Over 200 guests gathered for Columbus Academy’s 2025 Alumni Holiday Luncheon on December 19. This year’s annual event inside The Grand Event Center at Grandview Yard honored 2025 Distinguished Alumnus Todd Park ’90 and Alumni Service Award recipient Elaine Boaz.
The luncheon began with a welcome from Alumni Board President Kelly Hondros ’06, the recognition of several groups in attendance – current and former faculty, staff and members of the Alumni Board – and a congratulatory message to this year’s seniors who had just finished their final high school exams.
“This is quite a milestone,” Kelly told them, “and we can’t be more excited for you guys taking one step closer to becoming alumni of this great school.”
Kelly then began the presentation to the 35th recipient of Columbus Academy’s Alumni Service Award, given to a faculty or staff member who has made a lasting contribution to Columbus Academy through his or her service to the school.
Following an emotional introduction from her former teaching colleague Theresa Paulson, Elaine Boaz shared with the holiday luncheon audience what she considers to be the “Columbus Academy superpowers” that she learned and applied while teaching in our Lower School:
- The power of respect.
- The power of community.
- The power of projects.
- The power of resilience.
- The power of words.
“Thank you for recognizing the role I have had as both a teacher and a learner while at Columbus Academy,” stated Elaine at the conclusion of her acceptance speech. “Please know that I am filled with gratitude for all the opportunities that I have had beside creative and caring students, who are now exceptional alumni, thoughtful and supportive parents, and devoted and inspiring colleagues. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.”
Following a pause in the ceremony to eat a Thanksgiving-style lunch, Head of School Melissa Soderberg stepped to the podium and shared the sad news that alumnus Joe Hartzler ’68 had passed away just the day before, noting that Joe played an important role in U.S. history as the government’s successful lead prosecutor in the Oklahoma City bombing case. She also acknowledged Jack Stephan ’48 as the school’s oldest graduate in attendance as well as John Exline ’64, who is retiring this spring at the conclusion of his 58th year teaching at Academy, which earned him a standing ovation from the crowd.
Because one of Columbus Academy’s traditions that alumni hold most dear is the Junior Speech, Melissa has made it customary for a junior to re-deliver his or her speech at each year’s Holiday Luncheon. Meera Srini had that honor for 2025 and shared her speech from earlier in the fall that recounted many of her family’s trips to little-known museums across the country celebrating things such as vacuum cleaners, salt-and-pepper shakers and the childhood homes of American presidents.
“My parents want me to see how achieving success often involves a lot of failure before accomplishing something greater,” stated Meera. “It takes hard work, determination and even a few unfortunate outcomes to truly achieve success.”
What she has learned from “the presidents who shaped our country and the inventors who built our everyday world” was that they had the determination to solve problems and the persistence to keep going when things got tough.
“I realized that every museum my family visits isn’t just about statistics and accomplishments written inside,” Meera concluded. “It is about who those people were beyond the write-up on the placards… every story has shaped how I see success, not as something instantaneous but something built layer by layer.”
The program concluded with the presentation of the Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest honor given to an alumnus/a in recognition of outstanding achievement in community or profession and loyalty to Columbus Academy.
“By nature he was quiet and reserved and incredibly humble, but everyone recognized his brilliance,” said John Wuorinen ’80 in his introduction of the 2025 Distinguished Alumnus. “Whether serving as the chief technology officer of the United States or innovating as a healthcare CEO, Todd has never stopped using that same brilliant touch to fix complex systems and improve lives.”
Todd is executive chairman of Devoted Health, a company he co-founded with his brother Ed Park ’93 that focuses on dramatically improving health and well-being by caring for everyone like they are family.
“For Ed and me, the Columbus Academy was the seed crystal of our American dream,” Todd stated in his acceptance speech. “The Academy was a portal into a world of knowledge and discovery with extraordinary teachers who were instrumental in making us into everything that we are.”
“My beloved wife Amy, who has been my soulmate and best friend for 34 years and who knows me better than I do, firmly believes that basically everything awesome that has ever happened in my life happened through a chain reaction that started at the Columbus Academy. She says that I owe the Academy everything, and she is right. And I am not alone. For so many, the Columbus Academy has been our portal to an amazing, larger world, a world where anything is possible, a world where a curious mind and a persistent heart can take you to places you never imagined you could be. In other words, the Academy is a place where American dreams can truly begin.”
To learn more about Columbus Academy’s alumni awards, click here.