News Announcement
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Cheryl L. Kight - Vice President, Marketing

Columbus, April 1, 2008

The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges to Honor Four Outstanding Alumni
at 2008 Evening of Excellence

The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges (OFIC) will honor four distinguished alumni from Ohio’s independent colleges and universities by induction into its Hall of Excellence on April 9, 2008 at The Columbus, A Renaissance Hotel, in Columbus, Ohio.

In 1987, OFIC established the Hall of Excellence Award whereby outstanding alumni are inducted on an annual basis.  This, OFIC’s twenty-second Evening of Excellence, will celebrate these alumni, whose achievements in their fields and service to society exemplify the values of a liberal arts education. The Inductees for 2008 who will join the 100 members of the Hall of Excellence are:

Robert S Kunkel, Jr. is a 1955 Mount Union College graduate and world-renowned in the study and treatment of headaches.  He served his internship and residency at The Cleveland Clinic, beginning his study of headache sufferers early in his career, and eventually became Staff Physician, Section of Headache in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Neurology there.  Dr. Kunkel has authored many articles and book chapters relating to headache, is co-editor of a textbook on headache diagnosis and treatment and has published a home reference for patients and caregivers.  He has been recognized by numerous professional associations and served as the U.S. representative on the Committee to Reclassify Headache of the International Headache Society.  He currently maintains his practice and acts as a consultant for The Cleveland Clinic Section of Headache. 

Lt. Gen. Harry D. Raduege, Jr. (USAF, ret) graduated from Capital University in 1970.  Retired as Director of the Defense Information Systems Agency and Commander of the Joint Task Force for Global Network Operations after more than 35 years in the U.S. Air Force, he planned, engineered and operated the most complex global networks in the world to provide command, communications, and intelligence systems to serve the President, Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and every combatant commander.  On 9/11 General Raduege was responsible for restoring military communications in the Pentagon and, as Manager of the National Communications System, for reconstituting more than five million voice and data circuits to allow Wall Street to resume operation within six days.   He is currently Chairman of the Deloitte Center for Network Innovation, which focuses on major technology issues confronting both public and private sectors.   

Linda J. Saif, a 1969 graduate of The College of Wooster, is a Distinguished University Professor at Ohio State University and microbiologist in The Ohio State University’s Food Animal Health Research Program at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster.  She has studied animal-related pathogens and their human versions for 38 years to develop methods to control viruses afflicting both humans and animals.  Her expertise put her at the center of the global effort to control Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and her OARDC lab was one of just three U.S. facilities asked to participate in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International SARS Reference and Verification Lab Network.  Dr. Saif has served as an advisor on SARS coronavirus for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and as advisor to WHO’s Scientific Advisory Committee on SARS in Switzerland.

Walter R. Young, Jr., an alumnus of Muskingum College’s Class of 1966, became the CEO of Champion Enterprises in 1990 and led Champion from near bankruptcy to a position as the world’s largest homebuilder and Fortune 500 corporation in less than twelve years.  For three consecutive years The Manufacturing Housing Institute named him “Industry Person of the Year”, and The Harvard University Press publication, In Their Time: The Greatest Business Leaders of the Twentieth Century, recently recognized Mr. Young as one of the world’s 1000 most influential business leaders.  He has led the company in partnership with national organizations and the U.S. Departments of Energy and Housing and Urban Development to employ innovative design and production processes to enhance quality and energy efficiency as well as maintain affordability of housing.    

These honorees were selected from nominations submitted by OFIC’s member institutions.  A committee of OFIC board members selects Hall of Excellence inductees whose lifetime achievements exemplify the traditions, ideals, strengths and values of private higher education.  The 100 past Hall of Excellence inductees include Senator John Glenn, Jr. and his wife, Annie Glenn, Coretta Scott King, Hugh Downs, and Norman Vincent Peale.

The Evening of Excellence also honors donors, corporate and collegiate volunteers, and students.

Note:  Pictures of the four inductees are available on the OFIC website www.ofic.org., or you can e-mail us directly at briggs@ofic.org, and we will provide them to you.

OFIC is the primary corporate and foundation solicitation organization for 35 independent Ohio colleges and universities. OFIC member colleges collectively enroll more than 97,000 students and award one-third of all bachelor’s degrees in the state. For 58 years OFIC has worked to highlight the leadership, value and excellence of independent higher education and has provided unrestricted operating funds and scholarship commitments through funds raised in annual solicitations of businesses and foundations, thereby assuring continuation of excellence in private higher education. OFIC is governed by a Board of Trustees comprised of Ohio’s corporate leaders, as well as presidents of the 35 member colleges.

The member colleges are: Antioch College, Ashland University, Baldwin-Wallace College, Bluffton University, Capital University, Cedarville University, University of Dayton, Defiance College, Denison University, The University of Findlay, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Franklin University, Heidelberg College, Hiram College, John Carroll University, Kenyon College, Lake Erie College, Lourdes College, Malone College, Marietta College, Mount Union College, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Muskingum College, Notre Dame College, Oberlin College, Ohio Dominican University, Ohio Northern University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Otterbein College, Urbana University, Ursuline College, Walsh University, Wilmington College, Wittenberg University and The College of Wooster.