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Briana Brandt Murray said Christmas Day for her family is a usually a low-key day at home. Christmas Eve? Not so much. "We usually go to my sister-in-law's house nearby. My husband is the baby of 14 kids. My daughter is the 46th grandchild," Murray related, estimating a 65-70 person guest list. "It's large." Growing up in Hinsdale, Murray fondly recalled the holiday season, seeing her St. Isaac Jogues School decorated for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the town festooned in...
When Chris Black finished high school at age 17, the Carbondale resident said he didn't think twice about what would come next. "It was natural for me to go on to SIU (Southern Illinois University)," Black said. But it didn't take long for Black to realize that while he wasn't quite ready for academia, he also didn't want to stick around town. That's when he made the decision to "see the world" as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps. Over the next several years Black did see...
Mike Hayes was 15 when he got his first taste of the rigors of recreation management. "I oversaw the adult softball leagues - turning on the lights, setting up the bases and getting yelled at by all the 16-inch guys as a youngster," Hayes recalled. "It gave me some tough skin." It also gave him direction toward a potential livelihood. "It kind of just drew my interest, and I thought, 'Maybe there's a career in this field,' " he said. Last month Hayes began work as...
Tom Kloster's life hasn't always followed his intended path. But despite some unexpected curves in the road, Kloster isn't complaining about where the detours have taken him. Kloster left Hinsdale Central High School with ambitions to become a veterinarian, but Kloster said one particular class was the final nail in the coffin of his veterinary career. "I was a victim of organic chemistry," Kloster said. With two years of college under his belt, Kloster spent the next two...
New Hinsdale Middle School principal Cory Burke got an assist from a veteran District 181 school leader when the post became available. "(The Lane principal) Brandon Todd was someone I worked with back in Schaumburg, and he actually rang my phone one day, kind of out of the blue, and said, 'There's this opportunity in Hinsdale we think you'd be great for,' " Burke related. After looking into it, she agreed. "I was really impressed with the high achievement and the dedicated st...
When Becky Schreiber left a career in accounting to stay home with her young twins, she wanted to find a way to give back to the community. She decided to support education, first by volunteering at the twins' preschool and now Madison School, where she is co-president of the PTO with Heather Rooney. "I do have time and flexibility in my schedule," said Schreiber, who was the PTO treasurer before becoming co-president two years ago. "What greater way to give my time and resour...
Two years ago, Hinsdale's Zach Hayes and his Nazareth Academy classmates were enduring the disruptive distancing wrought by the pandemic. A Student Council member, Hayes and his cohorts came up with a plan to reunite the Roadrunners. "We planned a drive-in movie night at the school, complete with popcorn and snacks," related the present-day senior. "It was kind of a cool way to get everybody there during COVID, just being able to be with friends." Hayes' penchant for taking...
Kathleen Hanley's transition from working professional to mom also marked the start of her journey into a brand new career. "After my third child, I worked part time," said Hanley, who spent 15 years researching and developing hospital products after earning a degree in biomedical engineering from Marquette University. As she stepped away from full-time work, Hanley said she found herself getting more involved with her community. A resident of Glen Ellyn at the time, she...
The American Girl website describes their newest doll, Claudie Wells, as "most likely to have five college majors." That's just one thing that Claudie has in common with Rio Lewis, the Hinsdale girl chosen as Claudie's real-life model. The ambitious 11-year-old said she plans to attend Julliard before embarking on a career that will involve movies, television and Broadway. She also wants to be an animal rights activist, and one day open her own school to teach others about...
A sermon delivered in church one Sunday stuck with Mark Wanless for years. The message was about the importance of volunteering one's time, when and if that time becomes available. As the father of four saw his children begin to make their way through high school and on to college, he found himself with time to give to his community through his involvement in the Rotary Club of Hinsdale. "Rotary is an organization I've always been intrigued with," said Wanless, a resident of...
Preparing for the Hinsdale Central Drama's upcoming production of "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind" has been a departure for theater veteran Julianna Wittrock. "It's 30 plays in 60 minutes, ranging (across) all different genres," the senior said. They range from the whimsical, like the importance of hands, to the unsettling or philosophical. "I do one about wanting to shake my child to death," Wittrock related. "And I get to talk about the lyrics to 'Crank That' by Soul...
There's hardly a football field, baseball diamond or basketball court in or around Hinsdale where Craig Cassell hasn't coached a game. Supporting kids is important to Cassell, and not only his own. The father of three is one of 13 people from across the country to serve on the SEAL Family Foundation Board, leaders of a nonprofit that supports U.S. Navy SEALs and their families through training, service, deployment and beyond. "We are the primary funder of SEALKIDS," Cassell...
This summer, Mr. Gust went to Washington. Hinsdale native and Duke University junior David Gust cut his policy-shaping teeth in the Beltway as one of nine college students selected for a DeJoy-Wos Family Foundation Scholarship to attend eight weeks of programs with The Fund for American Studies. The double major in economics and public policy also interned at the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank. "I like the idea that you can change the world through...
The benefits of serving one's community are many, said Hinsdale Hospital Foundation Junior Board President Maddie Molis, and some of them are delicious. Molis and others on the 150-member board are looking forward to the 68th ice cream social event from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28. People of all ages from throughout the area are invited to Burlington Park in downtown Hinsdale for ice cream, a cake walk, games, an art project and a chance to support the work of the junior...
Long before she took her first engineering class at Hinsdale Central High School, Grace Deane knew a thing or two about using science to make life easier. Tasked with keeping her family's upstairs bathroom stocked with tissue, a much younger Deane used a basket and bungee cord to fashion a makeshift dumbwaiter to do the job. "I would dump all the toilet paper in there and then walk upstairs and pull the cord," she said. Now a senior at Hinsdale Central with several...
Each summer the Bank of America Student Leaders program chooses 300 high school juniors and seniors from across the country to gain leadership experience and develop skills while working with a nonprofit organization close to home. This summer, Sahan Sahgal of Hinsdale was among those 300 and one of five Chicago-area teens to embark on the eight-week endeavor. "I'm committed to helping out and giving back to my community," said Sahgal, who was introduced to the program by a...
Hinsdale's Alison Kozlow is a busy working mom of two preschoolers. Activism was not on her to-do list. But when seven people were gunned down and dozens more injured while watching the Highland Park Fourth of July parade earlier this month, she became a woman on a mission. Kozlow joined the March Fourth movement to galvanize public support and lobby Congress for stiffer gun control measures. "What we're trying to do with the March Fourth movement is ban assault weapons federa...
Creatures large and small have always found a welcome place in the home of Julie Boruff. Over the years she has raised dogs, nurtured an ant farm, offered shelter to a guinea pig and even welcomed a millipede named Frank. And that's just inside the house. Outside, Boruff has created a friendly space for monarch butterflies. The creation of an outdoor monarch habitat was part of the plan from the day the Boruffs broke ground on their Hinsdale home more than 10 years ago,...
The sedate suburbs couldn't compare with the daily unpredictability that U.S. Army Reservists and inseparable buddies Bob Allen and Brad Drake had faced on a 10-month deployment to Afghanistan. Despite their exhausting, unrelenting assignment helping run the Bagram Theater Internment Facility as military police in 2003-04, the two Hinsdale South graduates had grown to love the grind. From going on middle-of-the-night helicopter "ring routes" to collect enemy detainees to a harrowing evacuation of prisoners when the jail...
Julie Jordan Laux said her younger sister, Jodi Allen, was good at just about everything she did. Even after her death from pancreatic cancer, Laux said her sister is still making her mark. "She's still winning," Laux said. While battling cancer, Jodi wrote a prayer for the board of directors of Xavier University, Cincinnati, on which she served. While in hospice care, a music therapist turned those words into a song, which was submitted to a contest and won. The message of th...
Nathan Obryon said his outreach work with those trying to start afresh after prison or life on the streets has revealed yearnings we all share. "At the end of the day, we all have the same need for relationships, the same need for people in our lives who care," said the Golfview Hills resident. "We desire to be loved and be known." Through his church, Trinity Presbyterian in Hinsdale, Obryon volunteers quarterly at The Bridge, a Chicago ministry helping ex-offenders, former ga...
As an expert in artifact conservation, Anna Weiss-Pfau of Hinsdale is entrusted with some of the world's oldest, rarest and most valuable objects. "My husband thinks it's funny the museums don't want you to touch the art, but they call me and want me to come take a scalpel to it," said Weiss-Pfau, owner and principal conservator of Elmhurst-based Third Coast Conservation, formerly Liparini Restoration Studio in Evanston. Weiss-Pfau holds a master's degree in artifact...
Soon after returning to Hinsdale with his family from a six-year overseas work assignment, Bob Hooks went to pick up some groceries. "Paper or plastic?" the cashier inquired. "I'll pay cash," Hooks replied. After a bit of back and forth, he finally caught on to the meaning of the question. "Those (options) weren't here six years before," said Hooks with a smile, recalling the episode nearly 30 years later. Today, Hooks is six years into enjoying retirement with wife Kathi,...
After spending months with a classroom full of 3-year-olds, summer is a particularly quiet time for Kathy Behrens, teaching assistant at Hinsdale Covenant Preschool. Behrens was a preschooler herself when her family first moved to the village. And while her life has included stints in Texas, Minnesota and London, Hinsdale has always been home, Behrens said. It's where she and husband Chris, a Darien native, raised their three children, and where Behrens found her unexpected...
For recent Hinsdale Central graduates and Stage Door Fine Arts veterans Sam Romberger and Hannah Turek, exhaustive research was not required for their upcoming roles - as high school students seeking true friendship in "Bring It On!" "This is the show we're ending our high school careers with, and we're about to go off to college into a whole new world of people," Romberger said of the parallels to their own reality. That's not to say preparation wasn't required for the...
