2007 Alumni Achievement Award

Retired Twin Cities Teacher Ron Sandeen '57

Ron Sandeen is the perfect public servant. He was a tireless band teacher at Minneapolis junior and senior high schools for 35 years - his bands won numerous city, state and national awards. Ron also founded and for 20 years directed a widely-acclaimed Twin Cities summer music program, the majority of whose participants were from Catholic schools that didn't offer music. He's also been a Scoutmaster; lector; Eucharistic minister and catechism teacher at his parish; a nursing home volunteer; SJU phonathon volunteer; and, for decades, class agent for Saint John's Class of 1957. (Recognized more than once by the SJU Alumni Office staff for writing the best class letters, Ron always has news about classmates and tales about that elusive, wily walleye he's going to land one of these days.) The father of two Johnnie alumni and a Bennie alumna, Ron and his wife, Barb, are seen at numerous SJU athletic contests, home and away.

Phoenix Business Leader Bill Schubert '62

Folks in Phoenix know Bill Schubert. He's the chair and president of Kitchell Corporation where they take seriously a responsibility to strengthen the communities they serve by encouraging employees to volunteer and take lead roles at not-for-profi t organizations. Bill himself is chair of the endowment foundation for Ronald McDonald House of Phoenix and board member of Greater Phoenix Leadership. He is past treasurer of Heard Museum and past chair of St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center Community Board. He and his wife, Judy, have been active with Ryan House, a home for parents of terminally ill children, and together they were honored by the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Phoenix in April for serving as a model of Christian leadership and commitment to the underprivileged. As Kitchell's president for nearly 20 years, Bill has seen his firm develop into a $800-million privately held construction manager/general contractor.

Second Generation Business Owner Mike Scherer '67

Mike Scherer may be retired but he's not done working and serving others yet. The former vice president of operations of Scherer Bros. Lumber in the Twin Cities, he was part of the second-generation leadership that expanded the company from one yard in Minneapolis to four metro sites serving construction and home-building businesses in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Mike's leadership helped Scherer Bros. launch their pioneering corporate wellness program. Appointed by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, Mike served eight years in the 1990s representing all retail lumber dealers around the country on the National Lumber Standards committee. As a volunteer, Mike serves as trustee at Holy Name Parish where he's chaired two campaigns this decade that raised $3,200,000; on the board at St. Therese Center Senior Living Care Facility that added a state-of-the-art facility in Brooklyn Park while Mike was board chair; and on the board of Catholic Senior Services. Mike also helped establish the Twin Cities' Summit Academy for inner-city youth.

St. Cloud School Administrator Bruce Hentges '72

Bruce Hentges knows that there's a lot more to education than what happens in the classroom. Retired from the St. Cloud Public School District, Bruce taught at St. Cloud Tech High School but spent most of his career as a coach, activities director and principal. He's also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and founded two programs to support extracurricular activities in area schools. He was a founding member of the District 742 Local Education Activities Foundation (LEAF) and continues on the board of directors, disbursing grants for district activities. Bruce chaired a committee in 2002 that raised $140,000 to save St. Cloud public school junior high activities. In a spirit of teamwork learned on the playing fields, Bruce helped found the Metro Activities Partnership of Schools (MAPS), which encourages cooperation among Tech, St. Cloud Apollo, St. Cloud Cathedral, Sartell and Sauk Rapids high schools, promotes sportsmanship and raises funds for activities at each school.

New Ulm Catholic School Principal Randy Althoff '77

Once Randy Althoff got back to his roots, he made a mark with hundreds of families and thousands of children in Catholic parishes in southern Minnesota. Randy taught at a Catholic elementary school for three years following graduation from Saint John's and then joined a photography company. Two years later, he realized he needed to start over. He then launched a career that's covered a quarter century as principal at Catholic grade schools and middle schools, working in parishes in New Prague, Winona, Jordan and Dubuque, Iowa, and, most recently, at St. Anthony's in New Ulm.

New Jersey Insurance Company Executive Paul Krump '82

Work and worship - pillars of the Rule of St. Benedict - have paved the way for Paul Krump since his graduation with a business major and German minor. After years of living around the world, Paul and his wife, Anne Marie (Schmidt, CSB 1982), reside in northern New Jersey. Both are busy with their children, community and parish. Anne Marie is a Eucharistic Minister and serves the Bethany funeral ministry and high school tennis booster club. Paul is a member of the Corporate Leadership Council at Family Service of Morris County, serves the SJU capital campaign and is a trustee of The Chubb Foundation. Paul's adherence to Saint Benedict's credo has extended beyond his personal life. As the chief operating officer of Chubb Commercial Insurance, Paul leads by example, showing that the performance of any task to the best of one's ability is an act of both material and spiritual fulfillment. Hired from an on-campus interview, Paul has spent his entire professional career with The Chubb Corporation, a worldwide leader in property and casualty insurance.

Pittsburgh Non-Profit Director Mike Culligan '87

Mike Culligan keeps finding more and better ways to be of service to those in need. After graduating from Saint John's, he volunteered for two years with the Christian Brothers on St. Vincent Island in the Caribbean. He subsequently became the founding director of the LaSallian Volunteer Corps. Mike had assignments in Nicaragua, Angola, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Madagascar for Catholic Relief Services and also directed their distance training worldwide. In addition to his work with AIDS prevention in Africa, he also led an effort to relocate refugees in Bosnia. Mike now directs operations for an international agency that provides humanitarian relief and development assistance to more than 750 million people around the world.

In his current role with LINGOs (Learning for International Non-Governmental Organizations), a newly established non-profit organization, Mike is helping improve the performance, lower the cost and increase the effectiveness of numerous non-governmental organizations that provide a variety of international relief services.