HonoredFour receive distinguished alumni awards
With a Homecoming theme of “Gratefully Red,” Northwestern’s campus was awash in the color Oct. 2-3. Despite cool, wet weather, spirits were warm as alumni reconnected with each other, faculty and staff.
About 100 people attended reunions for the classes of 1979, ’89, ’99 and 2004. The traditional Homecoming activities of Morning on the Green and Raider Road Race were joined by a new event, Battle of the Bands, which featured bands from the campus and community.
The weekend was capped off with a 35-6 football victory over Concordia and back-to-back volleyball wins over Dana and Midland.
DAN ROSS
DAN ROSS
Cold and wet weather couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of alumni who returned to campus for Homecoming in October.
Darlene (De Beer ’52) Vander Aarde
Service to Humankind
While her husband, Stan ’51, practiced medicine at a hospital in India from 1961 to 1987, Darlene Vander Aarde pursued her own ministries. Trained as an educator, she taught English and Bible classes for nursing students and supervised a community nursery school. She organized a model feeding program for undernourished children and ran an institute that taught individuals how to make and market handcrafted items.
Eventually Vander Aarde became administrator of the American Arcott Mission Elementary and Middle School and the C.S.I. (Church of South India) High School for girls. In that capacity, she developed a scholarship program that enabled 100 girls from outlying villages to board at the schools.
Now retired, Vander Aarde continues to serve by volunteering at Orange City’s Bibles for Missions thrift store and participating in a quilting group at her church.
Jean (Tallman ’75) and Drew Vogel ’72
Service to Northwestern
Drew and Jean Vogel have served as volunteers for numerous community organizations, including NWC.
President and CEO of Diamond Vogel Paints, Drew is in his 17th year as a member of Northwestern’s Board of Trustees and has been the board chair since 2003. He chaired the committee that led fundraising for the renovation of the DeWitt Theatre Arts Center, completed in 2004. He also chaired the search committee for President Bruce Murphy and was a member of the search committee that recruited President Greg Christy.
Jean served on the planning committee for Christy’s inauguration in fall 2008. She was a member of Northwestern’s visual identity task force, which unveiled a new college word mark and logo in 2005. Jean also has served as a consultant for campus aesthetics, including the hanging of lights and wreaths and decorating of trees at Christmas.
Randy Oostra ’77
Professional Achievement
Dr. Randy Oostra is president and CEO of ProMedica Health System, based in Toledo, Ohio. While he oversees an organization that generates $2 billion in annual revenue, employs 15,000, and serves 2.5 million patients in a two-state area, he says his job comes down to approaching every task from this perspective: How would I want my family to be treated?
Oostra served hospitals and health organizations in Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota before becoming vice president of ProMedica’s Toledo Hospital in 1997. He served as ProMedica’s president and chief operating officer from 2006 until last year, when he was named chief executive of the most integrated health system in the country, according to Modern Healthcaremagazine.
A biology major at Northwestern, Oostra has also earned master’s degrees in science and healthcare administration and a doctorate in management. 
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