Hall of Fame 2009 :::
Hailing from very different fields, the 2009 Lyons Township High School Hall of Fame program will welcome an award-winning television producer, a nationally renowned men’s gymnastics coach, Purple Heart decorated veteran and two leaders in the field of health care. Five LT alumni have been chosen for induction into the 2009 Hall of Fame. The honorees will be recognized at a banquet on Friday, November 6, at the LaGrange Country Club.
The deadline for purchasing banquet tickets is October 21. Call the Community Relations office at LTHS for more information at 708-579-6483, or send your check made payable to LTHS Hall of Fame to: Hall of Fame Committee, LTHS 100 S. Brainard Ave., LaGrange, IL 60525. Indicate the number of tickets desired, at $35 each, and your choice of entree: chicken, beef or fish. Tables of 10 may be reserved.
The LTHS Board of Education established the Hall of Fame to recognize the accomplishments of some 65,000 graduates, faculty and friends of LT and to provide role models to students. The Hall of Fame is organized by a volunteer member committee of alumni, faculty, staff, students and citizens.
Jen Christensen earned the two highest awards in broadcasting -- the Peabody and the DuPont -- as an investigative news producer and documentary filmmaker. A 1990 LT graduate, she attended Butler University and London School of Economics, earning degrees in political science and broadcast journalism. In London she worked as a policy analyst/speech writer for NATO’s Atlantic Committee. At 19, she signed her first book contract to become co-author of Women Public Speakers in the United States. Her groundbreaking career in journalism began while still in school. WXIN-TV (Indianapolis) hired her to run its assignment desk and to field produce, making her the youngest manager in station history. While there, she earned four Emmy- nominations and the City of Indianapolis award for tutoring Vietnam Vets. In 1997, WTVQ (Lexington, KY) hired her to produce its main newscast. She launched the station’s investigative unit and earned another Emmy nomination. She founded a National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association (NLGJA) chapter in Kentucky and served on the Board of Fairness, which expanded the city’s non-discrimination law to include sexual orientation/gender identity. She was elected to NLGJA’s national board, began its national mentoring program and later became the organization’s vice president. In 2000, WSOC (Charlotte, NC) hired her to manage its investigative unit, and in 2002, CNN Newsource hired her as an archivist. She co-authored a second book, Women Confronting Retirement. In 2004, CNN hired her to help launch its investigative unit, which covered domestic terrorism, corporate corruption, and Hurricane Katrina. In 2006, she became a producer in CNN’s medical unit and then CNN Presents hired her to produce documentaries. She produced the award-winning Martin Luther King Jr.: Words that Changed a Nation; Eyewitness to Murder; Generation Islam; and Sarah Palin Revealed, for which she won a Gracie. She interviewed President Obama for her Barack Obama Revealed and President Carter for her God’s Warriors, which is the most-watched and most-honored documentary in CNN history.
Blair Gifford, a 1973 LT graduate, earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago. His studies focused on medical sociology and economics, and that led him to work aimed at hospital administration in American hospitals, but ultimately toward health administration and health system development in other countries. In the early 1990s, while employed at the American Hospital Association in Chicago, Dr. Gifford led a research team that compared the health systems in the U.S., Germany and Canada. The report was in response to health reform legislation in the early years of the Clinton administration and served as a foundation for much of Gifford’s subsequent work. His work at the University of Colorado, as a professor of international health management in the Business School and School of Public Health, established him as a leading academic in the field of global health and international health services. Starting in 1997, Dr. Gifford developed the first international health management course in a health administration program in the U.S. By 2000, he expanded the course to include public health and health management of hospitals in developing nations. In 2002, he established the Center for Global Health in the University of Colorado system, the first inter-disciplinary center at the university. In 2008, he initiated the Global Health Symposium, the largest university-based conference on global health in the Rocky Mountain area. The goal of Dr. Gifford’s work is to internationalize the profession of health administration in developing nations. His work does not mimic proven U.S. programs; rather, Dr. Gifford believes that any educational program for health administration professionals should be one that will result in the design of systems and policies consistent with the culture, resources and political climate of that country. He has ongoing research, education and service projects in India, China, Thailand, Ethiopia and Haiti. Additionally, Dr. Gifford is one of the most published authors on current health system developments in China. He was recently recognized as one of 30 international New Century Fulbright Scholars by the U.S. State Department and has served as a visiting professor at Yale and Northwestern universities.
After graduation from LT in 1969, Quinton Studer attended the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education in 1973 and 1977 respectively. He then spent 10 years teaching special education before entering the healthcare arena. Studer served as Director of Marketing and then Senior Vice President of Business Development at the Mercy Health System in Wisconsin and later became Chief Operating Officer at Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago, where his initiatives in patient care led to their winning Hospitals Magazine’s Great Comeback award. In 1996, he became president of Baptist Hospital, Inc., leading that organization to the top 1% of hospitals nationwide in patient and employee satisfaction. He is currently CEO of Studer Group, a company that implements evidence-based leadership systems and helps clients attain and sustain outstanding results. Its clients--more than 500 hospitals and organizations--serve as a "national learning lab" from which best practices are harvested. Studer has won numerous awards for his accomplishments over the years and has the distinction of being the first and only healthcare professional to win the Inc. magazine's Master of Business award in 1999. He was named one of the Top 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare magazine for his work on institutional healthcare improvement. He is a nationally recognized speaker and a published author. Studer is the owner of a minor league baseball team, the Pensacola Pelicans. He is known for his philanthropic work; he supports a number of causes both nationwide and in his community, with a special focus on disadvantaged children.
Upon graduation from LT in 1938, Norman Ulrich's passion for art continued as he attended the Chicago Professional School of Art, having received one of only two national full scholarships. After studying under nationally renowned artists, Ulrich's art career was delayed with the onset of World War II. Ulrich, who was trained as a pilot, was commissioned as an Air Force officer and stationed in England. His B17 was shot down during his fifth mission over Germany, and he spent 11 months in the Stalag Luft III prison camp. He was awarded a Purple Heart for his contributions during the war and later received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Air Force JROTC. After the war, Ulrich's art career flourished. He began work as an illustrator and commercial artist with R.R. Donnelly and was later named Designer and Creative Director. Some of the decisions he made at that time are still apparent in currently published phone books. Ulrich went on to work for a commercial art firm and then opened his own commercial art studio in 1952. Some of his clients included Armour, Dial Soap, Jim Beam and Mars Candy Company. He served two terms as president of the Art Directors Club of Chicago and was later elected president of the National Society of Art Directors. In 1966 during his term as president of the National Society, he represented the U.S. at an International Art Congress, which resulted in word-free symbols that are still used today, including the warning sign of a circle with a slash across it. Following retirement, he was hired as a European representative for a defense- and safety-related company. He was also employed for 10 years by the Wheatridge Foundation, where he designed church banners and set a national standard for his Christmas seal designs. Ulrich's personal life speaks volumes about his character. He shares his wartime experiences, helps in the rehabilitation of returning combat soldiers, and is very active in the national Stalag Luft III Former Prisoners of War organization. He has also donated his time and talents, designing logos and banners for various churches and charities.
Mark Williams graduated from LT in 1976 and continued his education at the University of Nebraska, earning a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and English. He later earned a master’s in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. Williams competed for LT in gymnastics and was named to the U.S. Junior National Team in 1975. He went on to compete for the University of Nebraska from 1976-80. He was an All-American on the high bar in 1978 and helped Nebraska earn back-to-back team NCAA championships in 1979 and 1980. After his NCAA eligibility expired, Williams joined the coaching staff at Nebraska, where he helped the team win another national title in 1981. Williams went on to coach gymnastics at the club and high school level, earning a Texas State title. In 1988, Williams became the assistant coach at the University of Oklahoma. In 1991, the team earned a National Championship, and Williams took over the program as head coach in 1999. Since taking the helm, Williams’ team has won five National Championships and eight Conference Championships, never finishing lower than fourth in the nation. Over nine seasons, Williams has complied a .925 winning percentage (career: 195-17) and has not yet had a season with more than four losses. Williams has been named NCAA Coach of the Year five times and in 2008 was named Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Conference’s Coach of the Year for the eighth time. In less than five seasons, Williams amassed 100 career wins, faster than any other coach in NCAA history. An unprecedented 103 All-Americans have been produced while Williams has coached at Oklahoma, along with four NCAA all-around champions and 13 NCAA event champions. Williams is the only NCAA coach in history to win National Championships as an athlete, assistant coach and head coach and is the most successful active gymnastics coach in the NCAA. Williams has also been influential on the international gymnastics stage. He has placed 19 gymnasts on the U.S. National Team and been a U.S. coach at 11 international events, including leading the 1999 Pan American Games and 2006 World Championships teams. Williams has been part of the coaching staff for three Olympic teams (1996, 2000 and 2004) and personally coached two Olympians, both of whom medaled at their respective games. Williams was named USA Gymnastics’ National Coach of the Year in 1994 and 2006. Williams is also a certified Brevet judge (Olympic-level), a former member of the NCAA Rules Committee and has held various positions for USA Gymnastics. He has published numerous technical articles and starred in a series of instructional DVDs, “Mastering Men’s Gymnastics.”