Oak Forest Inducts 1981 Couple Into Its Hall of Fame

Oak Forest High School Assistant Principal Jane Dempsey, Principal Dr. Brad Sikora, Associate Principal Dan Dunne, and Superintendent Dr. Bill Kendall congratulated and inducted 1981 Oak Forest graduates Sherri (Maeder) and Phil Messersmith into the Oak Forest Hall of Fame on September 27.

Phil Messersmith was unable to attend the ceremony due to teaching responsibilities at University of California-Berkeley but will be joining Sherri at the Oak Forest homecoming game on September 28 where both will be honored during halftime.

This is the first couple Oak Forest has chosen to induct into its Hall of Fame. Sherri and Phil are high school sweethearts who’ve embraced and carried the pride and spirit of Oak Forest High School throughout their lives.

Sherri, who was number six in her high school class, earned her bachelors degree in the teaching of mathematics and her masters in applied mathematics at the University of Illinois. After teaching for 25 years at the high school, community college, and university levels and being listed in the “Who’s Who Among American Teachers,” she began writing college math textbooks for McGraw-Hill while teaching at the College of DuPage. She left teaching in 2010 to write full-time and began writing a new series of textbooks that integrate student success skills with math in every chapter. Sherri continues to write and give presentations and workshops at colleges and conferences across the country. To date, she is the author of fifteen textbooks and she continues to write at home and in coffee shops in Berkeley, CA, where she lives with Phil.

Phil earned his bachelors in life sciences from the University of Illinois, his masters in bio-engineering from Clemson University, and his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Illinois. Phil was also a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University and a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Northwestern University. Currently, Phil is the Class of 1941 WWII memorial professor in the departments of bio-engineering and material science and engineering at the University of California-Berkeley. He conducts research on medical implant materials and devices for which he has been awarded 37 United States patents, published over 200 papers in academic journals, and started a company.

Phil is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), and the International Union of Societies of Bio-materials Science and Engineering. He has received a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health, the Langmuir Lecture Award from the American Chemical Society, and the Clemson Award for Basic Research from the Society for Bio-materials.

Clearly both meet the Oak Forest High School Hall of Fame criteria which includes making contributions to the high school over time, having graduated at least 10 years prior to induction, having demonstrated success in their field, and having made contributions to the community.

Aside from their impressive accomplishments, the Messersmiths have also been supporters of Oak Forest’s Senior Honors Night. They have provided over $10,000 in scholarships over the years for which the school and the scholarship recipients and extremely grateful.

At the ceremony, combined of administration, teachers, and various student leaders, Sherri asked, “Who plays Scrabble?” She then explained, “In life, you need to embrace the Q! You can either fear something [like the Q because it is hard to use] or you can make it work [and make a triple word score]. Successful people are not just lucky people. They work harder and longer to reach their goals.”

Sherri also talked about making the most of each student’s college experience, encouraged them to accept help from teachers willing to offer it, and to put themselves in a position to achieve their dreams and set themselves apart from the crowd. Sherri then extended her own help to students and advised they “take advantage of an opportunity” and reach out to her or her husband if they have an interest in biomedical engineering or writing.

Every year, Oak Forest High School students witness this ceremony so they can hear from Bengals who’ve walked in their footsteps and feel encouraged and supported to accomplish similar career paths and goals after leaving high school.

“Oak Forest High School students, you are capable of great things and we expect great things from you,” said Principal Sikora. “ Which one of you will be honored in a future Hall of Fame Ceremony?”