1994 Recipients
Gordon Streib
Class Year: 1943
Outstanding Alumni Award Winner 1994
Gordon Streib is a retired professor of North Central College. During his professional career, he received many awards including Distinguished Contributor to Sociology of Aging from the American Sociological Association, Distinguished Academic Gerontologist from the Southern Gerontologist Society, Outstanding Faculty Award from Students for the Advancement of Gerontological Education at the University of Florida, Gerontologist of the Year Award from the Gerontological Society of Florida, and the Robert W. Kleemeier Award for Outstanding Research from the Gerontological Society of America. Since 1994, Streib has authored or co-authored 10 articles, book chapters and professional journals. In 2002, he was guest editor of Research on Aging, v. 24, no. 1, and from 1994-2000, he was a member of the board of trustees with the AARP Andrew Foundation.
John Daniels
Class Year: 1969
Outstanding Alumni Award Winner 1994
A College Trustee since 2001, John Daniels is a partner and member of the management committee in the 450-attorney Wisconsin law firm of Quarles & Brady LLP. He is the recipient of one of America’s most prestigious awards for advancing the cause of social justice, and a partner in the largest black-owned Burger King franchise in the world. His success in the Burger King franchise business, in partnership with his sister Valerie Daniels-Carter, landed him on the cover of Black Enterprise magazine in September 1994. Daniels is the first person of color to head the American College of Real Estate Lawyers. The National Conference for Community and Justice (formerly the National Conference of Christian and Jews) chose Daniels and major league baseball commissioner Bud Selig as recipients of its 2001 Human Relations Award in recognition of their efforts to fight bigotry and racism and promote respect among all races, religions and cultures.
George Picha
Class Year: 1959
Outstanding Alumni Award Winner 1994
George Picha is an involved citizen of Rockford, Ill., in many ways. He is a senior partner at Picha and Salisbury Law Firm where he practices exclusively in the area of workers’ compensation law. He’s also a member of the workers’ compensation committee of the Illinois Manufacturer’s Association and serves as a technical advisor for proposed amendments to the Workers’ Compensation Act. He has been an author and lecturer for the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education courses on workers’ compensation law and was appointed to the Illinois Industrial Commission. In addition to his leadership responsibilities at both the county and state levels, he’s currently serving on the public policy steering committee of the Rockford Area Chamber of Commerce. In 1997, Picha was the recipient of the Paul Revere Award for Business Advocacy by the Rockford Area Chamber of Commerce.
Debra Falduto Novack
Class Year: 1981
Alumni Recognition Award Winner 1994
Debra Novack received her B.A. from North Central College in 1981 and her J.D. cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law in 1984, where she was editor of the law review. After clerking for the Hon. Joel M. Flaum of the seventh circuit, she joined Baker & McKenzie in Chicago, where she was in the international tax department. Novack wrote an article titled “English-Only Rules in the Workplace – the Need to Prove Disparate Impact,” which placed second in the 1995 ISBA Lincoln Award Legal Writing Contest. The article was also published in the September 1995 issue of the Illinois Bar Journal.