2004 Distinguished Service Citation

From the Mary Miles Music Center in Eaton Chapel to CELEB – The Center for Entrepreneurship in Liberal Education at Beloit – on Grand Avenue downtown, and from the chemistry labs of Chamberlin Hall to the transmitting facilities of WBCR, David Miles Myers and his family have been making things happen and spreading the word about Beloit for more than a half-century. An entrepreneur before people knew what entrepreneurs were, he laid the foundations for advanced independent business thinking by teaching at Harvard, Oregon State, Portland University, and Pacific University. His musical talents as a performer, from the celebrated campus ensemble of Eight Notes and a Key – he was the key – to his role as a broadcasting pioneer who introduced everything from Muzak to stereo in the American Northwest, show he has always been able to spot opportunity and act on it. Even now, he invests in restaurants with his son, unable to slow down or let an opportunity pass by.

An anthropology major and member of Beta Theta Pi, he transferred to Beloit from Princeton once he visited the campus. Of course he felt comfortable here, knowing that his parents and five aunts and uncles had attended Beloit, and that he would be joining five cousins already on campus. To date, at least four generations have attended Beloit, including two of his and Ann’s children, Elizabeth’75 and David, Jr’77. A former alumni trustee in the mid-’80s, his connections to and concern for the College are unparalleled. It is our honor today, on this 55th anniversary of his graduation, to recognize him with the College’s highest alumni award, the Distinguished Service Citation.