Distinguished Alumni Honored

Knox College honored four alumni at its Founders Day Convocation on February 14 on the Knox campus. The four 2008 Alumni Achievement Award recipients are Richard E. Cheney, a retired business and public relations executive; Keith Belzer, Wisconsin State Public Defender and international legal-affairs consultant; Alan Anderson, a professor of religion and civil rights activist; and Ander Monson, an author and professor of creative writing.

Richard E. Cheney

A member of the Knox Class of 1943, Richard E. Cheney worked for more than 30 years at Hill and Knowlton, retiring in 1991 as chairman. Under his leadership, Hill and Knowlton was one of the first public relations firms to specialize in corporate mergers and acquisitions. He has taught at New York University and the New School of Social Research in New York City, and spoken at seminars, including events sponsored by Harvard Business School, The Sorbonne, Fortune magazine, and the American Bar Association. Since retiring in 1991, Cheney began a second career as a psychoanalyst. He received the American Jewish Committee National Distinguished Achievement Award in 1986 and was profiled in the New York Times in May 2003.

Listen to the Presentation (9:01, 4.53 MB)

Keith Belzer
Keith Belzer graduated from Knox in 1985. He majored in theatre and worked as an actor, director, and playwright in Chicago while completing his law degree at Loyola University. As Wisconsin State Public Defender, Belzer has worked with a number of high-profile cases, including the largest monetary award for a disabled individual in U.S. history -- a case that involved construction of a life-size replica of a jail cell, to show the conditions under which a mentally ill inmate had been held. Belzer has taught trial skills to lawyers from around the world, and is a regular legal affairs commentator for the television programs including Good Morning America, The O’Reilly Factor, and Geraldo at Large.

Listen to the Presentation (12:52, 11.7 MB)

Alan Anderson
Alan Anderson graduated from Knox in 1956 and completed a doctoral degree in social ethics at the University of Chicago. During the 1960s he participated in civil rights protests in Georgia and Chicago, including helping to organize Martin Luther King's 1965 visit to segregated neighborhoods, which resulted in a march of 25,000 people against Chicago's segregated school system. His many publications include the book "Confronting the Color Line: The Broken Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago," which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, won a Choice Award for academic book of the year, and the 1986 Myers Award from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the United States. Anderson is a professor of philosophy and religion at Western Kentucky University.

Listen to The Presentation (9:09, 8.37 MB)

Ander Monson
Recipient of this year's Young Alumni Achievement Award, Ander Monson graduated from Knox College in 1997. He majored in creative writing, sang in the choir; was a finalist for the Nick Adams award, a regional collegiate writing prize; and edited the College's award-winning literary magazine, Catch. After graduating from Knox, he completed master's degrees at Iowa State University and the University of Alabama. Monson teaches poetry, fiction, and nonfiction at Grand Valley State University. He is the author of three books -- the novel "Other Electricities," a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Award and winner of the 2007 John C. Zacharis award from Ploughshares; the poetry collection "Vacationland"; and the essay collection "Neck Deep and Other Predicaments," winner of the 2006 Graywolf Nonfiction Prize. Monson also is an editor for New Michigan Press and the online literary magazine DIAGRAM.

 Listen to the Presentation (9:06, 8.33 MB)