Homecoming 2018

Bonnie Bondurant Shaddock ’54 cuts a ribbon to dedicate the new alumni house named in her honor. Formerly known as The Manor, the building was presented to the College by Shaddock in 2006 and recently renovated to house the Office of Alumni Programs. From left are Russ Smith (friend of the donor), First Lady Lobie Stone, President Clarence R. Wyatt, Bondurant, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Mark Kopinski ’79, Debbie Kopinski and Alumni Board President Mary Corrigan ’82.

HOMECOMING 2018

A Weekend Brimming With Precious Moments

The 2018 edition of Monmouth College Homecoming weekend, celebrated Oct. 5-7, wasn’t officially given a theme. But in her remarks to a crowd of alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the College, Bonnie Bondurant Shaddock ’54 expressed a theme-worthy sentiment.“There have been so many precious moments,” she said, as the Bonnie Bondurant Alumni House on East Broadway was formally dedicated. “I’ve been filled with them all weekend.”

Well-wishers gather for the christening of the newly renovated Bonnie Bondurant Alumni House.

The three M Club Hall of Fame inductees could relate to what Bondurant meant.

Standout distance runner Doug Carlson ’66, who could have recounted several tales of dominant individual performances, instead recalled crossing the finish line of a one-mile race, arms linked with two of his beloved teammates, Jim Whalen ’64 and Steve Pettit ’66.

Jonny Henkins ’08 recalled visiting Monmouth as a prospective student.

Track and field coach Roger Haynes ’82 “brought me into the Hall of Fame area,” he said. “I remember thinking, ‘How much of a badass do you have to be to get into this?’”

During his time at Monmouth, Henkins got a pivotal nudge at just the right time from Haynes.

Alpha Xi Delta members were among several teams competing with dance numbers at the Spirit Shout.

“It took him about 60 seconds to change my perspective and what I wanted to accomplish in life,” said Henkins, who went on to capture two national championships in the pole vault. Rob Purlee ’04 also humorously recalled his recruiting visit with his presenter, former football coach Steve Bell, but his precious moments with Monmouth go back even further —to his parents and 1978 Monmouth alumni Dave and Joela Blender Purlee.

“I close my eyes, and I’m back at the Knox Bowl for the 100th Bronze Turkey Game,” he said. “I was 6. I close my eyes again, and it’s November of 1991, another Monmouth-Knox game. I was 9. Monmouth was a part of my childhood. It’s been special to me for that long.”

Chemistry professor and local brewer Brad Sturgeon shares a laugh with alumni attending his seminar on the science of beer making.

Monmouth as a special place was a sentiment shared by several other alumni, including those honored at the Alumni Impact Awards ceremony.

“I’m grateful for how this experience here shaped my life for the next 50 years,” said Robert Brink ’68, a former member of the Virginia state legislature who received the College’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. “Monmouth gave me the tools for living that I believe a small, liberal arts college is uniquely qualified to give.” He said that one of those tools was the gift of empathy. “Monmouth taught me to see the world through someone else’s eyes,” he said. “I’d like to think that I got into politics and government for the right reasons, and I’m grateful that Monmouth College taught me how to do it right.”

David Bowers ’60, one of two inductees into the Hall of Achievement—the highest honor the College bestows upon its graduates—shared Brink’s view about Monmouth’s size, a lesson he learned after transferring from a large public university.

“The mega-format of lectures wasn’t for me,” he said. “I had a feeling that the personal attention Monmouth offered would fit me better and, boy, was I right.”

Bowers served as president and CEO of CompX International, Inc., retiring earlier this year.

Won Yang Everett ’68, the other Hall of Achievement inductee, was one of several alumni who discussed the impact of Monmouth faculty and staff, sharing how important former political science professor Carl Gamer had been in the life of her father, the late Key Yang ’50.

“There were many who went the extra mile at Monmouth, including Professor Gamer,” she said.

Another cited for making an impact was Bruce Haywood, who served as Monmouth’s 10th president from 1980-94.

“When I was first starting out, he saw things in me that I didn’t see in myself,” said retired dean of students Jacquelyn Condon, who received the College’s Distinguished Service Award.

Condon, who served the College from 1980-2017, also thanked the students she encountered as a Monmouth administrator.

“You can’t be the dean of students if the students don’t let you,” she said. “What gifts you all have been.”

Other honorees during Homecoming weekend included: Ryne Sherman ’06, Distinguished Young Alumnus Award; English professor and interim Dean of the Faculty Mark Willhardt, Hatch Excellence Award for Distinguished Teaching; and the Pepper family, Family of the Year. Inducted into the Greek Hall of Fame were Susan West ’82, Tom Sargent ’85 and Lt. Col. Christopher Heatherly ’94.

Another person credited for seeing things in people they didn’t realize in themselves was political science professor Ira Smolensky, who died last March at the age of 69.

Longtime department colleague Farhat Haq paid tribute to Smolensky as part of the College’s new Great Lectures Series, and several others took the podium at a second event later in the day celebrating Smolensky’s life and legacy.

Smiling through tears, Marj Smolensky listens to former students of her late husband,Professor Ira Smolensky, pay tribute to the impact of his teaching legacy.

Vietnamese refugee Thao Dang-Williams ’93 told how her protective mother was ready to retrieve her from Monmouth after barely a week away from home.

“I went to talk to Ira about it, and he said, ‘What’s your phone number?’ He spent an hour on the phone with my mom. He told her, ‘She’ll be OK. I’ll watch out for her.’ Without Ira making that phone call, I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in now.”

“In this time of our great (political) divide, I often find myself thinking, ‘What would Ira do?’” said Anita Ridge ’88. “‘And how can I be a little more like him?’”

Members of the classes of 1993 and 2008 enjoy a joint reception at the Mellinger Teaching & Learning Center during football halftime.

The unofficial theme of precious moments spilled over to the athletic fields, where the Fighting Scots men’s soccer team used three first-half goals to roll to a 3-0 victory over Illinois College at Peacock Memorial Athletic Park. And the football team unveiled a slick bounce-pass trick play for a touchdown en route to a 55-0 win over Grinnell College at April Zorn Memorial Stadium.

In his Hall of Fame remarks, Purlee referenced proposing to his wife, Jenna Carson Purlee ’04, on the football field’s 50-yard line. Two other couples had precious moments to last a lifetime on Saturday, adding their names to the list of proposals at College events: Bethany Meyer ’18 said “Yes” to classmate Luke Kreiter on the steps of Wallace Hall; and Erin Barnett ’16 and Brodie Welker ’16 were engaged at the pre-game tailgate party.

For 2018 graduates Bethany Meyer and Luke Kreiter, Homecoming 2018 will forever hold a special moment. Bethany said “yes,” after Luke surprised her with a marriage proposal on the steps of Wallace Hall.

—Barry McNamara

HOMECOMING ALUMNI AWARDS

HALL OF ACHIEVEMENT

David Bowers ’60

Bowers, of Greenville, S.C., retired in 2018 as president and CEO of CompX International Inc., a leading U.S. manufacturer of security products and recreational marine components. An employee of CompX and its predecessors since 1960 in various sales, marketing and executive positions, Bowers was named president of the company in 1998. His leadership role with Monmouth College began in 1974, when he was elected to the Alumni Board, later serving as its president. He joined the Board of Trustees in 1980 and in 1995 became its chair, serving in that position for 13 years. Since providing the naming gift for Bowers Hall in 2001, he has maintained a strong interest in its maintenance, funding updates in décor and furnishings for the residence hall and, recently, the construction of a dedicated parking lot for its residents.

Won Yang Everett ’68

A native of Korea and a current resident of Bethesda, Md., Everett followed in the footsteps of her father, Distinguished Alumni Award recipient Key Yang ’50, in enrolling at Monmouth College. A math major with a minor in economics, her first position was with the Naval Research Laboratory. As the only woman mathematician in its Electronic Warfare Division, she performed math modeling for a radio frequency direction finding system to assess for enemy locations. After taking time off to raise her three sons, she worked as a systems engineer and program manager for private military contractors, including BAE Systems, Schafer and General Dynamics, and obtained her master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. Prior to her retirement, she was a senior lead engineer selected to the Missile Defense National Team established by the Department of Defense.

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS AWARD

Robert Brink ’68

Brink, of Arlington, Va., served in senior government positions at the state and federal level for four decades. After experience on the professional staffs of two Congressional committees in the 1970s and 1980s, he was appointed deputy assistant attorney general for legislative affairs for the Department of Justice in 1993. Following that position, he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, holding that office for 17 years. He then joined the administration of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, heading the state’s Division on Aging Services and serving as the governor’s senior legislative adviser. Brink retired in 2018.

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

Jacquelyn Condon

Condon, who lives in Monmouth, holds the record for the longest-serving senior administrative officer in Monmouth College history, having retired in 2017 after 37 years in the office of student life. Promoted to associate dean in 1986 and dean of students in 1990, she was named vice president in 1994. Under her leadership, the department expanded from three staff members to more than two dozen, in order to address emerging student needs in areas such as career services, student success, counseling, intercultural life, campus safety, spiritual life, athletics and Title IX compliance.

YOUNG ALUMNUS AWARD

Ryne Sherman ’06

Sherman, of Tulsa, Okla., recently joined Hogan Assessment Systems, a personality assessments company in Tulsa. He earned his Ph.D. in personality/social psychology from the University of California, Riverside. Sherman joined the psychology faculty at Florida Atlantic University in 2011, was recognized as its College of Science Distinguished Teacher of the Year in 2013 and was promoted to associate professor in 2016. His research on the psychological properties of situations and their interaction with personality has been awarded federal support from the National Science Foundation, and in 2016 he was named a “Rising Star” by the Association for Psychological Science. Prior to his current position, he served as associate professor of psychological sciences at Texas Tech University.

HATCH ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR DISTINGUISHED TEACHING

Mark Willhardt

Although his graduate training was in modernist Scottish literature, Willhardt enjoys teaching “History of the English Language” and Chaucer, exploring language as a living and changing medium of communication. He also delights in teaching poetry, the genre that brought him to English as a discipline. Willhardt holds a bachelor’s degree from Macalester (Minn.) College, and a master’s degree and a doctorate from Rutgers University. His research interests include 20th-century Scottish literature, modernism and modern British literature, contemporary poetry, popular music and cultural studies.

FAMILY OF THE YEAR

The Pepper Family

From left: Cassi Pepper Gibson ’04, Samantha Gibson, Dave Gibson, Lisa Pepper ’87, Roxie Pepper, Richard Pepper, Lynda Pepper Bollman ’76, Chris Pepper and Stan Pepper ’76.

Monmouth College’s connection with the Pepper family began nearly five decades ago when two of the children of Richard and Roxie Pepper—Stan Pepper ’76 and Lynda Pepper Bollman ’76—enrolled. Their daughter Lisa

Pepper graduated in 1987, and a second generation of graduates began in 2004 when Cassandra Pepper Gibson, daughter of Stan and his wife, Chris Pepper, received her degree. Through the years, the Pepper family has generously supported the College, including providing the naming gift for the Huff Athletic Center natatorium. The expertise of the family company, Chicago-based Pepper Construction, has also benefited the College, serving as general contractor for the construction of the $42 million Center for Science and Business. Meanwhile, Stan Pepper, the company’s CEO, has served as a College trustee since 1999.

FRATERNITY & SORORITY HALL OF FAME

Susan West ’82

An alumna of Kappa Delta, West is a senior litigation paralegal for Sony Corp., where she developed an inhouse program to address new rules and laws related to compliance in discovery in litigation. Successfully tested in U.S. courts, the program has allowed the company to save several million dollars a year. A resident of San Diego, she has been active in the local philanthropies for more than 30 years, helping raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the American Cancer Society and serving on several education-related non-profit boards. When devastating fires hit the San Diego area, she coordinated with Kappa Delta’s national headquarters to gather donations of supplies and relief funds.

Tom Sargent ’85

Sargent served as president of the Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter while a student at Monmouth College. As a senior, he was a member of the second class inducted into the College’s Order of Omega. Since returning to Monmouth as a professor of educational studies in 2002, he has served as faculty adviser to the chapter and has been active in the Illinois Gamma Alumni Volunteer Corporation, holding the positions of vice president of finance and trustee. In his AVC role, he works closely with the undergraduate officers to ensure that Monmouth’s SigEp chapter is fiscally sound. He also helps monitor and document the progress of the chapter against local and national fraternity benchmarks. The recipient of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Volunteer of the Year Award in 2011, a year later he was honored with the second highest recognition an alumnus may earn, the Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Lt. Col. Christopher Heatherly ’94

The former president of his Zeta Beta Tau chapter at Monmouth, Heatherly enlisted in the U.S. Army after graduation and earned his commission via Officer Candidate School in 1997. He has held a variety of assignments in Special Operations, Special Forces, armored units and cavalry units. His operational experience includes deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, South Korea, Kuwait, Mali and Nigeria. He holds master’s degrees from the University of Oklahoma and the School of Advanced Military Studies. (Heatherly was unable to attend the ceremony.)

M CLUB HALL OF FAME

From left: Rob Purlee ’04, Jonny Henkins ’08 and Doug Carlson ’66.

Doug Carlson ’66

Carlson made a habit of crossing the finish line first during his outstanding running career. In cross country, he won 23 consecutive dual meets over three years, setting numerous Monmouth and other college course records. At the time of his induction, he was one of just five Monmouth runners to place in the top three at the conference meet at least twice. In all, he had three All-MWC honors. In track, Carlson excelled at the two-mile distance, winning the race in three consecutive years at the MWC meet. He had five of the top eight times in school history at two miles, with a best of 9:40.7. The Chicago attorney has served on the Monmouth College Board of Trustees for 30 years.

Rob Purlee ’04

As a Fighting Scots quarterback, Purlee rewrote the passing section of the record book—in some cases eclipsing marks set a quarter-century before by his father, Dave Purlee ’78. The MWC’s Offensive Player of the Year as a senior, Purlee earned three all-conference selections while completing 514 passes for 8,017 yards (good for a school-record) and 83 TDs. Among his 23 quarterback wins were 8-2 records his sophomore and senior seasons and four Bronze Turkey Game victories against Knox. In basketball, Purlee also had a knack for passing, ranking sixth in career assists per game (2.8).

Jonny Henkins ’08

As a pole vaulter, Henkins was pushed to his highest not only during track and field competitions but also in practices, as one of his teammates was a national-caliber performer in that event. At two NCAA meets, Henkins bested that teammate, Peter Sprecher ’08, as well as every other vaulter in the country, to claim national championships. At the 2008 NCAA indoor meet, his 10 points helped earn Monmouth its highest-ever team finish in any sport, placing second to UW-La Crosse. In all, Henkins was a four-time All-American and six-time national qualifier. At Midwest Conference meets, he won the pole vault once and was twice named a Most Outstanding Performer.