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NIU Office of Public Affairs


News Release

Contact: Mark McGowan, NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-9472

March 10, 2004

NIU student newspaper inducts six
into Northern Star Hall of Fame

DeKalb — Membership in the Northern Star Hall of Fame grew to 38 last month with the induction of six new alums, including the first-ever editor of Northern Illinois University's campus newspaper.

Alice Crosby, editor of the Northern Illinois from 1899-1900, stands among a class that includes two hard-hitting columnists, a nationally honored education writer, a devoted high school journalism teacher and a longtime leader from the printing side of the news business.

Crosby’s fellow inductees are Candace Perkins Bowen, Phil Kadner, Phil Luciano, Lori Olszewski and Jerry Smith.

Kevin Wendt, a 2000 alum and news and sports design director for the San Jose Mercury News, received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. Chicago Tribune advertising staff members Eric Barnes, Chris Belec, Matt Bute and Mike Logan were named Alumni of the Year/Bridge Builders.

The induction ceremony was held Feb. 28 in the NIU Convocation Center.

“It’s always a little awe-inspiring to see how the Northern Star has launched so many great careers from so many different generations,” Northern Star adviser Jim Killam said. “To be able to honor a few of these alumni every year is a real privilege.”

The Northern Star Hall of Fame honors former students, advisers and friends of the Northern Star who significantly affected the Northern Star, journalism and related fields, or who have otherwise received acclaim based in part on experience gained at the Northern Star.

Created in 2000, the Hall of Fame serves as a means to keep alumni actively involved in support of the Northern Star and to encourage Northern Star students toward excellence in their chosen career paths.

“It’s great for our current students to hear some of America’s best journalists talk about their Northern Star days,” Killam said. “It says you can get there from here – that all the hard work really does pay off.”

This year’s inductees are:

  • Candace Perkins Bowen, a 1972 alum who went on to teach journalism and advise the student newspaper at St. Charles High School for 22 years. In 1989, she was named Dow Jones National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year. Now at Kent State University, Bowen coordinates the Scholastic Media Program, runs two scholastic press associations and organizes various journalism workshops.
  • Alice Crosby, who in 1899 transferred her credit from Normal University to become one of the first 173 students at the new Northern Illinois State Normal School in DeKalb. She taught at DeKalb High School for a year before returning to Kewanee, where she taught until retiring in 1918. Crosby died in Kewanee on Feb. 15, 1958.
  • Phil Kadner, a 1974 alum whose column has appeared five days a week since 1985 in the Daily Southtown. Kadner’s columns on corruption in the Dixmoor Park District resulted in prison sentences for two former district presidents and a park district police chief. He also won the 2003 Freedom of the Press Award, a 2003 Chicago Headline Club ethics in journalism award and the 2002 Studs Terkel Award.
  • Phil Luciano, a 1987 alum whose column has appeared four days a week since 1989 in the Peoria Journal Star. Luciano has been named best columnist in Illinois three times by the Associated Press and twice by the Illinois Press Association.
  • Lori Olszewski, a 1977 alum who has reported for newspapers around the country as well as PBS Frontline. Her stories on human rights abuses in Romania were cited by the United Nations when it leveled sanctions. One of 12 journalists selected for Harvard University’s prestigious Nieman Fellowship in 1999-2000, Olszewski joined the Chicago Tribune in 2001 as an education writer.
  • Jerry Smith, a 1966 alum who was editor of the DeKalb County Journal for a couple of years before it closed and he joined the printing side of the business at Castle-PrinTech. Smith worked for Castle for three decades, including 16 years at the top. The recipient of the president’s award from the NIU Foundation and the Donald R. Grubb Journalism Alum of the Year award, Smith currently is executive director of the DeKalb County Community Foundation.

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