In 1963, the Centre College Alumni Association established the Distinguished Alumni Award for the purpose of honoring alumni who have given outstanding service to Centre College and/or to humankind. Recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award are listed below.
Louisville, KY Pediatric Cardiologist, Cincinnati Children's Hospital
For her ongoing devotion to pediatric medicine, research, and global health, and for her ongoing commitment to the next generation of Centre College graduates, I am pleased to recognize Dr. Andrea Zawacki Beaton with the Distinguished Alumna Award for 2022. Read More
San Diego, CA President and CEO, NSAI Energy
For his commitment to the planet and to serving others and for the example he provides to the Centre community, I am pleased to recognize Keith Mathis with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2022. Read More
Park Hills, KY Professor Emeritus, Northern Kentucky University
For his thirty-eight years of teaching, scholarly work, and generous contributions of time to scholars, students, and local communities, Centre College is pleased to recognize Dr. James Claypool with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2019.
Lakeside Park, KY Attorney, Private Practice
For his service to Kentucky and unending support, volunteerism, and generosity to the College, Centre is pleased to recognize Mr. Frank H. Edelen, Jr. with the Distinguished Alumnus Award of 2019.
Monmouth, IL President, Monmouth College
For his 36 year career at Centre and his dedication to scholarship, leadership, and civic service, we are pleased to recognize Dr. Clarence R. Wyatt, as Distinguished Alumnus for 2019.
Jacksonville, FL Strategy Executive, Merrill Lynch
For the example he sets in the way he approaches his work, community service, and loyalty to alma mater, Centre College is happy to present Tony Kurlas, Class of 1993, with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2018.
Selma, AL District Attorney 4th Circuit, State of Alabama
For his service to the nation, and for the example that he provides to alumni, staff, and faculty and to current and future Centre students, Centre College is pleased to present, on behalf of the Alumni Association, Michael W. Jackson, Class of 1985, with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2018.
Lexington, KY Professor of Economics, University of Kentucky
For her leadership and service to the economics profession, both as a teacher and a scholar, Centre College is delighted to present Gail Mitchell Hoyt, Class of 1989, with a Distinguished Alumna Award for 2018.
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San Antonio, TX Retired Pathologist, University of Texas School of Medicine
Centre College is delighted to present acclaimed physician, dedicated educator, and devoted alumnus William A. Meriwether, Class of 1943, with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2017.
Barbourville, KY Retired Teacher, Barbourville City Schools
For her dedication to education in the state of Kentucky and beyond, as well as her service to the College, Centre College is pleased to present Jane Blair Skidmore, Class of 1964, with the 2017 Distinguished Alumna Award.
New Albany, IN Medical Director, WaterStep Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of Louisville
For the example that he provides to current and future Centre students and for his unwavering commitment to the health and well-being of others, Centre College is pleased to present, Bill Smock, Class of 1981, with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Alexandria, VA CEO, Info-Tech Research Group
For his leadership in a global environment and his service to Centre, the College is delighted to present Scott Bohannon, Class of 1991, with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2016.
Scottsville, KY Social Studies Teacher, Allen County Board of Education
For his service and support of the College and his community, and for his leadership in inspiring current and future Colonels, I am pleased to present Franklin Lyles Foster, class of 1973, with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2016.
Palm Beach, FL Retired Political Activist
For her leadership and service to the great state of Florida and the nation, I am pleased to present Beverly White Yeager, Class of 1954, with the Distinguished Alumna Award for 2016.
Indianapolis, IN Real Estate Investor, Centre Properties
For his commitment to the ideals of leadership in work and in service, we are pleased to recognize Craig W. Johnson as a Distinguished Alumnus of Centre College.
Lexington, KY Attorney/Partner, Dinsmore & Shohl
For his unflagging dedication to his clients, his community, and his alma mater, we honor John R. Rhorer, Jr. as a Distinguished Alumnus of Centre College.
Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD US Army, Deputy Program Executive Officer for IEW&S
For his exemplary service to our country, we are proud to recognize Major General Kirk F. Vollmecke as a Distinguished Alumnus of Centre College.
Lexington, KY Author, Documentary Producer, Owner Law Offices of Kent Masterson Brown
For his efforts to preserve our liberties in the courtroom and to preserve the history of our Commonwealth and our nation, we are pleased to recognize Kent Masterson Brown as a Distinguished Alumnus of Centre College.
Natchez, MS Retired Orthopedic Surgeon, Retired English Teacher
For their lifelong service to the people of Central Kentucky, their service to Centre and for their extraordinary dedication to historic preservation, both in Kentucky and especially in Natchez, we are pleased to recognize Jim and Ruthie Coy as Distinguished Alumni of Centre College.
Nashville, TN Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, Vanderbilt University
For his work meeting the immediate healthcare needs of the poorest among us, for his efforts to identify and implement community-based solutions, and for his desire to educate and inspire others, we are to honor Robb Nash as a Distinguished Alumnus of Centre College.
Crestwood, KY Managing Partner, Ronald D. Ray Attorneys at Law
In all aspects of his life and career, this honoree has exhibited courage and discipline that brings distinction to all those who share his love of Centre College and of our nation. The Centre College National Alumni Association is pleased to present the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2013 to Col. Ronald D. Ray, Class of 1964.
Edgewood, KY Deputy Chief of Staff & District Director, Congressman Brad Wenstrup
For his embodiment of that combination of dedication to education, creativity, and hard work, the Centre College National Alumni Association presents John M. Stanton III, Class of 1989, with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2013.
Asheville, North Carolina Superintendent, Buncombe County Schools, Retired
For his living example of that mission, the Centre College National Alumni Association is pleased to name J. Frank Yeager, Class of 1957, a Distinguished Alumnus of Centre College.
Wilmette, IL Professor of Religious Studies, DePaul University, Emeritus
Our honoree is more “Centred” than that citation could have known, for he has modeled the Centre education throughout his career. For his dedication to teaching and learning as one of humankind’s highest callings, the National Alumni Association is pleased to name Paul F. Camenisch, Class of 1962, a Distinguished Alumnus of Centre College.
Danville, KY Kincaid Professor of Management, University of Kentucky, Emeritus
For his efforts to emphasize the importance of ideas, reflection, beauty, culture, words, song, fact, fiction, man, and God in his own life and in the lives of all those privileged to know him, the National Alumni Association is pleased to name James L. Gibson, Class of 1957, a Distinguished Alumnus of Centre College.
Jamestown, KY Attorney; State Representative, Commonwealth of Kentucky
For providing us an example of public service and political leadership at their highest levels, for his understanding of what the term “commonwealth” really means, the National Alumni Association is pleased to name Jeffrey Hoover, Class of 1982, a Distinguished Alumnus of Centre College.
Urbana, ILProfessor of Education Law and Finance, The University of Illinois Urbana
For his willingness to challenge the status quo, to not just keep above water but to make waves and to help young people to ride those waves. I am pleased to present, on behalf of the Centre College National Alumni Association, the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2011 to Dr. S. Kern Alexander, Class of 1961.
Gallatin, TN Owner and Manager, Mudd Properties
Clearly, if you want something built to last—whether it’s a business, a building, a community, or a life well lived—this honoree is your man. For these reasons, I am pleased, on behalf of the Centre College National Alumni Association, to present Reggie Mudd, Class of 1975, with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2011.
Atlanta, GA President of the Events Works Division at EWI Worldwide
Through her intelligence, hard work, and sense of adventure, our honoree has shown how a girl from small-town Kentucky can live, work, and thrive on a global stage. For the example that she provides to current and future Centre students, I am pleased to present, on behalf of the Centre College National Alumni Association, Suzanne Wells Miell, Class of 1981, with the Distinguished Alumna Award for 2011.
Anchorage, KY Professor of Pastoral Theology
He has been widely recognized, by both the pastoral and counseling professions, as one of their pre-eminent scholars and teachers. Such are his accomplishments that this is, in fact, not the first time that Centre has honored him—he received an honorary degree from the College when he delivered the baccalaureate sermon at Commencement in 1974.
“Close. Caring. Community. Lives of learning, leadership, and service.” For making these words real in his own life and work, and in the lives of countless people whom he has inspired and nurtured, Centre is pleased to present David A. Steere, Class of 1953, with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2010.
Louisville, KY Retired Accountant, Deming, Livesay, & Ostroff
For his lifetime of very successful “dabbling” in his professional and civic life, and in his service to the College, the Centre College Alumni Association, to present William P. Malone with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2010.
Boone, NC Associate Professor Emerita, Appalachian State University
For her example of extraordinary dedication to teaching and learning, and for keeping Centre her “first choice,” I am pleased, on behalf of the Alumni Association, to name Bettie Bateman Bond a Distinguished Alumna of Centre College.
Louisville, KY Assistant Professor of Pathology, University of Louisville Chief Medical Examiner, Commonwealth of Kentucky
One of the nation’s leading medical examiners, as evidenced by the fact that the popular investigative news shows 48 Hours and Dateline have done extensive profiles of her in recent years. She is a nationally-recognized expert in pediatric forensics. In that capacity, she has worked frequently with the FBI as a consultant and guest instructor. Her emotional and intellectual toughness and honesty have won her the respect of law enforcement officials and attorneys—prosecution and defense alike—across Kentucky and the nation. And while she approaches each new case with the eye of a skilled scientific investigator, she never forgets that her subject is a human being who had family and friends. As she once said, “Being able to understand the final event in their loved one’s life may help them rest more easily.”
Louisville, KY Retired Director of Photography, Courier-Journal
In the midst of his busy career, he has served Centre in many ways—as a class agent, a member of his reunion committees, and multiple terms as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, just to name a few. His most recent and probably most enduring service to his alma mater is the just-published history of the College—Our Standard Sure: Centre College Since 1819. To this labor of love, he brought the same artistry, imagination, and devotion to excellence that he demonstrated in his professional life. While he has not been around since 1819, he most certainly exemplifies “the standard sure” that is Centre College.
West Point, NY Acting Deputy Chief Defense Counsel in the Office of Military Commissions
Among the greatest traits that any person can hope to achieve are intellectual and moral courage. They are certainly characteristics that we hope to help our students to develop and to act upon as alumni. Mark Bridges has displayed such courage at a time that his country needed it most.
For this work with the JAG Corps, Mark has received the Medal of Liberty Award from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Charles R. English Award from the American Bar Association, and the Frederick Douglass Human Rights Award from the Southern Center for Human Rights.
Gallatin, TN Attorney, James B. Hawkins, Attorney at Law
In the midst of a successful business career, Jim chose to commit himself to public and community service. He has provided leadership in his church, local councils of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, the United Way, Habitat for Humanity, and public broadcasting. Since 2001, he has worked as an attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee. He has also served Centre in many capacities, including as an admission volunteer, president of the Alumni Board, and a key volunteer during the 2000 Vice Presidential Debate.
Lexington, KY Assistant Dean, Student Affairs, University of Kentucky
Susan is active in the life of her church, and has worked with the Red Cross, the United Way, the Lexington Women’s Club, and the Bell Court Neighborhood Association, just to name a few. Her exceptional work at UK has won her many honors, including being named in 2001 as the Outstanding Greek Advisor of the Biennium by the National Panhellenic Conference.
She has continued to serve Centre in many ways, including work as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, reunion committees, and a volunteer for the Vice Presidential debate. Susan has served her hometown of Lexington in many ways as well.
Versailles, KY Attorney and Partner, Stoll, Keenon, Odgen PLLC
In the years since Centre, Anita has become one of Kentucky’s most accomplished and respected attorneys. She is a partner in the firm of Stoll Keenon Ogden and an expert in family law, she has chaired the family law practice section of the Kentucky Bar Association and served as chair of the Kentucky Bar Convention. She has also served a variety of civic and charitable organizations, including president of the Lexington Kiwanis Club, inaugural chair of Bluegrass Women United, and president of the Lexington affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Anita has also served as president of the National Association of Women Business Owners, whose Winners Circle Award she received in 2005.
However, the cause that remains closest to her heart is Centre College. Whether it be help in hosting an alumni event, assistance in reviewing an important document, taking time to talk with a student interested in a career in the law, or generously providing opportunities for current and future Centre students, she is always there when Centre calls. Her service includes several terms on the National Alumni Association Board of Directors, of which she is a past president.
Atlanta, GA
Through First Presbyterian Church, Barbara has become active in providing medical care to impoverished children. Childspring International, which she serves as a board member, provides medical care for children around the world who have suffered disfigurements through birth defects or accidents. She also serves as project coordinator for the Presbyterian Church’s Health and Agricultural Development Project in La Gonave, Haiti.
To change someone’s life for the better should be one of the goals that each of us establishes for ourselves. When Barbara talks with a young alumnus whom she helped direct to Centre, or looks at the smile of a young Haitian child who has food, shelter, and schooling because of her work, she knows that she has accomplished that goal many times over.
Orlando, FL Assistant Professor of Communication, University of Central Florida
No matter what the venue might be, Frances has taught others to find that joy that, in the face of the day-to-day pressures of life, we too often lose. She once said, “when I began teaching, I tried to be perfect and very disciplined—for about eight weeks. I didn’t like me; they didn’t like me. So I changed tactics and gave them the best of me from my heart and it worked.”
As one of her students, NFL star Duante Culpepper, said of her, “she taught us how to make a life rather than how to make a living.” We can’t think of much higher praise.
Naples, FL Orthopedic Surgeon, Retired
Serving as the chief instructor in orthopedic surgery at Harvard Med. In 1979 he moved to Naples, FL, where he has built a highly-successful private practice in orthopedic surgery, and where he and his wife Dottie have served as gracious hosts for numerous Centre alumni events.
While these accomplishments are themselves sufficient to earn him this honor, Jim’s use of his great skills as a physician gives the truest indication of his worthiness. He has frequently traveled to Kenya as a medical missionary for the Presbyterian Church. His generous gift of time and talent has changed the lives of many people.
Pikeville, KY President, University of Pikeville
During his 16 year career at Centre, Hal served as Dean of Admission, Vice President, and Dean of Students. Hal was an important part of the College’s growing strength and prestige. In 1980, Hal was finally tempted to leave Centre, becoming the Vice President for Development at Muskingum College in Ohio. After 16 years at Muskingum, Hal returned to Kentucky to assume the presidency of Pikeville College in 1997.
Since then, he has guided a renaissance of that institution that is so important to Eastern Kentucky. We certainly honor Hal for his professional achievements. But even more, we honor him for remembering that higher education is about more than balancing budgets or maintaining buildings. It is about leading balanced lives and building community.
Bourdeilles, France Entrepreneurs
Jim and Mary are educators, bringing the history, culture, and art of France to American visitors, including Centre students studying in the College’s Strasbourg program. They are preservationists, restoring and preserving not only structures, but a sense of harmony and community that is all too easily lost.
They are conservationists, heating their home with wood from fallen trees on their property, growing much of their own food, and maintaining their land in the way that we should all regard the environment – quite literally, as if our lives depended on it.
As the letter nominating them for these awards said, “Jim and Mary Oppel have done what we expect Centre alumni to do – they had a dream and they made it happen.”
Danville, KY Professor of Physics, Centre College
Marshall has also been one of Centre’s most important citizens. He has hosted reunions of his class or that of his wife, Betsy Gillis Wilt, Class of 1965. He has worked tirelessly on behalf of the College’s admission efforts. Marshall has also led or served on most of the College’s important governing committees. It is in this latter capacity that he has earned particular respect. Marshall has always had the courage to ask the tough questions, to challenge the safe assumptions, whether the audience be fellow faculty and staff, presidents, or trustees. But he has never done so to draw attention to himself, to grandstand. Rather, his motivation is always to hold all of us, himself included, to the highest standards, to make Centre stronger and better able to serve its students.
Simpsonville, KY Colonel, United States Army
Walter has earned the Bronze Star, awarded to individuals who, in a combat theater, distinguish themselves by heroism, outstanding achievement, or meritorious service. Walter has also earned the award in which many soldiers take the greatest pride, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, given to those who endure hostile fire in ground combat operations.
The Army calls for a commitment to “duty, honor, country.” Centre’s mission statement celebrates lives of “learning, leadership, and service.” These values shine like a beacon in the life and career of Colonel Walter Herd.
Athens, GA Director, Division of Parasitic Disease, Centre for Disease Control
It is certainly possible to talk about the value of Dan’s work in technical and scientific terms – after all, his resume is 28 pages long. However, the value of his work is best seen in human terms – in parents given new hope that their children will live beyond childhood, in adults able to live full and contributing lives because the threat of disease had been eased by the work of people like Dan Colley.
Glasgow, KY Circuit Court Judge, 43rd Judicial Circuit, Commonwealth of Kentucky
Judges are, usually rightly, among the most respected members of any community. We entrust to their wisdom and judgment the most profound and personal issues we will face – questions regarding our property, our families, our communities, even our very lives. What kind of person, then, is so respected by his fellow judges that they have entrusted to him the advising and evaluation of their own work? What kind of person becomes the judges’ judge? The life and work of Benjamin Dickinson answers that question.
Huntsville, AL
Whether serving as a pastor, as a clinician in transactional analysis and psychotherapy, or as a grief counselor, he has provided guidance, comfort, and when necessary, a gentle but firm push to those in need of them. He has shared those gifts with his alma mater, serving Centre as an Alumni Association director and as a volunteer in other alumni activities. But he has shared these gifts in less official ways. While those of us who work in alumni and development are glad to see all of our alumni return to campus each Homecoming, we have always looked forward particularly to Washio’s visits.
Danville, KY Stodghill Professor of Art, Centre College
More inspiring than his glass pieces is another, less readily visible element of his work – the profound impact he has as a teacher. He has helped many students find their creative voice and their profession through his skill and devotion. Many students, who do not go on to careers as artists, have also found inspiration from him. The economics or physics or history majors who take one of his classes may never blow another piece of glass or even pick up a sketch pad and pencil, but they will have stepped out of their comfort zone and built their confidence and sense of adventure – surely among the most important measures of success for any teacher. Stephen has received recognition for this aspect of his work as well, twice being named the Kentucky Teacher of the Year and, in 2000, winning the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s National Teacher of the Year Award.
Lexington, KY Documentary Filmmaker
One of the gifts that artists bring to us is the chance to see ourselves and our world through different eyes. The medium can be painting, glass, music, or – as in the case of Tom Thurman – film.
But his work has looked at cultural figures other than actors and film. He has produced work on Southern writers Harry Crews and Lee Smith, along with a documentary entitled Immaculate Funk, about music producer Jerry Wexler, a legendary figure in the history of soul and rhythm and blues music. And, in March of 2002, he premiered his study of one of Kentucky’s most powerful cultural forces – basketball. Great Balls of Fire will likely be the definitive film study of basketball in the Commonwealth for many years.
Austin, TX Account Executive and First Vice President of Morgan Keegan Company
His next part was in the securities and financial advising profession, where he played to rave reviews. He was an award-winning account executive for many years with Principal Financial Securities, eventually being elected to its board of directors. He is now an account executive and first vice president of Morgan Keegan Company in Austin, Texas. But like many actors, Dirk has more than one show going at a time. In addition to his professional success, he has served his local community and his college with great devotion. He is a leader in his church, in service organizations, and in business and community development. He has worked for Centre in almost every possible volunteer role – class agent, admission volunteer, reunion committee member, Alumni Association board member, and intern sponsor – just to name a few.
Erlanger, Kentucky Attorney, Taliaferro, Mehling, Shirooni, Carran & Keys
Phil Taliaferro has combined excellence and achievement in his professional life with exceptional service to his community and his college.
Phil graduated from Centre in 1959, then went on to earn law degrees at the University of Kentucky. He served in the Judge Advocate General’s Corp as a Navy Lieutenant in the Philippines and Vietnam. Upon his return to Kentucky, he entered private practice. He is recognized widely as one of America’s best trial lawyers, and is one of only four Kentuckians to be inducted into the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He has consistently used that skill as an advocate on behalf of those clients on the margins of our society. He has also passed that skill and passion on to students of the law as a faculty member at the University of Cincinnati School of Law, the Cincinnati Bar Association’s Trial Advocacy Institute, and at the Chase School of Law.
Washington, DC Executive Director, Kentucky Heritage Council
He brings many attributes to this work. He possesses a knowledge of the art and craft of historic preservation matched by only by his passion for protecting Kentucky’s heritage. However, what separates David from others in his field is his ability to create partnerships among individual property owners, public agencies, and private groups. Often these players in a given setting or situation have been at odds with one another. But David time and again has created consensus out of conflict by showing these groups that historic preservation serves cultural enrichment, economic growth, community development, and education, just to name a few. One need only point to the Kentucky Main Street program for a powerful example of this talent. The Main Street program uses historic preservation as a means to maintain vibrant downtowns as a key to economic and community development. Largely through his leadership, Kentucky’s Main Street program is recognized as the most successful effort in the nation.
Though his name may not be a household word in Kentucky, his work touches not only today’s Kentuckians, but generations to come. If your children and grandchildren will enjoy a downtown that is a center of the their community life and not just something to drive through on the way to Wal-mart; if, years in the future, your great-grandchildren can stand and see the same vista as did a Civil War solider about to go into battle on the hills of Boyle County, you will have this individual to thank. We are lucky to be able to thank him and to honor him.
Ashland, KY Vice President Human Resources, Arch Coal
A vice president at the largest company in the world in her industry, and that she’s in charge of human resources, labor relations, employee communications, safety, security, community relations, and environmental issues.
A frequent volunteer for Centre in any number of ways. She’s been an admission volunteer, served on the Alumni Board, worked with the Brown Scholars Leadership Program, and led important fundraising efforts on behalf of the College. She also serves on the parish committee of her church, volunteers for her area schools, founded a public education advocacy group in her hometown, and has done pro bono legal work for a variety of local agencies.
Shelba Proffitt, 1957 Huntsville, Alabama
In the days since the tragedy of September 11, 2001, we have been reminded that there are those people in the world who would seek to strike at our freedom. At the same time, our thoughts have turned anew to those men and women who spend their lives protecting that freedom. We have the privilege of honoring one such person today.
Dr. Shelba Proffitt came to Centre from her native Letcher County, Kentucky. She received her B.S. degree in chemistry and physics in 1957. She went on to earn masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Alabama at Huntsville and the Southeastern Institute of Technology.
Harrodsburg, Kentucky Deceased 2003
Hospitality. It used to define life in small-town America. A comfortable place to rest. A good meal. Warm, friendly, genuine people. An escape, however short-lived, from the pressures that too often characterize our lives today.
For lucky travelers from across America, for generations of Kentuckians, and especially for thousands of Centre alumni, on place and one name define "hospitality." The place is Beaumont Inn in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. The name is that of Thomas C. "Bud" Dedman, Jr.
Beaumont had been a part of Mr. Dedman's life from the moment he was born. The Inn was founded by his grandparents in 1919. As time passed, his parents took over management of Beaumont. They sent their son off to nearby Centre College, where he earned his B.A. in English in 1938. Upon graduation, he returned to the Inn - "it was the Depression and I went home to help out," he told an interviewer some years ago. After service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Mr. Dedman and his life's partner, the late Mary Elizabeth Dedman, took their turn as the proprietors of the Beaumont.
Louisville, Kentucky Attorney
When one thinks of Gordon Davidson, certain words come to mind: Intelligent. Independent. Loyal to his friends. Successful, in all of its definitions. Devoted to Centre College.
Gordon came to Centre from his hometown of Louisville. He became a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and, as is characteristic of distinguished alumni, earned his bachelor’s degree in English and history. He went on to earn degrees from both the University of Louisville and Yale schools of law.
Campbellsville, Kentucky Deceased
Centre’s mission statement declares that the College prepares its students “for lives of learning, leadership, and service in a global society.” Frances Cundiff Johnson has taken the “global society” part of that statement as her life’s work.
Frances graduated from Centre in 1946 with a degree in chemistry. Her outstanding academic work is borne out by the fact that she had a paper published in the “Journal of Chemical Education” during her senior year. However, it is the chemistry of the human spirit that has been her focus. For twenty-five years, she and her late husband Douglas worked together in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, as teachers and missionaries. They built a church and ran a print shop. The latter grew into the Central African Mission Evangelistic Literature Service, which provided hymnals, Sunday school supplies, and other religious materials – in four languages – throughout the region. She and her husband founded the Dewure Secondary School, building it from 35 students in 1966 to over 700 students today. After her husband died in 1989, she remained in Zimbabwe for another four years, until her retirement in 1993.
Simpsonville, Kentucky
David Ray spent thirty-one years in the United States Secret Service, but there has been nothing secret about his service to his country and to his alma mater.
A native of Louisville, David graduated from Centre in 1959 with a degree in business administration. He immediately began a promising career with the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, but by 1964 a desire for a little more adventure became irresistible. He contacted a friend and fellow alumnus, J. Frank Yeager, who had joined the U.S. Secret Service, and soon he had embarked on a whole new life.
David quickly established himself as a rising star in the Service. He was assigned to protect Richard Nixon during the 1968 campaign. He followed President Nixon to the White House, serving there until the end of the Nixon presidency, including accompanying the Nixon family home to California on Air Force One following Mr. Nixon’s resignation. He continued to serve on Presidential and Vice-Presidential details, work that took him to more than fifty countries. But he also took on other duties, including the Dignitary Protection Division. In this role, he coordinated security for the 1978 Camp David Summit between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and President Jimmy Carter. He later became head of the Technical Security Division of the Secret Service, managed the security for four Presidential inaugurations, supervised the upgrade of security around the White House against the threat of terrorist attacks in the 1980s, and led security arrangements for the first summit between President Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1986, he took the opportunity to return home as director of the Service’s Kentucky Field Office, a position he held until his retirement from the Service in 1996. At that time, David established his own successful security consulting business.
Louisville, Kentucky
Leadership has many definitions. One defines a leader as someone who enables others to create positive change. Donald Blackburn embodies that description in his professional life and in his volunteer activity.
Don’s leadership abilities were evident even while he attended Centre. He served as Student Congress President and was selected for membership in Omicron Delta Kappa, the leadership honorary fraternity. After graduating from Centre in 1969, he attended the University of Louisville School of Law, receiving his degree in 1972. Within a very few years, he had established himself as one of Louisville’s leading attorneys. His talents soon turned to the business world. He has established some of Louisville’s best known restaurants and nightspots – including O’Malley’s Corner and Oldenberg Brewery – as president of Second Street Corporation. Second Street now has restaurant properties in several states.
Danville, Kentucky
Centre was founded in 1819 primarily as a training ground for Presbyterian clergy. Even though Centre alumni have since entered into a wide variety of professions, Centre proudly claims a long tradition of training church leaders. James Rucker is an outstanding example of that tradition.
James graduated from Centre in 1955 with a degree in psychology, and went on to receive an M.A. from the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He also attended the Lexington Theological Seminary.
John Horhn is a man of many talents, all of which were evident during his student days, having graduated as an English and dramatic arts major in 1977. He is a successful businessman, operating his own community development firm. But he has also distinguished himself in public affairs, having served in a variety of senior appointive positions in the state of Mississippi and currently as a leader in the Mississippi State Senate.
For these activities, John was named one of Mississippi’s “Top 40 Under 40” in 1994. But as if business and public service weren’t enough, John has also built a career as an actor, writer, and advocate for the arts.
Austin, Texas Deceased
Centre adopted a one-sentence mission statement that speaks of preparing students “for lives of learning, leadership, and service.” Lanny van Allen embodies that mission statement.
Lanny graduated from Centre in 1958 with a degree in English, and went on to earn a Master’s in English from Vanderbilt and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the University of Texas.
Her service to Centre began during her student days, when she edited The Cento, sang as a member of the Centre Singers, performed in Centre Players productions, and still found time to be a dean’s list student.
Jacksonville, Florida
Deceased
Jim Buck’s feelings for Centre are captured in one of his favorite and most frequent statements—“I love that little ol’ college.” Buck came to Centre from his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida at the insistence of his father. The son was focused on football, but the father wanted him to have the academic preparation to come back and take over the family real estate business. Centre was the perfect match.
After graduating with a degree in economics, Buck served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He would return to active duty during the Korean War, rising to the rank of captain. Other than his wartime service, Buck has been a lifelong resident of Jacksonville, becoming one of the foundation stones of that community’s development. He has also been an exceptional ambassador for Centre in the North Florida region, regularly hosting alumni and admission events, and spreading the word about his alma mater to any and all who cross his path.
Madisonville, Kentucky
Dick Frymire is the Senior Partner of Frymire, Evans, Peyton, Teague & Cartwright. He is married to Phyllis, Centre Class of 1954, and they have six children.
After graduation from Centre College, Dick served with the U.S. Marines as a jet fighter pilot. He then entered law school and after graduation from the University of Kentucky came to Madisonville where he has practiced with the same law firm since 1960. Dick has been active in government service, having served two terms as a State Representative and one four year term as State Senator. He was Majority Leader of the Kentucky Senate in 1968.
Bethesda, Maryland
In recent years, few issues have been more important – or more controversial – than those related to health care. Particularly in less developed areas of the world, but here at home as well, infectious diseases of all kinds are both a symptom and a cause of poverty and dependence. For the past thirty years, Dr. George Curlin has been an international leader in the fight against such diseases.
While at Centre, George majored in chemistry, serving as president of Phi Beta Chi, the science honorary society. He was a Dean’s List student and a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, the leadership honorary. A member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, George also served on the Interfraternity Council, and on the staffs of Olde Centre and the Cento. But his greatest accomplishment at Centre was convincing Peggy McDowell that he was worth spending some time with.
Something about the Centre experience produces leaders. In almost any profession or civic activity, in almost every community in Kentucky and throughout the nation, you can find Centre alumni setting the course. “Setting the course” is an especially appropriate phrase to use for Jerry M. Blesch, Class of 1960.
Jerry came to Centre from Ft. Thomas, Kentucky. An outstanding student in pre-engineering, Jerry also found time to win a track letter as a half-miler and to become in a leader in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. His desire to serve and to lead took him from Centre to the Naval Academy, of which he is a 1962 graduate. Though he appreciates his training at the Naval Academy, Jerry has repeatedly said that it was his time at Centre that laid the foundation for the success that he has enjoyed.
Peggy McDowell Curlin observed that “One generation must empower the next…training can be a catalyst for change. Ordinary individuals must be empowered to do extraordinary things if we are to develop as people, institutions, and nations. One person does make a difference.” While Peggy was speaking of the organization that she served as president, her words capture the essence of Centre’s mission as well. We are pleased to honor Peggy McDowell Curlin for articulating the power and dignity of the individual human life.
A Harlan, Kentucky native, Peggy acquired at Centre a B.A. degree and a partner for life, George Curlin. Since her graduation in 1962, Peggy continued her involvement in the life of the College as a supporter and volunteer, serving as a class agent for the Annual Fund, as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, as an Admission Matching Program volunteer, and as part of the Centre in Washington committee. Peggy also served, along with George, as a member of the Parents Committee during the time that their son Mac, a 1990 graduate of the College, was a student at Centre.
Lexington, Kentucky
Sue Treadway Russell once listed her occupation as “professional volunteer,” but this brief title doesn’t come close to describing the contributions she has made to her College and her community.
A native of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, Russell majored in biology—completing her degree in three years—while also working on staffs of The Cento and Olde Centre, as well as participating as a member of the cheerleading squad and being elected Homecoming Queen. Following graduation, she served as the managing partner of TJT Coal and Minerals.
Shelbyville, Kentucky
“You have a feeling that somehow what you are doing is helping someone or making a difference in the system. I guess that is a little idealistic. But if you don’t feel you are making a difference you ought to get out.”
D. Marshall Long, Centre Class of 1959, used these words to describe why he has devoted so much energy to his work in public affairs, and they describe why he is deserving of the recognition we offer him. Marshall has been contributing to his college and his community for many years. His is a Centre family – his mother Edith Marshall Long is a member of the Class of 1932 and his brother Robert is a member of the Class of 1964. Since graduating from Centre, Marshall has been involved in a variety of alumni and student recruitment activities.
Making a difference. If the mission of Centre College had to be stated in three words, we could think of no better phrase. And we can think of no Centre alumnus who better exemplifies this idea than Reverend George Venable Beury.
George graduated from Centre in 1954. Even in his student days, George exhibited a concern for others that would eventually lead him into a career in the ministry and social services. In the summer before he came to Centre, he worked as a playground supervisor in the poorest neighborhoods of his hometown of Charleston, West Virginia. Many other 18 year olds would have been concerned only with keeping the park clean and maintaining the equipment. But even at that age, George understood that his real responsibility was with the children. George got to know them, won their confidence, and visited them in their homes. It was then that he was first exposed to a poverty he had not known existed, and it was then that he began to feel the pull toward human services as a career. George continued to follow these instincts at Centre, serving as a volunteer at the old Kentucky State Hospital just outside Danville and as a member of several student service organizations.
Frankfort, Kentucky
Much of the story of Centre College is a story of service to Kentucky. For 175 years, this college has educated young people who have gone on to provide leadership in all aspects of the life of this Commonwealth. It is appropriate that we honor Crit Blackburn Luallen, a woman whose life and work embody that tradition.Crit is a seventh-generation Kentuckian whose very name – Eugenia Crittenden Blackburn Luallen – reflects her link to Kentucky history. Two of her ancestors, John J. Crittenden and Luke Blackburn, were governors of Kentucky.
This connection to Kentucky’s past has fueled her work for Kentucky’s future. Right after graduating from Centre in 1974, Crit put her art major to good use – stuffing envelopes for Wendell Ford’s 1974 U.S. Senate race. The creative way in which she stuffed those envelopes quickly drew the attention of the campaign’s leadership, and she was given greater responsibility, especially in the area of campaign communications. The talents that she had honed at Centre, she told one interviewer, “were a premium in a campaign.”
No matter where one stands on the particulars of the issue, there is little disagreement that providing effective and efficient health care is one of our society’s most important tasks. There is also little doubt that the current discussion over health care reform is one of the most important, but confusing, issues we face. Dr. Russell L. Travis has been a leader in providing health care and in trying to bring clarity to the debate over reform.
A native of Glasgow, Kentucky, Russell graduated from Centre in 1957 and went on to earn his medical degree at the University of Louisville. He has specialized in neurosurgery, and is recognized as one of the leading practitioners in Kentucky and the nation. In addition to his successful private practice, Russell has served as chief of neurosurgery at Good Samaritan Hospital in Lexington, and as attending or consulting neurosurgeon at several other major hospitals.
Russell has said of himself, “I get involved. I have a bad habit of raising my hand and saying ‘I don’t agree with that,’ and all of a sudden you’re the chairman of a committee.” He has seen how issues outside the physician’s office or operating room affect the delivery of health care, and as a consequence has become a leader in developing new procedures and policies, both in his area of specialty and in the larger medical field.
Nashville, Tennessee
Sue Sherman Biddle graduated from Centre in 1956, after serving as class president and on the women’s student council, the student faculty congress, and the president’s honor council. After graduation, Sue began her work for children, first serving as a volunteer administrator of a community day care center in Starkville, Mississippi, and later as a counselor for the juvenile court system in Mobile, Alabama. Sue later joined the staff at the Kennedy Center for Child Development at Peabody College, and founded a program focusing on developmental problems in infants. She served for several years as executive director of the McNeilly Day Home, an inner city child care center. She has also worked at the Florence Crittenton Home for Unwed Mothers. She has also served as the director of the Child Care Choices Division of Corporate Child Care, Inc.
Chauncey Alcock was a strong supporter of Centre College and the administration for over 50 years.
As an undergraduate, he exemplified what a strong supporter he would be in life. During the student strike in 1934, he sided with the President of the College and helped bring the student body under control.
As a young newspaper man in Danville in 1939, Chauncey was the first to photograph the Centre College campus from the air. He rented a small airplane and took some famous shots from the air of the entire campus. Those photos are in the archives today.
Throughout his days as the editor and owner of the Danville paper, The Advocate, he often supported Centre or its interests. One such project was the Wildlife Refuge. Chauncey took this cause public and was a major backer in obtaining the land for its present use. This organization is run by private individuals without tax or college funding providing to neighboring counties and the College an excellent wildlife sanctuary. The science department at Centre was grateful for this wonderful and often used asset.
In 1832, Ormond Beatty, a young man from Mason County, Kentucky came to Centre College. He graduated in 1835, and for the next 53 years, Dr. Beatty served Centre as a faculty member, student advisor, and administrator, including twenty years as president. At the time of his retirement it seemed that Beatty’s record of service would stand like Babe Ruth’s home run record – unchallenged. But Babe Ruth had Hank Aaron. Ormond Beatty has Bill Breeze.
Not long after graduating from Centre in 1945, Bill noted on an alumni questionnaire that he’d not been too involved in the College, but “hoped to be of more help in the future.” True to his word, Bill has managed to find a few ways to help Centre. He’s hosted class reunions, served as a class agent, and helped recruit students. He chaired the old Board of Overseers in the mid-1950’s. He’s been a member of the Alumni Board, and was president of the Alumni Association from 1976-78. He served as a trustee from 1980-86, and chaired the Board committee that drafted the College’s 1984 strategic plan. He served on the search committee that brought Rich Morrill to Centre as president in 1982. He even sent his daughter Nancy to Centre. He did all this in the midst of a very successful business career that saw him work his way up to Executive Vice President of Ohio National Life Insurance Company in Cincinnati. But this wasn’t enough.
A Centre education puts a great premium on words – understanding their nuances, using them to communicate ideas and emotions effectively. These lessons found a receptive student in George Ella Hoskins Lyon, Class of 1971.
George Ella came to Centre from Harlan, Kentucky, and soon became a campus leader. She was editor of Vantage Point, the College’s literary magazine, a writer for the Cento, and a member of Centre Players. George Ella also received many honors while here, including being named to Phi Beta Kappa, Chain Club, Ye Rounde Table, Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities, and winning several music and English prizes.
After graduating from Centre, George Ella received an M.A. from the University of Arkansas and a Ph.D. from Indiana University.Her interest in writing began early in George Ella’s life. She says that she was born “to a family strong in stories. My parents and older brother read to me, and early on I developed a liking for poems and songs. When I finally learned to write – it took till second grade! – I began to work on poems. I’ve been working on them ever since.”
Phelps, Kentucky
One of the main criteria for the Distinguished Alumna Award is “service to humanity.” Mary Anne Alcorn Furrow, Class of 1948, is a model of Centre’s tradition of service to others.
Working through the Presbyterian Church, Mary Anne devoted herself to the people of Appalachia. Mary Anne and her husband, Reverend DeWitt Furrow, were residents of Phelps, Kentucky. Together they made a poor and often neglected part of our nation a bit more tolerable for the people who live there.
The loyalty of its alumni is an important measure of a college’s success. The loyalty can be measured in any number of ways: willingness to volunteer; desire to return to the college as a faculty or staff member; and, yes, participation in the annual fund. By all these standards, Centre is a very successful college. And by these standards, no alumnus better embodied that success than Robert F. Ensminger, Class of 1943.
From a very early age, Bob had three things in his blood: education, Centre College, and journalism. Bob’s commitment to education and Centre began with his father, W.W. Ensminger. Bob’s father, himself a 1901 graduate of Centre, was a life-long advocate of the values he learned at Centre during his career as director of the old Harrodsburg Academy and superintendent of Harrodsburg city schools, and he passed these same values on to his children. Not only did Bob go to Centre, but his sister and two brothers did as well.
Bob’s career in journalism began while he was still a student at Harrodsburg High School, working as a regional sports correspondent for the Courier-Journal. After graduating from Centre, Bob worked as the Lexington Herald-Leader for several years.
Paducah, Kentucky
One of the hallmarks of Centre College has long been the loyalty of its alumni. Much of the time, the College’s record-setting alumni giving is held up as the strongest indication of that loyalty.
But there are other places to find that loyalty. All of us who are alumni of Centre know that there are those among us, who by the examples of their lives, are particularly distinguished keepers of the faith in Centre College. To see loyalty to Centre expressed at this highest degree, one need look no further than to James C. Rieke, Jr.
Mr. Rieke came to Centre in the fall of 1934 from his native Paducah and soon made his mark on the College. He was a member of the track and golf teams, participated in theatre productions, and was a stalwart member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
Merritt Island, Florida
Perhaps no profession has changed over the last 50 years as much as journalism. Advances in technology, changing relationships between the press and the government, shifts in demographics, and the whole information explosion are just a few of the factors that have made the newspaper business challenging and controversial. We honor James H. Jesse, a member of the Class of 1938, for his service to American journalism.
Jim was either born with printer’s ink in his veins or got a strong transfusion of it at an early age, for he quickly gravitated toward journalism when he arrived at Centre. He served on the staffs of both Old Centre and the Cento in his first years at the College. By the time he graduated, he had been sports editor of the yearbook and editor-in-chief of the newspaper, as well as serving as vice president of the Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association.
Harrodsburg, Kentucky
There are two kinds of people in the world. There are those who. We all know them. People who’s first thought is “what’s in it for me?” Then there are people who give, who think first of what they can do for someone else. We all know them, too, but those who knew Bill Noland knew one of the best.
William M. Noland, a native of Jessamine County, Kentucky, came to Centre in the fall of 1933, majoring in mathematics and economics, and graduating with honors in 1937. He then went to work for the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York. After serving as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Mr. Noland returned to the Equitable, where he would spend the rest of his business career, retiring in 1979 as Senior Vice President.
His business career was a distinguished one, but he also was a leader of his community. He was a director and vice president of the New York City Council for Economic Education, a member of the New York City Chamber of Commerce, and a vice president of the Kentuckians Society of New York, just to name a few.
Alexandria, Virginia
One of the major goals of a Centre education is to instill in young people both the desire and ability to contribute to the lives of their communities. No Centre alumnus has taken this lesson more to heart than Ellen Van Winkle Fox.
Centre College has been a part of Ellen’s life literally since her birth. She was born in Danville and , over the years, many members of her family have attend Centre, including her father, two sisters, an aunt, four uncles, two nieces, and a cousin.
Ellen moved to New York in 1936, two years after graduating from Centre in 1934. Before long she met Gardner Fox, a brilliant young physicist for Bell Laboratories, who she married in October, 1938. The young couple settled in New Jersey, where Ellen quickly became an indispensable part of the community. Ellen made a career of nurturing and sustaining important civic activities and organizations in her area. She was an active Girl Scout and Cub Scout Leader. She served as PTA President for her children’s elementary and secondary schools. When she felt that the students in the local high schools would benefit from getting to know students from other countries she founded and led a local chapter of the American Field Service Program. She was involved in the charitable activities of the Junior League for over forty years. For nearly thirty years she was a vital and proud part of the work of Planned Parenthood. She was also an active volunteer for the American Association of University Women and the Monmouth Art Gallery.
The link between Kentucky and Centre College is long and important. For 170 years the state and the College have drawn strength from each other. In recent years few, if any, individuals have embodied this link any more fully than James M. Ratcliffe.
Jim, a native of Shelbyville, graduated from Centre in 1953. While a student, he distinguished himself in all areas of the College’s life. He was a member of Ye Rounde Table honorary society and was an honor graduate. He was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, serving as its president his senior year. Also during his senior year he was elected to the prestigious Omicron Delta Kappa leadership fraternity. He also was a four-year letterman on the basketball team.
Jim has also been a committed and conscientious alumnus. He was for several years a member of the Alumni Board, eventually serving as Alumni Association President. Jim has also served as an annual fund volunteer and officer of the Louisville Area Alumni Club. He is currently a member of the Isaac Shelby Society, and is a member of the Centre Board of Trustees.
Every college in the country brags about its famous alumni. They list the distinguished statesmen and politicians they have produced. Centre does the same thing. We point with pride to the two Vice Presidents of the United States, the Chief Justice and Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, to the Senators, Congressmen, and Governors who attended Centre. By doing this, colleges are implicitly telling their current and prospective students that “You, too, can grow up to be famous.” There is nothing wrong with this aspiration. Indeed, the desire for accomplishment and recognition, are powerful and positive motivators.
But not many colleges can boast about all their alumni the way Centre can. Centre rightly points to its alumni as validation of its claims of distinctiveness. Because Centre gives so much to its alumni, its alumni give Centre an unmatched level of devotion. And there is no alumnus who better embodies this special relationship than D.A. Sachs.
D.A., a fourth-generation Louisvillian, came to Centre after graduating from Male High School in 1941, and returned to complete his degree in history and English after serving with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during World War II. For his student days, D.A.’s energy and enthusiasm have been abundant. He was an honor student, a leader of the Sigma Chi fraternity, a member of the Cento staff, and a varsity football player.
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
In June of 1971, a member of the College staff wrote a letter of reference for Rick Nahm, describing him as “a young man with some real potential.” Truer words were never written.
From the time he arrived on campus in September, 1965, Rick demonstrated his ability to do a lot of things at the same time and to do them all well. He was a Dean’s List student while, as many people will testify, managing to enjoy fully the pleasures of life in the DEKE house.
Rick hasn’t slowed down since. After graduating from Centre in 1969 with a degree in chemistry and physics, he entered a graduate program in chemistry at the University of Kentucky and completing his master’s degree and the research for the Ph.D. in just two years.
From 1971 to 1973, Rick worked as a research chemist for Reliance Universal in Louisville. In 1973 he joined Honeywell Corporation as a Technical Sales Representative, specializing in the sale of control systems, and soon established himself as one of the rising stars in the company. In his first three months as a salesman, for example, Rick managed to generate more business in his region than had been done in the entire preceding year.
But when the position of Director of Alumni Affairs came open at Centre in 1975, Rick saw an opportunity to work in higher education, a field that had always interested him, and to do so for the College which meant so much to him.
Bellaire, Texas
Long recognized as an eminent scholar of Renaissance literature, Carroll Camden enjoyed a sterling reputation as a productive author, an enthusiastic classroom teacher and as a lecturer in demand both in this country and abroad.
A native of Parkersburg, West Virginia, he graduated from Male High School in Louisville. At Centre, he received the George C. Young Literature Prize and the John W. Yerkes Prize, and earned his bachelor of arts degree in 1925. Following post-graduate work at Harvard, he went to the University of Iowa, where he received his doctorate in 1930.
From that year until his retirement 43 years later in 1973, Dr. Camden spent his entire professional career at Rice University, where he was professor of English and chairman of the English department. He was responsible for maintaining an English program of the highest quality during his years at Rice.
Hopkinsville, Kentucky
The 1929 Olde Centre yearbook had this to say about a graduating senior, Golladay LaMotte: “ ‘Squire’ is a promoter of unusual ability. He has successfully managed nearly every sport at Centre.
‘Squire’s’ distinctive personality and intoxicating laughter have made him many friends. From an insignificant freshman he has become a man of high rank at Centre. If he manages in life as he has managed here, he can’t fail.”
We can say that Mr. LaMotte truly fulfilled that prophecy. His was a life filled with success in farming, real estate and banking – and, not least, an inspiring loyalty to Centre College.
Washington, D.C.
If there is a single factor that shaped the remarkable career of John Sherman Cooper, it is this: he was always at ease, whether sitting in the palaces of kings of sharing a bench with a tobacco-chewing friend at the Pulaski County Courthouse. Brilliant yet down-to-earth, international in outlook yet strongly attached to his native state, Senator Cooper demonstrated an abiding concern for people everywhere that earned him respect as one of the foremost statesman of his time.
Above all, Senator Cooper was a man of integrity. Upon Senator Cooper’s retirement from the U.S. Senate in 1972, one of his colleagues said that “as much as any other member of the Senate I have known…(Senator Cooper) has really made an extraordinary effort to cast every vote and (make) every speech on the basis of what he believed to be right and just and the best thing for the country as he saw it.”
How Senator Cooper saw the country was greatly affected his boyhood and early career in Somerset. After attending Centre, Yale, and the Harvard Law School, Senator Cooper returned to Somerset to practice law. After serving one term as a state representative, he was Pulaski County Judge for eight years in the depths of the Great Depression. Every day, he helped citizens in desperate need, often giving some of his own money to families who had nowhere else to turn. It was in those years that his public career was molded by his compassion and courtesy and an exceptional ability to listen that was one of his greatest skills as a Senator and diplomat. “Always listen,” he once said, “you learn so much.”
Satellite Beach, Florida
Since her graduation summa cum laude from Centre in 1960, Margaret Menges Stroup has risen to prominent positions in one of the country’s leading industrial firms – work in which she has distinguished herself as a proponent of corporate responsibility and integrity.
A native of Louisville, Margaret was salutatorian of her graduating class at DuPont Manual High School. At Centre she was editor of the Cento and was involved in numerous campus activities. Her superior academic accomplishments earned her a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to attend Indiana University, where she earned a master’s degree. She later studied at the Claremont Graduate School in California and at the Washington University Graduate School of Business.
Prospect, Kentucky
Centre has always been a place of opportunity—enabling young men and women to realize their fullest potential. Raymond Burse certainly seized that opportunity, and created many of his own, in a relatively young life already filled with great achievement.Burse came to Centre from his hometown of Hopkinsville, Kentucky to major in chemistry. While at Centre, Burse excelled in the classroom, in campus leadership, and in athletics. This combination won him the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. Burse had originally intended to attend medical school, and studied organic chemistry at Oxford, but while there he decided upon a career in law. At Oxford, Burse continued his athletic pursuits, winning three Oxford “blues,” or letters. H was the first African-American—and only the sixth American—to play for Oxford in its annual rugby match with Oxford.
Atlanta, Georgia
Dr. Homer C. Rice, a member of the Class of 1951, has been called an “earnest man publicly committed to integrity in college athletics.” In 1986, he served in the important role as President of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.He attended Centre, Eastern Kentucky University and Columbia Pacific University, and has earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a doctorate. At Centre, he was captain and All-American in football.
He began his coaching career at his alma mater, Fort Thomas Highlands High School, where he earned the accolade of the “winningest football coach in America.” In 11 seasons, he had seven undefeated teams and won his last 50 consecutive games.After serving as head offensive coach at the University of Kentucky and the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Rice subsequently was head coach at the University of Cincinnati, Rice University and of the professional Cincinnati Bengals. He was noted for developing outstanding quarterbacks and passing attacks, as well as the innovative triple-option offense.
The late Hugh Lyle (Jack) Duerson, Jr., a member of the Class of 1945, was a particularly loyal Centre alumnus who achieved great success in the optical business while also devoting large amounts of time to a host of professional and civic endeavors in his native Louisville.
As a student at Centre, he was a member of Beta Theta Pi and the Interfraternity Council and was photography editor of Olde Centre.
He received advanced training at the Obrig Laboratories and the Baylor College of Medicine. He was president and chairman of the Board of Southern Optical Co. and earned a national reputation as an authority on contact lenses. He published numerous articles on contact lenses and served three years as president of the Contact Lens Society of America. He was chairman of the Board of the Opticians Association of America and was a past president of the Opticians Association of America. In 1986, after his death, Jack was honored by the Opticians of America with the posthumous award of “Man of the Year.”
When it came time for the late John Y. Brown to attend college – he was the first member of his family to do so – his father went to a bank to $50 for his tuition at the University of Kentucky. The banker told Mr. Brown’s father, however, that the outstanding men of the state came from Centre. So his father borrowed $75 and sent his son to Danville instead of Lexington.
Thus began a lifelong love affair between the promising young man from union County and his alma mater.
Mr. Brown worked his way through Centre, but before he graduated in 1921 he found time to be on the football, track and debating teams and in the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. He was also elected to Omicron Delta Kappa.
He attended Centre during the famous football era of 1917-24. Many years later he recalled that fabled period in his book, The Legend of the Praying Colonels, which included an account of Centre’s defeat of Harvard in 1921.
Stamford, Connecticut
Dr. Jack Tarkington Cassaday, a native of Danville and a member of the Class of 1932, was a study both of will conquering adversity and of selfless service to mankind.
A brilliant research chemist credit with the discovery of the insecticide Malathion, Dr. Cassaday was a victim of an uncharacterized neurological degeneration since 1956.
A chemistry major at Centre, Dr. Cassaday did post-graduate work at Johns Hopkins University and received a Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Columbia University. A member of the American Chemical Society, he was the recipient of research grants from the American Academy of Science and the Ella Saks Plotz Foundation.
Rochester, New York
Since her graduation summa cum laude from Centre in 1957, Sarah Jo Huff Collins has had a distinguished career as a professor of English and literature – and in many ways she is the quintessential Centre scholar.
A native of Harlan, Kentucky, Dr. Collins served as president of Women’s Student Government at Centre, and was a member of the student-faculty congress. She was an alumna initiate of Centre’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter was awarded the Alumnae Association Prize as the Outstanding Sophomore woman; the Amanda O. Rodes Alumnae Prize for the Outstanding Junior woman; and the Myrtle B. Chapman Music Prize.
From Centre, she went to Indiana University where she received a master’s degree and a Ph.D. degree in English.
Fort Collins, Colorado
Following his graduation from Centre in 1931, Delos D. Wickens had a long and distinguished career as a scholar and teacher in the field of psychology. A native of Rochester, New York, Dr. Wickens majored in economics and English at Centre.
From Centre, he went to Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he received a master’s degree in English and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of North Carolina.
Completing his studies, Dr. Wickens taught first at Ohio State University, then at the University of Colorado, Oberlin College and the University of Wisconsin.
From 1943 to 1945, Wickens served as the senior analyst in research on the naval gunnery for the Office of Scientific Research and Development of the National Defense Research Committee. In 1946, Dr. Wickens returned to Ohio State University where he taught until his retirement in 1980. Following his retirement, he served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Colorado State University.
Memphis, Tennessee
Since her graduation from Centre in 1946, Ellida Fri devoted her time and considerable talents to serving the needs of children, women, and the church.
After completing her degree in sociology and psychology at Centre, Mrs. Fri worked as teenage program director for the Y.W.C.A. in Lexington and in 1950 was elected president of the Kentucky State Y.W.C.A.
She moved to Honolulu, Hawaii in 1956 and became active in the Hawaii Council of Churches – serving as delegate to the World Convention of Christian Churches in 1960, and as president of the Hawaii Council of Churches from 1970 to 1973 – the only woman to hold that position.
While residing in Hawaii, Mrs. Fri also served as a charter member of Honolulu’s Commission on the Status of Women, a member of the Honolulu Planning Commission, and was the founder of two social service organizations dedicated to serving the needs of adolescent girls and runaways. In both 1970 and 1972, she was listed in “Who’s Who” in Hawaii.
Midway, Kentucky
General William R. Buster had a long and distinguished career in service to his country and to the state of Kentucky.
A native of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, General Buster left Centre in 1935 to attend the United States Military Academy. Upon graduation from the Academy in 1939, he entered the United States Army and served as Battery Commander for the 92nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion in charge of planning and training for the invasion of North Africa during World War II.
He participated as executive officer in the planning for the invasion of Sicily, and in 1944, as Commander of the 2nd Armored Division, he helped to spearhead the Allied Invasion of Normandy Beach. During the post-war occupation of Germany, General Buster served on the War Department’s General Staff – a position he held until he retired from the Army in 1947.
New York, New York
Andrew Blane once said that one of the benefits of his Centre education was that it “developed his interest in people.”Since his graduation from Centre in 1950, Professor Blane has expressed that interest in many ways: as a teacher and scholar; as a youth leader in the Baptist Church, and most recently, as a fighter for the rights of people around the world.
Since 1969, Mr. Blane, a professor of history at Lehman College of the City University of New York, has been a member of Amnesty International, a worldwide group dedicated to obtaining freedom for international “prisoners of conscience.” In 1974, he became the first person from this hemisphere to serve on the organization’s International Executive Committee, and he served as vice-chairman of that committee from 1979 to 1981. Professor Blane was one of nine Amnesty International officials to travel to Stockholm in 1977 when AI won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Glasgow, Kentucky
A 1943 graduate of Centre and a native of Glasgow, Kentucky, Brice T. “Pete” Leech devoted his life, both as a professional and as a volunteer, to the important task of college admissions.
A mathematics major at Centre, where he was also a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, Mr. Leech spent World War II in the service of his country as a line officer in the U.S. Navy. Separated from active duty in 1946, he continued his military service in the Naval Reserve.
Mr. Leech’s service in the field of higher education began when he joined the staff of Centre College as assistant registrar. He was named registrar in 1953, and director of admissions at Centre a year later, remaining on the staff until 1965.
Since his graduation from Centre in 1951, William Edward Farley has distinguished himself as a scholar and teacher in the field of theology.A native of Louisville, Dr. Farley majored in philosophy at Centre and was a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.
From Centre, he went on to Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, where he received his bachelor of divinity degree in 1953. He did his graduate work in philosophical theology at Union Theological Seminary and at Columbia University where he received the Ph.D. degree in 1957. Dr. Farley later did other graduate work at the University of Basel in Switzerland and at the University of Freiburg.
His career in teaching has included positions as assistant professor of philosophy and religion at DePauw University, as associate professor of systematic theology at Pittsburg Theological Seminary and, since 1969, as professor of systematic theology at the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University.
Dallas, Texas
When he was a young boy growing up on the north side of Fort Worth, Texas, William Madison Bell dreamed of becoming a lawyer, but Bell devoted his life and career to another young man’s dream – the dream of playing football.
Mattie Bell, who died in 1983 at the age of 84, distinguished himself as a player, coach and teacher of the game. He came to Centre in 1916 and here achieved national fame as one of the “Praying Colonels.” He played quarterback, center, guard, tackle and end positions for the Colonels’ legendary coach, Charlie Moran. Bell was the team captain in 1920, his senior year, was a member of the College’s baseball, basketball and track teams as well as a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and was elected Carnival King.
Norfolk, Virginia
After serving with the Navy during World War II and receiving a bachelor of arts degree with honors from Princeton University, Dr. George A. Harkins decided to come home to Danville and Centre College. He entered the College in 1950 to pursue pre-medical studies.
He went on to get his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and took surgical training at Johns Hopkins, Stanford and Harvard universities. He served as chief of pediatric surgery at Norfolk General Hospital and at Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk, and was president of the medical staff at Children’s Hospital.
In the late 1950s, together with M.L. Bramson, an electronics engineer from San Francisco, Dr. Harkins developed the synchronous electrocardiac massage machine, a mechanism used to resuscitate and boost a failing heart through closed-chest massage. The Harkins-Bramson machine earned Dr. Harkins and his collaborator the American Medical Association’s Hecteon Award in 1962.
You could say that education was in Lucy Beam’s blood. A native of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, Mrs. Beam was the daughter of Rhoda C. Kavanaugh, nationally-known educator and founder of the Kavanaugh School in Lawrenceburg.
Mrs. Beam was a 1920 honors graduate of Kentucky College for Women who went on to the University of Kentucky where she received a bachelor of arts degree in 1922.
Since her graduation, Mrs. Beam served both Centre and UK well. She served Centre in a variety of capacities from class agent and hostess of teas for Louisville area students to a member of the College’s Board of Trustees. She was elected to that post in 1966, and was elected as a trustee emerita of Centre in 1972.
Sarasota, Florida
Strother Hynes, a 1922 graduate of Centre, came to his career by way of a job as a rod and chain carrier with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.
A native of Big Spring, Kentucky, Hynes received his bachelor of arts degree from Centre and taught history and coached football at Danville High School. After a semester of study at the University of Kentucky Law School and teaching Latin at Louisville Male High School, Hynes accepted a Rhodes Scholarship. In 1925, he received his bachelor of arts degree in law from Oxford and a B.C.L. degree from the same institution the following year.
Troy R. Eslinger made education a part of his life. Since 1961, Dr. Eslinger, a native of Ringgold, Georgia and a 1948 graduate of Centre, served as president of Lee’s Junior College in Jackson, Kentucky. He also took a leadership role in higher education in the state and the nation – as a former member of the Kentucky Commission on Higher Education, as a member of the executive committee of the National Council of Independent Junior Colleges, and as president of the Kentucky Junior College Consortium.
Dr. Eslinger, after his graduation from Centre, received a master of divinity degree from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and served as pastor of churches in Springfield, Millersburg, Pineville and Lexington, Kentucky, before assuming the post of president of Lee’s Junior College. He also served as moderator of the Synod of Kentucky.
Baltimore, Maryland
Dr. W. Richard Green has combined two fields during his career, serving as both a physician and an educator.
A native of Paducah, Kentucky, Dr. Green graduated from the College in 1955 and received his medical degree from the University of Louisville Medical School in 1959. Since 1968, he has served on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, holding the positions of professor of ophthalmology and associate professor of pathology. He was also in charge of the Eye Pathology Laboratory of the Wilmer Eye Clinic of Johns Hopkins.
Dr. Green is the author and co-author of more than 200 published articles and papers in his field, and has served as a visiting professor at many medical schools across the country including the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary of Harvard University, the University of Southern California and the University of Maryland.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Dr. Clem Bininger went from Centre College to a long and fruitful career in the ministry.
Dr. Bininger, valedictorian of his 1931 Centre class who combined his academic achievements with activities on the football field, basketball court and track, entered Princeton Theological Seminary in 1931, earning a bachelor of arts degree in theology, and in 1934, a master of divinity degree. He also held a master of theology degree from the seminary as well as a master of arts degree in philosophy from Princeton University.
Dr. Bininger began his ministerial career in 1935, a career that led him to the position as a senior minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, the largest congregation in the Synod of the South.
His early pastorates included the Cleveland Heights Presbyterian Church in Ohio; the Second Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh; the Grace Covenant Church in Richmond, Virginia, and the Second Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Dr. Bininger assumed the post of senior minister at the First Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale in 1957.
During her days as a student at Kentucky College for Women, Miss Flora Hayes Rawls served as president of the student government and developed the interest in teaching which she said shaped her future.
After leaving KCW in 1919, Miss Rawls, a native of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, taught high school in her home state for eight years. In 1931, she began a long association with Memphis State University, first as a supervising teacher and later principal of its campus school and then as Dean of Women. She served as MSU’s Dean of Women from 1947 until her retirement in 1970.
Along the way, Miss Rawls pursued a bachelor of arts degree from Vanderbilt University where she graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors, and a master of arts degree from the same university, with additional study at Peabody College and the University of Wisconsin.She also pursued a variety of other educational, civic and religious interests.
Versailles, Kentucky
Dr. Hambleton Tapp was, simply put, a preserver of our heritage. More specifically, he was an historian, author, teacher and administrator.
A native of Washington County, Kentucky, Dr. Tapp graduated from Centre in 1922 and received a master of arts degree from Peabody College in 1929 and the Ph.D. degree in history from the University of Kentucky in 1950.
He began teaching in Louisville at Male High School, served as superintendent of schools in Eminence, Kentucky, was director of health and physical education for the Kentucky Department of Education and served as assistant professor of history and executive assistant to the president at the University of Kentucky. While at the University, from which he retired in 1971, Dr. Tapp was the founder, developer and director of its Kentucky Life Museum.
After his graduation from Centre in 1925, Dr. R.W. “Red” Robertson followed in the footsteps of his great grandfather, a pioneer physician.
In those intervening years, Dr. Robertson served his profession, his country and his alma mater well.
A native of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, who settled in Paducah, Dr. Robertson attended medical school at the University of Louisville and received his medical degree from Loyola University Medical School in 1931.
As a surgeon serving in Anzio, Italy during World War II, Dr. Robertson was responsible for the treatment of countless wounded, including 450 British soldiers. His work during the war netted him many friends in England and many honors, including the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and membership in the Royal Society of Medicine.
Frank D. Peterson, a 1924 Centre graduate, spent a large part of his career running the finances of a major state institution of higher education.
A native of Taylor County, Kentucky, Peterson began his career in finance at the University of Kentucky in 1941 as business and finance manager. From 1955 until his retirement in 1964, he served as vice-president of business administration at UK.
After his graduation from Centre, Peterson served as director of the division of public school finance with the Kentucky Department of Education, as state controller and deputy commissioner of finances, and director of the division of the budget in Frankfort from 1936 to 1941.
Poolesville, Maryland
James H. Mann’s law career took him a long way from Danville and Centre College – all the way to South America, Europe and finally, to Washington.
At Centre, he was president of the student body and a member of the student council; member and captain of the debate team and winner of the oratorical medal.
After his graduation in 1935, Mann, a native of Edmonton, Kentucky, went on to Cornell University Law School, where he was editor of the Cornell Law Quarterly and received his LLB degree with distinction in 1938.
Owensboro, Kentucky
Centre College will always be grateful for a decision Jane Stevenson made in 1951. That was the year that the Owensboro native transferred from Hollins College in Virginia to Centre where she graduated in 1953. Miss Stevenson went on to become an active volunteer for the College and for her church and community.
She received a master’s degree in guidance counseling from Indiana University in 1956 and was a guidance counselor at Daviess County High School from 1965 until her retirement in 2000.
Her work with young people and others in Owensboro has spilled over into her work for Centre. She has been the hostess for gatherings of local Centre students in her hometown in addition to other duties in the College’s volunteer network.
Waukesha, Wisconsin
Dorothy Ganfield Fowler began her commitment to Centre College and higher education at an early age. Her father, William Ganfield, was a distinguished educator, serving as president of Centre from 1915 to 1920, during which time she took classes at the Kentucky College for Women. She also attended Mt. Holyoke before completing her bachelor’s degree in history at Carroll College in Wisconsin. Ganfield further pursued her love of history at the University of Wisconsin, one of the country’s leading graduate history programs, where she earned her doctorate in 1928.
Ganfield immediately began to build her career as an outstanding teacher and scholar, and as a pioneering woman in higher education. While in graduate school she had taught at an area high school, and following the completion of her degree she taught for two years at Missouri Valley College. In 1930, she began her long association with Hunter College of the City University of New York.
Charlotte, North Carolina
From its beginning, Centre has welcomed people from all faith traditions, but has also not hesitated to believe that development of the spirit is as important as education of the mind. Frank Caldwell embodies that union of purpose.
Following his graduation from Centre, Caldwell continued his education at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, earning a bachelor’s of divinity degree, and Edinburgh University, where he earned his doctorate. After teaching briefly at Centre and holding two pastorates, Caldwell joined the faculty of the Louisville Presbyterian Seminary in 1930. In 1936, he became president of the seminary, a position he held until 1964. As president, Caldwell combined active scholarship, church leadership, and service to Centre.
Belmont, Massachusetts
H. Coleman Moore used his natural drive and talent, honed by his Centre education, to reach the highest levels of his profession. A native of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, Moore majored in chemistry at Central University, which was affiliated with Centre. He began to work in public utilities as a voucher clerk in the local utility company in his hometown. Over the next 61 years, Moore would climb the ladder of success in his chosen field. He would serve for many years as chief financial officer for New England Gas and Electric Association, one of the nation’s largest utilities. From 1958 to 1974, Moore served as chairman of NEGEA’s board of directors. Moore also served as on the board of directors and as chairman of the finance committee of the Western Union Corporation.
Farragut, Tennessee
Charles Whittle was Matton professor of applied mathematics and physics at Centre and dean of the College during 12 years at Centre from 1962-74 when he became a visiting scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Later that year he became a senior scientist for the Institute for Energy Analysis and was named assistant director in 1974. His work at Oak Ridge involved administration of the Institute’s staffing and programming as well as assisting with specific research projects.
As dean at Centre, Whittle coordinated the development and implementation of a revision of the curriculum and grading system. He previously taught at Western Kentucky University for 10 years from 1952 and also had worked for Union Carbide Corporation in Oak Ridge as a researcher.
Enos Swain, a 1931 graduate of Centre and native of Eminence, was a Centre trustee and trustee of Shakertown at Pleasant Hill since 1962. He was president of the Kentucky Press Association in 1953, served on the Kentucky State Personnel Board from 1968-73 and was a member of the board of commissioners for Kentucky School for the Deaf.
Col. Chinn, a native of Mercer County, was a football coach, U.S. Marine Corps officer, machine-gun inventor, and a Kentucky historian. He grew up in Harrodsburg where his father was Mercer County sheriff for a number of years, attended Millersburg Military Institute, and then came to Centre in time to join Bo McMillin, Red Weaver, Norris Armstrong and other outstanding players on Centre’s famous “Praying Colonels” football team. He later coached under McMillin at both Bucknell and Catawba colleges.
He made his name known, however, through his interest and ingenuity, in machine guns and other military weapons. In 1938 and 1940, he had already evidenced his interest in weapons as the author of books on pioneer warfare and American handarms. During World War II, he developed 11 modifications of the Browning Cal 50 machine gun which resulted in doubling its rate of fire. Later, he designed and developed the EX6 20mm high rate of fire automatic gun and the Mark 22 30mm automatic aircraft cannon.
Margarett Moss Helms came to Centre as a student from Kansas City, Missouri, and returned to her home state after graduation where she administered the social services program for the Division of Family Services in St. Louis County. The county encompasses most of suburban St. Louis, Missouri.She had been administrator since 1976 and previously was regional supervisor for staff development for the division.
As administrator, she supervised 170 employees and was responsible for financial management of the social services programs, which include services to children, families and adults in the county.
Henderson, Kentucky
Ted Sanford for 35 years was “Mr. Kentucky High School Sports.” As secretary of KHSAA from 1937 to 1947 and then commissioner from 1947 until his retirement, Sanford directed the growth of the coordinating organization for high school sports in Kentucky from a budget of $5,000 serving three sports in 1937 to a $300,000 operation serving 130,000 students in 21 sports in 1972.
Sanford was first a high school and college teacher and coach before devoting himself to KHSAA. He was a head coach and principal at Murray (KY) High School from 1925 to 1934 and then was principal of Danville High School in 1937. He was superintendent of Carrollton Schools and then Henderson City School between 1937 and 1947.
London, England
Over the course of his long career, Ed Hughes became one of America’s most distinguished journalists and a model for global citizenship. A native of Ashland, Kentucky, Hughes graduated from Louisville Male High School. After his graduation from Centre, Hughes served in the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II. He returned home to Louisville where he worked for a time as a sportswriter for the Courier-Journal. During a visit to New York City, Hughes was nearly hit by a propeller falling from a plane that struck the Empire State Building. True to his reporter’s instincts, he called the Associated Press office in the city; the AP desk told him to write up the story.
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Miss Harman was valedictorian of the women’s department of Centre College when she graduated in 1929. Since that time, she became an educator in her native Eastern Kentucky and a missionary in Iran.
During the first decade after her graduation, she received a master’s degree in elementary education from the University of Kentucky and then helped train student teachers at Pikeville College, which she had attended before coming to Centre. She then served 10 years with the Girl Scouts of America, first as a local executive and later as a field worker on the national staff.
A native of Danville, Dr. George McClure graduated from Centre in 1927 and received his medical degree from Rush Medical College of the University of Chicago. Aside from service as a general surgeon in the U.S. Navy during World War II and studies in surgery and gynecology, he practiced medicine in Danville continuously since 1933. He retired in 1974.
Dr. McClure was a member of the Kentucky and American Medical associations and was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Fertility Society. He was on the council of the Kentucky State Medical Association and served as a member of the Danville City School Board.
Community service was a vocation for Leslie Randolph Boyd, a 1936 Centre graduate. Mr. Boyd worked as a staff member of the Red Cross since he joined it during World War II, and later became assistant manager for service to divisions and chapters in the Southeast for the American National Red Cross. He represented the Red Cross at the national and state levels and served in five southeastern states.
Lula May Bruce can be twice counted as an alumna and also deserves to be doubly recognized for her many years of service to deaf persons in the Commonwealth and throughout the nation.
Miss Bruce graduated from Caldwell College, the college that preceded Kentucky College for Women, in 1903. She later completed the four-year course at Centre and received her bachelor’s degree in 1937.
Thomas C. Laswell was a leader in community and business affairs. He was a former mayor and city commissioner of Owensboro, KY, his native city, and was president or a director of Rotary, Junior Achievement, YMCA, Community Chest, and the Chamber of Commerce. He also served as vice president of the Owensboro Symphony Board and as a member of the advisory board of Henderson Community College.
Mr. Laswell was a director of the National Association of Realtors and was a partner in the realty firm of J.R. Laswell and Sons and of Laswell Insurance Agency. He was named Kentucky Realtor of the Year in 1974 and was chairman of the advisory board for the Research Center for Real Estate and Land Use at the University of Kentucky.
Omaha, Nebraska
Anita Currey was a study in embracing all that life can offer—challenges and triumphs—with strength of character and a sense of adventure and fun. She was, without necessarily intending to be, a model for women of all ages.
Currey was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but moved in her childhood to Omaha, as her father sought opportunities in the construction business. She returned to Kentucky to attend Centre, becoming one of the first women to complete a full four-year program at the College. A few years following her graduation and her return to Omaha, the stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression moved Currey into a yet another pioneering role—that of breadwinner for her family. The construction business, in which her father and brothers all worked, had come to a near standstill. With her parents, her siblings, and her siblings’ families to support, Currey went to work at the Guarantee Mutual Life Insurance Company. When the job became a career, she decided that she wanted to be president of the company. Corporate culture in America at that time made that dream unlikely, but Currey would eventually become a division head, retiring as the highest ranking woman in the history of the company.
St. Paul, Minnesota
Sprung from a splendid German family which came to the New World drawn by a genuine appreciation of American ideals, Reverend Edwin Kagin spent his boyhood in Frankfort, Kentucky. His preparatory work for college was supplemented by several years of business experience. He entered Centre College in 1900 and graduated four years later with honors. His leadership in Christian activities on the college campus and general popularity with all students was widely recognized.
Reverend Kagin spent three years in theological work at the Louisville Presbyterian Seminary. After graduation in 1907, he went as a foreign missionary to Korea under the Presbyterian Board (USA). Twelve fruitful years followed, which were terminated by the impaired health of his wife. On returning to America after the World War, Reverend Kagin earned the degrees of Master of Arts at Princeton University and Master of Theology at Princeton Seminary. Further study at Boston University led to the degree of Doctor of Religious Education.
Dr. Branham Beazley Baughman was a general surgeon in active practice in Frankfort, Kentucky for more than 50 years. As a biology major, he was an honor student of the Centre College Class of 1925. He completed his medical training at the University of Michigan Medical School in 1929. He was a practicing surgeon in Frankfort since 1933 where he performed more than 6,000 operations.
At Centre, he was an honor student all four years, a member of Ye Round Table and Phi Beta Chi, won the Henry Barrett Boyle Latin Prize, and was appointed student assistant in biology for his last three years. Dr. Baughman served three and one-half years in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during World War II and was discharged as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Christine Alliston was very active in government work – she was treasurer of McCracken County for over 30 years from 1932 to 1968. She served as a member of the boards of the Paducah-McCracken County Airport Board, Kentucky Society for Crippled Children, West Kentucky Center for Handicapped Children and other local committees.
John Frazer earned a bachelor’s degree at Centre and pursued advanced study at the University of Kentucky in history. He taught at the secondary level in Lexington and held administrative positions at Centre before joining the Kentucky Independent College Foundation. Frazer had been President Thomas A. Spragen’s assistant since 1966, with specific responsibility for external affairs. He also served on the Centre staff for ten years from 1953 to 1963, first as mathematics instructor and registrar and later as general secretary.
Ormond Beach, Florida
Sally Lobaugh Shevlin has been an alumni director, Colonels’ Club chairman, and second and first vice president of the Alumni Association. Active in the PTA, 4-H, and American Field Service, she helped organize the Danville-Boyle County Humane Society and the Wilderness Trail Riding Club. Ms. Shevlin is retired from Kentucky Educational Television, where she served as a development officer.
William L. Sullivan made his mark in the law, in public service, and in international air racing. In addition to building a successful law practice in Henderson, Kentucky, Sullivan became a key figure in the revision of the Kentucky Constitution, for which he received the Governor’s Award for Service. Sullivan also chaired the Joint House-Senate Committee of the Kentucky General Assembly that restructured Kentucky’s court system in the 1970s. For that work, he received the Circuit Judges’ Award for Service.
Sullivan also had a long and distinguished career in Kentucky politics and public affairs. He was a member of the Kentucky State Senate for 20 years, ten of them as either majority leader or president pro tempore.
Reverend Edgar C. Newlin practiced law in Danville, Kentucky since1925 and served as Rector of The Trinity Episcopal Church. Reverend Newlin was ordained to the priesthood in February 1948. In September 1960, Reverend Newlin was appointed Dean of the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington by the Rt. Rev. William R. Moody, bishop of the diocese. He also served as a member of the Executive Council and Chairman of the Board of Examining Chaplains of the diocese. Reverend Newlin was church school superintendent, Vestryman, secretary of the Vestry, Lay Reader, Diaconate, Vicar of St. Philips Episcopal Church in Harrodsburg, Kentucky.
A Danville contractor and developer, John Horky co-founded Horky and Nicholson Construction Company in 1943, which later became the Danville Construction Company. He retired in 1978, and several years later became a partner in Doss and Horky Construction Company. He was a former member of the board of directors of Centre’s Alumni Association, and served on the national committee of Centre’s $34 million Fund for the Future.
Norris Armstrong was a retired wholesale grocer. At Centre, he was captain of the 1921 “Praying Colonels” football team that defeated Harvard 6-0. A trustee emeritus of Centre, Armstrong was also chairman of the Danville Urban Renewal Board, a member of the Ephraim McDowell Hospital board, and a former city commissioner. In 1975, he was named Citizen of the Year by the Danville-Boyle County Chamber of Commerce and was awarded an honorary degree by Centre.
Madison, Wisconsin
T. Hunton Rogers received the A.B. degree from Centre College in 1914. He then attended Johns Hopkins University for three years, receiving his Ph.D. degree in 1917.
While at Johns Hopkins he became a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In 1918-1919 he was in the United States Chemical Warfare Service, and served at an Army Gas School overseas. Upon his return he entered research chemistry, and had been connected with the Standard Oil Company since that time. In 1938 he was made Associate Director of Research for that company.
Harrods Creek, Kentucky
Edith McClure Sutcliffe attended Caldwell College from 1902 to 1912 and remained a life-long friend of Centre following graduation. For many years she served as a class agent and alumni director and in 1946 as president of the Centre board of visitors. She was also a lifetime member of The Isaac Shelby Society. In 1961, a major gift from Mrs. Sutcliffe and her husband, the late Elbert Gary Sutcliffe ’17, made possible the renovation of the old Boyle-Humphrey gymnasium into Sutcliffe Hall, the College’s first student center.
Ashland, Kentucky
Howard VanAntwerp, Jr. was an attorney in Ashland, Kentucky for almost 60 years. He was a native of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. With majors in biology and English, he was valedictorian of the Centre College class of 1920. He earned a LL.B. from Jefferson School of Law in 1923, passed the Kentucky bar examination, and practiced law in Ashland since that year until his retirement. At Centre, he participated in football and tennis, was elected to various class offices, was elected to Ye Rounde Table, and was appointed student instructor in biology for the 1919-1920 academic year.
In 1940, Mr. VanAntwerp was elected to the Board of Trustees at Centre College where he contributed significantly to the leadership of the College for 29 years. As trustee emeritus since 1969, he remained actively involved in the affairs of this institution.
Somerset, Kentucky
Don Cooper was best known to some people as the younger brother of Centre alumnus and U.S. Senator John Sherman Cooper. However, Don Cooper built a life of professional accomplishment, public-mindedness, and service to Centre second to none.
Following his graduation from Centre, Cooper attended Yale Law School, completing his degree in 1932, winning induction into the honorary society the Order of the Coif. The next year he began his career as an attorney in New York City, working there from 1933 to 1946. During World War II, Cooper served in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major and winning the Legion of Merit. After a year working on his brother’s Senate staff, Cooper became counsel to Standard Oil of New Jersey in 1949.
Samuel Craig, class of 1923, was nationally known for his work in deaf education.
Born in Lincoln County, Kentucky in 1901, he was part of a long tradition of Craigs attending Centre (including his grandfather, father, sisters, brother-in-law, nephews and a niece). He earned a degree in math from Centre and a master’s degree from Gallaudet College for the Deaf and George Washington University.
He directed the practice school and teacher training program at Gallaudet College and served for many years as superintendent of the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf.
Adele Read Martin’s involvement with Centre was a part of her family heritage. Her grandfather, Reverend Henry C. Read, graduated from the College in 1847. Her father, Henry Read, graduated from Centre in 1883, and served on Centre’s Board of Trustees from 1902 until 1940. Mrs. Martin’s brother and two sisters attended Centre, as did her son Lyman C. Martin, Jr.
Since her graduation in 1915, Mrs. Martin added greatly to this legacy. From 1966 through 1969, she was chairperson of the women’s division committee. She was an important part of alumni activities, serving on the old Board of Overseers and Board of Visitors, and, for several years, as an active member of the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors. Mrs. Martin was also a central part of the College’s fundraising efforts. Besides giving generously of her own resources, she worked for a number of years as a class agent for the annual fund. Mrs. Martin also played an important part in developing the financial strength of the College through her alumni activities and, especially, through her service on the Board of Trustees. Mrs. Martin followed in her father’s footsteps when she joined the Board in 1963, working as an active member until 1969.
Scottsdale, Arizona
James T. Norris, Sr., a native of Augusta, Kentucky, served as chairman of the board of the Ashland Publishing Company, Inc. which publishes the Ashland Daily Independent newspaper. He went to Ashland in 1921 as one of the incorporators of the Ashland Publishing Co. He served as vice president and associate editor, then president and editor until being named board chairman in 1964. He was a past president of the Centre College Alumni Association and a past president of the Kentucky Press Association. He also served as a director of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association and as commander, department of Kentucky, American Legion.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Jo. Baily Brown was generally regarded to be one of the world’s most noted patent law experts. He served for two years as chairman of the patent section of the American Bar Association and was a past president of the American Patent Law Association.
In 1960, he received the Charles F. Kettering Award “for outstanding work in the field of patents, trademarks, and related areas” awarded by George Washington University, Washington, DC. At the 1968 meeting of the American Bar Association he was given a citation by its patent section for distinguished service over the years.
Terry L. Hatchett practiced law in Glasgow since June 1930. He held a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and a LLB degree from Jefferson School of Law, now the University of Louisville. His M.A. and LLB degrees were earned during summer vacations and other “spare time” during five years (1925-1930) that he taught English at DuPont Manual Training High School in Louisville, Kentucky. Before pursuing graduate studies he served two years as principal of Onton Consolidated Schools in Webster County, Kentucky.
Mr. Hatchett volunteered for service in the U.S. Army Air Corps in November 1942 and was promoted from private to staff sergeant to Second Lieutenant to First Lieutenant before his discharge in March 1946. He was a member of the Board of Bar Commissioners of Kentucky and was a director of First Federal Savings and Loan Association, a director of New Farmers National Bank (both of Glasgow), and deacon of Glasgow Baptist Church. He was District Governor of Lions Club, Kentucky District 43-E.
Mary Ashby Cheek was a native of Danville, Kentucky, and was valedictorian of her graduating class at Kentucky College for Women. She served as president of Rockford College in Rockford, Illinois for 17 years until her retirement in 1954.
Dr. Cheek had an outstanding record of accomplishments while president of Rockford College. Upon her retirement the College established the Mary Ashby Cheek American Citizenship Foundation which provides a faculty salary each year for a teacher of American citizenship.
Dr. Cheek was Dean of Mount Holyoke College before assuming the presidency of Rockford College in 1937. She held advanced degrees from Mount Holyoke and Columbia University and studied at the University of Geneva, University of Munich, and in London and Paris. She was awarded honorary degrees by Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, Mount Holyoke, and Centre.
Robert T. Caldwell, a graduate of both Centre and the old Centre Law School, practiced law for 50 years in Ashland, Kentucky. His firm, Caldwell & Hughes (corporation practice) specialized in labor law and administrative procedure. He was president of both the Kentucky Bar Association and Kentucky State Bar and in 1935 was one of the legal advisers to the U.S. Delegation at the International Labor Conference in Geneva. Her served four years as a member of the National Conference on Uniform State Laws and was a member of the Regional Advisory Committee of the National Labor Relations Board, the Kentucky Advisory Committee on Nuclear Energy, and the Kentucky All Industries Wage Board.
A life-long resident of Danville, Mr. Caldwell was an engineer, highway contractor, and a stone company executive. He operated the Caldwell Stone Co., Inc. in Danville.
He was a former member of the Centre Board of Trustees and served as president and director of the Commonwealth First Federal Savings & Loan Association and the Caldwell Stone Co. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Farmers National Bank in Danville and a director of the Somerset Stone Co.
Bedford, New York
Dorothy Humphreys Hinitt served for twenty-six years, until her retirement in 1959, as an editor with The Reader’s Digest.
She joined the Digest in 1933 as one of its first two women editors and was later named Associate Editor. Her father was the late Dr. Frederick W. Hinitt, distinguished Presbyterian minister and president of Centre from 1904 to 1915. Since 1963 she served as Editor of The Garden Club of America Bulletin. Miss Hinitt was a trustee of the Bedford Historical Society and managed the group’s museum. Centre awarded her the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in 1951.
Lawrence W. Hager was Publisher of The Messenger and Inquirer newspapers and President of radio station WOMI of Owensboro. Among his accomplishments as a civic leader and public benefactor was the founding of the Goodfellows Club which for many years provided gifts and clothing for Owensboro’s needy children, persuading the Kentucky Methodist Conference and leading a drive which raised $1,000,000 to move Kentucky Wesleyan College to Owensboro and helping organize the Kentucky Society for Crippled Children.
Little Rock, Arkansas
Morgan M. Beatty, a native of Little Rock, Arkansas, was Editor-in-Chief and Chief Commentator on the NBC Radio Network’s “News of the World” program. He joined NBC Radio as a military analyst in 1941, went to London as a war correspondent the following year, and returned in 1943 to serve as NBC’s Washington correspondent. He was also heard regularly on NBC Radio’s “Emphasis” and “Monitor.”
In 1963, he was named by the National Association of Broadcasters as one of the three “Radio Men of the Year.” He also won the Alfred I. DuPont Award and the National Headliners’ Club Award for “outstanding assigned radio reporting.” On the occasion of his 15th anniversary on the “News of the World” series, he received a warm and personal “well done” not from the then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Bowling Green, Kentucky
Jo Tilden Orendorf, class of 1930, was President and Chairman of the Board of The Citizens National Bank of Bowling Green, Kentucky. A graduate of Tulane University Law School, he practiced law in Bowling Green from 1936 until 1964 during which time he served as City Prosecutor, Commonwealth Attorney, and City Solicitor.
An Elder in the Presbyterian Church, he served on Synod and General Assembly committees and in 1959 was elected the first chairman of the then newly-created Board of Curators of Centre College. The twelve-member board was elected by the synods to serve in an advisory capacity to Centre.
In 1932, Ruby Moss Cheek began serving as Instructor of Music on the Centre faculty. Though officially a part-time faculty member, she had long been known as a person whose life was “wrapped up” to a great extent in the College and the furtherance of its best interests.
She gave generously of her time and devotion on behalf of Centre – both as a teacher who showed an intense personal interest in the students and as a Centre graduate who willingly took part either as an officer or just plain worker in alumni programs for her alma mater. Always anxious to bring the finest music and other cultural programs to Danville and the campus, she served for many years as vice president and membership chairman of the Danville Artist Series.
Troy, New York
Dr. Eliza Caldwell Hardy, a native of Danville, was a pediatrician who practiced alongside her husband, Dr. Edward A. Hardy, at the Mount Vernon Hospital in Mount Vernon, New York, and also served as physician for the Pelham city schools.
A graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, Dr. Hardy interned at Duke Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, then served as assistant resident and chief resident on pediatrics at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. She was a diplomat on the American Board of Pediatrics, and chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee of the Pelham Visiting Nurse Association.
Mount Vernon, Kentucky
Major General J.J.B. Williams, a native of Mount Vernon, rose from private to general during service in both World Wars. As General George S. Patton’s Artillery Officer he came into world-wide notice during the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945 by riding atop a tank in an attack near Bastogne. He was Chief of Staff of the 11th Armored Division at the time.
His decorations include the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Order of Leopold with Palm, and Belgian Croix de Guerre with Palm. He was a former Post Commander of Ft. Knox and a former Adjutant General of Kentucky. He ranked first in his staff college class at The Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
John T. Diederich, a life-long resident of Greenup and Boyd counties, was the senior member of the law firm of Diederich & Hermansdorfer and director and chairman of the board of the Third National Bank in Ashland. He was a past president of the Centre Alumni Association, a former member of the Centre Board of Trustees, and past president of the Kentucky Oil and Gas Association.
For many years he had been a leading Republican figure on the state and national organization levels. He was also president of the Ashland Industrial Corporation and chairman of the advisory board of Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital.
Riverside, California
Henry Riggs Sullivan, a native of Owingsville, Kentucky and a graduate of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky high school, was a Major General in the United States Air Force serving as the Representative of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe to the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.
He came to this assignment in April 1963 after having served in NATO assignments in 1961-62 as Deputy Chief of Staff Operations, Allied Air Forces Central Europe, and in 1962-63 as Chief of Plans Branch, Plans and Policy Division, SHAPE. From 1958 to 1961 he was Commandant of Cadets at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Richard H. Chamberlain, a native of Jacksonville, Florida, served as Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in Philadelphia beginning in 1952. He joined the faculty there in 1940 after graduating from the University of Louisville Medical School. He was president of the Medical Board of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital and was United States delegate to the United Nations Commission on Radiation.
A past president of the American Roentgen Ray Society, he was a member of the National Commission on Radiation Protection and had served as consultant in radiology to the United States Public Health Service, the United States Army Air Force, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the Veterans Administration. He also served as vice president of the American College of Radiology.
Covington, Kentucky
Robert S. Tate, a Campbellsville native who lived for many years in Danville, was retired vice president of Tate Builders Supply Co. in Covington. A former member of the Centre Board of Trustees, he was president of the Centre Board of Overseers, president of the Christopher Gist Historical Society in Covington, president of the Covington Kiwanis Club, and president of the Kenton Boys Club of Covington.
He was also a member of the executive committee of the Cincinnati Area Chapter of the American Red Cross and the Advisory Board of Covington’s Booth Memorial Hospital. He was a Presbyterian Church elder for 20 years and was co-chairman of the building council of the new Lakeside Presbyterian Church near Covington.
Dr. Wilbur Cook had been a professor of biology and chairman of that department at Centre College since 1936. Having joined the Centre faculty as assistant professor in 1926, his 37 years of service to Centre was easily the longest of any faculty member at that time.
He served for 32 years as chapter advisor of Centre’s Kentucky Kappa of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Dr. Cook, who received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Ohio State University, had been president of the Board of Commissioners of the Kentucky School for the Deaf, and permanent clerk of The Synod of Kentucky of the United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.
Dr. Hardin Craig, a native of Owensboro, Kentucky, was a noted Shakespearean scholar and teacher. He retired as Professor of English Emeritus at Stanford University in 1942, but resumed active work as visiting professor at the University of North Carolina from 1942 to 1949. He then accepted an appointment as visiting professor of English at the University of Missouri in Columbia, serving there from 1949 until 1962. For nine years he was professor and head of the English department at the State University of Iowa at Iowa City. He had been editor of the Philological Quarterly and author of various scholarly works, including The Complete Works of Shakespeare (1951) and Woodrow Wilson at Princeton (1960). He received the doctor of philosophy degree from Princeton and later taught there. He was a member of the executive committee of The Modern Language Association of America and had for a number of years been a generous supporter of the Centre library.
Downers Grove, Illinois
Mina Rea Jones Perlow, class of 1931, a native of Mercer County, Kentucky, was a chemist for the Physics Division of the Argonne National Laboratory at the University of Chicago, where her husband, Gilbert J. Perlow, was a physicist.
She received the doctor of philosophy degree in chemistry from the University of Chicago. In 1960 she was Consultant for the British Atomic Energy Commission at Harwell, Berks, England. She had also been a chemist with the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, the War Production Board, the Civilian Production Administration, and the United States departments of commerce and agriculture.
New Providence, New Jersey
Robert E. Wallace was born on July 8, 1903 in Prince George, Virginia, to Dr. W.H. Wallace, who pioneered the x-ray.
After his graduation from Centre, young Robert embarked on a long and successful career with Chubb & Son, which began primarily as marine underwriters but which has grown into an internationally known company engaged in virtually every line of insurance. Mr. Wallace served for 10 years with Chubb & Son’s Chicago office, leaving there as assistant manager to return to New York. He later established the firm’s Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain operations, and became a partner in the firm.
Mr. Wallace also had an inspiring career as a friend and supporter of Centre College. He took an active interest in alumni activities – as founder and later president of the Chicago Alumni Association, as president of the national Alumni Association, as a class agent and as planner of major class reunions. During his term as national alumni president, the plan of annual alumni giving began. Alumni annual giving continues to result in major giving to the College.
Tampa, Florida
Robert R. Guthrie, a native of Paducah, Kentucky was director emeritus of Allied Stores Corporation, the nation’s second largest department store group, and was chairman of the executive committee of the Tampa Bay Bank in Tampa, Florida. He was chairman of the Florida Nuclear and Space Commission, treasurer of the Southern Interstate Nuclear Board, and past president of Florida West Coast Educational Television Company.
During World War II, he served his country in Washington, DC as Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Industry Branches of the War Production Board as an expert consultant to the Secretary of War. For thirty-four years he was a member of the National Council of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He was also an active alumni leader for Centre College in the greater St. Petersburg-Tampa area.