KU Alumni Association honors two recipients of Fred Ellsworth Medallion

LAWRENCE — Two pivotal leaders of organizations vital to the University of Kansas will receive the KU Alumni Association’s 2023 Fred Ellsworth Medallion for their dedicated service. David Mucci, who directed KU Memorial Unions for 23 years, and Dale Seuferling, who guided KU Endowment as president for 20 years of his 41-year career with the foundation, will be honored Sept. 7 in conjunction with the fall meeting of the Alumni Association’s national board of directors. Both men retired in 2022.

The association created the medallion in 1975 in tribute to Ellsworth, a 1922 KU graduate who led the organization as executive director and secretary from 1929 to 1963.

David Mucci

Mucci built strong relationships across KU and championed the interests of students as he led the Union through dramatic growth in facilities and programs.

He arrived in Lawrence in 1999 after overseeing student unions at the University of Idaho, Ohio State University and his alma mater, the University of Kentucky, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in English and film studies and his master’s in business administration. As an undergraduate, he was elected student body president, a role that prepared him well to mentor a succession of KU students who participated in Student Union Activities, Student Senate and KJHK radio. More recently, he supported new student initiatives, including the annual community volunteer day (known as The Big Event) and KU’s Esports team. 

Jay Howard, a 1979 graduate who served five years as an alumni representative on the KU Memorial Unions board, credited Mucci for uniting teams and finding solutions to even the most vexing challenges.

“I doubt this is in any business school textbook, but David embodied what I call ‘management by cheerfulness,’” said Howard, who also led the Alumni Association as national chair. “He never failed to have a sense of positivity, happiness and empowerment for everybody he met.”

Under Mucci’s leadership, the Union completed ambitious renovations that modernized the Jayhawk Boulevard landmark while preserving traditions and history. His devotion to Mount Oread’s history is evident not only in the physical spaces of the Kansas Union, the Burge Union and the DeBruce Center, but also through his collaboration with a team of staff members and graduate students (led by the late Henry Fortunato, a 2007 graduate) to create the website kuhistory.com and add history display panels throughout the unions.

Mucci also oversaw expansion in union programs on the Lawrence campus, and he helped establish programs to serve students on the Edwards Campus in Overland Park as well as KU Medical Center campuses in Kansas City and Wichita. He led the repurposing of the Jaybowl for students in architecture and graphic design, the transformation of the KU Bookstore and the opening of the South Dining Commons. Through the years, he provided vital employment opportunities for hundreds of students.

Mucci served on the KU Master Plan Steering Committee and the Sesquicentennial Steering Committee. He helped develop the Union Alumni Council to engage recently graduated student leaders and encourage them to continue their involvement with KU. During the pandemic, he guided the Union through tremendous challenges, continuing to connect students and the community despite severely limited budget and staff resources. 

Dale Seuferling

Throughout his KU Endowment career, Seuferling nurtured trusted relationships with countless alumni and guided fundraising campaigns that provided unprecedented support for students and faculty, along with new buildings and major renovations that transformed and expanded KU across all campuses.

After earning his KU journalism degree in 1977, Seuferling landed his first job as a radio news reporter for the Office of University Relations. In 1981, he became public relations director for KU Endowment, where he soon transitioned to a fundraising role and through the years took on added responsibilities. He served as director of major gifts, vice president for development and executive vice president before he became president in 2002.

His KU tenure spanned seven chancellors and included three of Endowment’s four multiyear fundraising campaigns. The most recent, Far Above: The Campaign for Kansas, which concluded in 2016, raised $1.66 billion to benefit KU. More than 131,000 donors — 49% of them new donors — from all 50 states and 59 countries made gifts. The historic campaign resulted in 735 new scholarships and fellowships, 53 new professorships and 16 new buildings or major renovations across KU’s campuses in Lawrence, Overland Park, Kansas City, Salina and Wichita.

Seuferling also helped develop new programs, including Women Philanthropists for KU (WP4KU) and the Student Endowment Board. Sue Shields Watson, a 1975 graduate who led the Alumni Association as national chair and, with her husband and KU classmate, Kurt, co-chaired Endowment’s Far Above campaign, praised Seuferling for creating new leadership avenues through WP4KU.

“Dale realized that some women hadn’t had the opportunity to get to know the university,” she said, “and the fact that he brought them in and gave them the opportunity to know what was going on, to become involved, to serve on KU boards and ultimately to serve on the Endowment board, was such an important touch.”

Seuferling provided essential fundraising guidance for comprehensive landmark initiatives across the university, most recently the successful quest to earn the National Cancer Institute’s comprehensive designation for the University of Kansas Cancer Center in July 2022. He also strongly advocated for the new Jayhawk Welcome Center and renovated Adams Alumni Center, a $29.4 million project funded entirely through private gifts.

In addition, he became a national leader in higher education philanthropy through his many years of involvement in the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and his work with longtime KU Endowment consultant Grenzebach Glier and Associates (GG+A). He was the first KU Endowment president to acquire membership in an elite group of 20 public universities who participate in industry research, benchmarking and sharing of best practices under the auspices of GG+A.

About the KU Alumni Association

Through the support of members and donors, the KU Alumni Association advocates for the University of Kansas, communicates with Jayhawks in all media, recruits students and volunteers, serves the KU community, and unites Jayhawks. For more information, visit kualumni.org.