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On Friday evening, four UD alumni received the highest honor a UD alumnus can receive at an invitation-only reception and dinner in KU Ballroom.

The 2009 Alumni Awards, the only awards given by the university's alumni association, were awarded to Col. Gordon Roberts ('74), Tim Harris ('79), Tom Dharte ('05) and Wayne Lancaster ('69). They were recognized in honor of how their post-graduation achievements continue to reflect and embody the university's motto: "to learn, lead, and serve."

Roberts received the highest honor of all, the Distinguished Alumnus Award. He received his undergraduate degree in sociology while at UD. Before coming to UD, Roberts served four years in the Vietnam War, an experience in which he later received a Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor. He remains the only Medal of Honor recipient still serving on active duty today.

Following graduation, Roberts worked for 18 years in various U.S. social service sectors. Since then, he has returned to his work in the military making tours to Haiti, Korea, Iraq and Kuwait. Today, he works as the commander of the medical center brigade of Walker Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. While he was unable to attend Friday's ceremony, the award meant a lot to him.

"I was simply amazed to receive this award," he said. "All I have ever wanted to do is serve my country and to do it well. Hopefully that alone pays back the tremendous investment that UD has made in me and this award lets me know it does."

Receiving the Christian Service Award, Tim Harris represents a non-traditional path to UD alumnus status. Before coming to UD as an engineering major in 1977, Harris attended his first three years of undergraduate study at Wilberforce University in Ohio. This two-part education came about because of a partnership between the two schools. The goal of the program was to give minority students aspiring to become engineers the opportunity to do so by first earning a solid base of math and science education at Wilberforce. Harris is appreciative of the opportunity the partnership between Wilberforce and UD gave him to become a chemical engineer.

"UD opened up a door that was closed to people like me," he said. "If UD didn't pull students through, I would not even know what an engineer was."

Today Harris is the founder and pastor of Turning Point Family Worship Center in Indianapolis and is also the president of his Indianapolis based, chemical distribution company Harris & Ford. He believes his two vocations intersect because God has allowed his business to be successful so that he can use those resources for his ministry purposes. Harris also co-founded TM Youth Camp in Zanesville, Ohio and the TM Youth Development Foundation.

As the youngest alumni recipient, Tom Dharte received the Joe Belle Memorial Award. Having recently graduated in 2005 with degrees in accounting and finance, Dharte continues to help current UD students in their career pursuits.

He has worked closely with various UD alumni groups to launch the Select Internship Program to place UD students in elite business internships around the country. Additionally, as an employee at investment management company Blackrock, Dharte has instigated the recruitment of top UD business school students.

At the award ceremony, Dharte attributed his desire to help current students to his own experience of having been aided by UD alumni all throughout his journey to and from UD.

"Alumni shaped my experience here and played a special role for me," he said. "I feel it's a calling to give back to students now that I'm an alum. I'm giving back the same support that I received."

The fourth award, the Special Achievement Award, went to Wayne Lancaster. He works as a professor in the Wayne State University School of Medicine's Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics in Detroit, Mich. Lancaster received his master's degree in biology from UD in 1969, and since then has done much research centering on the relationship between HPV and cervical cancer. His research has led him to hold seven U.S. and international patents among a gamut of other accomplishments

Lancaster believes the best thing he received from his UD education was his professors instilling a sense of curiosity in him. He attributes his doctorate degree, along with his other career successes, to these experiences in his UD graduate studies. His best advice to current students is to recognize fully all that their professors have to offer.

"Engage your professors as much as possible and seek out questions," Lancaster said. "I believe in undergraduate studies, you get as much out of it as you put into it."

For more information on these awards and how to receive them in the future, check out their descriptions at http://alumni.udayton.edu/Page.aspx?pid=183.