Feature: The 2002 Alumni Awards
Every year, the MSU Alumni Association confers three presitigious awards that are presented Homecoming Week at a Grand Awards Ceremony. Last fall, the Recognition Committee of the MSUAA’s national alumni board came up with 27 honorees—13 Distinguished Alumni Awards, 7 Philanthropist Awards, 4 Alumni Service Awards, and 3 Honorary Alumni Awards.
“This is one of our most significant events of the year,” says Keith Williams, executive director of the MSUAA. “The alumni we honor, and those on whom we bestow honorary alumni status, have brought great honor to the university with their achievements and great help to the university with their volunteer service and financial support. It is a major event in MSU’s academic calendar and I’m delighted to see a full house every year.”
For a complete list and descriptions of all award winners, photos from the ceremony, as well as the procedure for nominating someone for an award, visit www.msualum.com/events/2002/grand-awards.
The Award Recipients:
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARDS
Darryl Allen, ’65 (B.A. Business), former CEO of Libbey-Owens-Ford, heads Allen Ventures, LLC, a private equity investor in Sylvania, OH. He served as president of the Broad School Alumni Association in 2000.
Patrick Alguire, M.D. ’75, serves as professor of medicine at Jefferson Medical School, Phildelphia, and director of education and career development, American College of Physicians and American Society of Internal Medicine. His book, Teaching In Your Office: A Guide To Instructing Medical Students and Residents, was named one of the Top 100 medical publications.
Albert D. Bolles, B.S. ’80, M.S. ’83, Ph.D. ’97, is the senior vice president, Global Technology and Quality, Chief Technical Officer-Tropicana Products, Bradenton, FL. His vision is said to have impacted the entire citrus fruit industry, in areas including production technology, processing, distribution and marketing.
Eli H. Broad, B.A. ’54, is chairman of the board of SunAmerica, Inc., one of the nation’s largest issuers of fixed and variable annuities and guaranteed investment contracts. Broad and his wife Edythe endowed The Eli Broad College of Business and The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at MSU. He is the founding chairman of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Wanda Herndon, ’74, M.A. ’79, is the senior vice president, Worldwide Public Affiairs, Starbucks Coffee Company. She played a key role in helping make Starbucks the best known coffee brand worldwide.
Gordon W. Kettler, B.S. ’63, M.A. ’64, is executive director of global security at General Motors Corp., responsible for the safety of GM’s 386,000 employees worldwide. A past president of the MSU Criminal Justice Alumni Association, he is a member of MSU School of Criminal Justice’s Wall of Fame.
Roger L. Koenig, B.S. ’76, is co-founder, chairman, CEO and president of Carrier Access Corp., Boulder, CO, the leading provider of multi-service digital access equipment to telecommunications carriers, including local exchange carriers, internet service providers and wireless carriers. He has endowed a $1.5 million chair in MSU’s College of Engineering.
Nancy Kline Leidy, B.S. ‘75, is global scientific director and a member of the board of directors at MEDTAP International, a medical research and evaluation firm, and an adjunct associate professor of nursing at Johns Hopkins University. She is an active medical researcher and has won awards for her teaching while at MSU from 1977-81.
Carol Mechanic, ‘73, is the senior vice president of programming at Showtime Networks, responsible for managing programming communication across all of Showtime’s constituencies. She is the primary liaison between the programming group and other divisions and was the first woman to run a region within the company.
William M. Mechanic, B.A. ’73, head of Pandemonium Films, was the former chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment from 1993-2000. During his tenure at Fox, he led the studio to No. 1 in worldwide box-office with films such as Titanic, The Full Monte, and The X-Men, and Fox films garnered 50 oscar nominations, including five for best picture.
Dwight C. Schmidt, B.S. ’68, is executive director of the Corrugated Packaging Alliance and chairman of the International Corrugated Packaging Foundation. Throughout his career, Schmidt was “an unflinching advocate of the MSU School of Packaging” and has provided more than $6 million in gifts and grants nationwide to promote education in the industry.
Charles W. Sorensen, Ph.D. ’73, has been the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Stout for 14 years. Under his leadership, Wisconsin-Stout became the first in the nation to receive the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award for excellence. UW-Stout also won the Governor’s Diamond Award for its diversity efforts.
Richard L. Witter, B.S. ’58, D.V.M. ’60, an internationally renowned researcher on Marek’s disease, recently retired as director of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Avian Disease and Oncology Laboratory. Witter helped to develop successful vaccines for Marek’s disease, which nearly destroyed the poultry industry in the 1960s.
PHILANTHROPIST AWARD
A. Gordon Adams, Jr., B.S. ’41, a former vice president of First of Michigan Corp. and attorney with Haisch & Associates of Detroit, has created several MSU scholarships including the Bradford-Adams Endowed Scholarship Fund, the A. Gordon Adams Jr. Alumni Distinguished Scholarship, the A. Gordon Adams Jr. College of Human Medicine Scholarship, and the A. Gordon Adams Jr. James Madison Fellows Scholarship.
Fred Addy, B.A. ’53, M.B.A. ’57, retired executive vice president, chief financial officer and director of Amoco Corp., have been very generous donors to MSU. In recognition of wife Marilyn’s music degree, he established the Marilyn Addy Endowment for Artistic Excellence for the benefit of the Lyric Opera of Austin (TX).
Stanley & Selma, B.A. ’62, M.A. ’65, Hollander, retired professors at MSU, have made many gifts to MSU, including paintings to Kresge Art Museum, and a sculpture, Girl With Doves, to the Wharton Center for Performing Arts. More recent gifts include the endowment of a chair (first cello) in the MSU Symphony and an addition to the Hollander Endowment at the Wharton Center for Performing Arts.
Lynn, Doug, & Willis MacCready, brothers and co-owners of the Michigan Seat Company and directors of MacCready Realty LLC, donated to MSU a family farm and land in Jackson Country valued at $1.45 million. The brothers also established the Lynn and Thelma MacCready Forest and Wildlife Endowment Fund as a memorial to their parents.
Mary Anne, B.A. ’55, & Walter McPhail, president of the McPhail Corp. and Fair Weather Aviation in Rochester Hills, MI, donated in 1999 the funds necessary for building the Mary Anne McPhail Equine Performance Center, a teaching facility for veterinary medicine students. The McPhails also established the Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair in equine sports medicine—the only one of its kind in the world.
Shirley Pasant, president of the Athanase & Shirley Pasant Foundation, and her late husband Athanase have been generous with the MSU Wharton Center, whose Pasant Theatre is named after them. The Pasants also created the A.J. Pasant Chair in Insurance in 1986 and the Shirley Pasant Endowed Scholarship in The School of Hospitality Business in 1997.
Clifton & Dolores Wharton, former MSU president and MSU First Lady from 1970-78, created the Wharton Center Endowment Fund which provides for long-term support for the center named in their honor. Clifton created the Presidents Club donor society to encourage private gifts to MSU.
Betty Beryl Falcone, M.A. ’62, retired public school teacher in the Lansing area, spent most of her career as an educator and has served as hostess countless times of Dept. of Music functions. She now serves on the boards of several organizations, including the Leonard Falcone Festival and the MSU Alumni Band Association.
ALUMNI SERVICE AWARDS
Kathryn A. Grace, B.S. ’81, technical and regulatory advisor for KAG Packaging Services, Alma, and a member of the MSU School of Packaging Hall of Fame, has served on the MSUAA Kaleidoscope Committee and as president of the Packaging Alumni Association’s board of directors, as a board member for the MSUAA and the Agriculture and Natural Resources Alumni Association.
Kathleen Schwartz, B.A. ’71, M.B.A. ’85, retired vice president of community services, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Birmingham, is chairperson of the MSU College of Nursing Alumni Association Board and, among many other activities, has spearheaded the creation of an Endowed Scholarship Fund for the College of Nursing.
Duane Vernon, B.A. ’53, director of the Credit Bureau of Greater Lansing, has provided an inexhaustible range of services to MSU. He is an MSUAA Life Member, a former president of the MSU Alumni Club of Mid-Michigan, and received the “Outstanding Club Presidents Award” in 1969. He served on the in many other capacities and chaired the 1979 and 2000 parades that honored MSU’s NCAA championship basketball teams.
HONORARY ALUMNI
George Blaha, sports broadcaster and in his 23rd year with the MSU football network, has suported countless football, basketball and other athletic banquets, and other MSU functions. A winner of the “Michigan Sportscaster of the Year” award, he has served as MC for numerous events sponsored by the MSU Alumni Club of Oakland County.
Pauline Glassbrook, retired member of the Michigan Dept. of Education and the Michigan FFA Foundation, helped to establish the Glassbrook Future Farmers of America Foundation, now valued at $1.35 million. A member of MSU’s Snyder Society, she has also been a generous contributor of MSU’s Horticultural Demonstration Gardens and to Sparty’s Flowers.
Norma J. Guyer (Posthumous), former MSU First Lady, was an involved member and former president of MSU’s Faculty Folk Club. Norma volunteered for more than 30 years at Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital and the Ingham County Regional Medical Center and was a president of the East Lansing Women’s Club and the East Lansing Child Study Club.