Large group added to conservancy’s Lilly Lifetime Founders Society

By Deb Patterson

Editor-In-Chief

The largest number of individuals to be inducted into Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation’s Eli Lilly Lifetime Founders Society took place Friday evening, Aug. 26, at WACF’s Levinson-LaBrosse Lakes and Wetlands Educational Center, followed by a celebration at Oakwood Resort.

The inductees into the society were each presented a WACF flag, medallion bearing Eli Lilly’s image and their name on the society’s wall. The wall is located outside the WACF office.

Inducted this year were: Doug and Carolyn Anderson; Ron and Tami Baumgartner; Tom and Nancy Cottrell; William A (Reno) Freihofer; Joe and Maria Hinrichs; Andrew, Sarah and Anna Hinrichs; Jim and Pat Marcuccilli; Tom and Joan Marcuccilli; Joan Buletty Slocum, posthumously; and Tom and Nancy Yoder.

The society recognizes those who have reached the threshold of giving $100,000 financially or other contribution, such as contracts brought to the WACF’s attention to help solve problems on the lakes, projects that have long-term programs, time and efforts, steadfastness and support.

Terry Clapacs, board member, gave a brief background on the society and of Eli Lilly.

Anderson

The Anderson family has a long and rich history at Lake Wawasee. Doug Anderson’s grandparents bought their 67-acre property adjacent to Lake Wawasee in 1897 to get Anderson’s great uncle, Joe, who had developed tuberculosis, out of the city. He recovered when he came to the lake and lived at the family farm.

In 1977, Doug and Carolyn bought the Wawasee Boat Company and moved to Lake Wawasee permanently in the summer of 1978.

Baumgartner

Ron Baumgartner is president of The Papers Inc. in Milford. He attended and graduated from Milford High School and went on to Indiana University, where he earned a journalism degree in 1966. Returning to his hometown, he joined the family business and has been employed there for the past 56 years. Baumgartner is past president of the Kosciusko County Plan Commission and served on the board of directors of the Lakeland Youth Center and the Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation. He has been president of the Milford High School Alumni Association, is a member of the Milford Lions Club and currently serves on the Kosciusko County Community Foundation.

Married to Tami since 2014, Ron has two daughters, Criss Corson and Jennifer Baumgartner, and Tami has a daughter, Jennifer Foster, and son, Ben Moore.

Baumgartner has served two terms on the WACF board.

Cottrell

Tom and Nancy Cottrell met while students at Indiana University. They have three daughters, Katie (Aaron), Jackie (Eli), and Maddie (Caelob), and four grandsons. Cottrell practiced public accounting in Leo, since 1990, retiring in 2015, and Nancy Cottrell worked as an interior designer and later raised their children. Tom’s grandfather, Robert S. Clifford, built the family’s original cottage in the early 1940s on Bay Shore. It remains in the family today. In 2003 Tom and Nancy bought their family cottage on Cedar Point.

Cottrell serves on the WSCF board.

Freihofer

William A. “Reno” Freihofer ventured to the shores of Lake Wawasee in the summer of 1963. Renting several cottages along Natti-Crow Beach from 1964-1966, Freihoffer had found his happy place with the people he loved most. In December 1965 Roy Reinhart called Reno to inquire whether he might have any interest in buying his cottage. He drove to Wawasee the next day and began what has now been 57 years of fun at Pier 270.

Reno loved Lake Wawasee and through his gift hopes the legacy he started in 1963 for his family carries forward for many generations to come.

Hinrichs

Joe and Maria Hinrichs came to Lake Wawasee with friends in 2001 and returned to visit for the next 10 years until purchasing their own home on Waco Drive in 2012. Joe retired as president of Ford Motor Company’s global automotive business in 2020, and now serves on three boards of directors and advises five other companies. Maria has kept the family together during their 32 years of marriage.

Their oldest daughter, Dr. Anna (Hinrichs) Ward, is currently in her second year of residency at Detroit Children’s Hospital, specializing in pediatrics. Their son, Andrew, is a financial advisor with Horizon Advisors LLC in Plymouth, Mich., and daughter Sarah is following in her father’s footsteps at Ford Motor Company, where she is an engineer in the Ford College Graduate Program in Vehicle Connectivity.

Marcuccilli

Jim and Pat Marcuccilli have been property owners at Lake Wawasee since 1994. They are parents to three children. A graduate of Ball State University, Pat has a bachelor’s in special education and masters in learning disabilities. She is a retired educator as well as a licensed education administrator. Jim graduated from Notre Dame University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in finance. He currently serves as chairman and CEO of STAR Bank, where he has been employed for 49 years.

Tom and Joan Marcuccilli, formerly of Marion, now residing in Fort Wayne since 2000, originally came to Wawasee in 1995 and shared Pier 280 with Jim and Pat, but they quickly realized the lake home was not big enough for both families. They bought their own place and rebuilt it in 2010 so it can be shared with their five children and six grandchildren.

Tom is the chairman of STAR Financial Group and has been with the bank for 47 years and is in his third year of working on retirement.

Slocum

Joan Buletty Slocum moved to Syracuse in the mid-1970s, where she graduated from Wawasee High School in 1976. She then went on to attend Indiana University, where she received both her bachelors and master’s degrees in education. She didn’t know a stranger. She took time to get to know people with whom she crossed paths.

Slocum came to WACF offering to finance a project, and she and Executive Director Heather Harwood discussed a variety of options. She enthusiastically chose to fund a pavilion at Between-the-Lakes. The foundation was completed when sadly, she passed away. Work will resume this fall, and the dedication plaque on the pavilion will read “Joan M. Buletty Pavilion.”

Yoder

Tom and Nancy Yoder have resided on the south shore of Lake Wawasee since August 1973. Their lake home was formerly a summer cottage built in 1888 by a well-known early settler, John Vawter.

Tom and Nancy are now parents to four children and six grandchildren, all of whom love coming to the lake to visit. Tom retired from Eli Lilly and Company after 31 years of service, the last 13 as director of the worldwide health and safety organization, and Nancy kept the family organized and going during their time in Indianapolis and Atlanta. She served in many volunteer positions over the years.

Yoder became a board member in September 1997 and served as chairman in 2001-02. He has chaired the development committee and currently chairs the land acquisition committee.