Six people, including two former West Virginia University presidents, will be honored Friday (Sept. 10) for their loyalty and service to the University as they are inducted into the Order of Vandalia. (WVU Photo)
Six people, including two former West Virginia University presidents, will be honored Friday (Sept. 10) for their loyalty and service to the University as they are inducted into the Order of Vandalia.
The ceremony honors both the 2020 and 2021 inductees since it could not be held last year during the pandemic. It also honors the Vandalians who have died during the past two years and honors the contributions of all the Order’s members.
2020 inductees are:
Dianne Dubetz Anderson is a seasoned and highly accomplished senior executive with more than 15 years of experience leading energy organizations in both a public university and a research university. The Cleveland, Ohio, resident sits on the board of the WVU Alumni Association and is past chair of the Statler Engineering College Advisory Committee.
Neil S. Bucklew, the former WVU president who established the Bucklew Scholarship for the state’s top 20 high school seniors, led the University from 1986-1995 and returned to the faculty of the then-College of Business and Economics, now the John Chambers College of Business and Economics. The Neil. S. Bucklew Lecture Series in Higher Education Administration was endowed and named in his honor in 1998. Bucklew, a native of Morgantown, retired in 2016 and is recognized as president and professor emeritus.
James Miltenberger joined the WVU faculty in 1962, teaching piano to generations of students. He has been named an Outstanding Teacher by the College of Creative Arts and a Teacher of Influence by the WVU Alumni Association. Through the efforts of his students, he was named a 2017 Music Teachers National Association Fellow and retired the same year. He was instrumental in establishing the West Virginia Chapter of MTNA and served two terms as its president. Miltenberger was the first elected chair of the WVU Faculty Senate.
John C. Spiker, a native of Bruceton Mills, graduated from the WVU School of Physical Education (now the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences) in 1969 and after traveling far and wide to work at other universities, he came home to WVU to help develop an athletic training education program, which was quickly recognized nationally. Spiker coordinated the WVU intercollegiate sports medicine coverage and served as an athletic trainer for football, covering 450 consecutive Mountaineer games from 1975-2013.
2021 inductees are:
David C. Hardesty, Jr., a WVU alumnus and Rhodes Scholar, was selected to be the University’s 21stpresident in 1996. During his tenure as president, he was founder and first chair of WVU’s health system, which today has 16 member hospitals and five major institutes. Until his retirement, he taught courses related to the legislative process and bill drafting, leadership and management, and legal ethics. He also began the “student-centered” focus WVU now embodies, including the Mountaineer Parents Club chaired by his wife, Susan. Hardesty was inducted into the National 4-H Hall of Fame and is an Eagle Scout. In 2009, WVU’s Hardesty Festival of Ideas speaker series was endowed and named in his honor.
Janis-Rozena Peri, after a long career of music study and performance, came to the faculty at WVU’s College of Creative Arts, where, in addition to teaching and performing, she was active in organizations and pursuits of women’s rights and social justice issues. Peri chaired the WVU Faculty Senate in 1995 and retired from the University in 2008.
Order of the Vandalia dates back to 1960 when WVU’s president Elvis J. Stahr outlined his idea for a special honor bestowed on the University’s most loyal servants. Inductees through the years include U.S. Senators Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller, Carolyn Eberly Blaney, Joseph Gluck, John T. Chambers, Earl L. Core and Milan Puskar.
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CONTACT: Lisa Martin
Special Events Coordinator
304.293.8021; Lisa.martin@mail.wvu.edu
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