October 9, 2006

Dana College honored three alumni who have made exceptional accomplishments in their professions and in their communities at an Alumni Awards Banquet on October 6 at the Dana College campus in Blair. The honorees were Philip Larsen ’62 of Arden Hills, Minn., and Brian Serr ’81 of China Spring, Texas, who were recognized as Distinguished Alumni, and Kevin Wass ’93 of Lubbock, Texas, who was recognized as an Outstanding Young Alumnus.

Dana College annually presents Distinguished Alumni awards to alumni who have distinguished themselves in their professions and have rendered dedicated service to the College and/or others. The Outstanding Young Alumnus award is presented to an alum who attended Dana within the past 15 years who has shown accomplishment and promise in his or her profession and who has given exceptional service to his or her community, church, and/or Dana.

Philip Larsen and Dana President Janet Philipp

Larsen is a former senior associate dean of the University of Minnesota College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Science and a former professor and head of the Department of Plant Pathology. He currently oversees operations of a U of M agricultural research program.

Larsen attended Dana from 1958-61 as a biology major. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in botany from Iowa State University and a master’s degree and doctorate in plant pathology from the University of Arizona.

Larsen taught plant pathology at Ohio State University from 1968-84. During that time, he also worked closely with golf course superintendents and professional turfgrass managers and taught workshops for the Golf Course Superintendents of America organization.

He joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota in 1985. Since then he has worked his way up the ranks, serving as professor and head of the Department of Plant Pathology; senior associate dean of the College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences; interim vice president of agricultural policy; and interim dean of the College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences. He currently serves as director of operations for UMore Park, a 7,686-acre property owned by the U of M. About half of the land is used for crop and livestock research and the other half is leased for income generation.

Larsen has received numerous awards for his work, including the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation’s Professional Excellence Award; a selected participant of National Extension Leadership Development Program, Class III; the U of M Department of Plant Pathology Faculty Mentor of the Year and Distinguished Service awards; and U of M Initiative for Renewable Energy and Environment Legacy Award.

Larsen has served on the boards of several college and national committees, and has written and co-authored numerous books and articles on plant pathology.

He, and his wife, Sandra (Jensen), whom he met at Dana, live in Arden Hills, Minn. They have four adult children: Gregg, Todd and Robb Larsen and Amanda (Larsen) Heinsohn.

Dana President Janet Philipp and Brian Serr

Serr, professor of law at Baylor University School of Law, has distinguished himself as a teacher and as a lawyer.

He graduated summa cum laude from Dana in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. He went on to earn his Juris Doctorate, with honors, in 1984 from Washington University, where he was editor of the Washington University Law Quarterly. He earned his Master of Law degree in 1985 from the University of Illinois College of Law, and spent the following year as a clerk to the Honorable John R. Brown of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

He joined the faculty of Baylor Law in 1986. He currently teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Advanced Criminal Procedure, and Supreme Court Seminar. He is also the director of the Law School’s international summer program in Guadalajara, where he teaches International Human Rights.

Serr has received several awards for his teaching. In 1994, he won a Fulbright Scholarship to teach courses in American Constitutional Law at Vytautas Magnus University, a new university in the former Soviet Union (Kaunas, Lithuania). In 2001, he was awarded a fellowship to attend an international conference on International Human Rights in Salzburg, Austria. In 2002, he was named Baylor's Most Outstanding Faculty Member (in the Schools of Law, Business, Engineering & Computer Science); and in October 2003, the Texas Lawyer honored him as "The Most Influential Professor" at the most highly regarded law school in Texas.

In addition to teaching, Serr coaches several of Baylor Law School’s appellate advocacy teams. In national moot court competitions, his teams have recorded five national championships, one national second-place finish, and five national third-place finishes. He has published numerous articles in leading law journals, commenting on topics relating to criminal procedure, civil rights litigation, and the First Amendment. He has also maintained an active appellate practice, focusing primarily on constitutional law issues, particularly First Amendment issues and issues arising in civil rights litigation involving police officers. He has briefed and orally argued cases in both the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He has three times been asked to write amicus curiae briefs on behalf of the Conference of Chief Justices (composed of the Chief Justices of the 50 states) in United States Supreme Court cases turning on issues expected to have a common impact on the interests of all 50 states. He received a pro bono award from the American Bar Association for his work on two of those cases.

Serr and his wife, Kathy, have three children: Grace, Olivia and Sophia.

Kevin Wass and Dana President Janet Philipp

Wass is an award-winning tuba player and assistant professor of music at Texas Tech University.

He graduated from Dana in 1993 with a Bachelor’s degree (summa cum laude) in Music Education. He was a co-valedictorian of his class. He went on to earn a Master of Music degree and Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University in 1995 and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan in 2002.

Since joining the faculty of Texas Tech in 2001, Dr. Wass has become an active recitalist, appearing at Dana College and at the Universities of Missouri, Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Texas-Arlington, Colorado, and Southern Utah. As a clinician, he has been featured at the Texas Music Educators Convention; Texas Bandmasters Association Conference/Clinic; Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic; Great Plains, Southwest and Texas Regional Conferences of the International Tuba-Euphonium Association; International Euphonium Institute; and the International Tuba-Euphonium Conference.

Dr. Wass is an active member of the International Tuba-Euphonium Association, having served as a regional conference host in 2005. He is currently serving as the founding director of the Harvey G. Phillips Awards for Excellence in Composition.

Dr. Wass has performed with a wide range of ensembles, including the Disneyland All-American College Band, the Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra, the Omaha, Lincoln, Honolulu, and Lubbock Symphony Orchestras, and various brass chamber groups.

His teaching experience is equally varied. He has taught at the elementary and high school levels in the Omaha Public Schools, at Lutheran Music Programs national summer music camps, and as an adjunct faculty member at Dana College and the University of Nebraska-Omaha. In addition to his duties at Tech, Dr. Wass serves on the faculty of the Las Vegas Music Festival and performs with the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. His principal studies have been with Fritz Kaenzig, Daniel Perantoni, Harvey Phillips and Craig Fuller.

Dr. Wass was the winner of the inaugural Arnold Jacobs Orchestral Audition Competition sponsored by the International Tuba-Euphonium Association, and has advanced to at least the semifinal round of three other international competitions.

Dr. Wass and his wife, Susan, live in Lubbock, Texas.