The Valley - Butler Connection

A couple of other contributors and I have started a “Where Are They Now” round-up of Valley friends who have moved out of state. When we started the research, during the first week of the “March Madness” NCAA basketball tournament, it occurred to me that we could easily fill a 64-team bracket (or three) with the names of friends who have moved to other parts of the country (East, Southeast, Midwest, and West).

That’s a project for another issue (although if you’d like to help, write me at valleyalumni@sbcglobal.net). Meanwhile, in honor of the amazing run by Indiana’s own Butler University, I thought I would take a quick survey of some of the Valley-Butler connections I could find. (This is by no means exhaustive; just some of the information shared by the 1020 Valley friends who have created profiles on the Valley Alumni social network site.)

Lisa Doran Canda (Valley ’76) was a Butler grad before moving to sunny Miami, Florida, where she and her husband Miguel own a Batteries Plus franchise.

Brett Hackworth ’76 graduated from Butler in ’80 after starting his college career at Taylor University, and served as student manager of the basketball team. “It was fun since I was able to be on scout team some,” he recalls. “ I actually did pretty well. Which made Mike Steele, the assistant coach, say "you need to walk on, what year are you?" That was great for the ego!” Today Brett lives with wife Sue in suburban Kansas City, where he is President of apparel manufacturer King Louie America.

Andy Knoop ’77 earned a Master's degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Butler in 1989, on his way to a doctorate and a position with the University of Missouri. “I was working full-time in Kokomo then, and commuted to the Butler campus two or three afternoons or evenings a week to complete my degree,” he shared. “As a commuter student, my Butler experience was significantly different than that of a resident student. Most of the time, when I was on campus I was either in Jordan Hall attending classes or in the Irwin Library digging through references. I didn't have a lot of time to "soak up" the Butler experience. However, I loved the Holcomb Gardens and the Carillon. Whenever possible, I'd drive to campus early and take time to walk through the well-kept landscaping. The leaves were majestic in the fall! When the weather was too cold for a walk, I'd sneak into Hinkle Fieldhouse, find a place to sit and watch the random pick-up basketball games.”

Maybe one of those games involved Leslie Miller Brouyette ’88, who attended Butler on a basketball scholarship – and no doubt left some good karma in Hinkle Fieldhouse that is still working to this day. These days she lives near Claypool with spouse Chad (’89), and works as sales manager for Wabash Valley Manufacturing.

Craven Lynn ’89 credits Valley friends Dayne and Deron Manwaring for leading him to Butler University. “Dayne, Deron and I were members of the TKE (Tau Kappa Epsilon) fraternity and lived in the house during our stay at Butler. I went there because of those guys. We swam together growing up for 7-8 years in JAWS at Valley.” Today Craven lives in Indianapolis with his wife Amy and works as an independent insurance claims adjuster.

Erica Egolf Eysturlid ’89 graduated from Butler with a degree in Music Education, and later added masters and doctorate degrees in education. At the time she joined the alumni site she was a school counselor in Geneva, Illinois.

Eric Toetz ’90 graduated from Butler with a degree in computer science. He works for Eli Lilly and Company and lives in Indianapolis with his wife Kelly.

Lael Leininger Dubois ’91 graduated from Butler with a degree in Spanish and Education, and later added a masters in library science. At the time she joined the alumni site she was working as a Library Media Specialist at Plainfield High School and serving as President Elect of the Association of Indiana Media Educators. She and her husband Chris Dubois (TVHS ’91), who is a counselor at Cascade High School, have two sons.

Here’s hoping all these Viking-Bulldogs enjoyed watching their second alma mater in its amazing NCAA tournament run.

These stories are no doubt just the tip of the iceberg – and just a sampling of the fun detail that can be gleaned by surfing through the Valley Alumni site. Now that most of the world in on Facebook, ValleyAlumni is no longer the site of as much activity as it once was – but I like to think of it as a Valley version of “Linked In,” which can be consulted on an occasional basis. We encourage you to periodically update your profile – and to invite others to join it.