Ten SJU alumni to receive awards during Reunion weekend festivities

Peter Conzemius '65 retired in 2013 as chief financial officer of M.A. Mortenson Company, and was well known for his strong commitment to ethical leadership. In an interview about financial leadership for the 2006 Saint John's Magazine, Conzemius said, "The principle things are trust, integrity, ethics and values and making sure those traits are embraced throughout the company, from top to bottom." 

Michael Howlett '70 wore many hats during his career. He was a talented attorney, a law professor and a judge in Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. He served on the board of the American Refugee Committee, vice chairman of the Illinois Courts Gender Bias Task Force and was president of the Illinois Lawyers Assistance Program for drug and alcohol addiction. Howlett will receive this award posthumously. 

Fr. Michael Tegeder '70 has been a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for four decades, and is known as a crusader for social justice. He is well known for speaking out on issues in the Catholic Church and calling for action from church officials. He is also currently president of the Parks and Trails Council of Minnesota. 

Dr. Thomas Gelhaus '75 has spent his entire 30-year career caring for his dental patients. One classmate who nominated Gelhaus for this honor notes that "his philosophy is simple: treat each patient as if Jesus was in the chair." Gelhaus spends one day a month providing free dental work to families in need, and spends his vacations doing dental mission work in Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala and Honduras.

Steven Wolfe '75 first encountered legal aid while working with prisoners during law school. Today, Wolfe is a senior leadership attorney at Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS), where he oversees SMRLS's central office as it helps low-income people in cases involving fair housing, education, elder rights, medical benefits and family law.

Mark Poepping '80 graduated in mathematics and computer science in 1980 - long before the Internet even existed. He has spent the last 30 years as head information technology architect at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Poepping oversees 80 people who provide support for many of the central IT services the campus. He is also responsible for the direction of the university's technological future.

Eric Olson '85 was successful in the insurance business, working his way up to president and co-owner of his firm. In 2014 he retired, which gave him more time to give back to the community. Olson now serves on numerous community boards and is a youth football and hockey coach of the Waunakee Warriors in Wisconsin.

Col. John Boucher '90 is a distinguished military graduate and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army from the Saint John's ROTC program. He was deployed three times to the Balkans, twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq. Boucher currently serves as the commander of the Human Intelligence Training - Joint Center of Excellence at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. He was selected to be the next division chief, Middle East Operations at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Craig Junker '90 spent two years with  the Christian Brothers as a LaSallian Volunteer teacher in Mississippi after graduating, and has been in working in the education field ever since. Junker has served as the president of Cotter Schools in Winona, Minnesota, the superintendent of the Lake City (Minnesota) Public Schools and, as of 2014, the president of Totino-Grace High School in Fridley, Minnesota.

Mark Morrey '95 is the assistant professor of orthopedics at the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Medicine, and is a shoulder and elbow surgery specialist. Before taking up his career in medicine, he spent seven years abroad teaching underprivileged children. Morrey has received numerous awards, including the Humanitarian Award from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, a Girdlestone Research Fellowship from Oxford University and two Teacher of the Year Awards from the Department of Orthopedics at the Mayo Clinic.