Service recognitions announced for WKU’s 2025 Homecoming

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Two Western Kentucky University alumni will be honored for their service to WKU and the community at the Hilltopper Excellence Awards during WKU Homecoming 2025.

Jerry W. Martin, M.D. (’58) will receive the Distinguished Medal of WKU Service, and Alice Gatewood Waddell (’74) will receive the Distinguished Medal of Community and Public Service.

According to a release Monday, the Hilltopper Excellence Awards, presented by Franklin Bank and Trust, will take place on Nov. 14 at the Knicely Conference Center.

In addition, the event will include an induction of the 34th Class of WKU Hall of Distinguished Alumni, recognition for alumni achievement and a celebration of the 2025 Philanthropist of the Year.

Distinguished Medal of WKU Service – Jerry W. Martin, M.D. (’58)

Jerry W. Martin, M.D., of Bowling Green is a retired physician who practiced family medicine, emergency medicine, occupational medicine and sports medicine on his own and with St. Thomas and Graves Gilbert Clinic.

With a long history of serving WKU through various boards and committees, he began his volunteerism with two terms on the Hilltopper Athletic Foundation Board. In 1980, Martin co-founded the L.Y. Lancaster Memorial Lectureship Society at WKU, and he is a member of the L.Y. Lancaster-Hugh Puckett Lectureship Society Board of Directors. He was Chairman of that organization from 1980 to 1998, and in 2004 he was named Volunteer of the Year for his dedication to that board. He has been a member of the College Heights Foundation Board of Directors since 1991, and he has served on the Executive Committee and other committees. Martin has served on the Libraries Advisory Council, the Kentucky Museum Advisory Council and the WKU Alumni Association Board of Directors.

He was a team physician for WKU Hilltopper Football for 34 years—from 1965 until his retirement in 2002. In 1994, he was made a letter winner and honorary member of the W-Club for his service to the team.

Martin is a lifetime member of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). He was a Delegate to the American Medical Association (AMA) and represented the AAFP at AMA meetings. He was first appointed in 1998 as AAFP’s Alternate Delegate to the AMA and in 1999 was elected as a Delegate. He became a Fellow in the AAFP and Diplomat of the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM). He is also a past President of the Kentucky Academy of Family Physicians.

While a student at WKU, Martin participated in the honor society Alpha Epsilon Delta. He earned a bachelor of science in chemistry and biology from WKU in 1958 and a doctor of medicine from the University of Louisville in 1963.

Martin was married to the late Jimmie D. Hobgood Martin (’54), a graduate of Bowling Green Business University. They have three children, all of whom are WKU graduates: Melissa M. Johnson (’96), Charles S. Martin (’94) and Mary Elizabeth Martin (’89).

Distinguished Medal of Community & Public Service – Alice Gatewood Waddell (’74)

A native of Bowling Green, Ky., Alice Gatewood Waddell is an award-winning artist who is recognized for her humanitarian efforts and volunteerism.

Waddell’s career includes teaching art as a means of intervention for local at-risk students, serving as interim Artist-in-Residence at the Kentucky Museum on WKU’s campus and teaching classes at the Housing Authority of Bowling Green and Warren County Public Library. Her artistic trademark is creating images that appear to metamorphize into vivid colors of movement before a viewer’s eyes. Waddell’s work can be found in public and private collections across the U.S. and abroad.

In addition to her art, Waddell is executive director of the Bowling Green Human Rights Commission. In this role for the past 12 years, she has continually produced artwork while fulfilling her duties, often finding inspiration through daily reminders of injustice.

For many local and national organizations, Waddell has donated her artwork, volunteered her time and received recognition from her colleagues and peers for her dedication and leadership. She received the President’s Award for Diversity from WKU in 2004, the Housing Authority of Bowling Green Above and Beyond Award in 2009 and the NAACP Bowling Green Branch Humanitarian Award in 2011. She is a current member of the Kentucky Museum Advisory Council and a past member of the WKU Alumni Association Board of Directors and the Society of Black Alumni Executive Committee.

In 2021, she created the image for a fresco mural, which she and her team painted in the Kentucky Museum lobby. Given the opportunity to select the artistic composition and subject, Waddell immediately recalled the history of WKU and a close-knit Black community called Jonesville—providing an opportunity to share a visual depiction of the community’s story. In 2022, Waddell was appointed by WKU President Timothy C. Caboni to serve on the Jonesville Reconciliation Workgroup. Waddell recently served as co-producer on the WKU PBS documentary Jonesville: When Sunflowers Fall.

Crowned WKU Homecoming Queen in 1972, Waddell earned a bachelor of fine arts in 1974. She is a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority and the WKU Society of Black Alumni.

Waddell’s Hilltopper family includes her brother, Bobby Gatewood Jr. (’80); her sister, Connie Gatewood Jones (’67); her son, Jan Waddell Jr. (’22); and her sister, Phyllis Gatewood Washington (’79, ’82).

The Hilltopper Excellence Awards will begin with registration at 5:30 p.m. The program and dinner will follow at 6:30 p.m.

Registration is open at alumni.wku.edu/HEA25 at a cost of $100 per ticket or $1,000 for a corporate table for eight. Business attire is requested.