2005 Distinguished Service Citation

Gene Banucci and Phyllis Wolff Banucci are both members of the class of 1965. They are partners in everything, enhancing each others lives and creating a force larger than the sum of its parts. As entrepreneurs, they have combined undergraduate majors in chemistry and anthropology to help create and direct ATMI, a major semi-conductor materials company in Connecticut. Gene is chairman and Phyllis, having built the human resources department, is now an internal consultant to the company leadership. Though their undergraduate days at Beloit were rich and rewarding – they met here after all – it was the high quality of the Beloit College chemistry interns that Brock Spencer sent to them and the enrollment of their son Ted in 1991 that caused them to reconnect and assume critical new leadership roles at Beloit. Gene serves on the Board of Trustees, Phyllis is a member of the board’s Committee on Student Affairs, and together they serve on the College’s Campaign Leadership Committee. The Banucci Family Endowed Scholarship for students in chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science, and anthropology is a model for such student support at the College. It is as partners that they have enhanced the quality of life at Beloit and the opportunities for a new generation of students, therefore it is appropriate, that it is as partners on the occasion of their 40th reunion, that they share the Alumni Association’s highest award, the Distinguished Service Citation.