A retired law professor, a district judge and two international business leaders will be inducted into the West Virginia University Order of Vandalia for their extraordinary service to the University during Commencement weekend May 17-18.

The 2003 honorees are: Forest”Jack”Bowman, retired WVU law professor emeritus; the Hon. Judge Irene Keeley, U.S. District Judge, Northern District of West Virginia; Milan”Mike”Puskar, retired CEO of Mylan Laboratories, Inc; and Alfred F. Ware, retired CEO of Amherst International, Inc.

The Order of Vandalia is reserved for those who have demonstrated extraordinary service, loyalty and dedication to WVU , said President David C. Hardesty Jr., who called this year’s honorees”valued alumni and friends whose enthusiasm for and devotion to WVU never wavers.”

Forest”Jack”Bowman

Bowman, WVU ’s Jackson&Kelly Professor Emeritus, retired from the University in 2002, but continues his love of the profession by teaching a law management course and serving as a consultant for the Acacia Business Solutions, a subsidiary of Jackson Kelly Solutions.

Bowman began his service to the University in 1956 when he arrived as a student. During his collegiate years, he was involved in numerous student organizations as well as student government, serving as president of the student body from 1959-60. He was elected to Sphinx and Mountain honoraries and was instrumental in bringing the mast of the USS West Virginia to campus as a permanent memorial to those West Virginians who served this country and gave their lives in service.

He graduated from the WVU College of Law in 1963 and served four years in the Judge Advocate General Corps of the U.S. Army. He also practiced law with a Charleston firm, and served as Deputy Commissioner of the state Workers’Compensation Fund, as Executive Director of the West Virginia State Bar and as Administrative Director of the Supreme Court of Appeals.

He joined the law faculty in 1979, and on seven occasions, members of the graduating class named him Professor of the Year. He has twice received the WVU Foundation’s Outstanding Teaching honor and was recognized by the state’s Faculty Merit Foundation in 1988 as Higher Education Professor of the Year for West Virginia.

A recognized authority on professional responsibility and ethics, Bowman’s scholarly works include”The Complete Retirement Handbook,”“The Dentist’s Guide to Tax Shelters”and the first and second editions of”The Dollars and Sense of Estate Planning.”He has also authored numerous law review articles and has long been an advisor to students. He was named the first Hale J. Posten Professor of Law in 1990, a professorship he held until he relinquished it to become the first Jackson&Kelly Professor of Law.

His devotion to WVU also includes serving as faculty representative to the NCAA for many years. He recently completed four years as a member of the Division I Academic Eligibility and Compliance Cabinet.

Other select honors and awards: twice awarded the West Virginia State Bar Association’s highest honor, the Certificate of Merit; inaugural member of the Fellows of the West Virginia Bar Association; Fellow of the American Bar Association; member and past chairman of the Board of Visitors for the Salvation Army Leadership Training School; West Virginia Bar Foundation Lawyer/Citizen of the Year for outstanding community service; recipient of the WVU Heebink Award for distinguished state service.

Bowman resides in Morgantown, where he is well known as a master of ceremonies and main speaker at various university, law, athletic and community events.

Irene Keeley

Irene Keeley has served as chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia since 1992. She was a school teacher in Harrison County and in Maryland before returning to law school in the late 1970s.

She earned an undergraduate degree from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland Baltimore in 1965, a master’s degree from WVU in 1977 and a law degree from WVU in 1980. While at WVU she served as associate editor of the West Virginia Law Review and a member of the Moot Court board.

Following graduation, she practiced law with Steptoe&Johnson from 1980-1992, specializing in health care law.

Judge Keeley is a is a member of the Harrison County Bar Association and the West Virginia State Bar. She serves as chair of the National Conference of Federal Trial Judges of the American Bar Association, treasurer of the Federal Judges Association and is a member of the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States. She currently serves by appointment of the Chief Judge of the Fourth Circuit on the Judicial Council of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

She is a past member of the WVU Board of Advisors (now Board of Governors) and has served on the board of directors of the WVU Alumni Association and on the Visiting Committee of the WVU College of Law.

Active in the community of Clarksburg, she has served as president of the Harrison County United Way Board of Directors and various other community boards.

Milan Puskar

Chairman of the Board and former Chief Executive Officer of Mylan Laboratories, Inc., Milan Puskar, is a graduate of Youngstown State University. He co-founded Mylan, one of the premier generic drug manufacturers in the world, in 1962, and is one of the original founders of the Generic Pharmaceutical Industry Association.

Among his various civic services, Puskar, of Morgantown, is active in the affairs of higher education at West Virginia University, Duquesne University, Fairmont State College and Youngstown State University.

At WVU , he has served on the WVU Foundation’s Board of Directors and Capital Campaign Planning Committee and Ruby Memorial Hospital’s Campaign Committee. He endowed the Mylan Chair of Pharmacology/Toxicology in the School of Pharmacy and supports student athlete scholarships through the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics as well as programming in the School of Medicine, College of Business and Economics and the School of Journalism.

The WVU Facilities Building (Puskar Center) is named in his honor in recognition of his long-time support of WVU intercollegiate athletics.

He was the recipient of a Most Loyal West Virginian award from WVU in 1987 and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the institution in 2000.

He also holds an honorary doctorate from Fairmont State and serves on the Board of Trustees at Duquesne University.

Other honors: Honorary Italian-American of the Year in 1993, Pittsburgh’s Man of the Year in Technology in 1995, Morgantown’s Distinguished Citizen of the Year in 1997 and Outstanding (WV) Philanthropist in 2000.

Alfred F. Ware

Alfred Ware is former Chairman of the Board of Amherst International, a fiber optics, opto-electronics corporation he founded in 1977. He retired in 1999 and now serves as senior advisor.

A native of Rupert, Greenbrier County, Ware enlisted in the U.S. Navy after high school and following his discharge, received his undergraduate degree in physical education from WVU in 1950 and a master’s degree in speech communication from WVU in 1952.

While a student, he captained the men’s debate team and coached the women’s debate squad, was active in student government and Delta Tau Delta fraternity, lettered in track and cross country and was a cadet colonel in Army ROTC .

Following two years of active duty during the Korean War, he entered the business world.

He founded Mitsubishi-Burlington, Ltd in Tokyo and served as president of Burlington’s International Division. After great success in the textiles industry, he became vice president of Manufacturers Hanover Corp. and vice president of Hanover World Trade Corp.

He currently serves on the WVU Alumni Association Board of Directors and was a member of the School of Physical Education Visiting Committee for many years, serving as its chairman.

He was inducted into the School of Physical Education Hall of Fame in 1999 and Academy of Distinguished Alumni in 2000. He is also a member of the WVU Foundation’s National Campaign Committee.

Recently, the Ware Family Foundation established the Ware Distinguished Professorship in the School of Physical Education to honor Ware and his wife, Dolores Jamison Ware, also a WVU graduate, for their devotion to life-long fitness, particularly in children. The gift also includes two Ware Presidential Scholarships and two Ware Student-Athlete Scholarships.

Ware resides in Sarasota, Fla., and Franklin, Tenn.