Birmingham-Southern College honored the 2019 Alumni Award Recipients during the festivities of homecoming weekend. The Distinguished Alumni, Outstanding Young Alumni, and Rising Star awards recognize graduates who have achieved outstanding success in their chosen professions. The awards were presented at the Alumni Awards Brunch on Saturday, Oct. 19 in Bruno Great Hall of the Norton Campus Center.

As the longest serving president of DePauw University and a graduate of Birmingham-Southern, Dr. Robert Bottoms ’66 has spent his life observing the importance of a liberal arts education.

“It prepares people to think creatively, communicate, and to write well, which are all traits so important in any job,” says Bottoms.

It all started with the relationships Bottoms developed with BSC’s 10^th president, Ralph Tanner. His encouragement and advice helped Bottoms as he began his journey in the world of higher education.

After working as BSC chaplain from 1973 to 1976, in addition to serving as assistant to the president from 1974 to 1976, Bottoms moved to Nashville, where he was assistant dean and assistant professor of church and ministry at the Vanderbilt Divinity School until 1978. He left Vanderbilt to accept the position of vice president for university relations at DePauw University. Bottoms was named president of the university in 1986. During his 22 years as president, Bottoms was able to make major impacts on the forward progression of the school.

His efforts to improve diversity on campus stand out, as he strove to make the community more reflective of the world around it. The number of minority faculty members increased from just three percent to over 17 percent through his leadership. He also saw a need for a change in student diversity, increasing the number of students with culturally diverse backgrounds from 3.5 percent to 16 percent.

Bottoms was able to guide DePauw in raising more than $500 million in funds, tripling annual giving from the time of his arrival. The investments he made in campus infrastructure led to the development of more than six major additions, including the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics and the Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media.

The dedication Bottoms has to making his community a better place did not stop when he retired from the presidency in 2008. He later began serving as director of the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics, which allowed him to focus time on his family and serve his community.

Serving on boards of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Chicago, the Posse Foundation, the Center for Leadership Development, and, most recently, Episcopal Divinity School at Union Seminary in New York, Bottoms has dedicated his time to causes close to his heart.

For the years of care that Bottoms put into DePauw, the university has named the alumni building the Robert G. Bottoms Alumni and Development Building, honoring the positive changes he implemented across campus.

This story was published in the Fall/Winter 2019 issue of ’Southern, BSC’s alumni magazine.

If you have ideas for our next issue of ’Southern, please email [email protected]. We always welcome stories about outstanding people from the BSC community.