Dean Stuart I. Greenbaum, Ph.D., announced that the honorees are alumni Joseph Michael Blomker, Harold A. Brinner, Harvey M. Brown and Raymond W. Harmon.

Two families -- the Skandalaris family and the Stern family -- will receive the Dean's Medal, awarded for exceptional dedication and service to the school.

Through a generous gift, Robert and Julie Skandalaris helped establish the Skandalaris Program in Entrepreneurial Studies at the Olin School in 2001. The program offers a suite of courses in entrepreneurship and expands on the work of the business school's Center for Experiential Learning.

Robert Skandalaris is chairman and chief executive officer of Noble International Ltd., a holding company in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. He serves on the school's National Council.

The Skandalarises also are active supporters of the University as members of the William Greenleaf Eliot Society at the Danforth Circle level, the Detroit Regional Cabinet and Campaign Committee, and the Alumni and Parents Admission Program. They also serve as the 2001-02 co-chairs of the University's Parents Council.

Max S. and Deborah Stern own Moss & Associates Inc., a wholesale and retail furniture business in Dearborn, Mich., that employs 42 people. They have co-chaired the University's Parents Council and are members of the Parents Campaign Committee, the Detroit Regional Cabinet and the Alumni and Parents Admission Program. They also support Olin's Scholars in Business Program and St. Louis Hillel.

The Stern Global Investment Fund allows Olin students to gain hands-on investment experience by managing the first nonequity fund in the business school's investment praxis course.

Joseph Michael Blomker, who earned a degree in the Olin School's executive master of business administration program in 1990, is co-founder of Maryville Technologies, a leading engineering and systems integration firm.

Founded in 1994, the company grew at an annualized 100 percent rate in its first six years of operation and has ranked third in the Deloitte & Touche Regional Fast 50 Program for the past two years. The firm now has 150 employees in nine locations.

Blomker is a member of the Olin School's National Council. He is a 1999 regional winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Harold A. Brinner, who served as vice chairman, chief financial and administrative officer at Mallinckrodt Inc., earned a bachelor of science in business administration from the Olin School in 1938. During his 25-year career with Mallinckrodt, he saw the company evolve into one of the country's major chemical and pharmaceutical corporations before retiring in 1980.

Brinner joined the company in 1954 as assistant controller. Three years later, he was promoted to treasurer and CFO, then to vice president in 1961, and soon was elected to Mallinckrodt's board. By 1971, Brinner was appointed vice chairman and CFO, with six vice presidents and purchasing reporting to him.

He began his professional career at Price Waterhouse and served 16 years with the firm, taking off one year to serve as an ensign in the Navy.

Harvey M. Brown, partner and founder of Rubin Brown Gornstein & Co., earned a bachelor of science in business administration from the business school in 1948. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the major certified public accounting firm started with just Brown and his two partners. It is now the fifth-largest one-office CPA firm in the United States and the largest in Missouri, employing 250 people.

Brown says the Olin School and the friendships he made there have impacted his entire life. He met one of his partners while the two were fraternity brothers at the University.

Raymond W. Harmon, co-founder and chairman of Growing Family Inc./First Foto (formerly HASCO International), earned a bachelor of science in business administration from the Olin School in 1948. His firm is the world leader in newborn infant photography.

Harmon began his career in 1955 when he bought the Identi-Foto franchise in Washington, D.C., promoting infant photography to area hospitals. He and his wife, Grace, soon built the business into a nationwide success.

First Foto was born in 1965, uniting the firm's eastern operations with Chicago and St. Louis franchises. In 1977, the company headquarters was moved from Virginia to St. Charles, Mo.

The business merged with California-based Photo Engineering Corp. in 1981, renaming it HASCO International. Growing Family/First Foto now has 80 percent of the U.S. market, serving more than 2,600 hospitals and employing more than 1,600 people.