April 2012 | North Central College

Jim Owczarski ’02

Jim Owczarski ’02 captured third place in the national Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) awards for feature writing. He’s a sports journalist at OnMilwaukee.com, a daily online magazine. He joined the staff in March after nearly nine years with the Chicago Sun-Times Media Network West Division and will cover the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks, Green Bay Packers and other sports teams in the Milwaukee area. His wife Michelle Rutkowski ’03 is music director and midday host at WLUM-FM 102.1 Milwaukee. He may be reached at jim834@gmail.com.

North Central NOW Spring 2012

Bob Pickett '73

Bob Pickett is in his 16th season as the producer/director of the St. Louis Concert Choir, a community Christian choral organization representing nearly 30 churches in the greater St. Louis metro area. This summer he and legendary music producer Thurlow Spurr are bringing together 200 singers from across America to perform in concert with three of Christian music’s greatest artists: winners of multiple Grammy and Dove Awards, singers Sandi Patty and Larnelle Harris, and pianist Dino in two “Festival of Praise” performances. The concerts are scheduled for Sunday, July 1, at Grace Church–St.

Matt Boresi ‘97

Matt Boresi ‘97 in April enjoyed the Washington, D.C., premier of his chamber opera titled “The Filthy Habit,” which opened in the black box theatre at Artisphere in Arlington, VA, and was produced by the opera company Urban Arias. He co-wrote the opera with composer Peter Hilliard. The principal soprano was Metropolitan Opera soprano Jennifer Aylmer. The production featured a newly commissioned 15-piece orchestration and players from the National Symphony and Washington Opera orchestras. Maestro Robert Wood conducted. The show originally premiered at Manhattan Opera Theatre in 2004.

Scott R. Daly '06

Scott R. Daly accepted a tenure-track faculty position in the department of chemistry at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and will begin in July. He was awarded a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2010 and received the Department of Chemistry’s Theron Standish Piper Award for outstanding thesis research. After graduating, he became a Seaborg Postdoctoral Fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, NM, and performed research to develop new methods to improve the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.

Kimberly Lisanby-Barber '77

Kimberly Lisanby-Barber was named the 2012-2013 Elementary School Principal of the Year by the Illinois Principals Association. She is the principal of Lincoln Elementary School in the Spring Valley Clark County School District 99. The award recognizes elementary school principals who have demonstrated a positive impact on their students and learning community. As the award winner, she will compete for the National Distinguished Principal of the Year award sponsored by VALIC and the National Association of Elementary School Principals.

Jacob Hubert '98

Jacob Hubert was named principal of North Boone High School in Poplar Grove, IL. He’s served as assistant principal at the school for the past five years and will begin as principal at the start of the 2012-2013 school year. He holds bachelor’s degrees in sports medicine and athletic training from North Central and in mathematics from Illinois State University. He earned a master’s degree in educational administration from Eastern Illinois University.

Ernie Brandon '62

Ernie Brandon founded a woodwind quintet called “Euterpe” Wind Quintet (Michigan) two years ago. The group is named for the Greek muse for music and lyric poetry. (He includes Michigan in the name because there is a “Euterpe” quintet based in the Netherlands.) The group’s repertoire ranges from classical to ragtime, including concert music written expressly for wind quintets, transcriptions of popular classical piano and orchestra pieces, and arrangements of folk and some pop music.

Wayne Randazzo '07

Wayne Randazzo is broadcaster for the Kane County Cougars. He spent the past four seasons in Mobile, AL, with the BayBears, the AA-affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. His broadcasting background includes doing play-by-play work for Big Ten Network productions, anchoring shows on WGN radio and doing updates on WSCR-AM 670 The Score. He becomes the eighth broadcaster in franchise history and joins a list of former Cougars broadcasters that includes current big league announcers Dave Wills (Tampa Bay Rays) and Scott Franzke (Philadelphia Phillies).

Doris Replogle Porter '82

Doris Replogle Porter founded Mayhaven Publishing in 1990 and publishes books, audio books and e-books for adults and children. In 2011 she produced eight books and two audio books. Mayhaven’s best-selling nonfiction book, “Ten Sisters: A True Story,” was based on Doris’ own life and made into two Public Broadcast System documentaries. She is the youngest of 10 sisters who were separated in 1942 and reunited many years later. She serves on the advisory board for the Lincoln Museum in Harrogate, TN, and is a member of the Urbana Rotary.

David Thompson '99

David Thompson began his first season as the head coach of the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field programs at Oswego State University of New York in January. He joins Oswego from the University of Dubuque. During his three years as head coach, he coached 18 NCAA indoor and outdoor national qualifiers, including the 2011 NCAA Division III men’s indoor national champion in the 55-meter dash. At North Central, he received NCAA Division III All-America recognition 11 times and was a three-time National Champion (long jump, member of a 4x100 meter relay, and 200-meter dash).