Honored Alumni
The University of Northern Colorado boasts outstanding alumni and dedicated friends from all walks of life, and each year the UNC Alumni Association recognizes some of them with the Honored Alumni Awards. We asked this year’s honorees and their nominators how UNC impacted their lives and how alumni and friends can add to the university’s value and advance its mission.
You can see each honoree's tribute videos:
To read more about current and past honorees:
Jim Alexander ’69
“The accounting degree came along with classes in business law, management, marketing, economics — I felt like I had a very good background to start a business of my own. One of the biggest rewards of being in the roofing business in Aspen is I’ve gotten enough financial reward to really pursue my passions, primarily helping under-privileged people in third-world countries.”
Timothy K. Bradley ’80
“The students from UNC have made a real mark in the world, and we need to continue that. We, as alumni, have a responsibility to make sure that, as this university goes from being publicly funded to being privately funded, we give the next generation — the future generations of the school — an opportunity to be as successful and to get as much out of an education as we did.”
Bruce Pearson ’69
“When you walk on a college campus, the first thing you see are the buildings; the bricks and the mortar, and, of course, UNC has a lovely environment in Greeley. However, what really makes a university are the people — the college professors, your friends — and I’d like to thank my college professors for pouring their life into me.”
Fritz J. Erickson ’84, ’87
“When you think of a university, it has several key stakeholders; certainly the students are at the forefront, terrific faculty, caring staff — but alumni carry the message of what a university really is, and what its impact is. We all have an obligation to do everything we can to impact the lives of those students, because if we do, they’ll have the chance to have the same opportunities that we’ve had, and they’ll have an opportunity to really impact the lives of others.”
Bob Heiny, Honorary Alumnus
(Posthumously)
Richard Grassl, professor emeritus and friend of Bob Heiny:
“I think Bob Heiny lived his entire life as if it were a bucket list. He didn’t have
a list, he just did things that made him happy, and that was his dedication to students
– probably his highest point of a bucket list. He was student-oriented, and the most
amazing part was he taught for four-and-a-half decades and he never lost his enthusiasm,
right up to the end.”
