Page 12 - The Bell Tower - Fall 2014

Outstanding Alumni
The UMFK Alumni Association honored three individuals who have made an impact on the campus and in their community, at its annual Alumni and Friends Banquet held in Nowland Hall on September 20.
division, supervising detectives in major crime investigations in Maine’s five north- ern counties. In 2002, he was assigned
to be the Maine State Police Troop Commander for Aroostook County.
Ouellette taught criminal justice classes at UMFK in 1985 and continues to teach as an associate professor in crimi- nal justice. He served the people of the state of Maine for over 33 years as a rural trooper, detective, and troop commander. He retired from the Maine State Police in 2010 to spend more time with family.
Upon his retirement, Chief of the
State Police Colonel Patrick Fleming said, “Darrell Ouellette has spent most of his adult life serving and protecting the citi- zens of Maine. He was one of the state police’s most experienced homicide detec- tives.” Ouellette was twice honored by the department for resolving tense standoffs, including in Presque Isle in 1990 when he singlehandedly disarmed a man wielding
a knife after posing as a cable television repairman. That incident was later high- lighted on the TV show “Real Stories of the Highway Patrol.” Ouellette received the department’s Meritorious Award for Bravery for those incidents.
Ouellette’s desire to serve the people of Maine included many appointments as an advocate for children. For ten years, he was the state of Maine’s Missing Children Clearing House Manager. Darrell worked with resources from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children out of Washington D.C. He was responsible for the investigation and recovery of miss-
ing and/or abducted children in the state. Other appointments included Governor Angus King’s Regional Children’s cabinet, the Aroostook Council to Prevent Child Abuse, and a board of director member for the D.A.R.E. program in Caribou.
Darrell is an avid outdoorsman and former Master Maine guide. In his spare time, he enjoys watching baseball and football and harvesting his woodlot. His love of baseball and children inspired him to be a coach for seven years.
He has three grown children, two grandchildren, and resides in New Sweden with his wife, Lisa.
J. Darrell Ouellette
J. Darrell Ouellette was honored as the 2014 UMFK Outstanding Alumnus based upon his many years of dedicated service and safety for the people of Maine and his surrounding communities as well as his profession of teaching.
J. Darrell Ouellette, originally from St. Francis, Maine, graduated from UMFK in 1975 and 1977 after earning two bach- elor’s degrees. While at UMFK, he played for the local hockey teams and lettered on the UMFK Cross Country team. After graduation, Ouellette worked as a courier in the Maine House of Representatives, before joining the Maine State Police in 1977.
Upon graduation from the Maine State Police Academy, he was assigned to patrol the Van Buren - Caribou area until his pro- motion to detective in 1984. During this period, he accepted a four-month assign- ment in southern Maine as an undercover drug agent. He served as supervisor in the drug unit in 1990 until his promotion to detective sergeant in the criminal investi- gation division in Augusta later that year. In 1993, he was promoted to lieutenant
of the northern criminal investigation
Dr. Melik Peter Khoury
This year’s Outstanding Young Alumnus, Dr. Melik Peter Khoury, came
to UMFK in 1995. As a student he was active in the Student Senate, an outstand- ing goalie for the Bengals for four years, and assisted in the University’s recruit- ment efforts. In 1999, he graduated from UMFK with a bachelor of science degree in business management and was named in “Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.” In 2001, he earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Maine in Orono and returned to UMFK to work in the Admission’s office as its direc- tor. He worked as men’s head soccer coach and a part-time faculty member at UMFK.
Khoury has guided colleges and uni- versities throughout his career. He served as the senior vice-president for strategic positioning and chief strategic enroll- ment and marketing officer at Upper Iowa University; vice president for enroll- ment management and college market- ing at Culver Stockton College in Canton, Missouri; vice president for enrollment management at Paul Smith’s College in New York; and senior vice president for external affairs at Unity College, in Maine.
Khoury received a Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. Currently, Dr. Melik Peter Khoury is the executive vice president, CFO, & liaison to the Board of Trustees at Unity College in Unity, Maine. Through strategic and innovative initia-
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