At first glance, Missouri Western\u2019s centennial theme, \u201c100 Years of Transforming Lives,\u201d seems to refer to how the University has transformed students\u2019 lives. But on the other side of the \u00a0commencement stage, more than 28,000 alumni have earned degrees from the St. Joseph Junior College and Missouri Western, and have gone on to transform lives in their communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very proud of our alumni; they the University\u2019s greatest asset,\u201d said Colleen Kowich, director of Alumni Relations. \u201cThe greater the success of our alumni, the greater the value of all degrees from Missouri Western.\u201d<\/p>\n
The impact of alumni on the St. Joseph community since 1915 has been enormous. Eight alumnae currently serve in top positions at nonprofit organizations in St. Joseph,<\/strong> and alumni have served the community as mayors, doctors and nurses, police officers and police chiefs, lawyers, teachers and school administrators, artists and musicians, small business owners, bank presidents and state legislators, to name just a few.<\/p>\n Early Junior College alumni Andrew Ziph \u201926 and Donald Folks \u201948 are examples of those who succeeded locally. Ziph was general manager for Walker Mfg. & Sales Corp. and Folks was vice president of American National Bank. Junior College alumni Merritt Blanchard and William Wessel were vice president at St. Joseph Stock Yards Bank, and vice president of Fletcher, Wessel and Enright, respectively. All were businesses in St. Joseph.<\/p>\n In 1965, all three Buchanan County circuit judges were Junior College graduates: William H. Kimberlin, Fred E. Schoenlaub \u201949 and Frank D. Connett Jr. \u201942. Today, two of the present-day \u00a0judges are alumni \u2013 Don Judah \u201972 and Dan Kellogg \u201982.<\/p>\n William W. Bloom \u201933 was president of Midwest Federal Savings and Loan Association in St. Joseph in the 1970s, and currently, Ralph Schank \u201982 serves as president of that bank\u2019s successor, Farmers State Bank.<\/p>\n Today, more than 5,900 alumni call St. Joseph home.<\/p>\n Kowich noted that Missouri Western alumni not only excel in their careers, but they volunteer many hours of community service. \u201cFrom service clubs to PTAs, to organizing fundraisers, to serving as volunteer coaches, our alumni can be found giving back to their communities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Throughout the University\u2019s 100-year history, Junior College and Missouri Western alumni have also been impacting communities beyond St. Joseph. As early as 1922, Norman Knight \u201918, the creator of the Griffon, was employed in government work in Washington, D.C. Erma Young \u201924 was the women\u2019s editor of the Kansas City Star, and she even traveled to Asia for the newspaper. Robert Edson \u201926 was national director of disaster relief for the American Red Cross, also in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n Lt. Gen. Keith Compton \u201935 was deputy chief of staff for operations and plans for the United States Air Force. He became famous for his World War II exploits, according to an article in the St. Joseph News-Press. Esther Louise Brown \u201938 earned her doctorate and taught at the University of Illinois-Urbana. Dr. Joe Friedman \u201939, a podiatrist, acted on Broadway and won an Emmy for his work on a documentary.<\/p>\n Demarquis Wyatt \u201939 was director of the office of programs for NASA and was headquartered in Washington, D.C., and Harold Dubach \u201940 was deputy director of the National Oceanographic Data Center in Washington, D.C. He was also co-author of \u201cQuestions About the Oceans,\u201d published by the U.S. Navy in 1969, and he patented an instrument to record sea temperatures during hurricanes.<\/p>\n Several company presidents have called Missouri Western their alma mater, including William Wyeth III \u201948, the Wyeth Co.; Forrest Werner \u201933, Werner Shoe Co.; and Barent Springsted \u201927, American Electric Co.; all in St. Joseph. Monte Pendleton \u201949 was president of an electronics firm in Dallas. Mark McDonald \u201973 served as president and vice president of several companies in the chemical field and Blaine Yarrington \u201937 was president of American Oil Co., a subsidiary of Standard Oil Co.<\/p>\n Current alumni presidents include Al Landes, Herzog Contracting Corp. in St. Joseph; and Nick Saccaro \u201901, Quest Food Management Services in Chicago.<\/p>\n Richard Durst \u201971 and Bernie Patterson \u201973 graduated from Missouri Western and went on to head universities, Durst at Baldwin Wallace University and Patterson at University of Wisconsin\u2013Stevens Point.<\/p>\n Tom Norsworthy \u201975 and Brent Porlier \u201982 are successful business owners. Cheri Kempf \u201985 is the owner of Club K, a training facility for women\u2019s fastpitch softball. Today she is a color analyst on ESPN and Fox Sports, and commissioner of the National Professional Fastpitch.<\/p>\n Other alums who succeeded in a sports-related career are Bill Snyder \u201959, head football coach at Kansas State University, Paul Rhoads \u201989, head football coach at Iowa State University, and George Hayward \u201975, who has been an NFL official for 16 years.<\/p>\n Adri Steckling \u201953 and Stanley Harrison \u201955 both found success in New York City. Steckling owned a fashion house and designed several collections, and Harrison owned an acting studio.<\/p>\n Esther George \u201980 and Charles Bruffy \u201981 found success in Kansas City. George is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and Bruffy has won Grammys for his work with the Kansas City and Phoenix chorales, and Kansas City Symphony.<\/p>\n \u201cMissouri Western has been committed to transforming the lives of its students for the past 100 years. Alumni in turn, reflect that commitment as they work to transform the lives of those around them,\u201d Kowich said. \u201cEvery day a Griffon pays it forward, here in the United States and across the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n Some information in this article was obtained from the St. Joseph News-Press, April 4, 1965. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At first glance, Missouri Western\u2019s centennial theme, \u201c100 Years of Transforming Lives,\u201d seems to refer to how the University has transformed students\u2019 lives. But on the other side of the \u00a0commencement stage, more than 28,000 alumni have earned degrees from the St. Joseph Junior College and Missouri Western, and have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4244,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3855\/revisions\/4244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}