Past Recipients

Titles reflect occupations and achievements at the time awards were presented.

2011
Mark Schupp
President and CEO, Schupp Company, Inc.

Mike Webb
Inventor and International Business Executive

2010
Clifton Baile
D.W. Brooks Distinguished Professor and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar of Agricultural Biotechnology, University of Georgia

Susan Beebe
Director, Lower Division Studies in English, and Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Texas State University San Marcos

Steven Beebe
Regents and University Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Communication Studies, and Associate Dean, College of Fine Arts and Communication, Texas State University San Marcos

2009
Bryan Burns
Vice president, strategic business planning and development, ESPN

Robert Buhrkuhl
Retired director of financial management and comptroller, U.S. Special Operations Command

2008
Michael Quimby
Founder, president and tonal director of Quimby Pipe Organ, Inc.

2007
Michael Davidson
Chairman, chief agency and marketing officer for State  Farm Insurance Companies

Ted and Betty Meyer
Owners of Meyer Music Company

Phil Sumrall
Manager of advanced planning, Exploration Launch Projects Office, Marshall Space Flight

2006
James Crane
Founder, chief executive officer and chairman of the board, EGL Eagle Global Logistics

Joe Vandepopuliere
Inventor of Puppy Chow, professor emeritus of agriculture, University of Missouri

2005
William H. Parrish
Associate professor for homeland security and emergency preparedness, Virginia Commonwealth University

Jerry Osborn
Chief executive officer, Community Counseling Consultants, Inc.

2004
Paula Mitchell Derks
President, Aircrafts Electronics

David Steward
Founder and chief executive officer, World Wide Technology

2003
Thomas H. Kunz
Distinguished professor at Boston University and international authority on bats

John A. Romito
Greater Kansas City Orthopedic Surgeon of the Decade

2002
George H. Alvord
President and chief executive officer, Gate Gourmet, world's largest airline food caterers

Timothy H. Doke
Vice president for corporate communications, American Airlines 

2001
D. Kent King
Commissioner, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Everett H. Thomas
Chief, Nuclear Arms Control Division, Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate, Joint Chiefs of Staff

2000
Robert G. Hartley
Founder and chief executive officer, Hartley's Executive Cleaning and motivational speaker for youth

John W. White
Information technology pioneer, Texas Instruments and Compaq Computer Corporation

1999
John R. Clark
President and chief executive officer, United Foods and president, Overbrook Farms, Inc.

1998
D. Mitchell Wheeler
Founder, Marketing Associates International, a multi-million dollar sports and entertainment marketing company

1997
Helen Hocker
Founder of women's athletics programs, Washburn University, Topeka, KS

William F. Fulkerson
Staff analyst,, computer information systems, Deere & Co., and visiting physicist, University of Illinois Center for Complex Systems Research

Mary Ann Hart
International opera soloist and voice characterization for Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas

1996
Donald Kelsey
Research chemist for Shell Oil Co., holds 44 patents in synthetic polymers

Charles Pace
Assistant manager, Space Shuttle Systems and Operations Integration, NASA Johnson Space Center

1995
William Bradshaw
Vice president for medical affairs, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City

Ruthane Wise
Healthtech Rehabilitation, nation's largest individually owned rehabilitation center

1994
Homer H. Kempfer
Volunteer consultant in education research, Universidad Estatal a Distancia, Costa Rica

Rex R. Taggart
Physician and medical officer for parts of Africa, Latin America, Europe, U.S. Department of State

1993
Dorothy Diemer Hendry
Writer and editor, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Joseph Sellman
Deputy commander, 7350th Air Base Group, Tempelhof Central Airport, Berlin

1992
David Baker
Associate professor of English, Denison University, and editor-in-chief of Kenyon Review, one of the world's most influential literary magazines

Joey Ford
Co-director, Oprah Winfrey Show, Harpo Productions

1991
Bonnie Fitterling Braun
Family life specialist, U.S. Department of Agriculture Extension Service, and associate director, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

A. L. Folkner
Physician and prominent Warrensburg and university leader

1990
Fred E. Cameron
High school football coach, Vinton and East St. Louis, inducted into Iowa and Illinois halls of fame

David Laughlin
Acclaimed western artist and authority on Frederic Remington

1989
Brice B. Durbin

Billy Key

1988
Thomas Hollyman
Nationally published photojournalist and photography director for the movie, Lord of the Flies

Edna Mae Whitsitt
Teacher and administrator, among early KC principals to embrace desegregation

1987
James Appleberry
President, Northern Michigan University

Tony Eberwein
Presiding judge, St. Louis County Associate Circuit

James McDowell
Director of marketing services, Hallmark Properties

1986
Robert P. Foster
Owner and operator, Foster's Supermarket and Double HH Farms, Inc., and president emeritus, Northwest Missouri State University

Bonnie Foster Kelley
National fashion coordinator, W.T. Grant Co., and teacher, Grand Central School of Art

Leonard E. Goodall
Professor of political science, University of Nevada Las Vegas, and former president at UNLV and the University of Michigan-Dearborn

1985
William H. Klingenberg, Jr.
Vice president of corporate planning, Business Men's Assurance Company of America

Rita L. Youmans
National expert on the needs of urban families and UCM professor emeritus

1984
Louis Alley
Author and physical education department head at the University of Iowa; one of only three men to serve as president of three national physical education organizations

R. C. Bradley
Professor of education, North Texas State University and internationally known writer, speaker and consultant on teaching

Sam D. Hoeper, Sr.
Educator, physician and surgeon

Edna P. Gehlken
Early feminist, college professor and nutritionist

1983
Ralph C. Bedell
Professor of educational psychology who helped develop national standards for counselor education programs

Wallace H. Graham
Personal physician to Pres. Harry S. Truman

Joseph E. Kallenbach
Emeritus professor of political science, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Vernon Kennedy
Major league baseball player, Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers

William B. Peck
Professor emeritus at UCM, famous arachnologist

Janice Gudde Plastino
National co-founder of the study of dance science, co-author of modern dance book classic and professor, Department of Dance, University of California Irvine

1982
Marvin M. Millsap
Executive, General Motors

James H. Pendleton
Director of industry competence, Arthur Anderson & Co.

James S. Whitfield
Administrative manager and convention director, National Farm & Power Equipment Dealers Association and designer of the official UCM flag

1981
Harold P. Brown
Emerson D. Fowler
Joe Herndon

1980
James W. Evans
Inventor of Cheerios, president and CEO of American Maize Productions Co.

E. Gene Ferguson
Professor of voice and opera, University of South Carolina

Alma Rae Benney Greenwood
Educator

Glenn W. Stahl
Founder, Stahl Specialty Co.

1979
Ucola Collier Katzentine
Organized and owned first radio station, WKAT, in Miami, FL
 
James C. Kirkpatrick
Missouri's longest-serving secretary of state

1978
William H. Byler
J. Lawrence Walkup