Char Panek
He was “Mr Di Raddo” when I was just a kid going to sleepovers with his daughter, but he became an inspiration when I decided to pursue a career first-gen scientist. I could never thank him enough for making my academic goals attainable, and for writing me letters of recommendation for graduate school. Whenever I visited home and ran into him (inevitably) at Meijer, he always had a huge smile on his face. The scientific community and the Big Rapids community have lost a truly wonderful human.
