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Clan Notes

Welcome to the Clan Notes section for Monmouth alumni. Links to obituaries, births and marriages are available on the left. An online form for submitting your own Clan Notes will be ready soon. In the mean time, please contact the Alumni Programs Office.
 

2012

  • An essay by Alex J. Kane, a current English major from Monmouth, has been accepted for publication by The New York Review of Science Fiction, a monthly print journal of criticism on the science-fiction genre. The essay is titled “Individualism, Atheism, and the Search for God in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.”

2011

  • Angie Morris of Iowa City, Iowa, is currently seeking her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Iowa.
  • Michelle Nutting is a weekend news producer for WQAD-TV, an ABC affiliate in Moline, Ill.
  • Matt Shepherd will be playing football in Germany this season after inking a deal with the Marburg Mercenaries to play in Germany’s top division. The wide receiver caught 53 passes for 500 yards and five TDs for the Kouvola Indians of the Finnish First Division last season. Shepherd also saw action as a safety in four games, recording 25 tackles and three interceptions, including one for a touchdown. The Indians advanced to the championship game last season for the first time in nearly 20 years.

2010

  • Rachel Bold of Springfield, Ill., is part of the Senate Republican staff’s communication and public affairs department. One of her PR articles announced that Sen. Darin LaHood (R-Peoria) welcomed Miss Illinois County Fair Queen – MC’s own Jackie Driscoll ’12 – to the Illinois Senate.
  • Harrison Heilman is serving in the Peace Corps in the Philippines. He is located in the Bicol region on the eastern coast and says, “I’m doing my lifelong dream, and I’m only 22.”
  • Annie Lane of Kirkwood, Mo., returned last June from India, where she spent a year volunteering on behalf of a girls school located in the rural town of Anupshahr in the state of Uttar Pradesh. She spent most of the year as a fundraising volunteer in New Delhi, but also worked three months at the school as a teacher’s assistant.

2009

  • Chris Schwarz and his fianceé, Breanna Webb, are both employed by Monmouth-Roseville High School. Breanna teaches high school Spanish, and Chris is the varsity baseball coach. Chris is also a science teacher at La Harpe (Ill.) Junior High School.  
  • Anna Damos of North Henderson, Ill., was inducted this fall into the inaugural class of the athletic hall of fame at United High School near Monmouth. A four-year starter in volleyball, she was an athletic and academic all-conference player at United before embarking on her Fighting Scots career.
  • Kyle Christensen of Galesburg, Ill., had research work published in the Fall 2011 issue of Studies in Popular Culture. The article was titled “The Final Girl versus Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street: Proposing a Stronger Model of Feminism in Slasher Horror Cinema.”

2008

  • Heather Prater Stammen was featured in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of The Knot Chicago, a bridal magazine. The salon that did Stammen’s hair chose her as their featured model. 
  • Carissa Scott of Monmouth recently began her new duties as executive director of the Western Illinois Chapter of the American Red Cross. She previously worked as a sales manager for a Coca-Cola distributing company and as a sales representative for ConAgra Foods.

2007

  • Kelli Wefenstette of Chicago, Ill., a self-described “craftivist,” is the creative crafter behind greenie bean recycle, a line of unique up-cycled handbags. She also runs her own blog, “our urban farmhouse,” which documents her and her husband’s efforts to create a truly low-impact, sustainable household. A graduate student at Loyola University, she is seeking a master’s degree in social justice and community development.
  • Ashley Gaul of Havana, Ill., and Evan Haffner of Hanna City, Ill., share a common accomplishment—both coached state championship 7th-grade basketball teams this year. Hers was the Havana girls team and his was the Bartonville Monroe boys.
  • Sarah Zaleski, a ceramics student in the MFA program at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., has received the prestigious Caterpillar Master’s Fellowship, which provides 100 percent tuition aid and a stipend for living expenses. Because the scholarship has freed her from having to juggle part-time jobs with her studies, she is now able to take a more conceptual approach to her art. An installation of artwork based on memories of her grandfather was displayed at the university’s art center in December.
  • Darren Jackson of Peoria, Ill., recently earned his MFA in visual communication from Bradley University, and is now an adjunct instructor in graphic design at Bradley’s Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts.

2006

  • A.J. and Rachel McCombs Bartoluzzi live in Port Byron, Ill., where Rachel is a full-time student seeking her registered nursing degree. A.J. works in the marketing department at Dot Foods, Inc. He also mentors grade-school children and coaches summer baseball.
  • Seth Rohweder of Moline, Ill., served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, during which he completed two combat tours of Iraq and was also stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay.
  • Ryne Sherman is an assistant professor of psychology at Florida Atlantic University. He received his Ph.D. in Personality and Social Psychology last June from the University of California-Riverside. He and his wife, Georgena, live in Boca Raton, Fla.
  • Matthew Hammer of Lanark, Ill., is a clinical pharmacist at Freeport (Ill.) Memorial Hospital. A graduate of the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville pharmacy school, he served his residency at a hospital in Belleville, Ill.
  • Tucker Blaser of St. Louis, Mo., is an attorney in the Belleville, Ill., office of Brown & James Law Firm. He recently completed his first half-marathon.
  • Josh Ragar is a loan officer for Pilot Grove Savings Bank in Pilot Grove, Iowa. He and his wife, Sara, have a son, Jack, born in August 2010.
  • Karyn Spangler Beavers of Galesburg, Ill., is teaching first grade at Galesburg Christian School, a private institution from which she graduated in 2002. After earning her degree from Monmouth, she taught in three different public schools during her first three years of teaching, before having the opportunity to teach in a new Christian school in Roseville, Ill., last year. When she and her husband subsequently moved to Galesburg.
  • Emily Eddington of Carterville, Ill., who works as the morning news anchor for WSIL-TV in southern Illilnois, was named Best Anchor for a medium market television station at the Illinois Broadcasters Association’s 2022 Silver Dome Awards. She is married to Tyler Dihle ’06.

2005

  • Katie Humann Halberg and her husband, Luke Halberg ’04, live in Monmouth, where Katie is assistant human resources manager at Farmland Foods. She also coaches MC’s cheerleading squad and the competitive dance team at Knoxville High School.
  • Brant Peterson of Dixon, Ill., graduated from St. Xavier University in May with a master’s degree in teaching and leadership.

2004

  • Dustin and Autumn McGee Scott ’04 have done substantial work to their century-old home in Galesburg, Ill., earning recognition from the Galesburg Landmark Commission. Dustin is a part-time artist who works for his father’s construction company, and Autumn is assistant director of admission at MC.
  • Justin Johnston of Washington, Ill., has started an executive position at Heartland Bank and Trust Company in Eureka, Ill. He is vice president of agricultural/commercial lending for the bank and trust’s tri-county area.
  • Tom Hill of Worth, Ill., produced The Carnival of Curiosity & Chaos – self-proclaimed as “a two-hour freak show” – in Chicago earlier this summer. More information about Hill is available at www.artisttomhill.com.
  • Dr. Wendy Thomas of Mediapolis, Iowa, decided to change course after a year of grad school studying biochemistry at Iowa State University. Having grown up on a family farm, she suddenly realized that her true passion was for animals, and she entered ISU’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Last June, with a DVM diploma in hand, she found a job at a veterinary clinic in Mediapolis, near her hometown. In August, she purchased the practice, which treats both small pets and livestock.
  • Dr. Thomas Murphy of Pontiac, Ill., has joined the OSF Medical Group practice in Pontiac. After earning his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford, he completed his residency in family medicine in Peoria, where he was a co-chief resident-elect and taught third- and fourth-year medical students on family medicine and OB rotations. In addition to family medicine, he also has a special interest in pain management and sports medicine.
  • Shalyn Shirey of St. Louis, Mo., earned her practical nursing degree in 2010 and is continuing her nursing studies.
  • Bryan Bittner of Monmouth has opened a new chiropractic office in Monmouth, after earning his doctorate in October from Palmer College of Chiropractic. He is married to Melissa Bittner ’03, who is in her seventh year as head women’s basketball coach at MC. Bryan also recently became a certified scuba diver.

2003

  • Kristin Whitver Fouts has moved to the Indianapolis, Ind., area to serve as director of the Fraternity & Sorority Coalition Assessment Project. She also provided some research instruments that Monmouth College used to survey students regarding their choices about joining Greek life.
  • Toby Lannholm of Peoria Heights, Ill., has been named a branch supervisor for Heartland Bank and Trust Company, a community bank with offices throughout Illinois and northeast Missouri. A business administration major at Monmouth, he earned his master’s degree at Western Illinois University.

2002

  • After leading the Annawan (Ill.) High School girls basketball team to the No. 1 poll position among small schools in 2009, Matt Huber has a new coaching gig at nearby Princeton High School. He remains a teacher at AHS.

2001

  • Competing under the moniker “Boom Boom Pow!,” Karen Schmalshof Reese is part of the 60-member Peoria (Ill.) Push League for women’s roller derby. “There are women in this league from the age of 19 to 49,” she told a reporter. “There are grade school teachers and Sunday school teachers.” Her day job is running Sewing Center II in Peoria.
  • Vanessa Armstrong of Peoria, Ill., works for Methodist Medical Center as a mental health associate. A shot and discus thrower at MC, she has also served as assistant boys track coach at Peoria High School since 2008.
  • Jacqulyn Anderson of Lindenhurst, Ill., teaches chemistry, AP biology and senior biology at Antioch High School. She earned a master’s of curriculum degree in 2009.
  • Lindsey Sandage Hale of Bloomington, Ill., is self-employed as a senior executive director for Thirty-One Gifts. She and her husband, Rob, have four children.
  • Shelly Shenbarger Phetsisouk of Mililani, Hawaii, works in sales at Nordtrom Ala Moana in Honolulu, where she gets to assist the wardrobe staffs of Hawaii Five-O and other TV and film production companies assemble stylish fashions for their actors.
  • Steve Carlstrand of Genoa City, Wis., is a warehouse manager for Braeside Displays, a manufacturer and distributor of advertising displays. He received a master’s of management degree with a human resources concentration in 2007.

2000

  • Leah Lazarus Kelley of Lombard, Ill., an English major at Monmouth, loves being able to use her degree on a regular basis as an on-call proofreader for Tyndale House Publishers.
  • Jeremy Sharp of Orion, Ill., is the new athletic director at United High School in rural Monmouth. He previously taught physical education or eight years at nearby Ipava Table Grove High School, where he also coached softball, basketball and football.
  • Hillary Lee Dickerson of Galena, Ill., was presented with the American Legion Public Relations Special Recognition Award from the American Legion Department of Wisconsin at its annual state convention last July. She was nominated by members of the Legion post in Darlington, Wis., where Dickerson is the editor of the Republican Journal and regularly writes veteran-related profiles and features.

1999

  • Michael Jones of Macomb, Ill., has been appointed director of development for Libraries, the Centennial Honors College and the School of Distance Learning, International Studies and Outreach at Western Illinois University. He was previously assistant alumni director at WIU and also co-founded the Western Sports Network and served as the “voice” of Western Illinois University athletics.

1998

  • Chad Simpson of Monmouth was awarded the junior faculty Philip Green Wright/Lombard Colleges Prize for Distinguished Teaching, the highest honor conveyed by the Knox College faculty upon its members. The sole criterion is teaching. Simpson has taught literature and creative writing at Knox since 2005.
  • Dr. Matt Nelson, a veterinarian from Geneseo, Ill., was presented with the Dr. Erwin Small First Decade Award at the Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association annual meeting in November 2011. The award is given annually to one veterinarian who has graduated from veterinary college within the last 10 years and who represents high standards of professionalism and leadership. A 2002 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, he is the owner of Maple Ridge Veterinary Clinic in Geneseo.

1996

  • Sam Aloian of Morrisville, N.C., completed doctoral programs in school psychology and developmental psychology at Northern Illinois University. A licensed clinical psychologist and a certified school psychologist, he provides therapy to adolescents, adults, and children and specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders in adults and older adolescents. In 2011, he received both a master’s of clinical psychopharmacology from Farleigh Dickinson University and a master’s of science from Duke University.
  • Korine Steinke Wawrzynski of Haslett, Mich., is director for undergraduate research in the provost’s office at Michigan State University, where she also serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Student Affairs Administration master’s degree program. She earned her doctorate in higher education administration from Bowling Green State University.
  • Tim Salier of San Antonio, Texas, is one of 40 young executives featured in the San Antonio Business Journal’s 2012 “40 Under 40” honorees. As senior director of franchise business operations for Spurs Sports & Entertainment, he has for the past 11 years led the ticket sales department for the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA, as well as the American Hockey League Rampage, the WNBA Silver Stars and the AT&T Center family shows. He is currently transitioning into a new role, overseeing business operations for the Rampage, Silver Stars and Austin Toros.

1995

  • Tricia Kalb Bledsoe of Wataga, Ill., received the 2011 Teacher of the Year Award from the Galesburg (Ill.) Area Chamber of Commerce. The first-grade teacher was nominated by her student teacher, Jen Koerner ’10, who called Bledsoe “an amazing teacher and mentor.”
  • Deanna Marchand Baele of Washington, Ill., passed the Certified Financial Planner exam in November and is currently pursuing completion of her CFP candidacy. She is an adviser for David Vaughan Investments, Inc., in Peoria, Ill.

1994

  • Warren Monk of Herscher, Ill., recently received his commercial pilot license. Monk is president of Airstryke, Inc., an aerial application company.

1991

  • Susan Rogers Culp of Lenexa, Kan., is an occupational therapist for the Olathe (Kan.) District Schools. She recently published a book titled A Buffet of Sensory Interventions: Solutions for Middle and High School Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

1990

  • Mike Jones of Round Lake Beach, Ill., has been named head football coach at Libertyville High School, where he also teaches math.
  • Laura Loy Anderson of Peru, Ill., has joined the staff at Citizens First National Bank in Princeton as vice president and internal auditor. Since graduating from MC with an accounting degree, she has had 20 years of banking experience and nine years of auditing experience.
  • Robin Ottenad Galloway has been named senior vice president, finance, and chief financial officer for Wells Enterprises, Inc., the parent company of Blue Bunny ice cream. After graduating magna cum laude from Monmouth with a degree in accounting, she earned her MBA and became a certified public accountant. She previously served as CFO for Restaurants Unlimited and has also worked for Dean Foods, Johnson Controls and Amoco.

1989

  • Tim Wolf of Portsmouth, Va., a special education teacher for 21 years, is now student activities coordinator at Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach, which has 2,000 students.
  • After teaching special education for 21 years, Timothy Wolf of Portsmouth,Va., is currently the new student activities coordinator at Kempsville HS in Virginia Beach, Va.
  • Brad Nahrstadt, an attorney from Buffalo Grove, Ill., was featured in a Chicago Daily Law Bulletin article about his collection of 1,500 presidential campaign buttons. His collection began at Monmouth College, when he volunteered for the 1988 Michael Dukakis presidential campaign to fulfill a requirement for a political science class. Housed on his basement walls, the growing collection includes buttons for any presidential candidates since 1896 who received electoral votes.
  • Jonathan Wright of Hartsburg, Ill., has announced his candidacy for Logan County state’s attorney. Currently first assistant state’s attorney for the county, he graduated from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1992, served as assistant Illinois attorney general from 1994-1995, and as a state representative from 2001-2003, before assuming his current post. He also conducted a campaign for U.S. Senate in 2004.

1987

  • Amy Swiler Brooks of St. Charles, Ill., is a certified bereavement companion with Fox Valley Volunteer Hospice.

1986

  • Roger Well of Sugar Grove, Ill., has been promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer at ENFOS, Inc., an on-demand enterprise environmental business management solution provider. ENFOS is headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., with offices in the Chicago area, Europe and Asia.
  • Brian Ross of Pleasanton, Calif., is a senior vice president and treasurer for Star One Credit Union. A Chartered Financial Analyst, he also holds a private pilot’s license.
  • Tina Anderson Eckley of Inman, S.C., a sales executive for Pitney Bowes, received the President – U.S. Mailing Sales Rep of the Year award in 2009 and presented a talk in Bermuda to senior leaders. She is married to George Eckley ’79.
  • Gary Selof of Polk City, Iowa, is a support chaplain for the Iowa National Guard. He earned his master’s of divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1997, deployed to Iraq for one year in 2005 and completed a second master’s in marriage and family therapy through Liberty University in 2011.

1985

  • Jay Wayland of Rock Island, Ill., has left his post as athletic director and baseball coach at St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy in Wisconsin to become head baseball coach at Rock Island High School, where he also teaches science.

1981

  • Chris Lemon has returned to the helm of the baseball program at Alleman High School in Rock Island, Ill., after a three-year break. He compiled a 151-57 record in his previous six years as coach at his high school alma mater.
  • Danny Grieves of Metamora, Ill., recently returned to Illinois from Mississippi, where he was an assistant coach for a high school basketball team that had a 34-2 record and won the Class 4A state championship. Formerly the head basketball Coach at Notre Dame High School in Peoria, Ill., he is now the varsity boys coach at Metamora High School.
  • Robert and Roxanne Stanley Green live in Galesburg, Ill., where he is a special education instructor and she is a fourth-grade teacher. Robert recently completed a term on the MC Alumni Board of Directors.
  • Nancy Kistler Crawford of Moline, Ill., last fall attended a private town hall meeting with President Obama when he visited a farm market in Alpha, Ill. Crawford, who does PR work for the farm, was able to meet and shake hands with the president.
  • Carrie Daly of Elmhurst, Ill., is an oncology nurse manager and an advanced practice nurse in the radiation oncology department of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Over her 30-year career, she has volunteered at a camp for children with cancer, served as a consultant for pharmaceutical companies, and been published in oncology books and journals.

1978

  • Ron Hills has been appointed as the economic development director of Havana, Ill.

1977

  • Kevin Kaihara of Westchester, Ill., received the Rising Sun Award, an honor presented by Soka Gakkai International to individuals who have made significant contributions in the promotion of the culture of world peace, both locally and globally.
  • Gary Carstens, the owner of Mississippi Mud Studios in Dubuque, Iowa, returned to Monmouth in October for the opening of an exhibit of his pottery in the Len G. Everett Gallery. The porcelain discs and stoneware functional items in the exhibit were inspired by landscapes he has viewed while traveling the upper Midwest and mountains of North Carolina.

1976

  • Pam Slaughter Van Kirk of Monmouth has retired as director of the Galesburg (Ill.) Public Library, but she will remain active in the field as president-elect of the Illinois Library Association. “I think she’s been a very dynamic director,” said her board president. “She’s really built the library into the busiest place in town.”
  • Joan Kehr Adami of Sugar Hill, Ga., is currently teaching gifted elementary education. Over her 31-year career, she has also taught both LD and regular education.
  • Pamela Slaughter Van Kirk of Monmouth, a retired librarian, is president-elect for the Illinois Library Association (ILA). She reports that two other MC alumni—Jane Eisfeldt Ehrenhart ’77 and Jerri Picha ’75—have joined her on the ILA 2012 Conference Committee. She also serves as president of the Friends of the Galesburg Public Library. Pam and her husband, John, are the proud grandparents of identical twins, born in June.
  • Cynthia Hart of Culver City, Calif., is a CPA and a senior accountant for IntelliBridge Partners in Newport Beach. Her current work assignment is at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

1975

  • Barbara Orville of Great Neck, N.Y., retired from the New York City Department of Education in November. She has now begun her next career as an applied behavior therapist, working with autistic children.
  • Dan Palmer of Moline, Ill., has been inducted into the Academy of Electrical Contracting and is the recipient of the James H. McGraw award, one of the electrical industry’s highest honors. The CEO of Tri City Electric Co. in Davenport, Iowa, Palmer is currently governor of the Quad Cities Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association and was a major donor to a new electrical contractor training center that was built in Moline.

1974

  • Robert Mason of Milan, Ill., has retired as the principal of Rock Island (Ill.) High School, where he served the past three years of his 30-year career in education.
  • John Carlson of Champaign, Ill., recently began his duties as emergency management director for Champaign County. A retired vice president of manufacturing for Gill/Porter Industries, he also had a 22-year career in the Army and Army Reserve, retiring recently as a lieutenant colonel. In that role he reviewed and exercised the Army National Guard’s unit alert process for national emergencies and natural disaster recovery.
  • Linda “Johnnie” Johnson Petterson of Godfrey, Ill., is owner/president of Industry-Wide Supply, Inc., a company she founded with her late husband, Mike. It supplies industrial cleaning chemicals, primarily to the marine industry.
  • Patricia Gladstone Middlin of Vassar, Mich., has retired after 37 years as the vocal music teacher at Vassar Public Schools, but is continuing to teach part-time for the current year.
  • Billy Honeycutt, a jeweler from Woodridge, Ill., is in his 40th season as a wrestling official and clinician, who also works the state finals for both the Illinois High School Association and Illinois Elementary School Association.

1973

  • Jane Kurtz of Lawrence, Kansas, received the 2011 Kerlan Award in recognition of singular attainments in the creation of children’s literature.” One of her books, Lanie’s Real Adventures, was named American Girl’s 2010 Book of the Year.
  • Don Storrs and his wife, Cynthia Christenbury Storrs ’75, of Colorado Springs, Colo., have served more than 30 years for Greater Europe Mission in Belgium and Germany. He currently holds a position with TeachBeyond, a Christian-based organization that recruits workers for schools around the world. When in the United States, he visits universities and conferences to share opportunities for teaching positions around the world.

1971

  • Yoshiaki Obara has served as president of Tamagawa University and Tamagawa Academy near Tokyo since 1994. He is also manager of the university ski team.
  • Nancy Mortonson Wilim teaches English in Vienna, Austria. She holds a master’s degree in German from the University of Illinois.
  • J. Scott Brunswick and his wife, Lynn, retired in 2005 to Sturgeon Bay, Wis., but he continues to work part-time at Door Peninsula Winery and as an internship supervisor for National-Lewis University. He also coaches freshman boys basketball.

1970

  • Rick Mollin ’70 of Gonvick, Minn., was elected as county attorney for Clearwater County. His term runs through the end of 2014.
  • Gary Sears of Englewood, Colo., was one of five persons honored for 40 years of public service at the International City/County Managers Convention held in Milwaukee last September. After earning his master’s degree in public administration, the Denver native landed an internship with the Loveland, Colo., city manager and was eventually hired as assistant city manager. He then served as a director of human resources for seven years, before holding successive city manager posts in Silverthorn, Glendale and Englewood. He also serves as an adjunct professor in the University of Colorado’s graduate school of public affairs.

1967

  • Kennedy Reed of Livermore, Calif., has been awarded the distinction of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellow. He was recognized for important studies in atomic theory and for many successful efforts to increase minority participation in the physical sciences in the U.S. and Africa.
  • Dr. Frederick J. Kaskel of Mamaroneck, N.Y., is the co-author of an article published in the Dec. 22 New England Journal of Medicine. Titled “Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerrosis,” the article describes current research into a condition involving scar tissue in the kidney, which can lead to nephrotic syndrome in children. Kaskel is chief of the section on nephrology at the Children’s Hospital of Montefiori, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, N.Y.
  • Keith Sanderson of Deerfield is using his rescued shelter dog, Max A. Pooch, to spread the word about the importance of recycling, while also advocating for the “millions of dogs that are destroyed each year.” He was a guest last fall on the popular Pet Life Radio program “A Super Smiley Adventure,” hosted by pet activist Megan Blake. The adventures of Max, a “recycled” black Labrador retriever, are chronicled on the website www.maxappch.com.

1966

  • Trudy Roberts Triner of Walnut Creek, Calif., applied some management advice to personal life, and the result was “a wonderful, life-altering experience.” In addition to asking her employees what she could do to be a better manager, she asked her mother, who lived alone in rural Arkansas, what she could do to be a better daughter. The answer, in short, “Send me more mail.” She started a “Make Mom Happy By Mail” campaign. Called a “modern archaeological dig” into Triner’s daily life, her mom loved all the items and messages she regularly received from her daughter. Triner’s personal experience has turned into a blog and a book that offers hundreds of suggestions for making parents and grandparents happy. “I’m hoping to change people’s lives by reminding them that our moms, dads and grandparents won’t be here forever, and that there’s a wonderful opportunity to make them happy right now,” Triner said.
  • Donna Brasel Kennedy of Penns Grove, N.J., was married two years ago. She and her husband enjoy trading houses, and have lived in eight countries – and counting – as a result.

1965

  • David Biklen, a Hartford, Ct., attorney and past executive director of the Connecticut Law Revision Commission, has been appointed chair of the new Uniform Law Commission (ULC) Study Committee on Eyewitness Identification Procedures. The committee will make recommendations concerning the need for an act concerning procedures to be used when police and prosecutors conduct eyewitness identifications. A change in procedures could help prevent mistaken eyewitness identifications, the single most frequent cause of wrongful convictions. Biklen has been a ULC member since 1982.

1964

  • Kenneth Wolma, who retired in February 2010, is moving to Adelaide, Australia, for one year while his wife participates in a teacher exchange.
  • Kay Buss MacNeil of Frankfort, Ill., can be found on YouTube thanks to her local TV show, Avant Gardening.

1962

  • Beverly (Nelson) Nelson has made Moultonborough, N.H., her full-time home after retiring from her 25-year career in teaching.
  •  Robert Hamilton and his wife, Terry, celebrated their 50th anniversary last June. He is a retired administrator for the University of Arkansas and a retired commander for the U.S. Naval Reserves.
  • Julia Briggerman O’Hare of Lyme, N.H., recently retired from Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, where she had been a biomedical engineering research scientist. One of the first women to be admitted to Dartmouth’s Ph.D. programs in 1962, she earned her doctorate in 1969 and worked as a post-doctoral researcher before devoting nearly a decade to raising her children. She returned to Dartmouth as a research assistant and went on to become a research associate professor in Diagnostic Radiology and Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, where she remained until retiring from that position five years ago.

1961

  • Beverly (Nelson) Nelson has made Moultonborough, N.H., her full-time home after retiring from her 25-year career in teaching.
  • Robert Jornlin of Earlville, Ill., will be sailing the World War II-era LST 325 up the Illinois River to Peoria and Henry in September. When not on the open water, the ship is moored in Evansville, Ind., and is open for tours.
  • Jane Hill Oakley of Anchorage, Alaska, received her master’s degree in adult education at the age of 64. She is a curriculum development specialist and adult educator for the North Slope Training Cooperative.
  • Ronald Noton of Encampment, Wyo., lives in a house built in 1908 that is on the National Register of Historic Places. In its early years, it was the local madam’s “deluxe house of prostitution.”
  • Retired Judge James Hornaday of Homer, Alaska, was re elected for a 4th term as Mayor of Homer, Alaska.
  • Ron Kenney of Longwood, Fla., has spent his recent summers in Maine, working as a camp nurse and a bus driver at a camp for girls. He has also been the Arnold Palmer Invitational trophy chairman since 1999.

1960

  • Joe Suffield, a retired teacher in Peoria, Ill., has published a sequel to his first book, Escape to the West. Titled Will Frederick’s Western Quest, it continues the saga of an 18th-century Englishman’s journey to America as an indentured servant and his subsequent flight to the West.
  • Former English Teacher Joe Suffield of Peoria, Il., has written the book "Escape to the West" which is now available for purchase through amazon.

1959

  • Joe Tait of Medina, Ohio, has published an autobiography titled “Joe Tait: It’s Been a Real Ball,” which he co-wrote with sportswriter Terry Pluto. The book, which is available on Amazon.com, details his life from the early years in Illinois, through his novice years in radio, and into his decades of broadcasting Cleveland Indians and Cavaliers games.

1956

  • Laurie Nevin Sparks of Honolulu, Hawaii, and her husband are both two-time cancer survivors. “Memories and love are what life is all about,” she said.
  • Jerry Marxman of Portola Valley, Calif., received a Gold Medal Award in October from the Case Western Reserve University Alumni Association. The highest award the association bestows upon an alumnus, it is presented to a graduate who has “received extraordinary distinction and made a major contribution to the field of science, engineering or management that adds to the welfare of the United States.”

1954

  • Don Robeson and his wife, Jeanne Gittings Robeson '60, celebrated their 50th anniversary on Nov. 26, 2010. They have four children and seven grandchildren.
  • Robert Cramer of Louisville, Ky., whose career in college administration included serving as president of Carroll College, was inducted into the Monmouth-Roseville Hall of Achievement.
  • Janie Rezner of Ft. Bragg, Calif., is a writer, composer, artist and singer, and also hosts a radio program called Women’s Voices. She creates and sells ocarinas and has published a CD titled Oquawka Speaks: the Words and Music of Mother God. Examples of her work can be viewed at www.janierezner.com.

1953

  • Irwin Kirk of Cherry Hills Village, Colo., facilitates study groups on historical subjects at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes associated with the University of Denver and the University of North Florida.

1951

  • Patricia Clark Edmonds of Pittsfield, Ill., will have a granddaughter in attendance at MC this fall – incoming freshman Erika Edmonds.

1942

  • Clarence J. Mac Manus of Hoebe Sound, Fla., reports that at age 94 he remains an avid golfer and also enjoys time at the gym with his daughter, Cindy.
  • Juanita Winbigler Reinhard of Arlington Heights, Ill., last summer participated in Honor Flight Chicago, traveling with other World War II military veterans to Washington, D.C. Reinhard, who enlisted in the WAVES in 1944, said that upon returning home, her flight was greeted by three fire trucks with water cannons, more than 1,000 greeters, the Great Lakes Honor Guard and a bagpipe band. “We were treated like rock stars!” she marveled.

1949

  • The paperback edition of Louisa Mae Johnston Decker’s novel There Came a Stranger, set in central Florida during the 1980s, is available on Amazon.com. Decker lives in Palm Springs, Calif.

1933

  • Born on May 2, 1909, and nearing her 102nd birthday, it's quite possible that Wadia McClure Stewart of Davidson, N.C., is Monmouth's second oldest alumna, a distinction that is believed to be held by Mary Smith Johnson '30, who was born 11 months earlier.