The Tippecanoe Valley High School Distinguished Alumni Class of 2015 has been named.
The seven members of this year’s class join a group of TVHS graduates who have led successful lives while making substantial contributions to their chosen field of work or have provided outstanding service to their community, state or country, according to a press release from the school corporation. The Class of 2015 stands as a vivid example for all current and future students of what is possible for TVHS graduates, the release states.
The Class of 2014 includes: one 1970s graduate, one 1980s graduate, two 1990s graduates and three graduates from the 2000s.
New this year will be the annual recognition of a distinguished graduate of one of the five high schools – Akron High School, Beaver Dam High School, Burket High School, Mentone High School and Talma High School – that no longer exist. Each high school was located within the current boundaries of the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation.
Don Craig, a 1963 graduate of Talma High School, will be recognized as a Talma High School Distinguished Alumnus this year.
A formal dinner – to which the public is invited – will be held in honor of the inductees at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 10. in the Tippecanoe Valley Middle School Commons. In addition to the meal, local radio personality Rita Price will interview the inductees. Each inductee also will recognize a K-12 Valley educator that made a significant impact in his/her life.
The TVHS Distinguished Alumni Class of 2015 will participate in Induction Day activities at TVHS Sept. 11. Induction Day will begin with a welcome breakfast, introductions, group pictures and an orientation to the day ahead. Inductees will spend the morning meeting with students to share information about their lives and chosen careers. The inductees will eat lunch with the students, providing opportunities for individual interactions.
In the afternoon, Rochester Telephone Company will conduct and record individual interviews with the inductees. Induction Day will conclude with the introduction of the Class of 2015 at halftime of the football game. At that time, a commemorative plaque will be presented to each inductee.
Teachers Credit Union is the corporate sponsor of this year’s TVHS Distinguished Alumni Dinner and Induction Day activities.
The Distinguished Alumni this year are:
Dr. Barb J. Burdge
Dr. Barb J. Burdge graduated from Tippecanoe Valley High School in 1990 and earned a bachelor’s degree with highest distinction from Indiana University in 1994 where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She went on to earn a master of social work degree with high distinction from IU in 1998 and a PhD in social work from IU in 2013.
Now an associate professor and social work program director at Manchester University, where she consistently earns high ratings for teaching, she frequently is invited to speak professionally on matters related to civil rights, social justice, cultural diversity and reducing prejudice. Her work has been published in academic journals.
She describes her primary focus as preparing new social work professionals for careers serving the most vulnerable people/groups in society (children, elders, etc.). She works to promote acceptance of cultural diversity through formal educational programs and professional training. An advocate for inclusiveness, she has had a personal battle with internal and external homophobia, her sexual identity, discrimination and mental illness.
She teaches a variety of undergraduate courses at Manchester University and addresses a variety of social issues in talks at Manchester and throughout the region. She and her partner, Marsha Haffner, live in Roann in a historic home they have renovated together.
Don Craig
Don Craig, a 1963 graduate of Talma High School, went on to take a 13-week course at Hobart Welding School in Troy, Ohio.
“I was a bit more advanced than most of the students,” he says in recognition of the work he’d already done with his father, the late George Craig. “Dad had a welder in our summer kitchen. I think it was mostly for a hobby but then he started to do work for area farmers.”
Don began working for his father the fourth week of February 1964. “He gave me one paycheck and said, ‘From now on you’re going to be part owner.’”
Now majority owner and president of Craig Welding and Manufacturing Inc., Don likes to say the firm can do anything and everything.
With 52 full-time and six part-time employees, Craig Welding has become noted for its steel sales and portable welding.
“We’re here to help the community,” Don says. Proof of that can be seen in the entry to the office at 5158 No. 825 East where citations and certificates of appreciation line the walls.
Dr. Kevin Day
By the time Kevin Day graduated from Tippecanoe Valley High School in 2002 he had undergone chiropractic procedures that eliminated his asthma and successfully treated shoulder and knee injuries incurred in football.
“I was impressed,” he said. “Before that, I was like a lot of other people, convinced chiropractors were people who cracked backs.”
Diploma in hand, he knew he wanted to be a chiropractor.
“I knew that was my goal and that I had a great deal of work ahead of me,” he said. That included earning a bachelor’s degree from Manchester College with a biology/chemistry major and graduating from Sherman College of Chiropractic with a doctorate of chiropractic degree.
Recognized by the International Gonstead Seminar of Chiropractic for outstanding dedication to the advancement of chiropractic, he also has been recognized by the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners and the Indiana State Board of Chiropractic.
With a busy practice in Warsaw, he has managed to graduate from the Fulton County Leadership Academy and earn certifications in athletic injury management, geriatric case management and pediatric management. He was elected president of the Lake City Chapter of Business Networking International in 2013.
Dr. Kevin Day says he considers marrying his incredible wife, Caroline, his greatest achievement.
Matthew Tod Johnson
A 1979 Tippecanoe Valley High School graduate, Matthew Tod Johnson earned a bachelor of arts and sciences degree from Letourneau University that paved the way for his being certified as a fraud examiner, an anti-money laundering specialist and a commissioned national bank examiner.
Recognized as an expert on financial fraud issues, fictitious financial instruments and money laundering, he frequently is called upon to testify against alleged criminals in federal courts around the country. So far he has testified in over 60 federal cases that resulted in a 100 percent conviction rate.
He has dedicated 29 years with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in various capacities and worked with U.S. government entities that required travel to the Mideast, Africa, Central and South America and Asia while investigating alleged terrorist activity at the same time he was educating representatives of foreign governments on potential terrorist financing vulnerabilities. That work has earned him specific federal government awards for the performance of his duties.
While in college he spent almost seven weeks in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, assisting in building a camp for young people. He continues to work with several charities to help the less fortunate.
Elizabeth Ann McCullough
If there’s anything Elizabeth Ann McCullough enjoys more than dancing, it’s teaching others to dance.
By the time she graduated from Tippecanoe Valley High School in 2004, she had spent more than 10 years studying dance with Pamela and Louise, another Rochester studio and Debra Collier in Warsaw. And she had performed at the Akron United Methodist Church where she also taught dance to second-, third- and fourth-graders.
By that time, Elizabeth Ann knew what she wanted: a dance studio of her own. Realizing it would take training, self-discipline and a lot of grit, she attended Ivy Tech Community College and Ball State University, where she majored in business and minored in dance. She continued choreographing and performing dances at the Akron United Methodist Church while polishing her own techniques.
In February 2011, she began teaching dance to children and adults at Rochester Tumbling Express. By September of that year, she was able to see her dream become reality when she opened Liz’s Dance Studio LLC in Rochester’s old fire station, offering lessons in ballet, tap, jazz and hip hop.
“Starting my own business was a tremendous step out of my comfort zone,” she said. “I’ve had to adjust to working long hours between two jobs plus recently becoming coach for Rochester High School’s dance team. I honestly don’t consider these things obstacles. Everything worthwhile in life takes hard work and dedication.”
In recognition of her work, the Akron Area Arts League in 2012 presented her its fifth annual award for promoting the arts, and her studio received a first place award at the Round Barn Festival.
Marilyn McDonald
Marilyn McDonald, a 1981 Valley graduate, made Silver Lake her business base for more than 25 years by being a successful wedding photographer who also manufactured and sold craft products wholesale.
But she wanted something else – a Subway franchise right there in Silver Lake. Lacking previous restaurant experience, she was turned down.
“I fought to gain the franchise,” she says of the establishment that opened in November 2012. It currently runs above the national average and has received excellence of service awards every quarter it’s been open.
“What I am most proud of is the customer service we offer,” she says. “Managing 17 to 18 employees has its challenges but I strive to work with their schedules, which gives me some great employees.”
Last winter, she and her husband, Trent, took a look at a vacant spot in the Subway’s parking lot and decided a walk-up ice cream shop would complement the restaurant. The Igloo, the name of a business her stepfather Doyle Heckaman’s family operated from 1958-1975, sounded appropriate.
As inexperienced at operating an ice cream shop as she had been at owning a restaurant, she plunged in and now offers 20 flavors of Wisconsin ice cream, soft and hand dipped ice cream, non-fat yogurt, Italian ices, malts, shakes and sundaes. “It’s a fun place for everyone to come,” Marilyn says.
Lt. B. Luke Scripture
During his senior year at Tippecanoe Valley High School, B. Luke Scripture was named to the 2003 academic All-State first team in football, received the faculty’s Golden “V” Award, and received a Congressional appointment to attend the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
After graduation from TVHS in 2004, he reported to Annapolis and became a midshipman in the U.S. Navy. Four years later, Luke earned a bachelor of science degree in systems engineering and received a commissioned as an ensign in the Navy along with orders to report to Pensacola, Fla., for Navy flight training.
He completed Navy flight training (fixed-wing and helicopter) and earned his wings as a naval aviator in 2010. In 2011, Scripture received orders to report to HSL-51, a forward-deployed helicopter squadron based in Atsugi, Japan. While there, he was promoted to lieutenant and in 2013 was designated a helicopter aircraft commander in the SH-60B Seahawk helicopter.
During his time in Japan, he deployed numerous times aboard three different navy warships, conducting joint and international exercises, humanitarian assistance missions, and operations supporting national and allied interests throughout the southwest Pacific. After over 3-1/2 years in Japan, Scripture was awarded the Navy Marine Corps Achievement Medal in 2015 and received orders to report to his current duty assignment as a Navy flight training instructor in Pensacola, Fla.
No matter where he is stationed, he is active in church worship music and youth groups. Luke and his high school sweetheart, Sarah, have been married for seven years and have two young sons, Bronson and James.
Aura Strohschein
After receiving an honors diploma from Tippecanoe Valley High School in 1997, where she was salutatorian, Aura Strohschein continued collecting diplomas – a bachelor of arts with departmental honors in French and also in music from Ball State University and master of music performance, suma cum laude, from the University of Toledo. She currently is working on a doctor of musical arts in piano performance and pedagogy at the University of Iowa. In addition, she participated in the International Student Exchange Program at the Université de Charles de Gaulle in Lille, France, and received the Médaille de vermeil in piano and Deuxième prix in chamber music from the Conservatoire National de Région de Lille.
She has made presentations and done research in various fields of music throughout the United States and appeared in special programs in England, France, Mallorca, Germany, Austria and a number of American cities. She began teaching piano and flute in a studio in her Akron home and has since taught in Iowa, Ohio, Louisiana and Indiana in addition to working as a teaching assistant at Lycée Fénélon in Lille, France.
(Story By The Times Union)
