Four decades of service common thread among 2023 Dixon Award winners

OGDEN, Utah — With more than 120 years of combined service to Weber State University, one staff and two faculty members will receive the WSU Alumni Association’s H. Aldous Dixon Award. The winners will be honored during a ceremony March 29 from 2–4 p.m. in the Hurst Center located on the Ogden campus. 

Each year since 1970, the Alumni Association has honored outstanding members of WSU’s faculty and staff with an award bestowed in memory of President Dixon, who served as the school’s chief administrator from 1919 to 1920, and from 1937 to 1953. Dixon Award recipients have demonstrated careers of excellence and have gone above and beyond the call of duty to support students.

Ronald L. “Ron” Smith, Controller and Director of Accounting Services

Ronald L. “Ron” Smith, WSU Controller and Director of Accounting ServicesAs WSU Controller and Director of Accounting Services, Smith performs most of his duties behind the scenes, yet the impact of his labor is palpable campuswide. Throughout his 41-year career at Weber State, he has been tasked with overseeing demanding projects, administrative committees and special assignments. During the COVID-19 crisis, Smith managed the distribution of Weber State’s nearly $82 million allocation of Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund funding from the U.S. Department of Education. 

Faced with restricted performance periods for various components of the fund and a complex evaluation and auditing process, Smith went to extraordinary lengths to ensure students received emergency funds to address multiple pandemic-related problems, including unemployment, food shortages, shelter issues, emotional duress, child care, tuition, course supplies, student fees and more. Smith also set aside funds to support WSU faculty in implementing new and engaging remote learning opportunities for their students. 

Remarkably, Smith was able to accomplish all this while simultaneously performing his regular duties as the university’s chief accounting officer. In fact, he is widely recognized as the most competent controller throughout the Utah System of Higher Education. His vast experience and unmatched dedication and commitment has helped establish WSU as the best financially managed institution in the USHE system.  

Smith, a Weber State graduate, has devoted his lengthy career to serving the institution that gave him a tremendous start. He began working at Weber as an entry-level accountant and steadily progressed to his current position. Smith has chaired numerous university committees, including the Personnel Relations Committee where his keen sense of fairness and impeccable judgment often allowed sensitive issues to be resolved without formal hearings. Working with students is among his career highlights. “I feel that associating with them helps keep me young,” he said recently.

Thomas “Tom” Mathews, Spanish professor and Department of Performing Arts chair

Thomas “Tom” Mathews, Spanish professor and Department of Performing Arts chairMathews is a Weber State alum with over 40 years of teaching experience — 27 of which have been dedicated to students at his alma mater. Mathews, a nationally recognized leader in providing second language acquisition and pedagogy instruction, inspires fellow foreign language teachers in Utah and beyond. His legacy as a “teacher of teachers” is particularly evident at statewide professional gatherings where audiences are usually packed with former students who now teach Spanish in northern Utah school districts.

As a Weber State graduate, Mathews feels a special bond with his students and takes extraordinary measures to meet their needs. He is remarkably generous with his time and provides a safe space in his office for students to converse freely about a variety of topics. He dedicates many office hours to helping Spanish-teaching majors improve their language skills by giving them mock oral proficiency interviews. His method of rating these mock interviews mirrors the framework the state of Utah uses to hire language teachers in K-12 public and charter schools.

Mathews served a three-year term as chair of the Department of Foreign Languages. During his tenure, he led the department in creating its current mission statement and learning outcomes. He oversaw the design and implementation of the department’s senior assessment and was instrumental in creating other strategic policies and procedures. In 2016, Mathews’ exceptional teaching was recognized with an AHA! Faculty Award from the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities Advisory Council.

In addition to teaching, Mathews has been involved with the WSU Faculty/Staff Gay-Straight Alliance and has served as an advisor to the Student Gay-Straight Alliance. He is a stalwart advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion at Weber State. 

Mathews coordinated concurrent enrollment for 15 years and has maintained stellar scholarship with dozens of professional publications and presentations. He has announced plans to retire after spring semester. 

Robert J. “Bob” Walker, radiologic sciences professorRobert J. “Bob” Walker, radiologic sciences professor

After earning undergraduate degrees from Weber State, Walker joined the Dr. Ezekiel R. Dumke College of Health Professions in 1982. His strong belief that higher education has a responsibility to make students better citizens of the world is embedded in the School of Radiologic Sciences’ mantra: “Learn with passion and then lead with purpose.”

Walker’s 41-year career is marked by his determination to build a nationally ranked radiologic sciences program. Under his tenure as department chair, the program has become one of the university’s top three in number of graduates, and students have a 95% pass rate on all certification exams. Walker has helped forge affiliations with more than 500 clinics and hospitals throughout the country, including every hospital in Utah.

Walker’s ingenious idea to combine department software and computer technology to create 3D models of joints for dental-implant planning and facial reconstruction led to his selection as the college’s inaugural Dr. Ezekiel R. and Edna Wattis Dumke Endowed Chair. He worked doggedly to raise funds to obtain the software, hardware and physical space required to create a 3D innovation lab.

Also at Weber, Walker helped develop a radiologist assistant program to train students to provide mid-level care in imaging and radiation oncology. He led the effort to provide a unique master’s program that helps students acquire the high-level skills needed to assist cardiologists with all heart-related surgical procedures.

To augment their classroom and clinical experiences, Walker encourages students to co-present lectures with faculty mentors at local and national professional meetings. For 20 years, he has organized and supervised the Healthcare and Culture of China Study Abroad program.

Walker has served or is currently serving on many important WSU committees, including the university’s planning, graduation and legislative committees. He is a life member of the American Society of Radiologic Technologists and was the youngest person elected president. His active involvement in numerous professional organizations and extensive list of scholarly publications and presentations reveal the breadth of his knowledge.

The names of past Dixon Award recipients are available on the Alumni Association website.

Author:

Karin Hurst, Marketing & Communications
801-626-7337, karinhurst@weber.edu

Contact:

Karin Hurst, Marketing & Communications
801-626-7337, karinhurst@weber.edu