2008 Distinguished Service Citation

J. Edson Way, of the class of 1968, is the quintessential Beloiter. He has always thought about what he can do, never about what he can’t. He was a member of the first class of the Beloit Plan, designing a field term that introduced him to New Mexico, where he came to spend so much of his professional career as a museum director and State Director of Cultural Affairs. It was on that field term that he met classmate Jenny Chappell, a fellow anthropology major, who would become his wife and partner in countless personal, anthropological, and museum adventures. As a Beloit faculty member and director of the Logan Museum of Anthropology, he served as an ambassador for Beloit College following in the footsteps of Roy Chapman Andrews and other distinguished predecessors. Founding director of the Beloit museum studies program, he designed one of the hallmarks of Beloit’s distinctive academic programs. He has always enjoyed a good challenge, whether as a world champion competitive donkey racer, working with Native American prisoners at the New Mexico State Penitentiary, or most recently, completing a Master of Divinity degree at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest. Beloit College is pleased to honor this graduate, parent, former faculty member, and world-wide representative on the 40th anniversary of his commencement. We are proud to bestow upon him the highest alumni award, the Beloit College Alumni Association Distinguished Service Citation.