Four honored as distinguished Northwestern College alumni

Northwestern College will present four of its alumni with awards recognizing their accomplishments and service during the college’s Raider Days Homecoming and Parents Weekend. The recipients will be honored during a banquet Saturday evening, Sept. 29.

Bryan and Nancy (Rowenhorst) Den Hartog of St. Paul, Minn., will receive the Distinguished Service to Northwestern Award. Warren Langstraat of Afton, Minn., and Linda Van Roekel of Urbandale, Iowa, the first chemistry graduates of Northwestern College, will be honored for Distinguished Professional Achievement.

The Den Hartogs are faithful supporters of their alma mater, opening their home to Northwestern students, faculty and staff; providing scholarships for students from Haiti and students majoring in the health sciences; and making sacrificial capital fund gifts. Bryan has served for 17 years on the Board of Trustees and chairs its advancement committee. He also played a vital role in the fundraising efforts for the new Jack & Mary DeWitt Family Science Center—helping to call on donors as chair of the college’s Discover Campaign.

Bryan graduated from Northwestern in 1981 with a major in biology, then earned his M.D. from the University of Iowa College of Medicine. He is an orthopedic surgeon with Twin Cities Orthopedics. Nancy graduated from Northwestern in 1982 with a major in business and economics.

Langstraat spent his career in laboratory positions in research and development. After graduating from Northwestern in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, he joined the 3M Company in St. Paul, Minn., as a laboratory chemist. Over the course of his 35-year career, he held positions in both laboratory and corporate management. He served as a laboratory technical director and spent more than four years in the Netherlands, where he was the managing director for the 3M Netherlands subsidiary.

Van Roekel is also a 1969 Northwestern graduate. She majored in both chemistry and mathematics and then earned a master’s degree in physical chemistry from the University of Washington. After teaching chemistry and math at a public school in Germany, she returned to the United States and worked as a senior chemist for Monsanto and then a technical manager for Columbia Scientific Industries. Van Roekel spent the final 20 years of her career at INFICON, a manufacturer of high-tech instrumentation, where she was vice president and division manager, responsible for international management and for acquisitions and divestments for her division. During her years at INFICON, she also earned an M.B.A. from Syracuse University.