Four alumni of North Central Missouri College/Trenton Junior College have been named to the 2012 Class of Distinguished Alumni.
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Cathy Brantley Bailey of Trenton, Steve Maxey of Trenton, Patricia Furlong Mertens of Ironton and Dennis Walker of Fulton will be honored during the 2012 NCMC Gala, slated for Saturday, Oct. 13 in the Ketcham Community Center on the NCMC campus. The four were selected from what members of the NCMC Foundation’s Gala Committee called “a strong list of candidates.”
Mrs. Bailey began attending TJC in 1978 when she took classes during the summers as she continued her education at Northwest Missouri State University. She graduated from Northwest in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in business with majors in accounting and management/data processing.
After college, Mrs. Bailey began her career at Clifton Gunderson and Company CPA firm and later worked for the North Central Missouri Mental Health Center. In 1983, she began her 29-year career with Modine Manufacturing Co., where she has held various positions as accounting manager, plant superintendent, production manager and, in 2000, was promoted to plant manager of the Trenton facility.
Mrs. Bailey is married to Kevin Bailey (TJC 1974-75) and they are parents of three sons, Kasey and his wife, Krista, Mitchell and Jason, and they also have two grandsons. All three of their sons and their daughter-in-law attended NCMC.
Maxey is a 1968 graduate of TJC. He began his career at Green Hills Community Action Agency, where he held several positions before becoming the program director for the Grundy County Retired Senior Volunteer Program. He then held various positions at Mercantile Bank in both Trenton and St. Louis, where he was the vice president of business development and the regional marketing director/director of MESA.
After his long career with the bank, Maxey accepted the position of senior sales manager/assistant director of marketing for The Lodge of Four Seasons at the Lake of the Ozarks. In 2001, he returned to Trenton and began his 11-year career with NCMC as the director of development, public relations and the NCMC Foundation before retiring in June.
Maxey is married to TJC alum Shirley Spencer Maxey and they have two sons, Scott and Todd, who are also alumni of the college. They also have four grandchildren.
Mrs. Mertens graduated from TJC in 1964 before continuing her education at Northwest Missouri State University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in education in 1966. After completing her undergraduate degree, she received her master’s degree in library science from the University of Michigan in 1967. In addition, she received her specialist in education degree from Southeast Missouri State University in 1997.
During her long career, Mrs. Mertens worked at the following libraries: Grundy County-Jewett Norris, Fulton Public, Daniel Boone Regional and at Arcadia Valley Middle/High School. In addition to her years of working at various libraries, she also taught school at Arcadia Valley, where she was also the principal of the middle school. She retired in 2007.
Mrs. Mertens is married to John F. Mertens Jr., and they have two children, Kayce Anne and John F. Mertens III, along with five grandchildren.
Walker attended TJC in 1964-1965 before transferring to the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he graduated in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. In addition, he worked toward a master’s of business administration degree at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. While a student in Columbia, he worked as a switchman and then in Moberly as brakeman for the Norfolk and Western Railway.
After graduation, Walker enlisted in the U.S. Navy and worked in the Naval Security Group. Upon completing his service in the Navy, he returned to the N&W Railway, where he worked his way up to executive positions with various railway organizations as vice president and general manager before being named president and general manager of the Norfolk and Portsmouth Beltline in 1989. He retired from the rail transportation industry in 2005 and moved from Chesapeake to Fulton in 2008 to be closer to family.
Members of the Class of 2012 Distinguished Alumni will be formally inducted at the gala, “Reflecting on the Past…Realizing the Future,” on Oct. 13. All alumni and friends are invited to the annual gala. For more information about the gala, persons can call the foundation office at 660-359-3948, ext. 1415 or ext. 1403.