Four individuals will be honored as recipients of Catawba College’s Distinguished Alumnus Award on Saturday, Oct. 27, during a barbecue luncheon in Goodman Gymnasium as part of the college’s Homecoming weekend activities. The honorees are 1979 alumnus Michael S. Bauk of Salisbury; 1955 alumnus the Rev. Dr. Thomas R. Hamilton of Newton; 1971 alumnus Dr. Dolan Hubbard of Timonium, Md.; and 1951 alumnus Jack Ward of Mocksville.
These awards are given annually by Catawba’s Alumni Association to individuals who have served their community, distinguished themselves in their profession and have served the Catawba College community.
Michael S. Bauk of Salisbury ’79
A 1979 alumnus, Michael S. Bauk of Salisbury formerly served as chief financial officer at Piedmont Cheerwine Bottling Co. He came to Catawba from Rockville, Md., and majored in accounting and business administration. He played baseball during his undergraduate years, filling several positions as shortstop, second base and outfield. He met his wife, Elizabeth Peeler Bauk, a 1981 alumna, while both were Catawba students.
Bauk has consistently given back to his alma mater. He and his wife have established the Bauk First Family Scholarship at the college and he has served on the college board of trustees since 2006. He has been honored by the college with its Exemplary Service Award.
Active in the community, he is a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Salisbury. He serves on the J.F. Hurley Family YMCA Board of Directors and is active in supporting Sacred Heart Catholic School athletics and the Rowan County Little League.
The Bauks are parents of sons Brian and Steve, and daughters Kathryn and Jennifer, who is married to Patrick Baker.
Dolan Hubbard of Timonium, Md. ’71
Dolan Hubbard grew up in Granite Quarry, the oldest of nine children. He graduated from Catawba in 1971, earning his bachelor’s degree in English. While an undergraduate student, he was on the staff of the student newspaper, The Pioneer, writing for four years, and serving as features editor during his senior year. He was also active in Catawba’s Blue Masque, the student theatre arts association.
Hubbard earned a fellowship to pursue his master’s degree in English at the University of Denver and graduated in 1974. From there, he pursued his Ph.D. in English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, earning it in 1986. During the last year of his doctoral study, he was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship.
Hubbard has been a professor for most of his career. He was an instructor at Winston-Salem State University (1977-1982); a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Illinois (1983-1985); an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati (1988-1989), the University of Tennessee (1989-1994) and the University of Georgia (1994-1998). He joined the faculty at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Md., in 1998, and now is professor and chairperson of the department of English and language arts there.
He has been active outside the classroom in helping promote African American authors and literature. During the spring of 2012, he was a Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He has been in the Langston Hughes Society as its vice president, and helped plan for the centennial of Hughes’ birthday in 2002. He was a member of a planning committee for a Zora Neale Hurston Conference.
In recent years, he has been involved in several programs that have addressed the pipeline problem of training the next generation of African-American students to become teachers or to earn doctorate degrees, particularly in the area of English studies.
A member of the Catawba College Board of Trustees since 1994, Hubbard was a member of the College Alumni Board 1988-1992. He is also a member of the American Literature Society, the Association of Governing Board of Universities and Colleges, the College Language Association, the Langston Hughes Society, the Modern Language Association and the Zora Neale Hurston Society.
Dolan Hubbard is married to Ruth, and the two are members of Pennsylvania Avenue AME Zion Church in Baltimore and parents of two adult children, Aisha and Desmond.
The Rev. Dr. Thomas R. Hamilton ’55
The Rev. Dr. Thomas R. Hamilton is a 1955 alumnus of Catawba who transferred in after spending his freshman year at Heidelberg College in his native Ohio. During his three years as a student, he was a member of The Pioneer staff, sang in the college choir and with the Madrigal Singers, was a member of the Adelphians, the International Relations Club, the United Student Fellowship, the State Student Legislature and a Student Government Senator and YMCA Commissioner.
He attended Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves, Mo., where he first earned his bachelor of divinity degree in 1958, and then his master of divinity in 1969. He earned his doctorate of ministry from Southeastern Theological Seminary in Wake Forest in 1978.
Hamilton was ordained as a minister of the United Church of Christ in 1958; his first pastorate was St. Matthew’s Evangelical and Reformed Church where he served 1958-1961. His other called pastorates were at Faith United Church of Christ in Englewood, Ohio, where he served as organizing pastor between 1961 and 1967, and at the UCC’s Elon College Community Church in Elon College between 1967 and 1985.
He served was an assistant professor of religion and an associate in counseling at Elon College between 1984 and 1985. From Elon, he moved to Baltimore, Md., where he was associate conference minister for the Chesapeake and Catoctin Associations in the Central Atlantic Conference between 1985 and 1996. Between 1996 and 2005, he had intentional interim postings at Trinity UCC in Conover, Ursinus UCC in Rockwell, Grace UCC in Newton, and was chaplain at Abernethy Laurels Retirement Home in Newton.
Hamilton has long been a strong supporter of Catawba, advocating for its Lilly Center for Vocation and Values and it campus ministry program. He was honored by the college with an Exemplary Service Award in 1999, and in 2010, received Catawba’s Church-College Award.
He has been co-editor of “Churches Related,” a 40-year history of churches and institutions (1965-2005) of the Western N.C. Association and the churches of the Southern Synod. This book received the Religious History Book Award for 2009 from the N.C. Society of Historians Inc.
Married since 1955 to Jane Whitener Hamilton ’53, the two are members of Trinity United Church of Christ in Conover and live in Newton. The Hamiltons are parents of adult sons, Thomas and Daniel, and their late daughter, Joy Anna Washburn.
Jack S. Ward ’51
Originally from Thomasville and one of seven children, Jack Ward came to Catawba on an athletic scholarship to play football for Coach Gordon Kirkland. He attended Catawba for just one semester before his college career was interrupted by World War II. He enlisted in the U.S. Army.
After he was discharged, Ward returned to Catawba. He set about completing his college degree and playing football. He arrived in time to be part of Catawba’s winning team at the 1948 Tangerine Bowl at which the Catawba Indians beat Marshall 7-0.
Ward played professional baseball for one year before completing graduate work at UNC Chapel Hill. He then began a career in education in Davie County, first as a teacher, adding athletic director, then 12 years as principal and eight years as superintendent. He was principal during 1968, the first year of required desegregation and was later recognized by the N.C. Governor’s Office for his dedication to desegregation. He has been on the Governor’s Commission for School Buildings and Facilities and has assisted the commission on the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
He is a member of the Davie County Hall of Fame and a member of the Catawba College Sports Hall of Fame. In 2001, Catawba honored him with its Medal of Exemplary Life Service for his work in education.
A longtime member of the Catawba Chiefs Club, Ward has supported the efforts to build Shuford Stadium and to install lights for night games. An endowed scholarship at the college has been established in Ward’s honor to be given to a student from Davie County or Thomasville High School who has an interest in majoring in education with aspirations to work in school administration.
Ward lives in Mocksville and is the father of four adult sons.