Snow College bestows honors on select alumni at Homecoming
EPHRAIM—Snow College bestowed special honors on four alumni or alumni couples, or special supporters, during Homecoming festivities Friday and Saturday, Sept. 18 and 19.
Kay and Diane Christensen received the Distinguished Alumni Award, the college’s highest alumni honor. David and Patricia Willmore received the Spirit of Snow Award. LaPrele Olsen Sumsion received the Alumni Legacy Award. And Tony and Kristianne Frustaci received the Rising Alumni Award, which recognizes graduates of the past 20 years.
The awards were presented at the Snow College Legacy Banquet Friday in Founders Hall in the Noyes Building. The Alumni Legacy Award winner was recognized at the Golden Badger Reunion Saturday at noon in Founders Hall. And all of the winners were introduced at Homecoming football game Saturday night.
The college’s alumni webpage describes the Distinguished Alumni Award as its highest honor, which recognizes a lifetime of extraordinary achievement and leadership.
The Alumni Legacy Award honors alumni who graduated more than 50 years ago, and the Rising Alumni Award recognizes graduates of the past 20 years who have shown innovation and professional excellence early in their careers.
According to the webpage, Kay and Diane Christensen have spent their lifetimes in education, business and leadership, activities that have taken them “across the world and back home again.”
That includes years of service in Ukraine, along with countless hours on the Alumni Board, Board of Trustees, the Foundation Board and more.
After his time at Snow College, Kay Christensen attended Utah State University and Washington University in St. Louis. His career has been in sales and marketing in the grocery industry. At the time he retired, he also owned a consulting company,
His service in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints includes serving as a young missionary to Great Britain, a bishop and stake president of the Kansas City Missouri Stake, as a regional representative and Area Authority Seventy, as president of the Ukraine Donetsk Mission and as a counselor in the Kyiv Ukraine Temple Presidency. The couple are the parents of six children and 21 grandchildren.
David and Patricia Willmore, who received the Spirit of Snow Award, have called Ephraim home since 1979.
David taught for 22 years at the Ephraim Institute, where he created an institute choir and show choir. He served in other church education positions in Wyoming, Arizona and Utah.
Patricia devoted herself to raising their family and serving the community through more than six decades of marriage. Together, they have advised Snow’s Student Council and volunteered throughout Sanpete County.
The family now counts nine children, 24 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren. Eight of their children and 12 of their grandchildren are Snow College graduates,
LaPrele Olsen Sumsion received the Alumni Legacy Award, which honors alumni who graduated more than 50 years ago. A lifelong Ephraim resident, Sumsion graduated from Snow College in 1953 with an associate degree in business and English.
She served as student body secretary, played in the pep band and sang in the Messiah. More than 70 years later, she says one lesson from her time at Snow is still with her: “I can do difficult things.”
She went on to teach first grade, kindergarten and preschool, including 32 years of preschool in her own home. She led 4-H for three decades, taught piano and served missions with her husband, Richard. The couple raised five children and today have 16 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren.
Tony and Kristianne Frustaci, recipients of the Rising Alumni Award, met as students on the Snow College campus and are returning nearly 20 years after their student days.
Tony served as Snow College student body president in 2006 before building and selling successful insurance businesses and moving into executive leadership.
Kristianne continued her education at Utah State University, graduating summa cum laude before earning a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy. Today, she is a licensed marriage and family therapist practicing in Springville.
Five years after Kristianne’s Stage 3 cancer diagnosis, she is in remission, and the couple is raising their three children.
