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Aurora University Honors Kitty Hawk Resident
Humbles, a 1966 Aurora College alum, was among four alumni and a staff member honored in AU’s Institute for Collaboration.
In addition to Humbles, other alumni recognized were Ann Cunningham Sheets of Fort Worth, Texas, a 1977 George Williams College alum who received a Distinguished Alumni Award; Betty J. Parke Tucker of Kitty Hawk, N.C., a 1952 Aurora College B.A. alumnus, who received a Distinguished Alumni Award; and Linnea A. Windel of St. Charles, Ill., a 1997 AU M.S.N. alumnus who received the George Peters Community Partnership Award. Maggie Sharrer of Aurora, Ill., executive assistant to AU President Rebecca L. Sherrick, received the AU Spirit Award.
Roger Tucker of Somonauk, Ill., AC ’61 and president of the AU Alumni Association, presided at the awards presentation in the university’s Institute for Collaboration.
Fred Clothey, AC B.A. ’57 and B.T. ’57, presented a $7,000 class gift to AU President Rebecca L. Sherrick. The gift will be used to seed the fund to purchase an organ for Crimi Auditorium.
Rosemary Fischer Humbles received the Roger K. Parolini Lifetime Achievement Award presented by J. Pomeroy Carter, AC B.A. ’58.
Carter said, “Rosemary Humbles has dedicated her life’s work to the ideals upon which this institution was founded in her outstanding commitment to character and scholarship.”
Humbles grew up in a small Advent Christian Church environment in Edinboro, Pa. She attended Berkshire Christian College for two years and then married her husband, Jim, in 1964. She and Jim moved to Aurora to attend Aurora College, and in 1966, she received a bachelor’s degree in education with a major in English.
Upon graduation, Rosemary taught English at Washington Junior High School in Aurora before moving with Jim to work at the Advent Christian Village in Dowling Park, Fla. In her work with the church, she began a children’s choir program and began directing a chancel choir among other projects before assuming her current position as the Minister of Music and Christian Education at The Village Church.
Additionally, Humbles currently works as part of the pastoral team at the Advent Christian Village. She has the major responsibility for planning the worship for Sunday morning and other special services. She continues to direct a 65-voice chancel choir, a youth ensemble, a children’s choir, and an advanced and beginning hand bell choir.
She also directs the Christian education program of the Village Church for both children and adults and she has assisted with the planning and leading of the community Thanksgiving and Easter worship services. In 1993, she was ordained by the Florida Conference of Advent Christian Churches. She is also a past member of the American Guild of Piano Teachers.
She said regarding her service to the Advent Christian Church, “I believe my calling has been to organize and direct the laity in an intergenerational music program. I believe there are strengths the generations can learn from one another to be united in a worship format that brings glory to God.
“I believe also that my goal has been to bring the scriptures from God’s word to a more prominent place in an evangelical worship in our church,” Humbles has said.
Humbles Honored—Rosemary Fischer Humbles, left, of Live Oak, Fla., received Aurora (Ill.) University's Roger K. Parolini Lifetime Achievement Award at AU’s annual homecoming 50th reunion and awards dinner Oct. 19. J. Pomeroy Carter, right, Aurora College B.A. ’58 presented Humbles’ award. She was among four alumni and a staff member honored at AU's annual alumni reunion and awards dinner in the Institute for Collaboration.