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Summer 2004 | Volume 26, Number 7 | Alumni | |||||
| The 2004 Medallion Awards Alumni Awards Spotlight 10 Who Have Engaged the Culture Throughout the academic year, the Seattle Pacific University Alumni Association gives Medallion Awards to select alumni in recognition of their outstanding service to SPU, the community and their profession.
“These are incredible people who often go unheralded,” says Alumni Director Doug Taylor. “The Medallion Award is a way of expressing our admiration and appreciation for the many ways in which our alumni are engaging the culture.” The following people received Medallion Awards at either the 2004 Homecoming President’s Alumni Luncheon in January or at the Class of 1954 reunion in June: Myra Adamson ’54 spent 31 years as a Free Methodist missionary in Rwanda, Burundi and what was then Zaire (Congo). This nursing major and midwifery school graduate delivered more than 400 babies with the help of African assistants. Trained in tropical medicine, Adamson traveled to birthings on horseback. She has written numerous health care manuals in French, Swahili and Arabic, and has volunteered this year to be a relief worker in the Middle East. J. Harland Beery ’54 is a sports journalist and professional sports statistician. The former editor of The Falcon at SPC, he went on to work as a sports editor for the Yakima Herald and sports writer for The Herald (Everett) and The Sun (Bremerton). For a time, he directed the Seattle Pacific campus news bureau, and then assembled the first stats crew for a fledgling Seattle SuperSonics basketball team. Today, Beery is CEO of the Spanish-language Video Instruction Ministries. Roy Boettcher ’54 invested 20 years with Far East Broadcasting Company, primarily in the Philippines, where he was involved with programming and administrative duties. An avid singer, he has performed in churches and prisons, as well as with symphony orchestras and a quartet of singing sergeants in World War II. He spent seven years in planned giving at Crista Ministries and 12 years at SPU as director of planned giving and part-time planned giving officer. William Demmert Jr. ’61 is an educator, friend, mentor and role model to thousands of Native-American students. Half Tlingit Indian, half Ogallala Sioux, this former school teacher and product of the Harvard Graduate School of Education helped found the National Indian Education Association. In 1977, he was named Indian Educator of the Year. The first Native American to become Alaska’s commissioner of education, Demmert has spent the past 21 years teaching at Western Washington University. Judith Fortune ’64 has served on the boards of both Central College and Seattle Pacific. With a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the University of Washington, she took on several roles at SPU, including professor in the School of Education and dean of the Division of Continuing Studies. As dean, she provided oversight for off-campus programs, distance-learning courses, and summer and evening programs. Today, she is vice president for academic affairs at Simpson College. Vera Lockhart Goodman ’54 is committed to literacy research and has taught hundreds of children to read. Her book Reading Is More Than Phonics! is a best seller, and she has produced a teaching video for parents called “Coaching Young Readers.” A retired teacher and educational administrator, Goodman was named a “Woman of Vision” by Canada’s Global TV for her efforts to help struggling readers find pleasure and meaning in reading. David Moberg ’47 is a leader in the field of sociology. With a doctorate from the University of Minnesota, he went on to direct research projects in the sociology of religion, gerontology, corrections and related fields. Moberg has published or edited 27 books in his discipline, has taught sociology for a combined 42 years, and is former chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Marquette University. Donald Raun ’54 invested his life’s work with Lutheran Brethren Missions and Wycliffe Bible Translators in the African nation of Chad. Fifteen years alone were devoted to translating the entire Bible into the Mundang language. In 1989, Raun and his wife moved 100 miles from the sSahara Desert and spent the next 10 years with an all-Muslim tribe of 50,000 people with no written language. The three Raun children are also missionaries to Africa. Gordon Trepus ’61 and Joyce Chilcote Trepus ’60 met at Seattle Pacific and were married in 1958. They became elementary school teachers before embarking on a second career as owners of a successful painting, contracting and demolition firm. Over the years, the Trepuses have worked with 500 young people, including dropouts, runaways and lawbreakers. The couple gives the youth a second chance by employing them and teaching them a marketable skill. Joyce also serves on the board of Warm Beach Christian Camp.
— BY CLINT KELLY |
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 From the President As Seattle Pacific University gains notice nationwide, President Philip Eaton challenges the community. “Build your city on a hill so everyone can see what you are doing,” he writes. “Build a reputation.” Equipped for Success Honor Roles Three Faculty Say Good-Bye Attack of the Big-Screen Clones The Heritage Mile My Response |
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