For the past few years the annual Salute to Catholic School Alumni has set a new fund-raising record. This year will likely be no exception.
S. Bradford Rives, chairman of the board of the Catholic Education Foundation (CEF), said this year’s goal is to “exceed $500,000 — a lofty goal but one we are very hopeful of meeting.”
Rives, who is chief administrative officer of LG & E and KU Energy LLC, was recruited to become part of the CEF by Phil McHugh, who was then at Fifth Third Bank in Louisville. That was five years ago, Rives said, noting that he had “been involved with the Salute as a table solicitor for a couple of years before that.”
“My wife, Mary Klarer and I, and our three kids, all benefitted from Catholic grade school and high school here in Louisville,” Rives said in an email communication last week. “The CEF gives us the best forum to ‘give back’ so others can experience the same faith-based education that we experienced.”
This year the 23rd annual Salute will be held March 20 at the Galt House Hotel. Doors will open at 6 p.m.; dinner and the program will begin an hour later.
And just as in the past, the evening will feature a keynote speaker — this year it will be Dr. John C. Lechleiter, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company. His brother, Richard A. Lechleiter is co-chair of this year’s event along with Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz.
John Lechleiter’s selection as the evening’s keynote speaker represents another step in the CEF’s efforts to increase the amount of money it collects and then distributes as tuition assistance to area families.
The CEF has, with the support of the American Life & Accident Insurance Co., paid a handsome sum for nationally-known speakers. “And to be honest my conscience always bothered me when I thought about that check and how many students we could help with that money,” said Rosemary Bisig Smith, executive director of the foundation.
So this year the CEF and the Salute committee chose another path — beginning with John Lechleiter, they will select future keynote speakers from their list of past honorees.
“It’s another sign of fiscal responsibility,” Smith noted. “As more requests for tuition assistance come in, we’re constantly looking for ways we can increase our funding and lower our expenses. This is one way.”
As Eli Lilly’s president, John Lechleiter travels the world to represent the pharmaceutical giant’s interest. But when asked to speak at the March 20 salute, Bisig said, Lechleiter rearranged his travel schedule to make sure he could be present for the event.
Rives, the CEF board chairman, said last year’s Salute raised $472,000, just shy of its half-a-million dollar goal. This year that goal seems very much in reach.
In addition to the six Catholic school alumni who will be recognized at this year’s event, two other major honors will be presented. The CEF’s 2013 Community Service Award will be given to C. Edward Glasscock, chairman emeritus of the law firm of Frost Brown Todd LLC. And the 2013 Father Joseph McGee Award for outstanding Catholic educator will be given to Frederick J. Whittaker. (A story about Whittaker was published in the Feb. 21 issue of The Record).
This year’s Catholic school alumni honorees are:
Alice Bridges is Vice President of Healthy Communities for KentuckyOne Health in Louisville. She has worked for KentuckyOne and its legacy organization, Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare, for 26 years. She currently serves on the board of directors for the Downtown Rotary, the Archdiocese of Louisville Editorial Board for The Record, the Jewish Family and Career Services Advisory Board and the Kentuckiana Health Collaborative. She is a 2013 Bingham Fellow and participates in the Churchill Downs Kentucky Derby Host Program. In the past, Bridges has also served as board chair for StageOne Family Theatre and Music Theatre Louisville.
Bridges is a graduate of Mercy Academy and describes her Catholic education as “instrumental in shaping her life.” She holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Eastern Kentucky University, where she graduated first in her class. Alice and her husband, Barry, are members of St. Leonard parish. They have two young adult children, Max and Erin.
Ellyn E. Crutcher is an attorney, community builder, artist and spiritual companion. She is a graduate of Assumption High school and Transylvania University and holds a law degree from the University of Kentucky. She also hold a master’s degree in business administration from Xavier University. Crutcher represented the Kentucky Public Service Commission for nine years, and spent the next 15 years as general counsel to Consolidated Communications, Inc., where she advised a dozen telecommunications enterprises.
Crutcher has been an active participant in the annual Festival of Faiths; is a graduate of the JustFaith program and has engaged in U.S. State Department-supported peace consultations in India and Bangladesh. She also serves on Yale Divinity School’s Board of Advisors.
Her community service includes the International Thomas Merton Society, Metro United Way and Coles County Habitat for Humanity. Crutcher has served the Louisville Visual Arts Association as president and board chair, and has assisted at the Sundance Film Festival and Theater Labs.
She is married to Tom Moran, is a member of the Church of Epiphany and leads its Labyrinth Ministry.
Dr. James M. Hinkebein says his Catholic education is the foundation that prepared him to “tackle” medical school and his pediatric residency. It further inspired him, he said, to give back in service to those in need. For more than 30 years, Hinkebein has built on this foundation through his pediatric practice, Growing Healthy Children, as well as donating time to the Spina Bifida Clinic. He is a clinical professor of pediatrics for University of Louisville School of Medicine and also serves as a team physician for St. Xavier High School, from which he graduated.
Hinkebein also earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Louisville, where he completed medical school. His awards and honors include a radiology award and the Billy F. Andrews Award given to an outstanding student in pediatrics.
Hinkebein has been recognized as an outstanding alumnus of St. Xavier High School, and in Louisville Magazine as an outstanding pediatrician. Jim and his wife, Susan, are parishioners of St. Raphael Church. They have three grown children, Rob, Nick and Dan, three daughter-in-laws, Stacey, Beth and Kathie and seven grandchildren.
William ‘Bill’ Howard is the founder and CEO of Fastline Publications LLC, a publisher of trade magazines for the farming industry in Buckner, Ky. He is a graduate of Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, and his three oldest sons are graduates of Trinity High School. Howard is a graduate of the University of Dayton.
His service to the community includes serving as the vice chair for the Louisville Area American Red Cross board of directors and as a board member for the Oldham County Red Cross, and is active with the Boy Scouts. He is a chair of Operation Parent and a National FFA judge for Stars over America.
Howard also serves as board member for The Bank – Oldham County and the Trinity High School Foundation. He has been recognized by the Boy Scouts of America with the Silver Beaver Award. His company, Fastline Publications, received the Republic Bank/Wave-3 TV We Care Award.
Bill and his wife, Jill, have four sons: Michael, Christopher, DJ and Sean. They have four grandchildren and are members of Immaculate Conception Church in La Grange, Ky.
Market research executive Paul J. Schulte gratefully acknowledges that Catholic education “has touched just about everything in my life.” The St. Louis native began his formation there at St. Stephen Protomartyr Elementary School and at St. Mary’s High School. Upon graduation, he joined the Passionist Congregation and came to Louisville to study at Bellarmine University, where he earned a B.A. in philosophy. After a year of theological study and vocational discernment in Chicago, Schulte returned to Louisville and began his career in market research.
He was director of the Survey Research Center at the University of Louisville’s Urban Studies Institute. In 1982, he and a colleague left U of L to start their own research firm, now known as Horizon Group International, of which Schulte is chairman and CEO.
Because of his experience in market research analysis, many organizations have asked him to serve as a board member or advisor, including the American Marketing Association, Kentucky Science Center, Speed Museum, Better Business Bureau, the Kentucky Colonels, Christian Care Communities, Bellarmine University and Trinity High School. He served eight years on the board of the Catholic Education Foundation and continues to serve as an ad hoc member of its development committee, lending his expertise to help launch the foundation’s upcoming annual fund.
Schulte and his wife Sue are members of the Church of the Ascension and have two sons, Matt and Michael.
Susan M. Spalding considers her Catholic education experience “the greatest start in life that anyone could ask for.” St. Peter Claver School in Sheboygan, Wisc., was a growing and crowded school, but the sisters who taught there made learning interesting and fun, she said. While her business career was in operations management and client servicing management with Continental Bank of Chicago, Coopers and Lybrand Consulting and Northern Trust Company of Chicago, her real impact on community came with her move to Springfield, Ky.
She has served the St. Dominic Church community through a successful capital campaign, was the chair for the parish council and served on the St. Dominic School science lab committee.
She was a founder of the Mid-Kentucky Arts at St. Catharine College and currently serves as its executive director. The goal of Mid-Kentucky Arts is to bring professional level music events to Central Kentucky. As manager of the Mid-Kentucky Chorus, Spalding has fostered growth of the chorus which now has more than 90 members.
Spalding earned her B.B.A. from the University of Wisconsin and has been honored with the St. Catharine College Veritas Award. She and her husband, Leonard, are members of St. Dominic. They have four children: Len, Laura, Thomas and Sally and 17 grandchildren.
