IDEA Hop to It Alumni Make Beer a Career PAGE 4 THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF NORTHWOOD UNIVERSITY WINTER 2017-2018 IDEA ON THE COVER: Michigan's popular craft beer scene includes Bière de Mac Brew The end of the year is a natural time to write Works in Mackinaw City, owned thank-you notes. We express appreciation for by a Northwood alumnus, and Silver Harbor Brewing Company holiday gifts, or for gracious hospitality, or for a in St. Joseph (inset) where alum year’s worth of good work. Ben Dahl is the general manager. Consider this issue of IDEA Magazine to be one big thank-you note to the indispensable donors MISSION STATEMENT whose generosity throughout the year makes it We develop the future leaders of a global, free-enterprise society. possible for Northwood to achieve greatness. The list of donors that runs across so many pages of this magazine is PURPOSE STATEMENT an indication of the broad support that exists in the community. These To develop leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs with the contributions to our university set the stage for the phenomenal success character and skills to drive that our students go on to achieve. personal, organizational, and societal success. That success is demonstrated time and again in the pages of this magazine. In this issue, we meet up with several alumni who have found CORE VALUES STATEMENT a variety of productive roles in the beer industry; it truly is fascinating We believe in: • The advantages of an to see how many paths are open to someone with an entrepreneurial entrepreneurial, free-enterprise spirit. We also take a fond look back at this fall’s Northwood University society International Auto Show. In addition, one of Northwood’s proudest • Individual freedom and individual responsibility activities, Go MAD Day, was a big success again this year. We even • Functioning from a foundation have an uplifting story about an alum who owns a helicopter business in of ethics and integrity Hawaii. • Promoting and leveraging the global, diverse, and multi- Every story adds to the legacy of our donors’ generosity. We thank you cultural nature of enterprise for yours, and your ongoing support. Northwood University is committed to a policy As always, please stay in touch via [email protected] and keep of nondiscrimination and equal opportunity for all persons regardless of race, gender, color, the principles of the Northwood Idea in mind as you stride toward your religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, age, marital status, disability, or veteran status. The own success. University also is committed to compliance with all applicable laws regarding nondiscrimination. Northwood University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member Keith A. Pretty, J.D. of the North Central Association (800-621-7440; President and CEO higherlearningcommission.org). [email protected] 2 NORTHWOOD IDEA MAGAZINE www.northwood.edu/idea IDEA CONTENTS 4 Hop to It Alumni Make Beer a Career 7 Homecoming Victory Tops Off Weekend 8 Auto Show, China Style 9 Gala Breaks Record for Scholarship Donations 10 Alumni in Action 6 Ignite Your 13 It’s a Small World Engines Alumni Cross Paths in Paradise 54th Auto Show Revs Up Midland 14 Family Album 17 Northwood Nation Unites to Make A Difference 17 Alumni Video Spotlight 18 In Memoriam Helen DeVos 19 In Memoriam Macauley ‘Mac’ Whiting 20 Donor Honor Roll 39 Parent Association 40 Learning to Lead 40 Athletes in Action 42 Faculty Briefs WINTER 2017-2018 3 Alumni Make Hop to it Beer a Career To make beer, Danny Ranville explains, there are four basic ingredients: grain, hops, yeast and water. To make beer your livelihood, add one more ingredient: entrepreneurship. Danny Ranville is co-owner of Bière de Mac Brew Works in Mackinaw City. Danny Ranville, '08, co-owner “We were selling out of our beer “It’s been very of Bière de Mac Brew Works in faster than we could make it by Mackinaw City, Mich., is one of February. We said, ‘Wow, what’s successful. In the first several Northwood alumni who are going to happen in the summer?’” seven months, we tapping into the booming industry of craft beer. What happened was continued surpassed our five-year success, followed by the business goals,” Gross “It’s going back to acquisition of additional land for the installation of a larger brewing said, adding that they the way it once was, with system that will increase Bière de recently broke ground small breweries popping Mac’s capacity eight-fold. on an expansion that will up all over,” Ranville said. Mike Gross (’03) has a similar story. “A buddy and I were at a brewery almost double the seating “Beer is cool. And kind of in southwest Michigan. It was capacity glamourous. And sexy.” packed, on a Tuesday at 4 o’clock,” . Gross recalled. “It started us on this long discussion about business Owning a brewery is not the only On Jan. 3, Ranville and his father opportunities. A discussion that way to make a career out of beer. opened the doors to Bière de Mac, started with a beer.” Andrew O’Connor (’12) is a sales which serves craft beers brewed on rep for Bell’s Brewery, one of site and gourmet food prepared by Gross and his friend spent the next Michigan’s oldest craft brewers. a classically trained chef. few weeks visiting local restaurants He represents the Kalamazoo-area watching people – how much they “We started with a 2.5-barrel brew company in Midland, Bay, Saginaw, ate, how much beer they drank – to Genesee, and Lapeer counties, system, which produces 100 build a business plan. gallons at a time. It takes two to working with the regional distributor four weeks to, as we say, go from In 2016, they opened Silver Harbor to increase awareness for the grain to glass,” Ranville explained. Brewing Company in St. Joseph, 20 different varieties that Bell’s Mich. produces throughout the year. 4 NORTHWOOD IDEA MAGAZINE www.northwood.edu/idea “It’s definitely a fun industry,” O’Connor said. “Craft beer in Michigan is still growing. We have close to 300 breweries in Michigan Mike Gross is co-owner now. It’s competitive, but it’s of Silver Harbor Brewing Company in St. Joseph. not cut-throat competition. Everyone gets along. It’s a lot of fun to be a part of.” George Boler (’10) has a similar role with New Belgium Brewing Company, which began 27 years ago in Colorado and now has a second brewery in North Carolina. Boler works with nine different beer distributors in a Michigan territory that stretches from Monroe to the Thumb and also includes the Upper Peninsula. It is a business that continues to grow across Michigan, which brings challenges of its own. “The hardest part with so many craft beers out there is getting customers to try your beer,” Boler said. “We are always working to figure out how to showcase a wide variety of our styles of beer.” You could say that beer made an honest man out of Boler. “Midway through my college career, I didn’t know what I was going to do professionally,” Boler said. “It’s nice to see that there are Northwood alum George different options available, Boler, left, a sales rep for New Belgium Brewing and lots of ways to use a Company, raises a glass Northwood education.” with Roy Moore, owner of Ashley’s Bar and Grill in southeast Michigan. WINTER 2017-2018 5 Ignite YOUR ENGINES 54th Auto Show Revs Up Midland Allison Brown didn’t mind making a monkey of herself to call attention to the Jaguar and Land Rover automobiles she was tasked with promoting. “Any opportunity to dress up and be crazy, I love it,” said the senior from Battle Senior Allison Brown grabs the attention of passersby at the Creek, Mich., wearing a monkey costume 2017 Auto Show. as she prowled the walkway of this fall’s Northwood International Auto Show. Music from the “Tarzan” movie soundtrack played in the background, faux foliage sprouted up around the vehicles, and a hidden special effects machine sprayed out a cloud of primordial mist. Now in its 54th year, the Northwood University International Auto Show (NUIAS) continues to be a signature event for the university and the Midland community. This year more than 65 manufacturers and 500 vehicles were on display the weekend of Oct. 6, 2017. With the theme “Ignite,” the 2017 show attracted more than 60,000 visitors. An entirely student-run event, the teams manage everything from planning to logistics to booth design to visitor interaction. 6 NORTHWOOD IDEA MAGAZINE www.northwood.edu/idea This year’s general chair was Chuck Elledge, a senior from Coal City, Ill., studying automotive marketing and management. “I got the awesome privilege of overseeing the operation of the auto show,” Elledge said. “You have to think of everything, and then you have to deal with anything. And it’s never the things you think that will go wrong that go wrong.” Nick Dubs was captain of the BMW team. He and the other 14 team members went with a dignified look for their display. Students wore suits as they greeted visitors, and Sinatra songs played in the background. The main attraction was a high-tech BMW i8 hybrid, on loan from a dealer in Iowa. “This is perfect training for the real world,” said Dubs, a sophomore from from Owendale, Mich., studying automotive marketing and management. “It’s like being Homecoming a manager of a dealership. We’re not allowed to sell a vehicle, but if people are interested we can give them a dealer’s information.” Two-thirds of this year’s Northwood students took part in Victory the auto show in one way or another, Elledge said, further proof that the impact of the auto show extends far beyond Tops Off Weekend the event itself or the thousands of people it touches.