Arts & Sciences will recognize the achievements of six alumni at 4 p.m. May 21 in the Arts & Sciences Laboratory Science Building.
Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor, dean of Arts & Sciences and the Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences, will present Distinguished Alumni Awards to five individuals who have attained distinction in their academic or professional careers and have demonstrated service to their communities and the University.
David T. Blasingame, vice chancellor for alumni and development programs, A.B. ’69, M.B.A. ’71, will receive the Dean’s Medal for his support and dedication to Arts & Sciences.
The five other alumni being honored are: Michael Isikoff, A.B. ’74; Harry S. Jonas, M.D., A.B. ’49, M.D. ’52, House Staff ’56; Constance Kling Levy, A.B. ’52, M.A.Ed. ’74; Jerome T. Loeb, M.A. ’64; and Sally K. Silvers, A.B. ’69.
Blasingame is known to more than 80,000 donors, hundreds of volunteers, the entire campus community and educational institutions around the world as the leader of the Campaign for Washington University, which has generated nearly $1.5 billion, including more than $185 million to Arts & Sciences and University College.
He majored in psychology, using his math abilities in economics electives, and concentrated in marketing in the Olin School’s master of business administration program.
Isikoff is an award-winning investigative correspondent for Newsweek. During 30 years of reporting, he has mined for facts behind Whitewater, Iran-Contra, the Persian Gulf War, 1996 Democratic campaign contributions and Enron.
A Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1991 for articles about gun trafficking and violence, he has received numerous other honors, including the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Reporting on the Presidency for exclusive coverage of the Clinton scandal.
Jonas had a thriving obstetrics practice in Independence, Mo., from 1956-1974 before becoming in 1975 the first chair of the OB-GYN department in the new medical center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC).
In 1978, he became dean of UMKC’s medical school, serving in that position until 1987.
After leaving UMKC, he served as assistant vice president of medical education for the American Medical Association and secretary of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the agency responsible for accreditation of U.S. and Canadian medical schools.
Levy is an award-winning children’s poet. Her books include Splash, Poems of Our Watery World (2002) and A Crack in the Clouds (1998), both Lee Bennett Hopkins Award winners.
Her first picture book, The Story of Red Rubber Ball, was published this month and is a 2004 Junior Library Guild Selection.
Levy has taught first and second grades, children’s literature in college and poetry writing through the Missouri Arts Council.
Loeb retired as chairman of the May Department Stores Co. in 2001. He joined the company’s Famous-Barr division in 1964 and held several positions at the corporate office and at Hecht’s, the department store division based in Washington, D.C.
In 1981, he was named executive vice president and chief financial officer for the company, elected to the board of directors in 1984, promoted to president in 1993 and named chairman in 1998.
He co-authored Why Can’t We Get Anything Done Around Here? and is an adjunct professor of marketing in the Olin School of Business.
Silvers, whose parents were both University alumni, majored in education and psychology and became a special-education teacher before moving to Columbia, Mo.
After earning a master’s degree in special education at the University of Missouri, she taught for five years in the university’s special education department.
Her volunteer work includes a three-year term as national chair of Washington University’s Alumni and Parents Admission Program (APAP), considered one of the University’s highest priorities.
She and her husband, Robert, A.B. ’66, neurology residency ’74, endowed the first APAP scholarship in memory of her parents.
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