1950s

Charles Vastbinder '55 was recently honored by the Western Monmouth Chamber of Commerce in New Jersey with a Circle of Excellence Award for his work with SCORE, a nonprofit organization that offers free business advice to entrepreneurs. He writes: "I have been a SCORE member for the past 15 years and also continue to give seminars for small-business owners on buying and selling in overseas markets."

Frances (Wacaser) Honomichl '55, a longtime resident of Deer Park, Ill., died at her home on March 1, at age 79. She achieved an unusual level of education and accomplishment in business administration and practice for a woman of her era.

Frances graduated in 1944 from Lincoln Community High School in Lincoln, Ill., where she was class valedictorian, editor of the RAILSPLITTER, president of the Commerce Club and elected to the National Honor Society. She went on to the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where she graduated in 1948 from the College of Commerce and Business Administration with honors in economics.

After graduation, she moved to Chicago, where she was employed in the personnel department of U.S. Gypsum as a supervisor of various functions before becoming private secretary to USG's chairman and CEO. Concurrently, she earned her MBA.

In 1956, she married Jack Honomichl '55. In 1978, they co-founded Marketing Aid Center Inc., an international consultancy and, among other things, publisher of two publications focused on the marketing/advertising/public opinion research industry. One, Inside Research, was dubbed by Barron's the "The Bible of the Market Research Industry."

Frances is survived by her husband of 51 years and three daughters.