ALUMNI, PROFESSOR TO RECEIVE MERIT AWARDS; AWARDS TO BE GIVEN AT OCT. 25 DINNER

The Alumni Association of Southeast Missouri State University has selected five alumni and a Southeast professor to receive the university's annual alumni and faculty merit awards.

The six will be honored during a merit award dinner Oct. 25 in the Show Me Center. Each alumni award is presented by an academic college at Southeast.

The recipients and the academic colleges presenting this year's awards are: C. Michael Dambach, Donald L. Harrison College of Business; Dr. Robert K. Poinsett, College of Education; Dr. Fred Goodwin, College of Liberal Arts; Ruth C. Niehaus Hunt, College of Health and Human Services; and Rick E. Borchelt, College of Science and Technology.

Dr. Sue Haugland, professor of human environmental studies, will receive the Faculty Merit Award.

The awards have been given since 1958 to graduates or former students of Southeast who have brought distinction to themselves and the university.

Tickets for the dinner are available by calling the Alumni Office at (573) 651-2259.

DAMBACH, of St. Louis, is a partner with the accounting firm of KPMG Peat Marwick in St. Louis. He graduated from Southeast in 1974 with a bachelor of science degree in business administration, majoring in accounting and minoring in economics.

Dambach obtained his job through the campus placement office.

He has served Southeast as a founding member of the Copper Dome Society, chairman of the board of directors of the Southeast Missouri University Foundation, chairman of the foundation's finance and audit committee and a member of the Dean's Advisory Council of the Donald L. Harrison College of Business.

POINSETT, of Bedford, Ind., is academic dean and associate professor of education at Oakland City University in Bedford, and an ordained Southern Baptist minister. He graduated from Southeast in 1962 with a bachelor's degree in education, majoring in botany.

At Southeast, he was a member of the Education Honorary, History Honorary and Cardinal Key Leadership Honorary societies. He earned a master of education degree in guidance and counseling in 1965 from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

"No one achieves success without the influence of others who invest time and encouragement in our individual lives," Poinsett said.

In the Bedford community, he has listed campus buildings on the National and State Register of Historic Places.

GOODWIN, of Cape Girardeau, is dean emeritus of the College of Humanities and professor emeritus of speech communication and theatre at Southeast.

He graduated with honors in 1951 with a bachelor of science degree in education with an emphasis in speech from Southeast.

"The university has been a dominant influence in my life for almost 50 years," Goodwin said.

"It gave me an opportunity to meet my wife, which was an extraordinary part of good luck. It has supplied undergraduate degrees for all three of our children and advanced degrees for two of them. It's been a family affair."

Goodwin served as dean of the College of Humanities and professor of speech communication and theatre from 1976 to 1988.

He has served Southeast as a member of the university foundation's board of directors and helped establish the honors program.

HUNT, of Richardson, Texas, is a therapist and senior partner of Ruth C. Hunt and Associates. The firm provides family marital, group and individual therapy.

She graduated from Southeast in 1960 with a bachelor of science degree in secondary education, majoring in history and social science. She earned a master's degree in psychology in 1979 from Texas Women's University.

"Cape Girardeau provided the right balance for me," Hunt said. "It was small enough for me to be secure, yet large enough to challenge me with new ideas, people and thinking."

Hunt began her career in 1960 as a high school teacher in Benton, Mo.

BORCHELT, of Washington, D.C., is a special assistant for public affairs in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He graduated magna cum laude with departmental honors from Southeast in 1978 with a bachelor of arts degree in biology.

Borchelt was born and raised in Cape Girardeau County on a farm near Trail of Tears State Park.

In his position with the White House, Borchelt is responsible for media relations, public affairs planning, speech writing and communications coordination for the assistant to the President for Science and Technology Policy. He is the White House spokesman for issues of science and technology policy, including the White House World Wide Web site.

HAUGLAND, of Cape Girardeau, is a professor of human environmental studies at Southeast, where she has been employed since 1981.

Haugland is an expert on computer software and technology for children. She has been quoted extensively in a number of high-profile publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, U.S. News and World Report and the Washington Post.

She has co-authored a book on computer software for young children. She has served as a consultant for Dunham Corp., which selected six top researchers and educators to form a "think tank" on future directions in the early childhood software industry.

Haugland is director of the Center for Child Studies at Southeast. She chaired the human environmental studies department from 1990 to 1993.