ALUMNI AWARDS
The Distinguished Alumni Award, presented annually at commencement, recognizes the personal, professional, and civic accomplishments of a Bishop DuBourg Alumnus who has demonstrated a commitment to faith, family, and service.
Bishop DuBourg recognizes many of our former athletes and coaches throughout the years at our annual Hall of Fame Dinner. Currently, there are over 100 inductees, and many more to come.
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD
JANICE M. BOOK '88
Bishop DuBourg is proud to announce that Janice M. Book '88 is the recipient of the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award.
Janice is a lifelong St. Louis resident, born and raised in Affton and currently residing in Warson Woods. At the beginning of this year, she began a new professional opportunity as the Vice President of Finance with Aligned Equity Group in Des Peres, a private equity firm in the real estate realm specializing in senior living and multi-family community development. She is also a Bishop DuBourg Advisory Board member and on the Finance Committee, positions she has held for over ten years which keeps her connected to the Bishop DuBourg community.
Before coming to Bishop DuBourg, Janice grew up in Affton and attended Seven Holy Founders grade school. She was the middle child of three children to Harry and Joan, with her mom and dad helping organize the very first Bishop DuBourg Gala Auction.
Her younger sister Joyce (’91 Ortwerth) also attended Bishop DuBourg, and later came back just after college for a couple years to coach volleyball and teach science.
In her time at Bishop DuBourg, Janice played volleyball and basketball, was a member of the Pro-Life Club and National Honor Society. It was also here that during her senior year she took a class that changed her life - an Accounting class. Janice attended the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma on a volleyball scholarship where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a major in Accounting. After graduating from TU, she moved back to St. Louis and began her accounting career working full time with Civic Center Corporation, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch that owned and operated Busch Stadium. Shortly after starting her professional career, she went back to school at St. Louis University and began taking evening classes to pursue her Master’s in Business Administration, which she earned in 1996. During her 35-year career she has worked for these large St. Louis companies: Bryan Cave Law Firm, XTRA Corporation (a Berkshire Hathaway company) and is now with the small private equity firm, Aligned Equity Group.
Janice has also been involved in volunteering within communities in the St. Louis area and was a long tenured volleyball coach with different organizations. She was involved with the University of Tulsa – St. Louis alumni club, a long-time trustee of her homeowner’s association, and as mentioned earlier, a current and long time member of the Advisory Board to Bishop DuBourg’s presidents. Like many of you here at graduation today, she comes from a line of legacy family members who have attended Bishop DuBourg. Her uncle and godfather were in the very first class at the newly created Bishop DuBourg High School in 1950, followed by more aunts, uncles and cousins, as well as her sister. She routinely comes back to DuBourg for the Annual Gala Dinner Auction and to talk to students about the accounting profession at career day.
Janice enjoys spending time with her family, friends, two dogs and traveling.
Congratulations Janice!