Northwestern names distinguished alumni

Northwestern College will present three of its alumni with awards recognizing their accomplishments and service during the college’s Raider Days Homecoming and Parents Weekend. The three will be honored during the annual Legacy Celebration Banquet on Friday, Oct. 2.

Ron De Jong of Orange City will receive the Distinguished Service to Northwestern Award for 2015–16; Janet (Hassebroek) Guthmiller of Lincoln, Neb., the Distinguished Professional Achievement Award; and Marjorie (Hartog) Vander Aarde of Great Falls, Mont., the Distinguished Service to Humankind Award.

A 1971 Northwestern College graduate, De Jong recruited students for his alma mater for 40 years, starting as an admissions counselor and eventually becoming the college’s vice president for external relations. He retired from admissions work in 2011, a year after he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the North American Coalition for Christian Admissions Professionals. He currently serves as a senior advancement officer for Northwestern, with responsibilities for fundraising and church relations.

Guthmiller is the dean of the College of Dentistry at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. After graduating from Northwestern in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in natural science, she earned a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of Iowa and a periodontics certificate and Ph.D. in cellular and structural biology from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Prior to her current position, Guthmiller served as an associate dean and periodontology professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Dentistry, as director of dental student research and a faculty member at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry, and as a faculty member at the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. She is a Fellow of both the American College of Dentists and the International College of Dentists and has received numerous professional awards from organizations that include the American Association for Dental Research and the American Dental Education Association.

Vander Aarde spent seven years serving as a missionary nurse at the American Mission Hospital in Kuwait and was the first American nurse registered with the Kuwaiti government. After returning to the U.S., she served as vice president at Montana Deaconess Medical Center and then as CEO of California’s Coalinga Regional Medical Center. She later oversaw more than 350 medical facilities as certification bureau chief in Montana’s Department of Public Health and Human Services. She is active in her church, volunteers with Family Promise of Great Falls, and served on the board of directors for the United Way of Cascade County.

Vander Aarde graduated from Northwestern Classical Academy in 1956 and attended Northwestern Junior College for a year. She holds an R.N. degree from Swedish Covenant Hospital School of Nursing, B.S.N. from Montana State University, master’s degree in nursing from Texas Women’s University, and master’s in health administration from the University of Colorado. She is certified by the American College of Health Care Executives as a Fellow.