2005 Alumni Award Recipients

2005 Clarence Beckwith Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients

Roger D. Kullenberg

Roger Kullenberg of Kalamazoo is a journalist whose career has included being a reporter, editor, and assistant to the publisher. He spent 34 years with the Kalamazoo Gazette and 5 years at the Muskegon Chronicle. Though retired from full-time journalism, he continues to write editorials on almost a daily basis for the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Roger has been recognized with Associated Press awards and has co-authored two books about the history of Kalamazoo and the Kalamazoo County Chamber of Commerce.

He got his start in journalism at age 18 with the Benton Harbor News-Palladium as an assistant sports editor. This was while he worked on his Associate of Arts degree at Benton Harbor Junior College, the predecessor of Lake Michigan College. After graduating from LMC in 1950, Kullenberg went on to Michigan State University and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. He then served the United States Army until 1956 when he began with the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Sam Monte of Riverside is president and owner of Monte Package Company, a company that he has taken from being a local agricultural supplier to a national provider of produce packaging.

Sam's parents established the company in 1925 and in the early 1960s, passed it on to him and his wife, Connie. Sam expanded the business in 1969 and again in 1990 by establishing allied companies to Monte Package Company. In 2001, further growth led to a distribution center in Lakeland, Florida.

In four decades of management, Monte has diversified the operation from specializing primarily in wood containers to now handling America's largest line of produce containers and providing many agricultural packaging-related services.

Sam graduated from LMC with an Associate in Arts degree in 1954 and went on to Michigan State University to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Demonstrating their commitment to the future of agriculture through education, Sam and Connie recently established the Tony and Rose Monte-Monte Package Company Agricultural Scholarship to provide recipients with full tuition for two years at LMC and two years at Michigan State University in an agriculture-related major.

2005 Alumni Service Award Recipient

Mary Koch Goff

Mary Goff has served on the St. Joseph City Commission since 1986. She was elected by the Commission as the first female mayor of St. Joseph, a position she has held for seven years.

With a strong commitment to our area's diversity awareness, Mary has reached out to the residents of Benton Harbor through her position as mayor, involving not only its governmental units but by promoting youth activities. Her work has been recognized by the Twin Cities Area Business and Professional Women's Club, the Twin Cities Hall of Fame, U.S. Congressman Fred Upton, and Business Review West Michigan.

Mary's professional career has included being a speech therapist in the St. Joseph Public School District. In 1993 she earned her Associate in Applied Science degree from Lake Michigan College and embarked on a career as a registered nurse. Currently, Mary co-owns, with her children, the Roy H. Liskey Insurance Agency.

Mary is a board member for St. Joseph Today, the Alliance for World-Class Communities, and Lory's Place, a division of Hospice. She is a member of the CWCC Government Domain, and the Berrien County Solid Waste Committee.