Class Notes| 2016

CAROLINE “BONNIE” (LORE) BEYER ’48, Sugar Grove, Pa., met with LEC staff members Holly Menzie and Pam Palermo for lunch in Erie, Pa. in fall 2015. Beyer spends her winters in Clearwater, Fla.

JANET (BURLEIGH) RAMSEY ’49, Austin, Texas, is still active at 88 and still living at home with her husband, Edward. She enjoys gardening, bridge and knitting.

MARTHA (AKERS) ZIER ’44, Rocky River, Ohio, and her daughter Wendy visited campus on Oct. 5, 2016. Zier shared memories of her time as a student, especially her walk from Painesville to E. Cleveland, a distance of about 30 miles!

JUDITH (RESCH) ADAMS ’59, Ludlow, Vt., is in her 29th year of teaching at The Little School (a learning center and preschool) as head teacher for the four- and five-year-old children. Her husband, John, passed away in May 2014, and she misses him every day. Adams has a 14-year-old granddaughter, Madison; Madison’s mother, Christina, and her husband, David (Madison’s stepfather), live in Springfield, Vt. Adams’ second daughter, Mary-Louise, is a freelance producer in New York.

SUE (SCHOEDINGER) ELLIS ’59, MSEd ’86, Concord, Ohio, became a member of Rotary International in 2013 to replace her husband. She serves on the boards of Andrews Osborne Academy, United Church Homes and the National Alumni Board of Lake Erie College. She took her oldest grandson to Great Britain for a graduation present; since he is a bagpiper, he really enjoyed the Royal Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle. In 2015 Ellis moved to a free-standing condo, so she now has more free time for fun activities. She is looking forward to the revitalization of the fine arts program now underway at the College.

CONNIE LUHTA ’77 was recently honored by “Crain’s Cleveland Business” in its “Eight Over Eighty” feature. Luhta, 86, is a seven-term Concord Township trustee and president of the board of trustees of the International Women’s Air & Space Museum in Cleveland. She also owns and operates Concord Airpark and still flies planes (normally a Piper Cherokee 180). She was one of the organizers of a gala held July 9, 2016 at the Steele Mansion in Painesville in celebration of Amelia Earhart’s stay at the mansion as well as the International Women’s Air & Space Museum’s 40th anniversary.

DEBRA POTTS ’74 of Indianapolis, Ind., recently signed a conservation easement with the Central Indiana Land Trust protecting more than 30 acres of secluded, wooded area on the city’s northwest side from any development. Potts is the owner of this property.

SHERYL (RYS) SPAIN ’77 is a buyer for Monitor Manufacturing in Cartersville, Ga.

RALPH LINNE, MBA ’89, Cincinnati, Ohio, the director of county facilities in Hamilton County, Ohio, was named Facility Executive of the Year 2016 in “Facility Executive” magazine; he was selected for this honor by facility management professionals. In his position since 2001, Linne manages a facilities department of more than 200 employees that maintains nearly 300 facilities totaling approximately 3.5 million square feet. Under Linne’s leadership, improvements to department operations and facilities efficiencies have flourished, even in the face of budget limitations.

CARA MIA (ROWAN) DUNCAN ’99 is a teacher at Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

MICHELE (HALL) RILEY ’93 of Stuart, Fla., returned to campus on April 29, 2016 to give a presentation on the topic of equine insurance. Riley is a licensed broker at Serenity Equine Insurance where she sells equine and farm insurance. She is also an accomplished dressage rider and competed in the 2014 USDF National Championships in Kentucky where she placed well in the Prix St. George, Intermediate I and II freestyle classes.

LOUISE SULLIVAN ’96, MBA ’16 is the organizational change management director at Avery Dennison, responsible for a $50 million-plus business transformation project that includes deploying a new enterprise resource planning system. She was a non-traditional student at LEC who worked full-time while obtaining both her undergraduate and graduate degrees. This enabled her to create a two-way applied learning environment, enable her to bring fresh, new classroom ideas to her workplace and real-world business problems to the classroom.

“The MBA program at Lake Erie College is outstanding! It provided an affordable, close to home, flexible program that worked with my busy schedule,” Sullivan said. “I also had the great opportunity to learn from some outstanding professors who engaged and inspired critical thinking, problem solving and intellectual curiosity.”

TOMMY COLE ’08 is a professional singer/songwriter based in Nashville, Tenn. He returned to Lake Erie College to present a mini-concert in the Holden Center on March 16, 2016.

ELISHA CRUTCHER ’04 is a referral office liaison for MetroHealth in Old Brooklyn, Ohio.

JAMES GARGAS ’04 finished his tenth year in forensic services with Price Waterhouse Coopers LLP in Washington, D.C.

KIMBERLEY (FORD) McCORMACK ’04 of Streetsboro, Ohio, and her husband, Michael, welcomed a son, Alexander Michael McCormack on Aug. 5, 2016. Alex weighed 8’ 14 oz. and was 21-1/2” long – his parents couldn’t be prouder!

HEATHER McELWAIN ’06 is a dispatcher in the Lake County Sheriff’s Department in Painesville, Ohio.

KRISTEN MILLER ’08 is a database administrator at Bishop Watterson High School in Columbus, Ohio.

HOWARD WASHINGTON II ’08, Broadview Hts., Ohio, is CEO of NeVer-Not-Working, LLC.

JOE AICHELE ’12 and CHRISSY DELANEY ’14 were married at Lake Erie College in Morley Music Building on July 9, 2016. They currently reside in Tampa, Fla.

GUS ARMBRUSTER ’12 is a product manager at Atlas Copco in Independence, Ohio.

MITCH BROWN ’12, a current graduate student at The University of Southern Mississippi in psychology, had his first first-author paper accepted for publication in evolutionary psychological science. The paper is called “Avoiding Extraverts: Pathogen Concern Downregulates Preferences for Extraverted Faces.” Brown also recently received confirmation of the acceptance of a paper in the academic journal “Personality and Individual Differences.” This was his second first-author paper in a month, giving him a total of six accepted peer-reviewed publications.

CAMERON CASTRO ’12 has returned to his alma mater as the head baseball coach for the Lake Erie College Storm. Castro played for the Storm as a pitcher during the 208-11 seasons and since then has had several successful stints coaching college-level athletes.

CAMERON CROSSAN ’12 and JESSICA MEYER ’14 were married in Lexington, Ky. on May 14, 2016. The couple met in 2011 while they were students at LEC. Other LEC alumni in the wedding party were MITCHELL CROSSAN ’12, CARLO GENTILE ’10, JULIA KOKAVEC ’11, SAMANTHA PARLAPIANO ‘14 and MATTHEW SWANSON ’15.

STEPHANIE JOHNSON ’13 is a counselor at Premier Behavioral Health Services in Mentor, Ohio.

STEPHANIE KILPER ’12 recently began graduate school at Columbia College in Chicago for dance/movement therapy and counseling.

BRITTANY MARTIN ’10 is lead teacher for OHDELA in Akron, Ohio. She was a 2015-16 nominee for OCCS Teacher of the Year.

PATRICK McCANN ’13 is an accountant at Quality Electrodynamics (QED) in Mayfield, Ohio.

SAVANNAH MILLS ’16 has started work toward her Ph.D. in the biomedical sciences training program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

CHELSEA (GIESEN) MURPHY ’12 of Farmington Hills, Mich., graduated from medical school and began a residency in emergency medicine at Beaumont Botsford.

ALLISON PAVKOV ’16, Copley, Ohio, is a pharmacist at Walgreens.

SAMANTHA RONDE ’12 of Lancaster, Ohio, and Dennis Boerstler were married Dec. 12, 2015.

TYLER TESNY ’14 and ELIZA HINES ’16 were married at Lake Erie College in Morley Music Building on June 4, 2016.

ALYSSA WAGERS ’11, MBA ’13 is a human resource generalist for Saint-Gobain in Solon, Ohio.

TYLER WALTERS ’10 works in small commercial sales for The Frank Agency in Middlefield, Ohio.

ERIC WIEDENFELD ’14, MBA ’16 is a staff schedule associate at the Cleveland Clinic.