Donor Recognition highlights gala evening

The NMSU Foundation honored donors and friends of New Mexico State University in April at the 1999 President's Associates Recognition Ball. Donors are recognized at five levels for their cumulative support of scholarships, faculty, programs and other university initiatives.

University Ambassadors have given $10,000 to $49,999. To date, nearly 500 individuals, organizations, businesses and foundations have achieved this level. New honorees include the Roller Beckhart estate, Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Botkin, Camino Real Environmental Center, Baxter Black, Dun & Bradstreet Foundation, Ericsson-Enterprise Solutions, Ed and Barbara Foreman and the G. L. Guthrie family.

Also Walter and Bettie Hines, Mike and Judy Johnson, Doris Jolly, Don and Dori Lucht, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation, MSE Technical Applications, Inc., Roy and Rose Nakayama, Lane Newby, Richard Noyes and the Dr. Barry Neil Rappaport Memorial Foundation.

Rounding out this year's list of honorees are Jerald and Olwen Reece, Southeast New Mexico Agricultural Research, Eugenia and Wanda Staszewski, State Farms Companies Foundation, Lavina Sykes, Richard and Rita Wareham, Waste Management Nuclear Services, the W.I.A. Las Cruces Woman's Club and Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Ziler.

Regents Associates are donors whose cumulative giving is between $50,000 and $100,000. There are currently 60 donors at this level. New members include Mr. and Mrs. Lonnie Abernathy, Dr. Bernard Lowenstein, Linda A. Mars, Mason & Hangar Corp., Microsoft Research, New Mexico Dairy Processors and Mesilla Valley Dairy Herd Improvement Association, Mansil Scriver, Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Shaw and the late Claud and Avalene Tharp.

Crimson Society recognizes cumulative giving between $100,000 and $250,000. Eight honorees joined the 55 currently at this level. These include the Calvin Allen estate, Margaret Anderson estate, Solle and Margaret Manassee estate, E. W. "Rich" Richardson and Richardson Ford Sales, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Stockman Family Foundation and Eugene and Mable Wemlinger.

Donors with giving between $250,000 and $500,000 are recognized in the Circle of Excellence-Bronze. With 10 honorees this year, the list grows to 25. New members are Bob and Jo Asprey, the Dave Barham Trust and Family, the Blazer Trust, the Boeing Co., Donald W. Rule, Elsie Raye Rigney Carr, E.I. Dupont deNemours & Co., Intel Corp., Dr. and Mrs. Johnny Thomas and U.S. West.

Donors who have given more than $500,000 are honored in the Circle of Excellence-Silver category. Eight have achieved this level to date. This year four more were added: the McElyea family, Eve Yoquelet and the estates of Harold "Prof" Brown and Noble Jones.

Ann Palormo

McElyeas receive Branding Iron Award

The Branding Iron is the highest award given by the NMSU Foundation. It honors individuals' outstanding loyalty, service and support. The award is presented each year at the President's Associates Recognition Ball.

The 1999 recipients, Ulysses and Hazel McElyea Sr., have been involved with NMSU for more than six decades. Their family is Aggie through and through, with children and grandchildren involved in maintaining NMSU traditions.

Among the McElyeas' support of the university is an endowment they established in the athletics department. For years, the couple provided a "home away from home" for team members, who could always count on a home-cooked meal when they stopped to visit. The McElyeas were inducted into the Aggie Sports Association Hall of Fame in recognition of their efforts to establish the first Aggie Booster Club in the late 1940s.

They also have supported the College of Agriculture and Home Economics and College of Engineering. Ulysses McElyea Sr. was inducted into the NMSU Sociedad de Ingenieros in 1992. That same year he was named an Honorary New Mexico Rancher by the College of Agriculture and Home Economics.

He graduated in the Class of 1936 with a chemical engineering degree. He earned a degree in veterinary medicine from Colorado State University. Following service in World War II, he farmed with his father and established a veterinary clinic in Las Cruces.

Ann Palormo

THEY HAD A BALL!

PA Ball guests cluster by heaters in the courtyard of the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum. From left are Diane Calhoun, Connie Moss, Sammette Gilbert and Shannon Bradley.

Scott Smith,'64, vice president of the NMSU Foundation, toasts Branding Iron recipients Ulysses and Hazel McElyea and the donors.

NMSU President William Conroy congratulates members of the McElyea family on the Branding Iron award. From left are Conroy, Eula Fern Thompson, Dave Thompson, Ulysses McElyea Jr., Shannon Bradley and Michael Bradley.

Margie and Bobby Rankin enjoy an up-tempo dance.

First Wunsch scholarship
awarded to Navajo student

Cates

Accounting student Caroline Cates has received the first William C. and Wilhelm A. Wunsch Scholarship for NMSU Native American business students. Cates, from Antelope Look Out on the Navajo reservation, graduated from nearby Crownpoint, N.M., High School. She'll graduate from NMSU in July, then plans to take the certified public accountant's exam and eventually own her own business.

She worked with the reservation's Head Start and Save the Children organizations, and wants to use her accounting experience to help them. "When I return to Crownpoint, it's like going back in time," she said. "I know how much they can use my expertise."

William C. Wunsch, '46, a partner in a San Francisco law firm specializing in immigration law and Indian rights, funded the annual scholarship. It honors his father, Wilhelm A. Wunsch, who worked in NMSU agricultural extension from 1928 to 1959.

Through 33 years of litigation, Wunsch helped 2,600 Native Americans in northern California gain judgments against the United States for unlawfully withholding reservation timber revenues.

Wunsch visited Cates' parents in Crownpoint. He said they are thrilled with the award. "Getting scholarships tells you that others believe in you," Cates said. "It motivates you to try even harder."

Rachel Kendall