Tom Skilling, Jerry Rose among Class of 2024 inducted into Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame last week

WGN meteorologist Tom Skilling, Elgin Symphony Orchestra violinist Isabella Lippi, TLN broadcaster Jerry Rose and drummer and bandleader of The Dick Cavett Show Bobby Rosengarden were inducted into the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame on April 19 at Villa Olivia in Bartlett.

The Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame is a nonprofit organization that gives public recognition to artists associated with the Fox Valley.

Skilling, who retired from WGN-TV in February, also is known for his popular weather seminars held for 38 years at Fermilab in Batavia. He began at WGN in 1978, and attended West Aurora High School.

Lippi began performing in public at age 10, when she made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She won the St. Louis Symphony Young Artist Competition, so impressing Maestro Leonard Slatkin that in a first he invited her to perform in the symphony subscription concerts.

Rose is the producer and broadcaster who built the Channel 38 television station’s state-of-the-art studio in Aurora. The studio is now in Naperville. After winning more than 30 Emmy Awards in 61 years of broadcasting, he retired in November, and is now board chairman emeritus of global Total Living Network Media.

Born in 1924 in Elgin, Rosengarden, a drummer, recorded with everyone from Billie Holiday, Quincy Jones and Miles Davis to Barbra Streisand, Jimi Hendrix, Igor Stravinsky and Tony Bennett. He created clever “walk-on” themes for television guests, such as “Hello, Dolly!” for artist Salvador Dali.

Inductees are honored with engraved plaques that are displayed at The Hemmens Cultural Center in Elgin. The Hall of Fame board also includes Joyce Dlugopolski of Geneva, formerly Batavia; Diane Handler of St. Charles; Jennifer Hood of Geneva; Carolyn Hansen of Sugar Grove; Joanna Wester of Pingree Grove; Murna Hansemann of Elgin; and Donald Haefliger of Elgin.

The next FVAHF induction ceremony will be in 2026, with nominations opening in the Fall of 2025. To learn more, visit FoxValleyArtsHallofFame.org

Shaw Local reporter Renee Tomell contributed to this story.