One of the long-standing traditions of Trinity College and Duke University is the observance of honoring the benefactors of the institution. The practice was formalized by the Board of Trustees on June 4, 1901, when October 3 was designated as Benefactors’ Day in honor of Washington Duke. In 1926, its name was changed to Duke University Day, and, since 1948, it has been called Founders’ Day.
Although the name has changed over the years, the original intent of honoring the visionaries of the university remains and we celebrate those who carry on the legacy of Duke University and its tradition of excellence.
2026 University Medals for Distinguished Meritorious Service
Dan Brooks
For more than four decades, Dan Brooks has shaped the Duke women’s golf program into one of the nation’s premier collegiate teams. He has led the Blue Devils to seven NCAA championships, the most by any head coach in Duke and NCAA Division I women’s golf history.
Since joining Duke in 1984, Brooks has guided the Blue Devils to 21 ACC Championships, while his 145 team victories are the most ever by any NCAA Division I women’s golf coach.
Beyond the team’s success, Brooks has mentored 28 All-Americans and 43 All-ACC selections. Twenty-six Duke women’s golfers have also earned All-American Scholar honors.
A seven-time National Coach of the Year and 16-time ACC Coach of the Year, Brooks was inducted into the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016 and the Women’s Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2001. He is also a member of the Carolinas Golf Association Hall of Fame and the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
Brooks earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Oregon State University and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Duke. In addition to coaching, he serves as a PGA teaching professional at the Duke Golf Club and directs the Duke Academy of Golf, a summer youth instructional program.
Jacqueline Looney
When Duke established the Office of Graduate Student Affairs in 1999, Jacqueline Looney was recruited to build and lead the new unit. Looney had previously served as Duke’s assistant dean for graduate recruitment before joining the Mellon Foundation in 1994.
From 1999 until her retirement in 2022, Looney’s leadership helped transform the graduate student experience by expanding mentoring, professional development and student support across The Graduate School.
Among her many contributions were the expansion of professional development offerings and financial support programs, including the childcare subsidy and hardship assistance grants; mentoring workshops and the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring; and the introduction of the of the Ph.D. hooding ceremony.
In 2017, she helped secure a $1 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to establish the Duke University Center for Exemplary Mentoring (Duke UCEM), which supports cohorts of STEM doctoral students from a wide range of backgrounds.
Upon her retirement in 2022, former Graduate School Dean Paula D. McClain lauded Looney’s “indelible mark on The Graduate School.” During Looney’s tenure, she was honored with the 2014 Meritorious Presidential Award for her distinctive contributions to the university and the Mary Lou Williams Center’s Julian Abele Award for Graduate Mentor of the Year in 2020.
Looney earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s degree in educational psychology from the University of Tennessee, followed by a Doctor of Education from Vanderbilt University.
Laurene Sperling
A 1978 Duke graduate with a bachelor’s degree in management science, Laurene Sperling has devoted decades of leadership, service and philanthropy to advance her alma mater’s mission.
Elected to the Board of Trustees in 2010, Sperling served as vice chair from 2017 to 2021 before becoming the first woman to chair the board, a position she held from 2021 to 2024. She also helped shape the university’s leadership and governance through her work on the 2016 Presidential Search Committee and as chair of the 2017-2018 Ad Hoc Task Force on Governance, which led to several key governance changes, including the creation of the Governance Committee.
Sperling has served on the boards of directors for Duke University Health System (DUHS) and Duke University Management Company (DUMAC), as well as the Library Advisory Board, Women’s Impact Network (WIN) Leadership Council, Duke Kunshan University Advisory Board, Made for This Campaign Council and Duke Forward Campaign Steering Committee.
Sperling and her husband, Scott, have been generous philanthropic supporters of Duke, providing support for the Perkins Library renovation and the All Babies and Children Thrive projects through Bass Connections. In 2026, the Sperlings participated in the Made for This Campaign to name the Sperling Center for Jewish Studies, endowing two professorships in Jewish Studies and dedicated funds for faculty support, graduate education, postdoctoral support, and lectures. They are also the parents of two Duke graduates.
In addition to her Duke degree, Sperling earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is president of the Sperling Family Charitable Foundation and has an extensive background in foundation and nonprofit leadership in education, early childhood development, health care and poverty alleviation.
Distinguished Alumni Award
William G. Kaelin Jr., M.D.
William Kaelin is the Sidney Farber Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Senior Physician-Scientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He obtained his undergraduate and M.D. degrees from Duke University and completed his training in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he served as chief medical resident. He was a clinical fellow in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and later a postdoctoral fellow in David Livingston’s laboratory, during which time he was a McDonnell Scholar.
A Nobel Laureate, Dr. Kaelin received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the American College of Physicians and the American Philosophical Society. He previously served on the National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Advisors, the AACR Board of Trustees, and the Institute of Medicine National Cancer Policy Board. He is a recipient of the Paul Marks Prize for cancer research from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Prize from the AACR; the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist award; the 2010 Canada International Gairdner Award; ASCI’s Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award; the Scientific Grand Prix of the Foundation Lefoulon-Delalande; the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences; the Steven C. Beering Award; the AACR Princess Takamatsu Award; the ASCO Science of Oncology Award; the Helis Award; the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Prize; the Massry Prize; the Harriet P. Dustan Award for Science as Related to Medicine from the American College of Physicians.
Fred Stanback
Fred Stanback’s ties to Duke are numerous and longstanding. He graduated from Duke with a degree in business administration in 1950, and is married to Duke alumna Alice Stanback. Fred and Alice are the proud parents of three Duke graduates and grandparents of three more.
Stanback earned his MBA at Columbia, and in 1952 joined the Stanback Company, a family-owned developer of headache powder, where he would spend his career before retiring as chairman and treasurer.
Throughout his life, Stanback has devoted himself to public service, philanthropy and environmental causes, with a particular focus on impactful initiatives in his home state of North Carolina. In 2008, he and Alice were awarded the North Carolina Award, the state’s highest civilian honor.
Stanback has been a dedicated supporter and advisor to many areas within Duke, including the Duke Cancer Center, Duke Marine Lab, and the Nicholas School of the Environment. He has also provided philanthropic support for environmental law and policy initiatives at Duke Law and Alzheimer’s research at Duke Health. In 2015, The Nicholas School of the Environment Deanship was named after Fred and Alice Stanback.
In 2020, the Duke Cancer Center presented Stanback with its William W. Shingleton Lifetime Achievement Award.
Beyond Duke, he established the Fred Stanback Jr. Ecological Preserve at Catawba College, a preserve that is managed by Catawba College and functions as a living classroom and laboratory.
William Turner, Jr.
Since his days as a Duke student, when he made history in 1966 as one of the first two Black student-athletes to join the Duke football team, William “Bill” Turner, Jr. has been a prominent campus civil rights leader, advocate and educator dedicated to improving the experiences of Black students
On April 4, 1968, Turner learned of the assassination of civil rights icon Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. while returning to his residence hall from a physics exam. In response, Duke students organized what became known as the Silent Vigil. In the coming days, Turner joined the more than 1,400 fellow students who camped in front of Duke Chapel as they advocated for more attention to issues affecting the Black community, including better pay for Duke’s hourly employees.
In total, Turner would spend more than 50 years at Duke, earning a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, master’s in divinity and doctorate in religion, and has served the university as assistant provost and Dean of Black Affairs, acting director of the African and African American Studies Department and director of the Office of Black Church Affairs.
Turner taught theology at Duke Divinity School and was the James T. and Alice Mead Cleland Professor of the Practice of Preaching at the time of his retirement in 2018. He is married to Joyce Rivers, and together they are the proud parents of four adult children and six grandchildren. Turner has served several churches in North Carolina, and continues to pastor The Mount Level Baptist Church in Durham.
Founders Day offers us the opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary contribution of the Duke family—which has laid the foundation for everything that has come since—as well as recognize those members of the university community whose contributions have received less recognition, or have come perhaps against greater odds.