Marian College to honor three alumni
for service and achievement

By Brandon A. Evans

Marian College in Indianapolis will honor three alumni for leading exemplary lives.

The awards, which are part of the Distinguished Alumni Awards Program, will be presented at 7 p.m. on June 24.

Nancy Holtel Marticke, vice president of patient services at Margaret Mary Community Hospital in Batesville and a 1977 Marian graduate, will receive the Mary McNulty Young Award for Distinguished Achievement in Community Service.

At Margaret Mary Community Hospital, Marticke has been involved in a renovation and in the construction of the new Hansen Oncology Centre and Outpatient Clinic.

Her leadership contributed to the hospital being named one of the nation’s top 100 hospitals by Modern Healthcare magazine.

Marticke has worked for the hospital since her graduation, and served as a staff nurse, shift supervisor, nurse manager and assistant director of nursing.

She has also been involved with Batesville Rescue, Ripley County EMS, the Hoxworth Blood Center and various athletic teams in Batesville.

Frank Velikan, assistant principal at Father Thomas Scecina Memorial High School in Indianapolis and a 1965 Marian graduate, will receive the Mother Clarissa Dillhoff Award for Distinguished Achievement in Mentoring.

Velikan has spent four decades serving students and teachers in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, beginning at Cardinal Ritter Jr./Sr. High School in Indianapolis, where he was a coach, teacher and later principal.

Currently, he also serves as dean at Scecina.

Velikan has served on the national board of the alumni association of Marian College, and has assisted the National Catholic Education Association, the Holy Family Knights of Columbus, the St. Aloysius Society and the Non-Public Education Association.

In 1994, he was also named a Sagamore of the Wabash by then-governor Evan Bayh.

Oldenburg Franciscan Sister Claire Whalen, a 1956 graduate of Marian, will receive the Founders Award for Distinguished Service to Marian College.

The former Sister Mary Giles graduated from Marian with a degree in ­elementary education and a desire to teach geography to the students of the archdiocese.

In 1956, she became a professor and chair in the Department of Education at Marian College, where she helped create programs for special education and early childhood education.

After 23 years, Sister Claire spend seven years working at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Francis of Oldenburg, where she established the Office of Personnel Services.

She returned to Marian College in 1987 to serve as the dean of academic affairs. Under her tenure, the writing center and the learning and counseling center were created, and computer technology became a part of the campus.

During the 1980s, Sister Claire also served as a college trustee. †