As a part of recent Homecoming festivities at the University of Montevallo, three alumni were honored by the UM National Alumni Association for outstanding service to their communities and the university.
The Distinguished Alumnus Award, the most prestigious award presented by the UMNAA, recognizes a graduate who has excelled in his/her professional career.
The recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Alumnus Award was Stephen E. Condrey, who graduated with highest honors from UM in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a minor in business. He went on to earn a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree with a concentration in higher education administration from the University of Tennessee in 1979.
Condrey worked in the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia from 1986 until his retirement in 2010. He served as the program director for human resource management technical assistance and as an adjunct professor.
He also founded a consulting firm in human resource management that is internationally recognized, consulting nationally with many organizations on personnel-related issues.
In 2010, Condrey was appointed by President Obama to the position of chairman of the Federal Salary Council.
Now an active member of the Montevallo community, he has been a significant supporter of UM’s James Wylie Shepherd Observatory and helped bring Russian scholar Dmitry Goncharov to Montevallo as the Vacca Professor in 2005.
Robert Gene Ramsay, a 1992 graduate of the University of Montevallo, received the 2014 Nathalie Molton Gibbons Alumni Achievement Award. This award recognizes an alumnus whose contributions, through career or community service, reflect positively on society at the local, state or national level.
Ramsay’s music education degree led him to open a trumpet studio and to teach music in the Jefferson County schools for several years before moving into the insurance field. He currently serves First Protective as a broker. He has held a number of positions in professional organizations and was recognized by the Birmingham Business Journal on their list of 40 Executives to Follow.
Ramsay is the director of the Alabama chapter of Bugles Across America, a volunteer organization providing live buglers to play Taps at military funerals and other military events.
Frederick D. Miller was the recipient of the University of Montevallo’s 2014 Nathalie Molton Gibbons Young Achiever’s Award. Miller graduated from UM in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and history.
The Young Achiever’s Award is presented to a recent graduate (35 years or younger), whose contributions, through career or community service, reflect positively on society at the local, state or national level.
Shortly after graduation, Miller moved to Washington, D.C., where he became a legislative assistant with Van Scoyoc Associates, a government relations firm. In 2006, he became legislative assistant in Weyerhaeuser Company’s Washington, D.C., office, and in 2008, he became the political affairs manager.
Miller is an award-winning speaker with Toastmasters International and the president of the Washington chapter. He also sponsors that organization’s youth program and volunteers with underprivileged youth in the area.
He has helped other UM alumni who have moved into the Washington, D.C. area, even offering to share his home with them while they are becoming established.