May 26, 2006

Hudler, DuPont Earn Distinguished Achievement Citations

Don Hudler '56 (top) and Dr. Herbert DuPont '61 make presentations to standing-room-only crowds during their Alumni College sessions at Alumni Weekend.

Donald Hudler '56 and Dr. Herbert DuPont '61 received Ohio Wesleyan's Distinguished Achievement Citation on Saturday during a ceremony in University Hall's Gray Chapel.

The Distinguished Achievement Citation seeks to recognize the life work and character of Ohio Wesleyan's most prestigious alumni and is the highest honor the Alumni Association can bestow upon an individual. Awardees need to have contributed to the national or international community through their work or service.

"The Distinguished Alumni Citation is a way for the University to recognize and honor its most dedicated alumni," says Laura Wayland, director of alumni relations. "We have the ceremony during Alumni Weekend to allow Don and Bert to celebrate this honor with their classmates and fellow alumni."

Hudler graduated from Ohio Wesleyan with his twin brother Ron Hudler '56 after earning a degree in economics, running varsity track and serving as a brother in Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He spent the next 42 years working for various portions of General Motors Corporation. He became one of the youngest advertising managers in GM history when he joined Cadillac, but he would gain notoriety most as the first Vice President of Sales, Service, and Marketing for Saturn. He was the architect of Saturn's product distribution system and its unique marketing approach.

"We didn't refer to them as dealerships," said Hudler told a standing-room only alumni college session. "They were retail centers. Now others have followed suit, but at that point it was truly innovative."

His role in that approach earned him citations for outstanding efforts in dealer relations from Automotive News and Marketer of the Year by BRANDWEEK Magazine. He was named Chairman and President of Saturn and GM Vice President in 1997. Hudler retired in 1999 to become the CEO of Saturn Retail Enterprises. He later continued his Saturn connection by purchasing numerous retail centers.

While Hudler was focused on marketing, he was also interested in community service ventures, including blood drives, organ transplant programs, and education efforts including the Presidential Scholars program. 

"We don't like new bugs," said DuPont during his — also packed — alumni college session. "We like old, adapted bugs."

DuPont should know — he's a world expert in the field of intestinal infections and has established clinical practice and teaching throughout the world. DuPont has established diarrheal research programs with sites in Mexico, Egypt, Jamaica, and Zambia. He and his wife — Margaret Wright DuPont '61 — have created a partnership that includes taking medical and undergraduate students annually to Mexico to work in the area of infectious disease research. DuPont has received numerous awards during his career and has authored or co-authored over 500 medical and scientific publications and 17 books. He has been cited in "The Best Doctors in America" for his work in infectious diseases and has been awarded France's Bronze Medal of Honor and an honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich. He was appointed to the National Institutes of Health Blue Ribbon Panel on Bioterrorism and Its Implications for Biomedical Research in 2002.

DuPont began his career as an officer for the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. As part of the CDC's investigative team, he would travel to sites of emerging epidemics around the world and developed vaccines for infectious causes of diarrhea. In 1973, he became professor and director at the Program in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. Since 1995, he's been the Chief of Internal Medicine Service at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital and the Vice Chairman of Internal Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

As a student at Ohio Wesleyan, DuPont was a member of the varsity basketball team and Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He earned his medical degree from Emory University.

To nominate a deserving alumnus or alumna for the Distinguished Achievement Citation please contact the alumni relations office at 740-368-3325 or alumni@owu.edu.

—Toby Boyce