As homecoming celebrated its 100th year and the alumni association celebrated its 150th year, the alumni board held its annual alumni awards banquet last Friday to honor three distinguished alumni and one honorary alumnus.
The recipients, David Hough, Kevin Shinkle ’87, Beth Deer Walker ’87, and Hans Zeiger ’07, are thriving in their respective fields and have generally retained a positive relationship with Hillsdale since their graduation.
“The Distinguished Alumnus is a traditional award; it’s the kind of person we always recognized 50 years ago. People are generally older and have reached the pinnacle of their profession. The Outstanding Young Alumnus obviously is someone who distinguishes themselves early out of college. Hopefully they are not at the top of their profession, but they deserve recognition,” Director of Business, Industry, and Constituents/Alumni Relations Grigor Hasted said.
At the banquet last Friday, the alumni accepted their awards, presented a video, and gave a short speech about their life stories.
“I think it’s a great tradition,” Hasted said. “I find every year I’m really inspired by the people who are getting the awards.”
David Rambeau Hough
Honorary alumnus David Hough discovered Hillsdale College through his wife, Bonnie, a Hillsdale student at the time. The more he learned about the school, the more his intrigue in and generosity for the school grew.
Hough’s daughter Hilary graduated from Hillsdale College with a degree in psychology. Hough and his wife soon decided to join the President’s Club to continue their support of the college, and they also provided a donation to the Frederick Douglass Scholarship fund.
The honorary alumnus award fits Hough, who said he wishes he could have attended Hillsdale but supports it passionately anyway.
Kevin Shinkle
On his 21st birthday, Kevin Shinkle ’87 showed up to his senior-level Shakespeare class a little less prepared than usual. The professor of the class habitually called on students to answer questions from a stack of notecards, and when they didn’t know the answer, he would mark down an “X”. Shinkle was the only one not yet marked down, but on that birthday, the professor pounded him with questions until Shinkle got an “X”.
It was moments like this that Shinkle remembers. It was Thursday night “Hill Street Blues” parties with his Sigma Chi brothers and late-night sports Trivial Pursuit with professors.
“This is a place where relationships matter,” Shinkle said of Hillsdale.
He spent a semester in Washington, D.C., where he worked for Congressman Jim Kolbe, but it was journalism that ultimately won him over.
“I had the political bug, but there was something about journalism that’s always spoken to me. There’s nothing as fun as a really good newsroom. It’s a bunch of people who are eccentric but smart and willing to work incredible hours for not a lot of money in pursuit of truth,” Shinkle said.
His journalistic endeavors led him to many different newspapers, including the Star-Ledger. Shinkle witnessed the smoke from 9/11 and reported on it. He covered the financial meltdown of 2008 and was a part of the Star-Ledger team when they won a Pulitzer for their coverage of New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey’s announcement that he was gay. For years, he worked from 9 a.m. until as late as midnight.
He ultimately landed at the Associated Press as the business editor.
“Business writing at its best is really about the human experience,” Shinkle said.
His storytelling expertise stood out to Delta Airlines, which began recruiting him to be vice president and chief communications officer. Though initially surprised, Shinkle accepted the offer because of Delta’s emphasis on values.
“Delta is a company that, eight or nine years ago, was broke. And it is now the most profitable airline in the world and operationally the best airline the world has ever seen,” Shinkle said. “What I loved about journalism is that every day is different. It’s the same thing with Delta.”
Despite Shinkle’s success, he was surprised when he was notified of his award. Having served as editor of The Collegian during a controversial time, he said the administration had been happy to see him leave.
“I laughed because it was so unexpected and it was in some ways ludicrous,” Shinkle said. “We were kind of there at the beginning as things were just starting to get cranked up in the ’80s, and to see how the dream has come to fruition is a pretty amazing thing.”
Beth Deer Walker
Beth Deer Walker ’87 followed in her parents footsteps when she began studying at Hillsdale College, but she never anticipated that she might follow in their footsteps in receiving distinguished alumni awards from Hillsdale College.
“I’ve been to this dinner many, many times. I’ve introduced award recipients, I’ve hosted award recipients, and it never really occurred to me that I might be one, so I’m kind of overwhelmed with how special it is,” Walker said.
She began considering a career in law as a seventh-grader at the urging of a classmate who noticed Walker’s knack for arguing.
“I’ve always been a person who stood up for what I believed in and thought was right and I didn’t shrink away from challenging someone,” Walker said.
While studying politics and English in preparation for law school, Walker also participated in Chi Omega and Lamplighters, wrote for The Collegian, served as senior class president, and helped found student ambassadors, a program that’s still thriving today.
After law school at Ohio State University, Walker began her law career in West Virginia and has stayed there ever since.
“Law is challenging, it’s intellectually stimulating, and the kind of law I practiced I felt like I was helping folks do the right thing,” Walker said.
It followed perfectly from her time at Hillsdale, where she learned to think critically and express her views — critical proponents of a career in law.
After more than 20 years of practicing law, Walker decided to campaign for the West Virginia Supreme Court.
“Statewide campaign is a lot of work, a lot of late nights and chicken dinners and traveling,” Walker said.
She narrowly lost the first election, but in May 2016, she was elected to the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia in a statewide nonpartisan election. She will begin Jan. 1, 2017.
“Hillsdale College is the perfect background for it. I think people run for public office for a lot of different reasons, but I just want to be a good justice,” Walker said.
Hans Zeiger
When Hans Zeiger ’07 first began considering running for the Washington State House of Representatives in 2009, he shot an email to Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn.
“Is this a good idea or a stupid idea?” Zeiger asked Arnn.
“It’s an interesting idea,” Arnn responded.
Following Arnn’s advice, Zeiger researched the timing and decided to go for it.
“I love campaigning. I love the challenge of going after votes. I had time and energy to do that, but it was a lot of hard work,” Zeiger said.
With the help of committed volunteers, Zeiger made the case for a young Hillsdale alumnus to serve as a member of the legislature. The day after the election, Zeiger headed to homecoming at Hillsdale College with his campaign manager, another Hillsdale alumnus.
On his way to Michigan, a state representative from his district called him to say the election was too close. There might be a recount, and Zeiger needed to return.
“I’ve done my part. This is up to the vote counters,” Zeiger said. He stayed at Hillsdale and later found out that he won by 29 votes out of 50,000.
Six years later, Zeiger has been honored with Hillsdale College’s Outstanding Young Alumnus Award.
“I feel like I have a lot more to accomplish. Getting something like this is something you imagine getting towards the end of your career, not the beginning,” Zeiger said.
His award is precedented by an admirable career at Hillsdale. Zeiger worked as a private research assistant to Arnn, wrote two books, led a Bible study in Simpson Residence, and served as senior class president, the title he was “most honored to have.”
He credits Hillsdale with humbling him enough to succeed today.
“I was trying to make a name for myself,” Zeiger said. “One of the things Arnn really challenged me to settle down and study. If I really wanted to make a difference in the world, I had to prepare myself intellectually for that.”
