Contact: Deborah DeWees, WWU Alumni Association, (360) 650-3353
BELLINGHAM - Western Washington University presented its alumni awards to individuals and a family at its 2009 Alumni Awards Ceremony on May 15.
The award winners span a wide range of accomplished alumni, including leaders in business, the arts, journalism, medicine, science and education.
"It's always a pleasure to recognize those alumni who have taken what they learned at Western and brought that higher education to higher purposes serving others," said Western President Bruce Shepard. "These are amazing people who continue to do amazing things."
The recipients:
- Larry "Go Vikings!" Taylor Alumni Service Award: Moose and Vi Zurline, Bellingham.
"Moose" Zurline learned a lot of important life lessons on Western's football and basketball teams in the 1940s, and he and his wife, Vi, have supported Western athletics ever since. The Zurlines, now retired, have funded many scholarships for Western student athletes. - Young Alumnus of the Year: Jonathan (Min-Wook) Main, '94, Mill Creek, was selected as Western's Young Alumnus of the Year for his success in building both businesses and relationships. A 36-year-old self-described "serial entrepreneur," Main is the owner and managing director of his own investment company, the SARAME Corp., as well as chief operating officer of the Pennsylvania-based Carbon Nanoprobes Inc., one of SARAME's portfolio companies, where he's helping the young CEO build the operation.
- Distinguished Alumnus for the College of Business and Economics: John Wolfe, '74, Seattle, a leading white-collar criminal defense attorney in the Puget Sound region and a member of the College of Business and Economics Dean's Advisory Board.
- Distinguished Alumna for Fairhaven College: Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus, '74, Homewood, Ill., president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, an organization of 1,800 Reform rabbis.
- Distinguished Alumnus for the College of Fine and Performing Arts: Steven Arnold, '79 and '81, Sherman Oaks, Calif., a motion-picture art director whose work can be seen in "Bewitched," "Van Helsing," "Solaris," "Spider-Man," "Unbreakable," "Get Shorty" and "Face/Off."
- Distinguished Alumnus for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences: Kevin Jackson, '92, Sammamish, five-time Emmy Award-winning vice president and executive editor for ESPN.com.
- Distinguished Alumnus for Huxley College of the Environment: Mike Town, '84, '85, Duvall, an environmental-science teacher who spearheaded the grassroots effort to establish the 106,000-acre Wild Sky Wilderness.
- Distinguished Alumna for the College of Sciences and Technology: the late Kathleen Grega Digges, '71, McLean, Va., a physician in Northern Virginia whose financial support established four endowments in the Geology Department, including one creating a field trip program.
- Distinguished Alumnus for Woodring College of Education: Ronald H. LaFayette, '69 and '71, Cheney, president of North Seattle Community College who has played a critical role in creating pathways for nontraditional students to become teachers.
- Alumni Community Service Award: Bill Kalenius, '74, Vancouver, the driving force behind the volunteer-run Vancouver Lake Crew program, which rallied the community to help the club recover from a destructive tornado in early 2008.
- Legacy Family of the Year: The Bowman-Frazier Family, Jack Bowman, '54, Bellingham/Lummi Island, and his wife JoAnn head a family with eight decades of Western alums whose contributions to academics support student leadership development activities.
For more information on the 2009 WWU alumni award winners, go to http://www.alumniconnections.com/wwualumni/ or contact Deborah DeWees at (360) 650-3353.
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