Mark Q. Rhoads :::
Mark Q. Rhoads
Graduated in 1965
Inducted in 1996
A 1965 graduate, Mark Q. Rhoads was the first president of Teen Age Republicans (TARS), a group of students twice named as the outstanding TARS club in the nation. He studied at The George Washington University, Loyola University of Chicago, and The American University. During college and graduate school, Rhoads worked for Sen. Everett Dirksen and three other Illinois members of Congress. He was editor of Chicago's 86th U.S. Army Reserve Command newspaper and in 1973 founded the American Legislative Exchange Council, a national policy forum for state lawmakers. Elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1976, Rhoads represented suburbs served by LTHS. Ranked first in the Senate in 1979 by the Taxpayers Federation of Illinois, he was named Outstanding Legislator by the Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities in 1980 and reelected to a second term. He joined the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board in 1984. Starting in 1986 as a public relations consultant in Washington, D.C., Rhoads was editor of several publications and executive producer for public affairs programs broadcast by C-SPAN and PBS. His commentary articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Washington Times, and magazines. Rhoads was president of the Illinois State Society of Washington, D.C.