1993 Recipients

Michele Tozer Kenaga

Class Year: 1973
Outstanding Alumni Award Winner 1993

Michele Kenaga is vice president for compensation and international human resource development with responsibility for more than 24,000 Champion employees worldwide. Since joining Champion in 1974, Kenaga has handled a wide range of responsibilities within the human resources function—ranging from labor relations, loss prevention and training to recruiting and salary and benefit administration. She led a task force which researched, designed and implemented one of the first corporate-sponsored child care programs in Connecticut. Kenaga also led the development of the company’s flexible benefits program. She has served on the Human Resource Advisory Board at the University of South Carolina, Women in Management, and is also an honorary member of the Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center of Fairfield County. A recipient of an M.B.A. from Roosevelt University, Kenaga was elected to North Central’s Board of Trustees in 1998.

Robert Russell

Class Year: 1943
Outstanding Alumni Award Winner 1993

Robert Russell entered North Central College at the age of 16 and graduated three and one-half years later. From 1943-45, Russell was a combat navigator in the U.S. Air Force. In 1948, he earned a J.D. from Northwestern University. Russell spent 25 years as an attorney, a general solicitor and chief trial lawyer for Northwestern Railroad. He retired as senior vice president in the executive department of NW Railroad. Russell has been a member of Phi Alpha Delta, the American Bar Association, Illinois Bar Association, Society of Trial Lawyers, Chicago Bar Association, Law Club and Conference Board. He served his community as a former trustee of the Mt. Prospect Board of Education, as trustee of the Barrington Presbyterian Church, deacon of South Church of Mt. Prospect and a member of the Cook County Hospital Administration.

Russell Wilson

Class Year: 1963
Outstanding Alumni Award Winner 1993

Russell Wilson is president and founder of Jeffrey Russell Inc., also known as Koontz Hardware. He started this family business back in 1978 as an old-fashioned hardware store, selling everything from dishes to power tools, in the center of Hollywood, Calif. In 2002, Wilson ventured into a new business in addition to the hardware store. Along with a partner, Wilson created a company called FFA making designer toilet handles and towel bar/bath accessories. They developed a patented “designer” line of toilet flush handles, which compliment other items, such as designer drawer pulls now found in home fashion stores like Expo and The Great Indoors.

Mark E. Henze

Class Year: 1978
Alumni Recognition Award Winner 1993

Mark Henze was accepted into medical school, but elected to go to law school instead and he completed his J.D. in 1981.  Henze wrote the preeminent law treatise in the field “The Law and Business of Time Share Resorts” and co-authored “The Law and Business of Resort Development” with Federal Trade Commission attorney Alan Schlaifer. In 2000, after nearly 20 years of practice, Henze moved to California to study at Talbot Seminary and Biola University toward combined master’s degrees in philosophy and Christian education and a doctorate in Christian education. Henze works part-time with the children’s ministry at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., is the director of a grant program at Talbot Seminary and teaches non-traditional degree students at Biola University.