Distinguished Service Award winners

Terry Allen: Class of 1990. Allen is now corporate logistics manager for the Memphis Distribution Center of Cummins Inc. He began his career at Fritz Inc., as an export clerk and worked his way up the ladder before taking a job at Kraft Foods in transportation logistics. Within two years, he was a corporate manager of a $300 million transportation business. Allen is on the Southeast Missouri State University board of directors and volunteers 30 hours a month mentoring inner-city high school boys in Memphis, Tenn.

Barb Herbert: Herbert is a music programmer at southeast Public Radio's KRCU station. In 1992, she joined the station as a Community Advisory Board member and greatly influenced the station's transition from a small rock and roll broadcast to the National Public Radio affiliate status it enjoys today. Herbert's "Sunday Night at the Opera" radio program has been called one the best locally produced opera programs in the nation.

Don and Sue McNeely: Class of 1948. McNeely is a retired news anchor and meteorologist for KFVS12. His 50-year broadcasting career started at age 16 as an announcer on KFVS radio in 1943. During World War II, McNeely served as an announcer with the Armed Forces Radio Network in Japan. He worked at KFVS12 for 28 years as news anchor, program director and weather anchor and became a certified meteorologist with the American Meteorological Society in 1982. McNeely received the Black Mask Award for a portrayal of Ben Franklin in the University Theater's 1974 production of "1776." McNeely and his wife recently endowed two performing arts scholarships that became available this fall. The couple met at Southeast 54 years ago during a theater production.

Pat Morehead: Morehead was appointed by Mayor Santie of Malden, Mo., to serve on the initial committee working with Southeast to create the Bootheel Education Center, now a satellite campus of Southeast. She remains a board member at the center, and assisted in founding the Bootheel Youth Museum. Currently the office manager at Morehead Clinic in Malden, Mo., Morehead has served on the Malden school board, the Division of Family Services Commission for Abused Children, the building committee for the Malden library and the Malden Parks and Recreation Committee.

Billy Swan: Swan, a former Southeast student, is now an internationally known recording artist in Nashville. Swan managed the 1961 NCAA Division II finalist men's basketball team at Southeast. In 1962, he launched his music career by writing the top-ten hit "Lover, Please," recorded by Clyde McPhatter, which won a Grammy in 1975 after Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge rerecorded it. Swan's career includes releases by Columbia, Monument, A&M, Epic Country and Bench records. His hit in 1974, "I Can Help," sold more than five million copies worldwide.