LTHS Announces 2008 Hall of Fame Inductees

Hailing from very different fields, the 2008 Lyons Township High School Hall of Fame program will welcome an award-winning actor/writer, head of Chicago’s CTA, world renowned composer/musician, multiple national championship running coach, and a leader in the field of clinical pharmacological research. Five LT alumni have been chosen for induction into the 2008 Hall of Fame.

The LTHS Board of Education established the Hall of Fame to recognize the accomplishments of some 65,000 graduates, faculty and friends of LT and to provide role models to students. The Hall of Fame is organized by a volunteer member committee of alumni, faculty, staff, students and citizens.

Michael Hotchcock
Michael Hitchcock graduated from LTHS in 1976 then continued his education at Northwestern University’s School of Speech, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, and at UCLA, where he earned a master’s degree in film and television production. Since then, he has become well-known and respected as an actor, writer, and producer. His solid comedic timing has landed him featured roles in critically-acclaimed films “Best in Show,” “For Your Consideration,” “A Mighty Wind,” and “Waiting for Guffman.” “Best in Show” earned a Golden Globe nomination for “Best Comedy” and won “Funniest Motion Picture” by the American Comedy Awards and British Comedy Awards. Hitchcock and his co-actors from “A Mighty Wind” were awarded “Best Ensemble Cast” by the Florida Film Critics Circle and were nominated for “Best Ensemble Acting” by the Phoenix Film Critics Society. Hitchcock’s numerous film and television appearances also include “Serenity,” “Heartbreakers,” “Wild Hogs,” “Pushing Daisies,” “Desperate Housewives, “Entourage,” “Arrested Development,” and the television series, “Men of a Certain Age.” Hitchcock’s writing credits include the films “Where the Day Takes You,” “House Arrest,” “The Ultimate Christmas Present,” and the comedy series, MAD TV, which has been nominated three times by the Writers Guild of America for “Outstanding Writing of a Comedy/Variety Series.” Hitchcock is currently executive producer and writer of the upcoming Comedy Central series, “The Bobby Lee Project.” He remains active in the Los Angeles community by teaching English, math, and improvisation with the L.A. Mentor Program and appears regularly in Hollywood’s popular comedy and improvisational troupe, The Groundlings.

Ron Huberman
Ron Huberman graduated from Lyons Township in 1990, and then earned undergraduate degrees in English and psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1995, he was accepted for training at the Chicago Police Department and worked night patrols while attending courses at University of Chicago during the day, where he earned dual graduate degrees in social service administration and business administration. During his time on campus, he was named a Schweitzer and a Soros Fellow. He climbed the ranks within the City of Chicago to his current position as the President of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the second largest public transportation system in the country, servicing 1.6 million riders per day. In this role, he has been given the monumental task of operating a financially-strapped, billion-dollar system while trying to advance technology and increase ridership. Previous to this assignment, Huberman served as the Chief of Staff for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley for two years and as the Executive Director of Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communication prior to that. He has also worked in various capacities for the Chicago Police Department. His most noted accomplishment to date was expanding the Police Department’s existing Citizen and Law Enforcement and Reporting (CLEAR) system in conjunction with the Illinois State Police system to create I-CLEAR. More than 240 local, state and federal law enforcement and criminal justice agencies across the state can share crime information in real time by using this database. Huberman received the national Gary B. Hayes Award for Innovation in Policing in 2002 for his work with I-CLEAR.

Phillip Ramey
After graduating from LT in 1957, Phillip Ramey studied composition with Russian-born composer Alexander Tcherepnin, initially in France and then in Chicago, at DePaul University. Graduate studies were in New York at Columbia University. An accomplished pianist, Ramey gave the premiere of his Concert Suite for Piano and Orchestra in 1962 in Chicago. His work of orchestral scores includes several concertos, chamber-ensemble pieces and a large body of solo-piano works, notably six sonatas, Piano Fantasy and the satiric Leningrad Rag, based on Scott Joplin and written for the legendary Vladimir Horowitz. Ramey’s Horn Concerto, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to celebrate its 150th anniversary, was introduced by that orchestra and conducted by Leonard Slatkin. His orchestration of Aaron Copland’s piano piece, Proclamation, had an historic bi-coastal premiere, performed on the same evening in New York by Zubin Mehta and in Los Angeles by Erich Leinsdorf. Copland once wrote of Ramey, “He is a composer of real individuality, with a flair for dramatic gesture.” A well-known writer on music, Ramey has published hundreds of liner notes, along with a multitude of concert program notes and magazine articles. From 1977 to 1993 he served as Annotator and Program Editor of the New York Philharmonic. His biography of the composer Irving Fine, published in 2005 by the U.S. Library of Congress, received the 2006 Deems Taylor Award for Outstanding Musical Biography. His autobiography was completed in 2007, and in 2008, he finished writing a novel for a German movie company, which will be filmed in Morocco in 2009. Ramey’s music is available from several major publishers, including two CDs of his piano music, the beginning of a complete survey: the first (2006) performed by the British pianist Stephen Gosling; the second (2008) by the Argentinean Mirian Conti. Ramey’s most recent large-scale works are J.F.K.: Oration for Speaker and Orchestra (with a text from speeches by President Kennedy) and Piano Sonata No. 6.

Mary Westrick
After graduation from LT in 1974, Mary Westrick attended Purdue University and received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1978. She continued her education at Purdue, earning both her master’s degree and doctorate in pharmacology and toxicology. Westrick has spent much of her career testing the safety and effectiveness of promising new drugs, treatments or preventive measures in humans. She started her career at Bristol-Meyers, where she served as a research scientist. When her department at Bristol-Meyers relocated out of state, she teamed with a colleague as founder and president of GFI Pharmaceutical Services, Inc., a clinical research company. In just under 10 years, the company went from five to 175 employees with more than $6 million in revenue in 1996. When Collaborative Clinical Research, Inc. purchased GFI, Westrick assumed the position of vice president of corporate operations. She then moved on to Covance, the world’s largest publicly-traded drug development company with annual revenues over $1 billion. Currently, she serves as the global vice president and general manager of Clinical Pharmacology, where she manages more than 750 employees in Europe and North America. She oversees all aspects of clinical pharmacology services and the day-to-day operations of ten clinical research units. Her business unit was recognized as Covance’s “Business Unit of the Year” in both 2003 and 2007, and she was awarded Covance’s “Excellence in People” Award in 2004 for her support and mentoring of her staff. She oversaw construction of a new clinic in 2004 and just opened a new $12.4 million facility with 50,000 square feet of research space. She was the first woman to serve as a general manager of an operations unit at Covance as well as on the company’s Global Leadership Council. She also serves as a member of the Dean’s Industrial Advisory Board in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Purdue University.

Norman Witek
Norman Witek, a 1963 graduate, attended the University of Tennessee on a full athletic scholarship, where he earned his bachelor and master degrees. He began his career as head cross-country and track coach at Brevard College in North Carolina in 1968. He quickly brought great success to the college during his 19-year coaching tenure. His teams won a record four consecutive National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Cross-Country Championships, as well as the NJCAA Marathon Championship. Additionally, he coached 116 All-Americans. Witek is a three-time National Coach of the Year, member of the NJCAA Hall of Fame and a recent inductee to the Brevard College Hall of Fame. Witek has served students as a professor, athletic director, division chair for physical education, and dean of students. He continues to teach Exercise Science and is the coordinator for Physical Education Teacher Licensure. For his years of service, Brevard College awarded him the Brevard Medallion of Honor in May 2008. He also directs the nation’s largest summer distance running camp at the college. Each year, the camp hosts more than 1500 participants arriving individually and as teams to learn from Witek. He also volunteers his time coaching in the community. His knowledge and motivational skills are legendary, and the numerous All-Americans and individual National Champions he has coached pay tribute to his success. In 1999, Adidas World Headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany released the “Brevard” model women’s running shoe in the United States after visiting the summer camp and receiving valuable feedback from Witek and the runners. After several more visits to the camp, Adidas named an updated model of the shoe the “Witek” to show their appreciation for his contributions to the sport of running. The shoe was released in Europe in 2004.

LG SCHOOLS SCORE WELL ON STATE EXAMS

Well, it looks like parents and children and school leaders in La Grange have something to brag about, as their public schools scored some impressive rankings in the 2008 Illinois Report Cards, according to data released just a few hours ago.

Rankings show each school fared compared to schools statewide, while percentiles compare that school's scores to those of other schools who took the same test(s).

Out of 654 schools taking the Prairie State Achievement Exam, Lyons Township High School placed 32nd out of 654 best performing high schools on the PSAE across Illinois, racking up a 74.3 percentile. LT, with campuses in La Grange and Western Springs and serving students in a much larger geographical area, ranked just below Glenbard South High School in Glen Ellyn and just ahead of Lincolnway East High School in Frankfort. The best performing school on the test was Northside College Prep in Chicago -- with a 99.3 percentile.
(The PSAE is taken by juniors and includes the ACT, taken to determine if students are academically prepared for college and the workplace)

On all state tests, LT ranked in the 74.3 percentile at 2,177th among 3,698 schools statewide.

On the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, District 105's Spring Avenue Elementary School ranked 53rd out of 3,097 grade and middle schools, at the 97.3 percentile.

So how else did La Grange schools perform on the ISAT? Quite well:
District 107's Pleasantdale Elementary in unincorporated La Grange ranked 71st at 96.7 percent; Cossitt Elementary was 205th at 94.7; Ogden Avenue Elementary was 224th with a 94.4; District 106's Highlands Middle and Elementary schools in the Highlands ranked 261st and 262nd, with a 94.0 each, respectively and District 105's Seventh Avenue Elementary came in at 529th with a 91.3.

Park ranked 608th with a 90.6 percentile and Forest Road was at 967th at an 87.7. (ISAT is a state test taken by 3rd to 8th graders that uses some questions used nationally)

On all state tests, we know how LT did and it had a higher ranking than both Riverside-Brookfield in Riverside (2,192) and Argo Community in Summit (3,511). But the grade schools fared much better. Again these are rankings among 3,698 schools statewide.

District 105's Spring Avenue Elementary came in 42nd with a 97.2; Pleasantdale Elementary was 67th with a 96.5; Cossitt was 198th with a 94.5; Ogden Avenue was 229th with a 94.2 and Highlands Middle and Elementary ranked 251st and 296th, respectively, with a 93.9 and 93.4 percentile. Park Junior High was 584th at 90.5; Seventh Avenue Elementary was 611th at 90.3 and District 105's Gurrie Middle School was 892nd with an 88.0.

In La Grange Park, Forest Road Elementary came in at 918th with an 87.8 and District 95's Brook Park Elementary was 945th with an 87.6.

Overall, Pleasantdale was 43rd in the top 50 middle schools in Illinois --more than twice as well as its 2007 ranking of 89th. Its '08 percentile was 75.70.

LT TEACHER GETS AWARD

Lyons Township High School Physical Education teacher and Eurythmics Dance Troupe sponsor Terry Wethington (center) was presented with a Teacher of the Year award by the Western Springs VFW Post 10778 Commander Vincent Huml (left) and Past Post Commander Fred Rodriguez. Wethington was thanked for his tireless dedication to students over the past two decades.

FLOODED WITH PRIDE (AND DONATIONS)

The Student Council at LyonsTownship High School raised $5,000 during recent Homecoming festivities to help residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast with flood relief.

Through the sales of "Floodbuster" t-shirts and Mardi Gras beads, students carried out a campaign to teach peers about the ongoing needs of people in areas hit by recent hurricanes while simultaneously raising money for worthy charities -- to promote their overall goal of increasing school spirit and teamwork.

They also set aside a buck from every Homecoming dance ticket sold for the cause.

This year’s theme, Mardi Gras, lent itself toward this goal, as Student Council members knew there was still work to be done in New Orleans and surrounding areas as part of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. And, only a couple of weeks into the planning of Homecoming, the Gulf Coast was hit by Hurricane Ike, the effects of which were felt here at home.

SchoolsCount, an organization currently helping 13 Galveston, Texas grade schools get back into session after horrific damage from Ike, received $2,000, which bought supplies ruined by the storm, such as music and physical education equipment and everyday classroom necessities.

The remaining money is being donated to an organization called Katrina’s Angels, an agency committed to helping families who are still rebuilding their homes since the storm hit in 2005.

WHAT A DAY FOR A PARADE

Residents through parts of La Grange and Western Springs who step to the curb or go to the neighborhoods surrounding Lyons Township High School's North and South campuses will enjoy the annual Homecoming Parade starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 11.

The 90-minute procession, which kicks off in the North parking lot on Cossitt Avenue between South Gilbert and Brainard avenues in La Grange, will go south on Blackstone Avenue and west on Goodman Avenue then south on Clausen Avenue in Western Springs to 47th Street -- at which point it will pass through the Garden Market shopping center before breaking up in front of the South Campus on Circle Drive.

Paradegoers will not be able to park or use roadways along the route for the duration of the morning parade as a safety precaution.

The sophomore and varsity football games will follow the parade festivities in the South campus stadium.

CHURCH JOB SEARCH AID OFFERED

Job-seekers will have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with a human resources or job search professional when three Catholic churches in La Grange and Western Springs host a joint resume review program at the St. Cletus Education Building from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 25.

The 20-minute review sessions will offer area residents suggestions on improving the descriptions of their objectives, education and work history and related resume topics.

Business pros will explain the current resume style, how to make them key-word friendly, targeted, clear and concise and of a professional appearance, how to format such documents and make them focused on accomplishments.

The program -- to be held inside the flagpole entrance of the school at 600 W. 55th St., La Grange, is a collaboration between St. John of the Cross in Western Springs, St. Cletus and St. Francis Xavier, also in La Grange.