Arts & Sciences will recognize the achievements of its alumni and special friends at 4 p.m. May 19 in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall.
Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of Arts & Sciences, will present Distinguished Alumni Awards to six alumni who have attained distinction in their academic or professional careers and have demonstrated service to their communities and to the University. The Dean's Medal will be awarded to Richard A. Roloff, executive vice chancellor, for his support and dedication to Arts & Sciences.
The six alumni being honored are Ted Drewes, A.B. '50; Carol Tucker Foreman, A.B. '60; John L. Gianoulakis, A.B. '60; Winifred Bryan Horner, A.B. '43; Jeffrey Hunt Mantel, A.B. '70; and Elizabeth Gentry Sayad, A.B. '55 and a master of liberal arts candidate in Arts & Sciences' University College.
Drewes owns the beloved local business Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, which was founded by his father in 1929. Since then, patrons have been lining up at the two Ted Drewes stands -- one on Chippewa Avenue and the other on South Grand Boulevard.
An avid advertiser for his products, he seldom discloses his own philanthropy. He donates frozen custard to local fund-raisers and to Boys Hope, and actively supports Shriners' causes and children's hospitals. Among the college students who work for him, he is well known for his generosity, offering $3,000-a-year scholarships to encourage his employees to stay in school.
An economics major in Arts & Sciences, Drewes is a strong supporter of the University as a member of the William Greenleaf Eliot Society and occasional grand marshal of the Homecoming parade.
Foreman, a legend in American agricultural circles, has an international reputation as a consumer advocate and food policy expert. For more than 25 years, she has worked at the highest levels of government and advocacy organizations to ensure that Americans have an adequate supply of safe, nutritious and affordable food.
Among her many achievements, while assistant secretary of agriculture in President Carter's administration, she won thorny political battles, including broadening food stamp coverage for the poor and developing landmark "Dietary Guidelines for Americans." Foreman became a distinguished fellow and director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America in 1999.
A political science major, she has been active in alumni affairs, served on the University's Board of Trustees for 10 years and received the University's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1978.
Gianoulakis, a founding partner in the St. Louis law firm of Kohn, Shands, Elbert, Gianoulakis & Giljum LLP, is a highly respected trial lawyer and a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, an invitation-only organization comprising 1 percent of the nation's attorneys.
His practice has consisted primarily of civil trial work: representation of public school districts, defense of employment discrimination cases and business litigation. From 1983 to 1999 he served as negotiator, then lead attorney for St. Louis County school districts in the interdistrict desegregation case, the largest voluntary interdistrict transfer case of its kind in the country.
Gianoulakis, a political science major in Arts & Sciences and a 1963 Harvard Law School graduate, is a strong supporter of the University. Among his activities, he serves on Campaign, Scholarship, and Capital Resources committees for Arts & Sciences and sponsors a student scholarship.
Horner has been described as a "heroine in rhetoric and composition." Before her second retirement in 1996, she had a distinguished career at two universities as master teacher, expert on 18th- and 19th-century Scottish rhetoric and author of 13 books and many articles. Among the 15 awards she has received is Rhetorician of the Year in 1997 from the Young Rhetoricians' Society.
She received a master's in English literature from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1961, then began climbing the academic ladder there. At age 50, she began doctoral studies at the University of Michigan, receiving a Ph.D. in 1975. In 1985, after retiring from the University of Missouri as a full professor, she accepted the Radford Chair of Rhetoric and Composition at Texas Christian University, where she later became the Cecil and Ida P. Green Distinguished Emerita Professor.
Horner is a member of the Eliot Society and a Century Club supporter.
Mantel has been a successful senior executive with expertise in global business management, product development, systems design, derivatives trading and risk management for several international firms: The Mocatta Group; Philbro/Salomon; Mase Westpac; Deutsche Bank; FNX Ltd.; MKI Risk Inc.; and Infinity Financial Technology. Last year Mantel became vice president of product management for Buckaroo.com, a California-based Internet start-up company building an electronic exchange for trading manufactured commodities.
A mathematics major as an undergraduate, he earned a doctorate in mathematics at Northwestern University. After college, he played semi-professional soccer for three teams and worked as a professional soccer referee full time before taking a job as a commodity derivatives trader on Wall Street.
A member of the Eliot Society, he has endowed an Arts & Sciences scholarship in mathematics.
Sayad, a musician by training, is a devoted civic leader and volunteer with a special focus on the arts. She has led the arts community in various roles: founding president of the New Music Circle, charter member of the Missouri Arts Council and the Regional Arts Commission and advisory commissioner of the Saint Louis Art Museum.
Opening-night celebrations are her forte, chairing or co-chairing festivities for the Loretto Hilton Repertory Theatre, Powell Symphony Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., among others. She will chair the 2004 Bicentennial Ball for the Louisiana Purchase. In 1991 she published "A Scarlet Thread: Collected Writings on Culture and the Arts."
An Eliot Society member, Sayad has supported Arts & Sciences as two-time president of the Century Club, member and host of both the Friends of Music and the Nemerov Poetry Reading.
In recent years the University has been transformed by the construction and renovation of many buildings. All these projects fall under the purview of Roloff, a 1951 graduate with a degree in industrial engineering.
Roloff has been invaluable to Arts & Sciences in planning for space in which to conduct its activities. He has guided the construction of McDonnell Hall, the Psychology Building and new student dormitories; the complete renovation of Duncker, Brookings and Eads Halls, as well as the updating of many other buildings; and the groundbreaking for the new Laboratory Science Building. He also has been instrumental in planning for important future needs.
His responsibilities extend beyond facilities. Quietly and meticulously, he oversees the entire administrative functioning of the University, from lawn maintenance and trash pickup to investment and finance -- everything needed to support academic life.
Before joining the University's administration in 1991, Roloff was a Board of Trustees member.
