The Linfield University Alumni Association will recognize five alumni for their contributions to the community, professions and alma mater during its annual event, Linfield’s Finest at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16 at Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, McMinnville. This year’s recipients are Jeffrey Crapper ’00, Kathryn (Anderson) Schach ’72, Zach Brandon ’14, Garlinn (Hansen) Story ’69 and Ronni Lacroute.
There were a record number of nominations this year, and the Alumni Leadership Council was impressed with the caliber of the nominees. That made the selection process difficult. Council members are pleased to announce the following award recipients.
Distinguished Alumnus of the Year
Jeffrey Crapper ’00 of Dayton is the 2022 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year. This award honors those whose professional or civic achievements mark them as a top leader in their chosen field. And Crapper’s contributions to his community and profession are numerous, indeed. He has started career and technical education programs at two different school districts in Oregon – Mt. Angel and Beaverton – and currently manages 33 CTE programs for the Beaverton School District. In this role, he conducts CTE teacher and leader trainings and builds partnerships between the schools and external industry partners. Crapper also mentors first-year CTE teachers and serves on the board of the Oregon CTE Student Leadership Foundation. He teaches college and professional development courses on trauma-informed education and is part of a pilot program through Beaverton School District that puts substitutes trained in trauma care in classrooms following incidents in the schools. Crapper serves as a board member or volunteer at a variety of other local, statewide and national educational organizations. He has received numerous awards for his professional work. Most recently, he was named the National Health Science Teacher of the Year by ACTE in 2019 and Oregon’s CTE Teacher of the Year in 2021. Crapper is also a firefighter, apparatus operator, emergency medical responder, wildland firefighter and crisis response chaplain for the Dayton Fire District.
Distinguished Nursing Alumnus Award
Kathryn (Anderson) Schach ’72 of Beaverton is this year’s Distinguished Nursing Alumnus Award recipient. This award is given to a practicing or retired nurse who demonstrates innovation and dedication to their patients and the field of nursing. Schach graduated from the Good Samaritan School of Nursing, before its merger with Linfield, “on a Friday and started work in the intermediate care unit [at Good Samaritan Hospital] the next Monday,” she told Linfield Magazine in 2019. She worked as a RN at Good Samaritan Hospital for more than 40 years, retiring in 2015 as a critical care nurse. Since graduating, Schach has remained involved with the School of Nursing, serving as a panelist at an alumni celebration in 2014, sitting on the alumni award selection committee for numerous years and helping document the history of Good Samaritan Hospital with Linfield’s archivist. But it was her work as a nurse that gained her a positive reputation throughout the region. Nominators wrote that Schach not only excelled in her nursing skill, but in the empathy she showed to patients and colleagues alike. Her strong communication and problem-solving skills helped her provide stability during the most stressful times, they said.
Outstanding Young Alumnus
Zach Brandon ’14 of Cottage Grove is the 2022 Outstanding Young Alumnus. This award recognizes recent alumni who have distinguished themselves through contributions in their chosen field. In the eight years since he graduated from Linfield, Brandon has quickly become an expert in the field of performance psychology, guiding individuals, professional teams and organizations to success. Brandon earned a master’s degree from CSU-Fullerton in 2016 and is a certified mental performance consultant (CMPC). From 2016-18, Brandon worked at IMG Academy, where he developed mental training programs for resident athletes and consulted for Olympic and MLB athletes. Since 2018, he has served as the mental skills coordinator for the Arizona Diamondbacks and a high-performance consultant at MVP Mindset Consulting. Brandon has published journal articles, abstracts and book chapters in his sport psychology and is a frequent lecturer and public speaker. He actively seeks leadership and volunteer roles in the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) and the Professional Baseball Performance Psychology Group. He also provides guidance to new professionals in the field through the AASP mentorship match and by directly mentoring individual Linfield students. He is set to earn a M.S. in organizational leadership from Arizona State University in May 2023.
Alumni Service Award
From helping plan big events to making individual connections with other alumni, Garlinn (Hansen) Story ’69 of Sandy Springs, Georgia, shows that there are many ways to make a meaningful difference at Linfield. She has been named the recipient of this year’s Alumni Service Award in recognition of her volunteer contributions – both big and small – to the university. Story has served on multiple alumni committees, including as a current member of the President’s Circle Leadership Team and previous positions on the Alumni Leadership Council and the 50th reunion committee for the Class of 1969. In addition to being involved herself, she has created ways for other alumni to engage with their alma mater. In 2021, she planned and organized a Kappa Alpha Phi reunion as part of homecoming, and in 2019, she and her husband Mike ’68 hosted an alumni event at their home in Atlanta. For One Wild Day 2022, the couple created a $5,000 challenge to all Kappa Alpha Phi sisters, which was fully utilized and brought in new support for Linfield students.
Walker Service Award
Ronnie Lacroute of McMinnville is the recipient of the 2022 Walker Service Award. Named after President Emeritus Charles Walker and his spouse Cherie, this award recognizes and honors members of the greater Linfield community who are not alumni, but who have contributed significant volunteer time and energy to the university. It was last given to Ken and Grace Evenstad in 2018.
Lacroute is a long-time supporter of the arts throughout the Northwest and at Linfield. She is the former co-owner of Willakenzie Estate winery and previously worked as a high school teacher and French language professor on the East Coast. Her passion for live music and theatre are only equaled by her commitment to community service. She has long supported the Oregon Public Radio, Yamhill Community Action Partnership, the Gallery Theater, Arts Alliance of Yamhill County, among many others. In 2011, she was named Oregon Wine Press’s Wine Person of the Year and was the Fundraising Supporter of the Decade by BroadwayWorld Regional Awards in 2020.
At Linfield, Lacroute served on the Linfield University Board of Trustees from 2007-2021. Her generous donations over the last two decades have provided meaningful support to faculty, staff and students. This includes the Lacroute Arts Fund, Lacroute Composer Readings and Chamber Music Program, Lacroute Initiative for Advancing the Liberal Arts, Ronni Lacroute Endowed Chair in Shakespeare Studies and the Lacroute Endowed Academic Achievement Scholarship. Her gifts have brought in leading artists-in-residence, funded musical performances and encouraged creativity and collaboration across the liberal arts disciplines.
More information on the awards, including how to RSVP for Linfield’s Finest, is available at linfield.edu/homecoming.
