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13 honored by UB Alumni Association
The UB Alumni Association honored an entrepreneur and the former president and CEO of Coca Cola Enterprises Inc. during its recent Achievement Awards ceremony.
Entrepreneur John Kapoor, PhD ’72, received the Samuel P. Capen Award, the Alumni Association’s highest honor, and John Alm, BS ’73, former Coca Cola executive, received a Distinguished Alumni Award.
They were among 10 individuals who were honored, along with three university volunteers.
A native of Amristar, India, Kapoor credits UB with providing the financial support that enabled him to earn a doctorate in medicinal chemistry from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and has continuously supported the university ever since. A strong advocate for UB, he has funded research, a state-of-the-art instrumentation core and a number of graduate fellowships. His most recent investment, a $5 million challenge gift, is being used to construct a building on the South Campus to house the pharmacy school, which has been named John and Editha Kapoor Hall.
The Distinguished Alumni Award, which Alm received, is given in recognition of exceptional career accomplishments, community or university service, or research and scholarly activity.
His career accomplishments are numerous: The certified public accountant worked for both Price Waterhouse and 20th Century Fox Film Corp. before joining Coca Cola Bottling Group as senior vice president and chief financial officer. Though successful in business, Alm prides himself on founding the Paintrock Canyon Program, a 7,000-acre working ranch in Wyoming that assists underprivileged youth.
Additional 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients are Tilmon “Tim” F. Brown, BS ’93 & BA ’93, partner, president and chief executive officer of New Horizons Baking Company, a major supplier of restaurant baked goods; Patricia A. Burns, PhD ’88 & MS ’79, an internationally recognized leader in the nursing profession; D. Jackson Coleman, MD ’60, a retina specialist and pioneer of the vitreo-retinal surgery technique; and Gina B. Hammond, MS ’73, recently retired from full-time work after nearly 40 years of progressively challenging positions within the computer science field.
An International Distinguished Alumni Award was presented to Irid F. Agoes, MA ’82 & PhD ’99, former director of the Institute of International Education, an international non-profit organization, and co-founder of Bina Antarbudaya (The Indonesian Foundation for Intercultural Learning).
The Clifford C. Furnas Award, presented to engineering, natural sciences or mathematics alumni who have distinguished themselves in a field of science, was given to Russell L. Agrusa, BS ’76, founder, president and CEO of Massachusetts-based ICONICS Inc., a major developer of open-connectivity and standards-based visualization software, HMI and supervisory-control and data-acquisition applications for manufacturing and building automation.
The Dr. Richard T. Sarkin Award for Excellence in Teaching was presented to Harry L. Metcalf, MD ’60 & BA ’56, clinical professor of family medicine, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
The Dr. Philip B. Wels Award was given to Frank L. Ciminelli, for his contributions to the university, academia, the community and the profession. Ciminelli is founder of Ciminelli Companies Inc., a major construction management, project consulting and real estate development entity in New York, Florida and Canada.
In appreciation of outstanding volunteer contributions to the university, Volunteer Recognition Awards were presented to Judith Adams-Volpe, a staunch supporter of UB athletics who retired recently from the UB Libraries; James Boyle, BS ’78, a dedicated volunteer for the UB Engineering Alumni Association for more than 20 years; and Andrea Costantino, PhD ’00, EdM ’93 & BA ’92, interim director of University Residence Halls & Apartments who previously was UB’s director of student life for 16 years.
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