Author: Dale Devries


Alumni Association Board of Directors meets this week

The fall meeting of the Alumni Association Board of Directors is set for Sept. 24-25 on campus and in person! New Alumni Board members who begin their term this month are: Shawn Blessing ’94 of Eden Prairie, Minnesota Jodi Gibson ’89 of Milwaukee, Wisconsin JJ Grinde ’16 of Ripon, Wisconsin Gisela Ortega ’12 of Milwaukee, […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Alumni.


Ripon College President Zach Messitte to leave in 2022

Ripon College President Zach Messitte announced today that he will leave his position at the end of the fall 2021 semester and return to his hometown of Washington, D.C. Messitte became the 13th president of the 170-year-old institution in 2012.   “I have loved being the president of Ripon College and feel honored that the Board […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Academics, Administration, Alumni, Faculty, Office of the President, Staff, Student.


Mary Jane Bumby ’52 honored for work protecting Big Green Lake

Mary Jane Bumby ’52 of Green Lake, Wisconsin, recently was honored with a Watershed Hero Award from the Green Lake Association. The program recognizes community leaders dedicated to protecting Big Green Lake. Bumby is one of Wisconsin’s longest-serving citizen scientists. An article in the Ripon Commonwealth states: “In 1971, she completed her master’s degree by […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Alumni.


Ripon College achieves highest fund-raising year ever

During the 2021 fiscal year which ended June 30, Ripon College achieved its most successful and largest fund-raising year in its history. More than $16.5 million in new gift production was realized. “The campus community is continually humbled and inspired by the generosity of our alumni,” said Shawn Karsten ’09, vice president for advancement and […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Administration.


Angelique Gianas Fong ’95 honored as 21st Duck of the Anaheim Ducks

A new video honoring Angelique Gianas Fong ’95 of Mission Viejo, California, has been posted by the Anaheim Ducks, a professional team that competes in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League. Each season, the team creates a spot on their opening night roster for the 21st Duck, honoring a fan “who embodies characteristics […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Alumni.


Two championship football teams to hold reunion Saturday

A reunion of the Red Hawks’ 1996 and 2001 Midwest Conference Championship teams will be held Saturday, Sept. 18. Both teams will be honored at halftime of the football game which begins at 1 p.m. against Cornell College of Mount Vernon, Iowa. Ripon’s 1996 team finished with a 9-1 record, en route to capturing head […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Alumni, Athletics News.


Rafael Francisco Salas published in new anthology, will guest lecture in Kenosha

Professor of Art Rafael Francisco Salas has an essay in the newly published anthology Hope is the Thing: Wisconsinites on Perseverance in a Pandemic. The collection is edited by B.J. Hollars and published by Wisconsin History Press. Contributors include Wisconsin Poet Laureate Dasha Kelly, former poet laureates Margaret Rozga and Kimberly Blaeser, and other lauded […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Faculty, Fine Arts.


Undergraduate research leads to new discoveries in chemistry for students, professors

Seventeen students collaborated with Professor of Chemistry Joe Scanlon and Associate Professor of Chemistry Patrick Willoughby on ground-breaking research that resulted in a published article this summer. The article was published in Journal of Organic Chemistry and addresses the discovery of a new chemical reaction, the aryne-Abramov reaction. It also details how Scanlon, Willoughby and […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Faculty, Research, Student.


‘Preventing the Next Pandemic’ to be discussed at Ripon College Wednesday

The talk “Preventing the Next Pandemic” will be presented Wednesday, Sept. 8, at Ripon College. The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Kresge Little Theatre, East Hall. The event is free and opens the 2021-22 program to be presented by the Center for Politics and the People. Per Ripon College policy, all visitors to […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Political Publications.


Exhibit of paintings opening Friday available in person and online

In-person art exhibitions will return to Ripon College Friday, Sept. 3, contingent on recommended guidelines about the COVID-19 pandemic. Visitors to campus are requested to wear masks. Further information about Ripon’s updated COVID-19 policy can be found here. “More Scenes from Our Addiction to Fictions,” a show of new and recent paintings by Milwaukee-based artist […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Fine Arts.


The face of the Class of 2025: Our new first-year students

The Ripon College community is growing. As of Aug. 27, we welcome a class of 250 first-year students and nine transfer students. This compares to the fall of 2020, which had 241 first-year students and 10 transfers. Seventy-one percent of the incoming class come from Wisconsin. Seventy-four students represent 23 other states: Alaska, Arizona, California, […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Student.


Ripon College welcomes new hires for fall 2021

Ripon College welcomes new staff and faculty members who have joined Ripon College during this calendar year. FACULTY Steve Bellin-Oka, Wisconsin’s Own Library poet-in-residence. Lillian Brown, visiting professor of theater. Paul Thompson, assistant professor of music. Jeremiah Vaughan, assistant professor of exercise science. ADJUNCTS Christopher Cramer, adjunct instructor of music, guitar lessons. Paul Dietrich, director […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Administration, Faculty, Staff.


First-year brings family connections, quilt to her Ripon experience

When Chase Polyak ’25 of Lombard, Illinois, starts at Ripon College as a freshman this fall, she brings with her some touching family connections. She is a Legacy student as her maternal grandfather is John Robertson ’68. And she is bringing with her a very special Ripon College quilt made by her paternal great-aunt, Nancy […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Alumni, Student.


19th-century heliogravure print donated to Ripon’s art collection

A 19th-century heliogravure print has been donated to Ripon College by Alan Leonard ’86 and his wife, Brenda, of Cape May, New Jersey. The print is made after Rembrandt van Rijn’s “Presentation in the Temple in the Dark Manner,” c.1654. It is now hanging in the Resource Center of C.J. Rodman Center for the Arts. […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Alumni, Fine Arts.


Brad Alberts ’92 featured in article detailing his management of the Dallas Stars

“How Brad Alberts is Making Dallas a Hockey Town” is published in the August 2021 issue of D Magazine of Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. Alberts ’92 rose from an entry-level job selling tickets for the Dallas Stars hockey team to president and CEO. The article details how Alberts helped rebuild the teams’ core business after a […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Alumni.


Ripon receives substantial gift of laboratory supplies worth more than $54,000

Ripon College has received a significant donation of laboratory assets from Luxerin Laboratories LLC in Fond du Lac. The massive donation includes equipment, chemicals, glassware, textbooks and supplies valued at just over $54,000. Luxerin Laboratories LLC was founded in 1967 as a family business to fill microbiological testing needs. After the death of founder Patrick […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Academics.


Jessie Lillis ’13 parlays college interests into founding of a theatre company

Seeds of interest sown at Ripon College have culminated in the inaugural 2021 Mackinac Island Shakespeare Festival in Michigan, running through Aug. 29. Jessie Lillis ’13 is a cofounder of the Starling Shakespeare Company which is hosting the festival. She is a native of Coldwater, Michigan. At Ripon, she majored in communication with a minor […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Alumni.


Ripon College updates COVID-19 vaccination policy

Dear Ripon College students and parents, Our primary concern is — and has been for the past year and half — to keep our campus community as safe and healthy as possible until the threat of the COVID-19 virus has subsided. Thanks to our students, dedicated staff and faculty and prudent guidelines, Ripon’s 2020-21 academic […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Administration.


Inaugural Momentum Leadership Fellows Program kicking off this week

Ripon College’s inaugural Momentum Leadership Fellows Program launched Monday with 26 participating students and will run for three weeks up to the start of the regular fall semester. Momentum is a summer bridge to an academically enriching, community-minded and culturally diverse environment for highly qualified students from historically underrepresented and first-generation populations. The aim is […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Academics, Student.


Brian Smith discusses ‘The erosion of truth in American society’

Brian Smith, professor emeritus of religion and co-director of the Center for Politics and the People, gave a ZOOM presentation Sunday, Aug. 8, for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. In “The erosion of truth in American Society,” he discussed the spread of what he refers to as disinformation and lies on […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Faculty, Political Publications.


Class of 2020 celebrates long-overdue Commencement

It was a long time coming. A few dozen members of the Class of 2020 came back together Sunday, Aug. 8, for an eagerly anticipated and long-overdue celebration of their graduation from Ripon College. Their original Commencement ceremony was cancelled in May 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rainy conditions necessitated moving the ceremony into […]

Posted by Dale Devries in Alumni, Commencement, Student.