRATION

Mark Summers ALUMNI NEWS & CLASS NOTES

Kelsey Hogan

CONNECT WITH US

We welcome your comments!

Email us at marketing@elmhurst.edu.

Prospect is published twice a year by the Office of Marketing and Communications.

Elmhurst University 190 Prospect Ave. Elmhurst, Illinois 60126 © 2021 Elmhurst University All rights reserved.

The Prospect team would like to thank Elaine Fetyko Page, University archivist, for her contributions to this issue of the magazine. Her research in the institution’s archives was instrumental in helping us tell the Elmhurst story.

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

��� YEARS LATER

On the evening of September 24, nearly a thousand members of the Elmhurst University community gathered on the Mall to view Homecoming fireworks—fullblown, glorious explosions of light and sound, high in the sky over Hammerschmidt Memorial Chapel.

The fireworks are fitting symbols for the excitement and exuberance I’ve seen on campus this Fall Term. After 18 months of remote learning, our students are back in person, inspiring us with their energy. And we’re celebrating our sesquicentennial by adding special features to beloved traditions like Homecoming, while introducing new events, such as our Founders Day festivities on December 6.

You’ll find that excitement reflected in this special edition of Prospect. Exploring our 150-year history, we highlight students’ Elmhurst experience, beginning in our earliest proseminary days and extending into this fall, when we welcomed our second-largest class of new undergraduates and our largest-ever class of graduate students.

Throughout the dynamic life of this institution, it’s striking to see how consistently Elmhurst has embraced themes such as service to the greater good, academic excellence and innovation, and real-world preparation. These are the themes that have guided us—through societal upheaval, economic challenge and prosperity, institutional growth and change—and that keep extending the impact of our everwidening circle.

I hope to see you on December 6 for Founders Day, when we’ll celebrate our vibrant past and embrace our bright future—together.

TROY D. VANAKEN

President

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IN THE

CLASSROOM

TELLING UNTOLD STORIES

THE CLASS

Public History: The Elmhurst Sesquicentennial

THE RIGHT TIME, THE RIGHT GROUP

THE PROFESSOR

Karen Benjamin ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY

With Elmhurst University’s sesquicentennial coming up, we thought it was the perfect time to offer a special public history seminar where students could dig through the archives of local museums, libraries and historical societies for untold stories. Almost all of the students in the seminar were history majors interested in careers in museum studies and local history.

TELLING THE WHOLE STORY

Getting an unvarnished look at local history is hard enough without a pandemic, but Karen Benjamin and her students still shined a light on untold Elmhurst stories.

Local history gets criticized for being overly simplistic, celebratory and whitewashed—it often tells one story, and that story is very white.

My students wanted to ask hard and sometimes uncomfortable questions about Elmhurst’s history. One student used enrollment data to see how many Black students attended Elmhurst, and he also looked at student newspaper articles about various incidents on campus related to race. That had a big impact on the class; they were appalled to see what little progress had been made.

LESSONS IN RESILIENCE

The premise of the seminar was that students would have unfettered access to physical archives, photos and

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documents, but COVID-19 changed everything. In many cases, the only materials available were those that were already digitized and online.

It was a real challenge, but the students all stepped up and completed a project.

It’s a lesson that will serve them well as future museum directors. As one of our guest speakers said, “If you want to work in local history, you’d better be a plumber.” If the bathroom backs up, that’s you! If money is tight or you can’t get access to the resources you need, how do you make the best of it?

How do you deliver something of value when things don’t go as planned?

These students know how.

HONORED TO BE HONORED

One of the reasons I wanted to come to Elmhurst was because I had so much respect for this faculty and because they put a strong emphasis on teaching and teaching innovation. To receive the 2021 President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching was such an honor. The real honor, though, came from the students who nominated me with such a well-written and powerful statement.

Their energy, curiosity and desire to understand our history on a really deep level—it blows me away.

THE STUDENT VIEW “My project was about Elmhurst’s German roots. Elmhurst was a proseminary before it became a college, and most classes were taught in German. I wanted to know why German was so important to Elmhurst, when and why the language of instruction changed, and why nobody talks about the University’s German past. I felt very honored to have my final project featured in the digital research showcase.”

— ANGELINA TSAKOPOULOS ’21 HISTORY MAJOR

“My research project was about Elmhurst College during World War II. When I learned that Elmhurst was one of only a few schools in the country to accept Japanese American students, that got me hooked. Elaine Fetyko Page, the University archivist, gave my partner, Tabitha, and me booklets of campus newspapers from the 1940s, which were exactly the type of primary sources that we needed.”

— MICHAEL RALLO ’21 HISTORY MAJOR

Michael Rallo's research project about Elmhurst College during World War II features this illustration from Elmhurst's 1944 yearbook, The Elms.

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CAMPUS

NEWS

STAFF

CAMPUS TREES ���

Q&A

Elmhurst facilities manager Mark Wakely is the campus tour de force.

Prospect asked the 1987 alumnus and 41-year University veteran to share some top spots, historical insights and fun facts every visitor should know.

What are your three must-see spots on campus?

1. The Bates Observatory on top of the

The graceful pecan tree near Irion Hall was planted in honor of the late Rev. Dr. Robert O. Laaser, senior pastor at St. Peter’s United Church of Christ in Elmhurst before his death. In the harsh climate of the Midwest, the tree doesn’t bear fruit most years—so when it does, it’s a special occasion.

Schaible Science Center. People look up and wonder what the telescope is like, and I’m always glad to take them up into the dome and show them how it rotates.

2. The Old Main bell tower, because of all the names people have carved on the walls and ceiling. When visitors find a name from the 1800s carved in a hand railing, it really hits home just how old our campus is and how many people have passed through it.

3. The particle accelerator in the Barbara A. Kieft Accelerator ArtSpace. It’s an interesting piece of technology—outdated and deactivated now, of course, but it has great historical significance. It came to us from the University of Chicago, home to the first controlled nuclear reaction in 1942.

BR ANCHING OUT

Is there one piece of information you

The Elmhurst University Arboretum reached a major milestone recently with the planting of its 1,000th tree. Founded in 1966 with the planting of a single Shumard oak, the arboretum now encompasses everything from magnolias and redbuds to maples, hawthorns and American elms.

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share during your tours that always

look, like they wanted to confirm it for themselves. This is really what makes our arboretum possible, because if we had wires crisscrossing the campus, it would be difficult to plant as many specimens as we have.

Do you have a favorite story about campus life?

Sometime in the 1960s, the night before Commencement, students pulling a senior prank got a Volkswagen Beetle up the steps of Hammerschmidt Memorial Chapel and left it there. It blocked the main doors, which the graduates would need to march through. So volunteers had to lift it up and carry it down so that Commencement could proceed. A little farewell gift from the senior class!

surprises people?

It’s when I say that there are no utility poles on campus. No overhead lines anywhere. All of the phone, data, electric, gas, heat and cooling lines run through tunnels under our feet.

People have actually spun around to

What do you like most about giving tours?

People see the campus as it is today and don’t necessarily understand its heritage. I enjoy sharing a sense of how rich in history the University really is, and that there’s a lot more going on than just what’s on the surface.

HASHTAG

HIGHLIGHTS

From a historical walking tour to special-edition socks and a dedicated website, Elmhurst’s sesquicentennial is in full swing. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to join the celebration.

ELMHURST UNIVERSITY WALKING TOUR

BY THE

NUMBERS This fall, Elmhurst welcomed its second-largest class of incoming students ever, including the largest class of new graduate students in the institution’s history. Here are a few numbers that tell the story.

TOTAL NEW STUDENTS

Elmhurst History Museum Here's something new to check out: we've just added a new Elmhurst University Walking Tour to our EHM Mobile App. You can use it this fall to walk the beautiful EU campus and learn about the buildings and history of the school. Download the app today, and get started on your own local history adventure! #exploreelmhurst

elmhurst.university Homecoming 2021 was a blast! #ElmhurstU #Elmhurst150 #CheersTo150Years

1,217 GROWTH IN NEW-STUDENT ENROLLMENT OVER 2020

10% NEW FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS

531 NEW TRANSFER STUDENTS

379 NEW GRADUATE STUDENTS

elmhurst.university Great things are afoot on campus this year! #Elmhurst150 #ElmhurstU

@elmhurst_u Celebrate #Elmhurst150 anywhere and everywhere at elmhurst.edu/150!

ELMHURST WON A 2021 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE from the University & College Designers Association for its website refresh. Among the most prestigious

293 FIRST-YEARS WHO ARE FIRSTGENERATION COLLEGE STUDENTS

43%

competitions in the industry, these annual awards honor the best design work in education. Elmhurst was one of only 10 institutions nationwide to receive an award of excellence in this category.

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CAMPUS

NEWS Student interns, jazz studies and studentathletes will benefit from recent donations.

TRANSFORMATIVE GIFTSIn August, Elmhurst received a record $3.4 million gift from brothers Robert Jans and Tim Jans ’74.

The gift, the largest the University has ever received from living donors, will support veteran students and students exploring careers in the military.

Robert and Tim Jans recently retired from the longtime ownership of Cook-DuPage Transportation Company Inc. Their family ties to the University date back to the 1940s when their parents met as students at Elmhurst, and include other relatives as well.

Also this summer, Maureen Lamberty Heakin ’72 made a gift commitment of $500,000 to establish an international visiting artists series for the University’s acclaimed jazz studies program.

The gift commitment honors Doug Beach, former director of the award-winning Elmhurst University Jazz Band and jazz studies program, who retired in May. (See “On to the Next Chapter” on page 10.)

Maureen Lamberty Heakin (second from right) recently made a gift commitment in honor of Doug Beach (center). Also pictured (from left) are President Troy D. VanAken, John Heakin and Dr. Annette M. VanAken.

Tim (left) and Robert Jans celebrate their record-setting gift with President Troy D. VanAken.

NEWS BRIEFS

“These generous gifts are the perfect way to celebrate

In addition, a $300,000 gift from physician and entrepreneur Aaron Rossi ’06 will fund a new video scoreboard and benefit the men’s soccer team. Rossi, an original member of the men’s soccer program, made the gift in recognition of Head Coach David Di Tomasso’s impact on his life and career. The new video scoreboard is scheduled to be installed at Langhorst Field in 2022.

Elmhurst’s 150th anniversary, and we deeply appreciate the donors who are helping us create a transformative experience for our students.”

– PRESIDENT TROY D. VANAKEN Former Bluejay Aaron Rossi is giving back to the soccer team in recognition of its coach.

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NEXT-LEVEL NURSING

CAMPUS HOLLYWOOD

With three feature-length movies and a commercial shot on campus this year, Elmhurst University has become a go-to destination for film producers looking for a classic American campus.

In August, filming wrapped on The Class, a coming-of-age high school drama starring Anthony Michael Hall and Debbie Gibson. Twelve Elmhurst digital media majors participated in the monthlong shoot, doing production work as interns. (See “Reel Life” on page 27 to read about one student’s experience.) Not long after, a T-Mobile commercial was filmed in front of Goebel Hall.

In June, Thriller Films came to campus to shoot the made-for-TV movie Web of Deceit, a romantic thriller that cast dozens of Elmhurst residents as extras and was filmed largely in and around the Schaible Science Center and Memorial Hall. And earlier this spring, parts of the indie film Rounding, from director Alex Thompson, were shot in a University-owned house on Prospect Avenue.

Kristyn Jo Benedyk, associate professor and director of Elmhurst’s digital media program, said she knew the University would make an ideal movie setting the first time she stepped foot on campus.

Elmhurst is taking its graduate offerings to the next level with its first-ever doctoral program. The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program was approved in October by the Higher Learning Commission and will begin in Fall Term 2022.

Designed for working nurses with master’s degrees, the online program takes a practice-based approach and focuses on systems leadership.

Students will develop the tools to create change across an entire health care system or population of patients.

The new program builds on Elmhurst’s 50-year legacy as a leader in nursing education. The University’s undergraduate nursing program ranks among the best in the nation, according to the 2022 rankings by U.S. News & World Report, and the graduate nursing program ranks sixth in Illinois.

“It is exactly what you picture in your mind when you think of a perfect college campus,” said Benedyk, a veteran filmmaker whose professional connections helped bring two of the movies to campus. “And I think that when productions go out and location scout, they see that immediately too.”

“We’re thrilled to provide the very first doctoral-level program at the University,” said Diane Salvador, professor of nursing and executive director of the Department of Nursing and Health Sciences. “Nursing is always at the forefront of change and innovation, and this is an example of how nursing at Elmhurst can lead such initiatives.”

NEWS BRIEFS ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

THE SUELLEN ROCCA

RAFAEL BLANCO won the

GALLERY was dedicated

grand prize at the Fraser

on Oct. 16 to honor the

Mountain Mural Festival

University’s late curator

PRESIDENT TROY D.

in Colorado for his mural

and director of exhibitions.

VANAKEN is the chair-elect

honoring health care workers

Featuring works on paper,

of Educational & Institutional

during the pandemic.

the gallery is located on

Insurance Administrators

Awarded in August, the prize

the second floor of the

(EIIA), an organization that

includes a $10,000 mural

A.C. Buehler Library.

provides insurance and risk management services to

commission.

Learn more about Rocca’s legacy at elmhurst.life/Rocca.

more than 150 colleges and universities nationwide.

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CAMPUS

NEWS

O N T O THE

NEXT CHAPTER The Elmhurst University community said goodbye to nine cherished faculty and staff members who retired in August.

Please join us in congratulating them and wishing them well.

CAREER KICK-STARTER

If a student secured an internship while studying at Elmhurst University, chances are HOLLY COFFIN played a role. As director of employer relations and internships at the Russell G. Weigand Center for Professional Excellence, Coffin raised awareness of the WCPE, facilitated career events and fairs, and connected scores of students with professional opportunities.

Founder of the WCPE Career Closet, which provides free professional attire for job-searching students, she also developed strong partnerships and increased government and corporate funding for the WCPE.

CARETAKER OF THE TRUTH

THE MAESTRO

In 43 years at Elmhurst University, DOUG BEACH accumulated some of the institution’s highest teaching honors. As director of jazz studies and the University’s internationally recognized Jazz Band since 1978, Beach has earned the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Dr. Andrew K. Prinz Faculty and Staff Merit Award. He also has an impressive list of music industry and community honors. He’s a Grammy Award winner, a frequent recipient of the ASCAP Plus Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and a member of the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce & Industry Civic Hall of Fame.

In retirement, Beach will have more time to play his instruments of choice: trumpet and flügelhorn.

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PEG COOK considered herself more than the interim director of the A.C. Buehler Library. She felt she was the caretaker of accurate, truthful information. Since 2009, Cook has helped students, staff and faculty members find what they’re looking for, solve problems, and think critically. “The hunt is fun,” she told the library consortium LIBRAS in June 2020. “Even in my first grad program, I was always more interested in finding things than in writing things.”

DIGITAL DEFENDER

When local organizations need a cybersecurity consultant, they often call on Associate Professor JAMES DAUER. The inaugural head of the University’s cybersecurity program, Dauer has worked with McDonald’s, USG, Chicago Opera Theater and the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Meanwhile, his research on genetic search algorithms, artificial neural networks, mathematical modeling and rule-based expert systems has been featured at numerous regional, national and international conferences. He joined the faculty in 1982.

PIONEER AND ADVOCATE

Professor LUELLEN DOTY said she will always remember when the first five students completing the Elmhurst Learning and Success Academy graduated in 2009.

Doty, the ELSA director who helped launch the program for young adults with developmental disabilities in 2005, said that day is one of her fondest memories of her time at Elmhurst. “A celebration,” she called it.

Doty, recipient of the Academic Advisor of the Year Award, joined the faculty in 1989.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOLAR

A music professor at Elmhurst since 1988, MARK HARBOLD has devoted much of his career to the study and teaching of Indian music. He has visited India 14 times, published materials on Indian music, given talks at many Indian colleges and universities, and provided opportunities for students to study and collaborate with Indian musicians at Elmhurst and in India. In 2017–2018, he spent five months teaching and collaborating with faculty at Madras Christian College in Chennai, India, as part of the Fulbright-Nehru U.S. Scholars program.

SHAKESPEARE EXPERT

TED LERUD has shared his love of

early English literature and drama with

the Elmhurst University community since joining the English faculty in 1984. As associate dean of the faculty, Lerud oversaw the Elmhurst Integrated Curriculum, graduate studies and other academic areas. During his years at Elmhurst he led study away courses in England, Greece, Vietnam and Thailand, and served as a visiting scholar at the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Oxford, England.

VITAL TEACHER AND COLLEAGUE JANIS PETRU has had a wide-ranging

impact on students as a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. While teaching, she supervised undergraduate and graduate students at the on-campus clinic and the Elmhurst Learning and Success Academy. Petru, who joined the faculty in 2015, has been equally important to her department colleagues, planning seminars, developing curricula, and problem-solving clinical issues.

EQUITY LEADER

In January, the University will welcome Bruce King as its inaugural vice president for equity and inclusion.

King comes to Elmhurst from City Colleges of Chicago, where he was the associate vice chancellor for racial equity. Before that, he worked for 13 years at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, where he served as vice president for equity and inclusion, assistant to the president and chief diversity officer.

A FOCUS ON SERVICE

MICHAEL “MICK” SAVAGE came to Elmhurst in 1998 for a one-year teaching appointment—and stayed for 23 years.

A professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Savage also served as the director of the University’s Service-Learning Program. In that role he connected students with national and international study away service opportunities, including tutoring schoolchildren, working in orphanages and helping refugees settle into new homes. “This experience is a forever thing with our students,” he said in 2010.

“It stays with them and changes them.”

“Elmhurst University has really thought about how you connect a traditional liberal arts education to the professional world—to career and vocation,” King said. “The University also understands its relation to Chicago, and the potential of harvesting benefits and opportunities from that relationship. In many ways, this role for me is just ideal.”

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CAMPUS

NEWS

A YEARLONG CELEBRATION

JUNE JAZZ The 25th Annual June Jazz concert on June 19 brought together an enthusiastic crowd to hear trumpeter Byron Stripling (below) and the Elmhurst University Jazz Band.

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From a special June Jazz concert to a Homecoming blowout, Elmhurst University is celebrating its sesquicentennial with a yearlong series of events and festivities.

See more highlights at elmhurst.edu/150.

ORIENTATION Hundreds of new students participated in orientation activities before the start of classes in August.

TOWN VS. GOWN On the last day of Homecoming, University faculty and staff faced off against representatives from the City of Elmhurst for a vintage baseball game, played by 1857 rules.

The University won, 33-16.

PRESIDENT’S PICNIC

.

On July 14, President Troy D. VanAken hosted a special sesquicentennial picnic to give admitted students a taste of the Elmhurst experience.

President VanAken appeared on NBC’s Chicago Today on Aug. 13 to offer a preview of the University’s sesquicentennial celebrations. Watch the clip at elmhurst.edu/NBC5. This was VanAken’s second appearance on FA L L 2 0 2 1 on P R the O S PUniversity’s E C T M A G Anew Z I Nname.

E 13 the show following last year’s segment

BEYOND T H E C L A S S RO O M

STUDENTS

SERGEANT TO STUDENT

Nursing major Alejandro Lopez has found a tight community of student veterans at Elmhurst.

Sergeant Alejandro Lopez ’23 joined the U.S. Marines straight out of high school, following in the footsteps of his older brother. He served from 2015 to 2019, including a six-month deployment overseas with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, a handpicked “rapid reaction force” that took him to far-off places such as Djibouti, Lithuania and Poland.

“I enjoyed every single minute of it,” says Lopez, who grew up in Stone Park, Ill. While serving, Lopez kept in touch with three high school friends who were all attending Elmhurst as nursing majors. Lopez also had his eye on a nursing degree, especially after taking

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the Combat Lifesaver course in the Marines, but he was a little anxious about coming to campus as a 22-yearold first-year student.

“That can be an awkward transition for veterans, but Elmhurst made it a lot easier,” says Lopez. “Jacob Hill, Elmhurst University’s veteran support coordinator, gave me great advice and stuck with me the whole way. My professors were all very helpful too.”

Lopez felt welcomed at Elmhurst, but admits that he didn’t always have a lot in common with his 18-year-old classmates. So he was excited to hear that Elmhurst hosts a chapter of Student Veterans of America.

“The SVA has built this supportive community within Elmhurst,” says Lopez. “It’s not an exclusive thing— we get together once a month at a local bar and talk about school stuff, life, everything. The knowledge they’ve shared with me, though, I want to pass that along to other veterans.”

Now a junior, Lopez has been officially accepted into Elmhurst’s nursing program. He’s been working part time as a transporter at Elmhurst Hospital, where he’ll soon be taking clinicals and using the hospital’s advanced simulation lab with interactive mannequins.

Asked where he’d most like to work as a nurse, Lopez picks the ER, where all the action is. “I blame the military for that,” he laughs.

P H OTO B Y S A R A H N A D E R

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BEYOND T H E C L A S S RO O M

STAFF

SOUL WORK

Rev. H. Scott Matheney knows stories are the way to remember the past and guide the future.

On a Sunday evening in 1997, the Rev. H. Scott Matheney was at Columbia University in New York City, having drinks with a bishop, weighing his options. He had received an offer to become the chaplain at Elmhurst College, and he needed to decide by 7 p.m. whether he would take it.

he says. His house on campus is On the other hand, he was known as the place where people itching for a new challenge, “gather, fight, love and figure it out,” and Bryant Cureton, then and he is working to help students president of Elmhurst, had told write stories about the souls him, “We don’t have money, but of Elmhurst. we have a vision. You have a lot One of his own favorite stories is that of imagination, and we need of a group of Muslim students who that here.”

As Matheney watched the clock tick On the one hand, New York had been closer to 7, he made his decision. his home for the past 15 years. As “I got up and called Bryant and said, chaplain at Columbia, he had found ‘I’m coming,’” he says. his life’s calling in the university’s intellectual and political communities.

It was, he says, one of the pivotal It was there he had witnessed Earl moments of his life. Since then, Hall become a safe, legendary dance he has brought his passions for social hall for LGBTQIA+ students, and it justice, faith, and diversity, equity was there that he buried many of and inclusion discourse to bear those same students when they died supporting students as they find their of AIDS-related illnesses.

Elmhurst experiences. “It’s about transformation. It’s soul work,”

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had been working to start a Muslim student organization in 2001. They were scheduled to present in front of the Student Government Association when Sept. 11 happened. They turned to Matheney and asked, “Do we still go?”

“They all knew what I would say,” he says. “I said, ‘We’re going.’

We all want to leave something to pass forward to the future. In those stories is the future. In those stories is the soul.”

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P H OTO B Y S TAC Y W E S C OT T/C H I C AG O T R I B U N E / TC A

BEYOND T H E C L A S S RO O M

ALUMNI

FULL CIRCLE Judy VanArsdale ’81 began climbing the corporate ladder right after graduation with a job at McKesson, a pharmaceutical health care company.

She steadily worked her way up through the ranks to a role as vice president of national accounts.

Then Sept. 11 happened.

“I was a single mother of two at the time, and I was traveling a lot for work,” VanArsdale says. “After 9/11 my kids didn’t want me getting back on a plane. So I quit my job—without a plan for the future.”

VanArsdale “zigged and zagged” her way into a career in financial advising, eventually founding her own financial services firm, Lakeview Wealth Management. Judy’s daughter, Lisa VanArsdale ’11, joined her at Lakeview

after graduation and is now a partner in the company. Today, Lakeview has seven staff members—all women— with clients in 37 states.

The firm specializes in helping small businesses and hard-working families reach their financial goals. As Judy puts it,

“We get to help people put their children through college.

We get to help people retire.

We get to help them through really sad things. And while that’s difficult, it’s very rewarding.”

During the pandemic, the VanArsdales built on their company’s success by launching 3rivers, a virtual platform that offers training tools and videos to other financial advisors.

“We’ve had a lot of advisors ask us about our processes,” Lisa says.

“So we built an online resource where

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Judy and Lisa VanArsdale have built powerful careers in the financial industry. Now they’re giving back to the university that gave them so much. we can share best practices—while continuing to do the client work that we love.”

Both VanArsdales say the liberal arts foundation they gained at Elmhurst has been instrumental in their success. They’re also grateful to the University for the financial aid that enabled Lisa to attend Elmhurst at a time when the family’s finances were tight.

This past December, Judy fulfilled a long-held dream of giving back to the institution that gave her and her daughter so much.

“I always said that I would give every dime of that back so I could help the next family that needed it,” Judy says. “When I finally got to write that check, it was such a meaningful moment.”

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SPORTS SPOTLIGHT

GOOD SPORTS

Bluejay pride runs deep. Here are just a few of the class acts and winning moments from Elmhurst athletics history.

I N T H E BEGI N N I NG

Elmhurst students organized the school’s first athletic association in 1900, with teams competing in baseball, soccer and track and field. Elmhurst students still compete in all three of those original sports, as well as in 17 others.

FAR M TE AM When Elmhurst students formed the school’s first baseball team around 1900, they had to create their own home field.

The resourceful squad secured a plow, a scraper and a team of horses and cleared a potato and cabbage patch not far from where Langhorst Field now stands. According to campus legend, the first game played on the new diamond was, of course, an Elmhurst victory.

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The number of championships Elmhurst teams have won in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.

Elmhurst joined as a charter member in 1946.

A COM EBAC K W I N

Two-time All-American Chris Martin graduated in 2005, after one of the greatest basketball careers in Elmhurst history. After four years playing and coaching professionally in Germany and

DY NAST Y The women of Elmhurst’s volleyball team won national titles in 1983 and 1985 and claimed runner-up honors in 1987, making them the most successful and most decorated group in the history of Elmhurst athletics. More recently, Elmhurst women’s volleyball under Coach Julie Hall has won six CCIW Championships and made 13 total appearances in the NCAA Tournament.

S W EE T SE A SON

Luxembourg, he returned to campus as an assistant coach for the Bluejays, where he helped a new generation of players create their own magic on the hardwood.

Uncle Pete, as he was called by his students, was a football standout as an Elmhurst student. He was called back to campus in 1933 to take over leadership of a football program at low ebb.

(The previous coach had been fired for “indifference to character requirements.”)

Uncle Pete went on to serve as coach and athletic director for more than 30 years.

He coached nearly every sport at the UNCLE PETE college at one time or another and earned No discussion of Elmhurst athletics the love and respect of his students. would be complete without mention “He was a solid rock,” one of his players of Oliver “Pete” Langhorst ’30. recalled. “We knew he cared about us.”

The men’s basketball team advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in 2000–2001 after winning its first-ever CCIW championship.

In 2020, the team followed up on that success with two victories in the NCAA Division III Tournament, where they advanced to the Sweet 16 before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season prematurely.

P UT A R I N G O N IT According to campus lore, the Victory Bell, rung after every home win on Langhorst Field, once hung in the tower of Old Main.

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SPORTS SPOTLIGHT

The number of Elmhurst student-athletes who have earned Academic All-American honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America.

DOING IT ALL Scottie Williams Jr. ’13 won the prestigious Gagliardi Trophy in 2012, presented to the most outstanding football player in NCAA Division III and honoring excellence in athletics, academics and community service.

Williams was Offensive Player of the Year in the CCIW and finished second in the nation in rushing, averaging over 173 yards per game. He is now a major gift officer for the University.

F ROM T H E M AT T O T H E OC TAG ON

F RON T RU N N ER

All-American wrestler and two-time national qualifier Ricardo Lamas set a school record with 112 wins in four years. After graduating in 2005, he went on to a career as a professional mixed martial arts fighter in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

HOM ECOM I NG H ERO

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All-American Kathleen Brice ’04 is the most decorated women’s runner in Elmhurst history, winning an astounding six All-America honors in track and cross country. She finished third nationally in cross country in 2003 and led her team to four straight conference titles.

Himeo Tsumori ’48 was a 16-year-old San Franciscan high schooler when he and his family were forcibly relocated to a camp in central Utah in 1942. A year later, he and three others found a new home at Elmhurst. Tsumori excelled academically and athletically, earning varsity letters in baseball, football and track. He was drafted near the end of the war and served in the U.S. Army as an administrator in a medical unit. After returning in 1946, Tsumori scored a touchdown in the Homecoming football game against Concordia College, leading the Bluejays to victory.

N E T WI N N ER C.C. Arends served as chairman of the speech communications department and coached the men’s tennis team for 38 seasons, beginning in 1930, racking up a school record 145 wins, and inspiring his many players and students.

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PINNING DOWN A CAREER

Nevin Brittain ’21 found his path through biochemistry and wrestling.

Back in sixth grade, Nevin Brittain watched a wrestling demonstration, where the wrestlers “were doing all these cool moves, picking each other up and throwing each other around.” He was hooked, and when he arrived at Elmhurst to play football, he sought out wrestling coach Steve Marianetti and joined the team.

There, he found not only camaraderie, but also a mentor in Marianetti, who helped guide him on everything from love (Brittain met his girlfriend in his chemistry lab) to career

choice. As a biochemistry major, Brittain conducted research with Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Zoey Hua as he looked for a career path where he could help people while using his newfound knowledge and skills.

Now he works as a research technician at a University of Chicago laboratory as he trains for a marathon and prepares to apply to dental school—a life path he solidified with Marianetti’s help.

“If Coach Marianetti taught me anything, it’s that you always have to strive to be a little bit better each day,” he said.

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E D PA S C H K E , C O B M A S T E R , 1 97 5

ARTS SPOTLIGHT

CREATIVE CAMPUS

In the classroom, at worship, after hours or in performance, the arts have always been a vital part of Elmhurst life. Here are some scenes and stories from 150 years of creativity on campus.

A G EM OF A COLLEC TION Elmhurst received federal funding in 1971 to purchase artwork for the newly opened A.C. Buehler Library.

The University presciently invested in work by a group of emerging (and affordable) Chicago artists, including Jim Nutt and the late Roger Brown. The University has since added many other pieces, including renowned work by other Chicago Imagist artists, among them Ed Paschke and the late Elmhurst faculty member Suellen Rocca. “The best single overview of art from 1966 to 1985 in any [publicly accessible] institution,” one critic called it.

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The number of American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers awards won by Doug Beach, who led Elmhurst’s Jazz Band for 43 years.

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The number of countries where Elmhurst’s acclaimed Jazz Band has wowed audiences since its founding in 1968.

ALL THAT JA ZZ For 54 years, the Elmhurst University Jazz Festival has been bringing the world’s most acclaimed jazz artists to campus to perform alongside America’s best student ensembles, making it one of the oldest and most acclaimed collegiate jazz festivals in the country.

L I S T O F L EG E N D S

Every summer, June Jazz brings the Elmhurst community together for outdoor concerts featuring stars such as Doc Severinsen H ’17.

A RT ( A N D S CI E NC E)

What’s 20 feet tall and lives in an art gallery? That would be the 1950s particle accelerator that occupies much of the Barbara A. Kieft Accelerator ArtSpace. Left over from the site’s former life as a physics lab, it now makes the gallery one of the most distinctive exhibition spaces anywhere.

Featured campus performers have included: Dizzy Gillespie Cannonball Adderley Clark Terry Diana Krall Maynard Ferguson Dee Dee Bridgewater Lee Konitz Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra Phil Woods Quintet Nicholas Payton Patti Austin Maria Schneider Orchestra Vanguard Jazz Orchestra Count Basie Orchestra

G U ITA R H ERO Gretsch guitars and drums have been the instruments of choice for artists such as Charlie Watts, Chet Atkins and George Harrison. You’ll hear a great deal of Gretsch instruments on campus too. The Gretsch Company is led by Fred ’71 and Dinah Gretsch, whose family foundation has long supported the music program. The University awarded Fred Gretsch an honorary doctorate in 2016.

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ARTS SPOTLIGHT

SE A SON ’ S M EE T I NGS

It’s hard to imagine the Christmas season at Elmhurst without the Festival of Lessons and Carols in Hammerschmidt Memorial Chapel. One of the most beloved Elmhurst traditions, it was introduced in 1961.

B R AVO! Christian Stanger came to Elmhurst in 1896 to teach music. He remained on the faculty for 50 years, leading the college orchestra, among many other jobs. A gifted organist, he was a featured performer at campus events for decades. His son, Robert Stanger, a 1918 Elmhurst graduate, was the institution’s ninth president.

C H I C AG O ’ S FI N E S T RO C K ER When Terri Hemmert ’70, H ’17 deejayed at WRSE-FM, Elmhurst’s student radio station, she was known as “Jolly Green.” Today, people just call her a Chicago radio legend. Hemmert has been hosting on WXRT-FM for nearly half a century, became Chicago’s first female drivetime host in 1981 and was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2010.

AT TH E M I LL The Mill Theatre has been the home of Elmhurst’s theatre program since 1969, when it was transformed from a defunct sawmill into an intimate and welcoming performance space. Among many other events, the annual musical-theatre production staged on Homecoming weekend takes place at the Mill.

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FOOLISHNESS The Festival of Fools was an annual spring rite on campus in the 1970s, with campus luminaries such as Professor Robert Swords gamely donning motley and bells to play the fool.

Ashley Liljeberg worked on a Hollywood film without leaving campus.

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REEL LIFE

T HE CL AS S N ICHO L AS

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C EL O Z Z I

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It says something about the “classic” good looks of Elmhurst University that three separate films were shot on campus in spring and summer 2021. Ashley Liljeberg ’23 is one of 12 digital media majors who interned on the set of The Class, a feature film starring 1980s pop-culture icons Anthony Michael Hall and Debbie Gibson.

“Working on a film set has always been a dream of mine,” says Liljeberg, who has a second major in digital marketing communication and a minor in dance education. “It’s amazing to be able to have that experience while I’m still in college.”

On set Liljeberg did everything from wardrobe fittings to yelling “Action!”—but her favorite experience was shadowing

first assistant director Nik Hassinger. “I got to see how all of the different departments came together and worked in sync.”

One of the top reasons Liljeberg chose Elmhurst was the new digital media program run by Associate Professor Kristyn Jo Benedyk, a veteran filmmaker. “I thought it was really cool that one of our professors was a working screenwriter and director.”

Liljeberg is still figuring out her future, but if she wants to work on another film or TV set, she now has real production experience on her resume, and even better, Hollywood connections.

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“Religion makes good people better and bad people worse.”

– H . R I C H A R D N I EB U H R

“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”

– R EI N H O LD N I EB U H R ,

The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness, 1944

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I L LU S T R AT I O N BY M A R K S U M M E R S

Christ and Culture, 1951

NIEBUHRS ��� You can’t spend much time at Elmhurst University without encountering the name Niebuhr. You will find it attached to a campus building, a lecture series, professorships and an academic center. You may even know a bit about the brothers H. Richard and Reinhold Niebuhr: their outsize influence on Elmhurst, their alma mater; their impact on the national intellectual conversation of their time; and the continuing resonance of their work among policymakers, thinkers and national leaders.

T H I N K I N G BI G

The Niebuhr brothers’ impact on their alma mater began when they were still students.

Young Reinhold led a student campaign to strengthen the college’s faculty. Richard served as the editor of The Keryx, a student journal that advocated for greater intellectual ambition at the school.

But for those of us who are not as familiar with our 20th-century theologians as we’d like to be, here’s a brief introduction to the Niebuhr brothers.

H . RIC H A R D N I E BU HR ranks “alongside Jonathan Edwards as one of the truly creative American theologians,” according to The Encyclopedia of Religion and Society.

He graduated from the Elmhurst Proseminary in 1912 and, after continuing his studies at Yale Divinity School, served as president of Elmhurst College from 1924 to 1927. He oversaw the school’s transformation into a liberal arts college, strengthened the faculty and instituted a far-reaching campus plan that would shape campus development for years to come.

R E INHOLD NIE BUH R was, according to historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., “the most influential American theologian of the 20th century.”

Niebuhr’s writings and dynamic lectures spoke to the pressing issues of his time and made him a national figure. A 1910 graduate of the Elmhurst Proseminary, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, and his work continued to shape national debate for decades to come. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. cited Niebuhr in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” and President Barack Obama called Niebuhr his favorite philosopher.

SE R E N I T Y N OW

Reinhold Niebuhr authored “The Serenity Prayer” for a church service in 1943. Later adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous, the simple but profound invocation has become well known and loved around the world.

MORE TO EXPLORE Check out the works of these remarkable thinkers for yourself.

A N I M PO SI N G FI GUR E

BY H. R I C HA R D NIEBUHR

BY RE I NH OL D NI E B U H R

The Kingdom of God in America, 1937 Christ and Culture, 1951

Moral Man and Immoral Society, 1932 The Nature and Destiny of Man, 1939 The Irony of American History, 1952

A 9-foot-tall bronze sculpture by the late Robert Berks, depicting the impassioned, lecturing figure of Reinhold Niebuhr, presides over campus pathways just inside the University gates. The statue was dedicated in 1997.

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ELMHURST VOICES In honor of the University’s sesquicentennial, we invited alumni, faculty, students and staff to share their reflections on Elmhurst’s distinguished history, far-reaching impact and promising future. Here are some of their responses.

“At Elmhurst University there’s a willingness to understand and engage in the easier conversations, but also the difficult ones that intersect with the broader issues in American society. Is it easy to have those conversations and make those policy changes or help or promote a cultural shift? I don’t think so.

Do I think those conversations and those movements are occurring? I do.”

– N O R B AYA JA M EELA D U R R ’ ��

Biology and English Major

“The bell tower in Old Main used to be the place where students would sneak up and write their names—students from the 1910s and the 1920s. You can still see some of those names and inscriptions from way back when.”

– AL AN WEIGER ’� �

Associate Professor, Theatre and Dance

“To be mentored by active, working artists, that was tremendously exciting for me.

I believe that everything that I am today was nurtured at Elmhurst.”

– J ONATHAN SHAW ’� �

Film and Television Editor (Twin Peaks)

“In the MBA program, we were in cohort groups that would move through the program together. My group lived at the library. It’s a beautiful space with awesome resources. We hung out there because that’s where the magic happened.”

– C Y N T H I A “ C Y N ” C A M P B EL L ’ � � , M B A ’ � �

Chief Experience Officer, BALANCE

“Elmhurst has a tradition of embracing social justice, from inviting Martin Luther King Jr. to campus to being among the first to ask applicants about their LGBTQ identities to better support students. I hope we evolve in ways that honor that legacy to make an impact on the world of social justice.”

– C O LL EEN M U N RO - LEI G H T O N

Associate Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry

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“My experience at Elmhurst was full of surprises, and it opened up doors for me that I didn’t even know would exist. Now I’m looking forward to seeing how the organizations I’ve been a part of are going to change and thrive.”

– A MAN DA O’BRI E N ’� �

Majored in Early Childhood Education and French; Senior of the Year

“Elmhurst University has valued liberal arts and sciences integrated with professional preparation for decades, and I believe that to be the vital combination for this generation of students. Our students are fantastic and hardworking. They care about more than just getting ahead themselves. They care about community.

They care about family. They want a balanced life.”

“The future is extremely bright for Elmhurst. I’ve been on campus a couple of times over the past couple of years and have seen the physical expansion. It’s as impressive as the courses and degrees now offered—it’s a world-class university.”

– L EN WA LT ER ’ � �

Longtime Business Reporter, WBBM-AM

“When I was hired to coach at Elmhurst, I lived in Paul Krohn’s attic for a while. He was our football coach at the time, but eventually became our athletic director. He charged me $150 a month to live in his attic, and I’m 6-foot-7 so I could only walk through the middle of it. Since then, we’ve built a nationally recognized program. I think players like coming here.

And I take a lot of pride in that.”

– A N N FR ANK WA KE

Professor and Department Chair, English; Professor, Intercultural Studies

“I have relationships with my students where I’m part of their growth journeys. I’m a part of their narratives. I’ve been to students’ weddings. I’ve been to baby showers.

I’ve participated in their stories, not because I thought I would get something in return, but because we had a human connection.”

– AYAN N A F. BROW N

Associate Professor, Education

– JO H N B A I N ES

Head Coach, Men’s Basketball

“It’s humbling to think you’re just a little piece in all of this. I have a lot of gratitude toward the people who started this place—the people who built the culture, built the departments, built the buildings. I feel very proud to be here celebrating 150.”

– RO B Y T H O M A S

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The Elmhurst mace, a symbol of the institution’s essence, is carried by the University marshal at official convocations.

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ELMHURST

CURATED The paleontologist and museum director Richard Fortey wrote that

“all our lives are collections curated through memory.” For all of us whose lives have been forever shaped by Elmhurst, our museums of memories may include some seemingly simple objects. Bells and beanies. Pennants and pigskins. Varsity letters and letters mailed from home. Our devotion to Elmhurst can be read in these objects we hold dearest. Consider some of these treasures from the University archives that help tell the story of our first century and a half. They

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constitute a collection curated through our collective memory.

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In 1966, the Bluejays won their Homecoming game against St. Procopius College (now Benedictine) by a score of 26 to 20.

The Elms, the Elmhurst College yearbook, chronicled student life starting in 1916.

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The men’s Glee Club was a mainstay of campus life throughout the 20th century, producing albums and going on annual tours.

Beanies were essential headwear for first-year students from the 1940s through the ’60s.

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Students received diplomas from “Elmhurst College” before the institution formally adopted that name.

In the 1930s, the “E” book provided students with details about Elmhurst history and traditions, rules, events and more. Today, the student handbook is accessible online.

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As early as 1918, students earned patches for participating in sports, cheerleading, music ensembles and more.

Varsity athletes formed the E Club in 1935 and showed their team spirit with special letterman attire.

In Elmhurst’s early years, the ringing of the hash bell summoned students to classes and meals. It’s still used on ceremonial occasions.

The iconic clock tower at the top of Old Main, the oldest building on campus, has undergone several renovations.

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BY ANDREW SANTELLA

PIONEERING SPIRIT In the century and a half since its founding, Elmhurst has continually reinvented itself— while staying true to its pioneering roots.

The first chapter of this story is written in stone. It remains readable for anyone who takes a second to look skyward on the approach to the front door of Old Main. Halfway up the crenelated tower is an inscription: Proseminar der Deutschen ev.

Synode, von NA.

Most of us came to love this school as Elmhurst College, and we all now know it as Elmhurst University, but long before it was called either, it was the Proseminary of the German Evangelical Synod of the Northwest. It was established in 1871 as a secondary school for farm boys and parsons’ sons preparing to become Midwestern ministers and educators. The inscription on Old Main is in German—and all the classes, even English classes, were taught in that language—because that was the language of the church the boys had been called to serve.

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“Elmhurst University is a dream. To be sure, dreams can come true.”

– PAUL CRUSI US, I N THE S T UD EN T JOURN A L THE KERYX, ����

The student body grew dramatically in 1911, when the institution added an extra year to its program.

The faculty in that first year numbered exactly one. The boys who made up the student body—all 24 of them—slept in one crowded attic. The daily schedule started with ringing bells at 5:30 a.m. (6:00 on Sundays!) and was filled with worship and study and music lessons, broken up by endless farm chores. (A working farm and garden abutted the proseminary, and the boys themselves tended the potatoes and cabbages that eventually appeared on their dinner plates in various more-or-less edible preparations.) Those early years were largely a story of pioneering perseverance. Funds were frustratingly scarce. Students occasionally woke to find themselves dusted with snow that had sifted overnight through gaps in the derelict roof.

How does such a school, over the course of a century and a half, become a thriving, diverse, innovative, broad-minded institution of liberal learning and professional preparation?

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The answer involves not only some of the ways Elmhurst has changed, but also some of the ways it has remained remarkably consistent.

A Tradition of Transformation

The changes, of course, have been profound. In the first decades of the 20th century, students and young graduates provided the catalyst for the first monumental change. Led by 1910 graduate Reinhold Niebuhr, who would become America’s foremost theologian and Elmhurst’s most prominent alumnus, they convinced the school’s leadership to transform the insular, tradition-bound academy into a fully modern, Americanized institution of higher learning.

And the transformation continued. By 1930, Elmhurst ended its six decades of all-male education and admitted 46 women as students. During World War II, the college defied local wartime prejudices to admit four Japanese

Elmhurst enrolled its first female students in 1930. President Timothy Lehmann (center) was instrumental in that effort.

American students who had been forcibly relocated from their homes in California to internment camps in Idaho.

In 1951, Elmhurst admitted its first African American students and began welcoming international students. Also in the postwar years, the college enrolled an increasing number of adult students and commuter students, further adding to campus diversity.

And in the years ahead, the college’s educational reach transcended the campus altogether, with technology carrying it around the world, to corporate office parks, to satellite sites and into the homes of students.

An Ever-Widening Circle

All these changes contributed to what H. Richard Niebuhr, Elmhurst’s sixth president and a member of the Class of 1912, called “an ever-widening circle” of influence. But if Elmhurst

has continued to reinvent itself over the past 150 years, it has also continued to honor the pioneering spirit of its founders.

That spirit animates much of the ongoing work of the University: its innovative curricula, its study away programs, its many avenues of professional preparation and its use of information technology to make education more accessible and effective.

The students who bunked in the drafty attic of the proseminary might be amazed at today’s park-like campus, the size and quality of the faculty, the array of academic offerings and the number of languages, cultures and traditions represented in today’s student body. But they might also recognize that this vastly transformed institution continues to do the same vital work it began 150 years ago of preparing young people to make a positive impact on a world in need of their talents.

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THE ELMHURST EXPERIENCE Since the beginning, Elmhurst has focused on student success in the classroom and beyond.

In our diverse and inclusive community, students explore new interests, pursue their passions and discover who they are—and who they want to be.

W H ER E TE AC H I N G M AT TERS U.S. News & World Report recently ranked Elmhurst among the top Midwest universities for quality of teaching. That’s a fitting tribute to the many professors, throughout our history, whose deep personal commitment to teaching have produced lasting lessons. Their work lives on in the achievements of their students.

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Deep Roots

In the 1960s, many of the stately trees that gave Elmhurst its name were succumbing to disease. So in 1966, landscape architect Herbert Licht (pictured at right) convinced Elmhurst University to undertake an ambitious new planting effort. This was the beginning of Elmhurst’s Arboretum.

Over the next several decades, the tireless efforts of groundskeeper Ragnar Moen brought a wealth of plant diversity to campus. Today the campus is home to hundreds of tree and plant species that make the campus a yearround beauty.

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The number of countries (on all seven continents!) where students can study abroad. One in four Elmhurst students participates in study away programs.

Matters of Degrees

At the 2021 Elmhurst University Commencement, Elmhurst for the first time conferred degrees upon two graduating classes in one ceremony—the Class of 2021 and the Class of 2020, whose regularly scheduled Commencement had been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 2,000 students from the two classes earned degrees.

B U S Y DAYS Elmhurst students tend to be busy, what with juggling their studies and service projects, internships and extracurriculars. But this is nothing new. Check out this daily schedule for Elmhurst students of the 1890s:

E LM H URS T S TUDE NTS ’ DAILY S CH E DULE 5:30 a.m.

6:00–7:00 7:00 7:45 8:00–Noon

Rising (6:00 on Sundays) Study time Breakfast and bed making Morning religious services Classes

12:30 p.m.

Until 2:00 2:00–4:00 4:00–5:00 5:00–6:00 6:00 6:30–8:00 8:00–9:00 9:00 10:00

Dinner Free time Classes Work (usually outdoors) Study and music lessons Supper Study and piano lessons Study Evening religious services Lights out

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THEN & NOW

SCIENCE LABS: This lab may have been state of the art for 1915, but there’s something missing from this photo of Director Daniel Irion (Class of 1874) and a colleague (at left) in the proseminary’s first science lab: students. Today’s undergraduates get an early introduction to research practices and collaborate with professors on research projects supported by the National Science Foundation and other big-time funders.

THEN & NOW

DORM ROOMS: Those pennants display a nice school spirit, but where’s a student supposed to charge her laptop in this 1926 dorm room? Today’s residence halls offer not just free cable and internet, but access to full kitchens and comfy places to chill and make friends. And you can still hang up your school pennant too.

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FIRST YEAR: A lot of serious, important work went on at Elmhurst in the 1950s and 1960s, but these were also the Beanie Years. Freshman students in those years were expected to wear beanies (yes, even in P R O S P E C T class) M A G Afrom Z I N their E F Afirst L L 2day 0 2 1on campus until Homecoming. Today, first-year students get Weeks of Welcome, featuring fun and games on the University Mall and lunch with President Troy D. VanAken.

B I G L I F E O N C A M PU S A Brief Timeline of Student Activities at Elmhurst

1911

Residence life during the early years include late-night pillow fights and photos taken by flashlight.

1875

1947

The all-student Teutonic Male Quartet offers free concerts on campus.

WRSE-FM begins broadcasting.

1958

1881 1928 Debating societies, including the Owl Club, the Demosthenes Club and the Pedagogical Club, become popular.

Elmhurst introduces Freshman Period, its first student-orientation program.

1932 1900 Students form an athletic association to sponsor teams in baseball and other sports.

1911 The Keryx, a journal produced by students of Elmhurst and Eden Theological Seminary, debuts. It advocates Elmhurst’s transition to a four-year college.

The Women’s Union Annual College Circus offers the first of its shows, featuring clowns and comedy skits.

Student newspaper The Elm Bark holds a contest to pick a new name for Elmhurst teams; Blue Jays is selected to replace Pirates. The new name debuts in a game versus Wheaton, an Elmhurst victory that students celebrate by barricading the doors to Old Main to prevent Monday classes from meeting, then “snake dance” through Elmhurst.

The football team breaks its 22-game losing streak with a victory over North Central; students tear down the goalposts and parade through downtown Elmhurst.

1940 1967 Harbinger Coffee Shop opens in the basement of Kranz Hall.

1979

The Elmhurst College Leader student newspaper publishes its first issue.

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GIVING BACK Elmhurst was founded to serve a specific community need. The churches and schools springing up across the Midwest during the immigration boom of the mid-19th century sought well-educated ministers and teachers.

Today, the University’s church roots continue to inform its commitment to social responsibility.

Here’s a look at some of the ways Elmhurst has sought to serve the common good throughout its history.

C H AN G I N G L I VES IN JAMAICA For more than four decades, now-retired music education professor Judy Grimes led students to Jamaica each January to work in classrooms in the underfunded schools around Montego Bay. Grimes’ students collaborated with Jamaican teachers and helped launch and sustain school band programs there.

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Students Who Serve

Each year, Elmhurst students participate in about 2,000 community service projects, both close to campus and around the world. Their work includes everything from feeding the homeless on Chicago’s West Side to building houses in Honduras.

Confronting Poverty In 2010, Elmhurst launched the Poverty Project, a campuswide exploration of what theologian and Niebuhr Medal honoree Father Gustavo Gutiérrez called

Summers of STEM

Evans Afenya, professor and chair of mathematics, founded Elmhurst’s STEM Academy in 1995 to prepare students from underserved populations for college studies in science, technology and math.

In the years since, the summertime academy has offered hundreds of high school students a head start on success.

“the everyday scandal of material poverty.” The project fostered student-led efforts to confront and alleviate poverty close to home and around the world.

FIGHT IN G FOR R IGHTS Elmhurst students and faculty were in the thick of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In 1965, 23 students and three professors traveled to Selma, Ala., to march for civil rights, even as a sympathy march proceeded on the Elmhurst campus. Another group of students spent that year’s spring break in Greenville, Miss., helping register voters in the Mississippi Delta.

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An Education in Service

UCC

Elmhurst established its servicelearning program in 1985. About 400 students participate each year, serving the homeless, tutoring children and volunteering in orphanages and hospitals, among many other projects.

“Service learning is a great way to get engaged in the good you can do for the world,” said Juweria Ali ’22. “When you understand how what you do affects the greater scope of things, you understand better what the world needs, and what you are good at providing.”

At the Forefront

The University is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, and the church’s core values of engagement and social justice have guided us since the beginning. The UCC was at the forefront of the antislavery movement and the civil rights movement. More recently, the church was the first historically white denomination to ordain an African American, a woman and an openly gay man (William R. Johnson ’68), and it was the first Christian church to affirm the right of same-gender couples to marry.

S K I L L S FO R L I FE The Elmhurst Learning and Success Academy (ELSA), founded in 2005, offers a four-year academic experience for neurodiverse young adults, with a focus on independent living.

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Open Arms

In the years after World War II, the Student Refugee Committee raised funds to bring international students to campus from Germany and other countries rebuilding from the war’s devastation. Some six decades later, in 2011, Elmhurst received an Open Arms Volunteer Service Award from Exodus World Service, a nonprofit group that serves refugee families, recognizing students’ recent work in serving 576 refugee families from nine countries.

HA N DS- ON HE LPI NG In early 2021, 60 Elmhurst University nursing students helped administer COVID-19 vaccinations and monitor patients as part of the DuPage County Health Department’s COVID-19 vaccination team.

“It’s every nurse’s dream to help put an end to something like this pandemic,” said their instructor, Laura Minarich, assistant professor of nursing and health sciences and director of the Master's Entry in Nursing Practice program. “This is an incredible opportunity for our students, a time when they can really make a difference.”

GUEST STAR S

Elmhurst has a long-standing commitment to enriching the cultural and intellectual life of the campus and the broader community. As part of that commitment, the University has hosted a veritable Who’s Who of prominent speakers over the years. Here are just a few.

1966

2000

REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

addressed a standing-room-only crowd as part of a Chicago-area tour to promote a civil rights rally at Soldier Field.

BOB WOODWARD, who shared

LECH WALESA, the first directly elected president of Poland, spoke about the road to democracy to a sold-out crowd in R.A. Faganel Hall.

1998 Pulitzer Prize–winning poet GWENDOLYN BROOKS, who taught creative writing at Elmhurst in 1967, gave a speech as part of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Guestship.

2014

2012

1995

Nobel laureate ELIE WIESEL spoke about his experiences in a Nazi death camp and the importance of remembering the Holocaust.

annual al-Ghazali Lecture. His talk was titled ‘Modern Lessons From an Ancient Faith.’

in the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the Watergate scandal, spoke about issues at the heart of the American experience in democracy.

2013

2018

2003 MILLARD AND LINDA FULLER, co-founders of Habitat for Humanity International, challenged a full house to join them in eradicating housing poverty.

2010 HAMZA YUSUF, a prominent

Islamic scholar and co-founder of Zaytuna College, gave the

WILLIAM SANFORD NYE, better known as the award-winning TV host Bill Nye the Science Guy, urged students to help change the world by pursuing careers in science.

The first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR, delivered an impassioned talk on her pet cause: an impartial judiciary.

Speaking at the Governmental Forum, presidential candidate and former Florida Gov. JEB BUSH began by honoring his mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush, who had died the day before.

2021 Noted activist TEMPLE GRANDIN gave a virtual lecture about helping different minds solve problems.

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FORWARD THINKING In 2020, U.S. News & World Report ranked Elmhurst as one of the three most innovative colleges and universities in the Midwest.

We’re proud of that honor, but our knack for forward thinking is nothing new. From the pioneering spirit of our founders to today’s cutting-edge academic programs, Elmhurst has always been about responding to new challenges with fresh and fearless thinking.

‘ T HE R IGHT T IM E IS N OW’ “Many people with good imaginations have a business idea in their heads that they want to act on when the time is right,” says Bruce Fischer, director of the Graduate Certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship program.

“Usually, the right time is now.” The program helps students launch startups and bring new initiatives to existing organizations.

D IGITA L D E FE N D E R S One of Elmhurst’s newest academic programs, the undergraduate major in cybersecurity, launched in 2020 and prepares students for careers in a field growing by tens of thousands of jobs each year.

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Big Ideas

Elmhurst students pitch their new business ideas annually in the Bluejay Tank competition, modeled on TV’s popular Shark Tank. First prize in 2021 went to Mallory Burke’s GrillGirlz, a barbecue grill deep-cleaning service.

Up to Speed

Space Tomatoes In 1992, Elmhurst biology students got the unique opportunity to plant tomato seeds recently returned to Earth after six years in space orbit.

The students found no significant difference in yield between the space tomatoes and a control group of earthbound seeds.

Why We Asked

Elmhurst wasn’t looking to make national headlines in 2011 when it made a revision to its application for undergraduate admission. But by adding one question—

“Would you consider yourself a member of the LGBT community?”

The Bluejay Tank competition is just one feature of Elmhurst’s E-celerator, a resource for would-be entrepreneurs or any student with an innovative idea they would like to develop.

—the University sparked a national conversation and highlighted its pioneering commitment to better serving students of all identities.

Supply and Demand

In 2007 Elmhurst introduced its innovative First-Year Seminar, a model program of the Council of Independent Colleges to promote excellence in freshman-year education.

Elmhurst’s master’s degree program in supply chain management was the first business program of its kind in the region to focus specifically on supply chains.

A First-Year First

AC A DEMI C I N NOVATOR In 1968, Elmhurst became one of the first colleges to offer a monthlong interim term in January. J-Term gives students a chance to take a short travel course or to explore subjects outside their major.

SPAC E TO C R E AT E Elmhurst is home to not one but two on-campus makerspaces—one in the physics department and one in the art department. What’s a makerspace? Think of it as a high-tech workbench where big ideas can begin to take shape. Equipped with 3D printers, milling machines, laser cutters and other high-tech tools, the spaces provide a place where students can make prototypes and do the kinds of hands-on problem-solving that is key to creativity.

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EDUCATION FOR THE REAL WORLD For 150 years, Elmhurst has been preparing students to step confidently into their first jobs— and into lifetimes of achievement.

U RB A N L EG EN D For nearly 40 years, Professor Andrew Prinz and his students in the urban studies program prowled Chicago’s streets (not to mention Amsterdam, Beijing, London, Moscow and Sydney) to learn about the inner workings of great cities. Elmhurst honors his legacy with the Dr. Andrew K. Prinz Faculty and Staff Merit Award, recognizing extraordinary commitment to the University and its students, and the annual Andrew K. Prinz Lecture for Political Awareness.

L I K E T HE REA L TH ING Even before nursing students begin their clinical rotations, they sharpen their skills at the Elmhurst University Simulation Center at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital, which opened in 2014.

There they train in labs that simulate hospital and home health care settings, interacting with robotic “patients” that communicate and display symptoms. Elmhurst’s nursing program is celebrating its 50th year in 2021.

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2,ooo

The approximate number of internships and other preprofessional experiences Elmhurst students undertake annually.

Well Prepared

The Russell G. Weigand Center for Professional Excellence was founded in 1997 to strengthen the connection between a liberal arts education and professional preparation.

Think of it as a one-stop resource for mentoring, career counseling, internships, networking and more.

The Center has been recognized by Colleges of Distinction for excellence in career development.

The City as Classroom

Students and faculty use the Chicago area as a learning lab, tapping into its business networks and experiencing its diverse cultural resources.

Opportunities Knocking The Princeton Review calls our internship program “excellent.”

Real-World Learning

As an associate professor of business administration, Sondra “Soni” Simpson draws on her executive experience growing businesses to prepare her students for success, challenging them with real-world projects for clients such as Brookfield Zoo and Microsoft Xbox.

SE V E N D E C A D E S O F SERVING THE COMMUNITY Elmhurst’s Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic opened in 1947, and it continues to offer speech-language pathology students unique practical preparation while serving the community by providing therapy, care and evaluations.

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M A K E Y O U R G I F T elmhurst.edu/ PresidentsCircle

JOIN AN ELITE GROUP OF LEADERS WHO ARE CHANGING STUDENT LIVES. The President’s Circle at Elmhurst University honors our most generous donors. Together, these alumni, parents, faculty, staff and friends empower more students to benefit from a transformative Elmhurst experience.

WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN THE PRESIDENT ’S CIRCLE WITH AN ANNUAL GIFT OF $�,��� OR MORE. In our sesquicentennial year, your gift means more than ever.

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ALUMNI NEWS CELEBRATING OUR COMMUNITY

ADVANCING ELMHURST

The University honored several outstanding members of the University community during the Founders Recognition Evening on Oct. 15.

FOUNDERS MEDAL One of the University’s most prestigious honors, the Founders Medal celebrates individuals who have distinguished themselves through philanthropic or personal service to the University.

This year’s medal honored Robert Jans and Timothy Jans ’74, businessmen and civic leaders with deep family connections to Elmhurst University. Among the University’s most generous donors, the brothers recently made a $3.4 million gift that will introduce more STEM majors to careers in the military while also supporting student veterans on campus.

The gift is the largest the University has ever received from living donors.

After a nationwide search, ANDREW KNAP has been

named vice president for institutional advancement at Elmhurst University.

ALUMNI MERIT AWARDS

Knap joined Elmhurst in

The Alumni Merit Awards celebrate Elmhurst graduates who have made exemplary contributions to the community and to their alma mater.

Chicago as senior director

Nicholas Bank ’18 won the Distinguished Young Alumni Award. A medical student at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Bank is a co-founder of Schools for Slowing the Spread, a nonprofit that collaborates with colleges and universities to raise funds for COVID-19 relief by selling branded face masks.

2018 from the University of of advancement. In his new role, he leads the University’s efforts to strengthen connections with alumni and cultivate philanthropic support for the University.

Carrie Hewitt ’96, ’06, was recognized with the Distinguished Service to Alma Mater Award. Program director for the University’s graduate program in industrial/organizational psychology, Hewitt is an assistant professor of psychology at Elmhurst.

Betsy Ortiz ’01 received the Distinguished Service to Society Award. Ortiz, a team supervisor with the U.S. General Services Administration, serves as vice chair of 6000 Moms NFP, a charitable organization that supports immigrant and refugee families.

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The Elmhurst community came together in September for a Homecoming celebration that featured fireworks, a bonfire and pep rally, a parade, a giant block party, a Ferris wheel and much more.

Here’s to our next 150 years!

See the highlights at elmhurst.edu/Homecoming.

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JOIN US FOR AN OPEN HOUSE!

Tuesday, January 11, 2022 5:30–7:30 p.m.

R S V P T O D AY elmhurst.edu/ChooseElmhurst

EXPERIENCE Celebrate our sesquicentennial by earning a graduate degree from Elmhurst University.

F R E E COURSE

Our graduate programs are flexible, practical and designed to meet your needs. Choose from options in business, education, health care and technology— and maximize the return on your investment.

Graduate Studies

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Alumni of Elmhurst undergraduate programs can take their first graduate course for free.

Learn more at elmhurst.edu/FreeCourse.

P H OTO B Y K U R T W E H D E

CLASS NOTES 1950s, 1960s & 1970s Furthering Ethics in Medicine

Trustee William A. Nelson ’68, H ’06, has been appointed to the Elizabeth DeCamp McInerny Professorship at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. A health care ethicist, Nelson is a professor of community and family medicine, of medical education and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. “Through this professorship I will seek to expand the scope of ethics scholarship while growing the visibility and permanence of ethics education at Geisel,” Nelson said, according to the school’s website. As an ethicist, Nelson works to increase the understanding of ethics as foundational to the delivery of health care.

Telling the Stories of the Marginalized

Gregory Stanley Black ’73 has been uncovering uncomfortable truths about marginalized groups through photo, film and music for decades. His most recent work, a “docu-story” chronicling the lives of Black people in Oregon, earned him a Black Lives Matter Artist Grant from the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, Ore. “I wanted to contrast the ‘heaviness’ of daily racism with the behind-the-scenes humanity that often goes unnoticed in mainstream America,” said Black, who began filming the project in 1992.

“It was my focus, as a Black filmmaker, to capture and reveal the unvarnished truth of the daily lives and struggles of Black folks.” He continues to film African Americans born and raised in the 1920s and ’30s in Oregon for the Oregon Black Pioneers historical society. He’s also working on a documentary of Otis Davis, the first Black track athlete from the University of Oregon to compete in the Olympics.

Rev. Dr. John Modschiedler ’59 writes that he has fond memories from his time on campus and is proud to be an Elmhurst alum. His long family history at Elmhurst dates back to the late 1890s, when his grandfather studied to be a pastor at the Elmhurst Proseminary. Modschiedler’s wife, Christa, also graduated from Elmhurst.

US Ambassador Jacques Paul Klein ’61, H ’02, has been awarded the Commemorative Cross of the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic, First Class. Klein was honored for his outstanding leadership in the United Nations’ efforts in Croatia and his direction of the international mineclearing effort to remove more than 500,000 mines planted during the conflict along the zone of separation.

Gail Schreiber ’61 has sold her condo and moved into a retirement community in San Diego. She has her own cottage but enjoys dining, exercising and engaging in social activities with the other residents.

Liz Dudek ’73, an Elmhurst University trustee and the director of health care affairs in the Tallahassee, Fla., office of global law firm Greenberg Traurig, received the 2021 Sid Rosenblatt Excellence in Leadership Award from the Florida Assisted Living Association.

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CLASS NOTES

nition presented by FALA, is presented annually to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding leadership abilities within the assisted living industry as well as within the community.

trustees and village staff honored Semple at his final board meeting on April 26 for being the longest-serving trustee in Mundelein history. They also named a street in his honor.

on his doctoral research and real-life stories from his experiences as a vice president in leadership development at two global corporations.

Doug Mayfield ’73 published his second novel, The Saint Patrick’s Day Hero (Grendel’s Fen Press) in January.

Midwest Book Review describes the novel as “a powerfully relevant story that will leave you thinking long after the story concludes.”

Mayfield’s awardwinning first novel, Angle of Declination (Two Harbors Press), coauthored with Sally Mayfield, was published in 2012.

Ellen Roberts ’86 was recently named vice president for administrative affairs at the College of DuPage.

Roberts brings nearly 40 years of senior leadership, sales and operations management expertise to her new role, where she will spearhead the implementation of the college’s facilities master plan and continuity of operations plan.

Kara Patrick ’91 was recently named assistant director of health services for East Aurora School District 131. Patrick brings 15 years of nursing experience to the job.

1990s

Dan Christian ’93 was recently named logistics and supply chain vice president for Bird Buddy, a startup that has created the world’s first smart bird feeder. In his new role, Christian will create shipping and tracking systems for the product.

1980s

Michael Gilmartin ’83 recently retired from his 25-year career at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Gilmartin began his career at UIC as the head athletic trainer before being promoted to assistant athletic director for sports medicine and then finally associate athletic director.

Raymond Semple ’83 recently retired from the board of trustees of the Village of Mundelein, Ill., after serving for 26 years. Mayor Steve Lentz, fellow

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Rosanna Klepper ’87 published her first children’s book, Sir Pyes (Orange Hat Publishing), in November 2019.

The book tells the story of two knights who help a village with an abundance of vegetables.

Patrick Donahue ’88 published The Power of Genuine Leadership: How Authentic Leaders Earn Trust in November 2020.

To write the book, Donahue drew

Kym Franklin ’96 was recently hired to compose choral parts for “Walk with Us,” a folk song written and performed by Chicagoan Willa Moore.

A collaborative project complete with dancers, musicians, videographers, photographers and artists from across the country, the music video for “Walk with Us” has been accepted into a wellknown international film festival.

Paul Lubenkov ’96 wrote a manuscript, Songs Along Cermak Road, which was a finalist for the prestigious Iowa Review Award for fiction.

2000s

Kymberly Grosvenor ’00 was named Nurse of the Year 2020 at Loyola Hospital, where she works in the intensive

care unit. To celebrate the occasion, her mother surprised her with a new Elmhurst University Nursing pin to replace one that she had lost.

Creating the Workplaces of Tomorrow Angela Howard ’13 has spent more than a decade reinventing organizations’ human resources roles and creating human-centric workplaces. Howard, who earned a master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology, was the recipient of Elmhurst’s 2021 Distinguished Graduate Alumni Award, which recognizes an alumna or alumnus of a graduate program for outstanding achievement in community service, career accomplishments and/or loyalty to the University.

Howard is vice president of people development and human experience at Dober, a chemistry and technology company in Woodridge, and founder of Angela R. Howard Consulting. She has worked with companies large and small, including Beam Suntory, Kaiser Permanente, Rotary International and Walgreens Boots Alliance. Howard also has served as an adjunct faculty member in industrial/organizational psychology at Elmhurst.

Jordin Clark ’15 recently joined Wabash College as a visiting professor of rhetoric. Clark hopes to encourage students to think critically and apply their knowledge to everyday life.

Hannah Brummer ’20 has joined 102.3 WXLC-FM as afternoon host.

Brummer, whose on-air nickname is Hannah B, was active on 88.7 WRSEFM at Elmhurst and hosts a weekly podcast, Monday Motivation with Hannah B. Chicago media journalist Robert Feder quoted Brummer as saying, “My dream has finally come true, and I can’t stop smiling about it because I get to do what I love most every day!”

Becoming Victor E.

When Carter Rosenthal ’20 transferred to Elmhurst in 2017, a studentjob listing caught his eye: serving as the University’s mascot. As Victor E. Bluejay, the communications major brought Bluejay spirit to everything from soccer games and Homecoming events to the Chicago Pride Parade.

He enjoyed the work so much that he continued to portray the mascot past graduation, traveling to campus from his home in Wisconsin for admissions events and other special occasions. “Socializing can make me nervous,” said Rosenthal, who is autistic. “But dressing up as a fun character made it easier to connect with people—and it allowed me to find a job I love.”

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IN MEMORIAM A DECORATED

LIFE OF MINISTRY

ROLE MODEL

Former University trustee and alumni board director the Rev. Dr. William Koshewa ’45, H ’68 died June 19, 2021. He was 98. Rev. Koshewa lived the values of the University’s United Church of Christ identity. He earned his master of divinity from Eden Theological Seminary near St. Louis in 1947 before being ordained in the UCC and serving pastorates in Illinois, Ohio, Florida and Indiana. In 1968, the University awarded Rev. Koshewa an honorary doctor of divinity for outstanding service to church and community. While at Elmhurst, he was a three-sport star, earning letters in basketball, football and track and field. Rev. Koshewa met Elmhurst classmate Elizabeth Hammond ’45 on December 7, 1941.

They were married 74 years and remained lovingly devoted to their five daughters and their families.

Longtime biology professor Frank Mittermeyer died on Sept. 15, 2021, at the age of 78. An enthusiastic teacher and mentor to generations of Elmhurst students, Mittermeyer joined the then-Elmhurst College faculty in 1969 and retired 44 years later.

At Elmhurst, he was the chair of the Department of Biology and played an integral role in developing advising services and resources for students pursuing careers in health care. He frequently engaged students in hands-on research, including a project involving tomato seeds that had been sent to the International Space Station. In 2017, Elmhurst presented Mittermeyer with the Dr. Andrew K. Prinz Faculty and Staff Merit Award. “When I think about the teachers who have had the biggest impact on me, Dr. Mittermeyer is the first one I think of,” wrote Brenda Fann ’88 in 2013. “He was a great role model, and so supportive. You could always go to him and know that you would get help.”

VILLAGE PRESIDENT

Kevin M. Quinlan ’88 passed away on Sept. 7, 2021, at the age of 54. A former marketing executive, Quinlan spent 15 years working for Coca-Cola, including two years in Ireland, where he helped launch the company’s Fanta brand. He served as village president of Oak Brook from 2003 to 2007.

At Elmhurst, where he majored in marketing, he was president of the student body during his senior year and was active in the ATO fraternity.

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Rev. John W. Frank ’43 June 11, 2021, Claremont, Calif.

Rev. Dr. Donald Buckthal ’45 May 28, 2021, Carmel, Ind. Helen M. Lancaster ’47 May 27, 2021, Chelsea, Mich.

Margaret J. (Waite) Miller ’47 June 26, 2021, Lombard, Ill. Elaine V. (Warner) Yuhas ’49 June 23, 2021, Dallas, Texas Mary L. (Mernitz) Wright ’52 May 4, 2021, Augusta, Maine Michael F. Kelly ’53 June 30, 2021, Ocean City, N.J. Rev. David B. Hackmann ’54 May 7, 2021, Iowa City, Iowa Rozella (Utlaut) Nagy ’54 Aug. 14, 2021, Saint Charles, Ill. Shirley M. (Klosterman) Lowe ’55 May 30, 2021, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Rev. Dr. Paul D. Schippel ’56 Aug. 19, 2021, Centralia, Ill. Joanne L. (Hamann) Sargeant ’57 July 30, 2021, Cabery, Ill. Robert C. Lartz ’58 May 8, 2021, Saint Petersburg, Fla. Nancy J. Croson ’59 May 13, 2021, Washington, Mo. Ralph L. Blust ’60 July 28, 2021, Galena, Ill. Charles M. Kanute ’61 May 10, 2021, Saint Charles, Ill. Rev. Delbert K. Miller ’62 Aug. 20, 2021, St. Louis, Mo. Doreen Tuxbury ’63 April 19, 2021, Manchester, N.H. Roger B. Hanz ’66 May 23, 2021, Kingsport, Tenn.

FAMILY TIES Martha V. Klybert ’66 Sept. 6, 2021, LaGrange, Ill. Ruth B. (Boardman) Lucht ’66 May 4, 2021, Bartlesville, Okla.

Dr. Philip L. Cargill ’68 Aug. 24, 2021, Lafayette, Ind. Carolyn C. Potter-Klein ’69 July 18, 2021, Wheaton, Ill. Carolann S. Slanina ’69 May 14, 2021, Woodridge, Ill. Salvatore J. Anzalone ’70 Aug. 26, 2021, Carol Stream, Ill. Edward M. Mendrick ’70 June 1, 2021, High Point, N.C. Janet A. (Ackerman) Frazer ’71 May 29, 2021, Crossville, Tenn.

John G. Bosche ’74 July 14, 2021, Sutton, N.H. Deborah A. Dudley ’75 July 19, 2021, Dallas, Texas Dr. Barbra L. Gabriel ’75 May 17, 2021, Harrisonburg, Va. Warren W. Logan ’78 Aug. 21, 2021, Pleasant Hill, Mo. Maureen A. (Conley) Bean ’86 July 19, 2021, Lombard, Ill. Janice L. Gill ’86 May 1, 2021, Orland Park, Ill. Betty J. Holland ’86 May 1, 2021, LaGrange Park, Ill. Helja Inkeri Herranen ’89 July 18, 2021, Amesbury, Mass.

David F. Frasca ’94 Aug. 13, 2021, Naperville, Ill. Robert J. Zemko ’02 May 16, 2021, Kenosha, Wis.

Robert “Bob” Goltermann, father-in-law of Board Chair Ed Momkus ’74, passed away on Sept. 28, 2021, at age 90. With his wife, Marcia, Bob was a longtime donor who broadly supported the University. The Goltermanns provided scholarships for art students for many years, and Bob supported the Schade Lecture by underwriting speakers and thought leaders.

In recognition of the Goltermanns’ deep ties to the institution, Elmhurst awarded them the Founders Medal in 2006. A CPA and entrepreneur, Bob founded a number of businesses in Illinois. He loved to travel, and he and Marcia developed a number of real estate projects in Sedona, Ariz.

ADMIRED EDUCATOR

Kimberly Hayes ’85 died Oct. 1 at age 58. A respected teacher at Riverside-Brookfield High School in Riverside, Ill., for 33 years, Hayes was known for her encouraging nature. In addition to teaching English, she helped with the school’s newspaper and instilled a love of reading in her students. “She was one of the first teachers to make reading fun in school,” former student Joey Vitek told the Riverside-Brookfield Landmark in 2019. After leaving Riverside in 2019, Hayes taught English in the Florida Keys. She also was a mentor with the University’s Weigand Center for Professional Excellence.

LONGTIME

UNIVERSITY CHAPLAIN

The Rev. Dr. Robert Schieler, the University’s chaplain from 1964 to 1976, died July 20, 2021, at the age of 86. During his time as chaplain, Rev. Schieler was known for overseeing innovative services, teaching classes and leading ecumenical retreats with nearby schools. He and a group of students also traveled to Selma, Ala., to march for justice with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Rev. H. Scott Matheney, University chaplain, remembered Rev. Schieler as an important fixture at Elmhurst. “He played a critical and vital role in the life of the community and the College/University,” Rev. Matheney said. Rev. Schieler enjoyed golfing, boating, fishing, water skiing, snow skiing, camping and playing team sports. He also had a lifelong appreciation of music and dance.

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MY CAREER

PATH

CALLED TO CARE On the 50th anniversary of Elmhurst’s nursing program, Jennifer Pope ’96 reflects on a rewarding career that started right here.

I’ll never forget Judy Diekmann, one of my first nursing professors at Elmhurst. She led a clinical at a nursing home facility at a time when elder care had a stigma. But what struck me immediately about Professor Diekmann was her compassion for the older adult population. The way that she spoke to the residents and advocated for them was really an inspiration for me. It’s no surprise that I was drawn to hospice and palliative care after graduation.

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For me and most of my colleagues, nursing is a calling. And it’s a calling that keeps evolving.

A decade ago, I was the clinical educator at a local hospice and palliative care organization when a nursing school asked if they could do their community clinicals there.

I worked closely with the faculty to create a holistic experience for students to look at death and dying and the role nursing plays within that process.

I found that deeply rewarding, which got me excited to work with students. So I decided to pursue a master’s degree in nursing and then a doctorate in education. Today, I teach at Loyola University Chicago’s nursing school, bringing young students into outpatient clinics across the city, including some nursing home facilities.

Isn’t that crazy? It’s all come full circle. The trajectory of my career has put me in a position to empower, motivate and inspire these students just as I was empowered, motivated and inspired by Professor Diekmann.

Say cheers to 150 years with special anniversary-themed swag!

Visit our Spirit Shop in the Frick Center for great deals on everything from hats and hoodies to holiday gifts. elmhurst.edu/SpiritShop

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Elmhurst University 190 Prospect Avenue Elmhurst, Illinois 60126-3296

SEEI NG H IS T ORY The Elmhurst History Museum is celebrating the University’s sesquicentennial with a special exhibition. Featuring rare photographs, artifacts, video, interviews and more, “An EverWidening Circle: Elmhurst University at 150” runs through Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022.

Learn more about the exhibition at elmhurst.edu/150.

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