FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Bethany Kendrick
Director Public Relations
Labette Community College
(620) 820-1280

Spear Named Labette Community College Cardinal Citation Award Winner

Joseph E. Spear has been named the 2011 Cardinal Citation Award winner by the Labette Community College Alumni Association and Labette Community College. This is the highest honor that is bestowed to an individual for lifetime achievement by LCC.

The Cardinal Citation Award is presented annually at Commencement. The criteria are: the nominee must be a living person who has had significant lifetime achievements to his or her profession, community, state, or nation; the nominee must have a current or past association with Labette Community College; and the nominee does not have to be a graduate of LCC.

Each year LCC and the LCC Alumni Association recognize an individual for a lifetime of outstanding service to their community and/or to the college. A distinguished panel of community members review nominations and recommend a Citee. The Citee is honored the evening of Commencement during a reception for all former Citees, their families, invited guests, and the public. The Citee is presented an award and is a speaker at Commencement. The Citee's framed portrait is hung in the Gallery of Cardinal Citation Recipients in the college's main administration building.

Joseph E. Spear is a founding senior principal of Populous, a global design practice specializing in architecture, master planning, urban design, and interior design.  Spear has major responsibility for the firm’s designs. His experience, which spans more than 30 years, includes design, programming, site studies, master planning, interior architecture, cost estimating, delineation of design concepts, production of contract documents and contract administration.

Of the 17 new Major League Baseball parks that have opened since 1991, Spear has put his mark on 10. The designs Spear created for Progressive Field (formerly Jacobs Field) and Oriole Park at Camden Yards both earned National AIA Honor Awards, the industry’s highest recognition. Progressive Field incorporates iconic elements of American ballparks in a contemporary way as well as symbolic aspects unique to Cleveland, while Oriole Park embodies the tradition of baseball and architectural values. His portfolio also includes professional ballparks for Denver, Detroit, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, San Diego and Washington, DC.

In addition to the two National AIA Honor Awards, Spear was an Architecture Design Finalist for the prestigious Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards program in 2004. He has been named on USA Today, Baseball America and Sports Business Journal’s lists of most influential in baseball. In 2007, he was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, the organization’s highest honor bestowed upon an architect.

Spear is a 1972 graduate of Labette Community College where he received his Associate of Arts. He then earned his Bachelor of Architecture from Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS. Spear is a registered Architect and NCARB certified. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects, AIA Kansas City, and AIA Missouri.

Spear will be honored at the Cardnal Citee Reception prior to commencement on Friday, May 13^th, 2011 at 5:30 p.m. at the Commercial Bank Community Room.  The public is invited to attend. Guests are asked to use the west entrance. For more information about the Cardinal Citee Award or this year’s recipient, Joseph Spear, please contact, Lindi Forbes, LCC Executive Director of Foundation and Alumni Association, at (620) 820-1212 or by e-mail at lindif@labette.edu.