April 30, 2024
Six outstanding University of Missouri alumni were recently honored with Jefferson Club Golden Quill Alumni Excellence Awards. Recipients are selected based on nominations from the Mizzou family. They are recognized on the Jesse Hall Notable Alumni Wall, which was dedicated in May 2006.
Meet this year’s honorees:
- John Anderson is an ESPN SportsCenter anchor and currently hosts the 11 p.m. edition of the network’s flagship sports news program. Since joining ESPN in 1999, he’s a four-time Emmy Award winner. In 2007, he became co-host of ABC’s hit prime-time television series Wipeout, which ran on the network for seven seasons. Anderson is also an author, having co-authored a book with golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez, “Chi Chi’s Golf Games You Gotta Play.”
Anderson graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Missouri School of Journalism in 1987 and began his career at Mizzou's NBC affiliate, KOMU-TV. He was a four-year member of the men’s track team, competing in high jump, and captained the squad his senior season. He was a 2002 Homecoming Grand Marshal and a 2007 recipient of a Faculty and Alumni Award, and he delivered the commencement address for the School of Journalism in December 2007. He and his wife, Tamara, are members of the Jefferson Club, the MU Legacy Society and the Walter Williams Society as well as the founders of the Anderson Family Charitable Foundation, which helps supply underprivileged youth with backpacks, schools supplies and food.
- William F. “Bill” Baker is currently a consulting partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, and is regarded as the most important living structural engineer in the world. His buttressed core design enabled the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which exceeds the previous record by more than 1,000 feet. Baker has received many prestigious awards, including the ASCE Outstanding Projects and Leaders Lifetime Award for Design and the Fazlur Rahman Khan Medal from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Baker is the first American to receive the Fritz Leonhardt Preis from Germany and is one of only three living Americans to receive the Gold Medal from the Institution of Structural Engineers.
Baker earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Mizzou in 1975 and an honorary Doctor of Science in 2017. The 2021 Faculty and Alumni Award recipient was a 2014 inductee into the Civil Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni Members and the College of Engineering’s commencement speaker in 2018.
- Steve Ellebracht is a founding principal of IsoTherapeutics, a leading radiopharmaceutical company. He also had a lengthy and successful career at Dow, culminating with his retirement as global research and development director in 2008. While with Dow, Ellebracht led technology groups and businesses in the U.S. and overseas in the areas of packaging, telecommunications and power, building solutions and automotive. He also spent time managing the company’s Asian operations and helped lead the integration of Union Carbide into the company in the early 2000s. Since retirement, he has been involved with several other startups, including Missouri Solar Applications, Brazosport Plastics and EllDev.
Ellebracht earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1973 and returned to Mizzou on a scholarship from Dow to complete a master's degree in chemistry in 1977. He would later be joined as a Mizzou alum by his two daughters. He’s the 2009 College of Arts and Science Alumni of the Year, a member of the Chemical Engineering Academy and a former member of the NextGen Precision Health Advisory Board. He and IsoTherapeutics co-founder Jim Simón generously supported the creation of the Simón/Ellebracht Professor in Medicinal Chemistry, currently held by Carolyn Anderson.
- The late Anne R. Kenney was internationally known for her pioneering work in developing standards for digitizing library materials that have been adopted by organizations around the world, including such important archives as JSTOR, the Scholarly Journal Archive. She was the co-author of three award-winning monographs and more than 50 articles and reports. She began at Cornell University Library in 1987 and retired in 2017 as the Carl A. Kroch University Librarian. From her start as associate director in the Department of Preservation and Conservation, she established Cornell Library as a pioneer in digitization, open access research materials and preservation. She served as a fellow and president of the Society of American Archivists. Kenney also served as a commissioner of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (National Archives), the National Science Foundation/European Union Working Group on a Digital Preservation Research Agenda and was a member of the Clinton/Gore Transition Team. For more than 15 years, she led continuing education programs in digital imaging and digital preservation that attracted participants from around the globe. In 1993, Kenney testified before Congress regarding the Library of Congress’ release of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall's personal papers.
Kenney earned a master’s degree in library science from the MU College of Education and Human Development in 1979. She was a certified master gardener and an avid mountain climber, venturing to Mt. Everest base camp, Mt. Kilimanjaro and multiple other peaks.
- Dale E. Klein is the Reese Endowed Professor in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. From 2011 until 2022, he served as the associate vice chancellor for research for the University of Texas System and has held a multitude of titles at UT, including associate director of the Energy Institute, associate vice president for research and his current professorship. Klein was sworn into the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2006, and was appointed Chairman by President George W. Bush, serving in that role from July 2006 to May 2009. Before joining the NRC, he served as the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs.
Klein earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1970, a master’s in 1971 and a doctorate in 1977, all from Mizzou’s College of Engineering. He has received awards such as Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Nuclear Society, Engineer of the Year for the State of Texas.
- Jim Simón co-founded IsoTherapeutics, a leading radiopharmaceutical company, after a 25-year career with Dow, where he was responsible for a group dedicated to developing new pharmaceutical technologies. He currently serves as vice president and chief scientific officer (CSO) with IsoTherapeutics. Simón holds more than 50 US patents, including the patent for Quadramet, an agent designed to relieve the excruciating pain associated with metastatic bone cancer. He’s been involved in numerous FDA submissions for clinical trials and has coordinated the radioisotope activities at the University of Missouri Research Reactor and College of Veterinary Medicine, as well as the Harry S. Truman Veterans Administration Hospital. Telix Pharmaceutical recently acquired IsoTherapeutics and retained Simón in his role as CSO of Telix IsoTherapeutics.
Simón earned a master’s degree and doctorate in chemistry from the College of Arts and Science in 1978 and 1980, respectively. His endeavors led him to be named a Faculty and Alumni Award recipient in 2001. He and Steve Ellebracht generously supported the creation of the Simón/Ellebracht Professor in Medicinal Chemistry.
