Lyons Township High School will honor five of its graduates on Nov. 6 at the LaGrange Country Club, at the school’s annual Hall of Fame induction banquet. The Hall of Fame was established to recognize notable alumni, who are chosen for the honor each year by a committee of alumni, faculty, students and district residents.

Among those honored this year are the following:

Jen Christensen, a 1990 graduate of LTHS, has earned the two top awards in broadcasting – a Peabody and DuPont – for her work as an investigative news producer and documentary filmmaker.

Co-author of two books and the founder of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association, Christensen helped launch CNN’s investigative unit, which has covered domestic terrorism, corporate corruption and Hurricane Katrina.

For CNN, she has also produced several documentaries, including ones on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sarah Palin. She also interviewed Barack Obama for Barack Obama Revealed and Jimmy Carter for God’s Warriors, the most-watched and most-honored documentary in CNN history, according to a release issued by LT announcing her induction into the Hall of Fame.

Blair Gifford, a 1973 grad, has devoted his career to helping internationalize the profession of health administration in developing nations. Armed with a Ph.D. from University of Chicago, Gifford’s research has concluded that the profession of health administration can’t simply be a one-size-fits-all program based on U.S. models.

Rather, any education program for health administration officials should reflect the culture, resources and political climate of developing nations.

He was recently recognized as one of 30 international New Century Fulbright Scholars by the U.S. State Department and has served as a visiting professor at Yale and Northwestern universities.

Quinton Studer (class of 1969), began his career in the field of special education before switching to the healthcare arena as a hospital administrator.

He was chief operating officer for Holy Cross hospital in Chicago, where his initiatives in patient care led to winning a trade publication’s Great Comeback Award.

In 1996, he became president of Baptist Hospital Inc. and is currently CEO of Studer Group, which serves more than 500 hospitals to formulate best practices for the industry.

He was named one of the Top 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare magazine for his work on institutional healthcare improvement. He is also the owner of a minor league baseball team, the Pensacola Pelicans and is known for philanthropic work nationwide, with a special focus on disadvantaged children.

A 1938 graduate of LTHS, Norman Ulrich was a budding artist when he delayed those plans to become a bomber pilot during World War II. His B-17 was shot down over Germany during his fifth mission and he spent 11 months in a German prison camp.

After the war, he resumed his career as an illustrator and commercial artist with R.R. Donnelley, eventual serving as creative director.

He later owned his own commercial art studio and was elected president of the National Society of Art Directors. During that time he represented the U.S. at an International Art Congress that produced word-free symbols (like the warning sign of a circle with a slash through it) still in use today.

Still active as an artist for churches and charities, he also is active in the national Stalag Luft III Former Prisoners of War organization and shares his wartime experiences to help in the rehabilitation of returning combat soldiers.

Former LTHS gymnastics star Mark Williams, a 1976 graduate, was an All-American gymnast at University of Nebraska, which won national tiles 1979 and 1980.

After graduating, he started his coaching career, landing with University of Oklahoma in 1988, where he served as an assistant until 1999. Since then, his teams have won five national championships and he has been named NCAA Coach of the Year five times.

Nineteen of his gymnasts have competed on the U.S National Team, and Williams served as a coach for three Olympic games in 1996, 2000 and 2004.

What’s up, doc?

Monica Ignatowicz Friedrich of Brookfield has received a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine degree from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. Friedrich has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois.

A bit of luck

Ten North Riverside Public Library patrons were winners in the library’s annual Banned Books Week raffle.

Lisa Eaton and Jordan Thormeyer won Borders gift cards donated by the Friends of the Library; Elizabeth Gomorczak, Mary Kadlec, Sergey Kalinin, Jim Orth and Jan Umbenhower won tickets to Arsenic and Old Lace donated by the North Riverside Players; Christina Raguso won a Banned Books Week T-shirt; Mike Zdarsky won a coffee mug; and Marge Hook won a tote bag.

Each patron checking out one of the library’s “banned books” during Banned Books Week, Sept. 26 through Oct. 3, received an entry in the raffle.

Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.

Riverside woman honored by veterans group

Riverside resident Marge Greene was honored on Oct. 20 as the Person of the Year by The Combined Veterans Association of Illinois. The CVA comprises 12 major veterans organizations and each year chooses its person of the year.

Greene is a past president of AMVETS Auxiliary Department of Illinois and is their Veterans Administration voluntary service representative at Edward Hines V.A. Hospital. She received the award for over 48 years as a volunteer at Hines and her other volunteer efforts.

She is only the third woman to be so honored in 50 years by the CVA.