Winter 2007 Issue

UIS Alumni Celebration and Awards Dinner
Six Presented With Alumni Awards

Left to Right: UIS Chancellor Richard D. Ringeisen, Randall F. Dunn, William G. Hall, Cullom Davis, John D. Blackburn, UIAA President and CEO Loren R. Taylor, UI President B. Joseph White, Ethel S. Gingold, and Claudia M. Pitchford

Five UIS alumni and a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Springfield were honored at the UIS Alumni Celebration and Awards Dinner on Friday, November 3rd. University of Illinois President B. Joseph White, UIAA President and CEO Loren R. Taylor and UIS Chancellor Richard D. Ringeisen presented the awards before an audience of 200 alumni and friends who gathered at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in downtown Springfield.
This annual event, hosted by the University of Illinois Alumni Association, serves to publicly recognize and celebrate the outstanding and distinguished achievements, service and loyalty of alumni and friends in the University community.

The University of Illinois Alumni Achievement Award, the highest honor bestowed upon alumni of the University, was presented to John D. Blackburn, MA ’79 EHS, chief executive officer of Country Insurance and Financial Services in Bloomington. John Blackburn has served as chief executive officer of COUNTRY since August 2001, and is also chairman of the Boards of Directors of four companies with which COUNTRY has strategic alliances: Cotton States Insurance, Atlanta; Holyoke Mutual Insurance Company, Salem, Mass.; Middlesex Mutual Assurance Company, Middletown, Conn.; and MSI Preferred Insurance Company, Arden Hills, Minn.

Blackburn earned a bachelor’s degree in English and physical education from Western Illinois University in Macomb and a master’s degree in educational administration the University of Illinois at Springfield. He also furthered his education and received the Chartered Life Underwriter insurance designation.

The Distinguished Service Award, presented to those individuals who have consistently demonstrated extraordinary commitment, dedication and service to the advancement of the University, was presented to Dr. Cullom Davis, MA ‘61 LAS (UIUC), PhD ’69 (UIUC), UIS professor emeritus of history. Davis, a founding faculty member of Sangamon State University, is one of UIS’ best known and most beloved professors. Known for his work both in Lincoln studies and oral history, Davis founded the UIS Oral History Center at Brookens Library and his legacy lives on in the archives of the library through the hundreds of oral histories now available online, due much in part to his fundraising efforts. Following retirement, Davis served as Director of the Lincoln Legal Papers Project, which documented Lincoln’s legal career through previously unknown legal documents scattered in court houses throughout Illinois. Davis is willing to lend his name, influence and support to any project that advances UIS and the study of history, public policy and Abraham Lincoln.

Ms. Ethel S. Gingold, MA ’73, MA ’79 EHS, was the first ever UIS recipient of the University of Illinois Humanitarian Award, which is presented to those who, through their outstanding involvement and dedication, have made a significant contribution of leadership or service which has improved or enriched the lives of others and the welfare of humanity.

A champion of the underdog, Ethel Gingold has spent a lifetime lighting the fires of reform, actively working in the areas of fair housing, corrections, civil liberties and race relations. She has been active in organizations and served in leadership positions in the social justice movement including the Springfield Jewish Federation, the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, Amnesty International, Urban League, the Springfield and Illinois Human Relations Commission, the State Prisoner Review Board, and the Illinois Department of Corrections Adult Advisory and Administrative Review. She has acted on more than 1,200 prison inmate grievances and was appointed to a Citizen’s Review Board to consider applicants for judgeships in Illinois. Ms. Gingold has received numerous awards and recognitions including being named an “Illinois Treasure” by the Illinois Alliance on Aging, and as a recipient of the Copley “First Citizen Award” presented by the Stare Journal-Register,. Ms. Gingold is also a past recipient of the University of Illinois Loyalty Award for Exceptional Alumni Service.

Presented with the University of Illinois Loyalty Awards for Exceptional Alumni Service were Randall F. Dunn, ’73 CBM, MA ’74 EHS, William G. Hall ’70 LAS (UIUC), MA ’73 EHS, and Claudia M. Pitchford ’00 LAS, TEP EHS.

Dunn received his award in recognition of exceptional alumni service and volunteer leadership on behalf of the UIS Office of Development and the University of Illinois Alumni Association. At his own expense, Mr. Dunn travels to Springfield to serve on the UIS Development Advisory Board, and was a member of the National Commission on the Future of UIS visioning initiative. Mr. Dunn conceived plans for the Capital Steps Scholarship Fund and financed its first scholarship, and has participated in the last three UIS Leadership Roundtable programs. He’s written fellow alumni of the Class of 1974 to encourage their support of UIS, and regularly attends and has hosted UIS events held in Florida.

Hall received his award following service to help start a new interest group for alumni age 50 and better - the UIS Alumni SAGE Society – which stands for Service, Activity, Growth and Enrichment. This group has a coordinating committee of 16 alumni, and nearly 300 alumni and friends in the first year alone have been attracted to its educational programs and volunteer opportunities. Mr. Hall is a very persuasive spokesman for why alumni should stay connected and offer volunteer time to their University. A member of the first graduating class of Sangamon State, Mr. Hall showed his passion for preserving its history when he helped gather material for a display commemorating the campus’s 30th anniversary. Hall has taught as an adjunct faculty member on several occasions, and happily shares his real-life experience in government with UIS students, and always supported student internship efforts at various agencies.

Pitchford received her award for her role as a founding member of the College of Education and Human Service Alumni Council which began in the fall of 2004. The time and commitment she continues to give to the college and the council’s programs is unwavering. As her nominator wrote “She’s the one at every meeting, who always volunteers to help out – she does all the little things for events like the Spring Roundtable and the Pathways to Dynamic Careers program that make them possible at all. She’s the one designing the printed program over her “Spring Break. You wish you could just clone someone like her.” In addition, for the past three years, Claudia has also chaired the Alpha Alpha Gamma Chapter of the national teachers’ honor society, Kappa Delta Pi, on the UIS campus. This society includes alumni and current students in the teacher education program, and Claudia inspires our students with her love of teaching and service to her college.