The University will present its Distinguished Alumni Award to Mary Moorman Kennemur, ’75, first vice president and managing director of Merrill Lynch’s New South District in Columbia, and to Robert L. “Bobby” Sumwalt Jr., ’49, the retired president and treasurer of the Sumwalt Construction Co. in Columbia.

Other honorees and their awards include: Henry Lucius “Luke” Laffitte, ’44, an Allendale practitioner of family medicine, who will receive the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award; Charles E. Jones Jr., ’91, senior account executive with Wragg & Casas Public Relations Inc., in Miami, Fla., who will receive the Outstanding Black Alumni Award; and Todd R. Ellis, ’89, ’95 law, an attorney with the Columbia law firm of Smith, Ellis, Stuckey, who will receive the Outstanding Young Alumni Award.

Receiving Honorary Life Memberships to the Alumni Association for extraordinary service to the University are Curtis Frye, USC’s head cross country and track and field coach; Roderick Macdonald Jr., dean emeritus and distinguished professor emeritus of the USC School of Medicine; and Samuel Tenenbaum, a retired vice president of Chatham Steel Corp. in Columbia, who has served on several University advisory panels and is a major University donor.

The dinner, which begins at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails, is open to the public. Tickets are $38. For information, call 777-4111 or 800-476-8752.

Kennemur, who received a bachelor’s degree in business administration (marketing), is a long-time Columbia business leader and University supporter who serves on the USC Development Foundation Board of trustees and its Budget and Investment Committee.

Sumwalt, the recipient of a USC bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, is chair of the College of Engineering and Information Technology Partnership Board.

Laffitte, who received his bachelor’s degree in pre-medicine, became a beloved family practitioner in Allendale County during a 52-year career from which he retired in December 2000.

Jones, a broadcast journalism graduate of the University with a bachelor’s degree, has earned an outstanding reputation throughout Florida for his professional and community service, including accolades from the National Conference of Black Mayors.

Ellis, a former Carolina football standout who received a bachelor’s degree in history and a law degree from the University, is a Columbia attorney who this fall became the University’s football play-by-play announcer.

Frye, who came to the University in 1996, led the 2002 Carolina women’s track and field team to the NCAA Outdoor Champion.

Macdonald, an ophthalmologist who served as dean of the USC School of Medicine from September 1976 to March 1983, presided over the enrollment of the school’s first class and its full accreditation in 1981.

Tenenbaum, who with his wife, Inez Tenenbaum, state superintendent of education, has been a tireless supporter of education, serves on the College of Liberal Arts Partnership Board, the Liberal Arts National Advisory Council, and the Club of 100 patrons.

09/03