The University of Wyoming College of Arts and Sciences will honor six alumni and former faculty members at its annual awards banquet Saturday, May 16.
The 2009 outstanding alumni recipients are Chad Deaton (B.S., 1976), David R. Nicholas (B.S.L., 1964) and Susan Lewellyn Pamerleau (B.A., 1968); the outstanding former faculty recipients are Michael J. Horan (Department of Political Science), George C. Frison (Department of Anthropology) and Sara Jane Rhoads (Department of Chemistry).
Nicholas and Rhoads will be honored posthumously.
The banquet begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center. For more information, including ticket prices, call the College of Arts and Sciences Development Office at (307) 766-2755 or e-mail as-rsvp@uwyo.edu.
The three alumni winners share a record of career success and civic service.
Deaton is president, executive chairman and chairman of the executive committee of Baker Hughes, Inc., a Fortune 500 company and the world's third-largest oil field service company. He is also a board member, donor and strategic planner for Houston Achievement Place, a non-profit social service agency that benefits children with behavioral, educational, emotional and relational issues.
A former attorney in Laramie and state senator, Nicholas served UW in many capacities, including as a founding member of the International Board of Advisors. In 2002, Nicholas went to work for the Department of State and became a representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He died in 2005 while serving his country in Ukraine.
Pamerleau is a retired major general in the United States Air Force. She served 32 years, working primarily at the Pentagon, where she worked to develop plans, programs and budgetary requirements for base realignment and closure actions and personnel programs. She now works as an independent contractor and consultant.
The three former faculty honorees left indelible impressions at UW.
The first recipient of the Ellbogen Lifetime Teaching Award, Horan came to UW in 1967 and taught classes on constitutional law and civil liberties and rights. Outside of the classroom, Horan served as head of the Department of Political Science and as chair of the Milward L. Simpson Fund for Political Science.
The first UW faculty member to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences, Frison served as head of the Department of Anthropology from 1967-87. He was also the first Wyoming State Archaeologist.
One of the first women in the U.S. to reach the rank of full professor of chemistry, Rhoads joined the UW faculty in 1948 and initiated the university's undergraduate research program in chemistry. The Department of Chemistry in 1992 established an organic lecture series in honor of Rhoads and her friend and former colleague, Rebecca Raulins. Rhoads died in 1993.
Posted on Monday, May 11, 2009