Lynn Murphree, ‘67
Rod C. Bussey Award of Special Merit
Lynn Murphree graduated from Berea College with a B.A. in Sociology
in 1967 and with a M.A. from Eastern Kentucky University in Student
Personnel in Higher Education in 1970. He also completed
additional graduate work at the University of Alabama. Throughout
his professional career he has served as a vocational counselor,
a junior high school social studies/physical education teacher,
a football/basketball coach, an admissions counselor, and as an
assistant director of admissions at Berea College. He currently
serves as the associate director of admissions for Berea College
and has recently been given the opportunity to assist with recruiting
prospective students for the men’s baseball and basketball
programs. Lynn has worked for the admissions department for
the past 22 years covering territories throughout East Tennessee
and Southwest Virginia. He has held memberships in both the
TN and VA Associations of College Registrars and Admissions Officers. Lynn
is also actively involved in numerous church, civic, and community
organizations serving as church deacon, youth leader, Sunday school
teacher, and in a nursing home ministry team. He also serves
as an active Gideon speaker and is on the Board of Directors for
Tri-State First Priority. Lynn and his wife, Patricia Graham
Murphree, ’69, reside near Jonesville, VA. They have
one son, Britt, who resides in Kingsport, TN with his wife, Kelly.
 Judy Ann Coates Fray, ‘67
Alumni Loyalty Award
After graduating from Berea College in 1967, Judy Ann worked as
a home economics extension agent with the Virginia Cooperative
Extension Service. She married Jack Fray and ended her extension
career five years later when their daughter, Dana, was born. In
1977 Judy Ann worked with the Berea College Office of Alumni Relations
to establish the first Central VA Berea Alumni Chapter. She
currently chairs this group, and is extremely successful in getting
local alumni excited about gathering in Central Virginia. Under
Judy Ann’s leadership, chapter gatherings in that area often
have well over 50 alumni and friends in attendance. Judy
Ann has also served as the class of 1967 reunion chair, and this
weekend marks her third time serving in this capacity. Judy
Ann exemplifies Berea’s service ethic as her most notable
successes have been as a volunteer in her community and state,
as well as nationally and internationally. She was instrumental
in establishing alcohol and drug-free post-prom parties for Madison
County, VA high school youth. She also helped establish an
award-winning recycling program in Madison County in 1986, long
before such programs were required in VA. Judy Ann became
a nationally accredited flower show judge in 1984 and is currently
a Master Judge. She has been a member of the VA Federation of Garden
Clubs District and State Boards of Directors since 1979, and now
serves as Scholarship Chairman for the five-state South Atlantic
Region, National Garden Clubs, Inc. She also served on the
Board of the Virginia Lutheran Women’s Organization from
1978 until 1993, when she was elected to the first of two terms
as President. In 1987 she was chosen as chaperone for
VA 4-H members traveling to Japan in the 4-H / Japanese Exchange. In
1995 she was appointed Volunteer State Coordinator of this Exchange,
a position she has held for almost 13 years.
 Dr. Kyoko Iitaka, ’59
Distinguished Alumnus Award
Dr. Kyoko Iitaka is a Professor Emeritus at Tokyo Gakugei University,
and also a former professor of the Division of Speech, Language,
and Hearing Research at the Department of Linguistics at Sophia
University in Tokyo. After graduating from Berea, in 1959,
she completed her M.A. in Speech Pathology at the University of
Wichita and in 1967 obtained a Ph.D. in Speech Pathology at Northwestern
University. Throughout her teaching career she taught
speech pathology and led numerous clinical practicums. She
helped establish a non-profit community center for children and
young adults, providing needed services missing in the Japanese
public school system. Dr. Iitaka was extremely instrumental
in the establishment of professional autonomy for speech therapists
in Japan. She served as president of the Japanese Association
of Speech, Hearing, and Language from 1981 to 2004, working with
a group of over 2,000 individual members including 16 professional
para-medical organizations to advocate for professional recognition
of the field of speech pathology in Japan. In 1997 an agreement
was reached between the medical profession and the speech therapists,
creating a national licensure for speech therapists in Japan. In
1983 Dr. Iitaka organized the Japanese Association for Communication
Disorders with academic standards approved by the Japanese Council
of Scientific Studies. Recently retired from teaching, she is currently
working on developing a Japanese version of "Sesame Street" to
assist with language development of foreign children whose parents
come from other countries to work in Japan. Dr. Iitaka credits
Berea College for offering her vision, desire for learning, courage
for standing on her own, and awareness for international understanding
and world peace.
 Peter McNeill, ‘51
Distinguished Alumnus Award
Born into a family of ten children and raised on a farm near West
Jefferson, NC, “Pete” McNeill graduated from Berea
College in 1951 with a B.S. degree in General Agriculture. He
went on to complete graduate studies in Farm Policy at Cornell
University. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II
in the Pacific Theater and participated in amphibious landings
in the Philippines at Linguyan Gulf and on Okinawa. Pete
was a vocational agricultural teacher at Lansing High School in
Ashe County, NC, an agriculture extension agent in Fleming County,
KY, and a general manager of Blue Grass Rural Electric in Nicholasville,
KY. He served as the agricultural economist on a USAID sponsored
Power Survey Team in South Korea and worked for the Cooperative
League of U.S.A. as an advisor to the Ministry of National Development
in Thailand, where he worked to amalgamate village credit societies
into multi-purpose cooperatives and to establish Thailand’s
National Cooperative Training Center. Pete was also involved
with similar work in the Philippines and Indonesia and upon retirement,
he joined Morehead State University’s Appalachian Development
Center where he served as an economic development specialist. Since
retiring from Morehead State University in 1991, Pete has managed
and operated his family farm in Fleming County and has volunteered
for ACDI/VOCA (Agricultural Cooperative Development International/
Volunteers for Overseas Cooperative Assistance), IESC (International
Executive Service Corps), and CNFA (Citizens Network for Foreign
Affairs) where he continues to work in agriculture and cooperative
education development in foreign countries. Pete is married
to Anna Lou Planck McNeill, ‘52 and they have five children
and eight grandchildren.
 Dr. Donna Dean, ‘69
Distinguished Alumnus Award
Dr. Donna J. Dean lives in the Washington DC area, where she is
Senior Science Advisor with Lewis-Burke Associates LLC, a government
relations consulting firm that advocates for the public policy
interests of institutions of higher education and other research
and education organizations. She served in the federal government
for 27 years as a senior executive and received many honors and
awards in recognition of her work in research and in science policy
at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug
Administration. She was founding director of the National
Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at NIH and previously
held a number of senior management and supervisory positions in
the grants peer review system. Immediately before joining
Lewis-Burke Associates in 2005, Dr. Dean was Senior Scholar in
Residence at the National Academy of Engineering of the National
Academies. Dr. Dean is a native of Lancaster, Kentucky and graduated
from Garrard County High School before entering Berea. She
obtained the B.A. in chemistry from Berea in 1969 and the Ph.D.
in biochemistry from Duke University in 1974. After postdoctoral
work in cell and developmental biology at Princeton University,
she conducted research in biochemical endocrinology prior to moving
into science administration for the federal government. In
2000, she completed a senior executive program at the John F. Kennedy
School of Government at Harvard University. She has been
a pivotal leader on scientific and technical workforce issues,
in women's health, and in career development strategies for young
scientists. Among her current activities are national President
of the Association for Women in Science, member of the Committee
on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Board of Advisors to the
Tulane University School of Science and Engineering, advisor to
the joint biomedical engineering program of the University of North
Carolina/North Carolina State University, and Board member of the
Washington Academy of Sciences. She is a fellow of the AAAS,
the Washington Academy of Sciences, and the American Institute
for Medical and Biological Engineering. She has been a long
time member of a number of other scientific and engineering societies,
including the American Chemical Society, which she joined as a
Berea student. Dr. Dean is a tireless advocate on the national
scene for the inclusion of women and members of other underrepresented
minority groups in the scientific workforce. She has personally
mentored dozens of women and minorities, helping to ensure their
scientific and professional success and enjoys speaking on her
career and life pathways. Her fervor for fostering a robust
and diverse scientific community is complemented by her enthusiasm
for music, the arts, and outdoor activities.
 Corey Craig, ‘97
Outstanding Young Alumnus Award
Corey Craig is married to Emily Reppert Craig and they have one
son, Walker Carson Craig and they live in Mount Vernon, KY. Emily
is a 4th grade teacher at Roundstone Elementary. Corey is
an active member of the Providence Church of Christ. He enjoys
spending time with his family and working on their family farm. While
at Berea College, Corey was a 4 year Varsity Letterman on the Men’s
Basketball Team and earned a BS in Business Administration in 1997. Since
graduating from Berea College, Corey worked for Fifth Third Bank
of Northern Kentucky until 1998, then The Bank of Mt. Vernon until
2001 and then Community Trust Bank until 2004. Currently
Corey is the President/CEO and Director of Citizens Bank and Rockcastle
Bancorp, Inc. He is a 2003 graduate of the Louisiana State
University School of Banking. Besides his banking career,
Corey is also the Chairman of the Rockcastle County Industrial
Development Authority and the Rockcastle County Development Board
and he currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Cumberland
Valley Area Development District, the Mountain Association for
Community Economic Development (MACED), serves on the Government
Affairs Committee of the Kentucky Bankers Association and is on
the Advisory Board of Bankers Service Corporation. Additionally
he served on the Rockcastle County Public Library Board of Trustees
from 1998-2007, on the Ky. Music Hall of Fame and Museum Inc. Board
of Directors from 2002-2007 and is a member of the Rockcastle County
Kiwanis Club and the Rockcastle County Chamber of Commerce. Also,
from 1998-2003, he was a volunteer assistant coach for the Rockcastle
County High School Boys Basketball Team. In 2002, he served
on a steering committee comprised of 8 community leaders that developed
the first ever Strategic Plan for Rockcastle County. This
plan was developed with input by the entire County and is a plan
that gives them a road map to follow that allows all of the various
organizations and groups in the community to stay focused on a
planned organized growth for Rockcastle County. Also,
in 2004 he helped to develop and start a leadership training program
called “Leadership Rockcastle”. This is a 10-month
program designed to help enhance, develop and broaden the base
of leadership in Rockcastle County.
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