When Steven Hawley used to drive back and forth between his hometown of Salina and Lawrence, where he studied at Kansas University, he would stop in Chapman, where a large sign proclaimed the town was home to famed astronaut Joe Engle.

“I thought, ‘Wow, can you imagine having a sign?'” Hawley said at the Deans Club Banquet Friday night at KU.

Hawley, a KU graduate, went on to fly on five space shuttle missions, but it took only his first flight in space in 1984 to get a sign of his own in Salina.

“They told me my sign was bigger,” he said.

Hawley and four other graduates from the KU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences gathered at the Adams Alumni Center, where they were honored as distinguished alumni.

It’s a distinction that Hawley, who helped launch the Hubble Space Telescope, might not have received at KU, because his father tried to convince him to go elsewhere.

“I won that argument,” he said, to the delight of about 200 people at the reception.

Others honored Friday:

Rosemary O’Leary

O’Leary got into a career of public administration after a peer suggested that she get an MPA, which she didn’t know at the time stood for master’s of public administration.

“It’s amazing how one conversation can change your life,” she said.

O’Leary, who originally earned a degree in English at KU, went on to become a professor of public administration at Syracuse University, where she’s won some of her 15 research and teaching awards.

The twice-named Fulbright Scholar has penned six books on public management.

As a student who came to KU from a Catholic school in Kansas City, she said the two of the three things she loved about KU were no nuns and streakers.

“But most of all, I loved the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,” she said.

B.H. “Pete” Fairchild

Fairchild graduated from KU with an English degree and went on to a renowned career as a poet. His works have appeared in, among other places, the New Yorker and the Yale Review.

He earned the Bobbitt Award from the Library of Congress, among the highest awards for poets.

Thomas Burish

Burish, who earned master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology at KU, was among several Ivy League graduates who were candidates to take over as provost for Vanderbilt University.

Burish beat them all out in 1993 and served the longest tenure for a Vanderbilt provost.

He’s also served on the American Cancer Society’s board of directors since 1991.

Randy Scott

Scott, a KU doctoral graduate in biochemistry, became founder of Genomic Health, a company that helps develop cancer treatments.

Despite his recognition, he lauded the achievements of the other four award recipients.

“I feel less distinguished by the moment,” he said, “listening to the people who are up here.”