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Home Distinguished Alumni Awards Distinguished Alumni Awards Nomination Information

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARDS NOMINATION INFORMATION

Recognizing Our Alumni Successes

The University of Iowa Distinguished Alumni Awards Committee—which includes members of our Alumni Leadership Council—aims to recognize a broad range of qualified candidates who embody the university’s core values by honoring them with Distinguished Alumni Awards. The committee selects an annual recipient in each of the following categories:

  • The Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award recognizes graduates or former students who demonstrate significant accomplishments in their business or professional lives as well as distinguished service to their university, community, state, or nation.
  • The Distinguished Alumni Service Award recognizes graduates or former students who demonstrate specific and meritorious service to their university, community, state, or nation.
  • The Distinguished Alumni Hickerson Recognition Award recognizes graduates or former students for outstanding contributions to their alma mater. This award is named in honor of the late Loren Hickerson (40BA), the university’s first full-time alumni director and an ardent UI champion.
  • The Distinguished Recent Graduate Award recognizes graduates or former students, age 40 or younger at their time of nomination, for significant accomplishments in their business or professional lives as well as for distinguished service to their university, community, state, or nation.
  • The Distinguished Friend of the University Award recognizes individuals who are not alumni for specific and meritorious service that enhances and advances the university.
  • The Distinguished Faculty Award recognizes retired or former faculty for significant achievements and for specific meritorious service that enhances and advances the university. Nominees need not be alumni.
  • The Distinguished “Forevermore” Staff Award recognizes retired or former staff for significant achievements and for specific meritorious service that enhances and advances the university. Nominees need not be alumni.

NOMINATION FORMAT

Graduates, former students, faculty, staff, and friends of the University of Iowa may make nominations (the Distinguished Alumni Awards Committee reserves the right to reassign nomination categories, if deemed applicable). Nominators should submit the following:

  • Cover letter that states the nomination category, endorses the candidate’s qualifications, and highlights how the nominee embodies the UI's core values
  • Nominee's vita or professional résumé, including a current address
  • Three or more letters of recommendation from other individuals who support the nomination
  • Any additional information that would further substantiate the nomination

EXCLUSION FROM ELIGIBILITY

Current members of the University of Iowa Center for Advancement’s board of directors and staff, members of the Alumni Leadership Council, and current full‑time university faculty and staff are not eligible to receive these awards. Individuals currently in a position of elected or appointed office or known to be launching a campaign are also not eligible to receive these awards. All nominees must be living at the time of nomination and cannot have received a University of Iowa Distinguished Alumni Award in the same category in the past. Nominations by active Awards Committee members will not be reviewed until the member’s term has concluded on the committee. The Awards Committee reserves the right to consider and approve exceptions to the exclusions from eligibility.

AWARDS TIMELINE

Nominations for the 2025 awards will open in May 2024 and close on January 31, 2025. The Distinguished Alumni Awards Committee will meet in April 2025 to review all nominations and make the annual selections. Distinguished Alumni Awards will be presented at a special ceremony on the Friday before the University of Iowa's Homecoming (October 2025).

MAIL NOMINATIONS TO:

The University of Iowa Center for Advancement
Distinguished Alumni Awards
One West Park Road
Iowa City, Iowa 52244

For more information, email Nici Bontrager or call 319-467-3607.

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Stephen King Collectibles for a Cause

Personal losses drive a former UI professor to auction items to benefit pediatric cancer research. While sifting through boxes in the office of his Santa Fe, New Mexico, home last October, David Morrell rediscovered an array of valuable books and manuscripts that had first arrived on his doorstep, one by one, more than 35 years ago. The former UI English professor shared the forgotten items with a rare books collector who considered several to be "some of the most expensive pieces of paper from the late 20th century." These mementos include early typescripts, limited edition books, and uncorrected proofs signed by Morrell's close friend and one of America's most prolific writers: Stephen King. Though the personal items brought back fond memories, Morrell knew letting them go could have the power to change the lives of kids with cancer. His rare Stephen King collection is being auctioned online with closing dates spread over the next few months. All proceeds will benefit the Matthew Morrell and Natalie Sanchez Pediatric Research Cancer Fund at the University of Iowa. The fund helps a team of researchers at UI Stead Family Children's Hospital, led by medical oncologist and assistant pediatrics professor David Gordon, improve treatments and cures for patients with Ewing sarcoma and the Ewing sarcoma family of tumors. Morrell lost his son, Matthew, at age 15 in 1987 and one of his granddaughters, Natalie, at age 14 in 2009 to complications stemming from Ewing sarcoma, a rare bone disease that afflicts around 200 children in the U.S. each year. "No child should die from cancer," says Gordon. "At the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, our work is focused on identifying innovative treatments for children's cancer while causing less toxicity to patients." Morrell's connection to King began during Morrell's Iowa days after he wrote his critically acclaimed debut novel, First Blood, that introduced the world to action hero John Rambo. King chose the book for a creative writing class he taught in 1979 at the University of Maine and met Morrell's publisher at a 1980 Literary Guild cocktail party, where King agreed to provide an endorsement for the back of Morrell's 1979 novel, The Totem. Soon, a budding friendship between the writers began. The two authors shared their latest projects with one another, sending notes and typescript copies by mail. In 1981, Morrell spent a week at King's Bangor, Maine, home and gave a lecture at the University of Maine. The "King of Horror" returned the favor, visiting Morrell in Iowa City and speaking at the UI. The two took a road trip in 1983 from Rhode Island to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Over the years, Morrell amassed typescript copies for stories such as Misery, It, and The Dark Half, along with numerous published books containing personal inscriptions. King signed the title pages of the typescripts to authenticate each item for the auction, and, in February, Morrell started shipping the items to Gerald Winters, a rare books collector in Maine who is coordinating the auction. In addition to the auction items, Morrell is offering signed first editions of Fireflies: A Father's Tale of Love and Loss?his 1988 memoir about his experience in the cancer ward with his son?to anyone who donates to the Matthew Morrell and Natalie Sanchez Pediatric Research Cancer Fund. "This is a real literary adventure," says Morrell about the future of the King manuscripts. "I hope that some institution will step up and buy these, so they can be studied at a university. That's my wish?from the professor in me."

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