Graduates from each of The University of Toledo’s degree-awarding colleges will be recognized Friday, Oct. 9, at The University of Toledo Alumni Association’s Homecoming Gala.

The event, which annually draws sellout crowds to the Student Union Auditorium, will begin at 6 p.m.

The program features the recipients of the Alumni Association’s highest honors: the Gold T, the Blue T and the Edward H. Schmidt Outstanding Young Alum.

Dr. Richard Paat of Perrysburg is the 2015 recipient of the Gold T, which is presented to a graduate in recognition of outstanding career accomplishment.

A 1986 graduate of the College of Medicine and Life Sciences, Paat is one of the world’s foremost medical missionaries. Since 1994, he has led 63 medical missions and disaster relief teams that have treated nearly 100,000 patients around the world. In May, he brought a medical team into Nepal to assist in earthquake relief efforts, treating 2,000 patients in one of the most devastated regions of the country. He has gone to Indonesia after a tsunami and Biloxi, Miss., following Hurricane Katrina. He annually brings five volunteer medical teams to the Philippines, Honduras, Guatemala, Tanzania and Haiti.

For more than a decade, Paat also has provided free medical care to the uninsured and homeless of the Toledo area, volunteering at a free inner-city medical clinic and running a mobile migrant worker clinic during the summer.

An internal medicine specialist, Paat was inducted into the International Medical Mission Hall of Fame in 2013. He’s been named Ohio Physician of the Year, has been a Jefferson Award for Public Service recipient, and has been named Catholic Physician of the Year in the United States. He also serves as faculty adviser to UT’s Students for Medical Missions organization.

Tom Guitteau of Toledo is the 2015 recipient of the Blue T, which is presented to an Alumni Association member who has made outstanding contributions to the progress and development of the association and the University. Guitteau, who served as president of the Alumni Association during the 1988-89 school year, has remained active with his alma mater since graduating from the Judith Herb College of Education with a bachelor’s degree in 1963 and a master’s degree in 1973.

Retired regional vice president of agencies for the Columbus Life Insurance Co., Guitteau served 19 years as the color commentator for UT football games on radio and television, broadcasting the team from which he earned a varsity letter as a lineman in 1962. A charter member of the President’s Club and the Heritage Society, he is a past president of the Varsity T Club and has provided financial support to a variety of campus projects, including the Koester Alumni Pavilion and the renovation of the Glass Bowl.

For the past five years, Guitteau has served as an academic mentor to UT student-athletes.

Dr. Alex Adams of Boise, Idaho, is the 2015 recipient of the Schmidt Award, which is presented to a graduate who is 35 years of age or younger in recognition of outstanding achievement in his or her field of endeavor.

Adams recently was named executive director of the Idaho State Board of Pharmacy, with responsibility for enforcing laws for 2,400 registered pharmacists in the state. Prior to that appointment, he served for nearly three years as the vice president of pharmacy programs and vice president of foundation research programs for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores in Arlington, Va. In that role, he was responsible for the foundation’s $6 million evidence-based research portfolio, as well as serving as the primary staff liaison for public health officials around the country on behalf of a trade association that represents more than 40,000 traditional community pharmacies, supermarkets and mass merchants with pharmacies.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences in 2007 and a doctorate in pharmacy in 2009. Adams and his family have established a scholarship in the College of Pharmacy.

Additional seating has been added for the Homecoming Gala this year; however, a limited number of seats remain. Tickets are $30 per person.

Call the Office of Alumni Relations at 419.530.2585 (ALUM) for more information or to make reservations.

Media Coverage
WTOL 11 (Oct. 22, 2015)

Tags: UT Alumni Association