About the Distinguished Service Award<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Distinguished Service Award recognizes individuals who have made exceptional volunteer contributions to Kalamazoo College. Alumni and friends of the College are eligible to receive this award. Candidates shall have performed effectively in voluntary or elected leadership positions for the Alumni Association and\/or College. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Don](\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/alumni\/files\/2023\/08\/\u00a9Mumma-6110-DonSchneider.jpg\")
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2023 Recipient<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Don Schneider \u201963<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> is the recipient of the 2023 Distinguished Service Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n K was legendary to Muskegon High Schooler Don Schneider. MHS alums at K likened it to \u201cthe Oxford of the Midwest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cMy heart was always set on K,\u201d Don says, though he knew the financial costs would challenge his working-class parents considerably.<\/p>\n\n\n Famed writer James Baldwin sat in on Don\u2019s freshman composition class (\u201cthe first author I\u2019d ever seen!\u201d), and that summer found him studying in France, part of the first cohort in K\u2019s nascent study abroad program. <\/p>\n\n\n The College\u2019s K-Plan<\/em> had yet to be formalized, but Don, a biology major, enjoyed both a foreign study experience in Caen and Grenoble and a SIP-like experience in Florida. \u201cProfessor of Biology Lewis Batts recruited five of us to work on a goldfinch migratory study,\u201d says Don. The group drove to the Everglades, camped in the national park, set up mist nets to capture birds, banded and released them.<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cWe banded a lot of birds the first week,\u201d says Don, \u201cbut they weren\u2019t goldfinches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cNo problem,\u201d said the park ranger the night before we had to break camp. He had a pet canary whose songs attracted plenty. Sure enough, when Don and his colleagues set their nets around the ranger\u2019s trailer, they captured and banded 80 goldfinches in just a couple of hours. \u201cHowever, we never found a single banded bird in Michigan,\u201d reported Don.<\/p>\n\n\n Another K memory was cross-country coach Swede Thomas\u2019s \u201cSoo-to-Kazoo in 62\u201d week-long, pre-season training run from the Soo Locks to K\u2019s quad. The team split each day\u2019s distance into two-person legs of two to four miles. \u201cWe carried a baton and visited as many of our hometowns as possible,\u201d Don says. Muskegon included! Don loved the experience so much that 50 years later he and wife Jean, both avid bicyclists, cycled 300 miles of the 345-mile route, concluding on K\u2019s quad.<\/p>\n\n\n A fond memory honors Professor of Biology Frances Diebold. Don says, \u201cIn her botany class I asked so many mechanistic questions that she suggested a summer research program at Michigan State that changed my focus from field biology to molecular research. I earned my Ph.D. in biochemistry at MSU, did productive postdoc training before becoming a professor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n Don taught and did research for 17 years at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and the Dartmouth College School of Medicine in Hanover, NH. He then worked for 32 years at the National Institutes of Health, organizing the vital peer reviews of research grant applications.<\/p>\n\n\n Given the importance of K in his life journey, his service comes as no surprise. He has served as Class Agent (23 years), Alumni Association Engagement Board member (nine years), and Emeriti Club Leadership Council member (four years). He and Jean established the Len and Hilma Schneider Scholarship to provide needs-based aid for students interested in the sciences. It honors Don\u2019s parents, who worked so hard at multiple jobs to make his K dream a reality.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nR<\/strong>ead about Don Schneider<\/h4><\/div>