Hall of Fame - Class of 2005


Ralph Andreano, Ph.D. , professor emeritus of economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison whose work emphasizes the economics of public health issues. A 1952 graduate of Drury, Andreano is a first-generation American, the youngest of seven children born to his Italian parents and the first in his family to graduate from college. Following his graduation from Drury, he spent a year on Fulbright scholarship in Norway , then taught at Northwestern University (where he earned a doctorate in economics 1961) , Harvard University and Earlham College in Richmond , Ind. He joined the faculty at Wisconsin in 1965, chaired the economics department from 1980–83, and retired from active teaching in 1997.
 
Recently he has been working with the World Health Organization in Geneva , Switzerland , to measure the impact of diseases like SARS, Avian Flu and Ebola. In the 1970s Andreano was the Chief Economist of the World Health Organization and he has been a consultant to it and other UN agencies for nearly 40 years. He has had a lifelong career of public service; at the age of 48, he became the first non-physician to be appointed chief administrator of the Wisconsin Division of Health. Andreano has published 15 books: four on economic history, six on the economics of health and five on various topics including baseball. He is best known for being one of the first economists to apply the theorems of economics to medicine and health.

Thomas McAlear , chairman and chief executive officer of the E companies, a group of event management, sales training, vehicle evaluation, testing and certification companies serving the automotive industry. Before joining the E companies in March 2004, McAlear spent 27 years at Chrysler and DaimlerChrysler, retiring in 2002 as chief operating officer for DaimlerChrysler Services North America and president and chief executive officer of DaimlerChrysler Insurance Company. McAlear received his bachelor's and master of business administration degrees from Drury in 1972 and 1975, respectively. He is a member of the Breech Advisory Board and is on the boards of directors of the Children's Leukemia Foundation of Michigan and the Oakland University School of Business Administration. He served on Drury's board of trustees from 2000 to 2004.

Charles Mercer, Ph.D. , a professor of business administration at Drury from 1962 until his death in 1994. Mercer was known as a kind, giving yet demanding teacher. In Mercer's obituary in the Springfield News-Leader , Penny Clayton, associate professor of business administration at Drury and one of Mercer's students, recalled him as “tough … You knew that if you got an A or a B you were deserving of it.” Mercer received his bachelor's degree from Memphis State University in 1958 and his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Arkansas in 1960 and 1967, respectively. He was a frequent business consultant and served on the National Association of Accountants, the Midwest Business Administration Association and Ozark Economics Association, among others. Mercer was a frequent member of the site visit teams assembled by the North Central Association, the agency that accredits schools, colleges and universities in the Midwest .