Eminent Colonels

Each year the Alumni Association presents the Distinguished Alumnus/a Award for outstanding service to Centre, professional accomplishments, or civic achievements. The Young Alumnus/a Award honors alumni who have graduated within the last 15 years. And although induction into the Athletic Hall of Fame is not a prerequisite, all of this year’s honorees, as it happens, are also in the Hall of Fame.
As it does from time to time, the Alumni Association additionally presented an Honorary Alumnus Award, given to an exceptional member of the Centre community who did not attend Centre.

Distinguished Alumnus Award

James I. Huddleston ’57

Hometown: Harrodsburg, Ky.

Now lives in: Naples, Fla.

Family: Wife Dottie, children James W., Lucile, James I., Pemberton, and Victoria

Education: Biology major; M.D., University of Louisville

Occupation: Orthopedic surgeon (retired)

Honors: Paul Harris Fellowship from Rotary International

Athletic Hall of Fame: 2005 as part of the 1955 football team

Growing up just two houses away from his physician grand-father in Harrodsburg, Ky., inspired Jim Huddleston ’57 in his choice of profession. (His choice of college certainly came in part from his parents—both Centre alums—J. Irvin Huddleston ’32 and Margaret Gabhart Huddleston ’35.) At Centre he learned not only science, but also history, humanities, English, religion, and philosophy, “the liberal arts, for which Centre is widely known,” he says. “These are what enrich one’s life.”

After orthopedic training at Harvard, he remained as an instructor in orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General for nine years, then moved to Naples, Fla., where he was in private practice for 22 years more. For six years before retiring in 2000, he also spent a month or two every year in Kenya, East Africa, working at the Kikuyu Orthopedic Rehabilitation Hospital, a Presbyterian mission hospital, with his beloved wife, Dottie, a nurse, and occasionally his orthopedic surgeon son as well. The hospital is the only one of its kind between Cairo and Cape Town, South Africa, he says, calling his time in Kenya his “most satisfying professional experience.”

Distinguished Alumnus Award

Hal Smith ’64

Hometown: Southgate, Ky.

Now lives in: Pikeville, Ky.

Family: Wife Karen Willis Smith ’66, children Andy Smith ’99, Amy Smith, and Anne-Cameron Smith Morrow

Education: Business administration major; M.B.A., American University

Occupation: President, Pikeville College

Athletic Hall of Fame: 1994

Hal Smith ’64 came to Centre to play basketball, but left with a deep appreciation for the liberal arts and the broad-based foundation it provides for whatever one ends up doing.

He didn’t venture far after graduation—at least not for the first 18 years. He joined the Centre admission staff, worked his way up to dean of admissions, and eventually became vice president and dean of students. After 16 years in development at Muskingum College in Ohio, he returned to Kentucky in 1997 as president of Pikeville College, a small Presbyterian school in the heart of Appalachia.

Along the way he acquired an essential member of his team, wife Karen Willis Smith ’66, who served as associate dean of students at Centre and later as dean of students at Muskingum.

“The liberal arts are kind of a pyramid,” he says, citing a lesson he first heard as a high school student considering Centre from John Frazer ’51. “He talked about . . . building that foundation, about the role of athletics and other extracurricular activities, the importance of . . . developing the whole person: the body, mind, and spirit. And about the importance of service, [of] serving a higher purpose.

“I listened, and I believed it,” Smith says, “and I’ve actually tried to live it. It made sense to me. It did then, and it still does today.”

Distinguished Alumna Award

Valarie Ziegler ’76

Hometown: Alexandria, Ky.

Now lives in: Greencastle, Ind.

Family: Husband Bill Nunn ’76

Education: History/religion major; M.Div., Yale Divinity School; Ph.D., Emory University

Occupation: Professor of Religious Studies, DePauw University

Athletic Hall of Fame: 2000

In third grade she was writing “Guide to Our Solar System.” As a first-year in college she was discussing Descartes at breakfast and thinking it “cool.” Now Valarie Ziegler ’76 is living the life she has always wanted: teaching at a small liberal arts college.

“There are lots of people who could imagine many careers,” she says, “but I’m not one of them. I love academics, and I always have.”

At Centre she studied religion and history, but she also learned a lot about feminism and social ethics. “I got plenty of practice in advocating for equal rights through participating in women’s athletics,” she says, recalling as just one example of inequality the night the two basketball teams ate dinner together in Cowan before early evening games. The men had steak; the women made do with chili-Frito casserole.

With three books to her credit—including The Advocates of Peace in Antebellum America (1992) and Diva Julia: The Public Romance and Private Agony of Julia Ward Howe (2003), the latter of which won the Trinity Prize—she has the research part of academe well in hand.

But she also enjoys the teaching and interacting with students, a lesson she says she learned from her Centre professors.

“It was clear that they taught students as well as subject matter, and that has always been my goal as well,” she says.

And then there’s the “zaniness” of academic life.

“It’s fun when faculty and students enjoy and appreciate each other,” she says. As faculty advisor to the DePauw Pep Band (she plays sax and trumpet herself), she spends a lot of time with students outside of class.

And just to make sure they remember where she’s from, she’s taught them the Centre fight song: “Oh for the Gold and White/We’ll ever fight, fight, fight.”

Young Alumna Award

Laura Boswell ’94

Hometown: Bartlett, Tenn.

Now lives in: Arlington, Va.

Education: English/psychobiology major

Occupation: AARP.org editor, freelance writer

Athletic Hall of Fame: 2006

It’s fitting that Laura Boswell ’94 should be the first to receive in the same year Centre’s two major alumni honors, since athletics and her professional life have been so entwined. After Centre she joined USA Today Online—as a sports editor. More recently, she met her XM Radio producer playing outdoor volleyball.

Boswell arrived at Centre planning to play volleyball and become a marine biologist. The first part worked out, and her talents on the volleyball court (and track course) earned her the 1994 NCAA Kentucky Woman of the Year award.

But her love for animals turned out to be better fulfilled by a dachshund named Chester—and the reading public is grateful. Her first big break as a freelancer came when she turned an unsuccessful audition for a reality TV dating show into a hilarious description of the experience for the Washington PostMagazine. It was the first of many for the Post and the moment that she knew writing was for her.

She continues to write regularly and wittily for the Washington Post, USA Today, ESPN, and the Washington Times. Her books include The Quotable Businesswoman (2002) and The Christian Book of Questions: 350 Questions to Explore Your Beliefs and Deepen Your Faith (2003). And thanks to that volleyball game with an XM producer, she now does commentary for the Bob Edwards Show on XM satellite radio.

“What I hope future Centre grads will learn is that your ‘day job’ won’t always necessarily be your life’s work—and that you shouldn’t feel bad if it isn’t,” she says. “Instead I recommend piecing together a life of work, hobbies, family, friends, and volunteering, so that there’s always something new to do and you’re always making new contacts that can lead to that next big opportunity.”

It’s certainly worked for her.

Honorary Alumnus Award

Charles W. Campbell iii

Blazer Professor Emeritus of Economics

Hometown: Huntington, W. Va.

Education: B.A. Marshall University; Ph.D. University of Virginia

Family: daughter Eloise Campbell Longenecker ’96

Charlie Campbell joined the Centre faculty in 1968 and retired 33 years later in 2001 as Blazer Professor Emeritus of Economics.

He reveled in academic life, where his skills as a raconteur ensured rapt audiences in the classroom or out. He did two studies of Centre’s economic impact on Danville and the area, took students to Washington, D.C., and New York City during the winter term, taught students in England several summers in the 1980s through the Southern College University Union, and served as an unofficial mentor to junior faculty members.

His interest in and commitment to his students was legendary, and they returned the favor by presenting him with the student-named Hughes Award for extraordinary teaching in 1989.

“Dad loved nothing more than teaching at Centre,” said his daughter, Eloise Campbell Longenecker ’96, in accepting the award for her father, who could not be present. “He used to tell me that he had the best job in the world. . . . Students used to say that they were majoring in Dr. Campbell, and to look at his always-full classes, that wasn’t hard to believe. He didn’t just stand at a lectern, expounding on economic theory, he engaged his students, he had faith in them, and he saw their potential beyond just their GPA. . . . To be included amongst their ranks in this way would make him prouder than you can imagine.”

To read about the Athletic Hall of Fame inductees, click here.

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