Jim Rundstrom
director of the UNK Alumni Association, 308.865.8474
The University of Nebraska Alumni Association will present awards to five individuals at a reception on Friday, October 11 at the University of Nebraska at Kearney Nebraskan Student Union. The reception, which is part of UNK’s 2002 Homecoming celebration, will begin at 6 p.m. and the banquet starts at 7 p.m.
Distinguished Alumni Awards will go to Curt Coffman of Highlands Ranch, Colorado; Joe Green of Minden; Dr. Larry Hardesty of Sherman,Texas; and Dr. Marge Kindvall Harouff of Lincoln. The Distinguished Alumni Service Award will go to Janell Godberson Beveridge of Paxton.
Curt Coffman, a 1982 graduate and Kearney native, is senior vice president and global practice leader for workplace consulting with The Gallup Organization. For 19 years, Coffman has worked with Gallup’s major clients across the Western Hemisphere, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. In the past 10 years, Coffman has presented programs to thousands of groups on the topic of creating great places to work and their impact on individuals, families and organizational growth.
In 1999, Coffman co-authored the book, First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, which has sold more than 1,000,000 copies and has been translated into 14 languages. It has appeared on best-seller lists in Business Week, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. His book has been on Business Week’s best-seller list for three years.
Coffman’s next book, Follow the Path: How the World’s Greatest Organizations Drive Growth By Unleashing Human Potential, will be published in October. Coffman graduated with honors in psychology and was a member of Student Senate and the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.
Joe Green, a 1975 graduate and Kearney native, is an English teacher and chair of the Language Arts Department at Minden High School. He has worked in Minden since 1980.
Green has been recognized for his excellence in teaching by the Cooper Foundation and the Kiewit Foundation. In 1991 and 1999, he was a finalist for Nebraska Teacher of the Year. Along with the late Stan Smith, Green wrote a composition booklet now used by a number of Nebraska high schools.
He frequently conducts workshops on writing, reading and the works of Nebraska poet John Neihardt. He has participated in four summer seminars sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. UNK English professor emeritus Dr. Don Welch said of Green, “There are All-American teachers. I consider him an all-universe teacher.”
From 1977 to 1988, he served as director of officials for Nebraska/USA wrestling. In 1984, he officiated the U.S. Olympic Trials. He also served on the Minden Library Board and the Minden Opera House program committees. Green received his master’s degree in 1977 at UNK.
Dr. Marge Kindvall Harouff, a 1962 graduate originally from Bradshaw, has spent her professional career as an educator. For the past seven years she has been administrator of adult program services for the Nebraska Department of Education. She began her career as a home economics teacher at Pierce High School and taught at Crete before joining the Nebraska Department of Education as a home economics consultant in 1966.
Dr. Harouff has been widely recognized for her service to education by receiving the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of State Directors of Vocational-
Teacher Education Consortium, the Nebraska Vocational Association Achievement Award and UNL Teachers College Alumni Association Award of Excellence.
She has served on a variety of education organizations that have worked to improve the quality of education. As a student, Harouff was a member of College Home Economics Club and Alpha Xi Delta sorority.
Dr. Larry Hardesty, a 1969 graduate from Stapleton, is library director at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. Dr. Hardesty, whose undergraduate studies were in history and political science, earned a master’s degree in history from UNK in 1971, a master’s degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison in library science in 1974, another master’s degree in instructional systems technology from Indiana University and a doctor of philosophy degree from Indiana University School of Library and Information Science in 1982.
Dr. Hardesty began his library career at UNK in 1973 after teaching history at Grand Island Central Catholic. He was head of reference at DePaul University and director of library services at Eckerd College before moving to Austin College.
During his tenure as president of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) in 1999-2000, Dr. Hardesty initiated the Excellence in Academic Libraries Award to recognize entire library staffs for their roles in supporting the missions of their institutions.
In 2000 he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science and in 2002 he was chosen as the Alumnus of the Year by the Alumni Association of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2001, he was named ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year and he is the chair of ACRL’s 2003 national conference.
He has served on a number of editorial boards for library publications and has made a significant impact on academic librarianship through the College Library Directors Mentor
Program, which he proposed and has directed since 1991. He has also written extensively for library journals and has made a variety of presentations at professional conferences and meetings.
Dr. Hardesty was instrumental in the creation of the ‘Mom Lang’ endowed scholarship in 1995, which is in memory of Sena Lang, a long-time Kearney State College Men’s Hall housemother. It is awarded to an upper class resident hall assistant. As a student, he graduated magna cum laude and was a member of Mu Epsilon Nu and Phi Alpha Theta.
Janell Godberson Beveridge, a 1979 graduate and Gibbon native, is chairman of the board and president of the Bank of Paxton. She has a history of involvement in university and community activities. Beveridge assumed her banking position when her husband, Jody, was killed in an automobile accident in 1989. At the time, she was a teacher and coach with the Paxton Public Schools.
She has been a member of the Alumni Association’s Gold Torch Society, a mentoring organization for undergraduate women since 2000 and has served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors from 1992-1995. She is a board member of the Independent Community Bankers Association, the Nebraska Bankers Association and the Western Nebraska Community Foundation.
In 1997, she was appointed by the governor to serve on the Nebraska Racing Commission. She also serves on the Keith County Community Foundation Board and on the Paxton Methodist Church Parish Council. Beveridge graduated cum laude with a degree in physical education. She was a four-year letter winner for the women’s basketball team.
Tickets for the Homecoming banquet recognizing this year’s recipients are $18 for adults and $9 for children 10 and under. Those five and under are free. Tickets are available by contacting the Alumni Office at 308-865-8474 or emailing Jim Rundstrom at jrundstrom@nufnd.nebraska.edu.
