Three to Receive UW Distinguished Alumni Awards

Oct. 7, 2005 -- Three University of Wyoming graduates who became leaders in their respective fields will be honored with Distinguished Alumni Awards during UW Homecoming Oct. 14-15. They are attorney and rancher Ray Hunkins; international business leader Ron Salvagio; and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bill Stall.

They will attend several Homecoming activities, will ride in the parade that starts at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, and will be recognized during the football game with New Mexico at 1 p.m.

Hunkins (B.S. ‘67, J.D. ‘68) graduated from high school in Billings, Mont., and later enlisted in the Marine reserves.

With the promise of a football scholarship after completing his miliary service, he enrolled at the University of Montana, studying political science and economics. He spent four years at Montana but didn’t complete a degree when he took a job as the national field secretary for Phi Delta Theta.

Deciding that he wanted to enter law school, Hunkins first finished his undergraduate degree at UW and then earned a law degree from the College of Law. He worked for coach Lloyd Eaton as counselor for the football team and adviser and academic counselor to Phi Delta Theta. In the summer months he worked as deputy sheriff for Albany County and for the National Park Service.

After graduation, he moved to Wheatland and has been at the same firm, Jones, Jones, Vines and Hunkins, for 35 years, specializing in construction contract consultation and commercial litigation.

In Wheatland he fulfilled his life-long dream, purchasing his own ranch, starting with a small place, but kept trading up until he was able to buy the ranch he lives on today, 27 miles west of Wheatland, where he runs a commercial cattle operation.

He and his wife, Debby, have three children -- oldest daughter, Amanda, practices law with her father; son, Blake, is the principal of Snowy Range Academy in Laramie; and Ashley works for a pharmaceutical company in Casper. All graduated from UW.

Hunkins has been involved in many organizations and ran for governor in 2002.

A native of Rockford, Ill., Salvagio (B.S. ‘65, M.S. ‘69) came to UW on a baseball scholarship but knew he would never turn pro. He decided to major in accounting, and was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity.

When he graduated in 1965, he fulfilled his ROTC obligation to the Army, serving both in Berlin and later in Vietnam. He returned to UW to earn his master’s degree in accounting.

“One reason I got into accounting was that at that time it was one of the best, if not the best, of the accounting programs in the Rocky Mountain West," he says. "They gave you the fundamentals you needed to be successful."

When he graduated, he had offers from what were at time the Big Eight accounting firms, a fact he credits to his UW education. He took a job with Arthur Andersen, the dominant firm at the time. For 17 years, he worked in their Denver office before being transferred to Hong Kong and later Tokyo, where he headed the company’s internal operations for Asia Pacific. After 11 years, Salvagio returned home and worked as the company’s director of financial services.

When Arthur Andersen split into two companies, Andersen Consulting and Anderson Accounting, Salvagio was a key figure in taking Andersen Consulting public. He made sure the current financial statements were in order, did five-year forecasts and developed a narrative to tell investors about the company.

He retired and he and his wife Patty moved to Naples, Fla. He serves on several different boards, including the UW Foundation and the UW Art Museum boards.

Journalist Stall (B.S. '59) was unaware his editorials were being considered for the most prestigious honor in the business until his editor at the L.A. Times called to tell him he was a finalist for a 2004 Pulitzer prize. A month later the UW graduate from Big Horn got a second call informing him he'd won.

Stall's journalism career began with a job as a reporter in Laramie. While he studied journalism at UW, he served as the sports editor -- and thus the entire sports staff -- of the Laramie Daily Bulletin. Soon the two Laramie papers merged and Stall became a beat reporter for the Laramie Daily Boomerang, covering the courthouse and police station after class.

Soon after graduation, Stall returned to Wyoming for a job with the Associated Press in Cheyenne. In the following years he moved around the country as a reporter covering politics and government.

Stall was working in Sacramento when the editor of the L.A. Times editorial page approached him to write for her as an editorial writer based in the capitol city. Ever since, Stall has written several L.A. Times editorials a week on state government.

Five of Stall's editorials on "why California's government is so messed up" and two follow-up pieces were submitted to the Pulitzer committee last year. He is recognized as a writer that not only details problems, but explores solutions.

Posted on Friday, October 07, 2005