The Eberly College of Business and Information Technology honored five alumni with induction into the Hall of Distinction during Lt. Col. Charles B. Stevenson Memorial Business Day on April 6, 2010.
This year's Business Day, the college's thirty-second annual event, was renamed in honor of Stevenson, a longtime Indiana resident who died in April 2009 in recognition of his contributions to the college and to Business Day.
Business Day is the college's premier event, bringing together close to six hundred students with business leaders for networking and business career programming.
Hall of Distinction honorees for 2010 include two business executives from Indiana County: Walter L. Lewis, co-founder of Smith, Lewis, Chess & Co. LLP, a certified public accounting firm, and Dean S.C. Williams, retired chairman of Travelers Insurance of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Delaware.
They join inductees Thomas E. Costello, founder and CEO, UpStreme Inc., a Philadelphia-area business and technology management consulting firm; Timothy M. Pulte, of Boothwyn, chief operating officer of the Delaware River Port Authority; and Brien Wall, of Pittsburgh, certified family business specialist, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.
The goal of the Hall of Distinction is to recognize the professional success and good citizenship of graduates of the college and others associated with its advancement.
“The Eberly College is extremely proud to be inducting five new members into its Eberly College Hall of Distinction,” Dr. Robert Camp, dean of the college, said. “They are being honored for their commitment to professional excellence, their status as role models within the business community and to the broader society, and their long-term support of the university.”
Charles Stevenson
Stevenson's career spanned almost five decades, including distinguished military and academic careers and public service through community boards and advisory councils.
At age eighteen, he served as a purchasing clerk for Curtiss-Wright Corporation. He was commissioned in the U.S. military at age twenty.
Stevenson worked at IUP for nineteen years, first serving as a professor of military science and chairman of the ROTC Department.
He also served as a management professor in the College of Business, where he established new business majors, introduced and coordinated IUP Business Day, organized and chartered five student professional organizations, established internship programs for both American and foreign students, and served as acting dean of the college.
At the time of his death, he was president of CBS and Associates, a management consulting firm.
Stevenson was recognized with a number of awards for exemplary service, including the Legion of Merit from the U.S. Army in 1968 and the Patrick Henry Gold Medallion in 1998 by the Military Order of World Wars. IUP's College of Business repeatedly cited him for outstanding service and named him Ambassador Extraordinaire in 1996.
“We decided to name this event the Lieutenant Colonel Charles B. Stevenson Memorial Business Day because of his innumerable contributions to the college, including service as a senior professor in the management department; formation of the Business Advisory Council, including recruitment of a number of key executives to serve; and creation of Business Day itself,” Camp said. “Even after retirement, Lieutenant Colonel Stevenson remained a close friend and supporter of the college.”
A portion of Stevenson's estate was set aside to create the Charles B. Stevenson Center for Leadership and Development, which is expected to become active within the next year, Camp added.
Walter Lewis
Hall of Distinction inductee Lewis graduated from IUP with a degree in business management. After working in public accounting for two years, he assumed the position of director of the Accounting office at IUP in 1972.
In 1978, he left IUP to open the Indiana office of McClure & Wolf, a CPA firm based in Uniontown. Ten years later, he co-founded Smith, Lewis, Chess & Co., LLP, a CPA firm he continues to manage, with offices in Indiana and Uniontown.
Lewis is the recipient of IUP's Distinguished Alumni Award, the Accounting Alumni Award from IUP's Department of Accounting, and the Bell Ringer Award. He is a member of the Eberly College of Business Advisory Council, has served on the IUP Alumni Association board of directors, and was one of the founders of the Maroon and Slate Athletic Boosters.
His community service includes nine years on the board of directors of Indiana Regional Medical Center as secretary and membership on the S&T Bank Advisory Board and the Indiana County Chamber of Commerce board of directors.
Dean Williams
Williams attended the Keith School and is a 1964 graduate of IUP. He was one of the first members of the Eberly College of Business Advisory Council, serving for fifteen years.
He joined Travelers Insurance Company in 1964 in Pittsburgh as a trainee. Forty-one years later, he retired as chairman of Travelers of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Delaware. Williams was influential in the development of the payroll deducted personal insurance program. An Army veteran, he is active in local government.
Thomas Costello
Costello's company, UpStreme Inc., specializes in enterprise strategy, software logistics and executive education. He has advised both private and public sector organizations ranging from the U.S. Department of State and Fortune 500 organizations to early-stage/pre-funded startups.
Costello, a 1988 IUP graduate, is a member of the Eberly College of Business Advisory Council, an alumni volunteer for IUP admissions, and a member of IUP Alumni Association board of directors. He served as an Executive in Residence for Eberly in 2009.
Timothy Pulte
Pulte graduated from IUP in 1985. He began work in his current position with the Delaware River Port Authority in 2009 and oversees the operations of four bridges and their tolls, Fleet Operations, the Ferry Boat, and Cruise Terminal.
Before joining the authority, he was named president and partner of GVA Smith Mack. Starting in May 2005, Pulte spent two years as vice president of land acquisition for Pulte Homes of Connecticut. Before his tenure there, he spent seventeen years working in Pennsylvania.
He is a former member of IUP's National Alumni Board of Directors and IUP's Council of Trustees.
Brien Wall
Wall is a 1970 graduate of IUP and one of only 250 to receive the Family Business Specialist designation. He has been named to Mass Mutual Life Insurance President's Club, Leader's Club, Million Dollar Round Table, and Mass Mutual Life Insurance Company Master's Club. He currently presides on both the Oppenheimer Funds Executive Council and the Federated Investors President's Council.
Wall was instrumental in founding IUP's Center for Family Business and is a member of the Eberly College of Business Advisory Council.
The Eberly College of Business and Information Technology has been recognized for six consecutive years in the Princeton Review's “Best Business Colleges” guidebook. In March, the college was selected as one of the top fifteen graduate business programs in the nation by the Princeton Review's second annual “Student Opinion Honors for Business Schools.”