The University of Kansas
An Official Employee Publication From the Office of University Relations
KU to award highest honors for service
Two alumni and one honorary alumnus who have become leaders in their professions and communities will receive the Distinguished Service Citation during commencement weekend at the University of Kansas. The citation is the highest honor given by the University of Kansas and the Kansas Alumni Association. Since 1941, it has been presented to men and women whose lives and careers have helped benefit humanity.
This year’s honorees are Richard Bond, Overland Park, who received a bachelor’s degree in political science from KU in 1957 and a law degree from KU in 1960; Henry Bloch of Kansas City, Mo.; and Walter Garrison, Rose Tree, Pa., who received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering from KU in 1948 and 1950.
They will be honored at the All-University Supper May 18 at the Adams Alumni Center along with the recipients of the university’s distinguished teaching awards.
The price for dinner is $35 per person. To make reservations, please contact Kay Henry of the Alumni Association by May 15 at 864-4760.
Richard Bond
Bond has made service to the state of Kansas a career. In addition to more than 15 years as a state senator, including a four-year term as Senate president, he has devoted many years to the greater Kansas City community. Bond has served on advisory and governing boards for KCPT, Kansas City’s public television station; Youth Friends for Greater Kansas City; the Shawnee Mission Medical Center; Johnson County Community College Foundation, and the YMCA. For the university, he co-chaired the KU Medical Center Research Gala and has led KU School of Law alumni as president and Jayhawks for Higher Education as co-chair. His leadership has been recognized by numerous organizations — most recently Governing Magazine, which named him a 2000 Legislator of the Year in the Nation. He also has received the Kansas City Spirit Award and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the KU School of Law.
Henry Bloch
Bloch served valiantly in World War II, earning a United States Air Medal with three oak-leaf clusters. He went on to become a visionary business leader, adding tax services to the bookkeeping he provided for customers at H&R Block Inc. Since the mid-1950s, his small Kansas City accounting firm has burgeoned into one of the largest income tax services in the nation. Bloch’s reputation as a businessman takes secondary status to his prominence as a local philanthropist. The Greater Kansas City Council on Corporate Philanthropy named him its Philanthropist of the Year, and he also has received the city’s Spirit Award and the coveted title of “Mr. Kansas City.” Bloch has served numerous community organizations as a board member, including St. Luke’s Hospital, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Greater Kansas City Foundation, as well as his own family and corporate foundations.
Walter Garrison
Garrison has long understood the need for higher learning among the work force of the future. To meet this need, more than 40 years ago he founded the Pennsylvania Institute of Technology, a leading two-year technical college that maintains a job placement rate of more than 92 percent. Garrison is chief executive officer of CDI Corporation, which employs more than 14,000 engineers, CAD designers, systems analysts and programmers to provide engineering, technical and information services to its customers nationwide. His work at CDI has included the development of a 2,000-plus member design and consulting staff serving the petrochemical industry. His involvement with KU includes annual fund drives for the Department of Aerospace Engineering and a challenge grant to fund the aerospace design laboratory. He has received the School of Engineering Distinguished Engineering Service award and is a member of its alumni honor roll.