Several IU alumni honored with Distinguished Alumni Service Award

The IU Alumni Association will present five individuals with its Distinguished Alumni Service Award Sunday. The award has been presented annually since 1953. \nThe award recognizes recipients' achievement in their chosen field of intellectual endeavor or career pursuit, as well as contributions to their community or nation, said Max Skirvin, special assistant to the president of the IUAA. \nThis year's honorees are John F. "Jack" Kimberling of Palm Springs, Ca.; Michael S. "Mickey" Maurer of Carmel; Isiah Thomas of Indianapolis; Andrea O. Veneracion of Cuba, Quezon City, the Phillipines; and Dr. Joseph E. Walther of Indianapolis.\nKimberling, a 1950 graduate of the IU School of Law, specializes in litigation representing multinational clients on the West Coast. He has actively served the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, leading that organization as president, and was also appointed to the Mayor's Executive Advisory Committee on Human Relations. \nHis tradition of service continues with and extends to the IU campus as well. Co-chair of the School of Law's capital campaign, he was inducted into the Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1990 and served as a visiting law professor in 1993. He has also served as national co-chair for the IU Bloomington Endowment Campaign as part of the IU Foundation Board of Directors. The campaign raised over $504 million, said Foundation president Curt Simic.\nMaurer, also an alumnus of the School of Law, pioneered the development and implementation of cable television systems in the early 1970s. He focuses his practice on the communication and entertainment industries and is active in Goodwill of Central Indiana, the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, the Indianapolis Zoo, the Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis and the United Way of Central Indiana.\nMaurer also served as national chairman for the IU School of Law's capital campaign and is a member of the school's Board of Visitors. He was presented an honorary degree from the University of Indianapolis in 1995 and IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis awarded him the Spirit of Philanthropy Award in 1996. \nBasketball hall-of-famer Isiah Thomas led IU to a national championship in 1981 and left the university shortly thereafter to assume a position with the NBA's Detroit Pistons. He completed degree requirements for a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice in 1987 and retired from professional basketball in 1994.\nSince then, Thomas assumed ownership of the Toronto Raptors, making him the first African American to own an NBA team. From 1997 to 2000, he held the position of color commentator for NBC's NBA coverage. \nThomas now coaches the Indiana Pacers. He was named one of Fortune magazine's top 500 African-American businessmen this year and is currently serving as the 2000-01 national chair of the IU Foundation's annual fund campaign.\nVeneracion received a master of music degree in vocal performance from IU in 1962 and is currently a professor at the University of the Phillipines, where she established a madrigal singers group inspired by IU's Madrigal Singers. Today the group exists as the resident choral ensemble of the Cultural Center of the Phillipines and received the National Artist Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Phillipine government in artistic and cultural disciplines.\nWalther began his medical career as a gastroenterologist in Indianapolis following his service in the World War II, for which he earned the Silver and Bronze Star awards and the Air Medal for his work in combat. He served from 1948 to 1993 as a clinical professor in the IU School of Medicine and founded the Winona Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis in 1956, which he sold in 1985 to establish the Walther Cancer Institute.\nHe received an honorary degree from IU in 1997, as well as the IU School of Medicine's Distinguished Alumnus of the Year award. \nThe recognition luncheon will commence at noon Sunday in Alumni Hall of the Indiana Memorial Union, said Jerry Tardy, president and CEO of the IU Alumni Association.