Edward Rust Jr. ’72 is stepping down as CEO of State Farm Insurance after 30 years, to be succeeded by another alum of Illinois Wesleyan University, Michael Tipsord ’81. Under the leadership of Rust, State Farm Insurance has been a generous supporter of education – including his alma mater.
Wayne passed away in 2013 at his home in Pleasant Hills, PA, after being in ill health for a few years.
Wayne Forbes of Dillon rests his arm on a wood sculpture he calls ‘Clone Fix II.’ Forbes credited his personal art therapy for his survival of renal failure, dialysis treatment and a successful kidney transplant.
Debra Burt-Frazier is now an Adjunct Faculty Instructor at Moraine Valley Community College.
Judith Schulz ’71 has established two non-profit, educational hands-on museums: the Spinning Top & Yo-Yo Museum and the Logic Puzzle Museum, both located in Burlington, Wisconsin. The Logic Puzzle Museum was featured recently in the national magazine Games-World of Puzzles in April 2015! The Logic Puzzle Museum is “one-of-a-kind” with its 90 minute, hands-on session with up to 60 different hands-on brainteaser puzzles to try. Visitors ring bells when they solve a puzzle, adding to the “I did it!” fun; plus make a puzzle to keep. The exhibit surrounds the hands-on area with hundreds of vintage and antique puzzles. You can visit their website at www.logicpuzzlemuseum.org.
Muse Me, a play by Katherine James ’73, was a semifinalist in Little Black Dress INK’s Female Playwrights ONSTAGE project, and was featured as part of a Stripped Scripts reading in Santa Barbara, California.
Illinois Wesleyan’s fiscal year end is quickly approaching on July 31. Have you shown your Titan Pride by making a gift this year?
Check out the new Tommymometer to see where we stand by clicking here.
If you have already made a gift this year, thank you! If you have not yet made your gift, there is still time for you to make a difference this year.
By making your gift before July 31, you will not only add to the Tommymometer for alumni donors, but you will help to keep current Illinois Wesleyan students enrolled and our alma mater strong. The percentage of alumni donors is important to IWU because outside organizations view it as a metric to measure alumni satisfaction. It affects Illinois Wesleyan’s rankings, bond rating, and ability to earn grants.
Thank you for doing your part to fill the Tommymometer before July 31 and keep Illinois Wesleyan moving forward!
Longtime Prophetstown coach Don Robinson ’76 is retiring after 38 years. Don became the seventh high school coach in state history with 700 girls’ basketball wins this year. Placed in the spotlight, the longtime Prophetstown coach was not seeking the limelight.
(The athletes) were the ones who deserve the credit,” Robinson said last week. “It wasn’t about me. It was trying to get the best out of them. I’ll be honest — I really had fun. The effort the girls put forth made it fun. Thirty-eight years went by fast.”
Don started his trek a few months after graduating from Illinois Wesleyan in 1976. The first job was at Dixon-based Jefferson Elementary School as a science teacher. A year later, he went to Prophetstown as a science teacher and girls’ basketball and girls’ track coach.
Being a basketball coach always was the plan, but “I didn’t know it would be girls’ basketball.” The title remained the same for 38 seasons. Coaching track continued in the spring throughout his tenure, too. Upon reaching Prophetstown, Don built both programs into consistent winners. The secret was creating an enthusiastic environment that was fun and positive.
Memories came from all the games and meets, making it easy for Don to reflect on the moments. Not once did he take credit for all the wins and hardware. The players were responsible for the 705 wins and four State trophies. Of the four State trophies two were in track, 2nd in 2000 & 2013. The other two State trophies were in basketball, 2nd in 2A 2014 & 3rd in 1A 2015.
All Don did was relish the ride. Looking back, it was a good one.
Ross Fraser (’78) is in his eleventh year as the director of media relations for Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization. Feeding America is the network of most of the food banks in the country. It distributes food to soup kitchens and food pantries across the nation. This network feeds more than 5 million people each week and will distribute more than 4 billion pounds of food this year.
Feeding America’s mission statement is to feed America’s hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engage our country in the fight to end hunger.
Feeding America is a nationwide network of food banks and food pantries and meal programs that provides food and services to people each year. Together, it is the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief organization. Their network serves virtually every community in all 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico.
But Ross is not the only IWU graduate at Feeding America. Sam Harris (2010) works with the food industry to help get donations of food, and Tim Sunzeri (2011) is a senior budget analyst in the philanthropy department.
Forbes Magazine rates Feeding America as the third largest charity in the U.S.
For more information, go to Feeding America’s web page at Feeding America.org.
Ross receiving a check for $100,000 from Rachael Ray on her show.
Ross also relates:
Last summer I was in New York, meeting with some producers at NBC Nightly News. And who happened to be standing in the security line in front of me? Lea Delaria, one of the stars of “Orange is the New Black,” who attended the IWU School of Drama roughly 1975-1976. (She did not graduate from there.) I had not seen her in more than 35 years!”
Stew Salowitz
Illinois Wesleyan University Sports Information Director Stew Salowitz ’76 was featured in the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) April E-Digest. In the article, Stew is asked five questions about his job as Sports Information Director.
One of the questions he was asked was: In an increasingly 140-character-limited world, do you think writing skills in athletics communications are undervalued? Part of his answer was:
…we’ve become a society that is too busy, or lazy, to spell out the words are and you, using r or u instead. I’m trying to steer away from long stories these days, concentrating on bullet points and key performances.”
To read all five questions and Stew’s answers, go to the CoSIDA Digest. You need to page down to page 38.
Congratulations Stew. Great Article!
After 25 years in uptown Normal, Brian Simpson, owner of Babbitt’s Books, expects to close his shop by June. The store’s cat, Babbette, will also be looking for a new home as Simpson is unable to keep her.
After more than two decades as a fixture in uptown Normal, Brian Simpson ’79 is selling Babbitt’s Books.
Brian opened the uptown Normal bookstore 25 years ago and planned to close it in June until he got an offer from Seth Wheeler. Simpson said Wheeler, who has his doctorate in history, is at about the same stage in his life as he was when he started the store: degrees they couldn’t do anything with but still needing a job to make money.
For more details on Babbitt’s Books and the sale, go to this Pantagraph article.
Brian is adjusting to his new-found freedom by going to his art studio a few times. He will also teach art classes at the McLean County Arts Center later this month. Good luck, Brian.