Saint Paul College Annual Awards
Each year we recognize both a special graduate and a friend of the College in grateful appreciation for their service to the College. They are honored during the annual Friends Gala.
We welcome your nominations of those who have served and contributed to the success of Saint Paul College and our students. We are now accepting nominations for these awards for 2020-21, and will recognize the recipients at our Friends Gala on May 20, 2021.
Please complete the nomination form and submit it via email to Friends of Saint Paul College executive director, David Kline, at
david.kline@saintpaul.edu before December 1, 2020.
2019 Award Recipients
The 2019 award recipients are Ms. Tola Oladipupo, Alumnus of the Year, and Mr. Greg Buck, Community Partner of the Year.
2019 Alumnus of the Year
Tola Oladipupo
Tola graduated from Saint Paul College in 2016 with an AAS degree in American Sign Language Interpretation and Transliteration. She looks back on her years at Saint Paul College with delight as she remembers the lasting relationships and valuable extracurricular activities that interlaced her educational journey. While studying at Saint Paul College, Tola had the opportunity to serve as the Student Representative to the Friends of Saint Paul College Board and the Marketing and Events Coordinator for Student Senate. Tola’s educational and extracurricular pursuits while at Saint Paul College have intersected in a very tangible way as she now works as the Events Coordinator at Deaf Bible Society - a Deaf led, non-profit organization in Arlington, TX. Tola believes that the opportunities she was awarded during her time as a Saint Paul College student have ardently followed her into her future. This award was a surprise during the 2019 Friends Gala as she was serving as the emcee that evening.
2019 Community Partner of the Year
Greg Buck
Greg Buck is president of Productivity Inc., an Upper Midwest distributor of CNC machine tools, robotics and related metalworking products headquartered in Plymouth, Minnesota. He is also president of partner company Moncktons Machine Tools in Denver and Salt Lake City serving the Rocky Mountain States. Greg joined Productivity in 1981 and was named vice president in 1987 and president in 2001.
Greg also serves on the national board of the Association for Manufacturing Technology, which has represented builders and distributors of manufacturing technology since 1902. Locally, he also serves on the president’s advisory committee of Saint Paul College in Saint Paul, on the board of regents at St. Olaf College in Northfield, and as a trustee at Mitchell Hamline in Saint Paul. He and his wife Lisa reside in Minneapolis.
Over the years, Productivity has redoubled its ties to local community and technical colleges, and increasingly with high schools, particularly through its partner Haas Automation. View a tribute to Greg and the Productivity Team.
We are grateful to these exemplary individuals and institutions for their unwavering support, contributions and service to our programs and students. Here are our past recipients:
Alumni of the Year Recipients
- Richard Anfang (Painting and Decorating ‘66)
- Jerry Barnes (Pipefitting ‘67)
- Jean Bauer (Medical Laboratory Technology ‘75)
- Ryan Caulfield (Culinary Arts ‘96)
- James Doody (Plumbing ‘70)
- Carla Fryar (Cosmetology ‘82)
- Robert Haskins (Machine Tool ‘75)
- Richard Hesse (Machine Tool ‘58)
- Leonard Karter (Watchmaking ‘73)
- Nathaniel Khaliq (Carpentry ‘72)
- Sidney Magee, Jr. (Auto Body Repair ‘68)
- Rep. Tim Mahoney (Pipefitting ‘85)
- Tom Nielsen (Machine Tool ‘84
- John O’Connor (Sheet Metal ‘61)
- Tola Oladipupo (ASL ’16)
- John Schiltz (Culinary Arts ‘75)
- Curt Southward (Electrical Technology ‘74)
- Robert Tipler (Electrical Technology ‘64)
- Steven Tufenk (Pipefitting ‘74)
- Pamela Wellumson (Sign Language Interpreter Training ‘81)
- Robert Widerski (Plumbing ‘62)
Community Partner of the Year Recipients
- James Staloch, 2007
- Howard Guthmann, 2008
- David Berg, 2009
- Councilmember Daniel Bostrom, 2010
- President Emeritus Donovan Schwichtenberg, 2011
- International Institute of Minnesota, 2014
- Mayor Chris Coleman, 2015
- Karin McCabe, 2016
- Representative Alice Hausman, 2017
- Laura Beeth, 2018
- Greg Buck, 2019