Monmouth College's 169th Commencement Exercises to be held May 17, featuring address by attorney, author, national SigEp president Brad Nahrstadt '89

by Barry McNamara

Monmouth, Ill. (05/11/2026) — Featuring an address by a 1989 alumnus who's highly accomplished in multiple areas, Monmouth College will hold its 169th Annual Commencement Exercises on Sunday, May 17.

Brad Nahrstadt, a longtime Monmouth trustee who's paired an extremely successful legal career with shaping his world through service and leadership, will deliver the Commencement address to approximately 175 members of the Class of 2026 at noon on the Wallace Hall Plaza, weather permitting. The rain site will be the Huff Athletic Center.

At 2 p.m. Saturday, May 16, the Rev. Dr. Kathleen Fannin, Monmouth's former chaplain, will present the Baccalaureate sermon in Dahl Chapel and Auditorium.

A 1992 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, Nahrstadt began his legal career as an associate at Williams Montgomery & John and was named a partner in the firm in 2001. Five years later, he was the youngest member of the firm ever elected to equity partnership. In 2012, Nahrstadt became one of the five founding partners of Lipe Lyons Murphy Nahrstadt & Pontikis, Ltd., which he served for seven years as the president and managing partner. The following two years, he served as the chief operating officer of Donohue Brown Mathewson & Smyth, retiring in 2021 after 30 years in the legal field.

His client list read like a who's who of corporate America, including Quest Diagnostics, General Electric, Bausch & Lomb, Dow Corning, Black & Decker, Borg-Warner Corporation, Costco Wholesale Corporation, CBS Corporation and insurance companies such as Progressive and GEICO.

In 2006, Nahrstadt was selected from more than 900 nominees as one of the 40 Illinois Attorneys under Forty to Watch by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. From 2008 to 2019, he was named a Leading Lawyer in the areas of medical malpractice defense law and products liability defense law. Less than 5% of the licensed lawyers in the state of Illinois are so recognized.

Also a SigEp leader, working author

As a Monmouth student, Nahrstadt was selected as the Blue Key Senior Man of the Year, in part due to his active membership in Sigma Phi Epsilon, including two years as the fraternity chapter's president. He took that love of SigEp into his post-graduate life, serving in various leadership roles that prepared him for being elected grand president of the fraternity in 2023. Last year, he received the Paul B. Slater Award for distinguished service on SigEp's national board of directors and, that same month, he was inducted into the Order of the Golden Heart, the highest honor the fraternity can confer upon a member.

Since retiring, Nahrstadt has authored four books, three of them on early 20th-century politics, including the first full-length biography of Alton B. Parker, the 1904 Democratic nominee for president. His latest book, The Men in the Arena: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Political Convention that Reshaped the Republican Party, is scheduled for publication by Bloomsbury Press in December.

Other speakers and events

In addition to Nahrstadt, Turner Plumer '26 of Canton, Illinois, will address the graduating class. Last fall, Plumer was named Monmouth's recipient of the Abraham Lincoln Civic Engagement Award, thereby becoming a Student Laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. The engineering major was also an All-Midwest Conference player on the men's basketball team.

Fannin served as Monmouth's chaplain from 1997-2010, and one of her many notable accomplishments was mentoring John Huxtable, the 2004 graduate who is the college's current chaplain. The title of her Baccalaureate sermon is "Keep On Keeping On."

"She's one of the most important people in my life," said Huxtable of Fannin. "Her campus ministry was my inspiration for looking into campus ministry. Her theological construct gave me the foundation to develop my own construct. Her theological understanding of God helped me to understand God in this amazing new light."

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Fannin grew up in a military family that moved often. By the time she was eight, she had lived in seven states. She earned her undergraduate degree in sociology, psychology and anthropology from the University of Texas. At Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, she earned her master's degree in theological studies, and she earned her doctorate degree in ministry from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D. C.

Other events on Saturday, May 16, include the Honor Walk at 3:30 p.m. and the Senior Send-Off at 8 p.m. For the latter event, the graduates will gather at April Zorn Memorial Stadium, where the Alumni and Development Office will welcome them into the Monmouth Alumni Association. The Senior Send-Off will include a congratulatory toast and conclude with fireworks.

The Commencement ceremony will be streamed on the college's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/monmouthcollege.

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