This award celebrates those who have brought honor to Wittenberg by their exceptional and continual dedication to Wittenberg's ideals. Any Alumnus/a shall be eligible for the citation on the basis of exceptional professional accomplishments and service to humanity ahead of personal recognition or gain.
For Jeff ’78 and Debi Garrity Aarthun ’77, helping others is a way of life.
Founders and co-owners of the successful Houston, Texas-based Aarthun Performance Group Ltd., the couple has spent years helping employees understand how their company makes money.
Former employees of Xerox Learning Systems, the Aarthuns now work with such clients as IBM, GE, ExxonMobile, Coca-Cola and Bank of America, and manage 35 full-time employees with satellite offices in Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta/Charlotte, Dallas and Washington, D.C.
Active in their community, the Aarthuns also have given back whenever possible. In 2000, the couple funded a Habitat for Humanity home for a deserving mother and her children in Tomball, Texas.
Jeff and Debi then followed that up by funding another home in 2002.
Although the nonprofit organization has become a world leader in addressing the issue of poverty housing, building more than 150,000 affordable homes worldwide, finding the funds to construct these homes has proven difficult at times.
Once aware of Habitat’s predicament, the Aarthuns quickly contributed funds.“Giving back is an easy thing to do in the scheme of things,” the couple said. “You don’t have to give money; you can also give time.
What is most important is that you make an effort, take some initiative, and figure out how you can give back to your community.”
That commitment to service recently caught Wittenberg’s attention, which awarded the couple its Alumni Citation Award at the university’s Homecoming/Reunion Weekend, Oct. 22-24.
The award is given to those who have brought honor to Wittenberg through exceptional accomplishments in which service to humanity is placed ahead of personal gain or recognition.
“It’s so easy to get involved in your own world,” Debi said. “Jeff and I decided to take a different direction.”
Barbara changes lives one child at a time. This pediatrician of 17 years cooks breakfast for her staff every Thursday and insists that the clinic be open Fridays and on Saturdays half of the year. This also extends beyond Buckeye boarders to Ghana, West Africa, through her non-profit organization called Akwaaba Missions.
Passionate about learning, Katherine Hollingsworth epitomizes Wittenberg’s mission to educate the “whole person.”
A geography major with a 29-year career in banking, Hollingsworth credits her alma mater with inspiring her personally and professionally.
“Wittenberg gave me a wonderful grounding from which to start my working life.
Although I never used my classroom knowledge in my career, I learned I wanted to learn my whole life; I learned how to live with all kinds of people, and I learned how important it is to give to others,” Hollingsworth explains.
Such commitment has led colleagues, business associates and fellow alumni to consider her a mentor.
It also earned her a 2004 Alumni Citation Award, given to those who have brought honor to Wittenberg through exceptional accomplishments in which service to humanity is placed ahead of personal gain or recognition.
“I feel honored and a bit mystified by receiving this award. I am thrilled that Wittenberg has acknowledged my activity with higher education, and I’m a bit baffled that my activities are noteworthy.”
The president/CEO of National City Bank, Southwest, from 1998-2003 and a member of numerous boards and committees, Hollingsworth has made a significant impact in the Dayton business arena.
As president of National City Bank, Hollingsworth helped to enhance the bank’s reputation and increased market share by
8 percent while keeping employee turnover low.
Prior to serving as president, she was the executive vice president for Private Client Group, Credit Administration and Corporate Banking.
Recognized with numerous awards, including the Dayton Daily News’ “Top Ten Women Award,” Hollingsworth currently serves as principal of Consensus Solutions L.L.C. in Dayton, which provides support in the areas of general management, organizational effectiveness, communication and leadership development to local business and not-for-profit organizations.
“I’ve always felt that it is important to share my talents and knowledge with others,” Hollingsworth says. “Finding my own passion continues to motivate me today.”
As a student and economics/accounting major at Wittenberg, Hank
Sturges quickly realized that he was a part of something special.
That “something” displayed itself in the friendships he made, the one-on-one relationships with professors he found, especially with his adviser Robert Schultz, and the warm welcome he received from Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
Once on campus, he also discovered an academically challenging environment, which would eventually lead him to success as a business owner, accountant and underwriting expert. In short, Wittenberg defined him.
Perhaps that is why Sturges, executive vice president of The Sturges Company in Dublin, Ohio, consistently recruits students for Wittenberg and recently agreed to serve on the university’s Alumni Board.
Maybe it’s why he volunteers as a career adviser and fund-raiser, or why he continues to teach an investment course in Wittenberg’s management department.
Maybe it’s why he has connected alumni back to campus, including helping to arrange the management department’s 2004 executive-in-residence, fellow classmate Randy Adamack ’73, vice president of communications for the Seattle Mariners.
Sturges, himself, can’t quite pin down that one moment that for 31 years has kept him involved with Wittenberg, but it’s for those reasons and more that his alma mater took notice, awarding him its Alumni Citation Award, Oct. 22-24, during its new Homecoming/Reunion Weekend.
Given to those who have brought honor to Wittenberg through exceptional accomplishments in which service to humanity is placed ahead of personal gain or recognition, the award put Sturges in the spotlight, a place he admits is not all that comfortable for him.
“The time I spend involved at Wittenberg whether it’s helping the Betas, teaching in the management department or working with the alumni office, is time I want to spend,” he said.
“Maybe it’s a way to recapture what I liked about Wittenberg as a student. It’s a place that’s very special to me.”
To her students in the Graham Local School District in St. Paris, Ohio, Marcia Balmut Ward is an inspiration. For Ward, Wittenberg and her students hold that distinction.
“Any success I have had is a direct reflection on my students and the education I received at Wittenberg,” Ward said. “A liberal arts education is vital to my philosophy of teaching, and I love to dwell in possibility.”
Recipient of Wittenberg’s 2004 Alumni Citation Award, given to those who have brought honor to the university through their exceptional accomplishments in which service to humanity is placed ahead of personal gain, Ward has made it her mission to help students succeed in her 36-year career.
Currently the director for alternative programming at Graham, Ward also serves as a substance-abuse coordinator and grant writer in addition to her science teaching responsibilities.
At the same time, Ward coordinates field trips to Rutgers University, which are designed to give students a firsthand look at work being conducted in such areas as spinal-cord and stem-cell research.
Despite her busy schedule, Ward still hosts international exchange students during their high school years, including current Wittenberg sophomore Charles Njoka.
She and her husband also just purchased the Frederick Otto house at 25 E. Madison Ave. in Springfield with plans to refurbish it as a “monument to the spiritual vibrancy and intercultural awareness Wittenberg experienced during the Otto years.”
“The Rev. Dr. Frederick Otto, and his wife Georgia, were incredible Christians who influenced not only my spiritual growth but hundreds of other searching souls,” Ward said. “I felt compelled to purchase the home.”
Ward also credits the relationships she made at Wittenberg with influencing her perspective on life.
From professors who guided her and her classmates by listening to their queries and sharing their lives with them to her Chi Omega sisters and dearest friends, Ward said she is forever indebted.
“They were magical times,” she said, “and I have been pleased over the years to encourage my high school students to attend Wittenberg.”