2024 Hall of Fame Inductees

The Inductees are:

• Community Service: The Honorable Senator Dick Durbin, 80, Springfield, IL
• Education: John Hallwas, 79, Macomb, IL
• Labor Force: Dianne Michels, 80, Deerfield, IL 
• Arts, Sports, and Entertainment: Charlene Wexler, 81, Richmond, IL

Arts, Sports, and Entertainment - Charlene Wexler

Lifelong Illinois resident Charlene Wexler is a fiction writer/novelist and essayist. She is the author of the books Farewell to South Shore, Elephants in The Room, Lori, Milk and Oranges, Murder Across the Ocean, and Murder on Skid Row. Because of the popularity of the first volumes published years earlier, Lori and Murder Across the Ocean were picked up by a new publisher, Speaking Volumes, which re-released them in 2023. Her work also has appeared in publications including North Shore magazine; the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry’s Vision magazine; Alpha Omega magazine; the book and CD Famous Poets of the Heartland: A Treasury of Beloved Family Poems, Talent, OR: Famous Poets Press; and the Gazette Chicago newspaper. Charlene’s writings also appear on at least ten websites.

Community Service - The Honorable Senator Dick Durbin

The Honorable Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Springfield, is the 47th U.S. Senator from the State of Illinois, the state’s senior senator, and the convener of Illinois’ bipartisan congressional delegation.  Senator Durbin also serves as the Senate Democratic Whip, the second highest ranking position among the Senate Democrats. Senator Durbin has been elected to this leadership post by his Democratic colleagues every two years since 2005. He also serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and sits on the Appropriations and Agriculture Committees. He was elected to the U.S. Senate on November 5, 1996, and re-elected in 2002, 2008, 2014, and 2020. Among his top legislative achievements, Senator Durbin led the charge to ban smoking on airplanes and worked on various criminal justice reforms. Durbin was also an original author of the DREAM Act to give young people brought to the country illegally a path to citizenship, first introducing it in 2001. It never passed, but it led to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created by executive action in 2012.

Education - John Hallwas 

John Hallwas has been an inspirational educator fostering commitments to a variety of causes, such as self-growth, historical understanding, social activism, and improved community.  He received a B.S. in Education and a Master of Arts degree from Western Illinois University (WIU).  After two years of doctoral study at the University of Florida, he was hired to teach at WIU in 1970. During his 34 years at WIU, he became the most award-winning and widely published professor in the University’s history, and upon his retirement in 2004, he was officially designated by the Western trustees as “Distinguished Professor Emeritus.”  He was the only retiree among the several thousand professors in WIU’s history to ever receive that honor. He has remained active in retirement and continues to write books and articles, speak widely, teach adult education classes, develop regional television programs and lead organizations.

Labor Force - Dianne Michels

Dianne Michels offers a pragmatic but innovative approach to guiding others to unleash their potential and to experience the power of possibility. As a Human Resources Futurist and a Rearchitecting Work Consultant, she brings 30-plus years of multi-faceted experiences in a diverse variety of enterprises, ranging from small, family-owned businesses, start-ups, political campaigns, and government agencies to international public relations firms and Fortune 500 companies. Her breakthrough concepts and tools awaken others to the possibility of embracing work as a gift of participation, contribution, and self-expression, vs. a burden to survive or a duty to perform, counting the days to retirement.