Alumni leaders earn Ellsworth Medallions for exceptional KU loyalty

The Alumni Association will honor three alumni for unique and significant service to the University Friday, Sept. 22 at the Adams Alumni Center. This year's recipients of the Fred Ellsworth Medallion for unique and significant service to KU are Larry Borden, b'62, g'67, Colorado Springs, Colo.; A. Drue Jennings, d'68, l'72, Prairie Village; and Joe Morris, b'61, Leawood.

The Ellsworth Medallion began in 1975 in recognition of the Association's longtime secretary Fred Ellsworth, c'22. Recipients are selected with the help of the Chancellor's office, Kansas Athletics and the KU Endowment Association. In addition to a dinner and ceremony in their honor, each recipient will be recognized during the Sept. 23 KU football game against South Florida.

Borden, vice president and chief operating officer of Winslow Motors, began his volunteer career as a chapter leader, hosting countless events for Jayhawks in Colorado, and helping to recruit students and support athletics programs. For his efforts as a local ambassador, he won the Mildred Clodfelter Alumni Award in 1989, the year he began assisting KU on a national scale. He served his first term on the Alumni Association's national Board of Directors from 1989 to '94. In 2002, he returned to the Board. During the 2004-'05 year, he led the Association as national chair, guiding the organization through the transition to a new president and CEO. He has contributed to numerous programs through the years, including the Rock Chalk Ball in Kansas City. For the KU Endowment Association, he is a Chancellors Club member who served as chair of the group's advisory board. He and his wife, Nancy, have continued to host KU events in recent years.

Their hospitality also is evident in Lawrence, where this year the Bordens' generosity provided an outdoor renovation at the Adams Alumni Center, including extensive landscaping and enhanced lighting, to create a more inviting space for alumni to gather when they return to the Hill. The Borden Family Plaza also complements the new gateway to the northeast entrance of campus.

Time and time again, Drue Jennings, senior counsel for the law firm of Shughart Thomson & Kilroy, has stepped in for the University when needed. A former football letterman, he filled a gap at KU Athletics in 2003 as interim athletics director, helping KU to hire men's basketball coach Bill Self and current Athletics Director Lew Perkins. Lately he has championed KU's cause in Kansas City as a member of the Edwards Campus advisory board and chair of the Advancement Board for the KU Medical Center and the University of Kansas Hospital. His efforts with the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute are vital to reaching KU's goal to become a national cancer center. His long record of service to the Kansas City community helped him earn KU's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Citation, in 1999.

Jennings also currently serves KU Endowment as a trustee, budget chair, and executive committee member. He was a donor to KU First and Campaign Kansas. From 1999 to 2004, he advised the Alumni Association as a member of the national Board of Directors. During the 1990s, he represented alumni on the KU Athletics Corp. board and offered guidance to the School of Law as a member of its board of governors.

For years Joe Morris, chair of The Capital Corp., has shown his KU loyalty in numerous ways. He is currently a trustee of KU Endowment, for which he is also a Chancellors Club member, Elizabeth Watkins Society member and a donor to both KU First and Campaign Kansas. In 2002 he established an endowment to provide unrestricted funds, along with support for athletics and three professional schools: business, architecture and journalism. He also helped the school that gave him his start as a member of the School of Business board of advisors, and he has served on an advisory committee for advanced heart research at KU Medical Center.

For the Association, Morris remains a stalwart as 2006-'07 chair-elect of the national Board and a driving force behind the Association's recent improvements in bylaws and governance. In addition, he has served on the finance committee and the resources task force. He has volunteered for Jayhawks for Higher Education, traveled with Flying Jayhawks and faithfully attended both the Rock Chalk Ball and Southwest Open Golf Tournament.