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A closer look at the honorees

By Blackwell Thomas, the southern

Saturday, April 26, 2008 11:10 PM CDT

CARBONDALE - Saturday night marked the first time since 1995 that Carbondale hosted the Lincoln Academy Awards. Appropriately, three of the six winners were Southern Illinoisans.



Bill Norwood

Fans of Salukis' football might remember Bill Norwood as the first black quarterback at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. But when asked about his accomplishments, Norwood points to his role mentoring youths through the Aviation Career Experience, an aviation camp he founded.

Norwood estimates the program has seen about 2,000 students pass through the aviation camps.

"We try to teach in them and hopefully inspire them to great things," said Norwood, who is also the first black pilot for United Airlines. "If you can light a fire under kids, then it's all worth it."

Irl Engelhardt

Pinckneyville native Irl Engelhardt considers himself a true son of Illinois. After losing his father at the age of 5, the future coal company executive said he became a son of the town, effectively raised by members of his church, his school and members of the community.

"It took a state to raise me," he said.

Engelhardt helped build Peabody energy into one of the world's largest suppliers of coal companies. Today he serves on the board of the Federal Reserve in St. Louis.

Kenneth Shaw

Kenneth Shaw grew up in Edwardsville and is a former president of SIU Edwardsville.

In introducing Shaw, Harry Crisp of Pepsi MidAmerica in Marion, called him a "visionary and a risk-taker."

Among other accomplishments, Shaw was lauded for his work as president and chancellor of Syracuse University where he changed the school's focus from a "faculty-centered institution to a student-centered research institution."

"My time in Wisconsin and at Syracuse could only have happened with what I gained here in the Prairie State," he said while accepting his award.

Joel Flaum

Judge Joel Flaum was born in Hudson, N.Y., but he's made Chicago his home now for about 50 years. He is Circuit Court Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals and is one of the longest tenured federal judges in the country.

In 1975, at the age of 37, Flaum was appointed by President Gerald Ford as a U.S. district judge, making him one of the youngest to ever hold that position.

In describing Flaum, his friend of more than 45 years, former Gov. Jim Thompson said, "That his scholarship and love of the judicial profession is going to be recognized is way, way appropriate."

Thomas Siebel

Thomas Siebel was a man of few words in collecting his laureate award, but the Wilmette native could likely have spent a great deal of time reciting his accomplishments while guiding several companies to international success and acclaim.

Siebel began as a salesman for Oracle Corp., but later founded Siebel Systems.

Among the awards he has received over the years are Businessweek's Top 25 Business Manager in the World in 2000 and 2001, IndustryWeek's CEO of the year for 2002 and Ernst and Young's Master Entrepreneur award.

Siebel credited his education in Illinois public schools and at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for giving him the foundation to succeed.

"I am very honored to be in the company of such a distinguished group. Thank you very much," Siebel said, in accepting his award.

David Donald

David Donald is considered one of the world's pre-eminent scholars of Abraham Lincoln. Donald's career as a university professor included teaching at Princeton, Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Oxford University in England.

"I couldn't keep a job," he said, joking about his various moves over the years.

Donald was born and raised in Mississippi and earned a graduate degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In his career as an author, he has won two Pulitzer Prizes: One for his book "Lincoln," which considered a seminal work on the abolitionist president, and the other on author Thomas Wolf.

He lives on Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln, Mass.

blackwell.thomas@thesouthern.com

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