IU honors 6 Hoosiers with Wells Visionaries Award

The IU Foundation honored six Indiana legends with the Herman B Wells Visionaries Award Friday.\nIn the spirit of the former president who led IU for 63 years, this award is given to Hoosiers whose vision and entrepreneurial spirit have not only had success in their own lives, but shared their success with others.\nThis year's recipients include:\n• Irvin M. Borish, an optometry practitioner, teacher and researcher, was voted "Optometrist of the Century" by the readers of Review of Optometry. He served on a committee which persuaded the state government to establish IU's School of Optometry and served as a professor there from 1973 to 1982. In 1994, the Center for Ophthalmic Clinical Research was named after him. \n• Edward L. Hutton, of Cinncinnati, Ohio, is the chairman of Chemed Corp. in Cincinnati and chairman of Omnicare Inc. Hutton, who grew up in Bedford, Ind., earned his bachelor's and master's degree from IU. After serving in the Army, Hutton became president, chief executive officer, and eventually chairman of Chemed and Omnicare, which is the leading firm in the United States supplying pharmaceuticals to patients of nursing homes.\n• Eli Lilly of Indianapolis receives this award posthumously for his pioneering of the pharmaceutical industry. Born in 1885, Lilly founded the pharmaceutical firm bearing his name and was instrumental in the creation of such medicines as Insulin for Diabetes, antibiotics and Jonas Salk's vaccine for Polio. Years later at his death in 1977, his company also developed the antidepressant Prozac, gaining billions for their company. Lilly, as a philanthropist, founded Connor Prairie in Indianapolis and helped support the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Indiana Historical Society and the Indianapolis Children's Museum. \n• J. Irwin Miller is the honorary chairman of Cummins Inc. in Columbus, Ind., the world's largest manufacturer of heavy-duty diesel engines. Started as a family business of only 40 employees, his investment blossomed into a Fortune 500 company with annual sales of over $6 billion. In addition, he was a leader in social reform. He helped organize Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 civil rights march on Washington. He even shut down a factory of his in South Africa to protest apartheid. In 1967, Esquire magazine ran his face on the cover and said, "This man ought to be the next president of the United States."\n• William S. Shields, retired chairman of Wells Companies, which make aluminum, electronics, metal tooling and plastic blast materials, grew his businesses by studying and anticipating customer needs in the market. He is a recipient of IU South Bend's E.M. Morris Achievement Award. His wife Kathryn was also a recipient of the Wells Visionaries Award. \n• Kathryn L. Shields, a former educator, is very involved in hospice and has been active in medical problems such as shortage of nurses. To address these problems, she helped found scholarships in nursing and technology.