Five Kansans will receive the 2016 Distinguished Alumni awards from the Emporia State University Alumni Association during Homecoming activities in October during the Black and Gold Dinner on Oct. 14, 2016.
The honorees – Dr. Ronald “Ron” H. Fredrickson (BSE 1953 – Social Sciences), Osage City; Shirley Johannsen (BSE 1964 – Elementary Education), Topeka; Herman Jones (BS 1991 – Psychology), Berryton; Mike Law (BSB 1981 – Business Administration), Olathe; and Steve Sauder (BSB 1968 – Business Administration), Emporia – were notified of their selection last week. The sweep by Kansas alumni was unusual, according to Tyler Curtis, executive director of Alumni Relations.
“This year the selection committee met on Kansas Day,” Curtis said. “Kansas turned 155, and five Kansans were selected as our Distinguished Alumni. I thought that was an interesting coincidence, and we are very proud to announce our 2016 Distinguished Alumni recipients.”
The Distinguished Alumni Award is the highest honor granted by the Alumni Association to a degree-bearing alumnus or alumna of the university. Since the program began in 1960, more than 200 alumni have received the award, which recognizes outstanding professional accomplishments of Emporia State’s exceptional graduates.
Candidates are nominated by other alumni as well as current and retired Emporia State faculty and staff. A committee made up of alumni and faculty evaluate nominees and make selections annually. A maximum of five alumni can receive the award in any given year.
Past recipients have included teachers, research scholars, humanitarians, administrators, public servants, doctors, attorneys and leaders in business, industry and the military.
Three of the nominees have a longer-term connection to the university’s home city, having been reared or employed in Emporia.
Dr. Ronald “Ron” H. Fredrickson
Ron Fredrickson of Osage City received a bachelor of science in education in social sciences in 1953. He holds a master of science and a doctoral degree, both in counseling psychology, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
After graduation from Emporia State, Fredrickson served in the U.S. Navy for five years and in the Navy Reserve from 1958 to 1976.
He retired as associate dean/director of the School Consulting and Counseling Psychology program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he had taught from 1963 to 1992. A building bearing his name is located at UM Amherst.
He and his wife, Patricia Keck Fredrickson (BSE 1953 – English), returned in 1992 to the family farm west of Osage City, where they raise Angus cattle.
The couple subsequently associated their operation with Meyer Natural Angus to market choice and prime beef, certified to be free of antibiotics, animal byproducts or implants. They also work with a state forester to maintain a 55-acre tree farm that had belonged to their son, the late pediatrician Dr. Doren D. Fredrickson.
The Fredricksons have won numerous awards from the Osage County Conservation District, the Kansas Bankers Association and Kansas Farm Bureau for their successful land conservation efforts.
In 2014, they received the 2014 Frontier Extension District Appreciation Award, presented annually to residents who have made important contributions to the Extension Service program.
After the death of Dr. Doren Fredrickson, they established a scholarship to be presented annually to an Osage County 4-H member and also donated toward a Doren D. Fredrickson Arena, to be located on the Osage County Fairgrounds. The couple also created a 4-H scholarship in Lyon County in the name of their daughter Anne J. Fredrickson.
The Fredricksons established the Ronald and Patricia Fredrickson Scholarship at Emporia State in 1995. The Dr. Ronald H. and Dr. Patricia A. Fredrickson Career Services Director’s Office was named in their honor as an outgrowth of their support of the Memorial Union renovation.
Fredrickson is a past member of the Emporia State Alumni Board of Directors. As a student, he was involved in numerous campus organizations and activities, including Associated Student Government, Xi Phi (Leadership Honors), Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, Wesley Foundation, Sphinx Club (entertainment), The Bulletin, Emporia State Players and Kappa Delta Pi education fraternity. He was also named to “Who’s Who Among College Students.”
Shirley Johannsen
To State Street Elementary School Principal Sarah Sharp, Shirley A. Johannsen was “The Kid Whisperer.” To the more than 1,000 students who filtered through her classroom over a 50-year career, she was simply “Ms. J.”
Shirley Johannsen, Topeka, graduated from Emporia State with a bachelor of science in elementary education degree in 1964 and began teaching that fall in the State Street Elementary School in Topeka. She retired in 2014 after spending her entire career as teacher and coach at State Street.
That same year, she was inducted into the Kansas Teachers Hall of Fame, saw the State Street School’s new auditorium named in her honor and was recognized formally by a Kansas Senate resolution for her “extraordinary services and rare accomplishment of teaching for 50 years at State Street Elementary School in Topeka.”
The resolution praised Johannsen for supporting “an array of extracurricular activities, from sports and theater to other arts activities, that made a difference for students.”
Johannsen devoted many hours to painting and restoring sections of the school and spent a recent summer repainting the auditorium’s art-deco-style seating by hand, taking care to match the original colors.
Principal Sharp said Johannsen often asked that struggling students be assigned to her class, so she could help them improve, resulting in Sharp’s tagging her with the nickname “The Kid Whisperer.”
Johannsen taught multiple generations of students at the school and became co-workers with a few former students when they too became teachers at State Street.
“What’s more, they very clearly point out that it was her inspiration that guided them to a love of learning and teaching,” a colleague wrote to commemorate Johansen’s retirement.
Johannsen was a member of Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority at Emporia State and received her master’s degree in education in 1972 from Washburn University in Topeka.
Herman E. Jones
Shawnee County Sheriff Herman T. Jones, who received a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1991, began his association with law enforcement as a dispatcher for the campus Police and Safety department. Soon, he became a student night guard and later a campus police officer and supervisor.
He later was an officer with the Emporia Police Department. He served as a trooper and an administrator for the Kansas Highway Patrol for a total of 21 years, with an eight-year stint as an instructor at the University of Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center.
He graduated from the Kansas Highway Patrol Academy, the FBI National Academy in 2012 and the National Sheriff’s Institute in 2014.
The Kansas Sheriff’s Association named Jones 2014 Sheriff of the Year, and was recognized as Law Enforcement Officer of the year in 2012 by the Topeka Downtown Optimists organization.
Jones has been involved in the Black Student Union and is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.
He serves as a commissioner for the Kansas Commission on Police Officers’ Standards and Training and is a Life Member of the Kansas Peace Officers Association.
Jones is a member of the Kansas Sheriffs’ Association, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the FBI National Academy Associates, the Shawnee County Department of Corrections’ Public Relations Board and the Topeka Safe Streets Coalition.
In addition to serving as elder, deacon, and other roles at his church, he is a Big Brother and board member for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Topeka, has been a youth league coach for both baseball and basketball, a Boy Scout leader and executive board member of the Boy Scouts of America Jayhawk Area Council, a member of the Family Service and Guidance Center Board of Directors, the United Way Agency Coordinator and Public Advisory Group, Shawnee Heights High School Booster Club and the Topeka Officials Association.
Mike Law
Emporia native Mike Law began his association with the university as an Emporia High School student keeping statistics for Hornet football games on KVOE radio. In the 1980s, he was the play-by-play announcer for both Hornet football and basketball.
After receiving an associate’s degree in communication in 1979 from Colby Community College, Law returned to Emporia and received a bachelor of science in business administration from Emporia State in 1981.
Law, known professionally as Mike Kennedy, is vice president of programming for Steel City Media Kansas City and program director of Q104 KBEQ. He was host for the station’s Morning Drive program for 14 years before stepping away at the end of 2015.
In that role, Law has evolved into an influential figure in the field of country music. Successful artists and hopefuls alike seek him out to play their recordings.
Law has repeatedly been named one of country music’s top 15 decision-makers by Music Row magazine, best country program director in America by Radio Ink magazine, and is included on the Country Radio Power List.
In 2014 he was honored as a Kansas City Media Legend, awarded annually to one person who has served Kansas City media for 25 years or more.
He has been named one of country music’s Top Country Programmers in America for 14 of the last 16 years, becoming country radio’s most-nominated programmer.
He also has been Billboard magazine’s Program Director of the Year and was named Country Radio’s Large Market Morning Show of the Year in 2010.
Law reached his career goal in 2015 when he was inducted into the radio portion of the Country Music Hall of Fame. He had been inducted into the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2014.
Despite a busy schedule that frequently takes him across the country for music events and to recording sessions where his opinion is sought by headliners in the business, Law has made time to stay closely involved in Emporia State events and activities. He currently serves on the Emporia State Foundation board of directors, the Hornets for Higher Ed, and has served as master of ceremonies for numerous campus events.
He is actively involved in several charities in the Kansas City area. He serves on the board of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and the Country Radio Broadcasters Agenda Committee and actively helps raise funds for causes primarily involving children -- the Fore the Kids Golf Tourney for Children’s Mercy Hospital, the Q-104 Golf Tourney to benefit Children’s Mercy South Hospital, and the Tux & Boots event to benefit Therapeutic Riding Academy for disabled children.
Steve Sauder
Steve Sauder, who graduated in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, owns Emporia’s Radio Stations KVOE/KFFX and also is a founder of ValuNet, the only all-fiber optic broadband network in Emporia. Emporia is one of only two gigabit communities in Kansas.
Years earlier, he had been involved in creating a local telephone company in Emporia, Valu-Line, which later was sold to Birch Telecom.
A former coach for recreation league sports, Sauder now often takes the opportunity to help staff with sports broadcasts and is co-host of a sports talk show.
He also has taken leadership roles in the Emporia community, as president of the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce, the Regional Development Association and other organizations. He said his proudest moment as a civic leader was in 1999 when, as chairman of the United Way campaign, the drive exceeded its $600,000 goal by $18,000. It was the first time the campaign surpassed the $600,000 mark.
Sauder has supported the university in a variety of ways, from serving on boards and councils, to fundraising, to establishing multiple scholarships.
He received the Joe Cannon Service Award given for dedication, service, and commitment to bettering ESU and intercollegiate athletics. in 2014 in recognition of his ongoing efforts on behalf of Emporia State Athletic Department.
He is a member of the Emporia State University Foundation Board of Trustees and is the Champion for Athletics for the Now & Forever Campaign. In 2013, Sauder and his wife Bobbi donated $605,500 to Hornet Athletics as part of the drive.
His memberships on campus boards include the President’s Community Advisory Council, the School of Business Alliance and the Kellogg Society. He is a past member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors.
Sauder has been a strong supporter of Emporia State students and student athletes, with involvement in the Paul Terry Scholarship, the Earl and Stelouise Sauder Athletic Scholarship, the Earl W. Sauder Scholarship and the Earl Sauder Donor Advised fund.