York graduate honored as an Evans Scholar of the year
She’s just out of college, only beginning her career as a philanthropy coordinator at the Northwestern Memorial Foundation in Chicago, but Regan Toole called her time at the University of Illinois “probably the best four years of my life.”
A 2020 York Community High School graduate, in Champaign she lived the whole time at the Evans Scholars House. She described it as a melting pot.
“It’s always like one big family gathering all the time,” she said. “You’re constantly surrounded by your best friends, and somebody always has your back.”
That was clear at an organizational level when in late July at the Evans Scholar Foundation’s summer leadership summit Toole was named an Evans Scholar of the Year, joining Joe Noeske of Wisconsin out of 1,130 peers nationwide.
“It truly means the world to me. It was a real big surprise,” said Toole, who has caddied the last six summers at Hinsdale Golf Club in Clarendon Hills.
She was surprised because like herself, she said most of her peers have “an amazing story.”
We’ve noted here many times over the years since it’s such a neat thing, the Glenview-based Western Golf Association’s Evans Scholars program provides successful applicants a tuition and housing college scholarship worth $125,000 over four years.
Caddies earn the scholarship based on their caddie record, academics, character and financial need.
Growing up in Elmhurst and caddying in Hinsdale does not scream financial need. Yet Toole’s case, and also that of her brother, Paddy — a senior Evans Scholar at Michigan State caddying this week at the BMW Championship in Colorado — is different.
Their father, Matt Toole, battled amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or “Lou Gehrig’s disease,” for 12 years until he died during Regan’s junior year at Illinois in 2022.
“That is a very devastating disease physically, emotionally and financially. And not only on him but on the entire family,” said Regan Toole, who played tennis and badminton at York.
“We’re just very lucky we had him for so long. And throughout his battle with the disease he always had a good attitude and he always shared the time he had with the family.”
Otherwise unable to afford an education at a place like the University of Illinois, the Evans Scholarship helped transform Toole’s potential into results.
On the way to graduating with a 4.0 grade-point average in community health, she served as a student admissions representative, a Campus Recreation student wellness intern, and an Illini Service Dogs trainer.
She worked in communications for the university’s Evans Scholars chapter and joined the Phi Chi Theta professional business fraternity.
Among the top 3% of her graduating class academically, Toole has her name inscribed in the Bronze Tablet in the school library. She was inducted into Illinois’ Senior 100 Honorary recognizing academics, campus involvement and citizenship.
Caddying set the stage. Walking the course with a variety of golfers, Toole’s personality blossomed and she developed confidence. In Champaign this translated into a passion for service and led to her role with Northwestern Medicine.
At home in Elmhurst, where Toole lives with her mother, Karen, and their Bernese mountain dogs, Divot and Mulligan, she had also learned a crucial lesson during her father’s struggle against ALS.
“My parents always told me, every day is a gift,” she said.
Fifty years and running
On Aug. 17, Fenton High School cross country hosted the 50th running of the Russell B. Dahl Alumni Event and Time Trial.
Bison boys cross country coach Patrick Fritsch said more than 20 alumni runners and their family members attended the event in Bensenville.
The event attracted Bison going back as far as the Class of 1972.
Randy Almarales, 2019 graduate, ran the 3-mile distance in 17 minutes, 34 seconds to win it.
Despite the passage of time that was still pretty close to what Almarales did as an All-American to help the College of DuPage win National Junior College Athletic Association Division III national championships in both cross country and track and field.
This all got us thinking about retired hall of famer John Kurtz, who with his wife, Dawn, in 2018 moved full time to Bonita Springs, Florida. He had coached Fenton track and cross country for 49 years.
“A wonderful experience,” Kurtz said from Florida.
Almarales ran on Kurtz’s last cross country team in 2017, a Class 2A state qualifying squad.
Decades earlier he had coached Dahl, a lifelong Bison supporter who died in a car accident in December 2014 at 57 years old.
John Kurtz said he and Dawn still contribute to a scholarship fund established that year in Dahl’s memory. It provides an annual $1,000 to a Bison runner.
“That’s in honor of Russ, who went from being a freshman on my team to being my best friend,” John Kurtz said.
Incidentally, Kurtz said he no longer runs, just not able to. Instead, he rides his bicycle about 20 miles a day around Bonita Springs.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com