Columbia College Chicago Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago Alumni Newsletters Alumni Fall 1997 re: Columbia Columbia College Chicago Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.colum.edu/alumnae_news This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation re: Columbia College Chicago (Fall 1997), Alumni Magazine, College Archives & Special Collections, Columbia College Chicago. http://digitalcommons.colum.edu/alumnae_news/54 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Alumni at Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago. It has been accepted for inclusion in Alumni Newsletters by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago. Commencement '97 (L-R) Honorees Fred olumbia College awarded was honored as valedictorian of Eychaner and Chicago's nearly 1,500 diplomas the Class of 1997. First Lady Maggie Daley with Board of Trustees C at its 1997 graduation Mr. Compton and two chair AI Harris ceremony, the largest number in its other exemplary Chicagoans were Below history. James W Compton, awarded H onorary Doctorates: (L-R) Dr. Brenda Solomon, president and chief executive offi­ Margaret "Maggie" Corbett Mayor Richard M. Daley, and Paula and Sam Pfeffer, cer of the Chicago Urban League, Daley, civic activist and Chicago's a Columbia trustee, delivered the commencement first lady, and Fred Eychaner, attended a pre-commence­ ment celebration address and Vickki Nicole Willis whose many achievements include founding Newsweb Corporation and WPWR-TV Charmel50. re: columbia He is the long time director of the no. 20/fall1997 AIDS Foundation of Chicago. Tri-annual publication sent free Joan "Beau" Beaudoin, of charge to alumni and friends of Columbia College Chicago television department faculty member, received Columbia's full-time Teacher-of-the-Year COL~ A award; Peter Cook, interpreter Columbia's president Dr. John B. Duff (right) training department faculty presents an Honorary Doctorate to James member, received the part-time Compton Teacher-of-the-Year award. ent's Club Me olumbia College Chicago performances, lectures and President's Club members workshops, correlating with their C enjoyed a spectacular eve­ gift level. ning of dining and entertainment An important aspect of at the second armual membership President's Club donations is that meeting in july. The event began funds are not used for administra­ with dinner at Cite restaurant, atop tive and operational costs, but only Lake Point Towers ~rlooking the where they will impact students lakefront and Navy Pier. directly. 1l1e Club rais~$80 ,000 Following a presentation by this year which will support tl1e Columbia College President Dr. Presidential Scholarship, awarded J ohn B. Duff and steering commit­ to incoming freshmen based on tee co-chair Marcia Lazar, guests academic achievement in high strolled to Skyline Stage on Navy school and demonstration of Pier for a performance under the financial need. President's Club stars by the Rising Stars Youth members know that their contribu­ Steel Orchestra from St. Thomas, tions play a vital role in the ability U.S. Virgin Islands and Ensemble of talented and dedicated students Kalinda, a performing arm of the to complete their educations. (L-R) President's Club co-chairs Marcia Lazar and Sydney Smith Gordon college's Center for Black Music President's Club members Research. are invited to special events hosted "An evening like this is a great by the college throughout the way to expose our donors to the year.Just a few of last year's high­ diversity of Columbia," Lazar said. lights included DanceAfrica, the "Being in this setting exemplifies Museum of Contemporary the intercom1ectedness between Photography's season opening Columbia College and the City of reception, Fashion Columbia, the Chicago. This is a great group of Center for Book & Paper Arts' people - an extended family with a Paper Plates auction, Achy Obejas' t.( common vision and goal. You can Mambo Marathon reading at T he feel the wam1th, camaraderie and Newberry Library, and the ·•·.-.·, ..../ I' • genuine excitement." Columbian Exposition Art Auction, .1.-. -·· T he President's Club the President's Club's first ....1-·· Membership Program was created fundraiser. to provide Columbia friends and "This is a wonderful way for alumni a forum with which to people to be involved and support ~v participate more fully in the wealth an extremely important cause with of artistic and culturally diverse a minimal time commitment, and activities at the college. This maximum enjoyment level," Lazar unique fundraising initiative also said. "They are able to participate provides the college with the in stellar arts and performance financial support integral to presentations, intellectually stimu­ (L-R) Alton Adams, organizer of the Ri sing Stars Youth Steel Orchestra reaching its educational goals. lating symposia, and exciting concert in Chicago, and Dr. Samuel A. Floyd Jr., founder and director of the Membership gift categories range social events willie also functioning Center for Black Music Research from $500 to $10,000; individual as ambassadors for the school." and corporate members receive benefits such as free tickets to Columbia-sponsored events, • roun 18 Commencement weekend also featured "Celebrate Columbia: Come to the Cabaret," the Board of Trustees' fourth annual benefit gala at the Fairmont Hotel. The evening included dinner and entertainment in the Moulin Rouge by blues virtuoso Corky Siegel, song stylist Bobbi Wilsyn, and other Columbia faculty members. It raised $100,000 for the David R. Rubin Trustees' Student Scholarship Fund. Trustees Averill Leviton, Gordon Co-chair Ozzie Rodriguez and his wife Celsa with students McClendon, Ozzie Rodriguez and Helena Chapellin Wilson co-chaired the event. Theater students dressed as characters from "Cabaret" hammed it up with guests through the night: (L-R) Jackie And cabaret they did ... Deppner, co-chair Helena Chapellin Wi lson, Ryan Greer, co-chair Averi ll Leviton, and Joanna Gorrie Left Dr. Maurice S. Rabb and trustee Madeline Just one week later, another annual Columbia event Murphy Rabb with co-chair Gordon McClendon took place -The Fourth Alumni Reunion Awards 't. .. - Dinner on the Odyssey II departed from Navy Pier .. for a Lake Michigan cruise: Alumni Board members Marty Lennartz '82, WXRT deejay who emceed the alumni awards program, and Margi Cole '90, artistic director of the Dance Colective The 1997 Alumni Award winners: Jim Williams '87, Howard Mendelsohn '49, Charles Carner '78, Honorary Alumna Sydney Smith Gordon, Enid Long '79, Brigid Murphy '87, and Norman Left Pellegrini '50 Zelda Robinson '93, Alumni Association Board member Michael Jackson '83, and Grethia Hightower '82 Columbian Exposition Art Auction ore than 275 knowledge­ Barton Brands Ltd., whose able art buyers turned chairman Ellis M. Goodman M out on a weekday made an additional $5,000 contri­ evening inJune to bid on works by bution to a new Barton Brands some of Chicago's leading scholarship fund for visual art artists - including Richard Hunt, students, was a corporate sponsor Dennis Kowalski, Richard C. of the benefit, as were Blue Lange '85, Ed Paschke, Corey Plate Catering and United Parcel Postiglione, Hollis Sigler, Victor Service. Skrebneski, Bob Thall, Helena The auction was exceptionally Chapellin Wilson, and the Zhou artist-friendly. Thirry percent of Brothers - at the Columbian the proceeds went to the donating Exposition, an art auction, exhibition artists, most of whom arc associat­ and reception that raised $25,000 ed with Columbia College as for Columbia College Chicago faculry members, alumni, trustees, Kathy Abel son, Estelle M. Shanley and Columbia Susan Foertsch, Barton Brands Ltd. chairman visual arts student scholarship exhibitors in the college's Museum College President John B. Duff Ellis M. Goodman, and Laurie Irwin funds. of Contemporary Photography T he event was sponsored and Art Gallery, or recipients of by the college's President's Club honorary degrees. and the Alumni Association. Objects donated by artists President's Club steering and collectors included paintings, corrunittee co-chair Marcia Lazar drawings, photographs, paper­ and Alumni Association works, sculpture, fashion, jewelry, president Gloria Lelu· were books, furniture, and political co-chairs of the auction. cartoons. Among the more Auctioneer Leslie Hindman unusual donations were a cast donated her services for the paper and found object sculpture evening's live auction; there was by Suzanne Cohan-Lange, a also a silent auction. The event nco-Gothic trousseau chest by Kei took place in the 44th floor offices J. Constantinov, a political cartoon of the international law firm by the late John Fischetti, a of McDermott, Will & Emery, photographic diprych by J olm 227 West Monroe. Mulvany, a cilmabar necklace by Madeline Murphy Rabb, a handmade book by Marilyn Sward and Audrey Niffenegger, and an Columbian Exposition co-chair Marcia Lazar (left), Mari anne Deson, committee member auctioneer Leslie Hindman, and co-chair Gloria Lehr '84 A Egyptian-theme coat byJ ean COL~ Morman Unsworth. columbia college chicago This list honors individuals and groups who have contributed a minimum of $100 to Columbia College during the period from May 1,1997 to August 31,1997. individual donors Katherine A. Abelson Constance J. Heavey Kazu Okutomi Theresa Adams Caroline M. Hennessy Sid Ordower Randall K. Albers John Butler Hirsch Pangratios Papacosta & Blair Barbour Patrici a L. Hirsch AI & Jeanne Parker Mlrron Alexandroff Wi lliam L. Hood Ed Paschke Norman Robert Alexandroff Richard Hunt John Payne Edward B. Altman Michael E. Jackson Norman R. Pellegrini Plac Anonymous Yee Jan Sao Michael & Sandra Perlow Susan Aurinko·Mostow William Stewart Johnson Jack Perno Jean Bach William W. Johnson Samuel E. Pfeffer Neal Ball Mark R. Julicher Morris Philipson Barbara M. Barksdale Tom Kallen Kay L. Pick Ann Bates Kittle Barbara Karant Byrne Piven Jeffrey F. Beatty Nicholas Karris David Plowden Sally Becker Mary Zoe Keithley Richard Press Joann Bedford-Jones Mark E.