W. Richard Shindle (’59) has been awarded the Marquis Who’s Who Humanitarian Award. He was presented with a beautiful desk piece to commemorate this induction. From health care to international outreach, Marquis Who’s Who Humanitarians are individuals who strive to make a positive impact on their communities and the world. Congratulations, Dr. Shindle!

Here is a link to the World Wide Humanitarian Website, where you can read more about Richard’s achievements: https://worldwidehumanitarian.com/2017/07/06/richard-shindle/

We also have a note from Dr. Shindle regarding his time at IWU –

“Receiving this award from Marquis Who’s Who has giving pause to reconsider the impact of my years (1955-1959) at Illinois Wesleyan. The Korean War had delayed my college education, but it was in those years I had become aware and read the events surrounding the Bicentennial of J. S. Bach’s death (1950), which lead to the planning and early publication of the Neue Bach Ausgabe, then in the early 1950s, the preparation for the bicentennial of Mozart’s birth (1956) with the publications of the earliest volume of the Neue Mozart Ausgabe. My interest shifted more to Musicology as a discipline than music performance. During my years at Illinois Wesleyan, I can point to the classes that were most beneficial to me: Freshman Music Literature under Dr. John Silber; Form and Analyses, Counterpoint both 18th and 16th centuries, and also its application by the atonalists Schoenberg and Webern under Dr. Wilbur Ogdon. During my senior year, Dr. Ogdon took over the second semester of Music History for the regular professor who was on Leave of Absence. He gave many new insights with a fine sense of chronology from the Baroque to the middle of the 20th Century. I should also acknowledge the encouragement I received during those years form Dr. Bedford Watkins, my piano professor.”

Judith (McDonald) Thomas ’58 taught a 2-week Orff Schulwerk Certification course at the University of Cincinnati this past summer.  She also played the Gershwin Preludes and solo version of Rhapsody in Blue for the Saratoga Springs Jewish Festival prior to that.  February of 2017 took her to San Francisco to present a workshop on Nurturing Wonder in Children through the Arts which was repeated in NYC in May.  Judith resides with her husband in Saratoga Springs, NY.

In a house concert on July 16th, Bob Riseling ’59 and pianist Denise Jung performed a “pre-premier” of THE MOTOR CITY COLLECTION, 10 autobiographical pieces by Alan Torok (Toronto) related to growing up in Detroit in the 1960s and influenced by the Motown music and artists of the day. They are recording the work in August and the premier will occur on the 10th of November on the Friday Noon Series at Western University London, Ontario. Congratulations, Bob!

Joe Corsello ’59 has spent  33 years as an art teacher at Morris Community High School and 26 years as a teacher at Immaculate Conception Church. He’s also given private lessons to up-and-coming artists like Ray Grossi. Grossi, as a part of The Exhibit Fine Arts Center & Gallery in Morris, honored his former teacher and mentor this May by hosting a fine art exhibit of Costello’s work from 1963 to 2013.

You may read more in this article from The Morris Herald-News: http://www.morrisherald-news.com/2017/05/23/artist-joe-corsello-displays-more-than-six-decades-of-work/acsdhpb/

Congratulations, Joe!

Jim Ridenour ’54 is halfway through three family reunions.  The first, in Denver Colorado had all of the children of Hank and Ardy Charles all IWU grads or faculty, with 20 other family members there.  The Chicago Cub game, however, was postponed because of hail!! One of our cousins flew in from Sweden for the affair.
The second will be in Chicago with about twenty there, including several of Carol Pettyjohn’s  IWU ’56 kids in attendance.  The third next month in Baltimore with all of our children, plus about 20 others.  All three dates include Cub games, in celebration of the World Series win!
Jim and Doris will be visiting Mickey Drexler, ’48 (?)l Howard Berggren ’54, Helen Lacroix ’53, and Bill Jennings ’53, during these travels.

Here is a note from John Shaffer ’59 –

“We have lived in a retirement facility for one year now, known as Wesley Homes Lea Hill in Auburn, WA., located about 80 miles south of our former home in Stanwood, where we lived for sixteen years. We are enjoying this community of 250 people which provides full range of care. Makes it easier to travel and we just returned from “down under” where we visited Fiji, Australia and New Zealand. We are hopeful that North Korea does not send a bomb to Seattle, but if they do, it has been nice knowing you. Then you can be glad that you live in the middle of the country and far from military targets.”

Bob ’59 and Judy ’59 were in Quebec City 9-13 March for a weekend clarinet festival. Bob conducted 3 works with the 30 member clarinet orchestra of local professionals and students from the Conservatoire on the 12 March concert and gave a three hour master class on the 13th at Laval University. On 6 April, he began rehearsing The Motor City Collection by Alan Torok. This is a set of 10 pieces for clarinet and piano. The plan for Bob is to premier them in a house concert in May with the composer present.

The following is a note from Shirley Kersten ’47 –

“Yes, there are a few of us 1947 grads! Missed us in the Class News notes. I’m in San Gabriel Assisted Living facility here in Rochelle (northern) Illinois. Went to 65th Class Reunion but there wasn’t any special gathering place at the luncheon for the 65ers so only 5 of us found each other. I’m 92 and am writing a pictoral history of the farming operations on our farm in the 1930’s – also family, school and church history in the greatest little village in northern Illinois – my hometown of Steward, population 250! Size: 4 blocks wide 6 blocks long.”

Jim Wasem ’57 was inducted into Patoka High School hall of fame. You can read more about it here: http://www.wjbdradio.com/local-sports/2017/02/09/patoka-inducts-4-into-hof