University of Dayton 2020 Alumni Awards

We’re proud of what our alumni do around the world. You lead in your communities. You create new ways to serve and meet needs. You take what you learned as a student and use it to make things better in your work, where you live and for the people closest to you.

Every year, the University of Dayton Alumni Association highlights some of the amazing things you or your classmates have done. Congratulations to the 2020 recipients. To see past recipients of the Alumni Awards, visit udayton.edu/advancement/alumni-awards/index.php. Submit your nomination now for 2021 honorees.

Distinguished Alumni Award

L. William Crotty ’52

Bachelor of Science, Management

A former marine and soldier, Bill Crotty worked his way up to chairman and CEO at Van Dyne Crotty, a uniform laundering and rental company that was steered by three generations of Crottys until it was sold to Cintas in 2006.

Crotty and his late wife, Marilyn Hauer Crotty ’53, have been longtime supporters of the University. Their generosity allowed the School of Business Administration to establish the L. William Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, a Forbes-recognized program that has elevated UD to one of the top schools in the nation for entrepreneurship.

In addition to helping educate generations of UD students, Crotty is parent and grandparent to Flyers. To today’s students, he offers this advice: “Do not underestimate the value of your experience as a student here at the University of Dayton.”

Community involvement, for Crotty, extends beyond UD and includes the Dayton Art Institute, St. Elizabeth Medical Foundation and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, among others. The Crottys also supported the sculpture of the 1905 Wright Flyer in downtown Dayton.

Crotty said UD will always have a special place in his heart for many reasons. Among the top: It is where he and Marilyn first met as students. He wishes all incoming Flyers lifelong happiness.

“And maybe you’ll be lucky like me and meet the love of your life,” Crotty said. “Without UD, we probably wouldn’t have met. It was meant to be.”

Special Service Award

Lynton Scotland ’84

Bachelor of Chemical Engineering

Lynton Scotland has been a strong advocate for the University through service with the board of trustees and the School of Engineering’s advisory council, and as a champion for fellow Virgin Islanders who wish to attend UD.

“My advice to UD students is to explore opportunities to give back and to serve in all capacities,” Scotland said. “Students will have more understanding of different cultures and thought processes rather than being narrow minded.”

Scotland said he enjoys taking students out of their comfort zones and exposing them to other cultures through the School of Engineering’s ETHOS technical immersion program. He also mentors and tutors kids in inner cities through UrbanPromise Wilmington in Delaware, and he spends time with young professionals. Such opportunities for service, Scotland said, help him connect with and transform the lives of young people.

“For my professional role in procurement, my focus has always been on bringing value to the corporation,” said Scotland, who works for W. L. Gore & Associates. “I like finding the value in people who may have been underestimated by society. If you can have a small impact on shifting that curve, you can help a young person do what they were created to do.”

Such recognition, Scotland said, allows him to serve as an example of what is possible for others. He said his future now is about mentoring the next generation of young people to excel and make their mark on the world.

Special Service Award

Doris Drees ’54

Bachelor of Science, Physical Education

Doris Drees changed the face of athletics at the University of Dayton. As a student, this all-around athlete played basketball, volleyball, field hockey and soccer. She taught physical education on campus after graduating, and she coached almost every sport at UD.

Drees was named UD’s women’s athletic director in the 1960s. During that time, UD became one of the first universities in the country to elevate women’s sports to varsity status. She also helped to professionalize women’s officiating and coaching throughout the Midwest and earned a doctorate in physical education from the University of Iowa.

“Doris developed the attitude that she could do anything a man could do — and so could all women,” said Drees’ niece, Deb Patton. “At that time, women didn’t have the opportunities to play varsity, and that drove her even more to make it happen. You never said ‘can’t’ around her, you just did it.”

After receiving UD’s Lackner Award, Drees created the Drees Lecture Series, which annually brings a distinguished speaker to campus. She was inducted into the UD Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984 and retired in 1994 as professor emerita.

Drees learned she received the Special Service Award before she died July 18, 2020, in Arizona, where she lived.

“Up to her last days, she ordered the prime sports channels and always had the TV on to watch something — didn’t matter what, she watched it,” Patton said. “And you didn’t talk to her during the games either.”

Special Achievement Award

Terri Lee Freeman ’81

Bachelor of Arts, Communication

As the president of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, Terri Lee Freeman
is responsible for furthering the museum’s educational and cultural mission.

Located at The Lorraine Motel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, the museum provides the backdrop for Freeman’s work, which is a continuation of King’s struggle to elevate civil rights and end racial and economic injustice.

“The legacy that was left by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. compels us to be persistent, tenacious and ever diligent to eradicate racism and injustice. This means working to ensure that the humanity of all is recognized and valued. It means that we are ensuring equitable access to benefits afforded us by the Constitution of the United States of America,” Freeman said.

Freeman came to Memphis in 2014 with experience in bridging differences between diverse people and finding common ground for the future. As former president of the The Community Foundation for the National Capital region, Freeman helped establish the Survivors’ Fund for victims and families of the attack on the Pentagon on 9/11.

During a campus visit in 2018 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of King, Freeman suggested students seek out some of King’s lesser known speeches, including “Beyond Vietnam,” delivered April 4, 1967.

“They are virtually a window into what is our world today,” Freeman said. These speeches illuminate the issues that continue to plague our nation: racism, jobs, equity and justice.

“We must ponder how far we’ve come since 1968.”

Christian Service Award

Richard Glennon ’50

Bachelor of Arts, Economics

Richard Glennon works to live the Marianist charism daily through serving others, upholding ethics in business and offering community support. To help pass on those values, he and his late wife, Mary, established the Glennon Symposium, which invites distinguished speakers to talk with UD students.

“We wanted to bring diverse speakers to campus — leaders who innately practice the Marianist philosophy in all they do,” Glennon said. “It’s important for students and faculty to hear from a variety of people who actively integrate the Marianist culture in their professional and personal lives.”
Glennon credits his former economics professor, Edmund O’Leary, for instilling in him a passion for technology.

“In 1949, he told our class, ‘You will see the outflow of technology that was developed during World War II, and that technology will become commercialized.’ From that moment on I understood my future career choices would be focused on emerging technology.”

Glennon started as a salesman selling polymer compounds to automotive and appliance industries. He co-founded a disposable glove company and founded a disposable medical electrode company, both of which he sold. Most recently, he founded the Riverain Group, which continues to develop new concepts in medical devices.

Glennon, a former member of the board of trustees, is also a parent and grandparent to Flyers.

“It has always been the Marianists who make UD special,” Glennon said. “Whatever talents God gives you, I feel there is a sense of responsibility to accomplish something good with those gifts.”

Joe Belle Memorial Young Alumni Award

Clementine Bihiga ’09

Bachelor of Arts, International Studies

“What keeps me going is the fact that I know that there is still suffering in the world, and I have work to do,” said Clementine Bihiga.

Bihiga began traveling around the U.S. as a motivational speaker even before graduating from UD. In addition to being an award-winning author, she has received recognition for her work in business.
Having grown up in Rwanda, Bihiga and her family escaped civil war and genocide before living in refugee camps and settlements. Five years after fleeing their home, they arrived in the U.S. as refugees.

Throughout school, Bihiga said she was unable to pick from her talents and interests what she wanted to be when she grew up. She knew, however, she wanted to make an impact on the lives of the vulnerable and have a global reach.

“When I came to UD, I was broken,” Bihiga said. “My time there lit a fire for serving and self-assurance. I felt like the little girl who survived a war and genocide at the age of 8 finally belonged and had a place to make a difference.”

Bihiga has turned the experiences she endured into a calling. She wrote the book Happily Broken and is sought after as a public speaker and community organizer through the business she founded, Global Impact Academy. She also started the Clarette Refugee Fund, named after a stillborn daughter, to provide educational opportunities to refugees and promote their value in society.