Six alumni to be honored at SMU’s Homecoming June 19-21

WINONA, Minn. — Each year during summer Homecoming festivities, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota honors outstanding alumni. This year’s Distinguished Alumnus Award recipient is Thomas Kilbride of Rock Island, Ill. The Religious Service Award will go to Msgr. Roy Literski of Winona, and Matt Bubala of West Dundee, Ill., will receive the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award. Sharing the Alumni Appreciation Award are Ken Ortman of Inverness, Ill., Harry Plotke of Castle Rock, Colo., and James Hoey of Eagan, Minn. All six will be honored during a reception Saturday, June 20, on the Winona campus. Approximately 300 alumni, family and friends will return to their alma mater for Saint Mary’s Homecoming festivities, which begin Friday, June 19, and run throughout the weekend. In addition to the alumni awards ceremony, highlights include a golf outing, the Gilmore Gallop 5K, a 50+ anniversary social, and the alumni picnic. Alumni can go to www.smumn.edu/homecoming for more information.

2009 Saint Mary’s Homecoming Honorees:

Distinguished Alumnus Thomas L. Kilbride ’78 Rock Island, Ill. Tom Kilbride is a Supreme Court Justice for the state of Illinois. He practiced law for 20 years in Rock Island before being admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court of Central Illinois and the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Justice Kilbride is also an active volunteer in legal communities.

Religious Service Msgr. Roy E. Literski ’49 Winona Father Roy Literski retired in 1996 after 42 years as a Catholic priest. Locally, he has served St. Stanislaus and Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, as the rector of Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary, as a philosophy teacher and the student chaplain of Saint Mary’s University, and as Vicar General of the Diocese of Winona.

Alumni Appreciation Ken Ortman ’59 and Harry Plotke ’59 Inverness, Ill., and Castle Rock, Colo.

Ken Ortman and Harry Plotke are lifelong supporters of Saint Mary’s. Both have served as alumni phone volunteers, class reps and parents of alumni. With their guidance, the class of 1959 will have nearly 50 percent in attendance at their 50th anniversary reunion and over 70 percent class participation, raising an unprecedented $1.6 million for Saint Mary’s.

Alumni Appreciation James Hoey ’74 Eagan, Minn. Jim Hoey is a tireless promoter of the university. While serving on the Alumni Board for seven years, he also served as chairman of the Awards Committee, as the alumni representative to the Sports Hall of Fame, and on the Football Task Force Committee.

Outstanding Young Alumnus Matt Bubala ’94 West Dundee, Ill. Matt Bubala, founder of Black Dog Radio Productions, Inc., has worked at stations in Los Angeles, Detroit and most recently Chicago, where he produced the “John Williams Show.” He currently hosts the nationally syndicated radio show “Good Parenting with Matt Bubala.”