KU alumni recognized for service

Kansas University’s Alumni Association will honor three alumni with the Fred Ellsworth Medallion for unique and significant service to KU on Friday at the Adams Alumni Center.

Each recipient also will be recognized during Saturday’s KU football game against South Florida.

This year’s recipients are Larry Borden of Colorado Springs, Colo., A. Drue Jennings of Prairie Village and Joe Morris of Leawood.

The Ellsworth Medallion began in 1975 in recognition of the Alumni Association’s longtime secretary Fred Ellsworth. Recipients are selected with the help of the chancellor’s office, Kansas Athletics and the KU Endowment Association.

Larry Borden

Borden earned a bachelor’s degree in business in 1962 and a graduate degree in 1967 from KU. He is vice president and chief operating officer of Winslow Motors.

He began his volunteer career as a chapter leader, playing host to events for Jayhawks in Colorado, helping to recruit students and supporting athletics programs. He received the Mildred Clodfelter Alumni Award in 1989.

He served his first term on the Alumni Association’s national Board of Directors from 1989 to 1994. He returned to the board in 2002. In 2004 and 2005, he led the Alumni Association as national chairman, guiding the organization through the transition to a new president and CEO. He has contributed to numerous programs, including the Rock Chalk Ball in metropolitan Kansas City.

Borden is a Chancellors Club member who was chairman of the group’s advisory board. He and his wife, Nancy, have continued to play host to KU events in recent years.

The Bordens’ generosity provided an outdoor renovation at the Adams Alumni Center, including landscaping and enhanced lighting, to create a more inviting space for alumni to gather. The Borden Family Plaza also complements the new gateway at the northeast campus entrance.

A. Drue Jennings

Jennings earned a bachelor’s degree in business in 1968 and a law degree in 1972 from KU. The former CEO of Kansas City Power & Light now serves as senior counsel for the law firm of Shughart, Thomson & Kilroy.

A former football letterman, Jennings served as interim athletic director in 2003 at KU, helping to hire men’s basketball coach Bill Self and current athletic director Lew Perkins.

He has championed KU’s cause in the Kansas City area as a member of the Edwards Campus advisory board and chairman 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 designated national cancer center, according to KU.

He received KU’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Citation, in 1999.

Jennings also is an Endowment Association trustee, budget chairman 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 athletics board and offered guidance to the School of Law as a member of its board of governors.

Joe Morris

Morris earned a bachelor’s in business from KU in 1961. He is chair of The Capital Corp.

Morris is a trustee of the Endowment Association, for which he is also a Chancellors Club member, Elizabeth Watkins Society member and a donor to 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 advisers, and has served on an advisory committee for advanced heart research at KU Medical Center.

For the Alumni Association, Morris is the 2006-07 chairman-elect of the national board and a driving force behind its recent improvements in bylaws and governance, according to KU. He also has served on the finance committee and the resources task force. He has volunteered for Jayhawks for Higher Education, traveled with Flying Jayhawks and attended the Rock Chalk Ball and Southwest Open Golf Tournament.