KU News Release

Marc A. Asher

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Donald A. Johnston

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Janet Martin McKinney

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More Information

• KU Alumni Association

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Alumni Association will honor three winners of the Fred Ellsworth Medallion at a private dinner Sept. 4 at the Adams Alumni Center. They are Marc A. Asher, Leawood; Donald A. Johnston, Lawrence; and Janet Martin McKinney, Kerrville, Texas.

Each year, KU alumni and friends submit nominations for the award, which began in 1975 to honor the memory of Fred Ellsworth, a 1922 KU graduate who served 39 years as the executive secretary of the alumni association. A committee of representatives from the chancellor’s office, the alumni and endowment associations and Kansas Athletics Inc. selects the winners.

Asher, a 1962 graduate of the KU School of Medicine, retired Dec. 31 as university distinguished professor of orthopedic surgery, concluding 36 years at KU Medical Center. In November, KU Hospital dedicated the Marc A. Asher M.D. Comprehensive Spine Center, which offers diagnosis, pre- and post-operative care and treatment, including physical therapy. The center honors Asher’s work as an international authority on spinal research, patient care and development of spinal treatment devices.

Asher helped develop in 1989 the Isola Spinal Implant System, one of the most common devices for treating spinal deformities. The St. John native created innovative outreach clinics, sharing his knowledge in Colby, Garden City, Hays, Hutchinson, Parsons, Salina and Topeka. He taught and mentored medical residents and traveled worldwide to share his surgical techniques. Although he retired from full-time practice in 2002, he continued to consult with other physicians and conduct clinical and laboratory research.

Asher is a Jayhawk Society member of the KU Alumni Association and has participated in the Rock Chalk Ball, the annual greater Kansas City chapter fundraising event. He also coordinated class reunions for the School of Medicine Alumni Association, of which he is a life member.

He was a charter member of the KU Medical Center Advancement Board and has donated 50 percent of the royalties he received from the Isola implant to KU Endowment and other nonprofit organizations. In addition to contributing to the new spine center, he supported or raised funds for orthopedic research as well as four endowed chairs at the School of Medicine.

With his wife, Ellie, he assisted the KU First campaign steering committee (2001-06) for KU Endowment and was a major donor to Campaign Kansas (1988-92). He is a Chancellors Club member.

Asher was the 1999 School of Medicine Alumnus of the Year. The Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas honored him as Distinguished Kansan of the Year in 2007.

Johnston earned his bachelor’s degree in 1956 from the KU School of Business and his KU law degree in 1966. He is executive vice president of Intrust Bank’s Northeast Kansas region. He joined Intrust in 2003, continuing his banking career, which through the years also has included roles as part owner of Maupintour Inc., a travel company in Lawrence, and Vinylplex Inc., a manufacturing company in his hometown of Pittsburg.

He and his wife, Alice Ann Dowell Johnston, are life members and Jayhawk Society members of the KU Alumni Association, and they have participated in the Rock Chalk Ball. He is a member of the Gold Medal Club of alumni who have celebrated their 50th anniversaries of graduation.

During his years in Pittsburg, he coordinated the alumni association’s Kansas Honors Program event, recognizing the top 10 percent of high school seniors. From 1986 to 1991, he was a member of the alumni association’s national board of directors. He also served on the Adams Alumni Center Board of Governors from 1988 to 1994. In 1992, he received the Mildred Clodfelter Alumni Award for his sustained volunteer service to KU, and he has continued to devote time to many KU organizations.

For KU Endowment, the Johnstons are members of the Elizabeth Watkins Society and the Chancellors Club. He also assisted Campaign Kansas as a volunteer on several committees.

Elsewhere on campus, he has served the Lied Center as president of the Friends of the Lied board and led a corporate fund drive for the Spencer Museum of Art. In addition, he has served on the boards of the Center for International Programs, the Friends of the Theatre, the School of Fine Arts and the Natural History Museum.

The Johnstons are members of the Williams Educational Fund for Kansas Athletics. They belong to the New Generation Society, a community group affiliated with the Hall Center for the Humanities, and they co-chaired the founding committee for the Friends of the Hall Center. Don Johnstons also volunteered for the center’s advisory board. Together, they received the Friends of the Hall Center Award.

The two also devote time to numerous local and state organizations; for their leadership they shared the 2009 Citizen of the Years Award from the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.

McKinney earned a KU bachelor’s degree in anthropology in 1974. She retired in 1998 as president of Martin Tractor Co. in Topeka. With her husband, Kent, she is a KU Alumni Association life member and a member of the Presidents Club. She began her term on the national board in 1995 and led the association as national chair from 2001 to 2002. She has assisted KU students as a ’Hawk to ’Hawk mentor, and the McKinneys for several years supported the Rock Chalk Ball as benefactors.

For KU Endowment, she is a trustee and member of the Women Philanthropists for KU advisory board. The McKinneys also belong to the Elizabeth Watkins Society and the Chancellors Club. They were donors to KU First. For Kansas Athletics, they are members of the Williams Educational Fund.

She worked for the former Museum of Anthropology and has continued her academic interest most recently as a member of the KU Biodiversity Institute advisory board, this year concluding her one-year term as chair. She has raised funds for the institute’s educational, research and public programs, and she has devoted time to the Biodiversity Institute’s Archaeology Research Center, working on its vast collections of cultural artifacts from the Great Plains. In 2005, the McKinneys volunteered for the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan.