Naperville Central honored Mayor Scott Wehrli, retired Lt. Col. Morgan Laird and Ben Winterrowd during its 26th annual Distinguished Alumni Recognition Celebration on May 2. Wehrli and Winterrowd attended the ceremony, while Laird was unable to attend because his wife was about to deliver their third child.
The day began with an assembly where Wehrli and Winterrowd participated in a panel discussion, answering questions from the senior class. They later joined students in a meet and greet in the Learning Commons, followed by a school tour and a concluding lunch.
The selection of alumni was coordinated by staff members of the Central Times.
“What this day serves as, and what we try to incorporate into the senior class is a way for students to associate with the alumni, connect and relate to them and see the path they can take to reach these opportunities,” said Jay Deegan, who spoke at the ceremony.
Laird, a 2001 graduate, moved to Naperville from Alabama midway through his freshman year. Trying out for the school baseball team shortly after his arrival helped him quickly find his footing, form lasting friendships and build a strong support network.
“Morgan’s life path brought him [to Central] as a freshman, so he’s lived transitions to very significant things in the development of who he is,” said Athletic Director Jeff Plackett. “What’s neat would have been Morgan’s ability to speak to those [seniors] where there’s a little bit of uncertainty for the next step.”
Plackett said the alumni event strikes a meaningful balance between sending off seniors and welcoming alumni back.
Having graduated Central in 2007, the celebration marked Winterrowd’s first time back in the building since graduation. During high school, he spent most of his time playing sports and hanging out with friends.
“What’s fun about Ben is his humility,” Plackett said. “He’d come back and be the first person to say ‘no I don’t belong here’ but I enjoyed looking out while he was talking and seeing the pride on his parents’ faces.”
Deegan recognized the downside of not having women among this year’s honorees but firmly believed the group offered a range of experiences that would resonate with students.
Wehrli, a lifelong Naperville resident and 1987 Central graduate, was elected mayor in 2023. He brought decades of experience in local business, law enforcement and public service to the mayor’s office.
“It was a really good opportunity, a lot of great discussion, and I think it was a really powerful experience for the alumni to come back and reconnect and see this building that’s changed so much,” Deegan said.
Q&A’s with two of Central’s newest distinguished alumni
Lt. Col. Morgan Laird was not able to be interviewed because of a family conflict on the day of the Distinguished Alumni induction.
Scott Wehrli, Class of 1987
Q: You’ve been in Naperville your whole life. What makes this place so special to you?
A: I was adopted from Chicago, and I had two loving parents that brought me to Naperville. I could have ended up anywhere in the world and ended up here. I think that was the early, eye opening thing that showed me how lucky I was to have loving parents and a safe city that had everything I could potentially need as a kid growing up.
Q: What was your favorite memory during your time here at Central?
A: In the psychology classes back then we [had] these field experiences, which I don’t think they could even think about now, but we worked with patients at Elgin mental health center. We went every week the entire semester and volunteered there. We worked down at Stateville penitentiary. We worked at the St. Charles youth home, which is where juvenile offenders get sentenced. It was an education I never thought in a million years I would get but it really exposed me to things that I found very, very valuable.
Q: What advice would you give to students who are about to graduate this year?
A: I say set your goals very, very high. If you set them too low, you might find yourself disappointed. So I always set super high goals, just to know that maybe if you get halfway there, at least you’ve made progress. When people ask you to do something, or there’s something that comes up and it’s out of your comfort zone, take chances. You never know what doors that might open. It might end up being something that you find yourself very passionate about and want to do. It might be an introduction to a new group of people that ultimately become a bridge to something else. There’s a lot of things that I’ve been asked to do over my life, and they’re scary and you want to make yourself look not capable. But in almost every one of those instances, I grew. Everything was not always a success. You get more strength out of failure than anything else.
Q: Are there any values that you think were instilled here at Central that you now use as mayor?
A: When I was in high school, there’s all sorts of different groups, and I tried to not necessarily be a member of any one small group as much as I tried to have friends in all the groups. I think that helped ultimately prepare me for what I would face in life. If you limit yourself to just one small little group, you’re limiting where you can go in life. Quite frankly that might work in high school, but it’s not going to work in real life, especially if you really want to expand your horizons, do different things, and find out what you’re capable of.
Ben Winterrowd, Class 0f 2001
Q: What might you say to students who, like you, don’t want to work a desk job?
A: Pinpoint what it is that you enjoy the most, and seek out those opportunities because I think that there’s a lot more than you think. Even a simple Google search could probably tell you those things. I never would have imagined that my job existed when I was in high school and I’m happy it does because it’s perfect for me. I didn’t know what I wanted to do and I think that’s ok too. I think anybody that doesn’t know what they want to do, there’s plenty of time to figure it out. Whatever you do, do it to your fullest, give it 110%.
Q: Can you tell about your role at Clemson University?
A: I’m the Associate Director of Athletic Communications going into year nine. I work with men’s basketball, men’s golf and football. I’m [also] an editor on our donor magazine, Orange: The Experience, which goes to 20,000 donors printed, and that’s how we do the written storytelling of student athletes and coaches.
Q: What advice would you give to students at Central today?
A: Take advantage of all the resources that Central has. It’s a great place to be and a great place to learn, teachers are experts in what they do. I wish I [had] taken a little bit more advantage of that when I was here.
Q: Is there someone who influenced you most during your time at Central?
A: You can almost pick somebody in every single department that had an influence on me. I would say probably some of the teachers I’ve had come down here, [Jeff] Plackett, [Barry] Baldwin, [Mike] Ulreich, [Tina] Dohm and [Chris] Hodge. I’ve gotten really back into photography, and I took two or three of Mr. Hodge’s photography classes when I was here, which is a crazy, full circle moment. I didn’t really think that it would be an emphasis of my job, but it kind of occurred just with the [growth] of social media and so I taught myself again, started to take photos and kind of developed that [skill] over the last five to seven years. I want to say I’ve gotten pretty good at it.
