Peter Akers Award

Donna (Roper) Dosier ’56 received the Alumni Association’s most prestigious honor, the Peter Akers Award, for professional success, outstanding service and loyalty to the University.

The former homecoming queen candidate majored in social studies and participated in the Student-Faculty Council, CLIO, Band, Kappa Chi, McK Club, Religious Life Council and Future Teachers of America. She met the love of her life, Bob Dosier ’55, at McKendree and they married in 1958.

She taught in Cahokia, Ill., and Columbia, Ill., before staying at home to raise sons John ’83 and Jeff ’87. She was a room mother, an active PTO member and a fixture at her sons’ games. When her youngest entered high school, she returned to the classroom to teach special education at Signal Hill School in Belleville, Ill., from 1979 to 1991.

She received McKendree’s Loyal Service Award in 1986 and, with her late husband, has loyally supported their alma mater throughout the years as donors and members of the William McKendree Society, Bearcat Boosters and McKendree Presents. She is supporting the current campaign to renovate the Voigt Science Building.

Donna is proud that her sons and granddaughter Olivia ’15 followed in her and Bob’s footsteps at McKendree and looks forward to Olivia’s graduation in May.