A Legacy of Excellence | A Community Worth Celebrating

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Letter from the BGSU Alumni Association

BGSU Alumni Association Board of Directors

BGSU Alumni Association at a Glance

The Legacy of Excellence Continues

Common Bonds

Staying Connected

Social Networking

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Thomas Hiles, Vice President, University Advancement & CEO, BGSU Foundation, Inc.

Marcia Sloan Latta, Senior Associate Vice President, University Advancement

Montique Cotton Kelly, Director of Alumni Affairs

Editorial and Project Management: Lisa C. Mattiace

Creative Director: Jeff Artz

Design: UniGraphics, Deanna Falk

Writing: Rose Roccisano Barto and Joe Bellfy

Photography: Craig Bell, Brad Phalin, and BGSU Center for Archival Collections

Credits

From the late 1950s to present day, BGSU has actively worked to connect alumni with the University. An important milestone in alumni history is when the new alumni center was approved in 1972. Pictured at the groundbreaking for the center are Jim Hof, John Lipaj, President Hollis Moore and James Lessig.

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Let ter from the BGSU A lumni AssoCi at ion

This year has given us many reasons to celebrate. As Bowling Green State University marks the centennial year of its founding, alumni, friends and students have had the opportunity to reminisce, rejoice and re-engage in the University’s great traditions.

In grand fashion, we recognized 100 of our alumni whose careers and lives have brought significant pride to the BGSU family over the past century. The largest dinner crowd in the Union’s history gathered this spring to welcome and celebrate these accomplished graduates’ lives. Everyone could feel the excitement and awe in the room that evening. It was truly a once-in-a-century event!

The birthday parties have continued throughout this year in homes, country clubs and other venues across the nation. Alumni chapters from California to New York and Michigan to Florida have come together to celebrate 100 years of excellence. In addition, Alumni and Friends Weekend returned this summer with a birthday party of its own. More than 400 guests experienced BGSU and all it has to offer. History lessons, wine tasting, class reunions, a barbecue and a birthday bash were all part of the festivities. Additionally, nearly 50 Falcon Flames couples lovingly renewed their vows in a beautiful ceremony in Prout Chapel.

Anniversaries were not the only thing celebrated at BGSU this year. Once again we have selected an outstanding class of Alumni Laureate Scholars and the graduating scholars are ready to become some of the next century’s most prominent graduates.

The campus is alive this fall with the largest enrollment in history and the second largest freshman class on record. Cranes line the horizon as construction is underway on two new residence halls, a new dining facility, the new Stroh Center and the Wolfe Center for the Arts. The future is evident everywhere you look. We hope you have the opportunity to visit campus and see for yourself the BGSU of the future.

Thank you for your part in the advancing BGSU and the Alumni Association for the next one hundred years.

Montique Cotton Kelly ’94, ’04 Director of Alumni Affairs Jan Ruma ’86, ’92 President, BGSU Alumni Association Board of Directors

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2009-10 BGSU A lumni AssoCi at ion Boa r d of Dir eCtors

Chair Jan Ruma ’86, ’92

Vice Chair Jarrod Hirschfeld ’03

Immediate Past Chair Kenneth L. Barton ’77

Foundation Board Rep Jeffrey D. Rader ’87, ’98

Members-at-Large David Glass ’78 David Hainline ’83 Nicole Harris ’02 Thomas Merlitti ’71 Daniel Mordarski ’91 Brenda Pope ’77 Michelle Reimeis ’92 Chris Spurio ’88 Dorothy Tucker ’58 Jared Wadley ’89 Anthony Weis ’96 Kathryn Weller ’71 Duane Whitmire ’68, ’71 Marian Young ’79 Joseph Zimmerman ’79

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BGSU Alumni Association at a Gl ance

BGSU honored 100 of its most prominent alumni at a Centennial event on April 24, 2010. More than 800 people attended the dinner that celebrated the lives and successes of these accomplished graduates.

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Benefits for BGSU Fa lCons

Benefiting you, benefiting BGSU students

Participating in any of the BGSU Alumni Association benefit programs, provides an easy way to help BGSU students and in return receive some great services and products.

From credit cards and insurance programs to “Falcon Coffee Blends” and Falcon Ohio license plates, the Alumni Association offers programs and perks of interest to you. And when you take advantage of the special offers, you are reaching out and helping the students.

For more information, visit bgsualumni.com and click on “Benefits for Alumni.”

2009 W. Patrick Monaghan2008 James Pickens Jr.2006 Ginger Kathrens 2005 Thomas Gouttiere2004 Stephen L. Weber2003 Thomas Greene2002 Betty Montgomery2001 Gen. John N. Abrams2000 Ralph Wolfe1999 Ben Williams1998 Dorothy Tucker1997 Frank Dick1996 Richard H. Hagemeyer1995 Jerry R. May1994 Fred Bauer*1993 Crystal Ellis1992 Arnold Rampersad1991 Ruth Otte1990 Aris (Bob) Mallas1989 Linda Wagner-Martin1988 John Durniak*1987 Gordon Vehar1986 John Swihart*1985 William E. Evans*1984 Maj. Gen. Niles Fulwyler

BGSU Dist inguished A lumni Awa r ds1983 James R. Good*1982 Ashel Bryan*1981 Keith Trowbridge1980 Otto Schoeppler1980 Walter Bartlett*1979 Bernie Casey1978 Theodore Reyman1977 Jimmy Light1976 David D. Anderson1975 Charles E. Perry*1974 Carroll W. Cheek1973 Hiroko Nakamoto1972 Kempton B. Jenkins1971 Nick J. Mileti1970 William L. Gaines*1967 Charles F. Kurfess1966 Thomas Conway1965 Isabelle Taylor*1964 Clifford A. Stevenson*1963 Earl Brooks*1962 Darwin L. Mayfield1961 Kermit Long*1960 Paul D. Woodring*1960 Eva Marie Saint * Deceased

Top Degr ees Awa r ded at BGSUBachelor of Science in Education 104,418Bachelor of Science in Business Administration 50,814Bachelor of Arts 35,984Bachelor of Science 19,770

3,465 234132 390

1,0931,221

2,363

220

257

2,896

2,830

340

1,683

157

210

4,485

601

1,008

16492

50

851

931

3,432

6,248

2,537

66

183469

173

1,862

354

215

1,038

2,443

381 748

251

NC2,976

DC198

OH95,610

HI165

FL5,959

NH289VT

147CT

679DE136

MA1,007

RI128NJ

1,197MD

1,490

Existing chapter areaInternational and U.S. territories: 2,068

BGSU A lumni ACross the United States7

The Legacy of Excellence Continues

Each year thousands of alumni and friends flock to campus to celebrate BGSU’s Homecoming festivities. Many special events and celebrations were held this year as part of the University’s Centennial anniversary.

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Early alumna shares birthday and more with BGSU

May Some of Lucille Young Liechty’s favorite memories are of the Bowling Green State University campus that shaped her life.

She remembers living in the old Shatzel Hall with other girls. She remembers her parents driving her to campus in their Model T Ford. She remembers her shock at being crowned May Queen.

But Liechty’s bond with Bowling Green goes beyond her cap and gown. For her, Bowling Green was the place that taught her not only book lessons but life lessons. And this year, she shares a milestone with BGSU. Both she and the university are celebrating their 100th birthdays.

While BGSU has been observing its centennial all year long, Liechty celebrated her 100th birthday on Sept. 25 with family and friends in Virginia, where she lives with her daughter. And while it can be more difficult to pull those memories out these days, they remain a favorite topic of conversation.

“Bowling Green was just one of the highlights of her life,” says daughter Marilyn Liechty Harris, herself a 1966 graduate. “She felt that was the place that made her live confidently. I look back and see that in her life.”

Liechty graduated first in her class from high school in Stryker, Ohio, at age 16. The principal and school superintendent encouraged her to apply to college – which was still fairly novel for a woman in the 1920s. She won a full scholarship to Defiance College, but was interested in Bowling Green thanks to knowing some students there. She promised her farming parents she would work hard to help pay the costs and she did, holding down jobs that included waitressing on Michigan’s Mackinaw Island.

While at Bowling Green she was a member of the Seven Sisters Sorority, which became Alpha Phi. She participated in the YWCA, and was a member of Book and Motor Honorary Society. She was also literary editor of The Key, and crowned May Queen.

Being crowned May Queen for the class of 1931 is, in fact, one of her fondest memories.

“I was shocked at that because I was just a little country girl,” she says. “I was very shy and I didn’t think I wanted to be forward like that.”

Common Bonds

But it was that crowning and other experiences at BGSU that helped Liechty come out of her shell and become a teacher in Attica and Bryan where she taught high school English, French and drama. After a few years she returned to Stryker to live on the family farm and help take care of her mother.

As a student at Bowling Green State Normal School, Lucille Young Liechty (second from left) shared a picture perfect moment with some of her colleagues at one of the entrances to campus in about 1930.

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In 1939 she married Chris Liechty, who established the first integrated poultry operation in Northwest Ohio. Amongst her volunteer activities was giving area schoolchildren tours of Liechty’s Sunnycrest Farms hatchery operation – including mini-lessons on Toledo’s local television broadcasts of “Romper Room.”

In addition to teaching, she was active in the Wauseon area in several local organizations. As Wauseon High School’s band boosters’ president, she helped orchestrate the first appearance in Fulton County by the United States Navy Band. After the death of her husband, she resumed her volunteer work in her 80s, as a “Cherry Coat” volunteer at the Fulton County Health Center.

She now lives with her daughter, who says her mother still lights up when speaking about her alma mater. Says Harris: “To her, it really was everything.”

NBC’s “Today Show” wished a nationally televised “Happy Birthday” to her during the show on Sept. 22. According to Harris, her mother’s May Queen photo was provided to the station for use in the acknowledgement.

Though she hasn’t returned to campus in many years, Liechty – ever the teacher – has a few words of wisdom for current BGSU students.

“Be careful, try, and do your best,” she says. n

Alumni Association supports ‘Falcons forever’

For Willie Young, Bowling Green State University was more than just a home away from home.

In many ways it was – and still is – home. It was, he says, the first place where he had a bed to himself and three meals a day. As the first in his family to attend college, every day was a life-changing experience. And he is just as enthusiastic now as then about homecoming.

“I went to my first homecoming game in October (of 1968) and I was just so proud to be in college,” says Young, who earned degrees in 1972 and 1973. “I said then that I wouldn’t miss any homecomings. Forty-two years later, I’ve gone to every homecoming game. I build my whole calendar around that.”

Young not only flies the Falcon flag at homecoming, but he also is an active and enthusiastic member of the BGSU Alumni Association.

The Alumni Association exists to maintain the connection between BGSU and its more than 160,000 alumni worldwide. Montique Cotton Kelly, director of alumni affairs in the Office of Alumni and Development, says alumni play an important role in building a better BGSU.

Alumni have provided internships and jobs, created scholarships such as the Alumni Laureate Scholars program, and provided financial resources. One of the biggest tangible alumni projects was the Mileti Alumni Center, but alumni influence extends far beyond brick and mortar.

“Our alumni have a vested interest in making sure that their alma mater continues to move forward,” says Cotton Kelly. “BGSU continues to have success because our alumni give not only their money, but also their time and talent.”

It wasn’t until around 1958, however, that the university made a concentrated effort to find and fete alumni. Jim Hof, vice president emeritus at BGSU, remembers being wooed away from Sunbeam Corp. in the late 1950s. His mission, in part, was to build an alumni relations office.

From a small office in the student union with one secretary, Hof set about finding alumni and helping them start local alumni association chapters.

Stay ing ConneCted

Lucille Young Liechty, a 1931 graduate, shares fond memories and a centennial anniversary with BGSU.

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“I said, if only we could get the alumni to wake up and realize they were valuable,” says Hof, a graduate himself. “They’d been ignored for forty-some years.”

He helped orchestrate the annual alumni giving appeal, and the first year raised $700. No donation was deemed too small.

“We listed alumni who gave a dollar,” says Hof, who was grateful for every gift. “You might give me $10 tomorrow and $1,000 down the line.”

Slowly the alumni network grew to more than 10,000 members. And it became time to think about a permanent home. In 1972 the university Board of Trustees approved construction of a building that would replace the small house on Wooster Street that was previously the focus of alumni activities on campus.

While the building was named for alumnus Nick Mileti, who made the lead donation, the project was mostly funded through smaller alumni gifts. Former BGSU Athletic Director Jim Lessig, who also worked in the alumni office for years, says nearly half of those who gave were first-time donors.

“A lot of people thought BGSU couldn’t do it because it had to be done almost entirely through private dollars,” says Lessig. “People thought we might not be able to raise that kind of money.”

But through donations great and small, the center opened in 1976 and in 1979 was officially named for Mileti. It houses the alumni association and its offices, as well as the development offices and the BGSU Foundation. The Student Alumni Connection, the student component of the Alumni Association, also is located there.

As the building took shape so too did the alumni association’s involvement in campus life. Alumni contribute to scholarships offered through chapters as well as the Harold “Andy” Anderson Scholarship, awarded to deserving students from Wood and Lucas counties with a 3.5 GPA or above. One of the newest alumni programs is the Alumni Laureate Scholars program, a competitive merit scholarship funded through the Alumni Association and individual alumni gifts.

And alumni can count on BGSU giving back to them, too. Through alumni chapters and interest groups grads can reunite with old friends and make new business contacts. Regular alumni career workshops can help meet the professional needs of alumni, and a 4,000-member LinkedIn group can also offer professional networking.

Cotton Kelly sees that area of the alumni becoming more important in the future.

“I believe with the present state of the economy our alumni are looking to their alma mater for career assistance,” she says. “Whether they need to find a job, relocate because of a job, need assistance with resume writing or even career counseling, an alumni association that can offer all of these services would be ideal.”

Willie Young found his career at Bowling Green. Being a resident advisor his sophomore year helped him realize his future was in student affairs, and he has spent more than 35 years at five different colleges and universities helping students. He is currently senior director of off-campus student services at Ohio State University.

But he is a Falcon forever.

“When I get off Interstate 75 at exit 181, I make the sign of the cross because I know I’m home,” he says. “No matter what happens I know I have a place I can call home and that’s Bowling Green.” n

Willie Young, who has not missed a homecoming game in 42 years, was recognized as one of BGSU’s 100 Most Prominent Alumni earlier this spring. Here he accepts his award from President Carol Cartwright.

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SoCi a l Net wor k ing Alumni.” Then click to join. Other, smaller alumni groups exist on LinkedIn, but this is the largest and the one sanctioned by the University.

“We wanted to offer the current students at BGSU and all alumni a professional networking outlet. Overall the main goal was to offer a new connection channel, and I believe we have created that,” says Dyke, a 1998 graduate who is a partner in three different IT and staffing corporations.

“The group started off with just a couple of our fraternity brothers, who we invited to join,” says Olson, also a 1998 graduate who is now an industry partner account manager for Microsoft in Chicago. “At its peak, we were accepting about 150 to 200 members per week. That has slowed down quite a bit, but on average we have about 20 to 50 people join each week.”

Last summer the two noticed other groups on LinkedIn, including one run by the University. By joining forces, the University gained access to more than 3,000 alumni at the time, and the group earned BGSU’s blessing, which now includes RSS feeds for University and local news. The group boasts more than 5,000 members, including international alumni. The site includes an open forum for discussions, a job posting section and other areas of interest for those seeking professional advancement.

Olson believes this is the future of keeping in touch.

“Social networking and mobile technology are how people are communicating now,” he says. “I think it will be just a matter of time before these types of tools become the main channel of communication for educational institutions as well.” n

New-age tools promote alumni communications

Reaching out to fellow alumni is now as easy as reaching for your computer keyboard or smart phone.

Alumni have always had ways to connect with each other and with Bowling Green State University. Traditional mailings, phone calls and homecoming events have been the pillars of alumni relations.

Recently, however, BGSU has teamed up with two alumni to give graduates a chance for professional networking through the website LinkedIn. Together with the Alumni Association’s Facebook page, alumni are now more connected than ever.

“Social networking is part of our mix,” says Joe Bellfy, associate director of marketing for the alumni association. “It’s become more and more important.”

The University took the Facebook plunge in 2009. At that site (www.facebook.com/bgsualumni), alumni and friends can make wall posts seeking other alumni in their area, see photos from alumni events and share campus memories. There are more than 10,000 “fans” with 68 percent of them being between the ages of 25 and 44.

About a year earlier, alumni Stuart Olson and Chris Dyke formed a group at LinkedIn for BGSU graduates.

To find the group, go to the LinkedIn home page (www.linkedin.com)— registration may be necessary. Click on “groups” at the top and search for “BGSU

Chris DykeSenior VP at Onshore Momentum, IncCleveland/Akron, Ohio Area | Information Technology and Services

Stuart OlsonIndustry Partner Account Manager at MicrosoftGreater Chicago Area | Information Technology and Services

Current • Senior VP at Onshore Momentum, Inc • Manager at TSC

Past • Sales Manager at Tek Systems/Aerotek

Education • Bowling Green State University

Connections 500+ connections

Public Profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/cldmsdsedrcd

Current • Industry Partner Account Manager at Microsoft Corporation

Past • Account Executive–Business By Design at SAP America, Inc. • Sr. Account Executive at ePartners, Inc.

Education • Bowling Green State University

Connections 500+ connections

Public Profile http://www.linkedin.com/pub/stuart-olson/1/183/7bb

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BGSU Alumni Association Mileti Alumni Center Bowling Green, Ohio 43403-0053 Website: bgsualumni.com Phone: 888-839-2586, 419-372-2424