Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway laid out a vision for the school’s future on Friday night – a vision that includes a national cancer center designation.

Kansas University and the KU Alumni Association awarded the Distinguished Service Citation to, from left, James and Virginia Stowers, of Kansas City, Mo., Christine Knudsen, of Geneva, Switzerland, Wes Jackson, of Salina, and Dana Hudkins Crawford, of Denver. The citation is the highest honor from KU and recognizes outstanding

“KU feels a responsibility to apply medical science that promises a commitment to treating cancer,” Hemenway said at the All-University Supper at the Kansas Union Ballroom.

As Hemenway spoke about how the university would attain such a distinction, James and Virginia Stowers, two people who have devoted no small amount of time and money to fighting cancer, stood within a few yards.

As founders of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Mo., they underscored the importance of working with local hospitals and universities to make the Midwest among the leading areas in cancer research.

“The institute is not going to be successful unless we can attract the very best doctors and retain the very best doctors,” Jim Stowers said.

The Stowerses were at KU on Friday night as two of five recipients of the Distinguished Service Citation, the highest honor given by KU and the KU Alumni Association, for people devoted to helping humanity.

Although Jim and Virginia Stowers are University of Missouri graduates, they were honored by KU because of their contributions to the university.

They both survived cancer and used the fortune they made with American Century Investments to develop the Stowers Institute, one of the leading medical research institutes in the United States.

“We wanted to give something back more valuable than money,” Jim Stowers said.

The Stowerses were joined by three other citation winners, all KU graduates.

“It’s an honor to be in the presence of such people,” Hemenway said. “Their inspiration makes the university a better place.”

Here’s a look at the other citation recipients:

Dana Hudkins Crawford

Crawford, who graduated from KU in 1953 with a liberal arts and sciences degree, is best known for spearheading redevelopment in what once was a sagging downtown Denver.

She has been credited with spurring the development of an area in Denver called LoDo, a popular retail and entertainment district.

Crawford said she’s spent so much time working in Denver through the years that this week’s trip to Lawrence was her first in quite some time.

She said Lawrence and KU have blossomed in her absence.

“I have to confess, I haven’t been to KU in a long time,” she said. “And you know, it’s beautiful.”

Wes Jackson

The Smithsonian magazine is one of many that have honored Jackson, a 1960 KU graduate, for his work in founding the Land Institute in Salina.

That’s where scientists have developed agricultural technologies that promote, among other things, sustainable farming.

He lauded KU’s presence in the state of Kansas on Friday night.

“To me, Kansas is KU, it is the Kansas River valley, it is the people, as wrongheaded as we are from time to time,” he said. “And I have to say, any quarrel I have with this state is a lover’s quarrel.”

Christine Knudsen

Since earning her liberal arts and sciences degree from KU in 1991, Knudsen’s work has taken her to five continents and more than 60 countries.

She currently works as a policy adviser for the United Nations in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Before that, she worked on aid and relief projects for war-torn and disaster-ravaged areas of the world.

She said that no matter where her travels take her, she somehow always happens upon KU graduates and supporters.