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CU-Boulder Alumni Association celebrates 80th anniversary of annual awards ceremony

The tradition of honoring the University of Colorado’s best began in 1930 and continues as the CU-Boulder Alumni Association announced 22 outstanding members of the university community who were recognized at a ceremony on campus Wednesday, May 5.

The George Norlin Award honors outstanding alumni for their careers and service to society.  Recipients of the 2010 Norlin Award are: Julianne Mattingly Steinhauer (Mus’60), a musician, longtime volunteer in Vietnam and someone who has been deeply involved in CU-Boulder’s Conference on World Affairs; Hank Brown (Acct’61, Law’69), a successful politician who served as U.S. Senator from Colorado and was president of the University of Colorado and the University of Northern Colorado as well as President and CEO of the Daniels Fund; Richard Knowlton (Geog’54), successful leader of Hormel Foods Corporation and a supporter of the Leeds Business School and the CU athletic department; and Laurence Boxer (Hist’61), a physician and clinical scientist researching how white blood cells work and how new research can be used to improve the lives of children.

Three professors and one top administrator  received the Robert L. Stearns Award in recognition of extraordinary contributions to the university: John Cumalat, whose 12-year tenure as physics chair helped the department’s reputation skyrocket as its faculty and staff won more than 150 awards, including three Nobel Prizes, and whose studies of quarks led him to be involved with the Large Hadron Collider in Europe; Richard Noble, chemical and biological engineering department professor who is founder of CU’s Center for Membrane Applied Science and Technology, supporting research on significant environmental problems; Ric Porreca (MPolSci ex’83) a 28-year CU administrator who serves as senior vice chancellor and chief financial officer and whose planning and financial savvy has led to strong strategic planning and  the construction of many new campus buildings, despite state cutbacks and a looming recession; Robert Schulzinger, one of America’s foremost diplomatic historians and author of one of the seminal histories of the U.S. and Vietnam, A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975.

Four alumni were recognized with the Alumni Recognition Award: Joanne Easley Arnold (Engl’52, MJour’65, PhDComm’71) is a professor emerita of journalism who has had a long history of service to the university including serving as associate dean of the journalism school and  chairing the Chancellor’s Standing Committee on Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues for seven years; Woody Eaton (DistSt’62) and Leslie Bernstein Eaton (Art’63) have been intimately involved in supporting CU-Boulder in many ways, from co-founding the Buffalo Bicycle Classic, which has raised $1.2 million for Arts & Sciences College scholarships, to helping fund the Eaton Humanities building on the main university quad, sitting on the CU Foundation’s boards and devoting a great deal of time to the Center of the American West; Clancy Herbst Jr. (ChemEngr’50,HonDocSci’95), who is always in CU gear and deeply involved with the CU Foundation, engineering (including founding The Herbst Program for Engineering in the Humanities), athletic scholarships and the Dal Ward Athletic Center.

Mary Allen Judd (PolSci’80) of Chicago  received the Leanne Skupa-Lee Award as a faithful National Alumni Admissions Assistance Program volunteer for more than 20 years, participating in college fairs and doing other work to recruit CU’s next generation of students.

The Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Graduate Award went to Nick Sowden (Mgmt’07)  who lives in Kenya where he is business development director for ToughStuff, an international organization that provides inexpensive solar products to low-income families in developing countries.

Eight students were recognized as recipients of the Public Interest Internship Experience awards: Wynne Adams (a junior environmental studies and art double major), Mindy Bridges (a junior anthropology major), Denise Justice (a senior international affairs major), Melissa Khat (a senior international affairs major), Bryant Mason (a junior economics and environmental studies double major), Heidi Meyer (a sophomore education and English double major), Austin Rempel (a senior ecology and economics double major) and Mercedes Ruiz (a senior Spanish major).

The May 5 awards ceremony began at 7 p.m. in Old Main Chapel on the CU-Boulder campus.