On Saturday evening, jazz music and fine dining primed the banquet halls in Curtiss Hall for laughter and reminiscing as 350 alumni met with old friends and colleagues from their days as SVSU students.
The 2008 SVSU Alumni Celebration, presented by the SVSU Alumni Association and Health Plus of Michigan, brought alumni together to honor six distinguished former classmates and to enjoy a well-prepared fish and pork dinner, and a performance from the comedy group Capital Steps.
The dinner music was arranged and played by SVSU students and alumni, apart from the drummer, who Micheal Ducharme, in his invocation introduced as “just a drummer,” setting the tone for a laughter-filled evening
Six individuals were recognized as Outstanding Alumni, one from each of the College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences, College of Business and Management, College of Education, College of Science, Engineering, and Technology, and the Crystal M. Lange College of Health and Human Services, and an additional alumna received honors as a Distinguished Alumna.
Walter Reynolds, a 1984 graduate of the College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences and 2008 Outstanding Alumnus, was recognized for his notable career in law enforcement. Reynolds has served as a member of the Michigan Chiefs of Police, the United States Attorney’s Office Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council and many other notable committees. He is currently serving as assistant special agent in charge to the Detroit Division of the FBI. The lesson that he found most useful from his days as a Cardinal was “how to learn more by listening than you do talking.” He also expressed his gratitude for the personal attention he received from his professors at SVSU, among those now-Vice President of Academic Affairs Don Bachand.
Michael Finney, a 1979 graduate of the college of Business and Management and 2008 Outstanding Alumnus, has been the vice president for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and assistant city manager of Saginaw. Finney now is the president and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK and has also been recognized as a Distinguished Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He expressed his thankfulness for the valuable friendships he found at SVSU and has kept since, particularly with former Ombudsman Dick Thompson and Jim Dwyer, assistant vice president of Student Services and Enrollment Management. Finney offered some insight to current SVSU students with their futures ahead of them: “Perseverance is the biggest thing. If you continue to work hard, things will bear fruit.”
Mary Anne Ackerman, a 1990 graduate of the College of Education, is superintendent of the Frankenmuth School District and a 2008 Outstanding Alumna of SVSU. In her acceptance speech, Ackerman expressed her gratitude for the education she received at SVSU. Ackerman is a Reese native who, in her spare time, enjoys reading, playing the piano, gardening and decorating for the holidays.
Gerardo Gonzalez, a 1975 graduate of the College of Science, Engineering, and Techonology, retired from his 30-year career with Delphi Automotive Systems with many outstanding professional accomplishments. Gonzalez also is a veteran of the United States Army and now a 2008 SVSU Outstanding Alumnus. He remembered his years at SVSU as “interesting times and fun times.” He said that universities help to “learn how to find information,” a useful skill, he said, for succeeding in the cutting-edge world of business. Gonzalez’s son also is a recent graduate of SVSU.
Terrance Lerash, a 1981 graduate of the Crystal M. Lange College of Health and Human Services and 2008 SVSU Outstanding Alumnus, began a career as a staff nurse and has climbed through a variety of management positions to reach his current position as president and CEO with Synergy Medical Education Alliance. Lerash found useful advice received from the late Crystal Lange: “Create a vision for yourself.” Lerash called himself a pioneer, as one of the first and few male students of the nursing program at Saginaw Valley College, a college which he remembers as “out in the cornfields.”
Vicki Leblanc Rupp of the graduating class of 1983, received her Bachelor of Science degree from SVSU, beginning a career with Dow Chemical that has brought her to the position of global director of regulatory affairs and remediation in environment, health and safety of the Dow Chemical Company. Rupp called her education at SVSU “a strong, intimate, family kind of experience.” She was a member of the varsity softball team, and acquired “friendships that have [lasted] much longer and deeper than friends I had in high school.”
Gratitude and recognition were mixed with laughter and entertainment that all alumni, distinguished, outstanding or otherwise, enjoyed.
Jim Maher is a former SVSU football player and now sits on the SVSU Alumni Board.
“Muddy Waters was the coach back then,” Maher recalled. Maher’s college friend, Steve Umphrey, was also an athlete at SVSU – a collegiate race-walker. He and his wife, Sandy, were residents assistants. Maher warned the Umphreys that the press was present and to watch what they said. “Wouldn’t be the first time we were in the Vanguard,” Umphrey said.
The alumni left SVSU with broad smiles and sore bellies after the performance from Capitol Steps, who kept the audience laughing thunderously for over an hour.
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