Retirement Counts

JIM HEEMSTRA ’72

Retired from a career as a sales and marketing VP, Linda Van Roekel uses her skills to tutor adults seeking their GEDs.

Linda Van Roekel’s successful career was a source of great satisfaction, but it also prevented her from pursuing other passions. Constant travel and leading a team of 200 as vice president and division manager for the multi-million-dollar company Inficon left little time for volunteering or teaching.

In 2004 Van Roekel retired and moved back to Iowa after 40 years away. The 1969 NWC alumna now volunteers at a charity book sale, her church, the Iowa State Fair, and as a math tutor for adults seeking their GEDs.

“I haven’t been bored yet,” says Van Roekel, who lives in Urbandale and serves on Northwestern’s Board of Trustees. “It’s freed me up to try things.”

Van Roekel spent the first three years after college teaching chemistry and math to college-prep students in Germany, so she’s enjoying the return to this first love provided by tutoring.

“I like the one-on-one aspect of it,” she says. “You’re not developing a broad approach for 20; it’s one person you’re helping. You have to admire these people—a guy in his 50s going back to classes for algebra and geometry and stuff he hasn’t seen in 30-plus years. There’s a lot of satisfaction when students pass an exam and say, ‘Oh, I understand now.’”

by Sherrie Barber Willson ’98

Watchful

JIM HEEMSTRA ’72

As the Iowa Department of Public Safety’s homeland security coordinator, Mike Van Berkum works with local, state and federal agencies to protect Iowans from terrorists and natural disasters.

If a suspicious letter or package (maybe one with a dusting of white powder) is received at a public building in the state of Iowa, Mike Van Berkum ’85 gets a call.

Since 2007 Van Berkum has held the position of homeland security coordinator for the Iowa Department of Public Safety. He also works with local, state and federal agencies through the Iowa Intelligence Fusion Center to deter terrorism.

While Van Berkum’s job involves everything from rebuffing terrorist threats, protecting officials, and supporting crowd and traffic control—at events such as athletic contests, the Iowa State Fair and campus protests—he also keeps a watchful eye on the weather.

“In Iowa, our major concerns are still natural disasters like flooding and tornadoes,” he says. “We supply equipment and people to help communities when disasters strike.”

In 2008, when flood waters devastated portions of eastern Iowa, Van Berkum spent two weeks coordinating relief efforts out of the State of Iowa Emergency Operations Center.

With typical Midwest modesty, Van Berkum downplays his role in keeping Iowans safe—whether from raging rivers or terrorist attacks. He considers himself a public servant in the truest sense of the word, and has served proudly since his days as a state trooper 25 years ago. 

“I really like helping people; that’s what law enforcement is all about,” he says.       

by Sarah Asp Olson ’03

Football Forecast

KELLY LAMBERT

When storm clouds loom, meteorologist David Brommer keeps officials and fans alerted at University of Alabama football games.

For the 102,000 Crimson Tide fans inside the University of Alabama’s football stadium and the 25,000 tailgating outside it, David Brommer ’99 doesn’t want to be wrong.

The Monday before the national championship winners take the field for a home game, Brommer, a meteorologist and geography professor, hands off his first game-day forecast. On Wednesday he’ll e-mail another, and Friday, one more, culminating in hour-by-hour predictions made early Saturday.

Then Brommer heads to his stadium office, where, for three hours before the game, he huddles with computers and radars, checking weather patterns and keeping an eye on the lightning sensors he installed on the roof.

“We’re looking good today,” he might say to the Southeast Conference officials, team reps, security and media at the 100-minute meeting. Or, perhaps: “Frontal system coming through around the third quarter; anticipate wind.

“You prepare for the worst, hope it doesn’t happen, but expect it will at some point,” he says.

During calm “no weather” games, Brommer watches from the sidelines, which enables easy access to his office.

Severe weather has yet to stop a game on Brommer’s watch, but he knows it’s possible. A former Red Raider, Brommer and his teammates once fled the field during a 1996 playoff game when blowing snow and lightning combined for a meteorological rarity called “thundersnow.”

by Amy Scheer

Paraguayan Impact

DAN ROSS

Joe and Kendra Heitritter contributed their skills to education and public health during 14 months in Paraguay. In return, they gained an appreciation for the slower pace of life in the South American country.

Thanks to 14 months of living in Paraguay, Kendra (Van’t Hof ’08) and Joe Heitritter ’08 know how to fill an outdoor cement sink with soapy water and hand-wash laundry. They know that to protect a shirt’s color from the strong sun, you turn it inside out before hanging it and pull the garment off the line when the ants consider it dinner.

Because their well had a heater with a finicky fuse, the Heitritters acquired the habit of unplugging the fridge to take a shower.

And because they served with the Peace Corps until April of this year—with Joe specializing in health and Kendra in education—a school library is filled with children’s books; 17 families have brick ovens; elementary teachers try new methods with early readers; and a 5-year-old boy found friends in his foreign neighbors, who taught him an American pastime using a ball and broomstick.

The couple is back in Iowa, where Joe is a Spanish-English interpreter at the Greater Sioux Community Health Center in Sioux Center. The Peace Corps sent volunteers to Paraguay to continue the Heitritters’ projects; the spirit of the community, meanwhile, has followed them home.

“They sit on their porches and drink tea for an hour,” says Kendra. “It helped us really slow down. It’s an experience we’ll never forget.”

by Amy Scheer