STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Four alumni were honored  during October’s Alumni Weekend for School service. They are Duane Wadsworth, MBA ’63; Jim Crownover, MBA ’68; Tom Friel, MBA ’73; and Debbie Zoullas, MBA ’78.

The Stanford Business School Alumni Association also honored George Foster, the Paul L. and Phyllis Wattis Professor of Management, with the 2008 Robert K. Jaedicke Silver Apple Award for service to alumni. Foster is also director of the School’s Executive Program for Growing Companies.

Foster has demonstrated a longstanding interest in alumni and alumni programs. He has been a keynote speaker on Alumni Weekend and during Spring Reunions, and his research on the business of sports has been extremely popular with alumni all over the world, said Lynne Reynolds, director of Alumni Relations. Foster has spoken to GSB alumni chapters in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia; the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, New York, and Boston in the United States; and in London, Paris, and Switzerland in Europe, she said. He also maintains close connections with his students after they graduate.

At the awards ceremony, Dean Robert Joss also introduced the alumni recipients of the John Gardner Volunteer Leadership Awards, named after the late faculty member who was a strong advocate for volunteer service. Begun in 2002, the Gardner Awards are intended to honor alumni 20-plus-years out who have a history of strong volunteer commitment that has had significant impact on the School.

Wadsworth has been the MBA ’63 class secretary for nine years and a consistent reunion volunteer or reunion chairman. He has been involved in the School’s personal solicitation program and volunteered as a judge in the Executive Challenge program of the Center for Leadership Development and Research. He served a five-year term on the Stanford Business School Alumni Association Board of Directors and is currently its president, which means he also serves on the GSB Advisory Council.

Crownover volunteered for his first phone appeal in Houston shortly after his graduation and chaired the 40th reunion campaign for his class, which set both dollar and participation records for its third reunion in a row. In between, he served in numerous fundraising roles, as an MBA Admissions volunteer, as an Executive Challenge judge, and as a two-term member of the GSB Advisory Council.

Friel chaired his 35th reunion fundraising committee and has provided insight and leadership as a member of the Advisory Council, where he advanced the School’s commitment to improving faculty recruitment and retention by helping to form an ad hoc committee and sharing his insights on the parallels between faculty recruiting and corporate recruiting. He also has volunteered on behalf of the Center for Leadership Development and Research, Student Affairs, and the Global Management Program.

Zoullas has served the GSB as a chair of the Stanford Business School Trust after serving on the board for six years. She played a leadership role in her 15th, 20th, and 25th reunions and was on the volunteer team for her 30th. She also has been active in the GSB Women’s Initiative and recently completed her second term on the Advisory Council.