UD inducts seven new
members into Alumni Wall of Fame

Clockwise (from bottom left) are Chuck Lewis, Tom Gutshall, Larry Pike, Wade Catts (accepting for his father), Dick Hutton, Raymond Eid and Carol Hoffecker. PHOTO BY DUANE PERRY

Seven alumni of the University of Delaware recently returned to campus to be inducted into the Alumni Wall of Fame, an honor that has been bestowed to graduates in a variety of vocations since the wall's inception in the 1980s.

Members of the University of Delaware Alumni Association, who are located in every state and in countries around the world, have distinguished themselves in the fields of law, medicine, business, science, education, athletics, literature and the arts, religion, the military and politics. Alumni are elected for inclusion based upon their distinguished public and professional achievements. The Alumni Wall of Fame is located in the Alumni Room in the Perkins Student Center.

This year's inductees are

Raymond Eid of Wilmington, graduated from the University of Delaware in 1959 with a master's degree in plant pathology. Eid worked for the Du Pont Co. in agricultural chemicals, where his fluency in four languages enabled him to build and maintain stable relationships between farmers, distributors and the company. While working for Du Pont, he managed the introduction and commercialization of crop protection products and technologies in more than 50 countries. From 1991-94, he also was an adviser to the U.S. Department of Agriculture on agriculture and the environment.

In 1995, Eid was appointed honorary consul of France. In 1999, he was awarded the French Medal of Merit, with the title of knight in the National Order of Merit.

Thomas Gutshall graduated from UD in 1960 with a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering, Gutshall did postgraduate work in industrial management and was a member of the Harvard executive marketing program in 1975.

Currently, Gutshall is the chairman, CEO and founding member of Cepheid, a diagnostics company that emphasizes micro machined systems and components for use in DNA testing. He has remained active with his alma mater as a key member of the Chemical Engineering Advisory Committee, while also supporting the Jack A. Gerster Fund and the Allan P. Colburn Laboratory Campaign.

Charles Lewis graduated in 1975 from UD with a bachelor of arts degree in political science. In 1990, he founded and became the executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization in Washington, D.C.

Lewis received a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the genius award. In 1999, he established the center's James R. Soles Jr. Fellowship, to be awarded each year to the most qualified UD graduate in political science. The fellowship honors the life and legacy of Jim Soles, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Political Science and International Relations, who has been a mentor and friend to Lewis. In 1999, Lewis was UD's Winter Commencement speaker.

Larry Pike graduated from UD with a master's degree in business administration in 1974. He initiated the concept of one company marketing with his Union Central Life Insurance Co., which provides customers with full-service insurance and investment counseling and products from one location. He currently is chairman, president and CEO of the company. In 1998, he received the prestigious Emmett Russell Jr. Award for his contributions to the life insurance industry.

Pike is active in public service, as a member of the Salvation Army Advisory Board, United Way, Medical Research Foundation and Dan Beard Council of the Boy Scouts of America, among others.

Carol Hoffecker graduated from UD in 1960 with a bachelor of arts degree in history. She is currently the Richards Professor of History at UD, where she received the Francis Alison Faculty Award, in recognition of her scholarship and professional achievement; the University's Medal of Distinction; and the E. Arthur Trabant Institutional Award for Women's Equity.

Hoffecker has written numerous books on the history of Delaware, the University and women in Delaware. Last year, her Familiar Relations: The du Ponts & the University of Delaware was published as a special commemoration for the recent 200th anniversary celebration of the du Pont family's arrival in America.

Richard J. Hutton, a 1948 UD alumnus, is chairman of the board of the Conard-Pyle Co., one of the top 25 production nurseries in the United States. Under Hutton's leadership, the company has more than 10,000 plant patents and has developed innumerable roses marketed under the Star Roses name.

Nicknamed "Mr. Rose," Hutton is a newly inducted member of the American Nursery and Landscape Association's Nurserymen's Hall of Fame. In 1999, Hutton, donated his horticultural archives to Special Collections in the University of Delaware Library. The records range in time from 1891 to 2000 and tell the story of the evolution of American horticulture.

Elmer Paul Catts was inducted posthumously into the Wall of Fame. He earned two degrees from the University of Delaware–a bachelor of science degree in agriculture in 1952 and a master's degree in entomology in 1957.

Mr. Catts served on the faculty in UD's Department of Entomology and Applied Ecology from 1962-78. In 1980, he became chairperson of the Entomology Department at Washington State University, a position he held until his retirement in 1992. As a forensic entomologist, he worked on more than 50 homicide cases with police, using his knowledge of insects to determine the length of time a body was deceased. He died in April of 1996.

--Jeanine McGann