Educators work to help students acquire and retain knowledge and skills that help them succeed academically and in life.
The success of alumni certainly reflects well on those who had a hand in teaching them along the way, but it shows how far one can go in a career and in life.
On. Sept. 21, the Bull Dog Alumni Association inducted three members from its Columbus High/Columbus North lineage — a renowned lawyer, a health care leader and award-winning cameraman/videographer — into its Hall of Fame with its sixth induction ceremony the day of the high school’s homecoming.
Those inducted this year were Victoria Toensing, Sandy Carmichael and Dennis Unger. They join 26 other distinguished alumni previously inducted into the hall.
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Toensing, a 1958 Columbus High graduate, is known as an international expert on white-collar crime, national security and intelligence matters.
Notably, she served as deputy assistant attorney general for the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice for four years. While there, she established the terrorism unit that directed investigations of terrorists responsible for the 1982 bombing of Pan Am Flight 830; the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 from Cairo, Egypt, to San Diego; and the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship.
She also is the founding partner of Washington, D.C.-based law firm diGenova & Toensing LLP, which she started with husband, Joseph diGenova.
Sandy Carmichael, a 1967 Columbus High School graduate, was the first director of Our Hospice of South Central Indiana, leading the organization from 1980 until her 2013 retirement.
Carmichael helped start Our Hospice’s annual Labor Day concert fundraiser in 1987. She also created the Indiana Association of Hospices in 1979, and played a key role in the passage of state certification and the Medicaid hospice benefit.
Dennis Unger, a 1959 Columbus High graduate, is a retired photographer and videographer.
He was a news cameraman for WFBM-TV, an NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, where he was named news film cameraman of the year three times. Unger also was part of the WFBM team that won a Peabody Award for a series of programs that examined and promoted race relations in Indianapolis.
Also of note, Unger worked in the White House communications office in Washington and spent seven years under President George W. Bush and two years under President Barack Obama. He oversaw the conversion of the White House’s videography system to high definition on the day of Obama’s inauguration.
All three Bull Dog Alumni Association Hall of Fame inductees have demonstrated a high degree of skill in their career fields, and have made a difference with their contributions.
Their selections provide more good examples of success that current students can look up to, and another reason for Columbus to be proud of so many graduates who have distinguished themselves in their professions and their communities.
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