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JoAnn Baumgartner
Class of 1956
Alumni Recognition Award, 2003
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JoAnn Baumgartner has been and still is very involved in our community. She
is an active member of many different clubs. JoAnn grew up in Naperville. She
was an active member of the NCHS Community as a teenager. She had the lead in
the Junior Class Play, and Senior Class Play. She was President of the Drama
Club, Debate Club, and the Jazz Club. She served on student Council, future
Business Leaders of America, and the Pep Club. She was part of the Journalism
Club. She wrote several columns for smoke signals -one was called "Spinner
Sanctum" on music, and she also wrote several humorous pieces.
After high school,
she attended Loyola University until the end of her sophomore year. JoAnn is a
graduate of the American Institute of Bank Marketing at the University of Colorado
in Boulder, Class of 1982. She also took course work at COD, the American
Institute of Banking and Columbia College. In addition, she audited a course at Benedictine and
one on comedy at UCLA.
JoAnn has tried to be involved in as many things as
possible in Naperville. She has served on the board of Directors for the
following organizations: Little Friends (1980-83), United Way (1980-84),
Heritage Society (1990-93), Women's Center for Health, Edward Hospital,
Advisory Board (1980's), DuPage Children's Museum (1990's), President of
Friends of Nichols Library (1985-86), and the Chamber of Commerce (1980-86).
JoAnn was the past president of the Naperville Foundation of the Arts
(1990's). She was an active member of the American Business Women Association
(1980) and of the Oakbrook Chapter of Women in Management (1983-86). She was a
past fundraiser of YMCA, North Central College and Naper Settlement and she
served on the Board of reference for Community Outreach. JoAnn is a
current member of the Caxton of Chicago, an antiquarian book club and one of
the oldest of its kind in the U.S. She was on the club's first Nobel Prize for
Literature Committee. JoAnn is also an award winning producer of NCTV Public
Access which is Naperville's local public channel.
JoAnn's husband Donald is
retired from Northrop-Grumman, a company that provides services in defense
electronics, advanced aircraft, shipbuilding, and space technology.
Northrop-Grumman serves U.S. and international military, as well as government
and commercial customers. Her daughter, Dana Maura Baumgartner-Kasprak, has a
Ph.D. Her son, Chris Thomas, is employed by Cal Tech in Pasadena, CA. JoAnn
has four grandchildren all from the Kasprak family. Reilly is 8 years old.
Regan is 6 years old. Griffin is 3.5 years old. And Sydney is just 5 months
old.
JoAnn's best memory of NCHS is Mr. Walter Hoel, a senior English
teacher, who gave moving readings from Hamlet. She also vividly
remembers doing weekly voiceovers on the school wide PA system.
MRS.
BAUMGARTNER'S MESSAGE TO STUDENTS: "Invest in the infinite. Be
courageous in difficult situations, compassionate and forgiving. Laugh often.
Find wonder in nature. Seek refuge in books, the best expressions of our human
condition."