The GLVC and the University of Southern Indiana lost a great leader, friend, and fan on June 29, 1999. Dr. Charles Bertram, professor and faculty athletics representative at USI and former president of the GLVC, contributed a great deal of time, energy, and effort to the league's success and was instrumental in conference operations for many years.
In remembrance of him, the GLVC established the Dr. Charles Bertram Alumni Award of Distinction in 1999. This year's recipients of the award were honored during halftime of the men's championship game of the Pepsi GLVC Basketball Tournament. This award is based upon academic excellence, athletic ability and achievement, character, and leadership of former GLVC student-athletes who have served their institution with personal distinction since their graduation. Postgraduate public or community service, and/or contributions to athletics at any level, are considered during the voting process.
Recipients must have graduated at least ten years prior to receiving the award. Congratulations are extended to the 2006 recipient of the Dr. Charles Bertram Alumni Award of Distinction.
2006 Recipient Dennis Reinbold (University of Indianapolis)
The fourteen NCAA Division II member institutions of the Great Lakes Valley Conference have selected Dennis Reinbold as the recipient of the 2005 Dr. Charles Bertram Alumni Award of Distinction. Reinbold is a 1983 graduate of the University of Indianapolis where he was a baseball student-athlete.
An Indianapolis native, Reinbold grew up less than a mile from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Having spent his entire career in automotive retail, he is the principal of Indianapolis-based Dreyer & Reinbold, Inc., which owns six BMW, Volkswagen, and Infiniti dealerships in Indianapolis and Greenwood. The operations enjoy one of the highest customer loyalty rates in the country and are among the highest in BMW market penetration in the country.
Fulfilling his love for driving racing cars, he founded Dreyer and Reinbold Racing in the Indy Racing League in 1998, which he co-owns with driver Robbie Buhl, and employs the league’s three-time most popular driver, Sarah Fisher.
A member of the 500 Festival Committee, he serves on several national and international business advisory committees. A former pitcher for Indianapolis, Reinbold continues his love of sports as a Little League baseball and basketball coach for his children. He also plays in adult baseball leagues in Indianapolis, and his wife, Jennifer, is a professional tennis player.
Reinbold was a familiar voice on WICR in 2003 when he did a radio spot to promote the Lilly Endowment challenge at the University of Indianapolis. The spot was played during Greyhound basketball games as he reminded alumni to follow his lead in making a gift to the University of Indianapolis. The challenge was that if alumni raised three million dollars by December 31, 2003, the Lilly Endowment would match the funds dollar for dollar. The campaign was a success.
The Bertram award is based upon academic excellence, athletic ability and achievement, character, and leadership of former GLVC student-athletes who have served their institution with personal distinction since their graduation. Dr. Charles Bertram, who was a professor and faculty athletics representative at the University of Southern Indiana and former president of the GLVC, contributed a great deal of time, energy, and effort to the league’s success and was instrumental in conference operations for many years. The award was created in his honor after his death in 1999.
The Bertram Award will be presented to Mr. Reinbold on Sunday, March 5, 2006 during halftime of the GLVC men’s basketball championship game at Roberts Stadium in Evansville, Ind.
2005 Recipient Dr. David Porta (Bellarmine University)
Dr. David James Porta is a 1988 graduate of Bellarmine University, where
he currently serves as an associate professor of biology.
From 1984-88, Dr. Porta was a pitcher for Bellarmine’s baseball team and served as team
captain during his senior year. During his sophomore season in 1985, he went 6-1 on the
mound to help the Knights compile a record of 33-16, just one win shy of the school record for most wins
in a season.
Academically, Dr. Porta compiled a 3.37 overall GPA and received several awards for his
accomplishments in the classroom, including the Raymond J. Treece Senior Merit Award in
1988.
Upon graduating from Bellarmine with majors in Premedical Biology and Business
Administration, he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Louisville (U of L) Medical School, studying in the Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology.
Beyond his associate professorship at Bellarmine, Dr. Porta serves as an adjunct assistant
professor for Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology at U of L’s medical school. He is also a research anatomist for the Engineering Institute for Trauma and Injury Prevention at the University of Tennessee.
Dr. Porta resides in Louisville with his wife Nancy and two daughters, Layne (13) and Emily (6).
2003 Recipients Dr. Jane Weaver (University of Southern Indiana)
Dr. Jane Weaver has parlayed an outstanding academic and athletic career at the University of Southern Indiana (USI), into a rewarding professional life as a surgical physician in Ecuador.
Dr. Weaver graduated Summa Cum Laude from USI in only three and a half years, and was a regular member of the Dean's List. She went on to attend the Indiana University School of Medicine, where she earned her Doctor of Medicine in May 1993.
A member of the Screaming Eagles basketball team from 1985-88, Jane was a two-time GLVC Academic All-Conference selection. The Screaming Eagle Basketball Award winner in 1986, Jane served as team captain during the 1987-88 season. The Jane Weaver Recognition Award was established by the University of Southern Indiana in 1989, which was established to award scholarship aid to a student-athlete to continue their education in graduate or professional school.
A highly decorated student at the IU School of Medicine, Dr. Weaver has received countless awards and recognition throughout her academic career. In addition, she has published four articles.
Dr. Weaver first became interested in mission work near the end of her five-year surgical residency in Louisville, KY. She intended to spend six months working in Latin America and then return to the United States to enter private practice. She ended up in Shell, Ecuador, working in a mission hospital at the edge of the jungle run by HCJB World Radio. She spent six months taking care of both the local Ecuadorian population as well as members of the various Indian groups that live in the eastern jungles. After returning home and practicing for two years with Indiana Surgical Specialists in Fort Wayne, IN, Dr. Weaver became convinced that God was leading her back to Ecuador for full-time mission work.
She is currently a full-time missionary with HCJB World Radio and is completing her rural year of medicine. Once she completes her residency requirement and acquires her Ecuadorian license, she will be able to work in the mission's healthcare facilities. One of her priorities will be the clinic in San Lorenzo, Ecuador, located on the coast of the northern part of the country approximately 8-10 miles from the Colombian border. San Lorenzo is one of the poorest areas in Ecuador and most of the people who live there make less than a dollar per day. Currently there are no adequate healthcare facilities in San Lorenzo, and it is difficult to find physicians willing to work there on a permanent basis because the town has become increasingly more dangerous from both violence from within the town itself and the increasing number of Colombian guerillas crossing the border.
Jane was born in Fort Wayne, IN.
Jim Vargo (Bellarmine University)
The GLVC is pleased to recognize a gentleman who excelled in the classroom and on the track while a student-athlete at Bellarmine University. Jim Vargo has spent his life teaching and coaching at the college level, while at the same time assisting the blind and disabled to compete in world-class competition.
Jim enjoyed an outstanding cross country and track career at Bellarmine. He graduated from BU in 1983 with degree in mathematics while boasting a 3.95 cumulative grade point average. He went on to the University of Tennessee where he earned his masters in mathematics, and was awarded the Dryzer Fellowship in 1983.
A four-year member of the Knights cross country and track teams, Jim was a two-time GTE CoSIDA Academic All-America selection. The 1980 GLVC outdoor track 10,000 meter champion, he qualified for the NCAA National Cross Country Championships in 1980 and 1982. He was inducted into the Bellarmine University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000, and was the school's first inductee into the Omnicron Delta Kappa Society.
Jim is the Assistant Athletic Director/Director of Track and Cross Country/ and head track coach at Bellarmine, and also serves as the University's Director of Athletic Recruiting. Active with many on-campus committees, he is also on the Board of Directors for the Greater Louisville Sports Commission and the Sunny Side Striders Running Club. He also served as the meet director for the 2001 GLVC Cross Country Championships in Louisville.
Jim has been the head track and field coach for the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes since 2000, after serving as the association's head distance coach since 1992. He was the head coach for the 1998 USA World Championship Marathon Team for the Blind. Jim served as a guide runner for both the USA Paralympic Track Team in 1992 and 1996, and USA World Championships for the Disabled in 1994 and 1998. He guided the Paralympic Torch Bearer into Olympic Stadium for the Opening Ceremonies of the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games and the Barcelona Paralympic Games in 1992. Jim was also a participant in the 1994 Winter Olympic Torch Bearer's Relay in Oslo, Norway.
Jim was profiled on CBS Television for his work with 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games, and was invited to meet and run with President Bill Clinton in1994, and invited back to the White House again in 2000.
He is a member of the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes, U.S. Track & Field Association, U.S. Track Coaches Association, U.S. Olympic Committee on Coaching the Disabled, and is the Chair for Disabled Athletics of the Kentucky Track and Field Association.
Jim is single and resides in Clarksville, IN.
2002 recipients LuAnn Humphrey, Indianapolis
LuAnn was a two-sport standout (basketball & softball) at the University of Indianapolis from 1980-84. She graduated cum laude from Indianapolis in 1984, earning her bachelor of arts degree in political science and an associate of science degree in business. She went on to attend the Indiana University School of Law, where she earned her Doctor of Jurisprudence.
Ranked in the school's top ten in both rebounding (No. 3 with 819) and scoring (No. 10 with 1,092 points), LuAnn helped lead the Greyhounds to a mark of 73-24 during her career. She was a first-team All-GLVC selection in 1984, the only season Indy competed in the conference during her career.
LuAnn was voted team MVP for three straight years, and helped lead the Hounds to a record of 20-3 in 1983-84. A starter at shortstop for the Indianapolis softball team, she was inducted into the University's Athletic Hall of Fame last February.
She is currently employed by the NCAA as a Basketball Certification Representative. In her position, she is responsible for the certification and monitoring of summer basketball events, as well as investigating amateurism, gambling, and agents issues. Prior to assuming her current position this January, LuAnn was on the NCAA Enforcement staff, where she was responsible for evaluating, investigating, and processing information concerning self-reported alleged violations of NCAA rules. She has been with the NCAA since 1999, and has over 12 years of experience in the legal profession. Prior to her work at the NCAA, LuAnn was in private law practice in Indianapolis from 1992-99. She also held the position of judge advocate general for the United States Air Force.
LuAnn's career also includes teaching and coaching. She was an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and coached basketball at Martinsville H.S. and St. Joan Catholic School in Indianapolis.
LuAnn is single and resides in Indianapolis.
Dr. Paul Michael Bernier, Southern Indiana
Michael enjoyed an outstanding soccer career at the University of Southern Indiana and graduated in 1983 with a degree in psychology, boasting a 3.52 grade point average.
He went to the University of Missouri-St. Louis School of Optometry, where he earned his Doctor of Optometry in 1987. A Beta Sigma Kappa Honor Student, Dr. Bernier sported a 3.73 GPA and won the American Optometric Foundation Award for outstanding paper in the field of Optometric Administration.
A four-year starter on the Screaming Eagles soccer team, Michael was voted the team's most valuable defender in 1982. He helped lead USI to GLVC soccer championships in 1980, 1981, and 1982. The 1982 team was ranked No. 7 nationally, and earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Michael is President/CEO of the Chippewa Eye Centre, Inc., in St. Louis, Mo. A Beta Sigma Kappa Noteworthy Practitioner, he was appointed instructor in Clinical Ophthalmology at Washington University School of Medicine. He also served as president of Managed Care Professionals, Inc., from 1995-1999.
Michael is the low vision specialist for the St. Louis Society for the Blind and Visually Impaired. He has participated in "American Promise: The Alliance for Youth Program," and also serves as a youth soccer and baseball coach.
Michael and his wife, Shelly, are the parents of Derek (9), Gabrielle (7), and Allee (4), and Matthew Michael, who was born on March 13 of this year. They reside in St. Louis, Mo.
