KU News Release

Ellsworth award honors three for outstanding service to KU

Richard L. “Dick” Bond

James B. Martin

Linda Duston Warren

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Alumni Association and its national board of directors will honor three winners of the Fred Ellsworth Medallion at a dinner Sept. 7 at the Adams Alumni Center. The winners are Richard L. “Dick” Bond, Overland Park; James B. Martin, Lawrence; and Linda Duston Warren, Hanover.

A yearly tradition since 1975, the award honors Fred Ellsworth, a 1922 KU graduate who retired as the alumni association’s executive secretary in 1963. Alumni and friends annually submit nominations for the award; representatives from the chancellor’s office and the alumni, endowment and athletics associations select the recipients.

Bond, former chair of the Kansas Board of Regents, is a board member for Midwest Trust Co. of Missouri, Valley View Trust Co. and the Bank of Blue Valley.

He earned his political science degree from KU in 1957 and graduated from the School of Law in 1960. After serving 25 years as chief of staff for members of the Kansas Congressional delegation, Bond began his own political career in 1986, when he was appointed to the Kansas Senate. He continued to serve the 8th district, winning re-election three times. He led the Senate as president from 1997 to 2000 and retired in 2001. His career also included five years as a partner in the Prairie Village law firm of Bennett Lytle. In 2002, then-Gov. Bill Graves appointed Bond to the Kansas Board of Regents. He served as chair from 2004 to 2005.

As an alumnus, Bond led the KU Law Society as president. For his community service, Bond has received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Service Citation, KU’s highest honor for service to humanity, in 2001. He also received the School of Law’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1998 and James Wood Green Medallion in 2004.

For the alumni association, Bond has volunteered for Jayhawks for Higher Education. He serves on boards for the KU Edwards Campus, cancer center and medical center.

Martin, president of the KU Endowment from 1991 to 2002, is a trustee for the KU Center for Research and trustee emeritus for KU Endowment.

Martin has dedicated his career to the university and higher education. After earning his master’s degree in English from KU in 1968, he worked as a professor and administrator at Valley City State College in North Dakota. He returned to KU in 1974 as director of program development for KU Endowment and became executive vice president in 1987.

From 1985 to 1992, he led Campaign Kansas, which surpassed its initial goal of $177 million to raise $265.3 million for KU. In 1991, he became president of KU Endowment and led the organization for more than a decade, including the 2001 launch of KU First, another record-setting campaign that raised $653.8 million through 2005.

In addition to his work with hundreds of alumni and corporate donors, Martin became a leader in the fundraising profession. For years he oversaw regional and national programs for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, the organization for those who work in the advancement of higher education. Martin received the CASE District VI Distinguished Service Award in 1984. He also received Wichita State University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1996. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Wichita State in 1965 before beginning his graduate studies at KU.

Warren, past national chair of the KU Alumni Association’s national board of directors, is an alumna of KU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and School of Medicine. She is a longtime volunteer for the alumni association’s Kansas Honors Program, which recognizes the top 10 percent of high school seniors in Kansas each year.

She began her national alumni board service in 1997 and chaired the association from 2003 to 2004, providing historic leadership through a pivotal year of staff transition. She continued her guidance until 2006 as a member of the Executive Committee.

For more than 30 years, Warren has cared for Kansas residents as a family practitioner in Hanover, Washington and Waterville. She currently practices in Hanover. She also has led two hospitals as chief of medical staff, and she has trained young physicians in rural family practice as a preceptor for the School of Medicine. She has served on the medical school’s admissions committee and KU Medical Center’s advancement board.

In 1995, she became the first woman to lead the Kansas Medical Society as president since the society’s founding in 1859. She also is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and a diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine. Warren received the 2001 American Medical Association Pride in the Profession Award and the 2004 Changing the Face of Medicine award, also known as the “Local Legends” honor, given to one woman in each of the 50 states. She represented Kansas nationally for more than 20 years in elected roles with the American Medical Association. For her career and her service to KU, she was inducted into the KU Women’s Hall of Fame in 2005.

Founded in 1883, the KU Alumni Association is a nonprofit organization that exists to strengthen the university by informing, engaging and mobilizing the KU community.

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The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.