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News Release

Last modified: Thursday, April 30, 2009

Five to receive IU's highest alumni award

Honorees to be recognized at Cream and Crimson Weekend June 19-21

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 30, 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Five Indiana University alumni have been named as recipients of the 2009 Distinguished Alumni Service Award.

The award is the university's highest honor reserved solely for IU alumni and provides recognition for outstanding career achievements and significant contributions benefiting the recipient's community, state and nation, or IU.

This year's recipients will be Birch E. Bayh Jr. of Easton, Md.; William F. Carroll Jr., Dallas; David G. Elmore, Manhattan Beach, Calif.; Kathleen Ligocki, West Bloomfield, Mich.; and Lynn E. Gassoway-Reichle, Valparaiso, Ind. With the addition of these recipients, IU will have honored 299 alumni since the award's inception in 1953.

The honorees will receive the award in Bloomington during IU's annual Cream and Crimson Alumni Weekend, June 19-21. The award recognition dinner will take place on June 20 at 6 p.m. in Alumni Hall of the Indiana Memorial Union, 900 E. Seventh St. Tickets to the dinner cost $25.

Following are individual bios of each award recipient:

Birch E. Bayh Jr., J.D. '60, L.L.D. '95

Bayh represented Indiana in the U.S. Senate from January 1963 to January 1981. As a senator, he proposed what became the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, defining the presidential succession process, and he spearheaded the 26th Amendment, which lowered the minimum voting age to 18. Bayh was a backer of Title IX, which created a level playing field for girls and women in academics and athletics in the nation's schools. Since leaving the Senate, he has practiced law, worked to improve the U.S. electoral system and advised government officials.

William F. Carroll Jr., Ph.D. '78

Carroll, a distinguished chemist, is vice president for chlorovinyl issues for Occidental Chemical Corp. and a leader within the Chlorine Chemistry Council and Vinyl Institute. A supporter of environmental protection and sustainable development, he has promoted applying rigorous green chemistry principles to the challenges of world hunger, energy supply and waste management. Carroll has served as president of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest single-discipline scientific society. He is an adjunct professor at IU, teaching a course in polymer chemistry to senior undergraduates and graduate students.

David G. Elmore, B.S. '55, J.D. '58

Through mergers and acquisitions in travel, hotels, real estate, life insurance, and management of sports, facilities and special events, Elmore created Elmore Sports Group, a successful conglomerate. Prior to that venture, he worked at a law firm and was president of a life insurance company. Elmore and his son fund scholarships for the Elmore Entrepreneurship Law Clinic, a joint venture between the IU Maurer School of Law, which has inducted him into its Academy of Law Alumni Fellows, and the IU Kelley School of Business, which presented him its Distinguished Entrepreneur Award.

Kathleen Ligocki, B.A. '78, L.H.D. '02

Ligocki is CEO of GS Motors, based in Mexico. She has worked in the automotive industry for three decades, starting as a foreman at a Kokomo, Ind., plant. Ligocki has held executive positions at United Technologies Automotive, Ford Motor Co., and Tower Automotive. She is a founding member of the Women's Leadership Forum and a director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico. Ligocki serves as a mentor in the Innovation Symposium, a course for outstanding students at IU Kokomo.

Lynn E. Gassoway-Reichle, D.D.S. '74

A state leader in dentistry and health care, Gassoway-Reichle has been a dentist in private practice in Gary, Ind., since 1974. She has mobilized dentists around northwest Indiana to support the dental clinic and dental programs at IU Northwest. Gassoway-Reichle was the first woman to be named a member of the IU Northwest Chancellor's Society, and she has helped campus leaders think through issues with respect to the dental hygiene and dental assisting programs. She also serves as a member of the Advisory Council of the IU School of Medicine-Northwest.

The IU Alumni Association is dedicated to serving the university and its diverse alumni, students and friends. As one of the nation's largest alumni organizations, serving nearly 520,000 graduates worldwide, the IUAA provides many programs and services to its members, non-member alumni, and the university. For more information on the IU Alumni Association, visit www.alumni.indiana.edu or call 800-824-3044. For more information on IU's Cream and Crimson Alumni Weekend, go to www.alumni.indiana.edu/events/creamandcrimson/.

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