Three Kansas University alumni and a former professor will receive the KU Alumni Association’s highest honor this weekend.

The Distinguished Service Citations will be distributed during the All-University Supper, which begins at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Kansas Union Ballroom.

The citations have been awarded since 1941 and are given to alumni whose “lives and careers have benefited humanity and inspired others.”

This year’s honorees are Dr. Norton J. Greenberger, Robert A. Long, Jean F. Shepherd and Fred N. Six.

• Greenberger spent 30 years as professor of gastroenterology at the KU School of Medicine and also spent time as senior associate dean. He retired in 2002 but continues to teach at Harvard Medical School.

Greenberger was honored seven times by KU for his teaching. His honors include the Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Distinguished Teaching Award from the American College of Physicians.

• Long graduated from KU in 1957 with a degree in business. Long, chairman of Dunn Industries, has been involved in numerous civic groups in Kansas City. He has been named Kansas Citian of the Year by the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and also has received awards from the Boy Scouts, National Conference of Christians and Jews and Salvation Army.

He also has received the Fred Ellsworth Medallion from the Alumni Association and an honorary alumnus award from the KU School of Nursing.

He continues to serve on boards of Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City Crime Commission, Civic Council, Midwest Research Institute and McGee Foundation.

• Shepherd, who graduated from the School of Education in 1968 and the School of Law in 1977, is a Douglas County district judge. She went to law school after working several years as an English teacher in an urban high school.

She has presided over cases of juvenile offenders and children in foster care. She also has created new programs to benefit children, including the Foster Care Review Board, a Court-Appointed Special Advocates program in Douglas County, Project Phoenix for gang intervention and prevention, and the Challenge Award for foster-care children graduating from high schools in Lawrence.

• Six, who received an arts and sciences degree in 1951 and a law degree in 1956, served on the Kansas Supreme Court from 1988 to 2003.

Six received two awards from the Kansas Bar Assn. and has been named a distinguished alumnus of the KU School of Law and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.